Oxfordshire 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.

Today, our culinary and cultural voyage of discovery brings us

to Oxfordshire.

Right in the heart of Britain, the county's not only blessed

with natural beauty but also a rich heritage.

Oxfordshire is sometimes referred to as "the writer's county".

Its many gifted scholars include Lewis Carroll and T S Elliott.

There's plenty of fresh produce to be found,

including a fair few asparagus farms.

I have to say, I think I've got the hang of this.

-Am I doing all right?

-I wouldn't say you're going to be earning that much on piecework

-but...

-Is it on piecework?

-No, it's not.

-Oh.

And what better way to get into the swing of all things local

than with a round of the traditional Oxfordshire pub game, Aunt Sally.

-Oh!

-I think I had more nearer than him!

-No, no, no.

-Turn it, tu...

-No, no, no!

-No, no, Brian, Brian, Brian.

-Brian, defer to the higher power.

-You buy the beer.

And our celebratory dish using the flavours of the region gets

Janet all fired up.

We are working well together.

-I think we're just about there, OK.

-Ah!

LAUGHTER

Brian, here we are in central Oxford in the historic botanic garden -

it's the oldest one in England.

It's a beautiful place

but we are in a part of the world that's got rich, fertile soil, great

food producers and it is the middle of the asparagus season right now.

I love asparagus but also, not far from here,

is Broughton Castle which played a really important part in the

Civil War. It was the centre of all sorts of all sorts of plotting

and it's got fabulous battlements so I've got to go and see that.

And there's also a wonderful estate round here where they're actually

growing cattle to produce rose beef and it's brilliant, got to see it.

Before we go there, can I drag you off to see the vegetable

gardens here? They've got four vegetable plots. They're bang

up-to-date - they're growing produce for the local food bank.

-So, come and have a look.

-OK.

Oxford's botanic garden is the perfect starting

point on our quest to discover a flavour of the region.

It certainly is, Brian.

Founded in 1621,

these gardens contain around 8,000 different plant species.

And botanist Ness Newman is giving us a tour.

Brian and I want to see the vegetables, because he's mad keen

-about cooking with local produce.

-Excellent.

What's the story behind these vegetable plots?

The main purpose of them is for education

and to teach about reducing pollution and the impact

that we have on the environment as well as sustainability.

Now, these vegetable plots have a long and distinguished history, don't they?

-But didn't they start during the Second World War?

-They did.

Um, this area of the garden was used during the Second World War

for Christchurch College's allotment so they could feed them.

-Dig for Victory.

-Dig for Victory, exactly.

Do you remember that, Brian?

I'm not quite that old, young lady.

So we've got four veg plots here.

This is the legume section of the beds.

Pea shoots have become very fashionable these days.

-Tasty.

-In olden times, you would throw 'em away and now they've suddenly realised how good it is

-and how pretty they look on a plate.

-Exactly.

And that's ideal for us,

cos obviously um, at the start of the season, we want things

that look good for the visitors, as well as providing food.

I notice that you've netted your brassicas.

Yes, it's to keep the er,

butterflies and also the pigeons out,

cos they'll just eat everything, if they get the opportunity.

A fabulous selection of lettuces, beetroot. You've got your spinach.

-They're all done on...

-Oak leaf lettuce - isn't that pretty?

Lovely, isn't it eh? It's a nice colour, as well, eh?

-I'm very impressed with these onions.

-Oh, thank you.

They're all grown from seed, throughout the season they get

bigger until they look like a giant oniony hedgehog. It's brilliant.

-You don't have any asparagus growing for us?

-We don't, I'm afraid, Brian.

I'm desperate to see asparagus growing, so I'm going to leave you to sort out and I'll speak to you later.

-Bye.

-See you soon, Duchess. Thank you.

Right, I could stay here all day and just marvel at vegetables

but let's have a look at the rest of the garden.

The gardens are spread over four and a half acres

and contain one of the most diverse collection of plants in the world.

The 17th century stone work in the walled garden

is particularly special.

So who founded the garden?

In 1621, Sir Henry Danvers, who was the Earl of Danby,

gave £5,000 for the creation of a physic garden, which is

a garden for medical research, for growing plants for the students.

This money was used very usefully.

