 Well, Skip, we're about ready to go. Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, your host for Heat Up Your Life. We're about ready to take off on a whirlwind tour of the chili pepper cuisines of the Western Hemisphere. We're going to Jamaica, Mexico, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and then back here to New Mexico. So hang on to your taste buds and join us for Hot Plates, the final episode of Heat Up Your Life. In the interest of people, peppers, and passion, we dedicate this next hour to Heat Up Your Life. Episode 3. Hot Plates. Spicy foods from around the world. After a thorough inspection of our 1937 British Tiger Moth, my pilot Skip assured me that we were ready for takeoff. Clear prop. Clear prop. Make it hot. It's hot. Contact. Contact. Hand-pulled prop. I was really in for an adventure this time. Our first destination? Jamaica, home of a Scotch bonnet chili and famous jerk foods. Once airborne, I asked my trusted aviator for a map to track our trip. Skip assured me that he carried only the very latest in navigation aids, which I could find in my cockpit. I had been to that beautiful island before, but had never traveled in such grand style as today. After landing at Montego Bay, I was to meet driver and chili expert David Brown for a drive through the Jamaican Highlands. We finally arrived at the historic Good Hope Great House, where I met with Winston Stoner, director of the Bush & Brownie Company. And now Caribbean cuisine and Jamaican cuisine in particular is being discovered all over the world. Yes. Especially in the United States. Discovered and encountered. I said second encounter. That's right. But you know, it's an interesting thing that I'm finding. I just returned from the States and it's a very heartening thing. I now see a lot of major American companies producing products that are being either Caribbean in flavor or in some instances being called Caribbean. And I think it serves to legitimize the cuisine. I know some people are worried and say, oh, will you be able to serve it? But I think it serves to legitimize the cuisine. I think it removes it from being a fad, the mainstream. You know, and it's fascinating to me. It was fascinating to me too. And Winston suggested that for some authentic Jamaican food, we should find some jerk. Real Jamaican barbecue, that is. And that was easy to do. The Double V Jerk Center came highly recommended. And since it was such a short distance from our lodgings at the Sibony Resort in Ocho Rios, we decided to drop in for lunch. Hi, we're here at the Double V Jerk Center in Ocho Rios. We're talking to Craig. And what's your last name, Craig? Big No. Okay, Craig Bigelow. And Craig, I understand you're from Boston Beach, is that right? Yes, we're from Boston, yes. And tell me a little bit about how jerk got started in Boston Beach. Okay, that started from our four parents. That's our grandfather, our great-grand, you know. The other one who started the jerk, you know. From there, we take on my daddy, from my daddy, from his daddy to his daddy, me. I'm straight up, you know. And so, didn't you tell me you've been cooking jerk since you were like nine years old? Yes, I was nine years old. I've been here working, man. Cooking all the time. That's a long time. So I guess you're the expert. And you have all the secrets of jerk, right? Yes, I have it, no problem. Okay. Well, tell me, can you share one little secret about jerk? Okay, that's the season. The season. The season. It's all in the seasoning. Okay. In the seasoning, you use pimento. Yeah, that's 21 different spices that you use in the season. Oh, I see. Yes, 21 different spices. You use Scotch bonnets, too, right? We use Scotch bonnets, but it doesn't have to be Scotch bonnets. Oh. You can use a pot of pepper. You know, bird pepper, that's a finer type. Right. Scotch bonnets, but Scotch bonnets are very, very hot. Okay. Do you use country peppers, too? Yeah, country peppers. Okay. And... Remento. Okay. 21 different spices in the seasoning. And then, where do you get your meat? Where do you get the pork? Okay, we get it from our local farmers. Oh, I see. Yeah, from local farmers. I see. Do you go buy from them or have contracts with them? Because you go through a lot of them. Yeah, yeah. We go to them, and they take it out here. They take it here, you know? Okay. And we just do it around the back here, on the tables. We cut it up and season it around the tables. We buy them all. We buy them all. All pigs. Right. Yeah, just take all the inside and get them scraped. Uh-huh. We do the wallet, everything around the back. I see. Okay, well, tell me a little bit about this fire here, and the fire that we have in the back of us here. Okay. What are you doing over here? This is the pit. Okay. After we keep the coal. The charcoal. Right. The wood there is to keep the fire, to keep it lively, to keep it burning. Right. We're gonna burn the coal there. Uh-huh. We take it to the shovel. Oh, give me the shovel. He's gonna show us how to do it. Yeah. We use the shovel like this. Now, notice the shovel has a wooden handle, so it doesn't get too hot. Okay. We break it there. The shovel here. And we throw it under. I see. Okay. Right. We throw it under there. The heat. The heat from the coal. That's what we cook this for. Okay. Now, and then you put the meat on there, and then you put the, this meat has been already seasoned and marinated for a long time. Yeah. This is overnight. Like a night before. I see. Like this evening for tomorrow. Okay. And then you put this metal over the top of it. Yeah. Put a thing there to keep the heat down. Keep the heat. Okay. I see. Now, if you put the wood under there, it would get too much flame, right? Yeah. You can't put the wood under there. It's burning. It does turn color. It gets very brown. I see. And it's not cooked. Can I take a little taste of that? Okay. No problem. Okay. Okay. He's going to. I'm going to cut this. Okay. Nice. Wow. Great. Look at the food. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Very hot. Spicy. That's the best jerk I've had so far on this trip. Wow. Number one. By now, I was ready to cool down by the sea. And what better place than Norma's at the wharf house? Where Chef Norma Shirley showed us another aspect of Jamaican cooking. Okay. I'm going to be showing you how to do a curried lobster that we do in the island. We melt some butter, say about two tablespoons of butter. Make sure that the butter doesn't burn. And to this, we're going to add. And I'm going to use my hands because I think hands are here to be used. We're going to put some scallions, a generous amount of scallions. We're going to put some garlic, which I have creamed with a little olive oil. Or you can just use any vegetable oil and mix that in. And also, we're going to put some curry powder. Let's put about a teaspoon and a half. And we have the madras curry powder. Tell me about the madras curry powder. Well, it's from India. It comes from Madras in India. And it's quite a much more spicy. If you could smell this, you could smell the flavor that's coming off from it. That's great. And we're going to put this on and just sort of saute it for a couple of seconds, really. And to this now, we're going to add what we know as a scotch bonnet pepper, which I'll show you one of them in its real form, this. And this is a chopped up. Now, we're just going to put a little bit of the scotch bonnet pepper in. That's been cut. Try not to use the seeds, as what happened with the seeds is that the seeds give a much more hotter flavor. And really, you want some heat. But what you want, you don't want that such heat that you, for heaven's sake, you're just burning your tongue and you're not really enjoying your meal. And I'm going to add a couple shells of fresh thyme. This is, to me, this is the queen of spice. This is wonderful. And I'm just going to take some of the leaves off. We added a little bit of water or chicken stock, if you would rather that, to give it a little bit more liquid in it. And to this now, we're going to blend this. We're going to blend it. I'm just going to put it in a blender and blend it until it's smooth. Consistency is coating the back of your spoon. See? See? I created it myself because I find that what happens is lobster become too rubbery. So I make the sauce and then put the lobster in. People tend to be cooking the lobster as they're making the sauce. So the lobster gets overcooked and becomes terribly rubbery. And what you want to do is to have the lobster still quite succulent, you know, maybe even to the point of being underdone. Because as you know, that shell food really gets rubbery if they're overcooked. Well, most anything. Now here we have some lobster. And what I've done is taken it out of the shell and just cut them in sort of nugget-sized pieces. We're just going to drop this in, bits of lobster. This is enough for two people. And we're just going to gently just going to turn the lobster, literally just turning the lobster over in this sort of marinade or sauce, whatever you want to call it. We're going to just let it cook. Here is the elegant finished dish, Curry Jamaican Lobster with Otahiti Apples. I just came in out of the rainstorm. It's pouring out there, but you've been cooking here, I see. Yes, we have some wonderful lobster. I'm sorry about the rain. Oh no, the rain's wonderful. It makes the beautiful Jamaican. Would you like to have any taste? Oh yes, I sure would. Oh, I love curry. I love lobster. I love your curry. No, it's perfect. Good. And what kind of apple is this? Otahiti. It comes from Tahiti. I'm not quite sure if Columbus brought it over. I know it's not Captain Bly. He brought the bread fruto. Right. And the ackee too. And the ackee, yes. Oh, that's great. Thank you. In a few hours, the storm cleared. And as my faithful pilot Skip and I taxied out of Montego Bay, it was evident to me that Jamaica had established its reputation as a haven for fiery foods. But while we skimmed over the Caribbean Sea, I wondered how much this spicy island cuisine had influenced the United States. Our flight took us over the island of Cuba and back to the States. Soon we landed at the busy Miami International Airport. I knew that Miami food was Cuban-oriented and supposedly not too spicy, but I had a hunch about this trip. And the hunch paid off. In little Havana in Miami, I met with Florida food expert Stephen Raiklin, author of Miami Spice and the Barbecue Bible. I was curious about the invasion of hot and spicy Caribbean foods into the southern United States. Tell me about the influence of the Caribbean on the food of Miami, especially in terms of hot and spicy. Well, the influence is enormous. And if you think about geography, Miami juts like a thumb into the Caribbean Sea. So, and we are the focal point really for all of those islands. In other words, when business gets done, it gets done through Miami. As much as in your island. Now, in terms of the influence of hot and spicy foods, well, Jamaican, very strong, Scotch-Bonna chili, the popularity of jerk. And you know, jerk today has really, it's sort of become like the Caesar salad or tiramisu of the new millennium. And I'm firmly convinced that jerk was first introduced to the United States through Miami. A little jerk collage around Miami. And then it spread throughout the rest of the United States. What ethnic groups are here in Miami today that like their food particularly spicy? Well, you know, one that jumps out the mind is the Haitian. And we have the largest Haitian community in the United States. And