- Well, I know you're in a pinch, so this menu can be done in a snap. Lobster Thermidor with
mini-mincemeat turnovers to start, chicken a la king with
twice cooked new potatoes for your second course, and steak Diane and mint
jellies for your main. Do you set your own jellies, dear? - Yes.
(audience laughs) - Good girl. Recipe cards are on the counter there. Bon appetit. - [Babish] Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to "Binging with Babish." With this week we are examining the over-complicated, hyper-1950s, three course feast from the first episode of "WandaVision." Like so many recipes of the era, this one starts with
a whole lot of butter, specifically in the form
of butter puff pastry, which I think is gonna be perfect for both the mincemeat turnovers and the vol-au-vent for
the chicken a la king. If you want to see how to make your own puff pastry from scratch, click the link in the upper
right-hand corner right now, but you're probably better
off buying this at the store and saving your energy for
everything that is to come. So once you have finished painstakingly making it from scratch, or have just defrosted a
couple sheets in the fridge, we're ready to get started. First step, the mint jellies, that are confoundingly
served with steak Diane. We're starting out by
hydrating one packet, or half an ounce, of unflavored gelatin in
one cup of cool water. While that hydrates we're gonna make a sort of savory mint syrup (groans), combining half a cup each
water and white vinegar in a large saucepan, along with two tablespoons of sugar that we're covering and
bringing into a simmer. Once a simmer has been reached, we're gonna pop off the lid,
give it a little tiny whisking, to make sure that
everything was dissolved, and add a big handful of
fresh stocks of mints, which we're gonna allow
to steep for 10 minutes or until they look gross. Now we're gonna pop in our
hydrated gelatin, also gross, whisk that until it's fully dissolved, and add a couple drops
of green food coloring. Just so this stuff really,
really reads as mint. Then we are dividing evenly
into the aspect molds of our choice and refrigerating
for at least four hours. Already if you were trying to prepare this meal last minute like Wanda, you'd be in a lot of trouble. Next step, something
that can be made ahead and chilled until ready to
serve is the chicken a la king, which I was very surprised to find out is pretty much just
chicken pot pie filling with the addition of some pickled peppers. So I'm browning up two
large chicken breasts, a couple of tablespoons of
oil, wiping the pan clean, adding two tablespoons of butter, and sauteing eight ounces
of white button mushrooms thinly sliced. But first I'm lightly salting them, which is gonna help draw their moisture during their roughly
eight minute cook time. Once the moisture has evaporated and they're starting to brown, I'm adding on one small chopped onion, and a couple stalks of
finely chopped celery, which I'm gonna saute together
for about three minutes. Then I'm adding an
additional two tablespoons of unsalted butter, letting that melt, then sprinkling a quarter
cup of all-purpose flour over everybody, mixing and
cooking for about one minute, until the raw flour smell has abated, then adding a quarter
cup of dry white wine, and slowly adding a little bit at a time, two cups of high quality chicken stock. Adding a little bit at a time and stirring constantly is
gonna help prevent lumps. Then over medium-high heat, we are bringing this guy
up to a rolling simmer and adding the chicken back to the hot tub along with any accumulated in juices. Then we're simmering together
for seven to eight minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened
to your desired consistency, seasoning generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. And then to cool things down before this guy heads into the fridge, we're gonna add a half cup of frozen peas, as well as a third of
a cup of thinly sliced triple peas or pickled pimento peppers, which we're also gonna mix together with a quarter cup of heavy cream. And that's all there is to it. Like I said, very similar to
a chicken pot pie filling. I don't know why I grew up
hearing about chicken a la king all the time. I don't know what I
expected, but here it is. Go ahead and fridge until ready to use. Next step, mini-minced meat pies. Now mincemeat is a term usually attributed to a sweetened nuts and fruit mixture, but being both a savory first
course and 1950s New Jersey, I just can't imagine that that's what they were referring to. So I'm taking it at its
more literal interpretation, minced meat. Removing the fat and connective tissue from about three pounds of chuck roast and using a heavy cleaver to thoroughly chop it
into a course ground beef. Now I have no idea what would
normally go in one of these turnovers in the '50s, but my mind almost immediately
went to a sort of beef stew. So after browning the ground beef, I'm sauteing some diced
carrot, onion, and celery for a good long while, like eight minutes. Adding one clove of chopped garlic and a tablespoon of tomato paste, sauteing those together
