Mas Arepas Recipe
This is my version of South American Arepas dish inspired with Love.
Ingredients:
- 2–4 Cups of Yellow or White Masa Harina
- 1/4 Cup Coconut Flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 stick butter
- 2tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 strips of Bacon
- 1 Half Red Onion
- 1 Half White Onion
- 4 Cloves of Garlic
- 2 Tomatoes
- 1 Lemon
- 2 Large Hass Avacados
- Green Onions
- 5 Eggs
- Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
- Sour Cream
- Authentic Medium Salsa
Method:
1. Start the Black Beans
First thing is to cut the bacon into small pieces, fat and all, and put in a medium sized pot. Add the 2 cans of black beans and 1/4 cup of water. Slow boil and cover. Get the 4 garlic cloves and use a press to crush them, and place into the pot, or mince them up. Dice up the Red Onion and stick in the pot. Let it sit on a slow boil covered for 20–30min. Add butter towards the end and stir in.
2. Dice up veggies for toppings
Next dice up the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. Dice the green onions and 1/2 a white onion, and put them in another bowl. Get your Colby Jack cheese shredded and in a bowl ready to go. Chop a lemon into wedges and set aside for later. Cut open the Avocados and cut out small slices of the avocado, place them in a bowl for later. You should have 4 bowls filled with toppings and some lemon wedges at this point
3. Make the Arepa dough
For this method I followed this recipe and put my own twist on it:
Now get a decent sized bowl for mixing and a fork. Fill the bowl with water about 1/5 of the way, add 1tlbs of salt and let it dissolve. Start to add your Yellow or White Masa Harina and slowly mix it in until the consistency is sort of crumbly and soft. At this point you can add your 1/4 cup of coconut flour with your 1 tbsp of baking powder. Stir it in and let it sit. It will do you justice to watch the video really quick (10–15 seconds) so you can see what it should look like. At this point you cover the bowl and let it sit for about 5 min.
Warm up a pan with some olive oil so we can start pan grilling the arepas!
4. Cook the Arepas
Grab the dough and start rolling out your arepas, not to thick , look at the above link for an example of how big they should be. Like a small pancake in the palm of your hand.
Throw about 2 or 3 on a pan with olive oil and let it cook for a min or two, and flip. Do this a few times till they are golden brown on each side. A little burnt is ok!
5. Plate Arepas, add cheese, add some Eggs, and add toppings!
1st add the cheese on top of the arepas. If it doesn’t melt just stick it in the microwave for 20 sec before you throw extra toppings on it.
Now that you have cheese melted on top cook 2 eggs in a pan, I like sunny side up because the yolk is really good on the areas. Throw the eggs on top of the melted cheese.
Start to add toppings : I added tomatoes first then the blend of white onions and green onions. Add a few slices of avocados! Add a dollop of sour cream on top, and drizzle some medium salsa on top. I like to get some authentic salsa that you get out Sprout’s or farmers market.
6. Add the Bacon Black Beans!
Now you have some super delicious arepas ready to go, add a few nice size spoon fulls of the bacon black beans on the side. Now you’re good to go!
I was inspired to do this dish from watching an old Venezuelan buddy of mine cook them when I was in a very remote part of Humboldt, Ca. It was a very quick go to food, but it was almost a comfort food when you threw some eggs on top and a side of beans! I thought I’d add a little love on top of this inspiration!
Enjoy! Caio!
