Episode 19 Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds

Pies and puds sum up everything great about our food. Delicious, hearty grub that's easy to make.

Hello, and welcome to Pies and Puds.

Today I'm celebrating straightforward food. Here's what's on the menu today.

'Inspired by home-cooked Indian food from the heart, my tasty and tangy curried cod pasties.'

-Watching you make that dough, any Indian mother-in-law would be proud.

-Would she?

-Aye.

-Yes!

'Fiona Cairns, cake maker to the Royal Family, is here to show me her delicate French dessert.'

-I like raspberries.

-Jolly good! I've got that right, then!

'Then I'll make her my pear frangipane.

'And I make an indulgent sponge pudding with the finest heather honey, all the way from Scotland.'

Now the heather honey is tricky to use because of the heat.

-Very much.

-How will it cope in the steam?

-I'm confident you'll do well.

'You'll find all my recipes on the BBC website.'

'My first recipe is one that reflects the mix of cultures across Britain.'

I'm going to be making a curry pie. The pastry side is covered. I'm pretty good with that.

It's the interior I've to sort out. I've come to Edinburgh to find out about traditional Indian cooking.

It's about, for me, authenticity.

'This restaurant was set up to help local Punjabi women. Traditionally, the women stay at home,

'while the men go out to work, but Punjabi women are great home cooks.

'Being in the kitchen here allows them to show off their skills and earn useful qualifications.

'Trishna Singh is in charge.'

The women were always in the background

and we would see other women moving forward

from other communities and we were always on the sidelines of everybody.

So what you've done here is set up a cafe/restaurant. The ladies that work here are from the community.

-They cook their home-made food and serve it to the public.

-Yes.

-How has it been received?

-It's amazing.

When we first put the idea to the women, everybody was horrified. "I can't do that!"

Some said, "OK, I'll cook in the kitchen, but not serve anybody."

Again, culturally, it's not the done thing.

'But over the last six years, many local women have gone on to gain qualifications and self-confidence,

'whilst giving the public a taste of their traditional recipes.'

'Trishna's organised a taster menu of three curries she thinks could work in my pie.

'They're all new to me.'

-So what have we got here?

-Methi chicken, which is chicken breast pieces diced.

And methi is fenugreek. We use onions and tomatoes and spices are added.

The chicken is then browned in those sauces with salt, pepper, spices added to it.

Wow!

That's delicious. I love that.

It's very aromatic. It's got a heat in there as well.

-This is curried belly pork, but again you can see the difference in the sauce.

-Yeah.

-Much thicker.

-OK. So this would normally be eaten with a chapati.

-Yeah.

That is very good. They both are very good.

'Next is the home-style Punjabi version of Scotland's Friday fish.'

-It's cod pieces. And it's boneless.

-Beautiful.

That just melts in the mouth. It's so beautiful, the flavour,

the balance between the fish and the sauce that goes with it.

The whole thing together as one. I've never had fish like it.

'Trishna's also got the Punjabi equivalent of pies - the dumpling.'

Can I just dip it straight in?

-That's the kind of thing we add onto the menu as we go along, if someone brings something new.

-Wow!

'To help me decide,

'I go behind the scenes to see what goes into these dishes

'and I'm surprised to learn that these amazing flavour combinations

'are created without the chefs tasting as they cook.'

-You just know that's about right?

-Yes.

-We never taste the food while we're cooking it.

-Why's that?

-It's just not done. If anybody saw you do it, you'd get real trouble.

-Why's that?

-Why?

-It makes it... like, you've tasted it.

-Dirty?

-Yeah. And somebody else is going to eat it.

-Is that a cultural thing?

-It is.

-Really?

So I have my fish dish.

I have my chicken dish.

I want to eat them again and make a decision on which one I'll use for the heart of my pie.

It's so delicate. The fish falls apart.

Let's look at the chicken.

'Both Ashan and Pritam's curries taste amazing.

'These ladies draw on a lifetime's experience of cooking and it shows.'

But choosing between the two is really difficult.

I think... I'm going to go for the fish.

'I want the fish to stay light and flaky in my pie,

'but first I need to learn how to get that delicate flavour.'

-I've got the cod in here. How much of this?

-About two teaspoons, yeah.

'I need to pay close attention here. This could easily go wrong.'

-When you say a little bit...

