Pupusa

Celina’s pupusas salvadoreñas make their corn dough from dried mature corn and cal, then enclose a cold quesillo filling that may include loroco. The filled rounds are lightly oiled and cooked on a comal, with curtido and salsita alongside.

The supplied washed corn enters a large pot and is covered with enough cal and water. It cooks covered at medium heat for forty-five minutes, is washed again and passes through a mill to form a fine dough.

For the selected cheese filling, the optional loroco is washed, chopped and passed through supplied boiling water. Hands squeeze it before it is mixed with one pound of quesillo, kneaded to a soft paste and refrigerated. The filling is kept cold and paste-like before filling the dough.

Two tablespoon-sized portions of dough make two balls, each on its own plastic support. A huacalito with a smooth bottom presses each into a thin round. The plastic is removed, filling goes on one round and the other covers it, with the edges kept free of filling and pressed together.

The filled pupusas are lightly coated with oil and placed on the selected comal, already heated and lightly greased. A spatula turns them carefully. The source gives fifteen to twenty portions and calls for curtido and salsita alongside.