Original subtitles

Jac, come on, a plane ride with me.

We're going economy, though, because I can't afford first class.

But we're flying to Istanbul today.

We're celebrating Turkish cuisine.

Very exotic. When I think of Turkish cuisine,

it's all of those beautiful spices, sumac, saffron, rose petals.

They also love their veggies, their rice and their bread dishes,

which is what I'm gonna bring to the table today.

I'm gonna make an eggplant dish, imam bayildi,

which is a Turkish eggplant dish filled with lots of extra veg.

And it pairs so well with...

Sumac spice lamb shoulder...

Ooh, yeah! ..with a Turkish couscous.

That sounds amazing.

Yes!

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

Tim, I love eggplant,

and I know it's not necessarily a vegetable that everyone does as well,

but it's always nice to introduce people to different veggies

and how you can cook them. Yeah.

And this really speaks well for eggplant, this dish,

because there's so many great spices and flavours in it.

I love it.

Now, to prep the eggplant,

it's important to do so in advance.

Slice and salt it.

And that brings those bitter flavours

out of the eggplant.

And you'll notice that it makes it almost, like,

sweat a little bit, I call it. It's important, isn't it?

Yeah! I don't know how else to describe it.

And then if you could wipe that off

and get some extra-virgin olive oil over them

and into the oven at 200 degrees for around 30 minutes.

Indeed. That's our first step

to get our eggplant cooking for our imam bayildi.

Beautiful. Whilst that happens,

I'm gonna heat up some olive oil

on the stove top

and get our onion and green capsicum cooking.

I love eggplant, or aubergine if you're playing overseas.

I just think it's such a gorgeous vegetable

'cause it's like a sponge, it just soaks up

all those gorgeous flavours, whatever you want to put with it.

That's right!

We often have it cooked in the fridge

because it's great to throw into salads or wraps during the week,

just as a way to make things a little bit more meaty and hearty.

It's up there with mushroom for me.

It's got that similar

texture almost

and that really sort of robust flavour to it.

Mm. Alright in we go.

So, we'll finely dice our green capsicum.

I've chosen the green capsicum

because it's more traditional in this dish.

And it's a little less sweet, green capsicum.

Are you feeling peckish? Can I entice you with...

I'm hungry! ..something nutritious while we cook?

Oh, sure!

(LAUGHS) I love capsicum.

So, we've got a medium heat on our olive oil,

and then we'll get our red onion in.

You could also use a white onion or...

I see you use a lot of shallot too.

I love shallots for certain dishes,

but there's nothing wrong with a red onion or a brown onion.

I like a red onion because they're actually high in antioxidants.

Quercetin is the anti-oxidant.

That's part of what gives it that beautiful colour as well.

So, we'll cook off the red onion with the green capsicum

until it's soft.

And then we'll add in our spices, garlic and tomato.

You'll probably need a good 5 to 6 minutes on this one,

keep an eye on it, before the rest of the veggies and the spices go in.

So, the eggplants have cooked.

I'm loving how they're looking.

There's a nice little bit of golden on the flesh.

We've cooked our basmati rice. That didn't take long in the microwave.

I got the hard job. (LAUGHS) I know!

So, that's been cooked,

and we're going to get that into our serving platter

and toss it with some butter.

Butt... Did you... Did you say 'butter'?

I know!

It's, like, echoing around the kitchen now.

I love it.

Basmati rice is a really great rice to have on hand.

It's actually a low-GI rice.

It's got a beautiful flavour

as well.

I actually think it's probably my favourite of the rices.

And in dishes like these where you could do, like, a baked rice,

I kind of like to cheat it and do it like this

and, instead of doing a baked buttery rice,

I'm just gonna mix a bit of butter through my microwave-pouch rice,

which is the easiest way to do it.

When I think Turkish cuisine, a nice basmati rice or Thai,

I go for a jasmine rice.

Yeah, it's so true.

And that's what you want to look for as well,

just complement things.

Do it with these, with these little pouches as well.

So, I'm gonna get the eggplant over the top before I get the sauce in.

If you've made this in advance

and the two things aren't quite the same temp,

just crank up the oven, get the sauce in,

pop it back into the oven for a little while

and that'll, you know, bring them

to the right temperature.

And then when you are serving it up,

depending on how many people you're serving,

two people could take half an eggplant

or you could slice it and serve it.

Doesn't really matter, but you want to get a good scoop of that sauce in.

And then some of that buttery basmati rice.

Alright.

So, we've got our tomato on our eggplant.

Gorgeous. We're going to finish up...

If you wouldn't mind chopping up a bit of parsley for me.

