Childhood Favourites James Martin: Home Comforts

Sometimes there's no place like home,

and few things are more comforting and delicious

than real home cooking.

Living in this beautiful country with great produce

right on our doorstep, we really are spoilt for choice.

So, in this series, I'm inviting you into my kitchen

to share with you some of my tasty home-cooked treats.

The dishes I turn to, whether entertaining friends and family,

or just relaxing on my own.

MUSIC: Theme to Grange Hill

Although I now call Hampshire home, I grew up in Yorkshire.

And it's the food from my childhood spent there that I often crave.

As well as tasting terrific, they bring back so many great memories.

Now, I have such fond memories as a kid,

arguing with my sister at the top of the landing

as my Evel Knievel toy veered into her My Little Pony display.

But it was those smells from downstairs,

and the smells from my kitchen,

and watching my mother cook, that really inspired me to be a chef.

And visiting my grandmother, my auntie,

both of which were amazing bakers.

I have so many childhood favourites.

I'm going to share with you right now just a few of them.

I want to inspire you with food

that instantly transports you back to your school days.

I'll be cooking dishes

that put modern twists on some cherished classics.

We'll be learning the history

behind some of our best-loved traditional treats.

But nothing gets me quite so nostalgic as cooking up roast pork

with apple sauce, spuds and cabbage, just like my mum used to make.

Now, one of my favourite pieces of meat,

particularly for Sunday lunch when I was a kid, was roast pork.

This is the shoulder of pork.

There's nothing better than it slow roast with that lovely,

crispy crackling. And my mother's roast potatoes.

But what we need to do is get crispy crackling on it.

Now, to do this, you're better off using a sharp knife,

really, for this, rather than a knife like this.

And what you do is score it.

Now, be really careful with this.

You basically just get this right inside,

and you just slice it all over the top.

Quite deep.

'My method involves mixing chopped thyme with sea salt,

'and then massaging the meat with some olive oil

'before rubbing the salt mix into the cuts on the pork shoulder.'

What this salt is going to do is draw out all that moisture

and create a crackling on top of the pork,

which we all want to sort of fight over.

And then, I'm going to cook this on the actual open tray of the oven.

This is often known as sort of weeping cooking,

ie you allow the juices to drip onto a tray.

We're going to use those juices to roast our potatoes.

What you need to do with this, is basically sort your oven out.

You want enough space in the bottom to put a tray,

and enough space in the top to put your pork.

So, pop the tray in first of all. Lift out this tray.

Now, my best advice really with this,

you get yourself like a little cooling rack.

Place that on the top.

Cos it's easier to handle,

and certainly easier to get the pork out of as well.

'Cook the pork shoulder in a low oven for about four to five hours.

'Which gives me loads of time to get on with sorting out the other bits.

'First, my apple sauce.'

You must use Bramley apples. These are unique to the UK.

There's nowhere else that grows them like us around the world.

They've got a sharpness, and taste delicious. Perfect for apple sauce.

Now, what's great about this is you can make a decent amount.

It freezes so well, this stuff.

It's a common misconception, you think it's going to go brown.

Actually, you can freeze apples just sliced. They don't go brown.

'Now, for me, it's not cooking if there's no butter.

'So, that goes in first with some water, and the apples.

'Now, I like to add just a sprinkling of sugar,

'so the sharpness of the apples really comes through.

'And then I simmer it all for about ten minutes.

'You can add cloves and nutmeg if you fancy.

'But I'm a man of simple tastes.'

Now, to make the best roast potatoes...

I did actually phone my mother for this last night, for this recipe.

Now, she always buys good quality King Edward potatoes.

So, with these potato trimmings, even the apple trimmings

we used to give to the pigs, cos we were brought up on a pig farm.

Hence, you always had the best quality pork around.

'So, once my spuds are in, I just bring the pan to the boil

'and let it gently bubble for one minute only before draining.'

Nice and quick.

'Now, I just need to cover my potatoes in that fantastic pork fat,

'add a bit of salt, and bang them back in the oven for 40 minutes.

'I've turned the heat up

'for the perfect potatoes and crispy crackling.'

Now I'm going to teach you how to cook cabbage properly.

It doesn't leave you mentally scarred as a child when you end up

with this limp, manky, overcooked stinking-your-house-out cabbage.

This is hispi cabbage, or pointed cabbage, which I've been told.

Cos this is delicious,

when you taste it like this.

It is not good

when it goes on at the same time as your pork in the oven.

So, to cook it, we cook it simply.

'And for me, that means my food heaven ingredient.

'With water, in a pan, plus a bit of seasoning.

'Cook for three minutes, and it's done.

'The key to getting it right is to hardly cook it at all.'

You see, Sunday lunch doesn't have to be stressful. I'm not stressed.

Chilled out. It's all about timing, you see.

Getting everything ready beforehand.

And look...

Mmmm, je t'aime, je t'aime. Look at that.

How good does that look?

Fantastic piece of roast pork.

That's what food's all about.

And then, of course, we've got our roast potatoes,

which have been cooked in all those lovely juices from the pork as well.

God, they look good.

I used to fight so much with my sister over this bit. Crackling.

Even now, we still have scraps

over the dining room table over this.

Sometimes, to go forward in life, you've got to go backwards.

Go back to your childhood and have some of your favourite meals.

Cos that is knockout.

So, there you have it, my roast pork shoulder with apple sauce

and perfect potatoes.

A meal made of memories.

I think one of the main reasons my family's meals were so memorable

was the outstanding produce used to make them.

Here in Hampshire, I'm always amazed by the excellent produce

readily available within a stone's throw of my home.

Like the wares of Jayne and David Muggeridge,

who make award-winning fruit cordials using old family recipes

from their Portsmouth kitchen, which are a hit all over southern England.

Drinking these is like time-travelling

back to your school days.

We make quite a large range of cordials.

We try to follow the seasons.

We make a raspberry and elderflower, lemon and borage,

lime and lime mint. All sorts of unusual things.

Rhubarb and ginger, which is very good as a soft drink,

but equally good in gin and champagne.

Jayne's family have had an appetite

for what you might call posh squash for over 100 years.

I've made cordials since I was little.

They're from my grandmother's recipes, Grandmother Mabel.

My grandmother used to be a cook in the '20s.

She trained in a place called AB Marshalls in Mortimer Street,

which was a cookery school and finishing school of its day.

Today, Jayne's making orange and lemon cordial.

When you make a cordial...

Most of the time through the summer it's all soft fruits,

but obviously at this time of year we can't get soft fruits.

So, a good alternative is to have citrus,

because you need vitamin C.

If you roll the fruit back and forward in your hands,

it releases the sinews in the fruit, so you get more juice out of them.

Grandma Mabel's recipe calls for thin-skinned fruit to be used,

whole, rather than juiced,

to add to the sharpness,

and to stop the finished product being sickly sweet.

Make sure it's all chopped up.

And just pop it into a clean pan.

And do the same again...

..with the lemons.

It's nice to have something you've made yourself.

You know where it comes from, you know what it tastes like.

You know what's in it. And you know it's not going to be bad for you.

Once the fruit has been blitzed, Jayne adds water

and pops it onto the hob.

I was about seven when we first made a cordial with my mum and dad.

Dad grew it, Mum made it.

Dad wasn't allowed in the kitchen, cos he burnt everything!

Luckily Jayne's got her granny's gift for cooking,

and still makes this old-fashioned favourite the traditional way.

A sieve and muslin.

Almost the same as my grandmother Mabel would have used.

You can't get any simpler than that. Such a pretty colour.

Put your sugar in. And we add some citric acid.

The cordial just needs another blast of heat,

then it's ready for bottling.

If you want a clean flavour, which bursts on your palate

when you drink it, so you know it's made with love,

you have to make it with love.

Truly artisan-made.

It is indeed.

Even their trusty kettle does overtime, steam sealing the bottles.

I love making things that my grandmother made, and my parents

always said to me that one day I'd make my living from cooking.

And I do.

And I'm sure my grandmother and my mother and father

are looking down and saying, yeah, she done it. She made it.

It's great to have such quality cordials nearby,

especially as Jayne's come in with some for me to use

for my raspberry jelly with lime syrup

and home-made ice cream.

A modern take on a kiddy party classic.

This is kind of like a grown-up version of jelly and ice cream.

Using some of this amazing cordial that we've got there.

So, first of all I'm going to make the jelly part of it.

'Step one, make the sugar syrup

'by adding sugar into a pan of hot water.

'Whilst the sugar dissolves,

'soften some of the gelatine leaves in cold water.'

-What have you brought along for me, then?

-This is rhubarb and ginger.

Do you want some water in it to dilute it down?

Do you need water, or can you drink it neat?

Most chefs drink it neat.

Yeah. It's delicious. I always think with cordials,

it literally coats your mouth with flavour.

It's like the best fruit juice, isn't it, really? That hit.

'And now I'm going to pour out a litre of my syrup into a bowl,

'and save the rest to make a sauce later.

