Frozen Find and Why It Matters

Hello. How are you? I think we're live. I know we're live. THE FEED IS COMING THROUGH. How are we doing? Um, welcome to this live stream. We're all here. We're about to play a fun game that is going to explain. Everything I'm saying is rhyming and I don't know why. Uh, keep going. Where are you joining us from? Let us know in the comments over there on the side. Where are you joining from? We're going to keep a track of where everyone is. I can already see lots of people coming from everywhere. There's somebody from Iceland just commenting

which I think is very on point very relevant the retailer or the country. Evers what are we doing? Uh so look we always play loads of food games whether it's pick the premium whether it's find the fake and this video is us teaming up with the British frozen food federation or more easily said BF um because they've challenged us to try and find the frozen. So what we've got is four rounds and we thought this would be really fun if we play it live. That means you guys in the comments can play along because you'll be able to see the food and listen to how the boys are reacting to see if together we can all find the frozen. That's the plan. Simple as that.

Amazing. We have people from all over the world. Connecticut, Turkey, Sweden, Moscow, Germany, Maine, Indiana, Canada, Canada, T-side, Justin Timberlake. Oh no, that's you. Uh Houston, Greece, Netherlands, Armenia, Wisconsin, Southampton, Cyprus, Switzerland. Yeah, everywhere. Brilliant. Be everywhere. We haven't done one of these games live for a very long time. No, we normally say the games live for our live weekends, but we thought actually let's just do it here. So, let's let's talk. The BFF, they are a trade body that basically look after and represent everything in the world of frozen food. So, that's

retailers, that's producers, um that's the frozen bits that get it from A to B. Basically, anything to do with frozen food in the food system, they represent and they watch the channel. They're excited for this game. Some of them are joining in the chat as well. So, they're going to be in amongst the community. You are all the community. And the first round is already under the if, boys, you'd like to lift it. Ready? So, yeah. Okay. Ready? Go. Can I? Yeah, please. Ready? There's the first dish. There's a light there. Lift it up. If you broke that, do you know how much trouble you would be in? So much trouble.

It's all right. We don't need to doubt. That looks incredible. Okay, so let's get the cameras in nice and close so everyone play at home. What we've got is a beautiful beef stew, Spanish in style. It's made with ria and olaroso and a long sort of slow braise, so it's really rich and unctuous. It's got some carrots and it's got a fresh um sort of zingy chimmy chury sauce to lift it. Oh, you want some cutlery? Well, I'm assum Yeah, really. That would really help. Oh, I've got it here. It's fine. I've got it here. I thought given that we're playing the game, we might as well have some fun with it.

Ever a spoon for each of you. Right. That's not so ever. I mean, it's very resourceful. Ever. This is not Okay. Right. I thought we're live. I can do what I like. You I see what's happening. No. I've got it. That's how you do it. So cold. That was a really smart move. Right. Comment down below which bit of this dish do you think is frozen? There it is. It's Are you all right? It's up to my lips. [snorts] Ow. Okay, boys. What are you tasting? Well, it's a bit cold if I'm honest. That is a very rich beef stew.

A good stew base. So, all the usual suspects sort of mirror base cooked down with beef. Long and slow tomato richness, some alcohol. Uh, yeah, gag's done. You can have a proper spoon. There we go. And delicious carrots as well. Straight away, I'm assuming the carrots have been frozen because they've been beautifully prepped and it looks like they've gone they've been they've been through a process already. Been beautifully prepped and you know how Kush cooks and it's not necessarily beautiful. So, Shante carrot is a very particular type of carrot that is that wonderful shape. So, it does it's almost Bugs Bunny caricature of carrot. It's like

the perfect carrot shape with all individual mini. Um, so you're thinking the carrots might be frozen. Is that where your bet is? I've seen a comment saying safrito. Uh, comment saying vegetables. Comment saying carrots. Somebody saying aside from the spoon, the carrot is frozen. What about the What's the green sauce? green sauce is chim churi. He said fresh. Let's just give it like fresh zing. So chim churi a sauce traditionally from um Argentina. Great with steak, beef, but we're talking lots of lovely fresh

herbs, some chili, oil, vinegar, garlic. But you can also freeze like Jimmy Cherry down, can't you? Into ice cubes. So you could easy that could have been there. A little flavor. Yeah, we're looking for just one thing. Where's your bet going says it's the frosted tips. Barry's hair is frozen. Hey, you went further than the tips, mate. I know. I went Yeah, my roots are coming through now. It needs redoing. So many people saying the sauce. Some is the beef.

They always buy frozen mix. Frozen. Yeah, those frozen mixes. They're great. Frozen mixed veg. That kind of thing is perfect just to add that pop into a meal. I think Barry might be on the money with the carrots. Yeah, carrots. Carrot. I'm going I'm looking. Is it Wait, is it competition? Well, it's a friendly competition. I'm sure the comments will keep track. I'm going source. Oh, why are you changing your mind? Because I want to be you.

