South East James Martin's Food Map of Britain

My two passions are flying and food.

And it's from up here you really get to appreciate

the unique landscape that produces the food that I love to cook.

So I'm taking to the skies

to show you how this land has influenced our larders.

On my journey around the UK,

I'm going to meeting the people who work this ever-changing landscape.

Revealing how this terrain has served up

some of the country's best regional ingredients.

They taste so good.

And also, I'll be sharing some great recipes

that showcase this amazing land

that puts such great food on our tables.

Today I'm heading to the South East.

This is an area defined by a dramatic coastline...

..expansive estuaries...

..and almost endless farmland,

each of which, produce their own special ingredients.

The rolling chalk hills of the South Downs harbour row upon row of vines,

used to make Britain's answer to champagne.

The tidal waters of the English Channel offer winkles, cockles

and the wonderful Kentish small brown shrimp.

And the sparsely populated Romney Marshes,

blanketed with coastal vegetation,

is home to the deliciously unique saltmarsh lamb.

This is one of the warmest and driest corners of the UK

and first today, I'm heading to the ancient fishing town of Hastings, in East Sussex.

One of the fascinating things about Hastings, and you can see that from up above,

is that it's quite open to the elements.

There was a huge storm here hundreds of years ago,

which demolished the harbour

and really changed the landscape to what we see now.

The fishing boats are dragged up onto the shingle beach.

The warm shallow waters here have made this bit of the coast

a favourite fishing spot for what's thought to be around 1,000 years.

And one place renowned for making the most of the wide range of fish brought ashore

is Tush and Pat's place on the beach.

-How are you doing, Pat? Good to meet you.

-And you.

-Tush.

-Hello, James. How are you?

-Frying fish already. Look at that.

-Well...

-Proper stuff.

-Real fish, eh?

-What have we got here, then?

-James, we cook whatever there is.

-Right.

I mean, it could be whiting, dabs, plaice, gurnets,

whatever they bring in is what we cook.

-So you take the smaller ones, do you?

-Yeah, yeah.

A certain size, like. Normally, the smaller ones go to France,

but we take that size of them, whatever they are.

Fish regularly caught here include mackerel, herring, plaice, cod,

bass, flounder, dabs, lemon sole - the list goes on.

These are the lemons today. I've been filleting these today.

And whiting, which is...

Quite unusual to see whiting in that condition

this time of the year, you know?

Whiting's one of these fish that we don't use so much.

-People say they're full of bones.

-Yeah.

If you know how to fillet them, they're not full of bones

-and if you get a bone, I'll give you a fiver.

-Really?

-Oh, that's...

-That's how confident I am.

Now, whiting, we don't see as much of this, I don't think, in the UK,

-but if you can get a hold of it, it really is fantastic.

-Beautiful.

-Are you going to try one, James?

-I'd better.

So you've just cooked it in a little bit of olive oil.

Olive oil, a little bit of pepper.

What you're going to taste is the fish, nothing else.

-Do I need anything else?

-Well, you've got lemon or...

I don't want any of that brown sauce stuff.

-What are you doing? What's this?

-That's for children.

-Children. Be careful, it's very hot.

-Right.

-How about this? So if I find a bone, I get a fiver?

-You get a fiver.

Bring it back.

And if you're the first one in 12 years to find a bone...

Be careful, they're hot, James.

I don't mean to sound insulting, but I used to love fish finger sandwiches when I was a kid.

Oh, right, yeah.

That's about the best fish finger sandwich you're ever going to eat.

-That is delicious, I have to say.

-Good.

Well, for a chef to tell us that, that's got to be good, hasn't it?

I'm still trying to find a bone, though.

But there's one fish Tush isn't cooking for me today

that Hastings is famous for - Dover sole.

This is one of the best places for Dover soles, along the Channel,

around the whole country.

It's renowned for it, all over the country, all over Europe, I presume.

Mark Woodley has been going out at night

fishing for these bottom-dwelling flatfish at Hastings

for over 35 years.

It makes good money in a restaurant, doesn't it?