They spent the majority of it on our fabulous walls.

-Well, they are impressive.

-They are very impressive.

And a very ornate arch which we'll have a look at in a minute.

What money was left over for plants, then?

None! For the first seven years, the first curator, Bobart,

he worked without being paid, they forgot to pay him.

And he basically sold produce that he'd grown in the garden in

order to make ends meet and to get a bit of cash to put some plants in.

So in a way, it's come full circle.

Exactly.

Because you're still growing vegetables today, even though you give them away.

Yeah, exactly that. So, very nice.

The garden's Danby Gateway, designed in 1633, is one of the earliest

structures in Oxford to be built in the classical Baroque style.

So as you can see, this is where a lot of the money went.

And above it, there is the ethos of the garden, which is now

"promoting learning and glorifying nature".

-It's fantastic, isn't it?

-Yeah, beautiful.

Oxfordshire's fertile land means there's a large number

of small farms producing a great variety of fruit and vegetables.

Something that grows particularly well in this region is asparagus.

And I'm meeting farm manager Lizzie Colegrave to try and taste some.

-Hello! Oh, hi.

-Hi.

-You must be Lizzie.

-I am, nice to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you, Brian Turner.

I've heard so much about Wykham Park Asparagus Farm,

what's the chance of looking at the fields?

-Definitely, let's go and have a look.

-Please.

The farm is currently being run by the fifth

generation of Lizzie's family

and covers 700 acres of mixed arable crops, livestock and vegetables.

So these are your main asparagus growing fields.

Yes, this is our main area, yeah.

-You're looking at about 30 acres here.

-Do you call them fruit or are they vegetables?

-Vegetable, yeah, they're a member of the lily family, actually.

-Of course.

How quickly do they actually start producing?

-We planted a one-year-old crown.

-Mm.

And then we will take a very light pick off it

in its first year. By year three, you get a nearly full yield.

And how long does one asparagus plant last?

About...somewhere between about 12 and 15 years.

That's actually quite a good yield. So, can we have a go at picking? I'd love to have a try.

Yes, let's. Can we see what you're made of?

Oh, thank you.

-So there we go.

-OK, fine. Show me how you do it.

Fine, OK, there is.

You want to just, you want to pick anything that's just a bit

longer than your knife and you want to literally just pick it

just below the soil like that and cut downwards.

-So that's not quite big enough or is that?

-Not quite.

-OK, but that is.

-Yeah.

-And I just cut down there.

-Yeah.

-Like that. Then hold it in the hand, yeah.

-Yeah.

-The next one.

And then you take the next one.

Well, at this pace, I don't think Lizzie will be offering me

a job any time soon.

I think I'll leave the picking to the professionals.

And do the people have to cut out at speed, is that the trick?

Yes, so normally they'd be walking behind a tractor

and it covers about eight rows at a time.

And how much would you pick in a day?

We'd pick about 200 crates which would be over 200 kilos.

That's the best bunch of asparagus I think I've ever seen.

What happens to this next?

So, well, if you want to, we can go back down to our pack house

-so you can see it being washed and graded.

-Perfect.

-So this is where it all takes place.

-This is where it happens.

-Fantastic.

-So while you're here, we may as well put you to work.

-Fantastic, OK.

-Right.

-So explain to me what's happening here.

-The asparagus we picked earlier has come straight from the field

-and we basically are washing it and grading it, so we're cutting off the woody bits.

-OK.

It's being washed and then it gets graded into sizes and off it goes.

And this has actually just literally been cut.

-This is literally straight out of the field.

-And come down from the field?

-Yeah, so it's about...

-been picked about an hour.

-Fantastic. OK, let's go.

-Everything's done by hand?

-Yeah, everything is done by hand.

So from when you pick it, to when you grade it, to

when you wash it, to bundling it and putting it out in the shop for sale.

Have you run out of er, asparagus there?

-Obviously I'm quicker than you are.

-Well, I've still got a box.

Yes, no, I've noticed that, I've noticed that.

I have to say, I think I've got the hang of this.

Am I doing all right?

-Is that looking OK?

-Oh, ish.

-Have I sort of got it right?

Ish is the best we're going to get, eh?

-Ish is, I wouldn't say you're going to be earning that much on piecework.

