- [Narrator] We are "sorted". A group of mates who have your back when it comes to all things food. From cooking battles to gadget reviews. - Ben it's not worth it. - [Narrator] And cookbook challenges to a mid-week meal packs app - [Man] Crack your eggs and bake. - [Narrator] We uncover the
tools that'll help us all cook and eat smarter. Join our community, where everything we do starts with you. (fire explodes) - Hello and welcome to "sorted". - Today we've teamed up
with the Singleton whiskey in challenging Mike and Jamie, are two very normal home cooks, to the ultimate big night in battle. - But it's not any normal battle. There's gonna be three
points up for grabs. And I get to dish out the first
one based on chef thinking. Who can stay the tidiest,
the most efficient, most forward thinking, and stick within the time limit. - The second point is coming from me. Knowing how much you too love
to bicker in the kitchen, I'm awarding my point
to the person who stays the most calm and relaxed throughout. - And the third, probably
most important point, comes from our chef, James, who can come up with
the most creative dish that's cleverly paired with a Singleton. - Are you ready? - Yes. - Ahem. - In that case, three, two, one go. - What I'm making are
DIY yuzu meringue pies paired with a delicious yuzu
mojito using the Singleton. Okay, so I'm starting off with pastry. So, butter. - Sorry. Wait a minute. You're making your own
pastry in 45 minutes. - Well I'm making a cheat's pastry, basically that is butter, flour, icing sugar, sesame seeds. - Nice touch. - An egg yolk. I'm saving the egg white for later because that's going to make my meringues. (machine blends) And then a bit of cold water
in a little bit at a time. (machine blends) - We have the best job here. 'Cause we get to be super
critical from the sidelines. Work out who we're going
to pass our point to, and. - Cheers. - Sip a highball whiskey. - Let's get some rice on shall we? I'm making the most chilled out, laid back recipe that
you could hope to make in a battle like this. It starts with a risotto,
which as we all know, doesn't require any constant stirring. I'm then going to form that
risotto once it's chilled into arancini balls
which have to be panéed. And then in the middle of that, there's going to be some mozzarella. - Oh. - In some of them there's
going to be horseradish. It's going to be arancini roulette. That is going to be paired
with a beautiful mayo. And of course, my whisky cocktail, I'm going for a whisky bramble. - Now I love a bramble. Already liking the idea of giving it a little bit of a whisky twist. - There's a lovely nuttiness
coming from my rice that's being toasted in my pan. Gonna add in some wine and
we'll let that simmer down about three quarters of the way. Big cheat for my risotto. Usually beautifully softened
onions, takes a lot of time. Stuff that, we're going for crispy onions, because they're going to
add all of the flavour, none of the time. Now the beetroot is going to
add a lovely colour as well. So when you bite into the arancini you get this ruby red, that's gonna match
perfectly with my bramble. Look at this. For a guy that doesn't do colours. - That's impressive. - I know. Missed a bit of stirring
when I added the wine in when I was talking. This is all going swimmingly. (all laugh) - Next a yuzu curd. So I have a small saucepan here. It's actually pretty big. Basically, I'm going
to zest some yuzu zest. For me, yuzu is a perfect spin on traditional lemon meringue pies. Almost tastes like sherbet. And that's why I think
this dish is amazing. A load of sugar and yuzu juice. Whilst my sugary yuzu-y
mixture heats to a bubble. I'm cracking three whole eggs and two egg yolks into a bowl. Again, saving the whites
for my meringue later. - I like that nothing goes to waste. - This is a Swiss meringue. So it's egg whites and
sugar straight into a bowl, over a bain marie, which
is simmering pan of water, and just heating it up until basically it becomes ouchy to touch. - Ouchy? - That's not a recommendation for you guys to follow at home, but it's what I'm going
to do to save time. It should be about 65 degrees, I think. - Can we get a time check? - He's had 10 minutes. - 10 minutes of stirring risotto. - Let's make some mayonnaise, shall we? Dill, mustard, egg yolk, and some vinegar into a mini chopper, blend it all up. Get it looking lovely. (upbeat music) Skipping around the kitchen, beautiful. Easy, free. Slowly pouring some oil
whilst we carry on blending to make a beautiful mayonnaise. The juice has bubbled and
now I'm gonna slowly pour that into my eggs, slowly because you know, hotness and eggs. Then it goes back into the pan
and then we heat it up again. - Let's make a whisky bramble. - What's happened to his head? It's gone to be a loose hasn't it? - He's in hosting mode. - Now we all know that
I am a whisky drinker. I love single malt. Today we're going for a cocktail, and I thought we'd go for a bramble, usually a gin cocktail. But let's mix it up a little bit. We'll take out the gin, we'll put in the whisky. - See personally, I don't think I would often
