The Kitchen Garden 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.

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.

For me, the best meals start with the best ingredients.

So I'm lucky to have an outdoor larder filled with the freshest,

tastiest produce right here at home.

Now there's nothing I like more than growing herbs,

fruit and veg at the bottom of my garden and I use all these

amazing ingredients as the basis for so many great recipes.

'So feast your eyes on this delicious fruit meringue.'

How good does that look?

'Be amazed by this crop of giant veg.'

That is massive!

-'And my mate, presenter Kate Garraway...'

-Good to see you!

'..reveals how my moves inspired her to hit the Strictly dance floor.'

I thought, "If that idiot can be that good,

"clearly I'm going to be amazing!"

And I was really rubbish.

For my first recipe, I'm preparing a freshly picked

and even fresher tasting salad in the heart of my garden.

So I thought I'd do this wonderful little dish which is basically

cooked beetroot - really simple - with a curd cheese,

and I'm going to make my own curd cheese.

Now it may appear very complicated, in fact, it's so, so easy.

And that's the first thing I'm going to do.

Now what you need is really good-quality milk.

That's why it's really beneficial to use something like buffalo milk.

You can buy it from the supermarket. It's really rich milk.

It's like the best Jersey cow's milk.

So don't start messing around using semi-skimmed rubbish.

Proper full-fat milk is what you need for this.

Now the key is just to get this warm and heat it up.

Now at the same time, we can cook our beetroot

so I just want a bit of water.

Every time I come in here,

it just brings back the memories of my grandad.

He's not buried in here or anything, it's just the smell of tomatoes.

Just get that amazing smell as soon as you walk into that greenhouse.

I love it.

And then to cook our beetroot is really simple.

I like to use the leaves of the beetroot as well.

Just chop it through.

Keep those leaves and then you don't peel them. Nothing.

Just stick them in the water like that.

A nice pinch of salt.

Bring them to the boil and these are going to take about 30 minutes

for a small beetroot like that and then just allow them to cool down.

And then I'm going to add about the juice and a half of a lemon.

So you squeeze in the lemon.

Now the minute you add the lemon, it starts to curdle

and this is where you end up with this curd cheese.

It's the lemon acid that makes the protein in the milk bond together,

forming solid clumps or curds.

Once the milk has separated, carefully pour the mixture

through a sieve to extract this solid curd from the liquid whey.

I'm going to leave that to just naturally sit in there.

Just drains through ever so carefully.

You can see the texture of it, look.

It's just simple.

And tastes fantastic as well, even fresh like that.

I'm just going to drain off a bit of this.

It's my garden.

Then heat some olive oil in a pan.

Cut up some leftover bread and fry until golden brown.

And while our croutons are frying away...

I'm going to go and get some herbs.

You can use whatever you want, really, but this is amazing.

This is pineapple sage. It's like...

It's like chewing on a pineapple.

It's wonderful stuff. But I love this. A bit of tarragon.

And then we've got some oregano, which is also wonderful.

A little marjoram.

Parsley, which I've got in there, bit of rosemary's nice, maybe,

a bit of this.

Maybe a bit of thyme. That'll do.

I'm using the thyme and rosemary to flavour my croutons

and I'm saving the softer herbs for my salad.

So you've got the crispy croutons. They're about ready.

We can take the entire lot. We don't want to waste that oil as well.

You always cook with things like hard herbs, things with rosemary

and thyme to get the flavour out.

You almost want to warm them up.

Soft herbs like I'm using here - tarragon, parsley,

bit of chives, that kind of stuff - you can put in there at the end.

Now, of course, we've got our beetroot

and I'm going to use the stems and tops of the beetroot, which...

I love these. I think they're brilliant.

For that, just warm up some more olive oil.

And the flavour into this, I'm just going to add a bit of cumin seed.

Just a touch.

Just warm the cumin seeds up and just throw in some of these stalks.

They do taste fantastic.

Once your beetroot is cooked, allow it to cool before peeling

and cutting into chunks.

Add these to the bowl and then you can start on your salad dressing.

I've got some sherry vinegar,

we've got the oil in there as well.

We'll take the beetroot tops...

that are warmed through with that cumin seed.

And then just dress the salad with everything else.

And then all we need to do now is just basically serve this.

It's really simple. You've got this warm beetroot salad...

..with the croutons.

I love this type of food.

It's simple and pure, exactly what food should be.

And then, of course, you've got your home-made buffalo curd.

Just place it on the top.

Then we'll garnish that with a few herbs.

I've got some of this stuff.

