Category
Breakfast
12 recipes
BreakfastColombian Cheese Arepas, the 30-Minute Breakfast
Colombian cheese arepas made with masarepa, queso fresco in the dough and mozzarella melted inside. Ready in 30 minutes for 4 large arepas. Which corn flour actually works, which US cheeses melt, dough troubleshooting and freezing.
BreakfastColombian Pandeyuca, Crisp Cheese Rings From Cassava
Pandeyuca is a crisp Colombian cheese bread made with plain tapioca starch, cheese and baking powder, baked 13 minutes at 445 °F. Why it uses sweet starch rather than sour, why the dough chills, and how it differs from pandebono.
BreakfastColombian Pandebono, Cheese Bread That Puffs Without Yeast
Colombian pandebono is a gluten-free cheese bread that rises on steam alone, from sour cassava starch fermented for a month and dried in the sun. Which bag to buy, which cheese works and the oven heat that makes it puff.
BreakfastColombian Chicken Tamales in Banana Leaf
Colombian chicken tamales with corn masa, bone-in thighs, potato, carrot and peas wrapped in banana leaf, a dozen per batch. Why breast dries out over a two-hour steam and why three quarters of the sofrito belongs in the masa.
BreakfastColombian Arepa de Huevo, a Whole Egg Fried Inside
Arepa de huevo is a Caribbean-coast corn arepa fried twice with a whole egg sealed inside its own steam pocket. How that pocket forms, the five-minute window for cutting it open, US substitutions and every way it fails.
BreakfastColombian Pork Tamales in Banana Leaf
Colombian pork tamales built on leg and spare ribs, with the masa hydrated by the pork's own broth and checked with the float test. Why this is the one tamale that needs no added lard, and how much broth per cup of masarepa.
BreakfastColombian Sweet Corn Arepas, Griddled With Cheese
Arepas de chócolo: fresh sweet corn blended with a little precooked corn flour, cooked in butter over medium-low heat and topped with cheese. Why tender corn sweetens itself, when the cheese goes on and how it differs from a cachapa.
BreakfastGarullas, Colombian Cheese and Corn Rolls
Garullas are the cheese roll of Soacha, near Bogotá: corn and wheat flour, fresh curd and creamed butter, baked 24 minutes at 350°F. Why creaming instead of kneading makes them crumbly, and which cheese to use outside Colombia.
BreakfastArepas Boyacenses, Stuffed with Fresh Cheese and Panela
Boyacense arepas are yellow corn dough with 28% wheat flour, stuffed with fresh curd and panela and browned in butter. Why the wheat is what lets you seal them, and which cheese softens without melting. Eight arepas.
BreakfastArepa Santandereana, with Cassava and Pork Cracklings
The santandereana arepa rests on three ingredients that each do a job: hulled corn for texture, cassava for the starch that binds, cracklings for fat. Cooked dry on a griddle, eight at a time, in three hours.
BreakfastColombian Calentado, Yesterday's Beans and Rice
Calentado paisa: leftover beans and rice fried with chorizo until a crust forms, topped with a fried egg and an arepa. The 2-hour rule, the 165 °F reheat and why Colombians cook extra beans on purpose.
BreakfastChangua, Colombian Milk and Egg Breakfast Soup
Changua from Bogotá is an egg poached whole in milk and water with scallion and cilantro, served over dry bread. The temperature window that keeps the yolk soft, why the milk is cut with water and what goes in the bowl.