Pupusas are little masa dough pockets that are stuffed with a variety of ingredients, then fried and topped with pickled veggies. I have made these before, and while they are fun to make, they take a little bit of practice to get them just right. The hardest thing about this recipe is making sure the masa dough is the right consistency. If it is too dry, it will just fall apart, but if it is too wet, it won't fry up properly. So, it takes a little practice and experimentation to get just the right consistency. In this case, I throw out all measuring devices and just go by feel. The dough should be moist and pliable so they are easy to stuff.
The first time I made these, they were good, but clearly needed improvement. This time around, I was able to get them nice and crispy on the outside, and the inside was filled with spicy chorizo chicken sausage. It was a perfect combo. They were good enough to eat on their own, and they can easily turn into finger foods. This recipe would actually be wonderful for kids because they are both fun to cook and eat!
I topped my pupusas off with a super spicy roasted tomato salsa and cabbage salad, but the cookbook recommended making "Curtido" or pickled cabbage and carrots. I'll provide the recipe below because I think that combination of flavors would be fantastic. However, you could turn these into little "pupusa nachos" and top them with cheese, beans, tomato, sour cream, and cilantro. The best thing about this recipe is that the flavors are up to you. Once you get the masa dough right, you can use any ingredient to stuff them, and have fun with a variety of toppings!
NOTE: Masa flour is inexpensive and keeps for a long time. It is great to use for making homemade corn tortillas. Look for it in the International Foods at the grocery!
Pupusas
Adapted from LonelyPlanet's The World's Best Street Food
Makes about 10 pupusas
Masa Dough:
2 cups masa flour (maize flour)
water as needed (I used about 2 cups)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
oil for frying
Filling:
1 pound chorizo chicken sausage (in bulk)
Other Filling Options:
cheese
beans
jalapenos
minced, cooked pork, beef or chicken
1. Place masa flour in a bowl and pour in a little water at a time until a moist, pliable dough forms. Cover with wet paper towel or plastic wrap and set aside. Heat oven to 400F.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil and saute sausage until fully cooked through. Set aside to cool.
3. Divide dough into seperate portions and roll into small balls. Add more water as needed to keep dough pliable. With each ball, make an indent in the middle with your thumb and press the outsides open to make a small bowl. Fill the bowl with about 1 TB of sausage filling, then close the dough around the filling. Next, press the ball flat with your hands until it is about 1/2" thick.
4. Heat a large skillet (you can use the same one you cooked the sausage in for more flavor!), heat enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Fry pupusas on each side until they are light golden brown.
When pupusas are done frying, you can either place them on paper towels to drain and eat immediately or place pupusas on a cooling rack on a sheet pan in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. I found that baking them allowed the oil to drain and keep them crispy on the outside. This also keeps the pupusas hot if you are frying them in batches.
5. Serve hot with salsa, cabbage salad, or Curtido or other toppings.
Curtido
(pulled from The World's Best Street Food)
1/2 green cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 jalapeno or serrano, minced
3 green onions, minced
1. Place the cabbage and carrot in a large bowl. Pour over the boiling water to cover the vegetables and set aside for about five minutes. Then drain, pressing out the liquid.
2. Return cabbage mixture to the bowl and toss with remaining ingredients. Cover and chill for a couple of hours or overnight to lightly ferment.
ENJOY!!
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