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(upbeat music)
- With a little extra time on our hands
perhaps, now is the opportunity
to get into the DIY spirit
and experiment with some DIY,
make-your-own food kits.
We're gonna put a few to the test here,
to see if they're worth the effort
during lockdown.
And for wise wisdoms
we've also got Jamie dialling in from home.
Hey Jay!
- I feel like an audience member.
I feel like I'm in that frustrating position
where I get to watch you make food,
but I don't get to eat it.
- It does feel a little bit weird
The only safety blanket is I finally
after 8 weeks put a chef's jacket back on.
- Still no trousers though.
- Still no trousers though
(both laughing)
(bright guitar music)
- If he spun around.
(Jamie laughing)
Alright mate
- So the first one I have Naked Halloumi.
- Yes ebers this your make-your-own Halloumi kit.
It's everything you need to make 8 batches
of mouthwatering Halloumi.
- The box comes with a thermometer, a cheese mould,
some rennet tablets, cheese salt, dried mint.
- I reckon that this will taste infinitely better
than the usual supermarket rubber, their words.
And this kit should give you enough
to create eight batches of mouthwatering Halloumi.
All you have to do is add milk.
- Right, only one way to put it to the test.
Let's make some.
So I need to heat some milk up to 32 degrees
stirring regularly so it doesn't stick
and dissolve a quarter of a rennet tablet
into some cold water.
So you turn off the heat,
add the rennet solution
stir, cover with a lid
and allow to leave to set for 40 minutes.
(timer clicking) (groovy guitar music)
- Right, how's the Halloumi looking?
- Jelly like, its got a real wobble on it
I've now go to make shallow cuts
in both directions,
stir gently, and then slowly heat it back up
to 40 degrees celsius.
Now I got the cheese cloth that they provided
in a colander, over a bowl.
And were gonna separate out the curds and whey.
The fats and the proteins
have separated out from the liquid.
Some lumps are bigger than others.
Oh also, I've realised
I'm not supposed to be straining it.
See I presume too much,
I'm supposed to be ladling it,
see the whey drips through.
- This is what happens
when you give clear instructions
to a chef who thinks they know better.
- It's so true
Leave it to settle for a couple minutes,
and drain using the cloth,
lift the curds gently into the cheese mould
and press down gently
so that the curds fill the whole mould.
Save the whey because we're gonna need that.
Allow to drain for 50 minutes
turning the cheese halfway through.
(timer clicking) (upbeat music)
I'm excited for this,
because this is cheese.
I need to unwrap it,
and then cook it for 20 minutes
in the whey that we drained off before.
- And that's the best way to do that, is it?
- Apparently so Jamie.
See, kinda bouncy.
So once this is up to about 90 95,
this is gonna go in,
bring it back to boil
and then take it off the heat for 20 minutes.
(upbeat music)
Then scoop out into cold water
to stop the cooking.
Then pat it dry,
and then we're gonna season it
with cheese salt and dried mint.
And in theory as soon as its cool you can use it.
But I think it's better
if you leave it in the fridge overnight.
This is the one that Jamie made yesterday.
- It's looking good
- It's set up super firm
and I'm hoping it's kinda got that squeakiness to it
Oh wow!
That is cutting, beautifully.
(upbeat music)
Tastes good.
The hub is amazing.
And it does, even though just salt the outside,
it does kinda go all the way through.
And this is the real test.
(sizzling)
- It's sticking.
- It is
- Well, Oh no!
- We're going to try oiling some.
Doesn't cook as well.
It's almost too soft, I'd say
and not rubbery enough,
because any bits that char
then pull away from the cheese
rather than stick with the cheese.
It's absolutely delicious
and it has got a squeak.
- All right big question,
how much do you think the kit is?
- 22.
- It's 22.99.
- There's no denying that it's a bit of fath,
by that I mean that there's a very involved process
but that's the point.
You're buying it to do it yourself
and to go through that
which is kinda cool.
If you end up with eight blocks of Halloumi
I think that's really good value.
I just wanna perfect
the consistency so that it chars better.
It's good.
(upbeat music)
- Spin around my ebers.
- Make your own chilli sauce.
- No ingredients required,
you can craft your own fiery,
or not so fiery chilli concoctions.
So there should be enough ingredients in there
to fashion a tangy six bottles worth.
And all the recipes have been developed
by the The Upton Cheyney Chilli Company
and these will be ready in under an hour.
- In the box,
got the spice mix for the mango morita,
the spice mix for smokey chipotle,
got some dried chilies, clear bottles,
funnels, vinegar,
even got labels to put on our bottles.
I'm excited to make my own chilli sauce.
However, I feel like the instructions and marketing
are a little misleading.
- Oh
- The kit includes ingredients to make one batch
of each flavour.
So we didn't get anything else
and then you open up the recipes
and in fact you need other ingredients.
Fresh ingredients plus tinned ingredients.
We haven't got tinned mango in the studio
so we're gonna have to make
the smokey chipotle sauce.
We have got tinned tomatoes.
Preheat in oven,
lids sterilised in boiling water.
Put the chipotle chilli in a cup of boiling water
for at least 30 minutes.
The bottles go into the oven at 120 degrees
for 20 minutes.
- And that sterilises them.
- You wanna keep them for up to a year,
which it says you can.
Then need to make sure everything
you're going to store in is sterilised.
- Can you adjust
the heat level of the chilli sauce?
- I'm gonna say no.
- Okay great.
- Based on the fact that
you need to heat up the red wine vinegar
in a pan with water
and once it's boiling,
add in tinned tomatoes,
diced onion, Worcester sauce,
plus your re-hydrated chipotle chilli,
removing the stalk
and the packet of dried ingredients.
And although it doesn't give you ratios
and I guess that's the secret.
It's master powder, brown sugar,
salt, chipotle spice, and garlic powder.
So it's not saying as much as you see fit.
- Okay
- And given it's full of sugar and spice
you probably want it all in
to balance out the vinegar.
So that's going to bubble away for 30 minutes
and after 30 minutes blend the sauce
and pour it into the hot bottles.
- Simple.
(upbeat music)
- It smells incredible.
(blender buzzing)
Hot sterilised bottle, funnel.
(upbeat music)
(Jamie laughs)
Three bottles done.
I'll label them up when the bottles are cool
but I feel like we should taste it.
- Yep
- Because I've sealed it while hot,
they'll last for up to a year.
But once they're opened, 6 weeks in the fridge.
That's the kind of consistency we're looking at.
I wonder how hot it is?
I don't normally eat chilli sauce
just off a spoon.
Smokey, definitely sweet,
enough of a tongue tingle to know it's there
and its beginning to draw a sweat
but really delicious!
- So what's your overall impressions
of the kit then?
- I think it's good.
Doesn't take particularly long,
it's easy to do at home
and you do end up with three awesome bottles.
- And if you had to guess a price?
- I'm gonna say the magic 22 quid again
- It's actually 19.99,
so not far off at all.
- I think that's pretty good,
whether you buy it for yourself to create
or you gift the whole box.
That's pretty good.
(upbeat music)
- He's turned around.
I didn't even ask him to.
- Make your own gin cookies.
- If anything sounds like
it might be up your street,
it's this.
Ebers this kit is going to allow you
to create a boozy batch of edible gin cookies.
Our kit takes care
of all of the boring baking science.
So all you need to do
is slap in a knob of butter
and slosh in a generous glug
of your favourite gin.
- Oh, when is a generous glug
ever been 2 teaspoons of gin?
It's not enough gin.
(Jamie laughs)
Okay what it is though is really simple,
Preheat in oven.
- It feels to me like
this is slightly more novelty
than the chilli sauce
and the halloumi that's come before it.
And maybe not novelty
is not what Ben's looking for
when it comes to gin.
- It's bizarre because the make your own bit,
I kind of think is when it applies
to something like cheese
which you wouldn't normally make your own.
Kids aged six make there own cookies.
- Yeah but these are gin cookies
and you love gin.
- It's got 2 teaspoons of gin in it.
We'll see if that makes any difference.
Tip the contents of the bag into a bowl.
Two teaspoons of gin
And 100 grammes of softened butter.
They claim that its enriched
with a heady juniper and cardamom notes.
This cardamom powder in your flour mix
and your 2 teaspoons of gin
might give it that juniper flavour.
Take a spoon though the mix
and roll into balls
approximately the size of a walnut.
Place them on a lined baking tray,
spaced apart and flattened.
What's it say on the back of the box?
Make 10 to 12 warm boozy cookies in 10 minutes.
Do you want to know the next instruction Jay?
Let the cookies cool in the fridge
for 30 minutes.
(Jamie laughs)
I'm trying to be fair here,
but these are the smallest walnuts
I've ever seen.
And I've still only got nine.
It says 10-12
(upbeat music)
So after chilling in the fridge,
squish them a bit flat,
put them in the oven to bake as per instructions.
They are baked,
they've got a nice very gentle golden hue over them.
- It does look like a good cookie.
- I don't imagine it's gonna be a chewy cookie.
I think it's definitely like a buttery,
short-bready kind of cookie.
But there's nothing wrong with that
They said melts in the mouth, absolutely.
They also said,
heady notes of juniper and cardamom.
