Gloucester and the Cotswolds 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've taken to the skies to show you how this land

has influenced our larders.

On my journey round the UK,

I'm going to be meeting the people

who work this ever-changing landscape...

..revealing how this terrain

has served up some of the country's best regional ingredients.

It tastes 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 Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds.

With its rolling hills, gentle lush farmland

and picture-perfect villages,

there are few parts of the country that can rival this region

for its quintessential Englishness.

Quaint, yes.

But boring in terms of food, definitely not.

This area is blessed with such a varied and exceptional bounty

of fantastic ingredients.

Gloucestershire is famed for its cheeses.

The comically named Stinking Bishop hails from this county,

made entirely from the milk of Gloucester cattle.

And what about the Gloucestershire Old Spot pig,

traditionally bred in local orchards for its succulent meat?

From the air, it's hard to ignore the patchwork of fields,

adding wheat, barley for local beers,

and seasonal asparagus to this already fertile larder.

But the icing on the cake is the mighty River Severn,

which dissects this beautiful landscape.

At 219 miles, it's Britain's longest river,

and with a tidal range from the Bristol Channel to Gloucester,

it provides another source of culinary delights

for those who are prepared to put the effort in.

One of the most unusual ingredients in this neck of the woods,

one of the ingredients as a chef we look forward to,

is wild salmon.

This magnificent fish returns every year to breed in the Severn.

With its fast-running water, extreme tides

and shallow gravel beds,

it's the perfect spawning ground.

And one man who uses an ancient method to catch

this rare and wonderful bounty is local fisherman John Powell.

We think Severn salmon are absolutely superb, and quite easily the best.

John uses a putcher rank -

a 13th-century fishing technique using woven baskets.

And only he and two others

have the right to catch wild salmon in this way.

My good friend Eric Jackson, who lives down in the village,

is a master of putcher-making.

His family have been involved in making these baskets

for around 200 years.

A putcher is a conical four-foot trap,

woven from hazel and willow.

It's wide at one end and narrow at the other,

so once caught, the fish can't escape.

Cos you can guarantee,

the salmon, if there's a gap, he will find it.

These wooden putchers last about two seasons,

after which they have to be replaced.

But they're very, very efficient.

I can see no reason why we should really want metal putchers

when we can still use wooden ones.

They don't mark the fish so badly.

Now, I'm looking forward to this.

But firstly...I've got to wear these.

It's literally 32 degrees out here. I'm sweating.

And wearing rubber...

is not what I had in mind this morning.

Well, that's snug.

If I don't come back,

I've enjoyed it. I've had a wonderful life...

This is ridiculous!

-John!

-James.

-I made it.

-Very nice to see you.

-Good to see you.

I've got a nice surprise for you.

I mean, looking around, there's just you.

You're right. The last man standing!

Why? Is that because of trial and...?

Is it difficult? It's got to be quite treacherous, really.

Things have changed. People have changed.

If you have a rank of putchers like this,

you have to fish it twice a day, round the clock.

For instance, I shall be back here in the morning at 3.30.

3.30 in the morning?!

It's not everybody's cup of tea.

Why do you do it, then?

It's part of my way of life.

Do you have a wife and TV at home?

I do have a wife, yeah.

-What does your wife say?

-She says the Severn is my mistress.

She's right. I spend more time in the river than I do with her!

But it's really, really nice to be here.

It is actually quite dangerous, isn't it?

The water's come up three, four inches.

Indeed, yeah.

The River Severn's fast-running high tides

make it ideal for putcher-fishing.

As the water rises, it covers the rank,

salmon get trapped, and because they can't reverse,

they get stuck.

That's a sea bass.

-So you get sea bass in here?

-Yes, we get sea bass, mullet.

Mostly we're after fish.

In the Severn, if you refer to "fish", you refer to salmon.

Now, when I think of wild salmon, you think of Scottish wild salmon.

Not the River Severn. So what makes yours so special?

The fish come straight out of the sea.

The fish we catch today

will have been in the Bristol Channel yesterday,

and the day before that, they'd have been in the Irish Sea.

They're now with us.

You can't get fish any fresher.

Now, I've got one eye looking that way and one eye looking this way.

-Because the River Severn's famous for the Severn bore.

-It is indeed.

