Love Your Larder 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

'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 I cook when I want to bring people together.'

These are my Home Comforts.

# How sweet it is to be loved by you... #

'When you need to create quick and tasty meals,

'but you don't have time to get to the shops,

'a well-stocked store cupboard is a cook's best friend.'

I often love having a good rummage around in the larder.

And you find jars you didn't even know that were there.

And it's ingredients such as this that you can use

to create amazing dishes in no time at all.

'So today, I'm making a delicious long-life orange cake.'

I know what you're thinking.

"He's gone mad, he's finally lost it. He's not using butter anymore".

'I make a salt-wrapped present for the dining table.'

It's almost a sort of foodie version of pass the parcel.

'And my good friend Cyrus Todiwala

'turns four store cupboard spices

'into an explosive Indian feast.'

All I can describe it as is like a pinball machine in your mouth.

The flavours going, bang-bang-bang-bang!

That is the best curry I've ever tasted.

'But first up, a dish inspired by one of my trips to Spain.

'I'm going to transform some forgotten cans of beans

'from the back of the cupboard

'into a pot of smoky and warming soup

'that's bursting with Spanish flavour.

'It's my hearty chicken and chorizo broth.'

You know the scenario, you come back from work, you're wondering what to cook.

The best way I find is by looking at the larder

and raiding this area here.

And I'm going to create a wonderful little soup

using a few chicken thighs, a bit of chorizo,

some tinned beans, a touch of paprika.

This is a great soup you can make with any type of beans or lentils,

especially ones that come out of a tin.

But what you first of all have to do is drain these off.

Now, these are flageolet beans

and they've got, like, this sugary syrup that comes with them.

What you have to do is wash that off.

Because you don't want that in your soup.

'Rinse the beans and leave them to drain.

'Now I'm going to add some olive oil to the pan,

'heat gently and throw in some chopped onion to soften.'

Now, I always find in quick dishes,

you want something that really packs a punch.

And you get that buy grabbing things like cumin,

turmeric, a little bit of chilli.

Anything that really kick-starts this dish is ideal.

Got some smoked paprika here. But you can get the sweet or the hot,

it's entirely up to you which one you want to use.

But a little dash of this in a soup really brings it to life.

And that, combined with this stuff, chorizo.

This is chorizo picante.

This is what you need to look for, which is the spicy chorizo.

It's full of paprika.

So we're going to just chop this up into small pieces.

I'm making a big pot of soup here.

So much flavour comes out of chorizo, so a little bit goes a long way.

I just throw the chorizo in. I've got some chicken thighs here.

You can use a little bit of leftover chicken.

And we can just chop this up into small pieces, as well.

You want it all to cook in real time.

You could use a bit of leftover chicken, whatever you've got.

'Fry the chopped chicken and chorizo for two minutes

'before adding the smoked paprika.'

Now, I love garlic with this.

Now, the key to this is adding the garlic at this stage.

It's quite easy to catch garlic on the bottom of the pan.

It can burn. You'll end up with it being a bit bitter.

So by adding it at this stage, it'll prevent that.

You don't have to use just spices, as well. You can use dried herbs.

Things like rosemary, thyme, sage.

All those sort of things really pack a punch.

That's exactly what you want for this. Tons and tons of flavour.

I've got some rosemary. It's a fantastic herb, this.

One that goes brilliantly with flageolet beans and chicken.

And again, just throw it in the pot.

Doing stuff like this brings back memories of sort of

15 years of Ready Steady Cook.

It's quite funny that you can create amazing dishes

just very, very quickly.

Then we've got our flageolet beans.

It's the essence of one-pot cooking, really.

Simple, quick, full-of-flavour food.

We're almost done.

'Just add some chicken stock, double cream and butter

'and give the broth a stir.'

We're going to cook this for no more than about five minutes now.

The chicken's nicely cooked, the beans are ready, anyway.

Bring this to the boil. And while that's cooking,

I can get on and do a little garnish for this chargrilled sourdough.

'Take some slices of the bread and drizzle it with olive oil

'before toasting on the griddle on each side until charred.'

Now, just to finish this, plenty of chopped parsley.

And to serve it, stick it in a pot. Done!

Look at that. The colour that you get from the chorizo,

together with the smoked paprika,

just turns that ever so slightly orange,

like butternut squash soup.

I can't wait for this. You just get a good dollop.

And serve it with proper chunks of bread. None of that crouton stuff.

Chunks.

Look at that! It's a pot of loveliness!

It's so delicious.

Just goes to prove, next time you come in from work,

just hunt in the larder, right at the back.

You'll find some good stuff if you look hard enough.

Rich, flavoursome and, oh, so filling,

I can guarantee that this soup will become a family favourite

and you'll never leave a tin of beans gathering dust again.

The store cupboard staple we reach for most is this stuff.

And up in Scotland, business partners Chris Watt and Annette Muir

are harnessing the elements

to make a rather special variety.

The Isle of Skye is more famous for mist than sunshine,

but it's solar power that helps transform seawater into sea salt.

Now, I'm no scientist, so I'm going to leave it to Chris to explain.

We pump in about 2,000 litres of seawater.

The sun's rays heat the inside of the polytunnel

and the seawater begins to evaporate.

We let the wind blow through the tunnels to remove the moisture

and allow fresh air in.

And then we're left with a bed of crystals on the pond floor

and we sweep them up.

Each harvest will be probably about 70-80 kilograms.

And that's exactly how it works.

Depending on the season, it can take between nine days and three weeks

for the water to evaporate and leave the sea salt crystals behind.

But Chris and Annette are happy to harvest small quantities slowly,

because their method has other advantages.

Our environment is very important to both of us,

so the whole idea of doing solar evaporation

with no power on site at all

is actually very important to us.

We live in an absolutely beautiful place

and we wanted to have a business

that will enable us to make a living,

but, at the same time, wouldn't damage the beautiful environment.

And luckily, their main ingredient can be collected easily

and with no impact on the precious ecosystem.

So we place the hose off the edge here

and down as deep as we can get, where the water's less turbulent.

The cleanliness is important

because even though we filter the water going in,

it's the quality of the water coming out

that determines the quality of the salt that we can produce.

Most commercial table salt is heavily refined,

stripping the salt of other natural minerals, which affects its flavour.

Drying the salt slowly helps to preserve them.

A lot of people do ask if our salt's different.

It's salt salt. It's sodium chloride.

But, actually, where we get it from,

our water is pristine up here

and there's about 60 other trace elements in the water.

And these all add to the flavour.

And it does have a different taste.

When you have a salt, say, on an egg or a tomato, for instance,

and you just add an ordinary table salt,

there's a sort of bitter aftertaste that you get.

With a salt like this, you get the salt flavour

but not the bitter aftertaste,

so it's a much more pleasant experience when you're eating it.

When the water has evaporated, the remaining crystals vary in size.

After drying, they need to be separated into two different grades.

Small for the table and large for the salt-grinders.

Very simple process, very good exercise for us.

Using a large sieve,

literally just...shake it about for a bit.

And that separates the crystals into the two grades.

We've got a finer grade

and we've got larger crystals.

The partners then pack their award-winning salt

and send it off to a growing number of enthusiastic customers.

The awards are great

because they're a vindication, really, of what you're doing.

I mean, the Great Taste Award is a blind tasting.

So they're simply taking the product on a plate and tasting it.

So to get a Great Taste Award for a salt

made in the way that we're making it

really gives us a lot of confidence about what we're doing.

But the best judges are always friends and family.

Today, Chris has invited a group of them to his eco-home.

This is a pot-luck party,

and their salt is a vital ingredient in all the dishes.

It just seems to lift everything. It's very bright and zingy.

I love it. It's great. I'm really proud of them.

Brings out the flavour more. The salmon is amazing.

Really, really enjoying the salmon. It's beautiful.

I think the coarser salt is quite nice

because you can make it crunchy and more tasty.

It's what we actually make the salt for.

-HE LAUGHS

-For people to use and enjoy using it.

You can do more with it than you can with a cheaper alternative.

-HE LAUGHS

-If that's not a cheeky thing to say.

It sounds as if this is one store cupboard staple

that is worth its salt.

'When it comes to cooking with salt,

'you don't always have to stick to a pinch.

'I'm baking a fish in handfuls of the stuff.

'Seasoned with lemon and basil,

'this fragrant fish supper is the perfect meal

'to break open and share at the table.

'It's my salt-baked sea bass.'

