Lesley Garrett My Life on a Plate

For everyone, there's a taste of food,

or a smell of cooking that zooms you right back to childhood.

It's just like my mum's cake.

'I'm Brian Turner.'

It reminds me of someone I used to know at school.

'And I'm going to stir up the food memories of some

'much-loved celebrities.'

Oh, look at that.

'Going back to their early years before they were famous.'

Oh, my gosh.

'With recollections of Sunday roasts and school dinners.'

-It's time for something to eat.

-Brilliant.

'And celebrating the food their home regions are proud of.'

Which way would you like to go?

Er, this way.

'I'll recreate a nostalgic family favourite.'

Mm, you can't beat a crumble.

'And a tribute dish that puts my guest's life on a plate!'

Magic, magic.

Today, classical singer Lesley Garrett returns to Yorkshire

where she grew up.

Oh Brian... I can't believe this, I can't believe I'm here.

A visit to her family home brings excitement.

Oh...turn round.

And moving reminders of a happy childhood.

I remember sitting on this shed roof.

I remember everything about this. This is just incredible.

'Inspiring food is all around us.'

I never thought I would be doing this again.

This is just brilliant.

'Helping me to create nostalgia on a plate.'

That's brill.

'And taking Lesley back to her family kitchen.'

-Get stuck in, lass.

-Thank you.

We're in Doncaster in South Yorkshire,

and our journey back in time is kicking off in a brand-new building,

which means a lot to Lesley, even though this is her first visit!

Hello, love.

Hello, sweetheart. How are you?

Oh, grand, thanks.

This is the Cast Theatre in Doncaster

and it's so exciting for me to be here for the first time

because, in a way, I started the fundraising for this.

-Oh, right, yeah.

-About, oh, 14-15 years ago.

I did a concert in Doncaster Racecourse because there was

nowhere for me to sing - there was nowhere for anyone to perform here.

We didn't have a...you know, a proper concert hall

and we all were desperate to get one so we started the fundraising

and now it's finally built. It's been built about a year,

and I'm just beyond excited. In fact, I'm coming in soon to perform,

to make my debut in Doncaster after all these years.

Lesley's gift for singing was evident early on.

She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music

and has built a stellar career, singing not only classical opera,

but successfully crossing the great divide into popular music.

In 2002, Lesley was awarded the CBE for services to music.

She's made 15 solo albums,

performed with the English and Welsh National Opera companies,

and has sung all over the world.

SHE SINGS IN ITALIAN

She continues to perform live,

as well as fitting in radio and TV shows.

But today is about looking back at where Lesley's story began.

I'll be soaking up ideas

from her childhood growing up in South Yorkshire,

and creating two special dishes just for her,

one full of nostalgia that harks back to the family kitchen,

the other, a tribute to one of our greatest singers.

For Lesley, it will be a trip down memory lane,

and to warm us up, an evocative taste from the past.

Now, I've heard that before you go on stage to sing,

-you always have a special drink.

-I do.

Have a look at that.

-What's this?

-What do you think it is?

It's Horlicks! Oh, Yorkshire in a cup.

Oh, this brings back memories.

I'll tell you why this is special

because when I was a teenager,

I used to go for peripatetic singing lessons

in Wath, just outside Sheffield,

and it required three buses

to get to this place where I went for my singing lessons,

but they were free, it was through my local council.

-That's Yorkshire for you.

-Yorkshire.

And I used to Copelands Caf when I was 16, many years ago,

and this is what I had, this was like my breakfast - oh, fantastic.

Well, I hope I don't fall asleep - I used to have this before I went bed.

Fall asleep in my presence - darling!

What a silly thing to say! Let's go through into the hall, shall we?

So, Lesley, you are a real Yorkshire lass.

You were born in Doncaster.

Thorpe, just outside Doncaster, in a pit village, yes.

But Doncaster was the big town on a Saturday

when we used to come shopping, that was the highlight of the week.

Were you a big family?

We were a big family, big extended family,

and I've got two sisters and I had two fantastic parents.

Music was very much in the blood on both sides of the family.

My Granddad Garrett, my dad's dad, had a fantastic dance band

and then my mum's side were much more classically orientated.

