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- Excuse me, sir.
Would you like to try a Thanksgiving ball?
It is an entire meal of turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes with gravy, string beans,
cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and an Andes mint,
rolled into a ball, battered, and deep fried.
- Dude, you didn't ask him any questions.
- This is true, but it's clear he likes our balls.
- [Babish] (chuckling) Balls.
Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish,"
where this week we're taking a look
at the Thanksgiving balls from "Psych,"
which, being an entire Thanksgiving dinner
rolled into a ball and deep fried,
necessitates that we make an entire Thanksgiving dinner.
We got a lot to do and only about 10 minutes to do it,
so I'm not gonna waste any time.
First, a single flawless sheet of parchment paper.
Which we're gonna crumple up into a ball.
This not only makes it look like garbage,
discouraging theft, but it's gonna make a great liner
for our store-bought pie shell.
That's right, it's a frozen pie shell.
I was gonna make my own, but then I remembered
that we're gonna mash this thing into a ball.
So now we're lining it with our crinkly parchment paper,
filling it to the rim with pie weights or pie beans,
par baking per the package parameters,
removing the pie beans,
and returning to the oven to bake until golden brown.
So there you have it, a store-bought pie shell.
Let's pretend that we made this all on our own,
allowing to cool completely
while we prepare the specified filling.
Into a bowl goes 1/2 cup each
of granulated sugar and light brown sugar,
tablespoon of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger,
1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg,
teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt,
two eggs cracked simultaneously for spectacle,
one can of pumpkin puree,
two teaspoons of vanilla paste,
and one cup of heavy cream.
Whip with a wire whisk until smooth,
and just like that, you got pumpkin pie base.
Pour into the prepared pastry,
and this guy's ready to bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes,
until just set but very wobbly.
Then turning off the oven
and allowing the pie to cool completely in the off oven,
which is gonna cool the custard down gradually
and prevent it from cracking.
You gonna close the oven door there, Andy?
Oh, nevermind. Ghost got it.
Next up, stuffing.
Now, we have a stuffing basics coming out next week,
keep an eye out for that,
so we'll save the fancy stuffing for then.
For now we're just drying out a loaf of bread
cut into one-inch cubes in a low oven or left out overnight.
Then over the stovetop
we're browning a pound of sage sausage.
Then half a small chopped onion,
letting that sweat for three to five minutes.
Adding one clove crushed garlic,
teaspoon of rosemary, tablespoon of fresh sage.
Sauteing for about 30 more seconds or until fragrant,
and then dumping over our dried bread cubes.
Then we're starting to add stock, at first about a cup,
starting to soak the bread and cool off the meat and veg
so that we can add one beaten egg.
Then mixing and slowly adding stock
until the desired consistency is achieved.
Pour into a buttered cast iron skillet and roast,
375 for 30 to 45 minutes
until lightly browned and cooked through.
Now, for the green beans,
I didn't want to do the usual green bean casserole.
I wanted to try something else, green beans amandine.
We're starting by par boiling the green beans
for three to four minutes
while we melt three tablespoons of butter
and one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet.
Once hot and foamy we're adding 1/4 cup of slivered almonds,
letting those toast for about two minutes
before adding two cloves of thinly sliced garlic.
Saute for about 30 seconds or until fragrant
before skimming the green beans out of the water
and dumping 'em straight in.
Saute everything together for another one to two minutes.
Ooh, cool flames.
Then season to taste with freshly ground salt
and kosher pepper.
Now, I am a green bean casserole obsessive,
and I gotta say this is a pretty good option in a pinch.
Only takes about 15 minutes and less than 10 ingredients.
Next up, a nice and simple Yukon gold mash.
Peeling and cutting three large Yukon golds
into one-inch cubes, covering them with cold water,
adding two cloves of garlic and a sprig of thyme,
bringing to a boil and cooking for about 15 minutes,
until the potatoes can be passively pierced
with a paring knife.
Then I'm returning the potatoes to low heat
and cooking them for about 30 seconds
to drive off excess moisture
before seasoning them with white pepper, kosher salt,
and adding one cup of steaming milk
and four tablespoons of melted butter.
Mash to a state of mashedness, taste for seasoning,
and it's time for turkey.
We don't need much, so I'm just doing a leg,
then I'm gonna place on a rack over a bed of mirepoix,
helping to prevent fat from dripping down and burning.
There's gonna be a lot of it.
I've got one cup of butter here
that I'm adding various spices to.
Garlic powder, onion powder,
cayenne pepper, white pepper, kosher salt.
And I'm gonna use this to baste the bird,
first giving it a healthy initial brushing
before placing into a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven,
preferably with convection,
for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour,
taking it out to baste it every 15 or so
and making sure to rotate it so that it gets even heat.
Eventually we're just looking for the skin to be browned
and for the meat to register at least 175 degrees Fahrenheit
at its thickest point.
And for a last-minute,
small-scale Thanksgiving option, it's pretty good.
You got a nice crispy skin, juicy meat.
But none of it means anything without cranberry sauce.
One pound of fresh cranberries, cup of water,
cinnamon stick, star anise pod, freshly grated nutmeg,
zest and juice of one orange.
Get it up to a simmer and hold it there
for about 30 minutes.
Fish out your star anise and your cinnamon stick,
and there you go.
Next and last, we're just gonna make
some fortified turkey stock.
As you can see here, I have a turkey pope's nose
which my butcher was kind enough to give me.
To that I'm gonna add a quartered onion,
some fresh thyme, parsley, and sage,
and a chopped carrot and celery.
Once that's got a little bit of color on it,
we're gonna add some turkey stock,
taking care not to spill a drop.
