$513 vs $21 Salmon: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients

You know, this could be the hardest thing I've done

on this show.

I'm not gonna lie.

Seriously, I am sweating.

Hi, I'm Yuji.

I'm a professional chef.

These are my $513 salmon dinner ingredients.

Hi, I'm Daniel.

I'm a home cook

and these are my $21 salmon dinner ingredients.

Come back delicious.

All right, let's do this.

I'm not scared.

You're scared.

Store bought salmons.

I can work with this.

[Daniel laughs]

Right.

Let's do the whole fish, huh?

[whimsical music]

So I was planning to make Roasted Kombu-cured

Sakura Masu Oyako Donabe.

I have a whole sakura masu.

It is a wild cherry salmon from Japan.

This is insane.

How'd you get this in here?

To breakdown, cure in kombu and then roast.

Clams, mussels, clams.

I had a Manila clam to make a special broth

with roasted sakura masu bones.

And then cook Koshihikari rice in a donabe pot.

All served with pickled romanesco and a watermelon radish.

This looks like a cauliflower meets under the sea.

And ikura shoyu zuke.

Soy-marinated salmon roe.

Oh, is this caviar?

[Yuji] Made with a kumquats.

Tiny baby oranges.

A shoyu and junmai sake.

I'm happy whenever there's alcohol involved.

I'll be real with you.

It was going to be very, very, very, very delicious.

Daniel, don't mess it up.

Damn!

With Daniel's recipe,

I have a much, much simpler ingredients.

Stuff you might find in your pantry

or local grocery store.

With a little bit of a technique,

you can make it even better.

If I have to guess,

this whole thing will cost me probably $25.

Almost.

I would say this all costs about $197.

530.

This is half a thousand dollars.

Why do you trust me with this stuff?

I have Chef Yuji's recipe book here.

I'll be making Roasted Kombu-cured Sakura Masu Oyako Donabe.

I have no idea what any of this means,

but there's a little bit of a framework here

that I might be able to follow which is exciting.

Daniel, you're gonna be starting

with breaking down whole salmon.

Bye-bye now.

I'll see you guys.

You are gonna take off the head

and collars from the rest of the body.

[Daniel] Here we go.

This special salmon came from a fish auction from Japan.

Thanks, Salmy.

You're welcome.

This has been great.

Take the body and just cut it from one side.

So I wanna separate like the actual edible good meat parts

from the stabby in your throat bone parts.

A little deeper.

All right, yeah.

I was missing out on like an inch and a half of meat

in here.

Meet to halfway.

Turn it.

Completely botched off the rip.

This is...

Had to make two cuts.

But the good news is you see all this meat

that would've been left behind if I hadn't gone back

and done that.

I'm gonna do the same thing on the other side of the fish.

And I cut it,

meat in the middle.

Does it matter if the fin's still connected on this side?

[Staff] That's okay.

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

No doubt, no doubt.

And then the meat will come up.

Super easy.

This is a mess.

I'm just so happy there's two sides to this fish.

I think this top half,

complete learning experience for me.

Second half's gonna be so much better.

It's like it's never happened.

But this is still edible,

so this will be my half.

After that, you're gonna do one more time

for the other side of that body.

You know, life's all about second chances.

I have never concentrated on anything this hard

I think ever in my life.

I'm feeling better,

but it could still look pretty rough out there.

I'm not gonna flip it over until we're fully done.

We're already through on this side.

See?

At this point, you have two beautiful filets of the salmon.

So, they're ugly.

And then one big middle bone.

That was so hard.

I am sweating.

Do I have to clean them up?

Absolutely.

But for my first time ever,

not horrible.

Daniel was probably planning to make some simple

and healthy salmon dinner with brown rice and a vegetable

and some simple sauce.

I'm gonna do something different.

I'm gonna be making salmon kakiage rice burger

with caramelized orange teriyaki sauce.

The salmon actual meat is gonna be inside a burger.

And then the skin,

it's gonna be on the side with other vegetables.

First I'm gonna separate the salmon skin.

I am gonna get these cleaned up,

get rid of these extra bones.

No one wants that.

My goal here is just to get the bone off.

I don't wanna lose any meat here.

This really is like fish surgery.

There's like a whole row of little bones in here.

I have to like tweeze these out.

There's so many of them.

I can totally see this being like a satisfying TikTok video

or whatever.

I think I've got them all.

So now I have to portion two to three ounce pieces

or filets.

Filets are fileting.

I'm gonna cut this in half.

So I have this salmon skin,

two parchment papers on top and on the bottom.

And then another tray to cover it

so that they don't curl up.

I'm gonna put this in an oven

for about 10-15 minutes at 300.

According to the cookbook,

the hard part is over now.

I think, as far as salmon goes.

All you have to do is cure meat and then roast the bone.

Pretty much just adding salt

to take that water out from the protein.

And I'm gonna put this on a paper towel

and then put it in the fridge for about a half hour.

When I don't see any more salt on top of the salmon

and then if I see the paper is wet,

that's another sign that the curing is finished.

Let me throw some plastic wrap down.

Gonna throw some kombu on this bad boy.

Rest the filet on top of the dried kelp

and then the water will naturally come out from the filet

and then the flavor from kombu would actually penetrate back

into the filet.

So, it's a exchange of water and umami.

So these are curing now allegedly.

Put in the fridge and then let it cure.

For like 12 whole hours.

So my crispy salmon king is done.

So I'm gonna use this for my side dishes.

All right, so I got to get the stock.

Idea of this donabe dish is you separate the whole fish

into bones and filet.

Bones becomes a really nice delicious broth

that goes into the rice

and the meat will go back on top of it at the end.

This philosophy is called mottainai in Japanese

which means no waste.

This broth is gonna be for cooking the rice.

So the rice is gonna get super flavorful.

Roast the salmon bone first.

I'm gonna throw this into the oven.

It's only like 450 for like a couple minutes.

Adding salmon bones into the broth is really good.

But to make really good broth in general,

you wanna add at least two different types of ingredients.

[Daniel] Clams will go in.

And then you're gonna bring a cold water into a pot

with the manila clam and then the kombu together.

And then you're gonna slowly cook both ingredients.

They say that a watched pot never boils,

but I've got to watch this one.

'Cause I've never seen a clam open under water before,

so I don't wanna miss that and overcook the clams.

So you wanna make sure

that the meat is tender and flavorful.

So, don't overcook.

Within that first half hour,

the clam will open up slowly.

As soon as they open, you wanna take it out.

Oh, one popped open.

Bam!

Okay.

After 30 minutes or so,

all the clams should be open.

It's everything? It's everyone?

Everyone's out, cool.

Let me grab the bones from the oven.

So I got this brown rice from Daniel.

I'm making salmon kakiage rice burger.

So I have to cook this brown rice

and then make this into a bun.

The first step, it starts from washing it.

You guys just gonna remove some dirt

that comes with the rice

and also makes it a little bit less starchy.

Brown rice has still bran attached to the white rice,

so it takes more water to be able to be cooked.

Setting to brown.

And then this smart rice cooker

is gonna do everything for me.

[rice cooker plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star]

[Daniel] Hell, yeah.

Woo hoo!

Check that out.

So like 15-20, let this boil

and then I'm gonna take the kombu out.

After that you're gonna keep the temperature medium heat

and then you're gonna bring the roasted salmon bone

onto the broth and then keep for another half hour.

I'm just gonna watch it.

When the broth is roasted,

the color of the broth will be more brown

because of the roasted bone.

This smells phenomenal.

Strain the broth.

Make sure the broth is cooled off completely.

Whoo, what a process.

My brown rice is finished.

I'm gonna make this into the shape of a hamburger bun.

I have this plastic wrap.

And then take this rice.

I actually never use brown rice,

but it looks great.

[Staff] You don't use brown rice a lot?

Not at all.

But maybe I will after this.

Rice burger buns are ready.

And they go in the fridge.

Ikura shoyu zuke.

Salmon roe marinade.

Ikura is a salmon roe.

Whoa, this is phenomenal.

And the flavor's unreal, wow.

I'm gonna throw some of the kombu in here.

Then I'm gonna put the roe in there.

Add peel of the kumquat.

It's gonna add a really nice aroma.

Is it even coming out?

How the hell do you get there in this thing?

This is like this tough skin.

Ah!

He's gonna marinate that with a soy sauce,

mirin, and sake.

And this looks like an intense...

So I mean, look at this creature on here.

It's like a...

What is it, like a warlock or like a Yeti?

Ah, it's called the yeti sake.

Always have to try it.

'Cause if you don't try it,

how are you supposed to know what it tastes like?

Good stuff.

Equal parts or mirin and sake.

Two tablespoons total here.

Again, I'm trying to be super gentle here

so I don't wanna break the roe.

Mirin and sake is a preservative.

We can preserve it for a long time.

Otherwise, fish roe go bad very quickly.

And that is my ikura shoyu zuke

or my salmon roe marinade.

Daniel was planning to make

some kind of a marinade for the salmon.

With combination of these ingredients,

I'm gonna use them to make something more special.

Caramelized orange teriyaki sauce.

And then that's gonna be great for my burger.

So I'm gonna just slowly heat up the sugar

until they all melt and then becomes almost like a caramel.

It takes about like 5 to 10 minutes.

And meanwhile, I'm going to use this orange

and then just cut the peel.

I'll save this for my side dish.

And I'm gonna use this for my sauce.

The edge gets cooked much, much quicker,

so I'm trying to mix it evenly.

Turn it off.

And then I'm going to add the orange peel

with soy sauce and also vinegar.

The heat is off.

My sauce is done and ready for my burger.

Time to make some rice.

The rice that Daniel is using is called

the Koshihikari rice from Japan.

Just a higher quality and it has really nice sweet flavor.

We're gonna make this Koshihikari rice even more special

by cooking it with a special broth.

It still smells like the best thing ever.

Cooking rice in donabe is my favorite way of cooking rice.

It's quicker and more flavorful.

[Daniel] I'm gonna rinse all this stuff off.

Make sure it is a equal amount by volume.

So if you have one cup of rice,

add one cup of a broth and then cover the pot.

Turn the heat really high.

I've got this ripping.

It's gonna be pretty hot.

As soon as the steam comes out,

you turn the heat very low.

But make sure that the tiny bit of steam keep coming out.

You're gonna keep that stage for about 15 minutes.

After that, you're gonna turn off the heat completely.

So, you shouldn't see any more steam coming out.

And then you're gonna rest out for another 15 minutes.

Please be good.

Please be good.

So now I'm going to finish my rice buns.

It's ready to be seared with sesame oil.

I wanna make sure it's very crispy.

And then I'm gonna do another step over searing.

So I'm gonna take the excess oils off

and then I'm gonna cook them

until they get the really, really crispy.

All right, that's it.

My rice buns are ready.

So I got this basic vegetable from Daniel.

I'm gonna be making broccoli, carrot, orange namuru.

It is a pickle of the vegetables together with sesame oil.

Daniel is also gonna be making some pickled vegetables.

Never pickled before,

but I think it's pretty straightforward.

I'm gonna go ahead and get started

by peeling these radishes.

So the carrot, I'm gonna just take the skin off.

The skin is gonna be used for my burger.

And then the core inside of your carrot is gonna be

for my namuru.

I'm gonna give these guys a little choppy chop now.

And the broccoli, the stock is gonna be for my burger.

And then the top part is gonna be for my namuru.

I'm gonna peel the butt off of this thing.

Let's do like a romanesco steak.

And then from here, we cut the inside.

Nice.

So I'm gonna be saving the carrot's skin

and then the broccoli stem for my burger later.

This is the combination of your carrot

and then broccoli top part.

I'm gonna use these to make broccoli, carrot, orange namuru.

Equal parts, sugar and salt.

It doesn't really take that much time to pickle too,

so it's really nice technique to add a quick pickle

into this is donabe dish.

Just salt it.

Toss it.

I have this orange leftover from my teriyaki sauce.

I'm gonna actually make a little segment

and then add it into my namuru.

And then rice vinegar and then the sesame oil.

And then that should do it.

So this is my broccoli, carrot, and orange namuru.

So this is going to be the curing process

for the vegetables.

And I love how some of those little

mountainous looking things

from the romanesco are actually intact in there.

It's gonna be a really cool touch at the end.

