Torti-Repas

OR:  A MAIZE-CRAZED QUEST

Hey ... I said I was going to do this post a long time ago and I never did!  Sorry!  But actually, given yesterday's post, I figured this would be good timing because these little guys are perfect for an IBS diet ...

So I was born in El Salvador, right?  And if you ask any Salvadoran, they will tell you that we have the most delicious tortillas in the world. 

They are corn, always corn, and are not those thin, flimsy things that (although delicious in authentic Mexican tacos) turn into rubbery little shells otherwise.

No, no.  Our tortillas are thick (like 1/2 inch usually), warm little rounds of heaven.  We so adore our tortillas that all efforts at mechanization in El Salvador have been roundly defeated, people noting (quite correctly I think) that the salts and oils on the hands of a tortillera give our tortillas that je ne sais quoi ...

And of course there aren't just tortillas, there are our famous Pupusas and Salvadoran tamales (totally different than the Mexican varieties), and so many other wonderous delights of my homeland ... and all of them require MASA.

"Masa" just means "dough."  But this is not just any kind of corn dough.  You cannot make it with cornmeal or corn flour or polenta.  Masa is made with "Nixtamal," the treated corn that is used to make masa and hominy. It is corn that has been cooked and treated with lime (calcium hydroxide). 

Why in the world would you do that you ask?  Well, for the answer we turn to our beloved Wikipedia:

"The ancient process of nixtamalization was first developed in Mesoamerica ... it was very important in the early Mesoamerican diet, as unprocessed maize is deficient in free niacin. A population depending on untreated maize as a staple food risks malnourishment, and is more likely to develop deficiency diseases ... Maize also is deficient in essential amino acids ... Maize cooked with lime provided niacin in this diet. Beans, when consumed with the maize, provided the amino acids required to balance the diet for protein."

So that's the science behind it, but what it translates to, for us plebes, is just a butter-smooth, delicious, mild dough.  Again, NOTHING like cormeal or grits or polenta.  There is nothing crunchy about it, just soft and mellow.

But guess what my children?

THERE IS NO MASA MIX IN CAPE TOWN.

In fact, there are no corn tortillas.  NONE.  All you'll find are flour tortillas -- which I don't really care about anyway -- for 10 DOLLARS A PACK.  That's a dollar a tortilla folks.  Again, I plead with any enterprising tortilla makers to run, fly, sail to South Africa immediately. 

So I'm in withdrawal!  Seriously bereft.

And unless I can get my hands on a sack of seed corn, some lime and a metate, I had to come up with an alternative.

Which is where this comes into play:

This is mielie-meal, finelly milled cornmeal, a staple food here in South Africa, used to make something called "Pap" -- very similar to polenta or grits from what I understand.

I found this at the store and thought, well, let's give it a go ... so I tried to use it like I would use Masa Mix:

Immediately, as I felt the flour, I knew it was the wrong texture.  But I pressed on.  And this was the result:

 

Awful, dry, cracked things.  Horror! 

So then I remembered my lovely Venezuelan friends and their frequent ravings over their "Arepas" -- kind of their version of tortillas -- but made with regular, not Nixtamalized, corn flour.

I went online and researched and found out that Arepas are made by first pouring boiling water over the corn meal and letting it sit and soften.  I followed this method and look:

Much better no? 

They even look like Salvadoran tortillas -- nice and thick -- a bit crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

It's not quite the same, of course, the texture and taste is not the same.  But they are yummy in their own right and make a nice substitute.  Then I followed another method I found on line and mixed the dough with grated cheese (these were made pre-IBS attacks):

Aren't they pretty? 

We even had a whole meal of arepas with a lovely, homemade tomato, yellow pepper sauce, avocado and feta cheese:

So, there you go, that's the tale of a Salvadoreña in Cape Town and her maize-induced woe and redemption.

Necessity is the mother of invention as they say.  And while my Arepas are keeping me sated ... they are the Methadone to my real smack of choice so if anyone wants to send me a bag of Masa Mix ...