Shaping the tortilla dough
Gorditas are a kind of Mexican sandwich. But that description does not really capture the wonderful process of cooking and eating one. We gathered in the kitchen of our school with Anita our instructor and gordita chef extraordinaire.
Gorditas are somewhat like pita bread. Properly cooked the masa flour tortilla is heated on a very hot, flat tin pan and placed on the open flame to puff up. This makes a two-sided pocket ready for stuffing.
The gorditas are stuffed with refried beans, potatoes and corn topped with Mexican cheese.
The dark red chile peppers, onions and tomatillos are for the piquant (read hot) salsa to accompany the gorditas. The tomatillos were sauteed then added to the blender with Roma tomatoes, onion and red chilis.
Sauteing the Tomatillos
Making Salsa in the Blender
We ate our gorditas with a side of Nopales salad. The ingredients for our nopales salad are nopales, red onion, roma tomatoes, and cilantro. A lot of people don’t like nopales because they think they are slimy. According to Anita if they are properly cooked, drained and rinsed they are fine. The sliminess is just a case of poor technique.
Rinsing the Nopales
Nopales Salad and Hot Salsa
Here is the finished meal, gorditas stuffed with potatoes, corn, refried beans and cheese with hot red salsa, nopales salad and a cold cantaloupe fruit juice.
MedFlies 
Thanks for sharing – YUM!