'Then I take out the soaked gelatine leaves

'and whisk them into the syrup,

'which will transform it into a set jelly.'

And now I need to flavour this, so we need to pick one.

-What's this? Raspberry and English elderflower.

-Raspberry.

I don't need to go any further. That is the one. That is fantastic.

-I've got to have a bit of that. Which is it? This one?

-Yes.

-And you say you make about 500 bottles a day?

-Mmm.

500 bottles a day, and you've got that old kettle sealing up...

That's my husband's job. JAYNE LAUGHS

That's great, innit, yeah?

He's stood there, all day, just doing that.

You get all the glory. What a life, eh?

-I feed him, though.

-Oh, do you? That's quite nice, innit?

Right, this is like a grown-up version of jelly.

So, a little bit of vodka.

Right, we're going to make our little terrine now.

'And to make sure it turns out perfectly,

'oil the mould first before lining it with clingfilm,

'so when you press it in, it will stick to the mould.'

So, once you get to that stage you want some ice in the tray.

A bit of water.

And then... This is the fun bit, really.

It's a bit like making cordial. You can use whatever you want.

So, we take a ladle full of this.

And then you've got your fantastic raspberries here.

So you can use different fruits, different flavours

-and different alcohol bases then?

-Yeah.

Don't go nicking the recipe, Jayne.

I'll be seeing it at a farmers' market.

-Coming to a farmers' market near you.

-Definitely.

Jayne's elderflower cordial terrine.

As seen on TV.

So, the idea is, you basically layer this up.

-You see we've got one layer?

-Yep.

What you can do is, keep it in the ice, and you keep building it up.

What I've got in the fridge just to show you..

-I've got one here, you see.

-So, how long does that take to set?

When you've got warm jelly like this,

it'll only take ten minutes.

This is the dish that, if you've got time on your hands,

this is ideal.

You keep layering this up.

-So, are puddings your favourite then?

-I think so, really, yeah.

And butter?

-And cream?

-What made you think that? I don't use much butter.

-What made you think that?

-HE LAUGHS

There. You just keep layering this all up.

Ideally, you can pop it in the fridge in the ice as you go,

build it all up, build up all the layers,

and you've got a lovely little treat.

Now for our ice cream. Now, I'm sure Granny knew how to make ice cream.

How do you make yours?

-I make custard, proper custard.

-That's what I'm about to do.

-Do you know the recipe off by heart?

-No.

-Come on!

Granny knew the recipe off by heart.

One litre of proper custard is eight eggs, right?

The more egg yolks you put in, the richer the ice cream will become.

The more sugar you put in, the thinner the ice cream will become.

-Really?

-Cos sugar will act as a defrosting agent.

-Right.

Double cream. Full-fat milk.

And then what we do is take some vanilla.

Now, the important bit is the sugar.

You need to measure this exact, really.

This is where the recipe, really with ice cream,

can go terribly wrong. And you need 8oz of sugar, new money.

Which is half a pound in old money.

Or, how many grams?

-I only do pounds and ounces.

-Ah, got you!

-It's basically 225g of sugar.

-I haven't got one of those, either.

I've got one with...

-Have you got one of those with the old weights on it?

-Yes!

I'm that old-fashioned, I'm afraid.

See, I had one of those in the bathroom.

It gave you a false reading all the time!

-That's where it's been going wrong.

-That's what my husband says.

What you mustn't do is actually throw the sugar into the egg yolks

too soon. Because it will burn.

It's really a common mistake when people are making this,

particularly cakes and sponges. They add that to the sugar.

You mix it together,

and you end up with little yellow pieces you can't get rid of.

It's because the sugar is actually curing the egg yolks.

-It's cooking.

-Oh, right.

-What you must do is keep them separate

until this starts to come to the boil.

And now we add the sugar to the mix.

Now, I'm using a fancy ice-cream machine like this.

Not like Granny had, where she had to stir it round probably

every 20 minutes out of the freezer.

You bring this to the boil, and just pour it in.

Mix it together.

And really, it's this next part that's quite crucial.

You can tell when it's going to be ready,

because it starts to get thicker and thicker and thicker.

The bubbles will start to disappear. Then it's at the right temperature.

At this point we can take the whole lot, pour it straight into our bowl.

Take out our vanilla pod, save that for another day.

'It only takes half an hour to freeze in my modern machine,

'which is ample time for me to rustle up a little something

'that will take this dish to the next level.'

Right, we've got the remaining syrup here.

