Cook's Country

-Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan makes Julia a regional specialty -- Monterey Bay Cioppino -- Adam reveals his top pick for can openers, and Morgan makes Bridget the best Shrimp Mozambique.

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

-Monterey Bay has always been known for its seafood.

So it's really no surprise that the locals, like the DiGirolamo family, know a thing or two about how to cook it.

-Mm-hmm.

Angelo DiGirolamo built a famous restaurant called Angelo's on Fisherman's Wharf back in 1945, and his nephew Phil opened up Phil's Fish Market and Eatery in 1982.

-Now, in order to promote business, Phil started doing a cioppino cooking demo right in the store, and he used an old wok.

Now, he quickly found that he can make a better profit by not only selling the seafood, but also the cioppino recipe and the wok.

-And it wasn't long before Phil started selling the cioppino itself.

Customers would bring in their own pot and Phil would load it up for just 25 bucks.

-Eventually, there were lines out the door with people holding pots, especially during the holidays.

-Today, Bryan is going to show us how to make this classic West Coast fish stew.

Cioppino was born right on the Wharf in San Francisco.

It was simply a way to use up the leftovers from the day's catch, a little of this and the little that got thrown into a pot of simmering tomato sauce, and dinner was served.

So it's no surprise that there are lots of versions of this recipe out there, isn't that right?

-That's right.

I had my own unique experience with a seafood stew at Phil's Fish Market and Eatery in Monterey Bay, California.

Phil walked me through his own version of his Sicilian-inflected cioppino.

And it all begins with the marinara.

-Okay.

-So I have 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil heating up over medium heat until shimmering.

I'm going to add 1 large onion that's been thinly sliced, 3 garlic cloves that are also thinly sliced, 3/4 of a teaspoon of table salt.

And I'm just going to cook this until the onion begins to soften and just begins to brown around the edges.

And that'll take about 8 minutes.

Smells good, right?

-It does.

-So the day I ended up at Phil's Fish Market, it happened to coincide with the open house for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

-Ooh.

-There was a rodeo in town, and there was some event at the Motor Speedway.

So there was literally like 3,000 people descending on this massive restaurant.

There's concrete floors, the fish market is bustling, and it was super loud and crazy.

But everything, including the cioppino, was fantastic.

It's been about 8 minutes, and these onions are just softened, so we're going to add one 15-ounce can of tomato sauce.

As you know, tomato sauce comes with a little bit of seasoning already in it -- a little sugar, salt, spices, herbs.

So we're getting a big boost to flavor right off the bat.

We don't have a lot of time to simmer the sauce for hours and hours to develop flavors.

So a little cheat like that goes a long way.

Then we have 1 cup of tomato puree.

This is mostly to reinforce that tomato flavor and give a little bit of body to the marinara.

On top of that, we're going to do a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil.

-Into the simmering pot.

-Into the simmering pot.

Phil uses basil pretty liberally with this cioppino.

The basil really imparts a nice flavor throughout the sauce.

Now a tablespoon of light brown sugar.

So it's not unusual to add sugar to marinara sauces to take the acidic edge off those tomatoes.

But brown sugar, a little unusual.

-I haven't seen that before.

-Right.

Now, this is an ingredient I've never seen before.

1 1/2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce.

That adds a good shot of umami to the sauce, a nice savoriness.

Okay.

And this one, I think, is really based on those Sicilian roots.

It's 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, which I have never seen in my life.

But trust me, it really works well here.

It really complements the seafood.

It changes the flavor of this marinara from something that you're used to putting on pasta to just something that's a little bit different and actually welcomes in the seafood.

-Alright.

So cinnamon and Worcestershire.

-Right.

So we're going to bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer until it's slightly thickened.

And that takes about 10 minutes.

It's been 10 minutes, and I really want you to try this unique sauce.

So I have a little spoon for you here.

-Thank you.

-And we could just go ahead and get in there.

I want you to notice that cinnamon.

I don't think you could not notice it.

-Wow!

-But it doesn't taste like, "Hey, there's cinnamon in here."

It just got a really unique flavor to it.

-It does.

-Okay.

So we're going to shut off the sauce and we're just going to set it aside.

And now let's talk about the seafood.

We're gonna be using cod, scallops, shrimp, and mussels.

-All easy to find anywhere in the country.

-That's right.

So let's start with the cod fillets.

I have 1 1/2 pounds of cod.

Now, you could substitute sea bass, snapper, hake, halibut, any of those fish that are firm white flesh fish.

