When we talk about budare and corn, I think of the work my mother and grandmothers did in those years, living in the countryside, the process of having the arepa on the daily menu: the planting, the harvest, the way they removed the corn when it was no longer tender, then pounded it in a mortar to take it to be boiled; then, it was ground; in ancient times, they used to grind it with stones. My mother told me she never learned to use that type of mill.
Nowadays, making an arepa is very simple. We have a variety of brands of corn flour. The key is which one we like best. We take certain elements into account. For example, when kneading (here's the big challenge: if you add the water first, then the flour), my best way is to add the water as I combine everything. Another element to consider is the texture of the dough, whether it cracks or not (in our country, Venezuela, we've gone through this flour journey for the reason we all know: we had to knead flours that we'd give up on due to their taste. Well, I did it more than once (because of how bad both the texture and the flavor were). Others didn't want to eat ground corn arepas anymore because of the huge market for this in those times we lived in.
Well, my husband and I bought ground corn, washed it thoroughly, parboiled it at home, and he was in charge of grinding it. These, you could say, tasted like corn, without any kind of alliance, the pure flavor of budare and corn. We maintained this for a while. Today, our traditional brand is on many plates. Although it now has competition, there are brands that can be enjoyed without the taste that others left in our mouths and in our minds.
Our traditional corn flour for making arepas can now be nourished with flaxseed. Oats, with vegetables like carrots and zucchini. In fact, those are the photos I'm sharing in this post, of my well-nourished and healthy properties.
We can also associate making arepas with a therapeutic action, first because of the kneading, then because of the way we take the dough and shape it with our hands in the air. Although I sometimes see other ideas for shaping arepas, I particularly prefer the traditional one.
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