Stuffed Arepas With Guasacaca (Venezuelan Guacamole)
Can we make Arepa Wednesday A Thing?
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Week two in my new home of Porto and I’m making…arepas.
Not cachorrinhos (a Portuguese version of hot dogs, that’ll be coming in the next few weeks), not arroz de marisco (Portuguese seafood rice) but Venezuelan arepas.
But Porto is becoming an increasingly cosmopolitan city and I got the idea for making arepas whilst walking past a Venezuelan restaurant on my road. Besides, no one wants to be slaving over a hot pot of boiling rice in August when you could mix a bunch of masa harina (maize flour) and water together and fry for a few minutes.
Arepas are also incredibly versatile which is our bag here at The Capsule Pantry. They’re practically made for leftover meat, beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, herbs — all items that happen to be in my Capsule Pantry at all times, thus are almost always in my fridge.
For those of you thinking what the heck are arepas, I like to think of them as fat tacos you can stuff. They’re made with maize flour and water which you turn into a dough, roll into balls, flatten into 1cm thick discs and slowly fry until cooked through. Cut them three-quarters of the way through and stuff them with anything and everything, from shredded beef to beans to salsa.
I also made a batch of Guasacaca because no arepa should be without a dipping sauce. Guasacaca is the Venezuelan version of Guacamole. Avocados make up the base as do limes and coriander, as well as a few other fridge-foraged ingredients which you blend until smooth.
I made three different fillings for my arepa feast — chorizo with fresh cheese, shredded chicken with guasacaca, and black bean salsa. But the beauty of arepas is that the fillings are almost infinite and easily customisable to what’s already in your fridge. This means if you keep a bag of maize flour in the cupboard, you’re always just 15 minutes away from dinner.
As I do every week, I’ve stuffed (pun intended) the variations section with a whole ton of filling ideas as well as ways to make use of leftover guasacaca (if there is any) and maize flour.
Tuesday may be Taco night in much of the US (and increasingly in Europe too) and Arepa Wednesday might not have the same ring to it, but I’m going with it.
So welcome to Arepa Wednesday. Vamos!
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