Original subtitles

Mike, we're going to have some fun in the kitchen today

with goat's cheese.

I love goat's cheese,

the richness of flavour,

that creaminess that it brings to a dish.

I'm going to make a tomato and goat's cheese pasta,

which celebrates all the beautiful flavours and ingredients

of the Mediterranean diet,

with that gorgeous creaminess of the goat's cheese

coming through the pasta.

How about you? That sounds absolutely yum, Jacq.

I can't wait to try it.

I'm going to do a French classic of a tarte tatin...

Ooh! ..which is absolutely beautiful.

Obviously, I'm going to do a savoury version,

so I'm going to do a onion tarte tatin

with a goat's cheese mousse.

And I'm going to have slight fun with the goat's cheese mousse,

where I'm going to aerate it

and show you a cool way of doing it slightly differently.

Ooh, I've got lots to learn from you today, I think.

Aw, we'll have some fun. Shall we get cracking?

Let's do it. Alright!

So, tarte tatin's one of the first things

I learnt how to make at Le Gavroche at my time with Michel Roux.

Did you? Absolutely!

Like, it's a staple in French cuisine.

I absolutely love making them,

and I love making them sweet or savoury.

So, I'm going to do a savoury version today.

Ooh, I'm excited for this! So, what have we got on?

So, we're going to do...

Basically, we're going to caramelise off, like, baby shallots first.

What can I do for you?

You can start on the goat's cheese mousse for me, please, Jacq.

OK.

So, if you grate...

I've got two types of goat's cheeses - a hard and a soft.

Yes.

If you grate the hard and then just crumble up the soft.

OK. I'm on it. Easy.

So, tarte tatin, one of the most important ingredients,

both in the pastry

and in the cooking, is my favourite!

Butter! (LAUGHS)

You can't get around it, especially in French cuisine.

Butter is a cornerstone.

So, we're going to start off

by getting our butter in there first.

And I'm going to be quite generous 'cause I want a really nice colour

on those onions.

And, obviously, one of the most important things

with a tarte tatin is when you turn it out,

you want it to look pretty,

so how you put your onions in is really important,

you know, so that presentation, you've got to take the care

at the very beginning.

Now, you were telling me before -

you were a pastry chef to begin with...

Yeah. ..at the start of your career.

Yeah, early on in my career.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, I was a pastry chef for, um - when I was at Royal Hospital Road -

for about six months.

I was there for almost two years,

and the first half of the first year I spent on pastry.

So, I love how you've done the arrangement of the onions

into the fry pan already... That's it.

..and you just leave them like that to cook in the butter.

That's it, yeah, we'll leave it to slow-cook.

So, there's definitely a few little steps to this dish...

Absolutely!

..which if you're a novice to pastry,

would you say this is probably something you wouldn't go in

with first?

No! Like...

But when you're feeling a bit more confident,

or do you feel like this is something even for...?

Obviously, like, if I'm doing this in a restaurant,

I'd make the pastry.

Yeah. I'm not making the pastry today.

Oh, cool! Easy!

I've already made enough pastry for you guys!

I'm using shop-bought puff, you know, so it's absolutely easy.

Easy! And quite quick.

OK. Do you know what I mean?

It's a quick dish to do when you're buying in the pastry.

So, yeah, absolutely no worries about that.

So, a little bit of salt in there, a little bit of pepper.

Ooh, it smells good!

So, we're going to let that slow-cook now in the pan.

And then I'm just going to pop it in the oven

for about 5 to 10 minutes at 200 degrees,

let it cook through.

And I'm going to bring it out,

I'm going to deglaze it with sherry vinegar,

add the pastry on,

pop it back into the oven for about 20, 25 minutes

until that pastry is nice and golden.

And then we're going to whip up the mousse.

Yum!

Right now, our tarte tatin's in the oven,

we're going to make our mousse.

And, honestly, it's the easiest mousse recipe ever.

You say that so convincingly, so I'm gonna hold you to it!

Of course it is!

So, we've got our grated goat's. OK.

We're going to add in our crumbled soft goat's.

Yum!

I'm gonna add in some creme fraiche.

So, all the cream, all the goat's cheese...

I love creme fraiche! (LAUGHS) ..it's all happening now!

Yeah, but creme fraiche is...

Surely, it's slightly better for you?

It's light, you know... It's light.

(LAUGHS) You get the sour notes, you get...

It's basically a fancy yoghurt, surely?

Right. Once at this stage, I'm going to add some olive oil.

There you go, some good fat. Yeah, I like it!

(LAUGHS)

A bit of unsaturated fat to balance things out a bit!

Not too much, about 50ml. Perfect.

And then we're going to season it,

and I'm going to pop it in the blender.

OK.

And that will just, basically, break down all of those cheeses

and form, like, almost a paste.

Right. I'm telling you - super easy.

Great.

Ah, look at that beauty! Ah, I'm so excited!

I just... I get so excited about tarte tatins.

But then there's always that moment of panic.

And I've been doing these for 20-odd years.

Moment of truth! We do the flip.

Hey-hey! Yay! Perfect!

There you go.

I'm going to first dress it with just a little bit of rocket.

Oh, you got a little bit of greenery in there, I like this!

A little bit of greenery. A little bit of salad!

Make some...!

Yeah, just for you, you know! Thanks, mate!

Little drizzle of olive oil.

And then, we're going to do our mousse on top.

Beautiful.

Now, obviously a tomato tarte tatin is pretty popular

with a lot of people. Yeah.

Could this be something where you could mix things up

and if you had fresh tomatoes on hand...

Absolutely. ..little cherry ones,

pop in there, too, and... Go with the season.

..boost it. Yeah.

Great! Mate, what is this?

(LAUGHS)

Talk me through it!

This is my cream gun, my whipper, my syphon gun.

So, look at that. Oh, beautiful.

Just whips that beautiful, no-effort mousse.

And you just fill the centre. Oh, wow!

There you have it - my onion tarte tatin

with that beautiful,

whipped goat's cheese mousse.

Do you want me to do the honours? I'd love you to do that.

I would hate to ruin the beauty of this tarte tatin.

(GIGGLES)

I love the crispiness of the pastry,

all the way through.

It smells amazing.

You really get all

the smells of the caramelised onion and the herbs.

Just... Ooh!

For me... Let's have a little...

..it's like a little pizza slice, you know?

It is. Look at that.

Hmm! That's exquisite.

I love the flavour of the goat's cheese,

just absolutely softens that onion richness,

but it's almost a sweet, sticky onion

'cause of the sherry vinegar coming through as well.

Honestly, beautiful dish, guys. You have to give it a try.

Mike, I do love pasta, but when I make it,

I always just make it with really simple ingredients

that are really rich in flavour.

So this tomato, goat's cheese pasta

ticks all those boxes.

Sounds good. Great combination. Alright.

So, we've got our pot of water boiling.

We're going to get our pasta in

'cause that's going to take around 7 to 9 minutes.

And I'd love for you to spiral the zucchini...

OK. ..'cause we're going to do

a combination of the whole pasta with a zucchini 'pasta', as such.

Oh, so you're gonna do both?

Yeah!

Get a little bit more vegie in there is the way I like to roll.

That's nice, 'cause... Yeah, why not?

..a lot people usually use it as a replacement.

Why do you do the two together?

I think it's a good way that...

If you want something that's a little bit more hearty,

then you can get the pasta into the dish,

but you know you're ticking your boxes with your vegies,

which people need.

Do you know what? I've never seen one of these before.

It's really cool.

Interestingly, you can find these in, like, a post office.

Really?

(LAUGHS) Yeah, it's that kind of implement.

But if you didn't have that on hand,

then you could just as easily use a vegetable peeler...

Yeah.

..or something to create the pasta noodle.

It might be a little bit thicker,

but you could peel it with a vegetable peeler

and then just cut it into a little thinner strip to make it...

Do ribbons like that... Yeah!

..and then just straight down, right?

Yep, because you want it to be of a similar thickness to the spaghetti

that you're cooking here, as well. Yeah.

So, we've got extra virgin olive oil in the pan,

there's a pretty decent glug of that in the pan,

and I'll get a pretty generous amount of garlic,

though these garlic cloves are particularly big!

We were saying the produce has been incredible recently.

We're blessed with the amazing produce here.

We really are!

So, we're going to get the garlic and the extra virgin olive oil

into the pan and get that sauteing

with some of the basil stalks, as well.

Oh, nice. You're using the stalks.

Yeah. So, again, like, no need to waste it.

Basil stalks have lots of good flavour,

so I like to use those.

Some of the best flavour's in the stalks, right?

Yeah. Must be the same with the nutrients.

Yeah, definitely, like, using the whole plant.

Could you pass them to me and I'll get cracking on those?

So, about a cup of basil, overall.

So, it's probably about a quarter of a bunch or so.

And, again, if you love that beautiful basil flavour,

then bump it up.

