Nostalgia The Hairy Bikers' Comfort Food

We've travelled the world and eaten everywhere from roadside bars

to restaurants with Michelin stars.

But there really is nothing like a bit of home cooking.

Coming into a warm kitchen, filled with the aroma

of a tasty meal bubbling away.

It's one of life's great pleasures.

There's nothing like comfort food to put a smile on your face.

Today, the stuff that memories are made of.

We're talking nostalgia.

Food, mate, smells -

there's nothing better than the smell of something that you had

-when you were little.

-Yeah.

-And this is one of your dishes, isn't it?

This is one of your nostalgia dishes.

Well, this is it.

A good, proper Lancashire hotpot.

Oh, yes.

I'm going to slice onions and if there's a tear in me eye,

it may not just be the onions.

It's almost like making, say, a casserole meets a savoury gateau.

So what we do is we get all the elements to the hotpot together

and then you layer it all up like that

and it goes into the pan and you cook it.

Right, you can use chump chops, you can use scrag end,

but this is neck, lamb neck.

When you're browning meat off,

because this is what we're going to do now, do it in batches,

because you just want a sort of a relatively small amount in the pan

and then set it aside.

My mum,

she had one of those big creamware bowls

and that bowl was used for kneading bread, for leavening it

and that was also our hotpot bowl,

so even when it's used for sweet dishes,

there would inevitably be brown gravy marks on the top

where the hotpot had stained.

What occasion did she used to do that for, Dave?

It was a winter dish. I remember it when you come home from school.

So I'd inevitably be wet through from the rain, so I'm there,

drying out in front of the fire, so there's this smell of kind of damp schoolboy,

the hotpot in the oven.

I just used to hope that people wouldn't take all the crispy potatoes!

You know what's interesting, Si, I'm not quite sure what makes a

Lancashire hot pot "Lancashire".

I'd like to think it's the black pudding.

The lamb, lamb's prevalent.

Yeah, Lancashire - Cumbria, Cumberland.

And lamb's kidneys, they're so sweet, aren't they, and...

Well, texture really as well, they're very soft.

-Yeah.

-And that's that lovely thing about them.

And what we've done here, lamb's kidneys, really lovely quality,

we've cored them and then we've just cut them into quarters.

Gravy, Mr Myers.

Onions go into the pan.

A nice big spoonful of flour.

Ordinary flour onto the onions will coat that

and cook it for a little bit.

I've got some lamb stock here.

More flavour now. Some sprigs of thyme.

A couple of bay leaves.

And a nice big spoonful of Worcestershire sauce.

And that's the onion gravy.

The pot that is hot.

So, what we're going to do, we're going to butter it.

So, just smear with butter on the inside.

Oh!

I think I broke it!

-Oh, you haven't broken it, have you?

-Hold on.

-What?

-Well, you always say that I'm the clumsy one

and you're quite clumsy!

I'm not clumsy, I'm an artist.

Two, three, four.

HE HUMS TO HIMSELF

Beautiful. How easy was that?

My mother would have given her eye teeth for that mandolin.

Now it's the build.

This layer of potato is going to cook in all the juices of the meat.

Half the meat.

And now we want about half this wonderful rich onion gravy.

Add a layer of black pudding slices.

Cover over with a layer of potato slices

and as before, a layer of meat.

Then more black pudding.

Then the gravy. But season the potatoes as you go.

The top layer of potatoes can be arranged as carefully as you like.

That is beautiful.

Dot with butter cubes.

That's so you get a golden top.

Cover with the lid and place in a preheated oven, 180 Celsius,

for 20 minutes.

Then, take off the lid and cook for a further 20 minutes until the top

layer of spuds is golden.

Lancashire hotpot.

And it's your nostalgia dish, mucker.

Just like me mother used to make.

Mother.

Where's the fork?!

Every family has their favourite dishes,

the comfort foods that remind us of home.

These are our inheritance dishes,

handed down through generations of the same family.

My name's Meera. I'm 34 years old.

I'm a food writer and a cook and I'm from Lincolnshire.

I think if you naturally love ingredients and love food

and love cuisines, then you will end up cooking from different cultures.

I love Italian food, for example,

but I always come back to Indian food, because it's my first love.

It's a smell that still sort of really grounds me

the moment that I walk through the door.

'Meera and I do cook together.'

Just do them into half.

Oh, just half, sorry.

Yes, please.

'But we have a little rapport with each other'

and we're a little bit cheeky, little bit naughty,

we tell each other a little bit off as well

and the wonderful thing is that, you know,

because she knows all the recipes now and, in a way,

she knows what I'm thinking and sometimes it's quite frightening!

My inheritance dish is a Lincolnshire sausage and potato curry.

