The way the nation is eating
is changing fast, and we all know
we should be eating a lot less meat,
and I 'm going to prove
to you it's a lot easier
than you may think.
The supermarket shees are packed
full of meat and dairy aernatives,
but which ones are packed
full of flavour?
I 'll experiment to find out
which products
deserve a permanent
place in your kitchen.
I 'll be sharing my recipes
for classic dishes
and fami favourites to prove
to you
you can say goodbye to meat
without saying goodbye
to your favourite foods.
Move over, bland lentil stews
and soggy nut roasts!
This is how you cook proper
vegetarian food
like you won't believe.
Join me and live life on the veg.
Now, if you're not used to cooking
vegetarian food, a lot of people
would think it's quite bland
and monotone,
but it real doesn't have to be.
And throughout this series,
I 'm going to show you a few tips
and tricks about how to get the
most out of your food - including
this one, which is my spicy
chilli oil.
I 've got a real simple ramen
going on here, it's got some stock
boiling and some noodles.
These things are fine on their own,
but I want to kind of proper
liven it up, so l 'm going to show
you how to do this as well.
So we've got some Sichuan pepper.
If you're not familiar
with Sichuan pepper,
it's unmistakable.
It kind of fil your nose.
It makes you want to salivate.
It gives you a kind of a
numbing taste.
It's delicious and it's essential.
So here we've got some dried
chilli.
This is obvious going
to give it a bit of a
kind of an earthy heat.
This gives you all the colour
and all the strength.
This is just chilli powder.
And then, last, we've got
some Chinese five spice.
You buy this in one little pot
in the supermarket and it is...
lt is delicious.
If you like kind of hoisin sauce,
those duck wraps,
that's what it reminds you of.
So l want this in a hurry,
so this is my quick chilli oil.
So what l 'm going to do is bring
all the flavours of these
dry spices out in the pan.
I 'm then going to add some
hot oi and then it's ready.
So a tablespoon of the
chilli flakes,
about a tablespoon of the Sichuan
pepper again,
because it's real delicious
and numbing and I love it.
About a teaspoon of chilli powder
and then the same of the five spice.
Real, real, real strong,
almost addictive flavours in here.
OK, so that's good.
Let's get on with the rest.
So we need some garlic in here.
And then obvious a good dose
of fresh ginger.
Now, you can see these spices
are near ready. You can smell...
You can smell them. They're real,
real pungent as wel
and that's good.
That's what you want.
If you start burning them
at this stage, then it's going to
go real bitter
and you need to lose them.
So just keep an eye on them
because what you're doing
is just drawing out all
those natural oi.
They smell great. Right,
in with the ginger,
in with garlic.
Give that a mix.
And then, in here, l 've got some
oil - just regular plain veg oil.
Don't be using olive oil.
It's not necessary and it'll ao
sort of change the taste
of the dish as well. Get that up to
a real high temperature,
and then we're going to put
that straight over those spices,
over the ginger and the garlic,
and it's all going to sizzle,
and then it's going to be ready.
I nstant chilli oil.
And that is it.
That's your chilli oil.
Obvious, don't be trying it now!
But when it's nice and coo
that will add so much flavour
to so many dishes.
And then we put it in a little jar,
put it in the fridge,
it'll keep for weeks.
So let's fry some eggs to go
on top of this ramen.
And what l 'm going to do is fry
it in that nice chilli oi
so l 'm going to do a
double fried egg.
So one whole egg and then one yolk.
So we've got the two yolks and the
one white. OK, so let's put some
of that chilli oil in the base
of the pan.
Quite a lot.
So when the oil is sizzling...
in with the double egg.
OK, so the eggs are almost ready
to go, so let's bring the ramen in.
And then l 'm going to pack
that with some fresh veg.
The veg l 'm using, l 'm using some
bok choy, some spring onions,
got some little shredded peas here,
or the mangetout, rather.
And some green beans. And the reason
I use these is because they keep
their colour, they keep
their texture,
they're real quick to cook.
