In each and every ill-timed and poorly-placed New York street fair, you'll find a MozzArepa cart turning out this New York fusion food, the Colombian/Venezualan corn arepa married to stretchy, salty Italian mozzarella cheese. MozzArepas are easy to replicate at home—if you don't have any P.A.N. flour around, instructions are included for substituting regular yellow cornmeal.
This post is part of the Eating New York series.
A fact of city life is having a street fair crop up exactly when and where you don't need it the most. This happens all the time, especially by your apartment, and is all the more annoying for being entirely superfluous. All those people walking around the street fair? They are annoyed New Yorkers trying to get to their apartment, or possibly tourists. Street fairs are all the same (yeah, even San Gennaro), like exactly the same, down to the booths of pointless tchotchkes, the incense, and the food carts. There is, however, one, and only one, redeeming aspect of the Manhattan street fair: the mozzarepa stand (which, if memory serves, used to always be called MozzArepa Xpress). The portmanteau of mozzarella and arepa, the mozzarepa—a trademarked name, as the company is eager to point out—is made up of two South American style corn cakes with melted cheese sandwiched in the middle. Much like hot nuts (!), mozzarepa come with the exclamation mark implied. It's the RuPaul of street fair food: in your face, over the top, and inherently lovable.
Arepas, a Colombian and Venezualan classic
Arepas themselves, the corn cake part of the deal, have a pre-colonial history and are a staple of both Colombian and Venezuelan cuisine. Arepas with corn kernels and cheese in the batter are called arepas de choclo, and are a Colombian specialty. Slap some Italian mozzarella between no less than two of those not-insubstantial arepas, though, and you've got yourself an only-in-New-York street food classic. Well actually, these arepas rellenas de queso over at My Colombian Recipes are actually made with mozzarella—New York mozzarepas appear to be a cross between those and arepas de choclo, which are made with queso fresco, a salted fresh cheese similar to farmer's.
Sourcing masarepa (arepa corn flour) and substitutions
Unlike tortillas, which are made with masa harina (nixtamilized corn flour; the common brand is Maseca), arepas are traditionally made with masarepa (pre-cooked corn flour, also known by the common brand name, P.A.N.). It seems that most arepa recipes call for white P.A.N., but here we're going with yellow because that is most definitely the standard for the street food version. You can find masarepa in Latin groceries; I've not seen it at local supermarkets (and I live in L.A.).
There is a distinction between cornmeal, which is raw, and masarepa, which is parboiled and will absorb a lot more liquid. If you don't want to track down masarepa or don't have access to it, you can substitute double the amount of fine-ground yellow cornmeal. The first time, many moon ago, when I was called to recreate mozzarepas, I chased down this excellent recipe by Melissa Strauss of Kitchen-Tested, which uses cornmeal specifically.
Making MozzArepas, street fair style
Arepas are a homey food, and making them isn't difficult. For this corny, cheesy version, you have the added step of blending the corn kernels with the milk. After that you warm the milk until it's thickened and foamy, just about to boil. Pour it over the dry ingredients, getting the mozzarella in the batter nice and gooey. Stir until you get a thick pancake consistency batter, and you're ready to griddle.
To make the mozzarepa sandwich, wait until the patties are golden on both sides. Lay a piece of sliced mozzarella over one, then flip a second arepa on top of the first. Wait till the cheese gets melty and stuff the whole thing into your fist while rolling your eyes at tourists.
Mozzarepas - Corn Arepas with Cheese (dairy)
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (see note)
- 1 ½ cup milk
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 ¼ cup masarepa precooked yellow corn flour (P.A.N.) - 155 g - see note for substitutions
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella
- 4 slices aged mozzarella - not fresh
Instructions
- Pulse the corn with milk in a blender two to three times, retaining a bit of texture.
- Pour the corn and milk mixture into a small pot along with the butter. Over medium heat, bring just to a boil. Remove from the heat.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the masarepa flour, sugar, salt and shredded mozzarella.
- Pour the hot milk mixture over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Stir to combine. The batter's consistency should be like that of pancake batter.
- Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat, lightly oiling it with cooking spray. Ladle the mixture, about ⅓ cup of batter at a time, onto the hot griddle, forming a pancake about 4-5" / 10-13 cm in diameter.
- Cook the batter for just 1-2 minutes on the first side-it burns easily, so watch it. Flip and cook on the second side for another 30 seconds-1 minute, until golden but not dark.
- When a cake is ready, immediately place a slice of mozzarella on top. When a second cake comes off the griddle, place it directly on top of the cheese, forming a sandwich. Continue cooking and assembling all the arepas.
- Turn the flame under the griddle/skillet to low. One by one, return the cheese-stuffed arepas to the pan to melt the cheese and heat them up again.
Can you use
White PAN arepa
Flour? It’s all I have
Hi Michelle - absolutely, white pan flour will work the same way. The yellow is specified only because that's what the street vendors use. I hope you enjoy them!
Hi, there is sugar and water in the ingredients list that are not talked about in the instructions . . .
Sorry about that, and thanks for letting me know. I've updated the recipe - it published as an earlier draft. Enjoy!
I went vegan about 5 years ago, and I've been craving street-fair mozzarepas for the entirety of those five years. Today I finally got some PAN corn flour and made your recipe, subbing the dairy with vegan alternatives. And it was soooo good. Everything I wanted and more. The only thing that didn't work for me was flipping the arepas - they were so very delicate that they fell apart while cooking, no matter how carefully I flipped.
One quick question/possible typo. In your instructions, you write: "In a large mixing bowl, combine the masarepa, flour, sugar, salt and shredded mozzarella." But flour isn't listed in the ingredients. I assumed you had meant masarepa flour and that the comma was a typo. But I did see a bunch of arepa de choclo recipes that mix in some all purpose flour, and now I'm wondering if leaving out the all purpose flour was what caused the arepas to be so delicate.
Anyway, thank you for posting this recipe! Absolutely loved the flavor.
Hi Nicki, I am so happy to hear that! Plus, now I have another recipe to make for my vegan and dairy-free friends! And thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. You are correct about the typo - it should read arepa flour. In an earlier version of the recipe, I did use a combination of corn and all-purpose flours. I'm going to restest the recipe this week and will get back to you to see if I can solve the flipping issue. In the meantime, so glad you got to enjoy a nostalgic piece of NYC!
Hi Tamar, thanks for taking the time to reply to me! I wanted to let you know that I made the mozzarepas AGAIN today, because they were just too good not to, and I realized that the problem with the flipping was my fault. Last time I was reviewing, I had forgotten that when I made this, I added more milk than your recipe called for to get it to a "pancake batter" consistency. This time, I followed the exact measurements of your recipe even though the consistency was like nowhere near pancake batter - it was thick and gummy and hard to stir. That made all the difference - these arepas were so easy to flip and the consistency and taste was perfect. Many, many thanks for sharing this recipe!
It is my pleasure! I'm so happy you're enjoying the recipe! Thanks for coming back to update, I'm grateful for your input.
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
You are most welcome! I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe!