Top Empanadas, Arepas & Tamales on #DDD with Guy Fieri | Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives | Food Network

I'm here in Indianapolis just a couple miles from the famous Motor Speedway to check out a joint that's cooking up one of my favorite foods in mass quantity. I mean they're making over 3,000 of these a week. That's over a hundred and fifty thousand a year. What do you think it is? Exactly what you expect to find in Indianapolis, tamales at the tamale place. Masa, that's dough made from corn. The key ingredient to any great tamale and we make fresh masa here. The way Vladimir learned to do it from his father. Raw corn, dried. This is to grind it up to make the masa, but first what do we got to do? Just gonna put the lime there. The lime in the boiling water. Then the corn. And how long is this gonna boil? Five minutes? Yeah. Then it's cooled? We have to wait 12 hours. Now it's ready to be rinsed. Get the skin off of it. There we go. The skins off and now into the grinder. Yeah, that's nice. Hit it. So what he's doing is he's trying to get the right grind. Look at that. Fresh masa. That is killer. Now you take the masa. We divide it and then pound portions. For the tamales, for the beef and red. Got it. This is gonna make the shredded beef for the tamale. Yeah. Look at the pot. It's like a little mini hot tub. Onion, garlic. I'm gonna do the meat. You got it. Yeah! Go for a three-pointer. More onions, some more garlic. Salt, essence and water. This is gonna go for about three hours? That's right. Okay, brother. I like this. This is all the basis of the chili sauce. Ancho, guajillos, pasilla, then the puya. Now we add water. Let them steep. Soak overnight. Rehydrate. Nice and soft. Look at this. The flesh comes off. That's it, baby. Throw them in the blender. Salt. A little bit of water. Puree real nice. That's right. So we've got the pureed chilies with a little bit of water. Now it's time to make the red sauce. Garlic, onion, black pepper, ground cloves. Okay. Salt, tomatoes, water. And that's it. Now the tomato mixture is done. Now we put some of these pure chilies into this one right here. All that to cook the beef? That's right. Wow. A lot of work, man. So we've got all the beef shredded apart. Cool it down. What do we have to do now? We're gonna fry it a little bit on oil, you know. Onions. Burn it a little bit. Flavor the oil, right? That's right. Gotta take the onion out. Now we're dropping the meat in there. All this meat's gonna go in. Gets a little bit of a fry. Uh-huh. Now some of the red sauce we made. Eight gallons. Smells awesome. Okay, so how much longer is this gonna cook? Fifteen minutes. Then we take it to the masa. Uh-huh. He's the masa of the masa. So the masa balled up and ready to go. We've gotta separate. Put it in the oil first. Kind of creams up the masa. Salt. Baking powder. That's what makes them nice and light and airy and not super dense and hard. Okay. Now we're mixing. How many tamales does this make? Seventy tamales. That's seventy? Uh-huh. We add some red salsa. Okay, so we mix all this up and then we start building tamales. That's right. Got it. So we've got the husks that have been soaked in the water. So they're nice and pliable. Nice big fat ones too. Oil. So it doesn't stick. Put some masa. Okay. Some salsa. Oh, it's gonna be nice and moist. And some meat. That's generous, baby. I eat when it's so much masa, just a little bit of meat. Roll the tamale. Fold it up. Just a little bit of salsa. A little bit more in there. Yeah. There we go. And then we're gonna stand all those up in the steamer. Start it from cold. Stack them up. Maybe five, forty minutes. Then they're done. That's right. Beef and bread. All right. Look at the size of this. That's huge, man. The masa's got really nice flavor to it. And the meat inside, nothing like shredded Mexican beef. Great job, brother. Thank you. Here's your two beef ribs. It tastes great. You can taste all of the flavors blending. It's really kind of sweet and beefy at the same time. Fabio and Criollo. Venezuelan food. It can be spicy. It doesn't have to be that spicy. Sloppy Mike arepa ready. I love the fact that it's called beach food because it feels fun when it comes. Going down with the Venezuelan tequeños. It's so cool that guy visited here. That's why I came. I'm glad she listened to me because everyone should experience Michael Young's real deal Venezuelan dishes. I mean, the guy traveled to Venezuela to learn how to make it. I had my first arepa in Manhattan. And you said, wait, wait, wait. There's gotta be more of this. And then I just gotta have it. All right, brother. Bring me up to speed on the whole thing. When was the last time I saw you? 2009? You don't have a ponytail. No. You got a beard. Right. You don't have the original location anymore. Nope. We moved down the block six addresses. It was very important for us to open up very close to our other restaurant because of the community. They've been supportive of us. You made the ultimate commitment to be authentic in what you're doing. Arepas are