Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan travels to Puerto Rico and then makes his version of alcapurrias.

I share the story behind Coco Lpez.

And Christie makes Bridget a holiday-worthy coquito.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills -- made for everyone, from the backyard master to the weekend host and the beginner just starting out.

Monument brings people together.

Monument Grills.

The everybody everywhere grill.

-Teakhaus.

Inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet.

Each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood, designed for every step, from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.

-The island of Puerto Rico is well known for its tropical beaches, lush rainforests, and towering mountains.

But I'm here to experience a different type of scenery -- its rich culinary landscape.

So good.

Food stalls are often grouped together along the streets, allowing for easy sampling.

The act of hopping from one shack to the other has become so common that it's garnered its own name -- a chinchorreo.

Chinchorreos are where locals and visitors hop from one food stand to the next, enjoying food, drinks, and conversation, with old-school salsa, merengue, or reggaeton as the soundtrack to their culinary adventure.

A chinchorreo is like a block party on the move.

So, of course, I had to go on my own chinchorreo.

And who better to be my guide than Puerto Rican native and lifelong food enthusiast Mima Benitez.

-Puerto Rico can be a paradise of fried food, and that can be very scary to a lot of people.

But the really good fried things we have, I'm very excited about.

-And when it comes to fried food, there's one dish that is a crowd favorite across the island -- the alcapurria, a popular deep-fried fritter made with masa and filled with savory meat or seafood.

Alcapurrias are a staple at chinchorros and a true comfort food for Puerto Ricans everywhere.

Every chinchorro has their own spin on the alcapurria.

Some chinchorros, like Kiosko El Boricua, make their dough out of all different kinds of root vegetables, like yauta, cassava, yuca, or taro.

Others keep it even more simple, like Pura Pesca, our next stop, which is a coastal restaurant in Barceloneta that is known for its land crab alcapurrias.

This is Daniel Reyes Rosario, owner of Pura Pesca and the latest in a long line of restaurateurs and fishermen in his family.

-They are all fishermen.

Pura Pesca means "fresh catch."

-At Pura Pesca, the land crab is one of the stars.

And encasing that fresh crab -- this is what makes Pura Pesca unique.

Instead of a mix of different types of root vegetables, their dough is made solely of green bananas.

Why just the green banana?

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -In this neighborhood, in this town, it's typical.

Just green bananas alcapurria.

That's the way they eat it in this part of the island.

-Although the use of green bananas in this region may have come from convenience, they actually help make the dough more manageable.

The starchy, dry nature of the processed green bananas compared to root vegetables makes shaping the dough much easier.

This contributes to a stronger dough with a lighter texture.

Before shaping and frying, the dough is seasoned simply with salt, and the land crab is broken down and stewed.

Then it's ready to be wrapped in the green-banana dough.

All that's left is to deep fry and enjoy.

Compared to the other alcapurrias I've had, the dough is much lighter and more tender, you know?

-Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Qu rico.

-Bueno.

For Mima, alcapurrias and other fried delicacies of the island are just as much about the Puerto Rican identity as they are about flavor.

-I think it's very expressive, the cuisine in Puerto Rico, and it's very flavorful.

And I think we are very extroverted people.

It's reflected on the cuisine, I think.

All that amalgam of flavors and expression I think is instinctive.

-I think the food has personality, as do the people.

-Yes.

Yes.

-So, whether you're chasing the best alcapurria on the coast or just following the chinchorros, you're sure to find great food wherever you go.

-[ Laughs ] -Looked like there were a lot of great options at those fry shacks.

Lots of deep-fried treats.

-The cuisine of Puerto Rico never ceases to amaze me.

-Now, when it comes to those alcapurrias, do people make them at home?

Or is it really just a fry shack thing?

-I think it's mostly a fry shack thing.

I've seen some people make them at home, but they can be a little bit tricky to make.

But I think we kind of cracked the case here... -Okay.

-...to make a respectable alcapurria.

Okay, so we're going to start with the sofrito.

We have an 8-ounce onion here we're just going to coarsely chop.

Sofrito is typically a finely ground aromatic mixture that you add to anything you're cooking, basically, in Puerto Rico -- you know, soups, stews.

Everybody has their own, like, kind of spin on it.

That's what makes, you know, Puerto Rican home cooking so wonderful is that it's so unique, you know, from household to household.

So, we're just going to coarsely chop just about an 8-ounce onion, which is probably about 1 cup.

