Norfolk A Taste of Britain

He's Brian Turner.

And she's Janet Street-Porter.

I'm passionate about walking.

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

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

but it's Britain that I love - fabulous produce,

great ingredients, right here on the doorstep.

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

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

He's in charge of the food.

And guess what, she's in charge of everything else!

This is...

A Taste of Britain.

Today we're exploring beautiful Norfolk.

Situated in the eastern corner of Britain,

it's a county where scenic countryside, arable farmland

and miles of stunning coastline

combine to make a gourmet's paradise.

Norfolk's packed full of historical sights, so I'll be indulging

my passion for all things old with a visit to a restored windmill.

You'll see these big things there,

these are what actually drove the millstones, so it turns...

-So the millstones would have been on the floor above.

-Absolutely.

Fabulous!

'We'll be getting to know some of the local wildlife...'

Brian, there's a seal.

What are they thinking about?

"I wonder what that funny looking woman is on the boat."

'And after sampling the region's rich variety of flavours...'

Just smell that, Janet, go on, smell that.

Oh!

'..I'll be cooking a celebratory dish to sum up a taste of Norfolk.

'That's if Janet can keep her hands off the ingredients.'

Brian, I've messed this up, so I'm eating it.

Mmm...

Well, here we are in fabulous, breezy Norfolk,

Wells-next-the-Sea.

It's been a port for 700 years, but the sea is actually

a mile down there, but when you get there, to Holkham beach,

it's the best beach in Britain,

according to the travel writers, anyway.

They all think that Norfolk is famous only for turkeys, but

it's not true at all. As you say, the sea's down there, fantastic,

wonderful, fresh fish and there's a really great chef near here

I've known for years, lovely man. I'm taking you to his restaurant.

You know what we're standing on, as well?

The Norfolk Coastal Path,

42 miles of fabulous footpath.

Do you fancy joining me for a bit, a little bit? Come on.

A little bit, all right, then.

'Well, as long as you're not taking me all 42 miles, Janet.'

Chefs like me are always on the hunt for more exciting new flavours,

so what better way to begin our discovery of the culinary delights

of Norfolk than with a visit to a specialist food producer?

While working as a chef, Alan Miller saw a gap in the market

and began growing a fantastic range of micro herbs.

I do like my greens, and things have certainly

moved on a lot from watercress and rocket leaves.

-Hi.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Very nice to meet you.

-Morning, sir, you all right?

-Hello.

What's... Is this water that's going onto these?

-Er, yeah, they're just pre-watered...

-Pre-watered.

-What is actually being planted?

-This is coriander.

Coriander, you know, it's so hard to plant these seeds.

I do it with tweezers, but I'm only growing one tiny patch of it.

You can smell the seed.

-You can actually smell the...

-Wow, this is amazing.

-Do you want to come round and have a look?

-Yeah.

I can see plants as far as the eye can see here.

Micro herbs are the seedlings of herb, or vegetable plants,

that are harvested soon after germination

when the first leaves appear.

They have surprisingly intense flavours,

considering their small size, and are now widely used

by chefs to enhance the taste of their dishes

and to make them look pretty.

This is coriander that you saw us planting when you came in.

Coriander, yeah.

From the day it was planted over there to this stage

is probably about 11, 12 days.

So when does a herb stop being a micro herb

-and become a normal, boring...

-Good question.

..herb that a Michelin chef wouldn't want?

As soon as they've produced one true leaf,

that's as big as they get for us.

We will have chefs that just want the first two leaves.

And then we will have chefs that won't buy that coriander

unless it's got its first leaf.

Then we'll have chefs that want it slightly bigger.

So, there is a fairly broad spectrum of requirements

for one herb like that, as in...

You mean, Heston Blumenthal might want two leaves.

-Believe it or not...

-Gordon Ramsay might want three leaves.

-That is very true.

-And Marcus Wareing might want no leaves at all,

-just...

-Excuse me, what about me?

-We haven't got around to you!

-I want tea leaves.

-Right, this...

-This is your butterfly sorrel, which is there.

You can see why, can't you, though? Just look at that.

That's a real sharp flavour.

-Oh, my God, that is so strong.

-Yeah.

And you've got it in the flower, as well as the leaf,

-the flower's got this excellent...

-That's like leafy lemonade.

It's so lemony.

Is this an English plant?

It's basically a woodland plant.

So what you've done is you've taken foraging

and elevated it to, like, 21st-century production.

-I mean, we grow a lot of chickweed, er...

-Yeah.

-Chickweed?

..and sell a lot of chickweed.

That's something that foragers have always gone out for.

