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Today, two chefs take on three mystery tins picked at random in a cooking battle. Oh, I don't even want to eat that. Really delicious. It's impossible. Yeah, give up. They'll have to lean on all their creativity and skill to combine these three seemingly impossible combinations into one delicious dish. This is going to be a lot of fun. James, you're first. Please, pick your protein. Stick your hand into the ginger hole. Come on, James. You're better than that. Green. Green? You have got I still don't know what I've got.
Dark blue-colored tin. Briny something or other. Oh. Oh, looks fishy. This is protein. What is this? Oh, no. James, that is abalone. Ooh. Ben, your turn. Ben is thrilled with that. I've got blue. And blue is it blue? It's big. It's also so saucy, but tomatoey ready. No, ooh. It's a fish. No, they are beef tamales. What? Beef tamale. Oh. I'm suddenly all right. My dish is done. That's a ready-made dish. James, back in for your fruit and veg.
Oh, I've got green again. Figs. They are Kalamata figs. I think I'm happy with that. Well, I've got blue again. I like magnets to our colors. Go with my beef tamales. I have Oh, beans. Baked beans? They are Heinz baked beans. You can refry them pizza style. Refried beans with tamales. I don't have to cook. Let's switch up. Ben, you go first this time for your final miscellaneous tin. RED. HEY. IT'S GIVING some sort of meaty pâté vibes.
Oh, what is that? Oh, I don't know if it's dribbling. That's not corned beef. It's some sort of processed meat of sorts. What's that? That is pressed row. Oh, I don't need that with Where does that come from? Where in the world do they eat that? Blue, I didn't get all green. Yeah. Yeah, that is delicious. Treacle. Well, chefs, you've got 45 minutes on the clock to create something spectacular.
Go, go, go. Okay-dokey. What am I going Oh, Ben's going for it already. I'm immediately going to start with the easiest thing to give me thinking time on the others. The beans, I'm just going to turn into a refried bean dish cuz that's two of those that give me kind of Mexican vibes. Where I hide the fish later, I will work out. But, I want to add some freshness cuz the thing with tin products is they're all very tinned. So, a bit of freshness. We've got some chili, some onion. I'll put some fresh coriander, some lime through it, and zhuzh them up. I think some of James' tins are some of the freshest tins that we've had here.
Like those figs and those abalone, there should be some vibrancy that you're definitely not getting from yours. They scream out warm salad, which I'm presuming he's not for once going to do cuz he's got treacle and figs. He's maybe having to go sweet. Ben's instantly looking to add freshness. James, what are you doing? What's What's your Where's your head going? Okay. My head is gone. How on earth am I going to use abalone, which I've ever I've only ever tasted or seen With me? With you in the west coast of America. Yeah. Monterey. Monterey, yeah. Which was fantastic, and it was fresh out the sea. But, I don't even want to eat that. I don't even want to taste it. But, what I'm thinking is how do I make it more palatable for me? How would I
make it more palatable? So, I'm thinking I pan fry it. Oh, nice. And make like little crispy croutony things, and then I was going to make a mayonnaise, and then I've got to work out what to do with the other stuff. Remember the brief this is one dish. The brief is one dish. Is it for the first time ever? It's never been a brief. One delicious dish. Oh, Ben may as well leave now. He can't do it. It's impossible. Yeah, give up. It's impossible. I found some um tortilla wraps, wheat-based tortilla wraps. So, let's make some tortilla chips. I'm thinking, Baz, chilaquiles.
What's a chilaquiles? I think it's kind of refried beans, eggs, Oh, yes. tortilla chips that kind of go half crispy, half soggy. Like scrambled eggs. Yeah, and it all combined. And I do that with my beans and the flavors of my tamales, but we'll deconstruct them and put them all together. I still don't know where the row's going. Can I talk you through some of the tins that you could have won? So, the protein you didn't choose was fiskeboller, which are Norwegian fish balls.
Woah. The vegetable was white asparagus. Ah, terrible in a tin. I think it's good for my figs. And the miscellany would be chicken style cheese enchilada soup. Okay. Suddenly, I'm feeling good about myself. James, I know that you've done lots of planning, but you haven't done any tasting of the ingredients yet. No, I'm putting that off as well. The figs, yes. Treacle, I kind of know what treacle tastes like, right? Uh the other way around, I don't want to I'll taste them once I've cooked them.