Some of those bigger soles, I'm not exaggerating, probably would be 26, 30 quid.

And we probably get a fiver for it, five, six quid.

The shallow sea off the coast here

means that only small boats can work these waters,

so fishing here has been done essentially the same way for a very long time.

What a way of life, isn't it? Look at it.

It's... How can you better this?

It's just something else, isn't it, really?

Dover sole is a favourite among top chefs

because of its sweet flesh.

But before I cook any, I want to hear a bit more

from one of Hastings' longest-serving fishermen.

-Are you there, Mark?

-Hello.

-Good to see you.

-Come on down.

-How are we doing?

-I'm very good, thank you. Yourself?

-Very well.

-Good.

-Good to see you?

-How are you doing?

-Yeah, very well.

Tell us about this place. Where does your fishing rights cover?

-Well, personally, we fish from sort of Bexhill...

-Yeah.

-..down to sort of this side of Rye.

-Yeah.

And probably out to five or six miles.

We don't really go that far.

The reason Mark can haul bumper catches of Dover sole

is that the waters along this bit of coast are perfect for them.

As with most other flatfish, Dover sole live and feed

on a sandy or silty sea floor.

The gradual erosion of the chalk and sandstone cliffs here provide

exactly that,

which, combined with the warm, shallow water,

creates a perfect habitat for them,

all within easy reach of the small fishing boats

huddled along the beach at Hastings.

Now, it seems to me that's it's kind of like a...

Whereas pig farming's one thing - you know what you're producing -

-here, it's kind of a lottery, isn't it?

-It is a lottery.

You're going out after one particular thing

-but you could end up with anything.

-Yeah. Yeah, that's very true.

I mean, it's very much a mixed fishery here anyway,

so, I mean, the other day there,

we caught a lot of plaice, which we don't really want to catch.

Tell me about Dover sole. Are you a fan of it?

Yeah, I like Dover sole. I do like Dover sole.

-Because chefs really prize Dover sole.

-Yeah, they do.

That must keep you happy.

We probably don't appreciate it, really, because we have so many of them.

And cooking it, what do you do with it, then?

-I... I grill the sole.

-You grill the sole? Right.

-I grill the sole.

I don't put anything... I don't like anything... I just like fish.

-And a few chips.

-You don't need anything else.

No. What else do you want?

So many fishermen like their catch simply cooked

that they can't all be wrong.

But you don't need me to show you how to grill or fry a bit of fish

in a bit of butter and stick it between two slices of fresh bread,

so I'm going to try something a little bit more ambitious.

Now, it's unbelievable to think that these Dover soles are caught,

some are caught, just literally over that harbour wall there.

But they catch other things here, too, and I've got a selection.

The king of all flatfish, really, for me, Dover sole.

I actually love this. It's my ultimate, ultimate flatfish.

But you've got plaice and lemon sole,

all of which are caught just off the headland there.

Now, what I'm going to do is like a classic meuniere sort of style,

which is a brown butter, really,

but with the addition of capers, parsley and lemon in there as well.

What I did find, when I was wandering over there, from a little shop,

I found these little fellas here, these little brown shrimps.

Now, I love these. They're often found in Morecambe.

But they're delicious and are going to go fantastically well with this.

My plan is that the bitterness of the lemon and the punch of the capers

will make the natural sweetness of my brown shrimps

and that prize Dover sole really complement each other.

First of all, you need to take the skin off.

Now, what you need is a pair of scissors

and trim off the fins.

This would have to be my last supper, really,

cos a Dover sole tastes fantastic.

Last time I had this was over in France,

literally, 70-odd miles in that direction.

This was 100 euros, this dish,

but, let's face it, what better place to have it than here?

And cheaper.

The bones in Dover sole aren't very difficult to deal with when you're eating it,

so I'm going to leave them in,

which means all I have to do is take off the fins, tail, head and skin.

This takes a bit of practice to do neatly

but your fishmonger will have loads of that,

so you could get him to do it for you.

I'm going to cook it the traditional way,

which is just a little bit of flour, first of all, and plenty of oil.

