How to make empanadas of "pisillo" (shredded fish and sofrito) and garlic "guasacaca" (Venezuelan avocado sauce)?| Sumito Estévez

Learn to make the best fish empanadas just as we were at the beach. In this video, I’ll show you how to make the perfect dough for the empanadas, a fish pisillo (shredded fish cooked with a sofrito) and a guasacaca (Venezuelan avocado sauce.)

Ingredients for 10 empanadas.

DOUGH
Pre-cooked cornmeal, 2 cups
Water 2 and ½ cups
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Oil (to fry the empanadas), ½ liter

SOFRITO
Oil, ½ cup
Annatto seeds, 1 tablespoon
Finely chopped cilantro roots and stems, ¼ cup
Finely chopped garlic, 2 cloves
Finely diced onion, 1 small one
Finely diced red bell pepper, ½ cup
Tomato paste, 2 tablespoon
Boiled fish filled, 250 grams
Salt, 2 teaspoon

AVOCADO SAUCE
Finely chopped garlic, 1 clove
Cilantro leaves, ½ cup
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Mayonnaise, ½ cup
Milk, ½ cup
Avocado, 1 small one

The best cook I've ever known--truly,

is my wife Sylvia making breakfast.

She's amazing.

I've had breakfasts
in numerous hotels, brunch,

even on a cruise,

and I still haven't had a breakfast
like the ones prepared by Sylvia.

I'm going to convince her one day

to come and show us
how to prepare a breakfast.

But today it'll be my turn
and I'm going to show you

how to make a Venezuelan dish
typically served for breakfast:

Empanadas.

There are empanadas in Bolivia,
Argentina, Chile, Galicia...

It's time for Venezuelan empanadas!

Fish pisillo empanada
Avocado and garlic sauce

(Sumito) Today we're going to make
Venezuelan cornmeal empanadas

with fish pisillo cooked in a sofrito

and served with a guasacaca,

which is this delicious
Venezuelan avocado sauce.

The first step to making a good empanada
is to prepare the dough

which is made with this great product
--originally from Venezuela--

the pre-cooked cornmeal.

This cornmeal is very easy to use
because is pre-cooked

and these are the steps.

You need water, but don't worry
about the amount

because you'll start adding the cornmeal
until you get the desired texture,

and to that water, you'll add some salt.

Here's my salt.

How much salt?

That will be up to you.

I eat low-sodium

so mine's usually not very salty

but I like to focus on
the flavor of the filling.

The water should be tasting
like a nice soup.

So it's up to your taste.

Let's try it.

Perfect.

I'm going to wet a clean kitchen towel.

What for?

Because later I'm going
to leave the dough to rest

and I need to cover it with a wet towel,

so I'm going to have it ready.

Here's my cornmeal--

We always have this argument

because some people say we should
add the cornmeal first and then the water

while there's another group of people

who say we should be adding
the cornmeal to the water.

To be honest, for me it's the same
because if you knead well this dough

you won't have any lumps at the end.

Start adding the cornmeal to the water

and, as you can see,
I'm not measuring it,

until you get a dough
that is very similar

to that modeling clay
we used to play with as children.

That's what we're doing here.

This dough needs to be well hydrated
because being a pre-cooked cornmeal,

if you don't let it rest,

you might get a sandy texture.

Now, with this wet towel,

I'm going to cover it and let it rest
so that it'll absorb the water.

This cornmeal is gluten-free,
is amazingly healthy,

and you can use it for a myriad of dishes,

which you will be learning for sure,

but today I'm going to teach you
how to make Venezuelan empanadas!

♪ (music) ♪

The next step is to prepare
an anatto-colored oil.

What is anatto-colored oil?

These wonderful seeds that you see here
known as onoto, annatto or achiote

--depending on where you are--

it's the natural colorant that
the American continent gave to the world.

We use it with our food to give it
a beautiful yellow color.

And dishes with this golden color
are more delicious, aren't they?

If you serve a chicken
with white or yellow rice,

we always say the one
with yellow rice tastes better.

