today's episode is sponsored by cheese
it snapped cheese it snapped are the
thin crispy cheesy snacks that take your
lunch to the next level making you
question all your previous chip
purchases if you want to find out how
jess and i level up our lunch on set
with the help of cheese's snapped
cheddar sour cream and onion find out on
the cheezit youtube channel the link is
in the video description
[Music]
all right so cali style burritos can
take many shapes but the most classic
form starts with carne asada the
marinade for which starts with a quarter
cup of vegetable oil and two tablespoons
of soy sauce then we need the juice of
two limes preferably harvested as
showboating as possible and additionally
the juice of three oranges and here's
where your showboatiness can get you
into trouble yes i know that what i'm
doing looks really cool and professional
but it's not and while you think you
might be impressing your significant
other operating bee cam you're actually
just wasting time once you got all them
orange juices into the bowl we're also
adding two tablespoons of brown sugar
two teaspoons of ground cumin quarter
teaspoon cayenne pepper and a half
teaspoon each mexican oregano and
paprika and a healthy helping of fresh
garlic four cloves all told four cloves
lightly smashed with the wide side of a
chef's knife then the most controversial
ingredient at least in my house half a
cup of packed cilantro leaves lightly
chopped then we just need a solid
tablespoon each kosher salt freshly
ground black pepper and this guy is
ready to be tiny whisked together and
put to good use marinating our steak
specifically two pounds of flank hanger
or skirt steak i'm going with flank no
matter which steak you go with we're
treating it the stain we're starting by
cutting off any excess fat from the
exterior of the steak if you've got a
flank steak you might want to cut it in
half lengthwise to make it into more
mouth-appropriate sized pieces then
we're slicing nice and thin across the
grain it's very important to slice
across the grain otherwise you're going
to end up with long chewy strips of beef
inside your burrito by keeping our
muscle fibers nice and short the beef is
going to stay tender pretty much no
matter how we cook it especially once
it's been marinated for at least four
hours add all the steak to a bowl or zip
top bag pour the marinade over top make
sure to spill just a little bit to
remind yourself that you're human and
you make mistakes and that's okay press
all the excess air out of the bag zip it
up tight and toss this guy in the fridge
for at least 4 hours and up to 24
massaging every few hours to ensure even
distribution of the marinade while this
guy's chilling out we can start talking
sauces of which there are many first up
a super simple roasted tomatillo salsa
or salsa verde for which we're obviously
gonna need some tomatillos which are
pretty easy to prep we just gotta pull
off all this husky stuff off the outside
and maybe give them a little rinse to
remove any excess sticky residue once
rinsed and patted dry i'm gonna start by
cutting off the tough stem thing
chopping the tomatillos into halves or
quarters arranging them on a broiler
safe rimmed baking sheet tossing them
with a little bit of neutral flavored
oil like vegetable or canola and in
addition to half a small onion that i'm
gonna cut into quarters we're tossing
these guys under the broiler for three
to five minutes until they just start to
pick up some color and blister and steam
once they've cooled off for a few
minutes we're tossing them into the bowl
of a blender where we're gonna combine
it with one small jalapeno stem removed
and cut in half the juice of two limes
that we've hopefully cut a little bit
more responsibly about a quarter cup of
fresh cilantro and a generous sprinkle
of kosher salt to taste then we're going
to go ahead and pulse and blend this
together until it is a relatively smooth
but still chunky salsa verde you can go
ahead and chill this out until ready to
use but like the other salsas make sure
that it is at room temperature before
you serve it after all no one likes a
chili burrito next up a super simple
salsa roja pretty much the same
procedure but with five or six roma
tomatoes or the tomatoes of your choice
half a small onion cut in quarters one
small jalapeno that you can broil or not
but this time we're also gonna add a
couple cloves of fresh garlic drizzle
and toss everybody with a little bit of
oil broil for three to five minutes
until we get some nice color and then
once again we are headed into the
blender or food processor to homogenize
once again we are adding the juice of
two limes a handful of cilantro and some
salt as they say to taste blend until
relatively smooth but chunky and there
you have it salsa roja pretty much just
pico de gallo that you could drink with
a straw if you tried really really hard
likewise cover it up and keep it cold
until you're ready to use it but bring
it to room temperature before you serve
last but most assuredly not least is a
simple guacamole which we've made five
or six thousand times on this show so
i'm just gonna kind of breeze through it
harvest the flesh of five or six
guacamole eggs aka avocados add half a
small finely chopped red onion three or
