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Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen - Season 18 Episode 25 -
Puerto Rican Flavors
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Puerto Rican Flavors
tele: https://t.me/TopFilmUSA1
#film#shows#usa#usashows#hot#filmhot
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00:04Cook's Country is about more than just getting dinner on the table.
00:09We're all so fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.
00:14We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.
00:20And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.
00:25We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.
00:31This is Cook's Country.
00:40Today on Cook's Country, Brian travels to Puerto Rico and then makes his version of Al Caporreus.
00:47I share the story behind Coco Lopez.
00:50And Christy makes Bridget a holiday-worthy Coquito.
00:54That's all right here on Cook's Country.
01:06The island of Puerto Rico is well known for its tropical beaches, lush rainforests, and towering mountains.
01:13But I'm here to experience a different type of scenery.
01:16Its rich culinary landscape.
01:19So good.
01:21Food stalls are often grouped together along the streets, allowing for easy sampling.
01:26The act of hopping from one shack to the other has become so common that it's garnered its own name.
01:31A Chinchoreo.
01:34Chinchoreos are where locals and visitors hop from one food stand to the next, enjoying food, drinks, and conversation.
01:42With old school salsa, merengue, or reggaeton as the soundtrack to their culinary adventure.
01:47A Chinchoreo is like a block party on the move.
01:50So, of course, I had to go on my own Chinchoreo.
01:53And who better to be my guide than Puerto Rican native and lifelong food enthusiast, Mima Benitez.
02:01Puerto Rico can be a paradise of fried food.
02:04And that can be very scary to a lot of people.
02:07But the really good fried things we have, I'm very excited about.
02:11And when it comes to fried food, there's one dish that is a crowd favorite across the island.
02:17The Alcoporea.
02:18A popular deep fried fritter made with masa and filled with savory meat or seafood.
02:25Alcoporeas are a staple of Chinchoros and a true comfort food for Puerto Ricans everywhere.
02:31Every Chinchoros has their own spin on the Alcoporea.
02:35Some Chinchoros, like Chiosco El Baricua, make their dough out of all different kinds of root vegetables.
02:40Like yaotilla, cassava, yuca, or taro.
02:45Others keep it even more simple.
02:47Like Pura Pesca, our next stop.
02:49Which is a coastal restaurant in Barceloneta that is known for its land crab Alcoporeas.
02:54This is Daniel Reyes Rosario, owner of Pura Pesca, and the latest in a long line of restauranteurs and fishermen
03:01in his family.
03:06They are all fishermen.
03:12Pura Pesca means fresh catch.
03:15At Pura Pesca, the land crab is one of the stars.
03:19And encasing that fresh crab, this is what makes Pura Pesca unique.
03:23Instead of a mix of different types of root vegetables, their dough is made solely of green bananas.
03:29Why just the green bananas?
03:32It's typical of the sector.
03:35In this neighborhood, in this town, it's typical just green banana salcapulia.
03:39That's the way they eat it in this part of the island.
03:43Although the use of green bananas in this region may have come from convenience,
03:47they actually help make the dough more manageable.
03:49The starchy, dry nature of the processed green bananas compared to root vegetables makes shaping the dough much easier.
03:55This contributes to a stronger dough with a lighter texture.
03:59Before shaping and frying, the dough is seasoned simply with salt, and the land crab is broken down and stewed.
04:06Then it's ready to be wrapped in the green banana dough.
04:10All that's left is the deep fry and enjoy.
04:14Compared to the other Alcoporias have had, the dough is much lighter and more tender, you know?
04:20Mm-hmm.
04:23Wow.
04:27For Mima, Alcoporias and other fried delicacies of the island
04:31are just as much about the Puerto Rican identity as they are about flavor.
04:35I think it's very expressive, the cuisine in Puerto Rico.
04:39It's very flavorful.
04:40And I think we are very extroverted people.
04:43It's reflected on the cuisine, I think.
04:47All that amalgam of flavors and expression, I think, is instinctive.
04:53I think the food has personality, as do the people.
04:56Yes.
04:57Yeah.
04:58So whether you're chasing the best Alcoporias on the coast
05:01or just following the Chinchortos,
05:03be sure to find great food wherever you go.
