Priya Makes Chile Peanut Rice

We're making chile peanut rice.

That's just a ton of ghee. Ooh.

Yeah.

Smell it.

It smells really nice.

I love smelling ghee.

[Man] And let's hook it up with the transition.

Oh, shit.

Oh, [bleep].

And it's good for your skin, right?

I feel like it's great for your skin.

Yeah.

Yeah, there you go.

My hands are really dry. All on the dry spot.

I just need a little ghee.

There we go. Ooh.

Yeah! All right.

And now I just smell like popcorn!

[bright, upbeat music]

Today we are making chile peanut rice,

which is basically a dish born of leftovers.

It reminds me a lot of fried rice

in Chinese cuisine, which is basically

taking advantage of leftover rice

you've got in the fridge,

plus whatever vegetables and produce and spices,

and just mixing it all together

and frying it in a pan.

We're basically doing the same thing,

just with basmati rice and with Indian ingredients.

I also love that this dish has two layers of ghee,

so it's as if a quarter cup of ghee wasn't enough,

let's add another quarter cup of ghee.

We've got an onion, [laughs]

and we're gonna cut it into thin strips.

When I was little, when I still believed in Santa Claus,

we had these neighbors.

Her name was Helen Mary and I forgot

what her husband's name was.

Every year for Christmas,

they used to buy our Christmas presents

and then drop them off at Helen Mary's place

and she would wrap all the gifts for us

and then leave them under our tree.

And Helen Mary loved baking cookies,

and her husband smoked a pipe.

So they would wrap all these presents

and then sneak them under the tree,

and then in the morning, I would smell them

and they smelled like Christmas cookies and a pipe.

And you imagine, that's exactly

what the North Pole must smell like.

And so I believed in Santa Claus for so much longer

because of just that very distinct smell.

And my sister definitely did not smell,

she did not smell the gifts,

but I could smell that smell of cookies

and a pipe from a mile away,

and I was just like, my parents don't make cookies.

They don't smoke a pipe.

There is no other explanation other than Santa exists.

So these are good.

And then we're gonna cut our chile.

There's very minimal chopping in this recipe.

So the other thing we're slicing is two serranos,

either this or those long, slender Thai chiles

you get from stores work perfectly.

So what my mom loves to do is just slit them,

even with the stem on and everything.

This will prevent them from popping

and getting seeds in your eyes in the pan,

and it just looks really pretty,

having this beautiful, fanned out chile and the rice,

and it adds just the right amount of heat

without kinda overwhelming you.

Again, you can use one chile, you can use no chiles,

but we can have chiles.

Let's have more green chiles in our lives, guys.

All right, so step one of sort of building

our wonder chile peanut rice flavor

is going to be adding lime and salt to the rice.

So a quick note on the rice.

We've got long-grain basmati rice and it's a day old.

I like long-grain basmati rice,

'cause it's got bite, it's got texture,

it's got a nice chew to it.

This is the rice that sort of belongs with Indian flavors.

And I like the day-old rice, 'cause it gets

a little bit crispier, it's a little drier.

We'll have sort of clumps that you get.

It sort of absorbs flavor a little bit better.

I mean, all the reasons why fried rice

tastes good with leftover rice.

This is why you use leftover rice for our chile peanut rice.

Now, we're going to lime up our rice.

Think of this as layer one of flavor.

Again, I like things super limey.

Just remember, we're adding a lot of ghee and nutty flavors,

so you want this to be pretty bright tasting.

This is sort of our acidic layer

before we're adding our next things.

A little salt.

We're just gonna mix this together.

And that's the recipe. [people laugh]

But I mean, I'm sure this tastes really good.

All right, so we're gonna let that sit.

Now we're gonna go over to the pan and make our...

I was thinking about what to call this.

I think this is kind of a reverse chhonk,

because instead of finish the dish with chhonk,

we're starting the dish with chhonk.

We're gonna make a mustard seed,

curry leaf, and peanut chhonk,

throw it in, cook our onions, chiles,

throw them in, and then we'll be done,

but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

So on medium heat, we're gonna melt some ghee.

This is a quarter cup.

Ooh, I just love the way that ghee looks.

I love the way it smells.

Ghee is great.

All right.

Mm!

So the reason that we're doing the chhonk,

are doing this chhonk first and not finishing it

is because we don't need it to be a topper.

We want this to be fully mixed in

and incorporated with the rice.

This is sort of the main flavoring.

So the first thing we've got is mustard seeds.

These are really earthy.

And then we've got curry leaves, which are also earthy

but add sort of an herbaceous element.

And I love this combination 'cause it's really crunchy,

and then once you add the peanuts, it'll be extra crunchy.

Now we're gonna add out mustard seeds.

And basically you're waiting for them to pop and sputter.

Do not be alarmed once this happens.

It's totally fine.

You kinda just want to hear some crackling,

some mild fireworks, but know that mild fireworks are okay.

You're doing it right.

Mustard seeds burn pretty easily.

So my mom cooks mustard seeds

on high heat 'cause she's a maniac.

I cook them on medium heat.

And it takes a little more time,

but you're sort of preventing yourself from burning.

Hear that?

Yep?

Getting there. [pan sizzling]

Oh yeah, mm-hmm.

Off the heat and...

You've seen this before.

And now the curry leaves get nice and crisp.

I'm not gonna eat one,

but see how these have gotten almost potato chip-like?

That's exactly what you're looking for.

I'm gonna take one out to show the camera,

but then I will put it back in.

Ooh.

Here's what you're looking for, see?

Got a nice little crispety-crunchy piece.

So now we're gonna put it back on the heat, on medium-low.

All right, and we're gonna throw in our peanuts.

You just want unsalted, shelled peanuts.

Do not get salted ones.

And we're just gonna cook these for a few minutes

until the peanuts start emitting a fragrance

and getting a little brown.

What makes this dish so beautiful

is you're maintaining the full leaves

and the integrity of the curry leaves, so be careful.

Mm, they're starting to smell peanuty!

Ooh!

A thing that I feel like people don't know

about Indian cuisine is that peanuts

sort of feature very heavily

in a lot of savory preparations.

Peanuts are wonderful.

I didn't even know that peanut allergies

were a thing growing up, because they were

just such a ubiquitous part of our childhood.

I like using fresh curry leaves.

You can use dry curry leaves if you want,

but I think just fresh is the best.

That's how you get this beauty glossiness.

They taste a little bit fresher,

a little bit more bright and herby in the dish.

But I have Amazon Primed dry curry leaves

when my [speaking in foreign language] was coming to town

and I needed to make Bhaji Toast

and I didn't have time to go to BlueStones.

We all do it.

Oh, some more words.

Well, we just learned-- Word for peanut.

There isn't really a word for peanut.

Yeah, it's just peanut. [laughs]

The word for tomato in Hindi

is [speaking in foreign language].

[both laugh]

It's basically just tomato. Just for me.

Yeah.

[Rhoda] So you're saying we might know

more words than we know? Probably.

The word for computer in Hindi is computer.

Oh, cool! There we go.

All right, these are ready.

So here's what they're supposed to look like.

Got some brownness.

We can smell the peanuty fragrance.

Our curry leaves are nice and crisp.

We've tried to not break them apart,

but we can't all be perfect

so they've kinda broken apart.

That's totally fine.

All right.

And then just toss that, boom.

Oh, yeah.

Molly, we're making chile peanut rice.

[Molly] That's my favorite.

Is it done? No, not yet.

[Molly] Almost. Okay.

Let me know when it is. Okay.

[Molly] Looks like fun.

All right, so in the same pan that you just used,

no need to wipe it out or anything,

although I will get that last peanut.

And we're kinda gonna do it all over again.

Back on my pan heat.

Back on my heat! [man laughs]

And now, it's sort of like deja vu.

We've got a quarter cup of ghee again.

And if you like things less rich,

feel free to use less ghee.

I feel like I have to say that, but come on.

Use the full half cup of ghee,

especially 'cause this is party food.

When my mom's cooking for a party,

she's just always wont to adding

just a little more ghee.

It kind of is like a fail safe.

It sort of ensures that the food will taste good, you know?

Then we're gonna add our onions.

I did a pretty good job thinly slicing these strips.

Look, mom.

And then we're gonna add our slit chile,

which as you'll notice because we slit it,

it's not gonna pop.

You're not gonna get seeds in the face.

And we're just gonna cook these until they're translucent.

Are you all able to do this thing?

[Man] We just did a Rick video

where he did two at a time to show off.

What?

See, that is not...

Hey, Rhoda!

Do you know how to do the flippy thing in the pan?

When you flip it?

Can I do it? Can you show me how?

Oh, sure.

It's actually nice to practice with dry cereal

or something like that. [both laugh]

Oh my god! Whoa!

You kind of have to like-- So you jolt it?

You're pushing it to the back rim,

and then it kind of flips back onto itself.

What you're trying to do is get it

to flip over. Oh my god.

My hand has gone really clammy.

[Rhoda] You can also put a towel around it.

Let's try.

All right.

And Rick did this two at a time? [laughs]

[Rhoda] He wasn't happy about it.

[laughs] I did it! Yeah!

Okay, I feel good about those two flips.

Tommy's back! I'm back!

Are you gonna rewrite the clicker?

[Tommy] Why should I rewrite the...

You've been usurped! [laughs]

Aw, Tommy! [all laugh]

All right.

And then while they're still hot,

just pour 'em on in, ghee and all.

We don't even need to abide by formalities.

So Molly made this for BA Cookbook Club,

and it was the most popular dish.

I honestly feel like that's just

because I probably season my food

more aggressively than anyone else in the club.

Interesting.

And so everyone's like oh, that's so good,

and it probably just had a lot of salt in it, but whatevs.

Mm, still tastes like buttered popcorn.

I'm still into it.

Mm!

Why does it taste exactly like buttered popcorn?

I think it's the peanuts.

It's so good.

This is so comforting.

What I love about this is I feel

like most Indian food is often accompanied by rice,

but sometimes you don't just want plain old basmati rice.

You want rice that's kinda dressed up

and ready to go to a dance, ready to go to the prom.

You can rip on this endlessly with different herbs,

different vegetables, different nuts even.

You can do walnuts.

You can do pistachios.

My mom has tried doing pomegranate seeds

and mint and pistachio, and done a more Middle Eastern take.

But yeah, you can do this in so many different ways,

and people will kind of always be impressed

by it when you serve it at a party.

So it's a good one to have in your back pocket.

Let's cook.

It smells like an Herbal Essences commercial in here.

Is anyone getting that?

It smells like Herbal Essences.

[woman murmuring]

[Man] What are they tasting over there?

Are they smelling shampoo?

Oh. Yeah.

It's my natural essence.

Gaby's natural essence is an Herbal Essences commercial.

That makes sense.