- [Man] Ooh it's just a yolk.
- Is that a real egg?
(squealing)
- That's an egg yolk.
- Oh my god.
- What the (beep) is goin' on right now?
- Come on.
Hello my friends, Merle here.
And today I am back to my old tricks
of veganizing something that you know and love.
Or at least something that you know.
So today is gonna be really, really, really special.
And I'm not exaggerating.
Today I'm not even a chef,
today I'm like a mad scientist.
Because, you asked for it, I'm giving it to you.
Today we're gonna make a vegan runny egg yolk, out of--
(drum roll)
Tomatoes.
I must have gotten hundreds of requests
to do this really cool recipe.
There was this sort of viral video that Insider did,
that this restaurant called Crossroads Kitchen
in West Hollywood, in L.A.
They do this really convincing vegan runny egg.
It's got the color, it's got the pop,
it's got the ooze, it looks like an egg yolk.
I know, I've already tried to recreate an egg.
It did not look like this, this is next level.
And today, I am truly up for the challenge.
I wanna give you guys what you wanna see.
It might not be easy, but we're doin' it.
So buckle up buttercups, this is gonna be a wild ride.
So, the first step is to take a blender basin,
and you're gonna put it on a food scale,
and then you're going to zero out the weight.
And then we want 1000 grams of cold water
to be measured out into the blender basin.
Oop (beep), 1026.
All right, I see how this dance is gonna go.
(gasps)
1000, yes.
Okay, so now we're gonna add our sodium alginate.
Sodium alginate is extracted from a brown seaweed
that grows in cold water.
It's used in cooking to add to things to add viscosity,
or to help bind things together.
Essentially, it's an emulsifier.
Add the sodium alginate to your water,
and then you're gonna blend that on high speed
for 60 seconds or one minute until the sodium alginate
is completely dissolved.
(blending)
Wow, that was crazy.
So this is completely emulsified into the water
and now it's got a totally different consistency.
It's not solid, it's not liquid,
it's a little somewhere in between which is what we want
because when you think of an egg yolk,
it's always somewhere there in the gray area right?
And what we wanna do is pour this
into a nice shallow, wide bowl.
It has the texture of lubricant.
Doesn't smell like anything.
(smacks lips)
Doesn't taste like anything.
I'm going to just cover this up,
and then now I have this all covered up
I'm gonna go refrigerate this for two hours.
You could also just refrigerate it overnight.
But I'm gonna go do that and then
we're gonna work on our yolk.
I'm gonna core these.
And essentially what we're gonna do
is we're gonna confit these tomatoes.
It's a French cooking technique
that was originally used to preserve meats.
But essentially what we'll be doing
is roasting these at a very low temperature
over a long time, with a lot of oil.
We want one and a quarter pounds of these tomatoes.
Make sure you have a good mixture of red,
and yellow, and orange in there.
'Cause that's gonna determine your color.
You want a neutral oil, I'm using canola oil.
Should almost cover your tomatoes basically.
And then we're gonna add some salt,
I'm gonna toss this all together.
I'm gonna go ahead and roast these
at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, that's 160 degree Celsius,
for about an hour and 20 minutes,
and then we'll revisit these cuties.
Okay, so we have our confit tomatoes.
And what we're gonna do is we're gonna use
a slotted spoon, we're gonna take these out of here
and plop them right into the old blender.
So you can just let the oil drip down.
Now I'm gonna separate the oil
from any of the tomato liquid or water
that may have been released during the cooking.
Okay, so we wanna keep the oil.
So we're gonna blend up these tomatoes
at a very high speed until they're completely smooth.
(opening blender)
Yeah, nice.
Okay, well I just realized that I got a huge,
well not huge, that's dramatic.
But I got an oil stain on my shirt
and I love this shirt so I'm taking this off
and I'm gonna go clean this and wear something else,
and wear an apron, so there.
That's just so you know why I'm not (mumbles) this.
Okay, we're back.
What we're gonna do, is we're gonna take our tomato puree,
and we're gonna go ahead and run it through this sieve
and I'm gonna just make sure it removes
all of the pulp or any skins
that are still left in our puree.
All right, so, I have a nice high walled skillet here.
