Gorditas De Birria

Gorditas De Birria

Ingredients - Mise En place

Gorditas

Masa Harina* 2 cups

Baking Powder 1 tsp

Water 10-15 fl oz

Salt

Oil for frying

Filling

Brisket Birria*

Lettuce Shredded

Tomato Diced

Queso Fresco Crumbled

White Onion Minced

Radish Julienne

Avocado Sauce*

Cilantro Chiffonade

Directions:

Start off by making you gordita masa, combine your masa harina with salt and baking powder. Next pour and mix in 10 fl oz of water with your masa, knead dough(about 2-3 mins) and add additional water if needed. Your dough should come together and feel slightly drier than wet sand. Use a 2 oz scoop* to portion your masa, then press each individual scoop in a tortilla press*. The masa disc should be on the thicker side about ⅛ of an inch as opposed to 1/16 which would be better for regular tortillas. Lightly oil a heated griddle (medium to high heat) and cook your tortillas. Heat a pot with oil to 375F. Consider this process to be like a “blanching” process we don’t want to cook them all the way through we want to keep some of the moisture for the second part of the cooking process. Next deep fry the cooked tortillas, submerging them in the hot oil should cause the left over moisture to steam causing the gordita to expand and cause an air pocket. Fry until golden. Use a serrated knife to cut open the gordita and fill with your toppings*.

Notes:

Masa Harina- not to be confused with corn flour, Masa Harina is dried corn kernels that have been soaked in calcium hydroxide then milled vs cornmeal/flour which is dried corn kernels that ground up.

Brisket Birria- recipe is linked here, but feel free to use any protein you feel like using.

Avocado Sauce- Traditionally Crema is used for this dish (similar to sour cream) but, instead adding additional dairy I decided to puree some avocados with jalapeño, cilantro and lime juice to make avocado “cream” instead.

2oz Scoop- not necessary to use a scoop it just saves me time and gives me more uniform sizes  but you can definitely free form some balls. This recipe should roughly give you 15 balls that turn into palm sized gorditas.

Tortilla Press- if you don’t have one available using a flat surface line a plate works just as well. I also recommend using parchment paper or plastic wrap for each masa ball so that transferring is easier.

Toppings: as my cooking mission/ manifesto suggest cooking/ taste is all subjective don’t get hung up on what is traditional or not or how much or how little of a topping you want to fill your gordita with, its your plate so make it just that yours.