Cosy Suppers 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, dishes to warm the cockles.

Just what you need for a cosy supper.

Cosy takes many forms, doesn't it?

It does, and a pork shoulder is one of those forms.

It's cosy, and two chums cooking in a kitchen, it's all...cosy.

It's cosy!

This brings light, brings spice,

brings flavour into your everyday life.

It's an Indonesian pork stew.

It starts with pork shoulder.

I simply have taken the fat off, and I'm going to dice the pork - simple.

I'm going to do a dry spice mix,

which Si is going to rub into his pork before it's cooked.

So, half a teaspoon of cosy dry ginger.

Another cosy thing, coriander - ground coriander.

A big teaspoon of that.

Some cinnamon, just a quarter of a teaspoon.

We don't want it to taste like apple pie.

And for a bit of fire, half a teaspoon of cracked black pepper.

And just mix that up, and this just lights the fire a bit.

And everybody needs that fire lit

-once in a while, don't they, Dave?

-Yeah.

Si, there's your powders.

And, meanwhile, I'm just going to slice and saute off

some shallots till they're soft. So, I've got some veggie oil.

I tell you, this pork shoulder,

it has a texture that really suits this dish perfectly.

So, this is Dave's spice mix.

Oof!

Because this is a cosy, rich Indonesian dish,

we've got a lot of firepower in the flavour.

-Oh, haven't we?

-Four cloves of garlic.

-Exocet in her sails.

-The garlic mustn't burn.

Don't burn the garlic, because it'll turn bitter and that's not good.

Ginger.

This is a good tip, this.

How often have you sat with a knife and tried to whittle your way around

it? Nice piece of ginger, just get a spoon and that skin just falls off.

You will never struggle with ginger again if you have a teaspoon.

And ginger's very good, it warms your blood.

If you're at home with a cold, this is the dish for you.

Now, we'll just grate this ginger in.

And ginger is particularly important in this dish - it's lovely.

And, also, when you grate it,

the fibrous bits, they tend to get left behind.

-Yes.

-You've just got the nice juice and the flavour.

-Mm, that smells good.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

Now, chillies. These are bird's-eye chillies.

You can be as cosy as you like with chilli.

With four of these little beauties, it's going to be quite spicy.

Now, if you want to reduce the heat, take the seeds out.

If you like chillies, put loads in. If you don't, don't.

Right, time for Mr Pig.

-Look at that.

-Beautiful.

You might look at that and think, "By heck, that's a dry old affair,

"where's the gravy?"

We'll do that now. I've got half a litre of good stock.

Beef, chicken - it'll do.

Ketjap manis - very, very Indonesian.

Now, we want four big spoons of this, so that's kind of quite sweet.

Now, we've got the soy, which is salt.

We want two of this.

And now we want the bitter, good old tamarind.

The citrus, this is the hit. THEY MAKE KISSING NOISES

It makes you do this, tamarind.

Tamarind does this. It's one of those things.

You can buy the paste ready done,

it's a bit of a bore to make your own.

We pour this onto this mix, and just let it cook for as long as it takes.

-About an hour and a half.

-Yeah, that.

It's fireside in a pan.

I mean, it's worth buying a Labrador for so you can take it for a walk

in the woods to get proper frozen.

So, bring to a gentle simmer, then what will happen is, as the gravy

reduces, the moisture comes out, the flavours start to intensify,

it goes a very dark colour.

It's lovely.

After about 20 minutes, I took the lid off and look at it now.

All of those flavours have intensified.

They've got bigger, they've got bolder,

they've got cosier, and that is about ready to eat.

However, we need... Mr Myers...

Well, we're going to have a nice, crispy topping.

It's a bit like when you do daal,

you get the crispy onions on the top,

we're going to do the same thing with this,

but with crispy shallots and more bird's-eye chillies.

In Eastern food, this is called tempering, isn't it?

-It is.

-It is a blanket of flavour.

It is a poncho of passion.

It is a cushion

of comfort.

Right, chillies.

A bit of salt.

And they go very, very golden.

-They're lush, aren't they?

-Absolutely perfect.

That's what we're after.

-Oh, you can hear them, can't you?

-Yeah.

-Listen, listen.

METALLIC RUSTLE

See, they're crispy.

-Look at this, mate.

-That looks brilliant, doesn't it?

Aww.

Just a few crispy onions.

Beautiful.

Curry's cosy.

It's warm, it's embracing,

it's satisfying and this is rich, unctuous and, I suspect, very tasty.

I tell you what, it's flaming hot.

It's soft, it's tender.

-You know, the onions on the top?

-Mm.

-They're far more than decoration,

-aren't they?

-Yeah.

-You get another layer of flavour.

It is, it's great.

-That's...

