Original subtitles

Midweek meals... Mm.

..for me, I'm always in a rush

and, like, I want to use minimal ingredients

but still achieve maximum flavour, of course.

I love that. We've both got kids at home...

Yeah!

..we want something that's quick, healthy and delicious,

that takes no time at all.

So, that's what we're showcasing today.

So, I'm going to be doing a spaghetti aglio e olio.

Nice!

Classic, just with things that you've got

in the pantry or the fridge... Yeah.

..and can be made in 10 minutes, pretty much.

Easy. Mm.

I'm going to be pulling out my spatchcock chicken

with a miso gravy.

Oh, wow! So simple!

For me, if you want big flavour, miso is always my go-to.

Super easy, five ingredients, you're gonna love it.

Five ingredients? Yeah.

Let's do it!

One, two, three, four, five...

..six ingredients, Mike!

One more than me! (BOTH LAUGH)

Oh, you beat me!

Maximum flavour, minimum ingredients.

So, six, that's not many ingredients.

That's right.

So, this dish is spaghetti aglio e olio.

Essentially, garlic and chilli, olive oil base.

I'm sure you've made this many a time

for a family meal in your...

Yeah, it's one of my daughter's favourites.

Yeah, it's classic.

This is a lot of olive oil, three quarters of a cup,

but the olive oil is the sauce... Yeah.

..and olive oil is really, really good for you,

so, happy days.

This is a cold pan.

Now, I like my chilli,

so I've got a good tablespoon of chilli flakes here.

But, depending on your heat tolerance,

you can always dial back the chilli.

If we're feeding our kids,

we're going to dial it back a little bit.

Or dial it up when you're just cooking for me, Tim.

That's right, let's go! (LAUGHS)

Now, here I've got eight, yes, I said eight, cloves of garlic.

Would you chop with me? Yeah, of course.

For aglio e olio, I like to just go really thinly sliced.

OK. So, we're not going to dice.

Let's just go nice thin slices.

This is such a classic Italian pasta dish.

Now, when I was on MasterChef,

we would be filming all day somewhat.

Sometimes we'd do 12- or 15-hour days...

Yeah. ..and then we'd get home

and we'd be rostered on to cook the whole,

all the contestants' dinner. Oh, really?

So, aglio e olio became...

It's exactly what you want after a long day's shooting.

Yeah, aglio e olio became a real staple

because it was so easy to prepare.

Yeah. It's beautiful.

It just falls into that category of, you know,

beautiful flavour, amazing dish... Yeah!

..but super quick and achievable

when you're looking for...

This is my version of fast food, you know?

When you're looking for that fast food, quick meal.

And much more nourishing than something you might pick up...

100%, 100%. ..through the drive through.

OK, all of this beautiful, thinly sliced garlic will go in.

This is still cold.

Let's just pop that onto a nice, gentle heat.

And we'll just let that come up.

And when the garlic is beautiful and golden,

that's when we know it's ready to go.

Beautiful. Alright.

And I'm going to add in some beautiful spaghetti.

So, this is slow-dried, small batch.

I mean, have a look at this.

Yeah. You know that's good-quality pasta.

Hand-done, handcrafted. Yeah.

You could just, like, you can tell the difference in the colour,

the feel, the texture, everything.

Absolutely.

Australian-made and -owned.

So, we're going to go in with the whole pack of spaghetti...

..and let that cook.

Mate, I love your style of cooking.

It's very similar, you know,

simple, beautiful produce but maximum flavour.

That's what it's all about, Mike. Yeah.

And I feel like we're on very similar wavelengths...

Yeah. ..when it comes to our cooking,

and it's been a pleasure to cook with you, my friend.

So, the pasta is doing its thing, cooking away.

Our beautiful garlic-chilli olive oil is infusing.

This won't take long.

By the time the pasta is ready,

we can bring it all together in a matter of minutes.

Alright, just that gorgeous smell, isn't it? I mean...

Yeah, it just perfumes the air. Yeah.

But you can see the garlic's nice and golden now,

that's just come up to temperature slowly and that's ready to go.

So, I'm going to turn off the heat.

The pasta is done.

So, it's great, once the pasta is done, the oil's done,

it all comes together all at the same time.

It's such a simple dish... Yeah!

..but packed with flavour. Packed full of flavour.

That's what this is all about.

