Great British Menu ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Deeds, not Words
Eddie: "The name for my dish is "Deeds not Words". And the inspiration is Emmeline Pankhurst, who founded the suffragette movement.
Eddie: "I'm going to have a tofu and black garlic ragu that's going to be hidden away under a suffragette rosette that I'm going to make from potato crisps. I'll have ribbons made from white balsamic, pickled beetroot. And then we're going to have three different sides in the three different colours of the suffragette movement. Purple, white, green.
Eddie: "I'll make a beetroot salad to represent the purple. I've got confit potatoes and I'm going to make a sort of version of a dauphinoise with those for my white. And then I have courgette (also known as zucchini) baked in a grilled cucumber emulsion for the green."
Notes taken during cooking
Eddie gets his main underway by griddling cucumbers.
Eddie: " I just really want like a nice char."
Later ...
Eddie, meanwhile, prepares the potatoes for his dauphinoise.
Eddie: "Got to get the correct thickness."
Eddie confits the potatoes before starting on the most time consuming part of his dish, the Suffragette edible rosette by shaving very thin layers of potato.
Eddie: "This potato rosette is really, really tricky to get right and has gone wrong before in practice. So I'll be very happy if I can get at least a couple of these done exactly as I want."
Eddie deep fries the rosettes so that they're cooked but not browned.
Eddie: "These are very time consuming. I can only do one at a time. Full concentration and I need two per plate, at least without any spares."
Eddie: "And this is the grilled cucumber juice, which I've macerated and cooked the courgettes in.
Eddie: "I feel like I've got to take the time to get this right and then I'm hoping I can catch up on everything else."
Later ...
In his white pot, Eddie layers his confit potato slices to make individual smoked dauphinoise.
Eddie: "So this is the grilled cucumber sauce. It's actually going on the bottom of these dishes. We'll layer in the courgette."
The main event of his dish, the tofu ragu, is only just being started.
Eddie: "I want a little bit of bite to these vegetables. And then along with that, we're going to have black garlic marinated tofu and some butter beans."
Plating
Eddie completes the central wording of his potato rosettes with beetroot powder.
He adds a little circle of bergamot mayonnaise around the edge of the rosettes.
The rosette ribbon is first to the plate. It's made of pickled beetroot, pickled in a white balsamic.
That's followed by the ragu. Lettuce is added to the rosettes.
The side dishes of courgette (zucchini) in grilled cucumber sauce, and dauphinoise potatoes and pickled beetroot are prepared.
Paul Ainsworth: "Let's start with the hero. The rosette in the middle of the plate. Is that how you wanted it?
Eddie: "They've come out crisp. They've come out flat enough to take the stencil. I'm happy with how they've worked."
Paul Ainsworth: "The moisture level in the ragu, how you wanted it?"
Eddie: "I would probably like to keep a touch more moisture in there as well."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I was expecting more sauce. It seems a bit pushed together."
"A little jug of something silky and deeply flavorsome. It would bring the whole thing together and to life a little bit."
"The texture of the tofu. I love it."
"I like it. Yeah, that was great. But I think a little bit more sauce to it could be. Could be better."
Back in the tasting kitchen
Paul Ainsworth: "The dauphinoise cooked in the oat cream. Happy?"
Eddie: "I was fairly happy, but again, I think actually a bit more moisture, and that might be the theme of what I'm tasting here."
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, if you were to score this dish, what would you give it?"
Eddie: "I would like to maybe give it a seven."
Final Judging
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, for your dish. 'Deeds not Words'. It was fantastic presentation. In honor of Emmeline Pankhurst. The best thing on the dish for me was the ragu. Full of umami deliciousness. It just needed more moisture in that ragu. The dauphinois potato was excellent. Courgettes are a very difficult vegetable to extract flavor from. You were very clever with cooking them in that grilled cucumber juice. It brought that courgette to life. They were excellent. The main issue with the dish, it was crying out for a sauce."
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.