(eggs cracking)
(pan searing)
- Hello and welcome to Sortedfood.
Today's theme is all about fish and chips,
but we're asking the question
who can create the better dish?
A chef with just a budget of £2.50 per portion
or a normal with
unlimited budget?
- Look at the fear on this man's face
stood in front of that.
I think I've got this one in the bag.
- [Jamie] What is that?
- [Mike] It's the "Hey Arnold!" of fish.
- [Jamie] Mike, how are you going to win this?
- So I've tried to spend the money where it matters
and I've spent a lot of it.
So I've gone full monkfish.
I've got king prawns, scallops, scallop roe, squid,
little things like saffron dotted in there as well.
Not just because it's expensive,
I'm going to try and make use of it as well.
But I've got a big task ahead of me.
Per portion, this comes out to £29.
- Cost.
- Yeah, cost.
- Ebbers, You have £2.50 per portion.
How are you going to do it?
- [Ben] It doesn't stretch far,
but I've got Pollock and I'm going
to do all the things we love about fish and chips.
Hopefully we'll all learn something from it.
- [Mike] Okay, right. I've got to get out
for this now, come on.
- [Jamie] All right, boys.
Well, your time starts in
3, 2, 1
Let's go fishing.
(nautical music)
- [Ben] Straight off, I'm stealing flour
from this side of the kitchen.
- [Mike] Are you- are you paying for that flour?
- [Ben] Store cupboard ingredient.
Flour, salt, pepper, absolute basics.
(upbeat drum music)
- I'm starting by prepping my seafood.
So that means de-shelling these wonderful,
bright red, Carabinero Prawns which aren't cooked,
they're just this color.
I picked them because they're beautiful,
they look amazing, but I'm keeping their heads on
because the heads are tasty and they look cool.
- But very, very expensive.
- And that's why I picked it.
- I think there's £7 each.
- Each?
- [Ben] Yep.
(rhythmic music)
Fish and chips.
- [Jamie] Yes.
- Do you prefer battered or breaded?
- Battered.
- [Mike] Was that the correct answer?
...as he chops up white bread.
- [Ben] Well, the thing is, some people say breaded
and some people say battered and I thought let's do both.
- Brattered.
- So I'm going to batter the fish inside of bread
and then pan fry it and you're going
to get this wonderful crispy deliciousness.
And I'm going to take bread, crust-less,
and roll out as thin as possible.
Think beef Wellington.
- [Jamie] Yep.
- [Ben] But instead of pastry, bread.
and then instead of a filet of beef,
put a filet of fish that's been battered
because that's sticky and then roll it up on itself.
- [Mike] Yeah, but to me, honestly,
I think I'm deserving of an intermediate seafood badge.
- [Ben] Worthy of basic if you nail it,
but also not just prepping it,
cooking them all to the right degree.
I will give you a basic seafood badge if you nail it.
- Comment below.
(Jamie laughs)
(intense guitar music)
- [Mike] I'm removing the poop chute.
Both full of s***.
(Jamie laughs)
(intense guitar music)
- [Mike] I also have some really great squid here
that's already prepped.
Okay, so this is pretty much prepped.
I'm going to stick it back in the fridge
until I need it at the end where it's going
to be fried off really, really quickly.
(Mike groans)
- [Jamie] It's time.
- [Mike] Using the tip of the knife,
going to pierce the skin.
- I do love following trends and how things change,
especially different cuts of meat.
You think pigs cheek, cod's cheek, monkfish cheeks.
They literally were the scraps a few years ago,
and now they make it to every menu.
And rightly so cause cooked right, they're delicious.
- [Jamie] Nicely done.
- So, now I've got to take the head off this.
So, if I lift up the fin or the wing,
I'm not really sure what that's called,
you can cut along it like this.
- In that sense, it's very similar
to the baggy bit of skin on a chicken leg.
When it's on the whole bird,
you kind of go in the baggy skin
that just kind of finds its own natural line.
- Now, there's a little soft bit there
of like jelly-ish cartilage.
and you should just be able to saw through that.
- If you've ever wondered,
when you see it on the menu - monkfish tail,
it sounds like it's just that bit of the fish
that you're being served,
it's pretty much the only bit in the fish you eat.
- Cause he's all head, it's basically all a head
and a tail, but there's no body.
- It's basically a coin.
- It's a head and a tail, yeah.
- It's all head, it's like Barry.
(laughing)
- So I've now flipped over.
And now again, using the full blade of the knife
to get rid of sort of this fatty belly.
- I've peeled and grated up an awful lot
of really big potatoes and now going to season it
and leave it for 5 minutes
for a lot of the moisture to come out,
then I'll squeeze it dry before seasoning again.
- Next, I'm using a damp cloth
to pull away the skin because it gives me extra grip.
- Yes, nicely done.