But you want them to be at least an inch to an inch and a half thick because we're going to cut this into 1 1/2 inch chunks here.

And we want those chunks to cook at the same rate as the rest of the seafood.

Next, we're gonna talk about the scallops.

These are 10-20 dry pack scallops.

That means there's 10 to 20 of them per pound.

Dry pack means they're not treated with any chemical to enhance their water content.

Scallops often come with a little tendon on the side here.

You want to just peel that off and discard that.

So these scallops are normally about an inch, inch and a half thick.

We want to cut those in half right at the equator here so we can make a little water chestnut-sized pieces.

And that's 12 ounces of scallops.

And we also have 12 ounces of shrimp.

And we want to peel and de-vein those and then remove the tail.

So you could peel and de-vein your shrimp any way you like.

The way I like to do it is taking a paring knife, inverting it so the blade is up, and then I just kind of wiggle the knife and move the shrimp around the blade, not forcing the blade through the shrimp.

Okay?

And then you can peel off all of this shell.

And then as you get to the tail, the trick here is to just give it a little bit of a squeeze and then it'll pop right off.

And then if you see any of the vein that's in there, just use the blade of your knife to remove it.

So these are 21-25 shrimp, meaning there's 21 to 25 per pound.

And those are classified in the neighborhood of extra-large shrimp.

Alright.

So our shrimp are cleaned, and now we're going to season our fish with salt and pepper.

Okay, and we'll just give those a light toss on here.

Want to keep all the individual groups of seafood separate because we're going to add them at different times into the pot.

So that's all set and ready to go.

And then the last thing we need to take care of here are the mussels.

We have 1 pound of mussels.

A lot of times, I will go through and just give them a quick rinse under cold running water just to remove any sand that might be on the surface of the shells.

And you really want to look for two things -- One, to make sure if you have any mussels that are open, give them a little bang on the counter that they close up nicely.

That means they're still alive.

If they don't close up, get rid of them.

And then you also want to look for any beards.

These are the little furry pieces that come out of the side of the muscle.

And this is how they attach themselves to the rope or the rock where they grow.

So if you see the beard, just give it a little tug and remove it.

So then we'll continue to take the beards off the rest of these muscles.

And then we'll get to cooking.

We have 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil heating over medium-high heat, and you can see that it's just now starting to shimmer.

-Mm-hmm.

-So to that, we're going to add our mussels.

Another 1/2 cup of chopped basil.

1/4 cup of dry sherry.

Now, you could use some kind of moscato or a Gewuerztraminer.

We like the taste of the sherry.

Okay.

And 3 cloves of minced garlic.

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.

And then a crumbled 1/2 teaspoon of saffron, which is classic in any cioppino.

And then finally, 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.

We're just going to stir that to combine all these ingredients.

We're gonna cover for two minutes and let those mussels just begin to pop open.

It's been two minutes, and you can see that our muscles have just started to pop open.

That's perfect.

So we're going to add two 8-ounce bottles of clam juice and our wonderful marinara that we made earlier.

-You know, I was thinking that marinara was looking a little thick to be the base of a stew.

But now that I see you're loosening it up with clam use, it makes sense.

-And remember, a lot of liquid is going to come out of that seafood as well.

So let's stir this together to combine it.

Okay.

Now we're ready to start adding our seafood.

-Alright.

-We're going to add the cod and the scallops first.

The idea is that we stagger the seafood so all the pieces come up done just at the same time.

We're going to push the cod just below the surface.

And remember, there's gonna be some liquid that comes out of the cod.

And I like to keep it so I can see just the top of it.

Nice and attractive for the presentation.

Alright.

And then next, we're gonna be adding the scallops, and you could just drop those all over the stew in any place you see an opening.

Now, from this point on, we are not going to stir the stew because then we risk breaking up the fish, and we don't want to do that.

We want to have nice big chunks of seafood to serve.

So we have all of our scallops in there.

Alright, you can see that it's coming up to a boil.

We want to cover it and reduce the heat to medium and let that simmer for two minutes.

It's been two minutes.

And you can see, the seafood is starting to look just opaque.

So we're going to add the remaining seafood there.

-Okay.

-The shrimp.

Put it anywhere you see an opening.

-It is a very bare simmer, though, huh?

-Yeah.

Again, we're just trying to slowly bring all the seafood up.

I will use the spoon just to push the shrimp below the surface of the liquid.

Okay, so that shrimp is nestled in there nicely.

We're gonna cover it and let this seafood continue to simmer for another three minutes.

Then we're gonna remove it from the heat and let it steep off the heat for five minutes to let all the seafood come up to temperature together.

-Alright.

So that gentle finish means you won't overcook it.

-Exactly.

-Julia, you've been very patient.

-I have been.

-It's time to take a peek at our cioppino.

-Ooh!

That smells good.

-And the thing to notice here is that everything is just barely cooked through.

That's going to mean it's very tender and still has a lot of moisture to it.

Crouton for you?

-Yeah.

Little wedge of lemon.

-I'm driving later, so I'm going to say no to lemon.

-[ Laughs ] I'm gonna do a little bit.

I just want to taste this broth.

The seafood looks amazing.

First up, the broth.

Ohh.

-Yeah.

-It just has so much flavor.

Let's try some cod.

Mmm.

Perfectly cooked.

-And try the shrimp.

The shrimp is the biggest test of doneness, you know?

Because when the shrimp are overcooked, they can be really chewy.

-Mmm.

They're so tender.

The seafood really is the star of the show.

-And the basil works so well with the seafood.

-Bryan, this is amazing.

-Thank you so much.

-So if you want to make this elegant but simple seafood stew, start by making a fragrant tomato sauce.

After cleaning and cutting up a variety of seafood into bite-sized pieces, add them to the pot in stages.

Finally, let the seafood finish cooking off the heat and serve with slices of hearty bread and wedges of lemon.

From "Cook's Country," an easy and impressive recipe for Monterey Bay Cioppino.

I can't wait to get my hands on this bread.

It's been soaking in that a little bit.

[ Gasps ] -Metal cans can be really tough to chew, so I like to use a can opener to get to the food inside.

Luckily, Adam's here and he's gonna tell me which can opener is going to help me the most.

[ Chuckles ] -We have two basic types of can openers.

In front of you, these four are the traditional can openers.

These three are safety can openers.

Now, the traditional ones, everyone knows how to use this.

It's got the cutting wheel that mounts to the can from the top.

You can hear when it's connected, you just turn the handle, off it comes.

You're good to go.

-Sure.

-However, the lid has sort of a sharp edge because it's been cut off of the lip.

The safety can openers, the cutting wheel attaches from the side and you crank it around, and then the entire lid, including the lip, comes off.

So that's your safety lid.

There's no sharp edges.

We tested seven different can openers.

The price range was a low of $8 to -- this is a $55 can opener.

-Think about the tuna you could buy with that.

-[ Laughs ] It's incredible.

We had a squad of testers open at least 20 cans, ranging from small 6-ounce cans of tomato paste to test them on tight curves, beans and tuna for medium curves, and then 28-ounce cans of tomatoes for the wider, gentler curves.

And they were assessing how easy these can openers were to attach, operate, and detach.

And frankly, the ease of operation was more important to them than the edge of the lid.

-Sure.

-You know, if you're careful with a regular lid, you won't cut yourself.

-Oh, exactly.

And if the wrong can opener, you can't even get inside.

-Exactly.

You have to start gnawing through again.

Some of these safety openers were not intuitive.

It was sort of hard to tell when a safety opener was attached, because when you put a regular traditional opener on and you click it into place, you can feel that click.

You can hear the air escape.

You can see that the cutting wheel's attached.

You're good to go.

With these safety openers, the cutting wheel, the view is blocked, so you don't always know, and it doesn't have that puncture.

So you don't really know that it's attached.

-Anything could be happening.

-And that was the problem.

-Now, I want you to try this.

That's a dupe of this guy right here.

Try opening that can with with that one.

-Alright.

I can tell you I live in fear of this type.

-[ Laughs ] -Because it is -- -There you go.

-I'm not even sure.

Maybe that.

I don't know.

-Alright.

-Yeah, see?

Nothing's happening.

-Yeah, you can tell that's not intuitive.

Another problem with the safety can openers is the testers noticed every now and then when they pulled the lid off, they would see these yellow strings of glue coming off, probably from the label.

-Oh.

-Never got into the food, but really, why risk it?

-Sure.

-In terms of ease of operation, you can see that these handles on the top, which you turn to open the can, those are called the driving handles.

There were different styles, different shapes, different materials.

None of them were uncomfortable for any of the testers, but one of them was great.

And it was this one because it was the longest one.

It was three and a half inches.

So it was really smooth and easy to turn.

-Good leverage there.

-And in fact, this is our winning can opener.

This is the EZ-DUZ-IT can opener traditional style, about $10.

Anyone can pick it up, open a can.

No gnawing required, no lessons required.

-No embarrassment.

-[ Laughs ] -There you go.

Our winner was the EZ-DUZ-IT can opener, and it's $10.

The towns of Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts, are well-known for their Portuguese communities, their culture, and their food.

And one great dish is Shrimp Mozambique.

Now, it's got a lot of spice, but luckily for us, Morgan's here and she's brought the heat, right?

-Yes.

This dish is all about the heat.

So traditionally, Shrimp Mozambique is made with this sauce called piri piri sauce, which is this really fruity, bright pepper sauce.

The problem is you can't find this at a regular grocery store.

So you either have to specially mail order it or go to a specialty grocery store.

So we played around with a lot of different substitutes and found a great sub in Frank's RedHot.

-Interesting.

That was the closest thing.

-Yes.

So I'm going to show you how to build the sauce.

It kind of mimics a piri piri sauce.

I have 2 tablespoons of Frank's.

So Frank's is made with cayenne chili peppers.

Piri Piri is made with bird's eye chili peppers, which have a little more flavor.

So I'm gonna add some things to bump it up a little bit.

2 tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley.

Brighten it up a little bit.

I have 2 teaspoons of paprika to give it a little earthiness and a little more richness.

2 chopped garlic cloves here.

And it's all gonna get blended.

Just throw them in there.

And 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

I also have a quarter of a slice of hearty white sandwich bread.

So this is actually going to add a little sweetness and a little body to the sauce.

It also gives you a little bit of creaminess without actually adding cream.

And then since you have bread in here, in order to get it to blend, I'm going to add some water.

This is 2 tablespoons of water.

If you need to, you can add a little more water.

Just add a tablespoon at a time until it actually blends nicely.

-Okay.

-So now I'm going to blend this for two minutes until it's nice and smooth, and it'll actually look like a nice red pepper sauce.

Alright.

Let's see where we're at.

Now, see, you can see it's nice and smooth.

It already smells really good.

So we're going to set this aside and move on to another important part -- the shrimp.

I have 2 pounds of extra-large shrimp here, which means there's 21 to 25 a pound.

These are untreated shrimp, which means if you look at the ingredient list, all it should say is shrimp.

-Shrimp.

That's it.

-No salt, no sodium tripolyphosphate.

Nothing you can't read.

Just shrimp.

So I'm going to prep two over here.

These are shell-on shrimp, and you weigh them with the shell, so your 2 pounds should be with a shell.

And I have these little shrimp shears over here that make it really easy to just go in there and snip off the shell.

-Now, these are super handy because they also open up the back.

So if the shrimp need to be cleaned, or de-veined.

-Yeah.

So this one has some gunk in there.

So I'm going to go and get that out with a paring knife.

And now I'm going to season them.

So I have 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

And if all you can find is those treated shrimp, the dish will still be good.

You can just skip adding the salt.

-Okay.

-I think that non-treated shrimp have a better texture.

When they're treated, they can actually be a little bouncy.

-I agree, yep.

A little too buoyant.

-Okay.

And now that these are well covered, I'm just going to wash my hands.

And then it's time to cook.

-Sounds great.

-I have a tablespoon of olive oil that I'm heating over medium heat.

So we're gonna build a little more base to that sauce.

-Okay.

-So I have an onion over here.

I'm just looking for 1/2 of a cup of finally chopped onion, which is about half of a regular sized onion.

I always like to go in parallel to the board with my knife, and then I go in perpendicular.

-I like that you kept the root attached, so it's holding it all together, too.

-Oh, yeah.

Makes it a lot easier.

And then I turn the onion and go the other way.

You get nice, evenly cut onion.

I'm only looking for about 1/2 a cup.

So you can see I have a nonstick skillet.

We really didn't want any browning here.

We just wanted to get these onions nice and soft, and same with the shrimp.

We never actually really want them to brown.

So a nonstick skillet was really nice for us here.

I also have 1/2 teaspoon of table salt that I'm gonna add.

I always like to season food as I go.

So we have a little salt on the shrimp, little salt in with the onion.

I'm just gonna cook these, like I said, till they're nice and soft.

It'll take about five minutes.

-Okay.

-I also have 3 garlic cloves.

It's not first date sort of food.

It's gonna be garlicky.

It's going to -- Your breath's not gonna smell great, but it's going to be very worth it.

-You just have to make sure the other person is eating the same thing.

