Ingredients
2 cups (235 g) corn flour
2 cups (235 ml) water
Pinch of salt
Oil
1
Mix the ingredients.
Place the 2 cups of corn flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Use your fingers or a wooden paddle to thoroughly stir both ingredients. Measure 2 cups hot water and mix with the flour.
You can buy precooked corn flour, such as flour P.A.N., which is the most used in Venezuela. This flour contains no gluten or preservatives and you can find it in white or yellow.
If you can not find corn flour, you can substitute whole wheat flour or plain flour.
2
Knead the mixture.
Use your hands to knead the flour and water to create a soft but consistent dough. Love it until it has no lumps and you can spin it without it sticking in your hands or in the container.
If the dough is too moist, add flour little by little and continue kneading.
If the dough becomes brittle or comes off, add a little water. Do it very slowly until the dough has the correct texture.
3
Shape the arepas.
Take a handful of the dough and make a ball with it. Then, press with the palms of the hands until giving to hamburger form. It should be about 2 cm thick and about 12 cm in diameter. Put the first arepa on a baking sheet and continue doing the others.
If you want to save the arepas to cook later, you can cover them with foil and store them in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 more days.
You can also freeze them before cooking. You should wrap them in plastic one by one and place them in a sealed container. This way you can cook them until several months later.
4
Uses the traditional grill, which can house arepas about 2.5 cm above the heating element in the kitchen to cook them to the Colombian.
To cook the Venezuelan, heat the oven to 250 ° C (480 ° F). Do it when you are ready to cook the arepas, before frying them. The oven must be warm before putting them inside.
Fry the arepas. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When the oil is very hot, put several arepas in the pan and let them cool until one side is toasted, for about 3 or 4 minutes. Turn them around when you see a dark golden crust. Then put them on a baking sheet and continue to fry the other arepas.
Bake the arepas. After frying the arepas and putting them in a tray, put them in the preheated oven. Bake about 15 minutes. When you think they are ready, take them out of the oven and tap the arepas. If they sound as if they are empty, as if echoing, they will be ready.
Open the arepas. Use a knife to open the arepas in half and fill them.
Fill in the arepas
Stuff for breakfast. In Venezuela, the filling for the traditional breakfast is made with ham and cheese. You can use ham cooked or smoked, and your favorite cheese, although in Venezuela the guayanés cheese is used, paisa or hard.
If you can not find typical Venezuelan cheese, you can use some that you have available, such as mozzarella cheese.
Although not as traditional, you can prepare scrambled eggs and add ranchera sauce for an equally delicious breakfast.
Stuffing to chop between hours. In Venezuela, arepas can be served alone or stuffed with cheese. If you want a healthier snack, you can try one of the following combinations:
Chicken and avocado salad. Mix chicken with a little mayonnaise, peas / peas / peas, coriander, salt and pepper to taste. Put it in one half of the arepa and put some avocado slices in the other half to form a delicious sandwich. In Venezuela, she is called the queen of the stage.
Black beans and gravy. Spread the bean paste or whole black beans in one half of the arepa and add a little spicy sauce. You can add some cheese to make it more tasty. The contrast of the beans black and cheese white gives the typical Venezuelan domino name.
Make pavilion arepas.In Venezuela, the pavilion arepas are the most exquisite specialty. These types of arepas are prepared with:
Minced or minced meat, fried beans and banana. This is the traditional version.
You can add a fried egg and cheese on the meat, beans and banana.
Tips
You can fill the arepas with pork and gouda cheese. In this way the arepas known as "La rumbera" are prepared in Venezuela.
You can also, if you wish, fill them as if they were hamburgers. In this case, in Venezuela is called musiúa or gringa (taking into account the American origin of hamburgers).
Other fillings may be the stuffed meat (grated meat with grated gouda cheese), catira (similar to the previous one but replacing the beef with chicken prepared in the same way), breaks mattress (seafood mixture), parsnip Tomato and onion chopped), etc.
When the queen is combined with grated gouda cheese the so-called sifrina is obtained.
''Bon Appetite''