The Pattern Continues As We Head Back to South America - Colombia Part 1

Once again we find ourselves heading back across the Pacific Ocean to South America.  We arrived in Colombia and discovered their pancakes are arepas.  Woohoo!  I love arepas, and now I had the chance to make them.  I couldn't wait!  Through much research, Sam discovered that arepas were made from a special type of corn flour called masarepa flour.  He also discovered a local Mexican market that carries it.  So we headed there to buy some.

Before I continue our pancake story, I have to give a bit of a plug for Northgate Market.  They are one of the best Mexican markets I have ever been to, and I've been to a lot of them.  They make their tortillas on premises, so of course, I had to buy some.  I will say they are the best corn tortillas I have ever tasted!  If you live in Southern California, you should totally check out this fantastic Mexican market.

Now back to the pancakes.  We arrived at Northgate market only to discover that there was a huge variety of masarepa flour.  We weren't sure which one to buy, so we randomly chose one, and this is it:

Now that we had our masarepa, we were ready to begin making pancakes.  Here are the ingredients you will need:

2 cups masarepa
2 cups hot water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of soft butter

First you'll need to  mix the masarepa, water, salt and butter. Knead with your hands for about 3 minutes moistening your hands with water as you work.

Now you'll need to divide the dough into six small balls.  I did this by forming one large ball, cutting it in half, and then cutting each half into thirds.

Oooh, look!  You can see my yummy Northgate tortillas in the background!  Once you've divided the dough into 6 balls, you'll need to place one of the balls of dough between two pieces of parchment paper.  Then take a lid and flatten the ball until it's about 1/3" thick.  They should be about 5" in diameter.

Now you're ready to fry the arepas.  Place some butter in a frying pan, and then place the arepa in once the butter has melted.

Cook until the edges begin to brown, and then flip.

O.K., so it was after the flip that I realized something was wrong.  These didn't look at all like any of the arepas I've had in the past.  Take a moment to visit this website to see what arepas that I've eaten previously have looked like.

As you can see, mine look nothing like what I expected them to look like.  We decided to give them a try even though they don't look like what I expected them to.  We decided to try one straight from the pan, and all I have to say is taste, yummy!  Texture, blech!  Hmmmm . . . where did we go wrong?  After much thinking, we came to the conclusion we must have chosen the wrong masarepa, so we made the decision to try making arepas once again next week.  So join us again next week when we try making Colombian arepas again.