This is a dish I have been wanting to try ever since I first learned about it from the Disney movie, Encanto.
Making the Dish
This recipe is super simple to make! I watched several videos to get a sense of the steps involved and used the measurements from Preppy Kitchen, mainly because it was my first search result in YouTube. A few key parts to this recipe: 1) you will need to use P.A.N. corn meal which I ended up finding at my local Walmart since they ran out at the H-E-B and 2) I saw several videos mentioning letting the dough sit – my theory is that it helps to hydrate the flour, similar to how cookie dough needs to sit. I didn’t see anyone specify this step, but I personally grated mozzarella cheese myself instead of using pre-grated cheese to make sure that it melts through.
Eating the Dish
This dish can be eaten plain, but I ended up making some guacamole to pair with it. It was difficult for me to say whether I made these properly since I’ve only eaten arepas once before. I will say that it did not seem like I was eating raw dough, but the texture was definitely mushy. Next time, I would probably try to make them smaller and stuff more cheese inside since they were fairly bland.
Summary
I will definitely consider making these again, and maybe even look into different fillings – the ones I’ve tried in a restaurant were stuffed like a sandwich with meat, avocado, and other veggies. The most time-consuming part was just letting the arepas cook on the griddle, but otherwise, everything came together extremely quickly.