Health & Happiness Food & Drink

Now, I don't believe in quick fix or fad diets.

It's all about lifestyle change.

I've shifted some timber myself over the past couple of years,

almost ten stone.

It's all been about living and eating better

but never, ever, compromising on flavour.

My big reveal today is how to reach the heady heights of happiness

through healthy food!

For me, cutting out the carbohydrate was one thing,

but that didn't mean cutting out on fats.

My mate, Cyrus Todiwala, is an award-winning chef

with a secret stash of spice up his sleeve.

-How are you doing, chief?

-I'm doing good.

I'm challenging him to come up with an alternative take

on a gut-busting curry...

Be patient, man. Good food doesn't come in a hurry.

..to rival my macho salad.

This is the bit that's going to give me the edge.

You're cheating, aren't you, again?

Self-confessed salad dodger, Arabella Weir,

tries her best to fall in love with lettuce.

Can I just say that's mouthwash?

New drinks expert Joe Wadsack plays a blinder

with his top tips for red wine.

Fish with red, really?

Why not? This is like a fillet steak of fish.

But the big question is, which of our meals

delivers the most health and happiness on a plate?

This is the crucial point, which one are you going to choose?

I'm Tom Kerridge and this is Food & Drink.

Making satisfying, healthy food that's good for us

and doesn't stint on flavour, starts with using the best ingredients

and Cyrus needs a quality cut of beef for our cook-off.

I am after some beef fillet.

-How much are you looking for?

-500 grams.

-Yeah.

-Thank you very much, chief.

-Have a lovely day.

Full of flavour.

'Nowadays, my food has got to make me feel amazing,

'as well as taste fantastic.'

Perfect, thank you.

The secret to making mind-blowingly tasty, but healthy grub,

is as much about what you add in as it is what you take out.

Right then, Mr Cyrus Todiwala, the spice master himself,

-welcome to my kitchen.

-Thank you, sir.

What are you going to cook for us?

I'm going to make two things.

A beef chilli flash fry, with a yogurt rice.

-OK.

-That is seasoned with asafoetida.

-What is that?

-Asafoetid is a resin,

but is the God of Flatulence.

-I know a man who's also been called the God of Flatulence.

-Not me?

-No, no, no, a friend of mine, I can't name him.

-OK.

-Don't name him, then. See?

-Yeah, OK.

-Do you know what the smell is like?

-I know what the smell is like.

It smells like the God of Flatulence.

-It just makes me laugh.

-It makes everybody laugh!

-That still makes me laugh.

-We can't do without it, can we?

I'm going head-to-head with Cyrus,

to come up with the best tasty, healthy meal.

Not to be outdone by his beef chilli flash fry,

I'm also using spices in my spice-crusted tuna salad,

with cooked lettuce in an orange and raspberry vinegar dressing.

Cyrus reckons his secret weapon, the asafoetid,

will propel his dish out in front,

but surely beef and rice will never top fish and salad

on the health stakes!

I need to get to the bottom of this.

-Come on, chief, let's go.

-Let's go.

Bring your wok, you're going to need it.

Too right! It's game on!

I'm starting with my salad dressing, which needs to reduce

to a glaze, while Cyrus cracks on with cooking his rice.

Is there a special trick, or a knack, to cooking rice?

It depends what kind of rice.

You know, chef, there are 100,000 different kinds of rice in the world.

-You've just made that up.

-No.

-Really?

-About 2,000 varieties grow in India.

-OK.

I just shredded some curry leaves, instead of putting in a bay leaf.

I put some curry leaf for flavour.

I shred mine, so people will eat it.

When I've used curry leaf before, I deep fry it.

-It makes it very crispy, it tastes lovely.

-It does.

Is that a spot of oil in there?

A spot of oil, to keep it from sticking.

This piece of beef for Cyrus' flash fry is packed with protein,

minerals and vitamins and it doesn't come any finer than fillet.

As you know, in India, they will not kill a cow.

So how'd you get beef in the curry, sir?

There are bulls and there are buffaloes, as well.

Ah, so it comes from male.

Yes, all from the male, never from the female.

Listen, what I'm doing here is I'm toasting some cumin seeds

-and some coriander seeds.

-Yes.