A huge surge of water is funnelled up the river

on the spring tides, creating a wave or bore,

which has no effect on the fish,

but is a real challenge for the fishermen.

It creates huge problems for us.

We've lost the inside of this rank of putchers.

They should be to the shore,

but the last Severn bore knocked the baskets out.

-So we've got to rebuild that one.

-When is the next one?

-Wednesday.

-Wednesday?

-Yes.

I'm looking at my watch!

So we're all right?

If you come with me, I've got something very special for you.

Armbands.

-What would you like - bass?

-Just give me the pot!

Yes.

-We've got bass...

-I'll take anything.

Bass, salmon, anything you want.

The greatest prize of all - the king of fish.

-The Severn salmon.

-This is the wild salmon?

-This is the wild salmon.

Would you like to reach in? You've got longer arms than me.

When do you think this went in the net - last night?

This one went in early this morning.

-Here we are, James.

-A River Severn salmon - look at that!

-It needs to be slipped.

-What are you doing now?

I'm slipping it so we can carry it out of the water.

You've done that before, haven't you?

-Just once or twice!

-Just once or twice.

I notice you're doing that and you've got one eye out upstream.

-Is that because...?

-I like to know what time the tide's due back.

If you could carry that one, I'll go and fetch the other fish.

I will do that. How long will you be?

-An hour.

-An hour. That gives me an hour to get back.

Running.

Take care!

So that should give me just enough time

to prepare a simple, seasonal dish

to do justice to this majestic fish.

For me, it would be absolute sacrilege

to do anything other than poach wild salmon.

Because this is really, to me, the king of all fish.

And one ingredient that really goes well with it

and is in season right at the same time as wild salmon

is asparagus.

I'm going to do a classic dish

of poached wild salmon, asparagus and a classic hollandaise sauce.

But first thing, I need to make my little court bouillon.

Because this is a big fish,

we need a big fish kettle.

And you always start in cold water for this.

So we put plenty of water in.

You need enough to cover the fish, ideally.

Then what we need to do is get a selection of vegetables.

We need a bit of leek, which we can chop up.

Some fennel.

You can rough-chop it, really.

You can use onions or shallots.

You can even, to be honest,

cut it with the skins on, straight the way through, if you wanted to.

We've got carrots.

Throw them in.

Little bit of lemon.

Cut that in half.

Then what we're going to do is make a classic bouquet garni,

which sounds more elaborate than it really is.

Often when you buy them, they're in a sort of teabag,

which is a mixture of different herbs.

So with my fish kettle on, I'm going to make a brew

by adding a bundle of bay leaves, parsley, tarragon and thyme.

These aromatic herbs will gently infuse with the salmon

to complement its delicate taste.

So when you've got these bouquet garnis ready,

just pop them in the water.

But before I get my hands on that fish,

I quickly need to finish the stock.

And for added flavour,

a handful of black peppercorns.

And then finally...

white wine vinegar.

What the vinegar and lemon will do is really set the fish.

And then we really need to prepare our salmon.

So this has kindly been gutted for me.

Now, for this, you need proper scaling tools, ideally.

Now, what you need to do is work from the tail

down to the head.

And there's no way of doing this other than just get stuck in

and dive in and really scrape...

..the scales off.

And of course your fisherman or fishmonger

will be able to do this for you.

And it's really when you wash it off

with fresh water,

you can see how amazing this fish is. Just look at that!

I'm not a fisherman,

but you've got to love this place

and you've got to love England

to think that that comes out of there.

It's just an amazing creature, innit, really?

Beautiful.

Now, I've got to get up.

I said to the producer,

I said that I was a size 10 in waders,

not a woman's size 10 in waders, so I can't actually get up

other than...

rolling this way.

It needs a little bit of room down with me here.

Just pop him in there.

Like that.

And just let him just cook

in there, like that.

With the lemon, all the veg.

Get the heat on now.

For perfectly poached salmon,

simply bring it to the boil.

Next, concentrate on this hollandaise.

What I'm going to do is just put the butter in the pan.

You cannot make this with margarine

or olive oil, anything like that.

It's got to be full-on butter.

Two blocks of butter in here.

And what we're going to do is clarify this.

It's to actually separate the salts. We need to get rid of those,

and to get rid of those,

we bring it to the boil and just gently cook it, gently simmer it

for about two minutes, leave it to one side and let it cool.

