Samuel Clonts, executive chef-owner of Sixty Three Clinton, steps up to the plate for the next Eater "On the Fly" challenge! What will the Michelin-level chef make with a grocery bag of oyster mushrooms, frozen cherries, frozen crinkle fries, foie gras, lap cheong sausage, and tofu? Watch how he transforms these mystery ingredients into a tailgate snack with a fine dining twist.
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00:00I don't know if it's better or worse than I thought it was gonna be. It's more, um, now we know when you put frozen
00:06French fries in a food processor, this is what it looks like.
00:24My name is Sam McClonts. I'm the chef owner of a restaurant called 63 Clinton and
00:29we're here to cook some stuff today on the fly.
00:31I don't think I've ever done like a true like mystery challenge. So this will be this will be fun.
00:36All right, we're doing tailgate. Tailgate, I'm thinking, you know, something easy to eat outside with your hands.
00:42Something you can share with people, you know, party mode before a game. So some nice oyster mushrooms, some
00:48frozen cherries, dark sweet and red tart cherries. All right, we got some frozen crinkle fries.
00:55Okay, some foie gras.
00:57We have some lap cheong sausage here. Okay.
01:02And some tofu.
01:04Quite a mix of ingredients. I feel like the definitely the tofu is gonna be the harder one to incorporate.
01:10You know, foie gras and cherries, that could work really well. With mushrooms, that's easy. Some extra flavor from the sausage.
01:15That's all something that's I think gonna come together easy. The tofu is the one that's gonna be harder to incorporate.
01:21At first I was thinking almost taking it in a like a banh mi direction. Using the foie gras kind of as like the liver paste.
01:27Maybe doing like some kind of tofu spread. Cooking the lap cheong with the mushrooms.
01:31So starting to build some some ideas of flavors that are gonna work together.
01:34And then as I start thinking about vessel and how that's all gonna be served,
01:37trying to think about maybe using these these fries as a
01:41almost as a base to start making some like potato pancakes or something that's
01:44quick and easy to eat while you're tailgating.
01:47These potatoes are pre-cooked.
01:49So a lot of times you want all the starch from raw potatoes to kind of help bind your pancakes.
01:53So we might need a little extra help with binding these. But I think other than that, I think they should come out pretty good.
01:58I'm gonna start by breaking up these potatoes in the food processor. Kind of break them down to smaller pieces.
02:03So looking for something kind of in between like a
02:07McDonald's hash brown and a latke for consistency.
02:12Now we know when you put frozen
02:15french fries in a food processor, this is what it looks like.
02:21And not really measuring here because it's a brand new recipe that we're just making it up.
02:25So yeah, usually when I like come up with new recipes, usually the first time
02:29I'll kind of just make it through once. When I try to remake it,
02:32I'll go through and weigh everything out. And then a little bit of salt as well. Do one more egg.
02:37It's it's soaked up a lot of the egg. So I might have to add a little bit more egg to get something more workable.
02:42It's gonna make it more more fluffy and you get a little bit less crispy on that.
02:47We're not trying to make, you know, egg fritters.
02:49So here I'm just trying to see like when I pull it together if it's gonna stay
02:52together in the kind of shapes that I'm looking for. So I found when making
02:55potato pancakes with regular potatoes, the kind of texture I'm looking for is something that just barely starts to bind together.
03:02I did my first little test patty here. Just kind of check and see how
03:07well it's gonna bind, if it's gonna stay together or just fall apart in the fryer.
03:12And hopefully it works out. We're gonna do some little oblong patties of potato.
03:17I feel like when you're working with a balance of ingredients, you know, things like frozen french fries and then higher-end stuff like foie gras,
03:23I try to leave it as pure as possible.
03:25Not try to mask it too much of what it is.
03:27So I think keep the foie simple like that. Gonna make some kind of tofu spread. Maybe find another ingredient
03:33to flavor that as well. Cherries, I think I'm gonna pickle. Kind of get a nice little bunch of acid.
03:37It's gonna work really well with the foie gras as well.
03:40I think it's all, it's all coming together slowly.
03:45Tastes like french fries.
03:47Pretty happy with that.
03:49Since we got this tailgate theme, trying to go for little football shaped pancakes. Keep it light, keep it fun.
03:54I think there's definitely been more of a trend lately, you know, I mean in the past 10 years of fine dining.
04:00It's gotten more, more playful.
04:02Maybe not taken quite as seriously.
04:04I think people are just trying to have more fun with it.
04:06And that kind of old-school buttoned-up suit and tie formal, formal way is not necessarily everyone's favorite way to eat.
04:12So even like at 63 Clinton, you know, we're not necessarily putting, you know, funny faces and football shapes into food.
04:19But we still try not to take ourselves too seriously.
04:21So first time
04:23pickling cherries, but it's something that I know it's definitely gonna work well. It's already got some sweetness and acid.
04:28So we're using the pickling to kind of just boost up that, the punch of the cherries.
04:33I thought, I was thinking about everything that is gonna be on this dish.
04:36With the tofu spread, especially the foie, always bring in some kind of acid or pickle to kind of help cut through that.
04:42Just make it a more fresh bite, something more enjoyable to eat.
04:45Especially when you're for a football game, you're outside in the sun, eat something refreshing, not just hot heavy.
04:50I don't know, I guess for whenever I'm pickling something, it breaks down usually into one of two ways for vinegar pickle.
04:57Either hot pickle or cold pickle.
04:58So something like maybe cucumbers, something that you can pickle cold because they want to soak up that liquid really, really quickly.
05:03Something cherry or anything more hearty, like maybe the onions or anything that needs
05:08maybe to break down a little bit before it can soak up that vinegar.
05:11I always do with hot vinegar and pour it over. So my vinegar and sugar just came to a boil.
05:16So now I'm just gonna pour it over these cherries. I'm gonna wrap this up, put it in the fridge, let them cool down.
05:20We'll bring it back out at the end when they're ready.
05:23So next I'm going to make a tofu spread. It's gonna go on top of the potato pancake, add a little bit of creaminess.
05:30I'm gonna mix in some cilantro as well. Adds a little bit of soy sauce into this tofu.
05:40Cilantro also, not only for flavor, but I thought it'd be a nice little color component for the dish.
05:45I'm gonna give it a little taste for flavor, see if the seasoning's there.
05:52I'm gonna do a little bit more soy sauce.
05:54I'm just thinking about the overall seasoning, you know, make sure each step along the way is seasoned right
05:59so that at the end everything works well together.
06:05So this is all pureed and mixed up. It's a little loose right now, but what I remember from blending tofus,
06:11we'll set up a little bit more in the fridge. So I think it'll be perfect by the time we're ready for it.
06:15I think next we're gonna cut some foie. So this foie, I'm gonna treat it pretty simply.
06:20Basically just gonna take a couple slices that we're gonna sear later. It's a very simple seared foie gras.
06:25Working with foie, I think it's definitely one of the more intimidating ingredients to work with
06:29because it is one of those things that is, you know, obviously a little bit more expensive.
06:32So you don't have that pressure. You don't want to waste something you just spent money on.
06:36And I think it just takes time and experience to get a good feel of what you're doing with it.
06:40I mean, I'm always a fan of hotter foie preparations over like cold terrines or anything like that.
06:46I think it just, it highlights the natural product better.
06:50Just to kind of have the fat warm gives it a better experience than cold.
06:54So I have a couple filets of this. I'm gonna go through and give it a light score.
06:59Scoring, you know, one, it kind of helps render it as you sear, but mostly it just makes it look nice.
07:06So now I'm gonna cut up the sausage and mushrooms that are gonna get all cooked together later.
07:10So this lap cheong sausage, it's a fun ingredient to work with.
07:14Obviously you're getting all the kind of flavors that you get with, you know, a sausage or ground meat.
07:18But there's all these extra, you know, spices and flavorings that just add this big punch of flavor.
07:23You can definitely overwhelm other things it's going with,
07:26but I think these mushrooms are gonna stand up nicely with it.
07:29The mushrooms probably won't need much salt just because the sausage is gonna add a lot of that seasoning already.
07:37I feel like these are a pretty good mushroom for this dish.
07:40You know, even thinking about something like morel, but that probably is a little bit too tender, too mild.
07:47I think I'm gonna like the more the texture that these mushrooms are gonna have.
07:52But like maitake would have been good. Even chanterelles could have been really nice.
07:56So we're coming down to the last couple minutes. Everything's ready to go.
07:59Got the obviously football-shaped potato pancakes. Those are gonna start frying.
08:03At the same time, I'm gonna start cooking the sausage, the lap cheong, and then add the mushrooms in there as well.
08:08We're also gonna sear the foie gras.
08:10I have the cilantro tofu spread chilling, and the pickled cherries also chilling.
08:14So I'll bring those out once everything's cooked.
08:19So I'm not trying to make, you know, like lardons out of the sausage.
08:22Just trying to get a little bit of color, start rendering out the fat.
08:26I'm gonna add in some of these mushrooms to kind of help cook down with the sausage and all that fat that came out of there.
08:33I'm proposing this whole kind of idea in one bite because, you know, it's something that you want easy to eat.
08:38You've got to think about all these textures, obviously.
08:40The pancake's gonna have a nice base layer of crispiness to kind of hold everything together.
08:44The foie's gonna add a little bit of unctuousness.
08:47And then, you know, cooked mushrooms also adding another layer of flavor and textures.
08:52And then these crispy little sausages will kind of give you little pops of flavor as well.
08:57You know, the idea of putting together one perfect bite, I think you want a balance of obviously not just flavors, you know, fat and acid, salty and sweet.
09:07But also that combination of textures, I think, keep it interesting for while you're eating.
09:12So you have something soft, something crunchy, something maybe more tender.
09:16And these combinations of things, to me anyway, add up to an ideal bite.
09:22Alright, so potatoes are almost there. Mushrooms are getting close.
09:26I'm gonna start cooking some foie now.
09:30So foie, I like to go fairly high heat.
09:33Hot pan already, put the foie in, no oil.
09:36Basically it has enough oil, you can already see the fat coming out of the foie.
09:39And then try to get the perfect thinness so by the time I get a nice, you know, medium sear on both sides, it'll be perfectly cooked.
09:45American football, I assume, is the most popular tailgate, so I'm gonna put some meat on the bones.
09:51So just kind of checking to see how the searing's going.
09:54I want to leave a little bit more color on there.
10:02Alright, our sausage is done.
10:04So our footballs just came out, they're ready to go, ready for game time.
10:10Foie's coming out now.
10:12Went a little dark on the foie.
10:14It's gonna taste great.
10:15So now, time to assemble our little bites.
10:18Start with a little bit of this cilantro tofu sauce.
10:24Go with the foie gras right on top.
10:33It's gonna be a big bite, but it's gonna taste great.
10:37Couple of pickled cherries in there.
10:45There it is.
10:52Let's give it a taste.
10:57Not bad.
10:58Need a little more salt.
10:59Forgot to season the foie.
11:01I mean, I think flavor came together pretty well.
11:03Obviously missed a little seasoning.
11:05I like all the acidity from the cherries, really nice with the foie.
11:08It's good herbal notes.
11:09The tofu adds a nice little creaminess.
11:11Still gets that classic, you know, freezer fried potato flavor that you can't replicate.
11:17I think the taste, I'd say it's got like a humble seven.
11:20Taste-wise, I think could have punched up the flavors a little bit more.
11:23So maybe more cherries, more seasoning in the tofu and the potato.
11:27But all just minor tweaks.
11:29Execution, eight and a half.
11:32I don't know, I feel like for tailgate, I feel like it's a healthy size.
11:36You know, you're not gonna eat six of them.
11:38Six of them.
11:39But, you know, you make one for all your friends.