Natalie Portman Tries to Keep Up with Carla

Hi, I'm Carla and we're here in the Bon Appetit

test kitchen today with Natalie Portman.

And today we have 20 minutes to make a raw,

vegan Carpaccio and we're gonna see

if Natalie can follow along with me

through verbal instructions only.

You nervous?

Terrified.

Why?

I see coconuts, don't know how to open those.

I see mandoline, never used one.

Exciting.

And I hope I leave with my fingers intact.

So it's very important that we do this quickly,

because people don't think you can have quick,

delicious vegan food.

But also that we leave with all

like limbs and body parts intact.

Please.

All right, so on a scale of one to 10,

how confident are you in your home cooking skills?

Like a one.

A one?

Oh, you're getting up to like seven or eight.

Ready?

Yeah.

Okay, I'll be right here.

All right. Okay.

So directly in front of you, Natalie,

you've got a cutting board, but then a tray of tools.

There's like lab goggles.

Yeah, there's like so much stuff.

Actually, we need the goggles.

So because you're nervous about the coconut,

let's just like get it out of the way first.

Okay.

And it's gonna be done and then it'll--

You said use the goggles now?

Yeah, just slide those goggles on.

I really don't want any injuries.

All right, hey.

And then grab a coconut of you're liking.

Okay, we using the hammer?

[Carla] We're gonna use the hammer,

but make sure you grab the coconut

that like feels good in your hand.

Grab that measuring cup.

What does that mean?

You know, like we're similarly petite in stature,

so just one that feels good in your hand.

You feel like you could hold it.

My heart's beating fast, what do I do?

Oh, this is gonna be amazing.

So take the liquid measuring cup.

Yes.

And one of the kitchen towels.

[Natalie] Okay, got it.

[Carla] And then just lay the kitchen towel

over the measuring cup.

[Natalie] Over the measuring cup?

[Carla] Yeah, just like over the top of it

like you're gonna do a magic trick, it's underneath.

Got it.

And then find the eyes of your coconut,

those three little--

[Natalie] Oh, yes.

Right, and put said coconut into the measuring glass,

so it's kind of anchored by the towel.

Oh, this is like good tricks.

Right?

So grab the screwdriver.

Are you a righty or a lefty?

Left, uh, righty. (laughs)

[Carla] So put the screwdriver in your left hand.

Okay.

Grab your hammer in your right hand.

[Natalie] Got it.

And then put the sharp end

of the screwdriver into one of those eyes.

And you might have to like, I dunno,

I'm sort of angling my body sideways to the cutting board

just so I can use my arm a little bit to anchor the cup.

But basically what's happening now

is with the sharp point down you're gonna smack,

(hammering)

oop, I just did a total--

Are you trying to make like a hole?

Yeah, you're gonna punch a hole

into the eye of the coconut.

(hammering)

Oh, I did it again.

Wow, mine's, there we go.

(hammering)

So just keep going until you punch through.

[Natalie] Okay, I think I did.

[Carla] And then we have to pull it back out.

Jesus, that's hard.

[Carla] I know.

These are harder than the ones the other day.

So now that guy's out we have to do the other two.

(hammering)

Until that one's in.

Oh, cool.

(hammering)

Part of my shell came off.

Interesting.

Tell me when you're punched all the way

through that second eye.

Getting it out is like the--

I know, you have to hit it harder than you think.

And then third eye.

(hammering)

I might need to...

But this one should be easier.

(hammering)

And then we're gonna take the screwdriver back out. (groans)

Oh, geeze. (laughs)

[Carla] It's quite snug.

Oh my. (laughs)

[Carla] (laughs) This guy doesn't wanna come out.

[Natalie] I can't get the screw--

[Carla] All right, he's out.

Oh geeze, okay, got it. (exhales)

All right, now get rid of that kitchen towel.

We're gonna need the hammer,

but we don't need the screwdriver.

And just turn the coconut over and shake out all the juice.

Into the measuring cup?

Yeah, you can use that measuring cup,

'cause if we don't do that,

once we split it open it'll fly all over the place.

Okay, are you ready?

Yeah.

So get any little shardy bits off of your cutting board.

We're gonna hit the coconut along

its circumference with the hammer

and you're gonna have to go around a couple times

and you're gonna have to hit it

a little bit harder than you think again.

And you're resting it on the board?

I would use the kitchen towel again

so it doesn't roll about.

And then just start hitting it and turning it,

smacking it.

(hammering)

And you'll hopefully see a little fault line.

(hammering)

All right, give it a really good,

you have to hit it harder than you think.

Like really wack it.

(hammering)

Do you have it in half yet?

No, not at all.

[Carla] Do you see like a fault line across--

Are we doing both coconuts?

No, you only need the one.

[Natalie] (laughs) Okay.

But do you see a fault line opened up?

(hammering)

[Natalie] No.

[Carla] Okay, so--

Oh, yes, it happened. (laughs)

[Carla] Okay, you see a crack?

Okay, embarrassing.

[Carla] Is it all the way around or just in one?

No, almost.

[Carla] Okay, so then just rotate it again

[Natalie] and hit it really hard. Oh, I did it.

[Carla] Nice.

That's very exciting.

[Carla] Awesome.

Ah, that's very, very--

Now, if you're lucky as I was

a piece of the outer hull might have broken off.

If not, now take one half, whichever half you want,

and put it cut side down on the kitchen towel again.

And now we're gonna use the hammer again

and kind of hitting not as hard this time,

but I wanna create little cracks in the shell

so we can get the outer shell off.

(hammering)

And it'll as soon as you see a crack

again in that outer section,

you should be able to break off a piece of coconut.

Yeah, keep hammering.

Just smacking wherever you see a little fissure,

give it another wack and see if you can

just make that line open up a little more.

[Natalie] Oh, yeah.

[Carla] And then you should be able to just

break off a piece of the coconut meat.

[Carla] There we go. You got a piece out?

But it's still got brown on it, is that okay?

On the outside?

Yeah, it's gonna be brown,

but not that like dark, hairy--

[Natalie] Exactly.

Crunchy guy.

Okay, cool, so you got it open.

It's very fulfilling when it finally cracks.

I know, the coconut is a mysterious beast.

So just take your little glass bowl, your vegetable peeler,

you're just shaving the coconut into really thin slices.

This is not going well.

(laughing)

All right, so now take all of your coconut debris,

toss it into the giant glass bowl.

[Natalie] All right, all right, all right.

Speeding through.

Watermelon butchery coming up next.

Yes.

So it's going like cross-ways.

Put your knife where it would be

directly across the equator line

and then move it over one or two inches.

Okay.

And then cut there,

so you're gonna cut the rounded end

of the watermelon off.

And then that guy can go into the big glass bowl.

I find it easy if I spin my watermelon back around

so I can put my knife right of center again,

kind of five inches away from where it was cut open

and just cut again.

So now put it down flat on one of the cut sides.

You're gonna go around the side

and just slice off the rind

and the white part right underneath

and expose the watermelon flesh.

So let me know when you feel good

about that you've trimmed off all the white.

I usually have to go around a second time.

You there?

Yeah.

[Carla] Not like I know you're physically there,

but have you arrived.

(laughs) I'm here.

[Carla] You've arrived at that moment?

Yes.

Okay, cool.

So now take it again--

Is it supposed to be a certain shape?

No, you're just taking off that outer edge

'cause we don't wanna eat that part.

So now just cut this guy into two half moons

straight through the middle, down the middle.

[Natalie] Okay.

Push one off the side, we're only gonna use one half

'cause we're just making one Carpaccio.

And then upend it so that the flat

side from the middle is on the cutting board.

And then just working across with your knife

try to get super thin,

intact half moon slices of watermelon.

All right, how many slices do you have?

I don't know, probably around six or seven.

Oh, you're perfect.

Okay, so go over to your serving plate

and then just lay the watermelon onto the plate,

overlapping it a little bit.

And then just making these nice slices

that cover the bottom of the plate.

Cool?

Great. (laughs)

So when your plate feels like a plate of watermelon--

Yes.

Grab the bottle of olive oil,

give a little drizzle drizzles.

You've had savory watermelon salads I'm assuming.

Oh, yes.

In your life.

And then a little bit of that flaky salt everywhere.

So we're gonna season every layer.

I think a lot of people think vegan food

and they think like nut loaf and like cashew yogurt

and things that are bland or like just one color.

And what makes this delicious, I think,

is like you're seasoning it all along the way

and we're gonna have all these different textures

and colors and it's gonna be incredible.

Sounds great.

[Carla] Now we need that mandoline.

(Natalie sighs)

(Carla sighs)

It's the green slicey thing.

Yes.

So what there is is like this little glove

and that's a safety glove that's gonna

prevent any fingers from getting injured

because we don't want that to happen.

Grab your zucchini, cut a tiny bit off from the stem end.

You're not gonna go across-wise to make rounds,

I wanna kind of keep the natural shape of the zucchini

so people know what it is and don't think it's a cucumber.

And just run the zucchini from above the blade

across the blade and sort of you need

to press the zucchini down so that it makes contact.

And then you should make these like long,

oblong zucchini ribbons.

You can pick one up, it should look like a big,

long zucchini tongue or like a long oval where--

Not yet.

[Carla] Okay, that's fine.

Are you still going on the same spot

or do you keep going back on the skin?

I just keep going over the same spot

that I was at so they'll get wider

and wider as you move towards the seed pocket.

Just pick one up and we can kind of check if we're--

Should I show it to you?

No, I wish you could.

[Natalie] Oh, I can't.

(laughs) So the goal is like--

Look at all my need for like--

I know, I know, I'm with you.

[Natalie] Outside approval.

Dude, I'm just talking to like a camera on a tripod.

I'm getting nothing, literally nothing back.

(Natalie laughs)

Can you kind of twist--

Yeah, mine should be thinner.

They were looking right,

but they're a little thick I think.

A little bit thick?

Can you kind of fold them or--

And now I'm getting screwy with my mandoline.

I need perfection.

(laughing)

[Carla] I think they should be--

[Natalie] Okay, I've got four tonguey looking things.

Okay, they kind of naturally wanna curl

after they're sliced.

Fold them in half lengthwise?

Yes, exactly.

But if you fold them all the way through,

they're gonna crack.

[Natalie] Right, which I did.

Fold them enough to like put a crease in them.

All you have to do is just lay them

on top of the watermelon so that you can--

This is crazy.

[Carla] So that you can see the watermelon underneath.

So if you don't feel like--

And you're doing four of these?

I have five, but four is wonderful.

[Natalie] Okay.

All right, so get rid of this Michael Jackson glove

and go again with a little drizzle of olive oil

and another pinch of salt.

These are cool, they're called watermelon radishes.

The thickness of your mandoline might be fine,

so start at the small pointed ends

and this time we wanna just create round slices.

And they're like so beautiful inside, I love these.

These are beautiful.

Right?

So now these, going for like super cas',

practically like dealing them like cards.

Don't cover everything,

'cause at this point we wanna be able

to see a little watermelon peaking through.

[Natalie] It's so pretty.

Okay great, super pretty.

All right, next up grab one of the beets with beet tops.

Cut them off leaving yourself

about an inch and a half of stem.

And then turn it around and cut the long

tendril off of the root.

Okay.

And then these are chioggia beets

and they're striped inside,

I think they're also super cool.

Oh, I should put my mandoline glove on.

[Carla] Oh, your mandoline glove.

[Natalie] Okay.

I've dispatched mine.

You're very brave.

I know, and stupid.

No.

These are so beautiful.

This is great, I'm gonna use the mandoline now.

Awesome, have you ever watched a food stylist do this?

They like make things drop down from the sky

so it looks super natural.

Really, you just drop them?

Super natural, like the forest floor.