As spice master, tell me, honestly, am I doing the right thing?

I'm going to toast these until they just start to smoke like that.

Gently.

Never a brisk fire. Gentle.

Dab it down with your cloth into the pan.

Why do I dab it down with a cloth?

Because it gets more contact with the pan, rather than burn, like that,

-and you twist it.

-OK.

-That way, then, you get a more rounded toasting.

Because this is just one little layer of flavour through a whole

-dish of something very simple.

-You are absolutely right.

Crushing it with the cloth, it makes the cloth smell nice,

-that's for certain.

-You know what you do afterwards?

If you just soak it in water and squeeze it, you get soup.

Really?

CYRUS CHUCKLES

You are joking me! You're winding me up now.

Spices, especially when toasted to release all of those fantastic

oils, add value to everything!

So what have you got in here, what spices?

I've got some coriander powder. That's cumin.

I feel really inadequate at the minute.

-I'm watching you, but I'm doing a really poor job of it.

-Not at all.

I feel like a kid playing football with his dad,

like, I'm a bit rubbish at it, but it is...

That wasn't a reference to age.

Rub it in!

That's the turmeric.

The beef marinates in Cyrus' spice mix for an hour or so,

while the rice cools.

This is my salad.

I'm just going to wilt these leaves down, just a little bit,

just on a very low heat.

As the chicory wilts in the orange dressing,

I add a glug of delicious British rapeseed oil.

No need to be shy with this. It has the lowest saturated fat

content of any oil.

Beat that Cyrus!

-It's so nutty.

-Yeah, exactly.

When you let people taste it in a bowl

with just some bread dunked inside...

I know you're off this diet. What happened there?

I needed a lifestyle change, so I thought,

"OK, what can I do to change? What can I live without?"

So, I made the decision, alcohol was one of them.

I've cut right down, almost teetotal.

Then, I cut down on the carbohydrates.

So, when you say carbs - no potato, no bread?

-No potato, no bread.

-What about the rice?

-No rice, sadly.

Although today, I might be very, very tempted,

I have to be honest with you.

Now, my salad here has no carbs in it.

The one thing that carbs do give a dish is texture and crunch.

This is where the texture is going to come from.

This crust will give a nice, crispy outside to the tuna.

Salad and Indian cookery, doesn't go together, surely?

The only salad I've ever seen in Indian cookery

is when I have come away from a takeaway and I open the bag

and, at the bottom of it, is this little plastic bag, tied with

Sellotape, of ropey old salad.

-That's how I associate salad in Indian cookery.

-So wrong, isn't it?

All sorts of wrong.

I love salad, but not everyone's a fan.

Salad sceptic Arabella Weir just doesn't get it.

Look, salad is boring.

Limp lettuce, tasteless tomatoes,

soggy cucumber...

Let's face it, even if you slather the whole thing in dressing,

salad is hardly a satisfying meal.

Right?

Wrong. Salad is no longer the sidekick.

Today's taste-conscious foodies are putting it firmly on the map.

And we Brits, the people who brought you fish and chips,

would you believe, are the leaders in the field.

We're running the world, salad-wise. Who'd have thought it?

Not me!

But I know a man who might be able to change my mind.

The man behind Britain's rise to world domination

is Dr Steve Rothwell, a genuine real live professor of watercress.

Come on, Steve, it's just me.

Tell me, what are your trade secrets?

One surprising secret element of growing a successful baby leaf crop

is wind, would you believe it.

The constant ruffling of the wind means the leaves

brush against each other and that means the plant makes

less of a certain enzyme called xyloglucan endo-transglycosylase.

Yes, I'd thought it would be that(!)

If there's less of it, the leaf grows, but having

lots of little cells, leaves with lots of little cells are stronger.

-They last longer in the packs.

-Mmm.

I can feel the effect wind has had on that.

Dr Steve is all about the future of salad,

but back in the real world, I'm generally all about avoiding it.

Chef Freddy Bird, from the Bristol Lido,

is convinced he can convert me to his salad ways.

When I was a child, you know, basically, a lettuce was about

all you got on a salad and maybe some cucumber if you were going mad.

Maybe if you were crazy, a tomato.

Are you selling salads as a main meal?

Yeah, I think there's definitely the demand, if you like, for salads.

