Name: Durian Pie
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 7 h
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 8 oz. unsalted butter; 3 c. graham crackers; 1/2 c. coconut flakes; 5-6 durian pods; 7 oz. condensed milk; 1 tbsp. coconut cream; 16 oz. heavy whipping cream; Butter spray; Lime zest, for garnish

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- Oh goodness, is this a good idea? Hmm! (bouncy trumpet music) Oh! Hi y'all, I'm Saeng Douangdara and I'm a cooking instructor and chef based in Los Angeles who specializes in Lao food. One of the things that come up in my cooking are the ingredients or foods that often classified as quote on quote, smelly. Think of foods like unfiltered fish sauce, kimchi or even blue cheese. Now as a self-proclaimed smelly good food connoisseur, I'm here to show you that these funky, oftentimes misunderstood ingredients are the key to really delicious foods and I don't want you to miss out on delicious food so that's why we are doing this. Today we are talking about one of the big D's of the fruit world, durian! (soft angelic music) Ah, durian! Feel like on Lion King, Simba. (upbeat triumphant music) Also a side note to show my dedication and love to durian, I'm actually wearing my favorite and only tropical shirt that I feel like is durian-esque very durian, okay. Just go with it. Durian is, I think we can all agree, is one of the most notorious fruits of the world. The odor is so pungent that it's actually banned in the various parts of Southeast Asia, hotel lobbies, public parks, taxis. The smell of durian on the internet at least is often described as a mixture of turpentine, mixed with onions and a little bit of garnish of gym socks. Whew! Now doesn't that sound so eclectic? That could be the word maybe, maybe. I haven't had durian in a while and I have two of the pre-packaged durian with me right here. One from Malaysia and one from Thailand. Just letting you know when I opened these up, it perfumed throughout my apartment, I'm not saying that's a bad thing I might love durian and perfume. Who knows? We're just gonna give it a try and I wanna let you all know how it tastes. I have some surgical blue gloves with me because I feel like I'm going in for surgery. Aw! So the Malaysian one looks a bit smaller and it's like a little baby. Oh, that doesn't sound so good I'm gonna eat it, okay. Well it's small, I'm gonna take a little piece. Hmm, real gooey. Hm Hmm. That don't taste like gym socks y'all that tastes like good stuff. Kind of like creamy like avocado, way stronger. But if you're a beginner to durian, I would say try the baby Malaysian ones. Those are more approachable and sweet and very tasty actually. And then we have the monster the gentle monster that is from Thailand. It's huge and it's dripping. (Saeng chews) Hmm, wow! That slapped my face. It is way more pungent than the Malaysian one. It is definitely I think the profile of what durian tastes like, it's really tasty but it definitely has that stronger durian punch if that's what you want. And then of course we have the whole durian fruit right here. I bought it from an asian grocery store market and I actually injured myself. I bled a little bit the spine or the pokey punctured my thumb just a little bit. A little bit of bleeding is fine. It'll make your food taste, okay now let's not go there. (Saeng laughs) Side note, durian deaths do exist. There are signs in Southeast Asia that also say "Be careful falling durian". This is really heavy. You do not want to have this fall on your head. You could die, you could injure yourself. Be very careful. One thing to say that when you're working with durian always have a first aid kit. I needed it yesterday and I did not have it. So we're gonna be working with this durian. It is $3.98/lb and so the total of this durian costs $32. It is a hot commodity. We are making a recipe that will hopefully even get the durian doubters on board. We are making a durian no-bake pie. And so we want three cups of graham crackers. We're gonna go ahead and put it in the food processor and we're just going to shove it in there. So you're just going to pulse it a few times until it becomes almost like a sand. Oh, it's not plugged in. (food processor grinding) So before it's finished making it all into sand, I'm going to go ahead and add my dry shredded coconut. (food processor grinding) Looks beautiful. So the reason why I put coconut in there is because I love everything coconut but if you are not a fan of coconut you can go ahead and leave it out. And we want about three cups. Now let's head over to the stove to brown our butter. Let's grab your two sticks of butter and then we're gonna start browning it. With browning butter, I like to start it on high first and then get all the butter to melt. Once all the butter is melted, then I put it too low and you wanna watch it very carefully because you do not want your butter to burn. We want it to brown. There's a big difference. This might take between 5 to 10 minutes. All my butter's melted and I'm gonna turn it to low. And now you wanna watch this really carefully. You wanna continuously mix it so nothing burns. What you are looking for are like tiny brown bits and it's gonna start foaming up so try your best to mix it and then just make sure you look on the bottom if anything has started browning. Been about five minutes and I am very happy with my butter. It is perfectly brown. It's like a tan color and that's what you're going for. Do not go beyond the tan color because then you're gonna have a burnt butter. We don't want that. Pour right over all your graham crackers. Ooh, there's that brown, those brown crispy parts and you want all of that. I think anything with brown butter is going to taste good so durian you're going to be fine. Mix it thoroughly so everything is fully covered and just know it is very hot so be very careful in the kitchen. So this is gonna be our crust and that's why we wanna make sure that everything is thoroughly coated. Make sure you grab some saran wrap and put it right over the top and then we're gonna put it in the fridge for 30 minutes for it to cool off while we work with the whipped cream and durian. (bell dings) Let's go ahead and prepare the durian. You should have two really dense hand mittens. These are to protect your hands so you don't get stabbed like I did and then also I'm going to be using a cleaver. And I also have a very large cutting board because I do not want the spikes of the durian to make marks on my table. Obviously, since we are in the United States there are only particular types of during that we can grab but when it comes to looking at whole durian, what you're looking for is you wanna make sure that the flesh looks good and is sturdy. If you can like push down too much, then it's too ripe. Just like, think about a banana. You don't want to grab the banana that is like super overripe that's for banana bread. Top of the durian should smell like freshly cut grass with a little bit of scrambled eggs. Weird combo, I know. Durian comes in a lot of different colors but usually you'll see durian in this color for this variety. You can grab it and then shake it. If you hear nothing's bouncing, that's good. That means the seeds are still connected to the flesh. Everything's intact. You're doing good. This durian I'm happy with, how we are going to cut it. So you wanna look for the cracks of the durian. Around it you should have multiple cracks. So I have one crack right here. And if I turn it around, I should have another crack here. So that's where the pods are laying cause when we're opening it up we do not want to knife the pods. We wanna keep those in whole forms. I'm not an expert at opening, cutting up durian. So I'm in the same boat as you. So let's see how it goes. Oh goodness. Was this a good idea? Grab my cleaver and then go ahead to the middle, go in between the crack and push down. Oh! Oh, there it goes, we punctured it and I'm kinda going left and right once I puncture it. Oh I see it, I see it. Put the knife down and then open it up with your hands. I did not know I was gonna get a workout today. I'm getting to the center. I see that I have one durian that is intact. Wow! So this is one of the durian pods right there. And we're gonna try to get it out without, um mushing it up too much. Oh goodness! I wanna grab that pod. I wanna carefully nudge it out. Oh! Ooh it's out. For some strange reason, I feel like I just gave birth to this durian pod. Look, it's a durian pod. How cool is that? It doesn't smell bad, hmm. Let's actually see how many pods I get in one $32 durian fruit. Giving you all example. I see there's like one pod right here. Oh, wow. This is a really big one. Wow! That came from this. Think this is actually, is it twins? Oh, it's twins. (Saeng laughs) Three so far, oh my God. This is this actually a lot of fun. Hmm, sweet! I feel like we have more surprises in this one. This is probably double the size. Oh, oh. In Southeast Asia, the durian people are amazing experts. They just like cutting, chipping and then, it's amazing how they do it but this definitely takes a lot of work y'all. Oh, it's a twin, it's a twin. Y'all I'm just amazed how cool this fruit is. I just opened the last part of the pod and it was actually a big jackpot because we landed on one, two, three, four five durian pods in one big pod. That is wild. So we had between nine and ten ish pods from one whole durian that was $32. Let's actually try this freshly opened durian's flesh. Mm. (triumphant music) Wow! That sent shivers of food chasms through me. It was actually really delicious y'all like I could tell how much more flavor and creaminess this had compared to the package one. Oh my gosh. I have like goosebumps right now. Just like, it was so good! I think I'm never gonna be doing packaged frozen dirt. I'm always going to be doing this cause it's fun and it also tastes so much more delicious. And it actually doesn't smell as pungent as the other ones, which is strange. Maybe it's just the fresh ones are less pungent. A lot of the durian that we get in the United States are internationally shipped to us and that is only one variation of durian that's shipped here. Think about the comparison to apples. Like think of Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith apple. Those are all different varieties and they taste somewhat different. But did you know a different varieties of durian can also taste like chocolate or peanut butter? Mm hmm, I said chocolate, peanut butter. Your brain's like "I want to try this now". They don't ship those you have to go travel internationally and search out for those different tasting durians. Go on a, like a world international durian search. Maybe, I'll do that actually, that sounds fun. So for this recipe, we need the durian into it's like mushy form but not parade. There's a big difference. So what I'm gonna do is actually put all the durian right into a larger bowl and depod them. And then with my glove I'm gonna mush the durian around until it's like in the middle of being parade but not too mushy. And you don't wanna be too aggressive. It's actually already pretty soft and creamy. All you wanna do is just kind of get the chunks off of the seed. So