East Scotland 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 the East of Scotland.

When you think of Scotland, you may imagine soaring mountains,

vast lochs...and ancient forests.

But in the East of the country, the picture is quite different.

It's a place of low, rolling hills...

..fertile valleys...

..and, more importantly, near-perfect farmland.

It's got such fertile soil that produces some of the most amazing food the UK has to offer.

Aberdeen Angus cattle which are prized worldwide for their beef

thrive on the lush pastures here.

MOO!

The unique climate helps to create the perfect environment for growing some of the sweetest fruit

to be found in the UK.

But the defining agriculture of East Scotland is cereal crops.

The bread basket of the North,

this area is famed for its production of fine oats, wheat and barley.

And it's barley, the basic ingredient of Scotland's biggest single export,

that leads me to my first stop on my Food Map Of Britain.

So I'm on the hunt to find Scotland's smallest distillery.

And who doesn't like whisky?

Andrew Symington is the owner of Pitlochry's Edradour Distillery,

which produces 280,000 bottles of whisky each year,

using traditional hands-on methods and the produce of the local landscape.

This barley is the key ingredient in making single malt whisky,

together with water and yeast.

If there's a fourth thing, it's the cask,

and if there's a fifth thing, I'd like to think a little bit of my spirit goes into making this!

East Scotland is the perfect location for making whisky,

because barley, its main ingredient, thrives in the dry conditions here.

Parts of the region get less rain a year than Sydney or Gibraltar!

This is because much of Scotland's rain comes from the West,

most of it falling over the mountains of the Highlands

and petering out before it reaches the East.

Growing the barley may be easy, but turning it into whisky is a different story.

It's a game of patience and it takes a long time.

What you're making today, you're not going to see again for ten years.

But it's well worth the wait.

Edradour whisky is prized worldwide

and I can't wait to get my hands on some of that local nectar.

-Andrew, great to meet you.

-My pleasure.

-I found it!

-From up above, it's a tiny little sort of valley you've got here.

-It is, yeah.

-Amazing place.

It's one of the last farm facilities in Scotland where we still make whisky by hand.

So why Scotland and whisky in particular, why the connection?

I guess, well, it's always been made here for the last 500 years.

Farmers had a surplus of barley or corn and didn't know what to do with it,

so they basically illegally made little stills in the hills, and turned it into whisky.

-And what are we doing here, then?

-We've made whisky today,

so it's now time to put it in the cask where it's going to rest for a minimum of ten years

-up in our warehouse.

-So we're going to fill it now, then?

-Yeah, I'd like you to fill it for me.

-Really? OK. All right.

So this is 2013?

-You take that. It's a bit like a petrol pump here. Put that nozzle...

-In there?

-Yes. I'm going to pull this lever here and it's going to come gushing out.

-Go on, then!

It actually just looks like water.

-It's clear when it goes into the cask, absolutely clear when it comes off the still.

-Look at that!

Aside from barley, whisky's other main ingredient is natural spring water.

The rain-soaked Highlands provide a rich source of it.

In fact, Pitlochry has no less than 12 natural springs running through it.

One even runs through the distillery itself,

making this the perfect whisky-producing country.

So why whisky for you? Because you were a hotelier.

-I was at one point.

-And now you've got your own distillery.

I caught the bug, I got my own distillery.

That should be fine, yeah.

-Got it?

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Just under the edge there.

The bung.

-Once I do this bit, that's it, is it?

-That'll be in there for ten years now, yeah.

It's like being at a fairground, isn't it? Crack!

Gently.

-All right?

-Yeah, perfect.

-Can we try some of this stuff, then?

-Well, it's 70% alcohol coming off the still.

-Is it really?

-Yeah.

We've a sample of today's stuff here.

The strength is 70.3.

-73...

-70.3.

-Well, what's 3% between you or I, really?

-You're not going to ask me to drink this, are you?

-Have a little taste.

-I can't drink out of the bottle.

-You can indeed.

I won't be able to taste anything afterwards.

