- Hello everyone.
This is just a quick check in from all of us at Sorted
to just say that we really hope you are safe
and you're well.
We, like many other channels, have batch filmed
a whole lot of content
that we're going to continue to release
over this period of time,
every Wednesday and every Sunday,
to hopefully keep you smiling
and give us all a little bit of valuable company.
We are also hosting on Instagram live
at 4:30 UK time, every weekday,
a Q&A with one of our amazing chefs.
So I can answer any questions or concerns
that you guys have
around cooking with limited ingredients,
inspiration for working with
whatever food you have available right now.
So please come over to @sortedfood on Instagram,
4:30 pm UK time to join us,
even if it's just to hang out, have fun
and just spend some really valuable time together.
Without further ado, hope you enjoy this chef's battle.
- [Announcer] We are sorted.
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- Ben, it's not worth it.
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- Welcome to FridgeCam, my name's Ben and this is James.
- In this episode, our cheffy skills are put
to the ultimate test, in a fusion battle.
At random, I picked Peruvian and Filipino.
- And I picked Vietnamese and German.
Wish us luck.
- Today, our two chefs are going head to head
in the ultimate chef versus chef fusion battle.
Boys!
- Three hours, are you ready?
- So ready.
- Not very.
- Your time starts, in three, two, one.
Go!
(rock music)
- The two cuisines I drew, were Filipino and Peruvian.
Luckily, they're both quite close together.
What I mean is they actually have
a few of the same influences.
The centre of my dish is a chicken adobo,
which is kind of like a very vinagery, peppercorny stew,
that exists in both cultures, I think.
Which is cool.
It's going to sit on a bed of quinoa,
which is my Peruvian element and
then its going to go with Banana Catsup,
which is another name for ketchup
and it's
bananas instead of tomatoes.
- My two cuisines were German and Vietnamese.
So what I've done is picked some iconic ingredients
from German cuisine and shoe horned them
into a classic dish from Vietnam,
that I absolutely loved when I was there.
But its quite, it's not necessarily
one that everyone's heard of, Cao Lau.
I'm taking sausage, beer, sauerkraut and pretzels,
and putting them into the Cao Lau dish,
which has got all the fragrance and spice of Vietnam.
- Why aren't you doing a hot dog Banh mi?
- I'm starting with one element that I haven't even
mentioned yet, which is Chicharrones.
I'm hoping that I'm pronouncing that right,
I'm probably not, but what it is,
is its fried pork belly rind.
You simmer it very, very slowly in the water
which renders all the fat out of it
and then the water evaporates
and then the fat renders, so it ends up
slow cooking and then frying in its own fat.
- So the Cao Lao is like a noodle dish
that stems from, Hoi An
and its super traditional.
I had it once while I was there,
it's kind of a room temperature noodle dish
that's fragrant and I've got almost Chinese influences
as well, so lots of Chinese five spice and star anise
but also the fresh herb and chilli of Vietnam.
- No your not, your not allowed
to bring Chinese cuisine into this.
- So what I'm going to do is marinate the pork,
this pork leg, in soy sauce, fish sauce
Sambal, chinese five spice, sugar, salt
and then adding the freshness of lemon grass,
garlic, and onion, marinate all that.
You can leave it overnight.
But this is going to braise off so nicely,
I'm not going to bother it.
Sear it and then braise it in beer.
German beer.
- That should be done for a couple of hours.
- No
- I think of Vietnamese flavours as incredibly fresh
and vibrant and spicy and kind of like all of that.
- Which is kind of what German food needs.
To lift it potentially.
- The challenge with fusion is
putting two things together and
ending up with something as good,
if not better than the two individual.
Because otherwise, you're just doing it
for the sake of it and the novelty.
- James your pork is foaming.
- So I'm guessing what you've done there,
is created a cheffy foam that will end up on the plate later,
is that right?
- I'm making my banana catsup.
I've put onion, garlic, ginger and chilli in a pan,
fried it for a long time, for like twenty minutes,
half and hour to get it really flavourful.
I'm going to add my banana, tomato puree, dark sugar,
rum, coconut vinegar, all spice
and then leave it for ten minutes to simmer.
- That is one hell of a ketchup.
- I'm kind of like talking really quietly,
thinking I can get through this whole thing
without Ben making a banana joke.
- (mumbling whisper - 'has Ben done anything?')
- I know he has done anything has he?
- Anything.
If he beats you because he put some pork in a pan,
and left it there for three hours,
you need to take a good hard look at yourself.
- Ha, I mean you are judging it though.
- Yes.
- Because that doesn't mean anything,
in the general context of life.
- The German part is going to be sausage.
I am going to make my own sausages
but I'm going to make them Vietnamese style.
So it starts off with rice, that I'm going to
fry in a dry pan
or toast in a dry pan, to get some colour
and then turn that into rice powder,
mix it with some ginger or galangal,
fish sauce for ferment and pork mince
in the pork sausages, little sausages.
- So are you using some of the inspiration
from when you and Mike went to Vietnam,
together on your holiday?
- Photos.
(laughing)
- I mean it must of been, what, six, seven years ago
and Mike is still bitter at the fact that
I was designated photographer on the trip,
I don't know how that happened.
Was taking a whole bunch of photos,
got to the end of our trip,
we were on a boat in the middle of Halong Bay,
did a tour of all the islands, the boat suddenly stops
so that everyone can jump in,
the anchor hit, the boat lurched
and it slid in slow motion,
off the side of the deck,
into the boat, but into a bucket of salt water
where everyone was rinsing their feet.
Phone gone.
Once you've got a nice bit of colour on the rice,
let it cool,
grind it to a powder and then spice grinder and
then you end up with that.
And its that that goes into the sausage mix.
- So, if you were to walk into a fusion restaurant
and they had both of these dishes on the menu,
what do you think you'd go for?
- Probably walk straight back out.
I mean mate what kind of restaurant has both of these
dishes on it?
The thing I find about fusion food,
is you don't necessarily know where the line is.
- No.
- Until you've gone past it
and it becomes completely opinion based, as well.
So.
- How do you know this Jaime?
- Because I received death threats,
when I put a paella in a burrito.
- And that wasn't even that, it was two,
sort of like,
- Don't say it, don't say it
because they'll come after you too.
- You catsups bubbling and spitting, just FYI.
Your banana is spitting.
- Your sausage aren't looking great.
Just FYI.
(laughing)
- Little tasters.
- James, when does your alcoholic beverage
to bribe the judges, arrive?
- You know that I don't stoop to that level.
- try them.
- Is that how you serve beer?
(laughing)
- German and Vietnamese.
- Cheers.
- My catsup is simmering and so now I'm going to start
the adobo, which starts with a whole chicken
because I want the supreme of the breast.
So that's the breast, with the wing on it.
That means that the wing is going to hold
the skin on, so you can get a lovely skin
that doesn't shrivel up.
- What I've done is taken three ingredients,
with traditional Vietnamese pickle, holy basil,
chilli and lime juice and added it to sauerkraut.
So it is fermented cabbage, flavoured with caraway.
So the two kind of do that and become a garnish.
- Was he actually using holy basil,
or was he calling basil, holy?
- According to Mike, it's blessed.
- What makes Cao Lao noodles unique,
is the fact that they are cooked and soaked
in lye water, and it uses a specific water
from the well of Hoi An.
I can't get that, so instead I'm
going to soak in German beer.
More fusion.
- Isn't lye poisonous?
Ya a little, I mean it's not great.
No it's not poisonous,
chemical isn't it?
In large quantities, most chemicals are poisonous.
Generally is used in food, things like
century eggs, mandarin oranges,
olives, pretzels, bagels.
- Thanks James for starting that conversation.
- Why are you guys so adverse to learning?
- Learn this, I'm talking at you.
- See you've got nothing to do now.
- This obsession with you using every amount of time,
I think is, very bizarre.
You don't have to make things excessive.
They just have to be good.
As long as they are good.
- You like it, you're going to be good.
You can't be okay and be fine.
- I would sit here and shoot down on this,
but he has won a few battles.
- He's reading his book again.
- Syllable -sup, the end of catsup,
means sauce in Cantonese
and the -ca bit, comes from preserved fish.
Oh, my beer, foam is good.
- I've blended all my catsup.
I'm keeping it warm on the hub right now
and I have combined, coconut vinegar
with soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves.
That's my adobo mixture.
I'm just going to like, poach the chicken,
gently in that and then I'm going to fry the chicken
in oil, afterwards.
This is definitely not traditional.
