Original subtitles

Mike, do you know that potatoes are actually one of my favourite foods,

which I know surprises people 'cause sometimes they get a bad rap?

I'm going to make a sweet potato and walnut brownie

because I love mixing things up, especially in baking,

and getting some more vegies into my sweet baked treats as well.

I don't think I've ever had a sweet potato brownie before.

Well, today's the day!

I'm going to go with a potato ball.

Sour and spicy, really easy to make.

One of the things you can sort of prep in advance

and pull out a really cracking side.

How cool. I've never had one of those before either.

Yeah, this is slightly different, but I reckon you'll like it.

A first for both of us. Let's do it!

Potato balls.

Ooh! I love a good ball.

Like, they're simple and delicious.

And all I've got here is some pre-done cooked potato,

nothing else in there.

And now we're going to add some cornflour to it.

So, any potato variety is OK for this?

Pretty much. Right.

I mean, when you're mashing, you want a drier potato.

You don't want them to be waxy, OK?

Because then you'll end up with a waxy mash.

But for this, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Can you pop some salt in here for me, please?

It's very coarse salt.

It's amazing salt, but it's coarse, isn't it?

It's beautiful. You see how that's all come together now?

Yeah, quite quickly as well. Really quickly. Really easy.

OK. Now we're just going to make, like, little balls.

Like a little ball like that.

And we're just going to keep going until they're all balled up.

We're going to pop them in the fridge,

let them chill for an hour.

Then we're going to come back, boil them in some water.

Yep.

Set them aside and make the sauce.

And it's almost similar to gnocchi, right?

They will float to the top when they're ready.

Very similar. And it goes into cold, ice-cold water.

Yeah. Stop the cooking. Remember, it's already cooked.

The potatoes are already cooked. It's a cold dish.

That's very cool.

They almost look like those, um, baby cocktail potatoes.

Yeah. They're rolled up.

Absolutely. That's just given me an idea.

Yeah. You could make it simpler, couldn't you?

Alright, so, in this pan,

I've just got some extra virgin olive oil.

Oh! Mike!

Yeah, I'm using a healthy olive oil.

I've got about 200ml in there, which I'm going to really heat.

Yes. I want it nice and hot. What can I do?

Your job now is to slice the chillies on the angle,

quite thin, please. OK.

And the spring onions, really thin.

Really long on the angle. Alright.

So I'm going dry chilli flakes in there as well.

All of that garlic.

And all of the chilli, too.

All the chilli.

These are spicy potato balls! It's spicy. It's sour.

There's a little bit of sweetness in there as well.

We're going to go in with the sesame seeds as well.

And then, I might give you... I'm not moving fast enough.

That's alright.

I'm still thinking about how I'm going to process all that garlic,

and the fact that the only person that can potentially be next to me

tomorrow in the kitchen is you,

because you would have eaten it the day before, too.

That's OK, Jacq, that's OK.

I never... I never judge garlic.

I just think, "Oh, they ate something delicious."

I want this hot.

You know, I want the heat.

Break that up into there.

Once our oil comes to temp,

we're basically going to pour the hot oil into this

and let that cook and perfume all of those spices

and toast the sesame seeds.

It's a great way of doing it.

And then we're just going to season it

with sugar, with black vinegar,

some soy sauce, light soy sauce, some oyster sauce.

And it's just going to become a beautiful little sauce

which will then coat the potato balls through.

I mean, it was fairly simple, right? So simple.

I have to admit, I'm hanging out to try

the garlic, chilli, spring-onion oil.

It looks dangerous, but I'm sure it's delicious.

It's not as hot as it looks,

but obviously it is a dish that should be spicy and sour

and a little bit sweet as well. Yeah.

Oh, wow!

But it's such a nice way of doing potatoes.

It's different... Yeah!

..but so tasty!

And it just becomes one with that sauce.

I mean, I want to get my spoon in this so badly.

I do, too!

It's amazing.

I'm equal parts excited and a little bit nervous.

You should be. Yeah.

Go on.

I want to watch your face as you eat this.

