- [Babish] Hey, what's up, guys?

Welcome back to "Binging with Babish," where this week,

we're making that big ol' feast

that Carl Casper prepares for himself

to prove that he can still cook.

And look, here's his actual carving fork

that Jon Favreau was kind enough to give to me,

and here's my carving fork, because today,

a whole bunch of brand new Babish cookware items

are now available on Amazon,

including this carving fork, a cast iron trivet,

a stainless steel saute pan, and carbon steel wok,

with lots more to come in the next few months,

including this 12-piece essential cookware set.

Anyway, let's put these tools to good use

as we make a whole lot of food,

starting with a marinade for some pork belly.

I've got the juice of one orange and two limes here

that I'm gonna combine with two tablespoons of mirin

and two tablespoons of soy sauce,

two tablespoons kosher salt,

one tablespoon of whole black peppercorns,

one tablespoon of Mexican oregano,

three bay leaves, also in a tiny cup for some reason,

two Mexican cinnamon sticks, likewise, tiny cup,

and five cloves of garlic, lightly crushed.

This is gonna help us fish it out of the marinade later on.

Now we're also gonna incorporate

one whole dried ancho chili, stem and seeds removed,

which we're gonna dry-roast in a pan for five minutes

before dousing with water

and letting soak for 10 more minutes,

adding a couple ice cubes

if the peppers are still steaming hot off the stove.

Once you have achieved a nice, smooth pepper puree

and it's not too warm, we're gonna add it to our marinade,

which we're now gonna put to good use with some pork belly,

the likes of which Chef Casper could be seen plating up

with a whole bunch of pretty sauces.

Sometimes a big ol' hunk belly

like this one comes with the ribs still intact,

so we're gonna have to take those off.

Hang onto these if you wanna add porky flavor to something.

And we're also gonna remove the skin,

which you can also hang onto if you wanna make cracklin.

Then I'm subdividing the belly

into two more manageable pieces,

placing them in a Zip Top bag,

and pouring our marinade over the top,

massaging gently but thoroughly to evenly distribute

and then fridging for 24 hours,

during which time we're gonna tend

to those pretty sauces I was talking about.

First up, a roasted garlic carrot puree.

We're taking a whole head of garlic, decapitating it,

drizzling with olive oil and wrapping in aluminum foil,

and roasting for about 45 minutes

at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then we're grabbing a pound of carrots,

peeling, chopping into more manageable pieces,

a little overdramatically, if you ask me.

Then we are whacking them into a high-walled saucepan,

covering with water, about two cups' worth,

bringing to a simmer, and letting it cook for 15, 20 minutes

until completely tender and easily pierceable

with your piercing implement of choice.

Now it's time to blend,

so we're gonna dump these carrots

and most of their cooking liquid,

our cloves of roasted garlic,

1/2 teaspoon of freshly toasted and ground cumin,

one tablespoon of brown sugar,

and the juice of half a lemon

in our favorite high-powered blender,

blending on maximum velocity for two to three minutes

or until completely smooth.

I'm also emulsifying a little olive oil in there

while the blender runs, which turned out to be a mistake.

It lightened up the color too much, I think,

but I added some more steamed carrots,

and I think we evened it out.

Go ahead and chill this until it's time to serve.

Next up, Roy Choi described the green sauce

as a salsa verde, so I've got a pound of tomatillos here

that I've peeled, cut in half, and drizzled with oil,

along with two serrano peppers and half a small onion.

This guy's headed under the broiler

for two to five minutes until nicely charred.

Then, as was with the carrots, so go with the tomatillos.

We're gonna place these in the blender,

along with some other salsa verde essentials:

four cloves of garlic,

a generous bunch of cilantro, if that's your thing.

I'm not gonna judge you.

Totally understand if you wanna judge me, though.

The juice of one lime, by hand or by machine,

if you just check the dishwasher.

A generous pinch of salt, and that's about it.

Cover it up and blend it down.

Normally, we'd wanna go for a pretty chunky consistency,

but the sauce seen in the movie is perfectly smooth,

so once that consistency is achieved,

we're gonna pour it out, let it cool,

cover it up, and fridge it until ready to use.

Another thing we can make ahead of time

is this chili garlic sauce that the pork is finished with.

I've got 1/3 cup of gochujang, 1/4 cup of soy sauce,

1/4 cup of honey, three tablespoons of brown sugar,

four crushed cloves of garlic,

and one tablespoon of freshly grated ginger.

Give this a tiny whisking until homogenous

and set it aside until ready to use,

or eat it all with a spoon

because it's really, really delicious.

Last up in our day-before mise en place

are some quick pickled radishes, one of my favorite snacks.

We're slicing half a dozen radishes nice and thin,

adding a tablespoon of mustard seeds

and an optional 1/4 teaspoon of red chili flakes.

And then we're preparing our quick pickling liquid:

1/2 cup each water and white vinegar and 1/4 cup of sugar.

