Celebration Food Hairy Bikers' Best of British

You know, we believe that Britain has the best food in the world.

Not only can we boast fantastic ingredients...

'..outstanding food producers...' That's impressive.

'..and innovative chefs...'

'..but we also have an amazing food history.'

So it's safe to say that's what the Romans brought to us - the art of cooking itself. Absolutely.

It's called a sala catania. It's like a savoury summer pudding.

'During this series, we're going to be taking you on a journey into our culinary past.'

Everything's ready, let's get cracking.

'We'll explore its revealing stories...'

BOTH: Wow.

'..and meet the heroes that keep our food heritage alive.'

Pontefract liquorice has been my life and I've loved every minute of it.

And of course be cooking up a load of dishes that reveal our foody evolution.

Look at that. That's a proper British treat.

Looks good, tastes good, that's going to do you good. Quite simply,

Quite simply... BOTH: The best of British!

In this country, we've got a lot to be thankful for.

When celebrating all things British, our finest of foods are at the centre of every festival.

This could because many of our important religious events and traditional festivities

share their origins with pagan celebrations of the cycles of nature,

and the season's bountiful produce.

From the harvest festival to fabulous feasting at Christmas,

to fasting at Passover, Lent and Ramadan...

The most important events in our lives are marked by food.

And as a nation we certainly know how to throw a party

and these festive moments have produced some of our favourite dishes.

Mmm that is delicious!

So in today's programme we're paying tribute to some of the UK's greatest celebratory meals.

And first in the Best of British kitchen,

we're getting the party started with the mother of all British roast dinners.

If there has ever been a bird to celebrate a festival with, it's the goose.

And the goose has graced our Christian tables for years.

In England, the goose was traditionally eaten on Michaelmas in September,

the feast day of the Archangel Michael, who defeated Satan in the War of Heaven,

and was celebrated as protector against the darkness in winter.

Traditionally, this was also rent day for peasants.

And on this occasion, landlords would accept a fattened goose as payment.

So it was believed that eating goose on Michaelmas Day would bring good fortune all year.

And nowadays, it makes a star turn for our Christmas tables.

It certainly does. And...

we're pairing our goose with some fabulous autumnal English apples.

That's right.

Here's our traditional roast goose with apple and sausage stuffing balls and a cider gravy.

The perfect festive treat.

Aaah! Let's go and cook our goose.

Now then, OK.

The first thing we need to do, really, is prep it.

Goose, by the very nature of what they are, there is a lot of fat in there.

And that's great. That's not a bad thing, it keeps the meat really moist.

That one there.

These are this goose's love handles.

You see? Will you get off me love handles, you!

I've got them too!

Right, now, look. So just pull it, like that.

And there's areas here as well. Ooh! Ooh! Just prod it.

It's giving me goose pimples all over watching you do that!

'Next, quarter an onion, and put it inside the bird.'

Followed by three bay leaves.

Open wide!

SINGS: 'Tis the seasoning... Rub with salt and pepper.

Don't be frightened with the seasoning. Look at that. That's lovely.

Mmm. Fabulous. Now I want to wash me hands, mate.

Its little lily legs, if you just put it in like that, they're going to burn. We don't want that.

So we're making little boots. That's just going to stop his legs charring.

Now, half an hour before the end of cooking, we're going to take them off,

just to brown off, but that way, the legs are going to be delicious.

And the goose needs to be popped into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for a fan oven...

Yes. ..for one hour initially, then drop the temperature to 160 for a further hour.

Have you got it?

Time to bash on with the giblet gravy.

'Giblets make great stock.'

'Along with the classic trio of carrots, onions and celery.'

Just chopped in a rustical fashion.

It's funny as well, geese are quite expensive,

and by nature of cooking expensive food at a festival or a celebration.

There is a sense of occasion to it, isn't there, Si?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Stick of celery joins the carrot and the onion...

in the pot...

with my good friends, giblets.

And simmer that for about an hour and a half.

Now we can start to prepare the stuffing.

Stock's on. Yes. Goose is on.

Mr Stuffing.

While Dave's getting the bits together for the stuffing,

I'm going to pick through and chop the goose liver.

'Cut the liver in half, pulling out the hard tubes that run through it.

'We only want the soft, rich liver meat for our stuffing.'

Now I need a Bramley apple.

A nice, gnarly, English Bramley, straight from the tree.

Geese and apples go together so well.

Love it. It's going to give a nice sharpness to the stuffing.

Now to temper that, I'm going to add a couple of teaspoons full of sugar.

That's going to start to caramelise and make it really sticky and lovely.

I love this, because these are really old, proper, traditional techniques. Yeah.

To... You know, dressing a bird for table.

You've dressed it for the oven, it comes out, and then you dress it for table.

It's brilliant. Lovely conventions of celebration at a festival. Yeah.

The goose is the symbol of St Martin, a quiet monk who wanted to live his life as a humble hermit.

When the people wanted to make him their bishop, Martin ran away,

and hid in a barn amongst a flock of geese.

But the geese wouldn't stop honking, and poor old Martin was discovered,

and reluctantly led away to be ordained bishop.

He wasn't very happy.

Oh, crumbs!

So he is the patron saint of geese, and the patron saint against poverty, among other things.

