Cachapas are similar to corn cakes filled with cheese. Venezuelans love having them as treats or breakfast dishes. It’s buttery, sweet, and oozing with the corn flavor. In Venezuela, they traditionally use queso telita or queso de mano. However, they may be hard to find when you live outside the country, so you can use other cheese that suits your taste.
Mozzarella is a good choice for cheese since it melts quickly. It still provides a contrasting flavor to the cachapas even though it is less salty and stringy. You can also add protein-rich ingredients to your cachapas, such as shredded chicken or other meat.
You must not mistake cachapas for another Venezuelan staple dish, arepas. The latter is made with cornflour and not fresh corn, unlike cachapas. Arepas can keep their shape no matter what you use as filling since they are hard as bread and savory.
In Venezuela, they make cachapas from fresh and tender corn cob. It’s crucial that you blend the batter to the right consistency – not too little and not too much. You will enjoy preparing the dish and love eating it as well. You can surprise your guests by serving them cachapas and sharing a little knowledge about where the recipe came from.
This recipe can make 6 cachapas that you can make in less than an hour.
Ingredients:
For assembling the cachapas:
- Vegetable oil
- 250 grams Buffalo mozzarella cheese
For the batter:
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 400 grams can sweet corn
Directions:
- Put all the ingredients for the batter in a food processor or blender. Process for 1 minute of the batter is thick with lumps of corn left.
- Cook the batter. Take note that it’s sticky, so you have to be patient in cooking, even when using a nonstick pan. Grease the pan and turn the flame to medium. Cook 1/3 cup of batter at a time. Flip after a couple of minutes and cook until browned.
- Transfer the pancakes to a plate. Fill each with cheese and serve at once.
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