Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, food writer and chef Gail Simmons and comedian Max Silvestri come together and share their most favorite and delectable holiday traditions for the “Ultimate Holiday Feast.” From Gail demonstrating a modern take on her mother’s latke recipe to Marcus’ traditional Swedish holiday dish. See more in special, “Ultimate Holiday Feast.”
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GAIL SIMMONS (VOICEOVER): It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to eat. Did you ask a fat man if he wants food? My tummy hurts. Marcus Samuelsson, Max Silvestri, and me, Gail Simmons, are putting new spins on classic holiday dishes. Getting shredded. It’s like us before beach season, Marcus. It’s a holiday sh-miracle.
I ho, ho, hope you’re hungry. [music – “jingle bells”] (SINGING) Bells on bobtails ring making spirits bright. What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Jingle all the way.
Hey. Yes. Yeah. I love it. You guys nailed that. I am thrilled to be back with both of you, celebrating the holidays at The Peacock in New York City. Well, the holidays are really an incredible time for food, right. There’s so many different traditions. So for a chef, this is great times.
Now Thanksgiving may be all about the turkey, but the rest of the holidays allow for so many different main courses. That’s what I love about it. You can have turkey, ham, brisket, a big roast. There’s so many different ways to go with it.
And we kind of explored a bunch of those different ways. I feel like we should let our carolers eat some of the food, in lieu of getting paid. I was very insistent that they don’t get paid. Sorry. Well, I decided to make a traditional brisket,
As my mother did every year around Hanukkah time. But come Christmas night, the only places that were open were Chinese restaurants, so we generally went out for Chinese food on Christmas night. I thought, why not use the leftover brisket for a festive Christmas meal?
So what I’ve made for you all is some brisket fried rice. So for my main course, I thought it’d be fun to make my mom’s classic brisket. And with the leftovers, I’m going to make fried rice with brisket. Brisket fried rice. So brisket is quite a tough piece
Of meat, which is why it’s traditionally braised or very slow cooked. I schmear it with horseradish, chrain. Chrain. And I deglaze with red wine, which really helps tenderize the meat. So I’m searing my brisket in this big pot to lock in the juices and give it that crispy golden crust.
And I’m actually going to just take it right out of here. I’m going to let it cool just for a minute there while I make my schmear. It’s a holiday sh-miracle. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Nice. So I have what you’ve all been waiting for, the horseradish. Smell that. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yeah. I know.
I have a little bit of garlic. And I’m just going to mix it together so that it’s sort of like a paste. I’m going to take the chrain and put it right over the fat so that when it cooks, it really soaks in and gives the meat that spicy kick.
Now the bottom of that pan are all the beautiful brown bits from the bottom of the brisket. So now I’m going to add some onion, celery, carrots, parsnip, and a little bit of garlic. And I’m going to cook all of these up together. So all the vegetables in here are starting to soften.
And I’m doing to deglaze my pan with some red wine. Now I’m going to bring the wine to a boil. I’m going to let it cook out so that you get some of that alcohol off and you’re just left with the flavor of the wine.
And then I’m going to put my brisket back in. Put my stock in to make the meat nice and moist. Braise it in the oven for about three hours. All right. See, it’s all been braised down. It is nice and soft. Always let your meat rest to allow
The juices to redistribute so it doesn’t become tough. I’m going to slice it against the grain so that it’s easy and tender to eat. Now I’m going to take two forks and then just shred it. Getting shredded. It’s like us before beach season, Marcus. Just getting shredded. OK.
We have everything we need, and now I can actually start making my stir fried rice. The first step is a little bit of oil. If you don’t have a wok, you can just use a big pot with a lid. I have got two eggs. I’m going to slide them right in.
You don’t want to cook them and dry them through because I’m going to put them back in. Oh, so you cook some of them sort of on their own and then– Takes just like two seconds. All right. I’m going to add in some onions, garlic. Fried rice such a fridge cleaner.
You can throw anything in. You’re totally right. Ginger. Add in that brisket. Cook it out a little bit. I’m going to add in some rice. Mix that all up. Get those flavors working. Our egg goes back in. Got some peas in here. Classic American Chinese fried rice dish.
I’m also adding some cilantro stems. They add a lot of flavor. And you know, they add a lot of nutrients. MAX SILVESTRI: Yeah, yeah. All right, scallions, the green parts. We’re going to get that crusty bit on the end at the bottom so I know it’s done. Let’s do this thing. Do it.
Get in there. OK. Don’t let my lack of coordination with chopsticks fool you. I’m loving this. I do like the peas. You know, it makes it very– The cilantro stems too. The rice is so light. It’s like lean, delicious. I don’t feel bad eating it. There’s a little bit of everything in here
And the flavoring is very subtle. Awesome. I like this, Gail. I really like it a lot. This is delicious. So this is my rib eye with oxtail stew. You know, like the holidays, it’s a lot of hard work to get there, and then there’s a celebration.
