Episode 14 The Box

Across the country,

lots of us are working out what to cook tonight

from the ingredients in our cupboards...

to inspire you with 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 off their quick-thinking kitchen skills

are today's three cooks...

..lifestyle coach and mum of three, Hali.

Yeah, a lot of mouths to feed

and I also love cooking for my friends as well.

I've generally got a house party going on most evenings in my house!

Training consultant Paul from Durham,

who loves creating last-minute dishes.

Nine times out of ten, even over the weekend, I've nothing in the fridge,

so it's a case of doing something literally from scratch!

For me, that's part of the fun of it.

And Gary from Luton, who's been putting in some practice.

I've tried to prepare as best I could.

I've had family bring round random boxes of food,

so, yeah, hopefully I'm ready!

Their first test will be to cook from a box of ingredients

put together by today's guest,

legendary newsreader and TV presenter, John Craven.

-Here you are, James.

-Welcome to The Box.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-That looks heavy.

It's got quite a few things in there.

-Are you any good in the kitchen?

-I'm not all that good.

-JAMES LAUGHS I'm a good helper, James.

-Right.

I'm no good at getting things ready on time.

Right, OK. They've only got 50 minutes to create a dish

-using what we've got in here. Now...

-Right.

Rack of lamb,

it's the first, kind of posh food I can remember eating.

Because I was a war baby,

and you know, there was rationing until 1954,

but then suddenly when rationing ended, you know,

lots of things presented themselves,

food you'd never seen before.

And I remember going to a restaurant and having rack of lamb

and it looked so posh with those little paper things, you know...

-The little chef hats.

-Yes!

-Right, we haven't got those today.

-No.

Rack of lamb's pretty good.

-We'll send you off to a darkened room.

-OK.

-And we'll see in about 15 minutes for something to eat.

-Lovely. Smashing. See you then, James. Fine.

Right.

Let it all begin.

OK, guys, welcome to The Box.

Now, the ingredients in front of you

have all been chosen by our special guest,

who's waiting in the wings ready to taste your amazing creation

and I say creation, because we're only after one dish.

You've got 50 minutes to create that dish.

Good luck.

Well, in my box, I've put rack of lamb.

It's probably the tastiest cut of meat there could ever be.

I put some minced beef, purple potatoes,

extra fine green beans, aubergine.

Well, to be honest,

I don't like aubergine in anything but moussaka.

JOHN LAUGHS

So, if they make some sort of...

aubergine jus or something,

for my rack of lamb, I won't like that.

Organic carrots. If possible, we go for organic food.

Organic carrots are not that much more expensive than ordinary carrots.

Puy lentils.

Over the years I've developed a taste for puy lentils,

especially when you put a few things extra in them

to give them a bit more flavour.

Herbs.

Some peaches, I like all fruit, actually.

I could've gone for almost everything.

But I thought peaches have a special flavour.

Custard and some nice vanilla ice cream.

I'm looking for a good, wholesome meal that anybody could do at home.

Well, anybody, probably, apart from me.

JOHN LAUGHS

That's a wide range of ingredients in John's box,

but our cooks don't have to use them all.

Out of all those wonderful ingredients inside that box,

all of our contestants have chosen the lamb.

Which I've got to say is probably the safest bet, to be honest.

I would've certainly gone for it as well.

But I'm not sure about Hali, because she looks to be

going for the aubergine, maybe she's thinking of moussaka.

Hali, you have now changed career,

-because you started life as a beauty therapist.

-I did.

-Tell us what you're doing now, cos it's amazing.

-I'm a health and lifestyle coach.

I've lost 11st in weight,

so I've lost half my body size in weight, literally.

Wow.

And then that got me really interested in

health and nutrition and good food

and looking after your body.

I've kept it off for six months now, so...

-That's fantastic. 11st, very impressive.

-HALI LAUGHS

What have we got going in this pan, what's happening?

So, I'm just putting a bit of a Persian influence on my food today, as always.

Do you know what? I don't think I've ever tasted Persian food.

Not that I know of, anyway.

And I think by the look of this, I would quite like it.

-I love Persian food.

-Oh, do you?

-Cos you're half Persian, half British?

-I am, yes.

-It's mainly based around rice.

-Yes.

-And then lamb, of course, meat.

-Yes.

So I'm really happy that there's lamb in the box today.

-Spices as well...

-Yes, lots of spices...

-It's not Indian flavours, is it?

-Not...

-It's really pungent...

Yeah, definitely.

The lamb's been seared off with turmeric,

-cinnamon and some cumin.

-OK.

