- Hi, I'm Beryl, and the theme for today's video is fried food.
(choral music) Today we are going to learn
about five different fried foods from five different countries. I do think that we need to
do more than one episode under this theme because
fried food, right? So leave a comment with the
dish that you'd like to see and what country it's from. But for now, let's get
started with today's episode. (bright piano music) - Hi Beryl, My name is Andrea
and I live in Ontario, Canada, but I'm originally from Peru. The dish I'd like to share
with you today is picarones. Picarones are a fried dough
that is similar to a donut. They're round with a hole in the center. But what's so unique about
them is that they're made from squash and sweet potato
and served with a spiced syrup. The syrup is often made from chancaca, which is like a solid brick of brown sugar that's cooked down with
orange peel, cinnamon, and cloves, and poured over top. This dish is very special to me because growing up in Canada with most of my family in Peru, being together is something
that didn't happen often. So this dish reminds me
of those special trips to Peru when I was young,
being with my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time in many years. I think you should try this dish because the complexity
of flavors, the aniseed in the batter, the squash,
and the sweet potato, the molasses flavor of the
chancaca and the spices, combine to make a very unique combination that's distinctly Peruvian. I really hope you enjoy,
and thank you so much for trying this dish.
(cheerful music) - I had to start with the picarones because the idea of this
like, pumpkin fried donut with a brown sugar citrus
syrup, (chuckling) yeah. The color of this is so pretty. (bite crunching) Ha. Oh my god, (laughing) wow. Because I put beer in it, and it's a very, like, yeasted donut, you can kind of taste that like yeastiness, which
makes it not feel so sweet. It's got almost like a
savory element to it. But then,
(bowl bumping) then you've got this brown sugar syrup, and, ooh, this is (chuckling) so good. This is something that I feel like I could mindlessly eat an entire plate of because it's not too sweet,
but it's really crunchy. (lips smacking)
(sigh shuddering) I really like that. We're gonna have a second one. So I thought it was really
interesting in making these, that you kind of tear it
apart to form the donut shape, but then when you put it in the hot oil, you need to do something so
that they don't close up. So I have this like, spoon method, where I was just sticking
the spoon in the hot oil, and like spinning them
around it to keep the hole. I mean, it worked. (bite crunching) Oh, wow. They're so soft on the inside
and so crispy on the outside. It's just like the perfect type of bite. (bite crunching) I don't know if I taste the
pumpkin that much in this. You can also make these
using butternut squash puree, but we have canned pumpkin here in the US, so that's what I went with. I do think though, that it makes
the color really beautiful. Maybe it adds a little
nutritional content, I don't know. (laughing) This makes me feel all the ways that fried food makes you feel. Just kind of like, (sighing) you know? This was quite the way
to start this episode. I am on a very high note right now. (upbeat music)
We're gonna give my deep fryer a rest for a minute and talk about the sponsor for today's video, HelloFresh. HelloFresh is a meal delivery service, and today I am making their
pecan crusted chicken. Pecan, pecan, pecan. One of my favorite things about HelloFresh is the diversity in their meal choices. They have 40 weekly
recipes to choose from, so you don't get stuck in a cooking rut, which is something that I definitely do. And within those 40 weekly recipes, there are tons of
individualized preferences. So if you are vegetarian, if
you need family-friendly meals, or even adding a protein to a veggie dish, all of their ingredients
come pre-portioned, and the recipes are very easy to follow. And I think that even an
inexperienced home cook can find amazing success
with HelloFresh's meals. This dish was really quick to make, and it looks really good, so let's try it. Cheers.
