- This thing I wear on my wrist says they're not poisonous.
(Leela munches)
- Well, how are they?
(Leela gulps)
(Leela thuds)
(Leela munches)
Oh, they're great.
- Oh man, I'm inhaling these stings.
You guys caught some primo stuff here.
(Zoidberg munches)
- They're tastier than an unguarded penguin nest.
what do you call them?
- [Babish] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish."
For this week, we're taking a look
at the popplers from the "Futurama."
Now, given that these are just unhatched,
omicrony, and progeny, we can't be too super accurate,
but they are described by Fry as fried shrimp,
and by Bender as fried prawns, more on this later.
First, something we can recreate accurately,
the dipping sauces.
First, the honey mustard,
which I think you can figure out how to make.
Then for the tangy, sweet and sour sauce,
I'm gonna combine three ounces of rice wine vinegar,
one ounce of soy sauce, two ounces of pineapple juice,
half teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes,
about one ounce of ketchup,
and five ounces of granulated sugar in a small sauce pan.
I've also got three ounces of water,
about one ounce of which I'm gonna add to the mixture,
tiny whisking to combine,
and bringing to a simmer over medium heat,
then whisking two tablespoons of cornstarch
into that remaining two ounces of water
and slowly adding to the simmering sauce
tiny whisking all the while.
This is gonna thicken the sauce
and give it that characteristically, glossy, gooey,
distinctly fast food dipping sauce texture.
It's a little too light, so I'm gonna darken it
with some extra soy sauce, bring it back to a simmer,
and cook for about one minute until thickened.
Those are the only two dipping sauces mentioned in the show,
but I wanted to capture
the honey walnut shrimp from Panda Express.
So I'm combining half a cup of Kewpie mayo
with a juice of half a lemon,
two tablespoons sweetened condensed milk,
one tablespoon of honey,
and normally this would just be tossed with shrimp
and walnuts, but I'm grinding my walnuts down
to a sandy texture to add to the dipping sauce,
so that it's an all-inclusive vehicle.
So there's our trio of sauces.
Now it's time to decide shrimp or prawns.
While the terms are often used interchangeably,
shrimp are typically
salt watered dwelling curly little guys like this,
while prawns tend to be found in fresh water,
have straighter bodies
and range from being slightly bigger than shrimp
to being downright lobster-like.
Now, given their bite-sized nature,
I think we're going with shrimp.
Specifically medium, small, 31 to 40 shrimp
like these that is there are 31 to 40 of them in a pound.
No matter your shrimp or how you're cooking them,
it's always best practice to dry brine them in a mixture
of one tablespoon kosher salt to one teaspoon baking soda,
toss and combine and let these hang out in the fridge
for 30 minutes to one hour.
Next up, the breading,
and I'm gonna try a bunch of different methods
to try to recreate that popplers aesthetic.
First, the bare bones flour and egg,
pinch of baking powder added to the flour
is gonna help with browning and a pinch of salt
and flour added to eggs is gonna help them
beat into a more cohesive slurry.
I'm gonna do two shrimp per batch,
one for eating, one for looking,
starting in the flour,
making sure they're thoroughly coated,
shaking off any excess, sending over to the egg,
make sure no dry patches remain,
and back over to the flour, pressing onto the shrimp
to make sure that it is fully ensconced in breading.
Then, it's time to fry.
Everybody today is gonna be fried in canola oil
at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
These shrimp are small
and they're gonna overcook very quickly,
so we want to cook them very fastly,
ideally between 30 seconds to one minute.
And right off the bat, the flour and egg breading
is proving to not be ideal,
taking almost three minutes
to achieve a state of golden browndedness.
The shrimp aren't dry by any measure
and their texture is somewhat protected
by the baking soda brine, but they are a bit bouncy,
and springy, bringing us to our next breading:
bread or breadcrumbs.
To make our own breadcrumbs,
we're crusting and cubing four slices of white bread,
arranging the cubes on a rim baking sheet
and placing in a low 200 degree Fahrenheit oven
for about two hours or until completely dry,
allow to cool completely
and process into homemade breadcrumbs.
Breading similarly as before,
starting with flour than to egg,
but then finishing in the crumbs.
Now because these bread crumbs were dried out in the oven,
they're already a little darker
than store-bought breadcrumbs would be,
which means they're gonna cook more quickly,
which means our shrimp are gonna be juicier and tenderer,
achieving a golden brown crunch in about 30 seconds.
They also taste a whole lot better
than store-bought breadcrumbs,
which can have a kind of stale flavor to them.
Next up in the breadcrumb category, Panko,
which if you wanna make an at-home approximation,
we are this time processing the white bread
while still fresh,
which is gonna give us a much larger textured crumb,
which we're then gonna dry out in the oven
after being ground.
