- Testing out the different
methods of the squash
was probably the most challenging thing.
- Christina, never say that.
Don't ever say anything
along the lines of, like,
things are gonna work
out from here on out.
I mean, it's true.
It's like, how hard is a salad?
- Don't be extra Claire.
- I just did what I told you not to do.
How hard could it be?
- Might get ugly.
- We don't have time to screw around.
- What do we do?
- I will not be the last
thing on that table.
- [Woman] We're sizzlin' over here.
- [Man] Best one yet.
- [Man] For sure.
[hands slapping]
[woman laughing]
- Are you good at high fiving?
- No.
- Me neither.
Do you know what the trick is?
Yeah, look at the elbow.
- Okay ready?
- Is it a walking high five?
- This feels like a place
where you can actually exercise
some creative license.
- Right.
- In a way that will not
make people freak out.
- Right.
- Right.
But I think that also puts
a lot a pressure on sides
because it's, like, okay
all these other things
are locked in.
And I wanna get not only my creativity
and the other flavors that I want
but also all the balance in the meal
has to come from the sides.
- Do we feel like one of them should be
a cooked side and one should be raw?
- I would really like
to see a sweet potato.
- Will you stipulate to
something in the squash family?
- I'm okay with squash.
I'm okay with squash.
- It's like, sweet potato, stuffing
and our potato invention is
just a lot of starchy stuff.
- What about brussel sprouts
which are also in season?
- Also brussels have the
advantage of you can eat 'em raw.
I love the idea of celebrating,
yeah, in the cabbage family.
Brussels are, you know,
little, tiny cabbages.
- So, I like the idea of brussel sprouts
as a solid green veg.
And I think they had a
moment five to 10 years ago.
And now people really like them
and they're accepted,
they're easy to find.
- Are we counting a salad as a side?
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- There has to be a salad.
- There must be giant salad.
- What are we gonna do?
- I don't need lettuce at Thanksgiving.
- [Woman] It's a bitter--
- I'll do radicchio, I'll do radicchio,
I'll do radicchio.
- So, what are you saying?
- I don't want lettuce.
- What about some roasted
but room temperature squash
in a leafy green salad?
- Oh, into that.
- I love the idea of a salad
with a roasty delicious.
- A roasted element.
- And there's plenty a mush.
- And that squash salad.
- Super do ahead and
then we get all of it.
- Yeah, I love it.
- If your salad, this is your raw moment
and it might have squash.
- Yes.
- Does that mean that
brussels are the other one?
- Yes.
- Cooked brussels.
- And they're cooked?
- And they're cooked.
- Boiled?
- No.
- Just kidding.
[group laughing]
- I feel like that's a perfect compromise.
- Yes, I do too.
It was weird how quickly we
all coalesced around that idea.
- Well, then let's move on.
- But I feel like you have a
passion and you have a passion.
I think two passions should come together
and make a passionate case for sides.
- We got this.
[group laughing]
It would be my honor and pleasure
to work with Christina on this.
- Oh, that's so nice.
- Yeah.
- Passion of the sides.
- Claire, my first thought
is that I feel like
we actually of all the categories
have the toughest task.
- I think we have more
narrowing down to do than most.
- I'm feeling great about brussel sprouts.
And feeling solid about a squash.
- I think those are important.
And I do really take home the point
about incorporating something raw
'cause it is the only chance we have
in any of these.
- Oh, the salad.
- Yeah, like--
- Very strongly about the salad.
- Some kind of raw salad-y
crunchy vegetable thing
because it's one of the only opportunities
to bring texture into the meal.
So, here's the notes from the round table.
So, sweet potatoes, honeynut, I feel like
those are touching on the
same kind of direction.
This says aged Gouda which
I'm definitely in favor of.
Aged Gouda, I think that would go
in sort of the more salad-y thing.
So, this says, this is my handwriting,
salad with roasted squash.
Another honeynut, my
favorite of all the squashes.