So that’s really my inspiration with the oxtail, little hardier. And then the festivities of the holidays with the rib eye on the bone. So I wanted to do something that reminds me of my Swedish holidays where a big red meat was in the center.
So I’m going to do rib eye with oxtails too. This is amazing and I’m giddy with excitement. So I’m going to start with the sauce. It’s oxtail stew. And first of all, you want to seal it off on high heat so all the fat comes out.
But it’s the tail to a big ox, obviously, so it’s not tender unless we braise it slowly. So you don’t even change. You’re just– everything that came off that oxtail, all that fat is just right– Everything. It’s all in there. There’s carrots, onions, a little bit of parsnip,
And then a little bit of ginger, garlic, bay leaf. And then I’m adding a little bit of soy. Gives good saltiness. And then I’m adding in honey and that’s going to caramelize. And then we’re going to add in some crushed tomatoes, beef stock.
And then just let them braise in the oven for about 2 and 1/2 hours. It brings out so much flavor. Take all the meat off the bone. And then you have delicious oxtail. So now what? So for my bone in rib eye, I’m going to make a rub. So got the black pepper.
Got a little bit of the coffee beans. So you’re getting the bitter from the coffee. And the heat, you’re getting from the black pepper. So then I add in a little mustard and olive oil, garlic, chocolate, and the rub’s done. And I imagine that’s pretty dark chocolate.
It’s not like is is an overly sweet rub, right? Yeah. I mean, the sweet is going to help the bitterness and the flavor of the steak. All right, so we’re going to sear it on a high heat. I have a little bit of olive oil in the pan,
So it’s just really about searing it off for a minute and a half on each side. Here we go. And that rub gives the meat so much flavor and a beautiful crust. Exactly. 10 minutes. Then we’re going to let it sit and rest. Then we’re ready to eat. All right, almost there.
I’m so excited. I got my oxtail sauce over here. Basically, the oxtail that were braised, just ripped them apart, pulled them, and took the braising liquid and created this sort of sweet rustic sauce going on over here. Then we have our steak. You really got an amazing crust on that.
That paste, I mean, it looks like almost like a whole barbecue. You know, like it’s got so much flavor you can see in there. And then I’m going to give it a little Latin, little chimichurri that I’m going to put on top. It’s really jalapenos, tarragon, mustard, lime juice,
And some garlic, olive oil, and Worcester sauce. GAIL SIMMONS: Sounds good. Chimi has a little bit of kick, so we’re not going to overdo it with that. And then guess what, guys, we are ready to eat, my friends. Oh my God. Merry Christmas, Chris. Yeah, this is a holiday right here. New Year’s.
I think my birthday is in here too. This chimichurri is the best chimichurri I’ve ever had. Thank you very much. There’s so many flavors in this recipe. I want, I want to know your magic. I want to know how you do this. Thank you, guys. Glad you enjoyed it.
Marcus, thank you for the gift that is meat. [music playing] I love this time of year because it’s so full and rich with food traditions for the holidays. Marcus, what is Swedish Christmas food all about? It starts with one word. Julebord. Can you spell that? You get extra rewards, extra gifts. Absolutely not.
Julebord. Julebord. Which essentially is Christmas table. OK. So what I made for you today is Jansson’s temptation, which is a potato gratin. And just when you think it’s just a regular potato gratin, it’s going to surprise you. You ready? Julebord. Julebord. So Jansson temptation. Did you say this is called the Jansson temptation?
The gratin is called the Jansson’s temptation. This is a Swedish real– Oh, it’s a Swedish thing. OK. I did not know if that was– Everyone in Sweden knows what this is, and you eat it around the holidays. You can’t Google it because it’s not that famous, but it’s real.
It’s a potato gratin that you sort of– you cut them into strips like this, right. And then we have a little bit of onion and leek, some bread crumbs, and anchovies. GAIL SIMMONS: And would this recipe work without anchovies? Yeah, people do their own version. Right.
So you have the potato strips laid out like this. So this onion and leeks make it really nice and sweet. And then you have the anchovies. GAIL SIMMONS: This is the classic recipe? MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yeah, this is very traditional. GAIL SIMMONS: You’re not taking any liberties here? MARCUS SAMUELSSON: No.
I’m pretty sure you’re just making this up as you go along, but that’s fine. I have breadcrumbs and a little Parmesan. In Sweden, it would be best Vasterbotten cheese. So are you layering this situation right now? Layering the onions and the– MAX SILVESTRI: Swedish lasagna. It is Swedish lasagna.
Now I’m just going to pour in the cream. GAIL SIMMONS: And that’ll thicken it up so you get that rich gooeyness when you bake it, right? Yeah. MAX SILVESTRI: Does that crisp up along the top? It does. And then we’re going to finish with a little bit breadcrumbs.
MAX SILVESTRI: I bet a little bit of that too. And Gail, I’m just add a little butter. GAIL SIMMONS: Good idea. MAX SILVESTRI: It’s only for you to know. I approve. Plug your ears. I approve. MAX SILVESTRI: I want to know how it’s made. This takes about 45 minutes.
And you want it to bubble and cook. And it should look really like a beautiful gratin when it comes out. That’s when you know that’s ready. I’m so excited. It’s Jansson’s temptation time. Look at that. MAX SILVESTRI: How many dots are above the word? Umlauts. It’s all about the umlauts.
Sorry, I call them dots. So potato, cream. MAX SILVESTRI: Oh yeah. Is there any cream in that? So Jansson’s temptation. All right, guys, dig in. I’m not a graceful eater. You just dripped on the floor. Oh my God. That is good. That takes me back to like Christmas right away.
This is the first time I’ve eaten carbs in a long time and I’m happy. I had an ambitious plan. I wanted to combine a couple of different Christmas traditions we have in my house, which is always like a big ham. We do pizzelle cookies, which is this Italian sort
Of thin waffle cookie made with a lot of fennel flavored powdered sugar. And then we really, really like hot, hot mustard in my house. You know, that kind of sinus clearing Chinese-English style of mustard. So I reached out to my friend, Chef David, to see if he could figure out some way
To make a whole dish out of it. And together, we made what I’m calling an Italian smoked pork loin Wellington. When I was thinking about putting the cookies and the ham and the mustard together, I was thinking of possibly wrapping the cookies around our ham. We might do the Wellington.
So I got something that is very close to your ham and I think possibly a little bit better. It is a smoked pork loin. It’s already cured. It’s already smoked. And it has that cylindrical shape that we can wrap the cookies around. It’s rollable. Exactly.
And so here’s how we’re going to incorporate the mustard. I took about a quart of cranberries and a quart of orange juice. I added the mustard to this. So you had the sweet, sour, spicy kick. So we’re going to cover this whole thing in that glaze.
So I’m simply going to take this beautiful paste and we’re going to smear the paste. MAX SILVESTRI: I like you’re smearing wand. Exactly. So we’re just simply going to place this in the warm oven. And really, you’re not going to brown on that. This is just about starting that warming process.
This is just about warming it up because it’s fully cooked, so you have to do is heat it. OK. So all we have to do is just figure out how we’re going to wrap these cookies around. So I was thinking, well, we could soak them in milk. We could do this.
We could do that. Well, waffles are kind of pliable. Yeah. So you’re going to use almost like a pizzelle iron, but make it with waffle dough instead of cookie dough. Exactly. The difference with the two recipes is we just have more liquid to make them a little bit more pliable. MAX SILVESTRI: OK.
So we’re going to do it in an actual pizzelle iron so we get that nice print. So let’s start with the wet ingredients first. We want to mix wet and dry separately. OK. So if you would, please start with the eggs. Then we’re going to mix those guys up.
So if you would, add the milk. And then we have a little bit of bourbon here mixed with a little bit of honey. Fantastic. I’ll finish that off. That sounds great. And then lastly but never leastly, beautiful melted butter, which is going to add fat to this
And keep it nice and pliable as well. Then we’re going to go to our dry ingredients. And I’m going to add our flour, a little baking soda, little salt. And then there’s your anise. And I simply crushed it up with a knife. And as it cooks, it’s going to release those essential oils,
Which will fill this room up with a Christmas aromatic anise extravaganza. That’s awesome. So the next step, we have to take our liquid, and we’re just going to incorporate it in. Now it’s looking like, you know, your pancake batter, waffle batter. And once this is nice and smooth, we’re ready to go.
Waffle time. Just add a little bit of that pizzelle mix. This is going to be extremely thin, just like our cookie. But instead of pressing it, we’re simply just going to leave it a little wet because we’re going to slightly single it. Then you just want to tamper each one into itself.
And we’re going to continue to do that until we have a full sheet tray so that we can roll it around our loin. I’m going to have a tamper tantrums. Tamper tantrum. We have got to pizzelle waffle mania here. So I think just a little bit of waffle glue here. Dough, nature’s glue.
Exactly. So this should help seal the deal. Maybe put some more of that nice beautiful mustard cranberry on there. MAX SILVESTRI: Plop it in. Straight there. So all you have to do is just press as you’re going. So we’re keeping it nice and tight as we’re rolling. Perfect. That looks fabulous.
And let’s just paint this guy up. Butter makes it better. And this is going to help crunch it up, brown it up. And we’re ready to go back in the oven. All right. The show has stopped. Wow. All right, there it is. Let’s try and cut. Moment of truth. Oh yeah! That’s fantastic.
Well done, Chef David. So yeah, this is the Italian pork loin Wellington. I’m so impressed. GAIL SIMMONS: I know. It’s beautiful. Thank you. GAIL SIMMONS: Wow, that is a hefty, hefty portion. The crispiness of the dough is fantastic. This idea is really good. Oh wow, that’s yummy. It looks like a cookied ham.
