How a Pro Chef Makes a Cantonese-Inspired McDonald's Filet-O-Fish

[screen rattles] [upbeat music]

I grew up going to McDonald's all the time after school.

It was like my go-to fast food joint.

♪ Filet-O-Fish ♪

[Calvin] Filet-O-Fish would always be a part

of my order at McDonald's when I go these days.

♪ Gone fishing ♪

Which is why I wanted to make

my version of it here today.

You got the squishy, nice bun,

little half slice of cheese on the bottom hanging off.

The fried fish and the tartar sauce

just oozing down the side like that.

Yeah, this always hits.

So our goal today

is to basically take every component of the sandwich

and kind of turn it into our own version of it here.

This is a Cantonese American restaurant.

The flavors and the ingredients

always have to taste Cantonese first.

We're gonna make this fit our style of cooking.

There's kind of three main components here,

the bun, the patty, and the sauce,

and we're gonna start with our patty first.

[upbeat music]

Before I start working on my patty,

I'm gonna take a look at the McDonald's one first,

just to see what we're working with.

I'm unfamiliar with any square or rectangular fish.

You would think that it would be like an emulsified paste,

kind of like a McDonald's McNugget

or something like that, but it's not.

This is clearly just like skinless, boldness filets

that they take, press into a nice rectangular mold,

like you would a terrine or something,

freeze that and then slice planks off of it

probably with like a bandsaw or something.

The flakiness is great,

but that's probably not what I'm gonna go for.

But I do like a Cantonese fish cake,

which is more about like an emulsified paste,

and to give you that like chewy, bouncy springy texture.

We're trying to turn this into a fish cake,

because there's nothing more Cantonese

to me than like a fish cake.

Like all the flavor from this

is really just coming from the tartar sauce,

like I don't even taste seasoning in the breading.

The fish is so mild.

I want to be able to pack in a lot, a lot of flavor

inside the patty and make the whole thing

actually tastes Cantonese.

So the first thing we're gonna do for our patty

is start with our fish and our shrimp.

I have about two pounds of cod here.

It's mild, it's neutral in flavor.

McDonald's uses pollock now.

They moved away from using cod.

It's very similar in taste and texture.

Like the way they've prepared,

you wouldn't even notice.

We're only gonna need a pound for this recipe

to make about 10 patties.

I'm gonna use the tail end

just because it's kind of like the more uneven,

less desirable side anyway,

and we'll save the larger whole sides

for steaming or for cooking.

All right, I'm just gonna cut this up

into a couple more manageable size pieces,

and then we're just gonna throw it all

Robot Coupe or food processor,

just to turn this into a really nice paste.

[food processor whirring]

So the idea here is you really want to just break down

these proteins and these fibers as much as possible.

Like typically when you're working with proteins,

you don't wanna overwork it,

but for fish paste specifically,

you wanna really break it down

and make that like super, super tacky like that,

and kinda like fibrous,

and that's what's going to help you

bind the whole thing together later,

and give you that nice bouncy texture

that we're looking for.

So we have this clean, deveined peeled shrimp here,

about 12 ounces of it

that we're gonna treat the same way as the fish.

We want to turn that into a nice paste as well.

[food processor whirring]

McDonald's Filet-O-Fish doesn't have shrimp,

but I love the texture that shrimp adds to it.

It gives you a really nice springy texture

that we're looking for,

and also gives it a nice sweetness.

I'm going to season this paste very simply.

So we'll start with the garlic chives.

It's a little different from regular chives.

Regular western chives are more

of in like sweet oniony flavor.

These are also used in a lot of Cantonese cooking,

so like very important flavor profile

in like dumpling mixture and also in like stir fries.

Next, we'll add a little bit of ginger.

When ginger's cooked, it definitely helps

remove some of that seafood fishiness,

so we always add it to all our fish

or seafood in Cantonese cooking.

Throw that right in.

Next, we have is just a little bit

of corn starch that we'll add.

Will help with the texture, also help bind.

Go in with a little bit of lard

for that fat and texture as well.

We don't want this to be like a crumbly,

fall apart fish cake.

We want it to have a nice texture

that like is bound together very well with each bite.

Just a little salt.

Just a little bit of sugar to balance it out,

and some MSG as well.

Salt, sugar, MSG is kind of like

the Chinese trinity of seasoning.

It really balances out a lot of the food

and a lot of the dishes that you're making.

So MSG is gonna add a lot of savoriness,

a lot of umami.

It's kind of like that flavor

that makes you want more of something.

It's like that meaty flavor.

Freshly ground white pepper.

It's very floral, it's a fermented pepper.

Sesame oil is also another like crucial

flavor profile of Cantonese food.