-Fine.

'This dish is packed full of all kinds of spices I don't usually cook with,

'so I have to put my trust in Pritam because I can't taste to test.'

I've never had anything like it before. It evokes flavours.

-Do I need to add any water?

-You can if you want to, but it's quite a delicate fish.

'Before long, it's ready to taste.'

Tell me what you think of your mother dish.

-I'm getting judged! What do you think?

-Not bad for a first try.

It tastes nice. The flavours seem the way we would cook them.

I just find it a bit thick. I can taste too much turmeric.

-I will do the best I can to make your dish shine with my pastry round it.

-I'm sure it will!

Thank you.

Hello, Ashan, Trishna and Pritam. Welcome to my kitchen.

Inspired by the beautiful cooking and food I had when I was up there,

I've decided to do - using chapati dough, which I'm going to make -

I'm going to cook a Scottish curry cod pasty.

-That's a big mouthful.

-That pretty much covers a lot of bases there. I might be covered.

'I've decided not to make one big pie, but smaller pasties.

'It's traditional in Indian culture to use bread chapatis instead of cutlery to eat the curries,

'so a chapati pastry seems a perfect choice.

'This is going to be tough. I've got to do this from memory and not do what I'd normally do -

'taste while I bake. Whilst being watched very closely,

'I put some chilli in a bowl, add roasted garlic, salt, curry powder, fresh grated ginger

'and some tinned tomatoes.'

I'm going to mix all this together.

I think you need a bit more salt.

OK. I'm going to put more salt in.

-There you go. Is that OK?

-Yes.

-It's my interpretation of yours.

-OK.

-Give me a break!

In that case, you're doing fine.

'Then I'm going to heat some oil in a pan, add some carom seeds and leave them to cook.

'I add fresh cod to the curry sauce, which I'll leave to marinate.'

Makes me very nervous with these ladies sitting right next to me.

'Now for the chapati bread. To some wholemeal flour I add salt, a drop of oil and some water.'

Wholemeal flour naturally takes more water than white flour.

Add a little bit at a time, mix it together,

feel it, little bit more again. Get your hands in there, mix it round.

It's beginning to come together now. Add a little bit more. That'll probably do.

And that...I'll be happy with.

'As the carom seeds release their flavour, time to add the marinated fish and some of the sauce,

'making sure it doesn't dry up.'

So I'm going to add some water. Do you reckon, yeah? How much?

-That's it.

-About right?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Is this how you were taught? I've got three mums now.

-Aye.

It was similar with me. My dad taught me a lot about baking

when I was very young. And my mum.

-I think sometimes when you're learning from family, you tend not to listen.

-Aye, true.

When you learn from somebody else, you listen more.

With your mum and dad, you go, "Yeah, whatever."

'While the cod is cooking, knead the dough so it's ready for the next stage.'

-Any Indian mother-in-law would be proud of you.

-Would she? Yes!

See? I'm picking it up.

'Once it's developed a silky smooth texture, it's ready to be split into pasty-sized portions.'

What you do with this... you cook this out.

Make sure the meat is nice and well-cooked. This, once it's cooked,

needs to be cooled. And when it's cooled,

you pop it into a separate container.

And then you reduce down the sauce.

What I've done is add cooked chickpeas to this as well.

'Chickpeas will soak up any excess mixture and stop the pastry from going soggy.

'Finally, add the cool cod and mix to infuse the flavours.'

Your mix has to be cold before it goes into the chapati mix. I don't mind if it breaks down

because the pieces are going inside, so it's slightly different from the way you did it.

'Roll out the chapati dough, add some of the mixture and pinch together to make a pasty.'

Each one of these...

goes onto...a tray. I'll do another one.

'Then they're ready for baking. Put in the oven at 200 degrees for 25 minutes.

'Once they've gone dark and crispy, they're done.'

-Maybe we'll start serving them in the cafe.

-That's what I like to hear!

-Serve them in the cafe.

-It'll be a different taste.

They will be different.

There you have it. My beautiful Scottish curry cod pasty,

inspired by these beautiful Punjabi ladies and I hope that one day it will make its way

-into your menu at the Punjabi Junction.

-I'm sure it will. Thanks.

'I'm proud of this recipe. Curries and pasties couldn't be more popular but these are very special -

'authentic, healthy and very tasty indeed.

