- Hey, I'm Alexis, and I'm watching the very first episode
of Chef Out of Water.
And I'm a little nervous.
I haven't watched in a really long time.
Okay, let's see it.
It looks like it's covered in warts.
It's like, is it burning?
This is going to be weird.
Got really weird.
I'm Alexis and I'm the Senior Food Specialist
here at Tasty.
Today, my coworkers have challenged me
to make a three course meal using only one appliance.
Do I get to choose what appliance?
- [Crew Member] Nope.
- Oh, come on.
I look so happy and innocent and just ready for anything,
but I'm like, oh, if only you knew what was going to come.
I had no idea that it was going to be a coffee maker.
Like zero idea.
Oh, this was bad.
(laughs)
I don't drink coffee,
and I think I've made coffee three times in my life.
(laughs)
I don't,
Oh, my God.
Any good chef should be able to cook with anything,
so I'm up for the challenge?
This is true, I don't drink coffee.
I don't make coffee.
I was a fish out of water.
You know, I've cooked using all sorts of appliances,
but the coffee maker just felt so out of left field.
Which I guess is the point.
(upbeat music)
(laughs)
That short hair!
Need 3.5 ounces of heavy cream.
This is so weird.
It seems like very little.
I guess we just heat it up,
and see how hot it gets?
This happened many times over the series,
where something was burning or something was amiss.
When the cream started to smell like it was burning,
I was like, "How am I messing up already?
"There's no way I'm going to be able to do this."
Kind of smells like it's burning.
It's fine.
The cream doesn't need to be scalding hot.
You want it more than warm to the touch.
If you stuck your finger in it,
you'd be like, "Hot!"
How long does it take to make coffee in the morning?
Like 10 minutes?
More?
Will it work?
I still don't know.
I feel like watching this I'm watching someone else.
I'm like, "Oh, what is she doing?"
Oh, this was so good.
I'm going to get the water going for my shrimp.
I fear that it's going to take a while.
So that's why you add the water first.
I think this was a learning experience
of how to make coffee.
It's like this really basic thing
that everyone else knows how to do,
and I somehow missed, so. (moans)
Turning it on.
This is a real learning experience here.
It feels hot,
so I think I can actually go ahead and add the shrimp.
This is why that stupid haircut doesn't work for cooking.
It's too short, it doesn't stay in a ponytail.
That's why I grew my hair out.
So we just want to make sure that the shrimp
is cooked through and pink.
This was like magic.
It's actually turning pink, you can see it turning pink.
This is amazing.
Coffee cooking.
My confidence level right now,
I mean I don't want to get cocky,
but I feel pretty optimistic.
They're actually perfectly cooked.
They were perfectly cooked, they were perfect.
I actually have to toast the coconut on the griddle.
It was amazing, because doing it in the coffee pot,
it was perfectly poached.
It felt like magic.
It was so exciting.
Honestly, this might be the best shrimp I've ever made.
Nice.
I feel skeptical.
Smart, really smart.
So I guess I'll just let that get a little toasty.
If it does, I feel like I would serve this at a dinner party
or just make it for myself.
This was so good.
Another reason I feel so excited about this,
is that I'm actually making food I feel passionate about.
Oh, oh my God, it's actually working.
It's working, it's working.
It's magic, oh my gosh, I feel excited all over.
The coconut got a little brown
and you taste some of the toasted flavor.
Wow.
I don't know if I'm allowed
to give myself a pat on the back, but this is really good.
Next I'm going to poach the salmon.
So I'm just going to heat it up like I did before in here.
It needs to be enough oil to submerge the salmon,
and I'm just going to trim the salmon down
so that it will actually fit in the coffee pot.
I'm going to infuse the oil with,
Watching this back, I sound really confident.
Why?
This whole rollercoaster of emotions.
Some peppercorns, lemon rinds, a bunch of dill,
and that will all heat up together and infuse.
I feel like I could've infused it more.
So I have this idea to make these asparagus ribbons.
And I was initially thinking about blanching them,
but I think actually I could steam them
in the steamer basket.
