Memelas

Pinched while still raw and left oval, then griddled — not pinched hot and round like a sope.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, lard, pork.

Ingredients

the bases

• 500 g masa, as on its own page
• 1 teaspoon salt

on top

• 4 tablespoons asiento (unrefined pork lard), or lard
• 250 g refried beans, as on their own page, made with black beans
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• salsa verde, as on its own page
• ½ small white onion, finely chopped

Method

1. IT IS PINCHED WHILE STILL RAW AND LEFT OVAL, which is the whole difference from a sope. A sope is griddled first and then its rim worked up between finger and thumb while it is almost too hot to hold, and it is round. A memela is shaped entirely before it goes near the heat: the oval of raw masa is pressed out and then the edge is pinched up all the way round in the cold, which is far easier and gives a lower, less defined rim. Because the masa is raw it then cooks as one piece and the rim fuses to the base instead of being a separate wall. The result is flatter, longer and sturdier, and it carries a thin smear of topping rather than a load.
2. IT IS AN OVAL AND NOT A CIRCLE. About fifteen centimetres long and eight across, shaped between the palms rather than in a press. The shape is what the name is attached to and it is also what makes it easy to hold at one end.
3. THE RIM IS LOW AND IS NOT A WALL. Three or four millimetres, pinched up just enough to show. A memela is not built to hold wet things the way a sope is, which is why the topping is asiento, beans and cheese rather than cream and salsa and salad.
4. IT IS GRIDDLED DRY AND THEN SMEARED WITH ASIENTO WHILE HOT. The base cooks on a bare comal, three or four minutes a side, and the asiento goes on afterwards -- it melts into the hot surface and soaks in. Spread on before cooking it burns onto the pan and the base will not take colour.
5. THE ASIENTO IS THE POINT AND PLAIN LARD IS NOT THE SAME. Asiento is the dark gritty sediment from rendering pork, strongly savoury and faintly smoky. On something this plain -- masa, beans, cheese -- it is most of the flavour. White lard does the same job mechanically and tastes of very little, which is said here rather than listed as an equivalent.
6. The masa kneaded with the salt and divided into 8 pieces.
7. Each shaped between the palms into an OVAL about 15 cm long and 8 cm wide, about 7 mm thick.
8. The edge PINCHED UP all the way round WHILE STILL RAW, just 3 or 4 mm -- a low rim, not a wall.
9. A comal or heavy pan set over a medium heat, COMPLETELY DRY.
10. The memelas cooked 3 to 4 MINUTES on the first side, until freckled and lifting easily.
11. TURNED and given 3 to 4 MINUTES more.
12. Taken off the heat and, WHILE HOT, the asiento smeared over the upper face so it melts in.
13. The warm black refried beans spread thinly over the asiento.
14. The cheese crumbled on and the onion scattered over.
15. Salsa verde spooned on in a thin line -- not a pool.
16. Eaten hot, in the hand, held at one end.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes