(cheery upbeat music)
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- In today's episode,
we're having a romantic night in for Valentine's Day.
And what better way to celebrate than cooking our two chefs
a romantic three course meal.
But here is the catch.
Each of us normals are cooking a course each.
And you chose exactly what we were going to make.
At the end of their romantic meal,
Ben and James will collectively decide
which dish was their favorite.
And who they want to snog, marry, and avoid.
(gentle music)
- As professional chefs, Ben and James,
spend their lives cooking for other people.
So this Valentine's Day I want to give them
a special experience that they'll never forget.
- They haven't had a chance
to look after their own hair, skin,
face, nails or dress sense.
So today, this should be all about them.
- If we want this to go well it has to be perfect
if they stand any chance
of starting a beautiful relationship.
- Three, two, one and we begin.
- So I'm making a wonton mee
which are pork and shrimp dumplings
with a beautiful porcini sauce and a chili pickle as well.
I think I've bitten off more than I can chew here.
I say I, you chose this so you've screwed me over.
Okay, so I'm gonna start off by making my,
well, the dumpling dough,
which is flour, egg, salt and then added water in slowly.
- For my main course, I'm making lamb fat crumpets
with a rack of lamb, grilled lettuce,
and a black garlic mayo.
My crumpets started two days ago
when I had to make the batter and it's needed that long
to amalgamate all of those flavors.
Now I need to actually cook them in some lamb fat,
in a five centimeter ring, and we'll grill them later
just before we serve up.
- I am making a sticky toffee Bundt cake.
Never made one before.
I'm already bored of chopping dates.
I've got some walnuts to chop later so already started well.
- I swear to you that's,
that's not right.
That's not me, that's the recipe.
If that's not right, that's the recipe.
- Actually, that is a really good point.
If none of these dishes work,
it's the fault of the person who wrote the recipe.
- Yeah Ben wrote this recipe.
- James wrote this recipe.
- James wrote this one.
- They've got themselves to blame.
- [Mike] Yup.
Chopped dates, in a pan with some water and some baking soda
bring it up to a boil, five minutes.
It was a simmer, bring it up to a simmer.
- Whilst these crumpets are cooking,
I'm gonna make some black garlic mayo.
Dijon mustard, egg yolks, garlic
cocoa powder, and charcoal powder
into a mini food processor then blitz.
What the F type of recipe for a mayo has cocoa powder in it?
- So the batter is beaten together, eggs, softened butter,
and I'm beating that together with brown sugar.
- Do I say something?
What would you do in this situation?
(Jamie giggling)
- I think I am in this situation.
- I know, exactly.
I'm running it by you.
- Mike.
- Better friend than me, better friend than me.
- What's that?
(sizzling)
(laughing)
- Once the dates are softened,
drain them and let them cool in a bowl.
- My pickled chilies are simple.
Vinegar, salt, icing sugar, warm water and green chilies.
Mix it up then pour over chilies.
And then leave it for as long as possible.
- Why is that got baking soda in it?
It tastes of pure baking soda.
- Let's see how this goes.
- Next step is to kneed my dough for 10 minutes.
I'm going to treat this like a 10 minute workout.
This is gonna be, Mike, I should have used the machine.
I mean that can't be right, can it?
- Do you not think, the two of us
are at a distinct disadvantage to the guy who has watched
James make all of these recipes.
- Not according to that.
- It's not helping me.
- Half of my floor mix that goes in,
ginger, baking powder, walnuts, ow.
Says to put this in and I'm worried about that.
For two reasons.
Number one, it's black and I burnt it.
Number two, it tastes like baking soda and not dates.
- I can't work out if I've got the ratios wrong
'cause I feel like I dodged James
for the integrity of the recipe.
- James, I'm only used to having one hand available
because the other one is holding yours.
- Right, I've been told to re-read the recipe.
- So really, the only problem
with the integrity of the recipe
is actually the integrity of you being able to read?
- Yeah. - Right.
Baz, you do know we're up against the time?
- Yeah sure, sorry mate, oh sorry, out of the way.
(laughs)
What?
- Now I am taking some butter
and I am making sure it's in every single crevice.
I'm gonna bake this off at a 170 for 45 minutes.
My toffee sauce is pretty standard in that it's sugar,
butter, double cream, melted together.
But there is a couple of cool little twists in there.
Golden syrup, make it extra sweet, some ground cloves,
and some instant gold leaf coffee
from a pretentious ingredients video.
Won't make any difference, but you know.
- Next up I need to sieve my mayonnaise,
which is a sentence I never thought
I'd hear myself saying, but here we are.
- I have had to re-read the recipe
and it turns out that you're meant to add the water
then stop when it starts coming together.
Don't use all the water that it says in the recipe
that's just a guide of how much it could take.
It's coming together, so therefore, stop,
leave it for 10 minutes, come back to it.
- When you come to do your lamb how high has it got to be?
Cause this is quite girthy.
- It's only little, it's a little lamb.