Then we have a cubanelle pepper.

So, we'll just top and tail that.

We can throw that in there.

It's in the bell pepper family, but it's a little bit less sweet, a little bit less aggressive, a little bit more floral.

And we'll just take the seeds out of it.

A nice coarse chop on this as well.

Take all this.

Alright.

Cubanelle is in.

And now we're going to use these aj dulce peppers.

Trim around the seed pod.

So, these look a whole lot like Scotch bonnets or habaneros, but they do not have anywhere near the heat.

So, this is about 4 ounces of aj dulce.

Now we're going to add eight cloves of peeled garlic.

And this is recao.

We're going to add this, 1 ounce of recao.

And this is also called culantro.

-Yeah, that's how I know it by.

-And it's almost like a cross between oregano and cilantro.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's really unique.

-Oh, it's so good.

-Yeah, it's so good.

We'll just drop this in there.

We have about 3/4 ounce of cilantro leaves and stems here, coarse chop.

And we'll drop that right in.

And we're going to process our sofrito just to grind it to a fine paste.

It takes about 20 seconds, and we'll stop every few seconds or so and scrape down the bowl to make sure it's all getting incorporated nice and even.

Perfect.

So, we're going to reserve 1/2 cup of this.

It makes 2 cups, when most of it will go to our freezer.

Our particular recipe is going to use 1/2 cup, so we're going to pull that out right now.

You'd be hard-pressed to travel through Puerto Rico and not open up a freezer... -I was wondering.

Yep.

-...and have sofrito come flying out at you.

Okay, there we go.

So, we are all set with our sofrito.

Okay, now we're going to talk about another important piece of Puerto Rican cooking, cuisine, and that's annatto oil.

So, annatto are these little red seeds here.

And they often add a really nice red color to Puerto Rican foods, but they also have this great, grassy, like, kind of floral aroma.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, in order to use these, you want to bloom them in a little bit of vegetable oil.

And the ratio I'm using is about 1 1/2 teaspoons of annatto seeds for 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

We're going to bring this up to temperature over low heat, you know, and you want to do this over low heat because if you burn it, there's no going back.

You have to throw it away and do it again.

So, this takes about five to seven minutes before those annatto seeds start to leach their red-orange color deep in this oil here.

Okay, you can see those little bubbles starting to form around those annatto seeds.

You can also notice that the color of the oil has taken on this nice orange color.

-Yeah.

-At this point, we're going to kill the heat.

And we're gonna let this sit for another 10 minutes, at which point the seeds will continue to seep that color and flavor into the oil.

And then once it's cooled down, we'll give it a strain and we'll use that later on.

Now we're going to make our picadillo, which is our seasoned ground-beef mixture that will go inside the alcapurrias.

Okay, so we have 6 ounces of 85% lean ground beef.

1/2 cup of chopped onion.

Three minced garlic cloves.

1 teaspoon of dried oregano.

1 teaspoon of ground cumin.

A teaspoon of granulated garlic.

A teaspoon of pepper.

3/4 teaspoon of table salt.

And now we'll turn this on to medium-high heat.

We'll just mash everything up and start to mix it.

And you see it's, like, such a small amount of meat that it, you know, within a minute or so, the whole thing begins to sizzle.

The oil starts coming out of the beef, and then you can really start to mix it and break it up into small pieces.

Alright, we'll just keep cooking this until the meat is no longer pink.

Takes about five to seven minutes.

Alright, you see how the onions begin to soften.

The beef is no longer pink.

Smell how fragrant that is.

-It smells delicious.

-And now we're going to add our sofrito.

And let this cook for about a minute, until it starts to bloom.

So, we're going to add a tablespoon of tomato paste here.

And then, to kind of mimic that tomato sauce texture, we're going to add a couple tablespoons of water.

And this is just going to quickly hydrate the tomato paste and just let it really cling to the beef.

Okay, so you see that water evaporates pretty quickly, and the tomato paste really just clings to the meat.

So at this point, we can kill the heat and we're going to add 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped pimento-stuffed green olives and 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped cilantro.

We'll just stir that in.

Okay, so this is all set.

It's all combined.

We're gonna let it cool down for about 15 minutes.

Our picadillo is about room temperature right now.

Alright, so we're just going to drop this into the food processor here.

And at this point, we're going to process it to make it a little bit more uniformly fine.

