Meet Reveka
I like to cook because through food I believe we can build a bridge between cultures.
Being so far away from my home in Venezuela, cooking is a way of feeling reconnected to myself and to my culture. I feel nourishment. Cooking is also my way of giving love to others.
I escaped Venezuela in 2015 and found temporary safety in Chile until I came to Australia. As a student journalist I always tried to use my words to say when things weren’t right. So I became a target. The worst memories come from days when I couldn’t even visit my own family home. I remember my parents calling to tell me, “Please don’t come, it’s too dangerous.” That was the worst time of my life.
The violence that I went through was overwhelming for me. And for that reason, I ended up requesting a protection visa in Australia five years later.
With this menu I have prepared, I’m sharing with you the story of my family. One part of my family is from the coast, from the beachside where Tostones are one of the most popular items on every menu, and the other part of my family is represented in the variety of Arepa fillings I’ve shared and in the Papelón we drink to quench our thirst as it is always summer in Venezuela. And the Arepa – that is from everywhere and everyone, rooted in Venezuelan and Colombian Indigenous history and adapted by each territory and family. You’ll also get to taste my grandma Chucha’s love through the dessert.
I’d love for you to taste and give it a try cooking these Latin American flavours.
Enjoy – buen provecho!
Reveka’s Recipes
Plantain Chips with Coleslaw
Complexity ⭐ ⭐(Medium)
Ingredients
- 400 g green plantain (this equals 3 or 4 plantains depending on their size)
- 1 litre oil for deep frying OR a tbsp oil per round on the air fryer
- 1 cup water
- Juice from 1 lemon
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Arepas | Corn Stuffed Pockets
Complexity ⭐⭐⭐ (Complex)
Ingredients
- 240 g Harina Pan (PAN Yellow Corn Flour)
- Water
- Salt
- Cooking oil (enough to spray or lightly coat a pan for grilling)
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Sweet Curdled Milk
Complexity ⭐⭐⭐(Complex)
Ingredients
- 1 litre of full cream milk
- 200 g sugarcane
- 1 stick of cinnamon or ½ tsp of cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
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Sugarcane Lemonade
Complexity ⭐(Easy)
Ingredients
- 225 g sugarcane/panela (there is also a powder option, but Reveka recommends the sugarcane block as the taste is more authentic). Use less panela if you want a less sweet drink.
- Juice of 5 big juicy lemons
- 1 L water
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About Reveka’s Recipes
Let’s start with the plantain Tostones with Salad. This dish brings me memories of the beach, from the coast, the Caribbean Sea. I hope you enjoy the taste of the plantain. It’s a simple taste, but with coleslaw, it’s an explosion of flavours.
The next dish is the Arepa, a stellar dish in Venezuela and Colombia. It represents to me two nations together. You can fill arepas with whatever you want. It’s a flexible dish, gluten-free, simple, easy to make.
As a drink, we have Papelón, Sugar Cane Lemonade. Also known as piloncillo or agua de panela in other countries. It’s a refreshing drink you can have in every season.
Now the dessert, Dulce de Leche Cortada (Sweet Curdled Milk). This is the desert my grandma, Chucha, prepared for us. It is a simple dish, but it takes a long time and lots of non-stop stirring. Thank you so much for cooking my Venezuelan Feast.
