- Hey, what's up guys,
and welcome to the 100th episode of Basics with Babish.
Sort of,
we lost count around episode 50,
this might be like episode 102,
it's the hundredth episode of Basics with Babish
and it is a special one.
Because we shot this back in 2019
when we were joined by the immensely talented Floyd Cardoz.
Floyd sadly passed away last year
from complications due to COVID,
so we weren't sure if we were gonna share this episode
but we spoke with Floyd's wonderful family.
Not only do they want us to publish the episode
and share his incredible knowledge and passion for teaching,
but they wanted us to share his spice line
that he curated with single origin spice maker
Burlap & Barrel before he left us.
And this effort was continued
on his behalf by his wife after he passed away.
And I think that's such an incredible way
for your legacy to live on and flavor literally.
So check it out,
the link is in the video description below.
And another thing that Floyd cared a great deal
about is giving back.
So,
one dollar from every jar sold
goes to some of his favorite charities
like Cookies for Kids' Cancer.
So check it out,
I hope you guys enjoyed the episode and Floyd,
thank you so much for sharing your kindness
and your knowledge with us.
Hey guys, my buddy Floyd Cardoz is back.
Last time he was showing us
how to make a few basic Indian breads.
This time, what are we getting into this Floyd?
- This time we're gonna do two curries and a raita,
which is an a compliment to Indian food.
Your makhani and rogan josh,
and we're going to do a cucumber raita.
- Sounds good to me,
Let's get down to basics.
(upbeat music)
So Floyd,
when I say Curry to most Americans
they think of a singular flavor and a singular dish.
Where's the disconnect there?
- So,
one of my hated ingredients is curry powder
because most people associate curries with that powder.
- Yeah.
- So India has multiple States
and every state has different curries.
So basically a curry is any sauce with spice in it.
And every family has a different recipe for the same dish,
every religious group has a different recipe,
every state has different recipes.
So you multiply that into geographical reasons
you get thousands of curries.
So,
a curry can be eaten with rice
or it can be with none
or can be bread.
You could eat a curry with anything that you want
but a curry typically can have from two to 15 spices.
It doesn't have to have this spice of that spice.
It's just a blend of spices.
In Indian curries,
there's always some kind of acid in there
to balance out that, there's always heat in there
and the heat level varies from very mild to very spicy.
So it all depends on which part of the country you're from.
From the South of India,
most of the curries are spicier.
The North of India,
they're milder, a little gentle with the spices
but they're very complex.
They're always very complex.
- Yeah.
- And you don't, like I said earlier,
you don't have to eat it with bread.
You can eat it with rice.
You can eat with anything that you want.
- Obviously there's a lot of misunderstanding
with Indian food in the States.
We think of it as a very sort of locked in flavors
almost like Mexican food.
We think that it's the same five ingredients repurposed
in different shapes.
So for people who are used to working
with the few spices that they have in their cupboard,
we're working with some spices today
that they probably not even heard of or have access to.
What do you recommend
for people who want to be a little bit more adventurous
in their Indian cuisine, either eating it or preparing it.
- So, you could have six spices.
And if you change the the proportion
to how you're using them, you could change your curry.
You could have six spices, you can cook them differently,
You can toast some, you can grind some,
you can blend some, shred some in there.
It'll change the flavor of the curry.
So it doesn't need to be 20 different spices,
it doesn't need to be 30 different spices
but it's the way you treat them.
And that's what the fun part of what Indian food is.
- Gotcha. Okay, well, let's get to making some.
Let's make some.
(laughs)
- So we're gonna make makhani sauce.
So makhani means butter.
It's basically,
tomato sauce with a few spices,
cumin, black pepper, turmeric
and you blend it all together
and you bring it up on the stove and you let it simmer
and you finish with the butter and cream.
- Is this butter chicken then?
Is it? - This is butter chicken.
Yes.
- Cool, cool.
- And we're gonna add it to the pot.
We're gonna add a quarter water to it,
we're gonna add spices.
- There's turmeric and chili powder.
How much salt?
- I just do it by taste.
- That's the way.
- Put a total full cup of honey
and we're gonna wait till it comes up.
We add the butter.
- We just let it melt down.
- You gotta let it melt down by stirring.
- Now how's the butter gonna emulsify in the sauces?
Is it done naturally? - It will.
It does, in the cream.
- Okay.
Oh, that looks so nice in the overhead.
- And if you wannna make it thicker
you can add less water to it.
- Yeah,
wow. - So that's ready to go.
- [Narrator] Next up cucumber raita.
First, we can use out some finely chopped jalapeno
and graded cucumber that will be added
to our primary player yogurt.
- So this is what I love doing with yogurt.