The whole basis of this is on good-quality salt

and a bit of egg white.

So about four egg whites for this.

And then what you need to do with the egg whites

is just gently break them down.

So give them a quick whisk for about a minute or two.

'Once you've lightly whisked your eggs,

'you can add different flavourings.

'I'm going to use lemon zest and some basil.'

Now, the fish that I'm using is really special.

Line-caught sea bass.

Now, I say line-caught because, predominantly,

a lot of the sea bass that you buy in the supermarket now,

particularly the smaller ones,

about a pound in sort of size, are farmed bass.

They taste nothing, believe me, like these.

This is a line-caught sea bass.

Beautiful piece of fish. Gorgeous thing.

Just a wonderful fish to cook with

and one that you don't want to chop up, you don't want to hack to bits,

you don't even want to fillet it. It's best kept on the bone.

And when you cook it on the bone, you end up with a lovely moist flavour.

To add a little bit of flavour to this, we can take some lemon.

Just put a few pieces of lemon inside the little cavity there.

Maybe a touch of fresh basil.

Just the lemon and the basil, that's all we need.

Now, there's no need to season this

because the base of this recipe is all salt.

The idea of this is that it's baked in a salt crust.

So you want a decent amount.

We mix that together with the egg whites.

Now, what the egg whites will do is create a lovely crust as it cooks

and hold in all that beautiful flavour with the sea bass.

And it almost steams at the same time.

It's really quite an unique way of cooking.

'Now line a tray with baking parchment.

'Place a third of the salt mixture on the top

'and shape it to the size of your fish.'

Where I first came across this was in Italy.

There was about six of us at the restaurant table

and the chef came along and dumped the fish in the middle of the table,

got a rolling pin, whacked the top of the salt off

and everybody just dived into it.

And it was one of the dishes you just kept picking off it, as well.

Wonderful!

'Use the rest of the flavoured salt to completely cover the fish.

'Then put in a pre-heated oven for between 25 and 30 minutes.'

Now, there are so many different garnishes that you can do with this,

but one of my favourite is using these.

Artichokes from the larder.

It's just artichokes that have been chargrilled in oil.

Because these are just amazing.

It's kind of one of the ingredients that I buy spur of the moment

and stick it in the cupboard

and kind of forget the fact that they're even there.

But these are delicious.

But one thing you need to buy is the ones in oil.

And they don't taste as good if they're in brine.

And I'm going to serve this

with just some leftover potatoes and a bit of bacon.

'First, chop the bacon into lardons and fry in a little oil

'for three to four minutes until they're golden brown.

'Then I'm adding the leftover potatoes to the pan,

'frying them until they're crisp around the edges,

'then add these to the bowl, as well.'

This is kind of like a warm salad.

And what I love in salad is just a touch of raw red onion.

But it needs to be sliced nice and thin.

Sprinkle that in, as well.

The artichokes can go in, in the oil, as well,

because this is just pure olive oil.

A little bit more lemon zest. Some lemon juice.

You've got plenty of oil from the artichokes there,

and just some ripped-up basil leaves.

Nice bit of black pepper.

Now, go easy on the salt, of course,

because not only have you got your bacon in there,

you've also got plenty in the oven.

It's just a wonderful little fresh salad, this.

And those artichokes make all the difference.

'Time to check on the fish.

'And I've got a nifty way of finding out if it's ready.'

Now, depending on the size of the fish

depends how long you bake it in the oven.

Small little farmed sea bass, no more than about 15 to 20 minutes.

Larger fish like this, about 30 minutes.

But there is only one way to find out whether it's cooked.

And that's to get a carving fork and just quickly,

straight in through everything,

hold it in there for a second, lift it out.

If it's hot, it's cooked.

If it burns your lip, it's overcooked.

If it's cold, five more minutes.

And then I think the key to this fish, really,

is you just serve it as a whole piece

and let everybody sort of wonder what on earth you've cooked.

But when you take it to the table,

you just crack around the edge, the salt.

And it's almost a sort of foodie version of pass the parcel.

And then when you lift it off

and peel the skin off this...

..you can see how moist the fish is.

It's just a fantastic way to cook it.

And a real chef's favourite.

You can see straightaway how moist it is inside.

Now, for me, sea bass is one of the kings of the sea in terms of flavour.

You want to treat it just nice and gently.

And this is the perfect way to cook it for a dinner party,

or just for dinner at home.

And don't forget, it just uses one ingredient

that we all have in our larder - salt.

But not all salt is the same.

This is a stylish, Italian fish supper.

Fragrant, delicate sea bass baked in Scottish salt.

And a warm potato salad packed with artichokes from the pantry.

See? The world really is your larder.

As store-cupboard essentials go,

oil is definitely one of the most versatile.

'You can fry with it, drizzle it on a salad,

'or just add it to a chunky soup.'

In the tiny village of Thixendale, just 12 miles from where I grew up,

Jennie and Adam Palmer make a natural cold-pressed oil

that's giving the world's best producers a run for their money.

Well, it would, wouldn't it? It's from Yorkshire.

BIRDSONG

So early summer, up here on the picturesque Yorkshire Wolds,

the fields are all yellow.

Wherever you go, you see them out the train window, the car window.

And this is the rapeseed plant.

The farm's been in our family since about 1945.

It was my grandfather's farm before I came here.

I grew up a lot on it, as well.

We used to come up here at weekends and holidays

and we seemed to spend every possible time that I could up here on the farm.

So it was kind of a natural progression

for me to be able to take on the tenancy of the farm back in 2000

when he passed away, and, yeah, we're still here now.

A few years ago, Adam began to explore

ways of making more from his rapeseed crop.

Initially, we had the idea that it would be a wonderful thing

to be able to make our own fuel.

I remember sitting one night reading through the quality of the oil

and that sort of thing and thinking,

"Actually, we're completely wasting this absolutely fantastic oil.

"We really need to change how we're thinking about this and put it into food."

Rapeseed oil has a very high smoke point,

making it great for cooking.

And it's good for you, too.

It has the lowest saturated fat content of any edible oil.

And to preserve the delicate flavours,

Adam avoids using heat to extract it.

Because we cold-press, we get this fantastically-flavoured oil

that is not available through

a mass-produced technique of extraction.

The oil itself has a fantastic nutty flavour.

It has a really nice texture

and a fantastically golden colour, as well,

which really does add to what you can do with this oil.

It makes it really, really versatile.

Although Adam takes care of the crop,

Jennie is the creative brain behind the operation,

using her culinary skills to develop

a range of award-winning oil-based products.

When the oil arrives over with me, my job

is to have a play around and see what flavours we can come up with.

What we're going to do today is we're just developing

a chorizo-inspired bread dipper.

So, Charlie, you're going to be my chief grinder, aren't you?

So I'm going to just measure you some spices in here.

We have some fennel seeds going in,

some cumin seeds going in, as well.

Give those a really good squeeze for me.

Can you do that? Do you think you can manage?

I'm going to add some salt, put a little bit of pepper in.

Now, also, some smoked paprika,

which is one of the main ingredients in chorizo sausage.

Charlie has definitely got the hang of that pestle and mortar,

but dad Adam is out playing with the big boys' toys.

Just behind me, you'll see two of our pressing machines,

which are gently just extracting the oil out of the seed.

We don't harvest the yellow flower,

which is a common misconception that many people have.

What we actually have is the black seeds from the plant,

which are formed in these little pods.

I've got some of the seeds here. So these are the, um...

These are the little black seeds that we crush.

We only extract 30-33% of this because we're cold-crushing.

Everything that's left, we put it into a cattle feed

and that extra oil that we leave in there

gives them nice big energy, gives their coats a nice shine.

COW LOWS

After the oil is extracted,

it goes through an organic filtering process before being bottled up.

Then it's over to Jennie, who adds the flavours.

So we've got all of our dried ingredients in there.

Quite a lot of chilli, as well, for us.

We might end up making it a bit milder, but we like it spicy.

And to that, we're going to add two final ingredients.

Our oak-smoked rapeseed oil

that we send off to a local smokehouse who oak-smokes it,

so you get a really beautiful, oaky, full flavour.

And I'm also going to add some of our garlic oil

to get a really rich garlicky flavour.

And that will be what finishes the product off.

It will take... Over the next couple of weeks,

that flavour will get richer and richer.

This is one here that we made a few weeks ago.

So that's fully infused in flavour.

You can see it's that really, really bright chilli, paprika colour.

