Cheap and Cheerful 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.

Home for me is the Hampshire countryside.

Here, and in Yorkshire, growing up, I've been surrounded by great food.

But great food doesn't have to be expensive.

Now, when I was training as a young kid as a chef, I was forever

short of money, but because you were short on cash didn't mean

you have to produce food that's short on flavour.

If you know what you're doing, you can produce amazing meals

out of very little.

So, it's time to embrace those value cuts of meat,

experiment with different and exciting new veg,

and discover frugal but flavoursome sauces that can enhance any meal.

Creativity is the key.

Use your leftovers wisely and you can incorporate them

into all manner of delicious dinners.

It's a tradition that we've been embracing for centuries with

recipes that have survived the test of time.

As any chef will tell you, carefully pick your ingredients,

and cost-conscious, stunning suppers can be knocked up in any kitchen.

So, let's start with a joint of meat that's exceptional versatility

is only matched by its incredibly low price.

Now, because ingredients are cheap, it doesn't mean to say

they're not full of flavour

and one cut in particular which is still inexpensive is ham hocks.

So, I'm going to make a delicious ham hock and pea soup

that clocks in at less than a pound a portion,

yet it wouldn't look out of place on the flashiest dinner table.

Now, I love ham hocks.

Back when I was a kid, we couldn't even give these away,

really, on the farm. Now, it's very simple to actually cook, really.

It's very different to sort of lamb shanks.

which is the same cut of meat on lamb.

So, what we're going to do is just pop them into a decent-sized pan.

I like to add a whole bulb of garlic with a bay leaf, some thyme

and a bunch of parsley.

Because ham hocks cook for such a long time,

all the flavours we add have plenty of time to infuse with the meat.

Rough chop a carrot, celery and an onion.

Drop in some whole peppercorns...

and top it all up with water.

I often think if food looks good, you know it's going to taste good,

and just even that is almost a picture in itself, really,

and it brings back sort of so many memories of me

on a farm where my granny would actually just put the ham hocks

in and then we'd all go off working in the farm all

the afternoon and then come back, you used to have the cooked ham

that used to rip apart with a little bit of mustard.

It was really delicious. But I'm going to turn this into a soup.

And all I need to do now is just bring it to the boil,

gently simmer it and cook it for about an hour and a half.

Making affordable food like this into something that will taste out

of this world, doesn't mean you have to slave over the stove all day.

When your ingredients are spot on,

dishes like this will practically make themselves.

Now, really, the secret for this is not just the meat that you

get from this, it's the liquor

and it's that liquor that I'm going to use for our delicious soup,

but what we're going to do is just lift this out.

Now, you get so much for your money

when you're looking at ham hocks. You see that?

And that can keep you going for days.

A ham, egg and chips like this can clock in at less than £1.50.

For the more health conscious, a walnut dressing on some

thinly sliced red cabbage gives you a tasty meal

for just 50p. For more details, check out the website.

For me, at under three quid a go,

a ham hock is one of the biggest bargains out there.

More tender flesh than you can shake a stick at, and of course,

this delicious stock, which reminds me - on with the soup.

Now, I wouldn't bother shelling out on any fresh peas here.

For me, they're just as good straight out the freezer.

Frozen peas...

Frozen peas straight into our pan.

I'm going to cook them very quickly, cos, really, with this

you want to preserve the colour.

And, above all else, the sweetness and the flavour of the peas.

Parsley.

This is a pea and parsley soup.

So, we put almost the same quantity of parsley to peas

and then we've got this liquor...

..which is brilliant

as the stock for our soup.

Now, in all my soups, there's always a touch of double cream...

..not just to add flavour, but to add texture to it as well

because the double cream actually starts to thicken it up also.

So, as soon as it comes just even to the boil,

that parsley starts to wilt, take it off the heat and blitz it.

Blend these ingredients thoroughly until you get a rich, thick,

smooth and silky texture.

I like to serve my soups with a bit of bread to mop it up,

but you can jazz it up a bit by toasting it on a hot griddle.

The mistake that people make

when using a griddle like this or a griddle pan at home is

you don't pour oil on it, you always oil the food that goes onto it.

Leave it for two or three minutes on a really high heat

and it will naturally just peel away as it gets hotter.

To finish it off, rub it with a bit of garlic.

And, really, the key to this soup...

is don't reheat it any more than once, cos, again,

you're going to overcook those peas, you're going to discolour them,

take away the flavour as well.

The whole point about it is

you've got this lovely, fresh flavour of the peas

and, to do that, only reheat it once

and then you can just take this ham,

and this is so tender.

Being a pig farmer's kid, I've tried so much of this...

in my life and it's often the case

with all meat, really,

it's the part of the animal that does the most amount of work

that tastes the best, but requires the longest amount of time to cook,

so things like the neck, the hocks,

the trotters, really are fantastic in terms of flavour.

This is a dish that really is...

..it really sings with flavour.

It may sound daft, just a pea and ham hock soup, but, make it right...

there is so much going on on your palate

and then, all we do now, is just simply serve this.

Garnish this with a sprinkling of the ham hock...

..a drizzle of olive oil and, of course, a splash of cream.

You've got to admit, this dish is the perfect example

of just how great cheap food can be.

There you go, art on a plate on a brilliant budget.

And when you taste it, it is one of these dishes

that really comes alive in your mouth.

You've got this lovely sweetness of the peas, the colour of it as well.

But, also, the texture of that ham hock,

there's nothing else like it

and when you serve it with some crusty bread rubbed with that

bit of garlic, that lovely charred flavour you get with it...

you've got a dish that's not only great for you to have at home

on your own, but one that you could easily serve for a dinner party.

I might just do this next time my mates are coming round.

I believe that if you make the effort to source

quality, cheap, central ingredients like that ham hock,

then delicious food on the tightest of budgets

is well within your grasp.

And veg box schemes represent a fantastic opportunity to get

a huge variety of delicious local, seasonal,

value for money produce delivered straight to your door.

Just a stone's throw from my house, a Maltese horticulturalist,

Lawrence Camilleri, has been using his unique talents to coax

some incredible vegetables out of the Hampshire countryside.

I am a piano player/horticulturalist.

I've been a concert pianist since I was four-and-a-half.

Every now and then, I get the piano in the middle of the greenhouse

and play for my plants.

HE PLAYS THE PIANO

Growing stuff like this gives you the satisfaction in itself to see

something from seed being developed...

..and grow and then you serve it to people and give it to them

and educate them on new crops, is a fantastic thing to do.

It gives me a real pleasure.

Lawrence set up his business in the heart of the New Forest.

He's no stranger to the value for money that these schemes can offer.

Vegetables are healthy,

cheap and are used in practically every meal, but, to him,

this didn't mean his produce would have to be predictable.

I like to introduce different crops in here,

especially Maltese original crops, so they've got, I would say,

50% they know what they're going to get, the other 50% is going to

be a surprise element like the famous tromboncino.

What we're seeing now is my pride and joy, which I brought

over from Malta, so, when I cook my Sunday lunch it reminds me of home.

This is our tromboncino growing at a very young stage here.

It's practically a courgette.

You can slice it and cook it as a normal courgette.

It's beautiful, it's very tasty and you can have it in salads.

What we've got over here is a full-size grown

tromboncino on a trellis.

It grows straight and as you can see, this is as big as me.

For Lawrence, this sort of vegetable is perfect for

anybody looking to cut a few corners on their grocery bill.

It's got a very, very long shelf life.

Once you've grown it, it can last for six months till you are eating it.

It's got a sap which self-seals it and it preserves it,

so every time you cut it...

it heals itself and it preserves itself.

If you look at that, that's fantastic. Chop it,

slice it in half, scoop it all out and that would make a fantastic

meal if you fill it up with bolognese, cheese on top, then...

the rest of this can be either grilled or barbecued.

And, as you can see, you can make a lot of meals out of this tromboncino.

This one is one I just picked from on the floor,

which, as you can see,

it doesn't grow straight like it does on the trellis

and it grows semicircular, the size, the shape of a trombone

and the reason why the Italians call it a tromboncino.

The customers, they found them humorous,

but also gave us very, very good reports how good they taste.

I'm hoping that it will catch up in the UK and people get more

interested in cooking different dishes with different crops...

..especially the Maltese tromboncino.

So, in homage to Lawrence's horticultural talents,

I'm going to make a delicious meal out of, what else,

but one of his famous tromboncinis.

Now, I know what you're thinking,

"What on earth am I going to do with one of these?"

Luckily, I do have the perfect recipe.

At £3 per person, my Indian spiced pumpkin pickle served with

golden brown chicken breast is low cost, but big on flavour.

First thing I use is a little bit of oil

in our pan,

and some butter.

Now, I actually use half oil, half butter because I find that

if you use all butter, and this is me saying this, it's going to burn.

If you use all oil, you don't get the nice colour and this is sort of

the combination of the two, really, or it's what I call a compromise.

These chicken breasts are by far the most expensive ingredient in

this dish, but, if you want to use cheaper cuts, a thigh will be fine.

A touch of salt and pepper on our chicken breasts.

Now, I've actually left the skin on the chicken breasts for these.

These have been...what we class as French trim.

You can actually buy these, your butcher can do these, but you can

get these from the supermarket now. French trim just means that it's had

the bone at the end cleaned,

it just makes it look nicer when you serve it as well.

What we're going to do now is just grab

our chicken and just colour this

on the skin side.

Now, for our tromboncino...where do you start with this, really?

I'm assuming the seeds are in the bottom part.

It's very similar to sort of butternut squash, really.

You can actually serve this raw in salads, which is

equally as good, but, what I'm going to do is just cut this

up into a piece, first of all, and roast it.

So, just colour this in the pan with the chicken.

So many different dishes that you can do with veg like this,

particularly things like butternut squash.

It's so versatile and it's one of those sort of veg that isn't

really used that much. People tend to walk past it

in the supermarket wondering,

"What on earth am I going to do with it?"

So, stick it in the oven. It wants about sort of 15 minutes.

Now, for the pickle for this,

it's kind of like an Indian inspired pickle.

Chop a shallot...

..a clove of garlic...

..one chilli...

..and peel the root of a ginger.

Now, whenever you're buying ginger as well, make sure you look for

something with a smooth skin because it means that the ginger's fresh,

it's got lots of flavour in there. When your skin's wrinkled,

it means that it's probably been sat on the supermarket shelf

for too long, so always buy the ginger when it's nice and smooth.

And then, with this,

we'll take another chunk off

and this pickle is really inexpensive and, you know,

often when you look at Indian cookbooks,

they're real masters at the art of creating flavour out of

not a lot of ingredients, particularly vegetarian food.

And stuff like this pickle would be great on its own, but it also

makes a great accompaniment with a piece of chicken.

Now, really, to get this started and cooking,

we just want just a little bit of butter.

In we go with the shallots and the garlic.

Straight in...

..with the tromboncino.

Get that frying and then, to get that caramelising just a touch...

I'm going to pop in a little pinch of sugar

and grate the ginger in.

I find you get so much more flavour out of ginger

when you do it this way.

Next, add a trio of Indian spices...

turmeric,

fenugreek,

and, finally, add some black onion seeds,

sometimes called Nigella seeds.

Now, the temptation with dishes like this, and particularly Asian food as

well as Indian food, is the minute you see it dry out in the pan,

is to grab the oil,

but it's really a common problem that most home cooks face.

What you need to do is just grab a little bit of water

instead of the oil.

In we go with the chilli.

And then, finally, really, there's two more ingredients. Coriander...

..a good pinch of salt...

..and then you can see the mixture is actually quite dry.

Well, to bring it back into what I class as sort of a chutney,

that sort of liquid to go with it, is we just turn the heat off.

And then add some of this - good old mango chutney.

And you want, for this, about two tablespoons.

It smells delicious. It's that...

The fenugreek seeds in there really are... They're really quite pungent.

It tastes really good as well.

The chicken should be about ready.

Now, the great thing about asking your butcher to French trim

a chicken breast, it doesn't cost you a thing

and it gives it a real high class image.

So, these actually look like sort of little roast potatoes, really,

and they've got a texture quite similar.

Pop the little bit of chicken on there and then you've got

some of this pickle, which we can just put on the side.

But...

It's great that. This works so well that pickle with things like fish.

Even on its own you could serve this as a vegetarian meal -

it's wonderful.

With a bit of inspiration and a few spices to hand,

even the most competitively priced ingredients can be

transformed into spectacular dishes.

All that's needed is a bit of effort.

If you're feeling a bit skint, one brilliant way of saving

yourself a few pennies is to forage your food for free.

The New Forest is right on my doorstep.

And, for one award-winning local food producer,

it's the perfect place to find some of her key ingredients.

'I'm Jen. I make jams, jellies and marmalade

'with fruit foraged from the countryside.'

I don't use anything but the bare ingredients.

It's just fruit, sugar and a bit of love, care and attention.

The jams are unique in the sense that I forage season-by-season.

Each berry ripens at different times, and that gives each fruit

and each jar a slightly subtle but different taste.

And, in the winter, you get what you're given really from the trees

and the bushes and, this time of year,

we typically find rose hips and, if we're really lucky, some crab apples.

These are rose hips and they're from a rock rose,

and in the summer they're pink.

Pink, pink flowers and they make beautiful jam and jellies.

This is a hotel local to where I live, and they allow me to come in

and forage and take what I can and turn it into jam

so they can serve it for their cream teas.

The recipes come from my mum.

My mum's the inventor of cooking, as we used to call her.

She was the cook in a big house.

My dad was a keen gardener and he was the vegetable gardener.

So, it was whatever was in season

and whatever was in the garden my mum would cook.

You start with a rhubarb in February

and you just go on and on. And every time you think you're finished,

there's something else to pick.

My mum taught me to cook and, without her, I could never do what I'm

doing, so it's kind of a tribute to the both of them, really.

It's a thank you very much for putting me on the path

and I'm loving it.

Crab apple tree. Fantastic. There's still crab apples this time of year.

Can you believe it?

These are a sour apple. They've been around since prehistoric times.

They're indigenous to our country.

They're like berries, but that's an apple. That's a little apple,

something that us jam makers that forage the fruit love.

Horrible to eat now, but when you cook it,

it turns into this pink, floral, beautiful, fragrant jelly.

You couldn't wish for anything better at this time of year to get some.

I make jams not just for toast.

I like them to be enjoyed with everything,

like, this is perfect with ice cream.

It's for cakes, it's for pies, it's for cocktails.

A martini with rose hips, oh!

This takes now about 20 minutes to simmer down and all the rose hips

and the apples all to turn to mush,

and at which point we stick it in a muslin and let it drip overnight.

And the smell is just, oh...heaven!

It's looking perfect. This is just ready to be dripped.

You have to leave it 12 hours...

..but it's great. It's worth it.

Once it's dripped through, we collect all the juice,

measure it out, add the sugar, stir it till it thickens.

So, we've added the sugar to the juice.

So, once it's dissolved, it'll start thickening.

Once it starts thickening, we've got jelly

and we can feel it thickening with the spoon.

You can really smell the rose hips.

So, now you're transported back to the minute that you picked them

and you smelled them the first time. Lovely!

The way the drip falls,

the way it slows down and it just stops in midair.

Look at that, perfect. That's set.

It's like anything, really,

it's what you put in. And I just put in the fruit and the sugar -

it doesn't need anything else -

and that's what gives it the uniqueness, I guess, the taste.

Jennifer's popped over to my place with a selection of her jams.

As good as I'm sure they are on their own,

I think I've got just the recipe to make them sing.

Now, Jennifer, one of the things that I love with this,

and particularly these style of jams,

is the lovely frangipane tarts,

-so that's what I'm going to show you now.

-Oh, lovely.

Frangipane is an almond flavoured cake mixture

that works brilliantly when baked as a tart.

Best of all, this recipe will serve up to a dozen people at less

than a quid a head, making it one pudding we can all stretch to.

You get a lot of sort of fruit farmers around

-your neck of the woods down there as well.

-Oh, we do.

We've got strawberry farmers, everything. We've got...

And why is that? Is that because...?

It has got its own little micro climate down at that

-neck of the woods.

-Yes.

-What do you find that

grows best down there, then? Is there one particular type?

-I mean, cos we've got so many things here.

-It depends on the year,

-depends on the year. Last year, 2013, strawberries.

-Yeah.

-Oh, the strawberries were fantastic. They started late...

-Yeah.

..admittedly, but when they come in, oh, my word, they were gorgeous

and they went on until late September.

With such brilliant ingredients, I'll have to pull out all the stops.

My grandma's pastry recipe will be perfect.

I want some flour and I definitely want some cold butter,

and that's the key to making really good quality pastry

is get everything cold.

Even, I've seen chefs put flour in the freezer before to get it

nice and cold. But if you allow the butter to get nice and cold,

it's that mixing of the butter and flour together,

you seem to get much more of a finer mix.

So, tell us about the jams that we've got in here then,

cos you've brought along a fantastic selection.

-I mean, a lot of it I forage.

-Yeah.

Greengage, I forage, and you can get wild strawberry.

There are a few wild raspberry bushes out on the sea wall in Limington,

-but we don't tell everybody that.

-Right!

And then the blueberry grown in my garden

and the rose petals again, foraged.

The only thing I've really got down there in the garden is

-a bullace tree.

-Oh, lovely!

-They are fantastic.

-Best with vodka.

-Is it?

-Yeah!

That sounds like a great treat for later.

I'll get this pastry under way by mixing 250g of flour

and 125g of butter until we get the texture of breadcrumbs.

Now, I see you've got an old-fashioned cookbook there.

I've got an old-fashioned cookbook. It's my mum's cookbook!

But, yeah, we've got a few recipes.

We've got this recipe, which is a jam recipe, and this goes back

to 1862 and that's greengage, sloes, ginger, cayenne pepper.

-Would you put cayenne pepper...?

-Cayenne pepper?!

-..with greengage?

-No, but, I suppose the flavour... But back in...was that 1862?

-1862.

-The flavour of jams was not as sweet I suppose.

-No.

-It was more savoury.

More savoury. Well, I do savoury ones.

But there will be no savoury jams in this recipe.

In we go with just an egg, a medium egg.

Gradually, it'll start to come together into this pastry is

what we're sort of familiar with, really.

-So, this pastry has now come together.

-Mm-hm.

Don't want to overwork it,

but most importantly really is you must allow this to rest.

Pop that in the fridge.

-Lovely.

-And I've got one that I've just allowed to rest, really.

So, I'm going to roll this out now

and line our little tartlet tin, which I've greased nicely.

Meanwhile, I want to have a taste of some of these jams cos we

need to figure out which one's going to be best to put in here then.

-So, which one do you reckon?

-I think pear and cardamom.

-Pear and cardamom!

-Really? With almonds and everything else, do you think?

-Hmm. Greengage?

Well, go on. Open it up, we'll have a taste, have a taste.

Now, these greengages, these are local to you, are they?

There's a hotel across the road from where I live and I like to go

-and scrump!

-Scrump!

Do you know the story with that hotel, don't you?

-It's a place where I used to be the pastry chef.

-I did hear.

-See, 20 years ago, we used to make our own.

-Did you, really?

-So, how times have changed, you see!

-Now, you need an expert!

-OK, so what have we got here then?

-That's greengage.

That'd be nice with almonds.

-Hmm.

-No. Strawberry or raspberry?

-Blueberry.

This is proper jam, you see! You keep the chunks in it.

Fantastic. And you mentioned the strawberries - I've got to try that.

So, this... Oh, it's awful. No, you wouldn't want it.

So, go on, let's have a try of this one then. This is...

Now, it takes 24 hours, this.

-See, that's better.

-That's nice.

-A real kick of flavour as well.

-Yeah.

Why does it take 24 hours?

-I core them...

-Right.

-..and then I layer them in sugar...

-OK.

-..and leave it 24 or 48 hours.

-Right.

People say, "Oh, it takes 20 minutes to cook jam."

No, you need patience, you need the slowness of it.

So, you put it on the pan, put in a little gas,

and it's slow and it's coming up and you can feel it cooking.

And then you smell it and it's insipid,

and it's disgusting and then...

Jennifer, if anybody's just tuned into this,

they'd think you'd need to get out more,

-getting enthused that much over jam!

-Sorry!

THEY LAUGH

It's nice jam!

I've got to use strawberries then, haven't I?

You can tell it was a good season last year,

but it's quite interesting that you do it sort of way, really.

It's... It just holds the flavour of the strawberry.

So, is that your forte, then? Is that jam?

Are you baking or what are you? Are you...?

I don't know, really. I like food, I like cooking.

-I like the whole process...

-I'm just wondering whether

-I have to up my game at this point.

-Yeah, you have!

All right, I've got to up my game then.

The recipe for the frangipane is pretty simple.

You start off with some room temperature butter,

about 8oz of butter, add the seeds from a vanilla pod...

..8oz of sugar and beat that really, really well

until it's nice and white.

This recipe's bound to be in that old cookbook, you know.

Yeah, I'm going to have to have a look.

There is a Hampshire pudding recipe.

What on Earth is a Hampshire pudding?

-It's actually not... It's similar to this.

-Is it?

So, Hampshire pudding... "Line a deep plate with the paste,

"cover the bottom with a layer of jam...

"beat the eggs..."

Somebody's beaten me to it.

And then slowly mix in five medium eggs.

And then fold in 8oz of ground almonds by hand.

Get it lovely...and light.

-See that?

-Oh, yeah. I like that.

Do you have to test it?

You can have a taste. Why not?

-Nice.

-It's all right?

-I like that.

-It's all right?

-Yeah, I like that.

-It doesn't want any vodka in?

-No!

Bullace for vodka.

Right, we're going to grab this...

Carefully fill the tart with the mixture

and I like to decorate the top with, what else, but a few almonds?

It's important not to bake this at too high a heat.

160 centigrade for about 35 minutes will do the job.

Meanwhile, I'm going to make a nice little custard to go with this.

-All right?

-I'm coming again.

My custard's deliciously rich, so, again, a little goes a long way.

First, slowly bring to the boil 250ml of milk and 250ml of cream.

To be prudent, we'll add the vanilla pod from the frangipane filling.

Meanwhile, whisk four egg yolks with 110g of castor sugar.

Pour...

-this mixture onto the egg yolks and the sugar...

-Whisky, whisky.

..and then very quickly pour this into our pan.

Now, you need to keep an eye on it cos it starts to thicken.

If you've got a fancy thermometer, stick it in here.

The temperature's about 72 degrees when the egg yolks start to thicken

-our custard, but what I find better is to actually use a whisk.

-Yeah.

And if you keep it on the heat and keep stirring, you can

-see the bubbles that are on the top now...

-Let's have a look.

-There you go. ..will actually start to disappear...

-Ahh!

..as the mixture gets thicker.

Even I didn't know that.

Yeah, but what you need to do is be ready so get yourself a bowl,

-a big bowl, ideally.

-Yep.

Using a big bowl like this, allows your custard to cool quickly

and won't turn it into scrambled eggs.

-You can see it starting to thicken up.

-Yeah.

And then, all we do now is we just pour this through into our bowl.

-Lovely.

-There you go, have a taste of that.

See, that'll give your jam a run for its money.

It's nice custard, but you need a jam tart to go with it.

You've just got to wait 25 minutes, haven't you?

Patience is indeed a virtue.

We're going to serve some of this wonderful little custard...

of course.

There you go. And then a decent sort of slice of this.

Now, because your strawberry jam is so good...

we'll serve it with a little bit more.

-Let me in.

-Dive in. And if you can't be bothered with the custard,

then just serve it with some double cream.

Eat it in one sitting.

-Jam's not bad too, is it?

-You're not a bad cook.

-You should do this for a living.

-That's really nice! Cheers!

Order a pudding like this at a restaurant

and you'd expect to pay top dollar.

Make it at home with ingredients you've got in your cupboard

and it turns into something everybody can afford.

Come on.

Of course, home cooking has always given us the ability to make

ingredients go that little bit further to make ends meet.

But as food historian Ivan Day can testify, our thrifty ancestors

also knew a thing or two about how to make a little go a long way.

From his Cumbrian home, he reveals how one classic little dish with

a silly name jumped straight from the hearth into the nation's heart.

Cheap and cheerful food, I think that's an area of cooking

that the British really excel at,

and if there's one dish that comes to mind more than any other,

I think it's bubble and squeak. But bubble and squeak has changed.

I'm not using potatoes,

which is a pretty obligatory ingredient

in modern bubble and squeak, but we are using cabbage.

And it's a wonderful thing when it's re-cooked

and it has that special unique flavour,

which you only get when foods are cooked again.

Ivan first melts a little butter into a hot pan.

That's a Georgian amount of butter.

I have to say, Ivan, it looks about right to me.

It's the sauce that's in the dish - rather horrifying!

The cholesterol police would get very worried about that.

Adding a few handfuls of cooked cabbage into the hot bubbling butter

should supply the right sound effect.

Listen to this. This is the squeak of the cabbage cooking.

HIGH-PITCHED HISSING

From my experience, and I've made this quite a few times,

the best bubble and squeak is made with very rare beef.

Beef was actually quite a cheap meat

and certainly by the 18th century, um, it was eaten by every class.

We don't get recipes for bubble and squeak,

which are just based on potato and cabbage,

until after the First World War.

Meat became a luxury item during wartime rationing,

whilst potatoes were easily available and much cheaper.

Five or six years of war is a long time and people forget

and I think, actually, a lot of people preferred

the bubble and squeak which was just vegetables.

And gradually we forget about the original bubble and squeak,

which had been around for nearly 200 years before the First World War.

This early bubble and squeak was actually considered to be

rather a common dish. And a dinner party which the Prince Regent,

who became George IV attended, was offered some bubble and squeak

and he absolutely loved it, but the host was a little bit reluctant to

give it to him cos you associate it really with the sort of food that

the servants would be eating.

But then the king gives it his special approbation

and it becomes a royal dish.

The cabbage is sizzling absolutely perfectly, so I think what I'm going

to do is put a couple of handfuls of really finely chopped beef in there.

Some people might think that this doesn't look terribly appetising,

but I think that combination of bright green and pink

is actually rather attractive.

But it was the Victorians who decided the dish needed

a more elegant presentation.

I found a very rare image of it, the only one I've ever seen,

in this lovely cookery book from the early 1890s

and we're instructed to pile up our mixture of cooked cabbage

and beef, and then to slice very thinly some more

little sheets of that lovely rare beef.

So, I'm going to try and make my version look just like that.

There we have it, the mother of all bubble and squeaks!

Having a spare joint of beef knocking around is a luxury

many can't afford. That said, it's good to know

if you've got a few leftovers from your Sunday roast,

a vintage bubble and squeak could be the answer.

These days, when it comes to keeping your bubble and squeak

on the affordable side of the tracks,

the humble spud really does take some beating.

Now, when it comes to cheap dishes,

you don't get any cheaper than potatoes.

Now, I'm going to use them to make this tartiflette,

a hearty French-style cheesy potato bake that serves

six to eight people for as little as £2.50 a head.

So, the first thing I'm going to use is these Desiree potatoes.

You can tell them apart cos they've got these lovely red skins.

For this one...

what I'm going to do is actually par-cook these for

between eight and ten minutes, so just bring them to the boil

and just gently simmer them.

Now, while they're cooking, we can get on and do our other

part of our little tartiflette, which is the onions and thyme.

These get stewed together.

Now, this is a famous dish that you get when you go skiing.

Um, I have to confess, I've been skiing once,

snowboarding once, um, never, ever, ever again!

Eh, because I had a massive pile-up at the bottom of the slope

and I've still got the bruises to prove it.

But what we're going to do is we're going to take our lovely onions

and just gently cook these in some butter.

And this dish is literally all about sort of warming you up really,

I suppose, after you've come off the slopes.

Don't be frightened to use plenty of butter to start this off.

We're going to fry that off with some thyme.

One of the great benefits of growing your own herbs, if you can, and,

to be honest, you can do this just on a windowsill, really,

is that you save an absolute fortune.

I always think this should sort of resemble the onions you

get at one of those vans by the side of the road

when you order a burger, occasionally...

and a hot dog. And that's what you're looking for,

for this, really, you don't want to add too much colour to it.

And then, the other parts of the flavour in this, are Reblochon...

..and bacon.

Reblochon is a wonderful cheese with a unique flavour that melts

perfectly, but if you can't hold of it, Brie will do just as well.

But one thing you have to do is just prepare it

and what I'm going to do is just trim off the top.

Try not to lose too much and then, very carefully,

we're just going to trim it off round the edge,

because what I want it to do is just to evenly melt into our potatoes.

And by just taking off the outside of the cheese,

you'll get that, but you can leave the underside intact.

Now, this next part is purely optional.

I actually like to sort of almost coat the dish in garlic

and to do that, you basically just rub the dish with the garlic,

just crushed garlic or chopped garlic like this, and just rub it,

and it's the flavour that you get from the dish...

You can smell it. It's like you haven't washed the dish, but...

And then, of course, you do need a little bit of butter and then,

what we're going to do is just grab our onions...

And then our next layer is really good quality dry cured bacon.

You can tell really sort of poor quality bacon when you try

and pan-fry it and you never get it nice and crisp,

but that's because, mainly, it's full of water

and that's what you're paying for.

So, you actually get much better value buying better quality bacon

because a little bit goes much further,

and what we're going to do is take the bacon like this...

and layer it...

..on our onions. Then, with our potatoes,

you want to cook these for about sort of ten minutes, no more.

And then, it depends whether you've got asbestos hands or not, but...

..you just gently peel them.

I have no idea why you don't peel these beforehand.

It's probably this French dear who taught me how to do this

when I was a young nipper in France.

She must have done this to wind me up

and I've done it ever since, really.

Once we're all peeled and sliced, we can lay the potatoes into the dish.

One thing leaving the skins on might do is to make these spuds

a little bit more sticky.

And they're actually starting to stick together these already.

Cook spuds this way and they feel luxurious.

It's like a meal for one, innit, really?

Decent sort of sized portions.

And then, what we can do is just grab...

our Reblochon cheese.

So, basically, put that on the centre,

a few good knobs of butter...

just to help it along its way.

A bit of ground black pepper.

Put the salt on just over the top like that.

Open the oven door, stick it in the oven, 200 degrees centigrade,

35, 40 minutes.

Job done.

As you'll have gathered by now, I'm a great fan of butter,

but it's the cheese that really steals the show.

It's a great melter. It's unique nutty flavour permeates

the whole dish making, tartiflette the perfect winter warmer.

Now, for this I thought I'd carry on the theme with

the tartiflette in there in terms of the bacon

and create a nice little green salad to go with it with crispy bacon.

Chop up any spare bacon you've got left over.

For me, it's best if you fry it until it's nice and crispy.

BACONS SIZZLES

You can't get much simpler than this salad dressing.

Bind the egg yolk,

a teaspoon of Dijon mustard,

and some white wine vinegar...

together with some veg oil.

In this pan there's so much flavour

and I'm going to use that flavour to create a lovely little dressing.

Bacon fat dressing is simply delicious.

Once you've tried it, trust me, there's no going back.

Now, this is far cheaper than buying readymade dressings.

Just drizzle it over the salad, as in lightly coat the leaves.

Oh, it's lovely. A simple little warm salad,

but it tastes so good using that fat from the bacon.

And then, really, all we need now...

..is the classic tartiflette.

Now, it looks really impressive, but remember,

this is a dish that doesn't cost a lot of money.

You've just got a bit of bacon...

The cheese is probably the most expensive part of this entire dish.

Now, not only is this economical, but it feeds loads of people.

If you don't believe me, check out this lot. Come on, crew.

I'm going in first. There's going to be none left.

'When you're prepared to get inventive

'and adventurous with your cooking,

'it's not hard to produce all sorts of rewarding dishes that

'won't just put a smile on your face, but on everybody else's too.

'Perhaps the most important of all, is that

'when you know you can make it for peanuts,

'great food like we've seen today always seems to taste much better.'

If you'd like to know more about how to cook any of the recipes

featured on today's show, you can get all of them at our website...