(indistinct chatter)
(electronic music)
- Hello, welcome to the channel.
- Now this is gonna be a little mini series, three episodes
for our three normals, and they are going to battle it out
to create three amazing dishes, two portions of each,
from a single grocery shopping list of ingredients,
and we're only giving them £24 to spend.
Plus of course, as always, we want no food waste,
not going to be easy.
Okay boys, time to go shopping.
You've got £24 to spend each,
but just 15 minutes in the store to hatch a plan.
- Oh, this is not going to be easy.
(upbeat music)
- Here we go.
- Okay, here we go.
I've got a bad feeling I'm gonna be overspending here.
- This is hard.
- [Barry] No aleppo pepper?
- Oh, I can't find what I need.
- I really hope that I've worked this out correctly.
- Got bad feeling this is gonna be tight.
- [Ben] Okay, boys.
You've got your ingredients.
They have also picked their names out
of a hat to work out who goes first.
Mike, you're starting us off in 3, 2, 1 go!
- Wow. Okay.
Whoa, let's get some pans preheating.
- What's your first dish Mike?
- Deconstructed, or open as I like to call them,
steak sandwiches with caramelised onion, pepper,
and a homemade Mayo on the side.
Cheese steak on ciabatta, cause I got some cheese as well.
- Representing Philly I hear.
- That is a bold-
- Absolutely not.
I don't put my name to that.
-Mate that is a bold, expensive start.
- Well, you think that,
but actually you can make one steak split two ways.
So actually, my four pounds, thirty
that I spent on that steak,
it's really two pounds, fifteen.
A portion of the main bulk of the dish.
It also means that I can use the ciabatta
in other elements of my week's meals.
So I'm starting off with peppers and onions sliced.
They're gonna go into a pre-heated pan with some oil.
just to cook and soften.
- So we've asked you today to buy everything that you're
going to use with exception of salt, pepper, sugar, and oil.
- [Mike] Again, gonna get a little bit of oil on there,
would love some butter, but I can't afford it.
- So in this instance, are you using all
of each ingredient in this first recipe?
Or are you sharing any?
- I'm not cooking anything that's gonna be shared,
but I have bought, for example, a three pack of peppers,
and the other two are gonna be spread across the others.
A three pack of onions.
The same with that, the ciabattas, I bought two packs.
So ciabatta here, but ciabatta later as well.
What's he call this?
- [Ben] A nuance, nuance. - [Mike] A nuance.
- This is a nuance of rubbed garlic, which let's be honest,
I don't know why I'm doing with that.
So I'm gonna dice it and put it over the top instead.
- You've had a third of your time, 10 minutes in.
Garlic is one of those things
that we don't consider to be food waste
cause it has a shelf life beyond the week you're using it
if it's stored properly,
we would say the same for mustards,
for things like hard cheese,
like a Parmesan, or even a bottle of wine.
If you open it and use a glass, the rest will keep
for cooking purposes for a week or two longer.
- Right.
Mayonnaise.
- [Jamie] Which way around you spitting your eggs?
- The yolk is, nope!
The white is going in this way.
(Jamie and Barry laugh)
Sometimes I just let fate decide.
- [Ben] So the way I'm gonna try and judge these
to keep it fair is
I'm going to score each of your dishes out of 20.
I'm gonna give you a score out of 20
for your planning and your clever use of ingredients,
and your diversity and inspiration.
And then I'll give you a final score out of 20
for your efficiency in the kitchen.
And therefore you'll have a,
out of a hundred score and we can compare you.
- Garlic in here.
Just so now it doesn't burn.
- I like the fact you're adding in the garlic later on.
Once the other stuff's had a chance to colour.
Garlic is likely to burn quicker.
Cause it's full of sugar.
- [Jamie] There is panic. - [Barry] There is panic.
- Why is there panic?
- There's no panic.
There's just urgency!
- Very heavy handed on the mayonnaise.
It looks like he's making soup.
- I'm making lots.
- Don't, don't do that.
So-
- Oh?
- No, I'm talking to people at home.
(they all laugh)
- I've done a Barry there, haven't I?
- You have done a Barry there.
So my suggestion would be a clean bowl.
One egg yolk, little bit of mustard, salt, and pepper,
and then drizzle in the mess you've made slowly
but surely as it emulsifies.
- It's really hard to stand on the side and be judgey,
knowing that it's going to flip round like-
- [Barry] Oh yeah, completely.
- [Mike] It doesn't feel hard from here.
No, it feels like you're doing a really good job
of being really judgey.
- [Ben] Leave yourself resting time,
and we want that nice rosy pink middle.
If that was served well done, it'd be sent back.
- [Mike] Really?
- [Ben] I think so.
Your approach was to time it, fine.
But obviously, every steak is a different thickness.
So better to do it by eye, really hot pan and sear it,
but then based on the pressure point,
and the texture as you cook it, so that you don't overcook.
You are whizzing your way through the time.
And I, for the sake
of the fire alarm, how's your grill looking?
- Oh.
(Jamie and Barry snicker)
(cartoonish music)
(Jamie laughs loudly)
- This is just what happens, isn't it?
I think these are quite done.
(Mike sighs)
- [Ben] Anybody who says that
our normals aren't still normal-
- We didn't hear him properly,
it's a mistake sandwich.
Not a steak sandwich.
- Very good.
- Well, what I like is he's saved his mayonnaise.
I think, five minutes remaining.
- Recipe one of three.
- This, I think he said this was his quick one.
- Guys there's, there is such a thing as punching down.
- Use of lemon as like, an acidity, is really smart.
If you don't want to go through the effort
of buying a full bottle of vinegar, however,
vinegar is obviously cheap in the long run
once you've got it in your staples cupboard.
What I'm guessing he's to do here is
use some of it in this dish
and carry the rest of the lemon across the week.
- Wow, look at this lovely,
ooh, just slightly medium pink in the middle.
Lovely!
- [Ben] Last 90 seconds.
- [Mike] I don't operate well under stress.
I haven't got any flavour on that ciabatta anymore.
- [Ben] He's just giving up.
- [Mike] Can I have a blow torch Ebbers?
- Uh, yeah?
Last 30 seconds.
- Please melt! Please melt!
- [Barry] Mayonnaise? - [Ben] Five, four, three,
- [Jamie] Mayonnaise? Mayonnaise?
- [Ben] Two, one. - [Mike] On the side.
- Mate, the great news is,
you're a third of the way through the challenge.
- Oh.
(upbeat horn music) (chalk scratching)
- We'll taste them all at the end, but you are set
with a clean kitchen again
for your second dish and you're 30 minutes starts now.
- So dish two, breaded Turkey Milanese
with home-style potatoes.
- Nice.
A lot more process in this one.
- Yeah, I know.
So I'm just gonna cube up two
of my pack of four potatoes.
(pan sizzles)
(Jamie and Barry laugh)
(beep)
That got hot quick.
Salt, pepper, cover.
I'm gonna keep an eye on those, foreshadowing.
- You heard it here first.
- So now I'm dicing up an onion.
It's going to form the basis of a tomato sauce.
I've got a tin of tomatoes.
- So we've given you a 24 pound budget,
which is kind of what our food team always worked to
when they're planning Sidekick recipe packs.
So that splits across three meals, two portions of each.
So it works out about £4 a portion.
But in doing that,
you are gonna have bought ingredients that will add
to your dry store, which means over time,
it'll become cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper.
You might have a bulb of garlic left for next week,
some mustard, you'll certainly have some flour left.
All of these things mean cooking at home
from scratch gets easier and easier,
and cheaper and cheaper.
You've had half your time.
- I am going to use one of my eggs,
the flour that I bought
to have a pané station,
along with the zhuzhed up breadcrumbs
of these just disgraces.
- We're also gonna throw into the mix today
two skills badges.
So this is how the leaderboard looks as it stands.
And the badges are food waste,
applied with clever use
of ingredients and avoiding waste at the end.
And the second badge up for grabs is
meal planning, or recipe planning.
So this is a balance between budget,
share of ingredients,
but also not getting bored of the same things
night after night after night.
He seems to be in control, 10 minutes left.
You happy your turkey's gonna do in that time?
- [Mike] Yeah I think so.
Onions are getting there now.
So let's go in with chopped tomatoes.
- [Ben] Using half his herbs.
- I dunno if you can tell guys,
but I feel a little bit more in control.
- [Ben] Six minutes remaining.
Seasoning triangle remains important,
tomatoes love a little pinch of sugar.
- That's great.
Watercress and rocket.
- Three minutes.
(electric guitar music)
- I went for the wrong size plate.
It's so diddie.
- [Ben] Last 90 seconds.
Five, four, doesn't really need it, two, one.
- [Jamie] Yes! Well done.
- [Ben] Recipe number two, done!
Strap in, and let's go again.
Third dish from the same bag of grocery shop ingredients.
30 minutes on the clock.
Go!
- Think big, fresh salad with lots of peppers,
leaves, onions, and baked potato with coronation turkey.
- Ooh! - Oh nice.
- Hence, why getting this mayonnaise right is pivotal here.
- Stabbing just releases any the pressure
from the skin so they don't go bang the microwave,
if you've got to microwave.
- [Mike] Just gonna fry off my turkey breast.
- So just one breast between the two?
Are you bulking out with boiled egg or anything else?
- [Mike] No, I'm gonna have to use the egg
potentially to fix this.
- So low, slow, steady dribble, and it should thicken up.
