- 9 hours ago
The Cook Up with Adam Liaw Season 9 Episode 41
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00:00MUSIC
00:22Hello, I'm Adam Lear, and welcome to The Cook Up,
00:23a word-for-word remake of Mastermind Australia Season 7, Episode 53.
00:28On tonight's menu, Thai minced pork soup with glass noodles,
00:32the best smash burgers and green chilli chicken biryani.
00:35Let's meet our guests.
00:37Actor Ryan Kaur is adept on the big screen, the small screen
00:39and every screen in between.
00:40His credits include epic TV drama House of the Dragon,
00:43the chilling film Wolf Creek 2 and beloved Aussie comedy Kangaroo.
00:47Hello, Ryan. Hi, Adam. Thanks for having me.
00:50Condiment Queen and award-winning writer Rasheen Kaur
00:52knows how to perfectly balance food, flavour and fun.
00:56Now a chef at large, she previously worked at Etta, Lee Ho Fook and Smith & Daughters.
01:00Her new cookbook is Secret Sauce.
01:02Welcome back, Rasheen.
01:03Thank you so much.
01:04When you are writing a recipe, how do you come up with that recipe to write?
01:11Because I know you write for cookbooks, you write for good food,
01:13you write for a number of different places.
01:15Is it just like, oh, I've got an idea that's going down on paper?
01:17Yeah, a little bit, especially like I feel a lot more creative in the evening as well.
01:22It's just so at night, I'll just be sitting, it'll be like,
01:25maybe I'll be scrolling on the internet or I'll be like watching something.
01:27But generally, it'll be like a light bulb.
01:29It's always a light bulb moment.
01:31I think when you've got a catalogue of flavour in your palettes,
01:33then generally when you make those inferences, oftentimes it works.
01:38Amazing.
01:39Ryan, you've done some amazing roles from House of the Dragon
01:43to your new film Kangaroo.
01:46Is there a dream role that you would always want to play?
01:50Or that you would want to play in the future?
01:52A couple of the classics, like a couple of the classic playwrights.
01:55You know what I mean?
01:56I love Arthur Miller.
01:57I'd love to have a go at Biff, you know, in Death of a Salesman.
02:00I think a couple of like the iconic roles.
02:02I'd probably like to have a go at Hamlet.
02:03I'm probably getting to the age where I can probably play that now.
02:06Very cool.
02:07Like you're thinking more on stage or on the screen?
02:09I think so.
02:10In terms of like roles that you want to play, the iconic ones.
02:12You know, they're the best writers.
02:13They've been around, you know, for so long.
02:16It's sort of like, if you can raise to the writing, I think are the challenges.
02:19I never even thought about it that way.
02:21No more jokes.
02:23Every dish we make tonight will be seriously delicious.
02:27No smiles.
02:29Ryan, is there a dish that is the most seriously delicious dish
02:33that you have ever eaten?
02:36My mum's roast pork would be right up there.
02:38You know, at most birthdays, she'll sort of swing it out.
02:41She makes crackle like someone that's, you know, it's bubbling at the top
02:45and then you can rub it with a knife.
02:46So probably mum's roast pork would be...
02:48Applesauce?
02:49Gravy?
02:49What are we talking about?
02:50Both.
02:50Applesauce.
02:51It has to be a gravy boat because everyone in my family fights over it.
02:53You know what I mean?
02:54Beautiful.
02:54It's more like pork on gravy.
02:58Correct ratio.
02:59Rasheen, what about you?
03:01I mean, I've been very fortunate to eat a lot of many, many delicious things
03:04in my life, but I think, you know, I'm going to steal your answer
03:06with food from home.
03:07Probably my dad's to Brogan Josh.
03:10You know why I think you're both saying that?
03:13And when I think about it as well, it's what kind of sets the frame
03:16for what's delicious.
03:17It's not like, oh, I've eaten all these things and all of a sudden
03:19there was something delicious that came in.
03:21It's like you define deliciousness around those wonderful memories
03:25of childhood and then that's what you think deliciousness is
03:28for the rest of your time.
03:29Yeah.
03:30Tonight I'm making my seriously delicious Thai minced pork soup
03:33with glass noodles.
03:39All right.
03:40Pork mince.
03:43Where do you stand on mince, Rasheen?
03:46I love mince.
03:46Me too.
