Welcome to Cookbook of the Week.
(This post isnt about how confusing that towns name is.).
That’s when I discovered that West New York is a secret hub for incredible Latin American food.
We would always get the same order: memelas de pollo.
The cookbook Ive chosen for this week is calledMasa.
The eponymous ingredient is made from corn that has been treated with alkali materials and ground to a powder.
Thisharina, or flour, makes a simple dough when combined with water, and this is masa.
The restaurant in West New York may have given me my first experience eating handmade, fresh memelas.
Every time we ate there, the tortillas sent me to another realm.
The flavor is an explosion of toasted corn.
The toppings are important, but the masa is the star.
Despite mapping the location over and over again, I cant remember the name of this magical spot.
and I fear that the pandemic may have ushered it out.
Until I can go back to see for myself, theyre still slingin memelas in my mind.
A bit about the book
Masais a comprehensive overview of this indispensable ingredient.
The author, Jorge Gaviria, is the founder ofMasienda, an heirloom masa and corn purveyor.
Theres even a whole section about alkalinity control.
Its a good example of the author nerding-out on the thing he loves the most.
Grab it for yourself if youve been chasing that perfect chicken memela from your past.
But know this: Each recipe has been grunt-worthy fantastic.
The recipes inMasaare easy to read and simple to prepare.
I like that each recipe starts off with its respective root country.
Then there’s a quick note before some short paragraphs of instruction.
Thankfully, each recipe has a storage section at the end.
Youre making all these flavorful and delicate tortillas and shells.
It would be a shame to waste the leftovers.
The masa dough itself is incredibly simplemasa harina and warm water.
From there, you shape that dough and cook it in a variety of ways.
My failure at shapingstillled to a successful dish, and thats a good sign.
Technically, I made one and a half recipes this week.
I ate it though, and it was stellar.
The magic of my “flat-as” was the flaky, delicate, and flavorful masa harina.
If you have that then youll enjoy whatever shape it takes.
I decided to keep it simple and stuff them with shredded mozzarella, as I had plenty on hand.
I dropped the balls of cheese-stuffed blue corn masa into boiling water and let them cook away.
A short 10 minutes later, I was enjoying warm, fluffy, corn-tastic cheese bollos with hot sauce.
you might alsoorder straight from the Masienda shopif you prefer to support their business directly.
