Venezuela: Más arepas por favor!

Hello Kryddhyllan friends, and welcome back - finally! What a wild ride it’s been since our last post (how many corona waves ago was that, again?). For a while there, it felt as though the ‘rona would forever have the world in its grip - until last week, which marked the official lifting of restrictions here in Sweden. This was, of course, celebrated up and down the country with all sorts of unsocially distanced activities, such as clubbing, hugging loved ones, and cramming like sardines into already-crowded metro trains (something we’re willing to bet nobody missed during this time). However, we already knew exactly how we’d celebrate this momentous occasion - with a long-awaited cooking sesh, duh!

Our next guest hails from the world’s 33rd largest country, where baseball is the most popular sport and joropa is the country’s national dance. It’s one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and boasts one of the largest national parks in the world, as well as six Miss Universe and five Miss World winners. Have you guessed yet? Okay, a few more hints. It borders Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia, and is home to the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls. Oh yeah, another major hint: arepas is the national dish. Ding ding, we’re talking about Venezuela! And speaking of arepas, our evening’s guest, Damian showed us how to make the most incredible arepas we’d ever tasted (seriously). If you’re new to the concept, arepas are a cornmeal cake that resemble a kind of mashup between tacos and pancakes, and are stuffed with a whole range of delicious fillings. They’re crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, and the fresh yet hearty fillings are a surefire way to brighten the chilly fall evenings to come. 

While Damian may be new to the blog, he is certainly no stranger to us at Kryddhyllan - in fact, he just so happens to be together with one of our other esteemed guests, Tomàs (who makes the most delicious feijoada and also joined us in prepping and enjoying the evening’s feastivities). In between bites, Damian shared what brought him to Sweden, his love for moose and potatismos (mashed potatoes). Read on to find out more about how to enjoy his epic arepas at home, as well as his hidden talent that’s taken him to championships all across the globe!

Recipe for an Arepas feast with 2 different types of stuffing!

Serve with: Malta, a sweet and savoury soda made from malt, or fresh fruit juices like guanabana or passionfruit

Listen to: the tunes of Mariana Vega, or some Maracaibo 15 (which apparently is the christmas music of choice for our Venezuelan master chef and will totally become your new favorite too)

Serves 4 people

Cooking time: About 1,5 hours

The Arepas

Ingredients (makes 8 arepas):

• 3 cups of Pan corn flour (about 500g)

• 4 cups of water

• 1 tsp salt

• Cooking oil for frying

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl add 4 cups of water (room temperature). Add salt and mix. 

2. Add the corn flour one cup at a time while using your hands to mix and break up any lumps. Keep adding and mixing until the dough gets a firm texture, but not too firm: It needs to be softer than bread dough but not stick to your hands

3. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside for about 10 minutes

4. Take a large pan on medium-high heat

5. Take about a handful of the dough and shape into a ball. Our expert arepa makes said to use your fingers to shape the dough 

6. Flatten the ball with your fingers on each side, the arepa should be about 8 cm diameter and 1,5-2 cm thick

7. Set the oven to 80 degrees celsius

8. Start frying the arepas, two at a time, on each side until they get a golden colour. Lower heat to medium. Frying the arepas will take about 10 minutes for each set of arepas

9. Put the fried arepas on a baking tray and let sit in the oven for a crispier texture, take them out when ready to serve

Arepas Reina Pepeada (Pepper Queen)

Ingredients:

• 500g of chicken (meat from the thigh)

• 4 avocados

• 1 clove garlic

• 150g of salad cheese (imitation feta cheese)

• Fresh coriander

• 2 tbsp butter

• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Rinse and pat chicken dry with a kitchen towel. Cut off any unwanted parts. In a large pot boil water and add the chicken for it to boil 5-10 minutes, until thoroughly cooked

2. In a large bowl, add the avocados and mash with a fork, and in the crushed garlic clove

3. Chop the cheese into small cubes and blend into avocados

4. Once the chicken is cooked, rinse in cold water and start pulling the meat into small parts (think pulled pork texture)

5. Add the chickens into the bowl, together with roughly chopped cilantro

6. Melt the butter and add into the filling for a more juicy texture

7. Add salt and pepper to taste

Arepas Atún (Tuna)

Ingredients

• 2 cans of 185g tuna (in water)

• 1 tomato

• ½ yellow onion

• 1-2 tbsp mayonnaise (depening on how much mayo you like)

• 1 tbsp lime juice

• Fresh coriander

Instructions:

1. Finely chop the tomato and onion and mix in a large bowl

2. Add tuna, mayo, lime juice and coriander and mix all ingredients together

3. Add salt to taste

Serving:

1. Take an arepa in your hand and insert a knife into the middle, almost all the way to the other side of the arepa. 

2. Start cutting around the edge, the knife about 60% in until you have opened about half of the arepa. Push the sides together to open the arepa and fill it with the stuffing of your choice

Interview Time!

