America's Test Kitchen (2000–…): Season 22, Episode 12 - Vindaloo and Chana Masala - full transcript
♪♪
♪♪
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♪♪
-Today on "America's
Test Kitchen,"
Julia makes Bridget
Goan pork vindaloo,
Adam reveals our top pick
for rice cookers,
Lisa reviews
electric can openers,
and Dan makes Julia
chana masala.
It's all coming up right here
on "America's Test Kitchen."
♪♪
-Today, we are making
my favorite curry of all time,
a pork vindaloo,
and it's redolent of warm
spices, balanced aromatics,
and juicy, succulent pork.
And Julia is here,
and she's going to show us
a version of this Goan dish
that we can make at home.
-That's right. So, this is
the traditional vindaloo --
not spicy, just fragrant,
and it has three
key ingredients.
The first is pork.
This is a 3-1/2-or-so-pound
pork butt.
That's from the shoulder.
You'll see coconut vinegar,
which you can find
at any grocery stores or online,
and Kashmiri chili powder.
Alright, so to get started,
we're going to make
a spice paste
that's going to flavor the pork,
starting with some fresh ginger.
You want about a 2-inch
piece of ginger.
I know you love this trick of
using the spoon to peel ginger.
-Very much so.
You're just taking
that little bit of peel off
and leaving the rest of it.
-That's it.
-And the spoon
can get into those nubs.
-That's the thing.
Oh, that smells good.
Alright. I'm just going
to slice this thin.
Give it a head start before
we put it into the blender.
-Okay.
-Into the blender jar it goes.
Now we're going to add
six cloves of garlic.
You just want to make sure
they're peeled and trimmed,
which these are.
I've got a few spices
lined up here,
but this one
is the most important.
It is Kashmiri chili powder.
-Mmm.
-Now, you can find this online
or in an Indian market.
It has a very mild but bright
flavor and beautiful color.
Just 3 tablespoons
of Kashmiri chili powder.
-And we've got
a great workaround
if you can't find
that Kashmiri chili powder.
It involves guajillo chilies,
black tea,
which adds an astringent flavor,
and a little bit of paprika.
We've got instructions for that
on our website.
-Alright. Next up,
1 tablespoon of paprika.
Tablespoon of ground cumin.
-Mmm.
-2 teaspoons of table salt.
Teaspoon of black pepper.
Now we're into the little spices
that just add nuance.
So, this is 1/2 teaspoon
of ground cinnamon,
1/2 teaspoon, oh,
of my favorite, cardamom.
-Oh, yes, yes, yes.
-Oh, I love those warm spices.
And just 1/4 teaspoon
of ground clove
and 1/4 teaspoon
of ground nutmeg.
Alright, so that's it
for the spices.
Notice I left out
anything too spicy.
And if you do like a little bit
of heat in your vindaloo,
you could always
add some cayenne.
But I like this one
on the mild side,
so I'm leaving it out.
-Lovely.
-Alright. Last but not least,
a little bit of water
to help things go around.
This is 3/4 cup of water.
Alright, so we're just
going to blend this
into a nice, smooth paste.
Takes a minute or two.
I'm going to stop
and scrape down
the sides of the blender jar
as I need to.
Alright, let's get in there
and see how it looks.
Actually, you can see
this is a pretty smooth paste.
-Mmm!
-Yeah.
Can you smell it from there?
-I sure can.
-Yeah, it's very fragrant.
Alright. So, I'm just going
to set this aside
while we focus on the pork.
-Okay.
-So here I have
a 3 to 3 1/2 pound pork butt.
That's from the shoulder.
Perfect for braising
and making stew
if it's nice and soft throughout
the long cooking time.
-Right.
-Alright. So, now, you can see
there's some hunks of fat
in there.
We want to cut the meat down
into stew sized pieces
or about, you know, an inch big.
What I like to do
when I'm kind of tackling
a big piece of meat like this
is I cut it into almost steaks
that are about the size
I want the pieces of meat,
and then it just makes it easier
to go in and trim out
the pieces of fat.
-Agree.
-So I'm going to take my time
and just cut up the pork,
taking off some that fat
and silver skin as you go along,
leaving a little bit of fat,
of course.
Little goes a long way
for flavor.
-And in general, the hard fat
is what you want to take off.
-That's it.
-The soft fat will melt
a lot easier.
-Alright, there we go.
Trim and meat.
Now I'm going to take
this spice paste,
pour it all over the pork.
Ohh.
-Mmm.
-That's it.
Oh, goodness.
Okay, so now we can just
clean this up and get cooking.
-Excellent.
-Alright, so here I have
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
Just going to heat it up
in the pot over medium heat.
-Alright.
-While that heats up,
just going to chop an onion
pretty fine.
This is a nice, big onion.
Should yield about 1 1/2 cup.
First cut,
down towards the root end,
but not through.
Second cut, horizontally.
And then third cut,
straight down
into a nice, fine chop.
Alright.
Our oil is nice and hot.
We're going to cook them
on their own
for a good 7 to 9 minutes
just until they start to soften
and get a little brown.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Oh, you can see those onions
have really cooked down,
and they're nice and golden.
In goes the spiced pork.
We didn't marinate the pork,
and a lot of recipes
marinate the pork
in coconut vinegar,
which is a classic flavor.
And though we are indeed
going to add it,
when we marinated the meat
in coconut vinegar
or we added it to the pot
at the very beginning,
we found it dried out
the pork butt.
So instead, we're gonna
hold back on the vinegar
and just add it partway through.
Alright, so it's been
a couple minutes,
and the pork has started
to release some of its liquid,
and the mixture is bubbling.
Time to put this in the oven,
which is just a much easier way
to cook the braise,
'cause there's not
a lot of liquid.
