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(door thumps)
(woman screams)
(food splats)
(women gasp)
- (laughing) Oh my!
- Meredith!
- [Host] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to "Binging With Babish."
For this week, we're taking a look at
the ill-fated strata from "The Family Stone,"
for which we're gonna need some bread.
10 slices of hearty white sandwich loaf,
which we're gonna cut snowflakes out of
by virtue of some snowflake-shaped cookie cutters.
And cut the remaining scraps into cubes.
Huh, messy and scrappy, and neat as a pin.
And you need both to make this dish,
just like, oh, I don't know, a family.
Speaking of family, if you plan on making this with them,
in order to prevent any more tension,
you might wanna mise everything out beforehand.
That is, premeasure, chop, and even cook things,
so you can throw everything together on the day of.
And your best friend for this task
is the humble rimmed baking sheet,
which I'm having a hard time making look cool right now.
Ow.
It's the perfect tray for pre-measuring
and organizing your ingredients
so you can put them in the fridge.
So we're gonna channel our inner
Sarah Jessica Parker's character from "The Family Stone."
Measuring out a half stick of unsalted butter
and one tablespoon of neutral flavored oil.
Then thinly slice 14 ounces of tomatoes.
I like to keep these on paper towel
to prevent tomato drippies.
We're also pealing and thinly slicing an onion into rings,
separating them and adding them to the tray.
Then Sarah Jessica Parker's character, Meredith,
that was her name, Meredith.
She strikes me as the mushroom wiping type.
That is, painstakingly and carefully brushing the dirt
off the mushrooms one at a time, rather than washing them.
You know, the unnecessarily fussy way.
So once we've painstakingly polished our mushrooms,
we're cleaning the countertop
and dumping them right back out for slicing.
It's important to slice thinly
and evenly to ensure even cooking.
Now once sliced, you could cover these with plastic wrap
and fridge them with the rest of the ingredients,
or cook them off now.
There's that tablespoon oil
we had so much fun measuring before,
which we're bringing up to about 450 degrees
over medium high heat.
Oh dear, this pan simply won't do.
It's too small, and the mushroom might fall out
and destroy our pristine cooktop.
So same procedure this time
in a high walled carbon steel wok.
And this time we're going to add
one teaspoon of kosher salt.
This is going to help draw moisture out of the mushrooms
as they cook, about five to seven minutes,
or until beginning to brown.
Now, after a brief workspace sanitation,
we're ready to continue assembling our mise en place.
I have here one pound of fresh mozzarella
that I put in the freezer for 15 minutes
before thinly slicing, five eggs,
three cups of whole milk, one teaspoon kosher salt,
one teaspoon oregano, quarter teaspoon of garlic powder,
two ounces of finely grated Parmesan,
and a dozen black olives thinly sliced.
Now we can begin to cook, or perform a quick
workspace sanitation, cover it with plastic wrap,
put in the fridge, and cook tomorrow
when everything's ready to dump and go.
Now this might seem a little fastidious,
but it's actually a great technique for cooking in general.
And it's what Kendall does for me on a weekly basis.
So, thanks Kendall.
Once you're positive that your casserole's
9 x 13 inches, we're going to thoroughly
and prolifically lubricate it with butter.
That half stick of the unsalted stuff
that we stowed with our mise.
Then we're laying down all the cubed bread scraps
in a single layer, lightly pressing them down
before topping them with half our mozzarella
torn into little pieces,
half of our thin tomato slices,
all of our onions, our sauteed and cooled mushrooms
that I forgot to put on our tray,
the rest of the mozzarella slices.
And then we're topping that with our bread in the stars.
Then each star gets its own tomato slice,
or, you know, close enough.
Next up we need to build the custard
that we're gonna pour over the top.
Combining the three cups of whole milk, five large eggs,
a pinch of salt, and a few twists
of freshly ground black pepper,
which were not in the recipe,
which is why they're not mised.
But then we're adding our teaspoon of oregano
and quarter teaspoon of garlic powder.
Whisking until homogenous,
just as fast as your wrist will allow.
And carefully pouring over the assembled casserole,
making sure to saturate all the bread on top.
Otherwise, it could dry out and burn in the oven.
Only two steps left to go.
That's our two ounces of finely grated Parmesan cheese
and our dozen thinly sliced olives.
And then this guy's ready to be covered
in plastic wrap and fridged overnight.
And I know you're asking yourself,
is he gonna spill it for comic effect?
And the answer is no.
Jess loves this movie
and she wants to try the real thing.
So the next morning, we're very carefully
transporting the strata from the fridge,
removing the plastic wrap,
and baking for one to one and a half hours
in the preheated 325 degree Fahrenheit oven.
Until it's quite possibly
the most beautiful strata you've ever seen.
And it springs back lightly when poked,
and a tester emerges clean.
Let it sit for 10 minutes,
during which time it's going to hilariously deflate.
Divvy it with a thin spatula and serve.
Now, Kendall also loves this movie,
and she's the one who found the recipe in the DVD
special features of her copy of "The Family Stone."
And I gotta say, whoever on the cast or crew
came up with this one, bravo.
Top marks for flavor, texture, appearance,
and consider this your cordial invitation
to the Clean Plate Club.
Thanks again to Cash App for sponsoring today's episode.
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(chill music)