Pro chef Saúl Montiel from Cantina Rooftop and home cook Jon are swapping recipes and hitting the kitchen to make a quesadilla.
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00:00 I'm sorry, chef.
00:02 I'm so, oh, I'm so sorry.
00:04 - Hi, I'm Saul.
00:06 I'm a professional chef,
00:08 and these are my $317 quesadilla ingredients.
00:12 - Hi, I'm John.
00:14 I'm a home cook,
00:15 and these are my $13 quesadilla ingredients.
00:18 So long.
00:22 - Okay, it's fine.
00:24 Could do this.
00:25 - Oh my God.
00:27 This is heirloom.
00:30 (upbeat music)
00:33 - I was planning to make with la coche,
00:35 a pasote and presum quesadillas
00:37 with salsa borracha and chapulines.
00:39 - The only word that I really picked up there
00:41 is and and with.
00:42 - Very traditional Mexican ingredients
00:44 for a very fancy quesadilla.
00:46 I was going to make tortillas from scratch
00:49 infused with chile guajillos.
00:50 - These are dried chilies,
00:51 so kind of like maybe anchos.
00:53 - I also want to use with la coche.
00:55 It's a delicacy in Mexico.
00:57 - I don't think I've ever even seen this before.
00:59 I don't know what this is.
01:00 - It's a type of corn fungus.
01:01 It's a very hard thing to grow.
01:03 It's kind of like a travels.
01:05 - It's a mushroom.
01:06 Okay, it's a mushroom.
01:06 Great.
01:07 - I was gonna make my own crema from scratch.
01:10 Some nice and spicy salsa borracha.
01:12 - Oh, tequila.
01:14 Yeah, yep.
01:15 - And top it up with some crunchy chapulines.
01:17 - Garlic grasshoppers.
01:20 Grasshoppers.
01:21 We're gonna be making grasshopper quesadillas today.
01:24 - They're salty, they're crispy, spicy,
01:27 and they're full of protein.
01:28 With John's recipe, I have ingredients
01:30 that you might find on your pantry or local grocery store.
01:33 They might be on the simpler side,
01:35 but I'm a professional
01:36 and I will make these simple ingredients better.
01:39 If I have to guess, these will all cost $13.65.
01:43 [bell dings]
01:47 [John claps]
01:49 I'm going to play the lotto today.
01:51 - So if I had to guess,
01:52 all of these ingredients would cost about $210.
01:57 - Whoa, $317?
02:00 I mean, he didn't skimp out on me.
02:02 So Chef Saul left me his recipe book,
02:06 which has a very pared down recipe
02:09 of what I'm gonna be doing today.
02:11 Oh, a little cheese.
02:13 That's the support right there.
02:15 That's what I needed.
02:16 - Enjoy the time.
02:17 Don't worry, you got this.
02:18 I know you can do this.
02:19 - So we're working on the part of the recipe
02:21 with the guajillo tortillas.
02:23 I'm assuming these are the guajillo chilies.
02:24 I called these ancho earlier.
02:26 My bad.
02:27 - You only need the skin of the guajillos.
02:29 We remove the stems, we remove the seeds.
02:31 John, whatever you do, do not touch your eyes.
02:34 - I know why I'm wearing gloves.
02:36 I didn't have the urge to touch my eyes before, but now.
02:39 Now.
02:41 - And you boil them until they're nice and soft,
02:43 like my heart.
02:44 - Okay, so these are gonna soak until they're all soft
02:47 and then I'm gonna transfer them into this bowl.
02:49 - John, give me these flour tortillas,
02:51 but I'm gonna make something new.
02:52 I'm gonna put some of these tortillas on this tray.
02:54 I'm gonna bake it in the oven at 275
02:57 until they're nice and crispy.
02:58 And then I'm going to blend it to make it into a flour.
03:01 - These are done boiling.
03:02 - And then you puree them.
03:03 So you make a guajillo puree.
