4 Levels of Chips & Guacamole: Amateur to Food Scientist

[Music] i'm jerry and i'm a level one chef i'm daniel and i'm a level two chef hi i'm saul i've been a professional chef for the past 20 years [Music] so today i'm going to be making some chips with bacon guacamole and it's really easy you could be gnashing on some chips and guac in 30 minutes or less we're gonna make homemade tortilla chips and guacamole that is nice and chunky with a little bit of a kick today i'm making pomegranate mango pineapple chicharron guacamole and it's going to be amazing just like everything i make but i don't believe in myself who will [Music] first we're gonna get started on our chips today we're gonna be using white corn tortillas we're gonna slice them into eight little wedges i'm going to start by making my own chips with corn tortillas and i'm going to fry by myself can you imagine that i'm going to bake because honestly i'm a beginner i don't trust myself around a frying pan super easy process all you need are some corn tortillas i'm taking the tortillas cutting them in half and cutting them in half again so i have something that's like this size first i'm going to start with the jicama sticks basically what a jicama is a vegetable root it tastes like a mix of potato apple and pear all i'm going to do is zest the slime into a small bowl i'm going to add a good amount of salt so we're going to get started with our lime i just got one of these lime juicers recently and it has completely changed my life and now i'm gonna make sticks right i wanted to be like half inch a quarter of an inch so this is thick enough and this is when it becomes stick like a french fry and that'll be your stick for your guacamole how do we keep this nice and crispy ice bath and we're gonna mix this with some avocado oil and i'm gonna spread this evenly across all of our tortilla chips so for my other chip i'm using a plantain we call this the mexico platano macho so i'm going to cut the edges here we are going to put our fingers maybe in a quarter of an inch and kind of cut it through through that side now we're just going to cut it over here to help remove the skin and voila wanna grab a mandolin should i close my eyes i know it's pretty crazy but i'm a professional i'm a professional i'm a professional everybody keeps saying that and there you have it a plantain oil is hot one little tester in there see how it goes and can i just dump it in there and if you see a lot of bubbles the more bubbles you see the hotter it is just do it one by one we're gonna mix some sea salt now into this little tray here smoked paprika isn't really that spicy it's just gonna give kind of like a smoky salty added flavor thing i'm gonna set them on a wire rack to cool and also that allows the extra oil to kind of drain out of there look at that super easy took like less than a minute we're gonna power through these so nice and good that's what we're looking for i'm gonna wait for this batch to finish then turn like keep adding more all right so our chips are ready to go into the oven i've preheated it at 350 degrees follow me now as i'm taking these out of the oil while they're still hot and warm i'm gonna start seasoning them with my lime and salt mixture so not too too much but just enough to kind of give them a nice coating the oil will absorb the salt and the salt will stay longer so my chips have been in the oven for seven minutes now and it's time to get them flipped so the other chip that i'm using for my guacamole is chicharron basically it's a pork skin and this has been dehydrated for more than eight hours i'm going to defry this and this i'm gonna use this as my plate no one wants to wait to eat chips and guac they want them now okay that's it can't wait any longer and this is what a chicharron should look like and should sound like the sound of happiness all right so our chips are flips we're gonna get them back in that 350 degree oven and we're gonna cook them for another seven minutes i'm just gonna give them one last hit with the lime and salt mixture easy chips are done i'm gonna get to work on my mixins i'm going to start with a serrano chili now i don't want my guacamole to be like crazy hot like i'm not using habanero peppers here this is just enough and i like the flavor on this and i think one is one is just fine i'm going to grill the pineapple elm because i want to add some char to my to my dish when you do this make sure you cut like a nice piece of thick skin so you don't have those slots in here no one likes to eat those i got to tell you never confident about my knife skills but i'm getting better every day i'm gonna cut the onion i know a lot of people use white onions for their guacamole i just prefer sweet onions in general daniel please i'm just one colorway man one text you're like hey dude i'm all about like a little bit of i don't know brightness in my meal so it's sweet onions for me but again daniel do what makes you happy buddy half of the onion also goes into the blender our pineapple is ready so i want it to be a medium size it's just like cooking steak make sure you have enough salt pepper on both sides and then just grill it that's the sound of delicious guacamole so i'm gonna add our pieces of bacon in there now i think you can use as much or as little as you want while this is cooking we're gonna start with our tomato we're gonna dice this up into small little dices next is lime little just squeeze the lime juice in here if you're cooking something on your grill for your friends once three minutes once three minutes that's it you got these beautiful marks you look like a rockstar last but not least cilantro so i want to take i would say maybe like a third of a cup all this gets blended up very simple we have this beautiful pineapple little dice for my guacamole my guacamole is going to be chunky yeah i know chunky like you chef yeah chunky like me i love onions onions always add a nice just kick to anything i eat i got two roma tomatoes here