4 Levels of Curry: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi i'm emily and i'm a level one chef hi i'm lorenzo and i'm a level two chef hey guys this is yuji i've been a professional chef for eight years i eat a lot of curry you name the curry i like it all the curries they're all good i actually started eating a lot of curry because my brother-in-law is british it was a complete different flavor profile i've loved it ever since so today i'm going to be making chicken curry and coconut milk and vegetables today i'll be making japanese curry with live lobsters we're going to use all parts of lobster to make japanese curry super tasty and unique every kid's favorite in japan so my recipe is based on a double chicken we are going a little fancy and making it easier for your guests to eat so we've deboned it and de-skinned it to make a little healthy doesn't really matter when somebody says adobo a double-fi it it's vinegar garlic salt and pepper i have extra ingredients which is the sugar the onion powder and i have ginger powder so i'm combining the two so for the main part of my curry it's a vegetarian curry so it's vegetables i've got uh spinach potatoes green beans and tomato and coconut milk i think it's really tasty and it works as a meal so i have a soft shell lobsters soft shell lobsters are great for curry because the shells are much softer and you can utilize the whole body much much easier than hot shells everything gets used and nothing is wasted and you get really nice curry let's start with our potatoes put all the potatoes in the bowl and the next thing we're going to do is just cut these green beans down to size you're ugly and no one likes you i'm sorry so before i start preparing these lobsters i'm gonna start making kombu dashi kombu dashi is the broth made from cold water with just a kombu kombu is dry kelp so it has a really nice umami it's called the glutamic acid and to the water it's gonna take about 15 minutes or so for the kombu dashi to be ready meanwhile i'm gonna go ahead and get ready the lobsters let's go ahead and just pour everything together this is just water now mind you when you're doing a marination you just need an extra liquid you can totally use beer i prefer beer so of course i have my soy sauce and then i have vinegar onion powder you could totally use fresh onion but guess what i'm done chopping for now just give it a little chop trim the stems off my spinach doesn't have to be perfect just has to be chopped now i have ginger you've got to have sugar why sugar will help the marinade kind of adhere to the protein so now this is all together we're just going to mix this up i will add salt and pepper now let's get five garlic it's a rough chop i'm going to go ahead and get the robots ready if we are to boil lobsters alive it actually deteriorates the flavor because it creates more stress in the protein and then leaks out the flavor it's important to kill any animal without any suffering the way to do it is you aim for the nerve so i put my knife straight in there and then the lobster dies instantly i prep these lobsters and they are ready to be boiled kombu is ready to be out of the water now my kombu dashi is ready and then i'm gonna boil these lobsters let's salt and pepper this chicken i'm going to be saving a few tablespoons of my marination because i'm gonna use that in the cooking process of my vegetables i'm going to take one ringy thingy two i don't know why i said that three one one more what the hell let's go for a little swim even if you marinate anything for a good 20 minutes that is absolutely helpful so i'm gonna throw it in the refrigerator and i'm gonna let it marinate for 30 minutes to an hour so i'm gonna take the lobsters out of the water i'm gonna shuck it in ice so i'm gonna be using this water for broth too that's why i want to make sure that every juice out of the lobster goes in here not here so now i'm going to separate the body from the head and then the tip and i'm going to chuck the meat out of it as much as possible so i'm gonna be using all parts of the lobster no parts gets wasted the lobster shell becomes oil loves the body becomes the broth and then the lobster meat becomes part of the bluetooth so you see how little meat you get out of those giant lobsters that's why you want to make sure that you use everything my chicken has been marinating for a good hour and i'm ready to go ahead and start cooking here guys let's just test it if we get a sizzle oh yes i love it okay that's what we want all right that's it all my vegetables are prepped and it is time to make my curry the first thing i have to do is chop my onions and my garlic i'm just gonna add some oil here start getting my oil hot now it's time for my sauce so now i have my kombu lobster dashi here i have these shells and the first thing i'm gonna do is i'm gonna squeeze all the juice into here this is the most delicious part it's more like lobster juice rather than lobster broth so i'm using the water that i have to basically kind of deglaze the bottom of this pan see how it's bubbling i'm going to actually turn down the heat now because i i don't want to boil i i want to simmer i'm going to pour in this delicious coconut milk i just love the fact that you can find coconut milk anywhere the pickling juice of pepperoncini the actual cut up pepper and seeds pepperoncinis the very last ingredient which is my curry powder which will bring that delicious flavor of curry into this coconut milk added to the delicious flavors of adobo that looks beautiful so while this is gonna simmer for a good 20 or so let's work on my vegetable saute so i'm gonna add the celery onion bay leaf and lobster body into the broth this is a yellow onion so i'm just going to pop this onion into my pan garlic into the pot turmeric cayenne pepper mustard seeds and cumin i'm just going to give this a mix all right so my garlic and onions and my spices have been sort of sizzling away here and i'm ready for my next step so i'm going to add my tomatoes potato chunks a generous pinch of salt all right so i'm going to pop a lid on this this is what we call it miso in japanese actually it looks like a miso paste so lobster miso is very delicious i want to open it up so it actually blends into the broth much easier tastes very sweet once all the ingredients are soft enough i'm going to use a honda mixer and blend everything in a strain so my potatoes have been boiling away and i'm going to check on them berry pokeable potatoes so i'm going to add in my green beans and just give this a little stir now you may notice that i match this very well it is so intentional that is what i thought when i got up this morning and got dressed i want to look like my curry anyway so my chicken is simmering away in the beautiful coconut curry sauce and we're going to party on through and add some friends here we're going to saute some vegetables for it this is a peeler that i have adopted and i will be using all the time now sitau or green beans i will do maybe three inch lengths actually ends up looking like the size of a typical green bean since i'm sauteing it i will go a little smaller here it's just what we always do first is onions and garlic i just like the onions to kind of have started cooking already i'm always worried about burning my garlic this is deserved marinated i believe i have four tablespoons three is fine but you know what four is better the best way to utilize these shells are turning them into oil you're gonna cut this up in a smaller pieces and you're gonna add oil and you're gonna fry them so i'm just cutting all these shells in smaller pieces as much as possible so you actually fry it quicker this is just a normal vegetable oil that's the color that you're looking for nice and orange okay guys this vegetable medley here has been sauteed it looks fantastic the colors are great it still has a nice bite let's add it to the sauce and we're just gonna put in all these vegetables right in just go ahead sauce it all my lobster oil has been cooking for about half hour now it's ready to be strained so red the strained broth is going to be used for the sauce so this has been reducing for about an hour or so so i'm going to blend everything almost to be like smoothie blending is done now ready to shrink if it smells it tastes always good very good and i'm gonna use the lobster oil to saute the vegetables after they're cooked i'm gonna pour broth and a roux to finish it yellow onion so i'm gonna have my lost oil battery okay oh look how pretty that is i haven't even mixed it yet now we mix vegetables that i sauteed and also the lobster cream meat in almost like one sauce so now i'm gonna add my lobster broth so i'm gonna add this roux into this got a lot of nice curry powders and the vegetable eggs and melt it down now my curry is finished so the last thing i have to do here is i'm going to toss in my spinach all of this coconut milk and i'll give it just a smidge more salt all right uh this is looking good i think it's time to plate this will be delicious there's a little fun fact for you grab some my cilantro and sprinkle it on top here so what i have here is a store-bought piece of naan bread because and this is true i don't have a tandoori oven at my house pop my nan in there and it's done i love to have a nice bed of rice cause why not okay now we can't forget these wonderful vegetables and i have a curry right here ready and also the rice and then the watermelon radish and then the egg squash greens and lobster tail everything that you want to eat let's bring one big giant caribou here's my vegetarian curry and here's my chicken coconut curry with a bunch of veggies this is my lobster curry i'm ready to dig in i'm just staring at it because i can smell it it smells so good yeah that turned out really good it's oddly satisfying to me it's kind of weird i have to get another bite of the sauce what's that mmm wow packed with flavor this is a great like weeknight kind of curry because you can do it fast it's easy there's a lot of like set it and forget it where you like chop it up put stuff in cover it and you've got 10 minutes to open a beer or do the dishes or whatever i'm now dipping a lobster tail in a lobster broth amazing yeah my wife will be super jealous so nice so subtle boom boom boom flavor this this is yummy everything just layers of flavor the way that i showed today chopping the lobster shells and frying squeezing the lobster juice out of the body it's a lot of work but it's totally worth it level four should just be tim curry curry is a wonderful warm stewed dish that's as versatile as it is delicious let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs emily made a vegetable curry with potatoes as her main and most filling component she used yukon gold potatoes these are a type of waxy potato a term which describes the potatoes texture after cooking now if you guys keep hiring me eventually i'm gonna get good at cooking they have a dense texture with starch cells that adhere to each other and hold their shape better than the more mealy varieties like russets or blue potatoes lorenzo made a chicken curry with chicken thighs a type of dark meat they're darker in color because they have more myoglobin they're also higher in fat and lend themselves well to stewing i love chicken thighs i feel that they're juicier smells good dark poultry meat has longer fibers that are more firmly bound together with connective tissue as compared to white meat so slow moist cooking softens and tenderizes the dark meat nicely lorenzo marinated his chicken thighs and aromatics with some vinegar or acetic acid this tenderized the meat by breaking down the proteins more easily be careful when adding acids directly to meat as acid promotes proteolysis or the breakdown of muscle tissue too much acid applied for too long will make your meat soft and mushy lorenzo only briefly marinated his chicken so this wasn't a problem that's no bueno you guys before adding raw chicken to the marinade lorenzo reserved some of it to use later this was smart because once raw chicken is in the marinade you shouldn't use it for anything else it may be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria from the chicken let's do it yeah yuji made a japanese style lobster curry he used a soft shell lobster which is a lobster that recently overgrown and shed its old shell soft shell lobsters have a meat that's brinier and more tender than hardshell lobsters this is because they have less meat and more sea water inside the shell which in a way marinates the meat yuji made a kombu dashi which is a basic water-based broth that's perfectly flavorful and balanced combo is a brown algae that's naturally very high in monosodium glutamate or msg this is kombu the study of kombu actually gave us the term umami which is the flavor yuji was hoping to achieve in his dish it's savory and made a flavorful liquid for boiling his lobsters emily made a simple but delicious curry sauce for her potatoes and vegetables she layered flavors by adding her aromatics and spices directly to the oil flavor compounds like cumin aldehyde and pyrazines are expressed in oil cumin aldehyde is a major flavoring compound in cumin and yields a warm smoky spicy flavor pyrazines are associated with more roasted toasty flavors it's nice it's good i'm a fan spices like cumin mustard seeds and turmeric also have some thickening properties because of the polysaccharides or starches that they contain as starches are heated hydrogen bonds within them start to vibrate break apart and interact with water which causes swelling emily also used coconut milk a rich flavorful liquid that formed the base of her curry i really like coconut milk so just want to make sure this all gets in there coconut gets its distinctive sweet flavors from compounds called lactones you'll also find lactose in other fruits like peaches strawberries and pineapple her cans diced tomatoes added some liquid and viscosity from the starches in the tomatoes this product usually has added calcium salts in order to support the cross links between the pectin molecules in the tomatoes this helps the tomatoes to retain their firmness during the canning process lorenzo sauce was a combination of his seasoned chicken meat in coconut milk and his vegetable saute we've got my seat towel as lorenzo's meats and vegetables cooked the salts and sugars in his added ingredients drew out moisture adding to the stewiness of his curry yuji used every ingredient in his recipe for maximum flavor and no waste what you see here is pretty much whole lobster this is the only lobster you see at the restaurant but this is what else you can do with the rest of the body he made an infused oil from the shell body and knuckle of the lobster lobster shell contains astaxanthin a carotenoid pigment that when heated breaks apart from the protein it's bound to when the lobster is alive astaxanthin is lipid soluble so it's expressed in the oil which is why the oil got so red don't add any good coloring for real it's super orange yuji made a lobster stock by adding the lobster head in the aromatics to his kombu dashi which he reduced and blended to create a thick and flavorful stalk by letting his stock simmer for an hour he reduced its water content through evaporation and concentrated its flavor compounds this is a lobster smoothie notice that yuji used fewer ingredients than our levels one and two chefs sometimes the most complex flavors come from the balance of simplicity next time you're in the mood for curry we hope you'll take some of these tips from our three wonderful chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 947,311

Keywords: 4 levels, curry, 4 levels curry, 4 levels of curry, epicurious 4 levels, curry recipe, lobster curry, chicken curry, make curry, how to make curry, homemade curry, easy curry, quick curry, easy curry recipe, quick curry recipe, chicken curry recipe, lobster curry recipe, fish curry, fish curry recipe, make chicken curry, best curry, best curry recipe, japanese curry, indian curry, how to make chicken curry, best chicken curry, easy chicken curry, epi curry, epicurious

Id: m2x6o-e92T0

Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 03 2021