- Hi, I'm Rie.
Today, a friend is challenging me
to take a popular food and Make it Fancy.
Today's guest is Alvin.
Let's see what I'm making fancy today.
- Hello, best friend.
I love the McDonald's Big Mac and their fries,
I think they're incredible.
I don't eat it very often, but when I do, it's always nice.
So I don't know how you're gonna be able to make them fancy,
but if there's anybody that can make the Big Mac
and the fries fancy, it's you Rie,
because you're my best friend,
and that's what best friends do.
They believe in each other, they challenge each other,
and I'm excited to see what you make.
(mischievous music)
- McDonald's Big Mac and french fries.
I've had french fries, but I've never had Big Mac.
I like hamburgers.
Just seeing package, Big Mac doesn't look like big.
Wow, look nice though.
Looks very rich, and a lot.
Kinda sad looking patty.
Does it have pickles too?
Yeah, there is pickles.
Wow, it's not bad.
In the past I always add neutralizing ingredients,
but I think I should add a more beefy component.
And I'm not sure how I'm going to incorporate this.
Soggy lettuce is not fancy.
I think they have one of the best french fries.
Alvin has made giant burgers for his show Make it Big,
so it's natural he chose a Big Mac.
He made it giant, but I have to make fancy.
This is, I feel like one of the most difficult thing
to make it fancy because it's one complete meal.
Changing this is very hard, but I want to surprise Alvin.
I have some great ideas and I'm excited to Make it Fancy.
(upbeat music)
All right, here's what I got.
Short ribs, mushrooms, gruyere cheese,
butter, eggs, leeks, parsley,
carrots, celery, thyme, cabbage,
onion, garlic, and heavy cream.
From the pantry I got tomato paste,
lemon, bay leaves, olive oil, salt,
flour, beef stock, canola oil,
brown sugar, red wine, and vodka.
Double alcohol.
All right, let's get started.
(bag crinkling)
Make it Fancy.
(mischievous music)
Okay, so we have short ribs.
Pat dry with paper towel.
Sprinkle some salts in both sides.
You wanna sprinkle salt in high, it will cover evenly.
And heating up some oil, about two tablespoons.
This is the first time we use Instant Pot in this show.
I don't have Instant Pot at home, but it's very convenient.
It usually takes about four hours what I'm making,
but if you use Instant Pot,
you can make it about 45 minutes.
Pot from future.
Does it mean we already in the future?
(beef sizzling)
So I am adding short ribs, I'm using saute mode.
Brown the beef, both side, about two to three minutes.
Beef it's nicely browned, saute onions, celery, and carrots.
Sprinkle some salt so it cooks faster,
and also seasoning (indistinct).
Cook until vegetable is a little bit softened.
Save the brown bits bottom the pot from sauteing beef,
that is the flavor comes from,
so don't wipe it out from paper towel or anything.
- [Producer] Are you familiar with Ronald McDonald?
I just read that in Japan because there's no R sound,
they call him Donald.
- Oh it's this why?
So his name it's Ronald?
I thought he was Donald, like the duck.
Veggies are cooked and softened.
Add garlic and thyme.
A lot of people want to put garlic
before adding anything else,
but garlic tended to burn quickly
so you want to add garlic later.
Cook until garlic it's fragrant, about one to two minutes.
Two tablespoon tomato paste.
Cook until tomato paste change the color to dark, deep red.
One tablespoon of brown sugar, one cup of beef stock.
(mixture sizzling)
One cup of red wine.
Oh I love this smell, like red wine, and garlic.
Putting back beef I sauteed earlier.
This juice, don't discard.
This has a lot of flavor, it's a liquid gold.
So you want to make sure beef it's submerged
in this braising liquid.
And I think it's not enough so I'm gonna just add more wine.
(wine splashing)
The bay leaves.
Put the lid.
You want to press pressure cook mode
and set the timer for 45 minutes.
While it's cooking, let's move on to next step.
Two cup of heavy cream, McDonald french fries.
I don't like drive-through in general.
I don't like shouting at the machine.
I like human interaction.
So it's very thick, kind of pale yellow.
And I'm going to strain this and press all the liquid out.
Process potato in a food mill.
So I learned this trick from my coworker.
Five on the right side, and one on the left side,
so it doesn't stuck.
Food mill helps french fries into the texture I want.
If you don't have a food mill, you can use potato ricer.
Looks good.
Chill this in the fridge about 15 minutes.
Potato, it's chilled and separated pretty nicely.
It's almost look like a cauliflower rice,
but it's not good for you.
And I'm adding this into flour.
Add salt and toss.
Two tablespoon of butter,
incorporate into the flour and the french fry mixture.
You kinda want to make butter into a small bits,
almost like a pea size.
Butter it's well incorporated in the flour,
add one tablespoon of vodka.
I recommend put vodka in the freezer.
Sprinkle ice water into the flour mixture
a little by little.
Gonna knead a little bit,
and make sure everything is incorporated.
Dough came together.
Cover with plastic,
make it a little bit flatter so it's easier to roll.
I'm going to put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
I have cabbage leaves,
blanch them two to three minutes
until cabbage it's a little bit soft, not crunchy.
And shock them in ice water so it will stop cooking.
This cabbage almost look like a fake food.
Remove the core, chop roughly.
I want to keep four nice looking leaves.
Set this aside until I'm going to use next time.
Burger time, gonna do some operation.
Take off buns, scrape soggy lettuce and pickle, cheese.
It's perfectly brown though.
Gonna set this aside, rough chop.
The burger, in a bowl.
Has a different kind of a resistance.
The meat it's bouncy, definitely not juicy.
And I'm adding back this thing.
Half cup of gruyere cheese,
'cause it has a very sharp cheese flavor.
Basically this episode,
I'm doing everything opposite of past episodes,
I'm adding more flavor, not neutralizing.
A quarter cup of creme fraiche,
tablespoon of chopped parsley,
one teaspoon of lemon juice.
It is well mixed, set aside, bake this bread at 350 degree
about 15 to 20 minutes
until the bun is completely dried out.
Heat up some olive oil, add two leeks,
just the white part, not green part,
green part is a little too hard to eat
so you want to use it for stocks.
Sprinkle some salt and saute until soft.
Leeks are cooked,
I have three different kinds of mushrooms.
Maitake, king trumpet, and baby bella.
I want to use three different mushrooms
because it will give different texture and flavor.
The king trumpet has like very nice meaty bites.
And then I'll add a little bit more oil, and salt.
- [Producer] Rie, do they have Happy Meals in Japan?
- We do have Happy Meals in Japan.
And I think one of the toys come with it
was Ty stuffed animals, and I bought it.
I think I was high school, actually.
I might have it in my parents' house, it was monkey.
Mushroom is cooked
so I'm adding three cloves of chopped garlic,
and one teaspoon of thyme.
Cook until fragrant.
All right, smells great.
Remove this from the heat and adding into the bowl.
Add chopped cabbage, Big Mac filling, soggy lettuce,
onions, thousand island dressing, and pickles.
The reason I chose cabbage was I want to balance out
sogginess of the lettuce with crunchy cabbage.
Beautiful.
Keep this in the fridge until ready to use.
This, it's the short ribs I cooked in an Instant Pot.
Take out.
This kind of beef stew it's my favorite kind of food.
- [Producer] So that's like a good meal right there, right?
- Yeah, there's no McDonald's in there though.
Shred beef, look how tender.
Put shredded beef in a bowl.
Instant Pot, it's great, maybe I should get one.
If you don't have Instant Pot,
you can definitely make this in a cast iron pot
and cook in oven, but it will take longer.
So if you don't want to use red wine,
you can just use beef stock,
but I don't think you have that rich flavor.
Cover shredded beef with braising liquid
to prevent beef it's drying out.
So make sure remove the bay leaf, because you cannot eat it.
And I have some braising liquid left over,
but I want to use for something else.
Okay, so I have a lot of components so let's recap.
I have blanched cabbage leaves,
mushroom and leek stuffing, shredded beef,
and Big Mac cheese filling.
I've got this glass bowl lined with plastic.
Put cabbage leaves stem side down,
and leaf side is kinda hanging.
Add half of this mushroom leek mixture, press it down.
You can also see the pickles right here,
great to see you again.
Add shredded beef.
And this it's everything I love.
Kind of pressing down again.
Big Mac burger cheese mixture, pressing down.
And add rest of the mushroom mix.
I'm arranging cabbage leaf so the stuffing doesn't exposed.
Seal the bottom with cabbage and close the door.
Cover with plastic so it doesn't dry out.
Chill this in the refrigerator about 30 minutes.
This it's the buns I toasted earlier, it is--
(buns knocking against each other)
It's hard.