My God. MAX SILVESTRI: Yeah, right? That mustard. GAIL SIMMONS: Oh yeah. I love that the cranberry sauce is in it. It’s so holiday. The smokiness of that pork is so great with the mustard. And this crust is awesome. Why haven’t we been wrapping everything in pizzelle our whole lives. It’s so good.
The crunchiness of the dough, the pattern. And then the loin has a ham texture too, and that’s where the smokiness comes from. It’s a great dish. Glad you guys like it. Please, sir. Please, sir, may I have some more? [music playing] So we’re here at Mile End Deli, one of my favorite places
To eat Jewish food in New York City. Not actually just Jewish food, but Jewish-Canadian food, which as you know is my people. MAX SILVESTRI: You remind us all the time. All the time. I thought, what better way to share in the holiday spirit than to share our Hanukkah creations
With a true Jewish food authority, Chef Eli from Mile End Deli. So Chef Eli, are you ready? Are you hungry? Yeah, I’m really excited to see what you’ve made for me. So for my ode to favorite Hanukkah food, I wanted to combine my two favorite things–
My mother’s latkes, it’s kind of a potato pancake, and a classic Reuben sandwich. I’m calling it an open faced latke Reuben slider. Anything fried works for Hanukkah because it just goes in with the classic story line. GAIL SIMMONS: Yes. All right. Latke Reuben sandwiches. So we’re going to make my mom’s classic latkes.
Then I’m going to make a special Thousand Island dressing. And I’m going to schmear it on my latke open-faced with some pastrami and green apple slaw, which is an ode to applesauce, which is traditionally what you eat with a latke. I’m making the Thousand Island dressing
Using sour cream, which is what a lot of people also think you should eat with your latke. Wow. So I’m going to make my slaw first. I have shredded cabbage, shredded carrot, shredded celery, a little red onion, and then some shredded green apple. So this dressing has some Dijon mustard, some apple cider
Vinegar, and a little brown sugar. The process is really about letting it sit and marinate in the dressing. The acid from the dressing will soften the vegetables, marinate them together. And then I’m going to toss it up and let it sit while I make my schmear.
You want a little ketchup, a little mustard as well, lemon juice, and a full sour dill pickle. Because pickles, as you know, are very common in Jewish delis and Jewish meals, and pickle relish is often used in Thousand Island dressing. I’m just going to mix it all up.
The tanginess from the dressing pairs really nicely with the salt from the potato latke. Now we’re going to do some frying. Latke time. You say latke. Latke. I mean, it’s an A. But I just say latke. Latke makes it sound like you know something that I don’t. I do. A lot of things.
Which is the feeling I’m always trying to give off. I’m a latke insider. All right. The first step in making my latke. I have potatoes, like baking potatoes, that I’m just going to put right in here. I’m also going to add in some white onion. Adds a little sweetness, you know. All right.
Here it all is. Now I’m going to mix in some all-purpose flour, some baking powder to give the latkes a light airy texture, salt. And I’m going to lightly scramble two eggs and that’s going to bind it all together. And this is where I fold in my mother’s secret ingredient, dill.
It gives a savoriness. I’m telling you, it makes your latke that much better. Now you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty here because this is where the magic really happens. You want to squeeze it out a little bit, pack it down, slide it in.
Now you’re going to know that they’re ready when the sort of wild straggly bits around the end start to really get golden. It’s pretty quick. That’s your cue to look at them and flip them over. OK. Latkes are coming out. A little salt on top.
And you want to salt them when there’s still a little bit wet with oil so the salt sticks to them. You want to just let them sit for a minute or two. I’m starting with a little of that sour cream dressing. And to this I’m going to add very thinly sliced, moderately
Thinly sliced pastrami. And then we’re going to top it with just a little bit of this slaw. All right. Ready for some sliders? MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yeah. GAIL SIMMONS: Wrap it up, boys. I hope you enjoy. I love this. This is so good.
What do you think your mom would think if you made these for her? My mom would do this. She’d taste it and she’d say, so interesting. So interesting. I think the coolest thing is when Gail makes this, she’s like a latke machine. It’s like you’re watching someone doing something completely flawless
And done it a thousand times. Boom, boom. Squeeze the juice out, fry it. Boom. I’m like a latke ninja. That was very impressive. It’s super delicious. This slaw is really fresh and kind of cuts through the fattiness of the meat and the latke. Helps, right? Yeah, totally. All right, Eli.
What have we got? So this is just a Brussels sprouts fritter. I have a little bit of sour cream dip and then just a sweet soy. It totally works for Hanukkah. So for my Hanukkah dish, I’m going to make Brussels sprouts fritters. Making a fritter is perfect.
That is right on point with the Hanukkah situation. So for my dip, I got a little bit of sour cream, got a little mayo. This is for your dip here? For my dip, absolutely. And you can do it all Mayo, but I think that the sour cream sort of matches.
Well, not only does it match, but I have to tell you, sour cream is traditionally what you serve on a latke. Because it is so good. All right, a couple of sort of fun ingredients here that I love. Aleppo. That chilli pepper is becoming so popular.