Haitians have a chili they call the Dom John, the Lady Jean. And it's a bright red pot. It's a member of the Scotch-Bonna family. And it's used for a couple of different dishes. One they make a dish called grillo, which are fried, spiced pork bits. And the pork is seasoned with this hot chili. And all Haitian dishes would be served with something called picles, which is shredded cabbage that might be carrot. And the firepower here are these Dom John chilies. And they're used with great profligacy. And this stuff is really hot. Steve, let's go check out the peppers in this market here. You bet. These are rucatillos. We call them ca-chucha. Chile's ca-chuchas here. Ca-chuchas means capper. Cat or something. Cat or something. You know, like abonnet. Abonnet, yes. Yes, like abonnet. And these are used a lot in Cuban and Puerto Rican cooking. Now, what's interesting about these, these are cousins of the Scotch Bonnet, the world's hottest chili. And if you break them up into a smell, that sure smells like a Scotch Bonnet. That's right. But I'm going to do something you would never do with a Scotch Bonnet. Pop it in your mouth if you need it. I know if I need it. You would do that with these, for example. These Scotch Bonnet. This is the ca-chuchas here. These have the aroma and flavor, the floral kind of apricotty flavor of the Scotch Bonnet. None of the heat. So very little of the heat, let's say. Seeds. They discard the seeds. And then the chili would be chopped up and added to a mixture brought as pan-fried onions, garlic, and these ca-chucha chilies. And this would be used to flavor everything from rice to soups to stews. I mean, it is the quintessential flavoring of the Spanish Caribbean. Okay. Okay. Tamales. I mean, I just love these guys. And they're not well-known outside of Miami. But in Miami, you can find them in supermarkets. You can find them everywhere. There's a little bit of a bite. A little bit of heat. A little bit of heat, right? Right. Well, luckily we're at the Palacio de los Jugos, the Juice Palace. Right. So after this, we can cool our palate off with a glass of fresh tropical fruit juice. Good idea. Stephen suggested that the best way for us to taste the spicier, nouveau Cuban food would be to visit the trendy South Beach part of Miami Beach. And I had no problem with that. It's always fun to go to the beach. And in South Beach, the people watching is all part of the fun. Stephen recommended that we visit Yucca Restaurant. In case you don't know, Yucca is a starchy tuber. But some people have suggested, tongue in cheek, that Y-U-C-A stands for Young Urban Cuban American. In the kitchen of Yucca, the chef quickly proved that chilies are catching on in the new Cuban cuisine. He was preparing El Mariachi, which is New York steak served with sautéed chilies, vegetables, and a Yucca puree. First, he slices and chops jalapenos and scotch bonnet chilies and sautés them quickly with other vegetables. Now I'm not going to show you something as simple as grilling a steak, but after the steak is grilled, it is sliced and placed on a plate with a Yucca puree, which looks like mashed potatoes but tastes much better. Then the vegetables are placed on the plate and to prove that chilies are more popular than ever, crushed hot red chili is sprinkled over the steak and a finishing sauce is applied. Then comes the most important part of the lesson, where I get to eat the entire meal. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Having sampled the best of Miami's spice, we set sail for our next hot spot, New Orleans. We'd meet up with Pilot Skip later on in Texas. To get a quick lesson on hot and spicy Louisiana food, I cruised into the French Quarter Festival, where I found that people down there just love crawfish. They like it simple as in crawfish boil, but they also like it fancied up a little as in crawfish et tou fe. I'm cooking up crawfish et tou fe. My favorite. Very, very, very delicious. And shrimp and crawfish crepe. In multicultural New Orleans, I found a Chinese spin on hot and spicy Louisiana called crawfish and oyster sauce. So hot and spicy. Hey, we cook the home peppers. We round them up. We cook it in some bean sauce for about two hours until it releases all the flavor. Do you have a smell of vision on there? All right, get ready. This is Charlotte. We've got some Charlotte and some onion. Got that in there, some black bean sauce. There's some meat in there. And I saw a stir fry a little bit. And we're five brothers. This is my oldest brother. This is number one son. Four sons. We all work together. Put a little soy sauce. We steam it for about two hours, and then that brings out the flavor. There's much more flavor than this pepper. That's oyster sauce. The white, that's salt and pepper. Salt and pepper and a little sugar all combined. We can get that. Some corn starch. This is for dad and his son, the next generation. Actually, we're feeding this kid steroids so he would grow up much faster. Other French quarter favorites were big pots of gumbo, blackened chicken, and hot sauce everywhere. Did you see that? I like them hot. And a vendor explains how to use his hot pepper jelly. You can use this Philadelphia cream cheese spread it on celery stalk. Use it to make your barbecue sauce. Chicken wing dip, chicken liver. You can even put it on top of ice cream, believe me or not. It's good. As much as I hated to leave New Orleans, I had an appointment in Lafayette. At the beautifully restored Acadian village near Lafayette, I met up with chef Scott Landry who hails from Lake Charles. He agreed to cook some of his favorite native dishes outside just to show how easy it is. He made crawfish etouffee, chicken and sausage jambalaya and one of his favorite foods from a nearby bayou. What we're going to do right now