00:00Hey, it's Dan, and I'm here for a super secret conversation
00:03about Chris Morocco.
00:05Once again, we're gonna put Chris's super tasting abilities
00:08to the test.
00:09This is Frida Kahlo's Oaxacan black mole.
00:13We're challenging Chris to replicate this exact dish
00:16with every ingredient in just one day.
00:19He'll be able to taste, touch, and smell it,
00:21but at no point will he be allowed to see this dish.
00:25At the end of the day, we'll come back
00:27and taste this final creation, and I'll be the judge.
00:30All right, here we go.
00:46Like barbecue sauce, but with star anise.
00:49Wow, OK.
00:50There's just so much sauce here.
00:53I'm getting a really strong chili component,
00:55but then there's like a fruitiness,
00:57a sweetness, and a tomatoeyness.
00:59I think there's a strong dried herb element in there.
01:03It's like a dried oregano.
01:04There could be some black pepper in there too.
01:07Underneath there, there's like a very firm something.
01:10Oh, OK.
01:12We have a chicken leg,
01:14and I just wanna separate out some of these elements
01:17to see if I missed anything on this plate.
01:19I mean, the sauce itself is just wildly complex.
01:23Oh, it's really good.
01:25It's giving me like a little bit of like cocoa, nuts, seed,
01:29and it's like my worst nightmare
01:30of there being so many different subtle flavors
01:34all piled up.
01:36Let's set that nightmare aside
01:37and let's move over to the chicken.
01:40It's a little bit firmer than I'm expecting.
01:42It's pretty like neutral and chickeny.
01:44It's not really giving me much at all.
01:46The knee bone doesn't really wanna flex that much.
01:49It feels like the chicken was kind of
01:51just sort of straight up roasted
01:52with the sauce ladled over it.
01:55To me, this feels like extremely classic Mexican cooking.
01:59Mole is just an archetypal dish.
02:01They're known for having a lot of ingredients.
02:04This is pretty much a worst case scenario.
02:08Dear diary.
02:09So I'm thinking for nut, it's peanut, almond.
02:12Seed-wise, pepitas, sesame seeds.
02:16I think there is a dried chili element.
02:20I think ancho, pasilla, chipotle.
02:23I need all of those chilies to kind of work together.
02:26I could put cocoa powder
02:28and then for protein, chicken leg quarters.
02:31I've got 25 things on this list.
02:33Given my track record of being a solid B2C student,
02:37we could be looking at a 40-ingredient dish here, no problem.
02:43So somebody's gonna shop for these ingredients
02:45and bring them back and I'll have my first shot.
02:49Okay, so ingredients are here.
02:55There's so many things.
02:56It's a little bit head-spinning
02:58to see it all laid out like this.
03:00Why don't we toast off some chilies
03:02and get them rehydrating?
03:04Toast off nuts, seeds, spices, sweat it out aromatics.
03:08Tomato will be one of the last things that goes in.
03:10Rehydrated chilies need to be pureed,
03:12added to the sauce at some point,
03:14and bring it all together.
03:15Then not least of all is our friend, Mr. Chicken.
03:18We may just throw this one in the oven.
03:21Where we're gonna start is pick a nice mix of dried chilies.
03:24Pasilla, morita, ancho, guajillo.
03:28The seeds get a little bit bitter.
03:30You gotta get all that plus the stem out of there.
03:33Pasilla is gonna give me some of the leathery notes.
03:36Morita is gonna give me smokiness and heat.
03:40Ancho is gonna give me fruitiness
03:42and kind of like medium complexity.
03:44And guajillo is gonna kind of give me bulk
03:46without a ton of heat.
03:49I'm toasting the chilies, deepens their flavor a little bit.
03:53You see them kind of like changing shape a little bit
03:56as they heat up.
03:57But I'm just thinking like a number of things
03:58feel like they need to be toasted off here
04:00and why not the chilies as well?
04:02If you were to blend them up right now,
04:04they would stay in distinct pieces,
04:06kind of like chili flakes added to a dressing,
04:09but instead we're hydrating them
04:11so that when we puree them,
04:12they turn into a relatively smooth sauce.
04:15Next step, let's think about toasting some nuts.
04:20You know, toasting in a skillet,
04:21you do it because it's faster.
04:23I'm trying to push this process along
04:25just because we have so many ingredients to get through.
04:28And then let's move on to sesame seeds.
04:30I felt the texture of seeds
04:33and I feel like the body of the sauce
04:35was blitzed out nuts and seeds.
04:39How's the accuracy going?
04:41Recipe is fine.
04:42Yeah?
04:43Yeah, recipe is fine.
04:44Your voice was really high when you said that.
04:44Yeah, no, I hit a falsetto.
04:47Dan's shoot got canceled in India,
04:49so now he's just like around,
04:51like kind of just like a bitter teenager
04:54whose like house party kind of fell through.
04:57All right, so pepitas,
04:58more commonly or less commonly known as pumpkin seeds.
05:03So coriander and cumin seeds.
05:05Coriander adds like a real citrusy note.
05:08Cumin is just like earthiness.
05:11If the chicken is cooked on the stovetop
05:14and cooked some amount of the way in the sauce,
05:17but a sauce with that level of viscosity to it
05:21is gonna wanna stick and burn.
05:23Whereas throwing it into the oven is a little bit random,
05:26but maybe appropriate.
05:28It's going in at 425.
05:31I think like when in doubt, go with like white onion,
05:33especially for Mexican cuisine.
05:35This is gonna be for the aromatic base of the sauce.
05:41All right, I'm just gonna let that go for a minute
05:42while I chop up some garlic.
05:45Onion and garlic make the world go around.
05:47I'm gonna grind up some of these spices.
05:50So I'm gonna use roughly half
05:53and I'm just gonna grind them up.
05:54So that's the cumin and coriander.
05:56This is dried Mexican oregano.
05:58Do I wanna add the cocoa powder now?
06:00Maybe, right?
06:02I feel like that is probably the most common form
06:04of like chocolate added to a mole.
06:07So this is traditional passata,
06:09just a concentrated tomato puree.
06:12The tomato is gonna help bring up some of the acidity.
06:15There's also like a sensation of kind of tomatoeyness,
06:18like a really soft form of acid.
06:21I want it to be really cooked out
06:23till the fat is practically separating.
06:27Tastes good.
06:28Even the cocoa, it's like very integrated in there.
06:31I think this aromatic base is kind of ready to go.
06:34So there are chilies.
06:36You can see the liquid that's coming off of them,
06:38just like how dark it is.
06:40If you're looking for hydration in your ultimate recipe,
06:44it's certainly better than water.
06:45It's like giving you some of that liquid essence
06:47of the chili peppers.
06:48Got some chicken broth.
06:50So I'm gonna do ready to go roasted peanut,
06:53which just had way superior flavor and texture
06:57versus the raw peanut that we tried to kind of rough
07:00and ready in the hot skillet.
07:02It's like, tastes like nothing.
07:03It tastes like, like earwax.
07:06So anyway, I've got a couple tablespoons
07:08of toasted pepitas, toasted sesame seeds as well.
07:12Blitz these things up a little bit
07:14before I introduce the chili,
07:16just so we can start the pureeing process.
07:20There's a little bit of texture,
07:22just that little amount of chili rehydrating liquid
07:25is giving us some heat.
07:27And then the peanut just provides
07:28just like that grounding overall kind of savory depth.
07:32And what peaks out up above is the toasted sesame and pepita.
07:37So I wanna add all of these chilies.
07:40You only live once, right?
07:41Let's see where we get just pureeing this now.
07:46So obviously massive transformation, right?
07:48It's now in this kind of like brick red world.
07:56It's a little intense
07:58and there's not even like any salt in there,
08:00which is not great.
08:01But we also don't have any of our cooked out
08:04aromatic base here.
08:06A lot of our sources of sweetness,
08:08you know, our herbs, our spices
08:10is gonna round out that chili mixture.
08:12Gonna retaste the sauce
08:13now that it's got the aromatic base in it.
08:17It's like we're a long way off guys.
08:19It's too hot, it's too bright.
08:22We need more cocoa powder.
08:24I'm gonna throw some sugar in here.
08:25Just not getting like the sweetness.
08:28I think we're just missing a little bit more pepita
08:31and sesame and even peanut as well.
08:33The more I put cocoa with the sugar
08:36and the more salt in there,
08:38it just keeps pulling the flavor down and down,
08:41deeper, richer in a good way.
08:45I'm a little shaky on the relationship
08:48between the chicken and the sauce in the original dish.
08:50I can imagine like chicken braised in mole,
08:53which was not what I experienced.
08:55We have this like slightly bright sauce, right?
08:59Technique that I've seen,
09:00but I've never personally attempted before
09:03is called scalding a sauce.
09:04So like basically like you heat a new pot of oil
09:07and you put your puree into that pot
09:10as a way of deepening and melding the flavors.
09:14Whoa.
09:16Danger.
09:18F***.
09:21Anyway, I think that's like,
09:23that's enough like innovation for the day.
09:26I'm thinking it's chicken with the sauce.
09:29I'm thinking it's chicken with the sauce on top
09:31and then nothing else.
09:33This is my first attempt at chicken mole.
09:37I mean, it's like, look,
09:39there's an honesty to it, right?
09:42Ah, scores.
09:44Ingredients, 50.
09:47Technique, 50.
09:50Appearance, 65.
09:54And taste, I mean, I'll give this like a 60.
09:57It's bringing me more to like spicy peanut sauce.
09:59It's in the same universe,
10:01but I think I could have done better.
10:03All right, here are my actual scores.
10:05Fascinating.
10:06I mean, this is honestly like significantly better
10:09than I expected.
10:10As much as I want to sit here and expound,
10:12why don't we just taste the original dish again
10:14and then have a conversation about it?
10:18Heavy is the head that wears the mask, you know?
10:20All right, here we go.
10:23Gosh, it's like, it's a sweetness.
10:25This is just a sweeter, cleaner flavor,
10:28and I'm really getting pops of sesame seed in there.
10:32Compared to what peanut did in my version,
10:34it's staying very faint.
10:35The peanut could come out entirely.
10:37Wonder if we can take the pepita out as well.
10:40This question of like warm spices,
10:43I don't know, there could be cinnamon in the spice mixture,
10:46or you could be using like Mexican chocolate,
10:48which would have cinnamon in it.
10:50It's so aromatic,
10:51but I feel like I'm kind of like I'm missing it.
10:54So brightness,
10:55I am wondering about a blistered tomato in there.
10:58Maybe the onion as well.
11:01I mean, certainly a technique that I see elsewhere
11:03in Mexican cuisine.
11:05I don't know.
11:06There's still like this question of like the interplay
11:07between the chicken and the sauce.
11:10I think this chicken is really firm.
11:12A lot of like unrendered fat under the skin.
11:15It's not like brazy shreddy.
11:17You know, it's kind of driving me crazy.
11:21I have some meaningful thoughts.
11:22I don't know that it's like gonna quite get me there,
11:24but I think I'm good.
11:27Here are my ingredients for this round.
11:29The main addition here is instead of cocoa powder,
11:33Mexican hot chocolate, right?
11:35Which has got, cinnamon's not listed,
11:38but it says artificial flavor,
11:40and God, I hope there's cinnamon in there.
11:43Only Abuelita knows what's actually in there.
11:47I'm gonna try a different technique
11:48in terms of building the sauce.