And last, l 've got a bit of red
chilli, a bit of fresh red chilli
for a bit of crunch but ao a bit
of vibrancy, a bit of colour.
So let's have some of that ginger
and chilli oil.
And then last...
just a few sesame seeds.
That is it.
So, there you go.
The simplest chilli oil can elevate
the most humble of dishes.
Right. Let's see how hot
this real is.
That's real hot.
It is real good, though.
That's delicious.
Coming up, l 'll show you how
to transform butternut squash
into a spicy Mexican taco
with black bean.
That is everything you want
in a taco.
And jane Baxter's making grilled
polenta, braised greens
and a delicious blue cheese sauce.
Put it down and leave them.
To try any of the recipes from the
series, go to channe.comlveg.
To try any of the recipes from the
series, go to channe.comlveg.
Including more veg
in your diet is not on
good for you, but can ao
help you save money.
Now, vegetables are cheap and
there's aays some sort of deal
going on in the supermarket aisles,
so I want to show you how to make
the most of these amazing
ingredients.
Now, squash, pumpkin - same fami.
These are very seasonal.
These, however, aren't.
These are available all year round.
These are butternut squash.
This is what they look like inside.
Great for hollowing out and stuffing
and roasting.
Natural real, real sweet and
stand up well to some real,
real strong flavours, so l 've got
the perfect recipe in mind for this.
First thing, squash.
They're pretty dense to get into,
so just be careful.
You're going to eat this
with your hands, so you don't want
the chunks to be too big.
Now, squashes are real, real
good at picking up other flavours,
and often you find real kind of
strong smoky flavours
in Mexican food.
So l 'm just going to toss this
squash with some dried chilli.
There's some cumin going in here.
And something that's quite special.
This chipotle chilli. Now, if you
haven't come across this before,
it's real beautiful smoky
and it's real, real pokey.
Real, real spicy and hot.
Dried sage, because that sits
nice with the squash
and some whole cumin seeds as well.
So get yourseff a baking tray
and then throw the squash on.
A little bit of oi a little bit
of sa and pepper,
and then toss it all together.
So, a good pinch of each.
And then some olive oil.
Give the squash a real good
rummage in the pan and make sure
it's all covered
in those delicious spices.
Right, so these are ready to go
into the oven.
180 for around about 30 minutes.
So, on with the next bit. Now, this
is the tomato and chilli saa,
and the nice thing
about this is that people
can build their own tacos.
So if you don't want it
that spicy, that's fine.
It just means that people
can put less on at the end.
Let's get things started.
So you need to dry fry these.
So no oi so complete dry.
A little bit of sa going in there.
Nice tip with this -
if you grab a pan, something heavy,
and just weight it down,
and that forces the chilli
onto the heat, and you can turn
them haffway through and they just
go nice and blistered.
So, onto the saa,
so we need to chop up some tomatoes.
I like using these big beef
tomatoes.
There's loads and loads
of flavour in these, but ao
these little cherry tomatoes.
Very, very sweet.
So a combination of the two
is perfect.
Go for it and chop it all up.
Seeds and everything.
Let's add some coriander to this.
Now, l 'm going to use the st*lks
for this element,
just super-fine shredded.
There's so much flavour in
coriander st*lks.
Make sure you don't waste them.
So now we need to add some
lime, and all these flavours,
they're essential in Mexican
cooking.
I don't want to lose any
of that juice.
So now let's get it into a bowl
and then we can mix
everything real well.
So, chillies. l think if you want
heat, you need to keep the seeds in.
If you don't want it that hot,
just don't use so much chilli.
It doesn't look like a lot, but it
will be hot enough, believe me.
Next stage, l need to pull out
the squash.
And now we're going to add
the black beans.
If we just drain off that liquor
and then spread them on the tray,
they're just going to dry out
a touch and then they go
just a little bit crispy.
They go back into the oven for
another sort of ten minutes or so.
Right, onto the all-important
guacamole. I like using these.
It's kind of authentic and it ao
gives you a real good
texture as well.
You can chop it all down if you
don't have one of these at home,
but this keeps it a little bit
kind of coarse, a little bit rough.
So it's nice ripe avocados.
Scoop your avocado in here,
but then it wants to go black
real, real quick,
so we need to get some more
lime juice in here.
Avocados are real, real rich,
real fatty.
And the lime juice cuts
all the way through that.
Generous amount of sa, pinch of
pepper
and then start smashing it down.
I n with some garlic - about a clove.
A little bit of coriander.
Again, l 'm going to use some
of the st*lks in there,
so we're going to save the leaves
to garnish the finished taco.
So that's the guacamole. We've got
our saa and now we need some
little toppings, so l 've got
some feta cheese.
Or you could use a little bit
of cheddar, just again
for that kind of creaminess.
And l 've ao got these little
crispy onions.
You can buy these in most
supermarkets now.
They just give that extra crunch.
And then, final, l 've got some
little radishes here.
Again, a little bit of heat,
kind of peppery heat,
but a bit of colour and texture.
So we've got our toppings. Time to
get the squash out the oven.
So this is our roasted squash and
the beans.
They're nice dried out,
a little bit crispy.
So for this recipe, we're using
these soft flour tortillas.
You're going to get a nice kind
of charred edge to them.
Just when they start to kind
of blister, just a little bit.
Again, it gives them a
different texture.
It's ao going to start bringing
out the flavour of them.
Let's start building.
A little bit of the sour cream, and
then some of those crispy onions.
A couple of wedges of lime
to squeeze over.
That's good enough to eat.
I 'm telling you now, these are going
to be incredib messy to eat.
But that's kind of haff the fun,
right?
That is everything you want
in a taco.
That is a real kind of taste
of Mexico, real.
It's zesty, there's loads
and loads of chilli.
We've got that kind of
veety guacamole
and that crunch in the onions.
It's just delicious.
Jane Baxter's full of inspiring
tips and tricks when it comes to
cooking vegetables, and l know
she'll aays
teach me something new.
So, Bax, let's talk about
vegetarian friends.
You know, when they come over,
do you have like a go-to dish
that you aays do?
Yeah, I have quite a few.
The aubergine parmigiana, the
aubergine polpettine is a good one.
Right. A grilled vegetable risotto
cake is a good one.
Grilled green vegetables, polenta,
a nice blue cheese sauce.
OK. Those are your kind of
standards? Yeah, yeah. OK.
And what are we having today?
We're going to do the polenta. Yeah?
Yep. OK, let's go do it. OK.
OK, so polenta. Yeah.
It's not everyone's favourite.
No, it's not. Definitely not.
Now, there's two types, right?
There's the slow cook and the quick
cook. Which is your favourite?
Erm, the slow cook. Why's that?
The slow cook and this is what
we're doing now.
I think the result is far superior.
Takes a little bit of love and time.
OK. But we're going to put...
We're going to do this,
and I have my measured water,
and I 'm going to slowly pour in
the polenta into simmering water.
You can see it's thickening up now.
What next?
Next, we are going to prep
our vegetables. Mm-hm.
We have some lovely cavolo nero
here. Beautiful. Black kale.
Right, show us how you prep this,
then.
One swift action like that.
Like that.
Pull off the leaves.
I have some boiling salted
water over here.
OK. How long does that take?
Just a couple of minutes
until it's just soft. OK. Yeah.
And then we're going to drain it
and refresh it under cold water.
Squeeze out all the excess moisture.
And here we have our cooked kale.
OK. Shrinks down quite a lot, then.
It does shrink down a lot.
Roughly chop it. Mm-hm.
And we will braise this in a minute.
So let's move on to the... our
other two vegetables. OK.
Leeks and purple sprouting broccoli.
We're going to cook
these in a sandwich toaster. OK.
This is one of your mad
ideas, which actual works.
What this does is it grills it
and it steams it
at the same time. Right.
So you're not losing any goodness.
OK. You're getting a bit
of char on it.
Yeah. It's a really good way
of cooking veg.
So I split my leeks in half
so they've got a flat surface.
Yep. And I 'm just going to put
them straight in. No oi
No, it's not necessary. OK. You've
got a nonstick surface on here.
Put it down.
And leave them.
And then we'll move on to our
purple sprouting broccoli. OK.
Are you going to put that in
there as wel Yeah.
So how long do these leeks take?
About five or six minutes? OK.
Wow! They're looking quite done now,
so I 'm going to get these out
and put in the purple sprouting.
There you go!
Real pleased with yourseff now,
aren't you?
I 'm very pleased with myself!
Right, come on, what now?
OK, so we're going to empty out
the polenta because this is looking
pretty done now. Yeah.
So I 'm just going to let
this cool down now. OK.
And we can start getting some
more flavour into the vegetables.
Mm-hm. We're going to braise them
in a little bit of olive oil,
garlic and some dried chilli. OK.
A bit of chilli. OK, I 'm going
to add this now.
Here we have braised vegetables.
We're almost ready to go on the
polenta. OK.
So, for the sauce, we're going to
use marjoram. Mm-hm.
Some blue cheese, butter and some
mascarpone. I 'm going to put some
butter into this pan here.
Mm-hm.
Grate in some garlic.
A little bit in there.
And then just take off some leaves.
Gorgeous. Do you use
marjoram a lot?
I love marjoram. Yeah.
OK, so the blue cheese.
It's not too strong. No.
Straight in with that.
A little bit of mascarpone... Wow.
..just to help it. OK. Rich.
And give it a stir
until it's all combined. OK.
The mascarpone helps it to
come together
and make a really lovely sauce.
Let's get the polenta on.
We're going to turn this out
and drizzle it with a little bit
of oil. OK.
And then I 'm going to cut this
into some chunks. Random pieces.
Random pieces at a jaunty angle.
And then stick it in here now.
Try and get some nice marks
going across it.
So, while this is cooking... Yeah.
..we're going to get on with our
sage and walnuts. OK. Melt a
little bit of butter.
I n goes the sage.
And you're just frying that
till it's crisp? Yeah.
OK, so I 'm taking some walnuts here.
OK.
I 'm just going to roughly chop them.
Just going to add those to the
butter, just to toast those lightly.
Salt.
So how's the polenta doing?
It's coming along. I 'm just going
to flip it over.
Ah, OK.
And then just give it a few more
minutes, and we'll put
the whole thing together. OK. Good!
We're going to finish this with
a drizzle of our very rich sauce.
My word!
Some sage and nuts,
and a little bit of cheese. Mm-hm.
Looks amazing. Right, shall
we eat it? OK, yep. Come on.
Jane, this is obvious
delicious, as I 'd aays expected,
but the real star of the show?
It's the toasted sandwich maker!
Exact.
Yes, it absolute is. Cheers!
Genius!
Coming up, l 'm testing a variety
of dairy aernatives
that you can use in the kitchen.
Then l 'm using some oat yoghurt to
make a creamy butter bean hummus.
This is a great way to elevate
a real, real simple dish.
To try any of the recipes
from the series,
go to channe.comíveg.
Go to channe.comíveg.
Lots of us are choosing to swap out
cow's milk for dairy-free
aernatives, so l 'm going to head
to a coffee shop to essential try
the most delicious, and get some
inspiration for the kitchen.
Hi. Hello. How are you doing?
OK, so l 'd like to try an oat milk,
an almond and a soy latte.
Of course.
And this is all vegan? It is, yeah.
Even the pastries?
Even the pastries.
OK, l 'll have a pain au
chocolat, please. Nice.
So, over the last five years or so,
veganism has real, real
taken off in this country,
and more and more places
like this are cropping up. But now
the big chains are getting invoed.
Things like Costa and Starbucks,
Caffe Nero,
they're all buying into this,
and so dairy-free aernatives
are real, real accessible.
Hiya! I 've got your coffees here
for you. Hi. Love. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
So this is soya milk latte.
Now, this was the original
milk aernative.
It's been around for about 50 years.
And it tastes OK. lt's creamy.
It's still a bit kind of, you know,
you can tell it's not milk.
Moving on.
So this is an almond milk latte.
Now...
Almond milk to me is quite watery.
Almost tastes like somebody has put
almond essence in my coffee
as wel which is a bit odd.
Stil it's different.
OK, and last, we've got oat milk.
It's got a love oaty taste.
It looks good, it hasn't split,
and it's got a real nice texture,
so this will be a good one
to cook with.
So this shows you there's lots
and lots of vegan aernatives
out there to dairy, and l 'm sure
I can put these to good use.
But first, do you know what?
I 'm going to finish this.
This is my recipe for a butter bean
hummus with roasted broccoli
and tahini dressing.
First thing we need to do
is the broccoli, so we're going
to roast that. lt gets it nice
and kind of crispy,
and a little bit more intense.
You don't lose any of that flavour
like you do
when you boil vegetables either.
So a good amount of olive oil.
Some butter beans.
And if you're using them
like this, drain off the liquid.
And this is tenderstem broccoli
by the way.
This is kind of one of my
favourites. Plenty of sa,
a decent amount of pepper.
And... some of the butter beans.
And last, some spice.
Now this is ras el hanout.
You can get this in all
supermarkets now,
and it's the kind of the principal
spice of North Africa.
A generous amount of that.
OK, give that a bit of a jumble up,
and then throw it in the oven -
high temperature - about 180
degrees,
for around about 15 to 20
minutes.
OK, so on with the main event,
the hummus.
So... in a blender,
throw in the rest of those
butter beans.
We're going to need some more,
though, as well.
A good amount of sa,
and then juice of a lemon.
OK, so in with some garlic.
I 'm going to put two fat
cloves in here.
Good slug of olive oil...
and then this magic ingredient,
tahini.
Now, this is just sesame seeds
which have been blended up,
and at this stage it's quite bitter.
But by the time you've got
your butter beans in there
and the lemon, it's delicious.
So, last, we're going to add
the oat cream.
OK, so what you want to do is check
the consistency,
and that's pretty much what
you're looking for.
It's quite a thick paste,
so l 'm going to just check
that for seasoning.
It needs a little bit more sa,
a slug of olive oi
and l 'm going to put
a little bit of pepper in there.
OK, so that's it.
That is the hummus done. Right, on
with the tahini dressing.
So l 'm going to need some garlic,
just one clove of garlic,
some more tahini, and another lemon.
So work that together and then just
a little bit, just a splash,
of maple syrup.
Then we're going to
add some of this oat yoghurt.
This is quite interesting.
So, as dairy aernatives go,
I think this is actual...
actual pretty good.
It's got the creaminess of yoghurt.
It's ao got that kind of sourness.
OK, so onto the pomegranate. Now,
take a small knife and then cut
from top to toe, almost
like you're cutting an orange
into a segment.
You want to lever that apart,
like that, and then
you'll find you can just turn
the seeds out a lot easier.
So we've almost done our garnish.
I 'm going to go and get the
broccoli from the oven.
OK, there, that's what you want.
Nice little crispy butter beans.
Broccoli is cooked through,
nice and kind of roasted.
We're almost there.
So some fresh herbs,
some nice, fresh mint.
Keep the leaves.
Keep them whole.
The mint and the dill here just kind
of... almost kind of refreshing
real in a dish like this. Makes
it kind of light and summery.
And l think in a dish like this,
it's real important to spend time
over the garnish because
it's this element that elevates it
from that plastic pot
that you buy in a supermarket,
which is a bit kind of like, meh,
to something which you can sit
down and proper enjoy.
Some of those crispy butter beans.
A little bit of that tahini
dressing.
And then, last, the garnish.
Pomegranates.
A little jumble of the fresh herbs.
Last but not least,
a few pistachios.
There you go.
I can guarantee you you'll never buy
that shop-bought hummus again.
I want to eat this because it looks
real, real inviting.
Delicious, fresh-looking colours.
That's delicious. lt's got that
real creamy tahini.
As a combination, the charred
broccoli, that real zing of the
pomegranate, and those fresh herbs
that real liven everything up.
This is a great way to elevate
a real, real simple dish.
Butter chicken is one of Britain's
favourite takeaway dishes,
so l 'm going to show you a delicious
vegetarian version
that you guys can try at home.
So, first thing we need to do
is the rice.
I used to struggle with cooking rice
quite a lot until I discovered
this - real, real simple.
Basical, you need double
water to rice.
So for this, l 'm going to use two
of these. Four jugs of water.
And then we're going to put
a foil lid on it and bake it.
I 'm going to add just a touch
of curry powder to this.
You could add some spices
if you want.
Add anything you like, real,
but the basic rice dish
is just the water and the rice.
Add some sa.
Tight foil lid. That goes into
a hot oven - about 180,
for about sort of 30 minutes.
OK, so, on with the rest of it.
So this curry is going to be
full of paneer.
Now, this is a staple in l ndian
cookery.
If you haven't come across it
before, it's a great flavour,
it's a great textured cheese.
It holds its shape real,
real well when it's cooked.
It doesn't kind of crumble
and fall apart.
And paneer is real, real good
at taking on strong flavours.
Perfect for this dish.
We want it crispy. We want it crispy
on the outside and nice and soft
in the middle.
So let's get some oil in the pan.
And then, when the paneer goes in,
it's going to start to colour and go
nice and crispy and golden.
Right, pan looks hot,
so in with the paneer.
Now, leave it alone, and we'll
start to get
that nice golden colour on it.
So this paneer will colour quite
quick, so keep it moving
around the pan. lf it looks like the
paneer is racing ahead of you
and it's getting a little bit
too coloured,
then get it out the pan,
get it to one side
and then we're going to add
it back to the pan a bit later on.
On with the rest.
So we need an onion - sliced onion.
Now, if you're looking for
vegetarian dishes,
l ndian cuisine is a real,
real good place to start.
I mean, haff the country are
vegetarian. There's loads and loads
and loads of recipes, and there's
ao loads of recipes using paneer.
And if you haven't tried it before,
give it a try.
Because, like l said,
it takes on so many flavours
and it real is delicious.
It's ao packed full of protein,
and it's a real good filler.
Start caramelising the onions
and then the paneer is going to go
back in in just a bit.
OK, so, in with some garlic cloves.
Like so many dishes from l ndia,
this is the basic building
blocks of the flavour.
I n with those onions.
And then we've got a chilli.
So l 'm going to use one of these hot
chillies, but I 'm not going to touch
it - l 'm just going to throw
the whole thing in.
This is not a spicy curry,
so this is perfect for anyone
in the fami, real.
Right, next in goes some ginger.
And the nice thing about curries
l aays find is that you don't
real miss the meat.
There's so much flavour and there's
so much going on in there
that it's real not necessary.
You want to real sort
of caramelise those onions nice.
That's going to bring out so much
natural sweetness in the onions
and give the finished dish
a real depth.
Let's talk about the spices.
So here we've got some fenugreek
and we've got some cardamom.
These are kind of essential
to this dish.
And here we've got some cumin
and then we've got garam masala.
Garam masala,
you can buy it in supermarkets
as a predetermined sort of mix.
Many, many families have their own
garam masala dish, and they're often
a close guarded secret.
So the onions are caramelising
nice.
This will take some time,
and it's worth holding out for this
because it real adds so much
to your finished dish.
On with the spices.
