(egg cracking) (sizzling) (energetic music) - Hello, and welcome to Sorted Food. Today, we've got a bunch of frozen food and we're going to look at awesome ways for you to hack them into recipes at home. Two normals, Barry and Jamie, with myself, together, we're going to cook,
chop, chat our way through a couple of recipes and cook up a feast. - For the purposes of
today's video though, Elsa, Anna, Olaf. (laughing) (energetic music) - Elsa, under the cloche is number one. - Frozen spinach. - Frozen pellets of spinach. - Yes, I love this stuff. And the main reason I love this stuff is fridge space. - So Barry, you're going
to be cooking up a-- - Elsa. - A spinach and cream cheese
pasta from our meal packs app. It's going to be the perfect vehicle to discuss and showcase frozen spinach. - Right, this one's mega simple. - [App Voice] Once the
water has come up to a boil, chuck in 150 grammes
or 5.3 ounces of pasta and cook for eight to 10 minutes until soft but with a slight bite. - [Ben] So I have to be honest,
frozen pellets of spinach, I think are a great hack. I get a little bit nervous if I haven't got any in the freezer. Always keep a supply, always on hand-- - Not sleeping at night. - [Ben] Because they are so versatile. (energetic music) - Now, my frozen spinach. Going for like four pellets worth. - The beauty of frozen spinach is it's already been washed,
blanched and shocked to preserve its fresh, green vibrancy, and therefore it's
already shrunk right down. So whereas you might need
400 grammes of fresh spinach, you're probably only
looking at 100 grammes, 120 grammes of frozen pellets
'cause you've already lost most of that water. - I nearly always wilt
it down into something. Does it destroy the purpose
of having fresh spinach? - When you cook spinach, you lose some of the benefits of vitamin C, because it's water soluble
and isn't heat resistant. However, you've still got
all the other benefits. And there is a reason
that Popeye was stacked. - He didn't eat it fresh either, did he? - No.
- [Jamie] He got it out of a tin. I've used frozen spinach a few times. It tends to make stuff quite watery. Are there any tips for
making it not do that? - If I use it, I tend
not to use it in salads, or couscous salads, or pasta salads, things that I do use it
a lot in wet sauces. And of course the other thing is you're being the hero by
avoiding food waste at home. 'Cause you're only
taking out of the freezer what you require. Saves you from wasting
food, but there's also a lot less wastage in the supply chain, because you aren't losing a
little bit of fresh spinach in that journey from field and farm, to supermarket or market, to your home. - Cream cheese, going in, mix. (energetic music) - I know mid-week meals are always quick, but this is a particularly quick one, and it tastes so good. - [Barry] All spice. - Seasoning, important,
but do it right at the end because you've seasoned your pasta water, you're adding some of that pasta water in, that in itself is kind of seasoning. And then you can adjust. - Layers. (upbeat music) - I just adore this sort of recipe. - He's not even sharing. - It's cheesy, it's creamy, it's spicy. (laughing) - You're eating the spinach. Can you tell it's been frozen? - In that, not at all. - And obviously when you open the bag you saw the price on it. That particular one was
a pound for 900 grammes. You're looking at £1.11 per kilo. And that is on the whole
three times cheaper than the equivalent
weight of fresh spinach. The problem is, with fresh spinach you lose two and a half times
of its volume as you cook it. So it actually works out about seven and a half times cheaper. And the feel-good factor is
not only you saving money, you're probably saving food waste both in the chain and the
stuff that you throw away, and you're still getting all the goodness if you were going to cook anyway. - You could still look like Popeye. Those tiny arms. - Is that why you're giving me spinach? (laughing) - Olaf, you're up. Thanks editor. - Oh. - [Ben] Big fan. - Gyoza? - Dumplings. - Sorry, is Ben about
to review a ready meal? - Now's the time to come clean. Next to my frozen spinach
pellets I typically have some form of frozen
dumplings, of all sorts, and I find, yes, they're
awesome to make at home, but they're quite fiddly. I love to have something like this as a really awesome cheat and hack to add to a homemade broth loads
of veggies and some noodles. And it's a quick throw together meal and the difficult bit,
the fiddly bit, outsource. These ones are chicken. Ready to fry, ready to
steam, or in our case we're going to boil. This broth is wonderful. It stems from your recipe that
you did for instant ramen. - [Barry] So you know how to cook--
- I know how to cook it from scratch. - [Barry] Mr. Ready Meals over here. - I've also added in a little bit of miso, I've also added in some
wonderful mushrooms because we had them in the cupboard. Once your broth is awesome, I'm literally just going to boil these. - This is the thing that bothers me about reheating or thawing
meat-based frozen foods. I don't, I never know what to do. - If you're defrosting something to cook from chilled you should
always do that in the fridge so that no point does it come above the temperature of a fridge. You shouldn't just leave something out on the draining board to defrost. Because what will happen
is the outside will defrost and get into the danger
zone before the middle has defrosted. So always do it in a fridge. However, something like the spinach and the dumplings we're
going to cook immediately, you're going to thaw it, defrost it, and cook it all in one, up
out of that danger zone. And it's fine again. - He'll be like Mav, he
goes into the danger zone, but then he's back out before you know it. - It's the lamest "Top
Gun" you've ever seen. - It is so good. - In the time we've been chit chatting, this is good to go. (energetic music) That is a very inviting bowl of food. The rest of the dumplings
stay in the freezer until you need them again. Zero waste. Personally, this is a traditional art that needs time and dexterity and a little bit of skill to get it good. And if you haven't got time for that, I think it's a really good cheat. - He's making a point. (upbeat music) - I bought that bag for
£6.29, it's got 600 grammes, but probably an easy
way of working it out is 21 Pence per dumpling. So I put about a pounds worth in here. - That's thrown my head, because, in my mind spending £6.29
on a bag of something frozen feels really expensive. But getting a dumpling for that cheap is also really good value. Ebbers, your top tips for buying pre-made actual food that is frozen. Go. - It's got to be something
that you would be challenged to make as well yourself. And then to make sure it's quality, because then what you're
doing is you're saving a huge amount of time and effort, and it gives you the flexibility to adapt what goes around it, because that could be a different bowl of broth
each week, for five weeks. And you've got variety. (energetic music) - Right, you're turn. Lift the cloche. - Ooh, pizza dough. - I use frozen pizza dough
a lot and I swear by it. - Really?