-Is it on piecework?

No, it's not. For a new boy, you're all right.

You're very kind. I would love to taste it.

-Shall we go and try some?

-So can I do that? OK.

-Yeah.

-After you, I'll follow you.

-That looks fabulous, eh?

-So this is it.

-So what have we got?

So, we've got a salmon and asparagus quiche, pork and asparagus

burgers, asparagus brioche and then to follow up with a lamb Argenteuil.

-That is lovely, that is.

-Mm.

-And there's a nice little bit of crunch to the asparagus.

It's got a lovely colour. And this?

This is the lamb Argenteuil.

-It's lamb braised with some onions...

-Yeah.

-..and you make asparagus puree at the beginning.

-Right.

And then you add the asparagus tips at the end.

Did you make that?

I think it's a really clever idea to find different ways to use asparagus.

So if I may, I'd like to show you a dish that I think will go

perfectly with any of these dishes.

And if I can just have a look round the store next door,

cos there's loads of stuff I'd like to use. Simple dish - I'm sure you'll love it. Is that OK?

-Yes, definitely.

-Thank you very much.

It's been a great day so far. I've seen so many things and I've learnt so much about asparagus.

What I'd like to do is a really simple salad.

Asparagus, radishes and then lots of herby dressing.

It makes a lovely first course.

So I've got some boiling salted water on.

So whilst that's happening, we're going to make the dressing very quickly.

I've got some mustard in there.

And lemon - there's about a tablespoonful I think there.

Some olive oil.

Get that in there.

And I'm going to do the same with a bit of groundnut oil.

Now I've got this fast boil coming.

I'm going to lift that out and straight into the iced water.

What it's done, it's managed to heighten the colour a little bit.

I'm just going to cut the tips, which is what I really want.

So we cut this into pieces,

and these pieces we're going to put into this bowl here.

Purely and simply, it soaks up the dressing

and just gets that lovely flavour.

-So just have a taste of that.

-OK.

That asparagus has got a lovely sweetness to it.

You can tell it's young asparagus, can you not?

Mm. Delicious.

It is wonderful.

So I go on to the radishes and just cut them into little batons.

-And mix that together, plenty of it.

-OK.

And you give that a stir.

Just look at that. I just think that contrasting colour is just

so pretty.

I'm going to put a bit of salt and pepper in there now.

I've got chives, chervil, dill I think, a bit of parsley,

a bit of tarragon, just use what herbs you can get hold of.

As much as I need.

That is looking great.

Pile it on top.

Don't forget the most important bit - these wonderful spears.

The rest of the dressing there - just cascade on there.

And I hope you like it.

-There's your asparagus and radish salad.

-I can't wait to try.

-Please - after you, young lady.

-Thank you.

-It's just had time to marinade well together.

-Mm.

-What do you think?

-Mm.

Happy?

It is delicious. I love the herbs, it's fantastic, so fresh.

That's good.

My colleague, Janet, loves asparagus. Could I please take some asparagus with me for her?

-Of course you can.

-You are so kind. Thank you very much.

-As much as you'd like.

-You're so kind.

I can't wait to try it, Brian.

But first, I want to learn more about Oxfordshire's history.

The spectacular 12th-century Broughton Castle has been

used as a location for many films, including The Madness Of King George and Shakespeare In Love

and it's still a family home.

I'd love to have a look round.

Fortunately the current owner, Martin Fiennes,

has agreed to give me a guided tour.

-Hi, Janet.

-Martin, hello.

-Nice to see you.

Now we're going to start off by going up the gatehouse.

Fabulous. What a house. Have you got a spare bedroom?

Er, er, we've got a couple.

So there might even be room for Brian, then.

The view from the 12-metre-high gatehouse helps explain

Broughton Castle's long history which dates back to medieval times.

Of course, the castle bit's a bit of a cheat, cos it's

not a castle - it's a fortified manor house. It's two houses.

It's a 1300 medieval house with a 1550 wraparound.

But Sir Thomas Wykeham, William of Wykeham's nephew,

when he was living here, he wanted to call it a castle.

-And in order to do so, you had to have a moat.

-Yes.

-So you've got the moat.

You had to have a certain length of crenellation

and you needed a gatehouse.

