Which Assamese Pizza will win? | Pizza Battle - video Dailymotion

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Join Jasper on an epic culinary escapade through the vibrant flavors of Assam! ️ In the latest episode of The Great Indian Pizza Adventure, he teams up with the incredible food influencer, Sneha Saikia, to unravel the secrets of Assamese cuisine. From aromatic spices to unique ingredients, brace your taste buds for a flavor-packed journey!  But the ultimate challenge awaits as he collaborates with Chef Megha to craft an irresistible Assamese pizza that'll leave you yearning for more! Get set for a delectable expedition through Assam's heart, where pizza meets authentic Assamese flair. Tune in and prepare to be awestruck!   Special thanks to the late Dr. Ashish Chopra, the North-Eastern cuisine luminary, for his invaluable insights shared in this episode.  Tune into #TheGreatIndianPizzaAdventure every Sunday at 7PM (Tonight).   Catch the repeats on Wednesday 7:30PM and Friday 8:30PM only on GOODTiMES TV Channel   (Tata Sky 762, Airtel Digital 410, Hathway 801 & Samsung TV 1375)

Transcript

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]

Which Assamese Pizza will win? | Pizza Battle

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