Another reason for doing this,
is that it cooks the skin, so that when you fry it,
the skin doesn't shrivel.
I've never used coconut vinegar before.
- Can we try some?
- Yes, I will let you taste it.
(jazz music)
- The thing I'm most worried about,
this dish is whether it is going to appeal
to their preferences because this is
a noodle dish that's served cold or room temperature.
And would typically be served for breakfast,
which is not the way we would
typically eat spicy noodle dishes.
- Basically, if we don't like his dish,
its our fault.
- Okay, everything is ready to go.
I've got the chicken stock on for my quinoa,
which I'm going to cook and mix
with my pepper and coriander,
which I've already chopped.
I have cooked my pork for the last hour or so.
It's looking amazing.
It is still cooking.
It's going to get really crispy.
I've reduced my adobo sauce down.
Kept basting the chicken in it
and now I'm frying the chicken to get crispy skin
and then I'm going to give it a final baste.
And that's me done.
- Not the whole bowl.
No you can have some.
Not the bowl.
- Tickle, tickle.
- No.
- You can have some.
- Yummy.
- You are out of control.
- So on its own, when its left to cook in the pork
its too strong, it's all that marinade,
all that beer and all that pork in it,
so dilute it down with cold water.
That also brings the whole thing down to room temperature.
- Boys, you're into your last five minutes.
(intense music)
- Thirty-five seconds left.
(intense music)
- Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Step away from the plate.
- Done.
- That is a unique dish.
I'm excited to see you try it.
(intense music)
- Boys, after the challenge, how did you find that?
- I found it creative, it looks good.
- I like when brief's quite tight.
It's not my fusion dish, it's just
that cuisine and that cuisine and make it work.
I hope it has.
Give it a good mix up.
And then get involved.
- Noodles cooked in beer.
- Ya I like it.
- It's really unusual.
- I like it.
- The pretzels are a nice crunch, obviously, once being mixed in.
But it needs that texture.
- I think the biggest thing that I'm getting from that dish,
is a surprise with every mouthful.
- Don't love the sausage.
- You still don't like the sausage?
- I think the stand out element of that dish,
is the thing that brings it together,
which is the broth.
I can really taste the beer in it.
- This is a James Currie plate.
- Thank you sir, I'll take that as a compliment.
- That is one hundred percent a James Currie plate.
- All right, dive in.
I can't tell where I am in the world.
Barry we joked, when James was making
the catsup, that we would like to dip
lots of different things in it.
I still want to dip all of those things in that catsup.
That has got such a punch of flavour to it.
- I can't get my head around what you've
done with that chicken, like it's so succulent.
You've pumped it full of something,
extra juice from somewhere.
That is freakishly beautiful.
- The garlicy, salty, vinegary glaze on the chicken,
works so well with the quinoa.
It's like earthy and fresh.
- Baz we need to have a chat about this.
- I think we've come to an agreement.
- This is a fusion battle.
This has to be half of one place,
half of the other, coming together to unite
and make an incredible dish.
One of these dishes, it felt like there was
more of an eighty, twenty split
and the other was more fifty, fifty.
- Our winner today,
for those reasons
and the dish that we feel created something
that can step up outside of the existing regions
and create a new dish,
is James Currie.
(clapping)
- Thank you.
- You know what, I think for once,
we're all in agreement.
- It's actually really good fun watching you two battle.
- Yeah, I love being inside your brain for a little while.
- Yeah, and then get out as quick as possible.
- If you like those recipes, let us know your favourite
in the comments and we've got links down below.
- That will take you to Sorted.club, the home
of all things Sorted.
- Do you have to ask for the joke of the week
or do you just give it to me?
- You know you want it.
- Ben, give me a dad joke of the week.
- Okay.
- I've got no idea why people keep moaning
about this genetically modified food.
I had a really delicious leg of salmon the other day.
- Almost good.
- Snigger
- We'll see you on Wednesday.
- [Announcer] We've also built the Sorted club,
where you can get tonnes of foodie inspo
using the packed mid-week meal app,
discover and share restaurant recommendations
using the Eat app and listen and contribute
to our Feast your Ears podcast
and send us ideas for new cookbooks
you'd like to see throughout the year.
Check it all out by heading to sorted.club.
And now a blooper.
- Could you just lose that... noodle
- Sorry.
(laughing)
- I don't wanna put it back in that dish.