And that ticked the boxes that let you call it a castle.

So it's called a castle but really, it's a posh house with battlements.

Exactly. Let's go and have a look. We'll go inside.

The original medieval manor house has been embellished

and redecorated many times in its long history.

OK, so now we're coming into the Great Hall.

Wow! What a room.

Rather like a lot of this house, it's all a mishmash.

-So we've got a 1970 floor.

-What about the windows?

-Windows are more like 1550, presumably shutters before.

-Yes.

And then glass in the late 14th, early 15th century.

-What about the plasterwork?

-The plasterwork, 1760.

Through here you can see the entrances to the old kitchens over there.

Martin is a direct descendant of previous owner William Say,

who opposed Charles I and used Broughton as a secret meeting

place to plot against the King.

The hero of all the generations.

He played a really important part on the national stage in the run-up

-to the English Civil War.

-Yes.

-So we're talking early 1600s now.

-We're talking 1620s,

1630s and then through to the start of the Civil War in 1642.

And he was one of the half dozen leaders of the Parliamentarian opposition.

So would you describe William as a royalist?

Although he was opposed to the King getting rid of Parliament,

deep down he was a member of the ruling class.

Yes, absolutely. He was like ACAS.

After the Civil War in 1648,

he came in and tried to persuade the military parliamentarians to agree

to keep the King so long as the King toned it all down a bit, pushed

those Roman Catholics away, allowed parliament to really run the show.

-And when Charles I said no...

-No.

..to all that, that was basically Charles signing his own death warrant.

And, and he went off deeply disappointed -

but then later helped to bring back Charles II in 1660.

-So, yes, you're right.

-OK.

-A Monarchist but a Parliamentarian.

-Very interesting.

And what about the battles in the Civil War?

One came right up to the door here, didn't it?

Yes, skirmish rather than battle.

The most dashing of the royalist leaders, Prince Rupert,

who was Charles' nephew, came here and besieged the castle.

There were a few people killed.

We think the gatehouse was definitely damaged.

Cannonballs all dug out of the moat

and this armour here is all 17th century, Civil War.

A proper fight, but a small fight.

Not Premier League. More second division.

Oxford United!

I've still got to decide on a celebratory dish that best

sums up the region.

So I need to get some inspiration.

At the Nut Tree in Murcott, head chef Mike North prides

himself on using as much home-grown produce as possible,

straight from the Oxfordshire soil.

He wants to get us into the swing of things with

a round of the traditional Oxfordshire pub game, Aunt Sally.

Right, what's the job we've got to do?

Basic elements are, you have eight players in a team

and each player throws six sticks.

And you throw it underarm. You need to hit the dolly off cleanly.

So it can't hit the pole,

it can't just fall off, it's got to strike the goal cleanly.

The winning team is the one who's got the most dolls off

and then you play a beer leg and decide who buys the drinks.

Well, I like that idea.

There's a theory the game was introduced by Royalists

during the English Civil War in the 17th century.

The doll is said to represent Cromwell being knocked off his horse.

As you can see, I'm not very good.

-Do you want to go next or me?

-No, you go next. I like a laugh.

-Oh!

-Oh, who, who!

-Pathetic.

-Janet, shall I hold your brolly for you?

-No, it's balancing me.

-Are you sure?

So, this is a bit of a rural version of ten pin bowling.

-Yeah, kind of, yeah.

-Kind of?

-Yeah.

Darts, it's like darts.

-Underarm?

-Yeah, underarm.

-Ooph, very good.

-Hit it better than you two!

Well, I'm going to have another go.

Now I'm really up against the pressure. You did very well there Janet, eh?

Oh!

-Oh!

-That was so near!

-Come on, then.

-I did rounders at school, you know.

-You can do it, you can do it.

-It's coming back now.

Oh!

No!

-No! Oh, that was...

-Four!

Hit that dolly.

Oh, dear!

Oh, no, I'm getting worse.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, you're, you're, she's weakening now,

I'm wearing her down, I'm wearing her. This is it.

Oh, stupid man!

Rubbish!

So far, neither of us have scored,

so it's Janet's last throw that will decide who pays the bar bill.

Don't put me off, Brian! I can see you laughing.