So that's how whenever you see a stained glass window, it's St Martin with a goose,

and it's like, prosperity, and I suppose... Yeah.

Again, it's part of the goose's image as being a celebratory bird. Absolutely.

Geese have been to more parties than the average Essex girl. No, you're not wrong.

I'm happy with that if you are, Mr King.

That's lovely, mate. Yeah? Absolutely lovely.

Pop the liver in and just cook that for a minute.

Now, this is precious, isn't it? Beautiful.

You know, we're wasting nothing of the goose.

Its giblets are going to make the wonderful gravy,

we've got its liver in the stuffing,

we've got all the fat rendered out for our roast potatoes for the next month.

And the bird itself, we're going to eat it stripped to the bones. Yeah.

'Now we're adding the onions, goose liver and apple to 500 grams of sausagemeat.

'Then the same weight of breadcrumbs, and some freshly chopped sage.'

And we just need some salt and pepper in here, Kingy.

No worries. On its way. The best way is to get your hands in here, you know?

Oh, definitely.

So... Yeah...

Right, that'll be enough, now. There we go. That'll do.

Lovely.

'The goose has been in the oven now for nearly two hours,

'but before you get it out, cut some apples in half.'

'Brush them with a little oil, and nestle amongst the stuffing balls.

Now that just needs to roast in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

And do you know what? Yes? Guess what? What?

The goose is ready to come out. You have cooked your goose.

I have cooked the goose. Shall we swap, then? I think we should.

Oh, look at that. Yes!

You beauty. Oh!

Right.

It needs to rest, so we put that on a platter, cover it with foil, then a tea towel,

and it's just to relax in a nice ambient temperature,

which gives us time to make the cider and giblet gravy.

'We're going to use all of those wonderful goose juices,

'once we've strained off the fat.'

'And we'll save that for later, as it'll make the best roast potatoes ever.'

So that is goose gold. Look at that. That's all that flavour from the cooking.

'Now we've got to sieve the giblet stock.'

Add two tablespoons of flour to the meat juices in the pan.

Now, what we're going to do with that...

..is mix it in... Cider. Good dry cider.

I think about half this bottle'd do. Yeah.

Don't worry about the lumps, cos we'll whisk them out,

and we're going to pass this through a sieve anyway.

Right. The gravy's done. Yes. Mother Goose is resting. Yes.

Stuffing balls and apples...

Yeah, go on! Oh, Dave, look how those apples have gone. They're beautiful, aren't they? I know.

Shall we just arrange, like an Elizabethan platter? Lovely. Oh, fabulous.

Apple, stuffing... apple, stuffing ball.

Apple.

Apple...

There we go. Now that certainly is a party on a plate.

Be it Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter or your birthday.

Top tip about carving -

be confident.

Mm. Thank you.

It's nice and juicy. It's absolutely beautiful. It's cooked perfectly.

Right...

Got to have some of that stuffing with it. And a bit of apple. Oh, yeah.

Very, very good. Mmm.

Lovely texture, goose. Lovely with the apples.

Nice gamey flavour.

In my opinion, that is a true festival bird.

Mm-hmm.

But without the wellies. Oh, aye.

You don't get that at Glastonbury, do you?

Our roast goose with apple and sausage stuffing and cider gravy

is a fine treat for any table or celebration.

So go on, give goose a gander.

We love our festival treats.

# Pancake day, pancake day

# Now's the time to fry them... #

Now, there's one day in our food festival calendar

that hasn't changed for centuries.

Beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

We love pancakes and Pancake Day so much,

we buy more than three times the usual amount of eggs, milk and flour to make them.

And supermarkets start ordering their stocks in months in advance.

And here's the pancake recipe.

Four ounces of flour...

..and half a pint of milk.

One egg...

..and a pinch of salt.

Come on, Ken, we haven't got all day, you know.

Here I've got the flour, which has been sifted with the salt. I'm going to add one egg...

Mix it all together.

You gently whisk that around. Now, you gently beat the egg gently until all the flour's added in.

You want just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

And then you just roll it around like this.

And may the best pancake win.

That's going to make a very thin pancake, isn't it? That is the idea.

There we are. A perfect pancake.

Yes! Hooray!

Fantastic. Yes!

But who made the first pancake?

Who do you reckon made the first pancake? Does it go back a very long way? I just said that.

I would think it goes right back to Neanderthal Man.

But he didn't have all that gear, did he? No, he didn't. He just had to use hot stones.

She's right, you know.

Archaeological evidence shows we've always eaten some form of pancake using flour and water.

But Pancake Day as we know it began as a Christian festival called Shrove Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday is the day before the beginning of Lent,

and Lent lasts for six weeks, and during that time,

Christians are supposed to give up anything that they like,

special treats or favourite sorts of foods.

Nobody was supposed to eat any eggs or meat,

they weren't supposed to cook their food in any fancy way, or use any fat of any sort.

So the day before Lent began, Shrove Tuesday,

the women of the towns would go through their cupboards,

and using up all the kinds of foods, they'd have a great cooking spree.

As well as making pancakes to use up all the naughty, rich ingredients before the fasting period of Lent,

Shrove Tuesday also meant that you had to be shriven.

I've never liked the sound of that. It always sounded painful.

CHURCH BELLS It just meant going to church to confess your sins.

