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Rick Stein's India - S01 - E03
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00:00For nearly three months, I travelled all over India tasting curries, watching cooks in restaurants and trying to find out their secrets.
00:11And talking to so many people about what makes the perfect curry.
00:17It was a great gastronomic adventure, probably the best one I've ever had.
00:22This is my quest to understand Indian food in all its complexities.
00:27How the food of the Persians, with their love of robust meat dishes, is overlaid with the traditional vegetarian food of the Indians.
00:35It was also about the Indian respect for and a sense of comfort from home cooking.
00:43I wanted to travel everywhere for dishes deeply flavoured with chilli and spice.
00:48A delight to the eye in their rich colours and to understand this fascinating country.
00:55Because when Indians talk of food, they talk of their life.
01:01First glass curry, Ricky.
01:03Meh Kari Basang karta hun.
01:11Meh Kari Basang karta hun.
01:13Meh Kari Basang karta hun.
01:17That's a mind-blasting curry, Rikki.
01:37Majerai, one of the oldest cities in South Asia.
01:41It's been an important trading place for Europe for over 2,000 years.
01:47This Tamil poem, written in the 2nd century AD, could also apply today.
02:00Madurai is a city gay with flags, waving over homes and shops,
02:06selling food and drinks.
02:08The streets are broad rivers of people,
02:10folk of every race, buying and selling in the bazaars.
02:18Around the temple, amid the perfume of ghee and incense,
02:22are stores selling sweet cakes, garlands of flowers, scented powder and beetle pan.
02:29Those are the folded-up leaves that you chew that can make you high as a kite.
02:33As you can see, Madurai is a delightfully colourful and busy city.
02:45Lots of markets.
02:46Look at these beautiful flowers.
02:48These are all for religious ceremonial use.
02:52But I always think it adds so much to just an ordinary fruit and veg market
02:57when people are buying flowers for religious purposes as well.
03:01It's a very busy city.
03:03Amazingly, 2,000 years ago, it was equally busy.
03:08And the Greeks and the Romans used to come here for the spices,
03:13particularly the pepper.
03:15Indeed, there's an account at the time that the Romans were increasingly worried
03:20about the drain of silver from Rome to here, to Madurai,
03:25paying for those spices.
03:27But I just picked up a little piece of information from an anonymous Greek
03:31writing in the time about what the Romans might have traded for those spices
03:36in addition to silver.
03:38And it says,
03:40Madurai was rewarded for its spices with Mediterranean eye shadow,
03:46perfume, gold and silverware, fine Italian wines
03:51and beautiful slave-girl musicians who doubled up as concubines.
03:57Looking across the Madurai skyline,
04:03I can see why the state of Tamil Nadu is known as the Land of Temples.
04:08These towers belong to the Menakshi Temple,
04:11solid granite structures decorated with colourful characters
04:15from the Hindu divine texts.
04:17Around 15,000 visitors come here every day to pray and be blessed
04:29and also to eat.
04:31And it's the eating part that interests me.
04:33It's embedded in the Hindu religion.
04:36And Salah, who grew up here, is my guide to explain what these chefs
04:40are cooking for lunch.
04:42Smells lovely, doesn't it?
04:44They're still using wood fires, I can smell.
04:47I know, in these huge pots.
04:49What's this then?
04:50So this is tamarind rice.
04:52It's really easy to make.
04:53It's cooked rice and they toss it with a sauce that's made of tamarind and cumin
04:59and it's tempered with, you can see the little pieces of lentils.
05:02It gives a bit of crunch.
05:04You just eat it on its own or sometimes with a mint chutney.
05:07And this is called appam.
05:13Oh, appam.
05:14Appam, yeah.
05:15It's sort of like a pancake, deep fried.
05:17It's a sweet one.
05:18It's flour, sugar and it has a little bit of cardamom in it.
05:22And it's a very typical temple offering.
05:26These are vadas.
05:27Vadas.
05:28Yeah, so you see the batter for the vadas here.
05:30These are black lentils.
05:32Yeah.
05:33That are soaked and ground.
05:34And they skin half of them and they leave the skin on the other half.
05:37It's the black speckles in them.
05:39So you can see he's using a piece of plastic or like cling film.
05:43And some people will use a banana leaf to do the exact same thing.
05:47Modern technology.
05:52The food is blessed by the god and then it's sold to the people that come to the temple
05:57and they buy it to take home and it's blessed food.
05:59That is so good.
06:01I mean, I was just thinking about cathedrals back in Britain.
06:04Mm-hm.
06:05The idea of going into a cathedral and buying some food made there
06:10to help the funds to preserve the cathedral.
06:13Exactly.
06:14And it's also, it's something special and something delicious
06:16that you take back from your trip to the temple.
06:18What a souvenir!
06:23Getting the right balance is crucial to all things spiritual.
06:27And food, I'm beginning to understand, plays a large part in that.
06:31Preparations in the kitchens here start shortly after daybreak.
06:34Sala, it's really amazing to me how important food, cooking, eating food is to temple life.