opt for whisky straight or on the rocks. However, in a longer
drink, like the highball, like both boys are making,
suddenly really interesting. - Two hundred millilitres
of The Singleton. Lots of fruity earthy notes going in. The juice of two lemons. Now it's important to get
some of the lemon juice in the jug. Let's put some creme de
mure into our cocktail. - Oh, sir. - And maple syrup, our big cheat. - Oh mate, that colour. - Evenings at home is now the
new norm rather than the pub, and I quite like the fact that you can experiment with different things. - I'm going to do an ouch test. Don't do this at home. - [Barry] Ouchy? - I'm gonna say that's
done. It's moderately ouchy, but very silky smooth. Sugary egg whitey,
deliciously and wonderfully smooth mixture is being whisked up and what it will do is cool
and become meringue like. And what's wonderful about
this is I can just let it go because you can't really over whisk it. - Jamie stacks his utensils at the back. So although it's the same
amount of mess, it looks tidier. - I know I'm the one giving
the point out for this action, but actually more he does
it, the more it annoys me. (all laugh) - Should we taste our risotto? I haven't seasoned it yet. - My curd mixture has thickened right up. - [Ben] Nice.
- Oh yeah good. - Looking all right. And now I'm going to add butter into it a little bit at a time until it's melted, because that's going to give the really silky smooth texture. - I'm going to take my
risotto off of the heat. And I'm going to throw
in a load of Parmesan, stir it in, that's going to become beautiful. - I'm fine with that. (all laugh) My curd goes onto my tray,
which is very, very wonky. - Yeah. It's flat now.
- Not any more. - Ah. This is where it's
going to get really tight 'cause I have to have this cooled. Into the fridge goes my curd. Out of the fridge comes my pastry. - [Barry] Oh my God.
- [Ben] That looks gorgeous. - That's now going into the
freezer to cool down completely. So, whilst that cools, I'm going to take a few
minutes and wash up what I can. - Wonderful. - If I was sitting here
as a guest right now, enjoying my cocktail, I'd look over to the kitchen and go, you know what, he's having a great time. We're all gonna have a great time. - This is where everything
could fall down and go wrong, or it could go perfectly swimmingly well. Please be cold, please be cold, please be cold, please be cold. It's still quite warm. - I thought that was a
clear winner for my point. That's starting to unravel slightly. - I have not got time to
measure out 12, 15g balls, but I have got time to
do one, and then copy it. So let's do that. I'm just rolling them
in a bit of flour first and then pressing them nice and rustically into the pastry case. Right, this is becoming a little bit more time consuming than I had hoped. I am spectacularly close to
descending into full Mike. Cupcake cases on top,
filled with baking beans. Come on. Oh man, this is
really putting me behind. - You've had 25 minutes, which gives you 20 minutes remaining. - Oh my goodness. - So you don't want to flour it too much, but a little bit of flour might help you. (all laugh) - What we need here is a mozzarella. (all laugh) Excellent. That's no. - Cocktail time. Continuing with the Southeast Asian spin, this is a whisky holy basil mojito, swapping out the rum in
a traditional mojito, for The Singleton whisky. I was thinking, how do I pair
the notes of The Singleton, which are honeyed notes of vanilla and basically just whisky tastes. And I thought, do you know what, citrus overwhelmingly
works with any alcohol. I love yuzu. I love the little hints towards
Southeast Asian cuisine. - I don't think I've ever
had a mojito with whisky. So, why not? - And this one is also going
to have some horseradish. - It's a bit like when
you're playing with custard, you gotta move quickly and confidently. (all laugh) - What sort of shape are they Jame? Do you have the tear drop or the circle? I can't quite work it out there. - Almost identical. - So into my jug go
limes, lemon grass, basil, three tablespoons of sugar, and then I'm muddling all of that together with a rolling pin. Whisky time. 200 millilitres. In with The Singleton. And some mirin. Ice goes in. - Last five minutes. - Even the frozen water is against me. And then soda water. - It goes without saying, we
should all drink responsibly, but if you can have the
occasional drink, even midweek, why not whisky? Why does it have to be a special occasion? Especially in something like a highball or a long cocktail like a mojito. - And now, with your eight
to 10 uniform arancini balls, just drop them into a fryer
for four to five minutes, maybe a little bit longer for these ones, because they're bigger. - Pastry should be ready to come out and have the pastry cases taken out. I'm taking a leaf out of
Barry Taylor's book Barry. - Which is? - Overconfidence.
