- I love this recipe.

In fact, Jonathan Gold, the famous L.A. food writer, felt this was one of his all-time favorite dishes.

- As soon as that paste hits the hot rice, the aromas just come out, and it's so, so fresh.

- A lot of salsas are very, you know, front of your tongue, and light and-- I don't like the word zesty, but this is deep and rich and... right?

- Mm-hmm.

- It's kind of like a paella, but brothier.

Super easy.

Very yummy.

Here we go.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - I was recently in Los Angeles, and I discovered that many chefs are opening restaurants in their own backyards.

So I went to 106 Seafood Underground and found one of L.A.'s most famous recipes, called Drunken Shrimp, or camarones borrachos.

It's made by seafood chef Sergio Peñuelas using a really simple tequila-based sauce.

Plus, we demonstrate cilantro rice, and then a Veracruz-style rice and shrimp.

So please stay tuned.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad: for all your kitchen adventures.

(engine roaring) - All right, Chris, you're getting the... you're getting the true L.A. experience right now.

♪ ♪ L.A.'s wild.

It's a real big city.

There's street vending, there's, of course, restaurants.

And now this is the other link in that chain.

We're about five minutes away from L.A.X., and this is a backyard restaurant.

♪ ♪ There's a chef here.

His name is Sergio Peñuelas.

He specializes in Sinaloan-style ceviches and grilled fish.

- Great.

- So, uh, this is... this is, uh... this is as L.A. as it gets.

♪ ♪ Put some tables, put some nice plants, make it a little oasis.

- A little artificial turf, you're all set, yeah.

Chris, Sergio.

- Hola.

- Hola.

- Have you ever had Sinaloan-style seafood?

- No.

Never.

- Oh man... - Never?

- That's why I'm here.

- Okay.

♪ ♪ (speaking Spanish) - SERGIO (in Spanish): - JAVIER (in Spanish): - SERGIO: ♪ ♪ - Are you ready to try your first bite of backyard ceviche and backyard... - Backyard ceviche?

That sounds... - This is... in L.A., anything goes, man.

♪ ♪ Ceviche should always be very simple, you know that, right?

- It shouldn't be sitting in lime juice for three hours.

- Exactly.

You see, whenever you get ceviche, the shrimp should always be a little bit gray.

Which when it's all the way pink, that means that it's been sitting in the lime juice for a while.

Sergio, what's the secret to good ceviche?

- The secret?

The passion.

- The passion.

♪ ♪ - Mm.

That's really good.

- This dish was beloved by my mentor, may he rest in peace, Jonathan Gold.

He called Sergio the Snook... the Snook Whisperer, which you know, snook is a kind of fish.

It's really hard to find in L.A. Gonna hit it with lime always.

And then, last but not least, put a little bit of this amazing aguachile.

This is L.A. seafood in a bite.

Cheers.

- Mm!

Mm... That's really good.

♪ ♪ - JAVIER: - SERGIO: - JAVIER: - Fresh garlic, crushed pepper, cilantro, and tequila.

- Think of it as a Mexican scampi with a little... little shot of tequila, to, to lighten it up a little bit.

Mm!

Whoa!

That's good.

- That's really good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - So I went to L.A. recently, and two friends of mine took me around.

This is Javier Cabral, who edits L.A. Tacos, and his wife Paola Briseño-González, who's also a food writer.

And we tasted a lot of tacos from taco trucks.

At the end of the day, however, we went to an underground restaurant.

That means a restaurant in someone's backyard.

This one was called 106 Seafood Underground.

Now, the chef is very well-known, Sergio Peñuelas.

He's a very well-known seafood cook at lots of restaurants around L.A.

But he opened his own place with his wife, and we went in the backyard.

It was huge.

There was like a dozen picnic tables, there was a boom box, there were lights.

He had a sort of a shed-shack in the middle where he did his cooking.

And one of the things we had was camarones borrachos, which is drunken shrimp.

I love this recipe.

In fact, Jonathan Gold, the famous L.A. food writer, felt this was one of his all-time favorite dishes.

It's also incredibly simple.

So it starts with, like a lot of recipes, with oil and butter, three tablespoons of each.

