The Naked Chef (1999) s01e04 Episode Script
The Band
Naked's what I call my way of cooking.
What I cook in the restaurant isn't what I cook at home.
Cooking's gotta be a laugh.
It's gotta be simple - it's gotta be tasty - it's gotta be fun.
I suppose you could say it's stripping down the recipe to its bare essentials.
No way - it's not me it's the food.
Right I've gotta have something to eat before I do anything else.
I'm gonna have a bacon sarnie for breakie so what I've don't is I've got one of the grill pans and they're quite cheap - I use it all the time now just for like - meat, fish - so easy.
Anyway look I've got this bread here - and er - I get 'em to slice it on the machine but you know you get in there and get a normal bread loaf and you get it cut across into the normal round, well I do it the other way and I say can you put it through the long way.
So what you get is this look at that Have you got a big day today then? I've got a huge day.
I used to be in this band when I was from 14 to 17 - then I moved to London to sort of work in the kitchens and stuff and er - we never really spoke - well we spoke on the phone every now and again - that was it.
But about six months ago they all moved to London - so we kind of got it back together again.
We've got the first gig tonight mate.
What instrument do you play? I'm a cliche drummer - little bit hyperactive - talks rubbish most of the time - big fidgety - what can I say? Right I'm just gonna push this bacon to one side now cos that's cooked and it looks lovely.
And I'm gonna get this bread and I'm gonna toast it - on here - instead of toasting it normally I'm gonna toast it on this grill pan and that's gonna suck up a little bit of all - the fat and the juices that comes up from the bacon.
Do you always use white bread? No - I don't - well - yeah.
I don't like brown bread.
My mum always tried to get me on it but I don't like it at all.
Are the band coming back to eat this evening? Yeah I'm gonna cook er - a Thai green curry which is pretty appropriate really cos we're gonna get a little bit bevved up tonight - you know we're gonna be very excited after the gig and er - curries are kind of like the English boys or Essex boys sort of ultimate after - after pub food.
Right this is about done now.
Right I'm just gonna eat this and then I've gotta go shopping and get stuck in cos I've got a lot to do.
THAI GREEN CURRY So what I'm gonna make is a Thai green curry yeah - and for that we have to make a green paste.
It's very quick to make and very quick to cook.
Well there's a little bit of preparation at this point er - so what we're gonna do is we've got spring onions here - I use about five or six.
Could you use normal onion? Yeah use normal onions - shallots and then lemon grass basically what we want is the inside where it's slightly white - slightly softer - loads of flavour - really zesty.
So I'm just gonna trim off the bottom and then just trim off the end until the tender quite of the root which about normally about half way down and you just want to strip the outside leave off - cos they're quite tough.
It's a really delicate flavour - er - and even if you just put in with steamed rice and stuff like that the flavour of it really kicks all the way through.
It's lovely.
Split in half and just cut into about four bits.
All these together make a really good taste yeah but if there's an ingredient that you particularly like - like I'm getting quite partial to the old lime leaves -just up 'em a bit.
But this is - this is a good one that I like.
Then I need some garlic.
Two or three -just peel 'em - we can leave them whole.
Ooops - oh no - Then I've got the ginger yeah - thing to look out for when you get the ginger is you want a nice big fat old hand of ginger - cos sometimes you have to root around these poxy little bits and they're just stringy and dried up and horrible.
Nice thick bit - and just rip it off - you can peel it with a peeler or use a knife.
Right - so we wanna about that much you know about a tablespoon's worth.
And that's another thing done.
Right we've got limes yeah - lovely, lovely limes.
Just peel off a little bit of the skin cos the skin's quite fragrant and there's no - you know no point in chucking it away.
I've got these really pucker chillies.
I'm gonna use about four or five - again up it or lower it as to what you like.
I'm just gonna take the ends off - and I'm gonna cut them in half.
Do you think there's quite a macho element into how hot you like your food? Yeah - well -er - I suppose when you go out with the boys and you get a bit bevved - it does - well - it's been know to turn into a bit of a competition like who can have the hottest curry, but I just love chillies though so much.
The really really hot curries they use the whole chillie which are these seeds, but it's hot but it doesn't really taste of chillie.
If you take the seeds out - you get a nice warmth there - but the actual taste of chillie comes through.
Right so next we're gonna use lime leaves and they're kind of unusual - you get 'em in every single Thai or Chinese supermarket and you're starting to get 'em in the supermarkets now but these make such a difference - they've got a really authentic flavour, and I just wanna a little handful like that much and you buy them in bags like this and you can freeze 'em and they keep so well in the freezer.
