Northern Ireland 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.

'The Emerald Isle -

'it might be the smallest country in the British Isles,

'but Northern Ireland is not to be underestimated.'

'It's a land of extremes -

'from the towering granite of the Mountains of Mourne

'to the vast expanse of our largest lake - Lough Neagh -

'to the unique Giant's Causeway.'

'This country has it all.'

'It's where the craic is good and the food is even better.'

'It boasts a wealth of ingredients in glorious abundance,

'from the sea and from the land.'

'The fertile Glens of Antrim are a legacy from ancient hill farmers

'who cleared away boulders and spread seaweed onto the fields.'

'They're now packed with award-winning potatoes.'

'Ireland is famous around the world for its delicious potato dishes,

'from the traditional Colcannon - creamy mashed potato with cabbage -

'to a hearty potato pie.'

'It's hard to find an Irishman who doesn't love his spuds.'

'The beautiful calm waters of Lough Erne are a fisherman's dream,

'naturally stocked with the great-tasting brown trout.'

'And it's not by accident that the fertile grounds of County Armagh

'are known as "the orchard of Ireland", with miles of apple trees,

'perfect for sauces and cider.'

'But it's to the east coast I'm heading first.'

'At its narrowest, it's only 20 miles from the coast of Scotland.'

'It's where the Atlantic Ocean's waters crash into the Irish Sea

'and it's where some of our largest and fiercest crustaceans are found.'

We're heading to find one of the most luxurious foods out there -

lobster.

Now, to understand about why lobster is so special around these parts,

you've really got to understand about the weather

and the sea.

It produces some of the most unique seafood in the world

and, in my mind, some of the best-tasting shellfish anywhere.

'I'm meeting a man who catches some of the juiciest lobsters

'to be found anywhere.'

'Lobsterman Ernie Dunbar.'

'The weather conditions on this coastline can be unpredictable,

'but Ernie's been fishing these waters since he left school,

'about 50 years ago,

'so the theory is he shouldn't get lost out there.'

I don't know where you'd get a job like it.

Best job in the world. Best job in the world.

It's a healthy job

and you're your own boss, which helps a lot too.

The only thing that annoys you is seagulls trying to steal your bait.

that's the only thing that annoys you.

'There's no doubt that these waters are full of shellfish.'

'Ernie's greatest catch in a day was 42 lobsters.'

'Sometimes, though, he can go home without a bite,

'but not today.'

This is a keeper.

This is how I store them.

They can't fight with each other when their claws are up in the air.

'Ernie's relaying the pots,

'which I'm hoping will be full by the time I hook up with him.'

'Well, fingers crossed.'

They're set in the best place I can think of,

so hopefully, another day, I'll bring a good catch.

That's why the job's so interesting.

You never know what you'll get.

It could be a good catch, it could be very little,

but the challenge is you against the elements

and to see if you can win through.

-All right, Ernie?

-All right, James?

-Good to see you.

-Nice to see you. Welcome aboard.

-Thank you very much.

'Let's hope we've got the luck of the Irish today.'

'We're heading a mile outside the harbour, back to the pots.'

'I'm hoping to net a couple of decent-sized lobsters to cook with.'

-How many pots are on this run?

-Seven.

And how long's this been down for?

Er, two days. 48 hours.

Is that dependent on the weather, how long they're down for?

No, we find that if you let them soak for an extra day,

if we're fishing for lobster,

the results are much better.

'Wouldn't you know it - the first catch of the day and it looks good.'

-There's a large lobster here.

-Yeah, look at that.

But when they're that big, they're usually females with eggs

and they have to be put back.

Some brown crab and some velvets.

-So you get a real mix and match in these pots?

-Oh, yes.

This is a female lobster. I can tell right away.

I don't know how many thousand eggs are there,

but at a guess, the scientists reckon 200 could survive...

-Right.

-..to go to be baby lobsters.

I think I'll just pop her back...

-Would you like to do it?

-Yeah. Go on, then.

She'll be happy either way, I think. Ready?

Gone.

You've got one at least!

'And then Ernie's on a roll.'

-Yeah, baby.

-Yeah? You got one?

Yeah, baby!

-Hey!

-We're not lucky again?

We are lucky again. The luck of the Irish is happening.

We're lucky in love.

Yeah, baby. Oh, yeah. baby.

He's happy now.

Yeah, baby!

-Deadliest catch.

-The deadliest catch!

Look at that, that's fantastic.

-Is that a nice lobster?

-Look at that.

It's got its own knife and fork and there's two claws -

one is used to hold the food, the other one is used to rip it apart

and the bigger one really crushes and it'll do that with your fingers

if you get them stuck in there.

You don't want to go near this part.

And nowhere near the tail bit because that can have you as well.

'Heading back, I'm in two minds as to what to cook with this catch.'

'Half of me thinks "Go traditional",

'but the other half is edging towards something more exotic -

'a Goan-inspired curry.'

'I could cook this on the shore,

'but why would I when I'm in the most beautiful surroundings

'with Ernie's boat at my disposal?'