It looks like a mini
butternut but is way tastier.
- And so cute.
- And you can eat the skin.
- You can eat the skin.
- I think start with squash.
And then just kinda by
process of elimination
that'll give us some good
direction for brussel sprouts.
So, I think we should
start with a salad first.
First step is pick the squash
and then pick the cooking
method for that squash.
- Once we nail that all the
other components of that salad
will sort of start to come into focus.
- [Claire] Right.
- [Christina] But if
the squash is the star.
- I feel like it's gonna be
the kind a salad I wanna eat
which is there's a lot of
textures and flavors going on
which I'm excited about.
I'm sure it will be a surprise to no one
that I have strong opinions about squash.
And I guess we should start by saying that
it's 95 degrees outside,
middle of July, 90% humidity.
Not really prime squash season.
We don't have a lot to work with.
So, we have some examples here.
- It just feels like
there are so many post-its
that say honeynut that it
feels like we have to get that.
- Right.
- Somehow.
Are you familiar with Row 7?
- The seed company?
They develop all sorts of
cool, new vegetable varieties.
- Michael is actually coming in with,
not just honeynut but some new squash.
- Okay, so when's this happening?
- Like, right now.
- Right now.
- Oh, okay.
- Well, hi, Michael.
- Hello.
- Thank you so much for
coming in.
What do you do at Row 7?
- Row 7 it's a company founded by myself,
Chef Dan Barber, Matthew Goldfarb.
The three of us, together,
we were working on squash
and other vegetables
and questions about what could they be,
how could we make them better.
First met with the
challenge of how to make
a butternut squash like
this more flavorful.
- And so, I understand that you have
some honeynuts for us to play around with.
But also maybe some other cool varieties.
- Honeynut 2.0.
- Honeynut 2.0.
- 898
- Okay, okay.
- Yeah.
All these vegetables,
they're continually adapting,
evolving and we're making
them better all the time.
Honeynut was that first release.
And then moving along now 898 is next.
- 898 is The godfather part two.
- So, how do you go from
butternut to honeynut?
- We do a cross pollination.
And then generation after generation
you see all different attributes
and characteristics of the plants.
And we can decide which
ones do we wanna keep,
save the seeds from those.
So, it's very much kind of a season cased
sort of approach to plant breeding.
- [Claire] Can we take a look at 898?
- Here it is.
- Oh, my gosh.
- The cutest little
squash you've ever seen.
- They're so cute.
- Look at this one.
- So, it's even more
concentrated than the honeynut.
It's sweeter, it's more nutritious.
It's everything is just concentrated.
And it stores.
- It sounds like a optimal
cooking method for the honeynut
given those characteristics is really
roasting or putting
color on it in some way.
Like, a dry heat.
- That's how I tend to work
with most of my squash.
But there's a lot of
techniques you can apply.
And you don't know until you try it.
The 898 and all the other Row 7 crops are,
they're seed packets that
you can grow in your garden.
And they're all through the markets.
- I feel really good about that.
- I'm so excited to cook these.
- And now we have a better sense of
what direction to go in for cooking.
So, this actually helps our process a lot
and narrows it down.
- I think we know what we're doing.
- Yeah.
We don't know anything else
about any of the dishes
but at least we got this.
Thanks for bringing
all the special squash.
- My pleasure, always delighted
to talk squash.
- We're super excited.
[upbeat bossa nova music]
- I feel like step one is
just to roast a couple of the 898s,
make sure they act and taste and look
the way we want them to.
- We can really try to make
the salad about the squash
and add these other elements
that are gonna compliment it really well.
- You, I'm gonna guess, wanna pan roast?
- Yeah, why not?
- Go for it.
- The first roasting method we're trying
is more of a straight roast
where it's going into the oven
just on a room temperature
sheet tray with a little oil.
The second method is kind of a combo
where we preheat the sheet
first in a really hot oven,
put the oiled, seasoned
squash cut side down
on the preheated sheet
tray and into the oven.
