Original subtitles

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Just imagine yourself being in Baja California,

smelling the saltiness in the earth from the ocean waves.

Just having a wonderful time.

Nothing beats tortillas and fish.

♪

Limes and vinegar that I just added

is going to bring a bit of tartness into this dish.

The crunchiness of the jalapeno with the red onion?

Oh man, it's going to be divine.

Now check this out.

Beautiful, just-caught snapper.

How you know that it's fresh is just by touching the skin,

making sure that it's firm.

And by the clarity of the eye.

I'm going to grill this beauty,

but first I'm going to make a guajillo rub

starting with tomatoes.

♪

I know it's not Mexican, but we're going to add

a bit of soy sauce to add some saltiness to it.

♪

Take a look at this.

These are guajillo chilies.

Just keep them in warm water for about ten minutes

and then they get all soft.

The bigger they are, the more pronounced the flavour is

and the less spicy.

The smaller they are, the thinner they are,

the more spicy they're going to be.

♪

Oh, man. The smokiness of this is going to be phenomenal.

I want to cover the whole fish with my rub,

but what I want to do is to take the seeds away.

I don't want spiciness to come through.

♪

Look at the colour of that rub.

Look at the smoothness of it.

It's going to be delicious.

It's going to be so good.

Snapper, such a popular fish to have.

♪

If I was in Mexico, I would be cooking this on an open flame.

But I love to be in the kitchen.

♪

(Sizzling) Hear that sizzling, eh?

(Sizzling)

You can tell right away the smell of the guajillo chilies

coming through.

Oh man, this is going to be delicious.

(Sizzling)

♪

I like my tortillas to be toasted.

You want to wait until they're a little burnt.

Look at that, the edge here.

That's what you're looking for.

♪

Oh man, this makes me so happy.

(Sniffing)

Look at this.

This is just like in Mexico.

Super simple.

♪

Cilantro, you know, because everything in Mexico has to have

cilantro, right?

Don't forget a bit of salt.

Look at this. Look how soft it is. Wow.

♪

Mm. This is just exquisite.

Oh my god.

The fish is cooked perfect.

It's juicy, it's tender.

The guajillo sauce goes perfectly with the both of them.

And then the spiciness of the jalapeno and the tartiness

of the onions just makes it incredible.

This is how Baja does fish.

But Northern Mexico has even more to offer.

♪

♪

LUIS: In the northern part of Mexico,

there's a lot of cowboys and ranchers.

And, let me tell you, their first choice is not seafood.

It is the steaks.

They love their steak.

Let me show you what I have.

Beautiful flank steak.

Oh, I love this steak.

Flank steak is used all over the Republic of Mexico,

but the northern part does it best.

I'm going to make a little marinade to make it tender.

♪

I want the marinade to be one with the meat.

I want the lime to penetrate so the meat becomes tender

and the fibres break down.

And you know what? Let's not forget oregano.

When you get oregano, try to get Mexican oregano.

I think it's so much more floral.

We're going to add a tiny bit for flavour.

The room smells like oregano right now.

♪

And so, this is a perfect dish to marinate in the morning.

And when you come home,

the meat is ready to be grilled.

I guarantee you the steak's going to be tender and juicy

that after you eat this, you will want to do this

every single day.

Now carne asada in English means a barbecue steak,

and for that, a little fire.

♪

And it reminds me of the northern part of Mexico because

almost everything that they cook,

they cook on an open flame.

So the food itself gets a little crispy and burnt.

The peppers will get a little more intense in flavour.

The flavour will get more pronounced.

It will linger a little longer.

♪

We're going to cover them and the steam is going to help us

getting the skin off the burnt part of it.

And this, my friends,

this is one of my favourite sounds in the whole wide world.

(Sizzling)

You know, this just brought me back to when I was a kid.

My father was always a quiet man.

But we used to go and play basketball once a week with him

and my little brother.

And after the game, we would sit down and have carne asada,

and it was then when my father would talk to us.

It was then I felt my father more of a friend.

♪

That sizzling sound of it and the smell of it

just brought me back home.

(Sizzling)

♪

It's important to let it rest.

We want the juices to stay inside

so it's moist and tender when we bite into it.

♪

Sweet and smoky, that's what it is.

Sweet and smoky.

♪

These peppers are going to be phenomenal with the steak.

♪

In the northern part of Mexico,

cattle ranchers are called racheros.

And when I was young, I was a young ranchero myself.

♪

And last, but not least, the tortillas.

♪

In Sonora, usually they eat with wheat flour tortillas,

but I prefer my corn.

I was born in Guadalajara and I stick to corn.

It is delicious.

♪

Green salsa, just for the spice.

♪

Mm.

You do this in the morning, you let it marinate,

you cook it at night, your wife, your husband, they love it.

