Original subtitles

We're getting a little bit sweet today, aren't we, Mike?

We are, we are.

We've got a couple of great coconut desserts coming your way today.

And I'm gonna be making a beautiful coconut tres leche,

which is one of my favourite South American desserts.

It is decadent. It's luxurious.

It's simply yum.

You have surprised me.

I thought we were gonna go a little Caribbean, perhaps.

You know, tapping into your roots.

There's a lot of synergy between South America and the Caribbean.

So, today this cake represents them both.

OK, well, I'm gonna use coconut milk too,

but my dessert is gonna be a touch lighter, as you might expect.

I'm gonna use filo and make some lovely tartlets

with a coconut milk custard and caramelised pineapple.

That sounds pretty good. Mm. Yeah.

I'm excited to try. OK, let's do it.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

So, this is a really simple cake recipe,

which I absolutely love

because it's one that, you know, you can just knock out really quickly

when you've got people coming over.

And it's five eggs,

which we're just gonna start by whisking up.

And once that starts to...you know when it almost forms a sabayon,

it gets slightly golden, light and fluffy?

Sugar in, take it to sabayon stage.

Then we add the coconut milk,

the ground almond flour and a bit of baking powder.

It's sounding pretty simple to me.

You just threw in some fancy chef words to make it sound...

You made it sound like you're doing something really tricky,

but actually you're just gonna mix up some eggs,

put some flour and sugar, basically.

Yeah. Cake.

Yeah. Cake. OK.

Cake. I've got it. I've got it.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Aren't eggs amazing foods?

Oh, I love them. Look at that!

It's incredible, eh? Yeah.

So, now pour in the sugar.

Not too much sugar.

(LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS) I think that's a matter of opinion.

And then we're just gonna whisk that again.

So, that's what I mean by the sabayon stage.

OK?

Where it's gone really thick and creamy.

And now we're gonna add in our coconut milk.

And that's gonna be the real base of the flavour for this.

I'm doing a coconut tres leche

because the first tres leche I ever tried was coconut flavour,

and I was absolutely addicted.

I've done every flavour of tres leche you can imagine.

I absolutely love it.

OK. Different garnishes.

This is... It's just... It's a great cake.

It's a really good recipe. OK.

We're just gonna give that a quick mix

and then we're gonna go straight in

with our baking powder and our almond meal.

So, in goes the baking.

I'm just gonna lower it down...

..to add in our flour now.

Would you like... You look like you want me to do this.

Yes, please. Should I butter these?

Well, you're just standing and watching, Jo.

I am. I feel like I need a job.

Yes, please. I'm just being here useless.

Generous with the butter.

Don't skimp. This is just butter?

Just butter. Of course it is.

You could do it with EVOO if you wanted to.

OK.

And you add it a little bit more gradually

just to avoid the lumps as it goes in.

We're just gonna turn that up.

Alright.

And then you're left with, like,

a really nice, beautiful, golden, almost batter-style cake mix,

which is delicious.

And it's done. That simple.

Those four ingredients, mix it together.

We're gonna put it now into our generously buttered moulds.

Put it in the oven, 180 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Then I'm gonna make a quick tres leche sauce.

This is the three-milk element

with the cream, the coconut milk

and condensed milk.

Rich. It's gonna be delicious.

Rich.

Ooh, they smell good. Beautiful.

Fresh-out-of-the-oven cake. That smell fills the room so well.

So, we're just gonna poke some holes in it now.

Four around the corners. One in the middle.

And that's just gonna basically create a little bit more space

for your sauce to really get into that cake.

And then we've got this gorgeous sauce now.

And this will take quite a bit of sauce,

but you need to do it in two stages, OK?

Because it's gonna soak down

and absorb into the cake.

So, I always say pour it on,

leave it about half an hour, an hour.

It will soak up all that sauce

and then it'll be ready to take a little bit more.

So, you just keep topping it up.

Don't be shy.

Put more in, get the love in.

