[kitchen music]
[upbeat music]
- Hi, I'm Brad, and I'm a level one chef.
- I'm Gabrielle and I'm a level two chef.
- I am Saul, and I'm a level three chef.
[upbeat music]
- I like burritos because
you're holding it in your hand.
It's that cool tactile response
of eating something whole
which really hits that weird
reptilian part of your brain.
- You can fill it with all
of your favorite things,
which is what I plan to do today.
- When is a good time to make burritos?
Every time, all the time. [laughing]
[metallic clanging]
- For my protein, I'm gonna be doing eggs.
Scrambled eggs are slop.
The best way to capture slop is a burrito.
- I'm gonna be using short ribs today.
They're fatty and they
have a ton of flavor
and they're really juicy.
- I'm going to make my burrito
with Mexican sausage, chorizo,
and some hanger steak.
- First, we will crack the
eggs into a large bowl.
A little bit of salt.
I'm gonna whisk 'cause eggs have beautiful
and complex membranes and you
want to destroy all of them.
- First thing we're gonna
do is sear our short ribs.
So first season them
with some salt and pepper
on all the sides.
- I'm gonna grab this
nice chorizo that you guys
got for me, cut the bind.
We're gonna throw a
little bit of oyster oil.
- Oil.
- I'm gonna throw
the chorizo in it.
[chorizo sizzling]
So that's what you wanna hear,
that [hissing] sear on it.
- I'm going to sear the three
sides, put them in there.
- We're going to put in some
butter, then add the egg.
I like where it's like
moist but not goopy goopy.
If it looks like a mashed-up omelet,
I think I'm doing it right.
- Set these on a tray over here to rest.
At this point, I've
reduced my heat by a lot.
Pour in a dark beer of your choice,
and then I'm gonna go ahead
and start deglazing my pan,
which is my favorite fancy cooking term
for scraping all the crap off the bottom.
- I like eating chorizo
because it's something
that I grew up eating, so
that makes me you know,
feel like I'm home.
- I'm going to put in
my fire roasted tomatoes, my tomato paste,
brown sugar, put in my
chipotle chilis. [laughing]
I almost dropped them.
- Great
so this is getting close.
- I'm just gonna grab the steak
right now and cut it into small pieces.
I want to use all the fat from the chorizo
to cook the steak.
A little bit of canola oil.
- My favorite ingredient
is the tamarind paste!
It's a little bit like a date,
but it has a little more
potency and kick to it.
Roasted garlic, allspice!
Cinnamon, some thyme and a bay leaf,
little bit of orange zest, beef stock.
- And I'm gonna add the steak.
Make sure that I spread it,
and then it gets nice seared.
Even if you overcook it, still not dry.
- I know when it's done when
it looks almost not done.
So that's when you take it off.
Because it will continue to cook.
- All right, I'm putting my short ribs in.
These are gonna be in here
for about four to five hours.
Depending on how long you can
resist [laughing] eating them.
- That's it.
I'm gonna turn this off.
I'm not cooking the meat all the way
because I don't want
that to be really dry.
That's how I cook it.
- All right, my eggs are done.
Now for the fillings.
We're gonna slice the avocado.
What do I like about an avocado?
I'm a Millennial so I've
been taught I have to, and...
It's good fat!
- I have a really,
really flavorful meat,
so I tried to keep it
pretty simple with my fillings.
Little bit of oil.
So I'm gonna start with
my caramelized onions.
I want my onions to basically sweat off
some of that acidity and get really sweet.
- Spanish onion, regular
cilantro, chicharron.
What it is, is a pork skin
who has been dehydrated
and then fried, so it's
just like potato chips.
- Cilantro adds both some
pop, and a talking point.
Like if you are making
burritos for friends,
and you're like, "Hey,
do you want cilantro?"
Then boom, there's a conversation.
- As you can tell, they are
a totally different color,
and a totally different texture.
Next up are my pinto beans.
A really great way to turn pinto beans
into something that's
a little more exciting
and has a little more
texture to it is basically
just by adding a can of
refried beans into them.
- This is cheddar cheese.
- Cheddar cheese.
- I like cheddar because
it's most often in my fridge.
- Oaxaca cheese, Mexican mozzarella.
It's a little bit sharper
and more creamier.
- For my cheese I'm using queso fresco.
It's just gonna add a nice creaminess
to the inside of my burrito.
And for my rice, I went
with a basic white rice.
And I added in some chopped up cilantro
because I wanted to add a
little bit of freshness.
I really wanted it to just serve
as kind of the blank canvas
for the rest of the
flavors in this burrito.
All right! My toppings are finished.
- For my sauce, I'm gonna
be creating a family recipe
passed down from generations,
it's a very complicated compote
of hot sauce and sour cream.
- I'm gonna be making a
pineapple, habanero salsa.
I cut the bottom and the top off,
and then I go around and
take off all the sides.
Probably about an inch slices
the whole way down the pineapple.
- I'm going to make two sauces today.
First I'm going to make an avocado sauce.
We're using three avocados
for one burrito. [laughing]
- Sour cream, you add some sriracha to it.