My granddad was a wonderful pianist and taught all of us

and we just would have singsongs round the piano all the time,

you know, we were like the Von Trapps of South Yorkshire,

it was ridiculous, really,

and music was the glue that bound us all together.

My dad had a voice to rival Pavarotti.

My mum had a really beautiful, clear soprano

and I was just lucky I got all those genes, basically.

Tell us about your first memories about food?

My mum was a very good basic cook.

There was nothing she couldn't do with mince -

the varieties of mince we had.

Dripping featured as well, very large,

but my dad was quite experimental and he would do all kinds of things

that nobody else ever heard of

but the great thing about the food we had

was that it was almost entirely home grown.

We used to grow all our own veg,

we used to gather things from the hedgerows,

because it was a very rural existence, and we had a pig.

We always had a pig and we had goats and we had chickens and rabbits...

-What, all in the garden?

-All in the garden, yeah,

and we kept loads of animals which we did eat.

My dad didn't tell us we were having rabbit pie at the time, but...

And he fished, we had fantastic fish always.

But I think he's most famous probably for his roadkill pies.

He couldn't pass a corpse on the road

without stopping to see if it was still warm,

and if it were, it were in a pie, you know.

We had fantastic adventures, we were on the side of a little river.

We'd be making rafts - it was all Swallows And Amazons existence.

Yeah, absolutely.

We found a swan once in the winter that was frozen into the ice,

it was...

Oh, it was so exciting, this swan was huge - we were only little -

and I sent my sister and my little cousin home to get a wheelbarrow

and me and my other sister hacked this swan, it was ever so dangerous.

-Was it alive?

-Well, we thought it might be, cos it was warm,

and we hacked it out of the ice and we got it on this wheelbarrow,

these four tiny little girls, and we pushed it half a mile home

and burst into the living room and shouted to my mum and dad,

"Come, Mum, Dad, come, we think it's still alive,

"can we get this swan going again?"

And we put into in front of the fire and I was rubbing

its big, great big feet and it was dead as anything

and me parents knew but they joined in, and then after a while

they said, "Sweeties, we think it's actually died,"

and, oh, we were so upset.

The worst was, it was so cold that winter

we couldn't dig a hole to bury the damn thing

so it sat on the wall for ages

just looking at us with its one eye like this.

So, what was the favourite?

Was there a meal that you looked forward to eat,

that's what your mum was doing today?

Well, I'll tell you what was a speciality -

spring onion sandwiches.

We used to have spring onions with white bread and butter

in a sandwich. Oh, loved that.

Do you know, I've just recently, in the last two years,

fallen in love with spring onions. It's a great flavour...

-With a bit of cheese.

-..nice and tender.

Yeah, really young ones, yeah.

I used to look forward to my dad's risottos,

cos my dad used to cook prawn risotto,

which was so like from Mars.

I'm just intrigued by risotto, because the rice

that you normally use for risotto is specialised rice.

Oh, he used pudding rice - he didn't use...

I don't think he used proper rice, I can't remember.

It was just delicious and I really looked forward to that.

I just loved the way you talked about fish

and that reminds me of something I read.

Didn't you used to go on holiday to your great-uncle or someone?

Yes, the uncle that was the baker - great-uncle was a baker -

he had a kind of wooden, little kind of, I suppose Victorian villa

on the top of the cliff at Skipsea, near Bridlington.

Skipsea, I know Skipsea.

And we went every year and my mum had to paint it

-and then we could have it for free.

-Would she go up a ladder and paint?

She used to paint the outside of it, she got a lovely tan.

-But in the meantime...

-On the back of her arms.

On the back of her hand! Me dad would be on the beach, fishing.

Just always fishing.

In fact, if you want me very favourite meal

from when I was little, it would be dabs, straight out the sea.

I'd run up the cliff, me dad cut steps into this cliff

and I would run up with this fish, still flapping, sorry...

if there's any vegetarians watching, you know, still flapping,

and me mum would bash it on the head and then it would be quick

and in the pan and we'd eat it within minutes of it being caught

and the flavour would blow your head off.

This is Skipsea, where Lesley spent those childhood holidays,

a bit of coast where it's still a great place to catch fish.

