Pick-Me-Ups 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.'

LAUGHTER

-ALL:

-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.

'The pace of modern life means that many of us work long hours.

'And after a hard day, it's easy to settle for food

'that feeds our bodies, but not our souls.'

So I've got a load of recipes that are guaranteed to pick you up

and put a smile on your face.

These are the treats I always cook to boost my mood.

Ohhhhh! Check this out!

'I'll be baking the ultimate fast food

for an instant hit of joy.'

Mmmm!

'And cooking an uplifting dish with my mate Michael Caines,

'who can be a bit of a perfectionist.'

Stop being cheffy, just get it on the plate!

'But I'm going to get started with a sweet treat

that always puts a spring in my step.

It's my melt-in-the-mouth chocolate eclair.

The combination of cream, fat, chocolate,

all together in a lovely pastry case

is just my idea of food heaven.

'I'm starting the choux pastry mix by putting exactly

'200mls of water in a pan.

'Along with a pinch of salt and some sugar.'

I remember working in France aged 14, 15,

where I actually mastered the art of choux pastry.

Because I spent a lot of time on a pastry section

just doing little, tiny chocolate eclairs.

Ever so small. About this big.

And I had to make about 300 every single day.

So you really master the art of a good recipe.

So the important thing I was told in France

is to use diced butter.

What you don't want to be doing is a big lump of butter in here.

Because it's really important that the butter melts

before the water boils.

Because the water is really important in this recipe.

It creates steam.

That steam is what we need for the choux pastry to rise.

So we must have as much water in the recipe as possible.

And that's why, if you keep boiling this mixture now,

you don't end up with 250mls of water,

you'll end up with probably 200mls of water.

So the recipe becomes unbalanced.

'When the butter is melted,

'add 150g of good-quality, strong, plain flour.

'Keep it on the heat and mix.'

The way to tell whether it's ready is actually not by looking at it,

but by listening to it.

And it almost sounds like fried bacon in a pan.

You can hear it sizzling.

At that point, we can take it off.

Now what I like to do is basically just leave it to cool.

And the quickest way to do that is not in a machine...

..it's to put it on to a tray.

Just spread the dough evenly

and stick it in the fridge for five minutes or so.

'After this, you'll need to add four eggs to it.

Start by popping the cool dough into your mixer and then switching it on.

The trick with this is to add each egg one at a time.

One thing you don't want to be doing

is throwing all the eggs in together,

otherwise you'll just end up with a bowl of scrambled egg.

And then, finally, just give it a blast

on full power for about 30 seconds.

'When the choux mix is rich and smooth, it's ready for piping.'

I like to use quite a decent-sized nozzle.

Round nozzle for our eclairs.

These are serious chocolate eclairs, these ones,

not the piddly ones I was used to in France,

these are proper big ones.

Fill your piping bag...

..full of the choux.

And then it comes to what many people find is the tricky bit.

And that's piping.

Easiest way to do this, really, is to actually

start at one end and work your way through it

and if you make a mess,

just scrape it up and put it back in a piping bag.

But, for this, you want to make sure your tray is nice and secure

and not flying around all over the place.

So just on a tea towel.

And the actual piping bag doesn't touch the metal tray.

You're almost drawing the mixture on.

Now, this hand is moving the speed of the bag,

this hand is forcing the mixture through.

And it's how quick or how slow you do each movement

denotes how thin or thick you want the eclairs.

You start at one end and work your way through it.

Every single one the same.

Every single one the same.

If you think this is tricky, try doing this with a French chef

and with a meat cleaver behind you.

Shouting and screaming at you in a foreign language.

And certainly a language that

your French teacher didn't teach you.

What you will end up with is little points on it.

And what you can do is just use a little bit of water on your fingers

and press the points down on the choux pastry.

Otherwise, if you leave these little points on it,

they'll kind of burn.

But also, don't forget,

we're going to coat this in a nice fondant icing.

So you want the tops...as flat as possible.

'Sprinkle some water over the tray.

'In the oven, this will turn into steam and help the eclairs to rise.'

And then you set the oven quite high.

About 220 degrees, 450 Fahrenheit.

Quite a hot oven.

And these are going to bake now for about 25-30 minutes.

'I can now start making the topping

'with 100g of dark chocolate in a bain-marie.

