(egg frying)
- Hello, we are Sorted Food,
and this is another episode of Chef's vs the internet.
- Now here's how it works.
We challenge Ben and the chefs here at Sorted
to come up with the ultimate recipe or dish element.
- And then we let Normal loose on the inter webs
to grab all of your input,
to see if they can come up with their own version.
- And with great challenge
comes great judging responsibility.
So we brought in our mate Poppy here,
who was a pro chef to judge the lots.
- And it is a battle royal against the chefs.
And I'm ready to put a roast potato, roast off.
- Ready?
Cook in three
- Two.
- One.
- Roast!
(Bell rings)
(energetic guitar music)
- Great into the spurts.
So Barry, tell me what are you gonna do?
- So I've got some king Edwards here because
I need these to be light and fluffy on the outside.
The key to potato is when you fluff them up,
they need to fluff a massively like a,
like a big wooly sheep.
And then you kind of smother the wool in beautiful fat
and then roast them off.
- Doesn't sound quite as appealing as the roast potato.
- Now, I have to be honest, Barry and I both agree on this.
We want a fluffer,
something that's going to give you all of that edge
that you can crisp up.
So I am also using King Edward.
- Just out of interest, you know what a fluffer is?
- We can book him on in it.
- Avis has been out of the office a lot,
- Your weekend pocket,
that's amazing.
- So why is it so important to take the eyes out?
- Not all potatoes are perfect.
Those bits will just be slightly tougher.
They will color quicker
and they're just a slightly different composition
than the rest of the potato.
Remember, potato is 80% water give or take.
In my recipe, I want to start to get rid of as much of that.
So they go crispy on the outside.
- Less moisture, the crispy and that's with anything,
with you know meat, fish you want to dry it all out,
salt it, the salt extracts water,
you get this fear things.
So Ben's gone for quarters.
What size are you gonna go for your (inaudible)
- I was just gonna half these, I think,
because for me,
I've watched tater
You want as much surface area as possible
to go as crispy outside,
but I like a light fluffy middle,
so therefore you'll keep them relatively large.
- Yeah, I'm with that, I agree with you
and with it.
- For me, a couple liters of water and heavy on salt.
- So the people on Reddit,
they were giving us lots of comments about what it should do
to that water, to impart flavor into potatoes.
So I'm thinking garlic, a stock here.
add some herbs in there as well,
as well as salting the water.
- Poppy approves.
- I approve that's fancy.
- There's a lot of P's in that.
Poppy approves.
- Poppy approval(claps)
- Poppy approval
- Soak into cold water,
bring to a boil
and Chuck in all the flavor.
- The counter to that,
when we were thinking about this is
we do want a nice firm middle, so they hold their shape,
but lots of fluffy outside.
So break the rule of thumb,
which is vegetables grown under the ground,
start in cold water.
I'm gonna add them into boiling water,
heavily seasoned with salt.
And I'm adding bicarb of soda.
Bicarb changes the pH
sends it upwards
and it makes basically the brown better in the oven.
- He had to get with science--
- All words, no detail.
- About half a teaspoon to a couple of liters of water.
Important that it is bicarb of soda, not baking powder.
Sometimes people get those confused.
Think they're interchangeable in some cakes, they are,
here it's the soda and the alkali you want.
- All delicious bicarb or drive a bicarb
or garlic and herbs and beautiful chicken flavor.
(laughs)
- I like where you're going with this path.
- We'll see at the end.
- Size versus flavor, so..
- (inaudible)
- So when Ben immediately mentioned boiling water,
you were against it,
but then he mentioned bicarb soda and you were for it.
- Yes, it's a really good tip.
It's great for fluffing up the potatoes on the outside,
breaks down, make it a bit more fluffy,
but it's also great for vegetables, green vegetables.
If you're doing like your beans
and your peas put a bicarb in there
and watercress when you're making it.
Well, I don't know if you're gonna make a more
crispier at home, put a bicarb in there.
It keeps it really, really green.
- For years we've been talking about rules of thumb to try
and like empower people to cook better home,
and exactly that most of the time
in order to cook a potato through,
without over fluffing the outside, cold water makes sense.
Today,
breaking all those rules to the perfect roast potato
and see if we can get fluff on the outside
before it's cooked in the middle.
And then it gets ample time in the oven as well.
- Oh yeah, I'm really interested in treat
how it is gonna turn out.
Cause I think I might go bang in roast potatoes.
So I'm excited.
(laughs)
- So one place that Ben and I agree on Beef Dripping.
Beef dripping all goose fat,
but beef dripping came out on top.
You wanna get that into pan into the oven staring hot.
So when these are fluffy,
they go straight into the searing hot beef dripping
and it's gonna crisp up straight away.
- Beef dripping anything,
beef dripping a little bit of bread.
- What?
- To add interest, you've gone for chicken stock.
- Yeah, why?
Why the combo?
- I don't think it really matters.
Did you really just get as much flavor as possible?
- It is different kind.
- It might matter to the vegetarian in your life.
- Work in (beep) places we rarely saw.
(laughing)
- And do you have a ratio for fat to potato
or is it just by eye on this one?
- I'm going just by eye.
You want,
you want a good layer of fat in there.
- Coming up to the knees.
- I think you want the potatoes to be ankle deep in fat.
- Okay, ankle dip.
like that.
Okay. Avis.
What are you thinking mate?
- Just thing with the par boil from cold water,
bringing it up and then cooking it.
It takes quite a while in boiling water,
5-6 minutes ample to get that fluffy edge.
- Ben's done live potatoes already.
Like that's kinda throwing because sometimes at home I'll,
I'll just about cookies, just fluffing the outside,
but here we want to cook these all the way through.
- Right. What's this?
Okay. Avis talk to us. What are you doing here?
- So you can see how fluffy they are on the outside.
Almost mashed potato Esk,
little zhuzh in the colander,
but the bicarb has done a lot of that work for us.
Now we want to dry them out.
Your concern about trying to juggle too many things at once.
Lots of pans, lots of pots for a roast.
This is also a good hack, If you wanna get ahead.
Cause you can do these the day before.
You can either just leave them by an open window
or put them by a fan.
But basically you want to cool them down and dry them out.
- Sorry guys. So that is going to be a bit late.
The fan has taken a while for the potato to dry.
- Yeah, and if you leave them on the window sill,
the cartoon dog is gonna come and eat them up.
(laughs)
- The idea is that you can do them a whole 24 hours
advance even.
- [Barry] Whoa, that's not fair.
- Leave them in a fridge unwrapped overnight.
And Look how dry they go, fluffy,
but still solid in the middle.
- Well, it's really hard to normal, is like,
it takes quite a long for us to
absorb information sometimes.
And when it sinks in, it's there forever.
I was taught this method originally by this guy here.
- Oh, I know.
(laughs)
- So, that's now that for me,
that's the only way to make roast potatoes.
Cause now sunken in and now he's throwing without doing
something completely different.
- So now we've got all the crispy, dry bits.
I want to douse them.
In fact, cause that's what will go crispy.
And I'm using half olive oil, half goose fat.
- Why the half and half oil fat mix?
- Olive oil for flavor,
goose fat for high sort of roasting temperature.
- This makes more sense of
why he played those smaller as well.
Might've big to start off it,
but it probably ended up being the same size.
Cause I'm gonna to shake them to the inch of their life.
- Gotcha. Yeah. That's exactly what I would do.
- I've put mine onto baking paper.
Two reasons, easier to clean later.
Also prevent any sticking.
And then they go into an oven as hot as it will go.
240 degrees to start that Frank process,
I will begin to turn it down later on
to make sure they do cook through.
Cause these are still packed even in the middle.
- I want to slack them off,
but they are things of beauty.
They're glistening.
- They do glisten.
- For me.
I'm stopping here because there is a point where
it's falling off the knife.
Let's have a look.
It's falling off the knife.
I could go further.
But at the same time, if I go further
I'm just gonna have roasted a mashed potatoes. Yeah.
I'm gonna come in there now.
- Sometimes Reddit's will be.
- Now, we as Reddit.
We're gonna shake it.
(laughs)
- He's gyrate in it.
- No, I'm not, Haven't got a fan pairing from my window.
And so I'm gonna let him stigma dry in the condo in the pan.
Just a few minutes, whilst my oil finishes heating up.
There has definitely been a few casualties in there.
- Oh, it's fine.
- Very tasty casualties.
But that's where I think the bicarb prevents that
so you get the crispy fluffy bits,
but without any (inaudible).
- Oh, that is rich of chicken, goodness
and nutritious herbs.
Love that. Ready?
Well you shall there.
Isn't the nitrous fluff.
To make sure these go super crispy.
Another thing on Reddit.
People are saying, use cornflour,
a table spoon of cornflour over the top.
- Yeah.
- Mix it in gives it an extra bite at the end.
Something I wouldn't do at home.
Something I've never done.
But here we go.
- Could be a game changer I'm up for it.
Are they holding up? All right.
You're all right.
- I've brace it trust in Reddit we trust.
(rock music)
Chuck is more rosemary over the top of it
or on the side of it.
Then back into the oven 200, we'll save for like 40 minutes.
Then I'll go take them out.
Give them a squish
and back in for another half an hour, 40 minutes.
- What does the squished it?
- We'll get to that.
- Oh, he says we'll get to that.
- [Barry] Sorry.
Calm yeah.
- He's such a tease.