Baking has a magical ability to create moments and mark memories on our lives. It's special for that.

Someone whose baking has celebrated memories in OUR national life is Fiona Cairns,

-baker to the Royals.

-Gosh!

-Welcome, Fiona.

-Thank you, Paul.

From baking Kate and Wills' cake to my kitchen. Where does it rank?

-Pretty high.

-Ah, thank you.

-That's what I was supposed to say!

It's amazing to be given that honour of producing the cake for Wills and Kate.

I didn't make it all on my own. There was a team of us.

-It was a great honour, but we were worried as well.

-I can imagine.

The cake itself, you have a picture here. I think that picture is a work of art.

-The cake itself - stunning.

-Well, it was 17 cakes.

Eight... Eight high.

-So how tall was it, then?

-About a metre.

-A metre off...

-About that height. So on there it would be about that.

-Yeah.

-That's an impressive cake.

Obviously, my thing is puddings, pies, breads, pastries.

-So what were your memories of puddings growing up? Is it something you remember fondly?

-I do.

The memory that I have is about French tarts.

So I'm going to show you, or we'll make together, a tarte framboise.

-Raspberry tart.

-I like raspberries.

-Jolly good! I got that right, then.

You're leaning on an open door. My kitchen is yours. If you need me for anything, let me know.

I do. I want you to help me.

'I love it when people show me recipes that mean something to them.

'Fiona's raspberry tart is no exception. She starts by making the pastry cream filling.

'She heats some double cream and adds vanilla pods.'

The whole idea of this raspberry tart stems from your trips over to France.

A long time ago.

And I used to go and stay with my French exchange.

-Yeah. Lean it towards you.

-And Madame was very slim.

-Mm.

And I wasn't particularly in those days. And so...

She wouldn't let me eat all these wonderful tarts. Every time I see them

all displayed like that just brings me back. How mean she was!

-Yeah, exactly.

-Mean. Anyway...

-You're mean, if you're watching.

-Do you think so?

-Absolutely!

'Fiona's creamed together four egg yolks and caster sugar.'

That's really thickened now. It's much lighter.

'She's adding plain flour to thicken it up.'

You're then going to pour over...

-..half the milk.

-The mixture, yes.

So I'll pour some of this over there.

'Fiona wants the cream poured in slowly.

'If it's added too quickly, the eggs will scramble and she'll have to start again.'

There's the pods. Fantastic. So you take the pods out at this stage.

Yeah, OK.

'Fiona will cook out the flour and thicken this to a custard, then it's left in the fridge to go cold.'

-And you've got one in the fridge?

-Yes.

-There you go.

-Should we turn...?

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Very good.

-That's beautiful.

'Then all the custard needs is some whipped cream folding in.'

-That was quick.

-It was, wasn't it?

You've obviously done this before.

-I'm just spreading that over the tart, the cooked pastry case.

-Yeah.

And then I'm going to finish it with the raspberries.

-I'll be your sous-chef and get rid of all these for you.

-That's fine by me.

-No problem at all.

And I'm starting on the outside and just working in.

-Once you've covered all that, you use...

-The redcurrant glaze with a little rose water.

-So that's already in there. Then rose petals on top of that?

-That's it.

-It's so effective.

-Oh, right.

-That's fantastic.

'My next recipe is a steamed cake that is incredibly easy,

'but uses the most natural and healthy of ingredients. It's our British super food - heather honey.'

Long before we imported sugar, honey was how we got our sweet fix,

so I wanted to find out more

about how we produce one of Britain's oldest and sweetest natural flavours.

The moorlands of Scotland are famed for creating some of Britain's best honey.

Here in rural East Lothian, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,

is where Stuart Hood has the historic right to keep his beehives.

This is ling heather. You don't get a significant smell of nectar from it.

The sugar composition of it when the bees turn it into honey is different from all the other honeys we have.

We have to deal with it differently.

It's a more complex honey for us to work with,

but it has the most wonderful, unique taste that I personally love.

My very first food memory is eating heather honey

and my very, very first outdoor memory is being at the bees,

so it's very much in my blood.

Stuart makes three different types of honey, all graded by the type of pollen the bees feed on.

The trouble is, the bees don't automatically head to the right plants,

so it's up to Stuart to move the hives, so the bees feed on the right pollen.

