(upbeat jazz music)
- Hello everyone, and welcome to the channel.
- Now, you know that we love to put our chef mate Ebers
under a little bit of pressure.
So we thought, why not broaden our horizons
explore the world and the alphabet
all in one handy nifty video.
- What is your problem?
Ebers, in front of you is a spinny wheel
with a bunch of countries beginning with the letter B.
There are a few more than we could fit
onto the spinny wheel.
So we put 'em into a random generator.
We put the remaining ones on the board.
(wheel spinning) - There's no "Spin Again".
Every sector is filled.
Oh, could have had Benin.
It's Brunei.
- Brunei. - We're off to Brunei.
- Brunei is a tiny nation on the island of Borneo,
in two distinct sections
surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea.
- Wow. Okay.
- That's gonna be some good food.
- Yep. I still know very little about the country
and therefore I'm again excited.
- Well, I'm glad that you don't know much about the country.
What I'm hoping is
that you know something about the country and the cuisine.
We're gonna put out some posts on social media
asking for your help.
Do you live there? Have you lived there?
Have you been there? Have you eaten the cuisine?
Let us know, and we will try to cook up a dish from Brunei.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Okay. So it's been a week.
We've pulled together a whole lot of research,
loads of tips and suggestions from you guys.
Thank you very, very much.
And we can reveal
that the dish that the community
would like you to make from Brunei is...
- Ambuyat. - Ambuyat?
- No. Nothing. - Nope. No.
- Well, this is gonna be fun.
- Should we give 'em some tips?
- Yeah. - Okay.
So here's the description.
Ambuyat comes from within the trunk of the sago palm.
It's eaten using chandas
and dipped in different varieties
of local sauces and side dishes.
For those of you at home, here is a photo.
Ooh, you do have all the ingredients that you need
and you will need to use all of them.
- We know that this is the starch from the...
- Sago - Because it's here.
It's written, and we just have to cook this.
What I don't know is what we cook it in.
- What is it? (Jamie laughing)
- It... Well, it's a starch.
So I'm guessing it cooks like a porridge.
We've only eaten this once.
- Halo Halo. - In ice cream?
- Yeah, that dish had sago pearls, like tap...
It's like tapioca, but it's not tapioca.
- Step one is make the ambuyat.
- So for a bit of context
this dish was created during World War II,
when Brunei was underneath Japanese control.
The Japanese soldiers were rationed food first
before the Bruneians.
And what that meant was that quite a lot of the time
there wasn't enough food to go around.
So the Bruneians had to try and find
the food that they could by going into the forest
and becoming incredibly inventive.
This incredible two ingredient ambuyat
is a beautiful result of that dark time.
- Think about sago, similarly to corn starch.
We have a tip from the community to help you along.
- The key is cold water to loosen,
then boiling water slowly
until the perfect texture is achieved.
(upbeat music)
- What is happening? (Jamie laughing)
It isn't behaving like any other flour I've ever used.
- One and a half times as much boiling water.
- Oh my...
So you move it and it's all solid
but soon you like, let it relax.
It comes to life. (all laughing)
- You have to stir it slowly.
I wonder if you're supposed to be
stirring it with these maybe as well.
- Oh, okay. - There we go.
There we go. - Maybe.
- Oh that makes more sense.
You want less surface area to stir it.
- I'm intrigued.
'Cause I think what we're gonna end up with
is a really thick porridge-like consistency.
You could run across the surface of this.
You just couldn't stand on it.
- Woo - Non-Newtonian
- Oh, now it's completely gone.
If we went from being... Now, I look stupid.
I think put over the stove.
You've gotta cook this out. - Gotta now cook this out.
I'm,... you must have to cook it out.
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This, we know how corn starts behaves.
So in my head, loosen it in cold water
and then whisk it into hot liquid.
We've got a cloudy slurry at the moment.
I think what we want is a translucent paste.
(Jamie laughing) - This is so odd to watch.
No one wanted to do that.
None of us wanted... - Not a requirement.
- (mumbling) This isn't right.
I got a clumpy bit, a small clump that has a chew.
It needs a chew.
- He's really going to town on that, isn't he?
- Second time lucky.
- Let's do it in a smaller batch and just see how we get on.
Make it lump free. Now just thinking...
Exactly as I would thicken any sauce with cornstarch.
Let's go again.
But this time we are adding more hot all at once.
And... stop.
It's not gone translucent.
So we're just doing half.
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.
We might be getting somewhere.
- I'll tell you what.
Seeing as step one
was a lot more complicated than we thought.
Ebers, do you wanna stick with step one?
Baz, you can move on to step two...
- Okay. - Of two.
Make the Cha Chah. So the side dips.
- Nope. - Sauces.
- Nope. Nope. - And dishes
are called the Cha Chah.
- The Cha Chah? - The Cha Chah.
We are looking for a Tempoyak sauce
which is fermented durian with shallots,
either coconut milk or lots of chilies and lime.
When it's done right
it will taste like a spicy mayonnaise dip.
We'd also like a Cha Chah dip
a spicy fermented, very umami dip.
You have everything you need there.
Fried fish with a vibrant dressing
and stir fried cow choy with beam sprout and okra.
You have some ballechin, garlic and fresh chilli as well.
- The next tip for the Cha Chah
is straight out of my rule book.
The Cha Chah provides all the flavour for this dish.
Big, bold variety of flavours is key.
- Durian already has a funk.
Fermented durian, I'm excited for.
- Ebers how are you doing on step one?
- I'm getting closer, but I'm also gonna fry some up fish.
We've got some mackerel and some sardines.
- Mm. - Shallot.
- This region has one of the richest
and most varied spices and chilies in the world.
Bruneians take advantage of this
by incorporating a multitude
of flavorful spices into their food.
- Woo-hoo. (all laughing)
Shallots, chilli and some funky durian going in.
Fresh lot was funky. - Fermented?
Make a face, no?
- Oh, not breathing is better, isn't it?
- Put lime zest in and then coconut milk.
So what I've done is I've taken some sesame oil,
some sanbao and some turmeric and some salt.
It's a nice oily fish, anyway.
I'm just gonna put that in there.
Skin side down, wash my hands, season the inside, flip it.
- Is it like a spicy Mayo? - It's a mayo with a tingle.
Bit more chilli. Bit more durian.
- Oh yes. - Well done Ebers.
- Oh, nice Baz. - Nice, Baz.
- What's it taste like?
- Sweet and fruity. Got a funk with bit of spice.
- It's definitely got the spice.
The first thing you get is that durian creaminess.
- But you don't get the smell from durian
that's what puts us off.
- Baz, that's your tempoyak sauce done.
- Yep. - Next up...
A Cha Chah dip, a spicy fermented, very umami dip.
- Garlic. Ginger.
Let's go for some sweetness
and have some Palm sugar in there as well.
- What you thinking for your vibrant dressing Ebers?
- Well I've got Thai basil, coriander,
lime juice and then oil.
Again thinking about the geography and where stuff's from,
I imagine bordering Borneo,
something like Palm oil would be a common ingredient.
We haven't got any of that here,
so I'm just using a light vegetable oil.
- Another tip from our community,
which may help you with textures.
Have fun dipping and swallow carefully.
We rarely chew it. Try not to choke.
- What is this? Fermented shrimp?
This smells like a fresh seaside
like fishing ma-- fish market.
- Oh wow. Okay. - Like...
It's got a slight funk but it's also got a sweetness to it.
- That will go over there with some peanuts later on.
- We have a vibrant dressing.
(upbeat music)
- So this was half vegetable oil, half sesame oil,
okra, the stems and stalks.
Now beans sprouts, which barely need cooking,
along with Chinese chives, garlic
and the leaves of the choy stump.
So here I've got soy, fish sauce,
our shrimp paste and the chilli,
and I've gone for the powdered chilli.
And I'm gonna add that into the stir fry mix
to make like a sauce around it.
- As soon as Brunei popped up
we got excited by just the geography, initially.
It's surrounded by sort of Southeast Asian countries.
You've got Malaysia, you've got Cambodia,
you've got the Philippines, you've got Indonesia.
So if you think of all that type of cuisine
Brunei has exceptional fish, amazing chilli varieties.
And also you've got populations from Malaysia, China.
So it really is fascinating from a food perspective.
- So the stir fry I've just finished off with that paste
and a little bit of fresh coriander at the end.
- I kept going with this with more and more flavours
'cause I want it to carry quite a fermented heat.
So there's quite a lot of chilli powder and fish in it.
- That's a good thing.
And raw garlic, right? - And raw garlic, yep.
- And palm sugar? - And palm sugar.
- Delicious. I think we need to work out
how we're gonna serve the...
where we've got the consistency of step A.
We're gonna dress the fish.
The only thing we haven't used anywhere is lemon grass.
And we just need to do some cucumber on the side
- Boys. We're we are approaching the home straight.
How're you feeling? - I'm good.
How's step one getting on, or coming on, Ben?
- Nearly there. What I'm just thinking is
I'm gonna keep this so very simple with the cucumber.
We always tend to like to pickle it
or turn it into like a rite or a relish
or blitz it into a tzatziki,
all the things we are more familiar with.
But think back to Nasi lemak,
which is definitely Malay,
is just chunks of cucumber on the side.
So I'm gonna keep it simple.
Well done, Ebers.
- Where would you like to put that?
(all laughing) And that?
We know that oyster source
is just proper fermented deliciousness.
- Do it.
- So what you stirring that into?
- We think we have to aim for uber umami.
- Strain for the Cha Chah. - I'm gonna be honest.
I don't think that was necessary
but you said we had to use everything.
So we've kind of gone with it.
I reckon let's get a little bit of lemon grass in there.
(upbeat jazz music)
- This is it. - Could I borrow yours?
- Why? - Cause I think it needs two.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I don't wanna put it in my body, but yeah.
- At the moment too hot but if we let it cool down a bit
- Brilliant. I think.
- Swishy, swishy swish. Dippy, dippy dip.
- Boys. - Swallowy, swallow swallow.
I mean, not chew, right? - Not chew.
- Don't chew it.
- I thought baking a stew in cheese
was unlike anything I've ever done before.
But that, that is more unlike anything I've done before
than anything I've ever done before.
- Hence the purpose of this whole video series.
(upbeat music)
Right. Boys, dig in.
- The cooking of it's been an experience.
- I can't believe this has worked.
- It's really hard to wrap it round.
- Yeah and then I'm gonna dip. I'm gonna dip.
I don't think I can hold.
I think I just need to go for it.
- Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
- Oh. It's an experience, isn't it?
Wow. That is amazing. - That's lovely.
- Oh that, that is... Woo.
- Using these is tough enough. - Yeah.
- It does give you a rice-noodly kind of flavour
from that finish to it. - Yeah.
- Your Cha Chah dip is spectacular.
- Proper spicy.
- Don't know whether it's authentic, but it is delicious.
- All the umami.
- That's my favourite dip.
- I went from seeing that
and not wanting to put that in my body.
And now it's working as a really good vehicle
to pick all these up.
- It's got a fantastic mouth feel
and I hate saying that but it's so smooth and silky.
It's really satisfying to swallow.
- Once you kind of crafted the technique to get that right,
everything else actually came together really simply.
- These are spectacular boys.
Like fantastic. - Well done.
- The fish cooked in no time.
The stir fry, the hotter the better.
But actually again, the shrimp paste
with the fish sauce and the soy is kind of unique.
- Irrespective of how authentic we got, it's fantastic.
Something brand new to us.
And I think you two did a phenomenal job.
(all clapping) - It was good fun.
I felt like we had a lot of steering guidance
but it was necessary.
- Thank you so much for all of your input
in helping us get here, in particular @LePsychicSidekick.
- Yes. - The amount of detail
that you put into your comments was fantastic.
And I don't think we would've got that without it.
- So we've done A. We've done B.
- D. (Jamie laughing)
- Great timing.
- Go on Ebers. Where are we going this time?
- We need your help on...
Narrowing it down. Any of these could be good.
We're going to the Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
- I think it's obvious
that we're gonna need some serious help.
So if you're from the Republic of the Congo,
what dish should we challenge Ben to make next?
Comment down below. Let us know.
- It's part of the challenge the fact
that he's got Mike to work with as well.
- Well, that's always a challenge.
- Baz, I'm just saying.
On first attempt, Ben and I made a pie out of cheese.
(all laughing)
- What you're saying is he's the bad omen.
- It held the filling in. I don't wanna be, you know.