four cloves of crushed and chopped
garlic the juice of two extra juicy
limes one jalapeno veins stems and seeds
removed finely chopped and of course a
generous helping of the devil's lettuce
about a half cup of chopped cilantro
making it official that i'm not going to
be able to eat virtually any aspect of
this burrito season to taste with kosher
salt freshly ground black pepper give it
the traditional mashed together by a
fork to your desired consistency and
there you have it as classic and
beautiful as ever there was a guacamole
which we're gonna fridge by pressing
plastic wrap directly down onto the
surface of the guacamole to prevent
discoloration next and last it's time to
talk about the starch for our burrito
the cali style version of which famously
uses french fries instead of rice or
beans now of course you can go out and
just buy some french fries from your
local french fry retailer but if and you
want to make your own here's how i like
to do it starting with four or five
large yukon gold potatoes that i'm going
to slice into french fry like shapes
somewhere halfway between shoestring and
fish and chips so just kind of average
sized then we're bringing these to a
boil in about two quarts of heavily
salted water with a little spike of
vinegar about a tablespoon this is gonna
help the fries retain their shape while
they cook because we want these fries to
be thoroughly par-cooked about 8-10
minutes until they're almost falling
apart then we're removing them spreading
them out on a rim baking sheet and
allowing them to cool completely before
beginning the frying process which we're
gonna do in batches and some 375 degree
fahrenheit oil frying for three to five
minutes until golden brown and crisp
removing onto some paper towels set in a
rim baking sheet where they're gonna
drain and get heavily salted while still
warm so that the salt adheres now if
you're making these in advance of
assembling your burrito obviously
they're not gonna stay hot so you can
either refry them or toss them into a
convection oven or air fryer for a few
minutes before serving to crisp them up
now finally we can discuss the man of
the hour the tortilla for cali style
burritos you need big big tortillas
which are dastardly difficult to make at
home so you're best off just going to
your favorite taco shop and begging them
to sell you some which they generally
will especially if you're a grown man
and you start to cry once you've
procured your burrito wrappers by any
means necessary we're going to toast
them up on each side in a dry ripping
hot cast iron skillet for about one to
two minutes per side until they're just
starting to brown and bubble and then
we're gonna keep them warm stacked
together and wrapped up in a clean
kitchen towel which should keep them
nice and pliable once everybody's been
toasted we're adding some oil to our
ripping hot skillet and starting to drop
in our steak try to shake off as much of
the excess marinade as possible and fry
up in batches so as to not overcrowd the
steak so we can make sure that we get
some nice browning on the exterior once
your steak has a nice crust on the
outside but still lovely and pink in the
middle we can remove and at long last
begin assembly i'm going to start by
chopping up the steak a little bit more
into even further bite-sized pieces and
then into the lower third quadrant of
the tortilla i'm laying down a base of
guacamole followed by a generous
sub-level of sour cream then i'm adding
a few handfuls of my freshly crisped
french fries then of course our steak
and finally a generous helping of
monterey jack cheese and now for the
tricky bit the rolling our objective
here is basically to tuck in the sides
of the burrito first then start rolling
from the bottom up taking care to keep
the sides of the tortilla tucked in
flush with the width of the burrito
which should in theory yield a
self-contained handheld lunch or munchy
solution which is ready to be toasted
one last time it's both going to make
sure that everything's hot and that the
cheese is melted and also seal the
burrito shut once this process is
complete it's ready to slice in half and
serve with our salsas now as i mentioned
before there's a whole lot of cilantro
in this burrito so i need to call upon
my official burrito taste tester jess
whose love of cilantro and having lived
in california for four years makes her
an ideal candidate and i'm happy to say
that the thing passed with flying colors
her only and extremely valid complaint
being that i didn't toast the burrito
long enough so that the cheese didn't
melt properly so both for the sake of
her taste buds and for the thumbnail for
this video i whipped up another one
really gave it the business on the
skillet and finally got that burrito
cross section of my dreams which jess
proceeded to aggressively taste test
today's episode was sponsored by
cheez-it snapped thin crispy and cheesy
cheez-it snapped pair well with any kind
of sandwich and the cheez-it-snapped
cheddar sour cream and onion flavor
pairs especially well with the turkey
root i made for my episode of what's for
lunch head over to the cheez-it youtube
channel now to see how jess and i took
our lunch to the next level the link is
in the video description
[Music]
you