A bit of dried oregano

on the top.

You could put this in the sauce,

but I kind of like the sprinkle and garnish over the top at the end.

Holds the flavour a bit more

when it's sprinkled over at the end as well.

A bit of parsley. Parsley.

I'm gonna go a bit more pepper.

And I hope you're hungry... That looks great, Jac.

I love that. ..'cause we're ready to eat!

Oh. Yes, please.

There we go. A Turkish-inspired imam bayildi.

Lots of veggies

in there.

Beautiful flavours from the basmati rice.

The best-looking veggie dish I think I've made in a while, actually.

Jac, lamb would have to be probably my favourite protein.

There's just something about it.

It might be the country boy coming out of me, but I love my lamb.

So, I'm going with some Turkish flavours today.

We're doing a sumac-spiced lamb shoulder.

Love sumac.

And then we're gonna make a little Turkish couscous to go with it.

Delicious!

And then some cumin, which has a great flavour as well.

Then we want a good glug of olive oil.

Sumac almost has, like...

..it's citrusy, but it's almost like a little

berry tinge for me as well...

Mm. I really love it. ..so, sometimes I'll actually

sprinkle it over, like, a dessert that has berries and yoghurt.

Like, you could do a meringue with it if you wanted to.

Yeah!

It's one of those spices that can be infused

into lots of different sweet or savoury dishes.

Yeah, and goes really well with fish as well.

Mm-hm. Alright.

I'm gonna crank up our beautiful non-stick pan here.

We want to get this high.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna sear it in the pan.

And then we're gonna pop the pan and all in the oven.

That's very good. I love that.

It's nice when you've got a good-quality pan

that you can take from stovetop into oven,

you know, trust 'cause it's gonna hold the heat.

Yeah. We're only gonna be cooking at 180 degrees,

but these pans can go up to 260 in the oven, which just amazes me.

I love that.

Alright. A good whack of pepper.

Alright.

And now I'm just going to pour all this gorgeousness

over our lamb shoulder.

I've gone with lamb shoulder with the bone in

because I love lamb shoulder,

especially when cooked to perfection.

It almost just falls off the bone,

which is what you want.

Ooh, T-Bone, I'd think nothing less from you.

(CHUCKLES) Alright.

Now I just want to get in and give that a good massage.

Our lamb goes into the hot pan.

And then all we want to do is just get that nice and brown on all sides

before we pop it into the oven.

That's gonna take about

an hour, 180.

Or if you want it to go low and slow

you could turn it down 150, 160

for 2 to 3 hours.

Yeah. Great. Depends on how much time you've got.

Alright, Jac, our lamb's in the oven. That's smelling great.

Let's get onto our Turkish-style couscous.

So, I've got a pot, two cups of water that I've just brought to a simmer.

Now I've just turned it off because that's just right, doing its thing.

I want to add some chicken stock.

Yep.

Sometimes I find couscous in water gets a bit boring,

but we're gonna amplify some flavours

by cooking the couscous in chicken stock.

And then I've got some fun stuff over here

that's going to go in our couscous as well.

What can I do to help?

'Cause I feel like I'm doing... Oh!

..a good job of standing and watching you create a meal,

but I'd love to help. Absolutely.

What I'd love you to do is to chop up some dill and some parsley.

Yep.

Alright, so, I'm just dissolving that chicken stock pot into our water.

I actually really love couscous.

I think, because it cooks so quickly...

It's good, isn't it? ..it is such an easy one

to throw into these sorts of meals.

Alright, now to the chicken stock

I want to add a nice knob of butter

because...it's me.

Everything better with butter? Yeah.

And just in there.

And a little pinch of salt

and a little bit of pepper.

It tastes better,

but, also, the butter in with the stock and the couscous

helps to loosen the couscous too, doesn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. It's sort of... So it doesn't stick together.

It makes it all nice and buttery and it won't stick together.

Alright. Butter's melted in nicely.

I'm gonna add the dry couscous now.

If you work on ratios at home,

you just work on equal parts liquid to equal parts couscous.

Here we've got two cups of chicken stock and two cups of dry couscous.

And then you just want to mix that through.

Love how couscous is just like this sponge.

It just takes on

all that gorgeous liquid. It's good, isn't it?

Alright.

OK.

Now we're just gonna pop on the lid,

fluff it up with a fork after 10 minutes,

and we'll be ready to add all these gorgeous ingredients.

Amazing!

Alright, Jac, our lamb's come out of the oven.

That is looking amazing.

We're just gonna let that rest in the pan for a little bit...

Yep. ..while we finish off our couscous.

Couscous is done.

