Arepas

I love arepas. I'm a more recent discoverer of this Colombian treat; a counterpart of mine suggested ordering from a local spot at lunch one day, Arepa Burger. Not knowing what I was in for, I tried and fell in love with the corn cake exterior. In Florida, because we have a lot of diversity, we see also see a lot of food options at local festivals and even the fair. We get your run-of-the-mill corn dogs and greasy fries (and of course, funnel cakes), but we also see arepas, bao buns, and other delights.

There's not an easy answer to the question, "Where did arepas come from?" Though known to be Colombia, multiple cities take ownership. What we do know is that they've been a tradition for a couple hundred years and can be filled with a great many things. I often see them with cheese, at least locally, and at a blueberry festival, I even saw cheese arepas with blueberries. I wish I could describe to you the idealness of this combination. I remember my first time trying a blueberry and gouda grilled cheese; game changer.

I finally decided to make my own arepas, Once I read about how to make them, I about fell over. They can be grilled, baked, or fried, and contain only a few ingredients.  Areparina (or masarepa) is a pre-cooked corn flour that makes up the main ingredient. That plus water and salt mixed together is what gives us arepa dough. I used a white corn mix, hence the mashed potato-looking bowl below, but I often see them made with yellow corn (or a mixture of both).

I used my hands to mix the dough together, then let it rest for 5-10 minutes so the moisture could be absorbed. I then used a scoop to spoon about 1/4 cup into my hand, and flattened it out slightly.

The dough looked like a small pizza dough and was about 1/2 - 3/4" thick.

I pre-heated some oil in a large skillet and then added four arepas, cooking about 7 minutes on each side to get a light brown color. As mentioned before, these can be baked, fried, grilled; cooked to your heart's desire.

The last step was adding some mozzarella in the middle; a perfectly meltable cheese. 

And that was that! I was so happy to have a cheese arepa at home. I will say that I was fairly light on the oil, and so next time I would use butter and more of it. But the next day I took two of them and made arepas benedict (yes, I went there), and just generally snacked on these lovely corn cakes. My batch made about 10, so I had plenty.

I'm blown away by how a recipe can be so sinple and so good. I won't say they tasted just like the ones at Arepa burger or the local market, but I did get my fix at home. Here's to always trying new things!

Arepas Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups areparina

1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter

Instructions:

Mix areparina, salt, and warm water together in a medium bowl. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix well, then let rest for 5 minutes. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the dough into your hands and form into a bowl, then flatten to about 1/2-3/4" thick. Heat a skilled to medium-high and add oil. Once hot, place 3-4 arepas in the pan and cook for about 7 minutes on each side, until browned. Remove from heat and continue cooking remaining arepas. To make arepa with cheese, slicce in half lengthwise and add cheese. Keep leftovers in the fridge.

adapted from how to make arepas