Tinga de Pato y Papas (and a product review: Tortilla Land Flour Tortillas)

I wanted to make Tinga today, a Pueblan dish in honor of Cinco de Mayo and the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  While mainly celebrated only in Puebla, we Americans like to yuk-it-up and party like it's 1999 (am I even allowed to say that anymore?) on Cinco de Mayo...eating Mexican and Tex-Mex food and Salud-ing over cervezas and margaritas.  Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.  And it's funny, a local favorite Ameri-Mex haunt does it up really big...while the authentic Mexican restaurants...do not.  While we have good food and embrace the Mexican side of our family, we also have numerous birthdays to celebrate on the 4th and 5th and the surrounding days...and that is our real reason for celebrating.  But, whatever the occasion, a tinga is a fabulous dish to add to the menu.  I've made it with duck today because I had some duck legs confit that I really wanted to use...but it can be made with anything from chicken to chorizo to pork butt.  And it doesn't always have potato in it, either...mix it up and celebrate your victories, no matter how big or small.

Tinga de Pato y Papas

Smoky Duck Legs Confit and Potatoes with Roasted Tomatoes
adapted from (recipe for Tinga de Pollo y Papas in) Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen

serves ~4

for Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce:

2 chipotles en adobo

4 garlic cloves, unpeeled

12 oz. ripe tomatoes

for Tinga:

1 c. quick-cooked Tomato-Chipotle Salsa (yield from above ingredients)

2 lb. Duck Legs Confit, skin removed & meat pulled from bones

~2 Tbs. olive oil

4 medium red-skin potatoes

2 small yellow onions, sliced thinly

1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano

water, as needed

~¾ tsp. salt

for serving:

 warm tortillas (corn or flour) or tostadas

avocado

queso fresco

Begin by making salsa:  toast the garlic and char the tomatoes on a heavy (or broil them), hot skillet until soft and blackened in spots.  Squeeze the garlic (should be soft now) from the skins and peel the skin from the tomatoes and then combine both (and tomato juices) with the chipotles in a blender and purée.

On to the Tinga: Shred the potatoes on a grater, then squeeze as much water as possible from them using your hands.  Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat and add the potatoes and onions, stirring and cooking until they have begun to turn brown in places, ~15 minutes.  Add the oregano and reserved salsa and bring to a simmer.  If it seems a bit dry, add up to a cup or so of water.  Season with salt and add pulled duck confit.  Cover partially, turn heat down to a simmer and cook for ~5 minutes.

Serve with hot tortillas for filling (as tacos or burritos) or crispy tostadas to pile on top of.  Heck, you could even pile it inside a cut bolillo or telera bread for a killer torta.  Garnish with avocado and queso fresco and any other topping you like...like radish, lettuce, etc.

Now, let's talk for a minute about tortillas.  While I constantly extol the virtues of homemade tortillas, both corn and flour, I need to tell you about a brand of store-bought flour tortillas that I was just made aware of.  Tortilla Land Flour Tortillas can be found in the refrigerated section of your grocer...and they are UNCOOKED!  Seriously awesome stuff here.  What you get in each pack is a dozen sheets of rolled out tortilla dough that you can then make fresh when you need tortillas.  They are basically saving you the work of making the dough and rolling it out.  Not that I think this is hard, mind  you...but who doesn't love a little convenience once in a while!?  Simply heat a comal (or skillet or griddle) to medium heat and slide one of the uncooked rounds on for ~30 seconds per side...and you have a warm, fresh, delicious tortilla.  And if you're grilling out, then go ahead and cook them on the grill. Yum!

Seriously, they taste wonderful.  We eat a lot...let me emphasize this...WE EAT A LOT OF TORTILLAS IN THIS HOUSE...and Tortilla Land was given the stamp of approval by everybody in the house.  The things that I love most about homemade tortillas...soft, fresh, chewy texture and actual flavor...Tortilla Land tortillas actually have all of these things.  They do not use butter or lard like I do at home, but they still have flavor- awesome in my book.  They use five simple ingredients: Wheat flour, water, canola oil, salt, and sugar.  I cooked up a whole dozen and we had a hard time not just grabbing them and eating them out of hand.  These tortillas will be a "regular" at my house from now on...so that when I'm feeling lazy (which may just be more often now), I can still have freshly made tortillas.  They also make multi-grain and corn tortillas...those are definitely on my to-try list!

Are you eating and/or drinking anything special in honor of Cinco de Mayo? 

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*I received a generous(!) amount (thank you) of Tortilla Land Flour Tortillas for free...to sample, test, and review...should I choose.  I received no other compensation and all opinions stated in this post are 100% mine.