Testing Global Cooking Techniques we’ve NEVER tried before

We’ve looked at global ingredients before but what about international cooking techniques? Our normals are in the hot seat and ready for what Ben throws at them!

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– Hello, welcome back. Today we’re gonna explore a few cooking methods from specific global cuisines. The question is, have the boys ever seen them before? And are they impressed? – We’ve been around the block a few times, Ebbers, we know it all. – [Ebbers] Well, lift the cloche number one. – [Barry] Steak.

– This is a prime cut of quality beef. And what we are looking at is battuta. Ever heard of it? – Battuta. Battuta. Battuta. – Does it help? Why do you say like that that? – Trying to work out, does it have to be pronounced in certain way? Battuta.

I’m guessing ’cause it’s a knife here, is it down to a carving method? – So battuta, when translated to English, kind of means “to beat.” – Oh, okay. – Or “to hit.” And it’s from the north of Italy. And it’s a process of chopping raw beef to end up with

Something we might be more familiar with as a French tartar. So, it is always hand cut rather than minced or processed by machine. – We’re not cooking it. We’re not heating this. – I’ve just been really ill. This is the second meal I’ve had since Sunday.

– You might go home it bat-tooting on the way. – I know. – So, the reason you don’t want to process it by machine is you don’t want to overwork it. But with a sharp knife, you do want to just slice it. Once you’ve got slices on the board,

You can start to battuta it. So, beat it. So, with a knife, hack at it. And we’ve seen this done with, sometimes, multiple knives. So, you’ve literally got, like, two hands chopping with two knives. But you wanna chop it up into really small pieces.

– So, like herbs almost, now you’ve gotta run it through. – Now, all of a sudden it reminds me of which Sri Lankan dish? – Rotie. – Cote rotie. And the sound of that beating that you can hear from miles away. Well, this is kind of doing that. Happy it’s pretty even?

– It’s okay. – In which case, you’re gonna add it into a mixing bowl and season it with salt, pepper, olive oil, and you stir it all together with a clove of garlic squeezed on the end of a fork. Just enough to give it a little garlic scent without it being too garlicy.

So, like rubbing the inside of a bowl with garlic. – Ah. It is glistening. And we don’t crush the garlic? It’s just simply. – It’s kind of bruised a little bit and poked and it’s just enough to give it a garlic nuance. And then the final thing, just before you serve it,

A squeeze of lemon juice. But you don’t want it to sit in the lemon juice too long or else it actually starts to denature those proteins. – Wouldn’t want it to cook at all, would you? – Don’t wanna make ceviche. Nice. Perfect. A perfect portion. Dress it with lambs lettuce.

Depending on the time of year, you could also dress this with truffles. You think about the white truffles you find from places like Alba in Piedmont. Very, very traditional. But otherwise, super, super simple. – [Mike] Look at that. Look at you. – [Ebbers] Right, boys.

– We gotta get a bot of parm on the top, haven’t we? Oh no. What is this? What’s this cheese again? – Grana padano. So simple. Nowhere to hide. – Wow, that’s good. – [Ebbers] You need quality, quality beef. – Wow, that is brilliant. What’re the things I’ve gotta look out for then

When buying meat for this? – From a source that you trust to know that it’s fresh and it’s been well sourced and well looked after. And then keep it cold until you need it. You need it really cold to do that preparation. And then don’t leave it out

For half an hour before people eat it. Like, you want to eat it pretty instantly, moments after adding that lemon juice. But imagine that with, you know, some of the north Italian wines, both white and red with the dish like this, it would be exceptional. Battuta. It’s such a good dish.

That slight nuance of garlic, even from just that single clove, to mix it on the fork. That’s a nice touch. – Lovely start. – Great start. – Lovely start. Are we gonna do some cooking in a minute? – I’ve got another global cooking technique for you. Would you like to see it?

– Bring it. – Do you genuinely think you’re gonna win this? – Yeah, I genuinely do. – Bring your A game. – This is our home ground. You’re on away turf now. – I don’t think I’ll sabotage James. I won’t have to. – I’ve won the last couple of battles

With him involved, and it must hurt. – We’ve been on this journey for 14 years and you haven’t got better. – You haven’t got better. You still cook the same stuff. – We’ve got energy. – We’ve got energy, we’ve got vibes. We can finish each other’s sentences. So, hopefully we be able to finish each other’s dessert.

– A lot of people assume that me and James don’t get on because, you know, I’m the new pretender. But I love it when he’s here just ’cause there’s, you know, someone else do the washing up. – This is like WWE and boxing, fused with cooking and made really, really silly. – If I win, you shave your whole beard off. – Was gonna say, I’m feeling quite nervous. – Oh dear. – Oh dear. – I have to win. – That escalated. – Number two. Where are we going from around the world now? Can you say number two in the dialect or language of this country? – I mean, I could, but. Number two. Where in the world are we going now? – No, you go. We have vinegar. Sherry vinegar.

Bay leaf. Is that bay leaf? A bay leaf. Some thyme, some star anise, cloves. And smoked paprika? – What is the cooking method we’re talking about? – I don’t know, Ebbers. He doesn’t know. – But the smoke is pulling me towards Spain. – You don’t know.

– As is the sherry vinegar, I would hope. This is a Spanish method of cooking, we’re talking about escabeche. – Ah, ah, ah ah, ah. It’s over fish. It’s like a spicy fish. – Often over an oily fish, something like mackerel or sardines. It’s a method of cooking called escabeche. – Oh.

Now it looks Spanish. – Yes. – Now we’re talking. – [Barry] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. – [Mike] Look at that. – So, essentially you make a hot marinade or a hot dressing of vinegar. So, in a pan you soften down onion, garlic, things like bay leaves, some hard herbs,

Add in a bunch of spices and then an awful lot of vinegar. And that hot vinegared liquid gets poured over the fish. Now the fish, some cases is raw, some cases has already been pan fried. Sometimes it’s flour dusted and pan fried first. But essentially it’s the hot vinegar that goes over it

That cooks, marinates and cures the fish all in one. And then it’s served hours, days later, cold. – It looks like a lot of vinegar in there. – It is, and you don’t eat it out in the dish. You would now take the fish out onto a plate

And serve that with salad and bread. – Skin on and everything. Oh. – Surprised, as well, that’s cooked the whole way through, init? – That’s really tasty. – Lovely. – That doesn’t taste too, what’s this? A mackerel? – [Ebbers] Mackerel. – It doesn’t taste too mackerel-y to me.

– Typically, it’s done with oily fish, although you can get. – So smoky, isn’t it? – Meaty or vegetable escabeche, as well. The escabeche is the form of, sort of, curing it in hot vinegar that partially cooks it too. – The vinegar, the smokiness almost tastes sweet. Like fruit. Like a fruity tang.

– Candied. – Yeah. – So, there’s every chance that the caramelization of the onion, sometimes they have a little bit of honey or molasses in, I dunno if this one did. – I also assumed, ’cause it’s vinegar based, it’d be punching my face off. – Yeah.

– But actually, even the sauce itself is really subtle. – That does come from a quality vinegar. But when you say sweet and with the vinegar sour, the whole dish, escabeche, kind of has stems and origins from a dish called al-skepaj, which was Persian. And it was actually a meat dish

That was in a sweet molasses and vinegar dish. As it moved across the Mediterranean and arrived in, kind of, Spanish areas and onto places like Portugal, they applied the same methods of al-skepaj. Then the Spanish travelled and took it to places like Peru and they added in lime and Peruvian chilies,

And you ended up with ceviche. And what I find most fascinating, is the dish continued to Jewish communities in northern Europe, where they battered the fish and then vinegared it, which is why we still have vinegar in our fish and chip shops in the UK. – No way! That is not the reason.

– It is. It started as a Persian dish, became Spanish, and from there travelled up. And even the fish and chips that we have now, battered, always with malt vinegar, stems from this. – Love it. Love that. – I didn’t think I’d love it and I love it. I love it.

– I could do that at home, really easily. – [Ebbers] So easily. – We could’ve done both of these dishes. – The idea of it is quite daunting. – I think you need to write ratios, don’t you? To feel like. Because it is absolutely about how the flavours balance.

– But, I mean, that’s the reason we did the recipe about 10 years ago on the channel was ’cause once you’ve heated up some spices and vinegar and poured it over fish, that’s job done. It’s impressive. But it’s just one that again, we’re not as familiar with in the UK.

It is also a form of preservation, sometimes. It can then be days old before it’s being eaten. ’cause it’s kind of half preserved, still chilled in the fridge in that liquid. – Two things I think I actually will make at home. – Especially if you’ve got access to really fresh oily fish.

And if you’re not comfortable doing the filleting, that somebody else is gonna cut all those bones out for you. Would you like another one? – Yes, please. – We’re loving it, Ebbers. Thank you. – Right, interested to see if this one is new to you. Lift the cloche.

– A giant mound of butter. – Please tell me we’re cooking this one. – [Ebbers] What is that? You might need to get your fingers involved. – It’s a lot of hubba-bubba. – No. What you doing? That looks like chicken fat. Oh no, it’s intestine. – [Ebbers] No, not quite. But it’s sometimes.

– What are you holding? – Can you smell that? – It’s called a caul fat, sometimes known as lace fat. This particular one is from a sheep, but you can also get it from a pig or calf. – I don’t wanna touch it anymore. – You’ve touched it enough. – It’s a membrane.

That goes on the outside of digestive organs. So, intestines and down. So, for the moment we’re gonna focus in on French cuisine. You may have heard it cooked in a dish like crépinettes, which is, like, a flat sausage. But also it can be used at very high end cooking

To trap in delicious food. That’s what we’re gonna do. So, what you were playing with before was the caul fat before it had been entirely washed. What you do is wash it and rinse it in lots of cold water. You can add a bit of lemon juice or vinegar

To really, sort of, clean it and then dry it. What you’ve now got is some prepared stuff. What you’re gonna do is take the piece of very lean, high quality lamb, so cannon of lamb, season it up place on top some of the mousse, and this is a herbie moose,

And then you wrap the whole thing in caul fat. So, years ago I worked in a French pub kitchen with Jean-Christophe Novelli, and this is one of the classic dishes. What it does is extend a very expensive cut of meat by doubling it in size, by adding basically

A cheap, a chicken off cut, with chicken egg white and herbie mousse. And basically you could get away with serving a relatively small piece of lamb as a relatively large protein on the plate. – This is mad. – You can put a little herb underneath. Because, essentially, it’s see through,

It’s like stained glass. – [Mike] What’s this, tarragon? – [Ebbers] Yep. – [Mike] Lovely. – [Ebbers] And then, basically, you can tuck it underneath. Twisty, twisty. And then just sit it down in itself. And you can imagine, if you’re doing this at home for a dinner party of four,

In a restaurant, you might be doing a dozen portions, and those can now be cooked to order and it keeps it wonderful and dainty. What you’ve essentially done is double the portion size of expensive lamb protein with the chicken mousse. – I can’t wait to try it. – Yeah.

– Because it feels, it feels beyond me. But in all honesty, I’m fascinated to try it ’cause I’m sure it tastes great. Okay. That does really cool. How long is that cooked for? – 20 minutes or so. And plenty of resting. But you want a little bit of colour.

The mousse needs to cook through, but you don’t wanna overcook the lamb. – It’s like edible cling film. – Yeah. – Even the way it sticks to itself as you wrap it round again and then it goes completely transparent. Wow, that lamb is beautiful. That mousse!

– [Mike] Oh, Kush has cooked that, hasn’t he? – Wow. Okay. – That’s cool. I can see what it’s doing there. That’s really small. There’s no other way you could do that, is there? – [Mike] It does look classic fine dining, doesn’t it? – Proper old school.

But also a true celebration of nose to tail cooking because you’re using every part of the animal, including something that was protecting the inner offal. – That’s excellent. – The flavour for the lamb and that mousse is in sensational. The lining, you know it’s there, but almost. – It tastes salty.

