Diane Louise Jordan 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...'

Ohh, look at that.

'..going back to their early days before they were famous...'

Mmm.

Oh, my gosh.

'..with recollections of Sunday roasts and school dinners...'

-It's time for something to eat.

-Brilliant.

'..and celebrating food their home regions are proud of.'

HE LAUGHS

-Which way would you like to go?

-Er, this way.

'I'll recreate a nostalgic family favourite...'

Mmm, you can't beat a crumble.

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

Magic, magic.

Today, television presenter Diane Louise Jordan returns to her

childhood home in Hertfordshire.

There are surprises at her old school.

-How are you?

-I'm a bit shellshocked.

And memories of the neighbourhood that meant so much to her family.

This area and that house, I'd say it saved our lives.

And I'll be cooking dishes for her with local produce...

This is it.

..that'll be a real taste of childhood.

I'd like to share it with you, but I'm not going to.

It's gorgeous.

Today, I'm in Hatfield, where I'm going to be finding

out about the food memories of Diane Louise Jordan.

Which do you fancy, which are your favourites?

All of them.

How did I know you'd say that?

Diane's best known today as a presenter of Songs Of Praise.

But back in 1990...

DUCK CALL

..she landed one of the best jobs in television

when she became a Blue Peter presenter.

It's only three weeks to go before the clocks go back

and the stark evenings start drawing in, what does that mean?

We'll all be switching on more lights around the house.

Today, I'm going to find out all about her food memories

and use them as the inspiration for two special dishes I'm going

to create, just for her.

Well, my mouth is salivating already.

Diane was actually born in Hackney, in East London, in 1960.

Her parents, Harold and Norma, had both travelled from Jamaica

to London, where they met and married in 1956.

My mum, all her sisters, they came here for their training as nurses

and midwives and things like that, and then they went back to Jamaica.

So I think the plan for my mum was to go back, but she met my dad.

And I always go, "Oh, how romantic, you fell in love."

She went, "No, we didn't fall in love, he just kept pestering me

"and I gave in."

I'm like, "I'm so glad you gave in because, hey, I wouldn't be here."

Exactly. Exactly that.

Harold and Norma settled in Hackney,

where they began raising their family in a one-bedroom flat.

But in the '50s and '60s,

London could be a very unfriendly place for new arrivals.

I do remember overridingly that it was a very cramped place,

that we felt sort of a bit unwelcome.

I remember being in the butcher shop with Mum...

I'm a vegetarian now. Oh, butcher's shop.

But I remember being in the butcher's shop with my mum,

and we'd have to wait at the back

until everybody else was served and then we got served.

And at night, we used to...

It was during that time when there were all those sort of riots

happening in Notting Hill and it was quite tough.

And my mum and my dad, to keep us children safe,

they'd put us on a mattress right under the window because there were

stories of stones coming through the homes of Caribbean people.

So the stones would come, say a brick came through a window...

-Sure, it would miss you.

-It would miss us.

-Yeah.

-So there was this sort of backdrop of anxiety.

At night, we always taped up the letterbox as well,

just to make sure nothing came through there.

So the outside world felt quite scary.

Diane's dad was determined to find a better home for his family

outside the capital and settled on Hatfield, 20 miles north of London.

Hatfield was one of the many new towns that were

built across the country after the Second World War.

They offered modern homes, set in peaceful neighbourhoods,

complete with all the facilities young families could want.

I can't work out what made me more happy,

the happiness on my mum's face...

The smile, I mean, it was like all the weight of the world

had just left her, and I do remember that.

I just remember my mum being happy.

But obviously, my dad was chuffed to pieces.

Diane spent her whole childhood in Hatfield.

I want to find out what it was like growing up here

and what part food played in her life when she was young.

So why are we actually in this particular shop?

What does this mean to you?

Well, when I was younger, you know, when I started senior school,

I was then allowed down the town,

-because we used to live at the other end of the town.

-OK.

And it was only probably about two miles away,

but it felt like another city.

-So to go down the town was a really big thing.

-Grown-up.

Yes, especially on Saturday morning.

But we always, always used to pop into Simmons Bakery

and buy an iced bun.