And that way, it's perfect for our hollandaise.

So I think this is boiling now, so what we need to do is double-check.

You can smell all those lovely flavours in here,

which is going to infuse into this wild salmon.

The most important thing is, we don't want to overcook it,

so as soon as it comes to the boil - from cold water, that is -

turn the heat off.

That should be ready in about five or ten minutes.

And that's it. You just leave it.

Now the butter is boiled,

it can clarify and separate as it cools,

ready for the hollandaise.

But first, I've got the tricky bit -

hand-whisking three egg yolks over a pan of hot water.

This is not the classic way of doing a hollandaise.

Normally you'd make a reduction with shallots,

little bit of white wine, white wine vinegar.

And use that with a few white peppercorns

to flavour our hollandaise,

but this is kind of the quick way.

The texture's starting to change on the egg yolks.

This is what we're really looking for

before we add the butter.

Slightly cooked.

Not overcooked, or they start to separate and split.

You can tell that when it actually starts to stick to the edges.

It means it's cooking too much.

We can take this to one side

and then we can pour this mixture.

Now, we only take the top part of the butter.

Gradually...

we add this to the egg yolks.

I normally give it to somebody else in my restaurant kitchen to do.

Nowadays, we've got machines to do it now.

Mine's called Jason. He's 18 years old.

We can add a touch of vinegar now. Just a tiny bit.

It'll give it a little kick.

Salt.

That's it.

Now for the perfect accompaniment to wild salmon -

fresh local asparagus,

just dropped into boiling water for a couple of minutes.

So with new-season asparagus like this,

you want to only cook it

for no more than a couple of minutes, if that.

Just drain off the water.

So I'm just going to finish this...

..just with some of this butter...

..over the top.

Grab our plate

and put the asparagus on the plate.

You can lift it out as it is. Be really careful.

You don't want to break the fish, really.

Don't worry about all the veg.

Look at that.

You've got this beautiful piece of fish.

Just simply cooked.

It should just peel off, like that...

..to reveal this beautiful flesh.

Now, it's a totally different taste,

wild salmon, to farmed salmon.

You've got to try it to understand

why chefs harp on about it so much,

and, to be honest, why it costs what it costs.

The flavour is so much better.

Nothing too fancy.

Just chunks of fish.

Nothing better, really, than...

serving a big fish like this at the table.

And then...

just a dollop of this on the side.

What more do you want? You've got English asparagus,

hollandaise sauce,

and poached wild salmon.

It doesn't get any better, does it?

Amazing place.

Wild salmon really is the king of fish.

Cooked simply, with these classic accompaniments,

it's a mouth-watering treat.

But when delivered from the putcher to the plate

within a matter of hours,

next to the majestic River Severn,

you can't beat it.

From the river to the hills.

I'm heading inland to the region's arable heartland.

Now, the Cotswolds may be an area of outstanding natural beauty,

but it's also an area of fantastic agriculture.

As you travel north, the soil changes

from a shallow limestone base to a deeper loam clay,

which is perfect for growing cereal crops like wheat and barley.

And thanks to its sheltered climate,

this fertile soil also produces a wide range

of Britain's fruit and veg.

So far most of the produce I've seen on my food journey

thrive in specific regions,

but the crop I'm interested in today is happy to grow almost anywhere.

Rather than being shaped by the landscape, in recent years,

it's actually transformed the look of our countryside.

Oilseed rape is mostly used for cattle feed and bio-fuel

and has seen its production leap by 250% since the 1980s.

But obviously, I wouldn't be here unless I could eat it.

This area's filled with yellow fields,

producing oil, and that's rapeseed oil.

So I've come to the Cotswolds to accept a challenge.

I believe that Yorkshire produces some of the best rapeseed oil,

but there's a guy down here that thinks differently.

Charlie Beldam is from a third-generation Cotswolds farming family,

and he's passionate about the business.

But this young farmer hasn't let the grass grow under his feet.

While still at agricultural college,

he revolutionised the way his family farm oilseed rape.

For the last three years, we've been making extra-virgin rapeseed oil.

And while these yellow fields are good for the land,

as they help prevent disease and soil erosion,

the golden oil they produce is rich in omega-3

and low in saturated fat,

making it great for us as well.

