All language subtitles for J.F.a.S.S01E01.HDTV

We all want recipes that are
fast and simple,

so I've got some really easy ways
to hack your cooking.

Think quick tray bakes
for midweek meals...

That, for me, is what simple
cooking is all about.

..easy batch recipes that sort
you out later in the week...

If you do this at the weekend,
it buys you time.

..and cheeky store cupboard raids

for when you've
run out of time to shop.

Beautiful things can
come from tins.

This is cooking stripped back
to its bare essentials

to make mealtimes faster
and simpler than ever before.

On the menu today,
I'm letting the oven do

the hard work on an
epic chicken tray bake...

The way it cooks and chars and
steams is such a beautiful thing.

..eight incredible ways to show you
how salmon fillets can give you

a whole host of options...

Hopefully there's a little
something there for everyone.

..I'm knocking up a spectacular
toastie from some trusty

store cupboard staples.

You're going to get a golden,
crisp exterior,

perfectly cooked eggs,
and a little hit of spice.

I've invited pastry chef
Ravneet Gill to share how she raids

her cupboards to whip up
a delicious dessert in minutes.

When you hear that nice sound,
you know you're good to go.

Plus, a batch-cooked Bolognese
and a super cool recipe

to give you ideas in the week.

Essentially, it's garlic bread
with cheese in it, and Bolognese.

It's like three of my favourite
things in the whole wide world.

Let's take a traybake up a notch
with Korean-inspired flavours.

This is quick to put together,
and the oven does all the hard work.

This gochujang chicken traybake
is a brilliant no-fuss feast.

Put it together in 12 minutes,

then get on with
other things as it cooks.

Chicken thighs and cabbage roasted
together to maximise flavours

and create an epic, easy meal
that'll brighten up a busy week.

I love a traybake. It feels like a
beautiful blank canvas

to do anything flavour-wise,
and this dish is not going to

apologise for massive flavour.

I'm going to give you
a secret little ingredient that

you can find in your local
supermarket - gochujang paste.

So, this is a Korean fermented
chilli paste. It's genius.

That's what it looks like - dark,
mysterious, a little bit tangy.

So, in the tray, let's get
flavour happening.

I'm going to add extra virgin olive
oil, couple of tablespoons goes in.

I'll then contrast that
with some nice red wine vinegar,

just for a bit of a tang.
Just a tablespoon.

There's seasoning in that
gochujang paste,

but I want to add a little bit more.
Black pepper, of course.

Garlic. A nice, brave chunk
of ginger.

Just trim off the skin, but
actually,

what I'm into at the moment

is just use that trim to
make a lovely tea,

which I will make myself in a bit.

So I never throw away those skins.

You can dry them, and really,
really nice for broths,

teas and stuff like that.

So, with the ginger,
I'll just slice it roughly like that

and then slice it the other way,
just to make it fine.

So, this goes into the tray.
Fresh, fragrant,

like, it's got that lovely heat.

Then...just finely slice
four cloves of garlic.

Then we're going to go in with this
incredible fermented chilli paste,

and it comes in different
levels of heat,

but this is kind of, like,
semi-mild.

Two tablespoons goes in,
and when this gets rubbed on

the chicken and the cabbage,

beautiful things are going to
happen.

How many of us have
grown up with, like,

memories of boiled,
overcooked cabbage?

No, no, no, no.

This sweetheart cabbage is
a thing. Get some.

Raw, cooked, grilled,
roasted, steamed, braised,

like, it doesn't matter.

When I first went to Korea
and tried gochujang,

I watched a master kimchi maker
turn humble cabbage into

absolute things of joy. You can
kind of, like, scrunch it

and break down the structure of
the cabbage a little bit,

and the way it cooks and
chars and steams,

it's such a beautiful thing.

Let's go in now with
the lovely chicken thigh.

You'll get crispy skin,
and by having the bone in there,

you'll benefit from that kind of

almost chicken stock-like flavour
coming out into

the cabbage and later
into the noodles.

So, look, I'm going to
rearrange this now,

so the cabbage has got
the best chance to get golden,

the chicken has the best chance
to get crispy.

This is going to be
the most amazing dinner.

Now, I'm going to wash my hands,
and one thing I do is just clean

around the edge of the tin.
It just looks much nicer.

So, look, I can get that together
in, like, five minutes easy, right?

So, I've broken down the
cooking to two parts.

First part is we're going in
at 200 degrees Celsius,

which is 400 Fahrenheit,
for 30 minutes.

Then I'm going to take it out
and then I'll mix in the noodles

and put in the spring onions
for another 20 minutes.

Look at that. All the stickiness.
Got juices here, crispy skin there.

So, the second part of this dish is
very, very straightforward.

These noodles, they're just like
typical rice noodles.

Rehydrate them with, like,
a kettle of boiling water.

So, look, look in the tray here.

Look how the cabbage has caught.

It looks burnt on the
outside - by the way,

that's extraordinary flavour -
and then underneath,

it's pearly white. Can you see that?
I'm so excited!

Next thing I'm going to do is just
grab some spring onions.

Give them a wash, which I have,
and just take the ends,

and that'll be for sprinkling
on afterwards.

And then here, with these
spring onions,

I'm going to put them into
that lovely juice. Look at that.

Just mix everything back up
and then we're

going to go in with the noodles.

So, you can add a little
bit of water if you wish,

to get all those juices going,
and then think of

your noodles in four piles.

Toss it in that lovely gochujang
sauce. Put the chicken back on top.

We're going to put that back in
the oven after

a little sprinkle
of some sesame seeds.

So, look at that! Now, back in
for 20 minutes until

golden, crisp and delicious.

The room is full of
the most amazing smells.

Oh-ho-ho, I love it!

Let's get in there with the noodles.
Crispy on the top, soft underneath.

You've got the tender cabbage there
but also the charred part.

Pure flavour right there.

And then that chicken thigh there,
just beautiful and golden.

Then some of those little green
spring onion tops.

Let's go for the cabbage first.

This is a really exciting way
to cook cabbage.

Mm! It is unbelievably satisfying.
That marinade, so delicious.

Look how lovely and tender that is.

Let's get some noodles and chicken.

That chicken skin is so crisp
and encrusted with

the sesame seeds that just pop.

This, when you get home from work,
are you kidding me?

That's the genius of tray baking.
Utterly delicious.

Sometimes, all you need is a little
inspiration to get you cooking,

so why don't you let me
give you some ideas

to spruce up your roasted salmon?

Salmon can be ready in minutes,

and giving it a simple hit
of flavour is a speedy way

to reinvent midweek meals.

My salmon with

mozzarella and pesto

is a quick twist to big up

this beautiful fish.

I'm just going to do it for one,
and actually,

cooking for one, two, three, four,
it's all the same for this, right?

Take the knife and make a little
cut, and I want to be able to

stuff that cut with
something delicious.

Go in with some pesto.
I'll give it a pinch of pepper,

season it with salt, and notice that
I'm doing it on the board as well.

I'll put a little bit
of olive oil on the top of

the salmon and around the board,
and then I'll take a little chunk

of mozzarella cheese and just break
it up and stuff it into that hole.

A little bit of pesto on the top
and then maybe

grab a lemon and a little zest.
It's really simple.

I'm going to take this salmon
fillet and rub it around

that seasoning on all the sides.

I'm then going to place it onto an
oiled tray, bang that in the oven.

It's at 200 degrees Celsius,
which is 400 Fahrenheit,

and we'll cook it for about ten
minutes until melted and gorgeous.

Conker. In your bed. Good boy.
DOG PANTING

We're going to do couscous.

This is a brilliant way
to rehydrate couscous.

A lot of people don't realise that
couscous is already cooked,

so your only job is to rehydrate it.

Fill up half a mug,
give it a little pinch of salt.

You could have a little bit
of lemon if you want,

just to kind of have those lovely
oils and flavour going on there.

That's wholewheat couscous, by
the way, so it's a nice little swap.

More fibre, better for you.

Let's put some basil in there,
and just cover it by about

a centimetre with boiling water.

So we'll leave that for, like,
five minutes, six minutes.

Put a dish on top of it,
just to keep the steam in.

Right, let's just do a lovely
little simple tomato salad.

I'm thinking tomatoes,
hot couscous, roasted fish.