- Okay, so is your name Mary?
- I can't see any wontons that Barry's made.
- I reckon I've got about an hour.
- Well you need to hurry up!
- I know.
That goes in there.
(rock music)
My wonton filling is really easy
so I really shouldn't screw this up.
- [Man] Thank goodness for that.
- Ginger, pork mince, king prawns, egg whites,
soya sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and light brown sugar
into a food processor and give it a quick blitz that's it.
- I'm going to get ahead
by making the vinegarette for my lettuce
and what I'll do is I'll grate all the
(blender whirs)
White wine vinegar, dijon mustard
(giggles)
olive oil, come on, in you go, in you go!
Yeah, you lad.
Yes, I congratulated myself, oh (beep).
(laughter)
- [Jamie] What's the matter?
- I think it's been over kneaded.
(light music)
Let's just go with this it be all right.
Cover it and leave it for half an hour.
- Baz you've got to leave? You got to let it rest?
- [Barry] Yep.
- We've got maximum 45 minutes left.
- You're going to be able to wrap them
and cook them in 15 minutes?
- I'm gonna have to.
- [Mike] Well, get prepped.
- Do you not think he should have started an hour before us?
- I didn't pick this recipe.
- Should've just got it right, first time.
- Well, it couldn't be that hard.
To get my lamb going,
I've seasoned it with salt and pepper.
Now I've got to rub some black mayo over it.
(rock music)
I am quickly losing confidence.
Fry that on both sided until golden brown,
then that has to go into an oven for 10 to 15 minutes,
then it has to rest for 10 minutes.
- Oh, that tastes a lot like coffee.
Better.
- The time is currently 4:33.
We are serving dinner at five, early bird special forevers.
(laughing)
Whoever hasn't got their dish finished
by five o'clock doesn't get to serve it up.
If they get their dishes in the wrong order, then so be it.
- I'm doing a really simple sauce it's porcini mushrooms
and garlic and sugar and a lot of Chinese ingredients.
I'm throwing it into a pan, bringing it to a boil
and let it simmer for, says here, 20 minutes
but we've only got 10, so 10 minutes it is.
- For my lettuce, I'm gonna cut it in half
and then griddle it it on one side till slightly blackened.
Cooked lettuce, James' favorite.
And then I am going to toss it
in my little vinegarette that I've made.
- Oh Bundt-y.
Ahh it's hot!
- [Barry] How are you going to put,
is it really need like a little skewer
rather than a wooden spoon in?
- Hey mate, you can be focusing on other,
more important things.
I'm stabbing it in the bottom
with the back of a wooden spoon,
and then filling all the holes
with some of my toffee sauce.
Oh thank you sir.
- It actually feels pretty good.
- Boys, first service 15 minutes.
- Have you done any cooking yet?
- No! (laughing)
Oh!
- [Jamie] Barry, what's the matter?
- That I am about to do the hardest bit.
What I've got to do now is
dollop my filling into the middle,
pick up all the corners so it's like a money bag
and then put it into water for two to three minutes.
I might be okay, I might be okay.
- That is a baked Bundt.
Whether it will come out of the Bundt tin is another matter.
- That is going to rest for a little while, take that out.
That has reached a maximum of 58.5 degrees Celsius.
And it had to be somewhere between 55 and 60 so nailed it.
- Seven minutes till service.
- [Jamie] Seven minutes, right.
- I'm gonna say, they are some chunky wontons.
- Five minutes.
- How long do your Wontons take to cook?
- Two to three minutes.
- You can make it, come on.
- So these can go in
- Baz, 10, nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, - Anything else?
Can I do anything else?
- One.
No you've done it, well done mate, that's amazing.
Right, get them in there, get them in there.
(soft lounge music)
- Just so you know,
I think the waiter just stuck his finger in it
to check if it was hot enough.
(laughing)
Saw that over your shoulder.
- That's about food poisoning.
- Ah, here's your first course.
These are wonton mee, enjoy.
- Thank you.
(giggles)
- Seamless.
- [James] It's well presented.
- They all look conveniently similar.
Not identical, but rustically similar.
- Oh wow, you need a knife and fork.
- Yeah, it's a knife and fork kind of wonton.
(laughing)
- I don't know if I've ever mentioned, James, but,
I've been to China
and I remember the pastry being a bit thinner there.
- Cheers
- Bon appetit.
- It's not as terrible as I thought it might be.
- It tastes great.
- The thing is about this dish,
is that it's not very difficult, apart from the thin pastry.
- And that's probably the only thing letting it down.
So what kind of,
what kind of food do you like to cook in your spare time?
- Oh that's a great question, I love baking bread.
- You're a bit knead-y then?
- I'm a little bit needy.
- Every mouthful packs a punch, heavy on garlic,
and all the flavors are kind of sweet, salty, sour.
- I'm honestly so surprised that this tastes good.
Better than I expected,
but the more dough I ate the less impressed I was.
- Super tasty.
- Mm, yes, it was delicious, thank you.