Andrew Sanderson is one of only six people

in Yorkshire's East Riding who are licensed to catch fish

in a way not seen anywhere else on British shores.

So, Monday morning, we come and put our nets out

from the low tide mark into the high tide mark, and then,

when the tide comes in, usually the fish come in with it, if there's

going to be any, and then we catch fish right up to the high watermark.

Shore fishing like this is a dying art.

This type of fishing has been on the go for hundreds of years.

Before they used nets, they used to use baskets, you know,

before there was any nylon nets,

but actually my great-granddad got lost in a fishing boat,

not far, just off here, actually, and he was doing more or less

the same job with nets,

but I suppose it would have been cotton nets.

It's a treat to see the old ways surviving against the odds,

and the rewards are clearly worth the hard graft.

Today, we've caught 11 sea trout and five sea bass.

It doesn't get any better than this, this is first class,

straight out of the sea, straight into ice.

Then straight to the shop in Bridlington, run by his wife, Karen.

Here, every day is full of surprises!

He can catch wild sea bass, he catches skate, codlin,

dover soles, turbot - all types of species -

but you can never know what you're going to get

so you have to come with an open mind to our shop.

If you've got a recipe, we can guarantee we won't have the fish,

but come with an open mind to see what we've actually got that day.

Bridlington's fisher-folk have moved with the times.

They used to be after cod and haddock.

These days, they specialise in shellfish and crustaceans,

and Bridlington has become the UK's most important port

for lobster landings, closely followed by crab.

And that is something to shout about.

Come this way to Bridlington Bay, the seafood festival is on today.

Hip, hip, hooray!

Bridlington's Fish Festival is a day for celebrating the catch.

I daresay you can pick up some of those fruits of the sea

here in Doncaster's indoor food markets.

'Listening to Lesley's tales of family food

'and what her parents used to cook has given me lots of ideas.'

Excuse me, sir, can I have a couple of bunches of spring onions?

-Course you can, young man.

-They look good, eh?

-Fantastic.

'For my first dish, I want to create a taste of nostalgia for Lesley.'

You're all aglow, that sun's almost out -

this I think is why they call it sunny Donny, eh?

It won't last.

-So, here we are, Doncaster market...

-Yeah.

-Saturday mornings you used to come with your sisters...

-That's right.

..and your dad and go buying stuff for your mum to cook.

Treat of the week, absolutely, yep.

-How long since you've been here?

-Oh, must be 20 years, actually.

-Good lord.

-I know, shocking, in't it?

-It's fantastic.

So here's a great opportunity. What I want you to do, I want you

to walk in there, just go and browse around, and in the meantime

I'm going to cook a nostalgic dish just for Lesley Garrett.

-Oh, can't wait.!

-Go on, off you go, you go and enjoy. Have a nice time.

We've set up our kitchen in a quiet spot

of the magnificent Corn Exchange in the middle of the market.

Now, I was gobsmacked when I heard

that Lesley's dad cooked her risotto all those years ago.

The man was a genius, a pioneer,

we'd never heard of risotto in this part of the world

and I'm chuffed to bits cos I'm going to cook a risotto for Lesley

and I've got some lovely mussels from here in the fish market, fantastic.

Just make sure they're nice and fresh,

make sure they're not open and just make sure those beards come off,

they come off quite easily, we don't want that.

These are all cleaned here.

So what I'm going to do is open those up straight off.

Put them into a nice warm pan.

And I'm going to put some white wine in there...

carefully measure a glass full.

That looks careful enough.

Lid on to get them all opened

and whilst that lid's on, let me just chop a shallot.

Okey-dokey, let's put that in there.

And we'll leave those now just to open up,

make sure they are all open and make sure you get that lovely mussel meat

and great flavour, but what we really want out there is the stock,

so that's white wine and the mussel juice - makes me salivate already.

Oh, I can't believe this is still here,

this is where I used to come when I was a little kid.

-It's marvellous, hello.

-Good morning. You all right?

-Were you here all those years ago?

-Well, I started 1971.

Yes, it was '60s and '70s I used to come.

We done the stall behind this one when you...

-Oh, behind there.

-You might recognise it...

Right. I remember that stall. Have you got pictures?

-Oh, fantastic.

