Original subtitles

♪

What's Mexican cuisine without chillies?

They add flavour,

they add spice, their intensity into a dish.

They do taste very different from one to another.

I want you to take a look into this.

This is a chili guero, it's an Anaheim.

Not spicy at all. Very, very sweet.

And I'm going to be roasting this today

because I'm going to be making arroz con chili,

which is a chili casserole.

♪

Now, I want you to take a look at this.

See how burned they are?

This is exactly what I'm looking for.

But what I don't want is to have the ashes on it.

And for that, I'm going to share a little trick.

We're going to place the peppers in a bowl

and we're going to cover them with a towel on top of them.

I want to keep them here for a minute

and the steam is going to help us cleaning all the ashes

very, very, very easy.

While my peppers are steaming,

I'm going to start on my creamy sauce.

♪

♪ All right ♪

Now, take a look at this.

You see that?

All the steam?

All the ashes, the skin is just turning to ashes

and it's just comes off

really, really, really easy.

And I'm going to show you another trick here.

Look at this.

Look at this trick, eh? All of the seeds...

are off. Look at this.

Take a look. Isn't that beautiful?

♪

And there you go.

Now, what's amazing about this, the average Mexican eats

30 to 35 pounds of peppers a year.

That is how important peppers are in Mexico.

♪

Now, my mother used to make this dish early in the morning

before me and my brother would wake up

and we would have this dish

right when we would come back from school.

Let me tell you, it's delicious.

As the corn cooks and caramelizes a bit,

it's going to start releasing sweetness into it.

It's going to pair phenomenal with the chillies.

Now, our guest of honour: peppers.

Let me tell you, this dish would not be the same without them.

Oh, man, this brings a smile to my face.

It's just... I feel like it's early in the morning right now,

ready to go to school.

Now, for this casserole, I want to add some cream.

You know, this is just going to get to cook down a little bit.

I want to reduce the cream.

♪

(Sniffing) I'm telling you,

this is going to be the creamiest chili

you'll ever have.

Now for this, my rice.

I used basmati rice,

but you can use any rice you have or you want.

We're going to layer our casserole.

But I want you to look at the corn as well. Look at this.

The corn, it got all yellow, plummy, hey?

That's all the sweetness that comes out of it.

Now, for this, I'm going to introduce you

to a good friend of mine--

queso Oaxaca.

This is by far my favourite, favourite cheese.

I think this cheese is close to what you would have

as a cheese sticks.

Isn't that incredible? Look at this.

Mozzarella on steroids, that's what it is.

So, now, we're going to start

putting up a blanket of rice on top of this. Now, just imagine

the creaminess of the corn and the chillies

being soaked by the rice

and the cheese. And just want to do layer after layer.

♪

Mom, this is for you.

Take a look at this. Isn't this beauty?

Just the gooiness, the crispiness of the cheese.

Just look at that. It's going to be delicious.

Wow.

I don't even know where to start--

the top of the cheese, mix it all together,

just the cheese on its own.

And this is delicious.

The cheese, the rice, the corn, the cream,

they make this dish really, really good.

But the peppers, man, those peppers,

they just add an extra kick into this.

It's like a home run. Boom.

You got it out of the park.

♪

Chiles rellenos, stuffed chillies--

the original jalapeno popper.

I've roasted the chillies and I've put them in a bag

so the steam would allow me to peel the skin faster.

Look at this. Perfect.

Now, I want to make a little incision

'cause I'm going to remove all the seeds.

And I want you to take a look at this.

I want to get all of the seeds here

because this is a poblano pepper

and it's mildly spicy.

Now, for this particular recipe,

I'm going to be using Chihuahua cheese.

Now, if you are not able to find Chihuahua,

you can use a mild cheddar for this.

We're going to finish peeling all of our peppers.

♪

Not only I like my peppers,

I love my cheese.

And in Mexico, everyone likes a good cheese.

And cheese and peppers is a match made in heaven.

Now, I want you to take a look at this, okay?

'Cause this is where we stuff these beauties.

Just want to put as much cheese as you can.

The cheese is going to help me gluing the pepper together,

so when we go to pan searing it,

the pepper won't open and the cheese won't come off.

♪

When I came to Canada,

you know, on the cold days or on lonely days--

you know, because it took

quite a bit of time before I could go back home

for the first time to see my family--

so these, everything I would feel a little sad or lonely,

I would make chilis rellenos and it would take me back home.

Try and make a batter with the eggs

'cause I want to cover the poblano peppers with it,

and for that, I need it to be nice and fluffy. Look at this.

This is what you're looking for.

And how we're going to keep that fluffiness,

by adding a pinch of flour.

Perfect.

Now, the poblano peppers are taking a dip.

Perfect.

They're all covered in our fluffy egg mixture.

And I am ready to cook them.

♪

Enough oil but not too much that you're deep-frying them.

Now, if you deep fry these, there's a good chance

that the cheese may ooze out of the pepper.

I do not want that on mine.

But look at this.

Look at how the egg is becoming fluffy

and puffy almost.

So, the egg mixture helps closing down the pepper,

keeps the cheese inside.

♪

Now, remember what I told you about the cheese?

Look at this.

Isn't that amazing?

The whole oozes out of the pepper.

Man, it's going to be delicious.

And I'm telling you, these peppers are addictive.

Mmm...

Way better,

way better than jalapeno poppers.

What makes this dish so good,

the crunchiness of the pepper

because it's not cooked all the way through,

and the ooziness of the cheese.

The texture in your mouth is just--

it's just like a fiesta de sabores,

party in my mouth.

♪

So, everyone's had chillies, right?

Well, not like this.

This is guajillo chili.