This is our first crop of the season which is blossom honey, from oilseed rape or sycamore.

The mid crop is what the bees are on just now, which is wild flower, which is the runny honey.

It's clover, willow herb, meadowsweet.

And this is the final one. This is the heather honey and we're about to move the bees on to this now.

It's the crucial final crop of our season and this is probably the very last jar of last season's heather,

so I hope there's many more from this season's crop.

'And so do I, Stuart, because I want to use some of that delicious heather honey in my sponge pudding,

'so I hope those bees get busy.'

It's impossible to tell how much honey we produce.

There's such great scales between production, depending on what the weather's like.

Last year, we produced nothing, so it very much depends on the weather.

'Making heather honey starts in spring

'when the bees feed off the blossom and wild flowers like sycamore, hawthorn and buttercups.

'During the summer months, Stuart moves the hives up on to that delicious wild heather

'when it's in full bloom.'

We're here in the Lammermuir Hills and I'm up to check to ensure that the ling heather is in bloom

and it's at a position that the bees can work it now.

Stuart's challenge is to move up to three million bees in double-quick time,

so this is not a job for the faint-hearted.

It's best to move bees when they're at their most docile

which always means an early start.

It's 5am in the morning and we're on our way to a place we call "the secret valley".

'Getting this move right is crucial.

'Stuart earns more money from the bees working the heather than any other time during the year.'

We're just about to start closing up the hives for the final move this season up into the heather.

It's a relatively simple process. We close every entrance up with a piece of cloth cut to the right size.

We strap all the hives, so they don't burst open, and load them on to the trailer.

We're always working against the clock when we move bees.

When we close these hives up, their oxygen supply is taken away,

so we've got a real rush to get them on the trailer, to the other site and off-loaded,

open them up and let them breathe again.

The wild heather is 13 miles away up on the moors.

And Stuart can't be sure his bees will settle in their new home until he's moved them.

We're on the home stretch. It's just a case of keeping going, getting them laid out and get them opened.

That's all the bees, all the hives on to the heather. It's over to them now.

The honey these bees produce will be world-class and I can't wait.

I'm not at all surprised that Paul wants to use Scottish heather honey in his recipes.

It's got a wonderful depth of flavour. It does very, very well in cooking.

It's always been my favourite honey. It's completely unique, but it's just got a wonderful taste to it.

-Hello. Welcome, Stuart.

-Thanks, Paul.

-So, tell me, how did the bees get on with the heather?

-It's been an average year.

The weather was quite good, but we struggled for rain from July onwards,

the complete opposite to last year,

and also we were down in bee numbers which affects our end crop,

but we have some heather honey and it's tasting wonderful this year, even a bit more special this year.

I didn't realise that the different types of honey were based on the time of year, what they ate.

Absolutely. Wherever they graze or forage, as we call it, it gives you slightly different flavours.

The honeys have different proportions of sugar in them, they've got different types of pollen.

This is our very earliest honey from the start of the season.

-It's like wax.

-That's a bit harder because there's a lot of oilseed rape in that.

-Hmm.

-And that's high in glucose.

I like that flavour. It's very sweet, isn't it?

The next one, the runny honey, that's the honey that most people would associate to.

It's all about the balance of glucose and fructose.

The honeys that are higher in glucose will naturally crystallise.

Honeys higher in fructose like this will stay in their runny form.

-So we move on to the heather honey. This is the platinum one, is it?

-Absolutely.

The heather honey gives you a hit at the back of your throat. That's the real difference.

-It's got a real depth to it.

-It does. It's spicy, peppery.

-Absolutely.

It's got that real depth that you can only get in the Scottish moors.

-It almost kids your taste buds, thinking it's heat, but it's not.

-Absolutely.

-Incredible.

-Is it good for you?

-Absolutely.

-I'll prove that it's good by turning it into a heather honey sponge.

I'll serve that with a honey cream.

'To make a light sponge that really makes the most of this honey, beat three eggs with self-raising flour.'

-Have you ever had honey sponge?

-Never. I'm really looking forward to it.

'Sweeten with caster sugar and add butter.' This is an easy recipe.

'Add some baking powder and blend together.'

I'm happy with that. 'Now for the star, Stuart's heather honey,

'which goes in the bowl greased with butter.'