So I'm going to start prepping for my burger.

It is salmon kakiage.

So, it's been curing for more than half hour.

It's more glossy.

The meat is a bit tighter.

In my opinion, taking moisture out

from especially fish is very important process.

So the skin, I'm gonna just keep it as it is.

And then I'm going to cut this

in a little bit similar shape like ribbons.

Next thing is I'm going to start cutting the salmons.

Then I'm going to make it batter for the kakiage tempura.

Usually, it's a flour but I got corn starch.

I think corn starch usually will make it a little bit

more crispier finish compared to flour.

So I got everything ready to make this kakiage.

And then the next step is to fry it.

My salmon is done curing now which is great.

It's been like 12 full hours.

You're gonna be cooking this salmon in a skewer.

You're gonna hang the skewer onto some kind of pot

that will take excess water out completely.

The entire fish is gonna be very juicy and crunchy.

You're gonna cook it in an oven

for about 8 to 10 minutes.

At 500 degrees on this

almost like makeshift rotisserie thing.

Fingers crossed.

Sexy.

Sexy salmon.

So, I got everything I need.

Hot oil and the kakiage ingredients

and then batter are ready.

So, I'm gonna start frying.

So I'm gonna just loosen up the batter

'cause with the corn starch,

it's things to the bottom.

Ingredient shape of the kakiage needs to be rounded.

And then go like this.

This looks good.

And I'm gonna use this so they stick together

and want to have like a really, really, crunchy texture.

And this is actually perfect.

And this is done.

My is kakiage is ready.

Time to get to plating.

Everything smells so good.

First off, the rice.

Oh, nice.

I'm gonna build the plate together in the donabe.

I think that'd look really cute.

Get one of these skewers.

We are gonna do our best here.

Now, I'm gonna put some of these clams around.

I'm gonna go in with my pickled veggies.

There is a little bit of the roe

that I'm gonna top the actual salmon with or some kumquat.

I'm gonna actually slice this and use as a garnish.

And last but not least is a little bit of mint.

And this is my take on Chef Yuji's salmon recipe.

A lot of steps that went into this.

So I am hoping that it's all worth it in the end

and it tastes really good.

I cannot wait to see what he did with mine.

I'm sure it's gonna blow

whatever I had planned out of the water.

So, time to assemble my burger.

I have everything I need here.

But I realized that my bun needs more color.

So I have this blow torch.

[torch blowing]

Bun on the bottom.

So originally, I was going to use this crispy salmon skin

for my side namuru dish.

But now I realize it's gonna be great inside a burger.

Kakiage.

Orange zest is actually a pretty.

So, I'm gonna actually use it as part of the filling.

Caramelized orange teriyaki.

Side dish.

Here's my take on Daniel's salmon recipe.

Salmon kakiage rice burger.

What's up, dude? Hey!

Good to see you.

Good to see you.

This was...

This was a lot.

This process, man.

This is crazy.

You put me through the ringer.

Ooh!

Wow.

Just learned a lot from-

How do you usually do it?

I was gonna put this in the middle

and then I was gonna just put everything more evenly.

But the way that you plate it is actually very nice.

You wanna try it?

Yes. Yeah?

Okay. Take it

and then try to get...

A little bit of everything?

Yeah, a little bit of everything as much as possible.

Hmm.

That's delicious.

So good.

It's so good.

It's crazy too how much flavor the clams impart

into the rice. In the rice, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

I could never think to do that

for like my own broth, you know?

But now that you showed me,

I'm like, I can't go back to my own broth.

I think the presentation was so good.

I mean, I knew taste was gonna be good,

but presentation made it even better, I think.

What did you do with mine?

So, I wanted to make something completely different.

I always had this idea of making a rice burger.

The salmon is cured with the vegetables.

Cut things.

Should we dig in?

Yeah. Yeah?

Cheers, man.

Hmm.

Oh my god. Nice, yeah.

Dude, what?

The rice has such a nice texture.

The salmon's amazing.

I'm actually surprised myself, yeah.

It looks like a caramel sauce.

Hmm, veggies are great.

Veggies are great.

You gotta cut the cameras.

I'm about to go off.

I'm gonna go off on this thing.

You're the best.

No, you're the best.