Pupusas, El Salvador’s national dish, are traditionally made with corn flour and are stuffed with a variety of fillings like meat, cheese and beans.
Pupusas, El Salvador’s national dish, are traditionally made with corn flour and are stuffed with a variety of fillings like meat, cheese and beans. (darqdesign/Shutterstock)
“Quesillo is almost like a mozzarella … it just adds that nice fat content. It adds that nice stringiness. It adds that texture,” Hernandez said.
Other cheeses used in Salvadoran cuisine include queso fresco (soft and a bit salty), queso duro (a hard cheese) and cojita (crumbles well).
Crema is like sour cream or crème fraiche, and can be a topping or drizzle, or mixed into soups and sauces.
Cooking with vegetables
Banana leaves wrap and impart flavours to foods like tamales, riguas (sweetened corn kernel patties), or even meats, before baking or steaming.
Loroco is an edible flower found in El Salvador and other Central American countries.
Loroco is an edible flower found in El Salvador and other Central American countries. (Jasmine Mangalaseril/CBC)
Hernandez recommends using dried beans. He cooks them with onions, garlic, and bay leaves. The cooking liquid can be saved for stocks, soups, and breads.
You can boil fresh cassava/yuca, but it’s also fried as yuca frita (similar to thick English-style chips), or fritters, or chips.
Loroco flowers resemble scapes but taste like earthy asparagus. They can be pickled, stuffed in pupusas, or cooked with tomatoes and rice.
Yellow (or brown) soft, plantains are caramelised as a sweet treat. While the starchier green ones are fried for tostones or chips.
Spice it up
Bright red achiote/annatto seeds, powder, and pastes flavour and colour foods.
“I use this a lot when I do soups. When I do panes con pollo I use this paste as well. It’s not that it has a lot of flavour, because it really doesn’t, but it adds a nice almost peppery spice,” Hernandez said.
El Salvador’s signature and familiar taste comes from relajo. It’s a mix of sesame and pumpkin seeds, peanuts, herbs, and warming spices. Dry toast it before adding it to sauces, grilled meats, and seafood. You can even dust it on fries.
Achiote paste “adds a nice almost peppery spice” to Salvadoran dishes says chef Denis Hernandez.
Achiote paste “adds a nice almost peppery spice” to Salvadoran dishes says chef Denis Hernandez. (Jasmine Mangalaseril/CBC)
Hernandez said Salvadoran cuisine doesn’t use a lot of chillies, but they are sometimes found in sides and condiments. There are also many hot sauces.
There are plenty of bottled salsas available. Two Hernandez mentioned were salsa roja (red tomato sauce) and salsa verde (green sauce, which can be made from ingredients including spinach, herbs, and tomatillo).
How sweet it is
Sweet, rice-based horchata de morro powders and syrups make cool refreshing drinks, or you can buy a Kolashampan, a tutti-frutti-flavoured fizzy pop.
You’ll find plantanos (plantain chips), chicharrons (fried pork crackling), and elotitos (crunchy corn snacks) to satisfy snackish cravings.
Semita is a sweet pastry filled with a jam. Chef Denis Hernandez enjoys eating his with milk.
Semita is a sweet pastry filled with a jam. Chef Denis Hernandez enjoys eating his with milk. (Jasmine Mangalaseril/CBC)
Semita is a pan dulce (sweet bread or pastry) with spread of jam between two pastry layers.You can find ready-made versions at Latin American grocery stores.
“Everything in El Salvador is eaten with coffee,” Hernandez said.
“That’s why I never was a big fan of our desserts. Not drinking coffee, I have nothing to dip in, and it doesn’t taste the same dipping it in milk. But Semita, in milk, is amazing.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-05 01:00:00
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