Food to Share 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.

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.

Although dinner for one can be a guilty pleasure,

sharing a meal takes it to another level.

I think it makes great grub taste even better.

For me, the best food isn't about white tablecloths and fine dining.

It's much more about dining with your family and friends,

a dish that you can rip up and share.

In my mind, there's no greater compliment

than seeing a dish I've prepared

being devoured by a hungry crowd.

'So, today, I'll be making a knockout dessert

'with Olympic Gold medallist Nicola Adams.'

You can't even see that right hand coming!

'I'm making a pie that's so good it could cause a punch-up.'

This type of food is all about sharing.

Nobody's getting any of this.

'And a rare meat is making a comeback.'

A lot of people think hogget is pigs or Mr Hoggett from Babe.

Take one generous bowl of delicious food,

place in the middle of the dining table and watch everybody dive in.

Well, how could they resist this?

My shellfish stew with chunky croutons is simple, aromatic

and packed with all the flavours of the South of France.

Now, this is one of my favourite dishes to actually cook

and share at the table. It's based on a classic bouillabaisse,

that famous dish from Marseille.

The way that I was taught when I was trained over there,

by this mad chef, was using a 5ft live conger eel,

a ton of other fish and about six hours' worth of cooking.

I haven't got that. I've got a nice bit of mackerel,

I've got a nice bit of pollack here,

we've got some lovely prawns, mussels, a little lobster

for a bit of luxury and some dark crab meat, but you can easily

create a wonderful little sauce just using a few basic ingredients.

Now, of course you can do this at home in your normal oven,

but it's my version cos I'm going to use

my favourite toy - my wood-fired oven.

This wood-fired oven gives a very unique flavour,

not only to things like pizza, but also to casseroles like this.

To start the sauce, chop an onion, six cloves of garlic

and add a glug of olive oil and some white wine.

Now to the dish's main flavour.

A really underused veg, I think, fennel. It's great braised,

it's great raw in salads but it's fantastic in this dish and this

is one of the main flavours,

so if you don't like fennel or aniseedy flavours,

this is a dish that's not for you, clearly,

but it does taste fantastic, cos everything is just cooked and served

in this one pan.

Touch of fennel seed and then some star anise.

Now, the key to this is you don't want one of these in your mouth

when you come to eat it, so count them in,

and then you can count them out. Four will do.

At home, preheat your oven as high as it will go

and cook the sauce for roughly five minutes. Now prepare the seafood.

This is where you can have an entirely different selection of seafood -

whatever you want, really - whatever's to hand.

The lobster itself, just cut all this lot into decent-sized chunks,

so take the legs off, just crack the claws.

When you're training as a chef, you think bouillabaisse is

made with the shells from lobster and crab and anything like that.

It's not at all - it's basically just the flavour of the fish

and other ingredients and a whole manner of different sorts of stuff,

some I've never seen before.

Some I think would probably confuse Mr Attenborough, to be honest.

And with the mackerel, you want to chop this into chunks.

I can already hear the sauce sizzling away in our oven.

It does take about five or six minutes to soften up...

..but when it's soft like that,

the smell of this is just superb.

Mmm-mmm-mmm!

Now mix in the tinned tomatoes and add some pureed brown crab meat

and return the dish to the oven for another five minutes.

Now, classically, in bouillabaisse, or certainly

the bouillabaisse that I've had, it's always got potatoes in it,

but instead of potatoes, I am going to use some of this sourdough

because I like to add a little bit of texture to this,

rather than it just being all shellfish and seafood.

The sourdough gives a really nice texture to it but also it soaks up

some of that lovely juice.

You end up with the best croutons you've ever tasted.

Decent sized chunks as well - don't be

too poncey with this. That's a crouton - not too small!

Drizzle it with some olive oil and then our sauce is just about ready.

One goes in, the other one comes out.

That looks pretty good to me.

Now we can take our croutons and pop these in.

Now for this pot.

This is why I love this dish -

you just take the lobster, the pollack

and you want it sort of chunks.

That's why I've cut the mackerel

into sort of decent-sized chunks like this.

The prawns - don't do anything with them.

They go in. There's nothing too fancy about this.

It's all about great flavour, great colour.

I mean, already, just look at that as a dish.

It just looks fantastic. There's a lot of juice

that is going to come out of these mussels as well.

It's like a proper pot of seafood!

Good amount of black pepper and some salt.

I've got to keep my eye on this cos this gets really hot.

Very hot.