Okay, cool. I was going to go rustic and just toss them all together, but I actually want them to crisp up properly, so I'll spread them across two trays. Where would you use the row, Baz? He asks, looking for some inspiration. Could you mix the row in with flour and create some sort of batter? Try to use it as a It's just protein. Basically, isn't it? Is it? Yeah, isn't it? It's kind of set tamales al pastor. Can you make it? Can you make a really fresh herby dip from it or a sauce?
I think it might need to be. So, I've never seen individually wrapped, still with their greaseproof paper, tamales in tins. So, I'm getting rid of all the papers for now, and then I going to see what the contents of this is like. These are your tamales, then. That's the beef tamale. Have a taste. Ooh, yeah. You've got something there, very corny. Delicious flavor. Yeah. Not a great texture. So, I'm going to help that texture along by kind of smooshing it along with our refried beans. It's going to be nice and starchy, and then I'll just need to add lots of fresh tomato and stock to it
just to loosen it enough to cook the eggs in. Because I have only had adobo in America, I've kind of thought about going American, so like mustard, paprika, oregano, kind of barbecue-ish. I also found some togarashi while I was there. around that. So, it's kind of like Japanese-American combo. I want to make a pickle. Yeah. But, I don't want the pickle to be really dark cuz that would ruin the look of what's being pickled. Okay. So, I'm using maple syrup and red wine vinegar to make a pickle. Then I'm going to make the figs and the treacle into a jam.
Ooh. fig jam. So, you've got a jam, you've got pickle, you've got deep fry. Yeah. Everything's kind of like working together. Can I try a fig? Oh, wow. Yeah, they need nothing done to them. No. So, my pickle is going to be red onion, chili, and radish. Hopefully going to add lots of color and freshness and something to go against the deep-fried flavor and the jammy sweet flavor. Sticking with the Mexican theme, put the tomatoes in to make it a looser stock, then some water, and then add in all of our beans and tomato juice. Now that I know that the beef tamales aren't at all spicy, I'm also going to add the rest of
that chili in here as well. Reducing into our onion and celery, we're going to go with some tequila. So, Bas. Yeah. I've gone for a base of onion and celery, which I fried down. I've now gone in with chili, tomato, and salt. And now I'm going to go in with the sweetness that's going to come from all of these beans. The beans are going to go in. Have you tried your pizza beans? No, but I know what pizza tastes like. I know what baked beans taste like. So, I'm going to put it all together and then I will taste to see what I can balance out. Now, the corn tamales with the beef, and that whole thing needs to cook down so we can then kind of stir some eggs into it. So, it's not huevos rancheros where the eggs are kind of poached in the liquid, Yeah.
but they're kind of scrambled in. Which means it needs to be consistency that once the beans and the tamale have reduced down, we have something else liquid enough. So, going in with small beer's Mexican lager. You know we love small beer. Sounds delicious, but I know from that recipe it's a struggle to make it a looker. Yeah, but your motto is look good and the rest will follow. Was. My motto is put it in your mouth and see what it tastes like. Together, Everest. I meant to be. What Bas doesn't realize is I am thinking about presentation right at the end. Some fresh coriander, some fresh chili, some lime wedges.
Uh some uh fresh cheese. Um queso would be delicious. This is what we've got in the building, but I know this is delicious and will work an absolute treat. Chucked the chili, radish, and red onion in my pickle mixture uh along with some mustard seeds and fennel seeds. That's just gone straight into the freezer to cool down, so it should go nice and crisp. Now, my only problem is cod's roe. Let's have a look at this stuff. You've both been avoiding the two things you're scared of, abalone and cod's roe.
Well, that's going to be the last thing I cook. Okay. You want it to be Yeah, I want it to be fresh and crispy. So, I got the oil on. It's just sitting at a super low temperature now. Okay. Where is this going to go? It's just protein. Is it? A bit tacky on the teeth. Has it not got like a kind of nice umami fishy Yeah. What it actually tastes like is those tin sardines you get in tomato. It doesn't taste bad at all. It just has the texture that needs help. We've got some chili peppers here that have been in a vinegared brine. So, it's kind of a sharp salty liquid.