But I used to have this thing of

if I bought something sweet,

I always used to, I felt that I always had to have something,

um, a piece of fruit.

We hardly ever had sweet things when we were at home anyway,

mostly to do with the fact that we couldn't afford it, so an iced bun

was a treat and it felt like it was more like a pudding.

So I would buy my little green shiny apple and me

and my mates would sit on the wall just opposite the bakery,

just through there actually, and I'd munch my apple and have my iced bun.

The cafe we're in - a place that was so important to Diane as a child -

is a bit of a Hertfordshire institution.

It's part of a local chain

which was founded here nearly 200 years ago.

The current bakery has been on the same site since 1945.

Back then, everything was done by hand.

But now, this bit of kit can turn out 8,000 rolls an hour!

But the old skills aren't dying out just yet.

At the moment, I'm making multi-grain sour loaves,

which we produce around 150 a day and 300 all weekend.

And then this is,

this is what the finished loaves looks like once it's been baked off.

In the old days we used to do it like this,

but then there are not many people that can hand mould...

Better than you, Paul Hollywood.

Without a doubt,

the runaway favourite produced by this bakery is...

DRUMROLL

The doughnut!

Ah, doughnuts!

Sticky with sugar or icing, full of raspberry jam -

or custard if you're a bit weird -

I can't think of anyone who doesn't love a doughnut.

After a day of making them,

it's not something I really want to eat.

OK then, I can't think of anyone who doesn't like them

apart from Paul here.

We are just waiting for the doughnuts to fry.

They take one minute and ten seconds each side.

At the moment, they are very popular.

We make a million doughnuts a year.

If you think that's a lot - in this country, we get through

200 doughnuts, cakes and pastries each, every year.

That adds up to an annual UK total of over 12 billion.

So in thousands of bakeries up and down the country, we're all

making memories of our favourites - just like Diane and her iced buns.

We sell about 900 a day.

Other items, fashionable items, come in and go,

but iced buns are still very popular, public still demand them.

Oh, at long last, here come the buns. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

That's fabulous. I want to eat them now.

-You see, I can't even wait.

-You go for it.

Mmm. That is heaven, that is heaven.

Does that remind you of how it used to be?

That brings back so many... It is sort of better.

You know when you really love something and then you eat it

again years later, it's a bit of disappointment isn't it?

This is perfect.

Although the bakeries were full of lovely treats when Diane was

a child, one thing was missing in Hatfield - none of the shops

sold the ingredients Diane's mum needed for her home cooking.

So my mum, she's a brilliant Caribbean cook, really,

all her food was delicious.

Her English cooking was -

she's not alive now so I can say it - abysmal.

-Oh, dear.

-But she thought she was a great cook.

I love you, Mum.

As they couldn't get the ingredients in Hatfield, Diane's mum

and dad would make regular trips to the famous Ridley Road market

back in Hackney, to stock up on essentials.

-Do you know what, when my mum used to cook here...

-Yeah.

I used to feel a little bit embarrassed, I was like,

"Stop cooking that Jamaican food, we live in England now."

I mean, I really liked rice and beans and that's about all

she ended up doing in the end,

and sometimes we'd have fried dumplings. And, you know,

our Sunday breakfasts were delicious,

but they were a bit different.

When I went to Jamaica and realised everybody was doing that, so there

was fried dumpling, boiled dumplings and soup, just like my mum did it.

There was... You could get fresh callaloo, you know,

you could get mangoes off the tree in my grandad's garden.

-Sure, yeah, yeah.

-It was just...

It all opened up and I realised why my mum and my dad still really...

Cos I was thinking, "Why do you go to so much effort to go to

"Ridley Road? There is food in Hatfield."

And then I started getting it.

It's just these sort of memories that are going to inspire

the dish I'll be making for Diane later.

So I can see this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me.

I'm going to create something that reminds you of your childhood,

that reminds you of the Caribbean,

that we can purchase in this part of the world,

that a vegetarian eats,

ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.

Do you know, I really feel sorry for you,

but I don't know how you are going to do it.

We'll give it a go.

Anyway, back to my bun.

While I'm thinking about recipes,

we're heading off to our next stop - Diane's first school.

Back then, it was called Bishop Wood's Infants.

