West Yorkshire 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.

On today's show, we're exploring

my beautiful home county of West Yorkshire.

'It's a scenic corner of the country that's home to

'Ilkley Moor, the Rhubarb Triangle...'

Well, I'll tell you, this is so attractive,

it's beautiful, is this, I can't wait to cook with it.

'And some of the finest, and fastest, venison in the country.'

That's fantastic!

'I indulge my love of fine architecture, exquisite

'furniture and pork pies.'

Do you know what? I want to cry.

Lovely colour, just what you want.

Yeah, absolutely.

'One of the region's most celebrated chefs works wonders with some

'West Yorkshire produce.'

Brian, that's what I like, fabulous vegetable on a plate.

'And, after tasting our way around the region...'

That tastes lovely.

'..I take Brian to one of the county's most stunning stately homes.'

'Where I cook up my taste of West Yorkshire,

'hoping to get a local seal of approval.'

Ladies and gentlemen, there is the venison dish!

Thank you very much.

What I love about this part of Yorkshire is the amazing contrasts.

You've got stately homes like Harewood House with

interiors by Adams, and Chippendale furniture,

right near big urban conurbations like Leeds.

Then you've got fabulous Wentworth Castle with its listed gardens

right near Wakefield.

The great thing about Wentworth Castle, for me,

is like this great county, it's got some great game in it,

lovely deer there. Just 50 miles that way there's a wonderful

coastline, bags of fish,

and, of course, we've got rhubarb like nobody has.

Yeah, this is the home of the world's most prolific rhubarb

growers, and I think we ought to explore lots of ways to use

rhubarb, because rhubarb is one of those things that people get

stuck in a groove with.

They make rhubarb crumble, they made rhubarb stewed for dessert,

I want to know other things I can do with rhubarb.

Trust me, I've got a great dish just for you, using rhubarb.

You'll love it.

You sure about that?

You'll love it.

HE LAUGHS

'I'm taking Brian on a hike to the unspoilt village of

'Heath and a lovely historic pub.'

'The best place to start for a taste of West Yorkshire is with

'a real local classic.'

And the views are fantastic.

This pub, I remember it, it's a really cosy pub.

We might as well go in.

Yeah, go on, then, doll, I'll follow you.

'The Kings Arms, in a terrace of old wool merchants' houses,

'is hailed the most authentic pub in Yorkshire,

'so where better to enjoy a taste of Yorkshire's finest?'

'Actually, Janet, it's a bit early for real ale, even for me,

'but it's never too early for a proper pudding.'

Did you know that the Dalesman magazine had a survey?

This was the number one icon of Yorkshire: Yorkshire pudding.

Voted for by people in Yorkshire.

Exactly, do you know where it beat?

What?

-It beat the Dales, you live in the Dales.

-Yes.

It beat Whitby Abbey, it beat York Minster, Geoffrey Boycott.

Do you know what that tells me?

That Yorkshire people are just governed by their stomach

and the bigger the item going into it, the better.

What's impressive about this is it's nice and crunchy,

and it's not soggy, and I

have tremendous problem doing Yorkshire puddings. Maybe it's

because I'm not from Yorkshire and I've just spent a lot of time here.

-Help...

-How do you get them...?

-Help is at hand.

How do you get them crisp?

-You need beef dripping.

-Yeah.

Individual muffin tins.

Put some oil in there and get them as hot as you can get them.

We were taught at college, blue, almost into flames.

So you make the mixture, let it sit for a while, beat it again,

into a jug and as soon as it's hot enough, really like that.

Da, da, da, da, fill them all three-quarters full, 40 minutes.

If you've got an oven with a glass door, perfect,

you don't need to look at them, you can just look through.

If you've got an Aga, you fall on your knees and pray?

If you've got an Aga, you use the oven next to it.

But, no, no, I'm sure they work fantastic in an Aga.

No, it's so hit-and-miss!

And the trick is, I think, that after about 40 minutes,

when they're all up and starting to get nice and brown,

just turn them over, so that...

Turn them over?!

Listen, turn them over...

God, you interfere with them?

We turn them over so it just dries out the bottom a little bit.

But this to me, it's a lovely starter is this, and...

-Starter?

-Yeah, and of course...

This is a main meal to us down south.

But it's a Sunday lunch, so you have this and you chat,

and then you wait five minutes before you go and get the other

stuff out and then just take your time, nice and slowly.

So you have Yorkshire pudding before,

-then you have the roast meat with the Yorkshire pudding.

-Yeah.

