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(people chatter)
- Hello everyone and welcome to the channel.
- We all are putting our Chef Ebers
under a little bit of pressure.
So we thought we'd broaden our horizons
and travel the world and alphabet in global dishes.
- Ebers in front of you is a spiny wheel
of all the countries, beginning with the letter A.
- So we're gonna ask you to spin the wheel.
- Interestingly, there's a whole bunch of countries on here.
I don't think we've ever cooked for.
- Oh, pass the spit again.
Aruba.
- Aruba. - Aruba.
- So to be honest, I know nothing about the country
but knowing roughly where it is,
perhaps some of the influences, but that's it.
- So, on social media, we're gonna put a whole load
of stuff on Twitter, Instagram, what dish
should these guys attempt?
We're gonna get loads of help, suggestions,
give them a bunch of ingredients
and then they're gonna have to figure out the dish
and make it in the studio.
And we're gonna see how they get on.
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Okay, it's been a week and we've collated
all of your thoughts, tips, community suggestions
and a load of research that we've done as well.
And we can reveal that the community have decided
for you Ben, to cook the following dish.
- Keshi Yena.
- That means nothing to us.
- So here's the description.
Curacao cheese casserole.
- Casserole, that's one word, cheese, I've got that one.
Yep.
- Traditionally served with white rice
and Siboyo Tempera, it's an Aruban Chili
and garlic pickled red onion salad.
That's just what it's served with.
- Cheese casserole with rice and a salsa.
- [Mike] For those of you at home,
this is what the dish looks like.
We have provided all of the ingredients that you need.
You will need to select one of the proteins.
Your first tip is that Keshi Yena gets much of its taste
from its Caribbean inspired, spicy filling.
Step one, make the filling.
(alarm sounds)
- [Jamie] Spicy, spicy.
- Thanks for your help, Jay.
- Spice.
- Well, there's some things that are jumping out
at us that we do know.
- Onion, pepper, celery.
- Holy Trinity.
- [Jamie] Yes.
- [Ben] Let's do that first.
- Hang on, cheese casserole.
We dunno what that is yet.
But you have asked us to make a filling.
A casserole doesn't have a filling.
A casserole just is a thing.
- Everything we say is a clue.
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- A bit of oil and then we'll get our Holy Trinity
into the pan to sweat down.
Oil or butter?
French influence from Creole would say probably butter.
That's kind of what we learned from like the cooking
in Louisiana.
A lot of butter.
- [Jamie] We're not in Louisiana though.
- No, no, no.
But similar influences based on history.
We gotta pick a protein, chicken or tuna.
- Tinned tuna doesn't feel like it's gonna do
whatever this dish is justice.
- I think I agree.
Shredded cooked chicken.
We'll get some garlic in there.
Some bay leaves.
- So your next tip, think big bold flavors.
All the flavors, in fact.
- All the flavors?
- Right up your street.
- This is my strong point.
- So the clue, all the flavor, it reminds me
of the Filipino dish which had Spanish influence
of dried fruit and olives.
We've got the Dutch influence of Edam, Holy Trinity,
which is very much the kind of Creole Cajun route
and some chili and garlic.
I imagine it's pretty warm.
- Keshi Yena is a Curacaoan and Aruban dish.
It was born on the island of Curacao
in the time of slavery in the 17th and 18th century.
Curacao is a neighboring Dutch Caribbean island.
And along with Aruba, the Netherlands
and St. Martin make up the kingdom of the Netherlands.
So historically Dutch plantation owners loved their cheeses,
Edams, Goudas, et cetera, and would eat wheels of it.
As the cheese wheel would get eaten
and it's cheesy supply depleted,
the Dutch owners wouldn't even bother
with the harder almost waxy rinds
on the outside of the wheel.
Instead they would offer these table scraps
to the enslaved communities.
- So they would eat the good bits and leave
the harder outer bit under the wax to everybody else.
