Either way, we’re guilty of the
same. As much as we go and support the vendors, it can get expensive week after
week buying supper at the market. This always leads to extraneous purchases of
bread and beverages that the kids want and I feel obligated to buy since these
guys are our friends. This past week we decided to skip the market and make the
same food we buy at home. Our favorite meal of choice are pupusas and tamales,
which Mama Tina makes. They are excellent, and come with this amazing
Salvadoran cole slaw and salsa. We can make the salsa, it’s the cole slaw
that’s been the challenge. That, and of course, the pupusas.
The slaw seems pretty
straightforward, but the question became how they prepared it. It’s funny how
some recipes never seem to work out the way you want them to. Some say to leave
it raw and let it cure, others say to blanche it. I tried varying degrees of
both, and they came out okay, but not as good as theirs. I finally tried doing
a flash stir fry in olive oil, and that came out well. We went with it.
The pupusas are basically stuffed
tortillas filled with whatever you want, though we go with the black beans. You
make the dough and then form it into a ball. From there, you make a bowl, fill
it, then flatten and heat. Flattening it isn’t easy, and I ended up getting a
tortilla press that works beautifully. The recipe calls for heating it on a hot
pan, but I add a little bit of oil and it comes out nicely. Throw on the slaw
and salsa, and you have a meal.
Best of all, because we’re making
them, we can eat to our heart’s content. They’re not as outstanding as Mama
Tina’s, but pretty close. In the end, that’s good enough, and we save money and
get to stuff ourselves. Enough said.
Until the next time, thanks for
reading.
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