First we need to prepare our lobster. This one's been cooked.

About six minutes per pound for a cooked lobster

and then we break it down.

'Don't be put off eating this just because it comes with armour.'

'You just hit it, pick out the bits of meat,

'hit it a bit more

'and keep going till you've got all the meat from it you can.'

So we've got a decent amount out of these two lobsters here.

I'm just going to chop this down into pieces.

With a lobster curry, you don't want to overcook the lobster,

so we're going to put this at the last minute to warm through.

The secret of cooking a really good authentic Indian curry

is plenty of onions.

What you do need to do is cook them really well

and it's one of the common mistakes when people try to make a curry

is they don't get this base bit right and the start of it.

So really colour these onions first of all

before we do anything.

So this is going to take about four or five minutes.

'Looking at the landscape,

'it's easy to see why lobsters like to call this place home.'

'It's the perfect des res for them -

'clear, shallow waters and well-protected reefs.'

'Looks pretty good for us humans too.'

Had enough of the view? Back onto the onions.

These are nicely caramelised now.

And for our spices, I've got a good mix and match here.

This is ground cumin, we've got ground coriander,

salt, garlic, little bit of chilli, some cinnamon

and then two unusual ones -

tamarind, which you can buy as a puree now, which is easier to use,

and this one. It's unusual to get hold of,

but you can buy it in Asian supermarkets nowadays.

This is dried mango powder. It really is delicious.

And we're going to add these spices to our onions now.

'First in is the mango powder.'

'Then the earthy flavour of the ground cumin,

'followed by dried coriander.'

'And then I like to add quite a lot of chopped garlic.'

'A cinnamon stick, broken into the curry,

'will add warmth and depth of flavour.'

And also I've got this, which is fresh coconut,

which we've just grated.

It's not dried,

it's so much better for this as an instant curry.

This curry is very simple to make.

You could use desiccated coconut, it just takes longer to cook.

But some fresh grated coconut...

..added to the mix as well.

Little bit of chilli.

I don't know why people spend ages getting the seeds out of the chilli.

Some people don't use the seeds because they don't like it too hot -

what's the point of putting chilli into a curry anyway?

You throw the whole lot in.

Coconut milk.

PAN SIZZLES

I'm just going to bring this to the boil

and cook it for about two or three minutes.

Next we've got our tamarind.

Now, when you actually taste this in its raw state,...

..it's actually, if I'm brutally honest, not that pleasant.

But it goes really well with curries.

We're going to add some of this tamarind in here.

The reason I've added it at the end

is you can keep adding just enough and then tasting it.

If you think it needs a bit more, add more.

But once it's in, you can never really take it out,

so just add a little bit first.

Think we'll have a little taste.

Then you can add more if you need to.

And now we can add our lobster to this.

Mix this together.

We just want to warm this lobster up.

And then finally add some coriander.

Just some freshly chopped coriander...

..in there. Some salt and pepper.

Good amount of seasoning with salt.

That's the key to this.

Then stir this around.

And that's it, really.

You don't really want anything else other than that.

You can glam it up with rice and bits and pieces

and I'm sure our director would like me to serve it with rice,

but I'm on a boat! I've got one pan, one stove

and lobster from 20 yards away.

How good could it be?

'I don't think with lobster this fresh you can really go wrong.'

'But I'll let Ernie be the judge of that.'

Come on, you've got to try it.

You've been sat there, patiently watching this.

-Thank you.

-Tell me what you think.

Lobster curry. Because I was unsure about what to do.

-Beautiful.

-Happy with that?

-Really happy.

-Have you had lobster curry before?

-Never.

-I'm not a curry person, but that is beautiful.

-You'd buy that?

I would buy that. If it wasn't too expensive!

-If I supplied the lobster!

-It's lobster!

You supply it, I'll cook it for you.

'I'm leaving the coast behind me now and heading inland

'to some pretty challenging terrain.'

We're heading to Antrim to find a unique breed of cattle

that you've probably never heard of.

Certainly probably never tasted.

Because this area is so special for them.

It's the Dexter cattle.

'Bleak, but somehow beautiful,

'these peaks of the Antrim hills are not fertile farming land.'

'A tractor could not plough a furrow here

'and no arable crops could survive.'

'But the land's not going to waste,

'as smart Irish farmers have made the most of this inhospitable land

'to rear an amazing product.'

'The coarse heather and tussocky grasses do serve a purpose -

'fodder for this particularly petite and tasty breed of cattle.'

'Mike Fraser has a herd of 160 Dexter cattle,

'the smallest breed in Europe.'

'But don't let their stature fool you - this lot can be pretty wild.'

'Today he's bringing 50 of them down from the glen.'

Come on! Come on!

Come on!

Come on, come on, that's it, girls!

Come on, that's good girls!

They were bred for the wilds of Ireland

and this is the wilds of Ireland and the glens.

And they actually... They will eat rougher forage.

They will likely eat thistles.