– Yeah. And it kind of pings back. – Yeah. It’s like any skin. – Yeah. – Almost sausage skin like. But even, even finer than that. ’cause of that lacy fat. And we also use it in British cuisine in things like faggots. In France, they use it for crépinettes,

Which are small flattened sausages that would be wrapped in this way. That way you can extend cheaper cuts and leaner cuts with a little bit of caul fat. – What’s crépinette? What are they? – Crépinettes are long flat minced meat sausages. So, not dissimilar to a British faggot,

Which is round and like a meatball. – This is a game where, like, cooking isn’t artful. Not in a million years am I gonna make that a home. – Never. – But I’m glad it exists. – Self-basting and absolutely delicious. Have you got room for one more? – Yes. – Yes.

– Last one. See if you can guess where we are going from the clues under the cloche. – What? – [Mike] Chilli, spring onion, ginger. – Saucepan and a ladle. – The ladle is more key. The aromats in the ladle might point you in a direction.

– I’m gonna go out on a limb. Chinese hot pot. – You’re half right with Chinese. Specifically Cantonese. – Is it like when you put, like you pour over a hot oil over the fish and aromats? – Absolutely. So, steamed fish that is finished with really, really, really hot oil, ladled over aromats.

So, we’re talking ginger, green onions – How’d you get that? – Seen it on TikTok. – And things like cilantro, coriander. So, the clues under the cloche were a little cryptic. Essentially, the aromats would be over the steamed fish. And then often at the table in front of diners or your guests,

You would finish with the really hot, pretty much at, like, smoking point oil. And it’s just enough to release all the aromats of the fresh stuff and ensures that the dish is served hot. – Ooh. – [Ebbers] Do you wanna try it? – Yes, please. – And that’s kind of how it’s presented.

So, in this case, we’ve got a bass. It’s a delicate fish that’s been steamed, and then all the aromats are thrown on top. Ginger, green onions, little bit of chilli, and a lot of fresh green herbs, typically coriander. That oil is about 230 degrees Celsius.

And you ladle from one side to the other, it will all sizzle beautifully. And then it’s good to go. – Here we go. Let’s go. – It’s hot! – That is really hot. – [Barry] Wow. – And all of a sudden the room is so aromatic. – Oh, mate. – Okay, now it smells. You’re right. That has released everything. – Oh, it’s so gingery. Like, that is so fresh and fiery. – What a centrepiece. – So, it’s steamed, pretty plain, just seasoned.

And then it’s finished with soy and rice wine. And then obviously you’ve added the oil, which is the fat element going all over those aromats. And then you let everyone dig in. – Cheers. – Mm. Oh. Mm. – Wow. – Oh, steamed fish is the best. – Wow.

– That was just a vegetable oil. Sometimes it’s done with a peanut oil, perhaps more traditionally. I’ve got a quote here from Chef Brandon Jew, who says, “the flavour of steamed fish in Cantonese cuisine is all about the essential flavour of a fresh ingredient combined with a pure smooth sweetness.

And that final lashing of hot oil infuses the green onions and ginger into the flesh of the fish and enriches the soy.” And it is that harmony of all of that coming together that makes it so special. Thought to have originated in the Guangdong region of China. And essentially absolutely delicious.

You can vary the aromats and obviously the fish, but it is its simplicity and theatre of the table, that hot oil being ladled over, that finishes it off. – For something so oily, the freshness that runs throughout is really light. – Any final thoughts?

– It’s one of the best things I’ve eaten for a while. – So exciting as a dish. And as a technique, bit of theatre. Worth it. – Italy, Spain, France, and China. Any favourites today? – This one. Although the first two, like, mega achievable.

– This as a dish I think is my favourite. But the the techniques of just simply battuting your meat is the way forward. – Comment down below, have you battutered your meat? Or have you used any of the other cooking techniques yourself?

And we’d love to hear of other ones we may not have tried. Comment down below. – [Barry] Oh no.