Markets Hairy Bikers' Best of British

We believe Britain has the best food in the world.

Our glorious country boasts some fantastic ingredients.

Start eating it, will ya?

It's home to some amazing producers.

-My goodness gracious. That is epic.

-Isn't it?

And innovative chefs.

But our islands also have a fascinating food history.

The fish and chip shops of South Wales are running out of chips.

-BOTH:

-Yes!

And in this series,

we're uncovering revealing stories of our rich culinary past.

Now there is food history on a plate.

As well as meeting our nation's food heroes

who are keeping this heritage alive.

Best have them enjoying themselves.

It's a short life. Let's make it a happy one like they always have had.

And of course we'll be cooking up a load of dishes that

reveal our foodie evolution.

Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. It's brilliant.

-Quite simply...

-BOTH:

-The best of British.

Wow, what a view. And, look at that, mate, it's a food market paradise.

Yeah, and today we have a huge variety of markets

to buy our food from. From supermarkets to internet shopping.

We've got butchers and bakers.

Cheese shops and farmers' markets galore.

Grow your own, pick your own.

The list is almost as diverse as the foods we eat.

And that's why the show today is dedicated to celebrating

the great British market and the role it played

on affecting the way we eat.

Come on, mate, let's go shopping.

The moment our nation started evolving into the

industrialised urbanised giant it now is was the moment when we became

a country that had to buy rather than barter or grow what we ate.

Now the choices of what we can purchase in our food stores

has never been wider.

This has broadened our diets

and diversified our tastes more than was ever thought possible.

-My goodness gracious.

-I know.

-That is epic.

-Isn't it?

So perhaps it's more than about time that we doff our caps in the

direction of the very retailers that make working with food such

a varied and enjoyable experience.

Ladies and gents, now open for business,

the Hairy Bikers' Best of British Markets.

This mediaeval town of Ludlow is renowned for a prestigious

food festival that has its roots in the farmers' markets that have

been revived in recent decades.

And we've come for a bit of a sneak preview before it gets ram-pam

-jam-pam packed with...

-Ooh!

-..floods of hungry foodies.

It might seem busy today

but a mere 500 people attended the first festival back in 1995.

But it's grown enormously and now up to 20,000 people are said to

visit one of the ultimate markets for dedicated foodies.

The very best of food producers in one place at one time.

When you shop at markets like this, you're guaranteed to meet

producers with real passion and expertise in their field.

The Swift family was one of the first exhibitors ever involved here.

-Morning, Rob.

-Nice to meet you.

Have you ever seen such a dazzling display of bread?

-A plethora of yeasty gorgeousness.

-If you can make it into a bread, you've done it, haven't you?

Rob, in your experience, how much do you think Ludlow has

changed as a festival and as a town for food?

The festival's been running for about 17 years

and it was just very local businesses that were getting involved

and it's grown very steadily over time.

Now it really does take in the whole town.

You wouldn't have a festival or a farmers' market like this

if it wasn't for the excellence and the variety of the product.

And that is what makes people come from far and wide to have

a day out, to buy the food, to experience it and get a few ideas.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

The town feeds the festival, the festival feeds the town,

so it works well.

I mean, this is fig bread. That'd be wonderful with cheese.

Spelt and honey, again. Fantastic with cheese.

Pesto and walnut whirls. You don't get this in France, do you?

No, you don't!

-Have you ever tasted chilli, lime and coriander bread before?

-No.

-Could you imagine a smoked duck sandwich in that?

-Fantastic.

There are a few more things

I could imagine a morsel of smoked duck with here, eh, Kingy?

It's a foodie paradise.

But as well as tasting,

it's interesting to find out the human story behind the produce.

How did you arrive at making what looks like the most fantastic

-cheese?

-Well, I love goats.

I had a couple of pedigree goats. I started to make cheese

and people couldn't stop buying it. Then it just expanded.

And we come here every year and most years we sell out.

-So, you started off with two goats?

-Yes.

-How many goats do you have now?

-Too many!

-Nearly 100.

-Ah!

-Oh.

-You've got everything here.

-It's great.

-My goodness gracious.

-I know.

-That is epic.

-Isn't it?

That one's Dutch Mistress and this one's Capra Nouveau.

And that one just won three gold stars at the Great Taste Awards.

Back of the net! Get in.

This is the Pablo Cabrito, an ash mold-ripened log.

-AFFECTED ACCENT:

-Oh, an ash mold-ripened log.

There's nothing better.

-You make it sound so attractive.

-I know!

As logs go, that's a good'n.

-You'd be nothing without ash.

-I wouldn't.

And we haven't even had a drink yet.

God knows what happens when you have.

There's plenty of people over there can fix that one.

It's good, isn't it? You can get everything in here.

But we said we wanted a drink and I know just where to get one.

Our old mate Ralph's been making cider in the traditional way using

authentic equipment for years.

And the wonderful thing about going to festivals like this is

you can see these age-old techniques

and meet the skilled people who make the product face-to-face.

Here he's making this year's batch of Festival Perry.

Or, as many people know it, pear cider.

Perry's a drink that has actually been

common in Britain for centuries.

Calling it pear cider might have helped

revive its fortunes in recent years

but artisan perry producers like Ralph

like to turn back time to reconnect us with our food heritage.

And festivals like Ludlow are the perfect place to do it.

Though I imagine if we want a drop, Ralph will make us graft for it.

-How do, Ralph?

-How are you?

-All right.

Last time we saw you, it was at another festival at Hereford,

-wasn't it?

