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warm water, by hand

salt dissolved in the warm water first, then masarepa rained in while stirring — the flour is already cooked and its starch is pre-gelatinized, so it drinks water on contact and sets into a plastic dough with no gluten and no leavening to do the work. Reverse the order and you get lumps of hydrated flour with dry powder trapped inside. Nixtamalized masa harina is not a substitute; it hydrates short and the discs crumble. Once the masarepa is evenly hydrated, work all the listed grated cheese into the dough before its covered rest. This cheese goes in the dough, rather than being held as a filling.