00:00 Assam, one of the seven sisters of the Northeast, not to forget, of course, the younger brother,
00:05 Sir Kim. Here we are trying to assemble, I never thought I'd say these words, an Assamese
00:11 pizza. Okay, so what have we learned with hanging out with guys like Dr. Ashish, talking
00:17 to our Assamese friends? We've learned a few kind of principles. There are some hero ingredients
00:22 in Assam, pork, potatoes. We've learned that they don't like to overcomplicate it, so we're
00:29 others might be frying, they might be boiling. Ingredients are simpler. They do like a bit
00:34 of spice and things like the botulokia are kind of legends of the mountain chilies. There's
00:43 an overriding thing going on there, which I think is called lahe lahe, right? Which
00:48 actually for me in cooking, it's an inspiration to cook slow, to take it slow, to imagine
00:55 we're in the mountains with rivers running by, etc. So let's give it a whirl. Okay, here's
01:01 my thought process. Veg pizza, non-veg pizza. For non-veg pizza, I'm thinking pork, mustard
01:13 leaves, absolute classic. The Assamese love their use of leaves, curry leaves, mustard
01:18 leaves, all that stuff. For veg, I'm thinking aloo, but an aloo sadeko. Sadeko is used across
01:27 the northeast region from Sikkim to Assam up to Arunchal, and it's a very intriguing
01:32 combination of spices. So, okay, so here's the thinking. Let's start up. We made overnight
01:41 a slow-cooked pork and mustard greens. We've plucked the pork out, and I'm thinking of
01:47 that as my topping, the equivalent of my pepperoni. I've been thinking about this base,
01:53 and I'm not really quite sure about it. So we're going to swap that fellow out, and we've
02:00 made a moorish, creamy bechamel and spinach sauce. And I'm thinking, I use that as my
02:09 base, maybe a little bit of cheddar, fresh mozzarella, bocconcini, pork, cook, and while
02:19 it's cooking, we'll think about toppings. So let's give this a whirl. Spread the base,
02:27 beautiful color. It's a bit like the cilantro pesto we've used before. And actually, a white
02:35 base, well, a green base, but the bechamel is white. On a pizza, it looks very attractive,
02:40 something different to a tomato passata. Take this pork, yummy free-range pork. I'm going
02:48 to leave bits of fat as well. I don't see why not, right? That's the whole beauty of
02:53 pork, is fat and gristle and lots of yummy things. Spread this fellow over it. Now I'm
03:06 going to change direction slightly. So I'm adding the pork first and the cheese second,
03:12 just because as a demonstration, you do what you like with pizzas. Okay, so far, so good.
03:20 Now here, we're then going to go for a sprinkling of cheddar. Cheddar, pork, nothing wrong with
03:33 that. I pulled pork and cheddar, that sounds all right. And then here, yummy, fresh Indian
03:46 bocconcini. You really don't need bocconcini from Italy these days. Put these fellows in
03:51 here. Spread it out a bit. And I'm hoping, and we've seen this sometimes before, that
04:01 while the pizza cooks, the yummy juices of the pork will start to get released back into
04:10 the spinach and bechamel base. Okay, part one done. Let's get this in. Okay, let's get
04:24 this guy out. Here we go. Not looking terribly circular, but maybe that even looks like the
04:39 state of Assam. I'm certainly making that up. Okay, what are we going to do here? Pork,
04:48 pork rhubarb, pork aniseed, pork apple, pork rich flavors of bell pepper, that kind of
04:59 stuff. So here's my canvas. Here's my pantry. I'm thinking some of these slow roasted bell
05:11 peppers because the pork can take a lot of sweetness and a certain amount of sourness.
05:16 Let's go down this route. I'm looking across at those kiwis and I'm sorely tempted, but
05:26 sort of less is more on a pizza. Egg, fennel, microgreens. I'm thinking this could take
05:36 a bit of fennel. Again, pork and aniseed, classic combo. Looks nice too. These little
05:49 swirly clouds above the northeast mountains. Egg, no egg. I'm tempted by egg, but I think
06:01 it might overdo it. Microgreens. I would like to do watercress and maybe when it comes to
06:10 the cook off I will do watercress because pork and watercress is definitely a thing
06:15 in my head. Mandatory sea salt. Equally mandatory lemon olive oil. Done.
06:43 So here, let's get this guy on. Yummy slow cooked pork cooked in mustard, mustard leaves,
06:58 but mustard leaf sauce replaced with spinachy bechamel guy, bit of fennel, bell peppers
07:06 slow roasted in the mouth. You know, for a first out experiment, I think that works really
07:35 well. I might dial up the sweetness somehow. Maybe these kiwi fruits I've been looking
07:42 at will come into play. But in essence, the creamy bechamel spinach with the pork is a
07:51 beautiful beautiful combination. That little lemon, lemon and pork, gives it a little list.
07:58 I think that's a pretty good start, but before I start fixating about my Assamese pork pizza,
08:04 I never thought I'd say those words. Let's get our mind into the mighty potato and see
08:13 what we can achieve there. And I'm thinking, I'm thinking aloo, hot hot chili, hot chili
08:21 from the mountains. Let's give that a whirl. Okay, let's look at the veg Assam pizza candidate.
08:28 One of the things I've learnt about Assam is they love to mash. They're mashing their
08:32 potatoes, they're mashing their eggs, they're mashing their eggs and potatoes and 20 different
08:36 things. It's absolutely kind of mash central. So what I'm thinking here is, I've done some
08:43 potatoes with some yellow mustard, mustard leaf, fenugreek, spring onions. I'm not sure
08:51 it's an exact Assamese dish, but it's kind of influenced by one or all of the seven sisters
08:58 and the younger brother. And then I've also made for my base, I mean the boot jolokia,
09:05 the ghost chili, is one of the most famous exports of the Northeast. So I've made our
09:13 secret boot jolokia sauce, sometimes called chili freak in the Jamie Oliver world, and
09:20 I've added barbecue. So I like the idea of barbecue and boot jolokia. So I'm thinking
09:30 that's my base. I can't resist, like any son or daughter of Assam, mixing my mash. So I'm
09:39 going to take some eggs with my beautifully prepared potato and I'm just going to get
09:47 it mashing, right? Okay, so I'm going to get this mashed down. Again, the whole thing about
09:54 pizza making is, it is not a refined craft. So when you're mashing, mash like your life
10:01 depends on it, not like you're in a French kitchen. Okay, so that's looking pretty good.
10:09 I don't want it over mashed. So that's sort of my pre-oven topping. I'm going to take
10:17 my secret Northeast boot jolokia barbecue base, get this guy moving around. I don't
10:29 think this will lack for spice. So when I think about the toppings after the cooking,
10:34 I'm not sure spice is going to be high on the list. That's a lot of topping, let's see.
10:42 Okay, a bit of cheddar, barbecue cheddar, you know, nothing wrong with that. Texans
10:49 would like that. So would the Assamese, I think. A bit of cheddar, maybe a bit more
10:57 cheese. Good enough. And again, like my mustard pork, I'm going to go with my boccacini like
11:07 this. Yummy Indian boccacini. It's not like we have a lack of water buffaloes in India.
11:16 And of course, the water buffalo came from Asia to Italy. Okay, here's this. And I'm
11:26 just going to take some of this and kind of sprinkle it around, some big bits, some smaller
11:31 bits. Don't overdo it. I'm tempted. There we go. Okay, let's give it a go.
11:48 Well, it's pretty well cooked, maybe slightly too well cooked. Here's my thought process.
12:00 You've got a big, strong chili barbecue base here. So that's going to kill a lot of things
12:05 you put on top. So we're trying to lift and react to the strength of that, try and get
12:12 some crunch where we can. So I'm thinking I've got peas, I've got celery, I've got rocket,
12:22 I've got onions, I've got beetroot. Beetroot potato, that's definitely a thing. It's going
12:29 to add color. Is it going to die a death in the great pond of barbecue chili? I don't
12:35 know, but let's give this a shot. Let's take a bit of this. It's intriguing. These could
12:48 be chilies. Maybe that will confuse people. Bit of that. I'm thinking a bit of celery
12:53 for some crunch. Celery potatoes, that's definitely-- maybe I'll go with some of this rosemary.
13:03 Rosemary and potatoes. And the rosemary might stand a chance of coming through against the
13:08 chili. Rasmi's mashed potato pizza with beetroot, rosemary, celery. But let's put it to the
13:18 test. Okay. Oh, I forgot to mention the egg. Mashed potato and egg, I can see it now. I
13:29 can see it's sort of cooked. It's like-- I mean, egg and potato, like huevos fritatas,
13:36 egg and chips. I mean, these are legendary combinations. Let's give it a go. I think
13:52 kind of close, but no cigar. So I might rethink this. Right now, it's an easy choice between
14:03 the two trialists, but I'm going to go back to the lab with this. I'm not done with you.
14:09 Mashed asamizalu. It's not over between us.
14:12 [music]
14:14 (whooshing)
14:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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