So, it's still happening
the whole way in the oven
but that hot sheet tray
should give us a head start
on building color.
And then the third method is pan roasting.
And that's where I start them
in a skillet on the stove
to basically sear them
and build all the color,
then turn them over, transfer
them to the medium oven
'til they roast through.
- What we're looking for
out of all these methods
is good color, good taste, good texture.
- Right.
- Maybe they'll all turn
out exactly the same,
we don't know yet.
Okay, so, these are the three.
There's something really
very rich about them.
I really wanted to say,
like, buttered popcorn.
- I think they smell like french fries.
- It's almost like a
Japanese Sweet potato.
- Yeah, I was just gonna say
it's kinda sweet potato-like.
- Okay, truth be told, that
could've cooked longer.
- Mm hm.
I think it also will be very
delicious room temperature.
Like, it doesn't have to be hot.
- Agree.
- I think sides are really important
to keep those things room temp.
- Okay, should we try the next one?
- Yeah.
- I actually would say
this one is tastier.
- I think they both
probably could be cooked
a little bit longer.
Let a little bit more
of the color develop.
It's not undercooked or al dente at all.
- It was a little undercooked.
- One of these?
- Yeah.
- The fact that the skins
don't get direct contact,
just on those I think is a plus
because it's kind of--
- I like how you just--
- It's like a little leathery.
- Gave up on that one.
- I don't, this skin, yeah.
- It's like chewing on a paper bag.
It was worth a shot.
Glad we did it.
- Yeah.
I think we go toss it in
a bowl with a lot a oil
and salt and pepper onto
one large preheated sheet
and then roast it all the way through.
- Loving how in sync we are.
The 898 is the squash we want.
And--
- It's the only squash for us.
- It's the only squash for us.
Look, there's us as represented by squash.
- We have to now figure
out what we're gonna,
what are all the other salad components.
- Let's start with lettuce.
- Lettuce.
I think we have to decide on
what's the leafy component.
I want something really
punchy to go with the squash.
And I think it needs a
bitter lettuce that's hardy
to also stand up to that.
- Yeah, you want something with character
and that's not going to be lame.
- So, I'm writing down chicory.
I wrote down radicchio.
Then I'm gonna write down
Treviso which is very similar.
Probably endive.
- What about, wildcard, frisee?
- Frizzy?
Goddamn.
I think we can kinda start there
and test a bunch a the
different leaf options.
And kinda see which
combinations we like best.
- [Christina] And then there was lettuce.
- I think it says something.
I think I really want it to be radicchio.
- Yeah.
I think everything we have
in front of us right now
is stuff that you can get either
year round or in the fall.
- Well, the only way to test
these is to keep all this handy
and then we can just
basically put together
a couple of vinaigrette options
and then taste with
all of the leafy things
that we're thinking about.
- Yeah.
- And then maybe we'll grab
a couple of other sweetening
things like some honey,
a little bit a white
sugar, that kind of thing.
- Maple?
- Maple.
Could be good, okay.
Here's the plan.
I think the most consequential
aspect of the vinaigrette is,
least to start, is the acid.
So, we have all of our acid options.
Sherry vinegar, citrus
and a couple of very
fancy agridulce vinegars.
A good place to start would be
to just do really simple proportions,
maybe one to three acid to oil.
So, we start with something
really plain and simple.
And then we do some taste tests
with the different leaves and the squash
and decide what flavor
combinations we like best.
And then we kinda pick a
lane as in pick an acid.
And then we kinda work in the
other vinaigrette components.
I'm gonna start by juicing
some of the citrus.
I'm gonna do half orange, half lime.
Let's do a teaspoon of
vinegar and a tablespoon oil.
Okay, so, I'm testing a
little piece a radicchio,
a little piece of squash
and giving it a little dip
in the sherry vinegar option.
So, this one is the mixed citrus.
That one's really good.
Good balance.