'When that's melted, add 150g of icing sugar,

'along with four tablespoons of cocoa powder, and mix.'

Now, immediately, it actually goes to this crumb.

Now, if we use the leftover water that we've got in here and a spoon,

especially when this is hot, it will bring it back.

Get this to a paste, really.

Don't add too much water in at the start,

otherwise the fondant will end up going lumpy.

'Add more water until you've got a wonderful, shiny, smooth glaze.'

You don't want it too liquid,

otherwise it's just going to fall over the top of your eclairs.

And also, you don't want it too solid,

otherwise you'll be spreading it on with a knife.

Because you've got the chocolate in there, it's going to set.

So what you need to do...is keep it warm.

To do that, the leftover water over a pan is the perfect place for this.

'When the eclairs are cooked,

'take them out of the oven and let them cool down.'

Now, I'm going to fill these just with plain whipped cream.

The cream's nicely, softly whipped, which is exactly what we want.

Just soft peaks like this.

Makes it much easier to get inside the eclair.

Now, there's one thing you need in an eclair,

and that is cream, and plenty of it.

Now, instead of cutting this, which a lot of people do,

and filling it with cream, and when you bite into it,

bang, the cream goes to your granny sat next to you,

what you need to do is fill the tops.

It's a great trick that I learned in France.

So using an old pen, without the ink, otherwise we'll get letters,

you put the pen into the top.

One at each end...like that.

And then what we do is get your cream.

Now, you want to create just a small hole in the piping bag.

Not too big. Just a little hole.

Make sure you've got a steady stream of cream, like that.

And then starting at one end, you put the cream inside that hole.

And squeeze. And you'll see the eclair expand...

..as it fills full of cream.

'They look good already, but I'm going to turn them into something really special

'by dipping them into the warm chocolate fondant,

'sealing the holes on the top, as well.'

Ohhhhhhh! Check this out!

Mm-mm-mm!

Little twist there.

If that is not a thing of beauty...

..I don't know what is.

Now, normally, if this was a cooking exam at college,

or with that French chef just behind me,

I'd get big-time told off

if any little bits of chocolate were dripping down the edge.

But this is my house and he's not here.

I mean, come on, it's a chocolate eclair!

'That's right, no more words needed.

'An eclair made well is paradise on a plate.

'Naughty, but who cares?'

Everyone's pick-me-up is different

and here in the UK, we're very fortunate

'to have an army of dedicated food producers

'working tirelessly to bring us top-quality ingredients.'

Producers like Selina and Andrew Cairns from Lanarkshire.

They're second-generation farmers and cheese-makers.

But these aren't run-of-the-mill Cheddars.

And the milk they use doesn't come from cows.

-Come on, boy!

-BLEATING

It comes from this rare breed of sheep.

And, like Andrew, they're early risers.

I milk them twice a day. At 5.00 in the morning,

again at 4.00 in the afternoon.

I do like getting up at this time of the morning.

It certainly beats having to sit in your car for an hour and a half,

drive somewhere to go and sit in an office, or work for somebody else.

Shepherding a herd of dairy sheep

is actually a very rare job in this country.

In Scotland, certainly, there's only, I think, two people

who are commercially milking sheep.

Throughout Britain, there's only about 12,000 sheep being milked,

which really is quite a small number.

Sheep's milk is better for making cheese.

It has higher levels of fat and protein in it,

which means you get more cheese per litre of sheep's milk

than you do for cow's milk by about double the amount.

The parlour's kitted out to milk 32 sheep at a time.

16 down each side.

We're putting through about 200 sheep an hour.

You always get the odd sheep that's a bit awkward.

These sometimes temperamental animals were brought over to Scotland

by Selina's father Humphrey in the 1980s,

after being inspired by Scotland's long-lost cheese-making history.

I came across some writing of Sir Walter Scott's

describing blue sheep's cheese made in this area.

And that really fired my imagination,

because we love blue cheese.

To turn his dream into reality,

Humphrey wanted the French Lacaune breed,

which is known for its high milk yields.

But there was just one problem -

nobody in France wanted to sell him any.

I would write to the breeding stations in France

and never got replies.

And it seemed to be very difficult to make any progress.

And then a vet I knew contacted me and said,

"Humphrey, are you still interested in these Lacaune sheep?"

