Episode 12 The Box

Across the country,

lots of us are working out what to cook tonight

from the ingredients in our cupboards.

To inspire you, we're throwing away the cookbooks

and going back to basics.

We're pitting three resourceful and creative home cooks

against one another to see what they can come up with.

Whoever does it best will be our cook of the day.

Ready to show they can think on their feet

are today's three cooks.

Sofie, a mobile phone specialist from Milton Keynes,

recently revolutionised her diet.

I was vegetarian for 15 years,

so I only started eating meat four years ago.

I have become pretty much a carnivore,

so probably cooking with meat is my favourite thing.

Iain, a tax adviser from Bedfordshire

likes to problem-solve in the kitchen.

I just like dealing with whatever we've got in the house.

I come up with something for dinner most nights.

And Catherine, a working mum from Rochdale,

who likes to keep her busy family happy.

I've got limited time

before everybody's going out and doing their activities,

so it really is a matter of opening the fridge

and going, "Da-da-da-da-da." Yeah.

Their first test will be to cook for today's guest -

the legendary chef, Brian Turner.

-Welcome to The Box, Mr Brian Turner.

-Thanks, fella.

-How are you?

-I'm good, and yourself?

-I'm wondering what you've got in this box of ingredients.

What does a fellow Yorkshireman buy, then? Shall we have a look?

I think you could guess.

We've got a lovely piece of beef.

You know what they say - the bigger the joint, the better the roast.

There's quite a few options in there, apart from this,

which is the dreaded horseradish.

-Look, you can't give anybody a good piece of beef...

-Yes, you can.

-..without. No, I said anybody who's anybody...

-Yes, you can.

-No, you can't.

-Yes, you can.

Cod. Why cod in there?

Well, because I'm a fish and chip man.

And I love to see good fish and chips,

but on the other hand, we've got some Wensleydale cheese as well,

so a nice little mornay sauce.

You do realise I've got to help them and we've only got 50 minutes?

If you get in trouble, I'll show you how to do it, son.

-I've got my work cut out today, haven't I? I'll see you in a bit.

-Thanks, Chef.

Roast beef and horseradish.

Fish and chips, to be honest.

Brian will be watching our home cooks sweat it out

from the comfort of the guest room.

OK, guys - welcome to The Box.

Our guest has gone out and bought a box of ingredients.

If I was you, I would be pretty nervous.

Because this person certainly knows a thing or two

about judging their food. All right?

You've got 50 minutes to create a wonderful dish.

Off you go, open your box.

In my box today, I've put a large piece of beef.

I love roast beef, I'm an Englishman, very proud of it,

and we have some great beef in this country.

And then I've got a cod fillet.

I've put some King Edward potatoes, some swede,

malt vinegar, and horseradish.

Some carrots, I've got some Wensleydale cheese

and, of course, a bit of parsley. I love curly parsley.

And then Bramley apples, and apricot jam.

It's got a great selection of ingredients in there,

apart from one - which is a certain horseradish.

Now, love it or hate it - I personally hate it -

but they're not cooking for me, they're cooking for our guest.

The first thing that springs to mind when you open that lid is

the cote de boeuf, which is just an amazing piece of beef.

It's got to be cooked properly, it needs to be seared really nicely in a pan, and roasted.

You've got to keep the bone in, but you've got to leave it to rest as well.

I think the key to this whole box of ingredients is simplicity -

rely on the flavour of the product, and don't add too much to it.

Those pieces of meat that they got look spectacular.

Catherine has opted for the beef,

and is getting stuck in with the prep.

But Iain and Sofie are still considering their options.

Make up your mind quick, lass. You're using time.

Do something whilst you're thinking.

Iain looks like he's going to go with the fish,

but he still seems a bit unsure.

It looks to me like they've been foxed already. I'm surprised.

Oh, is he changing his mind? He is.

He's changed his mind, has Iain, from fish - he's going to beef. Good man!