All the boys drink it out the bottle.

-There's a nice fruitiness coming out of it.

-Fruitiness? Mmm...

-You wouldn't want to smoke after that, would you?

-No, not too close!

-Can we taste the proper stuff?

-We can. We'll go up to the warehouse and taste some of the real stuff.

You can leave that!

Now, whisky's not just a tipple.

A splash of Scotland's finest can add a deep, rich flavour

and a real elegance to your cooking.

I want to get my hands on the very best Andrew has to offer.

So what are we tasting?

Well, we were down there filling a cask.

After ten years, this is what your cask should eventually end up like.

-So the colour basically just comes from the cask?

-From the cask, totally, yeah.

-OK.

-So it's been reduced to 40% alcohol.

Which is great, I suppose. By the way, I'm not flying after this.

The weather's so good, I'm going to stick around actually.

I'm impressed with that.

This is another whisky that's been in a normal cask for eight years

and then we put it into a special wine cask for two years.

I always add just a few drops of water, because at that strength... SPLUTTERING

-You didn't listen, did you?

-No, I didn't.

This is the perfect job, isn't it?

We also make some peated malt whisky.

Now this one's been matured for 100% of its life in a Bordeaux wine cask.

This just gets better, doesn't it, really, this.

-This is the first time that you've probably ever...

-How different is that?

Fully matured and with your bonfire ashes.

And next, what have we got?

An 18-year-old. It's got more intense after the 18 years in the cask,

and this is cask strength, it's 59% alcohol.

Now, that is pretty special.

Wow!

-Go on, then. You've saved the best till last, have you?

-Oh, yeah.

This is a 26-year-old.

It's got more intense after the heat.

This is pretty special, I have to say.

The weird thing is, the older it is, the less alcohol you taste.

-Does that make sense?

-It's more and more concentrated.

So, you know, you've got... 50% of this cask has evaporated.

So, as a Scot, you're losing... 4,000 barrels...

You're losing quite a lot in this heat, aren't you?

A lot of my money evaporating up there to the angels, yeah!

Well, there's a little bit more evaporating, because I'm going to take this away to cook with.

-Thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

-Thank you.

I've got a delicious dish planned for this prize whisky,

one that'll show off its elegant, intense flavour.

I'm going to prepare whisky-cured Scottish salmon,

served with beetroot dressing, bleenies and creme fraiche.

This place looks as spectacular on the ground than it does from up in the air.

It is an amazing place to come and visit

and produces pretty good whisky as well.

To start our salmon, what we need is a mixture of sugar, salt and whisky.

Now, the sugar is castor sugar, the salt is always generally sea salt,

and you mix the sugar and the salt together,

equal quantities of each.

Now, the reason why I use sea salt is it's much better-tasting, I think, than table salt.

You just need plenty of Clingfilm to really wrap the salmon

and to keep that whisky inside.

Put the salt and the sugar all over the surface.

Now, this method of cooking, I would call it, not curing, but cooking,

has been around for thousands of years.

It's a great method and continues to this day,

because this is actually the first part of making smoked salmon.

This has just been pin-boned.

You can take the belly off the salmon, but leave the skin on it.

And then what we do is we take some of this golden nectar...

This is the 26-year-cured whisky.

..Over the top.

And we can just finish this with this salt-and-sugar mixture.

And we're going to fold this over and wrap this together.

On to our tray.

And then pop it in the fridge.

And this needs to go in the fridge for about 24 hours...

24 hours later...

So what we need to do now is just wash it off.

So I'm just going to take it to our stream, our natural spring stream, and wash it off.

I always wanted to be Ray Mears!

Look at that! A beautiful piece of fish.

It's just fantastic. Just look at the texture and the colour of that!

Just totally changes just with salt, sugar and whisky...and time.

And really once it's cured, it'll last for a couple of weeks.

We're going to leave that to one side,

and I thought we'd serve this with a little beetroot dressing with some bleenies.