I have varied the dish a little bit from when Mum used to cook it for us

when I was a kid.

It uses some of the best produce that Britain has to offer

and marries them together with some incredibly traditional ancient

Indian spices and traditional cooking techniques.

Food is the backdrop to everything that we do as a family.

Lovely plump, fat sausages.

For me in particular, what I hadn't realised about

how big a part it was is that my parents are both from Uganda

and they didn't really talk about their past very much.

Through learning the family recipes, I realised that behind every recipe

there was a story.

I haven't cooked them the whole way through because

they'll get a chance to cook for a little bit longer later.

But they've just got that lovely colour on them.

'My parents were unceremoniously kicked out of Uganda in 1972

'with 30,000 other Ugandan Asians and they came over to the UK.

'I didn't really know about what life was like for them

'when they were growing up, so food became a passport'

to the past and to my mum's memories.

Now that my potatoes are partly cooked,

I'm going to put some passata in there.

So I'm just going to use about half of that.

I'm using Mum's magic box of spices.

When we came here 44 years ago, you were not able to get a lot of Indian

spices or Indian produce so, you know,

you either starve or you change.

And we thought, right, you know, what's on our doorstep?

So, you know, it became quite an adventure for us trying new recipes,

new things, but yet keeping to the tradition at the same time.

This is looking really, really good.

I think traditions are very important.

They are going to change slightly over the years but, for us,

we lost everything when we came from Uganda

so we have to create new memories and new history

and we need to pass it to our children.

-Wow. That looks lovely!

-Thanks, Mum.

Really nice.

'Keeping our family traditions alive is ready important to me.

'Very little exists from their time in India or Uganda

'and I'm already two steps removed.

'When I have my children, I want them to know what their heritage is

'and one way that I can do that is passing down the sort of recipes

'and the stories that go with them.'

What are you cooking, Kingy?

Pissaladiere.

Pissa-what?

Pissaladiere.

Tell us the story of your dish.

Well, I tell you, right.

It was the first time I went to France,

and there was a guy selling what I thought was pizza

and it was just so simple, the layers of flavour,

but it was just that harmony of the sweetness of the onions,

the salt of the anchovies and then you got another layer of savoury

with the olive. It just blew us away.

-Shall I do the dough?

-Yeah, yeah.

Because literally all I'm doing is, in oil and butter,

I'm frying off some onions and that takes ages -

and I mean literally about 45 minutes.

Lots of onions.

Lots, lots.

Lots!

Like, one and a half kilos of onions.

The dough. Now, we're using plain flour for this.

The nice thing about plain flour is that it ends up

if you have this cold, the dough's still a little bit soft.

So, I just put a teaspoon of salt

in the flour.

Now, for me liquids, for this amount of flour,

I want about 125ml of warm water.

So I want about a tablespoon of honey.

And that goes into the water.

Dried yeast goes in.

I'm going to add a big glug of olive oil.

So, the olive oil is basically the fat in the bread.

Just add this to the flour.

You've got to use a lot of butter, haven't you?

Yeah, there's a lot of butter and there's a lot of oil.

Now, the reason that we're putting the oil and the butter

in the same pan is so the butter doesn't burn.

Now, what's important, you see how the butter is starting to foam?

That's an indication that the fat is at the right temperature

to start the slow process of frying off these onions.

And all I'm doing now, I'm just adding some thyme.

I remember that flavour, that first flavour and going, what is that?

And it was thyme. So, so good.

And I'm just kneading this and back to that old adage, generally -

the softer the dough, the better the bread.

And pizza or pissaladiere is no exception to that rule.

Now, this,

this is how gentle we're going to cook these onions.

These onions should take about 45 minutes to an hour.

So, it's about patience and every now and then

you've just got to stir it, but gently.

And conveniently,

what will take about 45 minutes is for this ball of dough

to double in size.

So, I'm just going to cover this with a damp tea towel

and while his onions cook, wait for nature to work its magic

and that's me dough.

Perfect.

Izzy, bizzy, let's get wizzy.

Get in! I tell you what I've got to do, though.

Before you start that, I've just got to transfer these because we can't

put the hot onions onto that dough.

Oh, no, the dough'll collapse.

So it'll collaps-ed.

Look at that, man.

Look, that's what you want, that's the sort of colour...

..and consistency.

Now, what you want is a very sturdy oven tray.

First off we need to grease the tray with some olive oil.

Now, I want to press the dough onto the tray, bit like making focaccia.

But not quite to the edge.

Just be patient with this and just stretch and nip.

Look at that, man.

We want the onions to be in a rectangle about one centimetre in

from the border of the dough.

-Right, old friend.

-You splodge and I'll swipe.

-The onions.

-It's all about the onions, isn't it?

It is, this dish, it is, yeah.

Now, should I or do you want to?

-No, go on.

-It's your dish.

I know, but you like it.

Anchovies.

Kingy, you know when you're home,

what would be the occasion that you think,

"I'm going to get a pissaladiere on"?

Saturday mornings, you stick it in.

By about half past 11, 12 o'clock it's ready.

Yeah.

And then just nibble on with it all day.

Saturday... It'd be great, wouldn't it,

for watching Strictly and having your pissaladiere.

Yeah.

Add the olives at intervals.

We like to put them in the middle of the squares.

It's the only dinner that you can play draughts with.

And you take the oil and you just...

So that's the anchovy oil.

And you can see, little Kingy,

this little blonde tousled hair tot,

with his big slice of pissaladiere in his hands

and the olive oil going down his chin and all that'd be going

through his head is, "When am I going to get the next one?"

And literally, it'll be about an hour.

I could only ever wait an hour and I'd be back and in the end after a

fortnight, honestly I must have looked like that,

I must have had it about eight times a day.

Now, we want to put this into a really hot oven for about 20 minutes

but keep an eye on it - you don't want it burnt.

See you later.

-Is it ready?

-Yeah.

Yes!

I must say, the smell is unreal.

-Get in.

-Does that look like it used to?

-Yes.

-Lovely and sticky and unctuous. Shall we put some herbs on the top?

Oh, you're very Jamie Oliver when you do that.

Now, I remember the slices were big.

Memories are made of this.

Mm! That is so good.

Thanks for your memories!

No, thanks for yours!

You had good holidays, didn't you?

Oh, yeah, defo.

Oh, man.

It wasn't like this in Southport!

Nothing beats a bit of home cooking,

but every now and then it's nice to have someone else cook for you.

Thankfully, all throughout the country,

there are tasty places that make us feel right at home.

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

-Thank you.

I'm Jean Webber and I'm the proud owner of the Cabin Cafe,

which has been in my family since 1932.

It's got a lot of history to it.

We're very proud of it.

-Morning.

-Can I have a bacon and mushroom to take away?

We'll give you a shout when it's ready, my love.

OK.

It started off as a little tea stall.

It was a brand-new chicken shed, if you know what I mean,

with the up flap and serve the teas from outside,

like a little tea stall.

Then my father extended it for a couple or three tables and chairs inside.

Through the years, do you know what I mean,

it got extended and extended, then when they wanted to retire

and I got married and we took it over, you know.

So, I have been here most of my working life.

The food we do here is all home-cooked,

which I think is very important.

With the truckers, they all come down from the north

and they're out for the week. So they want a bit of home comfort.

They've got their lorries to sleep in but they want a decent meal

and they come here because they know they're going to get a home-cooked meal,

freshly cooked.

We serve all-day breakfast.

Lunchtimes, we do ham, egg and chips,

corned beef, egg and chips.

All the pies with peas and beans and gravy and then we make curries,

beef casseroles...

Sometimes when they look at our boards,

they say there's too big a selection.

SHE LAUGHS

It means a lot to us, the whole family.

And I think a lot of my customers appreciate that it is a family-run

business, because there's not many of them around now.

I've been coming here a long time.

I've seen people come, I've seen people go,

I've actually seen people grow up,

which is actually fairly unique in a business.

I've been coming here for about 40 years, I should think.

Hopefully I'll be coming here for another 40 years.

I doubt it, I'm 74 now,

so their cooking ain't done too bad for me, has it?

I've been coming here a long time. Probably 25 years.

And Mark and the gang and his mum,

we've known them all the years so they're all friends.

It's like coming home, really.

They're a part of our family, really.

They come in, they tell us about their families and all my family

and, you know, I mean, we're just one happy family.

We're going to make a trifle.

It's kind of combining two of our favourite things,

Black Forest gateau and trifle!

All good trifles start with a custard.

So we've got milk...

..cream, lots of cream.

We're using proper vanilla, Madagascan vanilla pods.

If you can't get the pods like this,

get vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract.

Don't use essence.

Essence is kind of synthetic.

Mind you, that's what me mother would have done!

So whilst this is coming to the boil,

I'm going to melt some chocolate,

because it's a chocolate custard,

and you don't need to do much with your chocolate.

You'll find as the heat comes through your bain-marie,

it will just melt gently.

What was the core thing in a trifle when you were a kid?

Can you remember those, like, sugary finger things that you used to get?

Boudoir biscuits.

Boudoir biscuits, yeah! And then me mam used to...

What's a boudoir biscuit?

-I don't know!

-It's a bedroom biscuit!

-It is! A bedroom biscuit.

-What's all that about?

-Aye.

So, yeah, what was yours?

It was Madeira cake, but it would be like,

sometimes it was one that was bought, you know,

wrapped in cellophane, definitely cellophane, nothing fancy.

Then you've got a booze element, obviously.

In my family, as I'm sure in yours, we were very keen on that.

Oh no, we weren't, because my dad was teetotal, you see.

Was he?!

Our complete consumption of alcohol was one bottle of sherry a year.

Really?

So there'd be a little nip at Christmas,

and then the rest went on your Madeira cake in your trifle.

Right, listen, 12 egg yolks.

I've whisked them a little bit so they've changed colour,

and then you want four dessert spoons of cocoa powder.

And, remember, it's cocoa powder, not drinking chocolate.

Yes, do remember that.

So many people try and make chocolate cake,

and they'll get their thing of drinking chocolate.

It's not, it's cocoa powder.

This is the secret, isn't it, Kingy?

Sometimes, when you make your own custard,

it goes like all Dr Who monster.

Stick some cornflour in - Bob's your uncle.

So two of those, and then the sugar.

Lovely. In we go.

And whisk.

Preferably with an electric beater, but if you haven't got one of those,

you're going to have to use your arm.

Right, are you ready?

No!

Two, three, four, I'll try not to burn my friend's hands.

Oh, yes!

Nice one, dude.

Right, now...

the chocolate. Now just pour this in and keep whisking.

What we're going to do now, we're going to transfer that to a pan,

because we need to cook the flour out.

The cornflour will heat up and thicken,

and then the egg yolks will cook,

and we will end up with chocolate custard.

Ee, two grown men looking into a pot of chocolate custard!

-It's beautiful!

-It is beautiful.

Yeah, that's what we need.

Now, what we're going to do, we're going to transfer this,

because look at the consistency of this now, Dave.

Oh, come on.

Look at that. And we're going to show you a top tip.

Mr Myers has got some clingfilm.

Now this is quite important,

because what we're going to do is we're going to make sure that the

custard doesn't form a skin.

So, as it cools, what we need to do,

we need to put this clingfilm right on the surface of...

That's me told!

Just put that there, like that.

And that means that skin won't form,

because there's no air between the clingfilm and the custard.

Shall we have a cup of tea while that cools?

Yeah, why not. Kettle on, good man.

Do we have a skin?

We do not.

I told you to put the clingfilm right down right on the top!

Now, we've just knocked up a very simple chocolate cake.

Or you could use chocolate brownies.

Lovely, that.

Now, Mr King.

I'm going to cut some cake fingers, and spread with jam.

Sandwich together and arrange in the bottom of a large trifle bowl.

Pour over the Kirsch, or cherry brandy,

then sprinkle over the cherries.

Oh, look at that.

Now, the texture.

Put a layer of Amaretti biscuits over the cherries,

then pour over the custard in a thick, even layer.

I don't know about you, but at this point, I really get quite excited.

Yeah.

Just put that there, there you go.

Look at that.

Did you have a trifle bowl when you were a kid?

Erm, not that I can remember.

Because my mam was a florist for a bit,

so it was whatever she didn't have flowers in was used!

Yeah. We had a bowl that me nan had won.

I think it was a rose bowl that had been converted,

she won it in bowling.

-Oh, mint!

-And then that was always our trifle bowl.

Well, it was our trifle bowl, our salad bowl...

I think it was our everything bowl, because we only had one bowl, because we were really poor.

Now, like most good building projects, this needs time to settle.

So pop that back in the fridge, let it settle,

let all the booze soak into the biscuits, to the cake,

and then we're kind of ready for the final flourish.

And, just like laying concrete...

..turn, tamper.

No wonder your mother used to get you to whistle.

DAVE WHISTLES

Because if you whistle, you know he's not eating.

But licking the bowl, again, when you're a kid, I don't do it now,

but just all this nostalgia's making me think...

"I don't do it now?"

You so do!

So what I've got here is I've got some lovely cherries.

Look at those, look at the colour of those, beautiful.

Does that not say "Black Forest" to you?

It does. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to dip them in chocolate,

and then we are going to decorate it with just that.

When ready, whisk the double cream until it forms soft peaks,

then smooth this over the custard.

I mean, you can put like little piggies on the top, if you want.

Decorate with more crushed Amaretti biscuits...

..chocolate-dipped cherries...

..and maybe some chocolate curls.

Ooh.

Well, it's ideas from our childhood, it's nostalgic,

I think we've created something that's unique, but, by 'eck,

you want to eat it, don't you?

-Look at that.

-Anticipation's killing us.

What do we reckon?

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

Mmm...