Ingredients

• Curtido (pickled cabbage topping)
• ½ head cabbage
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 1 beet (optional)
• apple cider vinegar
• Masa (the pupusa dough)
• 2 cups Maseca (or Masa, corn flour with added lime)
• Water
• Filling
• ½ lb pork, fried (optional)
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium tomatoes
• ½ lb grated cheese (ideally a mix of queso and mozzarella)
• Refried beans (optional)

Instructions

1. For the curtido, chop the cabbage, and grate or shred the other vegetables. Combine in a bowl, then fill bowl about half way with apple cider vinegar. Fill the rest with water and let sit up to a day.
2. For the masa, mix Maseca with enough water to create a playdough-like texture.
3. For the filling, blend the cooked pork or refried beans with the onion and tomatoes in a food processor.
4. Preheat a frying pan or griddle on the stove. Once the fillings and masa dough are ready, it's time to make pupusas.
5. First, take a ball of dough a little smaller than a kiwi in one hand. Ball it up, then press or slap it between your hands to flatten it until it's a circle about ¼ inch thick.
6. Put about a tablespoon each of the meat/beans and the grated cheese into the center of the circle. Then wrap the flattened dough around the fillings. The edges should point up like flower petals.
7. Pinch the edges closed so you have a ball of dough enclosing the fillings. Then, gently press or slap the ball between your hands again, until your dough is once again a flattened circle, between ¼ and ½ inch thick.
8. The dough might tear, exposing fillings. Repair with more masa if you can, or enjoy the flavor of the fillings that fry when exposed to the pan. Place the pupusa on the hot frying pan, and fry until both sides are golden-brown.