Pupusa redo

frying the pupusa
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I tried a quick redo trying to make a pasable pupusa. This time I again used Maseca
but I added water till the dough was pliant rather than the package instructions, and after that I added 2 tablespoons of pureed aji amarillo to the masa
I kept them small, and stuffed them with cooked potato and some leftover beef from a previous meal and fried them in a bit of oil.



They were much better, with a great smokey corn flavor and underlying heat from the aji puree. Going to keep trying and working on my technique.

Carrot Corn in Pesto Side dish

side dish
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

We needed to take a dish to our summer league swim team banquet, I went with a cold side dish to beat the 105 deg heat. I had just seen a recent episode of The Perennial Plate and made a similar dish.
Ingredients
Two bunches of carrots with leaves
the same amount in volume of baby corn
For Pesto
4 cloves of garlic
1 cup or more of basil
the carrot leaves cleaned
2 tablespoons of toasted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

The carrots and corn I cooked in salted water



I cooled the corn and carrots in ice water, then I cut the carrots to the appoximate size of the corn.
I cleaned and sorted the carrot greens



and the basil



And pureed it in the food processor with the rest of the ingredients



I then combined corn, carrot and pesto in a bowl and placed in the refrigerator. We took it to the party and it all disappeared.



The Perennial Plate Episode is below, a great, interesting video log of a year of sustainable eating in Minnesota.

The Perennial Plate Episode 19: Summer Vegetables from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

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.