- Hello, welcome to another episode of "LOL, I don't know what I'm doing, but we're going to have fun with it." Where every episode is
a metaphor for the life that we're living in 2020. So on our last episode,
we worked with jackfruit, which I loved. I love the fruit. I love the seed. I even loved the chewy tendrils
that I did not cook enough, but today we're going to
go to the store again. And we're going to see
what else is in stock for us to play with. Let's get shopping. I saw some star fruit.
There was dragon fruit, two different kinds. I saw some beautiful, big beans, still in their shell, Haba beans, maybe they're related to Fava beans? Then I saw a fuzzy,
green, Mexican Chayote. They looked so fun and I
really wanted to try them, but another thing caught my eye. I will be attempting to break the monotony of my life routines with the introduction of a brand new ingredient that I've never cooked with before. Dinosaur eggs. Just kidding, they're called the mamey. Mamey sapote. I don't know if I'm
saying that right at all. A species of tree native
to Cuba and Central America commonly eaten in many
Latin American countries. The fruit, technically a berry, is about four to 10 inches long, three to five inches wide. Flesh ranging in color
from pink to orange to red. The brown skin has a texture somewhat between sandpaper
and fuzz on a peach. These kind of remind me of mangoes. If mangoes somehow fossilized into dinosaur egg looking things. At $2.99 a pound, three of these
babies cost me $16 exactly. Not budget eats, and I
hope they taste good again. For your daily moment of zen, I encourage you to go buy a mamey fruit. It smells like I'm in a forest. (zen music) And it just rained, maybe six hours ago. And the leaves are decaying slowly around the trunk of the trees. The soil is a little bit
damp and a little bit soggy if you press too hard with your feet. Inhale deeply and exhale deeply. And imagine yourself
in a far away landscape where you can actually hear birds sing, without car horns every five seconds. So let's cut one open. (chill music) I think we've hit a bit of a speed bump. I think this isn't as
ripe as it should be. So apparently when it's properly ripe, the fruit should have a give to it. Kinda like an avocado that's ripe. (woody knocking sound) That's not, that's not the
sound of a soft avocado. Is it? I don't know what I'm
doing, but that's okay. I do see that underneath the skin, they have a sweet potato-like
bright orange flesh, which I'm taking as a good sign. because when they're not ripe, they're apparently very green inside and there's no going back now
that we've made a cut in it. So I'm just gonna keep cutting. (mamey cracks) Okay. Well there you have it, folks. That's what a under ripe
mamey fruit looks like inside. Obviously did a very poor
job picking my fruit today, but it smells really
nice inside, actually. It smells like almonds. It smells like amaretto. The flesh is very firm. It is not creamy at all. It is not soft at all. But let's peel a little bit of this. Let's cut a chunk and let's taste it. It looks completely like a
sweet potato in its raw form. It even has the kind of fiber
strings running through it. Let's give it a taste, shall we? It is very chalky and bland. Very starchy. Exactly like biting
into a raw sweet potato. If it looks like a sweet potato, and it tastes like a sweet potato, why don't we just treat
it like a sweet potato? So I'm going to go ahead,
finish trimming this one up. I'm going to peel it until
all the fibrous parts of the skin are gone. Then de-seed it, chop it up. What? Can someone explain to me why
a seed has already sprouted, but the fruit doesn't taste ripe? Please? It does not make sense. So here is half of our
huge mamey chopped up. Let's give these a little boil, huh? So for the boiled version of mamey, we're just going to put
them in a pot of water, little bit of salt, and cook
them until they're tender and give a taste. And then I'll decide
what we can do with them. For the other half of our mamey, I'm going to cut it into wedges
and we're going to toss it in a little bit of
olive oil and seasoning. A little bit of salt. And I found some really old
dried out rosemary in my fridge. This smells like the forest, too. Maybe they were meant to be together. So a little rosemary. 'Cause rosemary always
makes me feel prettier. When roasting veggies, always make sure that you're spacing them out
far apart on the sheet tray so that each individual piece gets exposed to the heat evenly. That's how you get nice and toasty edges. I'm going to slide it into a 375 oven and let them roast into fries. Yes, I know it's 90 plus degrees outside and yes, I know I should
not be turning on the oven right now, but we're going to do this in the name of science. So our mamey has been
boiling for about 15 minutes. Let's check to see how they're doing. Ooh, tender. We have our boiled mamey
still steaming from the pot. Let's try this. (chill music) It smells a little bit
like a russet potato, a sweet potato, toasted almonds. It looks like a sweet
potato on the inside. Very fibrous, kind of stringy. The interesting thing
about it is its texture. It's very starchy. I smushed it between my
fingers and it's like glue. And it tastes very sticky as well. And I'm thinking, if I boil this in a mixture
of coconut milk and sugar this could be a very delicious dessert. So, mamey coconut sticky rice porridge? That kind of sounds delightful. So for the sticky rice, we're going to rinse the rice until the water is mostly clear. We're going to let it soak in that water for at least half an hour, and
then we're going to drain it. We're going to set it over
a pot of boiling water with a strainer up top that hold the rice. And we're going to lid it, we're going to let that rice just steam in that warm, hot, wet environment until it's nice and sticky and delicious. In the meantime, we're
going to drain out our mamey that's been boiled. We'll add some coconut milk to it. We'll add some sugar to it. Definitely let that cook
until it's nice and creamy and sugary and rich
with coconut creaminess. And then we put the two together. 20 minutes are up. We're going to give these a flip. We're going to test to
see how tender they are. Ooh, they're getting
crispy on the other side. Yes, that is exactly what I want to see. They're knife tender, but... I don't think they're quite
as creamy on the inside yet. So maybe 15 minutes more
and we'll check that. And then the meantime, I'm going to think up of a
dipping sauce for these fries. 'Cause they need a little bit of help in the flavor department. Ketchup, mayo, red onion, a
little squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper, really,
whatever else you want in it, easy peasy special sauce. This looks pretty good to me. Basically anything that has
mayo in it has my name on it. I think that's going to
go great with these fries. Here are our golden rosemary mamey fries. They smell good. They smell like rosemary and toastiness. Nicely seasoned. Freshly cracked black
pepper, nicely salted. Guys, and it's very crispy. Only a metal utensil will
do this crispiness justice on the microphone. (clinking noise) Let's have a taste. Interesting. (mamey crunches) It's smooth with a little
bit of fibrousness to it, but not stringiness. It's got age, it's got wisdom, it knows what's going
to happen to the future. That's what it tastes like. The moment of truth has arrived. Our mamey rosemary French
fry has become a vehicle for this special sauce, which I'm not complaining about. It tastes really good because mayo, how could you not taste good
when you put mayo in it? Aaron, do you want to come try some unripe mamey fruit fries? (banging and sliding noises) (chill music continues) - [Aaron] Mm. - [June] What do you think
about the fries on its own? - [Aaron] These are great. For me, fries are all about texture. - [June] And these deliver? - [Aaron] Mm-hm. - [June] Wow. - [Aaron] 'Cause the Rosemary
is a really great addition. These have a better chew
than sweet potato fries and I think a better flavor
with your seasonings. So I'm going to give it an
eight without the sauce. - [June] Wow! - [Aaron] And a nine with the sauce. - [June] Holy shmoles! - [Aaron] Mm-hm. - I like them. They're growing on me. I'm like kind of addicted now, to this texture. And to the mayo, obviously. These have been stewing
away for about half an hour and the coconut milk and
sugar has reduced down to a nice thick syrup. It's absorbed a lot of
the nice coconuty flavors and it's lightly sweetened
and thoroughly creamy now. Yup. Still a pure block of starch inside. I gotta say what I'm most
surprised by in terms of cooking with a mamey, is that it
doesn't really break down. The shape is perfect retention. It's exactly the shapes
that I cut them into and they have not fallen apart at all despite being boiled for 20 minutes and then stewed for another 30 plus. So solid. It's like what I want
my best friend to be. Dependable... through and through. Because mamey is pretty bland, I'm going to go ahead and season with some pumpkin pie spice
and some vanilla extract. I think because it's so
similar to sweet potato in look and texture that
it would do really well with these wintry, autumny spices. So just give that a stir
and we'll serve it up along with our rice. The smell of rice has got to
be in one of my top favorite smells on earth. (jazzy music) And we gotta drizzle it with
some sweetened condensed milk because why not? Mama mia. And then we put some pumpkin pie spice and then we doused it
in a little bit of milk just to soften everything
up and make it soupier. Dessert is always my favorite. A little bit of everything. Mm-hm. Mm. Aaron, you have to try this. - [Aaron] Is it sticky rice? - It's sticky rice. - [Aaron] Oh, I don't know if
I could run faster over there than I did last time. Oh my God. This looks so good. Oh man. Well, I shouldn't have
rated that last dish so high because now I have to rate this one an 11. - [June] Wow! Is it because you love
sweet sticky rice things? - [Aaron] It probably is. But this version of it is excellent, June. That is a great flavor
combination of the mamey. More. - [June] Go enjoy. - [Aaron] Mm-hm. - I have to cook one more thing. So this is definitely super delicious. It's super starchy, but super creamy. It's a little bit sweet now. It really brings out
that natural earthiness that's in the mamey, but combines it with that rich fattiness of coconut and sugar. It's kind of like a rice pudding, deconstructed and extra fibrous. So Aaron really liked it. And I have to say,
that's not bad, not bad. How about we cook one more thing? So when I boiled that mamey fruit, I took about a third
of it and set it aside. And I'm thinking we should use this to make a sweet and sour
pork using this as pork. I'm thinking because it
holds its shape so well and it doesn't really disintegrate, it could be a really nice meat substitute. It's very starchy, very
filling and very meaty, almost, in how solid it is. So for the sweet and sour pork, "pork," we're going to take
our cubed, boiled mamey and we're going to take
some cubed onions and apples that have been peeled and chopped plus a little bit of salt, and some corn starch. And then we're just tossing
until it's all easily coated. Heat up our pan. Drop in a little bit of oil. And let it go. And in the meantime,
we'll whip up our sauce. Gonna grate some ginger, garlic, add a little bit of ketchup, a little pour of rice wine vinegar, a
little bit of soy sauce and a little touch of sugar to taste. A little bit of black pepper and salt. Now give it a stiry-stir. Mm, ketchup soup. Delicious. Once things are looking
nicely golden and toasty, we're gonna hit it with the sauce. Pour it into the pan and let it cook until it's nice and syrupy. It looks great. I'm proud of myself. Smells pretty good. Could have fooled me. Looks like it could be pork. You'd never know. It's time to taste it. I'm going to get a bite with all three. Mamey, red onions, and apple. The apple is still crunchy. Mm, I like that. Aaron, will you come taste? You should get a bite with apple and mamey and red onions for the full flavor combo. - [Aaron] No meat? - [June] No meat. - [Aaron] All right. You could serve that as dessert. - It's a dessert? - [Aaron] It's a dessert. I, I was gonna-- - That's not what I intended. - [Aaron] As a hot dessert. I rate it a nine. - [June] Wow. - [Aaron] Yes. - [June] And as a stir
fry that's not dessert? (both laugh) - [Aaron] It's too sweet. - I'm going to give this one a nine too. It's really good. I love the texture of it. What's your favorite today? Out of the three? - [Aaron] Sticky rice, for sure. - Well, that was an adventure. I started the day by looking
at mamey and deciding, let's take it easy on myself today. Let's buy this, crack it open, put it in a smoothie, make
a milkshake out of it. Maybe top it with some yogurt and mangoes and call it a day. Instead I bought unripe mamey and proceeded to salvage what I could. We ended up with three fantastic dishes. All the recipes that we made today can be made with potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro, plantains, even. Ooh. I've never cooked with plantains before. Maybe a third episode? Stay hydrated, take care of yourselves, feed yourself good things. And I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)
