(bowl clangs) (egg cracks)
(pan sizzles)
- Hello, and welcome to Sorted food.
- Today it's chef versus normals,
in what we're calling, The Grocery Shop Challenge.
- Inside that bag is a bunch of mystery ingredients.
We're going to ask our three normal home cooks,
to create three mid-week meals,
from just those fresh ingredients.
- And then we'll get Ben, a chef,
to do the same and see what he can rustle up.
- There is bound to be cheffiness,
normalness, panickiness,
and hopefully some usefulness.
- Dig into the bag, boys.
- [Mike] What we got?
- Ah, snacking chips. (bag rustling)
- Blackberries. - Excellent.
- Potatoes. - Cheddar.
- Sour cream
- Butter beans.
- [Barry] Avocado.
- Beef mince. - Beef mince.
- [Jamie] Limes.
- We will also have access to a basic staples cupboard.
We'll give you some thinking time.
(gentle rock music ends)
(air whooshes) 30 minutes on the clock.
Start in three, two, one, cook.
(klaxon blasts) - So we got, we have one dish.
(upbeat rock music) Jamie has a vision,
we need to work out another two out of this.
- Yeah. We basically spent five minutes just worrying.
- Just start doing... - Start doing stuff. Right.
You peel those,
and let's just get them boiling,
because we know parsnips take ages.
What also takes ages? Potatoes.
- Shall I boil those in the coconut milk?
In terms of like make a puree or something?
- Yeah. Or like a bit of a mash.
Let, let, let, no.
Oh, I don't know.
I don't know.
Let's just boil them first.
- So I think I've got a bit of a plan.
I'm going to take the red onion, the green pepper,
the paneer, and I'm going to make some kebabs.
And then I'm going to serve that with rice,
which I think we can mix some frozen peas through.
Maybe some of the sour cream,
as a bit of a dipping sauce, maybe.
- Sounds good.
(fast rock music continues)
- Got potatoes.
I'm just going to start cooking them to save time.
- I'm cutting my parsnips into small chunks,
so it cooks quicker.
- Should we do like a cheats bolognese sauce?
We've got chopped tomatoes over there.
- Easy, yes.
- Remember we're looking for easy,
delicious, midweek.
So we think half an hour,
the kind of time that people want to be spending midweek.
- [Mike] Jamie, we didn't let you freestyle.
(Jamie gibbers) (they laugh)
- He thought that was the oil he was pouring in.
But splashed it first,
and then sniffed it,
and realized it was vinegar. - Oh no.
(fast rock music continues)
- Why don't we?
Oh, oh, I'll do a tomato, butter bean sauce.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- Like a bit of a shakshuka,
but instead of eggs,
we're just going to scatter Paneer,
and sour cream and like...
- That is amazing.
- It's not.
(fast rock music continues)
My onions frying off.
I'm now going to go in with some cumin and some paprika.
- You are approaching halfway through.
(bleep)
(intense jazz)
- [Barry] I couldn't get a pan big enough,
so I'm using two pans.
I want this beef to go crispy,
I don't want it to stew in it's fat.
Going to now mash this into the coconut milk
that's in here already.
- Add some allspice?
No.
- As a dippy thing,
What should I?
Sour cream and lime? - Oh.
- With a little bit of spice in it?
- What lime zest?
Not, not lime.
- I don't know. - It's already sour.
- It is, isn't it?
So it doesn't need the lime. - No.
- Maybe just a little bit of curry powder,
- [Mike] Outside of curry powders,
we've got some cumin here.
- [Jamie] Yep. Cumin and coriander.
- You have had 20 minutes,
which means you have 10 remaining.
- Has anyone got any ideas of what to do with this avocado?
- I... Oh. - Do you think you
can use it?
- It would go. It could go in mine.
- I'm going to have cooked potatoes.
I could just serve boiled potatoes.
(tense piano music)
- [Ben] Last couple of minutes.
- [Jamie] Ah.
- I'm making a little salsa to go on top of this.
