(egg cracking) (egg sizzling) (intense music) - Hello, and welcome back to SORTEDfood. Now today, we're lucky enough
to have two special guests, Uncle Roger, fellow YouTuber
and rice connoisseur, and Liz Haigh, Michelin star winning chef, and the genius behind Mei Mei restaurant. Are you ready to judge the
carnage that is about to unfold? - Always ready. I just reviewed your
Hainanese chicken rice video, so excited for this. See how you (bleep) up. (both laughing) - Did we not decide one
guest judge at a time? - Yeah.
- It just feels- - Brutal enough as it is.
- Yeah. - Well no pressure, but
today's theme is rice, and we've asked both
of you to try and cook an authentic Singaporean dish. All to play for. - And you said something
about a Michelin star? - Yeah, just, just one. - Just one.
- Just the one. - Just one. - 3, 2, 1, go. (intense guitar riff) - So I'm going to be making a seafood, no wait a minute, an authentic seafood laksa. - He's gone there.
- So, imagine a beautiful seafood broth
with some rice noodles at the bottom, and then scattered over with some scallops, some
prawns and some mussels on top, and some fresh garnishes, it's both spectacular and
delicious and traditional. - Barry's doing noodles in a rice battle. That's gonna-
- They are, they're- - This is gonna go down so well. - They're rice noodles, okay?
- Right. I'm just saying it's not
me you have to convince, it's the Michelin star chef over there, - That's why I'm looking,
- and the comedian - It's why I'm looking
- who's built a career - This way and not that way.
- around rice. - That rice noodle already wrong, in laksa we use the yellow egg noodle, the, the round one. - What do you mean?
- This noodle, for pho, for Vietnamese pho. - But next time, use rice vermicelli, be a bit more, you could use vermicelli in laksa as well, but traditionally, laksa is egg noodles. - Okay, cool. - Don't try to shoehorn
rice noodle, hai-ya. - Off to a great start there, Baz. - Did you know there's nine
different types of laksa? - Nine, which one are you doing, Baz? - The third, the third
famous one. (laughs) - So, Uncle Roger, as
a comedy food critic, who have been your favourite or worst dishes and chefs to review? - It has to be Jamie Oliver. That guy, I don't know
what that guy doing. He keeps trying to make Asian food, but he keeps (bleep) it up. He used packet rice
for his egg fried rice, not a fan. Uncle Roger review you guys before, Hainanese chicken rice. It not bad, not bad. Check out the video on my channel. - I'll take not bad. - This is the base of my sambal that I'm making from scratch. (whispers) And that's going to be
going on my nasi lemak, which I'm making in a traditional style. (laughs) - Traditional style. - Nasi meaning rice, lemak
meaning fat and creamy. - Oh, well done.
- Oh, Someone used Google translate. (laughs) - And it's going to be a plate with banana leaf on the bottom, it's going to have a
beautiful bowl of rice turned upside down on top. There's going to be homemade sambal. There's going to be fried egg, and a beautiful peanut
and anchovy garnish. - You're going to make your own sambal. - Making my own sambal, so I've started by rehydrating
some Chinese red chilies. - That's the wrong type
of chilli already, hai-ya. Sambal made with Malaysian chilli. We call it chilli padi,
the smaller type, this, this for Chinese hot pot. This is not for sambal. - Ah, but have you tried it in a sambal? - No. - Well. - Uncle Roger don't
have to try wrong thing. (laughs) - [Liz] So what are you doing here, you're frying some anchovies
and red onion, is that? - Red onion, dried anchovies, frying them until they're a nice golden brown, let them dry off on the kitchen towel, and then I've roughly chopped up some shallots and some garlic. Gonna chuck it all into my mixer with my tamarind and my shrimp paste, mix that up for absolutely ages, form that into our sambal. And now it's frying off in a pan for about seven to 10 minutes to go
nice and dark and sticky. - Right, what I'm looking
for from the sambal is that you've got a nice base to it, so it's nice and smooth, but also you've got to cook off
those raw ingredients first, so that they, you don't
get a raw garlic flavour, or the chilli or the shrimp paste. So, yeah, I'm intrigued to see how this is all gonna come together. - Ooh, metal spoon on nonstick pan. Hai-ya.
- But, just- - My mom would have beat
me to death already. Asian parent love saucepan
more than children. - It's true.