If you haven't had a heart attack and stretchers haven't

been brought in, you have another Yorkshire pudding with jam.

HE LAUGHS

'Our next regional favourite is something Janet actually grows herself.'

'But not on the massive scale they have in this region, though, Brian.

'We're meeting one of Yorkshire's top rhubarb producers,

'Simon Dobson, whose family have been growing the stuff for generations.'

So I know Yorkshire's famous for rhubarb,

but how long has it grown in this part of Britain?

Late 1800s, early 1900s.

So on this particular field, where we're stood today, we, as

a family, have probably been growing certainly since the early 1900s.

So this is the rhubarb that

if we go down to the supermarket we'll be buying in bundles?

-You would, but not necessarily the larger sticks.

-Yeah.

The more tender colourful sticks in the middle, here.

So do you have to harvest it all by hand,

if you're going around selecting the right ones?

We do, yes. Obviously, the people will come through here with

a harvesting rig and they will select

the straighter, cleaner sticks with the most colour

and leave behind these sticks.

And what about these leaves?

Leaves are poisonous, so we chop the leaves off and leave that fork, but

the leaves are discarded and left to go back to the soil for compost.

Now, I'm going to cook with this today,

so what I'm looking for, if you'd be able to help me, this is...

I don't know if this fits in with you, but for me,

-see that's just a lovely colour, is that.

-Yeah.

-These are obviously young shoots.

-Yes.

Well, this is so attractive, beautiful, is this,

-I can't wait to cook with it, so let's go, boy!

-Excellent.

'Before I show Janet my dish, let's meet a man who Simon says

'does something rather special with his beloved rhubarb.'

'Judging from the sign,

'I've a sneaking suspicion it involves cheese.

'And you know how much I hate the idea of fruit in cheese, Brian.'

Hello.

Richard.

-Nice to meet you, Brian.

-Simon Dobson sent us down here for the rhubarb that you cook.

-Right, yeah, Simon.

-He's a mate of yours, I believe?

Yeah, we use Simon's rhubarb in just about anything

you can think of, particularly his cheese.

I'm not a huge fan of fruit

and cheese together or cheese with bits of fruit in it.

Right, OK.

But it's interesting, you see,

cos, actually, right now, quince jelly...

-Yes.

-Yes!

..figs, grapes, we all serve with cheese and actually it works very well together.

Because I was so turned off by that cheese that has lumps of cranberries in it.

or bits of pineapple. It's so disgusting!

The whiter-looking cheese is the Ruby Gold, that's with ewe's

milk and it's got a layer of the rhubarb running through the centre.

It's an amazing flavour.

We'll let the cheese do the talking.

The best way is to taste.

What do you reckon?

-Do you know what?

-It's good.

You've nearly persuaded me.

This is a lovely cheese.

Now, the other thing we want to know is you do other things with rhubarb as well, don't you?

Oh, we do, we're rhubarb mad, yeah.

-What about this...?

-Walk this way, yeah.

The rhubarb pie, it's one of our favourites, one...

one of our best selling pies is this one, but it's, erm...

-Look, I'm halfway over the counter.

-Yes, no, hold...hang on a sec.

You see, I might be a bit iffy about rhubarb and cheese,

but the whole idea of a rhubarb pork pie...

There, have a taste of that. It's got a layer of rhubarb and sweet chilli jam just under the crust.

And we've got a surprise later, actually, you'll like this.

Look at that.

Life is full of surprises. I'm going to take that.

We don't want that.

What do you think to this?

Fantastic pastry for kick-off. I like the kick of the chilli.

So you eat the gorgeous crumbly pastry,

-then you've got the luscious pork.

-Yeah.

The sweetness of the rhubarb.

and then the kick of the chilli at the end.

This is an international winner.

'So fruit in pies gets the blessing of the duchess.'

Can I buy a few?

Er...

I don't often say that.

I didn't hear you, you whispered it, say it out loud.

I would like to buy some of these gorgeous rhubarb pork pies.

To stop all embarrassment, we've got a surprise for you. Just bear with me a second.

You haven't got any money with you.

I'm sorry, I haven't got a handbag.

There we are.

Oh, my goodness me, look at that!

-Oh!

-That might keep you going for a while.

Do you know what? I want to cry.

No-one has ever given me a pork pie with my name on it.

I'll tell you what, you could almost go...

Brian, we don't want you to go without...

Oh, God, you made one for him?

-These are both rhubarb and sweet chilli as well.

-Fantastic, eh?

-Oh, look at that.

-You're welcome.

'That was the most fantastic use of rhubarb I've ever seen!

