South Wales 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've taken to the skies to show you how this land

has influenced our larders.

'I'm heading inland to an area just southwest of the Brecon Beacons.

'A region dominated by rugged hills

'where I'm looking forward to tasting one of the most famous foods

'to come out of Wales.

'Farming these hills is all about rearing livestock

'and some, like Bernard Llewellyn, are positively passionate about it.'

I've got a bit of a thing for these little black and white things.

They're called bals or balwen.

'These are Welsh mountain sheep

'whose flavour is so linked to their surroundings

'that they enjoy protected geographical status.

'Lamb from anywhere else just isn't the same.'

I just love them to bits.

They're pretty and they taste really good, which is probably the most important thing of all.

'Bernard's been farming at Carreg Cennen for over three decades.

'The sheep roam wild on the exposed hills for most of the year,

'but every summer, they're brought down to the farm.'

Well, I've got the last of the sheep to shear.

They don't shear that easily,

but they really are iconic to this part of the world.

'What allows these sheep to stay in the mountains

'in the worst of the weather are their dense fleeces.'

It's really warm underneath!

-Keep it tight on the skin.

-Right.

Let me show you. Just like that.

'Even with Bernard's expert tuition,

'this makes shearing these sheep a rather thankless task.

'However, cooking their meat is a different story.'

-Bit more.

-I feel like we should name her Rosemary or something like that.

-Rosemary?

That's better! Another thousand ewes, you'll be really good. JAMES LAUGHS

-Well done!

-Hurray!

-Great stuff!

-I do apologise.

-No, no, no. Don't apologise.

I'll finish her tail some time.

I'm not apologising to you, I'm apologising to Rosemary!

Sorry, Rosie.

Look at that! I reckon we'll get, what?

I reckon you might get 30p for that if we're lucky.

-Don't think we'll get a lot for that one, will we?

-THEY LAUGH

Rosemary is somewhere round the corner there,

hiding like a woman with a bad haircut.

She's tucked away round the corner, not very happy with herself.

But I thought we'd do cooked lamb with hay.

It's quite an unusual way to cook it, but one that really

adds to the flavour of this fantastic cut.

'Remember, if it says Welsh lamb on the label when you buy your meat,

'by law, you really are getting some of this treasured lamb.

'For me, it goes particularly well with this mint and parsley-filled tabbouleh.'

So what I'm going to do first of all

is just trim this into lamb chops.

Now, roughly, you get about seven

per portion.

And you can see, what makes this so special

is really the distinct lack of fat that you get in there.

But what you get is this beautiful eye of meat, full of flavour.

But because it's a quite hardy...breed,

you get a really distinct flavour to Welsh lamb,

and one that really no other type from anywhere in the world matches.

So we've got our lamb chops ready. And now onto this.

Now, this may appear completely madness and unusual.

You get hay, and you get this from your pet shop, not from your rabbit hutch.

And you put the hay into a dry, hot pan.

And what this is going to do is add to the flavour.

It really gives it a unique taste.

And then to get a little bit a colour...

..just a touch of oil.

And then...

..no offence to my friend in the back of the shot somewhere,

a little bit of rosemary over the top.

With this, we're just going to lay these over the top, like that.

Bit of black pepper. Touch of salt.

And we could, if we wanted,

just for added benefit,

little bit of garlic in there. Why not?

We'll cover this with tinfoil and cook this for about 10, 15 minutes.

'If you want to get a taste of Wales,

'I reckon these are the ingredients and this is the way to do it.

'About halfway through the cooking, turn the lamb so it browns evenly

'and takes in the flavour of that hay.'

Now, with this, I thought I'd do a bulgur wheat salad,

and it's kind of like a tabbouleh, really.

But tabbouleh's not conventionally done with couscous, it's always done with bulgur wheat,

which is a cracked natural grain,

whereas couscous is actually a manufactured product.

But this is it in its dry form.

You can either cook it straight in boiling water and cook this for about ten minutes,

or alternatively, you can leave it to soak.

This has been soaking for about four or five hours.

And we can drain this, this is just cold water in here,

just get rid of the cold water...

..pour this back in,

and then literally just get a kettle full of water

and pour it over the top.

That way, you'll be able to serve this warm.

And then, a bit like couscous and tabbouleh,

you need to infuse the flavours into this.

And to get plenty of flavour, I'm going to use some of this.

This is harissa, which is like a chilli paste, really, I suppose.

It's Moroccan. It's very, very hot, very spicy,

so you only want about a tablespoon.

However, the camera crew on this set, probably two tablespoons,

cos they like a bit of spice and a bit of kick.

And then all we can do now is just very quickly drain

our warm tabbouleh.

Now, the best way to do that is over the top of here.

Check to see if there's no painters and artists over the other side.

-HE LAUGHS

-Straight over there.

And make sure Rosemary's not the other side, either.

Pour it in there. That way, it's still warm.

Take that straight back over

and this can go straight into your mix.

Like that.

'Mix in the harissa and then we can impart loads more flavours.

'I've got almonds, apricots and pistachio nuts.

'Then my favourite with lamb - mint,

'and a good bunch of parsley.

'Chop those up and mix them in.'

And then finally, we've got pomegranate.

To get rid of the pomegranate, cut them in half...

..tap the back of the pomegranate and the seeds just fall out.

Pomegranates.

Lovely. Mix all that lot together.

Lemon.

A good squeeze of lemon.

Bit of olive oil. Like that.

Salt and pepper. Season the stuff, as well.

Plenty of black pepper.

And then we've got a fancy bowl here. Mix this all up.

You can see the colours of this, it's just fantastic.

This is just delicious.

Look at that. We've got the nice tabbouleh.

And then the key to this... is the lamb.

Now, don't worry about the bits of hay. The lambs eat it so you might as well eat it, as well.

It's not going to do you any harm.

But look at this lovely lamb.

It's quite unusual. If you serve this at a table like this,

everybody will think you've just gone made.

Either that or just cut your lawn.

But it really is, there's so much flavour in this.

And while I leave you with a pretty fancy shot like that

to keep you lot happy,

I'm going to go and console Rosemary. Enjoy.

'Delicious Welsh mountain lamb.

'A national favourite whose distinct taste is down to

'the harsh environment of these hills.'

'Join me next time when I'll be flying over another location

'on my food map of Britain.'