Mm, that's good.
I like all of them.
The question is: Can we
achieve what this one does
by using the much more easier to find
and reliable sherry vinegar
without having to call for something,
this is just such a specialty item.
I would feel a little bit guilty
calling for late harvest
Sauvignon Blanc agridulce vinegar.
So, this is the apple cider vinegar.
- This is really good.
This is really delicious.
I want this one.
Really?
- Yeah.
It tastes like an orchard.
This is probably going
to be a lot more work
for the average home cook, right,
it's like you don't wanna be like
the only way to make this salad
is with this one particular--
- Yeah.
- Thing.
Yeah.
- That being said, I
would be perfectly happy
to pursue the orange and lime fruit.
- Yeah.
I kinda like that one better anyway.
[upbeat bossa nova music]
Let's just sample it with
the other lettuce options.
- Just with the citrus mixture.
This is Belgian endive.
This is your blue cheese
dressing lettuce cup.
- Endive and orange is a
great combo, I really like it.
- It wasn't doing a whole lot for me, tbh.
- All right, just lie, Christina.
Just lie, pretend.
I don't even wanna eat the frisee.
- This looks, I don't either,
Claire but you know what.
- Okay and then if we don't wanna eat,
if neither of us wanna eat
it during the testing phase
I think we can just.
- Well, unlike you,
I am hungry.
- Nix it.
- So, I will eat it.
- [Christina] Well.
- It's very strange.
The frisee is, like, hairy.
- [Christina] It's like spiky--
- It's just like, not--
- It's poking you.
- That's not cute.
- I do know why I want it to be radicchio,
not only because I like the taste,
there's something about the idea
of the shape of the radicchio
leaf being the right size
to fit one half of the honeynut roasted.
- Yeah, they have similar
sort of geometric aspects.
- Yeah, yeah, they're on the same scale.
Yay, we decided!
Okay.
[group laughing]
- No, I am excited.
I'm excited that it's something
that feels very accessible
to most anyone who would
wanna make something like this
all across the board.
[upbeat bossa nova music]
- I don't feel like a jerk telling someone
you have to go to the farmer's
market to buy your squash
but you can get everything else
like a regular grocery store.
- Right.
- You know.
Wait, did I just say I do feel like a jerk
or I don't feel like a jerk?
- You said you don't.
I don't, okay, right.
[upbeat drumming]
The game plan is get all of our,
the toppings that we're considering in,
like, out and ready to go.
And then we're going to basically
put together the full
serving size of the lettuce,
this sort of leafy thing and the squash
which we're gonna do a test
where we roast it the way
that were kinda decided.
And then we're gonna basically do
all these different
combinations and permutations
of all the toppings and
the two dressing options.
One is lemon, one is lime.
- That's a very succinct
and thorough explanation.
- I feel like I kinda rambled
about it but whatever.
All right, so these have good
color on the top as well.
Which is good.
Let's see be about color.
Ooh, nice color.
- Oh, very nice.
These look great.
- So, these are done.
Yeah, they do look great.
Are you not supposed to do that?
Is that your cutting board?
- No, whatever, who cares.
- So, I'm gonna do lemon and
you're gonna do lime, right?
- Correct.
- So, these are the two
dressings we did yesterday.
They're the same except for
my version has lemon juice
her version has lime juice.
And both have orange.
- The only thing we're looking for
is the difference in the citrus flavors.
- [Claire] Right.
And hers is slightly more acidic.
I mean, it's an extremely
autumnal color scheme.
- [Christina] It's so,
so frickin' autumnal.
- [Claire] And I like
kinda tucking them in.
- Oh my God, I'm tucking mine in.
- Oh, like, hear me out.
What if we did, I was gonna say, like,
rows of cheese this way,
rows of nuts this way
and then rows of fruit that way.
And then it's like--
- [Man] Just make bites.
- Just make bites.
Okay, fine.
- Should we talk about fruit?
Pomegranate arils.
- Mm hm.
- I love these.
- Delicious.
- The dry fruit options
we have, dried currants.
- Yes.
- And dried cherries.
- So, we have two
different kinds of apples.
One's just like a regular Granny Smith.
And then this one is Pink Lady.
- [Claire] Yeah.
- Here are our two nuts and our one seed.
These were the three that we honed in on,
hazelnuts, pecans and
pumpkin seeds, aka pepitas.
- They felt very Thanksgiving appropriate.
Sharp white cheddar.
This is obviously a blue.
Parm.
- Parm.
- Piave, this is an aged Gouda.
- Yeah.
- You can tell by the color.
And then, like, a soft goat cheese.
I think I'm gonna try what I think, like,
foremost in my mind gonna work.
So, I'm gonna do Piave,
pepitas and pomegranate.
- I actually don't think
this is gonna work.
But I did pomegranate,
Gouda and hazelnuts.
- And then I'm gonna put
a little extra on top.
- This is bad.
- It's bad?
This one is delicious.
- I will do apple, pepita and Parm.
- That one was also very good.
- Mine was good.
- What if there's a salad
bar at Thanksgiving?
- That is not your task.
- Okay, so, I'm doing Gouda.
What do you call those things?
Pecans and apple.
- That sounds good.
They've all been good.
- Yeah, except for that first one you did.
- We're not really getting anywhere.
- Okay, I'm getting rid of Gouda
'cause we think it's too strong.
And then I'm getting rid of,
the currants nobody cares about.
- Nobody cares about and
I didn't even eat them.
- Do you mind shoving that one forward?
And so, we've eliminated
one from each category.
Hey, Andy, do you wanna
try this delicious bite?
I made it for you.
- And butternut squash,
pomegranate--
- Excuse me, not butter it's a--
- Oh, acorn, wait, what?
- No.
- Honeynut, honeynut.
- You made me a bite?
- We made you a bite.
- We haven't sampled--
- Look at how much
progress we've made today.
- We haven't said what we've
been doing this whole time
which is we made hand salad.
- It was very good.
- Thought it was
very delicious.
- So, these are slightly
different dressings
where the vinaigrette,
the acid is half orange juice, half lime
and half orange juice,
half lemon in that version.
- You had lemon.
- I feel like I want that.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Are you sure?
- You were saying that because it's there.
- I completely disagree.
I think you get enough
crunch from the radicchio.
And I think throwing a sliced apple
it's gonna discolor right away
and you're gonna have
a brown colored apple
on a Thanksgiving table--
- Tell 'em, Andy.
- There's enough brown goin' on here.
- I think it's gonna be totally fine.
I think you need a cool crunchy thing
as opposed to a bitter
leafy crunchy thing.
I also feel for what it's worth
pomegranate is totally
played out as a topping,
especially on this kind a thing.
- I don't think--
- And I'm not here for it.
- You've understood why we called you
over here very well.
[group laughing]
I just feel you were gonna
say something so controversial
about Asian pear and I'm gonna get upset.
- Why, no, I love Asian pear.
It's almost like what
jicama wishes it could be.
- Yeah, it's very jicama-like.
- Or at least like good jicama.
- Should we just call
it and say Asian pear?
Everyone loves it.
- It's so good.
Fantastic.
- Wanna change the leaf?
- I like everything that's happening.
- I think we should make a final platter.
And we're gonna do a Piave and pecans.
And we're gonna basically
re-do the process
with a couple tweaks.
What's our vinaigrette of choice?
You like the lemon.
- [Christina] I liked the lemon.
- I think you could go either way
and I don't think you'd be wrong.
- Okay.
- So, Christina, you wanna do lemon?
In that case just 'cause
it's a little more assertive
do you think it's welcome?
- I do.
- We talked about how we
wanted it to be acidic.
So, I think we should make a final version
with the dressing that we really want,
the nut and the cheese and
we'll make our final decision.
