Angus One Man and His Campervan

I'm halfway through my dream trip. The journey of a lifetime.

Hey, look at that!

That's stunning! Wow!

Heading across the UK to discover the best

that campervan living has to offer.

It's all right, isn't it?

My trusty sidekick and home for the summer is my 1970s classic camper.

This could be a momentous moment.

My first overtaking manoeuvre.

I'm going to fish, forage and cook, tasting my way around Britain.

Oh my word, it's delicious.

They are sensational!

Baked beans on toast? Take a hike.

I'll be cooking up the freshest local ingredients to create

the very best of British campervan cuisine.

That, I would argue, is perfect.

I'll be revealing the secrets of successful campervan living.

Brings the van level, it's really difficult to cook on a slope.

Along the way, anything can happen!

I managed to hit myself on this piece of furniture here.

I'm not allowed to drive!

I think the clutch cable's broken.

LIGHTENING CRASHES

So if you've ever dreamed of heading off and hitting the road,

come with me on my great British campervan food adventure.

Clear road in front of you, king of the road!

Today, I'll be revealing some of the best spots for campervan living

on the gorgeous East Coast of Scotland.

I take a deep breath, and head off-road...

"The Association will not be liable for vehicles or their occupants damaged as a result of this roadway."

How exciting!

..and discover a new way of alfresco cooking from the van.

-Look at that colour!

-Brilliant.

My journey has taken me northward, through England,

across the border, and into Scotland's county of Angus.

Well, I made it to Scotland, which is nothing short of a miracle.

Last time I tried to go to Scotland in a camper, I went to Scotland,

the camper, unfortunately, went as far as Bristol,

suffered from a broken drive shaft,

and was sent home in disgrace on the back of a yellow truck.

So to actually get one of these buses all the way north of the border

really is quite something.

I've done 1,440 miles since I left home.

And I can't wait to get on with the journey.

Angus lies on the North Sea coast of eastern Scotland. 77 miles north of the capital, Edinburgh.

The Scottish Declaration of Independence was signed here back in 1320.

But it's not the history that brought me to Scotland. You know me, it's the food!

I'm here on the east coast of Scotland to try something that's world famous.

And that is the Arbroath smokie.

It's smoked haddock, done in a very, very traditional way.

And I'm going to meet somebody who's going to show me how to do it.

Since 2004, the Arbroath smokie has had protected status,

just like champagne.

Which means, for it to be sold as an official smokie,

it can only be made in this small town.

I had arranged to meet smokie producer Alex Spink,

who I was hoping would be able to help me recreate this famous dish out of my camper.

As I arrived, I could see beautiful rows of haddock,

lined up and prepped for the smoker.

And when I met Alex in the smokehouse, he told me I was just in time

to see the first batch of the day.

They look fantastic, don't they?

So this is the last part of the process?

Yes, they cool down for about a quarter of an hour, 20 minutes, and then get packed into boxes.

They look...they're sort of dripping.

-That's the juice coming out.

-So are they still quite wet?

Quite moist, yeah.

-This is them at their best, when they're just coming off the barrel now.

-Right, OK.

They're very tasty.

-Are we going to be allowed to taste one?

-Oh, I'll let you taste one!

-Good!

Well, you can't get much fresher than this.

You know they're fresh when they just come off the bone.

-Wow!

-Taste a bit.

-Shall I grab some of this?

So this is a traditionally made Arbroath smokie, unique.

-Yes, unique.

-As good as it's ever going to be?

-Oh yes.

Oh, my word, it's delicious!

It's a lot fishier than I thought it was gonna be, I thought it'd be more smoky.

It's lovely.

-You can taste the salt in there as well.

-Yeah.

They are best coming off the barrel, just like this, nice and juicy.

Now, I was certain that I wanted smokie on the menu tonight.

I was keen to find out how I could make some myself.

Campervan style!

Alex, do you think I'd be able to recreate the smoking process out of the back of my campervan?

I've got a little bucket barbecue, and I fancy having a go, what do you think?

-A barbecue?

-Yes.

-I don't think you'll manage it on a barbecue!

If I was going to do it out and about, how would you recommend doing it?

You could get a small barrel, and dig a hole in the ground.

And would that be a traditional way of doing it? Is that something people have done before?

It was done originally like that, yeah.

So basically, the secret is to have an enclosed space

-with fire at the bottom, somewhere to hang your smokies, and something to enclose it.

-Yeah.

-OK.

I'm letting you in on all the secrets now!

'Well, it looked like making smokies with my own kit was out of the question.

'Luckily, Alex knows someone with a portable smoker.

'I hoped he could help!

'But in return for all this insider knowledge,

'I was going to have to do a bit of hard graft, preparing my own haddock for smoking.

'It didn't look easy, but I was determined to give it my best shot.'

-Hold the fish nice and firm.

-Yeah.

-What did you call this? The lig?

-The lug.

-The lug.

-Yeah.

-Thumb in there, break that.

-Yeah.

Head off.

-You're a good learner!

-Up, up and away. How's that?

-Good.

-Is that neat enough?

-That's not bad for a first go.

-Do you want a job?

-Yeah!

'Unfortunately, things stopped going so swimmingly.'

-I'm making a right mess of this one.

-Go right in again.

-In again?

'And then they went from bad to worse.'

Oh!

Is it down the bottom? Has it gone?

-Where's it gone?

-Just in the bottom, I'll get it.

-Right.

I appear to have dropped the fish.

'But I was more careful with my next few attempts,

'and after a while, I was beginning to feel like I'd got the hang of it.'

-That's good.

-That's all right!

'And before long, I'd got myself quite a haul.'

OK, this is the fish you cleaned earlier.

-Didn't I do a lot of them?

-You did not bad at all.

So we've put them in pairs, try and get the same size.

They get paired to put on sticks inside the barrel.

They must be the same size. If you have one big one and one small one,

the big one will tend to fall, it's uneven.

Then we put them in salt.

And then, put a bit more salt on the tails.

To make the tails harder, so they don't fall off the barrel.

How long do they spend in here before they go into the smoker?

About two and a half, three hours.

'That gave me just enough time,

'once I had given my haddock a thorough salting,

'to go and meet Alex's friend.'

So, with the secrets of the smokies entrusted to me, it was time

to jump back in the van and head further north along the coast.

I'm off to a place called Auchmithie now, to meet a guy called Iain Spink.

Now, apparently, he's going to be able to show me how I can make my own campervan Arbroath smokies.

I don't really want to do anything too difficult with the smokies,

because they are what they are, and they taste absolutely beautiful.

So I think some crusty bread, lashings of butter,

and a little bit of salad will do it.

Let the smokie speak for itself.

So I had my plan, and a few tips from the expert.

But my van seemed to be misbehaving. I'm not sure if it was the sea air or the colossal wind,

but the gears were starting to play up.

Second gear is getting a bit tricky at the moment. I don't know why.

Starting to get a bit stiff.

Reverse is also getting a bit clunky.

And much as I would really love to follow the normal philosophy,

which is, "If you can't find it, you grind it", I have a feeling

that the old girl needs a bit more care and attention than that.

So I'm going to have to...

Ooh...

I'm clearly going to have to keep...

..keep my eye on it.

If the gearbox were to go, it would mean an empty wallet for me,

and probably a very long bus-ride home.

So I can't tell you how relieved I was when I could finally see my destination lurching into view.

"The association will not be liable for vehicles

"or their occupants damaged, as a result of this roadway."

How exciting!

Come on, Gordy. You can make it.

You've got to make it.

OK, here we go. Gently does it.

What a lovely spot.

Hopefully we can find somewhere sheltered from the wind

and not too bumpy.

This is good.

This is good, we like this.

So, I had finally reached Auchmithie, the small village where smokies

were first created and it looked like I'd got here just in time,

as I saw Iain coming around the corner carrying his portable smoker.

Iain.

How are you doing?

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

-I see you've brought your barrel.

-Yeah.

Excellent, excellent. I wasn't sure

how I was going to attempt making smokies.

What we'll do, Martin, we'll set this barrel into the ground,

dig a wee hole, set the barrel partially out of the ground.

-That provides insulation for the barrel as well.

-Yeah.

Stops the draughts out from going underneath the barrel too much.

-Inside there, we light a hardwood log fire.

-OK.

-We'll then hang the fish on the special sticks...

-Yeah.

..lay the sticks over the top of the fire,

cover the whole lot with hessian bags,

-leave it to slowly smoulder away for about 40 minutes.

-Great stuff.

