Ainsley Harriott on Honey Great British Food Revival

-Some of the best British produce is under threat.

-It's at the mercy of market forces.

-And food fashion.

-Produce that has been around for centuries...

-Could die out within a generation.

-So together we're on a mission...

-To save it.

We'll give you tips on how to find it, grow it and cook it.

-And crucially, how to put sensational British produce...

-Back on the food map.

I'm Ainsley Harriott. I'll be championing a great British product that is under grave threat.

It's been prized since Roman times,

yet it could slip away from right under our noses - British honey.

'Bees have been producing honey for around 150 million years

'and honey has been a vital part of the British diet for centuries.

'We buy 30,000 tonnes of honey every year, but shockingly, 90% of that is imported,

'mainly from China and Argentina.

'In my campaign to revive British honey, I'll don my white suit and head to the front line

'to meet the hard-working keepers of the amber nectar.'

There's a great demand for English honey. The big problem is producing it in our current climate.

'I'll be showing you how you can play your part.'

This could be your honey, guys. You too could be an urban beekeeper.

'And in the Revival Kitchen, I'll wow you with three fabulous recipes

'to show off the delights honey can bring to your dinner plates,

'including my mouth-watering honey duck breast.'

Honey is just not honey. There are so many varieties and flavours.

Hmm!

It really takes me back, this.

When I was growing up, South London boy as I am, we had a beekeeper that lived at the top of the road.

He looked like a Martian when he had all his gear on. We were petrified of him.

We were intrigued. What is he doing?

My dad, it's something he introduced to us, he brought it home,

massive tins, almost as big as paint pots.

But it just meant that we could slap it on our bread or put it on our cereals or into our drinks.

And the taste has stayed with me.

'Honey is one of nature's wonder foods. It's 100% natural and incredibly versatile.

'But we can't have honey without the honeybee and in recent years,

'our British buzzers have taken a battering.

'In the harsh winter of 2008 alone, their population fell by 30%.

'In a bid to revive the fortunes of the British honeybee, I've come to Sussex University

'to meet the UK's only Professor of Apiculture

'to get to the heart of the problem.'

I want to know what's going wrong with the British honeybee.

The British honeybee has declined from a million hives

-100 years ago to a quarter of a million hives now.

-That's dramatic.

Three-quarters of the honeybee population has just disappeared.

The biggest reason is there's less flowers in the countryside for bees to forage on

and we've got certain new honeybee diseases.

'So the professor and his team have established the British Bee and Honey Restoration Project.

'Their mission is to reverse the spiralling decline of the British honey industry.'

If you look to the right, you'll see a real beehive, an observation hive.

Here we're filming them and here we can see bees which are dancing.

So these are the forager bees who have been visiting flowers

and they've been collecting nectar and now they're telling their nest mates.

I know that this bee, because we've just been decoding some of their dances, has been foraging on ivy

which is blooming one or two kilometres to the north of here.

By analysing these dances the bees make, we'll be able to say the bees are telling us

this is where they make their honey from, so to help honeybees, this is what we need more of.

'Here they're also trying to breed more disease-resistant honeybees,

'such as the British black bee.'

There is so much more to the bee than just making honey, isn't there?

Yeah, if the honeybee didn't make honey, people would still study it as it's such a fascinating animal.

Nowadays, the pollination that the honeybee does for crops like apples and so on

is worth a lot more to us than the honey that's produced.

'That's true, but these tireless workers are responsible for producing their amazing product

'that I for one can't live or cook without.'

I'm going to be doing three recipes for you today. The first of them, I'll use Professor Ratnieks' honey.

It's like a floral honey.

Each honey has an individuality and a special flavour about it

and that's what I'm going to try and get across today, incorporating it into my recipes.

And for the salad base, I've got some pre-washed watercress.

I like to do watercress in a spinner because it kind of dries it out.

There's nothing worse than wet lettuce or watercress leaves.

I've chosen to use Comice pears in this salad which work so well with watercress.

I cut these into quite sort of thin strips here.

They don't all have to be perfect, of course,

because that kind of adds to the different style and texture of the food.

Season, add a squeeze of lemon juice...

..followed by a drizzle of olive oil, and work it through the salad.

I like the idea of using a combination of seedless grapes.

They're a bit on the large side, so I'll just cut these in half.

I'll just lay them like that, get that knife into the middle

and then just slice all the way through like that, carefully.

You've got all your grapes sliced.

In we go, into our saucepan.

And now for the star ingredient, the honey.

I'm putting in a good, liberal dose which equates to about four tablespoons.

As soon as that starts bubbling, take it off the heat.

That allows the grapes to slightly bleed, open up, release some of their juices

and that creates the perfect dressing to complement the honey.

Next up, the goat's cheese. They're easier to cook by keeping their rinds on.

I'll pop that into my oven now at 200 degrees Centigrade, 400 Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 6.

That is only going in there for two or three minutes, no more than that.

OK, let's have a look at those grapes now.

That's lovely. If you can see that,

the colour of the grapes has just changed ever so slightly there,

blending itself in with that lovely floral honey.

It will give it that lovely balance to go along with the goat's cheese.

Speaking of which, let's get that out.

Lovely.

Now I'm just glazing the top of my goat's cheese here

and that gives it a lovely crust.

And when the honey hits that, it just gives it a real kind of... Hmm!

It's just so exciting on the palate.

I'll just pop that on the top there like that.

And just sprinkle those round there.

There you have it - my warm goat's cheese salad with seedless grapes and wild honey dressing.

Oh, it's so good. First you get the goat's cheese,

then you get the slight pepperiness of the watercress,

followed by that lovely, floral honey taste.

Just a combination that works perfectly.

'I'm on a mission to revive British honey.

'What's apparent is buying British isn't always top of our agenda.'

Where my honey comes from, I wouldn't have a clue.

I buy a branded label. I'm not sure where it's from. Maybe England.

I don't think I've ever checked to find out where it's from.

'I think our apathy towards buying British honey is alarming,

'but that's just one of the many challenges facing the honey industry.

'David Bondi runs the UK's largest honey manufacturer.

'His company bottles over a third of all the honey sold in our shops.'

The total British honey production is only about 10% of everything

that we consume in this country,

so clearly we have to import lots of honey. We buy all the British honey we can. We'd love to buy more.

Our difficulty has been the limited supply,

but we work with our beekeeper colleagues to encourage them to produce as much as they can.

'They're obviously struggling to keep up with the demand,

'so I've come to Buckinghamshire to meet a leading UK commercial beekeeper to find out why.'

-Hello, Ged.

-Hi, Ainsley.

I'm looking forward to meeting your bees.

'Ged has 200 hives spread across the farm

'and in a good year, he can produce up to 15 tonnes of honey.'

What's it like being a commercial farmer, Ged?

Well, it's changed radically from when I started 20 years ago.

We've got so much more to contend with these days.

We've got a lot of problems with disease, bee losses over winter.

We've also got a lot of the good agricultural crops that were grown,

that were very helpful for beekeepers, have been stopped or greatly reduced.

So it's more difficult to find good sites where the bees can get a good crop of honey in the summer.

What about producing honey for you?

How long would it take for a bee to make a jar of honey?

For one bee to make a jar of honey, it would travel the equivalent of one-and-a-half times round the world.

That's why you need something like 50,000 to keep a hive active?

Yes, the idea is you get an awful lot of bees and they don't have to travel as far.

They're just going over there to the flower meadows.

-That's a mixture of clover and bramble. Would you like to try some?

-Oh, yeah.

-Dig in.

Yeah, I know. I'm right in there.

Go on, they'll all be after me now, all the bees.

I'm in there. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You can taste the wildness coming though that. That's definitely there.

Hmm! Gorgeous.

-And a bit of wax too!

-LAUGHTER

'So what can we do to help our bee farmers?

