Original subtitles

We are taking a tantalising trip to Tijuana today.

It's all about Mexican food.

Do you love Mexican food? I absolutely love Mexican food.

So I thought I'd actually make a Mexican cannelloni today.

Ooh! Bit of fun.

Something a little bit different to the norm.

I love this one as a family meal.

I've made it vegetarian

to pack it with lots of those protein- and fibre-rich beans

and it's got the tomato sauce around it

and the melted cheese and some guac on top to finish too.

Oh, stop it. That sounds great!

Mate, talk me through what you're doing, though.

Well, I'm glad yours is vegetarian, 'cause mine's not -

I'm doing Szechuan-style fried pork belly tacos.

Ooh! Very different! Yes. Let's don our sombreros.

Let's do this! Alright.

Tim, my Mexican cannelloni

are a really fun and delicious meat-free meal.

I make them using beans instead of mince,

which also makes them just that little bit more economical as well.

I love that. Shall we start cooking?

Let's do it. Alright.

If you can chop the coriander stalks and pick the leaves for me.

Now, I say that because I really love using the whole plant

but also, the coriander stalks provide so much flavour,

so I want to get those into the pan to start,

with the onion, the garlic, the capsicum

and all the herbs and spices.

There's actually a gene

that makes people taste either a soapiness in coriander

or the actual coriander taste.

It's not just an aversion of, like, I don't like the herb -

it's actually a genetic thing.

I thought they were just sooks. (LAUGHS)

It would make Mexican hard

but we can always find some solutions for people.

We're gonna get the pan on to a medium to high heat

and add some extra virgin olive oil to the base of the pan,

enough to coat.

Then we'll get our onion, our garlic, our coriander stalks

and I'll also chop up some red capsicum as well.

I love the red capsicum in there.

It's obviously very Mexican but it adds that lovely sweet element

to contrast with the spices in the dish as well.

I love cooking with capsicum. I think it's really under-rated.

It just adds such a fantastic flavour to everything.

I agree. Alright.

Do you want these coriander stalks straight in?

I'd love that. Let's doo it.

Let's get this pan up a little bit higher.

Alright. Then we'll get them in.

I love the idea of cannelloni - it's such a family-friendly meal.

Kids love it and whether it's meat or vegetarian,

I think, 'cause there's pasta involved,

you know you're onto something good that the kids are gonna love.

And it's a good take on doing something like a tortilla,

which is obviously very traditionally Mexican.

It's a bit of a fusion, right? Yeah.

I'm sure the Italians don't love it but do you know what?

I'm here to spice things up. Love a bit of fusion.

My dish has got a bit of fusion in it too.

It does, doesn't it? Yeah.

Do you want this one cut as well? I'd love that. Thank you, mate.

Got you. That'd be really helpful.

You can see that I've diced the vegies fairly small,

because we don't want our cannelloni to be too chunky.

We need to be able to fill them up nicely

and I like the small, fine dice

and especially if you have kids,

who can be fussy about the way that they eat,

then making things just that little bit smaller

is a sneaky way of getting some vegies in.

The smaller, the better.

Yeah. (LAUGHS)

Well, there can be small people with big opinions on how food should be.

This has been cooking for 5 to 6 minutes.

Then we're going to add our spices - I've got smoky paprika,

cumin and oregano.

Then we add in our beans.

There's two tins of brown lentils, which we've drained,

and one tin of black beans - you could also use kidney beans -

and one tin of the tomatoes.

Now, this is a beautiful, thick and rich chopped tomato.

They'll all cook together for around 10 minutes.

Then we get to roll our cannelloni.

That's cooked now.

We'll let it cool down ever-so-slightly and while we do...

Smells amazing. Yeah, it does smell good.

When does Mexican not smell good, though?

It's just the addition of those few simple spices

that we've all got in the pantry

that can just lift a dish from 'meh' to 'yeah'.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I like that! I'll be using that.

You may have noticed too

that I didn't actually put chilli into the actual dish.

I often love a hit of chilli - and who doesn't in Mexican?

Yeah.

But I want to make this really family-friendly.

I want to make sure kids know that you can eat...

and adults too, that you can get Mexican with lots of beans

and it can be really juicy, vegetarian

and so the chilli doesn't go in

but you can always add your Tabasco at the end.

Yeah, I like that.

