(judge speaking in Japanese) (suspenseful music)
- [Alvin] Hello there!
Welcome back to another episode of "Anime with Alvin."
Today, I'll be making the fried bear
from "Food Wars!" two ways.
One of them will be the main character's dish,
and the other one will be his opponent's.
Things are about to get pretty intense,
so in classic anime fashion,
we're gonna start with the opponent's dish first.
I have here legally sourced bear meat.
We're starting with bear ribs and bear kebab meat,
which is probably cut-up sirloin.
I'm taking the meat off the ribs,
cutting up the fat in the kebab meat
until they're nice little chunks,
and throwing them in a 450 degree oven to roast them
for about 30 minutes until they get nice and brown.
The roasted bear bones and meat
are actually for a bear gravy,
so we're gonna add these golden-brown chunks
into a large pot along with two cut onions,
three large carrots, a head of halved garlic,
a couple slices of ginger,
a tablespoon of black peppercorns, and two bay leaves,
followed by a generous helping of water,
just enough to cover everything.
I'm now gonna let this simmer for about four hours
until the meat is tender
and all the flavors had time to infuse.
We got a lot of work to do.
Now for the main part of the opponent's dish:
chicken-fried bear.
I have here New York steak cut from bear, so New York bear,
which sounds both cool and intimidating at the same time.
After taking a meat mallet
and pounding out each steak of bear,
using Saran Wrap as a cushion,
I'm cutting them into smaller, more manageable chunks.
It smells really intense,
so we gotta do something about that.
As the opponent cleverly does in the show,
he makes a garlic-onion puree,
cutting up one white onion into chunks
but not crying like I always do,
eight cloves of garlic, couple slices of ginger,
a teaspoon of kosher salt, and some black pepper.
These all go in a food processor and pureed until smooth.
The idea is that the intense aromatics and flavors
in this paste will go to war with the flavors from the bear
and hopefully win.
So I'm giving our steaks a nice ginger-garlic-onion bath
and letting this marinade for about a day or so.
After the four hours are up,
it's time to check in on our stock and strain it.
I like to press all the flavor and juices
from all the sediment and the meat and the vegetables,
just to get everything in there.
And to my pleasant surprise,
this smells like chicken noodle soup.
No detection of gaminess whatsoever.
So I'd wager to say things are looking
pretty good right now.
The opponent also uses his secret Cajun spice mix,
so after locating the teaspoon measure,
I'm combining a tablespoon of paprika,
two teaspoons of garlic powder,
two teaspoons of kosher salt,
a teaspoon of onion powder,
a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper,
a teaspoon of dried oregano,
a teaspoon of dried thyme,
and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.
I am officially done with this teaspoon.
Tiny whisk everything together,
and we have our own Cajun spice blend.
Another technique the opponent uses
is crushed-up juniper berries as a seasoning.
This apparently also combats the gaminess
and adds an aromatic note, so that's what we're doing
with the mortal and pestle.
Mortar. Not mortal. (dramatic music)
(Terunori speaking in Japanese)
(Soma speaking in Japanese)
I'm now gonna start with the main character's dish.
These are schisandra berries.
Bear-ies. Good one.
Schisandra berries are also known as a five-flavor fruit,
used widely in medicinal and herbal cuisine throughout Asia.
The main character steeps these berries in sake,
which apparently brings out their essential oils
and flavors, heightening the effectiveness.
I will do the same and let them hang out for a few hours.
All right, now bear with me as we do some multitasking.
Another good one.
In the middle, I'm reducing three cups of that bear stock
down to one cup.
On the right, I'm sauteing some onions
and garlic in some butter, and on the left,
I'm slowly caramelizing honey,
but not just any kind of honey: Amur Cork tree honey,
which the main character specifically uses
for its slightly bitter undertones,
as normal honey would be just too sweet.
That's a lot to keep an eye on.
Managing three pans is not easy.
After the honey is caramelized
for an extra hint of bitterness,
I'm adding in balsamic vinegar to thin it out.
This apparently helps counter the sweetness
by adding acidity.
After the stock is reduced
and the onions are a nice golden brown,
we're combining all three of these pans into one vessel.
Even though the main character doesn't do this,
I'm immersion blending this because I think
it'll make a better consistency
and enhance the flavors well.
After adding in a couple of pinches
of kosher salt, I'm now adding in
those sake-steeped schisandra berries from earlier.
Now, there's a lot of stuff in this sauce,
so it's time for quality control.
It's a little too sweet, so I'm adding a splash of balsamic.
This tastes quite strong but delicious,
but we'll have to see if this sauce can tame that bear.
On to the main portion of the main character's dish:
a bear menchi katsu.
Menchi katsu is a common dish found in Japan
which is made with a seasoned ground meat mixture
breaded in panko and fried.