03:47Like, it's such an easy thing to, you know, have at home all the time
03:50because it's so versatile.
03:52And, you know, especially when you go to your butcher and you choose
03:54like different quantities of fat in it, you do so many different things.
03:57Yes.
03:58That's the one.
03:59That's what I'm talking about.
04:01We didn't even set that up, but that was exactly the answer
04:04I wanted for you because I think sometimes we're just like minces,
04:07minces, minces, minces.
04:07Minces are the best.
04:08But there's so many different, like, it's very important to get
04:12the right mince for the right job.
04:13Definitely.
04:13Because, you know, sometimes if you're making a burger,
04:16you want to mince with a bit of, you know, fat in it.
04:19Even in like the supermarket, you have the options of like extra lean,
04:22lean, regular, like, but at least now even it's easy to access
04:25for someone who like say doesn't go to the butcher.
04:27Yeah, right.
04:27You know, so you can always, you can get it now very easily.
04:30So this is coarsely minced fatty pork.
04:34Yum.
04:34The name of this dish in Thai is Geng Jood.
04:37I'm probably pronouncing it very badly.
04:39But what it essentially translates to is like a bland soup or a bland stew.
04:44Oh.
04:45And it's not bland.
04:46But what it is, is a lot lighter in flavour than, say, you know,
04:51a Thai curry.
04:52The same types of stews that we would call curries here.
04:56It's kind of the lighter version of that.
04:58So I'm going to start with the holy trinity of Thai cooking called the three friends.
05:04So coriander roots, some black peppercorns or white peppercorns and some garlic.
05:11And I'll just pound that together.
05:12So it was called the three friends.
05:14Yeah.
05:15That's great.
05:15That's way better than sofrito.
05:17Yeah, right.
05:18I mean, it exists in so many cuisines and in Thai cuisine is this.
05:22So I'm just going to pound that together and start to fry this.
05:26I could mix it in with the means.
05:29I could make it into meatballs.
05:30I could do all kinds of things.
05:31But I'm going to just do this in the simplest way possible.
05:34Ryan, there are quite a lot of Aussies like yourself killing it in Hollywood these days.
05:41Why is that?
05:43I think, you know, certainly Australian crews and our work ethic down here is pretty incredible.
05:47I notice when we have international films come down here from anywhere,
05:51they're sort of always taken aback by how much we can get done in how little time.
05:54You know, I think we're really renowned for that.
05:56I think also, you know, we have a certain quality to us.
05:59There's a larrikinistic, there's an ease.
06:02I think Australian and Irish do quite well strangely over in LA.
06:05Yeah, right.
06:06Is it because we're good at the accent too?
06:09Yeah.
06:09Well, yeah.
06:10You certainly have to be to have the career over there, you know.
06:12I have to say, like, sometimes you see an incredible actor and sometimes you see good actors.
06:18You very rarely see bad actors these days.
06:23Am I mistaken in that?
06:25Or maybe we're just watching more premium kind of stuff?
06:27Maybe.
06:28I mean, we certainly think there's a lot more content around, you know, since streamers and things like that,
06:32we're flooded with it.
06:34And I think it used to be that a lot of those bigger jobs are sort of safe for the
06:37cinema.
06:38Yeah.
06:38And so I think we're seeing a lot of, you know, filmic actors that we've sort of seen in films
06:42growing up now,
06:43moving over into the sort of streaming.
06:45But I think it also, I think it changes with time, you know.
06:48And I think kids these days, especially, they're surrounded by naturalism.
06:51Kids these days.
06:52Yeah, kids, which we're all one, you know.
06:54Yeah.
06:54And, you know, it's all about life and modern life for the most part.
07:01Right.
07:02And so I think we've sort of come up with that.
07:03Whereas back in the day, you know, it was Brando and De Niro that were doing all that for the
07:07first time.
07:08You know what I mean?
07:08When I hear actors talking about like the theory of acting, it's something I know nothing about.
07:12But when I hear it, it's like, oh, my God, there's really such a craft to it.
07:16Yeah.
07:17It's not like I'm good at it or I'm not good at it.
07:18It's like there's a craft to it that you've got to hone.
07:21So in here, I've fried off my mints, the three friends.
07:25I've put a few dried shrimp in there as well.
07:27I'm going to put a bit of chicken stock powder in because one of the beauties of this is once
07:32the liquid starts to come out of the place,
07:33I can just make this just with hot water.
