Arepas

My daughter and I took a road trip to Oregon where we followed the Pacific Coast Highway 101 from Astoria down to Florence. We saw all sorts of neat things like waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge, Haystack Rock, the Devil's Punchbowl--it's a neat place to visit! While we were there we were able to catch up with one of my daughters friends and his family. They offered to make us homemade Venezuelan food for breakfast. His mom, Keyla, made arepas which are flat biscuits that are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They were served hot so when you add cheese, it gets kind of melt-y. We made sandwiches of cold cuts and cheese and they gave me a package of PAN corn flour so I could try making them at home. They said use equal parts of flour to water and showed me the texture of the dough. His dad also explained that I could also replace some of the PAN with whole wheat flour to make them healthier. This morning I pulled out my cast iron skillet and gave the recipe a try.

Arepas
1 C PAN
1 C water (lukewarm)
1/2 t salt (kosher) optional
Cooking spray or butter

Add the PAN flour to a mixing bowl then dissolve the salt in the water and add to the flour. Mix until combined then knead the dough. Next pull off some dough and make a ball (about 2-2 1/2 inches) then flatten the ball to about 1/2 inch thickness. Spray the cast iron pan with cooking spray and brown the arepa on each side on medium low (takes about 5 minutes) you can flip them as they brown, then put them in the oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes. When they puff a little they're done. Split the arepas in half and add cold cuts and sandwich toppings.

Recipe Sources: My friend Keyla (Gracias!), and also the Venezuelan Arepas recipe from the Venezuelan Cooking blog.

Suzanne
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