Right. Every round has got a different conversation at play. I can reveal that in this dish, the carrots are indeed frozen. Cool. As was the srito mix in the base of the stew. As was right. The chibi chewy herbs that we used to make the fresh sauce. Okay. Yeah. And ultimately, so is the whole thing because we made it two weeks ago, froze it down, and reheated it to avoid food waste. It's it's perfect for all those reasons. Let me show you what we're talking about here. It's a typical Evers game here. No rules. There are some Let me tell you the rules, but actually there's 20 other rules I haven't told you.

Yeah. Let lots of frozen things I'm throwing at you, and let's talk about them. [snorts] So, that's the Frito mix I use all the time at home. Yeah. Already. It's such an amazing little cheat. And the fact it's frozen FRESH AND IT'S NOT EXACTLY THAT STUFF. IT'S EXACTLY THAT ONE. It's great. So, it is there's literally three ingredients in here. So, when you're buying frozen food, the good thing is the freezer is doing the preservation for you. You don't have to add anything else in. This is literally

made from celery, carrot, and onion in pretty much equal measure. And I think the reason it's good and the reason they literally say on the back, but the reason I think it can be really good is it avoids floppy vegetables in your salad drawer compartment when you don't quite get round to using the other half a head of celery, a carrot or two. This will always or your onion starts to reroute, not a problem. Cut it off, use it, don't waste it. But the point is you take out of here a handful, two handfuls, the whole pack, four packs or just a little bit and the rest goes back in the freezer. Nothing goes to waste. So the safrito angle is one.

The only bit I find tricky with the sofrito as same as the onions and the garlics is I use it so often I start to forget what a normal size onion is. So when the recipe says add one onion I'm like what is one onion? About 160 g. So I go a handful and a bit. Yeah. You got small hands. Thank you mate. Brilliant. And I should say that all not all a handful of these products today are winners of the British frozen food awards. So there's a thing the BFFA every year the BFFA gather and there's a whole panel of expert judges, a lot of chefs involved and they narrow down in multiple categories winners and a lot of what we're doing here are winners including they won gold this year in the side and veg awards. Would you like to know who won silver?

I'm I'm sure. It's the carrots. So Shanté carrots very specific now. Now to be with parsley very specific it was the maple version of this at Christmas from Iceland so it's an Iceland product um the retailer not the country um but they are wonderfully prepared they're quite fiddly if you buy Chanté carrots there's a lot of prep involved they look quite good especially at the Christmas table it was a seasonal product this is actually their parsley butter range but it works really nicely for the same reason convenience so one is kind of focused on food waste the other perhaps more convenience. And the last thing I want to show you because it is a remarkable product that also won gold as best ingredient, but

this was in the food service category. This blew my mind. So, you have to you can't buy this as a consumer. This goes straight to the food service, whether it's cantens, hotels, pubs, uh, hospitality, but it is a frozen herb mix. But yes, Chimmy Cherry is a sauce. That is not a sauce. It's just all the vegetables ready to go mixed with. Yeah. Fat. Just take it out, mix it with oil, vinegar, and salt. And it is the most fragrant deliciousness. I definitely got the chili. And this is where genuinely, and I want to say so you guys at home can think about it as well, cuz in a lot of retailers, you'll find frozen herbs.

They are so much better than they used to be. Oh my goodness. Like innovation and quality is tenfold. And I would say you can also freeze your own herbs. Now, you won't get the same wonderful texture that you get from like mass- prodduced individually quick frozen. But if you've ever got any herbs on their last legs, whack them in the freezer cuz another day you can defrost them and put them into stews and all sorts, they'll be a bit soggy. This isn't soggy because it's been prepared in a very special way, which means that combining it with oil and vinegar and salt, you get this most amazing, and they do all the other range as well, but you get this amazing um chim churi, which lifts what is otherwise quite a

heavy rich um product. Um so I the only problem I have with frozen food, full stop, is I love it, but I don't my freezer at home is only two little drawers. Yep. And they're full of mo. The bottom drawer is full of lollipops cuz I've got kids. And the top drawer then is full of squashed of these as much as possible. Well, if you want to know, our top drawer is full of uh cutlery lollipops cuz I am a kid. So, I had to use a whole shelf in a freezer just to freeze those earlier. But that's again I had to I invested in I went to Facebook Marketplace and

bought a cheap chest freezer to go in the garage and suddenly again I've got ridiculous amount I've got literally dozens of these bags in there. Uh lots of people in the comments actually got the right answer of safto. Uh but they got the right answer because everything was frozen. You can't get it wrong. Uh someone just said the answer was yes. The answer is yes. The answer was yes.

