Pupusa, failed gordita

done pupusa
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I wanted to make something different as a side dish for dinner, and initially was leaning towards polenta but upon inspecting my flours, the yellow bag I thought was cornmeal was actually bread flour. Fortunately I also had a sack of Maseca or Masa Flour, so I thought I might make some stuffed fried tortillas. A quick aside, the basics of this dish permeate Latin America with slight variations in both recipe and name (Arepas, pupusa, gordita, etc) I don't mean to slight any cultural preference of these, but this is how mine turned out.
I followed the package instructions on making a tortilla dough, probably my first mistake, I should have gone back to the great recipe compendium and food blog Sazon Boricua for her recipe, which uses quite a bit more water than the one I used.



I used 2 cups of water to 2 cups of masa and my dough was pretty crumbly (Jeannette uses 3 cups of water), 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon dried and ground Aji Panca a peruvian spicy pepper, with a great woody earthy taste.



I managed to form a ball with the dough and flatten it in my hand to the size of my palm, I then scooped a tablespoon of salsa with some cheese mixed in. I then wrapped the masa around the filling into a ball again.



I then put them in a hot pan with olive oil and flattened them with the spatula down to about a centimeter in width. I oiled the spatula after the first one came right back out with the spatula, that worked better.



I pan fried them till they were good and brown I scoope a small bit of salsa and cheese over top and put them all in the oven at 300 deg for two reasons, I wasn't done cooking the rest of the meal (turkey breast) and the other reason is that I was afraid that the inside would be undercooked. So they sat in the oven for about 12-15 min.
When they came out they looked like this



They had a nice roast corn smell, they were cooked through and had a very nice afterburn of heat. (I had been tempted to add more of the chili powder but I'm glad I didn't)
What could have been better?
Well for one they didn't rise at all. In San Antonio the gorditas get fat and plump then they are split and stuffed (If you look at the last picture the failed gordita at the top is pretty flat)
Second is my filling was fairly weak in flavor, this really required a more saucy type filling, such as a carne asada stew, green chili pulled pork or similar filling to compete with the corn
I will definitely try again though, lots to be learned here.