03:04 My tortillas, they look nice and crispy.
03:06 (tortillas popping)
03:07 Can you hear that?
03:08 (tortillas popping)
03:09 That's the sound of flavor.
03:12 I'm gonna let this cold.
03:13 I'm gonna put all the liquid from here.
03:15 So a lot of flavor in here.
03:17 I'm gonna make this nice and smooth and fluffy.
03:20 And I'm gonna add some beans.
03:21 And I'm gonna add a little bit of texture and more flavor.
03:24 (beans clattering)
03:28 And now we're making flour.
03:29 So we're adding the liquid.
03:31 So we're not gonna stop until we see a dough.
03:33 And this is where the magic happens.
03:35 One, two, three, voila, magic.
03:39 - Never used one of these before.
03:40 I'm gonna have to put the white corn masa harina in here.
03:43 That looks serviceable.
03:44 Okay, let's throw that in there.
03:46 - Let's rig this up, lock this into place.
03:50 Should probably add some salt.
03:51 - And then add water as you go.
03:54 - Oh, it's looking good.
03:55 It's looking like a dough, a proper dough.
03:57 - As soon as you don't see any dough into your hands,
04:00 that means it's ready.
04:02 - And no residue.
04:03 There we go.
04:04 Now let's wrap it in some plastic.
04:06 - This black bean tortilla dough
04:08 has been sitting for over an hour.
04:11 Now I'm gonna make this into tortillas.
04:12 Black bean tortilla.
04:14 - It's time for me to make my tortillas.
04:16 - To prevent the dough to stick into the tortilla press,
04:19 you're gonna need two pieces of plastic.
04:21 One on the bottom, one on top.
04:22 You're gonna put the dough in between and press it.
04:25 - Ooh, that's a mighty fine looking tortilla.
04:28 - Once you have the plastic where the tortilla is,
04:30 kinda wanna put it in one hand,
04:31 and then in your other hand,
04:32 you're gonna lay the tortilla
04:33 and you're gonna remove the plastic.
04:35 And then slowly and carefully,
04:36 you're gonna lay it on the grill.
04:38 - There it is.
04:39 Okay.
04:40 - I'm gonna do a little bit of oil here.
04:42 - Oh my gosh.
04:46 - It's looking good.
04:48 I'm gonna flip this guy.
04:49 I hear bubbling.
04:50 Oh, we're gonna try this again.
04:53 - The impossible is always possible.
04:58 Don't forget that.
04:59 And these are my black bean tortillas.
05:01 - Usually I feel like tortillas are a little thinner.
05:06 Oh God, oh, it's breaking.
05:10 I gotta save this.
05:11 I'm gonna try a thinner tortilla.
05:15 No!
05:18 Chef!
05:19 Ha ha.
05:22 Yes.
05:23 Oh my God.
05:25 - Let's take it into the basket.
05:27 - Now I'm gonna be chopping these red onions, jalapeno.
05:31 I'm going to char, so we'll have a jalapeno onion crema.
05:35 The reason why I leave the insides of the jalapeno
05:37 is 'cause I want the sauce to be more spicy.
05:40 Now I'm gonna put this into a bowl, put it to chill.
05:43 - All right, it's crema time, everybody.
05:45 First thing I'm gonna do is heat up the milk.
05:48 There we go.
05:49 Empty milk carton.
05:50 So if I mess this up, I can't try again.
05:52 Fantastic.
05:53 - We wanna heat up the milk at 170,
05:55 and we wanna make sure that the milk doesn't boil.
05:58 Now that these are cool, I'm gonna put it in the blender
06:01 and fold it into the crema.
06:03 I'm gonna add a little bit of sour cream
06:04 to help puree the vegetables.
06:06 I wish I could have made my sour cream, but no.
06:10 - Chef Saul said I should be very careful
06:12 with the temperature, and we're right now above 170.
06:15 So I'm gonna turn this guy off.
