Make masa an everyday ingredient with these bean and cheese gorditas

I know the word masa means dough, particularly corn dough, but it might as well be short for miracle, because the process of producing this staple...

I know the word "masa” means dough, particularly corn dough, but it might as well be short for "miracle,” because the process of producing this staple of Mexican (and other Central and South American) cooking is pure alchemy. 

Dating back to Mesoamerica, nixtamalization (derived from an Aztec phrase) involves boiling field corn with an alkaline substance to soften its hull and make it more nutritious, then grinding it into a dough that can become a variety of traditional products.

Tortillas and tamales might be the best known to us Americans, but the list goes on to include sopes, pupusas, tlacoyas, tlayudas and so many more.

Making tortillas might be the most difficult to master for home cooks, because you need to get the masa disks super-thin, which is why a tortilla press comes in handy. But plenty of other ways to use masa can be done by hand, which is where my recipe this week comes into play.

Gorditas, whose name charmingly translates to "little fat ones” because of their squatter shape, can be patted out, griddled, split open, and stuffed with a filling (often a guisada, or stew). I got the recipe from author Dora Stone, one of the collaborators on my latest book, "Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking,” and they fit right into her mission of showing how much precolonial Mexican cooking was actually vegan.