South Coast James Martin's Food Map of Britain

Two of my 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 round the UK, I'm going to be meeting the people

who work this ever-changing landscape.

And revealing how this terrain has served up

some of the country's best regional ingredients.

I think this is so good.

And I'll be sharing some great recipes that showcase

this amazing land that puts such wonderful food on our tables.

Today, I'm heading to the south coast.

ENGINE ROARS

The south coast is a beautiful and varied landscape.

With low rainfall and more sunshine than the rest of the British Isles,

this area is my Mediterranean.

And what's amazing is that the climate and landscape

produces some incredible food that rival what's found on the Continent.

Springs at the foot of the rolling chalk downs provide

the ideal environment to grow peppery watercress.

Clear rivers cutting through the lush plains

are the perfect place to find delicious trout.

And the nutrient-rich sea is home to some of the finest seafood.

Including Poole Bay mackerel and Lyme Bay scallops.

The first ingredient I'm here to discover,

you'd be more likely to associate with Italy.

I'm heading inland to see if I can track it down.

Hampshire is Britain's most heavily-wooded region,

with more than 20% of the county covered in woodland.

And it's home to a real foodie gem, the truffle.

A truffle is a fungus.

They grow in well-drained soil alongside the tree roots

in areas with little undergrowth.

They are notoriously difficult to find.

But one woman who's learned to read the woodland

and to extract this culinary treasure from it is Marion Dean.

Think of the truffle as the best condiment

Mother Nature ever invented, and you're there.

But she'd never be able to find a truffle

without the help of her trusty hound, Mufti.

His acute sense of smell can easily detect the fungus's pungent aroma.

Dogs are so good at snuffling out these black diamonds

that Marion has dedicated her life to running a truffle hunting school.

All you need is any breed of dog that is biddable and eager to please,

and we can turn it into a truffle hound.

I've arranged to meet Marion in a secret wooded location

in the south coast countryside.

I think she's got her work cut out, because I've brought my dog with me.

This is Fudge, he's 10 years old, he is an English Clumber Spaniel.

And the only truffle that he knows is probably coated in chocolate.

Now, some people love truffles.

Some people hate it, mainly because of the strength of flavour.

And, of course, classically, they're from France or Italy.

But, here, in the UK, they're grown all over

in woodlands just like this. And this area is extra special.

Somewhere in here, hopefully, we should be able to find one.

Fudge!

The odds are stacked in our favour, as this is a beech wood.

And beech trees are the most generous truffle hosts in the UK.

If the woodlands are well-managed,

they should provide just enough light and have little undergrowth,

so the perfect environment for the truffle to grow.

-Marion.

-Hi, James.

-Good to see you.

-How are you?

-Very well, thanks. And you?

This is Fudge. He's 10 years old, Clumber Spaniel.

-Good luck!

-THEY LAUGH

-That's all I've got to say! Because I think you might need it.

-Right.

How do you train him, then?

The easiest way to train a novice dog

is to let it watch an experienced dog.

If we find a truffle, he sees Mufti being rewarded.

-And then we ask him to join in.

-OK.

-Mufti! Come.

Come on.

Working.

Truffles!

Working. Truffle.

Truffle.

Decided to get up now, have you?

So, what happens when she finds one?

She's been taught to indicate by lying down.

She's not allowed to dig the truffle up,

and she's not allowed to eat the truffle up.

-She leaves those jobs for me.

-OK, then.

Found one? Found one!

-How good is that, look at that!

-Wait.

She's so excited. Wait.

-Using very carefully the blunt end.

-Right.

Mufti, touch.

-That's it.

-Where?

-That's it, there.

-Feel it.

-That's it.

-It's a beechmast, keep going.

-What's this?

Clever!

Clever! He's done it.

-A tiny one.

-It's a tiny one.

-It's not quite big enough for lunch.

-Right.

It's not going to feed many people, that one, but it is a truffle.

Look at that! A black truffle in Hampshire.

Yes, look at that!

Don't come in here and claim the glory. Not now.

It may be only small,

but, like Marion, I can appreciate its fine qualities.

-The summer truffle is quite a delicate flavour.

-Yep.

It's a cross between condensed mushroom soup and hazelnuts.

You're really selling it now, aren't you(?)

Condensed mushroom soup? How do you use yours?

I like them very simply.

Sometimes potato mash with venison. I sell my soul for that.

Is that simply venison with potato mash?

This recipe I've got to cook next, look at that.

I was thinking scrambled eggs and a few truffles on the top.

We only found one. Unfortunately, Fudge just wasn't up to scratch.

Luckily, Marion had a secret stash Mufti had already sniffed out.

So, let the cooking commence.

The rich flavour of forest truffle chicken

embraces the essence of the woodland.

Earthy and rustic, it's a simple, tasty dish

which can be made at home.

It is a classic combination of truffles, lardons, onions,

mushrooms as well.

So, basically, incorporate all this lot together.

First thing I'm doing to do is portion our chicken.

A chicken's kindly got four pieces of dark meat,

four pieces of white meat.

That's why it is supposed to serve four people.

We're going to break this down to make it easier for our pot.

You've got a plate full of meat.

And, hopefully, an empty carcass that's great for stocks.

However, this is the magic of TV.

Look at that, it just disappears. It's brilliant, isn't it?

I need to wash my hands.

It's really important when handling raw chicken not to spread bacteria.

And, to be honest, I don't want to poison the crew.

I need to impart some colour on this,

the colour is quite important. That's going to colour our stew.

A little bit of oil in the pan.

And then, basically, just put the chicken in.

Then, while the chicken's frying, I'll pop in these lardons.

Ensure that they're dry cured for the fullest flavour.

This is definitely not a delicate dish. It hardly needs any prep.

Just throw everything in to give it a hearty, rustic feel.

Skin on. Bang, in!

Once the spring onions, shallots, garlic,

lardons and chicken have all browned, combine them.

Just pan-frying these pieces of chicken in here. Looking good.

This is really the taste of the forest.

But the secret of this, really, is to make a simple little sauce.

So we can take our mushrooms.

In we go with our trompettes, girolles.

You don't have to use these fancy mushrooms. Any variety will do.

We cook this just with a little butter, of course.

For about a couple of minutes.

A little bit of Madeira in there. Flame it.

Like that, just to burn off the excess alcohol.

Some stock.

And then, some cream.

You almost just want to eat it as it is. And then, tarragon.

Tarragon's quite a strong herb,

but one that goes really well with chicken and mushrooms and truffle.

Salt and pepper.

And then what we need to do is pour the whole lot onto our chicken.

We're just going to gently simmer this for about 15 to 20 minutes,

just to cook the chicken.

The most important ingredient is the truffle.

Taking on the character of its surroundings,

it's this little gem which really adds to the woodland taste.

Their flavour is so unique and delicate,

you need to savour it in its purest form.

So I'm going to use it as a garnish.

If you find one of these truffles,

you've got to know how to prepare it.

What I use is a little bit of cold water.

I learned this trick in France.

Also in France, I got one of these little truffle brushes and knives.

Basically, get rid of the major part of the soil, first of all,

That's the key to this. Then, lose the knife.

You basically just brush off the dirt. You can see that.

It's a bit like gold, I suppose, really.

You get rid of the dirt and you end up with this treasure underneath

which is so highly prized by chefs and people around the world.

Look at that.

You cannot tell me that that is not good.

But really, the key to this is what's hidden inside.

And the smell you get.

Now, this is a summer truffle.

Look at the texture of that.

It smells delicious. I know it's going to taste delicious.

Because our stew is ready.

Just bring this across.

This has been cooking for about 20 minutes just on a gentle simmer.

If you want to cook this in the oven,

cook it for the same amount of time as well.

So, you've got the bit of the white meat and a bit of the dark meat.

And then, of course, you've got this fantastic sauce to serve with it.

With all these lovely mushrooms.

This is not fancy. This is really the taste of the surroundings.

The magic is the truffle in the end.

Now, normally, as a chef, I would have stopped.

But I'm going to keep going...

..and just put more of this on.

A tribute to these ancient forests.

This casserole is easy to make, yet a delicious feast.

And to think you can actually find nature's black diamonds

hiding right here.

This is what it's all about.

Rustic cooking with fresh, English summer truffles.

Does life get any better?

I don't think it does, to be honest.

ENGINE ROARS

And from the forests of the south coast,

over the sea to the bountiful Isle of Wight.

Its chalky landscape is similar to the mainland.

But there's one thing that sets it apart.

Because it's further south,

it's sunnier than anywhere else in the UK.

Making it a unique and generous growing environment.

With its Mediterranean climate and fresh, tasty produce,

this island is like a tiny piece of Italy.

It's thought that the Normans had vineyards here.

Today, it's one of the main garlic producers of the UK.

The soil here is so fertile, it's been farmed for around 2,000 years.

12 varieties of garlic are grown here.

Benefiting from the chalky land and the huge amounts of sunshine.

The garlic is beyond measure and packs such a punch,

it's even exported to France.

But I'm here to find out why this beautiful and warm isle has become

one of Britain's best producers of one of my favourite ingredients.

You can't help but notice, as you fly over this valley,

the sheer number of greenhouses.

Every one is packed to the rafters with tomatoes.

And what a strange and beautiful sight it makes.

Here, on the Isle of Wight,

over half of the UK's organic tomatoes are grown.

Paul Howlett is an agronomist.

In simple terms, an expert in soil and crops.

And tomatoes are his thing.

So, we're growing many different types and sizes of tomato.

Right from these cherry tomatoes,

baby plum tomatoes,

right up to the large beef tomatoes.

Every type of tomato you can think of, we're producing here.

Paul's passion for these plump, juicy fruit means, each year,

he and his team taste test hundreds of varieties

and choose the most delicious to bring to our tables.

So, this is the ideal place for me to find

gorgeous varieties for my recipe.

There's nothing that looks like it,

there's certainly nothing that tastes like it.

Because the humble British tomato, in my opinion,

is one of the best ingredients that's produced here.

And it's one ingredient that really started my love of food.

My granddad used to have a great allotment plot

at the bottom of his garden with a brilliant greenhouse.

And, when I first bought my house, I actually planted fresh tomatoes

in the greenhouse at the bottom of my garden,

to remind me of my grandad.

And, to be honest, there's nothing else that tastes like it.

Delicious.

-How are you doing, Paul?

-Hi, James.

-Good to see you. This is impressive.

-Thank you.

-You obviously knew I was coming!

-Yeah!

So, why the Isle of Wight, then?

The main reason we are based here on the Isle of Wight

is because of the microclimate and the sunshine levels we get.

It's surrounded by water so, in the summer, it's a little bit cooler.

In the winter, it's a little bit warmer. What happens?

-The sun hits the water...

-Bounces off, then comes back down.

We get more sunshine than most of the UK, here on the islands.

So it's supposed to be warmer here than anywhere else in the UK.

Not necessarily warmer, but more sunshine.

So, it's the sunshine that puts the flavour in our tomatoes.

Every year, this island gets almost two weeks more sunshine

than the mainland.

So, the combination of the strong sunlight reflecting off the water

and the sheltered valley position

makes this the ideal location for growing tomatoes.

-What are we going to try first of all?

-We can try the beef tomatoes.

These are a very nice flavoured beef tomato.

-What would you do with these?

-You could have them in a salad.

Or you can put them in a burger.

Burger? I knew you were going to say burger! Go on, then.

Yeah, that's a burger, isn't it?

-It's pretty good, though.

-It is a burger, though.

But you can cook with them, they are fantastic, these ones.

'For me, the finest tomatoes should have a light, fresh flavour

'and be like sunshine exploding in your mouth.'

'That's exactly what I'm after.'

This is really the king of the tinned tomatoes, this one.

San Marzano tomatoes. Pizza toppings, that kind of stuff.

All you just do is blitz it and just use that on your pizza. Done.

Now, this is what we're talking about

when we talk about sweetness in tomatoes, and sugars.

These small ones are superb.

This is a very sweet tomato.

-I don't like these.

-Kids love these.

-But kids like them.

You go to shows and the kids pick them up

and just absolutely love them.

-But kids like alphabet spaghetti and I don't get that.

-People want sweet.

Instead of eating sweets, eat tomatoes.

Try this one. Not quite so sweet, got a bit more acid taste.

-That's the one.

-A bit more bite to it.

These are the ones we see behind us, the Piccolo.

These are the ones that are famous from the supermarkets.

Would you recommend people buy them on the vine or loose like this?

If it's still on the vine, it is still drawing

a little bit of goodness out of that, out of the vine.

But also, don't put them in the fridge.

Put them out in a fruit bowl,

the flavour is at its fullest at ambient temperature.

'So now I've tasted them, it's time to pick some for my recipe.

'And to be honest, I'm spoilt for choice here.

'There's just so many different varieties.'

I quite fancy one for cooking, so I thought,

-shall we have one of these?

-How about one of these orange ones?

I'll have one of those as well.

Right. And then, what about that Island Beauty?

Yeah, that is fantastic.

-That's pretty good.

-That's what I'm talking about.

I'm going to take that and that, all right?

-And leave you to tender your plants.

-OK.

-All right. Cheers for that. Bye.

'The fruit I'm about to use are straight off the vine,

'so the freshest they can be, with the most intense taste.'

'My barbecued stuffed tomatoes might be inspired by a French dish,

'but they're a true celebration of the flavours of the Isle of Wight.'

'Tomatoes and lamb are my main ingredients,

'but I'm throwing in some locally grown garlic too,

'for a Mediterranean dish that's full of summer sunshine.'

To be honest, this is probably the most ridiculous thing

I've ever cooked in my life, and a location.

It's boiling outside, it's even hotter in here,

they've even got the heating on, and I'm cooking on a barbecue.

It's brilliant, isn't it?

I thought I'd do these lovely beefsteak tomatoes.

And this is the thing that sort of upsets me

about watching gardening programmes. Because you've got the tomato.

If they were looking at this on a gardening show,

they would call this Inixius Paniatu III, or whatever it is.

It's a beefsteak tomato.

Call it that.

So we're basically just going to hollow these out, really.

This will create a nice little shell for our stuffing.

I'm going to use everything,

because I'm going to create a little sauce with this.

Beefsteak ones are fantastic for this

because they've got lots of juice in there that's going to create

this lovely little sauce to go with it. So just hollow them out.

Be careful not to puncture the sides, that is the key to this.

The flavour of freshly picked tomatoes from the greenhouse

is something really, really special.

We've just got this lovely tomato mixture which we're going to

turn into our sauce. Really empty it all out.

And then for our filling, we'll keep this nice and simple.

And this idea comes from a very fancy restaurant

when I was working in France, and it contains lamb mince -

you could use chicken mince, you could use pork mince,

but lamb mince is really good for this.

Little bit of breadcrumbs, some mushrooms here.

These need to be really finely chopped button mushrooms.

We got some garlic, this is, of course, famous garlic

from the Isle of Wight.

And then I've got some shallot and some tarragon.

So I just need a little bit of diced shallot first of all.

'This lamb filling will be mouthwatering.

'The tarragon's intense flavour, a mixture of sweet aniseed

'and mild vanilla, will blend perfectly

'with the meatiness of the lamb and the sweetness of the tomatoes.'

Like that. Going to mix this all together.

Like that.

We can grab a decent-sized piece of this and pop it inside each tomato.

Do it quite loosely, you don't want to sort of over-pack it

because as it cooks it is going to expand a little bit.

If we pack it too tight, it will split the tomatoes.

And then just put the lids on each one like that.

Look at that. Just lovely. Little bit of oil over the top.

And then we just cook these on the barbecue.

You can do this, of course, in an oven at home.

About 200 degrees centigrade, that's about gas mark seven,

I suppose, something like that. For about ten to 15 minutes.

On here, it'll probably take about the same.

Which gives us enough time to make our sauce.

I'm going to use these lovely little Island Beauties.

And what I'm going to do with this is just cut them into chunks,

really, throw the whole lot in, and just wilt this down, really.

Cook it down with a little bit of oil, some garlic,

you don't really need anything else.

Some rapeseed oil.

You could, of course, use a little bit of olive oil.

Black pepper. Some salt.

And then, not forgetting this lovely garlic

in there as well.

Those two ingredients just taste so good together.

So we're going to cook this now for literally about ten minutes

until our tomatoes are ready.

This is it, really. That's the sauce. Done.

It's kind of really not, I suppose, a sauce,

because you've still got all the bits in,

but I cannot understand chefs,

when they get great ingredients like this, grown on our shores,

to then take all the seeds out of it, all the skin off it.

And three-quarters of the flavour. That's just delicious as it is.

But what I'm going to use is

just use this as a little base for this, really.

Nothing poncey.

Just fresh tomatoes, like that.

Roasting the tomatoes intensifies their sweetness,

and that complements the lamb beautifully.

They were made for each other.

And just ooze that Mediterranean sunshine.

Stuffed tomatoes, it's kind of a dish that you don't get nowadays

in restaurants, but in here, looks pretty good.

Tomatoes and truffles sing of Italy.

But amazingly, these exquisite ingredients are found right here

on the fertile south coast of the UK.

Their unique flavours are down to our incredible countryside

and its diverse and awe-inspiring qualities.

But they're just a fraction of the many edible delights

that our green and pleasant land has to offer.

Join me next time

from another unique food-producing corner of Britain.

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