Aah!

And legend has it that back in the 14th Century,

one woman in a village called Olney heard the bell calling her to church,

and rushed out of the house still holding her frying pan.

Yes, and the people of Olney have held pancake races ever since.

Women have to toss their pancake three times whilst they hurtle towards the church.

On your marks, go!

And the prize?

A kiss from the verger.

And today, we're still flipping mad for them.

I-I-I-I love pancakes very much!

And we're curiously competitive about them, too.

How many scouts managed to set a new world record for the most people flipping a pancake?

You've got 108, making a new Guinness World Record!

CHEERING

The humble pancake, just made out of flour, milk and eggs,

and rolled in lemon and sugar, has become a cause for celebration itself.

Well, if you ask me, Si, you can't beat it.

The fantastic thing about modern multicultural Britain

is that as well as enjoying all the ancient traditions from our isles,

festivals from around the world are now celebrated here

so we get to enjoy party food from other cultures too.

MUSIC: "Holiday" by Madonna

We Brits, we love a good party, especially if it involves great food.

And the Indian festival of Diwali is renowned for both.

Diwali is like our Harvest Festival plus Christmas and New Year

all rolled into one.

For Hindus and Sikhs, it marks both the end of the harvest season,

and the start of a new year.

It's the last major celebration before winter,

and streets all over the world are lit up with decorations and fireworks.

From Delhi...

FIREWORKS

..to Leicester.

It's home to one of the biggest celebrations outside of India.

35,000 people come out to party during the five days and nights of Diwali here.

Now during Diwali, it's traditional to give gifts,

so we're here in Leicester to find out about that great festival gift

that is the Indian sweet.

Ho-ho-ho-ho!

Bobby's Restaurant is a Leicester institution, famed for its Diwali sweets.

We're meeting Bobby and his son Dhamesh to find out more about some of these amazing goodies.

Hello, sir. Hello, sir. Very nice to meet you.

So it's a family business, then? It's a family business, yes. We've been going for 35 years.

My father and my mother started it,

Yeah. So, you know... And Diwali's a family festival.

Look at this! That's a lot of sweet treats.

At the top we've got things made with cashew nuts. Yes.

Ground cashew nuts, pistachios, saffron...

These are mixed, they've got rose petal filling inside. Yes.

We've got chickpea flour sweets, we've got milk-based sweets...

Quite interesting. Very interesting.

Do the sweets at Diwali, or is it all the time, you have a tradition

of the silver and gold leaf on the top?

You can have silver leaf and gold leaf all the time,

but it's nicer at Diwali, because obviously it signifies... Yeah.

You know, it's nicer to look at, and also when you're giving somebody a gift,

it's like giving them something valuable. Precious. Exactly.

Now, the one that's really famous, the really famous sweety sweet...

Jalebis. Jalebis, yeah.

Aah. Da-da!

Oh, they're warm.

With Jalebis, they've got to be crunchy yet sweet.

Oh! They're lovely.

could you please put us, in a little Diwali box...

..a good selection of what you think is the finest of Indian sweets.

Certainly.

Now that's a good selection, if ever I saw one.

It's like giving a box of chocolates. OK.

You know, for people, it's giving a gift to others, you know. Often gifts to the temple.

It's nice, as opposed to a box of chocolates, a box of mithai.

We call them mithai, which means sweets. Ah, right!

The collective term for all these fabulous sweets. That's right. Thank you so much.

'We're taking our haul of sweets to share with Indian food writer, Roopa Gulati,

'to find out more about the ancient traditions of Diwali.'

Now, Roopa, we've got some sweets. Ooh! Some Diwali goodies.

Diwali delights.

SHE GASPS Look at that. Oh, look at those.

A box of wonders. What a selection. You've got the whole of India in a box over there.

I think there's nothing more symbolic of Diwali

than the sweetmeats that are served at this time of year.

The ingredients that go into all the sweets, they're so auspicious,

milk, cream, sugar, honey, water.

You know, they are pure ingredients that are often offered at temples.

Yes. To the deities.

Barfi really is my favourite. you know, if you can just catch the silver on top of it.

It's pure silver.

And you can't, actually, when you're putting it on top of sweets

or rice or anything, you can't actually touch it with your fingers,

because it sticks, it goes everywhere.

Diwali is the best festival. It's of bling. You cannot overdo it.

Because you're celebrating the new year, and that's what Diwali's about.

It's the victory of good over evil, you know, light over darkness.

The festival of light. It's the festival of light. Little lamps on Diwali nights. Yes.

Because the lamps are so important, because you're paying homage to Lakshmi.

The goddess of prosperity, of wealth. Yes.

And the lights are there to show her the way,

and if your house is dark, she may get lost and not bestow her great wealth on you.

The atmosphere down on the street, it's great,

and it strikes me that Diwali has become a festival for everybody.

It's about friendship and bonding and reconnecting.

It's a bit like Christmas in that sense. Sure.

Because families, wherever they are, they will make some attempt to actually come home.

And also it's about children. Dressing up in new clothes, having lots of parties, and being together.

So I think that's what Diwali means to me.

I think it should mean that to everybody, I'm sure. I think so.

Because what a beautiful, beautiful thing.

What a beautiful thing it is, and a lovely thing to be involved with, actually. Mmm.