But there's times of the year when chickweed's not available outside.

Do you think sometimes that chefs just want the dish to look

arty-farty and they're coming along and saying,

"Alan, make me a purple this, grow me a purple that,"

and, actually, if I was blindfold and I ate that dish,

-I wouldn't taste it?

-Erm...

It's a very cynical view, Miss Street-Porter.

-What I'm saying is there are chefs...

-There probably are a few...

..that should have been landscape gardeners or artists,

because that's what they're going over into.

I think it's inherent with most chefs that they have

a sense of art in what they produce anyway.

Quite right.

That's what the chef has inside him.

They want a dish to look good, they want it to taste good,

they want perfection on a plate, basically.

-This is your ice plant, ice...

-Ice plant?

..ice plant, ice lettuce, glacial, depending on what you...

-Oh, right is that because of...

-It's the crystallisation on the stems

that you get and we give it salt water solution every now and again.

Where does it normally grow?

Well, it's classed as a sea herb, basically.

-It is something that...

-I've seen it on the beach.

-You've mimicked the conditions on the seashore by...

-Yeah.

-..feeding it with salty water.

-Yeah, yeah.

I think the texture and the balance of flavour

is the nicest I've tasted. It's just got a real balance to it.

After humble beginnings in a tiny greenhouse,

Alan's nursery now covers two-and-a-half acres.

He also cultivates a range of unusual miniature vegetables.

These are relatively new.

Cucumelons - you probably won't spot one, but if you get your eye in...

Oh, I see those little things, yeah.

They're a cross between a cucumber and a melon.

-And obviously the melon...

-And is that...

..is the visual.

But taste wise, they're just like a cucumber.

And is that the size that you sell them at?

-They're ready to go now, that size.

-These are ready to go?

Yeah, try them, they are literally just like bite-sized cucumber.

Alan, it looks like a kind of designer gherkin.

-Doesn't it?

-Fantastic, aren't they?

-A smooth gherkin.

For me, if those were just plunged into a little sweet pickle liquid.

-Yeah.

-Just add that little something of a sharpener to them.

-Yeah.

I think, at the moment, they're relatively new.

I think some of the products we have are so new that people think,

"What are we going to do with that?" You find a year later,

somebody's come up with a dish, or an idea,

and then it develops and other people follow on.

Norfolk is a county blessed with around 160km

of unspoilt coastline and some has rightly been designated

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Our visit here wouldn't be complete without sampling

some of the county's abundant range of seafood.

I found just the thing.

Grey mullet is a common breed in these waters

and you can't get fresher than this morning's catch.

With the help of a few of Alan's micro herbs,

I think it's a perfect way to capture

a flavour of the Norfolk seaside.

'And what better setting for our first cook than

'at one of the many windmills that dot the landscape in this region?

'The restored Dereham Windmill is the perfect spot.'

Brian, right, what have you got for me here?

Well, I've got a lousy day already, the wind's blowing everywhere.

-I'll shield you, Brian.

-You are nice, darling, you are.

-We've got the Windmill Committee with us here.

-Yeah.

We've got Alan, and I'm cooking the most wonderful piece of

grey mullet with shrimps, potatoes and micro tarragon.

-But what you've got to do is make sure that it's pin boned.

-Yeah.

Those are all out, get your fishmonger to do that.

-The scales do seem to... There's one there, look.

-It's got big scales.

Yeah, it's got big scales and we'll cook it with the skin on.

I'm going to choose a really nice piece here

and I'm just going to cut a really nice steak.

There we go, that belly is delicious.

-OK, right, this is, er, local rapeseed oil.

-Yes.

We're going to put some butter in there, as well.

You want to spend as much time as you can cooking this dish,

you don't want it too fast.

Once that butter's started to melt,

we just put it in, skin side down.

I don't think you need to score it on this occasion.

I think we'll be OK.

But just hold it there so it stays nice and flat.

Better season it - a bit of salt.

I'm just going to baste it, occasionally.

The heat will cook it and I'm going to try and cook it on its skin.

It's going to cook nicely, so let's leave that for a second there.

The garnish, I thought, would be really simple.

-We want to combine the flavours...

-Yeah.

..but we don't want to cover up any of these flavours.

I'm going to take the new potatoes and cut them into slices.

Then I'm going to cut them into a small dice.

You'll notice that we haven't peeled them.

Just rub the skin a bit, got it off as much as we can.

A lot of goodness in potatoes, in the skin.

Right, that's lovely now.

Just see how that butter's starting to change colour there.

Put it on top there.

Grand.

Here's a little trick. I'm going to take a bit of butter, nice and hot.

Got those fishy flavours in there and put these in here.

Let's have a quick look at this skin.

Just gently have a look, just look at that.

You could serve it like that,

but I just want to keep it on the skin and let it sit there.

Right, now, new potatoes.

You just colour these lightly in that butter

and then what I'm going to do,

I'll take this tarragon here, this micro tarragon.

I'm going to shred it a little bit.

And the micro parsley, as well.

Shred that just a little bit.

Right, so that's coming on nicely.

A bit of salt.

A bit of pepper in there, nicely seasoned.

Local brown shrimp.

-Better give them back to you.

-Yeah.

You do remind me that when you're doing this recipe, get some extra.

-Oh, yeah, because they're so tasty.

-Cos they're so tasty.

-It's hard not to eat them all.

-It is, you're quite right.

They go in here, now we're ready to do this.

It's going to come together extremely quickly.

And as many as you can afford.

Huh, you left one in the bowl.

-You see, lovely, it's eaten up that butter already.

-Yeah, they have.

And the smell - just smell that, Janet, go on, smell that.

Oh!

It is like paradise, is it not, at the seaside?

Now as soon as this fish is ready, we are ready to rock 'n' roll,

and I think that's perfect, is that.

Remember, parsley and tarragon.

Chopped together.

It looks majestic.

Take that, just put it down...

the middle of the plate.

Next, we turn that off,

just take it over here.

All we need now is to be very careful.

Just take the skin at this edge here.

Separate it.

And just very carefully...

very carefully lift that off.

I'm going to put it just across there.

Just a little bit on top.

Lovely. A squeeze of lemon juice.

Janet, ladies and gentlemen,

the best bit of grey mullet you're ever going to eat,

with shrimps, potatoes and micro tarragon.

So, the fish, the potato and shrimp, salad as a cleanser.

The fish is so fresh, it's unbelievable.

I think it's still moving.

Come on, team, let's have you.

Come on, team, you've sat there, you've watched it.

-Right.

-Sir...

-That is good.

-Mmm.

It's the freshness that makes it work.

-Great products.

-Lovely.

Leave some for us.

Well, it's much cheaper than sea bass.

-That is very good.

-Well done.

Now we're here, it would be a crime not to find out

about Dereham Mill's history.

Windmills were a common sight in Norfolk in the 1800s

when they were used for both grinding grain and powering drainage.

But, with the invention of modern farming machinery,

many fell into disrepair.

As a lover of all things historic, I'm pleased to say that

Dereham Windmill has recently been restored to its former glory.

The renewal project was sponsored by the local Dereham Windmill charity,

and Head of Fundraising, Alison Webb, has offered to give me a tour.

So, how much money did you raise to save the windmill?

Nearly £100,000.

My God. Quite a lot of money.

Obviously, it's an amazing sight,

but 200 years ago, Norfolk was covered with windmills, wasn't it?

-Of course, yeah. Norfolk's flat.

-Yeah.

-I don't know if you've noticed, it's very flat.

-I have noticed it's very, very flat indeed.

We have the winds come along, the east coast brings them in,

and basically, that makes the windmills go round.

-So, how old is this windmill?

-1836.

-And when did it stop working?

Oh, 1937, so, you know, quite a long while.

-And was it grinding corn and stuff?

-Ah, well, during World War I,

1914-18, it was doing the food for the animals.

-What happened?

-Oh, well, the Government basically said

that the bigger mills, the roller mills, have got to produce the flour.

Health and Safety came in and all these small mills were left to ruin.

Which is a shame, really.

The sails weren't there anymore, the windows were rotten,

everything was boarded up.

So, in 2010, what we did is we started doing fundraising,

to make it into the community exhibition centre it is now.

We've got a meeting point, we've got the children from schools...

-So it's like a community centre?

-Absolutely.

-But it's a windmill?

-Absolutely.

You get the history of the wind power,

but you also get what people want to display in it.

-We had a wedding last month.

-Shall we have a look inside?

-Yeah, of course we can.

It's 18 metres high,

so reaching the top of Dereham Windmill is quite a climb.

Here we go.

Oh, my goodness.

This is where the corn went out at the very end

-when it's all ground up...

-Yeah.

-..into a cart, onto the floor.

-This is the end of what's happening.

-Where did the corn start off?

-Right at the very, very top.

-How on earth did it get up there?

On the outside, they had a hoist from the outside.

-All right, so, hoisted up the corn to the very top.

-Absolutely.

Then it goes down into where they have the big grain stores

and they stored them in there.

From there, it went down to the stone floor, where it was ground up.

