Beat The Chef: Ultimate Potato Battle

we are sorted a group of mates who have your back when it comes to all things food from cooking battles to gadget reviews and cookbook challenges to a midweek meal packs app breaks we uncover the tools that will help us all cook and eat smarter join our community where everything we do starts with you hello everyone this is Ben I'm Mike welcome to fridge cam now in this episode we team up with croplife International and the European crop protection Association to celebrate one of the world's most staple ingredients this is a potato and I try to be fish chef in a cook-off which we love all too often we take for granted the huge range of ingredients that we can grab from our local supermarket with thousands of fresh product stocked in a single store we've been spoilt for choice all year round but what would happen if a fruit and veg disappeared from shelves luckily for us farmers are committed to producing food in ever challenging times and conditions and there are organizations like ECPA and CLI who help these farmers protect their crops from pests and diseases so we all have an affordable healthy and sustainable food supply without any protection in a normal year some farmers could lose up to 40 percent of their crop in this episode we use your questions to dig in and find out about our favorite crops the aforementioned potato then battle it out to see if mike that's me can't beat the chef that's been in creating a dish that best celebrates the spud so you have 90 minutes to celebrate potatoes chef James is ready and prepped to judge your dishes at the end shall we get going but first to research we met with Angela Clutton one of London's finest food historians and writers along the way we found out that the first makings of a potato dish goes back to 3000 BC in South America there was evidence of them doing amazing things of theirs a dish called haven't you know which is probably terrible Annunciation and it would be frozen overnight and then soaked and then stamped on to get all the water out and then dry it and so basically that's like a freeze-dried potato 3000 BC I know it's mad and so that was showing that then potato support has being something which is really useful versatile crop worth doing something with because I love direct exactly we also discovered that us Europeans weren't too keen on these strange spuds when they first arrived they were really thought Thomas being either something's gonna make you ill or something that very much just for the poor you have this very interesting of being happening in France in the middle at eighteenth century middle 1700s that they were bound for human consumption they were thought they were gonna kind of make people ill they didn't really understand what it was this thing that came out of once the earth and so they thought it's like the devil's work it's kind of behind the phrase a devil's apple lastly we learn all about the potato famine in Ireland because of blight a fungal disease which has affected the production of potatoes over the years light is a form of mold that attacks potatoes and it causes them to wilt and rot and the potato itself becomes all a mushy and horrible and it spreads really really quickly so when blight appears in crops across Europe in 1800s it absolutely kind of decimated potato crops in Ireland it was particularly bad datas had really become the Irish proof that they relied upon and so the Irish potato famine was a huge disaster and led to million deaths next we traveled to sunny Eindhoven to see how a particular farmer deals with blight today Jacob van dem born is a tall dutch potato farmer who is once described as the Elon Musk our potatoes Jacob taught us all about precision farming and how he uses technology and data to maintain a sustainable food supply my grandfather only had two or four Hector's he walked those two or four hectares every single day we scaled up a lot so we run hundreds of hectares of potatoes and I'm not able to get to every field every day to walk all those fields so what we did was actually use technology put into those fields to get the same data outs that my grandfather used to optimize his crop so the first thing that we do is we scan all the fields and by scanning the connectivity of the field we're gonna get an ID of the U potential of a field the late blight disease that's a fungi is really aggressive over here because there is a lot of potatoes so usually potatoes got sprayed every week on a weekly basis every Monday or every Tuesday so we install a lot of sensors in our crops and we're actually detecting and calculating when the weather climate is optimal to infect our crop and just before that point we spray I always compare that by putting on suntan so if you would spray your potatoes on Monday and you know that only the Sun is going out at Thursday would that make sense to put suntan on on Monday nope so that's what we changed we protect all crops with ajust a layer of anti fungi so when the fungi comes up and drops on the leaves it can burn my leaves or it can infect that's why I always try to make the comparison by putting Santana and but we only spray when needed and that's where all the technology comes in Ben had a great time getting out about spuds whilst I was rather distracted by the local talent hello all this geeky tech and you're more interested in the ass in the corner potatoes is a crop that could probably grow everywhere in the world and can fix our food demand it has such a high yield potential it has such a high nutrients potential that with growing potato crops you literally could to the world and now further battle three-two-one potato right beat me to the microwave which actually puts my whole recipe ten minutes behind there'd be a struggle anyway Evers tell us what you're cooking I'm cooking a really hearty humble dish of potato inspired by stomp which was Jacob's favorite classic music Dutch dish so what I'm doing is taking those ingredients but adding in a Spanish influence as a nod to those who brought potato to Europe back in the history times okay so I am making steak chips horseradish and gravy but the really clever thing is that actually all of those individual components are potatoes so I've taken a whopper of half debt I've shaved it peeled it some of the tape then I've seized it heavily in salt and pepper now I'm slowly frying it in beef dripping to take on in that Staci beefy flavor so the base to my dish is going to be a kind of potato and kale soup with truth oh so an onion diced and sweated off in oil then add in chopped garlic some chorizo and then I've gone in with peeled and roughly chopped potato I'm using the melody potato is particularly good for boiling and mashing so it's gonna thicken the soup then chicken stock bring it to boil and simmer it for about 15 minutes until there's a taste to cook interesting you've gone for Maris Piper Mike for all of yours we have an all-rounder yeah they are an all-rounder but they also are really fluffy and take on a lot of flavor and so actually that's why they make such good mashed potatoes but they would also make a really good steak because they take on all my beef dripping so most popularly potato in the UK that's good enough for me let's celebrate UK cooking in a medium that we can actually be world-class that feels to me like they actually aren't quite a lot a little bit jealous because we we're not going to supermarket I'll look at the selection in front of me logo or I don't know what's what or why is best of all I just pick the one the middle and mid-range long yeah this is really beautiful information they have browned nicely on each side in with beef stock crushed garlic and thyme and rosemary these skins are super important not just in the storage but also from a nutritional point of view so I'm gonna cook them squish between two sheets of baking paper and doused in garlic powder smoked paprika salt and pepper flavored butter [Music] these have been in microwave they baked off for a little bit less than I'd prefer but I don't have the time so now I'm going to have them scoop out the flesh that goes into a bowl gets seasoned and then I'm going to make mash out of that with butter that I've melted in milk season your potatoes with 18 Twitpic sauce and 26 twists of pepper and half of your horseradish if I want to get this pommes puree perfect I can't overwork it because you'll go starchy and gloopy and rubbish the best way to do that is mash it as little as possible and then just leave it I'm gonna take the skins and I'm gonna slice them into shoestring fries and then fry them off you're actually what you're doing there is you're redefining the term skinny chips I've whipped my potato steaks out of my sauce I'm now going to reduce that right down to make a slightly stickier sauce I'm gonna use my gravy right at the end I am gonna also use a demographic but we'll get to that in a sec so that you can see the texture this mash by microwaving it it doesn't take on the moisture that it would if you boiled it inside of the skins it's now just beautiful and fluffy to that I'm gonna add chopped parsley the morcilla which is the seasoned black blood sausage pudding and some butter and then we'll shape it into our sausages so far tiny ways all is good everything's in control and I think it tells a nice story you see you said one time food no I said if I get it right unfortunately I didn't get it right straight away so now every time I go I make it less good you know wallpaper paste oh yeah yeah yeah so soup bubbling away and what I'm looking for is the potato that is cooked through so even just with the side of a spoon it's gonna break up because I'm gonna add the kale cook for three or four minutes and then blend the whole lot but you want to blend it while that kale is just cook so it keeps its green color so my aioli is a egg yolk and some sherry vinegar which I'm then going to whisk with salt and pepper and gradually add in the rapeseed oil then right at the end I'm gonna season it with the saffron water that obviously is been steeped in boiling water lemon juice and the honey it's about balancing that sweetness with the metallic Ness of a saffron and the tartness of lemon and show you I've got some fresh oil but I brought up to 180 degrees now I'm going to deep-fry my potato steak what is it that comes back up to 180 and then I deep-fry my fries as well my third potato choice is the Red Rooster this is another British potato grown in Norfolk so Emma's how you gonna cook your Red Rooster potatoes in 16 minutes and 41 seconds I'm not gonna lie I've been taking this really casual and it's beginning to catch up with me for nothing more than the internet points I'm gonna use a kitchen gadget so you might spend ages cutting shoestring potatoes Oh joke's on you it's nappy wrap wrap you need to be careful in a single layer so that it cooks its mummifying he's substitution if that oil isn't the temperature and Ben may have lost his bathroom I'm now boiling some chard in some salted water for about five minutes they're just the stalks at the moment but then I'm going to chuck in the leaves because they need less may you finish of that now what are you doing now again now this is going to reduce down almost immediately and create a really really sticky glaze do not want it to be in there too long in case it becomes overcooked excellent does just look like the phrase and can't polish a turd that you can recognize very close battle winning excellence you know that much professor that you're only supposed to match one yeah he's better for times though I'm gonna finish up my dish with pea shoots broccoli shoots and some edible flowers as a nod to when potatoes were made chic again in France by offering potato blossom flowers to Mary Antoinette put in a hare because they thought potatoes were bad and ugly and disgusting and actually it made it more of a celebration again so I'm going to finish with that I just need to get on a plate blend it up the soup added another cup of water just to get it the right consistency but it should be thick and hearty and wholesome two minutes left what all of a sudden you're running out of time there is one minute left ten nine eight seven six five four three two one step away from your potatoes [Music] [Music] congratulations boys 90 minutes a celebration of potatoes they're looking great they look great oh I'm gonna say you were looking at that one when you said she was start here yeah I'm so intrigued by the steak I said what's the steak supposed to feel like I want it crispy on the outside and sticky from the glaze I want it soft in the middle but not too soft not fluffy I want it to have some give but I want it to have taken on some of that steak flavor to some beefy flavor some beefy flavor yeah Wow yeah I'm gonna admit I was a little bit sad when I saw the plate yeah it wasn't I would have lied or replaced a bit better but I was did you run out of time no I was flapping like a mofo that's why it's called the Texas you won and the compy are a is a really really good texture and the flavor of the steak that's really good to move on so crispy I went for the burn on the head in the middle I want to have some of this that is a glossy aioli a celebration dishes go I thin that looks like a celebration changing the coating from being a pan a to being the fries around it is really interesting I really like that I think the aioli in this in the soup would work really nicely there's still time I've already had a little bit very early in the suit two completely different dishes both celebrating potatoes in completely different ways ah ah this is so difficult when I first saw it and stood out so much but when I tasted Mike's the flavor was was there it was it made up for it I'm gonna go with Mike because it crapped up and although Benz I think had more a more variety of flavor compared to yours because yours really was like just potato and beefy those I think yours has packed a punch you beat the chef with a lot of help from the food that's not a nice position to be in it probably was half to do with the fact that I was so upset by the plate so I'm so happy to find that actually tasted amazing but you added an extra element of wow not only the result but love potato loli levitator and if you enjoy potatoes all you want to find out more about what croplife international and ECPA get up to to protect crops for the future then there's a link in the description box go and check it out and it includes some behind-the-scenes footage from when we were over speaking to Jacob now neither of us have got kids but we both got dad bods is it that joke I had to turn down a job the other day because they were paying in vegetables the celery was unacceptable I never thought I'd say a raise bring back Jamie but I made do that we've also built the sorted Club where you can get tons of foodie inspo using the packs midweek meal app discover and share restaurant recommendations using their eat app listen and contribute to our feast your ears podcast and send us ideas for new cookbooks you'll receive throughout the year check it all out by heading to sorted Club and now a blooper donkey donkey all the ladies love me [Music]

Channel: SORTEDfood

Views: 820,398

Rating: 4.9343495 out of 5

Keywords: potato battle, sortedfood battle, sortedfood beat the chef, beat the chef, food battle, recipe battle, ultimate battle, cook off, cooking battle, sortedfood ultimate battle, cooking competition, chef vs normal, potato history, potato recipe, potato skins, sortedfood ben ebbrell, sortedfood mike, sortedfood normals battle, beat the chef sorted, beat the chef steak, potato steak, potato skins chips, baked potato battle, potato recipes for dinner, potato origin history

Id: hL_7OgRNeHY

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020