Hey everyone, Mike here!
For many of us, Easter is a time to be spent with amazing food,
family and friends.
And this may be the first Easter that we don't actually get to spend the time
with the people we truly care about
So, whilst we filmed this video before the UK lockdown...
we wanted to still roll it out, so you have some
foodie inspo for when this whole thing blows over.
And most importantly, we just wanted to let you all know that
we are all in this together... and through friends
fun, laughter and collectively drooling over some delicious food...
we will come out of the back of this stronger.
Big thank you to everyone who'd been tuning into our Instagram Lives
every Tuesday and every Thursday we'll be hosting cookalongs
so go to sorted.club/cookalong
to grab your ingredients list and your recipes.
and whilst this is all happening we may as well cook up a storm together.
Thank you so much for watching and please enjoy the video.
- [Mike] We are Sorted, a group of mates
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- Hello, I'm James and he's Ben, this is fridgeCam.
- Now, if you're anything like us,
Easter is a time for friends, family
and it goes without saying, good food.
- And we're gonna show you how to cook up
a chefy three course meal
by doing it for our three little Easter bunnies.
A few months ago, our three normals
cooked us a delicious Valentines day meal
and we thought it's only fair to return the favour.
- So, with Easter just around the corner,
we thought, together we would cook up an Easter feast.
- We're doing three courses,
it's gonna be super technical and chefy,
and I think we're actually gonna be put to our limits.
- But fear not, we are also cramming it
full of loads of tips and tricks.
So even if the entire feast doesn't quite work out,
you'll be a happy bunny.
(upbeat music)
We've put the spring clocks forward
and we're giving ourselves three hours.
You ready James?
- I'm ready.
- So here's our thinking,
three courses that celebrate Spring.
The first, a simple soup of asparagus
with an edible, crispy bird's nest in the middle,
made of filo pastry and a slow-cooked egg yolk.
Up next, bunny and carrots.
Slow-cooked ballotine of rabbit,
with a coriander mousse in the middle.
Lots of nods to Morocco with a preserved lemon couscous,
a harissa carrot puree and a pastille of the rabbit legs.
I'm starting with the end of our meal,
which is gonna be hot cross bun flavoured doughnuts
around Creme Eggs.
So when they fry and they open up,
they just ooze and are delicious.
So the dough is strong bread flour, salt, yeast, sugar,
a generous tablespoon of mixed spice,
and then we're gonna knead that with milk, eggs,
and once it's been kneading for a good,
soft of, eight minutes or so,
we're gonna go in with softened butter
to turn into that soft doughnut dough.
We're gonna cover it with a tea towel
and leave it in a warm place,
our airing cupboard equivalent,
for about an hour, hour and a half,
'til it's doubled in size.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, what I'm doing is I am gonna break down
and de-bone a saddle of rabbit.
So I'm gonna take the head off,
I'm gonna take the front legs off,
then I'm gonna take the rib cage out,
and then I'm gonna take the back legs off,
and then I'm gonna de-bone the saddle.
I've done this once in my whole life before.
(upbeat music)
- Very classical, simple recipe for a protein heavy mousse.
We're gonna do a chicken and coriander mousse
to go inside of the rabbit.
It's chicken breast, egg white, blended up with coriander
and seasoned with salt, and then you put it into a bowl
and loosen it with cream.
Weight measurements are important,
'cause it's the ratio of egg white to protein to cream,
that means you end up with a delicious mousse.
And you can make so many different,
chicken, prawn, fish mousses using the same method.
- Do you think it's insensitive of us
to do a bunny rabbit at Easter?
- Do you know-- - With carrot.
- I think it's a really fascinating story
how the Easter Bunny came to be
and how the Easter Bunny delivered eggs.
- Oh, dammit.
Why did I say anything? - Have you noticed?
- Why?
- Why is it a rabbit that's delivering eggs?
Rabbits don't lay eggs.
Wouldn't it make more sense to be like an Easter lizard?
- What I'm doing now is laying out strips of pancetta
onto cling film.
I'm gonna lay the saddle out onto the pancetta,
and then I'm gonna pipe the mousse
into the middle of the saddle.
Roll it all up, get it really, really tight,
put it in a Ziploc bag.
And then we're gonna cook it sous vide
for about an hour and a half.
- But I'm also going to add in four eggs
for the same length of time, at the same temperature
because we want perfectly sous vide, 62 degree egg yolks
to sit in our nest.
Anybody who's ever eaten rabbit
and thought it was a little bit dry or tough.
That's because it wasn't cooked this way,
by sous viding it at exactly the right temperature.
It is still so succulent on the inside.
The darker meat of the rabbit legs,
both the back end and the front,
although we're actually for this recipe gonna use
four of the back legs
because they've got slightly more meat on them.
I guess more bouncing.
We're gonna sear them off in oil,
then take them out of the pan and add in onion and garlic.
Into the softened onions and garlic,
we go with cinnamon and ras el hanout.
Then apricots, white wine to de-glaze the pan,
and the rabbit can go back in.
I'm just taking the very ends off
because there's gonna be no meat or benefit from that.
And at least then they'll fit
into our little pressure cooker.
Just enough to sort of cover it really,
but it's gonna be cooking in the steam,
in the pressure in the pan.
- I'm gonna carry on with our main course
by making a carrot and harissa puree.
And for now I've just sliced the carrots,
poured some water over them
and we're gonna boil them until they're very, very soft.
And I've weighed the carrots, and I've weighed the water,
'cause we want it to be the perfect consistency.
Add all the carrots to the blender, harissa paste
and as it's blending, I'm gonna add nobs of butter.
And it's gonna come together into a silky delicious puree.
- Prebought filo pastry already comes wrapped and rolled
and nicely floured between each layer.
So just slice them into wafer-thin noodle strips,
and then we're gonna toss that in seasoned butter,
press it into muffin cases
and create an edible, crispy, golden birds nest.
And that's what we end up with,
delicate, golden, crispy, buttery, edible birds nest.
Unlike the original one, a Chinese delicacy,
that was made from the solidified saliva of swiftlings.
Quite a delicacy.
- Aside from the rabbit, this main course is super simple.
I've got the puree on.
Now I'm just going to peel these carrots
and then continue peeling into strips,
put them into ice water, and they're all going to curl up,
go really crisp and they're gonna be
a beautiful fresh element on the dish.
- Next up, I'm starting starting our soup.
So that's gonna be shallot and garlic,
finely diced and sweated off in some butter.
Add to that some celery and then asparagus.
We're not gonna use the very woody ends,
and we're not gonna use the tips,
we're gonna save those for garnish,
but the rest go into the pan, along with stock,
and then we bubble it for about 15 minutes.
A handful of spinach at the end
helps to give it a real green colour,
as we blitz it with a little bit of cream
and then season to taste.
Because we've given ourselves a time limit,
the first half an hour of this
was pretty mad to get the rabbit on
and the last half an hour, probably pretty crazy.
This bit, calm, chilled out,
but the whole menu can be pretty much done in advance.
- The next element on our main course
is preserved lemon couscous, again, super simple.
We're just gonna season some couscous, pour water over it,
let it steam until it fluffs up.
And then we're gonna take the middle
out of these preserved lemons
and just dice the skin, the middle is no good,
but skin gives a really nice, kind of, sour, bittery flavour.
We're also gonna use some coriander.
(upbeat music)
- The fidly bit's still to come.
We got to pick the meat from the rabbit legs
and roll into pastille,
and then we have to roll those doughnuts,
very soft dough, around the Creme Eggs.
- Not worried, that's all good,
I'm only worried about the rabbit saddle.
- Guilty pleasure are Creme Eggs,
so I might keep a couple back for myself,
but the rest we'll wrap in dough.
(upbeat music)
- I think this has probably had just over an hour.
It's looking fantastic.
So now we're gonna pull that meat off the bone.
Take all the liquid and reduce it down
to a sticky, sticky sauce, pour that over the meat,
cool the whole thing down,
and then wrap them in filo, into our little parcels.
- I think now's the time to come clean.
We were gonna put softly boiled quails eggs
inside of out nest.
But we couldn't get hold of any this morning
so we thought, let's do confit egg yolk.
It's pretty much perfect but now it's too big
to fit in our nest so I'm gonna try and trim it.
- Meanwhile, I'll make our little filo parcels
with our braised rabbit leg.
I'm just gonna brush the filo with butter, fold it over,
put a little tablespoon of rabbit leg in the middle,
and then fold it up into triangles.
(upbeat music)
- Maybe I can be more confident with it,
but I just don't trust it.
- Okay, it's the big reveal.
We've got the rabbit out.
I'm very nervous, but it's looking okay.
This is what they look like now.