'Planting more bee-friendly flowers would be a start, but we can take it further than that.'

The thing that the British public can do is simply to buy honey.

Let's make sure that British honey,

when it's in the supermarkets, in the farmers' markets, that people buy it.

Very simple. We can all do that.

Wow! And I'm going to be using this, Ged's honey, for my second recipe.

The sauce is fairly straightforward. Loads of different flavours going on, notably the honey.

It really works beautifully with this.

So I'm talking about four tablespoons of honey.

I know I just pour things in, but that's the real beauty of being a cook. You kind of measure by eye.

That's followed by a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce,

balsamic vinegar and ketchup.

And to that, add a couple of tablespoons of muscovado sugar and a few cloves.

When that starts to boil down and that clove oil starts to be released into the honey and everything,

it's got a real pungency.

And last but not least, some beef stock.

Let's get some heat under there now. There you go.

All you want to do is bring that up to the boil.

Let's slice up that onion, shall we?

You see this end here where the root is? Because I'm using sliced onions as opposed to just chopping them,

I want to cut a little wedge out of that either side.

The idea of removing that root is the onions just separate beautifully.

If I hadn't taken that out, they'd be all glued together.

Add some butter and oil to the pan, followed by the onions.

While that's sorting itself out, we can get on with preparing the meat.

This is what they'll go with - lovely duck breast.

What we want to do is just score that skin.

Ducks are waterproof and their skin's like that,

so you need to score the skin a bit to release some of that fat.

Let's get our pan on now. The pan's cold, as you can see.

A lot of chefs will say, "Put it into a hot pan, so it sears straight away."

I'm not sure if it really matters.

I think you can put it straight into a cold pan and we'll let that render down to release some of that fat.

I think cabbage works wonderfully well with duck.

Cabbage in my house is a big thing.

Sometimes I cook it down with carrots and bacon and ginger and chilli, one of my dad's favourites.

-SIZZLING

-Hey! Can you hear that duck?

That duck is just kind of starting to release its fats now.

Give the cabbage a quick wash

and pop it in with your onions.

You don't need to put a lid on it. There's a real attractiveness about watching your food cooking sometimes

and just seeing it steam and starting to relax a bit. It's enjoyment. You do get hot, though!

I'll turn those duck over.

Just look at that. Crispy there.

I'm just going to pour off that excess fat.

Carefully do this, guys. They do move around the pan there a little bit.

That doesn't need to go to waste. It makes the most wonderful roast tatties or rostis.

I'll do a few of those later.

Duck fat is really good for that.

Pop that into an oven, 200 degrees Centigrade, 400 Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 6 again.

For that thickness, no more than six to eight minutes.

It'll just be beyond pink then.

If you want it deadly pink, four, five minutes, no more than that.

If you like it well-done, which is a shame because duck doesn't need to be eaten well-done...

I won't even tell you how long you've got to cook it for. There you go.

So, back to the cabbage... I've lowered the heat, so it begins to cook down.

Ears are a fabulous thing when you're cooking. My mum always used to say, "Grab the steam."

She'd grab the steam and smell. That will tell you a lot. But it's the sound of stuff.

You can tell that something has reduced down, it's drying out, so we need a bit of water in there.

That's it now, look. That's cooked down really, really lovely.

So at this stage, in with my crispy bits of bacon.

Add a splash of cream and stir well.

I'm going to take my duck out now.

For that final minute, all I'm going to do is take some of Ged's honey

and just drizzle on top of that. Look at that.

It's just going to give it that lovely sheen. Beautiful.

Pop that back in for another minute.

Now what we're going to do is just pass off our sauce.

It smells of cloves, the honey, it's slightly caramelised.

OK, let's take those beautiful honey ducks out.

You can see I'm carving it.

It just presents so much better than just having that lump there.

It's not chicken. This is duck. It demands respect, as my old head chef Malcolm used to say.

-JAMAICAN ACCENT:

-"Respect the duck." He wasn't from Jamaica!

And there you have it, guys. Look at that.