Take any big bits of stalk that are off and you just roll 'em up like a little cigar and er - just chuck 'em across - just to help the machine a bit Right so I've this coriander here and you know you want about sort of three really good handfuls of this - so that bunch is perfect and basil - just rip the stalks off - leave some of them on.
And we wanna about you know two really good handfuls of basil - so we've got lots of fragrance there you know.
Coriander seeds - about a little handful or you know tablespoon and a half and just crack them in half - you don't want to smash 'em up to a powder.
Lovely.
Right this is the easy bit.
Just take it over to the mixer get me olive oil.
Put my ginger and the kind of the rougher things - the sort of tougher things.
So I've got the garlic in there, the garlic, the spring onions.
The things that are gonna give the machine a little bit more work - just pulse it up basically as fine as you can.
Add a good good pinch of salt and a bit of pepper - coriander in - coriander seeds.
Right so just cut these limes in half and just squeeze all the juice in there - all these herbs - just push it all down.
Put about two tablespoons - three tablespoons worth of oil in.
Just leave it go for a couple of minutes.
Basically that's done now.
It smells absolutely outrageous.
Will you use all that paste for the curry? I probably will use all this paste cos I want you know I'm gonna put coconut milk in - I want lots of sort of juice - but I tell you what - even if I'm cooking for myself - I still cook this much because all you have to do is jar it in an airtight container - bit of oil over the top so the air doesn't get to it and it keeps for weeks in the fridge.
Right - I've got this really nice chicken breasts yeah - they're free range of course - but you know get what you can.
Would you use the green paste with any different sort of curry - you don't have to use chicken? The green paste? - Oh God the green paste - you can do so much with this - I mean you can basically - you can marinate like kebabs or something and just have the paste on its own and like barbecue it in the summer - just put some lime juice over it afterwards.
Use it with prawns to do sort of prawn curries - er - sort of you know just brush bits of fish with it and just sort of grill it really quickly.
So I'm just gonna cut them at a sort of angle - quite big bits and that'll make a sort of a big bit of surface area so it can have a nice marinade clinging to it.
I'm gonna take about I suppose a spoonful - a couple of tablespoons of the m of the paste - and -just put that in there.
I'm gonna put the chicken in with it and I'm just gonna toss it over and I only want it to lightly coat it.
So you don't put the chicken in all the marinade? No cos I just - I want the flavour to impregnate the meat I also want to just give it that - initially when I cook it I wanna give it that sear in a wok - and if I've got too much of this in it it's gonna boil.
Lovely - so this - I'm gonna give this about 20 minutes of marinade - that's the minimum you wanna give it really.
But anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours is great.
Right so I'm gonna cook the curry now - it's very very simple.
I've got a hot wok - get your meat ready - get your paste ready.
Coconut milk - nearly forgot.
Put my oil straight in - put it round the sides.
What sort of oil is that? Just normal sort of vegetable oil.
In with the meat - And just like - push it about - we're just gonna cook it like this for about 2/3 minutes - just so we searing a little bit of colour in and that - that's nice for flavour.
If you didn't have a wok could you do it a saucepan or something? Yeah of course you can - do it in like a casserole type pan - get it really hot again.
Exactly the same and then - I'm gonna get this paste - get it all in there and this is where really you stop frying - and start sort of boiling it now.
So just smear over that green paste.
Just for like 30 seconds or something and then we'll add this coconut milk.
Brilliant.
And just stir it all in right - so basically I'm gonna bring it to the boil - right - let it simmer for about 12/13 minutes - just until the chicken's nice and tender - and er - that's it - it's done.
Just season it to taste - a bit of lime - get some sort of shaved coconut in there - chopped pistachios nuts and some coriander just to freshen it up at the last minute and I think the band will really - I think they're gonna love it.
SALAD SALAD I'm gonna make this really excellent salad that goes with the green curry - the green curry being quite fragrant and hot and this salad being quite clean.
So what I've got here is just some really nice deep red perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and I'm just cutting them in quarters - you can do 'em in halves if you want.
I've got a fresh coconut - we don't want any of that desiccated stuff.
Er - and as you can buy these absolutely anywhere - markets - supermarkets - whatever - it's much better and much more authentic to use these.
If you wanna keep the milk you can - We put - we only actually need half a coconut.
I can save this and scrap it onto the curry later or just keep it.
Do something else with it.
So just cut if up into bits - and slice it as thinly as possible in any old fashion really.
You can see it's such a wicked colour.