-That's 1976.

This is just how I remember it with all the carcases hanging up.

All the rabbits and the hares and the pheasants...

Oh, that's fabulous, that's just... Is that you?

-That's me.

-LESLEY LAUGHS

-Got a little bit more hair there.

-I had more hair and less body.

More hair, less body, but this is wonderful,

Apart from the fact there isn't the stone bench.

-We had a sort of stone thing here.

-That's right, yeah.

And we could climb up, me and my sisters, and all these little

things were on the front, you know, little dishes with crab cakes

and whelks - I didn't like the whelks, they were too chewy.

So, will you let me try one of your dishes?

-Just help yourself.

-I would love to try the prawns again

because these, I remember, these were six pence.

-Six pence, yeah.

-And we would definitely have salt and pepper.

And vinegar... ha-ha! Oh, white pepper, absolutely.

Yes, and black pepper.

No, it has to be white, and we put loads of vinegar on.

Oh... I never thought I would be doing this again,

this is just brilliant.

Lesley tells me she loves spring onions

and so do I, so instead of putting

shallots or onions into the actual risotto,

I'm going to put some spring onions in there.

I really think this will bring back great memories for Lesley.

I'm going to put some of those on a plate here and keep them

from the back end, so I'm going to use some to cook with the rice

but some just for garnish on top.

So nicely shredded, choose the nice ones.

And let's have a quick look.

Right, they look pretty good now, so...

Next thing we do, we're going to strain that.

It's most important that we keep the liquor,

that for me is a real big secret of this dish.

And put them in there, just...

..to cool down for a minute.

That's grand, so we don't need that any more.

I'm going to put my chicken stock into here.

I'm going to mix it now.

Just look at that wonderful juice there, bags of flavour.

Just bring that up to the boil, that's lovely.

Oh...wouldn't have seen that when I was a kid.

It was seriously wonderful growing up in South Yorkshire

because the people were so resourceful.

You know, you could make a meal out of anything.

And very often did.

And there was no cut of meat that was too small or, you know,

too cheap, that you couldn't make a decent meal out of

and of course you always had Yorkshire pudding to fall back on

because you put, you know, Yorkshire pudding round something

and it's instantly fabulous. Er, and foraging.

We used to just go and we'd pick hops from the hedgerow

and make our own beer.

We'd gather hay from the hedgerow to feed the rabbits, to feed the goats.

We'd collect all the berries that we could find and we'd bottle them

and have them in the wintertime for vitamin C

and it was a wonderful natural life

and this market was at the heart of it, really.

So, normally to make a risotto, you'd use an olive oil

but I'm not going to use that, I'm going to use some local oil,

some rapeseed oil - it gives it a lovely colour,

I'm also going to put in there a little bit of butter.

Just give that a swirl round and then the spring onions go in there,

soften them up, and then we'll put in our Italian risotto rice.

That's probably enough for us today.

Just look at the colour there already and the smell.

So you can hear now, it's starting to cook a little bit

so we don't cook it too quickly and we don't want it to colour,

so let's add now a ladle full of stock.

Look at that, you can hear it already.

Chicken stock, which I love,

and then that mussel stock which was mixed with it.

Get all the bits from the edge so they don't burn

and then just leave that to gently cook away.

Oh, come over here, this is Wilkinson's, the sausage shop.

I remember this. This was wonderful. Hello...

-Hello.

-Oh, what are you doing to that lamb?

Well, we're getting it ready for sale.

Are you? Fantastic. Is this a local lamb?

It is a local lamb, yeah. All our meat is from Yorkshire - yeah.

Yeah, I remember it always was. What are you doing now?

This is the breast of lamb.

Right...

Ah, that's something I used to eat a lot of,

breast of lamb, cos that was quite a cheap cut, wasn't it?

Yeah, still the cheapest cut.

And you used to roll it?

You can do anything with 'em, yeah.

Nice slow-cooked.

Slow-cooked, yes, really nice, yeah.

Fantastic to see proper butchering going on.

Yeah, yeah, craft butchery.

-Exactly. Well, it's a dying skill, isn't it?

-It is...

Well, we're third generation, I'm a third generation

so I've got me dad and me granddad to teach me.

