New Zealand Chef Andy Hearnden (also known as "Andy Cooks") is famous for his "Hey Babe, what do you want for dinner?" cooking videos. Recently, he teamed up with a popular chef couple of Masterchef Australia fame to cook an Indian dish. This unique, flavourful and fun collaboration has taken social media by storm. The camaraderie and jokes between the chefs, as well as the choice of dish, have won many hearts. The video shows Chef Andy and Chef Declan Cleary asking their respective partners, Katelyn Flood and Chef Sarah Tood, what they want to eat. Chef Sarah suggests Meen Pollichathu, a traditional seafood dish from Kerala. The men accordingly get started on their prep.
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While Declan cuts the fish, he tells Andy, "I didn't know what a Kashmiri chilli was until I met Sarah." In reply, Andy asks him, "Did your whole world of flavour just expand?" Declan declares with a laugh, "My whole life expanded." Andy is busy chopping and preparing the ingredients for the fish masala. When he goes to add Kashmiri chilli powder to the mix, Sarah comes over and adds 2 teaspoons of it. Andy combines all the elements in a small bowl and then tops the fish with dollops of the masala. Declan uses his hands to spread it on each piece properly and infuse the fish with the flavours of the masala.
As he's doing so, Sarah Todd asks him, "Why did you fillet it, Dec?" He responds, "I wanted to show off my filleting skills." She tells him, "It's meant to be whole." But Declan is quite proud of his work. In the meantime, Andy has loaded a blender to make the paste. This includes tomatoes, onions, green chillies and other common ingredients. Declan makes a big show of sprinkling salt on top of the mixture. Later, they cook the paste and adjust its taste with the addition of lemon juice. Once the paste is ready, they spread small quantities of it on banana leaves.
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The next step is briefly cooking the fish in a pan before laying it on top of the masala paste. Once this is done, the fish is wrapped in the leaf and secured with thread. Declan and Andy work together to tie the leaves well. The fish 'parcels' are then steamed. Once they are done cooking, the chefs open up the leaves and plate the fish alongside steamed rice, toasted coconut and sliced red onion. "This looks incredible," Declan marvels. They call Sarah and Katelyn to come over and have a look at their culinary creation. The ladies seem impressed. "That is the perfect cook on the fish," Sarah notes. The four foodies then dig into the Meen Pollichathu with their hands and enjoy it thoroughly. Take a look at the viral video below.
The viral reel has clocked over 1.5 million views on Instagram so far. The comments section was full of positive reactions. Check out some of them below:
"This is just BRILLIANT."
"Love this crossover!"
"Best collab, best dish."
"Sarah Todd is goated for telling meen pollichathu needs to be whole fish. Respect."
"Sarah was right, it should have been the whole fish, we don't fillet for pollichathu! But you guys did an amazing job, chefs. Looks yummy!"
"The collab we thought we didn't need! Wow."
"I was not expecting this collab, but it makes me so happy, I'd inhale that dish if I could."
"Approved by Kerala."
"You need your own cooking show. So amusing!"
"The best part was you all eating with your hands."
Before this, Chef Andy Hearnden's masala dosa won a lot of appreciation from Indian foodies. Read more about the viral video.