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 in 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
and 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 that you see here.
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 amalgmated
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,
canned tomatoes,
or anything that 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 your 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 at 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 cracking.
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, do you see it?
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 empanada are you're eating it
because after your first bite
the steam will come out
and you'll 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