Red Bean Treats

Red bean paste is traditionally used in many Chinese desserts. It is usually very sweet and appealing to many people. This recipe is pretty un-traditional and something that my mom decided to make one day. It's very simple to put together. I wanted to post this to show off her hand crimping skills. I've tried many many times and yet still cannot produce these beautiful results.

1 12 oz can of red bean paste (found in all asian grocery stores)

1 package ready use pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to package directions

2. Unfold pie crust and cut circles with a drinking glass

3. Put about 2 tsp of red bean paste in the middle and crimp the edges

4. Bake until golden brown on top

Arepas

Arepas are bread made out of corn originating from South America. It's flat and unleavened made out of cornmeal that is grilled, baked, fried, or a combo of those three. The first time I ever had one was in NYC at Caracas, an amazing little restaurant on 7th St just east of First Ave. It's on my list of favorite places to eat. Once you make the Arepa, you can stuff it with practically anything. This was my first attempt at making arepas, and it actually turned out very well. For my next round, I think I'm going to do some pulled pork. For this recipe, I chose to finish off the chorizo sausages I bought at Despana in NYC (unfortunately not from Spain. Boo to you USDA), avocado, cotija cheese, which is a hard cow's milk cheese, and chipotle mayo. To be ultra-traditional, I suppose you should grind your own corn meal, etc, but really, my 80 hr work week sort of prohibits that part. I bought precooked white corn meal (P.A.N. brand), but any brand will do.

Arepas:
Preheat oven to 400
2 cups cornmeal (makes about 6 arepas)
2.5 cups boiling water
Vegetable oil

Assembly:
Chorizo, sliced
1 Avocado sliced
Cotija sliced
chipotle mayo (recipe below)

1. Mix the boiling water into the cornmeal well with a spoon (too hot to do by hand), and cover with plastic and let it sit for 15 min, or cool enough to handle.
2. Wet your hands. Pick up a small amount and roll into a ball (little smaller than a tennis ball) and flatten to about 3/4" thick. If it starts to crack on the edges, just add some water and smooth it out (kinda like ceramics class).
3. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil and fry both sides until golden brown.
4. Put into oven for about 15 min until it sounds hollow when you tap it with a wooden spoon.
5. Cut the arepas open and fill with any ingredients you can think of!

Chipotle Mayo:
+/-4 dried chipotles (chipotles are just smoke dried aged jalapenos) as these are slightly spicy. Also, my "mildly" spicy can often be someone else's very spicy.
1 cup mayo
zest of 1/2 lime
1 tsp lime juice
boiling water (about 3/4 cup)
Few cranks of a pepper mill

1. Reconstitute the chipotles in boiling water.
2. Throw everything into a blender (minus the water that the chipotles were sitting in)
3. Blend until well combined