The Meatwave

I can't say that I've evert been upset about not having a vegetarian option until the day I tried to order one of my favorite arepas from back in New York at one of the arepa joints here in Durham. The arepa in question is dubbed the "Guyanesa Tropical" by Arepas Cafe in Astoria and consists of sweet plantains, fresh avocado slices, and white cheese—a simple, yet highly effective combo. Having a hankering for one of these arepas, I went to a local Venezuelan spot and noticed that, while they didn't have this exact mix of ingredients on the menu, all could be found in other creations, so decided to try order exactly what I was craving.

I had no idea what type of confusion this would lead to with our server—"So you want an arepa without meat?"—but after a few minutes of back-and-forth, I got to something close enough by ordering a steak-stuffed areapa, minus the steak, plus plantains. I couldn't help but feel guilty when, after forcing a custom order, what came out fell pretty short of expectations, and decided that the best course of action would be for me to learn how to make a Guyanesa Tropical at home as best as possible.

It didn't take me long to try my hand at it, but I ended up failing pretty miserably mainly to my ineptness in making the required maduros—fried sweet plantains. In that first attempt, my plantains ended up tasting burnt and were dried and crisp, despite only frying them for a small amount of time. So that led to a couple more tries and luckily I'm finally getting somewhere.

The first thing I learned was that almost no plantain I took home from the grocery store was quite ripe enough. When a recipe for maduros calls for ripe plantains, it means totally blackened skins and a flesh that feels a bit mushy when squeezed. So in this instance I made sure to buy my plantains almost a week ahead of time to allow them to ripen even further at home.

The second problem was cooking temperature—a normal high heat frying temperature wasn't cooking the plantains evenly, forcing them to burn and dry out too quickly. So I adjusted to cooking them in oil that's between 225-250°F for a good 10-15 minutes.

When cooking them in this manner, I was ending up with plantains that had a soft, almost creamy inside and nicely sweet, but not burnt outside. I can't say these were totally perfect yet, but they were close (I cheated once to get the most ideal plantains by buying the frozen ones you can pick up in the supermarket).

While the plantains posed an unexpected challenge, the arepas, which I thought were going to be my stumbling block, ended up being exceedingly simple. They started with a 50/50 mix of water and Harina P.A.N. with a bit of oil mixed in as well. Once that was combined and rested for five minutes, I broke off chunks of dough and flattened them into four-inch discs.

Next I grilled the dough over direct heat until each side was lightly charred, then moved the arepas over to indirect heat, covered, and let roast until the dough was cooked through and the exteriors were dry and crisp.

All that was left was to slice a pocket into each arepa and stuff them with the maduros, slices of frresh avocado, and shredded queso blanco.

And there you have it, a creation totally worthy of trying to order a meatless items in a restaurant that doesn't have that option by default—and that's saying a lot for someone who calls their blog "The Meatwave." With so few ingredients though, each has to be pretty close to perfect, and this arepa delivered. The arepa itself was nice and crisp with a pleasant grilled flavor, while the dominant plantains were soft and sweet and given a fresh boost from the avocado and saltiness and moisture from the cheese. It gets even better if you can get your hands on a bottle of Matouk's West Indian Hot Sauce, which adds a fiery fruit flavor that contrasts with the sweet and fresh ingredients. It actually took me a few years to discover the Guyanesa Tropical at Arepas Cafe, but once I did, I could never turn back and I will not allow distance to ever be a reason I shouldn't be able to enjoy this incredible arepa.

Published on Thu Aug 18, 2016 by Joshua Bousel

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