I've cut the lasagne sheets in three,

so we've got enough to roll into the...

Oh, brilliant.

..cannelloni rolls like that.

Love it.

We're gonna divide and conquer this one!

Alright. Do you want a bed of our beautiful...tinned tomatoes?

You read my mind.

I love that this one's already got tomato paste in it,

so it's all thick and luscious

and ready to rock 'n' roll.

Yeah, that's right. Alright.

Then we'll grab a spoon each, Tim,

and I'll bring the dish over to the middle here,

so that we've got a bit of space to work with.

OK. Alright.

We want to just get a bit of the mixture

into the lasagne sheet,

with enough room to do some rolling.

OK.

It is also a dish that I've found that if it doesn't get eaten,

then the leftovers freeze really well,

so an easy one to pop in for lunch or something,

whether you're going to work,

or maybe it's something for a school lunch -

very simple.

And into the dish.

Beautiful.

Then we repeat with the remaining ingredients,

get another layer of the tomato sauce over the top.

Then I know your favourite part - lots of grated cheese.

I've got a mixture of mozzarella and grated parmesan to go on the top.

Then we get it in the oven at 180 for around 20-25 minutes,

make our guac in the meantime and that's it!

(CHEERFUL MUSIC)

Tim, I'm pretty happy with the result of this.

It's come out so well -

you can see all those juicy, beautiful Aussie tomatoes

on the top.

Yeah. I love how they've popped through, nice and crispy and cheesy.

Bit of crispiness around the edges,

where the lentils and the black beans are

and the cheese melted, all golden -

look, this is the best family meal, I've gotta admit.

I love it! And then some guacamole on the top.

Then we'll garnish with some of our coriander leaves as well.

If you can start garnishing with the cori...

Then, depending on who you're serving it to...

That's exactly why I left the chilli out of the recipe,

because you can add some Tabasco as you wish at the end.

Oh, yes. I noticed that.

Give your own fire.

Really simple and great mid-week dinner

that the whole family's gonna love.

Yeah. I can't wait to try this one.

Alright. Let's tuck in. (LAUGHS)

Oh, yeah. Nice scoop with all that beautiful guacamole on it.

OK.

They all come out well. Oh, that looks great!

Can I do the dabbing on of the Tabasco?

You absolutely can.

I'm just gonna make the most of our...

cannelloni in there.

Our kids aren't around, so we can do this.

Go for it. Oh!

OK. Alright.

Time to try it. Yeah. A bit of guacamole.

Lots of mush.

I love the mush factor.

Makes for good, messy Mexican.

What do you think?

That is gorgeous.

I think the consistency of the lentils...

The size is so similar to mince,

it's just a no-brainer swap for me,

as a way of getting meat-free meals into the family.

And using that tinned tomatoes that have the tomato paste combined,

it's so rich and flavourful - I love it!

Yeah! Lots of fun. Great way to do Mexican.

Jac, it doesn't just have to be Tuesday to enjoy tacos.

Did you know that? Absolutely doesn't.

We can enjoy them any day of the week.

Now, I'm doing a bit of a fusion here.

Ooh!

We're doing spiced Szechuan pork belly wholemeal tacos.

Wow! We're gonna make our own tortillas.

I've got a beautiful wholemeal flour here.

Now, strong, high-protein flour

that's been specially formulated just for tortillas.

Perfect! That's what you want. How good?

Now, you'll be proud I'm using a wholemeal flour.

I am! I love the extra bit of fibre that's coming in here.

It's gonna help with that digestion...

Yeah. How good?

..of the heavier components of the dish, like the pork belly.

Uh, yes. (LAUGHS)

We want 1.5 cups of the wholemeal flour.

OK. A quarter cup of the olive oil.

Can do. I like the start of this dish.

It's great! You like it?

Got our fibre-rich flour,

our anti-oxidant-rich extra virgin olive oil -

what's next?

Some baking powder, just to make them nice, light and fluffy.

Perfect. In we go.

And then, this is a bit different.

We've got some ground Szechuan peppercorns.

Oh, yum! These are nice and zingy.

They're almost like adult popping candy in your mouth.

That's a different way to talk about it.

Some ground Szechuan peppercorns

and then some toasted sesame seeds.

In we go. Love it.

Then we've got some lukewarm water. Yep.

Half a cup. In we go.

I love this - you just throw everything in and away you go.

