(egg cracking)
(sizzling)
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- Hello, and welcome to Sorted Food.
Today, we've got a bunch of frozen food
and we're going to look at awesome ways
for you to hack them into recipes at home.
Two normals, Barry and Jamie,
with myself, together,
we're going to cook, chop, chat our way through
a couple of recipes and cook up a feast.
- For the purposes of today's video though,
Elsa, Anna, Olaf.
(laughing)
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- Elsa, under the cloche is number one.
- Frozen spinach.
- Frozen pellets of spinach.
- Yes, I love this stuff.
And the main reason I love this stuff is
fridge space.
- So Barry, you're going to be cooking up a--
- Elsa.
- A spinach and cream cheese pasta from our meal packs app.
It's going to be the perfect vehicle
to discuss and showcase frozen spinach.
- Right, this one's mega simple.
- [App Voice] Once the water has come up to a boil,
chuck in 150 grammes or 5.3 ounces of pasta
and cook for eight to 10 minutes
until soft but with a slight bite.
- [Ben] So I have to be honest, frozen pellets of spinach,
I think are a great hack.
I get a little bit nervous if I haven't
got any in the freezer.
Always keep a supply, always on hand--
- Not sleeping at night.
- [Ben] Because they are so versatile.
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- Now, my frozen spinach.
Going for like four pellets worth.
- The beauty of frozen spinach is
it's already been washed, blanched and shocked
to preserve its fresh, green vibrancy,
and therefore it's already shrunk right down.
So whereas you might need 400 grammes of fresh spinach,
you're probably only looking at 100 grammes,
120 grammes of frozen pellets 'cause you've already lost
most of that water.
- I nearly always wilt it down into something.
Does it destroy the purpose of having fresh spinach?
- When you cook spinach, you lose some
of the benefits of vitamin C,
because it's water soluble and isn't heat resistant.
However, you've still got all the other benefits.
And there is a reason that Popeye was stacked.
- He didn't eat it fresh either, did he?
- No. - [Jamie] He got it
out of a tin.
I've used frozen spinach a few times.
It tends to make stuff quite watery.
Are there any tips for making it not do that?
- If I use it, I tend not to use it in salads,
or couscous salads, or pasta salads,
things that I do use it a lot in wet sauces.
And of course the other thing is
you're being the hero by avoiding food waste at home.
'Cause you're only taking out of the freezer
what you require.
Saves you from wasting food, but there's also
a lot less wastage in the supply chain,
because you aren't losing a little bit of fresh spinach
in that journey from field and farm,
to supermarket or market, to your home.
- Cream cheese, going in, mix.
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- I know mid-week meals are always quick,
but this is a particularly quick one,
and it tastes so good.
- [Barry] All spice.
- Seasoning, important, but do it right at the end
because you've seasoned your pasta water,
you're adding some of that pasta water in,
that in itself is kind of seasoning.
And then you can adjust.
- Layers.
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- I just adore this sort of recipe.
- He's not even sharing.
- It's cheesy, it's creamy, it's spicy.
(laughing)
- You're eating the spinach.
Can you tell it's been frozen?
- In that, not at all.
- And obviously when you open the bag
you saw the price on it.
That particular one was a pound for 900 grammes.
You're looking at £1.11 per kilo.
And that is on the whole three times cheaper
than the equivalent weight of fresh spinach.
The problem is, with fresh spinach
you lose two and a half times of its volume as you cook it.
So it actually works out
about seven and a half times cheaper.
And the feel-good factor is not only you saving money,
you're probably saving food waste
both in the chain and the stuff that you throw away,
and you're still getting all the goodness
if you were going to cook anyway.
- You could still look like Popeye.
Those tiny arms.
- Is that why you're giving me spinach?
(laughing)
- Olaf, you're up.
Thanks editor.
- Oh.
- [Ben] Big fan.
- Gyoza?
- Dumplings.
- Sorry, is Ben about to review a ready meal?
- Now's the time to come clean.
Next to my frozen spinach pellets I typically have
some form of frozen dumplings, of all sorts,
and I find, yes, they're awesome to make at home,
but they're quite fiddly.
I love to have something like this
as a really awesome cheat and hack to add
to a homemade broth loads of veggies and some noodles.
And it's a quick throw together meal
and the difficult bit, the fiddly bit, outsource.
These ones are chicken.
Ready to fry, ready to steam, or in our case
we're going to boil.
This broth is wonderful.
It stems from your recipe that you did for instant ramen.
- [Barry] So you know how
to cook-- - I know how to cook it
from scratch.
- [Barry] Mr. Ready Meals over here.
- I've also added in a little bit of miso,
I've also added in some wonderful mushrooms
because we had them in the cupboard.
Once your broth is awesome,
I'm literally just going to boil these.
- This is the thing that bothers me about
reheating or thawing meat-based frozen foods.
I don't, I never know what to do.
- If you're defrosting something to cook
from chilled you should always do that in the fridge
so that no point does it come above
the temperature of a fridge.
You shouldn't just leave something out
on the draining board to defrost.
Because what will happen is the outside will defrost
and get into the danger zone before the middle
has defrosted.