All of those fresh herbs can go in as well.

And to elevate our couscous

we're going to put in some dried apricots.

They're like little jewels,

aren't they, dried apricots? Little jewels, a bit of sweetness.

And some chopped pistachios can go in as well.

And I will throw those herbs in.

And we've got some preserved lemon,

which is a fantastic Turkish ingredient that can go in

as well.

I feel like it's a bit of an underutilised ingredient...

Definitely. ..but has a really fantastic flavour

and really packs a punch.

So, how much do we want in this? Oh, just... Yeah, maybe one more.

That would be great. Yep.

And I'm just going to start to give this a good toss around.

You're gonna see all of those amazing colours.

I might just put in a little bit of olive oil

just to lubricate it a little bit.

Alright, all of that lemon

can go straight in.

Beautiful.

Alright, Look at all those amazing colours

in the couscous.

It's looking good.

Fresh and vibrant.

Now I want to do a little harissa yoghurt

to go with this dish as well.

So, we've got some harissa paste there.

You just want you to mix that with about half a cup of yoghurt.

Harissa paste has got some spice to it too.

Ooh, yeah. Has a real kick.

A little bit of spice.

OK, couscous can go on to our serving platter.

A nice pile of this.

This is one you pop in for your Turkish feast

in the middle of the dinner table

and everyone tucks in.

Then I'll grab some tongs.

Alright, lamb's on there.

Our harissa yoghurt looks great.

I'm just gonna pop some in our ramekin here.

It's beautiful. There's gorgeous colours going on here.

Lots of different flavours in the couscous salad.

I know the lamb is gonna taste great.

I have full faith that you've made an absolutely incredible lamb.

Bring in your gorgeous eggplant.

Would you look at that?! Oh!

What a Turkish feast!

Turkish banquet for 2.

Mm! Or 20.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Well, I've got a special guest for you guys today.

The man, the peanut-butter legend, Luke Hines!

(LAUGHS) Mike, great to see you, mate.

Welcome to the show, mate. I'm thrilled.

For me, when you gave me a call and said,

"I want you to cook with peanut butter,"

I was absolutely thrilled.

And I thought what better way to do anything in the kitchen

than a one-pan peanut-butter choc-chip cookie?

Oh! Yes!

But I'm actually gonna put you to work.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah.

That wasn't in the brief, Luke.

If you think I'm gonna come and guest on your show

and do all the heavy lifting,

think again. This guy!

This guy! Alright, what do you want me to do?

Alright, we're gonna melt down our wet ingredients.

So, we're going with a good-quality butter,

maple syrup and vanilla bean.

OK.

So, I'm gonna get you to melt those down.

And I'm gonna prepare our dry ingredients.

I love that. So, everything in the one pan and then into the oven?

Yeah, that's exactly right. Easy!

So, the great thing about having versatile cookware like this

is it doesn't just work for sweet recipes.

If you've got pans that can cook on the heat here

and then you finish it off low and slow in the oven,

it is perfect for having a midweek dinner...

Yeah. ..on the table in no time at all.

I had to change over all my pans at home to, you know,

be able to go in the oven

because it's just so much easier, so much quicker,

so much more convenient.

Mate, I'll get you to melt that butter down.

Stir in the maple syrup,

the vanilla bean,

make it beautiful, thick and caramelised,

and we're gonna be good to go.

How good is that?! Beautiful, mate.

Oh, I just want to...

If it wasn't so hot, I'd probably try to drink it as is.

Now let's take it off the heat.

Give that one more little whisk

just to break up some of those bubbles there.

And, whilst you whisk,

I'm gonna put in our dry ingredients.

So, today we're gonna use almond flour.

I'll pour that in.

Awesome.

Now, at some point,

you're gonna have to transition from whisk to spatchy.

And you'll know when. But I'll put that there for you.

Oh...

And, whilst you've still got

the whisk in your hand...

You know what I always heard about you

is that you're a clean, neat cook. (LAUGHS)

And that's what I love about you, Mike,

We're gonna do some gluten-free baking powder

and, of course, some cinnamon to bring out a bit of warmth there

on the palate.

Now that is looking absolutely perfect.

Get the cinnamon and the baking powder fully incorporated.

I need to change over. I'll swap you over.

Change over there. I'll take that off you.

Perfect.

Now, last but not least,

and this is why you might want to let

that butter and maple syrup mixture cool down slightly

is you want to add in an egg.

But when that almond flour and other dry ingredients go in,

it cools it down on its own.

Yeah. So, I'm gonna put the egg in.

Good to go? Yeah. Go for it.

There you go. Get that in there.

