- [Mike] We are Sorted, a group of mates who have your back
when it comes to all things food.
From cooking battles, to gadget reviews.
- Ben, it's not worth it!
- [Mike] And cookbook challenges,
to a mid-week meal Packs app.
- [Jamie] Crack your eggs and bake.
- [Mike] We uncover the tools that will help
us all cook and eat smarter.
Join our community, where everything we do starts with you.
(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to Sorted.
Now, today you're in for a treat.
We have all three of our normals going head to head to head
in a 45 minute battle.
- And it's no ordinary battle
because they only have £10 each to spend
across four portions.
- Barry, what you cooking?
- I am making an Italian sausage and bean stew,
something that I cook probably once every fortnight.
- Interesting, Jamie?
- I'm making bibimbap, something that I've eaten lots of,
never cooked before.
- That is bold!
- And Mike?
- I'm making burnt aubergine curry flat breads.
- You've cooked that often, right?
- I make this probably once a week.
- Ready to cook in three, two, one!
(buzzer)
Off you go.
- First things first, I've gotta get my rice on the go
'cause that's going to have to cool down
before the time is up.
So I have some boiling water,
gonna season it with some salt,
chuck my rice in and that can cook away for 10 minutes.
(rock music)
- So, an integral part of making
a burnt aubergine curry are the burnt aubergines,
which I am slicing in half
and then putting face down in some veg oil
and then I'm grilling them for about 15-20 minutes.
- I'm in no rush here.
(record scratching)
I've made this quite a few times.
And so I'm going to just suss out
the competition first before I crack on.
- I already want Barry to lose.
- [Ben] I mean, he's just, look at this smugness.
- What's he doing?
- [James] He's not doing anything, mate.
- Don't need to, there's no rush.
The point is, sometimes like with mid-week meals,
sometimes you have to wind down a little bit.
You get back from work--
- Glass of wine.
- Gather your thoughts and go, "You know what?
"What am I gonna cook tonight?"
- Whilst I'm ignoring Barry,
I'm going to peel and mince some garlic
and then we'll talk about some steak.
- Shall I start?
I think I'm going to start.
So I'm gonna start with sausages, going to prick them,
prep them, get them ready.
Give them a snip, a prick and it into a pan to brown.
- Now I know what you're thinking,
we're cooking to a budget and I've chosen to cook steak.
Ha ha, look at me, I'm the steak guy.
What a surprise.
But rib eye, packed full of flavour,
actually not as expensive as you might think,
when you buy a single one
and that is gonna do all four portions.
- And if you wanted to make it even cheaper,
don't need to use the rib eye.
- [Jamie] No.
- [James] Could use rump.
- [Ben] J, flavour number one, what we got?
- [Jamie] Steak, garlic, sugar, soy sauce,
sesame oil, leave to one side.
- [James] Nice! Love!
- Right, easiest flat bread recipe you've ever heard.
One part flour, one part yoghurt.
Mix them together, season with salt, bring it together
and now I'm going to knead it for two to three minutes
and that is it.
(upbeat music)
- So now I'm going to preheat my pan,
olive oil going in.
Before I start cooking, I think I just wanna prep
my onions and garlic.
So slicing up my onions.
I'm gonna grate my garlic.
- You're purposefully not cooking your sausages,
while you're preparing the other stuff.
- I don't know, for mid-week, I don't know why, I always...
- Turn into a massive dick.
(Jamie laughs)
Is that it?
- I like prepping everything ahead to avoid stress.
- But surely it would be faster if you just...
- You've given me 45 minutes
and I want to enjoy these 45 minutes.
So don't stress me out.
- Stop squeezing his lemon, man.
(Jamie laughs)
Or is it twisting the melon?
I don't know, it's something foodie.
(Barry laughs)
- Most of my dish is essentially mise en place.
I need to get it all ready
and then it all gets decorated at the end.
So next up, I'm going to julienne carrots, cucumber,
so they're about the same as my bean sprouts.
Yes, bean sprouts.
- So now my pan's up to temperature, sausages going in
and they need to brown off quickly.
- Sausage, good choice as a meat choice
because they're generally a bit cheaper.
- [James] And delicious.
- And delicious, pre-seasoned, good to go.
- Half my budget has gone on my sausages.
So I made sure I got good quality sausages.
- You guys have had almost a quarter of your time.
- I know.
- So both Barry and Jamie are focusing on protein first,
which is also a good chunk of their budget
but that is bulked out with a huge number of vegetables,
legumes, beans, some tinned stuff in Barry's case,
lots of fresh veg in Jamie's case
and now they're attacking the chopping board,
whereas Mike's is vegetarian anyway.
- Vegetarian is a great shout if you're on a budget
and it should be really delicious.
- Rice is cooked, that needs to drain,
then it needs to go onto a tray
squeezed out.
That's not words.
(beep)
Rice is cooked, I'm gonna drain it,
then pop the rice onto a tray
and put the tray into the freezer,
so the rice gets nice and cool.
(rock music)
- [Ben] Good rhythm and tekkers there, Mike.
- [Mike] Oh, thanks mate!
- I feel like you get left out
'cause we can't really see you from over there.
- Nope, it suits me fine!
So I'm gonna knead this for two to three minutes
and then leave it to rest.
- He's got his dough done but nothing else is happening.
The aubergines are in, that's important.
- I'm taking my sausages out now
because they well browned.
Now sausages and onions, garlic is all going in,
gonna cook those onions and garlic out.
If you have the time, use it here,
spend time cooking out your onions
'cause the longer you cook them, the sweeter
and more jammy they get.
Do I wait for 10 minutes and make these really jammy
'cause I know how much that means to you James,
or do I keep moving the pace of this recipe?
I don't know.
- I mean, you could have had those going
for 10 minutes already.
Well had you put your sausages in and started on time,
you'd have done your onions by now
and you could have left them for 20 minutes.
- Yeah I know but I've had a much better time this way.
- One thing I would never do if I was trying
to caramelise onions quickly is put a lid on them.
- It doesn't matter what I do, they're gonna moan about it.
I've obviously annoyed them by acting confident.
What I'm gonna do is embrace it!
- You are in the cross hairs there
'cause you're so close to the chefs.
I'm getting away with it because I've got my back to them.
(Barry laughs)
- My favourite thing is watching Jamie do julienne
because the first two or three pieces, always spot on
and then he gets bored.
- It's mid-week though, this is a difficult recipe.
This recipe is quite an intricate mid-week meal.
He's pushed himself hard.
- I'm gonna blanch my spinach
and my beansprouts for 30 seconds in boiling water
and then my carrots for 90 seconds.
- The thing is, I guess is you're not trying
to cook anything.
You're just softening it a little bit, warming it through.
- [Ben] Taking the crunch, well no, you still want the crunch,
you're just taking the edge off it.
- [James] Yeah.
- Half way through my aubs burning, gonna add
some tender stem broccoli,
£1.30, bargain
and I've tossed that in some veg oil and some cumin.
It's gonna join the aubs.
- Onions are done,
now it's time to quickly grate in my garlic.
The reason this has worked so well is with a fine grater,
you don't really have to peel your garlic,
which feels bonkers but all the skin just gets left behind
and the flesh falls through
and then in my rosemary, two stock cubes,
some oregano, chilli, give it all a good stir
and that is the most incredible base.
- I'm gonna heat up my wok until it is smoking.
I'm gonna chuck in some sliced shiitake mushrooms,
fry them for a minute, little bit of soy sauce,
little bit of sesame oil, put them into a bowl
and then it's steak o'clock.
- I'm liking the confidence and control of Jamie,
lots of mise en place, lots of progress, 25 minutes to go.
- You're looking good, dude.
- [Mike] Hello, Mike here again.
Sorry, we've just paused the video to ask you to subscribe
and hit the bell.
You won't regret it, promise
and it really does make a difference, so thank you.
Back to the video.
- Now, my base is all cooked out, I'm gonna add
some white wine to de-glaze
and to give that flavour something to cling on to.
Give that 30 seconds, that's gonna reduce.
Then in with my tinned tomatoes and my butter beans.
In with my sausages.
- I like the fact that yours is a one pot cook, Baz,
'cause for mid-week, I think that is a big tick.
- Just gonna let that cook now for...
How long have we got left?
- 15 minutes.
- 13 minutes.
And then I've just got to finish it off.
(upbeat music)
- Steak o'clock.
It's time to fry my steak in the wok.
Give it a few minutes, get it nice and brown,
add in a splash of soy sauce
and then back into a bowl, rest.
- It's curry time.
I have thinly sliced some onions, foamy butter,
bit of veg oil, into that goes garlic, onions,
sweat that out.
- [James] Oh my--
- [Ben] Whisk, just the utensil I'd go for as well.
(Jamie laughs)
- Are you whisking onions?
- [Jamie] He's whisking onions!
- [Mike] It's silicon, so it doesn't scratch.
- [James] Just 'cause you're hiding in the corner,
doesn't mean this is acceptable.
- I don't care what you say.
I'm going to chuck in some curry powder.
(upbeat music)
That smells amazing!
Then I'm going to throw in some tomato purée.
Then I'm gonna take my aubergines
and my broccoli out from the grill,
it's all blistered, all burnt
and then scoop the aubergine
into this delicious curry mixture,
add some sugar, boom!
Delicious curried aubergines.
- My rice has been in the freezer ever since it boiled.
It's now very cold.
I'm gonna add that into my wok that's done my mushrooms
and it's done my steak.
It's now gonna do rice with some sesame oil
and some soy sauce.
Baz, can you hold that a sec?
Cheers, mate.
- Do you want me to wash it up for you?
I've now cleaned my stuff up,
so I'm just cleaning everybody else's.
- Now I'd have given that a lot longer
before I put the soy sauce in 'cause now it's gonna steam
rather than fry and the whole point of cooling it down is
so that the grains fry and stay separate
and as soon as you have liquid to that,
they'll start mushing together.
- No steaming!
Oh that is actually mine, that's really bad, sorry.
(Barry laughs)
There might be some rice in your pasta.
- This has to reduce by quite a lot.
It's got a quite a long way to go annoyingly, to get there.
I'm a little bit worried about how watery it's gonna be.
- The last thing that I need to do before plating up is
fry my eggs.
Sesame oil into a pan, get it hot, two eggs at a time,
batch cook 'em.
Pew!
- Oh guys, I meant to give you a 10 minute warning
but I forgot.
Nine minutes remaining!
- [Mike] Okay.
- Mike is worrying the (beep) out of me right now.
He's worrying me a lot. - He's in trouble.
Mike's in trouble.
- Ah, you!
These are so angry!
- I know!
Whilst my eggs are frying, I'm just gonna slice up
some spring onions and then everything is done
and it's just a construction job.
- How's your poached rice?
- [Jamie] Shut up.
- Guys, I meant to give you a five minute warning
but I forgot.
You've got four minutes and 27 seconds remaining.
- It's reduced a lot in the last 10 minutes
but it's not reducing quick enough!
Hopefully it's all going to disappear in the last two.
- I'm pushed for time, I'll be honest.
- Does your dish need bread with it?
- I don't normally have bread with it,
which is why I forgot about the bread a bit.
- He's supposed to be grilling it
but if I were him right now, I'd probably be frying it.
- Putting your pan on.
- Yeah I'd chuck a pan on.
- Rice goes on the bottom
and then I beautifully prettily decorate
all of my mise en place stuff around the edge,
including gochujang and sesame seeds
and some coriander.
- Presentation is everything, J
and you've got less than four minutes,
that's a minute per bowl.
- Come on, mate, come on.
Jamie, I think I'm backing you right now.
Don't let me down.
- Okay, let's make a flatbread.
One flatbread.
- Mike, hurry up.
- That's helpful.
(Jamie laughs)
Oops.
- You've got two and a half minutes remaining.
- Right, go, go, go, go, go.
Fishing my sausages out and then gonna plate my beans up
in the four dishes
and then gonna grate over a generous amount of parmesan
and then zest over
lemon and then finish off with salt and pepper.
- [Ben] Good consistency.
- Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Barry's looking good, J is looking good right now, Mike.
- I am not looking good.
- Come on, Mike!
- [Ben] Mid-week plating up,
you're just gonna have to go for it.
Ooh and I tell you what...
- [James] It's looking good, it's looking good.
- [Barry] Three sausages.
- Generous.
- [Barry] Parmesan, right and then lemon zest
on top of the cheese, which sounds weird
but this is what changed this dish for me.
- [James] Come on.
- [Ben] Tell you what,
that is a feast that Jamie's plating up.
- [James] Jamie, you've done so well, mate.
- [Mike] I'm sure that's cooked.
- [Ben] Last five,
four,
three.
- [James] Spring onions, spring onions!
- [Ben] Two, one. - [James] More sesame seeds!
- Step away from your mid-week chaos.
- You've done an amazing job.
- [Barry] That is ridiculous.
- [Mike] I blacked out about 10 minutes ago.
(Barry and Jamie laugh)
- Let's get them into the sexies.
(electronic music)
Right?
- Right.
- Baz is first.
- This is an Italian sausage and bean stew.
This is something I've cooked multiple times
from our own Packs app and it has delivered every time.
- [Ben] This is the kind of dish that is just very inviting
and I want to eat at home.
- [Mike] It's very nice.
- I love the freshness of the citrus.
- I like the consistency of the saucy casserole.
I like the little touches
like the freshness of the lemon at the end,
the rosemary's really good.
- I would've liked the rosemary to be chopped
'cause I don't like the whole bits
'cause sometimes they like, you can feel
them go down your throat.
- I chopped it but I didn't chop it fine enough.
- I think that is a perfect sausage
in the perfect consistency of cassoulet
and I hate to say it 'cause your attitude in that sucked.
(laughing)
That's a strong start.
- So this is burnt aubergine curry
with one quarter
of fatbread.
- [James] Fatbread?
- Oh, clever.
- I think making flatbread mid-week is bold
and I liked the fact you stepped up to that.
- That curry's delicious.
- The flavours are almost there in the curry,
you just could have cooked the onions
a little bit more maybe.
You just spent so much time on the bread at the start.
I think the bread is not as bad as you thought it was,
the flavour is really nice.
A little additional of some sea salt.
- I feel like you were definitely pressed for time
and I think it shows in the end result
but the flavour of that curry and as a plate,
it's still something I would absolutely devour mid-week.
Actually weekend too.
Number three.
- This pains me to say it...
- [Mike] It looks good, doesn't it?
- [Barry] It's the best looking dish here.
- This is bibimbap, which was taken
from our first Can't Be Arsed To Cook Book.
- [Mike] Cheers.
- [Barry] Cheers.
- It's quite an accomplishment to do,
start to finish in 45 minutes
'cause there's a lot of mise en place for every element,
even the crispy burnt bits on the rice are present
and the steak's not over cooked.
- It doesn't look like it's less than £10.
- Clever use of budget in that sense,
by the fact that you chopped up the beef
and you got a lot of umami from soy
and from sesame and kind of lots of flavours going on.
- You need to have everything with it
'cause I think the rice could have
done with a touch more salt.
- So did you find the carrots
and the cucumbers are slightly irregular?
- Oh (beep), it just...
- [Ben] As I said, I think knife skills is something--
- You put some sausages and some butter beans in a pan!
And took 45 minutes to do it.
- Mike, what did you spend on your four plates?
- I spent £6.30.
(cash register chiming)
- On all four?
- On all four.
- Whoa.
- A lot of flavour for £6.34.
Baz?
- Tenner exactly.
- [Ben] Bang on?
- Tenner as a--
- Who trusts that maths?
(laughing)
- J, you have got a lot going on this bowl.
Did you come in under budget?
- Nine pound 49 pence.
(cash register chiming)
- Of which, £3.90 was my steak.
- I have a winner.
From a judging point of view, tough call.
(dramatic music)
We were both in agreement until we heard the prices.
- Oh.
- So your winner is?
- My winner, reluctantly, was Barry.
I know, it's gutting.
- It was a delicious mid-week meal.
- That feels so good 'cause it's coming from James,
I know it hurts him.
- And I was in complete agreement until I heard the prices
and then my mind shifted
'cause I actually thought for the flavour that Mike got
out of his dish for six something took my win.
Even though the flatbread wasn't the best,
I quite liked the challenge.
- Honestly, that's the best news I've heard all day.
That's incredible.
- We've got one loser and two winners
but comment down below, you get a say.
Tell us who you think would've won
your mid-week meal under a tenner battle.
- So mine didn't even feature into...
- Mate, yours didn't make the top two.
That's what happens when you come third.
(Barry laughs)
- [Jamie] I'll go eat my steak somewhere else.
- Oh we finished the steak.
We left the rice cause it was under seasoned.
No don't put that in, don't put that in, that was mean.
Don't put that in.
- Leave it in!
- Before you go, just a quick shout to say
thanks to all of you who are using
and sending us your thoughts on our Packs app.
We wanted to create a tool to help
you boss your mid-week meals, cut down on food waste
and reduce the cost of your weekly food shop
and you are helping us do just that, so thank you.
We want to make this as accessible as possible right now.
So if you haven't tried it, you can now
for a full month, absolutely free.
The link is in the description box below
and now for the bloop.
(beep)
(humming)
♪ La la la la la la la ♪
♪ They are divulging ♪
- Loud noises!
♪ Ba ba ba ♪
- Remember when they walked around the corner
and we didn't have to do this?
(humming)
(beep)