ready. The arepas are awesome. It's like a cornmeal English muffin. So what are we making? The masa for the arepas. Start with water, tortilla salt, some black pepper, butcher grind, pre-cooked cornmeal. And that with the hand whisk. Greg, he's doing angry monster stir. We're looking for a five inch circle. How are we looking? Way to go, chef. Venezuelans only eat them on the griddle. Here in the States, we do them almost the opposite. So we're going to deep fry these? Three and a half minutes later. I love your shape of your arepa. Grazie. I love the arepas. The outside is crispy and crunchy and the inside is a little creamier. And then whatever you order and it kind of gets sucked up into the softness of the corn. Pernil arepa. What is pernil? Pernil is the pork shoulder in Venezuelan. What we call the pork butt. We're going to brine the pernil. Water, white vinegar, two cups of sugar, kosher salt, equal parts, bay leaves, dried rosemary. Rosemary big in Venezuelan food. No, that's my influence. Chipotle sauce, the one we make here. Now we're going to take the pork shoulder, pop it in. And then I'm going to brine the pork in there for 72 hours. Really? That long? Look how much it's settled down and absorbed. A little adobo, cumin, garlic, onion powder, black pepper, white pepper, guacacaca. Oh that's awesome. What is that? Basically a pureed cold vegetable sauce. Put a little water in the pan so it doesn't burn. Now how long will we cook it? Three hours covered, three hours uncovered. So you get a nice crust on it. Look at that. So we shred some of this and then we'll pop it into an arepa. Look at that thing. Such great flavor, so moist. That's capital T tasty right there bro. So we're going to make the savory empanada dough. Yes. Flour, water, okay, and some salt. Milk, butter, egg. And who taught you this recipe? My grandmother. So we'll mix this. How long do we let it rest? 45 minutes. Start to sheet it out. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's a big empanada. Yeah. Corn and cheese, what do we call it? Humira. Humira. Oil, onion, green and red bell pepper, salt, black pepper, crushed pepper, garlic, and oregano. Oregano. How long is this going to cook, chef? Seven minutes. Corn, the sofrito we made, okay. Parmesan cheese. And mozzarella, that's it. Just a little water to seal it. Exactly. Okay, one, two, three. That's a lot of empanada. Egg. A little bit of egg. How long do they bake? Four minutes. Four minutes. The filling is fantastic, like a commercial. I'm here in Puerto Rico and you know when you walk into a food park and where they have all the food trucks and you hear the gravel under your feet and you hear a rooster going off in the background, you know it's going to be real deal. And we're here to check out a joint where two brothers from another mother from Venezuela have opened up an arepa shop. You gotta check it out. This is Burano. They have the best arepas I've ever tried before. Had you ever had an arepa before? Of course, but that's my favorite. Could be because here there's scratch made by Venezuelan amigos Leo Mendoza and Javier Enrique Perez. Were you guys buddies in Venezuela or did you? We actually met here in Puerto Rico. We worked selling satellite antennas. Heard people meet in a lot of ways. It hasn't been through satellite antennas, a new one. We love arepas and we knew that there was an opening for this spot and they were talking about just opening an arepera. That's how we call it in Venezuela. Janera is ready. I had the janera. It's a flat meat. It has cheese and it has this famous sauce. It's called huasacaca. You eat it and you say mmmm. Javier and Leo. Que proximo? La janera. Would this be skirt steak? Yeah. Okay. Paprika. Paprika. Turmeric. Onion powder. Sal. Comino y moringa. Tastes like seasoning salt. It comes from a tree from India, so. Salsa anglaise. Salsa anglaise is a Worcestershire sauce. We're just sauteing it a little bit, so we've got a little bit of oil in a non-stick pan and now the huasacaca. Some oil. Pimiento verde. Green pepper. The parsley. Cilantro. Sal. Aguacate. Oliva. Vinagre. This is a pretty similar avocado sauce that you would find in street tacos. All right, so final is tomate. Huasacaca. And queso. Arepas are ready. A little diaper for the arepa, so it doesn't leak all over your hand. Huasacaca. In microgreens. Sabor. Perfect. The queso caliente makes it creamy. The carne is cut small. It's easy to eat. The huasacaca doesn't cover it, doesn't take it over. And the arepa is perfect. Tender, not dry. We call it a vessel. It's the perfect way to eat it. Gracias, heaven. Delicioso. Here's your llanera. It's perfect for me in terms of seasoning of the meat. It's juicy and the cheese melts in your mouth. So I'm here on South Broadway about 10 minutes from downtown Denver, Colorado to check out a joint with a great story. Now check this out. The chef, she came from Argentina 12 years ago. Now she's got an empanada empire. This is Maria Empanada. Nothing compares to Maria Empanada. You really feel like you're in a little part of Buenos