Break up the yolk.

And then, once you're happy with how it's come together,

I'll get you to just smooth out the top

until it's one nice, even layer for me.

And get anything from the edges for me

'cause we want to use all that batter.

Yes, chef.

Now I'm gonna give you this.

I will get you to chop some chunks.

I mean, I'm talking probably some rough chunks...

Yep. ..into that.

While you rough chunk that,

I'm gonna get our crunchy peanut butter good to go.

When you open a new jar of peanut butter,

you want to make sure that you really incorporate the oil

that sometimes sits at the top

with the beautiful peanuts at the bottom

so that you get that perfect consistency each and every time.

What I like to do is I get a spoon or a knife

and I just twist in there until it all beautifully comes back together.

But that's a sign of a good peanut butter, though,

when you get the separation.

Yeah. Or any nut butter.

When you don't have that separation,

it's usually been processed in a way where it's not great anymore.

I'm gonna get big chunks like this.

Now, while I do these big chunks of the crunchy peanut butter on top,

which are gonna melt into the cookie dough

and become oozy and hot

and sticky and caramel-like,

I'm gonna get you to get some of these bigger chunks of chips

and put them around that peanut butter just on top

because what we want to create

is a beautiful melted chocolate,

choc-chip appearance on top of the cookie

so that when we serve this in the middle of the table

you can get your spoon into it

and just get a massive chunk of cookie with chocolate drizzling

and peanut butter.

Mate, I love it. Crunchy peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Name a better duo.

It's a match made in heaven, right? A bit like you and I in the kitchen.

Yeah. (LAUGHS) You're always a charmer.

We want this in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

But keep an eye on it because, depending on the heat of your oven,

we just want it to go golden-brown on top

and for all of that chocolate to melt beautifully.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Do you love it?

She's a beaut, mate. She's a beauty.

Well, I want you to do the honours.

Oh, please. Thank you.

Golden-brown. Cookie crunch on top.

Gooey, sticky, melted chocolate.

And that crunchy peanut butter.

Mm! It's hot. Yeah.

You've had a go. My turn. That is beautiful, mate.

My turn.

I love the touch of cinnamon coming through.

Yeah. The vanilla.

That gooey chocolate.

Like, it's just that beautifully under-baked, gooey cookie dough.

Look at that.

Do you think that's too big?

No! Never!

(BOTH LAUGH)

Oh, this is so good.

Now, I don't think there's any neat or clean way to eat a cookie.

There isn't. There isn't.

Oh. OK.

(LAUGHS)

It's so good. It is so good.

And then you get that salty, peanutty crunch hit as well.

It's... Mate, it's a banger.

If you're gonna make anything, you're gonna make this.

Yeah. Yeah. Mate, you absolutely brought it today.

Well done. Thanks, Mike. Cheers.

This is the perfect cheat butter.

A great way to get lots of flavour into a really simple dish.

I love Middle Eastern flavours,

and, for me,

dates, tahini, maple -

match made in heaven.

So, I'm gonna start off by just soaking the dates

in some milk,

and all that really does

is soften the dates.

So, we're gonna bring that to the heat,

let it simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes until they're nice and soft,

and then we're gonna blitz it all up.

There we go, it's nicely reduced down,

it's simmered away,

and that milk just evaporates,

so, it all goes in there.

It's a really simple recipe.

So, we're gonna get the dates into the blender first.

I love dates.

It's one of my favourite things to eat.

They're natural sweetness. They're such a good treat.

So, our dates go in

and then our tahini.

And then I'm gonna add in our maple at this stage.

And what I'm gonna do is blitz that first, make a paste,

and then add the butter into this

to just finish off emulsifying towards the end.

Oh! Smells so good already.

Love the smell of that tahini with the dates.

So, now we're just gonna add our butter in.

And it's nicely softened butter for this.

And, if you don't have a blender at home,

you can do this by hand if you want.

Just chop up the dates first

and then work in a mortar and pestle.

And the key with anything where the butter is the star of this...

So, I've got a beautiful

organic butter, Aussie-made.

It's the best thing for things like this, you know?

Amazing cream.

And it's rare these days to have a certified organic.

It's all about the quality of your ingredients,

so, where you can, use the best.

Alright. All that butter in.

And then we're just gonna blitz this up.

I mean, so simple, so beautiful.

Look at the glossiness of that butter

with all the dates and maple

and the tahini in there.

It's just going to be beautiful.

And this will last in your fridge

for a while.

I'm gonna leave it there,

let it firm up,

and then I'm gonna absolutely slather it over my beautiful warm pitas.

Captions by Red Bee Media