Tortillas de Plátano (Plantain Tortillas)

A regional tortilla from the Tuxtepec and Usila areas of Oaxaca, made by combining ground green plantain with corn tortilla masa. The plantain lends a subtly sweet, starchy character and a softer, more pliable texture than a pure corn tortilla. When cooked correctly on a hot clay comal, these rounds inflate — a sign that the inside steam has nowhere to escape, leaving a tender, pillowy interior. Diana Kennedy documented this preparation as part of the living corn and plantain traditions of lowland Oaxacan communities.

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ServesApproximately 20–24 large tortillas depending on thickness

Sourced0 of 5 in JP

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4¼ lb

/ 2 kg green plantains (Musa paradisiaca), peeled and ground twice to a smooth paste

Approximately 2⅛ lb / 1 kg tortilla masa (fresh nixtamal masa preferred)

Clay comal (or heavy cast-iron griddle)

Tortilla press with two pieces of plastic cut from a zip-lock bag or thin plastic sheeting

Large gourd or thick cloth-lined basket for keeping tortillas warm

The Method

Grind peeled green plantains through a grain mill or stone mill twice, until the paste is completely smooth with no visible fibers.

Weigh the plantain paste. Combine with half its weight in fresh tortilla masa. Mix firmly by hand until the dough is uniform, slightly tacky, and holds together without crumbling.

From the canon — The corn tortilla is the foundational food of Mexican cuisine — a thin, round disc of nixtamalized masa cooked on an ungreased comal (flat griddle) until it … Tortilla — hand press, comal, and the puff →

Heat a clay comal over medium-high heat until a drop of water skips and evaporates immediately — approximately 220–230°C / 428–446°F surface temperature.

Portion the dough into balls slightly larger than a golf ball. Place one ball between two sheets of plastic on the tortilla press and press into a round approximately 15–18 cm / 6–7 inches in diameter.

Peel back the top plastic. Slide your hand under the bottom plastic and carry the dough round, plastic-side up, to the hot comal. Lay it down gently and peel away the plastic.

Cook on the first side briefly — 30 to 45 seconds — until the edges begin to set and the surface loses its raw sheen.

Flip and cook the second side longer, approximately 60–75 seconds, until light golden patches appear.

Return to the first side for a final 20–30 seconds. Press lightly with a folded cloth; the tortilla should inflate.

Transfer to the gourd or basket immediately and cover. Repeat with remaining dough.

III

Sensory Tests

◇Press the cooked tortilla gently at its centre immediately after it comes off the comal — a properly made tortilla will yield with slight resistance and spring back, signalling a moist, pillowed interior; one that is dense and does not yield at all has never puffed and will be gummy throughout.

◇Tear the tortilla open within 60 seconds of leaving the comal and observe the cross-section: a successful tortilla reveals two distinct, separable layers with visible steam escaping from a hollow pocket; a failed one shows a single dense, wet crumb with no internal separation.

◇Smell the raw combined dough before cooking — green plantain produces a faint, grassy, almost resinous scent alongside the sour-alkaline aroma of nixtamalized masa; if the plantain smell dominates sharply or smells of ripe banana, the fruit was too mature and the dough will not cook correctly.

◇Where it lives or dies. The tortilla lives or dies in the first 30 seconds on the comal: the surface must be hot enough — 230–245 °C (446–473 °F) — that the exterior sets rapidly and traps interior steam, forcing the tortilla to puff. A comal that is too cool allows moisture to escape slowly from the edges, the layers never separate, and no amount of additional cooking time will recover the pillowed interior.

IV · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

arepa-de-choclo-platano — Colombian Caribbean Coast — Coastal Colombian cooks combine ground green plantain with corn masa in patties or flatbreads for the same historically practical reason — extending scarce corn — producing a similarly chewy, subtly sweet flatbread cooked on a budare or griddle. tatale — West African (Ghanaian) — Tatale are spiced green-plantain pancakes cooked on a dry griddle; like the Tuxtepec tortilla they rely on raw green plantain ground to a paste as the primary starch, producing a dense, chewy round with a faint vegetal sweetness that functions as a starch alongside savoury dishes. tostones-masa-wrap — Puerto Rican — Puerto Rican cooks press unripe green plantain (Musa paradisiaca) into thin rounds as an alternative to wheat or corn wrappers; the shared logic — plantain as a functional, starchy substrate that delivers chew and mild sweetness — mirrors the Oaxacan lowland tradition, even where the specific technique diverges.

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