I'm just going to hydrate them because when I got them,

they're dehydrated.

And what we want with water

is just to get them a little plummy.

It's going to be a basis for our Mexican chili.

Now, just a couple seconds, eh?

I want you to take a look at this.

Just very quickly, as soon as I hydrate them,

they become more malleable, you see?

This is going to be chili con carne y papas.

Now, this, my friends, is beef chuck.

Now, this piece of meat tends to be very tough.

But for that, I'm going to braise it.

♪

Now that my meat is all done, I'm going to start my sauce.

Now, remember, for this dish,

we want guajillo, garlic, onions and tomato.

♪

See, I'm not chopping the chillies.

We're going to add them whole,

as well as I'm going to be using the liquid

that I was hydrating the chillies on.

This is going to help us creating the sauce.

Man, can you smell that?

Somewhere in a house in Mexico,

I'm sure someone is cooking this right now.

Now, this is ready.

Look at the colour and how much it changed.

Now, it's all red. It's almost like a ruby colour.

Now it just needs a good blitz.

♪

I wanted this sauce to be very smooth

'cause this is going to help me braising my meat.

(Sniffling) The aroma, wow.

I like to sear my meat so the juices get trapped in it.

You have to have a very, very hot pan.

Look at the smoke coming out of it.

'Cause if you don't do that, the meat won't sear

and all the juices are going to come up.

(Sizzling)

Now, the other trick is not to overload the pan, okay?

So, we're going to wait a little bit

for all the first bunch of meat to get all seared

and then, we're going to add the rest.

♪

Boy, take a look at this 'cause this is what searing does.

All the juices on the meat are right there. Look at that.

Now, done with the vegetables.

Now, for these, because there's so much flavour in the pan,

I'm going to add the potatoes, and the onions,

the garlic and the tomatoes that I chopped earlier into it.

Look at this.

So, basically, what's going to end up happening

is as I'm cooking the chili,

the potatoes are going to release the starch

and it's going to make it a little thick.

And last but not least,

the sauce. And I'm telling you,

this is going to be unbelievably good.

Happy cooking.

Oh, my God! Can you smell this?

(Inhaling deeply) Wow.

Look at the potatoes, look at the potatoes just breaking down.

And look how thick the chili got.

This, my friends, is Mexican chili.

Now, just to finish,

a little bit of sour cream and cilantro,

which I love.

Wow.

This dish is so simple yet so tasty.

This is a perfect dish for a Sunday night.

Mmm...

The texture of the meat is so tender.

It's like a symphony of flavours in my plate, look at this.

Mmm. It just makes me want to keep eating this.

Beer, this too, the best. Salut.

Pasilla peppers, maybe new to you,

but they're ancient in Mexico.

They're more spicy than poblano peppers

and less spicy than guajillos.

Now, sometimes it's a little hard to get pasilla peppers,

but you can use morita, guajillos

or even chipotle if you want to.

So, the main thing is I want to get all of the seeds out

because that's where the heat is.

The dish that I'm making

is cordero con salsa de pasilla,

which is lamb on a pasilla sauce.

Now, I want you to take a look at this

beautiful piece of lamb rack.

We use it in Mexico City a lot of the time.

It is delicious on the grill.

Here goes the garlic.

Now, I just want you to pay close attention to this

because I'm not chopping the garlic or mashing it.

I want the garlic to be cooked whole.

This is basically for the chillies.

And you know the pasillas are in

when the aromas start being released into the air.

Now, at this point,

I'm going to add some water.

Out of these, we're going to get our rub

and then, we're going to get our sauce.

♪

This already looks so cool already

and I only used two ingredients--

pasilla and garlic.

And I'm going to sweeten it up with a bit of honey.

And don't be shy with this.

I like my pasilla sauce

with enough, enough sweetness to it.

Honey and lamb, oh, so good.

Ooh!

Man, that pasilla is a bit spicy.

For that, I'm going to add a tiny bit of apple vinegar.

The vinegar's going to help me not just to tenderize the meat,

but also-- mmm--

just reduces the heat that you get out of the rub.

Now to the lamb. For this, I want to add a bit of flavour--

cumin and oregano.

Once I sear this, the whole house

is going to smell like flowers.

Salt.

Perfect.

♪

As I speak,

this lamb is absorbing all of the juiciness

and the goodness of the pasilla sauce.

(Sizzling)

Listen to that sound.

(Sizzling)

The heat is going to caramelize the honey

and it's going to make it sweeter

with a pinch of bitterness to it with the chili.

Oh, this is why I love cooking.

God, look at this beauty.

Look at the caramelize

that happened through the pasilla and the honey.

Now, as much as I want to cut this and start eating it,

I need to let it rest.

I want this piece of lamb to be succulent and juicy.

Now, remember the pasilla rub that we saved?

This is what we make our sauce with.

Now, how incredible is this, eh?

It's so simple.

We had two ingredients--

pasilla and garlic--

and look at this, we had a rub and now we have a sauce.

It's perfect. It's just perfect.

Oh, my God, look at this, how tender this is.

Man, look at the juices. Cannot wait.

Cannot wait to try this beauty.

And just to finalize my dish,

my pasilla sauce.

This, my friends, is something you get at a restaurant.

Mmm...

The sweetness of the honey and the spiciness of the pasilla,

man, they go hand-to-hand.

And the beauty of this dish, once again,

is just there's three ingredients, basically--

you have lamb, you have pasilla, you have garlic,

that's it, that's all it takes.

Lamb is a celebration, that's why I chose a margarita.

But I tell you something,

there's so many chillies in Mexico.

They're so versatile.

I challenge you to find the one that calls you the most.

♪