Show off Suppers 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.

We all like to make a splash when we cook for friends.

But for most people, there just aren't enough hours in the day.

But I've got a range of show-off suppers that are guaranteed to

impress your mates, even if you're short on time.

Like this amazing slow-cooked beef.

I'm more than happy to boast about it.

It really is one of the best dishes I think I cook.

Plus my gran's old shortbread recipe is transformed into something

very special.

Now, if this isn't showing off, I don't know what is.

And this seafood treat is cooked up for Carol Kirkwood,

expert on the weather, but has a lot to learn about filleting.

It looks like my dog's eaten it! SHE LAUGHS

You cheeky thing!

But if you really want to make your guests sit up and take notive,

why not kick off with these? My tandoori chicken lollipops.

So, what I thought I'd do is a lovely little dish, using chicken legs.

Now, not very glamorous, are they? Often deep fried in breadcrumbs,

but these can be absolutely fantastic in a lovely little marinade

and a tandoori marinade served with a nice cucumber raita.

So, what goes in to that marinade?

I use equal quantities of garam masala, cumin and hot chilli powder.

Then, add some turmeric and cinnamon.

Now, this is a tandoori marinade that I use quite a lot.

Not only is it good for chicken, but it works really well with fish

and also game, if you've got things like venison,

this is a fantastic mixture to use.

To finish it, grate some ginger, leaving the skin on.

Then add garlic, the juice of a lemon and some full fat yoghurt.

You don't have to use chicken drumsticks for this,

but I think, the way you prepare them is really special,

which turns them into a, sort of, food that you'd normally

eat in the car on your knee to a food that you can serve for

a dinner party and it's all in the preparation.

All you need is a good knife, a heavy knife, and a pair of pliers.

Yes, pliers. Very clean kitchen pliers.

But start with that sharp knife.

Now, use the bottom of the knife and then give it a whack.

Straight through. Right through the tendons, everything.

Then, turn your attention to this side and then, again,

with the base of the knife, give it a whack.

Straight through the knuckle.

Now, what you need to do is push this part of the chicken up through there.

So, now you've got this little lollipop,

this little drumstick, pointing out of the top.

And you can see, there's tendons there.

What you need to do is remove these tendons

and the best way to do that is with a pair of pliers.

Grab them and just yank them out.

There's about five or six per drumstick.

They're actually so easy to pull out.

Once you've done that, just chuck them in the marinade.

Coat them thoroughly and leave in the fridge overnight.

I've got some that I prepared earlier.

Then put them on to a baking tray and give them

15-20 minutes in a very hot oven.

Now, to serve with that, as a nice little dip,

we're going to do a nice little cucumber raita.

So, for that, we need chilli, garlic, bit of cucumber,

some coriander, mint and cumin, not forgetting that yoghurt.

You need to cut the cucumber really finely,

so it will coat the chicken evenly when you dunk it in.

Then, chop the coriander.

The first time I tried the combination of these ingredients,

they were on little skewers, little venison pieces, strips,

in the tandoor marinade, on the fire pit, or the tandoor oven,

and just served with this little dipping sauce.

It just tasted fantastic.

The freshness of the flavours... It says everything about Indian cookery.

To finish, add some full-fat yoghurt and a good squeeze of lime.

By now, the chicken lollipops should be ready.

So, serve them with the raita and some lime wedges.

How good does that look?

A bowl of beauty!

You get a nice bit of bone that you can grab

and hold, while you dive in.

That tandoori marinade is delicious.

A little squeeze of lime, dunked into that raita...

It says everything about Indian food in one bite.

Simple ingredients, but just out-of-this-world flavours.

A perfectly balanced blend of tandoori spices,

gently cooled by the cucumber and yoghurt raita.

Anything that looks this good deserves to be shown off,

so why not do it at your next dinner party?

I love having friends round to impress them with great food.

But my entertaining style is pretty low key,

compared to the 1960s TV cook Fanny Craddock.

Food historian Dr Annie Gray has been rifling through her recipes

and her wardrobe.

Fanny was well known for cooking in evening dresses

and she used to cook in front of audiences of thousands in a tiara

and full jewels and always with her husband, Johnny, by her side.

She was fabulous. But she was also very,

very keen to show the world that cooking didn't have to be

a chore, it didn't have to be boring.

And one of the things she was most keen on doing was showing

people how to turn what were really relatively-simple

dishes into totally show-off suppers.

This is called an assiette de fruits de mer.

A dish of the fruits of the sea.

Seafood, which make a most lovely presentation dish on a buffet

when you're going a bit grand.

For my main course, I'm going to do a salmon baked in tin foil

and absolutely as show-off as you can possibly get.

Annie's flashy main course gets off to a less than glamorous start,

removing the head and tail from a whole salmon...

Clearly, this dish works best if you have a cat.

..before reaching for her secret weapon - a Fanny Craddock cookbook.

This recipe is from the Book Of Foil Cookery. It was published in 1967.

She really did go to town with this.

Absolutely everything involves foil cookery.

And you can see in it how unused to foil people were by the very

detailed instructions that she gives.

I'm very unsure in my own mind that there's anything which has

contributed more to modern cookery than kitchen foil.

For this recipe, Fanny tells the novice foil wrangler to rub it

with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper,

before putting the fish in, with even more butter and seasoning.

Just in case the readers didn't know how to wrap it up,

full instructions were provided.

Fanny specifies that you are supposed to

put your hand inside, to make a pillow.

The idea of this is that the fish, sort of, partially

steams inside its foil.

Right, time to put it in the oven.

When the fish is cooked for about 50 minutes, Anna removes the skin

and decorates it with cooked prawns and lemon slices.

As with everything in Fanny Craddock's life,

appearances were very important.

This habit of making relatively simple things look very,

very glamorous didn't just apply to Fanny's food.

Even Fanny's marriage to Johnny wasn't quite all that it seemed.

Fanny had been married several times before

and one of her previous husbands was a Catholic, who wouldn't let

her have a divorce, so what she did was change her name by deed poll.

What a great solution.

Fanny Craddock's dishes always looked extravagant,

but they were realistic.

She really did know her audience.

I can't bear waste. Buy the best that you can possibly afford

and then treat it with enormous respect.

Call me fussy, but I still think that doesn't sing to me.

It's time to get arty with foil.

I think this is going to be a new look.

What can I say? Fanny Craddock really knew how to put on a show!

All I can do is just stand back in awe and admiration.

Mm!

How could you beat this?

I hope I've done Fanny Craddock proud.

She may have been a diva,

but she knew what she was talking about and this is certainly

one supper I wouldn't mind showing off to my friends.

My dinner party main course involves a lot less tin foil.

But I have a feeling that Fanny would still approve.

It's deceptively simple, it tastes unbelievable,

and it involves quite a lot of beer.

Now, this recipe may appear as if you're not showing off,

because it uses a cut of meat that you, kind of, never use, really,

or never think you would use, for a dinner party,

but I guarantee, if you make this like this,

it really is one of the best dishes I think I cook, but it uses beef cheek.

Now, before you all turn over,

cos beef cheek is one of the best cuts of meat you could possibly use.

When you think about the cheeks, and I've got two here...

Big beef cheeks like that. ..they do all that sort of chewing

and because of that, they develop this amazing flavour, now,

first thing I'm going to do is marinade them

and the marinade is really simple.

It uses just a couple of cloves of garlic, just crushed.

A little bit of bay leaf.

Some fresh thyme and beer.

So, what you need to do is marinade this.

Now, ideally, you can leave it overnight,

but for at least, sort of, six hours in the marinade.

Now, I've got one that's been marinating here.

And what this is going to start to do is break down the tendons

of the meat.

Take the cheeks out of the marinade and cut them in half,

then brown them in a pan, with a little oil.

You want to get a nice colour on it.

It's really important at this stage to colour the meat.

This is going to give a lovely dark, rich texture to our sauce

and our stew. If we don't colour the meat,

you won't end up with a brown stew at the end of it.

There's no gravy browning in here, there's no cheating.

It's done the proper way and, to do that,

you must colour the meat in the pan.

Now, add the remaining marinade.

Now, remember, this is just beer, which is quite strong,

so what we need to do now is grab some beef stock.

You can buy this from the supermarket.

Just make sure it's the liquid beef stock, not the powdered stuff,

cos the key to this is, when you cook it and reduce it,

this is what's going to thicken our sauce.

If you used the powder stock cube, it's not going to work,

it's not going to have the same effect.