These have been washed.
Just very thinly slice the tomatoes.

Look at all these different colours.

I'm not going to use all
of these cos I'm only cooking

for one, but none of this
will go to waste.

I'm just going to get four little
slices of lemon

and lay that on here.

We'll season it with salt
and olive oil.

Bit of lemon juice,
a little chilli...

..hits of flavour and
colour, beautiful.

Take some herbs like basil.
Just shake that around.

It will start macerating
and making a really simple,

delicious, vibrant salad.

So, look, I'm thinking a little
black olive sauce. What a colour.

So, what can I put with that
kind of crude black olive sauce?

I've got some celery. Now,
celery's flavour and black olives,

I don't know why,
but they're best friends.

If you take away the outside leaves,
when you get into the middle part -

I'm going to take that
little bit of celery -

it's going to be so fresh
and so delicious.

Slice it up and make it into
some kind of salsa.

Bit of oil, bit of lemon juice.

That is it. Done.

So, look, salsa, salad,
couscous, fish is done.

It smells good. Simple,
but very effective, right?

The oozy cheese, it's sizzling away.
Let's bring it together.

Couscous. I just pull out
the remnants of herbs.

Pull out that bit of lemon.

I'm just going to fork it up
and you'll see that this will just

double in volume.

I've probably got enough
to leave in the fridge

for another day, actually.

Let's take our beautiful little
salad. Just lay that around.

A few bits of chilli. Look at that.
It's a big old chunk of fish.

Gorgeous.

We're going to take
the black olive salsa...

..maybe a few bits of basil,
just to finish off the story.

That is a brilliant midweek meal.
No more boring salmon.

Look at that. Let's get in there
where the mozzarella is,

just oozing.

Fresh pesto and mozzarella is always
going to hit the spot, isn't it?

What is so nice is that couscous is
so sort of wholesome and gorgeous,

but it picks up the juice
from the tomatoes

and the salsa and the salmon.

The lemon with the tomato
is sensational. Just get it thin.

Little bit of black olive. Come on.

Mm!

Hopefully, it's given you a little
bit of excitement to get creative.

And the options are endless,

with loads of cool ways with salmon

that deliver fast and simple

midweek meals.

Each one takes just
ten minutes to cook

with some super easy short cuts
to big flavour.

All I did was make a slit
in the middle,

stuff it with some mozzarella
and then do thin slices

of beautiful lemon,
anchovies, oregano.

This one here, slit twice
and then stuffed

with loads of different herbs.

Here, wrapped in prosciutto
and a little thyme.

Super crispy on the outside.

Then here, lovely little five
or seven spice on there,

and then sesame seeds.
Super crunchy, really delicious.

This one, I got a speed peeler
and peeled asparagus,

wrapped it in pancetta.

A little bit of dried chilli
and some sage stuffed in there.

Super simple here. Four little cuts,
four little pluches of rosemary

that's flowering, with some
beautiful chilli and garlic,

and that'll roast up really nicely.

And here, I got the salmon and then
a little bit of Cajun seasoning,

and then pressed it into
broken-up cornflakes.

Beautiful texture,
a little bit different.

Hopefully there's a little
something there for everyone.

Now, if you're like me and you've
got an open pack of tortillas

in the house and they're just
sitting there getting a bit stale,

then let me give you a
tortilla revelation that's

going to get your taste buds going.

Right, cupboards.
If you've not had time to shop,

your store cupboard can be
your inspiration.

My quesadilla toastie is
a genius shelf-raid sarnie,

served with a simple speed peeler
salad that

comes together in minutes.

Toasties are a thing of joy,
but what can you do with it?

Like, normally,
you have standard bread,

normally it's loaded with cheese -
love that, but not today.

We're going, like,
two stale, large tortillas.

These are typical tortillas. We buy
them in our household every week.

I've got some curry paste here.
Any one you want.

Get a little teaspoon and just
spread on the tortillas like that.

So we're going to have
the complexity in

a second of all those spices.
It is so simple.

We've turned this on. I then take
this and I put it in here.

Now, clearly this is round,
this is rectangular,

so you're going to get odd shapes.
I like odd shapes.

You get rustic little crunchy bits.

Crack the egg into pretty
much the middle,

and you've got four sections, right?