So I've got some plain flour here.

Season this up.

Salt and pepper.

And then coat our fish in the flour.

Just get rid of the excess flour.

And cook it in olive oil, this one. So plenty of oil.

We don't want to cook it in butter because butter will burn.

We use that for the sauce. This is purely to cook the fish.

So straight in hot oil.

And we cook this gently now for about three minutes on each side.

And now for the sauce for this.

So while that's cooking, we're going to make our brown butter.

So I want a little bit of shallot, just a small bit.

I'm going to finish this off with a lemon flower

and that's little Sammy over there. She's peeling a lemon with a spoon.

It's always better to get somebody else to do that, really.

It's far too fussy but the secret of it is,

we just want all the rind and the pith removed from the lemon,

so you end up just with a nice-shaped lemon.

Now, I'm going to make a nice little sauce with this.

You need some butter here.

Into a really hot pan. You can see that - hot.

Just a small amount of butter.

It is me cooking it, of course.

Throw the shallots in now.

If you throw the shallots in too early, they're going to burn.

So the butter just starts to colour, just ever so slightly.

This is what the French call beurre noisette.

It means nut-brown butter.

And when you create this, it just adds a lovely little flavour to it

and almost like a bitterness to the sauce.

And then what we can do is add our lemon.

Now, you need to be careful when you do this at home.

Keep this well away from your net curtains

because this will go everywhere, so while it's still on the heat...

lemon, straight in.

Swirl that around now in our pan.

And take a little bit of muslin...

..and pass this through.

We don't really want any of the shallots.

You can see the colour of the butter, what's happening there now.

And all those little bits.

You can see the butter's changed colour in here as well.

And then we can impart the fundamental part of this dish - the flavour.

So into the butter sauce goes a handful of capers,

parsley...

..and the shrimps.

Along with a grind of pepper and a pinch of salt.

Mix that together and then spoon it onto the delicious Dover sole

that's been so patiently waiting.

And then we've got our lemon flowers.

Which I've got over here.

When we cut the lemon, we've got this lovely flower-shaped pattern.

Then simply lay the lemon flowers

onto that superb piece of local Dover sole.

And then that's it. You've got a simple little dish

based on a classic meuniere sort of sauce,

which is this nut-brown butter that you can pour over the top.

You can almost eat this just as it is,

but you don't really want anything else.

It's got to be the ultimate flatfish

and it's right on your doorstep, just out there.

This lovely fish and the small boats that work the shallow waters here

are a good example of how we should all make the most

of the bountiful supply of great food in this country.

But I am leaving Hastings now and the county of East Sussex

to cross into Kent.

The Kentish coastline stretches right around the bottom right-hand foot of Britain,

past the iconic White Cliffs and then northwards.

Here, seafood continues to thrive

and places like Whitstable have long been famed for their world-class oysters.

But heading inland, this area offers much, much more.

And you really can see below me

the different varieties of stuff being produced down there.

There's arable farming, sheep and cattle grazing further along

and then also, directly below us, there's vegetable production.

However, what Kent is probably best-known for is its orchards.

Traditional orchards are a key part of the beauty of the Kent Downs.

The Tudors grew plums, pears and apples in Kent

some 400 years ago,

but it's thought they may have been found here long before that.

But what I've come here for are the jewels in Kent's culinary crown.

Absolute beautiful, glistening cherries on a tree like this,

picked straight off and straight out into the shop or the farm shop.

I mean, you just can't beat this time of year, can you?

For James Dallaway, cherries are in the blood.

His father planted this orchard

and now he aims to pass his passion on to others

by throwing open the gates and allowing the public to adopt a tree.

The taste is absolutely amazing

and it's such a lovely thing for families.

They can come down. We have a Blossom Weekend,

kids see the tree in bloom

and then they come back and, wow, there's cherries - amazing.

The cherry season in this country only lasts five or six weeks a year

and it really signals summer's here.

The first farmer's market of every venue of every season that you go to,

the clamour and the queue for the cherries is incredible.

It's just, "Oh, wow, we've been waiting 46 weeks for this."

And with it being the height of the picking season now,

if James thinks his vast swathes of bird netting

will keep me from his superb cherries, he's wrong.

Now, I used to love pick-your-own farms when I was a young kid

and apparently, I've got to wear this thing

and I know what you're thinking.

Just don't ask.

Michael, good to see you. I feel like I'm dressed the part, anyway.

-Is that the correct...?

-That's the kit for picking.

-That's the correct gear.

-These look fantastic. So how old are these?

-These are about 25 years old,

some of the original planting that my dad planted in the '80s.

-I assume there's hundreds of types?

-There is.

We grow about 30 or so.

This variety is called Merchant. It's the first of the English season.

And what are we looking to pick, then? What are we after?

-The deep red ones?

-Yeah, that colour's great

and with the stalks it's perfect cos they keep their freshness.

Why this area of England, then? Why is that so good for cherries?

It's traditionally known as the Garden of England.

Well, we can argue all day long - the Garden of England has got to be Yorkshire.

-My mum would agree because that's where she comes from.

-You see!

-But she's also wrong, unfortunately.

-No, your mother's always right!

-You should listen to that, you see.

-I know, I know.

Garden of England or not, one thing IS for sure -

most of the UK's wet weather is brought in from the Atlantic

on our prevailing westerly winds,

but by the time that the wind has brought rain to Wales,

Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and so on,

there's little left in the air to drop onto the South East.

In fact, Kent has just about the lowest rainfall in Britain.

-So you don't get masses of rain here?

-We don't, we don't.

We get enough to grow them and to keep the trees watered

but, you know, generally, we miss a lot of the summer rains

which cause crop devastation in cherries

because the rain splits the cherries.

Another thing appreciated by Michael's cherries is

the make up of the ground.

The tree roots spread through the free-draining chalky topsoil,

which balances acidity to the nutrient-rich clay loam below.

It's paradise for these trees.

Now, I remember when you used to go to pick-your-own farms,

you used to do a bit of...

-One for me, one for the bucket.

-Yeah.

-Are you not bored of them?

-No. I don't know how many I eat,

but probably kilos a day, I would think.

Especially when you're in the orchard all day, sorting cherries,

supervising the pickers - always got a hand in the tray.

They are something that you're not going to get bored of it.

A bit like strawberries and raspberries - you can sort of...

-It's the whole beauty...

-..you can have too many of them.

-But these...

-You just keep going. It is the whole beauty of seasonal fruit, isn't it?

That's the whole point.

Why do you want cherries in January from Chile?

Wait for the season and have them for the six weeks that they're available

when they're at their best.

I need a few more than this. I'd better keep going.

We'll be here all day, I think.

You would be! Look at the amount you've got in there.

I'm keeping my eye on the novice.

Good job you're not getting paid by the pound.

All the cherries are picked by hand here to avoid damaging them,

but as Michael's proving, it's slow work.

In fact, it takes so long, I made the mistake

of asking some of the film crew to go and get me some lunch

before I tackled my first recipe.

This, they expect me to eat.

I actually don't know what it is

and I've been involved in food for 40 of the 41 years of my life,

but they assure me this is a burger in a pasty.

So I thought I'd cook myself something for lunch.

And it's the healthy option today - trifle.

Now, there are basically two types of cherry,

the acid cherries are the ones usually used in cooking,

but we've been picking a sweet variety

and that's what I'm going to use in this.

And I'm going to stew these straight away.

So we've basically just picked these. Into a hot pan.

I'm going to use some of this lovely cherry brandy.

You could use a little bit of kirsch in there as well if you wanted

but this cherry brandy is fantastic.

And I'm just going to sweeten it slightly with some sugar.

Only about a couple of tablespoons.

What this is going to do is not just sweeten them,

but it's going to thicken up the liquid, ready for my trifle.

What we need to do is cook this for about, I'd say, ten minutes, really,

with the lid off - let them stew down.

What we end up with is what we've got over here.

So I'm just going to lose this to one side.

Get that down, cooking over there.

And we've got some of this cherry liquor,

which you can see, the juice has become nice and thick, like that.

And it's delicious. These...

..are really good now.

Great off the tree, but perfect for our trifle.

Now this is kind of like a... I'd call this a cheat's trifle, really.

It kind of cheats because it uses this stuff.

Now, this is ready-made custard

and chefs will be going, "Why didn't you make it yourself?"

But this is out of a packet. It's not the bright yellow stuff.

It's ready-made custard.

What I'm going to do is create what the French call a creme legere,

or what we call custard and cream.

It's often what's found in choux pastry and chocolate eclairs.

So for your cheat's creme legere, gently mix in

about as much lightly whipped double cream as there is custard.

And it tastes...

This is just...delicious.

You see, not everything has to be made from scratch

and really, once you crown all this with your cherries,

no-one's going to fuss about whether or not you've separated your own eggs.

And then I'm going to cheat again with this.

And what I'm going to do is use some of this Madeira cake,

which we've basically bought from a shop just down the road, there.

And just dice this up, really.

Because this is what my granny used to make a trifle,

and if it's good enough for my gran,

it's kind of good enough for me, really.

So I thought I'd use a little bit of this

and then I've made a little bit of stock syrup, here,

which is basically sugar and water brought to the boil.

And we're going to use some of this cherry brandy there.

Over the top.

Now, it wasn't until I was about 14,

when I actually found my grandmother's recipe for her sherry trifle,

and sadly, it was when she'd passed away.

Now I've realised why my auntie and my granddad fell asleep

during the Queen's Speech,

because the amount of alcohol she used to have in this was unbelievable.

But you just take the cherries like that, over the top.

And just let them soak in.

So we just allow this to infuse and then you use some of this,

this custard mixture, over the top.

And you basically build up layers.

I didn't really know what to do, to be honest.

I was on my way here, thinking, "What am I going to do with cherries,

"rather than just sort of pick them off a tree?"

But you can't beat a trifle, can you, really?

Before we top this with the cream,

I'm just going to make some caramel in here

and dip some cherries in a caramel.

So just plain caster sugar in a hot pan - nothing else.

I'm just going to instantly make a caramel.

And then for our whipped cream - no need to put any custard in this one -

I'm just going to whip it up.

You see, if this was a normal cookery show,

we'd have this done.

It's only because our director wants me to feel the sort of nature

and the outdoor space

and life, living it outdoors,

that we've got to cook without electric.

This is ridiculous. Is this single cream?

I'm going to be two more minutes. Off you go.

Right, well, we're nearly there.

Look at that.

Peaks of cream.

Now get yourself a piping bag.

Almost any plastic bag will do, as long as it's clean

and not full of holes.

Fill it up and nip off the corner

before squeezing out a pretty pattern

on the top of your trifle.

Now, the key to this is make it look like it's nice.

So think ahead, you know?

Just...

Like that. Think ahead.

You see, with cooking, chefs tell you less is more,

but with trifle, more is more.

Look at that!

I'm going to finish this off with some chocolate shavings, as well.

And then all we need to finish this off

is our cherries,

which we can dip into this liquid caramel.

Now, you could, of course, dip them in chocolate if you wanted to, but I like them in this.

It just creates a lovely glaze over the top.

These are the cherry equivalents to toffee apples.

And if you think I'm being very restrained not eating them here and now,

you're wrong - it's just that the caramel is far too hot.

So you really want to allow these to cool down

and then all we do is just lift each one off...

..to decorate our trifle.

Pop the last one on.

A cherry trifle.

Easy as that.

But remember, this is for me.

That's what the crew's going to be left to eat.

Burger in a pasty or a cheat's trifle?

With Kentish cherries in season from June through July,

I know which one I prefer.

In fact, given the choice between fresh, locally grown,

regional specialities

or their anonymous and often tasteless imported cousins,

I'll always go British.

Join me next time to see in what other ways

our varied landscape and the way we work it

combine to give us the food we love.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd