Recreating Roy Choi's Carne Asada Tacos From Taste | Bon Appétit

Hi guys, I'm Alex. I'm here at the VA Test Kitchen and I'm going to have a little secret conversation about Chris Morocco with all of you once again. Let's test his super

taste

r skills. This is Roy Choi's roast beef.

tacos

with salsa verde Los Angeles native Roy Choi grew up in Koreatown cooking Korean food and eating a lot of Mexican food. We'll challenge Chris to create this exact dish with every ingredient in just two days. Chris will be able to

taste

it, touch it. They smell it, but at no point will he set his eyes on this plate at the end of the second day.

I'll try Chris' version again and judge whether he nailed it or not. I really hope you guys are. Don't fuck with me about this mask man, I have a really bad feeling about this, okay, cool, hey, right, these are the ones that scare me a little. This is very soft, very subtle. I thought maybe it smelled a little. corn and just feeling the edges of these plates feels like I have a tortilla situation when I get too close, I feel like I'm getting something a little cold and crispy, but it's so weak hmm, okay, let's take this item by item, come on, It's like very meaty cilantro or something, here it's chopped raw onion.

I imagine it's white onion, there's some heat to this, there's some zip, there's some moderately spicy fermented hot sauce, there's something a little bit yeah. It's not very spicy, it's like and there aren't many other flavors, but it has a little bit of something funky and fruity going on. Everything is scaring me today, even cilantro is scaring me today. Who is that? My God why? Are you like stalking? Oh my God, I feel like I'm growing antlers. I'm getting a bit of a button nose. Yes, I have a very bad feeling that I am rude. You make me very nervous.

Sometimes we are almost fine. so I have a kind of piece of meat here, wow, that has a deep level of char, that's what I was smelling, it was like that meaty, roasted edge, it tastes like beef, it has a pronounced kind of stringy ness, could this be? Our skirt steak friend is back for another rodeo or something a little denser. What is it about the steak that gives it that kind of accentuated char on that edge? There's like a little dry and then how's the hot sauce? when used, it's very difficult to understand, okay, hot sauce is only on the meat, hot sauce is everywhere, there is sweetness here too, it's as simple as someone made a tomatillo sauce and somehow it sweetened. and then like they're hit with lime, I think part of it is like the tomatillos themselves have a lot of acidity, but they still have that green tomato character.

What's really tricky is where you like the brightness of the lime juice, like the potential finish. and then like the acidity of the tomatillo starts, then there's also a little bit of that vegetal quality of the bell pepper, like the green chiles, you know specifically and I can't necessarily say what the source of the chile is here. It's complicated, okay, so I sit down. around to see if I can have an edge of meat that doesn't look too sautéed, yeah, I don't think I'm calling this for brisket, brisket, it would be a little more flexible, it would be a little more like it. a kind of crushed texture.

I imagine in my mind all the graphics that will appear for you, like the wrong skirt steak, Chris sucks, you know, like check, it's too thin, I think my initial move with In my mind, the steak will be a New York Strip, like a dry rub would make more sense in this, but then again, I don't taste like obvious spices, there's a very savory umami quality to the meat, it tastes good, it's almost a setting. in which I could see something like soy sauce or something salty like very mommy, you know, that is used in meat, this is complicated, it's that you guys are funny, I love you, I can feel the presence of him because he was. chill out, I heard you back there and then like you're not online, chill out that's not what you do, good luck bro, thanks buddy, I mean, it would be like you to choose the skirt steak after the bacon debacle pig.

I don't know what it is, I'm going to get in a bad mood with the other misfit reindeer here. I guess there's the question of if this isn't strictly Mexican in my head, it might skew a little Asian, okay, shopping list, so I want to eat steak. dirt and a little bit of New York Strip for this first step sauce I think that's it. I'm going to go to the supermarket on I don't know street. I'm going to be thinking a lot along the way. I'm not ready for the spice aisle yet, let's start with plant-based products, okay, tomatillos.

I'm going to grab a couple serranos just to be safe, but I think I'm dealing with spicy jalapenos. Here, cilantro, let's get some limes. Get some garlic, let's get some oranges, corn tortillas, let's get to the meat case. I'm not going to deal with the spices yet. Could I have the skirt steak right on top and could I also have a New York Strip? Yes, if I could. I have the second from the back perfect thank you so much for the help I appreciate it I feel like it's probably brisket but I don't want to commit 100% let's go look for hot sauce this is a problem like when you start talking about hot sauces What are you talking about?

I unequivocally believe that what I'm trying is an amalgamation of several ingredients, but I don't know, but if you don't know the players who don't like it, that just gets you. Alright, this is Molly, let me see if she has any inspiration. Hey, Molly, what do you need? I'll bring you the oyster crackers, you're the best, okay, great bite, well, that was interesting. Alright. I just got back from the supermarket. I have most, if not all, of what I think I need here. Still some TV DS. See what I mean. He comes in and he's loud, so if you hear Brad go quiet, he's probably about to blow on your neck or do something a little weird but kinda awesome to make the sauce two ways.

I'm going to roast some of the ingredients and I'm going to make a version where you actually have something in the oven man's oven. Since when do you ever have anything in the oven? No, probably not. I probably blew the whistle. I'm so sorry, where are my timers? Since when? Andy, it's okay. I'm going to make the sauce two ways. I'm going to use pretty much the same ingredients, but I'm going to make the sauce using two different techniques, so one technique will be blistered in the oven and then pureed. and one technique will be with the ingredients sweated on the stove and then pureed, so I'll start with the tomatillos because I think they are an important component of the sauce.

A little white onion. A garlic clove. Come on Serrano, why not a little? neutral oil a pinch of salt I'm roasting it at a somewhat high temperature until it's a little charred here we start our onions we're just going to sweat a little no Siemer sandy, I'm not going to touch it, okay so I have garlic, it's just going to go on top of the white onion in the saucepan. This is a somewhat spicy Syriano, so I'm going to use this quarter, so I just added garlic and a little bit of serrano pepper to the pot. and then I'm going to eat these tomatillos and just throw them in there after a minute or so.

I'm going to add a splash of water to that tomatillo, like letting the sauce cook down. I just don't want anything, everything is getting too hot, okay, the sauces are going to start the marinade, so I have lemon and orange juice, a teaspoon of ancho chili, a little bit of garlic, I'll do it a little bit of soy sauce and we'll see what happens, so this is our roast sauce. It didn't take long, but the tomatillos are collapsing and I have a little char, a little raw bite from removing the onion, so I'll wait a minute and then blend this all up.

The tomatillos are soft and almost ready. to go, I just want to cook off some of that moisture. They'll both be mixed with cilantro and more lime juice and salt and then we'll try them side by side, so this is our strip steak now that we have skirt. steak here, I just made a cut like a little sample piece. I don't need to marinate everything. I don't want to waste it. Both pieces will go into our marinade. I'm going to try to give them 20 minutes there, okay, the sauce, one is sweaty and simmered on the stove, okay, so it's coming out pretty good.

I'm going to throw in some cilantro, okay, so we need to loosen this up a little bit, you know what I like. About that it actually has a good amount of sweetness and the spiciness is somewhat balanced and not that different from the original sauce. I don't hate a little lemon juice right now. I'm leaning heavily towards this, but let's continue with the exercise. since we're here, it heats up a little more pronounced in the roasted version of the sauce. I like the roasted version, however, I feel like the stovetop version of the sauce is just a little, the writer's flavors shine through a little more, so I'm leaning toward this one, which is the stovetop version, so I want to drain very good steak.

The marinade has done something. Look what happens here when we roast this. I don't know if these guys cook bold ones on the grill well. I think we're good, the brisket looks great on the New York Strip, maybe we'll play, we're good, everything's good, we'll let these guys rest, so I'll just do my diced onion for the garnish, picking a little of cilantro for the garnish, if not. steak, then cancel the show and then we can all go home early. I'm going with brisket, that's what I have in my head, version 1, so this is my first attempt with the dish.

I can know in my mind that I want a little more flavor. development of the steak I hope the next tasting of the original dish will be revealing in some way. I doubt that is the case. Remember that it is not bad, but it is time to try the original dish again. I don't believe it. Honestly, this is one of those cases where it could be a hint of this, it could be a hint of that, it could be whole other ingredients that just don't register in terms of flavor in terms of an individually distinct way. in the original dish so I'll give myself sixty-four ingredients tastes I'll give myself a 65 things are dark today that's how it is I'll give myself 64 technical fathers I'll call it 70 I think this is kind of the general composition of this dish, so I think which overall maybe I'm hanging around d-plus, I have one more chance to try this dish tomorrow and then I really need to bring my A-game, so a great night's sleep maybe a couple of glasses of wine when I get to home and start again tomorrow.

Today I'm a sad little reindeer, so this is a piece of what I think is a steak. Well, I can't tell what's going on with the sauce and what's going on with the steak there. the sauce is getting a little warmer today it's very angular you know it's bright and buzzy there's something greasy about this sauce there could be a little bit of a fermented quality to this flavor which I felt was the result of using a kind of fermented hot sauce that I was responding to yesterday like I had a little bit of a wild guess in my mind, but I don't want to say it because then there will be I know like that graph here that's like you know yourself well, Chris.

I guess the other question then is if it's just fermented green hot sauce, you know, like green Cholula or something, what does that mean? I definitely feel better about skirt steak, this just feels like it. I eat a little bit looser and it's like a kind of muscle fiber structure, not for nothing, directly, I don't know, like anyone could figure out what the heck was in that steak. I'm completely confused, take it from me, we. I'm going to try a few different things here, set up some base recipes and then branch out, add some different things, you know, one or the other, okay, let's do it for the marinade.

I'm going to start with some orange in lime. I'm going to make some garlic and ancho chili powder. So far they are identical, but I feel like I need to set up a little experiment. I'm just not sure what variables I want to modify. That was just a little bit of light. brown sugar a little salt just so I can gauge the flavor better I grab some green tape so I can keep track of what we're going to put here this piece of skirt steak I want to make another tomatillo salsa and really think about its texture and then possibly pair it with some avocado, I'm just thinking of ways to add richness and fat specifically to the sauce.

I just want to make a base and then see where it goes, so this is some neutral oil. white onion, today we are also going to add some garlic to the sauce, this is Serrano again, although I want to mess around once I have the base sauce ready, I will let it sit for a minute, some tomatillos go in there so there it is the one with sugar. I just want to see how it will be colored. There's no really obvious smoky flavor in the original dish, although there is char, so I'm thinking maybe it's like hard browning in a pan, kind of sinned.

I just wanted to evaluate the difference between doing it in a pan and, you know, on the grill, it develops too much flavor around laborde, you know, sugar will certainly do, frankly, I like grilled steak better. I'm going to let it sit for a minute. The sauce is cooked. We're going to let this cool for a couple of minutes. A little too sweet. Me too. I didn't like what happened in that cast iron skillet. Frankly, I liked the grill better. What am I going to do taking this piece of brisket? I'm going to put it in ourmarinade that does not have sugar, so this is the big difference with yesterday will be that it does not have soy sauce but it has everything else that I put in the marinade yesterday and we will see what is left, we finish in terms of flavor it does not look very good, does it? what do you mean yes?

I don't think so, but I need you to stay positive, but he's struggling with the sauce, struggling a little bit with everything that comes with being very Chris. I think this might be more than difficult, oh you. I know what it is Delaney knows everything, so could you put that hot and spicy tomatillo on? Yes, but there is a creaminess and a richness to the sauce. That's Vitamix, but vitae, but like I'm almost like a mango, yeah, an avocado. I knew what he. I wanted to say that you guys came at a good time. I was having a hard time filling the silence.

I'm going to hold a little bit of this sauce or security. I'm going to put in a piece of avocado and then I want to put in a little bit of that. Green Cholula and see what happens. I also want a little more cilantro. I mean, the hot sauce definitely helped, so I built up that much stamina. You know, that little bit of energy in the sauce. I love it? I am in love with her? Don't do that, okay, so this is a marinade that has no sugar. He is going to suffer some assault. I'm going to get back to the grill with this.

I didn't like the way the steak was cooked in the black steel pan. Yes, why would I? If something's wrong, I'm actually going to fix it now. I was close, so with a steak you can't get too greedy, like doing it from where Tyree is, that would be a mistake. I think I deserve a little. in one fell swoop, a little extra credit because I'm not getting discouraged here. I keep it light, I keep it fun and this is an opportunity for me to like, you know, kind of decide, listen, I'm going to give this what I want.

I can give what I have to give, but I'm not going to be scared by that, this doesn't define me, although if the steak defined me a little, it would be fine, this one is very difficult, I don't want to complain, but it is really very complicated to reheat our tortillas very fast it definitely looks better than me coming off the grid so this is try number two someone came up to me and said hey you know maybe it would help you if you tried it. your own food blindfolded maybe that would allow you to better judge what you have and you know what I don't remember your name, but this one is for you, give me the mask, the most satisfying thing is that I can take it. mask whatever you want, the steak definitely needs more flavor, even if I don't add other ingredients, I need to double what I have, the sauce needs salt, could be a little less tomatillo and maybe a little more like avocado.

E and hot and spicy ingredients, let's say 50% flavor. I set about 75%. I think things could be adjusted here, but I think flavor-wise, this is definitely a big step in the right direction technique-wise, ooh, I would. I say I'm 70% anything could be happening here appearance this is where I mean I'm closest. Maybe I would put it at 80% this is more or less what I felt in the original dish. I don't think I'm missing any element, so I want to say a couple of steak tortilla sauce. Plugs, that's what the overall score got, I can't do that math, but maybe we've gone from a d+ to a c-minus, maybe we're hovering around 70-73.

I have one more chance if I can adjust everything a little bit. further. I think I can eat this one, but one more chance to do it for Alex. Yeah, I'll see you in a second. I'm running out. Time is running out of options and I'm running out of ideas. I've considered that the alcohol will work as a light beer, more of a lager style beer probably, so I have a dry hopped wheat bale fruit beer and then I have a long neck beer here. I think about these three, it's probably the outbreak, so I have beer.

I have lemon juice and garlic in both chili poncho powder. I feel like we definitely need some sweetness here. Lake Brown, which definitely tastes better. I'm going to double the amount. chili powder just because I have more liquid than I was dealing with before and I wanted more intensity and the beer is diluting things a little bit so it's bright, it's spicy, it's got a little bit of chili depth or something's going on. a little bit of sweetness to keep these marinades basically exactly the same. I just leave open the possibility of adding something if necessary.

Well, I want to work with the sauce. I just saw what happens when I add a little more avocado. I feel like maybe a touch too much avocado now it's getting a little thick a little sticky okay let's make one more sauce it's roasted okay we have time on the clock okay I have green chili a couple cloves of garlic tomatillos white onion I'm going to look for it the green pepper option, poblano pepper, a poblano is the type of chili you would most expect to see. I feel like a roasted tomatillo salsa, it will add depth, it will add volume without making the salsa overtly acidic, esp. if you want to adjust it with the lime, leave it like that for a moment, let's check again a little bit, okay, so there's not a lot of color, let's mix in a little sauce, okay, the cilantro is gaining flavor, okay.

I'm adjusting with our friends our spicy green. the sauce improves the texture a little feeling this watch look how it colors nicely, I'm going to cut both steaks in about five minutes see which one I think is good enough for my man Alex Delaney, you just get a little better flavor out of this one, I think it's just a steak itself, it's like a steak with a richer flavor and taking the venison and the marinade a little better, I would say I have little confidence in the sauce that I'm garnishing with white onion and cilantro, okay? so this is it this is the last chance this is the dish I'm going to serve Alex.

I'm brief the stage of this exercise where I just need to know what's going on. I need answers, okay? I'm giving myself a C. On this, this one is really difficult, they are all difficult in different ways. This one, oh wow, I feel like I didn't understand the concept from the beginning, it's actually a mix of two different sets of flavors that I ultimately like. Combine them to make this okay. I would like to introduce you to Roy Choi's

carne

asada

tacos

with salsa verde. Do you see a lot of joy behind that? list first off visual I mean you nailed it well salsa verde color wise it looks pretty similar onions chopped the same cilantro on top double omelette I need a little refresher yeah on what the application of this thing is okay Chris, I'm going for your taco, let's do it with texture, it's all the consistency of the sauce, the same great flavor, and what catches my attention here is like the citrus zest of orange and lime, orange zest and lime juice, yeah, I could read some of the chili that happens with the steak.

It made sense, but the peel, you know, for the chili - there was the double dose, so you had the ancho chili powder, yeah, and then the fresh jalapeno and then on the sweetness level, this is where I really like it. Let the Roy Choi element enter into sweetness. here yes, it uses mirin and this is absolutely crazy to me, it uses kiwi, but when I read the recipe I thought Chris is going to hate this, there is kiwi, there is also sugar, what sugar is a good pinch of white sugar? Great, you got the salt, I got salt, I got ancho chili, yeah, but you gotta be right, oh yeah, there's beer in this, okay, what kind of steak did you use? you finally grilled it you made the right

choi

ce yeah grilled in the recipe great yeah okay sauce so there's a lot going on in this okay shallot garlic basil cilantro and then I was here to or perhaps I have observed the avocado situation from afar. yeah you were right about putting it there really is avocado in this so there's charred tomatillo and there's also this thing that's a little bit it seems a little atypical to me in Roy's salsa there's a mint so like it's really going to the kitchen sink, yes. herbs, then again, going back to the mirror, there is mirin here also raw and uncooked mirin, yes, I suspect that's okay, so you're talking about the fat content, the creaminess, yes, the creaminess, like it's not greasy, but there was like a fat, if anything, quality canola and olive oil in sauce Roy, okay, and this is like maybe I'm going to burn most of the left field toasted sesame seeds, which might explain : okay Chris I think I need to break this down get this of course okay yeah it's time to talk numbers lessard numbers starting with ingredients yeah I will say this was an incredibly difficult list a lot of nuances a history, so many things from a numbers standpoint, the things you got right, I'll tell you right now, it doesn't look good, it'll be like a 68 okay, tough, yeah, yeah, okay, taste wise, You probably have a solid beat, okay, then I'll give you one, say, I'll give you an 87, oh, okay, okay, okay, I think you did it, right?

I can. trust the flavor technique we're going to go right we're going to go in 86 okay look Chris I mean like you know my eyes you know the look come on I got a puzzle maker yeah boom and I want to say this. I don't know if we're in the market for extra credit, huh, I heard there were some pretty impressive stunts, oh yeah, throwing in major style points if necessary, trying to make up for my deficit somehow, so you know. I am a lenient teacher. I'll give you five extra points. Oh, depending on the style.

Oh yeah, okay. So we'll give you 84 plus five extra points. Alright. 989 Wow, this is not where I expect it to be. At the end of the day today I know, chuckling down the list I think you killed it, okay, okay, I'll definitely take this one, okay, thank you. Oh, beautiful pleasure and okay, great, okay, wow, what a trip. I feel some things. I definitely followed my path today and I and I will definitely take it. I feel like I really trusted the flavors in this one, if you don't want to really try it it might be best to leave it out, so this is huge for me.

Just trusting myself and letting the taste be the guide was the approximate location from the omelet making. I'm trying to make sure I give you the right amount of extra credit here, so I think I was here all along. Well, take it, hold that bear to say to the center of the pan, over the center of the pan, what are we swinging? I'm eight feet six inches, let's call it eight feet six inches, it's nothing, it's nothing and what are we talking about with the steak. the steak where was I guys? I like here blender blender oh I don't know, I feel like I was like oh, it was like this guy, I'm here, okay, also about this particular shot, there's a little bit of fire element a little bit more danger, oh, more flame open, so now we're eight feet three inches, both over eight feet, yeah, the snap distance to beat on the hanger steak toss is 8 feet, 3 inches, why are you going in, Roy, and try to win?

I, Roy, don't understand that.