It's now part of the De Havilland School.

-Wow. This is...

-So what do you think?

It's actually, it's freaking me out a little bit.

Really?

Because it sort of feels familiar, but it's...it's bigger.

Were these buildings here?

I'm not sure because... They look a bit new.

-They look new, don't they?

-Yeah.

That bit there with the chimneys,

that looks like where the kitchen was, which I think served

both the primary school and the infant school.

-So did you like school meals?

-I loved school dinners.

-Really?

Yeah, I was one of those weird people...

You know when you meet adults and they talk about their

school dinners, they always give it a thumb's down.

And I just didn't get that because for me school dinners were the best.

I used to really look forward to coming into our little dining room

and we'd have tables with, I think,

maybe six or eight children around each table and some of the

people at the head of the table had to be the food monitor.

-Monitor. Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

-That's right.

And my favourite pudding, I used to love everything with custard.

But my best - and this school

was the only place it's been done perfectly -

is chocolate pudding and chocolate custard.

And I don't know, all these fancy...

There's a little warning to you, Brian, all these fancy restaurants

and all these fancy chefs, they do chocolate pudding and chocolate

custard but they do chocolate sauce, and they don't put enough on.

No, we want chocolate pudding.

I should start a campaign, shouldn't I?

-Well, you'll be pleased to hear, in my thinking already...

-Huh.

..that chocolate pudding and chocolate sauce do not exist.

No!

Sorry, sorry, you've had enough of that in your lifetime.

I really... You know what, I'm now going to be disappointed.

How many years since you've been in there?

Since 1964. That's a long time.

It is quite a while, you are quite right.

I really hope you enjoy it in there, it will be a fantastic experience.

Meanwhile, I'm going to nip over there, I'm going to try

and find a dish to put together that sort of reflects your early days,

the past, perhaps a Caribbean influence,

food that you will enjoy, but not chocolate pudding.

-You go enjoy that in there.

-No chocolate pudding.

How can you not have chocolate pudding?

Oh, my gosh.

It's a really weird feeling.

This is our school hall.

And...we used to come in here for assembly. It was also...

It doubled up as a gym.

I wouldn't be surprised

if that's exactly the same climbing frame and stuff that we had before.

I'm actually shocked that I'm so...

I feel like crying, I'm so shocked that I feel like this.

I'm really happy to be here, but I think there's a...

It feels like your life is literally flashing by you.

And my memory is not very good, and I'm shocked at how much

I really did remember this room.

And it just makes me feel really nostalgic for my childhood.

It was a really nice childhood. We had a really...

I had a great experience here.

I think all children should have at least the experience I had.

We really felt cared for.

Coming into assembly, which we had every day,

I really believe that assembly is a great thing

because it sort of settled you, no matter what you came from.

It was a moment in the day where everyone could just be

still for a while and sort of catch their breath

before going off into their classrooms.

And for me, that really helped.

And I still like really quiet mornings now.

We've set up the kitchen in the playground,

where I'm going to create a vegetarian dish,

inspired by Diane's memories of the Caribbean food her mum used to make.

First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to make some fried

dumpling batter, so strong flour goes in there.

I'm going to take about 4g,

almost a teaspoon of quick dried yeast.

And then the water goes in.

This wants to be like a soft dough,

a stiff batter.

And put it in a warmish region to just prove a little bit.

Takes about 20 minutes, half an hour.

It will depend on where you put it and the temperature.

It's lovely and warm here today, it will take some holding.

Next, I'm going to make a little vegetable stew.

First, I need some chopped shallots,

which I'm going to fry with some fresh corn.

Now I want a bit of colour in there.

I've got this lovely green pepper.

So that goes in there, lovely colours already there.

We want to sweat those off a little bit.

Whilst we are doing that, I've got these tomatoes.

I've taken the seeds out, I've kept the skin on, I'm going

to put those into my stew in a moment, so they will actually start

to melt a little bit, give a lovely flavour, lots of lovely colour.

My vegetable stew needs just a couple more ingredients.

OK, so I'm going to put some vegetable stock in there.

I'd often use chicken stock personally,

but we must remember Diane is a vegetarian,

so a bit of vegetable stock in there...

And a bit of double cream.

