Quick Tuna and Potato Salad

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Everyone is so busy now a days.  If it’s not work, it’s everything else: family, home, and every single activity we can cramp into a 12 hour day – ok, a 14-hour day.

What don’t you have a 14-hour day?  You are doing it wrong then.

So, when I have those days that I come home totally deflated because work has just kicked.my.butt all I want to do is eat a bowl of cereal and sit in a corner away from everyone to just get my center back.

Except that a bowl of cereal is not going to give me any energy to tackle the rest of the evening, so I usually turn to this salad.  Mainly because I always have the ingredients that I need a hand and with the microwave being my best friend (sometimes) I can have this ready in less than 20 minutes tops.

Warm potato, tuna, olive oil and hard boil eggs.  What else can comfort you like those ingredients? Nothing I tell you.

Ingredients
Serves 1 (double up if you need to feed more people)

2 hard boiled eggs
1 potato, the baking-type, such as russet
1 can tuna in oil
1/3 cup of olive oil or more
2 tablespoon of vinegar (1 for the salad and 1 for the eggs)
1 tablespoon of chopped herb of choice (Parley, Basil, oregano all work well) optional
Salt & cracked pepper to taste

If you don’t have hard boiled eggs lying around (like I do), then you have to make some.  The sure way to do this is to take your eggs, cold from the refrigerator, and put them in a saucepan; covered with cold water, add a bit of salt (about ½ of teaspoon) which helps prevent cracking and will make the eggs easier to peel. Place the saucepan in a burner on high heat and bring the eggs to a rolling boil.  As soon as the water start to boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover and let them sit for about 13 minutes. Why 13? I have no clue, but I been making enough eggs to know that for me that is the magic number.  Sometimes it may need more (especially if you are making a bigger batch) and like everything in life, the shape of the pan, the size of the eggs, the amount of water, the type of stove, it can take a few more minutes.  When you find the right time that works for you, stick with it.  You can actually let them sit covered up to 20 minutes and they will not overcook.

Back to the eggs, once your time is up, strain out the water from the pan, and fill the pan with cold water, (you can do this over running water) until the eggs cool down a bit.  Once cooled, store the eggs in a container in the refrigerator or in this case, peel them, chopped them up, sprinkle with a bit of salt and put them aside.

Now on to the potato or in my case micro'd potato.

You want to clean your potato before putting it in the microwave.  Over water, rise and scrub off any dirt, dry it up and then taking a fork poke holes into the potato in a number of areas. A quick lesson here: The fork punctures will allow the potato to cook a little faster and keep it from exploding – which trust me is NO FUN.

Place the potato in the microwave and press the “Potato” setting, and forget about it.  If your microwave does not have this setting, then cooking time may vary depending on the microwave and the size of the baked potato. The average time for a baked potato in the microwave will be about 8 minutes. If after 8 minutes you test it and it does not feel soft/tender to the touch, then cook it for another 2 minutes.

Once the potato has cooked it is a good idea to let it cool for about 1-2 minutes, then remove it from the microwave oven, cut in half and spoon out the center into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and the vinegar.

Add the chopped up boiled eggs.

Open the can of tuna, and if there is a lot of oil, drain a bit off.  Then pour over the potato/eggs in the bowl.  Mix in the chopped herb of choice.  With a spoon, gently fold all of the ingredients, Then I pour the olive oil, I usually eye ball it, you want the salad coated in olive oil (those potatoes will absorb a lot of oil) but not drowned in it.  (I tend to like the taste of olive oil, so I usually do go heavy on the coating), toss a bit more, and serve at room temperature.

For me this is comfort food at its best.

Variation:  If you want to go way out, I sometimes cut a tomato and throw that in as well.  I did not have tomatoes this time, so I left them out. Boo!

Arepas Dulces: Sweet Venezuelan filled corn cakes

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These little round disks are a staple food in my country.  Growing up in Venezuela these were eaten for breakfast, as a side to any dish even as a midnight snack after a night out of heavy dancing.

In Venezuela you have small local “areperas”, which only served this corn cake with tons of choices for filling: ham, cheese, eggs, shredded beef and many, many more choices.  We also have tons of nicknames for the way they may be served.  A “Reina Pepiada,” (shredded chicken, mayonnaise and peas with slices of soft avocado.) named after Venezuela’s first international beauty queen Susana Dujim.  A plain arepa is called a viuda or “widow,” because it’s all alone. A chicken and cheese arepa is called catiraor “blondie,” for its yellow color.  Arepa “Perico” is made with a scrambled eggs and you also have Arepa “Rumbera” (Party) which is made with Pork meat.  You can grill, fry or bake them.  In Venezuela they are usually made on top of a “budare”, which is a large skillet, that is heated until very hot and the arepas are then grilled.

For me I love them any way, but this past weekend I had a huge craving for them, but I wanted them sweet.  And this recipe is from my nanny (yes, I had one of those growing up – don’t you judge me, that’s another staple in my country, everyone had a maid living in their house).  My nanny, Maria, made them just like the “regular” savory arepa, but she did put a bit of sugar on them and instead of forming them into a thick disk, she made them a bit thinner.  This created a reaction when they got placed in hot oil to fry them and before you very eyes, the top of the arepa will bubble up and create a crispy dome.

The hint of sweet with the savory filling is such a blissful combination.  They are not very difficult to make and in less than 20 minutes you can have a batch ready.

There is a great debate that the only way to make them is by using pre-cooked corn meal flour called “Harina P.A.N” which is actually imported from Venezuela and found in most supermarkets in the Latin food aisle.  If you cannot find this, you can also use Masarepa, but be warned they are not going to come out as authentic.

To make about 4-5 Arepas you will need:

1 cup of Harina P.A.N (pre-cook corn meal flour)
1 ¼ cup of warm water (or a bit more)
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 ½ cup of oil for frying

Filling: Anything you want, in this recipe I filled my up with cheese and ham.

Warm up the water, and then mix in the sugar and salt – taste, the water it should be a bit sweet with a hit of salt.  You can add more sugar or salt at this point too.

In a mixing bowl, pour the cup of Harina PAN, then with your hands slowly mix while pouring about ½ of the water mixture. With your hands continue mixing, if dry, pour more water, while kneading, about 5 minutes or so.  The dough should end up smooth and not crack around the edges, moist but not sticky.

To form them, put some dough between both palms, slowly start rolling the dough and form a ball, then still rolling between both palms, slowly flatten the ‘dough’ to the thickness you want, in this case about 1/4” or so. Make sure the edges (and the tops) are round with no cracks! If you have any cracks, they will not bubble up when you immersed them in the oil. When you are flattening them you see some cracks forming,  dab your finger in water and try to ‘erase’ the crack.

As you form them put them aside and cover them with a damp towel or paper towel, so they don’t dry up.

Place the oil in a deep saucepan in medium high heat, the oil needs to be very hot, but not smoky or when you put the first arepa it will burn - not good.  To test it, take a bit of the dough, roll into a small ball and dip in the oil, if the ball start to fry fast (bubbles all over it) and raises to the top, then the oil is ready.

Slowly, take the prepare arepa disk and place in a metal slotted spoon and slowly dip in the oil.  It will start to bubble up fast and then within a minute or so (sometimes a bit more), the top should start to inflate up … fry for about 2 more minutes until the top is nice and golden color. Take out and place in a dish covered with paper towel so it will absorb the oil.  Note: If they don’t inflate, don’t worry, continue to cook and remove once they are golden color - they are just as good.

Continue doing this until all of your prepared dough disks are cooked.  

When ready to stuff them with your favorite filling, open a slit in 1 side of the arepa to make a pocket (or slice in half) and filled them with your favorite filling.

You can also do the same steps, to create one without the sugar.  Just obmit, and instead of flatted them, make the a bit thicker about 3/4-inch.  You can also fry them, or simply bake them in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes or so, until they sound a bit hallow when you tap them, or grill them in a hot grill.  There is a good video in how to make them here.