Really tasty and tastes so much different to the dried stuff - don't even think about it.
Different textures as well - it's not just taste.
Lovely - right so just chuck this in.
Next thing you need is we've got cucumber and I need about - about half a cucumber.
Just peel this and then I'm gonna cut it in half and we want to remove this little bit in here which is really watery - tastes of kind of nothing really.
Really don't want it - and you get a spoon - scoop it out or you can get a knife - just go in at an angle very gently - go in at an angle here.
Just kind of turf it out and just kind of use your fingers till you can see all that - just water - you don't want that.
I quite like to sort of cut it in half again - just do it in thin like kind of length ways bits like that and then just cut it in half again - I just kind of think that size is perfect.
You know you want it the same as the? What else might you serve this salad with? Well it's a very refreshing salad so you always do it with light things - things like er - simply grilled piece of fish - you know white fish preferably.
Simply grilled chicken - er - cheeses you know - feta cheese, ricotta, mozzarella - really nice.
Yeah just -just simple things really.
Er - So what we're gonna do now - I've got some nice basil - really fragrant that I bought and I've washed it - I just wanna about that much and that's - it's quite strong and it's really fresh and we're gonna get loads and loads of flavour our of that so just - just slice it up - get that stuck in there.
Like you can smell it already do you know what I mean? - It's lovely jubbly.
Could you use any other herbs? Yep - you could use coriander which is lovely - coriander and basil - but I've got a lot of coriander in the green curry and I wanna keep the flavours separate so I think that makes sense do you know what I mean.
Right so what I wanna do now is dress - dress it like a normal salad - a good pinch of pepper - a good pinch of salt - and I'm gonna use limes - two limes and that's gonna give it a - as opposed to lemon it's gonna be really zingy.
Something that will help get the juice out is just to put your weight on it and roll it like that - roll it off and you've got that fragrance of the skin straight away and you can peel the skin - finely chop it and just put it in a pan with some fish - panned fried fish or something like that - that'll work brilliantly.
But I don't want the skin.
I just want the juice and just shove your hand inside and give it a good old squeeze.
And then you wanna put about the same amount of olive oil as the lime juice - er - and now just give it a little toss over.
Or you can mix it - or get your hand stuck in - just toss it over and the colours are amazing and what we're gonna do now is just put your finger at the bottom where all the kind of dressing dripping down to - and taste it - little bit more salt - just so everything's like perfectly bit of pepper and - I think - an optional now - which I think I'll go for is er - a little bit of chillie - just split them in half and scrap the seeds out the middle.
It gives it a little bit of heat - not hot - I'm not talking anywhere near blowing your head off - but what I'm talking about is a really really nice sort of warmth that works with the cucumbers and the tomatoes and the limes and it just - I think it brings it all together really well.
Yeah - this will sit quite happily for a bit of time - letting all the sort of flavours come out of the chillies and everything to combine a bit and it's you know it's a really colourful thing - in the middle of the table - lovely.
Right to go with my pucker curry right I'm gonna make the perfect rice and I know everyone knows how to make rice - but this is a special way that I use to make it really light and really fluffy and I like it.
Boil up the rice - in boiling salted water for about 4 or 5 minutes and then at that stage the rice is just slightly under cooked and I put a little bit of water back in the pan - put the colander over it - and whack it back on there.
Bit of tin foil over and basically - water's draining off now and it's gonna come to the boil and start steaming again and that's gonna really help to make it lovely and light - takes about five minutes and then it'll be perfectly ready to eat.
TEMPURA AND DIPPING SAUCE What I'm gonna make now is a thing called tempura which is basically is a really really pucker crispy batter and you can deep fry like vegetables or meat or fish but I'm gonna do vegetables today with dipping sauces and I think it's the dipping sauce that really - you got that big crunch and you've got the lovely inside but the dipping sauce is what you want and I'll show you how to make - it's very, very simple and you can vary it any old way.
I've got rice wine vinegar here.
Rice wine vinegar's slightly more mild than like white wine vinegar but I mean you can use it.
What you've got to do is sweeten it and it's very simple and you can just do it to your own taste.
So if you just get a little bowl.
I'm gonna put in about half a pint okay - and I'm gonna add about three kind of dessertspoons of sugar to this and you just stir it until it goes clear.
Just keep tasting - and - what you wanna do is take that harshness out of the vinegar - so it's just beautiful for dipping.
Put a little bit more in I think - yeah.
Right so you've got your sweet and sour there - that's there.
What we need to do now is get loads and loads of flavour.