Salt and pepper.

And then the tomatoes go in there and we just leave this to cook out.

Inside the school, Diane's still getting her bearings.

Ah, that leads through to junior school.

I'll go and have a quick look.

I'm sorry, I've just got to have a peep.

Yeah, look, it's the same room but bigger.

Yeah, I remember this.

Oh, my gosh, I think I've just seen somebody I know.

-Oh, Julie.

-How are you?

Oh, I'm a bit shellshocked to tell you the honest truth.

I was trying to work out... We both went to this school,

but you went to this school with my brother, didn't you, Roger?

Yes, yeah, Roger.

-Yeah, yeah. So you were a couple of years younger.

-Yeah.

-It's really changed.

-I know, I know.

-When you come, there used to be a hatch here.

-That's...

There was infants this side and juniors that side.

-It was two dining rooms.

-That's right.

-That's why I got confused...

-They've changed all this.

Cos when I came out of the hall...

So when we were in the infant school,

were there steps coming up there or something?

Yeah, they didn't have the lift.

-Yeah.

-And this was the dining room.

All that was the dining room.

Yes, that's right. That's why I got completely confused.

And there were wooden steps, if you remember right,

there was wooden steps that you went down into the hall.

-Yes.

-Very, very different.

-So...

Right, so this is where the infants' dining room would have been.

-Yup, that's it.

-All of this. OK.

Now I get where we are in the school.

Why are you here anyway? What do you do?

I'm the cook. I've been a cook here for 20 years.

I've just got my long service ward.

-Wow. So you left and then came straight back?

-Yeah.

No, no. No, I left, I worked, I worked...

When I had children, I came back here because I wanted

-a school job, so I'm the cook.

-Well, I'm so glad you're here

because you've really helped bring back these memories.

Oh, Julie, I'll let you get back to work, and thank you so much.

-That's OK. Find your classroom.

-Yeah, I am going to find it now.

Up through that way. That's the caretaker's office, that one.

Oh, yeah, and then I can go down, can I?

-That hasn't changed a lot.

-All right. OK, thank you.

-Good luck.

-Thank you, bye-bye.

Outside, while my stew's cooking, I'm going

to make a simple red pepper sauce, starting with an onion

and a large red pepper, chopped finely and fried in butter.

I'm going to cook them really soft.

I've got a little bit of dry sherry here.

It just gives it a different flavour.

What I really want to do, I'll make this quite spicy,

so I've got some wonderful Tabasco sauce here.

So we'll put, very carefully measure that,

as little or as much as you like.

Don't know what Diane wants, so I'll make it quite spicy.

There we go.

I've got my vegetable stock, put that in there.

Just a tad of cream.

Yeah, this is my...

This is my classroom, but they've changed it.

Mrs Wheatley would sit down here, she'd be,

she'd greet at the door, she was so lovely.

Sitting here, because it feels familiar, um,

this is a nice feeling because I remember this bit.

But where's the blackboard gone?

That was a real sign of my classroom,

and I used to like watching Mrs Wheatley. It's like all teachers

had special handwriting that worked perfectly on blackboards.

I felt really safe here, particularly in this classroom.

Yeah, I adored Mrs Wheatley. She is what teachers should be.

She even looked like a teacher, you know,

dark curly hair and brogue shoes, and, you know, Arran cardigans

and tweedy skirts. She looked like a proper teacher.

You're born with great creative imaginations, but to be in a place

where you can really, that can be nurtured is so important and so...

I am sitting here... It is a little bit different, but I am

so grateful that this room existed

because I just feel like I had a really great start in life.

The stew and the sauce are ready.

It's nearly time to plate up my Caribbean feast.

I've made a simple but vibrant vegetable stew with corn, tomato

and green pepper, cooked together with some vegetable stock and cream.

And alongside it, I've made a quick red pepper sauce, with just

an onion, some garlic, a red pepper, stock, cream and a splash of sherry.

I do hope this dish will bring back memories of childhood for Diane,

especially once I've put on the finishing touches.

-Hi, Brian.

-Dear lady, how was that?

That was emotional.

Seriously, it was...

I think I went through every gamut of emotions you can think of.

-Did you cry?

-No.

But you don't have to say.

I hope lovely experiences, I hope you really enjoyed it.

Now, I've prepared this dish which I hope will

think, smell of the Caribbean,

will the dishes that your mum talked about, perhaps she didn't cook.

And what...

Because your vegetarian, I've done a little vegetable stew over here.

So I've got green peppers, tomatoes, onions. But I've also done,

and this will be a real test will this...

These, hopefully, are going to become fried dumplings

with a Caribbean recipe that I saw.

So we'll just put those... Let's see if we can get these...

Oh, you're making little tiny ones, how cute.

Yeah, well, you're tiny and you're cute, so this is really to...

You say all the right things.

They look fantastic to me.

And it's all good fun is doing these.

Just you have to be careful of course, it's hot fat.

Keep our eyes on those.

So whilst that's happening, just this parsley,

just going to chop it at the last minute, so that we can get

those lovely colours staying there, get lovely flavours.

-I love watching a chef work.

-Yes, so do I.

I couldn't do that, takes me about three days.

Right, I think we are just about ready there.

So we just take those out.

Just put those there to drain.

They are nice and light, I have to say.

They are lighter than I thought they'd be.

-We'll take the chopped parsley, going to put it in my stew.

-Yep.

And it goes over there.

Give us a spoon.

So, look, I just stir that in nicely.

-It's all those lovely vegetables.

-Yeah, it looks lovely.

So, look, that goes in the middle of plate.

So there I've made a sauce here.

But normally, with electricity, I'd blitz this

and it would be a bit finer, but actually it's chopped nice and fine.

-But just nice colours. Red peppers, there's sherry in there.

-Great.

You're a very brave man leaving the spoon so close to me.

It's all right, dear, I've got you under control.

And nice little dumplings, I'm just going to...

pile them on top.

-So gorgeous.

-Just got a little bit of...

I hope this will be a nostalgic return to the Caribbean for you.

This is a dish I'm hoping is packed full of memories for Diane,

inspired by the stories of the food of her childhood.

It's a colourful, spicy vegetable stew topped with dumplings

that should remind her of the ones that her mum used to make.

I'm going to try these dumplings first but... Do you know,

I am actually going to try a bit of everything because I can't wait.

Good girl.

SHE LAUGHS I'm not sure I like that laugh.

I was always told not to speak with my mouth full.

It's not fun, you've got bags of space in there.

Yeah, but if I wasn't married, you'd be my husband.

This is gorgeous, this is absolutely gorgeous.

It may not be 100% Caribbean,

but does it have certain nostalgic thoughts of the Caribbean?

Well, the dumplings, they look a bit like a fritter,

and then I love the lightness of them.

They are just nice because it reminds me of my mum's cooking,

-but it's advanced a little bit.

-Oh, how sweet.

No, it's true.

And I think that's what all good cooking should be like,

-shouldn't it?

-Evolution. You are quite right.

I'd like to share it with you, but I'm not to.

It's gorgeous.

Mmm.

I'm really glad to have been able to cook a taste of the Caribbean

for Diane, and bring back some happy memories of her mum's home cooking.

But imagine if you moved to a place where you couldn't buy any

British basics like potatoes, carrots or onions.

Those wonderful root vegetables.

You'd soon miss them and familiar recipes.

But you might come up with the same solution as farmer David Mwanaka.

David trained as a journalist in Zimbabwe.

However, in 1991,

he and his wife fled their homeland to move to the UK.

Once here, he found it difficult to get a job in his chosen profession.

But one day, he had an idea that changed his life completely.

I've come just ten miles down the road, from Hatfield to Enfield,

to meet him.

You haven't always been a farmer, so how did it all start?

When I came over to this country, I started missing the food that

I used to get back home. So it came to a point when I thought,

"What shall I do, should I continue missing the food or do something?"

That's when I started experimenting to grow

some of the foods that I grew up eating in Zimbabwe.

What were the kind of things that you missed the most?

I would say that I missed the most white maize.

I know most of you don't know it, but I personally missed it

when I came to the UK and it simply wasn't available.

So that's actually what drove me into farming.

'White maize is a bigger, chewier cousin of sweetcorn

'and it's one of the staple crops in southern Africa.'

So was it easy to grow maize in the first place?

Well, absolutely not.

It was very difficult.

It took me something like well over six years to try to get a crop,

because I was growing seed

from various countries and maize itself is a tropical crop.

So it really needs a warm summer.

And at the same time, the summer has got to be long.

So it really took me a long time for me to get...

to get to know what to grow.

David now produces enough vegetables to supply his farm shop and butchers

where his home-made African-style sausages are a big seller.

As business has expanded,

he's begun growing a variety of vegetables - including pumpkins,

squash and mustard leaves - all grown in his greenhouses.

And he's promised me some kale to take away.

I think I might have bitten a bit more off than I can chew here.

Oh, right, there you go. This is it.

Now, this is not kale as I know it. It has got smaller leaves,

which I can see there are small leaves, and it's deeper green.

Yes, there are so many, many varieties of kale.

-This is just one of them.

-Right, OK. And what would you eat?

-You'd eat...

-Just leaves, yeah.

-Maybe from there.

-Right.

-This bit, boil it, just like spinach.

-OK.

David still grows fields of the vegetable that started it all.

It's early in the season for white maize,

but some of the crop's already as tall as me.

It's like being in a jungle, isn't it ?

Yeah. So this is probably a month away from harvesting.

Right.

And like all things, they are better eaten fresh

when they have just been harvested, the lovely young tender, sweet.

Absolutely, absolutely. Actually, one thing with maize is,

maize has got a shelf life of one day, unlike sweetcorn.

-Really?

-Yeah, just one day.

You've got to pick it, either cook it or boil it on the day.

So that's how difficult it is dealing with maize.

And actually, in Mexico, where maize originally is from,

they used to say that if you want the best taste out of maize,

you make sure you boil the pot first.

-Really? Pick and then put it straight in the pot.

-Exactly.

When it's ready, some maize will be sold fresh, the rest will be frozen.

In the meantime, David's wife Brenda has invited me

to try some of their other produce.

That looks wonderful.

That's the Boerewors sausage.

Ah, Boerewors - South Africa and Zimbabwe.

You are very proud of your Boerewors. Very good.

Then you've got the squashed leaves of pumpkin leaves there.

Very good, very good.

I feel really guilty, we haven't eaten anything and me,

I've never stopped eating.

I can completely understand what drove David to grow

a taste of his homeland.

For me, life without spuds wouldn't be worth living.

I'm going to be using some of David's wonderful vegetables

as part of the tribute dish I'm going to make for Diane

in the street she grew up in.

Diane's beloved father lived in the family home until his death in 2011.

This is the first time Diane's been back since.

-There it is.

-Mmm.

-How do you feel?

Um... Now...

Speechless?

This is probably the hardest one, really, because, um...

That was your home.

That was the place you came to from Hackney.

Yeah, it's so weird because we essentially lived here

all our lives, this was the family home.

It looks so different, it's grey and...

Was it a different colour before?

It was white and the windows were different. But it feels absolutely

weird to be standing here and not just walking in the side door.

I just used to come and let myself in, and now I'm standing here...

And it's a grey house, you know, it's a white house.

I know it sounds silly but...

I believe it's a young family who've just moved in.

-We were really young when we moved there.

-Right.

-And this house, believe it or not, was a blessing to us.

-Sure.

It wasn't just the house, the whole neighbourhood has left its mark.

It was more magical when we first moved in.

Obviously, everything was brand-new, there were never cars.

-There are cars all the way...

-I was going to ask you, it's very busy now.

Yeah, I've got photos of when we used to play up the front here,

and maximum two cars you'd see along this road.

So it was really safe to play out here.

And we used to play literally on this green,

we used to play rounders and we used to have such fun.

Did you get a sense of community after a while?

Definitely, definitely. Everybody knew everybody.

And I think a lot of what happens to you as a young person is about

the person you become as an adult.

And the house has changed a lot.

But this area and that house, I would say it saved our lives.

-Fantastic.

-Yeah.

I am going to cook a dish just for you, and I really hope you enjoy it.

In the meantime, why don't you just have a walk around the area,

see who you can see and what you can see.

I'm looking forward to that food already.

My tribute dish for Diane is inspired by what I've found

out about her today.

It's going to be vegetarian,

it's going to incorporate the ingredients I picked

up on David's farm, and it's going to have my own Caribbean twist.

To start with, I'm going to need a halved butternut squash.

Don't throw the seeds away, we can use those.

So I'll put those into a bowl here and we'll treat those later.

But look at those lovely pumpkin seeds.

So...salt and pepper.

Nice, gentle flavour of butternut squash.

You want to give them some flavour,

so I've got this thyme over here.

We are just going to sprinkle that over the top,

give it a real bit of flavour and then a bit of rapeseed oil.

And we'll just put those to roast in the oven, 180 degrees,

200 degrees, probably take about 20 minutes, half an hour.

They don't need to be fully cooked but almost.

'While the squash is cooking, Diane's exploring some of her old haunts.'

So we came to Hatfield not too soon after,

not too long after this new development had been established.

And there was a real sense of excitement

and there was a real pride in being part of this new community.

And if you notice the church over there, it's in the shape of a sail.

In those days, everybody went to church, so they wanted to

sort of declare that as the centre of community. And they created,

if I've got this right,

but they purposely created it in the sort of ship's sail shape

to sort of give it a sense of adventure and exploring the new.

When they were built, the new towns were designed to be

family friendly with facilities for everyone.

What used to happen was that, you know,

mums would take the kids to school in the pushchairs and prams,

nobody drove to school in those days.

And then they would come up here to get the food shopping for the day.

And I think the launderette was always there.

But the charity shop was the vegetable...the greengrocers.

There's a taxi shop, and that used to be where I got...

That was a cake shop.

So I used to get iced buns there as well.

We may have started the day with an iced bun,

but we're going to finish with something savoury and spicy.

I've already got a butternut squash roasting in the oven.

Once it's cooked, I'm going to stuff it with a mix of rice

and kidney beans.

This is a staple dish in the Caribbean,

where it's known as rice and peas.

Put some oil in there too.

Start to heat up.

First, I'll need half an onion and a diced courgette.

And I'm going to add one of the new ingredients I've just discovered -

white maize.

Nice and chewy, not as sweet as sweet corn but actually works well.

So I'm going to put that in there.

Oopsy daisy.

It's like popcorn, it started jumping out then.

Next, a can of tomatoes.

Tinned tomatoes work well in lots of these stews and sauces

and helps it to cook.

And finally...

I'm going to put some okra in there.

I know it's very much loved in the Caribbean.

Going to put it in there and I'm going to keep the little bits

and put it in there.

A bit of salt and pepper.

And now, I'm going to add my rice and peas.

Now that's looking quite good, is that.

Diane's bumped into an old friend of the family, it's Jennie.

I don't know if you remember, but when we were young,

all the kids, we used to play rounders on this bit of green.

We're still getting that, um...

-Oh, kids still do that?

-Yeah, it's football now.

See, rounders was better.

Do you think it's changed round here quite a lot?

Oh, yes.

You know, I don't go out an awful lot now.

-Yeah.

-But no, on the whole, it's not bad.

You know in the olden days, though,

-we never had all these cars down here, did we?

-Oh, no.

So it was like, it was safe to play out here.

It was, it was. It was, yeah.

Now the butternut squash is tender,

I'm going to stuff it with my rice and peas mixture.

Well, the nice thing about this, there is plenty of it, so you can

actually serve some separate if you like, but just to make it...

I think this looks really pretty, and it's really tasty, is this.

Let's put that in the oven now, again,

just to finish cooking the squash but also to just keep sure

that the filling is nice and cooked through.

Bags of flavour in there.

Well, this old tree really brings back very special memories.

When I was younger, at one stage there were four

children in our little house, and Mum and Dad, obviously all our

friends used to pop in and out. So it was quite a busy house at times.

So I used to just always look for those little nooks and crannies

where I could pull myself away and just have some me time.

And this place here, under the willow tree,

was only about 15 yards away from the house,

so quite often I would just nip out with jam sandwiches

and my book to read or sometimes some sketching.

And I'd literally just sit here, on a day just like this

with the sun just pouring through the leaves,

and feel so contented.

While Diane's reflecting on her memories, back in the kitchen,

I've been inspired by stories of her childhood to create a special dish

that I hope she's going to love.

So far, I've roasted a halved butternut squash

and I've stuffed it with my version of rice and peas,

packed full of delicious veggies like white maize, okra and tomatoes.

I do hope Diane approves of my twist on her food heritage.

-Hello, my darling.

-Hello, sweetie, how was it?

-I've had a great look around.

-Really?

So much has changed, it's weird. And now I've built up an appetite.

-Fantastic.

-So what have you got for me?

Well, what I've managed to find is some kale, which is

-sort of Caribbean style of kale.

-OK.

Unlike the kale that we have here, the curly kale....

-I love curly kale.

-Lovely, OK. So this is...

And what we've done with this is we've taken the stalks

-out of this, rolled it up like a cigar.

-Oh, wow.

Cut into thin slices, put into boiling water

-and then take that in cold water.

-Can I taste?

You can, but it's not ready yet because I'm going to finish

it off, but that's the first bit of the job that you need to do.

And I'm going to serve the kale with whatever I've got in here.

Salt and pepper in there and I've also got somewhere a bit of nutmeg.

Oh, gorgeous.

That, I think, just actually works nicely,

so we'll just leave that to heat up.

I've also made a green banana salad.

I boiled them in their skins for 20 minutes, then peeled

and chopped them into chunks.

I added lime juice, the crunch of grated cucumber and onion

and a little fresh chilli.

And so now is the time to reveal what I've actually cooked for you.

-We are going to put all this lot together.

-Yeah, I can't wait.

Me neither. SHE LAUGHS

Ooh, that looks nice.

Butternut squash, roasted and stuffed with rice and beans,

okra, a courgette.

So the rice and beans is sort of like the...

It's based on the rice and peas type of...

It's based on that kind of dish, yes, that's absolutely right.

I mean, it's so funny,

I used to say my mum, "You use kidney beans, you use, you know,

"all sorts of different beans, but you call them peas, why?"

She said, "Don't ask me any silly questions."

Well, exactly, and I totally agree with your mother.

The kale goes on...

It's really not just tasty, but it's healthy is this kale.

-Yeah, I love kale.

-And I just think the colour....

-It's gorgeous, isn't it?

-..is lovely. So I'm going to take...

-That goes on there.

-That looks nice.

And then, just got this added extra.

Whatever you do, don't spill it on the floor.

-These are the actual seeds.

-Oh, yeah.

That I've just roasted.

Wow, I would have thrown those away.

Well, most people would do, but actually, they are very good for you,

they are very tasty, they've got a really nice crunch to them.

Oh, right, OK. Wow, I love that idea.

-Now that's my hot tip for the day.

-Well there you go, you see.

Because you normally just waste it, there is nothing to be wasted.

-That goes on there.

-Great.

Just a little bit to make it look pretty.

Et voila, my tribute dish for Diane is

butternut squash served on kale,

stuffed with my twist on rice and peas.

I'm serving it with a green banana salad.

I do hope Diane enjoys my version of Caribbean flavours.

So can I delve in?

Please, yes, yes. Over here first. Want to hear what you think of this.

Let me just try the rice.

Mmm.

Ooh, this is flavoursome.

Right, butternut squash.

-Roasting it just gives it so much flavour, I think.

-Mmm.

I'm not a Caribbean cook,

I don't really know much about Caribbean cookery, but I've

listened to different people, I've read cookery books, I've listened

to what you've had to say and so it's inspired by the Caribbean.

If you close your eyes when you're eating this,

-I can see long white beaches.

-Deep blue sea.

Turquoise blue skies.

Deep blue... Oh, my goodness me.

Shall we go? Take our food and let's get our passports.

This is so delicious.

Have you had a good day today?

I've had a great day. This is where I grew up.

This is the place that formed me,

and so it's so special coming back to do that.

I...I can't express how much I love eating,

and to have someone of your calibre cooking me such beautiful

food all day, it's like I've gone to heaven and died, thank you.

You're very kind. I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Seriously, I've loved it, I've loved it, thank you so much.

You're an absolutely star.

I would like to talk more, but I'm busy.

Mmm, I'd like to do it again.