Aires. You can feel that it's made with passion. And determination. Home from owner Lorena Canerovici. So how did you get from Buenos Aires to here? I just grabbed $300, a backpack, and three words in English. Hi, hello, and chow. Chow? Chow's not English. And how did the empanada empire start? Because I miss it a lot. And I didn't find any empanada here in Denver. So I need to make it. And does she ever. Since opening the joint named after her mom in 2011, she now cranks out, get this, up to $1,500 a day. You would think there's an army back in the kitchen making empanadas. How authentic are these empanadas? They could learn in Argentina. Beef empanadas. I love the beef empanada. Ground beef, onions, peppers, seasoning, wrapped in like a turnover pastry. It's amazing. So. We are going to make the dough and we will put some salt here. Baking powder. And the margarine. All purpose flour? Yes. Now we will put some eggs and water. This is going to mix up how long? Around 10 minutes. We let it rest. Grab the baby. What did you just say? My baby. Okay, so now you take the baby. Okay. And then we take it to the maquina. This is the empanada express? Yes. It keeps disappearing to the end of the table. Oh, don't worry, don't worry. It will come back. You like it? That's awesome. Look how beautiful it is. And we do like this. And that's empanada dough. And now we're going to make the? Filling. The filling. This is corn oil, okay? And then we put some onions. We have red peppers. Okay, next? Ground beef. Who taught you to make empanadas? My mom. So we put some salt here. Look at this. Pepper. Crushed red pepper. Cumin. Muy bien. And this is pimenton, Spanish paprika. Not spicy? Not spicy. We are going to let it cool. Okay, what are we going to make? Chimichurri. Chimichurri? Si. Parsley, red pepper. Wait, wait, wait. What, what, what, what? This is chimichurri? The authentic one. Okay, come back. Garlic. I like garlic. Salt and pepper. Then we have some pimenton. Then we have crushed red pepper. There we go. Vinegar, oregano, and olive oil. Beautiful olive oil. How long do we let this set up? Three to four days. Now we make the empanadas. We grab a disc that we made before. We put some olives, some of the filling that we made. So each one gets this fold over? Yes, yes. If you look in the dictionary under empanada, that's what it looks like. That's impressive. A little egg wash. Exactly. And we bake them at what temperature? 375. 10 to 12 minutes. So empanadas are ready. Are you ready? Listo. Do you like it? A little more than like. Oh, I like it too. There's a subtlety, a subtle flavor, a subtle texture, just a uniqueness. Not too spicy. You gotta have a chimichurri. It's light, little flavor, little crust. Simple. That's what an empanada is supposed to be. Excellent job. Thank you. Very good. Easy to eat. Great flavor. It's delicately done. Very savory. The chimichurri sauce is the ultimate compliment. Can I get the beef classical, please? When you look at that case, you just want to dive in and eat them all. You don't want to leave. Okay, thank you. Thank you. People ask me about diners driving to dives. They're like, what are the places? This is it. You got a character, you got a story, and you got great food. Thank you. So one of the types of food that we're looking for here in this Nob Hill area is Latino, but I'm not talking about the Latino you'd expect. I'm getting some Tex-Mex. No, I'm talking about Puerto Rican and a little bit of Colombian mixed together. This is the Guava Tree Cafe. One per meal, two machillas, one cubano. Every bite that you take, it's magical. Oh, wow. I'm working on the vegetarian arepa. As soon as the smell of everything that's cooking in the kitchen hits you, you just know you're in an amazing place. Which is a love child of Colombian-born Diego Barbosa. I always call him the Latin lover. Which is a story behind this. Because he's passionate around his food. Rice on beans all day. And he and co-owner Anna Cuyoc are putting out big flavor. Need your mouth, please? Permakitchen, the size of a postage stamp. What was this place before the restaurant was here? You made it into a restaurant? Yeah. You're crazy. So what kind of food do you guys do? In New Mexico, from a guy from Colombia. You hear that story all the time. Which is the vegetarian arepa. It's kind of like a pita pocket, but instead of being bread, it's corn. And all the vegetables in it, you get that good hearty, like, yes, I ate something delicious feeling from it. We are ready for a vegetarian arepa, built with white mushrooms. A lot of them. Garlic, salt, veggie oil. Roast that off. This is going to be an hour. Next, black beans, some green onions, pepper, salt, garlic cloves, bay leaves, red pepper, and a bunch of water. Cover them with plastic and foil. 350 for an hour. So time to make the arepa dough. White cornmeal. Nice and fine. Salt. And then we just add water. It's going to take forever doing it like this. It'd just be easier if I poured it. Right now, we need to go through the hand. Can you add some more, please? Don't