Pupusas Masa Cakes With Bacon And Cheddar Recipes

PUPUSAS (MASA CAKES) WITH BACON AND CHEDDAR

Steps:

• 1. Gather your ingredients.
• 2. Put the bacon in a pan.
• 3. Chef's Note: The pan should be big enough to cook the Pupusas.
• 4. Cook the bacon until lightly browned.
• 5. Place on a paper towel to drain, and reserve the pan with the bacon grease.
• 6. Combine masa harina, salt, and water in a mixing bowl, along with 2 to 3 teaspoons of the bacon grease. The bacon grease is optional... good, but optional.
• 7. Knead to form a smooth, moist dough with a play dough-like consistency... Remember play dough?
• 8. Chef's Note: What is Masa Harina? Masa harina is the traditional flour used to make tortillas, tamales, and other Mexican dishes. Literally translated from Spanish, it means "dough flour," because the flour is made from dried masa, a dough from specially treated corn.
• 9. Divide the dough into six equal portions and roll into balls.
• 10. Chef's Note: The balls should be about 2 inches in diameter. I suspect you will get from 6 to 8.
• 11. Using your thumb, poke a nice hole in the center of each of the balls.
• 12. Fill up the hole with bacon and cheese.
• 13. Wrap the dough around the filling, and seal. Make sure that there is no leakage.
• 14. Pat the dough between your hands until you have a nice round disk about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
• 15. Add the vegetable oil to a pan (just to cover the bottom), and bring the heat up to medium high, and then add the Pupusas.
• 16. Cook for several minutes per side (about 2 or 3) until each side is golden brown.
• 17. Chef's Tip: I went crazy and used the same pan that I cooked the bacon in... So, I cooked them in bacon grease (I think I have a death wish). If you don't want to use the bacon grease, just wipe out the pan and use the vegetable oil.
• 18. Serve warm with a nice runny egg or two. Enjoy.
• 19. Keep the faith, and keep cooking.

CHEESE PUPUSAS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix the salt well into the masa harina. With your hands, knead the water into the masa harina in a few additions; work in all the water evenly. The dough will feel like stiff mashed potatoes. Lay a 12-inch square of plastic wrap or a zip-lock on a smooth work surface.
• Divide the cheese into 9 equal piles. Roll a 2-ounce ball of dough in your hands, about the size of a golf ball, and pat it out in your hand to form a disc a little larger than your palm. (If the dough is very sticky, lightly moisten or oil your hands.) Pat a pile of cheese onto the masa, leaving just a little space around the edges (cup your hand slightly if it helps). Carefully close your hand to bring the edges of the disc closer, and use your other hand to pat and pinch it together to enclose the cheese in a rough ball. Patch any holes with a little more masa, but don't worry too much - cheese that leaks out will brown deliciously in the pan. Moisten or oil the plastic wrap, and pat out the pupusa on it, forming a disc about 4 inches wide. Repeat, forming a second pupusa.
• Heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat, and very lightly grease it with oil. When the oil appears thin, lay the pupusas in the pan, and cook until richly browned in spots, about 4 minutes. (If you can fit 3 or 4 pupusas at a time in the pan, increase heat to medium-high.) It's O.K. if the cheese starts to bubble out. Flip the pupusas, and cook another 4 minutes, until they're browned and cooked through. Serve finished ones immediately with curtido, and repeat forming and cooking the remaining pupusas.