Review written by Nick Dodd
Arepas, everywhere! They’re on the menu of a restaurant I’ve been to many times, they’re being sold at a food market I visited and some guys tucks into one in the background of a Netflix show I’m watching. There’s a name for it, the frequency illusion, where something checks into your consciousness and doesn’t check out. I’d never eaten one before Arepa: Classic and Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela’s Daily Bread and now, arepas everywhere!
Arepas are most notably hallmarks of Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine and as author Irena Stein writes in the introduction, they’re rapidly growing in global popularity and prevalence because, to paraphrase somewhat, they’re an absolute delight to eat. This book is a comprehensive exploration of the arepa in print and, as a restauranter, advocate of Venezuelan cuisine and arepa superfan, Stein is an authoritative companion if this is your first meeting with one.
And oh my, they’re lovely little things. A kind of cornbread patty that lives at the intersection of the pitta/taco Venn diagram. Crisp, chewy and rounded to fit snugly between your palms. They’re also a breeze to make with Stein’s painless dough recipe, a simple quartet of maize flour, water, salt and oil. Like most bread-adjacent commodities there’s a rainbow of versatility in the recipes. You can stuff, dunk, eat with meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, on its own, pair with sweet things, savoury things, have for breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack and everything in between.
It is an unflashy book. Sincere, thoughtful and comprehensive as if written by your favourite university professor with a doctorate in the chemistry of maize flour. Fittingly, Stein has a Master’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology and historical context is woven throughout the book. Chapters are occasionally prefaced with introductions such as ‘A Brief History of Meat in Venezuela’ which may sound formal but let’s face it, is the sort of thing we’re all here for. The accompanying recipes are extremely simple with precise measurements and alternative suggestions for ingredients depending on taste and availability. The only ingredient I struggled to find was aji dulce paste, a sweet red pepper mixture, for which I made a rough approximation without too much trouble.
Most recipes rely on stuffing the arepa with an unholy amount of slowly roasted animal or vegetables slathered with dressing, cheese or both. The standout recipes were the most effortless like the arepa stuffed with eggs, manchego, marinated vegetables and the kind of sharp, spicy dressing that makes your gums recede. Equally undemanding was a recipe of spiced carrots sizzled in citrus butter, harissa paste, sweetened with honey then paired with a red pepper cream. It’s at this point I wish I could tell you about how I spent a day, as Stein recommends, roasting beef over a wood fire returning only to gently baste it as I, too, baste in the doting rays of the late evening sunshine. Instead, I chucked it in the oven, probably procrastinated for four hours then ate this utterly magnificent thing with the curtains drawn.
There’s lots of recipes with a bit more pzazz. The brunch crowd will cheer the inclusion of an omelette arepa with grilled asparagus and a butter made from artichoke and truffle. I really loved the huevos rancheros arepa, a mingling of eggs, sloppy red tomato sauce and a spicy green mojo. It will require napkins and it is entirely worth the mess. And my arteries tighten as I tell you there are two pages dedicated to making different kinds of butter.
In Stein’s estimation arepas are universally loved because they’re so user-friendly. This is absolutely true and you can go from zero to sauce down your chin within the hour. It’s a great book, to the point, varied and entirely accessible to an arepa newbie. If I’m now destined to a life of seeing arepas everywhere, I can think of much less delicious things to be trailed by.
Cuisine: Venezuelan
Suitable for: Beginner, confident home cooks
Cookbook Review Rating: Five stars
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Arepa by Irena Stein
£20, Ryland Peters and Small