(laughs) - Now to start, I'm focusing in on the most important bit
in my eyes, the paste. And I've got a lot of ingredients here, and it's all about
balancing the right amounts. We've got shallots for sweetness, garlic, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, and then some shrimp, some dried chilies, macadamia nuts, and some shrimp paste. The key here is get them in a blender, the right amounts, blend them
up, stick it on the heat, and cook for as long as possible. - Nobody eat macadamia nut in Malaysia. (sighs)
We don't even know what it is. - It's a good substitute
though for candlenuts, 'cause um, candle, candlenuts are
slightly harder to find, but candlenuts are very unique
to sambal and the paste. They are slightly toxic
though in the raw form, that's why it's so important
with the laksa paste to cook it out for a long, like,
low and slow and long time. - I... Can move on to my rice. No, please, come around quicker. - Perfect timing.
(laughs) - So, seeing as this is a rice battle, I thought the only badge
you could possibly go for is... the rice badge. - In which case upfront, what are the characteristics
that you're looking for in nasi lemak rice? - Well, seeing as nasi
lemak is called fatty rice, we're looking for an
incredible flavour of coconut in the rice. - The rice texture need to be fluffy, a bit sticky, but not too much. Each grain should be by its own thing. Uncle Roger not
optimistic, no rice cooker, and I see colander, hai-ya. - Where's our rice cooker gone, it's been upstairs for
five years at least, where's it gone? - We had a bit of a clear out recently. - You, you throw away rice cooker? - He threw away our rice cooker. - You should throw away
nephew Ben instead. (all laugh) - I did notice one line
in your book about rice, which said that the rice
cooker is the most essential piece of equipment,
- Yep. - that you could have, it's only 20 pounds. - [Liz] Yeah. So why... - Why would you throw it away? - But why do you need a rice cooker, if you have the little kind of, the little pouches? The microwaveable ones. (both groan) - [Barry] They're so convenient! - [Liz] It's okay. It's okay. - Baz, we talked about this. (laughs) My sambal mix has cooked down. It's lovely and sticky and
looks beautiful coloured. I'm going to add in my red onions and my
anchovies from earlier, some sugar, a little bit
of salt to season it, and we'll let that cool ready for later. - Hai-ya, that should be
MSG, but it's actually sugar. - [Jamie] I'm going to wash my rice. It's going into a pan with a
very specific amount of water, a very specific amount of coconut milk, and some pandan leaves. - Ooh, pandan. Good.
- [Liz] Mm hmm. - A little bit of salt. And we're just going to
leave that with a lid on, to absorb all of that
beautiful flavour and moisture. And once it's done that, we'll take it off and let it steam. And that will create the perfect rice. - Um, that technique okay, but just so you know, if you have rice cooker, all that step, just become press button. - Yeah. Blame him.
(Barry laughs offscreen) - Hai-ya. Why don't you just
run your rice under the tap? - Again, blame him.
(all laugh) - Hai-ya, why your set like this? Subscribe to SORTEDfood channel so they can afford running water. - Honestly, I can't see the difference between cooking this and cooking pasta. - [Jamie] Oh, Barry. - [Barry] You have to season the water. - [Jamie] Barry. - [Barry] Put your rice noodles
in for five to six minutes, and take it out when it's al dente. - It's just rice noodles, don't be scared. - It's not, if I'm honest, it's not the rice noodles I'm scared of. (both laugh) - Just with these rice, type of noodles, you can also just put them into a bowl, pour some boiling hot water over the top, and just let that residual
heat cook them through. My only worry here, Barry, you might overcook them
in that pan that way, but keep an eye on them. - Uncle Roger think it should
be ice bath, for the egg. - Yeah, I did suggest we've got ice in the freezer when he wants it, but he obviously decided he
was going to go against that. - Otherwise the egg going to keep cooking. That is the most half-ass ice bath (all laugh)
Uncle Roger ever seen. - And to be absolutely sure
what we're looking for, what are the non-negotiables
when it comes to laksa, a seafood laksa? - Well, the filling, so the seafood, it's got to be cooked perfectly. The noodles have got
to be cooked perfectly. And also you want that broth, you just wanna have a
really lovely consistency, you don't want it too watery. So I'd get, make sure that that flavour, and seasoning is spot on there. - To Uncle Roger,
non-negotiable for nasi lemak is the anchovy and the peanut. Uncle Roger love those. - We'll come on to that. But first I'm going to make
a dressing for my cucumber. - Nobody eat pickled
cucumber in nasi lemak, we just eat regular cucumbers. - Oh, but that's why I'm not pickling it, it's more like a dressing. It's just got a little bit of- - No dressing.
Little bit of flavour to it. - This not salad, no dressing. - For my dressing,
(all laugh) I'm going to put some rice
wine vinegar and palm sugar into a little saucepan,
heat that up to a boil, as soon as it's boiled,
I'm going to take it off, just let that rest. Right at the end, we'll ribbon up a cucumber, and we'll just dip it in and back out. So some flavour but not too much, because you don't want a pickle. - Ribbon only for Christmas presents, not for nasi lemak.