- Oh right. - And I think involves some of this. - Nice.
- You know what? Stuff it. Yeah. - Okay. So my meringue is meringuey. It looks amazing. That's going into a little
pot lined with a piping bag. My curd's chilled. It's come out of the fridge. - That looks so satisfying. - So I'm just going to do this. - Amazing colour. - Cor, I'm happy with
this, it's smelling great. - Two and a half minutes remaining. - I'm going to use the piping
bag to fill my syringes. - Commit - use gravity. - Mike you were doing really well. - Oh no. - I'm going to layer up the ice with the blackberries and some lemon so you get that through the drink. - 90 Seconds. Is he going
to have time to make one? - I think the pastry's cooked. There's a passing resemblance isn't there to what it should look like? - [Barry] Sure. - [Jamie] Yep. - You haven't got long
left Mike, last 30 seconds. - (shouts) Get out of me. - Mike you're losing it. - No. - [Barry] What are you
doing, what are you doing? No. Oh, splash of colour. Some of it's going on the food. - [Mike] I'm chilled.
- [Barry] Oh. 10 seconds.
- Seven, six. - We've got this. We've got this. - Five, four, three, two, one. Step away. - Oh. (all laugh) I nearly killed it. - Oh, well done both of you, I think. Let's serves them up to James. (rock music) - So James, first up is
Jamie's Russian roulette. Beetroot arancini with dill mayonnaise and paired with a blackberry bramble. - Lovely. What's Russian roulette about them? - Some of them have a good
hit of fresh horseradish. - Okay. I think the plate on the
whole looks very colourful. You know, you'd expect balls, but I think these look rustic. - And to kick off the big night in. Cheers. - Ah, cheers.
- Cheers. To the bramble. - That is beautiful, isn't it? - It's very mellow actually.
- Really. - Oh, they are bright. - I'm amazed that these have come out looking the way they do. (upbeat music) - That's tasty. - Really tasty. - And the beetroot, it's
actually really sweet. It goes really well with
the cocktail as well. Honestly, the only thing I'm looking for from the description is horseradish. I just want a little bit
more horseradish to it. - You lost out on the roulette table. - I also think using whisky in a bramble is something I've never heard of before. And it works really well. - Jamie's chill levels as well. It started off really low but, there were a few quite extreme spikes. - He was worryingly organised
and forward thinking. But, I think if you think chefy, you think a bit more uniform and control. - That was an excellent start. If I was Mike, I'd actually
be worried right now. - Next up we have Mike's
DIY yuzu meringue pies with a whisky mojito. - [James] Wow. - And here's the catch. You've gotta make it yourself. - Well, DIY kinda suggests that. - Oh yeah. - Baz and I had one
done, which is excellent. - The consistency of curd
is actually very good. Oh, this is so exciting. - James, I'm gonna say, I think you may have
overfilled yours slightly. - Oh my goodness. - Top tip. Maybe grill it on the table
rather than in your fingers. (all laugh) - You got holy basil, lime
and lemon grass in there with The Singleton whisky and mirin. - You can really taste the
basil and the aniseed in it. Alongside that whisky is really nice. - Enjoy. - Cheers.
- Cheers. (upbeat music) - Sorry. - The kinda food only to
be shared with friends. - The meringue is perfect. The flavour is excellent. I don't think I've ever had fresh yuzu. This is definitely one
way you go for the tart and then you go for the drink. And the drink just chases
that sweetness down and it's really nice. - Bang on brief. - Mike was definitely
overall less chilled, but mainly because he
was taking on something that's more out of his comfort zone. - Today, he had his schedule all tied up. He was organised and ready to go, and he followed it. - Shall we all write down our votes? - [Ben] Leave them a note. - All right nice.
- Leave them a note, yeah. - Ready for this? Three points up for grabs. Let's see which big night in the guys would rather
have been invited to. - Ben whose overseeing chef like thinking, for planning ahead, staying clean and tidy and thinking about how to best save less than a perfect situation. Ben's point goes to Jamie. - Oh. - Okay. Barry was awarding the point for chill. For pushing himself out
of his comfort zone, but still maintaining a consistent
level of calm throughout, Barry's point goes to Mike. - [Mike] Oh, here we go. - Chill's here. And I was there, but I did that all the way through. - Yeah. Whereas I did this. I ramped up and then I peaked. - So it's all on James. Ready? Good luck. - And to you. - For excellent execution, seasoning and flavour combos, plus a clever use of sweet
beetroot in a savoury dish James' point goes to Jamie. (all clap) Well done. - Mate, that must've been close, 'cause yours looked incredible. - Well, sir. Cheers. - Cheers to you too. Good battle. - Superb. Well, we hope you guys enjoyed
our big night in battle. Wanna say a massive thank
you to The Singleton for getting involved in
giving us the challenge. And if you want to get hold of the recipes and find out more about The Singleton click the links downstairs. - I would really like to
try our food. Would you? - I would love to try our food. Have they eaten it all? - I hope not. - I saw a drip, big blob go in there. - Barry. - How does he deal with this? - A bit did go in there, but I'm chilled about it. - Are you? - And I'm just going to
chillfully get rid of it. - There's a lot of dishes where if a little bit of egg yolk
ends up, not a problem. I wouldn't say meringue is one of them.
The ultimate battles are fun because of the interactions of the guys trying to sabotage each other. Them by themselves isn't as entertaining. I know COVID is still a thing, but they did a couple 3 way battles a few months ago.
Both looked delicious! The food that is, the food!
Mikes dish looked delicious! Jamies drink looked the best.
Unpopular Opinion - Battles are way too polarizing these days. I miss the old ones where they didn't take each other that seriously, wore funny costumes, sabotaged each other instead of themselves with the weight of their expectations, and let Ben/James suggest their winners while the audience chose theirs. Especially since the budget battle, after which it seems the entire legion of fans has arm-twisted the judges into picking Jamie EVERY FRICKING time. Mike's reactions, while funny, are still heartbreaking - guy tries too hard, too much, every time, and never seems to catch a break. Don't like how much I care about him winning now. Normals seem to care more, playing in to their characters of smug winners/sore losers, becoming more intense every challenge. Fans writing 'X was robbed', 'what were they thinking?'. Even the judges prefer savagery over constructive criticism - pandering to the audience, I know, but it feels almost... Toxic? Especially for a channel which is supposed to inspire homecooks, not crush the dreams of 2 of them every time. Tsk tsk. PS. Sorry for the rant, I clearly shouldn't care this much about sorted battles, but times are weird. Haha.
Not to be rude but I’m not sure what part of this is big night in, apart from the fact it was presumably filmed slightly later in the day so it was darker outside. No big night in intro, no personal chats with the guys, no dinner party vibes. To me it seems a bit like clickbait for what is just an ultimate battle.