DANNY: Yeah, we are going to do our braised short rib mole.

We don't do 30 ingredients in our mole, but, you know, our flavors are there.

SETH: Looks like we're at least up to double digits, though, right?

DANNY: Right.

Exactly.

SETH: How do you begin?

DANNY: So yeah.

We're going to start with toasting our chilies and spice.

We're going to toast it for a few minutes.

It's going to help us bring that mole flavor out, getting them a nice and brown.

And then here we have our rest of ingredients.

This is chicken and beef stock.

Then we have our raisins.

This is actually going to bring a little bit more sweetness, a little bit of acid.

We have our tomatoes in here.

SETH: Looks like they've been nicely charred up already?

DANNY: Yeah.

So we do char them ahead of time, just to bring a little bit of smokiness.

SETH: And of course chocolate, right?

DANNY: Yeah.

You can't make mole without chocolate.

SETH: And chef, is this chocolate sweetened or unsweetened chocolate?

DANNY: This is sweet chocolate, but we don't add too much chocolate to our mole.

We do have a little bit of plantain just to bring a little bit of sweetness in there too.

I haven't seen mole with plantains.

I think this is probably like a unique technique that I'm trying to bring from my country.

We can definitely pull our dry ingredients.

You see it nice and brown.

SETH: The aroma from those chilies, like the smokiness I'm picking up is really incredible.

DANNY: That's the whole point of toasting our ingredients for the mole.

We're just going to add them a little bit.

So we have ancho peppers and we have pasillas.

We're just going to keep slowly adding them, and then we're just going to make sure they all like submerged in the stock and they're just going to help us also release more flavor.

SETH: So with adding all these chilies, is this going to be a spicy mole?

DANNY: No.

Our mole is not spicy, but this is going to add the little kick in the back of your tongue.

We don't want to overpower the rest of the dish.

Now we're going to add the toasted ingredients.

We have coriander, aniseed, sesame seed, almonds, cinnamon, cloves.

I'm going to give a little stir.

SETH: I like that the pot is nearly overflowing with flavor, both literally and figuratively.

DANNY: Yeah.

So now we're going to let all the ingredients simmer for 30 minutes.

We're going to blend it and then we're going to put it back in the pot.

We're going to fry up the plantain and after we add the fried plantain, we're going to cook it for eight hours.

So here we have the finished mole.

Obviously we're not going to wait eight hours for you guys to film this, right?

So as you can see all the colors, it's just so bright and so deep.

SETH: There's such a beautiful gloss to that mole sauce and the color just looks so rich.

And the aroma again.

You're killing me with this stuff, chef.

DANNY: This is the beauty of taking a lot of time to make this mole.

Each hour it just gets even richer and richer.

So we have the mole.

Over here we have our eight-hours short rib.

So after we braise it for eight hours, we let it sit overnight in the liquid, so it concentrates all the flavor in there.

What we're going to do right now is we're just going to put it in the oven so it can come up to the temperature.

SETH: So we got eight or nine hours on the mole, eight hours of the short ribs.

This dish takes a little time to get it right?

DANNY: It does.

It does.

So now that the short is in the oven we're going to season our rice.

We actually cooked this rice in chicken stock.

So here we have a salt and pepper.

So now we're going to add the green.

We don't want to cook it too much, because we want to preserve the color of it.

We're going to stir it, make sure that everything gets in there.

SETH: So you just want them to wilt just a little bit?

DANNY: Right.

Yeah.

Now that this is done, we're going to do the finishing plating.

We're going to do rice first.

Short rib goes on top, and we just glaze with more mole.

The garnish are going to be a pickle cabbage, and we're going to do a little bit of queso fresco.

And our final garnish will be of course, cilantro.

SETH: All right chef.

So many beautiful colors and I know this is the culmination of many, many hours of work.

I can't wait to reap the reward.

DANNY: With this final dish, you're going to be tasting a little bit of sweet acid, a little bit of saltiness, so it's like a full combination.

Hopefully you're enjoying it.

SETH: Holy mole.

This dish is an instant favorite of mine.

Really nice smoky notes in that mole.

And some really interesting flavor notes on top.

Something pickled as well?

DANNY: Yeah, so it's pickle red cabbage, which is, in El Salvador we call it escabeche.

It's going to be sweet acid and little saltiness.

So that's what makes this dish, I would say, perfect.

SETH: Well, I love the way that pickle flavor works.

And the short rib too, just so tender.

And I guess that only comes from all that extra time braising?

DANNY: Yeah.

No.

Of course.

You know, the time-consuming, the final product, eight hours braising, it should just melt in your mouth.