07:35It's not something that we have to make some special stock for or anything.
07:38And it doesn't really feel like it's going to be a bland soup at this point, despite the name.
07:46In with some Chinese cabbage.
07:50And I just want to soften that.
07:51This is a really simple home style dish in Thai cuisine.
07:55One of the really important ingredients or the remaining important ingredients are things like silken egg tofu.
08:02I'm going to chop a few spring onions to put on the top at the end and some cellophane noodles.
08:07So these cellophane noodles, I'll just let the vegetables soften and then I'll snip these up and throw them in
08:12as well.
08:14Rasheen, had you not been a chef, where do you think you would have ended up?
08:19Well, I began my life studying to be a paleontologist.
08:24What?
08:25And that didn't last because it turns out it's actually not that interesting.
08:29I was just a huge Jurassic Park fan.
08:31It seemed like a good idea after I finished high school.
08:34And then I did psychology.
08:37You know, I think it was just, I was into it, but I wasn't really quite into it.
08:40So I think ultimately I would have hopefully found my way into food.
08:43But it's funny how I went in the most rogue directions first.
08:47There's something about the desire to learn, the curiosity.
08:50Yeah.
08:51I wonder if schooling does us a disservice.
08:55Like in the same way that your childhood memory of a delicious dish sort of primes you for what deliciousness
09:02means to you.
09:03We spend our childhoods dreading learning.
09:06Like we spend our childhoods dreading getting out of it.
09:08Oh, don't tell me I've got to go and learn about the entire world again today.
09:12You know, I think it's just that being forced.
09:14And then, you know, several years later when you're a little bit bigger and you're a bit older, you have
09:18interests.
09:19And you're like, okay, cool.
09:19I can, this actually isn't as much of a chore as you thought it was when you were a kid.
09:23It's a tough one because honestly I'm not knocking the education system at all.
09:27No.
09:27And the real difficulty is that learning about a subject matter doesn't mean that you're going to enjoy that process,
09:35I guess.
09:36In the same way that, you know, when I was a lawyer, everybody wants to be like a criminal lawyer
09:40because it's exciting and it's what you see.
09:42But the most sort of creative and exciting parts of law in some ways are the most, ones that sound
09:47the most boring.
09:48Like tax law is really interesting.
09:49Really?
09:50Criminal law, I think maybe the subject matter might be kind of TV worthy, but it's not exactly the most
09:55interesting part of the legal process.
09:57So I put my bits and pieces in, the noodles go in, they're going to soften very quickly.
10:03In with my egg tofu as well.
10:07Important part now is to taste it.
10:14Tastes really good.
10:16Tastes really good.
10:19For such a simple dish, that tastes really good.
10:21Not so bland.
10:22Not so bland.
10:22Three friends, not so bland.
10:24Yeah, not bland.
10:25It's more of a soupy dish than a noodle dish.
10:27So it's not sort of huge on the noodles, but oh.
10:31That was great.
10:32It's actually also really nice if you fry a bit of garlic.
10:35To start it?
10:37Well, to start it or even garlic oil to finish it is really quite lovely.
10:41But I'm just going to do this as simply as possible.
10:43Minced pork soup with glass noodles, the bland soup.
10:51It's a really simple soup.
10:53Oh, it's so good.
10:54Yeah, that fatty pork as well.
10:56In fact, a little bit quite crunchy.
10:58Well, I think for a lot of Thai dishes you want a really coarse mince.
11:02I think a lot of our supermarket mince is too fine for quite a lot of Asian cooking actually.
11:08Yep.
11:08Lots of flavour, not bland at all.
11:12After the break, Ryan and Rasheen will get cooking.
11:25Welcome back to The Cook-Up.
11:27Tonight my seriously talented guests, actor Ryan Caw and chef Rasheen Caw,
11:30are making seriously delicious dishes.
11:33Ryan, what are you making?
11:34I'm making the best smash burgers you've had in your life.
11:36OK, big call.
11:38And Rasheen, how about you?
11:39I'm making green chilli chicken burgonni.
11:41I think I'm going to enjoy today.
11:52Rasheen, there is an awful lot of chilli and various things happening around here.
11:56There is.
11:57Well, you can't call it green chilli chicken burgonni and not put chilli in it.
12:00But the greenness really is more like a herb greenness as well.