And I said, "Very much so, but we can't get them."

Humphrey's friendly vet was able to find

some Lacaune crossbreeds in Denmark.

The flock is now almost 400-strong

and thriving in the stunning Scottish uplands.

The climate and the soil, the way the soil is handled and so on

affects the unique quality of the cheese made in that area.

I think that applies more to cheese, in many ways, than it does to wine.

Because you'll find the microflora,

as it's called, of the milk,

is unique to this particular bit of land.

Microflora are harmless bacteria which affect the taste of the milk.

They're killed during the pasteurisation process.

But the family make their three cheeses with unpasteurised milk,

allowing the flavour to shine through.

But perhaps the most important ingredient

for the continued success of the business is Selina.

Luckily for me, Selina was willing to take it on.

And she's done wonderfully well in carrying it on.

I'm very proud of that.

Recently, she's developed a brand-new cheese variety

called Cora Linn, named after a local waterfall.

It's like a Cheddar in the way we make it,

but sheep's milk is a lot sweeter,

and that comes through in the flavour.

So it's more gentle on your palate than a Cheddar.

I suppose some people compare it to Manchego or Pecorino.

It's just as well Selina makes a lot of cheese,

because she provides post-training meals for the local rugby team.

There's always a bit of a scrum

to get to the family's tasty and nutritious cheese.

It's very tasty. It wasn't too strong. It's mild.

Really nice, yeah. Really nice.

It's got a good flavour.

It gives a good flavour to the pasta, so it's nice, yeah.

Definitely eat it again.

'Sheep's cheese is the key component in one of my all-time favourites.

'This is a pick-me-up that's unbelievably quick to cook

'and guaranteed to make you smile.

'It's my delicious nduja and sheep cheese pizza.'

I've been quite fortunate to travel in this job,

and to the home of pizza, which is Naples.

And I've seen the best pizza

and tasted the best, I think, in the world.

And it's all to do, I reckon, not just with the topping, but the base.

And the base is this recipe.

It's the best pizza dough recipe I know.

And it uses a combination of two different types of flour -

semolina flour and 00 flour. This is often used for pasta.

It's a very fine grain of flour.

'Start off by weighing 200g of semolina flour

'and 800g of 00 flour.

'Now, there's no point just guessing this.

'You have to measure it exactly, otherwise it won't work.'

In we go with the sugar. About a tablespoon of sugar.

A good pinch of salt into the flour.

'Add some warm water to 7g of fresh yeast.

'Mix it into a paste and pour in.

'Finally, add another 650mls of warm water and get stuck in.'

Now, for me, a dough like this, and including bread dough,

is much easier and better to make by hand first of all.

It's all about the texture, really.

You don't want it too dry, you certainly don't want it too wet.

But you've got to make sure there's moisture in it,

otherwise, when it's cooked,

it kind of tastes like a biscuit, really,

when it comes out of the oven.

We can start to bring all this lot together.

And just, basically, put it onto your board and knead this.

You can see the texture of it is quite sticky to my fingers.

That's what we're looking for, really.

It may appear too wet, but don't forget,

all that flour is still soaking in all that liquid.

Now, what should happen, as you're kneading it,

it should just pull off your fingers

and go into one solid piece of dough.

So just keep kneading it like that.

It also gives you a workout!

You'll get a natural resistance to it when it's ready.

Like that. When you press it, it should start to bounce back a bit,

which that's doing now. That looks pretty good to me.

I'm just going to pop it into a bowl.

Leave it outside, or anywhere warm, really. Cover it over.

And it just wants to slowly prove

for about an hour, an hour and a half.

'After that, divide the dough into portions

'that will make a pizza base each and leave for another hour.'

When these have proved a second time,

we're then ready to make our wonderful pizza.

And use a combination of the semolina flour

and the 00 flour to roll it out.

I am going to roll it out and pin it out.

I'm not going to spin this around my head.

'I'm rolling out the pizza bases really thin,

'so they cook in no time at all.'

I'm going to then just top this with a tomato sauce.

What it is is just tinned San Marzano tomatoes,

which are just blended up into a puree.

There's no fancy tomatoes been cooked down or anything like that.

Just out of a tin, in a blender, done.

As easy as that.

Now, I'm going to top it with this delicious sheep's cheese.

It tastes fantastic. Slight taste of almost Pecorino.

Now, another thing that I'm going to put on this pizza...is this stuff,

which is nduja. It's from Calabria.

It's a sort of spicy, soft salami.

It's just delicious!

And it melts wonderful over this pizza.

And you get the delicious, spicy flavour to go with it.

So just a bit of that over the top.

'To finish, some fresh basil and olive oil.

'And it's ready to go in the oven.

'It's about 500 degrees in there,

'so it's only going to take a minute to cook.

'You can cook this at home on a pizza stone in your oven.'

Already that cheese has started to melt.

That lovely nduja, there's lots and lots of oil in that.

It's starting to melt, too.

And that oil is going to just mix in with that cheese

and taste fantastic.

Mmmm!

I was always taught, too,

never to eat anything that's bigger than your head.

Now, I have to use this because my sister will be watching it.

Thank you, sis, you bought me this for my birthday.

It's just what I always wanted!

This is definitely the ultimate pick-me-up.

Far better than any of that stuff

you'll find delivered on the back of a motorbike,

sweating in a cardboard box for 15 minutes as he gets lost.

To me, it's one of the best-tasting dishes ever.

You can't beat pizza.

'The soft nduja and melted sheep's cheese topping

'is certainly oozing with a feel-good factor.'

'There's only one pick-me-up that's better than great food,

'and that's sharing it with great company.

'So today, I've asked over my good friend Michael Caines.

'He's a Michelin-star chef,

'but, like me, he loves cooking unfussy food at home.'

-Hey!

-How you doing, buddy? You're actually here!

'And he's going to help me create the ultimate feel-good dish.

'My perfect cottage pie.'

-It's great.

-Yeah.

-It's one of the dishes I was brought up with.

-I'm sure you had it at home.

-Yeah.

-We'll do that with just mashed potato and carrots.

-Good.

Properly-cooked carrots, as my mother called it. Not al-dente stuff.

-No, these are proper cooked.

-Got to be soft...soft carrots, as well.

'I'm starting off by dicing up some celery.'

So, what were you like as a kid, then, eating at home?

Well, we always got around the table. We had a lovely garden.

Helped Dad do the gardening. Mum cooked every day.

And cooking dishes like this at home,

it sort of takes me back to my childhood, which is great.

'To start the cooking,

brown off 600g of beef mince in some veg oil.'

When was the moment...? Because when I was a young kid,

I remember it was quite early on.

Probably about seven or eight years old that I thought,

"This is the job that I want to do".

Mainly because I saw Keith Floyd once, who did a dinner,

and I was only about eight and he stood up on a lectern and fell off.

And I went, "That's what I want to be when I get older!"

Because everybody applauded him. And I just thought, "That's me."

-Showman.

-I'll have a bit of that!

There were no James Martins on TV when we grew up.

There was no Jamie Oliver. There was nothing to really inspire you.

There was Keith, but nothing as a career.

So I kind of didn't think of it as a career.

I just thought of it as a hobby.

But when I found out I could cook for a living, that was it.

I was about 16 years old and I haven't looked back since.

I went to catering college and I went on from there.

'After finely chopping two onions, three cloves of garlic,

'a celery stick and one carrot,

'chuck it all in with the beef.

'Then add Worcester sauce for some spice,

'and two tablespoons of tomato puree.

'Finally, a splash of red wine.'

And just burn off the alcohol and reduce it down a little bit

and then we've got this beautiful beef stock, which we're going to put in. Look at that!

'This beef stock is nice and thick

'because I've reduced it down a few times.

'But some butchers can do this for you.'

You can't make this with the powdered stock,

really, I don't think.

-No.

-You want to invest in some good stock.

I like to taste at this stage.

Do you know what I'm going to do at this stage? Get the carrots on.

My gran used to put carrots like this, even back then,

bit of salt, some sugar

and a nice nub of butter in it, as well.

Carrots have got a natural sweetness.

But they become something else when you cook them like this.

-Obviously, butter.

-This is where I blame my gran, you see?

MICHAEL LAUGHS That's where it all started, with the carrots.

-She's got a lot to answer for, clearly.

-Tell me about it.

'The carrots should be left to cook for at least half an hour

'so they go really soft.

