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This is chef Santiago Lustra. He runs Cole in London. Voted one of the top 50 restaurants on earth. And he's got a Michelin star. It's the best Mexican food I've eaten. Today, two normal home cooks are cooking alongside a master. But they aren't just making tacos. I'm almost whimpering over here just watching it. Uh-oh. Absolutely differently. No, we're breaking down Mexican cuisine into three levels. From comfort food to Michelin star, you have traveled the world. You've worked in some of the world's best
restaurants and then you came to the UK and this is something that you kind of loved here. What is it? Yeah. Well, I going to show you. Well, two of my favorite ingredients in the planet, not only from the UK, is this rhubarb. That is Yeah, this is for rhubarb. And then the other thing, I know it's going to sound quite niche, but is there are hemp seeds. Yeah. So, hemp seeds. And we're going to make a salsa with some Mexican chilies. Yeah. So, we're going to use this uh this chili that is called rattlesnake chili. Like cascel chili casel because it sounds like the tail of the snake, right? And then this one that is called arbor chili that is uh it is quite spicy. But
then this one is sweet. So then when you're making a sauce in Mexico, you got to balance because chilies are going to give you not only heat, they're going to give you also texture cuz you have a lot of pectin and they also going to give you color. So then the sauce gets like bright red. Yeah. And also they going to give you um obviously heat but flavor. Right. So you got to you're going to chop the rhubarb. Uhhuh. And you're going to toast the ingredients. Okay. Right. is to take the seats out. Open it up. Take the seats out.
Well, one of the things that we do uh in Mexican cooking h sometimes is that we don't add as much oil to the stuff like we just kind of roast it. So then you can just put in a dry pan the rhubarb now. So then the uh the dry heat is going to char it and it's going to make it like I guess slower but like but stronger. You're adding more flavor. Yeah. Exactly. And then uh so we're going to have that on for a little bit and then you're going to toast the hemp seeds and the chilies. You can do hemp seeds first. So Yep. Then also the combinations of chilies is interesting. The caskel is going to give flavor and the ar is going to give spice.
Yep. So right that's fine like that. And then what we're going to do is to add a little bit of sugar and the water. So that's going to cook really quickly. Mhm. Just and we just leave it out of the stove. It doesn't have to cook for too long. And then these ones we're going to put it here. Very important you put the dry things first and then you add the um the liquid things, right? So you just put a little bit of salt and then you pound it. You pound first you pound like that. Mhm. And then you go around it. Okay. Really simple cooking techniques.
Half the ingredients I'm really familiar with, but the other half are just throw me slightly. Perfect. Look at that. Amazing. Then what we're going to do is to toast the chilies really quickly. So they can be also quite dry. So you can also work on them in the morgu. So what's happening here that normally sometimes people actually will put the chilies first. So but then we have already this. Yeah. So what we do we can take it out but also we can just you know separate it and because you want rock on rock to grind the chilies really hard so then you can actually blend them right. I mean, I know it sounds like quite straightforward, but
So then what you do is to really Can you hear that? So that means that they're like quite crispy. Exactly. So then they're easy to blend pound it and then you have already, you see this like amazing chili paste. So you can try like right now we're doing something quite traditional that people will do in home. Yeah. They have a like any traditional tool in a kitchen, it takes a bit of technique to get used to it. Yeah. But it's amazing just to watch. Yeah. It's just Exactly. It's one of those things that you can buy a mug or you can make your own mug.
Right. And when you make your own mug, it's like, "Oh my god, I made that." So with the sauce, it's similar, you know, like I'm nodding like I've made a mug before. Yeah. Wonderful way, I must say. Well, anyways, you can try like this like as it is. So, it's quite earthy, you know. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Really earthy but really familiar as well as a flavor. Yeah. And then you get the spice afterwards. So, now we're just going to heat it up and then add some messcal.
Mhm. H because this salsa is going to be boracha. It's going to be drunk. Okay. So, we call it the drunk sauce. Okay. Some mess. Yeah. Thing is, it's already a really smoky dish because of the peppers you're using. Yeah. And then what you do is just to smash it really just gentle. And what you want is to have like little bits of things. And make sure you smash the garlic. And then this is going to be a sauce that is quite nutty, spicy, creamy. H slightly tart as well, sour for because of the rhubarb and um and sweet.
What I love about your cooking is personally Yeah. I've never quite understood Mexican food in the UK cuz I don't think we've ever had Yeah. Well, there's a lot of average Yeah. Mexican food. Right. Yeah. I think a lot of it is down to the fact that we're not getting the right Mexican ingredients, right? Yes. As soon as you've you've taken like some of our best British produce and attached your flare to it, it suddenly makes so much more sense to me. It makes sense. Exactly. Yeah, it makes sense because it's like it's not something that is coming from a can or is coming from like this like well this I mean like this uh these
plantains are normally like that but then I'm here so they're not very good because they're from somewhere that I don't know. So this is ingredient on its prime like it's like two more weeks the best rhubarb in the year and then uh and then just whatever you have around you know that's a lot but Oh it was a lot. Oh you're right. It's so creamy but smoky spicy rhubarb fruity sweet creamy. Yeah, they're the sour. So, almost giving that tamarind vibe, but you're getting that from rhubarb and from creaminess and from sugar, brown sugar. I've never had a sauce like that. I always love tasting it and trying to say it reminds me a bit of and I can't do that with that.
It is so unique. It has like also this like charred flavor of the rhubarb as well. Yeah. That like slight bitterness that also makes everything quite round. And uh we're gonna do it with some quesadillas that we're gonna make here fresh. So that is going to be only like mass and cheese, nothing else. So that is going to add all the complexity to quesad. Amazing. Next up, Santiago's comfort food. I love quadas. I think it's is there's something about what reminds me to your childhood.
Yeah. That makes you really love it and be your favorite thing. Wow. So what we have here, I show you. This is important. Masa. Mhm. So this is a fresh blue corn masa that we do in the restaurant with blue corn and uh we cook it and then uh with a calcium hydroxide and water and then we soak it for like 14 12 14 hours and then mill it in a stone grinder. But you can buy masarina that is already a flour that you add water to it and you have something like this. Where do you get the blue corn from?
The blue corn is from Mexico and it's uh this one is from the south of Mexico from Wajaka. In Mexico you can just buy this in the like in the corner shop uh or in the market. But here is a bit more tricky. So then what I say is that you can just get Masarina. It's called Masarina. It's a flower. I don't know. Do you know Masarina? It's a flour that is basically this dry dehydrated and then blend it into a flour and then the thing is that you just need to add water to it. So if you can touch it. Oh yeah. Play-Dohy soft. Then we're not going to make a bowl like that. We're going to make like a cylinder because the traditional quadas are not like round. They are long. So this is very important that is
And are they folded rather than two separate? Exactly. Yeah, it's folded. Yeah, I know. It's Yeah, it's one of those things that No, they're close to Yeah. You see? Uh-huh. And then you're going to So you make sure that they are all of them, all the ones that you're doing are the same size. First you make this and then you press. So you want to make you can make one the same. I'd say they're identical. Nice. Sort of. Sauteed. Yeah. For inside of your casadillas. Normally you will have casillo or wajaka cheese.
It's like a stringy cheese tradition in Mexico. But here we're just going to make a mixture of fresh and dry mozzarella. Amazing. And then the interesting thing is that you want that juices of the cheese as well to be mixed all together. So you get like a really juicy cheese inside of the casadilla. Amazing. So now we have everything that we need. And just going to take our your our thing here. Oh, you pick that one first. Ruba and then so you get an oval, you know. That's Mhm. Perfect even thickness every time. And then here is the pan. My whole pan.
It's going to stay in one side for a little bit. And then I'm going to flip it. We're going to flip it. Then we put the cheese inside. And then we fold it. And then I'm gonna fold it again and it's gonna like slightly puff. And then when it's slightly puff means that it's cooked in the inside. And then you can put the cheese on top. You got to hold on the edges. Yeah. It's just like a It's like a little balloon, you know. This how you knew exactly when that was going to happen then.
Yeah. And then what you do is to put the cheese in there. At this point, I'd be panicking. This is where you've told me I put too much cheese in. And then you fold it. Remember boys, this is like our cheese on toast. This is like comfort food. You see it? Yes. So now the secret here, whoever is watching, is that this doesn't break. Yeah. But that needs to be smooth, you know. And I'm going to judge every quesadilla from now on. And this is a traditional blue corn masa quesadilla. And what you want to do is to take the heat down a little bit. So then the cheese melts
inside and it starts to come out slowly from the edges. Because we're using the mozzarella cheese, you will get a little bit of the juice. Yeah. Of the way, but it's okay. And then because but you don't want your quesadilla to be all soggy. Mhm. So what I will do is I press it and then I just going to get rid of the juice. Right. So then now what we do is to open it. You've just spent so long melting it. Yeah. Look at that. And then you put any filling that you want. Because it's spring, I'm going to put some flowers.