Cook the meat in a low oven for at least six hours.

Or leave it to cook overnight in a slow cooker.

Now, the garnish for this is great.

The first thing we're going to do is do our onions.

Whole chunks of onions. These are beer-braised onions.

And all we do with this one, get another little bottle of beer,

and we chuck the beer in with the onions.

Simmer these boozy onions for 45 minutes and then leave them

in the pan.

Now, you need to prepare the mystery vegetable.

A lot of people would never even have seen this stuff before.

It is amazing stuff. It's salsify.

It's often called the oyster plant, because it's supposed to

taste like oysters when it's cooked, but it is a delicious ingredient.

If you can get hold of it in supermarkets, and they do sell it...

We, kind of, walk past it, on the trolley,

just going for the standard peppers and courgettes and everything else.

Buy this stuff. It really does taste delicious.

Look at the colour of that inside!

The minute you peel it, it starts to go brown, so you pop it

in some acidulated water, which will keep it nice and white.

Then, add the salsify to the pan of boiling water with

a squeeze of lemon juice and leave it to cook for 8-10 minutes.

Once it's cooked, it stays lovely and white like that and to test it,

you just stick the knife in.

It's actually like testing whether a carrot's cooked, really.

You can then drain off the liquid.

And just pop these in the fridge, if you need to.

Now I'm going to make the risotto out of, not rice, but pearl barley.

This has been left to soak for about an hour. Just drain it off.

Now, what I'm going to do is just cook this in a little

bit of stock and some garlic.

Now, if you can, and it's in season,

this dish is brilliant with wild garlic.

But I'm going to get away with this with garlic and parsley.

Put that garlic in a pan, with the soaked pearl barley

and some chicken stock.

Then, add the remaining stock to some chopped parsley

and blitz the whole lot, to make a puree.

Now, what you end up with is this amazing green colour...

Just check that out in there.

You get so much flavour into that.

Now, the great thing about all this is, you can prepare everything

that I've done so far the night before, so this can be cooked,

you've got the puree done.

You've got the salsify ready and you've got the onions.

The beef, again, is just left in the oven, leave it alone in the oven.

That leaves me with a good five and a half hours all to myself,

which means I can grab some fresh air with the boys before I serve up.

That is banging!

There are just a few small jobs to do before the guests arrive.

Just take the onions and we can seal them off in the pan.

Together with some of your salsify.

Then, reheat the pearl barley and add the parsley puree, cream

and a generous handful of Parmesan cheese.

And then, you can change the texture of it slightly,

by adding a touch of stock.

Or a little bit of water. But you see this lovely colour...

Once thing you don't want to be doing is overcooking this, cos you'll

lose this nice green colour. And if you overcook it at this stage,

what you'll end up with is what looks like mushy peas.

There's nothing wrong with mushy peas, but it's that dull green.

Now that the cheeks have been gently cooking for at least six hours,

it's time to get this show-stopping supper on to a plate.

Mm-mm-mm!

It's gorgeous! It smells delicious!

You can grab this pearl barley, sit that down the centre of the plate

and then, of course, we've got this delicious beef.

Chunks of meat, full of flavour.

Just look at that. And then you've got these onions.

Now, if you keep the onions whole and colour them on one side, if you pick

them out, what you end up with is these delicious sort of onion petals.

So simple, but so effective.

Little bit of salsify.

And then, finally, just to surprise everybody at the dinner table,

get a stock cube, a beef stock cube, just crush it up

and you just put a tiny little bit of this stock cube over the top.

And there you have it.

One of the best dishes I create for supper parties.

90% of which, can be done the day before.

You don't need a knife and fork with this. This is spoon and fork.

Because, look, you put it in the beef like that and it just flakes apart.

That is so good!

That, as my grandad would say, is "a proper dish, lad"!

A proper dish!

And he knew what he was talking about.

Cook this melt-in-the-mouth beef, soaked with hearty flavours,

and you'll be as proud of it as I am.

No show-off supper is complete without a show-stopping dessert,

as Helen Bakunowicz, also known as the Bakemonger, will tell you.

She handcrafts bespoke cakes from her tiny kitchen in Somerset.

But Helen is an artisan baker with a difference.

My cakes are definitely, sort of, very unique.

So many people are always telling me

that they've never seen anything like them.

I really feel like my cake baking is an art form.

It's very much like creating a visual feast,

as well as a tasty feast.

Helen's highflying career in fashion definitely informs her

approach to creating very contemporary and unusual cakes.

I spent two years working in the textile industry,

between New York and Italy.

And, then, basically spent about 11 years in London, as a trend

and colour forecaster.

The fashion industry's been a big influence on Helen,

but so have her Polish parents.

Her greatest inspiration has always been her mum, Barbara.

I used to help and watch Mum at home,

baking Polish goodies that we always had at home.

She definitely inspired me to bake.

And one of those cakes is piernik,

a traditional Polish honey and gingerbread cake, that Barbara

and Helen still bake together,

whenever they can agree on the recipe, that is!

-Six eggs, Helen.

-Yeah...

-Please.

-Um...

It's self-raising.

No...

To have a cake in the house is very important,

because whoever comes to the house, cup of tea or coffees on the table.

If a guest is going to stay longer, it could be even vodka on the table!

A tea-party tipple - sounds good to me.

Mastering traditional recipes like piernik has given Helen

a strong foundation for the cakes she makes now.

She pours her colourful imagination into each and every one

and no two are ever the same.

I want my cakes to be perceived as an edible work of art,

that's absolutely what I'm trying to achieve, 100%.

There's flour, sugar, eggs and magic.

Those simple ingredients have given me actually, sort of, a whole

new way of being creative and having a lot of fun with it, as well.

And it was this distinctive approach that bagged Helen

a big order from a local bride.

Today, I'm making a cakescape for a wedding.

So it includes 42 tiny little tarts, 42 little stacked cakes and then,

a big sort of glory cake, to sit in the middle of the cakescape as well.

I always sketch out, basically, what I'm going to do, so this is

a little tart, which is coconut, raspberry, chocolate balloon tarts.

So, I'm also making these two mini sandwich layer cakes, as well,

and they are coconut and lime sponge, which is

drizzled with lots of lime, to make sure it stays nice and moist.

Inside there, we've got toasted coconut, we've got

fresh passion fruit and, also, a coconut and lime buttercream.

To adorn these indulgent ingredients, Helen also makes unique decorations.

I put a huge amount of effort into the detail.

Everything is always edible.

I never ever put anything on that isn't edible.

One thing I use on the cakes is dehydrated fruits.

Dip dyed the bottom. I've dip dyed a little bit of the tip, as well.

The bridesmaids are going to be wearing navy,

so it's derivative of that colour, really.

Once they're done, they come out like this. They taste really good.

They taste of pear, which, you know, you would hope.

So, I think that's it.

I think that's one done, so I can just repeat that now.

Helen has to recreate that no fewer than 85 times, if she is to finish

decorating all the individual wedding cakes in time for the big day.

And then she has to transport

and assemble her creation before the bride arrives.

No pressure, then(!)

I'm really excited to be actually, sort of, doing a proper

full-on big wedding. Quite nerve-wracking as well though.

You know, cos there's a lot of pressure.

It's got to look just pristine and perfect.

It's been a mission. Really hope she likes it. I really hopes she does.

As the bride and groom arrive, it's the moment of truth for Helen.

Wow!

Look at that!

Mm!

Oh, my God!

Very good!

They're so yummy! That's really, really good!

Oh, more?

Helen can now breathe a sigh of relief.

I'm so excited that Audrey, the lovely bride, loves the cake.

It just means so much actually when, you know, all of that work that's

been put in and all of the lovely conversations we had

and everything, it's just the most special thing in the world.

Brilliant bakes and decadent desserts aren't just for weddings.

They're perfect for showing off at supper time, too.

And the process doesn't have to be too complicated.

I'm making one that goes brilliantly with my gran's shortbread.

Now, the key to a show-stopping dessert for me is simplicity

and you don't get any more simple than a lemon posset.

Now, it's one of the oldest desserts around.

Originates from about the 15th century.

And we used to use dairy, particularly milk, back then,

thickened with a little bit of ale or mead or even cider,

to, sort of, almost curdle and cook the milk, if that makes sense.

Nowadays, of course, we still keep the dairy, but use double cream

and, instead of that mead and everything else, we use lemon.

So, the first thing I need for this recipe is a combination of sugar

and double cream.

