#barandas

The Country

The nation of Venezuela, or, technically now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is (for the US-oriented) about twice the size of California and is bordered by Brazil (Week 24), Colombia (Week 37), and Guyana (Week 71), with the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago (Week 176) being just off the nation’s northeast coast. 

Originally populated by a series of indigenous tribes, their numbers were decimated by disease after the first European contact when the Spanish discovered the territory in 1498.

They began establishing colonies in the area in 1511 and, after fierce resistance by the native peoples, the Spanish pushed further into the nation’s interior. By the end of the century, most of the land was under Spanish control and was part of the vast expanse known as the Viceroyalty of New Granada. 

Battles for independence began in the early 1800s, when the nation twice declared itself free and was twice recaptured by Spain. Under the leadership of Simón Bolivar, the region finally achieved independence in 1823 as Gran Colombia, a massive new nation comprised of what is present-day Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, with parts of northern Brazil and western Guayana thrown in. Finally, in 1830, Venezuela became independent on its own.

In fact, it is estimated that somewhere between a quarter and a third of the nation’s population died during the two decades of struggle for independence.

After that, however, the nation has seen a nearly unending parade of dictatorial leadership, military coups, civilian/military coups, economic crashes and more. The discovery of oil reserves in the nation during World War I has been both a blessing and a curse for the country, even being referred to as “the Devil’s excrement” by a noted political figure in the 1970s. As oil revenues brought great fortune to the nation, even ranking it the richest in all of Latin America in 1935, it also brought with it great corruption and economic disparity.

And each time oil markets have come crashing down, so has the economy of Venezuela. 

After a series of economic crises in the 1980s and 1990s, the Venezuelan people voted in a leftist socialist leader in erstwhile coup participant Hugo Chavez, who embarked on a program of nationalizing industry and putting all of Venezuela’s chips on the oil market. After his death in 2013, his successor has overseen the economic collapse of the nation which, at this writing, is, in a word, horrific.

Seemingly anyone with the means to do so seems to have left the nation, and those left behind cope with energy and food shortages that only a few years ago would have been unimaginable. More tragic, still, is the sad news that, at least by one metric, the country has become the most murderous in the world. 

BONUS TRIVIA:

The ethnic mix in Venezuela is a curious one which, as one would expect, is largely a mix of people of African, Spanish and indigenous origin. However, the country also has a sizable population of people of French, Italian and Portuguese origin. After World War II, Europeans left their homelands for Venezuela (and other notable parts of Latin America) and greatly affected the nation’s ethnic diversity.

The Venezuelan constitution recognizes Spanish as an official language alongside some 30 other indigenous ones. There are also colonies of Arabic-speaking Lebanese, Syrian and Portuguese-speaking peoples in specific parts of the country.

Before World War II, many immigrants came to the country from the Canary Islands, a circumstance which led to it being called the “8th island of the Canaries.”

The national instrument of Venezuela is the (Venezuelan) cuatro, a 4-stringed instrument much like a ukulele, which is played very differently.

Venezuela is one of the world’s top 20 countries having native plant and animal life that can be found nowhere else on the planet.

There are over 25,000 species of orchids in Venezuela, including the lovely flor de mayo orchid, the national flower.

Speaking of pulchritude, beauty pageants are a serious business in Venezuela, with the country having won (at this writing) 6 Miss World, 7 Miss Universe, 7 Miss International and 2 Miss Earth titles. (What? No Miss Galaxy?) 

The Food

The cuisine of Venezuela is, as you’d imagine, a mix of indigenous, Spanish and African influences, with pork, beef and fish dishes being complemented by corn or cassava-derived starches. Plantains, both green and ripe, are used in many forms as are a variety of dried legumes,

Regional differences abound, but, as with Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia, the arepa, a versatile cornmeal cake, is a common staple at several meals.

In formulating my dinner, I opted to cook over two nights, because I desperately wanted to make arepas again, since the last time I got to was way back in cooking Colombia (Week 37) and that’s too long. Also, I have fond memories of having them when eating with the Venezuelan and Colombian families who were my neighbors on either side growing up.

So, I decided that for Night One I’d make ...

Reina Pepiada (Arepa Sandwich with Chicken Salad Filling) using this recipe [2022 edit: archived link] with an assist on the arepa process from this recipe [2022 edit: archived link], served with

Guasacaca (Venezuelan Avocado Salsa) from a recipe found in this Flash-based cookbook (sorry, mobile readers!), with

Plantain Chips using the same recipe I used for once before.

And for Night Two, i’d make the Venezuelan national dish ...

