Binging with Babish - Troy's Casserole from Community
The Art of Creating Complicated Dishes: A Binging with Babish Adventure
In this episode of Binging with Babish, we're taking on one of the most complicated and unnecessary dishes in our show's history. The dish, inspired by a casserole from Hot Pockets, consists of a rainbow-colored terrine, Parmesan cornmeal doughnuts, Doritos glaze, buffalo mozzarella, tomato kulfi, and a final cheese quad featuring four different types of cheese.
The journey begins with the creation of our Parmesan cornmeal doughnuts. To make these crispy treats, we need to start by mixing together equal parts of flour, cornmeal, parmesan cheese, salt, yeast, sugar, egg, milk, melted butter, and hot water. The mixture needs to be kneaded for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. We then shape the dough into small balls, which we'll later use to create our doughnuts. Next, we heat up a deep frying pan with oil and carefully place our dough balls in the pan, making sure not to overcrowd it.
As the doughnuts fry, they start to puff up and become golden brown and crispy. Once they're done, we drain them on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and immediately sprinkle with kosher salt as soon as they come out of the oil. The result is some delicious-looking Parmesan cornmeal doughnuts that don't taste half bad, despite being a little boring on their own.
However, our true star of the show is the rainbow terrine, which has been many hours in the making. We've been waiting for this moment since we began creating our dish, and it's finally ready to emerge from the fridge. This silly application aside, the tomato too would actually be really lovely with some blue dot, paired with a crisp white wine on a summer's day. Unfortunately, the rainbow effect isn't as pronounced as I'd hoped, but it's gonna do the job.
Next up, we need to address the cheese elements of this dish, which include four different types of cheese: parmesan, provolone, mozzarella, and cheddar. We're going to make a cheese crisp by combining these cheeses finely shredded into a three-cheese mix. We'll place a small mound onto a non-stick surface, such as a Silpat, and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about seven minutes until the fats have separated and it becomes crisp.
After cooling off on a wire rack, we'll cut our cheese crisp into pretty little rounds using a biscuit cutter. Now that we've addressed the last element of the dish – the Doritos glaze – we can move on to assembling our creation. We're going to make a cheese crisp by placing a small mound onto a super non-stick surface like a Silpat and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about seven minutes until the fats have separated and it becomes crisp.
Next, we'll cut our cheese crisp into pretty little rounds using a biscuit cutter. Now that we've addressed the last element of the dish – the Doritos glaze – we can move on to assembling our creation. We're going to dump four egg yolks into the base of an immersion blender jar and pour half a cup of bubbling hot butter into a spouted container. Then, we'll gently stream the hot butter down the side of the container while running an immersion blender about halfway through it.
As we blend, we'll add a few teaspoons of our Doritos dust to give our glaze that signature flavor. Once we have a nice thick Doritos hollandaise, we can move on to plating up our dish. We'll start by lopping off a thin slice of our rainbow terrine and using the same biscuit cutter to cut it into a round. Next, we'll carve off a thin slice of buffalo mozzarella and get ready to pull off the most important chef smear of my life.
We'll spread a generous amount of our Doritos hollandaise onto the Parmesan cornmeal doughnut, followed by a thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Our tomato kulfi will be carefully sliced into thin pieces and added on top of our cheese quad, which features four different types of cheese: parmesan, provolone, mozzarella, and cheddar.
To complete our dish, we'll add our final cheese crisp to the top of our creation. As I was doing the voiceover at 10:00 p.m. the night before you're watching this episode, I had an idea that I couldn't really pass up – making a savory Donut using some of the ingredients from our previous dish. I'd combine powdered sugar, Doritos dust, and milk to create a sweet and spicy glaze.
We'll then dip our Parmesan cornmeal donuts into the bowl and let them sit for about 30 minutes until the glaze sets. Finally, we'll assemble our Donut sandwich version of Troy's casserole by placing a slice of our savory Donut between two slices of buffalo mozzarella. The result is an incredible combination of flavors and textures that will satisfy even the most discerning palate.
And so, dear viewers, we hope you've enjoyed this culinary adventure as much as we have. From the initial doughnut-making process to the final assembly of our dish, every step has been carefully crafted to create a truly unique and delicious experience.