4 Levels of Tacos: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi I'm John and I'm a level one chef I'm Lorenzo and I'm a level two chef my name is Kelvin and I've been a chef for 12 years I make your fish about every other reading you could turn your taco dinner into a fun little taco party how often I make tacos how many Tuesdays are in a month Taco Tuesdays big at my house and if you're not making fresh tortillas you're not doing it right turn my oven on my little table top oven here now you could use this type of skillet I'm using a cast iron skillet it's a great opportunity to add a great crisp outer texture and I actually like to make my tacos with ground turkey the ground beef that I always use is a mixture of 80/20 which means 80 lean and 20 fat because the fat makes it I use rib eyes that are ground beef because I think it's important that every bite of the taco you're gonna taste the meat we're gonna Brown our ground turkey and I don't use any oil or anything it has enough fat in this but this is a nonstick put a little bit olive oil you making sure that we're using an oil that's not gonna overpower the flavor of the steak so we're gonna head a little bit of kosher salt ground pepper so this taco recipe might be not very traditional Mexican I think so this is something that growing up my mom Louise Chinese made there's the meat all entire growing up but these tacos would definitely need quite a bit this is the part that's very familiar with people this is what everybody does you know that's the beauty of cooking is you can do whatever you want you need to let it sit on the keys push it down when you're cooking a steak I'm gonna leave it alone let its work its magic you don't want it to just boil it's great something's gonna wait for it to get a whiter color and you'll know your ground chuck he's done when there's no more pink left it's a pretty easy metric this is what we're looking for you know that beautiful golden brown this is that first layer of flavor all right let's flip this over break it up to make it look like it's actually top of me the turkey created a little bit of juice and I keep it in there I think it's tasty I don't know we're gonna drain this a little bit cuz we don't want all that there oh it's yummy we're gonna start adding our next layer of flavor I'm using fresh rosemary fresh thyme and add the butter in stages so in case the pan is too hot it's not gonna burn your butter right away let's put a little bit of oil I put red pepper flakes in everything onions hello I'm not entirely sure what in taco seasoning mix but I just trust it on the label because you're gonna make Stacey Tucker's cayenne pepper chili powder that's my cream in cornstarch want to take the oil and the butter mix and you're gonna pour it right over the steak if case we missed any spots on the state we're gonna guarantee carmelization all over as the brown and the seasoning I add in about a can of just simple red tomato sauce so the water is good at all so combined with the corn stalks that we had in our copper seasoning so now that's hopko sauce that we're creating well actually kind of be thick enough but it's gotta get here to the meat it's not gonna be lost dripping down your plate this is an optional ingredient that I like to and I'm just some red kidney beans sometimes I do sometimes I don't that being said if you have issues with gas skip the beets when checking for Douglass I like to poke the steak or so now at this point we're gonna remove the state and let it rest and voila the meat is complete while we're letting our meat rest Simon move on to the toppings I like to make just a vegetable make sure that I'll put on top of my tacos this is gonna be my pico de gallo folks if you wanted to make guac with this for toppings we're using fresh guacamole and a pineapple pico de gallo everybody makes wakka moly different I like to use some of the same ingredients I have in my pico de gallo right into my guacamole so we're gonna cut the same ingredients I'm using vine ripe tomatoes you can use any tomatoes you want as mr. firm from Tomatoes I do like to take the seeds out this is gonna prevent my cuacamole and pico de gallo not to be so liquidy I'm making Pico I'm not making salsa and just a simple dice nothing too crazy here not trying to impress me : really everything is diced everything is diced through the small little cube white onion or red onion diced white onion I choose red on your color contrast when we put that on top of the guacamole it's gonna look beautiful so lunch on show a lot of people ask me am I supposed to use a stamp of course it's the same thing it's as good as the leaves and I don't enjoy the texture of the stem so I'm just gonna remove the leaves don't know the proper way to cut a cucumber but this is how I do it quarters and then right down the middle sometimes