(upbeat rock music) - Hi you're here with Cooking with Brontez.

I'm here with local chef Deontre Martin, and we're at a communal living space in Oakland, referred to as the Kwanestery, cause a bunch of Queens live here.

(Deontre exclaims) - For today's menu, watermelon smoked ham with rice and peas, and what else?

- [Deontre] And then a watermelon carpaccio that has some Japanese influence.

- So yeah, we're going to start by brining the watermelon.

(upbeat music) - [Brontez] Right here, we have a bunch of brining seasons.

You're supposed to go way easier than this, but we don't like to under do things.

(Deontre laughs) We like to overdo things.

- Yes What's in the brining?

- [Deontre] Juniper berries and All Spice.

Three four Cloves, three Bay Leaves.

Enough Coriander to kind of fit the palm of your hand, a little extra.

Same thing with the Cumin seed, there's extra Oregano.

Ground coriander.

Ground Cumin A good amount of the Smoked Paprika.

30 40 cracks of black pepper.

(pepper shaker cracking) Let the spirit leave you.

(pepper shaker cracking) - [Brontez] You can show me Liquid Smoke.

Yeah?

- [Deontre] Liquid Smoke - [Brontez] Liquid Smoke.

- [Deontre] And then, Worcestershire sauce.

- [Brontez] That's good.

(Deontre laughing) That's what's up - [Deontre] Okay.

Definitely need more salt All right (water trickling) (both laughing) - [Brontez] Cool, I love that.

(saw cutting) - So, we're a bunch of, Oakland hipsters and a bunch of Butch Queens, apparently because we need Oak wood Ash for the recipe.

And so we're just going to make our own Oak wood Ash.

It's about to be lit.

(Brontez laughs) (upbeat rock music) - Big props to big Queen Aj for cutting that wood.

So we can make Oak wood Ash for our vegan meal.

Thank you.

- [Brontez] What's going on, Papa bear, tell me.

- [Deontre] We are taking the Oak Ash, and we're putting it on the watermelon.

And we are going to put it in a 200 degree oven to dry out the skin.

So the skin of the watermelon can mimic like, the skin of a baked or smoked ham.

- [Brontez] Damn.

We're Looking very beautiful in our neighborhood.

We're very west Oakland right now.

- Very West Oakland - Very, very West Oakland right now.

- West Oakland - Deontre, we can be a happy middle-class black couple.

If you will leave these white men alone, you know, just saying.

- [Brontez] we buying stuff for the smoke watermelon.

Why we buying this Deontre?

- Because the smoker that we have keeps tripping electrical system.

So we're just going to smoke it on our propane grill.

- Smoke Watermelon.

Smoke Watermelon.

Smoke Watermelon.

(both laughing) - [Brontez] You liked them (in a British accent) Watermelons.

(upbeat music) - [Brontez] Okay, so this is water, Say it again baby - [Deontre] Watermelon carpaccio salad, Thai-inspired flavors.

We have our thin round of watermelon.

And in this bowl we have Fresno chilies and Thai chilies that have just been quick pickling in rice vinegar.

I'm going to take some of that rice vinegar and put it into these herbs, which are, cilantro, mint, scallion, and basial.

Some lime.

- [Brontez] Ew, What's all in the carpaccio sauce?

(whisk clanking) - [Deontre] So in this sauce, we have, we reconstituted some Miso just with hot water.

We have lime juice.

We have a little bit of soy sauce.

We had some chili sauce, sugar, ginger, galangal, and garlic.

(spoon clanking) (bell dings) - Okay.

We're going to try it.

I love the handheld.

(broadcast beep) (silverware clanking) - Oh my god.

Yeah that's, - That gives it a little bit of Thailand.

- This is a king, king.

Oh my God.

Bam.

So we just took it out of the smoker.

- [Deontre] So we have some coconut rice, and peas, a little snap peas.

Just stir fried up and, smoked watermelon ham with a Jamaican glaze, I guess is what we'll call it.

- [Brontez] With the Jamaican, push through with the Jamaican glaze, okay.

What a process, but, - [Deontre] What a process - [Brontez] Let's, let's, let's, let's eat it.

- [Deontre] Was it worth it?

- [Brontez] And here we have the food plating, We about to eat this up right.

- [Both] Yeah - [Brontez] Yeah let's make it so.

- Okay, through the magic of editing, what you don't realize with like between brining it, smoking it, what, this been a three day process We've been wearing the same, - And I just wear the same clothes - Yeah, we just wore the same clothes - Cheers - Cheers, thank you so much.

There, cool.

Let's do it.

- Get it.

Get in there.

- Oh my gosh.

- How was it?

- Oh my God, that is lit.

That is so lit.

- We'll see.

- That's so good.

- Okay.

- Okay!

Okay!

(Brontez chuckles) - We were going to fake it.

- Yeah we were gonna fake it, be like, yo, no, it's good.

Thank you for sticking it through with this edition of Cooking with Brontez.

And guest Deontre Martin.

The smoked watermelon ham.

Yes, yes to the Jamaican glaze, yes to all of it.

We'll see you soon.

(upbeat music) - Thank you for watching Cooking with Brontez.

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Please (person laughing) Please, baby please (person laughing)