She has some impressive cooking, but a lot of avoiding the scary ingredients. You've only got 24 minutes left. If you were making like a mousse, it would be like equal quantity of like cream, cooked protein, and egg white. So, this is basically just the protein. The cream I'm adding in the form of actually cream cheese to thicken it as well. I don't want to put egg white into this cuz I'm not making a mousse. That would have no place where I'm going. But, it's similar kind of vibes. Letting down the protein with dairy fat. And then it needs some spice cuz at the moment it's just tomato-y and some acid.
You're going down the dip route, then. to go in with one of those chili peppers. Seeds and all. Right, I've got my fig jam on. That is figs, fig syrup, treacle, some mustard seeds, some fennel seeds, which is the same thing that I've used in the pickle. It's a jam, but I want to make it savory. So, separately I'm frying some onions off. I would have done that first and then made the jam on top of that, but I forgot. And then I have just started my mayonnaise. So, egg yolks, Dijon mustard. It's not a pull through. You seem like you're in a groove now, James. I think I'm good. Yeah, I think I'm happy. I quite want to I want to put some flavor through my mayo as well, but I'm not sure what yet.
Do you want to put some fried chicken sauce through your mayo? Be wild, Benny. Beating with some more random ingredients. So, what I was thinking was when we've done Mexican food or Tex-Mex food, a white sauce, which is usually sour cream, mayonnaise, and a white cheese. Okay, yeah. So, I've put in the mayonnaise, I put in the white cheese, and not sour cream, but I have put in whipping cream, which I've kind of soured by putting in pickled pepper. So, it's kind of all of those, but with some spicing from the mayonnaise and the tomato sardine cod roe flavor. Ooh. So, if I blend that, I think it's actually quite tasty.
I still don't know where it's going. Well, I think it will just drizzle over. Yeah, it's okay. Really delicious. Is it? Might just serve chips and dips. Yeah. The thing is when you talk about Mexican food, Mhm. a lot of it is the white sauce, the green sauce, the coriander, the avocado, and then the tomato or the chili. And it's that red, white, and green that gives you the Mexican flag. I haven't got the white cuz my white sauce is filled with tomato-flavored codro.
That's how you reduce something down nice and quick. So I just quickly passed it into a hot pan to reduce it, which is my way of bragging cuz I was going to serve it in that pan, but it instantly burned to the bottom. You now have just over 15 minutes. Okay. Eggs are going to go in for the last eight. I'll take it back. I'm going to try and poach the eggs into it. The oven is also still on so I can finish it through there. Ben has to commit. Ben's committed his What's Ben avoiding? He was avoiding the roe, but the roe's now been committed into his white kind of white sauce. my mind. Chefs always do things in threes. Why did I only put two in?
No, no, no, no. Is this a single portion? It's got to be four. Four is yes If you're making it for a restaurant or something, it's got to be even. You're so right. I'm just concerned I've also got all the protein of the You've got all the protein coming into this dish. You're bulking up, Ebbs. You're bulking up, Ebbs.
Into an oven 180°, but I'm going to actually switch it off for the last 12 minutes. Just to cook those eggs through, and then but as in true Mexican style, 2/3 of the way through the task, I'm going to have a little siesta. Cuz I'm done. Very nice. Ebbs is cleaned out. He's waiting to do the cooking. So Very organized. Whereas James, it's now time for you to commit to think you've been avoiding all video. Could easily be mistaken for mushrooms, couldn't they? Yeah, they look very mushroomy. I'd love to keep the shape of them, but I think it would just be too much. So, what I'm doing is just halving them. So, you still kind of get the nice shape.
You want these just to warm through and to crisp on the outside, yeah? Yeah, I think they're they're already cooked. Obviously, I haven't tried one yet. What I was going to My question was, Benny, what's the texture of tinned baloney? Cuz when we had it fresh Super soft. It was almost like crunchy. What I was going to say was like crunching through a vegetable. It's like a radish, wasn't it? You're food mission. You're you're frying all of them. Yeah. Well, what choice do I have? I've got 6 minutes. tasted it.
Oh, dear. Yeah. I think that will need a knife and fork. Okay, cool. plate. But, I think it's going to work. Slice them up into tiny pieces to save you Georgie in the work. James, this is your last 5 minutes. Time to start plating. I've now got red, white, and green for the Mexican flag in my huevos tamale number. Pace. It's a pace on him. This one was a nice choice. I'm tempted to go marble, though. You okay? Just figuring out how I want to do 90 seconds.
Oh, that's good. That's nice to see a last minute panic. Are you sweating? You final minute. Very impressive chefs. Wow. Hot handle. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, Where does it go now? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Step away from your beautiful creations. Very impressive work. Two very vibrant, delicious looking dishes. Did I do that They both look stunning and fresh given that made from tin food. Mhm. James right. What we got? Uh, we have uh, deep fried abalone with a fig and treacle jam, dill mayonnaise and a chili pepper.
Yeah. Ooh, it is very impressive looking jam. Ooh. That's good hit of fig. I didn't get a tough bit of abalone there. Mhm. It's a really nice bite and texture to it. Yeah, yeah. I think if you eat a whole half, I put a whole half in my mouth. Yeah, committed. Not good but with a knife and fork, I think we're okay, we're safe. I'm trying to compare the balance to something else that's sort of already it's almost like a mushroom. Yeah. It's got like a bouncy it's got like a bounce to it but it's not tough.
Really small combo with the pickle and the jam. And then the fat from the mayo. Sweet fat. Chili, vinegar. I'd say this is going to be on the sweeter side. That's cuz you did get treacle and figs in a syrup. I also just like sweetness is great. And sweetness in anything is great. You had the more exciting tins, I say, to play with whereas Ben I double down on Mexico. You kind of had to, didn't you? So, I've made the most of the red, white and green that Mexico loves. This is corn tamale and tequila, refried beans, huevos with chips. Not going to mention the rose. That's our crema.
Yeah, yeah. Which has got some added oomph to it. The crema is mayonnaise, cream cheese, cod's roe. It's a really Where is the spice? There's a little bit of pickle spice like a pickled chili. If you want to try that on its own, put some more there but I think it's kind of all combined. Flavors-wise, yeah. Absolutely delicious. What? I was so chill about the whole thing. I could have done with an extra minute on the eggs, I think. But there's nothing you can do about that. The eggs are there, but some of the whites
need a bit more mixing in with the hot beans. In the beef tamales, there's not much beef, is there? No. With a lot of Mexican food, it's a nod to the meat, and then there's a lot of beans and there's a lot of other ingredients that freshen up and bring it to life. Is all that Mexican flavor coming from the tamales, or did you add any spices? And tequila, tequila. And the pizza beans. Yeah. A ton of flavor in that. Without adding any like cumin, paprika. No, I didn't add any more dried spices. I think you did well in not doing too much.
Like they're all complementing each other. They're all working together. I've got to try this. Your weird crema is on. And that with a small Mexican lager. It's not fishy. Oh, no, at the end. Yeah. Slight like slight hint. But really nice balance. I think you want to hide the fishiness. You want to get the flavor. Yeah, hide the fishiness. It's almost like you've mixed anchovies into it rather than Well. Really?
Do you have a favorite, or should we leave it up to the audience? Like, you know what I wouldn't do today? I wouldn't want to hand it over to you guys in this situation. If a chef rates another chef's food, who which one do you rate higher? Oh, wow. Do you know what I mean? I think they're both delicious, and it's like you had the easier ingredients, but I think judging it on his creativity and what you did in there, I might give ourselves a winner. I love that and keep going back to it, and I think it's really tasty. But I think given the chance, it's quite obvious. It had to be kind of had to end up with something like that. it But to make it taste that good is not easy.
No, and that's where hopefully comes to life. Whereas that, the ingredients, James could have gone in a hundred one directions, and he went in that one, and I feel like that was the right direction cuz you've got the balance, and it deliberately has three things that all work together, with the abalone as the hero. I think they're two outstanding performances, and genuinely, I cannot pick a winner. If you guys can, please comment down below who you think won this tin battle. And if we should do more of these, make sure you like the video.