Now, you have to make this out of double cream really,

because it doesn't set with single cream

and it certainly doesn't set really well with milk.

You get almost like a, sort of, blancmange texture.

So, the first thing we're going to do is throw our cream into the pan.

Bring it to the boil, along with some sugar.

Then, add the juice and zest of two lemons.

It's the acidity of the lemon that helps the posset set.

Now, this has to be one of the simplest desserts around,

because it mainly only uses three ingredients.

But the flavour from it is really fantastic

and it all comes from the lemon.

I remember my gran making simple lemon possets

and it was done exactly the same way as I'm doing here.

It's a very quick and simple little dessert.

Now, as the cream and the sugar comes to the boil,

it almost looks like condensed milk in this pan.

You've got to keep your eye on it,

because the sugar can often sit at the bottom of the pan and burn

while you're bringing it to the boil.

And then, add our lemon juice and lemon zest.

Immediately, the mixture begins to thicken.

When it resembles the consistency of custard, take it off the heat

and ladle into bowls.

You can see the texture of the cream has changed.

It's started to thicken up.

And then, take these and pop them in the fridge.

They take around an hour to set, which gives me time to do the baking.

Now it's all about showing off for a dinner party and to do that, I like

to serve this with shortbread, but shortbread slightly made differently.

And for that, you need some of these little non-stick moulds.

This is ideal for this.

Cos it's a really delicate shortbread.

Shortbread, in its nature, is very short, as in crumbly,

and if we make it and then block it out and then cut it up,

you end up with little fingers, which are fine to dip in to the posset,

but what this is is really delicate.

You put them in the mouth and they just dissolve.

You don't even need to bite them.

I think that's the reason why my Gran made these,

cos of her false teeth and stuff like that.

They just basically dissolved in her mouth, but these are delicious.

To get started, put 175g of plain flour, 90g of icing sugar,

60g of ground almonds, and 25g of cornflour into a bowl,

with my favourite ingredient.

This is probably the reason why I fell in love with butter.

Cos it uses a whole packet. The entire block.

And what we do now is just break this into pieces.

Rub the chunks of butter and the dry ingredients together,

using your hands.

Don't use a machine, as you'll over-mix it

and the finished biscuits will be too hard.

Keep mixing and as soon as the heat of your hands brings

the crumbly mixture together, you're nearly there.

Now, what you need to do is just mould these into little balls

and just put each one in this little mould.

Now, you kind of have to do this in this little mould

because this shortbread is so delicate,

if I was to roll this out and put on to a tray, it would

basically just spread everywhere and go all over the place.

Now, these shortbreads need to bake for about 8-10 minutes only.

That's all they'll take to cook.

Now, to increase the flavour of those lovely shortbreads that are in

the oven, I'm just going to take some strawberry jam

and what you have to do is bring the jam to the boil,

to almost sort of reconstitute it, to make it back to a liquid again.

Just a tiny bit of water and then just heat this up.

Now, you certainly don't want to overcook these.

You can see from the texture what happens.

They just slightly souffle up.

Now, these will collapse back down again, but what you have

to do while they're still warm is make little indentations cos you

want the jam to sit in the middle and for that,

you just need your little finger.

Press it in the top.

Now, to fill these, you need to fill them with a hot jam,

otherwise you just end up with a dollop sat on the top.

So, by warming it up, you just get this nice texture to it.

Once you've filled the centres,

we can then cool this down and just decorate our posset.

You can do this any way you like.

I'm using chopped figs, strawberry quarters and sprigs of mint.

And once the shortbreads are cooled, it's time to show them off.

All you need to do with these is just carefully pop them out.

These are so delicate, these things. They almost break in your hands.

Now, if this isn't showing off, I don't know what is.

And you do it in no time at all.

This entire dish is done in less than an hour.

Mm!

And what I love about this,

the biscuits just cut through the richness of the posset.

This is very good!

These buttery shortbreads with their fruity topping are the perfect

partner for the tangy posset.

Don't forget to share them.

Another way to impress a hungry crowd is by serving top class seafood.

Langoustines in particular are one of my true favourites

and they don't come any fresher than Kieran Quinn's,

caught off the coast of County Mayo in Ireland.

The waters of Clew Bay have always been a part of his life.

We were always on the shore, in little row boats, going fishing.

My father was a boat builder at one time,

so we were always repairing boats, painting boats.