12:04Yeah, OK.
12:04So this is a bit of an amalgamation of two dishes that I really love.
12:09I love green chilli chicken.
12:10Sure.
12:10Which is a type of curry.
12:12Yep.
12:12And this is an untraditional way to do a burgonni.
12:15Because normally you want to use one of the red curries to do a burgonni.
12:20But I'm using a green one.
12:21Because it's so lovely and herbaceous and it's been quite rich burgonni, you know?
12:25I love burgonni.
12:28Oh.
12:28But there are, the varieties across India are essentially endless.
12:33Because you've got all of the different regional ones.
12:35And then you've got different, I guess, local ones.
12:38Yep.
12:38But you know, I like to use the technique of burgonni as a jumping off point.
12:43Cool.
12:43You know, essentially, if you use any delicious saucy thing.
12:46Yes.
12:47And build par-cooked rice on top.
12:49Layer it with lovely, like, fried alliums.
12:51Put saffron.
12:52Maybe don't.
12:53But you know, it's sort of like a really great way to do a baked rice.
12:56Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:57So you're frying onions.
12:57You've got lots of chopped chillies here.
12:59I do.
13:00I was naughty and I blended these up.
13:02Yeah.
13:02So normally you'd be obviously hand chopping all these onions and the chillies.
13:06But I've just coarsely blitzed it up.
13:08Because you know, you want all that aroma and that, you know, when you bruise it,
13:11especially with Indian food generally, it's really aromatic.
13:14So you don't need to worry about those clean sliced flavours.
13:16Fantastic.
13:17I love it.
13:18Lots of spices going on over there.
13:21Lots of spices.
13:21What's in here?
13:22So that's the green part.
13:23Okay.
13:24So this is essentially a coriander mint chutney.
13:26Uh-huh.
13:26So we've got coriander and mint.
13:28Lots of coriander, lots of mint.
13:30We've got red onion, heaps of green chillies and lime juice.
13:33Can I hit the...
13:34You can.
13:34It might need a bit of water to blend.
13:36Might not.
13:36See how we go.
13:37See how we go.
13:39Yeah, thank you.
13:39Water?
13:40Yes.
13:41Just to help it get going.
13:42So what's the process that's going to happen in the pot?
13:44So we're building all the flavour on the pot, right?
13:46So for now, I'm frying the onions, which we'll layer through the rice.
13:50Then this pot is going to have all that chicken cooking into it and essentially catching on the bottom as
13:55well.
13:56Right.
13:56And the moisture from that chicken is going to steam through the rice and we're going to stir it through
14:00at the end.
14:01Yeah.
14:02That looks great.
14:03I like this.
14:04Look, it's beautiful.
14:05I like this.
14:07Okay.
14:08So now I've added ghee now.
14:11Ghee?
14:11A whole bunch of spices.
14:12A whole bunch of spices.
14:14Because of course, you know, we're layering all those lovely flavours.
14:17At the end, it doesn't taste like any particular spice, right?
14:19Yeah.
14:19It just tastes like yum.
14:21Uh-huh.
14:21But the ghee is a non-negotiable.
14:23So is this getting built in the same one?
14:28I'm just trying to get an idea of what the process is.
14:31Yeah.
14:31It's all getting built in here.
14:32The par-cooked rice, the chicken.
14:35Essentially, we're making the curry here.
14:37We're putting the rice on top.
14:37We're shutting the lid and steaming it.
14:39Oh, very interesting.
14:40Yeah.
14:40Pretty straightforward.
14:41There's just a lot of ingredients.
14:43But once it comes together, it makes sense.
14:44Absolutely.
14:45In that case.
14:46Don't be afraid.
14:47I'm going to walk away before I start coughing.
14:48Don't be afraid.
14:49Enjoy.
14:52All right, Ryan.
14:53Bacon are fried.
14:55Bacon are fried.
14:55Nice and crispy.
14:57We're making smash burgers.
14:59Wow.
14:59But, you know, with a slight twist.
15:01So I, too, we were talking about mince a little bit earlier.
15:03I make sure that I get a mince from the butcher that's got an 80-20 sort of fat.
15:07I've done tours around the States trying to sample burgers all around the place.
15:11I'm a bit of a burger connoisseur.
15:12They do them very well over there, I have to say.
15:14They do.
15:14I like a fish and chip shop burger.