- 30 Seconds.
(tense music)
Last five,
four, three,
two, one. (klaxon wails)
(dramatic music ends)
- Oh boys.
- [Ben] That is six plates of food.
(they cheer)
- Do they taste good?
- I don't know. - Neither do I.
(bright music)
- So what we got here?
- Paneer and veg kebabs,
with a beautiful lime pickleness to them,
with some rice and spiced sour cream.
- Good rice, good flavors,
good use of sour cream and lime,
to kind of bring it together.
- As a dish, it definitely works.
- Yeah.
Well cooked rice.
- I am as surprised as you are.
- We have three different recipes
that I know how to make,
that I've put all onto one plate.
- Mm-hm.
- Parsnip and coconut mash or puree,
salt and pepper beef,
and a quick salsa.
- I know it's come from three different corners
of the world but I really like it.
(Barry laughs)
- It's tasty. It's just really confusing.
- That.
I think all three elements work,
just not on the same plate.
- This is a spiced tomatoey sauce,
with all the off-cuts put together.
- It's rich from the tomato puree and the tomatoes.
It's good.
- It's really tasty.
- [Jamie] I really like it.
- I feel like that one had a vision from the start,
and delivered to that vision.
That one kind of took all the ingredients you wanted
and put them on a plate.
And that was actually something quite clever,
with what you'd been left with.
(air whooshes)
And then this is the only thing
I want to draw your attention to,
you did really well on time,
you used an awful lot of the kitchen,
(bell pings) and appliances,
and equipment.
This was kind of what was left.
And there's a risk that with half a block of paneer,
some cheese, half an avocado, some blackberries,
these are the things that are going to be in your fridge
at end of the week, and then get thrown away.
- I am intrigued to see what the chef does with this lot.
(table bangs) - Let's do it.
- Right, Ebbers, feeling confident?
- Yeah. I've got a plan.
- Okay, let's see what you can do.
- Now we've allowed Ben 30 minutes per recipe.
We think that's fair. - Yeah.
- Three, two, one, cook.
- Start by preheating an oven.
Or in this case, actually, a grill.
And I'm going to line a tray with tinfoil.
(tray bangs)
I'm starting with the salsa.
I think there's lots of salsa ingredients here.
Baz, you did a good job.
I'm doing mine slightly differently,
because midweek, we want to get
as much flavor in here as possible,
so I'm going to roast them.
(jazzy guitar music)
- So far, all the tomatoes,
two of the three limes,
and a whole green pepper.
- Correct.
One of the three onions.
Going in dry under a hot grill.
Second thing I'm going to do, (perky salsa music)
is to make some crispy beef.
You whacked 500 grams of mince in for a single dish,
two portions.
That feels like a lot of meat.
- Okay.
(beef sizzling)
- Quite deliberately leaving the beef for a while,
so it gets crispy on one side,
before you start moving it around.
(knife knocking)
Beef is nice and crispy,
and take it off the heat,
going to add in salt and cumin.
Lots of flavor,
veg for our salsa.
Don't worry about the tray and the tinfoil, though,
'cause now we're going to start layering up on here.
So some of our tortilla chips. (bag rustling)
- That already, is something I would never do.
Less washing up is so vital, midweek.
- [Ben] Half of the cheese. (perky salsa music continues)
- Oh yeah. (grater scraping)
I love this one.
So now we've got a little bit
of heat from the salsa on the board,
so we can go in with garlic.
The juice of the limes, little bit of fresh coriander.
(knife knocking)
And because we've roasted it off,
it just gives it an extra dimension,
to what essentially, was the same ingredients
that you put on to your dish.
- It's what you did,
but better. - But better.
(Mike laughs)
- Over goes our crispy cumin beef.
Loads of this salsa.
Some sour cream.
Fresh coriander.
That's crispy chili beef, nachos.
Midweek, take to the table,
everyone digs in.
And in theory, one board, one knife,
one pan and a spatula is all you've used.