i'm basically just gonna dice these down leaving the seeds in so let's do this fast because when the restaurant business everything has to be fast there we go grilled pineapple for my guacamole i think i'd be open to having fruit in my guacamole i myself am deathly afraid of spicy things but i'm not afraid of jalapenos hot tip you want to make sure you get no seeds in this if you're not a spicy person that's what makes it spicy all right so let's start with the mango it's going to add the sweetness that i'm looking for little dices on my guacamole i've had a lot of people give me tips and tricks on how to like deal with garlic the one i found that works the best just cut the ends and it'll help you get that skin off beautiful mango now limes this is how you get a lot of juice out of your limes you squeeze the crap out of them now i want to use my hands but since we're here in america we're going to use this because we make everything easier here wow welcome to bacon city all right so now habanero i was looking for a really hot pepper that will stay away from the jalapeno and serrano which are very normal to use on the guacamole so i want it to be something really spicy now let's do some onions i'm using white because it has more bite to it so our bacon is set let's get into these avocados now on to the fun stuff this is a dominican avocado now it is not the traditional avocado used for guacamole but i kind of want to try them out today yes this midi is huge but it has too much liquid i think they'll be just fine we have four haas avocados today why has because hass is universally the best avocado to use for guacamole how do you choose the best avocado kind of just go around you kind of push it down a bit and if it is a little bit of a give i think that's perfect okay you mind someone grab it you'll be like oh i want to make sure you're right you're good for me right you don't do that to somebody why you do that to the avocado also not very green it's pretty dark it's pretty brown it's pretty ready i remove this part and when i do that you see the color the yellow this means that this avocado it's perfect if it's too brown that's that you have a really ripe avocado and if it's too green it needs more now this pit looks pretty ready to come out but if it wasn't knife again right to the top takes the pit out for you i'm gonna rip the seed out see you later seed you're welcome we want to cut it into dice so you have to be gentle and careful i'll do it fast because i'm a professional but these they feel a little different when i try this a little bit they're almost like a little sweet i kind of like this okay perfect i think we're all in good hands now we're almost ready to make the best guacamole you ever see in your entire life to mash up these avocados we're gonna use a good old potato masher i like using a whisk personally a whisk is perfect because everything can easily fall off of it and it's got a bigger surface area let's begin with our mexican blender i have two types of molcajetes here obviously this is from a machine it comes from a machine because it's almost perfect we're not gonna use this today so what i'm gonna use molcajete from a volcano rock this is a texture i'm looking for if you want to make it smoother than this go for it but i'm happy this looks good to me notice again i don't want an overly creamy guacamole this still has some big chunks in it now i'm going to start throwing stuff in here i've got aroma tomatoes diced onions going next so we start with the onions a little bit of salt smashing them i don't want you to eat my guacamole and have a chunk of onion i'm gonna add my jalapenos and i'm gonna add my garlic everything looks good here mexican oregano it's got sort of like a citrusy lemon flavor to it and this is chili powder which will give it a little bit of a kick i don't want to add too much let's just start mixing this together now i'm going to add some cilantro now let's model this thing too because i want to get the flavors out of the cilantro now i'm going to start scooping some of this serrano chili onion cilantro into the base of my guacamole and mix that in now all we have left to add to our guacamole is our cilantro and lime juice and we're just gonna juice one and a half limes i like to be generous with the salt i don't know i feel like chef frank he taught me about the the importance of salting your food now let's add the avanero yes for me so i'm just gonna add two pieces so now you have cilantro the avanero and this is how the aztec used to do this now this is definitely gonna stir the pot a little bit white beans they've just been something that i've been throwing in my guacamole lately because like i said i like a hearty chunky guacamole i know people are going to fight me on this vincent guacamole i don't know about how i feel about that no it doesn't bother me for some reason i would like beans in my guacamole god damn it i love you man the last thing i'm going to add um is more cilantro i am going to dice this up nice and small so we have this paste now now the avocado we dice it that way because we want chunky avocado so now i'm going to smash this a little bit even though the consistency is not as chunky and thick as you would get with a haas avocado i think these avocados worked great look at this oh my gosh now we're going to add the fruits so now i'm going to add a little bit of mango a little bit of pineapple and pomegranate yes pomegranate look at this beauty and now it's going to be lime tight i know pomegranate sits on your guacamole that's right this guacamole is full of surprises i think it's going to need salt before i try that's it doesn't need anything else one of the most important things that i always tell my cooks and my wife and everybody that goes with me it's presentation i'm gonna try to avoid getting any guac splash outside of the center of the glass and look it's nice and chunky so let's start with the chicharron i'm going to use this as a plate so i'm just going to