-I've got aubergine in the oven roasting with garlic.

-OK.

Interestingly enough, you're going to use the puy lentils.

Oh, I love lentils, I absolutely love lentils.

Yes, well, I'm glad that Hali has decided to use the lentils.

I think that's probably the Persian influence in her cooking,

but she's going to have to win me over on the aubergine.

With the aubergine, she can do so many different things with them.

You can puree them, or deep fat fry, or simply oven bake them.

One thing you do need to do is be really careful

with the amount of oil you add.

Think of it like a sponge, the more oil you add to the aubergine,

it soaks it all and soaks it all and all of a sudden it goes,

I've had enough, and rinses it all out.

You've got to start it off with a little bit of oil in the pan and just add little by little.

Gary's taken a classic route with his lamb.

He's adding rosemary and he's prepared some of that great veg

from John's box of ingredients.

-Have you ever used these potatoes before?

-No, I haven't.

They're kind of purple in size, so when you, basically, peel them,

-cut them open, it's this amazing colour you get inside.

-OK, right.

You really don't want to turn that into mash,

-otherwise it looks like some weird mashed potato.

-Yeah.

More like wallpaper paste,

-but they're really nice sauteed off in a pan.

-OK.

So far it seems to me with Gary's, it's, you know,

standard rack of lamb and veg,

which is, nothing really wrong with that.

But I don't know whether you need a bit more imagination

with things to use.

Somebody told me when they heard about you coming on the show,

it's literally been competition time almost every night at your place.

-It has!

-Bringing you back boxes of ingredients.

Yeah, I've had all kinds of things come through my door

-in little cardboard boxes!

-All right.

Looks as if you know what you're doing with a knife.

Have you the cooked with these carrots before?

These are beautiful organic carrots. If I was doing anything,

what I would tend to do

and I'm going to tell you this having you chopped them all up,

-that's the maximum preparation I would do for those.

-Right, OK.

I'd cook them as they are,

cos look at it, it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Which don't require chopping up into small pieces.

-Into batons, like I'm, I'm ruining them.

-Gary.

GARY LAUGHS

The key to cooking a rack of lamb

is to make sure it's sealed really well on the top, first of all.

So, salt and pepper, put it in skin side down in the pan

and get a nice crispy top to it,

so when you flip it over and roast it,

it will take about 15 minutes in a really hot oven.

But it does need time to rest

and you want to serve that meat nice and pink.

Finally, our third cook, Paul, has also gone for the lamb.

He worked front of house in the restaurant business for 20 years,

so I'm expecting great things.

A little bit competitive with your brother, is that right?

-Well, well, yes.

-Is he the chef?

He's not really a chef, he worked front of house with me a little bit,

but he decided he was going to put me through for this show.

-Oh, right, it's his fault?

-It's his fault.

-OK.

-So, if it all goes pear-shaped...

-Or it burns...

It burns like I've done there, yes.

-Do you know what that burnt bit is?

-Just rosemary.

-No, that's the garlic.

-Oh, the garlic.

You've put the garlic on there, so you pick that off.

If you're going to marinade it, the best thing is to get rid of the garlic or don't chop it up.

Just leave it whole.

-Anyway, I'm going to clear off before you burn anything else.

-Cheers, mate.

Well, I can't wait to get in and taste these,

two racks of lamb, cooked in the more or less traditional way,

another...

not so traditional.

The danger is you've got two very similar dishes

and there's going to be,

you know, a comparison's going to be made between the two.

That's actually quite tricky.

Time's almost up, but it looks like something's gone wrong

with Gary's purple potatoes.

What's happening here?

I did one batch, but I didn't parboil them.

-OK.

-I thought they'd be soft enough in time.

-Yes.

So, I've boiled them up a little bit,

now fried them off, I'm just sauteing in a little bit of butter.

These potatoes are actually quite tricky to get right.

If I was doing it, I would cut them into big chunks and boil them

and right at the last minute, just saute them in butter.

It's actually quite tricky to cut them up into slices.

They absorb a lot of that butter

and sometimes they can overpower the taste of the potato,

cos it's actually quite a delicate flavour.

Everything going all right?

-I think so!

-You think so?

-He's cleaning up while he goes as well.

-Trying.

THEY LAUGH

This looks good in here. This is our nice little sauce.

-Nice little sauce, yes. A few shallots, bit of redcurrant.

-OK.

Jus and a bit of stock, carrots...

-Nice, with the carrots and beans.

-Beans in there with some butter.

I thought Gary had finished the rack of lamb,

but he's put it back in the oven now. Um...

it should be really resting now.

OK, one and a half minutes left, guys. One and a half minutes.

OK, that's your lot. Stop cooking.

OK, well done. Three dishes in 50 minutes.

That selection, I can now tell you, was picked by our guest.

It's just a TV legend. It's John Craven.

Hello. JOHN LAUGHS

-Hiya.

-Good to see you.

-How was your darkened room?

Well, it was quite an experience.

-Quite an experience.

-I think I was more nervous than you were!

Now, everybody decided to go down the same route,

is that kind of the thing that you wanted?

I blame myself on that, actually, because when you open a box

and you see rack of lamb,

that's probably the most enticing ingredient, isn't it?

So, you decided to go with the lamb. What did you do?

Lamb rack on a bed of...

green beans and carrots

and then I made some nice frisbees there.

JOHN AND JAMES LAUGH

They're not sauteed potatoes. I'm not quite sure what they are.

-But other than that, you know, shall we start?

-Indeed.

Well, it's cooked anyway.

It looks too cooked for me, I like it to be a bit pinker...

I think, but...

Mm. Oh, it's tender.

Let me try your frisbee. GARY LAUGHS

Mm. Does have a potato taste.

What do you think?

I'm not sure why you bothered to chop up the carrots and things like that.

-It looks a bit like the ones that come out of a tin.

-Yeah.

-You know.

-But very nicely cooked.

-Mm, mm.

-The lamb straight away is overcooked.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-You can tell that by seeing that bit underneath there.

-I think you know that as well.

-Yeah, I do.

The carrots have gone over, the beans have gone over.

Yes, you're probably pleased to know there's a second round.

THEY LAUGH

-It does taste OK, honestly.

-Thank you.

Right, Paul. Meet John.

-Hello, John. Pleased to meet you.

-How are you feeling?

-OK now.

-THEY LAUGH

-OK now. You can relax.

What did you make?

I made a rack of lamb with a red wine sauce,

sauteed potatoes, beans and carrots.

-OK.

-Oh...

Have a taste.

-The lamb's nice and pink anyway.

-It is, it is.

Very tender, beautifully cooked, actually.

-And I do like the sauce.

-Good.

-What I like about this one, A, it's quite attractive.

-Yes.

Because keeping the carrots whole

-does add some real colour to the plate.

-Mm-hm.

The potatoes are well cooked, difficult ones to cook,

but they look nice, they look different, don't they,

-on a plate, those potatoes?

-Yes.

And the rack of lamb itself is very delicately cooked,

it's beautiful, and I do like the red wine sauce.

-It's a great dish.

-Thank you very much.

-It's a great dish.

Everything on it tastes really nice and that's exactly what we wanted.

-That's what I wanted.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Hali, how are you?

-Fine, thank you.

-Well, sell your dish to John.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-THEY LAUGH

So, this is a spiced rack of lamb on top of a bed of puy lentils,

with vegetables and also, you've got aubergine and garlic puree.

-I'm glad you used the puy lentils, because nobody else has.

-No.

And I really like them with lamb,

I think they blend well with the lamb.

You're going to have to win me over with the aubergine,

-because I don't like aubergine.

-Oh, really?

-Unless it's heavily disguised in moussaka.

-I love aubergine.

HALI LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

Now that is nice.

That really is nice.

-It's quite a strong taste, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

The lentils.

Oh, lovely.

Lovely. Mm, nice blend of spices in there.

That's really unusual, putting cinnamon with meat,

but with that, it's a bit like that tagine taste, it's wonderful,

you get that lovely sweetness in there as well.

-The aubergine's fantastic.

-Yes.

-Delicious seasoning.

If I can pick anything, the lamb is just overcooked.

-But I think overall...

-Yes, it tastes wonderful.

-Oh, good.

-But it's not up to me to decide...

-No.

-..which dish I like the most, it's down to you.

-Right.

-And you alone.

-Hard decision.

-You have.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-I think on the whole, good effort, don't you?

-Very good.

-Yes?

-Yes.

As a Yorkshireman to a Yorkshireman,

what would you give up your hard-earned money to pay for?

Well, my favourite dish...

..is Paul's.

Well done, Paul.

I thought his rack of lamb was perfectly cooked for my liking.

-And Paul's looked very inviting.

-OK.

Thank you, that's great. Thank you.

OK, round two.

This round is pretty straightforward.

You're cooking to impress me this time. Sorry, John.

-All right.

-You just get to taste it.

-That's all right.

Using the ingredients in these three boxes

I've gone out shopping for.

So, you've got a game box, leftover box and a basic box.