Find the frozen. Uh I saw a comment a second ago from someone saying that they uh took a tip. Yeah. Based on some sorted food recommendations a few years ago. I've been buying frozen cornfed chicken legs half the cost of fresh ones at the same quality. It's been a great saver and I think when you think about the freezer as your helper in the kitchen and we talk about it from a food waste point of view and that's great for saf but it can also be from a convenience point of view in the form of not having to peel and mess around with all those sha carrots if you want the little particularly sweet delicious sha

carrots. You literally just tip those out and you can either microwave them or throw them through an oven to roast uh which is what we did to get the color. Um it's just really easy. Mhm. But I would say frozen food used to have a bit of a reputation. It was like a last resort. Go to the freezer for something out the freezer if you've forgotten to plan. Yeah. Actually, what we were hoping to prove with that dish is it can feel really homely and hearty, but it's all been frozen.

We were having the conversation, maybe it was when we were filming last week and therefore the videos haven't come out, but we were having the conversation about actually how much preservatives have to be added to fresh food to keep them fresh whilst they're in the supermarket. and then whilst they're in your fridge at home. Whereas frozen food doesn't generally have those preservatives because it's frozen fresh. The freezer is the preservative. Yeah, exactly. Great job. Well, if you pass that to one side, we will bring the next dish in.

Uh and comment down below which of those, if any, products are you already making use of at home, whether it is frozen. A lot of you are in the comments there. You can buy the frozen bags of peppers to save you having to do all the fiddly bit of dicing up peppers. Sometimes it can be cheaper per kilo. It's definitely more convenient and it's definitely good if you're not a bound to happen, wasn't it? Excellent. Good. What worries me now is after EB's very strong start is I think he's got a thing for every round. You reckon he can keep it up?

I reckon he's he's had too much weather in I've had too much time to plan this. That's what I'm going to say. I thought if we're going live, you can't edit in the fun. We just want to have the fun. Amazing. So, we will bring in the next. You got the clash. You've got the clash. You Yeah, I have. Pass me the clash and I will go and fetch next. What the comments saying, Jay? Uh, lots of really good things. Lots of people having questions actually. Uh, which is good cuz you've walked off. Um, uh, I don't use bread fast enough, so I froze half the loaf as individual servings to make sure that I can use the whole loaf.

I buy my bread fresh. And I freeze it straight away cuz I we only ever have toast. Yeah. So therefore, you just toast it straight from frozen. Last Christmas I pre-boiled spuds, carrots, par I don't remember that bit in the song. Uh no, last Christmas I pre-boiled spuds, carrots, parsnips, then frozen down for a few days in advance. Meant I didn't have to spend hours prepping and cooking on Christmas day. That is always a massive stress. I am, but I am not that organized. And I just want to point so it's it's a really great comment here from uh Metal X7140.

Don't buy frozen peppers. Those just turn to mush when they thaw out. Just my opinion. A very correct pin. I think it always depends on how you're going to use the veg. And I think things like the frozen peppers are really good to have on hand. Uh frozen squash cubes because you can make soups and sauces from them. You can use those to turn into things like Romemesco that you're going to blend and make mushy anyway or some products are designed to be just great like those carrots where they still have their bite and their crunch and that also works. So I think it is all about how you use them and their application.

Um so not just an opinion but a great observation. It's like the herbs you mentioned like freezing herbs that you bought at the supermarket and I always put them in the freezer just before they're about to wilt and go rubbish. They're in the freezer. When they come out of the freezer they are great for adding flavor. They are not presentation. You're not chopping them up. Not when you do it at home. And that's why the food service products like that chimmy chur mix had they are cuz they are still vibrant and fresh and already chopped and ready to go. Right. The second one is under the clo again. Play along at home. Comment down below. Sorry.

My turn. Thank you. Find the frozen. Right. Evers. Is it everything on the plate before we play this silly game? Is it everything on the plate? I don't know. We'll just get the production team. And by that I mean Izzy to fetch you some cutlery. What? I'm I generally think I've hurt myself. This is right. At least I got warm. It's really good fun, but it didn't work. On your plate, you have an amazing vibrant green pea puree. You've got some pan fried monk fish. You've got a pangraat and a bit of chive oil. Uh,

find the frozen comment a lot. I mean, the comments are already in there. It's the fish. Um, see what's what. Have a taste. And importantly, how does it taste? I'm pretty sure if it's the fish, you can tell. How can you tell? Well, a fresh fish will just flake apart. If it's been frozen, the way the structure will it will change very slightly and become a bit more stringy, but not necessarily unpleasant at all. It's just different. So, I think that will absolutely depend on how it's been frozen and the quality of the product. I will um let you in on a bit of a secret. Um, this is monk fish and therefore it's always going to be a bit of a meatier fish.

Anyway, that peep puree is delicious. I mean, it's literally glow-in-the-dark, fresh and green, super nutritious, but also the thing that you blew our mind a little while ago when you told us about how most fish you get in supermarkets has been frozen. It's you go to a fish market, you expect everything there to be super fresh, but most time it's frozen at sea, taken to supermarket and defrosted. Often if you read the label carefully, it will be previously frozen or freshly frozen um for sure. But we have this perception that the fresh food and the fresh fish is going to be better. Um A. Is it delicious? B find the frozen peas. Well, 100% peas.

Not because you can tell. It's because well, it's probably the thing I cook most with from frozen. My daughter loves peas. genuinely straight out of the freezer, not defrosted, just straight in the mouth as a snack. It's a favorite thing. Um, and then we go, well, we're not going to do that. We're going to blend those up and make a mushy pea something. But that is sensational. And a nice crunch from the pangato, which is great. Uh, Lauren Plant say, "Not sure you could freeze the pangrretata." I mean, I think if you make it and freeze it, you run the risk of it potentially going soggy if you're diying at home. But if you can draw out all of the uh air and the moisture in

the packaging, backpack it and freeze it, it would be fine. Where's your bet going? Peas, fish, or ancillary? I think I'm going to ancillary. The other bits. I think I'm going to side with the community that you can't get peas as green as my glasses without no freezing them first. So, 100% the peas. Give peas a chance. The monkfish is delicious. I'm going to say it was frozen because I know what you're like. You've frozen everything.

Yep. Frozen everything. So, what a pointless game. Why do you say it was a game? Points make prizes and there's so many points up for grabs. So, you are absolutely right. And it will come as no surprise when I pass you the nation's favorite uh frozen pebb. But I'm also going to give you this and this is an interesting conversation that I'd like to have. Mhm. Is it about how Oh, no. I was Is it about how Captain Bird's eye is now a farmer as well as fish? He loves the fish finger. When did that change? Um, let's talk about peas first. That's a good point because you said already you always have them in the freezer.

There is only one time a year in the UK when fresh peas should be bought and that is spring coming into early summer. They are delicious. There's something amazing about the process of having to pod them. It's laborious. But if you've grown them, if you've the smell of popping them, they are amazing. For the other 11 months of the year, uh frozen peas will always have to be your answer. And more importantly, they're nearly always going to be more nutritious. Can you It's like pe They are so sweet. Oh, it's quite a lot. So, fun story we were told um by a pea farmer in the UK that was literally destined to create a 90minute pee. That was the aim. If you can get a pee that is from field to freezer in 90 minutes,

don't laugh. A 90-minute pee. I say again, but imagine the precision of getting those farm vehicles to harvest peas, drive them however many miles to the processing place where they are then frozen within 90 minutes. Yeah. And if a barrier was down and you lost 5 minutes, it could be mission critical like and you'd lose I suppose when you eat it, you'd lose some of the pe the penis. Yes. The pea freshness. Yes. Now this is different. Bird's eye claim it's a 2 and 1/2 hours. And what that means is you get that vibrant color. You get the amazing sweetness which is why Barry you can just pop them like sorbet into your mouth.

They are so naturally sweet. It's a pea sorbet, isn't it? Yeah. If you blend that, it's pea sorbet. Yeah. It's so good. Put some lemon zest in it. Put some mint in it. It's so good. We've cooked this down as a puree with butter and some garlic and bits and pieces. But frozen peas are more nutritious and cheaper and easier and more convenient with a longer shelf life than a fresh pee. And the thing is, we use the um the peas and then the sweet or the carrot mix as well a lot. Um, when it comes to just like cooking them, all we do is defrost them. Like we just pour kettle over it in a bowl so they bore out of the plate.

They're warm enough. Like some people do too much to them. Like my nan used to cook them for ages to the point they're She loves the um the Why? Come on, behave yourself. Someone comments ever saying that um 90-minute piece sounds like it might need to go to the doctors. Yeah. I mean that too. But these ones are good all round for nutrition. And then I want to talk about monkfish. Um because these are um food service. So this is from Brakes uh and they won uh bronze in the fish category. It was the only fish that wasn't already like a breaded or a fingered or a uh you know fish fingers breaded or battered and ready to go. It was anyone that

wasn't already coated and we thought we'd feature it. Monkfish and the reason being pubs, gastro pubs, hotel kitchens, cantens can serve monk fish, which is an incredibly premium fish without their team, their staff, their chefs knowing how to fill it and prep monkfish. Honestly, we've we've tried you remember Mike trying to fill it a monk fish and how scared he was of that because you get this massive monk fish that doesn't look fish shaped like another fish you might have be able to fill it and realistically you're getting the bit from the tail and maybe the cheeks and then don't know what to do with everything else. So there is lots of waste if you're not using the whole thing to make stocks and the like it's a very expensive way to

buy monk fish. What this is doing in food service is basically a whole bunch of hotel chefs, food service locations able to put amazing things on the menu without the pressure of every chef in the kitchen knowing what to do with a whole monk fish. And therefore, and actually you notice the packaging, that packaging's got all the sales tip. It's got all the recipes on the back. It tells you two and a half hour pee. It's got all the nutrients. It's got wonderful imagery. It's deliciously sweet. It's the nation's favorite. It's high in it. tells you everything about why that is amazing. In food service is there to do a job. It rocks up 16 portions to a case. I think 12 16 and it's just what you need, which is the

