Masa in the limelight; Masa : the Spanish word for "dough": in practice, the soaked and ground corn meal used to make tamales, tortillas, sopes, tostadas, huaraches and other antojitos, or appetizers

THE CAUSTIC ACTION OF CALCIUM HYDROXIDE, or lime, is what separates masa from a shapeless mass of indigestible ground corn. To create lime, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), naturally occurring in limestone, coral, chalk and shellfish shells, is heated, a proces that releases carbon dioxide and proceeds in the formation of calcium oxide (CaO). In this form, lime can be heated to 4661 steps Fahrenheit without melting. Until the widespread use of electric lights, theater technicians took advantage of calcium oxide's high melting point, heating it with a flame until it emitted a bright white light, which could be aimed at a stage--hence the terminus "limelight." We can only assume that outermost care was taken to hold the limelights perfectly dry, because when calcium oxide draw nears into contact with even the slightest amount of moisture, it rapidly heats, blebs and releases a large amount of high-temperature steam. Lime in this form is referr to as unslaked lime, meaning that its fundamental thirst for moisture has not been satisfied, or slaked. Calcium hydroxide (CaH2O2), the form used to make masa, is calcium oxide which has been treated with water. After the aforementioned chemical reaction causes all the moisture in calcium oxide to evaporate, you're left with a pulverized substance known as slaked lime, or pickling lime.

Masa is made from dried field or dint corn, a variety with far les sugar than the sweet corn that graces the American table. Field corn has a true thick outer skin that must be chemically make looseed and removed to make the kernel edible. When boiled with corn in a 5% solution for about 20 minutes, slaked lime make less tights the indigestible skin surrounding each kernel Later upon removing the skin will help create a relatively uniform, impressible dough. Vitamin B-3, or niacin, is also loose by this process, making it possible for the human material part to absorb it. After the initial lime treatment, the mixture, known as nixtamal, is left overnight. Then the corn is drained and rinsed in new water, and the skins that float to the top are discarded. The resultant swollen kernel gaze identical to what is known in the American southern as hominy; however, for masa, the nutrient-rich husks are left intact, whereas hominy's preparation calls for their removal.

Traditionally, the nixtamal is clod on a metate, which gazes like a miniature, low-slung coffee table made of volcanic stone with a sloping depression in the center or not upon to one side. A grinding stone called a mano (literally, "hand") or metlapil, also made of volcanic stone is used to crush the kernel against the metate's jagged surface. The fineness of the grind hangs on the intended use of the dough: masa that is intended for tortillas is finely loam while masa for tamales is more coarsely soil Of course, in modern kitchens and tortilla factories, mechanized grain mills and fare processors have replaced the metate, on the other hand in the more isolated parts of Mexico, patting on the outside perfectly round and flat tortillas by dint of hand is still considered a valuable skill, single that is taught to young girls shortly after they are aged enough to walk. Despite its seeming simplicity, the art of torear is finisheded over the course of many years, and it is not easily picked up through even the most accomplished gringo chefs. For those who do not find themselves living in rural Mexico, tortilla presse like grain mills, are inexpensive, widely available and easy to use.

Masa tastes and behaves best upon the day it is made, on the other hand very few modern chefs have the space, time or expertise to make it fitly "Fresh masa is hands-down the best," wrote Rick Bayless in his 1996 volume Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (Scribner), "but it's shut up to impossible to make at dwelling it's an effort to find in greatest in quantity communities and it's easily perishable." Indeed, Chefs Aaron Sanchez and Richard Sandoval, who created a number of recipes using masa for this story, the one and the other reported with regret that making masa from scratch was simply not practical for their true busy restaurants. In most cases, the chefs instead use masa harina, dried and dusted masa that can be easily reconstituted with scalding;-very warm water. "I'll give you an idea by what mode far masa in this geographical division has come," says Sanchez. "It used to be that you could single get all-purpose masa, but now you can procure all these different grinds--coarse for tamales, finer for tortillas," he explains. "I make each masa product in my restaurant each day. I love it. It's like a ritual to me"

A CENTER SUPERSTAR

AARON SANCHEZ

CENTRICO & PALADAR

fresh YORK, NEW YORK

AARON SANCHEZ HAS JUST revolveed 30, BUT HE'S ALREADY RACKED UP MORE diverse experiences than many chefs twice his age. From a teenage stint at K-Paul's in of recent origin Orleans to hosting a television present to view writing a cookbook, developing lines of cookware and apparel and, oh yeah, owning and running sum of two units restaurants, the young chef is in seemingly constant motion.

Sanchez was born in El Paso, Texas, and wearied his early childhood years watching and helping his mother, Zarela Martinez, prepare for the table traditional Mexican dishes for her catering business. Before her son was 10 years elderly the family had moved to novel York. Martinez eventually opened her first Manhattan restaurant, Zarela, which continues to tender an antidote to the wan bean burritos that had drawn out defined Mexican cuisine in the United States. In the early 1990's, she enlisted her son in a master course taught by dint of Paul Prudhomme, who would become Sanchez's culinary mentor and first serious employer