'Dexters only have little legs. At just over three feet tall,

'they are to cattle what Shetland ponies are to horses.'

'Apparently they're short so they can hide behind boulders

'when the winds from the Atlantic come howling across the glen.'

'But that, of course, could be just Irish blarney.'

'Whilst Dexters have been bred to be small -

'living on such nutrient-poor grass -

'they were never going to grow into big, strapping cattle.'

'And their little legs have to work really hard on these hills,

'building up their muscles,

'but making the flavour of their meat much gamier.'

MOOING

The meat differs a lot with these.

Yes. Because they're a smaller cow, the meat...

They more they're on the higher ground, the darker the meat becomes

and the marbling in the meat is much tighter.

So people like the Dexter now, it's becoming very prominent

because of this tighter marbling.

So which part, cooking wise?

Shouldn't talk about this with this little fella behind!

Close your ears, Monty!

Well, personally, I like the rib-eye steak best.

Isn't it tiny on these things?

Yes, it is, but of course, if you own the cow, you get a thicker cut!

A thicker piece!

'This dish is a real taste of Ireland

'and when you've got meat as special as this,

'the key is to keep the recipe simple

'so the beef is always the star of the show.'

This is the fillet from a Dexter.

Totally different to the fillet on a normal size standard beef.

This is almost like a whole fillet of Dexter,

but a whole fillet normally would be about that, so much smaller.

I'm going to seal it on the barbecue and serve it with a garlic risotto.

First, we'll get our risotto on the go.

So I've got in here a mixture of butter, garlic and parsley.

All you do is take softened butter and blend some parsley in it.

This gives it a nice green colour to start off with.

So a little bit of this butter in the pan.

Then I'm going to fry off some shallots.

Chop them quite fine

because you're looking at 14, 15 minutes' cooking time.

So make sure they're quite fine.

Mix that together.

In we go with the garlic. About a clove per portion.

It seems quite a lot, but it's going to go really well

with this fillet of beef.

'Once the shallots and garlic are coated in the green butter,

'add the risotto rice. I'm using Arborio.'

'I love the flavour of white wine in this, so add a splash of that.'

'And some chicken stock, which, whatever an Italian tells you,

'doesn't have to be hot when you add it.'

What we're going to do - we've got a hot barbecue here.

Black pepper.

Now, the flavour of Dexter is kind of unique, really.

It's almost like a venisony, gamey texture

and that's purely from what it's produced on.

There's not a lot that's produced here

and these cattle are so hardy, a bit like the sheep round here -

there's not a lot that can survive this environment.

I won't salt this till afterwards because it'll draw out the moisture,

so with a fillet of this size,

we can just cook straight on the barbecue.

And with that, I thought I'd do some roasted shallots.

You can roast these in their skins. Fantastic thing for a barbecue.

You just take some banana shallots like this,

just rub them with a little bit of olive oil

and throw these on the barbecue as well.

Now, fillet like this is going to take no more than about...

..eight to ten minutes.

And I'll cook this while you watch that.

'In addition to the grass, the unique flavour of Dexter beef

'is heightened by their lack of, well, height.'

'Think about it and it makes sense.'

'They have the same muscles and sinews as larger cattle,

'but because it's all compacted in their little legs,

'everything is intensified, including the flavour.'

Contrary to my director - before she says anything,

they are not burnt.

Well, they are a little bit, but...

Caramelised. It's a chef's way of talking about it.

So you've got the risotto.

What you need to do is add a little bit more stock to this.

Just as the rice starts to absorb into it,

a little bit more stock.

Keep stirring it.

'To offset the strong gamey flavour of the barbecued beef fillet,

'I want a real creamy risotto,

'so I'm adding Parmesan and mascarpone cheese,

'some more parsley-and-garlic butter and chopped parsley.'

'And keep stirring it.'

Quick taste.

Different fingers.

Different fingers!

I'm running out of fingers.

That is delicious.

And if we put the risotto like that on the plate...

You've got this garlic-and-parsley risotto

and then, of course, we've got this wonderful Dexter beef.

It's kind of unknown, really, in a lot of parts still in the UK,

but... it is fantastic.

And what we're going to do is take our bit of beef

on the top like that.

And then not forgetting, of course,

we've got our nice caramelised shallots.

Which, if we lift these out...

You see, there is method in my madness,

because if you caramelise them nicely on the outside,

when you lift them, you get a little petal.

You can place those on there.

My roast fillet of Dexter beef, on a barbecue,

with a garlic-and-parsley risotto

and burnt onions.

'This is a very simple way of cooking a fillet of beef

'on a throwaway barbecue.'

'But when you've got meat this good,

'with all the flavours of its surroundings, why complicate it?'

The great thing about this Dexter beef is that it's not only tender,

which is great cooked on a barbecue,

but it's got a flavour all of its own.

There's nothing else like it and I urge you -

if you can get hold of it, try it. You won't be disappointed.

As for the burnt onions - sorry, caramelised onions -

they're pretty good.

I like Ireland.