- [Narrator] We are Sorted, a group of mates
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- [Narrator] And cookbook challenges,
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(bright music)
- Welcome to the grotto.
Now, today we have teamed up with Lee Kum Kee again.
You might remember earlier in the year,
James and I did a Chinese fusion cooking battle.
Today, it's our normals turn.
Mike, Jamie and Barry are going head to head to head
in an ultimate Christmas cooking fusion battle.
- We're gonna get them to create a dish inspired
by a traditional UK Christmas dinner,
but with a delicious Chinese twist.
And we're gonna give them a whole range of Lee Kum Kee
sauces to do it with.
And before they get going,
let's find out what they're gonna make.
- I am making coconut mince pie buns,
and they are vegan.
Think a classic mince pie filling,
but I'm adding the Lee Kum Kee plum sauce
to give it a bit more of a sweetness and the soy
to season it perfectly.
- I'm gonna utilise the amazing umami flavours
from things like sesame oil and soy sauce
to create incredible canapes, but with a twist.
- I am making the centrepiece of Christmas,
the turkey roast dinner.
But what happens when you baste the turkey with an oyster
glaze and add Lee Kum Kee sauces for authentic Chinese
flavourings, to all of the Christmas trimmings?
You get two chefs that cry actual tears of Christmas joy.
- If I don't win this battle,
Christmas is cancelled.
- Two hours on the clock.
Three, two, one.
- Christmas!
- It's ruined already.
(laughing)
The reason I'm feeling quite confident is we've got a couple
of hours for this battle, and this recipe really
only takes about half an hour.
- Oh wow, pushing yourself! - Oh, are you serious?
- Mate, oh yeah!
- Right, get started.
Mincemeat filling.
Raisins and currants.
More raisins and sultanas and some mixed peel.
Vegetable suet.
Then I'm grating in an apple,
squeezing in half an orange,
some stem ginger, and some brandy.
- First up, I need to get my turkey on.
I'm gonna create a trivet.
It's a base of veg that the turkey is gonna cook on.
There's gonna be onions, garlic,
ginger, carrots, celery, mushrooms.
That's all gonna be tossed in some sesame wok oil.
That's gonna add a really lovely flavour to it,
'cause I'm gonna use that veg later on, for my gravy.
Then turkey goes on top.
And I need to create my baste.
- Okay, so the main bit of my dish that I'm worried about
is my pastry.
So I'm putting it off and I'm making pickled carrots
in the meantime, while I build up to it.
All I'm doing is peeling carrots and then slicing
them into thin strips, ready to be pickled in some liquid.
So my pickling liquid uses a lot of the seasoned rice
vinegar, which is amazing, so you get the acidity,
but it's got a real sort of like umami savouriness to it.
I'm gonna chuck a load of that in to a pan
with some salt and sugar,
bring it up to the boil and then pour that all over
my carrots for as long as possible.
And then be pickled by the end, hopefully.
- So far, in a bowl, a lot of very sweet
and Christmasy flavours.
And to kind of balance that out now,
we're gonna add a little bit of plum sauce,
which is also quite sweet,
but also a little bit sour as well.
- So I don't think I'd think about putting plum sauce
into a dessert, because in my head it's got a lot of savoury
flavours as well, but actually yes,
a lot of sugar in the plums,
but it's things like ginger, crushed pepper.
I'm now quite intrigued.
- And to finish off then rice wine vinegar
and some soy sauce going in as well.
Half a teaspoon of cinnamon and some Christmasy nutmeg.
- My baste is super simple.
Butter, obviously, and then oyster sauce.
And that oyster sauce is gonna create a really lovely,
salty, umami flavour to the skin of the turkey
and give it a really rich, dark colour.
Every 15 minutes, I'm going to re-baste it with my oyster
sauce and butter glaze.
Into the oven it goes.
- My mince pie filling is going
into a delicious steamed bun.
Now, for the recipe, listen closely, it's very detailed.
Flour.
No.
(laughing)
- Great job, mate. - Self raising flour,
and coconut milk.
- Next up, roast potatoes.
But are they roast potatoes?
Well, they are, but they're,
they've got a Chinese twist to them, because of the video.
(laughing)
(rock music)
Here is where the difference comes in.
The sesame wok oil is gonna add a really lovely
nuttiness to the roast potatoes,
but also because this oil has a really high burning
temperature, it's gonna make them really
crispy and delicious.
- Once that comes together,
we're gonna tip it out and knead
it for a couple of minutes.
Delicious!
I'm gonna let that rest, 'cause I've got nothing else to do!
(laughing)
- Oh, it's looking good.
So over the years, we've done turkey
many, many different ways.
The oyster sauce in this is kind of smart.
You get that savoury umami and the colour.
(playful music)
- Has this turned into a two-way battle?
- It was a two way battle at the beginning, wasn't it?
I've made some breadcrumbs with flour, salt,
and cubed cold butter,
and now I'm gonna crack an egg yolk into that.
Bring it all together.
(sniggering)
It's okay, I only need the yolk.
- Next up, I'm making braised red cabbage with a difference.
It starts by peeling and dicing an onion.
That's gonna fry off in some vegetable oil
for about 15 minutes.
I'm gonna add cabbage, raisins and my walnut halves
that are chopped up into my onions and fry them off.
- You're putting walnuts in my pan!
- That's my pan.
- That is my pan.
- Oh, that pan.
- So I added that egg yolk along with some milk,
and I want to bring this together as much as possible
without overworking it,
because then I'll get a crappy pastry.
Pastry, I'm gonna to wrap it, chill it in the fridge,
come back to it later.
So next up I'm making braised cabbage.
It needs a lot of time.
So I thinly sliced my red cabbage,
diced some ginger and I'm frying that off
in some sesame wok oil.
After frying it for five minutes,
I'm going to zest and squeeze in the juice of an orange.
Then into the cabbage goes red wine.
Two tablespoons of light soy sauce,
which is super rich in flavour,
'cause it's made from naturally fermented soy beans.
And then I let that bubble away for 45 minutes on a simmer.
This is the kind of work ethic that Barry brings
to Sorted in general.
So none of us are really that surprised.
- Yay!
The lost elf! - He's woken up.
Oh, why is that bubbling?
Why have you turned that on?
- I haven't. - You've turned mine
on to six!
- I may have- - This cannot burn!
If this burns, it becomes bitter!
- Have they been okay?
- They are not okay.
- It's time to go in with some flavour.
First up, hoisin sauce, this is gonna add a really nice
thick sweetness to it.
And then some seasoned rice vinegar.
- See, I would normally associate hoisin sauce
with the classic, like crispy, aromatic duck,
maybe classic stir fries,
Kung Pao chicken, glazes for meat.
Interesting that you've gone for cabbage.
It's going in the vegetable element, not the meaty element.
- Last thing to add into my cabbage is my chicken stock.
And then I'm gonna turn the heat right down low,
simmer it away for about 45 minutes.
- 47 minutes remaining.
- Excellent.
Ah, that's hot!
- [Barry] I've taken my dough.
I've divided it into 16 pieces,
rolled those into balls and then rolled them out
into little circles about 10 centimetres big.
So my technique is I'm filling,
I'm picking up the edges, I'm going tight.
Then pulling off the top and then crab... over the ball,
give it a jiggle.
- So I have rolled my pastry nice and thin
and cut it into circles.
And I'm now just putting it in my tart case,
pressing it down just to get that shape,
making sure that I'm not squishing it, overworking it.
- I'm so sorry, Mike, I just need to get into the oven.
(tense music)
- [Mike] I'm gonna prick them, or dock them,
cover them with baking paper, baking beans.
Then I'm gonna bake them in the oven
for 10 to 15 minutes 'cause they're small,
until they're golden brown all over.
- Obviously, no Christmas dinner is complete
without some roasted vegetables.