(cheerful upbeat music) Mm, oh, that's so nice. It's really cool that
when I end up cooking HelloFresh meals, I do
techniques that I would never normally do on my own, like, this pecan, pecan crusted top, would
never probably make it. If you are interested
in trying HelloFresh, and I recommend that you do, you can go to hellofresh.com,
use my code Beryl65, and that will give you 65%
off, plus free shipping. All right, my deep fryer
misses me, I'm coming. (cheerful orchestral music) - [Sarrah] Hi, my name
is Sarrah and I was born and raised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The recipe I want to share with
you is called Muhogo Bhajia. Muhogo is the Swahili word for cassava, and Bhajia is Gujarati
word that means basically any veggie that's deep fried. Muhogo bhajia's are little
ball-shaped fitters, crunchy on the outside
and softer on the inside, like a pakora, made of
mainly mashed potatoes and grated cassava. The reason I love this is
because of the super crunchy texture and the spices paired
with the sweet chutney, it's so good you can never have just one. It's an excellent evening snack with tea and a sure hit when you have guests over. This dish is more East
African than Tanzanian, I would say, a lot of Indians have settled in these countries,
especially Kenya and Tanzania. So there are a lot of influences of both cultures in our lives. Like bhajia is an Indian dish, but you'll find it all across East Africa, using African staples such
as cassava and plantains. I think it's a beautiful
product of when people accept and embrace each other's cultures and make things for the better. I don't really have any
memories of this dish from my childhood, but
the reason I like it is because it's a part
of my mom's childhood that she shared with me. I think the reason the world
loves fried food so much is because number one, it tastes better, and number two, it gives
us that instant pleasure and happiness that one seeks. Whenever you are having a bad day, having something fried is
an instant mood lifter. I think people should try this recipe because it's a great
way to introduce people to Indo-Tanzanian cuisine,
which is highly underrated. The taste of this dish will definitely make you go for seconds and thirds. - I have had to source a
lot of very interesting ingredients to make a
lot of these recipes, but none have given me
grief, like cassava. I was able to find the powder easily, but like, actual cassava? I went to five stores in the pouring rain, uphill both ways. (laughing) But ultimately we succeeded, ta da. I'm very excited, this
is going to be spicy. Like, I know because
of the the hot chilies that went into it. (gentle suspenseful music)
(bite crunching) Hmm, oh my gosh, so crunchy. And there's the spice, oh my god. The tamarind is kind of helpful, I guess. Maybe not really helpful. I used a Scotch bonnet chili
because that's what I had. The recipe called for a habanero, and then I was thinking like, oh, Scotch bonnet chilies
are like way spicier, but it turns out they're
like kind of similar on the scoville scale. Oh my god, my mouth is
making so much saliva while I was just talking, I felt like I was about
to drown. (laughing) Oh.
(bite crunching) But it's good. It is very crunchy on the outside and really soft on the inside. To be honest, because it's so spicy I can't really tell you what other flavors are happening in here, but I am enjoying it in like, a kind of masochistic sort of way. I was asking myself the
other day like, why do I, and why do people in general want to increase their spice tolerance? Like, maybe it's for
bragging rights to be like, huh, I can eat like ghost
pepper chilies and I don't care. But for me, I feel like it's a way that I can partake in and actually enjoy other cuisines around the world because a lot of cuisines on this big beautiful
planet have spicy foods. And it's not spice for the sake of spice, it's spice because that is a
part of the flavor palette. And like, if you need to eat everything just always toned down, I think you're gonna be
missing out on a lot of things. So I think that my spice
tolerance has increased on this channel.
(cheerful music) But we're still, we're a
work in progress. (laughing) I'm like in training right now on camera, I'm sweating. The texture though, mm. It's just like a perfect texture. If you can easily access
cassava and you like heat, I just like, these were easy to make. They're like, I mean, I don't know why I keep talking about the texture, but like, they're amazingly textured, just like spongy and crunchy. Anyway, I don't remember
what I was saying. My mouth is on fire. They're really good, they're
just spicy. (laughing) (bright orchestral music) - Hi Beryl, and hi everyone. My name's Rachelle and I am from Chicago. I'm half English-Irish and half Assyrian. And the dish I'd like to
share with you all today is a dish from my Assyrian
side, called Potato Chap. Now not many people know
who as Assyrians are, as we often do get confused
as Syrians from Syria, but Assyrians are an ethnic group who live in the Middle East but do not have a country
in the modern day. Assyria existed up until 600
BC, prior to their downfall, but we've survived all these years later. Assyria has made up of
modern day Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. And depending on where
your family comes from, it's gonna have a lot of influence. My dad's family ended up
leaving Iraq in the mid 1970s to escape the Iraq-Iranian war and I think our food reflects that just because I think potato chap is eaten in a lot of Iraqi homes as well. The name has an interesting
story upon research, but I think it does make a lot of sense because even though Assyrians
call potatoes kirtopeh, the name for potato either
comes from the Arabic word or they change the name
to accommodate the British when they came to colonize
Iraq in World War I. And then chap actually
translates to choppa in Assyrian, which is to clap, because
of the clapping motion that you make when you form the patties. Potato chap is a crispy fried potato dough with a ground beef filling. And I think the appeal here is the texture because when you take a
bite you get the crispiness and the softness of the mashed potato and then you're hit with the salt and the flavor of the filling. This dish reminds me of my nana. She would help take care of
me and my siblings growing up and I remember this was a dish
that she would make often. She was an amazing cook, but I do remember this was the only dish that I would ever see
her get frustrated by because sometimes the
dough would break apart in the oil and she
wouldn't understand why. But now we know the secret
ingredient is potato flakes, but I don't think she used
to use it in her recipe. After my grandma passed away, I really wanted to learn this recipe because I didn't want
this to leave with her. And years after her passing, I
finally attempted to make it. And when frying them, I just
remember closing my eyes and smelling the potato chap in the oil and it just started taking me back to when I was like, five
years old in her house, smelling them in her kitchen
when she was making them. Food truly has so much power in nostalgia. It could bring a person
back to a beautiful memory. Anything that's such a beautiful
thing we can experience from time to time, where if
you are able to master a dish to taste similar to what
a loved one has made you that who's passed away. In trying it, you just find
so much joy and contentment. It's a comfort and that's
what fried food is, and especially what this
dish means to me, comfort. So Beryl, as an Assyrian saying to you, for a person who's gonna eat this dish, (speaks Assyrian) which
means, I hope you enjoy it. (gentle music ends) - I would say that this
dish was definitely not a beginner level dish, like
maybe intermediate plus. I think that some of the
skills needed for this, I have learned since doing this channel. But like, it wasn't the
easiest dish, but like I, I really feel like I did it. (orchestral music)
Ooh. It's so nice inside. It is really, you know
like, when you stuff things you just don't know how
it's really gonna turn out until you finish cooking
it and break 'em open. Whoa, worth it, worth the work. Worth the work. Wow, this is really good. I'm really happy. The turmeric colored the potatoes this beautiful yellow color. The ratio of this seems really good. I think that the better you are at this, the more meat to potato
ratio you can have. Mine's like, maybe a little
more on the potato side just 'cause this was my
first time making it. I don't know who I'm making excuses for, I'm just saying some things out loud. That's what my job is right now, it's just to talk out
loud to myself. (laughing) One of the tricks
definitely, for doing this is to make sure that everything is at least room temperature
when you're doing it. Like, you don't want the meat to be hot when it's going inside. You don't want the potatoes to be hot when you're trying to form them. And in this dish I learned
what a potato flake is and so I was like Googling like, oh, I need potato flakes for this recipe. Like, what is potato flakes? And all these images of
boxed mashed potatoes kept coming up. That is what a potato flake is and I think that what it did is like, really help make the potatoes a dough. Because this was being
deep fried and stuffed I think it probably needed
like a little bit more structural integrity and that's
what the potato flakes did. I really appreciated that
Rachelle explained to us what Assyrian culture was and how it related to her and her family. And it just so happens that
tonight my friend Yasser, is coming over and he
is originally from Iraq. So I am going to give this
to him and see what he says. Roll future tape footage. (group chattering) - Mm, my god.
- How is it? - Oh my gosh, so good. Like, truly reminds me of home. - Yay. How would you say, very tasty? - (speaking in foreign language) In Iraqi. - If he hated it, I
wouldn't have put it in, so yay, he liked it. (laughing) The spice in this is really, really nice. It's soft, it's crunchy on the outside. The meat is flavorful. I think that you could also
probably use lamb in this and it would be very, very good. I'm not having it with a sauce, but I think if you wanted it with yogurt, that would be good. Like I said in the beginning, there's a little bit of technique here that makes it a little bit difficult, but if you're comfortable with
the idea of stuffing things, I mean, I would recommend this. It is, it's beautiful, just beautiful.
(gentle orchestral music) - Hi Beryl. My name is Taysia and I'm
from British Columbia, Canada. And the dish I'd like to share
with you today is Bannock. Bannock is a fried quick bread recipe made and enjoyed by indigenous
people across Canada. It is incredibly versatile, can be fried, baked or cooked over the fire,
served both sweet or savory. Bannock connects me to my Metis culture because it is enjoyed by indigenous people at family and cultural gatherings, but is made with ingredients that would've been brought to
Canada by European settlers. The Metis people are an
indigenous group in Canada who come from a shared
heritage of French fur traders and indigenous people. It is our culture that reflects that. The language still spoken by
a small number of Metis people called Michif, would've been instrumental in trade and bridging the gap between these two peoples back in the day. Today we use the flour brought over from European settlers
and enjoy a delicious fried food at powwow or on indigenous land by the lake at the
beach in the summertime. It is a dish that makes
me think of summer. When you go to the beaches here, you can often buy it fresh and hot, served with cinnamon sugar. Or it's even seen in food trucks or indigenous run restaurants these days. I think that the world enjoys fried food because it's so versatile. You get soft and crunchy. It can be sweet, savory or spicy or a little bit of everything all at once. And I think that's why
you would enjoy bannock. Whatever you're craving, you can have it with cinnamon sugar or jam for a sweet treat. It can be a burger bun to
be enjoyed with salmon, beef or moose or if you're
hanging out around the fire at the end of the evening in summertime with friends and wanna wrap
the dough around a hotdog, you can cook it over the fire that way. Either way, I hope you enjoy. - Since I started this channel and asked a lot of you what recipes you would be interested in seeing, I've seen a lot of requests for indigenous fry bread or bannock. And so when Taysia
submitted this I was like, well, finally we can do it. And perfect for the fried food episode. (bright orchestral music)
I mean, yeah, solid. The inside of this is so
soft and flaky and airy and it's really surprising
because this recipe did not require yeast. There was no time where I had to like, put it in the closet for a
couple of hours while it rises. It was just like mix it, cook it up. And that was really nice
because this is definitely the lowest stress bread I've ever made and it turned out
perfectly on my first try. There's a slight sweetness to it, but it's definitely not a sweet bread. Taysia obviously gave a
lot of different options of things to eat it with,
both sweet and savory. I went with jam, and if you've
been watching this channel, you probably know that I
only have one type of jam. And if you can tell me what flavor it is, five points. (laughing) I was reading up a bit on the Metis people and it's one of only
three indigenous tribes that is recognized in Canada. And there are a few populations of Metis, here in the United States, one of them being in Montana,
which kind of makes sense, it's very close to the Canadian border. But their population is pretty small, if you think about the
population of Canada being around 38 million. There are only around
620,000 Metis in the country. That being said, it's really nice to be able to learn about recipes that are from the original
peoples of these areas and kind of learn to appreciate them from someone from that culture, but then learn how to
make it yourself at home. Food is a great way to keep
memories and histories alive. If you watch my "Memory Meals" episode, I think that you know, you'll know exactly what I mean. These cooked up really quickly. You can see like, the bottom
is a beautiful brown color and then the inside is just
really fluffy and soft. Some of them, while I was cooking them, started to like, bleh out, like a tongue and all the dough that was
raw started coming out, so I just kinda like
tipped them on their side, the leaning tower of bannock. I don't get the feeling
though that making bannock is all about having
like, the perfect shapes. So I think that it's okay. As a reminder, all of the recipes that I am using are
always in the description, plus a lot of other fun
and interesting info. I'm not somebody who
sleeps on my descriptions on YouTube, just say. (chuckling) (orchestral music) - Hi everyone, My name is Daniela, and I am from Porto, Portugal. The dish I wanna share with everyone today is called Pataniscas de Bacalhau, which translates to codfish pataniscas. This is one of the many
dishes that we serve in Portugal, using codfish. Everyone who has ever been to Portugal has probably realized
that codfish is almost like a religion for us here. And pataniscas are
actually one of the easiest ones to make, it's just some codfish, eggs, onion, and parsley. And of course they are fried. They are pretty much codfish fritters. However, the way you shape
them can be very personal. My favorite way was always the way my grandma used to make them for me, which was very thick pancakes with large onion chunks and
lots and lots of parsley. Because they were fried,
my grandma would even do something extra, which was
halfway cooking the pataniscas, she would put some extra
egg batter around them to make them extra crunchy. And I think that's probably the reason why most people like the fried
food, it's the crunch factor. The pataniscas can be
served for lunch, dinner, or an appetizer just as is. At picnics, inside some white bread or even my favorite way to have them is served together with a
runny tomato and beans rice and then putting some extra
vinegar on top of them. This, I think everyone
should try this dish because it's a piece of Portuguese cuisine not a lot of people know about, and they're very easy to
make and super delicious. So I hope you enjoy it if
you do end up trying it. And thank you Beryl, for reaching out. - I'm really into the nautical theme that I did for the final plating for this. You know, I was really channeling the docks of Portugal and
where the cod was fished from. I have made cod fritters
before from Jamaica. Interestingly enough, like
it's the same but different. In Jamaica there were Scotch
bonnet chili peppers in them. Here, it's just kind of
like a much more simple presentation with some herbs. Just gonna put a little lemon on. (bright orchestral music)
(bite crunching) Hmm, man, these are very nice. I feel like I'm like,
immediately transported somewhere else. The flavor of a cod fritter, just like, makes you feel kind of relaxed. I don't know why. I must have had a cod fritter somewhere where I was relaxed and
like, the back of my mind, whenever I taste it, it like,
takes me back to that spot. Comparing these to the dish from Tanzania, these are much more dense in the inside. The cod and the flour and the egg, it like, combines to make a thick fritter. They're not as spongy and light, but also because of that,
like you really taste the cod. I think to make these, I use salted cod and that cod is preserved. And the nice thing about
it is that you can buy it and it will keep for a very long time. One thing you do wanna watch out for if you're using the salted cod, is to not re-salt it
once you've desalted it, because I think in
general, it kind of retains a little bit of saltiness. Like, I would just taste it
before you add too much salt. Just give it,
(lips smacking) like, a little taste. Otherwise you might
end up with salt mouth. No one likes salt mouth. The fish flavor is very
demure and so I think almost anybody would like this. You don't need to be somebody
who's an adventurous eater to really enjoy the flavors of this. It's a very delicate tasting fish, but then because it's fried and because there's a little
bit of seasoning inside, and the lemon juice on top, I think it just makes for
like a very easy to eat and easy to enjoy food. I will say, that while
this was being cooked, the kitchen stunk. (laughing) It smelled like a fish and
chip shop that, I mean, I assume it smelled like
a fish and chip shop. I haven't really spent much time in one, but like, I'm pretty sure that
my kitchen smelled like one. The smell dissipated rather quickly and was replaced by the smell of frying, which actually might also be what a fish and chips shop smells like. Maybe my place just smells
like a fish and chip shop, but there are worse things. I wanna say that I bought
that little deep fryer a little over a year and a
half ago for Olie Bollen, which was the first
fried food I ever made. And I thought, hmm,
maybe I'll use it once. Having a deep fryer in your house opens up a world of possibilities to you. And like, I never thought I
was somebody who was like, oh, I just always wanna be deep frying. But I love it. I just love having it and this episode was joyful for me to
make, I had so much fun. I enjoyed everything so much. I am really excited for the next episode. So as a reminder, if there is a dish that like, really needs to be in it, leave a comment, send me an email. Let's get that fried food
out there to the world. (laughing)
(orchestral music continues) Since you're here, I have two
videos to recommend to you. Number one, my snacks video, and this video about oatmeal toppings because it has changed many lives and maybe your life might wanna be changed for oatmeal as well. (laughing) I will see you guys next week.