05:15Looked like there were a lot of great options at those fry shacks.
05:18Lots of deep-fried treats.
05:20The cuisine of Puerto Rico never ceases to amaze me.
05:23Now, when it comes to those Alcoporias,
05:24do people make them at home or is it really just a fry shack thing?
05:27I think it's mostly a fry shack thing.
05:29I've seen some people make them at home,
05:31but they can be a little bit tricky to make.
05:33But I think we kind of cracked the case here.
05:35Okay.
05:36To make a respectable Alcoporias.
05:37Okay.
05:38So we're going to start with the sofrito.
05:40We have an eight-ounce onion here.
05:41We're just going to coarsely chop.
05:44Sofrito is typically a finely ground aromatic mixture
05:47that you add to anything you're cooking, basically, in Puerto Rico.
05:50You know, soups, stews, everybody has their own, like, kind of spin on it.
05:53That's what makes, you know, Puerto Rican home cooking so wonderful
05:56is that it's so unique, you know, from household to household.
05:59So we're just going to coarsely chop just about an eight-ounce onion,
06:02which is probably about one cup.
06:04And we have a cubanelle pepper.
06:06So we'll just top and tail that.
06:09We can throw that in there.
06:10It's in the bell pepper family, but it's a little bit less sweet,
06:12a little bit less aggressive, a little bit more floral.
06:14And we'll just take the seeds out of it.
06:16Nice, coarse chop on this as well.
06:19Take all this.
06:20All right, cubanelle is in.
06:22And now we're going to use these aji dulce peppers.
06:26Trim around the seed pod.
06:27So these look a whole lot like scotch bonhorns or habaneros,
06:30but they do not have anywhere near the heat.
06:33So this is about four ounces of aji dulce.
06:36Now we're going to add eight cloves of peeled garlic.
06:39And this is ricau.
06:40We're going to add this one ounce of ricau.
06:42And this is also called culantro.
06:43Yeah, that's how I know about it.
06:44And it's almost like a cross between oregano and cilantro.
06:49It's really unique.
06:50Oh, it's so good.
06:51Yeah, it's so good.
06:52We'll just drop this in there.
06:53We have about three quarters of an ounce of cilantro leaves and stems here.
06:57Of course, chop.
07:00And we'll drop that right in.
07:02And we're going to process our sofrito just to grind it to a fine paste.
07:06It takes about 20 seconds.
07:07And we'll stop every few seconds or so and scrape down the bowl
07:10and make sure it's all getting incorporated nice and even.
07:14Perfect.
07:15So we're going to reserve half a cup of this.
07:17It makes two cups when most of it will go to our freezer.
07:20Our particular recipe is going to use a half cup.
07:22So we're going to pull that out right now.
07:24Do you be hard pressed to travel through Puerto Rico and not open up a freezer?
07:27I was wondering.
07:29Sofrito come flying out at you.
07:31Okay.
07:32There we go.
07:33So we are all set with our sofrito.
07:36Okay, now we're going to talk about another important piece of Puerto Rican cooking cuisine,
07:40and that's anato oil.
07:42So anato are these little red seeds here.
07:45And they often add a really nice red color to Puerto Rican foods,
07:48but they also have this great grassy, like kind of floral aroma.
07:52So in order to use these, you want to bloom in a little bit of vegetable oil.
07:56And the ratio I'm using is about one and a half teaspoons of anato seeds
07:59for a quarter cup of vegetable oil.
08:00We're going to bring this up to temperature over low heat, you know,
08:03and you want to do this over low heat because if you burn it, there's no going back.
08:06You have to throw it away and do it again.
08:07So this takes about five to seven minutes before those anato seeds start to leach their red-orange color deep
08:13in this oil here.
08:14Okay, you can see those little bubbles starting to form around those anato seeds.
08:17You can also notice that the color of the oil is taking on this nice orange color.
08:21At this point, we're going to kill the heat and we're going to let this sit for another 10 minutes,
08:24at which point the seeds will continue to seep that color and flavor into the oil.
08:28And then once it's cooled down, we'll give it a strain and we'll use that later on.
08:31Now we're going to make our picadillo, which is our seasoned ground beef mixture that will go inside the al
08:35capoyes.
08:35Okay, so we have six ounces of 85% lean ground beef, half cup of chopped onion, three minced garlic
08:46cloves,
08:48one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of ground cumin, teaspoon of granulated garlic,
08:55a teaspoon of pepper, three quarters of a teaspoon of table salt.
09:00And now we'll turn this on to medium-high heat.
09:03We'll just mash everything up and start to mix it.
09:06And you see it's like such a small amount of meat that is, you know, within a minute or so.
09:11The whole thing begins to sizzle, the oil starts coming out of the beef.
09:14And then you can really start to mix it and break it up into small pieces.
09:18All right, we'll just keep cooking this until the meat is no longer pink.
09:20It takes about five to seven minutes.
09:23All right, you see how the onions begin to soften, the beef is no longer pink.
09:28You know how fragrant that is.
09:28It smells delicious.
09:29And now we're going to add our sofrito.
09:31And let this cook for about a minute until it starts to bloom.
09:35So we're going to add a tablespoon of tomato paste here.
09:39And then to kind of mimic that tomato sauce texture, we're going to add a couple of tablespoons of water.
09:46And this is just going to quickly hydrate the tomato paste and just let it really cling to the beef.
09:51Okay, so you see that water evaporates pretty quickly.
09:54And the tomato paste really just clings to the meat.
09:57So at this point, we can kill the heat and we're going to add a half cup of coarsely chopped
10:03pimento stuffed green olives and a quarter cup of coarsely chopped cilantro.
10:08We'll just stir that in.
10:10Okay, so this is all set.
10:11It's all combined.
10:12We're going to let it cool down for about 15 minutes.
10:14Our picadillo is about room temperature right now.
10:17All right, so we're just going to drop this into the food processor here.
10:20And at this point, we're going to process it to make it a little bit more uniformly fine.
10:25This is going to be really helpful when it comes time to stuff the al caporeas.
10:29We're going to give it about six pulses, but we'll stop and scrape down as needed.
10:35So now we're going to transfer this to a bowl.
10:38We're going to cover it with some plastic wrap and we're going to refrigerate it for at least an hour.
10:43But you can really make this a day or two ahead of time.
10:46Now we're going to make the masa for the al caporeas.
10:48So masa is the dough.
10:50So the dough is made out of any number of root vegetables.
10:54Most easy for me to work with were green plantains.
10:57And no, this is not a banana, although it looks like a banana.
10:59It's a much more starchy cousin.
11:02These are notoriously a little bit difficult to peel.
11:05Oh, really?
11:05We're going to walk through it here.
11:06So what we want to start off by doing is top and tail them, just so you can see the
11:10plantain there.
11:11Mm-hmm.
11:12All right.
11:12And then we'll take the bottom off again so we can see what's inside.
11:16And then you'll notice that there's these ridges along here.
11:20Mm-hmm.
11:20I use those as a guidepost.
11:22I'll kind of bury the tip of the paring knife within my thumb there, and I'll just kind of follow
11:28those ridges.
11:28And you want to go through the skin and not too deeply into the plantain itself.
11:34So, again, just follow it all the way down.
11:36I tend to like to make it a little easier on myself and do like four scores all the way
11:40down.
11:42And then rather than kind of digging in with my thumbnail, I like to use a spoon and kind of
11:47get this peel started.
11:49And you just kind of peel them off in sections.
11:51And using a spoon to get the plantain peel off isn't really traditional.
11:54I just find it helpful for me as a novice.
11:57So, when we're done, we'll just throw it in some water to keep them from discoloring.
12:01We have all of our beautiful plantains peeled.
12:04And now we can weigh out three pounds, which is what we need for our al caporius.
12:09So, now we can go ahead and process them into our dough.
12:12We're going to process all of them in one batch.
12:15We're going to shred them with a shredding disc on the food processor here.
12:18And then we're going to swap out the blade and use a regular blade because we want to make a
12:23really fine dough.
12:24And when I just chopped up the plantains and threw them in there with this blade, they would just tend
12:28to chase around.
12:29You would get some that was finely processed, but then you still have these big chunks.