is we're going to season this alligator up that we caught and we're going to put that bar in season and on there. Remember, you've got to season that and it doesn't have to be long you season that for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that's all. And then my friend I've got this friend from Broadbridge, he makes this stuff from the form yard and it's some habaneros and some cayenne peppers and it's a little bit of everything. It's a brand new bottle so if you don't mind I'm going to try it. No, I didn't have to use my teeth. You know, God give you some can opener. You just open your mouth like that. But anyway, I'm going to put that in there. Oh, you can't put that in there like that. I've done this with you a lot. Boy, that smells good. And then I'm going to sprinkle this all around in there and I'm going to use my knife to move that around. Oh, that's going to be hot for you people up north. But not too hot for down here. Then I'm going to put some parsley and some onyons. And then I'm going to use these red bell peppers and these yellow bell peppers because you know the difference is one's more ripe than the other one and they're going to go bad if I don't use that. So I'm going to use that right now. And in alligator, the most important thing to remember about alligator is to cut all that fat off because that fat, man, that's nasty. But you know, if you gave it to some perfume people, they could render that fat and make some skin so soft or something. I'm not so sure what that is. I'm going to tell you, if you don't have no alligator at your grocery store, I don't think you might get that, but in Lake Charles we got that. If you don't use some chicken and what I want to tell you about this dish is cook it too long. Oh, it's like that rubber on your feet. But you don't have to do that if you won't. My wife, you know I used to have a wife, but she left me one time. She's the best housekeeper I ever met. I married her. When I left she kept the house. It's one of those things, you just can't understand that. And you know, alligator everybody wants to know what that tastes like. I told some men the other day when I was in Florida it tasted a little bit like manatee or eagle or any of that stuff. And I think that they'll get on you case. But it makes a pretty good gumbo and you stir that all up and you got the colors in there. If you want you put your hand in there and tear it before it gets too hot. And if it's too hot for you that sauce that I'm cooking with is pretty hot, yeah. You just add a little water. Well, I've got Stan Goche stuff over here and I'm going to put that out of the way because that's not important to sauce. I said I cooked it. That's what it is. But my friend Stan, he couldn't cook. You don't know. When we went to that fire food show they gave us all them peppers. Man, we made some gumbo. It was so fun. And the good thing about Louisiana cooking you got to remember is that anything can do that. If you got some on your own and some celery and some bell peppers you can do that dish just like that. It's not bad. And as you can see it don't take long to cook this. You don't want to overcook it because it would be too chewy. Okay? You don't want no fat because it's going to be rancid. And I've got this dish all done here. If the onions cut down a little bit it would be fine. You want a little smoke I can make some smoke. See that smoke? I can make it smoke. I've got my knife here. That's so you can taste that. That's what that burning rosé does. Mmm, mmm. Or like my friend Justin says I guarantee that's good. And that's that. I'm finished. You get a picture of that for your cameras. Okay? I'm going to eat that with a little rice and gravy in a minute. Okay. Let's get some of this alligator now. Do alligators eat crawfish? They eat anything that don't eat them first. Okay. Which is anything. That's good. Spicy. Now it'll make you grow up big and strong. Alligator. Hard to find in New Mexico but I guess it's good here. You can make it with anything you want. Now I headed for the Lone Star State the home of Tex-Mex and more. It is said that Texans put jalapenos in everything. To prove that is true I tasted an outrageous dessert of the demonstration kitchen at Central Market in Austin. We're going to be making jalapeno white chocolate begonia flour ice cream. That is Jeff Blank, one of two executive chefs at one of Austin's finest restaurants, Hudson's On the Bend along with Jay Moore. They already have a half gallon of milk and a quart of heavy cream and a rolling boil and Jay is adding eight cups of sugar that will dissolve until the mixture is smooth. Folks, this is not a help food dessert. I'm going to wait for this to come in into solution. The next step is to core and dice the jalapenos and Jeff uses a vegetable peeler to remove the seeds and the hot veins of the jalapeno which reduces the heat. They will have one cup of diced jalapenos. For flavoring vanilla is added to the egg yolks and that mixture is added to the boiling milk and cream. The trickiest part is yet to come. Jeff explains The secret of cream on glaze is to slowly titrate the milk, cream and sugar solution into the egg yolks and vanilla so you gradually bring that temperature up without causing the eggs to scramble or to lump. So we're going to gradually add the hot solution to the cold egg yolk and vanilla solution. Then the process is reversed and the now warm mixture is added to the remaining hot milk. It's strained to remove any lumps and then the mixture is placed in the refrigerator for a few hours. Now the cream on glaze has chilled and Jay is going to start to make the actual ice cream now. The white chocolate is melted in a double boiler and the cream on glaze mixture is added to the chocolate along with the jalapenos lime juice and finally the begonia flowers begonia flowers then the mixture is added to the metal cylinder. We've got the paddles in there to top on and we'll just slide it right into the barrel add our ice and rock salt and begin freezing. While the ice cream sets up Jeff and Jay make a strawberry mint salsa to top off the dish as if it needed it. There's the jalapeno white chocolate begonia ice cream, a little strawberry salsa on top with that little southwestern flair and then a little garnish of fresh begonia flowers and dessert is served. And Texas jalapenos never tasted so good. By this time Pilot Skip and I were ready to leave the Lone Star State and head our trusty tiger moth south of the border in search of the origins of Texas heat. One thing about Mexico whenever you go. Pulling out my trusty Mexico map I quickly identified three great hot spots that we would have to explore. There's the bustling capital Mexico City. The tropical city of Cancun in the land of the Maya. But for our first stop we landed in the exotic high desert plains of Oaxaca in search of that land seven delicious mole dishes. After a quick tour of the craft shops and the chili filled mercados we headed out into the country to find Moli expert Susanna Trilling at her cooking school. Hi Dave, welcome to Oaxaca. Thank you Susanna. We're here at the Seasons of My Heart Cooking School in Oaxaca with Susanna Trilling and Susanna what are you going to make for us today? Today we're going to make Moli Negro Oaxacaño and we're going to make two types of tamales one with chipiles which is a wild herb and one with strips of chili de agua which is a native chili to Oaxaca that's fresh. Why don't you tell our viewers exactly what a Moli is? Well Moli comes from the word Aztec word which means mixture or concoction and it's used with different chilies mixed with different nuts and seeds and spices and all mixed together in one pot and then you cook your meat and chicken on the side and then it's later mixed into the sauce itself. Sounds wonderful. I'm going to get out of your way and let you cook Moles and tamales. Great, thanks Dave. Piscado con cal Susanna is fortunate that she has the help of her assistants Paula Martinez and her daughter Francesca Marcus Martinez in preparing this elaborate concoction. Paula is now grinding up the almonds the peanuts and the sesame seed paste the end of the sesame seed paste for the Moli Negro and this is the traditional way that it's done here in Oaxaca many women still do it this way because they feel that the blender just doesn't have the right consistency and they say that everything tastes more sabrosa more sabrosa when it's made on the metate they grind the chilies this way they grind the tomatoes the mild tomatoes or the tomatillos and they also do all the nuts Paula is also going to do the blackened seeds that we've charred from all the inside of the chilies as well. The next step is to add fresh time and Mexican oregano to the mixture of toasted nuts and sesame seeds she's mixing together to make one final paste and we'll add that to the chilies that are blended and be fried and the tomatoes and mild tomatoes and we're going to add all the other ingredients and then we add this mixture as well. Susana describes the unique chili peppers used in the Moli Negro we're going to use chihuacla negro which is a chili that's especially from Oaxaca Pacilla Mexicana which is a chili from the Zacatex, Mexico and mulatto negro or ancho negro chili guajillo and also the chipotle meco which is a type of seedless chipotle. The next step is to roast garlic and onions on a comal or griddle and then set them aside to cool. Now the next thing we're going to grill we're going to grill the chilies and we want to make sure that these guajillos that are the most red of all our chilies today that they really get toasted black because if they're not black it won't give the Moli Negro its true color. Spices such as cloves, black pepper and cinnamon are also toasted. What important step in Moli Negro is to blacken the seeds of the chilies being used in a deep frying pan. At the same time, Susana fries the tomatoes and tomatillos together in a little lard or oil. By the time the seeds are blackened the tomatoes and tomatillos are done. Even more ingredients are fried up for the Moli Negro including raisins, Pandemoreto or egg bread and plantains. Combining modern and ancient technologies while Susana is using a blender in the kitchen to puree the chilies and the tomato-tomatillo mixture outside, Paula is grinding up the blackened chili seeds. The next step is to combine all the previously prepared ingredients into a Moli sauce. In a cusuela or a clay pot we have some hot lard here ready to go. It's smoking hot and that's how you want it. We're going to put the puree of all the dry chilies that are mixed together into the pot and fry them. Susana adds the pureed tomatoes and tomatillos the grilled onion and garlic mixture the nut mixture that Paula prepared on the matate the bread, plantains and raisins mixed with the toasted cloves, black pepper and cinnamon the blackened chili seeds an even more interesting ingredient such as flamed toasted avocado leaves and some semi-sweet chocolate ground from the beans in the molinas or mills in the markets of Oaxaca. The thing about Moli is you have your chicken or your turkey or whatever meat you're using cooked on the side and then you return the meat with the stock to the Moli and you serve it. When you get your plate you serve it in a bowl and the main feature is the sauce without the meat and traditionally in Oaxaca it's not really served with this fork or a spoon it's really served with a whole pile of tortillas and your tortillas serve as your spoon and then you use your fingers to get the meat off the chicken or the turkey. This looks about ready. Dave come try some Moli. I'd love to. I can't wait. Must be starving by now. Lot of steps in this recipe. Mmm. Oh Suzana this is wonderful. How else can you serve this Moli? Well we use it to make tamales in Moli Negro or also we make something called emolados which is like enchiladas but with a Moli sauce. As you've seen Moli Negro demands many ingredients and a lot of preparation but it sure was worth all the work. My journey into the wonderful world of Moli is one that I won't soon forget. After Oaxaca our stop was the capital of the country Mexico City one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. There we visited the huge La Merced Market with its huge selection of chili peppers. We also stopped by the Zocalo or Central Plaza of Mexico City. When the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortez arrived here five centuries ago this was the very heart of the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. As a matter of fact the ruins you see behind me were part of that ancient city that was discovered when the subway was built through this very area. Now chili peppers were extremely important in Aztec daily life and their diet and no fewer than 20 domesticated varieties of chilies were grown right around this very area. In order to learn how chilies had influenced Mexican cuisine in the centuries since the Spanish conquest I accepted the invitation of Lula Bertrán a food expert and famous television star. She promised to prepare a number of tasty chili dishes that were disappointed. Lula this is such a beautiful house thank you so much for inviting me here. Thank you, I'm glad you're here. Well this isn't just food Lula this is like a work of art. Yes I think it is because food is really an art. Certainly shows here why don't you describe these dishes to us starting with this interesting one with the poblano. Well this is really a French technique of a paté and what I do I choose to a poblano chili paté. Oh chilies and nogata paté. Yes very much like chilies and nogata. And this dish with the jalapenos I guess it's an appetizer. It's an appetizer and you just do like onion rings but these are chila rings. Oh I see. So they're deep fat fried and then some chorizo on the top. Chorizo on the top, yes. Excellent. Oh I see. And this abstract painting of a salad I guess this has a hot and spicy dressing Yes the dressing is really with the chila pequine and we have a little jicama there and the goat cheese and the squash blossoms. Let's move down here and talk about this rice dish for a second. The arroz verde we call it and this is a green rice and it has also poblano chili and spinach and cilantro. Oh I see. And this unusual dish here describe this for us. This is a tamale. The only thing is that instead of being wrapping in banana leaves or in corn leaves it is wrapped in the chili and cooked in a mole. This is the chila. And down here I guess this is a picadillo stuffing. Yes well this is a very Mexican picadillo and it is a little sweet because the chiles are cooked and caramelized in piloncillo which is the raw sugar that we use. And well we have a sauce of avocado and tomatillo. Oh well I can't wait to taste all this but even more than that I can't wait to watch you cook it so why don't we go into the kitchen and see what happens. Okay let's go. But first we had to fix an authentic Mexican drink. So Lula we are going to make a hot and spicy tequila what do you call this? Well I call it tequila enchilado. Tequila enchilado. That's nice. Okay so you are going to tell me how to do this right? We have a bottle of tequila here. We have a bottle of tequila just use your favorite brand and we start by putting some peppercorns. Okay about how many? There's about five more. Okay then how about some chilepiquini. That's the hot stuff in there. About the same number? Yes. Okay I dropped one. That's okay. I remember Julia Child used to drop lots of things. Oh yes. Just pick them up and put them back in. Okay what's next? Now let's put some of the lime rim. Okay that's good. And if you want to help yourself by putting Okay this is different. There we go. One or two? We are doing it great. Let's just do it with one. Okay we'll push that down in there. And then we're going to flavor that with a cilantro Okay. Cilantro spring right? Right. Spring that's fine. And we push that down in there like this. Stir it up. You stir it and then you close it and you take it to your refrigerator or even to your freezer and keep it there for about a week. About a week. Okay that looks terrific. Now you've already done some here for us that's been I can see that's been about a week I guess. Yes and the flavor is really very very in its best right now. Okay so how do you prepare these glasses for drinking? To serve it you just put a little lime around the edge of the glass. Around the edge of the glass. Then pass it through the salt or coat it with salt. Salt? Let's say yes. And then with chili pecan. This is a powdered chili. It's a powdered chili and it's going to be real hot but wonderful particular. Even if you have some of the stuff coming out that's fine. Okay I'll take a little taste of this and then I'm going to go and let you cook some more. Great. Perfect. Thank you. Then Lula showed me how to make her stuffed jalapeno rings. Delicioso. To make the batter she combined one cup of flour one tablespoon baking powder one tablespoon salt and about a half cup of milk. With a whisk she stirred it until thick. Lula explains the next steps. You slice jalapenos you take the seeds out and then you dip them in the batter and right away in the oil. And you just wait for them to get a very nice brown light brown. Okay. Feel like this and you just take them out and place them on