Gorgeous. Honey-glazed duck...

I should say Ged's honey-glazed duck with rosti potatoes and creamed cabbage and bacon.

I've just got to try that.

Oh...

Honey just works so well with savoury because it brings out the natural flavours.

I can taste the duck beautifully. It's gone into the sauce

and the cloves, so you get that spicy taste, followed by that honey.

Ged's honey is wonderful. Honey is just not honey. There are so many different varieties and flavours.

If you can find out what works with your cooking, you're in for a real treat.

In this country, we're consuming far more honey than our bees and commercial farmers can produce.

So it's up to us Brits to step into the breach.

One misconception is that you need wide open spaces in order to keep beehives.

You can produce local honey without breaking the bank and you don't need a massive field to do it in.

'In fact, within reason, you can set up a beehive anywhere, even on top of a roof,

'which is what this amateur keeper in East London has done.

'Mel took up this hobby six months ago and she, along with 25,000 other amateurs up and down the country,

'are filling the honey void by producing their own.'

It seems to be the perfect location to keep bees, isn't it?

Yeah, in the city not everybody has a garden.

I've only got a really small space.

I was thinking about where I could keep my bees out of harm's way, but with access to plants and flowers.

Did you expect it to be as exciting as this, being a beekeeper?

I had no idea how great it was going to be, to be honest.

There have been lots of surprises, some good, some bad,

but it's really fascinating watching the bees, seeing how they work, then tasting the honey.

So you can see, with the sun glistening, the uncapped stores,

and the ones here are capped stores, so the honey is underneath that.

That's what we'll take a sample of.

-We're going to scrape that off, are we?

-Yes.

-That's fantastic.

You can see it oozing out and the bees are feeding on it.

Wow! Do you have this on your toast in the morning, Mel?

-Yes, I'm a big fan of honey.

-So am I. We love it in our house.

-Great.

-I'm going to pop this back.

-Yeah. Look, this is just perfect.

This could be your honey, guys. You too could be an urban beekeeper.

Come on, you go back, guys. Go on, back you go.

Go and join your friends. That's it.

'Keeping bees as a hobby requires dedication and training,

'but it's becoming the backbone of the British honey industry.

'In fact, it's estimated that 99% of known keepers are amateurs just like Mel.'

-I can't wait to have a taste of this honey. You don't mind if I pop my finger in there?

-No, go for it.

Oh, yeah, that's good.

-You like it?

-It's the wildflowers. Probably all those flowers from Victoria Park.

-Well done, you.

-Well done, the bees.

-Well done, the bees.

'Without hobbyist beekeepers, we could never buy locally produced honeys, especially urban ones,

'but sadly, you'll never find them on your supermarket shelves.

'However, if you visit your local farmers' markets or honey shops,

'like this one in South London, you'll be in for a real treat.'

Wow! I've never seen so many British honeys.

I get frustrated in the supermarket because it's all imported stuff, but you've got a fabulous selection.

Those are 20 different British varieties.

The most local that we have is Wandsworth honey. Try that.

And is it easier to produce sort of urban honey than what it is like out in the wild?

Yes, in the city, there is such an abundance of flowers in parks, cemeteries and people's back gardens.

The bees don't have to fly very far and the diversity is fantastic.

How much of your honey comes from local people? You're encouraging people to have their own beehives.

A lot of these honeys will come in from hobbyist beekeepers all around the country.

They might come in with one bucket, 30 little jars of honey.

We've got some West Sussex honey that we got from a chap. We've got some honey from the Hampstead Heath area.

-Again not much of it, but we're supporting them and it's a nice way of...

-Keeping urban honey alive.

-Yes.

It's encouraging people to take up beekeeping, it's helping to sponsor their hobby.

It was a pleasure talking to you and it's nice to know people like you are supporting the locals,

just to keep the buzz alive, metaphorically speaking, because that's what we've all got to do.

We've been eating honey for thousands of years and I think you can almost call it a superfood.

In its raw, unprocessed state, it's rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants

and many people swear by local honey as a natural antidote for hay fever.

If you're feeling under the weather, there's nothing better than a home-made hot toddy.

I've got some grated ginger, some cloves and lemon which I've sliced and also squeezed into some water.

I'll strain some of that off. Don't worry about bits of ginger in there.

That really helps to clear your "nozzies".

And then a spoonful of honey.

That will take the old...

Take? Clears everything, I should say. Absolutely delicious.

When it comes to cooking with honey, there are many wonderful flavours,

but I've selected this wildflower variety for my final recipe.

Figs are one of my favourite fruits.

I like this recipe because of the idea of nestling them inside a beautiful sweet pastry tart

with a base of ground almonds and a wonderful reduction of wildflower honey spread on to the figs.

All that hard work the bees have done hasn't gone to waste.

First, we'll prepare the pastry.

I'll get that butter...

Add plain flour, icing sugar and butter to a blender.

I prefer to pulse it instead of just leaving my machine running. Let me show you.

Be careful. It's got a very sharp blade. Look at that. It's like fine breadcrumbs.

To bind the mixture, add beaten egg.

And then blitz again until the mixture starts to stick together

and can be rolled into a ball.

After chilling for 15 minutes, roll out on to a floured surface.

There really is something about making a tart. It's so satisfying. It's almost like making bread.

You know how much I love bread with honey, so the idea of making a tart,

the combination of the two, just for me is perfect.

200 degrees Centigrade, 400 Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 6 if you've got an old-style gas oven.

And after baking for 15 minutes, glaze the pastry cases

with the leftover beaten egg and cook again for a further ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I can get on with my orange and honey glaze.

This is a really, really good little tip.

That's my tablespoon there, my measuring tablespoon, and if you put a little bit of oil on that...

Just a touch of oil.

..what that will do is protect your spoon, so your honey won't stick to it.

Three tablespoons of honey.

Look at that, just flies off the spoon.

To the honey, add a few knobs of butter and some freshly squeezed orange juice.

If you've got loads of mates coming round for a bit of an adult supper,

then why not use just a little bit of orange juice...

and a little bit of orange liqueur?

Perfect.

So whilst that's heating up, I can prepare my figs.

I've just cut the top off there and I want to cut these into six, but don't cut all the way through.

So a little bit of control here. Turn that around and one half of it, cut into three.

Follow the knife almost all the way down,

then you can just open that up like a little flower. Can you see that?

I wish you were here now.

I can just smell that honey. It's coming alive now. It's beginning to release its lovely aromas.

Next, line the pastry cases with some ground almonds.

I'm just using the back of a spoon to push it into the corners, so it soaks up all that lovely juice.

Then it doesn't seep through into your pastry. You don't want soggy pastry. Soggy pastry is awful.

We're just going to pick that up now and just sit that inside our pastry case.

That's quite syrupy now.

There you go. Just spoon that around like that.

You've got the ground almonds on the base there to soak up any of these juices,

but try and get most of that on top of your figs.

It's interesting that in this country we don't tend to eat that many figs, do we?

But it's such a gorgeous fruit.

If I wanted to use something alternative, I might use something like a damson or a bit of peach.

And pop those back into the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes.

Now...

Look at that, the juice has just started to come out and...

The honey just kind of rises up into your nostrils. Just gorgeous.

And for the finishing touches, I'm adding a dollop of creme fraiche,

a touch of orange zest and finally, a drizzle of my scrumptious honey glaze. Hmm!

Just a few more drops around there.

There you have it - my caramelised fig and wild honey tart.

Oh!

This is great. I can taste the wildflower honey really coming through in the figs.

When you add something that has got that lovely floral kind of taste,

it just heightens the whole thing. It really, really is stunning.

It's been stunning, my journey.

I have been so excited about meeting these people who care passionately about honey

and the revival of British honey.

Unless we do something about it collectively, guys, it will just disappear,

so let's all of us get behind the Great British Honey Revival.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd