Claire & Christina Try to Make the Perfect Thanksgiving Sides | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 4

testing out the different methods that the squash was like probably the most challenging thing Christina never say that don't ever say anything along the lines of like things are gonna work out from here on out I mean it's true it's like how far you don't be extra I just did what I told you not to do how hard could it be like it okay we don't have time to screw around we're sizzling over here that's one yeah for sure well yeah look at the elbow I really is it a walking fine [Music] this feels like a place where you can actually exercise some creative license right in a way that will not make people like freak out right but I think that also puts a lot of pressure on sides because it's like okay all these other things are locked in and I want to get like not only my creativity and the other flavors that I want but also like all the balance in the meal has to come from the side do I feel like one of them should be a cooked side and one should be I would really like to see us two potato will you stipulate to something in a squash family I'm okay with squash I'm okay with its like sweet potato stuffing and our potato invention it's just what about brussel sprouts which are also in season also Brussels have the advantage of like being wrong you can eat them raw celebrating yeah in the cabbage family like Brussels or you know little tiny cabbage juice so I like the idea of Brussels sprouts is like a solid green veg that I had a moment five to 10 years ago and now people like really like them and they're accepted they're easy to find we're telling a salad is a side I don't need lettuce at Thanksgiving [Music] lettuce what about some roasted but room-temperature of squash in a leafy green salad oh I love the idea of a salad with like a roasty superdude ahead and then we get yeah I love it if your salad this is your raw moment and it might have squash yes does that mean that Brussels or the other one yes boiled I feel like that's a perfect yes yes I do too it was weird how quickly we all call us around that idea I feel like you have a passion and you have a passion I think two passions should come together and make a it would be my pleasure to work with Christina yeah passion of Claire my first thought is that I feel like we actually of all the categories have like the toughest tasks I think we're more narrowing down to do than most feeling great well Brussels sprouts and feeling it's all about a squash I think those are important and I do really take home the point about incorporating something raw because it like it's the only chance we have in any of those yeah like very strongly some some kind of raw salad a crunchy vegetable thing because it's one of the only opportunities to bring texture into the meal so here's the notes from the roundtable so sweet potatoes Honey Nut I feel like those are touching on the same kind of direction this says aged Gouda which I'm definitely in favor of aged Gouda I think that would go in sort of the mortality thing so this says this is my head or any salad with roasted squash another Honey Nut my favorite of all the squashes it looks like a mini butternut those way tastier and so cute I mean I think star was squash and then just kind of by process of elimination that I'll give us some good direction for for brussel sprouts so I think we should start with a salad first first step is pick the squash and then pick the cooking method for that squash once know that all the other components of that salad will sort of like come and start to come to focus right but if this if the squash is the star feel like it's gonna be the kind of sound I want to eat which is like there's a lot of textures and flavors going on which I'm excited about I'm sure will be a surprise to no one that I have strong opinions about squash and I guess we should start by saying that it's 95 degrees outside middle of July 90% humidity not really prime squash season we don't have a lot to work with so we have some examples here it just feels like there are so many post-its that's a honey nut but it feels like like we have to get that sorry are you familiar with row 7 deceive company and they develop like all sorts of cool new like vegetable varieties Michael is actually coming in with not just Honey Nut but some new squash okay so when's this happening like right now right now okay well hi Michael thank you so much for coming in what do you do at row 7 row 7 it's a company founded by myself chef Dan barber Matthew Goldfarb the three of us together we were working on squash and other vegetables and questions about what could they be how could we make them better first met with a challenge of how to make butternut squash like this more flavorful and so I understand that you have some honey nuts for us to play around with but also maybe some other cool varieties honey at 2.00 you know okay okay all these vegetables are continually adapting evolving and we're making them better all the time Honey Nut was like that first release and then moving along now 8 9 8 is next my name is the godfather part 2 so how do you go from butternut Honey Nut we do a cross-pollination and then generation after generation you see all different attributes the characteristics of the plants and we can decide which ones we want to keep save the seed from those so it's very much kind of a season taste sort of approach to plant breeding when you take a look at 8 9 8 so it's even more concentrated