want to add too much, though. It's ready. And we're going to go on the panini? And then we grill it both sides. All right. Just need some crust outside. What's next? Ogao, that's from Colombia. The ogao is the sauce. Tomatoes, green onions, pepper, salt, comino, more memories from home, achiote. And then some oil. Blend it up in the oil. All right. How long is this going to go? It's going to be an hour again. White cornmeal, fluffy inside, sweet plantains. A lot of plantains. Oh, yeah. The black beans we built. Mushrooms. You're going to fit all that in there? The red bell peppers on top. I'm not going to fit all that in my mouth. Top with the fresco cheese. Right there. And some ogao on the side. It's heavy. That's a really good arepa. Nice and tender, soft and pillowy on the inside. I love that you really roasted down the mushrooms. That's my favorite part. Good bite to the beans. The roasted red bell peppers are great. And the salsa. Ogao. I like the acid of that. You got sweet, you got tangy, you got rich. I mean, really good, buddy. Got one machiga ready. Amazing crunch on the outside and then soft and flavorful and smooth on the inside. Layers of flavor, literally. The sweetness of the plantains is a real surprise. The salsa that came with the arepa was delicious. Beef empanadas. From 1 to 10, it's a 10. Caribbean style Puerto Rican cuisine. Spicy, but not hot. I always pass by and say, I got to go to this place. This is Orozco. It's like soul food. And this food definitely runs deep in the soul of Jaime Orozco, who runs this spot along with his wife Maria and learned the tricks of the trade from his late father. Your dad was a restaurateur. Yes. I started working with him. I was studying computer engineering and I realized that my life was here. So I used to have a restaurant on the block for 30 years. He owns this place and I took partnership with him. We build this from ground to top and I try to keep it as a home cooking as close as we can. Shrimp empanadas ready. Shrimp empanadas are my favorite. I love seafood. And then if you want some little heat, you put some of the spicy sauce on top also. What's up next? Shrimp empanadas. Another one of the staples here. For sure. We're going to do some of the Creole sauce. Green pepper. Any oil, anything? No, just dry. Nada. Onions. Tomate. Vino blanco de cocinar. Cooking wine. Got it. Adobo. Chicken base. Oregano. Sazon con achiote. The red is the achiote. From the annatto seed. Garlic. Epazote. Recao. Recao. Thought I had it. And tomato paste. Pate de tomate. Pasta. Pasta. Pasta de tomate. I'm trying folks. And then we put some water. Once it's in the boiling, we put some cornstarch and water just to thicken it a little bit. Use that to cook the shrimp. What about the hot sauce? Let's do it. That's right away. Hot sauce in Puerto Rico. Yes, there's not any hot sauce. Dude, you're telling me. It's Orozco's hot sauce. Red chili flakes. Garlic paste. Cooking wine. Sazon. Sazon. We call it achiote. Achiote. All right. Spanish paprika. Chili powder or. Chili powder. Okay. Pickled jalapenos. Cayenne liquid. Cayenne liquid, which is hot sauce. Yes. That's wing sauce. Get some of that in your eye. Yeah, that's right. Look in there. We cook this down. Simmer. All right. And then we pour it in the bottle directly. Now we build the empanada. Shrimps. Should have been chopped up a little. Put a little wine. Put some Creole sauce already done. We're going to use the dough. Then we put the shrimps in the middle. Put some cheese. That's it? Want more cheese? No problem. The tri-colored bell peppers. And then we close it all over. That's it? There's more. Let me see if he gets that fold right. And then we'll be deep frying for four to five minutes. Let's see it. The shrimp empanadas. Our homemade hot sauce. Cilantro. That's on point. The Creole shrimp, we didn't overcook them, so they're still nice and tender. The boss of the sauce is the hot sauce. Some lemon. Legit, bro. Tell your pops to pick that up. Yeah. Dynamite. It's not too spicy. That acid coming in from the pickled jalapenos, you could put that on just about anything. Flip-flop. We're going to make tamales. So we're going to put in a pork butt that's been just cut up. Cook it in the water. Put some salt, some onions, Mexican oregano, garlic, and bay leaves. The rest of this goes in there? Yes. Mexican oregano. Okay. Black peppercorns, got it. The onions. Onions, garlic. Cumin seeds, got it. Allspice. Why don't we put the water from the peppers? We're going to add the peppers. That's the guajillo. California chili de arbol. Now we go to the hot oil? Yes. I'm going to strain it a little bit because there's some solid. How long is that going to cook, chef? 20 minutes. Then we'll be ready to take and add it to the pork. There you go. So now we have the masa. Yes. Okay. We're going to put the salt. A little baking soda. A little shortening. Now we're going to put the pork stock into the masa. Mix it up all together. Skins. The masa. Okay. We soften them in the water so they're pliable. Okay. Over. They're delicious.