How do you use it?

I start heating up some oil

and without letting it go too hot,

I'll add the seeds

--the handful I had here--

which is like for one cup of oil

but it doesn't have to be
an exact science.

It'll start immediately to color the oil.

But keep in mind that
I'm not frying the annatto.

If you start frying it,

it'll turn bitter as it happens
with any other spice.

Look at the color of this.

I'm going to strain it so you can see it.

Look at it.

Annatto-colored oil.

Look at the wonderful color.

Now I'm going to make
the sofrito for our fish pisillo.

While this is heating up--

This is a treasure!

And you can't find it easily lately.

What are these?

The stems and the roots of the cilantro.

Clean them very well
to remove all the dirt--

You can't imagine the incredible flavor

that you could add to a sofrito
with these roots.

Never again throw away
the roots of the cilantro--trust me.

And, also, use the stems.

Actually, when it comes
to the aroma, if you asked me,

I generally prefer the stems
and the roots than the leaves.

The leaves are almost just for decoration.

I'll start my sofrito by cutting well
these parts of the cilantro.

I'm cutting at this speed because
I've been doing it for 30 years,

but you should do it carefully

because I don't want you
to have an accident in the kitchen.

Once everything is cut,

we'll start with the sofrito.

Start adding some oil

and then add the stems
and the roots of the cilantro.

(sizzling)

That's the sound of the sofrito.

It needs to make this sound,
it's essential!

If it doesn't make any sound,
something is not right.

Next, we'll add

garlic,

onion,

peppers.

Listen... Wonderful!

I'm going to stir fry it very well so that
all the flavors are nicely combined

and I'm going to teach you a great trick
to get a very good sofrito.

Come here.

Start moving the vegetables
to the sides of the pan,

and once the middle of the pan
heats up very well,

add tomato paste,

tomato passata,

tomato concentrate,

or canned tomatoes

--whatever you have on hand.

The tomato paste is going
to overcook or toast a little

as it's being cooked at a temperature
higher than the rest of the veggies,

and you'll see clearly
how it'll start to boil and make bubbles.

The flavor that it gives to the sofrito,

just by cooking well the tomato paste

before mixing it
with the rest of the ingredients,

is amazing.

You can make the sofrito
with any veggies you might have

instead of throwing them out,

as it happens often because
we don't know what to do them.

You can use this sofrito
for a pasta, to make a sauce,

to make empanadas--

Because I hope you'll make
empanadas wherever you are.

(sizzling)

I just brought this from my kitchen

because this is my workshop and my home,

and I want to show it to you.

What I've got here is cooked fish.

You can use any type of fish fillet,

I'm not going to tell you
specifically which type.

Here I have garlic cloves
roughly chopped,

onions,

cilantro,

and the fish fillets
that should be cooked thoroughly.

This fish stock is wonderful.

Once you finish cooking the fish,

you can strain the stock

--even add some pieces of the same fish--

and you'll have a wonderful broth.

Now we're taking out
the fish for the pisillo.

I'm going to show you
a trick for this recipe

that I learned on the island
of Margarita, in Venezuela,

where I lived for many years.

When I lived there I learned
many kitchen tricks like this one.

Get a piece of cloth
that is sufficiently permeable,

add the fish,

and squeeze the liquid out.

Then, take this fish
and add it to the sofrito.

Come and check out
the texture of the fish

--any fish,

once you've squeezed the water out.

Look how wonderful it looks!!

They are like small threads
and this is one of the secrets

of a good fish pisillo.

Now that we have our pisillo,

let's remember those three things
that we learned while making it.

First, how to make annatto-colored oil
that you can use to cook anything

and give it a yellowish color.

Second, how to make a sofrito
which you can also freeze to use later,

and third, how to cook a fish
and squeeze the liquid out

to make a pisillo
that you can also freeze.

Now we're moving on
to the main part of this recipe

which is to make the empanadas.

We'll start taking some dough
and make a small ball.

Don't worry if you make a larger ball

because you'll see
how the extra dough is removed.