So I'll use this little knife just
to break the yolk

and put a bit of yolk on each side.

What I love about this is you can
play around with it.

You could even have some
veg in there.

This is open to interpretation.

A little bit of seasoning goes in,
salt and pepper,

and then this one here goes on top.

You entrap the egg, and
then these little hangover bits,

well, then, fold them in.

And then we just gently
push it down.

TOASTIE MAKER SNAPS CLOSED

So, in, like, five or six minutes,
you're going to get a

golden, crisp exterior,
perfectly cooked eggs

and a little hit of spice.

The inspiration for this is my
trips to Delhi in India.

The street food vendors doing
incredible things with

flatbreads and eggs, and there'd
always be a little chutney,

a little kicker, a little...
CLICKS TONGUE

..a little something.

So, another cupboard staple -
desiccated coconut.

I've always got it for cakes
and beautiful things like that.

Two tablespoons go into a bowl.

We're then going to go in with two
tablespoons of lovely yoghurt.

Give it a pinch of salt, and I want
a little bit of acidity -

I'm talking lime - and mix it up.

So, a very delicious coconut
and lime chutney in seconds.

Next, let's get some veggies
on the go, something fresh

to go with that, like, hit of egg
and spice and that crunch

and that beautiful coconutiness.
So, cucumber. Speed peeler.

It's the easiest thing in the world
and you turn a cucumber

into something that's elegant
and beautiful.

You can make the quickest little
pickle in no time at all.

Let's have a chilli.
So, just start peeling it.

The cheapest gadget in the kitchen
is one of your best friends.

Just a little bit of red onion and,
again, you're just shaving it.

Brilliant.

A nice little squeeze of lime.
Take a little bit of mint,

just tear that in, give it some salt
and then get scrunching.

Absolutely beautiful.

So, this has had about
four and a half minutes.

It's getting golden. And if you take
a little bit of butter,

just rub it like that and let it
have its final minute of glory.

So, quick pickle,
quick chutney, and now...

..have a look at that.
Golden, bonkers and delicious.

Oh, yes. This is for two people.
Let's clank it all up.

Get yourself a little plate.

Put your lovely coconut
chutney on there

and you will absolutely
smash that to pieces.

You've got the cucumber and the
chilli, and all that gorgeousness.

And in the middle here...
Let's just cut into there.

..you've got your lovely yolk.
The egg's beautifully cooked.

And then what I do is I
open it up like that.

We take our coconut and lime chutney
and then we get our little pickle...

..and then we find a little corner.
No distraction.

TOASTIE CRUNCHES

Mm! So delicious.

The simplicity of that coconut
chutney is really amazing.

The way this crunchy, sour,
fresh little pickle works with

the spice and the egg is so good.

CRUNCHING CONTINUES
Mm!

That is a simple twist on the
toastie that breathes new life

into those lonely little tortillas.

But I tell you what,
it's blooming tasty.

And I'm certainly not the only chef
raiding my store cupboard

for meal inspiration.

I'm going to show you one of
my absolute favourite

desserts to make.

Patisserie expert, Ravneet Gill,

has a get-out-of-jail dessert made
from tinned mango puree.

Something that I always have in
the cupboard is this mango pulp.

So you can find this in most
big supermarkets

and it's really inexpensive.

You can do things like
making a sorbet,

making granita, making mango lassi.

With other accessible
ingredients like eggs,

sugar and double cream, Ravneet's
mango creme brulee is an inspired,

easy recipe that could come to
the rescue when you need

a simple sweet treat.

I've got about 400ml
of double cream that goes in first,

and then mango puree.

It's going to add sweetness
and it's also going to add texture.

So I'll put in 200ml and then I
just pop that on the stove

but get my sugar in.

Whenever I do anything
custard-based, I always just put

half into my dairy and
then half into my egg yolk.

And I'm always using sugar, which
is why I have a big scoop in there.

So I'm just going to add half
and keep half for my egg yolks.

I add half a lime, juiced,
and it just adds...

It, like, brightens the whole thing.

And if you don't have lime,
you can use lemon.

I'm just going to warm this through.
OK, now I'm going to do five eggs.

