Guy's Big Bite (2006–…): Season 19, Episode 10 - Wham Bam Thank You Lamb - full transcript

Holidays are all about
tradition, you know?

Now, Thanksgiving tradition,
what is it?

Well, the one main thing is
we have a huge feast,

but the tradition is kind of
the fact that we don't really

have any traditions--
it usually just involves

me cooking for all
my friends and family,

and that's what
we got this year,

starting off with my balsamic
braised leg of lamb,

cooked in a pressure cooker
for maximum tenderness,

served with a rich,
tangy balsamic glaze--

oh, you're gonna love it.



Now, to go alongside,
how about sweet potato gnocchi

in a parmesan butter sauce?

Oh, you're definitely coming
back for seconds on this,

and to round it all out,
I'll whip up some peas

and prosciutto,
a little lemon zest,
a little chile flake.

Super simple,
but everybody loves this.

Sweet potatoes gotta chill out
here for a little bit,

because they're a little
hot to the touch,

and that's gonna come
together for the gnocchi.

Just...wow, I don't even wanna
start you on that.

Let's talk about this balsamic
braised leg of lamb.

So pressure cooker, you know,
it's one of my favorite
utensils to use,

and I've got this screamin' hot
stove out here,

but you don't need
a really hot stove.



All you need is
a pressure cooker that
can handle everything.

So get some heat goin'.

Little bit of olive oil,

and let's talk about
leg of lamb.

I remember when I was a kid,
my dad cooked leg of lamb.

Took the whole leg,
hoof and all,

stuffed it with garlic,
roasted it on the barbecue,

and I just remember askin'
my friends at school,

"So what'd you have
for Thanksgiving?"

And everybody said, "Well,
we had the turkey and so far."

I said, "We had leg of lamb."

People just looked at me
cross-eyed, but that's just
the way it's always been.

So for the leg of lamb,
we're talkin' about
a whole leg of lamb.

Had the butcher bone it out,
but I kept the bone.

It's nice and trim,
not too much fat on it.

Liberal with
the salt and pepper.

Fresh cracked black pepper.

Now the key was to really
sear off the lamb.

I only did two pieces at a time
to build a really nice crust.

We'll drop those in.

Takes a little bit of time,
didn't pre-flour that.

Remember, I want that crust
to build on the meat.

So we'll turn that
a few times, okay?
Let me wash my hands.

Okay.
Now to the gnocchi.

So great thing about
sweet potatoes is, well,

people get them mixed up
all the time.

Is it a yam?
Is it a sweet potato?

Well, we're talkin' about
the sweet potato, a little
less starchy than the yam.

So the idea here is cook
these off ahead of time,

or maybe you have
some left over.

We're gonna get 'em cool
to the touch,

just to where we can kinda
handle them a little bit.

Poked some holes in 'em,
roasted 'em off in the oven,

just the normal way you'd
cook 'em, and look at that.

Look at that beautiful color,
huh?

Take this...

into the bowl.

Some grated parm.

Maybe about 1 cup.

A little olive oil,

a couple tablespoons of that.

A little brown sugar--
I know that we have

the sweetness of
the sweet potato goin' on,

but a little brown sugar
will go a long way.

A little salt and pepper,
there we go.

And here's where
we really start adding

the subtle flavor,
but the flavor that
everybody'll go, like, "Why?

Why does this gnocchi taste
so fantastic?"

It's this--we're gonna
use a little thyme,
a little fresh thyme.

So a little bit of thyme,

and last but not least,

you say holidays,
what do you think?
You think nutmeg.

Okay, lock that down.

Let that slowly whip together
there for a second.

Turn it up.

We're gonna really
let that fluff up.

We're really gonna put a lot of
air into that and aerate it.

It's gonna be nice and--that'll
help it get nice and creamy,

'cause remember, on a gnocchi,
you don't want those dense,

little hard pillows--you want it
to be nice, light, and fluffy.

All right, back over here.

Lamb's got a nice sear to it.

To the other side.

Okay.

Take the bling off.

There we go.

Now this right here looks like
pumpkin pie filling,

just in the savory sense.

Bring this off.

Need a little bench flour here.

Now, I was gonna be using maybe
up to 2 cups of flour for this,

but we're really gonna be
looking for what the texture

of this is gonna look like.

We want it to be
a little bit pliable.

Seems like a little now,
but there's a ton
of flavor in that.

Again, just the opportunity
to repurpose that sweet potato.

Could've been left over--
you know how you have

the big Thanksgiving party
the night before?