Pabellon con Barandas (Platter of Shredded Beef, White Rice and Black Beans with Fried Plantains) using the various recipes attached here.

The Cook (Night One)

Shameless plug: I live-stream my cook/prep work on Meerkat and Periscope, available for iOS and Android and visible on the web. Follow @cliffieland on Twitter or Facebook for times. Also check out my YouTube channel 

Watch a replay of this night here

The Guasacaca

Since this one works best when it’s chilled for an hour or so, I started with this one.

Into a bowl, I scooped the innards of one Hass avocado.

And I added lemon juice and mashed it up.

Into a second bowl, I diced another avocado.

Then, into the food processor, I dropped diced onion.

Chopped tomatoes.

Green bell pepper.

Chopped cilantro.

Salt.

Diced red chili peppers.

Lemon juice.

And olive oi.

And pureed that into a frothy mix.

I poured the mix over the mashed avocado.

And I folded in the diced avocado.

I covered that and set it in the fridge to cool for an hour before dinner.

The Reina Pepiada

Next, I turned to the arepa sandwich. Incidentally, the name “reina pepiada” is one of many variations of arepas. Plain, they are called “viudas,” meaning they are “widows.” Filled this way, though, the name means, well, roughly, “shapely queen.” You go figure it out.

To tackle this, I’d have to break the dish into two parts. First ...

Part 1.) Las Arepas (The Arepas)

Into a bowl, I poured the masa, or pre-cooked corn meal.

To that, I added sugar.

And salt.

In another bowl, I poured melted butter.

And I added in water.

I mixed that up and slowly added it to the dry ingredients.

Using a spoon and then my hands, I formed it into a dough.

Once it finally came together and absorbed the water ...

I divided that into 16 portions. I flattened each ball of dough into a palm-sized circle and laid them out on a plate.

I heated up some oil in a skillet and proceeded to fry them a few minutes on each side until they were golden brown.

I placed them on a baking tray.

And I set them to bake in the oven at 350ºF for about 30 minutes.

Then, I moved on to ...

Part 2.) The Chicken Salad Stuffing

Here, I got really lucky, since I just HAPPENED to have half a leftover baked chicken from last week’s dish from Vanuatu (Week 188). (I swear, I never get this lucky.)

So, since the recipe called for “cooked chicken,” I was set.

I shredded the chicken in a bowl.

And I added in the diced onion.

Mayonnaise.

Lemon juice.

Cilantro.

And salt and pepper.

And I folded in a diced Hass avocado.

I set that aside while I moved on to the last part of this dish ...

The Plantain “Chips”

There wasn’t much to this. And I kind of messed it up. See, I knew I should have shaved the plantains paper-thin with the mandoline, but, well, I got lazy.

So, I ended up making plantain nuggets instead of crispy chips. And since I didn’t want to use the deep fryer on this one, I heated up canola oil in a pot to 375ºF and fried the “chips” there.

After a minute or so, they were ready, (Some were too ready.)

And then it was time for dinner.

I took the arepas out of the oven and sliced them open with a paring knife and stuffed  them with the chicken salad filling. I spooned the guasacaca into ramekins and placed a few plantain “chips” alongside. In the end, that looked like this.

The Tasting

The Guasacaca: It’s hard to review a salsa, since so much is dependent on what goes with it. Still, it was creamy and spicy and made a great compliment to the “chips,” which we established weren’t chips at all. I imagine it would go great on steaks and I expect we’ll get a chance to try that out in a day or so. If the avocado holds up!

The Reina Pepiada: All kinds of yum! The arepas were just as they should be, crispy on the outside and slightly doughy on the inside. In fact, I was amazed that I was able to successfully cut these open and fill them with that chicken salad. And, oh, what a chicken salad it was. As you can see, I served four sandwiches on each plate. And when The Husband got full after this third ... well, I got piggy. Oink. 

The Cook (Night Two)

Watch a replay of this night here

The Pabeilon con Barandas

An epic night which started soon after noon, since the meat took six whole hours to cook. And even then, I added a step (since I took a tip from a separate recipe) and marinated the meat for an extra hour beforehand.

Oh yeah, and since this had so many moving parts I had to make a flow chart to figure out what to put on what burner when since everything was happening at the same time towards the end.

Hence. I’ve separated this by component.

First ...

Part 1.) La Carne Mechada (The Shredded Beef)

I took out the pound of flank steak (I only bought one instead of two, since there are only two of us here). I cut that into six semi-equal portions.

And then, into a mortar, I dropped the chopped garlic.

Paprika.