06:17 This is the white distilled vinegar.
06:19 Oh, that's, ooh.
06:21 Now our apple cider vinegar.
06:23 It looks like it's getting a bit clumpy.
06:26 All right, I'm gonna stir this for a couple of minutes,
06:28 and then I'm gonna leave it for about an hour
06:31 and see how it looks after that.
06:32 - Our crema looks pretty good.
06:34 Now let's find out if it's good.
06:36 Really good.
06:38 And this is my char jalapeno and onion crema.
06:42 - So this has been sitting for an hour.
06:44 I'm noticing a few changes in here.
06:46 It's looking a little separated.
06:49 We have our clumpy milk stuff,
06:51 and then we have our runny vinegar stuff.
06:53 - So after that, we're gonna use a colander
06:54 to remove all the liquid and keep the curds.
06:58 - It looks more like cheese now.
07:00 - We're gonna add it to the blender.
07:01 Heavy cream, lime.
07:03 (laughs)
07:06 - All right, we're getting somewhere.
07:08 Some friction.
07:09 I don't know how much salt we gotta add,
07:11 but I like me things salty.
07:13 (blender whirring)
07:17 - I'm fairly confident with how that turned out.
07:19 Now that is a sturdy amount of crema.
07:22 - So my oven is set at 250.
07:25 Now I'm going to dry these vegetables.
07:28 I'm going to cut these tomatoes
07:30 and then remove the insides of the tomato.
07:34 This will help the tomatoes get dried faster.
07:37 I can't call them sundried tomatoes
07:39 because I'm not using the sun.
07:41 I'm gonna call these tomatoes, sourdough tomatoes.
07:44 So I'm gonna be saving some of these liquids
07:46 that are inside of the tomatoes to add it to my salsa.
07:48 'Cause where I'm from, we don't waste anything.
07:51 - Cutting vegetables is not my strong suit,
07:53 but I'm gonna do my best to get them as nicely cut
07:56 and waste as little as possible.
07:58 - John, you're gonna make your salsa from scratch.
08:01 One of my favorite salsas, salsa borracha,
08:04 which means drunken sauce.
08:06 - I got these chilies here.
08:08 I gotta de-stem them, and then I gotta de-seed them.
08:11 I'm gonna quarter the tomatoes.
08:13 I'm gonna half the onion,
08:15 and I'm gonna de-stem, de-seed, and half these jalapenos.
08:18 A half a pino? Is that a good joke?
08:20 I'm just gonna get right in there and just, oh yeah.
08:23 Oh, that looks terrible.
08:25 Oh, nothing pretty about that.
08:27 - Every time you cut a jalapeno,
08:28 I'm sure you didn't even look at it.
08:29 Enjoy the beauty of nature.
08:31 So we have our beautiful, fresh tomatoes,
08:33 our lovely jalapenos.
08:36 - Probably needed to do the cilantro too.
08:37 Maybe I'll just cut off the stems.
08:39 I'll remove any leafage from the bottom.
08:42 - So I'm gonna bake these at 250 for two to eight hours.
08:45 So I'll see you tomorrow.
08:47 - All my veggies are chopped now.
08:49 Let's give them a char so that my salsa is nice and smoky.
08:53 Starting to smell a bit toasty.
08:56 I think that should do it.
08:57 My chilies are soaking.
08:59 Meanwhile, let's char the tomatoes.
09:02 - The next step for my salsa, I'm gonna cut this onion,
09:04 put it in the blender.
09:05 I'm gonna add some lime juice, salt,
09:07 and the insides of the tomatoes,
09:09 because we are not wasting.
09:11 And now we're gonna make this into smoothie.
09:14 And we're gonna do shots out of this.
09:16 The moment of truth.
09:21 - Oh, that's a nice charring.
09:31 This might be a good time to start taking things off.
09:34 Let's move them over here.
09:36 Get them all out of there.
09:37 We gotta get to charring the rest of our veggies.
