Suffolk 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 around 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 exploring the East Anglian county of Suffolk.

Wedged between Norfolk and Essex

in the most easterly part of the country,

Suffolk is home to fashionable seaside towns

and a rich farming heritage.

Janet finds and unlikely ally under a gooseberry bush.

That seems to me like very uncharacteristic

Yorkshire exaggeration.

Thank you, Suvi.

I get behind some serious horsepower.

OK, Gemma. I can't do gears.

Argh, ARGH...!

And find some peace and quiet crabbing on the quayside.

Just meditate, Brian.

Argh! I got a seagull.

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

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

Good-quality ingredient, good-quality chef

and people who actually like eating.

Well, Brian, here we are on a quayside just outside Orford,

on the beautiful Suffolk coastline.

And over there is Orford Ness,

and the sea used to flood right up to the castle over there,

so all this marshland has been drained and used for farming.

And there's acres of arable land round here.

Great meat.

Sutton Hoo has very famous poultry,

and, of course, look at the coastline - bags of fresh fish!

But there's a young lady chef who has a fantastic restaurant

that does really local produce

and makes a fantastic success of it.

This is such an interesting area with all these estuaries.

it's an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,

but I want to go to Woodbridge,

cos they've got a fantastic tide mill there.

Before we set off on a hike up the coast,

I think we should check out a farm

where they only sell their produce locally.

It would be good to get our hands on some.

Well, I brought you here to High House Farm.

It's a fruit farm, fantastic soft fruit at this time of year.

So, I'm sure we'll find just the fruit we need.

Piers and Suvi Pool took over the farm from his father

who'd been a Japanese prisoner of war.

A friend in the prison camp told him

stories of working in the Kent orchards.

Inspired by these stories, he started High House Farm,

which was eventually handed over

to Piers and Suvi in the year 2000.

-Hi, there.

-Hello, Janet. Hello, Brian.

-Hi, Piers, all right?

-Yes, thanks. And you?

-Good man, yeah.

-Shall we go up and look for some cherries?

-Perfect.

So, Piers, these cherries...

Were they planted by your parents?

No, the cherries were actually planted by us,

since Suvi and I came back here in 2000,

we've diversified even further.

So was there a reason why you diversified?

Was it hard dealing with supermarkets and stuff like that?

It was getting harder and harder to make ends meet

growing apples to supermarket.

So, we stopped doing that and we...

The big decision that we made

was to sell absolutely everything locally.

-Yeah.

-So, erm, we planted other crops such as these cherries.

And everything gets sold within a 12-mile radius

of the farm.

What fruit do you grow apart from cherries and apples?

Pretty well everything except for strawberries.

-Gooseberries are my favourite, and yours are quince, is it?

-Yeah.

-Shall we go and have a look at the gooseberries?

-Yes, please.

So, here we are at the gooseberries,

and here's my wife Suvi

who is expertly picking some.

-Hi, Suvi.

-Hi, Janet.

All right? No, don't take your glove off.

-Don't take your gloves off.

-Hiya.

It's a gooseberry picker's best armour, this.

Right, have you got a pair of gloves for me?

Er, yes, I have, actually.

-Look there's a spare pair over there.

-All right, OK.

Piers'll get them, or somebody.

So how do you judge when they're, when gooseberries are ripe?

Well, really, these are green gooseberries.

So you can't tell really by colour, so we basically go on size.

As you can see these have sized up quite nicely.

Right, yeah.

So these are pretty nice and ripe and, yeah, will be good.

So you don't taste them to see how sweet they are?

Good heavens, if you tasted these, Brian,

you'd have them coming out of your ears.

They're sour, they're sharp.

I know you're a Yorkshire lass.

-Yes, I am.

-Did you ever get call these goosegoggs when you were a kid?

We called them goosegoggs!

-I call them goosegoggs all the time!

-Thank goodness!

Enough of this reminiscing, Brian.

Brian, someone's pickin' here!

-Yeah, you're doing all the hard work.

-Do they take a lot of...

Very good technique, I think!

I've got a gooseberry bush in my garden at home,

and they went really out of fashion, didn't they?

I think people don't really know what to do with a gooseberry.

-Do you know... You might know this in Yorkshire, in Egton Bridge -

-Yep.

..up on the top they are - first of August every year,

they have a gooseberry competition,

-to see who can produce the biggest gooseberry.

-I didn't know that.

Well, I think Suvi might win it - some of these are very big!

