[various clips begin] - Atkin's, right?
- We caught a parasite over there. Doctors don't know what it is. - What d'they eat, tabbouleh?
- Actually, that's why I'm here. I've been dyin' for a Satriale's veal parm hero. [Captain]
βͺ Oooooh βͺ βͺ Who lives in a chicken parmesan hero under the sea?βͺ [Chorus]
βͺ Spongebob Squarepants! βͺ [Stuffed Spongebob]
Whee-hee! - How good is that...?
- (mumbling) Ohh, oh oh, yeah. - (audience laughs) See?
- (muffled) Mm-hmm. [clips end] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish where this week, I am craving a parmesan hero,
and as you just saw, I will use any excuse to make one. The only clip that I couldn't find was for eggplant parmesan. Eggplant parm deserves more attention --
and why is everybody laughing at me? Before we get into manhandling our eggplant,
we need to focus on the building blocks of the parmesan hero: first and foremost - a good sauce. We've made Italian red sauce
a few times on this show, and this is a relatively simple amalgam of all of them. But this time we're going to oven-roast the sauce with
a cocked lid for four to five hours at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, during which time, we can get to making our meatballs.
I'm starting by pouring a little bit of buttermilk over three slices of torn white bread,
adding a couple cloves of crushed garlic, a small minced onion,
a generous grating of parmesan, and something we haven't seen on this show
in a while: a generous grating of nutmeg. I'm also going to add some
freshly chopped parsley and basil. We're getting all of our additional flavors living in one place
so that they can be more easily dispersed throughout the meat. Add a few pinches of dried oregano, give it a little mix,
make sure that everybody's gotten to know each other, and for extra juicy unctuous-ness, we're going to
add half a cup of either homemade chicken stock or store-bought chicken stock into which
you have dissolved one packet of gelatin. Next up, it may surprise you to learn
that meatballs contain a great deal of meat. I'm going with equal parts, about one pound each,
of the classic meatball mix: beef, veal, and pork. I'm seasoning generously with
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper before gettin' my hands dirty
and wishing that I'd used a bigger bowl. Once everything is evenly incorporated, we're going to
shape these guys into - you guessed it, eggrolls. Um, sorry, uh - meatballs. Go ahead and disperse those evenly
on a well-oiled rack over a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for 20 to 30 minutes or until browned. During which time we can
slice up and get our eggplant sweatin'. That is, salt the slices of eggplant on both sides,
encouraging it to give up some of its moisture. This seasons, softens, and can reduce
some bitterness that often plagues eggplant. You can see after two hours these things
are sweatin' like a Gatorade commercial, so we're just going to dab that off
with a paper towel, and these guys are ready to fry. While we fry, we're going to finish up our meatballs by
adding them to the sauce and letting them finish cooking for about 45 minutes at a gentle simmer.
This is going to firm them up a little bit and help soften any hold-out bits
of onion that might be ready to crunch. So for the eggplant, chicken, and veal, we are doing
a pretty standard flour, followed by egg, followed by panko breadcrumb breading and make sure you're using the wet-hand dry-hand process.
Not that hand, stupid - that hand. This way you don't end up with your fingers entombed in their own
delicious-looking fry-coating, and you won't be tempted to eat them. We're repeating this exact same process with the chicken,
but for the veal, we're talking about a parmesan hero from Satriale's and they're probably gonna go a little bit more old-school, as you might imagine they would in an old-school
Italian pork store in Jersey, so we're using Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs. This is going to produce a less crispy,
more shell-like coating when it comes time to deep-fry Speaking of which: vegetable oil
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, about an inch. Drop 'em in, laying them away from
you - no crowding, one even layer. Fry 'em up, give 'em a little flip, take them out.
Once they're nice and brown, let 'em drip-dry on a nonstick cooling rack --
whoa. Sorry, don't know what got into me there. Salt them while they're still hot,
this way the seasoning is gonna adhere a lot better. And don't do what I'm doing.
That is, don't fry the veal coated in traditional breadcrumbs because it fills your oil with detritus,
making it all the more difficult to fry the chicken. We've got one more building block to prepare
and that is some garlic-and-herb compound butter, because we're going to essentially turn our hero
into garlic bread before making a sandwich out of it. And for those of you in all other parts
of the world, a hero is a submarine sandwich. I'm starting with Satriale's veal parmesan, so I've got
an Italian hoagie that I've spread with the compound butter, broiled, and am now stacking high with our fried veal,
some fresh mozarella, and some freshly shredded Parmesan cheese Now you might be asking yourself:
where is the tomato sauce? And this is the most important thing I want you to take away from this episode: Tomato sauce goes on top of the cheese. I know this isn't very traditional and I know
it's not the way that parmesan looks in the pictures, but it keeps the breading way more crispy
and doesn't let it turn into one of those mush-fests that you often get when you order
a fill-in-the-blank parmesan hero. Speaking of which, let's try out our slightly more modern fillings.
I'm gonna use a little bit of pan cubano. It's got a light fluffy interior and a slightly crisp exterior
and I think it's a perfect candidate for parmesan-ing. So, same drill here, spread with our compound butter and broil,
top with our toppings - this time I'm going with the eggplant, top that with cheese, throw the whole thing
under the broiler for a few minutes - hopefully you've got a more powerful broiler than I do,
so you get some more brown spots - and then top with the sauce. If you're very lucky you might get a cheese stretch,
but it don't matter, because this is a delicious sandwich. The meatball version, just as good.
Is it worth taking a bullet for like Joey almost did? Maybe not, but maybe I'd be willing to take a paintball. And now, the reason that I have been eating all these
sandwiches - don't worry, nothing went to waste. I've fed them to friends and loved ones because
I wanted my personal favorite of the bunch: chicken parmesan. And while, after this experience, I'm pretty much ready
to go a long while without seeing a parmesan hero, this guy did join the clean-plate club even though I had just spent the day before eating
lasagna with Brad Leone over at It's Alive with Brad. Keep an eye out for that next week. Until then,
be a hero to your friends and family, and make them a parmesan submarine sandwich.
Thatβs a good looking chicky chicky parm parm.
Binging x It's Alive is everything I ever needed.
https://imgur.com/a/DQvQI
I see what you did there, ( Ν‘Β° ΝΚ Ν‘Β°)
Thanks for posting /u/lovable_oaf! Thank you guys for watching - do me a favor and don't eat too many of these. I'm on a twigs-only diet for a few days here.
And keep an eye out for my crossover with Brad Leone next week, it's lasagna as fuck.
Couldnβt find a clip for eggplant parm?
Hey /u/OliverBabish, I know it's about 2 weeks after the fact that you posted your clementine cake video, but I just wanted to share with you something about that.
When I saw the video I was instantly taken back to my childhood, when my late grandmother would produce an orange cake very similar to the clementine cake you made. She was, in addition to being an incredible baker, one of the Scarborough Bomb Girls who helped manufacture arms for the allies during World War 2, and I miss her terribly.
Due to some personal familial issues, I never got to attend a service for her when she passed. I had to be told about it over the phone. All I had left of her at that point were my memories, and your clementine cake helped conjure up a few more good ones from when I was a kid.
So, I just wanted to say thanks. Her original recipe may be lost to time for me, but your video inspired me to give it a shot anyways, and I think I did alright.
It wasn't as good as hers, of course, and it never will be, but I think I can live with that.
Cheers.
/u/OliverBabish how come you baked the meatballs instead of pan frying them? I feel like every Italian grandma I know browns them in a pan first before baking them or adding them to a sauce.
Holy shit that Spongebob opening....
Sandwiches look good, but more importantly, is Brad as cool as I imagine him to be? It's Alive is one of my favorites.