Kryddhyllan: What is your favorite food from home and why?

Damian: Hmm…. I really like the mixture of salty and sweet, so that’s why cachapas with queso de mano are my absolute favourite. Sadly we don’t have queso de mano here but I try to make cachapas often.

Kryddhyllan: Is that similar to arepas?

Damian: Sort of. It’s also made with corn flour, and it has a sweet taste because of the corn, but also has a salty taste because of the cheese.

Kryddhyllan: The cheese is stuffed inside?

Damian: Yea, it’s like a pancake that you close. The cheese is quite thick, so it’s two layers of the cachapas. And then it’s also made with butter, because well, butter.

Kryddhyllan: Yeah, sweet and salty is an excellent combination. And what brought you to Sweden?

Damian: Oj!

Kryddhyllan: Bit of a jump to the next question haha. There’s no segue.

Damian: I came to Sweden because it was offered to me. I worked welcoming foreign students in my university in Venezuela, and one of the students I met, her name is Kajsa, had her dad come to visit and celebrate her birthday. So we were at a Venezuelan restaurant and it was really fun, and I was talking to her dad all night and there he asked if I would be interested in doing an internship here, in Sweden. So I came here in 2008, and decided to see how it would go, and I loved it after three months in Stockholm. So that was my first step here in Sweden.

Kryddhyllan: Oh nice! What was the internship?

Damian: It was in material science. I’m an engineer in material science, and so I did and internship, a “praktik” with a Ph.D. student who was doing research of resistance in materials, specializing in copper.

Kryddhyllan: That sounds super cool! Do you still have contact with Kajsa?

Damian: Yeah, I’m actually going to her moving-in party, and I haven’t seen her in 6 years. But we have Facebook contact, but we haven’t seen each other because she’s had kids and all that, but we’re meeting on the 3rd of October!

Kryddhyllan: Yay! Thank you Kajsa for planting the seed that brought Damian to Sweden!

Damian: Yeah, it was fate when she had said that her dad was coming to celebrate her birthday and asked if I wanted to come and I was like “Sure! Let’s meet him”. I remember her dad found it super interesting that I play professional Scrabble.

Kryddhyllan: You do?! 

Damian: I do! I’ve been to a few Scrabble world-championships in Spanish, and he found it so hilariously interesting, and wanted to know everything. Actually, the last competition I was at was two years ago, before Corona, in Cancun. It was really fun, I brought my best friend from here who’s Swedish, and at the competition they did a presentation of all the delegations of every country. Usually every country has between ten and thirty people and then it came to Sweden, and they started playing “Mamma Mia” and it was just my face that came up. So it was really fun that I was representing Sweden and then my friend was also excited, he referred to himself as the president of the delegation of Sweden. I was like, you don’t even speak Spanish, Martin!

Kryddhyllan: That’s awesome. You were like a celebrity – no photos please!

Damian: Yes, exactly!

Kryddhyllan: That’s such a fun story. And since moving here, do you have any favorite new dishes?

Damian: Ummmm…

Kryddhyllan: Well, not new in terms of invented but you get it….

Damian: The thing is, something that is totally new for me is that – I’m not a fish person, but in Venezuela we couldn’t eat salmon because it’s extremely luxurious, and ou just can’t find it. But then I came here and it’s super common and it’s one of my favorite dishes. Just salmon in the oven with sauce, I find it so delicious. 

Kryddhyllan: Is that your favorite salmon dish?

Damian: Yes, 100%. I actually don’t like salmon otherwise. Like gravid lax or that, I don’t like that either. 

Kryddhyllan: What about varmrökt lax? That’s pretty much the same, it’s just cold?

Damian: No, nope. It’s a no for me *laughs*.

Kryddhyllan: That’s ok. We’ll get there. But did you know anything about Swedish food before moving here?

Damian: Nothing. My only knowledge of Sweden was ABBA. And Ikea. I didn’t even know that meatballs were supposed to be Swedish. Because we have them all the time in Venezuela. It’s funny, because Venezuela actually has a meatball sub at Subway, which we don’t have here.

Kryddhyllan: It’s true… there’s no meatball sub here. Feels like it’s a staple at Subway, so it’s weird that we don’t have it here.

Damian: Yeah, even in Friends you always have Joey talking about the meatball sub. 

Kryddhyllan: Exactly! Weird. Next question! What is the best and worst thing about Swedish food?

