(people laughing and chatting)
(forks clinking)
(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to the channel.
- It's discovery time and today,
two of our normal home cooks
will be taste-testing four fascinating global ingredients
that in our little London bubble,
none of us have ever cooked with before
and in cases ever even tasted it before.
- I have a real love-hate relationship
with how excited he gets about these videos.
- Yeah, it makes me nervous.
- Yeah.
- Still exploring, still more new things to find.
- Oh, the head bobbles.
- Oh.
(upbeat trumpet music)
- Okay, boys cloche number one.
What have we got?
- Looks a bit like leiche-y.
- I was going to say a cross between popcorn and sweet corn.
- Oh, I'd say, okay, it's a fruity popcorn.
- It tastes..
- Go on.
- Of like bulgur wheat or quinoa.
- This stuff you stick to it.
It tastes like soggy popcorn.
(laughs)
- Boys. What you have in front of you is hominy.
- Doesn't help.
- Which is indeed corn.
- Look at this, look at us.
- Corn that has been dried
and then rehydrated and cooked in line.
- [Both] In line?
- Yeah, as in alkaline.
We did it a few weeks ago, nixtamalization.
But before it gets turned into a flower, this is it.
- Was I in that video?
- I don't know.
- If I wasn't in the video, I didn't watch it.
- I'm sure I wasn't there.
That's my excuse for everything.
I didn't go to school.
(laughs)
- Now you know that,
where in the world do you think it might come from?
- Bolivia.
- Wow.
- Tunisia.
-This is hominy from Mexico.
- You're in the right continent.
(laughs)
-This is something that has been done
for thousands of years.
Basically harvesting corn, drying it out,
and then rehydrating it in that alkaline solution,
which makes it more digestible
and therefore more nutritious in a bio-available way.
Would you like to see it in sitchu?
- Yes.
- It's already tasty.
Ooh, oh wow. What is that in there?
- It is a Mexican soup or stew.
There's lots of different varieties of it,
but it's called posole.
And then on the side, a whole bunch of condiments
you can kind of sprinkle and stir in.
There are lots of different types of this particular dish.
You can get blanco, verde or rojo,
which is basically white, green or red.
So like the flag, but also the original one is the white,
the green has tomatillo and cilantro
and jalapenos through it,
and this is a red one that's got the chiles
- Oh, oh, oh, wow.
things like ancho through it.
- Oh wow.
- This particular one, slow cooked beef and tongue.
- Oh.
- But the base is often done with pork or chicken or beef.
(Jamie laughs)
Although there are vegetarian versions of it too.
- 'Cause they're all expanded and broken down,
they become like mini sponges.
- Mm.
- As well.
- It's a very different texture when it's cooked.
Obviously these are already rehydrated,
but this now feels like it's been rehy-rehydrated
- Mm.
- with the cooking liquid.
- And intensified as well.
- Yeah.
- And I think when we look at global food,
there's lots of similarities.
I would see a very similar thing
across maybe Spain or Europe, but with chickpeas,
as the kind of the base to a stew or a castile.
We do know from archaeological digs that
this process has happened to corn
for about three and a half thousand years.
A very common dish that's eaten all over Mexico
and all throughout the year,
but also has a big role in celebrations.
So for example, in New Year's, it is this kind
of food that is added to the feast that they eat.
- It's very filling
and I think a lot more satisfying as well.
I can see myself using that cooking at home.
- [Jamie] Real lovely warmth to it.
I've never had anything that tastes like that.
It's absolutely delicious.
- This soup and stew,
there's lots of different varieties of it.
In fact, Thomasina Miers, so founder of Wahaca,
so Mexican restaurant around the world,
in her new cookbook, Vegetarian,
she's got a version that is much lighter
with lots of spring greens and the hominy.
So the question on all of our lips,
is this hominy for your home
or is it not corn to be?
- Crab pun, but not a crab product.
Hominy for my home.
- Just like Lady Gaga would say, I was corn this way.
- That was no better.
- No, but it's at least..
- Not even relevant.
- Of course she's relevant.
She's just done the soundtrack for Top Gun Maverick.
(laughs)
- Okay, number two.
Where in the world are we going now?
- Ooh, uh..
- Spam.
- It looks like a mortadella version of Spam.
(laughs)
- Well today is a good example, as is bologna.
- It's thick-cut Billy Bear ham.
- [Barry] Mm-hm.
- With chunks of over-gelatenated jelly in it.
- I mean, yeah, as a description,
you are pretty much bang on.
Well it is a pork sausage, seasoned.
Those bits in the middle are pig skin.
- Pig skin? Okay.
- Which gives you, so absolutely the gelatinous
kind of texture that you are talking about,
but where in the world do you think it's from?
- Poland.
- Woah, no.
Canada.
- It's not Canada.
This is Gio Bi from Vietnam.
- We were both very, very wrong.
- Yeah.
- Vietnamese pork roll.
- [Jamie] Oh, do you know what?
Fish sauce, now it's written there.
- The whole thing is kind of pounded pork
with the pork skin put through it,
plus potato starch, garlic, black pepper,
some season, the seasoning might include fish sauce.
And then it is wrapped very tightly in banana leaf
and boiled, but once it's been boiled,
providing you don't get water in,
it will keep at room temperature for about a week.
- Wow.
- A bit like spam.
I'm not like a massive fan of the texture,
but flavor-wise it's actually quite delicious.
- Would you like to try it
in a dish that would commonly use it?
- Please yes.
- Yes.
- Bahn Mi!
(laughs)
- Indeed, probably one of Vietnam's most famous exports.
- Yes.
- A banh mi sandwich.
- We got one each! Look at them.
- We do want to stress,
this isn't the super traditional bread,
which I suppose would have more of a French influence.
What you have got though is pate,
you've got your Vietnamese pork roll
with the pig skin in it,
then some pickled veg, you've got loads of fresh herbs,
including Thai basil and then all your sauces as well.
- Spectacular as I imagine.
- Yeah it's phenomenal sandwich.
- There's a texture that we're not familiar with.
On its own, we're a bit, we find it odd.
In a sandwich, it really works.
- Usually with a sandwich this dense,
you'd expect it to be heavy and chewy
and it is none of those things.
It has every type of texture, apart from that going on,
every type of flavour going on with the fresh and the zingy,
but actually the pepperiness from the meat
comes through a lot.
- So in process, the Vietnamese pork roll is very similar
to something like bologna or mortadella,
which is the Italian version would be cut wafer thin,
very, very thin and put into sandwiches.
Here, slightly thicker and spread over with the liver pate,
but it's also used in a number of other dishes,
so it can be cut up and added to pho or other broths
and a number of other dishes as well.
- I can imagine that working really, really well
in a pho and other broths, so I think that'd be fantastic.
- So the last question, Vietnamese sausage,
cha bi or not cha bi?
- [Both Men] Oh wow.
- It has to be chai bi.
That's spectacular.
- Not just because of the sandwich that it was put in.
- It did help.
- But it did help.
But I would really love to try that
in other dishes as well.
I want try it as a fritter.
I want try it fried in potato starch.
I want to try it in pho.
- What a day!
- Oh, that was only number two!
- Only halfway!
- Let's bring on round three then.
(upbeat percussion music)
- Number three.
Where in the world are we going next?
(exhales)
- I'm excited.
Keep going.
It was good while it lasted.
- Harry Potter's floppy wand.
(laughs)
- It looks plastic. It feels plastic.
- Have you licked it?
- I've eaten it.
And it tastes kind of nothing.
- It's definitely not something you would typically eat
in that form. It kind of needs hydrating.
Typically, you would soak it warm water
for a short amount of time or cold water
for a longer amount of time, even overnight,
before it's then boiled or steamed or cooked.
- It's got like a filo pastry-esque..
- Okay
- To it.
- I reckon this might come from in the sea.
- You think it's an animal?
- No.
- A plant?
- But I think it might be plant.
- Like a sea plant?
We don't now.
- No clue? These are
bean curd skins or tofu skins.
And these are the dried stick versions.
So bean curd sticks.
- I don't understand, if I'm honest.
- So cast your mind back to when we had the Columbian
hot chocolate, Barry, and you said the bit you didn't like
was the skin that forms on top of things.
- [Barry] Yes.
- If you're boiling soy bean milk, a skin forms,
and if you're careful enough, you can lift that skin up
so that it drops and dangles down
and then you dry it and it becomes that.
So zero waste. That is the skin from the top
of the bean curd as it's boiling.
But where in the world you think it might be from?
- Japan?
- I'm going to go South Korea.
- It wouldn't surprise me if both of those nations
also use the ingredient,
but we have sourced ours from China.
- China.
-That's how it's sold.
You'll find in sort of Chinese supermarkets
in the UK readily available if you order online,
if you haven't got a Chinese supermarket near you.
- I don't think I've ever seen them before.
- No.
- Would you like to try it once it's cooked?
- Yes.
- Think so.
(giggles)
- That is stunning.
- [Barry] I'm confused.
- I'm intimidated, but I'm also stunned.
- So this is sea bass with pak choy and ginger.
The bean curd sticks have been soaked and then rehydrated
and then boiled to give you that texture,
which is kind of reminiscent,
I think of almost like shitaki mushroom.
- Oh, oh hello.
- Sometimes called tofu noodles or bean curd noodles.
- Well, that's remarkable.
(laughs)
You know how like penne pasta,
big hole in the middle, capture more sauce.
This has a thousand holes in it.
So it's got all the juices getting caught up
in amongst the strands
and therefore carries all that flavour.
- It's become really bouncy as a texture
with slight, slight chew to it.
But the flavour is now every other flavour
that's in that broth.
- Which if you think about tofu,
we often talk about it as kind of like a sponge
or a vehicle for other flavour,
and you can fry it to get a crisp on it,
or you can put it into broth and it kind of soaks up
whatever you cook it in.
This is doing a very similar thing.
The process of making this is fascinating,
the way they have often big like sheet pans of soy milk,
soy bean milk bubbling away,
and then they can basically cut around the edges
and they lift it very carefully.
You get a whole sheet kind of come up together,
and then they go again so another skin forms
and up it goes again.
So it is a brilliant way of using something
that would otherwise be thrown away.
Often used in mock, as mock meat in Chinese restaurants.
- I can imagine that being instead of meat
in a vegetarian dish.
- But then this is used, mock duck,
often mock chicken, as kind of a replacement,
but ultimately it's its own wonderful thing
and it's hugely nutritious
because it's its own protein source
because it's come off of soybeans.
- I've got a store cupboard with far too many choices
of pastas and noodles.
This would fit amongst those fine.
- [Jamie] I don't know if it would fit
into my style of cooking at home,
but if I saw it on a menu in a restaurant,
I'd happily order it.
- Are you in favour of the tofu skins
or are you not for skins?
- Wow.
- Do you like those or not?
(group laughs)
- I am not for skins at home,
but if I'm out and about, I am for skins.
- I would disagree.
I'd tofu skins all the way.
(scoffs)
- One more. Let's bring around four.
- You did this to yourself Ebbers.
- Okay. Last treat for today, lift the cloche.
(wooing sound)
- [Jamie] Pistachio.
- There is pistachio present, but what's the whole thing?
- It looks a bit like nougat.
Not what I expected.
- It's very, nougat, nougatly, nougatey?
- Nougatey, yeah.
- Nougatey.
Oh!
- It's a very unusual texture for sure.
- It is, it's chalky.
- But when it kind of hits your mouth
and attached the moisture, it starts then to come together.
- Into what?
- Paste.
- Pasty?
- Yeah.
- Sometimes they're made with orange,
sometimes made with vanilla, sometimes made with cocoa.
This one's rolled in pistachios,
but it's actually vanilla based.
- [Jamie] I quite like it.
- [Barry] I think I love it a little bit.
- [Jamie] Oh?
- [Barry] It's like, flavors-wise, this is really me.
- This is halva.
So it is made from sesame seed or sunflower seed,
depending on where you are in the world.
- [Both] Sesame seedy!
- It's that tahini kind of flavour.
- Tahini!
- Mixed with a lot of sugar and then cooked
into that using often egg whites and things to bind it.
Where do you think it originated from?
- My experience of this is I think I had it in Morocco.
- Turkey.
- It began in Persia.
- Persia.
- So now modern day Iran, but also found all across
Greece, Turkey, the middle east as well as the Balkans.
So the likes of Ukraine make halva,
but from sunflower seeds rather than sesame seeds.
So it is something that's from all over.
Even Argentina make a version using peanuts.
- Oh wow.
- Often sold in tins or pots
that can be block shaped.
This one here is with cocoa, I've just slid in.
And absolutely it can just be enjoyed
as a confectionary, cut up and nibbled.
But would you like it a bit more in sitchu
I accompanied with some other things?
- Oh yes please.
- With a coffee lovely.
- I wasn't expecting just a cake to land there
with a glass of milk.
- This is a bit of an experiment,
but a traditional Persian drink.
And therefore the origins of this
is just a slightly diluted sorted yoghourt.
I guess it's similar to like an Indian lassi.
And we've also baked it into a cake.
- Salty drinks, salty drinks.
- Not for you?
- Wah.
- Oh.
- You start if you put white chocolate in a cake
and it all caramelises at the bottom, in the crusty bit.
- That was very much an experiment,
we'd never tried it before.
We let you cut into it on screen, which is always brave.
And the second halva there you've got is with chocolate.
Sometimes you'll get them then dipped in chocolate,
so they're chocolate coated halva,
which is actually delicious.
All in all, it's absolutely delicious,
but it's quite an unusual texture,
much like our British fudge, which is very buttery.
This is more chalky or salty.
- I get it.
With the sugar, the salty works.
- Yeah.
- And centuries, centuries old.
I mean, cookbooks that stem back to like the 9th century
were talking about how this was made.
- With all the others, I'm struggling to work out
how I could get them into my home.
This is easy, but it's not often a treat.
With some other chocolates, this worked perfectly.
- Yeah, definitely.
That is perfect as part of a platter with some,
maybe some Ferrero Rocher.
- What?
- I was thinking Turkish delight, but fine.
(Barry cross talking)
- It's a fusion party, Barry
(Barry snickers)
- In terms of where you can get it,
halva is something that in the UK
you'd find in the world food aisle in your supermarket,
much more readily.
Alternatively, absolutely, you'll find it in Turkish delis,
middle east delis, Balkan delis.
Last question then.
Will you halva them again
or have you halva them enough?
(laughs)
- Alright, stop it, best yet, mate. I'll give you that.
- It was the accent that you put on the same time.
- Halva. I'll halva it again please.
- I will halva it with him.
Well, what did you make of those?
Have you heard of them before?
Where do you use them in your cooking at home?
Let us know in the comments down below.
- Yep. So many of these global ideas come from you guys.
So keep suggesting them down below
and see if you can penetrate our London bubble.
(beep)
- Yeah, you know when you get (giggles)
you pull your cat food out..
- Right.
Barry, Barry, Barry, Barry, Barry.
This is somebody's favourite thing in the world.
(laughs)
- Still, they also might like cat food.
(group laughs)