This is going to be really helpful when it comes time to stuff the alcapurrias.

We're going to give it about six pulses, but we'll stop and scrape down as needed.

So, now we're going to transfer this to a bowl and we're going to cover it with some plastic wrap.

And we're going to refrigerate it for at least an hour, but you can really make this a day or two ahead of time.

Now we're going to make the masa for the alcapurrias.

So, masa is the dough.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, the dough is made out of any number of root vegetables.

Most easy for me to work with were green plantains.

And no, this is not a banana, although it looks like a banana.

It's a much more starchy cousin.

These are notoriously a little bit difficult to peel.

-Oh, really?

-But we're going to walk through it here.

So, what we want to start off by doing is top and tail them, just so you can see the plantain there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

And then we'll take the bottom off, again, so we can see what's inside.

And then you'll notice that there's these ridges along here.

-Mm-hmm.

-I use those as a guidepost.

I'll kind of bury the tip of the paring knife within my thumb there, and I'll just kind of follow those ridges.

And you want to go through the skin and not too deeply into the plantain itself.

So, again, just follow it all the way down.

I tend to like to make it a little easier on myself and do like four scores all the way down.

And then, rather than kind of digging in with my thumbnail, I like to use a spoon and kind of get this peel started.

And you just kind of peel them off in sections.

And using a spoon to get the plantain peel off isn't really traditional.

I just find it helpful for me as a novice.

When we're done, we'll just throw it in some water to keep them from discoloring.

We have all of our beautiful plantains peeled and now we can weigh out 3 pounds, which is what we need for our alcapurrias.

So, now we can go ahead and process them into our dough.

We're going to process all of them in one batch.

We're going to shred them with the shredding disk on the food processor here.

And then we're going to swap out the blade and use a regular blade because we want to make a really fine dough.

And when I just chopped up the plantains and threw them in there with this blade, they would just tend to chase around.

You would get some that was finely processed, but then you'd still have these big chunks.

So, we're going to take this out.

We're going to drop all of our shredded plantain back into the bowl.

And now we're going to add about half of our plantains back to the food processor with this blade.

Would you say that's about half?

-Yeah.

-Okay, now we're going to add our annatto oil.

You can see how bright and orange it is.

We've strained out the seeds.

So, we'll add half of this.

So, that's about 2 tablespoons or so.

Okay.

And then 2 teaspoons of salt.

This is just table salt.

We're going to process this for about 90 seconds total.

But for the first minute, about every 15 seconds, we're going to stop and scrape it down.

There you have it.

So, it's nice and creamy.

You can touch it and it's got a nice texture to it.

So, we're going to transfer this to our bowl here.

Okay.

This is our second batch.

And we're going to process it just the same way we did our first batch, and then we'll have all of our masa.

Alright, we're in the home stretch here.

We're about to start shaping and filling our alcapurrias.

First step is we're going to portion out our picadillo mixture.

We're just kind of molding it into this tablespoon measure.

And you can see it really helps that it's nice and chilled.

This may seem, like, a little excessive, but you got to keep in mind you only have two hands here, and I'm the new guy making these things, so I found it easier to go ahead and portion out our picadillo.

If you want to do this... -Okay.

-...and start shaping that.

-Alright.

-You should get about 18 portions out of there.

-Okeydoke.

-Anything extra, you can just distribute evenly among all the portions.

-Okay.

-And I'm going to do the same with our masa.

So, I'm going to use an even 1/4 cup measure here.

I'm going to drop it onto a greased, parchment-lined tray.

I've also greased the measuring cup so everything comes out easily.

This can get sticky.

Again, I'm looking for 18 portions here.

So, we've got all of our masa and all of our picadillo portioned out.

Now we want to have some heavily greased hands.

That's good.

Alright.

So, we want to take each portion of the dough here.

-Okay.

-Kind of work it in your hands and smooth out any lumps there and get it cohesive and shape it into about a 4-inch circle, about the size of your palm.

Then take one of your little darling picadillo portions there, and you want to close this up, just like that.

Just fold it over like an empanada.

Okay.

And then kind of push to seal.

-Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It's a very malleable dough.

It just kind of mushes together.

-Yeah, and you'll just kind of work it back and forth into a football shape.

-Okay.

-Kind of work the seam out of it.

And, you know, we're going to go for about 4 inches long.

About like that.

-Well, there's no picadillo poking through, so that's good.