For this recipe, you're just
going to use the yolks

because you want all of
the fat from the yolk

and it's going to bind that custard.

You're just going to loosen
them up with a whisk...

..and then you just have
your extra bit of sugar

and then whisk it,
and you get a nice,

smooth mixture like that.
This comes up to the heat.

So you want this mixture
to be steaming,

and that's sort of when you know
that it's about 70 degrees.

Whenever you see steam,
you know you're around that mark,

which is perfect.
Pour that over my yolks.

This takes three to four minutes
and then most of the work

is done in the oven.
You just pour it into your dish,

you can go and get other bits done
whilst it's baking,

and then you've got
a creme brulee. Perfect.

That's my mixture ready and all
that needs to happen now

is it needs to go into a Bain Marie
and then go into the oven.

Cooking in a Bain Marie is
a way of almost protecting

what it is that you're making,
so that it isn't scalding hot.

You need your baking dish
and then you need something

that it can rest in and
have water to surround it,

about three quarters of the way up.
Get the kettle boiled.

And that's just going to go
in my bottom tray. There we go.

So that then goes into the oven for
45 minutes at around 130 degrees.

When that's done, we're going to
let it cool at room temperature,

and when it's at room temperature,
we pop it in the fridge

until it's completely set because
we want that contrast of a

cold creme brulee
with the nice hot topping.

Right, so this has had some time
in the fridge to set,

so it's nice and cold.
It shouldn't be jiggly at all.

It's just firm and set.

It's almost like
a thick clotted cream.

What we're going to do now is
brulee it, and this is the best bit.

Bruleeing is just a technique
where you're caramelising sugar,

and you can brulee
a lot of things, actually,

so I think it's handy to
have a blowtorch.

You can actually find them
in big supermarkets.

What I like to do is do one layer,
let it cool and do another one,

so that you get
maximum caramelisation.

If you don't have a blowtorch,
though, just whack it under

the grill quickly, caramelise
that sugar and pull it out.

BLOWTORCH FLARES

This is like your base
coat of sugar.

So, the sugar's all melting and
you'll notice I'm keeping it moving

to get lots of nice colour on there
and to build up that flavour.

Once all that sugar's melted, I'm
going to turn the blowtorch off.

Don't be tempted to put your
second layer on just yet.

Let that cool completely,
give it one to two minutes

and then come back to it.

I can see it's set. I'm going to set
my next layer of sugar on top

and brulee again.

Generous amount.
Get the tray again and just tap it.

There we go.

Because this is your
presentation layer,

you want to now get those spots
of wonderful caramel.

It's not dangerous,
this is fun for me.

SHE LAUGHS

You want to take a bit more
time with this one

and really make sure that all
of that sugar is dissolved on top.

BLOWTORCH HISSES

Now, don't be tempted
to stick your spoon in

because you'll pull off
all that sugar.

You need to just let it reset,
which won't take long,

and then you're going to
get that nice crack

when you put your spoon in.
So I'll get my bowls ready.

Finally, it's time to crack
this creme brulee.

What I like to do is...
FINGERNAILS TAPPING

..check the top. When you
hear that nice sound,

you know you're good to go,
and if I've got

lots of friends round,
give everybody a spoon

and let them crack the top.

SUGAR LAYER CRACKING

I'm going to serve myself.

Right, best bit...

And it's very good. The thing
I love the most about this is

because it has that mango,
it's really bright and it

doesn't feel heavy at all.

You have the contrast
of that creamy, mango-ey,

rich filling and then that
dark caramel.

And what started out as that tinned
mango puree has been transformed

into a really wonderful, rich,
creamy mango creme brulee.

And I just love it.

We're going to get stewing,
we're going to get batching,

and we're going to make a beautiful,
better Bolognese,

and what's great about this
simple recipe is it opens up

a whole world of other
meal possibilities.

This beautiful Bolognese is
a total weekend win as it kicks off

loads of other recipes
for the week.

From quick pastas,
gnocchis and simple pies,

it'll give a brand-new
meaning to fast food.

But first, let's get on with
the Bolognese itself.

We all love Bolognese, but look,
are there some better ways

to get more flavour, more nutrition?

First of all, I'm going to
give you more veggies.