(both laugh) - What I like is, the good
thing about a good cook, Baz, is the ability to be
agile and change plans. - Yeah.
- So, along with my cucumber ribbons, I'm also going to do some
rounds of cucumber as well. - [Barry] Like it, like it. - Next up is my peanuts, I'm going to heat up some
peanut oil in the frying pan, throw in my peanuts and my anchovies, get them frying off until
they're nice and golden brown. Put them onto a piece of kitchen towel, just to rest for a little bit, let the oil drip off, and I'm gonna add a little
pinch of curry powder as well, because I know that in
Singaporean cuisine, there's a lot of influence
from Indian cuisine as well. And so I wanted to give a
little nod to that as well. (upbeat music) Okay, the rice has had
10 minutes on a low heat, and I know that it needs 10 to 12, so now's a good time just
to have a little check. I'm not going to take the
lid off at the moment, 'cause I'm, don't breathe out like that. That was such a sigh. - Sorry, it's an auntie sigh.
(laughs) - It okay. Uncle Roger heartbroken also. - I can still see some liquid in there, so I'm going to put that back
on for an extra two minutes. - That liquid is all my ancestor tears. (wheezes) - Ooh, scallop time, Baz, for your basic seafood badge. How's it going? - So we've got some
beautiful, fresh scallops. So you're meant to put the, a
butter knife, sort of thing, in the top bit, rotate, just to open it slightly. Slide the knife down the flat
side of the scallop shell. Then you want to take away the
stuff that I don't recognise, so you're left with a scallop. - Scallop, shrimp and mussel. Very nice, but maybe a bit
too fancy for Malaysian laksa. - This is the pretentious
version of a laksa. - Oh, middle-class laksa. (laughs) - Do you think they'll notice
if I start my rice again? - [Mike] Why do you need to start again? - Because it's (bleep). - He's sweating. He's really panicking now. - I thought he had
everything under control, but now he's panicking. - So with my paste now all cooked out, it's had about 20 minutes, I'm now going in with my broth, coconut milk and some fish sauce, fisch, fwish, fish sauce, and then cook that for
another 15, 20 minutes, reduce by a third, and then it's time to poach my fish. - Just chopping my banana
leaf to fit my plate, as per tradition. - He has no idea what he's doing. - Oh, banana leaf. Okay. That correct. We eat, we eat nasi lemak
on banana leaf all the time. But in Asia, we don't buy banana leaf, we just steal from neighbour. (all laugh) - With my banana leaf, you always like, gotta heat it up. Use a blow torch, put it over a gas stove, just 'cause the heat, makes it more pliable and also
releases all that fragrance and aromat into the food. - Such convenient timing, could I grab a blowtorch please? I was just about to ask for a blowtorch. That's insane. Look at that.
- Oh, funny that! - [Jamie] Amazing. - [Roger] Look at that, look at that! - All my seafood, my
scallops, prawns and mussels, they cook at different times, so I've got to get it absolutely right, and nothing can be
overcooked, or undercooked. - And you got six minutes to go. - That's not enough time
to restart my rice, is it? Definitely not. (laughs) - So mussels and prawns are in. - Last couple of minutes,
as you start to plate up. - I've never poached scallops before, so... I'm gonna go in now. - Last thing I've gotta do
is dress my cucumber ribbons, and then I can start to plate up. Gutted about the rice, absolutely gutted about the rice. - Don't hate me, I'm, I'm using like, shop-bought sambal.
- [Jamie] Hate him, hate him. - Oh, this sambal has MSG, see, E, E621, that what they call MSG in UK. That how we trick people to eating MSG. And it also made in
Malaysia, that a good thing. (upbeat music) - And as if this dish wasn't fancy enough, I'm going to top it off
with some coriander oil. - Coriander, who he, cor- - I, honestly, I thought,
I was expecting you to go, 'ooh, wow', rather than, (sighs). - Smelling good in here, but you've got the last few seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, step back from your Singaporean dishes. - It looks good. - Look good, perhaps, the question is, does it taste good? (upbeat music) Okay. Two dishes. I feel like we've been on a journey. Shall we dish them up, have a taste and see what we think? Let's start with the laksa. - I can't even see the noodle. I see prawn.
- You've gotta dig, it's part of the, it's part of the adventure. (light electronic music) - Right, cheers guys, dig in. Liz, you're the expert, what do you think? - Not bad, not bad, nice flavour. I think it could have more chilli, but then maybe you can
get that through like, loads more sambal. But the noodles isn't overcooked, the prawn was cooked well, actually I would say. I didn't get to try a scallop, but you guys can fill in on that. - Scallop, okay. It's good, not bad. Think the broth can have a bit more oil. Usually in laksa we see
layer of oil on top. - That was for the, that was what the
coriander oil was on top. - No, no, not cor, no. Hai-ya, regular oil
from cooking the sambal. - From cooking the sambal. - I actually think it was
a really good effort of it. I think that you could have a
little bit more coconut base, maybe a bit more of the spice paste, and a bit more oil so we get a bit more heat and spice through it. Forget coriander oil, doesn't need to go on there. - Looked so pretty though. - But the seafood was good, I think it's probably going to be the world's most expensive laksa with that much seafood in. - Okay. All right, lesson learned, less is more.
- But good effort. - Should we move on to a
potentially harmonious plate? - No. Too much vegetable. - He's gone for a cucumber round, and he's ignoring the ribbons. - Yep. No, saw that. - See the rice, this is not good. Rice should not be like
a solid clump like this. - Have you ever played squash? - The time it takes
from finishing the dish, to be able to sit here,
we go through photos, we go through...
- No, no no. - Just say you (bleep) up, hai-ya. (Barry laughs) - Cheers. - That pandan's really fragrant, isn't it? - Yeah, maybe the chewy
rice isn't quite right, but lots of textures. - Chilli could be spicier. That why, that why you
don't use Chinese Chilli. But you right, texture very good. - I think the sambal is really nice. I don't think anyone has gone
for the cucumber ribbon here. - I did out of sympathy. I like, I like it, I like a pickled acidity, but
it's not right in the dish. - Ebbers, that's not what you said an hour before Liz and Roger turned up. - Yeah, but now we've got experts, we should learn from them
really, shouldn't we? - So Jamie, I know you're
up for the rice badge, the rice that we've got here, a bit too overcooked. What I like to do is finish it off with a bit of coconut cream
on the top when it's resting. That's what imparts a lot of flavour in, and maybe because there's a lot of pandan, I personally love a lot of pandan. Maybe it's the Singaporean in me, but, so it's got a nice flavour, but it's just the
texture is not like rice. Come to Mei Mei and I'll show you how to make a coconut rice. - Hai-ya.
- I will do that. - All about plugging your business and your book for you.
- Of course! (all laugh)
- It's a great book. - If you remove rice and
you remove ribbon cucumber, then it pretty good. - I like the effort for
getting the ikan bilis, the dried anchovies, 'cause that is, that for me is a good
part of a nasi lemak, as well.
- Yes. What middle class people call texture. (all laugh) Uncle Roger growing up in Malaysia, I eat nasi lemak by the
street for breakfast, I never think, oh, so many layers, so many textures,
(all laugh) this nasi lemak, so much nuance. - So, in conclusion with badges in mind, I think it's pretty clear, Jamie, we can't give you the basic rice badge. - But do I get my sambal badge? - Jamie, you can't make
up badges on the spot. (laughs) - But when it comes to
basic seafood demonstration, of preparation and cooking
to the right degree, what do we think? - Yeah. I'd give a badge for that. - Deserved, thank you. - Basic seafood badge awarded. - He's already got his
basic seafood badge. - That was just the squid, different, different,
- But, but it's! - Different seafood.
- Shellfish. - That is selfish. - But when it comes to
an overall winning dish, that's entirely in your hands. What do you guys think? - Uncle Roger think
individual component-wise, the nasi lemak better, but overall, the laksa better. - I agree. - So winner should be laksa, nephew Barry. Congratulations. (all applaud)
- Yes! Thank you. - So are you saying that
Jamie's could have won if he didn't do the rice? - [Roger] If Jamie serve us the
nasi lemak without the nasi, then he would win.
(all laugh) - So over to you guys, you've watched the whole thing, which were your best and worst bits? Comment down below. - And a massive thank
you to the both of you for coming in amongst all of this chaos and not just rinsing us, but also every now and
then providing some tips for how we can be better. - Our pleasure. - Of course, of course, anytime. - And if you want to go and see Uncle Roger and Liz's reaction to our Hainanese chicken video, I'm sure that's going to be great. The link is downstairs, and you can find out more about Liz's restaurants and book in the description box below. - Hey, at least we're not in that video. - Oh, that's a really good point. - We get off...
- True, it's Mike and I. - Yeah. Mike and Ebbers
(bleep) that one up, yeah. - Go watch Uncle Roger roast them. Bye-bye. - [Barry] Take the hassle
out of your midweek cooking while saving money,
reducing your food waste, and using chef-y shortcuts
to cook like a pro. Check out our five-star
rated Meal Packs app for a whole month free. Link below. (beep)
- [Mike] Okay, action. - Hello.
(hand slaps counter) - There was a fly. I think I got it. (both laugh)