12:33So, we're going to take this out.
12:35I'm going to drop all of our shredded plantain back into the bowl.
12:39And now we're going to add about half of our plantains back to the food processor with this blade.
12:48Did you say that's about half?
12:49Yeah.
12:50Okay, now we're going to add our annatto oil.
12:52You can see how bright and orange it is.
12:53We've strained out the seeds.
12:55So, we'll add half of this.
12:56So, it's about two tablespoons or so.
12:59Okay.
13:00And then two teaspoons of salt.
13:03This is just table salt.
13:04We're going to process this for about 90 seconds total.
13:06But for the first minute, about every 15 seconds, we're going to stop and scrape it down.
13:12There you have it.
13:13So, it's nice and creamy.
13:15You can touch it and it's got a nice texture to it.
13:18So, we're going to transfer this to our bowl here.
13:22Okay, this is our second batch and we're going to process it just the same way we did our first
13:26batch.
13:26And then we'll have all of our masa.
13:30All right, we're in the home stretch here.
13:31We're about to start shaping and filling our alcoporias.
13:34First step is we're going to portion out our picadillo mixture.
13:38We're just kind of molding it into this tablespoon measure.
13:41And you can see it really helps that it's nice and chilled.
13:44Now, this may seem like a little excessive, but you've got to keep in mind, you only have two hands
13:48here.
13:48And I'm the new guy making these things.
13:50So, I found it easier to go ahead and portion out our picadillo.
13:53If you want to do this and start shaping that.
13:56All right.
13:57You should get about 18 portions out of there.
13:59Okie doke.
14:00Anything extra you could just distribute evenly among all the portions.
14:04Okay.
14:04And I'm going to do the same with our masa.
14:07So, I'm going to use an even quarter cup measure here.
14:11I'm going to drop it onto a greased parchment lined tray.
14:14I've also greased the measuring cup so everything comes out easily.
14:17This could get sticky.
14:19Again, I'm looking for 18 portions here.
14:22So, we've got all of our masa and all of our picadillo portioned out.
14:27Now, we want to have some heavily greased hands.
14:29It's good.
14:30All right.
14:30So, we want to take each portion of the dough here.
14:33Okay.
14:34Kind of work it in your hands and smooth out any lumps there.
14:38Get it cohesive.
14:39And shape it into about a four-inch circle.
14:42About the size of your palm.
14:44You're going to take one of your little darling picadillo portions there.
14:49And you want to close this up just like that.
14:52Just fold it over like an empanada.
14:55Okay.
14:56And then kind of push to seal.
14:59Mm-hmm.
14:59Yeah, it's a very malleable dough.
15:00It just kind of mushes together.
15:02Yeah.
15:02And you'll just kind of work it back and forth into a football shape.
15:05Okay.
15:06Kind of work the seam out of it.
15:08And, you know, we're going to go for about four inches long.
15:12About like that.
15:13Well, there's no picadillo poking through, so that's good.
15:15Yeah, that's a win.
15:16All right.
15:17Am I good?
15:18Yeah, that's pretty good.
15:19It's all right.
15:19First, first piece.
15:20First time.
15:21I mean, it took me a while.
15:22All right, so we'll just keep shaping these alcapoteas until we're done.
15:25All right.
15:26It's finally time to get frying.
15:28So we have a tabletop deep fryer here, which I love, my new favorite piece of equipment in the kitchen.
15:33And we're just going to drop them in.
15:35We have 350-degree oil here.
15:37We'll just gently lay these alcapoteas in.
15:40We're going to do about six per.
15:41Mm-hmm.
15:42And we want to let those fry for a good five minutes.
15:45That'll cook the dough through and make sure the inside is hot.
15:47And if you had a Dutch oven instead of a deep fryer like this, you'd still do about six per
15:52batch.
15:53350-degree oil, and you'd want to use about three quarts of oil.
15:57Okay.
15:59It's been about a minute.
16:00We just want to give them a quick little jiggle to make sure they're not sticking to the basket or
16:03sticking to each other.
16:05It's been five minutes.
16:06And we can take a look at our beautifully golden alcapoteas.
16:10Ooh.
