Tortos de Maíz

The southern United States has a whole vocabulary for describing all of the bread and bread-adjacent things one can make from cornmeal. One of my favorite of those things is the hoecake. Mostly forgotten now, this cornmeal cake is a real link to the past. So I was delighted to find out that in Asturias there are tortos, a local version of the hoecake. Like with fariñes, I was overjoyed to find something so familiar in a new setting.

Many Americans might not be familiar with the humble hoecake, so I will explain it first. Perhaps you know it under one of its other names: corn cake, corn pone, ash cake, Johnny cake, or journey cake. The name (and earliest description of them, comes from a British soldier’s 1770s observation that reads, “Hoe-cake is Indian corn ground into meal, kneaded into a dough, and baked before a fire, but as the negroes bake it on the hoes that they work with, they have the appelation of hoe-cakes.” However, as Rod Cofield showed in the summer 2008 issue of Food History News, the common bakers peel was usually made identically to a field hoe without a handle, which is a much better origin for the term.

Seemingly extant in Asturias as long as there has been corn grown here, they form a recognizable and emblematic part of Asturian cuisine. Its direct relative is the panucho of the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Modern panuchos are closer to being a Venezuelan arepa or a sealed sandwich than their primordial shape. Tortos however, retain that older form.

Tortos in Asturias

To get good tortos in Asturias, head for your nearest local bar-cafeteria. Because they are so humble and workaday, the humblest places are the best places to enjoy them. You will have the most luck in the less fashionable parts of town. The closer you can get to a (now closed) mine, the better the tortos will be. Miners ate a lot of tortos, with fried eggs and picadillo – which you might know by the name “Mexican chorizo”. The uncased stuffing of chorizo is a common ingredient here, as in Mexico, and is very popular on top of these corn delicacies.

The mining villages of the Caudal are, in my opinion, the very best places to eat this kind of comida típica. And not just because that is where I live. I’ve eaten a lot of tortos, all over Asturias. I assume that the astronomical popularity of them in the Caudal keeps the skills fresh and the cook honest.

Ingredients

• 250 g Harina de Maíz. Any fine ground cornmeal will do. Please do not use Maseca or other nixtamalized precooked arepa dough.
• 50 g all-purpose flour.
• 10 g salt.
• 200 ml water.

Instructions

1. Whisk together the corn flour, all-purpose flour, and salt.
2. Slowly add the water into the flour mixture while kneading until all of it comes together. Keep kneading for a few minutes. You are looking for a supple, pliable dough that holds its shape.
3. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. Overnight is best but you can totally make the dough in the morning and cook tortos for dinner.
4. To cook the tortos, you need a deep frying pan or a large pot. I like to use a deep cast iron skillet, but any deep pot that can hold a bunch of oil is fine. Fill it up with a couple inches of corn or canola oil. I prefer corn so you can double down on the corny flavor of the tortos, but use whatever neutral oil you’d prefer if you don’t want corn oil. Heat the oil to a nice frying temperature. I aim for 300ºC.
5. While the oil is heating, divide your tortu dough into 10 pieces. Flour a work surface and a rolling pin.
6. When the oil is hot, roll out one dough ball into a rough circle and using a large spatula, transfer it to the oil. Quickly roll out a second tortu if efficiency is a concern of yours.
7. Fry it for about 60-70 seconds and then flip it over in the oil and fry another 45-60 seconds. Remove the tortu to a wire rack and place another tortu in the oil.

Notes

• They are commonly served in the Caudal and Nalón with picadillo and a fried egg.