Arepas

Ingredients

• Precooked corn flour250 g
• Warm water320 ml
• Fresh white cheese — grated150 g
• Butter30 g
• Neutral oil2 tbsp
• Salt1 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the salt in the warm water and stir in the flour by hand. Add the butter and cheese.

   5 min

2. 2

   Knead for three minutes and let it stand five. The dough should stop sticking and roll into a ball easily.

   9 min

3. 3

   Shape cakes ten centimetres across and a centimetre and a half thick. Smooth the edges with wet fingers; cracks widen in the pan.

   8 min

4. 4

   Griddle them with a drop of oil for four minutes a side, to a firm crust.

   10 min

5. 5

   Finish them at 180 °C for ten minutes. A done arepa sounds hollow when tapped.

   12 min

6. 6

   Split them hot lengthways, not all the way through, and stuff them: cheese, avocado, stewed meat or egg.

About the dish

The flour has to be precooked masarepa. Ordinary corn flour or polenta will not do: they do not take up water the same way and never form a pliable dough.

The dough needs five minutes standing after mixing. The flour keeps absorbing water, and what seemed sticky settles at exactly the right consistency.

They are griddled dry for a crust and then finished in the oven. Griddle alone and the centre stays raw; oven alone and there is no crust.

Worth knowing

• — Water to flour runs about 1.3 to 1 by weight, but brands absorb differently. Go by the texture rather than the number.
• — Cracks at the edges mean the dough is short of water. Wet your hands and reshape the cake.
• — Arepas are eaten hot. Cooled they harden, but they revive perfectly in a pan the next day.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

12 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

52 g

More from Colombia

• Ajiaco bogotano — A chicken soup on three kinds of potato with guascas herb, capers and cream.