16:11They're gorgeous, aren't they?
16:12They are.
16:12So we're just going to drop them on the paper towel line side of a wire rack here, just for
16:18a few seconds to wick away the oil.
16:22Give them a little bit of a turn just to get any excess oil off them.
16:26Then we'll slide them over to the fun line side of the rack.
16:30Mm-hmm.
16:31Now we can just drop the rest of our alcapoteas in the oil, and we can fry until we're done.
16:37And look how gorgeous these things are.
16:38They're beautiful.
16:40I recommend two to start.
16:41Oh, I'm so glad you said that.
16:43I just want to crack one open and take a look on the inside.
16:45Look at that picadillo.
16:46Mm-hmm.
16:47It's a nicely cooked and tender.
16:49This is called pique.
16:50This is a traditional Puerto Rican condiment.
16:52It's a vinegar-based hot sauce, you know, flavored with garlic, herbs, black pepper, what have you.
16:56You can do a little bit of a hit on your alcapotea like that.
17:01You'll find this at any place you're eating in Puerto Rico.
17:04You're going to have some of this on the table.
17:05All different varieties of it.
17:06Shall we?
17:07Yes.
17:11Mm.
17:15It's so good, right?
17:16Mm-hmm.
17:17I mean, it's like a ton of flavor.
17:19It's the texture of the dough.
17:21Toothsome and chewy and hearty, but it has flavor.
17:25It's crisp on the outside.
17:26And the picadillo itself, like, stands up to it, comes through.
17:29You know, it's the perfect thing for, like, a hot summer day.
17:32It's great with a cold beer.
17:34Exactly.
17:34Thank you for this, by the way.
17:36You're welcome.
17:37So this just brings a little bit of the island back home to you.
17:40Brian, these are delicious.
17:42Thank you for showing me how to make them.
17:44You're very welcome.
17:45If you want to make Brian's very own version of alcaporreos, start by making some Puerto Rican staples,
17:51including sofrito, annatto oil, and beef picadillo.
17:54Make masa using plantains, shape the masa around portions of picadillo, and fry in a hot oil.
18:01From Cook's Country, a very cool recipe for alcaporreos.
18:05Cheers, Brian.
18:06Cheers.
18:06Well done.
18:07Thank you so much.
18:09Oh, it really goes well with beer.
18:12Okay.
18:12Yes, please.
18:18If you like frosty coconut drinks with umbrellas in them, then you have a man named Ramon Lopez Irizarry to
18:25thank.
18:25Around 1950, the Puerto Rican native found a way to extract and stabilize coconut cream.
18:32He called it Coco Lopez.
18:34Ramon shopped his new product around to bartenders in San Juan, who added it to traditional drinks and even created
18:41new ones.
18:42One of those drinks was the piña colada.
18:45Traditionally, a piña colada was a non-alcoholic Cuban beverage.
18:50The name translates directly to strained pineapple and contained pineapple juice and sometimes coconut.
18:57But once Coco Lopez arrived on the scene, the drink transformed.
19:02A spirited version featured Coco Lopez, pineapple juice, and rum.
19:07Since then, cream of coconut has been used to craft many other fun and tasty drinks, like the Painkiller, the
19:15Chi-Chi, and the Coconut Collins.
19:17And today at Cook's Country, we turn the spotlight on a festive Puerto Rican cocktail, the Coquito.
19:30Eggnog isn't the only cool and creamy Christmas cocktail option.
19:35Try saying that three times.
19:37You've also got Coquito, which we're going to learn how to make from Christy.
19:40Well, Coquito actually means little coconut, but it's really got big coconut flavor.
19:46It's a really celebratory drink among Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican families.
19:52Within cultures, it's very different, and within families, it's very different.
19:57Yeah, it's a lot like eggnog.
19:58It really does vary from family to family.
20:00Right.
20:01So it's a little bit like eggnog in that respect, but it's not quite as thick or as rich.
20:05Okay, got it.
20:06And we'll start with a 15-ounce can of cream of coconut.
20:10Okay.
20:10Now, this is the really sweet, thick version of canned coconut liquid.
20:17Yeah, it's often used for pina coladas.
20:19Mm-hmm.