- Now the genius enslaved workers would then
peel off the wax, soak the hardened rinds in water
to soften, create a filling made
from other leftover table scraps.
Chicken, vegetables, other flavors, et cetera,
and then steam everything together in a Bain-Marie
to create an entirely new reinvented dish.
So the modern interpretation of this dish also can be baked.
- You cook it in the wax.
- The wax will melt Ebers?
- Yes, but so does cheese Jay,
which is why I'm equally confused.
- We've provided you with everything you need
to cook this dish.
- Let's finish off filling while we ponder Jay.
- We haven't added any all purpose seasoning.
- Oh.
Chicken's going in.
Add some ketchup.
- Exact, there we go, Ebers.
- Well, you've given it to us,
so I'm guessing it needs to go in.
A little bit of that but I'm gonna hold some
of that back for our rice.
I just want a little bit just to do that.
There's a tin of tomatoes.
So let's go with some of that.
And they've also given us some piccalilli
that I made years ago.
- Right.
- I'm guessing some pickle.
Use whatever they had access to.
The capers and our dried fruit.
I've just had a thought.
- Uh-oh.
- With the eggs based on different cuisines
of influenced that part of the world.
Had we not have done chicken and gone tuna.
- Yes.
- Can't remember the name of it, that's really bad.
The salt cod dish that is thickened with eggs,
like eggs and potato, that's a Portuguese thing.
- Ebers, I can confirm you are on the right track.
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Tip two is line a bowl, fill and cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
- What we lining the bowl with, Ebers?
- Something non-stick.
What would they have used in Aruba?
- Cheese.
- This is the bowl we've been given.
- Yeah.
Which looks about half the size of a wheel of ball of Edam.
- Yes.
So what if we sliced and lined?
- Here's another tip, Keshi Yena's direct Papiamento
to English translation is stuffed cheese.
- Interesting, cause so many cuisines do cheese stuffed.
Like they put cheese into things.
They don't put things into cheese.
- Maybe that's where we've been going wrong.
- Slice it floppy enough to drape in
like layers of phyllo pastry and baklava.
- So then basically nothing can seep out
because you've got layers of it.
Right.
We will then put the filling on top of the cheese
and then once it's cooked, however it cooks,
we turn it out.
- You turn it out?
- We turn it out.
- Like a suet pudding.
- Yes.
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- If it had more Creole French influence,
then I'd be thinking the egg is the cohesion.
Remember we had that in our repertoire, quite a lot.
Egg coheres a sauce, but it has to be hot to do that
and it becomes almost custardy.
This I think is more going to mix in and cook out
as it bakes in the oven a bit like a tortilla,
which you would do on the heat and flip,
but that kind of principle, almost like an omelet
or a frittata.
- It's gonna set the filling.
- Yeah.
- Well done Ebers, bold.
I love this approach.
- What do you reckon, do you want a fourth?
- Yeah, maybe.
It's more filling than I thought.
We'll go one more egg.
- It's so hard to know because the eggs
at the moment are liquid and it's making it runnier,
whereas we want it to be stiffer.
- But when it bakes, it'll expand.
- It will do the reverse of what the cheese will do.
The cheese will go oozey, the egg will go coagulated.
It's a bit like holding up to the sun in Aruba.
(upbeat music)
I've got some more filling and some more cheese.
We do a little one as well just as a saving grace.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Okay, we're gonna have a slightly eggy top
when we turn it out.
But for a first attempt,
I'm just gonna see how we get on by putting it in the oven.
- Oh, that's a cupboard.
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- Here, should we just cook this now?
It's got the egg in it.
Like a frittata.
- That'd be fun, wouldn't it?
- Yeah, see what happens.
We've got loads left.
- [Ben] So you're gonna make this little red onion, pickle.
I'm gonna do a little rice dish.
I think I'm gonna do a two to one on rice cooking it
in the stock with a good pinch of salt.
And when it's finished, we'll stir
through some fresh herbs and season it.
- What I love about this challenge is
historically this is how dishes would've been passed down
and reinterpreted through hearsay through trying something.
And have you heard this thing it's made
in a cheese bowl and it's got this and that and that in it.
And then actually once you understand that logic
you are using your own skill base
and your own knowledge to put together something
that will work within that, those confines.
- How have we been doing this for 12 years
and never cooked something in a cheese bowl?
- Yeah, but Jay doing this for 12 years
and I've lived for 30 odd and-
- 50.
- I don't think until we spun it on the wheel,
I had any idea about Aruba.
- No.
- Where it was or what his inferences were.
- We justified the format.
- He's learning.
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- Soon as that comes up to a gentle simmer lid on,
so you don't lose the steam you carefully waited out,
turn it down to low and let it do its thing for a while.
Tell you what, Jay that in a baguette.
- Baguette, filling, cheese, blow torch.
Sandwich.
How do you want me to do this?
Do you just want me to squeeze into their
sugar and then just leave it?
- Red onion and lime juice we know will go
vibrant pink, draws out the color.
Then we can seize it to taste with salt
and sugar chili and garlic.
And I imagine it's also quite fiery.
But the rice isn't and the filling is
but the cheese isn't.
So together, delicious.
- Balance.
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Right, rice is done.
Residual, cook that out.
We'll stir through parsley just before we serve it.
Your pickles nearly done.
Now it's just a waiting game to see if we're able
to turn out our cheese thing.
I also vouch when we're happy that it's a nice golden color,
we're gonna wanna leave it in the bowl
for a good half an hour before we turn out.
So it's warm still as a filling, but sets up a bit.
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- Moment of truth.
- The little one had 15 minutes less than the biggie.
I'm hoping it's just gonna turn out.
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Gonna release the vacuum, there we go.
Vacuum gone.
- Yes.
- [Mike] You've got something.
- It's held its shape.
It's got some golden color.
- That is ridiculous.
- We'll serve it with our chicken herby rice.
- Oh, that's quite hot isn't it.
Hey oh.
- Well done.
- And now like a good creme caramel,
you just need to find, it's got,
it's done its own vacuum.
(intense music)
- [Barry] Ridiculous!
Kapow!
- Did we do it?
- I think we did it.
- Did we do it?
- Well, I don't know 'cause I don't know
what it's supposed to look like.
- Did we do it?
(upbeat music)
- We made cheese domes.
- It's a strong attempt but do you want to see
what you were trying to recreate?
- Yes. - Yeah.
- What's in Aruba?
(Mike claps loudly)
- I even put the parsley on the top.
(men cheer)
- Well done.
- Oh my.
- And that, you could literally-
- is what it's supposed to look like.
- Take a slice of that.
It's gone crispy in places.
It's gone chewy in places.
And that filling with the egg has cooked out
and hold its form.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Wow.
- Oh, oh wow.
There was a point where you were carried away
and just started chucking everything into it.
Tomato, ketchup, stock.
- That's the point.
- Yeah.
- You're onion salad's hot Jay.
- I put two chili's.
- Oh, that is so spicy.
That is all up in my tongue.
- The pickled as well.
The rice is sort of plain, absorbs all of this.
It does make you think, what else could you put
inside of cheese.
What I found most amazing today is it is just a combination
of lots of things we've learned before and then done
in a completely different way
to something we'd never even imagined before,
let alone done before.
And somehow it worked out.
- Brilliant.
It's 'cause it's literally a genius dish made by geniuses.
- And boys, we're only on A.
- I know.
- That was a Aruba, should we spin again?
- Should it be?
- There's no spin again.
Every sector is filled.
Oh, could've had Benin.
It's Brunei.
- Brunei.
- Off to Brunei.
(television beep)
- Filling wise, I'm gonna get rid of the bay leaves,
they've done their job.
- Whatever job that is.
(Mike laughs)
It's like Barry turning up for a day of work.
- He's here.
- I'm here.
- I thought you read your bits really well.
- No, I didn't.
(men laugh)