My mind is focused.

Oh!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

-I don't think that was clean.

-That was a clean throw!

-That wasn't clean.

Brian! Brian, defer to the higher power.

-That was the last leg.

-Brian, Brian!

-So that's the beer leg.

-I'm.

-It was not clean was that.

-Totally clean!

While Janet drinks to her victory I'm catching up with

Mike in the kitchen.

Most of the dishes on his menu are made from both the vegetables

he grows himself, and the animals he breeds,

or sauces from very local suppliers.

So how long have you been in the restaurant here?

-I've been here coming up for eight years now.

-Oh, good, yeah.

-So tell us what you're going to cook for us today, chef.

-Yeah, we're going to cook a pave of venison.

With mashed potato, broad beans and peas and then a sauce made

with smoked bacon lardons, onions and wild mushrooms.

-So this is our pave of venison.

-Yeah.

-It's.

-Looks lovely, eh.

It's fallow deer supplied by one our butchers, Mr Finns,

which is at Horton-cum-Studley, and this was shot at Oakley.

So, pop our broad beans in to blanch.

Venison seasoned.

Pans nice and hot.

You're not touching the meat and it's a big secret is that to

these first class cuts of meat, you put them

-in and then you turn it over but you don't fiddle it around all the time.

-No.

And the beans you've put into a bit of ice just to...

Yeah, just to stop the cooking on that. We're going to take them out of their shells in just a second.

Really. How many staff do you have?

There's five of us.

I just think shelling broad beans is one of those things that is...life's too short.

-In the past, I've shelled the peas as well.

-Ye-no!

And life is too short for that.

So next job is?

We've got potato that's had a little bit of fat added to it.

It looks nice and smooth and creamy, I have to say.

It looks yellowy.

-Then into this, double cream.

-Lovely.

Quite a lot and we'll probably be adding some

more of that in a moment.

Janet's going to love that.

So that goes on to cook.

This'll be almost like a thick sauce consistency.

And we are conscious in restaurants er, says he about diets,

as you put another half a pound of butter in there,

which I love, I have to tell you.

To me, this is what gives it the real flavour there.

There is a lot of butter and a lot of cream.

But you can stay at home and have a salad.

When you go out for dinner it should be a treat.

I love that line! May I use it on occasions?

-I think that's great.

-Oh, please do.

I'm just going to baste this.

But now that's almost there, I'm just going to take that off the heat

and just let that rest in the pan. Get another pan on, nice and hot now.

And whilst that's going on, we'll blanch our peas.

Peas and the broad beans are so typically British.

-Lovely.

-When they're in season they're just perfect.

-OK, so your potatoes are looking good.

-This is where we're going to start making the sauce.

So in this pan, a little bit of butter and then our baby onions in.

A little bit of salt.

Just pop our peas into there.

Thank goodness you're not going to shell 'em - that's all I can say, eh?

OK, so we've got the lardons here.

This is from a side of streaky, smoked bacon

but we need to blanch these.

Well, our potato puree is getting there now.

See people won't realise that there's a lot of care

and attention and money gone into that.

-Yeah.

-It isn't just mashed potato that at all, is it?

-No. So our lardons are now blanched.

-Yeah.

And they're going in with our onions.

-We're going to lift the venison out. That's tightened up.

-Yeah.

But hopefully, when we cut that, it's going to be nice and pink all the way through.

Into this now, we just put our wild mushrooms.

Now, we've got some red wine here, you know, we want the wine to be

good enough to drink in its own right.

So with our potato puree, you saw it started off almost as a sauce.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-Now it's gone completely smooth and also quite stiff.

-So our red wine's come down by about half now.

-Yeah.

-And then we've got our stock here, so nice and dark...

-Yeah.

..nice and clean and glossy.

The last thing we're going to do to the sauce, which is

going to help thicken it slightly and give it a lovely sheen and

just round up the flavour, is just add a little more butter.

And we'll just take that off,

because we don't want that to reduce any more.

The moment of truth.

Potato puree.

That looks wonderful.

Looking at that, people might think

-it's a lovely piece of fillet of venison, that.

-Yeah.

Then we've got our peas and broad beans.

And then we've got our sauce.

The shine on that makes it look so rich.