It’s kind of a lemony tangy flavor, Aleppo pepper, right? It is. It’s not overpowering. I love this ingredient here. Kecap Manis. It’s a sweet soy. Kecap Manis actually came from Indonesia. It’s also where we got the word ketchup from. Sure. It’s so syrupy. So it gives you sweet and salt.
Then I’m going to add in a little bit of lime juice. A little bit of dill, got to bring it back to Sweden. I have to. I know, I know. No, I was going to applaud you because dill is another really important ingredient to the Jews because of our Eastern European ancestry.
So you are seriously super Jew. You’re super Heb. I’ll take it. So this is the dip sauce. And I’m going to start with the fritter itself. So starting with a little bit of flour and egg. GAIL SIMMONS: And that mixture is going to bind the rest of the ingredients together, right? Yeah.
And then obviously the Brussels sprout. Feta. MAX SILVESTRI: Love that. Such a smart thing. It’s sour, tart. A little bit of scallion and arugula. I’m just going to give that a little stir. And then ready to fry. All right. I’m frying it on sort of medium heat
Because you want some of the vegetables and the rest of us to stay green. They can easily go gray. And also, you don’t want to burn. So you want to cook them through. GAIL SIMMONS: This looks very manageable though actually. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: It is. It is. It can be Twitter and fry fritters.
GAIL SIMMONS: Twitters and fritters. That is our new concept. MAX SILVESTRI: Twitter.com. All right. So look at these guys. Oh man. Nice. One thing you want to do now is do you want to season them right away. So the salt or the Aleppo, whatever you put on top
Actually gets in there and picks up all the beautiful seasoning. And now you know, I just got to squeeze a little bit of fresh citrus on top. This Kecap Manis sauce is so easy and delicious. And now let’s just like dip, dunk, and try how these fritters came out. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah.
All right. That’s all you, my man. Thank you. So this is just a fun fritter with the oil. Just getting something crunchy and a little bit greasy. They’re delicious. Anything fried works for Hanukkah. It just goes in with the classic story line.
And it’s salty and sweet and I love the sauce at the end. These are awesome. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Thank you. I think that people would be into all of your interpretations of the Hanukkah classics. Happy Hanukkah, guys. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah. GAIL SIMMONS: Thank you so much. MAX SILVESTRI: Thank you very much, Eli.
[music playing] Did you guys have a Christmas tree growing up? Yeah. We, I mean, Christmas tree was like the most exciting part. It meant the holiday season was starting. Have you actually gone to the wood to cut down a tree? No, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Christmas tree field.
Well, let’s do it this year. It’s beautiful here. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Love it. All right, let’s do this. Marcus, you hold. And Gail, you lift. And I’ll cut. Ready? Ready? Is that good? Can you get in there? I can get in there. That’s my leg, Max. Oh.
GAIL SIMMONS: We’re going to be here a while. I want to– no, I want to help. Max. Yes. Yes. That’s a great idea. Yes. [cheering] Did we get it? That was genuinely hard work. I feel like I could use a drink. We knew that this would be a hard job.
And we wanted to bring you something hot to drink. I brought you some of my dad’s famous hot chocolate, but with bourbon spiked marshmallows. Wow. That sounds great. How about we put this tree down and I drink your drink. Yeah. Nice. So I’m going to make some classic simple hot chocolate.
But to go with it, I’m going to make bourbon spiked marshmallows. I love that idea. So to start making a marshmallow. I have some powdered gelatin because you need it to come together. And I’m going to blooming in my mixer with a little bit of water and said bourbon.
Meanwhile, I’m going to start making the marshmallow mixture. So I have some water, sugar– A little bit of sugar. –and corn syrup. The good stuff. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: The good stuff. So I’m warming it through. I’m going to let it cook up to 240 degrees and then just let it sit.
Almost like you’re making caramel, but you’re never going to get it hot enough that it starts to take color. You want to keep it that clear, white, pure color. So now I’m going to pour my corn starch and sugar mixture into my bourbon and gelatin mixture. And then I’m going to whisk away.
And you’re going to let this go for about 10 minutes. And you’re going to see that it’s going to slowly get white and fluffy and voluminous. Air is going to be beat into it. And the reaction of the corn syrup and the sugar and the gelatin is going
To make what we know as marshmallows. OK. So we’re done. I’ve sprayed my sheet tray with cooking spray and then dusted it heavily with cornstarch because when it gets on things, it gets everywhere, and it is not easy to get off. I mean, it’s like Spidey.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: This has a lot of alcohol in. GAIL SIMMONS: It does. This is like a night out. Thank you. You play with that. I love this. It’s literally like glue. Here we go. Really got to get your elbow into it. All right. So. I’m stuck.
So now I have a mixture equal parts sugar and corn starch. And I’m just going to really thoroughly spread it all over to prevent stickiness. Now this is going to sit out in a cool place for about four hours. And when it’s done, it’ll be set and ready to cut into marshmallow shapes.
