- Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mm.
Okay.
Hey, guys. It's Selena. Yep.
I've learned so much about cooking the past two seasons.
But I know that I still have so much more to learn.
Okay, last one.
So I'm continuing my lessons from my own kitchen
with some of the best chefs all across the country.
Which means we can still have a great time
cooking together apart.
You could really hurt someone with this.
Hey, guys?
Do you mind grabbing the groceries?
- Yes. Let's get this. - All right.
- See who it is today.
- Oh, hoo! Hi.
- Hey, I got a delivery for you guys.
- All right. - Thank you so much.
- No problem, you guys. Take care.
- You too. - Later.
- He was cute.
- Another tattoo hottie today, you guys.
- We love to see it.
- You didn't talk to him for very long this time.
- I'm trying to play it more cool 'cause it's not
been going well me being a little bit too eager.
So I'm trying to take a different approach.
- Wow. Okay.
- I respect that about you.
- There's a lot.
- Raw honey. Garlic. - Yum.
- What's this? - A coconut.
Unbelievable.
- Oh, cum-in seeds.
- I think it's cumin.
- Cumin. Okay, cool. - Ooh.
- So Sel, you got all this. We're gonna head out.
All right.
It's been fun. - No, I need help.
- Whoo-hoo.
- Selena and Padma. Take one.
All right, let's dial in Padma. - Whoo-hoo.
♪ Oh, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ Oh, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying ♪
♪ My feelings on fire ♪
Hi, Padma.
- Hi, Selena. How are you?
- We're super excited.
- Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.
- On this episode I'm learning from Padma Lakshmi.
She is a renowned food expert,
a New York Times bestselling author,
a model, an entrepreneur, a human rights activist
and an award-winning TV producer and host.
- Hello. I'm Raquelle.
- Theresa. - I'm Paige.
- It's so nice to meet you.
- I'd like you to meet someone here too.
- Yeah. - Who would like to meet you.
- Hi. - This is my daughter.
- Hi. - This is Krishna.
- Hi. - How are you?
- I'm good.
I came back to school a couple--
like, 10, 20 minutes ago.
- Good job. Proud of the kids that stay at schools.
Yes.
- All right. I will call you if I need your help.
- Okay. - All right.
So have you ever eaten Indian food?
- Oh, yeah. All the time.
- We love Indian food, yes. - Okay, cool.
So today we're gonna make a south Indian brunch.
It's very easy. And it's really simple, clean,
homey food that isn't messed with too much.
- Ooh.
- We're gonna make some masala chai,
a coconut rice. - Yum.
- And we're gonna do beautiful shrimp curry
with tomatoes,
apricots, and bell peppers.
Yum.
- I'm so excited. - Sounds so good.
- I'm about to make you bitches work.
Where do we start?
- So the first thing we're gonna do
is we're gonna make the shrimp.
Do you have a wok or, like, a skillet?
- Let's see. - I think we do.
Oh, oh, oh.
Like this? - That's perfect.
We're gonna use that in a minute.
But first we have to do all of our mise en place.
- Okay.
- So get three or four
medium shallots.
Take a good sharp knife.
Be careful.
You're gonna cut off the stem part of the shallot
and then cut off the other side as well.
You can cut them in half.
And then they should be easy to peel.
There you go. You're doing it. Perfect.
- Doing it. - Oh yeah.
- Did you do lots of cooking during COVID?
- I did. I cooked my butt off during COVID.
I made a lot of south Indian recipes actually
'cause I missed my mom and I missed my family.
- Aw. - Yeah.
- And so I went back to cooking a lot of this kind of food.
- Oh, nice. - Selena, how old were you
when you did your first record?
- 15. Which was funny 'cause it's like,
what am I gonna talk about when I'm 15, like?
Yes.
Okay. Grab the half shallot.
We're gonna cut them into slices.
So just rest the knife against your knuckle.
You're gonna push down with the tip.
Roll the knife backwards with pressure
so that you go tip to stem like that.
And just be really careful and go slow.
- Okay.
Sometimes I need a little reminder
on my knife skills.
- Oh, okay.
- Lots of injuries on "Selena and Chef" this season.
- Oh, my God, please don't tell me that.
Ah.
I can't--see?
- Unbelievable. - Is it...?
Oh!
- Can I tell you something?
I've been in food for 20 years professionally,
and I still suck at cutting onions and things like that.
- Okay. - So I wouldn't worry about it.
- Ooh. - Oh, no.
- I feel it in my eyes. - My eyes.
- I think we're doing a good job.
We're crying.
- So here's a funny thing.
You can get onion-cutting goggles
to help you not cry.