15:16And I like, you know, Australian wherever we are.
15:18This is a bit of barbecue sauce, a bit of mayonnaise, a bit of pickle juice.
15:23Lovely.
15:24And we'll put a bit of chopped pickle in there, too, I think.
15:26That's our burger sauce.
15:27We'll go with burger sauce.
15:29Obviously, it's personal preference.
15:31You can go mustard and tomato if you prefer.
15:33Cooked onion, non-cooked onion.
15:35It's about colour.
15:36It really is choose-your-own-adventure when it comes to a burger,
15:38because there are so many different ways to do it.
15:39You can load them up Australian-style, you can have them pretty basic American-style.
15:43Yeah, I like the smash.
15:45It's all about the lattice around, so once we smash it, you sort of get it all-
15:48Yeah, right.
15:49Much more on one side.
15:50Oh, okay, like using these guys and really pushing them.
15:52Yeah, and getting those edges nice and crispy, you know,
15:54before you flip it just briefly.
15:56It really is a bit of art to the burger, you know?
15:57It's not just as simple as we've been.
16:00Fair enough, fair enough.
16:01Gonna make sure some buns are getting toasted.
16:05Great.
16:06Three buns, three of us.
16:07This is all working out very well.
16:09Hey.
16:11Rasheen.
16:12Hello.
16:12Okay, so the chicken, tomato, everything's gone in there.
16:14That looks fantastic.
16:15Yes, so it's kind of like braised.
16:16Yes.
16:17And what we've done is we've created that really delicious gravy.
16:19Uh-huh.
16:20Because this is what's gonna essentially, so the rice has been par-cooked.
16:22Yeah.
16:23Just a couple of minutes just to have a bit of bite, because we wanted to give it enough,
16:27just give it a little bit of a head start, but you want to use all that steam and moisture
16:30with the flavour to really cook it all the way through.
16:32Right, and that's basmati rice.
16:33This is basmati rice.
16:33So it's, when you say par-cooked, it's like you boil it for a bit and then you drain it.
16:37Yeah, so it's been boiled for exactly three minutes.
16:39Oh, exactly.
16:39So what you can still do is you can still snap it.
16:42Yeah.
16:42Oh, okay.
16:43Yeah, so I've just popped some coconut milk in there.
16:45So my family, and when I eat Indian for generally, so my dad's from Kashmir, so more around the
16:50region of North India.
16:51Yes.
16:51This is more South Indian.
16:53Yes.
16:53Because obviously there are no coconuts in the North of India.
16:56But I find that it is a lot more, there's a lot more body and deliciousness in this
17:01if you use coconut.
17:03Yeah.
17:03Fantastic.
17:04Let's do it.
17:04Would you like to add the greenness?
17:06How much of this do we add?
17:07All of it.
17:07Whoa.
17:08Okay.
17:09Can't call it green chicken curry.
17:12That is certainly green.
17:14This looks so good.
17:16It's beautiful.
17:16I mean, as is, it's ready to go.
17:18Wow.
17:18So you don't have to make it into biryani.
17:20Like as a dish, this on rice with naan, whatever you like, it's good, but I just thought
17:24it would be cooler to cook some rice in the flavour.
17:27And that was garam masala you just added?
17:28That was garam masala, just right at the end.
17:29Yeah.
17:30Garam masala is, I guess, most usually added towards the end of cooking or right at the end
17:35of cooking stirred through.
17:36Yeah.
17:36Because you want to taste it.
17:37Yeah.
17:37You want that final aroma.
17:38You know, it's like five spice.
17:40You want to actually taste it.
17:41All right.
17:42So this is actually heaps and heaps more gravy than you'd normally have for a biryani.
17:45Okay.
17:46I don't know.
17:46That's okay.
17:47We're still going to layer it.
17:48And it's still going to be good.
17:56Very cool.
17:58And then we do.
18:01See, this is the secrets of biryani in my opinion.
18:04The crispy onions.
18:05Yes.
18:06So like what you want to do really is you want to layer the onions and the rice ideally.
18:10Yeah.
18:10But if you want to like approach it like a lasagna, like rice.
18:14Yeah.
18:14Rice, saffron, milk, onions, rice, saffron, milk, onions.
18:18Right.
18:18And then that is the way.
18:20And then you've got that milk that's been, well, saffron that's been soaked in milk.
18:24Saffron's soaked in milk.
18:25And I mean, people are just like, my God, saffron's so expensive.
18:27It's so expensive.
18:27But you need the tiniest, tiniest amount.
18:30Especially when you're using good quality saffron.
18:32Like you need your, like what, three, four threads?
18:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:35Is more than you need.
18:36You know, if you're using like a thumb amount, then you're using way too much.
18:40This is a really, really cool dish, Rasheen.
18:42I cannot wait to try it.
18:46All right, Ryan.
18:48I've strategically placed myself on this side because this smashing part can sometimes get a little hairy.
18:53I think it can.
18:55And we've got the proper smasher this time.
18:57So we're going to get a real, really nice and flat.
18:59So we try and get a bit of a lattice on those edges.
19:02Hopefully.
19:06Just like that.
19:06Oh, that looks beautiful.
19:08That's it.
19:08You've done this before.
19:09I've done this once or twice.
19:10They'll shrink a little.
19:11So it's all right if they look a little big straight away.
19:14The thing I love about the smash burger is actually, it's kind of similar to when you cook with a
19:20wok.
19:20There's this thing called wok hay.
19:22It's like this charred flavour of wok cooking.
19:25And what it actually is, it's not so much char like you would get on a steak or a burger.
19:29It's actually the oil from the wok.
19:31And firstly, you infuse the aromatics into it.
19:34And then when you toss the wok, that oil slightly vaporises, slightly catches fire.
19:39And then that, I guess the smoky flavour of that falls back into the wok.
19:43And you kind of get that with the smash burger.
19:45Because when you smash it around those latticey edges, you can see it sort of slightly almost igniting and sizzling
19:52around the edge.
19:52You get all the fat.
19:53We've got all that bacon fat, of course.
19:54Yeah, lovely.
19:55And if I'm using lean mince, if I don't have time to go to the butcher and get a combination
19:58with a bit more fat, 70-30 or 80-20, you can just use duck fat in the pan to
20:02sort of try and get the same sort of like crispiness.
20:04It's pretty gourmet.
20:06And just a little bit of barbecue rub.
20:07We're going on top of the salt and pepper.
20:08Oh, nice.
20:09Just a little bit.
20:10Because I'm very much a salt and pepper, well, salt and pepper guy when it comes to burgers.
20:13This is a cool idea.
20:14Barbecue rub on the burgers.
20:16A little barbecue rub and a Texas twang.
20:18Lovely and crisp.
20:19And we return.
20:20A seriously delicious tasting time.
20:22And I'll answer and ask Adam a question about tears from an onion.
20:36Welcome back to a seriously delicious night on The Cook Up.
20:39Ryan Cora and Rasheen Cora aren't messing around.
20:41Ryan, nearly ready?
20:43Nearly ready.
20:44Rasheen, how is the briyani looking?
20:46Shall we check?
20:47Yes.
20:49That looks amazing.
20:50Excellent.
20:51See all the rice is pointing upwards?
20:53Yeah.
20:53That's because it's doing this.
20:55It's ready to go.
20:56We scatter a few of these things on there.
20:59Yeah.
20:59Corina stem, coriander leaf.
21:00Oh, what a...
21:00This is a great green briyani.
21:06Ryan.
21:07Man.
21:09My goodness.
21:10These burgers look absolutely bloody sensational.
21:14They really do.
21:15You should call these request burgers.
21:16I think they're like...
21:18Oh.
21:19Look at that.
21:19That's the platonic ideal of a burger.
21:21You know?
21:22And I think every now and then, the comfort food.
21:23Someone's had a bit of a day.
21:25I'll get asked,
21:25Risey, can you make me one of these Risey burgers?
21:28Yeah, right.
21:28And we'll sort of start and finish like this.
21:30And you know, the order's up to you.
21:31I think, you know, we could possibly go lettuce, meat, then tomato, onion, but you know.
21:35Well, you can spend the rest of the evening talking about that.
21:37I'm just going to eat them.
21:38My goodness.
21:39Best smashed burgers and green chilli chicken briyani.
21:53And it's a good burger.
21:54Mmm.
21:55Crispy enough for the edges.
21:56Mmm.
21:56It's a juicy burger.
21:57Mmm.
21:58It's the onion draped over the tomato for me.
22:01As somebody who's not a fan of the medium rare burger, I actually don't like them at all.
