Gregg Wallace on Potatoes Great British Food Revival


Gregg Wallace on Potatoes

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-The best British produce is under threat.

-At the mercy of foreign invaders, market forces...

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-..and food fashion.

-Produce that has been around for centuries...

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..could die out within a generation.

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

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-..to save it.

-We'll give the best tips how to find it, grow it and cook it.

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

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..back on the food map.

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When you look at the supermarket shelves nowadays, you simply don't see

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the hundreds of potato varieties that used to be available to us.

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Well, I am on a mission to bring those varieties back to our dinner plates.

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Growing potatoes is a vital part of our heritage.

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We've done it for over 500 years, and for centuries,

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potatoes have played an important part in the British diet.

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But shockingly, over the past 40 years, 97% of potato farmers have left the industry,

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and heritage varieties have all but disappeared from our supermarket shelves.

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In my campaign to revive the ailing British potato, I'll be meeting

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the unsung heroes who are striving to secure our heritage varieties.

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That is the maddest thing I have ever seen!

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I'll be showing you what you can do to save our great British spud.

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The fun of digging them up is you never know what you're going to get underneath.

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And I'll be wowing you with three mouth-watering recipes, including potato dauphinoise.

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That's the closest you'll get to a snog on a plate.

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Because I'm a greengrocer, I often get asked what my favourite vegetable is,

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and I think people are really disappointed when I tell them it's the humble potato.

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But it's the most versatile thing I know.

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I've got lovely memories of my grandmother's roast potatoes.

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I can remember the first time I tasted a Jersey Royal.

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I can also remember my first batch of Pink Fir Apples I sold to the restaurants.

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Where would we be without mash?

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Where would we be without chips?

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It breaks my heart to think we are not making the most of this beautiful crop.

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Here in Britain, we know how to grow great spuds.

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We produce over 60 million tons of them every year, and most of the spuds we do eat are home-grown.

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But our tasty tubers have taken a bit of an image battering in recent years.

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Nine out of ten adults think they don't contain

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any nutritional benefits,

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and the younger generation are turning to foreign rivals.

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I prefer rice or pasta, because they're a lot easier to cook.

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They take less time to cook. Potatoes take a lot longer.

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And I also think you can kind of jazz up pasta and rice a bit more interestingly than potatoes.

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They tend to be quite boring, I suppose.

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Healthy? Absolutely not! Not the way I cook them!

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I put so much olive oil in them that I don't think you'd call that healthy.

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I think potatoes do have an image problem.

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My children definitely seem to think so.

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If I give them a choice and I say, "Do you want mashed potato or baked potatoes?" They go, "No! Pasta!"

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I want to find out how the industry is combating this huge threat.

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So I've come to this commercial potato farm at Aberlady in East Lothian,

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where the owner also happens to be the chairman of the Potato Council.

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What is happening to potato growing in this country?

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One of the challenges is that

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we have structural decline in demand for potatoes.

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Some people think potatoes can be unhealthy, but also some people feel that

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there are more convenient and immediate ways in which you can cook a meal, using rice and pasta.

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How can that be right, that people are turning their back on the British spud?

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Well, people don't necessarily want to have to peel a potato.

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But we are able to offer now a whole range of potato products, from fresh to processed, that provide

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immediate convenience, just as easy and quick to cook as rice or pasta, but much more nutritious.

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There's as much vitamin C in a potato as in a glass of tomato juice. People don't realise.

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Are people just going for all-rounders, and is it making potatoes a bit dull?

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It's a challenge, yes.

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There are many people who don't know one potato variety from another, and it's up to the industry to

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make sure we show consumers how to make the best use of potatoes.

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Now, the best way to fall back in love with the potato is to get cooking with it.

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I've got here one of my favourite potatoes in the world, and that is the King Edward, OK?

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It's a really good mixture of waxy and floury, and I'm going to prove

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that the only starch that you need in your cupboard is the spud.

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I'm going to make the Italian classic potato gnocchi.

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I've boiled the potatoes in salted water for about ten minutes.

