Great British Menu ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
"Land Girls"
Eddie: "The title for my starter is Land Girls, and the inspiration is my neighbor growing up, Jean Proctor, who was in the Land Girls herself, and then she campaigned to have them included in the Remembrance Parade so that they got properly celebrated for the contributions that they made for the country."
Eddie: "Nettles are basically going to run through all of the dish, and that idea is that I take this small but powerful overlooked ingredient (nettles) and then really celebrate it."
Eddie: "I'm going to make a nettle soup. The tofu, I'm gonna fry it and then marinade it. It's just going to go in the base of the nettle soup, and alongside I will serve some nettle beer crackers, and fermented cashew-nut pate to dip them in, and then we'll have a nettle champagne cocktail to toast."
Paul Ainsworth: "The oat cream? How does that fit into this dish?"
Eddie: "I'm going to smoke that with pine needles, and that's going to be whipped, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then sprinkled over the nettle soup right as it's served."
Notes taken during cooking
Eddie: "I'm going to start off by frying this tofu."
Voice-over: "Eddie then marinates it in a mixture of tamari and lemon juice, finishing the tofu."
Later. ...
Eddie gets his nettle beer crackers in to bake and begins smoking oat cream with pine needles to serve on top of his nettle soup.
Eddie: "This should be in my wheelhouse, really, this first course, since I'm the only vegetarian here, but that's also a bit of pressure to make sure that I do deliver."
Eddie moves on to his nettle soup, combining nettle dashi and miso stock before going in with hispy cabbage and baby spinach.
Paul Ainsworth, behind the scenes: "Eddie's oat smoked cream is really overpowering in smoke. And remember, the nettle needs to be the hero of this dish and we don't want to lose that nettle. So at this stage, that's quite a concern for me."
Plating
Eddie transfers some of the smoked oat cream into liquid nitrogen to instantly freeze it.
Eddie: "So what I want to do is crush it down fairly fine."
He parcels up his nettle beer crackers, and fermented cashew cream in ration tins.
Eddie: "I'm just adding the lime caviar. It's going to give it a really nice, like, pop of fresh acidity."
The soup is topped with parsley oil, and it's all served with a fizzing nettle cocktail.
Eddie: "So I'm just going to finish off the soup with the pine smoked oat cream."
Paul Ainsworth: "Okay, Eddie, let's start with a soup. Is this exactly how you wanted it?"
Eddie: " I think I could add a little more of that smoked cream. Probably just to add a little more richness and contrast.
Peers, behind the scenes
"I'm really taken aback by the nettle soup and the flavors that are going on."
"The finger limes, they're just so quite overpowering."
"The crackers are nice. He's done a really good job on them."
" I would have liked a bit more of the tofu. It's a lovely texture that brings to the soup."
Paul Ainsworth: "And the marinated tofu. Happy with how that's coming through?"
Eddie: " It is better if it can have a little longer to marinade."
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, if you were scoring this dish, what would you give it?"
Eddie: " I'd hope that this dish is maybe an 8. I would love to just finesse some of those fine details."
Final Judging
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, for your dish, Land Girls, I love the inspiration and how you honored the land girls. The nettle soup, whilst visually not the nicest shade of green, it did pack flavor. Your pine smoked oat cream, I found this too powerful when I tasted it in the kitchen. However, it added well to final dish, I was relieved it wasn't too smoky in flavor. For me, the tofu has to bring something to the dish rather than just being this sort of diced texture in the bottom. Your dish was complex. It was refined. It was very clever."
Final Judging
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, I'm going to start with you for your dish "Out of this world".
Knockout presentation. It genuinely looked like a meal. The marinated halloumi with that charcoal batter was very well executed. You wanted it thinner and more glasslike. And I totally agree. The lemon samphire tartar brought a nice saltiness, but you could add a bit more on there. The purity of the rhubarb in the rotovap was incredible. Seafood has a natural sweetness. The little bit of sweetness that you brought to this course was actually really clever."
As a family-run site, we pour our hearts into recording and transcribing cooking shows, developing tested recipes, and sharing culinary insights—all without bombarding you with ads.
Your low-cost subscription would help us cover ingredient costs and confirm that our passion project matters to you.
Please join our cooking community today.