- Oh no, you're trying aren't you?
- If I really shut my eyes
and think about it.
(soft music)
No.
Beautifully simple to make,
rich, buttery cookies.
The gin is pointless
other than to put that on the label.
Two teaspoons spread across nine and baked,
they're not boozy.
They're not heady with juniper,
and there's not even
a huge amount of cardamom in there.
- You've obviously been well impressed,
but how much do you think the gin cookies cost?
- 4.50.
- Nine pound 99.
- I think because of the name
and because of the gin element
it does make a quirky little gift.
- Last one!
Give it a lift
- This is the homemade curing kit for bacon.
- The Ross & Ross,
best selling award winning kit,
contains everything you need
to make your own original
sweet and smokey cured bacon at home.
Just add pork
- We have fennel and juniper cure,
English mustard and pink peppercorn cure
and maple and chipotle cure.
It also comes a musling cloth and butcher's hook
so you can hang your pork in the fridge.
Along with plastic gloves
so you don't get your hands dirty.
This is cool, never made my own.
Step one, go to butchers
and ask for a 500 gramme piece of pork,
rind off and bone free.
It's business time.
- No, no! - That's what it says,
It's business time.
I don't think it says to wiggle your fingers but,
put the pork belly into a sealable bag,
pour in your chosen salt,
Jay which one are we going for,
three flavours.
- We've already done the chipotle.
- We've already done juniper.
- So I think we gotta go English mustard.
- Salt, demerara sugar,
English mustard, pink peppercorns,
and the preservative's sodium nitrate.
Rub your pork.
Seal the bag,
make sure that no air is left inside the bag.
So the curing process,
yes it seasons it and gives it flavour
but the salt and sugar
will also draw out the moisture
and take the pork
to a place we basically bacteria can't survive
because of the water content
and the salt and the sugar,
is that curing process.
That will need two days in the fridge.
Flip it, another two days in the fridge.
And then you take it out,
wash it in cold water
dry it,
and then hang it in your fridge
with the butcher's hook provided
and some of your muslin cloth
all wrapped up so that it can breathe
but is in the fridge for another three days.
Luckily for us,
James has done all that for us
And he tried all three flavours
- What a nice guy!
- I say luckily for us,
your there, lucky for me!
- Oh no!
- So three different flavours,
four days of curing,
three days of air drying in the fridge
and you can see the texture has completely changed.
- Yep
- But no where near as far as biltong or a jerky
which is like super chewy,
but there's a noticeable difference.
And all three smell incredible.
I've got a pan heated.
I'm just gonna do bacon pieces
rather than cook off the whole thing.
I've also chosen for now,
to do it in a hot dry pan.
Obviously there's natural fats in the pork,
but I'm not frying it in additional fat
just so we got it's purest form.
As a DIY kit,
I quite like this one
because like the cheese
there's lots of waiting to see
how things change and develop
- It feels like a project to me.
- Yeah. - Because you've got
the anticipation of it.
You have to keep going back to it.
You have to keep tending it.
But, that becomes your responsibility
for quite a large amount of time
and I enjoy that.
That's a proper project.
- It's really simple,
and the step by step ingredients are idiot proof.
So it does it all for you
but you still get the satisfaction
of having created what I hope
is super tasty bacon.
First one up, fennel and juniper.
That is everything you want in bacon..
Mustard and pink peppercorn,
definitely get mustard on that one,
because it gets you in the nose.
Lastly, maple and chipotle.
It is sweet for the maple,
and spicy, but also smokey.
That's really good.
- Well the big question is,
how much do you think the curing kit costs?
- 15 quid.
- It's 20 pounds.
- I'm still happy with that
and I still think its a great thing
and I do feel accomplished.
- Okay ebers, we had four DIY food kits.
Did you have a favourite?
- I've never made Halloumi before,
I've never cured bacon before.
They're really cool.
I think there's some really good take outs from here.
And more importantly, I've enjoyed the process
as much if not more than the end product.
Right, over to you guys
what did you think?
Would you give any of these a go
or have you been trying
some other new stuff during lockdown?
In which case comment down below.
Let us know
and if there is other DIY make your own food kits
we should try,
we absolutely will.
- We've also built the Sorted Club
where you can get tonnes of foody inspo
using the Packs Midweek Meal app.
Discover and share restaurant recommendations
using the Eat app.
Listen and contribute
to our feast joy with Podcast
and send us ideas for new cook books you receive
throughout the year.
Check it all out by heading to sorted.club.
(soft upbeat music)
And now a blue par.
- I don't know how your lockdown is going
but I'm sitting here on a zoom call
watching my friend--
- Separate curds and whey. (Jamie laughs)