for an additional minute just to kiss them with heat before de-glazing with one
cup of homemade beef broth. Adding our browned ground back to the tub and simmering together until
the liquid has thickened and almost evaporated, about 10 minutes. Then I'm gonna hit it with a
little shake of dried oregano, pinch of dried thyme. Season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. And I think a few generous
gloves of worst chair sauce will sufficiently transport
this stew-y filling back in time. Now we've just got to
let this cool completely, and move on to the last
element of this meal that we can make ahead of time, that being lobster Thermidor. I've got four small lobster tails, then let boil for about five, six minutes, before shocking in an ice
bath to cease cooking. I know Wanda used whole lobsters, but as an appetizer
tails just work better. Once we've patted them dry,
using a sharp pair o'shears, we're gonna snip out the thin
membrane underneath the shell, thus liberating the meats, which we're gonna gently
pop out and set aside, reserving the shell for presentation. Then we're gonna chop up the meat into little bite-sized pieces and turn it into a sort
of lobster mac and cheese, sans mac or cheese. Toss that into a bowl and refrigerate whilst we make the sauce. Into a large saucepan
goes four tablespoons of unsalted butter, which we're gonna bring to a
bubble over medium-high heat before adding one chopped shallot. Sweating for a couple of minutes, adding four tablespoons
of all purpose flour, whisking and cooking
for two to three minutes until the raw flour smell dissipates and slowly adding one cup of whole milk, whisking into a smooth
paste after each addition. This is gonna give us
a thick bechamel sauce, which we're gonna make
even thicker and richer, by effectively turning it into a custard. Into a medium bowl goes one egg yolk and a half cup of heavy cream, which we're gonna whisk until smooth before tempering with a few
tablespoons of hot bechamel. Whisking constantly so that
the egg does not scramble. Repeating three to four times until the mixture is fully tempered, and then adding it back to the pot. Again whisking constantly, and cooking over medium heat
if necessary to thicken. Then we're adding a half
teaspoon of mustard powder an eighth teaspoon of cayenne pepper, one and a half teaspoons kosher salt, and a half teaspoon freshly
cracked black pepper. Whisking until homogenous and
allowing to cool completely before adding about a half cup of this bat (beep) crazy
mixture to our lobster meat. Tossing it around to make
sure that it's evenly coated, and spooning it back
into the lobster shells. Almost like a twice baked
potato, but with lobster. Then we're finishing things
off with a generous pinch of shredded Gruyere cheese. Then these bad boys can
be covered and fridged until you're ready to eat them, at which point you're gonna
broil them until lightly brown. Now we're getting down
to the a la minute stuff. First we're grabbing about a third of our homemade puff pastry, or one sheet of the store bought stuff, and rolling it out to about
a one quarter inch thickness, which we are gonna cut into vol-au-vent, or darling little pastry cups. Now, as you can see, I
started with a biscuit cutter that was too small so I
switched to a big one, and hopefully there's enough pastry left for me to cut out eight circles, which I'm gonna place on a
parchment lined baking sheet, and using a slightly
smaller biscuit cutter, punching holes into half of them. Then I'm grabbing one
large egg beaten together with one tablespoon of water, brushing the disks down with egg wash, and placing the rings on top, giving everybody a generous brush down before plopping in the
fridge for at least one hour. This will prevent the
butter from melting too fast and leaking out of your pastry. Plus, it's another
opportunity to give these guys an extra egg brush down before heading into a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 to 25 minutes
until puffed light brown and ready to receive
our chicken a la king. Make sure you reserve the
tops as snacks for the chef. Next we're rolling out the
remainder of our puff dough to one sixth of an inch. Then using a ruler for precision, measuring out into four
and a half inch squares, which we're gonna place on a
parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush two adjoining edges with beaten egg, fill with about two tablespoons
of our mincemeat filling, and crimp shut with a fork. Brush down with a beaten egg,
sprinkle with finishing salt, fridge for one hour, and bake at 375 degrees
Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly golden brown and puffed. Next up, twice cooked new potatoes. I've got three pounds of new potatoes that I'm dropping into some boiling water. Then I'm boiling them
for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes showed no resistance when stabbed with a paring knife. I'm spreading them out
on a rimmed baking sheet, cool, patting them dry, and then beginning to smash them. You wanna smash them just enough so that they're flattened out, but not so much that they fall apart. Then I'm squirting them
liberally with vegetable oil, giving them a generous
pinch of kosher salt, and a few enthusiastic twists of freshly ground black pepper, gently tossing them together to coat, spreading out evenly, scattering some fresh
thyme across the top, and roasting it 425 degrees
Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes, flipping halfway through
until deeply golden brown and crisp. Next our final dish of
the day, steak Diane. And even though I have some
beautiful filet mignons here, this being the 1950s, they're gonna get pounded
with this tenderizer, which is probably for the best
because steaks of this era were probably cooked well
past a muddy gray medium well. Once you are done a-pounding, we're gonna season these with kosher salt and freshly ground black
pepper on both sides, because despite their mistreatment, they are still relatively thick. And we are headed over to the stove top where we've got a couple of
tablespoons of vegetable oil preheating in a large stainless steel pan. In go the steaks, and we're gonna sear them
about two minutes per side. We just want a deep brown crust. Go ahead and set those aside. And gracefully, we've
got some nice fond here, out of which to make a delicious sauce. Into the pan goes two tablespoons
of cold, unsalted butter, in which we're gonna saute
one small minced shallot about two to three minutes, or until soft and lightly browned. Then folks back in the 1950s loved flambe, so we were adding one
quarter cup of cognac, far away from the flame, allowing it to evaporate a little bit, and then bringing it back
over to the stove top, tipping it for ignition. (coughs) I said, ignition. Incendio. Flame on. All right, it looks
like I screwed that up. No big deal. We're adding a half cup of
reduced concentrated beef broth, two teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and two teaspoons of Dijon mustard. Tiny whisking to combine, and bring to a simmer over medium heat for two to three minutes
until it's slightly thickened. Then we're adding a few dashes of Tabasco, and half a cup of heavy cream. Tiny whisking to homogeneity
before adding the steaks and their accumulated
juices back to the pan. I think that finishing cooking
the steaks in the sauce makes the steak Diane look really gross, but once again it is period appropriate. So we are simmering in the
sauce for about five minutes until the steaks are done. And with that, we are ready to plate up. We've got our freshly broiled lobster tail with new potatoes. (beep) That's not how it goes. It's lobster Thermidor with
mini-mincemeat turnovers garnished with smoked
paprika and chopped parsley. Then it's chicken a la king
spooned into our vol-au-vent, surrounded by new potatoes
and, insanely enough, steak Diane with mint jelly. Now we just need one
more thing for accuracy. There we go, thanks, Wanda. - [Announcer] Now we can sample wares prepared by witchy Wanda and
her robotic beau, Vision. Your dinner guests will swoon
at the lobsters Thermidor. - [Babish] Sorry, I'll stop that. The lobster Thermidor is fine, but lobster covered in cheese
is just conceptually gross. The mini-mincemeat
turnovers are pretty good, sorta like a gourmet beef stew Hot Pocket. The chicken a la king is pretty
much chicken pot pie filling with spicy pickled peppers, so it's good. I dig it. And the twice cooked new
potatoes are super-duper crispy. And lastly, the steak Diane, which is cooked to Dick
Van Dyke perfection. And it's okay but it
does taste very dated, like it was made with
solid state machinery. Perhaps a big bite with our mint jelly will spruce things up a little bit. No, that is really, truly gross. If you ask me, the next time
you're in a dinner party pinch, you're better off serving them a big plate of black and white breakfast. Hmm, how very European. (upbeat music)
1) I want, no, NEED that cleaver. Speaking of which, do we have any updates on when the Babish cooking line will be out?
2) For a time of post-war abundance, the 50's sure were a culinary black hole.
EDIT: /u/OliverBabish commented yesterday that the cookware line will be dropping end of this month!
Wait, is HE mephisto?
The only thing here that’s remotely appetizing are those twice baked potatoes. I make something similar based on a Molly Baz recipe. So tasty!!
That’s not to say Babs did a bad job, just that food back then was weird as hell.
The moment Agnes mentioned all those weird 50s dinners in the show I knew we would see a Babish episode about it.
Physically cringed when he started pounding those filet mignons
As someone who loves lamb chomps in mint jelly, I take that personally....
“Worst chair” hahaha I love how that ingredient is so frequently used!
Damn, all those recipes sounded super appetizing when Agnes was rattling them off but it’s a shame they look kinda gross in real life! So many questionable choices in the 1950s— smashed steak and jelly? Lobster cheese sauce with no cheese? Deconstructed spicy pot pies? I mean... gross lol.
Good for Babish for trying his best though— I feel like most of those recipes could have been salvaged with a few minor tweaks or omissions. Seriously— mint jelly? What were Americans smoking in the 50s??
It all looks gud to me except the mint jelly.