Now, in the recipe, I say to reserve half a cup of the pasta water,

just to help emulsify and bring all that sauce together.

But, if I just drag that straight across,

there's no need to drain it.

And you're going to get the incidental pasta water

just clinging to the pasta.

Fantastic.

Now, we'll just season,

a bit of salt...

Mate! ..bit of pepper.

I'll get some of that parsley, a good whack of that in there.

And then, all we do is, just give that

a good mix around.

It's always the simplest things that get me, you know?

I know.

What do you reckon I try?

Oh! Oh, look at you, mate!

Oh, my poor... Just like your nonna used to.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Alright, let's plate up.

If I'm having pasta, I'm going to do it right and get a good big bowl.

Let's see if I can get a nice twirl.

I think that's the biggest twirl... Whoa!

..I've ever seen. OK, and then we'll just...

..get it good on there.

Nice.

Let that sit up proudly.

Alright, now you finish that with a bit more parsley.

And now, some of our...

..grated parmesan because I love my cheese.

A little drizzle of olive oil on top.

Spaghetti aglio e olio.

Six ingredients,

not including the salt and pepper.

I mean, this is comfort food personified for me.

It really is, it really is.

Maximum flavour, minimum ingredients.

This just makes me happy. (BOTH LAUGH)

Let's tuck in. Let's get in there.

I love the quality of this pasta, it's beautiful.

Yeah, it's gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah.

The pasta is cooked perfectly. Mm.

Still really nice bite of al dente.

Nice amount of garlic. Mm.

Mm!

Mate!

You don't need much to create a fantastic dish.

I mean, it starts with good-quality produce,

great pasta, great olive oil,

and that little tip of bringing the garlic up slowly,

cold oil to really infuse it.

Absolutely! Great tip.

Midweek meal, I mean...

I mean, mate, thank you very much, this is all mine.

Oh! Pleasure, mate.

Enjoy! (LAUGHS) I will.

We always talk about, as chefs, you know,

about building flavour... Mm.

..and, you know, how to get the most out of your ingredients.

For me, this dish is the epitome of that,

which is a miso spatchcocked chicken.

And, like, miso has just got

so many different layers of flavour, you know, it really does.

It's like it's a party in your mouth every time you use it.

But first, we're going to spatchcock these chickens.

I'm going to teach you, Tim.

OK, Sensei. I'm going to show you.

(LAUGHS) Padawan. It can be a bit daunting.

It can be daunting.

I mean, you've got this gorgeous, baby, little chicken.

Yeah, but, you know...

Let's break it down.

It's essentially... We're using poussins today.

We're basically just going to split it straight down the middle.

You can use a knife if you want to.

Scissors are easier for this, like, kitchen scissors, though.

They're much thicker.

And then, once you cut through...

..we just crack it back like that.

OK. OK?

So, I'm going to now just, basically...

..massage the chicken. Ooh!

I'm going to remove the skin,

like, gently away from the breast meat.

So, if you can make the miso butter for me...

Can do.

..I'll work the skin away from the breast so that we can stuff it.

And for me, you should do this with -

whether it's a big chicken, little chicken, doesn't matter -

when you put your butter on,

if you put it on top, it just runs away.

If you just insert your finger in that,

literally the space where the neck's removed,

you can get your finger all the way in there

and make space to stuff it, you know.

That's a great little tip because you get flavour under there.

Yeah, absolutely! It's good.

And you can be, you know, quite, not forceful,

but you don't have to be as gentle as you think.

So, I've gone with half the block of butter

and a good couple of tablespoons of miso.

Yeah, two to one. Yep.

So, two butter to one miso. Yeah.

That's what we're working on. Yeah.

And just give that a good mix around.

I did notice there wasn't many ingredients on the bench.

Mate, five ingredients... (LAUGHS)

..which for me, I'm treating you. I love it.

Usually my bench is filled from one end to the next.

The girls are like, "What are you doing, Mike?"

(BOTH LAUGH)

Alright.

I really should have got a bigger bowl, but...

You made it a challenge for yourself! I have, haven't I?

(BOTH LAUGH) Oh, dear!

But, there we go, our miso butter.

I'll let you do the honours. Awesome.

If I can grab a teaspoon. Absolutely.

You can even use a piping bag as well.

But Tim's already started to make a mess,

so I may as well continue.

You can see I can even just fit that teaspoon all the way in...