I'm going for carrots, parsnips and tender stem broccoli.
They're gonna go into a tray along with my oil,
honey for lovely sweetness,
and then we're gonna add some spice with...
my Chiu Chow Chilli oil.
This is hot.
I don't need much of it.
I'm gonna toss that all together.
Then they're gonna go into an oven for 30 to 40 minutes,
become golden brown and delish.
- All of your elements, J, are pretty classic,
as per brief, but each one has a little twist.
- Last bit of sesame wok oil going into the potatoes.
They're going back into the oven for another
15 to 20 minutes.
(bright music)
Sorry, Mike.
I need to get into the oven.
Thanks, mate.
- Making a little cartouche.
Basically, how to make a circle by folding it into triangles
over and over again.
Bit too small which is a good thing,
and a hole in the middle.
They're gonna need about 10 minutes of steam.
(upbeat music)
- What are you doing?
- I need these two hobs. - No you don't!
You're just taking up every single cooking
thing in the whole- - No J, think about it.
- Of both kitchens!
- I'm gonna be honest,
I don't like it when Mom and Dad fight.
- My turkey has had just over an hour or so in the oven.
I've taken a temperature probe to it.
It's about 64 degrees.
I'm gonna take it out and let it rest.
I want that to come up to about 70 degrees.
In the meantime, I can get on with making my gravy,
all of that trivet, all of that cooking liquid
is going to become my gravy.
It's going onto a hob.
I'm gonna squish the veg.
I'm gonna fry that off.
I'm gonna add some flour and then I get to add
some more sauce.
My gravy's bubbling away in my roasting tray.
Whilst he's not looking,
I'm gonna take some of Mike's premium light soy sauce,
just to add a little bit of seasoning.
- So although these guys are normal,
we've been told that these sauces are used by Michelin star
chefs all over the world.
So a little bit here and there
should elevate their dishes quite a lot.
- Real sort of essence of authenticity, but I mean,
I've been using them for years and used to buy them
in the Chinese supermarkets,
but now, pretty much every supermarket,
if you can't find them in the regular aisle,
they're normally in the world food aisle bit.
But a little bit here and there really makes a difference.
- I am getting there.
Next step, grill the salmon.
But before I do, I want to create the glaze
in which I'm gonna glaze the salmon whilst grilling it.
That is premium dark soy sauce,
which I've chucked a whole bottle of into a pan with some
brown sugar, reducing it right down,
so it's nice and sticky.
And then I'm gonna use that to glaze my salmon.
I'm gonna keep taking the salmon out from under the grill
to re-baste it, to make sure that that sticky glaze
caramelises and goes all charred and delicious.
- Like with anything that we love that's fermented,
it's adding another depth of flavour.
In this case, soy beans.
- Okay, now for my custard.
What I'm gonna do is I've got my coconut milk here,
I'm gonna take a couple of tablespoons of this,
add it to a small bowl and then mix in my cornflour,
which I'll be adding back into the mix later on.
With the rest of my coconut milk is going into a pan
onto a hob.
And then I'm gonna add vanilla paste,
some sugar and some pure sesame oil.
This gives it a really nice nutty flavour.
It's really intense and gives more body to my custard.
And then if I add my coconut milk and cornflour mix,
warm it up, that should turn into a nice,
silky, creamy custard.
Delicious.
(bright Christmas music)
I don't know how you know they're cooked.
(upbeat music)
- You've used my sieve!
- As a final touch, I'm gonna create a little glaze
out of the plum sauce and some orange and orange zest,
and then brush that over my dumplings.
Just to give it a nice shine.
- Now it's time to make my cream cheese
and braised cabbage conglomeration.
I finely chopped some coriander and stirred that along
with some cream cheese, and white and some black sesame
seeds through my chilled braised cabbage.
- Having reduced my gravy and the veg right down,
I've now sieved the veg,
so I have a beautifully delicious gravy.
I reckon I could add another sauce to my gravy
and take it to the next level.
So I've opted for the chilli and garlic sauce.
I added in a teaspoon.
I tasted it and I thought, my goodness, that's lovely.
You know what that needs a bit more of?
Chilli and garlic.
So I added a little bit more.
- Last few minutes.
(rock music)
- 10 seconds, ten,
nine, eight, seven,
six, five- - Gold rings.
- Four, three, two, one!
Step away.
(bright music)
Jamie, are you're compensating for something?
(laughing)
- What a feast.
Shall we start here?
(bright music)
It looks dainty.
It looks celebratory.
- It's a really weird, odd combination of elements,
but it's delicious.
- Yes!
- Oh, got there in the end.
- It looked good.
It tastes good.
Would you say quite creative?
I wouldn't have thought of putting
those combinations together.
This is like the main event on the main day, right?
- [Jay] How is it, how is it, how is it?
Yeah!
- Should I splodge you? - Just give me some
gravy please.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- The oyster sauce glaze on the turkey,
combined with the kind of spicy garlic sauce going on
in the gravy, I think is standout.
- I really liked the oyster sauce on the turkey
because it was just enough on the skin
and there's nothing in the meat.
So you've got kind of the plain white meat
and then it's seasoned really well by just a thin
layer of oyster glaze.
- It's actually really delicious, cooked just perfectly,
unlike the broccoli, would be my only criticism.
And I like a little bit of char, but I think maybe,
maybe a little bit too much.
Dessert time? - Yep.
- Well, chef's expectations really high seeing as Baz
didn't really do anything in that battle, wouldn't you say?
- We're looking for creative use and deliciousness.
This is out of the box.
We'll see if it's delicious.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Happy Christmas.
(upbeat music)
- Ooh!
That is all the Christmas joy.
The dried fruit with brandy and spices
is what I know to love of traditional Christmas.
And then you've kind of just turned it on its head
and the plum sauce in that- - That's it, isn't it?
- Which in my head is such a savoury sauce.
Works so well in that with a little bit of soy as well.
- This is gonna sound really weird,
but it's really well seasoned.
It's a really well seasoned dessert
because of the saltiness of the soy sauce.
And I guess a little bit about the plum sauce as well.
This is gonna be a really difficult decision.
(tense music)
- Put us out of our misery. - In a very close third
place is Mike.
- What's the point?
(laughing)
I'm making a leftover sandwich next time
with some sesame oil and some dark soy sauce.
- Come on James, who's is the winner?
- Again, very close.
But our winner today is Jamie.
- Whoa!
- That turkey was standout.
- Well done, mate.
- These two won it for you.
And there's lots of lovely other twists on the board.
- Oh, thanks guys.
- Well, we hope you enjoyed our ultimate Christmas
cooking fusion battle.
You've heard what we think,
but now over to you.
Comment down below which elf would have taken it for you.
- Big thanks to Lee Kum Kee for the cooking challenge.
- And if you'd like some foodie inspo
for what to cook in December,
then click the link below and you can download an ebook
featuring 24 recipes from famous chefs
across the EU and the UK and Lee Kum Kee.
- You'll also be in with the chance of winning
a year's worth of Lee Kum Kee products,
and also a year's membership to the Sorted club.
- All the details are down below.
- [All] Merry Christmas!
- Merry Christmas! - Merry Christmas!
- Who wants more turkey?
- [Narrator] Before you go, just a quick shout to say
thanks to all of you who are using
and sending us your thoughts on our Packs app.
We wanted to create a tool to help you boss
your mid-week meals, cut down on food waste
and reduce the cost of your weekly food shop.
And you are helping us do just that.
So thank you.
We want to make this as accessible as possible right now.
So if you haven't tried it, you can now for a full month,
absolutely free.
The link is in the description box below.
And now for the bloop.
- And now I need to use a hob, you're like,
boom, boom, flavour, flavour, flavour, flavour, flavour,
flavour, flavour, oh!
Basting, basting, basting,
flavour, flavour, flavour, basting.