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- Ben it's not worth it.
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(fire explodes)
- Hello and welcome to "sorted".
- Today we've teamed up with the Singleton whiskey
in challenging Mike and Jamie,
are two very normal home cooks,
to the ultimate big night in battle.
- But it's not any normal battle.
There's gonna be three points up for grabs.
And I get to dish out the first one based on chef thinking.
Who can stay the tidiest, the most efficient,
most forward thinking,
and stick within the time limit.
- The second point is coming from me.
Knowing how much you too love to bicker in the kitchen,
I'm awarding my point to the person who stays
the most calm and relaxed throughout.
- And the third, probably most important point,
comes from our chef, James,
who can come up with the most creative dish
that's cleverly paired with a Singleton.
- Are you ready?
- Yes.
- Ahem.
- In that case, three, two, one go.
- What I'm making are DIY yuzu meringue pies
paired with a delicious yuzu mojito using the Singleton.
Okay, so I'm starting off with pastry.
So, butter.
- Sorry. Wait a minute.
You're making your own pastry in 45 minutes.
- Well I'm making a cheat's pastry,
basically that is butter, flour,
icing sugar, sesame seeds.
- Nice touch.
- An egg yolk.
I'm saving the egg white for later
because that's going to make my meringues.
(machine blends)
And then a bit of cold water in a little bit at a time.
(machine blends)
- We have the best job here.
'Cause we get to be super critical from the sidelines.
Work out who we're going to pass our point to, and.
- Cheers.
- Sip a highball whiskey.
- Let's get some rice on shall we?
I'm making the most chilled out,
laid back recipe that you could hope to make
in a battle like this.
It starts with a risotto, which as we all know,
doesn't require any constant stirring.
I'm then going to form that risotto once it's chilled
into arancini balls which have to be panéed.
And then in the middle of that,
there's going to be some mozzarella.
- Oh.
- In some of them there's going to be horseradish.
It's going to be arancini roulette.
That is going to be paired with a beautiful mayo.
And of course, my whisky cocktail,
I'm going for a whisky bramble.
- Now I love a bramble.
Already liking the idea of
giving it a little bit of a whisky twist.
- There's a lovely nuttiness coming from my rice
that's being toasted in my pan.
Gonna add in some wine and we'll let that simmer down
about three quarters of the way.
Big cheat for my risotto.
Usually beautifully softened onions, takes a lot of time.
Stuff that, we're going for crispy onions,
because they're going to add all of the flavour,
none of the time.
Now the beetroot is going to add a lovely colour as well.
So when you bite into the arancini
you get this ruby red,
that's gonna match perfectly with my bramble.
Look at this.
For a guy that doesn't do colours.
- That's impressive.
- I know.
Missed a bit of stirring when I added the wine in
when I was talking.
This is all going swimmingly.
(all laugh)
- Next a yuzu curd.
So I have a small saucepan here.
It's actually pretty big.
Basically, I'm going to zest some yuzu zest.
For me, yuzu is a perfect spin
on traditional lemon meringue pies.
Almost tastes like sherbet.
And that's why I think this dish is amazing.
A load of sugar and yuzu juice.
Whilst my sugary yuzu-y mixture heats to a bubble.
I'm cracking three whole eggs
and two egg yolks into a bowl.
Again, saving the whites for my meringue later.
- I like that nothing goes to waste.
- This is a Swiss meringue.
So it's egg whites and sugar straight into a bowl,
over a bain marie, which is simmering pan of water,
and just heating it up
until basically it becomes ouchy to touch.
- Ouchy?
- That's not a recommendation for you guys
to follow at home,
but it's what I'm going to do to save time.
It should be about 65 degrees, I think.
- Can we get a time check?
- He's had 10 minutes.
- 10 minutes of stirring risotto.
- Let's make some mayonnaise, shall we?
Dill, mustard, egg yolk,
and some vinegar into a mini chopper,
blend it all up.
Get it looking lovely.
(upbeat music)
Skipping around the kitchen, beautiful.
Easy, free.
Slowly pouring some oil whilst we carry on blending
to make a beautiful mayonnaise.
The juice has bubbled and now I'm gonna slowly pour
that into my eggs,
slowly because you know, hotness and eggs.
Then it goes back into the pan and then we heat it up again.
- Let's make a whisky bramble.
- What's happened to his head?
It's gone to be a loose hasn't it?
- He's in hosting mode.
- Now we all know that I am a whisky drinker.
I love single malt.
Today we're going for a cocktail,
and I thought we'd go for a bramble,
usually a gin cocktail.
But let's mix it up a little bit.
We'll take out the gin,
we'll put in the whisky.
- See personally,
I don't think I would often opt for whisky straight
or on the rocks.
However, in a longer drink, like the highball,
like both boys are making, suddenly really interesting.
- Two hundred millilitres of The Singleton.
Lots of fruity earthy notes going in.
The juice of two lemons.
Now it's important to get some of the lemon juice
in the jug.
