East Sussex A Taste of Britain

He's Brian Turner...

And she's Janet Street-Porter.

I'm passionate about walking.

These feet have taken me the length and breadth of Great Britain.

I've been privileged to cook all round the world,

but it's Britain that I love.

Fabulous produce, great ingredients, right here on the doorstep.

We're joining forces to explore Britain's rich heritage...

..and the landscape that's given us such wonderful produce.

He's in charge of the food.

And guess what?

She's in charge of everything else.

This is...

A Taste Of Britain!

Today, we're in East Sussex,

where our culinary and cultural voyage of discovery begins

in the beautiful town of Rye...

...famous for its quaint streets, delicious seafood

and world-renowned lamb.

Situated in the south-east of Britain,

East Sussex is blessed with picturesque countryside

and steeped in history.

'Local treasures include Rye's famous scallops

'and we're getting top tips on how to cook them...'

..the healthy way, ha-ha!

I just like to sear them in a bit of butter and oil...

Can I say something?

No, you can't, I know what you're going to say!

He didn't say the word cream! Thank you, John.

'I'll be packing a punch on a visit to a local bakery.'

So I just imagine this is somebody that I'm working with

who's particularly annoying me.

Along the way, we'll be looking out for the perfect ingredient

for a celebratory dish that sums up the taste of the region.

I am salivating. I can feel my jaws, just talking about it.

So here we are, our taste of Britain today is East Sussex.

-It's fabulous.

-The history is great and I'm glad I've got you here,

my chief historian, geographician, or whatever you call yourself...

-I think you'd say brains.

-OK, if you say so.

But what I can see, look, Romney Marsh is over there.

Those wonderful lamb...

and just down there, I can see where the scallop boats go out.

In fact, I'm not sure... I can see one coming back.

-Do you like scallops?

-I love 'em!

I'm going to do something really rich and wonderful,

-cos I know you like rich food, butter, cream...

-I'm a little bit...

No, no, Brian, stop right there! Let's have the scallops.

Trust me, trust me, you're going to do it.

'Well, Mr Turner's got a battle on his hands if he thinks

'he'll be able to convert me into a butter and cream addict.

'If there's one thing we can agree on, however...'

..it's the beauty and quaint charm of this ancient coastal town.

-Now, Brian, can you read maps? No?

-Absolutely not.

Well, there we are, Rye, and the thing is, Rye's very, very compact.

It stands right up on top of a hill and there's smuggling tunnels

linking this old pub with one over there, and smugglers used to bring

stuff straight in from the boats under the town...

How do you know that? You weren't there.

No, I wasn't there, Brian, I'm just brilliant.

-There's nobody around at all.

-But you can see why tourists come here.

I mean, there's a house down there called The House Opposite.

"Where do you live?" "The House Opposite!"

Everything here has to conform to loads of rules and regulations

and that's why it looks so perfect!

And this house, Lamb House,

is where Henry James, the American author, lived.

-It's a fabulous house, isn't it?

-It's lovely, isn't it, eh?

But the beauty, for me, is not just what we see here.

It's that they have some great produce around here.

There's a man that brings in scallops which are fantastic, I'm told.

I've never had scallops from Rye, so it's going to be a first.

But can you just slow down on the cream, the butter...?

This is the moment, Janet Street-Porter,

when you are going to be converted.

This is actually going to be...

It's wonderful richness, but just a small amount.

It's a little bit sweet and fresh and all of that...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying,

but I don't want a heart attack!

This fortified hilltop town was once surrounded by the sea.

And although the salt marsh now separates it from the coast,

fishing is still key to the local way of life.

The scallops fished from the waters of Rye Bay have gained

a worldwide reputation for their superior taste and quality.

So when it comes to sampling a flavour of East Sussex,

I can't think of any better ingredient

for our first taste of the region...

together with a few knobs of butter, of course, just to annoy Janet.

The scallop season runs from December through to May

and on a good day, up to 6,000 are bagged up from the boats here.

No-one knows more about them than Rye fishmonger John Botterell.

He sources only the very best of these succulent shellfish

from a handful of local fishermen.

Why is it that these Rye scallops are so famous?

What is it about their reputation?

I think the thing you've got to take into account is

here, the water really does bore up through the channel

and it just makes the water very nutrient-rich.

These are big scallops, aren't they?

I mean, I'm looking at these and they're chunky scallops.

They look fantastic, but often you go to a fishmongers

and you're getting offered scallops that are really rinky-dink things.

These are jumbo scallops.

These are king scallops and these are small, the scallops.

-They're really fresh, those, aren't they? Caught this morning?

-Yeah.

'John's prepared these delicious beauties for Brian to cook

'and I can't wait to taste them.

'But if I'm going to convince Janet that they're at their best cooked

'with butter and cream, I'm going to need an expert to back me up.'

What's your favourite way to eat scallops? Your personal one?

I just like to sear them in a bit of butter and oil

with a few cubes of natural smoked haddock.

Smoked haddock? That sounds nice.

-Can I say something?

-No, you can't. I know what you're going to say!

He didn't say the word cream! Thank you, John.

No, I never use cream.

Fine, so I'm going to show you a different way to do them today

with a bit of cream.

He didn't mention cream, John didn't mention cream!

-It doesn't matter.

-Can I just shake your hand?

Listen, I've seen some sea purslane over there.

We're going to use that for later on.

John, thank you very much, we'll see you later.

'Well, that's round one to me,

'but I've got a feeling that the battle of the butter isn't over yet.

'A far healthier ingredient is sea purslane,

'another local delicacy that grows here on the beach.

'We should pick it whilst we see it, as it's an excellent local ingredient

'to include in my celebratory dish later.'

-Like this?

-Yeah, that's it.

-Yeah.

-How much of it do you need?

-That's fine, yeah.

'We'll keep the purslane for the final recipe,

'but now it's time to get on with cooking our scallops.

'While I'll be keeping a beady eye out for any sly additions

'of the dairy variety.'

'I suspect Brian's already plotting a few sneaky ways to distract me.'

I thought, to make life easier,

we'd use some local Chapel Down sparkling wine.

This wonderful sparkling wine, it's seven miles down the road

and if I can see how to open it, I would feel less embarrassed.

Do you want me to do that, Brian?

Why don't you do that? That's marvellous.

Just be careful where you point it. You're more used to it than I am.

The reason I'm choosing this is cos I know that you regularly have

champagne or sparkling wine left in the fridge.

This is a great way to use it.

Whilst you're doing that, my lady,

let me put a little bit of oil into this.

I think getting the wine was a brilliant idea.

You might have softened me up,

but I can see, Brian, an awful lot of cream in that bottle there.

Really, that's just for show, is that.

We're not going to put that much in.

-Lovely. Right, OK.

-Expert. Oh!

I love the modesty of the lady.

You pour it sideways. Brian, you just splooshed it!

Can I have a bit more?

-You can have a bit more.

-Thank you.

Right, I'm going to take some flour and some turmeric

to give this a bit of colour.

-Brian, cheers.

-Salute.

-I'm working, you sit down, Duchess.

And a little bit of salt goes in there, just to season our scallops.

Brian, I'm just looking after that, if that's all right with you?

What a nice lady you are.

I'm going to take a bit of butter with the oil...

and then we take these scallops.

Lovely side, into a bit of it and then tap of the excess

and we put them into the pan.

You don't want to mess about with it,

just put it in there and leave it.

If I was doing this at home, wouldn't I just dust them all up

and put them all in at the same time?

Well, you might, but the problem with that, of course,

is that the moisture doesn't help by sitting there.

You remember which order you put them in

because in that order you turn them over.

Just look at those! Isn't that wonderful?

Yeah. I notice an awful lot of butter in there, Brian.

No, no, there's not a lot!

So the next thing we do is we get the sauce on the go.

Take a shallot, there's a lovely big shallot,

and just finely shred them...

into there.

This goes into the pan.

A bit of butter goes in there as well,

because that's good for flavour...

Hang on a minute! That was another three knobs of butter!

I wouldn't worry about that butter at all, it's going to be lovely.

No colour in there. Then... Can I have that bottle back, please?

I'm going to take it away from the heat

and then quickly put the remnants of last night's wine in there.

There you go, that's lovely. Thank you very much.

And give that a quick stir and let that reduce.

I'm also going to put some chicken stock in there,

it makes it less gelatinous and it gives it a really lovely flavour.

Now we can take these out

and you just feel that they're actually cooked.

-They start to... Not toughen up...

-So they're firm but not hard?

No, not hard at all, no.

These scallops have done a really, really good job.

-They haven't shrunk, have they?

-Well, he said that as well.

Now that pan's nice and hot, we put this in here...

Cos all we want to do is reduce the liquor, but concentrate the flavour.

This, dear lady, is the moment you've been waiting for.

