(talking and laughing)
(utensils scrapping)
- Hello and welcome to Sorted Food.
Today, another ultimate battle
with a magic and food crossover.
We're gonna have illusionist inspired dishes
and spell binding magic thanks to Dan Rhodes.
(coughing)
- Thanks for having me.
(laughing) (explosion)
(serious music)
- Okay boys, we're looking for two magical,
mystical dishes that Dan and I will judge at the end,
based on storytelling and of course, taste and delivery.
Your time starts in 3, 2, 1.
(record scratching) (crickets chirping)
Abracadabra?
- You've just ruined everything.
Just ruined this whole video.
(laughing)
(energetic music)
- Okay, so the title of my dish is Eat Your Greens.
It's inspired by the magical musical "Wicked".
- [Dan] Right.
- Quite literally Mike's favourite.
How many times have you seen "Wicked" Mike?
- About seven or eight.
Let's not get bogged down with detail.
It's an almost entirely green dessert.
- [Dan] Right.
- [Mike] With a white chocolate matcha mochi ice cream.
- [Dan] Yeah. Oh, nice.
- A basil and kiwi coulis served
with an emerald elixir cocktail.
- Nice. So it's like "The Wizard of Oz" sort of vibe.
I like it. - Absolutely.
So, cheats ice cream: double cream whipped to soft peaks,
melted white chocolate, condensed milk
into the white chocolate with wheat grass powder,
semoli- semolina? Spirulina. Not making rice pudding.
And matcha powder for that lovely green colour.
Then all of that into the cream.
It's gonna go into a tin, into the freezer,
and freeze up for about an hour.
- Now the art of being a magician
is to multitask and misdirect.
Right now, Jamie's needing to concentrate
on one thing at a time.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We'll fix that. I'll teach him some magic.
He'll be on our level then. He'll be wizards like us.
- [Ben] Jay, what are you doing?
- For my performance, I have decided that my magician's name
and my dish name shall be one of the same.
Not everything's gonna rhyme,
but it just feels like a good start.
Gentlemen? Today I would like to introduce you to
Sloppy Jay.
- Oh, I like it.
- Sloppy Jay not only refers to my style of magic,
(laughing)
love,
(louder laughing)
and presentation,
but also to the dish that I am making,
which is a take on a sloppy Joe,
but using a magician's favourite animal.
- Dove
(laughing) - Rabbit.
Rabbit.
- A rabbit?
- Rabbit. You (beep) ruined that one, didn't you?
Slow cooked, fast cooked rabbit legs.
Yeah, you can look confused. That's what magic does.
Slow cooked, fast cooked rabbit legs,
fried till golden brown and then thrown into
a magic cooking machine.
- And talking of magic. Can we see some stuff?
- Can you see a magic trick?
- Yes. My inner geek.
- It would be rude not to show you a magic trick.
I'll show you a card trick.
Can we try this with- we'll try it with two of you.
Can I try this with you?
Alright, do as a favour, call stop.
- Stop - Stop there, you sure?
- Yes - You a hundred percent?
- [Jamie] Yes. - Right, we'll use
the other nine of hearts.
Good choice. Could you hold onto my cards?
- Yep.
- My glamorous assistant.
Alright, so look we'll tear the nine.
I'm gonna tear this card.
Okay, now watch this corner.
Watch 3, 2, 1.
Gone. Look, the corner disappears.
They're left speechless.
Now magicians know that when something disappears
it's not just gone, it has to reappear somewhere else.
So look I'll leave that card just about there.
And what can we use?
We'll use something from the bowl, and watch very closely.
Actually, do you want to cut that for me as well?
Try and just cut straight through.
And there you go.
You can do the final bit for me and we'll see
that inside of the lemon, there should be a card.
Pull that out.
Is that the exact same piece?
- I don't like it
- [Dan] He's just lost for words. It's funny.
- You can't set us a challenge
of making magic food and then come in
and do real magic and expect us to be able to match it.
- That's the way it works. And look we'll take the nine,
one last thing, we'll go like this.
It should actually.
- Oh shut up! - [Jamie] No!
So I'm melting my cheese with some double cream.
- Is this going to plan?
- Yeah.
- Is it going to plan so much that I should alert Ebbers?
(laughing)
- So, Jay.
- Yeah.
- What are you doing?
Cause so far I've heard a lot of rubbish.
(laughing)
What are you actually doing?
- I've taken the cheese back to the cow.
- [Dan] Right. - In the form of
milk and cream.
- Right.
- I shall now mature it by providing the
deep veiny blue that you like from blue cheese
- That sounds immaculate.
Could not have said it better if he tried.
- Say the magic words.
- Abracadabra.
(imitating explosion) (gasping)
(upbeat music)
- Let's make some mochi.
It's glutenous rice flour, some sugar,
and some water, combined to make a paste.
And then I heat that in the microwave.
Oh wait, no, I've got to make it green first.
So mochi is essentially, it's glutenous rice flour.
- Right.
- And you sort of make a paste
and then it dries into sort of a skin.
That sounds horrible, but it's like a gelatinous skin.
It's amazing.
- I shall now take my magical (beep)
(laughing)
- This is amazing.
- My magical blue cheese and put it in the fridge.
- Could I do you another trick?
- [Mike] Please. - [Jamie] Yes.
- Yes. Cool.
Alright, so I'm gonna show you a trick in my book.
Okay. Could you hold out your hand?
- Oh, nice plug.
- Yeah, nice plug for the book. Shameless plug.
Put your hand on top.
Okay. And don't let me get near
and put one hand on the bottom.
Hold onto it for your life.
Yeah, go on your phone calculator.
- [Mike] Yes.
Pass it to me. I'm gonna make a prediction.
Okay. Click the times button and then call stop
- [Mike] Stop!
- Stop right there. Okay, this is your card.
The 10 of diamonds. Good choice.
Alright, look, I'll take the 10 of diamonds.
You can all see this card.
Okay, I'll take the 10
and then I'll just put the 10 like this.
Give it a blow and that 10 disappears.
Turns to an ace.
Okay, now look, could you put in any
two digit number you want?
Put another one then.
Then press equals.
What have you got?
- [Mike] 248.
- 248.
Right, do you remember what card you picked?
- [Mike] 10
- The 10 of diamonds. - You turned it into an ace.
- I turn it into an ace.
So where's the 10 gone?
It's the real question.
- Probably in my bum isn't it?
(laughing) - No, no.
Yeah. Have a check.
I'm joking.
I'm not that good. I'm not that good.
I wish I was that good.
I'll tell you what though?
Could you turn to page 248 for me?
- No.
- [Mike] Have you ever read a book before?
- Is that the same card?
- Yes. - There we go.
And it even says anything is possible.
(groaning)
- It's got layers to it.
- Yes it has.
- [Announcer] If you are enjoying this,
there are some small things you can do
that make a big difference to us.
Like the video.
Subscribe, if you aren't.
Click the notification bell and select all.
Thanks.
- My rabbit's been cooking under pressure for 15 minutes
I'm now tipping all of the cooking juice
into a large sauce pan.
I'm gonna add some Dijon mustard, fried shallots,
smoked paprika, bit of sugar.
Let my rabbit cool down for a little bit, then shred it up.
Chuck that in. We're gonna bring that to a simmer.
Get it all nice and sticky, reduced down.
- [Ben] How sticky is your mochi?
- Basically it's going in and out of the microwave
every minute for about three or four minutes
until it becomes really sticky and stretchy.
(chill music)
I've basically got a corn starched baking parchment
and I'm giving it a rollout
to about half a centimetre thick.
And then I'm gonna actually let it cool
for about 15 minutes before cutting it into circular discs
for my ice cream to go in the middle.
- [Dan] Nice.
- So when you were given the brief magic and food,
where did your mind go?
- Well, instantly to the only thing that I associate
with magic, which is "Wicked" the musical.
I wanted to find like the right balance between like
a dish inspired and actually link it to the thing
that's supposed to be inspiring it.
