Con­sider your­self lucky if you nabbed a ticket to La Cocina’s Masa Mad­ness class on March 24th. You had the priv­i­lege of learn­ing about the magic of masa from Maria del Car­men Flo­res of Estrellita’s Snacks. Maria is La Cocina’s res­i­dent “Masa Mother” who just so hap­pens to have a life story wor­thy of amaze­ment, awe, inspi­ra­tion, and per­haps a book deal or sweep­ing cin­e­matic plot.

Maria was raised in El Sal­vador and started sell­ing food — tostadas, pupusas, fresh fruit with chili and salt — along­side her mother when she was six years old. She says this food is in her blood. She was mar­ried at 13 and  gave birth to seven chil­dren. Over the next 30 years she lived all over Cen­tral Amer­ica, mas­ter­ing the local cui­sine in El Sal­vador, Guatemala and Oax­aca, Mex­ico and sell­ing snacks on the street to make a liv­ing.

When Maria arrived in San Fran­cisco, she con­tin­ued to do what she’d always done best — mak­ing pupusas, tostadas, tamales and aguas fres­cas — and sell­ing them to passersby. Only this time, the $20 she used to pur­chase the plan­tains, oil and salt for her tostadas turned into $300 in her pocket. Soon there­after, Estrellita’s Snacks was born.

Maria has been pro­duc­ing her food in the La Cocina kitchen since 2005, with the help of her chil­dren and her children’s chil­dren. The name is derived from Estrella, which means star in Span­ish and is also the name of her daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter. It works quite well because her snacks taste like hand­fuls of heaven, as if they were plucked from the stars above. Of course, Maria is a star in her own right and she has stars on her front teeth to prove it.

A Recipe Cour­tesy of Maria del Car­men Flo­res

Bar­ba­coa de Res

4 bay leaves

6 ounces chile gua­jillo

1 pound toma­toes

1 onion

2 cloves gar­lic

3 bags of avo­cado leaves (sold in most gro­cery stores in the Mis­sion, or online)

10 pounds stew beef

1 table­spoon cumin

1 tea­spoon pep­per

Chicken bul­lion, to taste

• In a large pot, add the meat and enough water to cover it. Bring to a boil.
• Mean­while, in a small pot, add 4 cups of water and the avo­cado leaves. Boil until the water is flavored.
• Strain the avo­cado leaves and add that water into the large pot with meat.
• Com­bine chilies, tomato, onion, gar­lic, cumin and pep­per in a blender.
• Add the chili mix and bay leaves to the meat and cook until the stew is reduced. Sea­son to taste. For a spicier stew, add more chilies.
• Serve with fresh tor­tillas or rice. Buen prove­cho!