'After the mince has simmered away for half an hour,

'put it in the fridge to chill.

'It's a nifty trick that will make

'putting on the mashed potato topping much easier

'because the mix will be firmer.'

You know what, it looks delicious, doesn't it?

It's no good me doing it, seeing as you're here.

-Yeah, delicious.

-Happy with that?

-Really intense. Beautiful.

-Doesn't need salt or pepper?

Maybe just a...maybe just a little bit of salt.

THEY LAUGH Go on, put a bit more in. I know you want to.

No, no, no, no. It's rich

and the stock's reduced and it's just intensified. Look at it!

-A good cottage pie, that.

-Proper, that. Proper.

'For the mashed topping, we're using potatoes

'that have been pierced with a fork, put on a bed of rock salt

'and baked for about an hour, keeping the flesh nice and dry.

'When they're cool enough to handle,

'scoop them out and pass through a ricer.'

So, are you the only chef in the family, then, or...?

Yeah. No, I'm the only chef in the family.

And there was no real history of anybody in the industry, as such.

I was adopted at the age of six weeks, but I found my father

and what I did find out is that, when he came over from Dominica,

when he first came over, he was a cook.

-Oh, was he?

-Yeah, he was a cook.

Isn't it amazing what you're nurtured and natured?

But he died, unfortunately, a few years ago.

And when I read his eulogy, they talked about his ability

to cook food with a small amount, a limited amount of ingredients

but yet it all tasted incredibly fantastic.

-How weird is that?

-It was mad.

It was like reading a short story about myself.

It was really, really quite incredible.

In life, you don't know where you're going, unless you know where you're from.

So in that regard, it was very worthwhile.

'After ricing all the potatoes,

'add 100g of butter and 150mls of milk.

'Now, I think it should go in cold, but Michael has other ideas.'

-You put warm milk on, do you?

-Well, it just...

-Oh, controversial!

-Well, you see...

-Oh!

-You don't have to.

No. I don't have to because it creates too much washing-up, but...

Ah, see, that's a good point, actually. Go on, then.

See, that's a cheffy... That's interesting...

You're doing the cheffy thing. I'm cooking this for me at home

and I'm thinking, "That's another pan to wash up."

That's a massive point because I'm banned from cooking at home

-because of the amount of pans...

-Precisely.

Warming up a bit of milk. Pointless!

The reason why I'm warming it up is because, you know...

No, you're not! THEY LAUGH

It makes perfectly good mash without warming up. You know it does.

Ah, brilliant!

-I forgot we're cooking for ourselves but it also means we'll be washing up for ourselves!

-Precisely!

-So, you see, I'm learning something.

-Which means I'll be washing up!

'Michael certainly knows how to get his own way.'

'After barely showing it the hob,

'we pour in the milk on top of the potatoes.

Mix it in and season in the whole lot well.

You know what I like to do is use this fork

to create a little bit of, er...

-Artistic pattern.

-Yeah, but also, that will help with the glaze

when you put it in the oven.

-Butter on the top?

-Oooh, a bit of butter, go on, then.

Because that's nice for the glaze. Something as simple as that, really.

And it is a very wholesome, hearty and simple dish.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah. It looks delicious.

'The pie goes into the oven

'set at 220-degrees centigrade for about 15 minutes.

'By then, the carrots will be soft and ready to eat.'

-I don't peel them.

-No. A lot of people peel.

And actually, carrots, I think, taste better

for having the skin on, especially this size.

-You're taking away the goodness, as well.

-Absolutely.

-Think there's enough there for me and you?

-I think we're spoilt.

-JAMES LAUGHS

-I'm just going to reduce this glaze down and put it under...

Stop being cheffy, just get it on the plate!

Just going to reduce this down and add a little butter(!)

-Get it on the plate!

-Relax into this cooking.

Just get over here!

Cor blimey!

This is the food that you want, innit, really?

When you come back from a busy day at work,

this is the kind of stuff that you want.

-I like the carrots, too.

-Tried my best.

'Pick-me-up food is all about delicious recipes

'that nourish the soul and put a smile on your face,

'no matter what kind of day you've had.

'Even if your mate deserts you when it's time to do the washing-up.'

You can find all the recipes from the series on our website:

See you, James!

Unbelievable!

Subtitles by Ericsson