Nothing like having a sip of beer as a Ranchero.

Now by taking you to the coast, to the highlands,

and now I'm going to take you to a very exotic place.

♪

♪

From sea to land, now to the mountains.

I'm going to be cooking lamb for you. Cordero.

That's how I call it in Spanish.

Now, this dish is particularly special for me because

it comes from the place that I was born.

It's called birria.

♪

These are guajillo chilies.

I just toast them for a bit of flavour.

Now watch this, eh?

(Sizzling)

Want to get these chilies nice and plump with the water.

We want them to soften up a little bit, okay?

As the chili gets hydrated, it loses that blackness.

And don't worry about the seeds mixed in with the water

because we're going to use that for the sauce.

♪

Guajillo peppers are so important in Mexico.

They're used in 80 percent of the dishes that we have.

We're going to add a bit of cumin into this just to bring

a bit of earthiness to it.

Pepper, of course.

It's delicious.

A bit of tomato.

This is going to be the building block of our sauce.

I have chosen apple vinegar for this because I want it

to very tenderly break the fibres of the lamb.

(Whirring)

I want this to be very fine.

(Whirring)

♪

Now, take a look at this sauce.

Smooth, beautiful.

Mm. Riquisimo.

It's a little sweet. It's not as spicy.

Take a look at this lamb.

Now for this dish, you can use any meat you like.

Chicken, pork.

But my personal favourite is always lamb.

♪

Add a bit of flavour here.

A little bit of freshness into it.

We're going to get a bit of oregano.

You have to get dirty here, okay?

Don't be afraid of it.

You know what? I'm just going to add everything.

Every single drip of it.

♪

Now, in Mexico, lamb gets steamed and for that,

I'm going to use banana leaves.

And in Guadalajara, the place where I was born,

people used to make these big holes

where the lamb was cooked inside,

all wrapped with banana leaves.

Three days later, they would come back.

They would remove the dirt.

They would remove the banana leaves

and there it was, birria. Delicious.

♪

I need to create some steam, that's why I added some water.

♪

Sometimes in Mexico, when you add the water,

you add chickpeas to it and the chickpeas cook with the birria.

Because there's a lot of flavour in this water.

♪

Mm.

I cannot wait to have this with beer.

Man, this is the best.

Now, instead of putting the tortillas on the stove top.

The steam is going to cook the tortillas and make them soft.

Oh, man. Birria.

It's certainly a celebration.

Can't wait to put my teeth into this.

Don't be afraid to get messy here, eh?

♪

Give me just one second.

Mm.

It's probably one of the best birrias I've had.

The lamb's so tender,

the guajillo peppers come through the whole dish.

♪

This is just delicious,

but man, I want dessert.

♪

♪

LUIS: In Vera Cruz, you will find stands selling candies, juices,

and fruits.

But my favourite ones are the ones that sell cocadas.

Cocadas are candied fruit.

In this case, I'm using key limes

which happens to be my favourite one.

I'm just boiling the limes with water, sugar, and baking soda.

Baking soda's going to help us take out the bitterness

out of the lime.

As well as the sugar imparting a bit of sweetness to it.

I'm going to cook these until they're nice and tender.

♪

You see this?

The colour changed and they're just ready to be stuffed.

♪

This is what you want to end up with.

♪

I cooked the key limes already once.

I want to cook them again.

We're going to add a little bit more sugar this time

because we want to take the bitterness of the inside,

but without the baking soda this time.

These are going to be so sweet.

I want to keep the top of the key lime with the same lime,

right?

Because they're going to be boiling,

they're going to be dancing in the water,

so I'm just going to skewer one.

There you go. Dunk them in.

♪

When I was a kid walking with my Dad in the Port de Vera Cruz,

I used to love these cocadas. They were my favourite.

There was one time I really wanted to get one,

so I got close to the stand.

As I was grabbing one,

happens that a bee also wanted to grab the same one

and stung me in my hand.

It really, really, really hurt.

But it was worth the pain because after that,

my father got me two of them and it was-- it was sweet.

♪

Now, see this can?

It used to be condensed milk.

I boil it for a couple hours, cool it down,

and look what happens.

♪

That's cool.

♪

Mm.

We're going to get coconut.

♪

Look at that, eh?

Just thick, gooey richness.

♪

If you have kids, they're going to love, love,

love this dessert.

Now, this is the fun part.

♪

Just like a little hat.

♪

The water that I was boiling the key limes,

it turns into a simple syrup.

♪

So, the syrup is acting as a glue.

Look at that. Isn't this cool?

♪

Sweetness, the lime-- there's a bit of tartiness into it.

It just balances the whole dish out.

Mm.

Next time you think of making a dessert,

think something Mexican.

♪