Can’t wait. GAIL SIMMONS: So we have our marshmallow. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Wow, love it. And I have these traditional little Christmas cookie cutters. We can make gingerbread shapes. This is your way to make sure that Santa gets a little booze? GAIL SIMMONS: It’s my way of making sure Max gets a little booze. Yeah.
All right, now let’s make some hot chocolate. So I’m using whole milk. You want to bring it just before a boil. You don’t want to burn your milk. And then I’m going to melt in some really good quality bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate. I prefer a 70% chocolate because it has more actual chocolate,
More cocoa in it. So I’m just going to slowly whisk all the chocolate in and let it melt. All right, you want to make sure it’s hot enough because hot chocolate, not as good when it’s actually not hot chocolate. Rumor has it. GAIL SIMMONS: Little bourbon spiked marshmallows.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Wow, they look great. It’s hot. Blow on it. It’s delicious. It’s super delicious. And this way, when the, when the marshmallow melts, you get some of that bourbon flavor just seeping into the hot chocolate. The bourbon is really delicious. And sometimes when you drink a hot chocolate, you want some,
You want it to be spiked. Yes. You’re right. As it’s melting into your– it’s fantastic. Max, you did such a good job. Thank you. Free mug. I got some Swedish glogg for you. I think I got enough for the two of us. Sorry, Gail. So Gail, I love this drink glogg.
It’s red wine, port wine, some infused vodka with Christmas spices. Three alcohols? Three alcohols. And I think it explains sort of Scandinavia a lot. We don’t have a wine culture. We have a vodka culture. So we just take basically all the booze and wine that you have.
You put it in to one pot. You warm it up because it’s always cold. And then you take these spices that are so familiar to us, and that’s our drink. OK. So how do you make it? So you need essentially aquavit like infused vodka. You can have lots of vodka into it
Or you can have a little bit. Which is nice because you– Spike it up. What are you infusing it with? So all the spices for Swedish Christmas. One or two cinnamon sticks, ginger, a little bit of cloves, and then the cardamom. Oh, I love cardamom.
And I’m going to put a little bit of orange zest in there too. How long does this have to sit? It gives it minimum overnight. And guess what? You have aquavit. So we’re going to strain this. Look at the color that it picks up from the orange.
GAIL SIMMONS: And from the clove and cardamom. All right. So I put a pot on. Just going to pour in some red wine. Don’t use a fancy red wine. GAIL SIMMONS: Because of that? MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Right. GAIL SIMMONS: That was dramatic. And then I’m going to add a little port wine.
I like your style. It’s sangria for the cold people. That’s right. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: And then look what I have here. GAIL SIMMONS: Vanilla bean and sugar? MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yeah. GAIL SIMMONS: So that’s going to round out those spices and make this a little bit sweet and syrupy.
And the same flavor I had in the vodka, I’m going to put back in here. A little bit of cinnamon, cardamom. You know the spices. You know the drill by now. GAIL SIMMONS: I’m working it. Look at me passing you ingredients. There you go. GAIL SIMMONS: Right in there. Put it in.
And the other fun thing with glogg– in the mug, you should always have with raisins. And the raisins are so good once the alcohol and the red wine is on top. And then toasted almonds. Then I’m going to add back in citrus.
And I like to put just one stick cinnamon, just like this. You can easily take it out. I’m just going to pour in a little bit of the infused vodka. And here’s really the opportunity when you can make it as, you know, as– GAIL SIMMONS: As serious as you need it. Right.
I’m going add in wine here. And that, Ms. Gail, that’s glogg. That’s so good. It’s nice, right? Really. I thought it was just going to be mulled wine. It’s got so much more going on. And that is vodka, you said? Vodka, infused vodka. Then you have the cherries and the almonds.
So it’s almost a snack as well. It’s very multipurpose, this drink. Well, thank you, guys. I feel reinvigorated after the brutal slog that was taking down that Christmas tree. So thank you for the drinks. Same place next year? Yeah. To the holidays. Happy holidays. [music – “joy to the world”]
(SINGING) And wonders of his love. And wonders of his love. And wonders, wonders of his love. [applause] What are some of your favorite holiday traditions, Max? You know, we had a lot. I would say my favorite probably– every Christmas Eve, we as a family would read “The Night Before Christmas”
Out loud, and then we would put out cookies and milk for Santa. Marcus, you are a great chef, and I am very interested to see what you would do with that tradition. And luckily, Santa is an old close friend of mine, so we were able to actually see what he actually
Thinks about what you do. Santa, very good to see you. It’s been a long time. Yeah. When you make your journey, a lot of snacks along the way. Oh, yeah. I need them. Right? I mean, you’re burning a lot of calories. I spend a lot of energy and I need calories.
It’s like an athlete you doing the carb build. So Marcus here concocted up some Christmas Eve snacks. OK. If we can, let’s bring out some snacks for you, Santa? Did you just ask a fat man if he wants food? No I was trying to be polite. Marcus, let’s bring out your dessert.