When you have simple but quality ingredients

that are also seasonal,

you really have the opportunity to access the nutrients, as well.

And they just taste better. They do taste better!

They do, they just taste better. It does the work for you.

So, this dish really does celebrate Mediterranean flavours,

and nutrition through its ingredients, as well.

We've got extra virgin olive oil with the garlic.

We're getting our basil stalks in.

And then, because there's the extra virgin olive oil

with the tomato,

which we'll pop in shortly, too,

we actually have better absorption of the anti-oxidants

that are in the tomatoes.

When it's teamed with the extra virgin olive oil and the tomatoes,

our bodies absorb the anti-oxidants in there much more readily,

which is super cool.

That's amazing. Yeah!

And this is one of the reasons why the Mediterranean diet

is so powerfully advocated, I suppose,

for things like your heart health,

for longevity, for fertility,

is because, one of the reasons is because,

of the anti-oxidants that's present in the diet.

So, all the more reason to enjoy your pasta!

(LAUGHS)

The pasta's no longer guilty, I love it!

You should have no guilt...

I don't know when pasta got a bad reputation!

I know... Do you know what I mean?

..it's not fair! It's not fair because it's so...

Like, done in the right way, there's so much in there

that's great for you.

It's such few ingredients,

but all of those flavours are going to come together

for such an amazing dish, I'm sure.

Absolutely.

So, it's a beautiful aroma coming from our garlic

and our basil stalks, with the extra virgin olive oil.

We're going to get our chopped tomatoes in there

and let them cook down for about 10 to 12 minutes,

so that'll time perfectly with when our pasta is done.

And my little extra bonus to this dish

is a pinch of chilli flakes 'cause I love a little bit...

Nice. ..of spice in there.

If you have kids that don't like chilli,

of course, you take it out.

But, for me, a little pinch of chilli really highlights the flavours

in this dish.

And some salt and pepper because, without seasoning, you know,

the flavours in the dish just aren't as exciting.

It's just not worth living! No!

It's just not worth living, is it? Salt and pepper make the dish.

Salt, pepper.

Smells amazing, Jacq, really, really good.

Alright. We're going to let that simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes,

and then we'll pop our goat's cheese in.

Pasta's cooked.

We're going to get our goat's cheese into the tomato sauce.

We've got a beautiful lump of goat's cheese here.

And that's going to give the creaminess...

Ah, so, you're stirring it through. ..to the tomato sauce.

We're going to melt it in... Yum!

..stir it through

and then get our pasta and our zucchini pasta in there too.

But we'll stir through the goat's cheese

so that it melts into the heat of the tomatoes.

Would you like to get some of the zucchini pasta in?

Yeah, sure!

And you can see it's become that lovely creamy,

rich tomato and goat's cheese.

A little bit more? We'll go a little bit more, I think.

We want this to serve two people as a main.

So, we're thinking about having a reasonable portion in there.

And we've got a great source of both the vegies

and the beautiful quality pasta.

Alright, let's get it in.

That pasta looks beautiful. It is, isn't it?

Yeah. Very authentic.

Alright, we'll give it a little toss.

Our basil's ready to go.

Do you want the basil?

We'll do that right towards the end.

I'll give this guy a bit of a toss through.

And this is also a great way to think about...

Like, I'm always trying to think about

how I can get more vegies into the family, generally.

And I feel like, pasta, you can have

the opportunity to do that... Yeah.

..whether you're putting more vegies into the sauce,

whether you're cooking your zucchini noodles

in with spaghetti or pasta... Yeah, absolutely!

..it's a really simple way to do it and, look!

With the exception of the green... Gorgeous!

..you can kind of...

You know, it all looks the same. Gorgeous.

It's the same. I would just say it's Hulk pasta.

That's what I say to my youngest. Yeah!

You know, it's how Hulk eats it.

That's right! (LAUGHS)

It's how you grow your muscles. Yeah.

Alright, that's good to go.

Let's get some of this. (SNIFFS)

Oh, it smells amazing, this basil.

Basil in.

You want to give me a hand, Mike? Sure.

Many hands make light work. That's it.

Again, also a good one and fun to do with the kids

'cause they can be spiralling the zucchini...

Yeah. ..they can rip up the herbs,

they can just get amongst it

and see how beautiful quality ingredients

come together to make really simple but delicious dishes.

Alright. And any remaining basil we could throw into a pesto.

That's it.

That's ready. It's looking good.

It smells absolutely divine.

Now, you're a chef, so you've probably got

some beautiful ways of presenting pasta on a plate.

No, just get it on there. (LAUGHS)

Get it on!

Oh, the smell!

And I love the way you used the goat's cheese through the sauce.

Yeah. You know, it's almost how...

I'd probably throw in a bit of butter,

but the goat's cheese is the healthier way of doing it.

And also flavour as well. It is!

It gives it a creamy, that richness,

it changes the sauce completely.

And goat's cheese is a lovely alternative.

If you have people that are not tolerant of a cow's milk dairy...

Yeah.

..then goat's cheese is a really great option

because it's lower in lactose.

So, it's a really good one for those people

that might be lactose intolerant but still want to have

the creaminess in their foods.

Mmm.

I'm getting pretty generous on my one-person serve here.

Wow. (LAUGHS)

You're cooking for me, Jacq, so keep it going.

Alright. Would you like that? (LAUGHTER)

Bit of extra ground black pepper.

And you know what, we might actually throw some more fresh basil leaves

on the top before we serve as well.

Why not? Here's some pretty ones.

Thank you. Look at that!

That's it! Lovely.

Very simple, very delicious, lots of wholesome ingredients,

lots of good nutrition.

An absolutely wonderful meal

if you're just having it for yourself,

or if you're cooking for a group of people as well.

Smells absolutely delicious!

It smells good, but shall we try it?

Let's tuck in. Alright.

Now, the zucchini noodles are quite long.

The pasta is beautiful and al dente cooked.

But I love how that sauce becomes such a nice coating for it.

It's not drenched, you know? No.

It's my kind of comfort food, this one...

Mmm. ..because it is simple.

There's heartiness to it.

There's richness from the goat's cheese

without it being an overkill.

Beautiful! Mmm.

It's light, it's subtle.

It's the sort of pasta where you will clean the plate and go,

"Hmm, maybe I'll have some more." (LAUGHS)

You know, it's absolutely delicious.

And the bite of the zucchini in there as well...

It's good, it's just right. Just right.

Yeah. Really good.

So, there we go.

Tomato goat's cheese pasta, a beautiful quality pasta,

lots of good quality ingredients.

Simple, nutritious, delicious.

When you tell your friends that you've made your own dip,

you've got lots of bragging rights.

When you pull this one out...

this is my butterbean and za'atar dip.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

"Za'atar? He's gone mad." What is it?

It's a spice mix and I'll talk you through.

We're going to make our spice mix and our dip in just minutes.

For our za'atar mix,

it's a combination of herbs and spices.

So, we've got oregano into the bowl.

Dried oregano.

Some dried marjoram.

Some dried sumac.

I love sumac, it's got a great citrus flavour.

And some sesame seeds.

I like it.

And a good pinch of salt in there.

Then we get a spoon and we give this a little mix around.

This is such a versatile spice mix.

There we go. Za'atar mix is done.

And then for our dip, we've got some butter beans here.

These are just tinned butter beans that have been drained and rinsed.

Alright.

So, our butter beans are going to go into our food processor.

Just whack them all in.

Making your own dips at home is so easy.

And I love it because you actually know what's going into the dips.

There's no hidden nasties. It's just all the good stuff.

Butter beans in there.

Then, we want the juice of half a lemon.

Straight into our food processor.

Alright.

And then another good pinch of salt

and some olive oil.

Four tablespoons almost,

yeah, about a quarter of a cup of olive oil

Just to lubricate everything.

And then the real hero, some good-quality Greek yoghurt.

We just want about...

..ooh, half a cup of good-quality Greek yoghurt.

In we go.

I don't like to measure things. (LAUGHS)

OK.

That's it.

On with the top

and we'll let the food processor do the work for us.

Alright, that's getting there.

I want to add some of our beautiful za'atar mix now.

So, let's get some of that in there.

I'll hold some back to sprinkle on top as well.

Alright, on with the lid and give it another mix.

That's it. We are done!

Butter bean and za'atar dip.

It is that easy, guys!

I really encourage you at home

to have a crack at making your own dips.

And start with this one, because it is so delicious.

Pour this into our dish.

Ah, yes!

That makes me happy.

You can just tell that beautiful, thick consistency,

that great-quality Greek yoghurt from Tassie,

that's where it starts.

A good sprinkle of our leftover za'atar mix over the top.

Finish with a little drizzle of olive oil.

Serve that with some crispy flatbreads,

some carrot sticks, some celery sticks.

Job done. Who needs to buy dip?

Captions by Red Bee Media