- So the skin now is off.
(intense guitar music)
So now I've found the bone and I'm going down either side
because that is how I get my filets.
- [Ben] The fish is the most expensive part of my dish.
Everything else is pretty cheap.
A lot of potato, some onion that I'm going to cook down
into a sweet but spicy curry sauce.
And I'm also going to do a really kind of tangy sauce
to go with it.
Eggs aren't cheap,
so we're actually going to make it a big part
of the dish with the Gribiche Salad.
I'm going to soft boil 2 eggs and hard boil 4.
Maybe now's a good time to come clean.
I've never prepped a whole monkfish.
Right?
(laughing)
So I was very impressed with that.
- Aw, Thanks mate.
(intense guitar music)
This is going into the fridge with the rest of my seafood.
- Mike talk to me about chips.
- So triple cooked chips, these are King Edward potatoes.
So I'm just peeling them, then I'm going
to slice them into chip shapes
and then we're going to boil them in seasoned water.
- [Ben] My eggs are out.
(intense guitar music)
This is why we do this process:
the salting and the squeezing.
You don't - if that water was in your Potato Rösti,
they'd never go crispy.
(intense guitar music)
- So I've got loads of onions sweating down
in a pan with oil and then I'm going to add in garlic,
curry powder, stock cube, raisins,
and water.
Bubble it for half an hour,
then thicken it with corn flour
and season to taste with a little squeeze of lemon.
- The potatoes: usually put them in cold water,
bring up to a boil, cooked.
I'm blanching these.
So like part cooking them in boiling water,
seasoned with salt and a glug of vinegar.
(upbeat guitar music)
- [Ben] Changing pH is really important
because I've done the same in my Rösti mix with vinegar.
But for me, that's going to allow them
to crisp up, without gaining too much color too quickly.
(upbeat guitar music)
- [Mike] I'm making kind of a take
on mushy peas using avocado, smashed peas, and some mint.
(upbeat guitar music)
- So, budget aside Ebbers,
What would be your ideal fish and chips?
- [Ben] Not far different on fish,
a white fish of sorts, maybe a beer batter.
Obviously I've just gone for a very simple batter here
and then breaded, a good tartar sauce maybe.
But I did mayonnaise in the last one,
so I'm going to go something a little bit different here
with a Gribiche.
Gribiche is a cold egg sauce, it's French cuisine.
What I'm going to do is basically make one of those,
but then chop up four eggs and fold through it.
So it's a cross between like egg salad that you'd put
in a sandwich and Gribiche, so Gribiche salad.
- I mean, it just sounds like you've made something up.
- Just because you haven't heard of it before,
- Yes.
- Doesn't mean it's made up.
It's hard boiled egg with mustard, capers,
anchovy, gherkins, garlic, oil, and the zest of a lemon.
And these get blend up to a sauce.
- Chips onto a tray into the freezer for 15 minutes
because by cooling them right down,
it means that when I come around to frying them,
all the water comes out of them
so you're left with a really crispy, delicious chip.
These are the ingredients for my dredge,
which I'm going to coat in all of my seafood
before frying it.
So flour, paprika, salt, pepper.
My seafood goes into the dredge, then goes into the batter,
which I'm going to make in here.
Then goes back to the dredge, then goes in the fryer.
(upbeat music)
- [Jamie] You're putting half a bottle of vodka
and beer into your batter.
- So when I go to fry my seafood in this batter,
in the fryer, the vodka burns off really, really quickly.
Quicker than other stuff, so actually it crisps up better.
- And with your unlimited budget,
you decided to go for a brand of vodka called Vodka.
(Mike laughs)
(upbeat music)
- [Mike] The double cook of my triple cooked chips.
They're going into my fryer and they're getting fried off
until the skin becomes nice and crispy
where I'll whip them out and I'll chuck them
in at the very end when everything else is getting fried.
So, thrice fried.
In this fryer is veg oil,
but there is also two liters of duck fat
because I had the budget and this stuff tastes amazing.
(upbeat music)
- [Ben] So I'm nearly there.
- Yeah, me not - not me.
- Nearly done on the potatoes
and the Rösti was so nice and crispy.
- Big, thick chips you've got there Ebbers
- Yeah.
(Jamie laughs)
- Chunky.
Right, going to blend my sauce.
(blender buzzing)
(upbeat music)
- [Mike] One egg yolk, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard.
So I'm making a Mayo, but I'm using garlic
and I've steeped some saffron to add in at the end.
- [Ben] I haven't got any of my budget left,
but the final thing is the Tupperware of surprise.
- Oh, no one's ever called anything that.
- [Ben] Oh, where did I put it?
Panic over, I know you were all really worried.
(Mike laughs)
So for the fish dish, I've got oregano, lemon verbena,
lemon balm, and fennel fronds
to garnish and dress the Gribiche.