From a young age, from as early as I can remember,

all I ever wanted to do was go fishing.

So Kieran is off to catch langoustines,

a succulent white shellfish. They're sometimes called Dublin Bay prawns.

Even though they do look like a giant prawn, they're more closely

related to a slightly more exclusive sort of seafood.

Langoustine is a similar texture to lobster

but the flavour is stronger, it's more distinct, and quite sweet.

Kieran is on his way out to collect his catch from fishing pots

called creels.

Creels area steel frame with a net over the outside of it.

We bait the creels with herring and set them on the ground.

The creels are very light, they sit on the seabed,

they don't dig in, they're not dragged across the seabed, so

when we haul them back, there's very little disturbance to the seabed.

Along with the fishermen who depend on Clew Bay for their living,

there are seals and seabirds too.

Kieran's low impact style of fishing means

they all continue to benefit from these rich waters.

800 baited creels are waiting on the seabed, so hopefully some

hungry langoustines have been fattening up nicely inside each one.

I'm getting to see a couple of prawns now.

Using creels is a selective way of fishing.

The live catch Kieran doesn't want,

including juvenile langoustines, can be returned to the sea.

These prawns are probably big enough for some fisheries, but for the live

market that we go for, these are not big enough, so we return them.

Next year, these will be big enough to catch.

You need to keep the prawns in these trays, or as we call them, tubes.

They fight a lot.

Left in a large tub together,

these feisty langoustines would simply rip each other apart.

Something that must be avoided at all costs.

Because they're alive when they arrive in the restaurant,

the restaurant owner can charge top dollar for them.

And as a result, we get top dollar for our product.

The biggest market for our product is in France and Spain,

unfortunately.

When you see prawns in supermarkets for 5.99 for a packet

of peeled prawns, whereas the prawns that we have

here, in the likes of Spain are maybe 100 euros a kilo.

At that price, it's no wonder langoustines are considered

an expensive delicacy.

But thankfully, local customers can enjoy them too.

Eagerly awaiting today's fresh catch is County Mayo chef Aine Maguire.

How's it going?

'We don't always have them every week. It depends on the weather.'

So when we have them, I have a list of people who I have to call

and say, "I have Kieran's prawns now,"

and they come and get them, they come and eat.

And at a restaurant on the Bay, Aine can't wait to cook this five

star local shellfish.

These are showstoppers. You give these to your guests

and they are certainly going to be wowed.

And for loads of reasons.

The flavour is extraordinary. Brings a little bit of drama to the table.

Produce this good and this fresh

needs to be cooked as simply as possible.

Aine just fries them off with homemade Irish butter and parsley,

with a squeeze of lemon.

Langoustine in the main are a prime product but these to me

seem to be the best of the best.

They're delicious.

In the dining room tonight, there's a tough crowd to please.

It's Kieran's family and friends.

They're really, really sweet and succulent. They're just delicious.

I can't tell you.

It's a little bit of heaven and it's...

You just know it's good and it's from a really good source.

It's sweet and buttery and messy and...

I just want to lie down and have me tummy tickled!

LAUGHTER

I think that means he likes them.

It's humbling, to be honest.

And to see the reaction of the people

and the fact that I caught these this morning

and we're here eating them now, it's an absolutely beautiful meal.

It's perfect.

Even if you do have to shell out for this sublime seafood,

your dinner guests will thank you for it.

Today, I'm preparing for a guest of my own, one who just loves shellfish.

It's the nation's smiliest weather presenter, Carol Kirkwood.

-Hello!

-How are you doing?

-Good to see you.

-You all right?

-Yes, thank you.

-Good to see you.

-It's lovely.

-You like it?

-I love it.

-Come on in.

-Not so keen about the weather.

-Mind the killer dog.

Oh, hello! Aren't you cute?

-It's always the dog that gets more attention.

-What's the doggy's name?

-This is Ralph.

-Ralph, you're so cute!

-Yeah, ultimate guard dog.

Come on in.

Like Ralph, Carol has to earn her keep,

so she's going to help me make one of her seafood favourites.

Well, I say help, but that might be pushing it.

-Well, Carol, welcome to my kitchen.

-Thank you.

It's a foreign place for you, I know what you're like in the kitchen!

I know, I don't recognise half of these utensils, James!