We're going to brush the oil on to some French bread

and toast it so you get a really lovely dipping bread to use.

-And Charlie's going to help me, aren't you?

-Yeah!

We're very much a family business.

The journey has been a lot of fun getting to where we are.

It was absolutely the right decision

to go into food production rather than fuel production.

More and more people are getting on to using rapeseed oil

and there's still a massive way for this industry to go.

It's a fantastic ingredient,

it's a great British alternative.

Do you like this one we've just made, Charlie?

Um...it wasn't as spicy as I thought.

We do have quite a few plans in the bag, but, um...yeah,

I'm going to have to say it's slightly under my hat for the moment.

Now, this has to be one of

the great British success stories in terms of ingredients.

And it is fantastic to be able to cook with,

but also brilliant in desserts.

'It's my delicious moist orange and rapeseed oil cake.

'Made from store-cupboard ingredients,

'it's a great way to use up any oranges

'left lying around in a fruit bowl.

'Topped with thick cream-cheese frosting and homemade candied peel.'

Now, this is an orange cake using rapeseed oil

instead of butter or margarine.

It's a fantastic way to incorporate lovely moisture into a cake.

So the first thing you need is ideally, seedless oranges, really.

And what we're going to do is just take the zest off the oranges first

for all that lovely flavour.

Remove it from the three oranges.

Take all this lovely mixture, pop it into your machine.

And then to create our cake, it's really a standard mixture

of a combination of whole eggs and sugar.

'To the orange zest, add four eggs

'and 250 grams of caster sugar and mix well.

'While all that whisks away, you can get on with the dry ingredients.'

Now, what I love about this cake, it utilises things like this.

Ground almonds or ground hazelnuts that you have in your larder.

And for this, we use a combination of flour and almonds.

125 grams of each.

Then obviously, we need our cake to rise.

Because it's quite liquid, because of the oil and the orange in here,

just to help it along a bit, I like to whack in

just a touch of baking powder.

Just give it a quick mix.

Now, this mixture looks pretty good to me.

It's nice and light, it changes colour.

It almost goes white the more you mix it.

'Now, remove the peel from the oranges, chop the flesh

'and place into a saucepan with 100mls of rapeseed oil.'

I know what you're thinking, "He's gone mad, he's finally lost it.

"That's it, he's not using butter any more."

There is a nice little bit of icing on the top, of course.

What you need to do is just blitz it into a nice puree.

'Once it's pureed, coat a baking tin with oil

'and a light dusting of flour.

'Then mix the wet and dry ingredients together.'

What you do is add half the orange and all the flour.

And then gradually mix this in.

In between your fingers, creating this light mixture,

because you've got a fair bit of liquid in there with the oranges.

Now, the great thing about this cake, as well,

is because it's moist and liquid when it goes in,

it's nice and moist once it comes out of the oven.

'Pour the mixture straight into the cake tin

'and bake in the oven for one hour.'

I'm going to serve this with some candied oranges.

And for that, you need to peel the oranges with a peeler.

That's so simple to do at home rather than just buy them.

And you can do this while your cake's cooking in the oven.

'When you peel both oranges, cut the zest into thin strips

'and place them in a pan with water and caster sugar.

'Bring to the boil and gently simmer for eight to ten minutes.'

Now, while they're boiling away nicely, we can make our frosting.

For that, you need cream cheese, creme fraiche and sugar

in roughly equal quantities.

Too many times, you use caster sugar, which is fine,

but when you make a mixture like this, you want it nice and smooth.

You don't want to taste the grains of sugar in this frosting.

And for that, I use icing sugar.

'Simply whisk the cream cheese, creme fraiche

'and icing sugar together in a bowl

'until it's smooth and thickened.

'Then put it in the fridge until it's needed.

'Next, strain the orange peel through a sieve over a bowl,

'then toss the peel in caster sugar,

'making sure all the strands are covered.'

Now, what I love about this, it reminds me of things like angelica.

That and sort of purple violets that my granny used to put on cakes.

And it's so quick!

'The cake has had its hour in the oven

'and has been cooling on a wire rack, ready for the decoration.'

A cake wouldn't be a cake without a decent topping.

Don't need to do anything fancy with this.

For me, it's just how Auntie did it, dolloped on.

And I like to use a combination of these lovely bits of orange zest

together with some walnuts.

Again, any nuts that you've got, really, in the larder.

Hazelnuts, almonds will work really well with this.

And then not forgetting you've got these amazing bits of orange zest.

I love cakes like this.

It's nothing fancy, it's just using great ingredients

that you have to hand in your larder.

And it goes to show that you can create something out of anything.

If you wanted to, you can actually grab some quite whacky ingredients.

This is a bit of Greek basil.

Tastes like a little bit of pistachio nuts, as well.

It transforms it into something else that you could do for a dinner party.

Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!

Look at that! That oil keeps it lovely and moist.

The texture of it, as well, is exactly what you want.

And the great thing about making a cake like this,

it'll last twice as long as a conventional cake

made with butter.

Which in this house, is about two hours.

And when your family and friends get a taste,

you're sure to be left with empty plates.

Super, moist and citrus-scented,

this is one cake that definitely warrants an extra slice.

A well-stocked larder certainly makes modern home cooking easier.

But in Georgian England, it was vital.

With no freezers, preserving produce was a necessity.

At Harewood House near Leeds, food historian Ivan Day

is discovering how the Georgians made sure their cupboards were never bare.

Here at Harewood, there's a whole complex of storage rooms.

There are larders for game and meat and fish,

there are dry larders, or pantries.

We are actually in what is called the still room,

which was for preparing preserves.

And it's where they distilled medicines,

perfumes and alcoholic drinks.

I'm going to make two store-cupboard recipes

that could have been prepared in this room.

One is a boozy cordial, made with spices and real gold,

which was called Royal Usquebaugh.

Now, the word, "usquebaugh", is the Gaelic version of aqua vitae,

which means, the water of life.

Ivan's own water of life is a heady cocktail

of clear Georgian brandy mixed with dried figs and raisins...

I'm going to do a little bit of choppity-choppity

so that they release the fruit sugar.

..topped off with an infusion of exotic spices.

The first is some cinnamon.

We're just breaking it up so it releases its flavour.

And I'm going to put the spices on to a little muslin sheet

to make a kind of teabag.

The other additions to Ivan's spicy teabag are mace,

cloves, nutmeg, liquorice and saffron.

Not the typical ingredients for a cordial.

Distilled cordial waters first arrived in England

from Europe in the 15th century.

They weren't like the sweetened fruit squashes

we call cordials nowadays.

They were highly alcoholic, and, in fact,

their first use was entirely medicinal.

Ivan's brew might taste a bit like medicine now,

but the spices and fruit must infuse for just over a week

before anyone can sample it.

So this is an infusion I made about eight days ago.

So all those flavours and the fruit sugar

should be really well incorporated into the alcohol.

The saffron has turned the whole potion a vivid yellow.

Next, an unusual wine from the Canary Islands.

And then the most bizarre ingredient of all.

Ambergris is a waxy substance

which is usually found floating in the sea.

It originates in the tummies of whales.

And when it's dissolved in alcohol, which I've done here,

it makes this absolutely wonderful scented perfume.

Now, the most magical ingredient of all is some gold.

It's hard to see how drinking gold could do you much good,

but the Georgians swore by it.

Well, the rich ones did.

Gold was considered to be a wonder drug,

and was a cure-all for absolutely everything

from apoplexy to epilepsy.

It was even said that a draught of it could bring a person

almost back from the verge of death.

Pickled or preserved, I wonder?

But not everything prepared in the still room was for drinking.

Seasonal fruits from the garden were preserved here, too.

And often in a very decorative fashion.

So, for my next recipe, I'm going to make a very unusual gooseberry dish,

which is called Gooseberries As Hops,

which sounds very strange, but the end result

is a beautiful little preserve made in the form of hop flowers.

First, Ivan cuts crosses into the tops of the gooseberries,

then painstakingly deseeds them.

No-one makes these any more. Can you understand why?

With much patience, three of the gooseberries

would be nestled together to make a hop flower,

but keeping them together could prove painful.

In the very early recipes - and this goes back a long way -

you're told to get a thorn and to push it through all three.

When you hear me scream, you know I've arrived all the way through.

And...we have got a beautiful little hop flower.

A slightly less dangerous method

was to thread the gooseberries on a piece of cotton.

The fruit was then boiled, cooled

and left in a lemon and ginger preserving syrup for two days,

before being popped into a storage jar.

They do look very much like hop flowers.

It's what they used to call a conceit.

It's just a little joke, in a way.

Georgians just loved food that was made out of something else.

And the most lifelike ice creams

are moulded into...into fruits, for instance.

The gooseberries were used in puddings, or eaten with dessert wine.

Ivan is serving his on ice cream,

flavoured with their preserving syrup.

Mm! Perfect!

It's amazingly crunchy and it's really sharp.

But enough of that, what about that boozy life-saving cordial?

So, Royal Usquebaugh.

To the lips, a little sip.

It does taste incredibly medicinal.

I don't know whether it would raise the dead,

but if you had that in your cupboard nowadays,

I'm pretty sure you really would love your larder.

Cheers!

These days, we don't need to keep real gold

in the kitchen cupboard to eat like royalty.

My mate, chef Cyrus Todiwala, is the king of spices.

Whey! How you doing, buddy, you all right?

-Good. Good, good. How's life?

-Come on in.

He's come round to show me how to make a store-cupboard curry

that knocks spots off any takeaway.

Made with just a few basic spices that are probably in your larder,

this is his sensational aromatic chicken dal

served with a punchy and vibrant chilli paneer.

Now, I love chicken curry.

And even better when you cook it, as well.

So we're going to do a lovely little chicken curry

using everything from the larder, particularly spices.

There's four key ones, isn't there, really?

The four key ones I think everyone should have at home

is turmeric, chilli, cumin and coriander.

-These four can create 100 dishes.

-Just these four?

Just these four is more than enough to create a lot of dishes.

So today, we are going to be very simple.

-We are making chicken with masoor dal, or lentils.

-Yeah.

Very simple. We are going to finish off with some paneer chilli fry.

'To begin the lentil dal, first, chop six cloves of garlic,

'some ginger and two onions.'

So, how on earth did you get into cooking, then? How did that start?

As a middleclass Parsi family in Bombay,

the last thing you do is become a cook.

And people laughed at that because it was pretty well-known.

So, it wasn't the done thing, then, for you to be a chef?

Wasn't the done thing at all. People used to mock my dad, say,

"What did you do to your son? He has to become a domestic cook."

Because they all misunderstood cooks or chefs.

Nobody understood the profession then.

So I had a boss who wasn't very fond of me

because I kept asking too many questions.

And he kept shoving me from one kitchen to the other,

-which suited me fine.

-Right.

-Because, um...

..I ended up learning a lot.

So I'm very fortunate compared to many other chefs.

'To the chillies frying in the pan, add garlic, ginger and onions.

'Sautee for three to four minutes

'before adding some chopped curry leaves.

'Now for our basic larder spices.'

It always fascinates me, Indian cooking, but it's to do with these four main spices?

Yeah. These four, I mean, they are so easy.

-Every shop sells them now.

-Yeah. Right.

Chilli, cumin, not too much.

About that much should be fine for the amount we are cooking.

-Coriander, a bit more.

-Yeah.

Because coriander's milder and cumin will try and overtake its flavour.

But coriander does not make the food bitter, as cumin would,

so we can add a bit more coriander. Turmeric.

What do you think the common mistake is

for people cooking Indian food? Too much spice?

-Too much spice.

-Too much spice.

-And they think that they have to buy...

they have to buy ready-made paste to create Indian food. No.

It's easy. Dilute that with chicken stock.

The other mistake people make, including chefs sometimes,

is that they just add powders directly into the food.

It's easy if you're a professional

and you've been cooking all your life,

but this way, what you get is a better explosion of flavour.

-It expands it.

-Expands it already.

-Yeah.

And what it does also, it prevents it from burning as it hits the pan.

Because everything is drying up in the pan.

And what it'll do thirdly,

is that it'll make it like a nice little paste.

You see how it comes together now?

'Cook the mixture for a couple of minutes,

'until the oil begins to separate.

'Add both the lentils and their soaking water

'and bring the dal to the boil.

'Add a pinch of salt, cover with a lid

'and simmer for five minutes.'

Is there a particular area of India that is, like,

that is the food capital of India?

Well, I mean, I'm from Bombay, I'd say Bombay is the capital.

If you ask one of my colleagues from Delhi, they'll say Delhi is the best.

I've been to Bombay. It's the most craziest place.

It is, but you get the best food in Bombay in any street corner.

-So, you're a big biker...

-Was.

Please tell me you've not ridden a bike in Bombay.

-I have.

-A motorbike?

-Oh, I still drive my car in Bombay.

We have a car parked there, a little Suzuki.

I've been there, but you are taking your life in your own hands.

Not if you're used to it. Actually speaking... Listen, listen, listen.

In Bombay, you cannot go over 15-20 miles an hour, anyway.

-People are banging each other's cars every five minutes.

-Yeah.

If you go to a signal, you bang your car,

you look out, not much damage, the guy walks out, you walk out.

"OK, 50 bucks." And he goes on his way.

Nobody exchanges insurance contracts

because they get hammered all the time.

So you just sort it out, you go to a garage, fix your taillight.

The other guy comes in and bangs your car again, and it just goes on.

-I was there on a tuk-tuk thing.

-Yeah.

I was there on a tuk-tuk and there was a guy there on a moped

-with a kid on the front of the moped.

-Perfect.

-There was a kid on the back of the moped.

-Perfect.

-And in between that was a fully-grown goat.

-Yes.

-The goat was hanging over his shoulder!

-Perfect.

So in Goa, it would have been a pig hanging around his shoulder.

-This was a live goat.

-Yeah.

So when our son was born in Goa, Pervin, I bought her a moped.

And even when he was nine months old,

he used to stand in front of the moped, clinging on to the bus.

-Right.

-The kid grew up all his life

on a moped, going from market to wherever else.

'It makes the M25 sound like a picnic.

'Now fry the chopped chicken skinless thighs in a pan

'until the meat is coloured and nearly cooked.

'Then add some butter.

'Pour the dal onto the chicken,

'add some tinned tomatoes and a tablespoon each

'of tamarind paste and brown sugar.

'Cook for another five to ten minutes,

'until the chicken is cooked through and the lentils are tender.

'Now to the paneer cheese.'

The one thing about paneer, it likes to be fried.

What we generally would do is, after frying it,

the paneer gets tight, so you put it in water.

So you could season the water and put it in.

What it does is it lets it absorb the flavouring. But this...

The really little bit of colouring on the paneer really helps it a lot.

'Fry the paneer in batches till golden brown

'and drain in a sieve.

'To the empty pan, add pine nuts, chilli, ginger and garlic

'and stir-fry for two minutes.'

So, this is like Chinese cooking, then, really, really fast?

-I mean, the faster the better.

-Yeah?

-Faster the better.

Because the last thing you want is your things burning.

So this is the great thing about Chinese cooking

because everything cooks rapidly,

-cooks fast, cooks good, cooks rapidly.

-Yeah.

And you have this great texture and all that going on.

'Now add a chopped red onion, some chopped peppers,

'stir-fry for another two minutes

'before adding some vinegar, soy and chicken stock.'

Just to finish it off.

So that's a tiny bit of cornflour just to thicken this up a bit.

Gently does it for the cornflour.

And then I just put the paneer inside.

Coriander in there, too, sir.

Coriander.

Right, well, I can't let you do everything, so I'll make the naan.

-OK.

-All right?

'I'm cooking the naan in my extremely hot wood-fired pizza oven.

'In a few minutes, they're risen and golden brown.

'With a little brush of melted butter,

'they're ready to serve with Cyrus' curries.'

It is brilliant.

That is the best plate of chicken curry I've ever tasted.

-Good. Thank you very much.

-That is so good!

-The naan is great, actually.

-It comes up all right in there.

Yeah, it comes up all right. The colour's great, nice texture.

-It's all right, isn't it?

-Mm.

And the paneer, it just takes it to a different level.

I didn't do anything, really. I chopped a few ingredients.

But to see it and to taste all the ingredients,

all I can describe it as is like a pinball machine in your mouth.

The flavours going, bang-bang-bang-bang!

But you can taste everything. That's the amazing thing with this.

It's good fun. I just love cooking. It was great fun.

It's amazing! Because everything's from the cupboard.

I don't know whether I'll get it as good as that, though.

'These delicious dishes are made from everyday ingredients

'that lurk at the back of your cupboard shelves.

'So it just goes to prove that if you love your larder,

'it will love you right back.'

-Cheers!

-Happy days. Cheers. Cheers!

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