paper towels. Once you have them fried, crispy and good then you're going to stuff them with a mixture of cream cheese and chorizo. You know chorizo is our Mexican sausage. Very spicy. Lots of chiles in it. So what we're going to do is just mix the two of them and have a very nice mixture. And then we're just going to put this on top and this is a way to serve them real hot. So the chili and the chorizo blend very well. Lula was spoiling me with her great cooking but alas I couldn't stay in Mexico City forever. It was time to escape the big city and do like the Mexicans do. Go to the beach. So I followed their lead to one of the greatest resorts in the world. Cancun. There at the Ritz Carlton Hotel I met up with Chef John Gray. Okay John, so these are very wonderful exotic dishes and I'm going to get to taste them all even before you show us how to cook them. So why don't you tell me what I'm going to be trying here. You should probably start with these since this is a little bigger plate. This is a duck that we've done. We've roasted it and like we described earlier we just made it with the sauce of chipotle peppers, the tequila and the honey. A little bit spicy. Yeah it's good. I won't burn anybody out. It's really tasty though. I like the flavor of that duck. You don't want to scare anybody. You don't want to overwhelm the dish, that's for sure. Then we have the roasted salmon with the pasilla chilies and smoked tomatoes. These are little strips of pasillas I can tell. Okay. That's really different. Maybe try this is like a potato chip. It's the crispy plantain. You can just try a piece of that. It's nice and sweet. You guys do things right here at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. That's wonderful. And this is our traditional tic and chic. It's served in like a Mexican clay charola. You just make it like a taco. Just take a little bit of this and some guacamole if you like and a little tomato and cilantro salsa. Yeah, some pico de gallo. That'll work. A little bit of this. That's going to be beautiful. You just roll it up. Yeah, just like a taco. There you go. This is a soft taco. This is mild again. Not very spicy. A little bit of the roasted scatique peppers. I forgot to put some of those on it. Let me get some of those. I completely forgot about those. I can't decide which one I like the best. I tell you. It's wonderful. Well, the tic and chic is probably the most fun. A little messy, but wonderful. That's what it's all about. Great. Good job. Glad you enjoyed everything. Here's how John and I prepared the tic and chic. First, John prepared the red achiote marinade, which is made from a paste consisting of anato seeds, oregano and garlic. This is a very simple blender recipe, adding the achiote paste, two ounces of lemon juice, orange juice, preferably bitter orange, a little white vinegar, two large cloves of fresh garlic, a half cup of water, and some slices of onion, and a little salt. Once you have all these ingredients into the blender, we're just going to blend this until everything is combined together and then we're going to marinate the fish in this mixture, about three minutes. Here is the beautiful color of the finished marinade. We poured it over the fish to marinate it for several hours, then continued the cooking process outside on the grill along the aqua blue shores of Mexico's Caribbean. We have our fish ready, Dave. We've taken our marinade that I made before with the achiote and then we simply layered the fish with some of the very thin slices of onion, fresh tomatoes, and the schkatik pepper. We're laying this on the banana leaves to protect it from the fire a little bit so it doesn't actually burn the fish because we just want it almost to kind of steam in the banana leaves. Okay, did you catch this red snapper by yourself? Well, it wasn't me. It was one of our friends probably, but it wasn't me. Okay, let me help you with these banana leaves here. We'll take this bottom layer and I'll just lay it on to the barbecue, and then we're going to put all the banana leaves over the top of it. Okay. Sounds like a wiener. We'll just kind of pile them on. It's kind of a steamy we're just going to kind of let it see what it'll do, it'll catch all the heat and it'll work kind of like a pressure cooker so to speak keeping all the heat from the bottom up and it'll cook it actually from the top down rather than what you would believe with just the heat coming from the bottom. Almost like a giant tamale. Exactly. And we're going to leave this for approximately 20 minutes per pound and fish is a little deceiving this is actually a 7 pound fish so it's one of the larger ones but if you make smaller pieces you can you can just figure it about 20 minutes per pound. Now do we need to cover this with something else or will the banana leaves do it? No, this will be fine just like this. You'll see after a while the banana leaves are going to start to cook a little bit, maybe smoke and add another flavor to the teak and chic also. This is very popular here in the Yucatan and normally it can be cooked underground but not everybody can dig a hole in their backyard so we'll do it in a grill. But if you have a beach you can do it. While staying in Cancun we took a trip to Tulum an ancient Mayan coastal city now partially restored and very probably one of the places where dishes like teak and chic originated. While we were here at Tulum we decided to leave an offering of chilies in honor of the Mayas who loved chilies and used them in their cuisine many centuries ago. Having honored the Mayan gods Skip and I were free to return to my home New Mexico. While traveling from Mexico to the land of enchantment we flew over the ancient trail of the conquistadors those intrepid explorers who traveled north more than four