In the restaurant, we fancy them up a little bit.

They are very popular.

You know, especially lunchtime, or with your early evening diners.

Freddy's secret to creating a salad that's worth making a meal of,

is to use a variety of leaves that provide texture,

herbiness and bitterness.

All well and good, but it won't fill me up.

The first thing that would put me off is,

have I got to buy one of all of these to start making the salad?

No, you can buy mixes.

You will see bitter leaf mixes.

-If you look and you see...

-In the salad bags?

-In the bags.

You can see them already there.

Buy two or three bags and just take a little bit of each one.

And then...

Then, if you're going to make it a bit more substantial,

take a simple goat's cheese salad.

Let's say you don't like goat's cheese.

You could do a lovely poached egg salad, something like that.

You could soft boil them, if you're not a fan of the poached eggs.

I mean, just a simple, really lovely chicken salad.

-Is that whole thing going in the salad?

-Yeah, a whole one of them.

That's not that much, if that's your main meal, is it?

-If it's main meal, then, yes. So that toasted.

-That toasted...

Which will make it go all melty.

Then we're going to have a little bit of diced onion through

the dressing. The dressing itself is going to be quite sweet.

You've got the bitterness of the leaves, the pepperiness.

You're going to have the salty bacon and the salty goat's cheese.

What you're doing is giving yourself all the things that you need.

And you can forget my favourite, the 1970s salad cream.

This salad is being dressed in even more flavour and texture -

sweet wine vinegar, fruity olive oil and some herbs of your choice.

Can I just say that is mouthwash?

Mixed into the red onion with some nuts, or whatever, for crunch

makes a delicious dressing.

Now, you're doing what my mum did.

You are making the dressing in the bowl.

What you want to do is you want to make the dressing

and then it's ready to go. Then, you can put your leaves on top.

You can wait until you're ready to eat and then toss the salad.

Your salad is not going to wilt and there's less washing up.

It may not be a lovely, big fat burger and fries

but when it comes to lettuce, I think I've seen the light.

Mmm...

That's really good.

-You can make a salad.

-Thank you!

HE CHUCKLES

If you want to improve your cooking skills and get some recipes and

great tips from me, go to the BBC food website and click on Dish Up.

Over the next year, we are going to be encouraging everybody

to get in that kitchen and get clever.

I'm a fully paid-up fan of salad.

What's not to love about lettuce?!

Wine, on the other hand, not so healthy. Or is it?

Cyrus, this is Joe. Let me introduce you to Joe.

Joe knows a thing or two about wine or guilt-free booze.

Maybe, we're hoping.

You see red wine can be good for you in moderation.

Having a glass of red wine, just a small glass every day

can reduce the level of cholesterol in your body

and it also has free radical mopping agents in it.

Right, OK. Have you heard of those before?

All the mopping I know is on the floor.

To be honest, that sounds like a band from the early '90s.

-It does, one of those '70s fusion bands.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, free radicals are in the blood

and they can cause ageing of the skin,

they can cause cancer cells and red wine cleans that out of the blood.

But, surely, lots of it is not good for you?

I think if you have lots of it, you undo the good that you have done.

So, low-alcohol wines...

Is there a good low-alcohol wine?

-Personally, I wouldn't buy low-alcohol wine.

-Why not?

Supermarkets are under pressure to sell low-alcohol drinks,

so they're seen by the government to be doing the right thing.

My advice to anybody is to get a nice bottle of wine,

-a bottle of soda water and water it down.

-OK.

To me, that sounds like sacrilege. You buy good wine and water it down.

There is a bit of reverence behind wine.

But drinking, for me, in my experience,

has always led to hangovers. It's got me thinking.

I'm going to my pantry, bear with me one minute.

-There's clever coming.

-What's he doing?

-There's clever coming!

-I'm scared now, what is this?

OK...

Now Joe, I'm sure, as a man, who drinks for a living,

-you have your fair idea of hangover cures.

-I do.

Now, this first one is sworn by the Mexicans, the Romanians

-and the Turkish - apparently.

-OK.

This is a salty, quite greasy tripe stew.

-THEY GROAN

-Come on, guys!

This is a hangover cure!

Let me know what you think of that.

-Tripe is not my bag.

-To be fair...

Would that get rid of the hangover?

-Is it OK? A little bit chewy?

-It's a bit chewy.

-Better than a full English breakfast?

-I'd have to eat...

Nothing in the world beats a full English breakfast.

Well, I don't know. Wait for this next one.

-Warm milk...

-Mm-hm.

-And into that - soot.

-That makes sense.

So, that would apparently take away the toxins

out of your stomach and gets rid of your hangover.

Double, double toil and trouble, let the cauldron boil and bobble.

It looks horrendous.

You are telling me they did this in the Victorian times?

Surely, somebody's proven it is bad for you by now.

They're not alive any more!

-All right, sir.

-It's your turn.

I'm going to have a go.

Here you go, Joe. Look at that.

It's a bit gritty. It's like eating asparagus out off the ground.

I could drink that, it's not bad.

Yeah, I...

-I have to be honest with you...

-Go on.

It might do you good inside,

but it's not done much for your tongue or your teeth.

-Joe, did you just neck that?

-Yeah, just to show you that I'm capable.

OK. I'd leave that to one side, because we've got something very,

very special next. Are you ready?

-Oh, no!

-Now, this...

Oh, no. Oh, look...

No, no, no, this is... this is a Mongolian speciality.

So, Joe...

Cyrus.

-This...

-Goat's eyes.

-Are you actually having a laugh?

This...

-Ooh, la, la.

-..is a pickled sheep's eyeball.

At least it's pickled, then. That's good.

It's a pickled sheep's eyeball.

You first, Chef.

I've already done one.

No, no, no, you first. You first. You first, come on.

-Oh, no, I'm not sure I can do this.

-So what happens is you normally...

I'm not going to make you eat it, don't worry.

You haven't got a hangover. It's OK, I understand.

I'll let you get away with it by not having a hangover.

-That can be your excuse for not eating it.

-Pickle's nice.

But that surely is enough to make you not drink.

Cyrus's rice would be a much nicer hangover cure with its cool yogurt,

healing spices and crunchy veg.

My crunch and texture are coming from the spice crust

on the top of my tuna steak.

-Are we scared of tuna these days?

-Bluefin tuna - bad, yellowfin is OK.

Right. Back to the job in hand.

Before Cyrus starts on his beef chilli flash fry,

he makes the healing spice mix for his cooling rice.

First into the wok, black mustard seeds.

You just have to be careful when you crackle them,

otherwise they go "slap" on your face.

Then in goes the cumin. Very quickly.

But don't let it burn, just the flavour coming through.

In go the ginger.

It's coming back to our key ingredient here, Chef.

-So, when your pan is not very hot...

-The smell is incredible.

-..then I add the asafoetida.

-So, the asafoetida...

-If you burn it...

The little pot of flatulence.

The little pot of flatulence

that is there to dissolve the flatulence in the body.

OK.

-You can smell it. Come over and have a sniff.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-You can smell it now.

-Wow, that heat...

The spice, see, that's gone to the back of my throat.

Once the spices are sauteed, Cyrus blends in the yogurt

and adds the rice.

I'm worried about that dish. It's looking delicious.

So, Cyrus, for me,

cutting out carbohydrates is the one thing that I thought,

"I'll cut down, see if I can live without it." What about you?

Actually, to be honest with you, after seeing what you've done to

-yourself, Chef, I think immediately I'm going to have my carbs.

-Really?

Have, and I think that's going to do me a world of good.

I know how hard it is to cut out one food group

but what if you can't eat most of them?

Kimberley Wilson is a writer and cook who isn't convinced

that a free-from diet can pack a punch in the flavour stakes.

Does this sound familiar?

You invite some friends over for dinner, only to find out that

one of them won't eat this

and the other can't eat this.

You might as well just ditch all your careful planning and give up.

One in three of us say we suffer from a food intolerance

and someone who's determined to show me I need to think again

about free-from food is food blogger Ella Woodward.

Three years ago, she became seriously ill and had to cut out

gluten, meat, dairy and refined sugar from her diet.

Nightmare!

It's really not about buying lots of organic,

exclusive ingredients from expensive shops,

it's just about real fresh food. It's about going back to basics

and actually getting things as they are,

not things that come in a packet.

Ella creates tasty, flavour-packed food without

most of the ingredients I consider essential to make a delicious meal.

Her recipe blog gets two million hits a month

and she runs a free-from supper club serving up dishes like this

dairy-free creamy aubergine dip.

Cut the end of a...

roasted aubergines, slice up some pepper

and just throw that in the oven for, like, ten minutes.

Then, tahini, to give it creaminess.

Some sun-dried tomatoes...

then we just blend it till it's smooth.

OK.

Mmm. That's really nice.

It's very creamy and smoky from the aubergine.

The aubergine dip is one of a trio of starters Ella's serving at

the free-from supper club, along with vegetable spring rolls made

with rice pancakes and a rich and creamy cannellini and tomato soup.

It's quite a struggle in London, where I can go and find restaurants

that actually cater for people that have those kind of intolerances.

The main event is a beetroot and buckwheat risotto

that, in spite of its name, is gluten-free,

or a black bean chilli - both served with a kale and sweet potato salad.

Sounds tasty, Ella, but are they going to hit the mark?

You get that creaminess and texture. That's really good.

'OK, so I'd cook that risotto for my free-from guests, but the proof

'of the pudding is in the eating -

and it's the pudding I really care about.

'Banana and maple syrup flapjacks

'and a dairy-free chocolate pot with a chia seed topping.'

-It is really rich.

-It's good, isn't it?

-Really, really creamy.

-Is that avocado?

-Yeah. That's what gives it the creaminess.

-It's so creamy, it's really delicious.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

Who knew, eh?

Ella's really surprised me with her free-from food

AND I'll never be stuck for recipes again when my gluten-free,

lactose-intolerant, vegetarian friends come round for supper!

I'm coming back. It was delicious, Ella!

I am ALL about health and happiness today.

My wilted red chicory is marinating in its orange

and raspberry vinegar dressing and, before I cook my spice-crusted

tuna steaks, I need to pull out the big guns -

my little gems.

Already got the chicory that's bitter

and then this is just going to add

just another little kick of flavour.

I'm going to blowtorch them.

A-ha.

You'll have to talk over the jet engine.

I can talk over the jet engine, sir, don't you worry.

Here you are, Chief. Come and have a look at this.

This, I think, my friend...

Although it's not spicy, it's the bit that's going to give me

the edge over your beef chilli fry.

Layers of charred lettuce, white chicory,

parsley and feta are topped off with the delicious wilted red chicory

in orange dressing. This, my friends, is what you call a salad!

This salad is definitely a bit different to that salad

you get from Indian takeaways.

On the other side of the stove, Cyrus is picking up the pace

to catch up and get his beef chilli flash fry finished.

I've never seen so much coming and going in one wok.

He's really pushing the boat out to impress.

The spicy marinated beef is in

and out of the pan in a flash before another fistful of flavours goes in.

Now, for me, I think that's a lot of ginger.

Yeah, but I cut it so fine-shredded that you're not going

-to actually feel it in your mouth so much, I think.

-OK.

I'm going to get on to my tuna. How far are you away from being ready?

-I'm not fully ready.

-I have to cook my tuna and my tuna has to go rare.

So, Chef, you're calling it healthy. Why the butter, then?

For me, cutting out the carbohydrate was one thing,

but that didn't mean cutting out on fats. I've lost over 9st.

-This is exactly my argument - all fat isn't bad, is it?

-Absolutely not.

But the fat and carbohydrate combination together

could actually be more lethal.

Cyrus woks the last of his veg,

in the final sprint to the finishing line.

-I'm ready to serve.

-I know you're ready to serve.

-Joe's a hungry man.

-Joe, are you waiting?

-Yeah, hurry up, Cyrus.

-Hang on, Joe!

Be patient, man. Good food doesn't come in a hurry.

I'm not sure what he's trying to say there!

My spice-crusted tuna salad looks lush.

For me, the secret to living without something has been

to replace it with something else.

No carbs doesn't have to mean no texture. I've put the bite

back into this carb-free salad by adding a spicy, crunchy crust.

That's the texture and crunch that you want running through.

The Spice Master's fillet is returned

to the pan for a final flash fry.

Cyrus's beef chilli with yogurt rice looks and smells amazing.

He's combined powerful, healing spices to make a fiery meat dish

and a cool, soothing yogurt dish.

How clever is that?

-That's the tuna salad...

-I can't tell you how good that looks.

-It looks amazing, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Oh! Kid in toyshop.

Absolutely.

-Lovely crust on the top.

-I could eat a plateful of that.

It does taste a bit like a fillet steak. What I love...

is the buttery creaminess of the tuna

and the bitterness of the chicory. That's a mouthful of flavours.

-Beautiful.

-I can't believe that's actually healthy.

-Once you start eating...

-No, there's no unhealthiness here.

-It's beautiful. For the charring of the gem...

-Yes, of course.

..he's bringing everything together.

There's no point in even trying that. This is...

You're just going to eat all of this.

Come on, Joe, it must be time for some healthy red wine.

Fish with red? Really? Well, why not?

This is like a fillet steak of fish. It's an unoaked, chilled Pinot Noir.

Think Pinot Noir, think under a tenner,

think chilled and that will go with that kind of food.

-This comes from a brand you might have heard of, Jacob's Creek.

-Yep.

And I imagine there's one or two people watching this show thinking,

"We've got a wine expert on a food show recommending Jacob's Creek."

Well, I think people are a bit down on this, they think

it's old-fashioned, but in fact, these are pioneering wine-makers.

-So, how much is that a bottle?

-£7.50.

For me, I think this goes very, very well.

Kind of that slightly...almost bittery, but orangey, undertones...

It goes really well with the salad, the chicory...

It really matches it very well.

And now, time to see

if Dr Spice's flash fry is worthy of the competition.

-This smell that comes from that...

-Wow.

-It is amazing.

Tom, mate, you've got your work cut out here.

Not to forget our ingredients.

All the stuff going on in my head - the creaminess of the yogurt

really brings all the spice and the heat down and...

Ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli, cumin -

all of these together invigorating the soul and the body.

You know it's good when he's going back for seconds.

I'm not telling you who's winning. I'm just checking.

That makes me a little nervous, I can tell you.

He's just double-checking the curry.

And all that flash fry needs is a flash drink.

So, this is a great variety, which really only comes from wines

from Chile and it's a great variety called Carmenere.

Carmenere has been around for ages and it was actually a grape variety

that was planted in Bordeaux, back in the day.

It didn't grow very well there, so it was the forgotten grape.

It was like some actor trying to get on to an English soap.

So, it decided to move to Chile and then it got a big part

in a Hollywood movie and now it's a superstar of Chile.

The reason for that is that Carmenere needed more sun.

Carmenere has a smell and a taste that always reminds me

a little bit of green peppers.

Almost a little bit of that raw, dry spice, a little bit of cumin

and turmeric about it.

Now this is about the most inexpensive brand you can get.

This is Casillero del Diablo, but it wins trophies every year.

£7, £8, something like that,

and you don't need to be buying a more expensive one than this -

it's the light, refreshing ones that work really well with a curry.

It's very clean, it's very crisp and it does go

-really well with the curry.

-It's a very tasty wine.

So, these wines, lovely as they are,

if you can't get a hold of them, any alternatives?

Look on the Food & Drink website

and there's some other options that I've chosen.

And you'll also find both our recipes for health and happiness.

This is the crucial point. Which one are you going to choose?

Bear in mind we're going to spend a lot of time together.

Honest, hand on heart, I wish you could say both.

They're such different dishes.

But...

I think that Cyrus has done an incredible job today.

The actual texture, the cuddly warmth of this dish -

I can't believe that's healthy food I'm eating

-and I think he's done a fantastic job.

-Cyrus, well done.

You can have that. Joe, we'll have a word about this later, Chief.

Sorry, Chef.

Nothing makes me happier than fantastic food and drink

and if it can be good for you, as well,

that's job done.

Argh! Argh!

That's what I was afraid of, all along.

If I get a bear hug, I might choke.

Next time, I challenge Ching He Huang to make some dishes

-to impress your guests...

-This is blow-your-head-off hot.

..to rival my fantastic finger food.

Not a normal chicken nugget, it's a super nugget.

And Joe has some big news about beer.

Stop the press - cans are better than bottles.