Cream!

British double cream. That goes in.

-Oops!

-No, Brian! Enough!

You're not the only lady to say that to me.

Look at that lovely colour now, so all the turmeric from the scallops,

all the flavour from the scallops has been washed in.

But look how it's just starting to thicken up now, that's really

what we want, we want to put all those flavours in together.

So bingo, it goes on there.

How do you stop the cream separating?

Do not separate.

And it's now sorted. It will not separate. Promise you.

-Word of Brian!

-Now we need to just taste this sauce,

it's not quite the consistency that I want.

It's moments like this when I realise just how good I am.

That is going to be delicious.

I'm going to season it with a bit of salt and a bit of pepper

and at the last minute I'm going to put my watercress in there.

However, it is just slightly thin...

Is that a bird over there?

-Brian, no! You can't be doing that!

-No, it's fine, it's fine.

This is enough for four of us here,

but just watch this change colour now.

That's what chefs do. They just put more and more butter in.

It changes colour and it's going to shine on it now,

so it's really for wonderful presentation.

I've got some watercress here,

all I did was just quickly sauteed it in a bit of bu... Oil.

-Butter!

-You could use butter.

I've got a bit of nutmeg here which goes fantastic with that.

I would have never of thought of that. That's brilliant.

I've never thought of putting nutmeg with watercress.

Now we choose these lovely scallops.

Look at that colour, that is just delicious.

OK, so we just put three of those on there,

not too many cos I understand you're on a diet.

Can you see how the sauce is now starting to thicken up?

That's really what we wanted.

Just taste it one more time, just look at that wonderful consistency!

I think you're a cream addict.

You've just got to have cream every two hours or something.

Oh, Chef, that is...

The reduction of that liquor is just bags of flavour.

In goes the watercress, give it a stir round.

Get a spoon. See how that's just come together now?

And you're quite right, you don't want too much of this on the plate,

just put enough. You can always serve a little bit separate

in a sauce boat, if that's what people want.

-So just try and be objective, if you can.

-I'll cleanse my mind.

Taste the scallops then taste it with the sauce. You can do it.

They look delicious, I have to say, do those scallops.

-They're really perfectly cooked.

-What a nice lady you are!

Shall I put a bit of your sauce on?

Mmm!

-You don't like it?

-Divine! Divine!

-Be serious about it.

-I don't mind if you criticise it.

-No, it's really good.

Obviously I'm not having all that sauce. I'm just having...

-But if you just have that...

-Brian!

You are... Can I just take your blood pressure in a minute?

I'm having these bits, this is my favourite bit.

Knock out!

Well, I think that's as good as it gets.

I think Duchess Street-Porter really likes this,

but she's not going to admit it.

This wonderful dish, Rye-based scallops in a wonderful creamy sauce

with a little bit of Chapel Down sparkling wine in there

and watercress to finish with.

-Cheers!

-Good health.

-Nearly converted me.

It'll come.

'Well, despite all that butter and cream,

'I have to admit Brian's scallops were pretty tasty.

'Round two to him.'

After all that cooking, I need a bit of relaxation.

I've got just the thing, Brian...

a scenic rail journey so I can point out some local historic landmarks.

When I'm on my travels, I do like my little luxuries.

So I wonder if it was a good idea to let Brian buy the tickets.

Here we are, darling. Third class, looks like this is for you.

-Third class?!

-Third class, on you get, Duchess!

-I'll just give you a little top up?

-Yeah, hot water.

That's good, thank you.

-Anything else you'd like?

-Some more cream for the duchess, could you?

Excellent!

The only thing that beats a steam railway journey in third class

is a steam railway journey in first class!

Now, the problem with steam trains is that they do send you to sleep.

You know what's sending you to sleep, Brian?

It's not a stream train, it's five gallons of cream

and a couple of scones is what's sending you to sleep.

We're travelling on board the historic East Sussex

and Kent railway line.

'Its beautifully restored coaches

'and locomotives date from Victorian times.

'The track winds its way along the banks of the River Rother

'towards the town of Bodiam, 12 miles from Rye.'

I love this line.

They built it in 1903 and it was to take the hops to the factories.

So all around here were hop fields and at the end of the summer,

whole families would come down for their holidays and pick hops

and then the hops would be loaded on this line.

-Would they get paid to pick hops?

-Yeah, they would.

-So they came down to earn a bit of money...

-Earn a bit of money

and have a holiday with the kids at the same time.

The line goes all the way to Bodiam Castle.

