(Sim grunts) (Sim groans) (Sim exclaiming) (Sim sneezes) - Ew. Uh. (laughs) Uh. Ha! - [Babish] Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome back to "Binging With Babish," where this week, we're
(speaking in Simlish) Uh, excuse me. We are entering the world
of "The Sims," literally. The good people from EA put
me into the "Sims" world because this episode is
sponsored by "The Sims 4," the original life simulation game that has empowered people
to discover themselves, share personal stories, and
shape culture for over 20 years. The latest edition to "The Sims 4," the "Cottage Living" expansion pack, offers new ways to play
with animal friends, build a close-knit community, and whip up garden-to-table meals. "Cottage Living" is available July 22nd. Click the link in the video
description to learn more. But before you head off
to your new cottage, let's make some dishes from
the world of "The Sims." Let's start with one of the
very easiest dishes in the game, mac and cheese. Fittingly, we're gonna make the world's easiest mac and cheese recipe. Bring 1 1/2 cups of whole milk and one cup of water to a boil, adding eight ounces of
elbow-flavored macaroni and cooking for the manufacturer's
specified cooking time, in the case of this
macaroni, five minutes. Once the macaroni is
just shy of fully cooked, we're gonna add four ounces of shredded yellow American cheese, which is loaded full of
stabilizers and emulsifiers that's gonna help give us
a creamy, stable sauce. Once the American is fully melted, we're killing the heat, adding four ounces of shredded cheddar, covering, and letting sit for five minutes so the cheddar can more
gently melt without breaking. Once the five minutes
is up, give it a stir. Add some more cheddar if it's
a little bit too liquid-y. Season with salt to taste, and then we need to nail
the game's form factor: a domed orange-yellow blob. So we're gonna place the mac and cheese in a stainless steel bowl
lined with plastic wrap, let it set at room
temperature for about an hour, dump it out onto a plate, give it a little shimmy to set it free, remove the plastic wrap,
and there you have it: "The Sims" mac and cheese. All it needs is a
garnish of fresh parsley. And I know what you're
thinking: "That's dumb." Well, yeah, but we're just trying to make it look like
the thing from the game and make it accomplishable
for a player at skill level 0. But what about more like a level 2 or 3? For that, we're gonna
mix together some butter with some panko bread crumbs, use those to coat the
outside of our cheesy dome, and we're gonna thoroughly lubricate our source bowl with butter, plop our mac and cheese
dome back in there, have a very delayed reaction
to the fright it gave us, and start scooping out the center, maybe snacking a little
bit as we go along. Our intention is to end up with a sort of half mac and cheese globe, which we're gonna reinforce with another smaller buttered bowl and bake in a 400 degree
Fahrenheit convection oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, just until it's turning
nice and golden brown and crispy around the edges. Carefully dig out the inner bowl and run an offset spatula
around the outside of the, uh, the inside of the outer bowl. Fill the cavity with a fresh
batch of mac and cheese. Invert onto a plate and
give it a nice tappa-tappa to make sure that it breaks
free from its bowl-like prison. And there you have it: an upside-down mac and
cheese molten lava cake, one that looks even more like the one from the actual game. He even does my little reveal dance. That's spooky. Let's see if we did
Chef Carl Casper proud. Yes, it's nice and molten in the center. And I definitely could've let it crisp up a little bit more on the bottom, but we've got bigger fish to fry, and by fish, I mean eggplant. Eggplant is one of the
newly available vegetables in "Cottage Living," and it enables you to make aubergine
Parmesan, or eggplant Parm. So I'm gonna start by slicing up one large or two medium eggplants, lightly salting the slices on both sides, and sandwiching them between paper towels, then stacking them on a
series of rimmed baking sheets that we're gonna weigh
down with something heavy, like a cast iron casserole, perhaps the very cast iron casserole that we're going to bake
our aubergine Parmesan in. Is that messed up somehow? No? I didn't think so. While our eggplant
compresses for one hour, we're gonna make a super
basic marinara sauce. In a heavy bottom saucepot or
enameled cast iron Dutch oven, we're sweating one small
finely chopped onion in a little bit of olive oil
for three to five minutes over medium heat until softened, adding three or four
crushed cloves of garlic and a little sprinkle of red pepper flake and sauteing for another 30
seconds or until aromatic and then adding two 28-ounce cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, an optional tablespoon
or two of tomato paste, and two sprigs o' basil. Partially cover and let
simmer over low heat for about an hour until
it's sweet and mellow and tastes like, well, marinara sauce. By this time, our eggplant
should be about ready to rock. Salting and compressing
our eggplant like this before cooking helps draw out moisture. Not only is this gonna
give them a better texture and help prevent our casserole
from turning into a soup, it's gonna get rid of some of the eggplant's
naturally bitter flavors. Next up, a standard three-stage deep fry: flour seasoned with kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper; plain bread crumbs seasoned with dried basil, oregano, and parsley; and four eggs, shells removed. Tiny whisk everybody to
a state of homogeneity. Use the wet hand, dry hand technique to prevent bready buildup
on your fingertippies. And dip your eggplant
slices first in the flour, then in the egg, then in the bread crumbs, arranging on oiled racks
set in rimmed baking sheets. Now we're headed on over
to the not-so-deep fry. We've got about one inch of vegetable oil heated to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, into which we're gonna
deposit our breaded slices and fry on both sides until
deeply golden brown and crisp, removing and draining on paper
towels to keep 'em that way. Not that it matters, because we're about to smother them in sauce and cheese and bake them, so I don't even know why
you deep fry in this recipe, but you do. We're starting with a layer
of sauce in our casserole to prevent things from sticking, shingling a layer of our
deep-fried eggplant medallions and topping with some
shredded or thinly sliced full-fat, low-moisture mozzarella. Top that up with some more
of our marinara sauce, and top that up with some
freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese. Rinse and repeat until
the casserole is full. Then, for the final layer,
we're topping with sauce, some more Parmesan, and six
discs of fresh mozzarella. We're using fresh on top because it tastes great and it looks nice and low moisture in the middle so we don't end up with soupy Parm. Throw a lid on there, or tent the casserole with foil so it doesn't touch the cheese. Pop it into a preheated
350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until the cheese has begun to melt and things are starting to bubble. Back into the oven for
another 25, 30 minutes or so, cranking up the temperature at the end if you wanna get some nice browning. Then, like virtually any casserole, we're gonna let it rest for
10 minutes before serving. I can also see that the
one in the game is dotted with what looks like torn fresh basil, so I'm gonna scatter those all about before cutting myself a slice. Who else is ready to really destroy the
roof of their mouths? I know my avatar is. (Babish munching) Mmm. (speaking Simlish) You... You said it, guy. This delicious eggplant Parm,
or aubergine Parmigiana, brings me right back to
Rochester, New York's Italian culinary and cultural
epicenter, Mark's Pizzeria. Now, on to one of the most difficult meals to prepare in the game, something I've always
kind of not really wanted to try making: baked Alaska. We just made a whole mess of ice cream on last week's "Basics," so go check that out if you
wanna make your own ice cream. Otherwise, you just gotta beat your favorite store-bought stuff to a soft-serve consistency. Lay down first a layer of vanilla in a large, plastic wrap-lined bowl. Get it nice and smooth. Pop it into the freezer for
about 30 minutes to firm up, followed by a layer of strawberry, followed, of course, by
a layer of chocolate, because we're going for
a Napoleon baked Alaska. Once you got all three
ice creams in there, go ahead and pop that in the freezer so we can make our cake base. First, we gotta find a
cake pan exactly the size of the width of our ice cream bowl. Cut out a layer of parchment paper that we're gonna line the bottom with, but not before lubing the whole thing up with nonstick spray, both the top and bottom
of the parchment paper. Then we're gonna make a super
simple chocolate sponge, starting by cracking three large eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer, which we're gonna whip together with 50 grams of granulated sugar for anywhere from three to five
minutes on medium-high speed until it reaches what I like to call the slobbering Saint Bernard phase. Did I just reason cakes for you? I'm sorry. Now we're gonna sift
together the dry ingredients onto a piece of parchment paper: 30 grams of all-purpose flour, 20 grams of cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Sift that through at high
speed so it looks cool, tip it directly into our wet ingredients, and then gently fold them
together using a rubber spatula. We wanna do our best not
to knock out all the air that we beat into our eggs. Then we're gently pouring 20
grams of melted unsalted butter down the side of the bowl,
gently folding that in, and dumping the results
into our prepared cake pan. Get that nice and smooth and drop into a preheated
375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 to 12 minutes until it just starts to pull
away from the sides of the pan, like this. Then we're gonna allow this
to cool completely in the pan before turning it out and merging it with our ice cream entities. It should come out of the pan
with little to no resistance. Peel off the parchment paper, plop this guy on top, wrap everything tightly in plastic wrap, and stow this in the freezer overnight so everything can firm up. And now, for the reason
why "The Sims" requires you to be at cooking level
10 to make this dish: whipping and subsequently
torching an Italian meringue. We're starting by separating
four large egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer, adding 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and whipping those together on high speed for about one to two minutes until they reach the snot phase. Meanwhile, over on the stovetop, we're combining 225 grams of
sugar with 45 grams of water, placing it over medium-high heat, and allowing it to simmer until it reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit, the softball stage. Take that off the heat, and then with the mixer
running on medium-high speed, slowly, very, very carefully stream it right between the sides of the bowl and the blades of the whip. Once everything has been added, crank the speed all the way up to high and whip this guy for a solid 15 minutes until the bowl is cool to the touch, indicating that this stuff
won't melt our iced cream. And there you have it: Italian meringue, which we must now spread
evenly and decoratively on top of our Napoleon ice cream cake, which we're gonna fetch from the freezer, invert onto our cake stand, carefully remove its
protective bowl shell, and aggressively remove the very, very stuck-on plastic wrap. And we're gonna place all this on top of a fireproof surface, 'cause things are about to
get hazardous up in here. Spread the meringue over top and get it into a nice even layer, about one inch thick. We want it thick not only
to protect the ice cream from the hot, hot flames, but so we can carve a decorative pattern. In my case, a sort of spiral that I'm hoping the
alcohol will slide down like an Italian meringue luge. Bring a little bit of
white rum to a simmer, set it aflame, and very,
very, very carefully, pour it over top of your meringue with what I would call
disappointing results. My fire-slide didn't work, and I may have gotten a little scared. Just some of the many reasons that you should not try this at home. Instead, we're gonna act
more like a level 9 Sim and just use a good
old-fashioned culinary torch to give this thing a patchy, but pretty toasted marshmallow exterior. Now all there is left to do is dip a knife in some
hot water, wipe it clean, and use it to cut some big ol'
slices of this big ol' cake. And, of course, take a
look at that cross section. Now, I know that this
is a giant baked Alaska, and in the game, they're much smaller and more individual-size,
but in my defense, I forgot. So pretend that this is
a fraction of the size and there's six of them. And then just dig into
this overcomplicated, very 1950s, underwhelming dessert. But, I mean, it's still good. It's ice cream, toasted
marshmallow, and cake, which, as you can
imagine, is a nice combo. Might not be worth all
the effort, but hey, at least I didn't have
to make Ambrosia, right? Thanks again to "The Sims" for
sponsoring today's episode. To get more of your "Sims" cooking fix, head to the link in the video description to check out the "Cottage
Living" expansion pack, available July 22nd. "Cottage Living" is full of new recipes and a brand new challenge that requires your Sims to
use the freshest ingredients. You can grow your own produce, source your ingredients
from your cows and chickens, go to the village market,
or go foraging in the wild. Plus, you can enter a
variety of competitions, such as Best Cow or Best
Llama, at the Finchwick Fair. You might even see a familiar face, mine, available to download from the Gallery so you can recreate today's episode in your very own cottage. (casual upbeat music)
Mmm, Napoleon ice cream.
didn't quite capture the essence of pissing yourself while crying and eating greasy old floor pizza
Glad his baked Alaska didn't end up in the bin.
The molten mac n' cheese lava "cake" was a sight to behold. But Andrew kind of looks like a Sims character already so this a weirdly perfect sponsorship match.
Sul Sul!!!
Did I just see Babish branded enamelled cast iron cookware?
"...the good people at EA ..." . . . 🤔
I'm tempted to start playing The Sims 4 again.
Stay to the end for Kendal's Sim impression.