Venezuelan Arepas!

As we are studying the continent of South American in Geography, we decided to explore the country of Venezuela as we have a student visiting from there for the year.  Her mother Kathy and Tia Maria (who lives in Madrid now) came to school to help teach the children a little about Venezuela.  They brought all of the ingredients and necessary equipment to make the Venezuelan staple called 'arepas.'  This is a small corncake made with three simple ingredients:  precooked cornmeal (PAN), salt and water.

Kathy said to take about 2 c. of water and put into bowl with 1 t. salt.  Begin adding the PAN, kneading the dough until it is firm.  Roll the dough into a ball which can vary in size depending on how big you want the arepa to be.  Pat the dough ball and flatten into little pancake shapes.  Kathy and Maria have done this for years and can shape into perfectly formed circles.  The resulting shape does not matter as long as it is not too thick.  Place on the griddle and lightly fry.  Kathy uses a non-stick pan but you could use a stainless steel frying pan with a little oil.  Other arepa recipes say to then bake in the oven but it is not necessary. 

When golden brown on both sides, you can slice and put anything in the middle.  The children had grated cheese so we put this in the middle.  It was very, very, very good!

While eating, Kathy showed us pictures of Venezuela and Maria played some music from Venezuela. 

Muchas Gracias Kathy and Maria!