And we're going to cook a little garlic; six cloves.

Now, when I cook garlic, I don't add it to hot oil.

I put it in with the cold oil.

I'll do the same thing with onions.

And that way if the oil is a little too hot, the garlic doesn't hit the pan, and burn right away.

So I start it right like this.

So we'll cook that for two or three minutes until the garlic, you can smell the garlic, and it has a nice golden color.

So let's start with the shrimp.

We have two pounds of 21-25s.

They are 21 to 25 per pound.

They're, they're quite large.

A little bit of lime juice goes in.

Just toss that.

Now, you'll notice a lot of times, especially in Mexican cooking, they leave the heads on of shrimp, which are hard to find, but we do like to leave the tails on.

But the heads, especially if you're cooking them in a sauce, actually add some flavor.

A little salt, half teaspoon, let that sit.

Meanwhile, we'll get ready for the next step, which is we have tequila.

You don't want the aged, or the reposado, the rested.

You want a nice, clean, clear tequila because you want that nice, clean taste.

So we're adding it to some water-- two parts water, one part tequila.

So now we'll add the tequila-water mixture.

(sizzling) Some red pepper flakes, of course.

And then we'll add a teaspoon of kosher salt.

And a quarter-teaspoon of black pepper.

We're going to simmer this down until it gets nice and concentrated.

Then the shrimp go in and just cook for two or three minutes.

So we're reducing the sauce down to about two-thirds of a cup.

And, meanwhile, we're going to take a cucumber.

We're just going to use half of it.

And just very thin slices.

And we'll put those on the shrimp when they're cooked.

Now, the question is, very often recipes say reduce sauce till it's half a cup.

Or, in this case, two-thirds of a cup.

And you can actually use a measuring cup and pour the liquid in and pour it back.

But if you want to do it by eye, just tilt the pan up like this, and you get a pretty good sense about how much liquid is there.

So this looks like it's a little more than two-thirds of a cup.

Give it another minute or two.

Okay, I think we're good to go.

so now the shrimp go in.

So you don't want to overcook the shrimp.

It's about three minutes.

If you have the shells on, as they often do in a Mexican restaurant, it'd be about five minutes.

But, you know, I wouldn't go by timing.

It depends how hot your skillet is, how big your skillet is.

You just want it opaque.

It shouldn't be translucent.

So the shrimp are now just opaque.

Ready to go.

Turn the heat off.

We'll put in a little bit of the cilantro here.

Now, that's... that's pretty much how he served it, Sergio served it at his restaurant-- 106 Seafood Underground-- a big platter of shrimp.

And now we have some things to put on top of it.

We have the cucumbers.

So then also some onion.

We're going to finish with a little bit of cilantro leaves.

And then a squeeze or eight of lime, which is always nice at the end.

So, really easy shrimp dish, but with tons of flavor.

So, camarones borrachos, or drunken shrimp.

Sergio served this as a big platter with a bunch of other things.

You could certainly do this as a mezze, as a small platter to start, or, you know, serve it with rice, whatever, and make it the main course.

Mm...

So when a dish is simple, you know, and it has complex flavors at the same time-- tequila, the red pepper flakes, the garlic, the butter-- that's the Holy grail, right, of being in the kitchen when you get both of those things together.

So drunken shrimp really is that recipe.

Give it a shot.

It takes only 15 minutes.

♪ ♪ - Making a simple pot of rice isn't difficult.

Making it flavorful shouldn't be either.

The solution is a boldly flavored herb paste.

Now, any sort of combination of herbs, oil, acid, and salt would definitely bump up an otherwise run-of-the-mill bowl of plain grains into a side that's worthy of its own meal.

We're taking flavor inspiration from arroz verde, which we find in Latin American cuisine.

It's long grain white rice that has cilantro going all the way throughout it, and it's a beautiful side, and we're gonna make our little take on it right now.

So here I have a cup and a half of long grain white rice.

We'll throw that into a medium saucepan.

Along with two cups of water.

And, of course, we'll follow that up with a little bit of salt.