pieces will I do garlic we're gonna microplane it in Vincent so basically as funny as possible guys gonna get that nice garlic flavor throughout and you're not gonna get a piece of garlic that's gonna be overpowering and bitter when you taste it jalapeno the seeds add a little bit more heat and just taking it out some people just can't take it I want to make sure we cut this jalapeno as fine as possible and once in a blue you'll get a nice little kick and then hello if he is like if you press it in and it doesn't bounce back it's over right my weapon of choice is a potato masher I'm just scoring it you guys so we're looking for a nice creamy texture then I had some kosher salt bring out all the flavor blind you get out a lot more than this double use about a full line and keeps the avocado fresh and now the most important part is to taste and if it makes you dance you're right on pineapple GameChanger adding a little bit of that pineapple is gonna give you a real nice freshness to this dish main ingredient to this because egg is pineapple so we want to make sure that it is pineapple heavy I'm actually gonna wrap things up with the last couple toppings iceberg lettuce I'm just gonna do nice simple dice here nothing too fancy now that my veggie mixture is complete just gonna give it a nice little mix and there you have it beautiful veggie mix to put on top of my taco meat next is Mike cheese oh I know it's easy to buy those packs that are already shredded but they taste and this Mexican cheese blend store-bought cheddar so these are my taco shells and they're store-bought takes us over they some other workout taco shells and tortillas yes I did say two different types I like using both we're gonna do some fresh tortilla we're using masa which is basically corn flour salt is very important this is the only opportunity to season the tortilla I put them in the oven or the toaster for just a quick couple of seconds get some extra crunchy if you leave them in the tough toaster oven for too long they get brown and will ignite like a ball of fire so watch them with your life we're gonna add one cup of warm water consistency that you're looking for when making fresh tortilla it's almost like playdough consistency if you can remember what that feels like here's our dough time to let it rest for about 10 minutes I'm literally just I'm just warming it through I add a little bit of sour cream as my paste that holds basically my hard shell once I start cooking the tortillas we're gonna hold them in between this cloth and a plate once we start stacking them up the steam is gonna cook the tortilla throughout wedged limes that I had I am actually gonna use these to hold my that's cool come on now people like what I roll them into little golf balls here we have a tortilla press so we're gonna set this ball right in the middle we're not gonna put too much pressure which is gonna let the tortilla press do its job you're literally only gonna cook it for about 40 seconds on each side we're gonna hide it right underneath so the cloth is being used as a warmer right now so while we stack up all the tortillas on top of it it's gonna completely finish cooking the tortilla from the inside just got these puppies out of the oven and they are just the way that I like them and now the best part we're going to assemble our tacos so have our taco shells here if you remember this was ground turkey so the best tortillas are the ones that are the bottom grab a ribeye I like to start with the cheese first then I go to the meat wow that smells really then we have some of our veggie mixture we're gonna add our beautiful creamy guacamole right in the center go back to the cheese now I go to a little bit of [Music] Mexican blend cheese it looks really good guys know visually that the taco looks stunning [Music] moment of truth time to dig in let's try out these tacos what makes you dance you did good that's exactly how I remember my tacos all wasted John use ground turkey Lorenza use ground beef and Calvin cooked and cubed ribeye steak kind of like to show off a little bit these meats are mussels composed of protein fat and water as meat cooks the water holding capacity of the muscle proteins decreases in the fat melts protein molecules that are bound to water will uncoil in aggregate and push water out of the structure this causes the meat to shrink in size lose juiciness and tenderness and become dry John chose ground turkey which is a lean cut of meat lean cuts have less fat and fewer flavor compounds than high fat cuts I used to do ground beef but I switched over to Turkey when I became an adult Lorenzo chose ground beef with 20 percent fat this can be believed by exposing ground beef to heat the fat renders or melts and pulls around the beef this allows the meat to cook in its own fat which helps to tenderize and flavor the meat this