SCENE 1
|
THING: [holds up a sign outside the window] AB: Et tu, Thing? |
DOWN WITH BROWN! |
T: [shows the obverse of the sign] |
JUST KIDDING |
I've got to take some kind
of action here. Let's see. To the refrigerator! Yeah. Yeah. That's it.
Alright, what do we have here? Well, seems that we have some tortillas.
Leftovers from our episode, Flat is Beautiful ... Six ... I think. Gosh, there must
be two or three hundred of them. Oh well, practice makes perfect. The problem
is, what am I going to do with these things?
T: [tries to hand AB a book
entitled "Mexican Cooking"] |
MEXICAN COOKING |
It's not that I have anything against cookbooks, it's just the idea of having to dig up a recipe just to deal with some leftovers rubs me raw. [a whisk at the end of a long metal pole appears, and taps AB on the shoulder, he turns to face it]
AB: [Screams]
MOTHER OF CULINARY INVENTIONS: Hello, Alton.
AB: [Screams again]
MOCI: I'm The Mother of Culinary Invention, see? [indicates her kitchen tools
tiara]
AB: [Screams one more time.]
MOCI: [smacks AB across the face with the whisk]
AB: Ow,
ow. Alright. You're The Mother of Culinary Invention. What are you doing here?
MOCI: Oh, no reason, other than the fact that there's a mob of angry cooks
picketing your house and not an idea in your fuzzy little head.
AB: That's not true. [pause, then concedes] Okay, that's true. But I
just can't perform under this much pressure.
MOCI: [waves her wand/whisk, and a bag of tortillas arises from the
floor, the string is obvious] Not to worry.
In tortilla, we trust.
AB: Really? [examines the string]
MOCI: Oh, yes. No other food I know can so wonderfully weave itself into
other dishes.
AB: Really?
MOCI: You're beginning to sound like a broken record, dear, and that's
annoying. Now think about it. The tortilla has a million things going for it.
AB: Really?
MOCI: [annoyed again, she hits AB on the head with the whisk]
AB: Ow, that hurt!
MOCI: Really? Tortillas have everything you could want in an ingredient.
They're tasty, textured, water-soluble. Flexible one minute, crunchy the next.
In fact, the only problem is, is that we don't have enough time to take full
advantage of them.
AB: So what you're saying is ...
MOCI: That's right, even left over, tortillas are ...
["Good Eats" theme plays]
AB: [is looking outside, at the protestors]
MOCI: Wow, they're getting really worked up out there. You better get
cooking.
AB: Tell me about it. Got any ideas for me? Any inspiration?
MOCI: Use your noodle. Ta ta. [glides out of scene]
Use my noodle? What does she mean by that?
MOCI: [from off screen she hits AB on the head with the whisk appears]
Hey, you know? In the early 20th century, Mexican
border restaurants hoping to appease the appetites of visiting American touristas, began serving variations of traditional dishes. One such dish used
tortillas to separate layers of meat, cheese, veggies, and sauce. It became
known as the "enchilada". Although the enchilada in this country has become
known as a dish of filled and rolled corn tortillas baked in a chili sauce, the
word actually means, "with chili sauce", and can, in fact, take many forms. If
that be true, then we should be able to use our tortillas to make a lasagna. I'm
a genius! Ha ha!
Like most lasagnas, this is a simple dish. It has more in common with, say,
building a parking deck, than it does actual cooking. It's all about
construction.
Start with a medium saucepan on high heat. Add three cups of tomato sauce, two cups of chicken broth. Any brand will be just fine. Homemade would be great. Two chipotle chilies, chopped fine, three cloves of garlic, also minced fine, two and a half teaspoons of chili powder, one and a half teaspoons of cumin—seeds, toasted and ground. Fresher is better in this regard. If you have to use pre-packaged, you can. Half a teaspoon of salt, and about a quarter of a teaspoon of pepper. This is going to be plenty spicy, so you can cut back on that if you want to. Now just make sure that that is thoroughly combined, and allow it to come to a boil. |
3 Cups Tomato Sauce 2 Cups Chicken Broth 2 Dried Chipotle Peppers 3 Large Cloves Garlic, Minced 2½ tsp. Chili Powder 1½ tsp. Toasted Cumin Seeds, Freshly Ground ½ tsp. Kosher Salt ¼ tsp. Freshly Ground Black Pepper |
Now in the meantime, we can construct our filling. So you're going to put a skillet, a medium skillet, over medium-high heat. Add about a tablespoon of vegetable or canola oil. Then you're going to add one pound of cubed up chicken. Now it can be any combination of white and dark meat. I happen to prefer thighs. That's just me. You can certainly use leg meat as well, but I wouldn't go with 100% white meat. You want to mix it up. Keep this moving. Sauté it for seven to nine minutes because we want it to be relatively cooked through. Then remove it to a bowl, just to stand by, to wait for assembly. |
1 Tbs. Vegetable Oil 1 Pound Boneless, Skinless, |
Put the skillet right back on to the heat, and then dump in one and a half cups of onions. You can see that's kind of a medium-fine chop. Nothing too fancy. And we're going to cook this with a little bit of salt because that always helps to bring out some of the natural juices. Probably for four to six minutes. And you're probably going to want to drop the heat on that, at least about halfway through the cooking, to medium-low, lest they burn. |
1½ Cups Onions, Diced Pinch Of Kosher Salt |
You can see that our sauce is now at a rolling boil which is all that we're going to need. So we're going to turn that heat way, way down. Almost off.
Returning to the onions, we now add one clove of garlic, that has been minced—yes, more garlic in this recipe— and a teaspoon of dried oregano. Mexican would be good if you can get it. And continue to cook for, eh, two to three minutes more. Then the chicken can go back into the bowl ... well, the pan, sorry. From the bowl, to the pan. And then, the heat goes off on both burners. |
1 Large Clove Garlic, Minced 1 tsp. Dried Oregano |
Now we are ready to assemble. We have sprayed a 9 x 13 baking dish with a little
non-stick spray. Then we are going to ladle in about half a cup of sauce, just
right into the bottom. That will help to ensure that these tortillas aren't
going to stick.
And I've got 12 tortillas total. And I've cut several of those
in half. It's just going to help me kind of build this. I stick as many of them
as possible into the sauce and then kind of fish them out and build the base.
Now each layer is going to have three whole tortillas and then also two half-tortillas that have been dipped in the sauce to kind of make as even a layer as is possible. |
3 Whole & 2 Half Tortillas Dipped In The Sauce |
We'll now add half of the chicken mixture, and then top that with one cup of crumbled "queso fresco" cheese. |
1 Cup Queso Fresco Or Monterey Jack |
Queso Fresco is interesting stuff. It is a fresh, un-aged cheese.
And although
it has a very smooth texture and crumbles nicely like feta, it will not melt
no matter what you do. So it's great for placing in dishes where you really do
want it to stay put. Most megamarts carry Queso Fresco, or its cousin, Queso
Blanco, which can also be used in this dish.
Now, we are going to repeat this process with more tortillas, the remaining
chicken, more cheese, and then finally, another layer of tortillas, the
remainder of the sauce, and then last, but not least, the rest of the cheese.
Cover your lasagna in aluminum foil, and park in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. |
350 Degrees |
The word "enchilada" didn't appear in English until the end of the 19th century.
GUESTS: Military Wives #1, #2 & #3
Now, carefully remove the foil, and cook for another 10 minutes, or until it's nice and bubbly on top.
Or, if you like it good and crunchy, park it under the broiler for a few minutes.
[AB takes the enchilada out of the oven, the scene cuts to him walking back into the house, he looks out the window] Oh yeah, they're going for it.
MOCI: Well, it's a perfectly acceptable—albeit not very original—variation
on a classic theme.
AB: What are you talking about? That dish is great. Those CAWLO people are
going to be out of here in no time.
MOCI: Oh, I rather doubt it. Several more busloads just arrived. Oh, and
look! There's a TV newsman, too. Lucky for you, you already have tortilla chips.
AB: [tortilla chips fall on AB] Oh, thanks. Now, when they breach the gates, I'll be able to
fling these, like, like Kung-Fu throwing stars.
MOCI: So ungrateful. Here you've been given the keys to leftover paradise
and that's the best you can do? You, Sir, are no Ignacio Anaya.
AB: Oh, why that's the worst thing ... Who?
MOCI: Do you like plays?
AB: Huh?
MOCI: Good, 'cause you're in one. [shoves AB out of the camera shot]
AB: Waaaah!
[the Kitchen becomes theater]
MOCI: Once upon a time, in 1944, or '45, I can't remember which, Chef Anaya
was getting ready to lock up the kitchen for the night, at The Victory Club, in Piedras Negras,
[Coahuila de Zaragoza] Mexico, when three military wives from Fort Duncan, just over
the border, dropped in after a long day of sightseeing and shopping. But Chef
Anaya told them, "Alas, the kitchen, it is closed."
AB: [as Chef Anaya] Alas, the kitchen, it is closed.
MILITARY WIFE #1: But we have been out shopping all day, and we are so hungry.
MILITARY WIFE #2: Surely you have some leftovers you can make something out of.
MILITARY WIFE #3: Well, can't you make anything?
MILITARY WIFE #1, 2 & 3: Hmmm?
AB: I will withdraw to the kitchen to ponder the possibilities.
MOCI: At first, Chef Anaya was stumped. He had so little on hand. Some
cheese, a few chilies. A bunch of tortilla chips. But he could think of nothing.
So I called out to him, "Hey Nacho!"
AB: Nacho?
MOCI: It's the familiar, and diminutive form of the name "Ignacio".
Anyway, I called out to him, "Nacho!"
AB: Okay, okay, I get the point. I get the point. Now shoo out of here and let
me cook, okay?
MOCI: Very well.
[the kitchen returns to its former state]
Okay. So, the perfect nachos. It all begins with the right software. We have 80 corn tortilla chips here. Store-bought would be okay. Factory-bought would be better. Homemade would be really good. Three to four jalapeño chilies, very thinly sliced. If you like them on the hot side, be sure to leave the inner membrane and seeds intact. Four and a half ounces of diced red onion. It's about half of a good sized onion, and six ounces each, it's about two and a quarter cups, of grated cheeses. We have here cheddar cheese, and here we have Oaxaca [pron: wah-HAH-kah] cheese. |
80 Corn Tortilla Chips 3-4 Fresh Jalapeno [sic] Peppers, Sliced 4½ Ounces Red Onion, Diced 6 Ounces Each Cheddar & Oaxaca Cheese |
Oaxaca cheese is, of course, named after the Oaxaca region of Mexico. And the name represents, actually, several different varieties of cheese all of which are cow's milk, white, and very smooth-melting. One of my favorite examples, Asadero. It's actually Spanish for "broiler" and it's cheese that is very, very smooth-melting. It's a pulled cheese, kind of like mozzarella, but the flavor's more like un-aged Monterey Jack. Now, to the hardware!
First, we must properly prep the oven. If you have a middle rack, remove it. Get the top rack all the way up, and the bottom rack all the way down. We need plenty of space in here. Go ahead and set your temperature for 350 degrees. |
350 Degrees |
Continuing the hardware, we need not one, not two, but three wire cooling racks.
They are cheap and I use them for lots of things such as draining-rigs for
frying. I put them in my smoker. I use them to change the oil in ... Oh, never
mind. If you do not have any of these, you could always use, probably, you know,
grill grates. I saw a guy do this with coat hangars one time, although I don't
suggest that. Last but not least, a sheet pan.
But first, we need a foundation, like parchment paper. [tears off a piece]
Should do the trick. [places the parchment paper on the sheet pan, assembles a cooling rack on top of a sheet pan]
Before the chips go down, we need some spacers. Something in the two-inch range,
that will be oven-safe. Perhaps, aluminum foil. [tears off a piece] Perfect!
[puts four wads of crumpled up aluminum foil at the four corners of the rack]
So, what's with this crazy construct? Well, it's all about evenness. We want
each chip to have the exact same amount of each ingredient. But we don't want
the chips to be stuck together into a big, gummy mess on the platter. And of
course, we would like to avoid the microwave.
[covers the first rack with chips, places one slice of jalapeño pepper
on each, sprinkles the onions and cheese mixture over the chips, places another
wire rack with 4 crumpled ball of aluminum foil on top and repeats for a total
of 3 racks]
Ahh, here we go. Park in you prepped hot box for about seven minutes or until
the cheese is nice and bubbly. [admires his hardware] Ha ha ha ha. I'll bet old
Nacho didn't think of this one. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
According to early Mesoamerican lore, humans
were made out of corn by the gods.
Mmmm ... ah .... ha, ha, ha. [AB retrieves his nachos after cooking, laughing to himself as he does]
The popularity of nachos took off after they were served
at the 1964 Texas State
Fair.
And there we have it, Nachos Especiales.
Now, as far as serving goes, odds are good everyone on this planet has done this before. But just in case you have any aliens living with you or in your neighborhood, here's how I would do it. A little bit of fresh chopped oregano gets sprinkled on—Mexican oregano would be very nice. Then perhaps just a touch of sour cream, and, well, maybe some salsa. Guacamole, completely optional. I think that would be overload here. Now notice, we still have structural integrity. That's because the cheese has spanned a [stops carring] ... Oh, never mind. |
2 Tbs. Fresh Oregano, Chopped [sour cream & salsa] |
[AB walks back into the house obviously having delivered the nachos, the protestors continue to chant]
MOCI: Oooh, looks like nachos Kung-Fu isn't going to be enough to turn this
crowd. You're going to have to come up with something new. Gonna be tough, too,
what with all that's already been done with tortillas, heh. And of course, the
pressure that you're under. You know, if I were you, I might be, say, digging a
tunnel, or, oh, you know, maybe a helicopter ...
AB: You know, this ... really ... isn't ... helping.
MOCI: You know what they say. Invention is 99% desperation.
AB: I thought they said it was perspiration.
MOCI: Ewww. Here, let me ask you a question. How many foods do you know of
that can be uncooked back into their original raw state?
AB: None. That's crazy talk.
MOCI: Hmmm, yeah, I guess you're right. Well, I'm out of here. [glides
off]
Ohh. To break tortillas back down into masa would require
considerable moisture, a food processor, and ... Well, even if you could do it,
all you could make would be ...
MOCI: [hits AB on the head with her whisk]
... tots! Of course. Beautiful, delicious, masa tots. All we have to do is break down the tortillas. Reform them into a scoopable dough. Why didn't I think of it before?
Atole is a Mexican drink made by combining masa,
water, sugarcane, cinnamon and
vanilla.
Our batter begins with the glue. One whole egg will keep things together, but we'll need more moisture than that, so half a cup of whole milk. Some seasoning. A teaspoon and a half of kosher salt—I'm guessing—and a quarter teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. |
1 Whole Egg ½ Cup Whole Milk 1½ tsp. Kosher Salt ¼ tsp. Freshly Ground Black Pepper |
As for the tortillas, we'll need ten ounces, and that's about 20 standard factory rounds. Go ahead, tear them into bite-size morsels. Make the process go a whole lot quicker. There. | 10 Ounces Corn Tortillas |
Now we're going to process this for two to three minutes or until we've got kind of a lumpy dough consistency. You'll know you're done when ... right there. You see how the dough is kind of piling up on the sides of the bowl? You can see all the way down into the blade. So we'll turn it off.
And here we have a bowl containing a quarter cup of diced onion, and two tablespoons of minced jalapeño. |
¼ Cup Diced Onion + 2 Tbs. Minced Jalapeno [sic] Pepper |
Now if you like the flavor of jalapeños but don't like quite as much fire, you
can split them in half and then just kind of scoot your knife down the chili
removing as much of the membrane and, of course, the seeds as possible. And
then you can just dice that sucker right up. Notice I do have a latex glove on
one hand. That's because capsaicin has serious hang time on skin. You know, I
might have to scratch my eye or something, and that would really hurt.
Just get that [tortilla mixture] dumped in [to the bowl with the onions and
jalapeños]. There. And we will mix using the best tool on earth:
the human hand, clean, of course. There. Just kind of squeeze it around. And
you'll know it's right when you can make a fist [it clumps together kind of like pie dough] and get one of those.
We're good to go.
In the past, I have loosely endorsed the use of countertop electric fryers for
their convenience and safety. But the truth is, they don't manage heat very
well. The main issue being recovery. The food goes in, it takes way too long for
the heat in the oil to bounce back, and that can lead to greasy food. So I
generally stick with the old trusty combo of a Dutch oven and a thermometer
which gives me a little bit more control. Now as far as the cooking medium
itself, I am a fan of peanut oil. It is neutral in flavor and it can take an
obscene amount of heat before smoking and degrading. And it doesn't tend to
stink up the house.
Now, for those of you who look like this [model of a puffer fish]
when you eat peanut products, I offer this fun fact: the allergens in peanuts
are located in the protein portion of the nut, not in the fat.
These proteins are not included in the standard heat-processed peanut oil that
most food is fried in. However, if you or a loved one have a peanut allergy, you
will want to avoid organic, or cold-pressed peanut oils which you wouldn't want
to fry with anyway because of their expense and relatively low smoke points. All that said, if peanut oil just isn't for you, then try either safflower oil or sunflower oil for your deep frying. |
RAIDAX INDUSTRIAL UNCLE BOB'S Peanut Oil |
Peanut oil can be recycled for conversion into biodiesel.
GUESTS: Good Eats Crew
Ahh, excellent! Our oil is in the zone; between 365 and 375 degrees. Of course,
that's the good zone, not the other zone, the bad zone. We're ready to roll.
We're looking for careful portion control here. I want these balls to be about
an inch - an inch and a half across, in the two-teaspoon range. So, I'm going to
use one of my favorite devices. Just a little cookie disher, spring-loaded. This
holds about two teaspoons. So, to get the right compression, just scoop and kind
of press up against the side of your bowl and then out into your hand. And
we're not looking for a really super-tight pack, just a good cohesive shape.
There.
Now I'm going to work in batches of eight of these, so I'm going to make eight
before going into the oil. Okay, good, now into the hot fat we go. [lowers them
down into the oil with a spider, he shakes the around as he lowers so they don't
stick]
Now, unlike tortillas that would float to the surface when they are done, these
aren't. They're just going to sink, and stay sunk. So let them cook for two to
three minutes, checking often for the correct browning.
[takes them out when they are GBD (Golden, Brown and
Delicious), places them on a wire rack which is over a sheet pan covered with
newspaper, he then sprinkles kosher salt over them]
In Mexico, I believe these little snacks would be called "antejitos". That means
"little whims". I kind of like that. Now if you were to ditch the onions and
jalapeños, reduce the salt to half a teaspoon, and replace the pepper with a
tablespoon of orange zest and two tablespoons of sugar, you would be able to
convert your masa tots to sweet antejitos, but that's
another show.
Real tater tots were invented in 1953 as a way of using French fry scraps.
AB:
[looks out at the protestors] Whew, I think it's working. They're leaving.
MOCI: So, what did we learn today?
AB: Well, I learned that leftover utilization is really a state of mind and
that tortillas are kind of like the vice grips of the culinary world.
MOCI: [hits AB with her whisk]
AB: Ow! What was that for?
MOCI: For being such a geek.
AB: Have you ever heard of The Lady of the Refrigerator?
MOCI: First cousin.
That would explain the hitting.
MOCI: Ahh, your crew returns, and my work is done.
AB: Okay. Nice seeing you. You can let yourself out.
MOCI: [floats up and away]
AB: Uh hmm, here they come
alright.
Well, look what the faithless, back-stabbing cat drug in.
CREW: [enter while handing AB empty dishes]
Well, let's let this be a lesson to us all. If you don't play wise with your leftovers, you'll end up with people picketing your house, your crew abandoning you, and of course, you'll be infested by some strange little fairy-type person. Oh well, see you next time on "Good Eats". |
BROWN UNFAIR TO FOOD!!! |
[from the first scene when AB first sees MOCI] Ahhggghgghhh! i'm winded. Cut.
Transcribed by Michael Roberts
Proofread by Michael Menninger
Last Edited on 08/27/2010