And what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna add some water,
and about a quarter cup of minced shallots.
I'm gonna put the heat on and let it heat up
over medium heat for about five to eight minutes,
until it starts to steam.
Kinda looks like queso.
Okay, so now this is good to go.
I'm gonna strain this tomato mixture
through a fine mesh sieve into the blender.
And I'm just gonna add one tablespoon
back from the strained shallots.
We don't want too many shallots
because then the shallot flavor
will come through too strong.
And then do what you will with the rest.
I'll leave that up to you.
All right, beautiful.
So, we've got our tomato mixture in here,
now we're just gonna add our black salt.
The black salt is what's gonna give us
that really nice sulfuric eggy flavor and smell.
So, I'm gonna go ahead and blend this
at a high speed for about 20 seconds.
I'm gonna lower this to now a medium speed,
and I'm gonna slowly add this reserved tomato oil.
So basically I'm gonna slowly stream this in
as this is blending over a medium speed.
(blending)
All right, this is completely emulsified.
Maybe I've just gotten used to the eggy smell
but that smells pretty good.
Now I'm gonna set a medium bowl
on my kitchen scale and I'm gonna zero out the weight,
then I'm gonna pour in 250 grams of my yolk mixture.
This is calcium lactate, the calcium lactate
is what is going to react
to the sodium alginate added earlier.
Now I'm gonna whisk that together
until it's completely incorporated.
All right, so with calcium lactate
and sodium alginate you can essentially make a yolk.
It's called spherification,
and you can do it with any liquid you want.
So technically, with these two things
you'll get a little sphere which will serve as your yolk.
So those are the two superstars of this equation.
The rest of it is to try to make it
taste as close to an egg yolk as humanly possible.
But it could not be done without
sodium alginate and calcium lactate.
Now, we're gonna cover up this mixture
and we're going to refrigerate it for about an hour.
You can also refrigerate it overnight.
Basically you just want to let
all the air bubbles that are in here pop and come out,
so we don't have any air bubbles for the next step.
It's very exciting stuff.
I'm gonna go refrigerate this,
and then we can make the magic happen.
Okay, so here is our yolk mixture,
already prepared ahead of time.
It looks like that, so it solidified a bit in the fridge.
So, all I'm gonna do is take a tablespoon
and essentially just fill this silicone mold.
These are gonna be our little yolk shapes.
All right, so these are done,
now I'm just going to pop these in the freezer
for about 30 to 40 minutes.
I'm excited, but I'm gonna be careful and excited.
Oh my god, oh my god, please do not spill.
Okay, so here we are,
we have these cute little yolks frozen.
They were in there for about 45 minutes.
And I'm gonna do this really quickly,
because I don't want them to thaw.
Basically, I'm gonna pop them out of this little mold here
directly into our sodium alginate solution,
and then just fully coat them.
Now, we don't wanna let these touch,
because if they touch they're gonna stick together.
You wanna make sure these are completely coated.
But these just will stay in here
for about one to two minutes.
So I'll be right back.
I'm so nervous right now because this is not
the kind of recipe you just go back
and like fix a couple things.
It's a process.
We're gonna take out our yolks,
we're gonna drop them in this like,
lukewarm water to rinse them off.
(sighs)
And then it's time to test them.
I'm praying this is gonna hold
some semblance of a shape.
Because if it doesn't, I'm gonna cry.
(gasps)
(laughing)
(squeals)
Oh my god.
That looks like a (beep) egg yolk.
Look at that.
Oh my god my face is getting red I can feel it.
Okay, I'm gonna stop freaking out
and put it in the water.
Whoa, okay so at least one of them is really cool.
All right, let me just take you out.
Wow, this is insane.
So I put it in this lukewarm water,
because you do also want it to be able to thaw
a little bit so that it does in fact run when you break it.
It's so cool.
I've got my yolks at the ready,
and it's time for me to try this.
Let's taste test this, but more importantly
let's see if it's a runny egg yolk right?
That's why we all showed up here today.
It may be pretty, it may be the right color,
it might be really cute.
But is the yolk runny?
Let's try it, let's see what happens.
That's why we're all here.
(intense music)
It's almost impenetrable.
(gasps)
(celebratory music)
Yay, look at it's running.