Perfect.
Once you've covered the vegetables with turkey stock
and cleaned up your cooktop,
we're gonna bring this to a simmer
and cook for at least 45 minutes,
making our boxed stock taste less like a box
and more like stock.
The next day everything's cooled off
and therefore has become leftovers,
which we must now coax into ball form
with, of course, some Andes mints.
First up, I forgot to make the gravy,
so real quick we want to put about 1/2 cup of fat in a pan.
I'm using butter and our reserved turkey drippings.
And to that we're gonna add 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour,
whisking and cooking for one to three minutes
until the raw flour smell dissipates
and then slowly adding in splashes of our stock,
whisking to a state of smoothness after each addition.
Oh, don't forget those turkey drippings.
And this stuff came out pretty thick and pretty pale,
so I'm gonna darken and flavor it
both with soy sauce and a little bit of Gravy Master.
I'm also gonna season it with kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg.
I know I'm kinda the nutmeg guy,
but nutmeg and gravy really actually works.
If you don't like it,
fill out the rebate form, send me your gravy,
and I will mail you a replacement in three to five weeks.
Give it a taste for seasoning and then,
since it's getting mashed into ball form,
we need to cool it off.
I'm spreading it out on a rimmed baking sheet,
placing it in the fridge, and while it's cooling,
I'm going to peel the skin off of
and shred our dark turkey meat.
Once it's shredded down to a nice form factor,
we can start assembling.
Now, my first instinct
was to sort of take a flap of stuffing,
then place the turkey, gravy,
cranberry sauce, green beans, pumpkin pie,
and of course Andes mint in the center.
Then I imagined the stuffing wrapping around these fillings,
keeping them safe as we turned this thing into a Scotch egg,
patting out some mashed potatoes into a disc
and ensconcing the stuffing ball within it,
creating an all-inclusive Thanksgiving snowball.
But then a much more practical idea came to mind.
Why not arrange all the fillings on a table
and go full Cold Stone Creamery on them,
chopping and folding them together like common mixins,
on an admittedly not refrigerated table.
Then grabbing a handful
of the sort of grisly looking end product
and much more easily shaping it into a ball
than can then be wrapped in mashed potatoes, of course.
Now, it seems like we have our bases pretty covered,
but I'm sorry to say that my ideas did not stop there.
Yep, I am very sorry to say that this is happening.
We are going to consciously make the decision
to put every element of a Thanksgiving dinner
in a food processor, stare unblinkingly into the void,
and blend into a Thanksgiving paste.
Let's all just silently reflect for a moment
while we watch this liquefy.
You see what you guys make me do?
And now, obviously, I have to try it.
Thanksgiving paste food product.
Thanksgiving of the future.
Come on, Andy, don't be a wimp.
It's just normal food mashed together, just eat it.
And I gotta say, it's actually really, really...
I'm kidding, it's not good at all.
It's like extra lumpy, grainy,
Thanksgiving-flavored mashed potatoes.
That being said, we have to try to make something out of it.
Can't just throw it away.
I mean, when you look into the void,
after all, it looks back.
So next stage is to batter and deep fry these things,
so I'm setting up a two-stage battering system,
combining one cup of cornstarch, 1/4 cup of flour,
and a teaspoon of kosher salt in one vessel,
and 1 1/2 cups flour and a teaspoon of baking powder
in another, perhaps slightly larger vessel.
To which we're gonna add three cups
of light beer-style lager,
creating an ethereal beer batter
that must be used immediately.
That is, after whisking to a consistency
of about lumpy pancake batter.
So first our balls are getting thoroughly coated
in the cornstarch mixture, patting off any excess.
Then they're going for a bath in the wet stuff,
and once completely coated,
they're headed over to the stovetop
where we have some 350-degree Fahrenheit oil
ready to receive.
It's very hard to not lose some batter in the process,
so don't beat yourself up,
and fry for four to five minutes until deeply golden brown
and hopefully heated through.
I'm starting with our Gobstopper ball,
then frying our Cold Stone Creamery balls.
No more than two at a time
because they're basically giant ice cubes in the oil.
Then I'm frying our heart of darkness paste
that I've rolled into little balls
and coated with breadcrumbs,
which I quickly discovered exploded.
Which is understandable. They are not of this realm.
So I'm fortifying the paste with eggs and breadcrumbs
and likewise battering before deep frying.
I refuse to liquefy a Thanksgiving dinner for nothing.
We are getting some balls out of it.
Once those are golden brown and crisp,
just like everybody else, we are draining on paper towels,
and then finally it's time to rack 'em up and taste test.
First up, the little fritters of darkness.
And they obviously look amazing inside,
but how do they taste?
And the answer is not good, but not bad.
Sort of like a corn-less hush puppy
that had a nightmare about Thanksgiving last night.
Then the Gobstopper, which is kinda cool.
You can see every element, including the melty Andes mint.
But it's a little unwieldy
and the chocolate is too pronounced.
The real winner here was the Cold Stone version.
The chocolate was chopped in, so it wasn't overbearing.
You can taste a little bit of Thanksgiving in every bite.
Plus it's deep fried.
You might laugh, but it was the only one
that I had to cut into pieces
so that everybody could try it.
Thanks again, SimpliSafe, for sponsoring this episode.
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and the affordable monthly monitoring plan,
it's clear that there is no safe like SimpliSafe.
When I'm traveling a lot during the holidays,
it gives me peace of mind to know that my home is protected.
There's no long-term contracts or hidden fees,
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with up to 40% off new system orders
during their biggest sale of the year.
For more info and to get your own,
head to SimplySafe.com/Babish
or click the link in the video description.
(mellow music)