01x08 - Trincomalee

[bunniefuu]

PETER KURUVITA: I'm off to explore
Sri Lanka's east coast,

and my first stop is Arugam Bay.

This place is best known for
its world-class surf breaks

and stunning beaches.

But I'm more interested in
what you find behind the beach.

Now, I'm in the eastern tip...
of...Yala National Park,

looking for bush food.

We're gonna head in there, hopefully
not bump into any elephants,

and see what I can find.

I'm catching up with Sumita from the
Second Partner conservation group,

and he's bringing with him Apuhami,
a village elder

who knows Sri Lankan bush tucker
better than anyone around here.

I'm a bit nervous about
going into this swamp.

How many eels are there here?
Yes, there are a lot of eels.

The things you do.

The lotus plant is incredibly
nutritious and tastes wonderful.

Right now, just after the monsoon,
is the best time to harvest.

Here, first we will find a good one.

This is the fruit.

The fruit of a lotus.

Hey-hey.

Is this the seed?

Yes, this is...these are the seeds.

It's beautiful.

It's, like, kind of like rice.
Exactly.

Um, I've had lotus seed before
in drinks in Chinatown,

but this is all new to me.

Now, all the roots down here
are just...

It's a mass of roots.

But what we are looking for
is the yam at the bottom of it.

So, we've got the root.

That's the roots there, yeah.

You've got to do a lot of work
to get a big curry.

I don't know how many I'm feeding
today, but I'll have to do more.

So, that's it there.

We cut that off, and then
we'll clean it up and take it?

So, that's it for the lake.

Now for the jungle.

Potatoes in the sky.

These things are hanging off
this vine,

which is...which is being
supported by a tree.

It's not affecting the tree at all.
No.

And then it drops these things.

And then you know that
the yam's ready to pick.

And the yam is actually
under the ground,

so this is a secondary product,
which apparently is good to eat.

Here it comes.

Wow.

[SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]

Wow.

That was worth the wait.

And we picked up some bitter gourd,

which I've heard is good for people
who have type 2 diabetes.

I've wanted to cook these
all the time I've been in Sri Lanka.

It's something...
You like it?

Oh, my dad used to love it.
I'd keep trying and keep trying.

I'm gonna try one more time.

Problem is
this vegetable is so bitter.

I'll see what I can do.

I'm going to cook food today
from the jungle.

I'm doing a bitter gourd curry,
some yams that we've found,

and also lotus root and fruit curry.

We'll start off with the bitter gourd

because it takes
a bit of preparation.

But what you have to do first
is just chop the ends off.

There's a seed in them.
Those seeds can come out.

Because they are super-duper bitter.

And then slice it really thin.

Push out all the seeds and just
leave the outer ring - the skin.

And I have some water here
with a fair bit of salt.

And a spoonful of turmeric.

The soaking in the salt

sort of drags out a lot
of that bitterness as well.

So I'm just going to leave that
as long as possible.

Next I'll do the yam.

I'm cutting them into about 2cm
pieces, and I'm going to boil them.

I'm going to season it
with some salt.

Now, my third curry
is going to be lotus root.

The silt and the mud in the lily pond
has just stained my hands.

Solid in the centre.

And that basically tells me
I should be slicing these quite thin.

So, to that I'm going to add
some fenugreek seeds.

Just a few.

Salt.

Some turmeric.

Chilli powder.

I'm not really sure
how hot to make it

but I guess I've got to make one
that's, like, the meat curry.

I'll make this one the hottest,

and then the bitter gourd
won't be as hot.

A green chilli.

And some tomato.

And then coconut.

And this coconut
is the second extract.

So, with the lid on, I'm just going
to let this really cook within itself

and get all the spices in there.

So, next I'm going to prepare
the next curry.

I'm putting some ghee into it.

Mustard seeds into my...chatty.

And immediately they've just
crackled and popped.

Once they start spitting at you,

it's time to add
the rest of the stuff.

And that will be the onion
and the garlic.

Time to add my curry leaves
and chilli.

Little bit of turmeric,
but I'm not gonna put too much

because the other curry
is quite yellow.

Bit of chilli. As I said, I'll make
the lotus root the hot one.

And some roasted...
dark roasted curry powder.

And one little spoonful
of cumin powder.

Smells good already.

Get those spices roasted and fried.

This lotus fruit.

I'm just going to put the seeds
into it.

It might thicken it. Who knows?

They're great, but it's certainly
going to make it look cool.

Put the lid on that.

And now I can start to deal with
my...my bitter gourd.

All I have to do
is just squeeze them.

You can be quite rough
because the salt has softened them

and made them pliable.

And the last stage in here...

..is to add the coconut cream.

To reduce the bitterness even more,

I'm going to give it
a good squeeze of lime.

Here's the taste test.

It's juicy.

It's got a crunch to it.

And slowly that bitterness
starts to arrive.

But you know what?
It needs more salt.

And to serve this up...

..I picked a few lotus leaves
as well.

My yams, which are now fluffy.

It's a really good
country-style dish, this one.

Lotus root.

With a little bit of sauce.
It's thickened up quite well.

And then my bitter gourd.

I also will serve it
with some fresh coconut.

This is a pretty good complete dish.

Bitter gourd
and lotus root, fruit curry

and this wonderful native yam
with fresh coconut.

I'm heading up the coast
from Arugam Bay to Batticaloa.

What's exciting is
that only last year

this journey would've been considered
too dangerous because of the w*r.

The w*r has kept visitors
and business investment

away from Batticaloa.

But it also kept the developers away
from this pristine coast,

and that's a good thing.

I'm here with Suba,

who is showing me around these
beautiful mangroves in Batticaloa.

Untouched. Absolutely stunning.

You sort of come off the main road
and then into this,

which is wonderful.

The mangroves are a nursery
for marine life.

So healthy mangroves means
healthy seafood industry,

which means happy chefs.

Got some prawn eggs.
Prawn eggs?

Got some prawn eggs here.

I've never seen this.

That's the egg sac.
It's like a big eggwhite.

And it's camouflaged with the silt
that's in the mangroves here.

And inside it are tiny,
tiny little prawns.

There's more than a hundred thousand
prawns in there, apparently.

So, these are the small prawns.
Yes.

Can you take me to catch
the big prawns?

Now?
Well, I don't know.

When's the best time to go fishing?
Night.

Night-time.

Prawning, I'm told, is best done
on still and quiet nights.

[THUNDER CRASHES]

Oh, well.

The idea of prawning.

You take a bright light

and you face it into the water

and the prawns become stunned.

Like moths, I guess.

There's a prawn.

Ah, very sneaky.

Use the net...and then your foot.

That's like a tiger prawn.
Yes.

Like a tiger, but is very good.

Yeah, it's beautiful.
Very tasty.

Yeah. Very tasty.

OK, let's catch some more.

I want to catch one.

Got one?

How come you're seeing them
and I can't catch one yet?

That's like a banana prawn, that one.

No prawns!

OK, the weather did
make prawning hard work.

We were out there for hours.

But it was an adventure.

Today I'm cooking
grilled lagoon prawns

with lady's finger sambal
and pangritata.

Now, pangritata is
an Italian garlicky breadcrumb.

First thing you have to do
is add lots of butter.

And the butter and olive oil together
have to come to a froth.

The froth is really important.

If it's not frothing, it means that
the butter and oil aren't hot enough,

and when you add everything else
to it, it'll just absorb it.

Now, I've got some garlic,
which is smashed and then chopped.

Just stir it around.

I'm going to just slice up a prawn
as well, so that it goes through it.

See how the froth just stays?

It's really important that
that stays like that,

because, otherwise, if it cools down,
when I put my bread in

it'll just absorb all the oil
rather than frying it.

Froth is still there.

And now I've got a handful
of fresh bread.

And that will just now cook.

While that's doing that,
I'm going to also fry my okra.

I'm going to add my prawns into that
pangritata now - the diced prawn.

And some seasoning.

It's starting to smell
pretty nice now.

My lady's fingers are now ready -
or okra is now ready.

I'm just going to take them out
and drain them.

And the breadcrumbs
are pretty much done.

Now what I'm going to do is keep
that oil and butter mixture

with all the beautiful
garlic flavours,

and that's what I'm going
to cook my prawns in.

And I'm also going to use a herb
called Asian pennywort, or gotu kola.

It has a bit of a bitter taste,
but...

It may be bitter but it has
a wonderful flavour,

so just to make a julienne,
which is my garnish,

put three or four leaves together,
roll them up,

and slice them really thin.

Now, the oil from the pangritata.

Seasoning. Salt into the pan.

And a little bit of pepper
onto the prawns.

Wait for the oil to start smoking,
and place them in.

Always either use tongs,
but otherwise away from your body.

To build this dish - salt.

A little bit of lime juice.

Mix it around. You can feel that
the okra is nice and soft now.

And make sure that you've cut
all the okra into the same length,

otherwise it's going to look
very strange

with uneven bits of your raft
sticking out all over the place.

Now, this sambal calls for tomatoes -
beautiful, ripe tomatoes.

Place that onto my raft.