That's another slightly over-caramelised one

but it's all right!

Now put the stew back in the oven for ten minutes.

So, if you're doing this at home, set your oven really high.

Don't cover it over cos

you want to sort of char if not colour the lobster and bits

and pieces over the top,

so just stick it in the oven and just leave it.

As it cooks, the flavours of the dish will fill your kitchen

and immediately transport you to the South of France.

Now, I have kind of fond memories of France

and some nightmare memories of France.

On the same trip that I learned how bouillabaisse was made properly,

I nearly got arrested, to be honest with you, because

the producer said that you've got to cook on the beach.

Well, I didn't realise that you're not allowed to cook

on certain French beaches.

And you certainly aren't allowed to cook on French beaches

with bundles of vine prunings that I set fire to

and flames were coming up about the size of that tree.

The police were called as I was just sealing off my steak

and properly arrested me.

Look!

Now just check this out for a pot of food!

How good does that look?!

Loads of flavour in there as well

and all we're going to do is nothing fancy, just pop these chunks

of croutons in there, which kind of soak up some of this lovely juice.

It's the perfect one-pot food, really.

Little bit of basil over the top,

for a little bit of flavour, just a touch,

and of course a nice drizzle of olive oil.

Now, good food doesn't look much better than that

and what you do is you get these croutons and just dunk them in.

It just tastes superb.

It's the perfect sharing plate of food, really.

You kind of stick it in the middle of the table

and everyone just helps themselves.

It's not got a 5ft conger eel in there

and it doesn't matter, cos that tastes delicious.

If they had served this succulent

and aromatic seafood stew in a French jail,

then I might have been happy to spend a night in the cells.

Bon appetit.

Top-quality food goes a long way

when it comes to keeping a hungry crowd happy.

Thankfully, here in the UK,

we have a whole host of dedicated food producers

who work hard to provide us with the best ingredients in the world.

Slow-food farmers Jonty and Mel Brunyee

take a very patient approach to rearing

rare Cotswold sheep on their National Trust tenant farm.

And with views like this, I'd be happy to hang around too.

So, we're stood on the roof of Lodge Park,

a 17th-century hunting grandstand.

Lord Sherborne used to course deer out of the woods

down the one-mile straight and gamble on the deer hound.

Now the National Trust property is spanned around us

and our farm is in the distance, Conygree Farm.

Jonty and Mel come from environmental

and farming backgrounds, so when the National Trust offered them

the tenancy here, they jumped at the chance.

We took on the farm ten years ago and the purpose for us

really is to conserve the landscape and the grassland,

the wild flower meadows and to protect the wonderful,

wonderful habitat we have around us.

Currently one of our fields,

one of our meadows, is a wild flower meadow.

It's a thin, chalky, stony field, it's not great

for growing crops, but it is great

for growing grass and wild flowers and herbs.

And those meadows are also wonderful

for rearing their flock of traditional Cotswold sheep,

a breed that was on the verge of extinction.

The farm next door to here

was the last farm to have a flock in the '70s

and when I moved to the farm in the parish of Aldsworth,

I couldn't not have Cotswold sheep.

The Cotswolds' long golden fleece fell out of favour

when machine weaving took off.

But being a slow-growing breed,

they have other uses

and Jonty raised them for an unusual meat

that not many people have heard of -

hogget.

A lot of people think hogs, or hogget, is pigs,

older pigs, or Mr Hoggett from Babe.

Hogget is lamb into its second year, so if it was born in April or May,

the following spring, it's grazing again on the wild flower grasslands,

and it's got that second spring,

second early summer at grass so it's bigger in size, bigger in taste.

So, here we have a beautiful, wonderful Cotswold hogget,

the pedigree Cotswold with a beautiful golden fleece,

the long wool that's the famous Cotswold fleece.

And of course this was the valued bit of the sheep,

which is why it was kept to be an older sheep.

To maybe its second birthday, third birthday,

this was the valued fleece,

and that's why we ate more hogget and mutton than we did lamb.

Lamb is of course succulent and very juicy,

but maybe doesn't taste of very much. Hogget is still succulent

and juicy and tender, but it's full of flavour, full of taste

and it's got a more robust flavour.

Going up to mutton, you've got something,

a more dense product, maybe you want to cook it slowly, full of flavour.

But hogget sits right in the middle,

a really nice mix, halfway between lamb and mutton.

These wild flower meadows are ideal for sheep rearing,

but Mel's also passionate about their other benefits.

A lot of these flowers are really, really important nectar sources -

they attract lots of different species

of butterflies and are really important for bumblebees as well.

Why not have fields full of wild flowers

and still produce good quality meats?

But creating these meadows for the sheep to graze doesn't mean

you can just let things grow wild.

On a grass-fed system like ours, the sheep

and the cattle working together are crucial.

The cattle come in first, nibbling the grass right down,

ripping the grass, leaving tussocks and wild flowers.

Then come the sheep and the lambs, followed by the hoggets,

and the hoggets will come in very shortly, eating all the herbs

and wild flowers and that will all go into the taste of the meat.

Well, the proof, they say, is in the pudding,

or in this case, the main course.

Jonty's organised a barbecue for family and friends

and there's only one thing on the menu.

We've got some sausages, some hogget burgers,

some leg steaks, some chops,

got a rack of hogget on there and some minty ribs.

Hogget-tastic.

So, how will the fuller-flavoured hogget

go down with his flock of diners?

It is delicious.

Yeah, really flavourful. It's got really good depth of flavour.

Leg steaks, chops, burgers for kids, come and grab some.

It tastes much nicer than lamb.

It's a bit richer without being too fatty or over-strong.

It's nice, yeah.

Even the youngest diner is a hogget fan.

Zack finished almost an entire burger.

He really enjoyed it.

So, if you want to try some of the best British meat that's out there,

be adventurous and don't follow the crowd.

You might not want to follow the crowd,

but what if you want to feed one?

Well, this next recipe will have them queuing up a second time.

I cook it slowly, so the juicy, tender meat simply falls apart,

then I top it with golden buttery potatoes.

It's my rich braised hogget pie.

So, the first thing we've got on here

is a shoulder of the hogget that's been deboned

and I'm actually going to braise it first of all

and then create a pie afterwards.

Now, I particularly like this cut more than any other.

I was always taught the part of the animal that has the most flavour

does the most amount of work,

so you think the shoulder of the lamb

that then turns into hogget is moving around like that -

you get so much flavour into this.

Now, what I'm going to do is quickly season it,

salt and pepper,

and then sear it in a hot pan.

So often, to make a pie, you would actually chop this up into chunks.

We're actually going to cook it in a whole piece

and almost shred it, like the best pulled pork you've ever tasted.

Brown the hogget shoulder on all sides

in an oil-free, hot casserole pan.

Then chop up some carrots, celery, shallots,

and, of course, some garlic.

Garlic and, of course, lamb work fantastically well together

so hogget and garlic is going to work exactly the same.

When the hogget is nicely browned all over,

lift it out and set aside.

Now, keep the fat that's in the pan.

This is really the key to this dish -

everything is cooked in one pot and served in this dish as well,

which makes it the perfect dish for sharing at a dinner table

and let everybody just dive in.

And then we add the onions, first of all, then the garlic.

And then, at this stage, we can throw in some tomato puree.

Now this, you've got to be kind of careful with, really.

It must go in at the start of cooking

cos you need to cook out the tomato puree.

If you don't cook it out, it'll become really, really bitter.

It can overpower everything.

In goes the rest of the veg.

Don't cut the veg too small,

otherwise they just go into a lump of mush,

but you don't want them too big.

After sweating the veg for a couple of minutes,

place the whole hogget back into the pan.

Add a small bunch of thyme followed by just a little red wine.

Now, at my house, I'm a massive fan of rioja

and if it's good enough to drink, it's good enough for the pot.

One thing you don't want to be doing

is putting poor-quality wine into good-quality dishes,

otherwise it'll just affect the taste.

Having said that, I am a Yorkshireman

and this ain't 30 quid a bottle.

Season with salt and black pepper, add some lamb stock,

although you can use chicken or beef.

Bring everything gently to the boil before putting the lid on

and it will need two hours in the oven.

You don't need to baste it or anything -

just put it in the oven and leave it.

A slow braise is a wonderful, stress-free way of cooking

for a large crowd, because the oven does all the hard work.

While it does its thing, I can do mine,

although the wonderful aromas mean you can't ignore this dish for long.

Now, what you end up with is this -

a beautiful braised shoulder of hogget.

All the flavour is kept in the pan.

To be honest, I'd just eat this as it is.

Look at that - it just drops apart.

That's exactly what we want it to do

and then what we can do is grab a fork

and basically just rip it up

and because you braised it

in all that lovely, inexpensive wine,

it just softens all the meat up

so instead of actually stewing it in chunks -

which is fine, which most pies, let's face it, are made out of -

this takes it to a different level.

Mmmmm!

Sounded like a bull then, but this is just delicious.

Return the shredded meat to the pan, mix with the juices and the veg...

..add some seasoning

and then thinly slice some uncooked, peeled, waxy potatoes.

I'm using a mandolin but a kitchen knife is also fine.

Now, all we do now is basically top this with the potatoes,

just randomly, first of all.

It stops the potatoes sinking, really.

With the larger potatoes, then you start to go round.

Now you could, if you wanted to, top this with mashed potato,

turn it into the ultimate shepherd's pie, I suppose.

Alternatively, you can put puff pastry over the top,

or even shortcrust pastry, but for me,

just some peeled, sliced potatoes.

Touch of salt over the top,

a little bit of freshly ground black pepper.

But it wouldn't be my pie without a little bit of butter,

so just a few knobs of butter over the top.

This colours the potatoes while they're in the oven.

You just pop it in the oven and wait.

The pie will need to cook for another 30 minutes

until the buttered potatoes are nice and golden,

and the garlic and rich rioja gravy is bubbling around the edges.

You see, I love this bit.

When food looks that good,

you just know that this is going to taste great

and making a pie like this is very different,

but by using the shoulder, it makes it taste fantastic.

Mmm!

That tastes so good.

But what I love about this,

although it's braised as a whole piece,

you still end up with chunks of meat it in as well.

This type of food is all about sharing.

Nobody's getting any of this!

Off you go!

I might be hogging this hogget,

but who can blame me?

Serve this upmarket, slow-braised pie to your friends and family

and they'll flock to your table.

Those doughnuts are obviously a knockout, and so is my mate,

who's popped round to teach me a few ringside moves -

the first woman in the world

to win an Olympic gold medal for boxing, Nicola Adams.

-Hello, stranger.

-All right? How are you?

-This is a swanky car, isn't it?

-It's not bad, not bad.

How are you doing? Ready for something to eat?

In return, I'm making her one of my favourite Latin American dishes,

perfect for sharing with friends.

It's my deep-fried fritters called churros,

served with a creamy home-made custard

and an indulgent peach and basil compote.

Right then, Nicola,

I thought I'd cook you something that I know you love.

-You like doughnuts, don't you?

-Yep.

I'm surprised you're allowed them. Look at this six-pack here!

-Ah, I know!

-Yeah, I know, tell me about it(!)

-But doughnuts - and I know you like your Mexican food, don't you?

-Yeah.

So we'll do churros. They're trendy at the moment.

We'll do two sauces to go with it.

You're making one and I'll do the other one,

if that's all right!

You're brave, you're brave!

You're pretty handy in the kitchen.

Right, home-made custard. Now, I need you to separate the eggs

and we need five for this one.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with some caster sugar.

Then in a pan, bring some milk, double cream,

sugar and a vanilla pod gently to the boil.

Can I ask, you were in the boxing ring at 12?

Yeah, but I got into boxing by mistake, really.

My mum used to do aerobics.

She couldn't get a baby-sitter for me and my brother one night

and took us down to an after-school boxing class they had there,

and I absolutely loved it - been boxing ever since.

But as a girl in the boxing ring,

that must have been quite tough, though, wasn't it?

-You were in working men's clubs, boxing.

-Yeah, boxing away.

What was that like, though?

It was very different back then - you were allowed to smoke as well,

so there would be, like, above the ring,

there would be, like, a big, massive cloud of smoke as you were boxing,

but, erm, it was...

I just loved it. I loved the atmosphere.

I think I just liked to entertain the crowd.

When the milk is boiling, pour it on to the egg yolk mixture

whisking all the time so that they don't scramble.

-Am I doing a good job?

-You're doing all right.

What do you like cooking at home? Are you any good?

Erm...I'm OK. I can cook chicken fajitas!

-You can cook chicken fajitas? Is that it?

-Yeah!

Now return the whole mixture to the pan

and cook over a gentle heat,

whisking occasionally until it thickens.

If you boil it, it separates.

It's basically like a knockout -

once you do that, you've had it, it's game over.

Now, dare I say, there's quite a few people over the years

that have won medals at the Olympics,

but you are the first women's gold medal boxer, ever.

Yeah, I know, I know -

it still sounds exciting every time I hear that!

And we've got the Olympics just around the corner again, really,

so are you training now?

Are you allowed to eat this, actually?

Oh, yeah! I'm allowed to eat that now.

We've got a year to go, plenty of time to burn that off.

How long does it take to get ready for a fight?

Well, to be honest, we're kind of always ready all the time,

because we're competing.

So, you could leap into action right now?

Yeah, yeah, literally right now!

THEY LAUGH

Set the thickened custard aside

and move on to preparing the peach and basil compote.

Start by chopping four ripe peaches,

removing the stones first, of course.

Is there a special way to do this? Because...

-Well, it's just that.

-See, you made that look really easy.

I didn't, it's quite easy!

See, you've ruined it! All the way round.

Look, take your knife all the way round and then twist.

-All right, here we go, here we go.

-You're too strong, you see?

You've munched up my peaches, look...

-Aw, look at that!

-You see? You're on it now.

Master chef! Don't get too good.

Put the chopped peaches into a pan

with some sugar, butter, water and some basil leaves,

then cover and gently simmer for five to ten minutes

until tender and softened.

Now for the churros.

-Now have you ever made eclairs before?

-No.

-Profiteroles? Choux pastry?

-No.

-Doughnuts?

-No.

-Never?

I just eat them!

This is my problem, you see - I cook them and eat them.

This is why I haven't got a six-pack.

But this is a combination of all three.

So, we need 250ml of water.

Now I want you to put two level tablespoons of sugar in there

and we're going to pop in about 75g of butter.

Bring the water, sugar and butter to the boil

in a saucepan set over a medium heat.

When it is boiled, add 200g of plain flour

and a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder.

Right, now, put it back on the heat, mix this together

and you'll see what happens.

It goes into this thick paste.

-Look at that.

-That's actually quite cool.

So this is what choux pastry would look like.

Now, what we can do... You're much stronger than me.

Throw in an egg and then you're going to beat it up.

Off you go.

-See, you're struggling now, aren't you?

-Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

Nicola Adams, Olympic champion, defeated over an egg.

-We can delete this bit.

-No, we'll keep this bit in!

Once the egg is combined,

spoon half the mixture into a piping bag

fitted with a star nozzle.

Pipe the mixture in lines directly into the fat fryer.

Dip a pair of metal scissors into the hot oil

so the batter doesn't stick and then begin snipping it.

They'll take about five to six minutes to cook.

I reckon when me and you retire,

we could get ourselves a little Citroen van,

go round to all these festivals and be the Churros Twins.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Something like that?

-James and the apprentice.

-Well, I don't know.

You need to be piping a bit quicker

if we go to somewhere like Glastonbury.

So hurry up! SHE LAUGHS

Once the churros are golden and crispy,

remove from the oil, drain on kitchen paper

and toss with caster sugar.

With the custard and compote on the side,

you can dunk to your heart's content.

-How good is that?

-That is really good.

They're all right, aren't they?

I can feel the calories already!

I think that's been my problem for the last 40 years but...

Everybody deserves a treat every now and again.

It's just that I have these for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Can I call myself a chef now?

Well, who am I to argue with you? Course you can!

I've seen a set of boxing gloves over there, so yeah.

You've gone through the ranks very quickly.

These bite-sized Mexican churros are perfect to grab and dip

into the rich custard and the succulent compote.

Share these with your friends and family and let the fiesta begin.

I've taught you something.

Now I want you to teach me something.

-Can you teach me how to box?

-Are you ready?

Not particularly, no. Can I have one of these first?

Well, if there's one way to shed a few of those churros calories,

it's going a few rounds with an Olympic champion.

Just remember, Nicola, I bruise like a peach.

-I'm going to regret this, aren't I?

-You're going to need that headguard.

-THEY LAUGH

-I'll try not to miss.

-Cheers(!)

You've got a pretty big target, really, haven't you?

-Are you ready?

-Not really, no!

I'll start with the jab - just on this hand, yeah?

Even that hurts!

-Right, go on, then.

-A combination.

See? It's not so bad.

-Right, give it some beans, then.

-Yeah?

Gee!

You hit hard!

You can't even see that right hand coming!

That's the whole point, I'm quick!

THEY LAUGH Look, the dog's watching.

THEY LAUGH

You'll have to be careful, now, I'll have to get you back for that!

These are the days that I value the most -

at home, hanging out with good friends

and cooking the food that I know they will love.

These are meals too delicious not to share.

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

Every now and again, you have to...

-Oof!

-..go for the body shot!

HE COUGHS

Can I take this ridiculous stuff off now?!