now you'll have the pod and go ahead and grow some durian. Actually don't that's probably illegal. Don't grow durian. So let's go ahead and put the durian to the side and bring out your big KitchenAid. So the first thing you wanna do is use a food scale to measure out everything, 16 ounces of heavy whipping cream, seven ounces of condensed milk. And go ahead and turn it on at the highest setting. And this should take about 4 to 5 minutes. (KitchenAid revving) Great. You want it to look like this and for me I love coconut so I'm just gonna put about a tablespoon of coconut cream. And then you're gonna do one last mix but really gently for a couple seconds to get the coconut cream mixed in there. (KitchenAid revving) The whipped cream should be really nice and fluffy and hold a shape just like this. So our brown buttered graham crackers have cooled down. The first thing you wanna do is go ahead and grab a pie tin just like this and go ahead and do one layer on the bottom. What I like to use at this point is a regular old cup. All you're gonna do is use the bottom of the cup to help pack your crust. And you wanna pack it really well so everything stays together especially when you cut it out at the end. So now for the sides, I actually just gonna grab a bunch and then press it with my hands on the side. And I'm going to go around and do this. Y'all it's looking real good. I haven't eaten lunch yet and I'm really hungry. So I just can't wait to take a bite out of this. And now it is a nice brown butter graham cracker pie crust. Hmm. (bouncy music) We also have all this extra that we're gonna be using when we build the pie. So we have our cream, we have our mashed up durian and then we have our extra graham cracker crumbs. First thing you wanna do is grab a piping bag and a regular cup. You're gonna go ahead and put the bag in the cup. This will make your life way easier on getting everything out and let's start adding some cream to the piping bag. So this is how we're gonna assemble it. So the first thing you wanna do is add the cream for the first layer. Second layer is going to be the durian, you're gonna scatter that around. And then third is gonna be the extra graham crackers that we're gonna sprinkle on top. We're gonna do that twice. And I like going in a circular motion till I reach the middle. And then go ahead and grab some durian and then you're gonna just sporadically sprinkle it right on top. I'm putting enough durians so every bite, you know, this is a durian pie. It is not anything else. It is a durian pie. And now we're gonna just go ahead and sprinkle some of that extra graham cracker on top. Ooh, this looks fire y'all. So this is the first layer, after this layer, again we're gonna repeat. So cream on top, durian and then a sprinkle of the graham crackers. All right y'all the no-bake durian pie is done. All I did is saran wrap it. I want it no-bake just because I wanted to keep the integrity of the durian and all its glory just as is. So let's go ahead and put this in the freezer and then come back in a couple of hours. (upbeat music) I have a little extra durian and my dog Galabao has never seen or had durian, so I'm gonna see her first reaction to durian. Come here. You want some durian? This is Galabao. She loves eating everything that's on the floor, but let's see if you like durian, are you gonna like durian? We'll see. Sit! Here's some durian for you. Let me know if you like it. Smell it, you like it? She's eating it. This household is definitely full of durian lovers. Oh shoot! I forgot to put the spray but I think it'll be fine cause there's butter. Well, we'll see how it goes when I take the pie out. All right, everyone. It is time for the big reveal. Come on. Oh my gosh! This looks so gorgeous. I am ready to dig in. It looks so nice. Oh, to do this properly. I'm gonna go ahead and cut right into it and then grab a beautiful slice out. I haven't tried it yet but I'm going to try a nice big scoop. Cheers. Mm. Wow! I would definitely make this again. One big mistake that I didn't do, spray the bottom of the pan with some kind of oil or butter spray. It was right in front of me and I forgot. So it was a little bit of a struggle getting the piece of pie out but I was able to do it. All right. So I made a second pie. Yes, I have two durian pies now, but the second pie I made sure to butter up the bottom of the pan and it worked out way better. And also I was able to let this one sit overnight and here is the final result. It came out really well. So the big difference already is that it's way more solid. It's almost like an ice cream texture frozen overnight. Let it be dethaw for at least 30 minutes. Let's see how it tastes. Oh my God. Oh, that's heavenly. Y'all the cold and like the texture of ice cream almost mellows out the durian flavor, just a tad bit. It is delicious. Ingredients, they may smell different but they are gonna taste incredible. So give durian a chance. This is a smelly good food ingredient that is definitely a two thumbs up. Give smelly good food ingredients a chance because they need some love because they're so delicious. Pie! Get it, get it, no one? Galabao, get it? No, okay. (upbeat music)

Saeng loves foods that some people may not like thanks to the smell or it's aesthetics. Today, Saeng is going to walk you through the "smelliest fruit in the world", the durian, and teach you how to cut and cook with it. (And yes, he'll taste a few varieties.) By the end; even the biggest durian-doubters may finally give it a try. (Because smelly food deserves love, too.)

Durian Pie

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