I've cut the chillies,
taken the seeds out of them.

And just sprinkling them on top,

so it's not a massive heat,
it's just a bit of a flavour.

The Maldive fish is ground up fine,
but not too fine,

so that you get the flavour of it.

And then some onion, raw onion, which
will add a really nice flavour to it.

Now, on top of that...

..my beautiful prawns...

..sit proudly.

Six of them.

That's a nice look.

And then heat up my garnish,

which are potatoes, carrots
and beetroot ba*ls.

Very easy to do.

You can get one of those cutters
at any kitchenware shop,

and you just plunge it in and turn it
around into the peeled vegetable.

Stir them around.

A little bit of lime
will bring this together.

It will make it like
a bit of a lemon butter sauce.

It's a very merry dish, this one.

Good sprinkle of my pangritata
on top of that.

And finish off...with the gotu kola.

And there you have lagoon prawns

with lady's finger sambal
and pangritata.

[BELL CLANGS]

Trincomalee has the fifth-largest
deepwater harbour in the world.

[CLANGS]

In fact, the British navy were
based here during World w*r II.

But what's really interesting
are these fishing boats.

For some reason, they're all
clustered together as a flotilla,

and that's not the usual way
to hunt fish.

Alright, let's go.

I've managed to bum a ride
with this guy.

I've gotten out of the motorboat
because it scares the fish.

And we're going to go right into
the pack and see what's going on.

The water's crystal clear.

I can see the fish down there.
There's thousands of them.

And that's why everyone
comes together.

Not getting any bites, though.

Our flotilla is sitting above
a school of yakkas, or yellowtail.

Catching these small fish
is an important daily ritual.

Yes!
MAN: Yes.

[LAUGHS]

You see, yakkas are the best bait
for catching tuna.

Yeah!

So, the whole puzzle's
come together now.

These guys are selling them per fish
to these motorised boats,

who instantly take them out to sea,
bait them up, and aim for tuna.

It all makes sense.

OK, enough of the bait. Let's go
to market and buy a big fat tuna.

Yeah, it's good fish. Do you like it?

I saw this one coming off
the beach, so...



That's good. I'll take it.

Cheap. $80 for a whole fish.

I like it.

I'm doing 'devilled'.
Now, it can be devilled anything.

Chicken, beef, vegetables.

Today it's tuna.

Simple, loved by all Sri Lankans,
and lovingly named 'bites'.

First thing I have to do
is chop this tuna up.

So, just cube it into
bite-sized pieces.

I'm going to put them into a bowl
because I want them to marinate.

I'm adding some salt.

Pepper.

Chilli flakes.

Just to make it really hot
and devilish.

And instead of frying
the curry leaves this time -

I've been frying them all my life -

I'm going to add them to the tuna.

It'll just add some flavour to it.

Little squeeze of lime juice.

And that's my marination process.

Stir that around.

Get all of the flavours into it.

And now I'm going to swap.

My oil's just started to smoke,
which is a good sign.

Throw a curry leaf in.

It should crackle and pop.

I've got all these different-textured
vegetables here.

You have to cook them in order
so all of them are evenly cooked.

Start with onions.

And garlic.

Leek, which is plentiful here.

I've got two types of chillies.

Banana chillies, which are going
to add a nice flavour.

And also stinking hot chillies,
which are going to give it the devil.

I put the banana chillies in first.

Everything in this dish
has to be crunchy.

And then the other chillies.

Toss it around a little bit.

So, everything's pretty much
evenly cooked.

There's nothing that's gone too soft.
It's all going to be crunchy.

Lastly, I'll add my tuna.

And this just needs to be
cooked through now.

I'm sure, here in Sri Lanka,

it gets cooked more than
I'm going to cook it,

but they're gonna have to
have it my way.

So, my sweet-and-sour sauce
is tomato sauce, some vinegar

and a little bit of water
to thin it down.

Finally, add tomatoes.

So, give it a good mix around.

And I've learnt here in Sri Lanka,
always add a little bit more salt.

And then serve it up.

I'll just put some
curry leaves on it.

Some more of the chopped chilli.

Make it look really nice.

I'm going to take it down there
and see what these guys think.

I think they like it.

And a glass of arrack
goes perfectly with it.

Thank you. Cheers. Cheers, everyone.

Devilled fish Sri Lankan-style.

The time has come to farewell
the east coast of Sri Lanka,

because next time
we head north to Jaffna.

We will be the first TV crew
allowed in since the w*r,

so I'm expecting
some incredible experiences.

We're actually doing this because,
apparently, it puts air into it.

Here we go. Last one. [GRUNTS]