06:45Absolutely.
06:46Even all the rituals that they do for the gods at the temple is everyday life.
06:50You know, bathing, eating, going to sleep.
06:53Each one of these is a ritual for the god at the temple.
06:56And I'm looking at a saying that's written over the dining hall right there that says,
07:00before you go in search of god, go in search of food.
07:03That is very profound to me because I think before you do anything else in life,
07:09you have to feed yourself.
07:11Then you can start thinking about spiritual matters.
07:14The body is the temple.
07:15Your body is the temple.
07:16Your body is the temple.
07:21This seems very important to them, eating the temple.
07:24Is that the case?
07:26Right, I mean they've queued up ahead of time to eat at the temple.
07:33This is their first time eating here.
07:35Oh really?
07:36They feel very fortunate that they're here and have the opportunity to eat at the temple.
07:49So it's more than just because they're hungry.
07:52It's the sort of ritual, the celebration of food in the temple.
07:56Yeah, it's more the sentiment behind eating at the temple and not just the food itself.
08:02The temple's public dining room only holds about 200 people,
08:06so it's important to get there early.
08:08Lunch is usually served just after midday
08:11and hungry worshippers flood the dining hall
08:14to enjoy the dishes that have been prepared by the chefs
08:17and served by the many volunteers who help out on a daily basis.
08:22These are the unlucky few that got there a bit too late.
08:26Everything about to be served is carefully thought out and always considered sacred.
08:35Around four to five varied dishes, always vegetarian
08:39and heavily dependent on rice, are traditionally served on banana leaves.
08:44Plain white rice and rice sweetened with jaggery, that's unrefined sugar,
08:49are common to all temples.
08:51But here they also like serving porial, potatoes and cabbage,
08:55fried with a handful of coconut.
09:02We couldn't end the day without tasting one of Salah's most favourite snacks,
09:06the famous South Indian doses.
09:09Giant crispy pancakes cooked paper thin on hot plates,
09:13drizzled with ghee to give it a golden glow
09:16and served with a variety of chutneys.
09:18Such is the love of this snack that it's become a street food favourite
09:22all over Northern India too.
09:25Wow.
09:27Oh, these are nice and crispy.
09:29This must be the sort of food you dream of when you're in the States in Portland.
09:33Oh, yeah, absolutely.
09:34This is what reminds me of home and when I arrive back home,
09:38this is the first thing that I eat.
09:40You know, I grew up with this.
09:41We had dosas with sambar or a good chutney almost every morning for breakfast
09:46or in the evening for dinner.
09:48So, it's very special.
09:50So good.
09:51The South of India is famous for its dosas
09:54because this is the rice-growing region,
09:56so we have a lot of rice-based dishes and, you know, this is one of them.
10:00Well, it's not exactly fish and chips, but I certainly know where you're coming from.
10:09Not far from the temple is the modern restaurant.
10:12I feel there could be a little touch of Indian irony there.
10:15Anyway, they purely serve vegetable dishes with lots of rice on these banana leaves,
10:21which they call sadja.
10:27There'll always be three to four different curries made from lentils, chickpeas, spinach and potatoes,
10:33but the most popular is sambar, a spicy-rich vegetable stew.
10:40The main word in this particular recipe is lots.
10:44That's lots of tomatoes, ditto with the turmeric,
10:48shed-loads of salt,
10:55huge fistfuls of jaggery,
11:00and then tamarind water for freshness and acidity.
11:04Finally, asafoetida, very popular in India,
11:08especially in places where garlic is frowned upon.
11:13He's put two lots of asafoetida powder in here.
11:16First in the original masala and now this powder now.
11:19Now, they're brahmins, and they do not eat garlic ever.
11:23And I think asafoetida powder is the sort of closest thing to it.
11:27They say when it's cooked, it tastes and smells really earthy.
11:31But when you smell it in the packet, it does...
11:35It is slightly reminiscent of garlic.
11:37And, of course, it stops...
11:40There's lots of lentils in here.
11:42And we all know what lentils do to us.
11:44And asafoetida stops...
11:46What do you call it?
11:49Well, wind, I suppose.
11:55Bit hot, isn't it?
11:56Now, try a bit.
11:58Hot.
11:59Nice.
12:00OK.
12:01Only salt and the tomato juice.
12:03Oh, it's good.
12:04Good.
12:05Yeah, really good.
12:06And the redigal chilli.
12:07Just got the masala.
12:08And the masala after it's here.
12:10Really nice.
12:11Great.
12:13Now, what they call a tarka.
12:16It's always added at the end to enhance the flavour.
12:19And in this case, it's made with fenugreek and coriander seeds, lentils,
12:24then curry leaves and dried Kashmiri chillies.
12:29Now, that's poured into the vegetables, as I said, right at the end,
12:33and it really lifts the flavour.
12:38In keeping with tradition, the food is always served in a certain order.
12:42It's auspicious to place the sweet elements on first,
12:46followed by carbohydrates, which in the south has to be rice,
12:51then proteins in the form of dahls,
12:56and finally, nutritious vegetables, and then curd.