Every time I open a container
the Stonyfield always has a layer of cream on top.
I always like to steal a spoon.
- Right here. Gotta get it nice and smooth of course,
I'm going to start folding it together.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] To complete the raita,
Floyd grinds three tablespoons of freshly toasted cumin
and adds it along with a bit of chopped Serrano pepper
and to hefty two pinches of salt.
Our final Curry is Rogan Josh,
we start by blending some garlic into a paste
and roughly chopping three shallots
before starting on our spice paste,
for which Floyd combines ground fennel and ginger
before incorporating some delicious backstory.
- So is this is a dish from the North of India
and it's a very cold place
and dry ginger is very heaty.
So this dish is made with that heaty dried ginger
so it kind of helps with keeping the body warm.
- Yeah.
- One teaspoon of turmeric
- So really?
- It's chili powder.
So I need six tablespoons.
- Six tablespoons?
- Yes.
- You might wannna get you a bigger bowl.
- Yeah.
And we're gonna make a paste with this, with water.
So normally when they make this,
they add the dry spices in the pot directly
but if you're not experienced enough
you could burn the spices.
So I kind of like to do when I give it
to my cooks to make a paste
so that the water keeps it at a hundred degrees centigrade.
- They're boiling.
- Cinnamon and green cardamom.
It's going to bloom it.
Restrain the oil out.
- Yeah. So when I add the shallots in,
cinnamon and green cardamom they're going to add the spice.
and then the garlic.
- The smells incredible.
The spices is getting woken up by that oil
you're now gonna add the garlic paste.
In order with the fat to kind of separate
out every single step you go along
there gonna get fat to separate out
so you know the spices.
You've let the water go
and you've got a chance to cook the garlic.
- When do we add the yogurt? - You're gonna add it now,
and you wanna stir it right away.
It's going to clump up.
- This is starting to look familiar.
I love how these dishes start out
so strange and unfamiliar
and now it's starting to be able to picture this.
- Goat chunks in this are the best.
It's all about the layering of flavors.
- Yeah.
- The new food.
- Chicken stock time.
- Yeah.
- About how much chicken stock do we have?
- I've got about two, three cups.
- What's the final sort of...
- I wanted to be like this consistency
but I wanted to develop a little bit of flavor
and cook out too.
That's gonna add a little bit more
and just let it do it's thing.
- It's funny how normally oil flooding
or being separated would be undesirable in some cuisine
but this is intentional
so you have those two separate flavors.
- Yeah.
And you've gotta understand too is that,
the spices that boils
and you're trying to get the oil,
this oil has got all that flavor from the spices.
- So now we're gonna let this go.
- [Narrator] And with the Rogan Josh reduced
our curries are complete and it's time to taste.
- We have three sauces here before us.
Would you explain what each of these sauces means to you
and how you best to use them?
- So chicken Makhani or a butter chicken
is a dish from the North,
and it's eaten with either paneer
or paneer and peas or tendering chicken.
So you cook the tandoori chicken
on the grill then cook it in the sauce.
And,
this is sold by all the small roadside shacks and dhabas,
in the North.
It's a very traditional dish
and it's very simple.
This has made mainly in the winters.
This is a cucumber raita,
which is normally accompanied by a lot of dishes in India
and it's yogurt.
And I like to make variations of this
sometimes put onion and tomato in there,
Sometimes put radish in there, sometimes daikon in there
I've even done an apple and walnut raita.
And lastly is the Ragon Josh,
which is traditionally made with lamb.
And it's in the North of India,
and I ate this when I was just graduated, high school
made a trip to Kashmir.
And I had this dish,
which was incredibly (indistinct) and delicious.
- Would it be blasphemous to eat these with some bread
since...
- No it wouldn't, it would be the right thing to do.
- Let's do it.
I'm going to start with the Rogan Josh here.
Look at that oil.
- I would go with this one.
- So much spice, but like you said, "Layered."
- Yeah.
- It's not overwhelming.
I can taste each of them.
And I wonder which ones are coming through in the oil,
I guess the cinnamon,
the cloves was coming through in the oil.
- And the fennel?
- Yes. Oh yeah.
Its almost a licorice flavor.
Try this.
It's light, it's refreshing.
And the freshly tasted cumin is so floral.
- Eat that with a piece of grilled meat
like a kebab, and it's perfect.
- And last but not least,
I did it last because I knew it was gonna be my favorite.
All that cream and all that butter,
but the spices are there.
The honey, that's a really nice touch.
Those are all fat.
- And the heat from the Serrano.
- Oh yeah. Thank you so much for coming to help me out, man.
Really appreciate it.
(gentle jazz music)