Pupusas!

What is a "papoosa," you might ask? Well, it's a fantastic cheese-stuffed tortilla. The best one I've ever had came from Gloria's El Salvadorian restaurant in Dallas. If you ever have a chance to go there, get the cheese pupusa, dip it in their refried black bean dip, and prepare to be overwhelmed with joy.

They're actually pretty easy to make at home, too, although they probably won't be as good as those from Gloria's. The recipe is simple. All you need is:

2 cups Masa (corn tortilla flour, you might have to search a bit to find it if you don't live in Texas)
1 cup Water
Salt
Garlic powder
Filling (Cheese, bell peppers, whatever.)

First, make the tortilla. Put the masa in a bowl and add some seasoning. Next, we'll add the water. A good ratio for this recipe is two parts mesa per one part water. Initially you'll want to mix it with a spoon, but by the time all of the water has been absorbed, the tortilla mix should be sticky, but not too sticky to handle, and should hold together fairly well.

Split the mixture in half and roll both halves into balls. Place them on some kind of plastic and roll them out into circular-ish flat forms (this part takes a bit of practice, so don't expect your first pupusas to be pretty.) Now, fill one side with your filling. You can go the traditional, fried cheese route and just toss in some of your favorite mozzarella. Sometimes if I'm making a pupusa that I want to be a bit healthier, I'll add some sliced bell pepper, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, anything along those lines. Make sure that the filling doesn't touch the edge of the tortilla, though! Toss some salt on that mess and cover it with the rest of the rolled out masa mix, pinching the edges to keep in all the cheesy goodness. Flatten it as best you can, but whatever you do, try to make sure that no filling pokes out of the tortilla!

Now fire up your griddle! Stoneware works bests, but a cast iron pan or even nonstick will do as well. Cover the griddle in butter or olive oil and let it heat up to about medium heat. Once it's ready, gently place your pupusa on the heat. Let it cook for about two minutes on each side, flipping until both sides of the pupusa have a delicious orangy tint. Let it cool and enjoy!

All in all, this recipe can be perfected until it takes less than ten minutes. It's fairly healthy too, depending on what you decide to fill it with. Make sure to experiment until you find your own perfect combination of pupusa!