Well Fed Network

Posted by Chris Perrin on Edible TV

Sometimes cooking shows pop up when you least expect them.  I was having one of those days and I needed to get out for a bit, so I called a buddy of mine and we decided to get lunch at this little out-of-the-way Mexican place.  No sooner do we sit down and order do I look up at the television and spy something that looks suspiciously like a chef.  I cannot hear the TV audio over the restaurant’s blaring music, but I clearly see a man in chef’s whites tasting something and making that “I am tasting my dish and I really need to sell that I like it even though it’s burning the roof of my mouth” face.  At that moment, I am hooked.  My friend, also a good cook, and I sit in rapt attention watching the rest of the show, trying to guess what he is making even though we cannot hear what he is saying.

Part of the fun of watching the show is slowly piecing together what the chef, Alfredo Oropeza, is making.  We cannot hear the names of the dishes, but almost immediately something jumps out at us.  This man is to heavy cream what Paula Dean is to butter.  Making fish?  Heavy cream.  Veggies?  Heavy cream.  Dessert?  Heavy cream and butter.

More importantly, though, what was so engaging about the show was how normal it felt.  There were a few things that might have been a bit unusual.  First, Chef Oropeza was making some dishes I have never heard of, like fish and split pea pie, and what I thought was going to be the most horrible heavy cream dish ever until we figured out it was a dessert.  Secondly, he had a house band.  That was a bit odd.

Other than that, watching his show, Al Sabor Del Chef, felt like watching Emeril or Guy Fieri or Alton Brown on several cups of coffee.  It just felt right.  The show had all of the trappings of American food television: the recipes, the chef’s interaction with the camera, even taped segments where he helps a mom prepare healthy food for her children or helps a wife to make dinner for her husband.  It was everything edible TV should be.

Because of the recipes and the exposure to Latino cooking beyond Tex-Mex, I plan on using the trusty DVR to record more of his shows.  They appear on Galavision in the United States.  I speak a little Spanish, but if anyone watches the show and sees something they like, recipes can be found online, like this one below for the above-mentioned fish and yellow split pie.

Of course, until you study up on your Spanish cooking vocabulary, use a service like Babelfish to translate recipes.  The result will look something like the recipe I have posted below, though I have cleaned up the language a little and translated the few words Babelfish could not.

Fish and split pea pie (find the original here)
Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:
1 spoonful of reposado tequila (optional)
Rosemary to the pleasure
500 grams of fish fillets (Note: 2 tilapia filets were used in the show)
1 cup heavy cream (Note: Chef Oropeza uses heavy cream in the show, but this recipe does not list it)
2 teaspoons of cilantro, finely chopped
Ground black pepper
1/3 of cup of chiffonaded basil
2 egg whites
Salt to the pleasure
Butter flavored oil in an aerosol can (Note: cooking spray)
500 grams of Chinese chícharos (yellow split peas), cooked and smashed
Paprika to the pleasure
Aluminum foil

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (roughly 350°F).

Coat an eight inch pie plate with canola oil and line it with paper.

Crumble the fish in the food processor, add egg whites, and mix until smooth.  Add the cilantro and the cream.  Beat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add one half of the mixture into the dish, spreading it out to cover the entire baking dish.  Then add the split peas and spread over the fish mixture.  Be careful not to press down too hard on the bottom layer.

Add the paprika to the other half of the fix mixture.  Put the paprika/fish mixture in the baking dish, spreading it across the top of the pie and being careful not to press down too hard on what is already in the dish.  Cover the entire pie with oiled aluminum foil and put it in the back of the oven.

Bake for 35 minutes.  Every so often, lift the aluminum foil and add hot water. Continue baking.  After 35 minutes, remove from the oven and let the pie rest for a few minutes.

Garnish with tomatoes, basil and tequila.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

*Note: the recipe calls for the peas to be blanqueados, which literally translated means whitened.  I took this to mean cooked and smashed with a fork.

Photo of Chef Oropreza from ChefOropreza.com.mx.  Recipe and Food Photo courtesy of Es Mas.  Any errors in translation are the fault of the author.