20 Ingredients You May Not Have Heard Of Or Known What To Do With: Until Now! The Kitchn's Best of 2012

Masa Harina

Part of the joy of cooking is coming across a new ingredient and then learning exactly what you can do with it. If you've ever wondered about malted milk powder, prickly pears, quark cheese, or salad burnet, wonder no more. We have ingredient spotlights on all these below, plus many more. It's time to get a little adventurous. Goose eggs? Argan oil? Svaneti salt? Bring it on!

TOP ROW
1 Masa Harina
2 Goose Eggs
3 Cassava, Manioc & Yuca
4 Argan Oil
5 Ground Okra

SECOND ROW
6 Sorghum
7 Berbere
8 Peanut Flour
9 Dried Beancurd Sticks
10 Bee Pollen

THIRD ROW
11 Sucanat
12 Prickly Pears
13 Barhi Dates
14 Quark Cheese
15 Black Apricots

BOTTOM ROW
16 Sour Green Plums
17 Malted Milk Powder
18 Salad Burnet
19 Umeboshi Plum Vinegar
20 Svaneti Salt

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Welcome to The Kitchn's Best of 2012 roundup!
From December 17 through January 1 we are rounding up some of our favorite (and your favorite) posts from the past year.

(Images: See linked posts for full image credits)

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Recipe: Salvadoran Pupusas con Curtido (Masa Cakes with Cabbage Slaw) Recipes from The Kitchn

More than a decade after experiencing my first pupusa, I can still remember my wide-eyed joy as I bit into the thick, stuffed tortilla. Why had I never eaten one before, and how soon could I have another?! As I learned, the best part about El Salvador's national dish isn't just the warm, savory masa filled with melty cheese (or meat or beans), but its brilliant accompaniment called curtido. Like a sauerkraut or kimchi, this zippy cabbage relish balances the heaviness of the pupusa and makes it a simple yet satisfying meal for any time of day.

Pupusas are incredibly simple and inexpensive to make, requiring little more than masa harina (a form of corn flour) and a stuffing like cheese or refried beans. Curtido, the accompanying slaw, is a combination of cabbage, carrots, and onions in a vinegary, spicy brine. Traditional curtido is fermented, but the recipe here is simpler, requiring just a couple of hours to lightly pickle (although the longer you let it sit, the better it will be).

After mixing the masa harina with water to form a dough, roll it into balls, make an indentation with your thumb, and fill with cheese or other ingredients. (I especially like the combination of cheese with loroco, an herbaceous flower bud.) If you can't find traditional quesillo cheese, you can use queso fresco, Monterey Jack, or even mozzarella. All of these taste fantastic.

Seal the ball, and then pat it into a round disk. Fry it up until browned on both sides and serve warm with curtido. It's as easy as that!

Salvadoran Pupusas con Curtido

Makes 8 pupusas

2 cups masa harina
Pinch of salt
1 1/3 cup warm water
1 cup grated cheese: quesillo, queso fresco, Monterey Jack, or mozzarella
Vegetable oil
Curtido (see below)

Combine masa harina, salt, and water in a mixing bowl. Knead to form a smooth, moist dough with a playdough-like consistency. If the mixture is too dry, add more water, one teaspoon at a time. If the mixture is too sticky, add more masa harina, one teaspoon at a time. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let stand for 10 minutes.

With lightly oiled hands, form the dough into 8 balls about 2 inches in diameter. Using your thumb, make an indentation into one of the balls, forming a small cup. Fill the cup with 1 tablespoon of cheese and wrap the dough around the filling to seal it. Making sure that the filling does not leak, pat the dough back and forth between your hands to form a round disk about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat with the remaining balls.

Heat a lightly oiled skillet over medium-high. Cook the pupusas for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Serve warm with curtido on the side.

Notes:
To substitute fresh masa, use 2 pounds.
The cheese filling may be combined or substituted with refried beans or cooked pork (called chicharrn in El Salvador, but not to be confused with fried pork rind). Loroco flower buds are also a traditional accompaniment to cheese; look for them in the frozen food section or preserved in jars at Central American markets.

Curtido

Makes about 4 cups

1/2 head cabbage, shredded
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Combine the cabbage, carrot, and onion in a large bowl. Combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour over the cabbage mixture and stir.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and preferably at least a day before serving. Can make up to a week ahead, stirring occasionally.