Have you then been on this market then for three generations?

Since 1954. Yeah.

Before I was born actually, then, that's amazing.

-Not much happened before I was born!

-A long time, yeah.

All we need to do now is just pick these.

I would have asked Lesley, but she's done her nails up

and I don't want her nails to get dirty.

So there we go.

My risotto is almost ready.

I lightly cooked two pints of mussels in white wine,

adding a chopped shallot, until the mussels opened ready to strain.

I mixed the white wine liquor with chicken stock and kept it warm.

I softened shredded spring onions in rapeseed oil and butter,

then added the risotto rice.

After a minute or two, I started adding the stock by the ladleful.

Meanwhile, the mussels have cooled enough

to remove from their shells.

-You know your dad used to make you a prawn risotto?

-Yes.

I'm doing a mussel risotto with spring onion.

Oh, fantastic. I love mussels.

There is an art to cooking this.

Make sure that the liquor is all absorbed in there

-and get that really nice texture.

-That's the tricky bit, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-So I'm going to take half of these.

-Are you a pepper, spicy person?

-Yes.

-Oh, good, OK.

-Yes, I like a little bit of spice.

-Squirt of lemon juice.

-Right.

And then we are going to put that back into the risotto

so it gives it bags of flavour already.

Look at the colour that you get suddenly

and then we get kept the whole mussels as well.

-Are they mussels you bought here in the market?

-Absolutely, yes.

Do you know I have just found out something about this market,

Brian, that I didn't know, while you taste it.

This building, The Corn Exchange, was originally

devised as a concert hall, and that Nellie Melba has sung here.

-No.

-Yeah, Dame Nellie Melba and Clara Butt,

Dame Clara Butt has sung here

and Edward Elgar conducted the LSO here in 1909.

-How about that?

-So you'll have to come and do a concert here

at some stage, so they can all say,

not only did they come, so did Lesley Garrett.

-It's asking for it, in't it?

-So, look at that now.

-Are you feeling hungry, lass?

-Starving.

-Just a couple of these mussels.

-Yes.

Mussel risotto in the West Riding.

Made with fresh ingredients from Yorkshire's larder,

showcased here in Doncaster's indoor markets.

There you are, lass, get yourself a spoon and fork.

But this is just...fantastic.

Dig in, it will be lovely and hot.

I'll have a fat mussel.

Mmm, lovely. That's fantastic.

Mmm, oh, me dad would be proud.

That's what I wanted to know. Would your dad have liked that?

Me dad would have loved that.

Mmm, sorry I'm not talking much. It's just great.

It's really, really special.

Singers like Lesley must look after their throats and stay healthy,

and one of the old remedies for coughs and colds was liquorice.

For centuries, it was grown in Pontefract,

20 miles north of Doncaster.

I used to chew liquorice roots as a lad for their sweetness

Even the great Sir John Betjeman was a fan,

and wrote a poem called The Liquorice Fields At Pontefract!

Now, liquorice growing is making a comeback, and Heather Copley

is going to show me how to harvest it and use it in cooking.

So, why do you think liquorice and Pontefract got together

and when was it really at its heyday in modern times?

It was brought back a long, long time ago by the Benedictine monks

to the castle at Pontefract and they brought it back

for medical purposes.

However, the soil type around here is quite sandy and quite deep,

free from stones, so that's how they ended up growing it

and it took hold.

Because then there came a time in history when there was a decline.

When was that happening?

After the Second World War,

when they sort of got a taste for chocolate.

So what made you say, let's have a go at reintroducing liquorice?

Well, realistically, a lot of our customers come in

and they are lovely and they reminisce about liquorice

and how they used to chew the old liquorice, so we thought, well,

there's none grown around here and I thought if we don't take

the gauntlet up, a lot of these stories are going to be lost.

Is it a long process to grow liquorice?

Well, it has been for us.

The first time we planted it, a construction gentlemen

managed to dig it up by accident, and then we've grown it

in the location that we are going to show you later

and the rabbits ate it.

So you'd come out in the morning and, literally,

they had all just been dug up, the whole plant,

so it has taken a few years longer but we are in three now,

after we electrified the site so that the rabbits couldn't get in.

-Protected it by electrification.

