Steven Raichlen's Planet Barbecue

[Steven] Today we cross continents and time zones.

Andrew, welcome.

Let's do it.

[Steven] From barbecue chicken with Thai yellow curry...

This is fabulous.

...to Texas beef ribs grilled like Korean kalbi.

There's a lot going on in this dipping sauce.

And a grilled pork and cactus salad bursting with Asian flavors.

Mm.

I love that sweet, salty, sour dynamic.

It's East meets West.

From a river cruise in San Antonio, I'm Steven Raichlen.

Welcome to Planet Barbecue.

[opening theme music] [announcer] Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" is made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: [Steven] From caravans on the ancient spice route to the navigations of Columbus and Magellan, to today's international jet service, the meeting of east and west has profoundly influenced how we cook and eat.

Consider the chili pepper.

Native to the Americas, it was brought to Europe by Columbus' ship's physician then spread by Portuguese seafarers to ports as far-flung as Mozambique, Goa, Macau, and Indonesia.

Within a century, it became a defining flavor on six continents.

Chilis figure prominently in today's show, as do other exotic seasonings such as lemongrass, curry and fish sauce.

The latter, known in Hokkien Chinese as k-tsiap, the origin of modern ketchup.

The East-West interchange continues to have a profound effect on how we grill and how we eat.

I came to San Antonio looking for some unique barbecue.

I found it at a bright pink shipping container, the original location of Curry Boys BBQ in St. Mary's Strip.

Curry Boys is the brainchild of three partners, including first generation Vietnamese American, Andrew Ho.

Andrew grew up in Houston, majored in business and communications at the University of Texas, and spent three years teaching English to high schoolers in Vietnam and Thailand.

He's here to show us a new twist on barbecued chicken, a Curry Boy specialty, Good Luck Cluck.

Andrew, welcome.

Let's do it.

Today we're going to start by seasoning this chicken, so we have a good amount of salt.

We like to use chicken thighs.

[Steven] Why is that?

[Andrew] That fat in there, when it's smoking for three hours, it'll give you a nice rich flavor.

[Steven] All right.

Black pepper.

[Andrew] Awesome.

This is a house-made Cajun seasoning.

Oh.

Put a little in my palm so I can taste it.

There you go.

Mm.

Nice.

Garlic, cayenne.

Paprika, citric acid.

We want to get that on there nice and hardy, so when these go in the smoker, they're nice and covered.

[Steven] When did Curry Boys open?

We opened in October of 2020, right in the middle of the COVID Pandemic.

Oh.

Both of our restaurants were closed, and we were just kind of twiddling our thumbs for a couple of months, and us and our barbecue partner got together and said, "Why don't we mix up some Thai curry with Texas barbecue "and just see what the people think.

"Give them something to eat while everyone's stuck in their house."

Then we did a couple of contactless popups, drive-through only, and we sold a couple hundred family packs.

And from there, we were like, "All right.

Let's open this little pink container."

Now, to cook the chicken, I know normally you would use a big-- Offset thousand-gallon, offset smoker.

Yes, sir.

We're going to use a ceramic cooker.

And I set this up for you for indirect grilling, that is.

We have the heat diffuser in between the fire.

Perfect.

We loaded this with post oak just like you guys like.

Awesome.

There you go.

Yeah, and then we'll just get this on here.

-Okay.

-Like that.

[Steven] I notice you folded these back together.

[Andrew] So we fold these because our thousand-gallon, the rack that these sit on, we don't have a lot of space.

[Steven] Understood.

[Andrew] So we've been doing it like this, so I'm going to keep it just like that.

And these smoke for how long?

About two to three hours until internal temp is 165.

One-hundred and sixty-five?

Yes.

Okay.

While that's smoking, we're going to prepare the curry sauce.

[Andrew] Awesome.

Let's get three tablespoons of a neutral oil.

So what was it like being a Vietnamese-American teaching English in Vietnam?

Almost all the students there are so respectful.

For them it's like, "Oh, this guy went to university and then he had a job doing engineering stuff," because they would always ask me questions.

A really cool experience to go back to the motherland.

[Steven] I think the oil is hot, so what goes in next?

Yeah, so we're going to start with some pureed or minced garlic.

[Steven] Minced, fresh garlic.

Ooh, okay.

[Andrew] Perfect.