What we're going to do with this, is just make a lovely sauce with this.

'All I'm going to do is choose

'another one of Jayne's cracking cordials.

'This time, lime and mint for a bit of contrast.

'And warm it up.

'I want a clear sauce

'so I'm going to use arrowroot powder instead of cornflour

'to thicken it.

'And I dissolve that into the syrup I saved earlier.

'Lime zest will perk it up no end, and once you've added

'the thickened syrup to the hot cordial, throw in the lime zest.

'And that's your sauce sorted.'

Here, taste that. Dip your finger in there.

-It's lovely.

-You see?

-Very nice.

-So, it's quite a soft jelly.

-Very, very soft.

You don't want it to taste like jelly you had as a kid.

See, it's a bit different to my gran's jelly and ice cream.

But with your gran's recipe for cordial,

-it kind of makes it better, doesn't it, really?

-Yes.

-Can I try?

-Go on, then. Dive in.

-I can cope with criticism.

-You can?

I spoke to your husband, I know what you're like.

-It's really nice.

-You can't criticise that, can you?

-It's really nice.

There's a lot of vodka gone in there as well.

'I'm so glad Jayne's here.

'Jelly and ice cream, however much you tart it up,

'isn't for eating on your own.

'It's food for sharing with others.'

One of the nation's best-loved childhood treats,

and a winner with me, is gingerbread.

But it's undergone a transformation over the past 500 years or so.

In his Yorkshire kitchen-cum-food laboratory, Gerard Baker reveals

a very different sweet indulgence our medieval ancestors enjoyed.

If you ask most people what comes to mind

when you ask them about their childhood baking,

the chances are the first thing they'll remember

is the gingerbread man.

It may be the runaway treat of fairy tales,

but gingerbread hasn't always been for children.

Recipes in the Middle Ages were unrecognisable

from what we know and love today.

But at their heart is the same special ingredient.

There's one thing that's common to all gingerbreads,

be it the gingerbread man or the earliest gingerbread recipes,

and that is this stuff.

Root ginger.

Root ginger is an Asian plant essentially,

but it no longer exists in the wild.

And that gives us a clue,

that it's been around in common use for centuries.

And in fact, it came first to the British kitchen in the 12th century.

Ginger was one of the many herbs and spices brought back to Europe

by returning crusaders, enriching Western cooking.

It was used in powdered form alongside pepper

as one of our most common seasonings.

It was only later, in the 13th and 14th centuries, that we begin

to see the first recipes for what we might think an early gingerbread.

Gerard's going to make a recipe from the 15th century,

unlike any around today.

Ginger was incredibly expensive,

so this dish was only available to the wealthiest.

Now, there are very few ingredients in an early gingerbread.

Honey, as the source of sweetness,

Stale breadcrumbs, which provided the bulk of the gingerbread,

and, of course, ground ginger, the spice.

Which was the form that most ginger would have been imported as.

We start off with the honey.

We don't need to use fresh breadcrumbs

because, of course stale breadcrumbs are a by-product of every kitchen.

It was a really good way of using up something to make a new dish.

And then the ginger itself,

which has the benefit of also being a preservative.

Most medieval cooking was done over an open fire.

So, rather than being baked like modern gingerbread,

it was heated in a pan.

But it cooks very quickly, as the bread thickens the mixture.

So, why did this aristocratic snack become people-shaped?

Supposedly it was none other than Queen Elizabeth who gave us

the first gingerbread men,

which she had baked in the likeness of courtly visitors

and presented as gifts.

So, it's ironic, really, that what was a courtly treat

in the form of an early gingerbread

became the food of the nation's children,

the nation's childhood treat.

And that started to take place largely in the 17th and 18th century,

when annual fairs that were held around the country,

agricultural fairs, if you like,

saw an increasingly large variety of cakes and biscuits

being sold as treats for children.

That largely came about as a result of the cheapness of sugar,

as the trade from the West Indies increased.

This looks like it's nearly ready now.

It's still soft enough to put into the mould.

Now, this is a set, and not a baked, gingerbread.

And it take two or three days to firm up.

Not the ideal thing if you've got a lot of hungry and expectant children

waiting at the kitchen table for a treat.

I just need to press the surface of the gingerbread

with dampened fingers.

Smooth it into the mould.

And then I can leave it in a warm, dry place to set.

Now, that will take two or three days to dry and become firm enough to cut.

But fortunately, because there's a bit of a kid in me,

I made one earlier so I could try.

I shall have a taste.

And for me, it's just the perfect combination of honey and spice.

What a treat.

When I think about the food I loved growing up,

sometimes it's about more than the people who made it.

It's about the place I ate it as well.

Like one of my treasured treats as a young 'un.

Good old Yorkshire parkin,

the soft, syrupy oatmeal cake oozing with treacle.

For me, it's a recipe with northern soul.

Now, this is parkin. It's one of my grandmother's old recipes.

It's a classic, really,

and one that is often served on Bonfire Night in Yorkshire.

But it's really an adaption, I suppose, of gingerbread.

'Just like my granny,

'I'm using light brown sugar rather than dark brown.

'The molasses flavour can be a bit too much.

'Then the same amount of butter goes in.

'And for that supreme stickiness, I like a heart-stopping combo

'of three parts golden syrup to one part black treacle,

'as a little of the treacle's burnt caramel taste goes a long way.'

Now, what you need to do now is just warm this up.

So, take the entire lot.

All we're going to do is melt the butter and sugar

and the golden syrup. What we don't want to be doing is boiling it.

Because if we boil anything like this,

you really unbalance the recipe.

So it's important that you're just warming it.

So, do this on a really low heat to start off with.

This is a recipe that I've never changed.

It just brings back so many memories of my childhood.

'Now for the dry ingredients,

'starting with oats and self-raising flour.'

Now for our spices.

And this is where you get the kick.

When you have dried ginger in anything,

you don't only get the flavour,

you get this kick at the back of your throat.

And that's what parkin is really good for.

Especially when we had it around Bonfire Night, to warm you up.

'Then, a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and mixed spice...

'..before cracking in two eggs.

'Then I add a splash of milk, and finally, a pinch of salt.'

Before I mix everything together, you need to butter the tin.

For that, I'll just use some softened butter.

Now, I don't really use pastry brushes.

And then what we can do is combine all the ingredients. So...

The sugar's not really dissolved.

All you're doing with this is just melting the butter.

Mix this together now.

And I would always do this by hand.

Because if you do this by machine,

you're going to break up the oats in there,

and you won't get that texture to your parkin as well.

Got to try it.

Cos it does taste fantastic with that spice.

Give it a good, quick mix.

And then pour it into your tin.

You can see from the mixture it's actually quite a wet mix.

And this means that it's got to cook

slightly longer than a normal cake mix.

You reduce the temperature down to stop it from burning.

'The parkin needs about an hour and a quarter to cook.

'And if I was doing this like my granny,

'all my work would be done now.'

But I've got to fancy this up, and I've got to use Yorkshire's veg.

This is what this is classed as. Rhubarb.

We produce some of the best in the world in Yorkshire.

People have really fallen out of favour with rhubarb,

mainly because of its taste.

I don't think people put enough sugar into it.

That's why it really lends itself together with this.

'I prefer rhubarb in batons.

'To cook it, I get a pan,

'and pop in some butter,

'water and sugar.

'Plus a bit of orange zest

'which really enhances the rhubarb's flavour.

'Then I poach it for just a few minutes.'

So, while that's gently poaching,

I'm going to do the best part of this dish

which is the sauce to go with it.

And for that, we use a combination of golden syrup,

the same spices, and cider.

Now, my granny wasn't a drinker. She had a bit of a sherry now and then.

But cider was definitely always in her cupboard.

Not really to drink, but to cook with.

All you do with this is bring it to the boil.

You end up with this amazing spiced syrup

that you can serve with the rhubarb.

So this rhubarb is cooked.

Take it off the heat.

That's what you're looking for.

Something that's not a load of mush.

Too often with rhubarb, people just cook it to death.

You end up with this horrible stew in the bottom.

The worst thing you can possibly buy is tinned rhubarb.

That is up there with horseradish for me. Food of the devil.

It's food of the gods.

And best of all, it's from my neck of the woods.

Now, this is one I made earlier.

The key to this is leaving it for at least a couple of days,

five if possible.

You get this tackiness to the parkin,

which is what really separates it apart from most other cakes.

Just a nice little piece on this.

You've got this wonderful rhubarb here.

And then some of this amazing syrup.

Now, this, to be honest, is really fantastic.

Just vanilla ice cream.

You just put a spoonful on there.

It's a little bit more fancy than what Granny used to give us.

I think I've got it. It's as good as hers.

And this is too good not to share. You lot, dive in.

'Recreating your childhood favourites

'doesn't have to mean cooking retro food.

'For me, it's all about looking at old recipes and adding a new twist.

'That means I can be creative

'while still getting blurry-eyed at the memories from my past.'

If you'd like to know more

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