We're really privileged, feel really privileged to be here. Yeah. It's fantastic. Yes.

ALL: Happy Diwali!

Now we're back in the Best of British Kitchen to pay homage

to another festival dish which is fast becoming a national favourite, the biryani.

The biryani is a proper festival dish. It's a party dish.

It's regal, it's royal and it's the ultimate one-pot wonder.

Note that Ramadan isn't a party.

Everybody just waits until it goes dark.

It's true, you fast during the day but you're not fasting for 40 days.

Every night it's a feast. Yes!

But the big one is Eid and that's when it's quite appropriate to cook a biryani.

The first sighting of the new moon marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting,

And the start of Eid, the three-day festival which is celebrated with prayer,

the giving of gifts and, you've guessed it, lavish feasting!

And here's our Best of British take on this classic Eid dish,

an elaborate creation of succulent spicy meat, layered with saffron-infused rice.

This beef biryani is a sumptuous one-dish wonder,

perfect for sharing with friends and family on any special occasion.

Right, basically we've got braising steak here.

We're going to trim the nasties off it, which won't take very long because it's very good meat.

This is the extra sinewy bit that you don't really want

because you want it to be a really nice easy eat. Oh, aye.

You want it to melt in the mouth, don't you? Yes.

It's quite cheap to do, it feeds a heap of people, but it's just brilliant.

Every flavour has its place in the dish,

and every flavour ends up on your plate.

Now, the all-important spice paste.

It's an easy job for the food processor.

You'll need two onions, four cloves of garlic, a thumb of ginger...

..and two fresh red chillies.

You can deseed it if you want it mild, or leave the seeds in if you want it spicy.

It's a festival, it's a party, let's have some spice in our lives.

Add 50ml of water, and whizz to a thick paste.

Listen to that baby go.

We're just going to brown this off. Don't overfill the pan because you want it to fry,

you don't want it to stew.

Lovely.

And look, that's the deep colour that you want

but it's just flashed because the plan is so hot. Look at that, beautiful.

Now, to the dry spice mix. Take your pestle and mortar.

Take five cloves.

Cloves, to me, define the taste of a biryani.

It just comes through right at the back end.

While Dave's doing that, all I've done is fried it off in some oil,

the juices have run, you come out and you stick it back into your biryani pot.

To the cloves and the cumin seeds, add two teaspoons of coriander seeds.

A piece of cinnamon bark. Take 12 cardamom pods.

The flavour is in the black seeds in the middle of the cardamom.

And start to crush.

Oh! Get real, get spicy.

I find cooking Asian food like this, cooking Indian food, is the most exciting.

You've got spices, you've got the fire, and I feel like an alchemist.

There are occasions that you could draw comparison to you being a bit of a mad professor.

Now look at that. That's my dried spices, look how it's building up.

I'm just going to grate half a nutmeg into that. Heavenly, isn't it?

You have a smell at home.

Just add this dry spice mix to the pureed onions and garlic, ginger and chillies.

This is an absolute banging flavour bomb. Here you are, Kingy.

This is going to be brilliant. Yes, it's great.

This spice mix needs to be cooked so just fry this

for about 10 minutes gently until it starts to brown.

There are many legends surrounding the biryani. It's a mystical dish.

One is there's a lady called the sleeping beauty from the Taj Mahal.

It's said she made the biryani like one dish that could feed an army.

And it's said that the word biryani comes from the Farsi word birian, which means to fry beforehand.

The smell is starting to intensify now so that's not too far away.

It's lovely and fresh, isn't it? The cumin is cooking off, the cardamom.

All of those dried spices, they need to cook.

What we're going to do with this beautiful paste,

we're going to now put it in to our beef.

Look at the juices that come off that beef, now it's been resting.

The lovely thing about biryani is you waste no flavours. Never.

Add the spice paste mix to the meat.

Then 200 ml of thick natural yoghurt.

Pour in 450ml water and two bay leaves.

Season with pepper,

then pop on the lid and let it simmer for an hour and a half.

It may seem like a complicated dish but it's SO worth it.

And we think there's nothing better you can do with a winter's afternoon than build a biryani!

As you know, biryani always contains rice

and the rice will cook off the spices and the vapour from the meat.

That's the beauty of biryani, but the rice should be pre-cooked a little bit.

While Dave's doing that,

another element to the biryani is layers of fried onion.

Nothing clever about this. I've just got water, salt...

..and rice.

Simmer this rice for five minutes, no more.

We want it part-cooked, not cooked.

They say the test of a good biryani is if you drop a lump of it onto the table,

no two grains of rice will be stuck together.

You know, a biryani has a lot of processes,

but you can get ahead with yourself.

so I might as well get on and do the garnishes.

I'm just going to hard-boil three eggs and roast off some almonds.

This goes on the top, right at the end, so that will be two hours away.

This is where this festival dish, with its many components,

begins to come together and your sense of satisfaction starts to really kick in.

Just put the coriander into the part-cooked rice.

The almonds are ready for their sultanas,

and the onions are approaching perfection!

That's the colour that you're looking for. Look at that, lovely.

So set those aside ready for the build.

We need to put in now two teaspoons of sugar to the meat. Keep it level.

After all, it's a biryani, not a pudding. Then just mix it in.

We should just leave that to cook to reduce for another 10 minutes.

It's very lovely. It is, isn't it? I love you. I love you too.

We're there, mate. Look at that. There's very little liquid left, it's all flavour. All the elements.

And that meat's falling apart. So the meat goes in first.

Half the meat in first. Look at that, man.

I love it when you get meat like this, just falling apart.

We heated 100ml of full fat milk with a heaped teaspoon of saffron strands,

and left it to infuse overnight.

The aromatic flavour of saffron is essential to a biryani,

and so is the deep yellow colour, said to represent royalty and celebration.

It's going to stain the rice. Eating with your eyes first.

Oh, that's lovely, man. It looks the biz.

You take some of those fantastic onions that you spent a great deal of time on.

Beautiful thing, Kingy.

It's lush, isn't it? Yeah.

And the final layer of the meat. Just quality control.

Heaven!

Now we're going to wrap this up in foil.

This may seem like overkill, but this is very, very important

because it's imperative that you keep all of those flavours in that dish.

Now just pop that into a preheated oven,

160 degrees for a fan oven and 180 for a regular oven for about 30 minutes.

And that will be our biryani.

Oh, look at that!

Look, it looks like a celebration dish, it looks like a festival dish.

It's happy to be here, it's happy to be created

and we're happy to eat it.

As a final flourish, add the toasted almonds, sultanas, eggs and chopped parsley.

The festival biryani. The beef biryani to beat all biryanis.

Time for a party on your palate!

Look at that laughing gear on standby. Go on!

Happy days.

That's really good. Beautiful. The spices, Dave, are epic.

It's so well-balanced.

And that's where the alchemy is, isn't it? In the spicing. Yep.

Ladies and gentlemen at home, you're going to love this. It's superb.

And do you know what, Si? We're not alone in loving a biryani.

Genghis Khan was partial. Was he? Loved a biryani, did Genghis.

It didn't do anything for his temper, did it?!

Ah, but one ruler who's famed for keeping her temper is our queen.

Over the years, few things have brought the country together as much as a state event.

Our Royal Family have provided plenty of opportunities to throw off our British reserve

and join our neighbours for a street party.

BAND PLAYS

'The first royal street party

'celebrated the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935.

'And after the war, we threw street parties

'in honour of anything remotely patriotic.'

'Celebrating through food is what we Brits do best.

'Queen Elizabeth's coronation on 2nd June 1953

'brought thousands to the streets to welcome their new monarch.

'Food was rationed but households were given a pound of sugar

'and four ounces of margarine extra to celebrate with.'

# Queen Elizabeth

# Queen Elizabeth

# Silver jubilee... #

'The nation took to the streets once again in 1977,

'for Her Majesty's silver jubilee.'

It's only once, isn't it?

I was too young for the last one. I'll be too old for the next one!

So join in the good old British spirit!

'Not only do street parties bring communities together,

'they give us a chance to sample our neighbours' cooking.'

At countless parties, there's been much drinking of orange squash,

much eating of jelly and much cutting of jubilee cake!

It was watched over by older and, perhaps, gastronomically wiser subjects

who, nevertheless, hope that party tradition will be maintained

when the children grow up.

There is something happily British about it all.

'The marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana

'was another excuse for patriotic al fresco dining.

'Whilst the nation had been introduced to nouvelle cuisine,

'it certainly didn't have any impact on our street party food.

'No, we stocked up on bunting.

'And Charles and Di Rubik's cubes... Eh?'

If you want a good buy, come along.

Not 4.50. We're not going to take 3.50. Not even 2.50.

'..and joined the ten million other street-party-goers.

'Food was at the centre of festivities for the golden jubilee.

'But some thought portable party food a bit outdated.'

Trestle tables, jellies, cups of tea and ham sandwiches

is not what Britain is about in 2002.

BOTH: Yes, it is!

What's the party for, do you know?

For the Queen's 50th... Year of being the Queen.

'British food may have come on in leaps and bounds in 50 years.

'Street party food is reassuringly the same as it's always been.'

From the food of Her Majesty's subjects to a right royal feast.

We're cooking up a dish specifically designed to honour our Queen in the Best of British kitchen.

A celebratory dish that inspired a generation.

That's right, Si - it could only be Poulet Reine Elizabeth.

Coronation chicken to you and me.

Mr Myers, there are few dishes

with more royal connections than this, is that correct?

This dish was there at the big one, Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

Yes, this is a dish with a crown!

Coronation chicken, it survived from 1953 to the present day

in many forms.

You have it at posh garden parties or in sandwiches at a garage.

So whether you're a King, a Queen or a bit of both, you've eaten it.

In some way, shape or form, it's part of our British psyche.

Paupers to princes, coronation chicken is for everybody.

It's a democratic dish, not just for the toffs.

It starts out with chicken.

Take two plump chicken breasts.

A top tip - steam the chicken breasts.

Then when they're cold in the salad, they'll be super-dooper juicy. Yes.

Can you pass us a chilli, please, Dave? Yes, sir.

First, lube up your chicken breasts.

In its simplest form, like my mother used to make it,

we had this moldering tin of Veeraswamy's

Madras curry powder in the back of the cupboard.

Salad cream, a quarter of a teaspoonful of curry powder,

a few sultanas and leftover chicken.

Ours, it's quite a complicated beast.

You know the worst one I've seen? Right?

It's a tin of condensed chicken soup...

Yes. ..in a bowl, chicken leftovers, curry powder, sultanas.

I've got to say, that was minging. That's an insult to Her Majesty.

Season the oiled chicken breast.

You could have got locked up in the Tower. Ground black pepper.

Quite right, too. And the zest of a lemon.

While Dave's zesting his lemon, I'm going to get on

with preparing a shallot and some chilli.

We're going to saute those two off in a little butter.

This is a steamer you get from the Oriental supermarket. Dead cheap.

Pan of boiling water.

Bit of greaseproof in there.

Put the chicken on there.

Honestly, it's a good tip, this.

If you want chicken for a sandwich, steam your chicken like this.

It's not going to go dry. When this is cooked, leave it to go cold.

Chop it up and that's your basic chicken for your coronation chicken.

Just go and wash me hands.

Now, finely chop a deseeded chilli and the onion.

The original coronation chicken would have been milder

than the one we're doing, with the spice coming from the curry powder.

But these days, we like our food a bit hotter!

This is a dish, though, with proper right royal connections.

It was the luncheon that was devised

after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

It was a dish created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume,

who were at the Cordon Bleu cookery school in 1953.

All the royal chefs were working on it.

Everybody was trying to come up with their thing. And they got it!

Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume were under a lot of pressure

and they did create a belter.

When it's done properly, it's lovely,

but it's a much-abused dish.

'The original recipe, however majestic,

'was actually borne out of convenience.

'More than a million TV sets had been bought

'in anticipation of the big event.'

Tomorrow, she will be crowned Queen Elizabeth II.

'So coronation chicken was designed to be easy to prepare.

'And you only needed a fork to eat it!

'Voila! Britain's first TV dinner!

'Now, back to our modern take on this retro classic.

'From now on, it's a simple assembly of ingredients.'

What we've got here is that we add the tomato paste.

And then we just cook that off

for a couple of mins.

Then we add two teaspoons...

of Madras curry powder.

Now not known as Madras. It's now called Chennai.

You don't have Chennai curry powder. You don't, do you?

Curry powder's great cos it give you a proper "curry" flavour.

You have to use old-fashioned curry powder in this, or it doesn't work.

Cook that through for a couple of minutes, that's all. Nothing more.

Nothing less. You can smell, now, the spicing.

It's starting to smell like coronation chicken.

And getting chickeny wafting lemon things. Yeah.

We put 100ml of wine in here. That's about a big glass?

Yeah.

We turn the heat up slightly and reduce that liquid by half.

Do you think that's about right?

That's about spot-on, mate.

GIGGLES I love these little steamers!

It's cooking in the vapour of the lemon juice. Beautiful.

We put another 10ml of chicken stock in

and reduce that by half again.

Perfect.

Next, we add a tablespoon of apricot jam!

This is the sweet note in the coronation chicken, remember?

It's always a bit sweet. The background is apricot jam.

You'll be pleased to know there are no sultanas

in our coronation chicken.

No, there's not. We've got fresh mangoes, our fruit.

Also, our coronation chicken is not that luminous artificial yellow.

It's like the sunset over the Empire.

Yeah.

I think that's it. Yeah. I think we're there.

Whoo!

It is, isn't it? Hay-ooo!

Hadn't had that at their coronation feast, I tell you.

That truly is coronation chicken for the future.

It's coronation vindaloo!

But we like it hot. We do.

'Add a dollop of creme fraiche to the mayonnaise,

'to give it a contemporary flavour, and add a chopped spring onion.

'Peel and dice a fresh mango, and chop the chicken.

'Then add the spice mix to the mayonnaise.'

Hey, look at that!

One whole diced mango.

That's a beautiful mango. It is.

Beautiful.

Nice handful of coriander, Si. Yup.

To that, we need the juice of a lemon.

Just to temper that sweetness.

We don't want to kill it, do we?

Juice of a lemon. SI LAUGHS

It's a beautiful thing, Si.

Look at that, man! I'll go and wash me hands.

Just a little splash of Tabasco.

How much have you put in? Just a bit. Look at that, man!

Now, is there one thing we've forgotten(?) The chicken.

Yes.

The most juiciest lemony...

..chickeny chicken.

Never was a chicken so well dressed.

After all, it is the coronation. Absolutely.

You know, it's a way of making two chicken breasts feed four people.

Taste that. Are we lacking?

No, we're not.

Absolutely fabulous.

Look at that. It's sunshine on a new era. Now, let's serve.

'Finally, there's time to plate up.

'We're serving our coronation chicken alongside mixed leaves.'

Now, there was a very traditional garnish to this.

It was toasted almonds.

You just sprinkle them over the top.

Beautiful. There we are - a dish that's certainly fit for a Queen.

Or even a King!

'Ah, lovely. Ah, look at it!

'All hail the coronation chicken!

'Just as the coronation was a milestone for the Queen...'

Our wedding day is a key event in most of our lives.

When it comes to celebrating matters of the heart, food, of course, figures very highly.

We Brits have traditionally celebrated our nuptials

with a wedding breakfast.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary,

the term first appeared around 1850

but it's believed to date back further than that.

To the days when people would fast before mass.

Following the celebration of a wedding ceremony,

the priest would bless wine and cakes

and give them to the bride and groom.

And by tucking in, they'd be breaking fast.

Things have changed a bit since then.

Today, the average couple spend about £16,500 on their big day.

Most treat their guests to a formal sit-down meal.

And they don't come any bigger than a Royal one.

2011 was all about William and Kate.

To celebrate, we're going to finish by preparing our version of the meal

that formed the centrepiece of the couple's evening festivities in the Best Of British kitchen.

British lamb three ways -

a special dish perfect for the most special of days.

Beautiful slow roasted lamb confit... Spicy lamb meatballs...

..And roasted herb crusted racks with a rich wine gravy.

All on one plate! Yippee! A meal fit for a king.

And a Myers!

I think for weddings, or great occasions,

there's nothing more fitting than great British lamb.

It's a mega-product. It is a fantastic product.

What's great about it, whether it be Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales,

we have the best lamb in the world.

This shoulder is going to be cooked like a confit.

It's cooked for an extraordinarily long time.

We want that to be falling apart. So we better get it on. We better. I'll show you how to do that.

Into a roasting pot, add four long shallots sliced lengthways...

Eight whole peeled garlic cloves..

Two tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary leaves...

And a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves.

If you don't have shallots, you could slice two medium onions instead.

This lamb is going to be cooked so slowly.

You can cook it for about six hours, or overnight in an Aga.

The trick is to have it well sealed up.

But you see, all this garlic, the rosemary, the onions - that produces the gravy.

It's gravy to die for. Really, really meaty and gorgeous.

Yes, that is really a metaphor for marriage.

Where all the flavours come together to produce one wholesome flavour

that is in fact bigger than the two halves.

That's true, that's true. Place it on there.

Rest the half-shoulder of lamb on top of the other ingredients,

and season it well with salt and pepper.

Add a little dribble of water to start the gravy off

and to stop the herbs burning in the oven.

Right. We just place this, the first element,

into a preheated oven, 160 degrees Celsius, for 30 minutes.

Then we'll show you what we do after that.

# We've only just begun. #

Let's prep items two and three on the agenda.

I'm just scoring the fat in little diamond shapes.

And what that does, first of all, it makes it look attractive,

and secondly, it enables the crust to have something to grip onto.

And then the next stage is this. Mr Myers. Meatballs.

But this is a posh meatball. It's spicy.

So I'm going to dry roast some cumin seeds

to start to build up the flavour in the lamb balls.

Next, finely chop a shallot and a garlic clove and sweat them

in a pan with two tablespoons of oil.

While they're softening up, pop the roasted cumin into a pestle and mortar

and pound it up as finely as you can.

we've got the shallots and the garlic.

It's nicely transparent. Put the finely-ground roasted cumin into the mix.

To that, add a teaspoon of coriander,

half a teaspoon of chilli powder,

half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and another of flaked sea salt.

Stir it in with the shallot and cook for about a minute.

So what we're going to do now,

we're just going to brown these lovely, lovely cutlets off.

Put it fat side down first in the pan. And, look, get that pan hot.

You need to hear that sizzle. Listen. OIL SIZZLES

And don't worry, just leave it. Just leave it until it goes brown.

Push it into the pan a little bit. Can you hear it?

These sides here, we're going to stand them up

so they go brown as well.

Part of the reason for that

is you want to seal in all of those fantastic flavours of this beautiful meat. Look, there we go.

Once you've browned both sides of the two lamb racks,

stand them to attention on a baking tray,

ready for the oven.

And pop the sweated shallot, garlic, herbs and spices into a bowl to cool.

Then grate the zest of quarter of a lemon into the mix.

Add 50 grams of fresh white breadcrumbs,

two tablespoons of finely chopped curly parsley,

and mix in the 250 grams of lamb mince.

Now, just work that lovely lamb, roasted spices

and fresh herbs into a meaty paste.

Bit of seasoning. Salt and pepper.

And this is what is going to become your meatballs.

But there's an extra trick we're doing

to make sure the lamb balls don't go dry.

That's to wrap them in caul fat before we cook them.

Now, caul fat might look, well, a bit gruesome, but it's great.

It's the thin layer of fat from around the stomach.

Wrap the meatballs in it and when you fry them,

it'll stop them falling apart and keep them moist and lovely.

And don't worry, it disappears as you cook it.

Look at that little beauty. This mixture should make about a dozen.

When we serve it up, we'll serve about three of these per portion.

There you go.

Next up, it's time for the rack of lamb's herb crust.

Finely chop three tablespoons of parsley,

three tablespoons of mint,

and one teaspoon of rosemary. Mix with 40 grams of fresh white breadcrumbs

and two peeled and crushed garlic cloves.

Finish off with a good pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper.

Now, it might sound a lot, but the reason I'm putting so many lovely herbs in it -

if you're going to make a herb crust, make one.

You want big punches of herbs coming and sitting on top of that fantastic lamb.

Do it justice. Get the herbs in,

get them flavoured. Oh, fabulous.

How, I hear you cry, is he going to stick that herb crust onto these racks of lamb?

Well, I'll show you. Look at that.

Dijon mustard and a brush, you see. It's like spicy glue.

Exactly that, mate. Exactly that. Just paint it.

Can you tell what it is yet?

And then what we do is firmly just push

that crust into that meat.

That's fab. A bit there.

And then repeat with the same.

When you've done the same to the second rack,

stand them up on a baking tray by knitting the bones together.

Then cover and chill the rack and meatballs in the fridge for later.

Right, let's have a look at the shoulder. That should be done now. Right.

Oh, look, lovely bit of colour on it. Fabulous. You see?

We've kicked that off, haven't we? We have. We have, that.

Next, add 300ml of lamb stock made with one cube.

If you can't get that, chicken or beef will do.

And pour in the same amount of white wine.

To keep as much of the moisture in as possible,

cover it with a layer of foil as well as the lid,

and pop it back in the oven for three hours at 160 degrees Celsius.

Three hours have gone by. We've drunk tea till we can't drink any more.

And your house smells like a Tudor feasting hall.

DAVE INHALES Ah.

Aw, in anticipation of the feast to come.

This is where we hope this isn't a boiled dry mess.

Yes. Oh, ho! Look at that.

It's shrunk back from the bone. This should... Look at that.

Is it? Yeah.

I'm going to get this out, the lamb, and leave it to rest on a plate.

It's so lovingly cooked.

Oh, man. It's absolutely falling apart.

I've got to admit, I like my lamb fillet pink.

The rest of my lamb - I love it dropping to bits.

Now you rest, you've been through a lot, you.

There we are, look - the trio... is about to start singing!

It's like The Supremes, isn't it? THEY MAKE SILLY NOISES

MUSIC: "Baby Love" by The Supremes.

Now, place the herby rack of lamb into the oven

set at 200 degrees Celsius.

Make sure you've taken it out of the fridge 15 minutes before

so it's at room temperature prior to cooking.

It will need 23 to 25 minutes for pink meat

or 30 minutes for medium meat.

Then skim off the top layer of fat from the cooking juices in the pan

and strain them into a saucepan to remove any vegetable bits.

Then we add a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly.

Again, it's one of those wonderful things that goes with lamb.

Listen to this, I love this bit, listen.

BOTTLE POPS

THEY GIGGLE

125ml...

of port.

Whoa!

Pour that in there.

And just give it a little once-over with a spoon.

Just to dissolve that redcurrant jelly

and then we want to reduce that by a third.

Right, the lamb's got another 20 minutes,

so it's time to get the lamb balls on.

Fry the meatballs in olive oil

until they transform into shining, golden balls of loveliness!

That should take about ten minutes.

While they're cooking,

shred the lamb shoulder into delicious morsels using two forks.

If the person doing the shredding is anything like Si,

make sure you keep an eye on them or you'll have nothing left!

Once the gravy's reduced,

mix a tablespoon of cornflour with a tablespoon of water

and add it to thicken it up.

Oh, look at this beauty. Ho-ho!

It doesn't get any better, does it?

Oh, that is perfect.

That's going to be just pink in the middle.

To revive the confit,

pop it into a pan over a gentle heat

and spoon over a little bit of the gorgeous gravy.

Look at the gravy, ooh!

It's got a sheen on it like an Argentinean's dancing pump.

SIMON LAUGHS

D'you know what I mean? Yes, I do.

That's the mad thing about your similes - you do know, exactly.

Now, a little tip - if you were to just put this on the plate,

pack it with meat, take it off - you could leave drizzles and dribbles,

so put that onto a fish slice...

..pack your ring, like so, with the confit and the gravy.

This can be packed quite tight,

because then,

when somebody goes to eat it,

it'll all fall apart like a house of cards.

With a sharp knife, cut in between the rib bones.

Straight down.

Ooh, nice! Oh, Sister of Mercy! Beautiful.

Perfect.

How perfect is that?

At about three cutlets per portion, I would say.

I'd say you're right there, mate.

Now, the confit comes over on the fish slice.

We place that - without any mess whatsoever...

..on the plate.

Oh!

Then just...

try and get that out as tidily as possible.

Look at that. That is perfect, is it not?

That's your little column of confit.

Now, what we're going to do,

we're going to put three of these cutlets...

..like that.

Oh!

DAVE MOANS

It's a trio in more ways than one, Mr King. Beautiful.

There. Beautiful.

And now, for the bride and groom - one, two...

That's a nice one, ain't it?

Three perfectly-formed balls.

Where do we want the gravy?

Just a smear.

Right down the middle, that's it.

That...is flippin' lovely.

Final touch.

I'm going to put a beautiful piece of mint...just there.

And befitting a dish of such grandeur,

got to have a few veggies.

I think just one...

fine fondant potato and a few green beans.

That's our homage to Will and Kate.

May you live long and prosper.

Nanu-nanu.

Lamb - three ways.

A dish fit for the biggest celebration to have happened this century.

Each element would make a fantastic meal on its own

but combined, it's breathtaking.

'From our traditional festive dishes to the Hindu rituals of India

'which have found a home in our cities and our hearts,

'We Brits love to come together for a party

'And to mark important events with food.

'This has given us a rich variety of wonderful dishes.

'Perfect for any celebration.'

'And if you want to find out more,'

visit:

to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

And to find out how to cook up tonight's recipes.

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