Pati's Mexican Table

Pati Narrates: New York, New York.

One of the best food cities in the world.

The best chefs, the best restaurants.

If you can make it here in the culinary industry, you've made it.

One of the most unique, prestigious experiences in the city is a dinner at the James Beard House.

The former home of legendary chef and television personality James Beard.

I've been asked to cook for a very special event, the Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Oh my gosh, I love this color!

Did you see?

It's such an honor that I wanted to share the event, and a few recipes with you.

A light, creamy Dulce de Leche Caramel Mousse that melts in your mouth.

Because one dessert is never enough, I'm making two!

A Chocolate Salami.

It's not really a salami, it just looks like it, and trust me, it's addictive.

And because I have Sammy joining me in all of this deliciousness, I'm making one of his absolute favorites, Shrimp Enchiladas in a rich tomato sauce.

How many times have you asked me for this dish?

It's a lot because you don't make it enough.

I know (laughs) Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: La Costea.

Taste that transcends.

More information at mexicorico.com Over 40 years, bringing authentic Latin American flavors to your table.

Tropical Cheese.

Coronado Dulce de Leche Caramel, proud to support Pati's Mexican Table.

Avocados from Mexico The Ministry Of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries And Mexbest.

Pati: You would never know just walking by, but this unassuming building in Lower Manhattan has seen decades of rich culinary history.

One of Americas original celebrity chefs, James Beard, once called this home.

For years, the James Beard Foundation has carried on his legacy through dinners and events featuring the best chefs from around the country.

So this is for the cocktail hour.

For the seated dinner, we have 5 courses.

Recently I had the honor of cooking the Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Like 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

My menu was a culinary compass of my homeland, and the cuisine I hold so near and dear to my heart.

Caldo de Camaron.

Carnitas.

Aguachile.

Dulce de Leche Caramel Mousse.

A mix of recipes from Mexico's most iconic regions, and dishes that I have a deep personal connection with.

The James Beard Dinner was such a fun experience that I just have to share a few of the recipes, and I'm starting with Shrimp Enchiladas in a Tomato and Nutmeg Sauce.

We'll begin by making the sauce for the enchiladas.

The sauce is crucial for any enchilada, but I'll give you a trick: whenever you make an enchilada, say you're making chicken enchiladas, you need to add some chicken broth to that enchilada sauce because the sauce will marry the filling.

Today we're making shrimp enchiladas, and we'll make a quick shrimp shell broth that will go in the sauce and make the sauce marry the filling of the enchilada.

I have 1.5 pounds of medium-sized shrimp.

I'm adding all the shrimp shells right in here.

I'll cover it with water.

I'm adding 4 bay leaves, a garlic clove, 5 sprigs of parsley, a generous teaspoon of salt.

We have the shrimp broth going, and I'll get the rest of my sauce ingredients going in this pot.

I'll add 1.5 pounds of ripe roma tomatoes, and I'll add some water.

These tomatoes are usually used for sauces and stews and salsas because they are mushier than the rounder beefsteak tomatoes.

Two serrano chiles and I'll add a garlic clove.

I'm gonna get my tomatoes cooking, and I want to cook the tomatoes, chile and garlic which is such a traditional Mexican combination until the tomatoes are mushy and soft.

so I can puree them into a sauce.

I wanna chop my shrimp so those are ready too.

I make enchiladas all the time at home, the boys love them, I love them, Danny loves them, and these enchiladas are Sammy's favorite, in fact, when I don't make these enchiladas for a few weeks, he'll ask me just out of the blue, "Hey ma, you haven't made those shrimp enchiladas."

So I'll put my shrimp away, and I'll just cook them right before I make the enchiladas.

I'm gonna strain this shrimp broth right in here.

Now I'll puree the rest of the ingredients for my tomato sauce.

Tomatoes are perfect and I know that because the skin has come off and look how mushy and soft they are!

I have 2 chiles in here but I'll just add one first.

I'll taste, and if I need more heat, I'll add more later.

I'm gonna add 4 scallions, and I'm using scallions instead of white onions for the softer taste, and I'm going for a softer taste here because I want the shrimp flavor to really take over, so instead of adding black pepper, I'm adding nutmeg, and I think it adds a really delicious layer of flavor, it's nutty, toasty, fragrant, I love the smell.

Half a teaspoon of salt.

I'm adding about 1 cup of the shrimp broth I just strained, and this will give my tomato sauce a much richer and complex flavor.

I'll puree this until completely smooth.

(blender whirs) I haven't even removed the lid, and I can already smell it, it's that intense.

I'm smelling the shrimp, nutmeg, tomato and chile.

I'm going to taste a little to see if it needs more salt or chile, it's still gonna season and thicken but I want to taste the base.

Very spicy, doesn't need anymore chile, but it's good that it's spicy because I'm gonna add cream later on.

So I'll add 1 tablespoon of oil, I'll pour the sauce into the hot oil so it splashes, splatter and sizzles, which I want it to do, but I'll use my lid to protect my shirt.

Then I'll add some Mexican crema.

The Mexican crema is very different from heavy cream, it is less thick than sour cream, it is much more salty and tangy than heavy cream, and it's not as sour as sour cream.

I'll add about 1 cup.

You can find this cream in international stores, in Latin stores, but if you don't find it, know what you can do?

Talk to your grocer and tell him you need Mexican crema.

I'm gonna let this cook for about 7 - 8 minutes until it all comes together, seasons and thickens.

Pati: One of the recipes from my dinner at the James Beard House was Carnitas Mini Tortas with Pickled Jalapeos, and by the way, if you want a party pleaser - So was this the most popular thing?

Yeah?

You can't go wrong with Carnitas Tortas, trust me.

It's fantastic.

That is really good.

Pati: One of the keys to any great sandwich is bread.

I wanted some real Mexican bread for this torta, and I found just that.

In one of New York's oldest, best Mexican Panaderias, Don Paco Lopez in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Hola!

This place is special, and that becomes obvious pretty soon after you walk in the doors.

I'm seeing things that I would see in a Mexican Panaderia.

We started business 27 years ago.

My mother, she's the one who said let's do it Mexican style.

For me, the conchas is it.

Are the best.

Miguel's family is from the state of Puebla, known as one of the cradles of Mexican cuisine.

Baking was a family business.

Making sweetbreads like these - The fluff!

Has been their stock and trade for generations.

So moist and it's barely sweet, like the bread, as it should be, but then you get the sweet from that crispy crust, it's crumbly.

After immigrating to pursue his American dream, Miguel's father Don Paco spent 20 years working in bakeries around New York, but he missed the taste of home.

What New York really needed was a bakery just like their beloved Puebla business.

Mmm!

In 1991 he built Don Paco Panaderia with the original family recipes.

And this is the original?

The original recipe.

No kidding!

Yep.

Today those recipes are a staple this Brooklyn neighborhood.

I remember in 2002 - 2004 the price of eggs went up so high, so one day I had a meeting with my father, mom and sister and said "you know what, I can't handle paying for fresh eggs, we want to use frozen eggs", and my father said "you're going to change the recipe, you're going to take my name down from the sign -" I love that!

To not compromise the quality or soul or spirit of something that's your art, it's your life, it's your work.

As a baker you have to be proud of what you're doing, and as a Mexican living in America, I'm very proud to see people who aren't Mexican come into the bakery and get a concha.

To me, I feel proud.

We've got our sauce going for those rich shrimp enchiladas that Sammy loves, but we need something light and sweet for dessert.

This Dulce de Leche Caramel Mousse is always a hit in our house.

So for the base of my mousse, to make it nice and thick, I'm using 1 envelope of unflavored gelatin granules.

I'll add 1/3 cup of water.

So you want absolutely no lumps in here, so the first thing you do is mix it with water and let it start hydrating.

Then I'll put it over a water bath, and this really just for a minute, just until it completely dissolves.

As this happens, I'll pour in a 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1 cup of this dulce de leche caramel.

So this is Mexico's version of Dulce de Leche, and we pride ourselves in saying it's the original.

Mexico's Dulce de Leche Caramel is made with goat's milk which gives it a much more complex and deep taste.

When I was a little girl, we used to eat this with everything, with Maria cookies, sliced bananas.

They used to sell them in little wooden boxes, and I would just open those little boxes and lick them clean.

My gelatin completely dissolved, and here I am just mixing the milk with the caramel just until it dissolves, I don't even want it to simmer, I just want it to really mix.

I'm adding the dulce de leche that has completely dissolved into the milk, so we're making sure that at every step everything that we do leads us to have a creamy and smooth mousse.

So I prepared an ice bath, which is just ice and water.

So this is just one way to make this mixture go faster, set faster, cool faster.

For me this ingredient, dulce de leche caramel, represents really sweet and tender moments that I spent with my sisters growing up, and I love that my boys now share moments together around this ingredient too.

So the gelatin started to do its thing, and you wanna catch it when it's just starting to do its thing, but not completely because if the mixture completely set, then it wouldn't fold nicely and smoothly with the whipped cream.

I have 1 cup that I'll add a little at a time and gently fold in.

I'll use the whisk, making sure it's all even, and I love retro things so I want to do this in a mold, like this, that holds 6 cups and that's it.

I'll put it in the fridge so it can chill for at least a couple hours so it really has the time to set.

Because one dessert is never enough, I'm making two!

I'm doing a super chocolatey-chocolate salami that is not a salami, it just looks like a salami, so 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, the water bath is set at medium-heat, and the water bath will make the chocolate melt without it burning or scorching, it's really important to have that layer between the heat and the chocolate.

I'm gonna add 3/4 cups of unsalted butter that's at room temperate.

My sisters and I used to make this and eat this all the time growing up.

So we would make not one, or two, or three, we'd make like four or five batches at a time so we'd have a ton of them in the freezer and could just eat them on demand.

1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.

I'm adding the cocoa at this step because its flavor is really going to bloom as it mixes with the melted butter and the chocolate, and it's melting really fast.

This is another dessert that is really easy to make.

It has completely melted, so now I'm going to add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2/ 3 cups of sugar because it's dessert.

And we'll mix well so the sugar really mixes in there.

I'll add 5 beaten egg yolks and 1/ 2 a cup of chopped toasted pecans.

I have 12 ounces of Maria Cookies, and I'll just crumble them, not super fine.

It looks very dry, but slowly the chocolate will start taking over, and the Maria Cookies will start absorbing that chocolate and butter.

I really love doing this with my hands, so.

This is the texture that you want, it is buttery, very chunky, gooey.

So now we'll roll it into that salami shape, so I have wax paper, then I'll take half this mixture and start shaping it into a log.

I'll roll it in the shape of a salami, I'll twist the ends so it really looks like a salami, and then I'll put it in the freezer and it's gonna chill for at least an hour.

Pati: Everywhere I go, I try to connect with my fellow Mexicans to see what they're doing with food and take the pulse of Mexican cooking in the United States.

And you know there are hundreds of great restaurants in New York, but just one Mexican restaurant has a Michelin star, one of the highest honors in the culinary industry.

In Long Island City, Queens.

Casa Enrique.

Cosme, I like your kitchen!

Gracias Pati.

First of all, it's impeccable.

I see the flow of people, and I see smiley faces.

Cosme Aguilar is the kind of chef you just like instantly.

Humble, confident but quiet.

Here in the tiny basement kitchen of Casa Enrique, it's the food that really shines.

When we opened this restaurant, I was saying that we had to cook for Mexicans who live in the United States, and people who appreciate Mexican food, like Americans do appreciate Mexican food.

Born in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Cosme grew up hearing about friends and family moving to the U.S. and dreamt of one day doing the same.

Did you know you wanted to do food or you just happened into food?

I mean, I like food, eating and cooking, but not in a restaurant for other people.

But when his brother landed a job in a French restaurant in the states, Cosme jumped at the chance to follow in his footsteps.

He spent years working every job in the kitchen, perfecting his craft.

What are we eating?

So I'm gonna make today chilaquiles rojos.

Yay, I love chilaquiles rojos!

Chilaquiles are like the epitome of why I love Mexican food.

Everything you need is all right there on one plate.

Dress them up and down any which way you like.

Accessible, affordable, delicious.

Where did you get cooking from?

So my mother was an amazing cook.

She had a restaurant before I was born.

So you grew up with this, you have this in your veins.

Exactly.

So we cooked the onion already, I'll put the chiles.

To finish his sauce, Cosme adds a handful of chiles de arbol and a whole bunch of guajillo chiles.

Roma tomatoes, and epazote.

So super heavy on the epazote.

I love epazote.

I love it too.

You guys, I'm assisting Cosme who's a Mexican Michelin Star chef, so cool!

And you have an incredible spirit, and I hit a lot I'm sorry, I'm a hitter.

Yeah (laughs) I noticed that already.

(laughs) After it cooks, and a quick taste.

Mmm!

It's into the blender, and most thankfully... Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Onto a plate in front of me.

Mhmm.

I mean, this is crazy.

This is, like, crazy good.

This is like an impeccable, incredible execution.

Thank you.

I have my shrimp enchilada sauce here and I'm reheating it because I had made it ahead of time so I could make this dinner super quick in a few minutes.

I'll add a couple tablespoons of oil, and a couple tablespoons of butter.

I love it when butter melts into oil, it's beautiful!

I'll start seasoning my shrimp with a generous amount of salt.

Black pepper, and I don't want to overcrowd my pan because I want the shrimp to saut and brown a little, if you add too many shrimp they start steaming, we don't want steamed shrimp, we want shrimp just like this.

Some of the shrimp are ready, browned.

I have my shrimp, my sauce, my warm corn tortillas.

Because you want every inch of the enchilada to be packed with flavor, you first have to dunk the tortilla in the sauce.

You can see, ah!

The sauce is so rich and thick.

I'm going to add the shrimp, which I cooked chopped so I could fold these enchiladas.

There's a reason corn tortillas work for enchiladas and flour tortillas don't.

Corn tortillas are sturdy and can withhold the sauce, flour tortillas can't.

I'll completely drench these enchiladas, and I have queso fresco which I'll crumble all over my enchilada.

Hi ma.

Hola mi amor!

Oh this looks so good.

I know!

Who likes this dish?

I do, it's my favorite dish.

I know, how many times do you ask me for this dish?

It's a lot because you don't make it enough.

I know (laughs) Sammy, why is this your favorite dish?

I just like how it tastes.

The combination of the shrimp and the sauce, it's like a tomato base right?

Yeah.

You even like the avocado on it.

I do.

How many my love?

Two.

I love it.

It's good.

I love how much sauce there is.

With this one you have to completely drench it in sauce.

Mmm, mmm, hmm?

Mhmm hmm!

Some enchiladas that you taste can have a lot of everything, and these, I don't know why, feel much lighter.

Mhmm.

And speaking of light, for dessert I made another one of your favorites.

Ooh!

Did I make your favorites today or did I - You did, you've made all my favorites.

Here's one for you, and I made this ring shaped using that ring mold, but I've also made them with the individual - The ramekins.

The ramekins, what do you like better?

I think I like this one more.

It looks cooler.

Right?

Retro!

This is like from the decade I was born.

When was I born?

60s?

50s?

40s?

60s.

Okay.

1972!

You like it, chocolate salami?

I love chocolate salami.

I know you do!

I'm gonna cover it in confectioner sugar.

Mhmm, mmm!

(Pati laughs) I told you I used to eat this with my sisters, no?

Mhmm.

Mmm.

You don't have to have them together, but - The more dessert the better, you know?

One of the things I love the most is cooking for and eating with you guys.

I love to be fed.

Right?

(laughs) Yeah, you can keep making whatever you want, I'll eat it.

Pati: For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com, and connect!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest @PatiJinich.

Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: La Costea.

Taste that transcends.

More information at: mexicorico.com A tradition of authentic Latin flavors and family recipes.

Tropical Cheese.

Coronado Dulce de Leche Caramel, proud to support Pati's Mexican Table.

Avocados from Mexico The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Mexbest.

Proud to support Pati's Mexican Table on public television.