- Mm.
Wow.
It's actually quite bad.
(bell rings)
- [Babish] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish
where this week we're taking a look
at Tyler's (beep) from "The Menu".
One of the more harrowing foodie film experiences
that prods us in our collective imposter syndrome
and lets us vicariously experience our worst nightmare.
Getting up on stage and having no idea what you're doing.
So first up, the protein in question, lamb,
which is Frenched and cut into double chops.
Now, I don't wanna waste too much lamb
on the screen accurate version,
so I'm only gonna do three ribs.
To French these, we wanna place a cut
across the point where we want the bones to end.
Then, continue cutting between the bones
and the skin to remove.
Then, we're gonna cut the thin strips of meat and sinew
from between the bones,
right down to the point of the initial cut,
and try to remove as much of the lamb
from the now exposed bones as possible
before beginning to scrape the bones with your knife
to remove the thin final membrane.
Once the bones are uniform color and squeaky clean,
you got yourself a Frenched rack of ribs
from which I'm going to remove the skin and excess fat
from the top and separate into individual chops.
I know that Tyler's were double chops,
but I don't ultimately think
that's gonna make a big difference.
Next up, the leek which was simply sliced.
Tyler used the entire unwashed leek.
But because leek's interiors are so dirty,
I'm gonna stop there for the sake of sheer edibility.
Next up the shallots which were haphazardly chopped,
some with the skin still on.
And lastly, a big hunk of butter dropped into too hot a pan.
Once that's good and melted and maybe slightly burned,
I'm gonna start by adding my double aromatic combo
of shallots and leeks, allowing these to cook
for an indeterminate period of time
until they're, I don't know, softened or something.
Then, in amongst the vegetables, we're gonna add the lamb,
making an attempt to nestle it down between the other stuff
so that it can boil in butter
and at least gesturally be cooked.
After about three to five minutes,
just enough time so that the lamb picks up
some nice gray color and it's definitely not cooked through,
we're heading straight to plating.
No seasoning nor garnish is necessary.
Arrange the chops over top.
And there you have it.
Tyler's (beep) which while it has its shortcomings
is on the table in less than 20 minutes, but has it taste?
I'm gonna make myself a bite here of the very rare lamb
and the partially cooked leek.
And I can tell you that Chef Slowik's critiques
were really spot on.
It's really quite bad.
Raw lamb, runny butter and dirty vegetables.
So, can we make something salvageable
out of these star ingredients?
I'm gonna start by filling an ice cube tray with olive oil
in a seemingly random pattern.
And throwing those in the freezer
to solidify for at least a few hours.
While that's happening, we can take the very necessary step
of cleaning our leeks.
After cutting off the roots on the bottom,
trimming them to a uniform length
and slicing them in half lengthwise,
we're gonna rinse them thoroughly
in a big old bowl of water.
As you can see, there's a huge amount of yuck
that we don't want to end up in our yum.
Now, once we've patted the leeks dry,
we're gonna place them in a vac seal bag,
then we're gonna fill the spaces in between the leeks
with a sliced preserved lemon,
which has a much more mellow flavor
than its fresh counterpart.
Two large cloves of crushed garlic
and our olive oil ice cubes,
which we froze so we could more easily vac seal the bag
without all the liquid getting sucked out.
And since it wouldn't be a cheffy dish
without some sous vide, that's where these guys are headed,
a 185 degree Fahrenheit water bath for 40 minutes.
During which time we can prep our lamb
which I'm gonna roast and crust.
I wanna keep the predominant color of the dish green.
So, I'm pulsing two cups of pistachios in a food processor
until they're coarsely ground and tossing them
with a half cup of panko breadcrumbs.
The roast itself is getting the same French ribs treatment.
And before crusting,
it's gonna get lightly seasoned with kosher salt,
rubbed down with a little bit of vegetable oil
and seared in a ripping hot cast iron skillet,
just enough on each side to introduce a little color,
Maillard reaction and by extension flavor to its exterior.
So, blast it as quickly and as hotly as you possibly can.
Then, once it's cooled off for about 10 minutes,
we're gonna brush down the meat evenly with a mixture
of two parts white miso to one part Dijon mustard.
This is going to act as a delicious glue
with which to adhere our pistachio breadcrumb mixture.
Then, this guy's getting placed on a rack set
in a rim baking sheet,
temperature probed at its thickest point
and roasted at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
until it registers 125.
Now to cover the shallot's presence,
we're finally mincing a shallot,
crushing up one clove of black garlic,
and finally mincing two tablespoons of tarragon
in preparation to make a black garlic Béarnaise.
Then our olive oil poached leeks
are coming out of the hot tub, getting removed from the bag
and padded dry of excess oil with a paper towel
because we're gonna lightly grill these leeks
to finish them.
But true to form, we have to go way over the top.
So, I thought we'd utilize some Binchōtan.
The fussy, long burning and odorless Japanese charcoal.
So, we're gonna let our leeks sizzle over top that,
cut side down while we make our Béarnaise.
Into a small pot goes our single finely minced shallot,
half of our chopped fresh tarragon
and one quarter cup of white wine vinegar.
We're bringing this to a gentle simmer and cooking
until barely a tablespoon of syrupy liquid remains.
Set that aside to cool completely
before placing it into a large heatproof bowl,
along with two large egg yolks
that we're gonna whisk together into a smooth mixture
before bringing it back over to the stovetop
where we have a pan of shallow,
simmering water at the ready.
Turn the heat all the way down, place the bowl over top
and whisk constantly for five to seven minutes
until the mixture's thickened and nearly doubled in volume.
Then both to make it Béarnaise and to incorporate
the final missing ingredient from Tyler's dish,
we're starting to stream in 12 tablespoons of melted butter
one little splash at a time,
whisking thoroughly between each edition
to make sure that it's fully incorporated
and so that the sauce doesn't break.
Once all the butter's added, kill the heat, season with salt
and whisk in our crushed clove of black garlic.
Now, there's a butter and shallot sauce I can get behind.
Once the leeks are nearly done
and the lamb has rested for 10 minutes,
it's time to carve, plate, and serve.
First, let's see if our lamb is a pleasant medium rare.
Before carving as desired, I'm going with two double chops.
To plate, we're gonna plop down a generous gob
of our black garlic Béarnaise.
And it just wouldn't be a tasting menu
without one of these cheffy smears.
Then, I'm trimming the rough ends off the leeks
and pulling out everything but the outer two most layers,
which are tough and stringy.
Placing them on the plate, of course with tweezers.
Arrange lamb over top in a haphazard yet intentional way.
And of course, we gotta utilize some microgreens.
This time by virtue of some smaller tweezers.
I'm gonna sort of dot those around
the varying culinary topography.
Then, I think this dish is gonna need
a little bit of acid and a little bit of heat.
Luckily, Alvin left some pickled bird's-eye chili
in the fridge, which I think is gonna add
just the right amount of bite
to cut through all the richness.
And there you have it.
The hopefully edible version of Tyler's (beep).
Leeks, lamb, shallots and butter, all proudly on display.
But has it taste?
And I'm not trying to toot my own horn here,
but it's really very good.
The black garlic Béarnaise
is a perfect pairing with the lamb.
The olive oil poached leeks are tender and flavorful.
The microgreens as always do virtually nothing.
And the brightness of the pickled chilies
provide a flavorful contrast.
Would Chef Slowik like it?
Probably not.
I'm guessing he'd find all kinds of things wrong with it,
but he is a miserable psychopath,
and I'm over here eating lamb like it's lollipops.
(gentle upbeat music)