20:19Yeah, this is what you find on the bar.
20:22Oh, yeah.
20:23Now, this may be more familiar on a daily basis.
20:26This is a 14-ounce can of coconut milk.
20:28This is going to add some really nice coconut flavor as well, a little more of a creamy element.
20:34Yeah.
20:34You know, we're also adding a 12-ounce can of evaporated milk, and that is our dairy.
20:39Now, this doesn't have eggs like eggnog has, and it's not quite as rich, but one thing it does have
20:45that eggnog has is booze.
20:48Booze, yes.
20:49It's probably not a surprise that Coquito uses rum.
20:53So, this is one and a quarter cups of gold rum.
20:56That's been aged about three years, and so it's got a little bit more of a caramelly flavor, a little
21:01toastier.
21:02Now, we want to add a little complexity.
21:04So, I have a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
21:07Just take those caramelly, coconutty flavors and kick them up a little bit.
21:10Yes, please.
21:11And this is half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
21:14Oh, nice.
21:14Mm-hmm.
21:15And then my favorite part, we're going to put a little nutmeg, but we're going to grate it ourselves.
21:20Nutmeg and pre-ground nutmeg taste completely different.
21:23Mm-hmm.
21:24Grating it yourself at the last second really is a very different flavor.
21:27I'm just going to grate this into my bowl.
21:29We need about a quarter teaspoon.
21:31Oh, doesn't that smell good?
21:32It smells like the holidays.
21:33We just want to make sure we get all those spices mixed in.
21:36We want to get this nice and cold, so we'll chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour
21:41or up to three days before you're ready for it.
21:43Our coquito is nice and chilled, so we have one more step before we're ready to drink.
21:48Ice cold.
21:49It's ice cold, but we're going to add a little bit of froth to it.
21:53Mm-hmm.
21:53Okay.
21:53You know, get it a little bubbly.
21:55Yeah.
21:55Feel more celebratory.
21:57What's a holiday without some froth?
21:58This is a lot of coquito.
22:00I'm going to blend it in batches.
22:02So don't do too much in advance.
22:04No, no.
22:04We want to have the bubbles.
22:05We want to blend it for about a minute to make sure any of those chunks that might have been
22:10in your coconut milk are really blended.
22:14That was the longest minute of my life.
22:17What a beautiful texture.
22:19Isn't it pretty?
22:19I mean, it's actually custardy without any eggs.
22:22Now, we have little glasses for this.
22:24I suppose they could be served in big glasses, but these things pack quite a while.
22:28Yeah, I saw how much rum you put in there.
22:31Now, a little final bit on top.
22:33We'll take a little more freshly grated nutmeg.
22:36That is beautiful.
22:37Well, let's try it.
22:38All right.
22:38Well, cheers to you.
22:40Got to smell all the fresh nutmeg right off the bat.
22:45Mm.
22:46Mm.
22:47Mm-hmm.
22:47Don't go too far.
22:48Mm-hmm.
22:51You know what I really appreciate?
22:52It's not too sweet.
22:53Mm-hmm.
22:54But it is plenty sweet.
22:56Right.
22:56I love that you used a mix of the coconut milk and the cream of coconut.
23:00Mm-hmm.
23:00Just the cream of coconut would have made this way too sweet.
23:02And it's really creamy, but it's not, like, heavy creamy.
23:06Mm-hmm.
23:06It still gets all the great, bright coconut flavor.
23:09The spices come through.
23:11It's not, you know, too heavy.
23:12But this is beautiful.
23:13It's soft, and it's creamy, and it's dreamy.
23:15This is easy and spectacular.
23:18And you made it, and it's delicious.
23:21Thank you, Christy.
23:22So if you'd like to try Coquito next Christmas, start by combining cream of coconut, coconut milk,
23:28evaporated milk, rum, and spices.
23:31Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour to let the flavors melt, and blend just before
23:35serving for a frothy cocktail.
23:38So from Cook's Country and Christy, a very Christmassy Coquito.
23:42You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and
23:47select episodes.
23:48And you'll find them all on our website, cookscountry.com slash TV.
23:53Cheers.
23:55Cheers.
23:56Mmm.
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