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Arepas

caliking
caliking Posts: 18,727
edited June 2013 in EggHead Forum
Every year, folks from work go on a taco truck crawl around Houston. Its an annual event, in the heat of June. We pick several trucks to visit on a Sat afternoon, pack some beers and drive around for a few hours. The crawl ended at Mi Tienda, a Mexican grocery store owned/operated by HEB. SWMBO bought a bag of masa, and so had to do something with it.

Decided to make arepas. Not that I know how to, but I've eaten them before and liked them :).

First roasted up an ancho chile, a jalapeno from the garden, and a few cloves of garlic
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Let them cool and put the lil Tuff Guy on to warm up.
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Meanwhile, made the sauce. Blended up the ancho, jalapeno, garlic, scallions, avocado, cilantro with yogurt and lime juice. I wanted to make a green sauce, but the ancho made everything kind of brown. 
image
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Formed the arepas with a burger press
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Cooked the arepas on the lil Tuff Guy. Like the Baking Steel, it works best when heated to about 525-550°F.
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Heated up some turkey burger patties I made some time ago (forgot when).
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Plated up the burger patty on the arepa, topped with the ancho jalapeno cilantro avocado sauce, with fresh tomatoes from the garden.
image

Everything tasted great. loved the sauce, just didn't like its color. Even though i loved the flavor of the ancho, I will probably leave it out next time so that the sauce will look brighter.

Thanks for looking!

#1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.

Comments

  • Scottborasjr
    Scottborasjr Posts: 3,494
    Looks awesome to me, nicely done. Wish I had the time to do the "truck crawl". Get a feeling I'd get a lot of good ideas.
    I raise my kids, cook and golf.  When work gets in the way I'm pissed, I'm pissed off 48 weeks a year.
    Inbetween Iowa and Colorado, not close to anything remotely entertaining outside of football season. 
  • Black_Badger
    Black_Badger Posts: 1,182
    Really nice cook, thanks for posting it.
    Bookmarked!
    Cheers-
    B_B

    Finally back in the Badger State!

    Middleton, WI
  • SmoothSmoke
    SmoothSmoke Posts: 141
    I'm originally from Colombia, and I can tell you that your arepas look damn good.  Looks like you're a fast learner!
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    @SmoothSmoke : thanks for the compliment -  I have a long way to go wrt arepas! I kind of winged it, but I'm all ears if you have any tips :)

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • SkinnyV
    SkinnyV Posts: 3,404
    Awesome cook
    Seattle, WA
  • Chubbs
    Chubbs Posts: 6,929
    =D>
    Columbia, SC --- LBGE 2011 -- MINI BGE 2013
  • CPARKTX
    CPARKTX Posts: 2,095
    Never heard of arepas, learned something new. Looks good.
    LBGE & SBGE.  Central Texas.  
  • Village Idiot
    Village Idiot Posts: 6,959
    Looks good, Cali.  Is Mi Tienda better than the Michoacana stores?
    __________________________________________

    Dripping Springs, Texas.
    Just west of Austintatious


  • I now have another word to google and find the origin and history of. Arepas looks like a very good thing to try. And the sauce you made looks fantastic even if it is brown. Thanks for the post. It will hopefully be tried soon.

    LBGE 2013, SBGE 2014, Mini 2015
    Columbus IN
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    @VI: Mi Tienda is like going to Mexico. Its set up like a marketplace or Bazaar. I love the elite en casa available at the exit since they make it with grilled corn. There are two in Houston - one near eastex freeway in the north, and one in South Houston.

    It's a really fun store to go to !

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • Those look awesome!  Care to share the recipe you used for the arepas?

    [Northern] Virginia is for [meat] lovers.
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    edited June 2013
    @Egghead_Darin: I've eaten arepas a couple of times but this is the first time I've tried to make them. They were a bit chewy, but but maybe they will be better next time if I cook them a little less.

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • dpittard
    dpittard Posts: 126
    Looks great!  Why have I never seen your bottle opener attached to your Egg?  Awesome idea!

    LBGE with a massive wish list
    Athens, Ga.
  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
    pack some beers and drive around for a few hours

    Nice..
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    edited June 2013

    @Egghead_Daron: oops - misspelled your handle above.

    @dpittard: thanks. The bottle opener is ESSENTIAL egg gear. :) That's my small egg.

    @henapple : that's how we roll in H-town. Saw this at work today and it reminded me of you:

    image


    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • SmoothSmoke
    SmoothSmoke Posts: 141
    caliking

    Which brand cornmeal did you use? 
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    @SmoothSmoke: The masa dough was premade. They make it fresh in the store. I don't know what the dough is supposed to feel like in terms of how pliable, etc. This masa was soft, somewhat pliable, but not very elastic.

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • SmoothSmoke
    SmoothSmoke Posts: 141
    You want to use PAN brand precooked cornmeal.  All other cornmeal wont taste the same, not sure why since I thought cornmeal was cornmeal, but their is truth to that. Using the PAN brand is important.   I see your masa has small specs of something, not sure if it's black pepper or something else?  Traditional arepas dont have this.  The cornmeal is not suppose to be elastic at ll.  It gets formed like a patty.   You can also make them super thin so they're extra crunchy which is my favorite way of cooking them. 

    Here is how I do em bbq style.
    https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1141859/pulled-pork-arepas

  • SmoothSmoke
    SmoothSmoke Posts: 141
    Also, PAN brand cornmeal is found in latino markets, sometimes your regular supermarket may have it depending on the area.  It is usually found in the Goya foods section.
  • TonyA
    TonyA Posts: 583
    My wife is Colombian so we make Arepas almost weekly .. those look great! 

    I am so stupid though ... I was looking at your sauce saying to myself - that mix looks really wet to form arepas, and what's with the .. OH.. 

    I prefer the yellow meal but we use both.. if you haven't already, try putting some farmers cheese in the mix.  We cook ours on an unoiled pan .. I don't know if that's normal or what .. they are super crisp that way .. but we dedicate a pan to it .. it is otherwise ruined.

    Arepas are really good with pulled pork.. I have a picture up here with it somewhare