Well, the great thing is,
you can cook off
those sweet potatoes,

had 'em done and ready to go,
just one less thing

that you have to cook on
that actual big turkey day.

All right.

There we go.

Need a little more flour...

right up on top of that.

Lightly start putting it
together.

Oh, this is perfect.

Okay, so here's the game plan.

Still searing off the lamb.

Don't worry, the balsamic part's
coming in just a little bit.

What I'm gonna do is continue
to add flour to this.

Knead this dough through,
get it into a floured bowl,

and let it rest for about
30 minutes, you come back,

it's, uh, Thanksgiving day
at the Fieri house,

uh, at the ranch,
you're gonna love this.

I needed more flour,
and now the hands are
already gummy.

Can you give me a hand?
I'll get it.

Welcome back--
Thanksgiving at the ranch.

I'll tell ya something--
making gnocchi,

it takes a lot of time--well,
it doesn't take a lot of time,
it takes patience,

because you're working with
something really super delicate,

so what I've got here is some
sweet potatoes I cooked
ahead of time,

made this fantastic little
mixture with a little bit
of thyme,

a lot of parmesan cheese,
and some olive oil,

and now I'm just lightly
kneading in the flour.

It's not an exact science,
because I don't know how
many sweet potatoes

I'm gonna have and how wet
they're going to be,

so I'm just working them enough,
just to where they're not tacky,

and I'm gonna be able to start
to roll them out to make

those little dumplings--
now, over there,

you hear sizzling and popping
going on for a good reason,
because that's going to be--

well, this is
the non-traditional

Thanksgiving here at the house,
and that is going to be

a balsamic-braised leg of lamb,

and I think that just
covers that.

Okay.

This...

a touch of flour
inside the bowl,

pick that up,
let it just rest here

for just, ah,
maybe about 30 minutes.

And bones out of the oven.

Now, I had this--

I had this fantastic
leg of lamb

that I had the butcher go
and break down for me.

What I had him do is take it
and just really nicely--

he just opened it up,
took the leg out,

gave me all the meat,
trimmed a little bit of the fat,

and that's what's
taking place over here,

as I've got this leg of lamb
that I've been searing off.

Look at that--look at the nice
caramelization and crunch.

I couldn't fit the bone
in there.

I mean, I'm going to fit
the bone in there,
but I couldn't really

get the roast on it,
so throw it in the oven,

regular oven, wood-fired oven,
doesn't matter.

Okay, now we get into
this balsamic braised...

Little bit of jalapeno--
it just--we're gonna go with

a nice rough cut.

All these veggies,
because we're gonna
strain this out later.

Red bell pepper.

The real key is coming up here
in just a second,

and that's gonna be
the balsamic.

There we go.

A little bit of onion.

This could all be done
ahead of time also.

A little fennel.

Fennel goes in this
really great.

Think about mixin'
that balsamic...

Okay.

A little chopped garlic.

Don't wanna chop it down
too much, 'cause they've gotta

survive in this pot
and not burn.

We're gonna let this all
sweat right now.

I'm gonna bring the heat up
just a touch.

One of my favorite things
to work with in the kitchen

is the pressure cooker,

so what I've done here is
gotten a leg of lamb,

had it boned out,
and cooked it down

with this really nice
balsamic reduction.

We start with some tomato paste,
1/2 cup,

a little molasses--
that's the real kicker.

Maybe 2 tablespoons--
one...

two.

Some beef stock--

1 quart, low sodium.

Remember, we seasoned--
liberally, we seasoned
that lamb.

And, of course,
some balsamic vinegar.

This is flavor city
right here, folks.

Okay, about 2 cups of that.

And then drop the meat

back in
with all the aromatics,

with all that big flavor,
and so now,

back in, nestle all of
these inside.

You gotta be conscious of this--
if you're gonna go to the top,

you only can go
about 3/4 of the way,

and then I'm gonna throw
the bones right in there

for good flavor on top of it.

We will lock
the pressure cooker down.

Okay, now here's
the key to this.

Every pressure cooker's
different, get to know
your pressure cooker.

Become friends with
your pressure cooker,

because here's what happens--
we're gonna get this up

to about 15psi,
and that's the perfect time--

perfect pressure to cook it
with, and about medium heat,

about 45 minutes, gonna be
super shred-apart tender.

Come back, gonna do gnocchi,
I'll clean all this up.

We're having the un-traditional
traditional Thanksgiving

at the Fieri house--
see you in a bit.

Welcome back to
the un-traditional Thanksgiving.

Ah, listen, this is where
it should be a tradition,

because this dish is outrageous.

