1 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... I brought you my jewel of the sea. ..a spectacular pressure test. The weirdest ingredient I've ever cooked with. ..pitted our contestants against the urchin of menace. It's a hard little bugger. Stephen's sauce scuttled his dish... Oh, kicking myself. ..and he left the competition. God bless. Tonight, immunity is on the line... I want it so badly. ..and it's back to kitchen basics... Good, old-fashioned baking challenge. ..using tools straight from Gran's cupboard. I haven't used one of these since I was a kid. The winner will take on guest chef Jim McDougall, and after eight weeks in the MasterChef kitchen... Jim, there's no pressure. It's only your reputation at stake. ..is this the night one of our amateurs will beat the professional? # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like a brighter shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like a brighter shooting star. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 ASHLEIGH: I desperately would love to get my hands on that immunity pin. It would be amazing to have it and just a big weight off my shoulders to know that I'm safe from an elimination. (CHEERING) I'm so excited, but I'm really nervous. I just hope that my nerves don't get the better of me today. The immunity pin would be a complete game changer for me. We love this immunity pin. We love giving it away. It makes us happy. So, how do we decide who gets the chance to win the pin? Well, today, the challenge is going to take place over two rounds. Win round one and you get the chance to go head-to-head against our guest chef. Beat the chef and you win the pin. It's as simple as that. Round one is about something very close to my heart. It's sweet. It's sticky. It's dripping with warm sauce. Follow me. Ooh! I'm hoping he's talking about a dessert and it's not some kind of cryptic message. I'm hoping it's gonna be something that plays to my strengths. MATTHEW: Oh... ROSE: Oh! (MATTHEW CHUCKLES) Oh! ROSE: What's on the table is old. Old-school measuring spoons, old-school scales. Whisker thingy that makes you sweat. I'm feeling a little bit nervous. Well, no prizes for guessing. Round one is a good, old-fashioned baking challenge. Ashleigh, music to your ears? Yeah. I'm pretty happy it's baking. (LAUGHTER) We want you to make your own delicious version of a sticky date pudding. We want sweet, we want sticky. We want a little twist. And we want a sauce so good that Gary is going to drink it out of the jug and George may even go back for a second spoonful. MATTHEW: I've made sticky date puddings before, but it's been a while since I made my last one. And standing next to Ashleigh and Rose, you know, a little bit worried about how I'm going to go today. Ashleigh is great with desserts, so she's really in her element at the moment. Not only are you going to be using just ingredients your grandmother might have used, you're also only going to be able to use equipment that would have been in your grandmother's kitchen. No fancy $2,000 mixers and blast chillers. This is the stuff that most of us cook with at home...still. So, this is a pretty important sticky date pudding, isn't it? Because if it doesn't impress, then you don't get a chance to compete for that immunity pin. You don't get a chance to go into round two. You've got 60 minutes to give us that beautiful pudding and you've also got to think about... What twist can you give it to make it stand out? The thing that makes the four of us go, "Oh, my goodness. "That's delicious. What's the recipe?" Ready? Yes. Your 60 minutes starts now. ASHLEIGH: I grew up baking with my nan, so I'm really excited to be using this equipment and baking in this style today. ROSE: What's on the table is lots of old things that have no power points. (LAUGHS) It's a lot of manual labour required. I don't know how far I can take my cooking techniques with this stuff today. SARA: Come on, Rosa! Just trying to familiarise myself with these equipments. My take on the sticky date pudding - I'm gonna spice it up a little bit. I want to put in a whole bunch of spices. Put my own little Middle Eastern take on it. The first thing I do is get my dates started. I want to cook my dates down, so I get them on the heat. I juice a couple of oranges. I really want to soften those dates so they turn into a really nice, sweet, orangey paste. Haven't quite worked out what kind of sauce I want to make yet, but I want it to be a really beautiful, spicy, sticky sauce. I'm only hoping that my spices, the orange, can elevate the cake to something different. I really want it to stand out from the other two. SARA: Think about that sauce, Rose. Mm. Yeah. I'm thinking. I'm making a sticky date and ginger pudding with a ginger and salted caramel sauce and a custard. I'm definitely going to stick to recipe today. Baking can be really tricky and you have to be quite precise if you want it to be perfect. I have got 175g of butter, sugar and flour and three eggs. It's the recipe that my nan taught me that we always used to make cakes and steamed puddings and I know that this recipe works. GEORGIA: Good idea, Ashleigh. I spotted the crystallised ginger on the table, which is from Buderim, which is my hometown, so I straightaway wanted to use that. It's from my home. Buderim is where I live. And it's Buderim ginger. Now I've got a little taste of home with the ginger. I hope that adding the ginger is going to make it different enough to stand out. MATTHEW: (LAUGHS) Just like my kitchen at home. All my stuff from the '70s. This sticky date pudding, I'm gonna put all of my attention into getting a really good caramel sauce. You know, Matt said he wanted something sticky, something dripping with sauce, and I know that that's going to be the key today. I'm also going to use some walnuts as well, just to give it a slightly different taste and textural element. Technique is going to play a big part here because, you know, when do you put the sauce into it? Do you put it in at the end, do you put it halfway through? You know, making sure it soaks through. The last thing you want is to cut into a sticky date pudding and it's cakey and dry. Like a bread. It's got be moist, it's got to be fluffy. It's got to have something creamy. Something to go with it to just kind of give you a bit of relief. So you want to see a butterscotch sauce AND some whipped cream. Or more. You know, or more. Custard. It could be an ice-cream. It could be a custard. I don't mind if it's a ball or a smear or a jug. I don't mind what it is, as long as it's delicious. What I want to know is how would you two boys go with this old equipment? Because there's no... There's not even a microplane. Or a thermomix. What are you going to do? I'd be gone. I have no idea. I'd just... Yeah. I haven't used one of these since I was a kid. Why is he using that thing? Use a wooden spoon, Matthew. That thing looks really awesome to use, Matt. Is it really awesome? This thing? Yeah. No. ROSE: I know that the other two guys are doing a traditional sticky date pudding, so they're actually going to make a pudding, so I want mine to look a little bit different so I'm going to make more of a cake today. It's a very light and fluffy sponge cake, which is a Genoise. What are you making? Hi. I'm doing orange, date and a bit of spice in there with some cinnamon and clove...cake. So, what are you doing now? I'm gonna make a Genoise. I made it the other day with a bit of date. Nice and sticky and gooey the inside. Um, then I'm going to fold these through. OK. Why wouldn't you just make, you know, a batter with, um... ..sugar, butter, eggs, flour? Because that's what Ashleigh's doing. I want to do something different. Have you made anything like this before? Yeah. Yeah, I have. OK. Alright. Yeah, playing on the orange, the spice, the dates. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Lovely. I love dates. I like making a date cake, so...yeah. Nice. SARA: Don't overwhip it, Rose. This dessert could win you a date with destiny. 45 minutes to go. JESSICA: Oh, I like that one, Matt. BILLIE: Looking really good. I look really good. But how's my... GEORGIA: Looking good, Matt. ..how's my cooking? While that caramel sauce is on the stove, cooking away, I start making the batter for the sticky date pudding. I cut up some dates, get those in a pot with a little bit of water and just allow those to soften. The thing that I'm most worried about at the moment is beating Ashleigh. Desserts are more of her thing than perhaps for me, so I just have to do my best to try and beat Ash. ROSE: And Rose. And Rose. Sorry, Rose. You are going down, Matthew Hopcraft. I've creamed the butter and sugar and now the date and water has come to the boil, I need to add some bicarb to that, just to help soften the dates. And I can't quite remember how much I'm supposed to put in, so I grab a tablespoon and put that in. I'm just gonna have to cook this and hope that when the judges cut into it, it tastes great. GEORGIA: I'm a little bit worried about Matthew. He's being a bit heavy-handed with the bicarb soda, so it will have a taste that will linger when you eat it, and that's not what you want when you eat a sticky date pudding. You just want to get that beautiful caramel date flavour in the cake. You don't want to taste bicarb. ASHLEIGH: My sticky date pudding is ready to go in the oven. The mix is looking really good, but the judges are expecting that I put up a really good pudding, so I'm a little bit worried I might be heading for a massive fall. If I put up a not-great pudding, it's gonna be pretty embarrassing. ROSE: My cake batter's looking really good, so I need to add my date paste into my cake mix. The danger with the sponge cake batter is that it's, you know... Traditionally it's a very light and fluffy cake mix, so by adding in the dates into the mix, it's knocking some of the air out. I don't want it to be heavy and really thick and gluggy. That'd be... That'd be a nightmare. Rose. Hi, George. What dates did you use? I used the pitted dates. And I've spiced it with orange, cinnamon and some cloves. Yum. Yeah. Delicious. You know the key is if that tastes good, generally, the cake tastes good. Yeah. Yeah. The pudding tastes good. Yeah. Gonna nail it. Awesome. Good luck. Thanks, George. George really likes the idea of my dish. It does feel like that immunity pin is getting a little bit closer, you know? I'm thinking, "Ooh! This is good." MATTHEW: The caramel sauce is cooking down a little bit more. I get more sugar into the pan. I want that sauce to really thicken up, and it's thickening up quite nicely. The sticky date pudding batter mix looks good, tastes great. When was the last time you made a sticky date pudding? Oh, it's been a couple of years. Yeah. Um... Are you alright? What's wrong with you? Are you alright? (LAUGHS) Yeah, I'm just... I'm just thinking about what I'm doing. Are you nervous or what? A little. Um... You want this pin, don't you? Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah. You know, this is... ..this is getting to the serious part of the competition and I know I'm up against... What is this? Looking at the caramel sauce, I realise I left it on too long. OK, so that... This is a problem. It's the brown sugar and butter that's separated, yeah? Yeah. I'll start again. Having to start the sauce again is a real problem. The caramel sauce is the most important part. I really want to get that immunity pin. But I can feel it just slipping away. 1 MATTHEW: I've chucked out my first caramel sauce, so I have to start again. I really want to get that immunity pin, but I can feel it just slipping away. Just a little bit too much butter in there. Feeling a little bit nervous at the moment and I've got to get this caramel sauce just right. Otherwise I'm going to be, um... you know, in a lot of trouble. You can't have a sticky date pudding without a good caramel sauce. Having to start the sauce again is a real problem. If I don't get this sauce right, I won't have time to do it a third time. You don't want to find yourself in a sticky situation. Come on! 30 minutes to go. (CHEERING) Come on, guys! ASHLEIGH: Today I'm cooking against Rose and Matthew to create our version of a sticky date pudding. We can only use equipment today that our grandmothers would have used. That's the stuff I learned how to bake cakes with, so I'm actually really excited that we get to use it today. My caramel sauce is pretty much done and now I am going to make a custard. We're having to use the saucepans that our grandmas would have used as well. They're quite thin and they get hot really quickly, so I'm having to keep a close eye on the custard so it doesn't scramble. This pan's a challenge. I get on to my caramel sauce. It's really hard making a caramel in a miniature pan. It's not enough surface area for the caramel to evenly melt. What flavour are you going to do the sauce? I'm going to put some... Little bit of rind, some cream, some butter. Make it really creamy and gooey. Yep. Beautiful. I start by making a dry caramel. Come on, little caramel. And just getting that to the right colour so I can add some cream in there to get that nice creamy consistency. Come on. Melt down. SARA: Has it seized? Yeah. I've added my cream into my pot and it seized the sugar. Oh, that immunity pin. I really just want a chance to cook for it and just knowing that it could be slipping away because of the sauce is just... urrgh! REYNOLD: Are you going to put some butter in there, Rose? Yeah, I am. Yeah. I just want that sugar to melt. I've got to re-melt that big lump of sugar that's now re-formed in my pan. I've just got to keep stirring it. It's really frustrating because the longer it takes, the more doubt I have about whether this is actually going to work. MATTHEW: I've got the second sauce cooking on the stove top and am working on the custard, whisking some egg yolk and sugar in a bowl. Caramel sauce is looking good. The puddings are about three-quarters cooked. I take them out of the oven to pour some caramel sauce on. I want that sauce to really soak into the puddings while they're cooking to make them really nice and dense and caramely. GEORGIA: Matt's puddings are looking great. I'm just hoping he finds a way to balance out all that bicarb soda that he put in at the start. What I want to know is how would you customise sticky date so that it reflects the food that you do at Vue de Monde? I think we're looking for lightness, we're looking for the dates being broken down and we're looking for a balance in that sweetness. And also the shape of the pudding could be important. It's getting there. It's almost done. The sugar's starting to melt. Thank God. Yeah, that's looking good. I think I might be able to actually save this sauce. The cake's looking very moist. It's hard to tell while they're still hot. Everything looks good and soft and fluffy when it's hot. I want to let them cool before I take them out of the tins, so right now, they're looking OK. Classic ingredients, classic equipment, classic dessert. 15 minutes to go. Come on. SARA: That's it, Rose. Taste. The custard is coming along nicely and I pull my puddings out of the oven. They've risen up. They've got a nice crust on there. They're looking good. GEORGIA: Be really gentle. GARY: Ashleigh, you need to let them cool down for a minute. You're trying to get them out hot. Big mistake. Big mistake. I turn my puddings and they've gotten a little bit stuck and come out a little bit messy. This is may second opportunity for an immunity pin. I want it so badly. I'm feeling really disappointed. There's not much I can do about it now. I don't have time to fix it. It looks a little bit weird, but it tastes absolutely delicious. I know that the caramel sauce and all of the custard are amazing. I pick the pudding which I think will look the best and hopefully the judges won't be too hard on me for it. I like that one. JESSICA: So good. Yeah? So good. MATTHEW: The puddings are out. I'm really hoping they're cooked through beautifully. How are we doing? How's it going, Shannon? Really well. Excellent. These are looking good. They look OK. Yeah. I like 'em. I'm really happy. I'm really happy. So, you going to demould them? No, I'm gonna leave them like that, you know, because that's the best way to eat them. In there. They're soaked in the sauce. Texture is going to be crucial to this. What was your quantities? I...I don't know exactly because I sort of guess-timated by the feel of the batter. Bring us sticky date pudding oozing with flavour. Five minutes to go. Come on, guys! Let's go! Go, Ashleigh! ROSE: I need to demould my cakes. They have to come out perfectly. I'm just hoping that it's light and fluffy. They look really good. I've decided to have a bit of a taste. I've got three, so I've got enough to play with. And... ..it's not quite right. I think I may have knocked too much air out of the batter when I was mixing in my dates. They're really dense, really dry and really thick. This is not good. I need to fix it. I know that if I don't, it could cost me. 1 ROSE: I've just demoulded my cakes, and it's just not quite right. They're, um...dense. I need to fix it. I'm gonna soak my cakes in this beautiful orange syrup, and I'm just gonna let them roll around in their little orange syrupy bath. Yeah, there you go. I think it's really gonna help with the denseness of the cake. AMY: Nice, Rose. Don't break them up, OK? Yeah, gentle. On top of that, I really want to make a lemon cream to help with the denseness of the cake and just add a bit more moisture to it. Get zest, not hand. Get zest, not hand. The lemon is definitely a surprise that I don't think the others will have. Um...I really like putting lemon in cream, and I'm hoping that the judges will notice it as well. Two minutes to go! Come on! (SPECTATORS CHEER) ASHLEIGH: I think it's gonna look a bit messy however I do it, so I just put loads of the sauce on. I think the judges will like that. JESSICA: Yum! Make sure there's plenty of sauce over. Come on, guys! GARY: 10 seconds! 9... JUDGES AND SPECTATORS: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Well done! (CHEERING) Good stuff. Nice work, guys! Great. Well done. Well done. Good work, Rosie. I haven't made a sticky date pudding in a little while, but I'm really happy with the... with the puddings that I put up. Was a little bit concerned that I might have a little bit too much bicarb in there. We'll see. I have no idea if I've won. There's a lot of pressure on me to do well today. I know that Rose and Matt's puddings look really good as well, so it could be anyone's. Pretty simple round one - the best dish goes through to round two to compete for immunity. Whose sticky date pudding shall we taste first? Rose. (APPLAUSE) ROSE: I really want a chance at the immunity, but I'm just nervous. The cake is just a little bit too dense. Right. Right. Sauce looks good. The sponge is really heavy. It's dense. But great dark toffee sauce. Love that. And I love how it kind of streaks like a ripple through that cream. It just makes you want to dive in and have a spoonful. I love the little...sort of leaning towards Middle Eastern. I love the orange that you put in, Rose, actually. And I love that light touch of lemon in the cream, which just lifts that richness. Thanks, Rose. (APPLAUSE) ROSE: I'm over the moon. I'm really glad that I took a bit of risk and, you know, played on my heritage a little bit, and it paid off. I'm...yeah, I'm ecstatic. Next up, Matthew. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) MATTHEW: I'm hoping that I've done enough to win this round. I'm pretty happy with the way that it looks. It's just that bicarb thing that's playing in the back of my mind. MATT: Hey... Ooh, we have high hopes for this one. Look at that! Oh, I love it. I love it. Just looks beautiful, doesn't it? It's got a lot of baking powder in it. Mm. A lot. Can taste it. I can taste it. Mm. It is... ..seriously delicious. And the fact that you've put loads of caramel sauce and you've got that custard to give you some kind of relief... But...when you're finished, you're left with this kind of metallic, baking powder, bicarb flavour. Too much. Yep. We asked for sweet, we asked for sticky, we asked for dripping in sauce. You brought us all those three. It does have that kind of bicarby flavour. Um...but other than that, gee, great job. Thanks a lot. (CHEERING) Well done, Matty. Really happy with what I've done, but, unfortunately, that little bit of extra bicarb has probably cost me. Finally, Ashleigh. (APPLAUSE) ASHLEIGH: Still feel nervous that my puddings are a little bit messy. Hopefully, the judges won't mind that too much. Um, so the caramel sauce is salty ginger caramel sauce and the custard is vanilla and orange. We were watching you turn those cakes out... Mm-hm. And we were just going, "Leave them. Leave them. Don't turn them out hot." 'Cause you've broken them as you've turned them out. Yep. Why didn't you just leave them? I don't know. I'm scared I might be headed for a fall. . Earlier this year, right here on this shared driveway, a couple of neighbours came up with a bright idea for a business. < You hear so often about shared driveways causing drama between neighbours. I know. < But for you guys, it caused a business. Jess bought me these pots one day. I said, 'Wow. We could totally do that.' Yeah. And it's sort of grown from there. How did people find you before the website? At local markets. And then we started a Facebook page. Yup. If we can streamline the process, that's gonna make life so much better. < And that's where the website's come in. Absolutely. Yeah. We're business mobile customers, and so with that, Spark have given us a free website. The template is there. Drag and drop, basically. It's super easy. We're not techies, no. Yeah. We're not web designers. It's gonna broaden the business and hopefully bring in a lot more customers. < You're not getting sick of each other yet? No! Not yet! Where to from here for the business? Everything looking pretty good? We're global. We've got a website. Yeah. And that's amazing. If you're a business mobile customer, get yours now. 1 We were watching you turn those cakes out and we were just going, "Leave them. Don't turn them out hot." 'Cause you've broken them as you've turned them out. Why didn't you just leave them? I don't know. Beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Would you agree? Oh, yeah, absolutely. 100%. You've taken the classic and you've just lifted it into the modern era slightly. Everything just sort of gelled together perfectly, so...yeah, spot-on. Well done. 100% winner of round one. Ashleigh, well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ASHLEIGH: I know that my grandmas will be really proud of me. I'm happy that I have done that recipe justice and put up a great pudding. Ashleigh, congratulations. You've made it through the first round. Now all you need to do to earn that pin is to beat the guest chef. Simple. This is my second opportunity to cook off for an immunity pin. I've watched quite a few cook-offs now, so I know what to expect from them. And, yeah, I'm feeling excited to get started. Today's guest chef was born and raised in the bush. He developed his passion for food and quality fresh produce growing up on his family's fresh fruit farm before he moved to Melbourne, where he worked for our very own Shannon Bennett at Vue de Monde. He eventually ended up as the head chef at Cafe Vue 401. He then returned in triumph to Mildura to run the dining room at the Grand Hotel, and under his stewardship, it was named the best regional restaurant in Victoria. He's now head of the Black Stump Bistro in Mildura. Please welcome Jim McDougall. (CHEERING) Jim has worked under Shannon Bennett at Vue de Monde. That definitely makes me absolutely terrified. Vue de Monde is an amazing restaurant and you have to be an amazing chef to work there, so...yep, feeling pretty nervous right now. Welcome, Jim. How are the nerves? Starting to creep back up again now, but... Good, excellent. ..I'll be OK once I'm in the kitchen. I'm really happy that Shannon's in the kitchen. It's good to see him again. We went through a lot back in the day at Vue de Monde. He taught me a lot, and most of my modern cooking techniques came from working in his restaurants. So, yeah, it's really great. Jim, it's pretty simple. There are two pantries behind us, and Ashleigh gets to choose which pantry of ingredients you have to cook with. You have to cook one delicious dish from either of those pantries. Now, Ashleigh gets 75 minutes 'cause she's the amateur. Because you're the professional, you get 60 minutes - a little bit of a handicap. Are you ready to see what the pantries are? Ashleigh, your choices are between... ..north... Or south. When we say north, we mean northern Australia. When we say south, we mean, you know, southern, temperate zones. So if you look at it, you know, you've got bananas, you've got cane sugar, vanilla, which Queensland's very famous for. Coffee, chocolate - Daintree chocolate. We've even got some bamboo shoots here. Oh, don't forget the coconut water. I'm straightaway drawn to the north pantry. There's lots of ingredients there that I could use to make a dessert. I wonder, Jim...I wonder whether you're more comfortable with the stuff from the north, or maybe it's over here, this more European-style, southern pantry. And you've got all the roots you'll ever want, you've got fennel... Not a lot of stuff for sweets here, Ashleigh - some berries, maybe. I'm feeling Jim might prefer the south pantry - those are the ingredients he's more familiar with. But I think I need all the help I can get today. I'm gonna go with the north. Jim? How do you feel about that? Yeah. I would have rathered that one, but, hey... (LAUGHS) I don't have the choice, so... Oh, well, Ashleigh, maybe you made the right decision, huh? You picked a bunch of ingredients you feel comfortable with, I hope? There is an under-bench pantry as well today. That's got milk, cream, eggs and vinegar in it. It's also got some butter, because, really, you can't cook for me and Gary without butter. But, you know, it all comes down to the one dish you put up, and Gary, George and myself will be tasting those dishes blind, so we won't see you cook. So good luck to you both. Shannon, the kitchen is all yours. GEORGE: Good luck, guys. GARY: Good luck. Thanks. Today, there's a lot at stake for me. It's a chance to get my hands on that immunity pin, and for Jim, his reputation is at stake. I'll definitely have my work cut out for me today. SHANNON: Ashleigh? Mm-hm? You've chosen the north pantry. You've got 75 minutes. And your time starts now. (CHEERING) I know that I definitely want to make a dessert. The passionfruit has caught my eye, and also the chocolate. I know that chocolate and passionfruit is a really yummy combination. My dish today is a passionfruit semifreddo. So I'm gonna get started on that. I whisk together some eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Maybe I could do, like, a warm chocolate caramel sauce with it. GEORGIA: Yeah. That sounds beautiful. I'm so excited that I'm able to make a dessert, so I've definitely struck lucky today. BILLIE: Ashleigh's proved to be amazing at making semifreddos. She made one in our army challenge. Oh, wow. That is brilliant. I've never had anything like it before. If Ashleigh puts up another amazing semifreddo, she'll win this immunity pin. You've had 10 minutes, Ashleigh. OK, thank you. Ashleigh's, uh... incredibly passionate about pastry, so...today is all about honing in on her strengths, to take her pastry skills to the next level. Right. Yeah, I mean, to get through to the immunity challenge, she actually knocked out an amazing sticky date pudding with ginger. Excellent. I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed by that. Apparently, Ashleigh's got some mad skills in pastry and she might just have the upper hand. This is it, Jim. Your time starts now. (CHEERING) Today I'm cooking a red emperor pan-fried with an jicama crab salad and some white butter sauce. That'll do to start. OK. Good luck, Jim. Cheers. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) The first thing I need to do is get on to filleting the fish. So that needs to be done perfectly. Then I need to select the best part of the fish to cook. Salt and sugar on the fish - so, a light cure. I'm cooking this dish because smoked butter with fish is phenomenal. I've smoked butter plenty of times, but I usually do it over a period of an entire day, so in one hour is gonna be a challenge. I don't have smoking chips, so I'm using tea, which will work really well. This stuff is really good to smoke with as well. All I've got is tea and coconut husk. So this is gonna have to work, but I need to make sure it doesn't get too hot or it's gonna catch fire and it's gonna wreck the butter. OK. So now the idea is to get as much smoke as I can into that butter without melting it. Jim, how do you stop the butter from melting if you're doing a hot smoke? In and out of the blast chiller. Yep. It melts very quickly. The importance in smoking butter is not to let it melt. So I need to smoke it and then get it back into the blast chiller, and then smoke it again, and then put it back in. So you've gotta repeat this process till you get enough smoke in it. So, technique-wise, it might look simple, but it's really, really difficult. JESSIE: Go, Jim. BILLIE: Watching Jim make his sauce is really fascinating. He's doing smoked butter and all of these weird, wonderful flavours. It seems really unusual, and something I haven't seen before, so...I'd really love to taste it. SHANNON: Ashleigh, what's going on? ASHLEIGH: I am going to do... Mmm? ..a passionfruit semifreddo. Sounds good. Now you need a couple of accompaniments. You need a bit of texture with that. Yep. But you've got wonderful chocolate here. I have. What about chocolate mousse? I'm a bit traumatised from making chocolate mousse. The last two times I've made it in the competition, it's been a disaster. What chocolate did you use? Definitely some technical issues there. I'm just...I'm a little bit scared of the chocolate mouse. And it might go with your semifreddo, because chocolate and passionfruit works beautifully together. Um... It's definitely a risk on this mousse, but Shannon's really pushing for it. He seems really confident that it's gonna work, so I'm gonna have to take Shannon's advice and, hopefully, I can get it right this time. 1 We need to think of the end result here, what we're doing. Yeah. And the mousse is very easy. ASHLEIGH: I'm a bit traumatised from making chocolate mousse. The last two times I've made it in the competition, it's been a disaster. It's just about what's gonna make this a dessert that takes it from plating it up for Matt... Yes. ..to in a restaurant. OK. Alright, OK. It's definitely a risk on this mousse, but I think I need to push myself if I want to have any chance of winning that pin. Hopefully, I can get it right this time. I just have to get the semifreddo in the blast chiller, and then I get on to preparing the chocolate mousse. MATTHEW: Come on, Ash. Keep it going, Ash. 45 minutes to go! (CHEERING) JIM: Today I'm cooking a red emperor pan-fried with an jicama crab salad and smoked butter sauce. I've got no stock, so...instead of stock, I'm gonna use coconut water so you get a bit of that... Yum. ..beautiful, tropical thing going on. I have no stock for the smoked butter sauce, so what I'm gonna do is hack into that baby coconut. I know that it's nice and viscous and got quite a bit of sugar, so that's gonna... that's gonna stick the butter to it to make a nice emulsion. It's time to start adding the smoked butter. Hopefully, it comes off. The coconut water is beautiful and sweet, so I think we should get something good out of that. SARA: How's it looking, Jim? The coconut water gives it a beautiful flavour. Yeah. Gotta say that's exciting me quite a lot - coconut water and butter and smoke. It's all of the good things. Jim's made this really amazing sauce. It's all flavours that you wouldn't really think about going together, but the butter, coconut, smoke - yeah, really interesting. I'm, uh...I'd really like to try it. Has the smoke flavour come through? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah? Really...heaps. The actual tea comes up really nice. I'm happy with the way the sauce is coming together. It looks really, really stable. I think it's gonna be nice. It's beautifully tasty. Ashleigh, Jim, you have 30 minutes to go! (CHEERING) Are you OK now? I feel OK for time. I think the chocolate mousse shouldn't take too long. My semifreddo is setting in the blast chiller. I still have a lot of things to do, but I think I'm OK. OK. You gotta get cracking, though, huh? Yes. Gotta get cracking. I have mixed my eggwhite into my melted chocolate for the mousse, which I then put into one of the siphon guns and then leave it to set. It's definitely a risk on this mousse, but I'm hoping that it's gonna be OK. ROSE: Looking down, I can see Ashleigh's doing another chocolate mousse. For whatever reason, she just doesn't seem to get it right in the kitchen, but I know she knows how to make a really good mousse, so I'm just really hoping that she gets her redemption today. As I'm mixing the smoked butter sauce, I'm still thinking I need something just to give that sauce a little more complexity. I want to add vanilla to the sauce. I love beautiful, soft fish with that vanilla and a little bit of sweetness. I don't want it to be too savoury. GEORGIA: Oh, vanilla in your sauce. Yeah, a little bit of vanilla. I want a little bit more sweetness in there. BILLIE: I love how Jim pushes the boundaries with his cooking, using all these cool techniques and odd flavour combinations, but I'm a little worried that vanilla might make his sauce a little too sweet. Now that I've got my mousse setting, I need to start the crumb. To make my crumble today, I'm going to be using coconut flour. I'm gonna mix it with some butter, a little bit of sugar and some of the peanuts. And then I'll cook that in the oven until it's nice and toasted and crunchy. I also decide to add a ginger syrup to the dessert. So, I'm gonna make my syrup out of water, sugar... I'm gonna add some lime juice as well because I don't want it to be too sweet. And then I'm gonna put in the ginger as well to infuse. There's definitely lots of pressure, but the cook has gone pretty well so far. I don't know what's happening over at Jim's bench, but I'm sure he's putting up something amazing, so I know I've got tough competition. How are you over there, Ashleigh? All good? Yep. I'm good, thank you. How are you? I'm getting there. (LAUGHTER) Still kind of making it up as I go. Me too. (LAUGHTER) SHANNON: Jim, there's no pressure. It's only your reputation at stake here. (LAUGHS) There's only 10 minutes to go. Come on! You can do it, Ashleigh. (SIGHS) OK. Just to bake the fish. I'm pretty under control. I've just gotta cook this fish. I've still got plenty of time. I'm really unsure of how long the fish is gonna cook in these ovens because I'm not familiar with it, so I'm putting smoked butter on the fish, just to keep it moist and sort of keep it nice and smoky. Five minutes to go. Five minutes! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Come on. This is it. My crumb is ready to go, so all that's really left to do is to start plating. BILLIE: Let's go, Ash! I'm checking my fish. By the looks of it, the fish is not cooking fast enough in the oven. Yeah. Time's running out. I have to do something quickly to get that fish finished. So, I throw it in the beautiful melted butter on the tray. I think it'll be cooked perfectly, but it's gonna go down to the wire. I am feeling very anxious and very nervous. My stomach is in knots about how this mousse is gonna turn out. You happy, Ashleigh? Yep. It's holding its shape and I think I've managed to get it out OK. Beautiful. This is it. One minute to go! Come on! One minute to go! I'm looking at my fish, hoping to God that it's cooked. If it's not, I'm in big, big trouble. MATTHEW: Come on, Ash. Doing really well! (CHEERING) 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7... SPECTATORS AND SHANNON: ..6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! (CHEERING) That's it! Step away! Little bit of worry there with the fish not quite cooking as fast as I thought it would in the oven. But, yeah, pulled it off. The fish looks pretty good. Hopefully, it's cooked enough for the judges. The combination of coconut water, smoked butter and the vanilla together is really gonna challenge the judges' palates. I hope it comes off. Well done. Good luck. (CHUCKLES) Thank you. I look down at my dish... I'm feeling pretty happy with it. I am nervous about the mousse. I don't know how it's gonna stack up against Jim's dish, but I'm really hoping that the judges love my dish. MAN: This is red emperor on a pickled jicama and crab salad with smoked butter and vanilla sauce. What does that smell like? What is that? Smells like... like something familiar. GARY: It's coconut. Coconut water. It is. It's coconut. Coconut water. Yeah, it's husky. What do you reckon? It's red emperor. And I'm always worried with red emperor that you're gonna have a... It's quite an elastic skin. Elastic skin. It doesn't get crispy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's it cooked, George? Yeah, it's cooked beautifully. It's cooked nicely. Yeah. Can you pass the sauce back over? It's funny, isn't it? You know what? It's the kind of dish I can't make my mind up. I've eaten it all, and it really is in a strange way... ..very delicious. Like, I can't make up my mind whether I like that sauce. Smoky, it's a little sweet. It's very perfumed from the vanilla. It's like custard. And then eating it with the fish... There's lots of fresh flavours in there. The coconut... I don't know. I mean, I'm still eating it, so...it must be tasty. Vanilla and seafood are a good combination, especially with that type of fish. I like it. It...it... Definitely, it's a challenging dish. I mean, it's kind of a hard one. Your lasting flavour is of vanilla and that's a dessert flavour. You can take this dish in two ways. You can either go, "It's really clever, "it's challenging, it's a little cheffy," or, "Hmm, not sure if I like that." There's coconut water in that, which is naturally quite a sweet water. So, I think it's the sweetness that makes your brain obviously go custard, vanilla ice-cream melted. You're right. But I'm not...I'm still... Yeah. Because I'm fascinated by it. But are you fascinated or do you just like melted ice-cream? All of the above, really. (LAUGHS) Exactly! GEORGE: Shall we score? Oh, I think it's hard... This is a hard dish to score, huh? It's a really hard dish to score. You know, it could be... It could be, like, a high or it could be a medium. Oh, I'm not sure. Let's get the next dish in, boys. Alright. I think that screams Ashleigh, that dish. That's her kind of presentation. But her Achilles heel is chocolate mousse. 1 I think that screams Ashleigh, that dish. That's her kind of presentation. Her Achilles heel is chocolate mousse. Mmm. It is nice. I'm happy. I'm happy 'cause that is so delicious. I get ginger, I get passionfruit. Like, it's got... There's so much going on on this plate. But funnily enough, it all goes. I like it. It's like going to one of those tropical fruit farms - you know, up kind of Buderim way or further north - and, you know, smelling the ginger plants, and...oh... The warmth of the ginger is beautiful with the chocolate. I think the thing that makes it stand out is you get cold, sharp semifreddo and then you get a warm chocolate mousse. It's kind of got that fluffiness that is lovely and smooth. It's a dollopy mouse. I love it. Scores done. Scores are done. We know what the results are, don't we? Will it be unanimous? Oh, yeah. Let's go and find out. (CHUCKLES) So, we need to know who cooked which dish. Ashleigh, what did you cook? I cooked the passionfruit semifreddo. I had a funny feeling that the dessert may have been yours. You know, with all those beautiful north Australian products, I think you had a dish in mind, didn't you? Jim, what did you cook? JIM: I just did the little red emperor, lightly seared. Yeah, just kept it really, really simple. Smoked a little bit of butter, had a bit of fun. OK, let's reveal Jim's scores first. You ready? Jim, I scored your dish... ..7 out of 10. Thank you. Jim, I scored your dish... ..an 8. Well done. Thank you. Jim, I scored your dish... ..7 out of 10. Gee, that sauce had us thinking. Those touches of classical French in the vanilla and the butter, and then the smoke and the coconut water. Fascinating combination. Thanks. Thank you. Well, Jim, that means you've scored a total of 22. Ashleigh, you need 23 or more to take the pin. I definitely think Ashleigh's in with a chance today. She's done amazingly. Are you ready? Yep. Feeling confident? I'm feeling nervous. Nervous is good. Ashleigh... ..I scored your dish... ..an 8 out of 10. I loved it... ..so much I licked the plate. 9 out of 10. (CHEERING) You know what, Ashleigh? I loved it too. 9 out of 10. Whoo! Well done! Fantastic, eh? Whoo! Got one in the bag now. You did it. (CHEERING) ASHLEIGH: I am so happy. I literally cannot even believe it. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would actually get my hands on one of those immunity pins. Ashleigh, you know what that means. Hey? Well done, sweetheart. Come here. Thank you. You deserve it. Thank you. (CHEERING) Good job. Ashleigh, how do you feel? Feels like I'm dreaming. But, hopefully, it'll make my cooking even better to know that...horrible weight of elimination is off my shoulders for a little bit. Jim, thank you for coming in here. Any final bits of advice from a professional like you to Ashleigh, and of course these guys here? Yeah. I mean, keep it simple. Be passionate. Enjoy what you do. And have integrity in everything you do and believe in yourself. Jim, thank you so much, mate. Well done. Brilliant. MATT: Well deserved. Thank you. Good luck with it. Shannon. Ah, give me a hug, mate. Definitely, mate. Cooking in the MasterChef kitchen is definitely a challenge. (LAUGHTER) See you, Jim! (CHEERING) The result today speaks volumes for Ashleigh. I think it's an amazing thing. Maybe next time, when I come back, I'll have a bit more wits about me. What about that, Ashleigh, huh? Good old Smashleigh! (LAUGHTER) Two pins in play. Have a look at that. There is bling everywhere. Anything is possible, as you can see. You never know - next week, it could be you competing against a top chef and winning another pin. I've got loads of them, alright? (LAUGHS) There's plenty in the safe. So...go home, get lots of sleep. You're gonna need it. See ya. See you later. Thanks, Shannon. Pleasure, guys. ANNOUNCER: Next time, you're invited to a classic high tea at one of Melbourne's grand old hotels. REYNOLD: Come on, come on. We need everyone hands on deck very, very soon. BILLIE: Guys, come on. We gotta hustle. They will create sweet treats... How am I gonna plate these up? ..for 100 savvy diners. That was delicious. But who of our class of 2015 has what it takes to impress four of Australia's top pastry chefs... GARY: Ooh, look at that. These chefs are my heroes. Love it. I like this one. ..and stay safe from elimination? Able 2016