Cooking with Confidence James Martin: Home Comforts

The heart of my home is the kitchen.

And it's here that I love to cook delicious meals

for my nearest and dearest.

-Cheers, everybody!

-Cheers!

There's no better way to celebrate everything good in life

than sharing some great food

with the people you love.

These are the dishes that I cook when I want to bring people together.

These are MY home comforts.

We all love great food and want to create fantastic recipes to impress.

Some dishes might look daunting but they don't have to be.

It's all about having enough self-assurance to pull it off.

I've got some great dishes

that will give you a big dollop of cooking confidence

and I'm certain with these simple recipes, anybody can rustle up food

that's guaranteed to impress your friends and family.

So, I'm making no-nonsense simple, tasty dishes the porder of the day.

Now, if you want to build your confidence up in the kitchen,

this dish is probably the best place to start.

Like this, my twist on a classic scallop and black pudding starter,

pepped up with a zingy ginger puree and caramelised apples.

If I went to somebody's house and had this, it shows a confident cook.

Great ingredients and really the essence of great cooking.

I also attempt to make a dessert with my mate,

TV presenter Alex Jones.

'But will she have the know-how to pull it off?'

-Palette knife.

-I've seen one of these in the drawer at home.

-JAMES CHUCKLES

-What does this do?

But first, what better way to build your confidence in the kitchen

than with a deliciously simple one-pot wonder?

This chicken piperade with red pepper sauce

and pilau rice is a Basque country classic.

Any cook can make this, even the most nervous.

I often find, to get a bit of confidence in the kitchen,

the easiest way you can start is just a one-pot dish.

And this is a real classic that you can't really mess up, to be honest.

Now, the first thing you need is a really good quality chicken

and I'm going to cut this chicken into sort of eight pieces, really.

And you can just do this with chicken legs and thighs

or you can use the whole chicken that I'm doing.

This is where the recipes vary, really.

Wherever you go round that region of sort of northern Spain,

southern France, that Basque region,

you get so many different types of piperade chicken,

but all of which contain fundamentally the same ingredients.

You've got the tomatoes, the peppers and the onions.

This is a traditional rustic dish,

so don't worry too much about how the chicken pieces look.

Cover them with plain flour which will thicken the sauce,

and then season with salt and pepper.

So we start off with some good quality olive oil.

And then start sealing the chicken.

You want to get a nice colour to it.

While the chicken browns, roughly slice two white onions

and chop four cloves of garlic.

Then take the chicken pieces out of the pan and set them aside.

And then pop in your onions...

..with the garlic,

just start to cook those down a little bit,

and then you can add the peppers.

Now, it depends where you go, and region to region -

and different regions have different colours of peppers,

but, for me, I like the sweetness of the red peppers.

This region is really special because it's part in France, part in Spain

and you've got two countries all with an amazing selection of food.

Just north of that famous wine region Rioja,

you've got classic dishes like this, basquaise or chicken piperade.

Next, it's time for a generous tablespoon of tomato puree.

Now I can deglaze the pan.

Now, this is where my sort of recipe varies,

I like to use a little bit of sherry.

And then to compensate - if there are any French watching -

a bit of French wine.

Some tinned tomatoes.

And then this is the special Espelette pepper,

which is famous for that Basque region.

It's wonderful, fragrant pepper.

Now, bring the rich sauce to the boil and then add it to the chicken.

So, stick the lid on...

pop it in the oven and this is going to take about an hour to cook.

During that time, the chicken will absorb all the flavours of the sauce

and I can get on with preparing the perfect pilau.

And this is long grain basmati rice.

The main thing is, is you must measure everything.

So what I do is 200ml of rice, because it's three to one.

Three parts liquid to one part rice.

Next, soften up some chopped onions in a pan with olive oil.

So, a few cloves inside.

Maybe a cinnamon stick.

Reduce the heat before adding the rice,

water, a bay leaf, lemon slices and then season.

If you don't have a lid for your pan,

and let's face it, I can never find mine,

make a cartouche using grease-proof paper.

I like to cut a little hole in it as well at the other end.

And then when you open it all out,

you've got a cartouche or a paper lid.

Bring this to the boil and just gently simmer this

for about 15 to 20 minutes.

This wants a good hour.

And I say a good hour because it can go in there for an hour and a half,

two hours even. It just gets better the longer you leave it, really.

Mmm-mm-mm!

A pot of loveliness, look at that. Delicious.

