Adventures in Arepas...brand name counts.

I love arepas. Many of my friends and family ask me, "What are arepas?" I usually respond with, "Really? You don't know what an arepa is?" It is just that they are so delicious, I can't believe people don't know what they are. An arepa, made popular in Colombia (it is possible I learned about these from my freshmen year college roommate who was from Colombia, so I can't blame my friends who don't know about them), is a patty of fried or cooked corn flour. In Colombia they usually use yellow corn flour (Areparina) and in Venezuela they usually use white (Harina PAN).

In New York, you might know arepas from the street fairs where they usually have yellow arepas with cheese. I have never eaten them because of the cheese and butter I know are mixed in. But, in New York, you can also get the most amazingly delicious arepa I have ever had at a Venezuelan restaurant in the East Village called Caracas. I found this restaurant while seeking out food with my vegan, gluten free friend. We were in a gluten free bakery, hungry for non-bakery food and the woman who worked there recommended this place. It has become an absolute favorite. They stuff their arepas with all kinds of things. And they will substitute tofu at no extra charge. My favorite is the one stuffed with sweet plantains, tofu and avocado. I also like the one stuffed with tofu and guacamole. Here is an arepa from Caracas although the lighting is a little dark:

They use the white corn flour at Caracas and this one has the tofu, plantains and avocado. Delicious. So I thought I would try my hand at making my own arepas. After some online research I found that it actually looked pretty easy. Make a dough from the corn flour, water, and salt. Then fry it in a pan. So I did just that. Here is where my experiment went wrong....not a disaster, just not quite right. On every website it was recommended to get the brand name corn flour Harina P.A.N. I could not find this so I used regular yellow corn flour. The arepa came out OK but I think the flour does make a different. It just was not a light and fluffy as those in the restaurant (granted, it could also be my technique as I am not one of the Venezuelans who work in the restaurant and make these every single day). 

Now, I knew they would be different because I used yellow flour instead of white, that was expected. But they did come out more coarse and crispy than those Colombian style ones I have had in the past. Again, it wasn't horrible, just not quite right. I made some beans (sauteed them with onion, garlic, and a little cayenne pepper), put in avocado slices, and squirted some lime on top. Not too bad. 

I tried one more time but I was using the same flour. I made them more like a patty which is how I usually eat the Colombian ones. And I put a TON of beans and guacamole on top. It was yummy but still not quite right. 

So if anyone sees Harina P.A.N. or Areparina in a store, let me know! Everything I read said that, in this case, brand name counts. 

The Great Gingerbread People Experiment of 2011!

As I finished my two day effort to make Gingerbread people cookies, my sister likened my cooking to science experiments. This one, I admitted, was a failed experiment but one that definitely taught me a lot.

I wanted to make Gingerbread people (I use people because my mom was really worried about me using only Gingerbread men and having gone to an all women's college, I agree), but my first obstacle was finding a Gingerbread person cookie cutter. I settled for a snow-person instead.

So, I set out to make Gingerbread Snow People based on this recipe on my favorite vegan website theppk.com.

Mistake #1: I substituted Brown Rice Syrup for Molasses. Molasses scares me. It is SOOOO thick. And it was kind of expensive. So I hypothesized that Brown Rice Syrup would have a similar effect as Molasses. Conclusion: While the end effect of the cookies was not favorable, it is uncertain that the sole cause of this outcome was due to this substitution. But it sure did not help!

I was very proud of myself for chilling the dough overnight. I am usually impatient and try to roll dough right away, ending up with a sticky mess. The next day, the dough was surprisingly easy to work with.

Things were going well. I even hand cut one Gingerbread person amongst the snowmen. Then, I put them in the oven...

Major spreading!!! I was left with really overweight Snow People. I suspect they ate too many cookies :) I tried to make them look the part by using the cookie cutter to make the imprint of the original Snow Person shape. 

I think one Snow Person saw their fate and decided it was too much to handle. He made an attempt on his life. 

The knife and the spatula jumped down to try to stop him but it was too late. The Snow Person had taken his own life. 

OR, perhaps he just fell because I stupidly tried to balance the tray on our dish drying rack...not even on the rack, on the dishes in the rack. MISTAKE #2. I had to pause for a while and clean that up. 

By this time, I felt defeated. My cookies were coming out hard and crunch instead of the desired soft and chewy and they were also HUGE. 

I switched to circles hypothesizing that they would stay together more and come out better. I used a cup (the cup I was using as a rolling pin) to cut them out. They were easier to deal with but still came out HUGE! 

I adjusted. I made smaller circles using a smaller cup...

Somehow I did manage to get this outlier...a somewhat normal looking Snow Person. Every experiment has its anomaly. 

While the smaller circle cookies were in the oven, I attempted vegan icing. I had gotten all natural food coloring so I was excited to try to make colors. I put some powdered sugar and almond milk in 2 different mugs (one for each color). I also added some extra vanilla because it seemed like it needed more flavor. Then I realized the almond milk had vanilla in it. Mistake #3?? Not sure. 

It took a while to get the consistency and color I wanted. This was not it...

Finally the color looked like an actual color. The consistency was not quite right. It was hard to get out of my icing tube squirter thingy. So it ended up very goopy and hard to shape. But I took my model Snow Person and tried to do him/her up right. 

I made the small circles into sandwiches with the icing. That was easier. The problem was they were still very crunchy cookies, not ideal for cookie sandwiches. 

My sister claimed she still enjoyed them and would eat a whole plate. But she will eat anything with sugar. 

 I saved these deformed ones for her.

THE RESULT: A LOT of gingerbread cookies that are too crunchy for my taste but somewhat edible. I learned a lot about icing in the process and in the end probably should have used the molasses as scary as it is. I will still serve the cookies at our holiday party at work because I have a ton of them and they are edible just not ideal. But they are certainly not my best work although they were an interesting experiment.