Check these out. - ♪ Look so good ♪
♪ Yeah, look so sweet ♪
Stop it.
- Those are epic. - Why are those so chic?
- Oh, my gosh, why is it, like, Gucci?
- She looks like she's in, like Balenciaga ad.
- Yeah. - Oh, they're so good.
I have to show you.
These are the goggles that we got for Selena.
Show her them on.
Very Jeremy Scott, yes.
- I bet they would work.
- Yeah, I need you to never put those on again.
I hate myself.
That might be the dumbest I've looked on this show yet.
- Television, baby.
- So now you're gonna just
get your cherry tomatoes.
and these you're just going to cut in quarters.
- Should we cut the whole bowl? - The whole bowl.
- Okay. - Okay, we'll help.
Oh, this is intricate work, guys.
- Have you always lived on the East Coast?
- Mostly I've lived on the East Coast.
But I also lived in Italy for a lot of my 20s.
- Ooh.
- I loved being in Italy
because also I was on my own.
It was when I just had gotten out of college
and had real freedom for the first time.
I started modelling there.
And that's when I discovered how much I loved cooking
because I just fell in love with Italian food
and French food. - Mm-hmm.
- I don't think I could do the work
that I do today in food
if I hadn't had that experience.
- That's so cool. I love that.
- Okay, so do you guys have enough tomatoes?
- I think so, yeah. - Yeah.
- So now we're gonna move on to the bell pepper.
Grab your knife. - Yes.
- And hold it like that.
- Oh.
You know what? I'm gonna take a little knife break.
So how about you try this, Theresa?
- All right. - Please enter.
I'm a little sensitive right now.
So you go. - All right, let's do this.
- Okay, so take the tip of your knife
and just pierce the slit.
And you're just gonna basically cut the core out of it.
And then you just wanna take out all the stuff inside
and then cut it in quarters.
- Is it hard to cut stuff in those nails though?
- Yeah, kind of.
- And then you're gonna cut those into 1-inch dices.
- Got it. - Great.
- So put those in a bowl.
- All right.
- Okay, so now we're going to do the ginger.
- Oh, this is gonna be delicious,
I can already tell. Pepper, tomato, ginger.
- I know, a lot of flavors are happening.
- Yeah.
- So trim the smaller fingers of the ginger away.
And just use that main, fattest, biggest piece.
- Okay.
- You wanna just try and get the peel off.
- Okay, let's try it.
Let's try it. - Take a deep breath.
- Okay. So.
- Just watch. - Don't go away.
Just follow the shape of the ginger.
- Oh, no. Okay. - Wait.
- Look at her.
- Gently. Slowly. Try to use--
- Ugh. - Yeah, no.
- You know what? We don't have to--
- Paige, why don't you come and take the stage?
This episode of Selena takes a break from knives.
- Okay, just be really careful and go really slowly.
So just go around the piece
and get as much off as you can.
That's great. Okay, so now you have your peeled ginger.
- Thank you. - All right.
- So you wanna take the big knob of ginger
and cut it in half. Like that.
- Okay. - Good job.
- And then just cut little strips.
Like little matchsticks. As skinny as you can.
- Nice.
- Take a quarter of those matchsticks
and bunch 'em up like that.
And then just cut those as tiny as you can.
- Good job. - That looks great.
- We're acting like she's, like, our, like,
five-year-old sister. - I know.
- Even injuries, I'm like... - You gotta celebrate--
- Y'all wanna try? - Yes.
- Celebrate-- - Small wins. Small wins.
- Celebrate the small wins.
- Do you have any other kids?
- No, just the one. She's plenty.
- Aw, she's beautiful. - Thank you.
You know, I always knew I wanted to be a mom.
I never knew it would be so much fun.
- I have a seven-year-old sister.
- Oh, okay.
- I get to be, like, the cool
big sister, and I love it.
I hang out with her more than anybody else.
- You do. - It's your bestie.
- Let's peel the garlic. I just need a couple cloves.
- You know what? I found some peeled ones.
So we're in luck. - Okay, great.
So get two of those. And then we'll just go ahead
and get the preserved lemon and apricots.
- Dried apricot. - You wanna just cut
each apricot into six pieces.
- Of the whole bag? - No.
Ugh.
- Really?
- Thanks, guys. I'm a pathetic loser.
- So you want about 1/3 cup.
For me, that is about a dozen.
- Okay.
- And then you just wanna cut these into small bits.
You're gonna also do the same thing
with the Moroccan preserved lemons.
Open that. You want one whole lemon.
- Wow. - Don't worry about it.
- It's really weird. - It's gooey.
I can see by the color of them that they're nice.
- I like it. - Okay.
- Cut it in half down the middle.
- Got it.
- And then you wanna take all of the seeds out.
- Okay. - And chop 'em into bits.
- I've never seen lemons like this.
- They're preserved in salt and water.
And you just let them sit there for months on end.
And they become this fermented pickled lemon.
- Mm. - Wow.
- So now we have all the things we need.
Do you wanna get the spices out?
- Sure. - These spices look awesome.
- Okay, so you're gonna need two dried chilies.
- Two dried chilies.
- And then you need fennel and cumin.
- These ones. - Okay.
What?
- All right, so get your frying pan.
- Thank you, babe. Sorry.
- Add some oil to the pan. - Okay.
- A little bit, like, 2 or 3 tablespoons.
Keep going. That's good. Stop.
So turn your stove onto medium heat.
- Okay.
- Once your oil is hot you're gonna add
1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
and 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds.
- Okay.
- That's a lot of cumin. - Oh, no.
- Is that 1/2 teaspoon?
- I think it was a full teaspoon.
- Okay, just take some out.
Sorry.
- She said, "That's a lot."
- So this is 1 teaspoon.
- I'm sorry. - So, like, half of this.
- Okay. There we go.
- Great. So now add your shallots.
- Okay.
- And then add your two cloves of garlic.
- The smell's coming in really nice.
- Add your ginger now. - Okay.
- Are the onions getting a little translucent and glassy?
- Yeah.
- Now you're gonna add the two dried red chilies.
- Not cut or anything, just throw them in, right?
- Yeah. So then you're gonna add the bell pepper.
- Yum. - Your salt.
And add your turmeric as well. That's the yellow powder.
- How much turmeric? - Not that much.
Like, literally 1/4 teaspoon.
- Okay.
- And now you're gonna add the tomatoes.
And if your pan is getting dry you can always add butter.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- So swirl the butter around so it melts.
And then get the shrimp out of the fridge
as well as one cut lemon and some salt.
- Okey-dokey.
- Okay. We're just going to add
a tiny pinch of salt, like 1/2 teaspoon
for about a pound of shrimp. - Got it.
- And then you're gonna squeeze the juice of one lemon
and just let that sit for a few minutes.
Let's check the tomato.
- Okay. - Mm.
- It's looking good. - Yeah, it's unbelievable.
- Smells really good.
- At this point I want you
to add the preserved lemon as well as the apricots.
- Okay.
- So now toss all your shrimp into that tomato sauce.
Ooh, yummy.
- Just, like, stir it up really evenly.
It'll cook pretty fast.
- Love this.
- And then you wanna add some chopped cilantro.
- Okay. - And stir it up.
- Great.
- Perfect. And this dish is done.
That's all there is to it. - Yum.
- And this is a super duper healthy dish.
Like, it has no calories and lots of protein.
- It looks so good. - Wow.
- Put the cover on it.
Make sure the heat is completely off.
And just set it to the side. - Okay.
- We're doing the rice recipe now.
We're gonna make a coconut rice or a pilaf.
- Okay, rice. Thank you.
- So now we're gonna break a coconut.
- Okay.
- Coconut. - Coconut time?
- So you need to find the hardest surface you can.
Okay? I think that you will break your marble counter.
Uh.
- If you have, like, concrete somewhere.
- Should we do it on the floor? - That would be better.
- Floor is fine.
- So I'm gonna show you how I'm doing this
on my granite counter. Okay?
- Okay. - Can you see me?
- Yes. - Okay.
Oh.
- Be careful of your fingers.
- This isn't gonna be good on our end.
- It's not. - So where are you gonna do it?
On the ground? - Right here.
- Just get a bowl or something that you can
collect the coconut water. Go.
- Oh, the bottom--
- She smashed it. - All right! Good girl.
- Ah, I did it! - Whoo!
She enjoyed that a little too much.
The smile just got so big.
- That's great. Good for you.
I was worried about that. - Okay, done.
- So get a big knife. - Okay.
- And then you wanna put the coconut on its side
and make a cut into it. Like that.
And then you're gonna make another cut into it to make,
like, a piece of a triangle.
- Oh! - Nope.
- Oh, no. - Oi.
- And then you just wanna wedge
your knife in between the hard shell.
- It's not in the cards for me. I'm sorry.
- It's just, like, a weird angle.
- The more you go into the coconut the easier it gets
and the bigger the pieces become.
- Ooh, I'm definitely trying a piece.
- This is hard. - You're doing great.
It's not an easy thing to do.
I've grown up doing it all my life
and it's still hard for me.
- You think this is enough? - Yeah.
- Here we go.
- Oh!
- This is so good.
- Okay, put all these pieces into the blender.
Start out slow.
- Ah! - Whoo-hoo!
- It looks like a blizzard. - Yeah.
- It worked. - Great.
You're going to need about a cup and a half
of shredded coconut. - Okay.
- So we have to cut some more ginger.
Whoever wants to do that can do that.
- Yeah, we're cutting it the same way, right?
- Exactly the same way, yes. Thank you.
- Yeah, Paige Holden.
- I was literally gonna say that.
- Okay, so you're going to need red chilies again.
But also two fresh green chilies.
- Okay. - Some cashews,
about 1/4 cup. - Yum.
- You also wanna mise out your two kinds of lentils.
You have a bigger lentil that looks like a tiny orange
that's been cut in half.
That's called Chana Dal. - Got it.
- You want a tablespoon. - Yummy.
- The other one is called Urad Dal.
- Okay. - You want, like,
a 3/4 teaspoon to a teaspoon.
- Nice.
- So those chilies look pretty big.
I would cut them.
Okay.
- Into, like, four long pieces.
- Awesome. The struggle is real.
- Yeah.
- And then you should have a little spice
called asafetida.
- The ass of fetida.
- You're such a child.
- Okay, we need 15 to 20 curry leaves.
So they're really easy to pop off. Watch this.
You just take it at the bottom and you go like that.
- Ooh.
- Okay, that's good.
- And then the last thing is mustard seeds.
- How much mustard seeds?
- 1/2 teaspoon. - Okay.
- All right, so get a frying pan
preferably non-stick if you can.
- What about this? - That's prefect.
- So the smell that you're going to smell
when this starts popping is the smell
that I associate most with my childhood.
- Aww.
- So we're gonna turn on the stove on medium high heat.
- Okay. - And then you're going to add
about 3 tablespoons of canola oil.
- Okay.
- And we're going to be adding all of these ingredients.
- It's party time. Can't wait to smell it all together.
- Okay. All right.
So you're gonna add your mustard seeds.
Then you're gonna put in both of your types of lentil.
- Oh, I almost dropped it.
- And you're also going to add your ginger to this.
And it should start sizzling a little bit.
- Got it.
- Add the cashews and the asafetida.
- Okay.
- Put both kinds of chilies in there.
And then you're gonna put in curry leaves and stir.
And then put in your coconut as well.
- Whoo-hoo. - Wow, that smells so good.
- You're gonna start to hear the mustard seeds
pop out of the pan.
- We're popping over here. - Okay, good.
So now you wanna take your rice.
- Okay.
- And just add it to your pan in little handfuls.
But you want to kinda sprinkle it
'cause you wanna keep the grains of rice whole.
You don't wanna break 'em. - Okay.
- And then you just wanna fold and toss this gently.
Like, go from underneath and then lift up.
Yeah. Exactly.
- I love the way this smells.
- We usually eat this coconut rice
for brunch or for tiffin.
Tiffin is a meal that we eat in India
around 4:00 or 5:00 with tea.
It's, like, tea time in England.
It's from colonialism. - Ahh.
- And don't forget to add salt.
I would add about a teaspoon to start.
- Okay.
- So you can just take a little tasting spoon
and taste that. See if it needs
a little bit more salt.
She's happy.
- All right, so you're basically done.
Like, it's cooked.
- All right, this is pretty damn good.
- Oh, it's got a kick.
You wanna stir?
- So do you wanna learn how to make masala chai,
which is masala tea? - Yeah.
- Okay. Should we clean this up?
- What ingredients do we need for the chai tea?
- It's just chai. Chai is the Hindi word for tea.
I know people in America like to say chai tea,
but what you're actually saying is just tea tea.
- So embarrassing. - Do we need boiled water?
- Yes, we do. Measure 4 cups.
- Oh, I love Raque-poo.
- So do you just have the one sister
or do you have more siblings?
- I do. But I grew up an only child
'cause my mom had me when she was 16.
- Wow.
- I have a friend who also has a very young mom.
- It's very interesting.
It's like you kind of are growing up together.
It's weird. But it's awesome.
- I, on the other hand,
had what they called a geriatric pregnancy.
- What? - I had Krishna when I was 39.
It's horrible to read that, by the way.
And I remember, like, being in my hospital bed
and hearing a nurse discussing it with this doctor
that was on call, and they were whispering.
And they said, like, "Well, she is a geriatric mother."
- Oh, my gosh.
- I didn't know who they were talking about.
And then the doctor came in,
I thought "Oh, my God, they're talking about me."