Sliced habanero pepper.

And I rubbed that all over the meat. I placed it in a plastic bag and set it in the fridge for about an hour or so. (It would have been better marinating overnight, but you can’t have everything.)

After it had marinated, I set it in a heavy saucepan and covered it with water.

And then I added to that the chopped onion, red bell pepper, spring onion, celery and sprigs of parsley and mint.

And, once in the pot, I let that simmer, adding water from time to time, for SIX. SOLID. HOURS.

When that time was up, I removed the meat and set it aside, draining the broth for some future use and disposing of the rest.

And while the meat cooled, I heated up some oil in the pot and added the sliced onion.

Sliced red bell pepper.

And chopped garlic.

And I let that soften for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I shredded the now-tender beef with a fork and then added that to the mix.

After a few minutes, I mixed in the diced tomato.

Chopped cilantro.

Sliced habanero peppers.

And some soy sauce.

And I let that cook for another few minutes before dinner.

Part 2.) Las Caraotas Negras (The Black Beans)

Like I said, there was a time-space continuum thing happening this week, since so much of each preparation overlapped with every other part of the cook this night.

This part started only TWO hours before dinner.

I took the black beans that had been soaking in the fridge overnight (yes, I had to soak them overnight, damn it all!) and dropped them in a saucepan.

To that, I added water.

Sliced red bell pepper.

And salt.

And I let that all simmer for a whole HOUR AND A HALF.

That, my friends, is why the video -- if you see it -- shows three stages. No one needs to see me twiddle my thumbs (read: prep like crazy) for two hours.

When that time was nearly up, I started on the sofrito for the beans.

I heated up some oil in a sauté pan and added in the sliced onion.

Sliced habanero pepper.

And HALF A HEAD of chopped garlic. (No wonder it still smells in here!)

Once I burned the garlic by dint of having let the pan get too hot, I cursed and went ahead and added the ground cumin.

And, a minute later, I added that mix to the beans.

And, like the meat, I let that sit for a few minutes before serving.

Part 3.) El Arroz Venezolano (The Venezuelan-Style Rice)

Once more we go BACK in time!

This time it’s only a half hour before service and it was time to get going on the Venezuelan rice.

Into a pot, I added salt.

Chopped garlic.

Half an onion.

Sliced green bell pepper.

And sliced red bell pepper.

And the long grain rice.

I stirred and sautéed that until the rice was well coated in the oil. When I felt it was ready, I added in the water.

And I let that come to a boil and then covered it and set it on a low heat for about 15 minutes.

Then -- no time travel required -- I moved to ...

Part 4.) Los Platanos Fritos (The Fried Plantains)

Seriously, I’ve done fried plantains so many times it doesn’t even merit pictures. Just check out any of a dozen African or Latin American entries on this thing and I’ll sure you’ll hit one preparation.

Basically,I sliced a plantain lengthwise and fried the pieces in canola oil.

Curiously, the one interesting thing was that while I was cooking I had a viewer looking on from Kazakhstan. And, to my amusement, he or she had no idea or even a reference point as to what a plantain was. Ah, the internets!

Finally, it was dinner time.

I made ramekin mounds of the rice and topped each one with some butter and mint leaves. I scooped the rice into bowls and placed them alongside. (Yes, the components are served separately and mixed upon eating, as is tradition.)

I scooped the meat into the center of the plate and placed the plantains alongside.

Oh yes, this brings me to why this is called “Pabellón con Baranda.”

Pabellónˆ means “pavilion.”

“Barandas” are the guard rails along highways.

The idea: the plantains, or barandas are the guard rails that keep the food on the plate.

Hence, this.

The Tasting

The Everything: Phenomenal. Marvelous. Considering my Puerto Rican heritage, I have been routinely ashamed as to how badly I messed up the food of so many Latin American nations. (At least until I got to the “P” countries. And by then, I had used most of them up.)

So this was clearly one of the best Latin American meals I’ve made so far. The rice was well-cooked with the curious flavors of onion and pepper cooked in. The beans, likewise, got a nice kick from the spicy sofrito. The plantains did exactly what they were supposed to do. And the meat, it was tender, packed with flavor and surprisingly moist and supple. 

¡Que chevere! ¡Un millón de gracias, Venezolanos!

And that, my friends, wraps up one whole side of the world!

Now, on to finish off the rest!

Shameless plug #2 for those that scrolled down: I live-stream my cook/prep work on Meerkat and Periscope, available for iOS and Android and visible on the web. Follow @cliffieland on Twitter or Facebook for times. Also check out my YouTube channel