-I'm hoping you're not expecting me to do anything.

-I am.

I'm expecting you to do a lot

because I thought as a little homage to you we'd do kind of a lovely

-little dish that brings back memories of your childhood.

-Yeah?

-We're going to do lemon sole...

-Oh, lovely!

-And we're going to do langoustines, which we've got to have.

-Mm!

From your neck of the woods as well.

-We'll incorporate the whole lot together.

-Right.

First thing we're going to do is get on our lemon sole.

Now, we've got this beautiful piece of fish, all right?

Look at that! Wow!

You've kind of got to know what to do with it though.

Well, normally, I have it on a plate and it's already been done!

What we've got to do, is there's four fillets on a flatfish.

-One there, one there, one there and one there.

-Yeah.

And we want them all removed.

Don't look at me! I wouldn't have a clue!

What we're going to do is take off this bit first.

Now, the chefs call this the skirt.

Now naturally, there's a line, down there, look.

There's even a guide for you, Carol.

I don't like the way this is going, James!

There's an A to B. So we follow this down.

Now, you can hear... KNIFE SCRAPES

-Yeah, you've hit the bones in the middle.

-Hit the bone, right.

Now, you take the knife and you start from one end to the other

and you roll in the knife up against the side of the bone like that.

Right. I know you're a brilliant chef, but looking at you doing this,

-did you ever consider surgery?

-I wasn't clever enough.

Definitely not clever enough.

I wasn't clever enough to do the weather either.

-I was far from clever enough.

-Not true.

Well... Cos you were brought up in Scotland, obviously...

-You were brought up in the hotel trade.

-That's right.

I was brought up in a wee place called Morar, which is

in the north west Highlands,

and mum and dad owned a hotel and in fact, my dad left school when

he was about 12 and he started out in the hotel as a shoe shine boy...

Oh, really?

And eventually, he worked his way up to buying the hotel,

and in the meantime he married mum, they had eight kids,

so there were lots of us. So we were always in and out of the hotel.

When I was at school, we'd come back to the hotel for lunch and I

was dying to stay and have a burger, some chips,

but instead I was having lemon sole and salmon

and all these wonderful things that I adore now,

but in those days, I just wanted to be the same as everyone else.

Now, I've left you one to do.

Do you want to do that or do you want me to do it?

Would you just do it, James? I'll watch.

-You just don't want to get your hands dirty.

-I've just had my nails done!

When I've taken the fourth fillet off the bone,

we need to remove the skin from all the fillets.

Start at one end, you hold the knife flat on to the board, you see that?

-Not like that, not like that...

-Yeah.

-It's about 45 degrees and you wiggle the skin.

-Yeah.

And it just comes straight off. It's easy, this cooking lark, isn't it?

-So, off you go.

-OK, 45 degrees...

-45 degrees.

-Wiggle it.

Just wiggle the skin, not the knife, Carol! SHE LAUGHS

-Wiggle the skin!

-It's a slippery wee thing, isn't it?

SHE LAUGHS

You were never very good at this on Ready Steady Cook either,

all those years ago, were you?

-Cooking is... Oops.

-Look at that!

-Cooking isn't my forte, James.

-Well...

-Well...

So you're supposed to have a lovely piece of fillet like mine.

-Oh, dear!

-SHE LAUGHS

I...

This looks like my dog's eaten it!

-SHE LAUGHS

-You cheeky thing!

Listen, that's the first time I've done that.

That's not a bad first attempt.

Luckily, we're using some of the fillets to make a rich mousse for the

sole, so I'll blitz Carol's in the blender with an egg white

and a dash of cream.

Then put the mixture in to a piping bag,

ready to put on to the remaining fillets.

Is there a nice particular area of the UK that has got better

weather than others?

Tend to find Kent is pretty good, but also parts of Hampshire as well.

And also we're closer to the equator, if you just look

at it from that point of view, than where I come from in the Highlands.

But the other thing is, where I come from in the Highlands...

You're doing a lot of talking to put you off from doing this, aren't you?

I know what you're doing.

If I carry on talking, he'll just do all this

and it'll just suddenly appear. Like a ready meal!

SHE LAUGHS

-You know me too well!

-I know you! Right, this is your bit now.

I want you... Are you any good at piping?

-SHE LAUGHS

-What do you think?