[Steven] Great, and then we have-- [Andrew] Fresh chopped lemongrass.

[Steven] --chopped fresh lemongrass.

Perfect.

Great, and what's next?

Yellow curry paste.

Okay, so that's Thai yellow curry paste.

-Yes, sir.

-Great.

[Andrew] And here we're going to have a lot of turmeric, coriander, shallots, garlic, yellow chilies, and curry powder.

[Steven] All right, so we cook these ingredients together.

Folks, the aroma is absolutely incredible.

[Andrew] You want to sweat it out and you can see the oils coming out of the herbs.

And then, you could add a little bit of sugar into there.

[Steven] Okay, so add the sugar.

[Andrew] And this part right here, it's going to get nice and caramelized and it's going to marry everything together.

[Steven] Mm.

-Awesome.

-All right.

And now when you kind of see that really rich yellow color, we'll be ready for the chicken bullion.

Add it now?

Yes.

Very good.

Chicken bullion.

[Andrew] Perfect.

After that's nice and in there, we can add a little bit of fish sauce.

-Fish sauce.

-Oh, yeah.

Okay, this is the aromatic, some might say malodorous, condiment made with pickled anchovies.

[Andrew] Yes.

From Vietnam.

[Andrew] Yeah.

That's going to add a real nice, salty balance to the dish.

This is the original umami flavor.

Yep.

Yep.

Good.

Oh yeah, that smells fantastic.

[Andrew] So we're going to add the coconut milk.

[Steven] Okay.

This is the heavy cream of the tropics.

[Andrew] And then we're going to add about a quart of water.

Then we're going to crank that heat up nice and high.

[Steven] All right.

Crank it.

[Andrew] Then just give that a stir.

[Steven] I must say that it looks totally amazing.

[Andrew] We're going to add our potatoes and carrots into here.

These are already par cooked, right?

[Andrew] They are, because if you cook them in the curry for too long.

[Steven] They get-- Yeah, it could overcook the vegetables and the curry.

[Steven] We don't want to do either of those.

[Andrew] Wow.

I think they're ready.

Those look fantastic.

Let's check this out.

We're looking for about 175.

That'll give us a nice, good smoke.

Bingo.

[Andrew] Boom.

So yeah, we'll get two of the nice big pieces right over here.

[Steven] Thank you.

We will start by just slicing.

[Steven] Look at that.

You even have a smoke ring on that chicken.

Very moist.

Mm.

[Andrew] We're ready to plate.

Going to get our beautiful smoked chicken-- [Steven] Mmm.

[Andrew] --right on the side.

Nice and juicy.

All right, and then some of the curry sauce.

[Andrew] Want to get some potatoes and carrots into there.

[Steven] Yep.

If we want to get just one ladle of just the curry, absolutely.

Perfect.

Beautiful.

That's one.

There you go.

Thank you.

[Steven] All right.

Let's do this.

[Andrew] And then we are going to hit with fried shallots.

It's going to add a nice texture to the dish.

So many Southeast Asian dishes are finished with fried shallots, aren't they?

[Andrew] Yeah.

I think it adds a real good balance in a texture.

[Steven] Crunch, aroma.

[Andrew] Fresh cilantro-- [Steven] Beautiful.

[Andrew] --to cut into that.

A small dollop of chili oil.

We make this in-house.

[Steven] Beautiful.

There you go, and here we have a Good Luck Cluck.

Good Luck Cluck.

Well, let's see how you did.

[Andrew] Awesome.

I like to get a little bit of rice and everything in there.

[Steven] Mm.

Andrew, this is fabulous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[Steven] That smokey chicken and you got a gentle heat from the curry, the richness of the coconut milk.

This is like a symphony of flavors-- Oh, thank you.

--in one bowl.

Spectacular.

This must have been the kind of food you grew up on, huh?

A lot very, very similar, yeah.

Maybe not the barbecue.

[Andrew] Exactly.

Certainly the curry.

Well, this is great.

Congratulations on your new digs.

I can't wait to come see the new restaurant.

Awesome, thank you.

Okay.

This is really, really, really good, folks.

Thank you, Andrew.

Travel Planet Barbecue and you'll find beef ribs on every continent.

Here in North America, we cut them so big they need all day to cook and two hands to hold them.

Koreans have devised an ingenious method for butterflying beef ribs so you can grill them in minutes and eat them with chopsticks.

Get ready for an East-West mashup, Lone Star Kalbi.

Start with beef short ribs cut into three-inch sections.

Taking a sharp knife, make a cut along the top of the bone almost to the end of the short rib section.

Then, fold the top over, make another cut along the bottom edge and keep cutting and rolling to butterfly the ribs open.

You can see how beautifully marbled these beef ribs are.

Now make a series of crosshatch incisions.

This will help tenderize the ribs.

Come back in this direction.

Then turn the short ribs over and crosshatch the other side the same way.

I'll do one more for you.

Again, come along the top of the rib, make a fold, then cut through the rib like this.

What we've done in effect is taken a very long slow cooking piece of meat, butterflied it open so we can grill it in a matter of minutes.

Then place the butterflied short ribs on your sheet pan.

To season the short ribs, brush them with a traditional Korean flavoring, sesame oil.

Then, season with the ingredients in a Texas barbecue rub, namely salt, freshly ground black pepper... ...onion powder... ...and dried oregano.

Turn the ribs over and season the other side the same way.

Again, coarse sea salt... ...freshly ground black pepper... ...onion powder... ...and dried oregano.

And there are your short ribs ready for grilling.

Step number two, make the dipping sauce.

The dipping sauce starts with two traditional Korean ingredients, sesame oil and soy sauce.

And two distinctly American ingredients, cane syrup for sweetness and bourbon for punch.

Now, add finely grated ginger for heat.

Finely chopped garlic for pungency.

Scallions for an onion flavor.

And sliced jalapeos to kick up the heat.

Whisk the ingredients together.

Take a taste.

Mm.

Think about the flavor profile here.

We have sweet, salty, nutty, pungent, fiery, and boozy.

There's a lot going on in this dipping sauce.

Now to the grill.

Set up your grill for direct grilling and heat to high.

And as always, brush the grill grate clean.

And oil it with a folded paper towel dipped in vegetable oil and drawn across the bars of the grate.

Two vegetables go with the beef short ribs, poblano chilies, chiles poblanos, and scallions.

Grill until golden brown on all sides.

Once your poblanos are charred on all sides, transfer them to the cutting board.

Let the poblanos cool slightly then scrape off the charred skin.

Turn the poblanos over.

Then cut the top of the poblanos off.

Slice in half, open up and scrape out the seeds.

I'm going to do the other one.

Then, I'm going to make my cut.

Open these up, cut off the top, scrape out the seeds.

Then cut the grilled peppers into strips.

Here in south Texas, these are known by their Mexican name, rajas.

Finally, grill the short ribs and warm the tortillas.

Once the short ribs are sizzling and browned on the bottom, turn them over.

What's important is to have each short rib come out gorgeously brown on all sides at the same time.

Finally, warm your tortillas on the grill.

You can see how they puff up.

Place them here.

Cut the short ribs into bite-size pieces.

In Korea, they use scissors, which are very convenient.

In Korea, short ribs would be served in lettuce leaves.

I'm going Texas style with tortillas.

Then, a few strips of poblano.

A grilled scallion.

And some strips of cucumber for a crunch.

So, that's one.

I'll build another one.

Again, the tortilla, short rib, rajas, scallion, and cucumber.

Dip it in the dipping sauce and get ready for a taste that's out of this world.

Mm.

I love the contrast of textures and tastes.

The crusty beef, the crisp cucumber, the peppery poblano, the bourbon scented dipping sauce.

Man, these are awesome.

From Texas to the land of the morning calm, Lone Star Kalbi.

Yum Nua Yang is one of the glories of Thai cuisine, a hot-cold, grilled salad that plays the fire of Asian chilies against the cool crunch of tomatoes and lettuce.

Nopalitos or nopales are the tender young paddles of the prickly pear cactus, a popular salad fixing and vegetable in Mexico and the American southwest.

Put them together and you get a salad that's as colorful as fireworks with explosive East-West flavors to match.

It starts with a marinade salad dressing.

The key flavoring is lemongrass, an herb popular throughout Southeast Asia.

And what you do with lemongrass is strip off the outside leaf.

You use the stalk, discarding the green leaves at the top, then slice the lemongrass crosswise.

I love lemongrass.

It's got an herbaceous lemony aroma, but with none of the acidity of a fresh lemon.