This is a meat-reduced recipe,
so, yes, we've got our mincemeat,

but also we're going to big up
things like lentils

and veggies, mushrooms, and I've
got a couple of little curveballs

to guarantee this is
the best Bolognese ever.

Big pan, heat - full whack.
Nice lug of olive oil.

We're going to use rosemary.
I love fresh herbs.

You can use dried herbs,
you can use other herbs

like thyme, oregano, or even a
blend.

Just take the rosemary off the stalk
and then what I want to do is

just get my knife
to roughly chop it up.

What I love about this recipe is it
represents layer upon layer

of flavour and depth
and deliciousness.

So, when the rosemary starts to fry,
I'm not using much bacon,

like, four rashers, smoked,
but that smokiness is what I want.

In we go with the bacon.

PAN SIZZLING

So you can see the bacon
starting to render the fat.

That's a good thing. I'm going to go
in with black pepper,

quite a lot. Let's say
two big pinches.

Then we're going to go in
with our mincemeat.

250g of pork and 250g of beef,
and you get slightly more

sweetness from the pork and
you get the depth from the beef.

When it comes to vegetables,
let's keep it simple.

Two large cloves of garlic.
Just take the little skin off.

Run your knife through it.
It doesn't have to be super fine.

If you have a look in that pan now,
you can see some really nice colour,

which we like.

Two onions. Ends off. Halve it.

Finely slice the onions
any way you want.

If you do this as I do at the
weekend, like, you've got the time,

but later in the month it buys
you time when you're busy

and juggling a thousand things.

And also, very likely,
you will save money by doing this.

I love it. Two sticks of celery.
Very beautiful, very fragrant.

Add a little bit of salt, just to

get the seasoning beginning to
happen.

You get yourself two carrots
and just chop them up.

And then we're going to punch in
with, like,

depth-of-flavour veggies.
500g of mushrooms.

You're going to get really dark,
delicious colours and flavours

from this, so in with mushrooms.

At this stage, I would normally add

a little white or red wine.
Delicious.

But, recently, I've been adding
balsamic vinegar.

Two lovely tablespoons.
It just gives an edge and I love it.

Look at the shiny,
gorgeous, dark colours.

This is going to be a better
Bolognese, and I haven't even

given you my best tip yet.

But first of all, 200g of tomato
puree. Colour, depth, intensity.

Just kind of almost toasting
it up a little bit.

Does make it taste better.
Now we go onto the wet stuff, OK?

We're going to use the lentils
and the juice that they come in,

and now we're going to
break that frying

and we're going to begin to stew.
So, look at the colour.

This is the reference point.
Darkness, caramelisation,

depth and layers of flavour.

And we're going to go in
with three tins of lentils.

There's something magical about
making a big old batch

of something delicious that's
going to nourish the family,

and you're going to have loads
of lovely portions of Bolognese

to use in so many different ways
for the weeks to come.

It's going to be beautiful.
You can fridge it up,

bag it up, freeze it up,
right? So, stir that in.

Then we're going in with
plum tomatoes

and we'll break it up in the pan.

There's a fair amount
of tomatoey goodness in here,

so I'll fill this up with water,
slosh it about.

For those three tins of tomatoes,
we do three tins of water.

So, I want to go now from
spoon to potato masher.

Yes, we're going to
break up the tomatoes

but we're also going to break up the
lentils and the mincemeat.

So, every time you want to check on
it, have a mash up

and a stir up, right?

Now, there's one last big hack
to making a better Bolognese.

I mean, you wait till
Conker sees this, right?

He's going to...
It's going to blow his mind.

The secret ingredient is...

..ribs. Ohhh!

So, this is a set of baby back ribs.

This possesses the sweetest meat,
but it also has bone,

and that bone marrow is, like,
better than any stock cube.

If you don't try the ribs,
you'll never know. Maybe I'm right.

Bring it to the boil and then we're
going to turn it down to a simmer

for around two to
two and a half hours.

When that meat falls off the bone,
your ragu is ready. Come on!

Lid on, turn it down.
Come on, Conker.

So, we're just over two hours.

As you start excavating these
amazing pork bones,

the meat will just shred and it'll
just pull. It's so tender.

Use that masher to break up
the big chunks of the rib meat.