You're going to be hopeless, but anyway...

-Don't sit on the fence, James!

-No, I'm not. I'm from the north, you see?

-Right, pipe it.

-OK.

-You basically want to do this, all right?

So you're just squidging it out in a circle.

There's a particular way to do it. Like that.

All right? Now, I'm going to put another piece on here.

Oh, so you're making it like a sandwich, like a cake?

Like a sandwich?!

SHE LAUGHS

HE LAUGHS

SHE LAUGHS

I deliberately did this... I thought...

This is a bit fancy, it's a bit... But I reckon Carol could do this.

I was totally wrong!

Hide the dodgy mousse under the top layer of sole.

Then wrap it in some clingfilm and chill in the fridge.

Meanwhile, it's time to prepare cauliflower three ways.

That's boiled, pureed and grated into a salad.

-So we've got these little florets like this.

-Yeah.

-OK?

So, do you get a chance to cook much at home then?

Well, the kind of cooking I do is really just to stay alive.

HE LAUGHS

-Really?

-It is. It's not fancy. It's very basic kind of stuff.

I like things like...

Well, I love fish, so poached salmon, salad, that kind of thing.

Sometimes, I'll push the boat out and make a spaghetti bolognaise.

-Right.

-Usually, it's from a jar over some mince.

-Grab a pan there.

-Yup.

-Now, we're going to take some double cream.

-Yeah.

-A little bit of double cream.

-Mm-hm.

And you're going to take the cauliflower

and then we're going to boil this.

So, on that stove there, we'll fire it up...

-Now you're cooking! Now we're off! We're on.

-Brilliant.

-OK.

We're going to take our florets,

we're going to boil these for about two or three minutes.

Now, with the leftover cauliflower, we're going to grate this.

OK, just... Even the stalk?

-No, just...

-Just the bit at the top.

The right way up would help!

-Gee! Right, so you don't do the stalk as well.

-No, just like that.

-Just the tops. You happy with that?

-Yeah, happy with that.

-Good.

-I'll leave you with that?

-Yes.

-Try not to get your nails in it!

While Carol gets to grips with the grater, I drain the boiled florets.

And although she's doing her best with the cauliflower

and boiled eggs, I think I'd better be the one to shell the langoustines.

Beautiful shellfish. When you break them open, I think

they're one of the most tastiest pieces of seafood around.

Shellfish like these need careful handling,

so take your time to avoid damaging their delicate flesh.

Take the cauliflower and cream off the hob,

then blitz into a rich and velvety puree.

What do you think, Carol?

Mm!

-Oh, that's lovely?

-Happy with that?

-Mm!

-All right.

Now, we're going to finish this off now cos we're going to

cook our piece of fish.

You've got a little bamboo steamer and we take this,

place it over the top.

We're going to steam this for about six minutes.

All we need to do now is make a dressing for our cauliflower

and egg salad,

using extra virgin olive oil and white balsamic vinegar.

Drizzle it over the top of the salad and over the langoustines.

-So, what we're going to do is take a spoon.

-Yeah.

-This is the salad mixture.

-That is so tasty, that salad mixture.

-I'm going to try that.

-It's nice, isn't it?

Are you going to really try this?

If you are saying that, I expect you to text me a picture.

-Yes, OK.

-It's not going to happen, is it?

SHE LAUGHS

This delicate seafood is the perfect partner to the grated salad,

rich cauliflower puree and the scattered florets.

The zingy dressing completes a luxurious dish to satisfy any

-seafood lover.

-That looks brilliant.

-Are you happy with that?

-I think that looks perfect.

-You like that?

-Yes, I do.

Now, the idea is that I leave you in this kitchen

and I'd like you to replicate that in six minutes.

Off you go.

Even if you don't have a willing commis chef,

hosting a supper doesn't have to be difficult.

And it's a great way of showing off your cooking skills.

The question is, have I impressed my guest?

-Mm!

-You see? The next time you have a dinner party,

I reckon this is a dish to show off.

If you come round and cook it, absolutely!

If you give me the name of your fishmonger, I'll get him

to fillet the fish for you as well. SHE LAUGHS

You can find all the recipes from the series at:

I've got you a little present. It's your own filleting knife.

Which I'm going to prove a point here - I'm going to sign it and I bet you,

next time I come round to your place, that signature's still on there.