Creating A Caviar Bacon Egg & Cheese Sandwich

What I'm really forward to doing with this dish

is spending all of Bon Appetit's money

on one [beep] sandwich. [laughing]

[upbeat music]

What up, what up it's your boy Chef Harold aka Uncle Harold

and today we are dishing out caviar morphing time.

Even though caviar is regularly eaten all over the world

it's still something a lot of people haven't tried.

It's super crazy expensive

and it's usually associated with fine dining cuisine.

And on top of that the thought of eating fish eggs

is not everybody's thing.

Today I'm coming up with a dish

that uses caver in a way that's never been done before

and hopefully helps people see it in a new way.

[cans clunking]

This is caviar.

I think most chefs when they approach

creating a dish with caviar,

it really is a component that should heighten the dish.

It cost so much and it also has such a bold flavor profile

that the caviar should be the star of the dish.

I'm very afraid to do something new with caviar

because I feel like it's such a pure item,

it's such a pure product, it's really kind of a code

you know like, this is caviar,

you use it this way and it's been used this way

for over hundreds of years

but also I want to show some part of a new take

on what caviar dishes should look like.

[upbeat music]

To help me figure out exactly what I should make,

I decided to go talk with someone

who knows a lot more about caviar than I do.

What's everybody, we're here at Russ & Daughters Cafe

with Niki Russ Federman.

And Niki, can you please tell us about caviar

and tell us about Russ & Daughters.

Sure, so Russ & Daughters

has been in my family for 107 years

and we're New York City's premier appetizing shop.

So we specialize in classic, Jewish, New York food.

So think bagels,

[Harold] smoked fish. Right.

[Niki] Herring, Babka, and then of course caviar.

Can you just tell us exactly what caviar is?

So caviar is the roe from a sturgeon fish.

[Harold] Only sturgeon fish?

Only sturgeon.

People take liberties,

so you'll see people say like salmon caviar

or seaweed caviar now,

but truly caviar is just from a sturgeon.

There are different species of sturgeon

and this is one of them.

So this is the Tansmontanus species.

[Harold] Oh! Look at that.

Shit. [beep]

[Niki laughing]

Look at that thing.

And how much would this tin cost?

[Niki] This cost probably, over $3,000.

Why exactly is caviar so expensive?

Well a couple of reasons.

It takes a really long time

for the sturgeon to reproduce.

[Harold] That's right.

Anywhere from seven years up 'til 16 years.

So then there's investment.

It's an investment

and then only half the population obviously,

you know the female fish produce the roe.

Right. So it's a real investment.

It's very perishable, obviously has to be handled

with so much care and it's now,

you have to harvest it all over the world.

When people think about caviar,

they think of it as a high-end, fine dining situation.

Do you think it's a fine dining item?

It is but it doesn't have to be.

People sort of envisage the Russian Tsars eating it,

and that's part of the mystic.

You could have a wonderful caviar experience at home

that doesn't have to break the bank.

So I'm creating a brand new dish with caviar,

what specialty or what kind of flavor profiles

am I looking for when I'm putting a dish together?

Why don't we break open some tins

and then we can taste and talk as we go?

So Harold, I picked up three caviars

that I think are going to show you the range

in flavor profiles, texture, as well as color.

So the first one we're gonna try is paddlefish.

It's still wild and it's in the Mississippi River basin.

Look at that beauty.

You're just gonna wanna take some, not too much,

and you put it right here in kind of the nook of your hand,

nothings gonna stand in our way

between tasting what's happening here.

That is nice.

[Niki] It's nice.

It's fresh.

The beads are a little softer

but they kind of, move around nicely on the pallet.

So what's the rule,

you're supposed to knock 'em

on the top of your tongue correct?

You can knock 'em on top of your tongue.

Some beads are firmer, they roll, they separate more.

Some just kind of melt in a nice way,

this is kind of a melty one.

What else flavorwise, right?

It's a little more intense,

there's a little minerality going on.

