Three Home Cooks Transform Cheap Ingredients into Gourmet Dishes

Three normal home cooks have each been given an ingredient that in the past they have called boring because today we want them to create a dish where every element uses that boring ingredient. And the beauty is each of those hero ingredients can be bought for less than a pound. My hero is the cauliflower and I'm going to be making a cacophony of cauliflower. Imagine a chicken fried cauliflower steak on top of a beautiful cauliflower puree, a little cauliflower salsa, plus some pickled cauliflower. You're going to get a little bit close to what I might be making. I think I've got the burden of having the easiest ingredient cuz I've got onions. They are hugely versatile and you can already

kind of play with the different flavor profiles by how you cook them. But I'm going to make a big deep fried blooming onion with a creamy onion and wild garlic sauce, pickled onion petals, and a burnt onion gel. Today, my hero will be lettuce. And I'm not going to make a salad. The tricky thing with lettuce is it's relatively flavorless because it's 95% water. But I see that as an opportunity to inject flavor into it and celebrate all the textures it can bring. Boys, I love how we're not finding problems. We're finding challenges. Challenges and solutions. Although I still have no idea what you're doing, Barry. I have a lettuce puree as a base.

I'm making a crispy lettuce sushi and a lettuce pickle. So, my first step is cauliflower prep. And we're prepping it in a number of different ways. We're going little fuettes for pickling. We're going bigger fuettes. Uh we're going for a steak. And we're also going for cauliflower rice. You also have an entire bowl of cauliflower leaves. Yeah. I want to see how I can use those. The leaves can be quite bitter. Uh so I might fry them along with my chicken fried cauliflower steak. Uh and I'm going to try and use the stalky bits in the pickle as well. Great. currently playing a game of parcel with lettuce. Um there's a lot of layers and I'm using every layer for a different reason. The outer shells be part of my sushi. Um the inner layers

will be more for my pickles. Um and I still want to get a core out something with a bit more structure cuz I want to char that at the end as well. Okay. So, I've got butter and sliced onion slowly almost poaching in a pan cuz that's going to be the base of my onion sauce, which I'm going to whiz up with a little bit of cream or water depending on how rich it actually is. And at the very last minute, throwing in wild garlic and chives. So, I'm hoping it looks greener than all the other brown stuff that I'm using. Now, I've got a variety of loose onions that I bought. Some big ones.

Going to need one of these for my blooming onion, which is essentially going to be the fried crispy, but also sweet, tender centerpiece. And then I've picked up some smaller onions, which will be chopped. I'll use the petals for the rest. I like it when you boys take inspiration from other stuff we've done on the channel. It's good to see. Blooming onions. We had a gadget for that. Barry lettuce soup that came out of a scrap challenge. I do not want to go through the root. Starting with my pickles. I'm adding vinegar, water, sugar, and salt into a pan. Bringing it up to a heat so it all dissolves. I'm then going to split that into three different bowls. one with

paprika, one with turmeric, and one with red cabbage juice. So, I can get different colors for my pickles. We now have an onion. It's been cut into 12 pieces, maybe more. What's really fun about this challenge is that these ingredients, stuff that we're really used to using on a daily or weekly basis, but they're just they're never the star of the show. They're always kind of the side piece. It's really nice to think that I'm not just going to make a cauliflower cheese to go on the side of a roast dinner. The cauliflower is the star. So, two things I've started. I'm The first process is to remove the water. One way I'm doing

it with salt. The other with a bit of heat um wilting this down. I'm going to squeeze out the rest of the water from the lettuce before blending it and thickening it with some smash. So now essentially I'm going to batter this. I'm putting it in buttermilk and then into a flour mix of potato starch, cornstarch, and regular flour. Potato and the cornstarch are basically going to make it super crispy. So I've seasoned the flour with salt, pepper, and a little bit of chili powder just so there's another sort of dimension, a little bit of warmth. Moving on to my puree. I'm taking some of my cauliflower fuettes, adding that into a pan with milk, chicken stock.

Bring that up to a boil. Simmer it away for a few minutes. It goes nice and soft. Pure puree it up. That's the thing. Puree it up. And then go in with some brown butter just to give it that lovely rich velvety smooth texture that I want. Talk us through your tartar like ingredients. It is very tartar like isn't it actually? So it's going to be a cauliflower salsa. So we got girkens, capers, dill, parsley and some chives. Going to go in with my grated cauliflower. Turn that into a bit of salsa with some olive oil and bit of salt. A raw cauliflower rice. Inverted commas. Going raw. Everything else for the cauliflower has been cooked. So, it's a nice point of difference. Coated onion now goes into the fryer. Now, we're

going low. So, around 160. So, it cooks through. Then, I'm going to whack it up to 190 to get that beautiful brown fried color. Lots of structure, lots of movement. You're about halfway through on time. Baz, what's next? Right, with the lettuce, got some garlic, some ginger, some soy, and some Korean red pepper flakes as well. Um, that's a final bit of kick to bring all the other elements to life. Now, sushi. I want to do a lettuce roll, but the one dish where lettuce is really celebrated, in fact, it makes one of the three main ingredients is a BLT.

Yeah. So, I'm making BLT sushi. Sushi being Japanese for seasoned rice. A BLT. A BLT summer roll. There we go. One perk to working at Sons that you wouldn't know um is the longer you're here, the more the better you are at. Never have I ever because before today, never had I ever blow torch lettuce. Everyone's doing a pickle of sorts. Mike, what are yours? So, mine is a quick pickle with malt vinegar, but this could be a very brown dish. So, I'm actually using some beetroot juice in the pickle to give it a bit of a pinkish, hopefully vibrant red tinge. All I'm doing here is the same thing I was doing earlier on the hob, but with the heat from the top. I'm just wilting it to go soft, limp, so it rolls up and

doesn't crack. That's looking good. My blooming onions. Looking good. Just wilting some wild garlic down in a pan because I'm going to add that to my stewed onions with a little bit of maybe water, maybe cream to create that really delicious sauce. Okay, believe it or not, that's actually what I wanted to happen because if there were too much liquid in here, I would be in big trouble. The good lettuce has both IS EXCELLENT. OH GOD, I love that puree. It's amazing. Nothing boring about lettuce and cauliflower and you treat them properly.

Jay, you've got all the component parts except for your steak. How are you cooking your cauliflower steak? Deep frying my cauliflower steak. I was going to do it in a separate pan, but now time it's just going to go straight into the fryer. I just need to set up a breading station. Uh, and then get it straight into the fryer. Now, I'm about to scorch some more onion for my onion and black garlic puree. Nice. So, I want these to proper char because the char and the black garlic in that gel is going to taste fantastic. And again, it gives a different profile to the oniony flavor that's going to come throughout. So hopefully the char,

the acid, the black garlic with the cream, the crisp, the jam, it all comes together to actually create quite a balanced dish. Even though I am only using onions for most of it. My feeling I've got sliced up lettuce, some cones and bacon, bit of tomato paste, and some QB mayo. Almost like a burger sauce filling. Yes, that's exactly what I want. That's exactly it. I am very happy with that. So, it's going to keep warm in the oven. Turns out Mike already had a breading station ready to go. So, I've nicked that, but obviously made it better. Uh, so into

the buttermilk, I've gone with an egg and a bunch of seasonings. garlic powder, chicken powder, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and then into the flour, I've gone with uh potato starch, and then all of the same seasonings into the buttermilk and egg mix. Into the flour. Give it a shake. Repeat into the fryer. Now, these are blackened really nicely. I'm going to delaze the pan with some cherry vinegar and some honey. And then these will get pureeed with some black garlic. staying with the darker theme, adding a little bit of liquid in the form of balsamic. and maybe a bit of water if it's needed. This should be almost jelly like so hold its form.

Last 5 minutes to start thinking about getting all your component humble ingredient parts on a plate. Okay, it's plating time. I need to clear right down so that I have space. I want it to look fancy and I don't do fancy very well, but I'm going to give it a try. I've made a puree that's quite fancy. So, that's going in the middle as a bed. I think salsa all around cauliflower uh steak on top with my kind of what are now kind of pakoraesque shifards. It's amazing how these shift cooking, isn't it? I think that's everything.

I'm panicking, right? So, last few minutes. Time to plate up. Got a little bit more time to char off some of the lettuce in some mayonnaise. Sprinkle it with some uh crispy onions on the end. So, I've got all the texture going on. Then, happy, happy, happy. That looks beautiful. Happy with that. Now let's see if my sushi has actually will hold together. Last 2 minutes. Mike, you need to get this stuff on a plate. Okay. I hope that this is pipable. We are going to find out, everyone. But I'm putting it into a little piping bag. That looks great, Mike.

Last minute. Get everything on a plate. Get the finishing touches done. I think I'm done. I think that's it. Oh no. It's just Oh, it's dripping everywhere. Go, mate. Five. Oh, what a shame. 4 3 2 1 step away. We'll have a quick clear down and get them into the sexies. This is again one of those battles that I haven't with a single thing you guys are doing. Well done, gents. because out of very boring and beige ingredients, we've got a lot of interesting color and texture and variety. And that was the key.

And to caveat, I think we've called these things boring in the past because we don't know much to do with them. And so this has forced us to go and research what can be done and we've all pretty much done the exact same thing with our own ingredients. Give or take. Let's start down here. So lettuce many away. Oh yeah, this is lettuce. lots of ways. It's quite wet as you would expect of a dish based around lettuce. I'm annoyed at how wet it is. I think I would like more time. You used something called iceberg. I know. But I in my head I had more time to dry things out. I did lots of draining.

I got so much water out of it. But still when coming to plate it in a rush. Shut up. Because you don't need to say what you're saying cuz it still has great texture. Thank you. Whilst it is wet, it's still got good crunch all the way through it where it needs it. So that is incredibly spicy and salty, but with the creaminess of the sort of puree around it. Delicious. And the play on BLT tomato puree, lettuce, and bacon in that wrap is absolutely delicious. Crispy onions makes everything better. Really, I think it's very clever and very tasty.

Really good. I like the pastel colors that coming off this. It's very herby. It's very fresh. And then the color of your fried steak in the middle is great providing the cauliflower is cooked cuz there's lots of raw cauliflower. Cheers. Is it cooked? Mhm. Oh, that is luck. Not judgment. No, it is beautifully cooked. That puree wow. Velvety. Your brown butter in that and all the dairy fat is great in the nicest possible way. doesn't taste the cauliflower. You get cauliflower coming through, but it's it's got so much else going on. That's a great dish. As and I have been exchanging glances.

I don't know whether I'm speaking for you, but I think that's the best thing you've cooked in. I can remember. I wasn't going to be that rude. And I can remember up to next Thursday. I can't even remember days. A great dish. And then we come to this. Yeah. And the challenge with this is that a blooming onion is one of my favorite things on the planet. So you can only disappoint that, right? Again, two different purees. Wow, that's crunchy. Got a crunch. It's got a crunch from the batter and the outer petals, but it's got a wonderful almost jammy like middle.

Yes. which is so sweet in that roasted onion in the middle. Even roasted, it's fried. But that is banging. I mean, the only challenge is it's such a big onion. Yeah. But I think picking off petals works. I think once you get down to the real base of it, that's still a little under, but balanced with the crispiness of that batter, which was a difference of flowers, right? Take the taste. Combination. Yeah. corn potato rag. I think for me the reality of the dishes is the different levels of cooking and curing and pickling for that. I'm still left with quite an overpowering raw onion flavor. But with everything

else, if you eat it all together, it does work. Three great dishes. Some of the chaos and mess aside, some of the best cooking you three have done for a long time. I think stand out. Are you just taking credit for you and the mentors? I'm taking credit for the fact I think you've thought about this and you've come in with a plan because you've been forced out of your comfort zone to do something you would normally overlook. But who's come last? I think in third place today, but it's not far from first is the blooming onion. And I think it is just that raw wild garlic and chai that's coming through a little bit too much against everything else. But it's

good. And between these two, I have one that's perhaps more predictable. Mhm. But delivered with excellent technique. And I have one that's completely out of the box and I think smarter but could be improved in places. So today my winner is excellence. It has to be. It's absolutely delicious. And cauliflower has never been so loved. Well, if you enjoyed any part of that, then give the video a like. We're still streaking 15,000 uh likes on every video. And uh comment down below which dish would have taken your win today.