It's gonna be beautiful.

You can't over-sauce the cake.

Trust it. Trust the process.

And I'll show you how it looks in a bit.

This is looking gooey, Mike.

Ohh! Is that just what you want?

It looks inviting. Do you know what I mean?

You say gooey,

I say absolutely delicious.

I just want to slightly release it from the side

and then...

..it should just come out.

It's the moment of truth.

I know you're gonna blame me if it doesn't because I did the buttering.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Ohh! Oh, look at that.

Beautiful! Perfection! Ain't she pretty?

She's pretty, right?

I admit that does look good.

And just 'cause it doesn't have enough sauce...

Let's put some more.

A little bit more. That little bit extra on top.

It's beautiful. It's delicious.

And, guys, remember that was super easy.

And you can pull this out for a dinner party. So easy.

You can dress it up, add other garnishes.

For me, I'm gonna get a cup of coffee and enjoy this bad boy.

Does look good, I have to admit.

Well, Mike may not be getting his Caribbean on, but I am.

(LAUGHS)

Hey, my Caribbean is always on, Jo.

Always on. You must just be influencing me

because, you know, I'm doing coconut and pineapples.

Lovely. It's kind of Caribbean, right?

Yeah. You couldn't get two more Caribbean flavours there.

Yeah. OK. Come on, expert,

you can do the chopping of the pineapple for me then.

How do you want it chopped? Probably don't need the whole thing.

Let's just do about a quarter and small dice.

OK.

So, basically I'm just going to make a coconut custard,

we're gonna caramelise the pineapple.

We're gonna line our little muffin tray with the filo,

fill them up and put them in the oven.

Really easy.

And I'll give you some tips for using filo

because people get really worried about using filo, don't they?

But, actually, once you get used to it,

it's something that is very, very easy, I think, to work with.

So, I'm going to use some coconut milk.

I do love this particular brand

of coconut milk

because it doesn't have nasties added to it.

So, I'm just going to add

a little bit into my custard powder.

And I AM gonna cheat.

I'm going to use a little shortcut by having custard powder.

I'm very surprised, Jo. Am I horrifying you?

I am very surprised, I'm not gonna lie.

I was looking at the ingredients going, "What's that pink stuff?"

Yeah, well, you know, it's just corn flour with some dried egg in there.

There's nothing nasty.

And actually there's not sugar in the custard powder.

You add your own sugar, right? And that's important, right?

Yeah. And I'm gonna use some maple syrup

to sweeten my custard here.

So, the trick with making custard

is to make your paste first.

And I've put the rest of my coconut milk

into the pan starting to heat.

Just gonna add a little bit of water

and then use a whisk.

So, if you make a paste with the coconut milk and a little water

while it's cold,

this is gonna help stop getting lumps into your custard.

And this is whether you're using regular dairy milk

or you're using coconut milk.

You're such a fast chopper.

Do you want some more? Maybe a little bit more.

A little bit more? Just in case we run out.

Do you think you have to do this...

My mum always taught me, when you're making custard,

do your paste, then you've got to heat,

put some of the hot into the cold, then the cold back into the hot.

Or is that old-fashioned?

Look, it is. It's all about avoiding the lumps again.

And you should get a better result with doing it.

It's not necessary.

Like, as long as you whisk rather than stirring, you're fine.

The biggest thing with making things like this is people stir.

They just use the whisk in a circular motion,

whereas actually, whisking, you should be drawing a figure of eight.

So, if you draw the figure of eight Aha!

you're actually breaking apart the powders faster, quicker,

and it doesn't give the lumps a chance to really develop.

There we go. You see? I always learn.

Always learn. And you've saved me a little step there.

So, the paste... (LAUGHS)

The paste is going straight into the pot.

And we do a little figure of eight.

Thanks, Mike. (LAUGHS)

Thanks, Mike!

OK. And I am gonna just pop in my maple syrup as my sweetener.

Now, why do I like maple syrup?

