Pupusas

Someone I know was asking about good Mexican restaurants around town. One person mentioned a couple pupuserias, even though they're from El Salvador, not Mexico. I'd heard of them, so thought I should give them a try.

I found various recipes, most pretty similar. The one I followed the closest was this one for pupusas de queso, although I filled them with other stuff, too.

The dough is pretty much just the same as for corn tortillas:

2 C corn flour (masa de harina or maseca)
1 C water

Just mix that up, adding more water as needed, until it has the consistency of play-dough and so when you squish a chunk of it flat, the edges don't crack. Separate into 8 balls, shape into little cups, fill with refried beans, chicken, cheese, etc. I made half with refried beans and half with chicken with taco seasoning. I added some cotija and monterrey jack cheese to each. I recommend giving cotija cheese a try if you haven't.

Seal up the little cups, so you end up with a ball with the filling inside, and then smoosh it so it's the size of a pancake, keeping the filling inside and the masa outside as much as you can.

Pan fry them a couple minutes on each side. I sprinkled a little salt on top of them to add a touch of flavor. I made them pretty mild so the kids would like them, but you could stuff them with jalapenos or other spicy stuff. It would be good with salsa, sour cream, cilantro, or anything else you might eat with tortillas. They eat pupusas in El Salvador with a pickled cabbage; since I didn't have time for the pickling process, I just pan fried some cabbage with Mexican gray squash and served with cilantro lime rice.

You could probably fill them with some dessert fillings and come out with a pretty good treat. Or you could just spread nutella on your chicken and cheese pupusa.