Well done, Chef. Tell us what you call that on the menu?

It's a pave of fallow deer...

with potato puree

and a red wine, shallot and lardon sauce

with fresh peas and broad beans.

Whatever your customers pay for that, they should pay twice for it,

-it's brilliant.

-Thank you very much.

I just love the wide variety of local ingredients

and flavours in Mike's creation.

I'm certain this is a dish that will go down well with the Duchess.

-Marvellous.

-Fantastic.

-Thank you.

-Cheers, mate.

In the middle of the countryside, looks perfect does that.

I love broad beans, I grow them and I'm always trying to find loads

and loads of ways of cooking them.

-I knew you'd say that. We shelled those for you.

-You haven't.

And you will just love the potatoes.

I don't like people who leave the skins on broad beans.

I'm very, very pleased you went to enormous trouble.

Right, I'm going to start with a piece of this fabulous venison

and it's cooked just the way I like it.

-Really pink.

-So it's just warm in the middle.

-Yeah.

Mm, that is so good.

It's really good mashed potato.

Looks very buttery.

Oh, I'm not sure there's much in there.

BRIAN CHUCKLES

What I really like is the beans aren't overcooked,

cos when they're this small, you hardly cook them at all.

Anyway, what a great piece of venison.

And it's all local stuff.

So the red wine sauce is good.

He put in a nice quality wine, not over the top, but not cheap nonsense

cos he's putting in there and being cooked. You can taste

it in there, you can, look at the shine on that...

Yeah, that doesn't taste like wine that's on its way

-to vinegar, does it?

-No, absolutely.

People always make that mistake when they're cooking,

they have a bit of leftover old wine and then you discover it's been

lurking in the back of the kitchen for two weeks.

Well, I just think that's your kind of dish there,

lots of local produce, really well cooked, it tastes fantastic.

-What do you think?

-Ten out of ten.

Good girl.

Well, Janet's given Mike top marks.

Hopefully I'll do just as well with my celebratory dish that

sums up Oxfordshire's terrific produce.

There's a long tradition of farmers producing top notch meat

and dairy products in this part of the country.

So to find out more, and get some inspiration,

farm manager Neil Rowe is going to introduce me

to a herd which is famous for its superior veal.

-Good morning, sir.

-Good morning, Brian.

-You're Neil?

-Yeah, I'm Neil. Welcome to Manor Farm.

-It's good to be here.

-I've come to talk to you about calves, about veal.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Can we go and have a look at them?

-Yeah, let's go in the car.

-Good man.

Look at this. This is a real farm vehicle,

-is it not?

-This is a real Land Rover.

The cattle Neil breeds are known as Stabilisers,

a cross of four different breeds including Red Angus and Hereford,

which produce a beef breeding animal with small calves that grow quickly.

Come on!

CATTLE LOW

-Is that because they're expecting...?

-It's cos they know me.

Well, I have to say Neil, they sound as if they're happy to see you.

They are, indeed, yes.

They're hopeful they might be going to get some fresh grass.

-Is that real? Do they actually know who you are?

-They do, yeah.

The first thing they recognise is my Land Rover.

They'll see that and hear it coming from a long way off.

-They do also recognise me. If someone strange is driving it and gets out...

-Yeah.

..er, they'll quickly lose interest.

-You rear these animals, you look after them.

-Yeah.

Then, occasionally, they give birth to beasts which you'll decide will become veal.

How does that work?

The calves on this particular herd, they calve between 5th September

and about the 25th October,

-outside in the field, naturally.

-Yeah.

Then they're brought in and housed on the 1st November.

The calves have their own special creep area where

they can get away from the cows and do their own thing.

They have access to special food for calves but the cows can't steal it.

And then when we come round to the middle of March

we turn the whole herd back out with the cows and their calves,

to suckle through the summer and, at that point,

there'll be a number of those calves underneath their growth curve.

Economically it's much better for us, we'll take that calf and produce

rose beef with it, than try and keep it through to grow it to 600 kilos.

Yeah.

So it sort of makes common sense. Although some people say, "I can't believe you're doing that."

-It does make common sense.

-It does make absolute common sense.

The systems that we used to hear about, about crates,

lack of sunshine, all that kind of thing

are not quite the way they used to be.

Absolutely, I'd agree with that.

I don't know anybody in the world now that is still

producing veal as a lot of people imagine it used to be produced.

Everybody's moved on.

If I may, I want some of your rose beef fillet

and I'm going to cook that, cos I think that might help people

understand how tasty it is and how good it looks.

-We'll go back to the farm, see what we can find.

-Yeah.

Before we do that, shall we give these cows some fresh grass?

-That would be fantastic to see I'm sure.

-Wonderful.

Come on!

Come on!

CATTLE LOW

Come on!

Well, this certainly is one hungry herd.

Come on! Come on! Come on!

Look at that.

Come on! Hup, hup, hup, hup!

Come on!

Armed with a tasty joint of Neil's special veal,

we're all set to create a taste of Oxfordshire.

BRIAN CHUCKLES

I just hope Janet and a few of the locals

we've met along the way are feeling just as peckish.

Brian! What are you going to cook for me today?

This is a fillet of rose beef, young beef.

I've got some wonderful asparagus that I've already picked,

pea mayonnaise and a little tomato and green peppercorn vinaigrette.

-The beauty is, the gentleman over here, Neil, he reared...

-Hi.

-Hi.

-he reared the cattle. Does that look all right, boss?

-It looks fantastic.

-This lady here picked the asparagus, it's her asparagus field.

-It is.

I love asparagus. I can't wait to see what Brian's going to do with it.

We're going to start off with this beef.

A bit of groundnut oil in there.

The problem with young cattle is, the fillet isn't too big.

All I'm going to do is, very carefully, press it down a bit

-so I get it looking like a fillet steak, OK.

-All right.

Hopefully it'll keep its shape.

I am going to cook it underdone, no matter what you say.

-So medium rare.

-I only like... No, I only like it underdone,

for once in our lives we've agreed on something.

The next thing we need to do is our asparagus.

Boiling, salted water. Lizzie likes to steam hers.

-Oh, do you?

-Yeah.

-That's fine, but I like to boil it.

I actually cook mine in a frying pan.

Cos it's flat.

The trick is to make sure they will fit in the pan

cos too many people...

No, you're laughing, it's right!

That's why I use a frying pan, cos it's wider!

-It's all right you lot laughing.

-All right, put it in, put it in.

-OK.

I think the trick is, with all green vegetables,

but asparagus, particularly,

-is as soon as it's almost cooked put it into iced water...

-Yeah.

..and it shocks the colour and holds it a really nice colour.

If you let it cool down just like that it'll lose its colour.

That's what I tell my hairdresser.

LAUGHTER

Right, so I'm going to turn these steaks over,

put a bit of salt and pepper on there.

I'm going to put a little bit of butter in there for flavour

and, hopefully, now it won't burn.

So what we're going to do here now is make the mayonnaise.

Yeah, I always say a little prayer before I try to make mayonnaise.

Mustard goes in. You're going to make it today in that case.

-Oh, no!

-So we'll just give it a bit of a...

-Yeah.

-..a twirl like that.

Remember, if you get into trouble with mayonnaise,

-if you've got some boiling water...

-Yeah.

-..that helps to bring it back.

OK, you whisk it and I'll pour.

Oh, no!

-That's it.

-It's very risky with me doing it.

-Do it with confidence.

-I don't have confidence with mayonnaise.

-You can do it. Shhh! You can do it.

Gently feed in the oil.

-You're doing good, that's starting to thicken up.

-Oh, now my arm's aching!

You've got a long time to go yet, lass.

Now I've got a bit of groundnut oil.

Don't put too much in at once.

So what I'm going to do quickly, get a bit of this boiling water.

Oh, God, that is a top tip, I didn't know that.

-Yeah, pulls it all back together again.

-So it's not going to curdle.

That's it. Now I'm going to put some of these frozen peas.

Just put through a blitzer so they're nice...

Kept everything in there and then we'll just put in there.

God that is... I've never done that.

Right, me arm's aching, get a move on.

I'm going to turn these over again.

I'm just going to baste these a little bit.

You've found a way to shut me up, haven't you?

I'm so concentrating on not splooshing this on my sweater.

We are working well together.

If you hang on just one sec, I think you're just about there.

-Ah!

-Whoa!

And let's have a quick look over here.

-How can you tell?

-Doing it just from the top.

-Yeah.

Just press it and feel, it's starting to give now.

Is that all you do, you don't stick a knife in it?

No, no, no, you don't need to do that.

-Take those out.

-Right.

The next thing we need to do, we need to make some vinaigrette.

I'm going to put some tomatoes into this one.

Can you stir again?

Is that my role? Just stirring?

You are a bit of a stirrer.

-Just give that a... OK, there you go.

-Right.

-White wine vinegar.

-Yeah.

-You don't have to go too hard on this, that's fine.

-Right.

A bit of olive oil in there.

Oh, look at that, eh. I'll tell you what.

-A bit of salt and green peppercorns.

-Yeah, I like those.

OK, then we can put them in that, we're safe.

-And parsley here.

-Yeah.

-It's all very quiet round there.

-It is.

I'm starting to panic, I thought you'd all gone home.

So now take them out and really let them rest

for a little while, OK. Just four or five minutes.

I just want to grab some of that flavour.

We've got all that lovely beef flavour in there,

we don't want to lose that.

Add a bit of white wine in there.

Lovely...

-Do you want to pass me the asparagus?

-Yeah.

-Do you want me to get it out of the water?

-That would be good if you could do that.

It's the spears that we really want to see.

We'll just chop us a little bit. I don't need all of this.

Put that into the pan. OK, so a little bit of this goes in here.

-That's our bit of stock.

-Yeah.

I can sense the anticipation in the air.

-Saying, "Can you hurry up and get this in."

-Yeah.

-I know, don't you start!

-They've been very patient, Brian.

We take our mayonnaise. I just think that's a lovely colour, is that.

Excellent.

That sits...

And then, remember, the vinaigrette what you made.

Expertly dribbled, Brian.

Please do not say that to an older man.

LAUGHTER

This wonderful, local asparagus.

Duchess, for you we have...

..fillet of rose beef with asparagus,

a pea mayonnaise and a tomato and pepper dressing.

You may all applaud.

APPLAUSE

Thank you very much. This is for you from this little lady over here.

Thank you.

I love asparagus.

That's made my day, actually.

Oh, better not say that in front of Brian.

The proof of the pudding's in the eating.

Get yourself some fighting irons and let me

-just do you a little slice here.

-Yeah.

I'm going to cut that there.

-Oh!

-Oh, look at that.

-Perfectly cooked.

-Oh, thank you.

-I'm getting "perfects" all day long.

-Get on with it.

-I'm filling up!

-Look, have a bit of asparagus with it.

-Yeah.

Cos the asparagus is delicious

and then dip in the pea puree.

Right, hang on.

Mm, it's tender but the outside...

..is cooked...

..the way I like it

and...

-All right, it's perfect!

-Good girl, I love you, too.

I love that pea mayonnaise.

-It's nothing like mushy peas.

-No, but you made that.

Mm. I can't believe I made mayonnaise.

-There's a lot of people behind me who'd love to have a taste.

-Yeah, well, let's go at it.

-Come on Lizzie, lead the way. Come on Neil, tuck in.

-Tuck in.

-Right, OK.

-Lizzie, get yourself dipping in there.

Well, that is fantastic, Chef. Well fed and well cooked.

Yeah, well, yeah.

Did you enjoy the beef?

It was delicious, really delicious.

I think we should ask everybody else now, they're starving, Brian.

Over you come.

I'm hearing good noises. Yeah, what do you reckon?

-Fantastic.

-Scrumptious.

-The beef is delicious.

-Scrumptious?

-Scrumptious.

-Can I have some more?

-Yeah! You want some more?

Before you have your second piece, what do you think of the first?

-Absolutely brilliant, I love it.

-That's yummy. It's so tender.

-It doesn't get much better than that, delicious.

-I like that phrase.

Well, I think it's been a great trip has this,

with lots of lovely weather and interesting raining weather

-but lovely people. What do you think?

-We've had history.

Exotic plants.

Fabulous vegetables.

You've met happy beef cattle.

And you've made a brilliant dish!

So I think you'll agree that that was A Taste of Britain

in Oxfordshire.

-I've loved it.

-Terrific.