(eggshell cracking)
(egg sizzling)
(vegetables crunching)
- [Instructor] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish"
where this week we're taking a look
at the potato chip omelet from season two of "The Bear."
Now, this season
has left me spoiled for choice with things to recreate,
but something about the little twists
that Sydney puts
on the classic French omelet (gentle music)
made me wanna try it myself.
Now, I sincerely doubt
that they're making their own chips at "The Bear."
Commercial chip manufacturers
have all but perfected the process.
But just in case,
how about we make some ourselves?
For this task,
we're gonna need a mandolin with a wavy blade.
Now this one came with cut proof gloves,
but those proved to be not very cut proof.
Plus, we're gonna need
to use the mandolin's food holder accessory thing
to make sure that every slice lines up with the last.
Otherwise, we end up
with these Venetian blind looking things.
So be careful, line up your slices,
and immediately plunge everybody into a bowl of water.
These are Russets,
and their high starch content
causes them to discolor quickly.
We're gonna let these guys rest for about 30 minutes
to rinse off the excess starch.
Then we're gonna lay them out evenly on a paper towel,
so that we can pat everybody very, very dry.
We want things to be extraordinarily dry,
because the next step is deep frying,
and water is the sworn enemy of the process.
We're heating about a quart of canola
to 350 degrees Fahrenheit,
dropping in the chips and letting them fry
for anywhere from one to three minutes.
Especially as they begin to curl,
you're gonna wanna flip them frequently
so that they end up a nice, light, relatively even brown.
Then while still warm,
I'm seasoning with kosher salt
and freshly ground black pepper.
Next up in the
they-probably-didn't-make-it-but-just-to-be-safe category
is boursin, which we're making
by combining eight ounces of softened cream cheese,
two tablespoons soft butter,
and one tablespoon each freshly chopped dill,
marjoram, and chives.
Start beating that together on medium speed
before you realize that this is your boursin,
you can put whatever you want in there.
I'm also gonna add two tablespoons
of freshly chopped parsley, one clove of crushed garlic,
some kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper,
and about an ounce of freshly grated Parmesan.
Now let's beat that together for about a minute
until it's nice and smooth and getting kind of fluffy.
And there you have it,
sort of homemade gourmet cheese
which we're gonna plop into a piping bag
for later application.
Now onto the omelet itself.
Sydney beats her eggs through a fine mesh sieve
in order to remove the chalaza, excess whites,
and, in my case, shell fragments.
Hang on, I saw a trick on the internet the other day
where you drop an egg from about a foot height
which cracks it perfectly every time without any fragments.
And how about that? It works.
So I guess the takeaway here
is when you crack an egg against a flat surface,
you can imitate the force and confidence of a one-foot drop.
Next, we're beating the eggs through the sieve,
which is gonna help give our omelet
a creamier, more consistent texture.
Beat that together with a pinch of salt and ready to rock.
Over on the stove top,
I'm dropping two tablespoons of unsalted butter
in a preheated, non-stick, 10-inch skillet.
This is bigger than the standard eight inch,
so I've got five eggs rather than three,
which I'm agitating vigorously the minute they hit the pan,
cooking them over medium low heat
until they're mostly set but still very soft.
Spread them out evenly,
tilt the pan away from you and sort of tap the handle,
which is gonna curl the omelet up the front of the pan.
Then we're piping in a generous channel
of our homemade cheese,
gently folding the bottom side of the omelet
up over the cheese,
then folding the opposite side over that,
Sealing our omelet shut
into a little eggy torpedo,
which we're gonna immediately invert
onto our intended serving plate.
Do a little bit of reshaping there,
especially if you're an amateur like I am.
Then we're gonna rub the whole omelet down with butter
for shine, flavor, and to make stuff stick to it,
namely some flaky finishing salts,
some freshly chopped chives,
and of course, our crumbled, wavy black pepper potato chips,
which I really truly recommend you just buy.
About the only reason you'd make these at home
is if you have a cooking show.
The omelet was accompanied
by what looked like a glass of orange and pomegranate juice,
and that's about all there is to it.
Let's take a look at that cross section.
And as you can see,
the cheese makes a wonderfully melty accompaniment
to the already melty interior of the omelet.
So now let's see what it tastes like.
And I gotta say,
the boursin is a huge French omelet upgrade.
It makes things extra creamy,
and it's tangy and flavorful.
It's awesome.
And the chips are actually a really nice addition.
They add crunch and salt and breakfasty, potatoey flavor.
And like most things from "The Bear,"
this one's ending up in the Clean Plate Club.
But it also got me thinking
about other ways that potato chips
could be integrated into eggs.
And it reminded me of a Jose Andres recipe
for a sort of faux Tortilla Espanola.
I'm starting with eight eggs,
to which I'm gonna add a quarter cup
of our homemade cheese stuff, pinch of salt, twist of pepper
and beaten to abject smoothness.
Now, Tortilla Espanola is kind of like a potato quiche.
And in order to mimic its potatoey layers.
Now we're gonna add two ounces of potato chips,
stirring and pressing them down into the egg mixture
before allowing them to soak for 10 minutes.
Then over on the stove top,
we're heating two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
in an eight-inch non-stick
over medium heat until shimmering,
adding the chippy eggs or the eggy chips,
reducing the heat to medium low.
And I'm gonna sort of stir this thing
for about the first two minutes of its cooking.
I want some nice, big ol' fluffy curds
to form in the custard
before I let this thing sit over medium low heat,
relatively undisturbed for three to five minutes,
shaking occasionally and cooking until the edges are set
and are starting to climb up outta the pan.
Then this guy gets very carefully inverted onto a plate
and gingerly shuffled back into the frying pan
to finish cooking.
Using a spatula to lift and push
so that it doesn't tear in half.
Then we're gonna let this thing cook over low heat
for one to three minutes
until it feels set, fluffy,
and even a little jiggly when jiggled.
To serve, we're gonna gently shake it out onto a plate,
center it up,
If you did it sloppy,
maybe pipe some of that nice herby cheese on top
and garnish with fresh chives.
Then what we have here is not quite a Tortilla Espanola,
not quite a potato chip omelet,
but a distillation of the two
that would be good for serving a crowd
or two very drunk people.
It is definitely not as good as the potato chip omelet,
but it is significantly easier.
And in the end,
isn't that why anybody does anything?
That said, I'm ready for the trickier stuff.
So shout out in the comments
what foods you wanna see me recreate from "The Bear."
(gentle music continues)