Gorditas de Maíz Quebrado de Tolimán

Querétaro, at Tolimán in the semidesert doorway of the Sierra Gorda, is where these gorditas live. This is Hñähñu and Otomí-Chichimeca corn country, dry, stubborn, and practical. The masa is maíz quebrado: nixtamal cooked with cal and ground coarse so the corn still has tooth. Fine tortilla masa will make a gordita, yes. It will not make this one.

I learned the hand motion from a señora near the Tolimán market who patted the masa thick, turned it slowly on the comal, and opened it with a knife while it was still flexible. She filled hers with frijol bayo and epazote, nopalitos in chile guajillo, and a little queso enchilado. No cheddar, no sour cream, no nonsense. The semidesert gives you nopal, corn, beans, chiles, and patience. That is plenty.

Do not press these thin. A tortilla is supposed to bend. A gordita de maíz quebrado is supposed to hold its pocket and show those rough grains at the edge. My mother's notebook from Jalisco had no page for this, so I wrote it after that trip, with one line underlined twice: cook the center before you split it. Cada estado, su propia cocina.