[upbeat eclectic drumming]
That looks nice.
It really does.
Very fall.
I think on the final one
maybe I want people to be able
to see the shapes of the squash.
But I think that comes through.
- This is by far the best
version of this we've made.
- Yeah, I agree.
- [Christina] The final
bit of lemon and oil.
- Mm hm.
- I think was everything.
- Yeah.
I think it's the right
amount of sweetness.
- The cheese.
- Mm, it's good.
But think about if you were
at a Thanksgiving dinner
and someone put this salad down.
You'd be pretty amazed, I think.
- I think so.
- It's just like a very well considered,
obviously, it took us a day and a half.
- But, you know what, it took us that long
to consider what would be
not only most impressive
and most delicious but
also most practical.
- If we didn't go through
all those considerations
and all those stages in the process
I would not have ended up on this salad.
And I think it's better than
the one I would have made.
- But that was longer than
I ever wanna think about
making a salad again in my entire life.
- Okay, so, we had to talk about
the preferred cooking
method for brussel sprouts,
pan roasted or oven roasted, right,
'cause I've done both ways.
We have to look at the
brussel sprouts that we have
and decide if we want to cut them in half,
trim off any leaves,
how we wanna prep them.
- Right.
- And then we'll talk
about cooking method.
- Okay, I think that's fair.
Great.
I'm feeling like we're
being extra dramatic.
And like, perhaps,
that's not the greatest.
I mean, we're acting like
cooking brussel sprouts
is like making Snickers--
- Totally.
- Which it's not.
Okay, so here we go.
Pan number one is whole
oven roasted small guys.
Tossed it with oil, salt
and pepper, left whole.
Pan two, same method but just
whole large brussel sprouts.
Pan number three, the only difference
is that you cut the large
brussel sprout in half.
- Ooh!
- Oh wow.
- These are done.
So, let's say burned.
They look good, no, they look good though.
Look how delicious.
- What, Claire?
These almost actually look deep fried
which is a really good thing.
- Yeah, I know, right?
I know, like, okay, so, the
leaves like that did not work
but, oops.
I'll get that later.
I would say one man's
burned brussel sprout
is another man's perfectly caramelized
crispy brussel sprout.
- I think we need to acknowledge
that some of the things
in front of us are burnt right now.
- [Claire] Yes.
- [Christina] Like, we're not psychopaths.
These are burnt.
- [Claire] This is nice,
this is not yet blackened.
- These are nice, these are kinda like--
- Those are really good.
- Crispy nuggets.
- Yeah.
We're gonna go with the
smaller brussel sprouts whole,
oven roasted at a high temp.
It is good that the method
we truly like the best
is the easiest.
- Yes, we're not just saying that.
- Yeah, really.
I think that they're so
caramel intensely flavored
that it's like these are the meat.
I don't wanna put meat on this.
- I'm so glad you said that, Claire
because I feel the exact same way.
We kind of nailed the
cook so much to the point
that this is the main flavor.
- Right.
- That we wanna highlight.
We wanna try two options, a dry rub thing
with some kind of sprinkle
and a wet treatment
that might be something
in a glaze category.
- Yeah.
- I don't know yet what
makes sense for the dry--
- Okay.
- Stuff.
So, I suggest we go to the spice cabinet.
Wow.
What about coriander?
- Call 'em right out.
- Maybe we could toast them.
Red pepper flakes.
- Yellow mustard?
Sumac 'cause that's really tart.
That had some good inspo.
I'll grab some ginger.
We're gonna do two different tests
of what we're calling the wet.
And it's basically caramelized honey
de-glazed with a chili vinegar.
And we're gonna just test
two separate vinegars.
One is cherry, one is apple cider vinegar.
- Yours smells better than mine.
- Okay, olive oil, brussel sprouts,
cherry vinegar, honey, chili.
Five ingredients.
- We're amazing.
- Can I say something?
I don't really care about
any of these dry ingredients
and I don't know that
they make sense together.