-Right, Iain - what are we doing?

-Right, I think I'm going to...

-Just searing the beef now.

-OK.

I'm trying to do a dauphinoise potato, use some of the...

I think it's Cheshire in there, yeah.

-Different county.

-Oh, right - Wensleydale, then.

So where does the love of food come from, then?

Started quite early, really, just cooking with my mum,

helping out in the kitchen from a very young age.

You cook all the time for your daughter and your wife, don't you?

-Yeah, I do. My wife's the baker.

-Really?

Yeah, she's great at making cakes.

How long are you going to cook this beef for, then?

How long do you think?

It's about 2lb, so that's going to need to go in the oven

-pretty much soon, because I want to give it the resting time.

-Yeah.

So, sear it and get it in there.

It's got to go in very much soon, yeah.

-Like five minutes ago.

-Exactly.

I think Iain's going to struggle with the timing of this beef,

because it's got to be seared properly in the pan, so you get

a lovely colour. Really, you want to roast it in the same pan,

so you get it really nice and hot. No more than about 20-25 minutes.

You want it to come out,

and he must leave it for about ten minutes to rest.

He is going to be pushed for time.

Catherine's looking the best at this moment in time.

She's can do onion rings, by the looks of it.

She's also put the swede and the carrots together, which I like.

-Catherine.

-All right?

-What are you up to?

I've got the beef in the oven, I'm going to do a mixed root mash.

-Mixed root mash.

-Yeah, it's got the carrots and...

You call it a turnip, however, I call it a swede.

Well, I call it a swede and a turnip, just to confuse everybody.

It's the north/south divide, isn't it?

Then what are we going to do here? You've got the onion rings?

Yeah, I'm going to do some flour with some cayenne as well,

so it's got a bit of a spice to it.

Looking at these ingredients in here,

can you think about who would put all this lot together?

-Have you got any idea who you're cooking for?

-No.

-None.

-No idea.

-I think it's a woman. I don't know why.

-Right.

So Catherine thinks I'm showing my feminine side today, huh?

And why do you think it's a woman?

Maybe it's a man, with a big chunk of beef like that.

Catherine's going with her version of meat and tatties, really.

I think onions rings are a great idea.

Two ways to make good onion rings, one of which is to soak them

in milk and then coat them in flour.

Then you can do the other one,

where you can soak them in milk and create a batter.

And if you combine malt vinegar, salt, sugar -

mix that together with the flour, you have an amazing batter.

When you deep fry it, it goes lovely and crisp.

And if you haven't got that, what you can use is

a touch of vodka or gin - that works brilliantly with onion rings.

OK, we're at the halfway stage, guys. Halfway.

You can almost smell the fear.

Sofie just made a decision...

but I don't think that she's happy with it.

She's not got an air of being confident about what she's doing.

-Right, Sofie - how are we doing?

-I've finally decided what I'm doing.

It's the fish... It's like a stew with the fish on top.

And then a little parsley and lemon gremolata?

Gremolata, yeah.

I was umming and ahhing over

doing a little bit of the beef with some garlic jam.

-We only want one dish, Sofie.

-I know!

Initially, in the beginning - but I decided to go with the fish.

Are you going to use the veg at all in terms of this dish, or not?

I am, yeah. I want to do something with the potato,

-I just haven't decided what yet.

-Uh-oh, that didn't sound so good.

There you go. So you're pan frying that -

and is that going to go into the stew, or on top of it?

On top of the stew.

That's a good idea of Sofie's - not to put the fish in...

What she could have done,

she could have taken a little bit off that fish, flake some into the stew,

and kept the main part of it as she's doing now.

I wouldn't normally use cod for a fish stew -

purely the fact that it breaks down quite quickly,

so the minute you add cod into a stew,

because it's flaky in its nature, it will just collapse.

Normally, with fish stew, you want a firmer piece of fish,

something like a monkfish that doesn't break down.