13:04This is the only thing they serve here, but everybody loves it.
13:07Everybody has the same thing.
13:09I imagine probably half of India eats like this,
13:14all vegetarian.
13:16And certainly in southern India,
13:18everybody eats off a banana leaf.
13:20It's the most perfect vehicle for eating off.
13:24Because when you've finished,
13:25you just fold the banana leaf up with anything that's left
13:29and throw it away.
13:30But you don't throw it away into the garbage,
13:32you throw it away for the cows.
13:34I'm getting very much more used to eating with my hands.
13:43I still find it very difficult,
13:45because one's unfamiliar with eating with one hand,
13:49and very difficult to stop from getting extremely covered,
13:53not only all over my hands, but all over my shirt and trousers.
13:56The technique, apparently, is not to get the rice too wet,
14:02and definitely you sort of roll it round a bit like this.
14:05Then you use your thumb to sort of fire it into your mouth.
14:09And I'm beginning to get it,
14:11and I think as you begin to get it,
14:13you begin to get to enjoy it.
14:17Thought comes into my head.
14:19It's a bit like eating jellied eels.
14:22Most people don't like jellied eels
14:23because they don't like the bones.
14:25Once you get used to it, you think,
14:27piece of cake.
14:33So to cook.
14:34And I wonder,
14:36has there ever been a better location
14:38for a television chef to cook his heart out,
14:41surrounded by lovely birds and animals
14:44on the edge of this beautiful lagoon?
14:47Well, this is just the most famous dish,
14:51I would suggest, in the whole of southern India.
14:54It's called sambar,
14:55and it's a celebration of vegetable markets everywhere.
14:58It reminds me of walking down a long street
15:01quite near the temple,
15:02just with one side,
15:04loads and loads of vegetable shops,
15:06some large, some small,
15:08and some just with a woman
15:10with a couple of vegetables in from the country,
15:12and just marvelling at a variety.
15:14And, of course, you've got to have a dish
15:16that uses all those vegetables,
15:18and sambar it is.
15:20And here's the vegetables,
15:21just a selection that we got from the market this morning.
15:24We've got some okra there,
15:25carrots,
15:26we've got some pumpkin,
15:27we've got some tomato,
15:29we've got chillies.
15:30You know it, it's there.
15:31And I'm just going to add this to the boiling water here.
15:33Oh, I've just heard, I've heard that tip-tap tip.
15:38I've forgotten one really important ingredient
15:40that goes into every sambar.
15:42That's mung dal,
15:43those little, tiny little dal,
15:45which actually cook so quickly
15:47that they will soften just as quick as the other vegetables cook.
15:51I've used green mung,
15:53but over here they prefer to use yellow.
15:55Now a teaspoon of turmeric
15:57and a teaspoon of sugar.
16:01I'm just going to leave that to boil and simmer away
16:04and now I'm going to make a masala to pour into this.
16:08So into some oil I add a teaspoon of chana dal,
16:11some fenugreek and coriander seeds
16:14and three to four vibrant Kashmiri chillies,
16:17a good handful of curry leaves
16:19and the obligatory asafoetida.
16:22Now comes the fun bit
16:25and the thing I look forward to the most,
16:27turning the fried masala into a smooth paste
16:30using my trusty first-class wet spice grinder.
16:39Just make sure the lid of your liquidiser is securely on,
16:42otherwise hot oil could go over your shirt and your face
16:47or, in my case, will go over your shirt and your face.
16:51Mental note, I was thinking,
16:56in the final recipe,
16:58let the masala ingredients cool before blending.
17:03There we go.
17:05So now what I'm going to do is make a taka.
17:08Now a taka is what you stir into quite a few dulls
17:11right at the end
17:12and it's normally things like really quite hard-fried onions,
17:16mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds.
17:19If you stir that into something like the sambar or a dal
17:22at the last minute,
17:24it just gives it a real sort of flavour lift,
17:26called a taka, hence taka dal.
17:32Before serving, add a final handful of curry leaves
17:35and enjoy with a plate full of idlis
17:37and some coconut and tomato chutneys.
17:40it's really nice.
17:43WHISTLE BLOPS
17:45WHISTLE BLOPS
17:47WHISTLE BLOPS
17:49WHISTLE BLOPS
17:50Now for a relatively short road trip
17:54to the coconut heaven which is Kerala.
