Wnari taught me to make these. They are a recipe from her Venezuelan aunt. Two secrets exist to these little corn cakes. 1) it is what you put in them that makes them amazing. 2) The flour is special and hard to find. If you live in PDX, you can find it at 31st and Glisan on the east side at an international market. It is the only place Wnari has ever seen it in the US. It is P.A.N. Pre-cooked white corn meal. It is made in Venzuela. I bet you could find it online or if you asked around in a international or latino market.
AREPAS
Water
Pre-cooked white corn meal
Salt
Preheat 375 degrees F
The ratio of water to corn meal is about one to one with slightly more water.
The salt is to taste. For two cups of corn meal, I used more than a tablespoon. You should be able to taste the salt in the dough. My recommendation is taste the corn meal before there is salt and then afterwards so that you know what it taste like with salt. The salt is REALLY important, because there will be dough in the middle of the Arepa, and if it isn't salted, it is bland.
When mixing the dough, it should be the consistency of play dough. After the dough has been thoroughly mixed by hand, you a piece of dough that can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. It should definitely be smaller than a tennis ball. You pat it between your hands to get all of the cracks out. In the end, you should have a nice round ball with no cracks. Then start to rotate it between your palms while your palms are cupped. It should look kind of like a toy top. The flatten it out and it should be about 3/4 inch thick in the middle and a little less at the corners. The edges shouldn't be cracked. If they are, the dough isn't wet enough. the dough will dry out as the cornmeal absorbs the water so just add a little water if you need to while forming them into discs.
Heat a non-stick skillet or a well-seasoned caste iron skillet (i.e. HR and MA style) over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, put the arepas on and brown the outsides a bit. They should be a light brown with a few patches slightly darker. This is the give the outer part a nice crunch.
Then put them in the over 20 minutes before you are ready to eat. I didn't get the exact time they should be in the oven. So I would check them at 15 minutes. They should sound hallow when you thump them. I didn't believe it would work, but it did. Also, they should be cracked around the edges.
NOTE: These are best served straight out of the oven. If you have left overs that have already been baked, forget it. But if you have ones that have only been browned, you can cook them the next day. They should be served on the table in a large bowl with a hand towel lining the inside and covering the top to keep them hot.
Eating them: When you get them out of the oven and are ready to eat, Slice the edge of one and through the entire inside while leaving most of the sides intact. It should look like a whole pita. Then fill it any combination of:
Homemade black beans (recipe to follow)
Tillamook cheddar cheese
Nancy's sour cream
Avocado
Lime
Homemade salsa
Homemade peach salsa with cucumbers
Plantains fried in butter
Or anything you can think of
The other combination that is really good is butter and jam. Usually that is my last arepa.
If you want to know more about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arepa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
fyi, i live in suburb of boston, and there is a new product on local supermarket shelves:
precooked white cornmeal from columbia; brand P.A.N.; yellow pkg w/ head of scarved woman.
i haven't tried it yet. also f.y.i.
arepas are very similar to Fried Cornbread (a Southern version of R.I. Johnny cakes) w/ exceptions: fried cornbread of my Va. mom- has minced onion and bacon fat in it; they are fried in hot oil for a long time, then split and lathered w tons of butter and salt.eaten as a bread substitute; not filled w anything. the arepas i have tried have not had a very strong cornmeal flavor so i'm thinking
that this arepa cornmeal may not work out for my fried cornbread.
I got it because it is white and it's very hard to find white cornmeal here in the north.but my experience is that Stoneground is the key to flavor, so it may be that I end up using stoneground yellow cornmeal. sigh. alot more than you wanted to hear I bet!!
Post a Comment