You only live once, right? Yeah. And then the idea is you take the salsa and the good thing is the salsa is not very like too spicy. Mhm. So you just always when you do this you can just put it inside you know like this salsa inside. Amazing. Right. Put that into the sexes. Cheers guys. Cheers. Thank you for this. We do not get enough corn tortillas in the UK. It's a completely different experience to the flour tortillas that we just get so often.
Yeah. Tortilla on its own is so good, right? Yeah. Absolutely different league. We just don't do Mexican food. No. Full stop. Boys, that was the comfort food. Do you want to see what he gets up to in the restaurant? What? Oh, we're not finished. So, now one of your most famous recipes from the restaurant. What is it? So, yeah. So, then this is the dish that is langosin tacos made with langosins from sky roasted with garlic and smoked chilies, sauerkraut and tortillas made with sourdough bread. So we have these flatbreads and um we finish it with a reduction of seabbukthornton berries and a fresh seabukon berry juice that is
in this syringe. Uh sebukthorn is a very sour berry very that grows by the sea like grows in Scotland quite a lot. So then I took those berries and I'm like oh my god this we can use this instead of lime. So then the idea is that we uh we inject the heads with the juice and then ro and roast them. So then you can squeeze the head as a lime into your dish. We always talk about the head juice being the best. Now it's injected with sea butter. Yeah, exactly. So then uh we're going to start uh doing a little bit a few preparations. So first we're going to have a grill and roast the heads. So no
oil, just like that. Just the heads they need to be um not very dry inside, you know. So they need to be just warm inside. So I think that should be fine. Then we have um seers lane, but you can use any herb that you have just to add some green or some like scent into the dish. So these ones they grow in um Kent. So just going to blanch them. That's what I love about your menu. It's this fusion of Mexican cuisine and technique. memories from all over your travels from working in some of the best restaurants across the continent in Europe. Um, and then English and Scottish and local produce foraged and farmed and all that comes together into one incredible kind of tasting menu.
It's smart. There's a reason at the top. I'm glad you like it. I'm glad you like I going to go now with the langustines. So very important when you cook langoins is that you don't want to cook them too long. So then what I want is to keep it sweet. So in the moment that you overcook the langosin, it becomes like less sweet. So what I'm going to do is to just to warm the inside up and then really sear the outside. And then we're going to finish it on this uh cream. Right. Here on the skewer so they don't curl up. Yeah. Exactly. And then you just with a spat you just press them. And again, what you want is the top just to be like quite warm, but the bottom to be um sear like a nice to have like a nice color in the bottom.
And then what you want is to finish the cooking in the cream. The last thing that you do is to heat up the langosins. First we're going to heat up these tortillas and finish these heads. So the heads inject them with the seabukon juice. So that's going to go inside. Then I'm going to heat up the tortillas. Everything tortillas. And then you see these little bubbles. That's important to have these little bubbles. There you go. Flour tortillas, the heads. And now for the main event, we are going to take these langosins and just cover them. I can already taste that in my head. They're hot sauce. I'm almost whimpering over here just watching it.
You want to be on that skewer, don't you? We are both. Four plays a distant memory. And the cool thing is that the cream will finish the cooking of the langustine. And then I'm going to take a reduction of the berry juice that tastes like tamarind. We have some chamealina seeds. And then to finish, we're going to get some sauerkraut just to get like some freshness. Okay. And then you just take it and then carefully just put it in there. And then you have your tweezers obviously. And just gently take them out. And then you finish with your herbs and just play them around. I think that's what I'm missing. Such a celebration of carefully selected ingredients that are then loved.
Amazing. Thank you, chef. Thank you. Let's get some sexies and try it. All right. So, you have to take the head and then squeeze it as hard as you can on top of the langustine and then just eat it with one hand. Okay, let's go for it. There you go. Langustine head juice and seabbuckthorn. Yeah, exactly. Face to taco or taco to face is always the question. Cheers. Having you speak through every element only helps me really understand what's going on there. Decadent. Yeah. And tacos aren't always decadent, but that is Yeah.
Yeah. But even at that end, the highest end of literally fine dining in the UK, it's still eat with the hands. And I think that's important. It's still you squeeze over and you go in, it's it's handheld food. You got to do it with the hands. I think it's the best Mexican food I've eaten. And it makes me proud to be British. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. I don't know how, but it does. Somehow you've made that all about us. So, well done. So, if you want to find out all about Santiago and the restaurants, all the links are in the description box downstairs. And if you have enjoyed the
video, give it a like because wow. Thank you so much for coming and sharing. This is what you do.