I 'm going to use about a teaspoon
of the fenugreek
and the cardamom,
and then a tablespoon of the
garam masala and the cumin.
OK, so spices in. l 'm just going
to add a touch of water
because l don't want those
spices to burn.
So that's going to cool the pan
down rapid, but it's going to help
bring out all of those flavours.
OK, so that's our base.
So, in with some tomatoes,
just tinned chopped tomatoes.
And then the crucial bit.
OK, so that's the sauce. Now,
this is the special bit.
It's a lot of butter.
It's called butter chicken
for a reason -
because it gets quite a lot.
I 'm going to put a squeeze of lemon
in there, just to sort of
cut through that richness.
So when you add that amount
of butter to a dish,
you need to spend some time
over it. Make sure you stir it in
and then that butter gets
emuified within the dish,
and that's what makes it
real, real veety.
So when you look at the sauce
and it's nice and thick and kind
of indulgent looking, that's
when you need to add some cream.
This real isn't an everyday
dish by any stretch,
but it will be absolute delicious.
So, last, a good squeeze of lemon
to give it a little lift,
a little bit of freshness.
Let's try it.
That's delicious.
This is good to go.
This smel amazing.
So many flavours, so many spices
in there.
Right, rice.
OK, there you go.
This is such an easy way
to cook rice.
OK, it's not traditiona
but I 'm going to put a little bit
of coriander on the side of my
curry. That can be stirred in.
And then, final, just a little
bit more cream.
And that is it. Right!
There's on one way to serve that,
and that's fami-style
at the table.
So good!
Coming up, my friend and pastry
chef Ravneet Gill is coming round
to show me her recipe
for a Basque cheesecake
served with roasted rhubarb.
So easy. So delicious.
To try any of the recipes
from the series,
go to channe.comíveg.
To try any of the recipes
from the series,
go to channe.comíveg.
Now, reducing your meat
consumption doesn't mean
you're going to have to miss out
on your favourite treats.
Take desserts, for example.
Some of them are already vegan,
some of them already vegetarian.
Right, Ravneet, come in.
Thank you! This is my kitchen.
My friend Ravneet Gill is showing me
her Basque cheesecake recipe.
It's quick and easy,
and it's perfect to make ahead
when you're having friends
over for dinner.
So I 've got cream cheese,
which is the star.
And it has to be good quality
cream cheese, full fat.
I 'm going to put the
cream cheese in.
But it's important
it's at room temperature.
Yeah, because if it's not,
whenever you work with cream cheese,
if it's too cold, it can
split sometimes. OK.
I need some sugar. Caster sugar.
Caster sugar, down there.
Have you made one of these before?
I 've made cheesecake.
I 've never made a Basque cheesecake.
Well, this is very, very easy.
Let's put that in. There you go.
And then... OK... and people are
always impressed with it,
but it took, like,
five minutes to make!
Brilliant!
We're going to crack some
eggs in here.
OK, that wasn't on long. No.
What are you doing?
Just literal just loosening it?
Yeah.
And essentially, like, dissolving
that caster sugar
in the cream cheese. OK. Yeah.
And now I 'm just cracking some eggs.
OK. There's five eggs that go
in this.
And then we just put them in,
a few at a time. Yep.
Now, it's going to look a
little bit sort of curdled,
is it, at this point?
Slightly, but it's not a bad thing.
Now I 'm going to put cornflour in.
So, traditionally, this recipe
has a bit of flour in it. Right.
But I use cornflour because
it's gluten free
and it binds it in the same way.
If I just threw it in now, you'd
get bits of it in your jaw,
I always find, so I like to blend
it first with some sour cream. OK.
And the sour cream is going
to take the edge off that,
the sweetness. Yeah, because I just
don't like desserts that are too
sweet, even though I am a
pastry chef.
So, once this is mixed,
I 'm going to put some cream in.
And then, do you have flaky salt?
I do have flaky sa.
There's quite a bit of sugar
in this. Sure.