put it right in the middle see that's already crazy now we are going to scoop this on a rustic kind of way see it looks yummy already so you can see these chips are nice and golden brown they're also very crisp and we're just gonna circle around our guacamole the garnish for this is gonna be super simple i like radishes i think the color looks gorgeous all you need is a couple little slices to make it look nice man this looked so much easier online a little bit of pineapple now we're gonna add some mango spread out our chips a little bit we're going to add this right on top just like that just a mountain of crumble these little disks super small but they look really cute i'm just going to put them in the top up here bang and this this is going to be the rock star of the dish the pomegranates oh my gosh this looks beautiful now we're at some queso fresco queso fresco basically it's very similar to a ricotta but a little bit more on the firm size last and never least are lime wedges last but not least i always like to hit it with one last squeeze of lime i'm gonna do a squeeze of lime over everything cilantro macho now this is a normal cilantro you normally find this everywhere this you don't find anywhere you have to know a guy like i know a guy i love to use this because it has more flavor there's more right plantain chips now we're gonna make some rome and we're gonna have some jicama sticks and this is my chips and guac and this is my chips and guacamole and this is my chips in guacamole moment of truth let's see how this is doing the crunch between the bacon and the chip is really satisfying the texture is different from normal guacamole that i'm used to but it's like lighter a little airier i'm going to keep eating until they tell me to stop it's everything you want in a guacamole spicy sweet you're eating the chicharron is just crunching it's like eating potato chips or crunchy you chew into the pomegranate what's going on this is just something out of this world you're welcome chips and guacamole are perfect together they make the best snack starter or even stand-alone meal let's see what each of our three chefs did with theirs jerry and daniel both used store-bought corn tortillas cut and seasoned these tortillas are made from wet milled corn that goes through a process called nyxtamilization corn is steeped in an alkaline solution of calcium hydroxide also called lime the alkaline solution softens the cell walls and allows proteins in the corn to bind together after steeping the corn is stone ground and needed this results in the smooth pliable masa which then gets made into tortillas delicious yeah saul made jicama sticks as another vehicle for dipping the jicama plant is a vine that can grow 20 feet or more it's persistently crunchy due to crosslinks of phenolic compounds in the cell walls that increase strength and stability i know it's different but it's delicious all three of our chefs use various chili peppers to add a unique flavor and heat to their guacamole the spicy pungencies of chilies come from compounds called capsaicinoids that are synthesized by the seeds and cells on the surface of the pale spongy ribs or placenta inside the chili spiciness is rated in scoville units which is based on an alcohol extraction of the capsaicinoids jerry used jalapenos which are small deep green with a shiny appearance because they're usually harvested young they range from 3 500 to 8 000 scoville units and taste a little fruity and grassy daniel used serrano peppers they look and taste a lot like jalapenos but they're a little longer and thinner their heat is a little bit delayed but is very powerful as it ranges from 10 000 to 23 000 scoville units the glock will be nice and chunky with a little bit of a kick to it so i will use habaneros which are some of the hottest peppers grown they're small and orange and are rated one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand scoville units they're so hot that it's hard to sense anything other than the heat and beautiful orange color if you did remove the heat you might taste fruity melon-like citrus and guava notes avocados are the star of any guacamole they're extraordinary fruits in that they contain only traces of sugar and starch and are very high in fat which is why they're luscious and creamy when ripe and smashed or pureed jerry and saul used haas avocados from mexico they have a textured peel that's very dark green the flesh is lighter green sometimes as light in color as celery they're higher in fat and lower in water than other varieties making them perfect for guacamole daniel used a dominican avocado which is larger than the haas and has a smoother green peel it's much lower in fat and fiber while higher in water resulting in a flavor that's milder than the haas it's his guacamole so he make it his own way okay stay out of these people jerry used a potato masher while daniel used a whisk and fork these tools work well but saul used his beloved and traditional mochajete and tejolote to make his guacamole some say the volcanic rock also adds a flavor dimension from the various minerals that it imparts that's the best thing chips and guacamole are a perfect combination of crunchy and smooth spicy and sweet with beautiful color next time you're in the mood for this delectable dish we hope you'll take some of these tips from our three marvelous chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 1,417,052

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels of guacamole, bake tortilla chips, best guacamole, best guacamole recipe, chips and guacamole, easy guacamole, easy guacamole recipe, epi 4 levels, epicurious, epicurious 4 levels, epicurious guacamole, expert guacamole, fresh guacamole, fresh tortilla chips, fried tortilla chips, fry tortilla chips, guacamole, guacamole recipe, homemade guacamole, make guacamole, make tortilla chips, mexican guacamole, quick guacamole, saul montiel

Id: QsnrfwNYAtQ

Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021