- Oh, no. Who was it? I'll kick their ass.
- Okay. So this is one of my favorite recipes.
The first thing you're gonna do is cut
some more of that ginger, ladies.
This one you don't even have to peel.
Just cut it in, like, big rough pieces.
And then you're gonna put that into the water.
And turn the stove on high. And now you're going to add
about 3 heaping spoons of chai leaves.
If you want it stronger you can add more.
And then you're gonna add four whole cloves to the water.
- Beautiful.
- And 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder.
- Is it cardom?
- Cardema? - Cardom-ma?
Cardamom.
And then you're going to add 3 teaspoons of brown sugar.
People always ask me, "Oh, you do that on purpose?"
and I'm like, "No, that's just how clumsy I am."
- "That's just me." - What--what was this again?
- About 3 teaspoons. And just stir this all up.
So I usually figure about a teaspoon of sweetener
to a cup of liquid.
So we're making 4 cups of tea.
So along with the brown sugar, you are going to add
a little bit of honey
about a tablespoon and just swirl it around.
Just dip it into the hot liquid.
- Oh, sorry.
Oh, it's pretty hot.
- So once that's starts to boil
which it is doing you wanna add a cup of milk to this.
- Yum.
- The minute it begins to rise up,
you want to turn it off.
- Oh, yeah, we can turn it off. - Exactly.
And then you just wanna get a little ladle.
- Got a ladle. I got a ladle. Do you got a ladle?
- Ladle, ladle.
- Oh, yay, you're back. - Hi.
- Then you want a little tea strainer.
- I've never in my life seen that.
- Do you have any kind of strainer?
- Yes. Is this okay?
- Yeah, that'll work.
Here's what I want you to do with yours.
Take a ladle-- - Mom.
- Yeah, thank you.
Well, it's a little late now. I always tell Krishna
she has to put her hair back when she cooks
because she has such long hair, I don't want it to catch fire.
- I would do something like that.
I'm surprised I haven't.
- So you're gonna take a ladle. Take some of the tea.
And you're just going to basically strain
the tea into the cup.
- Let's try. - I don't know how--
- Let's try.
- Just be careful. - Great, that works.
- Yeah, just be careful that we don't burn me.
- "Just be careful that we don't burn me."
- Oh, my gosh, the dog.
- The dog. - So cute.
- This is Divina. Say hi, Divina. Don't be shy.
- Hi. Oh my gosh.
- So cute. - She's so cute.
- Okay, we're gonna taste the chai for the first time.
- Okay, be careful. It'll be hot.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Ooh.
- Ooh, it's so good.
- Oh, it's really good.
- It's really yummy. - Wow.
- And it wasn't that hard to make.
- I really like that.
- Okay, so now we've got our tea.
Are you ready to plate?
- Yes. - Oh, yes, I am.
- What you want is the rice on the side
so you can taste it on its own.
And then just the shrimp on the side as well.
- Before we taste it we have to document it.
"Paige, tell me the news!"
- Tell me the news.
- Should we try it now?
- Yes. So put your utensils down.
Just take your three fingers and your thumb.
Do not use your pinky.
We're gonna eat with our hands like we do in India.
- Oh wow, okay. - Amazing.
- Take a little bit of rice and push the rice
into the three fingers like this.
And then you wanna curve your hand like that
and push the rice into your mouth
with your thumb like this.
- Ooh, that rice.
Oh my gosh, that is yummy.
- I'm gonna try the shrimp.
- Mmm. - Oh, my gosh.
- I'm not even a big shrimp person, this is incredible.
- There's so much flavor.
I was wondering if you could tell us
a little bit about the charity we're donating to.
- Sure. You're donating to Shanti Bhavan
which is a school in India
that helps underprivileged children
have a future by giving them a full education,
boarding, sports activities, and the arts.
It really is giving a child a whole different life
than they would have from preschool
all the way to the end of their high school.
- That's so cool.
To thank Padma for the beautiful brunch recipes
we're donating $10,000 in her name
to the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project.
Please go to ShantiBhavanChildren.org
for more info.
And thank you so much
for talking a little bit about what you care about
and also for teaching us this incredible recipe
that I know we're going to devour not neatly
when we turn off the cameras.
- It was lovely to meet you and to cook with you.
Thanks so much for joining me. - Of course. Thank you so much.
- Bye.
- Bye, girl. - Bye.
- So good, you guys. - This is delicious.
- I give us a four out of five.
- I'm gonna give it a five.
- Oh, I just got a-- - Oh no.
- And it has a little kick.
- I just ate a pepper. It's not okay.
- Oh no. - Oh! I feel it in my ears.
♪ ♪