Arepas

[mmuch]

Can you make these with just plain fine cornmeal? They're my husbands favorite and I would like to make them for him for his birthday but I don't have the masa harina....

[todao]

In West Virginia they serve up something they call fried corn meal mush. Sound pretty similar to me.

[pikawicca]

An arepa has nothing in common with cornmeal mush!

[karmalaw]

NO! You must make arepas from precooked cornmeal -- it's called" masa harina precocido" or masarepa. The key words to look for on the package are "precocido" (which means pre-cooked) or "masa para arepas" (exactly as it sounds mase for arepas). There are a number of brand names and come in either white or yellow corn versions.

The fine cornmeal you have is NOT precooked and will not result in an arepa.

For a good arepa use butter in the dough mixture -- AND add some shredded cheese to the dough. Make sure to let the dough set, covered with a damp cloth, for about 15 minutes before cooking -- you'll get a better arepa that way.

[todao]

It would seem reasonable to interpret the Arepa recipe group to suggest the use of common corn meal; as long as you cook it. However, Arepa flour is the key. If you cook the corn meal and prepare flour from the finished product I suppose you'd be on the right track. But I wouldn't use common corn meal for Arepas. Just about every community I know of has a store or stores that specialize in ethnic food products. If you can find masa harina, masarepa, or harina precocida in a store specializing in South American foods you're on the right track.
If you have a WalMart (sorry if I hurt any feelings thre) you will very likely find one of those on their shelves.

[Sam Fujisaka]

I think that the cornmeal I use to make cornbread here is Areparina (arepa harina)--so you should be able to make arepas from your fine cornmeal. I cannot make tortillas from Areparina; and know that Masa Harina is not good for arepas.

[pikawicca]

I think that here in the States, what you need to make arepas would be fine corn flour -- something that's hard to come by. it might be possible to whirl cornmeal in a food processor and achieve the same result.

[paulj]

However the harina for arepas that we get from Columbia and Venezuela is cooked cornmeal.

Wouldn't uncooked cornmeal just give you hoe cakes?

On an earlier thread I wrote:
"Looking through the 'Latin &Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified' book, I realized that the precooked nature of the masarepa may be as important as texture and corn type. That is, the corn is boiled, dried, and then ground."

[pikawicca]

No, no no!

Cornmeal is out; masa harina is out. You need pan harina for this. Find a Mexican market or order online; there is no acceptable substitute.