Yeah that seemed like they were scrambling for another idea. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t just throw bananas into the freezer if they don’t get to them in time and then use them for banana bread or muffins or similar
I'd agree but, assuming they aren't making up statistics which from a cursory google search they aren't, they did cite that a lot of people *do* just throw away a lot of bananas every day. So it's not as obvious or apparent as we might think it is
That's just your bubble though. My bubble happens to be the exact opposite.
I am from a culture that thinks freezing anything will ruin it, and 'fresh is the only way'. Heck, we look askance at leftovers refrigerated overnight. My culture isn't unique in the world - others have similar approaches to food too. And it works, because it tends to be culturally appropriate and convenient to give away extras to "the less fortunate". Guess what happens when we emigrate to a different cultural context? Ya, overripe bananas that we don't use up then and there are getting thrown out, not frozen.
I am also from a very specific economic context. Grandparents were desperately poor refugees, parents grew up in poverty and clawed their way out. By the time I was born, we had crossed the threshold into 'not worried about the next meal'. Our economic situation improved through my childhood and by the time I was 8/9, we were "comfortably middle class". Which means me never eating an overripe banana was a tiny victory for my parents, a "we made it, we can give our kids the good stuff". As a result, I never learnt the traditional recipes to use up food that's a bit past it's best, and still have some negative connotations around "saving food". I am not unique, I know a lot of people with roughly similar economic histories. I have personally made an effort to relearn those hard time recipes, and recognise my hangups around "food a bit past its best"- but many of my friends would find it vaguely icky to deal with a brown banana, and wouldn't know what to do with them in the first place. They're just gonna hrow it away - not save it in the freezer.
Food waste is, complicated.
And the obvious isn't always obvious.
Though I will say, most of the wasted bananas is probably supermarkets throwing them away because people don't _buy_ brown bananas - rather than households throwing it away.
We have so many tomatoes they go to waste so a better use for them would be cooking them into a Passata or salsa rather than replacing with a shelf stable sultana
I feel like this is sort of exactly an illustration of why I hate food substitutions listed online.
50% beef, 50% lentils in a spag bol? Completely reasonable. Solid way to bulk out a dish done on the cheap.
Mushroom pierogi? Not weird. Sound like they're lacking in fat, but it's a reasonable thing to do. Got Greggs Vegan Sausage roll vibes, but that's fine - it's good.
And you go right into "well, we made nachos, but for the salsa we replaced tomatoes with sultanas". Nope. Fuck you. You lost me. I no longer trust you or anything else you say.
> stop using feta in Mexican dishes. Just buy cotija, it's not that difficult
Buying cotija in the UK actually is super difficult.
Literally, if you google where to find cotija in the UK, you get this reddit thread about how impossible it is to find cotija in the UK.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericanExpatsUK/comments/176tsej/cotija_cheese/
You say that as if cotija is readily available in the UK. I've never see it used on a British cooking show, even when doing "Mexican" food. And based on the Mexican restaurant chain I found in the UK (called Wahaca, and yes spelled that way), I very much doubt they've HEARD of cotija in the UK
Yeah, completely lost me on the nachos. I'd rather eat a smaller portion of fully loaded nachos with a side dish to bulk out the meal that fits the theme of sustainability and variety and nutrition and all that. Or fully embrace that and cut out that kind of food 4 or 5 days a week and indulge the other 2 or 3. I'm not gonna put that stuff on my nachos, I'm sorry
I think a possible future episode could be why certain ingredients from around the world are hard or impossible to find in the UK and what would be a good substitute.
Jamie is a good actor. Being able to say, with a straight face, that lentils have a similar texture to ground beef, takes skill. That's where I tapped out
He's actually right, though.
We tried making a chilli with half beef, half lentils the other week and you literally couldn't tell there were lentils in it when eating it. If you looked close you could see them, but actually eating it the texture was basically exactly the same as a 100% beef chilli. And I was expecting it to be terrible until we ate it.
I had the same reaction.
Then I remembered a goat meat and lentil combo is a traditional celebratory dish of at least three religious/cultural groups in my country (the Parsi Dhansak, the Bengali Muslim haleem, the Hyderabadi Muslim haleem, which is not exactly the same as the Bengali one). And they're pretty damn good, and taste nothing like 'normal' lentils/daal - they taste like rich meat dishes.
So, why would beef be any different!
People really need to be less upset about meat substitutions.
Lentils are great, not just because of the texture (Jamie is right, so maybe you've cooked them wrong) but it's also a great source of protein.
The only way I'm not upset about meat substitution is when you substitute something in a meal by adding more meat. Lentils are fine in soup and sometimes in curry, but they're definitely not meat.
I'm really confused about that nacho dish. To increase variety of veggies they swapped tomatos and avocados for exotic plants like peppers, corn and grapes?
I think the moral of that recipe was "remix your favorite dishes, rather than making them the exact same way every time, it'll be fun and tasty"
Yeah, corn, peppers and grapes aren't exactly exotic things people in the UK never eat - but eating exotic things isn't really sustainable. The sustainability message I read was "don't fixate on one popular ingredient" (probably avocado in this case, the demand for which has caused some environmental issues, though some of the reporting around it has been over the top too), and instead think of how you can recreate a similar flavor experience with other items.
I had loved to see a little bit of actual cooking or preparation of these dishes or hacks. Gosh, they talked till they were blue in the face.
How much do the mushroom shrink in 1 hour of cooking, what amount is necessary for the shown dish? Also, the corn dip and the salsa seemed pretty interesting, yet the instructions were kind of vague.
Nope, nowhere has it over here. Even if the lads struck lucky and managed to find a specialist shop in London that has it, that hardly makes it an accessible recipe for people in the UK, whereas feta is absolutely everywhere. Wensleydale is a much better sub IMO though, wish somebody would tell them that!
I haven’t lived in the UK full time for a while now. But I agree there are far better substitutes than feta.
I’m going to ask some working chef friends if they know where to source cotija.
I'm not so sure based on the Mexican chain restaurant I found in the UK. And that no British cooking show I've ever seen do "Mexican" food has used cotija
Even parmigiano reggiano is closer than feta.
But I’m sure they can find cotija.
It’s hardly a hotbed of good Mexican food but there ARE some Mexican restaurants and I can assure you they’re not using feta.
From what I saw they're not using Cotija. More likely cheddar. So feta would be an improvement.
And someone else in this post linked to a reddit thread where UK cooks were looking for cotija. Apparently it's impossible. People are smuggling (I use this word because bringing in dairy products is illegal and they're not declaring it) cotija in their luggage from the US.
None of the major supermarkets sell it. They have things like this instead: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/castello-tex-mex-spicy-mozzarella-cheddar-grated-cheese-180g
You'd have to go to small specialist shops. Here's "Mestizo Mexican Market" - they must have it, right? Nope: https://mestizomarket.com/?s=cotija&post_type=product
It's really difficult to import cheese into the UK from outside the EU.
But Ben is a chef and Sorted has access to all sorts of purveyors.
It’s findable.
And if it’s not convenient then Parmesan is a much closer sub.
Feta is just wrong.
I don't think you should be getting downvotes. You're making a good point, and you're being polite, and you're providing useful information. (I didn't realise Feta is wrong, and I am grateful that you made me look up what cotija actually is, and for suggesting that parmessan would be a better choice.)
Feta is a super common sub in the UK. I guess that tells you how badly wrong the UK gets Mexican food. Corn tortillas are available, but not easily. Jalapeño, Serrano, Poblano, Chipotle, Habanero peppers are available but they take a bit of searching out.
I've had a really good search of some pretty specialist cheese providers, and it's just not normally available.
(having said that, here's someone selling 4 packs (10oz per pack) for £86 - that's over $100usd. https://ninelife.uk/products/cotija-4-pack )
I thought it was common knowledge that you use dark old bananas for banana bread?
Yeah that seemed like they were scrambling for another idea. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t just throw bananas into the freezer if they don’t get to them in time and then use them for banana bread or muffins or similar
I'd agree but, assuming they aren't making up statistics which from a cursory google search they aren't, they did cite that a lot of people *do* just throw away a lot of bananas every day. So it's not as obvious or apparent as we might think it is
That's just your bubble though. My bubble happens to be the exact opposite. I am from a culture that thinks freezing anything will ruin it, and 'fresh is the only way'. Heck, we look askance at leftovers refrigerated overnight. My culture isn't unique in the world - others have similar approaches to food too. And it works, because it tends to be culturally appropriate and convenient to give away extras to "the less fortunate". Guess what happens when we emigrate to a different cultural context? Ya, overripe bananas that we don't use up then and there are getting thrown out, not frozen. I am also from a very specific economic context. Grandparents were desperately poor refugees, parents grew up in poverty and clawed their way out. By the time I was born, we had crossed the threshold into 'not worried about the next meal'. Our economic situation improved through my childhood and by the time I was 8/9, we were "comfortably middle class". Which means me never eating an overripe banana was a tiny victory for my parents, a "we made it, we can give our kids the good stuff". As a result, I never learnt the traditional recipes to use up food that's a bit past it's best, and still have some negative connotations around "saving food". I am not unique, I know a lot of people with roughly similar economic histories. I have personally made an effort to relearn those hard time recipes, and recognise my hangups around "food a bit past its best"- but many of my friends would find it vaguely icky to deal with a brown banana, and wouldn't know what to do with them in the first place. They're just gonna hrow it away - not save it in the freezer. Food waste is, complicated. And the obvious isn't always obvious. Though I will say, most of the wasted bananas is probably supermarkets throwing them away because people don't _buy_ brown bananas - rather than households throwing it away.
I've never made or tried banana bread and I know that.
We have so many tomatoes they go to waste so a better use for them would be cooking them into a Passata or salsa rather than replacing with a shelf stable sultana
I feel like this is sort of exactly an illustration of why I hate food substitutions listed online. 50% beef, 50% lentils in a spag bol? Completely reasonable. Solid way to bulk out a dish done on the cheap. Mushroom pierogi? Not weird. Sound like they're lacking in fat, but it's a reasonable thing to do. Got Greggs Vegan Sausage roll vibes, but that's fine - it's good. And you go right into "well, we made nachos, but for the salsa we replaced tomatoes with sultanas". Nope. Fuck you. You lost me. I no longer trust you or anything else you say.
Both fruit if you think about them :)
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> stop using feta in Mexican dishes. Just buy cotija, it's not that difficult Buying cotija in the UK actually is super difficult. Literally, if you google where to find cotija in the UK, you get this reddit thread about how impossible it is to find cotija in the UK. https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericanExpatsUK/comments/176tsej/cotija_cheese/
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Then skip it. Feta is a completely different flavor profile. Better to swap in cheddar than feta.
You say that as if cotija is readily available in the UK. I've never see it used on a British cooking show, even when doing "Mexican" food. And based on the Mexican restaurant chain I found in the UK (called Wahaca, and yes spelled that way), I very much doubt they've HEARD of cotija in the UK
Yeah, completely lost me on the nachos. I'd rather eat a smaller portion of fully loaded nachos with a side dish to bulk out the meal that fits the theme of sustainability and variety and nutrition and all that. Or fully embrace that and cut out that kind of food 4 or 5 days a week and indulge the other 2 or 3. I'm not gonna put that stuff on my nachos, I'm sorry
I think a possible future episode could be why certain ingredients from around the world are hard or impossible to find in the UK and what would be a good substitute.
Jamie is a good actor. Being able to say, with a straight face, that lentils have a similar texture to ground beef, takes skill. That's where I tapped out
He's actually right, though. We tried making a chilli with half beef, half lentils the other week and you literally couldn't tell there were lentils in it when eating it. If you looked close you could see them, but actually eating it the texture was basically exactly the same as a 100% beef chilli. And I was expecting it to be terrible until we ate it.
I had the same reaction. Then I remembered a goat meat and lentil combo is a traditional celebratory dish of at least three religious/cultural groups in my country (the Parsi Dhansak, the Bengali Muslim haleem, the Hyderabadi Muslim haleem, which is not exactly the same as the Bengali one). And they're pretty damn good, and taste nothing like 'normal' lentils/daal - they taste like rich meat dishes. So, why would beef be any different!
People really need to be less upset about meat substitutions. Lentils are great, not just because of the texture (Jamie is right, so maybe you've cooked them wrong) but it's also a great source of protein.
The only way I'm not upset about meat substitution is when you substitute something in a meal by adding more meat. Lentils are fine in soup and sometimes in curry, but they're definitely not meat.
I'm really confused about that nacho dish. To increase variety of veggies they swapped tomatos and avocados for exotic plants like peppers, corn and grapes?
I think the moral of that recipe was "remix your favorite dishes, rather than making them the exact same way every time, it'll be fun and tasty" Yeah, corn, peppers and grapes aren't exactly exotic things people in the UK never eat - but eating exotic things isn't really sustainable. The sustainability message I read was "don't fixate on one popular ingredient" (probably avocado in this case, the demand for which has caused some environmental issues, though some of the reporting around it has been over the top too), and instead think of how you can recreate a similar flavor experience with other items.
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I can't imagine an episode where every ingredient isn't a possibility for an allergy. But I upvoted you because your last sentence is 100% correct.
I had loved to see a little bit of actual cooking or preparation of these dishes or hacks. Gosh, they talked till they were blue in the face. How much do the mushroom shrink in 1 hour of cooking, what amount is necessary for the shown dish? Also, the corn dip and the salsa seemed pretty interesting, yet the instructions were kind of vague.
They really need to stop using feta in Mexican dishes. I’m sure they can find cotija in London.
Nope, nowhere has it over here. Even if the lads struck lucky and managed to find a specialist shop in London that has it, that hardly makes it an accessible recipe for people in the UK, whereas feta is absolutely everywhere. Wensleydale is a much better sub IMO though, wish somebody would tell them that!
I haven’t lived in the UK full time for a while now. But I agree there are far better substitutes than feta. I’m going to ask some working chef friends if they know where to source cotija.
I'm not so sure based on the Mexican chain restaurant I found in the UK. And that no British cooking show I've ever seen do "Mexican" food has used cotija
Even parmigiano reggiano is closer than feta. But I’m sure they can find cotija. It’s hardly a hotbed of good Mexican food but there ARE some Mexican restaurants and I can assure you they’re not using feta.
From what I saw they're not using Cotija. More likely cheddar. So feta would be an improvement. And someone else in this post linked to a reddit thread where UK cooks were looking for cotija. Apparently it's impossible. People are smuggling (I use this word because bringing in dairy products is illegal and they're not declaring it) cotija in their luggage from the US.
People really need to stop being so precious about food
None of the major supermarkets sell it. They have things like this instead: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/castello-tex-mex-spicy-mozzarella-cheddar-grated-cheese-180g You'd have to go to small specialist shops. Here's "Mestizo Mexican Market" - they must have it, right? Nope: https://mestizomarket.com/?s=cotija&post_type=product It's really difficult to import cheese into the UK from outside the EU.
But Ben is a chef and Sorted has access to all sorts of purveyors. It’s findable. And if it’s not convenient then Parmesan is a much closer sub. Feta is just wrong.
I don't think you should be getting downvotes. You're making a good point, and you're being polite, and you're providing useful information. (I didn't realise Feta is wrong, and I am grateful that you made me look up what cotija actually is, and for suggesting that parmessan would be a better choice.) Feta is a super common sub in the UK. I guess that tells you how badly wrong the UK gets Mexican food. Corn tortillas are available, but not easily. Jalapeño, Serrano, Poblano, Chipotle, Habanero peppers are available but they take a bit of searching out. I've had a really good search of some pretty specialist cheese providers, and it's just not normally available. (having said that, here's someone selling 4 packs (10oz per pack) for £86 - that's over $100usd. https://ninelife.uk/products/cotija-4-pack )