product number, the weight, and the name. Um, what I also like about monkfish when I've used in the past, if I'm making a cuz Kush loves a monkfish curry. Yeah, he loves I've tried making a monkfish curry, but I've just got the curry from the jar. Yeah. Jim Carer. And then I chuck in this just cubed up but frozen and it transforms it. With fish usually people are a bit nervous around it so delicately careful. Mung fish is so hardy. You can chuck it in. It's robust. Well, it's a bit like and you've talked about this with microwaves before. The microwave is not the devil. What you put into it can be terrible. But if you put good food into a microwave, it's

just a different way of cooking it. I think it's the same with the freezer. If you put bad food in a freezer, you'll get bad food out of it. If you put good ingredients in Yeah. It's just a different When I When you think of frozen food, what jumps to mind from your childhood? Ready meals. Oh, Vonetta. Vionetta. I know. Classic, isn't it? That might be the next round. Yeah. Hold that. Hold that thought. And the last thing I want to uh point attention to is the tangata, which you mentioned it before. Bread is one of the most wasted ingredients. You take it

home. You freeze it when it's fresh. take out slices as you need. In the studio here, if we've been filming and we've needed bagels, we've needed um parathas, chiaas, we've needed baguettes, if there's all sorts of bread, we're quite often left with little bits of this, little bits of that, we freeze it all. There's always a use for it. So, this is more of a sort of a home consumer tip just to avoid food waste, but freeze it. And then when you defrost it, it might not be as fresh as fresh, but you can absolutely blitz it up and add herbs, garlic, and oil. Toss it off until it goes nice and crispy and it's delicious. I realized what I said there. I mean I toss it just move on next round. That's the second round. Should move on

to round three. We should do I think Ann is probably referencing the conversation about the freezer and the microwave and how useful they are, but she might also be talking about Ben. She just said it's a tool. It is. Yeah, it is. It is a tool. It's it's a Uh Engine Mashup says, "Frozen fish is my best friend in a fish pie." Yeah. Again, same logic in it. You chuck it in, not think about it. Uh I live right by for fjord, so the fish I buy at the fish munger is an hour or two prior. Yeah. Anything ocean caught would have been frozen just cuz the boats are often out for days, which is a really good point. That's why they're frozen.

And that comes back to the pee thing. Once you've picked a fresh pee in its pod, by the time it's gone through retailers, even if you're picking up at a farm shop, it might be a day or two old. You might not get around to cooking it till Sunday, but you bought it on Friday. It can be five, six, seven, 10 days old. That's not a fresh pee. Frozen is a matter of hours. Um, ever unbelievably delicious food. Interesting information. Rubbish game so far. Rubbish game. Otherwise, do great. Well, trying to find a game that you can win, Barry.

Right. Give me a cliff frozen next. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Thank you very much. Secrets. We'll cover that in the edit. Don't worry. Don't worry about it. Right. Lift the cl on number three. Round three. Here we go. Swing. I guess the parathas are frozen ever cuz you just talked about frozen parathas. Uh yeah, I did. Oh, now if everything plate is frozen again, I've never seen frozen limes. So that is impressive. I've seen frozen limes.

Well, whole limes. Not a whole life. I think it's more the game. Should we take the game? More on the plate is isn't frozen, I [snorts] reckon. Herbs, lime, limes, everything. Uh oh, that onion looks fairly fresh, actually. Onion. Everything else was frozen. Garnish is fresh. Rice was cooked to order. What we're looking at is the paratha and the jungle pork. Would you like to taste it? The what?

The jungle pork. We'll come to that. Would you like to taste it? Yes, please. Oh, no. The crockery. shot the stick. How are we going to do No, that's I don't even know if you are. There is so much expensive equipment in this studio. I'll be honest. Blef had no idea what they were let themselves in for when they said you want to find the frozen. Wow. Right. Okay. Oh, they're really cold as well. Yeah, that's what happens when you put them in the freezer. Right. Brilliant.

Okay, so the game's changed slightly. What's not frozen is the bits you're looking at my chopsticks are so cold they've shattered. I'll take your tip. This is also This is not a good way of eating this. Why would you have chopsticks with parathas? Well, you could use curry. Jungle pork. Chuck in. See what you think. Okay. Right. Oh, no. You're right. Chopsticks might not have been the best choice, but the joke has to evolve. So, yeah.

Good, right? Oh, that's Oh, it's almost It's got Thai green curry kind of vibes. Um, pork. Oh, there is pork in it. Pulled pork. Yeah. I bet the pulled pork is frozen. Yeah, pulled pork. Oene's frozen. I've got some frozen oene before actually in like a mixed veg. Yeah. Um, is the rice fresh? The rice is ambient and then microwave. The parathas, you know, Jay, because you did it literally last week on the channel in a video that hasn't come out yet, but they are a fantastic product.

