Pupusas - Stuffed Tortillas

Pupusas

(Salvadorian stuffed tortilla or flatbread)

Pupusas are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans or meat (usually finely chopped pork-rimes). The pupusa originated in El Salvador, but it is also popular in neighboring Honduras. These are one of my favorite Salvad

orian foods. Eating these always brings back some very fond memories, because as a kid we would go to the Pupuserias as a family and enjoy these tasty stuffed flatbreads in some very rustic little restaurants called pupuserias. In El Salvador you will find pupuserias, usually small family restaurants, everywhere on the streets. Since these are one of our traditional and popular foods the ladies who run these little restaurants

will sell you pupusas for pretty cheap. Probably the easiest thing I can compare a pupuseria to are the fast food restaurants we frequent in the USA for cheeseburgers, hot dogs, french fries, etc. Except that these pupuserias are much humbler and rustic in structure. They might just have a few tables, maybe not even have windows, a cooking stove or open fire stoves, a very loud lady who cooks the pupusas on a flat skillet and nothing more. We usually eat pupusas with a cabbage, onion, garlic, green pepper and carrots cole slaw. The cole slaw is sometimes spicy and there is nothing like eating spicy cole slaw, or curtido, with a pupusas.

This is a nice article about pupusas with another picture of a pupuserias. It is from one of the local newspaper in El Salvador called El Diario De Hoy. The article is in Spanish but you can use Google's Language translator to read it.

Ingredients & Tips

4 cups of mixed corn flour (Harina)

I mix these two types of corn flour:

2 cups of Maseca Masa

2 cups of Masa Arepa

- I like to use 1/2 of each of these harinas because I have found that their

consistency is the closest to the masa you would use in El Salvador.

- You can find these Masas in the Spanish section of your grocery store
2 cups of Warm water -- this is an approximation since you will need adjust it until you have firm yet soft in consistency like play dough

2 cups of Filling (see variations)

- You can fill the Masa with refried beans, cheese or meat.

I like to make them with white cheese and try to chose a cheese that

melts well but isn't to stringy. I use sometimes use low-fat

skim milk mozzarella and mix it with white shredded taco cheese.

Be sure to watch my mom and I making these on my you tube video. You can watch us cook and prepare them. Plus, you can see what the filling and ingredients look like.

Tonight's Music

Bem, Bem Maria by the Gipsy Kings

My mom's name is Maria and this video and song is dedicated to her. She is my inspiration and my best friend. I am so thrilled to be able to share these recipes of us cooking online with you. I hope we have inspired to try something new today!