Mix this up super, super well

into a really nice paste.

Fish isn't gonna be the dominant flavor aroma in this

because, again, we're using cod that's so neutral anyway,

and then all the seasonings that we added to it

are really the ones that are gonna stand out.

Like the fish and the shrimp,

for this, you're really just using that for the texture.

You wanna overwork this to really work those proteins,

break 'em down and give it that like springy texture.

Like this is what like Asian moms

and grandmas would do at home.

Just it's called like daa, which is just like

slapping it back into the bowl constantly.

So we have our paste.

This is just gonna be the foundation of our patty.

We just essentially have to get it frozen

into a flat, even layer.

Because right now as you can see,

it's very, very tacky, which is great,

but then very hard to work with

if we're trying to bread it like a real Filet-O-Fish.

These are just gonna go into the freezer for a little while,

so they can set before we get to bread them,

and then while that's setting in the freezer,

we'll work on the sauce.

[gentle upbeat music]

Before we make our sauce,

we have to examine the McDonald's tartar sauce.

Yeah, it's delicious.

It's like a classic tartar.

Tartar is typically just mayo and like chopped pickles,

and this has a lot of it,

so it's very briny, very tangy, very zippy.

When you eat fried food,

you kind of just want a nice creamy sauce

that like clings to it really well,

and it needs to have acid,

otherwise you're not gonna be able

to cut through any of that fried fat.

Yeah, on the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish,

this is pretty much all you taste,

which is why it's great.

I'm gonna be making a tartar sauce

that's gonna pair well with the style of fish cake

that we're gonna be making today.

So we're gonna make sure that the ginger's in there,

and then the Cantonese flavor profiles

are also in there, but still adding the acid

that it desperately needs on the sandwich.

So first, we're gonna start

making our ginger scallion sauce,

and that's just like a classic Cantonese condiment

that's simply used and served

in a lot of Cantonese roast meat shops.

You would eat it with like soy sauce chicken

or scallion chicken or things like that.

This will kind of be like the base

and flavor profile of our tartar sauce.

Scallions.

Just a thin slice on the scallions.

Just wanna use the whites

and the green parts as well.

All right, next, we have

peeled and coined ginger

that we're gonna add just to the Robot Coupe,

just to blitz this up as well.

[food processor whirring]

We can add all this right to the bowl.

Peeled garlic as well that we're gonna blitz up.

[food processor whirring]

I always say Cantonese food

is always very low on acid and low on heat,

and I think this is like a great opportunity

to kind of add a little bit of that.

So we're just gonna add a little bit

of some long green chilies,

and then we have some pickled mustard greens as well

that's gonna add a ton of acid.

Mustard greens are like a leafy vegetable.

It's used in a lot of Chinese soups.

And so pickled mustard greens are very briny,

very sour, a little salty.

It'll add a lot of complexity to this sauce.

So this is like perfect for the tartar sauce as well,

just because this is pickled,

and the McDonald's tartar sauce has so many pickles in it.

I think it would be a really nice bite.

[food processor whirring]

I'm gonna add this, stir it in once our sauce cools.

So right now we have ginger, garlic,

scallion and the chilies.

We're gonna season it

with just a little salt, sugar, MSG again,

just to really draw out some of that moisture

and kind of like gently cure it for a little bit,

before we hit it with the hot oil.

So I'm just gonna heat up a quarter neutral oil,

about 400ish degrees, little bit before the smoking point.

The oil needs to be hot

because we're gonna dump it over these aromatics

and really just like allow it to like sizzle

and bubble up and cook very rapidly.

It like gently cooks it

without having to cook this over the stove

and let that confit.

But this is like a much easier, faster way

to do like a large batch of it.

I'm just gonna wait till this cools down,

and then we're gonna fold in

these pickled mustard greens as well right into it.

Now that our ginger scallion is complete,

and the pickled mustard greens are folded in

and cooled off, we can make our tartar sauce.

So all tartar is going to start with a mayo base.

And then for the ginger scallion,

I'm actually gonna strain off the oil,

'cause we don't want this to be too loose,

but we just want all that flavor.

I do want to add more pickles

because I really like the McDonald's one

with all that acidity and that texture,

because you still want to have

kind of like those crunchy bites

that I think are super fun, little pops of acidity.

I think zest is a great way

to add a lot of that little citrusy floral notes

that lemon contains,

without having to worry about

thinning it out too much.

I also personally love the flavor of cilantro.

It'll add like a nice beautiful color as well.

Little bright pops of green.

Of course, I have to season it as well,

just a little salt, MSG, just to taste.

[gentle upbeat music]

Yeah, I think it's perfect.

Cilantro adds a lot of like herbaceousness,

a lot of flavor.

The zest and the juice add a ton,

but you really do taste that pickled mustard green.

It like really comes through, adds a lot of acidity,

adds a lot of like crunchy bite

from all the pickles as well.

Just the brightness of this

is gonna work really well with the fried sandwich.

[gentle upbeat music]

Before we fry this and put this together,

I just want to take a second to just check out the bun

and check out the cheese

on the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish real quick.

The bun is like a regular baked bun,

but I did read somewhere that McDonald's bun is steamed,

so that's why it is like so pillowy and soft,

which is nice.

The cheese is on the bottom,

which is kind of odd, I guess.

I don't think I ever really noticed that

or assembled the sandwich by putting the cheese

on the bottom first.

But it is just like a classic American,

but a very small piece of it.

It's just half a slice.

That's kind of odd to me.

But maybe to not overpower the fish,

I guess, which makes sense.

But if you're gonna do it, I think just do it, right?

I don't think half a slice

is gonna do anything for anyone.

People always hate on seafood and cheese.

I don't get the hate.

I think it's a perfect pairing

for this dish specifically.

But we're just gonna be using

some good old classic squishy potato rolls.

It's very similar size to McDonald's one.

I like to mayo the buns before we toast them,

just 'cause I think it gives it a really nice golden crust

and flavor as well.

But I'm just gonna toast these

just because I do want it to be hot and squishy,

but I don't want it to be crunchy.

So I think it'll still be very squishy.

McDonald's one had the cheese on the bottom,

so I think I'm gonna do the same thing here.

And then once the hot patty goes on top,

it'll again keep it warm and gooey and melted,

versus putting it on top,

that gets hit with like a layer of tartar sauce.

And we are gonna do a full slice.

I'm not concerned about this overpowering

the flavor of our patty that we have.

All right, all of our components are ready to go.

We're ready to portion up the patties

that we have in the freezer,

and get those breaded and fried up,

and start assembling.

[upbeat music]

It's very hard now, very easy to work with,

compared to before, which was very, very tacky.

It would've been impossible to bread.

I'm thinking I'll portion these into like 10 portions,

probably like two by five.

So a very basic breading set up here.

We have our panko that's very, very coarse

that I think will add a really nice crunch to this.

I have some cornstarch here.

I like cornstarch versus AP,

typically just 'cause it makes things crisper,

it's finer, and it's a Chinese restaurant,

so we always have corn starch around regardless.

And then just a couple eggs.

So we're gonna go the cake into dry, wet, dry.

[upbeat music]

Now we can go over and get these fried up.

I'm just really looking for a nice golden brown,

even shattery crust on the outside.

All right, it's about four minutes.

Beautiful golden brown.

So, we have bun, melted cheese,

the hot patty right on top.

I think we're gonna hit it

with a healthy amount of tartar,

just to make sure every single bite

has its nice pickley bites,

nice acidity, creaminess.

And that's it.

I think it's like a very pretty looking sandwich.

You got the bun, the cheese peeking out,

which I think is sick.

The patty peeking out of both sides, which is cool.

And then the tartar sauce

filling all these nooks and crannies that we created,

the crispiness and then just the bun to finish it off.

We'll pack this up in a clamshell box,

like a traditional Filet-O-Fish,

and just good to go.

A little hefty, it's all right.

That's it.

Here it is, the Bonnie's fish sandwich,

and I'm going in for the taste.

Off the bat, it's a little bigger,

a little heftier than the Filet-O-Fish.

I just really like when proteins

kind of stick outta the bun.

I think it's fun.

We kind of have a couple bites without the bread.

Oh [beeps]. [laughs]

Yeah, super good.

Very, very crunchy in that super coarse panko that we used.

The texture of the patty is very fun,

and kind of springy and bouncy,

like a fish cake should be.

The tartar sauce, definitely very, very acidic.

Tastes very, very Chinese

with the ginger scallion condiment flowing through it.

Full slice of cheese is definitely needed.

The Filet-O-Fish, the patty itself

didn't necessarily have much flavor.

Like you're really just tasting the tartar sauce

when you're eating McDonald's version.

This is really good

because you get the garlic chives really come through.

The ginger really comes through in the patty

and in the sauce, which is really nice.

Overall as a complete sandwich,

this works, it hits.

It reminds me of the Filet-O-Fish,

but it's very different as well.

Like you can tell they're definitely related,

definitely similar builds,

but obviously ours is half Chinese

and this one's not.

What's cool about this is that it's not on the menu,

but if you come during these dates,

it will be available on our menu

at Bonnie's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I think it's great, but you can pull up

and try it for yourself and let me know.

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