So we'll bring this mixture up to a simmer over high heat, and as soon as it starts to bubble, we'll crank that heat down to low, pop a lid on it, and let that rice cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed.

Now, while we bring that up to a simmer, let's go ahead and make that herbaceous paste.

We're going to throw into our blender here some water to make sure that all of our ingredients get blended up nice and smooth.

We'll also throw in some cilantro.

This is the whole bit of cilantro, not just the leaves, but also the stems.

There's plenty of flavor in there.

We'll follow that up with some scallions just to give it a little bit of an allium, savory bite.

Some jalapenos for a nice fresh pop of piquant heat.

Some garlic, because adding a little bit more garlic to this sauce is just going to make it even more savory.

And, finally, some oil just to give it some lusciousness.

Almost forgot-- a little bit of salt.

So from here, we'll go ahead and blend this until it's smooth.

(whirring) (whirring stops) All right, that blended up really easy for me.

But if you run into any issues with your blender, you could add in water a teaspoon at a time until you reach this nice, smooth consistency.

And in that time, my rice has already come up to a boil.

So we'll go ahead and reduce that down to low.

We'll pop a lid on it and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

All right, it's been 20 minutes.

The rice is completely cooked, but a little extra thing that you can do is throw a towel on between the lid and the pot itself.

That way, that towel can absorb all that excess moisture and that rice won't become mushy.

This whole thing's been sitting for five minutes, so it's ready to go.

We could go ahead and pull that towel and the lid off.

Before we add in our puree, We want to go ahead and just give it a nice, gentle fluff.

And it's at this point, you'll see, putting that towel on top really helped keep each grain individual without turning into a paste.

Okay, so now we could go ahead and throw in our puree.

As soon as that paste hits the hot rice, the aromas just come out, and it's so, so fresh.

We'll go ahead and give that a stir just to get that paste over each and every piece of rice in this pot.

Now, as always, we like to throw in just a little bit of acidity right before we serve.

So we're throwing in just a little bit of lime juice to brighten things up.

Now, of course, before I plate this up, I do want to give it a little taste just in case it needs a little extra salt.

Mm...

It's good.

So now we can go ahead and plate up.

♪ ♪ And, finally, one last hit of fresh lime juice.

Now, this is a phenomenal side that would go great with any Mexican dish, or, honestly, those drunken shrimp that Chris made, it would go perfect with that.

But you could easily make this its own meal simply by putting a fried egg on top.

That's the beauty of cilantro rice.

♪ ♪ - I mean, salsa macha's really one of my favorite salsas.

And I think it throws people for a, you know, a loop because, you know, when we think salsa, we think of a fresh salsa, right?

Like tomatoes, or maybe like, you know, a salsa that's, like, you know, slightly pan-fried for enchiladas, that kind of thing.

But there's also, you know, salsa macha, which is oil-based.

And macha means brave.

So this was traditionally, like, super, super, super spicy, and, you know, and you only needed like a couple of drops, and that was enough to, you know, to, to get you.

And the costeña part of this salsa, you know, what makes it, you know, unique to the region where I'm from, are the cacao nibs.

So this is a, you know, an addition that you will see a lot with grilled seafood.

So, you know, you will have it over a butterfly fish, like sarandeado, you know, like a grill fish or grilled seafood.

And it just, you know, adds that a really, really nice depth to it so.

So, Chris, you cook much with the dried chilies?

- I do, when I was in Oaxaca I got a chili education.

- Yeah.

- Chili de agua, and, and... - Oh... - Which I love those.

- Love those.

- Yeah.

- And, and guajillos.

You know, I, I didn't understand that chilies were about their fruity flavor.

- Mm-hmm.

- I always thought it was about heat.

- Mm!

- 'Cause most places I had been, people use... use it just to have heat.

- Yeah.

- And then I realized it was, like everything else, it was about flavor.

- Yeah.

- And some of them are hot and some of them really are not hot at all.

- Yeah, and some of them are just, you know, they're valued for their bitterness.

So it, you know, it all adds, like a really complex flavor to sauces and moles.

♪ ♪ - The thing I like about this, it's very gentle.

- Mm-hmm.