Damian: Hmmm, the best? Well I do like everything that’s potato-based, and you eat a lot of potatoes here. And I do like älg. Moose.

Kryddhyllan: Like potatismos? (mashed potatoes)

Damian: No älg. Like moose. Moose burgers *laughs*. It’s really good. The worst thing is… I don’t like any kind of midsummer food.

Kryddhyllan: Like sill? But there’s a lot of potatoes at midsummer!

Damian: I know, but I can’t just eat potatoes! 

Kryddhyllan: What do you mean? They’re made with dill also!

Damian: And butter! But no, I’m not a fan of kräftskiva either, I find it blegh. Or julbord. I don’t like it.

Kryddhyllan: But julbord offers such a broad variety of things! Like cheese, sausage, kräftskiva has pie?

Damian: I don’t like pie.

Kryddhyllan: Ok fair. Then it’s difficult. Especially at a kräftskiva if you want to stay sober.

Damian: Everyone loves västerbottenpaj, and I’m like ugh no.

Kryddhyllan: Yeah it is pretty overhyped; it’s the only thing you get to eat really at a kräftskiva. But moving on, if you had to pick one thing to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Damian: I think I’d go for pasta. As long as it’s different types. I love pasta so much.

Kryddhyllan: Yeah, you can do a bunch of things with pasta so it doesn’t feel like you’re eating the same thing every day for the rest of your life. There are so many shapes! Ok, same question, but for spices. If you could only use one spice or mineral or herb for the rest of your life, what would it be? What’s your spice of life?

Damian: Hmmm.. salt.

Kryddhyllan: We get a lot of salt answers.

Damian: Maybe salt and pepper is too common?

Kryddhyllan: I mean, you can only use it for the rest of your life so choose wisely.

Damian: Yeah, then I’m definitely choosing salt. 

Kryddhyllan: Maybe if we make a recipe book out of this it should just be called “Salt”. Salt is the spice of life.

Damian: It’s a good name!

Kryddhyllan: Yeah, except I guess we’d have to cook every dish with salt then. Which I guess we already do?

Damian: It’s weird to think of a dish without salt.

Kryddhyllan: Yeah, when people say they don’t cook with salt it’s pretty hard to believe. Everyone cooks with salt even if they don’t think they do! *pause for reflection*. So, what is the best meal you’ve ever had in your whole life?

Damian: I mean there were two times that I can really remember, where I look back and I’m just like “MMMMM”. The first time was somebody had made a chanterelle stew with black rice, and it was just like pure happiness in my mouth. Then, I also used to do a lot of couch surfing, welcoming people from abroad here, and this Mexican guy made lasagna for me that literally, was just “MMMMM” levels of good. I have the recipe, but it’s never been as good as when he made it.

Kryddhyllan: Did he have a secret ingredient in the lasagna, something that made it special?

Damian: I can look at the recipe…

Kryddhyllan: But it’s so true, food is never as good when you make it at home as when someone makes it for you. You don’t taste the friendship (cheesy moment). Did you find the secret ingredient in the lasagna?

Damian: No, because the ingredients are extremely common, like chicken, and-

Kryddhyllan: Chicken’s not very common in lasagna?

Damian: Ah yeah, that’s true. Then there’s spinach, onion, cream, cheese.

Kryddhyllan: Yeah, this is not typical lasagna. It definitely sounds tasty though. Creamy chicken lasagna.

Tomas: Actually when I grew up my favorite lasagna was chicken lasagna. Maybe it’s a South American thing.

Kryddhyllan: Now we’re really craving this. 

Damian: It was so, so good. And I made one another time with plantains instead of pasta, and that was also really good.

Tomas: In Brazil, they also eat lasagna with rice.

 Kryddhyllan: Just rice?

Tomas: Yeah. You know how you have rice with beans? Well you can have it with lasagna, because it’s also kind of saucy, and then you add the rice and it absorbs it. Kind of like Thai food!

Kryddhyllan: Fair point! Ok, we have one last question. What is your favorite restaurant at the moment? Can be here or anywhere, but preferably here so we can get sponsored.

Damian: Hmm, I actually haven’t had a real dinner or anything there but when it was my birthday they took me to have brunch at Riche, and that was another time where it just an “MMMM OH MY GOD” moment. I had everything, the omelet, the pancakes and everything was so incredible. I also really like Stockholm Brunch Club. And Santa Salsa of course. But yeah, I love Riche, but I haven’t been in a while. It’s not on my way. We should go there soon *hint hint Tomas* my birthday’s coming up!

Kryddhyllan: Yes, good date spot! Just don’t go too late, it can get quite stökigt. But thank you so much for an amazing meal and interview!

Damian: Thank you so much!!!