Taco-Papusa Night

A simple taco night quickly took a flavorful detour, turning into an adventure with spicy pupusas—an improvised dish rooted in thousands of years of Latin American history and culture.

It was a regular Tuesday afternoon. The kitchen was clean, groceries were getting low, and I just knew Tacos were my best chance at filling the bellies of my family. We have ground beef, one packet of taco seasoning, cheese, and an unopened bag of massa flour. I’ve made tortillas before, so surely this will be an easy assignment.

While gathering my mise en place the babies, as usual, come join me in the kitchen to “help” mommy. They skootched their chairs from the table to the counter as I’m looking for measuring spoons and cups. I swear my head was down looking in the drawer for 5 seconds and I hear the sound of dry granuals spilling. Turning around was very disheartening. My ever assertive youngest baby had managed to tear open the taco seasoning and poured it all over the counter, chair and floor.

“Deep breaths Mommy”. As I cleaned the spill of seasoning, hoping to salvage enough seasoning to make these tacos, my toddler comes over to help by wiping the seasoning on the chair to the floor, and then they both stick their hands in it attempting to wipe it away.

All this momma could do was step back, smile and take another deep breath. I really want tacos or something latin flavored for dinner. While cleaning off the kids and areas of the spill, I remembered I have a bunch of dried chillies stacked in the top shelf of the cupboard. I know I’ve got plenty of seasonings available, may I can wing together some sauce.

With a revised game plan, we got to work.
First we made the massa dough for our tortillas, then I got to work on the sauce.

For the massa dough I followed the direction on the back of the bag. once the dough was made I covered it with a wet paper towel and put it in the fridge until it was time for me to roll them out into tortillas. Then I put the baby’s away for a nap before taking down the chillies peppers and other ingredients to make some sauce.