I've got coriander here - just a little handful - and this is how easy it is you know.
I'm just gonna chop it up and whop it in there.
And I want some chillies - just scrap out most of the seeds.
How did - how did the gig go? The gig was superb mate honestly - it was such a cracker and it was a real laugh.
Got a bit sweaty though - I like to get into it a bit.
Right kind of finelyish chopped - in it goes.
Now garlic's quite important actually - not much but just a little bit of garlic - not garlic that's gonna punch you round the face but garlic that just kind of changes the flavour - it gives you that kind of - I'm talking like a wine merchant - And I probably use a quarter - so just finely chop it - and that'll be enough to make it completely taste different.
Give it a good old stir round - Right - yeah wicked.
Those flavours are really strong.
But of salt and pepper - always important and that tastes alright now - but give it like ten minutes or give it an hour - that'll be like a tea-bag - there'll be loads of flavours all over the place.
So that's the dipping sauce done? Yeah - end of story.
Just going to put it into some little bowls - and er - I'll put them in the middle of the table and they can just dip away.
TEMPURA Now I'm gonna make the batter - very important you've gotta make it last minute.
All you need is cornflour and plain or strong flour.
And what I need to do is I need double normal flour to cornflour - so it's one cup of cornflour to two lots of normal flour.
Lovely - right okay.
We need water, okay but we need ice cold water and if - if you've got it hanging about - fizzy mineral water or soda water seems to give it a little bit of an edge.
But if not you know cold - very cold - ice cold water is perfect.
It has to be ice cold? It just helps it - it's like - imagine we're gonna deep fry it yeah - very hot - imagine something really cold hitting that - it's just gonna go - straight away it's gonna make it really crunchy so Some water - swish it around a bit - let it cold cold.
Now - this is the important bit about tempura.
We're not gonna let it - we're not gonna make it and let it rest like normal batters right.
We wanna make it right at the last minute - we're not gonna whip it with a whish so it's really smooth - I'm gonna use like the back of a spoon of a chopstick and what that'll give you is kind of a lump batter and I know that sounds really freaky but the little lumps help to make it really crispy and it's quite characteristic of tempura in general really.
Right so this - this water's really cold now - so what I'm gonna do is just pour it in - add it bit by bit - stir it in slowly - You want it to be about double cream - just slightly thicker than double cream consistency - Lovely - that's perfect - absolutely stunning.
Right so I've gotta wicked selection of vegetable here.
I've got green beans, I've got chillies - I've got mushrooms - I've got courgettes - I've not asparagus - we've got sweet potato - I've got onions.
I've got broccoli - you know herbs - little corns - so just get a bit of everything in there - you don't want to overload the frying oil so just kind of do little bits at a time and use your - your chop stick to kind of just fold it all over -just to coat it.
And shake off any excess if there is any - and this oil - I've got hot oil here and it's been heating up slowly - this is at 200 - 220 degrees It you haven't got a thermometer - you can get 'em for about five quid - all you have to do is dip it in and if it kind of starts to fry quite fast that's fine - if it's a really viscous fry you don't want that and if it's not frying at all - then it's too cold.
So just keep your eyes peeled.
Kind of flick it away from you - just so that if any like splashes of oil come in they don't go anywhere near your.
What sort of oil is it? It's just normal like sunflower oil.
So you get your first load in quick - otherwise they'll all be cooked at different times.
What's your favourite vegetable in it? I reckon my favourite must be the chillies - the mushrooms and the sweet potatoes - I just love those - so good.
So so tasty.
Right so I'm just gonna use one of these things just to turn it over a bit and don't be viscous with it but just kind of like turn 'em over - make sure they're not sticking - move 'em about a little bit and I just feel already they're really really crispy.
The only thing that determines how you should cut things up is like for instance - that batter cooks in about two and a half, three minutes okay - to be perfectly crisp and slightly golden - right and things like the asparagus tips and the courgettes and the chillie they're all gonna be perfectly edible in that time.
But things like sweet potatoes which are quite hard er - because of the three minutes - you've gotta cut it to a thickness which is gonna be you know nice and edible in three minutes you know - so something like that - sort of like thick kind of crisp.
So these are ready - so just shake off the excess oil and then lay it out on the paper - wicked.
I'm really pleased with these so basically what I'm gonna do now is put a little bit of salt on them - cos I thing that makes lovely jubbly and just test one.
Mmm - hot and crispy - Mmm - perfect.
Right I'm gonna get on now and cook these in batches and I wanna keep feeding the old troops cos they're ravenous now so I'm gonna crack on.
