Photo: christina perez/instagram
The pair collaborated on Monday night to make one of Pérez’s family recipes, a savory pie from northwest Spain called Empanada Asturiana.
She even shared a photo of the handwritten recipe, faded and stained like any good family treasure.
christina perez/ instagram
Flay appeared to do most of the labor, while Pérez did the documenting. The base dough, according to the recipe, was made from a traditional mixture of flour, butter, eggs, salt, yeast, and water. After combing and kneading the ball, the dough is left to rise all day, Pérez said, before it’s rolled out and put into a circular deep-dish pan.
For the filling, Flay heated a saucepan of tomatoes, olives, peppers, garlic, fish, and a sea of herbs and spices (dried bay leaves, fresh parsley, salt, etc). Once placed inside the pan, he added another layer of dough on top, making a thick edge surrounding it.
“You want a lot of dough on the edges because the dough is the best part,” Pérez said, noting “it’s got a lot of butter.”
From there, it was into the oven for baking (325° for 25-30 minutes, the recipe read). Flay then took out the final product, his girlfriend filming the creation coming out of the oven.
“Ta da!” Pérez wrote, sharing a photo of the final product. “Empanda Asturiana de Pérez.”
Earlier this month, Flay told PEOPLE that Pérez was having an impact on him in the kitchen.
“She’s teaching me to cook with a lot less meat,” he said, adding that he was planning on making some of her favorite recipes for the holidays.
“I might cook some Puerto Rican food on Christmas Day,” Flay said. “She’s half Puerto Rican and I love those flavors and that cuisine, so I want to make sure she feels represented at Christmas.”
On non-holidays, Pérez is especially fond of Flay’s paella recipe, a friend of the couple told PEOPLE. “It reminds her of her family,” the insider explained.
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Introduced through mutual friends, Flay, 57, and Pérez, 40, began dating about a year ago and stepped out together in November at the Breeders' Cup World Championship, whereFlay’s horse Pizza Bianca finished first.
“She’s so lovely. I’m really happy to have met her,” Flay gushed to PEOPLE. “My life is so crazy hectic, and she’s always the light at the end of the day for me.”
“Now all of a sudden I’m a big hiker,” he said. “I’m learning a little of the Zen California way.”
source: people.com
