this is incredible you like it it's such
a relief because I work so hard on it
I call it Mac's famous mac and cheese I
like to recommend to our first-timers
our signature cocktail Caribbean
paradise some people say it's better
than bustin up excuse me hey I got a
piping hot grill Frank for you okay got
the sausage spam the bacon I got it
wrapped in a jelly pancake and cooked
with a stick of butter I don't want that
charlie hey what's up guys welcome back
to binging with babish where this week I
forgot to record that sort of walk-on
thing that I do which is why we're
looking at this creepy still photo of me
that will come to life and right now
first up we're tackling Mac's famous mac
and cheese which was revealed to be
nothing more than factory standard blue
box it's been awhile since I made one of
these but I think I can huh so let's see
what it tastes like and I gotta say it
tastes exactly like kraft mac and cheese
nothing wrong with that but as per usual
I think we can do better especially when
it comes to stovetop mac and cheese
thanks to a method from America's Test
Kitchen in a medium saucepan I am
combining 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cups of
water bring that to a simmer while I
toast some panko breadcrumbs and melted
butter and then once simmering adding 8
ounces of the pasta of your choice I'm
going with Aradia torta and over
medium-low heat gently cooking the pasta
until all the liquid is absorbed so as
you can see I'm just going back and
forth between cooking my pasta flipping
my bread comes cooking my pasta flipping
my breadcrumbs until the bread crumbs
are nice toasty golden brown at which
point we're gonna remove them from the
heat put them in a bowl and toss them
with about 2 ounces of grated Romano
cheese which smells nothing short of
totally awesome meanwhile back on the
stovetop our pasta is done cooking so
over very low heat we're going to add 4
ounces of shredded American cheese along
with the heaping 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon
mustard I know you're probably rolling
your eyes of the cheese choice but this
is just for sauce cohesion once the
American is melted we're adding an
additional four ounces of sharp cheddar
and a little shake of cayenne and then
we're killing the heats covering and
letting sit for 5 minutes after which
point you'll be greeted by the cheesiest
stretchy Escrima smack and cheese you
have ever had the good fortune to be in
the same room as which we are then going
to kick up to eleven by topping with our
Ramon
panko breadcrumbs so let's see is this
ultra easy stovetop mac and cheese
better than the stuff out of the box I
mean what did you think it's it's
awesome and it probably only takes like
five more minutes to make than the
radioactive orange stuff as you can
imagine it was a pretty big hit here at
the office with Sawyer and Vinny
sequestering the bowl and a valiant
effort to save my waistline next up
let's make us some Caribbean paradise
I'm gonna start off with what is
officially recognized by the
International bartenders Association as
the Paradise cocktail which is kind of
like a flapper precursor to gin and
juice as such it starts off with three
ounces of gin one and a half ounces of
apricot brandy and one and a half ounces
of orange juice so a 2 to 1 to 1 ratio
shaken over ice it is then strained into
a chilled martini glass then given an
optional splash of lemon juice and an
optional lemon twist
now Sawyer is celebrating his one-year
anniversary of joining me here at binge
entertainment so how about we all raise
a glass including him in the middle of
the day on a Thursday we will discuss
this in private when you get into the
office tomorrow ok I'm just kidding of
course thanks for sticking with me buddy
despite my stupid jokes next up let's
try this layered cocktail that is more
widely known as the Caribbean paradise
we're starting with a slightly more
festive glass with half an ounce of
grenadine in the bottom topping that up
with ice to the brim and then in a
cocktail shaker combining 3 ounces of
fresh pineapple juice and one and a half
ounces of coconut flavored rum shake
those guys together over ice strain into
the cocktail glass and then we need to
discuss the science of layering as you
can see if you just gently pour in Blue
Curacao it just mixes into the rest of
the drink and looks ugly gross and awful
but if we make a combination of 1 ounce
of blue curacao and 1 ounce of water
that mixture is going to have a lower
density than the pineapple rum mixture
so it will float on top and create the
desired layered effects even if we do
spill it all over the counter now I
gotta say I do not understand some
layered cocktails especially one like
this with grenadine at the bottom
because it's just too sweet personally I
will stick with the 1930s gin and juice
last up the big one grilled Frank we got
about 4 and 1/2 ounces of all-purpose
flour to which we're going to add a
teaspoon and a half of baking powder a
pinch of salt and a tablespoon of white
and sugar tiny whisk that together and
then it's time to make a facsimile of
buttermilk by adding either 1 tbsp of
lemon juice or white vinegar to one cup
of whole milk and letting it chill out
for 10 minutes 10 minutes later and
nothing has changed but our milk will
now carry the sort of Tang that
buttermilk would normally bring to the
party into our quote unquote buttermilk
or in a crack one egg and pour in three
tablespoons of melted butter tiny whisk
those together until homogenous and then
it's time to bring together our dry and
wet ingredients you might notice that
this pancake batter doesn't have as many
leaveners in it as usual and it's pretty
thin and that's because we're trying to
make a thin pancake which will be easier
to wrap all of the goodies in speaking
of goodies it's time to cook all the
various meats in a grilled Frank a few
strips of the thick cut bacon a few
breakfast sausages and of course because
the writers were probably trying to make
it sound extra gross a nice heaping
helping of spam I'm just gonna cut off
some nice thin slices and stack them up
next to our other meats and bake this
whole affair at about 400 degrees
Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes or until
everybody is nice and brown and crisp
and so now it's pancake time into a
large nonstick skillet goes a tablespoon
of butter that we're gonna melt and let
get soaked up by our first sacrificial
pancake which we're gonna use as an
indicator for our future pancakes
thickness and fluffiness and I want it a
little thinner actually so I'm gonna
finish with a little extra milk maybe
about a third of a cup swath regular
size whisked together and ladled into a
hot skillet and as you can see the
batter is so thin it's almost
approaching a crepe batter which of
course gives me ideas for later on but
for now we're just cooking this like a
regular old pancake which I decided to
flip without a spatula for your comedic
enjoyment of huh actually nailed it
anyway over medium-high heat this guy's
cooking for about two to three minutes
per side and of course we're gonna make
a backup pancake always make a backup
pancake you do not want to get caught
with your pants down with no backup
pancake there is no excuse be safe be
smart backup your pancakes anyway I'm
throwing down our various meats like so
many decks of cards flanking with our
many many breakfast sausages and then
it's time to wrap this guy up and try to
fry the whole thing in a stick of butter
which I'm not entirely sure how that's
possible but as always we're gonna do
our damndest get that stick of butter
nice and melted and once it's melted go
ahead and drop into the grill Frank
which we're gonna fruitlessly try to fry
it's not really possible to flip this
thing without all of its contents
gleefully spilling out so a good
compromise seems to be to butter baste
it like a fine
steak and the butter is starting to
brown which is just gonna imbue this
thing with a bunch of toasty brown
butter flavor can't believe I'm actually
getting kind of excited to try this
thing now I know what you're thinking
where's the jelly well I'll tell you I
forgot to put it in there so we're just
gonna dump it on top I really don't
think it's gonna make that much of a
difference and it looks kind of nice not
really let's get a cross-section going
here not the most impressive one in the
world but we haven't had one on the show
in a while try to assemble a bite with a
little bit of everything and shove it in
your face and I got to say it's not
disgusting I mean it's not good like I
wouldn't order it in a restaurant but
it's inoffensive and yada-yada-yada
I think we can do better let's start
with the jelly and we're gonna go savory
by making some jalapeno jelly so we're
gonna start by roughly chopping a green
pepper red pepper and a few jalapenos
not removing the seeds because we want a
little bit of that heat and we're
processing to a salsa like consistency
in a food processor then in a medium
bowl goes 2 cups of granulated sugar and
3 teaspoons of pectin powder which we're
gonna tiny whisk together until
homogenous and then we're gonna set that
aside and in a medium saucepan combine
our chopped up peppers and 1 cup of
white vinegar cover bring to a simmer
and cook for 10 minutes in the meantime
I'm also gonna heat up a giant pot of
water this is for heating up our canning
jars and eventually canning our jelly
and then once the peppers have simmered
for 10 minutes we're adding the sugar
pectin mixture and cooking for an
additional two minutes until everybody
is nice and dissolved remove from the
heat and allow to cool for a little
while like 15 minutes and then out of
the hot but not boiling water come our
canning jars which we are going to fill
leaving a 1/4 inch headspace at the top
of the jar go ahead and give those a
wipe down because he made a big terrible
mess
top up with the lid things and then
finger tighten the screw 8 things and
then these guys are gently lowered into
a pot with enough boiling water to cover
them completely where they shall boil
for 10 minutes creating a safely
preserved preserve which we're going to
remove from the boiling water and see if
the caps have popped down yet indicating
that a vacuum has been created and the
content
will be kept sealed they often don't pop
down right away so just give him a few
minutes before they oh my god
did you see that enhance image holy it's
so now just let these guys cool
overnight and they will keep for one
year but we're gonna need them much
sooner than that first let's make some
crepe better into the jar of a blender
goes 2 eggs 3/4 of a cup of whole milk
half a cup of water 1 cup of all-purpose
flour and 3 tablespoons of melted butter
in a very easy recipe courtesy of Alton
Brown go ahead and pulse that together
about 10 times making sure that it's
nice and smooth and homogeneous and then
we're gonna let it chill out in the
fridge for at least 45 minutes up to
overnight to let the bubbles get out of
there
break out the old crepe maker for the
first time since the SNL taco lubricate
with unsalted butter and begin the
delicate practice art of making crepes
which is of course definitely gonna take
a few tries to get right even if like me
you spent the summer of your 16th year
making crepes at a place called simply
crepes just keep at it and before you
know it you will be pouring spreading
and flipping with the proficiency poise
and panache of a Parisian but we have
something decidedly unperson in mind for
these crepes since Charlie proceeded to
fry the whole affair in a stick of
butter we're gonna fill every crepe with
a couple pieces of each of our meats and
then wrap the whole thing up using a
burrito rolling technique which we're
going to then bread and deep-fry to make
PEMDAS an indian snack that i am
positive that i did not pronounce
correctly we've got a standard basic
breading station here of one egg beaten
together with about a half a cup of milk
which we are going to thoroughly coat
the crepe in before evenly and
generously coating with plain
breadcrumbs and now on to the frying as
you probably know you cannot deep-fry
and butter it will burn so in keeping
with the indian inspiration behind this
dish
I have ghee which is just clarified
butter which I'm going to heat to 375
degrees Fahrenheit before dropping these
guys in to effectively deep-fry and
check that out it's like France India
and Mexico all got together to make a
Grand Slam breakfast and then there's
the matter of plating I'm not crazy
about the ever trendy chef smear when it
comes to this jalapeno jelly so let's
take a break and you cut this on the
diagonal to take a look at the
cross-section and then that gave me an
idea how about a nice dollop of jelly
topped with this pretty little pedestal
of meaty pancake which as you can
imagine is a massive
improvement on the original is it deeply
unhealthy and culturally confused yes
is it a member of the clean plate club
also yes hey guys so I am super excited
to announce that I made an appearance on
Jon Favreau's new Netflix series the
chef's show this feel-good foodie
fantasy is jam-packed with beautiful
recipes heart humor and celebrity guests
like Robert Downey jr. and Gwyneth
Paltrow and me for some reason thank you
so much John for having me on the show
you can watch me him and Roy Choi make
Carl Casper is infamous molten lava cake
on Episode three but you've got to watch
the whole series it is on Netflix now go
check it out
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