- Hey, I'm Les Stroud.

(birds chirping) You're about to watch another wonderful episode of "Wild Harvest."

You can learn an awful lot about local foraging from watching this series, going online, reading books, and even using apps, but there will never be a replacement for learning from a local expert.

If you wanna forage safely and responsibly, please head out with someone who knows what they're doing, knows what they're talking about, and they can teach you what they know with a lot of passion about some wonderful wild edible plants.

All right, let's go foraging.

("Long Walk Home" by Les Stroud & the Pikes) ("Long Walk Home" by Les Stroud & the Pikes continues) ♪ I can find you ♪ I will take you with me on this long walk home ♪ ♪ As we turn the corner city enter ♪ ♪ There we find peace of mind ♪ Seems each day went stronger ♪ The two are one we overcome oh hey ♪ (light acoustic music) (cutlery clinking) Well, welcome to Sri Lanka Paul.

- Are you kidding me?

- I know, I know.

So now you get a chance to taste it the way they make it here, I mean, this place is magic, so I'm not gonna talk anymore, I'm just gonna eat.

Enjoy buddy.

- Gosh, look at this.

(Les moaning) - Wow.

Yeah?

No words of profound wisdom at this moment, just, this is the wild harvest.

(birds chirping) (uplifting music) (crickets chirping) (light acoustic music) Our palate's fully satiated after showing Paul around the country I have visited many times before.

We return to our favorite accommodations, the Aggressor Safari Lodge, to see what we can forage.

(Les laughs) That's what I'm looking for, limonia acidissima, wood apple, also known as elephant apple, monkey fruit.

And from the bark all the way down to the roots, it's very much prized for its medicinal quality, but that's not what I want for Paul, I want right here, I want its fruit, the apple itself, because it's delicious.

Hey Paul?

- [Paul] Yeah?

- Let's gather some of these wood apples.

I'm gonna pick one here, but I have a feeling, yeah, that the ones I get from the tree itself (light music) are not going to be ripe quite yet.

I think the ones we want are going to be all the apples that have already fallen to the ground.

I think all we have to do is scour around here and see what we can find and I bet you we'll get our harvest.

Good to go?

- Good to go.

- Let's do it.

- [Paul] I've spent time in Southeast Asia before, cooking and traveling, but never in Sri Lanka, and never foraging.

Foraging for new things is always a huge adventure for me.

(Les groaning) - Ah, look at this.

So this is definitely a favorite food of a lot of forest creatures here in Sri Lanka.

You can see here, the ants are loving it, of course, the elephants enjoy them, monkeys enjoy them, everything enjoys the wood apple.

So this, this is prized by pretty much everybody and everything in the forest.

(fruit clinking) This is gonna be good.

(crickets chirping) Here we go, wood apple, buddy.

This is a real cool fruit, you haven't tasted it yet, right?

- [Paul] I have not.

- Alright, so let's something to notice here, we have some wood apple that's ripe, some wood apple that's not ripe.

And what I've learned is you can't tell by the size, but I wanna taste both the unripe and the ripe.

And we're gonna do the ripe ones first, because the unripe I found was so intense and so sour.

So let's crack this one open.

It's a lot like with a coconut.

- Okay.

- You just sort of cradled it in the palm and then try to go for the the nice, even.

(knife clinking) Here we go.

Not bad, now these can get bigger and darker brown, but this is still riper than some of the more unripe ones.

- [Paul] Okay, the smell is phenomenal.

- So what they say in the book, smells like a cross between raisins and blue cheese.

- Okay.

(Paul laughs) - Yeah?

- Not on this one, maybe one of those that we have will smell like that.

- Taste?

- Yeah, I think we should.

- Let's do this together.

- Oh wow.

- Woo, my cheeks are gone.

- It's like a sour fig with undercooked rice (Paul laughs) stuck inside of it.

- And a and a passion fruit texture.

- Yeah.

It's.

- Wow.

- Okay.

- That'll wake you up in the morning.

I'm wondering if these are going to be inconsistent, let's find out.

- Okay.

(Paul laughs) Okay, I'm awake.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- It's less ripe.

So the less ripe ones are much more intense, and the riper ones have more intense of an aroma but less I intense of a flavor.

Oh, here we go.

- That one's different.

- Instantly, the texture is different, the flavor is different.

(peacocks cawing) - Peacocks.

(Paul laughs) - Those are peacocks.

That's delicious, that's good though.

- That's good.

Alright, we've got some thinking to do.

- Okay, I'm gonna leave you with it, keep tasting, keep thinking, and I'm excited to see what you do with all of this.

- Well, that is unexpected, (Paul laughs) that's all I can say.

Three different wood apples have been cracked open, and every one of 'em tastes different.

This one, the riper one, definitely smells more like a bruised apple to me, it's making me think of brown sugar.

I also think that the sour ones could really find a home paired with other flavors, maybe in a curry, or something similar.

We've got some thinking to do.

(light acoustic music) (crickets chirping) - Okay, let's do a little plant ID of this wood apple, the mania assidisimus.

Let's go to the leaves, one of my favorite places to go is the leaves.

If I look, the stems that come out have leaves on them, and the leaves are in the opposite configuration.

So a leaf opposite a leaf, a leaf opposite a leaf.

And then usually what follows, if it's going to be opposite, then everything within that plant is opposite.

But if I go check out over here and I take a look at this little branch here and I lift it up, now I'm seeing an alternate configuration, stem, stem, stem, stem, alternating, not opposite.

But the stems that shoot the leaves out, those are absolutely opposite.

Something else to recognize with these leaves, they are either blunt, or in this case you get this little lobe-ing effect, think kinda like a heart shape sort of thing, but it's very insignificant.

And something that I almost never reference, and I should more often, is the bark.

In this case, you've got very ridge lined bark, sort of sharp and hard, I mean, bark is pretty hard.

You've really gotta take the whole picture into account here.

And part of that picture is always going to be the ecosystem.

What is the ecosystem?

Where do you find this tree?

Well, you find it in the drier areas of Southeast Asia.

So not necessarily in the swamps, or in the wet zones, but in the drier areas, and I guess apparently here, even though it's been pouring with rain, this is a drier location.

There's one more peculiarity with this tree that I wanna show you, just check this one out over here.

So on this one, I noticed something that isn't very prevalent on the other ones, and that is, these thorns, it's got some serious thorns here.

There's a lot of details to the wood apple tree that I have to look into in depth to properly identify it.

Either way, the fruit is gonna be delicious, and that's something else to identify, the fruit itself, I can use that, the color of it, the density of it, the sound of it, the smell of the fruit of any plant, or bush, or tree.

(light acoustic music) This is great.

- This is a really unique scenario for me, I mean, I'm cooking authentic Sri Lankan style, and what I have here is the wood apple.

So amazing in it's dimension and how different the flavors were apple to apple.

Now, I gotta figure out best way to open these up.

And what do I do with them once they're open?

(Paul laughs) (knife clinking) Oh, that's one of the ripe ones.

Perfect, I'm gonna put that aside.

Go for this big one.

(knife clinking) There we go, I think it's starting to crack.

Ah, this is one of the green ones.

- Want a hand?

- I think I got it.

- I can get on an assembly line for you if you want.

- If you feel like it, sure.

- I don't mind, I don't mind, yeah.

- Okay.

(knife clinking) I think I'm gonna start grinding some ingredients here.

Thinking of this wonderful opportunity to get some Sri Lankan fla, oh there goes one.

(Paul laughs) - [Les] Sri Lankan fla. - [Paul] Sri Lankan flavors.

- These are hard Paul.

- Some of them like one I really had trouble opening it.

Okay, little star anise.

That's gonna go good, some cardamon.

Okay, hang on a sec.

Wanna open that up?

Smell that and this at the same time.

- Same time?

- One nostril each.

- Think it's got a-- - Wow, that's a good call.

- You've got some cinnamon to grind as well.

(mortar and pestle clinking) Smells so good.

So one thing that I'm doing here is I'm cutting the pork into fairly small pieces, I wanna make sure that it cooks quickly.

The bigger the piece, the longer it will take to cook and to tenderize.

So it's just increasing my chances of success for a nice tender bite.

Okay, next up, the spice mix.

Some roasted curry powder, some more cinnamon, just a little bit more, there we go.

(spoon clinking) Just let that stand for a little while.

Not by the dog.

(Paul laughs) Alright, now to deal with these guys is something I've never had to do before.

(bugs buzzing) (people talking indistinctly) That's great.

(light acoustic music) (people talking indistinctly) (crickets chirping) - Our Sri Lankan friends eagerly pitched in and helped us pull off our own version of a locally foraged Sri Lankan meal, and that included me getting a lesson on how to make coconut milk straight from the source.

(coconut clinking) (knife clinking) (Les laughs) I'm gonna mix some sweat in with this okay Paul?

- [Paul] That works, salt.

- [Man] Salt yeah, salt.

- [Paul] I have no idea.

(Paul speaking indistinctly) - Coconut milk Paul, coconut milk.

- Oh jeez.

- Check that out, isn't that beautiful?

- That's amazing.

- That was fun.

I gotta say it, that was a very.

- Like here.

- [Paul] I know.

That was a fun process.

- Your hands are covered.

Wow.

- It's all yours.

- Thank you.

Oh man.

Smells good, alright, well I'm ready to start cooking.

(people talking indistinctly) Some ghee, just enough to get the pork in so it doesn't stick.

Have the pork.

(meat sizzling) That's the sound I'm looking for.

Often you'll hear me mention sound when cooking, there's something that you can tell about a good sear, you can hear it happen in the pan.

In this case I can hear it happen in the wok.

That tells me that I've got enough heat, I'm caramelizing coloring the meat, and that's what I want.

Perfect, thank you.

(meat sizzling) Coconut milk.

(pan clinking) All right, now it's time for the wood apple.

Hoping the acid in this actually helps tenderize the pork.

There we go.

So something happened that really surprised me.

When I added the wood apple, it killed the flavor of all the other ingredients that I had in here instantly almost.

So now I'm going backwards and adjusting the flavor, some more star anise, some more cardamon, some curry leaves that were just picked.

Now just let this reduce.

(crickets chirping) (people talking indistinctly) (light music) Just a quick garnish.

- [Les] All set Paul?

- All set.

Oh, look at this.

- Yes, the hosts have brought us some extras here.

We've got roti, and the coconut, and rice.

So you can tell me if we wanna incorporate those or not.

- [Paul] But first I want you to try it.

- [Les] Just go for it?

- Yep go for it.

- Okay, all right.

(light acoustic music) (Les moaning) Wow, I can't put my finger on that, but it's nice, it's really nice.

I heard you saying you wanted to give it more heat but.

- Spice.

- Which I could see that, but the flavor doesn't require it.

- No, and you know, it's one of those things, when I was building the flavors, it seemed like it was missing that sort of chili kick, chili spice.

But I think it was actually black pepper that it wanted and we had some, so it worked out.

- Oh okay, okay, so you did get it in the way you wanted it, all right.

The pork's tough.

- And it's tender compared to what could've been.

- Which part of this is the wood apple?

It's a flavor I can't put my finger on and it's not really like strong curry curry, but I can sense the curry in there a little bit.

So what is, what did the wood apple do for you in this dish?

- So what you taste is wood apple.

- [Les] Okay.

- When I added the one that was really sour it overpowered all the other flavors that I put into the pork dish.

So I ended up adding more and building layers of flavor.

And finally it was the black pepper that kind of brought it all together.

There was so much wood apple flavor in there, it tasted like nothing else.

So there's a lot.

- [Les] Really?

- [Pau] Yeah.

- So that's what I'm getting, I'm getting the flavor of the wood apple itself.

I like it, I like it a lot.

I gotta say, I mean flavor-wise, it's a hit outta the park, I love the flavor, it's delicious.

The black pork is not as tender as I'd like it to be.

I love it, it's that moment when it's a flavor I've never had before.

You know, not because of it's a different combination or a different country, it's specific to the wood apple.

You've got another dish planned?

- I do, so I'm thinking, you know a nice twist on a pudding, and we are about to try a wood apple.

- Wood apple pudding.

- Bread pudding.

- Bread pudding.

- Bread putting.

Specifically yeah.

- Wood apple bread pudding.

- Yeah.

- That sounds cool, let's do it.

- So I've got this idea for a bread pudding, which I think will work really well with the coconut, and a few eggs.

I've got something that's just gonna be really simple using wood apple, which I've never played with before until today.

I'm gonna start by scooping the really ripe ones out.

(spoon clinking) A little coconut milk.

There we go.

Let's just see how this dissolves when I put it into a big batch.

(whisk clinking) Yeah, I think that's working.

Okay, the flavor's there, but I think I can use even more.

Sugar.

(whisk clinking) Now I need to add the bread component.

I'm just gonna tear this up with my fingers.

Just to strain everything out that I don't want.

So the idea is to let the bread absorb the custard and then I have to make a double boiler to cook this.

A double boiler allows for nice soft and gentle heat made from the water creating steam that is caught between the two clay pots.

- Better?

- Right on, thank you.

(lid clinking) (people talking indistinctly) Okay.

Here it is.

(crickets chirping) - Shall we?

- Okay, ready for this?

- Yeah.

- My very first day cooking in Sri Lanka ever.

- First time using.

- [Paul] Clay.

- A clay pot for cooking over an open fire, and first ingredient.

- Wood apple, first time I've ever seen or tasted - Very first.

Nice.

- Wood apple.

- Three firsts then, that's pretty cool.

- And this is a bread pudding.

- Whoa, I mean, that does look mouth watering.

- [Paul] Okay, so far so good.

- Yeah, I think so.

Let's do this, alright.

- It's hot.

- Oh I gotta do that again, hang on.

(soft music) (Les laughs) Wow.

- Yeah, I'm happy right now.

- I mean, I know I like my sweet treats, but wow.

- Wood apple, like it tastes like.

- It tastes like wood apple.

- It does.

- Which, so what's that taste like?

I don't know.

It's just-- - Like wood apple.

- Like wood apple.

- Kevin?

It's hot, just blow on it first.

- Oh my god.

(woman laughing) - That is like you said, that's wood apple.

- [Woman] Wow.

- That's what I'm talking about.

- [Woman] Oh my god.

- Isn't that something?

(Paul laughs) - [Woman] Wow.

- Yeah, that's pretty awesome, isn't it?

- [Woman] It's so good.

- Oh my gosh, Paul out of the park.

That's delicious, Paul.

You know, when we as humans forage from the wild, we're not being parasites, we're really just living out a symbiotic relationship with every other living being, and so are the plants, and the birds, and the mammals, and the insects, and the invertebrates, they're all doing the same thing.

I mean, all you have to do is, well, the phrase is take a walk, and you are actually taking while you walk, but you're also giving.

And every other species is taking and giving as well, just by being alive.

But drive for an hour just outside of the city and you'll find yourself right back into that natural relationship with the earth, right back where we belong with the wild harvest.

(soft music continues) (insects chirping) ("Long Walk Home" by Les Stroud & the Pikes) ♪ I can find you ♪ I will take you with me on this long walk home ♪ ♪ As we turn the corner city and then there we find ♪ ♪ Peace of mind ♪ It seems each day we're stronger ♪ ♪ Where two are one we overcome oh hey ♪ (light acoustic music) If you'd like to continue the "Wild Harvest" with me and Chef Paul Rogalski, then please check out our website at WildHarvestFilms.com, where we have recipes and foraging tips, along with deleted scenes and outtakes from the making of Les Stroud's "Wild Harvest".

- [Announcer] Directly inspired by the series Chef Paul, and expert Forger Les Shroud bring you the "Wild Harvest" Recipe book, highlighting all of Paul's dishes, and complete with behind the scenes stories.

It is available for $29.99.

In addition, A DVD of this season is also available for $19.99.

To order, please go to WildHarvestFilms.com, "Wild Harvest" TV show on Facebook, or Les Stroud's Wild Harvest on YouTube.

(birds chirping) (light music)