-Yeah, that's a win.

-Alright.

Am I good?

-Yeah, that's pretty good.

-Alright.

-[ Laughing ] First alcapurria.

-First time.

I mean, it took me a while.

-Alright, so we'll just keep shaping these alcapurrias until we're done.

-Alright.

-It's finally time to get frying.

So, we have a tabletop deep fryer here, which I love -- my new favorite piece of equipment in the kitchen.

And we're just going to drop them in.

We have 350-degree oil here.

We'll just gently lay these alcapurrias in.

And we do about six per.

-Mm-hmm.

-We want to let those fry for a good five minutes.

That'll cook the dough through and make sure the inside is hot.

And if you had a Dutch oven instead of a deep fryer like this, you would still do about six per batch.

350-degree oil, and you'd want to use about 3 quarts of oil.

Okay.

It's been about a minute.

We just want to give them a quick little jiggle to make sure they're not sticking to the basket or sticking to each other.

It's been five minutes, and we can take a look at our beautifully golden alcapurrias.

-Ooh!

-They're gorgeous, aren't they?

-They are.

-So, we're just going to drop them on the paper-towel-lined side of a wire rack here.

-Mm-hmm.

-Just for a few seconds to wick away the oil.

Give them little bit of a turn just to get any excess oil off of them.

Then we'll slide them over to the unlined side of the rack.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now we can just drop the rest of our alcapurrias in the oil, and we can fry until we're done.

Now, look how gorgeous these things are.

-They're beautiful.

-I recommend two to start.

-Oh, I'm so glad you said that.

-I just want to crack one open and take a look on the inside.

Look at that picadillo.

-Mm.

-Nicely cooked, tender.

This is called pique.

This is a traditional Puerto Rican condiment.

It's a vinegar-based hot sauce, you know, flavored with garlic, herbs, black pepper, what have you.

-Mm!

-You could do a little bit of a hit on your alcapurria like that.

You'll find this at any place you're eating in Puerto Rico.

You're going to have some of this on the table.

All different varieties of it.

Shall we?

-Yes.

-Mm.

So good, right?

-Mm-hmm!

-It's like a ton of flavor.

-It's the texture of the dough.

Toothsome and chewy and hearty, but it has flavor and it's crisp on the outside.

-And the picadillo itself, like, stands up to it, comes through.

You know, it's the perfect thing for, like, a hot summer day.

It's great with a cold beer.

-Exactly.

Thank you for this, by the way.

-Mm.

You're welcome.

So, this just brings a little bit of the islands back home to you.

-Bryan, these are delicious.

Thank you for showing me how to make them.

-You're very welcome.

-If you want to make Bryan's very own version of alcapurrias, start by making some Puerto Rican staples, including sofrito, annatto oil, and beef picadillo.

Make masa using plantains, shape the masa around portions of picadillo, and fry in a hot oil.

From "Cook's Country," a very cool recipe for alcapurrias.

Cheers, Bryan.

-Cheers.

-Well done.

-Thank you so much.

-Oh, it really goes well with beer.

[ Laughs ] -Pique?

-Yes, please.

-If you like frosty coconut drinks with umbrellas in them, then you have a man named Ramn Lpez-Irizarry to thank.

Around 1950, the Puerto Rican native found a way to extract and stabilize coconut cream.

He called it Coco Lpez.

Ramon shopped his new product around to bartenders in San Juan, who added it to traditional drinks and even created new ones.

One of those drinks was the pia colada.

Traditionally, a pia colada was a nonalcoholic Cuban beverage.

The name translates directly to "strained pineapple" and contained pineapple juice and sometimes coconut.

But once Coco Lpez arrived on the scene, the drink transformed.

A spirited version featured Coco Lpez, pineapple juice, and rum.

Since then, cream of coconut has been used to craft many other fun and tasty drinks, like the Painkiller, the Chi Chi, and the Coconut Collins.

And today at "Cook's Country," we turn the spotlight on a festive Puerto Rican cocktail, the coquito.

-Eggnog isn't the only cool and creamy Christmas cocktail option.

Try saying that three times.

You've also got coquito, which we're going to learn how to make from Christie.

-Well, coquito actually means "little coconut."

-Mm.

-But it's really got big coconut flavor.

It's a really celebratory drink among Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican families.

Within cultures it's very different, and within families it's very different.

-Sure.

Yeah, it's a lot like eggnog.

It really does vary from family to family.

-Right, so it's a little bit like eggnog in that respect, but it's not quite as thick or as rich.

-Okay.

Got it.

-And we'll start with a 15-ounce can of cream of coconut.

-Okay.

-Now, this is the really sweet, thick version of canned coconut liquid.

-Yeah.

It's often used for pia coladas.

-Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

This is what you find on the bar.

-Oh, yeah.

-Now, this may be more familiar on a daily basis.

This is a 14-ounce can of coconut milk.

This is going to add some really nice coconut flavor as well.

A little more of a creamy element.

-Yeah.

-You know, we're also adding a 12-ounce can of evaporated milk, and that is our dairy.

Now, this doesn't have eggs like eggnog has, and it's not quite as rich, but one thing it does have that eggnog has is booze.

-Booze.

Yes.

-It's probably not a surprise that coquito uses rum.

So, this is 1 1/4 cups of gold rum.

That's been aged about three years, and so it's got a little bit more of a caramelly flavor, a little toastier.

Now we want to add a little complexity, so I have a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Just take those caramelly, coconutty flavors and kick them up a little bit.

-Yes, please.

-And this is 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

-Oh, nice.

-Mm-hmm.

And then my favorite part.

We're going to put a little nutmeg.

But we're going to grate it ourselves.

-Nutmeg and pre-ground nutmeg taste completely different.

-Mm-hmm.

-Grating it yourself at the last second really is a very different flavor.

-I'm just going to grate this into my bowl.

We need about 1/4 teaspoon.

Oh, doesn't that smell good?

-It smells like the holidays.

-We just want to make sure we get all those spices mixed in.

We want to get this nice and cold, so we'll chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to three days before you're ready for it.

Our coquito is nice and chilled.

So, we have one more step before we're ready to drink.

-Ice cold.

-It's ice cold.

But we're going to add a little bit of froth to it.

-Mm!

Okay.

-You know, get it a little bubbly.

-Yeah.

-Feel more celebratory.

What's a holiday without some froth?

This is a lot of coquito.

I'm going to blend it in batches.

-So, don't do too much in advance.

-No, no.

We want to have the bubbles.

We want to blend it for about a minute to make sure any of those chunks that might have been in your coconut milk are really blended.

-That was the longest minute of my life.

-[ Laughs ] -What a beautiful texture.

-Isn't it pretty?

-I mean, it's actually custardy, without any eggs.

-Now, we have little glasses for this.

I suppose they could be served in big glasses, but these things pack quite a wallop.

-Yeah, I saw how much rum you put in there.

-[ Laughs ] Now, a little final bit on top.

We'll take a little more freshly grated nutmeg.

-That is beautiful.

-Well, let's try it.

-Alright.

Cheers to you.

-Cheers.

-God, I smell all the fresh nutmeg right off the bat.

Mmm!

Mmm.

-Mm-hmm.

-Don't go too far.

-[ Laughs ] -You know what I really appreciate?

It's not too sweet.

-Mm-hmm.

-But it is plenty sweet.

-Right.

-I love that you used a mix of the coconut milk and the cream of coconut.

-Mm-hmm.

-Just the cream of coconut would have made this way too sweet.

-And it's really creamy, but it's not, like, heavy creamy.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's still got all the great, bright coconut flavor, the spices come through.

-Yeah.

-It's not, you know, too heavy.

-But this is beautiful.

It's soft and it's creamy and it's dreamy.

This is easy and spectacular.

And you made it, and it's delicious.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Christie.

So, if you'd like to try coquito next Christmas, start by combining cream of coconut, coconut milk, evaporated milk, rum, and spices.

Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour to let the flavors meld, and blend just before serving for a frothy cocktail.

So, from "Cook's Country" and Christie, a very Christmassy coquito.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes, and you'll find them all on our website, CooksCountry.com/TV.

Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Mmm.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest season's rigorously tested recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

CooksCountry.com/TV.

-"The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook" brings together every recipe, tasting, and test from 18 seasons of the beloved TV show.

With trusted equipment recommendations and insights from the entire cast, this book is your guide to the very best in regional cooking.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop at CooksCountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

Monument Grills -- made for everyone, from the backyard master to the weekend host and the beginner just starting out.

Monument brings people together.

Monument Grills.

The everybody everywhere grill.

-Teakhaus.

Inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet.

Each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood, designed for every step, from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.