- [Babish] This episode is sponsored by Makers Mark.
I recently teamed up with Maker's Mark,
to create some cocktails inspired by your favorite TV shows.
Head to their YouTube channel,
where you can see the entire "Mixing with Babish" series.
The link is in the video description.
♪ And it's not easy to make ♪
♪ Lots of ingredients it takes ♪
♪ But it's worth it to serve my overnight salad. ♪
♪ Take a little bit o' lettuce ♪
♪ Sprinkle in some cheese ♪
♪ A little scoche of lemon ♪
♪ And a gallon of mayo ♪
♪ So many raisins ♪
♪ An insane amount o' pepper ♪
♪ Now you're makin' a salad. ♪
Hey what's up guys, welcome back to "Binging with Babish."
For this week I thought the perfect way
to close out a year like 2020,
was to finally heed all the requests
to make the overnight salad from SNL.
Before we start, let me just remind you
that this is what you wanted.
That out of the way, let's get started.
I'm gonna make a sort of miniaturized version,
'cause I don't wanna waste too many ingredients
on this thing.
As the song goes, "A little bit of lettuce,
sprinkle in some cheese, cubed cheddar in this case,
add a little scoche of lemon,"
this is a salad after all we need a dressing.
And speaking of which, here comes the mayonnaise,
not the gallons worth but a formidable enough
layer of mayo that I can stand up my hot dogs in it.
But since I never really thought I'd say,
54 hot dogs seem like overkill in the end,
I think I used 25 or so hotdog halves,
then to top this goes quote, " So many raisins,"
I'm gonna go with two fistfuls,
and I'm using the Thompson variety of raisins,
then an insane amount of pepper,
a perfect application for our pepper canon,
and speaking of insane we're topping this with
Fritos and root beer,
having been advised not to skimp on either.
Once we've got this filled up to hotdog level with root beer
it's time to add the cookie croutons and the pizza topping,
go ahead and top that up,
and she didn't mention it in the song,
but the final salad definitely has an extra
dollop of mayo, and a maraschino cherry on top.
And there you have it folks,
a dish that the moment I saw it on SNL,
I swore I would never make,
and yet here before me it looms.
I began to survey the great beast,
trying to figure out my best plan of attack,
but then I remembered that I had skipped a vital step,
leaving it out all night on the radiator.
I no longer have a radiator,
so this space heater will have to do the trick,
that trick being giving me botulism probably.
So we're just gonna let this sit out all night,
and of course I'm just kidding,
that is not how I wanna die,
but the dishing law dictates that
I must at least try a bite of this.
So I'm gonna do my very best to wrassle out
a bunch of this salad,
I wanna make sure that I can assemble a fork full
with a little bit of everything on it.
Gotta dig deep to make sure we get
some of that lettuce and cheese,
let's try to throw together a bite,
and see how this thing tastes.
And ladies and gentlemen it is my distinct privilege
to be the first to report to you,
that like most of the SNL food fever dreams,
this one tastes about as good as it looks.
So how in the name of all that is Holy,
are we gonna make a quote on quote good version out of this?
Well as it turns out, overnight salads are actually a thing,
the idea being that the different ingredients are layered,
and then covered with a thick dressing,
preventing the vegetables from wilting,
and anything from getting too soggy.
So as you might be able to tell,
I'm starting this out by making my own mayo.
Combining a whole egg, teaspoon of mustard,
a pinch of salt, and a scoche of lemon
in an immersion blender jar.
Then slowly pouring one cup
of neutral-flavored oil like canola over top,
and blending until a thick flavorful emulsion forms,
otherwise known as mayonnaise.
This is gonna act as the basis for our Russian dressing,
because we're gonna make an overnight salad
inspired by a Reuben sandwich.
So into a bowl goes our mayo,
a third of a cup of chili sauce,
three tablespoons of prepared horseradish,
one teaspoon of the hot sauce of your choice,
one teaspoon Worcestershire sauce,
one teaspoon sweet paprika,
and a couple tablespoons of finely minced onion.
Go ahead and tiny whisk those to a state of homogeneity,
cover and refrigerate for at least an hour,
we want this to firm up a bit
before we top our salad with it.
In place of cookie croutons, we're gonna make croutons,
and since this is a Reuben salad,
we're going to use rye bread.
Simply cube up a bunch of your favorite rye,
drizzle it generously with olive oil,
sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper,
toss around, spread out,
and bake in a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven,
for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes,
until they're lightly golden brown and dry,
then it's time to address our meat.
Standing in for our hot dogs,
is a big old chunk of deli pastrami,
which at first we're gonna slice into cubes,
but then we're gonna realize
that those aren't quite tender enough,
so we're gonna slice them down
into nice thin little pastrami bits.
Last bit of prep is to shred up
a whole bunch of Swiss cheese,
and with that we're finally ready to assemble.
As for greens I'm going with some chopped
purple cabbage for color,
the arugula is going to provide a nice peppery bite
in contrast to all the rich dressing and meaty cheese.
Speaking of which here comes some Swiss,
that I'm gonna top with some chopped cornichon pickles,
optional, but they're gonna bring
some nice little briny bites,
and I'ma top that with a generous but not overwhelming
layer of pastrami, some more cheese,
then I'm going to layer in some more arugula, cabbage,
and cheese which should hopefully help insulate
our rye croutons from the moisture of the meat.
Let's get those on in there,
and then one last layer of green and purple stuff.
Then we have to protect all these beautiful, crisp layers
from the scourge of the dressing,
which I'm gonna do by trying to lightly compress
a thick layer of cheese on top,
which will hopefully form a seal,
through which the dressing cannot penetrate.
Then we're pouring in on our dressing,
making sure not to rush in Russian dressing.
Covering with plastic wrap,
and then the salad lives up to its name
as it is refrigerated overnight.
Other than the ability to make it ahead,
I'm not entirely sure why overnight salads exist.
So maybe you guys can let me know in the comments.
And then since we're trying out
all different kinds of new things with this salad,
figured might as well crumble some potato chips on top.
This is totally optional, but it made sense to me,
because I love putting potato chips on a Reuben.
Everything I learned in life, I learned from Liz Lemon.
And obviously for a salad,
this is not very healthy at all,
even without the potato chips.
But it really is actually very delicious,
and it kind of makes up for the monstrosity from before,
I mean, not really, I think only a sizable donation
to a soup kitchen is gonna do that.
Check out the link in the video description
to see where I donated, and to donate yourself.
Please give what you can,
and maybe just like with this salad,
we can end 2020 on a nice note.
Speaking of ending things on a nice note,
thank you to the sponsor of today's episode Maker's Mark.
As I mentioned before,
I got to partner with them on creating "Mixing with Babish,"
a series of cocktails inspired by TV shows.
We had a lot of fun making these drinks,
and filming these episodes,
so I hope you have fun watching them.
There's nine videos covering everything
from a hot toddy to a bloody Mary.
You can see all of them on the Maker's Mark YouTube channel,
the link is in the video description.
(upbeat music)