Take a plastic film--

I'm making them as if we were on
the island of Margarita with the ladies,

who are the ones
making the best empanadas.

Lightly wet the paper with water
to make this step easier,

take the ball of dough,

extend it on one side of the paper,

fold the other side
of the paper to cover it,

and extend the dough a little bit more.

As you can see, it's very easy,
especially if you're using a plastic bag.

The best part is that
what you've gotten here

is a blank canvas named Latin America

because these empanadas
can be filled with anything.

If you're in the US, let's say, in Texas,

where they love their barbecue,

you can make your empanadas
with barbecued beef

and share it with your Texans friends.

If you live in Mexico, you can use
taco al pastor --Mexican-style pork--

or you can make it vegetarian with beans.

An empanada is a blank canvas
that invites us all to seat at the table,

with our neighbors so that we can share
who we are as Venezuelans,

and with our friends so that we can
serve and spoil them in that moment.

This is how the empanada gathers us

and helps us to extend
our hands to each other.

Now, for the next step

we're going to add the pisillo
to the empanada.

Again, you can fill it with anything.

We fold the empanada
so that one end meets the other,

and if you end up
with extra dough, don't worry,

because then you could use a plate,
for example, to cut it.

Look at this, I'm going to cut it...

This way, I get a perfect
half-moon shaped empanada--

Actually, this is a wonderful empanada
because it has a lot of filling.

As soon as the empanada is made,
it needs to be fried immediately

because if you let it rest for too long,

it'll begin to dehydrate
and it will start to crack--

The dough will start to crack.

You should always check
that the oil is really hot

by adding a tiny bit of dough...

It should look like the bubbles
of something fizzling in a glass.

Let me share an anecdote.

Because empanadas have
different types of filling

when you eat them at the beach
in Venezuela, for example,

they usually have a little mark,

like this little hole
that I'm making here.

So, the ones with one hole is fish,

the ones with two holes is beef,

and the ones with a hole on each side
might be cheese, for example.

Now, we're going to make carefully
one little hole and take it to fry.

Be careful when you're flipping it.

I always use two spoons,

so that this one here will receive
the empanada, as you can see.

And then you can flip it.

I'm making it the way
they make it traditionally.

They leave here like this

and you know which ones
have the holes, etc.

Look how beautiful they look!

These empanadas
are always served with a sauce

and we're going to make
a very simple one with avocado or palta,

as avocado is also known in some places.

Add some finely chopped garlic.

The amount is up to you.

In my case, I'm adding
a good amount because I love it.

Cilantro leaves, and this way,
we've used up the whole cilantro.

Some salt

and mayonnaise.

Any mayo will work, even if it's homemade.

One of these days, I'll probably
teach you how to make one.

A little bit of milk
to give it some texture

and avocado.

This one is very ripe --even better.

Remove the pit,

add the flesh to the blender,

and blend it like you're making
an aioli but with avocado.

And we're going to serve it
as if we were in front of the sea.

You get the empanada from the lady
who just made it in front of your eyes

--like the ones we just made--

and she will always have a sauce

in a container like this.

I'm starving!

More than hunger, I think
it's gluttony because I love this.

Now, this is one of
the most important things

in the theory of the empanada.

What am I talking about?

In the empanada the juices
from the filling will end up here.

The French, technical name is
el culito --the little butt.

Remember, el culito of the empanada.

And you need to blow the empanada
when you're eating it

because after your first bite

the steam will come out

and you need to blow it away.

The empanada tastes better
when you blow it.

(crunching)

Hmmm... mmm.

The aroma that comes out
of the empanada when you blow it--

And, of course...

--this can also be a spicy sauce--

... our avocado sauce.

(crunching)

Wonderful.

Welcome to my home.

♪ (outro music) ♪

This is not my YouTube channel.

This is my home
where I want to invite you,

my space, my workshop.

Please, subscribe and share with others

because I will prepare
what you want me to prepare.

Tell me in your comments
the recipes that you want to see.

We're going to meet here every week.

English subtitles by
Jenny Lam-Chowdhury