a food and drink lover's blog

The Pupusa That Wasn't

Thursday, May 29, 2008

12:57 PM

I try to plan out the menu so I know what to buy, then I cook most of it all on Sunday so I have the first half of the week free.

After Ajie's and friends' visit last weekend, I had a chance to sit down and think about what to eat for the rest of the weekend. I had some pupusas a few months ago and I REALLY wanted to try making it. I've seen some recipes, it looked really simple.

Went to the Mexican meat market and bought masa as well as chicken for fajitas. I could've used carnitas but I don't really eat pork.

Went home, did my chores, goofed around with the sewing machine... Goofed around some more... and some more... and --- oooops ---- it's 4:30! Almost time for dinner!

So I got all my equipment and ingredients ready and got to work making the pupusas. First thing I noticed when I took the masa out of the plastic bag was that it was too mealy. Hmm --- too much cornmeal? It was the perfect consistency for tamales, but I wasn't too sure about how it would hold up to being fried.

Made the chicken filling, made the curtido, didn't make the red sauce (figured I'd make do with whatever hot tomato-based sauce we had in the fridge). Then I started putting the pupusas together.

My worst fears came true. The masa would break up after I put the filling between the two pancakes. And frying them made it worse --- I ended up with a mess of fried masa and meat!

I couldn't take it. When I finished frying up the pupusas I made (I had to, I couldn't toss it all away), I had to lie down for a while.

Thank goodness hubby wasn't too picky about how it looked. It really tasted good, it just didn't look too appetizing.

Oh well.

A friend recommended another market for masa. I think I'll go there next week. And try again.

Labels: kitchen failures

0 Comments: