- [Inga and Chris] Three, two, one.
- Hey, guys, it's Inga.
Welcome back to another season of
"Trendy versus Traditional"
where I'll be making trendy interpretations
of your favorite classics.
As some of you know last season,
I had a lot of different guests
to represent the traditional end,
but this season, we have a very special guest.
- Here comes the boy!
I've been here the entire time.
Thank you, by the way, for immortalizing me
in the previous season.
I didn't die.
I'm back and I'm here to cook traditional versions
of your favorite dishes.
Today, we are going to be making.
(drum roll music)
- [Inga and Chris] Fries!
- Who doesn't love fries?
I have like a list of cravings that I always have
and fries is like on top.
- I don't know how you're gonna make a trendy fry.
I don't even know what that means.
- I think what I'm gonna do is
I'm going to put a twist on the definition.
- I don't like when Inga throws these
little like sneaky words around.
Am I up first?
Thank you very, very much.
Happy to be back, let's get to it.
Hello there, sweeties, we are going to be making some
traditional fries on my end of the spectrum here.
Now in my opinion, what makes a good fry
is something that's not too thick, not too thin,
and has a really good crisp.
So I'm going to attempt to tackle that today.
Let's get into it.
- I am here.
I have my potatoes.
I'm going to be making tornado fries.
I think they're still popular
actually right now in South Korea.
I recently produced a video, "Fries Around the World",
where you can actually see what the original one looks like.
It's like this massive stick of
potato chip french fry hybrids.
So it's not gonna look like your regular fry.
- Now maybe this is a topic of debate
in terms of skin on, skin off.
I like a just monotone fry, not a lot of skin happening,
so first step is we're gonna peel some of these potats here.
Gonna try and get most of the skin
without taking too much of the potato meat off.
Is it meat?
Correct me in the comments if the inside of a potato
is not called the meat.
- First thing I'm gonna do here
is actually just pierce these little guys straight through.
So now I have little potatoes on sticks.
Here's a cool hack that I found on the Internet.
I wanna try and like do a little spiral
down the thing, right?
The hack is to use a cheese slicer.
And actually what's gonna happen is we're gonna use this
to essentially shave it off.
Just don't shave off your fingers.
I did a practice run just now
and I almost did, so here we go, wish me luck.
- If you're not making a mess, it's not traditional.
See, this little sprinkling, this is part of the process
and if you don't respect that,
click off of this video right now.
(whimsical music)
- You know the street food vendors that do this?
It looks perfect, because they use a machine.
I am the machine today
and I'm trying to master this, so I'm really trying here.
- So let's get started by just
cutting these big boys in half.
Then let's cut 'em into these
kind of nice, big rectangular shapes.
What is this shape?
- You know, versions of things that I've done,
this is definitely one that's like
more focused on technique.
I feel like normally we play around with the flavors
or like the concept of it.
This one is more like deceptively simple,
you know what I'm saying?
I'm just here imagining Chris having an easy time
just slicing up the potatoes, maybe just chilling.
- Not too thick, not too thin.
If anything, it's more important to just be uniform.
Here's kinda what we're going for here.
Look at this here, see that?
Traditional fries here.
Not too thick, not too thin.
We're preparing them to be boiled.
And with that, we have finished
cutting up our little fry babies.
- It's not perfect, but it's a little bit better.
Hand sliced, y'all, okay?
Do we not have a budget for the machine? (laughs)
- This is not oil, this is water.
Since you're so nice to watch this video,
I'm not gonna stand here and make you watch me
boil water, okay?
- Practice makes perfect, take things slow,
one slice at a time.
(Inga hyperventilates)
Ta-da!
A potato that has been, hold on, wait for it.
Chris, I'm coming for ya.
- Now that the water is at a boil,
we're gonna add a pinch or two of some salt.
By the way, the recipe I'm following
is a recipe that we'll link in the description.
A trick with this is adding a little vinegar
to the boiling water, which there's a chemical reaction
that happens that helps the potato
from completely breaking down like mashed potatoes.
So we're gonna add about three tablespoons of white vinegar.
I'm just going to gently lower these fries
into some water here.
I'm gonna lower that in.
I don't know why I'm using this
like I'm scared of a little hot water.
I'm not scared.
Gently, gently, gently.
So these fries are gonna go in here for 10 minutes.
This is where a lot of the cooking process is gonna happen,
'cause the best fries are the crispy exterior,
but like the light, fluffy, steamy potato interior.
Check back in soon.
- All right, improvement, look at this!
This is what we're talking about.