Prevents anything
from scorching.
So, we're gonna put this
in a nice, low 325-degree oven.
We're just going to cook it
for 40 minutes.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Ohh.
Oh, goodness.
Smells good, doesn't it?
-It smells like heaven.
-Yeah.
So, the vindaloo is not done
at this point.
The pork needs
a little more time
in the oven to turn tender,
but now is when
we're going to add
that important coconut vinegar,
which lends, you know,
a nice brightness and fruitiness
to the sauce.
-It wouldn't be vindaloo
without it.
-It would not. Alright,
so we're going to stir in
1/3 cup of coconut vinegar.
And if you can't find
coconut vinegar,
you could substitute
cider vinegar.
Alright,
that looks pretty good.
So, cover goes back on.
Back into that 325-degree oven.
It needs another
40 to 50 minutes
for that pork
to get good and tender.
But after 20 minutes,
I'm going to take the lid off
and let that sauce reduce down.
-Okay.
We like plenty of tart vinegar
in our vindaloo,
but it turns out that when
we add the vinegar to the pot
is very important.
Many recipes start by
marinating meat with vinegar,
which imparts a tangy flavor
into the meat.
Proteins in muscle meat
contain mostly negative charges.
Since similar charges
repel each other,
the proteins stay separated.
That allows the space
between them to fill with water.
Vinegar, however, is an acid,
which means it's full
of positively charged ions.
When the vinegar meets the
protein, the charges cancel out.
Now there's nothing
holding the proteins apart.
So when the cooking starts,
the muscle fibers
begin to squeeze together,
forcing out juices
from the meat.
This can result in meat
that feels dry.
For our recipe, we skip
the acidic marination step
and add the vinegar to the pot
late in the cooking process.
This allows the meat
to retain its juices
and imparts a flavorful tang
to our vindaloo.
Oh, the oven back there
has never smelled so good.
-[ Laughs ]
It smells good, doesn't it?
Alright, now I'm going to test
to see how tender the pork is
using a fork. Ohh.
The fork went in
with very little resistance.
That's a sign that it's done.
-It's a great sign.
-Alright.
So, just going to let this sit
for about 10 minutes.
Let it cool off a bit.
It's a little hot to eat.
Stir it around, make sure
everything's coated with sauce,
and then we can try it.
♪♪
Alright, it's been resting
for 10 minutes,
and time for a taste.
I have a nice bed
of basmati rice here.
-Oh.
-Yep.
A little more.
I know this is your fave.
-It is absolutely my favorite.
-I'm gonna go in
for some of that sauce.
Alright. Moment of truth.
-Moment of truth.
Ah, it does fall apart.
-Oh.
-Mm.
Everything is balanced.
-Now, all the spices
are in concert with each other.
And it's not spicy.
It's just fragrant.
-It's bright. It's tangy.
It's vibrant, because
you held off on the vinegar.
-So it has just a little bit
of a fresh kick.
-Right. This is gold star.
-It is, isn't it?
-It is the best.
And you're the best.
Thanks, Julia.
-You're welcome.
-Well, if you want to make
this gorgeous vindaloo at home,
make a flavorful spice paste
to season the pork.
Use the oven instead of
the stovetop for even cooking,
and add the vinegar halfway
through the cooking time.
So, from "America's
Test Kitchen,"
a warm, vibrant, and fragrant
Goan pork vindaloo.
♪♪
Yum.
-Mmm.
♪♪
-It's estimated that over
500 million metric tons of rice
are consumed
each and every year.
Well, you're going to need
something to cook that in.
So Adam's here,
and he's going to tell us
all about rice cookers.
-And that is because
rice is a global staple.
-Of course.
-It's eaten in practically
every country.
In different cultures,
there are ingrained preferences
for different types of rice
and different textures.
And an electric rice cooker
is supposed to make it easy
to cook to your preferences.
We tested nine
different models here.
The prices we paid ranged
from $19 to $164.
Testers use these to make
small and large batches
of long grain white rice,
small batches
of short grain white rice,
and full batches
of short grain brown rice.
-Okay.
-What they were looking for
were all the grains to be tender
but with a little hint of chew,
and they wanted
consistent cooking
throughout the whole batch.
-So no hot spots.
-No hot spots,
no overdone spots.
-Okay.
-A bunch of these made actually
great rice out of the gate.
Some of them had
a learning curve
where testers had to
get to know them a little better
and adjust the ratios
of water to rice.
What they did find, though,
is that those that had
a longer cooking cycle,
say 65 minutes as opposed
to a shorter one of 30 minutes,
generally made better rice.
Some of these were equipped
with a technology
called Neuro Fuzzy logic,
which monitors the conditions
inside the cooking bowl
and will adjust both the water
and the cooking temperature
as you go
to make sure
that the rice turns out perfect.
And both of the ones
that testers chose in the end
had that Neuro Fuzzy logic.
-Really?
-Yeah.
-So your appliances are smarter
than you are.
-Which is not hard in my case.
Exactly.
Testers also really appreciated
controls that were clear
and easy to use and simple.
They liked to have some sort
of indication, like a counter
that would tell you where
you were in the cooking process
and when you were
going to be done,
and when it would switch
to its Keep Warm mode,
which they all had.
One other thing that made
a difference to testers
was because the ratio of water
to rice is important,
and all of the cooking bowls
were dark in finish,
if the water marks,
if the measurement markings
were in white on the bowl,
they were a lot easier to see
than that red one there.
So that one has the dark bowl,
but the measurement markings
are embossed into the dark bowl,
and you can't really see them.
-You can't see anything
in there.
-Nothing.
In terms of cleaning
these machines,
testers preferred the ones where
the lids came off completely
or at least had an insert
that they could pull off.
One of them didn't, and that one
was more of a pain to clean.