(laughs)
Now, I'm gonna toss them in the Polk.
Beautiful beef dripping and back in the oven.
- God, I love roast potatoes.
- What I'm doing differently to bazz
is keeping the herb's and the garlic
and the lemon zest until the end.
For me, If you put them in the oven right at the start,
they're gonna burn before the potatoes crisp ,
instead you don't want raw garlic, you don't want raw herbs,
but I will toss them through in the last couple of minutes
just to take that edge off.
- That does make sense.
- It does make sense.
I'm not gonna argue it.
- With my potatoes a couple more things to think about.
Because they're so fluffy on the outside,
you don't want to move them too quickly
until they've had chance to crisp up and case in the middle.
Then you can start to turn them.
Secondly, burp the oven
- [Mike] What? Burp?
- We want to make the outsides crisp and dry.
If there's loads of steam in there,
that's not gonna happen.
- How often are you burping it?
Like if you have to give us a figure.
- You're gonna want to burp it every 15 to 20 minutes
within that.
- It's not actually called burping is it?
- The baking needs 24 hours prior.
Now you've got to burp the oven
whilst you're making a Sunday roast.
- You're cooling your Turkey down as you're doing it.
(upbeat music)
- My final step.
We're gonna toss it in the garlic, the lemon, the herb.
And then just a couple of minutes in the oven
just to take the rawness off,
but without burning those herbs.
(dramatic music)
- Okay, judgment time.
Poppy, you have plush A and B.
A is the chef's attempt.
So let's have a look.
- Oh yes,
Oh hello.
They look absolutely fantastic.
We've got the nice little flickers of herb,
which aren't burned.
And then I'm gonna go for this one.
No, you know what I'm going for this one,
which is very, very golden.
Look at the crisp on it.
- And Barry on behalf of Reddit's.
- Let's have a look
Oh, they're beasty, they're beasty and they are rustic,
which is a word we use when it doesn't look as perfect.
- But there is only one way that you can judge this
and that by eating them.
Get started.
- Okay, so we're gonna go for Ben's first
- I've listened to the crunch.
This is important.
- It's not often you eat a roast potato just like that.
Normally it smells it in gravy
and you still want the crunch, but I'm chuffed with that.
- But one thing I've lost the flavor of the herb's,
get a hint of lemon, but the rest of it.
But I mean,
I would not complain about that in any way shapable.
It's pretty perfect.
- Pretty perfect.
Pretty and perfect.
- Check out practically perfect next.
- Okay.
- It was a rustic and perfect.
- So, Yeah.
The rogue rustic beasts over here.
- Barry's beasty potatoes.
- Right?
Crunch factor.
- Type of crunch, No.
- Oh, that's very good.
It can take you back home and takes you back slightly now,
because it tastes like beef fat
and you've got the actual flavor from the chicken stock.
- Does that make a big difference?
- Can you taste the chicken and garlic and herbs? Right?
- I can taste the beef dripping
is the main element of flavor.
That is a very difficult because
I'd be happy with both of these.
I'm very much happy with both of these.
- Basically.
Are you going to be offending Ben and this Chef's sorted
or all of Reddit?
- I think purely
for the
flavor
I've got to go Reddit
(cheers)
(applause)
I'm so sorry.
But the Crunchies is better,
but I think the flavor of the beef and just comes through
and that's my personal preference on that ice delicious.
- What's amazing I wouldn't usually do this at home,
but thanks everybody at Reddit.
You may have created the perfect potato.
- The element of using the bicarb in this
and then cooking them in boiling water
really helps with the fluffiness.
And that would actually help with this because
you wouldn't get them a soft me to squash them a bit more
without them completely.
I mean, they're kind of almost no offense disintegrating,
but they are more like hash Browns.
They're like squashed mashed potato.
So I think if you merged again,
I know we've done a lot of hybrid merging with these,
taking that element of cooking them in boiling water
and using it with this method.
I think the calls are really adds to it as well.
You just kind of throwing every element at it that you can
and the flavor of the beef dripping comes through
and maybe a bit more stock.
I recommend you could have put about
three stock cubes in that water,
but like you said, the sponges they'll just absorb it all.
- Wow. Congratulations, Bazz and Reddit.
But what did you guys think comment down below?
Would you have done anything differently?
- And as always big thanks to Poppy.
All her links are in the description box down below.
Go check her out
- And thank you to everybody on Reddit for
helping give us the wind
- Well done.
Long may we continue.
(applause)
- [Ben] Thank you for rounding off nicely.
(laughs)
- [Announcer] We have an app it's called Meal Packs
and helps you plan
and then cook a week's worth of meals
using one set of ingredients, saving money,
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The link is in the description box below.
(upbeat music)
- I'm gagging for a good roast. If you want a severe.