So it wasn't just crowbar-ed in
which I've been guilty of in the past,
but also try and not only link it to the brief
in language and food,
- [Dan] Yeah.
- But try and add some sort
of magical themed reveal at the end.
- [Dan] Yeah.
I have no idea whether that's gonna work,
but hey, that's the jeopardy.
That's the foreshadowing.
Spaff, what are you doing?
You've gone quiet again.
Ebbers, I feel like you're being too distracted,
by the magic, - [Ben] Honestly,
- to focus on what's happening. He's getting away
with murder - You've given me
the best misdirection, that you guys
are getting away with murder in the kitchen today.
- Dan. How long did it take for you
to like learn and be confident enough to perform?
- No, I started when I was seven.
I'm 19 now, so I can't do math,
but that's a long while. Is it?
- [Mike] Do you want my calculator?
- It's about as long as we've been doing this.
(focused music)
- Are you showing me a trick?
- Silk tricks.
- Silk tricks? So, empty hands
and we'll try and see if we can basically
place the hanker chief
- Right. - down into the hand.
The good thing is no sleeves.
- Yeah. - As you can see.
- Nothing up the sleeve.
- Genuinely. Genuinely going into-
- The palm of your hand.
- Into the palm of the hand.
And we're probably gonna need you to give a little bit
of like a magic breath.
- Yeah.
- You go like that and it just vanishes.
But only if you blow,
will it come right way back.
- I'm done. That was too good.
- It's actually irritating
how much of a good time Ebbers is having?
- I know.
(upbeat music)
- Mochi discs, done.
I'm just gonna let those set for about 50 minutes.
In the meantime, let's make a basil and kiwi coulis.
So basil going into salted boiling water
for about 30 seconds and I'm gonna whip it out,
put it in a ice bath to blanch it.
It keeps all the colour really vibrant.
- I've ribboned two carrots of orange and purple
and I'm gonna put them in a Kilner jar
with some thyme and rosemary
and pour over a boiling mixture of water,
cider vinegar, and sugar.
- [Mike] What has happened to you?
What are you talking about?
- And then the magic shall appear.
- Why are you speaking like some sort
of person guarding a bridge or something.
- Rule number one of magic.
Never repeat a trick.
Jay, we haven't got enough vinegar for you to repeat this.
Get it right first time.
- [Dan] They say once is a trick, twice in a lesson.
- Then boys, let me show you my magic pickle.
Oh no.
That doesn't sound right. (laughing)
Watch as this clear liquid
of cider vinegar, water, and sugar
goes into our glass jar and turns a deeper shade of purple.
(upbeat music)
- So many different ways to peel a kiwi
- Is there? Is this your preferred method?
- He's gone for probably the easiest method
for multiple when you don't need it whole.
- Right.
Yeah, 'cause I'm gonna blend all this up.
With my basil blanched, I'm squeezing the excess water out.
It's going into a blender with the kiwi
and I'm gonna zhoosh it up for about a minute,
adding a bit of sugar and the odd ice cube
until I've got the perfect zhoosh-able consistency.
(energetic music)
- Okay, last few minutes.
Last 60 seconds.
- [Ben] 10, 9, 8,
5, 4, 3,
2, 1.
- [Dan] Time's up.
- Dan, are you ready for their performances?
- I am so ready. I've never been more ready.
- I'm not ready.
- I am not ready.
- Jay, we've had the dress rehearsal.
Show us what it's all about.
- We've spent the day talking about magicians.
- [Dan] We have.
- And wizards.
One thing we haven't spoken about is witches.
- Right.
- Witches and their magic cauldrons.
- [Mike] What's my theme again?
- Oh, whoa, but not only fire.
(all exclaiming)
- [Dan] There it is! There it!
- Pulled rabbit from a hat
- Pulled rabbit from a hat.
- That is quite good.
- Add some of our elixir into there.
(intense music)
Some blue cheese.
Gentleman, I present you with
the Sloppy Jay.
(clapping)
- Congrats.
- Pulled rabbit from a hat, that's clever.
Colour changing pickles, I'm on board.