No, no, no the winners are about 2.5 lbs.

Oh, well, they're obscene! That's stupid.

2.5 lbs gooseberry?!

I've heard everything now.

That seems to me like very uncharacteristic

Yorkshire exaggeration.

-Thank you, Suvi!

-Oh! What have I taken...

-I might sue you for that!

OK, girls, I think you've got enough there.

I'm going to actually cook some of these and make a nice dessert, so...

-Lovely! I look forward to it.

-Are you staying here or coming?

-I'm staying and talking to Suvi.

-Yeah, let's have a little chat.

Oh, there's some good ones, Janet.

You've missed a few there - they're beauties!

I do think these goosegoggs are absolutely at their best,

so I'm going to make a really simple summer dish.

Gooseberry fool with ginger biscuits.

Do you like a fool, Janet?

Luckily, I do, Brian,

and I love a ginger biscuit.

-These are made in Suffolk.

-Right.

-So they're local stuff.

So you're cutting your gooseberries in half before you cook them?

We cut them in half, I just think they cook nicer,

we want them to hold a bit of shape, but we don't want them...

You don't want them to explode.

In too-big lumps. No, exactly right. Okey-dokey, right.

Let's get this pan on here.

-Going to put those in.

-Yep.

With about four tablespoons of sugar.

OK, and you do need a good bit of sugar in this.

However, don't put too much in there.

You can correct it later, can't you?

You can. But look what we've found.

Elderflower cordial. Local stuff, it's really good.

It's got that lovely little citric flavour at the back.

So we're going to put that in there.

And once again you can always add a little bit more,

And just let it cook nicely away till it starts to fall.

I've got some here, look. The colour's changed,

but when I say fall, they started to lose their shape

-but they've still kept some of the shape.

-Yeah.

And if you taste these, these taste lovely.

The sugar and the elderflower is fantastic.

Half of them I've put through a blitzing machine.

So we take these over here...

I'm going to take about three of these biscuits

and I'm just going to break them up into chunks.

Not too big, but likewise, not too small.

They're going to soak up some of the juice,

but they're also just going to give up that bit of that ginger flavour.

We'll take these and just...

Don't put too much in here,

I just want flavour, and I also want a bit of texture.

So it's got that little bit of,

little bit of bite to it.

That's probably about right.

Going to make a couple of portions up here -

we take this,

put the mixture in the bottom.

Let's just put a little bit more in there -

lovely!

Now, you want to whip the cream.

Just a little bit of sugar helps it whip up.

Once again you can add a bit more, if you like.

But it does take a little while,

so what you need to do now is put some of the elderflower cordial in

and hopefully because of its acidity

it'll actually start to help us set up our cream.

-See, look, it's starting to thicken now.

-Yep.

-That's what we want

Just a wee bit more.

-Grand.

-Oh, I didn't know that.

Was that double or single cream,

-you started off with?

-Double cream.

I always use double cream - it's got twice the amount of fat in it,

-which is perfect.

-Course you do, Brian!

Well, I'm amazed you asked the question.

OK, now, this is half of the mixture we had here,

put through the blitz machine.

And I think, once again, the trick here,

treat it like an old-fashioned raspberry ripple,

don't have it completely a puree of gooseberries and cream.

Marbling!

Look at that - stripes!

They're not really stripes. I just don't want it, I want...

So you find hidden nuggets of flavour every now and then.

I think the technical term IS marbling.

Well, I bow to your superior knowledge.

Or larger, bigger vocabulary, possibly.

And that, as well. So, now...

Careful, Chef.

Don't put too much in.

I've got ginger biscuits here,

and they've been in the machine, OK.

Just quick - I love this -

they get really nice and fine.

All I want to do now,

is just pour them over the top

and now comes the really dangerous part.

These are elderflowers -

take a nice bit there,

I say dangerous, cos I'm going to pour this icing sugar over it,

-and it's going to land - most of it - on your sweater.

-Yep.

And that's dangerous for me, so I'm just going to go...

Oh, wind's blowing the other way now!

But just that little bit over there, lovely.

And sit that on top.

And there you have it.

A gooseberry fool with a hint of ginger.

Brilliant.

Can I ask Piers and Suvi to taste some?

Please, yeah.

Come on in! You grew them!

-You have that.

-Looks delicious.

Oh, thank you. That looks fantastic.

There's a spoon there. Right down to that lovely fruit there.

Right.

-Oh, that's delicious.

-I'm going to go for it now.

-That's a good man.

-I don't like...

-Oh, that's really good!

I don't like it to set too much.

Sometimes people over-whip the cream and the fruit gets...

-Fantastic, isn't it?!

-Can I have another bit?

-Really good!

Well, it pains me to say it, Brian, but you've done it again.

It's delicious.

I did love that gooseberry fool, Brian,

a real taste of British summers gone by.

I'm glad you said that, Janet,

because I'm going to take you to do something I did in my childhood.

Brian, as a child, growing up in West London,

I just went for tadpoles,

but you went crabbing.

I came to places like this and went crabbing, and look...

They're bound to have some stuff here, look at that.

Come on, we've got to go crabbing.

We have got to go crabbing.

If it's a competition, you know I'm going to win.

Let's have a competition.

I don't care about the expense, I'm having one, as well.

OK. Actually, I'm trading to pink, I feel it's luckier.

-OK, all right.

-Have you got some money?

-Yep.

Good. I thought royalty didn't have money?

Crabbing at the Suffolk seaside is a real local tradition.

In fact, just up the coast from here in Walberswick

they hold the British Open Crabbing Championship.

Did we enter?

Well, let's see how good you are first, Brian.

I don't want to be embarrassed.

Right, give me the bait. Come on.

-All right, here.

-Don't mess about.

You see - and this is local produce.

-Local bacon.

-Yeah, local cheap bacon, right.

I tell you what, Brian, I don't want to play unfair rules,

but I've just been speaking to the lady that runs the ferry.

-Right.

-And she's given me that.

-It's a hair net.

-It's my net.

Oh, for goodness' sake!

Yes, look, that's the professionals!

Dah, dah, dah...!

That's it.

Just meditate, Brian.

Be at one with nature.

Argh! I've got a seagull!

Get away!

BRIAN LAUGHS

JANET RATTLES BUCKET

He's after your bacon! No! He's got my bacon! Oi!

"Be at one with nature"? "Meditate"?

HE CHUCKLES

I've eaten seagull.

-Have you?

-In New Zealand - mutton-bird.

You might be having one of them in a minute, I tell ya.

Oh, they taste disgusting!

Really?

Yeah, very, very salty. Thick layer of fat, funnily enough.

ARGH! NO!

JANET LAUGHS RAUCOUSLY AND HELPLESSLY

I've been out-gulled!

I cannot believe that.

I don't think Brian and I will be winning

ANY crabbing competitions this year.

I could do with a cup of tea.

So could I. Look, can you see that riverside tearoom?

Isn't it looking very, very attractive?

Dear me, it does look good, don't it, eh?

Right, I'm knocking it on the head.

Any luck with the crabs?

No, no luck, whatsoever.

It's a fix. They don't exist.

No? Thank you.

Not much luck with the crabs, but I'm hoping

we might have more success locating

one of the UK's rarest animals.

Now, Brian, I brought you here

because of this thing I feel very, very strongly about.

Pandas get loads and loads of publicity, and they're great,

but here in Suffolk they've got a wonderful creature

that's even rarer than a panda,

and doesn't get half the publicity.

Philip Ryder-Davies is the chairman of the trust

that looks after the 150 Suffolk punch horses left in the world.

Brian, look -

the rarest animals in Britain.

Why is this horse so very rare?

Well, there's this concept in people's minds

that if we came back, you know, 80 years ago,

every farm all round here would be covered in Suffolk horses.

Well, they weren't,

because, erm, these were actually quite expensive.

So, this was an area of very big estates and very big farms,

and they were the ones who had Suffolks on the whole,

because the smaller farmers and tenant farmers couldn't afford them.

And Philip, how far back can you trace the breed?

Now this breed has the longest written pedigree of any breed of horse anywhere in an unbroken line.

So we can trace all of these back

to a horse called Crisps Horse of Ufford,

who was foaled in 1768 in the village near here.

And what is really bizarre about this place is that

Suffolk horses have been bred on this farm

without stopping for 250 years.

Now there's no other breed of domestic animal anywhere

with anything like that history as a single breeding unit.

Are they really intelligent horses?

They are, but the temperament is also very good.

Now when you say that, of course, they are big horses, and so

while their temperament essentially is very good,

you do need to make sure they understand who's the boss,

because if they become the boss, you've got a bit of a problem.

Sounds familiar, Brian!

So, Phillip, how confident are you

that the breed is actually now safe? Or, in fact, is it?

Erm, I'm not confident,

and it isn't really safe because of the low numbers,

so it is very difficult to keep this going,

but we have been here since 2002, so and we're still here.

Now, I know I can't ride one of these animals

but is there a chance of some form of lift?

Well, we have purpose-built horse buses

and if you'd like to ride on one, we'd be absolutely delighted.

-Right, show me the way.

-Suffolk punch horses

are working animals by nature, so relish any task.

Would you like to have a try at driving?

-Erm...

-No, she wouldn't!

OK, Gemma, I can't do gears.

All right.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-All right, then, boys!

Together now! Go on. Together!

-Argh!

-All right. Steady...steady, steady...!

Steady, steady...

It's going too fast!

Steady... Ste-e-eady...!

Good.

No, this is SO difficult!

Oh, my goodness.

Left rein a bit.

That's it. Nice and ste-e-eady, boys.

Good boys.

Go on. Good lads.

Good lads.

Go up, go up, go up.

No, I think, Gemma, let me hand over to you.

No, I think I did pretty well.

-You did very well.

-They are very heavy,

I know it sounds obvious, but they just keep moving the whole time.

A-A-A-And...wa-a-a-alk...!

Well done, well done,

Well done, Janet, eh?

Well done, Gemma.

Thank you so much.

-You're very welcome.

-I'm very impressed by that.

Located just outside Woodbridge is a great example

of how far we've come as a country of food lovers.

Chef Madalene Bonvini-Hamel

runs The British Larder with her partner, Ross Pike.

And it's celebrated for its imaginative cooking

and use of local ingredients.

-Hi, Brian. How are you today?

-Very good and yourself?

I'm very good, thank you.

Looks fantastically impressive! What'll you cook for us?

I'm going to do a pork-tasting platter.

And the bit I'm going to cook for you today is the Scotch egg.

Fantastic, so crack on, what do you do first?

Cooked smoked ham hock.

Next, I'm going to add a bit of sausage meat.

-The sausage meat is going to make the glue.

-Yeah.

And the smoked ham hock is where all the flavour is.

I'm going to put a bit of fresh herbs,

I get my parsley from Thorpeness Leaves.

That is Thorpeness, which is about ten, 12 miles away from here.

It's just fantastic and beautiful

and you can't get any fresher, trust me.

Then a little bit of horseradish - just a bit of creamed horseradish.

Then, next, I'm going to put in my grain mustard.

It's quite a good helping of grain mustard,

cos I quite like that, as well.

And in here I've got a bit of shallot confit,

So it's just shallots which I've chopped down

and cooked a little bit in Gressingham duck fat.

Do you need to give that a good kneading? You're working it well.

A really good mixing,

just to make sure everything sticks together.

I'm just now going to make them into 100g balls.

We cooked the eggs for six minutes and 30 seconds.

Boiled them and put them in ice water to refresh them.

Next, I need to get my meat ready in my hand.

-Yep.

-And I'm just patting it out really nice and flat

and even as possible.

So, my trick is to first roll the egg

in a little bit of seasoned flour.

So that it doesn't slip around.

-So then I'm going to put that in the middle.

-Yeah.

I'm just going to work it and work it and work it,

and then it's going to all come together.

And you can see how, even though there's coarse bits of meat,

I know, for a fact, there's enough meat on the outside

that's going to fit around my little egg...and look at that.

Right, so my Scotch egg is ready now to be panned.

I'm just going to put it in a little bit of flour,

again a seasoned flour,

just to make sure that the egg wash is going to stick.

And then next bit is going into my egg wash,

and then once that's coated in the egg,

I'm then going to put it in my breadcrumbs.

-And it is all done.

-Yeah.

-And as you can see it's all beautifully covered.

-Yeah.

And ready to go in the deep-fat fryer.

160 degrees...

-Two minutes.

-PAN SIZZLES

Right, the egg is ready now to go into the oven

-for a further five minutes.

-Yeah.

I'm going to put my platter together,

and I'm going to cut a piece of my pork pie.

-It's just going to sit on there.

-That looks lovely.

So, in here, I've got a little bit of pork rillettes.

Again, it's made of leftover bits of cooked pork,

which is just a pate. It's quite a coarse pate

and it's mixed with a little bit of cornichon,

or gherkins.

-This is a little bit of celeriac remoulade...

-Yeah.

