KAM MEK WI IT! | Fats Timbo Cooks with African Chef Maria Bradford

[Music] hi today I've got somebody very very special in my studio I've got the one and only fats fellow San she's a content creator a Vogue model an author F has chosen two different issues from my cookbook fishion too and also I'm so excited to be here honestly I've never cooked fish hundu before that's why I think this will be a great experience for me to woo my man you know because he said that I need to be in the kitchen a bit more which I think is a bit sexist but anyway I am going to impress him and his stomach after this absolutely because of you so for the fishing two we've got some had up care we've also got some onions so this is what's going in the balls some semolina little bit of oil and some chicken store got the crust which we'll make later but first what we're going to do I'm just going to blend some of these and then put it in the fridge for a bit and then we'll put the crust together how about it yeah that sounds great to me when you don't see any of the mushy fish in there anymore you know that it's kind of done and it start pulling itself away from the food processor okay as well and you're like okay well this is a good consistency and my measurements are quite accurate as well it's a great consistency put all of this in here if fish is fresh it shouldn't really smell so once it starts smelling that awful smell then you know that it's not fresh I'm tired of fishy smells stinking up my kitchen nobody wants that nobody wants that AB you better get fresh fish fresh fish yeah that's the deal sufficient to is a fuller KN street food and it's most mostly made by Fuller women and they usually put it in a little Calabash you know those wooden bowls and then put it in plastic wrap it all on with cloth to keep it warm after it's been steamed but it doesn't usually have the crust but I decided that just adds a little bit of texture and a little bit of character gentic Qui exactly so it's all been measured laid out for you so it's just about a good mixing black sesame seeds Sesame seing now the garlic toasted garlic I feel like a proper now yeah yes yes I'm Gordon ramsy right now now the ginger that's the ginger ginger the ginger ginger going in red bell peppers red bell peppers absolutely I know exactly what I'm putting in and then and then we got a bit of chili you know got chili in but you said you like a bit of spice so add a little bit that so this salt thing here I actually bought in seron really yeah it's made and Clay just one is good okay yeah and then we're just going to give it a good we mix we give it a little stir yeah good mixing there a good mixing look at that and you've made a a good old crust yes I have there we go no mix midle yeah yeah yes you could use it on the fish on but you could also use it on salmon so if you got a bit of salmon you know you want to do is just season it put a bit of that and put it in the oven and that's a whole other meal fish un mixture has been in the fridge for half an hour and now we're going to do some rolling this is how you stop the thing sticking on your hand you can just dip your hand a little bit into to that oil and then you just keep do some rolling we just do a spoonful so I've got a little spoon there for you so about that size oh okay cool that's a little bit too much a tinit too much a little bit too much all right that right yeah that's fine this much yeah that much yeah the trick is also you know the center here the middle of your pan it's where you do you do that okay like there there we go I learned that we have few things in common yes we do apart from both having seril unian Heritage we also did accounting I know like look at us look at us look at us M away from that degree moving away from accounting yes honestly best thing I've ever done honestly I only did accounting because I wanted to impress my son parents because the only way to succeed in their eyes is to have a degree have a degree in uh doing doing nursing do being a doctor being a lawyer and accounting and for me and I was very good at maths and very calculated in a good way Y and it was something that I was like you know what I'm good at it yeah but I don't enjoy it so I'm just going to try it it was exactly the same for me um I was good at mats so immediately especially in s Leon if you're good at mats then you either a doctor or an accountant so Sciences wasn't really for me apart from the fact that I am very calculated and good at mats so accounting was the the road I immediately kind of um fell into but I didn't really enjoy it I hated it and I did it for 10 years did you I did wow that's a long time long time of hating your job yeah long time of hating every single Monday not really enjoying what I was forced out of my job because I was fired if I'm being honest and the reason why I was fired was because they didn't like that I was on social media it's nothing to do with me it's because they didn't like well it is to do were you sitting of course it has to do with you were you sitting at your desk being social media no no they saw that I was on Tik oh they oh yeah they didn't like that can you do that can you fire someone cuz they're on social media well they didn't exactly say that but that's what my parents speculated their reason was I just wasn't good enough if I wasn't good enough you wouldn't ask me to train somebody that was taken over and you didn't inform me I had a cheeky back I know I know right wow the cheek of it so did you know what they did you a favor didn't they they did yeah they did you I was very upset on the day but I thought to myself do you know what I'm going to do the best I can in life without them I'm going to and they when they fired me they were like oh would you ever get back into accounting again when they knew that I did I studied it in uni yeah and it was my first graduate job so to ask such a question it was like so I had a graduate job when I finished I thought I enjoyed it because um getting into cooking was just not an option for me cuz I didn't really think I could make a career out of um being a chef right it took years and years and years of family and friends just going on about how good you are at this you're really good you're really good you're really good telling you constantly but you're not believe in it which is why like the bad be energy kind of was needed to kind of step out of that and go do you know what maybe I should give it a girl and I did and I was very very shocked when I started posting on social media it's especially Instagram and talking about s Leon talking about my experience growing up in Ser Leon the reception was so good I was really surprised cuz I didn't really think you know anyone was interested this is a tiny Nation that's the thing that's the thing you discover yeah when you go on social media and realize oh there's an audience out there for me exactly you don't really believe it do you you just think you're in your own little Conor doing your own thing who's going to be interested in you and when you get that reception you're like wow there are people that actually interested in what I do there are people that want to learn about what I do and that's how I got my agents my literal agents she reached out on social media and said have you ever thought about writing a cookbook about s Leon I said cookbook me don't be silly you know came home and um basically told Ben his eyes basically popped up and like yeah it's like no no absolutely not ridiculous idea what's a ridiculous idea put it together and before you know had a proposal done and I got a book cook cookbook and sweet Salon started its life and it's it's journey and um so proud yeah when was the last time you went to I went last year twice twice yeah both my sisters M um got married in the same year wow in it was very expensive year I'm not going to lie I thought oh my God why why both of you getting married why both of you getting married at the same time yeah we had the best time because it was my first time coming back as an adult with my partner was completely different we went on the okad as well lumely Beach Lely Beach yeah uh number two Beach number two oh that's my favorite Alan absolutely loves it he calls it home oh really oh wow he loves it so much and that is amazing it warms my heart it made us even closer to be honest with you because Siran has just got that thing about it it pulls you always like you go there and you're like oh my God I just um I want to go back home but then you you you're back in the UK and all you can think about it's like I want to go back to seran I want to go back to seran is that the kind of same feeling for you like you want to explore more and kind of cuz I was born here it's like it's still foreign for me but I love that I am from there you know I love that I'm from s Leone and uh there's so much culture there's so much diversity there they people don't know that like I just love the fact that I'm a West African babe know I love the music music yeah exactly I love dancing did you go out at night oh yes Oho stop that was us that was us night life in s mad isn't it it was crazy yeah too crazy at times and everything can easily turn into party oh everything everything was a party you can go to the beach mom and dad made an excuse to have a party any day anytime day party night party oh we're having a party for this person like it was just it was just fun fun [Music] vibe right so we're going to do some Crossing sprinkle sprinkle sprinkle sprinkle we'll give it a good Shake all this sesame goodness it's a very innovative way of like making crust you he didn't take long to put together no it didn't quite a lot of time people think how can I get the ingredients and I'm like you can get it from your local supermarket so everything in here you can buy from the local supermarket and still do calinan stet food so I'm just going to give you a good a good shake shake shake shake shake yeah some jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle yeah yeah shake your booty shake your booty shake shake shake shake shake shake shake your booty so I'm so proud that looks so good oh my God who are you going to serve this to that wouldn't think they're royalty you can literally just do it like this put it in the fridge and then when you have guests just take it out steam it and you're like I have been serving so Christmas is coming good canopies to actually serve it's not just sausage rolls and then we just put it on those papers I'm going to do that honors do the honors oh my God this they do look good and I've been seeing people trying this out all over the place yeah in the state just it's really really cool they don't know what they're making it's something that people that moov to seron 4,000 years ago it's a tradition that they came with and they're still selling it as street food on the streets of cilon and now we can proudly serve it in the UK yes Salon street food you're doing us proud thank you you're showcasing us so own to the world and back sented the world and back absolutely steam it 10 minutes and it's done yeah it's very simple that's it basically I'm a chef now homey Chef fats because of this wonderful woman called Maria we have basically put the fishballs in the steamer and it's going to be ready in 10 minutes in 10 minutes [Music] 10 minutes is up we're going to do some fishing to tasting yes I'm so excited I can see you're excited I've been waiting for this I know it was only 10 minutes but I've been waiting T delicious deliciousness I can't believe how quick it was to make I know it was very simple very easy easy and I can't wait to it do like a cheeky bit of lime tiny bit of sea salt should I taste about as well cuz um that is delish it's it's quite healthy it's got that punch m m i of this this is very nice so what page is it on in your book I need to make this when I get home this is on page 32 33 of sweet Salon not hard to make a salt as you can see at part parties quick snack you're having people over it's quite good to just rustle up it's guilt free as well it's quite healthy very moish if you're not careful you're going to eat all of it before your guests arrive so I said don't steam it before people get there make it when your guests are there because then they can help you eat it otherwise that's it have a Chey one another one that's is my last one I promise listen you can have as many as you want that's it guys fish untu all done very delicious it's brilliant it's very nice it's moist it's so beautiful so definitely check it out it's so good you won't regret it and you're going to be making great food for your [Music] people