Because the asparagus is so thin,
steaming it is going to work better than blanching it.
Stay tuned.
This is the weirdest thing that's ever been on the internet.
This is the weirdest thing I've ever done.
It could be done anywhere from seven to 15 minutes.
So while the salmon is poaching,
Okay, so I said seven to 15 minutes,
but like, it's a coffee maker.
All timing that you would use in any other cooking method
is just out the window.
I don't know if anyone actually thought
this was going to work.
The hair.
Oh, (laughing) this looks really gross.
The fat is clearly,
It's not fat, it's not fat.
After so many commenters were like,
"It's not fat, blah blah, protein, blah blah,"
I honestly kind of missed what it is, but it's not fat.
- It looks like, oh, my God.
It looks like it's covered in warts.
There's little balls of fat.
That was really gross.
Ooh, there's like, (laughs)
okay, but look how beautiful that is.
Aah, it is beautiful.
I'm going to do this for a few more minutes
and then wipe off the fat, no one will ever know.
10 million people.
While the salmon finishes poaching,
I'm going to roll the truffles in the cocoa powder.
I'm going to go chill these again,
and then my salmon should be ready.
Ew, the dill.
It's like a sea creature.
Ew, it still looks a little weird.
Let me just flake this.
Okay, it looks beautiful.
Did I say, "It looks beautiful?"
That's a lie.
- It's great.
It needs salt, but it's really nice.
You can do olive oil poached salmon in a coffee maker.
Who knew?
- The flavor, okay, it does look disgusting,
it doesn't look beautiful.
I don't know what I was saying.
But the flavor was so good.
It was so good, and it was cooked perfectly.
So with this I'm going to simmer some beans
in chicken stock and thyme.
Oh, I forgot about this.
Just to try to add some more flavor.
I should've infused that with more flavor too.
If I put the asparagus in the top
and then add some more chicken stock,
by the time the chicken stock goes through,
it might be done?
I don't know.
Oh my God, it's done.
It's not mushy.
They're beautiful, they're beautiful.
I don't want to speak to soon,
but this is going surprisingly well.
Okay, I don't know why I ate the asparagus like that.
Why did I do that?
That's not how you eat food.
You're just seeing the inner parts of me.
You know, the coconut got toasted,
had really nice color.
Hopefully they can get some char.
This is my favorite part.
(sizzling) Oo, okay, there's some sound.
(gasps)
There's a little bit of darken.
A little bit of darken?
What does that mean?
A little bit of darken isn't a thing.
I'm almost done, so I'm gonna text some friends,
see if they want to come up and try it,
and see if they know that this was all done
with a coffee maker.
Course one is a shrimp salad.
Wow, looks amazing.
- I left you with the coffee maker.
(Alexis laughs)
- Mm.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- Olive oil poached salmon, steamed asparagus ribbons,
and blistered tomatoes.
When you left me this morning
what did you think was going to happen?
- Pour hot water and eat dinner.
- Taste tests always make me so nervous.
- I can't speak for a minute. (laughs)
- I made all three courses using only a coffee maker.
- Stop!
I could've eating that meal in a restaurant.
- Oh!
- Well clearly the coffee maker
is better for much more than coffee.
- Clearly.
- I'm going to share this with the team.
Coffee maker queen.
- Coffee maker queen.
(huffs)
Going into today I was nervous.
This is crazy.
This takes so long.
But if I was ever in a pinch, if there's an apocalypse,
I can make dinner in a coffee maker, I'll be fine.
Oh my God, that was a whole rollercoaster of emotions.
I felt nervous, I felt excited,
I felt scared for the outcome
even though I knew the outcome,
and it was me and I already did it,
but I felt scared watching it again,
because it was all these things.
But it's really cool.
It's actually really fun to see.
You know, it's fun to watch it back
and remember why people are connected to it.
It's so weird!
I think this was actually maybe one of my favorite videos
that I've ever done.
I would absolutely cook, again, in a coffee maker, happily.
Since this episode,
I have still not made coffee in a coffee pot.
(upbeat jazzy music)