What is that cheese?
- Blue cheese.
- I like the story.
I like the play on words.
I'm intrigued to know how it eats.
- Cheers.
(groovy music)
- Good level of smoke.
I'm still confused by the blue cheese.
- Yeah.
I don't understand that. - It tastes like cheese.
But it just looks odd.
Storytelling. It hits all the magic boxes.
I like the pull, grab it out the hat.
The rabbit is cooked really well
and finishing it with that brandy
that had been on fire but was definitely still boozy,
was really nice.
And the pickles are great.
- To be fair, it was very well thought out. Very original.
I don't think I've ever heard
of someone making a rabbit before, mate.
- You don't see it in kid shows very often.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't. Exactly.
So yeah, I'll give that a nine.
Congratulations.
- Oh!
- A nine! - [Dan] You did well.
A nine. - Oh!
- Which means you've got all to play for Mike.
- Okay, Dan?
- Yep.
- First off, let's-
- A bit of dry- Oh!
- Get our elixir bubbling.
- I like it.
- This I do like.
- Getting the cauldron going.
- That it, do not drink that!
You should not consume dry ice.
That is purely for effect.
So, Eat Your Greens, inspired by "Wicked",
a dish that defies gravity.
- Wow. Wait?
Oh, no way!
- [Ben] It's actual science.
- [Dan] Oh my God.
Let me put a card under there
- [Mike] And spins. Levitation.
- Look at that?
(plate clattering)
- Cheers Dan. Good to have you here.
(laughing)
Now, straight off the bat,
(magnet slamming)
That is not mine.
- The illusion is finished.
- That's mine. It's rubbish.
It looks terrible. And it was too heavy to float on that.
But there you go, you got got the illusion.
- It's the thought that counts.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Yep.
- Makes you breathe fire, doesn't it? Like a dragon?
- It takes you on a journey
and not just down the yellow brick road.
It's got all of the textures and sensations
from chewy mochi to ice cold, popping candy.
Kind of a twang of basil
which is quite strong for a dessert,
but kind of brought back by Kiwi.
Perhaps the only thing that lets it down
is you also have that slight corn flour
that you've rolled the mochi in
which is quite drying in your mouth.
- I'm not proud of the mochi.
The mochi isn't good.
- I've seen you make better mochi before.
- Yeah.
- But as a story and with the elixir,
I like the magic vibe.
- Yeah. I just wanna say, how does that song go?
Goodbye yellow brick road. I'm saying goodbye to it.
Never trying that again.
(laughing)
I'm joking, no.
- That is really deep, Dan.
- No, this was incredible.
I'm gonna give it a solid eight.
But as a whole, in terms of making that float
making the ice appear inside,
the fact that it was a "Wicked" theme, it was very on brand
I'm giving you a 10 out 10.
(gasping) (clapping)
10 out of 10!
- Jamie is absolutely gobsmacked.
Dan, it's up to you.
You can award one magic badge today.
- Only one?
- A magic badge?
We are clutching. - [Jamie] A magic badge!
- Yeah. It's like when you join the magic circle
you get a little pin badge. It's much the same like that.
- We'll stick it under the creativity section.
- Who do you think was your winner today?
Was it pulling rabbit out of a hat with a caldron of elixir?
Or was it our yellow brick road "Wicked" event?
- Alright, officially the winner
of this little cook off is
(flame lighting) (metal clanging)
Mr. mochi. There we go. You win!
- I mean, I don't know what I'm more surprised at.
That, or the fact that you won.
- [Jamie] Dan, a massive thank you.
- [Mike] Yeah, thank you mate. So good.
- Not everyone agrees, but if you agree or not
comment down below, let us know,
and make sure you go check out Dan's channel.
There's loads of amazing magic on there
including more to the team.
- There is. Thanks for watching everyone!
It's been magic
(cards flapping) (camera beeping)
- Well Ebbers, I've got some magic for you.
(steam hissing)
- You are literally like Tommy Cooper over there.
- He's showing off. He's showing off.
It's gone to his head. The magic's gone to his head.