09:40 And then last thing, garlic.
09:42 I'm gonna add some oil to the pan.
09:44 Oh, that's not the oil.
09:46 Oh, in the squeezy bottle.
09:47 Nice, thank you.
09:49 It's getting real smoky in here.
09:50 You can see, I feel like I'm in a 1990s music video.
09:55 These all look pretty charred up.
09:56 Now I'm gonna move these to a bowl
09:58 and I'm gonna keep working on my salsa.
10:00 - They look good.
10:01 They look like a sundried tomato.
10:01 Look at this.
10:02 But they're not sundried tomatoes.
10:03 That's all dried tomatoes.
10:05 - Now I'm gonna chop this up.
10:06 I'm gonna add my base to these dried vegetables
10:10 to keep it a little bit moist.
10:13 Oil.
10:14 I want the vegetables to soak as much liquid as they can
10:18 so they don't be too dry.
10:19 - All right, I'm gonna take all my charred veggies,
10:21 put them in the food processor,
10:22 and then put them back in the pan.
10:24 - What makes the salsa borracha?
10:26 What makes you borracho?
10:27 What makes you drunk?
10:28 Tequila.
10:29 - I do have two liquids here.
10:31 I have the tequila
10:35 and orange juice.
10:37 - The tequila will prevent it from spoiling so soon.
10:40 - Salt and then some pepper.
10:42 Here we go.
10:43 I'm going lowish heat.
10:49 It's not even done yet,
10:50 but it is probably the best salsa that I've ever made
10:53 and that's all thanks to you, Chef Saul.
10:56 This is all thickened up.
10:57 I'm super happy about it.
10:59 It looks delicious.
11:00 This is my salsa borracha, my drunk salsa.
11:03 - Instead of pico de gallo,
11:05 I'm gonna be doing a quick pickled red onion.
11:08 So I'm gonna do a julienne cut.
11:09 And for this step, you have to close your eyes.
11:11 And now I'm gonna use some limes.
11:14 And I'm gonna do this because this is gonna help
11:16 remove the juice easier.
11:18 The lime job right now is to pickle the onions, right?
11:22 'Cause it's full of acidics.
11:24 Acidics cures things.
11:26 Okay, now jalapenos.
11:27 Salt, pepper.
11:30 Now, normally you use vinegar, you boil.
11:33 This is a very simple way to eat onions.
11:36 We're gonna let this sit and really pickle
11:38 and we're gonna move to the next thing.
11:40 - I'm gonna chop up the mushrooms for the filling.
11:42 I'm gonna loosely chop
11:44 because I don't know how to do anything else.
11:46 Mushrooms are chopped.
11:48 So I'm gonna put them in this bowl
11:50 and set them off to the side
11:51 and then I'll move on to my herbs.
11:53 Epazote.
11:54 Never heard of this herb before.
11:56 It's kind of some like spice fragrance to it.
11:59 - I call it the Mexican cousin of the basil.
12:02 These are my epazote leaves that we took off.
12:05 Now to the purslane.
12:07 Never worked with purslane before, never heard of it.
12:09 Now that all this is ready, I can start my filling.
12:12 - It's time to grind our chicken.
12:14 The grinder has to be ice cold,
12:15 so this just came out of the freezer.
12:17 And the chicken too.
12:18 So that will help have a smoother grinder and shape too.
12:22 I'm gonna take this chicken and turn it into a patty.
12:25 And that's what I will use for my smashed chicken quesadilla
12:28 and that's how we ground chicken.
12:31 - All right, it's time to put my filling together.
12:33 Now this part is where I'm comfortable,
12:35 putting a bunch of stuff in a pan and cooking it.
12:37 - When making the filling of the quesadilla,
12:39 it's the Mexican ratatouille.
12:41 So we're gonna start with a little bit of garlic, onion.
12:43 - So let's get to stirring, I hear that sizzle.
