4 Levels of Curry: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

Hi, I'm Emily and I'm a level one chef. Hello, I'm Lorenzo and I'm a level two chef. Hello guys, this is Yuji. I have been a professional chef for eight years. I eat a lot of

curry

, whatever. curries I like all curries, they are all good. I actually started eating a lot of

curry

because my brother-in-law is British. It had a completely different flavor profile. I have loved it since then, so today I am going to Today I will make chicken curry, coconut milk and vegetables. I'm going to make Japanese curry with live lobsters. We will use all the parts of the lobster to make a super tasty and unique Japanese curry.

The favorite of all the children in Japan, so my recipe is based on a Double Chicken, we are going to be a little more elegant and make it easier for your guests to eat, so we have boned it and removed the skin to make it a little healthier . It doesn't really matter when someone says double marinade, it's garlic vinegar. salt and pepper I have extra ingredients which is sugar, onion powder and I have ginger powder so I'm combining the two so the main part of my curry is a vegetarian curry so it's vegetables. I have spinach, potatoes, green beans. and tomato and coconut milk, I think it's very tasty and works as a meal, so I have soft shell lobsters.

Soft shell lobsters are great for curries because the shells are much softer and you can use the whole body much more easily than hot shells. you get used to it and nothing is wasted and you get a really delicious curry. Let's start with our potatoes. We put all the potatoes in the bowl and the next thing we're going to do is simply cut these green beans to the right size. You are ugly and nobody. I like you, I'm sorry, so before I start preparing these lobsters I'm going to start making kombu dashi. Kombu dashi is the broth made with cold water with just one kombu.

Kombu is dried seaweed, so it has a very nice umami, it's called glutamic acid. and even the water, the kombu dashi will take about 15 minutes or so to be ready in the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and prepare the lobsters, let's go ahead and pour everything together, this is just water, now watch when you're. When making a marinade, you only need one additional liquid. You can use beer. I prefer beer, so of course I have my soy sauce and then onion vinegar powder. You could use fresh onion, but guess what I'm done chopping for now, just hit it. chop it a little cut the stems my spinach doesn't have to be perfect it just has to be chopped now I have ginger you have to have sugar because the sugar will help the marinade stick to the protein so now this is it together let's just go to mix this, I'm going to add salt and pepper, now let's take five garlic, it's a thick cut, I'm going to go ahead and prepare the robots, if we are going to boil live lobsters, it actually deteriorates the flavor because it creates more stress on the protein and then it loses flavor.

It is important to kill any animal without suffering. The way to do it is to target the nerve, so I put my knife directly there and then the lobster dies instantly. I prepare these. lobsters and they are ready to be boiled the kombu is ready to come out of the water now my kombu dashi is ready and then I'm going to boil these lobsters let's salt and pepper this chicken I'm going to save a few tablespoons of my marinade because I'm going to use that in the process of cooking my vegetables I'm going to take a little something 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 Marinate anything for a good 20 minutes, that's absolutely useful so I'll put it in the refrigerator and I'll let it marinate for 30 minutes to an hour, so I'll take the lobsters out of the water.

I'm going to peel it on ice, so I'm also going to use this water for broth, so I want to make sure that all the juice from 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 throw away the meat as much as possible, so I'll use every part of the lobster, no part goes to waste, the shell of the lobster becomes oil, the body becomes broth and then the lobster. The meat becomes part of the bluetooth so you can see how little meat comes out of those giant lobsters, so you have to make sure 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 try it if it sizzles oh yes I love it okay that's what we want okay that's it all my vegetables are prepared and it's time to make my curry. The first thing I have to do is chop my onions and my garlic, I'm just going to add a little bit of oil here, start heating the oil, now it's time for my sauce, so now I have my lobster kombu dashi here, I have these shells and the first thing I'm going to do is squeeze out all the juice here this is the most delicious part it's more like lobster juice than lobster broth so I'm using the water that I basically have to deglaze the bottom of this pan and see how it bubbles, in fact I'm going to turn the heat down now because I don't want to boil.

I want to simmer. I'm going to pour this delicious coconut milk. I love the fact that you can find coconut milk anywhere. The pickled pepperoncini juice. The cut pepper. and pepperoncinis seeds, the last ingredient, which is my curry powder, which will bring that delicious curry flavor to this coconut milk, added to the delicious flavors of the marinade, which looks beautiful, so while this is cooking over low heat slow for about 20 minutes, let's work on my vegetable stir fry, so I'm going to add the celery, onion, bay leaf, and lobster body to the broth. This is a yellow onion, so I'm just going to put this onion in my pan, garlic in the pot, turmeric, cayenne pepper, mustard seeds and cumin.

I'm just going to give this a mix, so my garlic, my onion and my spices have been sizzling here and I'm ready for my next step, so I'm going to add to my tomatoes, potato pieces, a generous pinch of salt. Alright, I'm going to cover this, that's what we call it miso in Japanese, it actually looks like a miso paste, so lobster miso is very delicious. I want to open it up so it mixes much more easily with the broth. It tastes very sweet once all the ingredients are smooth enough. I'm going to use a Honda blender and blend everything in a colander so my potatoes have been boiling and I'm going to check if they're berry potatoes so I'm going to add my green beans and just stir a little bit now you can tell it combines really well with this, it's so intentional, that's 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 in the beautiful coconut curry sauce and Let's keep partying and add some friends here, let's sauté some vegetables.

This is a peeler that I have adopted and will use all the time. now I'll do sitau or green beans, maybe three inch lengths actually end up looking like the size of a typical green bean, since I'm sautéing them I'll make them a little smaller, but what we always do first is onions and garlic. I like that the onions have already started to cook. I'm always worried about burning my garlic. It deserves it marinated. I think I have four tablespoons. Three is good, but you know which four is better. The best way to use these shells is to convert them. oil, you're going to cut this into smaller pieces and you're going to add oil and you're going to fry them, so I'm just cutting all of these shells into smaller pieces as much as possible so you can fry it faster. just a regular vegetable oil, that's the color you're looking for, nice and orange, well guys, this mix of vegetables here has been sautéed, it looks fantastic, the colors are great, it still has a good flavor, let's add it to the sauce and ready.

I'm going to put all these vegetables directly into the sauce, all my lobster oil has been cooking for about half an hour and now it's ready to strain, so red that the strained broth will be used for the sauce, so this has been reducing for about an hour or so, so I'm going to blend everything almost so that it's like the mixture is ready, now it's ready to shrink, if it smells, it always tastes good, very good, and I'll use the lobster oil to sauté the vegetables afterwards Once they are cooked I am going to add broth and a roux to finish it with yellow onion so I am going to have my oil battery lost okay oh look how beautiful it is I have not even mixed it yet now we mix the vegetables that I sautéed and also the meat lobster cream in almost like one sauce, so now I'm going to add my lobster broth, so I'm going to add this roux to this.

I have a bunch of good curry powders and the veggie eggs and I'm going to melt it now that my curry is done so the last thing I need to do here is pour all this coconut milk into my spinach and I'll give it just a little bit more salt. , okay, this looks good, I think it's time to serve it on the plate, it will be delicious. Here's a fun little fact: you take some of my cilantro and sprinkle it on top, so what I have here is a piece of store-bought naan bread because, and this is true, I don't have a tandoori oven in my house, dad. , my grandmother.

There and that's it, I love having a good bed of rice because why not? Okay, now we can't forget these wonderful vegetables and I have a curry here ready and also the rice and then the watermelon radish and then the pumpkin leaves and egg. and lobster tail, all you want to eat, let's bring a big giant caribou, here's my vegetarian curry and here's my coconut chicken curry with lots of vegetables, this is my lobster curry, I'm ready to go, just I'm looking at it because I can smell it, it smells so good, yes, it turned out very good, it's strangely satisfying to me, it's a little strange, I have to take another bite of the sauce, what is that?

Mmm wow, full of flavour, this is a great weeknight curry because you can make it quick, it's easy, lots of options, set it and forget it wherever you want, cut it, put things on, cover it and you have 10 minutes to open a beer, wash the dishes or whatever. Now I'm dipping a lobster tail in amazing lobster broth yes my wife will be super jealous so nice so subtle flavor boom boom boom this this is delicious all just layers of flavor like I showed today by cutting the lobster shells and frying squeezing out the juice of lobster body, it's a lot of work but totally worth it level four should just be tim curry curry is a wonderful hot stewed dish that is as versatile as it is delicious.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs. Emily made a vegetable curry with potatoes. The main and most abundant component of it used Yukon Gold potatoes. These are a type of waxy potato, a term that describes the texture of potatoes after cooking them. Now, if they keep hiring me, I'll eventually be good at cooking. They have a dense, starchy texture. cells that stick together and hold their shape better than flourier varieties like red or blue potatoes Lorenzo made a chicken curry with chicken thighs a type of dark meat they are darker in color because they have more myoglobin they are also taller in fat and lend themselves well to stewing.

I love chicken thighs. I feel like they are juicier. Smells good. Dark poultry meat has longer fibers that are more firmly bound with connective tissue compared to white meat, so slow, moist cooking softens and tenderizes dark meat. the meat very well Lorenzo marinated his chicken thighs and aromatics with a little 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 is applied. too long will make your meat soft and mushy. Lorenzo only briefly marinated his chicken, so this wasn't a problem.

That's not good. Before adding raw chicken to the marinade, Lorenzo reserved some to use later. This was smart because once the raw chicken is ready. You shouldn't use the marinade for anything else, it can be contaminated with chicken pathogenic bacteria, let's do it, yes, Yuji made a Japanese-style lobster curry. He used a soft shell lobster, which is a lobster that recently overgrown and lost its old shell. Soft shell lobsters have saltier, more tender meat than hard shell lobsters. This is because they have less meat and more seawater inside the shell, which somewhat marinates the meat. Yuji made a kombu dashi, which is a basic water-based broth that is perfect.

This tasty and balanced combination is a brown seaweed that is naturally high in monosodium glutamate or msg. This is kombu. The study of kombu actually gave us the term umami, which is the flavor Yuji hoped to achieve in his dish. It is tasty and she created a tasty liquid for boiling her lobsters, Emily prepared a simple but delicious curry sauce for her potatoes and vegetables. She layered flavors by adding her aromatics and spices directly to the oil. Aromatic compounds such as cumin aldehyde and pyrazines are expressed in the oil. Cumin aldehyde is an important flavoring compound in cumin and produces a warm, smoky, and spicy flavor.

Pyrazines are associated with more toasted flavors. It's good, it's good. I'm a fan. Spices such as cumin seeds, mustard andTurmeric also have some thickening properties due to the polysaccharides or starches they contain, since starches are heated hydrogen bonds. Inside them they begin to vibrate, separate and interact with water, which causes swelling. Emily also used coconut milk, a rich and flavorful liquid that formed the base of her curry. I really like coconut milk, so I just want to make sure all of this goes in there. The coconut acquires its distinctive character. Sweet flavors from compounds called lactones.

You'll also find lactose in other fruits like peaches, strawberries, and pineapple. Their cans of diced tomatoes had some liquid and viscosity added from the starches in the tomatoes. This product usually has calcium salts added to support the cross-links between the pectin molecules in the tomatoes, this helps the tomatoes retain their firmness during the canning process. Lorenzo sauce was a combination of their chicken meat seasoned in coconut milk and the sautéed vegetables of it. We have my seat towel while Lorenzo's meats and vegetables cooked the salts and sugars in his added ingredients drew out the moisture, which increased the consistency of the curry from it.

Yuji used all the ingredients. in her recipe for maximum flavor and no waste, what you see here is practically whole lobster. This is the only lobster you see at the restaurant, but this is what you can do with the rest of the body. She made an oil infused with the shell. The body and knuckles of the lobster. The lobster shell contains astaxanthin, a carotenoid pigment that when heated separates from the protein to which it is attached when the lobster is alive. Astaxanthin is lipid soluble, so it is expressed in the oil, which is why the oil turned so red. add some really good coloring, it's super orange yuji made a lobster broth by adding the lobster head in the aromatics to his kombu dashi, which he reduced and blended to create a thick, flavorful stalk by letting the broth simmer for an hour and reduced the water. content through evaporation and concentrated its flavor compounds this is a lobster shake note that yuji used fewer ingredients than our level one and two chefs sometimes the most complex flavors come from the balance of simplicity next time you're in the mood of curry, we look forward to it.

We'll take some of these tips from our three wonderful chefs.