-That's right.

-You're doing well, mate.

-Look at that.

-I know. You boys want to have a go now?

-Yeah!

-Yeah!

-Have you got your stick, Ralph?

-Yes.

-It's amazing, the juices that come out of it.

-It is, isn't it?

-Right, one, two, three.

-Come on, you big Jessie. Catch up.

CROWD LAUGHS

-Come on, Dave.

-Get your pushbike out!

-It's not It's A Knockout!

-You'll need a drink after that, dude.

-Sort me out.

Look how clear that is.

-Now, that's pear juice, isn't it?

-Yes.

What do you think? It's beautiful. Sweeter than I thought.

-It IS sweeter than I thought.

-That's lovely, Ralph.

-That's good.

That's what I pressed here last year, Festival Perry.

But this is pear juice that makes you giggle, isn't it?

That's got alcohol in. That didn't have.

That's a nice drop.

Do you know, Si, you come to one of these festivals,

you've had a great day out, but is there going to be a better

meal in the world than to go home, some of Ralph's Perry,

some of the best bread you've tasted, some of the best cheese you've tasted,

you're the richest man on the planet.

Ah! But once you've finished your shop,

the things that we love about food festivals is they know

how to make food shopping into a fun day out.

You know them as Dave and Si,

but more likely you know them as the Hairy Bikers!

APPLAUSE

-Hello, everybody.

-Hello, how are you all? Are you having a good time?

-All:

-Yes!

-And it's not raining!

For our final course, we're joining food writer Henrietta Green

and self-styled sausage supremo Stephen Plume to judge

some of the best local bangers on show.

-Are you going to have a whole sausage?

-I am.

Shut up.

-Number one, sweet, pleasant.

-I like that.

-I do, too.

This must be torture for you like this.

LAUGHTER

Oh. Different texture on number three, isn't it?

Very high meat, number three.

That's really sausagey tasting, isn't it?

No, you know what I mean!

What we're going to have to do, we're going to have to make a decision.

-Shall we have a huddle?

-Yes. Any excuse. Excuse us.

-Yes.

-Yup.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

The United Nations of Sausages have come to a decision.

And I think we're all agreed that the winning sausage is

Beaman's of Bridgnorth.

-Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

-Have a wonderful day.

Yes, the success of these food festivals has evolved the humble

farmers' market into perhaps the ultimate venue to sell and buy food.

Which reminds me - I was hoping to get some sloe gin.

Oh! The missus is after some chilli chutney.

-Oh! Some flatbread for that goats' cheese.

-How about those oysters?

Don't forget the sausages!

But if you, like us,

often end up spending the whole day tasting all these wondrous

goods on offer and forgetting to buy anything, rest assured,

we've plenty of experience in turning up less than successful

shopping trip, ahem,

into a well-planned and thoughtful cooking exercise.

We walked past the fudge stall

and we come out with three packets of fudge.

Then we went to the nut stall.

We bought packet of Brazils, which we ate then and there.

-We did.

-But we took a packet of walnuts with us

and we've come back from that festival,

-all we had was walnuts and fudge.

-Why is that? Why does that happen?

I don't know. But we had nothing to eat.

So what we did was we invented the great fudgy walnut cake.

-Because we were hungry, weren't we?

-Aye!

We should have bought sausages and all good things

and we end up with three bags of fudge and a big bag of walnuts.

But that became a fudgy walnut cake, which we had with our tea.

-And we were deliriously happy.

-Right. Now. Walnuts.

That's a good start with a walnut cake, you see.

Now these are very similar to those selfsame walnuts that we found.

I need eight pretty ones for the top.

I'll take nine just in case one gets purloined.

Now, these we puree to bits.

Don't worry if some bits are bigger than others, they call it texture.

Indeed.

Now, I'm going to get on with the batter.

So we've got 225 grams of self raising flour.

225 grams of brown sugar.

A teaspoon...of baking powder.

I like this.

-Batter cakes are great, aren't they?

-There you are, mate.

-There's your nuts.

-Thank you very much.

250 grams of butter.

Walnuts have been around a long time.

In fact, walnuts have been cultivated for 10,000 years.

It's one of the most ancient food trees known to man.

-Very important source of sustenance, the walnut.

-It is.

-Can I have four eggs, mate?

-Yes.

-Quatro ouefos.

-Thank you.

What I'm going to do, I'm just going to blitz this a little bit.

And then I'm going to add the eggs. One...

In Afghanistan, they have a word for walnuts which,

when translated, means "four brains".

Which refers to what the nut looks like in its shell.

I'm just going down the shops for a kilo of four brains.

-I prefer walnuts myself.

-So do I.

And put those...

..beautifully, beautifully chopped walnuts.

-Put the baking powder in?

-Yes, it's in here.

-Excellent.

-Then, like that.

And give it a pulse to make the batter.

Now, time to dollop our batter out into two seven-inch cake tins.

Half and half.

Now these are just two loose-bottomed sandwich tins

that have been lined with baking parchment.

Classic, but it works.

Give that a smooth out.

Don't worry too much about this because as soon as the mixture

heats up in the oven, it's going to find its own level.

I think the Women's Institute would be proud of us.

It'd be the first time!

They're terrifying, the WI, when it comes to cakes, aren't they?

Oh, aye. It's looking at this tin sends me into tremors.

Nicely done, mucker. Nicely mixed.

Now we pop those into a preheated oven,

170 degrees Celsius for a fan oven for around 23 to 25 minutes.

-Over to you, mon frere.

-Synchronise watches, captain.

-Yes.

-Yes.

Meanwhile, let's make the icing. Forget that standard icing,

we're upping a few gears on the calorie counter here.

Now, this is fudge.

Look at that. It's proper old-fashioned fudge.

This is the sort of artisanal fudge they can make at any market.

But you know, lately, you get salt fudge

and that's brilliant in this recipe.

It is. Salt fudge, if you can get your hands on it.

Fudge has an interesting history,

because the word fudge means to muddy the waters, make a mistake.

And it's thought that the first fudge was made

when somebody made a mistake making toffee and they ended up with

fudge and they called it fudge cos they fudged the recipe.

Now, we want about a third for the top of that

and two thirds for the icing.

And this we just chunk up and put it into the food processor,

which is simpler than a simple thing.

To that we add some icing sugar

and some butter.

And it's 150 grams of each.

Now, before I process this together, I'm going to add a splash of water.

Not much water, just a tablespoon.

We can always add some more water to it later if it's too thick.

-Oh, look.

-Nice.

Beautiful.

That's the icing.

-I think those cakes should be done, Si.

-Yeah?

Let's have a look.

Do you want to do the skewer test?

'The skewer test, for those of you who are unaware,

'involves punching a skewer into a cake.

'Should said skewer emerge without any of said cake attached,

'said cake is cooked.'

-BOTH:

-Clean as a whistle.

If one's clean, the other one's going to be fine, so that's good.

So, all we need to do now is to leave those to cool,

pop them out of the tins,

then we decorate and we've got our fudgy walnut cake.

And you can tell, look.

They've just started to shrink

away from the side of the tin.

Obviously, if you try to ice the cake when it's warm,

it'll just melt the butter icing.

Ooh! That was quite invigorating.

-What are they like?

-Lovely.

Do you want to do half the icing on that

-and I'll chop the fudge for the top, Kingy?

-All right, mate.

Smear the icing on thick or as thin as you like.

-Right, mate.

-Excellent. And surmount.

Oh, yes. I love it, home-made cakes,

they always have that look

of a nursery rhyme about them, don't they?

They do, yes.

# Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker's man

# Bake me a cake just as fast as you can... #

'Ooh, Mr King's doing a splendid job.

'Perhaps a future career as a plasterer beckons.'

I want the house pebble dashing.

I want all four walls doing.

Not just the bits that you see.

Going to peak it a bit? That's it. Oh, look at that.

It's like a well-plastered outhouse.

Artex are us. Go on.

-There you are.

-Excellent.

'And now for the Afghani brain nut garnish.

'Hey, we're not doing

'things by halves here.

'So, the rest of that fudge can go on the roof.'

Start off with quite a prominent stack in the middle.

I think we're there. I think any more would be vulgar, do you?

I do. And I think that's absolutely lovely.

-It is, isn't it?

-Yeah.

I must say, that is

a beautiful-looking cake

with the minimum of fuss.

-Oh, Kingy.

-What, mate?

That's enough looking at it.

-Let's get into it.

-Go on, mate.

After you.

-That's lovely.

-Good cake.

-Mmm.

-That's one to make when the vicar comes round for his tea.

-Yeah.

A homage to markets.

Two things that's always readily available in every food market.

Fudge and walnuts.

# If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake

# Hired a band, goodness sake

# If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake

# How d'you do, how d'you do how d'you do... #

'But of course, Kingy, a fudge and walnut cake is simply

'the tip of the iceberg where our markets are concerned.'

'Well said, sir.

'Any true homage can't ignore the fact that, to many people,

'they are about much more than the food.

'Our urban markets have always been a living

'and breathing part of our British heritage.'

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays,

250-odd stalls are set out in the old-fashioned way.

It's all half-price!

'For hundreds, if not thousands of years,

'they were the beating heart of many of our town and city centres.'

'And for generations of Brits, they provided an important livelihood.'

For me, this is a jolly early start,

but most of the men here were already halfway through their working day.

The turnover here is fantastic,

with about £60 million worth of fruit and vegetables sold every year.

# Street life

# It's the only life I know... #

'They were also a valuable source

'of good quality and affordable food.'

Why do you shop in the market?

Well, I like coming down, there's a change of things

and I like the pricing of the different articles.

I shop here because it's so very much cheaper.

Onions here thruppence a pound.

Across the way, they're sixpence.

'For market entrepreneurs, getting the best

'fresh produce at the right price was essential to attract customers.'

How many do you want?

-Go on. Ten.

-You got ten, yes.

Anybody else? Got three left. Anybody else?

Two pounds. Have a look at them. Look!

# I'm in the market for you... #

'But these men and women were more than just the purveyors of food.

'They were showmen.'

Anybody else?

'And shoppers enjoyed being entertained with some good,

'old-fashioned British banter.'

Ha'penny the lot. One moment, one more word.

-Do you mind me altering the price?

-Not at all, no.

-You don't?

Well, pay half a crown, then.

LAUGHTER

In the shop, you dare not have any bad words to a customer.

You've lost them straightaway. But out on the stall, I think you can.

What a bloody sale, you miserable sods!

'Insults were free of charge, but as the post-war years went on,

'this important tradition came under threat.'

What do you think of the idea of closing the market?

Well, I think the public on the whole will lose by it.

The stuff here is half the price you can buy it in the shops

and they come down here and if they shut the market down,

we shut all the street shops down.

'Town centres were changing and being modernised and many,

'particularly the town planners,

'viewed the markets as a bit of an eyesore

'and old-fashioned, especially in areas earmarked for gentrification.'

If they like to ask any of these people here,

they will bear me out, that if they close this market,

they'll be doing a bad thing for the working people.

'Traffic congestion was also becoming a problem and markets

'were being moved to make way for shiny new shopping centres,

'complete with newfangled supermarkets and car parks.'

The market trader can cater for their needs far better than

the other big shops.

It meets the requirements of the ordinary,

working class people in so far as the prices suit their pockets.

'But their customers were also facing change.

'Families were being moved out of the inner cities

'into new housing and areas.'

'But for many, nothing could replace the sense of community

'and value offered by the markets.'

Ice cream, anything you like. Yes?

No? Sixpence, who wants it?

I find this is the easiest place to get to.

I just think it's great. You know, there's lots of shopping that

you can do here that's much easier to do than where I live at Clapton.

We even get a cab down here to get here, cos it's so nice.

Nice character with the place and always get a nice bargain down here.

Just something about it.

You just keep coming back.

'Sadly, the decline continued over the following decades,

'and many of our markets shut up shop for good.'

'But now, once again, at long last, more and more people are starting to

'value them for the truly wonderful and diverse places they are...'

# Come on ladies, come on ladies

# One pound fish... #

'..for the positive impact they have on communities, on retail and,

'best of all, on our food industry...'

# Have a, have a look one-pound fish... #

'..providing us with fresh and good value food

'and opportunities for small, independent traders.

'One of the things we like about the old-fashioned street markets

'is they sold a lot of seasonal and local produce.'

'And a long, long time ago, the British diet was once

'dominated by what grew locally and what was in season.'

'We knew our grocer personally

'and took their advice on how to prepare what was available.'

'Yet today, choice and convenience are king,

'and seasonality has become a byword for bland.'

'Down here in Devon, though, farmer Guy Watson runs the biggest

'organic vegetable delivery box scheme in the country.'

'And he's passionate about tempting us

'back to the seasonally bespoke grocery deliveries of old.'

Along with my four siblings, we're all crazy about food.

My mum was a fantastic cook

and she drew her inspiration from what the grew around her

in her garden and on the farm, and I guess we've all grown up same way.

So we started growing vegetables in 1986 and decided to do it organically

and that led to supplying wholesalers and eventually supermarket.

I hated supplying the supermarkets.

Seeing our produce arrive sometimes

a fortnight later on the shelf,

over-packaged, overpriced and anonymous.

didn't seem to be what it was about.

And then, in 1993, I started what I think was the third vegetable box

scheme in the country and it was all about sharing the very best

produce from the farm with people who love to cook at home.

It was about seasonal eating,

about it being fresh

and the box scheme has really grown from there.

That was almost 20 years ago.

Sold 30 boxes in the first week, 20 years later,

here we are with 450 staff

delivering 40,000 boxes a week.

'Successful as it is now, the idea that a food retailer could

'dictate customers' choice was a big risk to take at the time.'

It went against all the trends of the 1980s.

Margaret Thatcher was in power,

everything was about consumer choice and you were delivering a box

where actually I was choosing what you should eat this week.

But it was just amazing, the response that I got on the doorstep

that first week, delivering my first 30 boxes,

that people really did care how it was grown,

what was in season, who grew it, and actually they really didn't want a

choice of a thousand different products

to cook their supper from that evening.

You know, they were quite happy to eat what was in season at the time.

'But, like any good grocer,

'Guy's aware that the personal touch is important in re-engaging

'customers with seasonal food and how best to use it.'

I mean, it would be wonderful

if I could stand there with the vegetables

and explain to our customers every week how to use them,

as an old-fashioned greengrocer might have done. I just can't do that.

There's only one of me.

And so the next best thing is to use modern technology, really.

So we communicate with them through the website, through e-mails.

And every week in the boxes,

there's a newsletter which says a little bit about what's

going on in the farm, a bit of a rant from me, and then they'll be a couple

of recipes, which will be featuring whatever's in season at the moment.

So, at the moment, radicchio is in season.

It's a fantastic vegetable.

Yes, it is quite bitter in a salad,

but it really adds a tremendous sort of depth of flavour if cooked.

So there's a wonderful pasta you can make by wilting down the radicchio,

or indeed a risotto.

A radicchio risotto is one of my all-time favourite dishes.

'And Guy's keen to practise what he preaches, so the farm has

'an on-site restaurant, which only uses the seasonal produce on offer.'

I'm afraid to say you can only choose one of these.

-Oh, no!

-Yeah.

'Head chef Rob Andrew knows that creativity is the key to

'keeping customers engaged and in the boxes this week

'and on the menu is one of Guy's favourite vegetables, radicchio.'

With the radicchio, it's a kind of slightly unloved, bitter leaf,

much loved by the Italians.

In its raw state, if you chop some up, if you lick your fingers,

you kind of get that taste like you've been

playing with copper coins, or something.

It's an acquired taste, bitter leaves. Almost like chicory.

So what we're going to do is cook it down,

cook it into a risotto, take away some of that bitterness and bring out its flavour.

'And it's not just the radicchio that's seasonal in this risotto.

'Diced onions, chopped leek

'and celery all get fried up in olive oil and butter.'

'Before adding some bacon and frying off with rosemary,

'a few cloves of garlic and a handful of risotto rice.'

This radicchio is wonderful stuff.

Properly fresh, tightly packed in the middle.

We'll take the root out, because it can stay a little bit hard.

