Original subtitles

♪

You want to wow your friends at your next dinner party?

Go all Venezuelan.

You've had mozzarella sticks before,

but tequenos, they're going to blow your mind.

These cheesy, gooey, deep fried sticks of cheese,

Venezuelan style.

♪

The cold butter is going to melt slowly as the pastry cooks

and it's going to leave all those nice fine layers

that we love.

So, my dough is ready.

And the eggs are going to make the pastry extra golden.

And, I'm just going to put it in the fridge for a while

so the cold does its magic on the butter.

♪

The dough is cold

and ready to roll.

Boom.

I'm going to roll it nice and thin because I'm going to

cut it into strips

and then roll my cheese with it.

♪

I'm rolling in the dough.

♪

Now I'm going to cut my dough into strips.

And watch this.

Grab it.

Roll it.

See that?

Tequenos.

And I'm using fresh panalita cheese

that you can find in any Latin supermarket,

but mozzarella works just as fine.

All I need is a cheese that is really nice and soft,

and it will go gooey when I deep-fry it.

So, my tequenos are very easy to make.

Now I just need to deep-fry them so they go nice and golden.

♪

And I've got a tip: you don't want to load the oil too much

because it will drop the temperature and they won't

get crispy.

Oh, see that? Nice and golden brown.

See what I mean?

Nice and crispy, golden brown,

and the cheese is going to be extra gooey inside.

That's when you know it's ready.

The cheese is already melting.

Boom. These are done.

♪

Mm.

Nice and flakey.

Ah! Look at that cheese. See what I mean?

Really nice and gooey on the inside.

And we like to eat this with ketchup,

but you can be creative.

You can do Dijon mayo, chipotle mayo, wasakaka.

Mm. So good.

They go really nice with a glass of cold beer

or with my Venezuelan seafood soup.

♪

♪

Broth, rice, and seafood are the three main ingredients of

asopado y mariscos. I tell you, a slurp of this soup

and it's going to make your guests blow their minds.

I'm working on my sofrito. It's very simple.

In Venezuelan cooking we use it for everything.

So, it has like, garlic, some onions, some peppers.

Very simple. Very tasty.

And it adds so much flavour to any dish.

This dish has a little bit of heat so I'm going to add

a little bit of red chili pepper.

I don't want it too spicy, so I'm going to get rid of some

of the seeds.

And you can adjust the spice at home.

The more seeds you leave, the spicier and hotter it will get.

♪

So, I'm going to start that sofrito.

(Sizzling) Yeah.

I want my veggies nice and wilted

'cause all those flavours are going to go into my stock.

(Sizzling)

Now, my sofrito is almost done,

I'm going to add some tomato paste to boost up the flavours.

All the nice colours.

A little dash of cumin.

A little dash of salt.

This is going to be the base of my soup.

It's going to have all the strong flavours.

Going to make sure I'm going to mix it all very well.

And all of this goodness is going to go into my stock pot.

I used fish stock, but you can use water at home.

I'm going to add some herbs. The cilantro and the parsley.

Oregano. Fresh oregano.

Boom.

For the secret ingredient, some long grain white rice.

This is going to thicken up my soup.

And, to top it all off.

(Sizzling)

What?

My sofrito.

You guessed right.

Oh yeah.

So, the rice is going to cook and it's going to soak up

all the flavours, going to thicken my stock

and then I'm going to be ready to add my fish.

♪

Okay, now my rice is ready,

so it's time to add my mussels,

shrimp, scallops, and squid.

So, let me tell you a little secret.

I like to add these at the end

because otherwise they'll get just overly chewy.

It won't take too long for them to cook.

♪

It's going to soak up all the flavours

and it's going to get all nice and red

with that tomato and the garlic.

This dish is a Venezuelan favourite.

Look at that colour. Oh yeah.

Oh, look at that. Seafood looks so good.

Oh man, and the rice just added some extra thickness to it.

Your friends are going to lose their minds when they try it.

It's that good.

(Sniffing) Mm.

I'm ready to eat.

And now, to top it off, a little bit of cilantro.

And of course, limon.

Got to have some limes.

Oh, look at that.

♪

Ah! The broth is so good. Nice and thick.

The sofrito did its magic.

♪

Good amount of time. Not too chewy.

Very good.

But now, for my main course, asado negro.

♪

♪

JUAN PABLO: For the weekend,

nothing beats a roast.

And, in Venezuela, we have asado negro.

A round roast with white rice rice and tajadas

Tajadas is a staple in Venezuela.

They're sweet, ripe, deep-fried plantain.

Olive oil and then my veggies.

♪

(Sizzling)

I'm going to let that cook for a little bit.

I'm going to show you the roast.

Oh yeah.

Look at that.

Nice and red.

See that? That's what you want.

A nice rump roast.

And, in Venezuela, we like our asado charred on the outside.

So, asado negro means-- asado is roast

and negro is black.

And, to tenderize my beef,

I'm going to make a little marinade.

Nice, fresh oregano.

Some thyme. Some nice garlic of course.

A bay leaf.

Salsa Inglesa or Worcestershire sauce.

And of course,

generous amount of wine.

♪

Olive oil to top it all off.

Some sal.

And pepper.

This is such a popular dish in Venezuela.

I personally grew up eating this stuff all the time.

I'm going to put it in the fridge so it marinades.

This is crystallised cane sugar juice

and now I'm going to smash it.

Ready?

♪

Here we go.

♪

Nice.

♪

See, it's almost like brown sugar,

but it's more raw.

And now for a little bit of black magic.

Some olive oil

and then the secret ingredient:

papelon.

A little bit more of olive oil.

And this, I want burned,

charred, completely black.

That's the whole essence of asado negro,

that it's completely burned.

Now, let that happen.

♪

I'm going to take my marinade out.

Oh yeah. Look at that.

The meat has soaked up all the flavours,

it's nice and tender.

It's ready for my pot.

Boom.

Here we go.

Yeah.

See that?

I want to cover it with the papelon.

(Sizzling)

That caramel is going to stick to the meat

and it's going to make it nice and black.

♪

So, there's a rumour or a myth that says that asado negro

was actually born when a maid burned the dinner

for a wealthy family in Caracas.

That's what they say. I don't know.

But I tell you, what a delicious mistake.

See that? Nice and burned.

The caramel is charred. See the caramel dripping down?

Okay, now it's time for my sofrito.

Ah yeah.

And of course,

the marinade.

All the flavours and the juices.

A touch of marsala wine.

And to top it all off,

some beef stock.

♪

This is going to cook down.

The liquid is going to reduce and it's going to be so good.

♪

Ah! Look at my roast.

It's ready to go. Nice and tender.

Look at that.

Yeah. All that caramel.

I'm just going to set it aside so it rests for a little bit.

Mm, this is going to be good.

Going to cover it here for a little bit.

And now I'm going to work on my sauce.

I'm using a submersion blender. Check this out.

(Whirring)

So much flavour in here. Like, you get that marinade,

the wine,

all the juices of the meat.

Oh, and especially the caramel of the papelon.

I don't really want to lose any of that.

(Whirring)

Okay, that's ready.

My meat is resting.

Now I'm going to work on my tajadas.

And tajadas are sweet, ripe, deep-fried plantain.

They kind of look like a banana.

They're actually cousins, but they're not the same.

You have to fry the plantains or cook them somehow

before eating them.

♪

See that? Nice and golden.

All those sugars have cyclized.

Oh, Venezuelan classic.

And now for the moment I've been waiting for.

Ah! Look at that.

Look at that roast.

Ah.

All the juices, all the flavours.

I can smell the caramel.

Oh.

Oh yeah.

♪

Mm. So good.

The meat is nice and tender.

The caramel is there.

The sauce is nice and thick.

This dish right here takes me back to my school days.

I remember just coming from school at almuerzo time,

at lunch time,

and it would be just-- the smells would be in the house,

and my Mom would be just like, making asado negro

and this would be on a plate.

Mm. Takes me back. Way back.

♪

♪

JUAN PABLO: Italians have tiramisu.

Latin-Americans have torta tres leches.

A moist sponge cake soaked in sweet creamy sauce.

I've separated some eggs because fluffy eggs, fluffy cake.

♪

And I'm just going to wait for those egg white to go very,

very fluffy before I add my sugar.

♪

Little touch of vanilla.

Then the flour.

And, I don't want to whisk too much 'cause I don't want to lose

the air in the batter.

Okay, this is done.

Take it out.

I have this pre-greased mould here.

I'm just going to put it in there.

And ready. Now I'm just going to put this in the oven.

♪

Tres leches means three milks: evaporated milk,

condensed milk, and whole milk.

And you thought we were done whisking. Well, think again,

'cause we have the merengue.

You can't have tres leches without the merengue.

♪

I'll give you a little trick: I know when it's ready,

check this out.

Doesn't fall.

Now for some corn syrup.

♪

See that?

Stiff peaks. My merengue is done.

So, I'm going to let it cool in the fridge for a little bit.

And I'm going to get another cake that's ready.

Now I just need this cake to cool off for a bit.

And while that's cooling off,

I'm going to prepare my tres leches.

Three levels of sweetness,

three levels of cream.

♪

And last but not least, condensed milk.

♪

It's going to make my tres leches nice and creamy,

nice and sweet.

Remember I told you, Venezuelans, we like out sweets.

♪

My cake is ready.

Oh yeah.

♪

Oh yeah. See that? Nice and spongy.

And you see my cake is not perfect, that's totally okay

because we're covering up with the merengue,

so nobody's going to notice.

Now for the fun part.

We've got the tres leches.

I'm going to give you a little trick:

if you fork it a little bit,

all the leches are going to right into the cake.

Yeah.

♪

I got my meringue.

And see my cake? See that?

It's nice and spongy.

It soaked up all the the leches.

Going to add some little bit of merengue. Here we go.

Nice.

Look at that.

And now, for some extra drama.

Some flame. Here we go.

♪

Ready for my tres leches.

I'm going to try this cake.

Ah!

Mm. So good.

The cake is so spongy that it soaked up all the leches,

all the milk. I can taste the sweetness of the condensed milk.

It's all there. It's nice and creamy.

Mm.

I tell you, the merengue on top it just adds that

extra bit of sweetness.

Mm.

Tres leches, a true Latin-American classic.

♪