(cheerful music)
It's not super liquidy, but it's still running,
it's running, it's running, it's running away.
Look, look, look, look, look.
All right, we got it to ooze, I'm very pleased with this.
Let's see how it tastes.
(bites into toast)
Whoa, okay, I haven't had an egg
in a really long time.
It's almost like hollandaise sauce
that's been injected into an egg yolk.
It's got like a little, almost a lemony flavor,
but the acidity's from the tomato.
This is delicious.
I've had the one at Crossroads, this is comparable.
Wow, okay, I'm super pumped.
I'm gonna go invite everybody in, let's see what they think.
- Wow, I can't breathe, this is a strong aroma.
(laughing)
- Of what?
- I'm not gonna say.
(laughing)
- Smells like an attic a little bit.
- An attic?
- It does, it smells a little like,
got a little hint of asbestos.
- It's asbestis.
- Asbestis, how do you say that word?
- It smells real eggy in here.
So I will say that is a success.
- I smell the scent of a woman.
- Okay, well I hope I don't smell
like what this room does smell like.
But, I'm just gonna dive into this with you
'cause this is very exciting.
(squeals)
Yeah, exactly.
- Ooh, it's just a yolk.
(laughing)
Ahhh.
It's an egg yolk.
- What the (beep) is goin' on right now.
- Is that a real egg?
(squealing)
- No.
(laughing)
You done.
- Cool, cute.
- Full disclosure, I don't love runny eggs.
I think they're gross.
- [Woman] Wow.
- It's (mumbles).
(laughing)
- Kind of it smells like an egg.
- Am I supposed to eat this?
- Oh yeah.
- Wait I'm scared.
- It's actually really scary accurate.
- [Man] I'm seeing the yolk run out of this like it's a egg.
Like I'm seeing it pour out.
- It's got a good drip.
(drops yolk)
(screams)
- It passed the splat test.
(beep)
Oh my god.
- In a good way?
(laughing)
You don't wanna eat it do you?
- I don't.
(laughing)
- I can tell.
(biting toast)
- It's tangy.
(biting toast)
- That tastes about right.
- Really?
- Yeah, you nailed it.
(clapping)
- Yay.
- I don't love it, I'm sorry.
- It's a little sour.
- It's good, it tastes like tomato.
- It's very savory.
Like a pasta sauce.
- I was gonna say, like horseradish.
- I would've guessed some sort of grainy mixture.
- Baby food.
- No.
(laughing)
- Is it tomato?
- Yeah.
(grunts)
(laughing)
You already know (beep) Aria gonna get it.
He gon' get in here and flirt a little bit.
- I smell the scent of a woman.
- Aria gonna say some wild (beep) first.
- Ah, bonjour, ooh.
- And then name, (beep) tomato.
(chewing toast)
- Tomato.
- It is tomato.
(laughing)
- He's gonna--
- You think he'll know? - He's gonna get it.
(slamming table)
- That was really good.
- That's god damn right.
- Gross.
- You don't like tomatoes? - I hate tomatoes.
- Okay.
- The flavor was good, it was just surprising.
- Yeah, it's like a little bit more acidic than an egg.
- Egg has more of like a subtle taste to it.
This was just like flavor.
- That's kinda like mind boggling, truly.
It doesn't taste exactly like a egg,
but like, the way that yolk came outta there
actually freaked me out for a second.
- 10 outta 10.
- What, 10 outta 10?
- Mhm.
- Are you (beep) me?
- Yeah I'm not (beep) you.
Can be, though, if you want me to.
- No, Aria please that's too much.
- Oh I'd say it's a 10.
- This has to be an 8.5.
- A 7.5.
- Zero.
- Nothing like an egg?
- Nothing like an egg.
- Yay, oh I'm so glad you like it, cool.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay, you can cut,
(mumbling)
(laughing)
- I'm John Cena.
(laughing)
- What does that mean?
(squeals)
(laughing)
Help me, please cut.
Oh my god, thank you for the cut.
(upbeat music)
Cut.
(squeals)
That was good, thank you.
It's good right?
- [Aria] Yeah, very good, very impressive.
- [Merle] What does John Cena have to do with anything?