than the Honey Nut it's sweeter it's more nutritious it's everything is just concentrated in its doors sounds like the optimal cooking method for the honey not given those characteristics is really like roasting or putting color on it in some way it like a dry heat and that's how I tend to work with most of my squash but there's a lot of techniques you can apply and you don't know until you try it eight nine eight and all the other row seven crops are there seed pack is that you can grow in your garden and they're all through the markets feel really good about that I feel I'm just so excited to cook these and now we have a better sense of what direction to go in for cooking so this actually helps our process a lot and narrows it down I think we know what we're doing yeah we don't know anything else about any of the dishes really speed we've got this thanks for the special squash if you like step one is just a roast a couple of the eight nine eights make sure they act and taste and look the way we want them to we can really try to make a salad about the squash and add these other elements that are gonna like compliment it really well you I'm gonna guess want a pan roast and wait for it the first roasting method we're trying is more of a straight roast where it's going into the oven just on a room-temperature sheet tray with a little oil the second method is kind of a combo where we preheat the sheet first in a really hot oven put the oiled seasoned squash cut side down on the preheated sheet tray and into the oven so it's still happening the whole way in the oven but that hot sheet tray should give us a head start on building color and then the third method is pan roasting and that's where I start them in a field on the stove to basically sear them and build all the color then turn them over transfer them to like a medium oven until they roast through what we're looking for out of all these methods it's like good color good taste good texture right maybe they'll all turn out exactly the same we don't know yet okay so these are the three there's something really like very rich about them I really wanted to say like buttered popcorn I think there's my french fries it's almost like a Japanese sweet potato yeah is just gonna say it's kind of sweet potato like good truth be told that could have cooked longer mm-hm I think it also will be very delicious room-temperature like it doesn't have to be hot agreed I think sides are really important to keep those things broum tenth okay should we try the next one yeah hmm I actually would say this one is tastier maybe both probably could be cooked a little bit longer bled a little bit more of the color develop that's not like it's not like undercooked or I'll dente at all it was a little one of these yeah the fact that the skins don't get direct contact just on those I think it's a fuss because it's kind of it's like a little over anyone I don't lose skin yeah no it's like chewing on a paper bag I was worth a shot glad we did it yeah I think we go toss in a bowl with a lot of oil and a salt pepper onto one large preheated sheet and then roasted all the way through lovey comments think we are the eight and I need to squash we want and feel this quest for us it's helping squash for us look there's us we have to now figure out what we're gonna like what are all the other style components let's start with lettuce I think we have to decide like what's the leafy component I want something really punchy to go with the squash and I think it needs a bitter lettuce that's Hardy to also stand up to that yeah you want something like with character and that's not going to be lame so I'm writing down chicory I wrote down radicchio and I'm gonna write down Treviso which is very similar probably endive what about wild card frizzy frizzy I think we can kind of start there and test a bunch of the different like leaf options I kind of see which combinations we like this [Music] and then there was lettuce I have to confess something I think I really wanted to be radicchio yeah I think everything we have in front of us right now is stuff that you can get either year-round or like in the fall well the only way to test these is to keep all this handy and then we can just basically put together a couple of like vinaigrette options and then you know take taste with all of the the led those leafy things that we're thinking about you know and maybe we'll grab a couple of other like sweetening things like some honey a little bit of white sugar or that kind of thing maple people would be good okay here's the plan I think the most consequential aspect of the vinaigrette is at least to start is the acid so we have all of our asset options sherry vinegar citrus and a couple of like very fancy like agrodolce vinegars a good place to start would be to just do really simple proportions maybe like one two three acid to oil so we start with something really plain and simple and then we do some taste test with the different leaves and the squash and decide what flavor combinations we like best and then we kind of pick a lane as in pick an acid and then we kind of work in the other vinaigrette components I'm gonna start by juicing some of the citrus I'm gonna do half orange half lime let's do a teaspoon of vinegar and a tablespoon oil okay so I'm testing a little piece of radicchio a little piece of squash and giving a little dip in the sherry vinegar option so this one is the mixed citrus here that one's really good but balanced mmm of all of them wishing this can be