Now you can finish this, if you wanted to,

with a bit of chopped parsley over the top.

'It smells so good, I can't wait to get stuck in.'

You just know anything that goes in the oven

for this amount of time is just going to taste fantastic.

You see, look, the chicken just falls off the bone.

Whenever this in on the menu, I will always pick it.

Really good.

Now, if you want to build your confidence up in the kitchen,

this dish is probably the best place to start.

It's simple...

..and it just tastes delicious.

Look at that, a simple one-pot wonder.

Laced with subtle spices released slowly in the oven

to maximise their flavour.

Put your apron on and give it a go.

I really believe that cooking can be great fun,

especially when you use the best British raw materials.

From the Cornish coast to the Scottish Highlands,

passionate food producers are giving home cooks

the gift of truly great ingredients.

And it's up in Scotland that David Oakes and his son Ben

are going to extreme lengths to bring us a special kind of seafood.

Well, actually, make that extreme DEPTHS.

Today, we're doing a small harvest for a customer

that supplies Edinburgh and Glasgow,

and there is one pick up at the house for just a dozen

for somebody that's on holiday.

David and Ben are diving for king scallops.

Their hunting ground is this loch on the Isle of Skye,

known as the Place of Shells.

Pretty name - but there are days when it's not so inviting.

The sea temperatures in the winter are down quite a few degrees.

Some days we go home and it takes me a couple of hours to warm up again.

David has been a commercial diver for over 30 years,

but his passion for a life under the sea stretches back even further.

I was always interested in diving.

I would watch the television programmes of...

particularly Jack Cousteau.

I was always enthralled about what they got up to

and where they went, all over the seas of the world.

And that's when I think I first, at the back of my mind,

had the idea of farming the sea.

And David farms his shellfish in such a unique way,

his king scallops are particularly prized for their taste and size.

What we do that makes our scallops better then just dived scallops

is that we take juvenile scallops, which is this,

we take them from the deeper water and we move them up

into the shallows where they really want to be.

The plankton is thicker and then, in theory, in the summer,

the water should be warmer so that they can feed and grow.

Unlike traditional scallop diving,

herding the four-year-old scallops to the rich, shallower water

means they get three extra years to grow bigger and fatter.

But, even then, spotting them in the water can still be problematic.

The first time you find one, because these things are camouflaged,

is just wonderful.

But one thing you can learn is, if you see this weed,

it's slightly red and the rest of the weed on the seabed is grey.

So you can actually... You can put your hands into the seabed

and pluck out the scallop by the colour of the weed on top of it.

But even if you do spot them,

some scallops just don't want to be caught.

Yeah, we got 95 big ones,

which were more or less what I was after.

And because of the unique way they farm,

the scallop population has increased,

benefiting David and Ben as well as the other wildlife.

Not only do you get the scallops, you get all the predators,

the increased fish.

It increases the biodiversity in a, you know, in a number of ways,

so it's good for fishermen and it's good for fish.

And it's also been good for this father and son relationship.

Ben left Skye for the bright lights of Edinburgh...

but the allure of this way of life pulled him home.

I remember throughout the last couple of years of my time at uni,

you know, being able to appreciate more what was going on in here

and what Dad was doing,

and how important it was and how unique it was.

And I felt like I could actually contribute something,

so I thought, "I'll move away from the city,"

where I wasn't enjoying myself,

"and I'll make the jump and I'll move home."

So it's a win-win for all concerned.

Especially David and Ben, who get to lunch on their catch.

Can anything beat king scallops cooked simply on the barbecue?

Yes - eating them in glorious surroundings like this.

They are the ultimate fast food,

there is nothing to do apart from remembering to prick the roes.

You just put them onto the heat and then it's a few minutes,

it's pretty easy to do.

-Cheers.

-On the barbecue.

Well, that's a bit good, isn't it?

Fantastic, you know.

The ultimate seafood. They really are.

Sweet, juicy scallops really are the jewels of the sea

and don't need complicated preparation

or overpowering flavours to shine.

So there's no need to be nervous about cooking them.

They only take about a minute, that's all they take.

They look amazing.

Today, I'm serving my scallops with black pudding

and a warming ginger puree.

Now, scallops have to be one of the ultimate seafood, really.

And that's fantastic to see a guy like that produce them

and harvest them in a different way.

I've never seen that done before, to move them up the beds

and it actually makes sense when you think about it.

And I'm going to use the meat inside these shells

to create a really simple little dish, really,

and it all starts with a ginger chutney.

Now, I'm keeping the skin on the ginger because it's the skin

that I think really helps this recipe,

because it contains tonnes of heat,

hot, fiery heat that whacks you in the back of the throat.

Big chunks of ginger.

Pop it all into the pan with the water.

And then just a little bit of flavouring - some curry leaves...

Then a combination of two ingredients, really, this one.

You've almost got a yin and yang, a sweet and a sour,

and the sweetness comes in the form of this stuff -

this is palm sugar. You can so often get it as puree, like this,

and a liquid form, or you can get the block.

Either way, just pop a good dollop into the pan.

Now, this'll dissolve while it cooks, anyway.

And you've got the sour in this bit - this is tamarind.

Bring to the boil and cook on a high heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

While it bubbles away, you need to deshell your scallops.

Think that's too difficult? Think again.

Inside this, you've got a big chunk of meat.

That's really the jewel in the crown of the scallop.

It's stuck to this part of the shell

and stuck to the under part of the shell, so what you have to do

is carefully remove it from the shell first of all

and the easiest way to do that is to actually use a table knife

or a butter knife. Something that's not too sharp.

Flat side, insert the knife underneath,

cut along the top.

As soon as you cut through, the scallop will open up. Lift it off.

Repeat the process with the bottom bit as well.

All the time, you're scraping the shell,

you don't want any of that meat to be stuck to the shell.

You can see that nice and clean now as it comes away.

And then you can take all this part here

and just pull it off.

What you end up with is this amazing white jewel of meat.

And it's the prime example of having a go,

get started in terms of cooking.

You never know until you try it, but once you learn how to do it,

it's so, so simple.

Now you've had your masterclass,

repeat the process with the remaining scallops.

Once they're out of their shells, the ginger should be cooked.

And then what we do is take the whole lot and stick it in a blender.

After five minutes blending,

this zingy, super-fast puree is pretty much done.

It's just lovely.

So much flavour in there, and because you've kept the skin on the ginger,

this is where you get this colour from.

But it seriously packs a punch, this, it's brilliant to go with scallops.

And once you make it, stick it in the fridge,

it'll last for a couple of weeks.

It's delicious stuff, that.

I'm going to add to the flavour of this with just a little bit of apple.

All you need to do with this is get an eating apple, really.

You don't want a cooking apple like a Bramley.

Through the core and everything.

And what I'm going to do is caramelise this.

Now, it's actually really simple.

Add some sugar to a heated nonstick pan.

As soon as it starts to caramelise, throw in the apples.

Then add a knob of butter

and a dash of water to stop the apples from going hard.

And by adding a little bit of water,

you get this just nice toffee flavour, but not too sticky.

Just leave that to cool.

And now we can cook our black pudding, our bacon and our scallops.

Now, the easiest way to do that is just cook everything together.

Lightly oil your griddle or pan and cook the bacon until it's crisp.

Then put your black pudding on for 30 seconds each side.

You keep all that lovely moisture in there,

which is exactly what black pudding should be.

It should be nice and soft in the centre, crispy on the outside.

And then all we need to do now is cook our scallops.

Now, the easiest way to do that, really,

especially when you've got scallops this big,

is just put them straight on the griddle.

Just a touch of salt and pepper and that's it.

And once you've put them in, don't touch them.

Now, what you want with a good cooked scallop is you want a lovely colour

on the outside, a lovely soft white flesh in the middle.

As soon as you get a nice colour, flip it over.

Just a squeeze of lemon juice.

They only take about a minute, a minute and a half.

That's all they take on each side to cook.

Just lift them out.

They look amazing.

Now it's time to assemble all of your hard work.

Layer up the apple, chutney...

..black pudding and scallops...

..to create an impressive stack.

Then put your crispy bacon on the top...

..garnish with dill and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.

I love this dish.

If I went to somebody's house and had this, it shows a confident cook.

Great ingredients and really the essence of great cooking.

It's all about the taste.

You can make food look as fancy as you want

but it's the taste that really counts.

Right at this moment in time,

I wish for nothing more in life.

Well, I do, actually -

somebody who can wash up.

Whether you've got a pot washer or not,

you shouldn't be shy about making this delicious scallop stack.

Have confidence in your ingredients and yourself

and you'll be a top class cook before you know it.

Someone who's taken the time to improve their cooking skills

is a good foodie mate of mine -

One Show presenter, Alex Jones.

