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Pupusas Recipe
June 15, 2004 | by Heidi | Filed under
The Supper Book
Pupusas. Pu-pu-sahs. Just try to say it without smiling. Last week at the gym I discovered a copy of VIA magazine buried deep below the endless stacks of Men's Journal, Men's Fitness, and Details. Flipping through (when I should have been on the treadmill) there was a gem of an article with an introduction and round-up of San Francisco pupusarias.
For lack of a better way to explain -- Pupusas are a Salvadorian version of a quesadilla. Think quesadilla but imagine all of the edges of the tortillas are sealed up and the melty cheese and goodies are trapped inside with no way out, until of course you sink your teeth into one. Pupusas are also very accommodating. You can fill them with chilies, cheese, beans (frijoles), loroco (a tasty green flower blossom), shrimp (camarones), pork (chicharron), chicken (pollo), and fish (pescado).
We have sampled our way through plenty of taquerias here in San Francisco, but I am a relative (but enthusiastic!) newbie to the world of pupasarias. We hit up two of the recommended hot spots from the article. El Zocola, was the first stop, south of Cesar Chavez St. Be prepared for standard Mission-district taqueria ambience complete with alarmingly bright lights. Their cheap pupusas were tasty, large, and gushing with cheese. The rice flour base (vs. corn) was good but I hit my cheese quota for the week in a hurry at this place. The second stop, Panchita's 3 was a real treat. Gussied up with white linens and fancy fixtures, this is a great place for a date. An upscale pupusaria smack in the heart of the Mission with a menu that is short, sweet, and reasonably priced. We had a great time sampling papusas ($1.50) as well as the guacamole, casamiento y plantanos (which were stunning), and chilies rellenos.
The logical next step was to try to make pupusas at home, right? None of my cookbooks had a recipe, so I sought out a simple pupusa recipe online. I found this fairly straightforward play-by-play by Marion Cunningham. Masa harina, cumin, water, a bit of cheese, cilantro, and I was in business. I'll start off by saying, my pupusas weren't the prettiest (as you can see from the photos), but they sure tasted good. I need to be able to watch a pro make them once or twice so I can see how they work the dough up and around the fillings without having any leaks, everything else was simple. Maybe it just takes practice, a lot of practice. Essentially, you take a golf ball sized ball of dough, pat it out into a patty, put a dollop of filling in the middle, work the dough up and around to enclose the filling, and then flatten again. My pupusas were a little on the thick side, and a little thin on the cheese -- I was scared to really try to load them up with fillings. Regardless, these are a lot of fun to make, the make a great picnic treat, and I look forward to making them again.
To feature an actual recipe taken from a cookbook, it is best to request permission from the publisher or author. In the early days on 101 Cookbooks, I would tell people where to find the recipe, but not feature the recipe itself. Eventually I began to request permission to run the actual recipes, but this wasn't one of them. The majority of entries on 101 Cookbooks will have the recipes attached, this just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't. My apologies!
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Your Comments
s'kat said:Love the site. It was an interesting coincidence that, never having heard of a pupusa before, you post this on your site. Shortly thereafter, I was driving to the grocery store, and saw that a new pupuseria had just opened. After reading your description, I can't wait to try them out!
Another new thing to try. Thank you. And what is the metal container in the first picture? It looks like a tiffin carrier but I imagined them as bigger. Or is it that the pupusas are bigger than I imagine?
You know, I will write more about that in a future post -- thanks for reminding me. It is a lunch box/mess kit circa WWI. The pretty floral pattern etched into the sides is an example of'trench art'...Apparently when soldiers were stuck for long periods of time in the trenches they started to pound elaborate patterns, messages, and decorations into their belongings. You can find carvings on everything from lighters and shell casings to matchbox holders and letter openers. I immediately fell in love with the elaborate and delicate flowers on this mess kit, and the nice man at the flea market told me the facinating history behind it.
I love that lunch box/mess kit thanks for sharing it and your pupusa quest.
If you're ever down the Peninsula, Amelia's on Broadway in downtown Redwood City has fabulous pupusas.
Thanks for sharing the history of the mess kit. It is like a tiffin carrier, but made so much better by the design and the history of the design.
My boyfriend is from San Salvador and has not been back to his country for the past 14 years. We live in a place where he cannot get pupusas so I have scoured the internet looking for a simple way to prepare them. Thank you for sharing. They were not as good as his mother's he said, but what woman has ever cooked better than Mom?
What a coincidence..... my girlfriend is from El Salvador and her and her family live here in Dallas and I have discovered pupusas from them and we make it a 2 or 3 time weekly tradition to go to a loacal pupusaria to eat and converse with family while eating the fabulous and very inexpensive pupusa dinners.
The qeuso and reveulta pupusas are $1.25 a piece and come with the pickled coleslaw and chips with salsa. We always order the very tasty fruit drinks with the meal as well.
I love the picture and story of the tin.
Thanks,
Kurt
i like that you like our not that well known pupusas, i being salvadorian my both parents, and a grandma who loves to cook i get a test of salvadoraian cuisines at least 3 days out of the week. pupusas are great but are hard to do i've never visited el salvador but do anticipate,but i master the cooking of pupusas but not as well as my grandma
I like that metal cotainer. My mom used to have one of those, thouh it was not a very old one she just bought it at the mercado. I see a lot praise for pupusas revueltas(mix) and cheese or chicharron, but I see no mention of Lorocos flower pupusas. They are the best. I am from El Salvador as well and have not had a pupusa for about ten years. It is good to know that many people are enjoying pupusas and orchata de morro out there. I tried to make pupusas, but they did not come out OK, though my wife says they were delicious.
Very interesting to hear how people are getting to know this delicious food of my small, beautiful country. I just have one question, for those of you cooking the pupusas, what cheese are you using to stuff them?
They recomend mozarella with ricotta? Any suggestions?
THANK YOU!
My grandmother lives in El Salvador and I will never forget the first time that I tasted a pupusa. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!! There is a restaurant in my town that sells them but there is nothing like eating them at my grandmas.
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