is what I do at home so Calvin pan seared ribeye steak which has fat marbled throughout the muscle this kind of meat will remain more tender than John and Lorenzo's ground meat because there is less surface area for the intramuscular fat to liquefy when you sear that fat it's another layer of flavor John added tomato sauce to help return moisture and use store-bought taco seasoning to add flavor it has a bunch of stuff in there that I don't know what it is but it's really tasty Lorenzo mixed his own taco seasoning that was similar to John's store-bought blend little pepper for the baby Lorenzo included starch which will increase the viscosity of the meat mixture or else all the yummy goodness is gonna go away Calvin basted his ribeye with butter and fresh herbs for a rich in earthy flavor layers of flavors are the most important things when you're cooking John chopped and mixed vegetables to top his taco Tomatoes sometimes Chiquita cut but we all persevere Lorenzo made pizza the guy outs everything he didn't go optimally but it's not matched and Calvin used a combination of guacamole in pineapple pico de gallo game-changer the pineapple in Calvin's pico de gallo added a layer of sweetness that complemented the savory flavors in the taco good pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain bromelain helps with the process of hydrolysis which is the breaking apart of protein molecules this is the same process that can cause a tingling sensation on the surface of your tongue when you eat raw pineapple if you want to enjoy pineapple pico de gallo without the tingling tongue sensation apply heat to the pineapple to deactivate the bromelain before incorporating it you know you can actually even grow the pineapple and then you get a little bit of smokiness in that as well John use store-bought hard shell corn tortillas which is fine Lorenzo sandwiched together store-bought hard shell and soft corn tortillas and Calvin crafted homemade corn tortillas and if you're not making fresh tortillas you're not doing it right I don't know if that's actually true but the form used in tortillas has been processed using nixtamalization which is the traditional process that cooks corn in an alkaline or high pH solution nixtamalization improves the flavor of the corn and decreases the concentration of mycotoxin an unsafe fungus present in many plants the alkalinity provided by nixtamalization also increases the nutritional value of the corn the nixtamalization and cooked to create the tortillas that john and lorenzo used wallah or ground into masa flour like Calvin used to be perfect Calvin hydrated the masa flour and press the dough into rounds to form tortillas and toasted them in a skillet then he stacked and wrapped the tortillas in a kitchen towel steaming them to make them soft and pliable our chefs layered their ingredients strategically to ensure each ingredient was present in a single bite of their taco that's what I'm gonna do John spooned his meat mixture into the bottom of the taco shell meat sauce he topped the meat with chopped veggies sour cream and finished with a sprinkle of shredded cheese both store-bought pretty available the acidity and the sour cream will balance out the flavor of the alkaline corn tortilla exactly how they're supposed to taste when I make them Lorenza wormed his soft corn tortilla he slaughtered on sour cream and nestled the hard taco shell into the sour cream covered soft taco shell to double up on tortilla textures pre-prepared taco shells he then sprinkled on cheese added the beef mixture and topped it with shredded lettuce iceberg lettuce is the number one pico de gallo cilantro and hot sauce Lorenzo's layered tortillas contains the ingredients in the taco and kept them from spilling onto the plate nothing fell not a darn thing fell Kalvin served his taco open-faced style this is more like an appetizer style he spooned the steak over the steamy tortillas then he topped the steak with homemade guacamole pineapple pico de gallo and cilantro the guacamole that Calvin used added a creamy layer to the taco from small pieces of avocado which I like to see it's gonna add another layer of section this is a good alternative to the sour cream that john and lorenzo used because the guacamole will provide an interesting textural contrast to the other components in the taco while creating an enrobing mouthfeel to me touch is very important tacos are an easy meal to make at home I would say it's job well done if I do say so myself you can go simple like John or step up your game like Lorenzo or Calvin hello spice up your next Taco Tuesday with the ingredients that are right for you

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 8,000,329

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Id: Os7CAOoEvvc

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 27 2019