So if you're looking for acidity and saltiness,

[Niki] that's gonna be prominent. Yeah.

So what gives the paddlefish it's flavor profile?

Well it's sort of like wine, right, and terroir.

These fish are from the Mississippi River basin

so the foods they're eating, the water quality,

the minerality, all of that, goes into the roe.

The flavor of the paddlefish, stands up really well

if you're using it with other ingredients.

We're going to taste one of my favorite ways to have it,

which is actually on a potato latka.

A little bread of creme fraiche,

you know know with something like latke,

pack on the caviar because, there's a lot going on here.

This is fun because the texture of the potato,

the saltiness of the caviar,

really blends well.

The potato itself is also seasoned very well

and the creme fraiche is just there for

a cooling aspect, a creamy aspect.

Can't go wrong with this pair right?

So the next one is,

this came actually from that OT that we opened up.

Mm, the maximus.

Something like that.

[Harold] The Tansmontanus. Nice.

[Niki] You see how the color is different here?

The beads seem firmer too.

The species Tansmontanus,

these are bigger fish than the paddlefish,

so you're gonna get bigger beads,

[Harold] a little more fattiness. Wow.

This is a mother of pearl spoon, it's a natural material.

What you don't want with caviar is this.

You don't want to have metallic touching the caviar

because it will impart that metallic flavor.

Oh, oh, man!

Whoa that's different. Right.

[Niki] Right in the front. Yeah.

It just wakes you up

and then the salinity stays a little bit

and then the freshness comes toward the end,

[Niki] I love that. Right.

So would you pair this with the same things

you would pair paddlefish with?

My favorite way to have it is buckwheat blinis,

creme fraiche and the caviar.

Oh yeah, you don't hold back. No.

[Niki] I was being a little too precious. [laughing]

Cheers. Cheers.

It kind of actually brings out

the flavor of the caviar, even more.

This trio works together

because you've got the doughiness of the blinis

and then the dairy kind of cuts through

and mellows out some of the salinity

but then lets that kind of unctuousness really come through,

and those three things when they come together.

Magic.

[Niki] Okay, Golden Osetra.

Look at that. Ooh yeah,

they're larger huh?

These are the biggest beads and you have this beautiful

[Harold] golden color. Right.

Which is quite rare and it tends to be a sign

of a very kind of earthy, deep flavor.

Oh my god.

It's a tough day at the office right Harold?

[Harold laughing]

Oh man.

That's smooth.

You just wanna like, lie dow.

That's elegant as [beep]. Right.

It's creamy too.

Super creamy, right.

That's creamy texture too it,

the salt level's not too high, it's controlled.

[Harold] And you. It continues.

Continues, the flavor stays with you.

Yeah, this species, takes around 12 years to produce.

[beep] So it's a big investment.

Yeah.

When the producers presented to me caviar,

I didn't want to do it at first because

I didn't think it would show the respect to the caviar,

you know and it needs to be shown the respect

because people take time, 12 years, seven years,

to put things in a tin.

It's such a pleasure to be able to taste the quality

of these products, you know?

Yeah so after all this, I think I've learned so much

that I can incorporate into my own dish.

I would love for you to come by and try the dish

when we kind of put it together

and would love to hear your option on it.

I would love that,

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

[upbeat music]

So after talking with Niki

I had the opportunity to think about

what I'm gonna do with my dish.

I really enjoyed the paddlefish caviar and the latka

because you would never associate caviar with greasy food

because it's such a high end item

but also, I really like cooking

this kind of high, low, food style

so for people that really are skeptical about trying caviar,

hopefully I can create a dish where they can

attach themselves to it

and make caviar a little bit more approachable.

Yeah so, I'm gonna go ahead and head home,

sleep on this and then come back

and let you know what kind of dish I came up with.

[upbeat music]

After a day hanging out at Russ & Daughters with Niki

I decided to make a New York classic,

with our own spin on it, a caviar bacon, egg and cheese.

