Gourmet Makes by Bon Appétit - Dailymotion

Bon Appétit

Watch the playlist Gourmet Makes by Bon Appétit on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I have quite a few memories of eating at Chili's. I distinctly remember getting the Southwest egg

00:12rolls because my family was not an appetizer family. Like you got water when we went out

00:17to eat and you got your entree and that was it. I do remember one time we got the Southwest egg

00:22rolls and it was like you know such an occasion and they were so good. I really love these and

00:27that's why I wanted to make my own version of the Southwestern egg roll as the special of the week

00:33here. The Southwest egg roll is a really magical concoction of flakey dough stuffed with black

00:40beans, corn, bell peppers, melty cheese, and everything you would want in egg roll that was

00:45born in New Mexico. That's pretty good. So we're at Kellogg's Diner in Williamsburg. It's a 97-year-old

00:55diner. So we're gonna take the Southwestern egg roll and make it a Northeastern egg roll. It felt

01:00appropriate to do a Reuben that's such a classic New York diner sandwich. There are a few key points

01:06you want to hit when making an egg roll. The first being a nice flaky exterior. It's really important

01:11for an egg roll that you have this like kind of nice balance between crispy crunchy and then like

01:15that nice chewy pull from the dough that's like slightly less cooked on the inside. The second thing

01:21that you really want is a nice substantial filling that is far too hot when you bite into it. You want

01:27to make sure that there's like a nice balance between the filling and the exterior so that your

01:33egg roll isn't too dry or too doughy. Once these hit the table you want them to hold their structural

01:38integrity and keep their crisp. It's really important that the fillings are not too wet. A wet filling is

01:45gonna make your exterior soggy really quickly. All of the components that make a great egg roll also

01:50make a great Reuben. We want to take all the elements that make a Southwest egg roll really great. Infuse

01:58that with all of the flavors of a Reuben and make it more true to New York. When I set out to make this

02:04filling I wanted you to be able to distinguish each component when you bit into it. In a Reuben you have

02:10this really nice braised corned beef, bright crunchy sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, and Russian

02:18dressing. A New York deli would make their corned beef from scratch so that's the way we're gonna

02:21do it too. I'm making the brine right now. I have about seven quarts of water. Corned beef is a brined

02:29brisket. We're gonna use equal parts sugar and the curing salt, sodium nitrite, to help preserve

02:35the meat. The sodium nitrite is going to help the corned beef keep that nice pink color. And then the

02:41kosher salt that we're using is gonna help break down connective tissue and the protein so you have

02:47a tender cut of meat. Peppercorns, bay leaf, and mustard seed. I'm just gonna give this a quick mix.

02:53We have our trimmed brisket here. Brisket is like on the chest portion of the cow. It's like a really

03:01worked mussel. It's a more tough cut of beef which is why it's important to cook it slowly. It just

03:07gives it time for the connective tissue and the protein to like break down and tenderize. So take

03:12some ice. I'm really trying to prevent bacteria from forming since it is going to be a long brining

03:17process and ensuring that the meat stays cold is a really safe way to do that. Over the next five to

03:24seven days the brine is gonna infuse into the meat, break down the connective tissue, give it a lot more

03:29flavor. All of the spices and the salt are going to be penetrated into the meat. But movie magic.

03:34I have one prepared. I started brining this one a week ago and we're ready to pop it in the oven.

03:40We actually want to use hot water this time as opposed to cold because the goal is to bring the

03:46internal temperature of the brisket up so that it's cooking evenly in the oven and pop it into a 275

03:54degree oven for like three to four hours. Brisket is out of the oven and cooled down. It feels

03:59pretty tender. I'm going to cut into it and make sure that that is the case. It looks good. The brine

04:05has penetrated all the way through the brisket which you can see the colors all the way through. And

04:10you can see here all this like connective tissue that runs throughout the brisket has broken down. So

04:16this is going to be a nice tender piece of meat. For our purposes we're just going to like chop the

04:21out of it. Chopping up the beef is going to give you more of a homogenous texture. You're going to get a little bit of

04:25everything through every bite. But really I can almost even just break it up with my hands because

04:30it's so tender. The salinity has really penetrated the meat. It's really flavorful. You can taste the

04:38mustard seed and the peppercorn in there. There's a little bit of sweetness too from the sugar. It's a

04:42really nice balance of flavors. You guys want some? Next up I'm going to chop up all of this Swiss cheese.

04:53This is going to give a nice fatty creamy unctuous flavor to our egg rolls. In the Chili's egg roll the

05:00cheese acted as a little bit of a binder. I'm putting all my ingredients into one bowl. The chopped beef,

05:06the cheese, the kraut, and the mustard. We're going to mix those all together so it's a more of a homogenous

05:10bite. Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. It's just shredded cabbage and salt that's been fermented.

05:17It's nice and bright. Gives a nice acidity to different foods and it's honestly one of my

05:22favorite foods. I could like eat it right out of a jar. Something really important when making these

05:27egg rolls is to make sure that there's not too much liquid incorporated into the filling. So something

05:32I'm going to do is to squeeze out all of this sauerkraut brine. So we're looking for a balance of

05:37flavors. The meat's going to bring the fattiness, the umami, the cheese is going to bring that

05:41creaminess. The mustard seed and the kraut are going to bring the city to help balance both of

05:47those things out. That's delicious. I could literally eat this by the spoonful. It's so good.

05:53So it's kind of like if a Reuben was meant for a baby. It's got a great balance between flavors and

06:00textures. There's a little texture from the mustard seed and the kraut. It's bright and it's acidic. It doesn't

06:06feel too heavy, but I think it's going to work really nicely as an egg roll filling. I'm going

06:11to set this aside and then I'm going to go ahead and mix my dough and get my wrappers ready.

06:18Typically for an egg roll, people use wonton wrappers. I don't think this is a classic wonton

06:24dough. It's like a little bit denser, something that resembles more of like a chimichanga, you know,

06:30like a fried flour tortilla. The difference between a wonton dough and a flour tortilla is that there's

06:38a lot more fat incorporated into a flour tortilla, whether that's like pork fat or butter or oil.

06:44The goal is to get a crispy exterior that maintains once it hits the table and sits for a little while,

06:51as well as like that balance of chewiness when you bite into it. Traditionally, a Reuben is made

06:57with rye bread, usually toasted. It's just got an earthier flavor, a definitely more distinct flavor

07:02than all-purpose flour. So we're basically making a rye flour wonton wrapper right now. What we're going

07:09to do is do a split between all-purpose flour and rye flour. Rye flour is a less glutinous flour,

07:17at least compared to all-purpose, and we really wanted to use it because it has that distinct,

07:22like woodsy, nutty flavor. I also didn't sift out any of the germ in the rye flour, so it's got a

07:29little bit more texture to it as well. You want to make sure your dough has flavor. So we're going to

07:34add some salt in here and just a little bit of baking powder to add a little bit more airiness to

07:39the dough. And when we fry it, it'll create those little bubbles that we're looking for. We're adding in

07:44our egg yolks. These are going to act as your binder for the dough. One and a half cups of ice cold water.

07:51We're looking to create a shaggy dough, very similar to making pasta. Working and resting the dough is

07:57really important because that will ensure that my wrappers are sturdy and that they can hold up to

08:03the wet ingredients. The chili zerg rolls have a really substantial filling, a lot of wet ingredients,

08:09and the wrapper is still able to hold up to that. The doughs come together and when you press it,

08:14it bounces back. I have a damp towel here that I'm just going to cover my dough with and let it rest.

08:21for about an hour. Okay, so we're going to portion this dough out. The cornstarch is going to keep

08:27the layers of the dough from sticking to each other. So I'm trying to roll this out an eighth of an inch

08:33thick, pretty much as thin as possible. That ensures that the dough is going to be nice and crispy

08:40when it fries up and it's not going to be too thick or toothsome. You want a strong dough that's not going to

08:46burst open when you're filling it and this one looks really solid. So for one egg roll. I'm really

08:55happy with this. It's looking really good. I'm going to set this aside and roll out the rest of my dough.

08:59These are going to stay raw until they're filled and wrapped and then deep fried. In the meantime,

09:07I want to keep them covered from drying out. They're going to go into the refrigerator and I'm ready to

09:11make the dipping sauce. This is the avocado ranch that comes with the southwestern egg rolls. It's got

09:19a really nice minty color, light avocado, if you will. It doesn't taste like ranch. It tastes like

09:27avocado and some form of dairy, like sour cream or something. But when you eat it with the southwestern

09:32egg rolls, it definitely adds a little bit of coolness to the hot egg roll, which is great.

09:43That's pretty good. I wanted to create a Russian dressing-style dipping sauce.

09:48You know, would be an homage to a Reuben, but also bring some brightness and acidity.

09:54The star of the show in Russian dressing, just like in ranch, is mayonnaise. And that's going to

09:59be the bulk of our base of the sauce. Mayonnaise is going to bring the creamy fattiness to the party.

10:05Ketchup is going to bring a little bit more acidity and vegetal notes from the tomato. And to really kick

10:10up the brightness even more, I'm going to add some lemon juice. Traditionally, Russian dressing

10:16calls for Worcestershire, but we use Maggi a lot. It's great in a michelada, but basically it's just

10:21like umami seasoning. So this is fresh horseradish. Horseradish is a root. It's used in imitation wasabi,

10:29if that helps you understand like what the spice level is. We're just going to give this a quick mix.

10:34That's good. That's right where I want it. It's going to help to balance out the fattiness of the meat

10:42and the fried dough and the cheese and bring a level of complexity beyond the mustard seed and the kraut

10:51that's inside the filling. All of the ingredients are ready. I think it's time that we get these bad

10:56boys filled and fried and eaten. Unlike an egg roll that you would get at a restaurant, the Chili's

11:06egg rolls are really filled and fat and we love that about them. And so I want to recreate that,

11:12which means that I'm going to use a really solid handful of filling. I'm going to try to compact it

11:20a little bit so that it makes it easier to roll. So I'm just going to go around the edge of the egg roll

11:26with a little bit of water, fold this over one time and press and seal on the edges. This is where

11:33I'm really going to get the first solid shape and form of the egg roll. You really want to make sure

11:39that your egg roll is solid and compact and there's not a lot of air in there because what will happen

11:44is when you're frying it, you're going to end up with like a loose floppy egg roll moving from like

11:48your table to the fryer. It's just not going to be structurally as sound. So now I'm tucking in the edges

11:56and adding a little bit more water as I go to make sure that it stays sealed. As you can tell,

12:02it's already like a monster of an egg roll, which is good. Here's my baby. I think it looks good and

12:11it feels secure and structurally sound. The fact that this is filled with mostly meat and not beans

12:18is going to make it a little bit hardier. So I don't know how many you'd really realistically be able

12:23to put down, but you know, that's like an open challenge. I'm going to go ahead and finish

12:27rolling out the rest and then we can fry them all in one go. They're massive. They're absolute

12:34honkers, but that's okay. I mean, you know, who could be mad at that? More filling is more,

12:39more pleasure. So I'm just going to drop them into a 350 degree fryer for about three to four minutes,

12:46or until they're like nice and golden brown and crispy and like kind of bubbly on the outside.

12:50You don't want to fry too hot or too cold. Frying too hot is going to mean that your outside crisps

12:56really quickly gets really dark before maybe your filling is hot and frying too low might mean that

13:01your egg roll is going to be taking on too much grease or like won't get crispy fast enough. It

13:06might give you a tougher dough. Look how pretty they are. I'm so happy with the bubbles. Really crispy,

13:16golden brown, nice bubbling, which is like classic wonton reaction to frying. I'm going to cut these

13:23on a very hard bias to replicate the ones at Chili's. We want to be able to see all of the filling and all

13:29of the guts, the kraut and the mustard seed and the corned beef and the cheese. I think that'll offer

13:35for a really nice distinctive bite. I'm going to fan these out on the plate in a nice little pinwheel.

13:40I'm going to throw the Russian dipping sauce in here. Heavy on the horseradish. There's my dinner.

13:46They're beautiful. I'm going to take these out to the diner and try them. Let's see if all my hard

13:51work paid off. I'm going to go with this one. I think this is the winner.

13:58That's pretty good. That's pretty very good. Right off the bat, there's just like a lot more brightness

14:03compared to the Southwestern egg rolls, which I really like about it. The meat is really tender

14:09and juicy. The flavor of the cheese still comes through. The crisp on the dough has held up. If

14:15somebody just shoved a bite of this into your mouth, you would think you were eating a Reuben.

14:19I really think that we hit the mark with the ratio of filling to dough. I'm really happy with how crispy

14:26the exterior is. You can see like it's nice and crispy. They've been sitting here for a second.

14:33They haven't like steamed and gotten soggy, good structural integrity, and I'm really happy with

14:38them. I think I did a pretty good job of encompassing the spirit of a Southwest egg roll. I obviously went

14:45a little bit bigger, but you know, New York's a big city, right? We've got big appetites out here.

14:51I'm so stoked on these. I decided to put them on the menu as a special. You can come to Kellogg's Diner,

14:56518 Metropolitan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You can have these. They can be yours. We're serving them up for

15:01two days only. These are the dates right here. Come get them while they're hot and molten and filled.

15:08I think we can mark this as a win. I did what I set out to do, which was make a nice, crispy,

15:13full, delicious egg roll based on a Reuben and an homage to Chili's Southwest egg rolls. So

15:19come to Kellogg's and have some for yourself.

NYC Diner Recreates Chili's Southwestern Eggrolls

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Gourmet Makes

Recommended