Community Cocina: Pupusas Salvadoreñas

Three generations of pupusa-makers!

For our 11th installment in the Community Cocina cooking class series, we visited my own family's country: El Salvador! Pupusas are an iconic dish of El Salvador consisting of corn tortillas filled with cheese, beans, and/or chicharron (which, in El Salvador, is made into a paste rather than hard). Coming from the Pipil word pupusawa, meaning "swollen," pupusas are similar to Venezuelan arepas, but flatter. Most importantly, they're delicious and not too hard to make. Read below for the full bilingual recipe:

Ingredientes de la masa (dough ingredients)

• 4 tazas de harina de maíz (4 cups of corn flour)

• 3 tazas de agua tibia (3 cups of warm water)

• 1 ½ cucharadas de sal (1 ½ cups of salt)

Ingredientes del chicharrón

• 675 gramos (un poco mas de una libra) de chicharrón (675 grams, a little more than 1 pound, of paste-like ground pork)

• 2 tomates (2 tomatoes)

• 1 cebolla (1 onion)

• 1 diente de ajo (1 clove of garlic)

Receta

Chicharrón: Se muele el chicharrón, el tomate, la cebolla y el ajo para formar el relleno. Fríelo todo en una sartén con un poco de aceite. También puedes mezclarse el chicharrón con queso.

(Mince the chicharron, tomato, onion, and garlic to make the stuffing. Fry all of it in a pan with some oil. You can also mix the chicharron with the cheese.)

Masa (dough) : Mezcla la harina de maíz maseca con la agua en un bol. Cuando la masa esta firmita, forma bolas de tamaño de la palma de la mano. Haz un agujero en el centro, rellénala con los ingredientes, ciérrala y palméala con las manos dándole forma de tortilla (redonda).

Mix the corn flour with water in a bowl. When the dough is a little firm, make balls of dough of about the size of your palm. Make a dimple in the center, fill it with your ingredients, close your hand and then flatten it to give it the shape of a (round) tortilla.

Ponla en el comal, dale vuelta, y come! ¡Buen provecho!

Put it on the skillet, flip it, and eat! Enjoy!

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