fantastico!
thank you for this! i do love me some mandocas and the arepas dulce. mum and i have had these as small as “silver dollar” size (~5cm) to as large as 10cm. i prefer the sweeter corn version with cheese and ham!
we don’t make them at home - yet(!) - but can find frozen ones at local markets. but given your most helpful post here, i will try to make these at home!
muchas gracias!
eta: we usually pair these with my frijoles negros en estilo Cubano, perhaps a “fusion” treatment, but here we are surrounded by all of these great latin/hispanic/caribé cuisines, i just can’t do just one at a time!
11 Likes
I keep meaning to ask my mom to send me her recipe for the dough and i keep not doing so. I called her earlier this afternoon and told her i’d need it, i’ll be in Houston next week so i’ll likely write it down then.
If you’re familiar with Venezuelan eggnog i do have a recipe to make some and it’s quite good.
Edit: Pretty tired this evening so hopefully i’ll remember to post the recipe and instructions tomorrow. It’s pretty easy, which is a huge bonus because in comparison the American version of eggnog is a pain in the ass to make.
8 Likes
Thank you so much for the excellent list!
I spent many weeks in Guayana City years ago. My driver would stop on the roadside to get empanadas for breakfast from ladies cooking them at roadside stands. So greasy, but so good.
Any time I had arepas, it was large, covering most of a dinner plate. Piled with beef or chicken, cheese, and grilled vegetables. And plantains. Always with the plantains.
Didn’t realize they were so flexible.
7 Likes
Reminds me of the way Colombians eat arepas, they pile stuff on top of it instead of filling it 
7 Likes
Sooo, sort of an arepizza?
7 Likes
Ok, here we go. Wall of text ahead.
Here’s an easy and hopefully non-fussy recipe for (Venezuelan) eggnog, called Ponche Crema. I suppose it translates to cream punch 
but it’s basically a very thick and sweet eggnog that’s spiked with rum and flavored with vanilla and whatever else you like. You can flavor it with coffee, chocolate, and i’m sure you could use other things but for us we default to vanilla and coffee versions. Typically you serve it on the rocks or crushed ice, this will help keep it cold but also dilute it.
This homemade nog will store for a long time in a fridge, in my family we typically make it around xmas or before the end of the year and then stash it in the fridge to enjoy the following year during the winter holidays. But technically you can make this the same day or the day before, but ideally you want to make it a few weeks up to a month or two in advance because sometimes it needs time to “set” (aka thicken in the bottle). Ultimately it’ll taste fine even if you make it the same day.
Ingredients:
- 4-5 egg yolks
- 1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- An inexpensive aged rum, you’ll use 14oz worth of rum so use the sweetened condensed milk can to measure. Rum-wise i recommend Flor de Caña 4 year old rum but if you have easier access to something else go ahead.
- Vanilla to taste
Preparation:
- Crack and separate the yolks from the whites.
- Use a hand mixer, stand mixer or a blender to mix the egg yolks. Buckle up because you’re going to need to mix them for a long time, the longer you can aerate them the better and quicker the Ponche Crema will thicken. If you’ve got the luxury of time and you’re making this way in advance then you can mix them for a shorter amount of time and they will eventually set. But give it 15-20 mins at least, if you can give it longer then great.
- Once the yolks have been mixed long enough you can start adding in all of the ingredients. Mix it all and then pour into glass bottles that have been property cleaned and sterilized, you can reuse corks, buy silicone corks or buy/upcycle glass bottles that are sealable like this one. This recipe will make about 700-750ml worth of Ponche Crema. Make at least a double batch so you can have a regular vanilla one and one flavored.
- If you’re using coffee or other flavorings i’d recommend adding it at the end when the Ponche Crema has already had time to set in the fridge. Add the coffee or whatever additional flavoring a little bit at a time and taste it, you don’t have to be heavy handed. If using coffee then use instant if you have it on hand and dissolve it into a small amount of water, if you use coffee grains just make it extra strong but again try not to add too much liquid.
Notes:
- The final consistency of Ponche Crema is somewhat thick, however it’s not uncommon for it to set overly thick in the bottle so you might need to add milk, booze, or another liquid to help loosen it up to what you need. What’s the correct thickness? Not sure what the best references to use are but took a look what my fridge and i’d guess it’s between peptobismol and ketchup?
If a Venezuelan or someone that’s had it before wants to give a better descriptor have at it lol. - For the amount of rum you can use more or less depending on your preference, though if it had too little rum i’d be concerned over the lack of alcohol not preserving it well and it going off.
- You want to be a good Ponche Crema drinker? Sneak small tastes of it throughout the year and be indignant if anyone suggests drinking it outside December… unless they really want a taste. Then you give them a small serving to enjoy and then cut them off and say if they want some more to wait until Dec. You’d also happily sell them a bottle.
- Could you flavor this with winter spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and the like? Sure! I haven’t done so myself mainly because the vanilla is what’s nostalgic to me.
- Date and label your bottles, especially if you’ve got different flavors.
- When filling up a bottle leave plenty of room, don’t fill up the neck. You want enough room to dilute if needed.
Have questions or comments about this? Let me know, hopefully i didn’t miss anything but if i did i’d be happy to edit my post.
11 Likes
If you want to try finding the OG Venezuelan product, no idea if they sell it in the US but it is Ponche Crema and it looks like this:
10 Likes
Playing with that stand mixer again. This turned out so much better than we hoped.
I think we’re gonna skip dinner and just eat bread and butter.
11 Likes
I want the bread pan!
11 Likes
My wife’s niece made it for us as a Christmas gift years ago.
It’s sees more meatloaf than bread but I think that’s going to change.
12 Likes
A lovely loaf! Great oven spring.
9 Likes
@Kii Saw this on my youtube recs this morning and was reminded of the kolache & klobasneks post of yours
6 Likes
For the record, those are not kolaches: they are Texas ‘kolaches’. World of difference!
(They don’t even know how to pronounce the word!)
3 Likes
I haven’t watched the video myself, i do like Claire so i’ll prob watch it later today but if she’s making these in Austin i would assume they would be “Texas style” as you said
5 Likes
I was inspired by the breakfast thread and couldn’t decide whether to make fools Mesdames or shakshuka so I made a mixture of both!
7 Likes
Fusion cuisine for the win!
7 Likes
They do look like Texas style kolaches. Especially the spicy meat ones. They look delicious tho
4 Likes
We’re deciding between pork chops or pork loin tonight.
My version of tonkatsu is shake and bake in the air fryer.
4 Likes