Once I tasted the latka with a little bit of creme fraiche

and the paddlefish caviar on there,

that really gave me an idea of

kind of the nuances of caviar but also the same time

it can be super nostalgic.

The bacon, egg and cheese,

kind of shares that greasiness

also shares that nostalgic feel.

When I was eating the latka, you can really taste the caviar

so my main goal with creating

this bacon, egg and cheese is

to always, always showcase the caviar

but also still have that greasy feeling,

kind of that home feeling while you're eating

a bacon, egg and cheese.

We're gonna substitute bacon with salmon bacon,

we're also gonna make our own remoulade with caviar in it,

we're also gonna make our own kaiser roll

and inside the kaiser roll

we're gonna put some caviar in it too,

I know it's a little crazy

but we're gonna put caviar in it too

and then the topping of the kaiser roll

is also a little bit more caviar.

So it's gonna be caviar on caviar man,

you're gonna see it all.

[upbeat music]

Yeah to start off, we're gonna go ahead

and create our kaiser roll.

The kaiser roll is such a famous roll here in New York,

every bodega has this roll and we create

all our bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches with it.

So first, we're gonna have this great new product,

that's powdered, dehydrated caviar.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna pulse it,

we're gonna put this right into

our mixer of our dough, okay.

Pulse it once, wait.

You wanna pulse it again, then that's it.

I still wanna kind of see it inside the dough

and I want it to have that corse kind of look to it.

All right, so next we're gonna take our instant yeast.

Some sugar, some salt, just go ahead and mix it

with the AP flour.

And then we're gonna go ahead and pour it in

to our mixing bowl.

One egg.

Take half of it, we're gonna save the other half

for the egg wash later, a little butter in here also.

One third cup of water.

Go slow.

Let it incorporate a little bit.

[mixer whirling]

All right awesome, now you can tell that it's ready

is when it comes off of the side of the bowl,

just comes of easily, just like that.

And you can see all the speckles from the caviar.

After you put the dough right into this bowl it's greased.

You're gonna add a little towel right over the top

and you let it proof in a warm place

for about an hour and a half.

What happens when dough proofs is it doubles,

the yeast gets activated

and it also makes the inside a little bit more softer

and a little bit more airy.

So I'm gonna go ahead and punch it down.

The punching helps it bring it down to its original size

and then we're gonna portion it from here.

So cut it right in half.

This is gonna be two rolls, two nice rolls.

And then what we're gonna do next is,

gonna go ahead and stamp it,

with the kaiser roll cut on top.

We're gonna go ahead and double proof these things,

put in a warm place for about an hour

and then we'll come back to it.

All right, now what we're gonna do next is

we have a little bit of the caviar powder left,

we're gonna add this on top.

And first we're gonna egg wash the whole dough itself,

it's gonna really caramelize

and create the nice golden brown color

that you're looking for.

So this is gonna be crispy on the outside,

fluffy on the inside.

Just like me.

So next I'm gonna put some of these dehydrated caviar

on top of this kaiser roll

to really kind of replicate the poppy seed look

but also at the same time

it's gonna push into the dough

and create that nice extra crunch and textures

that you're gonna need.

So now we're gonna put it in the oven

for 425 degrees at 15 minutes.

Wow!

Look how beautifully these things came out.

Golden brown, proofed really nice.

The poppy seeds that are caviar stayed on

and they look great right on top of this thing.

I like the way that it looks,

that it makes it look like a roll that you've seen before

in the grocery stores or in the bodega but it's not.

So next we're gonna create the remoulade,

it's usually used for a lot of po'boys and stuff like that,

creole section of the South.

Since I'm using salmon bacon for this dish

I think the remoulade will really go well with that.

I like to, like smash garlic to open it up.

And we're gonna go ahead and just mince this.

I'm gonna just crush it a little more.

[upbeat music]

Next we're gonna go ahead and put in our mayo,

horseradish, pickle juice

and a little bit of that smokiness,

Cajun seasoning okay, pepper.

Little bit of salt, couple dashes of Tabasco.

And gonna mix this first.