You can use it for salad dressings, home-made mayonnaise,

stir-frying, wok cooking, shallow frying.

So it's got fantastic versatility.

Well, we're all agreed it's a fabulous ingredient,

but surely Yorkshire's is best?

With James being a Yorkshireman,

it'll be interesting to see what he has to say.

So I think the challenge is on.

-Hi there, Charlie.

-Hi, James.

-How are you doing?

-Good, thanks.

-Tending your crop.

-We are indeed.

Now, when I think of rapeseed oil,

I think of this beautiful yellow, golden colour,

which produces amazing dressings,

-but you don't actually use the flowers, do you?

-No.

The best way of describing a rapeseed plant

is a bit like an apple tree.

You get the fruit after the flower.

So everything's in flower at the moment.

These are all dropping away.

And as you can see in here,

we've got these pods.

And they're just starting to thicken up.

They're kind of like French beans, these.

They are. So you can see the seeds in here.

In the next couple of months, this will swell.

The seeds will actually turn black. They'll swell and fill with oil.

And that's our raw ingredient, so that's what we cold-press

to make the glorious oil.

How many bottles will be produced out of this five-acre plot?

We'd hope to get about 2,500 bottles from a field about this big.

-It's a lot.

-It is.

Apparently, someone counted

and there's 200,000 little black seeds in half a litre.

-You've got too much time on your hands!

-I know.

-Can we see it being made?

-We can. Let's go and have a look.

So this is the raw product.

So, from the yellow flowers that we've just had, these may be black...

..but when we crush into them, you'll see the yellow that's come through.

Straight away, yeah.

SO this is really what we're doing,

but on a bigger scale.

So you've got the yellow pods.

If I took that away, you'd see we've got a bit of oil left on that.

So in this is 46% oil,

and we aim to get about 30% of the oil out of these seeds.

We've got a screw that is pressing it along.

All this section is cold.

And that is where the oil is being extracted.

We fill one of these containers.

We'll then siphon that off and pump it through some filters.

At this point, nothing added, but nothing taken away.

So you get that amazing goldness.

And then it's ready for bottling.

-And that's it?

-And that's it.

-Fantastic.

I suppose we're going to taste it, then?

Much like good wine,

the oil's flavour and colour depends on the seed variety,

the region and climate in which it's produced,

and its harvest time.

We're testing a selection of oils

from right across the UK.

Different colours, straight away.

Big difference.

I think this is where, hopefully, my oil will shine through.

Go on, then. Let's go to Hampshire first.

Let's do it.

Hampshire's much more yellow.

The first thing you notice is it's not as peppery as olive oil.

It's totally unique, totally different taste.

-It doesn't leave a film over the mouth.

-It's clean.

-It is.

Now for the Devon.

-A very different flavour.

-Yeah.

Go on, then. Shall we try yours?

Let's see.

You're safe so far.

It's a light oil.

It's got a very nutty flavour to it.

Of course, I'm going to say that wins before I try the others!

Out of the three so far, I would say that was...

-The colour is definitely there.

-The colour's there.

There's a little bit of nuttiness to it, but you get a longer flavour.

The flavour holds in your palate a little bit more.

-Shall we go to Scotland then?

-Let's do it.

See if the Scots can make it as good as you guys.

Nice, but...

-It's a completely different taste.

-Totally different, isn't it?

Let's try the last one, where I'm sure you'll be a bit biased.

What, God's own country? Go on, then!

Pretty similar to ours, I'd say.

I'm not saying this from being here,

because I wanted a genuine taste test,

but, you know, the balance

seems to be more with you, really, I suppose.

In terms of the pepperiness...

It lingers in the mouth a little bit longer.

-Thank you. That's what we like to hear!

-So am I cooking with this?

I think so.

I'm also cooking with this!

And the dish I've picked

perfectly demonstrates the versatility of this beautiful oil.

I'll be using it to deep-fry some Spanish croquetas

and to add a real depth of flavour and a dash of gold colour

to a dipping mayonnaise.

To make this, first of all, we need about 75g of butter.

That's going to go straight in the pan.

Now, the idea of this is you create quite a thick roux.

Now, unlike croquettes we're so used to in the UK,

which are potato-based,

this one is actually sauce-based.

Melt the butter.

Throw the flour in.

It actually doesn't all come together,

because there's so much flour added to it.

So just cook this a little bit.

No more than that. Then we can start adding our milk.

Just cold milk, straight in.

Don't add too much.

What you want to do is just cook this slightly.

If you add this quite quickly, it'll go lumpy.

Once you get to this stage,

it's advisable just to swap the wooden spoon.

It's a good tip if you're actually making a white sauce as well.

This is a way of cheating.

Very quickly, it will start to come together as this paste.

But it will become very thick.

It's unlike a traditional white sauce,

where you want it quite smooth.

We're just bringing this all together.

If you wonder why I'm doing this and not something traditionally British,

I was actually in Spain last week.

I just couldn't resist this, because they have it with a mayonnaise

and I thought it would be perfect

if I make the mayonnaise with this lovely rapeseed oil,

but also, because the oil is so good, I can deep-fry these in it.

You're just bringing this together now. You can see the texture of it.

So we can turn the heat off now.

I've got some...Serrano ham.

Now, this stuff is delicious.

Spain is so famous for its pork and its ham.

But then we've got to use this.

This is Gloucester Old Spot ham.

This famous pig from around this neck of the woods.

We're just going to add a little bit of parsley to this.

Really for a little bit of colour and flavour, of course.

Throw that in.

Seasoning-wise...

black pepper. It's really important to season it properly at this stage.

And salt.

You do need quite a bit of salt with this.

Then just at the end, I've got some breadcrumbs.

This is going to bind it all together.

And then just mix.

This is the sort of texture that you're looking for.

It wants to be soft in the middle.

So once we get to that stage...

..take it and pop it into our bowl.

Let this go nice and cold.

So while that's cooling down,

I thought I'd make some mayonnaise, using some of this.

I'd better use the right one,

otherwise he'll tell me off.

You get this beautiful colour.

You can see that colour -

beautiful yellow colour.

That's going to turn our mayonnaise into the same colour.

And you get a great flavour from this as well.

Use really good, organic eggs.

Just two or three eggs, really.

To start with.

So we add just a tiny little bit of English mustard.

Then really start this with a whisk.

The idea being that you emulsify

the oil with the egg yolks.

And you do that by adding it just nice and gently at first.

If the oil's added too quick,

it'll split and separate.

You can see now it's getting thicker.

And I'm getting more knackered!

Tiny bit of white wine vinegar just at the end.

And then some garlic.

Quick mix.

Touch of black pepper.

And some salt.

And there you have it - a quick and simple mayonnaise,

done with rapeseed oil.

I need a new arm!

Now we can get ready for deep-fat frying.

And this is where this particular oil is so good.

We've got to deep-fry in the Yorkshire one, really.

I didn't really want to upset Charlie.

We'll actually use a little bit of his oil as well.

Just a touch. Then we can take our cooled mixture.

It is actually quite sticky.

But we need it sticky.

Don't forget, when we cook it...

..it actually melts again.

So we mould these into nice little croquettes.

There'll be people watching this in their little villas over in Spain,

thinking, "That's not right. Ours are much smaller."

I'm a Yorkshireman, right? This is a Yorkshire portion.

We call this a canape where I come from.

None of that piddly little tapas stuff.

Proper size.

To ensure you seal in all those delicious flavours,

dip the croquettes into flour, egg and breadcrumbs

and then drop them into the golden oil,

making sure the oil is really hot.

That way, the outside, you'll get the crunch

and the inside will stay soft.

Get some of this lovely yellow mayonnaise...

It's amazing you get the colour just from the seeds.

And of course

you've got these ham croquetas.

When you break it...

..you get that sort of texture

that you can then dunk in the mayonnaise.

And eat!

It's classically Spanish.

We're in Gloucestershire.

Cotswolds oil,

cooked by a Yorkshireman.

Confused?

So am I. But who needs Spain? You've got it right here. Look at it.

Although it's a Spanish dish,

it's infused with the colour and taste of the Cotswolds.

From the deep yellow mayonnaise

to the golden brown ham croquette,

it truly reflects the landscape in which it was cooked.

My food journey today has taken me from the majestic River Severn

to the golden fields of the Cotswolds

and offered such treats

as rich-tasting fresh wild salmon

and the nutty, full-flavoured rapeseed oil.

To find out what the landscape has to offer next time,

join me as I continue my food map of Britain.

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