So always do it in a fridge.
However, something like the spinach
and the dumplings we're going to cook immediately,
you're going to thaw it, defrost it,
and cook it all in one, up out of that danger zone.
And it's fine again.
- He'll be like Mav, he goes into the danger zone,
but then he's back out before you know it.
- It's the lamest "Top Gun" you've ever seen.
- It is so good.
- In the time we've been chit chatting,
this is good to go.
(energetic music)
That is a very inviting bowl of food.
The rest of the dumplings stay in the freezer
until you need them again.
Zero waste.
Personally, this is a traditional art
that needs time and dexterity
and a little bit of skill to get it good.
And if you haven't got time for that,
I think it's a really good cheat.
- He's making a point.
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- I bought that bag for £6.29, it's got 600 grammes,
but probably an easy way of working it out is
21 Pence per dumpling.
So I put about a pounds worth in here.
- That's thrown my head, because,
in my mind spending £6.29 on a bag of something frozen
feels really expensive.
But getting a dumpling for that cheap
is also really good value.
Ebbers, your top tips for buying
pre-made actual food that is frozen.
Go.
- It's got to be something that you would be challenged
to make as well yourself.
And then to make sure it's quality,
because then what you're doing is you're saving
a huge amount of time and effort,
and it gives you the flexibility to adapt
what goes around it, because that could be
a different bowl of broth each week, for five weeks.
And you've got variety.
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- Right, you're turn.
Lift the cloche.
- Ooh, pizza dough.
- I use frozen pizza dough a lot and I swear by it.
- Really? - Yeah, it's brilliant.
- Why don't you just make your own, you lazy sod?
- When's the last time you made pizza dough?
- Saturday. - All right, okay.
- And here's the thing; bread,
the world over is one of the easiest things to make.
However, it does take time.
It is a useful hack if you want to cheat
and then personalise and customise everything
that goes on it or in it.
So we're thinking why not make a sweet calzone?
- We haven't got any pepperoni, or--
- Are you not a sweet pizza fan?
- Why would you have a sweet pizza
when you can have a savoury one?
Comment below, sweet or savoury pizza?
- There's only one you're allowed to put pineapple on,
that's for sure.
- Before you bake it, you'll need to
bring it to life.
Either defrost overnight in the fridge, Ebbers.
Or at room temperature for a few hours.
Or, take a peek at our website
for an emergency time saver.
Microwave, I'm guessing.
- How do you defrost things in the microwave properly?
- [Ben] The thing with the microwave,
is a defrost setting is only intermittent heating.
It's not that it's a lower temperature.
It just means it's gonna zap it for three seconds on,
three seconds off, three seconds on, three seconds off.
And in the downtime, the heat travels through,
and you need to give it time to defrost.
Which is why, if you're defrosting a block,
you often need to try and break it up
or mix it up or turn it and stir it.
- [Jamie] That is completely new information to me.
- [Barry] Jamie, that's probably the best rolling
you've done.
That pizza is perfectly circular.
Shame you're gonna fold it.
- I know!
- Given you a selection of ingredients there.
A nice chocolate ganache we've made,
some mascarpone, and a little bit of stem ginger
in syrup as well.
So that you've got that kind of fiery warmth
with the tangy cream, with the rich chocolate
and the crunchy nut.
- [Jamie] Filling's done, I'm just going to use
a little bit of this syrup to help stick down
my edges.
(rock music)
(laughing)
- [Ben] Three, two, oh no.
You've definitely got a top to this, haven't you?
So you can't do that.
Or a masher, yeah.
(laughing)
Just commit.
There you go, such a fuss.
- Eh, shut your faces.
Right, that's going into an oven for
(dinging) minutes.
Calzone.
Pow, pow, pow.
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- It's steamy.
- [All] Ooh, oh oh oh!
- This might be hotter than the sun,
but let's find out; cheers!
Turns out I make good calzones.
- What I love is the customization of it.
The personalization of it, the fact that
you're going to make one cheat,
which, yes, you can make pizza dough super cheap
and cheerful and it's pretty easy, but,
by cheating with that you can actually
have quite a treat very easily.
- I wouldn't be able to tell you that that was frozen
if that was served up to me.
- Price-wise, one of those boxes,
it's quite a premium pre-made pizza dough,
is £2.50, so £1.25
per pizza or calzone.
- For that price, knowing that you can have it
in the freezer and pull it out any time
to make a pizza or calzone, whatever you wanted
to do with it, I think that's all right.
You're paying for the convenience of that.
- As a man of contingency, there are lots of breads
that I quite like having in the freezer.
Pita breads, naan breads, tortilla wraps.
They're good to have to hand.
Make sure if they're in the freezer
they're well wrapped to avoid freezer burn.
(energetic music)
- [Jamie] Well then Ebbers, last one.
Show us what's under your cloche.
- Frozen seafood!
- Oh, okay.
Yeah, nice.
- IQF seafood; individually quick frozen seafood,
whether it's raw or cooked,
prawns, mussels in or out of shell,
calamari, squid, I think it's really good
to have on hand in the freezer
because you can stick your hand in
and grab a controlled portion as and when
you want and it increases the shelf life.