All right. Look what I got. We got like a cookie sandwich. Yeah, with a coffee cream cheese sandwich. So let me tell you about my favorite holiday cookie. I call it Santa’s coffee cream cheese cookie sandwich. So it’s just a regular oatmeal cookie with lots of crunch.
And the filling is actually cream cheese filling. So I have cream cheese, coffee, a little bit of sugar, and just a little bit of milk and lemon zest. So there’s a little bit of sort of lemony flavor with that coffee, the bitterness from the coffee. Super delicious. I love a sandwich cookie.
My favorite kind of cookie. So for the cookie dough, I’m going to add in butter, lots of butter. GAIL SIMMONS: And that’s room temperature butter so it will blend in evenly? Yeah. Lots of sugar. Santa needs that butter energy to get through the whole night. A little bit of vanilla extract.
You could add vanilla bean. Just going to sort of cream this up. And then I’m going to put in the eggs, just one by one. At the same time as you’re doing that, have a little bit of regular flour, some oats. And now this is the actual dry parts of the dough?
That’s for the– This is the dry part. Absolutely. I’m going to add in baking soda, and a little bit of salt, and then this Indian garam masala spice blend. It’s interesting you say that. Never once have I thought of it as Christmassy because I think of it as Indian. Yeah.
You know, it’s like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, all the Christmas spices that you need. You’re right. All right. I’m just mixing in sort of my wet with the dry. GAIL SIMMONS: Mixing them separately really helps everything combine more evenly, right? Exactly. And then here comes the crunch.
I’m just going to add sour dried cherries and nuts, of course. GAIL SIMMONS: And a variety of nuts can be used for this as well, right? Yeah. And then chocolate. So because this has nuts and dried fruit and oatmeal, this is a healthy cookie. I mean, this is basically like a diet cookie.
It’s a morning breakfast cookie. All right. So just use your hands. And you know, cooking with your family, this is the most fun. All right. So these are going to take about 10 minutes, and we’re going to finish off the sandwich. This is a two part cookie. It’s a cookie sandwich.
So the filling. The cream cheese is smooth. GAIL SIMMONS: And the cream cheese filling has a similar sweetness to frosting, but has more stickiness to keep the sandwich together. Yeah. And then I wanted to incorporate something that just has a little bit of bitter but also matches the sweet.
So it matched perfectly for me, lemon and coffee. Just like an espresso shot. Right, this is actually espresso coffee. And that’s what I imagine Santa needs. That’s what I was going to say. Exactly. MAX SILVESTRI: A little bit of that. GAIL SIMMONS: It’s a long night.
So I’m adding just a little bit of powdered sugar. So Gail, I’m going to need your help. You want me to zest for you? Zest. I’d be delighted. I’d be delighted. That’s good. That’s beautiful. That’s great. Good. Good job. So I got my cream cheese filling done.
And now I’m going to finish the cookie. Look at that. You have to be careful. So you know, just in the spirit of winter and snow. GAIL SIMMONS: Gorge. So this is like a famous chef move that you learned at The Chef Institute? TCI? The Institute of Chefs for chefs
Who’d like to know how to chef. So this is the fun part. GAIL SIMMONS: So you’re not piping it, you’re just spreading it. Exactly. You have to eat them almost right away. Don’t put them in the refrigerator because the cream cheese, because there’s cheese in there, they pick up everything
That is in the refrigerator. Right. You don’t want that. GAIL SIMMONS: Both sides? Both sides. When you squeeze down, they’ll pop out. And just boom. GAIL SIMMONS: Santa is going to dig this right out. I feel the power. MAX SILVESTRI: Feel it surging through you? The espresso’s in there. Pulsing through your veins.
You were going to like skip Indiana, but you’re like, no, they’re getting all the presents– [interposing voices] I can actually stay up all night this year. But I like it. Is he going on the list, the good list? Oh, he was. Oh, wow. You had a good year, Marcus. You are good.
[music playing] Sweet baby Jesus, I’m stuffed. My tummy hurts. All right. I hope you saved room for dessert, boys. Who are the dessert boys? What I’ve made for you has its roots in a classic British dessert called the sticky toffee pudding. Oh, nice. All right.
I’m leaving, I’m leaving the Jews behind me for a minute. You can’t do that. I’m making a classic dessert. I put a Christmas twist on it because I love a sticky toffee pudding. It’s a British cake that you pour toffee sauce over and it soaks in like a sponge.
So for the cake batter. We start with dates. Dates are the key to sticky toffee pudding. That’s what makes them sort of sticky and sweet. And I’m just going to cover them with water and warm these through, just to soften them. And then I’m going to puree them up with the liquid.
All right. Dry ingredients, all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, a little bit of salt, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, and some nutmeg. All right. And then I’m going to start with my wet ingredients. I have a stick of butter, cup of brown sugar, dark brown sugar. I’m going to cream that up.