Related: How To Make Sopes: Plus a Vegetarian Topping Recipe

(Images: Emily Ho)

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Pupusas Recipe (Salvadoran stuffed masa flatbread) El Salvador ... Pupusas are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans or meat. The pupusa originated in El Salvador, but it is also popular in ... How to Make Salvadoran Pupusas eHow.com Reminiscent of a thick tortilla or doughy quesadilla, the Salvadoran pupusa also bears a resemblance to another South American stuffed flatbread, the arepa, and is ... Recipe: Corn Tortillas Stuffed with Cheese - The Global Gourmet El Salvador. Recipe: Corn Tortillas Stuffed with Cheese from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More than 750 Meatless Recipes from Around the Globe, by Madhur Jaffrey. Black Bean Pupusas Recipe recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen Though a vegan can often be seen Eating lentils and tofu and beans, Still when omnivores pass They invariably ask How do you get your protein?* Pupusas with Curtido from El Salvador My Colombian Recipes My friend Joan from Foodalogue is going on a virtual culinary tour South of the Border and the first stop was Mexico, so I joined her with these Chicken Pupusas - Stuffed Corn Tortillas - How to Make Pupusas Pupusas are a traditional dish from El Salvador. Pupusas are corn tortillas with a filling - usually cheese ( pupusas de queso ), beans, and/or Salvadoran-style ... Salvadoran Recipes and the Cooking of El Salvador Whats4Eats Salvadoran food and the cooking of El Salvador, including popular dishes, cooking methods and food culture. With recipes for pupusas, curtido, pollo encebollado ... Masa Cakes with Spicy Slaw (Pupusas con Curtido) Recipe - Saveur.com These stuffed corn-masa cakes are the national dish of El Salvador. A Slice of El Salvador: How To Make Pupusas Pupusas. Warm, spicy and comforting. A hot savory snack and staple food of El Salvador, pupusas have developed a dedicated following. In San Franciscos mission ... Salvadoran Pupusas Recipe, Video, and Cooking Tips at Epicurious.com I n this episode of Around the World in 80 Dishes, Chef Sergio Remolina demonstrates how to make his version of pupusas. These stuffed masa cakes are so popular in ...

For Corn Tortillas to Tamales: Masa Harina Ingredient Spotlight

Even if you don't know what masa harina is, you've almost certainly eaten it. This is the flour used to make corn tortillas and the filling for tamales. Pupusas, arepas, and sopes are all made with it, along with plenty of other favorite dishes. Masa harina is as central to the Mexican and South American pantry as chiles and dried beans. Do you ever cook with it?

Masa harina is more than plain corn flour. Before being ground, the corn kernels for masa harina are soaked with limewater. Soaking in this alkaline solution actually changes the physical structure of the corn, making it softer and more pliable. This is why masa harina is able to form a pliable dough while cornmeal and corn flour will not. The process also gives masa harina and the foods in which it's used a distinctive taste and aroma.

As mentioned above, masa harina can be used to make a whole range of Mexican and South American foods from simple corn tortillas for tacos to stuffed arepas. It's even used to make a spiced porridge-like drink called atole.

You can find bags of masa harina at almost any grocery store or online. Stored somewhere dry and cool, the flour will keep for several months. Masa harina is naturally gluten-free, but check the packaging to make sure it wasn't processed at a facility that also processes wheat before using it to make gluten-free foods.

What are your favorite ways to use masa harina?

Related: Beyond Wheat Flour: 3 Delicious Whole Grain Flours You Should Try Now

(Image: mtr/Shutterstock)

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Maseca Instant Corn Masa: Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food Masa, the Mexican corn flour used to make tortillas and tamales, is made through a laborious, time-consuming process; this instant mix removes much of the work - just ... Tamales: How to make the best masa dough? - Home Cooking - Chowhound So we're talkin about this as a sub-thread and I want to SPECIFICALLY cover the best materials and ways to make the masa dough component of a tamale. Flour Tortillas - How To Information eHow.com Don't just sit there scratching your head, find useful info on Flour Tortillas on eHow. Get essential tips and learn more about everything from Do White Flour ... Corn Masa Pockets with Classic Shredded Beef: Gorditas con Carne ... 3 hr 2 min; 1 1/4 pounds boneless beef chuck steak, cut into 4 pieces; 3 small white onions, diced; 4 garlic cloves , peeled and finely chopped; 1 tablespoon ... History of Tortillas - History of Tacos - What's Cooking America ... The mainstay of the Mexican diet was, and still is, the tortilla, made from corn. The tradition continues today with little change. The kernels are cooked with lime ... Cornmeal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize or American corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to fine, medium, and coarse consistencies, but ... Tortilla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tortilla (English / t r t i. /, Spanish: [tortia]) means "little torta" or "little cake" in Spanish ; the Spanish word applies to several different ... Harina P.a.n. White Corn Meal 2.2 Lbs. (3-pack): Amazon.com ... Pre Cooked White Cornmeal. Make delicious AREPAS with Harina PAN, the only and the one ORIGINAL white corn meal. The best arepas and empanadas are made out of this ... Tamales Mexican tamales (tamal is the Mexican "singular" use of the word) are packets of corn dough with a savory or sweet filling and typically wrapped in corn husks or ... Jazibe's recipes: Tortillas de Harina / Flour tortillas Tortillas de Harina Flour Tortillas (wheat) (this are NOT to be confused with CORN tortillas. Corn tortillas are made with MASECA, this are made with plain ...