A Little Latin Cooking....

A guest on the Martha Stewart Show inspired my Mom to try her hand at making Pupusas. If you have ever had Mexican food you have most likely eaten Masa. Masa is dough made out of corn meal. Masa is used to make corn tortillas, tamales, and Pupusas. Prior to moving to Ohio my Mom worked in a casino in Las Vegas. She had many friends at the casino from various parts of South America. Her friends tried to explain the process of making pupusas to my mother before, but it was difficult to understand until she saw them being made on the Martha Stewart Show. After seeing how simple they seemed she decided to give them a try. Have a look:

The corn meal needed to be made into masa. Mom used broth, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder and oil to make the meal into masa. She used a brand of corn meal/flour called Ma Se Ca. Once the consistency of the masa was right we formed balls and then flattened them into patties.


We filled the patties with cheese.


Once the patties were filed with cheese we had to close the patties to encase the cheese.


The patties were then cooked on a well oiled griddle.


Here are some finished pupusas. They were delicious served with refried beans, sour cream and salsa.


Since we had excess masa from making pupusas we decided to make tamales. Tamales are similar to pupusas, but are prepared a bit different.

Tamales are made by steaming masa filled with a filling of your choice in dried corn husks. Tamales are traditionally filled with pork cooked in chili sauce. Since I am a vegetarian I fill mine with beans, potatoes, cheese, salsa, chilies, and olives.

Corn husks come dried, they first need to be soaked in hot water and then rinsed very well.


I actually had to give my Mom a refresher course, tamales 101. You first start by taking a clean corn husk and smearing it with masa.


You then add your filling, in this case I had refried beans, cheese, a piece of potato and green chilies.


After the tamale is filled you fold the sides in and the end up. Here are the first few tamales we made.


The tamales were then steamed in a pot of water. The water should not touch the tamales. We used a very large pot with a pasta strainer insert and filled the pot so the water level was just below the strainer. The tamales steamed for about 2 1/2 hours until the masa was firm.


Making tamales brought back memories of eating at my grandmother's house. While making tamales I talked with my mom about how good of a cook my grandmother was and how much she loved all of us (my siblings and I). I loved making tamales with my mom while making new memories and remembering cherished memories of this delicious tradition.