Uh, sold frozen that cook up so well. And then the jungle pork. Let me show you so everyone at home is on the same page. This is an amazing brand. We always have some kicking around in the studio here. I also always have them at home cuz what you end up with inside is individual parathas. And basically you place it from frozen into a frying pan over a medium heat. and you cook it for about 2 three minutes and then you flip it and do the same on the other and it comes out like that. They release all the amazing um fats inside and they crisp up and they toast up and they are delicious.

You can get different flavors, garlic ones, you can get potato ones, alo parathas. Jay's got the right idea. Digging right in to our jungle pork. I'm making a burrito. Carefully your jeans. Oh, and then speaking of oene, this chap looks happy. This is spicy and aromatic jungle pork from So, look at that. Here's a happy oene. But it's in a medicine prescription bag. We wanted to draw attention to this, which is Stocked. I don't know if you've heard Stocked or seen them.

Lagon. Lagon Chef. Martin, our friend Martin Lagon Chef is currently working with them. They're great. Um, I've not actually used them. I've seen everywhere online. So, they won uh some funding or some backing from Dragon's Den, Steve Bartlett, a couple of last year, I think. But they are essentially a very clever idea, which is something we spoke about on the channel not too long ago. They are blocks of frozen Mhm. ready meals. You literally just defrost them, heat them up, and they are good to go. And they are delicious. Why I think they're quite good is they're chefade and it's basically scratch cooking with

ingredients that I think sometimes people at home aren't comfortable cooking with. So, as you said, this is using things like lemongrass, ginger, gallal. Yes, it's got lime leaf. It's got uh two different types of chili. It's got coriander, chili powder, black pepper, turmeric. It's think a little bit of corn flour, coldressed rape seed oil. But basically so many if you had to go and make that well that's the thing like you have to buy a lot like you're saying it's not that I'm scared to use those ingredients it's just that I don't want to have to buy 20 ingredients to make a dish like that solves that problem.

Um I'm also I'm not against ready meals um with busy lives there is a place for them. Um but the thing I hate about the ready meals you get the fridge ones and the fact there's so much wastage around it as well. the pack all the plastic packaging here. You can still going with the ice here. Pop one of those out and that is a mill in a block. And again, you can keep going. That's that I really like the idea of these. And then good recyclable packaging. I think personally what I find quite interesting and Jamie, you've already touched on this point. So you kind of you stole the thunder before we got to round three. But cuz you're spot on.

Love doing that. because they're frozen, they don't need anywhere near the preservatives or gums or stabilizers that ultrarocessed ready meals do. So, it is essentially scratch cooking like you could do at home. And recently on the channel, we reviewed those um uh silicon molds, but basically if you've got leftovers, if it's a stew, it's a casserole, it's a bolognese or whatever, put them into those molds, freeze them, and pop them out that you can DIY that at home. I suggest you do, but actually a company like stock, they are chefs cooking individual meals without any of those additives cuz all that freshness and flavor is locked in. And I think some really interesting flavors that

means they're pushing the food curious as well. So Cat 39 said she loves stocked. They've got a chicken one that's fantastic for midweek tacos. A chicken tinger. T I N G- A. Tinger. I've always said tinger. Tinger or tinger. if you could just spell it out in the comments. Yeah. Or no, just write the word and then we'll we'll figure it out from there. Yeah. But you could quite literally travel the globe um with their selection. And I do it does tap into that. If you're a bit worried about using those ingredients, it's a good way to get into it, but then you can still do some scratch cooking. You can still

cook it with your parathas and your rice. You can still put it on top of a baked sweet potato. You can still do stuff with it. It's just that all the heavy lifting and all the masses of ingredients have been done for you. But because it's frozen without the need for all the gums and things that I think increasingly with ultrarocessed foods, the industry is looking at and going, "Ah, we should probably try and cut back on that." Frozen food canned. This is honestly I really want to get this for myself. Jungle pork. It's good, isn't it? It tastes so good. Jungle pork is that they invented that name. That's not a well-known recipe.

Um, never heard that before. I think I've heard of jungle pork. I've heard of jungle curry. Yeah. And it's a jungle pork Thailand. Yeah. Okay. Right. Hence all the lime leaf galling gal. And boy, Barry, if you uh if you buy it, you can be as happy as that oene, too. He's very happy. He's shaking. Is jungle pork E ever's pole dancer? No, don't think so. We'll tell you what that is later.

Uh, what about frozen leftover curry, chicken, beef, etc.? Yes. Uh, always freeze it. In fact, I would argue that it gets better with time. So stews, ragu, casserles, curries, I think by the time you've chilled it, frozen it, defrosted it, reheated it, all of those spices have had more time to amalgamate, it's so good. Um, yes, absolutely. Can you give us some rules if you've made your own fresh curry with rice and you've got leftovers? What do you do with the rice and the curry to freeze it safely? Well, definitely chill it down quickly. So, get it out of the danger zone. Don't leave it warm and on the side for 2 days before you freeze it. Like, get it chilled down back in the fridge soon.

