SETH: Josie.

JOSIE: Hi, Seth.

How are you?

SETH: I'm doing well.

Thank you so much for welcoming me into your beautiful restaurant, and what are you making today?

JOSIE: Well, today we're gonna make red mole, which is our signature dish, and these are the ingredients.

SETH: Well, mole, I've always heard that it's a complicated dish, but seeing this many ingredient together, that's pretty spectacular.

JOSIE: Well, the main ingredients are the chiles, the nuts, and the spices.

SETH: And I see some chocolate there as well, that I know is... JOSIE: Chocolate, these are also one of the main ingredients in all the moles in Mexico.

What we do is after we clean the chiles, we not fry.

We just put it to get a little bit moist on the oil.

SETH: Just a second in that oil, and those chiles are already giving off such a nice aroma.

JOSIE: Exactly.

You have to be very careful because if, for any reason, you burn the chiles, basically, the mole is not going to taste the same.

You just put it on the broth.

Today we are cooking with chicken broth because we don't have any vegetarians today.

At least that I know.

(laughs).

SETH: I am certainly not.

JOSIE: So to go with the next tapatias, this is the ancho.

So now we go with the guajillo, which gives to the mole that special color.

Not too dark, not too red.

So it's infusing the oil.

These are DC Corazon small secret.

So this is the cascabel... (rattle) And then we have the chile de Arbol, and then we have Morita.

SETH: So we're looking at, like, seven or eight different chiles going into this.

JOSIE: Basically, yes.

SETH: Hey, why not?

JOSIE: Well, let's do it.

So same thing.

I like chile de Arbol because it gives that small kick.

SETH: 'Cause none of these are gonna be overwhelmingly spicy.

JOSIE: No.

SETH: These are not like habaneros or anything else... JOSIE: No, no, no, but you have to have a little bit of the spice.

And now we are gonna infuse them with the chicken broth to make them softer.

SETH: After Josie's finished softening the peppers, she begins to dry-roast the seeds and nuts.

JOSIE: We are going to do sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, walnuts, the garlic, the onion, the tomato.

SETH: Next comes spices.

JOSIE: This is a molcajete.

That's a very ancient artifact, and it makes it easier to get all the flavor.

SETH: And finally the sweets.

JOSIE: So now we are going to go with the pasitas, the raisins.

SETH: This is just a parade of ingredients.

It's so much work involved in it, too.

JOSIE: It is work, but it's also a lot of fun, so a lot of fun.

Put a little bit of broth here.

This is sweet chocolate.

And then we have this piloncillo.

This part is to your taste.

SETH: You can definitely err on the side of more sugar.

JOSIE: Okay, and the dark chocolate.

And we just melt it.

So that's basically it.

So after this chocolate melts, we are gonna blend the ingredients separate.

All the seeds, the nuts are going to be completely in different blender.

So we're gonna add additional ingredients like the plantain, the bread, the tortilla.

After we blend all together, we're gonna put it in a pot that it will have a little bit of oil.

Once we put it in the pot, we are gonna keep stirring slowly in a very low temperature.

While the mole's finishing, we cook the chicken.

The dish goes with rice and homemade blue corn tortillas.

And that is the red mole.

SETH: Josie, this mole looks incredible, but how do I even begin?

JOSIE: The traditional way in Mexico is to cut a little bit of the meat, grab a tortilla and just, you know, make a taco.

SETH: Okay.

JOSIE: In Mexico, this is our fork and knife.

SETH: This is our fork and knife.

All right.

JOSIE: It's a, especially when we are among friends.

SETH: All right, well, I'm gonna make myself a little mole taco here.

JOSIE: Oh, see?

You're a natural.

SETH: Oh, my God.

I love it, that is so rich.

JOSIE: It is.

SETH: And even that first bite... As it goes on, it starts a little bit sweet, get some of those chocolate notes, but immediately, a little bit of the heat in the peppers starts to show up, and then the smokiness.

It almost like the flavor changes as you continue on with your bite.

JOSIE: Exactly.

SETH: Some of the Mexican food that I've had around here, I've had the mole poblano.

So what's the difference between this mole and maybe some of the other moles that I've had?

JOSIE: Actually, every mole in, in every family, I think, change.

My mom used to make nine different kind of chiles.

My aunt used crackers instead of tortilla.

Uh, a friend of mine used cookies.

They're called, uh, galletas de animalitos.

Each person put their own touch.

So this one is basically what I, I see that my mom did, but at the end of the day, every family and every person made their own special touch.

SETH: Including you, so this is really your take on mole.

JOSIE: Yes, exactly.

SETH: Well, it's great, and so many beautiful colors, too.

The guacamole, the tables, but everything else, too.

JOSIE: Yes.

Mexicans, we have so many colors in our surrounding environments.

Colors makes us a happy people, and we are always surrounded by food, colors, artistic handcrafts.

So I wanted to bring that to Washington.

DC means, in Spanish, yes, say yes.

And then "Corazon" is basically translated, "Say yes, my love."

So I thought it was an appropriate name, and some people guess the DC Corazon.

Some people say, "Oh, DC because of DC," but it's both.

I love the city, and it says that we are here making everything with love for everybody to come and enjoy.

SETH: Well, it's clear how much love goes into everything that you do in the kitchen, and what an incredible dish.

So worth it.

Thank you again, Josie.

Really appreciate it.

JOSIE: Thank you, Seth.

SETH: Hey.

JOSIE: Thank you.

SETH: Cheers.

JOSIE: And cheers.