Same deal, 200 degrees Fahrenheit for about two hours,
shuffling every 30 minutes or so
to make sure that they dry evenly.
Now, this is not real Panko,
but it looks and behaves like it
with the notable exception of browning more quickly,
just like our homemade breadcrumbs.
We're applying them the same way,
flour, then egg, then crumb,
and frying for the same breathless 30 seconds.
The result is an incredibly tender and juicy shrimp
that's super crisp thanks to the big old honk and crumbs.
So now we've breaded with bread,
but what about breading
with non breaded, specifically coconut?
I have some unsweetened shredded coconut here
that I'm processing down to a finer texture.
That way we don't have big old coconut curies
hanging off our shrimp.
And instead of egg, this breading is going to be applied
by virtue of a batter.
I'm starting with five and a half ounces of flour,
quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper,
and one teaspoon of baking powder,
regular sized whisk until homogenous.
And then in a separate bowl with liquid element,
I'm combining half a cup of beer, one large egg,
and a quarter cup of coconut milk in this recipe,
inspired by America's Test Kitchen.
I'm also gonna add the zest of one lime
before whisking to combine, and then adding the dry stuff,
whisk until just combined.
It's okay if there are still few lumps,
then my breading is gonna be a 50/50 mix of Panko
and coconut tossed combined.
And then, here comes the shrimp.
First, into the flour
to make sure that the batter adheres to the shrimp,
then into the batter, then into the breading,
then into the oil,
frying, once again, for 30 seconds to one minute.
As you can see, because of my quick cooking Panko,
I have sort of a leopard print thing going on here.
But in addition to being tender, these guys were zesty,
sweet and flavorful.
Next up, I thought I'd try a bare bones beer batter,
combining one cup flour, half cup corn starch,
pinch of salt, and a half teaspoon of baking powder.
Beer batter takes a while to brown, so I'm hoping
that this will help speed things up.
Whisk to combine, and then slowly add your beer,
adjusting as necessary
until you get a paint like consistency.
We're doing the two station dipping method,
going from flour to batter and straight into the fryer.
Now these guys came out pretty delicious,
but they also came out pretty pale.
Beer batter turns out extra crispy thanks to the cornstarch,
but it has the trade-off of not browning very quickly.
So long as that doesn't bother you, this is a viable option.
Last up in the batter camp is tempura,
which has a higher ratio of cornstarch,
two thirds of a cup to one third flour,
the addition of a large single egg.
And instead of beer
opts for two thirds of a cup of sparkling water,
whisk both until homogenous and combined,
keeping everything cold and frying immediately,
the shrimp get coated in flour, then in batter,
and then straightened into the fryer,
also yielding some crispy strings of tenkasu as you fry.
Now this fries up lighter and crispier than beer batter,
but at an even greater expense of color.
I actually over fried this one, and it's still pretty pale.
A delicious shrimp, no doubt, but a far cry from popplers.
As a matter of fact,
in all the shrimp that we've made today,
no one seems to be really fitting the bill.
So as usual, I turn
to some Jazz Cigarette style inspiration,
creating a hybrid of all the breadings at once,
using store-bought Panko so that it doesn't brown unevenly,
processed coconut, crushed up corn flakes,
store-bought breadcrumbs, flour and corn starch,
all in equal proportions except for the corn starch,
which is half portion.
Toss to combine, and then I'm going to adhere it
using the coconut lime zest batter.
Also, no more two shrimp at a time,
I'm going all in on this recipe,
tossing first in the flour
and then shaking off the excess like a bunch of lucky dice,
thoroughly coating in batter, and then in our flour,
cornstarch, coconut, breadcrumb,
Panko, and corn flake mixture.
Drop those in the oil fry for about 60 seconds,
and my wager paid off.
The result was a bigger, more alien looking fried shrimp.
A surface crackled with a variety of textures and flavors.
After frying them, keeping the various batches warm
in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, and once everybody's done,
piling them high in a bowl so that they are reminiscent
of a bunch of alien eggs in an alien crater
and serving with our dipping sauces.
And there you have it, popplers that look the part,
but are they as addictive as depicted in the cartoon?
At this point in the day, I have eaten
seven different kinds of fried shrimp,
so these guys are gonna have to be pretty spectacular
for me to eat more than one.
Which, I'm very proud to say, they were.
They were crunchy, crispy, juicy, flavorful,
good with the honey mustard,
better with the tangy sweetened sour,
but best with the honey walnut dipping sauce.
It was so good in fact that I went on to make these shrimp
my dinner for the evening,
shortly followed by a New Year's resolution
to stop eating fully deep fried meals.
At least more than once a day.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music continues)