Well, maple syrup and honey

are two of the most natural sweeteners.

All they've done with maple syrup is it's that sap from the maple tree,

it's slightly thickened... Yeah.

..they get a bit of the liquid out,

and then you get this glorious, wonderful flavour.

And then you do just want to make sure you simmer it

because there is cornflour in that custard powder.

So, all we're gonna do is caramelise our pineapples.

A little bit of extra-virgin olive oil into my fry pan here.

OK, this is getting nice and hot,

so, I'm just gonna pop my pineapple in there.

I love pineapple. I love pineapple.

I'm literally just standing here eating it. It's so delicious.

So good.

So good.

And, you know, that's one thing I'm always asked about -

is fruit bad because it's got sugar in it?

Honestly, whole fruit is natural sugar.

Pineapple isn't just sugar. You know, those are natural sugars present.

It's got fibre and vitamin C and bromelain

and all these kind of really good things in there that we want.

So, never worry about having fruit.

We should be having at least

a couple of serves of fruit every single day.

So, what could be more delicious?

I call it nature's sweet treat.

Now, while that's cooking we can get going with the filo.

So, a little trick for using filo.

And this is just practice.

I use this all the time, so, then you get really confident with using it.

Leave it in the packet until you're absolutely ready to go.

And then I do have a little damp towel over there.

The other trick is, when you've got your filo ready,

bring it out of the packet, unroll it

and then the bits that you're not using

just keep covered with a damp towel

because, if this dries out,

that's when it all starts falling to pieces.

So, maybe I'll just pop this over here.

Mike, could you just oil the tray for me to start?

You're gonna take one sheet.

Use your damp towel over the rest of the filo while you're working.

Just work quite quickly when you're doing this.

And what I like about it too

is you don't have to be too fussy.

Don't worry if it rips

because you're just gonna be able to cover it up.

So, we're just gonna fold it over.

Brush it again.

Fold it again.

Can I just borrow this sharp knife if you're done?

Cut it into that,

and then that's roughly the size you're gonna need

to fill one little muffin tin.

And, again, just be rough.

Shove it in, make sure you stick it to the edges,

and then just roughly crinkle up the edges over the top

so that you've lined your muffin tin.

Love it. Simple. That's it. Yeah.

So, basically that's all we have to do, is fill the muffins.

We've got our custard ready.

We've got our caramelised pineapple.

Once you've lined your tin

we're ready to fill it and then it's gonna be popped into the oven.

You were actually quite good at that, Mike, you know?

Aww! Thanks, Jo.

You'd think he was professionally trained or something.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Alright, since you did such a good job with my pineapple,

I'm gonna get you to do that.

So, we've got our lovely coconut custard here

into your ready-made lined tins.

And then, Mike, I'll just get you to pop a few pieces of pineapple

onto the top.

And your only thing here

is to work out how much to put in

because I have done this where I've overfilled them

and run out of custard before I got to the end...

Ah! ..or not put enough in,

and then got extra at the end.

Anyway, so, put in just a couple of spoons of custard is my tip.

So, once you've filled all your little tarts,

this is just going to go into the oven at 180

for about 20 minutes or so,

just until you see the edges getting lovely and golden-brown.

They look great.

They do. They do.

Why do you sound surprised, Mike?

Well, I think it's the pastry.

You know, how it's been folded.

You've got elevation and height

with that filo.

Mm.

(BOTH LAUGH)

He's trying to talk himself up.

You're trying to compare your filo parcels to mine.

No. It looks... and the smell is beautiful.

So, what's really good about these

are that you can either tuck in pretty much straightaway -

do let them cool just a touch

'cause they can be so hot in the middle you're gonna burn yourself -

or turn them out onto a wire tray,

let them cool completely and then you enjoy them cold.

But, honestly, they won't last long in your house, I promise.

Do you know what?

I've already got images of this beautiful tart,

a nice dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

(LAUGHS) Oh!

I think it would just be heaven.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's my coconut custard caramelised pineapple tartlets.

They're absolutely beautiful

warm from the oven or let them cool down and enjoy later.

I'm gonna enjoy this right now.

Macadamia crusted salmon with a cauliflower puree

and some greens on the side

is my kind of meal

on a date night at home,

which seems to be happening a little more frequently these days

now that I have quite a few kids in the house too.

So, we're gonna kick it off

by chopping up our beautiful

oven-roasted macadamias.

These are one of my favourite snacks,

but I also love getting these

onto our salmon as well.

These macadamias provide the most amazing crust to the salmon.

Their salty, creamy, a little bit of crunch

and they just make the meal

that much more exciting.

Now, macadamias are full

of those healthy fats,

so, if you've been keen

to figure out how you can get more

of those healthy fats into your diet,

then this is going to be

a dish for you.

We've got the fats from the macadamia.

Then salmon is actually what's known as an oily or fatty fish,

but fatty in all the right ways.

It's these sorts of fats that can really help support our heart health

and really helps to keep your appetite stable.

So, getting some of them

into your diet,

whether it be through a crust

or having a handful of the nuts

in the afternoon as a snack

is a super-duper way to pack that nutrition in.

So, you can see with the macadamias,

I've chopped into a crumb

that's relatively fine.

There's a few little chunks in there, but that's alright.

That'll just give a little bit more texture to the salmon.

Then we'll add our extra-virgin olive oil.

You only need about a teaspoon or so of the extra-virgin olive oil.

And then a couple of tablespoons of our herbs.

So, I have chives,

which I also love

growing at home.

Fresh chives really are something extra special.

And dill because I think dill pairs beautifully with fish.

Now, I know dill isn't everyone's favourite herb, and that's OK,

but I'm sure there's other herbs in your kitchen

that you could be using up.

So, in with our chives.

And then a couple of tablespoons of the dill as well.

Look, I'll be honest,

maybe it's lazy, maybe it's efficient

or maybe it's the fact that I hate waste,

I'll just tend to use the dill leaf and the stalk.

So, you're welcome to go ahead and do that as well.

And get them in with the macadamias, the honey and the olive oil.

Honey's going in.

And you have the option to,

if you want to, to leave the honey out.

I like it because it adds just that extra layer of flavour in there.

But if you were, for instance,

aiming to eat less sugars,

then an easy option would be just to simply leave the honey out.

Alright, let's get it on the fish.

So, I've got two beautiful pieces of salmon here.

I'm keeping the skin on.

That's just personal preference.

I don't mind the skin on there.

And then we don't need to do much

except just get our macadamia crust

onto our salmon.

So, gently layer it on.

You'll probably just need to push it on a little bit as you go.

So, the salmon only takes about 12 to 15 minutes in the oven.

And it's in that time that you can steam up your cauliflower,

mash it or blitz it with a food processor,

get some extra greens happening

and then it is done.

Let's get this into the oven.

We're ready. The salmon has cooked.

You can see

all the delicious crust

that's formed on the top.

I had to resist temptation to eat

all of the little bits on the edge too.

We're going to get our cauliflower mash onto the plate

to lay the base and to provide a nice little bed

for the salmon to go on.

Then we'll get our salmon,

the macadamia and herb crust.

Ohh...

Look, date night or night, I'd be cooking this for one

for sure.

And some greens

just to balance out the meal.

The colours add a little bit extra in there.

I've got some broccoli

and some snow peas here.

Two of my favourite vegies, to be honest.

And then to finish...

Not without some lemon.

I love the lemon to balance out the salt.

You notice I didn't actually season much of this recipe

and that's because the macadamias themselves are actually crusted

with a pink lake salt.

We'll finish with some pepper.

So, there we go.

Macadamia and herb crusted salmon

with a cauliflower mash

and some fresh greens on the side.

Perfect for date night

or maybe just a date for one.

Captions by Red Bee Media