[2 - 2] hey everyone it's kenji uh i'm gonna
[2 - 8] make some guacamole ready guacamole yes
[8 - 10] guacamole yes guacamole um this is one of the first
[10 - 11] things i ever learned how to make um it
[11 - 12] but i make it a lot differently now than
[12 - 16] i did when i was um a kid so when i was
[16 - 18] younger what i would do is i would take
[18 - 20] some onions i would uh dice them up i
[20 - 21] would take some tomatoes i would dice
[22 - 23] them up then i would take some
[23 - 25] avocado and i'd mash it with a fork and
[25 - 29] then i'd fold in the onions and tomatoes
[29 - 31] as well as sometimes some cilantro and
[32 - 33] usually some lime juice
[33 - 35] and that's that's what i call guacamole
[36 - 38] now that is not really guacamole that is
[38 - 40] that is not really guacamole that is more like avocado mashed avocado mixed
[42 - 43] with a few other ingredients guacamole the
[43 - 46] a few other ingredients guacamole the name comes from um well guaca from
[46 - 50] aguacate which is a avocado in um
[51 - 52] spanish and then
[52 - 57] and then mole which is um to to pound so like
[57 - 58] you'll see it in the roots where you
[58 - 59] know like mole sauce is is a sauce
[60 - 61] that's made out of pounded ingredients
[61 - 62] that are all pounded together you'll see
[62 - 65] um carne molita which is meat that is
[65 - 66] pounded until it's until it's a ground
[66 - 68] up um so you know it can be maybe can be
[68 - 70] ground it can be pounded but anyway
[70 - 72] anyway it means something that's been
[72 - 73] pounded inside this thing which is a
[73 - 76] molcajete um you can use a mortar and
[76 - 78] pestle also but i i like using the mulch
[78 - 80] just because it has a nicer
[80 - 81] easier shape for me to use in a nice big
[83 - 85] it might sound like a silly thing to say
[85 - 87] that you need a molcajete to make
[88 - 89] guacamole i mean i guess you don't really need it
[89 - 90] i mean i guess you don't really need it but
[90 - 93] there is a huge huge difference between
[93 - 95] guacamole that's made
[95 - 97] in a molcajete versus guacamole that's
[97 - 99] made with hand chopped ingredients or
[99 - 101] even ingredients in a food processor so
[101 - 103] when you pound your aromatics which by
[103 - 111] the way in this case are just onion serrano chili serrano chili and
[111 - 112] cilantro and you want to rinse all this
[113 - 114] first [Music]
[114 - 117] [Music] onions serrano chili and cilantro
[117 - 122] with a big pinch of salt
[123 - 123] those are your base aromatics you know
[123 - 125] you can add garlic if you want although
[125 - 126] you know traditionally it doesn't have
[126 - 128] garlic in it you could add garlic if you
[128 - 129] want you get tomatoes if you want i like
[129 - 131] keeping it real sort of pure and simple
[131 - 133] so just these three ingredients onions
[133 - 135] chilies cilantro as my garden is my
[135 - 138] flavoring for the avocado um sometimes
[138 - 139] i'll add some lemon juice in fact
[139 - 141] usually sorry usually i'll add some lime
[141 - 143] juice as well um i'm not sure i'll add
[143 - 145] it today though i might just go i might
[145 - 148] just go straight up partly because
[148 - 149] partly because i don't think i have any
[150 - 151] limes today but
[152 - 153] yeah so the difference
[154 - 156] between chopping a vegetable
[156 - 158] and pounding a vegetable is
[158 - 161] like so the metaphor i like to use is if
[161 - 162] you think of a vegetable as like a
[162 - 164] shipyard where you have all these
[164 - 166] shipping containers um and each one of
[166 - 167] them is full of sort of aromatic
[167 - 170] vegetable juices so each one is full of
[170 - 172] onions or chilies or cilantro whatever
[173 - 175] when you chop vegetables even if you do
[177 - 178] even if you do it with a food processor
[178 - 179] blade what you're kind of doing is
[179 - 181] you're you might be you might be
[181 - 182] separating some of the layers of
[182 - 183] shipping containers some of them you
[183 - 185] might be cleaving open and releasing
[185 - 187] some of those internal um you know some
[187 - 188] of the vegetables and the aromatic
[188 - 190] things out of them
[190 - 192] but most of the cells most of those
[192 - 193] shipping containers are actually going
[193 - 195] to stay intact
[195 - 196] um now when you pound something in a
[196 - 199] mortar and pestle like this or molcajete
[199 - 201] what you're doing it's sort of like it's
[201 - 202] sort of like when like godzilla comes to
[202 - 204] shore and he starts just pounding on
[204 - 205] stepping on things just crushing those
[206 - 207] containers and so you end up actually
[207 - 209] releasing a lot more of the aromatic
[210 - 213] compounds than you do with a knife or
[213 - 214] even with a food processor
[214 - 217] and if you taste it side by side
[217 - 220] side by side with a guacamole made with
[220 - 221] a knife or food processor i mean the
[221 - 223] difference is
[223 - 225] it's really striking it's very very
[225 - 228] clear difference um
[228 - 230] the mortar and pestle or mulch is one of
[230 - 231] my the most essential tools in my
[231 - 233] kitchen i use it you know almost every
[234 - 237] day i would use this for making
[237 - 238] i would use this for making i use it for crushing garlic or ginger
[238 - 241] from stir fries or for curries i use it
[241 - 243] for making pesto i use it for making
[249 - 249] thai curry pastes
[249 - 252] i use it for crushing crushing um
[252 - 254] spices i find it much easier to crush
[254 - 256] spices than a mortar and pestle than a
[256 - 258] than a spice grinder even an electric
[258 - 260] spice grinder um mainly because like
[260 - 263] normally you need like a few tablespoons
[263 - 265] of spices to effectively make a electric
[265 - 267] spice grinder work um and in a molcajete
[267 - 269] or in a modern pestle you can do as
[269 - 270] little as you'd like and you can grind
[270 - 273] it as fine or smooth as you like
[273 - 274] um sorry as coarse or as fine as you
[279 - 279] all right so that's about what we're
[279 - 280] looking for i could keep going a little
[280 - 282] bit but i think this is good enough for
[282 - 288] me it's a pretty pretty pasty
[288 - 290] pretty pasty um if you don't have a molcajete what i
[290 - 292] would recommend actually is taking your
[292 - 293] aromatics and throwing them in the
[294 - 296] freezer for um until they're frozen you know for
[296 - 297] for um until they're frozen you know for like maybe 10-15 minutes put them on a
[297 - 299] tray from in the freezer uh before
[299 - 301] incorporating them into your guacamole
[301 - 302] and the reason you do that is that
[302 - 305] freezing will also sort of rupture cells
[305 - 307] so in most cases that's not a good not a
[307 - 308] good thing but if you're going to be
[309 - 311] pounding everything to oblivion anyway
[311 - 314] or grinding it all to oblivion then um
[314 - 315] it doesn't really matter that you're
[315 - 316] sort of losing structural integrity and
[316 - 318] it actually helps release flavor better
[318 - 321] that's a good trick for your pesto also
[321 - 324] throw your basil
[324 - 326] and your garlic into the freezer for
[326 - 329] 10-15 minutes before if you don't have
[329 - 330] that as if you're not going to make it
[330 - 331] traditionally in a mortar and pestle if
[331 - 333] you're making it a food processor throw
[333 - 335] it into the the freezer for 10-15
[335 - 337] minutes before you found it same with
[337 - 339] same with uh sort of thai curry paste
[339 - 341] your chilies all of your fresh fresh
[341 - 343] aromatics throw them in the freezer for
[348 - 348] all right these
[348 - 350] of course the other secret to good
[350 - 352] guacamole is having good avocados and
[353 - 355] the the trick the real trick to getting good
[355 - 356] the trick the real trick to getting good avocados
[356 - 357] well first of all is to live in
[357 - 361] california or mexico um that helps uh
[361 - 363] but what i do is so you want to find
[363 - 364] avocados that
[364 - 367] um you know they give a little bit on
[367 - 369] the outside when you squeeze them but
[369 - 370] they're not mushy
[370 - 372] um and they certainly don't feel like
[372 - 373] there's any sort of loose skin like the
[373 - 374] flesh has started to pull away from the
[374 - 376] skin you don't want that um
[376 - 378] the trick that i find uh generally works
[378 - 380] as if there's a pile of avocados and
[380 - 381] maybe people will hate you at the
[381 - 382] supermarket for doing this but if
[382 - 384] there's a pile of avocados
[384 - 385] go for the ones like in the second or
[385 - 387] third third layer from the top don't
[387 - 390] don't grab the top avocados because
[390 - 392] avocados as with most vegetables
[392 - 394] they ripen their ripening is triggered
[394 - 397] by the concentration of ethylene gas
[397 - 398] which is a gas that the avocados produce
[400 - 402] themselves but it triggers ripening in them so the
[402 - 405] but it triggers ripening in them so the avocados that are on lower layers of the
[405 - 407] produce bin that ethylene gas is more
[407 - 408] concentrated around them because it
[408 - 410] doesn't have as many sort of avenues of
[410 - 411] escape it can't just fly off up into the
[411 - 414] air above them uh so they tend to go
[414 - 415] ripe faster so if you have a bin in
[415 - 417] front of you of avocados and the ones on
[417 - 420] top all seem pretty hard uh dig around
[420 - 421] underneath and you'll probably find that
[421 - 425] the ones underneath are actually ripe
[426 - 426] of course you can also just buy hard
[426 - 429] avocados and and ripen them yourself
[429 - 433] as with as with apples bananas
[433 - 436] tomatoes the more sealed off they are uh
[436 - 438] the faster they're gonna ripen again
[438 - 439] because of that concentration of
[439 - 442] ethylene gas um so if you put your
[442 - 443] avocados in a bowl pile them all
[443 - 445] together uh they'll ripen faster than if
[445 - 448] you keep them sort of individually loose
[448 - 450] they'll also ripen faster at room
[450 - 452] temperature than um
[452 - 455] than in the fridge so if you're avocado
[455 - 456] if you have a whole bunch of avocados
[456 - 457] like i generally do
[457 - 458] um and you don't think you're going to
[458 - 460] eat them soon and they're starting to
[460 - 461] get ripe just throw them in the fridge
[461 - 463] and they'll uh that'll extend their life
[463 - 472] for at least a few days
[474 - 474] all right so we are almost done actually
[474 - 475] you know what maybe i don't have the
[475 - 477] line maybe i'll throw a little bit of
[477 - 479] throw a touch of lemon juice in there
[479 - 482] any citrus is really fine
[484 - 484] and of course you don't this is a very
[484 - 487] sort of traditional um simple
[487 - 489] guacamole but you don't have to be
[489 - 492] sort of real prescriptivist about it um
[492 - 493] you know like you go look at like rick
[493 - 496] bayless's books on on guacamole he has i
[496 - 498] think he has a book on that's just about
[498 - 500] guacamole and cocktails cocktails or
[500 - 503] salsa in cocktails maybe but he has a
[503 - 504] whole bunch of wacky guacamole
[504 - 506] variations in there like with apples or
[508 - 511] different kinds of types of fruits
[512 - 514] is totally cool to do no one's gonna
[514 - 516] stop you alright now comes the fun part
[521 - 521] mash it all together
[522 - 546] get a little bit on your shirt
[548 - 548] as for getting your guacamole to stay
[550 - 552] first of all putting the seed in there
[552 - 554] as a lot of people claim um doesn't make
[554 - 556] any difference this has been
[556 - 557] pretty thoroughly tested by quite a few
[558 - 560] people including myself um
[560 - 562] the seed doesn't make a difference um
[562 - 564] adding extra acid actually a small
[564 - 566] amount of acid will actually um
[566 - 569] make it brown a little bit faster
[569 - 570] um so lemon juice or lime juice doesn't
[570 - 571] really prevent it from browning it
[571 - 573] actually increases its browning a little
[574 - 576] bit the real things that'll keep it from
[576 - 577] the real things that'll keep it from browning
[577 - 579] are keeping it cold because all those
[579 - 580] reactions that the oxidation that that
[580 - 583] makes it turn brown um it goes slower at
[583 - 585] colder temperatures so you can chill
[585 - 587] this mocha if you want to serve it right out
[587 - 589] mocha if you want to serve it right out of here that's one thing you can do um
[589 - 590] and then the other is if you're gonna
[590 - 591] store your avocado or sorry you don't
[591 - 593] finish it all in one go which i think
[593 - 596] you should um
[598 - 598] what you can do is take
[598 - 599] a plastic wrap and push it right down on
[601 - 602] and kind of press out all of the air so
[602 - 604] it's exposure to air that's going to
[605 - 607] start to turn color um what i like to do
[608 - 609] sometimes with my
[609 - 612] guacamole i got a little queso
[614 - 619] frisco [Applause]
[633 - 633] and a little bit for shopping sit chubby
[634 - 636] sit good girl
[636 - 638] good girl yeah oh jamon you want some
[638 - 640] someone does it people ask why i don't
[640 - 641] feed homeowner with him usually he's not
[641 - 643] really that much of a food motivated dog
[643 - 645] so he doesn't always want it um also he
[645 - 646] had broke his leg a few years ago that's
[647 - 651] here you go home good boy
[651 - 653] good boy and no my finger did not just touch his
[653 - 655] mouth cause i know people are gonna say
[655 - 657] something about that
[657 - 660] i don't care i give my dog kisses anyway
[660 - 661] get some good chips
[661 - 676] [Applause] all right
[676 - 679] all right shall we go eat this
[679 - 680] and i'm gonna go share some with my
[680 - 681] daughter who's
[681 - 684] watching finding dory for the
[684 - 697] 89th time this quarantine damn
[697 - 703] damn good guacamole is hard to beat
[706 - 706] i'm sorry good guacamole
[723 - 723] all right i will
[723 - 726] see you later