How to Cook Like Heston: Potatoes & Some Surprises Quiz

Answer: Simmering

This is Heston's signature recipe, one of his first great creations. To begin, peel and cut your potatoes into thick batons and wash in water till it runs clear to remove the excess starch. Heston recommends using Maris Piper potatoes for these chips. Now, get a pot of cold water with salt and simmer the potatoes for 20 minutes.

This will create many edges and cracks on the chips which will absorb the oil and make it golden and crispy. They will be very delicate and almost falling apart after simmering, so be gentle when removing them from the pot.

Answer: Pop them in the freezer.

Before you ask, yes, Heston did indeed try all the other options before deciding the freezer was the best method. Leave them in the freezer over a wire rack for just 30 minutes, this will dry up the chips to get this really rough looking surface. Once they're all dry, we shall fry them twice, first at 130°C (266°F) to develop a hardened crust, and the second hot fry at 180°C (356°F) till golden brown.

This will give us a chip that is crispy, golden and glass-like in shine, whilst maintaining a soft and fluffy interior. To finish off, get some malt vinegar in a spritzer or atomizer and spray the air whilst eating the chips. You get the lovely aroma of a chip shop, without soaking your chips. I simply can't get enough of these chips, it's just divine.

Answer: Soda Siphon

A soda siphon uses carbon dioxide to help create carbonated water, sodas or whipped cream. The CO2 comes in the form of a little charger or canister that you place in a cap and screw onto the siphon, which breaks the seal to release the gas.

The batter is a mix of plain flour, rice flour, a dash of honey, some vodka and a bottle of beer. Mix till just combined, too much mixing will release too much gas from the beer, so don't mind that there's lumps of flour in the batter because those lumps can give the batter a nice texture. Once mixed, pour it in the siphon, screw in three CO2 chargers one at a time and let it chill in the fridge. Carbon dioxide thrives in cold temperatures, and for a light and crispy batter, you need it to be cold when it touches that hot oil for a crunchy finish.

Heston goes for turbot with his fish and chips, as it stays moist and has a firm texture after frying. Dust the fish in seasoned flour and pat off any excess, then give the siphon a good shake, shoot your batter into a tray and coat your fish. Deep fry your fish at 220°C, and whilst frying, you can use a spoon to drip more batter on the fish to create these crispy shards for added crunch. Light, crispy, airy, and it can still keep that fish glistening and moist. Together with your triple cooked chips, you will be munching to a new soundtrack, that is if your teeth are still in good condition.

Answer: Floury

Floury potatoes contain more starch, and for many, that is the reason you choose a Maris Piper for a mash as it gives the impression of smoothness. There is a drawback to that though, that excess starch in floury potatoes can seep out during the boil to make mash way too gloopy and pasty. To make his point about the starch, Heston brought two of his interior decorators to put up some wallpaper, with potatoes. With a pot of hot water, Heston adds a load of potato starch, simulating a scenario of potatoes letting loose their starch in a boil.

The result is immediate, the water turned to a paste so sticky, that it managed to stick wallpaper up with ease. The poor decorators look in horror that this sticky starch can be lurking in mash, even commenting that it works better than some wallpaper paste sold in the market. I don't wish to entertain the thought of eating wallpaper paste at all.

Using waxy types like Maris Peer or Jersey Royals will make a much lighter mash as they have less starch, along with a trick to keep any internal starch at bay. Peel and slice your waxy spuds and leave the skins to one side, then wash the potatoes under cold running water till the water runs clear to get rid of excess starch.

Answer: 72°C

Simmering the potatoes at 72°C (161.6°F) toughens the potatoes, and this will make them brittle instead of fall apart soft. Just like how resting a steak seals in juices, this technique prevents starch from escaping to create a smooth mash. After 20 minutes, drain and run cold water on these spuds and boil them as normal for 30 minutes with salt.

They are now soft enough for mashing, put them through a ricer and then force the mash through a sieve to make it very smooth. To give richness, chuck in 25% weight of butter to potato, but if you feel like it, go for 50% to get the great classic called Potatoes Robuchon, just don't eat it so often.

Answer: Potato Skins

The skins have the essence of the potato, so to get it back to the mash, toss them in a pot of milk and warm up to infuse. Once the milk reaches boil, strain the mix and pour it into the mash little by little and season with salt to taste. The skins have so much potential in them, that we will use them for another recipe later on.

But here's some advice when you have the inevitable leftovers. Heston meets with a group of Morris dancers at the town hall to see what they will do with their leftover mash. From bubble and squeak to potato patties, they add lots of ingredients to match up with their colourful outfits. Leftover mash can dry out in the fridge, so don't be afraid to add a little more fat like butter or olive oil to help it be moist again. As one Morris dancer learned when she made a potato patty with bacon, eggs and cheese, if a mash potato mix looks crumbly, adding a bit more fat can go a long way to making a better dish with your leftovers.

Answer: True

That's right, little centimeter cubes of lime jelly will dot our mash like an abstract turtle shell. Warm some lime juice with lime zest and sugar till the sugar is dissolved, then add the magic ingredient, agar-agar. It is a plant based gelling agent that is heat resistant. Once its dissolved, strain the mix to a dish, let it set and cut into cubes. All you do is drop those jelly cubes on top of your mash. Take a spoonful of mash with that lime jelly, you get this burst of citrus to sooth your palate.

It is just wonderful.

Answer: Jam

We are going to make potato milk jam, which sounds like the first three things you see on a shopping list. To make the jam, roast the skins with oil and salt till they are caramelized and crispy, then infuse them in a pot of sugar and milk. Let this mix slowly simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.

After this, you can strain it and cool it down to store in a jam jar. This is great for dipping soldiers or spreading on toast. It's sweet, creamy and tastes of a lovely roast potato.

Answer: Bake the potatoes on a salt bed, then smoke them with wood chips.

To start, use a floury potato like a King Edward, then prick your potatoes with a fork and bake on a bed of salt to draw the moisture and concentrate the flavour. They go in the oven at 180°C (356°F) for two hours. Once they're done, get a deep pot and pour some wood chips on a high heat. You can get wood chips in gardening or BBQ stores; I love the smell of apple wood chips. Use a lighter or blowtorch to get it to smoke, get some aluminum foil and make into a pillar to prevent the potatoes from touching the chips and cover for five minutes. Do cut your potatoes in half before smoking, this will help get all that smoke in the flesh and draw out any moisture left inside.

Scoop out the flesh and use the skins to make a batch of potato milk. Get a bowl with eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, plain flour, half of that smoky mash and potato milk to create your batter. Using potato in this batter means you need less flour, and that makes your donuts fluffy and a little less starchy. Pour your batter in a piping bag to create your donut rings on parchment paper to freeze for 30 minutes. This is a runny batter, so freezing will make it easier to pick them up and deep fry in groundnut oil at 180°C (356°F).

Answer: The sugar crystallizes and we get potato flavoured sugar granules.

Exactly as stated, as the water evaporates, the sugar clumps around the potato particles to return to a granular form. Keep stirring as it dries up; it's very exhausting at first as it is a thick syrup, but turns into a form of dust at the end. You get these big granules of sugar that have the smoky taste of potato, which Heston dyed with green food colouring for childhood nostalgia. If that's not enough, he adds one more bit of fun: popping candy. Gently toss the candy in the sugar, and all you do now is grab a donut, dip in some potato milk jam and dust with your exploding sugar, which he serves to some of the Morris dancers he met earlier.

The potato, what an amazingly versatile ingredient! Now we can see why Matt Damon managed to survive Mars with this stuff.