Really? You won't be distracted by your own?

Is it all in one?

Yeah, definitely.

It's hot, it's spicy, it's sweet, it's sour.

You know the term, 'a party in your mouth'?

This is the dish that it was created for.

Honestly, it's so more-ish

that your saliva glands are going.

Your tastebuds are going, "Ooh! Ooh!"

That is just crazy.

Potato balls.

Sour, spicy.

Give it a go.

Mike, I've got a little chocolatey treat for you.

It's a sweet potato and walnut brownie.

What do you think of that?

I don't think I've ever had a sweet potato brownie before.

I've had a lot of different types of brownie.

I don't think I've ever used sweet potato.

Well, this one is one of my favourites

because it's a really fun way of looking at

how we can get everyday ingredients

that are whole-food based,

that can use up potentially something that's in the fridge.

Or maybe you want to wow people at work.

Getting sweet potato in is definitely a talking point.

I love sweet potato in desserts,

like, really big in South America, using sweet potato.

Is it? Yeah, really, really big.

So it's interesting to see how it works in the brownies.

I haven't tried it in a brownie before.

Oh, may I introduce you, then? (LAUGHS) Yeah!

If you could mash up the sweet potato for me... Yeah, sure!

..so that it forms more like a puree than a rough mash.

I've put extra virgin olive oil and maple in

to form the base of our wet ingredients.

That won't be our only sweetener.

Obviously we have the sweet potato,

but we also have some chocolate chips going in. Ooh!

Or you could chop up some dark chocolate.

Really, whatever is on hand is what goes here.

You're really treating me today. Yeah.

And, also, this is a cool one,

because if you have, uh, friends or family that are gluten-free,

this is a lovely treat to sort of give them an opportunity

to try a gluten-free treat

that's got lots of wholefood ingredients in it, too.

So what's your flour that you're using?

The coconut flour is our final. Oh, nice.

Yeah. So it's still quite dense and fudgy

as a brownie should be. Has to be!

It's not a brownie if it's not fudgy.

That's right.

So I've got the maple, vanilla, eggs and cinnamon.

And I love getting the cinnamon into baked treats

because it just adds in that extra sweetness.

And it looks like, "Wow!"

And that's the beauty of working with a chef.

Everything happens very quickly.

We've got a beautiful sweet potato puree done,

nothing else needed. So, that will go in there.

Now, to the wet ingredients,

which I'll just give a little whisk,

we are going to add the raw cacao powder next.

I'll whisk. Actually might go for a wooden spoon.

There you go. Thanking you.

Teamwork makes the dream work. (LAUGHS)

I like being your sous-chef, Jacq.

Oh, look, I think you do a great job of it.

Oh, thank you! (THEY LAUGH)

And then we can get our coconut flour in.

And I know you're really excited to add those chocolate chips.

I've seen you go for it a few times now.

I'm waiting to lick the spoon.

I know, but I'm wanting to add some into the mix

and then some to keep just for the top.

So we get a little bit of the fun melted chocolatey vibe over the top.

And you can see the consistency is lovely and fudgy.

That's happened because we've got the sweet potato in there,

so we don't miss out on that lovely fudgy consistency.

Let's add all our walnuts in.

Though I do love if you reserve some,

or if you have some that are extra

just to put on the top to give that crunch and textural

kind of top to the brownie as well. OK.

Then it's as simple as getting it into our baking pan.

I'm going to get as much as I can into the tins.

I'll be patient, I'll wait for the real thing.

And then we'll work like a team and get this fudgy brownie in.

It's a perfect consistency.

It does look pretty good and it doesn't take long to bake.

I've already got the oven at 180,

and it'll take about 20 or 25 minutes in the oven.

Alright, Mike, will you do the honours of dressing the brownie?

And then it's into the oven to bake.

I'm getting excited.

That's cooled in the tin, so we can take it out and plate it up.

And I've got a few extra walnuts for us to dress around the brownie,

because I like a bit of presentation with my sweets.

Yeah, of course.

And a little bit of maple syrup

to drizzle over the top to finish as well.