So to start, I'm making my own ground bear,
the same way I'd make my own ground beef for a burger.
I'm starting by cutting up chunks of short rib and brisket,
about two pounds of each, into small chunks
and putting them on a tray and setting them in the freezer
until they're mildly frozen.
This is a technique that I use
because I don't have a meat grinder at home,
so I like to do this with a food processor.
I now wish I had a meat grinder at home.
Good thing we're not at my house,
because the Babish team does have a meat grinder.
Kendall has lovingly prepared the meat grinder for me
by freezing its components.
If both the meat and the parts are cold,
nothing's gonna stick, everything's gonna come out smooth,
and all will be right in the world.
And remember: If you're not having fun when you're cooking,
you're just making food.
The main character also uses ground-up schisandra berries
in the menchi katsu itself,
so we're just gonna chop up
a couple of those pretty roughly,
transfer our freshly ground bear into a large bowl,
and start mixing.
Additions to this menchi katsu include one egg,
those beautiful sauteed onions from earlier,
a splash of bear stock, thank you, Kendall,
four tablespoons of panko breadcrumbs,
and a teaspoon of that ground schisandra from earlier.
Give the meat a good old rub.
I mean mix.
And these are now ready to be shaped into patties.
I like to use a little bit of oil on my hands,
just to make sure that this doesn't stick,
and I'm shaping these into burger-size patties,
like, the size you want them if you're really hungry.
After we've done all we can do,
these now go to set in the fridge, covered, of course.
While those go chill for a bit,
I'm gonna finish the opponent's bear gravy.
First, I'm rendering some bear fat trimmings from earlier,
about three tablespoons or so.
Then I'm adding in three tablespoons of flour,
making a bear roux.
Once the ba-roux has reached a bear-like color,
I'm gonna pour in 1/2 cup of that bear stock from earlier,
whisking the whole time.
Once the stock is incorporated,
I'm slowly adding in about a cup of milk,
again whisking the whole time.
It's kinda like playing Whack-a-Mole with lumps.
If you see any forming, you beat the bear out of 'em.
To season, we're gonna use about a teaspoon
of the Cajun spice blend we made earlier,
along with 1/2 teaspoon of ground juniper berries
and kosher salt.
Once everybody in there is good and happy,
we're gonna let this set aside until we're ready to serve.
I'm now gonna start frying the opponent's dish.
To make the frying batter,
I'm combining 1/4 cup of corn starch
with two teaspoons of the Cajun spice blend,
along with two eggs and a splash of water
to get the consistency I want.
Now we're moving to the stove,
where I have the oil heated to 350 degrees.
Now, remember, these bear steak chunks have been marinading
in that ginger-garlic paste for about a day,
and after a quick skinny-dip in the batter,
they're gonna take a full plunge into this hot oil
until golden brown and crispy, about a few minutes.
Now, I'm not sure if this is the actual way
to do a chicken-fried meat, but the opponent
in the show seems to know what he's doing,
so I will do my best as well.
After the chicken-fried bear cutlets drain
and rest on the rack, it's time to plate 'em up.
Little bit of lettuce for presentation,
two of these cutlets, and a ramekin
of that bear gravy from earlier.
And there you have it:
the chicken-fried bear from "Food Wars!",
marinaded heavily in ginger, garlic, and onion,
seasoned with Cajun spice and juniper berries,
served with a bear gravy.
Here goes nothing.
Hmm. I don't taste bear.
I honestly don't taste meat at all.
That ginger-garlic-onion paste really did its job
in taming that bear.
I can only taste flavors from that paste.
It kinda tastes like dumplings.
The creaminess of the gravy offsets the pungency
of the garlic and the onion marinaded bear.
But how will the main character's dish turn out?
Now that our minced bear patties have been chilled,
it's time to give them a nice breading jacket.
This is a very traditional setup
of flour, eggs, and panko breadcrumbs.
Each patty spends a few seconds in each bath,
and after all our patties have been encrusted, we go again.
350 degree oil, couple minutes
until the outside is beautiful, golden brown, and crispy.
After a quick rest and a quick drain,
we're plating up again, and I present to you
the main character's fried bear menchi katsu,
served with a caramelized honey, balsamic vinegar,
and schisandra berry sauce.
Here's how it looks with the sauce slowly draped on top.
And now for the taste.
This one has a lot going on.
I feel like I'm getting punched in the face by a bear.
But immediately afterwards, three pretty girls named Honey,
Balsamic, and Schisandra are caressing my cheeks
and giving me a hug,
which makes sense, because in the show,
the main character actually does not try to tame the bear.
He actually wants to let the bear out.
I gotta hand it to the main character.
Whether it's plot armor, pure skill, or good writing,
his dishes slap pretty hard,
sometimes hard enough to make your clothes explode.
(mellow music)