- I have a lot of prawns in my freezer.
That's the only way that we buy prawns, is frozen.
And they're great for chucking into curries,
or pasta dishes or whatever it is.
Haven't found a calamari ring that I enjoy yet
that's frozen-- - No, that's the thing.
- I think I would agree with that.
What I've got here is a seafood selection
that's pre-cooked, and we're going to make
an incredible paella-- - What?
- And therefore add some of this on the end.
So that suddenly, paella, that very celebratory,
special occasion dish is gonna be hacked
for mid-week.
- You do that, I'll get the tortilla wraps out.
This is going to be great.
- Onions, peppers, cooked down in oil
with smoked paprika and in with paella rice.
And you want to cook it until you can begin
to smell that toasty fragrance of rice.
- What are you doing now, for goodness sake?
Sorry, we go frozen food to save a bit of money
and now you-- - [Jamie] And you've talked
about this being a mid-week meal hack.
- Vermouth, great for dry martinis,
but let's be honest,
most of the time you buy a bottle
and it just sits there, and it's waiting to be used.
And something like this is a great place to use it.
You're going to burn off the alcohol
so you're left with that wonderful flavour.
Then we're going to add in a stock,
and I've got a seafood stock which I've
infused with saffron, that is going to go in.
Lovely.
- Now tell me, Ebbers, was your seafood stock
one that you made weeks and or months ago,
and that has been in your freezer
waiting for an opportunity to be used?
- If we were filming this at home,
it would have been because I actually have some
wonderful seafood stock in the freezer,
and ham stock at the moment.
That's the two I've got on the go.
- Got on the go!?!
- But this is just a seafood stock, I nearly said cube,
but it's one of those jelly things.
And then added saffron, added garlic, yummy.
- [Jamie] Whoa, that's a colour.
- Saffron, isn't it?
Stock in.
Twice as much to rice.
I'm going to give it one stir,
then we're not gonna touch it.
- And I'm guessing that the similar rule applies
to buying frozen seafood, fish, or meat
as applies to buying fresh meat, seafood, or fish,
which is by the best that you can afford.
- Mussels farmed in Chile.
On a rope, good farming method.
Squid, wild caught in the Indian ocean.
And the king prawns are from Vietnam.
- Well, that's three very different places.
- So there's a lot of air miles
that have gone into this bag, but zero wastage
in the food chain along that route.
So where it's good on one side,
there's some very questionable practise on the other,
but for a home cook who might be a normal
and scared of seafood, I think it's
a really interesting stepping stone
and it is very affordable.
I think where these are really good
is it breaks down the barrier of people
who are scared of seafood.
If you're scared of fresh mussels
and not knowing "Is it the opened or the closed rule,
"I'm not really sure," or squid and calamari,
they're not really sure how to prep it.
This is idiot proof.
- If you had the choice between fresh and frozen
for this dish, what would give you a better final plate?
- Fresh and raw for this particular dish.
Because then as it cooks, the juices will leak in.
We could have bought that, but
this is something that is good to have
in the freezer because it's more adaptable
to a number of dishes.
In the same way as you put the spinach to your pasta,
throw some seafood through your pasta
with some chilli and some garlic and some lemon,
and you've got an amazing clam linguine,
or mussel linguine.
Wonderful.
You can put it through salads.
You can put it through curries, like you said.
You can actually defrost it and toss it in
spiced mayonnaise and put it on top of a jacket potato.
So many options.
And I feel like if it's cooked, it's more versatile.
So you can start to see grains now appearing.
Now's a good time to add the seafood
to thaw out in the oven, and cook,
and drop its juices into our wonderful rice.
Rice finishes cooking.
Seafood defrosts and heats up,
even though it's already cooked,
and the paella's done.
Serve it with aioli, fresh herbs, lemon.
Job done.
- [Jamie] Looks spectacular.
(energetic music)
- May I?
- Is it a pae-yay-a?
Or, no, let's not do that.
- It's absolutely delicious.
- How much for that bag of seafood?
- That bag was 400 grammes.
And it was £5,
which is plenty for four.
I mean, this paella is plenty for two,
and we only used half the bag.
So it depends on how you divide it.
Probably £1.25 a portion.
- Which is exceptional, for seafood.
- That's very, very cheap for seafood.
- And where I think spinach helps for space saving and cost,
I think dumplings is a time convenience
and a dexterity skill thing,
the pizza dough allows you to experiment elsewhere,
for me, seafood is about a stepping stone
to getting people to eat more seafood
that they might otherwise be scared of.
I think all of them do slightly different things.
- We've stepped into the unknown
to learn about frozen food.
And we'd love to know from you
what are your favourite recipe hacks?
What frozen food do you have in your freezer?
Comment down below, let us know.
- And for the spinach and cream cheese pasta recipe
and a whole bunch of other ideas for mid-week,
go and download our meal packs app.
It's free for a month.
We'll put all the details down below.
- Hey Baz, do you want a mussel?
- [Mike] Now you've got one!
(laughing)