Mindy Kaling And Hawa Hassan Make Spicy Somali Pasta

The spice mixture is phenomenal .

You should be jealous of me that I get to smell it and you cannot .

Hey , this is so exciting .

I am Mindy Kaling and I am in the tasty kitchen with my friend Hassan , the chef , her amazing book in Bibi's Kitchen is great .

We're actually doing a recipe from it .

What are you making today ?

We're gonna be making a which is a somali pasta sauce .

We're gonna talk about what makes it special and different and how it makes me nostalgic for home .

I think this will be fun because a lot of somali cuisine is heavily influenced by Indian cooking .

So I was lucky enough to meet Hala through UN HCR the UN refugee agency and Hala is actually a former refugee .

So we're gonna talk about her story a little bit and cook .

What more could you want ?

So what makes this pasta sauce incredibly special is that all the flavors of the Indian Ocean are present in it .

We have a stick of cinnamon cumin coriander , black pepper corn , cardamom , whole cloves and some turmeric .

I'm very intimidated by this already .

I'm not gonna lie .

Don't be at all .

It's very much like Masala , I'm sure you're using your everyday cooking at home .

Ok .

Just stop the way that she said Masala , I'm Indian .

Ok .

That put me to shame .

So I'm just gonna take a heavy pot and just crush this a bit .

Do you wanna do it ?

If you have some frustration to get out ?

I do .

Thank you while you do that .

I'm gonna go ahead and throw everything on our stove .

I'm gonna let this come to smell about two minutes over medium heat .

I don't want it to burn and then we'll go ahead and grind it .

So can you smell it ?

Yeah , this is like I just wanna wash this into my face for all of eternity .

I have a spice .

I'll just go ahead and transfer it .

So when I was growing up and we would cook with Indian spices , sometimes you would make something and then the house would smell like that dish for like the next two days .

Oh my God .

Or you'd go to school smelling like it .

Yeah , it makes me feel like I'm at home .

Well , what's still cool is how similar these spices are to Indian spices .

So , Somalia is on the longest coast in the Indian Ocean .

That's not an island .

I think Madagascar is , has a longer coast than us , but we're right on the Indian Spice street .

I'm gonna go ahead and grind this .

Maybe Mindy actually will do it because you know I'm making the easy thing .

I was like , I think you can push a button .

I'm gonna go ahead and pour it into there and then we're just gonna make sure it's super fine .

I'm sifting like an old timey prospector looking for gold .

I feel like a proud mama .

I know .

Look at this .

That looks really good .

Mindy .

Look at how beautiful and again , it just smells , it smells like simos and , and I just can't wait for all those childhood memories are flooding right back at the smell of hallage .

I love that .

We've made our age .

We're gonna go ahead and use it in our pasta sauce .

We're gonna be making my mom's which is an Italian word for sauce .

I have this over medium heat .

I'm gonna put about three tablespoons of olive oil .

So I'm just gonna let that warm sous chef .

Do you wanna go ahead and throw in the garlic bell pepper and the red onion all at once all at once you got it .

Give it a stir .

So again , we have this over medium heat .

We're gonna let the vegetables soften .

It'll take us about eight minutes and from there we'll add our beef .

Let it break down .

Add our , this is the beginnings of also what samosa is a garlic onion spice thing .

That's like how we start 90% of our dishes .

I feel like in Indian food .

I would always remember my mom just like handing me a knife handing me garlic and I just knew that I had to like chop everything and then she would do everything else .

Do you have a little helper ?

Now , you cook with anyone at home ?

There's young people in my house but they're not helpful .

Definitely not helpful .

Vegetables are sweating .

We're in a perfect place .

Ok , great .

So how I wanna hear more about you ?

Can you tell me a little bit about like where you were born ?

I have brothers and sisters .

I'm dying now .

Yeah .

So I was born in Somalia in the capital of Mogadishu .

I am the second eldest of 10 Children .

Wow .

I know big squad .

So Mindy , our vegetables are completely softened .

This is a good time to throw in our beef .

If you wanna just grab the salt , it's a teaspoon of salt , Mindy , just eyeball it , eyeball , it has that .

I'll just go ahead and break this up and I'm gonna do three tablespoons of our , which again is the bedrock of this recipe and makes it so much more different than other pasta sauces .

Do you wanna just , I would love that .

Is this a good tablespoon ?

A heaping tablespoon or ?

That's great .

So keep going .

Just go ahead and break that up and then we're gonna take about 15 minutes .

Let our beef brown on all sides and we'll carry on with the recipe .

The spice mixture is phenomenal .

You should be jealous of me that I get to smell it and you cannot .

So while our meat's cooking , I wanted to talk a little bit of about why you were forced out of Somalia if you feel like talking about it .

Yeah .

So in 1990 there was a civil war that had taken place in Somalia .

Um my mother at the time had four kids and one on the way and my father decided that we were going to flee and head to Nairobi .

My siblings and my mother and myself went to a refugee camp .

We stayed there for about a year .

And afterwards my brother and I were sent off to school in Nairobi .

And in 1993 there was an opportunity for a little girl to head to Seattle .

And my mom thought that would be great .

And so I grew up in Seattle , Washington just thinking about the little seven year old you flying alone to Seattle .

It's like , do you remember a lot from that journey ?

Yeah .

The thing that was so interesting to me was the food that they served on the airplane .

We had olives .

And I remember calling my mom when we landed and I said , oh , these people serve eyes and she was like , I , I don't think they serve eyes .

And I was like there were green eyes on the airplane mom .

So our beef has completely brown .

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in our tomato pi past and then this is canned tomatoes .

With just , it's juices and everything .

So I'll just go ahead and dump that in there .

So , Mindy , go ahead and bring our tomatoes and tomato paste with our beef to combine .

I'm just gonna fill up a little bit of water and get the rest of my tomato juice out of there .

Son is doing a perfect job of bringing all of our flavors together .

I've just turned the heat to high .

We'll let this boil , then I'll cover it and let it simmer for about 30 minutes .

So what is important to you that people understand about refugees ?

You know , I think that displaced people are often have a blanket statement about them and that they are infringing on different borders and they're running to take from different countries .

But the truth is is that refugees are not monolithic .

Um We come from many different walks of life and oftentimes wherever we go , we create opportunity for ourselves and our community .

I'm here by the grace of God , but I'm also here because of the many people who made way for me .

And I , I think that's when people think about refugees , they should think about what has to happen in order for someone to leave their home in the middle of the night .

Yeah , I'm sorry , I'm getting emotional because you read so much and hear about refugees .

But then you think about someone like Hala who came from really kind of unimaginable circumstances and is such an accomplished woman giving back so much through her cooking and her businesses .

It's just great .

We're so lucky to have her and I'm so lucky to be cooking with her .

Can you talk a little about your journey into becoming a chef ?

I got into the business of making Somali food because I couldn't find it for myself .

It was storytelling from a health perspective .

That's where Bibi's kitchen was born was how do you inspire people to cook at their home ?

How do you inspire people to have longer tables and shorter fences and food is a , it's a community builder .

Yeah , it absolutely is .

And now , I mean , I haven't tried this yet , but I am already getting so excited about my first Somali food experience .

Ok , Mindy .

Let's see if our is done .

That looks perfect .

I think so too .

Looks and smells delicious .

I have some cooked pasta here .

Do you wanna just go ahead and toss them on top of there ?

Yes .

How generous should I be here with this ?

I mean , get crazy .

OK .

Am I putting too much on here ?

It just smells so good .

That's perfect .

That's good .

Ok .

Yeah .

And then I'm just gonna go ahead and Sprinkle some cilantro right over this .

This is how Somali eat it .

We love fresh herbs .

The biggest thing that Somali people do is we have banana on the side .

We love sweet and savory .

I was , I had no idea .

So the food is plated and this is the moment of truth .

Can we start ?

Ok .

Let's dig in .

I'm so excited for you to try it with the banana and all .

Me too .

It's so beautiful .

Somalis will be proud that the banana is not sliced .

Hey , I'm not thrilled about people having to see me eat spaghetti on camera .

I don't do it in a ladylike way .

So good .

This is so good .

Thank you , Mindy .

We did it together .

Team effort .

I barely help .

But this is absolutely .

This is incredible .

The banana is amazing with it .

It's so sweet , very subtle .

It's like spicy .

It's not hot .

It's just like flavorful and delicious .

Ok .

Well , this was fabulous .

How I'm so grateful to you .

Thank you for teaching me how to make this amazing recipe .

I love Somali food .

I can't wait to learn more of your recipes from your amazing cookbook .

And thanks to Tasty and Un HCR , the UN refugee agency for introducing us .

And it was such a pleasure getting to know more about you and your story .

Thank you , Mindy .

And now we're just gonna keep eating .

The camera wants to film us .

Bye bye .