- That took you just over 20 minutes.
- Not bad.
(bright jazz music)
Dish number two is going to be a Parsnip Aligot,
with beef meatballs and pickled blackberries.
- Parsnip Aligot.
- Aligot is a beautiful French dish,
that is potato,
but with lots of cheese,
but we're doing with parsnip as well,
to add a little bit of sweetness,
that's going to fight against the pickled blackberries,
and the beefy beefiness.
- Pickled blackberries.
- Parsnip mash, I'm not sure about that, Ebbers.
(fast rock music)
- So all of that veg into a pan,
just cover it, maybe a couple of centimeters above.
Season generously, lid on, bring up to the boil.
I'm going to use a second onion here,
and this one I'm just going to finely dice.
I'm going to keep some of it back for garnish,
because a little bit of raw onion
gives you some crunch in a dish,
a little bit of acidity and little bit of color.
All the dishes do have balance,
in terms of the three major food groups,
but we definitely tried to get
as much veg in as possible.
We're only gonna use a little bit of the beef protein,
but we've also got cheese as a protein.
We've also, going to have to work out
what else we can bulk the dish out with.
And the best thing is vegetables.
Good for you, affordable,
and it's generally the same vegetables,
used the world over, just with different spices.
So chopped onion,
the other half of the minced beef,
the remainder of the tortilla chips.
And I'm going to season it with allspice.
- The thing here, a chef is doing,
that us normals would never do,
is he's seen the ingredients, going,
"What dishes can I make out of this to serve up?"
Whereas we buy by recipe,
and therefore buy a lot more food.
- Yeah. Yeah.
That's so true.
(upbeat indie music)
- Remember, whenever you handle raw meat,
wash your hands,
and then that tray can go into the oven.
Our potato and parsnip just come up to a boil.
They will need 10 to 12 minutes.
Our meatballs have just gone in,
and they will need 10 to 12 minutes.
That's loads of time to do one last thing,
which is pickle some blackberries.
Teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of vinegar.
They can just go into a pan,
but two minutes in the microwave, job done.
What I now have is 10 minutes of waiting.
- You've had 13 minutes.
(air whooshes)
- It's going to look like a lot,
because you're going to see it,
and perceive mashed potato.
But remember,
that's also got your entire portion of veg combined.
To make the aligot,
we're going to throw in the rest of the sour cream
we didn't use from the nachos,
and the rest of the cheese.
(upbeat indie music)
(they chuckle)
That is our parsnip aligot,
beef meatballs and pickled blackberries.
Okay.
So for this final dish,
there's not much left in the way of fresh ingredients,
but we are going to make good use
of staple cupboard ingredients and spices,
to take it to a new place.
This is a one tray paneer bake.
- That's what I got to, wasn't it.
After I was kebabbing them,
and I was like, I should've just done it as a tray bake.
- I'm glad you kept kebabs,
I liked the shape,
and they looked appetizing.
- I'm going to weigh in
150 grams of basmati rice from the store cupboard.
- [Jamie] Oh, shut up. - What?
- [Jamie] You're tray baking rice?
- Curry powder.
So you're spicing the rice,
and individually oiling all the grains,
so that they don't stick as much,
because we haven't washed it,
so we are cheating. - This is so broke.
- We are cracking our way through it.
- This feels odd.
(they exclaim) - You unit.
- When you have a tin of chickpeas,
you can save the juice and whip it up into aqua faba,
'cause it's full of proteins.
Why would you tip all that nutrition down the sink?
In my efficiency,
I've forgotten one thing,
before I mixed that,
a stock cube.
(jazzy indie music)
I like what you did Jay,
with those skewers.
You took it to a part of the world that you visit regularly,
you spiced it with curry powder,
from the store cupboard.
I'm doing all those same things.
My only logic is,
if I cut that in half and use half,
I'm probably not going to get around to using the other half
in the rest of the week, unless it's another dish
that's very similar.
So in this instance,
this time I'm going to use the whole thing,
into this tray bake.
- [Barry] The rice isn't cooked, Ben.
- No, no, no.
What will happen is,
as the rice cooks and absorbs the liquid,
it will expand and push up.
The paneer will color on the top.
It's kind of like half gonna steam in that juice,
and half crisp up.
Into an oven, 200 degrees Celsius.
20 minutes.
In that time,
very little to do-
- Get some therapy.
- Except for one coriander chutney,
which is coriander, chili, ginger garlic.
(blues rock music)
So quite deliberately with all of these recipes,
we've avoided using kitchen appliances,
blenders, food processors, mixers,
so everything can be done on the board.
You've literally got 20 minutes,
while that tray bake's in the oven.
All I'm going to do is combine that with lime juice.
It sounds silly, but if you're squeezing a lime,
I always cut it that way,
so that you can get through all of the segments-
- He told me off for that. - Not the other way.
And I always cut it into three,
because if you've got tiny little hands like me,
you get more juice out of it this way.
Less waste.
- Ebbers, am I right in saying,
with the squeeze of that lime,
you've now used everything
from your bag of fresh ingredients.
- Yes.
That's going over the dish,
as is the last of the onion.
That is all the dirty stuff from three days of cooking,
with exception of the stuff that washed up as I went,
which was one other pan and a colander.
- I think he's trying to prove a point.
- Do you think?
(blues rock music ends)
(soaring indie music)
- Midweek, in the table- - Get in.
- Crispy chili beef.
(indie groove music) - Cheers.
(nachos crunching)
- Oh man, that salsa's awesome.
It tastes so sweet.
- The roasting makes such a difference.
- [Barry] Yeah.
That is outrageously simple.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- This is weird.
- [Mike] No, it's not.
- [Barry] Oh my goodness.
- Excellent. - Wow.
Those blackberries cut through,
it's really, really light and refreshing.
- Meatballs are amazing, mate.
- It's a big portion,
but it's a good way of making the beef stretch.
- [Jamie] If I was to use the word biryani,
would I be really bad? - Yes.
It's a spiced Indian rice dish,
as is kedgeree,
as is a biryani,
but it's kind of cooked pilau style.
- So the rice, the rice is actually cooked, isn't it?
- Yep. - Oh no.
- [Ben] You've got paneer for protein,
but you've also got the butter beans.
- It's going to get beeped, but (bleep) that's amazing.
(they laugh)
- That is delicious,
and then you get the chutney,
and that just takes it to a completely other level.
- Oh wow.
(all applauding)
- I'm sure we can all agree,
six incredible dishes.
Three may have been slightly better than another three.
But we'd love to know from you,
what would you have done with that set of ingredients?
Comment down below, let us know.
- Because, it's all the thinking and hacks and tricks,
that went into these three,
that we apply as a food team,
to all of the meal packs we do on the app,
so that you can get variety,
super tasty meals, mid-week,
with a single grocery shopping list.
- And it's been absolutely made for normals,
so we've got your back,
and you can try it for a full month free,
by clicking the link downstairs.
- I would say, come back next week to watch a video,
but don't bother,
we've peaked.
This is it. - Oh. (laughs)
We're done now. - That is exceptional.
- Did you have a favorite? That one?
- That one. Stand out. - We have peaked?
Collectively, we have peaked?
- As a team.
(festive rock/hip hop music)
- The meal packs app is part of our Sorted gift this year,
which includes 12 months subscription,
yellow or navy apron,
and choice of cookbook.
We think it's a great gift, whatever the season,
for the foodie in your life.
Even if that foodie is you.
It's 65 pounds, which is a discount on full price.
So if you want to snap it up,
then follow the link in the description box below.
(production card beeps)
- Somebody said that to me the other day,
"Why don't you sit down here?"
I went, "Cause it'll look (bleep) ridiculous.
- Yeah, we're like Westlife.
(they laugh)
- It's getting exciting. Stand up, key change.
Yeah. (laughs)