A corn arepa fried once, split open, filled with a raw egg and fried again until the egg sets inside. The breakfast of the Colombian Caribbean coast.
Two fryings, and what each one does
The first frying is not about cooking the arepa through. It is about making it puff.
A thin corn arepa dropped into hot oil traps steam between its two surfaces, and that steam pushes them apart. What comes out is a small hollow shell with a pocket inside, which is the whole architecture of the dish.
The second frying, after the egg is in, cooks the egg. Four minutes is enough for the white to set and the yolk to stay soft, which is what most people want.
Thin, or nothing happens
The third step offers two ways to shape them, by hand or pressed under a lid between sheets of plastic wrap, and then adds that the idea is to be thin.
That is the whole instruction that matters. A thick arepa will not puff, because the dough is too heavy for the steam to lift. No pocket means nowhere for the egg to go, and the recipe stops there.
Seventy grams of dough each, pressed out flat. Thinner than feels comfortable.
The seal
Cut an opening about an inch and a half long in the side, crack an egg into a cup, and pour it in slowly.
Then take a small piece of dough left over from shaping and press it firmly over the cut. This is the step that decides whether it works: egg that finds its way out spreads across the surface of the oil, burns immediately, and leaves you with a hollow arepa.
Lower it into the oil seal-side up. Gravity keeps the egg away from the opening for the few seconds it takes for the outside to firm up.
Eat it immediately
This is street food and it does not wait. Straight out of the oil, drained on kitchen paper, eaten standing up.
Ten minutes later the shell has gone soft from the steam inside it and the egg has carried on cooking. It is still edible. It is not the thing people queue for on the coast.
More arepas
- Traditional arepas — the plain corn ones.
- Stuffed arepas — filled before cooking.
- Cheese arepas — with cheese in the dough.
- Wheat flour arepas — no corn at all.
Arepa de Huevo FAQ
The first frying creates the pocket. The arepa puffs in the oil and its two walls separate, leaving a hollow inside. The egg goes into that hollow raw, and the second frying cooks it.
It was rolled too thick. The dough has to be genuinely thin for steam to force the two sides apart, which is what the third step means when it says the idea is to be thin.
Seal the opening with a small piece of dough, pressed firmly over the cut, and lower the arepa into the oil seal-side up. Egg that escapes spreads across the oil and burns.
So you can pour it slowly and stop if the opening is too small, and so a broken yolk can be dealt with before it is inside the arepa. The old instruction said a casserole, which is far too large to pour from.
Precooked cornmeal, masarepa, sold as harina de maíz precocida. Ordinary cornmeal will not form a dough that holds together.
No. The puffing that creates the pocket depends on deep frying, and there is no way to reproduce it in an oven.
The Caribbean coast of Colombia. It is sold from carts in Cartagena and Barranquilla in the mornings and it is meant to be eaten within minutes of leaving the oil.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 280 g cornmeal (precooked, masarepa)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- Oil (for deep frying)
- 4 eggs
Notas
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the cornmeal and the salt. Add the water and work it with your hands into a dough. Let it rest.
- Divide the mixture into four equal parts, about 70 g each, and roll each one into a ball.
- You have two options here: shape a thin arepa with your hands, or put the dough between sheets of plastic wrap and press it flat with a lid. The point is to get it thin.
- Heat the oil, and when it is properly hot, lower the arepas in one at a time and fry for 3 minutes, turning once.
- Lift them out and drain them.
- Let them sit for a moment, then cut an opening about 1½ inches long in the side with a sharp knife.
- Crack an egg into a cup and pour it carefully through the opening so it goes inside the arepa, raw.
- Take a small piece of dough and seal the opening. Do the same with the rest.
- Put the arepas back into the hot oil and fry them for about 4 minutes.
- Lift them out onto kitchen paper to drain, and eat them straight away.
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