17:57this is a lovely opportunity to drive through the beautiful spice laden hills that form the border
18:06between Tamil Nadu and the holiday destination of Kerala these famous hills are known as the
18:13Western Gats mile after mile of fertile plantations producing a fantastic array of spices like vanilla
18:21and cinnamon we're traveling West heading for the town of Thekadi look at all these shops selling
18:29spices cheap by gel I'm reminded of when I first came to the Costa Brava in the 60s but practically
18:35every shop sold the same thing straw donkeys and sombreros well here it's hot and tasty spices all
18:43the way we've just driven through Thekadi a few miles back I was just astonished by the number
18:52of spice shops must have been 20 30 40 all next to each other all in the high street well that's not
18:59for the locals that's for sure it's for tourists and I think it's testimony to how important food
19:04has become in tourism I mean you come to Kerala somebody from from Europe now and you don't
19:10just go for the beaches you go for the trip into the hills of the spices well Kerala is known to
19:16have the best cardamoms and pepper in the world but I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't true for
19:21such things as cloves and cinnamon too the Keralan highlands are so fertile that practically
19:40anything grows the fact that the British cottoned onto when they planted millions of tea bushes here
19:46they remind me of a sea of jade a series of great rolling waves of deep green or even a giant well
19:54manicured Hampton Court maize stretching forever over the hills
19:58just outside Thekadi is a plantation growing cardamoms and pepper do you know I've been a chef for over 30
20:15years and I didn't have a clue until now that is how cardamoms grew there's something so tantalizing and
20:24special about them a sweet scent that transforms all curries well I was sort of wondering when I am
20:32when I came here this afternoon in the in the minibus I was sort of thinking I wonder what a cardamom is
20:38it must be like a sort of tea bush probably like hanging from under the leaves not a bit of it these are
20:45cardamom well you can't call them bushes they're rhizomes they're like a ginger or galangal or or
20:51turmeric and the cardamom pods actually grow right down near the ground and flowers pollinate they have
20:59bees to pollinate them and then they have these little green pods now tasting them I suddenly see
21:04yes of course they're rhizomes they taste to me a bit like galangal more than ginger but they've got
21:09that distinctive taste but of course when they're dried it becomes much more subtle no wonder they
21:15call them the queen of spices I mean it's wildly sort of it almost sort of teases you out of thought
21:22sometimes you sort of think gosh that's too much it's too perfumed and other times you think that's
21:28just what I need I mean like in a cup of chai I mean you've got to have cardamom or in some of
21:34those sweets those lovely sweets with vermicelli in them and lots of cooked milk and like paysam I
21:41think it's called just a tiny bit of cardamom it's it's it's subtle and it's absolutely the center of
21:47where it's all at well if cardamom is the queen of spices then pepper is certainly the king it's what
21:57started the Portuguese quest to the east beginning the spice route as we know it today these little
22:04corns are said to outsell all other spices put together and these hills provide a perfect growing
22:10environment lengthy monsoon rains high temperatures and good shade I mean look at that it's not a
22:20pepper tree there's no such thing as a pepper tree it's a vine most of the heat in Indian cooking comes
22:27from chilies now of course but there is nothing to beat pepper particularly in the cooking of southern
22:33India pepper really matters it really is the king of spices and thinking about it that trade you know
22:41boats coming from Europe to India and back again it would have been worth in today's values billions I
22:47had the chance to taste a local dish using the freshly harvested spices from the plantation Matthew the owner is
22:57cooking me a pork curry flavored with spices virtually growing outside the kitchen door Matthew like so many
23:05people in these highlands is a Syrian Christian they came across the Arabian Sea in the third century and
23:11realized that the land here was perfect for growing spices so here we are then the spices mustard cumin cloves
23:22crushed cinnamon and of course a couple of cardamom pods Matthew's already fried the pork with some
23:29shallots garlic cloves green chilies and sliced ginger tell me about cardamoms what why they're so important so
23:37it's one of those spices which when you sparingly is just fantastic it's just very subtle and nice but the
23:43moment you add a little extra it can get very all powering so but traditionally in Indian home cooking
23:51you add just maybe a one or two parts that's about it before serving he brings the curry to a simmer with
23:59water and finishes off by adding some tamarind and crushed coriander seeds this recipe is from his
24:05grandmother who Matthew says is the best cook he's ever known they all say that don't they simply because
24:12she created delicious dishes out of very few ingredients well looking forward to this
24:17it's totally delicious what I really like about it is it's very it's sort of simple it's very sort of
24:28it's got it's sort of vigorous it's fresh tasting pretty much what I liked about this dish is just a
24:34freshness of it you know it's just it's not what we would call masala fight as most Indian restaurant food
24:41is it's typically what Indian home cooking is all about dancing food you know it just dances on the
24:47plate I'm getting a bit carried away but that's the way I feel seeing all these cardamoms gave me an
24:59idea for what is probably South India's most popular dessert payasam it's a very simple dessert and actually
25:09after many many sticky Indian desserts I found this a total delight first of all you've got to
25:16reduce a lot of milk down to a very little and while that's happening in another pan add a teaspoon or so