You can see it bubbling already. Yeah. How good?

Then you want half a teaspoon of salt in there.

Then we give that a little bit of a mix around.

Yep.

You can buy store-bought tortillas

but there's something about making your own tortillas -

it's fun and they're absolutely delicious.

Once you make your own, you won't go back.

It's really hard to go back, because they are easy.

You can use humble ingredients.

It does get messy but it's worth it for a good result, isn't it?

It's all part of the fun, Jac.

We just want to bring that together in the bowl

till it's starting to form a dough

and then - you ready to get your hands dirty?

I am! Alright.

Little bit of our beautiful flour onto our board

and I'm just going to tip our dough out.

I just need you to knead that for a minute or two,

till it comes together in a nice dough.

Then we're gonna pop it back into our bowl,

cover that with a damp tea towel

and just let it rest and chill out for 15 minutes,

roll our tortillas out,

cook them in our pan

and then let them hang out on our plate,

covered with a clean tea towel.

Happy days.

The tortillas are done. Check 'em out!

I know! I'm so impressed with how they came out.

I just want to lather them in some guacamole and tuck in

but I'm trying to be patient.

A good-quality non-stick pan

and we just dry-fried those - no oil.

No oil at all. How good?

They're ready. They'll just stay warm under our tea towel.

We're gonna make a little fresh slaw.

We've got a Chinese cabbage, or a wombok.

Would you be able to start shredding that for me?

Sure can.

And slicing up some spring onion and throwing it into the bowl.

Easy done. That'd be fantastic. Thank you.

I cook pork belly a lot, Jac. Do you?

Yeah, I do. I love that...

The extra fat content is fantastic and extra juicy

and whether it's got the crackle or not...

Today we're not using the crackle,

because we're gonna deep-fry our pork

and obviously, if you've got the crackle on,

it can be a bit hit-and-miss when you're deep-frying,

so we're taking that off today.

What I want to do is just slice our pork belly

into 2-centimetre-big cubes.

Nice and generous.

It's one of those really versatile ingredients

that can be used in so many different cuisines

but pork belly tacos - it's a match made in heaven.

And I imagine too,

that if people didn't want to do a Szechuan vibe in this dish,

you could do your Mexican spices.

Oh, absolutely.

Bring it back to the Mexican flavours too, right?

Get some cumin, some coriander, some paprika in there -

you could easily switch it up and make it a Mexican dish.

I just love the Szechuan flavours and just having a bit of fun today

with a bit of a Chinese-inspired taco.

I like it! Mmm.

Pork belly cubes go into our bowl.

Then we're gonna hit it with some flavour, Jac.

OK. Brown sugar.

That's gonna help to caramelise it.

Some Chinese five spice.

I love five spice. Oh, how good is it?

It's good, yeah. In we go.

And some more ground Szechuan peppercorns.

Bit of extra zing onto our pork.

I'm going to use some of our wholemeal flour

on the pork belly as well,

'cause that's gonna help to crispen it up a little bit.

Yep. A quarter-cup of our wholemeal flour.

Just dust it onto there.

Then I'm going to add some chilli oil.

I'm just obsessed with chilli oil at the moment.

I have it on my Weetbix, I love it that...

Oh, you do not! Not quite. Not quite.

But a good couple of spoonfuls

of our chilli oil.

That chilli oil looks rich and, uh, spicy too, doesn't it?

Absolutely. And of course, just a good pinch of salt.

Alright.

Now we just want to give that a good mix around,

just to combine all those gorgeous flavours into our pork belly

before we throw them in the swimming pool of oil.

Now I just want to do a little bit of a test,

to see if our oil...

Yep. I'm getting a nice sizzle on there.

So pork belly goes into our oil.

And all this will need, Jac, is a few minutes, maybe 5 or 6 minutes,

just to make sure it's nice and crispy

and the pork is beautiful and juicy.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

Our pork belly is fried. Have a look at that!

Nice and crispy.

You can smell all those beautiful spices on it too.

Mmm. But I'm not finished with it yet.

OK.

Can you make me a little Szechuan salt?

We've got some more ground Szechuan -

we're using a lot of Szechuan in this recipe.

I like it. Pop that into your bowl.

Then get some salt in there and just mix that together

for a quick and simple Szechuan salt

that you could literally put on anything.