It's the most beautiful castle, perfect castle.

I've got a mate who's got a great restaurant up the road

called The Curlew, Tony. I'm going to go see him.

And I wonder what you're going to do there, Brian?

It will be delicious and cooked in butter, whatever it is.

He's a great cook.

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

I've still got to decide on a celebratory dish

'that best sums up the region, so I need to find some inspiration.'

-My third class passenger.

-Less of that, Brian, thank you!

There's a food revolution going on in Britain, with chefs

embracing their local produce, so I'm keen to find someone

who's giving East Sussex ingredients a fresh twist.

While Brian's on his search,

I'm off to explore a well-known local landmark.

I've always fancied living in a castle

and for me, the 14th-century Bodiam Castle, alongside the River Rother,

could have come straight out of a fairytale,

complete with its own drawbridge and moat.

Today, it's maintained by the National Trust

and guide Lance Woodman has kindly agreed to give me a tour.

It's such a perfect example of a castle, it almost looks

like a toy castle cos its quite small and beautifully symmetrical.

Part of its power is its archetypal shape, that you come here

and you're already making up stories,

because we've all got stories about castles.

Did the original owners of the castle keep fish in the moat?

-No, this beautiful moat was our sewer.

-It's a sewer?!

All the toilets emptied into it. There are fish ponds further off.

Oh, my goodness. So it probably stank in the summer!

So in this central courtyard,

was there a kind of division of accommodation?

Absolutely, yes.

All the fine people live over this side,

where you can see the lovely fireplaces in the walls

-and the big windows.

-Yes.

And then this side is all servants and storage.

Much plainer, this side.

This is a pretty big kitchen.

It is, yes, and two enormous fireplaces.

So they cooked over these fires?

They have two different functions.

This is the pottage fire,

so pots, pans, kettles and cauldrons simmering away,

saucerer working in the corner.

A saucerer? You mean a low grade operative. A peasant.

A saucerer is a skilled job,

because you're making these really exotic sauces.

Would they have had a head chef?

Yes. They'd be called the cook,

but mostly they just shout at people, swear at them.

Bit like me, then.

-HE LAUGHS

-Yes, absolutely!

Bodiam Castle's location was originally chosen to protect

England's south coast from raids by the French.

And its 20-metre high tower was once a look-out,

which still provides stunning views across the countryside.

Oh, wow, this is amazing.

What a view!

Top of the world.

Now, over this side I've got the courtyard.

You can clearly see how many floors the castle had.

-I'd be so at home here.

-Well, you're very welcome!

Yeah, but I want it restored.

And a full team of cooks, sauciers, or whatever they're called!

-Saucerers?

-Saucerers, yes.

-I'll put in a request for you.

-Yeah.

While the duchess dreams of being lady of the manor,

I'm going to meet a young chef who's doing great things

with regional ingredients.

Tony Parkin at The Curlew in Bodiam is fast gaining a great reputation,

so I've asked him to make a dish

to showcase local delicacies fit for Janet.

Chef.

-How are you?

-I'm good, yourself?

-Very well, thank you.

Good to see you. Got a Michelin star, I hear.

-Yeah, yeah.

-You must be chuffed to bits about that?

Yeah, I mean, obviously we've got to retain it,

-but I'm really, really happy with it.

-Fantastic!

So what dish are you going to cook for us today?

Today I'm going to cook roasted veal sweetbreads

with local wild garlic, nasturtium and almonds.

Right, so first of all, we've got a nice hot pan.

Veal sweetbread, nice big loaves.

Those are just beautiful-looking, I've got to say.

These have just been blanched and peeled,

cos there's a sinew that runs all the way through them.

'These calves' sweetbreads that Tony is using in his recipe

'are the glands of calves, sourced locally.'

In butchers these days, they're quite a speciality ingredient,

so getting hold of it is quite difficult, actually.

So we season that just with salt, not pepper.

With this dish, we need to really hard-roast it

to get a nice caramelisation, so that'll go straight in.

Smoking hot.

Then after that, I'll just baste it in a lot of butter.

I'm glad you said that! I was hoping for that.

Butter really lifts that wonderful flavour.

Completely, and it brings out a nice richness and colour to it.

With sweetbreads, you need to get that colour on it.

Need to get it on there to get that flavour out.

There we go, foaming butter. I do put quite a lot in.

Deep-fried in butter!

People don't have to use as much butter as that, do they?

No, not at all. That was just for you, Brian!

Thank you very much!

