- [Babish] This episode was
made in partnership with YETI. For more info on YETI's products, head to the link in the description. (calm music) All right, so any respectable picnic should have at least two
dishes made with mayonnaise and mayonnaise is always better
when you make it yourself. So we are combining two large eggs, the juice of one half of one
lemon, about two tablespoons, one teaspoon Dijon mustard and
a hefty pinch of kosher salt in a large blender cup, larger than the head of
our immersion blender. We're gonna blend those
together until they are blended and then slowly stream
two cups of neutral oil like vegetable oil or canola down the side so that it settles atop of
the egg in a distinct layer. This is going to help us emulsify it into a thick, creamy mayo. Now we're gonna plunge
our immersion blender down into the depths of the
mixture and blend on high speed sort of bobbing the
immersion blender up and down slowly incorporating the oil until you have a big old jar of mayonnaise so good you're gonna wanna
lick it like an ice cream cone. Sort of, maybe if you're me. Even if you don't eat it straight, it's gonna make an amazing
base for a number of dishes, first of which is pasta salad. My favorite pasta salad uses orecchiette which we're gonna boil
in heavily salted water until al dente, drain
and rinse in cold water. Meanwhile, we've got a number
of vegetal accompaniments, a few Peppadew peppers finely chopped, four large carrots peeled and chopped, one rib celery finely chopped, the greens and whites of two scallions and about two tablespoons each of fresh chopped dill and parsley. We're scooping all that up and
placing it in a big old bowl and with it, we're gonna
sort of make a dressing before we add our pasta. One half cup of our homemade mayo, one quarter cup of sour cream which I find brings a nice
sour cream like flavor, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, half teaspoon of garlic powder and of course kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste then we're gonna grab our pasta
which has cooled completely because we rinsed it in
cold water, remember? Make sure that it's thoroughly drained, add it to our dressing and
mix until thoroughly combined. This is gonna make for a light
flavorful crisp pasta salad that isn't swimming in mayo
and can be made ahead of time, covered and refrigerated
and is arguably better once the flavors have been allowed to get to know each other. Next up, some eggs, deviled. First up, we need some hard boiled eggs which we're gonna accomplish
by placing eight large eggs in an empty stockpot. Let's double check. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight. That's eight eggs which we're gonna cook
sorta like potatoes. So we're gonna cover them with cold water, bring the whole affair to a boil, kill the heat as soon as it boils, cover and let rest for 12 minutes. Once 12 minutes have elapsed, these guys are ready for an ice bath. This is both gonna stop
the eggs from cooking and make them cool enough to peel with our delicate human hands. Once those have cooled
for about 10 minutes, we're gonna take 'em over to the sink where we're gonna peel
them under running water. Once peeled, we're ready
to slice them in half and bedevil them. So just cut 'em in half lengthwise and once everybody has been bisected, we need to start digging out
the yolks into a separate bowl. Upon this rock, we shall
build our deviled egg filling. To the yolks, we are adding a quarter
cup of our homemade mayo, one and a half teaspoons of Dijon mustard. This mustard sure is getting
a lot of mileage today. A few dashes of hot sauce
and a little sprinkle or about a quarter
teaspoon of smoked paprika then using either a tiny whisk or if you give up on
the tiny whisk, a fork, we wanna get this into as
smooth a mixture as possible seasoning generously and
early on with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. I found that initially a fork works best and then switch back to a tiny whisk when it's time to get it smooth and then for perfect picnicking, I like to keep the filling
and the egg whites separate opting to fill them instead on site so you don't have gross,
squished deviled eggs. Keep those in an airtight
container and fridge until ready to use and just to maximize bad breath potential, I like to serve deviled
eggs with pickled onions. So in a small saucepan, we are
combining one cup of vinegar, half a cup of water,
one teaspoon kosher salt and three tablespoons of sugar, tiny whisking and bringing to a boil then we are cutting a
large red onion in half and slicing it into thin half rings and then stuffing these onions into a heatproof travel perfect
container like a mason jar. Really stuff 'em in there. Grab your boiling pickling liquid and pour overtop, allow to cool
completely, refrigerate even and you've got yourself
some quick pickled onions. Just make sure this
picnic isn't a first date. Otherwise, it might also be a last date. Next up, the main course,
a massive muffuletta which requires a delicious olive salad. So in a small food processor, we are combining quarter
cup each parsley leaves and roasted red peppers, three quarters of a cup
of mixed pitted olives, a half cup of giardiniera which is a mixture of
