I first came across these tasty Colombian fried corn cakes stuffed with oozin’, stringy cheese at a Miami street festival. Back home, I messed around with the recipe and added whole corn kernels to the dough to make ‘em more interesting. In the restaurant we serve arepas with a pile of pulled pork in the center for a real Memphis-meets-Miami dish. But if you don’t have the pork on hand, they’re just as good served with some Fire-Roasted Garlic Salsa.
Masarepa is available in groceries that sell Hispanic foods.
Recipe information
Yield
feeds 4 to 6
Ingredients
The Arepas
The Accoutrement
Preparation
Step 1
Dump the cornmeal into a mixing bowl. Set aside. Combine the water, sugar, salt, and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour it into the cornmeal and mix well.
Step 2
Chop the corn kernels just a bit, and then mix them into the dough. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and flatten each one out with your hands into a 4- to 5-inch disk. Lay the disks out on a piece of waxed or parchment paper. Slap the sliced mozzarella evenly on top of 6 of them, and cover each with one of the remaining disks to make a sandwich.
Step 3
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a cast-iron skillet set over medium heat. Slip a couple of arepas into the pan. Cook about 2 minutes, til golden brown. Flip and cook about 2 minutes on the other side. Flip back to the first side and cook 1 minute longer; then flip one last time and cook the second side til well browned around the edges. Let them sit a couple of minutes before cutting each one into 4 wedges. Finish cooking and cutting the remaining arepas in the same way, adding more oil to the pan if needed.
Step 4
Grab a platter or individual plates, arrange the arepa wedges around a bowl of salsa, and dig in.
