The Colombian Arepas

We have fond memories of Colombian arepas, especially Bogota arepas, cheese mass is enriched with the addition of milk, butter and sugar well kneaded with warm water. Hope D 'Antonio native of Colombia and good friend, when visiting his mother, invited us to eat the cheese arepas prepared by his mother, Mrs. Maria Teresa de Almonacid of 79. It feasted eating arepas.

The arepa corn flour is bread for excellence in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama - call it tortilla as in El Salvador - Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and even in the Canary Islands. It's a disc-shaped preparation, which began as a way to worship the sun and moon. So is the utensil round in which they cook: the griddle, also called aripo or in Mexico, comal. The origin or etymology of the word, some agree that comes from the Indian word "erepair", a term to define the maize within the tribe of the Cumanagotos. There is also the belief that its name is the name of the container where it made "aripo" - clay plate curve where indigenous corn grinding -. In Colombia, the tradition of eating corn bread is very serious. So much so that every year there are festivals in the Colombian Arepa 5 major cities: Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Medellin and Bogota.

Apart from Bogota cheese arepa and described the regional level are largely coastal fried arepas, which are prepared from corn pounded and / or precooked corn flour yellow or white, which you can add grated cheese and coastal salt. Also prepared the sweet corn pancake, which is added anise, charcoal grilled arepas or grilled, sometimes over bijao leaves that give a distinctive odor, which are filled with ground beef, try strained, chicken, pork, coastal cheese, sausage, chorizo, sausages, vegetables and sauces. The most famous are the arepa e 'egg Luruaco, Atlántico Barranquilla prepared with corn, which is a bit fried, stuffed with an egg, and finally finish frying. There are a variety of arepa 'e egg also carries ground beef. Prepared gourmet replaced by chicken egg, quail egg.

Antioquia or arepas paisas, preferred are the famous "crumbs", which are leftover arepas that are passed through water again, split into pieces and roasted with olive oil and butter white arepa paisa, no salt is prepared and served without stuffing to accompany any meal, or corn arepa of Chocolá, is a type of cornmeal made from corn cob. It is usually eaten hot, spread with butter and bits of Antioquia triangles above, the mule driver arepa, prepared with threshing corn dough soaked in water for a long time, usually 5 days, during which the water is changed daily. It is eaten with pork skin, nicknamed arepa whose main characteristic is that this is prepared without removing the corn bran. Nicknamed The arepa is clearly observed bran, which gives it a distinctive flavor and []; the stack corn arepa, prepared with whole corn, corn bread different from traditional country, which is made with cooked corn; arepa try strained, arepa paisa variety of traditional, uniquely made with cooked corn grain, without any dressing.

In Santander become "arepa greaves". This is significant because the grind corn, mixed with crackling, then dough balls are pressed with banana leaves. Another secret of this particular recipe is that the water used must be mixed with wood ashes.

The valley-arepa is consumed mainly in the department of Valle del Cauca. It is also eaten in the departments of Cauca and Nariño. The dough works well with water and salt and arepas are very thin. They get to grill until toasted, buttered eat.

You see, every Latin American country has their culture and traditions and use of the arepa is part of the idiosyncrasy of our people. The recipe of the week is the cheese arepa Bogota, all a delight to the palate. See you soon friends.