Bobby Flay's Throwdown! (25 page)

Names: Maribel Araujo and Aristides Barrios
Establishment: Caracas Arepa Bar
Hometown: New York, New York
Website:
www.caracasarepabar.com
Phone: (212) 529-2314

They were fried, they were stuffed…we were throwing down arepas with Venezuela natives Maribel Araujo and Aristides Barrios, the owners of New York City’s shrine to arepas, the Caracas Arepa Bar.

Indigenous to the Andes and particularly loved in Venezuela, arepas are fluffy corn-flour cakes split open in the middle and stuffed with a variety of flavorful fillings. Like a sandwich, they should be eaten with your hands, not a fork and knife. The arepa cake is made from a mixture of corn flour, salt, and oil—simple enough, but the consistency is paramount to their success and can take years to perfect. The dough is shaped into a hand-size disk before first being griddled to create a crispy exterior and then finished in the oven for a steamy-soft middle. Venezuelans enjoy these tasty treats everywhere from the fanciest restaurants to neighborhood street stands.

Friends Maribel and Aristides came to New York from Venezuela dreaming of careers in architecture and the film industry. Dissatisfied with their prospects and nostalgic for their favorite food from home, they struck out upon a new dream, realized in 2003 with their restaurant, the Caracas Arepa Bar. Fueled by fond, delicious memories of watching their mothers and grandmothers make arepas, the women, along with their chef, Ilse Parra, poured their hearts and souls into their restaurant. You can taste it with every bite. Maribel and Aristides thought they had been selected to share their homeland’s national dish with Food Network for a special called “Stuffed,” for which they planned to showcase their restaurant’s most popular arepa, filled with beef, beans, and plantains.

These little corn cakes may look easy to make, but we found out very quickly in the test kitchen that they are anything but. And while most arepa cake batters call for mixing the arepa flour (an instant white cornmeal) with water, we found that using milk made a more tender finished product. Knowing that Maribel and Aristides would be serving up a meat-filled version, I decided to go with seafood. I tested two different filling possibilities, the first a grilled salmon tossed in a slightly spicy mayonnaise with black olives and drizzled with an avocado crema. Stephanie, Miriam, and I decided that this combination just didn’t work. The creaminess of the mayonnaise and avocado left our filling with no contrast of texture. We also tested a lobster and octopus filling tossed in a citrus-yellow pepper vinaigrette—much better!

Maribel and Aristides accepted our challenge with good humor. We had arepa makers flown in directly from Venezuela when, according to the duo, all we needed was a nonstick griddle. And my arepa-shaping technique was all wrong. They both quickly offered to give me lessons. Apparently I needed them.

Our arepas would be judged by food writer Nicole Cotroneo and chef Jorge Fortune on three criteria: texture, filling flavor, and authenticity. Even though I felt that my filling was good, I doubted my arepa could compare to their light, pillowy version. The judges loved the crispy exterior and fabulous balance of flavors of Aristides and Maribel’s arepa; it was at once sweet, savory, spicy, and salty. Jorge, who was born and raised in Venezuela, said it reminded him of his childhood. Moving on, the judges noticed immediately that the shape of my arepa was smaller than usual, but both loved the flavor of my filling. They had a hard time deciding between the two—Maribel and Aristides’s delicious arepa was classic and mine was a flavor explosion in the mouth. After some flip-flopping, Nicole and Jorge made the right call: the women of the Caracas Arepa Bar won. The best part: now I know how to make arepas!

MAKES 12 AREPAS

1.
To make the lobster-octopus salad,
combine the bell peppers, mustard, paprika, cayenne, and lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, add the oil and blend until emulsified; season with salt and pepper.

2.
Put the octopus and lobster in a bowl, add the yellow pepper vinaigrette and the cilantro, and toss to combine; season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

3.
To make the arepas,
preheat the oven to 350°F.

4.
Bring the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan; then remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Combine the arepa flour, salt, pepper, and cheese in a large bowl. Add the hot milk and the honey, and stir until combined. Let the mixture stand until the milk is absorbed enough for a soft dough to form, 1 to 2 minutes; the dough will continue to stiffen.

5.
Form the dough into 12 balls, each about 2 inches in diameter, and flatten them between your palms into 3-inch patties, each about ⅓ inch thick.

6.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until the oil begins to shimmer. Fry 4 arepas at a time until light golden brown and just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side, adding more oil as needed; transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Transfer the arepas to a baking sheet, and bake in the oven until just heated through, about 5 minutes.

7.
Slice the arepas in half crosswise, spread the Avocado Crema on the bottom layer, and top with the lobster-octopus salad. Cover with the top layer.

MAKES 12 LARGE AREPAS

1.
To cook the beef,
put it in a medium pot and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, until just tender, about 3 hours, adding more water if needed to cover.

2.
Meanwhile,
cook the black beans:
Combine the beans with the onion, bell pepper, garlic, cumin, and Panela in a large pot and add cold water to cover by
2
inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 3 hours.

3.
Remove the beef to a plate and let it cool slightly; reserve the cooking broth. Once it is cool enough to handle, shred the beef into bite-size pieces.

4.
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the onion, red bell peppers, and jalapeños, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the Panela and cook until the vegetables become slightly caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add the Worcestershire and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and
2
cups of the reserved cooking broth. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 7 minutes. Add the butter and cook until melted. Add the beef and cook until just warmed through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is a little too dry, add more of the reserved broth.

5.
To cook the plantains,
heat a scant ¼ inch of oil in a deep skillet to 375°F. Slice the plantains on the diagonal into ¼-inch-thick slices, and fry them, turning occasionally, until they are caramelized and dark brown, about 1½ minutes. Remove from the skillet and drain on a paper-towel-lined plate.

6.
To make the arepas,
preheat the oven to 375° F.