Let's put some creme de mure into our cocktail.
- Oh, sir.
- And maple syrup, our big cheat.
- Oh mate, that colour.
- Evenings at home is now the new norm rather than the pub,
and I quite like the fact that
you can experiment with different things.
- I'm going to do an ouch test.
Don't do this at home.
- [Barry] Ouchy?
- I'm gonna say that's done. It's moderately ouchy,
but very silky smooth.
Sugary egg whitey, deliciously and wonderfully
smooth mixture is being whisked up
and what it will do is cool and become meringue like.
And what's wonderful about this is I can just let it go
because you can't really over whisk it.
- Jamie stacks his utensils at the back.
So although it's the same amount of mess, it looks tidier.
- I know I'm the one giving the point out for this action,
but actually more he does it, the more it annoys me.
(all laugh)
- Should we taste our risotto?
I haven't seasoned it yet.
- My curd mixture has thickened right up.
- [Ben] Nice. - Oh yeah good.
- Looking all right.
And now I'm going to add butter into it
a little bit at a time until it's melted,
because that's going to give
the really silky smooth texture.
- I'm going to take my risotto off of the heat.
And I'm going to throw in a load of Parmesan,
stir it in,
that's going to become beautiful.
- I'm fine with that.
(all laugh)
My curd goes onto my tray, which is very, very wonky.
- Yeah. It's flat now. - Not any more.
- Ah. This is where it's going to get really tight
'cause I have to have this cooled.
Into the fridge goes my curd.
Out of the fridge comes my pastry.
- [Barry] Oh my God. - [Ben] That looks gorgeous.
- That's now going into the freezer to cool down completely.
So, whilst that cools,
I'm going to take a few minutes and wash up what I can.
- Wonderful.
- If I was sitting here as a guest right now,
enjoying my cocktail,
I'd look over to the kitchen and go,
you know what, he's having a great time.
We're all gonna have a great time.
- This is where everything could fall down and go wrong,
or it could go perfectly swimmingly well.
Please be cold, please be cold,
please be cold, please be cold.
It's still quite warm.
- I thought that was a clear winner for my point.
That's starting to unravel slightly.
- I have not got time to measure out 12, 15g balls,
but I have got time to do one, and then copy it.
So let's do that.
I'm just rolling them in a bit of flour first
and then pressing them nice and rustically
into the pastry case.
Right, this is becoming a little bit more
time consuming than I had hoped.
I am spectacularly close to descending into full Mike.
Cupcake cases on top, filled with baking beans.
Come on. Oh man, this is really putting me behind.
- You've had 25 minutes,
which gives you 20 minutes remaining.
- Oh my goodness.
- So you don't want to flour it too much,
but a little bit of flour might help you.
(all laugh)
- What we need here is a mozzarella.
(all laugh)
Excellent.
That's no.
- Cocktail time.
Continuing with the Southeast Asian spin,
this is a whisky holy basil mojito,
swapping out the rum in a traditional mojito,
for The Singleton whisky.
I was thinking, how do I pair the notes of The Singleton,
which are honeyed notes of vanilla
and basically just whisky tastes.
And I thought, do you know what,
citrus overwhelmingly works with any alcohol.
I love yuzu.
I love the little hints towards Southeast Asian cuisine.
- I don't think I've ever had a mojito with whisky.
So, why not?
- And this one is also going to have some horseradish.
- It's a bit like when you're playing with custard,
you gotta move quickly and confidently.
(all laugh)
- What sort of shape are they Jame?
Do you have the tear drop or the circle?
I can't quite work it out there.
- Almost identical.
- So into my jug go limes, lemon grass, basil,
three tablespoons of sugar,
and then I'm muddling all of that together
with a rolling pin.
Whisky time.
200 millilitres.
In with The Singleton.
And some mirin.
Ice goes in.
- Last five minutes.
- Even the frozen water is against me.
And then soda water.
- It goes without saying, we should all drink responsibly,
but if you can have the occasional drink, even midweek,
why not whisky?
Why does it have to be a special occasion?
Especially in something like a highball
or a long cocktail like a mojito.
- And now, with your eight to 10 uniform arancini balls,
just drop them into a fryer for four to five minutes,
maybe a little bit longer for these ones,
because they're bigger.
- Pastry should be ready to come out
and have the pastry cases taken out.
I'm taking a leaf out of Barry Taylor's book Barry.
- Which is?
- Overconfidence. - Oh right.
- And I think involves some of this.
- Nice. - You know what? Stuff it.
Yeah.
- Okay. So my meringue is meringuey.
It looks amazing.
That's going into a little pot lined with a piping bag.
My curd's chilled.
It's come out of the fridge.
- That looks so satisfying.
- So I'm just going to do this.
- Amazing colour.
- Cor, I'm happy with this, it's smelling great.
- Two and a half minutes remaining.
- I'm going to use the piping bag to fill my syringes.
- Commit - use gravity.
- Mike you were doing really well.
- Oh no.
- I'm going to layer up the ice with
the blackberries and some lemon
so you get that through the drink.
- 90 Seconds. Is he going to have time to make one?
- I think the pastry's cooked.
There's a passing resemblance isn't there
to what it should look like?
- [Barry] Sure.
- [Jamie] Yep.
- You haven't got long left Mike, last 30 seconds.
- (shouts) Get out of me.
- Mike you're losing it.
- No.
- [Barry] What are you doing, what are you doing?
No.
Oh, splash of colour.
Some of it's going on the food.
- [Mike] I'm chilled. - [Barry] Oh.
10 seconds. - Seven, six.
- We've got this. We've got this.
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Step away.
- Oh.
(all laugh)
I nearly killed it.
- Oh, well done both of you,
I think.
Let's serves them up to James.
(rock music)
- So James, first up is Jamie's Russian roulette.
Beetroot arancini with dill mayonnaise
and paired with a blackberry bramble.
- Lovely.
What's Russian roulette about them?
- Some of them have a good hit of fresh horseradish.
- Okay.
I think the plate on the whole looks very colourful.
You know, you'd expect balls,
but I think these look rustic.
- And to kick off the big night in.
Cheers.
- Ah, cheers. - Cheers.
To the bramble.
- That is beautiful, isn't it?
- It's very mellow actually. - Really.
- Oh, they are bright.
- I'm amazed that these have come out
looking the way they do.
(upbeat music)
- That's tasty.
- Really tasty.
- And the beetroot, it's actually really sweet.
It goes really well with the cocktail as well.
Honestly, the only thing I'm looking for
from the description is horseradish.
I just want a little bit more horseradish to it.
- You lost out on the roulette table.
- I also think using whisky in a bramble
is something I've never heard of before.
And it works really well.
- Jamie's chill levels as well.
It started off really low but,
there were a few quite extreme spikes.
- He was worryingly organised and forward thinking.
But, I think if you think chefy,
you think a bit more uniform and control.
- That was an excellent start.
If I was Mike, I'd actually be worried right now.
- Next up we have Mike's DIY yuzu meringue pies
with a whisky mojito.
- [James] Wow.
- And here's the catch.
You've gotta make it yourself.
- Well, DIY kinda suggests that.
- Oh yeah.
- Baz and I had one done, which is excellent.
- The consistency of curd is actually very good.
Oh, this is so exciting.
- James, I'm gonna say,
I think you may have overfilled yours slightly.
- Oh my goodness.
- Top tip.
Maybe grill it on the table rather than in your fingers.
(all laugh)
- You got holy basil, lime and lemon grass in there
with The Singleton whisky and mirin.
- You can really taste the basil and the aniseed in it.
Alongside that whisky is really nice.
- Enjoy.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
(upbeat music)
- Sorry.
- The kinda food only to be shared with friends.
- The meringue is perfect.
The flavour is excellent.
I don't think I've ever had fresh yuzu.
This is definitely one way you go for the tart
and then you go for the drink.
And the drink just chases that sweetness down
and it's really nice.
- Bang on brief.
- Mike was definitely overall less chilled,
but mainly because he was taking on something
that's more out of his comfort zone.
- Today, he had his schedule all tied up.
He was organised and ready to go,
and he followed it.
- Shall we all write down our votes?
- [Ben] Leave them a note.
- All right nice. - Leave them a note, yeah.
- Ready for this?
Three points up for grabs.
Let's see which big night in
the guys would rather have been invited to.
- Ben whose overseeing chef like thinking,
for planning ahead, staying clean and tidy
and thinking about how to best save
less than a perfect situation.
Ben's point goes to Jamie.
- Oh.
- Okay.
Barry was awarding the point for chill.
For pushing himself out of his comfort zone,
but still maintaining a consistent level of calm throughout,
Barry's point goes to Mike.
- [Mike] Oh, here we go.
- Chill's here.
And I was there,
but I did that all the way through.
- Yeah. Whereas I did this.
I ramped up and then I peaked.
- So it's all on James. Ready?
Good luck.
- And to you.
- For excellent execution,
seasoning and flavour combos,
plus a clever use of sweet beetroot in a savoury dish
James' point goes to Jamie.
(all clap)
Well done.
- Mate, that must've been close,
'cause yours looked incredible.
- Well, sir. Cheers.
- Cheers to you too.
Good battle.
- Superb.
Well, we hope you guys enjoyed our big night in battle.
Wanna say a massive thank you to The Singleton
for getting involved in giving us the challenge.
And if you want to get hold of the recipes
and find out more about The Singleton
click the links downstairs.
- I would really like to try our food. Would you?
- I would love to try our food.
Have they eaten it all?
- I hope not.
- I saw a drip, big blob go in there.
- Barry.
- How does he deal with this?
- A bit did go in there,
but I'm chilled about it.
- Are you?
- And I'm just going to chillfully get rid of it.
- There's a lot of dishes where
if a little bit of egg yolk ends up, not a problem.
I wouldn't say meringue is one of them.