And then I'm hoping it's as fudgy as you expect it to be.

It looks and smells delicious.

Alright, I'm going to go in thirds, I think, for this guy.

Oh, don't make it too small, Jacq. Don't make it too small.

Oh, well, it's rich, you know,

we saw how rich and dark the cacao powder was.

It's dark chocolate in there.

It is rich. Come on!

Gosh, never, I've ever had so much pressure to cut a brownie.

Look at that. The inside. It's rich.

Beautiful. Yeah.

You want people tasting it

and thinking, "You know what? I'm converted.

"Like, I can do this at home."

Yeah, it's definitely going to be a brownie I'm pulling out,

and it is me, yeah, I'm not even going to

tell people there's sweet potato in it.

Not my kids anyway.

No. OK.

You and your walnuts. Walnuts on top.

Do you want them chopped?

Oh, no. Just crumble them over, I think. Just crumble.

A bit of a rough crumble is always good.

It's a little treat. It's a couple of bites.

Maybe one big bite for me.

One mouthful.

Look at that. Love it.

Mm. You have knocked that out of the park.

Thank you.

Beautiful, great consistency, texture - delicious,

beautiful flavour. The sweet potato, like, it's prominent, but I love it.

Like, it's such a good thing to have in desserts. Yeah.

Look, I wouldn't even know it's there

because I'm so used to eating it. Yeah.

But it's cool that you can taste that profile of it

coming through the treat.

Let's see if you can hide it from your kids.

That's the challenge. That's the test.

You've just had a fantastic Christmas.

All the family's gone home.

You get to Boxing Day.

What do you do with all of those leftovers?

I say turn them into a toastie.

This is a ripper little stuffing recipe,

nice and versatile.

Can use for roast chicken, a porchetta, anything at all.

So we're starting with a good whack of butter in our pan.

Hit that with a little bit of olive oil as well,

because the butter can tend to burn really, really easily.

But you put a little bit of olive oil in it

and it just makes it a little bit better.

I'm going to start slicing up our leek.

So one nice leek, just nice, thinly sliced.

OK. Leek all sliced up.

Lovely.

That can go straight into our frying pan.

While that's just doing its thing,

going to move on to chopping our herbs.

So we've got some parsley and some sage.

I just want to chop up some of our parsley.

I find if you just squeeze it all up into a ball,

makes it a bit easier to chop.

Gorgeous.

And some of our beautiful sage.

That's all chopped up.

Let's check on our leekies.

They're looking fantastic.

Let's go in with some garlic - in it goes.

That was three cloves of garlic.

And now we can add the rest of our stuffing ingredients -

pistachios, which we've just roughly chopped.

They can go in.

And some cranberries.

In with our cranberries.

And some dried apricots

that we've just roughly chopped as well.

In you go.

Then we've got some breadcrumbs and they can go in.

So, these breadcrumbs are just going to need maybe three or four minutes

until they're beautiful and crispy.

Then we're going to go on with building our festive toasties.

Alright. Our stuffing is done.

The colours look great.

I just added some salt and pepper,

those herbs and some lemon zest

and lemon juice in there.

Alright.

Let's build our toastie.

So we've got a beautiful loaf of bread here.

So, a couple of nice thick slices of our gorgeous bread.

Oh, toasties just excite me,

even after all of these years, I love it.

OK.

Bread ready to rock'n'roll.

Then we have some Camembert,

so we want some nice slices of our Camembert.

And then we're just going to layer

our Camembert onto our bread.

Cranberry sauce.

We always have too much cranberry sauce on Christmas Day.

I've always got some left over,

so we want to get a nice spoonful

of beautiful cranberry sauce onto our toastie.

Delicious.

Then for a little bit of greenery,

I've got some rocket. Onto our toastie.

Adds a nice colour as well.

And then we've got our crispy stuffing mixture

with the pistachios, the apricots.

We want to get a nice...

..whack of that onto our toasty.

Yes. Love it!

Every good toastie in my book has to have meat.

So we're using two different types today - turkey and ham.

These are great 'cause they're fridge staples,

especially in my house.

My son, Toby, is obsessed with ham.

He'll smash a whole packet of the ham for lunch.

No dramas at all.

So we'll go on with a few slices

and make a nice layer of our turkey onto our toastie.

I'm getting excited.

The combo of the turkey, the ham, the cranberry and the cheese

just works so well together.

And, again, just a layer of our ham.

Now, this is double-smoked ham

'cause I reckon single-smoked is never, never enough.

So we'll pop on the lid.

You could easily just serve this as a fresh sandwich

and that would be absolutely delicious.

But toasties are my thing, so I'm going to toast this baby.

Alright. Our festive toastie is cooked to perfection.

Let's get her out.

Pop it on the board.

OK, let's slice through

and have a look in the middle.

(KNIFE CRUNCHES THROUGH)

That's the sound you want to hear.

Have a look at that.

Those beautiful colours from the stuffing,

the ham, the turkey, the melted Camembert,

all the good stuff.

I mean, this is me, Boxing Day personified.

But, again, guys, this may be called the festive toastie,

but, honestly, this could be enjoyed any time of the year.

No doubt about that.

I always like to finish my toasties with a little sprinkle of salt.

So it might be Merry Christmas, happy holidays,

Happy Boxing Day, watching the cricket.

But it could just be Happy Tuesday.

Any day of the week, give this toastie a crack.

I am sharing what is going to be, I hope,

a family favourite for you and it is so, so easy.

It's like a short cut to the best apple crumble.

So you're going to use Granny Smith apples.

These are lovely and tart,

and I know I'm going to break with convention a little bit

because I am going to core them, but I'm not going to peel them.

And the reason for that is

apples have an amazing amount of anti-oxidants.

You don't think of apples and anti-oxidants, do you?

But a lot of those anti-oxidants are just under the skin.

Now, you can, of course, make this in a great big tub

if you want to make one big apple crumble,

but I thought it would be kind of cute

to do them in individual ones.

And then each person gets their own apple crumble

in their own little dish.

It's kind of nice.

And I have just brushed these little ramekins

with some extra virgin olive oil

just to help stop the filling from sticking to the side.

So, once you've got all your apple,

all you're going to do is sprinkle a little -

this is just mixed spice.

You could use just cinnamon or some fresh nutmeg.

This is all mixed spices,

there's a mixture of, you know, cinnamon, nutmeg,

some cloves already mixed for you.

So you can do them individually

or do the little cheat like I'm doing.

And then just give it a little bit of a mix into each one.

And then we're ready to make our crumble topping.

Now, the cheat is to use a ready-made granola.

I'm using this fabulous nutty granola

and a little trick to get it all bashed up nicely

into our crumble topping is to pop it into a plastic bag.

And then basically let rip with your rolling pin.

In it goes, just give it a bit of a bash.

Lovely.

Tip it into a bowl.

And I'm going to add some extra virgin olive oil.

There's already enough sweetness in that granola,

so I'm not going to add any brown sugar or anything else.

I just want to make sure there's enough olive oil

to bind it all together.

It's about a quarter of a cup going in there.

Mix that together,

and then we spoon that over the top of our apples.

So, it's so much quicker than that old rubbing the butter

into the flour and all that stuff that you do

for a traditional crumble,

and you're getting all the goodness of those oats

and the nuts and everything else that is in that granola.

And that is it.

I'm just going to pop them into a tray.

They go into the oven at 180 for about 30 minutes,

or until they start looking nice and golden brown on top.

If you want to, just press the toppings down a little bit,

or you can leave it a little looser, however you like.

Into the oven it goes.

How cute do these little individual crumbles look?

They're so, so delicious.

Now, you could serve that with some Greek yoghurt

or even a cheeky scoop of ice cream, if you like.

But you know what?

I'm going back to my childhood and I'm going to use some custard.

This is a ready-made custard.

Nothing's wrong with using some short cuts, you know.

This is just custard I've heated up into a pan

and that is honestly the way that I love to eat crumble,

crumble with custard. What could be better?

Captions by Red Bee Media