We're gonna take the cling film off,
and then finish them in a bit of oil and a bit of butter
just to brown the outside,
to get the pancetta nice and brown.
Oh, I'm nervous.
- We'll get those frying off,
turn them occasionally so they're golden all over,
and then we'll drain them and toss them in sugar.
I really hope they appreciate all this effort.
(upbeat techno music)
Last few minutes, and then it is time
to get the first course out.
(upbeat techno music)
Serving up now, hoping they're hungry.
- I think we're actually gonna do this,
but are the normals gonna appreciate it?
(upbeat techno music)
- Right, let's get the table laid and give these boys
an Easter feast that at least
will be the best thing they've had this year.
- I am hungry.
Oh, he's even doing it.
Oh, he's even doing...
- Look at this. - Look at this, oh Ben!
- Left-hand side.
- Oh!
- That looks incredible.
- Cheers. - Cheers, Happy Easter
- Oh, that does all the things I want a soup to do.
- That tastes fantastic.
(upbeat music)
- Wow, that crunchy bird's nest,
and that egg yolk is amazing.
It's probably the best soup I've ever had in my whole life.
I should've whispered that, 'cause he might of heard that.
(giggles) Dammit.
- So let me get this straight, we just sit here,
have a nice meal and we don't slag anybody off.
We just have a good time.
- This is wonderful.
I am ready for a main. Are you ready for a main?
Ebbers, thank you, that was wonderful.
- That was delicious.
- Oh my goodness.
- Boys! This is spectacular.
- Look at the colour of that.
Cheers. - Cheers.
- I've not seen anything like this before, 'cause like,
we've shot, a lot of books, with a lot of fancy food in it.
This has gone up and beyond.
What if that asparagus soup
was the most asparagus thing I've ever tasted?
Then that carrot puree,
is the most carroty thing I've ever tasted.
- Yeah, spicy.
- They have jam-packed rabbit. - Eat the ear.
(upbeat music)
One thing I would say is,
I find it a little bit sadistic,
the fact that they're serving up rabbit.
When clearly, the only link is Easter Bunny.
- [Ben] I'm glad you saved room for desert.
- I'm getting very full.
Oh!
- [Barry] This is a sort of thing
that we would've dreamt up.
- [Mike] Yeah! - Yeah.
- And tried to execute--
- And not been able to do.
- Failed miserably at.
- So are we just picking these up and going straight in?
Cheers.
Oh, they're warm.
- Oh they are weighty.
This is the moment I kinda wish I could eat this in private.
You know what I mean? - No.
(laughs loudly)
- Oh my God! - Ah!
- Well now I've seen you do it that way,
I have to bite into it.
- Yeah, bite into it. (laughs)
Wipe your lips, please, please wipe your lips.
- No, you not allowed, are you?
- I don't wanna look at him anymore.
When I go to a new place,
I love to find a bakery
and get there before opening.
When the pastries, doughnuts, whatever,
even bread is warm and freshly baked.
Like...
This is that,
and I don't even have to get up at six in the morning.
Honestly, stick those in a bakery,
and I think you'd have lines out the door for them.
Come in, come in, grab a seat.
(upbeat music)
We knew you were good, but, you know--
- This is silly.
- Worryingly, this goes to show what you're capable of
when we don't get involved.
- Genuinely like, when people ask us in the future,
"What's the best thing you've ever eaten?"
I think I'm gonna say Creme Egg Doughnut.
- Really? - [Barry] I can't...
I've never been that emotionally involved
in a doughnut before.
- Hey, Happy Easter guys, thank you so much.
- Well done guys, good eating, good eating.
- Good cooking.
- It's been a pleasure.
- Hope you enjoyed our little Easter themed extravaganza.
And of course, if you need any extra help,
there's always an idea or two, in a Sorted cookbook.
(pluggy pluggy plug music)
- [James] Good plug.
- Very cheesy wink as well.
We've also built the Sorted Club
where you can get tonnes of foodie inspo
using the Packs midweek meal App.
Discover and share restaurant recommendations
using the Eat App.
Listen and contribute to our Feast Your Ears Podcast.
And send us ideas for new cookbooks
you'll receive throughout the year.
Check it all out by heading to sorted.club.
(upbeat music)
And now a blooper.
- I forgot my boner.
It's in the kitchen.
- You can go get that in a second.
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Cameraman] (laughs) Blooper!
- [Director] And we got it, well done guys,
we are efficient today.