(upbeat music)
- You're not going to believe it, back into the freezer.
(upbeat music)
- 15 minutes to go.
- I want to stress this Gribiche salad
is absolutely delicious as it is, tangy and fresh
and eggy and saucy and creamy and all the things you want.
The lemon verbena and the oregano is just me being.
(Jamie cussing)
(snickering)
- [Mike] Salt.
- I have to be honest boys.
If I went to the fish and chip shop
and they took this long...
(Ben laughs)
(upbeat music)
- It's frying time.
Triple cooked chips going in for a third time,
then coming out, being drained.
In the meantime, I'm going to batter,
dredge all of my seafood.
- Just finishing the curry sauce with a squeeze of lemon.
My breaded fish going in.
- [Mike] Battered fish back into the dredge,
shaking it all up then into the fryer.
- [Mike] You've impressed me on the seafood part so far,
but if you over cook those seven pound prawns now,
it's game over.
(high intensity music)
- Last 20 seconds.
(high intensity music)
3, 2, 1.
Step away from your fish and chips.
(exciting jazz music)
- Well done boys.
One plate and one yard-long board
of fish and chips.
I think fish and chips.
- Fish and chips, this is my take on fish and chips,
battered and breaded Pollock, salt and vinegar Rösti chips,
curry sauce, and Gribiche salad.
- All for under £2.50 a portion.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- [All] Cheers.
- That still has the complete texture
of breaded and battered fish.
- [Mike] It's flaky.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] The fish - that fish has really great flavour
that I wasn't quite expecting.
- I'm really enjoying the crispy outside of the bread
and the as expected, but the mush layer
in between the flaky white fish and the crispy bread.
- Yeah where the fish steams and then steams
inside of the batter.
- Yeah, it's almost three-layered.
That is the best bit about it.
(crunching)
- [Mike] You smell the vinegar straight away.
- Wow.
- That is excellent Ebbers.
- Ebbers, what you've done there is made
all the little chips that fall to the bottom of the bag,
you've put all of them together and called it a Rösti.
- [Mike] It's really good.
- And if you want the soggy bit,
if you go right in the middle, you'll find that too.
So you've got your Gribiche salad,
anchovy caper Gherkin, eggs, and a curry sauce.
- That is delicious.
- It's tartar sauce with eggs.
- Why that is like chip shop curry sauce.
- He's been very, very clever.
He's been such an Ebbers about this.
- I know, I've been less Ebbers
and more Barry, actually if anything.
- Well Mike, you've spent the money.
Have you delivered on the board?
(upbeat music)
- Let's start with the monkfish.
- [Jamie] I love monkfish
and that is the texture that I want:
The crispy batter on the outside,
the flaky fish in the middle is still really meaty.
That's a very unique prawn - it's really, really sweet.
- It does taste sweeter.
It's definitely meatier.
- That is yummy.
The scallop is sweet, the roe is delicious.
The prawn is incredible, but the chips are amazing
and you actually would want the freshness
of the pea and mint.
I don't think I'd know that there's avocado in it,
but it gives that wonderful colour
and body and creaminess to a smashed pea.
I think the whole platter is something you'd want
to feast on with friends.
- Now Ebbers, before we get to the judging of the battle.
Mike put himself up for a basic seafood badge.
How do you think he got on?
- I'm sat here like a little pig
and tried monkfish and scallop and prawn
and the roe and the squid and it's all delicious.
And the fact that you prepped an entire monkfish,
which is something none of us have ever done,
hats off to you, badge awarded.
- Yes!
Thank you.
- This puts me in an incredible predicament
because over here with Ben's,
we have some really, really smart hacks.
But also, more than just the hacks,
we have some really smart flavour combinations.
Whereas with you, we have an incredible platter
of some very expensive and also
now very delicious seafood.
Great chips, great sides
- [Ben] What's your catch of the day?
- Mike is my winner.
(Ben clapping)
That is such an incredible platter.
- Yet again the pressure is piled on
with working with that much money
in fish form and you absolutely did it.
- Thank you, thanks.
- Well, that's where I've ended up,
but who would your winner of the budget battle be?
Comment down below, let us know.
- And while you're down there also comment
for themes and dish ideas that we can tackle next time
in both low budget and high budget, limited and unlimited.
- Thanks for watching.
While you're down there. - While you're down there
and you got tackle there as well which was good.
(laughing)
- [Mike] Have you ever got to the end of a
long day with no ideas, ingredients,
or energy to cook?
Take away?
Hmm, it'd be the fourth this week.
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(upbeat jazz music)
And now for the blooper,
(beeping)
- which part of lemon verbena and Gribiche did I make up?
- I've only had the blackcurrant Ribena,
I haven't had a lemon one.
(mike whisking)
(laughing)
(snickering)
- It's got to the end of such a long day.