25:25of ghee you need this to fry off some rice vermicelli which forms a starch base of this dessert
25:31cashew and pistachio nuts and a handful of raisins are also fried in ghee to garnish the finished dish
25:43once the milk is boiled simply add the fried vermicelli and a good amount of sugar but the main point of
25:55this dish is the cardamom use green cardamoms never black black cardamoms will give it a smoky flavor
26:02well one of the things that I really like to do filming here in India and collecting recipes is to
26:14find things that I actually want to cook at home and this is one of them it is a lovely lovely sweet
26:21just a little bit of ice cold cream beautifully flavored with cardamom yum
26:36popular holiday destinations mark out I think great chunks of social history package deals to Spain
26:44villas in Tuscany sheets in the perigord and now I think this is probably the latest rice barges with
26:52all mod cons in Kerala cruising through palm fringe backwaters with full air conditioning your very own
26:59cook sun deck and balcony they once brought rice from the paddies inland who just thought what a leap in
27:06imagination they'd be taking honeymoon couples on the holiday of a lifetime I suppose this is what
27:15Kerala is all about going in a boat up and down the backwaters it's a bit like the exotic version of
27:22the Norfolk broads I was thinking now you've got these sort of wide rivers going into big lakes but
27:28looking around it just sums up Kerala to me because I know I use this word a bit too often fecundity but
27:35it is so fertile and the water is teeming with fish with shrimps with prawns with crabs you name it
27:46and fringing the water you've got coconuts beyond that the rice paddies and what I've eaten so far
27:58in Kerala it's just simple food that takes advantage of all these local ingredients not
28:04just the fresh vegetables and seafood and fish but also the spices from from the Gat mountains
28:11further east those lovely cardamom cinnamon coriander all those wonderful spices which are supposed to be
28:20the best in all of India I can watch fishermen all day long it's timeless basic and magical this guy's
28:35catching the most popular fish here it's called karameen and lots of little cafes along the backwaters
28:41serve it with masala well we just stopped off for a coffee from filming and then catching karameen the
28:49famous fish of the Kerala backwaters and they just said would you like something to eat so I just had a
28:56look at this I'm in such a lovely advertisement menu so I said can we can we have some karameen fry
29:02please I'm really looking forward to that they said would you like some prawns too so these are
29:08the prawns I mean cool I mean this is a bobby dazzler of a prawn so I said to them is there any
29:16chance we could film them and because you know it'd be so good to be out there watching them come in
29:21they said well they only do them at night well we can't film that you wouldn't be able to see them
29:24so he said well do you fancy cooking some for us as well so we're gonna have them fried I was a bit
29:31peckish so they ended up making two dishes for me starting with these giant prawns that were fried
29:38with onions tomatoes and curry leaves when the prawns have taken on color he puts in freshly ground garam
29:46masala ground cumin turmeric and more curry leaves I think this is a prawn curry by which other prawn
29:53curries may be measured what they're doing now is cooking the karameen fry that's the one that's
30:00just coated in the masala with corn flour in the masala we've got garlic ginger chili ground pepper
30:06cumin turmeric corn flour and lemon juice you won't be able to get the karameen at home but it would
30:14work really well with bass or bream and of course what's really important it's got to be fried in
30:20coconut oil the guy helping us out here on the backwaters is Floyd no not that one but he was
30:28brought up here and he's also a chef he worked in the Middle East in Bahrain any food in Kerala if you
30:35go to any house they don't serve you with fork or knife or spoon you have to eat it with your hand let's go
30:42then you start you start you start from yeah let's just see what it's like mmm what a good fish now that
30:51tastes almost like a like a sea a sea fish fish you the way it's cooked is wonderful this is a carameen
30:58fry carameen fry yes this is the one which you have but you know when you're having a small function like
31:04you're sitting with your friends you're having a beer or wine they serve you this and this fish the
31:11the carameen is is the most famous fish yeah sure it's famous fish in Kerala you can go anywhere in
31:17Kerala and but most in Alipi you come to Alipi yeah they ask for curry mean tell me this what dish would
31:24you be most homesick for when you were cooking over in in Arabia the most dish which makes me whole
31:30likes homesick which I feel like eating yeah it's fish molly and prawn prawn curry because whenever
31:38I leave Bahrain when I before I could leave there I call my mother and I tell her mommy I want this
31:43too so she keeps it ready for me I can see what Floyd means this prawn curry certainly didn't disappoint
31:52it was bursting with the flavors of pepper chili cumin and the restaurants homemade garam masala
31:59words fail me I mean just looking at those problems when they were raw I was just thinking this is going
32:09to be fabulous I mean I just love seafood and that is spectacular and what I really like is of course the
32:18most to me the most important ingredient in Kerala is coconut Kerala means land of coconut and the
32:28coconut oil flavor in this is superb toddy is very important in Kerala it's not just for the tourists the
32:48toddy shops are to the locals what our local is to us the toddy comes from the nectar of the coconut
32:57palm bud and this is a bit complicated so bear with me as I had a couple of glasses of this magic nectar
33:05before witnessing this first of all this chap climbs the palm and then beats one of these huge buds in order
33:14to get the sap to rise and then it looks like he's already cut off the top of one bud which he rubs
33:24with a bit of mud this I was told promotes the rise of the nectar which starts to drip almost straight
33:32away and that's captured in the clay pot it's then left overnight and collected first thing in the morning
33:39it'll start to ferment straight away and by lunchtime will be quite alcoholic and yet quite pleasant to
33:46drink but towards the end of a hot afternoon it'll be absolutely lethal Floyd the chef and my guide here
33:56insisted that I visit a local toddy shop he said you can't say you've been to Kerala without having a
34:03glass of toddy to which I replied well all right then before you could drink the toddy yeah you have
34:11to pull a little bit first oh thank I thought this must be drinking out just a little bit yeah you wash it
34:18you wash it and just that's the style before you could drink toddy right that so now how much do you put in
34:27there you put full and the first glass yeah you have to take it full I've never tasted it before what
34:37what if I don't like it you have to if you're if you're in a toddy shop I have to you have to it goes
34:44like this cheers cheers
34:48crikey that's not bad actually that's you start with the toddy because it takes a starting trouble
35:03it seemed like the engine right you've got it you've got you've got me fill the cover and then
35:11you know by the time you started yeah you keep on going for so this is fresh this morning this
35:19yeah the fresh in the morning god I mean it's very very it takes quite healthy right yeah it's good for
35:25health because it doesn't give you a kick very fast like the other alcohol yeah you know like whiskey
35:31whiskey brandy they give it a kick very fast just tell me though that I've heard you know there's not
35:37people don't like toddy shops or they've got a bad reputation what why is that then actually the
35:42reputation the bad reputation came from another state they used to had chemicals extra chemical
35:49for us to get the kick like what chemicals oh it's like what they say unamerican that means for the
35:55elephant you know to sleep they could they put it tranquilizers yeah elephants are mighty ones we are
36:04just small so they put a little bit more quantity yeah that affects us anything else you know they
36:12put this one only oh they say that wow but this is pure this is pure thank goodness for that otherwise
36:19that have been in serious trouble
36:34such a pleasant place to cook I've just been watching the cormorant catching eels in the water
36:45out there it's very peaceful but back to business going to do a keral and pork curry which in a way it's a
36:53bit like a go and vindaloo because it's pork with lots of spices and vinegar but first of all I'm going to
37:00mash up some ginger and garlic I don't have a stone to do this on I've got a very nifty Indian mixer to do
37:10it and it takes seconds well it takes seconds if the electricity is on but we have electricity for
37:18only part of the day fortunately it's on at the moment because we're right out in the middle of
37:23nowhere now for marinating my pork first of all a teaspoon of sir chili then an equal amount of
37:34turmeric and lastly and most importantly because of the Portuguese influence about a tablespoon of
37:42toddy vinegar which is made from coconut nectar now just leave that for a few minutes while I move over to
37:48my pressure cooker and mess around with it everybody uses pressure cookers here actually I'm really
37:54frightened of them I always think they're going to explode and I'll just remember when we used to have
37:58one in in Trevon when Chalky was alive and he'd be out the door like a long dog and he was only a short
38:05dog whenever the pressure cooker came out because he just really worried about the whistles but
38:13actually the way they describe cooking this curry here is the number of whistles and this is a four
38:18whistle curry so just take the lid off here and now I think my marinade did pork is about ready to go in
38:25there we go just apply a bit of heat I love these I love gadgets this is really the best gas lighter I've
38:36ever come across just got it in the market so just add a little bit of water to that about two three
38:43hundred millilitres here we are and then on with the lid and we wait now till the first whistle
38:55so while I'm waiting I will make the masala which I'm going to finish the pork dish off with just add
39:05some coconut oil and some onions sliced onions and I'm just going to cook those for about 10 minutes
39:11on a moderate heat so they get really soft and golden brown now they're looking pretty lovely so
39:18now I'm going to just add my paste from whizzing up such a good machine this it just does a wonderful job
39:29should we have one something like that back home okay just stir that in
39:35first whistle that's all you get it's not a whistle it's more like a snake's hiss but we are in India
39:43so first whistle I've got three more to go before my pork is done my gosh that was a bit quick was that
39:54the second whistle or was that the continuation of the first whistle oh hang on I forgot to turn
39:59the heat down just remember the instructions if all else fails read the instructions okay that's good
40:06the tomato is cooking down very nicely the next going to add some salt oh
40:11next coriander powder then my homemade garam masala just love it cumin seeds and finally black pepper
40:33now I just feel a bit embarrassed to say that I'm a bit hot it might show on my shirts
40:38um it's so hot it's got to be like 90 plus humidity in about 30 32 to 35 that's the fourth one so I've
40:51just got to leave that now just finish about my shirts um we were just talking earlier because
40:55I've only got one shirt today I should have bought three shirts all the same then I could you know have
41:01one drawn while the other ones I'm wearing the other one we've been now filming for about 17 years
41:06it's only just occurred to us that would be a good idea particularly in India where you can get
41:11shirts made overnight for about you know two quid not hard we are foolish now about this I'm just a
41:20bit nervous I mean I've been reading instructions you've got to wait for this bit to sink down to
41:24there because there's no way I'm going to attempt to open it until one everything seems safe
41:30that should be all right but this is you still think this is the moment where everything explodes
41:42all over the roof but of course it doesn't does it baby oh no problem perfect good right we'll just
41:53add that to my um masala now bring that to the boil and then I'll just stir in some curry leaves and
42:03chopped coriander and it will be done give it a taste oh I tell you what I tell you what I do like my
42:18vinegar I have missed it in all these weeks we've been in India a little bit of vinegar in this just
42:25transformed that that's a proper Indian curry it was by sheer fluke that coaching became one of the
42:51most famous spice ports in India because a massive tsunami in the 14th century swept away the landmass
42:58that blocked its way to the sea the Chinese for centuries traded here and as a legacy left behind
43:07their famous lantern fishing nets that still work amazingly well even the name Cochin sounds Chinese
43:21but it was the Portuguese that turned it into such a thriving trading port and wherever the Portuguese went
43:46they were soon followed by the Dutch and then a few years later by the British it's a historical pattern
43:53that repeats itself all over India just cruising past the waterfront here in Cochin it's really easy to
44:01imagine what it would have been like 500 years ago teeming with boats everybody's scrambling to get hold of the
44:09black gold pepper and just getting one cargo back to Europe was worth a fortune you could virtually retire
44:17and live the life of Riley after that it wasn't just about its pepperiness about the flavor of pepper it was
44:24also a great preservative and valued for its medicinal qualities it was that valuable as records at the time of
44:33people cutting ground black pepper for things like mustard husks juniper berries and even floor sweepings
44:40well this is the oldest Christian church in India in fact Vasco da Gama who bought European culture to
45:00India was buried here for some time Vasco deserves serious mention in the history of curry because the
45:08Portuguese bought all those fabulous things from South America chilies of course but also potatoes
45:15tomatoes cashew nuts and the Portuguese established the first European trading post in India here in
45:23Kerala and that became the envy of everyone else the Dutch of course and then the British and fortunes
45:30were made on the back of it yeah yeah very hot some Malaysian students were intrigued by our interest in this
45:37um where are you filming here oh we're filming here because Vasco da Gama was buried here for a while and
45:44and he arrived in Kerala and bought lots of produce from South America bought chili tomato
45:51potato cashew nuts and transform changed all the cooking where you from I'm from Malaysia Malaysia well
46:00whereabouts in Malaysia Malaysia I'm from Malacca Malacca yes same thing the Portuguese were in Malacca trade you
46:09know all the spice trade the pepper and the cardamoms and coriander between the East and the West Portuguese
46:16went there too oh so this is very important to us because it all started here
46:21what I always do when I get to a new place is I ask the locals where's the best place to eat here in Cochin they told me here what really heartens me is there's no European writing there heaven knows what it says
46:28except that I do know the place is called
46:53Chaput curry apparently you get really good fish curries there which I'm very interested in trying
47:00I really see it as part of my job on telly to take you to places like this it reminds me a bit of one of
47:08those Russell Flint watercolors the ones he painted in cavernous cellars the men at the back appealing prawns fresh from the backwaters
47:19and this cook is making the most popular dish here snakehead moral curry it's simply simmered in
47:27masala and the sides have been slashed to taking all the flavor of this classic South Indian dish looking at
47:34this it might be your idea of hell like all these fires the smoke the gloom but to me it's my idea of
47:43heaven and I would say to you think of pizzas where do the best pizzas come from they come from a wood
47:51far down the point about this whole kitchen is everything's fired by wood when I first came in
47:57here I thought well this is Cochin and that column very modern cities what why are they why are they using
48:03wood the reason is because they say it tastes different and I have to say if you don't think that
48:10the smell and the taste of smoke gets into the food you're totally wrong and I'm sure that I
48:16would never ever even though I'm writing down the recipes be able to recreate the taste of these
48:23curries precisely at all here is my old friend the carameen and they plaster it with this masala it's not
48:34for the faint-hearted you don't have to be a curry expert to know that this is loaded with chili and
48:41I've told pepper ginger garlic and a small amount of turmeric and coke and that gives us a lovely smoky
48:48taste and fried shallots and coconut milk the fish is then coated with this and wrapped in a banana leaf
48:56well this excuse my pronunciation is carameen police a tool I've had it before because I've been in
49:10Kerala for a while now but it's never been as good as this I was absolutely right the concentration of
49:17flavor the smokiness the deep intense redness of this local dish and the beautiful flavor of the fish
49:27is superb it reminds me of the first coming goer about 20 years ago when I tasted stuffed pomfret pomfret
49:36stuffed with a masala like this and my whole world changed I've never tasted anything it's changed again
49:47what would be interesting is that this would ideally be the location where even even historically
50:04they would have been storing spices and selling them from really yeah oh that looks good wow oh what a
50:11lovely smell I met up with Ajith he's quite an important chef around here running the kitchens in
50:18one of coaching's finest hotels he really knows his stuff especially about spices ah look at that this
50:30is the sort of place you dream of we'll just run through but what are we looking at here very very
50:36quickly yeah actually one of the most famous spices from Kerala the kardom I mean there are about three
50:42grades of kardom that you can see oh I can see that those are smaller smaller ones those are slightly
50:47bigger there's a medium size and these are most costless variety they're the biggest biggest versions
50:53possible and over here we got some mace isn't it yes absolutely yeah it's very good yeah so this would
51:00be actually the covering of of the nutmeg of the nutmeg now what they do is they they break it open and
51:06then they they would dry it like this and then once it once it's dried it separates I mean this is
51:12possibly the one of the best varieties that you would really and that's dried turmeric of course you'd much
51:19favor buying the dried turmeric hole like this then well then I would then I would need a mill of my
51:24my own to pound it into powder yes ideally that's what I would like to do but then I would have I have so
51:29much of spices to pound it it's too much it's too much so as a part of the local community what we
51:34do is I get my spices ground by one particular gentleman who is there in the community who
51:40grinds it for me he joins all my spices so you know what you're getting absolutely okay you must
51:44get very excited by all the quality here and what's it feel like to be in the same center of the spice
51:50trade almost it books puts a big responsibility on the shoulders yeah ensure that every customer or
51:56every guest who comes yeah is able to get a feel of that he's able to you know actually feel that
52:01we have we utilizing the spice and we're giving the best of the spices to them yeah I feel that
52:07responsibility more to to give that story to the customer and let them realize that you know this is
52:13the biggest thing that's happening here and they need to they need to feel it from the food I love
52:21stories about food especially if it's combined with a railway journey set in the old British Raj and
52:28now jeez told me this one about his famous first-class railway mutton curry are you sitting comfortably one day a
52:40British officer was traveling down the Malabar coast on a train and he was peckish and as the miles built
52:47up he became ravenous he followed his nose to the kitchen car and took a bowl of what was served up
52:54a mutton curry it was far too spicy and the cook wanting to please I did coconut milk to bring down the
53:04heat the officer enjoyed it so much he declared it fit enough for all railway first-class compartments
53:12hence first-class railway mutton curry I associate when you say to a lot of Indian people what's this
53:24gonna be like first class so in a hot pan vegetable oil and the whole spices bay leaves mace cinnamon black
53:38cardamom star anise and close then a pace whizzed up with fresh garlic and ginger next a generous amount of chopped onions
53:52We can start getting the flavor of the ginger and garlic and start getting the smell yeah it's lovely
54:01So Ajit I know the word curry doesn't mean a lot to you we use it in in UK to mean lots of Indian food but what would you say
54:11was the most important thing about a good curry? I would say it has to be something that has been braised slowly and cooked on slow fire
54:20Yeah and cooked with a lot of love and passion
54:23Okay
54:25It's very important you can't you can't make a curry in a jiffy
54:29You can't like you know bum bum bum bum put all the ingredients put it on high fire stir it and put it in a curry bowl and give it
54:35That just doesn't make a curry
54:37So Rick we're gonna put the spices in next
54:39Okay
54:41The most important part now we've got some chili powder we're using kashmiri chili powder lovely red color
54:48I learned that already and that is that's coriander powder
54:56A little bit of turmeric powder and a pinch of garam masala
55:01What you're gonna do is you're gonna just I'm gonna make a small paste of it yeah in hot water
55:15So that will drop the temperature of the pan a bit
55:20Why I put water in was because at this point of stage if I just taken the spices and put them in individually the spices would have burnt
55:29That's a really good bit of information and actually I've been filming a lots of curries
55:34That's the first time it's come up, but it makes a lot of sense to me it does it does
55:42Now the mutton these are shanks marinated in yogurt and tied with string to keep their shape
55:50Ajith explained to me that westerners are used to lamb shanks on the bone served like this rather than cut into smaller pieces
55:58Then Ajith put in cashew nut paste and a puree of fresh tomatoes to give it acidity
56:11So what happens next but now we're going to simmer it for the next four hours four hours. Yes
56:18Director will be pleased
56:20ah
56:28hey ricky fours class
56:50I've been to quite a few Indian cities now and this one is really smart very very tidy nice
57:05restaurants nice houses and just a really open feel about it I thought it was going to be a sort
57:12of tight place a little small streets like so many other parts of India but no it's like wonderful
57:19vegetation everywhere and also it's just paradise I suppose the first Europeans coming here apart
57:27from the scurvy on the way over and the disease they picked up must have thought it was like
57:32paradise and the beaches here are stupendous fringed with coconut palms and very unspoilt and
57:39the backwaters too really unspoilt I mean it's a delight I mean it really is after many many weeks
57:48of really really thugging it through India this is paradise my journey for the perfect curry continues
57:57and I can't wait to try things further north the city of Lucknow really famous for its architecture
58:04and the sophisticated food of its Muslim rulers there's some lovely treats in store it's also
58:10where I heard some strong opinions concerning Britain's legacy in the story of curry the worst
58:17thing that was ever produced and did a big disservice to Indian food is the madras curry powder absolutely
58:24horrendous stuff
58:37that's a mind-blasting curry Ricky
58:55you
59:00you
59:04you
59:06you
59:08you
59:10you
59:12you
59:14you
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