And now we have every secret sauce
at any chain restaurant
in the country. [laughing]
- Get rid of the core.
Put them in a non-stick pan.
Get that really nice
brown caramelly color.
Now I'm gonna chop 'em up.
Put everything into the food processor
and turn it into a salsa.
Put in my cilantro.
- Cilantro.
Everything on it, no wasting.
Just a little bit of onion, raw garlic,
supposed to be healthy for you.
And then we add the serrano pepper.
There's different types of peppers.
Some they're for texture, flavor.
- Diced bell pepper, minced
habanero for that extra spice
and my lime juice.
- Lime juice.
- It's gonna give a nice acidity.
It also is gonna keep the
avocado from turning black.
A little bit of salt,
a little bit of water.
- OK, we're locked and loaded.
And I'm just gonna go
ahead and pulse this.
You don't want it really smooth.
You want it a little bit chunky.
- We're going to blend this
until it's nice and smooth.
[blending]
Ready to go.
- Wow! [laughing]
Habanero is very fragrant.
It's a very powerful little pepper.
And here is my salsa.
- Next I'm going to make
a tres chiles sauce.
Guajillo, chile Morita,
and for heat we're using chile de arbol.
We want to remove this
part, and also the seeds.
Just throw a little bit of oil,
and then we're gonna add some Morita.
It's basically very
similar to dry chipotle.
Get it nice and toasted.
We're gonna add only two
chile de arbols, really hot.
Turn these off.
[sizzing]
Just add the water.
This will make the pepper softer.
So we're just gonna let
it boil a little bit
and then we're gonna remove them.
So here you have the peppers.
Then we're gonna add the onion.
Little bit of oil.
[sizzling]
I'm also gonna add some
salt, make the onions sweat.
Clean the tomatillos.
It's like the bearded cousin
of the tomato. [laughing]
And then plum tomatoes.
They're a little bit sweeter
than the other tomatillos.
Some garlic here.
Cook this for 15-20 minutes.
We want to have a little
sear in all of them.
Looks good so far.
Now we're going to add
all of these to a blender.
Chilis, vinegar, some salt.
[blending]
I think it's ready!
Tres chiles salsa.
- And now
let's prep my tortilla.
I'm using a traditional
flour tortilla.
- Flour tortilla.
If you want to fold it,
you gotta have that flour.
- Getting them from the store,
out of a package is fine.
- I'm going to make the
flour tortilla from scratch.
So I'm gonna dump the flour, the salt.
Make sure the salt mixed in all the way.
Now I'm gonna add the vegetable fat.
The water little by little.
Take it out of the Robot Coupe.
Add some flour into your hands,
and then you wanna work the dough.
Dough doesn't stick to your
hands, that means it's ready.
Now you let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
The longer you let it sit,
the softer it will become.
First I'm gonna make
sure it's nice and round.
Just like you're making a pizza.
Normally a burrito you will
use a 12" flour tortilla.
I think that's it.
- I'm gonna warm it up.
- [Gabrielle] Put a little
heat on the stove top.
- Circle goes in here.
- I'm just trying to get
it warm on both sides.
- [Saul] You see the
bubbles, start coming up?
- And if it does brown
a little bit, that's OK.
If it puffs up a little bit, that's OK.
You just don't want to burn it.
- We don't want to cook it all the way
'cause we want to keep
it nice and flexible
so we can roll the burrito.
- My tortilla is warm,
let's put this together.
First spread the sauce every which way.
Kinda leave room for the edges
because we're gonna be folding it.
- The moment of truth, let's see.
Oh my God, it smells so
good, I'm so excited!
I like to start with the rice
because it soaks up all the juices
and everything that's gonna be in there.
Next I'm going to do my refried beans
and pinto bean mixture.
- Then I'm gonna do
a layer of cheese.
- Cheese,
I'm gonna start with the white cheddar.
And then we're going to
add the Oaxaca cheese
Now I'm gonna take
tortilla, put it on top,
press it down to make
sure the cheese sticks,
then we're just gonna flip
it, and there you have it.
- And our avocado.
Some cilantro.
Making a burrito is a lot like jazz,
just throw it all in there.
Some beauty's gonna end up happening.
- My favorite part,
which is the short ribs!
- Gonna start with chorizo.
You have the steak.
Keep it into one side because remember
you just want to roll it.
Also don't put a lot.
- Then you add your eggs.
Oh my gosh, hey eggs, how you doin'?
We forgot about you.
- We have our caramelized
onions, queso fresco.
- Tres chiles salsa,
avocado sauce, onions,
some cilantro, [speaking
Spanish] chicharron.
- Last but not least, our
pineapple habanero salsa.
It's really important not
to overfill your burrito
because then it's gonna be
really hard to roll it up.
- Oh yeah that's got too much stuff in it.
So sometimes you overstuff your burrito.
Good news gang, just eat what's in there
until there's enough to fold it.
I don't got time for shame,
what's up Epicurious!
- I'm gonna squeeze all of this in here,
and then I'm gonna take my outer corner
and tuck it, and roll it
and, [gasping] OK, I did it.
- Now if you want to secure your burrito,
just put it back to the
pan and it will close it.