This is a brilliant way of having smokies on the beach

but there's something that's even more special about this, isn't there?

Isn't it the way that it's been done for time immemorial?

It's been going on this way for about 800 years probably.

We're in the place where it all started as well.

There's no better way to get it than freshly made in a small batch

in its original barrel, straight out of the fire,

full of its natural juices. You can't beat it.

So, if it all went to plan,

there was an historical dinner in store for me this evening.

Iain would join me and show me the secret of barrel-smoking fish.

I was going to have to work up a bit of a sweat first.

A very important ingredient.

How many are we going to do?

On this batch today, in the small barrel,

I should get perhaps 25 pairs, something like that.

-That's a whole lot of smokie... so to speak.

-The barrel doesn't work the same with too few fish.

It needs a decent amount of fish to get enough humidity in the barrel to cook them properly.

OK, that looks good, Martin.

Time to light the fire, using a rather non-traditional method.

So, do you ever get any comments about cheating with fire lighters?

Yes, I get lots of people trying to pull my leg about using fire lighters

but I explain that if you expect me to stand here for half-an-hour

rubbing two sticks together to get a flame, no, you'd never get a smokie.

It wasn't long before the fire got going and Iain brought out the fish.

It attracted some interest from the locals.

So these are the same fish that I cleaned this morning,

or some of them will be. They're the same fish that I tasted this morning.

-They are indeed.

-So the challenge is on.

-Mm-hm.

Now, is there a knack to doing this?

Yeah, just take two or three in your hand like that.

Yeah.

All facing the same way.

-All facing the same way.

-Preferably.

OK. Right.

OK.

Holding them by the tales like that, gently placed them on the sticks.

Don't plonk them down, just gently place them on.

Put them so close that they're not quite touching.

Because the barrel is round,

-just imagine looking down on top of this as being the barrel.

-Yeah.

It might be stretch to say that a group of hanging,

headless fish look pretty,

but there was something neat about the way Iain made this arrangement,

almost like a smokie chandelier.

So what we're going to do is put the sticks over the fire like so.

-As close as you can get them again without touching.

-Yeah.

Being really careful to get close but not too close. How's that?

That's fine.

So, last one and I can see now why you hang them the way you do.

You've clearly done this before.

Just a few times.

Iain covered the barrel with hessian bags to restrict the oxygen to the fire.

This dampens the fire so it smokes and doesn't burn the fish.

There you go, such a lot of experience goes into doing this.

But it just seems...it just seems so simple, it's perfect.

Right, there's the smoke.

What we'll do is leave it for about 20 minutes or so,

then I'll lift the bags off, take the fish out, have a look at them,

turn them all round, put them back on again.

Why do you turn them around?

-Because the wind has a direction to it, the fire usually burns better on one side than the other.

-OK.

In order to get an even cook, we turn them around.

Right, OK, I've got you.

In theory, they should all be exactly the same after 40 minutes.

In practice, not always the case but it's quite close.

So, time for a quick cuppa and a chance to take in

our surroundings before we flip the fish.

OK, Martin, grab one of the bags. We'll get going there.

'After 20 minutes, the fish were ready to turn.'

Because they are partially cooked now, they're very, very fragile.

Handle with real care.

Don't ever plonk the sticks down.

The fire was re-stoked, the fish went on again

and it was just another 20 minutes before they were ready.

The wait had done wonders for my appetite.

Looking good.

I can't wait to see this.

Look of that colour.

Wow.

Perfect.

The best way to eat these is going to be straight out of the barrel,

while they're still warm.

I thought that I would just serve them up,

if you don't mind, crusty bread with lashings of butter,

a bit of salad, we don't want to do anything fancy.

We want to enjoy them for the flavour that the smoking will give them.

It was a shame that I couldn't recreate the Arbroath smokie on my small barbecue

but the barrel provided fish that were tender and beautifully moist.

Brilliant!

With the addition of a few salad leaves, vinaigrette

and a squeeze of lemon,

our simple but tasty Scottish dinner was complete.

Barrel-smoked, Arbroath smokie, with salad and bread and butter.

Delicious!

Let's give it a go.

So this is my first taste of a traditionally-made,

barrel-smoked...smokie.

That's excellent.

Best of all, Martin, it's such a simple thing.

It's a cooked fish, a bit of salt and a bit of smoke.

That's all it is.

Uncomplicated it may be but it was one of the best alfresco meals

I'd tasted on my journey so far.

So, unfortunately for the onlookers,

there wouldn't be any leftovers tonight.

Coming up...

Hello, you lot!

I meet some highly sought-after pigs...

The Emperor of Japan, this is his favourite breed of pig.

..saddle up to see if I can out-horsepower my van,

and reveal how to cook sticky ribs from my mobile campervan kitchen.

It was a fine, Scottish morning in Auchmithie.

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing but with no shower

in the van, a quick dip in the sea would wake me up.

Oh, my God! It's freezing!

Argh!

Aargh!

Flipping heck!

It's really cold.

It's really, really very cold.

Of course, one of the great unsung benefits of the campervan

is the ability to put on a hot cup of tea before you get hyperthermia.

I said goodbye to Auchmithie and travelled north along the coast

to his pick up something special for dinner tonight.

But I also hoped I would find a fantastic stretch of beach.

I'm heading off to a place called Lunan Bay.

I've looked on the map and it's a great big, sweep of sand

and I'm hoping there might be some good beachcombing there.

There might even be some surf, you never know.

But I'm in the campervan, I can pretty much go where I like.

But my gearbox was still playing up.

At this rate, I wouldn't be going anywhere.

IT CLUNKS

We struggled on to Lunan Bay,

where I stopped to give the van a well-earned rest.

If you're going to be stuck anywhere, it might as well be here,

in this idyllic deserted bay.

What a fabulous beach. I mean,

the campervan has brought me down to this amazing place

and I thought I was going to go and do some beachcombing

but actually this is one of the cleanest beaches I have ever been on.

So, with my beachcombing plans scuppered

and Gordy needing a breather, I found another way to explore.

OK, so I might not exactly be Clint Eastwood

but when I saw the chance for a horse ride on the beach, I couldn't resist.

I normally like to stick to the van but sometimes,

when you find somewhere as amazing as this,

it's good to try something different.

But as much as I'd like to stay out here all day,

I had a date with another campervan recipe.

So it's good time to gallop back to my usual steed.

And the van seemed to have benefited from having a rest.

The clutch had stopped misbehaving. Dinnertime was looming

and I'd been tipped off

that a nearby farm rears a rare breed of pig,

so I raced there to find myself some ingredients.

And where there are pigs, I thought that sticky ribs

cooked on a campfire would be perfect for tonight.

-Hello, Scott?

-How are you doing?

'I was met by the farm owner, Scott Bremner.'

Bonnie said I should come and say hello.

You want to see the pigs.

-Yeah, I understand you have some rare breed pigs down here.

-Yeah.

-Lying in the river over there.

-Great, can we go and see them?

-Yeah. You want to feed them?

-Is it feeding time?

-Yeah.

-Can I help?

-That's for the big ones.

-Righty-ho.

-The more adventurous ones, you can deal with them.

-OK!

'The sudden ruckus that started as we turned the corner,

'told me that these pigs knew it was dinnertime.'

So are they friendly pigs?

-Um...it depends how nice you are to them, really.

-OK.

They're not used to contact but if you go up and give them a rub,

they should take quite a bit...

-Can I give it a go? Do you mind?

-Go for it.

I'm go to climb in and say hello. ..Hello, you piggies. Hello, you lot.

Hello. Hello.

So, what rare breed are they?

-They're Berkshire pigs.

-Right.

-Berkshire breed.

Black, white feet, white tip of the tail and a white nose.

Are they particularly known...

is this breed particularly known for its eating?

It's particularly known for the pork quality.

Um, in Japan, this breed in particular is famous.

The Emperor of Japan, this is his favourite breed of pig.

So lovely ribs on the side of these fantastic pigs

that are renowned for their taste.

Wow, I can hardly wait!

They are lovely, aren't they? ..Hello.

First things first, I had to give them their dinner before I got mine.

They look hungry.

Yeah, they're starving. Twice a day they get fed.

Excuse me, back, pigs, you lot.

There we go.

These ones are slightly overweight, to what we would take them to.

We're about a month behind in our taking them to slaughter.

So, these ones have got a bit extra in their lifetime here.

-Do they have names?

-No, no.

The first two we did, we called Rodney and Del Boy

after the Trotters.

The Trotters!

These guys are free range -

will it make a difference to the taste?

Yeah, we think it does.

I mean, they've got vegetation in there that they can feed on as well.

We believe it makes such a difference to the taste.

It does take longer to get them to weight for the pork

but we think it's worth it because it's far superior

to what you can buy in a supermarket.

I mean, people who haven't tasted this I would say

don't really know what proper pork tastes like.

Right, OK. I've never tasted this kind of pork before so, um,

I'm looking forward to it, see if the difference is in the taste. Fantastic.

It seemed like I was the only one who hadn't had their dinner yet.

Even the hens were getting involved.

So, as Scott kindly gave me a selection of ribs from these

wonderful pigs, I decided to head back down

to the edge of the beach and have myself a little campervan camp fire.

Because I had Scott's permission to light this open fire, I decided

to ditch the bucket barbecue and cook straight on the flames.

So, I've got this wonderful piece of meat.

I'm just going to keep it simple as usual.

And cook it over an open fire and use my secret weapon,

a little smoked paprika rub and some salt and pepper.

That's all.

And it should come up an absolute treat.

The paprika rub is just a simple as it sounds.

I just ground up some salt and pepper, added the paprika,

scored the meat and rubbed it on.

Once I had done that on both sides, and the fire had cooled down,

I wrapped the ribs in foil and bunged them on.

Sticky ribs with a spicy paprika rub.

My guests and hosts for the night, Scott and his partner Bonnie,

arrive just in time with a basket of goodies.

-Hi, guys.

-Hello.

-How you doing?

-Wow, what have you brought?

-We've brought a couple of goodies.

-Oh, wow.

-Ribs...

-Oh goodness me!

-..ribs and beetroot and salad

-and there's lots of other things as well.

-Fantastic!

Thank you so much. Come on in.

'Scott and Bonnie brought me the perfect thing to do with these ribs,

'some really fresh salad and peppery radishes.

'But as the ribs still needed a few minutes,

'I had time to talk about what I love - campervans.'

And do you get many vans like mine down here?

This year, we've noticed there's been an up in vans.

Last year, we didn't have quite so many but this year,

there's been a bit more so I think people are definitely going out

more in their own country, due to financial climate.

-We've noticed an up in vans and tourers.

-Good.

It really is the perfect way to get around and take your house with you, you know.

Weapon of choice?

'Much as I'd like to chat campervan all day,

'I was raring to see how these ribs turned out.'

They're looking pretty good.

Yeah, that looks pretty good.

'So, with Scott's seal of approval,

'the foil came off for a final browning before they were ready.

'Perfect timing to prepare the salad with some thinly sliced radishes.'

-You obviously... you love your food.

-Yeah.

And you clearly love your pigs.

Was there ever a time when you felt that you couldn't have done this?

Not really because pork is one of the...

Pigs, generally in farming, are one of the most abused animals.

I can sleep at night knowing that's had a good life.

I can completely relate to that. I mean, you know,

knowing where it comes from

and knowing what it's been through is great.

I get more upset that I've made something and it burns,

Then I feel, "Oh, no, that's a waste".

That upsets me more than eating it.

So I'll try not to upset you buy checking these ribs!

No pressure!

'Hopefully there wouldn't be any tears from Bonnie,

'as I really hoped I had done these ribs justice.

'And from the looks of it,

'they were just about ready to come off the fire.'

Well-done ribs, from rare-breed pigs,

served with a simple radish and feta tossed salad.

Really good.

They're not too spicy and they're full of flavour and...delicious.

-Sticky fingers.

-I know!

'So it was a resounding, sticky thumbs-up from the experts

'and I couldn't agree more.'

Goodness me.

You feel like a cowboy, don't you?

You've done the horse riding, now you have to do the barbecue.

On the wild east coast of Scotland.

'With no shortage of seconds, I suspected it would be some time

'before we went riding off into the sunset.'

Next time on One Man And His Campervan,

I go to glorious west Scotland, where I go hunting for my food

but I'm not sure I can actually do the deed.

I still haven't decided whether or not I've got the heart

or the stomach to take that final shot.

I feel like a merman.

I reveal one of the more novel ways of fishing,

with rather mixed results.

And as I host my first ever campervan dinner party,

I'll be showing you that comfort is as important as the food.

It's great food but I have to say, this chair's a little low!

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