achievable what this one does by using the much more easier to find and reliable sherry vinegar without having to call for something this is just such a specialty item I would feel a little bit guilty calling for late harvest Sauvignon Blanc agrodolce vinegar so this is the apple cider vinegar this is really good this is really delicious I want this one really yeah it tastes like an orchard this is probably going to be like a lot more work for the average home cook right it's like you don't want to be like the only way you can make this salad is with this one in particular yeah thing yeah that being said I would be perfectly happy to pursue the orange and wine fruit yeah I kind of like that one better anyway let's sample with the other lettuce options just with the citrus mixture this is Belgian endive this is your like blue cheese dressing lettuce cup and I've add orange is a great combo I really like it it wasn't doing a whole lot for me GBH all right just why Christina but why pretend I don't want anything per se this looks I don't either Claire but you know what okay and then if we don't want to eat neither with one eaten during the testing phase I think we can just well unlike you I am liquid so why will we do well it's very strange the frisée is like hairy maybe it's just like not poking you that's not cute I dunno why I wanted to be radicchio not only because I like the taste there's something about the idea of like the shape of the radicchio leaf being the right size to fit one half of the honey nice roasted yeah they have similar sort of geometric yeah yeah like they're on the same scale yeah I decided no I am excited I'm excited that it's something that feels like very accessible to most anyone who would want to be a something like this like all across the board I don't feel like a jerk telling someone you'd go to the farmers market to buy your squash but you can get everything else like a regular grocery store right you know wait did you say do you feel like a jerk I don't feel like a jerk I don't okay right the game plan is get all of our the toppings that we're considering in like out and ready to go and then we're going to basically put together like the full serving size of the lettuce the sort of leafy thing and the squash which are going to do a test where we roasted the way that you know we're kind of decided and then we're gonna basically do all these different combinations and permutations with all the toppings and the two dressing options one is lemon one is lime I feel like I kind of rambled about it but whatever good color on the top as well good see about color nice color these look great these are done yeah they do look great greenhouses to do that so your cutting board yeah whatever in case so I'm gonna do lemon and your way to do lime right correct so these are the two dressings we did yesterday they're the same except for my version has lemon juice her version has lime juice and don't have orange the only thing we're looking for is the difference in the difference Labor's right and yours is slightly more acidic I mean it's an extremely autumnal color scheme so so freakin awesome and I like kind of tucking them in oh my god I'm talking mine in Oh like hear me out what if we did was to say like rows of cheese this way rows of nuts this way and then Rosa fruit that way and then it's like they're just made by okay fine girls mm-hmm I love these delicious the drive for options we have dried currants and dried cherries so we have two different kinds of apples ones just like a regular Granny Smith and then this one is pink lady yeah here are our two nuts and our one seed these were like the three that we honed in on hazelnuts pecans and pumpkin seeds they fell he does they felt very like Thanksgiving appropriate sharp white cheddar this is obviously a blue harm siave this is an aged Gouda yeah tell me the color and then like a soft goat cheese I think I'm gonna try what I think like foremost in my mind gonna work so that you Piave pepitas and pomegranates okay I actually don't think this is gonna work but I did Palmer in it Gouda and hazelnuts and then I'm gonna put a little extra on top this was bad it's bad this one is delicious I will do Apple Paquita and that one was also very good mine was good what if there's a salad bar at Thanksgiving and it's okay so I'm doing Gouda what do you call those things pecans and Apple that's all good they've all been good yeah we're not really getting anywhere okay I'm getting rid of Gouda cuz we think it's too strong and then I'm getting rid of the the currants nobody cares about nobody cares about I do mind them shoving that one forward and so we have eliminated one from each category hey Andy do you want to try this delicious bite I made for you wash pomegranate come on Oh a corn maze that no honey not she made me a bite we be doing bike we haven't said much progress we haven't said what we've been doing this whole time much as we made ham salad it's very good very delicious the leads are slightly different dressings where the vinaigrette you acid is half orange juice 1/2 lime and half orange juice 1/2 lemon in that version you have lemon I feel like I want that I completely disagree I think you get enough crunch because it from the radicchio and I think throwing a sliced Apple it's gonna discolor right away and you're gonna have a brown color Apple tell em Andy enough Brown are going on here I think it's gonna be totally fine I think you need like a cool crunchy thing as opposed to like a bit early crunchy thing I also feel for what it's worth pomegranate is totally played out as a topping like a special now this kind of thing I don't think I'm not here for it thank you you've understood very well I just know you're gonna take something so controversial about it's almost like what what jicama wishes it yeah it's like good come on you just call and say you care so good occasionally I like everything that's happened I think we should make a final platter and we're gonna go with Piave and pecans and we're gonna like basically redo the process with a couple tweaks what's our vinaigrette of choice wouldn't you like the lemon I like the lemon now that you go either way and I don't think you'd be wrong okay Christian you want to do lemon in that case just so cuz it's a little more assertive which i think is welcome are you talking about how like we want it to be acidic so I think we should make a final version with the dressing that we really want the nut and the cheese and we'll make our final decision [Music] that's nice it really does very fall I think I'm the final one maybe I just want people to be able to see the shapes of the squash but I think that comes through this is by far the best version of me I agree the final bit of lemon and oil mm-hmm I think was everything yeah I think it's the right amount of sweetness the cheese it's a good but think about if you were at a Thanksgiving dinner and someone put the salad down you'd be pretty amazed I think I think so it is very well considered obviously it took us to net my day and a half but you know what it took us that long to consider what would be not only most impressive mm-hmm and most delicious but also most practical we didn't go through all those considerations and all those stages in the process I would not have ended up on this out and I think it's better than the one I would have made that was longer than I ever want to think about making salad again my entire life okay so we need to talk about the preferred cooking method for Brussels sprouts pan roasted or oven roasted right cuz I've done both ways you have to look at the Brussels sprouts that we have and decide if we want to cut them in half trim off any leaves how we want to prep them right and then we'll talk about cooking method that's great I'm feeling like we're being extra dramatic and like perhaps that's not the greatest I mean we're acting like cooking Brussels sprouts is like making a Snickers which it's not okay so here we go pan number one is whole oven roasted small guys pasta with oil salt and pepper left whole pan too same method but just pull large Brussels sprouts okay pan number three the only difference is that you cut the large breasts part of the house [Music] oh don't be burned no they look good though delicious these almost actually looked deep-fried which is yeah I really know right I know like okay so the leaves like that did not work but later I would say one man's burned Brussels is another man's perfectly caramelized crispy Brussels sprout I think we need to acknowledge that some of the things in front of us are burned ya know like we're not in this when Psychopaths this is nice this is not yet blackened those are really good yeah we're gonna go with the smaller Brussels sprouts whole oven roasted at a high temp is good that the method we truly like the best is like the easiest yes we're gonna say yeah really I think that they're so caramel intensely flavored that it's like these are the meat like I don't want to put meat on this I'm so glad you said that Claire because I feel the exact same way we kind of like nailed the cook so much to the point yeah this is like the main flavor right we want to highlight we want to try two options a dry rub thing with like some kind of sprinkle and a wet treatment that might be something in like a glaze category I don't know yet what makes sense for the dry ok stuff so I suggest we go to the spy stuff yes [Music] what about Korean call them right now [Music] I'll rub some ginger we're going to do two different tests of what we're calling the wet and it's basically caramelized honey deglaze with like a chili vinegar and we're gonna just test two separate vinegars one is cherry one is apple cider vinegar okay olive oil brussel sprouts sherry vinegar honey chilli prime ingredients trying to tone that I don't really care about any of these dry ingredients and I don't know that they make sense together let's try at least one just sumac toss with some Brussels sprouts and that frankly is not bad at all if it's nothing good it's kind of a bummer that there isn't something like saucy to go along with it so let's get some Hellmann's let's put some rice vinegar in it and some lime zest and some chili flake over top and try it and you're envisioning this as like a bottom of the spread on the bottom of the plate and then go on top yeah [Music] my vision slightly spicy yeah this heat I like him more than I thought I would yeah but I just covered it up that brussel sprout they're not playing together yeah this is not the right direction Christina when it's my heart's desire to get rid of all this stuff I know you bring back the one real Brussels sprout which is the glazed chili honey glazed Brussels sprout I could not agree more and I feel like we could really brag to the other groups of like our dish is so good at last five ingredients I bet you everyone will eat every last one we want you to try the final Brussels sprout is it gonna be it's gonna be your Brussels sprouts what was the glaze for your Brussels [Laughter] okay great Brussels sprout recipe a are you talking about honey glaze and Russell's like spicy this has been really fun you guys I think your energy is great and good luck I mean it's 5:40 on day two and we're so yeah sure will nervous because it suits another models it is Molly's it's Molly's okay so today was traumatic therefore we are going to take a few days away from this we are going to think on it cleanse our palates and come back to it with fresh minds yeah and nail it well we're back we have to sing another stab at it but I did go home and reflecting on it think that maybe we hadn't fully considered the full spectrum of like sweet sour kind of ingredients you know there are lots of other ways to achieve what this yeah perfecto right it's like something sweet something acidic a source of heat and then you cook it all together and it gets thick and sticky and lazy okay so let's discuss because I see something on this train that's very exciting yeah this ingredient which is a lot of fun to work with which is pomegranate molasses and that's basically pomegranate juice is cooked down and like the sugars concentrate and it thickens and you get this it's called molasses because it has kind of the texture of molasses you can see it inside the container somehow we got through most of Thanksgiving development and no one has used brown butter which to me is like a staple technique or ingredient of Thanksgiving so I thought maybe kind of lean into the richness of it and like do a little brown butter glaze with pomegranate molasses and maybe like a little brown sugar just for Bala maybe we cook the glaze in a skillet and just toss the Brussels sprouts through in the skillet that's useful for Thanksgiving I think because you can leave everything in the skillet and just reheat quickly before you sit down pistachios which we could even like cook in the brown butter some black sesame just if we wanted a sprinkle on top so maybe we add a chili flake component this is another ingredient which is date molasses it's 100% dates it's very very delicious so maybe we do two versions of the glaze while these roasts and just see what we like better so we're gonna cook the ashes in the butter as it Browns a big bigger bowl twist them whole and chop them later not expecting that so Christina each have our own sprinkle the main difference is Christina's has lime zest which might is not and mine has black sesame which Kristina's mad so we're going to pull the Brussels sprouts toss them in the glaze test out the sprinkles and taste if they look beautiful isn't a ton of glaze it's just pooling yeah it's not soppy their coat well coated but not swimming it's just the same pomegranate molasses version but now I'll talk with that black sesame pistachio mix that's good super tasty but I'm curious to see how it compares to that one more finishing off the day brussel sprouts with squeeze a lime juice and also the hops brown butter pistachios that also have a little bit of lime zest hmm the only thing that I think is missing is a tiny bit more chili flake I think a little heat it's really gonna liven it up Kristina alleges that she didn't shop it I would be so psyched if these were on to Thanksgiving table yes I think people rarely think this much about sides you know it's just like Oh a roasted whatever hmm nailed it these are so good one if you don't like these it'll be edited out really nice the lime and the like the chili flake comes through I wish it was just like a tiny bit more like sweet and salt like in sprout you know it's only yeah and I'm just a fool you know we have yeah you don't like leave anything yeah like this is like this we want that flavor town all right so we don't change anything maybe we just add that in but we stayed true to exactly what we set out to do which was a simply prepared delicious no fuss side I like how the salad felt not I want to traditional but there was something traditional about it like the vinaigrette and that sort of combination of ingredients and flavors and then this feels like a little bit more of a departure from what you typically see and I think both will be really good compliments on the Thanksgiving table and and do the work that they're supposed to do on Thanksgiving to me this whole thing is felt a bit like how I would do this at home payments you know yeah we've talked about this before like we're both huge proponents of the salad and the side vegetable right and what I also like about this is it feels like there's been a transformation it's like it's not that many ingredients it doesn't take that long it's not terribly complicated but there is like the end result is something I think really kind of special it'll make a good team yeah also like we operate with our emotional support notion I don't want to murder you at the end which is that's saying a lot I think we should try to high-five again this is a really far away okay ready the best time I've ever done it anyway we got here at 8:30 in the morning it's now 10:00 56 and I'm about to to sit here while Brad you leave I'm gonna go back to your normal job by the way oh there's Brad Brad comes in and we make pie although I honestly think after this pie is gonna be like don't say it that's it [Laughter] juda from Colorado we're at the Adams County Fair oh my god oh you can't vote stare don't stare they get really competitive and really nervous this is why I should never compete because I go psychotic we're under the knife this time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 2,040,007

Rating: 4.9164915 out of 5

Keywords: brussel sprouts, claire saffitz, thanksgiving, thanksgiving dishes, thanksgiving food, thanksgiving sides, thanksgiving recipe, butternut squash, claire makes, claire, claire bon appetit, making perfect, christina chaey, christina bon appetit, christina makes, mptg, claire makes thanksgiving, christina makes thanksgiving food, claire thanksgiving, thanksgiving side dishes, claire makes brussel sprouts, claire makes thanksgiving food, thanksgiving side, food, bon appetit

Id: Ea-qS1zCT5A

Length: 31min 48sec (1908 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/pretender230]

Entire Series discussion should be limited to the following thread.

Recipe Links: (Spoilers if you haven't finished the episode.)

• Squash and Radicchio Salad With Pecans

• Brussels Sprouts With Pistachios and Lime

[u/Font-street]

Claire in Takis video: "there's no curse."

Claire in this video : "don't say things like 'it's going well', trust me."

That being said I really love how this episode brings the scientist side of Claire! She's absolutely applying all the Gourmet Makes lesson in this show.

Also wonderful is the vibe between Christina and Claire. Rarely do anyone in the test kitchen reflects Claire's analytical side and Christina, bless her endearing introversion, does it really well.

Although I must say that Christina doesn't say a lot in this video and that's just too bad.

[u/manhattansinks]

made the brussels sprouts the day I got the magazine in the mail (and like 6 times on top of that) - they're amazing. the pistachio are a great addition.

[u/astronautes]

898 squash is the new german butterball

[u/LouBrown]

I don't need lettuce at Thanksgiving

Chris is a wise man.

[u/LKnodecaf]

OK but where can I get Claire's strawberry shirt

Just kidding I found it

[u/bikebuyer]

Well, with BA laying out the rules for the series of it being attainable, I feel like my critique is justified: no one can get this squash, just like the butterball potato, and why does every new plant have to be sweeter than the last?

I do love their salad but I would go for a squash, grain, and dried fruit hearty "salad." Brussels are a most and they did a perfect job of "making perfect" but not adding an insane twist.

I think I love Claire and Christina's dynamic more than any duo I've ever watched on the show. They're light, funny, educational, creative but not over-the-top, and it was edited in a way where this episode didn't drag on like the others. Overall my favorite of the Thanksgivings!

[u/karlfranks]

I was gonna comment on the way they roasted the squash halves and just served it whole (reducing the surface area that will get roasted on the outside, and also making it harder to eat because you have to chop it up before you can eat it) but it seems the final recipe has them roasting slices instead. I haven't seen the rest of the episodes yet (as I have literally no way to) but I'm guessing in the final episode they make this change?

[u/phaser_on_overload]

I haven't finished the episode yet but I thought these were supposed to be things we could do, I don't think getting an experimental and unreleased squash is really something that a lot of people are capable of. I'm hoping it will be like the smoked and fried turkeys from Andy and Brad's video, they'll say this is the best way to do it but for the regular home chef's we're going to use acorn squashes for our side.