And then I’m going to add my flour. So add it let it mix in a little bit. And then a little bit of orange zest. Why orange zest? Because I thought, wow, that sounds delicious. And then the last step is pouring in my date mix. That is the cake batter. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Nice.
Thanks for helping out, Marcus. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: All right. OK. Cake is ready to bake. So my cake is in the oven at 350 for about 20, 25 minutes. And meanwhile, I’m going to make my toffee sauce. So I have my saucepan. And into it, I’m going to pour cream, a stick of butter,
And a cup of dark brown sugar. So that’s going to melt, reduce, caramelize. All right. I’m going to get my cake out of the oven. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Nice. Don’t help. Don’t get up. Now here’s a trick. While it’s still pretty warm, I’m going to take a skewer
And poke a whole bunch of holes in this cake. That’s where the sticky toffee comes into play. So my sauce is ready to go. I’m just going to be– Nice. That’s great. You can see that it’s already absorbing and dripping right in there. So you let that sit for about 15 minutes,
And then we can eat it. Friends, gingerbread sticky toffee pudding. Oh my gosh. This is heaven. So good. Now where did you come up with this? I love sticky toffee pudding. And I thought, how do you make it even more Christmassy? Because it is actually served around the holidays.
So I added in all of the flavors of gingerbread. Wow, I can definitely taste that zest. See that? See that? Well worth it. It was necessary. It’s so light on the inside. Like, it really– Yeah. It’s gooey, but it’s like really kind of light and flaky and warm and– This is so good.
So for my dessert, I wanted to combine both my American heritage and my Swedish heritage. So I did a black bottom peanut pie. And it has peanuts, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate, and then some Swedish glogg on top of that. It’s going to be crunchy, gooey, and delicious. Check, check, check.
I want it all. That’s Gail’s new tagline. Check, check, check, I want it all. Gail Simmons. All right. This is a delicious peanut pie that is just salty, crunchy, delicious, and packed with calories. Perfect. Perfect, right? So for the filling, I’m going to start with creaming the butter and sugar.
I’ll also add– why not? I’m going to add the salt and the molasses. So we’re just going to let this cream away. And then I’m going to add in my eggs one by one. I also have a little bit of corn syrup. GAIL SIMMONS: Oh, we’re really getting into it now. Yeah.
It’s going to be a really nice sticky toffee mixture that is so delicious. So I’m going to mix my peanuts into the filling. It really does look like a candy bar filling, like that toffee and peanut kind of. It amazing. And it smells that way too.
So you can make a pie crust so many different ways. But easiest one is just take some vanilla wafers, crush them, add a little butter, press them out, bake it for about 10 minutes. And guess what? You have a delicious, beautiful crust. Two ingredients. That’s it.
Then we’re going to get chef and fancy and do a chocolate ganache. So here I got my cream. And I’m going to add in my chocolate. And you just don’t want to melt chocolate straight into the bottom of the pan because it’s going to turn gray.
So bringing up the cream to a boil. Then I turn it off. And then I stir it in like this. So you want to pour this in. And then put it in refrigerate for 30 minutes because you want it to be cool before you bake it. See that? GAIL SIMMONS: Look at that.
Right? So I’m just going to pour the topping in. And this is the reason why you want it to be really nice and cold. Marcus, this is insane. I can’t believe what’s happening right here. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Right? MAX SILVESTRI: Oh wow. 350, 40 minutes. Boom. Be ready. MAX SILVESTRI: Oh my gosh.
GAIL SIMMONS: Beautiful. So I’m going to finish with a little bit of that beautiful Swedish glogg that I like, a little bit of sugar, cinnamon stick, and more peanuts. Kind of mix it up with some whipped cream, and we’re going to serve with both ice cream and whipped cream. This is dangerous.
This is dangerous. This needs a warning on TV. That’s outrageous. Kids, it’s time to eat. GAIL SIMMONS: Thank you, uncle Marcus. MAX SILVESTRI: Thank you, papa Marcus. All right, guys black bottom peanut pie. I love this crust. Oh my goodness. Vanilla wafers, right? And the glogg. Love it.
I have a theory that peanuts should be added to everything. That’s crunchy. It’s good. I love how soft and sticky the cake is, but then you get the crunch of the peanuts. Just, I’ve never had a dessert with like full peanuts in it. It’s always peanut butter. And I love the contrast.
It’s delicious. This would definitely be a nice ending to a giant feast. All I do is happy endings. That’s all I do. Happy endings are his specialty. And boy are his arms tired. All right. Well, that was so much fun. And there are no two people I’d rather spend the holidays
With than the two of you. That’s a total lie. But happy holidays. And may 2015 be your best years yet. Thanks, Gail. This was so much fun. Happy holidays, guys. I had a blast. You guys are definitely my top 10. At least. [inaudible]. For many more holiday shenanigans,
Go to fyi.tv and have yourself a ball. Merry Christmas. [laughs]