Gorditas

Since I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the way my abuelita made such good use of leftovers. Whether is was beans, eggs, nopalitos, pork, etc... she put them in a container and used them the very next day. One of my aunts is a very picky eater; she prefers freshly cooked meals every day. The problem with this is when there is very little money to get through the week, one must make good use of whatever there is, especially of leftovers. Well, even my aunt will eat the next-day leftovers when her mom, my abuelita, makes gorditas.
Gorditas are made out of corn flour, water, salt and pepper. They cook in a large pan without any kind of lipids (oils) and are sliced open with a knife when they rise like a bubble. Then, they are filled with any leftovers or fresh food. I prefer refried black beans with cheese or cactus salad, ingredients that are very economic and healthy. In a gordita, we find carbohydrates in the dough, protein in the black beans, calcium in the cheese and fiber in cactus, making them an excellent choice for a breakfast meal. Another good thing about gorditas is that they are very tasty and filling and in a large family like ours, gorditas are very popular.
It was a wonderful experience to spend the night at abuelita's house because the next day, one could stay asleep until 9 am and wake up at the call of "breakfast is ready!" I was one of the first to get up and enjoy hot gorditas and orange juice. Because everyone tended to gravitate toward the kitchen, we decided to fit in a breakfast table. Abuelita's kitchen has 3 arched windows facing the East, which open to the first rays of the sun. In a sense, there was something magical happening in her kitchen every morning.
The thing about gorditas is that they are not unique to Mexicans. Every culture has some varation of this product. China, for example, has Dumplings; Argentina and Spain have Empanadas; Italy has Gnocchi, etc. The variations are so vast I could write another post just about them.
The making of gorditas is an art of its own. Skillful cooks use their hands for mixing, molding and flipping the dough when it is cooked on one side to the other. Slicing open the gordita once it is cooked can be challenging if the knife is not wet. The dough can get stuck in the knife, bringing the inside dough out which causes loss in the quality and quantity of the product. When the gordita is not filled enough, one's only taste will be of the hot dough; on the other hand, when it is too filled, the filling will spill out in the first bite.Therefore, there must be an equilibrium between the type of filling and its amount so the nutrients we need to start the day can be integrated into the gordita.
I would like to end this post by thanking my abuelita for her eco-friendly vision of not wasting food, for teaching the rest of us the value of using leftovers, and, along the way, giving me good memories. Remain curious my friends!