-You got this beef on quite early, so that's had plenty of time to rest.

-Yeah.

I'm just struggling on serving it. Because carving's not my best thing.

OK, you know, you've done the right thing -

-you've got it cooked early, that's the good thing.

-Yeah.

Five minutes to go.

-How long's it had?

-It's had about half an hour.

So it should be OK, as long as I don't...

If you take it out, I'll show you how to test it.

-All right.

-That's it.

Right. Knife in.

-Yeah.

-About three seconds.

James, I disagree with you - ten seconds you have to put it in for.

-Warm?

-Well, just.

-Warmish?

-I would have said that's about right.

-OK.

OK, one minute left.

Sofie surprised me completely - she's just got herself sorted.

Come on, Iain! Get yourself sorted out here.

-Use a bigger knife, Iain.

-Yeah, I'll need to...

Iain is now just throwing everything on there,

just to make sure he gets there on time.

That's it! Now stop cooking.

Step away from the hobs. Well done.

IAIN SIGHS

OK, guys - well done.

Now, you're probably wondering

who put that amazing box of ingredients together.

Well, I can tell you now,

that our guest today has been cooking all of his life.

He was one of the first holders of a Michelin star in this country.

And now he spends most of his time mentoring,

tutoring and judging some of the greatest chefs around the world.

So no pressure, then.

Mr Brian Turner.

Brian, welcome back.

You've been watching everything, what did you make of that?

I thought that our contestants did a great job,

-but it looked tougher to them than I thought it was going to be.

-Yep.

The secret is, make a decision and get going.

Well, you went for it, first of all. Straight off.

So what have we got in front of us?

We've got a root mash, with the swede, carrots, potatoes -

and then the beef on top, and then some onion rings.

Mmm.

-Summat's got a kick in there.

-It's that anchovy, I think.

And the balsamic vinegar - you put balsamic in there?

-Was there no chilli in there at all?

-No.

There was a little bit of cayenne on the onion rings, but that's it.

Uh-huh. I think it's a nice dish, well put together. The gravy's nice.

I like the crispy onion rings as well.

The beef is lovely and cooked.

I like that little bit of kick with the onions, I definitely felt it.

My eyes are feeling it now as well.

The problem is with the sauce. The butter has split.

But on the whole, pretty good order.

Exactly, and in 50 minutes - well done, you.

-Yeah, well done. Good.

-Thank you.

Iain has also cooked the beef

and served it with dauphinoise potatoes, carrots and mashed swede.

-Shall we dive in?

-Yeah, go ahead.

The great thing about it is that all the elements taste of the elements.

And the trick with lovely product like this,

is to let the product do the talking. Which you've done.

The dauphinoise, to me, is the really shining point of the dish.

You were right to top it with the cheese.

All that beef wanted, really,

-was a little bit more resting time out the oven.

-Indeed.

-Definitely, exactly.

-But overall, the dish works well together.

It's simple and it's understated. I like that.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-What have we got on here?

-I guess it's kind of like a fish stew.

It's a tomatoey, spiced sauce with the cod on top,

honey and butter-glazed carrots with coriander and garlic croutons.

And a little parsley, lemon and garlic gremolata on top.

-Wet gremolata.

-Wet gremolata, that's an interesting one.

What do you think of the dish on the whole?

The dish on the whole - it works fine to me.

It's a lovely piece of fish, it sits lovely.

-The carrots are nice, the croutons, it works well together.

-Thank you.

I think the fish is beautifully cooked.

That stew underneath it is fantastic.

-But with the gremolata, it just works. Fantastic.

-Thank you.

I think that's a cracking dish.

Overall, Brian, were you impressed?

I thought they did a very good job, particularly in the time.

It's not my decision which dish is the best in this round,

it's purely down to you - which dish would you

spend your money on first, and go back for seconds?

It's fairly clear-cut in my opinion.

I would take Sofie's dish.

-Sofie, well done.