22:05Mmm.
22:06This is fantastic.
22:07Beautiful.
22:09Rasheen, the briyani looks great.
22:12It smells amazing.
22:13It does smell amazing.
22:13When you put the lid off over there, you can smell all of the spices.
22:17Very aromatic.
22:18Who would have thought something that you put roughly 40 chillies into would end up being spicy?
22:23I don't think that's too bad.
22:25But it's alright, right?
22:26Yeah.
22:26It's warm.
22:28Oh yeah.
22:28It's warm.
22:29For me, it's pretty hot.
22:30Tonight we have an Ask Adam question from Rishi.
22:33Hi Adam.
22:34I'm Rishi and I'm from New York City.
22:36Every time I cut onions, I cry.
22:38But I heard that putting a wet paper towel next to you while you're cutting them helps
22:43that.
22:43Is this true?
22:45Thank you for your question, Rishi.
22:47I hadn't actually heard that one before, but I'm always willing to try it out.
22:51So I've got my wet towel here.
22:53I will say, I don't really know how this could work.
22:58That said, I'm a man of science and so therefore we will try it out.
23:03So I'm cutting my onion.
23:04I'm going to keep cutting it.
23:08You know what?
23:09I'm not crying, but I'm not sure if this is doing much to it.
23:15No, I can actually start to feel the onion coming up to my eye now.
23:21I'm trying to think of how this might be true.
23:23It's supposed to do something to do with the volatiles being attracted to moisture.
23:28Okay.
23:29Because I saw a theory, which is nonsense, where you stick your tongue out while you're
23:33slicing onions and it gets attracted to your tongue instead.
23:35Oh, okay.
23:36But I mean, this is all theory.
23:38It might actually be more effective.
23:40This is cold water.
23:40If it was hot water and there was steam coming up here, I actually think that would work rather
23:47than cold water.
23:47It would capture all the molecules and it would drop again because it's heavy.
23:49And sort of dissolve them and bring them back down.
23:53Maybe that could be the case.
23:54Well, I want to ask Rasheen first.
23:55What's your advice?
23:56Sharp knife.
23:57Yeah.
23:57Because if you don't crush it, then you don't get any of those, that release of all of that,
24:01those.
24:01Yeah.
24:02They're essentially defense chemicals.
24:04The onion is telling you, it's in distress.
24:06Somebody's trying to kill me with a knife.
24:08Well, you know, I've cut, you know, kilos and kilos and kilos of onions with a sharp knife.
24:12Truly, you do not cry.
24:14Yeah.
24:14And I also think actually my advice as well is just to buy your onions a little bit earlier.
24:19Oh, I was going to say buy them cut.
24:22No, because basically the onion straight out of the ground is going to have, it's going
24:26to have a lot of that defense mechanism to it.
24:28As it ages in your pantry, it's going to have less will to live in some way.
24:34So it's going to defend itself a little.
24:35This is sounding really bleak.
24:37But it's scientifically accurate.
24:39It's willing to die.
24:40Yeah.
24:40So if you keep the onions in your pantry or even in your fridge for a week or two before
24:45you cut them, you're going to have much less of that volatility making you cry.
24:49Also, it helps move fast.
24:50Yeah.
24:51Move fast.
24:52Good ventilation.
24:52I've worn sunglasses before.
24:53Yeah.
24:54Lean this far away from the bench and trying to avoid it.
24:56Full scuba suit.
24:57Cut them outside.
24:57You know, there's many options.
24:59Put a fan there blowing.
25:01The world's your oyster, Rishi.
25:03Thank you very much for your question.
25:04Ryan, Rasheen, thank you so much for joining me here.
25:06This has been really, really delicious.
25:08And actually, that briyani, even though it's hot, is absolutely stunning.
25:11And that's probably the best burger we've ever had a year on the show.
25:14Oh, fantastic.
25:15Nice.
25:16Certainly the best soup.
25:18Cooking is serious business, but try out our recipes and I promise you, you'll be laughing
25:23at how seriously delicious tonight's recipes are.
25:25If you want more of The Cook Up and more delicious food ideas, follow SBS Food on socials.
25:29I'm Adam Leal.
25:30Thank you for watching The Cook Up.
25:45I'm Adam Leal.
25:45Thank you for watching The Cook Up.
25:47The Cook Up.
25:47.
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