So what I'm doing is I've taken
a little prosciutto,

and I'm gonna crisp it up here,
and this is one of

my favorite Italian dishes.

You take the prosciutto,
which everybody loves
prosciutto,

but not a lot of people
have had it cooked.

So you slice it thin and then
cut some julienne strips of it

and cook that down,
you get this really nice,

salty, almost crunchy
like bacon.

Get that in...

Let me get...
the shallots in.

There we go, and we'll just let
this mellow out for a second.

What I have here
is the star of the show,

and it's the lamb--
now the lamb's been in

the pressure cooker
for, oh, I don't know,

about 45 minutes--
big, beautiful leg of lamb.

Had the local butcher take it,

debone it for me.

Now I've got it in the pressure
cooker with a little molasses,

some beef broth, we've got...

a little balsamic--
actually, a lot of balsamic.

Now you see what I just did
right there?

I've been braising that.
First I seared it off,
a little salt, pepper,

seared it off with a little
olive oil, I've got jalapenos

and some onions
and some bell pepper,
some fennel.

Oh, the fennel and the balsamic
go together great,
but what I did is

I just dropped it in here,
and cooling down the temperature

and releasing the steam,
I'm gonna be able
to open this up

a lot quicker than I would
normally be able to if I just

released the steam on the stove.

You hear that?
Aw, it's fantastic.

Best trick in the world,
'cause a lot of times,

you're sittin' there, waitin'
for it to just kinda decompress

before you can get it to open,
so let's see...

let's see if we're
successful with it.

Voila, so you took it
from super screamin' hot

at 15 pounds per square inch,
the normal temp--

the normal pressure
that you'd be cooking
in a pressure cooker with--

and brought it down that quick
by the ice bath.

Okay.

So here's that leg of lamb.

And when I say

fall-apart tender,
I can barely get it out.

Have to bring this over here.

Oh, just gorgeous.

Now, I even took the bones,
the leg bone,

and roasted it off.

Oh! This is exactly
what we're talkin' about.

All kinds of flavor built
into the bottom of this.

Get the last little bits here,

and all that marrow inside
the legs, you know that's where

the flavor's comin' from, okay.

Let me hold this off
to the side.

There.

Another pan,
gonna strain the liquid now.

You really gotta remember
that little technique

that I was just showing you
about throwing it
in the ice bath.

I tell ya, I've watched so many
people sit there, I was like,

is the pressure cooker done?
Is it done? Is it done?

That way right there,
we did it in literally seconds.

Okay.

The last little bit of
the braising liquid.

Perfect.

And back onto the stove.
Okay.

Now back to where we were.

The shallots, cookin' down
with the prosciutto.

If I threw the garlic in there
when I put the shallots in,

you're gonna have
that opportunity
for it to go and burn,

so now that I'm back to paying
attention to it...

throw my garlic in.

Touch more of the extra virgin
olive oil.

The flavor alone right here--
let me throw some heat on that,

reduce it just a bit more.

But look at the viscosity
of that.

Just a little bit of oil there,
but all that fat cookin' down

from that leg of lamb...

A little chile flake.

And I don't care if it's
Thanksgiving or not,

you are gonna try this pea
recipe, 'cause you know how

prosciutto has that real
distinct flavor to it?

The saltiness,
the rich meat flavor?

You do that,
and then you drop--you drop...

Now, if you can get some
fresh peas, go with it,

but this time of year,
you can't.

Frozen peas.
I'm not a canned pea guy.

They're too mushy--frozen peas,
they're kinda frozen

at the moment of ripeness.

Right in...aw, yeah.

Everybody in my family
loves this dish.

Okay.

And all really
I'm going to do on these

is just warm 'em up,
'cause I've cooked the garlic,

cooked the shallots,
got the crispy prosciutto.

Let it be.

Now, second star,
the co-host of the show,

is this fantastic gnocchi.

We throw a little
bench flour down.

Now, if you remember, the way
I started things off is I had

some leftover sweet potatoes,

and if you don't, cook 'em
and then just let 'em cool.

So I took the sweet potatoes,
hit 'em with some
parmesan cheese,

some olive oil,
some fresh thyme,

kneaded it in
a little bit of the flour,

and then I let it rest there
in a floured bowl.

Now, cut off a manageable piece,

a little bit of flour,
and what we're lookin' for--

let me just kinda show you
the doughiness of this.

It's kinda tender
like a pillow.

Not dense, not hard--
for the size that it is,

it's really kinda nice
and light, kinda feels like

it might be a pastry,
so I'm just gonna

lightly roll this out.
There we go.

A little bit more manageable
piece to work with.

Uniform size
so they cook equally.