centuries ago to settle new lands for the Spanish crown and with them they brought Mexican chili pepper seeds to New Mexico. Their successful planting was the largest chili pepper crop in what is now the United States. I was more than ready to sample some spicy good cooking. In New Mexico Santa Fe is not only the political capital it is also the culinary capital of the state. Because of its popularity with tourists hundreds of restaurants serve up every cuisine imaginable. As you can imagine chili peppers play an important role in the dishes served in most of these restaurants. We spoke with Mark Miller the anthropologist and the owner of the famous Coyote Cafe. I mean chili is probably the quintessential American food product so I think that probably when you create an environment in which chili is being used you have to look at the American traditions that it comes from and you have to be sensitive and respectful of those culinary traditions. Chili's for me are not just Mexican or Southwestern or New Mexican or Modern Southwestern they're one of the most important culinary traditions in America and this is one of the products that every single person that eats or cooks in America should know about and know how to use. In Santa Fe I caught up with chef Rosa Rykovich and her wonderful poblano chilies. In fact they were the main focus of what she was going to cook for us. Goat cheese filled poblano riano black bean and sirloin chili. I'm going to dry roast my spices so that I release a little bit of the flavor while I'm sauteing my spices in a dry pan and this will take about 20 seconds. This will make my dish very aromatic. Oh that smells so good. And now I'm going to saute my onions. In the same pan I'm putting a little bit of olive oil in. Oh this is going to be great. And these are red onions. And I'm going to cook these onions for about 4-5 minutes. I'm going to soften them. Now I've sauteed these onions for 4-5 minutes. Look how golden they are. And they smell great. And I'm going to add the garlic. I don't saute the garlic for very long because I don't want to burn it. And now I'm going to add my plum tomatoes. I've peeled, seeded and drained my plum tomatoes. Oh it smells great. And now I'm going to add my jalapeños. This will give it some additional flavor. And now I'm going to add my spices that I've dry roasted ahead of time. Oh they look great. This mixture has to simmer for 20 minutes before I add my soaked black beans. Now while this is cooking I'm going to add my sirloin. In another pan with a little bit of oil this is going to sizzle and smell great. I'm going to brown my meat a little bit at a time. I don't want to fill the pan up too much because if I fill the pan up too much I'm going to steam the meat and not brown it correctly. And now I'm going to show you how to stuff the roasted poblano rianos. I have here some gorgonzola cheese. I have a little bit of cream cheese to make the mixture a little bit mellow. And I've mixed the three together and I have this very nice goat cheese filling. I'm spooning it into my roasted riano my roasted poblano chili. And you want to fill them fairly full. And then fold them over. I'm going to dip one in the egg mixture first. Be sure to twirl it around shake off the excess. Roll it in the blue cornmeal. I like the look of the blue cornmeal and the taste but you're welcome to use yellow if you wish. Shake off the extra. And now oh that smells great I wish it could be here with me. I'm going to make another one dipping it in the egg and again in the blue cornmeal and these will fry approximately two minutes per side and I'm going to turn them twice. Well Rosie you made that look so easy. Well Dave it is really easy. So how do you finish up this side? Well I just have to make the chipotle cream and I have here a little bit of sour cream I have some goat cheese some chevro goat cheese and I have some reconstituted chopped chipotle's. I'm going to mix all this together and I'm going to create a cream consistency by adding a little bit of half and half so that I can squeeze it out of this tube and it designs on my plate. And I'm going to serve up some of this chili. Doesn't this look great? Oh it smells great too. That has the black beans in it. Yes it does. It has the black beans it has fresh herbs. Sirloin steak? It has sirloin steak. Yes I like to use the best quality of sirloin but you know I also have made this dish using chicken. And there goes the stuffed poblano and the chipotle cream. Oh I'd like to use goat cheese in this dish because it mellows out the heat from the chili. Doesn't that look wonderful? It does look wonderful. Now I get to try it. Yes help yourself. How is it? Oh Rosy it's absolutely superb. I love the way the goat cheese sort of tempers the heat of the chili although this is a hotter poblano than I've had. Really? Yes it's wonderful. I can tell how hot poblanos are going to be because their flesh is so thick when you're peeling them when you peel thinner peppers you can feel the heat in your fingers but with poblanos you can't. We call this poblano roulette because you don't know how hot it's really going to be. There are so many hot plates at so little time oh well at least I can leave you with a visual feast for the eyes more hot plates that I had the pleasure of sampling during heat up your life. As we have seen during this series chili peppers conquered the world and slowly infiltrated their way into American cuisine. They've influenced science, medicine, industry, indeed our very culture and they're definitely here to stay. I hope you've enjoyed heat up your life the ultimate chili documentary and remember once you start eating hot and spicy foods you'll never go back to bland you'll become an elite citizen of the world of hot and spicy. Bye for now.