'But Brian reckons he can top that with his rhubarb recipe.

'I bet it won't have my name on it, though.'

'What do you mean, Janet?

'This dish has your name all over it.

'It's a pan-fried mackerel fillet with rhubarb batons

'and toasted fennel seeds.'

Janet, we are, what, 50 miles from the coast now?

Yeah.

And there's 100 miles of wonderful coastline,

so we've got some great mackerel here today.

Fresh fish, one of those fishes that you have to eat fresh

but really tasty for those of us that love it.

-I've caught it many times, Brian.

-I've heard that, but doctors can cure it, don't worry about it.

SHE LAUGHS

It's a nice looking fish, isn't it, eh?

-Yeah, you can always tell by the eyes and the head.

-Absolutely right.

But I've actually got it filleted, cos it is quite messy to fillet it at home, you have to wash them...

I don't ever eat it filleted,

I always cook it with the head on, but as it's you, Brian...

So we are 50 miles from the coast

-and we're 50 yards from the rhubarb fields.

-Yeah.

So we're going to combine the two.

-Remember that lots of people like mackerel and gooseberry?

-Yeah.

We're going to do mackerel and rhubarb.

So the first thing I'm going do, I'm going to put some white wine and some white wine vinegar.

Bring it up to the boil.

And then we're going to pickle it in a nice, pleasant kind of way.

By that, I mean not a big, stringent one, just very lightly done,

and then we'll cook it after about 20 minutes.

So, salt in there, cos it's a pickling liquor.

Is that like soused herring?

Exactly like soused herring, you're absolutely right, dear.

So I've got that in there, salt in there.

I got some star anise.

And we've got a few peppercorns in there

and a little bit of lemon rind, and bring that up to the boil.

OK, so now we're going to deal with this mackerel.

Here's the quick tip

for a lot of people. These bones in here,

these pin bones need to come out.

So you just cut down to the skin,

but not through the skin and then, very carefully...

Pull it out.

Forefinger and thumb and just pull the whole thing out.

-Yeah.

-And you get rid of all the bones, so you can eat everything.

I think that really is quite important for a lot of people.

They get a bit worried about bones.

We don't need to do that.

So we've got the pickling liquor, bring it up to the boil,

-it's just coming up to the boil nicely.

-Yeah.

-And then pour it over the top,

and just let it sit in there for 20 minutes or so.

So that goes...quickly.

You don't have to cool it down first?

No, no, no, because what I want to do is I want to get that pickling

liquor in there, flavour-wise, and it'll just part-cook the fish.

So let's get a pan on to get that nice and hot.

But I did say that what we're going to serve with this,

of course, is our rhubarb, so let's light that up.

So this liquor is actually curing it.

Exactly right, that's exactly right. It's sousing it.

Yeah, like rollmops.

What I don't want to do, I don't want to make it pickled.

-No.

-It's just lightly soused, OK?

So that's on the go there.

Now we need to deal with our rhubarb.

So a bit of butter.

I can't believe you're making a rhubarb sauce with butter!

I have recently joined the church of butter and I use it everywhere.

Yeah.

I've got some grated ginger. Ginger and rhubarb is another...

classic combination that goes well together. So that goes in here now.

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

I can always add to it, but I just really want it to

just to stew that a little bit.

We are in the middle of the Rhubarb Triangle, so we must

actually cook with rhubarb.

I like this red-coloured stuff.

The problem is it does tend to lose its colour a bit

when you're actually cooking it.

What I want to do, I want to make like a little jam,

-but not too much, as a sauce.

-Yeah.

Reduce it down, cook it down. Puree it up.

You say it's a jam, but it's not like a real rhubarb...

you have to put something else in, like crab apples or apples,

to give it a bit of body.

-A bit of pectin.

-Yeah.

A bit of setting up, That's absolutely right.

Jam-making's a great skill that has actually been

lost by a lot of people.

So, what I want to do is, I want to cook this down to a puree, as I say.

I just want to do a few little batons...

-Yeah.

-..that are nice and crispy and look good.

Now, I want this to sauce consistency.

But I also want the colour, and it loses a bit of colour, so here's

the trick. This is grenadine.

And that goes in there and it'll just give it this lovely

shade of red that we really want back again now.

So that's coming together, just put a drop more in there.

What do you think to that? See? Look.

That's a good tip, cos I've put orange juice in to try

-and keep the colour, that IS good.

-Yeah, that works as well.

So, over here, I've got the pan on, I've got a bit of oil on.