Now, to make our beetroot dressing, it's pretty straightforward, really.

What we've got is some red-wine vinegar...

You want a good smidgeon of red-wine vinegar.

And then we want some redcurrant jelly.

So you get a decent amount. It's roughly about half and half, really, for this.

And then flavour-wise all we do is add some cloves, about three or four, no more,

in there.

Then we reduce this down now by about half.

And while that's cooking, we can get on and make our bleenies.

So what you need for bleenies is some flour...

..some plain flour will do...

..a good pinch of sugar.

The same again of salt.

Some milk.

We're going to use some yeast.

Mix this together.

And you've got this lovely light batter.

So I can cover that over.

Now, ideally, you want it in a sort of warm place, really.

It will actually rise in the fridge, but about an hour later...

..we end up with this.

And this is this batter that we're looking for.

That yeast as it starts to work, it starts to bubble up

to create this mixture.

Next, I want two egg whites. Yolks into there, whites into there.

This is how you do it at home.

This is how you do it if you're Ray Mears!

Done!

Next, whisk this up.

To do this by hand, you'll need a strong arm.

When you've got the egg whites nice and firm...

..then we can fold this in, really, into the mixture.

So that's our batter.

We can leave that to one side.

Now, just to finish off this dressing, you can see the texture changes ever so slightly.

It goes from a liquid to a thick liquid, which is what we want for this.

I'm going to add now some Dijon mustard,

just a good amount of Dijon mustard, about two tablespoons of this.

Give it a little whisk.

This dressing, I cannot tell you how good it is!

It really is fantastic!

But then what's going to make this one extra special

is, of course, a little bit of whisky.

Just a touch.

I don't want to cook with it, otherwise we're going to ruin the flavour.

And then we can pass this through a sieve.

This'll get rid of the little bits of cloves in there and stuff like that.

And now with our sort of beetroot, slice it and dice it.

It's one the things that probably as a kid, a bit like a lot of ingredients, really,

I didn't really appreciate, to be honest. Like I wouldn't really eat peas when I was a young nipper.

We can remove that.

I'm going to add a little bit of salt...

..a little bit of black pepper.

I'll get my pan on for our little bleenies.

And then, what we can do...

..is add our beetroot to this.

Beetroot, it's the new trend. For me, it's the new ingredient.

To cook the bleenies, melt some butter in a pan.

You'll need a tablespoon of the batter for each one.

Spoon it in and cook it until golden brown on either side.

To be honest, I was going to do little oatcakes,

but for a Yorkshireman to come to Scotland and cook oatcakes...

I'll have more letters than washing the salmon in the river, to be honest!

Look at those little bleenies. They're lovely little puffed-up little shapes!

All I need to do now is slice the salmon thinly and I'm ready to start plating up.

So you want a decent sort of portion.

Remember we are north of Watford, you want a decent amount on the plate!

It tastes so good!

So simple to make.

Then add a spoonful of my delicious beetroot dressing and a dollop of full-fat creme fraiche.

Stack up your bleenies,

and finish the dish with a garnish of shallots and cress.

Not bad that, is it?

My whisky-cured salmon which is absolutely delicious.

There's more whisky gone into the dressing with the beetroot,

creme fraiche, homemade bleenies, and some green stuff.

Whisky is the landscape of East Scotland distilled in a bottle.

A great example of how generations of canny Scots

have taken the best this terrain has to offer

and transformed it into a world-class ingredient.

And from the wilds of whisky country,

I'm heading south down into the Strathmore Valley,

the heart of Scotland's fruit-growing region.

It's often known as the garden of Scotland

or the polytunnel palace of Scotland.

The climate and the soil of this area are the perfect match for growing soft fruit.

Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries,

and my favourite ingredient, raspberries.

These juicy little beauties are widely regarded as the national fruit of Scotland.

And those grown around the town of Blairgowrie are prized the world over for their size and flavour.

Peter Thomson owns one of the largest farms in the area.

They started growing raspberries in Blairgowrie over 120 years ago

and it's kept going since.

I think it was my great-grandfather that started growing them.

-Yes.

-We like to call it the berry capital of the world.

The history of the raspberry is a bit murky.

It probably originated in Asia,

was almost certainly eaten by cavemen

and is thought to have arrived in England in the 1600s.

What's definite is the majority of raspberries found in the UK today

are grown here in East Scotland.

Blairgowrie's just wonderful for growing raspberries because of the climate.

Raspberries need constant cool temperature and plenty of sunshine to thrive.

This area lies so far north that summer temperatures never get high,

but in winter the warming Gulf Stream prevents them from dropping too low.

It's also the sunniest part of Scotland,

so the fruit gets extra hours of gentle sunshine to ripen slowly and fully on the vine.

The end result - big, succulent raspberries.

They've got a wonderful flavour.

You just have to go straight back and eat another, they're so good.

I think I probably eat half a kilo every day during the season,

so over 100 days that's a lot of raspberries.

It's a good job!

I better get in there before Peter eats them all!

-Hello, Peter. Good to see you.

-Good morning.

-They're looking great!

-Yes, the raspberries are at perfection.

-Look at these!

-They're such a wonderful fruit. They're really healthy for you.

They're about as healthy a fruit as you can eat.

Now, flying over here, literally there's polytunnels everywhere.

The main reason for the polytunnel is to keep the rain off,

because that lets mould into the raspberries, and so we can spray a lot less,

and they'll just be in much better condition.

Why Scotland and raspberries, then? Because you've got a mixture of sun, rain... Is this perfect for it?

It is, yes. We think so.

Raspberries need a compromise. They need some light and enough warmth,

but they don't need to much warmth, and they need some rain but not too much rain.

So if you go to the West Coast of Scotland,

it was always too wet to grow them there.

If you go to the South of England, it's really too hot.

Tell me about it! Because the raspberry plants that I grow are not this sort of size as well!

The main thing that raspberries really like is the soil around here.

The slightly acidic soil of the East Lowlands provides ideal conditions for the raspberries to thrive.

This area in particular is prime berry-growing territory,

because back in the 1700s local monks drained the peat bogs

to create fertile dry land.

And there's nothing raspberries like better!

-Scottish raspberries really stand apart.

-Mm-hm.

-Size and flavour.

-And the flavour, yes.

Well, I think the flavour is the one that we really do perfectly, wonderful to eat.

Now, when I was a kid, it used to be sort of two for me, one for the pot. Is that right?

Yes, well, if you picked them all day, you might get just a bit full,

not fed up of them, but a bit full, so you can't eat any more.

-How do you eat yours, then?

-Well, I eat a lot just in the fields.

I've got to go round testing them, you know, so...

-You've got a hard life, haven't you?

-I've got a hard life.

-And I also eat them on my porridge in the morning.

-Do you?

They're beautiful just added to the porridge.

-Typically Scottish breakfast.

-Yes, that does sound very Scottish, doesn't it?

Well, you can't beat these. Just look at that!

Just a massive fresh raspberry picked off the vine.

One for me. We'll keep going.

Delicious. These really are world-prize raspberries,

bursting with an intense juicy flavour.

Now, if it was down to me, I would just basically serve a bowl of these with a scoop of ice cream

and then go down the pub!

But the team here said, "You've got to do something a little more elaborate."

So I found the perfect compromise.

I'm going to make a cream pannacotta with freshly picked Scottish raspberries,

miniature sugared doughnuts and a raspberry sauce.

First of all we've got 500 grams of strong bread flour.

It's really important that you use strong flour for this.

And then we add some sugar.

A little pinch of salt.

We need two packs of this dried yeast.

You can of course use fresh yeast.

Some water, not too much at first.

Some butter.

And then two eggs...

Mix it by hand and then add the milk...

..so you can mix in all that butter.

This is what we call an enriched yeast dough.

The first thing you do when you mix it all together...

put it on to a surface...

and you can see the texture's very different to sort of a bread dough.

It's used for sort of cinnamon buns, Danish pastries...

it's exactly the same dough as that.

Don't be put off. Homemade doughnuts are really easy to make

and there's nothing nicer.

Give the dough as good kneed for about two minutes,

and then set it to one side to rest and double in size.

At room temperature, this normally takes about an hour,

but today there's be no messing.

Underneath this polytunnel, this will happen quite quickly, to be honest.

We'll just cover this over with a cloth,

and then turn our attention to the sauce.

Now, I'm just going to take the fresh raspberries like this.

I'm going to pass them through a sieve.

Now, you can put these in a blender.

You just want to get all the nice, fresh flavour.

Ideally using a better sieve than what I've got.

This thing is so prehistoric it should be on the Antiques Roadshow.

You press the raspberries through the sieve to get rid of the seeds,

but you get this lovely juice.

And then that is what we're looking for.

100% flavour. No sugar, no lemon, nothing.

It's just the flavour of the raspberries.

And then to make our pannacotta, you wouldn't believe how easy it is.

We need some gelatine.

Now, what we're going to do is put it in cold water to soften first of all.

And then we can warm our cream.

This is just 100% double cream.

In here.

I'm going to add some sugar.

You can flavour this with whatever you want.

A little bit of vanilla, some raspberries...

vodka, gin...

You could even put a little bit of whisky, if you wanted to.

Whatever floats your boat, really.

You don't really want to boil it, just to warm it.

Next, add the softened gelatine and mix it in until it dissolves.

Then add the remainder of the cream.

And that's it.

That's kind of pannacotta done, you won't believe how easy it is.

Get the little moulds here, and we can fill this.

Like that...fill the other one.

Nice and full.

And then just finish this with some of these fresh raspberries.

Just put three or four in each one.

So when you cut into it, that way you get some nice raspberries.

Now, in the magic of television, this is now going to go into the fridge...

I don't know where it is, but it's going to go into a fridge.

Finally, we need to finish our doughnuts.

Slice the dough and roll it into a sausage.

And then cut into small pieces and mould into little balls.

It's proper hot here, I cannot tell you.

There's stuff flying around here that I've never seen before.

BUZZING

Look! That one. It's like Jurassic Park!

Once you've made enough doughnuts, scoop them up and drop them into a pan of hot oil.

Deep-fat fry for three to four minutes, until golden brown.

I was actually fortunate enough a couple of years ago

to visit one of the oldest doughnut shops in America, quite a fascinating place,

but what even more fascinating was the family that owned it.

There was about six of them, and I think they had about one tooth shared between all six of them.

Because of this!

I think they lived on them all the time.

Doughnuts, they are fantastic, I have to say.

We can lift these out now.

These are about ready.

When they come out of the oil, just a little bit of kitchen paper and then grab some sugar.

This is where you can put the cinnamon on the sugar, anything like that,

nutmeg if you wanted to, but just some sugar while they're still warm...

..sort of roll them around in the sugar.

There's something about warm doughnuts that I just can't resist really, but...

They're great!

They're hot!

Right, the pannacottas are out the fridge...

These fellows over here.

Now, ideally, you want some hot water,

but in this heat the warmth of your hands should be enough.

To plate up, simply turn out your pannacotta,

drizzle on your sauce

and add the delicious miniature sugared doughnuts.

I'm going to grab some of these fantastic raspberries.

This is really the key to this recipe, and this is what makes this area so special.

There's no other place in the world, I don't think, that produces raspberries this good.

They really are just terrific.

As a final touch to complement the creaminess of the pannacotta,

add a few leaves of mint.

That is really delicious.

And also the doughnuts are not bad either!

The Scottish raspberry, a world-class fruit,

whose quality is down to the distinct environment in which it grows.

A classic example of the feast of wonderful food

the varied landscape of the British Isles puts on our table.

Some serious bugs in here!

Join me next time when I'll be showing you how to find and cook

more of what this amazing land has to offer.

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