Okay? And we'll just knock off

little 1-inch pieces.

There we go.

About 1 tablespoon of salt
to a gallon of water.

Remember that,
and you definitely
need it with the gnocchi.

Start droppin' these little
dumplings down.

When they float,
they're gonna be done.

We're gonna work 'em in batches,
pull 'em out, let 'em cool.

It's all comin' together.
The meat's done, shred that.

Got the peas over here
with the prosciutto.

Reducing the glaze mixture.
Huh.

Un-traditional, but definitely
will be a tradition

at your family, I bet--
I'll see you in a little bit.

We'll tie this all up.

That's how I want 'em done.

Beautiful gnocchi,
sweet potato gnocchi

with a little bit of thyme
and parmesan cheese,

all comin' together for
the traditional un-traditional,

uh, items that we make here at
the Fieri house, at the ranch,

for Thanksgiving--
now look at those.

A little bit of saltwater,
took the sweet potato,

mixed up the parmesan cheese,
gonna let these rest
for just a second.

Got some of that braising liquid
reduced for the fantastic lamb

sitting down there--here's
the peas and the prosciutto.

This is what happens
all the time, people pick
all the prosciutto

right out of the top.
Fantastic.

Now, let me tell you
about this one thing

I gotta do, gotta hit
a little lemon zest

right on top of the peas
and prosciutto.

Nice and salty.

Frozen peas, wish that they were
fresh, but they're really--

frozen's way better
than the can.

A little bit of chile flake
in there, and this little
lemon zest

at the end, just...
adds that

nice little citrus note--
not the citrus, but just

that lemony oil...okay.

Gnocchi, I'm just lettin' 'em
cool for a second.

Over here, I've got
a little brown butter.

So what I did is I started
a pan--I'm gonna fire it
back up now--

I started a cold pan,
dropped the butter in there,

and then slowly let it brown.

If you drop the butter
into a hot pan,

automatically starts to brown,
automatically starts

to turn on you, and then
you're chasing it down.

So this right here,
I've got it rendered down,

I got a bunch of heat on it,

get it right to the brown butter
look that I'm lookin' for.

It's gettin' nice
and golden, okay.

Gets that little
nuttiness to it.

Now we'll go ahead...

drop this in,

and just giving these a chance
to cool down a little bit,

just to dry out the touch.

The thyme in there,
and all we're gonna do

is just coat this a little bit.

I gotta grab
some parmesan cheese.

Okay, let that coat
up a little bit.

A little more heat
on that braising liquid.

A little parm on top of that,
and that's all she wrote.

They're already nice
and warm, okay.

Now...

bring this over to the lamb.

So I've got that balsamic--
the balsamic braised lamb

that I took the leg of lamb,
had it boned out,

kept the bone,
roasted that in the oven,

then took the lamb, seared it
off in the pressure cooker,

hit it with a bunch of veggies,
got some peppers
and some fennel.

Gotta love that in there.

Then went with some onions
and some garlic, little bit of

the jalapeno, then came in
with the balsamic, of course,

that's the name,
but the key little hid--

the little bit hiding
in there is the molasses.

Oh! Of course,
some beef stock made it in.

There's that tender,
pillowy gnocchi.

Last little bit.

Some of the brown butter.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Spoon that right over the top.

You've got--I'm telling you,
talk about tender lamb.

I mean,
it's just fork-fall-apart,

and you know that everybody's
got their traditions
and what they like.

Our family,
we just can't stick with one.

Oh, we'll do a couple of
the basics, but I gotta
tell you something,

just the way that this is
lookin' right now,

this might make it--this might
make it to next year's menu.

All right, let's give this
a little taste.

All right.
Nobody's lookin', right?

You're not supposed to eat off
the platter. I know the rules.

First, that little pillow.

Sweet potato.

Mm.

Melt in your mouth.

Light, super flavorful.

Fresh thyme--that's the kicker.

And right--little bit
of parmesan cheese
for the saltiness.

Okay.

There's also a touch
of nutmeg in there.

But look at this,
when you get this leg of lamb

that just--that, I mean,
it looks like pulled pork.

Huh?

That's winner
winner lamb dinner.
I'm tellin' you what.

The holidays are an incredibly
important time,

time to give thanks,
time to be with your family,

time to be with your friends--
no way better for me

than to show my friends
and family how much I love 'em

than makin' a dish like that,
look at that.

Scratch-made, homemade,
real deal, right here.

You're gonna get this recipe.
Have a great Thanksgiving.

Thanks for watchin'
"Guy's Big Bite."

I'll see ya next time.