How to Cook Pargo

Moderator: Baja California is still the best year around catch, south of the border. Visit us to every BajaCalifornia.com and check out more ways you must do Baja, Mexico beyond your expectations. Dan: This week in the gallery, we’re down here in the beautiful Baja, Mexico at Las Rocas Spa & Resort. A beautiful location, right on the water, it’s a gorgeous place, and standing next to me, it's Cesar Rivera, the manager. Thank you Cesar. Cesar: Thank you Dan for being here. Dan: And next to you is a chef. Cesar: Our Chef, Chef Lazaro Contreras. The executive chef right here at the hotel. Dan: Gracias! I’ve been here many times in the past, it's a beautiful property. Great place to come for a day trip or a weekend. Cesar: Right. Dan: It's a gorgeous location. Today, we’re down here to do a cooking segment, and what do we have for us today? Cesar: Okay, we’re going to out right now is going to be a pargo fish. There’s going to be a salt and pepper, and this is going to be fried. And then it's going to be the special ingredients which is we’re going to cover on top of the sauce. Dan: Awesome. Cesar: So, we’re going to see the whole preparation right here. Dan: Alright, chef. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: As we’re talking about the salt and the pepper, and you cover a lot before you fry it. Dan: So what he’s done is basically, gilled and gutted the fish and cut it open. And then he’s got some slashes in the fish, and so that the oil can soak in and cook the whole fish. Cesar: Right Dan: Nice and even. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign language] Dan: He’s going to drop that in there. Cesar: He’s going to be dropping right now in the --he’s going to be frying right now. Dan: Okay. Cesar: So meanwhile, he fries the fish, he’s going to be preparing the sauce that’s going to be on top of it with the previous ingredients that you saw. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: With a little butter on that because-- Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: And this is olive oil, chef. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: So it's a spoon of olive oil. Dan: And garlic. Cesar: A little bit of garlic. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: So he’s the garlic right now so you can fry a little bit with garlic as well. So now the shrimp. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: What he is doing right now is he’s also frying the--the shrimp right now is going to be--putting a little white wine and also right here, white wine from the region again, two tablespoons. Dan: If our viewers, they’ll know that this Baja region has a great wine. Cesar: It does have a great winery done actually. It's actually a very and right here in Rosarito is in Ensenada. Be sure you’re going to be visiting as well. Dan: Very close by. Cesar: Very close by and all of our wines actually that we got in the property are from the region, from Baja, from Guadalupe Valley region. Dan: And then people wanted to go visit, they could stay here at your resort and then it's just an easy hour drive down there. Cesar: It's just an easy drive, it's a 45-minute drive all the way down to the vineyards and you can go there and get your own wine. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: And then put in the Bechamel sauce right now on it. It’s going to be in the base and everything is going to be the base actually further. Dan: To put on the fish-- Cesar: To put on the fish, exactly. Dan: Oh, that’s really good. Chef Lazaro: Yeah, [Foreign Language] Cesar: It’s a nice one, the final ingredient of the sauce right now. Dan: Are these peas, what are these? Cesar: These are peas, yes. Dan: Okay. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: Shake it right now above the fish that exceeds, right fish. Alright here look, the fried fish right here is very common right from the area for the Baja Coast right now. So this is just a source by variations that you do when the type of sauce that you put in it that actually gives the flavor to it. Dan: For people want to find out more about your resort and spa. They can go to your website and on your website, can they make reservations or where are they going to find out? Cesar: Right, you can go to www.lasrocas.com. We got all the information in there, we got spa information, we got online reservations and we got everything on our website. Everything you want to see for the hotel of the resort, location, we got on the website right now. Dan: And the last ingredient I think was almonds. Cesar: The last ingredient is almonds. He’s stuffing it right now with almonds. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: He says that the sauce doesn’t need anymore thing because everything is right there on the base of the sauce. Dan: And he’s pulling the fish out. Here comes our fish, that pargo looks delicious. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: So you put the clamp right there-- Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Cesar: So now, he puts the shrimp on there and the whole sauce. Dan: What I like about this too is not only that it's going taste great with the shrimp but the peas and all that add of different textures and a lot more color to it. Cesar: Right, add some more color and that’s a different--obvious of that regular--and come with the fried fish that you’re seeing. Dan: Right. This is one of my favorite ways to eat a whole fish, it's just keep fried like that. It's really good, and asparagus. Cesar: Yes, asparagus right now is part of the decoration, where he cut the fish actually where he opens up. Chef Lazaro: [Foreign Language] Dan: Yeah, I got to try these. Cesar: No, let me hold it for you. Dan: No, good. Man, that fish just falls out. Cesar: Don’t forget to-- Dan: I get some more sauce. Cesar: Yeah, some sauce. That’s going to be the beauty of it. What do you say? Dan: That is delicious. That is really delicious. Cesar: And beautiful as well. Dan: Yeahm that’s good. Here is the finished dish. I got to try this. This looks delicious. Cesar: It looks delicious huh. How is it? Dan: That is so good. Cesar: It's amazing huh, and a nice presentation too as well. Dan: Beautiful presentation, the almonds and the shrimp in there just add so much flavor to it. Cesar: Right, exactly. Dan: This is beautiful, and this is one dish as people can come here, the resort. Cesar: Exactly, and they can ask for this fish and actually, we can just make and prepare it right here by our own chef. Dan: Won’t you tell our viewers in their home one more time your websites so they can come find your -- Cesar: It's www.lasrocas.com and you can find us on the web and we got the whole information in there, the restaurants and spa was there. Dan: Everything’s there. Cesar: All the special events that we do and besides all the food that we prepare right here as well. Dan: Thank you Cesar. Cesar: Thank you Dan. Dan: Thank you chef. Chef Lazaro: I’m good. Dan: This is delicious. I had a great time down here. If you need more information, don’t be afraid to go to the website where the department of tourism for Baja, they have everything there for fishing, finding locations to visit in the Baja area and you’ll find more information about Las Rocas. All the fishing regulations you need to know is there too. Thank them. Well, thank you guys Cesar: Thank you once again Dan. Dan: Let’s get back on the water and show you more exciting action right here on sport fishing.