- No worries.
- I've got to try to quenelle that mayo onto the plate.
- It's more gray-o than mayo
- I know, all right.
- Are you happy with that?
- That could be pinker, couldn't it?
- It's dark in there, they might not see.
- They're quite clacky.
(bell rings)
I'm in, I don't want to be in.
- You are in.
(soft lounge music)
(speaks a foreign language)
- Thank you.
Excuse me, can we get some cutlery?
(speaks a foreign language)
(beep)
- [Jamie] They want some more knives and forks.
(laughing)
- [Ben] I hope it tastes better than it looks.
(speaks foreign language)
- So decent.
- That is a good crumpet.
- This is good, he's done great.
- First impressions on the lamb.
I thought it might have been a little over,
but I don't think it is.
The mayo is deliciously garlicky.
- But sweet, not like garlicky, garlicky.
- I've got a lot of time for grilled lettuce.
I feel like it could have been grilled a bit more.
- Ben, what do you like to do at the weekends?
Is it outdoorsy?
I know you're an outdoorsy person.
- I mean don't get me wrong,
I can be pretty lazy when it comes to Netflix,
but definitely outdoorsy.
- Stop flirting will you?
You can't drop Netflix and chill in the first minute.
- There is more to see outside
than there is to get stuck inside.
Can you beat a good walk and a pub lunch?
And if there is a dog involved, bonus.
- This is actually so good.
I'm so impressed.
- Are you having the best Valentines day, ever?
- I'm having one of the best Valentine's Days, ever, yes.
Another brilliant dish.
- Custard, six egg yolks, caster sugar,
corn flour, whisk it.
I've heated up some double cream and vanilla extract,
then you pour that
over the top of your whisked yolky mixture,
to create something smooth, that resembles custard.
Back in there, back on the heat to heat up,
and the corn flour is going to thicken it
but also stop the eggs scrambling.
You just stir the skin off.
This is the moment of truth.
Oh no.
- [Jamie] You've just got to commit.
- Ready
- [Jamie] You've just got to do it.
- No, I've got to go slow.
What does it look like?
- [Jamie] You've nailed it!
- Yikes, that is so hot!
(bell ringing)
- Are they okay?
- Is everything alright in there?
(sexy jazz music)
I'm not sure I've got room for dessert,
but perhaps a small one?
- You're a terrible (mumbles)
- Oh God.
- But he already portioned it.
It's a shame.
Oh my goodness.
- Sir, sir.
- Thank you.
- Bon appetit.
- Now if I had to pick a favorite dessert
as in like, a big warm hug,
I think Sticky Toffee might be it.
- I wish he'd given um given us a jug of custard
'cause I'm definitely going to want more custard.
- [Ben] I'm sure if we ask nicely.
- I'm definitely going to want more custard.
- That is naughty, but very nice.
It's rich and dark and kind of almost treacly,
but I guess that comes from the dates,
with added crunch of walnut.
- I think the custard maybe it's just like a touch bland
maybe a little more, a little more vanilla.
And it's come out clean as well, look at that.
- A good Bundt.
Unless, unless the other half just fell out
and then he picked the other half out, we'll never know.
And I guess that's part of being in a restaurant,
you never know what's going on in the kitchen.
And sometimes you're thankful for it.
- I think you and I are the clear winners here.
- I don't know, I could do with some more wine.
- Is there a sommelier in sight?
- Not the, - Some wine, sir?
- No put that stuff away. - No, no, no.
- Strong meal, altogether.
- It's been a whirlwind, experience.
- I've really enjoyed our first date too, James.
(laughing)
- We've made our decision.
Marry, snog, avoid.
It was a close call.
The person we're going to avoid.
- He's probably used to it.
- Mr. Taylor with the wontons.
- It's Barry.
- I kind of expected that, I had a bit of a bear.
- Pucker up, because the snog position.
- Go.
Don't use the word snog position.
- Goes to,
our sticky date pudding
- Okay, I'll take that. - Mike.
- Well done, well done.
- Really?
- I'll just go ahead, it's your face, it was great.
- I'm actually shocked by that.
- The crumpets were so good. - Were they?
- Lamb was good, crumpets were good,
two sauces vinegarette and mayo.
- Very good, well done, mate.
- I'm shocked. - Well done.
- We are going to leave
a very good Google and TripAdvisor review.
We might come back.
- I'll just have the tip if possible?
- [Announcer] The recipes in this video
are from our ever-growing range of cookbooks,
which, as a Sorted Club Member,
you can get delivered straight to your door
or use the books app to enjoy the full collection
anytime you like.
It's all included in the Sorted Club
along with all our other apps.
Head to sorted.club to check it out.
And now a blooper.
(beep)
- People keep telling me to do this, have you seen this,
oh you've already done it, you've taken your rings off.
- I sometimes do, sometimes don't.
- So do I.
'Cause sometimes I enjoy the added flavor that they bring.
- The thing is before cooking, I always wash my ring.
(snorts)