You'll see these big, erm, things there,

these are what actually drove the millstones.

-So it turns round...

-The millstones would've been on the floor above.

-Absolutely.

-Fabulous.

Of course, over here we've got the hopper chute.

The grain would come down the hopper chute and then it would be put into bags and then put out of the door.

It's the old-fashioned way, but it worked.

Now, I'm not going down the quick way down the chute.

I'm going to very carefully make my way down the stairs.

Now I've had a history fix, I'm keen for us

to explore more of Norfolk's beautiful coastline.

Blakeney Point is 6km long.

A sand and shingle spit that forms part of the Blakeney National Nature Reserve.

It not only attracts thousands of migrant birds,

but it's also a well-known breeding ground for common and grey seals.

'We've hitched a ride with local seal expert Jimbo Temple,

'who's taking us out for a closer look.'

What is it about the Point that attracts the seals,

as opposed to other places?

If they're pregnant and they're coming onto the beach,

-they're going to get pounded on the shore with the...

-Yeah.

..you know. Here, they're not.

They tend to pick the calmest beach they can and they get on it,

and the grey seals have their pups actually on Blakeney Point

because they need to keep their pups out of the water

for up to six weeks.

-There's a couple of seals there, look.

-There's a seal.

-Oh, give us a wave.

-Oh, there's one in front of you, look, Janet.

-There's two more here.

-Over here, look.

-Oh, yeah.

-Er, Jimbo, have you got any light snacks for 'em?

-No.

-What are the birds we can hear?

-They're terns.

At Blakeney Point, there's one sitting on this buoy, look,

-with a sand eel in his beak, see him?

-Yeah, yeah.

Normally they'll have the other bird on the nest. They eat so many,

and then they get the last one in the beak and then they go back and

they regurgitate what they've eaten, and they feed the bird on the nest,

or the two of them are backwards and forwards, feeding the chick.

-Look at those, there.

-They look fat, don't they?

It's common and greys there.

What are they thinking about?

Well, they wonder what that funny looking woman is on the boat.

Jimbo, what are they thinking about just lying there?

Look at that one lying on his side.

-Fat loafer.

-He's a big old bull, that big one, you can see the big...

-There's three big old bulls there.

-Yeah, yeah.

It's a great life, isn't it?

Flop up there, lie on your backside all day, go in, have...

Look at that one, stretching!

'Grey seal pups arrive here on Blakeney Point

'between November and December,

'while common seals give birth in the summer between June and August.'

-How many pups do they have at a time?

-Only one.

-They only have one, yeah.

-Only one.

This beach at Christmas, from here, right round,

-down there for a mile...

-Yeah.

..there's nothing but pups.

-I mean, it was a real sight to see.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, a real sight to see.

-Thank you, Jimbo, that's very kind of you.

-OK, it was a real pleasure.

-Thank you, Jimbo.

-All right, my love.

-Thank you.

-Nice to see you.

-Very nice to see you.

-That was good fun.

-Right, I've communed with the seals.

-Communed!

I've always been envious of chefs who work close to the sea.

They have a plentiful supply of unusual organic ingredients

that grow along the shoreline all year round,

and the Norfolk coast is no exception.

At Morston Quay, foraging for plants like sea purslane,

samphire and sea aster is a popular pastime.

I'm keen to sample some of this tasty produce.

The Michelin-starred Morston Hall restaurant nearby

is renowned for using many of these intriguing local flavours on their menu.

'Its owner, my old friend and Michelin-starred chef

'Galton Blackiston, has invited me along to meet one of his team.'

-Hello, sir.

-Good morning, sir.

-Absolute legend.

Oh, you are sweet. Do you know, I feel so embarrassed

that I've never been here before, it is just beautiful.

Well, I must admit I'm very biased, but North Norfolk,

there's nowhere better.

You'll disagree with me because you're from Yorkshire.

-So, you're a Norfolk boy?

-Yeah.

-Born and bred?

-Yeah.

And how did you find this place?

Well, my parents have to take credit for that.

-They'd retired back to Blakeney...

-Yeah.

..and drove past this place and saw it up for sale

and by hook and by crook, we got it.

-And how many years have you been here?

-This is our 22nd year.

-22nd year!

-I know.

I'm going to be fortunate, I'm going to meet your head chef today.

-Yes, you'd best come and meet Richard.

-Looking forward.

Absolutely, come on.

Richard, look who I've got.

-Blimey, the legend who is!

-Yeah.

-Nice to meet you.

-Richard, nice to meet you.

-Nice to see you.

I'm going to leave you two to it, unless you want me to go and pick samphire or anything, do you?