- You're not over-toasting anything, right?

- Yeah, and you can see that the chiles are now a little bit puffy, and, you know, all of the nuts really are like really beautiful brown.

And at this point, we're going to, you know, turn off the heat, and just going to add some, some oregano.

And, again, all of this is going to the food processor, so we don't have to be, you know, exact or perfect here.

♪ ♪ You can leave it super chunky.

There's actually some salsa machas that are whole nuts.

So, you know, you just pulverize the chile, and the chile is like ground, and then you add whole nuts.

So really, like, you can do whatever you prefer here.

I like it, you know, kind of in the middle.

♪ ♪ - Chris, I just made some quick shrimp here for... so that we can taste it.

I'm just going to drizzle some of the salsa macha, and I'm just going at the bottom so that I get some of those... nice bits.

- So we're using forks for this?

- You don't have to.

I think you can just pick it up.

We've been eating a lot with our hands.

- Mm... Wow.

A lot of salsas are very, you know, front of your tongue and light, and I don't like the word zesty, but this is deep and rich and... right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and you know, in Vallarta, and really all over the coast, and, you know, on the west coast in Mexico, we... this goes great with some sarandeado, some grilled fish, and you know, with shrimp, so.

Such a simple thing, you know?

- That is delicious.

It just, it's so good, and it's so different, and it just is, is deep.

- Yeah.

- You know, like you're cooking, it's deep.

- Thank you, Chris.

- Paola, thank you.

- Thank you, Chris.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - I'm going to show you a one-pot, weeknight version of arroz a la tumbada, a seaside classic from Veracruz, Mexico.

It's kind of like a paella, but brothier.

Super easy.

Very yummy.

Here we go.

I'm going to start with my shrimp.

Add some salt.

And pepper.

Now, while that sits, I'm going to turn to my onions.

(sizzling) And a little bit of salt.

I'm going to cook these for about five minutes until they're softened.

So while my onions continue to soften, I'm going to move to my cilantro.

This is an interesting part of this recipe.

We're going to use the cilantro stems.

They have lots of flavor.

You don't want to waste them.

So I'm reserving the leaves for later, and I'm going to chop the stems.

So my onions have softened.

I'm going to add some jalapeno.

Some tomato paste.

And those reserved cilantro stems.

I'm going to continue cooking this for another five to seven minutes until the onions are browned.

Right, my onions have browned.

I'm going to add long grain rice.

It's been rinsed, in it goes.

Some broth.

(sizzling) And a little bit extra salt.

I'm going to give that a stir, and then I'm going to bring this to a simmer, cover it, and let it cook for about 15 to 17 minutes.

So my rice is done cooking and now is a crucial step.

I'm about to add my shrimp.

I have the shrimp ready.

Going to take off the lid, and in it goes, very quickly.

I'm just distributing it in an even layer across the top.

So my shrimp is in an even layer over the top.

I'm going to move my pot off heat.

And it's going to take about ten minutes for the shrimp to cook in the residual heat of the pot.

While that happens, I'm going to chop my cilantro leaves.

So I'm going to give the shrimp a few more minutes so that they've fully finished cooking.

They need to be opaque when they're done and then we'll come right back.

So my shrimp has been sitting for ten minutes in this pot off heat.

Let's find out what happens.

It's beautifully cooked, all pinked up.

I'm going to add some lime zest in here.

So when you're zesting a lime, here's a great tip.

You kind of roll the lime in a long sweep across the grater, and this helps you get the zest without the pith.

So if you do it aggressively, back and forth, you're going to get more bitter pith and less of the zest.

Okay, I've added my lime zest, and I'm going to give this a stir.

Okay, my rice is done, and I'm going to serve myself some.

I'm going to serve this with some cilantro, some jalapeno rounds for a little extra heat, a little squeeze of lime.

So here it is, arroz a la tumbada, Veracruz-style shrimp and rice.

I am so excited to taste this.

That is really satisfying.

It's like chicken soup for the soul with way more flavor.

Very, very yummy.

So easy.

I would cook this in a heartbeat on a weeknight for my kid, for myself.

Highly recommend this.

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- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad: for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