What I cook in the restaurant isn't what I cook at home.
Cooking's gotta be a laugh.
It's gotta be simple - it's gotta be tasty - it's gotta be fun.
I suppose you could say it's stripping down the recipe to its bare essentials.
No way - it's not me it's the food.
Right I've gotta have something to eat before I do anything else.
I'm gonna have a bacon sarnie for breakie so what I've don't is I've got one of the grill pans and they're quite cheap - I use it all the time now just for like - meat, fish - so easy.
Anyway look I've got this bread here - and er - I get 'em to slice it on the machine but you know you get in there and get a normal bread loaf and you get it cut across into the normal round, well I do it the other way and I say can you put it through the long way.
So what you get is this look at that Have you got a big day today then? I've got a huge day.
I used to be in this band when I was from 14 to 17 - then I moved to London to sort of work in the kitchens and stuff and er - we never really spoke - well we spoke on the phone every now and again - that was it.
But about six months ago they all moved to London - so we kind of got it back together again.
We've got the first gig tonight mate.
What instrument do you play? I'm a cliche drummer - little bit hyperactive - talks rubbish most of the time - big fidgety - what can I say? Right I'm just gonna push this bacon to one side now cos that's cooked and it looks lovely.
And I'm gonna get this bread and I'm gonna toast it - on here - instead of toasting it normally I'm gonna toast it on this grill pan and that's gonna suck up a little bit of all - the fat and the juices that comes up from the bacon.
Do you always use white bread? No - I don't - well - yeah.
I don't like brown bread.
My mum always tried to get me on it but I don't like it at all.
Are the band coming back to eat this evening? Yeah I'm gonna cook er - a Thai green curry which is pretty appropriate really cos we're gonna get a little bit bevved up tonight - you know we're gonna be very excited after the gig and er - curries are kind of like the English boys or Essex boys sort of ultimate after - after pub food.
Right this is about done now.
Right I'm just gonna eat this and then I've gotta go shopping and get stuck in cos I've got a lot to do.
THAI GREEN CURRY So what I'm gonna make is a Thai green curry yeah - and for that we have to make a green paste.
It's very quick to make and very quick to cook.
Well there's a little bit of preparation at this point er - so what we're gonna do is we've got spring onions here - I use about five or six.
Could you use normal onion? Yeah use normal onions - shallots and then lemon grass basically what we want is the inside where it's slightly white - slightly softer - loads of flavour - really zesty.
So I'm just gonna trim off the bottom and then just trim off the end until the tender quite of the root which about normally about half way down and you just want to strip the outside leave off - cos they're quite tough.
It's a really delicate flavour - er - and even if you just put in with steamed rice and stuff like that the flavour of it really kicks all the way through.
It's lovely.
Split in half and just cut into about four bits.
All these together make a really good taste yeah but if there's an ingredient that you particularly like - like I'm getting quite partial to the old lime leaves -just up 'em a bit.
But this is - this is a good one that I like.
Then I need some garlic.
Two or three -just peel 'em - we can leave them whole.
Ooops - oh no - Then I've got the ginger yeah - thing to look out for when you get the ginger is you want a nice big fat old hand of ginger - cos sometimes you have to root around these poxy little bits and they're just stringy and dried up and horrible.
Nice thick bit - and just rip it off - you can peel it with a peeler or use a knife.
Right - so we wanna about that much you know about a tablespoon's worth.
And that's another thing done.
Right we've got limes yeah - lovely, lovely limes.
Just peel off a little bit of the skin cos the skin's quite fragrant and there's no - you know no point in chucking it away.
I've got these really pucker chillies.
I'm gonna use about four or five - again up it or lower it as to what you like.
I'm just gonna take the ends off - and I'm gonna cut them in half.
Do you think there's quite a macho element into how hot you like your food? Yeah - well -er - I suppose when you go out with the boys and you get a bit bevved - it does - well - it's been know to turn into a bit of a competition like who can have the hottest curry, but I just love chillies though so much.
The really really hot curries they use the whole chillie which are these seeds, but it's hot but it doesn't really taste of chillie.
If you take the seeds out - you get a nice warmth there - but the actual taste of chillie comes through.
Right so next we're gonna use lime leaves and they're kind of unusual - you get 'em in every single Thai or Chinese supermarket and you're starting to get 'em in the supermarkets now but these make such a difference - they've got a really authentic flavour, and I just wanna a little handful like that much and you buy them in bags like this and you can freeze 'em and they keep so well in the freezer.
Take any big bits of stalk that are off and you just roll 'em up like a little cigar and er - just chuck 'em across - just to help the machine a bit Right so I've this coriander here and you know you want about sort of three really good handfuls of this - so that bunch is perfect and basil - just rip the stalks off - leave some of them on.
And we wanna about you know two really good handfuls of basil - so we've got lots of fragrance there you know.
Coriander seeds - about a little handful or you know tablespoon and a half and just crack them in half - you don't want to smash 'em up to a powder.
Lovely.
Right this is the easy bit.
Just take it over to the mixer get me olive oil.
Put my ginger and the kind of the rougher things - the sort of tougher things.
So I've got the garlic in there, the garlic, the spring onions.
The things that are gonna give the machine a little bit more work - just pulse it up basically as fine as you can.
Add a good good pinch of salt and a bit of pepper - coriander in - coriander seeds.
Right so just cut these limes in half and just squeeze all the juice in there - all these herbs - just push it all down.
Put about two tablespoons - three tablespoons worth of oil in.
Just leave it go for a couple of minutes.
Basically that's done now.
It smells absolutely outrageous.
Will you use all that paste for the curry? I probably will use all this paste cos I want you know I'm gonna put coconut milk in - I want lots of sort of juice - but I tell you what - even if I'm cooking for myself - I still cook this much because all you have to do is jar it in an airtight container - bit of oil over the top so the air doesn't get to it and it keeps for weeks in the fridge.
Right - I've got this really nice chicken breasts yeah - they're free range of course - but you know get what you can.
Would you use the green paste with any different sort of curry - you don't have to use chicken? The green paste? - Oh God the green paste - you can do so much with this - I mean you can basically - you can marinate like kebabs or something and just have the paste on its own and like barbecue it in the summer - just put some lime juice over it afterwards.
Use it with prawns to do sort of prawn curries - er - sort of you know just brush bits of fish with it and just sort of grill it really quickly.
So I'm just gonna cut them at a sort of angle - quite big bits and that'll make a sort of a big bit of surface area so it can have a nice marinade clinging to it.
I'm gonna take about I suppose a spoonful - a couple of tablespoons of the m of the paste - and -just put that in there.
I'm gonna put the chicken in with it and I'm just gonna toss it over and I only want it to lightly coat it.
So you don't put the chicken in all the marinade? No cos I just - I want the flavour to impregnate the meat I also want to just give it that - initially when I cook it I wanna give it that sear in a wok - and if I've got too much of this in it it's gonna boil.
Lovely - so this - I'm gonna give this about 20 minutes of marinade - that's the minimum you wanna give it really.
But anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours is great.
Right so I'm gonna cook the curry now - it's very very simple.
I've got a hot wok - get your meat ready - get your paste ready.
Coconut milk - nearly forgot.
Put my oil straight in - put it round the sides.
What sort of oil is that? Just normal sort of vegetable oil.
In with the meat - And just like - push it about - we're just gonna cook it like this for about 2/3 minutes - just so we searing a little bit of colour in and that - that's nice for flavour.
If you didn't have a wok could you do it a saucepan or something? Yeah of course you can - do it in like a casserole type pan - get it really hot again.
Exactly the same and then - I'm gonna get this paste - get it all in there and this is where really you stop frying - and start sort of boiling it now.
So just smear over that green paste.
Just for like 30 seconds or something and then we'll add this coconut milk.
Brilliant.
And just stir it all in right - so basically I'm gonna bring it to the boil - right - let it simmer for about 12/13 minutes - just until the chicken's nice and tender - and er - that's it - it's done.
Just season it to taste - a bit of lime - get some sort of shaved coconut in there - chopped pistachios nuts and some coriander just to freshen it up at the last minute and I think the band will really - I think they're gonna love it.
SALAD SALAD I'm gonna make this really excellent salad that goes with the green curry - the green curry being quite fragrant and hot and this salad being quite clean.
So what I've got here is just some really nice deep red perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and I'm just cutting them in quarters - you can do 'em in halves if you want.
I've got a fresh coconut - we don't want any of that desiccated stuff.
Er - and as you can buy these absolutely anywhere - markets - supermarkets - whatever - it's much better and much more authentic to use these.
If you wanna keep the milk you can - We put - we only actually need half a coconut.
I can save this and scrap it onto the curry later or just keep it.
Do something else with it.
So just cut if up into bits - and slice it as thinly as possible in any old fashion really.
You can see it's such a wicked colour.
Really tasty and tastes so much different to the dried stuff - don't even think about it.
Different textures as well - it's not just taste.
Lovely - right so just chuck this in.
Next thing you need is we've got cucumber and I need about - about half a cucumber.
Just peel this and then I'm gonna cut it in half and we want to remove this little bit in here which is really watery - tastes of kind of nothing really.
Really don't want it - and you get a spoon - scoop it out or you can get a knife - just go in at an angle very gently - go in at an angle here.
Just kind of turf it out and just kind of use your fingers till you can see all that - just water - you don't want that.
I quite like to sort of cut it in half again - just do it in thin like kind of length ways bits like that and then just cut it in half again - I just kind of think that size is perfect.
You know you want it the same as the? What else might you serve this salad with? Well it's a very refreshing salad so you always do it with light things - things like er - simply grilled piece of fish - you know white fish preferably.
Simply grilled chicken - er - cheeses you know - feta cheese, ricotta, mozzarella - really nice.
Yeah just -just simple things really.
Er - So what we're gonna do now - I've got some nice basil - really fragrant that I bought and I've washed it - I just wanna about that much and that's - it's quite strong and it's really fresh and we're gonna get loads and loads of flavour our of that so just - just slice it up - get that stuck in there.
Like you can smell it already do you know what I mean? - It's lovely jubbly.
Could you use any other herbs? Yep - you could use coriander which is lovely - coriander and basil - but I've got a lot of coriander in the green curry and I wanna keep the flavours separate so I think that makes sense do you know what I mean.
Right so what I wanna do now is dress - dress it like a normal salad - a good pinch of pepper - a good pinch of salt - and I'm gonna use limes - two limes and that's gonna give it a - as opposed to lemon it's gonna be really zingy.
Something that will help get the juice out is just to put your weight on it and roll it like that - roll it off and you've got that fragrance of the skin straight away and you can peel the skin - finely chop it and just put it in a pan with some fish - panned fried fish or something like that - that'll work brilliantly.
But I don't want the skin.
I just want the juice and just shove your hand inside and give it a good old squeeze.
And then you wanna put about the same amount of olive oil as the lime juice - er - and now just give it a little toss over.
Or you can mix it - or get your hand stuck in - just toss it over and the colours are amazing and what we're gonna do now is just put your finger at the bottom where all the kind of dressing dripping down to - and taste it - little bit more salt - just so everything's like perfectly bit of pepper and - I think - an optional now - which I think I'll go for is er - a little bit of chillie - just split them in half and scrap the seeds out the middle.
It gives it a little bit of heat - not hot - I'm not talking anywhere near blowing your head off - but what I'm talking about is a really really nice sort of warmth that works with the cucumbers and the tomatoes and the limes and it just - I think it brings it all together really well.
Yeah - this will sit quite happily for a bit of time - letting all the sort of flavours come out of the chillies and everything to combine a bit and it's you know it's a really colourful thing - in the middle of the table - lovely.
Right to go with my pucker curry right I'm gonna make the perfect rice and I know everyone knows how to make rice - but this is a special way that I use to make it really light and really fluffy and I like it.
Boil up the rice - in boiling salted water for about 4 or 5 minutes and then at that stage the rice is just slightly under cooked and I put a little bit of water back in the pan - put the colander over it - and whack it back on there.
Bit of tin foil over and basically - water's draining off now and it's gonna come to the boil and start steaming again and that's gonna really help to make it lovely and light - takes about five minutes and then it'll be perfectly ready to eat.
TEMPURA AND DIPPING SAUCE What I'm gonna make now is a thing called tempura which is basically is a really really pucker crispy batter and you can deep fry like vegetables or meat or fish but I'm gonna do vegetables today with dipping sauces and I think it's the dipping sauce that really - you got that big crunch and you've got the lovely inside but the dipping sauce is what you want and I'll show you how to make - it's very, very simple and you can vary it any old way.
I've got rice wine vinegar here.
Rice wine vinegar's slightly more mild than like white wine vinegar but I mean you can use it.
What you've got to do is sweeten it and it's very simple and you can just do it to your own taste.
So if you just get a little bowl.
I'm gonna put in about half a pint okay - and I'm gonna add about three kind of dessertspoons of sugar to this and you just stir it until it goes clear.
Just keep tasting - and - what you wanna do is take that harshness out of the vinegar - so it's just beautiful for dipping.
Put a little bit more in I think - yeah.
Right so you've got your sweet and sour there - that's there.
What we need to do now is get loads and loads of flavour.
I've got coriander here - just a little handful - and this is how easy it is you know.
