How to cook a healthy and sustainable stew with chef Ali Mandhry

Brut America

Chef Ali Mandhry used to cook in luxury hotels, now he's a zero-waste chef. Here's how he makes a healthy chicken stew at home...  All week, Brut and EAT are sharing healthy and sustainable recipes from around the world in the lead up to #WorldFoodDay.

Transcript

00:00Just, you know, do that.

00:02Once you have that, you just want to lick it a little bit

00:04and know that it's nice.

00:07Fantastic!

00:07This is my mom's recipe.

00:15This is something that I grew up enjoying at home

00:18and it's sustainable.

00:19So let's do this.

00:21Traditionally, this curry is being made using the beef,

00:25but today we're going to make it a little more healthier.

00:29We're going to use chicken.

00:30We have some carrots, tomatoes, some sweet pepper,

00:34onions, some coriander or cilantro that's locally sourced,

00:38an array of spices, and then we have some eggplants.

00:43So eggplants are really delicious

00:45and at the end of the day, super nutritious.

00:59I do come from a culture that men are probably

01:02not supposed to be in the kitchen,

01:04but my parents saw this thing in me

01:07and they were like, they felt like I'm a little bit special

01:10and I would probably be the person

01:12that would break the barriers.

01:13When I was little, my mom says that my biggest,

01:15biggest playground would definitely be the kitchen.

01:18And I went ahead and followed my dream

01:21and followed my heart and I'm still following my dream.

01:24I'm still trying to be the best that I can be.

01:27So I followed my dream and followed my heart.

01:29So let's get cooking.

01:39What I'm going to do,

01:40you want to make sure that your pan is super hot.

01:44Go in with some olive oil

01:46because olive oil is basically the healthiest option.

01:49So the Swahili way, what we normally do,

01:51we like to saute the onions until nice and golden.

01:54Then you can hear that sizzle happening in there.

01:57The way I learned from my mom is that

01:59you don't want to use any tomato paste.

02:02You just want to use as much fresh ingredients as possible.

02:05To make my stew, I'm going to use a muiko.

02:08This is basically a locally sourced wooden muiko

02:12and the muiko is basically a spatula.

02:14So it's a spatula in Swahili.

02:16I've used this for the last 10 years

02:18and that makes it even more sustainable.

02:20Now, at this point, you can go in with your eggplants

02:26that you just cut into some chunks.

02:30Let's do it.

02:32Give it a good mix.

02:36Fantastic.

02:45I come from a background that do respect food

02:47and we really appreciate food.

02:49And we believe that food wastage is basically israf.

02:53It's an Arabic term that means wasting.

02:56So you don't want to waste any food.

02:57So right now, we already have a veggie kind of masala

03:03happening there.

03:04You just need to add some spice and make it fun.

03:07So we have a couple of spices here.

03:09Swahili cuisine is a combination of flavors.

03:13We're talking about a little bit of some Indian influence,

03:17a little bit of some Middle Eastern influence.

03:19We're going to go in with our chicken

03:21and this is basically probably 150 grams of the chicken.

03:26And this is boneless chicken, locally sourced.

03:32So once it's almost cooked, we're going to take an onion

03:35and we're going to use a little bit of an onion peel

03:39and then we'll smoke it.

03:40And thereafter, we're going to use the same onion

03:43that we used as the garnish over the stew.

03:47Again, zero waste.

03:49Oh Lord, that looks amazing.

03:51A little bit of some sauce on top.

03:54Goodness, that looks so good.

03:57Voila, karibu is what we say in Swahili means welcome.

04:01Let's do this.

04:06Oh my goodness.

04:09Whoa, this is amazing.

04:12Super simple to make, very delicious.

04:14And that onion garnish is amazing.

04:19I'm just going to have it on its own.

04:23Wow.

04:24Here's the thing.

04:24Remember, in your own kitchen,

04:26anything can be made sustainably.

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