11:50Blistering some tomatoes,
11:53quartered onion, whole cloves of garlic in their skin,
11:57a little coating of oil on these
11:58to try to get more depth on them
12:01and see if we can get some real nice char.
12:03Going to all pasilla and ancho.
12:06I just worry that the marita just get real hot.
12:09So I'm hoping we can pull the flavor down.
12:12I don't think I'm gonna toast them this time.
12:14I'm just getting them rehydrated.
12:16So we are toasting sesame seeds.
12:19It really develops so much more character.
12:22This is cumin, coriander, and black pepper.
12:25Veg are done.
12:26I'm gonna transfer them to the blender.
12:29I'm gonna throw the chicken on that sheet tray,
12:31and I'm just gonna broil it.
12:33So I can throw some of these cloves of garlic in there.
12:37Chilies are going in here.
12:38I need to get some of our spices in,
12:41as well as our oregano, sesame seeds.
12:46Still a little on the spicy side, to be honest.
12:49Wouldn't suck to have a little bit more liquid here.
12:54Flavors are a little jangly, a little hot.
12:56Some sugar will definitely be appreciated here.
12:59I just need to get this hot
13:01where I can whisk some chocolate into it.
13:03Hershey's cocoa powder, it's not super chocolatey.
13:08I don't hate this consistency.
13:09I like the way it's kind of piling up.
13:11So I'm adding the whole sesame seeds now.
13:13Let's see where we're at.
13:15Honestly, it's unbelievable, like what a difference
13:18that solid Mexican chocolate makes.
13:20I don't feel anything about this chicken.
13:23I do feel something about this sauce.
13:25I love it.
13:26This is my second attempt at the dish.
13:28I think we got a little bit closer,
13:30and that's what this is all about.
13:32Ingredients, God, I'd love to be at a 70.
13:34Technique, we changed a lot.
13:37I'm gonna go with 70 again.
13:38Appearance, we were at a 90 before.
13:42Wow, I'm gonna just like stick with 90.
13:45And taste, I guess we'll find out.
13:46I would love to believe that I got to an 80.
13:49Very different feel to this.
13:51Very different composition of the sauce.
13:53I think I'm ready to present this to the judge
13:55and find out what I actually got.
13:59Why is Dan moving over into the judge's position?
14:02Come on, Chris.
14:03It's been me the whole time.
14:04Stop, it has not.
14:06It has been me the whole time,
14:07and you just didn't realize it.
14:09This is a free train headed in one direction.
14:11Chris, may I present to you
14:12Frida Kahlo's Oaxacan Black Mole.
14:16Is that a f***ing turkey?
14:18This is not a giant turkey, but a turkey nonetheless,
14:21which is something that's common in Oaxacan cooking.
14:23I totally misjudged the size.
14:25That's so crazy.
14:26What are we looking at here?
14:27I mean.
14:28Well, yeah, okay.
14:29What'd you like?
14:30Find the smallest chicken you could get
14:31and put it in here.
14:33Apparently this was the dish
14:34that was served at Frida's wedding.
14:36We'll give Frida credit for this one,
14:38though she probably didn't make it herself.
14:39But how did you prepare your turkey?
14:41Sorry, chicken.
14:42I prepared my turkey using chicken.
14:45Yeah.
14:45Threw the chicken under the broiler.
14:47Okay.
14:48The whole turkey, which we broke down into parts,
14:50goes into a pot of water along with some aromatics
14:55and basically spends its entire time cooking in there.
14:58I mean, it's just waffling in the middle
15:00of like cooked but not fully tender,
15:03surprisingly kind of bland,
15:06whereas like the sauce is like the event.
15:08We had a blend of three chilies in this dish,
15:10the cascabel, mulatto, and pasilla chili.
15:13Okay, what did you do to these chilies?
15:15I stemmed and seeded the chilies
15:16and then rehydrated them in hot water.
15:18Okay.
15:19So the chilies are toasted.
15:21I toasted them dry when I toasted them.