I'm just gonna chop it up and whop it in there.
And I want some chillies - just scrap out most of the seeds.
How did - how did the gig go? The gig was superb mate honestly - it was such a cracker and it was a real laugh.
Got a bit sweaty though - I like to get into it a bit.
Right kind of finelyish chopped - in it goes.
Now garlic's quite important actually - not much but just a little bit of garlic - not garlic that's gonna punch you round the face but garlic that just kind of changes the flavour - it gives you that kind of - I'm talking like a wine merchant - And I probably use a quarter - so just finely chop it - and that'll be enough to make it completely taste different.
Give it a good old stir round - Right - yeah wicked.
Those flavours are really strong.
But of salt and pepper - always important and that tastes alright now - but give it like ten minutes or give it an hour - that'll be like a tea-bag - there'll be loads of flavours all over the place.
So that's the dipping sauce done? Yeah - end of story.
Just going to put it into some little bowls - and er - I'll put them in the middle of the table and they can just dip away.
TEMPURA Now I'm gonna make the batter - very important you've gotta make it last minute.
All you need is cornflour and plain or strong flour.
And what I need to do is I need double normal flour to cornflour - so it's one cup of cornflour to two lots of normal flour.
Lovely - right okay.
We need water, okay but we need ice cold water and if - if you've got it hanging about - fizzy mineral water or soda water seems to give it a little bit of an edge.
But if not you know cold - very cold - ice cold water is perfect.
It has to be ice cold? It just helps it - it's like - imagine we're gonna deep fry it yeah - very hot - imagine something really cold hitting that - it's just gonna go - straight away it's gonna make it really crunchy so Some water - swish it around a bit - let it cold cold.
Now - this is the important bit about tempura.
We're not gonna let it - we're not gonna make it and let it rest like normal batters right.
We wanna make it right at the last minute - we're not gonna whip it with a whish so it's really smooth - I'm gonna use like the back of a spoon of a chopstick and what that'll give you is kind of a lump batter and I know that sounds really freaky but the little lumps help to make it really crispy and it's quite characteristic of tempura in general really.
Right so this - this water's really cold now - so what I'm gonna do is just pour it in - add it bit by bit - stir it in slowly - You want it to be about double cream - just slightly thicker than double cream consistency - Lovely - that's perfect - absolutely stunning.
Right so I've gotta wicked selection of vegetable here.
I've got green beans, I've got chillies - I've got mushrooms - I've got courgettes - I've not asparagus - we've got sweet potato - I've got onions.
I've got broccoli - you know herbs - little corns - so just get a bit of everything in there - you don't want to overload the frying oil so just kind of do little bits at a time and use your - your chop stick to kind of just fold it all over -just to coat it.
And shake off any excess if there is any - and this oil - I've got hot oil here and it's been heating up slowly - this is at 200 - 220 degrees It you haven't got a thermometer - you can get 'em for about five quid - all you have to do is dip it in and if it kind of starts to fry quite fast that's fine - if it's a really viscous fry you don't want that and if it's not frying at all - then it's too cold.
So just keep your eyes peeled.
Kind of flick it away from you - just so that if any like splashes of oil come in they don't go anywhere near your.
What sort of oil is it? It's just normal like sunflower oil.
So you get your first load in quick - otherwise they'll all be cooked at different times.
What's your favourite vegetable in it? I reckon my favourite must be the chillies - the mushrooms and the sweet potatoes - I just love those - so good.
So so tasty.
Right so I'm just gonna use one of these things just to turn it over a bit and don't be viscous with it but just kind of like turn 'em over - make sure they're not sticking - move 'em about a little bit and I just feel already they're really really crispy.
The only thing that determines how you should cut things up is like for instance - that batter cooks in about two and a half, three minutes okay - to be perfectly crisp and slightly golden - right and things like the asparagus tips and the courgettes and the chillie they're all gonna be perfectly edible in that time.
But things like sweet potatoes which are quite hard er - because of the three minutes - you've gotta cut it to a thickness which is gonna be you know nice and edible in three minutes you know - so something like that - sort of like thick kind of crisp.
So these are ready - so just shake off the excess oil and then lay it out on the paper - wicked.
I'm really pleased with these so basically what I'm gonna do now is put a little bit of salt on them - cos I thing that makes lovely jubbly and just test one.
Mmm - hot and crispy - Mmm - perfect.
Right I'm gonna get on now and cook these in batches and I wanna keep feeding the old troops cos they're ravenous now so I'm gonna crack on.