What inspires you to cook?
For me, it can be something as simple and as fleeting as a Facebook
mention by a friend of a meal she is eating.
Sometime this summer, my friend and former college roommate, Susi, went
to Miami with her beautiful daughter. She posted a photo of an arepa with pulled
pork in a restaurant and it looked so
delicious that her meal has been in the back of my mind ever since. She has probably not given it a second
thought! I just went back to find the
photo, only to discover that she had shredded chicken in her arepa! But never mind. I made pulled pork! Because that’s what I’ve been dreaming about
for weeks.
Ingredients for
four stuffed arepas with leftover pork and two generous servings of salsa. Everything can be easily doubled or trebled, if your crockpot is big enough.
For the pork:
2 pieces of pork shoulder – 1/2 kilo or about a pound total
1 large yellow onion
6 cloves of garlic
Sea salt
Black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Water
Method
Mash the garlic with the side of a knife and then chop
coarsely.
Slice your onion thickly and place them in the bottom of a
slow cooker or crockpot.
Put the pork on top of the onion and season with salt,
pepper and cumin.
Scatter the garlic around and fill the basin with enough
water to come halfway up the pork.
Put on the lid and cook on high for five to six hours.
Take the lid off and use the pork and onions to rub the
lovely brown stuff off of the sides of the crockpot.
Use two forks to shred the pork. Check the seasoning and add more salt if
necessary.
For the arepas:
1 cup or 150g of Harina
P.A.N.
1 1/4 cups or 295ml lukewarm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Method
Add the salt to the Harina P.A.N. and pour this into a bowl with the water and stir until it is
completely absorbed and makes a soft dough.
Tip it out on the counter top and knead a few times. Divide
your dough into four equal pieces.
Make a circle of each about three inches in diameter.
Place on a hot griddle and brown both sides. (Mine scorched a bit, as you can see. I think
my fire was too high so be careful to keep it on a medium flame. Despite the
color, they didn’t taste burnt at all though.)
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes.
For the salsa:
1/2 cob of boiled corn
1/2 small purple onion
2 small hot chilies
1 cup or 170g of cooked black beans
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Sea salt
Small bunch of fresh cilantro or coriander
Method
Holding the stems, split the chilies down the middle and
then chop them finely.
Slice the onion very thinly and then cut across to create
tiny little pieces.
Add lime juice to the chilies and onion and leave them to
marinate for at least 10 minutes. This takes the sharpness out of the onion and
helps tame the heat of the chilies.
Finely chop the stems of the cilantro and add to the bowl,
reserving the leaves for later.
Slice the corn off the cob, break the kernels apart and add
to the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
Add the black beans and mix again. Salt to taste.
Chop the coriander leaves roughly and add right before
serving.
To serve all: Slit the arepas and, using a slotted spoon,
stuff them with the pork mixture. Add some extra hot sauce, if desired. Each person gets two arepas and a good
serving of salsa.
Enjoy!