Work hard and you will be rewarded.
All right, so now that I've kinda mastered it
a little bit, I'm gonna make a couple more.
I'm pretty confident now.
We're good to move on.
- The potatoes have finished boiling.
All we have to do is just pull these fries out.
They are fork tender.
I know they don't look like fries.
I need you to relax if you're in the comments like,
"Those don't look like traditional fries."
That's making me angry if that's what happening.
Now we just need to get these fries as dry as possible.
If we're putting soaking wet, steamy fries
into an oil, you're gonna have a bad time.
Next step is the oil.
- My potato sticks are now off to the side, safe and secure.
For now, I am going to make the sauce.
This is gonna be like my secret weapon
that hopefully will push me over the edge.
But I'm gonna make a honey butter glaze, if you will,
that I want to just like paint across the fries.
And then over here, I'm also just gonna really quickly
whip up the batter that I'm going to dip the fries in
just to give it that extra crunch.
- All right, folks, these are fries are very dry.
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect everyone to do that.
The fries are, I'm panicking a little bit.
The fries are as dry.
- [Chris Slow-Mo] As dry.
(Chris stutters)
- God damn it!
(upbeat music)
- All right, so I'm gonna start with the sauce
since that's gonna take a lot to cook down.
So over here, I'm gonna add some butter.
Honey butter is a very popular flavor
that's paired with the tornado fries,
but usually it's in powder form.
I should've used honey butter chips as a coating, no!
- Rule number one is we don't wanna overcrowd the oil.
We need to give everyone room in the oil to swim around.
Plus, this is only our first fry.
This is a two-fry fry, so I'm going to layer up
a couple of these boys, about half the gang here,
and we're gonna gently lower into our hot oil.
Here we go, no turning back.
First fry into the oil.
(oil sizzling)
That's a good noise, let's turn this down.
God damn it.
Little steamy, oil is a little hot.
- I'm just gonna grate some garlic in here.
Ooh, that was a nice little plop!
Smells like garlic bread.
Garlic is in, so now I'm gonna add in
all of the sugar actually.
I know it seems like a lot, but it'll be good.
Gonna be sweet and salty.
All right, I'm gonna add some soy sauce as well,
and it's smelling really good right now,
so I take that as a good sign.
I'm also gonna add in a little bit honey.
That's what makes it honey butter.
- Well, that did not go quite as expected.
Traditional fries, you need a little danger element.
You need to be kept on your toes.
We only need these in here for like 50 seconds,
less than a minute.
Let's get 'em out of there.
Save the boys onto our paper towel lined sheet.
- Oh yeah, look at this consistency.
Already, it's looking pretty good.
But I'm gonna taste this a little bit.
Oh, it's so sweet, okay.
- We're gonna let the oil cool down just a touch
and we're going to move into our second batch of fries here.
Second batch of fries going in.
Fingers crossed this goes a little smoother.
Easy now.
- You know a lot of times with like trendier version
of things, sometimes like the flavors
are also like more complex.
You know I think people really like to really like
go out there and try different seasonings.
I hope our judge likes it sweet and salty
like the goal is not to win, but winning is nice, you know?
- We have officially first-fried our batch of fries here.
Next step is letting these fries cool down.
We're gonna toss them in the fridge for like 30 minutes
before we go in for our second fry to finish the job.
But let's toss these in the fridge, see you soon.
- Let it cook a little bit here, softly simmer.
And then on this side, I'm just gonna make my
batter really quick.
(bowl clanging)
Starting with the egg.
Just breaking that apart first
and then adding in my flour and water.
It's like fries dipped in batter, is that weird?
Is that weird?
I'm gonna add a pinch of salt.
That was more than a pinch, but that's okay,
and then I'm also going to add in pepper.
Give me one second.
- We're going to be finally moving into our fries
that have cooled down in the fridge after our initial fry.
Like the first fry, we're gonna be working in two batches.
Don't wanna overcrowd the oil.
I'm not anticipating quite the L.
(explosion booming)
Volcanic experience that the first fry was,
but you never know, c'est la vie.
I don't know if I'm using that phrase right.
- All right, add some pepper.
(pepper grinding)
More pepper, I think that's plenty.
I just wanna make sure there's no lumps.
Looking pretty good.
Batter is done, beautiful glaze.
Ugh, look at that color, you see it?
It's like a beautiful caramel.
All right, so over here, our sauce is still cooking down.
It's still looking a little too liquid-y for my liking,
so I'm gonna keep reducing this.
And then once it's reduced, I'm gonna pour it in a bowl.
