-Ohh! They're too big.
They bounced off my mouth. But they're seasoned.
I-I got enough balance, I got enough flavor on my lips
so that... they're perfectly seasoned. ♪♪ Hi. Isaac Toups here
at Vice "Munchies" studios, cooking up shrimp
and oyster po'boys. I like the combination of the
more seafood, the merrier. This is called a traditional
half-and-half in New Orleans. You're gonna love it. First step, we're going to make
cane-vinegar aioli, or otherwise known
as cane-vinegar mayonnaise. If you don't like the way
I say mayonnaise... tough. First, be very careful
with your eggs. Never do something like this. You'll separate four egg yolks.
I like to use the shell. You can use your fingers,
as long as your hands are clean --
as long as your hands are clean! The elements of a good po'boy
are simple. You have your lettuce,
you have your tomato, you have your fried stuff,
you have your debris. Beauty and simplicity
is a good po'boy. We have our egg yolks in here, and now we're going to add
some cane vinegar. This is a product
by steamed cane syrup. It has this wonderful
cane-syrup flavor without having all
the sweetness into it. It makes a wonderful aioli. Add some Dijon mustard. This is going to help bind
the egg yolks to the oil. Kosher salt. Canola oil. The trick with the aioli
is you have to blend this slow at first
and then fast later, so you want to start
at a slow drizzle. But this thing's moving so fast you can actually start
to add it pretty quickly. The whole process
should take about 10 seconds. You see people drizzling
this stuff in there, and it takes forever,
and it warms up, and their aioli breaks! And you're done. And if you did it just right,
you'll have wonderful, nice, thick mayonnaise. I like it thick. Dude -- I alway-- I always lick
the mayonnaise spoon! I'm a mayonnaise-spoon licker. There's a joke in there.
-[ Laughs ] -Most po'boys, you can have just
lettuce and tomato on them, and there's nothing
wrong with that. They're also gonna use
plain mayonnaise, maybe a little dash
of hot sauce, and that's how I grew up
eating them. I've decided to elevate it
a little bit with a tomato
and red onion salad, but you can pretty much
have anything you want on your po'boy.
Some elitists, some purists,
might give you some flak or whatnot,
but screw them. You're gonna take
a little red onion and just really
finely julienne it. ♪♪ Take your tomato, and we're just
gonna use kind of the outs-- the outer petals
for the salad. We're gonna save the insides
for something later 'cause we don't like to waste. -[ Laughs ] -We don't like to waste.
Shut up. Outer part of the tomato's
gonna make a better salad. Inside are better for cooking. So you have that texture. I love different textures
in all my food, and a po'boy is no different. And we'd have
a very simple dressing. Salt. Little fresh ground
black pepper. Sherry vinegar. And horseradish. Just give that a toss. You'll notice there's no
olive oil or, uh, canola oil in there. That's because there's
plenty of rich, juicy fat in the po'boy already, and this is gonna add
some acidity, some crunch, and of course that nice
little horseradishy kick. As a Cajun, I come with a kick. I like the -- the ethereal
sense of horseradish. I like the heat from capsaicin, but horseradish
is a different heat, and I-I like that feel of it,
especially with seafood. I think they go hand in hand. Really, this is just
a good salad. That'll work. Alright.
Let's fry some seafood. So, for our oyster
and shrimp dredge, we have a little bit
of corn flour and cornmeal. I like to use two different, uh,
varieties. The corn flour
is a lot more fine. It's gonna really stick
to the seafood. And the cornmeal's gonna give
that wonderful texture. Celery salt.
Cayenne pepper. Garlic powder.
And onion powder. Last but not least -- don't skip this step --
popcorn salt. If you were to add kosher salt
or even iodized salt, it would all sink to the bottom,
but the popcorn salt is so fine, like the corn flour
and all the other seasonings, that it will stay emulsified
in the powders. Whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. Somebody say whiskey? Not yet. You add your shrimp, and just
give them a good hand toss. The shrimp and oysters
are pretty wet, so you don't need to do an egg
wash or anything beforehand. You can just throw these suckers
right in. If they're not, you can add
a little bit of water to them, but you really want them
to stick and coat well. Other classes of po'boy
would be the peacemaker, which is oysters and cheese. One of my favorites are the
New Orleans hot sausage po'boys. It gives me a stomach ache
every time I eat one, and I still eat them.
That's how good they are. For the vegetarians,
there's French fry po'boys, and let me tell you --
as good as they sound. Got our "er-sters." I'm just gonna mispronounce
everything today. My cat is named
Oyster Po'boy Tubes, no lie. I'm just -- I'm just --
That's how ridiculous I am. Po'boys are great for any meal
of the day, says the big fat Cajun. But typically -- typically, most po'boys are eaten
for lunch. You know, you don't really go
get a brunch po'boy. Wait. Hold on.
I'm gonna market that. Note to self -- brunch po'boy. Let's fry some seafood up. Get your peanut oil
to about 350. When dropping seafood in,
get real close to it. You never want to splash
from this height, because then you'll
get splashed with oil and then you'll get
burn marks on yourself, and then you'll look like a
professional cook or something. I use peanut oil because
it's extremely sturdy. You could use several volleys
of fried foods in there, and the beautiful thing
about peanut oil is your fried food will come
out tasting like the food and not peanuts,
which is important. Do not use cheap fryer oil, the stuff that has all
the chemicals in it. I don't abide by those. These are small enough that
they only should take a couple of minutes. Don't overcook your seafood. I forget exactly when,
but back in the day, uh, po'boys were used to serve
the poor guys, the poor workers
who couldn't afford lunch. This one guy just started making
these just very simple ham and cheese sandwiches,
I think, served on French bread, and they were called
"poor boys." Well, over the years, poor boy
got shortened to po'boy, and that's why have the
beautiful and delicious po'boy today to serve these --
this poor Cajun himself. Now, the oysters,
being very delicate, aren't gonna take as long
as the shrimp, so keep an eye on them. ♪♪ Oh, yeah! Oysters are great.
I don't care if you broil them, eat 'em raw, deep-fry 'em. I love oysters. But, admittedly, the first guy
to pick up an oyster, look at it,
and eat it was hungry. Even though they're the most
delicious thing on the earth, they look like a ball of snot. Remind me not to write
food reviews. -[ Laughs ] -Alright. We've fried all
of the good seafood, and now it's time to --
po'boys assemble! Please don't sue.
Now, I don't know about you, but I always travel
with French bread... good New Orleans po'boy bread. However, I got this a
couple days ago, and it's stale. So we're going to use
some fresher bread, which they have procured
for me today. But it you can get this stuff,
please do. [ Clang, cat meows ] So, we have our nice
fresh French bread. Gonna give it a cut.
Don't go all the way through. You just want to wedge
that guy open. Do not skimp on the mayonnaise. Make sure it's on every bite because you want
every bite to taste good. Gonna alternate shrimp
and oysters. You really want to load
this up, too. Should be kind of spilling out. A good p-- A good po'boy,
they're hard to close. You might have to eat
a couple shrimp and oysters out beforehand, and that's not a big problem,
now, is it? Gonna spoon
some of our salad on. And then you call it a day. Old fashioned half-and-half. Good shrimp, good oysters. ♪♪ And a lot of napkins. This concludes shrimp
and oyster po'boy. Thanks for joining us.
If you want the recipe, click the link below. Or is it here? Mm? Mm? ♪♪ And then the windmill. Oh. Oh! And this is why you don't
juggle shrimp next to hot fry grease!