12:46 - Now you're gonna add the oyster mushrooms.
12:48 Saute for a little bit.
12:50 Now you're gonna add the huitlacoche.
12:52 Huitlacoche tastes sour
12:54 and that's why you add other ingredients
12:55 to balance that flavor.
12:56 And those ingredients you find in any market in Mexico.
12:59 You will have the best Mexican ratatouille of your life.
13:02 - This is gonna cook down, it's gonna take a bit.
13:04 So let's start with the cheeses.
13:05 I love Oaxaca cheese so much.
13:08 It just comes in like this spiral of art.
13:11 All you gotta do with Oaxaca cheese,
13:12 in my knowledge, is just rip it apart.
13:14 It's very string cheesy.
13:15 It's like a mozzarella equivalent.
13:17 So that's our Oaxaca cheese.
13:19 And now we're gonna get to crumbling my queso fresco.
13:22 There's no nice way to do this.
13:24 This cheese is called quesadilla.
13:26 Incredible.
13:27 So I'm gonna shred this guy.
13:29 See, oh God.
13:30 (laughs)
13:31 Slippery.
13:32 My cheeses have been completed.
13:35 Back to my mushrooms.
13:37 You got some liquid coming off the mushrooms,
13:39 which looks really nice.
13:40 We're gonna want that to go away though.
13:42 The flavor wants to stay, but the liquid wants to go.
13:44 - With these tortillas, I'm gonna make a chicharron
13:47 to garnish my quesadilla.
13:48 We're just gonna fry them.
13:49 Chicharron is the skin of the pork that has been dehydrated
13:52 and then it's fried, so it's nice and crispy.
13:55 But we don't have any pork.
13:56 So basically you're gonna fry it both sides.
13:58 We're gonna do this bunch of times
14:00 since this is nice and crispy.
14:01 Look, the tortilla is telling me,
14:02 "Take him out of the oil.
14:04 I'm already crispy."
14:05 No, you're not, baby.
14:07 I want it to be crispier.
14:08 (tapping)
14:10 I'm gonna put it right here.
14:12 I'm gonna open this taco seasoning mix original
14:15 from El Paso.
14:16 FYI, I never, ever use this.
14:20 So I have to try this.
14:22 There's nothing wrong with this.
14:25 If you like this, good for you.
14:27 If you don't like this, good for you.
14:29 We're gonna sprinkle just a little bit here.
14:31 And there you have it, my tortilla chicharron.
14:34 - Persilane, throw those in here.
14:36 - And now you're gonna add some epazote.
14:38 It's a little bit of bitter, but it's delicious.
14:41 - And lastly, my jalapenos.
14:44 Some good char on the bottom of the pan.
14:46 So this filling seems pretty good to go.
14:48 I'm gonna move to my next thing.
14:49 - Okay, so I have my chicken.
14:51 This has cumin, has salt.
14:53 So it's not that bad, right?
14:55 Now I'm gonna add tomatoes and jalapenos.
14:58 Black pepper and queso, which is a Mexican blend.
15:03 Monterey Jack, cheddar cheese.
15:05 Why we call this Mexican?
15:07 Because a Mexican is using it.
15:09 So now I'm gonna make some four ounces balls.
15:12 Is this four ounces?
15:14 Oh my gosh, 3.9.
15:17 Now my chicken is ready to be cooked.
15:20 Ooh yeah, that's hot.
15:21 So I'm gonna put on cheese.
15:23 I'm gonna put on both sides.
15:25 - Fill up in one side of the tortilla only.
15:27 Only one side because you're gonna fold the tortilla, right?
15:29 - I have a tendency to load up things way too much.
15:32 Now we're gonna add the filling.
15:33 I gotta work quick.
15:34 - Grasshoppers, another gift of earth.
15:37 It's salty, they're lemony.
15:38 - Wow, they look really crunchy.
15:41 All right, now we fold.
15:43 Now we let the cheese do its thing.
15:45 - Now it's time to put everything together
15:47 and I'm gonna have to move quickly.
15:49 All right, so what I'm gonna do,
15:50 I'm gonna put the chicken here.
15:52 I'm gonna smash it.
15:53 Once I have a nice sear, I'm going to flip it.
15:56 Gonna put a little bit of cheese.
15:57 I'm gonna put the tortilla on top.
15:58 Beautiful.
16:01 I'm gonna put more cheese now.
16:02 And then I'm gonna do a little bit of salsa.
16:04 And after the salsa,
16:07 I'm gonna add a little bit of my chicharron.
16:09 I want some crunchiness on my quesadilla.
16:12 Chef, that's not a chicharron.
16:13 I know it's not a chicharron.
16:13 It has the texture of a chicharron.
16:15 - Okay, I'm gonna give it a gentle flip.
16:18 Be cautious, be cautious.
16:19 - Ah-ha, that's looking pretty solid.
16:21 Think I'm gonna throw it on a plate.
16:22 - And this is where I fold it.
16:24 It's time for you to go to bed.
16:25 Cover with your blanket and sweet dreams.
16:28 Have a good night.
16:30 So we just make the impossible possible.
16:33 And these are my quesadillas and I'm ready to play.
16:36 - Before I plate the quesadilla,
16:39 there is one thing that I need to do.
16:41 I gotta try a grasshopper.
16:42 It's actually pretty good.
16:44 Kind of like a crunchy olive.
16:47 All right, let's do like a diagonal.
16:48 That seems very chic.
16:50 It's actually the first time I'm using this cheese today.
16:52 It's Cotija cheese.
16:53 Little crumbly on the outside.
16:55 It's imperfect.
16:56 That's a style.
16:57 And then we'll put on some parslain.
17:00 Now grasshoppers.
17:01 Oh, I almost forgot.
17:02 My old friend cilantro's here.
17:04 And lastly, I'm gonna put my crema
17:07 and my salsa on the plate.
17:10 And that's my take on Chef Saul's quesadilla.
17:12 - I'm gonna put the quesadilla in the middle.
17:14 I'm gonna do the crema.
17:15 And then I'm gonna do some of the juice from here
17:18 all over the plate.
17:19 Why everything I do is so pretty?
17:21 If you don't believe me, look at my kids.
17:23 A nice piece of chicharron.
17:24 We're gonna garnish it with a little bit of my pickle,
17:27 onions, and one jalapeno,
17:29 because everything tastes good with heat.
17:31 And this is my cheesy smashed chicken quesadilla
17:34 with black bean tortilla and sun-dried tomato salsa.
17:37 - Chef Saul, I had a great day.
17:43 - You look like you had a great day.
17:47 You did that?
17:48 - It looked like I did this.
17:49 - Good job, man.
17:51 You good job.
17:52 Are you kidding me?
17:52 - Look at you.
17:53 How did you fare with my very skimpy ingredients?
17:56 - It was very, I think it was one of the hottest dish to do.
18:00 I was freaking out.
18:01 I was worried about the tortilla.
18:02 So the flour tortilla became flour again.
18:05 And then I add some beans and make a black bean tortilla.
18:10 - You reverse engineered the tortilla
18:12 to go back to its chemical compound of flour.
18:15 - Yeah, that was the idea.
18:16 - For a scientist.
18:16 - Sounds like a deal.
18:17 The moment of truth.
18:20 - This actually came out wonderful.
18:24 - Honestly, I thought it was gonna be doughy,
18:26 but it's not, so it's good.
18:27 To me, this is a quesadilla that I grew up eating.
18:30 And what you did the presentation, so far, is a 10.
18:32 - Cheers.
18:33 Give it to me straight, chef.
18:36 - I wish you didn't eat the half,
18:38 so I can eat it all for me.
18:40 Okay, cheers.
18:44 - Cheers. - Salud.
18:45 Salute.
18:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]