And then I think I can get frying.
- Second batch fries going in.
Here we go, gently, gently, gently.
I am keeping a watchful eye on the oil.
I would move my mic closer,
but no one wants me to see take hot oil to the face.
Isn't that right, everyone?
- Here we are, I have my beautiful
potato spiral tornado thingies here.
Batter. (tongue clicks)
Glaze over here, look at this glaze, look at it.
Ugh, secret weapon.
Now I'm going to take one of these beautiful spirals.
Ugh, it's beauty, it's grace,
and I'm essentially just going to spoon the batter over it
and make sure it's all covered like so.
- There's something about frying anything,
but especially french fries, I want that smell all over me.
I wanna smell like I've been in the oil.
I wanna smell like I am a french fry.
- I didn't season this batter too much,
because I already have the glaze.
Drain off the excess, let it drip, beautiful!
Okay, now it's going in, here we go.
- Looking very close, ooh, ooh, ahh, in the comments.
Ooh, ahh, thank you.
Let's drop 'em on to our paper towel lined baking sheet.
Gently without burning myself.
Fries are looking good.
What do the kids say now?
Sheeeeshh!
- All righty, ooh!
I will say, I'm feeling pretty good so far.
The glaze smells incredible.
That improvement gave me much confidence,
so now to make sure these taste good.
Looking at it and color looks pretty good.
Ooh-la-la, oh, it looks pretty good, it looks pretty good!
Smells like a fry.
I'm gonna let that cool for a little bit.
I'm gonna glaze after I fry all of these up.
- All right, everybody, our second batch of fries
are looking gold and crispy.
Inga, watch out, these look good.
Toss them down here.
Let's give a little off the elbow, a little Salt Bae.
You know what?
I've earned this.
Not too be played with, feeling good, let's plate.
- I have my beautiful fries here.
Some look better than the others.
I'm going to glaze this one, so I can taste it.
You ready, I have my glaze here.
Just essentially just painting it on a little bit.
This sauce is very flavorful, though,
so I'm like maybe I shouldn't go too crazy.
But I also wanna make sure every chip has it, so.
- I feel like I'm doing an injustice to traditional fries
by like placing them.
I feel like anytime you see traditional fries,
they're just like slammed into a bowl
and slid across a table.
And then just on the side, let's keep it classic,
keep it simple and it's not open, 'kay.
- And here it is, my friend.
Can I taste it?
I'm gonna taste it.
The beauty of it is that you don't even have to touch it
if you don't want to, so.
The flavor is good.
I already ate most of it.
I like to think that it's because it's really good,
so I'm gonna glaze the rest of these.
Less glaze this time, but I'm feeling pretty good.
(ketchup squirting)
- Make sure you get all that audio.
Everyone, I present to you traditional french fries.
(hip-hop music)
- [Inga and Chris] Three, two, one.
- Ta-da! - Oh, where's your plate?
- I don't have one, because it's fair food!
- Those look really good.
- Yours smell really good.
- I guess we've arrived at the portion of our show
where we have a judge come in and tell us
which recipe they prefer, the trendy or the traditional.
Ade, come on in.
(audience clapping)
- You smelled it? - Yup.
Chris, you're alive.
(Ade and Inga laughs)
Which one should I start with first?
- I don't know what's happening over here,
'cause the condiment looks serious.
This is ketchup, okay? (Inga laughs)
- Let's dig in.
Oh, nice.
Nice shape. - Thank you.
- [Inga] Very impressive. - Long, thin.
- That's right.
- [Inga] Oh. - Ooh.
- [Inga] I heard it, I heard it.
- [Chris] Little crunch.
- This is something I would compare
to like fries at a diner.
- A diner is traditional, so I'll take that.
- And trendy, here we go.
I don't know how to attack this, should I pull it?
- Ooh.
Hasn't even chowed down on it and I'm hearing noises.
- Okay.
Mm, I just got put onto the honey butter chips.
(Inga gasps)
- You know the honey butter!
- This is what it tastes like.
- Ade, we need an answer, we need a verdict,
which fry do you prefer?
- So when you think about
how can you improve upon the fries
that we're all used to, Inga just figured it out,
and I think this is my winner of
"Trendy versus Traditional".
- Yeah! (laughs)
- Yeah, get out of it. - Thanks, Ade.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Mm, home-style fries. - Deserved.
Let us know what you wanna see next.
We're gonna be making more "Trendy versus Traditional".
Put it in the comments, tell us what to do.
Until next time.
- Bye!
(upbeat music)