And I'm going to pop our drained pork belly into our bowl.

And then some more chilli oil,

just another couple of spoonfuls...

..and that is looking fantastic.

Thank you. Welcome.

Some Szechuan salt onto our pork belly.

This is getting spicier and spicier by the minute.

Whoo-hoo! Not exactly kid-friendly, this one.

Oh, I don't think so but that's alright.

And we just want to toss that around.

We need to finish the slaw.

Can you just add some Kewpie, some sesame oil

and some sesame seeds?

Give that a little mix. Great simple slaw.

We've got our tortillas

that have been under their little blanket over here,

staying nice and warm.

I love how these tortillas have turned out,

using that wholemeal flour

and you can see those little specks

of the sesame seeds and Szechuan peppercorns through the tortillas.

They look beautiful.

And don't be afraid by these little charred bits on the tortillas -

that is flavour.

Absolutely. OK.

We haven't used much mayo on there - I wanted this to be nice and light,

'cause I will add a bit more mayo on top.

There you go. Thank you so much.

We just want a nice pile of our beautiful, fresh slaw

on our tacos.

I love this style of food.

This dough would make eight tortillas.

At a dinner party, just to make up a heap of these,

pop them in the middle of the table.

Then we've got some of our beautiful fried Szechuan pork belly.

A nice pile of that onto each tortilla.

That's a very generous serving of pork belly.

That's what I'm all about.

Delicious.

And then, final flourishes.

A little bit more of our chilli oil. Mmm!

Now we're just layering more flavours.

Not for the faint-hearted, these tacos.

I don't think so. (LAUGHS)

You've gotta have a big appetite. Ooh, yes.

And be ready for some spice.

Now we've got some of our Kewpie mayo.

Just another little dollop of that on top

and accentuate those beautiful flavours.

And some toasted sesame seeds.

There you go, Jac - my fried pork belly tacos,

with those homemade wholemeal tortillas

we made from scratch in minutes.

So cool.

Big flavour bomb there.

I mean, not exactly authentic Mexican

but delicious just the same.

A very cool take on it

and they're going to taste great - I just know it.

Most Aussies are not eating nearly enough nuts

and nuts are so associated with good health outcomes,

especially for your heart health.

I like to buy my nuts raw

but I do like to kind of roast them or jazz them up a little way.

This is a really tasty little snack,

especially if you've got some guests coming around

and you're having a drink.

This is just something really tasty to serve them as a little nibble.

I've got some cashews, some almonds, some pepitas

and some good old Aussie macadamias

and I'm gonna dry-roast them in my pan

and just take care - never walk away

when you've got nuts or seeds roasting in a pan.

Always stand right next to it,

'cause it is so easy - it's like they turn in a flash

and all of a sudden, you've burnt them,

so stand really close by.

Now, into my bowl, I'm gonna pop some soy sauce.

For those of you that need a gluten-free diet,

this is great news, 'cause this is a soy sauce that is gluten-free.

Not all of them are.

The other option, of course, is to use a tamari

but this is a gluten-free one.

I'm gonna put about a tablespoon of soy.

This is just gonna be a classic soy-honey kind of mixture.

Some extra virgin olive oil.

Again, about a tablespoon, so about the same quantity.

Then about half a tablespoon of my honey.

You don't have to be too exact with those measures.

Whisk it together.

And if you like, sometimes I add some chilli,

if it's all adults that are gonna be there.

Play around with your flavours - you could put in any kind of spices.

And then just keep this turning.

And you'll actually start to smell when the nuts are getting ready.

They're just starting to brown a little.

That's exactly how I want them.

I'm going to pop in the soy-honey mixture.

Give it a stir around.

Just gonna turn down my heat a little.

And then you just want to kind of simmer that

until some of the liquid's all evaporated

and it starts to be a bit drier

and it becomes nice and sticky around the nuts.

Just keep tossing your nuts, making sure that they're nicely coated

in that gorgeous, sweet, salty mixture.

That literally only takes a minute or two.

Once you've got all that liquid almost evaporated -

don't worry about the little bit left in the pan,

'cause it's going to kind of, as you just let the nuts cool a little bit,

stiffen up and coat the nuts.

Rather than buying salted nuts,

this is just an easy way

to add some extra flavour and pizazz to your nuts

and make sure that you get your healthy handful every day.

Captions by Red Bee Media