No, we've got some this morning, so we're all set and organised.

-Fantastic, off you go.

-Leave you to it.

-See you later.

OK, what are you going to cook for us?

I'm going to do my interpretation of Morston Quay,

because I love Morston Quay and it's literally just down the road.

Erm, it's got everything that I can see,

smell and taste when I'm down there,

and I've just kind of put it into a dish that I think just

-represents Morston as a whole.

-OK, what's in it?

So, what we've got is a parsley sponge,

which represents, kind of, the marshland.

Everything else after that is quite traditional, where

we've got the lovely sea aster, some sea purslane, some samphire.

-Say it again one more time,

-samphire. Samphire.

-Yeah, we'll get the nation to understand it's not sandfire, it's

-samphire. Yeah, yeah.

You might have to do it with a Norfolk accent a little bit, erm...

We're going to start off by

just putting a little bit of North Sea Cod in the water bath

at 52 degrees for eight minutes.

Then we'll finish that by just blowtorching it,

instead of pan frying it, so you get more of a carbony flavour,

but without that awful.. you'll see later.

If you say so, if you say so, Chef.

And then, we're now going onto the parsley sponge.

I like this because it's quite, its quite simple,

but when you then taste it, it'll all pack a punch.

-And you're using flat leaf parsley.

-I like it more than curly parsley.

I think it's got more of a rounded flavour to it than curly parsley.

And plus, curly parsley, I think...

-I've got a thing of when I used to work in pubs.

-Yeah.

-Putting it on as a garnish...

-With everything.

-Yeah.

So, then from there, add some sugar.

I think the natural sweetness, because, obviously,

everything is really earthy, so I want a bit of sweetness on there

but not too much so it kind of becomes sickly sweet.

Erm, then we've got a little bit of plain flour,

which is sieved, goes in there, as well.

And then we've got the egg white.

This is the thing that'll aerate it and help it stay up.

So, they'll go in.

Blend it until it's nice and fine.

MACHINE WHIRRS

So then we've now started to get a nice kind of puree coming from it.

-That colour already is just fantastic.

-Exactly.

Again, when you go down to Morston Quay,

you'll see all that colour and that's what I'm trying to get the essence on the plate.

Then all you do, is you then pass it through a chinois.

Do you remember the days when we used to put it in a muslin cloth and then twist it,

and twist it, and twist it and then strain it all through?

-Yeah, and wash it and then twist it.

-Yeah.

Used to do a bit of that, as well. Oh!

-Then we're just going to season it with a little bit of sea salt.

-Yeah.

Just a little bit, because everything is quite salty

-with all these sea vegetables.

-Sure.

I'll just pour that in the jug.

So, then it'll just make it easier to go in.

-Then all you do is pop it in the whippy gun.

-Yeah.

There's probably a more technical term than a whippy gun, but in Norfolk, we're...

It's probably like samphire, we call it a whippy gun.

Pour that in.

And then we just charge it up, we charge it up two times.

I always turn it upside down, just to make sure that the gas then

goes all the way through it, whereas sometimes people just do it down.

So there's not too many elements in the dish, but I think it...

it just works because it's so simple and so elegant.

And then, what we made a little bit earlier,

-which I've always wanted to say.

-Yeah.

Erm, we've got a little sea aster nage that we've just made, erm...

-Sea aster?

-Sea aster, I'll bring...

-I don't know sea aster.

-Well, let me bring the sea vegetables over,

-what we've got.

-OK.

-So, I assume that's the sea aster?

-Yeah, this is sea aster.

-It looks wild garlic leaves, do you think?

-Yeah, and if you feel it,

-it's slightly more leathery.

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-We've also got the

-samphire. You've picked it?

-Yes, we've picked it.

So, kind of big bits, and then we just pick down the nice, tender leaves.

Erm, so all we're going to do is cook these really simply,

just by blanching them.

-With any sea vegetables, no salt in the water.

-OK.

Then we've got some, just to garnish,

we're going to just pop on a little cucumber.

This is a cucumber flower, then cucumber in the bottom.

I've never seen the cucumber flower like that.

-I think that is just, it's beautiful.

-Yeah.

-And it's spiky, you can feel it there.

-Yes, yeah.

It's quite amazing, that.

And it adds texture to it, and especially at Morston,

we don't put anything on the plate. I'm not one of these chefs

who creates a bigger dish for the sake of creating it.

Everything on there has got to be there for a reason

and to add something to the dish.

-OK, so, next job is...?

-Right.

-That fish must be cooked now.

-Yeah.

So, I'll just get the fish out the water bath.

If people haven't got a water bath,

it's not easy to control the temperature,

-you'd just suggest they do it in a pan of boiling water?

-Yeah.

So, now all we're going to do is just lightly blowtorch this.

So, now you've scorched it, next job is...?

So, now the sea aster is just going on, to start to warm up.

And then, we're now going to go for the sponge.

Give it a shake.

You might want to go somewhere else.

-So, that's just...

-Quite amazing.

-So, it just goes in there like that.

-Yeah.

It goes in the microwave.

So, 30 seconds,

and then I'll start to blanch some of my vegetables.

Again, like I was saying earlier, no salted water, just plain water.

-You put them all in together?

-Yes.

MICROWAVE PINGS

So we'll then just have a look, it'll be quite warm.

Lovely.

And then you'll kind of see there, we've got a really light sponge.

-You'll see all the lovely bubbles.

-Yeah, lovely, isn't it?

But then, just with these, these have now just been cooked enough.

-Because you kind of want that semi-raw taste to them.

-Yeah.

So, they'll just now go out onto here.

I just love the way the colours stay, that's really...

-Exactly.

-..part of the secret for me.

What's that?

Erm, we've just got some little fennel flowers that are

going to go on there, as well. Erm, these are really intense,

they almost taste like liquorice. I'm only going to give you one.

Actually, you're quite right, it's amazing.

We sometimes we make an ice cream out of that, erm,

and then sprinkle a few of the flowers over the top

-and it's like a liquorice ice cream.

-Lovely colour.

Everything's now coming together. Our sea aster nage is now coming up.

Ah!

It's a little swirl.

Oh, that's what makes a Michelin star.

Then we've just got our cod.

Just go on there like that.

A few fried onions, as well.

So they'll flick around, and then we've got our sponge.

-And that just...

-It does look like a sponge, or a loofah.

Yeah, exactly.

-We've now got that Morston samphire now going on there.

-Yeah.

The old cucumber flower will just be tucked in there.

Adds that flavour, adds that texture.

And then a few of the onions.

And this kind of represents the quayside.

So just a few of the, the fennel flowers on there.

And then, that is what I would call

my interpretation of Morston Quay.

I'll tell you what, I bet Morston Quay is very proud

of how it looks on a plate.

-I hope so.

-Thank you, Chef.

-No, thank YOU.

Let's take it and show my mate, Janet.

-Right, then, let's go.

-Off you go, good luck.

I love nothing more than sampling locally-foraged produce,

and with chef Richard Bainbridge's reputation for doing great things

with local seafood, I can't wait to see what's on the menu.

-Hi, Richard.

-Hiya, how are you?

-Fine.

-Good. What we've got here is my interpretation of Morston Quay,

so, kind of, when you walk down there and you see all the colours

and the smells and the flavour, erm, that's what I've tried to

-encompass on a plate, so, hopefully, you'll enjoy it.

-Thank you.

-Don't tell me if you don't, though.

-LAUGHTER

-Thank you.

-What fish is this?

-It's cod.

It's been cooked in a water bath

and then it's been charred afterwards just to finish off.

I can see samphire. And what's this spongy thing?

I want you to taste it and see what you think it is.

-It's quite sweet. So, it...

-What do you think it is?

Sponge. I don't know. LAUGHTER

I've got no idea.

Is it something he picked up on the seashore?

Er, not quite, it's parsley sponge.

It's almost like marshmallow.

-But I like it.

-Good.

I've eaten all my sponge.

And have you seen this here, look at that, do you know what that is?

It's a baby...

Oh, it's a flower of...

-It's a cucumber flower.

-Is it edible?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Give it to me.

-It's raw.

I love this.

-Because it's a bit like going for a walk along the seashore...

-But it's even...

..and encountering all different flavours in one.

So all of these things, you'd find somewhere near Morston Quay.

I like the idea of making a dish that's about a place.

-Yeah.

-That's clever.

-It's clever, isn't it?

I'm still on the hunt for a main ingredient for my celebratory cook.

Norfolk may be famous for its turkeys,

but they could be about to have their feathers ruffled.

At Highfield Farm, John and Ellie Savory are poultry farming pioneers.

They're one of the first producers in the country to introduce

a flock of quail to the wide range of other animals they breed.

-Hello, Brian.

-Brian Turner, pleased to meet you.

-Hello, hi, hi.

-Hello, Janet.

Now, you're our quail farmer.

I am indeed, yes, would you like to come and look around?

-We would indeed, desperately.

-Come this way.

Quails aren't native to Britain, so it's illegal to keep them outside.

Here, they're reared in special temperature-controlled barns,

with enough space to fly.

Their chicks are highly susceptible to outside diseases,

so we need to get kitted up before we can pay them a visit.

So, how long have the family been here now?

Er, we came here... my great-grandfather came in the 1890s.

Erm, and then my... so, then my grandfather and my father, erm...

And they obviously weren't quail producers?

No, back then, er, it was arable and we went into dairy farming,

we were one of the first dairy farms in the country doing Friesian cows.

Erm, but then since then, we've done beef cattle, erm,

organic line chickens, which we still do now, and quail,

-we've been doing the quail now for about three years.

-Quail! Why?

Erm, there's nobody else in the country doing it, to the way we are.

A lot of the new, a lot of chefs like to use it, and it replaced

-the import from France, because most people were importing from France.

-Right.

Did you go out to dinner one night and think, "Quail"?

-Exactly.

-Is that how you got the idea?

-We did, yeah.

-BRIAN CHUCKLES

And then you thought, "Hm, I like quail"?

No, what you thought was, "They're charging £35 per portion..."

LAUGHTER

"..we can make a profit here."

Do come in and have a look at these chicks.

My goodness, it's hot in here.

Yeah, it's about 32 degrees at the moment.

Er, we start them, cos these are now a week old.

We start them at 36 degrees

and we bring the temperature down over the first week to about 32.

But, you see, they're already starting to get their feathers.

They're half-feathered on their wings.

They don't appear to be frightened of anybody, they just...

No, they're very quiet, there's no... they're not,

not the same as chickens, they are very quiet and they're

quite used to me, I spend quite a lot of time looking after them.

-They're not indigenous to this country.

-No, they're not.

-Where do they originate?

These are called Japanese quail, so they're from Asia.

These are the quail that you'd find in restaurants around Europe.

So, who are you selling them to? Restaurants?

-Direct to restaurants, yeah.

-Right.

Er, we go into quite a few of the Michelin-starred restaurants

now, and a lot of local restaurants as well, some very good local restaurants.

You see they're getting quite feathered now, already,

considering they're only a week old. We've got virtually a full set of feathers on the wings,

we've got some feathers coming through on the back already.

Which will be faster than chickens, cos they do mature really quite quickly.

They're lovely, aren't they, eh? So, do you actually sex them?

Yes, we do.

-The cocks and the hens, you can't tell, cos these are too young so far.

-Yeah.

But you'll see the hens have a speckledy front and the cocks

have, like, a red-coloured front, a rusty-coloured front.

-Are you bonding with it, Brian?

-I am, I'm bonding with this one,

it's lovely. As they say in Italy, "Quail sera, sera."

-Oh!

-Do you get it?

-LAUGHTER

So, from here, we might as well go and see the hen birds and, er,

-where they lay the eggs.

-OK.

-OK.

'John's flock numbers around 10,000 females bred for laying eggs.

'And roughly the same amount of males that are reared for their meat.'

Oh, look at them. And there's, there's lots of different colours here now, aren't there, eh?

There's quite light ones in here. Light ones and dark ones.

There's a... Hey, look, there's an egg there, look.

-Where? Oh, yeah, there's an egg.

-If I just catch one.

-There's one here, look.

You see, these are the hen birds, they've got a speckledy...

-Oh, right, yeah.

-..a speckledy front on them.

Whereas a cock bird has a... has a rusty front.

I'm just intrigued about these eggs that they lay, they're laying them

and then they move on, they don't actually try to hatch them at all?

No, no, they just lay them sort of willy-nilly and walk off,

you can see down here we've got four eggs beside the feeder.

Er, but you can tell from the eggs that, er,

they can camouflage them more. So, they're quite a light colour in here, which is a good sign,

because that means the litter is clean.

If the litter got very dirty, after a few days they can, they can

-turn them to a lot, lot darker, they could be mostly this colour.

-And how do you collect them,

does someone just come in and go round picking them up?

-Hands and... hands and knees.

-Hands and knees.

So, would you say they were free-range?

No, they're not free-range, they are free to fly.

Er, in this country, we're not allowed to let them out

because they're not indigenous, whereas they're free to fly,

whereas most eggs brought into this country are all from caged birds.

As you can see, they fly around the shed, erm,

they've got all the room they need in here.

Quails are well-known for their slightly sweet, gamey flavour.

And as this county is famous for its game, I think

these relative newcomers will make the perfect main ingredient

for our celebratory dish to capture a taste of Norfolk.

I'm making barbecued quail with pearl barley

and local micro herbs, with a spring onion dressing.

And we've invited a few of the locals we've met

to give us their verdict.

We've got all our friends over here that we met on our trip round Norfolk,

and look at this lovely local produce.

I love rosemary, of course we always eat rosemary with lamb.

-Yes.

-But this smells so good.

-It's so strong.

-I just couldn't resist it.

So, just pull all those little spears off there and then we just,

we chop that up, roughly.

-And then, a nice bit of rapeseed oil in there.

-Yes. A fabulous colour.

A bit of salt brings it out. I think that sort of makes it work, salt and pepper.

That's all we really wanted for our marinade.

And only for about 20 minutes, we don't want to marinade too much.

So, what I'm going to do now, quickly, is take these quails.

Now, this is what they call spatchcock.

Just going to cut through the breast bit there, but just to the bone.

And then turn it over and then just bash it down carefully, OK.

-Oh, God, is that how you do it?

-That's how, it's so simple.

I've always made a right mess of it.

It's so simple, and I'm just going to dip that in there.

And to put it onto the barbecue, we're going to just stick

a skewer through it.

And keep it, just to try and keep it straight,

keep its configuration nicely there.

So, lift this up here... Oh, er....

I'm going to cook them skin side down.

And I'm going to close the lid and leave those in there.

So, we've got lots of barley growing around here

and I've got some pearl barley here.

All I'm going to do is take some leek.

Shred it up and then in here with plenty of butter.

So, now I've got a bit of heat in there,

I'm going to put the barley in.

And give it a bit of a stir.

Right, so what I'm going to do now -

I've got it now covered in a bit of butter.

So, I'm going to use chicken stock.

And it absorbs now the liquor, and I'm just going to keep adding

chicken stock until you've got that texture I want.

So, all we need to do now is to make a nice salad dressing.

And I've got my lovely spring onions which are still in season,

and I've got some quails' eggs.

Now, look, I want to see if you can peel one of these, OK?

-Hand it over.

-OK, good girl.

Whilst you do that I'm just going to shred a spring onion.

God, they're a nightmare to peel.

BRIAN CHUCKLES

OK, let's have a quick look and see how we're getting on here.

I'm going to turn them over now, just to seal the other side.

-Brian?

-Hello, my dear.

-I've messed this up, so I'm eating it.

-OK... right, fine.

-Mm!

-OK, look, a bit of mustard.

-Hm, hm.

-Now, spring onions.

I found some local cider vinegar, fantastic.

Yo-ho!

And then, rapeseed oil.

That looks... delicious.

Now I've got the salad over here.

We've got to just put our quails' eggs in there, so we'll just do a...

half a quail egg.

-Look at that, did you peel that one?

-Yeah.

It looks brilliant, fantastic. Just a lovely colour.

On top of there.

And now I'm just going to get these onto the board here.

Right, so, I'm just going to take a cloth here

and just quickly pull the skewer out.

We don't need the skewer on there.

So what we'll do is we'll take our barley.

And stick it...

up the middle of the dish.

So, we'll put these...

just lay them...

..on top there.

-Right, I'm just going to put a little bit of this dressing...

-Yeah.

..over the top, just to add that little bit of colour,

that rapeseed oil and the spring onion,

I just think it makes it look that little bit more attractive.

And then the rest...

goes in here.

We'll just give that a little, er, stir around.

And there you've got it, young lady.

Local quail, barbecued with rosemary, pearl barley, spring onion dressing

and lovely local micro herbs in a salad, with quail egg.

It's the taste of Norfolk.

Mm...

that's juicy.

-Very good, Brian.

-Please don't sound so surprised(!)

LAUGHTER

Right, I'd like everyone to come up and taste some, you deserve it.

All right, OK, here you are.

-A bit of leg there.

-Do you want a bit of leg?

It's beautiful and, erm, I'm having some people round for supper on

Friday and this has inspired me and I'm going to do the pearl barley.

-It's lovely, yeah, very, very nice.

-So, what do you reckon, Richard?

I think it's delicious, really taste of Norfolk.

What a breezy time we've had in Norfolk.

We've had coastal path walking,

I've interacted with two living things, other than you.

Seals.

And quails.

-And you've cooked a fantastic meal.

-Yeah, well, quails were perfect,

but we, we went into that lovely restaurant at Morston Hall.

And Richard did a fantastic job there.

The micro herbs.

-Oh, that was incredible.

-They were, they were just...

-Plants I'd never even heard of.

Yeah, me neither, I still can't remember all of them.

And the Norfolk quail with that little flavour of rosemary

and that barley underneath,

I think, says it ALL about the taste of Norfolk.

Fabulous.

SEAGULLS CRY