Ah, yeah?

and just literally deposit the butter underneath.

Miso is just one of those magical ingredients, isn't it?

It really is. Yeah.

Like, I started using it a lot in my cooking about 10 years ago...

Yeah. ..and I've never looked back.

And it was, genuinely, after one of my first trips to Japan, you know,

it's just such a great way to introduce...

Yeah! ..you know, umami.

And I know we all talk about it

and people joke about how much chefs say the word...

BOTH: Umami.

..now, but it is, you know, we love it for a reason.

Yeah.

It just gives another dimension to your food.

And as a lover of savoury food, I mean... Yeah.

..I'm just chasing umami all the time.

That's what I crave, yeah. Me too.

I mean, I use a lot of miso in my desserts.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, I absolutely love it in desserts.

Like, I've got a miso and yuzu tart that I do...

Aw, yum! ..which is just beautiful.

It's like my take on a lemon tart.

Well, spatchcock for main course.

And then we've got... Yeah. (LAUGHS)

..we've got a dessert for us.

Love it, love it. We'll save it for another day.

Alright, alright. (BOTH LAUGH)

Alright, that's nicely stuffed now.

And then we'll just put a little bit more on top

once they're in their trays.

And, of course, if you didn't want to cook with spatchcock,

you could do this with a full-size chook, for sure?

Absolutely! Yeah.

You could do it with a full-size chook.

100%, up to you.

Alright. So, just spreading a little bit more

over those legs and thighs as well.

And then, Tim, if you want to, you can just season it up.

Got ya. Bit of salt, bit of pepper.

Obviously, when you are using things like miso,

less salt because it is quite a salty kick in there.

And some pepper. Good man.

Oh! How good. Simple.

So, we're going to pop that in the oven now,

160 for about 20-25 minutes.

Look at these birds! They're gorgeous, eh?

Beautiful colour and you can see the way they cook,

like, that skin almost balloons from the butter underneath,

gets it really crispy and delicious.

Wow. Like, very happy with them.

So, now, with the gravy, what I'm going to do,

this is just our reduced down chicken stock.

I've got some cornflour here.

Just making a slurry. Little slurry.

Yeah, cornflour and water.

But, before I add this, flavour.

It's the name of the day, right? (LAUGHS)

So, can you pass me a spoon, Tim? Yeah.

I'm gonna add in our roasting juices.

And obviously these roasting juices are juices

and also a little bit of butter.

Liquid gold!

It's liquid... It's exactly that, my friend.

Don't waste those. Liquid gold.

And that's just going to transform

the flavour of this sauce straightaway.

Alright, while I finish the gravy... Yeah.

..do you want to cut that chicken into quarters for me?

I got you. Thank you.

Now, into the gravy as well,

the remaining of the miso butter,

put it in there.

Get it in.

And as that mixes through,

we're going to stir in our slurry as well.

And that should all thicken and emulsify

and turn into the most beautiful sauce.

And it really is that simple

to make a delicious little gravy to go with it.

And obviously it's a lot blonder because of the miso.

It smells amazing.

Oh, look at that! It's thickened up straightaway.

Just so simple, so quick.

Mm! Have a taste, mate! I can't...

I...

Oh, wow! A little hit of pepper.

(LAUGHS)

Those chicken juices! It's the chicken juices.

It's the chicken juices. (LAUGHS)

It's the chicken juices.

The rest is just a base.

Once you add in the chicken juices, that miso, the butter...

Wow!

..honestly it's just, it's a punch of flavour in your mouth.

And to plate up, so simple.

We'll just go the chicken breasts.

Move that over, breast here.

Super simple, and you wouldn't have thought

that you've used what, five ingredients?

Five ingredients. Unbelievable.

And then you just glaze that with your sauce.

And just packed full of flavour.

And it's using what you've got, right?

Like the juices, so much flavour in there.

Get it into that gravy.

It's an absolute winner.

You wouldn't believe that that's only five ingredients.

Yeah. And that gravy...

Well, guys, please try it, it will blow your mind.

Mike, you've done it again, mate.

Thanks, mate. Love it.

So, it appears

I'm the queen of zucchini on this show.

So, today I'm going to take you through a zucchini baba ganoush

with some crispy butter beans on top.

It makes a really great starter.

I've cooked the zucchini in some extra-virgin olive oil

in the oven to start,

and that'll form the base of the baba ganoush.

So, we'll trim the zucchini a little bit on the end

before we get them into our food processor,

so we don't have the end bits

chunking up our zucchini dip too much.

And then we have our traditional flavours

of baba ganoush to pop in there as well.

And this is a lovely alternative because not everyone likes eggplant,

which is what the original baba ganoush is made of.

So, I thought, "Why don't we find a way to make it

"an alternative with zucchini

"that still has the same consistency,

"with the softness of the flesh, but without the eggplant?"

And it turned out really well.

So, all of our zucchini into the food processor

with some garlic.

One of my favourite spices, cumin.

A little bit of smoky paprika.

Because, traditionally,

as well, I believe that when you make eggplant baba ganoush,

the eggplant is charred on the smoking grill.

So that's where that delicious smokiness comes from.

And then some tahini.

I really love tahini, honestly.

We use it so much in cooking at home.

If you're looking to up your calcium in your diet a little bit,

then tahini and sesame seeds are a really great way to do it.

Of course, we need some lemon,

and this is where you can kind of play with the flavours

a little bit.

So, I'll start with about a tablespoon of lemon juice.

And you can always bump up the lemon juice a little bit later.

We'll go in with our herbs.

Today, I'm using parsley.

I'm pretty generous with the herbs, as you may well have discovered.

But again, increase, decrease as works for you

and how you like to cook.

If you didn't have parsley on hand,

then coriander or dill could also be nice.

One to two tablespoons of parsley

into the food processor with the zucchini.

And then a nice glug of Bertolli extra-virgin olive oil.

It's a great olive oil.

It's a real all-rounder.

So it works in lots of different dishes.

Beautiful raw, like this.

I love it in my sweet baked treats as well.

We'll season with some salt and pepper and blitz her up.

So, that looks perfect.

Now it's time to make our crispy butter beans.

Get your pan to about a medium-to-high heat,

and add a good glug of extra-virgin olive oil,

because we want to make the beans lovely and crisp

to contrast with the smooth nature of the dip.

We'll just finely slice some of these Asian shallots.

Look, I'll be honest, I use these

because that's all I had in the fridge

the day I first made this recipe.

So, you could use, honestly, an onion that you have on hand,

a little bit of red onion or a traditional shallot.

And once our oil is lovely and hot,

we'll drop these into the pan with our butter beans

and get them all crispy and delicious.

We'll add some salt and pepper to the pan.

You can, at this stage, add some chilli flakes if you like.

I tend to add those at the end

because I don't know who I'll be serving this up to.

And my little extra take as well, again, I had it on hand,

my beautiful parents grow sorrel in their garden,

is to add in some bitter greens like sorrel or rocket.

If you had some leftover radicchio that you wanted to use,

you could add that in as well.

We'll add some of our chopped parsley in,

so that goes lovely and crispy with the beans.

So, these are almost done.

So, we'll get our serving plate

and get ready to serve it to our guests.

Everything's ready to serve up.

So, we'll get the baba ganoush onto the plate first.

Oh, it's turned out beautifully.

It's a fun take on a traditional baba ganoush, for sure.

I'm going to create a little bit of a gap in the middle,

so that there's a bit of a gap

for our crispy beans to go on the top.

Now, this is an optional extra,

if you have some Greek yoghurt

or coconut yoghurt

and you can get a few dollops of that.

And it creates not only another layer of flavours into the dish,

but also, I love a bit of contrast.

And then just give it a little bit of a swirl

with the back of your spoon.

Doesn't need to be super neat.

Now for the crispy butter beans.

And this dish is best served when the butter beans are hot

and the herbs and the sorrel have become lovely and crisp as well.

And our shallots...

..let's get them in there.

I'm gonna give it a little bit of extra pepper.

I'm gonna put a little bit more lemon around the edges.

Tiny drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil to finish.

Not only does that make it taste great,

but it gives it a nice little finishing glossy touch.

Some chilli flakes if you like.

Again, that's an optional extra, but one of my favourites.

And if you want to garnish it with a few more herbs,

like your parsley,

or if you have some more of your sorrel leaves on hand,

you can do that as well.

Or you can serve it just as is.

Zucchini baba ganoush, crispy butter beans

just need a juicy big lavash and that's a great-looking snack.

Captions by Red Bee Media