Uh, and then portion up and freeze it. If you've if you're putting it into Tupperware or the equivalent, don't put the lid on straight away. Like, let it cool down and steam before you put the lid on. Just so that once you've got this block and I would suggest you do it in portions you're going to reuse. Don't freeze eight portions of bolognese if you're not going to defrost eight portions of bolognese. It becomes impossible. It's kind of where those individual blocks are good. Freeze it with a fork in it ready to go. I mean literally think freezer innovation. You've seen it here today. Freeze your cutlery. Um likewise on a similar note uh Laura has just roasted some vegetables and blended them up to make a pasta

sauce for her toddler. How long can I keep it in the freezer? Um, my suggestion is don't mix it with the pasta. We're all short of freezer space. If you mix it with your staple carbs, it does use up more. And I think frozen rice and pasta and noodles don't defrost nearly as well. They go a bit more mushy. But the sauce, freeze it. I think they say 6 to 9 months, but honestly, I've got things in my freezer. The whole point is they're preserved. They years plus older than you, aren't they? Some of them. Yeah. I don't want to know what's in Ben's freezer if I'm honest.

Yeah, I've got some weird things in my I know what you should get rid of it. I think we should move to dessert quickly and swiftly. Pass the clash. There's a bit of a clear down here. Ever. You forgot we're alive. You pass the I'll get the clash. Let's have a mop down. You have the white. Uh can I have a wipe? Hope D with a very good point. Uh freeze your cutlery but don't put it in the microwave to defrost. Yeah, good.

Yeah, I agree with that one. Not a common problem. Uh Dwayne, frozen fruit chunks are good in cocktails. Doesn't water down the drink. That's a really good point actually. Uh I am partial to an oldfashioned or a margarita or a cocktail along those lines. I um only have massive ice cubes. Yeah. Know. So you only have to use one. Yeah. And it lasts for at least two drinks. Yep. Oh, two drinks. made. Well, I was being about your drinking. Um, yeah. Well, I think I stole the big one. Make ice cream ice cube maker from here.

You stole something from here. Shock horror. And yeah, I make it to make a load of them. Ziploc bags. Good to go. Uh, actually, Q, Becca, freeze your ice cream for a less liquid experience. Great tip. Yeah, great tip. Yeah. Great tip. Gents, I think you might work this one out. Lift the cl. Go on. Just getting rid of the rice. Go on. Yep. Okay. Right. So, yes. Interesting. Cuz my Yes. So, how do I be careful, Barry? Hello. We're live. My wife doesn't cook very often, if at all. Um, but when she does, it's usually cookie based.

Okay. She loves to cook it. Loves a cookie. And um yeah, her method is always to make a very rich and buttery um biscuit base and then basically turn to molds, freeze it, and then you've got cookies whenever you want it. And again, you bake them fresh. They're gooey. They're incredible. And I think her cookies are the best in the world. Wow. Is her name Millie or No. Right. Fine. Uh yeah. No, you're absolutely right. And um for that reason, this round is all about cookie dough. So, we've got a cookie dough ice cream and we've got cookie dough cookies or cookie dough we turn into cookies. But I actually want to talk about back when I

was working in hotels and restaurants. We would often make shortbread um and the dough and roll it between greaseroof paper into sausage shapes, freeze it, and then you'd slice it and basically just as you say, Baz, you'd be able to basically cook off a few each morning during the afternoon. So, anyone in the hotel is ordering a cup of tea, gets like freshly baked shortbread. That's exactly what this is. So, it is a frozen uh cookie dough that has won gold this year at the frozen food awards in the bakery section of FFA. Yeah. And it's the M&S ones. So, they have won gold in the bakery section as being absolutely phenomenal cookie dough balls. And if you take them out of the packaging, you can see just

as you'd expect, globs of cookie dough. Yeah. It says cook in 17 minutes. Nah, do it for 14. Nothing better when it undercooks. I think that might break your teeth. Oh, that's good. No, they have thawed out a little bit. Oh, that is good. That is great. Who needs to bake them? So, these are exactly that. Straight from the freezer, preheat an oven, whack them in like 17 minutes or so, and they come out and they're quite soft when they come out, but then they crisp up. And I think what you're left with is delicious cuz you got that crispy sugary consistency, still gooey in the middle.

Oh, turns out 17 minutes is right, Baz. Uh, and then we've served it instructions. Then we've served it with some ice cream cookie dough, which is from B&J. It's a dupe. So, we've had some really interesting conversations recently about the Audi dupes where they basically copy pre-existing very successful brands and get pretty damn close. Uh, you can see who they're trying to copy. Um, but this is again an amazing ice cream. The same ingredients as the brands you're more familiar with, but cookie dough ice cream. So, just we use your fingers for the ice cream.

Yeah, I've run out of frozen cutlery. You're kidding me. A joke. Joke's working threes. Oh, you've still got a spoon. Yeah, look at that. How's that working? Quite soft, it [snorts] standard. I mean, you could, of course, take two of those cookies and make an ice cream cookie sandwich, which would be wonderful. Um, but there's no cookies left cuz they're already I saw Izzy walking past with half a cookie. She had jungle pork on one. Mix and match. So, there's no surprises. There's no kind of like a harmon, oh wow, ice cream is frozen. We've had ice cream in our freezers for years. But what I did want

to draw attention to is innovation within ice cream. There are uh brands doing some really fun flavors, savory flavors, cheese ice creams, barata and basil ice creams that are going into food service that are amazing if you scoop and put over a salad and it melts and becomes like the dressing over a pear and like water crest salad, which is phenomenal. Um, but the cookie dough, I think, is a secret that we can all buy into because always have some in your freezer. Don't bake them and freeze the cookies. Freeze the cookie dough and then bake to order and you're on for a winner. I first found this out when I was 18 years old.

My friend Dave at uni. The most boring man in the world. He's probably watching. He's pro. Hi, Dave. [clears throat] The most boring man in the world. But my goodness, did he know how to make cookie dough and freezer? Did he? Okay. Yeah, it's good. we often have similar here in the studio different biscuit um whether it's cookies, whether it's shortbread in the freezer. And we know that if we've got people coming to the studio for meetings or whatever, you can just literally quite literally whip it out and um serve them something deliciously warm. And can I just do a quick shout out as well to we're not sure what the next round is, but while we're on desserts,

four I said, B, we're doing four rounds. Can you count? Okay. Shout out to the um to soft fruits and vegetables because they are like frozen. You save them and they're amazing with dessert. So even like um frozen tomatoes. So tomato that's going a little bit mushy. Whack it in the freezer. Then you can grate it and it sounds we grate it over our bara or even ice cream and it's amazing. Same with strawberries, anything that's going mushy. Peaches. Grab the fruit when they're in season. Yeah. Freeze it and lock in that sunshine. And then you need it over desserts.

I'm going to grate a to when I get home. I'm going to grate a tomato over some ice cream. Do it. Yeah, do it. You won't regret it. Just before we wrap up, given that a lot of these, not all of these um stocked were part of the Dragon's Den kind of funding, but a lot of these came as a result of winning bronze, silver, or gold in the British frozen food awards. An amazing team. We've already done the validation. Loads and loads of rounds of food service and chef professionals that judge them. And then there is one product that wins overall over everything. And there was one unanimous winner this year. All of the chefs agreed and it was this. And this is why I think we should talk about innovation in the frozen category. This is M&S's

frozen macaron sandwich. Now, it was a bit of a summer thing. I think it's coming to an end imminently, although it's coming back for Valentine's Day, I believe. But they won best in best of class for this product. And I might have had a cheeky one earlier. It's delicious. Annie had one of them. It feels like they're playing the fire here in that like you've got some establishments that make these that are well sought after and they cost an absolute bomb. The idea of freezing it feels like you're playing fire a frozen macar like you think you think about Eric Lard. Any French pastry chef you tell them like oh I've just done this thing right make some macarons and he's going you know and then I froze it.

He would Yeah. I don't know what that is. It is you can see why it won best in class. Even I want a whole one straight out of the freezer. It is melt in the mouth good. You haven't got to like chomp through really hard cookie to get to the bit inside. Out of the freezer throw. Look. There we go. There's the reaction. Jay. Good. Right. That is so raspberry. Your daughter's here today. And this was right. I mean, how many have you got? Yeah. They came as you do the math. They came as a pack of four. And I told you I had a cheeky one earlier. So, there's one left.

Amazing. M. So essentially, as we wrap this up in the last minute or so, comment down below which of those out of all felt four rounds, are there products that you use regularly at home? We just wanted to share um and thanks to BFF for allowing us to do this, some of the winners, both from retail that you guys can go and buy in supermarkets, but also from food service that's unlocking amazing food when you go out to eat. Mhm. And we just wanted to shine a light on some of the winners cuz I genuinely believe personally that frozen food has come on a huge journey in the last 10 15 years since we started this channel when I think frozen food was a last resort. Not a last

resort, but it was very much like it didn't have the quality that I think you're holding your hand now. Innovation and food quality is through the roof. You haven't revealed the winner. Were you counting? Oh, yeah. Well, in that case, from these three BFFs, I'd just like to thank BFF uh for Yeah, it's a good idea for sponsoring this live stream and allowing us to do this. I don't think I had any idea that um Ben had frozen absolutely everything. Uh but thank you very much. Thank you for watching. Uh thanks for all your comments. Comment keep commenting down below and when the video goes off the live stream, keep

commenting with all of your thoughts and your favorite frozen foods from wherever you are in the world. We should do this again soon. Yeah. Thank you. It's always fun to hang out. What toys have you frozen? Honestly, the freezer is so jam-packed with things that we featured, wanted to feature. We could only be live for this time. Good night. Thank you. Well done, everyone.