Pupusas with fermented curtido and salsa

I started this adventure a week ago as the curtido needs 2 days to ferment so the rest of the time it can hang in the fridge.

A half a head of cabbage, 2 grated carrots, and 2 garlic cloves

I did use 1 tsp of salt and 1/8 tsp of culture…plus about 1 tablespoon of Mexican oregano.

And she got treated to 3 days on the counter at room temp

The sauce starts with three anchos and one California soaking in warm water. Once they soften (retain the water) they are cleaned of seeds and hard stems and added to 1 big Roma and 3 garlic close, a dash of liquid smoke and a quarter of an onion in the blender. Adding soaking water as needed.

The sauce mixture goes on the lowest heat to simmer down by 1/3 volume then adding reserved chili liquid to reach a somewhat runny consistency.

I forgot to soak the beans in advance so they did a cycle in the Instant Pot on pressure cooker. After that I added my home made low sodium no chicken broth—substitute as you will…onion, garlic powder. Simmering slowly to eliminate liquid.

I just mush them in the pan so I have some solid pieces but mostly mashed.

The Pupusas were made with 2 cups masa and 1 1/2 cups water, and a little salt. My Pupusas were small and this recipe yielded 8. You just mix the ingredient and go for a Play Doh texture adding a little more water or a little masa if needed. I filled these with cheese—you can use any melting cheese you want really, but I had a white Mexican cheese.

My dough was rolled into 8 balls. Take a ball and press your thumb in to make a deep indentation. Fill that with about 1 Tbl cheese, close your hole and flatten the pupusa, which next gets fried. you can make this vegetarian by using beans instead of cheese as the filling.

I had a jicama sitting around so I cut that into sticks and sprinkles with tajin and lime.

Here’s the whole table:

The pupusas
Salsa, curtido and margarita
A pupusa with sauce and curtido. I like my curtido dripping over the top….

One comment

  1. helenfern · March 29, 2022

    I love pupusas!!! I have not yet been able to successfully make them. Maybe I need to try your recipe – Pinned!

    Liked by 1 person

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