Place the lemongrass in a blender.

Add chopped fresh ginger, chopped fresh garlic, chopped fresh cilantro, saving half to finish the salad.

Sugar for sweetness, black pepper for spice, two teaspoons.

One, two.

And then this is so characteristic of Thai cuisine, fish sauce, that aromatic pungent, umami-rich condiment made with fermented anchovies for a salt flavor.

And freshly squeezed lime juice for acidity.

Place the lid on the blender.

And blend these ingredients to a smooth puree.

Mm.

I love that sweet, salty, sour dynamic, so characteristic of Thai cuisine.

Now take half of this marinade and pour it over thinly sliced pork shoulder and save the remaining marinade as the dressing for your salad.

Then, turn the pork slices over and coat both sides with marinade.

Marinate the pork slices for at least 30 minutes or as long as two hours.

The longer, the better.

These are nopales, cactus paddles, and the spines have been removed from the edges and the top.

This is how you want to buy them if you possibly can.

What do you use if you can't find nopales in your area?

Well, grilled string beans work very well for this salad.

To prepare the nopales for grilling, simply brush on both sides with vegetable oil.

Great.

Now to the grill.

I've set my grill up for direct grilling and preheated it to high.

You'll want to oil the grill grate with a folded paper towel dipped in vegetable oil and drawn across the bars of the grate.

Arrange the cactus paddles on the hot grill grate.

Grill the cactus paddles until browned and tender, three to five minutes per side.

Give each cactus paddle a quarter turn.

Once browned on the bottom, turn the cactus paddles over.

Again, give a quarter turn.

I'm always doing these quarter turns to ensure even grilling.

Close the grill lid to build up the heat for grilling the pork.

Now you can start to build the salad.

Carpet a platter with lettuce leaves.

And then take cherry tomatoes, cut them in half, and arrange on top of the lettuce.

Next, add slivered cucumbers for crunch.

And once your cactus paddles have cooled, slice them on the diagonal into thin strips.

And arrange the cactus paddles on top of your salad.

The last step is to grill the pork.

Remember, this is a hot-cold salad, so you want the pork to come hot off the grill.

Brush the grill grate and oil it.

Now, arrange the pork slices on the hot grill grate.

Give each slice of pork a quarter turn after two minutes.

A really nice aroma from the lemongrass and garlic.

Once the pork slices are browned on the bottom, turn them over and grill the other side the same way.

Now take the pork, transfer it to the cutting board and cut it into thin slivers.

Arrange the hot pork on the cool salad.

Mm.

Love that lemongrass marinade.

And pour over the remaining dressing.

Now, finish the salad with thinly sliced jalapeo chilies for heat and cilantro and fresh mint leaves to give you a bright, fresh flavor and chopped toasted peanuts.

So, there's your grilled pork and salad with Thai flavors.

Let's dig in.

So first, the pork.

Warm, fragrant with lemongrass.

Then the cactus.

Cool and herbaceous.

Tomato, cold and juicy.

Jalapeo, nice burst of fire.

And the nutty peanuts to pull it all together.

There's a lot going on in this salad.

It's Thailand meets Texas.

I hope you've enjoyed our show on East-West grilling.

We're Planet barbecue.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time.

[announcer] For recipes, books, and more live fire cooking, visit StevenRaichlen.com.

You can also follow Steven Raichlen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Steven Raichlen's "Planet Barbecue" was made possible by... [narrator 1] This is the Big Green Egg, where fire and flavor come together.

You can roast, bake, and sear with the versatility of a grill, oven, and barbecue smoker combined.

Locate a dealer at BigGreenEgg.com.

[narrator 2] Fire Magic, combining style with the versatility to sear, smoke, rotisserie cook, and charcoal grill.

Crafted in America for over 80 years.

[music] Shun Cutlery handcrafted in Japan.

[narrator 3] Father's Cooker, multi-fuel, multifunction.

[narrator 3] Argentine Beef proudly supports "Planet Barbecue."

[narrator 4] Truly wireless temperature starts with Maverick.

[announcer] And by the following: The dipping stauce...

Sauce.

Oh, they're dancing.

I could turn them over and see if I can make them stop.

Though that's kind of cool, huh?

You got it, Mac?

Matt?

Max?

Matt.

Mac.

[giggling]