And the rest of it, everything's edible.

'50 years ago, it would probably have been unlikely that you'd have

'found a radicchio on offer in your local greengrocers.'

'But should one have been, then rest assured,

'there would have been some advice on offer on how to use it.'

'Now that we're all looking to re-engage with our food again,

'this personal touch is something that we all want back.'

There's a nostalgia for butchers,

there's a nostalgia for greengrocers

and nostalgia exists in people cos we lost them,

because we stopped using them and started using supermarkets.

All of a sudden, the food trend is to grab that all back and

Riverford is a greengrocer.

It just uses the internet as its market stall.

A bit more than a 21st century greengrocer and yes, I'm telling them

all about the vegetables,

I think I know more about cooking than most greengrocers

and I certainly know a lot more about

how the vegetables that are grown, so yeah,

I think we have all that a greengrocer could offer and a lot more.

'Marketing food to customers in this way is a brilliant way of engaging

'and reminding us of what we are capable of growing here in the UK.'

'And catching a flavour of the seasonality

'that our markets now supply us with is something that,

'as a consumer, we all should be embracing.'

Look at this veritable marketplace of ingredients.

But you see, markets are a great representation of the seasons.

So we're doing a summer soup and a winter soup.

I'm doing the summer soup. I'm lively, I'm vibrant.

It's green, it's fertile,

it's colourful and it makes you feel good to be alive.

And I'm doing the winter soup.

And I'm not.

I'm dark, freezing cold and miserable.

But, this soup's enough to make you happy

and that's what winter soups are about, making you happy.

Making you full, making you warm from the inside out.

It's brilliant, this.

That does nothing about my demeanour in the winter.

I'm not good. I'm like a bear.

-I should be constantly asleep and not disturbed by folk.

-But...

# In the summertime when the weather's fine

# You go right up till you reach the sky... #

'Well, if there's one thing that does

'cheer me up in the winter, it's him.

'Anyway, let's make some soup.'

Good glug of olive oil, stick it on the bottom and then,

what we're going to do, we're go to fry - saute, not fry,

saute - onions and some garlic.

First thing I'm going to do is to make basil oil.

-That's summer, isn't it? That's it.

-Lovely.

What I want to do is pour boiling water over this

and blanch the leaves. And the basil's going...

# Ooooh, that's hot in here

# I'm going to let all me oil out. #

Once it's been done like that,

we put that into ice water.

That's going to keep the colour.

You leave that there for five minutes.

What we're trying to show, as well, is that when you go to a market,

don't be too pedantic about what you want to go to buy,

because you could change and vary.

Indeed, you could mix up the two sets of ingredients.

You know, it's whatever's there, take most advantage of.

I'm going to take that basil out.

Look at the colour of that.

And again, it's summer.

It's the colours of summer. It's bright and vibrant.

You've got chlorophyll bursting out of everywhere.

Chlorophyll, to me, is vegetable sunshine.

And chlorophyll, of course, is the green bits.

'You don't see much chlorophyll about in the winter months,

'but you can take your pick with root veg.

'A few good handfuls of whatever you fancy should suffice.'

So we've got turnip.

Try and dice everything the same size, because you know why?

They'll cook the same time. OK?

And then we got some parsnip,

we've got some carrot...

..and we've got some potato.

Reduce the heat...

..and just cook those off for a little bit

until they're slightly soft.

There's the basil. It's cooled now and I've dried it off.

I put that into my little food processor with some olive oil.

Just blitz.

'The basil oil will be a fragrant, green,

'fresh garnish to my seasonal offering.'

Some salt, some pepper

-and that's the basil oil.

-Wow.

It's powerful, it's intense, it's fabulous.

Now, you could pass this through a sieve if you want it pure.

But I kind of want some chunky basil on the top.

I'm really quite happy with that.

'And where green says it's for summer, two tablespoons of a sweet

'and one of a hot paprika will give my soup a warm, red, wintry glow.'

Now the paprikas are in, all of those root vegetables are covered,

put in a tin of chopped tomatoes.

And one tablespoon of tomato puree.

And give it a mix.

# It was only a winter's tale

# Just a... #

-Who sang that?

-Oh, I don't know.

-It was somebody odd.

-David Essex, wasn't it?

-That was it, yeah.

# It was only a winter's tale... #

Chorizo.

'About 125 grams, skinned and cut into five millimetre slices.

'And then 100 grams of puy lentils to soak up those flavours.'

And then just give it a stir, make sure they're all evenly distributed.

Cook for about another couple of minutes.

'I'm a little behind Kingy, but my soup of summer veg will

'cook in half the time of the root veg.'

I add one chopped onion

and a chopped stick of celery.

And a couple of cloves of garlic, massive, sliced.

One leek, sliced.

It's like a British garden minestrone, this soup.

And three diced courgettes.

Courgettes are very, very interesting.

Did you know that the heaviest courgette was

grown by a Bernard Lavery in Rhondda

in 1990 and it was 30 kilograms?

Bernard Lavery, champion courgette grower extraordinaire.

Now, these tomatoes, they've been skinned,

I've taken the seeds out and chopped them roughly and they go in.

And what I need to do now is to get my stock in.

'Both these soups use one and a half to two litres of chicken stock.'

It doesn't get much better than that.

And now, add about a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Tomato puree's gone in, we bring this to a gentle simmer.

And then put a lid on - or a plate, in our case -

and cook for about 45 minutes,

or until the vegetables are cooked.

-Hey, Kingy, have you seen this, with pasta?

-What's that?

I want about 50 grams of pasta,

so it's about a centimetre bundle.

And you know like you always have broken pasta in minestrone?

You could go through going...

But there's a trick.

-Put the pasta like so, and wrap it very carefully in tea towel.

-Yes?

And then you take it like that

and just go like that.

PASTA CRUNCHES

Couple of times.

I love the sound.

Open your tea towel and there it is.

A bag of randomly-broken pasta bits.

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

And that's kind of just perfect for your soup.

Minestrone moment.

Give that five minutes, then we pop in the greens - the peas,

the broad beans and the green beans.

'Well, the best soups come to those who wait and although mine

'takes a little longer to cook than Dave's,

'we'll both have to leave our greens till last.'

-I'll put my greens in.

-I'll put mine in.

This is cavolo nero and what we're going to do is we're going to add

that to the soup, but we've got to prepare it,

so that kind of

bit of rib that you see, I don't want that.

Cavolo nero. You could use Savoy cabbage, couldn't you?

Yeah, or kale, or anything like that. Just lovely.

So we put that in. About 100gs.

Stir it round.

Let it cook for five mins.

I'm on a five-minute timetable too. I've got some chopped green beans.

It's these green vegetables that, to me, have that spirit of summer.

Broad beans go in.

And peas. Look at that.

It's where Torquay meets Tuscany.

'A pinch of seasoning, Si,

'and I think we're about ready to dish up.'

We want a nice, generous bowl of this.

But look at the colours.

Mine gets its garnish.

I've got the basil oil.

-Just drizzle that like so.

-Oh, yes.

Dave, that looks fabulous, like.

It's proper, isn't it?

Look at that.

Market garden,

winter garden.

Oh, that's good.

So, do you use your markets.

Take advantage of the variety of produce that they've got

on offer and take advantage of the seasonality.

It makes sense.

Because I like summer...

And I'm more of a wintry sort, one of us had to cook out of season.

But, it was the only way of bringing you my lean, green,

sunshine summer minestrone...

And my stonking paprika-powered

winter warmer at the same time.

'Probably no other factor has had as big an impact on the food

'we eat since the Second World War as the supermarket.'

'Its arrival to our shores in the 1950s heralded a new age.'

'One that would change our lives for ever.'

'A whirlwind romance that, for better or worse,

'led to a lasting marriage.'

# Please hold me close

# And whisper that you love me... #

'Over the years, the supermarket

'has offered us things other shops could only dream of

'and the rules of our relationship were established very early on.'

A transatlantic phenomenon has at last

made its mark in British shops.

The self-service store.

Its apprenticeship is over and, according to the experts,

it's here to stay.

'One of the first things to attract us was their convenience.'

You're given a wire basket as you go in,

and that's to put the groceries in.

From then on, the customer's more or less on her own,

free to choose whatever she wants.

Because everything is on show and easy to reach,

housewives are finding shopping

easier, quicker and more convenient.

'The Sainsbury's family was the first to pioneer the

'self-service shop, after seeing the idea on a business trip to America.'

'Grocers since the 1850s, they prided themselves

'on their quality produce and aimed to bring the supermarkets to

'as many high streets as they could, starting with Croydon, in 1950.'

It sells the same sort of goods,

but instead of being served by an assistant, you help yourself.

'And it tapped straight in to a real need.'

More than half of the married women of this country now go out to work.

They've less time for either shopping or for elaborate cooking.

As a result, these self-service stores are booming.

They're being opened at the rate of 90 a month.

'This was a bright new world, where you could not only see

'the goods close up, you could handle them too.'

'Manhandle it, more like.'

'Supermarkets also brought us choice.'

'For a generation who had lived through rationing,

'the goods on offer were enough to make their knees tremble.'

The manager has to see that everything is there

ready to take away without the need to ask an assistant for it.

'And over the coming years, we began to expect more and more.

'Food on tap, what we wanted,

'when we wanted it and distance no object.'

People go to supermarkets

because they can find a wide variety of foods under one roof.

The goods are generally of a high standard

and because supermarket companies buy them in such large quantities,

they can often give good value for money.

'And there lay the supermarkets' other key attraction - low prices.

'Getting value for money was a desire

'that one man in particular made it his mission to satisfy.'

In 1919, a young man without a job staked his small

gratuity from the Air Force in a speculation on canned food.

He bought it cheap and he sold it cheap.

That, in principle, is what Jack Cohen has been doing ever since.

'From humble beginnings, he took the high street by storm

'with his chain of stores called Tesco.'

'Size was everything and by opening more and more stores,

'Tesco were able to drive prices lower and lower.'

Tesco still runs on the street trader's basic principle.

Buy cheap, sell cheap.

'And we loved it. We couldn't get enough.'

'At the start of the '60s, Britain had 572 supermarkets.

'By 1969, it had grown to 3,400.'

'It revolutionised our lives and we pledged our undying love,

'forsaking all others.

'Today, there are over 10,000 serving the British public.'

'And one out of every £10 spent in a British shop

'is spent in Tescos.'

'The honeymoon period might have worn off a little...'

'And the factors of convenience, choice and value mean that, for many of us...

'We simply can't imagine life without them.'

'Where it may seem the inexorable rise of the supermarket has

'come to dominate many smaller, traditional food retailers...'

'There's one exclusive London food destination that's keen to

'keep in touch with its humble origins.'

'The world-famous Fortnum & Mason

'might supply groceries to the royals now,

'but as archivist Andrea Tanner explains,

'it wasn't always this way.'

Well, Fortnum & Mason began in 1707,

which is the same year that Britain was formed, as a market stall,

started by two young men who saw a gap in the market.

They began by selling candles and tea.

Candles, very traditional British product, but tea was new

and exciting and very exotic

and they spotted that it was going to be very profitable and people

had to be taught how to buy it, how to store it and how drink it.

'Being one of the first shops in the UK to market such produce

'meant that Fortnum's were perfectly placed to serve Britain's

'increasingly international food culture.'

Fortnum's, to a large extent, has been the market stall of the Empire.

Really since the 18th century, people have come here to see what

wonderful goods the market of the Empire gave us.

So tea and coffee to begin with,

cocoa, spices, sugars, vinegars,

exotic herbs and so on.

And it was quite a small shop until the 1920s.

It was very much hugger-mugger and higgledy-piggledy and,

like a market stall, everything was set out so you could taste it

and smell it and try it

and talk to the people who had found these wonderful ingredients for you.

'Having started out as a market, Fortnum & Mason

'know as well as anyone the value of being able to

'engage with your customer when launching a new product.'

We're Aylesbury Escargot and we're selling escargot,

so that's basically snail meat and also escargot pearls,

which is snail caviar.

'That's snails eggs, for those of you that are little confused.

'But these markets are also useful in rekindling food

'and flavours that are quintessentially home-grown.'

I make a range of products, which are inspired by the

food heritage of Britain and wild flavours.

The kind of things that taste amazing but we don't use any more.

I'm here selling English saffron

for the first time for about 200 years back in England.

England used to be the major exporter of saffron in the world,

unbelievably, which is where the name Saffron Walden comes from.

'And the buyer who get all these products

'under one roof is Sam Rosen-Nash.'

There's a hunger for knowledge, especially around food.

Where it comes from, who makes it, why is it different,

why is it so delicious?

And having this familiar environment encourages our customers to

approach the producers, to hear about their wonderful stories.

You're not just buying a product because of what it

looks like on a shelf, you're buying a product

because of the wonderful background information you're learning about it.

Actually seeing about the person who's selling it,

their enthusiasm, their passion.

That's what's making you pick it up off the shelf.

You are buying that because of what's in the jar, not just the jar itself.

'Traditional markets have always allowed us Brits

'to educate ourselves about what we might be buying.'

'But perhaps most importantly,

'they've also allowed food retailers to identify with us.'

It's always important to come and talk to people

and get crucial feedback.

Hopefully, most of it positive. Occasionally some of it negative.

People come in, they'll taste something and say to you,

"Have you tried doing it with this?

"Will you do it this way?" And some of my best ideas,

my best products, have come from other people.

It's worth huge amounts to a producer to have people

saying at your stall, "That's delicious.

You can't bottle the price of that.

'It goes to show that wherever you buy your food,

'chances are that the advantages of selling in this age-old fashion

'have rarely been overlooked.'

Right from their very first existence,

food markets have been catapulting new and exciting tastes

and flavours into our lives.

And whilst foreign restaurants selling unheard-of dishes

might have tickled our taste buds to start with...

It's the specialist food markets that are now selling these

international ingredients that have allowed us to have a bash at home.

You know, British markets, it's not just all selling carrots

-and places selling plastic buckets.

-Oh, no.

This recipe combines two of our favourite markets.

-Yes, an Asian market...

-And fish market.

It's the sort of dish where you get your ingredients together to

cook it, you have more fun shopping than you do cooking it.

-Oh, it's brilliant.

-But when it comes to cooking, it's quick to put together

and we're going to do a panang fish curry,

or a phanaeng fish curry.

Now, there's three types of fish here.

We've got cod, we've got haddock and we've got pollock.

You see, we've gone to the market with no predetermined ideas

what fish are going to go in it.

We've just bought fish that go together.

I mean, you could use sea bass, you could use bream,

bit of whiting, bit of coley.

But we've got some nice spices in that really sell a cheap fish.

And make sure that... Look.

You want to keep the integrity of those fish pieces,

so chunk them quite large.

Because they're just going to cook through

in that lovely coconut-y sauce.

We've got the lovely Thai shallots. I want 15 of these.

If you're using ordinary shallots, you use eight.

'Then stick in three tablespoons of sunflower oil

'into a hot wok and fry.'

Right. Time for blast off.

Let's watch these shallots jump.

Now, what we want, we want to cook them

until they're golden and crispy.

-Nearly there, mate.

-Yeah.

'This should take no more than five to eight minutes.

'Once they are done, remove with a slotted spoon

'and drain on kitchen paper.'

-There we go.

-Lovely stuff.

'We'll put these to one side for a lovely, texturous topping later.

'Right, now for the curry.'

Bit of oil in the pan.

So we've got some coconut cream.

There's about two small cans here. This may spit.

And this, it's Thai yellow curry paste.

You can make this with the red curry paste,

but traditionally it's a yellow curry paste.

And the Thai curry pastes, they're pastes that are made up

with different formulas for different curries.

Actually, you can make your own

and it does store very, very well.

But if you can't be bothered, just find a good brand and stick to it.

-I want four tablespoons.

-We like it spicy.

# They call me mellow yellow... #

And just cook that for a moment.

Now, what we're doing is... Look, see.

I'm working that curry paste right through that coconut cream.

And don't worry about getting the wok quite hot,

because that's what you're after.

Just work that in like that until you're...

Cor, look at that.

An even distribution of the herbs and spices

and colour through said creamed coconut.

And you need to cook that curry paste to release all those

super duper flavours. When combined with coconut,

-you're off on your holidays.

-You are, aren't you?

You know when you were on your holidays

and all you could get from the local chemist was that coconut oil?

-Oh, yes.

-Dear me.

-And you burn like a swine.

-You do and all.

Pop in some water.

And a can of coconut milk.

If you're watching your weight, you can always use reduced fat

coconut milk and honestly it works very well.

And we do watch our weight constantly.

Go up and down like a fiddler's elbow.

-Oh, we do. We do. It's a constant battle.

-It is.

Now we start with the aromatics.

Two stalks of lemongrass, top 'em, tail 'em.

Cut them in half and give them a thump with a heavy object.

Just bruise it to release the oils.

Now, we're not going to eat these. We'll just use them for flavour.

The big chunk of flavour.

To this, eight kaffir lime leaves.

You can buy the dried lime leaves or you can get frozen ones.

And you can rehydrate... the dried ones rehydrate quite well.

-They're quite good.

-Now we have the sweet and savoury.

And sweet and savoury is the kind of essence of this dish.

I'm going to put in a tablespoon of nam pla, which is Thai fish sauce.

Kind of go steady.

It's saltier than an anchovy in thermals.

Now we want the sweetness.

Use ordinary sugar, but we've got palm sugar.

We want about two tablespoons.

So again, I'm going to put it in here, use me bonker.

And palm sugar's great.

-Looks a bit like fudge, doesn't it?

-It does.

Now, put two tablespoons of this in the curry and stir it

till it's dissolved.

'Ingredients like these are often hard to come by,

'but a good specialist Asian market stall will supply the lot.'

'And quite often, they're a great way to get introduced to stuff

'you've never seen or heard of.'

-Now onto the pea aubergines.

-Not!

Oh, Thailand, it's full of aubergines in their many form.

But pea aubergines. Just go and get them.

And it's also quite hard and quite savoury.

Now, if you can't get pea aubergines,

you can always chop up some green beans

and throw the bits in but it's not as good as this.

But these are like little bullets and, really,

you just get like a burst of savoury.

They're really particular to the curry. They're lovely.

So I'll pop those in.

They're so lovely.

They are lovely, but they're such a unique characteristic.

If you can and you've got an Asian supermarket that you go to

quite a lot, it's worth making the effort to get them.

And if you're not sure about what to buy, ask, cos they'll tell you,

cos they want to flog it.

'You'll have noticed that our curry has several

'clearly mapped out stages.'

'And, if you time your ingredients sensibly,

your curry will cook with Zen-like precision.'

You've been to Thailand on your holidays.

Is it good? I've never been.

Oh, I have. I went to yoga in the morning.

-I used to go up on the beach.

-Did you?

-Yes, yes.

And since I lost weight, I'm a lot more flexible.

You were always a bit flexible.

I spent ages standing on one leg.

You put it up like that, but the secret is

you have to wrap your arms like that.

And still maintain your core.

Do you have to make a face like that?

-It kind of comes with the arms, really.

-Does it?

-Yeah.

'We'll give it eight minutes before the

'pea aubergines are similarly enlightened.'

Right, mate. Time for the peppers.

One diced red pepper.

One diced yellow pepper.

Now, that goes in now for a further five minutes.

Can you do the lotus thing?

You know, like crossing your leg over your other leg.

You know, like that?

Then you do that and then you put this one...

No, it's got to be tucked up, so you have the shape. No.

-Like that.

-No, no, no. No, my friend.

That's not bad, that, for, you know... What have you got to do?

It's up there, like that.

You see, like so. Tucked in.

No way, you've got to get that up there.

Oh, look at that. The pea aubergines have cooked.

Look at that wonderful separation, like you get in the restaurants.

Time to float on the fish and the mangetout.

And Thai curries are great,

cos they're full of veg and they're healthy.

-I'm just going to kind of fold it.

-Fold it, David.

Because it's important that you keep the fish in chunks,

don't forget, because, what you want to do, as you're folding

and the fish is cooking,

you want to maintain the integrity of that lovely piece of fish.

And it's going to steam in all your aromatics.

Oh, look at that.

I reckon another five minutes and that's it.

Oh, takes me back to Bangkok.

Now, this is Thai holy basil,

which tastes to me really aniseedy,

but it's what you want. If you can't get this, use ordinary basil.

-But it's worthwhile foraging for.

-Lovely fresh element to it.

-Really nice, fresh flavour.

-That's what you want.

It's a thick, umptious curry.

Don't eat the lime leaves and don't eat the lemongrass.

-Some of those crispy shallots.

-Lovely.

The moment we've all been waiting for. There's nothing like it.

Fantastic.

And all the textural differences, as well,

that underpin all those flavours.

-It's just superb.

-Those little pea aubergines.

Aromatic, good, warming curry.

-And a perfect example of the Great British market.

-Oh, aye.

This is a meal that's perfect from the market to the mouth.

'From quite humble beginnings, British markets have become

'some of the most dynamic and varied food stores in the world.'

'Supplying goods to our ever-increasing

'and diversifying population has seen them first respond to

'and then begin to shape our nation's diet.'

'And, as our natural inquisitiveness into what we're eating

'and where it comes from has increased, so our food stores

'have endeavoured to respond to our every whim and desire.'

'Which means, that whatever you're wanting to cook,

'you'll be sure to find a market near you supplying quality,

'varied and flavoursome produce that we can all enjoy.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd