Arepas De Queso Fritas

This is a typical Venezuelan dish (I'm Venezuelan), and I like to make it a lot since now I live in Spain. Everyone who has tried it loves them, so I thought I'd share it with everyone at Recipezaar.

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Yields: 8 arepas

Ingredients

• 2  cups  coarsely ground cornflour
• 1  egg yolk
• 3  cups water
• 1  teaspoon salt
•  grated strong cheese or  cream cheese or  ham, anything you want to fill them with
•  oil (for deep frying)

Directions

1. Mix the water and the egg yolk.
2. In a large bowl mix the flour and the egg/water mixture.
3. Mix and kneed the dough for about 5 minutes until it is compact.
4. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile heat a deep fryer to 170ºC, or fill a frying pan with lots of oil and heat.
6. Take a small ball of the dough, the size of an egg and mold into a flat circle, about 1 cm thick.
7. Fry until golden brown, turning regularly.
8. Turn out onto crumpled absorbent paper and leave to cool slightly.
9. Split them open (like a pita bread) and fill with cheese, ham, butter, honey or whatever you wish. (If there is too much "fluff" inside, you can remove it with a spoon, leaving only the outer shell).
10. Serve immediately--they don't keep and don't re-heat.