Paul, because you cooked John's favourite dish,

you get to decide what box you'll be cooking from.

But also, more importantly, what box you would like

your fellow competitors to be cooking from.

First of all, we've got Gary there.

-JAMES LAUGHS

-Who suffered big time with the lamb.

But what box would you like Gary to cook with?

Your decision.

Basic.

Gary, you've got the basic box.

Which leaves a leftover box and a game box.

PAUL SIGHS

Pick one for Hali.

Sorry, Hali, leftovers.

I've got three kids, it's always leftovers in the house!

Which leaves you, Paul,

with the game box. None of you know what's inside.

You've got 50 minutes

to create an amazing dish to impress me this time.

Collect your boxes and off you go.

-Good luck.

-Yes, all the best.

-Looking around, which one would you have chosen?

-Um...

-I think I would've gone for the game, actually.

-Yes?

-What's that?

It's actually quite tricky, this.

-It's a wood pigeon.

-Wood pigeon.

-Yeah.

-So really, you can only use one part of the pigeon.

-Right.

And you've got to roast in a particular way

-and it's quite tricky.

-Well, I wouldn't have gone for that.

-Yes.

Along with the wood pigeon, in my game box, Paul's got bacon,

red cabbage, polenta, redcurrant

and orange and fresh thyme.

-Well, Paul.

-Hi, John.

-How are you feeling this time round?

-Love this box.

-You like this?

-Love it, Oh, yes. Definitely.

-I love cooking with game.

-Yes?

When I saw game I was like, great, nice bit of wood pigeon as well.

Right, what's the idea of this, then? You've got the red cabbage.

Got the red cabbage on the go, going to do a redcurrant sauce,

to go with that as well.

Basically we'll have the wood pigeon resting on red cabbage

-and redcurrant sauce.

-OK.

-Mm.

Wood pigeon's actually quite a tricky little fella to deal with.

What you've got to think about is the actual breast meat itself

and that's the crown, that's the part you want to eat.

One thing you have to think about is the cooking time.

You've got to make sure that it's nice and pink.

Like most game, it should, in theory,

if the oven's really hot and you've sealed it properly,

take about eight to ten minutes.

If you overcook it, it goes very, very tough.

Hali was given the leftovers from John's box earlier.

Inside, it's got peaches,

peach schnapps, custard,

ice cream, beef mince

and basil.

I'm going to make a peach upside-down cake,

with cardamom and some cinnamon in there.

You griddled the peaches first, you've made the sponge.

Yes, griddled the peaches first, pop it at the bottom,

pop the sponge mix on top.

-And have you done this before?

-No!

-THEY LAUGH

No, never. So, we'll see.

-Interestingly enough, in the leftover box, basil.

-Mm-hm.

If you taste that together, with the basil leaf.

Just try that.

Mm.

-How good is that?

-It's fragrant.

-Mm.

-Tastes like a cocktail.

-Tastes like a cocktail!

THEY LAUGH

Do you reckon this will be cooked in time with a sponge?

-We'll see. It might be a hot sponge.

-OK.

-Might be a runny hot sponge.

-It might be!

Hali got the leftover box

and what she's planning to do is probably what I would do.

Kind of like an upside-down cake.

You can do this dish with, also, tinned pineapple as well,

but you get some colour on the peaches first,

sit them at the bottom of the dish.

The cake mixture is mixed with eggs, butter, sugar and flour

and that's basically folded

and placed over the top and then baked in the oven.

Right at the last minute, you flip it out.

That should taste proper.

Finally, Paul chose my basic box for Gary.

Inside it's got beetroot, tinned broad beans,

potato, dried pasta,

parsley, tomatoes

and some smoked mackerel.

And all that should cost you no more than £6.

Out of all the ingredients that your family were bringing you

when they knew you were on the show,

-were these the contents of any one of the bags of ingredients?

-No.

-No.

What were you hoping for when you got the basic box?

I honestly don't know. Pot noodle?

THEY LAUGH Baked beans.

-Do you want a train ticket home or something?

-Yes, I think so, yes.

-Can I go?

-What are you doing so far?

I'm going to poach the fish off in some milk.

-Yes.

-Going to do a fish pasta.

Interestingly enough, you don't need to cook it,

-because it's already cooked.

-You can mash it up into a pate.

You could take that straight out of that pan, it's already cooked.

-All right?

-I'm having a blinder, aren't I?

THEY LAUGH

You just flake it and then put it together with some potato.

-It's wonderful with fishcake.

-Fishcake, you say?

-I'm just saying!

-OK.

-It's entirely up to you which you choose.

Sounds a better idea to me.

JAMES LAUGHS

-You're not cooking.

-JOHN LAUGHS

Mackerel takes so many different flavours.

It works fantastic with that sweet and sour element as well.

Even if it's just chillies, sugar and vinegar boiled in a pan

and served with a fishcake.

That oiliness of the fish really does lend itself together

with so many different types of flavours.

It smells good. What do you reckon?

-Looks good.

-We've got the dessert,

-wood pigeon, we've got fishcake, starter, main courses.

-We have, yes.

-Unintentionally.

-Unintentionally, but we've got it.

-Great, yes.

-You've got the polenta.

-Got polenta....

-You've decided to pan-fry it, not do a wet polenta.

-Yes.

-Things are all under control.

-All under control at the moment.

There's ten minutes left, and Hali's peach sponge is baked.

What have you got in this pan over there?

I've just reduced down some brown sugar with the peach schnapps

and a tiny knob of butter,

some chopped up peach

and I added your tip with the basil.

-You've put some basil in there, have you?

-Yes...

-It's kind of like a syrup.

-A little syrup to go over the top of it.

Two minutes left, guys. Two minutes.

That's it, stop cooking.

Well done, guys. Top work.

Gary had to create a dish from my basic box.

I did a fishcake

on a bed of beetroot

-and a tomato chutney.

-Right.

And then finished off with a fried egg on top.

You could have a new dish there, a traditional, classic dish.

Mm, that was lovely.

That is a really nice fishcake.

I love smoked mackerel anyway

and it really comes out well in this fishcake

and it's quite a gentle taste

and leaves a sharper taste with the beetroot and things.

So, it's a nice mixture.

I'll tell you what I love about this, simplicity,

the beetroot is perfectly cooked, I mean perfectly cooked.

The lovely finish off with the egg as well.

-You kind of nailed it. That dish is fantastic.

-Yes.

-It really, really is really good.

-Well done.

Paul chose to cook a dish from my game box.

-Inside there was a wood pigeon.

-There was.

-What did you do with it?

I pan roasted it, done some braised cabbage, and some polenta cakes.

-Shall we have a taste?

-Indeed.

-And just the breast meat you use, don't you?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Nice and pink.

That's something. That is something.

I don't normally like polenta, but that's not bad, is it?

First time I've cooked polenta.

-First time you've done it?

-Is it?

-Yes.

Well, excellent. And the game is absolutely perfect.

Beautifully cooked, I think.

The shining light to this is the wood pigeon.

Perfectly cooked.

-That's another great dish.

-Thank you.

-Really, really well done.

-Can we stop and eat it all?

-Yes, you can come back to it. Great work.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, well done.

-Cheers, John, thank you. Brilliant.

And finally, Hali made a dish

with the leftovers from John's box in round one.

I made a chargrilled peach upside-down cake,

with basil and peach syrup

and cardamom cream.

Go for it.

Here we go.

Mm.

Delicious.

Light and airy, isn't it?

Absolutely beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

And it's nice to see all the ingredients

-have been used from my box.

-Yes.

And incredibly effectively here, if I may say so.

It was something you just literally cooked up.

What I like about that,

-this sponge is really light.

-Mm-hm.

So often with upside-down cake,

you get the combination of fruit and it becomes quite heavy.

You've kept that nice and light, that's the mixture you've made,

the basil has worked really well, the cream...

is nice and light. It's just a great combination of ingredients.

You've just made MY decision a lot, lot harder.

-Pretty sensational dishes.

-Three amazing dishes, yes.

-This one's going to be tricky.

-Isn't it?

OK, guys, brilliantly done. What do you reckon on the whole?

Yeah, fantastic. What a change from the first round.

They were all brilliant.

We had starter...

..main course...

..and dessert.

And the winner, who also wins

our super rare

The Box Trophy

is...

And it was so, so close, I have to say.

And that goes to Hali.

-Thank you.

-Well done, well done.

APPLAUSE

A round of applause for your competitors as well.

-Definitely.

-Because it was a difficult one.

I love that dish, what you did do was create an amazing sponge

and that flavour was fabulous.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

I think that cake is pretty spectacular, don't you?

-Thank you. I'll make it for my kids.

-I think so, make it for the kids.

Gary and Paul, come on over,

Commiserations. You were so close.

-Well done. A great effort, well done.

-Thank you...

-Thank you for coming, John.

-Pleasure.

-And that's it.

Thank you for watching, see you again next time

when we meet three more great home cooks,

some more big celebrity names, and some more boxes of ingredients.

I'll see you again soon. Bye for now.