Venezuelan Arepas

Unlike Colombian arepas,* the Venezuelan arepas (pronounced as if, "ah-ray-pahs") are commonly used as a kind of sandwich, filled with any number of fillings, like cheese, black beans or Venezuelan shredded beef.** "Typically," they are made with white arepa flour,*** but I have the yellow arepa flour, so that's what I used. Some Venezuelans grill the arepas, which can give the arepas some blackened spots on them. Others use a griddle to fry the arepas, while still others fry them in a skillet, which is what I did. The cakes will crisp on the outside, but may not completely cook through, so I chose to finish them in the oven, which is also called for in some Venezuelan recipes I read, and they only need about 10 minutes in the oven.     

Ingredients:

2 cups white or yellow arepa flour
2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon corn or canola oil
enough butter and oil (corn, canola or olive, but not extra virgin olive oil) mixture to make a little more than a coating on the bottom of the skillet (the oil helps to keep the butter from easily burning)
pats of butter for serving
filling of your choice 

Gradually stir the arepa flour into the warm water (with the salt added), mix well and let the dough sit for about 10 to 12 minutes. By that time, the dough should have a good consistency for shaping into rounded cakes about 4 to 5 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Over medium heat, melt the butter in the oil in a large skillet (cast iron is good, but not really necessary). Fry the cakes on both sides until they are golden brown, about 6 minutes on each side. The outside of the cakes will be crisp. Put the fried cakes onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. After the cakes cool slightly, you can slice the cakes in half (use a serrated knife), or you can slice through the cakes, but not clear through the cakes, leaving one side to act as a "hinge" (like a clam or an oyster). Add a small pat of butter and "close" the arepas to let the butter melt. Gently open the cakes and add some filling of your choice. 

* For my article on Colombian arepas, this is the link:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/03/colombian-arepas.html

** For the shredded beef or black beans, here is the link to my article with those recipes: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/05/venezuelan-creole-pavilion.html

*** Arepa flour, which comes in yellow or white, is made from ground, precooked corn meal, and from my readings, people from Venezuela and Colombia adamantly insist there is NO substitute for it. You can find arepa flour in many Latino markets or in some supermarkets (check the Latino food section), and it is available online, but if you have masa harina or polenta/cornmeal, you can use it, but it will not be quite as genuine. Arepa flour is precooked, a bit starchier (because of the way it is processed), and it is finely ground, more so than the aforementioned products, and the cakes come out with a crunchy outside, but a soft and smooth inside.

I deliberately overfilled this arepa for this photo. This is filled with Venezuelan shredded beef. The red pieces are red bell pepper. You can see the browned top of the arepa. 

WORD HISTORY: 
Condor-This word for large types of vultures from the Andes Mountains of South America and from the western United States, primarily California, goes back to Quechua^ "kuntur," the name for the large bird. This was taken by Spanish as "cóndor," and this was borrowed by English (through North American colonists) in the early years of the 1600s.

^ Quechua, pronounced as if, "ketch-oo-wah" (some also say, "ketch-wah"), is a language family in South America best known as the language of the Incas.   

Venezuelan Creole Pavilion

Pabellón Criollo Venezolano is the name of this dish in Spanish, the national language of Venezuela. Venezuela was once a colony of Spain. As you will see, there are really several recipes that when done, are then put together to form an entire dinner. The main components show the racial mix in  Venezuela's racial population, with the brown/reddish brown stew, the white rice and the black beans. None of the recipes is hard to do, but the meat just takes time to cook. I checked more than 20 recipes for this dish, many by people at least claiming to be Venezuelan, and there were generally only slight variations, often about tomatoes in the stew part of the dish, with some calling for tomato paste, others calling for tomato sauce and still others using chopped tomatoes. At the other end, a recipe or two did not use ANY tomatoes, in ANY form. Also most recipes used red bell pepper, but a few used green bell pepper, so I liked the idea of using both; thus, my version. For the rice, you can certainly leave out the garlic, but many, not all, of the recipes I saw used garlic in some quantity in the rice, that's why I added it. Almost all of the recipes showed plantains, but there were a couple that did not note their use as an accompaniment. Buen provecho, my friends! 