Italian pickled vegetables, one tablespoon capers
drained of their liquid and one or two cloves of
fresh garlic roughly chopped. This is just to make the
food processor's life a little easier. Cover it up and pulse it repeatedly until it is a spreadable
almost salsa-like mixture and is the secret ingredient of the world's greatest sandwich. This can be prepared ahead of time, covered and fridged
until ready to assemble which we're ready to do now. We have a large loaf of ciabatta. Definitely not traditional
for a muffuletta but the closest equivalent that you're gonna be able
to get in your grocery store which we're gonna very,
very carefully cut in half. Come on, Andy, we only
got one shot at this. Not too bad and start layering with
many, many, many, many meats. Soppressata, salami, capicola and my personal favorite mortadella and then about an equal amount of two different kinds of
cheese, provolone and Swiss then we're piling this guy tall and proud with every morsel of our olive salad. Spread it around nice and even
and before we sandwich it up, we're gonna treat our
top half of the bread with a couple glugs of red wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil and
a few shakes of oregano just in case this sandwich
wasn't flavorful or messy enough. Top it up, squish it down
and there you have it, a not so traditional but
oh so delicious muffuletta. This guy can be cut into
quarters, eighths, 16ths, depending on how much
you value your health and is home to the greatest cross section this side of the Mississippi Delta. You might even wanna consider making this a shooter's sandwich or one of those sandwiches
that you weigh down overnight because it's pretty
hard to wrap it in paper but eventually, we'll just give up and wrap it up as best we can
and prepare it for our picnic. We've prepared a bunch
of heavy savory dishes. Now we need something lighter and sweeter. I propose what I call a
watermelon mojito salad. Slice, remove the rind and
chop into bite sized cubes a whole seedless watermelon, add a solid quarter cup of
chopped fresh mint to taste then we're gonna add the squeezed juice of three fresh juiced limes and then if you're feeling naughty, a quarter cup of dark
rum or añejo tequila. Sure, that's not a lot of booze but we'll pretend that it's
our naughty little secret. Give everybody a toss together. Add a little pinch of kosher
salt if that's your bag and get ready for the easiest, most refreshing and tasty
side dish you've ever tried. Speaking of refreshing, we need a beverage and since we have some
extra mint leftover, we're gonna chop up a bunch of mint and slice up a couple
inches of fresh ginger which we're gonna use to make
a mint ginger simple syrup. In a medium saucepan, we are combining one
and a half cups of sugar with one cup of water, tiny
whisking until dissolved and bringing to a simmer. As soon as the simmer is
reached, kill the heat and dump in the fresh stuff which we're gonna let steep in the syrup until it is completely
cooled about one hour. Cover that up and set it aside because it's well past time
that we start juicing lemons. Go ahead and give your knuckles a crack 'cause we're gonna juice
one and one half cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Once that's done, we're
gonna go ahead and strain our mint and ginger simple syrup and in a large food safe container, combine it with our one and one half cups of freshly squeezed lemon
juice, five to six cups of water depending on how strong you like it and just a little bit of our simple syrup. We don't want too sweet a lemonade so keep adding and tasting
and adding and tasting until you've decided, you know what, I'm a sweet, sweet lemonade boy, I'm gonna add all the simple syrup. Whisk until completely combined and transfer to a watertight
travel safe container like a mason jar then
all there is left to do is pack everything up and tote
it out to your local park, preferably in a durable,
spill-proof, leak-proof, well-insulated cooler
like this one from YETI. I hope as the weather gets warmer, you guys give this one
a try for yourselves and dine alfresco even if you're like me and you're just doing it in your backyard. I think at this point we could
all use a change of scenery. I hope that it's warmer wherever you are than it was here when
we filmed this episode and I hope that you can all indulge in a colorful flavorful
picnic with someone you love. (calm music)
Ok babish you did a valentines date night episode and a picnic episode
Please make an episode for miserable lonely people
"One quarter cup of sour cream, which I find brings a nice sour cream like flavor"
furiously takes notes
My wife made all sorts of inappropriate noises at that sandwich cross section.
What happened to the new intro music/theme?
Babish and Jess are cute as heck
Anyone knows if home-made mayonnaise works with only egg whites? I have a food intolerance to egg yolks.
As someone who hates olives...do I have any chance of liking muffuletta? It looks amazing, but I really hate olives.
I'm almost 45 years old and have been cooking most of my life, but I just learned it's super easy to just make my own mayo.
I realize this is somewhat (completely) off topic, but does anyone know what shoes he's wearing at the end? I think they're quite nice.