It's just like all the beets just fell there.

So this too, I really wanna see--

(laughs) Mine's not working as well.

[Carla] They wanna stick together.

It's not making it onto the plate.

All right, so when you've got enough

of your beets down that it looks pretty,

you can still see what's going on underneath

and you've got all these layers happening,

season one more time.

Again, sort of--

Just olive oil?

[Carla] Just the olive oil and the salt still.

Natalie, how do you feel like it's going?

I'm feeling good about the mandoline.

[Carla] The mandoline.

I feel like that's a discovery.

Awesome.

The zucchini does not look pretty to me.

That's okay, you can cover it up

with all these beautiful pink and red things.

Oh, so you're putting it on top of the zucchini?

I am, yeah.

[Natalie] Oh.

Like my zucchini is just there

as like peeking out here and there, a little bit of green.

And then take that tool off of your tool tray

that's called a Microplane,

it looks like a fine grater.

Yeah. Have you used these before?

Uh-huh.

Okay, cool.

And then we're gonna--

And by uh-huh I mean no, never.

(laughing)

So all of those little grooves

are just really sharp little teeth,

so take your lime and just gently run it back and forth.

Oh, it smells good.

And the zest is really just it's seasoning,

it smells amazing.

And now take that same lime that you zested,

find your paring knife off your tray

and cut the lime in half.

Squeeze the lime all over the salad, like a lot of lime.

I like acid.

And again, this is fresh and crunchy,

but also sour and salty and it's got a lot going on.

All right, once you have your lime and your lime juice,

pick up your coconut and just let it rain.

[Natalie] Delightful.

[Carla] Right?

[Natalie] Yes.

You know, I created this just for you.

Thank you, I can't wait to eat it.

We're going into basil.

What do you like to put in it?

I'm gonna go with the Thai basil,

which have the purple flowers and the purple leafed ones.

Yeah, and are you chopping it

or are you putting whole leaves?

No, no, no, just break them apart

as though the wind came and picked up the basil

and sent it a fluttering.

And then sesame seeds all about.

Chili flake all over.

More salt.

Take a little more olive oil, drizzle drazzle.

And then take the sesame oil,

definitely put your finger over the opening

and just do like a light little drizzle of sesame oil.

Got it?

Where are you?

Sesame oil.

[Carla] Really?

Yeah.

We're done.

All right.

Okay, so now on a count of three

we're gonna turn around and show each other

our amazing plant-based Carpaccio.

I'm gonna like drop it. (laughing)

Ready?

All right.

One, two, three.

(laughing)

It's beautiful.

Beautiful. Oh my god, it's perfect.

I love it.

It's very floral.

It is.

You had like a nice symmetric thing going on.

I like the way it smells too with the sesame oil.

It's gonna be super refresca.

Yours looks incredible.

Yours looks beautiful.

We're gonna switch,

I'm having yours and your having mine.

Thank you.

Really beautiful, I'm seeing all the layers

which was like kind of the key.

The first time I made this I covered everything up,

but you need to see everything that's going on.

Kinda screwed the pooch with the zucchinis.

(laughing)

But they're there.

These are all beautiful.

I like your pinwheel.

All right, now we're gonna taste it.

The lime juice is really coming through.

It's very good.

Super into it.

All right, you were pretty nervous at the beginning.

Uh-huh.

How do you feel now?

I feel much better.

The coconut was definitely very difficult.

Yeah, if it makes you feel better

the third strike of the coconut

I slammed into my thumb.

That doesn't make me feel better, I'm sorry.

But I just had to keep going.

I was like no stopping at that point.

So if you had to reduce yourself to a number,

what number would you give yourself?

I mean, like a four. (laughs)

What?

No, looking at this plate is like a 10.

There's nothing--

15 you were gonna say, right?

Yeah, it's perfect.

Except for the zucchini, I'm docking you for the zucchini.

Okay, good.

So you're a nine.

Thank you so much for coming.

Thank you so much for having me.

And come back anytime.

I'd love to.