Devon 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 doorstop.

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.

We're in the fantastic coastal county of Devon,

an area steeped in history, abundant in fresh local produce

and home to the English Riviera.

We'll be getting our claws into some of the county's sensational seafood.

-The crabs are fantastic...

-Ah, ah, ah!

-Hold it like that from the side.

-Come on!

..which I'll be cooking up with the help of the great British weather.

That's got a secret ingredient, English rain.

It's afternoon tea for two as we sample another Devonshire delight.

I treat the cream like caviar.

I don't have to shove a great big lorry load of it in my mouth.

And I'll be impressing the locals with my culinary skills as

I cook up a celebratory dish that captures a flavour of Devon.

Hallelujah! Oh, grand. Thank you very much sir.

Brian, here we are in Devon on top of a hill,

fabulous views in all directions.

To the north over there, Dartmoor and, look, down there, Totnes,

fantastically important historic town.

It's got a Norman castle, loads and loads of listed buildings.

I can't wait to show you Totnes.

And it sits on the River Dart at the head of the estuary that goes

all the way down to the sea.

-Is that Dartmouth down there as well?

-Yep.

I need to go there, there's a gentleman there who lands

perfectly beautiful crab and I've got to see those.

But just look at these wonderful hills here, fabulous produce.

First, for me, please, it's Dartmouth and crabs.

-Off we go.

-Let's away.

The nautical town of Dartmouth dates back to 1147

when it was used as a key port during the Crusades.

Nowadays, it's big on tourism and even bigger on fishing.

There's nothing better than freshly caught British seafood.

I can't possibly come to Dartmouth without getting my hands on

some fresh Devonshire crab

and Alan Steer is just the man to help me.

Looks like a busy stretch of water out there.

-Oh!

-Yep.

-This looks slippery.

-Allow me. Hi, Alan.

-Morning. All right, guys?

-I'm not your mother!

-There you go, madam.

-Thank you.

-And I don't mind someone giving me a hand.

-No, OK.

-I appreciate it, thank you very much.

Welcome aboard.

These just look magnificent, lovely crabs.

So how long you been crab fishing?

I started with my father probably when I was about five years old.

Started on the shore just working in the small boat, messing around.

I've been in it ever since.

As soon as I left school, started on the boat.

Was your dad doing it for a long time before that and his dad?

Father, grandfather. I'm third generation crab fisherman.

-Oh, fantastic.

-And how often do you go out? Every day?

We put the pots down and we let them fish for a day and then we go back

the following day and pick them up, empty them and re-bait them.

So, it's an every other day sort of season for us.

And what are you using as bait?

We really like red gurnard, it's one of our favourite baits.

That's one of my favourite fish too.

This is the problem, our bait prices are going through the roof

because they're getting popular to eat. That's...

You mean these are kind of gourmet crabs,

they'll only eat certain things?

Crab really likes fresh bait.

So what's it about this part of the world that makes

these crabs so special?

It was one of the birthplaces of the crab fishing, really,

it's been going on down here since the Domesday Book.

And it's the clean, deep waters, really.

Relatively warm for around the British Isles,

and abundance of food.

That's why the crabs like it and they grow to such decent sizes.

What age are these crabs here?

Average age a crab will live to, is sort of, 25/30 years.

They can get a lot older but that's the sort of average age.

-What about this one?

-It's very hard to...

-He looks pretty mean.

-..to age a crab, to be fair.

-Yeah.

-The old fellows, the old fishermen,

they always used to reckon an inch a year across the back

of the shell but I don't know how much truth is in that.

So, you'd say that would be about eight or nine years.

Probably eight, nine years, ten years maybe so...

Alan, how can you tell the male crabs from the female crabs?

We've got... There are two sorts of crab here.

This is the male crab. Here you are Janet,

-I'll give you that one to hold.

-Yeah.

-Is that the best way to hold it?

-That's probably the easiest way.

If you put your hand in here they automatically close round,

so it's probably not best to do that.

If you put it in here, they'll trap your thumbs with their claws.

Hold them by the back, you're absolutely fine.

-Brian, you can have the female. There you go.

-Sounds good to me.

The easiest way is looking at the bottom of these crabs.

The male has a very narrow flap on the abdomen here.

-OK, yeah, yeah.

-The female has this great big wide flap.

This is for carrying eggs when she's breeding.

This flap opens right up and gets full of orange eggs,

thousands, thousands of eggs.

Now, as a professional fisherman, what do you prefer eating?

They're both nice. I prefer the female.

I think it's a slightly more delicate, sweeter flavour.

How long do you boil them for?

We put them into the water once they've been killed,

bring them to the boil and we boil them for about 20 minutes

and then tip them out straight into cold water, stop the cooking.

Oh, I love the whole idea of crab.

I'm just getting more hungry by the minute.

So just quickly looking in here, the crabs are fantastic.

-Ah, ah, ah!

-Hold it like that from the side.

-Come on!

-There you go.

-Yeah.

-That's it,

-cos you've got him in a ball now he can't...

-Of all the people I know

who are good at dealing with males, you're the one to...

Well, the good thing about it like this, it's not grabby, is it?

-No.

-Unlike a lot of blokes.

-Yeah.

-They really are fantastic looking beasts, aren't they?

-Yeah.

Wonderful. So we're obviously going to cook with these if we may,

but I'm going to keep it simple, so perhaps you can boil a couple for me.

Do you have some crabs I can have?

-No problem at all, we can sort that out for you, Brian.

-Come on.

I want to prepare something that really sums up the sea.

It's a classic recipe but with a bit of a Dartmouth twist.

It's a good job I packed my sea legs,

it's getting a little bit choppy.

A life on the ocean wave, my dear. Right.

-You've made it extra wavy.

-I can't believe all of this.

I'm just trying to maintain my balance.

Look, what I'm going to do is something simple,

-not a lot of cooking.

-Yeah.

-A crab cocktail, just like a prawn cocktail.

-Yeah.

But I'm going to show you how to properly do it,

so it eats and tastes well. Alan! How we doing with that crab?

Here you go, Brian. Some of Devon's finest crab for you.

You're a gent, look at them.

Fantastic, I'm going to leave that for a second, all right?

I'll show you what I've got in a minute, but the first thing

we need to do, we need to make the two sauces

to make this wonderful crab cocktail.

-So, a bit of mustard goes in there.

-Yeah.

A bit of white wine vinegar. Kapow!

Or lemon juice, anything in the citric works well there.

Give it a good old stir. And then some olive oil.

And some groundnut oil, yeah.

Carefully measured in there.

A bit of sea salt, a bit of pepper and give that a whirl round.

So we've got that one ready to go, that's fine.

Then, of course, we want to make this very famous Marie Rose sauce.

Now everybody makes it with just the tomato sauce, mayonnaise

and that's it. We're going to put a little bit more than that in there.

So what we do, is we put the mayonnaise... You don't have to make

your own mayonnaise, you can buy it. Good stuff. In it goes in there.

As much tomato as you want, that suits you.

-Is that tomato ketchup?

-Tomato ketchup, it's traditional.

-Yeah.

-Just to give you that lovely colour.

However, I think it deserves just that little bit more now.

So, I'm going to put some horseradish in there.

-Oh, that's a great idea.

-Give it a bit of bite.

-Yeah.

-Goes in there, that's lovely.

And then...

-..skipper's tot here.

-Ah.

-This is a bit of brandy.

So, this is fresh dressed crab.

What I want to do now, just quickly, is take some of the brown

and put it into the Marie Rose sauce, yeah.

So that just makes it a different sauce again,

-but just gives it that wonderful...

-Thickens it up as well.

Exactly. Gives it a lovely crab flavour.

So if it's too thick,

you put a bit more brandy in there to let it down, OK.

But only if you tell people that they're going to get it.

So, crab's over here.

We've taken the claws off.

Now, I learnt something today that I've never known before.

I understand if you very carefully

bash it off there, that should release this.

It comes off so easy, that's fantastic.

-I never realised that before.

-Yeah.

-It's so much easier to open.

-This gentleman showed me.

It does. Alan, that is a top tip,

because usually I do it with a hammer and it goes everywhere.

-You, you see people with rolling pins, hammers.

-Yeah.

And then, of course, you hold this and you just give it a tap.

And if you're very careful, the whole thing comes out together.

We can slide that claw out. However, I think

sometimes, it's easier just to have this wonderful dressed crab.

So we're going to kick off.

I've got some lettuce here, some little gem lettuce,

which I do love. Lovely and crispy.

Into the bowl.

A dice of cucumber.

I'm just going to cut a nice little dice of avocado pear.

Now, I think the real problem with this, is that people don't

actually season it correctly.

So if we put a bit of vinaigrette in there.

So now it's a proper salad already.

A little bit of salt, a bit of pepper.

And I've got under here two nice...

-Oh, yes.

-..Martini glasses.

-Yeah.

Presentation just elevates the whole thing up.

So we put our salad...

..in there.

As much or as little as you want but it's dressed, that's the secret.

Yeah, there's nothing worse than

a load of old dried leaves down the bottom of the glass.

But do you remember in the '60s, when it used to be the favourite

dish of everybody, it was never seasoned at all?

So I'm going to take my crab meat now, as much or as little as you like.

I'm going to put a little bit of sauce in there.

Now the nice thing about this sauce is it's got a secret ingredient -

English rain... THEY LAUGH

..that I hadn't expected to put in there.

So that goes...

in there - that's delicious.

Give it a whirl round.

If you've got time to let that sit for five or ten minutes

so much the better, so the whole thing marinades

and the flavours then become really quite prominent.

I'm going to put a bit of sauce on top.

Remember, we've got that brown crab meat in there.

A bit of tomato on top for colour.

And I've got pea shoots over here just to make that little

bit of a focal point.

And there you have it.

That's what I call a real crab cocktail, thanks to you, Alan.

In a downpour, well done.

So come on, underneath the umbrella, let's have a taste,

tell us what you think. I'll hold it.

-Right.

-Ladies first.

It's not often I get called that, Alan.

Right.

Mm.

Very crabby.

Can I just taste the bottom bit?

Course you can.

That makes all the difference.

Thank you very much.

That, and the local crab.

The flavour of the crab, it's plain, simple,

that's just how I love it - it's a beautiful dish.

Despite the weather, Brian's crab cocktail was a great way to

begin sampling a taste of the region.

Devon may be a Mecca for seafood lovers from all over the world

but it's also heaven for history buffs like me.

Totnes is a market town perched on the River Dart

in the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It has a rich history dating all the way back to 907 AD.

It's home to a famous Norman castle, and guide Win Scutt

has kindly agreed to give me a tour.

Come and have a look at this wonderful castle. All right.

This dates to the sort of 1200s, really.

So this was built by the Normans.

The Normans, exactly, so...

-Was it to frighten the local Anglo-Saxons?

-Yeah.

Well, they built about a thousand

of these motte-and-baileys around England.

It's just beautifully preserved.

-So you've got a big, tall, flat mound, the motte.

-Yes.

And on the top of this was a tower.

And surrounding that was a large wooden wall,

so it was really defensive.

So it replaced a hill fort.

-Well...

-What would have been on this hill before?

Well, just sort of out that way, towards the river,

is a wonderful Saxon town which was started in the early 11th century -

a really important one.

I'll take you around over there.

So this really was the stronghold.

But this isn't where people lived - this is where they would have

kept the swords and the shields and everything like that.

And also the treasure -

if they'd got any valuables they'd keep them up here...

-So if they thought that Totnes was under attack...

-Yeah.

..everything valuable in the town was piled into here.

And I think they'd probably have kept stores in here, just in case.

You know, you'd have, what would be the equivalent of

your tins of peaches or something here, you know.

What a fantastic view of the River Dart.

Yeah, and in front of it, all these lovely grey, slate roofs.

This is the town that belongs to the sort of 15/1600s.

But it's built on top of the early Medieval town,

and that lovely Saxon town.

And this was a really important Saxon town in the 1000s.

So before William the Conqueror conquered in 1066, this was already

a bustling town, commanding that

sort of crossing point of the River Dart.

And this is where the market was,

there was wealth coming in from the fields - presumably sheep and wool.

So a fantastically important place.

In fact, by the time of Domesday

this was the second most important town in Devon after Exeter.

-How did it get the name Totnes?

-Ah, a good question.

"Tot" means lookout place and the "nes" is like a nose.

So you can imagine like Dungeness and Loch Ness and places -

it refers to a headland, like a nose of land.

So it's the lookout place on the headland.

That's where it gets its name.

And look at the views.

While Janet soaks up some local history,

I am still trying to pin down a taste of this region.

Someone who embraces Dartmouth's abundant fresh seafood supply

is award-winning chef and fishmonger, Mitch Tonks.

Good to be here, what you going to cook for us?

I've got a cracking bit of local hake and I'm going to cook

it in a very typical Basque style with some garlic,

some sweet vinegar and some smoked peppers and a bit of sauce romesco -

it's lovely.

-Do you know what the Spanish for hake is?

-Merluza.

-Oh, no!

-Merluza.

-I thought you hadn't got the answer to that.

It's one of the... We've just got a bit of olive oil in the pan there.

It's one of the kind of forgotten fish down here.

A lot of fisherman have turned over to catching it

and we've got a huge supply of it. I mean, look at it - it's just fantastic.

What I'm going to do is just going to get a little bit of colour on the skin

and I'm then going to turn the fish over and put it in the oven.

All these lovely fillets of fish just need a nice bit

of all-round heat in the oven to finish them off,

except if you've got something really thin.

That's a lovely colour, is that.

And then in there we go. Sorry, Brian.

I take it that you're a kind of guy that likes to cook fish pink,

-dare I say it.

-Yeah, I think the thing is with fish,

and certain fish, you need to get them just right.

There's a way that they just need to be flaking apart.

You just want all that lovely membrane between the flakes

to have just melted so the fish is flaking.

But, for me, all the best fish I've ever eaten in my life

has been all around the Mediterranean,

around the shores of southern France, Italy,

-where it's all about simplicity.

-That's the secret.

-A - it's simply treated, and B - it is ultra-fresh.

-Absolutely.

And that's what you want to taste, you want to taste the sea.

I don't want to taste any kind of overpowering ingredients.

Well, this sauce, lots of olive oil but we're using

really good extra virgin olive oil.

Would you think of using rapeseed oil?

Cos that's fairly fashionable these days in the UK.

I think it's fashionable and the flavour's OK,

but you can't cook without olive oil in my opinion. I love olive oil.

And then what I've got here is some sliced garlic, nice and thin.

I want the temperature quite low because this is a dish where you

want the garlic... You don't want it to fry -

there's a difference between fried garlic and garlic that's just...

I call it being encouraged.

-Perfect. Get the flavour out but without colour.

-Right.

-Because if you colour that, it's going to be bitter, is it not?

-It is.

If you cook it too hot...

I want colour but I don't want colour quickly.

And then I've got some of these nora and choricero peppers which

have been smoked over wood

and they give it a really smoky richness, really good.

They're not fiery, they're not hot,

but we get this real depth to the sauce which is so good.

So what do we do about

educating the British public to enjoy fish?

You've started an academy, I believe.

Yep, I was working with a college one day

and I just noticed all this, this wonderful talent, cooking

the curriculum but they weren't using a lot of our local fish.

So I thought it would be good for them to get some practical skills,

understand a bit about our seafood and then when they

go off into jobs, they've got something really, really tangible.

For me, if you've got a restaurant in this area,

the whole South West peninsula, this is the best fish in the world,

it's what we should be doing.

And I suspect that's just about ready now, chef.

I just like to take the skin off,

cos I love that moistness of that hake.

Look at it, it just looks beautiful.

It's perfect and I totally agree with you that the

moisture in there suddenly and the pure whiteness of it.

It just comes out, doesn't it?

-So we've got our garlic, our peppers.

-Yeah.

We've got a little parsley in there.

We'll just give that a quick fry.

So we've got some temperature in there.

Very good vinegar made from Cava grapes - slightly sweet.

And that goes in.

That's not hugely acidic. And then over the top...

Perfect. And then just a little bit of the sauce romesco on the side,

which is roasted almonds, roasted peppers, roasted onions,

sweet paprika, smoked paprika, garlic, a little vinegar.

And there you have a bit of local hake -

just the type of thing you'd eat

while you're wandering through San Sebastian

with your peppers, your garlic,

a little bit of vinegar, your sauce romesco. Top.

Delicious.

Hake is one of my favourite fish

so I can't wait to taste Mitch's version.

Here's some of our local hake cooked in a very traditional

Spanish style with sauce romesco. Enjoy.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you, Mitch.

Now you don't get hake very often - when was the last time you had hake?

Two weeks ago.

You don't get hake many more times than once a fortnight.

I'm sorry. Well, I'm only telling the truth!

I do like it but it's quite hard to get here.

These peppers, you can smell the peppers and garlic - so simple.

He's done a great job.

Mm.

It smells delicious. Those are nora smoked peppers.

This is the way you want to eat hake when you're in Spain...

but they don't do it this well!

BRIAN LAUGHS

Look how beautifully fresh it is.

Well, the beauty of course is the water's just over there.

-Mm-hm.

-It's landed locally - it doesn't have to travel anywhere.

And he's treated it so simply, he hasn't mashed it up with anything.

-Mm, good sauce.

-There's lumps of almond in there.

-Mm-hm.

-They're delicious.

-It's that smoky red pepper.

-A bit of garlic in there.

-Yeah.

-Lots of lovely garlic.

You're looking very serious.

I'm working out how to do it at home.

That's why I was looking serious, cos I love hake.

-But that's...

-And I want more people to eat hake.

But that's the beauty of this dish, people can do this at home,

cos it's not complicated at all.

No. And you can whack up that sauce in the blender.

Mm.

You just can't beat a bit of fresh British fish.

Now I've had a look around Totnes Castle, I'd like to show Brian

a few more historical sites around the town.

There is a lovely little passageway. It's fantastic, this is.

This is fabulous. This dates from Tudor times.

It's called Butterwalk

and it's where they used to sell dairy products.

Obviously all the fields around were full of cows and

they made butter and milk and cream and cheese,

and then they came into Totnes to sell it.

I love book shops, don't you?

I do, I do, I do - I buy too many books.

-Look, Little Miss Scatterbrain, I wonder who that is?

-Yeah.

-Look at this fantastic church.

-It's brill, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's 15th century, and it's probably at least the third church that

stood on this site. The original one dates back to Saxon times.

-And look at that tower.

-What's it made of?

Red sandstone - that's the local stone.

All those amazing ornaments on it and look at, over the portico here.

-Uh-huh.

-Angels or knights flying off into space.

Yeah. It's amazing, isn't it?

Totnes is not just a town for seafood fans

and history lovers, it also has a strong new-age community,

many of whom still worship at the intriguingly named Leechwell.

Brian, see that sign - leeches were used for bloodletting,

which was thought to help cure you in Medieval times.

But more importantly the leech well,

the fount of all healing in Medieval times.

The three spouts relate to three different springs,

and each one had a name and each one cured a different ailment.

-The right one - snake, for bites.

-Oh, right.

The middle one.... This is like Mastermind on springs.

-Long crippler, and that's for eyes.

-Right.

And the toad is for skin.

Now there's no leeches in there now, are there?

-No, but I'm not going down there.

-Right, well I'm going to have a look.

-Be careful!

-Right, what's this for?

Er, long crippler. Um, I think that's for eyes.

OK, right, so let's have a quick look.

Well, today, the locals,

the new-age locals, think that these springs have healing properties.

And there's a little shrine behind you of offerings to the gods.

I'm going to have some of what it's worth.

Don't put it in your mouth!

-No, I won't, I won't. Do you want some of this?

-No thanks. No, keep it away.

-Ju-just, just-ta-ta-ta...

-Brian, Brian!

Only one thing goes on my face and that's face cream.

-Keep that water away.

-OK, right, fine.

After all that walking, we've earned a bit of relaxation and we couldn't

possibly come to Devon without sampling its world-famous cream tea.

-I just want to look at the menu.

-Beautiful, I know what I'm having.

-Hello.

-Hello there.

-I'm going to order for Brian.

-Right.

SHARE a cream tea - forget that. He'd like a cream tea.

-Yes.

-A cream tea!

Yes, plenty of cream.

-With, a pot of tea?

-Oh, absolument.

-Yes.

I'll have the mini cream tea, please.

You're not supposed to have it with coffee.

What's the difference between a Devon cream tea

and a Cornish cream tea?

-I know.

-I believe that the, the Devonshire cream tea,

you put your cream on first and then your jam on the top,

but if you're in Cornwall it's the other way round.

Do the two counties compete in the history of the cream tea?

I believe they do.

I think probably Devon thinks that they do the best

and probably Cornwall think they do the best.

-Oh, well, thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Hello.

-I hope you enjoy it.

-Oh, look at that.

-Oh, my goodness.

That's the cream that we're going to have to share.

-That's mine.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yes, yes.

That's home-made strawberry jam, raspberry jam and gooseberry jam.

-Thank you so much.

-I hope you enjoy it.

Here you are, Duchess.

-Would you like me to pour the tea for you?

-No.

See, I don't quite understand why you're having green tea today -

it's like weak pea soup.

In my life there's the word moderation.

I'll just have a bit of strawberry jam.

Raspberry jam looks lovely.

Oh, my God. Look at the difference, look.

-You've eaten half of yours already - look.

-No.

I'm going to try gooseberry as well.

These are really good scones, because I'll tell you what

I don't like is when you get a scone and you pick it up and it feels

like a boulder and you cut it in half and it's a big lump of dough.

-How was the gooseberry?

-Very good, I like it. It's tart.

-Did you have cream with it?

-No.

What is the point of coming all this way,

having the best cream tea and then not eating anything?

I treat the cream like caviar -

I don't have to shove a great big lorry load of it in my mouth.

-I'll take your pulse in a minute.

-Oh!

I think that's been fantastic. I've really enjoyed it.

I'm going to have a bit of fresh fruit.

Oh, like that's going to cancel out all the cream?!

My cholesterol's getting better by the second.

Well, we've got to get some ingredients for you to cook with.

I need some vegetables next,

and I've got a good idea where to get 'em from.

Come on, Brian.

Did me the world of good, did those scones.

-Don't let those carbs hold you down.

-Hey-ho, hey-ho!

Devon's fertile soil is renowned for producing top-quality vegetables

and I think they'd make the perfect ingredient

for my celebratory taste of the region.

I'm hoping I might be in luck over at Riverford Organic Farm

in Buckfastleigh.

It's run by vegetable producer, Guy Watson.

So, Janet and Brian, this is dispatch here.

We've packed up the boxes, we wheel

'em in here on pallets, all the different types and then we break

them down and add milk, yoghurt, fruit, anything the customer wants.

And that'll get rolled onto a lorry, off at one of the hubs tomorrow,

onto a van and it'll be on the doorstep tomorrow morning.

-So this is the nerve centre?

-Yeah, it is.

It takes a tremendous amount of logistics -

could be about 100 vans leaving from here tomorrow.

So packing's a big skill?

Yeah, we're masters of logistics.

It's become a large part of the business,

just making sure that everyone gets the right order.

Right, Guy, what have I got to do, please?

You've got to put a bunch of beetroot in each box. That one's got one.

-I'll put the spinach in.

-Right, OK.

Brian, put the tomatoes in. Off we go. A bit faster, please.

Put 'em in the right place.

So how did the veg box thing come about?

We started off selling to local shops, then wholesalers

and then supermarkets and I hated that.

And so I really wanted to sell direct to people

who liked my vegetables, and become a bit of an obsession now.

I'd never go back to conventional farming -

I think I'd rather give up, really.

So how many boxes do you do a week these days?

Er, we're on, up to almost 50,000 -

one every three seconds, so we'd better speed up.

Not on this line!

-So you've got a cafe?

-Yeah, yeah.

Would you like to go and have a cup of tea?

We've got a fantastic cafe on the farm.

I think I will. Brian, get on with your packing.

-Yeah, I'm doing my best here.

-Brian, I think we're going to go

and see where some of this beetroot and radish and garlic is grown...

-Lead on, sir, lead on.

-Let's go.

How do you actually go about being organic?

Do you have get a certificate or...?

Yeah, you do.

You decide to be organic

and you create a plan for converting the farm,

weaning it off the chemicals - the nitrogen fertiliser in particular.

And whilst you go through that process, the Soil Association

or another accrediting body will come and monitor it,

make sure you're doing it right.

So when you set out to do it, is there ever a moment when you

think, actually this too hard, I don't know why I'm doing this?

Oh, yeah. I can remember a couple of times

when I did actually weep in the fields.

But, I don't know, there was a sort of pigheaded determination,

stubbornness that made me carry on and I've learnt a lot since then.

You have to have an interest in doing it and

a kind of sympathy with nature

and a kind of understanding of ecology really,

and to really want to get involved in that rather than,

you know, reach for a chemical container for your solutions.

But your initial motivation was the fact that

you were ill and your brother was ill.

Yeah, my brother had been in hospital with paraquat poisoning.

As a teenager, I'd made myself ill spraying my father's barley

with herbicides and I just didn't like handling

the chemicals, with skull and crossbones all over the containers -

didn't seem right putting it on food, I suppose.

Now those radishes look really good.

I am going to cook, for this celebration meal, a tarte Tatin

of wonderful vegetables that you grow here,

but I'm going to use those if I may.

Great. Well, there you go, they couldn't be fresher than that.

Thank you very much, sir.

I'm really impressed by this Devonshire organic veg box empire,

and I think vegetables are the perfect star ingredient

for my celebratory taste of the region.

I just hope Guy and his staff are equally as impressed.

Well, we've had some wonderful crab.

-Yes.

-I'm now going to go to a vegetable fiesta.

I'm going to make a vegetable tarte Tatin.

I can't wait to see yours come out.

I know yours is going to be miles better than

when I had a feeble attempt at this.

Well, I'm not sure about that.

I think the idea of this is that when you've got lots of

pre-cooked veg left over, use those to make it - roast veg is fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Or if you've got raw veg you can cook them to order.

So what I'm going to do first of all is, into the pan we put some butter.

I've got rapeseed oil to go in as well - just a tad.

And then, I've got here some cumin seeds,

which I think work tremendously well.

And then...

..a bit of crushed garlic.

So just crush that up.

And any of these things, if you say, "I don't really like 'em,"

well, don't put 'em in. You know, it's up to you.

But I think this just is a nice little mix here.

It's surprising how sweet root vegetables are actually

when they're roasted and cooked through.

It is, but this helps to complement it and we will serve a little

dressing with it with a bit of vinegar as well, so that'll help.

That's fantastic. This is a little bit of sherry vinegar -

take it away from the heat, just put it in there.

We've got these wonderful beetroots...

They're probably going to take about half an hour to cook, are those.

And then sugar - not too much sugar.

And then if you've got a leek,

stick that in the oven for about 30 minutes - just a nice gentle heat.

And I've got some here.

But just look at those, they look fantastic.

-Now you didn't peel those, did you?

-No, left the skin on.

Is that cos the skin's so thin when they're that small?

-Because they're baby ones.

-Yeah.

-They're little ones. Then I need some puff pastry.

Now, there are lots of schools of thought.

It takes a long time to make puff pastry, it is a big skill -

you can buy some. Some are better than others.

So just do a bit of research and find out what works for you.

What you're saying is, don't feel guilty if you buy it.

I agree. It's a very quick dish to put together.

So, if you hold this table so it doesn't rock too much,

so I don't feel seasick - like you're back on the boat, Alan.

We don't want that to happen, do we, eh? So, nice and thin.

Now, we want puff pastry cos of its crispness -

what I don't want is it to rise too much,

cos when you turn it over to serve it, it sort of looks odd,

and that's not what we're looking for in this particular instance.

I'm going to use this pan - it's about a 10 inch, this pan.

And it's better, actually,

if you have a little bit more pastry than you actually need. So that...

Fantastic, great.

I'm just going to leave it here for one second. OK.

So this is the vegetable version of the classic

tarte Tatin which is normally apples or sometimes pears.

Absolutely right, yeah.

And in real terms, it's not really a Tatin

but it's the nearest thing to it,

and it gives everybody an idea as to what it is.

So look, please...

This is where I'm learning because when I tried to make this,

it did look like a little bit of a road accident when I turned it out.

Well, please, be careful at this stage

because this caramel is very hot.

-Yeah.

-And it can cause all kinds of problems.

Right, so we've got the basis now ready to go.

So, take boiled onions - these are lovely,

they're sort of not overcooked,

they're just nicely undercooked but not...

How long do you cook them for roughly?

Well, it depends on the size - about 15 minutes, I would think these.

-Yeah.

-Just gently boil.

And then we've got these lovely carrots.

And all I'm just going to do is cut them in half.

-So you've already cooked them.

-These are already cooked.

-As I say, this could be a leftover dish.

-Yeah.

So then we take these and we just put them like that.

I'm trying to make a sort of a little pattern but I don't want it

-to be too patternified, if you know what I mean.

-Rustic!

-Oh, is that what I'm saying, is it?

-Yeah.

That's lovely. Then we've got these...

You're not doing a smiley face or anything? What is that?

-No, absolutely not.

-Just checking.

-We've got peppers here.

-Yeah.

-So we now put those, fold those - comme ca.

These are lovely - I do love these roast peppers.

So those go in there.

And the nice thing about this dish is I think it's got plenty of colour.

You haven't taken the skins off your peppers either.

-No, I know, life's too short.

-No, I like taking the skins off.

-I don't know why I do.

-Well, neither do I.

It appeals to something a bit weird in me, but I always take the skins off.

I can understand that, I can see that that would take...

-Just get on with it.

-OK-cokey there.

-And then we need to just put these onions in there.

-I am learning from how you're doing this.

Yeah, well, wait till you...

When mine turned out, I tried to do this but when you turn it out...

I haven't turned mine out yet.

So let's not just push our luck.

OK, so bring this here so we can see it.

The one thing I don't want it to do, I don't want it to rise high.

So, take a fork and dock it.

And that'll stop it rising too much

but it'll still give us a lovely crispness.

And hopefully, with the liquor in the bottom there,

which will soak into it, that'll be fantastic.

Now, the big problem is...

-..I ain't got an oven here.

-No, even I can't magic up an oven.

I suspect you could if you tried.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to quickly nip off.

I've got one in the oven there, so I'm going to go and get that

-and bring it up, all right?

-All right.

Alan, have you ever cooked anything like this?

No, I'm not a vegetable cooking person -

-I normally like my seafood.

-I was going to imagine, Alan,

that you live on a diet of fish, fish, crab, crab, lobster.

-It's fairly much like that, yeah.

-You haven't grown gills yet.

No, I like me crab and seafood and meats and that.

Really looking forward to trying this, it'll be really interesting - looks good.

I'm going to ask you a rather rude question, can you actually cook?

Yeah, I'm a bit of a dab hand in the kitchen.

-You are? Well, that's good.

-I do most of the cooking at home.

-You do?

-Yeah.

-Oh, well, excuse me for being patronising, then.

That's put me in my place. What about you, Guy?

I mean, you grow all these vegetables.

Do you actually do the cooking?

Oh, I do do the cooking on the whole at home, yeah.

Good, so I've got two men who are new-age men.

Guy, have you cooked this?

I've never made a tarte Tatin, no. It looks good.

-Yeah.

-It always seems a bit of waste to do so much to 'em, really.

I just like to eat 'em as they are.

You say that and see how it goes down.

Well, perhaps I should try it first.

Anyway, well, let's wait for the tart.

Now this is looking quite good, look - it hasn't risen too much.

It's got a lovely colour to it. You need to let it stand.

So it actually did stand for five minutes down in the kitchen to set,

but you also need it to be slightly warm so that it'll tip out,

otherwise it might stick in the bottom.

So let me put that there.

Whilst that's just sitting there we're going to make a little

dressing for this and that's really quite simple.

I just want to do a bit of radish - a lovely colour.

Just dice 'em, chop 'em up.

There's a sort of a zinginess about these that go nicely

-with the sweetness of the tart that we've actually done.

-Mm.

And a bit of chopped shallot as well - nice and finely.

-So, shallots and radishes.

-Yeah.

Some mustard here.

And your mange tout that you carefully picked the ends off.

Yeah, indeed. Absolutely, yeah, just pick the stalk end off.

-Yeah, very good therapy.

-A bit of white wine vinegar.

And then a nice bit of oil in there -

I've got rapeseed oil again, that's fine.

-Salt.

-Yeah.

Pepper.

-I'm going to take a bit of that out now and put it in here.

-Yeah.

That's lovely.

And then I'm just going to chop a bit of fresh parsley.

I love parsley.

I love curly parsley - just chop it up, freshly, at the last minute.

-It's got more flavour then, hasn't it?

-Just got more flavour, absolutely.

I think it's so vastly underrated.

We get all these wonderful herbs these days, we've forgotten

about the one we always used to use that was the only one about.

And it's also got a great colour.

-Right, now I'm, you may think I'm stalling now, which I am.

-Yeah.

Cos I'm very nervous that this tart will not come out.

-I want to see your turning-out technique.

-Ah!

-Because do you put...?

-Yes, yeah.

-You put the plate over it...

-Yeah.

-..and flip it.

Yeah. What we really need now is a roll on the drums, cos we're not

actually going to put that plate on there.

You know how sometimes you wish you'd never said things, don't you, eh?

-Come on.

-Right, OK. So this goes...

-on top here.

-Oh, you're doing it on a board.

-This has never been done...in public.

-I always do it on a plate.

Look at this wonderful audience we've got here.

And, er... Right, you ready?

One, two, three, go.

-Oh.

-Whoa!

Oh, just listen to 'em behind me. Talk about encouragement.

Hallelujah! APPLAUSE

Oh, grand. Thank you very much, sir.

-Very good.

-So, we just put our salad on here.

That looks lovely.

It's just the green of this, just makes a really nice contrast.

And it's a help-yourself dish.

We've got the dressing here - just put a little bit in the middle.

So people can help themselves.

And you may think that I'd gone to the kitchen to sort everything out

but I did hear the conversation that went on over here whilst I was away.

-So there you are, sir, there's a carrot...

-A very nice carrot.

..on its own with nothing else. It looks a good carrot.

It would be better if it was raw, but thank you.

LAUGHTER But look, there you have it -

vegetable tarte Tatin with a radish dressing

and a little salad on the side. APPLAUSE

OK, Duchess, so what do you actually want to taste?

Do you want some beetroot, some carrots, some onion?

I want to start with beetroot cos it matches my hair.

There's a little piece there, just try that - it's not too hot.

OK. What do you think?

Very good.

-Yum.

-Is it better than you thought? It's not too sweet, is it?

No, it's not too sweet - it's not too sweet at all.

-The proof of the pudding, of course, is over here, innit?

-Mm.

Come in, you two, let's have a... You can help yourselves.

-It looks lovely, Brian.

-Thank you.

-I think Alan likes it.

-Oh, that's good.

I'm not a big vegetable man but the roast peppers -

fantastic flavour in that, beautiful.

OK, Guy, moment of truth. Onions, carrots there.

If you've got to cook 'em, you've done a pretty good job.

-LAUGHTER

-Just go with it, Brian.

Ladies, come in and be courageous - tell us if you like it.

Come in here. You come round, sir.

It's a wonderful feast of fresh vegetables, with cumin and garlic.

Tell us what you think of it.

-Whoop.

-That is really good. Sorry, Guy, it's really good.

-Thank you.

-She works in accounts.

LAUGHTER What do you think, darling?

I would say that the vegetables are the star of the show there, Brian.

BRIAN: Guess who she works for?

Did you hear that? Guess who she works for?

OK, Janet. Final word, tell us what you think, dear.

Right.

It pains me to say it...

..but it's better than my one.

-I think I'm going to burst into tears.

-Don't milk it.

Mm.

-Well, Brian, that was a success.

-Do you think?

Yeah, because people think vegetarian food is stodgy and dull

and that is a fantastically beautiful, vibrant dish.

I like good vegetables and I think whether that's leftovers or

just a light lunch with that bit of salad, that's fantastic.

And not only that, A Taste of Britain in Devon...

-..that says it all.

-Did the business.