-Okay.
-Two of the machines
made actually really good rice
right out of the gate,
and that was these two
right here.
They had less of a learning
curve than all of the others.
In the end, it was this machine
that won the day.
This is the Zojirushi 5 1/2 cup
fuzzy logic
rice cooker and warmer.
It was $164.
It made fantastic rice,
no matter what kind,
in what size batch,
and it had all
of those little features
that the testers really liked.
-So you pay a little bit more,
but you get foolproof rice.
-For all of your 500 million
metric tons.
-[ Laughs ] That's perfect.
Well, if you want
to pick up the winner,
it's the Zojirushi 5 1/2 Cup
Neuro Fuzzy
Rice Cooker & Warmer,
and it retails for $164.
♪♪
-If you open a lot of cans
or you have issues
with hand strength,
an electric can opener
is a wonderful thing.
But too many of them
are terrible.
Look at this. Super cute,
but check out how slow it is.
Now, we tested eight products
in two styles,
countertop and little
battery models.
The prices were about $16
to about $50.
Now, our testers,
including one with arthritis,
used them to open
more than 100 cans,
from small tuna cans
to big cans of tomatoes.
We even tried cans with dents
and cans with pull tops.
Stop. Stop, stop, stop.
Yes. Okay.
Who has time for that?
Some of them choked
right from the start.
They were hard to use.
The cans had to be positioned
just so.
And sometimes,
it was hard to tell
exactly what they needed
to work right.
And some tipped over
with heavy cans.
[ Laughs ]
Okay.
Nobody needs that.
Now, these little guys,
you know, they were adorable.
This one was wobbly.
And two of the three models
we tested broke during testing.
The replacements were no better,
and they were kind of
ridiculously slow.
This guy took an average of
46 seconds to go around one can.
The best took just 12 seconds.
In the end, we had one
battery model that wasn't bad.
It was called the Kitchen Mama
Electric Can Opener,
about $26.
The cutting wheel got
slightly bent during testing,
but it still worked,
so we took a few points off.
But the good part is
it fits easily in a drawer,
and it doesn't have
to be plugged in.
But countertop model
the Hamilton Beach Smooth Touch
Electric Can Opener,
at about $30,
aced all our tests.
This thing easily latched onto
cans of all sizes.
It's fast. It never tipped over.
It's also a safety opener.
It's cutting
into the side of the can,
so it's leaving no sharp edges.
And it even open pull-top
and dented cans.
It's our new
test kitchen favorite.
♪♪
-Chana masala is one
of Northern India's
most popular vegetarian dishes.
Now, there are lots of versions
of chana masala,
but they all feature chickpeas
and an array of spices.
And today, Dan's going to make
my favorite version,
with garam masala, tomatoes,
and cilantro.
-I'm so excited.
It's such a comforting dish.
And the way
we're going to make it,
it's, like, perfect
weeknight meal food,
so you want to make it
all the time, basically.
So, we're gonna start
with our aromatics,
and I have a red onion here.
I'm just going to cut this
into four pieces
through the stem end there.
We're going to use it
in two ways.
For part of it here,
I'm going to mince it fine,
and that's going to be
for the garnish.
And the other, we're gonna
use our food processor
to break it down.
-Oh, I love that trick!
Quartering the onion,
and you slice it one way,
and you tip it
on the other side,
and you slice it vertically
the other way.
It eliminates that whole
horizontal, messy business
that everybody hates,
especially if you're a beginner
at knife skills.
-Yep, it's a great trick.
So, we're gonna transfer this
over to a little bowl
for garnish.
So, for these pieces, I'm just
going to do it really rough.
This is going to go
in the food processor,
so we just want to
break them down a little bit.
Next up, cilantro.
-Mmm.
-So, we're going to use
stems and leaves here.
The stems are obviously
packed with flavor.
-Mm-hmm.
-I'm just cutting these into
kind of rough, 1-inch pieces.
Also goes into
the food processor.
Onto the rest of our aromatics.
We've got ginger.
So, this a 1 1/2 inch
piece of ginger
that's been peeled
and cut kind of just coarsely,
and it's mashed with a classic
paring, which is garlic.
So this is two cloves that
we peeled and just cut coarsely.
And that ginger
and garlic combination
is so important in cooking
across the Indian subcontinent,
where a lot of times,
it's so common
that people have a paste made up
ahead of time,
and you can just
use a spoon of it
and add to things.
-Oh, that'd be handy.
-Yeah, it's fabulous.
And then finally, so, this is
a couple serrano chilies
that I stemmed, seeded, so got
rid of some of the heat there.
We're going to add half of them
to the food processor here,
so they're going to
cook into the dish.
I'm going to save the other half
along with the onion
for garnish.
-Mmm. Spicy.
-So, I'm gonna use
the food processor
to get a really nice,
fine grind on it
and it's going take
about 20 seconds.
I'll scrape down as needed.
So, when I'm scraping down
and working the bottom here,
one really simple tip
that I love
is to always come against
the back of the blade,
if you're going to stir through,
and move it that way.
To go the other way,
your spatula gets caught
on the blade, and it cuts
really, really easily.
So it's a super simple thing.
-And many of my spatulas
have little nicks in it
from the food processor.
-They all do, right? Yeah. Yeah.
So, I'm going to transfer this
over to our saucepan here,
and I've got 3 tablespoons
of vegetable oil
already in here,
but it's not heated.
And, so, if this were heated,
and we added all this wet,
kind of almost juiced veg...
-Mm-hmm.
-...you're going
to get a lot of splatter.
So this is just
starting it all cold together...
-Mm-hmm.
-...and then we'll bring it up.
So, we're not going to
clean this.
We're going to use it
for our tomatoes in a second.
-Okay.
-Great. So now that
we've got this in here,
I'm going to bring it up
over medium-high heat,
and we're going to cook
until it's really nice and soft
and some of the aromatics start
to stick to the bottom of the
pan.
It's going to take
anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes.
Alright. We're going
to multitask.
While that's going...
-Okay.
-...we're going
to go with one can,
a 14-1/2-ounce can
of whole peeled tomatoes.
We're gonna go right into
the food processor.
So, with chana masala, you see
a lot of different textures.
Some of them can be a lot
coarser and chunkier.
We want something that's
really nice and smooth,
so that's why we process
the veg that way,
and that's why we're going to do
the tomatoes really fine.
This will take about 30 seconds.
It's been about five minutes.
You can see the veg
is nice and soft.
It's cooked down a lot,
and it's starting to stick
to the pan a little bit.
-Mm-hmm.
-Right, we're getting a little
of that fond
and that great flavor.
So that is perfect.
It's time for our spices.
So, first up, we have 1 teaspoon
of Kashmiri chili powder.
-Ooh.
-This is -- I mean, you can see
that color is
absolutely brilliant.
We also have
1 teaspoon of cumin,
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric,
and 1/2 teaspoon
of fennel seeds.
Now, we've got the fat
that's already in there,
those 3 tablespoons of oil.
And what's really great
about this step in the process
is you're getting those spices
in contact with the fat,
and they're loaded
with oil-soluble flavors,
so the oil pulls it out,
and then that just permeates
the whole dish.
-Mm-hmm. You can smell it
as soon as they get stirred
into that pan.
Just this waft of spice
washing over us.
It smells delicious.
-In just about a minute,
it'll get really aromatic
and bloom those spices nicely.
Okay, so next up, we're going
to add our chickpeas,
obviously the key
to the dish here.
We're using canned chickpeas.
-Yeah.
-You could totally use dried
for this recipe.
Obviously, they need to soak
and then cook.
Canned chickpeas are fabulous,
and these are cooked
about 90% of the way there,
so we really like that.
And we also have this
wonderful liquid, this aquafaba.
It's gonna add a lot of body
to the dish.
Great. And then finally,
our tomato.
-Mmm.
-Great. Okay. So, I'm going
to bring this up to a boil.
Then we're going to lower
the heat, maintain a simmer,
cover, cook about 15 minutes.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Okay, so it's been 15 minutes.
-It smells delicious.
-It smells incredible, right?
-Oh, it does.
-So, a lot of the spices
that we added earlier,
they permeate the dish
because they got into the fat.
We talked about that,
but a lot of them,
everything you smell in the air
is also, you know, volatized,
so it's not in the pot anymore.
-Right.
-So one of the beautiful things
about so much Indian cooking
is the staggering of spices.
And so we're going to add
1 1/2 teaspoons of garam masala
at this point in the process,
and we're going to retain
a lot more of those volatiles
so you'll taste a lot more of it
in the dish.
-Interesting.
-And then, we've also got
1/2 teaspoon of salt.
-Alright, so
the garam masala is in.
How much longer
on the simmer time?
-8, 12 minutes, and we're going
to thicken this up,
and it's just going
to be really, really nice,
and then we get to eat.
-I can't wait.
♪♪
-This is my perfect consistency
for chana masala.
It's really thickened
and beautiful,
but it's still got tons
of nice brothiness to it.
-Mm-hmm.
-So, the next step,
the final step here
is to taste it and season it up,
make sure that we have the salt
exactly how we want.
So I'll just give it
a quick stir.
That's always a good idea
when you're seasoning.
Make sure it's nice and even.
Mmm. Doesn't need anything.
-Really?
-Doesn't need any salt at all.
Yeah, it's perfect.
So, I'm gonna transfer to this
lovely, shallow bowl over here.
-What a nice serving bowl
for this.
-So, we're going to add
some of our minced onion.
So, these are stemmed, seeded,
and sliced serranos.
And then we've got some gorgeous
just cilantro leaves.
Obviously, we have the stems
and everything in there,
so this just brings all those
bright flavor notes
right to the top.
-Beautiful.
What's also beautiful
is that bowl over there.
-Yes, I was wondering
if you were going to see that.
-Oh, how could you not?
I mean, how could you not look
at that bowl and think,
how beautiful are those?
-So, this is a classic
accompaniment to chickpeas.
This is bhatura, and they're
these gorgeous fry breads.
They puff up in this gorgeous,
gorgeous way.
-And you can find a recipe
for those on our website.
-Time to eat.
-Time to eat.
[ Chuckles ]
This is one
of my favorite meals.
Ohh.
-Some lime wedge...
-Ooh, thank you.
-...if you would like there.
-Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna put
a little lime on mine.
-So, there's a spoon,
but you don't need it,
'cause you have bhatura.
-No. Yeah.
[ Chuckles ] So good.
That combination of flavors --
the garam masala,
the lime, little bit of heat,
the fresh onion.
-It's all coming from, like,
the spices and kind of --
And the tomatoes add
a ton of depth to it, too.
But, you know, if you're --
if you're not a vegetarian...
-Mm-hmm.
-...you eat a lot of meat,
like, you're so happy with this.
-And this bhatura is just
gilding the lily for me.
-Isn't it? It's incredible.
-Yes.
Dan, this is
absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
-You're welcome.
-To make this incredibly
satisfying dish,
make a puree of onion,
ginger, and garlic.
Cook the puree for a few minutes
before adding the spices
and chickpeas
but save the garam masala
for the final few minutes
of cooking.
From "America's Test Kitchen,"
a North Indian classic,
chana masala.
You can get this recipe, all
the recipes and product reviews
I've got to learn
how to make this bhatura next.
-Yeah, oh, yeah.
-Oh, yeah.
The two have to go together now.
-It's such
a perfect combination.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
-Today on "America's
Test Kitchen,"
Julia makes Bridget
Goan pork vindaloo,
Adam reveals our top pick
for rice cookers,
Lisa reviews
electric can openers,
and Dan makes Julia
chana masala.
It's all coming up right here
on "America's Test Kitchen."
♪♪
-Today, we are making
my favorite curry of all time,
a pork vindaloo,
and it's redolent of warm
spices, balanced aromatics,
and juicy, succulent pork.
And Julia is here,
and she's going to show us
a version of this Goan dish
that we can make at home.
-That's right. So, this is
the traditional vindaloo --
not spicy, just fragrant,
and it has three
key ingredients.
The first is pork.
This is a 3-1/2-or-so-pound
pork butt.
That's from the shoulder.
You'll see coconut vinegar,
which you can find
at any grocery stores or online,
and Kashmiri chili powder.
Alright, so to get started,
we're going to make
a spice paste
that's going to flavor the pork,
starting with some fresh ginger.
You want about a 2-inch
piece of ginger.
I know you love this trick of
using the spoon to peel ginger.
-Very much so.
You're just taking
that little bit of peel off
and leaving the rest of it.
-That's it.
-And the spoon
can get into those nubs.
-That's the thing.
Oh, that smells good.
Alright. I'm just going
to slice this thin.
Give it a head start before
we put it into the blender.
-Okay.
-Into the blender jar it goes.
Now we're going to add
six cloves of garlic.
You just want to make sure
they're peeled and trimmed,
which these are.
I've got a few spices
lined up here,
but this one
is the most important.
It is Kashmiri chili powder.
-Mmm.
-Now, you can find this online
or in an Indian market.
It has a very mild but bright
flavor and beautiful color.
Just 3 tablespoons
of Kashmiri chili powder.
-And we've got
a great workaround
if you can't find
that Kashmiri chili powder.
It involves guajillo chilies,
black tea,
which adds an astringent flavor,
and a little bit of paprika.
We've got instructions for that
on our website.
-Alright. Next up,
1 tablespoon of paprika.
Tablespoon of ground cumin.
-Mmm.
-2 teaspoons of table salt.
Teaspoon of black pepper.
Now we're into the little spices
that just add nuance.
So, this is 1/2 teaspoon
of ground cinnamon,
1/2 teaspoon, oh,
of my favorite, cardamom.
-Oh, yes, yes, yes.
-Oh, I love those warm spices.
And just 1/4 teaspoon
of ground clove
and 1/4 teaspoon
of ground nutmeg.
Alright, so that's it
for the spices.
Notice I left out
anything too spicy.
And if you do like a little bit
of heat in your vindaloo,
you could always
add some cayenne.
But I like this one
on the mild side,
so I'm leaving it out.
-Lovely.
-Alright. Last but not least,
a little bit of water
to help things go around.
This is 3/4 cup of water.
Alright, so we're just
going to blend this
into a nice, smooth paste.
Takes a minute or two.
I'm going to stop
and scrape down
the sides of the blender jar
as I need to.
Alright, let's get in there
and see how it looks.
Actually, you can see
this is a pretty smooth paste.
-Mmm!
-Yeah.
Can you smell it from there?
-I sure can.
-Yeah, it's very fragrant.
Alright. So, I'm just going
to set this aside
while we focus on the pork.
-Okay.
-So here I have
a 3 to 3 1/2 pound pork butt.
That's from the shoulder.
Perfect for braising
and making stew
if it's nice and soft throughout
the long cooking time.
-Right.
-Alright. So, now, you can see
there's some hunks of fat
in there.
We want to cut the meat down
into stew sized pieces
or about, you know, an inch big.
What I like to do
when I'm kind of tackling
a big piece of meat like this
is I cut it into almost steaks
that are about the size
I want the pieces of meat,
and then it just makes it easier
to go in and trim out
the pieces of fat.
-Agree.
-So I'm going to take my time
and just cut up the pork,
taking off some that fat
and silver skin as you go along,
leaving a little bit of fat,
of course.
Little goes a long way
for flavor.
-And in general, the hard fat
is what you want to take off.
-That's it.
-The soft fat will melt
a lot easier.
-Alright, there we go.
Trim and meat.
Now I'm going to take
this spice paste,
pour it all over the pork.
Ohh.
-Mmm.
-That's it.
Oh, goodness.
Okay, so now we can just
clean this up and get cooking.
-Excellent.
-Alright, so here I have
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
Just going to heat it up
in the pot over medium heat.
-Alright.
-While that heats up,
just going to chop an onion
pretty fine.
This is a nice, big onion.
Should yield about 1 1/2 cup.
First cut,
down towards the root end,
but not through.
Second cut, horizontally.
And then third cut,
straight down
into a nice, fine chop.
Alright.
Our oil is nice and hot.
We're going to cook them
on their own
for a good 7 to 9 minutes
just until they start to soften
and get a little brown.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Oh, you can see those onions
have really cooked down,
and they're nice and golden.
In goes the spiced pork.
We didn't marinate the pork,
and a lot of recipes
marinate the pork
in coconut vinegar,
which is a classic flavor.
And though we are indeed
going to add it,
when we marinated the meat
in coconut vinegar
or we added it to the pot
at the very beginning,
we found it dried out
the pork butt.
So instead, we're gonna
hold back on the vinegar
and just add it partway through.
Alright, so it's been
a couple minutes,
and the pork has started
to release some of its liquid,
and the mixture is bubbling.
Time to put this in the oven,
which is just a much easier way
to cook the braise,
'cause there's not
a lot of liquid.
Prevents anything
from scorching.
So, we're gonna put this
in a nice, low 325-degree oven.
We're just going to cook it
for 40 minutes.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Ohh.
Oh, goodness.
Smells good, doesn't it?
-It smells like heaven.
-Yeah.
So, the vindaloo is not done
at this point.
The pork needs
a little more time
in the oven to turn tender,
but now is when
we're going to add
that important coconut vinegar,
which lends, you know,
a nice brightness and fruitiness
to the sauce.
-It wouldn't be vindaloo
without it.
-It would not. Alright,
so we're going to stir in
1/3 cup of coconut vinegar.
And if you can't find
coconut vinegar,
you could substitute
cider vinegar.
Alright,
that looks pretty good.
So, cover goes back on.
Back into that 325-degree oven.
It needs another
40 to 50 minutes
for that pork
to get good and tender.
But after 20 minutes,
I'm going to take the lid off
and let that sauce reduce down.
-Okay.
We like plenty of tart vinegar
in our vindaloo,
but it turns out that when
we add the vinegar to the pot
is very important.
Many recipes start by
marinating meat with vinegar,
which imparts a tangy flavor
into the meat.
Proteins in muscle meat
contain mostly negative charges.
Since similar charges
repel each other,
the proteins stay separated.
That allows the space
between them to fill with water.
Vinegar, however, is an acid,
which means it's full
of positively charged ions.
When the vinegar meets the
protein, the charges cancel out.
Now there's nothing
holding the proteins apart.
So when the cooking starts,
the muscle fibers
begin to squeeze together,
forcing out juices
from the meat.
This can result in meat
that feels dry.
For our recipe, we skip
the acidic marination step
and add the vinegar to the pot
late in the cooking process.
This allows the meat
to retain its juices
and imparts a flavorful tang
to our vindaloo.
Oh, the oven back there
has never smelled so good.
-[ Laughs ]
It smells good, doesn't it?
Alright, now I'm going to test
to see how tender the pork is
using a fork. Ohh.
The fork went in
with very little resistance.
That's a sign that it's done.
-It's a great sign.
-Alright.
So, just going to let this sit
for about 10 minutes.
Let it cool off a bit.
It's a little hot to eat.
Stir it around, make sure
everything's coated with sauce,
and then we can try it.
♪♪
Alright, it's been resting
for 10 minutes,
and time for a taste.
I have a nice bed
of basmati rice here.
-Oh.
-Yep.
A little more.
I know this is your fave.
-It is absolutely my favorite.
-I'm gonna go in
for some of that sauce.
Alright. Moment of truth.
-Moment of truth.
Ah, it does fall apart.
-Oh.
-Mm.
Everything is balanced.
-Now, all the spices
are in concert with each other.
And it's not spicy.
It's just fragrant.
-It's bright. It's tangy.
It's vibrant, because
you held off on the vinegar.
-So it has just a little bit
of a fresh kick.
-Right. This is gold star.
-It is, isn't it?
-It is the best.
And you're the best.
Thanks, Julia.
-You're welcome.
-Well, if you want to make
this gorgeous vindaloo at home,
make a flavorful spice paste
to season the pork.
Use the oven instead of
the stovetop for even cooking,
and add the vinegar halfway
through the cooking time.
So, from "America's
Test Kitchen,"
a warm, vibrant, and fragrant
Goan pork vindaloo.
♪♪
Yum.
-Mmm.
♪♪
-It's estimated that over
500 million metric tons of rice
are consumed
each and every year.
Well, you're going to need
something to cook that in.
So Adam's here,
and he's going to tell us
all about rice cookers.
-And that is because
rice is a global staple.
-Of course.
-It's eaten in practically
every country.
In different cultures,
there are ingrained preferences
for different types of rice
and different textures.
And an electric rice cooker
is supposed to make it easy
to cook to your preferences.
We tested nine
different models here.
The prices we paid ranged
from $19 to $164.
Testers use these to make
small and large batches
of long grain white rice,
small batches
of short grain white rice,
and full batches
of short grain brown rice.
-Okay.
-What they were looking for
were all the grains to be tender
but with a little hint of chew,
and they wanted
consistent cooking
throughout the whole batch.
-So no hot spots.
-No hot spots,
no overdone spots.
-Okay.
-A bunch of these made actually
great rice out of the gate.
Some of them had
a learning curve
where testers had to
get to know them a little better
and adjust the ratios
of water to rice.
What they did find, though,
is that those that had
a longer cooking cycle,
say 65 minutes as opposed
to a shorter one of 30 minutes,
generally made better rice.
Some of these were equipped
with a technology
called Neuro Fuzzy logic,
which monitors the conditions
inside the cooking bowl
and will adjust both the water
and the cooking temperature
as you go
to make sure
that the rice turns out perfect.
And both of the ones
that testers chose in the end
had that Neuro Fuzzy logic.
-Really?
-Yeah.
-So your appliances are smarter
than you are.
-Which is not hard in my case.
Exactly.
Testers also really appreciated
controls that were clear
and easy to use and simple.
They liked to have some sort
of indication, like a counter
that would tell you where
you were in the cooking process
and when you were
going to be done,
and when it would switch
to its Keep Warm mode,
which they all had.
One other thing that made
a difference to testers
was because the ratio of water
to rice is important,
and all of the cooking bowls
were dark in finish,
if the water marks,
if the measurement markings
were in white on the bowl,
they were a lot easier to see
than that red one there.
So that one has the dark bowl,
but the measurement markings
are embossed into the dark bowl,
and you can't really see them.
-You can't see anything
in there.
-Nothing.
In terms of cleaning
these machines,
testers preferred the ones where
the lids came off completely
or at least had an insert
that they could pull off.
One of them didn't, and that one
was more of a pain to clean.
-Okay.
-Two of the machines
made actually really good rice
right out of the gate,
and that was these two
right here.
They had less of a learning
curve than all of the others.
In the end, it was this machine
that won the day.
This is the Zojirushi 5 1/2 cup
fuzzy logic
rice cooker and warmer.
It was $164.
It made fantastic rice,
no matter what kind,
in what size batch,
and it had all
of those little features
that the testers really liked.
-So you pay a little bit more,
but you get foolproof rice.
-For all of your 500 million
metric tons.
-[ Laughs ] That's perfect.
Well, if you want
to pick up the winner,
it's the Zojirushi 5 1/2 Cup
Neuro Fuzzy
Rice Cooker & Warmer,
and it retails for $164.
♪♪
-If you open a lot of cans
or you have issues
with hand strength,
an electric can opener
is a wonderful thing.
But too many of them
are terrible.
Look at this. Super cute,
but check out how slow it is.
Now, we tested eight products
in two styles,
countertop and little
battery models.
The prices were about $16
to about $50.
Now, our testers,
including one with arthritis,
used them to open
more than 100 cans,
from small tuna cans
to big cans of tomatoes.
We even tried cans with dents
and cans with pull tops.
Stop. Stop, stop, stop.
Yes. Okay.
Who has time for that?
Some of them choked
right from the start.
They were hard to use.
The cans had to be positioned
just so.
And sometimes,
it was hard to tell
exactly what they needed
to work right.
And some tipped over
with heavy cans.
[ Laughs ]
Okay.
Nobody needs that.
Now, these little guys,
you know, they were adorable.
This one was wobbly.
And two of the three models
we tested broke during testing.
The replacements were no better,
and they were kind of
ridiculously slow.
This guy took an average of
46 seconds to go around one can.
The best took just 12 seconds.
In the end, we had one
battery model that wasn't bad.
It was called the Kitchen Mama
Electric Can Opener,
about $26.
The cutting wheel got
slightly bent during testing,
but it still worked,
so we took a few points off.
But the good part is
it fits easily in a drawer,
and it doesn't have
to be plugged in.
But countertop model
the Hamilton Beach Smooth Touch
Electric Can Opener,
at about $30,
aced all our tests.
This thing easily latched onto
cans of all sizes.
It's fast. It never tipped over.
It's also a safety opener.
It's cutting
into the side of the can,
so it's leaving no sharp edges.
And it even open pull-top
and dented cans.
It's our new
test kitchen favorite.
♪♪
-Chana masala is one
of Northern India's
most popular vegetarian dishes.
Now, there are lots of versions
of chana masala,
but they all feature chickpeas
and an array of spices.
And today, Dan's going to make
my favorite version,
with garam masala, tomatoes,
and cilantro.
-I'm so excited.
It's such a comforting dish.
And the way
we're going to make it,
it's, like, perfect
weeknight meal food,
so you want to make it
all the time, basically.
So, we're gonna start
with our aromatics,
and I have a red onion here.
I'm just going to cut this
into four pieces
through the stem end there.
We're going to use it
in two ways.
For part of it here,
I'm going to mince it fine,
and that's going to be
for the garnish.
And the other, we're gonna
use our food processor
to break it down.
-Oh, I love that trick!
Quartering the onion,
and you slice it one way,
and you tip it
on the other side,
and you slice it vertically
the other way.
It eliminates that whole
horizontal, messy business
that everybody hates,
especially if you're a beginner
at knife skills.
-Yep, it's a great trick.
So, we're gonna transfer this
over to a little bowl
for garnish.
So, for these pieces, I'm just
going to do it really rough.
This is going to go
in the food processor,
so we just want to
break them down a little bit.
Next up, cilantro.
-Mmm.
-So, we're going to use
stems and leaves here.
The stems are obviously
packed with flavor.
-Mm-hmm.
-I'm just cutting these into
kind of rough, 1-inch pieces.
Also goes into
the food processor.
Onto the rest of our aromatics.
We've got ginger.
So, this a 1 1/2 inch
piece of ginger
that's been peeled
and cut kind of just coarsely,
and it's mashed with a classic
paring, which is garlic.
So this is two cloves that
we peeled and just cut coarsely.
And that ginger
and garlic combination
is so important in cooking
across the Indian subcontinent,
where a lot of times,
it's so common
that people have a paste made up
ahead of time,
and you can just
use a spoon of it
and add to things.
-Oh, that'd be handy.
-Yeah, it's fabulous.
And then finally, so, this is
a couple serrano chilies
that I stemmed, seeded, so got
rid of some of the heat there.
We're going to add half of them
to the food processor here,
so they're going to
cook into the dish.
I'm going to save the other half
along with the onion
for garnish.
-Mmm. Spicy.
-So, I'm gonna use
the food processor
to get a really nice,
fine grind on it
and it's going take
about 20 seconds.
I'll scrape down as needed.
So, when I'm scraping down
and working the bottom here,
one really simple tip
that I love
is to always come against
the back of the blade,
if you're going to stir through,
and move it that way.
To go the other way,
your spatula gets caught
on the blade, and it cuts
really, really easily.
So it's a super simple thing.
-And many of my spatulas
have little nicks in it
from the food processor.
-They all do, right? Yeah. Yeah.
So, I'm going to transfer this
over to our saucepan here,
and I've got 3 tablespoons
of vegetable oil
already in here,
but it's not heated.
And, so, if this were heated,
and we added all this wet,
kind of almost juiced veg...
-Mm-hmm.
-...you're going
to get a lot of splatter.
So this is just
starting it all cold together...
-Mm-hmm.
-...and then we'll bring it up.
So, we're not going to
clean this.
We're going to use it
for our tomatoes in a second.
-Okay.
-Great. So now that
we've got this in here,
I'm going to bring it up
over medium-high heat,
and we're going to cook
until it's really nice and soft
and some of the aromatics start
to stick to the bottom of the
pan.
It's going to take
anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes.
Alright. We're going
to multitask.
While that's going...
-Okay.
-...we're going
to go with one can,
a 14-1/2-ounce can
of whole peeled tomatoes.
We're gonna go right into
the food processor.
So, with chana masala, you see
a lot of different textures.
Some of them can be a lot
coarser and chunkier.
We want something that's
really nice and smooth,
so that's why we process
the veg that way,
and that's why we're going to do
the tomatoes really fine.
This will take about 30 seconds.
It's been about five minutes.
You can see the veg
is nice and soft.
It's cooked down a lot,
and it's starting to stick
to the pan a little bit.
-Mm-hmm.
-Right, we're getting a little
of that fond
and that great flavor.
So that is perfect.
It's time for our spices.
So, first up, we have 1 teaspoon
of Kashmiri chili powder.
-Ooh.
-This is -- I mean, you can see
that color is
absolutely brilliant.
We also have
1 teaspoon of cumin,
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric,
and 1/2 teaspoon
of fennel seeds.
Now, we've got the fat
that's already in there,
those 3 tablespoons of oil.
And what's really great
about this step in the process
is you're getting those spices
in contact with the fat,
and they're loaded
with oil-soluble flavors,
so the oil pulls it out,
and then that just permeates
the whole dish.
-Mm-hmm. You can smell it
as soon as they get stirred
into that pan.
Just this waft of spice
washing over us.
It smells delicious.
-In just about a minute,
it'll get really aromatic
and bloom those spices nicely.
Okay, so next up, we're going
to add our chickpeas,
obviously the key
to the dish here.
We're using canned chickpeas.
-Yeah.
-You could totally use dried
for this recipe.
Obviously, they need to soak
and then cook.
Canned chickpeas are fabulous,
and these are cooked
about 90% of the way there,
so we really like that.
And we also have this
wonderful liquid, this aquafaba.
It's gonna add a lot of body
to the dish.
Great. And then finally,
our tomato.
-Mmm.
-Great. Okay. So, I'm going
to bring this up to a boil.
Then we're going to lower
the heat, maintain a simmer,
cover, cook about 15 minutes.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Okay, so it's been 15 minutes.
-It smells delicious.
-It smells incredible, right?
-Oh, it does.
-So, a lot of the spices
that we added earlier,
they permeate the dish
because they got into the fat.
We talked about that,
but a lot of them,
everything you smell in the air
is also, you know, volatized,
so it's not in the pot anymore.
-Right.
-So one of the beautiful things
about so much Indian cooking
is the staggering of spices.
And so we're going to add
1 1/2 teaspoons of garam masala
at this point in the process,
and we're going to retain
a lot more of those volatiles
so you'll taste a lot more of it
in the dish.
-Interesting.
-And then, we've also got
1/2 teaspoon of salt.
-Alright, so
the garam masala is in.
How much longer
on the simmer time?
-8, 12 minutes, and we're going
to thicken this up,
and it's just going
to be really, really nice,
and then we get to eat.
-I can't wait.
♪♪
-This is my perfect consistency
for chana masala.
It's really thickened
and beautiful,
but it's still got tons
of nice brothiness to it.
-Mm-hmm.
-So, the next step,
the final step here
is to taste it and season it up,
make sure that we have the salt
exactly how we want.
So I'll just give it
a quick stir.
That's always a good idea
when you're seasoning.
Make sure it's nice and even.
Mmm. Doesn't need anything.
-Really?
-Doesn't need any salt at all.
Yeah, it's perfect.
So, I'm gonna transfer to this
lovely, shallow bowl over here.
-What a nice serving bowl
for this.
-So, we're going to add
some of our minced onion.
So, these are stemmed, seeded,
and sliced serranos.
And then we've got some gorgeous
just cilantro leaves.
Obviously, we have the stems
and everything in there,
so this just brings all those
bright flavor notes
right to the top.
-Beautiful.
What's also beautiful
is that bowl over there.
-Yes, I was wondering
if you were going to see that.
-Oh, how could you not?
I mean, how could you not look
at that bowl and think,
how beautiful are those?
-So, this is a classic
accompaniment to chickpeas.
This is bhatura, and they're
these gorgeous fry breads.
They puff up in this gorgeous,
gorgeous way.
-And you can find a recipe
for those on our website.
-Time to eat.
-Time to eat.
[ Chuckles ]
This is one
of my favorite meals.
Ohh.
-Some lime wedge...
-Ooh, thank you.
-...if you would like there.
-Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna put
a little lime on mine.
-So, there's a spoon,
but you don't need it,
'cause you have bhatura.
-No. Yeah.
[ Chuckles ] So good.
That combination of flavors --
the garam masala,
the lime, little bit of heat,
the fresh onion.
-It's all coming from, like,
the spices and kind of --
And the tomatoes add
a ton of depth to it, too.
But, you know, if you're --
if you're not a vegetarian...
-Mm-hmm.
-...you eat a lot of meat,
like, you're so happy with this.
-And this bhatura is just
gilding the lily for me.
-Isn't it? It's incredible.
-Yes.
Dan, this is
absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
-You're welcome.
-To make this incredibly
satisfying dish,
make a puree of onion,
ginger, and garlic.
Cook the puree for a few minutes
before adding the spices
and chickpeas
but save the garam masala
for the final few minutes
of cooking.
From "America's Test Kitchen,"
a North Indian classic,
chana masala.
You can get this recipe, all
the recipes and product reviews
I've got to learn
how to make this bhatura next.
-Yeah, oh, yeah.
-Oh, yeah.
The two have to go together now.
-It's such
a perfect combination.