-Yeah.

Exactly.

-Then you're all set.

-So I'm gonna slice these thinly.

Garlic's a little more mild when you slice it thinly, so it's really nice to do this.

Also, it looks really pretty.

So you can see the onions are nice and soft.

They're not yet dark and roasty at all.

-Okay.

-And I'm gonna add these garlic cloves.

With the garlic, you're not really looking for any color either.

You just want to start softening a little bit, mellow out the flavor just a little bit.

It'll only take about one minute.

Okay, and now I'm gonna add a cup of dry white wine.

When you're doing this, you want to use a wine that's a little more mild, so nothing like a Chardonnay that's too oaky or moscato, which can be really sweet.

-Mm-hmm.

-You want something like a Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc, something pretty mild.

So I want to bring up to a boil and then cook it till it reduces by half, which will take about four minutes.

That just takes away some of the booziness from wine.

I really like drinking wine regularly, but not in my food.

So takes away some of the sharpness.

You can see how the wine's cooked down by half.

And now it's time to add the shrimp.

So we've stayed over medium heat this whole time.

It's very gentle.

It's a really nice way to cook shrimp because they're just gonna poach.

So it'll really help us prevent overcooking the shrimp.

-Nobody wants any rubbery shrimp.

-Exactly.

So I'm gonna add these shrimp.

We're gonna continue to cook these over medium heat.

And I'm just going to cook them until they're opaque, which will take about four minutes.

You don't really want them to start curling under or anything like that, 'cause that means they're getting a little overcooked.

-Okay.

-And you'll see the shrimp actually release a little bit of liquid, so it'll get a little more saucy as it cooks.

-[ Sighs ] Smells so good.

-I know.

It smells shrimpy and garlicky.

And you can see how these shrimp are almost totally cooked.

We have just another minute or so of cooking to go.

-And they did curl a little bit, but they're not super tight.

-Exactly what we're looking for.

So it's time to add back that really flavorful piri piri sauce from earlier.

So this is all that garlic, parsley, paprika, oil, and, of course, that Frank's.

-Some serious flavor in that bowl.

-There is and also, just to round things out, I have 2 tablespoons of butter.

Butter never hurt anything.

-[ Laughs ] -So now all I'm doing is getting the shrimp nicely coated in that sauce and all that butter, making sure everything's finished cooking.

But it's still nice and gentle.

It's still over medium heat.

It'll only take about a minute.

-Okay.

-So now I'm gonna move it over here, make sure they don't overcook.

Got to make sure it's well-seasoned for you.

-Gotcha.

That's really well-seasoned.

Maybe just a smidge.

-Mm-hmm.

-Mmm.

-So nicely peppery.

-Does not need any more pepper.

-Okay.

So onto the serving platter.

You really want to get it out of this pan relatively quickly to keep those shrimp, again, from overcooking.

One more last little bit of zhuzh.

I've got some parsley for the top.

So I have 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley.

-Oh, glorious.

-I know.

I feel like parsley can make anything look more beautiful, even though this is already pretty beautiful, but -- -I know.

I sprinkle it on my husband's head every day.

[ Both laugh ] -Great strategy.

And now it's time to eat.

-Alright.

So dish you out some.

-Thank you.

-Get you plenty of that sauce.

I've got some crusty bread for us.

It's also really good with rice.

-There we go.

That is beautiful.

-I know.

It looks so pretty.

-Mmm.

-It's got that pepper, all that garlic.

It's fruity and bold and spicy.

-It's fruity.

-Yeah, that's the white wine, and then the actual piri piri sauce is made with those piri piri peppers that are a lot more fruity.

-Right.

-This is really nice.

We kind of tried to get there with different ways.

-And it's spicy, but it's not too hot.

The shrimp are juicy, really tender.

This was incredible.

Thank you.

-Thank you.

-You're gonna want to make this dish at home.

And it starts with a bracing sauce.

Blend pepper sauce, parsley, and garlic with olive oil, water, and bread.

Saut the aromatics, add white wine, and cook the shrimp in that liquid.

Add butter and the sauce topped with more parsley, and sop up the juices with some crusty bread.

So from "Cook's Country," the world's best flavor-packed Shrimp Mozambique.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with tastings, testings, and select episodes on our website.

That's cookscountry.com/TV.

I don't know.

Start to finish, that was like 10 minutes.

15 minutes?

-I know, 15 minutes.

It's great.

-Time to make another one.

-I know.

We still have that whole bottle of wine.