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Now, I'm going to leave those to cool, and I'm going to start my sauce.

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Gnocchi is no different to any other potato dish in that,

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once you've learnt how to make it, like mash,

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or chips or boiled potatoes, once you've learned how to

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do them probably, they will go with any flavours you like, OK?

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Tomato I'm doing now, because I think everyone should know how to make a good tomato sauce.

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Pasta and rice is not part of our heritage.

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They're nice things, but that's not what we grew up with.

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That's not what our culinary tradition is built on.

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We are northern Europeans. We don't grow rice.

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We grow spuds, is what we do! Right.

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Onions in.

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I'm going to lightly flour this surface.

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I've got here one of my favourite contraptions...

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..a potato ricer. Look.

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Stick that in there...

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..and then you just squeeze, gently squeeze,

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onto the floured surface.

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More flour,

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lightly...

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..over the top.

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And now, all you're doing is bringing this together

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like a dough, and work it.

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Work it and work it,

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like a lump of Play-Doh.

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Look.

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And all we've got is the moisture in that potato and flour. It's light.

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Look at it. Beautiful thing.

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To my base of tomato sauce with onions and garlic, I'm adding some puree to give the flavour more depth.

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You take your gnocchi dough. That's still warm.

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Break a bit off and roll it.

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Now look, that's perfect.

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It's up to you, the size of your gnocchi.

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I just want to break the end bits off.

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I reckon about there, OK?

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That's about the size of it.

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And then you just press your fork into it like that.

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If it starts to come apart on you, put a little bit of flour to hold it.

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Feel it. Get to know it.

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So it's all coming together.

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Before I cook the gnocchi, I need to add herbs to the sauce.

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If it's a soft, leafy herb, it goes in at the end.

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And I've heard chefs say that you shouldn't cut basil,

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you should rip it, cos you lose flavour.

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Well, I'll give any blindfolded chef 50 quid if he can tell me

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the difference between a cut and a ripped basil.

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Stir that in there.

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Then, cook the gnocchi.

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Remember, we've already cooked the potatoes, OK?

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So when they start floating up to the surface, they are done.

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Come on, baby.

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Drain off the excess water, then add the gnocchi to the tomato sauce.

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Mmm.

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OK, one last bit of basil.

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There it is - my great British potato gnocchi.

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It's firm, the potato, yet it's soft.

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You may have never had potato like this before.

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I told you, you don't need pasta.

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Go on, please, just have a go.

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On my campaign to revive the ailing British potato, I've found that

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it's not just farmers who are working hard to produce great-tasting spuds.

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This is the unseen world of potato growing.

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Most people think to grow potatoes you throw seeds in the ground,

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but it's a lot more complicated than that.

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Here in Edinburgh, at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture,

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there's a whole department devoted to potatoes.

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Some are researching new ways of combating crop-threatening diseases, such as potato blight,

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whilst others test the properties of new varieties

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to make sure we have the very best chippers and boilers.

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But what gets me really excited is there's a massive data bank of heritage potatoes.

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OK, so in here we have our living genetic resource collection of over 1,000 potato varieties.

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About 1,000 varieties of potatoes growing here?

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Every year we grow 1,000 varieties of potato

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so that we can keep maintaining the right trueness of type.

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So, are they all stored here?

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Yep. We can see something you might ask for.

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-So is there any particular variety you haven't had?

-Really?

-Yep.

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Do you have any Pentlands?

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-Yeah, sure. Heather will bring one up for us.

-This is mad!

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This machine is like the Noah's Ark of potatoes, and it houses

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some varieties which are no longer grown anywhere else in the world.

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Here at the front we've got Pentland Falcon...

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-Loads.

-Pentland Hawk, Pentland Ivory, Pentland Raven.

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So, all Scottish-bred varieties, which aren't very much grown any more.

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Beautiful potatoes, but these probably haven't been on the shelves for 20 years.

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That's right. That's right.

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-Can I have another go?

-Of course.

-A game!

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Salad potatoes - a Roseval?

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Yeah, we should have a Roseval for you.

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Ha ha!

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That is the maddest thing I have ever seen!

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-Roseval.

-There it is. There you go.

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It's a little bit sad that you can't access these anymore. You can't get 'em.

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Not in supermarkets, but if people want to grow them,

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they're here, ready for us to supply to people.

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One of the reasons we've lost so many of the old-fashioned heritage potatoes is that they were prone to

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the dreaded disease, potato blight, which is exactly what happened with this particular potato,

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which contributed to the deaths of over a million people from starvation in Ireland in the 19th century.

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-This is Lumpers, and this is the potato which is famous for the Irish potato famine.

-You're kidding!

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And it's now fallen into complete disuse.

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Was the blight that great because they were all growing the same variety?

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-Yeah, that was one of the main reasons.

-I didn't know that. Crikey!

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I kind of want to keep one!

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No, you can have it.

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Incredible. And what is that thing that looks like a turnip?

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This is a new variety bred by a Scottish breeder,

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which is a general-purpose variety called Apache.

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Obviously, it's got a particular look to it,

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and it's a very flavourful potato.

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Mate, that is just weird.

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That's true, but it's eye-catching, though.

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But at the end of the day, it all comes down to taste,

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and I can't be in a room full of spuds without wanting to eat them.

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This is the Apache, which is the new one. You can see already the colour of the flesh.

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And here's the Lumpers, which is a much paler flesh colour.

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-Dig in?

-Yeah, go for it. Apache.

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I have to say,

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that is really nice.

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Firm but slightly creamy, really earthy flavour. I really like that.

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And what the potato breeders try and do, is blend

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the best of the old flavour with new disease-resistant characteristics.

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Go for the Lumpers.

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See if it was worth all the angst of the famine.

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The Lumpers has got nowhere near the flavour...

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of the Apache.

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It's almost slightly watery.

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Whoa! The science of it!

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You know, I had absolutely no idea.

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I find that comforting, that people are working really hard to make sure

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we've got the best chippers, the best boilers, the best roasters.

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I tell you, this has got to help potato sales. It's got to.

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The new varieties, they're just cousins of the old ones.

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The old ones are still living.

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They're living inside the new varieties. They are great.

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If you want to get the most from your spuds, you have to remember that different potatoes do different jobs.

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If you want to make perfect mashed potato, you want a floury potato.

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And the one I've picked here, that you'll be able to get, is the Arran Victory.

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For chips, you want something really, really starchy.

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I've picked the King Edward. It's one of my favourite chippers, OK?

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And for boiling, you want something really waxy.

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This is a beautiful, nutty potato. It's a Charlotte.

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That's a really good salad potato.

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Boils really well. It also roasts really well.

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For my second recipe, I'm going to cook a good, old favourite of mine.

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I've got here a beautiful red Duke of York. And the reason I've picked it is it's slightly waxy.

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I need it waxy, because I don't want it soaking up loads of liquid.

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Start by peeling the potatoes.

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The dauphinoise is a buttery, garlicky, absolute delight.

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I don't know anybody who doesn't like it.

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You bring one of those steaming out of the oven...

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Basically, it's layers of potatoes with pepper, salt, butter and garlic. I mean, who wouldn't love that?

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Would you like me to tell you a story?

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When potatoes were brought to Europe, people wouldn't eat them.

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They were scared of them. The reason is,

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they grew underground and the leaves are related to deadly nightshade, which is poisonous.

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Parmentier said to Louis XVI - the last French king who had his head cut off -

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"I can get the poor to eat potatoes.

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"I'm going to grow some outside the walls of Paris, and would you lend me the Royal Guard?"

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People thought they were valuable because they were being guarded,

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and like all good, blue-collar city dwellers like me,

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they came out at night and nicked 'em.

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And they caught on really quickly, as clever Parmentier knew they would.

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And his name is still celebrated in France with a cut-up potato.

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Peeled 'em, they're clean, we now need to slice 'em.

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Get yourself a mandoline.

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Which is one of these, not a musical instrument.

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You want them about that thick.

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Any thicker, they take too long to cook.

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Any thinner, and they might actually dissolve into mush.

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Keep these in water.

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Can you see how the water's changed colour? That's the starch coming off the potatoes.

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Starch is what makes them sticky.

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Now for the other main ingredient - garlic.

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Sprinkle with some sea salt and crush together.

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I don't know how much you use garlic.

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I'm going to do a dish that big,

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and I'm going to do probably three cloves, OK?

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But I really like garlic.

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There's an old cooking adage which is, you can put in, but you can't take away.

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So if you're not sure, do a little bit.

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And then next time, do a little bit more.

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Drain the potatoes, dry them off, and then you can begin to build your potato layers.

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Once you've covered all the holes in the first layer, OK, finer salt now,

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twist of pepper...

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..little knobs of butter scattered in there.

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It will melt and cook and all ooze in, don't worry.

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And then little bits of garlic that you crushed up, smeared over it.

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It's a messy job. You're going to have it all over your hands.

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That's the beauty of it.

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On MasterChef,

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everybody has to get everything done at breakneck speed.

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It's not like that, cooking at home. If you're late, pour your guests another glass of wine.

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You don't have a bald bloke behind you shouting, "You've got ten minutes!"

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For the sauce, I'm mixing milk and double cream.

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Yum, yum, yum.

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Then pour the liquid over the potatoes until it just covers the surface.

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Stick it in the oven at 180 degrees for about an hour.

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'Ave a butcher's!

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Look at that.

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Oh, baby, baby!

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Mmm!

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A few more little crispy ones on top.

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One of my favourite ways of serving this dish is with

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a good, old-fashioned British pork chop and succulent red cabbage.

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Mmm! Mmm, mmm, mmm!

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It's getting through that crunch to that beautiful softness underneath.

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There's a little hint of garlic there, but the main flavour there is of

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good, British, earthy potatoes, straight out of the ground.

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It's our heritage. It's beautiful.

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That's the closest you'll get to a snog on a plate.

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The past 40 years have been tough for potato farmers, and for many, the only way to stay in business was

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to concentrate on growing just one or two varieties, such as the Maris Piper or King Edward.

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But there are some brilliant growers out there who are actually bucking the trend,

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and they are keeping some amazing heritage varieties alive.

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Carroll's Heritage Potatoes in Northumberland is

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relatively small 50-acre farm,

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but amazingly, they grow 20 different types of heritage potato,

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including this very rare Red King Edward, which dates back to around 1900.

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What's special about them? What would people get from heritage varieties they can't get from the big shops?

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Some of the conventional varieties, Maris Piper,

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they're fine, nothing wrong with them,

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but they tend to be jack of all trades, master of none.

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If you want a fantastic roast potato, use something like Arran Victory.

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You can have yellow mashed potato out of Yukon Gold.

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You can have some absolutely snow white out of Witch Hill.

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So there's a whole series of things you can do with these

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heritage potatoes that you can't do with the more modern varieties.

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Anthony's lifting his last crop of the season, and now,

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they'll be cold stored, ready to be shipped to customers when they're required.

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Ooh!

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We have some Red King Edward that we were harvesting today.

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Fantastic potato. It's a red potato with the white eyes.

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The opposite to the King Edward that you are probably familiar with,

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which is basically pink eyes with a white skin.

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We think a slightly better taste, but then we would say that!

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-Still a good all-rounder?

-Fantastic.

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Ooh!

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What you have with you is some Shetland Black and some Highland Burgundy.

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I'll just cut through this one here,

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and you see that it has some blue flesh through, which is fantastic

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if you want to saute potatoes, which keeps the colour.

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And are these ones the equivalent in red, then?

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Yeah, these are Highland Burgundy Red you have in your left hand there.

0:21:020:21:06

And that's it there. So, again, you could call it

0:21:060:21:09

a novelty potato, but it does produce a wow factor on the plate.

0:21:090:21:14

The reason I love heritage spuds is that they have better flavour,

0:21:140:21:18

better texture, colour, and a real taste of history.

0:21:180:21:21

So before I leave, I want to sample Anthony's wife's Union Jack potato recipe.

0:21:210:21:26

Wonderful! Wonderful!

0:21:260:21:28

-For you, Gregg.

-Thank you.

0:21:280:21:30

You've got Salad Blue, Yukon Gold, Red Duke of York and Highland Burgundy.

0:21:300:21:36

Mmm.

0:21:390:21:40

Smashing my way through these. These are delightful.

0:21:420:21:45

This is delicious, which is quite surprising, as I've never been a fan of the Salad Blue potato.

0:21:450:21:50

I thought they were hopeless, the only thing to recommend them being their colour. That's not right.

0:21:500:21:55

Well, they don't yield very well, but they are pretty brilliant potatoes.

0:21:550:21:59

Mmm.

0:21:590:22:01

The fact is, it produces something which gets people thinking, looking,

0:22:010:22:05

discussing food, which is really what we're about.

0:22:050:22:09

I've got to say thank you.

0:22:140:22:16

If it wasn't for people like Lucy and Anthony, we'd lose loads more varieties.

0:22:160:22:20

They've got this wonderful potato, the Arran Victory.

0:22:200:22:23

Beautiful heritage variety.

0:22:230:22:24

The reason I've chosen it, it's light and fluffy.

0:22:240:22:27

It makes wonderful mash, which means it's perfect for

0:22:270:22:30

my last recipe which is the good, old, British, traditional shepherd's pie.

0:22:300:22:34

First thing, get the potatoes on, and I'm starting with cold water,

0:22:350:22:39

no salt, and I'm leaving the skins on.

0:22:390:22:43

And the reason I'm going to do this is the nutrients, the flavour of these beautiful potatoes...

0:22:430:22:47

They're not everyday potatoes. I want to treat them with love and care.

0:22:470:22:51

All the flavour is just under the skin. I don't want them waterlogged.

0:22:510:22:55

I don't want them absorbing loads of water, so we're going to boil them up

0:22:550:22:59

with their skins, and peel them afterwards.

0:22:590:23:01

Whilst they're cooking, slice up the veg.

0:23:020:23:05

Just rough, OK? Because we're going to put them all in a blitzer.

0:23:050:23:12

Blitz the living daylights out of it.

0:23:130:23:15

I still think the best thing about the shepherd's pie...

0:23:150:23:18

And, you know, I'm a very enthusiastic carnivore. The best thing about it is the mash.

0:23:180:23:23

Mash - soft, buttery, white mash - I think is probably the ultimate comfort food.

0:23:230:23:30

It just goes with absolutely everything.

0:23:300:23:33

Onions and potatoes. An absolute marriage made in heaven.

0:23:330:23:37

They're very similar because they're both sort of humble.

0:23:370:23:40

Always the backing singer, never the star. We'll make it into a star.

0:23:400:23:45

Right. Pulse the vegetables in a blender.

0:23:450:23:48

Then fry the veg on a medium heat until they go soft, but don't let 'em go brown.

0:23:510:23:57

For shepherd's pie, of course, I'm using lamb, and I think there's nothing better than leftovers.

0:23:570:24:03

As I slice this, the temptation to just

0:24:030:24:05

stick it between two slices of bread is almost overpowering. Cor!

0:24:050:24:09

Mmm!

0:24:100:24:11

Medium-sized chunks are OK, as they're also going to be blitzed in the blender.

0:24:110:24:16

Voila...

0:24:180:24:20

as they say in Lambeth. Now...

0:24:200:24:23

Can I just make a plea?

0:24:250:24:26

If you don't cook, just learn how to do this, cos it's wonderful, and everyone will love it.

0:24:260:24:32

Can you see now, look, the colour it's taking on, the little speckles?

0:24:320:24:36

Now, I've got some pretty sexy flavourings I want to stick in there.

0:24:360:24:42

Anchovy sauce, OK?

0:24:420:24:45

Now, all of these things are big, distinct flavours. Taste as you go.

0:24:450:24:49

Redcurrant jelly next.

0:24:490:24:51

Anyone who watches me knows I've got a really sweet tooth!

0:24:510:24:55

Mmm!

0:24:550:24:58

Mushroom ketchup, right? You may not have used it.

0:24:580:25:01

Readily available. Quite sour.

0:25:010:25:03

Add Worcester sauce, tinned tomato and a few sprigs of thyme.

0:25:050:25:12

And remember, these herbs are powerful.

0:25:120:25:15

Don't go putting a whole bush in.

0:25:150:25:18

So, the potatoes have been boiling away for about 20 minutes.

0:25:210:25:24

Wow! Just look at those beauties!

0:25:240:25:26

Now they're ready to be peeled.

0:25:260:25:29

Now look, the skin just comes away really easily, and we've protected all that lovely flesh underneath.

0:25:290:25:36

The water hasn't gone near it.

0:25:360:25:38

And using the ricer again, press the flesh through to get that light and fluffy consistency.

0:25:380:25:45

You want them to be like that - I'll get milk

0:25:450:25:48

and butter in there in a moment, and you want 'em to incorporate that liquid.

0:25:480:25:53

And that's what fluffy potatoes do.

0:25:530:25:55

Waxy keeps the liquid out.

0:25:550:25:57

Look at that.

0:25:570:25:59

Not a lump anywhere.

0:25:590:26:02

Apart from in my throat at the beauty of the mashed potato.

0:26:020:26:06

So, back on the heat. Butter. I'm going to put a big knob of it.

0:26:080:26:13

Ta-da!

0:26:130:26:14

A little bit of milk.

0:26:140:26:17

Who was the first man to decide to mash a potato?

0:26:170:26:20

I want to give him a kiss.

0:26:200:26:22

Done.

0:26:260:26:28

Done. Perfect, absolutely perfect.

0:26:280:26:31

And let's put the whole thing together.

0:26:310:26:33

Place the lamb in an oven-proof dish, followed by a liberal helping of mash.

0:26:330:26:40

In the oven.

0:26:430:26:44

Right. Depending on the size of your shepherd's pie, between 20 minutes

0:26:440:26:49

and 30 minutes at 180. Pour yourself a beer.

0:26:490:26:53

You know what?

0:26:560:26:58

I've got an oven full of childhood memories!

0:26:580:27:02

Oh, my word! Oh!

0:27:030:27:08

Bubbling, singing to you!

0:27:080:27:11

Mmm!

0:27:110:27:13

Don't be stingy.

0:27:140:27:17

Nice, big helping.

0:27:170:27:19

Served with some green cabbage, lightly cooked, still got its crunch.

0:27:190:27:24

And there you have my traditional shepherd's pie,

0:27:240:27:27

topped off with those truly wondrous Arran Victory heritage potatoes.

0:27:270:27:32

If the British potato is to stand any chance of being revived,

0:27:320:27:36

we've all got to play our part, and that includes growing our own.

0:27:360:27:40

The great thing about potatoes is they only need a small container,

0:27:400:27:44

so you can grown them in soil on a balcony, or an allotment.

0:27:440:27:48

Best to plant your seeds around April.

0:27:480:27:50

It'll take roughly five months, and then you'll be cooking your own spuds.

0:27:500:27:54

The fun of digging them up, you never know what you'll get.

0:27:540:27:57

So far, I've been getting some really good results. You know, a good couple of kilos per plant.

0:27:570:28:02

It really is that simple, and I promise you, you will love the results.

0:28:020:28:07

Mmm!

0:28:090:28:11

That tastes delicious.

0:28:120:28:13

That is truly wonderful.

0:28:130:28:16

I've been on a bit of a journey here and, yeah, I'll admit that

0:28:160:28:21

bog-standard potatoes, they do do a decent job,

0:28:210:28:24

but if you want something truly lovely - I mean, outstanding -

0:28:240:28:28

then you have to track down some of these old heritage varieties.

0:28:280:28:31

Look, right now, why don't we just start a great British spud revival?

0:28:310:28:36

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