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and using those fresh pine nuts
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Hey there, folks, and welcome back to...
Gonna zoom? (chuckles)
You gotta do the zoom.
- [Cameraman] Sorry, I'm rusty, I'm rusty.
- It's the first take, okay.
- [Cameraman] Yeah, yeah.
- Let's try that again.
- [Cameraman] Okay, one more time.
- Hey there, folks, and welcome to...
Zoom in before I do...
- [Cameraman] Oh! Oh, yeah, okay.
- I do "What the fri...".
- [Cameraman] Oh, oh yeah.
Okay, gotcha. Yeah.
- Hey there folks
and welcome back to...
All right.
You're doing a bit now.
You're trying to, you're trying to make me angry.
That's funny.
It's a funny way to get good content is
to make me (beep)...
(music)
- All right.
So I haven't been here in a week and a half.
and since then, Kendall and Alvin have been chopping
it up making all kinds
of fanciful meals from different things
and I don't know what's in here, genuinely,
and that's the whole premise of the show.
So, so let's see what's in the fridge.
We got some fresh berries here.
That's, that's, that could be
we could make like a berry pasta.
We got meatballs.
Somebody made meatballs on 9/20.
That's not so long ago.
- [Cameraman] No, Two days.
- Two days.
22nd.
Lots of eggs.
So we definitely could do something related
to eggs and berries.
I guess a tart.
Tart can make, or a lemon bar.
Lemon bar.
We don't have any lemons.
If we had lemons, I'd make lemon bars.
Oh, there's a lemon.
(yells)
As usual, I found a science project.
Oh yeah.
Look at that.
That has more mold than lemon.
That's probably not something I wanna breathe near.
Honestly, that's probably dangerous.
We do have, indeed, one passable lemon.
It's got some spot welding on it that I'm not crazy about
but like, definitely not enough to make lemon bars.
We got a bunch of leftover,
I'm guessing white rice
because they were doing a stir fry episode the other day.
So we could most certainly do a stir...
Look at that.
This is like born for stir fry.
All that fruit, could make a fruit stir fry.
Trying to do...
I don't know know why I'm trying
to make those berries happen so, so bad.
They're just fresh.
I got some maple syrup pickles.
Man, I am really not being given much here.
What is this, huh?
It's an unlabeled brown goo.
- [Cameraman] -Curry, I think.
It's curry, probably curry.
- [Cameraman] Who are you?
- [Nico] Where it belongs. Yeah.
- Who's that?
- My name's Nico.
I'm Andrew's assistant
and a new producer here at the BCU.
I'm happy to be here.
- [Cameraman] At least somebody is
- Whoa.
We could do a berry...
(scratching sound)
...something.
Berry style.
A blank with berries.
A berries with Babish
Babish-style berries,
A Babishian preparation of berries.
Barely, barely.
Berries, bears berries.
Barely. Barely berries.
- [Cameraman] Andrew.
- Berries.
What?
Hey, oh, sorry.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
Welcome back to "What the Fridge".
Meatball fried rice.
Sounds like an Italian...
What about an Italian fried rice?
Is that appropriation?
Is that appropriative?
Is that appropriate?
- [Cameraman] Yes.
- Okay.
So we got some leftover steamed white rice,
which after night in the fridge,
as you can see is very dry and desiccated,
making it perfect for stir fry.
See?
It's perfect.
Let me get some carrots and celery.
So I'm gonna prep these vegetables.
I'm gonna get 'em down into mirepoix status.
So, small pieces.
That celery smells old, but it is old.
I will, I will grant you that.
That's what leftovers are.
They're older food than normal food.
It's very definition of what a leftover is,
that it is older than it was at a previous point
in its lifetime as the dish that it currently is.
So here's the...
Let me pause.
I think I'm gonna quarter these
and I need more sauce.
That's not nearly enough.
So what have we got in the fridge?
Do we have any in the fridge?
Can I hit the pantry or is this fridge only?
What's the rules?
What are the rules?
Well, let me see if I just have some jarred tomato sauce.
Okay.
I don't feel like making (beep) sauce right now.
Do we even have (censored) tomatoes?
Brad, you eat all the tomatoes?
- [Cameraman] No, just most of the goldfish.
- Oh, that's some anchovies that.
(beep) that.
- [Cameraman] No, no.
I ate the goldfish.
- Let's chop these up.
Yeah, there's some funky going, some something's weird.
What is that?
That's not meat.
Are these rice?
Is that rice?
That's rice.
Really?
Did they turn rice into meatball somehow
and now we're turning them back into rice?
So, wow.
Half the fusion was already done for us.
So for us to now capitalize on that,
I think, is frankly nothing short of artistry.
(whispered) What the fridge?
So garlic, Lots of it.
We need a big old onion like this'un.
I'm gonna do kind of a medium dice on these guys.
I wouldn't mind having little onion hit my mouth.
We must go and inspect the herbs garden.
What the fridge.
All right.
We still got some fresh basil.
Last of the summer's basil
but I need a lot of basil.
Oh, we could do pine nuts.
Pine nuts.
- [Cameraman] Wait, so you're thinking pesto now?
- No, no.
Just lots of basil and, and pine nuts.
Like...
Actually wait a minute, Brad.
You might be (beep) right.
For once.
So a quick visit to the local herbs garden gave me some
"of the moment" inspiration solely from me.
My idea, my thought, my action.
My show.
Mine.
Brad had the idea to make pesto
because that's more oil based.
It won't make the rice stick together.
It's a genuinely better idea in every imaginable way
and he deserves all the credit
and I deserve none of it.
Maybe you should start coming
to do to What the Fridge.
So they, they determine that un-toasted pine nuts
taste the same in America's Test Kitchen.
Thank you for saving me from having to do that.
Salt and maybe half of this garlic.
Maybe just like a cloves worth.
So, okay, so I'm mashing this guy up.
You start with the pine nuts and the garlic.
You wanna make a paste
and then you add the basil leaves
and then you slowly stream in oil
until the whole thing comes together.
All right
So I'm gonna squirt in some cooking olive oil.
Man, those nuts are gonna burn.
Those nuts are gonna burn.
So I can't do that high heat.
I have to be a little levelheaded about it.
I'm just gonna improvise.
That's what What the Fridge is all about.
Can you use any of this audio
or is this all ruined?
- [Cameraman] What?
- Oh, don't worry about it.
Okay. Got my pesto ready.
That's gonna give more flavor
and there's the vegetables
and there's the meatballs
and now we're gonna make,
apparently, stir fry out of them.
So.
(pop)
Here we go folks.
Just do it, Andy.
Just get started.
Just get going.
You're not moving.
- [Cameraman] All right.
- Still not moving.
You have to go over there to start.
You clearly don't want to.
It's scary.
I know.
- [Cameraman] Here.
I'll move first.
- Okay.
I think what I'm gonna do is get it nice and hot.
I'm gonna fry the meatballs.
I'm gonna fish 'em out
and then add the vegetables
and go sort of normal stir fry routine from there
and then add the crispy meatballs right at the end.
Crispy meatballs.
That felt good to say.
What the Fridge.
Okay, they're going in.
Let's do it.
Spread 'em out
and see if we can get a little crisp on them.
Also, probably, like, imbuing our oil
with a little bit of tomato flavor some meat flavors
That's never been done before.
Meatballs getting tossed in a wok.
Very rare.
and now I'm gonna, I'm gonna fish these out
and it's ready to receive the rest of the story.
Okay.
Onions go in, into this tomatoey kind of meaty oil.
Then we gotta blast these (censored)
and add a little more oil around the outside just
to make sure these guys really get crisp on the bottom.
So also, I grabbed these anchovies.
Are these in oil?
They're in olive oil.
I could add anchovy oil.
I have a little hole in the center.
I'm gonna add some anchovy oil.
Let that heat up
and then I think we're adding our rice next.
Whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack.
That's hot.
Okay, the rice is looking pretty nice and fluffy.
Normally we'd add an egg, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna eschew the egg all together
and I'm going to do an egg yolk
over top at the end
because I think that would just be nice.
There's gonna be some herby flavors below.
It'd be nice to have this big hit of richness on top.
I'm gonna add the tomatoes here.
That's not looking bad.
Like, that's not looking bad at all.
I kind of love it.
This looks pretty done.
I'm gonna kill the heat
cause I don't want to hit the pesto with too much heat.
So I'm adding the pesto.
I'm adding it on top.
You'll see it's not making direct contact
with the bottom of the pan
and I need some really good balsamic vinegar.
Little hint of it.
Little hints.
Just a, just a suggestion that it's there.
Toss around fast before it settles.
and get the pesto going in there.
God, this smells good.
Oh my God.
Does this work?
I'm gonna finish with some chopped parsley
that we're gonna say is parsley and basil
cause I don't feel like going back outside right now.
So this is chopped parsley and basil.
What the fridge.
I adding it right at the end.
So, you know,
we get some nice bright bracing herbs that don't get hit
by the heat too hard.
Save some for garnish.
Voila, voila, voila,
voila,
and voila
So I'm gonna try it.
I'm gonna do something crazy and try it.
It's really good.
I really like that.
It needs acid.
What, uh what?
What acid can I put in there?
Our one lemon
is gonna really pull our nuts
out of the nut fryer right now.
- [Cameraman] What?
- Nothing.
Chill.
So we got the juice of probably a whole lemon, I think.
There she is.
Let's do this.
Italian stir fry.
That doesn't look bad.
I can tell you
from firsthand experience it doesn't taste bad.
I don't believe this.
I refuse to believe that this worked.
Look at that.
That looks great.
It looks like normal stir fry,
save for these kind of meatballs sticking out of it
and then to garnish few more fresh herbs
and acid, of course.
Little drizzle of balsamic over top.
That's pretty
and then an egg yolk over top.
Make a nice little home for it so it doesn't go nowheres.
Doesn't move off to college in a strange city.
Weird haircut.
- [Cameraman] Make friends with a rock band
- Falling from grace from our Lord and Savior.
- [Cameraman] Maybe experiment
with drugs and different relationship values
- And homeopathy.
Meatball stir fry folks.
Let's see what we're working with here.
Hmm. It's delicious.
It's really good.
It all works
and it looks correct
and it feels correct in the mouth.
Feels weird eating it with a fork I'll tell ya.
Hmm.
Well folks, in spite of my best efforts, this worked
and you see, what is by any account,
a stir fry or fried rice.
Did I say stir fry the whole time?
I meant fried rice.
Anytime I said stir fry, I meant fried rice.
This is good.
Let's see.
Let's, let's get Nico's unbiased opinion.
- [Nico] I totally missed everything.
- It's his first month here
and he's definitely gonna be honest with me.
- Mmm. It's so good.
Holy (beep).
Oh my God.
- It's pretty good, right?
And it's like a fake, it's like a fake out food
because you're expecting flavors.
I was just saying it's like eating a blue candy
but it's cherry flavored.
Like it messes with you a little bit,
because you're expecting soy sauce
and all these these flavors
that you normally associate with stir fry
but instead you get Italian.
- It's, this is definitely,
this might be the best thing I've ever had
in my entire life.
- You heard it here folks.
It's true.
- [Cameraman] So he's here one month.
One month and he gets to try it before me.
- You're operating a physical camera right now.
(crosstalk)
Go. Yeah, but go take, go take the camera from a minute.
All yeah.
No, do your walk away a bit.
Yeah.
Oh, he's going out the door folks.
- [Cameraman] All right, okay Nico.
- God, that's funny.
He's taking the camera with him.
Oh, where's.
- [Babish] Thanks again to Cash App.
That's money.
That's Cash App.
Download Cash app from the app store
or Google Play Store today to add your CashTag
to the 80 million end counting.
- It's just legitimately one
of the best fried rices I've ever had.
Which sounds insane to say.
So.
- Something's wrong about that.
Somethings.
- Something's, yeah.
- [Babish] Something feels icky about that..
- Or, it's the message of togetherness,
when we need it most.
- I agree.