..which is like a coleslaw

but, again, a little bit of grain mustard.

In here, I've got our famous piccalilli

and our customers absolutely love it.

Right, so that is that bit there.

Then I've got a little frisee salad with croutons

and then crispy bacon.

It's just to give us a tiny bit of green and freshness.

And the next bit I need to put on is my crackling.

Here I've got two different kinds of crackling.

This one is the pig skin which we've boiled,

dehydrated for 12 hours, and then we have just fried them,

so they look like prawn crackers, basically.

That's that bit and this is the tradition, this is the really

good stuff because all got the bits of fatty bits in there, as well.

-And a bit of salt on top, as well.

-Oh, must have.

So, the last, but not least, is going to be my Scotch egg.

So I'm just going to cut this in half

and, in theory, I should have a really lovely runny yolk and...

-Oh.

-Oh, look at that.

-Look at that, perfect.

And now I'm just going to season it, it must have a tiny bit of salt

-and pepper.

-Yeah.

And this is the piece de resistance, as we say,

-to go on our platter.

-And they get a whole egg?

They get a whole egg and that's why it's absolutely

perfect for sharing and also...

Or just for one person to enjoy.

So, there we are, this is my pork tasting platter fit for a king.

I'm wondering if it's fit for Janet?

-Hello, Janet, how are you today?

-Fine thanks, Maddy.

Excellent. Well, this is the Dingley Dell pork tasting platter, do enjoy.

-Thank you.

-Thanks very much.

Ah, I'm looking at this and I'm thinking,

if only every rubbishy pub in England could see that.

-Yeah.

-It's inspirational.

Right, I'm going to dig in.

I'm going to take a Scotch... Oh...

-See, that's lovely and runny, that yolk.

-Oh, yeah.

Ham hock meat and sausage meat.

Well, it's got to get ten out of ten for presentation.

-Oh, is this pork crackling?

-Yeah.

There's two kinds of pork crackling.

CRACKLING CRUNCHES

What a lovely noise, that noise already sounds appetising.

It's a great sharing plate.

I just think that that's like a textbook,

perfect pub lunch, isn't it?

-Ten out of ten.

-You could have lunch with quite a difficult person.

Why are you looking at me when you say that? Excuse me.

Well, it's a dish that means you can have a pleasant conversation

with someone whilst eating a very, very good lunch.

Exactly.

We're still on the hunt for a key ingredient for our celebratory cook.

And Suffolk is home to some of Britain's finest chickens,

so we've come to meet Belinda Nash on her farm at Sutton Hoo.

I'm ready for the moon landing.

This is the organic field.

So, no sprays.

-That's why we're wearing all this stuff.

-Yeah.

And their food is obviously organic.

So how long do you keep the chickens?

12 weeks, or up to 12 weeks.

A normal free-range chicken is eight weeks, but our Sutton Hoo

free-range, we grow up to 12 weeks, well between ten and 12.

What difference does it make to the flavour of the chicken?

I think it makes all the difference, actually.

-But it's a more dense meat, is it not?

-That's right.

-Because it's more mature.

-More mature and grown slowly.

Janet, I think these chickens every morning they get strawed,

so do you want to have a go?

-What does that involve?

-That involves, er...

-Straw!

-A fork, shake it about.

Auntie Janet's here!

Look! New mattress.

I don't think I'm bonding with these birds.

Argh!

-How are you getting on, Janet? Are you...?

-Oh, not very well.

Look, new straw.

Nice clean sheets.

Oh, stop running away!

-All right, Brian?

-Yeah.

I don't think I'm going to get a degree in animal husbandry.

..Get off my straw!

-No, you're not supposed to say that.

-Chickens standing on my straw!

The birds roost in mobile homes, designed to be rolled over

the pasture, letting the chickens move around as freely as possible.

They are totally free-range and all feeding is by hand with

additional nutrients foraged from the surrounding grass.

So, I have to say they look really contented for me and I love

the shape of them. If I could have a few chickens so

I could do a celebration meal, I've got some great ideas, is that OK?

-Fantastic, Brian.

-All I need now is an old bird.

Janet! We're off.

Don't leave that there... Leave that fork there, whatever you do.

This fork might be in contact with your middle area.

After all that farm work, I'm really looking forward

to visiting one of Suffolk's most interesting pieces

of architectural history.

I've come to Woodbridge, where there's been a water mill on this

site for 800 years.

Powered only by the incoming and outgoing tides,

it's been restored by Nigel Barrett and the Woodbridge Tide Mill Trust.

It's now one of only two working tide mills in the country.

Well, Nigel, this is a very impressive building,

how old is it? And this is the wheel?

And it's a very impressive wheel.

-18 foot or so diameter and...

-18 foot in diameter.

Got about four metric tonnes in weight.

We built that when we did the restoration in 2011.

So, tell me how the wheel powers the mill?

Well, what happens is, as the tide comes in, it fills the pond.

-So, that's your reservoir of water.

-That's your tank.

The tide's got to go out, as it is now.

He then opens the sluice gate, water pours out,

the water falls onto the wheel,

wheel turns, everything turns.

When the mill was built, which is what?

-1793.

-So, back in 1793, when they had a huge reservoir of water.

-Yeah.

-How many hours a day would this mill be...

About five hours.

It isn't the amount of water that's the limiting factor,

-it's the water in the river.

-Yeah.

-As the tide comes back in...

-It stops it.

That's right, so it's about two and half hours either side of low tide.

Did people bring their corn from all around here to this mill to be ground?

Yeah, generally the miller would provide a service.

You bring your sacks of grain, he'd mill it for you,

you'd take your flour away.

Sometimes he'd obviously buy in some for himself

but it was a mixture.

It's not quite the same operation as Rank Hovis McDougall today.

-Shall we go and have a look at the grinding mechanism?

-Yeah, why not.

-I'm dying to see it.

We're coming up onto the crown floor now, Janet.

The, erm...

This is what you might call the middling floor.

There's two floors up there, very narrow, very dangerous,

they're called the grain floors.

Erm, but this is where you've got what you might call

the auxiliary machinery,

because when the whole thing's turning that crown wheel,

because it looks like a crown, I suppose,

turns, which engages with another one there,

and it can operate things like the sack hoist, the flour dresser.

But, over here we've got the chute from a grain bin,

-so the grain will feed down to the hopper...

-Yes.

..that will feed the stones on the floor below.

And how many people would work in the mill?

Once it's set up and running, one person can manage it.

He's got to do a lot of running up and down, but he can do it.

-If I was running this mill, my life would be completely dictated by the tides.

-Correct.

-So I wouldn't have any choice, I would just work...

-Yes.

-..when the water was out.

-Yes, yes.

So, Nigel, can I see where the stones actually grind the corn?

Yeah, we've now got to go down one more flight of stairs.

That's it.

So here we are on the stone floor.

You saw the chute we had upstairs,

the grain will come down that chute into this...

..pouring into the hopper

and then there's a small gate under there.

So, essentially, that is the process, it's very simple.

The grain goes in there, there's two sets of stones,

one is a bedstone - fixed.

And the other one's what?

Is a runner, which goes round

and the grain will go in concentric circles.

By the time it gets to the edge,

if you've done your work properly, it's flour.

It falls out, down the chute and collected in the floor below.

Here we are in what you might call the engine room of the operation.

It's from here he can control everything.

Once he's set up he can just let it run.

-So...

-And this is where the flour comes out -

the healthiest flour you can buy, because, unlike modern roller mills

where a lot of the goodness is extracted,

everything's in there.

-So the husks of the corn...

-Everything's in there.

-..are just ground down.

-Ground, ground down.

But in modern mills they strip it off.

They do, and they take the germ out, as well,

so all the nutrients, and the vitamins, are stripped out.

So that, in fact, they have to add back some nutrients by law.

So this is the ultimate healthy flour.

Yes, vitamins in a loaf.

Well, Nigel, thanks so much,

will you come along to our celebration cook later?

-Oh, definitely. Oh, yes.

-All right, see you there.

-Thank you.

I'm all set to cook a dish that celebrates Suffolk.

We've invited a few of the locals we've met along the way

to give us their verdict.

And I'm making a roast Sutton Hoo chicken crown

stuffed with tomatoes and spring onions,

served with a tide mill pancake stack

of roast chicken leg with herbs.

So we've got this fantastic chicken.

I'm going to cook it as a crown,

that's without the legs. It's a lot easier to do,

but it's a great idea to buy a chicken whole,

cos it's far more economical, OK?

I take the legs off here first. All we do is just cut that skin,

and you turn it upside down and you just twist it.

And that bone shows itself. Cut round the bone.

Now, we don't need that right now.

I'm going to put that away over there.

And the same goes this side here, just cut through the skin.

It's a simple technique, you need to practise it,

but it is a very simple technique.

Just twist it there, OK?

I think of all the people I don't like, while I'm doing that.

It only takes two minutes, not two hours.

-OK, so I'm going to take off...

-Take the wings off.

Take the wings off. We don't need those in this,

-so you can put those over there.

-Thanks.

-Keep those for stock.

I'm going to take the back of this off.

We'll use that for stock as well.

So this is the bit I want, not that bit, but this bit here.

I've got it standing up,

I've got the two breasts, nice size here,

I've got those little wing tips, and what I need to do now

is I just need to very carefully loosen the skin.

Just get that finger to make that little pocket there.

OK, so into that pocket, I'm going to put some shredded spring onions.

Just shred them nicely.

I'm just going to sweat them off in a wee bit of butter.

And all I'm going to do now is just put this into my frying pan.

Now, it will take a couple of minutes to soften it,

-so I've got some ready over here, OK?

-I'm just getting rid of a wasp.

-Where are you going now?

-I've got a wasp I'm getting rid of.

-OK, right.

-Just carry on.

Whilst you're doing that,

I've got some lovely heritage tomatoes here.

I'm just going to take the seeds out.

Nicely cut that into a dice.

Gives us colour, texture and flavour.

We'll take another one of these here as well,

and we'll cut the seeds out of that, see a different colour.

I just think the colours make this thing really nice and attractive.

I always take the skins off and I know you don't agree with that.

No, but I don't really see the point in it, if I'm honest with you,

unless, of course, you're extremely posh,

-so I can understand why you do it.

-I am posh, and I know that the body does not digest tomato skins,

-but, you know...

-OK... So, we put those in there.

Curly parsley - lovely smell.

That goes in there. A bit of salt and pepper.

And then we give it a bit of a stir.

So, that's our stuffing.

Now, we go back to our little fellow over here.

We've made this little pocket.

Just put that in there. Push it down as far as you go.

Don't be too greedy, don't put too much in there.

That'll hopefully just melt down there.

We've got the breast shape already, got it nice and smooth.

-Oh, look.

-Onto a roasting tray.

I'm going to put some rapeseed oil on there, just a wee bit...

And this is quite a big chicken, is this.

It'll take about 35 minutes, I suspect.

Want to cook it through to the bone, make sure it's nicely cooked,

but don't over cook it.

We really don't want to try and dry the bird out.

So that goes in the oven over here.

Now, I want something to serve with this.

I'm going to take this wonderful wholemeal flour

that we've got from your mill, what you went to visit...

Yeah, I helped to grind that.

..with a lovely Burford brown egg, which is a local egg,

this is a local egg producer from round here.

Give that a stir...

and then milk in there to make a pancake mixture.

Give it a stir.

How do you know the right consistency?

Well, it's sort of professionalism, of course,

and lots of years of experience.

Yeah, but for the amateur pancake maker...

In that case, I'm speaking directly to you now.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Like single cream.

So thicker than milk, not as thick as double cream.

Bit like emulsion paint.

It depends which colour it is.

There you go. OK, look.

Beat that in. I think we can always add a bit more to that.

-That's just about there, OK?

-Yeah, OK.

So, I'm going to leave that there

and I'm going to just take a bit of chopped parsley.

Tarragon and chervil, I've got here.

The reason I'm doing this is because I've actually got

a couple of legs that have been pre-cooked

and I really want to make like a lasagne,

-a little tiered thing, just to go with our chicken.

-OK.

These go in here.

A little bit of melted butter, little bit of shine, bit of flavour.

OK, so now we go over here.

It looks to me like our oil's getting nice and warm,

and then we're going to put a nice bit of our pancake batter in there.

All we do is just swirl it around the pan

till we actually get it to cover nicely.

So, it's now starting to be cooked enough,

it's starting to get holes in there, which is lovely, that's what I want.

I'm going to flip it over.

That's lovely and good, so I'm going to lift that off now.

I'm happy with that.

I'm going to take it over here.

So, I'm going to use these now to cut out mini pancakes.

Oh, I see. Make one big one and you turn it into little ones.

Yeah, that size is the size we're looking for.

I need four per bit...

I've got five there, that's lovely.

But now, suddenly, you had a scruffy one, you've got five...

-Perfect ones.

-..nice little ones.

And I've got these roast chicken legs.

They take a bit longer. That's why I like to cook the crown separately.

This is the juice that's come out, and the jelly.

And it's so... Do not throw that away.

We're going to use that in a minute.

Take the skin off,

and we just want really nice bits of meat off the bone.

And it's a good...

You have to be a bit careful doing this, cos it's very tasty, is this.

The thigh meat... I don't know if you agree with me, Belinda...

Thigh meat is usually very good meat on these chickens.

-Now, you can chop this up or shred this.

-Shred it. Yeah.

-I think shredding it actually works nicely.

-Yeah.

So, you've got chunks, but you don't want it to be too big,

so we're just going to shred this up a little bit.

As a chef, I shred it a bit with a knife,

in long thin bits.

You can use your fingers. It's fine.

So, we take the rest of this...

I'm going to take a little bit of the mixture out,

cos I'm going to use that just for the final dressing, OK?

We put that over there and then we're just going to mix this in here.

Lovely. Just to make sure it doesn't stick,

let's just grease the inside there.

Same with this one.

Just to make sure we're not embarrassed at the end of the day.

Right, now...

That goes in the bottom there, that goes in the bottom there,

so just make sure you don't put too much mixture in there.

So that goes in. That's one, and this one goes in there.

Right, so, I've got three layers there already

and this is my fourth layer.

That's lovely. That's a pancake on top, pancake on the bottom.

Now, the nice thing about this is you can make this in advance.

So, this goes onto a tray.

Stick this in the oven with our chicken. In this goes.

OK, so about 35 minutes it's taken.

And then our stack.

Right, so we take this out.

It's good, if you can, to let it rest.

I'm just going to take this jelly, this really good flavour here,

just to go in there and warm up.

The pan looks nice and hot. In you go.

We'll leave that over there.

Right, so, the trick is to take it firstly off the bone.

Through there.

And it should be nice and moist.

And leave just a wee bit of bone on there.

I don't want it all off there.

There we go. So that's one breast.

We cut it just through there, so that's two portions there.

-Massive.

-That can go...

It's lovely and moist.

So we'll just put those in there, like that.

Then we'll take this. Make sure it's not too hot.

Now, this is the only bit where I do panic when you're here.

All right, shall I look the other way?

-All right, I'll look the other way.

-Please.

-Have you done it?

-Yeah, it's OK, it's fine. What do you think of that?

-Ah!

And that's the leg meat, so it looks good.

Push that...

-If it falls over now you're looking, we'll know why it is.

-OK.

And all we need now is to just take this over here...

Just going to pour that on top to give it that little bit of colour...

at the last minute.

And I think there's some chervil in here. There it is.

So, there you have it, Duchess.

A roast crown of Sutton Hoo chicken, stuffed with tomatoes, spring onions.

But not only that - you've got a wonderful pancake stack

made with your wholemeal flour from the mill, filled with its leg.

-What do you think to that?

-Taste of Suffolk.

-Right, Brian.

-Yes, dear.

-I've been helpful.

-Right...

-I think I deserve a taste.

-OK.

I'm fascinated that you're making a pancake with wholemeal flour.

That's what you gave me.

-I know, Brian, but I've never made a pancake with wholemeal flour.

-I couldn't do anything else, could I?

This dish will all centre... The strength of it will all centre,

-upon YOUR flour that YOU ground.

-It's good. Top chicken.

Thank goodness for that, eh?

-Very good.

-Excellent. Right, what about...

You pulled it off. Right, now, I've got to invite our guests.

Suvi, Maddy, come and have some, I want your opinion.

-All right.

-Oh, that looks delicious. There we go, Suvi.

-Thank you.

-Maddy.

-Thank you very much.

-Lovely.

Yum.

Very tasty.

That's really nice.

I'll take that as a yes, then.

Good-quality ingredients, a good-quality chef,

and people who actually like eating.

Fantastic, yep, really good.

You've done our chicken proud, Brian, this is delicious. Thank you.

I'm so pleased you like it, young lady.

Well, what a trip to Suffolk.

I loved crabbing.

Argh! I've got a seagull!

I liked driving the Suffolk punch horses.

You tried to get me to bond with chickens. Didn't entirely work.

Oh, stop running away!

And I have to say, I thought those gooseberries at High House Farm were just fantastic.

And, of course, Maddy - what a lovely lady she is,

and she cooks all British produce.

Yeah, the best version of a Scotch egg I've ever eaten.

Another success, gal.

-Cheers.

-Cheers, my love.