Have a little try.

Depth, hearty, robust.

It's making me want to smile.

Adjust with some salt and
a little bit of cold water.

So, this idea of adjusting
is important, right?

Take control. Let's make it perfect.

Now, at this point, of course,

dish it up,
batch it up, let it cool down.

That can be good in the
fridge for three days,

but also I bag it up
and put it in the freezer.

Like, you can do four portions,
six portions,

but also, I do little one-portion
and two-portion ones.

Because it's thin and long, it means
that it defrosts really quickly.

So when I have kids coming back
at the last minute,

"What do you want?"
"I want Bolognese, Dad,"

I've got one of these, ready
and raring to go.

So this is just clever
cooking, right?

And then in the week,
I could simply take this Bolognese

and add some gnocchi with
pesto and Parmesan. Incredible.

Make epic samosas by folding
into filo pastry,

or add to black beans,
crunchy veg and noodles.

But today, I'm making my utterly
delicious cheesy Bolognese buns -

ready on the table in
about 15 minutes.

I guess I was thinking about, like,
Sloppy Joes in America,

which is like a burger bun
with, like, sort of chilli,

mincemeaty kind of vibes.

But, like, we can go a step further.
Take these four buns. Lids off.

I'm thinking about making edible
bowls. Just pull out the centre.

I'm just going to throw
that into the tray.

In we go with the bowls.
These bigger bits, just tear up.

These'll make beautiful little
croutons that we can dip into our

better Bolognese.

And then we've got our nice little
lids here that we can just put

to one side, like that.
If I grab a herb of choice,

I'm going thyme, some olive oil and
a couple of cloves of garlic.

So, I'm going to do two things here.

I'll cut the garlic in half
and just rub it around the edges,

rub it inside and on
the lid as well.

You'd be amazed how powerful
this little rub is.

So, once you've done that,
let's just slice this up.

And then we're going to
take some thyme...

..put your fingers around it,

pull it off and you get those
nice, soft tips.

Then the olive oil just helps
to connect the story,

so just mix up the garlic and the
thyme and then we just put this

in and around our lovely
little bowls. Ooh!

I forgot about the cheese,
right? Cheesy Bolognese buns.

Use brie, use camembert,
use a British equivalent,

but this is camembert here.

Cut half a camembert into quarters.

Just place there, there,
here and there.

We're going to create, like,
a little home-made, easy fondue.

Essentially it's garlic bread with
cheese in it, and Bolognese.

It's, like, three of my favourite
things in the whole wide world.

In the oven for ten minutes at 180
degrees Celsius, 350 Fahrenheit.

Have a look at that. Ha-ha!

We've got all these little crispy
bits around the edge

because dunking is what
it's all about.

And then we simply fill it up
with that beautiful Bolognese.

Be generous.

Little bit of pepper,
and then let it rain Parmesan.

Beautiful.

BREAD CRUNCHES

Ah, garlic bread, good Bolognese...

To say that I'm happy right now
is an understatement.

Mm!

Just got some cheese. So good.

I've put a tasty twist on a
delicious dessert from my childhood.

It is so simple to do and you can
knock it up in just 15 minutes.

Banging out this

banoffee fro-yo tart is fast,

fun and incredibly satisfying,

with a quick alternative
to making pastry

and a tasty topping of ready-made
caramel, banana,

Greek yoghurt and chocolate.
Thank me later.

When I was a young man working in
the pastry section in my

mum and dad's restaurant,
we used to have

a cracking dessert - banoffee pie.

Home-made shortcrust pastry,
caramel sauce,

then we'd have the bananas,
then beautiful creme Chantilly,

and garnished with almonds
and all that gorgeousness.

Well, I've taken that
and I've put it into

a really kind of different
fro-yo-style banoffee pie.

We haven't got to make pastry,
and we haven't got to cook it.

I'm cheating, massively,
and that's what we've got to do

when we do simple cooking.

So, in a food processor,
we're going to go in with

200g of flaked almonds.
This is for the base.

200g of pitted Medjool dates. Really
kind of toffee-like and treacly.

And then half a level teaspoon
of cinnamon. Delicious.

And then all you have to do is just
whizz it up. Zero effort.

