Hi, foodies in the Hive!

Once again, I hope you are all healthy and well :)

I've just found out every second Saturday in September since 2002, we celebrate World Arepa Day. Well, I didn't know that.

So in addition to showing you my recipe for coconut bagasse arepas, I also want to share some photos and short reviews of the arepas I make for my family.

As many Venezuelans--and Colombians--, we often eat arepas for breakfast. I like to make them at home and vary the recipe from time to time so we don't get bored.

Ingredients:

150gr coconut bagasse
100 gr Harina P.A.N. white corn meal
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Oil to fry

I like to use Mazeite corn oil to fry arepas. You can see how the food you fry doesn't absorb it as much, so less fat goes into your arteries. However, I try to fry sporadically. Most of the time, our arepas are roasted.

Let's make arepas!

Everyone has their own way of making arepas: there are those who pour the water first and there are those who add the flour first. I always add the flour first.

So this time I added the corn meal on top of the coconut bagasse that I already had in a container in the fridge; I saved it from yesterday's coconut milk.

...And then I added the salt, all before adding water to the mixture.

Then I added the water.

I always start kneading as soon as the first trickle of water falls on the flour. I use my hands; I make gentle circular movements in one direction only, until I see that all the flour is hydrated and there are no lumps. Then I let it set for 15 minutes or so--this will make your arepas softer.

After 15 minutes, I heated the oil for frying. And while the oil was heating, I made 10 little balls to start shaping the arepas. Each one of these balls weighs about 50 grams; that is, there will be 2 or 3 per person.

I like to shape fried arepas like donuts because this way they turn out crunchier.

The more you open the center, the crunchier they will be.

I used my wok to fry 3-4 at a time.

These arepitas go great with salads and almost any type of salty or sweet and sour fillings or spreads. Today I served them with cabbage, tomato, and scallion salad, with an avocado and apple cider vinegar dressing; I also served some margarine with parsley pesto and black pepper.

They were very crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. If you are wondering about the texture of the coconut bagasse, it's very soft and you wouldn't notice it if it weren't for the soft and pleasant coconut flavor and aftertaste.

Well, I hope you have found this recipe useful. For me it really is, as I get a lot of coconut bagasse from making coconut milk once a week.

And now that I've shared this little recipe of mine, I'd like to show you more about the arepas we eat at home...

More arepas!

A Short Review of our homemade arepas...

Today, we go to the store and buy Harina PAN--or your favorite brand--, but it wasn't always that easy.

I recently reade a review of the bilingual English-Spanish recipe book Buen Provecho (British War Charities, 1943); I was delighted to find the recipe for arepas that our grandmothers used from the perspective of a foreign lady, i.e. Dorothy B. Crease; here she indicated how to choose, wash and boil the corn a day before, in order for them to be able to make arepas.

For a second, I felt this lady knew more about the food I eat than I did.

This recipe book contains more than two hundred recipes that a group of English-speaking ladies living in Venezuela collected when the Oil Boom began and Venezuela was on its way to prosperity--I know, right?!

All of this made me feel nostalgic and put me in a retrospective mood; the truth is that our way of eating is always evolving, and of course we'd always like it to be for the better.

If you go to the store today, you'll find mixes ready to make "cachapas" (semi sweet corn cakes) and "arepitas dulces" (sweet anise fried arepas), which are traditionally homemade dishes. I have a hard time trying to accept life is just a lot faster than before.

...I guess there is not much to feel fascinated about for Mrs. Dorothy B Crease anymore.

We must move faster. Period. Most of the time, these are the arepas we eat: harina P.A.N. corn flour, water, and salt.

I mix 2 cups of corn flour + 8 tablespoons of Harina PAN + 1/2 teaspoon of salt to make 4 arepas. But I may change this recipe depending on the texture I want to achieve.

In my country, arepa is a food with a long tradition, but nowadays, if you want to eat old-fashioned arepas, you must find somebody who still makes them this way. You can find many vendors on the street who make them from ground corn dough they buy and cook them over embers; they are really delicious.