This is a little bit reminiscent of the creme fraiche

but has fattiness, a little bit of acidity to it

and we're gonna use the caviar as a seasoning agent

for the whole thing.

I decide to go with the paddlefish

even though it is the least expensive one

from that three that we tasted yesterday,

I think this is the most approachable

and also it really was strong

and that's what you kind of need with this dish,

when you make that first bite,

you want it to be a pop, right into your mouth

when you bite into it, so that's why I chose the paddlefish.

Like I said, you wanna treat this with respect okay,

you don't wanna mush it,

you wanna like fold it.

Taste.

Oh, that [beep] worked. [laughing]

The remoulade flavor isn't right in front, right?

But then the caviar, the sea, the saltiness

is right in the back.

This thing is gonna crate the layers that you need

to really create a great sandwich.

[upbeat music]

Now it's time to put the whole sandwich together.

Oof, look at this, how beautiful this thing looks.

All right so we're gonna go ahead

and put some butter on the pan here.

Oh yeah, gonna go ahead and toast our kaiser roll

and the four pieces of salmon bacon per sandwich.

This salmon bacon is made in Alaska

and it look like, they emulsified some salmon meat

and put some fat in it and smoked it and cured it.

It doesn't have the fattiness with regular bacon

but it does pull forward the seafood taste

that you need with this dish.

We're gonna do a three egg situation here

for this sandwich.

Ah we're gonna go ahead and take our salmon bacon off

add a little bit of chives,

gonna go ahead and put some cheese there.

What I'm gonna do first is,

put banana ketchup in the bottom of the bun,

go edge to edge right, it's key.

Just to cover it like that.

And then, remoulade.

That looks good.

Right next we're gonna go ahead and put our salmon bacon.

Our eggs. [laughing]

Oh shoot, it's okay that it's messy,

it's the style that we do here in New York.

All right, and then next,

gonna go ahead and put our caviar in.

Yeah buddy, go ahead and close it.

Yeah, so that's what you call

a bacon, egg and cheese right there.

[upbeat music]

That's clean.

Oh man, look at that thing. [laughing]

You can literally see the [beep] caviar right there.

It's just oozing out.

Oh man, messy sandwich.

Wow.

Caviar is definitely prominent.

It's not like the caviar is hiding behind something

or it's getting muddled by something else,

it's the main attraction of this whole dish.

Even the bread itself, you can taste the caviar in that,

like that oceany, salinity kind of flavor profile.

The one thing that you can't really get around

is the caviar is gonna be expensive,

so if you do something like this,

it should be for a special occasion.

You know the day after New Years,

a great hung over sandwich in the morning

and you wanna feel still decadent from the night before,

definitely do a salmon, bacon, egg and cheese

with caviar in the morning.

This is for you.

Oh my god Harold.

Look at this, the layers here, and the caviar,

it's like a rainbow in here.

[Harold] Yeah. Gorgeous.

Appreciate it.

And then, what is this on top?

Those are all dehydrated caviar

and we just cooked it on top. [laughing]

That's so dope.

So it's caviar everywhere.

That's brilliant.

Go ahead and take bite.

It's easier said than done.

Go in the corner.

What's my strategy?

[Harold] The corner situation, the corner situation.

Okay I'm going on the corner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's so good. Yeah?

You know looking at it, I thought it was gonna be

really more like just in your face, over the top,

but it's not, it's actually really delicate

and the paddlefish was a great choice on your part,

'cause I taste the caviar

but I also feel like I'm having these different layers

come through, this is just fun.

It takes away any pretension.

That shouldn't be there in the first place, honestly.

Sure, I'm glad you like it.

We had different ideas too.

I actually love it.

Wherever you put this on the menu

I'm gonna come and eat it. [Harold laughing]

Or I'm gonna put it on my menu.

At Russ & Daughters. [laughing]

All right like we always say, Bon Appetit,

never forget where you come from

otherwise you become a [beep] asshole.

South Bronx all day, you already know, peace.