FOOD PROCESSOR WHIRS

So, whizz it up until it's super
fine and then turn it upside down

on some greaseproof paper.
So, we're kind of mimicking pastry.

Now, look, I realise pastry
is a thing of joy.

Shortcrust, flaky pastry,
I love it, all day long.

This is a different vibe

but it's playing that same
kind of role, right?

So, what we do now is use
our hands to press down,

and can you see how it
comes together?

And then if you use another piece
of greaseproof paper on top,

rolling pin, and roll. Really easy.

Our objective is to line,
like, a little tin.

Now, you can do it any shape or size
you want. This is, like, 30 by 24.

So we'll roll it out...

..and have a little look.
See how it's broken there?

Just kind of fold it over and we'll
just keep reshaping it until we

get it to the exact shape
that we want it.

What I want to do is cover
this bottom here

and just go up the side,
about an inch.

Super easy, and you literally
can't get this wrong.

And what's really nice is it gives
you this beautiful shiny surface.

Really nice.

We're going to flop that into the
tin, and just use your hand

just to press it in.

So, look, that's it. Base done.
Super simple.

Next part of the story is caramel.

So we'll take half of this tin
and do a nice, even layer.

Oh, so shiny, so indulgent.

And then 200g of banana.

So that's two large ones, or
three medium size ones.

Best friends with banana is lime.
Absolutely genius.

Let's have a little peel up.

Slice those bananas about half
a centimetre thick.

So, get a little bowl,
get a fine grater

and just take off that
lovely green zest.

You don't want the white bit,
that's bitter,

but the green bit is just full
of juicy flavour.

And then we need the juice.

Just get your hands in there
and dress it.

Now, another reason for doing this
is you might have noticed,

if you've ever cut a banana
and it starts to go brown,

it oxidises, right? So by putting
lime juice on it,

it won't discolour once
you've done it.

Just start laying the banana on top.

Essentially, we want a
nice little layer.

Beautiful.

So now we need the creamy layer,
and traditionally that would be,

like, creme Chantilly, which would
be double cream,

vanilla and sugar. I'm going to
change things up again.

Greek yoghurt - full of flavour,
much more healthy, but delicious.

This vanilla paste you can get
in the supermarkets.

Couple of teaspoons goes in.

All those lovely little
vanilla-y black dots.

So, mix up the vanilla and yoghurt,
and it is very, very decadent.

So there's no compromise on richness
or deliciousness, for sure.

Move it around, push it right to the
edge, and that's pretty much it.

You can get that together
in 15 minutes,

then you can put it in the fridge,
and when you want your dessert,

just pop that in the freezer
for about an hour, hour and a half,

until semi-frozen. Get that fro-yo
vibe going. So, in we go.

OK, so an hour later,
and it's semi-frozen.

So the greaseproof is your
best friend, see?

It comes out nice and easy.

Pull it off the side like that.

You can just take this off.
If you freeze it too much,

it'll be too hard,
but if you freeze it just a bit,

you get the perfect fro-yo.

So, I want to finish it
with nice things, right?

So, chocolate, of course,
was always a thing with banoffee.

Just grate it like that, but I think
we can do better than that.

What I want to do is place
the chocolate like that.

Here's your hip, here's a knife.
Go flat and even and just simply

drag it towards you. You get these
really beautiful little ribbons.

We don't need loads of this.

So now let's get
a nice cross-section.

So we're going to go in,
let's cut about an inch...

..and then open up the goodness.

Oh, ho, ho, come on! Look at that!

So this lovely kind of
faux pastry,

like, the nuts and those
Medjool dates.

Then you've got the caramel layer,

then you've got the
banana and the lime,

then that beautiful vanilla
Greek yoghurt,

and of course, the
shaved chocolate. Whew!

Let's just plate one up here.
Let's get amongst it.

You can see, like, that yoghurt's
just thinking about freezing.

Look at that.

Mm! This little nut
layer's brilliant.

Because of the temperature,
it's gone chewy, like toffee,

and the lime on the banana is, like,
loud and clear. It's a thing of joy.

And then, of course,
the caramel does its magic.

Mm... I love it.

15 minutes - without doubt,
you've got to try that reimagining

of a good old classic. Delish.

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