Ingredients:

To cook the meat:
1 pound of flank steak, cut into three pieces or more, so as to fit into the pot you will use
water + 1 heaping tablespoon beef soup base (also called, "bullion," by some)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (the soup base has lots of salt)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

While Venezuelans boil/simmer the meat, I prefer to bake things in such cases. So, you can cook the meat on top of the stove, or in the oven. Cut the steak into 2 or 3 parts, so it will fit easily into a pot. Add some water to the pot and mix in the soup base. Add the meat and half of a large chopped onion, the salt and pepper, then add more water to just cover the meat. If cooking on the stove, heat to boiling over high heat, then cover and reduce heat so that the meat gently simmers. Simmer until the meat is very tender, likely 90 minutes or more. For using the oven, cover and bake at 300 F for one hour, then reduce heat to 275 F. Bake until meat is very tender (I let it bake for 2 3/4 hours, total. Let the meat cool. Use a couple of forks or just use your fingers to pull/tear the meat apart into strands.

For the stew, after the meat is cooked:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 large green pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
4 tablespoons broth from the cooked flank steak
shredded steak

 Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the other half of the large chopped onion, half of the chopped red bell pepper, half of the chopped green bell pepper, saute for a couple of minutes, then add 4 cloves of chopped garlic. Saute a further couple of minutes. Add the cumin, Worcestershire sauce and mix in well. Now add the shredded steak along with the broth and tomato sauce; mix well, then over low heat, cook until the liquid is reduced, stir the meat mixture occasionally.  

For the black beans:
2  15 ounce cans black beans, partially drained (drain off half of the liquid in each can)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 large green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, the chopped red and green pepper and saute a couple of minutes, reduce heat to low and then add the chopped garlic and saute until the onion and peppers are softened. Add the black beans and part of their liquid, the oregano and salt and pepper, stir well. Cook over low heat for about 12 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, to prevent sticking.    
 
For the rice:
1 cup white rice
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups of water

Follow the instructions provided by the brand of rice you buy, but otherwise, generally, bring the water to a boil, then add the ingredients and stir gently, only once. Reduce the heat so that the liquid just barely simmers. Put the lid on the pan and let the rice cook 20 minutes without removing the lid. 

For the plantains:
2 ripe plantains
1 cup olive oil
salt

Peel and thinly slice the plantains. Add enough oil for an inch or 2 in a heavy duty skillet; cast iron is good for this, but not a necessity. Heat the oil, but it should not be smoking hot. Fry the chips in batches, removing them to paper towels to drain them as you go. Add salt to taste.

WORD HISTORY:
Creole-This word, distantly related to "create" and to the "crease" parts of "increase" and "decrease,"^  goes back to Proto-Indo-European "kreh/kerh (“to grow, become bigger”). This gave Latin "creare," which meant, "to make, to produce, to create." This then gave Latin "criar," which meant, "to rear or to raise or to bring up young (that is, to help them grow up)." This then produced "cria," meaning, "a person brought up in one's home, or in a particular region or area." This gave Portuguese "crioulo," which meant, "European or African person born in Brazil" (then a colony of Portugal), which differentiated the Portuguese born in Brazil from those native to Portugal. Spanish either borrowed the term from Portuguese or developed its own version from the Latin, but I'm not certain on this. The Spanish ("criollo") and Portuguese seem both to have influenced French, which had "creole," with likely reinforcement by Latin itself. With Portuguese, Spanish and French all Latin-based languages, with many similar words, it is difficult to separate out all of this. English borrowed the word in the early 1600s, from French. The meaning of the word varies from area to area, as in American English, the word came to mean "person of French ancestry in Louisiana," circa 1800, or perhaps a little before, but in British English it generally now refers to a person of African descent from (that is, born in) the West Indies, and further, it can refer to the mixed language of these people of the West Indies or of Louisiana. 

^ "Create," "increase" and "decrease" are not original English words, but rather, they were borrowed into English.