This is actually oil seed rape, come off the fields.

You can actually use the tops...

..just to garnish this up as well.

Simple and pure. Little drizzle of olive oil.

And, of course, the best bit...

This, to me, is absolute heaven.

Mmm.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a cracking plate of food

from my kitchen garden.

This hearty salad really lets the freshness

and flavour of the beetroot shine

and the straightforward, creamy curd cheese is the perfect partner.

It looks fantastic, but believe me, it tastes even better.

As you can see, I'm a keen gardener, but my green-fingered efforts

are pretty tame when compared with the antics of some home growers.

Like one enthusiast from Llanharry in Wales.

Here, locals have noticed strange

and unusual phenomena on a village allotment.

They say it's shocking, monstrous and unnatural.

But retired gardener Phillip Vowles uses much more soothing phrases.

Tucked in nice and warm. Nothing going to hurt you now.

Just grow away.

Phillip's top-secret crop

is giant vegetables.

I started off growing normal vegetables.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and quite successful.

But then I had the bug for the giant vegetables

and thoroughly enjoyed the joy of seeing them growing so fast.

And so big.

And, boy, have they been big.

In 30 years, Phillip has won countless awards for his giant veg.

But size isn't everything.

Lots of people ask me in the shows when I go round -

"Do they taste the same as normal veg?"

And they do.

If not better, I would say.

Phillip first saw super-size greens at a garden show 30 years ago.

He was inspired and bought his own giant veg seeds.

Within just a few short years, he was growing world record breakers.

It was the heaviest cucumber. It was 18.5 lb in weight.

It was lovely, really, to break a record.

Yeah, erm...

It was good.

I'm just pleased to do it once.

And I'm looking forward to doing it a second time with my marrow!

This is the one that's got the potential to break a world record.

Perhaps I'm being a little bit ambitious,

but I don't think I've seen a longer marrow ever

and I've been showing now for, what? 30 years.

But it's got a long way to go yet.

It's the best, I think, I've ever grown.

The current world record for the heaviest marrow

stands at a whopping 143 lb.

That's heavier that a baby hippo.

No wonder Phillip is giving this one some extra TLC.

I like to cover my marrows with a blanket to keep him nice and cosy.

Cos, of course, I like to talk to my vegetables.

The wife can get a bit annoyed sometimes.

She says I talk nicer to my vegetables than I do to her.

Sometimes when I'm here all alone, I call myself the allotment widow.

Thankfully for Phillip's wife Brenda, that allotment is only 50m away.

And with just one ring of the bell,

she gets fresh veg delivered straight to her door.

Out of the beetroot, I'll make chutney.

I'll make some coleslaw with the carrots and the cabbage.

And it's not wasted.

We've got a big family and they like to go and pick their own as well.

Producing an abundance of fresh fruit and veg

to share with his grandchildren gives Phillip a great deal of pleasure -

but in his youth, growing food was a necessity.

We were a family of 15.

Seven girls, six boys.

My father always had a big garden to feed the family,

because we were rather poor,

so my father went out shooting rabbits and ferreting.

That was the meat and the veg came from the garden

and that's how we survived.

Those tough times are now well and truly in the past

and Phillip can concentrate on the future.

A very big one.

And in the mad world of giant veg,

these little belters are only babies.

This is my pumpkin patch.

Just on the first week of growth

and they will double their weight each week now, I would have thought.

Giant veg like these don't take any longer to grow from seeds

than normal varieties.

They just develop faster, so they need more fuel.

Some people feed different things.

I've used sugar in the past, where I'll put a drip into a marrow,

into the main stem.

I thought that worked.

I had good results, but, at the moment now, I'm trying molasses.

Sugar-charged veg?!

No wonder they put on the pounds,

but not all of these giants are destined for competitions.

This outsize cabbage is bound for a local pub,

where Philip and his family plan to polish it off for lunch.

Ray, Bunny, give me a hand, please.

..but he'll need a little help from his archrivals to get it there.

He's a little one, isn't he?

Philip's brothers both grow giant veg, too.

They've competed against him in local shows,

but so far they've never beaten him.

-Is he going to fit in the back of there?

-Right at the back, yeah.

Oh, you're... Whoa, whoa...!

We'll have to leave the doors open, I think.

They've reached the pub,

but getting it through all the doors is more of a squash than a cabbage.

Ready? Push!

All right?

That is huge.

-I don't know what to say about it, really.

-It's massive.

THEY LAUGH

Just like chopping any other cabbage

except there's a lot more of it to chop.

After the slightly longer than usual prep,

the cabbage is simply boiled to showcase its freshness.

Very nice. Beautiful.

The cabbage is very green and tender.

The cabbage is delicious.

The giant veg have brought Phillip local fame as well as accolades,

but nothing beats the pleasure of sharing his garden

with his grandkids.

I'm a poor man but I feel like a millionaire

because I've got this bit of land and I do what I want to do.

I get a bit emotional, sometimes,

just seeing them kids come to the gate.

They enjoy it. They come and they pick their own veg.

Who wants some rhubarb?

Strawberries all over their face...

Are you going to grow a big flower like that?

Are you? When you're a big girl?

Yeah, well... That's what life is all about, I think.

I might not be able to grow veg as big as Philip's,

but never judge a man by the size of his marrow.

I've grown some fabulous sweet fruits in my garden,

and, with them, I'm going to make a dessert that's heaven on a plate.

Now, I'm going to create this amazing little gateau, really,

and it's using meringues as the base.

First off you take some silicon paper.

Just cut this to size.

Now we need to make a little template,

because the whole idea of this gateau is it's layered up,

four discs of meringue, and it's a proper sized portion.

Not that big. That big. Something like that.

So what we use for this one is a metal ring,

and then, using a pencil, just go round the inside

to create these discs.

When you've marked out all four circles,

you can begin making the meringues.

Now, six good quality egg whites.

A lot of chefs will tell you to use old egg whites.

I actually disagree with that.

I think it's much better with fresh egg whites.

Keep the yolks cos we can use those for other stuff.

Once you've separated the eggs, whisk up the whites.

Now I need to measure the sugar

and for this it's always 50g of sugar per egg white.

So I need 300g for this one.

What you want to do, really,

is make sure the egg whites are fully whipped first of all.

It almost looks like really firm whipped cream

before you add the sugar.

Some people will tell you to add it third by third

and then fold in the remaining third.

I don't think you need to do that.

I think if the egg whites are nice and firm, which they are,

I basically just chuck all the sugar in.

You can hear the machine starting to drop down

as it starts to mix that sugar together.

One thing you don't want to be doing at this stage is over whipping it,

otherwise it will collapse.

So when you get to that stage, you've got this beautiful, light meringue,

which is perfect for what we want.

Fit a piping bag with a plain nozzle,

and fill the bag with the meringue mix.

I'm not going to add anything like cornflour

or a bit of vinegar to this -

which is great to make sticky meringue.

Now, if I do that with this one, you'll never be able to slice it.

So, this is what I call classic French meringue -

it's not chalky, it's just nice and crisp.

So, what you've got to do is pipe this with confidence -

and also is stick the paper on to the tray.

Press that down.

Now you can see the little template there.

What you do with this is start in the middle and work your way out

and it's kind of a circular-shaped motion,

like a little Catherine wheel.

As long as you start in the middle,

you know when you get to the end, it's all going to be all right.

Just repeat the process.

Always start in the centre.

It's one of those things that you kind of learn over the years, this,

and it's always, always practice makes perfect.

Repeat this process for the other two discs,

and then flatten the meringues with a wet pallet knife.

What you need to do now is set the oven quite low

and just cook these for about two hours.

While they bake, you could get out and enjoy your garden -

or earn some brownie points by doing the dishes.

Once the meringues are cooked, remove them from the oven and allow to cool.

Now I'm going to prepare the fruit.

Stone and slice the plums,

cut the figs into wedges,

and hull and halve the strawberries.

You can't have strawberries without a decent amount of cream.

Now, this is a gateau, so I'm going to use quite a bit of cream,

about a litre.

I'm going to flavour the cream with some vanilla bean paste,

which I absolutely love.

You can get this from supermarkets now.

Rather than using the vanilla pods - which are great -

but this bean paste is really intense,

almost like an essence, really strong.

You only need a little bit in this cream.

Whip the cream and vanilla until it forms soft peaks.

Then, to assemble this up, first off you get one of the discs.

Place it in the centre.

Then a good dollop of cream.

And now, strawberries, cream and meringue.

Just one of the joys, really, of British summertime.

And then you've got the figs and, of course, the plums.

You can put whatever fruit you want, really,

but whatever you decide to put on it, it's GOT to be seasonal fruit.

And then take another disc.

You can see it's lovely and light as well.

Place another one on the top.

Repeat the layers of cream and fruit with each meringue disc.

Now what you want, to top this,

just put about five or six tablespoons

of caster sugar in the pan.

Heat this until it's all golden brown and liquefied.

Now, use a combination of hot caramel and some toasted flaked almonds.

Give this a little mix together

and then you take the entire lot and just drizzle it over the top.

I find it amazing what you can grow

in your kitchen garden and if you've got the benefit of having one,

then give it a go, because it really is worthwhile

because you can produce amazing dishes like this in no time at all.

How good does that look?

With crisp meringue, cool cream and ripe sweet fruit,

this pudding is luxurious, but light as a feather...ish!

Use up whatever fruit you have lying around

and transform it into something wonderful.

One of the joys of having a garden

is being able to share it with your friends and family -

especially when that means cooking and eating alfresco.

-Hello!

-Good to see you!

-Looking gorgeous.

-Ohh!

-Come on in.

-Thank you.

'So I'm delighted that my old mate, TV presenter and the city dweller

'Kate Garraway, has popped in for a tour around my veg patch.'

This is the stuff that you could easily grow in London.

-What's that?

-Courgette.

-Courgette!

I would've thought courgettes would have been tricky.

One of the easiest things to grow.

But don't you have to do something with, like, fertilizer or something?

-Do what?

-I thought you had to fertilize them!

Don't you have to, like... I don't know!

'I'm hoping I can inspire her with the produce from my garden'

and show her a recipe that she can share with her own family.

I think this dish will suit you, really. You've got two little ones.

Yeah, and obviously as soon as you have children, I think you take food

a bit more seriously. I put any old rubbish inside my body...

as you will see!

But when you have kids, you think oh, and then you start to think,

"Actually, why am I doing that?

"Let's think about food properly and do it better, yeah."

So now we're going to do a lovely little dish that I think you can do

-at home for them, all right?

-OK.

We're going to do a roasted tomato and basil salad with bread

-and we're going to do radishes that are roasted.

-How do you...?

Why would you ever think to roast a radish?

When I was a kid, I wouldn't eat these because they're really,

really peppery. But when you roast them, they're amazing.

So we've got basil, we've got fresh thyme from the garden.

Now, I want you to chop up the tomatoes.

-Are you fussy about how they're chopped? Shall I watch?

-Like that.

-Like that.

-Wow. Can you do that again? Because I'm not...

I know what you're thinking!

We did this programme together where all you did was ask questions

-the entire way through.

-I got away with it! Right, OK, take this off.

I'm a bit scared of these guys.

Because I do watch you on a morning when you get these chefs on your show

and you do keep talking a lot and you don't actually cook anything.

No, I do a lot of tasting, though.

So what is it about the kitchen that puts you off?

I think it's probably a fear of thinking I don't know

how it's going to work out.

So I kind of always feel like, if I chuck some alcohol in...

And, you know, I can experiment with chocolate and strawberries

because those are two things that are fundamentally delicious.

-Keep going.

-Right, OK.

But then the idea of roasting a radish,

that would never cross my mind.

Chop the last of the tomatoes and sprinkle crushed garlic, thyme,

and chunks of rustic bread.

-You're not having the bread with it when it's finished?

-No, no.

That's going in?

What happens is, as we slowly cook this,

the tomatoes, when they're this fresh, get lovely and soft.

-Oh, my goodness!

-They create, like, a sauce.

So we're going to use some good quality olive oil over the top.

I could eat that now!

I was always taught when I was a young kid,

if it's good enough at this stage, if it looks good at this stage,

it'll look even better when it comes out of the oven.

Now place the baking tray in the oven until the tomatoes are soft

and the bread is charred around the edges.

Now, what we're going to do is we're going to take the bones

out of some fresh sardines.

To be honest, there's not many people who trust me

-with a knife, James, you're quite brave.

-Without using a knife.

-That seems magic.

-Now, hold the sardine.

-Right, OK.

-Don't worry, it's dead.

-Feels a bit weird!

If I'm honest, it feels a little bit weird.

Right, hold the fish and then you press down on the backbone. Look...

-See that? Pressing down on the backbone.

-Right, OK.

-Yeah, now you flip it over.

-Yes?

-And then you gradually pull this rib cage out.

-Wow!

You see that? You're pulling this out.

And then you've got a lovely fish with no bones in it.

OK. So if I pop that there...

And what you've done is have the unique ability to fillet it

-at the same time, which I've never seen before!

-Really? Is that good?

Or is that just a bit of a mess?

Was I supposed to not take the whole thing out?

Well, it's supposed to make it look like a sardine at the end of it,

-not look like it's been used as bait.

-It looks like the cat got it!

To be on the safe side, I'm gutting and filleting the mackerel,

before laying all the fish out on an oiled baking tray

along with some whole radishes.

Kate might not know her fish, but she definitely knows her veg.

My dad was a big gardener.

At one point, he had two allotments and a garden.

I remember as a child not remotely appreciating it

because, when you're a kid, the seasons go on forever

so it would be like, "Oh, not more purple sprouts, not more whatever,"

cos you ate in season, which I realise was an incredible gift to

eat that healthily in the seasons.

But I've remember one Christmas Eve my mum was obviously very stressed

and said, "You can have whatever you want to eat tonight"

and my brother and I both said, "We want instant noodles."

You know those, like, instant noodles you get in a pot,

-you pour hot water on?

-Yeah.

Literally, I swear I heard my dad's heart break, it was so bad.

Looking back, it was so bad, but of course, we were used to all this

incredible fresh food and we'd seen it on the telly

and wanted to try it. So, yeah, you can't ever talk about that now,

that's a black day in the Garraway household.

Well, this dish is almost as quick as instant noodles.

Now sprinkle the fish and radishes with cumin seeds

and a drizzle of honey.

Is that a special honey or could it be anything?

No, it's not that Manuka honey, that's way too expensive.

I'm a Yorkshireman, remember,

I ain't spending 15 quid on a jar of honey.

Right, take the whole lot and put it in the oven.

Yeah, straight in. It's quite hot. Put it right in.

In the red-hot pizza oven,

the fish and radishes will only take five minutes to cook, more than

enough time to talk about our shared Strictly Come Dancing experience.

-Because I saw you and you were really good.

-I wasn't.

-I thought,

"If that idiot can be that good, clearly I'm going to be amazing."

And I was really rubbish!

-It was such a shock to me, James.

-Thank you(!) Really?

-I thought I was going to be brilliant.

-You did?

And then I started dancing and I realised that, actually...

You know that thing where you think, "I go to weddings, I dance!

"It's going to be great." You realise it's actually not that easy.

-It's proper hard work.

-You were brilliant.

I wasn't, I wasn't brilliant. It was just...

People don't realise how much work you put into it.

-This is Ralph, by the way.

-Oh, hello, Ralph!

-He only comes around when there's food happening in the oven.

-Oh!

-Right, so these are ready.

-Hello, lovely.

-These are ready.

-Right, excellent.

-Fresh tomatoes out of the garden.

-Yeah?

-Little bit of basil and then what I want you to do now,

you're just going to crush these with a fork, so where the tomatoes...

Oh, that is great!

Just crush them with a fork. I'll look after the fish.

-Oh, my goodness, that was so quick!

-They're ready.

See, I reckon the kids would love this.

I think they'd think that is amazing!

Salt and pepper and then just take a little plate,

fresh tomatoes like that...

-So nice!

-Easy, so, so simple.

Then of course mackerel, which is cooked.

And then you've got whatever remainder of sardine

you've got really out of here.

After I destroyed it.

I think that looks fantastic, I don't know what you're laughing at.

No, it's brilliant. I'll get you a knife and fork and you can dive in.

-Tell me what you think.

-OK.

Go on.

-Mmm!

-With honey, it's delicious.

See, that's still got loads of flavour.

But it's taken, as you say,

that really strong pepper taste away which kids won't eat.

Oh! You just keep going while I just eat.

I've talked my way through the actual cooking

and now I'm quite happy to go quiet for the eating.

It's like magic.

This is a super fast and delicious fish supper

that you and your family will love.

Roasting the radishes also means that Kate's kids will definitely

get their five a day.

So I'm going to do this, I'm going to cook this. No, I will, honestly!

You don't look like you believe me.

There's not many people I give ingredients to out of this garden.

-These greens are really special.

-I know.

So I'm going to send you away with a box of ingredients,

but I'm expecting great things.

-Cheers.

-Cheers! Thanks, James. Amazing.

There's only one thing better than growing your own fruit and veg

and that's using them in delicious recipes like these.

From the veg patch to the dinner plate, nothing tastes better.

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

OK, well, there you go.

I've got you some apples, you've got runner beans, prickly cucumbers...

-OK.

-Brilliant for gin and tonic.

-Like that.

-That's a recipe I can pull off.

-Exactly.

You got some beetroot in there, curly kale...

So this shouldn't be in the bottom of the fridge rotting, then.

-You actually want me to cook this?

-Yeah.

-All right.

-Oh, it's so good to see you! Thank you so much.

-Thank you!

-I'll send you a picture.

-You better do.

-No, I will!

-We'll wait and see.

Yeah, right(!)