- Yeah, it's brilliant. - Why don't you just make
your own, you lazy sod? - When's the last time
you made pizza dough? - Saturday.
- All right, okay. - And here's the thing; bread, the world over is one of
the easiest things to make. However, it does take time. It is a useful hack if you want to cheat and then personalise
and customise everything that goes on it or in it. So we're thinking why
not make a sweet calzone? - We haven't got any pepperoni, or-- - Are you not a sweet pizza fan? - Why would you have a sweet pizza when you can have a savoury one? Comment below, sweet or savoury pizza? - There's only one you're
allowed to put pineapple on, that's for sure. - Before you bake it, you'll need to bring it to life. Either defrost overnight
in the fridge, Ebbers. Or at room temperature for a few hours. Or, take a peek at our website for an emergency time saver. Microwave, I'm guessing. - How do you defrost things
in the microwave properly? - [Ben] The thing with the microwave, is a defrost setting is
only intermittent heating. It's not that it's a lower temperature. It just means it's gonna
zap it for three seconds on, three seconds off, three
seconds on, three seconds off. And in the downtime, the
heat travels through, and you need to give it time to defrost. Which is why, if you're
defrosting a block, you often need to try and break it up or mix it up or turn it and stir it. - [Jamie] That is completely
new information to me. - [Barry] Jamie, that's
probably the best rolling you've done. That pizza is perfectly circular. Shame you're gonna fold it. - I know! - Given you a selection
of ingredients there. A nice chocolate ganache we've made, some mascarpone, and a
little bit of stem ginger in syrup as well. So that you've got that
kind of fiery warmth with the tangy cream,
with the rich chocolate and the crunchy nut. - [Jamie] Filling's done,
I'm just going to use a little bit of this
syrup to help stick down my edges. (rock music) (laughing) - [Ben] Three, two, oh no. You've definitely got a
top to this, haven't you? So you can't do that. Or a masher, yeah. (laughing) Just commit. There you go, such a fuss. - Eh, shut your faces. Right, that's going into an oven for (dinging) minutes. Calzone. Pow, pow, pow. (inspiring music) - It's steamy. - [All] Ooh, oh oh oh! - This might be hotter than the sun, but let's find out; cheers! Turns out I make good calzones. - What I love is the customization of it. The personalization of it, the fact that you're going to make one cheat, which, yes, you can make
pizza dough super cheap and cheerful and it's pretty easy, but, by cheating with that you can actually have quite a treat very easily. - I wouldn't be able to tell
you that that was frozen if that was served up to me. - Price-wise, one of those boxes, it's quite a premium pre-made pizza dough, is £2.50, so £1.25 per pizza or calzone. - For that price, knowing
that you can have it in the freezer and pull it out any time to make a pizza or calzone,
whatever you wanted to do with it, I think that's all right. You're paying for the convenience of that. - As a man of contingency,
there are lots of breads that I quite like having in the freezer. Pita breads, naan breads, tortilla wraps. They're good to have to hand. Make sure if they're in the freezer they're well wrapped
to avoid freezer burn. (energetic music) - [Jamie] Well then Ebbers, last one. Show us what's under your cloche. - Frozen seafood! - Oh, okay. Yeah, nice. - IQF seafood; individually
quick frozen seafood, whether it's raw or cooked, prawns, mussels in or out of shell, calamari, squid, I think it's really good to have on hand in the freezer because you can stick your hand in and grab a controlled portion as and when you want and it increases the shelf life. - I have a lot of prawns in my freezer. That's the only way that
we buy prawns, is frozen. And they're great for
chucking into curries, or pasta dishes or whatever it is. Haven't found a calamari
ring that I enjoy yet that's frozen--
- No, that's the thing. - I think I would agree with that. What I've got here is a seafood selection that's pre-cooked, and we're going to make an incredible paella--
- What? - And therefore add
some of this on the end. So that suddenly, paella,
that very celebratory, special occasion dish is gonna be hacked for mid-week. - You do that, I'll get
the tortilla wraps out. This is going to be great. - Onions, peppers, cooked down in oil with smoked paprika and
in with paella rice. And you want to cook
it until you can begin to smell that toasty fragrance of rice. - What are you doing
now, for goodness sake? Sorry, we go frozen food
to save a bit of money and now you--
- [Jamie] And you've talked about this being a mid-week meal hack. - Vermouth, great for dry martinis, but let's be honest, most of the time you buy a bottle and it just sits there, and
it's waiting to be used. And something like this is
a great place to use it. You're going to burn off the alcohol so you're left with
that wonderful flavour. Then we're going to add in a stock, and I've got a seafood stock which I've infused with saffron,
that is going to go in. Lovely. - Now tell me, Ebbers,
was your seafood stock one that you made weeks and or months ago, and that has been in your freezer waiting for an opportunity to be used? - If we were filming this at home, it would have been because
I actually have some wonderful seafood stock in the freezer, and ham stock at the moment. That's the two I've got on the go. - Got on the go!?! - But this is just a seafood
stock, I nearly said cube, but it's one of those jelly things. And then added saffron,
added garlic, yummy. - [Jamie] Whoa, that's a colour. - Saffron, isn't it? Stock in. Twice as much to rice. I'm going to give it one stir, then we're not gonna touch it. - And I'm guessing that
the similar rule applies to buying frozen seafood, fish, or meat as applies to buying fresh
meat, seafood, or fish, which is by the best that you can afford. - Mussels farmed in Chile. On a rope, good farming method. Squid, wild caught in the Indian ocean. And the king prawns are from Vietnam. - Well, that's three
very different places. - So there's a lot of air miles that have gone into this
bag, but zero wastage in the food chain along that route. So where it's good on one side, there's some very questionable
practise on the other, but for a home cook who might be a normal and scared of seafood, I think it's a really interesting stepping stone and it is very affordable. I think where these are really good is it breaks down the barrier of people who are scared of seafood. If you're scared of fresh mussels and not knowing "Is it the
opened or the closed rule, "I'm not really sure,"
or squid and calamari, they're not really sure how to prep it. This is idiot proof. - If you had the choice
between fresh and frozen for this dish, what would
give you a better final plate? - Fresh and raw for this particular dish. Because then as it cooks,
the juices will leak in. We could have bought that, but this is something that is good to have in the freezer because it's more adaptable to a number of dishes. In the same way as you put
the spinach to your pasta, throw some seafood through your pasta with some chilli and some
garlic and some lemon, and you've got an amazing clam linguine, or mussel linguine. Wonderful. You can put it through salads. You can put it through
curries, like you said. You can actually defrost it and toss it in spiced mayonnaise and put it
on top of a jacket potato. So many options. And I feel like if it's
cooked, it's more versatile. So you can start to see
grains now appearing. Now's a good time to add the seafood to thaw out in the oven, and cook, and drop its juices
into our wonderful rice. Rice finishes cooking. Seafood defrosts and heats up, even though it's already cooked, and the paella's done. Serve it with aioli, fresh herbs, lemon. Job done. - [Jamie] Looks spectacular. (energetic music) - May I? - Is it a pae-yay-a? Or, no, let's not do that. - It's absolutely delicious. - How much for that bag of seafood? - That bag was 400 grammes. And it was £5, which is plenty for four. I mean, this paella is plenty for two, and we only used half the bag. So it depends on how you divide it. Probably £1.25 a portion. - Which is exceptional, for seafood. - That's very, very cheap for seafood. - And where I think spinach
helps for space saving and cost, I think dumplings is a time convenience and a dexterity skill thing, the pizza dough allows you
to experiment elsewhere, for me, seafood is about a stepping stone to getting people to eat more seafood that they might otherwise be scared of. I think all of them do
slightly different things. - We've stepped into the unknown to learn about frozen food. And we'd love to know from you what are your favourite recipe hacks? What frozen food do you
have in your freezer? Comment down below, let us know. - And for the spinach and
cream cheese pasta recipe and a whole bunch of
other ideas for mid-week, go and download our meal packs app. It's free for a month. We'll put all the details down below. - Hey Baz, do you want a mussel? - [Mike] Now you've got one! (laughing)
I want more like this.
This is one of the reasons I love Sorted.
So many other food channels or shows present ready made or frozen food as "the worst" and tell people to stop being lazy.
But not all of those convenient food items are bad. They just need to be used correctly and I appreciate Sorted for showing that.
I also have to say that frozen dumplings and spinach are something that in our household is always in the freezer because they are easy to use for quick and really good meals.
A frozen spinach fan here! Can anyone recommend where to get frozen dumplings?
Lol, Jamie channelling his inner Paul Hollywood towards Barry not making his own pizza dough.
Paella Buritto?
This was a great reminder to hit the frozen food section next time I shop. I am always complaining that it is hard to use fresh produce up when you are only cooking for one.