Bring to a simmer, tiny whisk until dissolved,

and pour over the radishes,

covering and letting cool completely.

Then, finally, we gotta get our pork started.

I know that Chef Casper just ran home

and made this in one night, but being a chef,

I figure he's got some of this stuff kicking around.

I'm removing the pork from the marinade,

rinsing, and patting dry,

and then placing in vacuum-sealed bags for sous viding.

165 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 hours should do the trick,

after which these guys can be immediately removed

from the sous vide and plunged into an ice bath

and then held in the fridge

until we're ready to throw in the oven and serve.

So now we're getting into our day of dinner stuff,

and the first thing I wanna knock out

is the caramel dust that he pours over the fruit.

I got one cup of granulated sugar that I'm gonna combine

with one tablespoon of light corn syrup

in a large, wide, heavy-bottomed stainless steel saucepan,

placing over medium, medium-low heat

and stirring infrequently

until it forms a deep golden-amber caramel.

Then we're gonna pour that out

onto a super nonstick, super heatproof surface,

like a Silpat set in a rimmed baking sheet.

Try to get it spread out

as evenly and as thinly as possible,

maybe inadvisably using a rubber spatula

to perpetuate that idea and failing,

then letting it cool completely

at room temperature until ready to smash,

making sure to keep it away from moisture.

In the meantime, we can get our berries macerating.

I got a pint each blueberries,

blackberries, and raspberries.

I'm sprinkling those with 1/4 cup of sugar

and some finely-chopped fresh mint, which I'm going to bunch

into an adorable little bundle for easier slicing.

Sprinkle this over top and give this guy a good mix

and allow to macerate in the fridge for a few hours.

It's gonna draw out all the juices.

Next up, to my dismay, Chef Carl Casper uses

his big, beefy, Rocky Marciano-like forearms

to beat whipped cream by hand,

so for the sake of accuracy and solidarity,

I will begrudgingly do the same,

but I'm not gonna not be a wimp about it.

I promise that five minutes

spent painfully hand-whipping whipped cream

are more valuable than a $10 hand mixer.

That being said, go ahead and whip this to firm peaks

and keep it fridged until you're ready to use it.

Next up, the steak was accompanied

by some butter roasted fingerling potatoes,

so I'm chopping up a pound's worth into bite-size pieces

and placing them in some cold, heavily salted water

spiked with a tablespoon of white vinegar,

bringing to a simmer, and cooking

for about 12 minutes until completely tender,

then spreading out on a rimmed baking sheet

to cool until we're ready to roast.

Next up, there's a whole bunch of food accessories

surrounding the dry-aged ribeye,

so we're gonna knock those out.

First up, some ribbons of zucchini

that are grilled and seasoned with lemon verbena.

So for consistency's sake

and because I don't trust my knife skills,

I'm slicing these into ribbons via mandolin,

drizzling with oil, seasoning with kosher salt

and freshly ground black pepper,

and then taking 'em out to the grill,

where I'm gonna grill them over high heat

for about one minute per side,

along with some corn, likewise drizzled with oil

and grilled for about five minutes, all told.

I know I don't have any footage from the grill,

but it was raining and nighttime

and you're just gonna have to trust me.

We're gonna chop this stuff off the cob

to make a super simple lime corn salad.

A little squirt of olive oil,

a little sprinkle of kosher salt,

and a little squeeze of lime, and that's all there is to it.

Is it because it's just a side dish

and I don't wanna overcomplicate it?

Hell yes it is.

Can simple things still be really, really tasty?

Hell yes they can be.

Speaking of which,

we have our lovely ribbons of grilled zucchini,

which I'm gonna top with lemon verbena,

which, against all odds,

I actually have growing in my backyard,

which I had forgotten about until after Kendall

and I had searched four grocery stores for it.

We're finally chopping this up, sprinkling it over top.

Then, that's all there is to it.

Moving onto another little bit of mise en place:

a stir fry sauce for our octopus.

In an bowl, we're combining 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce,

one teaspoon of sesame oil, one tablespoon sugar,

one tablespoon gochugaru, two tablespoons gochujang,

three cloves of crushed garlic,

and an inch or two of grated fresh ginger.

Go ahead and tiny whisk this together until it's homogenous

and set aside until blah, blah, blah.

Next up, we have some Meyer lemon creme fraiche.

I couldn't find a Meyer lemon,

so I'm just zesting a regular lemon into some creme fraiche.

If this ruins the entire meal, you'll be the first to know.

And now, with all of our accoutrements out of the way,

we can get down to the business of steak:

a big ol' dry-aged bone-in ribeye

that we're gonna generously salt and pepper on all facades

and let sit at room temperature for at least half an hour.

Just kidding, I guess we're still working on side dishes.

Since the potatoes are described as butter roasted,

I'm tossing them together with kosher salt,

freshly ground black pepper, and clarified butter,