-Protect, yes, yes, OK.

And now it has taken enough that we can actually dig some up

and next year we'll do a proper harvest, which we'll invite

the public to see, because so many people are desperate to see it.

I mean, realistically, it won't be at its maximum height

until it hits year seven, but I couldn't wait any longer

to start having a look at what was there.

Heather's applied for "product of designated origin" status

so her Pontefract-grown liquorice would stand proud next to

other local delicacies like Yorkshire's forced rhubarb

and Wensleydale cheese, produced only in the place of their name.

So, this is our liquorice garth.

-OK, so I've never done this before.

-All right.

-Tell me what I'm going to do?

-OK, so just dig in as normal

but hopefully, as you lift it up, you should hopefully feel a root,

you'll feel almost like a cably type thing and I'll look...

so just gently.

All right, so I don't want to go deeper or nearer the plant.

It's like prospecting for gold, in't it?

It is... It's exciting when you find it, I promise.

Yeah, I'm glad I volunteered for this job.

It is good northern muck, in't it? It's a great colour.

Let me come round you here, right, so I'll have a little dig here, then.

Oh, wait a minute, what's that there? Oh, what's that there?

There it is, look.

-That's it.

-Oh, that's great, oh, look at that, oh, wow.

That's big, that one.

It's quite incredible. Just look, it looks...

There we go.

Seems an awful lot of dirt on that.

You'll be fine, it's good Yorkshire dirt.

That is the real... Oh...

That is the real liquorice flavour.

Does remind me of when I was a lad, going to school,

-sucking the top inch.

-So, passes the test, then?

Absolutely... I'm gobsmacked, I really...

Sorry, but I didn't think that was going to work out quite like it has

-but that's...

-Let's keep going.

Exactly.

Hey, there we go.

Whey, just look at that!

'To preserve that interesting aniseedy flavouring,

'the pieces of root are dried for six months.'

This is how I remember it.

And this is what we import today.

The wooden sticks, which are very dry.

Literally are like twigs, but you do get the taste, it just takes

a wee bit, well, a lot longer than it did out of the fresh one.

To be able to cook with it,

the liquorice sticks are ground into powder.

Actually, it is coming, it's getting there

and it is getting bigger the whole time and it is a good flavour.

It is, but I think you need to sort of marinate it almost.

It needs something to go along with, to intensify.

-So we use a treacle.

-Right. So what's that?

-So this is basically the two together.

-Oh, of course.

So what kind of things do you cook with this kind of mixture here?

Well, I personally think that the whole liquorice goes

really well with your dark meat, so your venison, duck -

any game-related products works really well.

And today I was going to do it with some venison,

some locally farmed venison.

OK.

Got some pre-marinated we did this morning, same joint, same cut.

Smells good, and I do love the smell of butter.

-I like using butter.

-So, nice and hot.

Yep, and literally just as you would do...

just as you like your steak.

That looks lovely.

-Looks all right, doesn't it?

-It does, it's got a really nice colour.

OK, I think those are ready now

so I just pop those to one side to rest.

Lovely.

'Heather's prepared a tasty sauce made from blackberries,

'red-wine stock and honey.'

The green and red looks good, doesn't it?

-They do, that looks delicious.

-Smells nice.

Voila.

Perfect.

There we go, now I'm trembling with trepidation.

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait.

You haven't got a knife and fork in your hand, either.

I'm waiting to see...

What I like about it is that it has got a simple sweetness,

but it's not too sweet.

It doesn't actually take away from the taste of the venison.

The meat, yep.

The liquorice gives a lovely colour, a great smell,

great flavour, and you've got a hit there, girl.

Good, thank you. Phew!

There's nothing like a taste or smell of food

to transport you to another time and place.

Even better, to revisit that place

and cook something that chimes with those memories.

We're taking Lesley back to Thorne

and the family home she was raised in.

And I'm going to cook a tribute to Lesley,

inspired by her stories of childhood.

Oh, Brian. I can't believe this, I can't believe I'm here.

This is incredible.

This was...this was paradise to me, this place.

Just over...over this hedgerow here,

there's the most wonderful children's playground,

there are reed beds and there's a river

and we just had this fantastic Swallows And Amazons existence

because we were just chucked out to play.

Mum said, "Out you go to play,"

and that would be it, we'd be out all day,

there are fields up there that we just got lost in for the whole day.

And we'd only come back when we were hungry, you know.

And then this house, this house is...

All my childhood memories are in this house.

And how many years did you spend here?

-I was here until I was 14.

-Right.

When I was 14, I came straight here from my grandma's council house

where I was born, and then I saw both of my sisters born here.

They were born in that bedroom. It was amazing.

I went to bed one night and the next morning I'd got a sister.

-it was just like magic.

-And then it happened again.

It did, how funny is that - two!

So now is a perfect opportunity for you to go in there,

relive some of those wonderful memories, share some with us,

-some you might not.

-Oh, I'm scared.

-No, you'll be grand...

Just go and enjoy and in the meantime I'm going to cook

a little tribute meal for you.

Little things that mean something in your life,

-this part of the world.

-Yeah.

But the main thing is you just go in there and enjoy yourself.

-Good luck.

-All right.

Oh, dear, here we go.

Oh, my goodness, this was all one.

This fence wasn't here because this is now two houses

and when we had it, it was all one house.

Dad had knocked them together, so this fence wasn't here

but there were two lawns, just like this, just like this.

And those fruit trees, I think are our fruit trees

because there was a wooden archway down to the orchard

and there was a shed over there with the goats.

We used to keep the goats and some of the hens down there.

And we had a vegetable garden, which appears to still be here.

Oh, goodness. Can we get through?

Let's have a look. Sorry!

Oh, I can't believe this - this is exactly how it was.

This is like stepping back in time. This is extraordinary.

We've got to have little look down here, come on.

This is just where we had our...

there was some canes and we had raspberries and we had...

Over there was a big blackcurrant bush

and we used to gather all these blackcurrants

and eat half of 'em and bottle the rest, me mum would,

and store them in the big cupboard,

and over there, in that tree, I had...

We had pigeons.

I had a pigeon loft and we used to have pigeon eggs

and me dad used to race the pigeons as well,

I've remembered we used to do that. Oh, my goodness!

Oh! Turn round.

This is me dad's shed.

This is the rabbit shed. It's still the same.

This is the rabbit shed.

Can we go and have a look? This is...

I remember sitting on this shed roof.

I remember everything about this.

This is incredible.

This is just incredible.

This is very strange because it's so like it was.

It's so like it was.

Now, my tribute dish for Lesley Garrett all revolves round

this space that we are in, the back garden, the fields,

the allotment, and everything that just grew round here.

I've got a fillet of pork,

that's in honour of the pigs that they used to keep, and then I've got

some apples which were growing, just come off that tree just over there.

And I'm going to make a little chutney because Lesley's mum

used to preserve everything and bottle everything.

Pan on, nice and hot, bit of local rapeseed oil.

Let's take the pork, and we should hear it sizzle.

SIZZLING

Caramelise the outside so it's nice and tasty and a lovely colour.

Bit of salt and pepper.

Whilst that's happening, take one of these delicious apples.

I'm not quite sure what kind of apple it is, sort of like a Bramley,

but not quite, but it tastes lovely - I've had a taste already.

So what I'm going to do is just take off the bottom there,

just shave it off so that it will stand nicely

and then we're going to roast that.

So you can see now I've got a lovely colour on the pork.

So take that out, I'm just going to roast it

in a hot oven for about 12 minutes, I would think.

Well, this has changed considerably.

This is now a kitchen, but it was our sitting room, I remember.

There was a fireplace there that my dad built,

brick fire place with a Parkray stove, I think,

and a wonderful oak mantelpiece he built,

and my mum had decorated this in such a modern way,

she was very modern with her taste, Mum, way ahead of her time.

It's very comforting, actually, being in here,

even though it's completely different, it's...

I feel very secure because I was very happy here.

It's lovely.

Just want to get a nice little colour on there - little pan -

so it looks really, really nice.

In the meantime, I want to grate some apple to go into my tomato chutney.

Don't need to peel them, just mind your fingers.

Have a quick look at these, I think these are ready to go.

Yeah, oh, look at those, they look lovely, huh?

Put the apples...

..get them roasting together, lots of flavour there.

I'm combining oil, cider vinegar

and a squeeze of honey over a medium heat, then adding the grated apple.

OK, so I'm going to put lots of other flavours in there.

Fresh ginger. So then over here I've got some chilli.

Now, Lesley says she likes things spicy.

That little flash of red will make it look lovely, to start with,

then we get the tomatoes in

and because we've got those seeds in there,

it will make it quite spikey, will that.

Then some shallot.

And now we'll put some garlic in, and in goes the garlic.

It's smelling fantastic.

That's looking brill.

'I'm adding chopped, deseeded tomatoes, tomato puree...'

That's brill.

'..and seasoning.'

The hot chutney should then simmer, to boil away the excess moisture.

Oh, my goodness, this was my bedroom - me and my sisters.

We had three little bunk beds here that my dad built for us

and, yeah, this was an amazing room.

I used to get the sunsets coming through the window here.

And we had eventually a bathroom, just round here,

which I think perhaps still is a bathroom

but for years we didn't have a bathroom, we had an outside loo,

and we had a tin bath in front of the fire,

and then my dad and my mum, as well, cos she was just as good,

they really went to town with DIY.

Slowly, they did the place up and we got mod cons...

..like, you know, a flush toilet!

Oh, I'd go anywhere for a flush toilet!

And we had central heating finally, and so, you know,

there stopped being frost on the inside of the windows,

which was nice.

But it was brilliant, it was idyllic, it was paradise,

it really was.

It's crunch time in my garden kitchen.

I seasoned a pork fillet, caramelised it in rapeseed oil,

and roasted it for 12 minutes.

I griddled garden apple halves, and roasted them.

For my chutney, I heated oil, cider vinegar and honey,

and added grated apple with fresh ginger,

half a chilli,

a chopped shallot and a garlic clove.

Finally, I added fresh tomatoes, tomato puree, and seasoning.

How was that?

It's just been mind-blowing coming back here, it really has.

I've loved it, I've loved every minute of it.

Do you know, I thought I was going to get really upset

because it's so different, but it's been done with such love

-and such care, that's made it ever so much better.

-That's nice.

What I've done, I've tried to use as much

-from this little spot here as I could.

-Have you been foraging?

-We've got a piece of pork, do you remember the pig?

-Yes.

Right, that's part of the thing there.

-Is it a little fillet?

-And you see these apples?

-Yes.

-See that branch over there, the one of the right.

-My tree.

That's where they came from, your tree,

-you're quite right.

-I'm so touched, that's lovely.

We've got some local tomatoes, a bit of local honey

-because your dad used to keep bees.

-I forgot to tell you about.

-I know, I knew that, love.

-Dad used to keep bees, you've remembered.

I just love the colour of this. This is a chutney.

I think the contrast of the colour looks really nice.

So we've got a bit of sweet and sour there,

so we'll put those on there like that.

Put a little bit of local butter in there.

We've got all these ingredients that you can almost touch

just like that, you've seen... and you've knew they grew

and they're still growing here, which is even better.

-Get yourself a knife and fork, lass.

-I'm ready, I'm ready.

A bit of lemon juice in there.

Put some chopped parsley in, so now...

Is that all it is?

That's all it is, just on there and then just...

-Drizzled.

-Drizzled, you are quite right.

Not dribbled, but drizzled, and there you are.

My tribute dish.

Roast pork fillet on a hot tomato and apple chutney -

capturing lots of lovely memories of Lesley's childhood

and happy times spent in this garden.

Get stuck in, lass.

-Thank you.

-Make sure you have some pork with some of the chutney.

Mmm.

Oh, that's lovely.

That's really good.

This chutney is amazing, I really like the chutney.

Oh, this is lovely, really, really good and it really, really does...

It's the tastes of my childhood. The tastes of home.

I could get into this al fresco dining.

I really hope you've enjoyed your little trip down memory lane today.

Oh, it's just been such a treat to come back here

and just relive all those wonderful childhood memories

of fabulous food, of nature and of music, of course,

and I can't thank you enough

for giving me this fabulous day, thank you.

Great to have you, darling.

-Well done.

-Can I come again?

Course you can.