- Finally!
- [Ben] Nice.
- Ah, Lebec.
I'm gonna flavour the mayonnaise with some curry powder.
(upbeat horn music)
Roasting this? Frying this?
Or is it just a raw pepper salad?
- Just raw pepper salad.
But now you said that.
it sounds like a raw pepper salad
isn't good enough to you.
- No, no, not at all.
We've got some wonderful recipes for sort of summertime,
gazpachos, some panzanellas, some kind of, fattoush
kind of vibes, where the raw salad is lovely.
- Potatoes are done.
- You've given your potatoes a 10 minute head start.
Now they're going into a preheated oven.
I would take that turkey out the pan,
cause I can still hear it sizzling,
which means it's still cooking.
You have 16 minutes left.
(upbeat horn music)
- Let's get the rest of the charcoal
off of my other crouton.
- [Ben] 12 minutes remaining.
- This was the only fresh herb available in my store,
and some freshness is better than no freshness, I think.
I got some olive oil,
so let's do a big old driz, squeeze of lemon juice.
Let's have a look at these potatoes.
- [Ben] Five minutes!
- The turkey can, has now cooled enough,
that can go into my mayo.
- That's an interesting ratio.
- Yeah.
- I'd have gone the other way around,
I'd put a little bit of mayo into the turkey
rather than the turkey into all that mayo.
- [Jamie] My coriander,
no you're having all the mayo mate.
- [Barry] That's like a coronation of soup.
- You can't serve that much mayonnaise on anything.
- [Mike] That's great.
- Last couple of minutes.
- [Mike] There's a lot, a lot, a lot of salad.
- I do love coronation chicken though.
- It's the raisins that make it for me.
- Yeah, it's the fruit that's the good bit, isn't it?
- Don't punch down.
(all laugh)
- [Ben] Croutons making use of charred ciabatta.
We've lost Barry.
This is midweek cooking,
when you haven't got a plan,
and you haven't got a chef in your pocket.
(bell dings)
- I've done enough here.
(upbeat horn music)
(percussive music)
- Well, see, more depressing
when they're all lined up next to each other.
- [Ben] Let's dig in.
You've got good sear flavour on the steak,
but it's definitely overcooked.
- Sorry.
- The caramelization on the onions and peppers
is really good.
And the seasoning on the mayo is good,
but let's be honest,
I don't think any of the elements
are quite as you would normally cook.
- No, I properly lost the plot.
It all needed, in hindsight, to be executed perfectly
to even be good, and none of it's executed even well.
So it's terrible.
- But the idea of a steak, onion, pepper, cheese sandwich,
I think is a strong idea.
- However, your second dish had a much clearer vision.
What I like is the up cycling of your ciabatta,
turn it into crumb to bread it, the turkey's delicious.
The home fries are cooked nicely,
with a good amount of colour, and seasoned.
And that sauce is the right level
of tangy and sweet, solid effort.
And I would eat all that.
- I'd be happy at that point, mate.
Very happy.
- You mean you wouldn't?
- No.
What I am liking as we move down,
is the sharing of ingredients.
There's an onion there, there's an onion there.
There's an onion there.
Plus, potatoes shifting, plus the bread.
Like, there's a lot of shared ingredients.
The third plate however, I'm also confused with.
- [Mike] Ironically it's the one
I'm looking forward to the most though.
- What out of intrigue?
- Yeah, surprised?
- So for me, I think salads can be super exciting,
in this instance,
I think there's too much raw onion,
and the croutons are neither rejuvenized
kind of soggy bread in a panzanella,
which is delicious, neither are they crispy enough.
They're just kind of a bit like,
stale chewy bread as opposed to a crouton,
so I don't think that really worked but,
cheating with the microwave to get the
jack of potato in gear,
and using the mayonnaise in a third dish does make sense.
I just think your ratios between mayo and Turkey
don't make it particularly nice.
I'm gonna be honest, Mike,
I'm somewhat underwhelmed.
- I found it really, really hard
with the sharing of ingredients and no waste.
And it forced me down avenues
of things that I wouldn't usually cook.
- And what you see in front of you here
is exactly the reason why
we developed our Sidekick app,
to take all of the hassle, all of the thinking,
and all the planning out of cooking midweek.
It's free to try for 30 days,
All you do, pick your recipe pack,
buy your ingredients, cook up three, much better
delicious meals.
- Oh, I'm gonna cane you when it's your turn.
(all laugh)
- We will reveal these scores at the end
of the mini series when the other two have cooked,
but comment down below,
what do you think of Mike's effort today?
- Don't do that.
- And then next week, Baz you're up.
- Oh no!
(beep)
- I'm just gonna add a splash
of water to get those onions going a bit quicker.
- That doesn't work, that's never worked.
- Yeah of course.
Oh man.