Just going to dry these off a little bit.

So, just to make sure that the oil

stops them sticking.

The truth is,

I think that's such a lovely colour

and it now becomes very delicate,

so we don't want to ruin the skin.

So what I'm going to do to counteract that,

which you won't like...

-I've got a bit of oil in there.

-But it's an oily fish!

Well, exactly, that's fine.

It's an oily fish and you're adding more butter!

No, no, it's an oily fish so I'm adding butter, not MORE butter.

But the reason I'm doing that is I just want to get this flavour.

-Don't you want crispy skin, then?

-No, I'm quite happy not to,

-not on this. When you baste it now, which I'm doing.

-Yeah.

You just get that shine on it and I think that's really what you want.

OK, so we're looking good now.

So now, last thing I'm going to do, I'm going to put this in here

and then turn it off.

-All I'm doing is taking off the crack of it.

-Yeah.

But I don't want it to cook through. These fillets are looking fantastic.

-So, what I'm just going to do quickly...

-Yeah.

-..put a little bit in the middle...

-Yeah.

..just to hold it all together.

Just put a little bit of this.

So that's salt in there.

-A bit of olive oil.

-Yeah.

Some wonderful micro herbs,

or whatever you can get, just to give it a little bit of...

-Yeah.

-..a little bit of excitement to the plate.

OK, so that's lovely on there.

The trouble with us chefs, we always want to do

that little bit extra.

I've got some fennel seeds,

so give a really nice smell to the dish.

I've got half a lemon, I just add a bit of lemon juice in there.

Take it off the heat, so you have no...

..flaring up. Lovely.

I've got some chopped parsley.

Here we go.

And I'm just going to now quickly

pour that over the top.

Gives it a wonderful smell, lightly soused mackerel

from the North Sea with some real Rhubarb Triangle rhubarb.

Brilliant, right, let's taste it.

The mackerel tastes very, very good.

-Very fresh.

-I like that little trick with the fennel seeds,

-I collect them out of my garden.

-Oh, right.

The combination of the rhubarb and the mackerel is very, very good.

-It's good, isn't it, that?

-Mm.

That, for me, is A Taste Of Britain in Yorkshire.

Who would have thought a sweet rhubarb jam with fish would work?!

The lovely rolling countryside in West Yorkshire is the perfect

place to graze, not just sheep, but game.

There's some great venison reared locally

in a truly spectacular setting and I think it might be just what

Brian needs for his celebratory dish.

I've sent Brian off to the stunning 18th century

Wentworth Castle in Stainborough.

Complete with neoclassical folly, the castle is set in the only

Grade 1 listed landscape and parkland in South Yorkshire.

It's the perfect setting for venison farmer Richard Elmhirst

to rear his herd of deer.

These animals are notoriously shy, but Richard's deer manager,

Terry Shaw, reckons he can call them over.

Well, this is where we see how masterful you are, if you can

get those beasts from over there to here, I will take my hat off to you.

-Well, we'll get you an 'at.

-THEY LAUGH

-Right then, let's try to get the girls over.

-OK.

-Go get them.

-Come on!

-HE SHOUTS

-HE WHISTLES

-Come on!

-And those are red deer, are they?

-They're red deer.

Are they like sheep - when a couple hear the voice

and start coming, will the rest of them follow?

Yes, they'll get one or two lead animals.

Here they come. They're stampeding,

I'm all right here, aren't I? I'm not going to get run over?

-Come on!

-That's fantastic.

Look, they're not even following the path, he's coming, er...

He's coming through the reeds.

Coming straight through the reeds.

-Is that a white one in the middle there?

-Yes, there's one white one.

-An albino.

-Yeah. They're just losing their winter coat now,

-so they look a bit moth-eaten.

-Right, yeah, yeah.

Is this just a slightly braver one, is this?

No, this is the one that was hand reared. Come along, girls.

HE WHISTLES

And how often do you feed them like this?

Well, once the grass gets away, just enough to keep them tame.

If they were to get out at any time, we need to be able to

whistle them in, like you've seen.

-If anybody whistles, will they respond?

-No, no.

-No.

The whistle is what I've always whistled to them,

-from the day they were born.

-Oh, right, so they recognise it?

Yeah, it's just... and it calms them a little bit.

The secret with farmed deer is you don't want any stress,

because eventually we're going to eat some of them.

-Yeah.

-And, er, that's the important part about it.

And this is public land, so the public are allowed to walk

through here, there aren't incidents, are there?

-We're keeping our fingers crossed, Brian.

-Right.

With public access, you can't afford any dangers.

Even the stag that we have in here, he will avoid people, as opposed

to some of the other stags that would stalk people and get them.

And what we did over a period of time, we...I watched the deer and

I've studied the deer and everything that was aggressive were removed.

Yeah, so, Richard, you've been at this for a lot of years now.

What is it about this meat

and this wildlife that actually turns you on, you really enjoy?

Well, they're such wonderful animals to work with.

I warn farmers who are thinking of doing it,

cos we run courses for them, I say, "Look out, cos it's catching.

"If you get working with deer, you'll never want to give it up."

And as a meat, it's something we've been

eating for 30,000 years in Northern Europe.

Archaeological digs show that deer bones are the main meat

and it ticks all the boxes for health, cos you've got

a third of the fat of chicken, iron, good protein, very tender

and you guys cook it so well, that it's a pleasure to eat it.

The thing I think about it is that it's actually...

it's a really tasty meat, it's got a lovely texture.

They've asked me to cook a celebration dish that

represents all that's good about the Taste Of Britain

in this part of the world, and if you don't mind, I think some

racks of venison would be perfect.

Well, we'll see what we can do for you, then.

-Fantastic, well, let's go and see if we can get them.

-OK.

A few miles down the road is the spa town of Ilkley,

home to Michelin starred restaurant, The Box Tree.

Head chef, Simon Gueller has promised to show me

his version of a taste of West Yorkshire.

Locally reared lamb with beautiful summer vegetables,

and everything is grown within a ten mile radius.

-Morning, Chef.

-Good morning.

-You all right, lad?

-Yeah, good to see you.

-Good man.

-Just getting some local lamb prepped.

Are you going to cook it differently to the way we would

-normally cook this?

-Yeah, absolutely, well,

what we're going to do is we're going to use a modern technique,

water bath technique, and we're going to infuse it

with the herbs and some garlic, and a little bit of olive oil.

And then we'll cook it through and then you take it out

and then you put the colour on at the end.

Take a...

flat pack bag.

Just put a little bit of tinfoil

over the end of the bones

and that'll just stop them

from going through the bag.

-I was going to ask you the logic in that.

-Yeah.

But it's to stop it piercing.

Absolutely, yeah. Right.

OK, I'll seal that up in the bag.

SUCTION MOTOR RUNS

So, you've taken all the air out of that.

Yeah, that's it, nice tidy little package.

-So that goes into the water-bath...

-Yeah.

..which is set at 62 degrees.

Lovely vegetables, where exactly do they

come from, most of these?

A lot of the vegetables, like these carrots,

we have them grown for us at Harewood House.

They look wonderful, so what happens next?

I'm just going to quickly cut them up

into nice sort of restaurant size pieces.

And this is what we as youngsters, well,

we still call turning potatoes?

-Yes.

-And as youngsters, they used to give you a sack of potatoes

-and say, turn the potatoes, do you remember that?

-They did, yeah.

I mean, I was keen, I'd go home and I would buy potatoes...

-Yeah

-..and I would sit at home with the knife and turn potatoes.

The fennel.

Take off the woody bits.

I'm going to cook them whole, like that.

I might cut them down

after they're cooked,

but just to keep them together.

These are lovely little vine tomatoes.

We just cut them in half, a little bit of garlic,

a little bit of thyme and olive oil,

put them on the tray,

about 20 minutes, just to dry them out and concentrate the flavour.

The lettuce, we'll just chuck these in with the vegetables

right at the last minute.

So the potatoes will go into

a pan of water,

a little bit of butter,

a little bit of water in there and pepper.

OK.

So pan of boiling salted water,

we're just going to just quickly blanch the veg off.

These go in for four minutes. The fennel about three or four minutes.

The potatoes are on,

the sauce, we've got reducing down,

just to concentrate the flavour a bit.

OK, so, they go out,

straight into the iced water.

OK, so carrot had about two or three minutes in there.

The colour looks fantastic and it keeps in all the nutrients,

-lovely colour, just what you want.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Well, the lamb should be done,

so if you could drain the vegetables for me...

-Yeah.

-..onto here. I'll get the lamb.

-Yes, Chef.

We've got the lamb, what we need to do now, just snip the bag open.

Take the lamb out, remove all the bits that we don't need...

-Yeah.

-The herbs have all nicely infused.

-Into the meat there.

Into the meat.

We'll just dab off the juices on the outside.

That's medium rare all the way through.

Now the great thing about this technique, the fat renders

down almost instantly,

-because it's cooked to a certain temperature.

-Oh, right, of course.

MEAT SIZZLES

There's no doubt that lamb is...

-we do have some great lamb in this country.

-Absolutely.

I think if Yorkshire had to have its own dish,

I think it would have to be lamb.

-You can see how quickly that...

-Yeah, absolutely.

Almost like it's been in the oven for 40 minutes.

So once you've coloured all that, are you ready to serve up now, or...

Yeah, we still let it rest

for about five minutes, just to let the meat relax.

-Just put that in a warm place.

-Yeah.

-So we take some butter.

-Love it.

Put a little bit of olive oil in there as well.

Just take a little bit of water.

You just drain all the vegetables...

..that have all been pre-blanched.

And my carrots go in there.

Lovely.

And throw in a bit of lettuce and that just steams.

Tomatoes.

In there. Confit tomatoes.

-Lovely.

-They go in there.

OK, we take the lamb and we're going to...

I don't look at the bones, I kind of look at the lamb.

I'm just going straight down the middle...

..like that.

That does look good, Chef, I have to say!

OK, so we take the vegetables...

Take the lamb, goes into the...

into the middle of the plate.

To finish it off...

..just a little bit of lamb jus.

Some olive oil.

A tiny bit of rock salt on the lamb,

a little bit on there,

-and that's it, and that would be the dish all ready to go.

-Fantastic.

Simon's best end of Yorkshire lamb with locally grown vegetables

looks delicious.

-It's a shame I've got to share it, really.

-Here we go, sir.

-Thank you VERY much.

-There's your lamb.

-Thank you.

Thank you, Chef, good on you. It looks good, don't you think?

Brian, that's what I like, a lot of fabulous vegetables on the plate.

-Keep that in mind, please.

-I've written it down.

-Right, I'm going to tuck in.

-OK, help yourself to a cutlet.

-Yeah.

-Do you like your meat underdone?

-Very.

It's lovely and tender. Straight through.

Do you know, he cooked that in a water-bath, in a sealed envelope

for about 35 minutes, and then coloured it outside.

It's definitely not the way I would have done it,

but it is actually...it's tender,

it's got a nice texture, it's full of flavour, that is perfect, that.

What I like about cooking it like that is that the fat tastes

-really good.

-Yeah.

And there's not a lot of fat left on the meat,

but it really adds to the flavour.

I like the way he's done the vegetables,

because they're cooked, but they're crunchy.

There's one thing I can't stand is a soggy vegetable.

Do you know why? It reminds me of my mother.

HE LAUGHS

It is lovely and it's a great representation

of Yorkshire products, is that. Delicious.

Simon's vegetables were grown in the grounds of historic Harewood House,

which is where Brian will be cooking his celebration of West Yorkshire.

I've gone on ahead to make sure I get my fix of history

and architecture at this magnificent stately home.

Harewood House is a neoclassical mansion that sits

amidst acres and acres of parkland.

Now it looks natural, but in fact every bit of it was man-made,

designed by Capability Brown.

And linking the two, we have this superb terrace and steps designed by

Sir Charles Barry, who also created these fabulous formal gardens.

This magnificent long gallery

represents Thomas Chippendale's biggest commission,

and he designed and made most of the furniture in it.

There are side tables, the lamp bearers, the chairs,

and most extraordinary of all, look up,

these look like velvet curtains,

but they're incredibly clever, because it's a total artifice.

Chippendale carved each and every one out of wood.

And on the opposite wall, a very impressive collection of early

Renaissance paintings -

probably one of the finest collections in the UK.

The 77-foot-long gallery ceiling is covered with exquisite

decoration, depicting Greek Gods and Goddesses

surrounded by a multitude of animals, urns and flowers.

It's such a brilliant room, I'd love to have a party in it.

Sadly, we're not allowed to have a party indoors,

but the weather's so lovely, we've set our kitchen up

outside for Brian's celebratory dish.

I've decided for my taste of West Yorkshire to cook

a rack of Richard's locally reared venison,

with braised chicory, which is also known as Belgian endive.

We've got some fantastic venison that Richard gave us.

It's quite bigger than I thought it would be.

It's red deer and it is a good weight, which is fantastic.

But the first thing I need to, I want to seal it well,

so I'm going to seal it in the pan here, a bit of local rapeseed oil.

-I love that rapeseed oil.

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

-Yeah.

There's no fat on it at all, Brian.

No, none at all, normally if there's a bit of fat,

you try and render the fat off.

-Yeah.

-But I still want to get a good colour.

-So that when it goes in here, it comes out nicely presented.

-Yeah.

So, we're going to serve a rack of venison.

I'm going to serve it with some endives.

I'm going to serve it with a bit of red wine sauce.

It's a really simple dish, but get a big,

good bit of colour there, get a bit of salt and pepper on.

Not a lot, but enough.

And I'm going to turn it over then, to do the other side,

so I know I've got a decent colouring on it.

But I've also got some flavour in the pan. So just...

pick it up.

-Just look at that colour.

-Yeah.

-Can you see the colour already?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic. And it smells good.

You're not cooking it, you're just sealing it.

We're just sealing it to start with

and then we're going to cook it on this machine over here.

So leave that for a couple more minutes.

Right, whilst that's happening, over here I've got a pan here

and I've got these onions well coloured now.

-Yeah.

-OK, so...

And I won't ask what you're cooking those in cos I think

-I know the answer.

-No, you don't, it's in rapeseed oil already.

Little bits of veg that you've got left.

Celery goes in there, odds and sods that you've got left,

just chop them, fantastic, bags of flavour in there.

-Yeah.

-And if you had any trimmings from the meat,

you'd put those in there as well, get a good colour

and get bags of flavour, so that's on its way now.

-So I'm going to cook this and I'm going to baste it with sage.

-Yeah.

Lovely local sage. I'm going to make the red wine sauce in here,

and over here I've got some braised endive.

We'll come back to those in a minute, but they're already cooked.

So you poached those?

-They're braised, so they're in chicken stock...

-Yeah.

..a wee bit of butter, salt and pepper.

-But you cooked that in the oven?

-Cook them in the oven, yeah.

Take about 30 minutes. OK.

Let's just have another check of this, see how we're doing.

Now they're probably going to take about 15 to 20 minutes to cook,

but please remember, like everything,

keep them underdone, you can always put it back on, you can't change it.

So with that in mind, I've got a couple on the go here,

they've been going for about 20 minutes, just look at that now.

-Oh, yeah, fantastic.

-That's looking great.

Leave that for a few more seconds.

I'm going to put this in here, however.

What I'm going to do now,

just really so you can see it.

I'm going to take those out into here.

This is only to hold it, for no other reason

and I'm going to chop some sage up.

Lovely sage leaves.

OK, that's to go now with my butter.

So I'm going to put that over here, it's just a little bit of butter.

But what I also want, I want the stalks I wouldn't use...

-Yeah.

-..to go into my sauce.

Get full power on that now and I'm going to put some red wine in there.

Now this is the moment when you have to check that the products...

are proper products.

We know that the venison's fantastic, the veg is...

Yeah, I know where you're coming, so have a swig and get over with.

Just going to check the product, OK. Just to see if it's, er...

-I think I'll...

-Oh, no, second opinions we don't need.

-Take it from the... Love it, there you go.

-Oh!

-You can have that.

Right, so we put that in, I want to reduce it down to a syrup...

-Yeah.

-..a bit of chicken stock to make our sauce.

Over here then, back to this.

I put my sage, chopped sage, into some melted butter.

And I'm just going to now just baste it a little bit with butter,

just get a bit of flavour to get that sage on there.

And all I'm going to do now, I'm going to take this off,

put it to one side and let it sit.

-Remember what I said about keeping things underdone.

-Yeah.

I reckon this is going to be perfect.

Let me turn that down a bit and get this pan on here.

Now, I'm using the pan

because it's still got the flavour of the venison in there,

a bit of the sage in there, so we want to keep all that here, and

that'll help us as we move on with our braised endive.

How long do you reduce that stock for?

Well, it is a-piece-of-string syndrome, is this,

it's as long as you can, as long as you want.

-Yeah.

-If you can reduce it to a syrup and you've got time...

-Yeah.

..then fantastic.

If I hadn't already put the oil in there, I could have taken

this pan off, put it in here and it will just disappear very quickly.

-Yeah.

-The concentrated flavour.

These things are all about real flavour at the end of the day.

And no matter how good they look,

as you know, it's really what they taste...it's all about, so...

You can't really rush that.

No, no, well, we will a little bit, but you're right, we can't.

But you watch what I do in a second, so, OK, so...

a bit of chicken stock in there.

Chicken stock is fairly neutral and works well, you don't

really want something overpowering.

Belgian endive, these are. Do you like bitter things?

I grow endives, I grow the Italian chicory, the round ones

and actually they stay in the ground all winter long.

Is that cos they're frightened of coming out to your house?

No, it's because that's what they do and they respond well to frost.

Just a little tip here again,

take it away from the heat, because we've got liquid in here.

-Yeah.

-It'll spit all over the place, if you're not careful...

-Yeah.

-..so just put those in there, cut side down.

-Yeah.

Just give it a nice bit of colour.

I have to say, people that like these REALLY love them.

It's not my favourite vegetable or flavour, but those that like it...

-It's mine!

-Well, there you go, you see, this is why I'm doing it.

-I REALLY like them.

-So a really nice colour in there.

I'm going to put a bit of butter in here, cos we need to, er...

-Cos we need to what, Brian?

-You will...

The difference in flavour that that butter adds is just phenomenal.

A bit of salt and pepper.

Well, I eat a lot of game up here in Yorkshire, Brian,

because obviously there's grouse shooting and pheasant shooting

and partridge shooting in season, and venison, as you say,

you can get more or less all year round now.

A lot of people in London,

top restaurants, get their game from this part of the world.

It's got a great reputation

and people know what they're doing up here.

I think the other benefit of game is it's free-range

and it has very, very little fat on it.

-The game is free-range by definition, is it not?

-Yeah.

Yeah, I think this venison although it...some may say it's farmed...

-It's not.

-..it's very much like wild.

It's treated like wild and it lives like wild,

and you can tell that and we all know that these satisfied beast

and birds make better eating, at the end of the day.

-So, lovely, that's looking good. I think, don't that look good?

-Yeah.

I'm right chuffed with that, that looks fantastic, does that.

We'll put that over here. I'm just going to take this

out of here now.

There's just one little trick

and then we're probably ready to serve up then, which is even better.

Put that there.

Now the pan's got bags of flavour, we don't want to lose that.

Our stock is starting to thicken here,

so what I'm going to do, I'm going

to very quickly pass the stock off.

That goes in there like that.

We'll just put that out of the way,

so we've just got goodness in there, that's really like getting,

as you said, bags of flavour, bags of goodness.

Take it away from the fire so there's no danger.

Put that in there.

And because it's got a big surface, it's very hot,

-it'll start to reduce.

-Yeah.

-To control it,

you put it back in this pan.

And now I've got...it's started to thicken up, which is lovely.

That's looking good.

I'm going to surprise myself, I'm going to be quicker than I thought.

-Right.

-Okey-doke, what I'm going to do, I'm going to cut...

-a couple of cutlets.

-Yeah.

-Just look at that.

-Yeah.

And I know you like it underdone as well.

No, that's exactly how I like it.

That goes there.

We'll just put the braised endives

like that and we've caramelised them a little bit.

Those go...

Don't forget the juice.

We've got a sauce boat here.

Chopped chives just work nicely for me,

give it that little bit of... a bit of colour there.

And then all we need to do is actually make sure

we didn't waste that.

Get it in there.

I'll drink the rest.

And as I pour that into here

and put it on my serving dish,

and you all simultaneously burst into rapturous

rounds of applause, ladies and gentlemen,

there is the venison dish! APPLAUSE

Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming, thank you very much.

Why don't you come and have a taste?

Right, get forks.

Richard, it's your venison, so you deserve the first dish.

Chunk!

-Richard, what do you think of the venison?

-Absolutely perfect.

You've done a brilliant job.

-I think my wife is the only one that could do it better.

-THEY LAUGH

-Pass it round over there, will you, chief?

-She's feet away!

You had to say that!

-Absolutely delicious.

-Really.

-It's much

-more tender than I thought it would be.

-Well, that's good.

And very tasty indeed.

-What do you reckon?

-Yeah, good.

-That's good.

-What do you think to that?

-Brilliant, yeah. Yeah.

-Say that again.

-Brilliant.

-Brilliant, what a lad, eh!

-That melts in your mouth.

-Oh, gosh.

-Thank you.

-Very tasty.

-Mm, fantastic.

-Very good.

-I will be back.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Thank you!

-Well, what do you think, girl?

-It's been a top trip.

The pork pie with my name on it...

Oh!

..was one of the greatest moments of my ENTIRE life,

plus the pie was five-star.

I noticed that - you really were touched by that?

-I was REALLY, really touched by it. Rhubarb, I adore.

-Yeah.

Great architecture, Harewood House, no, it's been a top trip.

I'll tell you what,

a lot of people here have never, ever eaten venison before.

-Yeah.

-And we've converted them. So that's an achievement.

But I think you're right, and certainly for me, that venison,

it just said everything there is to say about Yorkshire,

-for me it was a really great Taste Of Britain, huh?

-Terrific!