- Now you need supreme
confidence in your burrito
to cut it in half, I would
never do this at home.
But I kinda want to brag,
so I'm going to right now.
And here is my burrito.
- And here is my burrito.
- And here's my burrito.
[light music]
- All right, let's give it a try!
[vocalizing] That's pretty good!
- Oh my God, so good. [laughing]
- The best part of my job.
- Great.
- Right here.
- It's really good.
The meat's so tender!
Has a ton of flavor in it.
- The sauce has really
melded with the cheese
so it's just hitting you with some heat.
Yeah this is a great recipe.
- I can taste the crispiness
of the chicharron.
The spiciness from the
tress chiles Morita.
It's just a dream come true in a burrito.
- All three of our chefs made different
and delicious burritos.
[dramatic music]
Brad made a breakfast burrito
with scrambled eggs as his protein.
- They're easier than meat!
- Eggs cook very quickly.
The whites start to set
around 140 degrees fahrenheit,
and the yolks at 150 degrees fahrenheit.
So if you're in a hurry
and want a very high quality
protein, eggs are perfect.
Gabrielle added a complex protein
in the form of well-seasoned
beef short ribs.
She cooked them slowly, first with a sear
followed by hours of braising.
- Depending on how long you can resist
[laughing] eating them.
- Braising tenderizes meat
by converting the
connective tissue collagen
into softer gelatin.
She used beer to deglaze her pan
after searing the short ribs.
- It's a great beer.
- Saul used a combination
of hanger steak and chorizo.
Hanger steak from the
short plate of the cow
is a coarser cut of meat with
concentrated beef flavor.
Chorizo is a highly
seasoned, slightly spicy
pork-based sausage.
It's semi-cured, so it's
not as hard as cured chorizo
and requires cooking.
Saul took it out of the casing
so that it had a crumbly texture
which combined well with
the finely diced steak.
[dramatic music]
Brad kept it simple with
avocado, shredded cheddar
and chopped cilantro.
Avocado is high in
monounsaturated fatty acids
and cheddar is higher in saturated fat.
Both add to satiety
which helps keep you
fueled through the morning.
Gabrielle cooked onions
which made them sweeter
through the caramelization reaction,
balancing the slight tang
from her meat mixture.
She warmed whole pinto beans
and combined them with refried beans.
These have complex
polysaccharides like raffinose
and stachyose that can
add a creamy quality
and texture variation.
The white rice used is very neutral
and added a starchy
component to her burrito.
Saul's filling included raw onion
which is savory and crunchy
from starches that soften when heated.
He also added chicharonnes
which are seasoned,
deep fried pork skins that
are intensely crunchy.
- Just like potato chips.
- And two cheeses,
white cheddar and Oaxaca.
Oaxaca cheese has a stringy
quality like mozzarella
and melts well because
it's high in moisture.
[dramatic music]
Brad went with a simple
but delicious mixture
of sriracha and sour cream.
The sour cream decreases the
spice level of the hot sauce
by coating capsaicin
chemoreceptors on our tongue.
For her salsa, Gabrielle brought sweetness
with grilled pineapple, and
added heat from habanero chilis.
She added bright fresh
notes with her cilantro
and bell pepper, and acidity
with a squeeze of lime.
Saul made two sauces.
First he made a smooth sauce
that was mostly avocado
with a touch of lime and cilantro
to cut the high amount of fatty acids.
He then made a tres chilis sauce
that packed a spicy, smoky heat
from its three different kinds of chilis.
He also included blackened
onions and toasted peppers
which formed pyrazine compounds
that provided charred flavor.
He added tomatillos which
are acidic and sharp
and plum tomatoes, which provided umami
from their glutamic acid.
[dramatic music]
Brad and Gabrielle used
store bought flour tortillas
which are soft and stretchy
and don't break at larger sizes
like corn tortillas would.
They both lightly heated their tortillas
which increased their pliability.
Saul made his own flour tortilla
which allowed him to control
its flavor and texture.
He used a wheat based,
unbleached, all-purpose flour.
- I used to be a pizza guy so
when I decide to start
making flour tortillas,
I was like, ah, I got this.
[dramatic music]
- The rolling and structural
integrity of the burrito
makes all the difference.
You want to layer so that
favors and textures are balanced
while maximizing the ease of eating.
Brad anchored his burrito
by first spreading his sriracha
sour cream on the tortilla.
This allowed the sauce to
cover a greater surface area
than pouring it on at a later point would.
He then added his cheese,
avocado, and cilantro and eggs,
but initially overstuffed his burrito.
Overstuffing can prevent
the burrito from rolling
into a closed cylinder.
Or worse, it could cause
your tortilla to burst.
Gabrielle started her assembly with rice
then added her beans, meat,
and other ingredients.
Rice is starchy, causing
friction with the tortilla,
and helps prevent everything else
from sliding around or spilling out.
Saul's assembly was unique.
He first melted cheddar cheese
and then added the tortilla on top.
The melted cheese adhered to the tortilla
acting as a moisture barrier
and kept it from getting soggy.
Hopefully our chefs have shown you
some new tips to incorporate,
the next time you're rolling up burritos.