-You were mentioning that heather honey is tricky to use because of the heat.

-Very much.

-How will it cope in the steam?

-I'm confident that you'll do well.

It can caramelise very, very easily. Steaming is probably the ideal way to do it.

When we process our honey, we never heat it with air.

-We only heat it with water surrounding the containers.

-I'm doing a similar process here.

-Absolutely.

'Pour the sponge mix over the honey, then make an air-tight lid out of silicone paper and foil.'

-Do you like steamed puddings?

-Wonderful, yes.

'Tie the string and loop it round the rim to make a handle.'

I've got one over here to show you exactly what happens.

Now, this one has been steaming for about an hour and a quarter.

You use that bit of string and then you bring it out.

I'm just going to release it from its package.

It's like Christmas again.

Just be careful lifting it up.

-Oh! So we could be on for a winner here.

-Absolutely.

Let's turn this over.

It is going.

-It's going.

-There it goes.

Timing's beautiful. Timing is everything.

'This dish is perfect with my creamy take on Atholl Brose

'which is simply whipping cream, a drop of fine Scotch

'and some wild heather honey.'

What we're going to do is fold this through, try and ripple it...

'Then it's ready.'

And there you have it.

'For an extra-special treat,

'serve with vanilla or ginger ice cream.'

'Earlier, I was joined by Fiona Cairns, cake-maker to Kate and Wills.'

'Fiona made one of her all-time favourite bakes - a raspberry French tart.'

-I'll be your sous-chef and get rid of all these.

-That's fine by me.

-No problem at all.

'I'm baking something I hope will get added to her list

'of memorable bakes - my pear frangipane tart.'

Let me explain how you make a pear frangipane tart.

It's a sort of hybrid between a Bakewell tart and a Normandy apple tart.

I've blind-baked a sweet pastry shell.

On top of that I'm going to add some apricot jam.

This is a Bakewell tart sort of start. Normally, you'd have this at the bottom of a Bakewell tart.

-Bakewell tart, isn't there some controversy as to which jam is at the bottom?

-Yes.

What do you think it should be?

I've heard raspberry. I think there's about two official ones.

You can change it. I particularly think that the frangipane and apricot really go well together.

'The delicious frangipane filling sounds complicated, but it's a very straightforward recipe.

'It's a simple mix of ground almonds, butter,

'three whole eggs, some flaked almonds and flour to thicken it up.'

You mix that to a lovely, smooth paste which you then dollop all over your base.

It doesn't have to be an exact science

because this will balloon up slightly in the oven.

'That's topped with tinned, halved pears which go perfectly with that almond filling.'

-It's so quick. It's amazing.

-It's so effective.

Once you've gone around this and you cover the top,

you can sprinkle some almonds on the top if you wish.

'Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.'

And that is how it comes out of the oven.

And then just brush the top with the apricot glaze.

What I've got in here is apricot jam which I've sieved to get most of the lumps out, added a bit of water,

pop it on to a stove, bring it up to the boil, reduce it slightly,

then I've just added a little thimbleful of the Poire William.

-You end up with...

-That looks so good.

..a beautiful, very simple,

but highly effective frangipane pear tart.

'The apricot, almond and pear flavours make this a delicious dessert

'or a tasty treat with an afternoon cuppa.'

OK, everyone, dive in.

Don't worry about impoliteness. Just tuck in and tell us what you think.

I think I'll start with the pasty.

'My curried cod pasties, inspired by Trishna, Pritam and Ashan, all the way from their cafe in Edinburgh.'

I want to hear what you think.

I thought it might be too dry, but it's not.

-Do you like my crimping?

-I do. Very nice.

-I didn't think it would be exactly the same, but the flavour's there, even without the turmeric.

-Thanks.

'Thanks to Royal Wedding cake-maker Fiona Cairns for her raspberry tart

'and for her help in creating my pear frangipane.'

Great creme pat as well.

-You made it, actually, didn't you?

-No, I didn't.

-We sort of both made it.

-It was a team effort.

'And thanks to Stuart and his bees for the delicious heather honey.'

In a lifetime involved in eating heather honey, I've never had it in a sponge. This is a first.

That's absolutely wonderful.

Phew!

We've enjoyed some really tasty dishes today and I hope you feel inspired to try them yourselves.

See you next time for more Pies And Puds.

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