Break it a little by little piece.
The bun was already a little dry side,
but we toast it so we can make the crumbs.
Add in a food processor.
(food processor running)
I'm going to set aside and move on to next step.
I have two tablespoon of butter, melt this in the pot.
And one cup of mushroom,
it's the same mushroom I used earlier,
saute them until softened.
One crushed clove of garlic, and one teaspoon of thyme,
and season with salt.
Add in one cup of beef stock,
short ribs braising liquid, one cup.
Increasing the heat,
quarter cup of bread crumb.
Usually you'd thicken gravy with flour
but I'm using breadcrumb from Big Mac buns.
This is kind of trick ingredient.
- [Producer] You haven't seen Alvin in a while, right?
- He's in New York and I'm LA,
but we text each other sometimes.
We are good friends.
We are making videos for our new channel
called About to Eat, this is the logo.
Check it out and subscribe.
Bring this to a boil and simmer until gravy's thickens.
So it seems like a nice thickness.
And now I'm going to strain.
Kind of stir to make sure
all the liquids it's coming through.
Adding strained gravy back into a frying pan
and heat over medium high heat.
Once it simmers I'm adding butter.
Looks good, it's nice and thick.
Set this aside and move on to next step.
Pie dough, it's french fries.
So it's chilling in a refrigerator.
Sprinkle some flour so it doesn't stick on the surface.
Sprinkle on top a little bit.
Rolling pin, I'm constantly adding flour
so it doesn't stick.
Doesn't smell like french fry anymore.
And keep rotating so you can roll like a round shape.
- [Producer] In the 80's, McDonald's tried to make pizza.
- How did it go?
- Not well.
(Rie laughing)
- That's why we don't see pizza in McDonald's.
I'm going to cut with knife,
brush off the excess flour on top,
and transfer to a baking sheet pan.
I'm using fork, poke this pie dough so it doesn't shrink.
And using a pastry brush, brush egg wash on the rim only.
I'll set this aside for now.
I have puff pastry, sprinkle some flour and roll.
Unwrap the plastic part.
Unmold cabbage dome.
Dab this with some paper towel.
Cover cabbage dome with puff pastry
and use your hands and tuck it in.
Use the same glass bowl and cut excess dough.
Use your thumb and crimp like you crimp pie dough.
You want to brush egg wash, when you bake the pie
it will give nice shine.
You just want to score, so you don't want to cut through.
And in-between line I'm going to make another line.
Use piping tip cut leftover pastry, and cut out.
Use both sides and make look like a donut,
and put donut on top, just the dough part
so the steam escape and it doesn't too puffy.
Cover with egg wash, and put one more donut,
and finish with egg wash.
Gonna add a little bit more line.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds,
sesame seeds kinda adds nice accent
and it kinda look like the Big Mac bun.
I'm going to put this in the refrigerator
and chill about 30 minutes,
and bake this at 425 for 15 minutes
so it will get nice brown color.
Reduce the heat to 350 and bake another 45 minutes
so everything cooks through.
So my McDonald pithivier it's baked, and cooled,
and I'm going to put in a plate.
Here it's the gravy and we are done.
(calm music)
McDonald's Big Mac french fry pithivier, very fancy.
This is something you cannot get from drive through.
Let's see what Alvin thinks.
(upbeat music)
Hello, best friend.
- Hi.
- This may be the most challenging thing.
- I'm sorry that I put so much pressure on you.
- So I actually never had a Big Mac before.
- Rie, the next time I'm in LA,
I'm gonna take you out to dinner
and I'm gonna buy you a Big Mac.
Whoa.
What is that?
Wait, there's a name for this.
Is it a Big Mac pithivier?
- Yes.
- I wanna see what's inside, I'm mind blown right now, Rie.
Whoa, wow, look at those layers.
This looks like something you could order at a restaurant.
- Thank you.
I'm sorry you cannot eat it.
- I'll pretend, I'll eat with you.
- Imaginary pithivier.
(upbeat music)
Oh yeah.
- Mm, so many textures in there.
Honestly, that looks really legitimately
a really great interpretation of a Big Mac.
- So Alvin, did I make McDonald's fancy?
- Rie, best friend,
I think you 100% made McDonald's fancy.
- Thank you, best friend.
All right, so Alvin, we have one last things to do.
- Yes we do.
- Three, two, one.
- [Both] Make it Fancy.
(upbeat music)