Arepas

[lwaltero]

I've been trying. . . for a couple of years. . . to find a recipe for Arepas made with sweet corn, similar to the ones you can buy from the Arepa Queen in Miami. I've tried several times, making them from recipes I found online, using different brands of corn meal, corn flour, milk, water, fresh corn, frozen corn, etc. but they're either too doughy or else they fall apart. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If someone out there has a recipe that works, I'd love to have it!

[tdejarnette]

Sorry, I've never had them or made them. But I make corn oysters. So I kind of can see what the problem might be. When I was reading this recipe;
International Recipes: Arepas (Vegetables)

I saw that they scrape out some of the uncooked doughy part. (and that can be eaten seperately according to the comments) Does that help?

[lwaltero]

Thank you for the response, but unfortunately, that's the wrong type of arepa. The one I am looking for is made with sweet corn and served like a sandwich with cheese in between two of them. I'm looking for the recipe so I can make them and serve them in my ice cream shop in the winter. They're wonderful but hard to duplicate, I guess.

[Katie E]

From what I've read, you need the correct type of flour/meal. Perhaps that's why the ones you've been trying didn't work out. If all else fails, you might try asking the restaurant for their recipe or advice.

[David Cottrell]

Sorry, no luck here - same thing the others are saying. Have you seen sweet corn arepas? I'm wondering how they are possibly made without a suitable flour? Anyway here is a recipe I just looked up and a place or two to look. Hope this helps, but it's way off from a sweet corn cake.

OOPS! I had copied a recipe here which I am told is a copyrighted recipe. Ok, no problem. Here is the link to the recipe. It looks like it might be the genuine thing, but I've never made arepas. I shall however and have my own recipe to post, gladly given to the public domain. Arepas are hardly classified secrets nor how to make them from the commonly used ingredients. I'll bet we can find a nice grandmother who has a most excellent recipe to share! Here goes!

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/rec...pas41109.shtml

Do a google search for masarepa and there you will find that it is a specially prepared corn flour. I didn’t search sources but you can buy some at amazon.com to try. If you are near Spanish speaking communities it surely is available locally!


Looks like you just need to get the right corn flour and you are in business! Piece of Cake! I hope! D

[David Cottrell]

A second thought - there are corn using recipes of various types that add corn to a flour base - could it be that there is a mix of sweet corn into a base that uses flour and maybe even some corn meal? Me, if I were close to that restaurant I would just ask them kinda politely :) where they get their flour mix. Might work. Worse they would do is to probably smile. D

[lwaltero]

This is the recipe I found online. It's supposed to be almost identical to the Arepa Queen recipe. I no longer live in South Florida - not even close - where the Arepa Queen is located. I even tried contacting them to see if they would sell them to me, but with no luck. This recipe just doesn't quite work. . .

South Beach Arepas
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup ground frozen corn kernels
1 cup Arepa Flour or finely ground yellow corn meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water (approximate)
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
Mild Baby Swiss, Mozarella or Monterey Jack, sliced
Bring the milk to a boil in a small pan. Add the five tablespoons of butter. Let stand. Grind one cup frozen yellow corn kernels in a food processor.

In a large bowl, mix the arepa flour, salt, sugar, ground corn, and mozzarella. Make a well in the center and gradually add the hot milk. Stir until there are no lumps. Work the dough until it is smooth and sticky. Add water as necessary if the dough is too thick.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper to about 1/4" thickness. Cut out arepas with a large round cookie cutter-- about 3 inches in diameter. (We've had good luck using a small straight edged bowl.)

Heat a lightly buttered griddle on medium. Cook the arepas in batches until crispy and golden brown on each side. Immediately place a slice of cheese on one arepa and cover with another to make a sandwich. Heat on griddle until cheese melts.

You can also make the pancakes only and store them in the refrigerator or frozen until ready to serve. Just lightly butter two pancakes, put a slice of cheese in between and heat up on griddle at low-heat until the cheese melts.

Variation:

We have also made these by thinning out the batter slightly with a little water so that it can be spooned directly onto a griddle, like a pancake. This saves all the work of rolling out and cutting!

[David Cottrell]

By Gosh, I do believe Iwaltero has it! Good job. Now having jumped into this I must try that one myself. Thanks for sharing, D

[David Cottrell]

Originally Posted by lwaltero

I've been trying. . . for a couple of years. . . to find a recipe for Arepas made with sweet corn, similar to the ones you can buy from the Arepa Queen in Miami. I've tried several times, making them from recipes I found online, using different brands of corn meal, corn flour, milk, water, fresh corn, frozen corn, etc. but they're either too doughy or else they fall apart. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If someone out there has a recipe that works, I'd love to have it!

One last try I hope this helps - as you know there are several recipes for arepas out there - all similar to a degree. And there are cooking methods, griddle or heavy fry pan, use the griddle and then finish them in the oven, use a special arepa cooker similar to a waffle maker apparently, and so on. Hard to guess what those at the Arepa Queen in Miami look like.

I would think that a recipe could be modified slightly from experience to over come a doughy or falling apart recipe. Does it need a bit less liquid, or more, a bit more flour or less, a bit less corn or more, does the corn need to be processed a bit more or less. These are the adjustments that cooks make daily everywhere - even those fine cooks in South America where the areba was invented. Good luck and all the best, you will get it with organized and recorded recipe experiments, never fear. Recipes are generally guides. D

[2belucile]

Waltero: I live in Colombia and here you can get different kind of arepas: the ones made with fresh corn kernels (called "arepa de Choclo -o chócolo), or the ones made with plain cornmeal or with panarina or areparina. All the arepas taste good with cheese, and whatever you like to acompany. I used to make my own arepas with cornmeal, but I have never made them with fresh corn kernels, but I can ask around if you want.