So we are going to allow that to rest on the side.

I have a friend with me, Janet Street-Porter,

and she doesn't like butter and she doesn't like cream.

She limits herself, I promise you...

I hope nobody's listening.

She just has that little bit of butter a day.

And she won't allow herself any more,

so everything I give her, I'm giving her bags of butter with it!

'Now, Janet, before you have a heart attack,

'you'll be pleased to know Tony prides himself

'on also using as many fresh, natural ingredients as possible.'

Over the year, what kind of things do you forage around here?

We get a lot of stuff like nasturtium, woodruff.

My boss gets wild garlic on his way to work in the morning,

-which is good.

-This is lovely.

I promise you, ten years ago in this country,

they never talked about wild garlic, it was always there.

And now suddenly we're like, hang on a sec,

it's cheaper, better, fresher...

-wonderful!

-Amazing.

So what we are going to do is finish the dish now.

So broccoli puree, that's just gently warming.

What we'll do with that is...

A nice blob of that.

So here we've got some amazing new season purple sprouting broccoli,

so that literally goes in there only for about 30 seconds.

And that's just water...

That's just water and your favourite, butter,

and a little bit of salt.

What we do with these is literally just wilt them down.

They're pretty much cooked now.

Wild garlic goes in, spinach, literally just wilt them.

Sweetbread.

That looks really delicious.

Wild garlic draped on top.

That almond granola just gives it a bit of texture,

but also enhances the broccoli.

Wild garlic oil, nice bright colour.

Nice peppery nasturtium.

An artist at work.

A study in green with calves' sweetbreads.

Fantastic, Chef!

-I look forward to tasting it.

-Good.

'Tony's modern presentation gets high marks from me...

'but will Janet think his recipe tastes as good as it looks?'

I want to sample everything East Sussex has to offer

on our culinary tour of the county.

Tony's got a great reputation and he uses some challenging ingredients

so I'm looking forward to this...

Well, I think!

So, Brian, what are we going to taste?

I'm going to wait till you've tasted it before I tell you,

but you are going to love it.

-I mean, it's your kind of dish.

-That's worrying me.

Well, you should be worried!

You've got a suspicion it's something I haven't eaten before.

I did I'm A Celebrity, I've eaten a lot of weird things in the jungle.

I didn't watch it. It's nothing like...

I tell you what, I love this.

-Hi, Tony.

-Hi, guys. How are you?

-There you go, guys. Enjoy!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-What do you think of the colour?

-Colour is fantastic!

And it's green, it's your colour.

What are these little flowers?

He's got nasturtium flowers in there

and he's got rosemary flowers in there.

-What's this down the bottom?

-Have a taste.

-Brian!

That's sweetbread.

-I've never eaten a sweetbread.

-Get on with it, then!

So at the age of 67, I'm going be... It's a lifetime first!

Don't eat it all, cos I want some.

Please.

Why, if you've never tasted it, why are you saying you don't like it?

That is so childish.

-Come on.

-I'm not going to look.

-Don't look, then.

-Pretend you're in the jungle.

-Tastes fantastic!

-Good girl.

I feel like I've passed my driving test all over again!

Don't you think it's good that suddenly you've found something

that you've always thought you wouldn't like...?

-It's amazing.

-Flavours great.

I don't like looking at them, I wouldn't mind a modesty screen.

-Well done.

-Really delicious.

-Local produce.

God, there's not a lot of things I haven't done at my age.

We won't go into that right now.

'Well, Brian, you've yet to convince me about butter,

'but you've definitely won me over with the sweetbreads.'

There's a long heritage of craftsmen creating delicious food

in this part of East Sussex

and I've sought out bakers Liz and Rachel,

who've invented a loaf that's fast becoming a modern classic.

Their bakery is close to the historic castle

that gives its name to their best-selling bread, Bodiam Brown.

So what's this wonderful bread you make here that I've heard all about?

Well, it's a wholemeal bread that has just four simple ingredients...

Well, five, really.

Wholemeal flour, salt, fresh yeast,

and the secret ingredient, which is molasses.

The darkness and sweetness of the molasses really offsets

some of the local produce like the seafood we get locally

in Hastings and Rye, the lamb, etc.

Were the locals suspicious or was it a smash hit straightaway?

It's not like any other bread that's really down here,

so in the beginning it wasn't a great seller.

-Now it's our best seller.

-It's your best seller?

So we make probably about 1,000 or 2,000 loaves a week.

Goodness, that's a lot of bread!

What kinds of other bread do you make as well?

We have the traditional British loaves, the cottage and the bloomer.

-You don't see the cottage so much any more.

-This one?

Yes, that's the one.

I love those, they look like hats, don't they?

I'm watching your kneading technique,

this is where I personally chicken out.

Shall I have a go?

-Would you just sneer at me?

-Yes.

-Right, I'll take my rings off.

-Now, just remind me...

-Push one way and pull back with the other hand.

Push against and bring it back. Yeah, good.

The thing about wholemeal is you need to knead it

-for about ten minutes.

-Ten minutes? But what am I doing?

-Don't be afraid of it...

-You know, I did boxing.

Just for a year, but this is much harder than boxing.

-Boxing was easy, I just beat the trainer!

-Pretend it's the trainer.

Really push it, that's it! Push it in and pull back.

So I just imagine this is somebody that I'm working with

who's particularly annoying me.

-God, I've imagined that someone!

-I'll stand well back.

I'm very, very notoriously short-tempered.

That's perfect, look at that! Now we'll put it in the bowl

and we'll rest it for about half an hour.

And so here it is now, you see how much it's risen.

That looks brilliant, it looks exactly like a haggis.

THEY LAUGH

They go into these proving baskets which is how you get those circles.

-Now, if you turn out the dough upside down...

-Right.

-Beautiful.

Two slashes. Hold the dough a little bit.

I could be a killer, so I'm putting it down.

So we are going to go to the oven.

All right.

-Oh, my goodness... Just slid it in?

-Just slid it in, yes.

-That's going to take half an hour.

-Just long enough to have a sandwich!

Time for a sandwich, sounds good to me.

ALARM RINGS

-Fabulous! I can't wait to taste it.

-Don't burn your fingers.

I always like the crust. Oh, look, the colour is fantastic!

That's the molasses.

Mmmm!

You can imagine that with some nice salmon

or even some Romney Marsh lamb, can't you?

That is really good!

It's sweet but not sugary. You know exactly what I mean!

Shop-bought bread, you taste the sugar, it sticks to your teeth.

The taste and texture of... This is real bread.

Right, I want you to promise you're going to come to the feast,

I demand you come!

-Shall we bring the bread?

-Yes, the bread is your entry card.

-Right, I will just have a bit more of this.

-You just enjoy!

'Every good feast needs a main ingredient,

'and the most celebrated product

'in this beautiful part of East Sussex is lamb.'

Romney Marsh is one of the largest coastal marshes in England

and the sheep that feed here are famous for their unique flavour

and prized by chefs worldwide.

Local sheep farmer Frank Langrish tells me why.

The grass and the clovers

that grow here are unique to this area.

These sheep have grazed here now for over 1,000 years,

they have actually developed the grass into what turns out

to be the good meat in the lamb.

What you mean is they're fertilizing the grass?

Well, it's a complete circle, yes.

The clover that grows here provides nitrogen back into the ground

and so the grass that grows here is very special.

Well, I can't wait to tell Brian about that, he will be thrilled!

Well, it certainly sounds like Romney Marsh lamb is just the thing

to represent the flavours of East Sussex in my celebratory dish.

To get advice on the perfect cut,

there's no-one better locally than butcher Jamie Wickens

who's been working with Romney Marsh lamb for over 25 years.

-You are the Romney Marsh lamb man!

-That's correct.

What, to you, really sums up the strengths of Romney Marsh lamb?

It turns that fantastic marsh grass into the finest meat you can buy.

That's lovely, that! You can just see there that bit of marbling.

The marbling through the meat enables the meat to cook

perfectly without drying out and keeping it moist and very tender.

And the sweetness that it gives to the lamb is incredible.

I am salivating.

I can feel my jaw just going there, just talking about it.

-One more favour?

-Go ahead!

Will you come along and have a taste, and be honest, tell me

if we have done justice to it?

-I'll be more than happy to!

-You're a gent, Jamie!

-Thanks for your help, good on you!

-Cheers!

I'm now all set to cook a dish to celebrate this area.

And we've invited a few locals we've met to give us their verdict.

Right, Brian, what have you chosen for your feast that's going to

-sum up this fabulous area?

-Romney Marsh lamb.

I've got some wonderful lamb here from Jamie's shop.

The other thing I've got that just makes it slightly territorial

is this stuff here.

-Sea purslane.

-How did you know that?!

-You saw me pick it!

-I saw you pick it and also

I grow winter purslane which is, I think, in the same family.

Not that I'm a know-all, Brian, but...

The thing is about sea purslane it's quite salty

because it lives in the sea, picked it from in Rye harbour

and I'm just going to put a bit of chicken mousse in there.

-Some minced chicken breast, probably local chicken.

-Chicken mousse?

Yeah, well, you need a little bit of just something to make it all

work together and make it slightly different.

What's in that chicken mousse, Brian?

There's only a little bit of cream in there.

This lady doesn't do lots of cream and butter.

So when you make a chicken mousse or a chicken farce to go in here,

I think you need to put quite a bit of salt in there.

You need to be PC, I understand that,

but a bit of salt because it helps to take in more cream.

-However, on this occasion...

-Ha-ha!

-..because I am catering for my guest...

-The "C" word!

Because I am catering for my guest over here, I'm going to put

a limited amount of salt in there.

I do need a little bit just to pull it all together.

And give it a bit of a beat round.

Then we add good old British double cream, so we beat

a bit in there just to give it a bit of lightness and that colour.

I never noticed those growing over there before...

Oh, no, don't put any more cream in!

-Just a wee bit, all right?

-No!

-That's OK, that's fine.

So I've got sea purslane here so I'm going to put some of that in there.

You've got rid of all the stalks, haven't you?

Yeah, we picked it out and chopped it up, chopped the leaves up.

I've also got some parsley, flat leaf parsley,

and you beat that up there and you get it all.

Okey-dokey. Right, so...

This a best end neck of lamb and two of them sit like that

on the animal, and the neck on there and head on here

and that's how it actually works.

Now, this is a wonderful piece of meat,

it's got a nice covering of fat but not too extensive.

It's quite easy to take off the bone.

I want to keep as much fat together as I can,

I'll get rid of some of it as we go on.

That will make a great stock or great soup,

mutton broth will be fantastic.

-I'll take that home.

-Right, OK.

So this has got little layers of belly meat,

but I don't want too much fat.

So what I've done is trimmed off the excess meat here

and with one of these creatures

I've actually bashed it out

as nice, as thin as you can. I'm not going to salt it

but I am going to put a bit of pepper on there.

Wonderful. And don't be too greedy here, just put enough in.

Now, when I do this, stuffed lamb like this,

you've got to show me how to roll it up without it squidging out the end

because, actually, you're making like a Swiss roll, aren't you?

-Not quite.

-No, but it's the same principal.

-Not quite.

SHE LAUGHS

You're as close as you can be!

So the idea now is I want to have that... So, I fold that over nicely.

Yeah, but how do you stop it running out the end?

-Can I do this?

-Yeah, sure thing.

So about there so I've got a nice coating of fat.

Just remember that once you've cut the fat, that's it.

So you've got to be sure you're actually OK.

So we will cut that.

Do it!

We take a couple of bits of bacon, we take a bit of string

and we just tie this in the middle.

It holds itself and tie it in a double knot,

and then just trim it off.

So I take two pieces and we cover that bit of chicken there.

-It's a very elegant parcel.

-Thank you!

That's probably the nicest thing you've said to me!

Yeah, because I have learnt something here

about how you covered up the ends because when I do it

it all squidges out and makes a horrible mess.

Pull it tight. Twist it.

Now, I've already got one ready that I've kept just sitting here.

There's the same look, I've just put two extra pieces on there.

One, two, three, four, five.

Got the pan on here, I'm going to put a bit of oil in.

Now, what's most important now is that we render the fat out

where we can, it's a job that takes a bit of patience.

And this is one of those important stages that people tend to

get a bit bored doing and think,

"Oh, it's a waste of time doing that."

We put it into a pan here and I'm just going to render it

and just keep turning it over.

-How long for, Brian?

-I'd say five or ten minutes, really.

-Key word here is patience.

-Key word is patience.

Probably why I'm no good at it.

Just keep turning it over, so you render all sides of the fat.

So I'm going to take this one out now.

I've got lots of sediment from this local lamb here, bags of flavour.

So I'm going to get rid of some of the fat, I don't want all of it.

Little bit of diced onion goes in there,

not too much and that will just pick up all the flavours.

Just a bit of stock in there

and then I will show you my secret ingredient just to finish that off.

-What kind of stock's that, Brian?

-I'm using chicken stock.

I'm going to put this pan on here.

You just need to look the other way now

-cos I'm going to put...

-Can't believe it!

-This is just very simple cabbage.

-I love cabbage.

Shredded. So do I.

And you know so many people make such a mess of cabbage

because they cook it for so long.

This went into boiling salted water

and then we took it straight back out again.

And I'm going to add that magic ingredient,

a wee bit of butter, just to keep you happy, dear heart.

It's not meant to eat, for you, the butter, it's meant to heat

the actual cabbage - that's the only reason it's there.

Let's put a bit of salt and pepper in there,

some lovely local sea salt, that's perfect, that's what we want.

So you've blanched it first. See, I never blanch mine

but I'm seeing how you do it, I'm learning.

-Let me tell you...

-See, I grow my cabbage.

I love it so much I can't bear it to cook

for more than about two minutes.

The other thing I've got... These are what we call pommes fondantes,

it's a very posh name, and it's a roast braised potato.

And I did put a little bit of butter in there as well.

-They're swimming in it! Swimming in it!

-No! No!

One thing I just would like to say, when you cut the string,

hopefully, that bit of fat around it won't go bing and open up!

JANET LAUGHS

We want to have a really nice shape.

And I'm going to put a bit of that potato stock in there

because potato helps to...

They're all laughing!

Potato helps to thicken the gravy up...

I can't believe it!

I only cook with olive oil!

Right, here we go. Now, look.

-This...

-Yes?

Have we got a roll of drums anywhere? This is the important bit.

Chef's sitting there. Look at him, all in white,

I could be in big trouble here.

Right, here we go.

It's gone very quiet out there.

Right, here we go.

Lovely!

-The lamb looks fantastic!

-It looks lovely.

That looks good, doesn't it?

So, nice slices now.

Two pieces of meat, just nicely cooked for me.

-I hate overcooked lamb.

-Good girl.

-I think it's the worst thing.

You say all the right things.

This cabbage, a bit of parsley in there.

In all fairness, cabbage isn't the easiest thing to make.

These lovely potatoes, delicious!

That goes on there.

I'm going to put a bit of purslane in there just to remind us

of the flavours.

I'm a great believer, as many guys are these days,

don't put too much sauce on.

Put it round the outside,

unless of course your Auntie Mary is coming and we all know

Auntie Mary's, "I'm not eating that, it looks like it's still alive"!

-So just pour it over the top.

-Oh, no, I like the extra gravy.

You're lucky, we never had gravy when I grew up.

Well, my mother did put the cabbage on at 10 o'clock

for a 1 o'clock lunch.

BRIAN LAUGHS

So, ladies and gentleman, that is what I think is

representative of some of the best taste that we've had in Rye.

Lamb cutlets, lamb best end, stuffed with a little chicken mousse,

sea purslane, supplied by our own butcher here,

wonderful cabbage, wonderful potatoes.

Thank you for coming, I hope you're going to enjoy it

and I hope you agree that is a taste of East Sussex.

Looks fantastic!

APPLAUSE

Why don't you come and taste what we've got here?

-Come on, let's have you here.

-Yeah, OK, and I've got the drinks.

Fingers, chef? Good lad! That's what we normally do, isn't it, eh?!

Move on, get a drink!

Right, Tony, out the way, let the next lot in.

Go on, have a good chew at that, girl.

Cider? Local cider?

Dig in! Hang on, we've got people round the back here.

Oh, I've got your forks! Hold up!

His mum had a little bit then, look.

So what we really want to know is,

do you think it does represent a taste of East Sussex?

That's what we want to know.

I think so.

I think it's the perfect job, reflects Romney Marsh, it's sweet,

tender and got that lovely hint of salt going through there.

Chef?

Nice depth of flavour from the lamb, bacon enhances it massively.

Stunning.

That's the locals happy...

but what does Janet think?

Duchess?

I like it. I like it!

I'm not doing the depth of flavour malarkey that Tony's doing.

Ticks my box.

I wish you'd never said that!

THEY LAUGH

Can you cut that out, please?!

What about over here? The real people!

You know how I'd sum up our trip round this fabulous bit of England?

I'm frightened to ask!

One battleaxe and a load of battlements!

And quite a few battles! But I think you really came out on top.

For me, the best thing about this part of England

is that combination of history and the food is amazing.

For me, the scallops and the Romney Marsh lamb are zinging.

Very simple and they're affordable and everybody should be using them.

And that lamb, they would have been eating it in the Middle Ages.

This is also true, probably with not a lot of cream.

I knew you'd get the last word!

BRIAN LAUGHS

Here's to the next round.