-It's proper fireside food.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's a keeper.

-Yeah.

It's a onesie of a dish.

Talking of which, I'm going to put mine on.

Have you ever seen the Teletubbies?

That's all I'm saying.

Nothing beats home-made comfort food but, every now and then,

it's nice to have someone else cook for you.

Thankfully, all over the country,

there are tasty places that make us feel

right at home and keep enticing us back.

The Rectory Farm Tearooms is a working farm in Cornwall

and it's also a tearooms,

but it's not just a business, it is a family home,

which I think people really love.

We're really close to the South West Coast Path.

It's great because you get the ramblers coming in.

If it's hot, they're absolutely dying for something to drink,

and if it's cold and wet, then they want to come and have a bit of

a warm up and a dry up

and some nice, warm food to get them on their way again.

And we also get a lot of customers that have been coming for many,

many years.

It's just a thoroughly nice place to come and spend a lunchtime.

We combine it with going for a nice walk on the cliff,

because we eat so many cakes and goodies here we have to walk it off.

They're just delicious.

Have you seen this one? I mean, just look at it.

I believe in just serving good, traditional food,

which is home-made here using recipes that have been passed down

through the family. And I think people just love that.

I might be a little bit old-fashioned, I don't know,

but I don't really care,

because it's what I'm about and what I want to do.

This is Vera, my lovely mother-in-law.

-Well, thanks.

-Yeah!

Who started this whole business 60...

-64 years.

-..64 years ago.

We came to the farm in 1951, and the elderly lady from whom we bought the

farm, if anybody knocked on the door and said, "Is there anywhere I can

"get a cup of tea?", she used to do it for them, so I thought,

"Well, this is something I perhaps could do,"

and I started the tearoom really to supplement the farm's income.

So, what did you have on the menu when you first started?

Coffee, cake, cream teas, of course, being in Cornwall. Definitely...

The jam on the bottom and the cream on the top.

..with the jam on the bottom and the cream on the top, yes.

Oh, my God, they look delicious.

The scones, it's a secret family recipe,

so nobody other than myself and my mother-in-law know the recipe.

Where did the scone recipe actually originate?

Well, it was from, I think, loosely, from my best friend's mother.

Look at that, that's good, isn't it?

We're going to have to sort of, like, write it down and put it into

a safe box somewhere for the next generation.

How do I get this in my mouth without making a mess?!

Keeps us quiet, doesn't it?

I want people to come here as a destination,

it's somewhere they know they can come and get a really good lunch or

a proper Cornish cream tea, lovely home-made cakes, but I don't know,

who knows for the future, because I've got three sons.

Um, hoping that one of them maybe

would like to take over the tearooms,

and keep it going for another 60 years, who knows?

-You do wets, I do drys?

-I think so.

I'm going to start by putting some butter into the pan and, just over a

relatively low heat, I'm going to let that melt.

And I'm going to start by sieving the flour.

The one thing you could do is take out 50g of flour and replace it

with 50g of cocoa, and then you would have a little bit of chocolate

in your gingerbread as well.

Butter's melted, mate, I'm just going to put some Muscovado sugar

-in there.

-From the West Indies.

And this...

I think it's from Leeds.

HE LAUGHS This is golden syrup!

This is black treacle, and as we all know,

it's always difficult to get out the tin, so what you do is,

you heat it up in a little bit of water and, then, watch.

You can't have gingerbread...

..without black treacle.

Melt everything together over a gentle heat.

Right, the spices.

I feel like a doctor with me spice chest, but that's what it is.

I'm Doctor Cosy.

Two big tablespoons

of ground ginger.

To keep up the heat, I'm going to put some chilli powder in.

We've got a generous half teaspoon.

Half a teaspoon of allspice.

It always makes me think of Christmas.

A pinch of powdered mace.

Mace is the husk of nutmeg, and it's a really nice old-fashioned spice.

And, lastly, half a teaspoon of cinnamon.

When we said it's a spiced gingerbread,

it's a spiced gingerbread.

We want flavours that embrace the giving in a cuddle.

-It's indulgence, that's what it is.

-It is indulgence.

And, every now and then, a bit of indulgence does you good.

Now, what we need to do is to work on the wets.

I've got some milk.

Into that, I'm going to break two eggs.

Now, the milk and the eggs goes into here,

so what's important is that once the sugars have melted together,

you take it off the heat.

-Because what we don't want to do is...

-Scramble the eggs.

Add one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda,

because we want a bit of levity in the cake.

And give that a swizzle.

-Mr King?

-Yes, sir?

We always say that with baking there's a bit of alchemy,

there's a bit of chemistry. This could be the DNA of cosy.

-I think you might be right, you know, Dave.

-Yeah, yeah.

Can I have your stem ginger?

-Yeah, absolutely, mate.

-I'm just going to chop this up, because we

want these little nuggets of flavour

to burst in your mouth when you bite into the cake.

Gradually add the contents of the saucepan to the flour,

making sure everything is well combined.

You'll end up with a very wet, pourable batter.

It's like cake central heating, this.

It is! It is.

And on freezing, wet, cold winter days,

-with that and a hot cup of tea.

-Oh, aye.

It's like little kernels of amber, isn't it?

Beautiful.

Give it a stir.

With all that beautiful stem ginger in.

And gingerbread, it's always done in a square tin.

Think, like, a brownie on steroids.

This will rise up,

so don't worry if you think it looks a little bit kind of frugal.

With the baking powder, it will have a bit of oomph.

Hoo-hoo-hoo!

I remember me Aunt Hild used to make fabulous gingerbread, and she used

to serve it and you used to have it with your tea on a Sunday...

-Aye.

-..with a really, really strong Cheddar.

-Gingerbread and cheese?

-Gingerbread and cheese, try it, it's brilliant.

-I think we should.

-Yeah.

Right, now we pop that into a preheated oven,

170 degrees Celsius

for between 45 minutes and an hour,

but, remember, we still want it slightly sticky.

Mm. I think I'll go for a lie down.

Cool in the tin for half an hour, then turn out onto a rack.

-There's nothing better, is there?

-Look at that, that is a sticky cake.

But I think we can make it even stickier.

We've got some more syrup.

Oh, go on, mate, go on.

It's like varnishing a table, isn't it?

With a pot of tea and, as Mr King suggests,

a knob of cheese.

Now that is how gingerbread should be.

Oh, mate, that is epic.

The thing is, it's just that little bit nicer because of all the spice.

There are so many flavours going on there.

Actually, what is lovely, it's a very light and airy cake as well.

Bit of mousetrap.

What do you think?

-It works, doesn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

-I'll never eat me gingerbread without cheese again.

-Mm.

Mm!

-Tea as well! Oh! I'm in heaven.

-I am, too.

Remember, cosy is because you can, not because you need it.

Every dish tells a story.

It may be about the ingredients that define it,

the memories it evokes

or the people who created it.

This is the story of Geraldo Santaniello's spaghetti Bolognese.

I'm Geraldo Santaniello.

I'm a second-generation Italian living here in Bedford.

And I run an Italian pizzeria.

I can still just about make pizzas, but I'm increasingly taking a

back-seat, it's a bit too hard.

I prefer to tell other people how to do it.

My father used to dream of owning a restaurant.

It's like a link to where we're from and what we are.

Bedford is the hometown of the biggest Italian community

in this country.

My father came over to Bedford

in the early '50s to work as a labourer in the brick factories.

We've come over to Stewartby

to have a look at where my father and his fellow

Italian colleagues used to work, and it's bringing back some fantastic

memories for me, because I used to come here occasionally

as a child to see what was going on.

He and many others were recruited in Naples, Napoli,

and it was just a case of fate.

There were three queues, one for Brazil, one for Venezuela,

one for Bedford,

and my father just happened to be in the Bedford queue.

And before he knew it,

he was coming to England and that is the beginning of

this wonderful story, really.

Food is a fundamental ingredient in our way of life, because every time

that we're able to, we get together as a family, and food is the key

that bonds us together.

We've always cooked spaghetti Bolognese. My wife cooks it,

my mother before her cooked it and everyone has got their own

characteristic way of doing it.

My daughter, Ida, makes a very, very nice one and I prefer hers now.

I make my spaghetti Bolognese by using a whole white onion,

two or three garlic cloves, carrots and celery.

Put them in a blender,

get a nice big pan, some nice extra virgin Italian olive oil.

Let it all fry nicely for a good three or four minutes

till everything becomes translucent.

My Italian heritage is very important to the way

I still view food. I was obviously taught by my mother,

and when I was younger I used to find it a bit of a chore,

sitting with her on a Sunday morning rolling out meatballs

and making sauce, but later on in life at university,

getting all the pals together for a spaghetti Bolognese

was quite a social thing and a good way to make friends.

If you can cook at university, that's an added bonus.

Add in the meat,

which I tend to use about 500g of beef mince,

and then I'll add in about 200g of pork mince.

Let it all fry together.

I think spaghetti Bolognese

has become a very popular English dish now as well.

You'll always see it on a menu in a traditional English eatery.

Just going to add in the puree now.

So we need quite a fair amount of this.

And then add a good glug of nice Italian red wine,

and then I'll add in a tin of Italian tomatoes.

Let it cook for a good hour and a half into a nice, rich sauce.

OK, so that's all done, and we'll just let that bubble away.

It's so quick and easy to make.

Although it has to cook for a long time, you can go away,

do what you need to do and then come back and you've got a nice meal for

the family there.

Mm. Tastes good.

So, we just put a few ladlefuls

onto the spaghetti, just to coat it,

to stop it from all sticking together.

Nice bit of sauce.

And there we have it.

-What do we say?

-Thank you.

-What do we say?

Thank you, darling. Grazie.

Who makes the best spaghetti?

-You do.

-Mummy? Right answer.

My children love it.

They like it with pasta, with spaghetti.

Sometimes they even like it with mashed potatoes,

which is a bit crazy.

As long as it's cooked nicely,

prepared carefully and presented well, we love it.

You know, braising steak, it's cheap.

You cut it up, you put it into stews,

but, this, we'll leave the steaks whole

so that you feel as though you've got a steak.

It will melt in the mouth, but the bonus is this gravy...

-It's so good, isn't it?

-..that's wonderful.

Trim any fat or bad bits from the beef,

and season on both sides with salt and lots and lots

of freshly ground black pepper.

Lovely. Fry the steaks two at a time over a medium heat for a couple of

minutes on each side, till they're nicely coloured and brown.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get on with the chips.

I cut these and left them to soak about six hours ago.

It releases the starch, you get a better chip.

Now, I'm going to dry these off a bit, because if I put them in the

fat like this, they're going to sputter.

Now, I have been known to say I hate chunky chips.

Yes, you have, Dave.

But, because we've got gravy, I think it's more than tolerable.

Now, I'm going to do double cooked chips.

This means I cook them first at 130 degrees for ten minutes,

let them cool down. When I'm ready, take the heat up to 190.

They'll be super crispy.

-There we are, mate, there's your pan.

-Thank you.

Now, the onion wedges go in there.

Would you like to keep them moving for me, Mr King?

I absolutely would, my spatula is

stood by in readiness for your loveliness.

-You're very polite tonight.

-I've turned over a new leaf.

-We're there, mucker.

-Right, so I'm just going to grate a nice,

fat clove of garlic into the onions.

And just sweat this down for a moment or two.

Now, let's return the steaks to the pan.

Now, the steaks will have released...

..some of their juices.

So, make sure...

-..you put that back in.

-Ooh, yeah!

Now, to this, we've got 500 ml of beef stock.

How lovely is that?

A tablespoon of tomato puree goes in.

A bay leaf.

And I've got some sprigs of thyme.

I'm just going to strip off the leaves and bring this to a boil.

Then cover the casserole and transfer carefully to the oven.

Cook for one and a quarter to one and a half hours,

or until the beef is very tender.

Well, that's it, ten minutes.

And, as you see, they're cooked through, but they're not crispy,

they're not golden.

We'll let everything cool down, then, in about an hour

and a half, when we're ready, we'll finish with the braising steaks,

we'll fire this up to 190,

and in three minutes you'll have proper double cooked chips.

Oh, I'm going to tidy up.

He must be feeling cosy if he's tidying up.

-It's good, isn't it?

-Well, I'm feeling very cosy.

-So am I.

-What would you think is the cosiest biscuit?

A chocolate digestive.

A garibaldi, that can be quite cosy.

Can you remember when you used to get chocolate garibaldis?

-No, I didn't, didn't where I'm from.

-Oh, it was lush. Ooh!

Ooh, spit spot, you've made a good job of that.

-It is good, isn't it?

-Aye.

-I love a bit of tidying up, me.

-Aw, let's see the steak.

-Ooh, yes.

I'll turn me chip pan up. 190.

Ooh-ho-ho-ho!

Yes, indeedy. Right.

-Are they tender?

-Absolutely beautiful.

We want that gravy to be thick and super tasty,

so what I'm going to do is, I'm just going to make a little paste

with a drop of water...

..some mustard powder and some cornflour.

Place the casserole over a medium heat,

and simmer for two to three minutes

until the gravy reduces and becomes thickened and glossy,

stirring regularly.

That, my friend, is your three minute warning.

-Right, so should I get the chips on?

-I think so.

-Beautiful.

Chips ahoy.

-Ooh, that looks good.

-Doesn't it just?

-Can I taste the gravy?

Yeah, go on.

That, my friend, is crying for Yorkshire pudding.

We've got chips, man.

-Chips and Yorkshire pudding!

-Yes!

Listen to them.

-And off we go.

-Yes!

-I think two steaks each, don't you?

-Ooh.

A duvet of meaty love.

Some sea salt flakes.

Maybe just a little garnish.

-See, that's tender.

-Will I need a knife?

-No.

-Such a great steak, braising steak, when it's cooked properly.

-Mm.

See you later. The Bikers are on. You'll be all right, there's plenty.