(upbeat music) And welcome to Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

We are, without a doubt the spiciest show on television today.

Well, I say that because of what we've got ready for you on this particular event and I mean event, Alyssa, this is an event when you have this many spices in a row.

I know.

I'm really excited to hear about what each one of these is and how it's going to work in today's recipe.

Spicy sometimes implies hot.

You're going to sweat, make you cry.

What I like about this if you make your own curry powder, which is what we're going to make for the curry today, if you make your own, like other things we've done on this show, you are in control of all of the flavor, and we're going to build incredible flavor, making this curry powder.

Not all these ingredients are easily accessible in every grocery store all over the state.

I was about to point that out.

Where are you going to find all of these?

That's the challenge here.

The interwebs has made the world smaller, but you can go to any grocery store.

In rural Arkansas.

Even in rural Arkansas, and you can buy curry powder already made.

If you make it yourself, you're in charge.

You can make it sweet, spicy sweet.

We have cinnamon, we have cloves, we have nutmeg.

You can make it spicy.

Different peppers, cayenne.

We have a little cayenne that we're going to put in ours today.

I have a pan that's already heating okay okay.

It's a dry pan.

And this is very important.

We're not going to fry any of this.

So there's no oil.

There's no cholesterol.

We're using as much as possible.

Even here in Little Rock, it's hard to find all of these spices whole.

So in a pinch, you can build your own curry powder from ground spices, the powders.

There's excitement building in this show.

And what are the nutritional benefits to this?

Are there.

So we don't look to our spices for a lot of added fats, carbohydrates, protein not really a calorie value here, but there are things like antioxidants.

Turmeric, for example, acts as an anti-inflammatory.

So there are health promoting benefits in everything we're using.

So what about coriander?

Coriander do you have... Coriander is an interesting one.

Not from a nutritional standpoint, but a third of the planet has a dominant gene that makes them dislike cilantro.

They taste soap.

Coriander.

You mean foods are odds with one another?

Yes, coriander is cilantro seed.

So if you have that gene, this is a spice you probably want to leave out or use just a little bit.

I like it.

Okay.

I like it a lot.

And so in our pan is going to go some coriander, some cloves.

I think that's what smells the best on the table right now.

Some cumin.

And this is going to be part of our gauge.

If we've heated this up enough toasted this enough.

Cumin, a lot of black pepper.

It's a lot.

Okay.

Well let's do, let's do part of that.

We don't have to do all of it.

Very flexible, very versatile.

There you go.

That's one of our key words here.

Fennel.

Mustard, yellow mustard seed, brown mustard seed, mustard powder.

If you can't get the seed.

My faith is big as one of those seeds.

We're going to toast these just like they are until the cumin starts to pop like popcorn.

And we're not going to wait for it to blah, blah blah, blah blah.

But we'll get a pop.

We'll get a little pop, we'll get, are you listening, we're going to listen a little bit.

You're cooking by ear?

Cooking by ear, a little by smell.

Even a professional, we toss the pan and sometimes we lose a spice.

That's fascinating.

You ever lost your cookies?

(laughter) So as you're heating this up, I can already smell a difference in the spices that you put in here.

You'll start to smell a lot of cumin.

Okay.

Because once you heat this up and heating this up, that's why we're doing this.

Whole spices, we heat them that releases the oils that are the, that's where the flavor comes from.

They taste okay, but once you heat it, then we, are you hearing it?

Hearing it pop?

You hear it?

Oh, you hear it?

Yes.

Wow.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Snap, crackle, pop.

So we're starting to get a little smoke.

Yeah.

Nothing's burning.

That smoke is a good sign as well.

Okay.

So you mentioned we're going to grind this eventually.

We are we're going to take this off of the heat now.

And we're going to add the ground spices that we didn't have whole.

Okay.

So we have some turmeric.

This makes me wonder who discovered this?

Whoever came across this the very first time, did they just keep going, you know we're going to add some more.

Let's try this.

So ginger.

This didn't originate here, right?

No.

And curry, this particular recipe comes from the southern half of India.

But curry, curry is a word that really means or implies sauce or a gravy.

So in the South, your biscuits and gravy.

I guess we could say that southern biscuits and it's biscuits and southern curry.

That's curry.

Okay.

But yeah.

Well it brings to mind food from other cultures, Alyssa, and how that can add excitement to breaking the routine.

Oh absolutely.

The same thing over and over.

Right.

How you can take ingredients that we might be familiar with here in Arkansas.

You can just season them differently, influenced by other cultures, and you can have a whole new refresh on those familiar ingredients.

What we're doing here Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

So we've added the turmeric, the ginger, some cardamom.

Okay, okay.

That's a hard one to find.

Easily found on the interwebs.

That's a lemony, citrusy kind of taste.

We might use some citrus in the curry that would take the place of the cardamom.

Orange juice?

Or if we need to, maybe.

Hey, cinnamon, looks like a lot of cinnamon.

And it is.

Nutmeg.

Just a little bit of nutmeg.

This is extraordinary.

And the heat, for us the heat.

And so because we may be serving this to somebody that doesn't do a whole lot of heat, we'll cut back just okay.

We won't put as much cayenne pepper in there.

If it makes my eyebrows sweat.

I'm not a fan.

Okay.

Well, no sweating eyebrows.

We're just going to mix this up.

This needs to cool.

Are you still heating it?

It's not.

It's off the heat.

But this needs to cool a little bit before we go into a regular.

I have a coffee grinder that is just for spices.

You don't want to interchange a grinder to be your coffee grinder and spice grinder.

You don't want, yeah, you don't want your coffee to taste like taste like cumin or cardamom or something like that.

So what do we are we going to are we going to add some water or something?

Or is that just poured over something?

We're going to grind this to be the curry powder that we're going to use for the curry that we're going to make when we come back.

Oh.

What did I tell you about spicy?

I know you've been following this.

If not, don't worry.

We'll give you some graphic support to keep track.

The one thing is, what's going to happen when we come back in just a second.

(upbeat music) Convenience doesn't have to mean unhealthy.

Frozen and canned foods are often picked and preserved at peak freshness, which means they can still provide important nutrients.

These convenience foods can save time and reduce food waste.

It's easier to make healthy choices when you know what to look out for on your convenience food labels.

For example, if you're following a low sodium diet, check your nutrition facts label to determine how much sodium is in a serving of the food.

Stocking your freezer and pantry with things like frozen vegetables.

Frozen fruits, canned beans, and canned fish can make balanced meals faster and easier.

That'll give you more time to enjoy the finished product with the ones you love.

We last left our story, we just made curry powder if you'll remember.

What comes next?

I don't know, but I am dying to find out Alyssa and Robert.

Okay, so we're going to use the curry powder we made and make curry.

That makes sense.

We're going to start, we've got a lot of things already cut and prepared.

Mise en place.

Remember that French word?

We're going to cut and measure and weigh everything before we cook anything.

So you go to the grocery store, you can buy this in a jar that's already minced up.

I've seen it.

Yep.

Okay.

But for a really incredible flavor, buy fresh garlic.

So you buy a head of garlic or a globe of garlic.

And in here are individual cloves of garlic.

Wow.

And each one of these cloves in here is wrapped up in its own little paper.

How perfect.

Well, sort of perfect.

It's also a little annoying.

Oh.

It's a little messy.

It can be a little messy.

You got to peel this paper off.

And it really doesn't work very well all the time.

And it gets sticky.

But you can also just smash it really good.

And then it's easy to peel without any other tools.

And it will still ward off a vampire?

It definitely will because now, you have garlic clove cologne.

What is, what does garlic do for us nutritionally?

It is going to be a flavor enhancer.

So it is a great way to add a complex flavor without adding sodium, without adding fat.

And chef was absolutely correct.

If we're going to not cut any corners like we're doing with toasting the spices and all of that, we should use fresh garlic in today's recipe.

Also allows you to take out some aggression in the kitchen.

When you smash them a little bit.

One of the things I love about cooking, I can beat it all out on the food.

Another thing I really dig about cooking, what continues to drive me to learn about food and want to know more about food.

I'll tell you while I'm mincing this, I'm one of those sicko people that just kind of, I don't want to be a know it all, but I want to know as much about the world and how things work as possible.

Well, here you go.

You've got a piece of it right now.

Southern India brought to Arkansas.

And food is a study of geography, culture, ethnicity, race, religion, history.

Right.

It's so much more than just science.

Culture does have an influence on our food and how much we enjoy it, doesn't it?

Right.

And that's why sometimes it can be hard to criticize, you know, what's healthy and what's not healthy, because there are so many healthy foods that we're just not familiar with.

So we need to take that into account, especially as a nutritionist, when making recommendations, see what foods are familiar and how they can influence a healthy diet.

But what would you say about venture out?

You know, go for things that are familiar, yes, but venture out and try something new.

You might be surprised you just picked up a new favorite dish.

I think you're right.

Will I learn more about this in international foods this semester?

You absolutely will.

And think about this.

This is really getting deep now.

It brings us all together.

Philosophically, it brings, food is a great uniter.

When you get food from another culture and you learn to understand what appeals to them and it appeals to you, you've bought into uniting the world.

I'm going to add, okay, this is a, here's an interesting ingredient.

Okay.

We're using something called ghee.

G H E E. Ghee Okay.

All this is, is clarified butter.

What does clarified mean?

We've taken butter, we've put butter in the microwave or on the stove top and we've melted it really slowly.

But we go beyond just melted.

We get to a little white foamy on the top, little milk on the bottom.

We take all that white off.

That stuff burns.

This is the buttery oil that's left behind.

It'll take just as much heat as a vegetable oil, as a canola oil.

Ghee whiz.

Ghee whiz.

(laughter) I'll be darned.

We're going to add some now and we might add a little bit later.

Later.

But we're going to start with this amount.

I'm learning so much in this episode.

It's phenomenal.

We're going to add some red onion.

Now is this technically part of the curry?

This is part of the curry.

Okay.

We're going to add our garlic.

(sizzling) Fresh garlic is a little bit sticky.

I noticed you're not necessarily measuring it.

You're just kind of tossing it.

Eyeballing it.

I've done this a long time.

I was going to say.

I think we're providing a recipe on a, you can see the recipe and you can follow that.

But all food is so versatile.

If you want a little flavor of onion but you don't want so much, don't use so much of it.

Well, that makes sense.

Sure.

Would you get the chicken?

Yes, Chef.

So now this is going to go with the powder.

It will in a minute.

Okay I'm rushing things.

I'm sorry.

Right.

We've got to cook some diced chicken breast next.

From Indian cuisine to Russian.

In goes some chicken.

We're going to set the rest of this off to the side.

(sizzling) Oh my gosh, I was just fixing to say, Alyssa, that's, you all, again.

We're going to add our vegetables.

Okay.

And it looks like we've got a frozen blend going into the pan.

Oh, those frozen?

Those were frozen.

But if we let them thaw, then some of the added water and moisture that belongs to frozen vegetables, we've been able to drain those away.

So we don't have a lot of that added water.

Oh.

That's a very good point.

That's definitely something to look out for when you're looking to saute frozen vegetables.

They're going to release water after that freezing process has happened.

And you don't want a runny curry.

That looks healthy.

We're going to add our curry powder.

Here we go.

We're adding... The whole first segment of this show is now being added.

Wow.

We're adding some.

Okay.

It looks like a lot.

But when it all comes together okay Alyssa, would you get down into our magical utensil drawer and to get me a little knife or a spoon.

I think we have butter knives right underneath there.

Yes we do.

I'm going to use this.

You should try to have a magical utensil drawer.

Everybody needs one.

We're using curry paste.

At most grocery stores there are two kinds.

There's a green curry paste and a red curry paste.

Okay.

Green curry paste is very, very mild.

Red curry paste, little spicy.

Okay.

This show is breaking the record for most ingredients.

They all have a place though in this recipe.

And we're adding some.

So many bowls.

Okay we'll give that a little stir.

(sizzling) When things start to stick to the bottom just a little bit.

We're going to pour in coconut milk.

And that.

Because we just don't have enough.

That coconut milk is going to take now it's going to take about 8 or 10 minutes.

Come to a bubble.

We're going to let that reduce.

And that's going to tighten up to like a gravy, thicken up.

To like a gravy.

We'll give it a little stir.

That's also going to pick everything up off the bottom of the pan.

So coconut milk is something that you can buy refrigerated, something you can buy in a can.

So there are a couple different places that you can get that coconut milk in your grocery store.

Right?

Yeah.

What you can use this with other proteins, naturally.

We've touched on that.

So one of my favorites is shrimp.

I would cook all of this minus the shrimp until it comes to the the thickness that I want.

Put the shrimp right on the top and close the lid.

I would put a lid on, let the shrimp steam.

Otherwise you could overcook the shrimp.

Since this is Arkansas, what about catfish?

Any fish.

Wow.

Y'all, I've got a confession to make.

When we started this episode, I just wasn't that familiar with curry.

But, Alyssa, you get the aroma.

You see what's going into it?

All the work that's gone into it.

Right.

It makes it so much more enticing.

And I'm excited now to try it.

Me too.

And we're going to try it when we come back.

(upbeat music) The aroma is overpowering.

The food looks incredible.

The trip to the Far East is about to happen through the use of a fork inside the studio of Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

What a great moment that you will now witness, especially for me, because I get to try and I'm now excited about trying something I was not just so sure about.

How about that, Alyssa?

Right.

I'm excited for you to try this chicken curry.

Important thing here.

You may have noticed I've used zero salt in any of this.

No, I did not notice.

But now.

Now is the time that you get to add your own salt.

Oh.

You're in control.

So start with some rice on the plate here.

Or the bowl.

Bowl, plate.

So we've just got some long grain white rice that we cooked earlier.

Is this nutritious?

That's fine.

That's great.

Yeah absolutely.

Nutritious with some vegetables.

Oh we got vegetables in the.

And the protein.

And the protein.

This is your balanced plate here.

Pretty good amount right there.

I'm feeling.

We're going to pass the salt to you.

Feeling adventurous.

Okay wait, wait this, so that's going to be good.

But you need to squeeze a lime.

Really?

Yeah.

Take a lime wedge.

A whole wedge?

A whole wedge.

Give it a pretty decent squeeze.

All over the whole thing?

All over the whole thing.

There it goes and there it goes.

And then give it a little bit of give it a little salt.

I'll do it your style.

Okay.

It's that good?

Beautiful.

Could be.

Okay.

And now something I wasn't so sure about is about to become a reality.

The moment of truth.

It's sweet.

Oh.

And if the aroma was incredible, the flavor that is coming through right now.

I'm sorry, curry.

I'm sorry I ever said anything suspicious about you.

I apologize, and I promise to finish you off.

I like that positivity.

Brilliant.

Now we're going to add another element.

If it's adventurous, if it's affordable, if it's available, if it's nutritious, if it's delicious, it's Arkansas Taste Kitchen from around the world.

It comes to you and we're all better off for it.

How many yums?

Four yums.

Wow yum yum yum yum yum.

Join us again.

You've got to.

(upbeat music) Additional funding provided by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.