So if you don't put the salt,
it's just sweetness
and caramelisation,
but the salt balances it out.
All you do is pour it in here.
Can I give you this to scrape it in?
Absolute.
OK. And then all you do, it's
another few seconds of just mixing.
Right.
That's it. Great, right?
Now you take a cake tin... Yeah?
And this is another thing
that I love about this cheesecake,
is you just take a massive
sheet of paper... Yeah.
I really don't like lining
cake tins.
I think it's a really
boring thing to do.
So I like this recipe.
You just go like this.
Oh, right. OK.
Yeah. So you're going to get
that kind of rough exterior.
And it's meant to be like that.
And you just pour this in.
So what about the base? That's it.
There's no base? There's no base.
It's a cheesecake without a base.
I love this. Yeah!
This is so, so easy!
And all that happens now
is this just goes into the oven,
and you can go and relax.
It takes 20 minutes at a high
temperature to get that colour
on top, and then 20 minutes at a
slightly lower temperature
to cook the middle.
So we'll worry
about that in just a bit.
Now, what about this rhubarb?
What are you doing with that?
I love rhubarb. I always
look forward to it
because I think we spend so long
in winter without colourful
fruit and veg. Mm-hm.
And then when rhubarb comes
around, I 'm always so excited.
Exact. It's exciting, right?
So I always put my rhubarb in a tray
with enough space. You never want to
overcrowd it because all we're
trying to do is flash it. Sure.
And if we're overcrowded it,
we'd get bits
that were cooked and bits
that were uncooked. OK.
And you can put a bit of vanilla,
but it's optional. Yeah.
So I 'm only going to use
half in this.
And then once it's come out of the
oven, I 'll wash it and dry
it off and put it in my sugar.
You can put spices in if you like.
Yeah. And if you've got enough time,
I like to macerate it in the sugar
and let it sit for about
half an hour at room
temperature before I roast it.
OK, so is the rhubarb ready?
Yes. Right.
How do you know it's ready?
I 'm going to show you.
OK, so it's, uh, yeah, it's just
holding its shape.
It should feel tender. lt does.
And because the tin is hot,
it's going to carry on cooking
in that residual heat for another
few minutes. So just let it sit,
and I always think it's better
to be slightly under than over.
Otherwise, it will be really stringy
and it won't hold its shape.
And when we present it, we want it
to look beautiful. OK, cool.
Now, what about the cheesecake?
Cheesecake is done.
I 'm going to show you the signs
to tell when it is done,
but it would have ballooned
up a bit. Oh, wow.
And it should have a wobble.
Nice! So it does rise quite a lot,
huh? Yeah. That's the eggs.
That's the eggs. Let it cool now.
We're not going to cut it now.
If we did, it would go everywhere.
We need to let it set back up again.
Yeah.
And then, when we slice it,
because we have the wobble
in the middle, it will be creamy
inside. Nice! Yes.
And that's perfect. Exactly.
I guess we'll have to wait.
It's very elegant. Thank you!
Even though it's kind of real
rustic. And it's very simple.
It's real creamy. Yeah.
I thought it was going to be
a lot denser than that.
Mm!
Very good! Good?
Real good. And I love this
because, you know the very edge
is cooked a bit more? Uh-huh.
And you get that, like,
kind of cakiness from the edge,
and then it's so velvety
in the middle.
There's two distinct kind
of flavours, isn't it? Mm.
With that charred top.
And then the rhubarb, I think
it's so beautiful next to it
because it contrasts gorgeously,
but it gives you that sharpness here
that you need with something rich.
Do you know what? That is...
It's so easy, so delicious,
and it's just real,
real achievable. I love it.
Converted you on the no-base
cheesecake. Absolute, absolute.
You've won me over.
So, yeah, I appreciate that.
Thanks for coming!
If you'd like to try any
of the recipes from the series,
go to channe.comíveg.
We'd love to see you making
these at home, so make sure
to tag any pictures -
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