Tag: snack
Arepas
Arepas
Arepas are a very important part of Colombian cuisine, comparable to tortillas in Mexico. They are practically eaten every day in their various forms for breakfast, lunch or dinner, as a snack, an appetizer, a side, or even as a main course. They are simply fried corn cakes that can be stuffed or topped with pretty much anything. There’s really no wrong to making these.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups masa flour
- 1/2 cup corn meal
- 1/2 tsp salt
- warm water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add enough warm water to form a dough similar to the consistency of firm mashed potatoes.
- Form a ball of the dough a little larger than a golf ball. Place it on a tortilla press.
- Make sure to have it cover by wax paper or plastic wrap.
- Press it down to 1/4” thick.
- Heat up cooking oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add in an arepa.
- Cook for 2 minutes a side.
Arepas de Rellenos Queso
Arepas de rellenos queso is stuffed with mozzarella cheese and is fried for an extra 2 minutes a side, allowing the cheese to melt. Top it off with a little hogao sauce and cilantro. This is similar to a grilled cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 arepa corn cake
- 2 slices mozzerella
- 2 tbsp hogao sauce
- cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Cut your arepa in half; like you would an english muffin.
- Put 2 slices of mozzarella inside.
- Add it back into the pan. Cook for another 2 minutes a side until the cheese is melted.
- Top with hogao sauce and cilantro.
Arepa con Camarones y Hogao
This arepa is topped with shrimp cooked in hogao sauce; garnished with diced avocado and pickled red onion.
Ingredients
- 1 arepa
- 1/4 cup hogao sauce
- 4 shrimp cooked
- avocado diced
- pickled red onion diced
Instructions
- Heat up a 1/4 cup of hogao sauce with 4 shrimp for 2 minutes. Op the arepa with the sauce, shrimp, diced avocado, and pickled red onion.
Arepas con Pollo y Aguacate
This type of arepa is topped with a simple chicken salad and slices of avocado. While the arepa is hot, the chicken salad is cold.
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breast
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup white onion diced
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- avocado sliced
- arepas
Instructions
- Season chicken with paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Let cool.
- Chop up the chicken. Mix with the mayo, onion, sugar, lime juice, and cilantro.
- Top an arepa with the chicken salad. Top with avocado slices and chopped cilantro
Chicharrón and Bean Arepas
This arepa is topped with refried beans and pork belly. In this recipe, I happened to have leftover white, red, and garbanzo beans. The beans got fried in rendered fat from the pork belly and mashed together with diced Chicharrón.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp lard
- 1 cup beans pinto, kidney, Black, white, or garbanzo
- 1/4 cup Chicharrón finely chopped
- 2 slices chicharron
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp water
- white onion thinly sliced
- cilantro chopped
- arepas
Instructions
- Finely dice a 1/4 cup of Chicharrón.
- Heat up lard in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the Chicharrón for 2 minutes.
- Add in the beans, salt, cumin, and water. Start mashing the beans.
- The beans should be smooth with little chunks of fried Chicharrón. Add more water if too thick.
- Top an arepa with 2 heaping tbsp of the beans. Add 2 slices of pork belly to the beans. Garnish with thinly sliced white onion and cilantro.
African Scotch Eggs
African Scotch Eggs
This is an African version of the Scottish Scotch egg, just without the egg wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs. Instead, the hard boiled eggs are wrapped in a dough then deep fried. The outside is very similar to a flakey crescent roll. Serve these with your favorite hot sauce.
Ingredients
- 8 hard boiled eggs
- 1/2 tsp yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp gatlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 2 oz melted butter
- oil for frying
Instructions
- Add the yeast to the warm water. Mix and let sit for 5 minutes. Then stir in the sugar, salt and whole milk.
- Mix in the flour, garlic powder, paprika, and black pepper. Then mix in the melted butter until the dough forms.
- On a lightly floured surface, need the dough to a couple of minutes. Roll the dough out to 1/2” thick. Using something circular, like a cup or a ramekin, cut out circles out of the dough.
- Take on of the dough circles and roll it a little thinner. Place one of the hard boiled eggs in the center.
- Fold over and crimp the edges. Then roll it into an egg shape.
- Let the dough sit and rise for 30 minutes.
- Fill a small pot with 2” of cooking oil over medium high heat. The temp should read 350 degrees. Add in 4 off the eggs.
- Fry for 5 minutes in total, flipping the eggs half way through the cooking time.
- Drain on paper towel.
- Serve with your favorite hot sauce.
Corned Beef Pandesal
Corned Beef Pandesal
Pandesal are a Filipino bread roll. This is a stuffed version filled with corned beef, onions, and garlic. While there are a lot of steps and waiting around for dough to rise with this recipe, the Pandesal are overall pretty simple to make. Once you have 1, you’ll end up eating 10. These rolls can be stuffed with many other fillings, either sweet or savory.
Equipment
- Electric Mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
Pandesal Filling
- 12 Oz canned corned beef
- 1/2 medium white onion finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- cracked black pepper
Pandesal Dough
- 1 yeast packet
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 stick butter melted
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs
Instructions
Pandesal Filling
- Heat the cooking oil over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and garlic for 4 minutes.
- Add in the corned beef. Cook for 6 minutes, breaking up any clumps. Season with cracked black pepper. Set aside and let cool.
Pandesal Dough
- Mix the yeast together with a 1/4 cup warm water in the mixing bowl of your mixer. Let activate for 10 minutes.
- In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, eggs, milk, sugar, and salt.
- Using the dough hook attachment of your mixer, add the egg mixture to the yeast. Add in 2 cups of the flour. Turn the mixer on to medium speed. Slowly add in the rest of the flour, 1 cup at a time.
- Mix until all of the flour has been incorporated to the mix.
- On a well floured surface, knead the dough for 10 minutes.
- Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered in plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a humid area for 90 minutes.
Corned Beef Pandesal Assembly
- Place the dough on a floured surface.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a big doll rod.
- Cut each doll rod into 6 pieces.
- Roll each of the pieces into dough balls.
- With the palm of your hand, flatten each of the dough balls to 1/4” thick discs.
- Take one in the palm of your hand and add a tablespoon of the filling to the center.
- Fold over the edges of the dough disc and crimp. Roll back into a ball shape. Roll each ball in bread crumbs. Put on a greased baking sheet 1” apart from each other. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rise for 90 minutes.
- As you can see, the Pandesal have risen quite a bit in size. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- This recipe yields 24 Pandesal. I had mine with some scalloped potatoes.