I know she's not very confident in the kitchen,

so I've invited her over to show her

that cooking doesn't have to be that tricky.

-Hey. I like the top.

-Hey, how are you? Oh, thank you.

-That's cool, isn't it?

-It's a nice house.

-You like it?

-Let's go and have a nose.

-Come on in.

Well, kitchen you're going to first!

I'm hoping she'll be able to help me

make this stunning lemon meringue roulade with home-made plum compote.

But I've got a feeling this could be a little bit ambitious.

Right, Alex,

-welcome to the kitchen.

-Thank you.

Because I'm hearing great things, you know?

-I'm expecting great things as well.

-Go on, what are you hearing?

Well, I hear you've got a five-year plan, is that right,

-to win MasterChef?

-Win MasterChef. Zero to win in five years.

-So, where are you at the moment?

-Omelette.

Now, I learn something new every week,

so, last week - we haven't done this week,

-but last week it was omelette.

-So, what's the plan this week, then?

Er - I don't know yet, cos I wait for Charlie to tell me every week.

-Cos your fella's a chef, isn't he?

-Yes, he is. Yes.

-OK.

And so every week we have a little lesson.

-Because he said, "If anything was to happen to me..."

-Yeah.

"..you wouldn't be able to live."

So he says, "It's about time you learnt to cook."

And, actually, we both love food and we're really interested in it...

-Yeah.

-..but, and he can do everything and I can do nothing,

so we're trying to meet halfway.

What about a lemon meringue roulade with stewed plums?

-I think it's a bit advanced for me.

-I think you'd be all right.

-We just break things down into simple stuff, all right?

-OK.

-It sounds lovely, though.

-The first thing we are going to do

is do the meringue.

'OK, let's see if I can boost Alex's kitchen confidence levels.

'All I need her to do is measure out 275g of caster sugar,

'while I separate the whites of five eggs from their yolks.'

Did you do cookery at school?

Yeah, but after three lessons, they banned me

because I set the lab on fire.

It involved a tea towel and a hob, basically.

And, I don't know, I just wasn't concentrating

and the tea towel was on the hob...

-Up in flames?

-Up in flames. So they sent me to woodwork.

-It wasn't me either.

-JAMES LAUGHS

OK. Right, now, fire up the machine.

Well, how do you turn this on, then? Is there some sort of switch?

'While Alex tries to work out the mixer

'in order to whip up the egg whites...'

Right, number ten. That's it.

'..I butter a Swiss roll tin and line it with silicone paper.

'Now it's time to add the crucial ingredient to the egg whites.'

-Right, now sugar.

-OK.

Now you should hear the machine drop down a gear

once you add all the sugar.

-That looks lovely.

-You've just made meringue.

-MIXER DECREASES IN SPEED

-Well, the machine made meringue.

Oh, I can hear it now drop down.

-Yeah, as it starts to get a bit more firmer, you see?

-OK.

And then what we do...

-Spatula.

-A spatula.

-Scoop it out into the centre of that.

-OK, great.

-You got that?

Yeah. Got it.

So you look as if you are on a cookery programme now.

-Well, it's all acting, James.

-This could be it.

-This could be it in six years' time.

-This could be it.

-Scoop it all out.

-It looks like there's too much in the tray.

-No, there's not.

-For the...

-Don't worry about that.

-I mean, I'm not doubting you,

obviously, at this point in my cooking career.

-Yeah.

-A palette knife.

-Palette knife. Right.

I've seen one of these in the drawer at home.

JAMES LAUGHS

What does this do? I'm going to love this.

You spread this into the corners.

OK.

Make sure it's all nice and even, that's how you want it.

Oh, it's lovely. It's like shaving foam.

I'm sure it tastes a lot better.

Next, lemon verbena.

Oh, it's like a cleaning product.

-In a good way.

-Shaving foam and cleaning products?

That's great, yeah. Love that.

Right. And you just sprinkle these on the top.

'Well, once you've peppered your shaving foam with cleaning product,

'bake it in the oven for eight minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

'Then turn the temperature down to 150 for a further ten minutes

'for the ultimate meringue.'

-Plums.

-Yeah, plums.

-So we're going to prep these by cutting them down...

-OK.

-..into quarters.

-This is a pretty knife.

Yeah. You've got one of those in the kitchen?

Not that pretty but, yeah.

So what got you involved in TV in the first place, then?

I became a researcher and, after a few mishaps, shall we say...

What was one of the major mishaps that you made?

The major mishap was probably losing Julian Lloyd Webber's cello.

-Temporarily.

-Right.

And it was like a Stradivarius, you know, worth millions.

And he'd left it with me while he went off to make a phone call

and said, "Alex, you really need to look after this."

-I said, "Yeah, yeah, Julian, no problem."

-Right.

And I had a little chat with a car park attendant.

-Next thing, gone. Gone. Gone.

-JAMES CHUCKLES

-Right.

-But anyway, so then they said,

"You know, you might be better on the television."

And there you are, 15 years on.

-Here we are - in your kitchen.

-In my kitchen!

-Learning to cook.

-Learning to cook!

-The next skill.

-With the ultimate five-year plan.

-Yeah!

-A little bit of water in the pan.

-OK. Cold water?

Cold water, that would be great.

And I'm going to grab the sugar. All right?

-So all we do now...

-What's this?

-..is we cook this down...

-What's this? What's this?

-French soap.

Oh, that's my favourite thing I've seen for a long time.

Let's have a go.

Oh!

-You haven't seen one of them before?

-No. That's really nice.

-Hey?

I need to make a list before I leave of things I need to take with me.

'Well, let's just hope she doesn't nick the pan

'because I need it for these -

'eight quartered plums to be boiled in water and sugar

'for ten minutes.'

We're now going to take some double cream.

-Well, that's a nice jug as well.

-I'm into old stuff, you see.

-The jugs, the clock.

-I know, I like your style, James.

-You like it?

-Yeah.

'Next, I add a tablespoon of sugar to the cream and lightly whip,

'before reaching for an old school classic.'

Good quality lemon curd.

I haven't eaten lemon curd for years and years and years.

-Taste that, it's the best ever.

-Shall I just...?

Yeah, dip your finger in. You're in my house, go on.

Oh!

-Mum used to make jam tarts with lemon curd. Lovely.

-Did she?

-Yeah.

Now, if I take this lemon curd, half a jar of lemon curd.

-Half a jar?

-Half a jar.

Just you taste that.

-Yes! Where's that spoon?

-JAMES LAUGHS

-You can have a spoon, there you go.

-Now, that is fantastic.

So you stick that in a glass.

You've now made yourself like a very, very quick lemon sauce.

That is lovely.

'After the plums have had their ten minutes, take them off the hob.

'Now for the roulade.

'You need to take your meringue out of the oven,

'flip it out of the tin and leave it to cool for a few minutes.

'Only then is it ready to be filled with the home-made sweet treats.'

So in the middle and then spread, yeah?

-Now the key to it is leave...

-Oh, I see.

-..a centimetre on this bit.

-OK.

-OK.

-Stewed plums.

-These are amazing.

-They were really easy to make.

-Yeah!

Now, roll it up.

OK, so, are we going this way, or are we going this way?

-This way.

-This way.

So, I'm guessing - I've seen this being done on television before.

So, yeah?

Yeah. And then you tuck...

You tuck the top bit in...

and in one go... Keep going.

Keep going, keep going. Roll it up.

And then, in TV style, you reveal...

Reveal. Da-da!

-It looks like a proper one.

-Yeah.

'And now for the finishing touches - a drizzle of compote,

'a scattering of lemon verbena, a nervous chef but a great result.'

Bit rough and ready but it looks amazing.

Right, well, you've got to try this, then.

-You start at one end, I'll start at this end.

-OK.

-OK?

Oh, it's pretty good.

It's amazing.

Fantastic.

-You see how you get that chewy meringue?

-Mm.

I reckon now you've jumped from omelette,

you're now about a year and a half down the line now.

-And it wasn't that hard, actually.

-No.

You know, when you've got the skills...

THEY LAUGH

And I've got a great pudding to take back with me in the car.

-All mine.

-Yeah.

It goes to show that with the right recipes and a few tasty ingredients,

anyone can serve up food that's easy on the eye as well as the palate.

So head to the kitchen and go for it.

Well, Alex certainly enjoyed cooking in my kitchen.

So much so, I can't quite get her out of there.

Maybe she's cleaning up?

Yeah, that'll be it.

Right, so what do I need to take?

The soap.

And the antique-y pots, erm...

That jug was quite nice as well, actually.

Erm... Oh, dog.

Right, OK, just a big bag I need and something to carry the dog in.

You can find all the recipes from the series at...