- Let's try at least one.
This is just sumac tossed
with some brussel sprouts.
And that, frankly, is not bad at all.
- Yeah, but it's not that good.
I think it's kind of a bummer
that there isn't something
like saucy to go along with it.
So, let's get some Hellman's,
let's put some rice vinegar
in it and some lime zest
and some chili flake over top and try it.
- And you're envisioning this
as a spread on the bottom of a plate
and then brussel go on top?
- Yeah.
This is my vision.
- [Christina] Slightly spicy.
- [Claire] Yeah, there's heat.
- I like it more than I thought I would.
- Yeah but it just covers
up the brussel sprout.
- They're not playing together.
- Yeah.
This is not the right direction.
Christina--
- Claire.
- It is my heart's desire to
get rid of all this stuff--
- I know you hate this
so much.
- And bring back
the one real brussel sprout
which is the glazed, chili
honey glazed brussel sprout.
- I could not agree more.
- And I feel like we could
really brag to the other groups
of, like, our dish is so good
it only has five ingredients.
- I bet you everyone
will eat every last one.
[upbeat bossa nova music]
- We want you to try the
final brussel sprout.
- Is it gonna be those?
- It's gonna be those.
- Hey, what was in your brussel sprouts?
What was the glaze for your brussel?
- It was caramelized honey.
[group laughing]
Why is that so funny?
Why is that so funny?
- And what else?
- And what else?
- Chili flake and cherry vinegar.
- They're laughing and I have no idea why.
- What do we do?
- What, what?
What is going on?
Is that what you guys developed?
- The brussel sprouts we just developed
are caramelized honey.
[Claire laughing]
- Wait, what brussel sprout
recipe are you talking about?
- Honey glazed brussels, like spicy.
What do they call it?
Spicy honey glazed brussels.
They're from last year from ba.com.
I can show you a picture.
- That's okay.
- You don't wanna see 'em.
Okay, well, this has been
really fun, you guys.
I think your energy is
great and good luck.
I mean.
- It's 5:40 on day two.
And we're [beeping].
- So, you guys are nervous
because it's too similar to Molly's.
- It's nearly identical.
- It is Molly's.
- It's Molly's.
- Okay, so, today was traumatic.
Therefore, we are going to
take a few days away from this.
We are going to think on
it, cleanse our palettes
and come back to it with fresh minds.
- [Claire] Yeah.
- And nail it.
Well, we're back.
- We have to take another stab at it.
But I did go home and reflecting on it
think that maybe we
hadn't fully considered
the full spectrum of
sweet/sour kind of ingredients.
- You know, there are lots
of other ways to achieve
what this trifecta achieved.
- Right, it's like something
sweet, something acidic,
a source of heat and then
you cook it all together
and it gets thick and sticky and glaze-y.
- Okay, so let's discuss
because I see something on
this tray that's very exciting.
- Yeah.
This ingredient which is
a lot of fun to work with
which is pomegranate molasses.
And that's basically pomegranate
juice that's cooked down
and the sugars concentrate and it thickens
and you get this, it's called molasses
because it has kind of
the texture of molasses.
You can see it inside the container.
Somehow we got through most
of Thanksgiving development
and no one has used brown butter
which, to me, is a staple technique
or ingredient of Thanksgiving.
So, I thought maybe kind of
lean into the richness of it
and do a little brown butter glaze
with pomegranate molasses
and maybe a little brown
sugar just for balance.
Maybe we cook the glaze in a skillet
and just toss the brussel
sprouts through in the skillet.
That's useful for Thanksgiving I think
because you can leave
everything in the skillet
and just reheat quickly
before you sit down.
Pistachios which we could
even cook in the brown butter.
Some black sesame just if we
wanted to sprinkle on top.
So, maybe we add a chili flake component.
This is another ingredient
which is date molasses.
It's a hundred percent dates.
It's very, very delicious.
So, maybe we do two versions
of the glaze while these roast
and just see what we like better.
[upbeat bossa nova music]
And so, we're gonna cook the pistachios
in the butter as it browns.
We figured we'll toast 'em
whole and chop them later.
- Wow
- Oh, wow.
- That's so unexpected.
- I was not expecting that.
So, Christina and I each
have our own sprinkle.
The main difference is
Christina's has lime zest
which mine does not.
And mine has black sesame
which Christina's does not.
So, we're going to pull
the brussel sprouts,
toss 'em in the glaze,
test out the sprinkles
and give it a taste.
They look beautiful.
There isn't a ton of
glaze, it's just pulling.
- [Christina] Yeah, it's not soppy.
- [Claire] They're well
coated but not swimming.
- It's just the same
pomegranate molasses version
but now topped with that
black sesame pistachio mix.
- It's good.
It's super tasty.
But I'm curious to see how
it compares to that one.
- We're finishing off
the date brussel sprouts
with a squeeze a lime juice
and also the top's brown butter pistachios
that also have a little bit
of lime zest and chili flake.
- The only thing that I think is missing
is a tiny bit more chili flake.
I think a little heat is
really gonna liven it up.
Christina alleges that she didn't chop it.
I would be so psyched if these
were on a Thanksgiving table.
- [Christina] Yes.
- I think people rarely
think this much about sides.
You know, it's just like,
oh, a roasted whatever.
- Nailed it!
- These are so good.
If you don't like these
it'll be edited out.
- It's really nice.
- The lime and the chili
flake comes through.
I wish there was just a
tiny bit more sweet and salt
in the sprout itself.
- [Claire] Yeah.
- But seeing them just whole,
you know, we haven't done that.
If you don't leave any [beeping] behind
'cause I feel like this is where--
- You want that.
- Flavor town is, you know?
- Right, so, maybe we
don't change anything.
Maybe we just add that in.
- But we stayed true to
exactly what we set out to do
which was a simply prepared,
delicious, no fuss side.
- I like how the salad felt,
not, I don't wanna say traditional
but there was something
traditional about it.
The vinaigrette and
that sort of combination
of ingredients and flavors.
And then this feels like a
little bit more of a departure
from what you typically see.
And I think both will be
really good complements
on the Thanksgiving table
and do the work that they're
supposed to do on Thanksgiving.
- To me, this whole
thing has felt a bit like
how I would do this at home.
- Mm, same.
- Makes sense, you know?
- Yeah.
- It's like
we've talked about this before.
We're both huge proponents of the salad
and the side vegetable
at Thanksgiving dinner.
- Right.
And what I also like about this
is it feels like there's
been a transformation.
It's not that many ingredients.
It doesn't take that long.
It's not terribly complicated.
But there is, the end result is something
I think really kind of special.
I think we make a good team.
- Yeah.
- I think that we offer
each other--
- Claire dictates
and I follow.
- But also we offer each
other emotional support.
I didn't wanna murder
you at the end which is,
that's saying a lot.
I think we should try to high five again.
- This is really far away.
- Okay, ready?
- Okay, ready?
[women laughing]
That rang in my ears, oh my God.
That was the best high five
I've ever done with anyone.
We got here at 8:30 in the morning.
It's now 10:56 and I'm
about to just sit here
while, Brad, you leave and
go back to your normal job
by the way.
- Oh there's Brad.
- And Brad comes in and we make pie.
Although I honestly think after this pie
it's gonna be like.
- [Christina] Don't say it.
- Less of--
[group laughing]
Nevermind.
I'm just not gonna say anything, cool.
[upbeat eclectic drumming]
- Beautiful Colorado.
We're at the Adams County Fair.
- Oh my God.
- Oh God.
- Wait, here it comes, here it comes.
- You can't, don't stare, don't stare.
- I get really competitive
and really nervous.
This is why I should never compete
because I go psychotic.
Too nervous to look.
- We're under the knife this time.