-Thank you very much.

-The flavours were lovely in there.

-That's awesome!

I was so worried in the beginning. That's amazing, thank you.

Well done, guys, for getting this far.

Now you get to cook the ingredients used in my three boxes.

At the end of this, I get to pick the cook of the day.

But what Brian has done is given you the opportunity to decide

what Iain and Catherine will be cooking with.

You've got three boxes - you've got meat,

the bird box,

and a leftover box.

There could be anything in here.

So, first of all, Sofie - what would you like Catherine to cook with?

I'm going to give Catherine...

-..meat.

-The meat box.

You seem quite happy with that, that's all right.

Well, you did the meat the first time,

you've got meat the second time.

That leaves Iain waiting to decide whether he's going to be cooking

with the bird box or with the leftover box.

What do you want to pick for Iain?

He's trying to be nice - glimmer in his eye, there!

I sort of want to take leftovers for me,

because I do cook with leftovers quite a lot.

-Really?

-Could be a risk, though.

Well, there is that.

Which is why I'm giving leftovers to Iain.

-You any good with leftovers?

-Yeah.

That leaves you, Sofie, with the bird box.

And all three of you, 50 minutes to create a dish to impress me.

Good luck with this one.

Ugh!

Thanks, Sofie.

-Rabbit!

-Mmm-hmm.

-Oh, I'm so jealous!

-Hah!

I think there's no doubt in my mind I would take the rabbit

-and the black pudding.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, I think that's got great potential.

If you're facing it for the first time, it's quite a tall order.

Sure, but if you take the philosophy that you treat it like chicken

in its cooking style, then you won't go wrong.

But it's a lovely meat, it's a healthy meat.

It's not an expensive meat.

Inside the meat box, we've got a whole rabbit,

pancetta slices, black pudding, mushrooms, carrots, celery,

pasta sheets, some grain mustard and rosemary.

If I'm going to remember one thing today,

that's Catherine's face when she opened that lid. It was priceless.

Catherine is using the pasta sheets to make tagliatelle,

with pan-fried rabbit and a lemon, cream and mustard sauce.

I think it's a brilliant box, this is, I'd love this box.

-Are you going to use the black pudding as well, or...?

-Yes.

-You are?

-Just a little bit crumbled over the top.

Sounds pretty good to me.

-So you've got a particular dish in mind straight away?

-Yeah. Think so.

But I'm not telling you, because...

-It might change!

-It probably will!

-And do you know what bacon that is?

-It looks like pancetta.

-It is pancetta.

-Yeah, it's what they really call streaky bacon -

posh, expensive, streaky bacon.

You get that in Yorkshire at a quarter of the price.

-I'm looking forward to this dish, I have to say.

-Yep.

-I'm really looking forward to it.

-OK, thank you.

The rabbits that you buy mostly at the moment in the supermarkets are farmed rabbits.

A lot of the time you buy them from the butchers, the tendency is they're wild rabbits.

You treat the two slightly differently. One's a little bit more gamey than the other.

But these are farmed rabbits, so you treat it like chicken, really.

Inside the leftover box are all the things that we didn't use

from Brian's ingredients.

Which include half a rib of cooked beef, three Bramley apples,

carrots, apricot jam, half a potato, a cod fillet,

there's also Wensleydale cheese,

parsley, malt vinegar and horseradish.

-You've got the leftover box.

-Yeah. I'm quite happy with that.

You're happy with that! Out of the three? Really?

Simply because I didn't know what was in the other ones,

and I think there's a bit more prep work involved

-in doing the rabbit and the bird.

-So what are your first thoughts?

I initially thought - cos I've seen the cod there,

and I didn't use it last time - and my thoughts first time round were

if I had done the cod was do some sort of spiced crusting on it.

Just pan-fry it, do a bit of parsley mash,

I'm probably just going to do some tomatoes and onions cooked down.

Sounds pretty good. There's not a lot else to use in here, though.

You've got the horseradish, which can go into the mash as well.

-Yep, exactly.

-It goes all right.

-I'll taste that, it's all right, Chef.

-OK.

Iain likes his mash, because he's doing it again with those potatoes.

But there is a dish crying out in there -

why don't you do fish and chips?

You've got malt vinegar in there to create a wonderful dressing,

but also, if you've never made ketchup before, it is so easy!

You've got tinned tomatoes in the back, you've got malt vinegar,

brown sugar- fundamentally, that's it!

To make tomato ketchup,

you bring the whole lot up to the boil together,

cook it for about five minutes, blitz it -

you've made your own ketchup. Done!

Sofie chose my bird box.

Inside we have guinea fowl, barley, new potatoes, cherry tomatoes,

curly kale, wild garlic, brandy and fresh thyme.

This is actually one of my favourite boxes of the three

that we've got here, because guinea fowl is fantastic.

It's almost a step forward from chicken,

but not quite as strong as things like pheasant,

so it's a good step into game if you've never tried it before.

It's quite a delicate flavour, but the key to it is don't overcook it,

because like most game, it can get quite tough.

Now, Sofie - you picked the bird box.

Do you think you made the right decision?

Yeah, just cos this food all looks really tasty.

I've cooked guinea fowl before, I think I'm OK with the guinea fowl.

-It's chicken.

-Yeah.

-It's posh chicken, just treat it like chicken, you'll be fine.

Yeah, the plan was to pan-fry it,

I think I will probably still do that,

-because it does pan-fry really, really nicely.

-OK.

-The nice thing is, you've put tomatoes in the oven, have you?

-Yep.

Don't overcook those.

So, you've got reds, you've got greens

and then you've got this. You've got real good colour on there.

And also, these are fantastic, wild garlic.

You can use it for a purees, pestos - it's wonderful.

-And pearl barley, we've got there.

-I've never cooked pearl barley -

I have no idea how long it takes to cook.

-You kind of treat this like rice.

-Mmm-hmm?

You can make a wonderful risotto with it.

-That and the wild garlic work amazingly well together.

-That's what I'm thinking, yeah.

One ingredient that really shines out in this box -

the one ingredient that grows all around were I live - is wild garlic.

You generally find it on roadsides, pathways, stuff like that.

And you can smell it when you're driving along,

you get this really strong smell of garlic.

The leaves that I've got here, these are fabulous.

You puree them into pastes, pestos,

but also wonderful in a risotto.

In the second heat, everybody knows everybody else's cooking ability

and they all up their game.

-You've got the pasta...

-Yep.

-..which you've basically just chopped up and then blanched?

-Yeah.

-If you're not careful, it's going to all...

-Clump together.

-..lump together.

Get it in water, and get it cooling down.

They look to be done to me.

-They're a lovely colour.

-Thank you.

And that shouldn't be too bad, it doesn't take too long to cook.

No, no - it's cooking much quicker than I expected.

Pearl barley is a wonderful ingredient.

You can either soak it, or just rinse it under the tap -

just to get rid of that excess starch.

Then you can treat it - particularly for this dish -

like a risotto.

So, a little bit of onion, touch of garlic in the bottom of the pan,

some butter, add that pearl barley,

a little bit of white wine, and keep adding the stock.

Finally, a little bit of cheese. It's fantastic.

Five minutes to go.

-How are we getting on?

-Yeah, pretty good.

-Need to reassemble that fish a bit...

-Reassemble the fish.

We've got tomato sauce?

I've used the carrots in there, just to try and use them up again.

I'm liking the mash. Can I have a quick look at the mash?

Yeah, it's a parsley mash.

-Not a lot of potato that you got, but you've managed to get mash out of it.

-Yeah, enough.

-That's great!

It's enough for what you're going to do. Things are looking a little more under control this round.

Yeah, this is a bit more what I'd be doing at home,

in the same amount of time.

-Well, good luck.

-Brilliant, thank you.

One minute!

I'm looking forward to these dishes, really.

OK, that's it, ladies and gents - stop cooking.

Stop cooking...!

Well done.

Relax and breathe.

-Catherine, you got the meat box.

-I did.

And a rabbit inside it, what did you do?

I've got the rabbit with tagliatelle,

and black pudding going through with some pancetta.

Crispy pancetta, sounds good.

That's got a bit of heat to it. Interesting.

It's nice, it's lovely, whatever it is!

A little bit of chilli on the kidneys.

Well, that's what I've got, just that chilli coming there.

I think that's lovely.

Rabbit's quite a tricky thing to get right.

What you have done is got the flavour absolutely bang on.

I like the use of the kidney, the little bit of chilli just lifts them.

Pasta's perfectly cooked.

You did the right thing with the sauce.

So often with cream sauces you can make it very thick.

Crispy pancetta's great. Black pudding on the top.

Kind of works. And I think that's a great plate of food.

-Yeah, well done.

-Thank you.

Iain was given the leftover box,

with all the remaining ingredients from round one.

What did you create?

I did a cumin and coriander and garlic crusted cod.

And a tomato and onion reduction,

with a bit of balsamic vinegar in it, and a parsley mash.

There is a hint of horseradish in there,

hopefully not too much for you. Just a hint.

I'll tell you how much there is.

I have to say, that tomato compote that you've got there

tastes nicer than I thought it was going to be.

I think you've cooked the fish perfectly,

but that crust is just a bit powerful for the cod.

It's amazing what you can do with leftovers

when you put your mind to it.

I have to say, that cod is perfectly cooked.

The flakes are really nice, the tomatoes taste nice,

they've got the right amount of acidity in there,

-you were right to use the balsamic vinegar.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It tastes like a really nice ratatouille.

-Absolutely.

I love mashed potato. I forgive you for the horseradish.

I think, on the whole, that is a great tasting plate of food,

-and you should be very pleased with it. So, well done.

-Thank you.

-Tastes great.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

And finally, Sofie chose the bird box to create a dish from.

You got guinea fowl, what did you create?

I made the pearl barley risotto with the wild garlic, roasted tomatoes,

pan-fried the guinea fowl breast with a little pangritata on top.

It's quite interesting.

I think you have to be careful which dishes you put in a bowl

-and which you put on a plate, cos it looks a bit crowded to me.

-Mmm-hmm.

I think the risotto is cooked lovely.

-But I think I'd have liked a little bit more liquid in there.

-OK.

I like it.

You did the right idea taking the guinea fowl off the bone and pan-fry it.

That crumb really does work, it tastes really nice,

it's not too spicy. I like the use of the tomatoes.

It's just a shame you didn't get that real punch with the garlic.

You've probably got enough wild garlic for one and a half portions,

but you've cooked enough risotto for four portions.

That's your problem, you've lost that wow factor with the garlic,

it's sort of disappeared.

-But well done.

-Thank you very much.

-You enjoyed it, Brian?

-I thought they did a great job, yes.

That's the first time I've seen Brian have a round of applause.

But, of course, it's not Brian's decision

to decide who's the cook of the day.

I've got to choose that

based on the three dishes that you've all created.

The cook of the day today...

..is...

..Catherine.

-APPLAUSE

-Well done.

-Great job.

-Exactly.

And never cooking rabbit before,

-and a dish that's totally new to you.

-Yep.

-You're pleasantly surprised?

-Yeah, very. Very surprised.

-Well, you did extremely well.

-Thank you.

-And now you know how to prepare rabbit as well.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

But I thought, a fantastic-tasting dish. It was really, really good.

Sterling job, well done.

-Thank you very much, Brian.

-My privilege.

Join us again soon, where we'll meet three more inventive home cooks,

loads of boxes of ingredients,

and some more big names with a passion for food.

I'll see you again soon, bye for now.