15:24Did she toast in oil?
15:26Big ingredient drop here, lard.
15:28Lard is all over this recipe.
15:30Again, we have aromatic vegetables going into that lard
15:34and then the tomatillos are added raw.
15:36Okay.
15:37Obviously.
15:40I roasted my tomato, onion, and garlic
15:43just for what it's worth.
15:45Oh, great.
15:46That's good for a few points.
15:48So then I think you broke this recipe down
15:49a little more than it needed to.
15:51What happens?
15:52Put the knife down, Chris.
15:55One other thing about the texture of your sauce
15:57that's probably been driving you a little bit crazy,
16:00a big part of the thickening agent
16:02is the addition of sort of like a stale tortilla
16:06in addition to bread that is put into this.
16:10One of the other categories of spice, I'll say,
16:13if we're just looking up at our ingredients here
16:15and doing a quick like X, X, X, X, X,
16:17which we might be doing right now.
16:18No, there's not room because there's two of us in frame.
16:21I'll move over.
16:22There's two of us in frame so there isn't room.
16:23Can we get the Xs?
16:24There's not room.
16:25Can we get a sound effect for the Xs?
16:26Graphic person, there's just not room.
16:28Okay.
16:29Let's give these a taste.
16:32It's honestly incredible you got anything out of that.
16:34It tastes like a thousand things at once.
16:35Yeah.
16:36Let's try a bite of yours.
16:37Okay.
16:39Okay, first of all, I like yours better.
16:41That's not what we're here for.
16:43Big hit to the face here.
16:44Yeah, mine's like keyed up.
16:45It's like-
16:46Every spice is turned up.
16:48The heat is turned up.
16:49Everything that's in there kind of comes through.
16:51Report card.
16:54Ingredients.
16:55You gave yourself a 70.
16:58This one's going to hurt a little bit.
16:59I'm going to give you a 57.
17:02Don't panic.
17:03That one is in the low range.
17:05Going by what was missed here.
17:07It's well-learned, but still.
17:09I can't have the commenters
17:10looking at all the things
17:12and then being like he was too generous.
17:13Oh, God forbid that people think you're nice.
17:18Moving on to technique.
17:19You gave yourself a 70.
17:20We'll give you a 70 also.
17:22The cooking of the meat, the toasting, and the lard.
17:26We'll give you a 70 on that.
17:27Appearance, you gave yourself a 90.
17:28We're going to give you a 92.
17:30Really, the big difference is just being like size
17:33and the seeds on top.
17:34And lastly, taste.
17:35You gave yourself an 80.
17:36I'm going to give you a 75.
17:38Yeah, that's fair.
17:39They were pretty substantially different,
17:41but it's delicious.
17:42I would sit down and eat this for dinner anytime.
17:45Overall, that takes you to a 74.
17:47That's a solid C.
17:48Yes.
17:49I think you walk away saying,
17:49hey, I learned a lot.
17:51Mole is hard.
17:52You did really great.
17:53This was virtually impossible.
17:55I love you.
17:56I'm going to catch a train.
17:57Thank you so much for covering.
17:59Honestly, I feel fine.
18:01You know, there's a lot going on in there.
18:03A lot of new information,
18:05a lot of new techniques in there for me.
18:07The fact of it being Frida Kahlo's recipe
18:09just adds to the mystique
18:12and the seemingly, you know, kind of randomness of it.
18:14But that's okay.
18:15You know, it's like, it's her POV.
18:17And I certainly learned a lot
18:19from going through the exercise.
18:21I have to run from my train now.
18:24Oh, look what I did.
18:25Look what I did so I can see it whenever I want.
18:27There's Todd.
18:28There's you.
18:29Dan, I'll never wear that sweatshirt.
18:31A loyal follower of Guru.
18:32I will never wear that sweatshirt at work again.
18:35I hope you're happy.
18:37And you dictated my choice of all black today.
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