Adventures with masa

Twice this week, I have tried new recipes made with masa. I realized that most of my extended family has probably never heard of it (funny that the midwestern US is pretty much covered in corn fields, but masa, a corn derivative, is basically unknown there).

Masa is primarly used to make corn tortillas. Imagine a raw tortilla chip that's been ground up, and then had a little water added and you've basically got masa.

My first adventure with masa this week was to make sopes. Imagine little boats or bowls made from ground up corn and you've basically got a sope. We tried them for the first time last week at Frontera Grill in Chicago. I then managed to make them at home earlier this week. Mine weren't quite as good as those at Frontera (then again, how could they be... our house isn't exactly known as one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country), but they turned out pretty well.

Last night, I tried another new masa-based receipe: huaraches - oval shaped masa cakes. These were definitely more complicated than the sopes, and I'm not sure they turned out as they were supposed to, but they tasted OK. Ours had queso cojita (which is a bit like feta cheese), salsa, and a tiny bit of chorizo (which is a type of loosely ground pork sausage) on top.

We took a great class last fall about how to make tamales. I see that they're offering it again this fall at Central Market. If you're in the Austin area, I'd highly recommend taking it. Their classes are a lot of fun and this particular course is really practical and yields you a bunch of tamales to take home. Tamales are basically a wad of masa wrapped around some filling (beef, pork, or even dessert ingredients like chocolate). The little masa package is then wrapped with a corn husk or banana leaf, and steamed. The result is a moist & flavorful package that you get to unwrap. They're a ton of work, though, so traditionally tamales are made for special events, or as a special event (gather everybody together to do the work).