Roasting Raymond Blanc: How to Cook Well

If you master the basic cooking techniques,

you can build your confidence, cooking skills and repertoire.

It's so easy once you understand the basics.

And there's no better teacher than legendary Michelin starred chef,

-Raymond Blanc.

-I feel like Picasso. Not quite.

He wants to share what he's learnt in his professional kitchen...

What is the Maillard reaction?

Gives flavour, colour and taste to the food.

..to help you achieve incredible results at home.

That's the kind of dish you'll remember all of your life.

Raymond will reveal the secrets behind the simple

techniques at the heart of every dish.

If you go too high, you burn it.

If you go to slow, nothing happens.

It goes beige, like English cuisine 40 years ago.

From baking to roasting, poaching to frying, barbecuing and slow-cooking.

-Ooh la la, and I mean, Ooh la la.

-And all in his own unique way.

Raymond Blanc taught himself to cook. Now he'll teach you.

What I promise to give you is a deep understanding of what's happening

in your saucepan, in your oven

and these techniques will help you become a better cook.

Roasting is an extremely popular technique,

very at home in the British kitchen.

It adds colour, flavour and depth to any meal.

Roasting is cooking an ingredient in the dry heat of an oven,

using fat or oil to keep the surface of the food moist

whilst the inside cooks slowly.

For me, roasting conjures up

all sorts of wonderful smells in your kitchen.

I think of Sunday lunch, I think of tradition, I think

this wonderful smell of roasting invading your kitchen.

What I'd like to share with you, is all the knowledge

I acquired in 40 years and to try to take the guesswork out.

When you see that roast, you have no idea. Is it cooked, is it not cooked?

I will equip you with total knowledge and confidence

and you know what's happening in that roast.

Roasting gives great results to many foods, from vegetables to fruit

and fish, as well as juicy joints of meat.

And a great place to start with this technique, is a roast rib of beef,

served with Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes.

The traditional, Sunday roast.

There's something really wonderful when you go into a kitchen

to a nice piece of roast beef, it's something very special,

especially when it's a French one cooking the roast beef

because we all know too well, the incredible connotation.

We call you rosbif, you call us frog.

What I will do is prepare my beef.

I will do French trimming. I love that.

French trimming removes the flesh and fat from the bones,

leaving them exposed.

It gives the beef a smart look

and can be done by the butcher or at home.

Nothing goes to waste.

The off-cuts are used as the foundation of the dish

to add flavour.

Brown them lightly.

It gives flavour, colour and taste to the food

and that is going to be a bed on which the meat is going to sit.

Once the meat trimmings have taken on some colour, add onion, carrot,

garlic and thyme and water will create a wonderful jus.

That will take about 10 minutes to acquire heat.

Next, score the surface of the beef.

This allows the surrounding dry heat of the oven to penetrate

deep into the flesh.

The roasting bed becomes a trivet which elevates the rib of beef,

stopping it from sticking to the base of the tin

and allowing the hot air to circulate, so it can cook evenly.

I've got my preheated oven at 170 degrees

and I'm going to roast this beef for two hours.

Unlike grilling or pan frying where direct heat quickly cooks

the food through contact, oven roasting is a slower,

indirect and more uniform way to cook.

All the secrets of this beef will be revealed.

I don't have any more!

All the secrets of this beef will be revealed through this probe here.

I know exactly what's going on.

I'm in control, I'm in charge, I'm the boss. I think so.

Baste the beef every 20 minutes.

The juices prevent the meat becoming dry,

adding colour as it roasts.

While the rib of beef roasts with its French trimming,

Adam has come to offer a very British touch.

So, I know a lot about roasting, but not so much about Yorkshire puddings

so I invited my friend, Adam.

He knows everything about Yorkshire pudding.

-OK, so, my mum's recipe.

-Mum's recipe. Good.

Mum's recipe is equal amounts.

I've got 200 flour, 200 milk and four medium eggs.

-There's a lot of lumps here, Adam.

-That's OK.

So we're going to leave this to rest for half an hour once it's mixed

and we're going to cook it the same time as our roast potatoes.

He's eaten a lot of Yorkshire puddings.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa!

-No?

-OK, there we go.

-Lovely and smooth. Perfect, lovely.

-I'll put that in the fridge.

After two hours roasting in the oven,

the beef is medium rare and ready to come out.

Moment of truth here.

Gorgeous. Look at that.

So, what's fascinating is the temperature here's 40 degrees.

That will go up to 60 within half an hour.

Your beef will be perfectly medium.

If you want it medium rare, you put a temperature of 35 degrees inside.

It will go to 55.

Most people rest the meat thinking it is just for resting.

The temperature stays static. Oh, no, it doesn't.

The temperature has momentum and energy and it goes up.

In five minutes, it's already gone up to 48 degrees. That's how fast it is.

I'm going to let my beautiful beef rest whilst Adam is

creating his mum's Yorkshire pudding.

The Yorkshire puddings go into the oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes.

The same time the parboiled potatoes need to get perfectly crisp,

and for the resting beef to reach the optimum temperature

and a medium-rare finish.

The first cut. People throw it away, but it's one of my favourite ones.

-Beautiful. Your mum will be proud of you, no doubt.

-I'm sure she is.

The strained juices from the roasting tray

create an instant delicious gravy.

-You have a fantastic Sunday lunch. Let's eat my beef.

-My beef.

That beef is absolutely delicious.

The Yorkshire pudding is light and crispy and tastes lovely.

I think a Yorkshireman should be very happy.

-A Stropshire man, too.

-Shropshire man.

-You say Stropshire?

-Shropshire.

Roasting is a great technique for foods that have a firm

structure like the beef joint.

But it can also work well on a robust fish.

Meaty fish with dense flesh, like turbot,

is perfect for roasting as it can withstand the high heat.

A more delicate fish would burn.

In this next recipe, turbot roasts on a bed of herbs and spices

taking in their flavours as it cooks.

Served with braised fennel from Raymond's vegetable

garden at Le Manoir and a buttery sauce, this is a wonderfully

fresh dish packed with an assortment of aromas.

The recipe I'm going to do is the most ancient recipe,

still beautiful because classics, they defy time, defy fashions. OK?

This dish is so beautiful, so simple. We've a bit of olive oil here.

The olive oil prevents the turbot steaks sticking as they cook.

Olive oil. Very gently you just...

Lovely, perfect.

A few minutes in a griddle pan will begin the browning process as the

fish isn't roasted long enough in the oven for it to change colour.

So, now, I'm going to prepare my roasting bed.

I've got this beautiful fennel here. It's amazingly aromatic.

Bit of sage - whatever you have, throw it in.

A bit of thyme, a few zests of orange. That's lovely.

The turbot will rest on a bed of fresh and dried herbs and spices.

It'll be infused with their flavours as it roasts in the oven.

And, as with the beef, the aromatic bed acts as a trivet,

raising the fish and allowing it to cook evenly.

BEEPING

OK, tres bien. Voila.

A coating of olive oil will add flavour and keep the fish moist

as the oven's dry heat gently cooks it through.

13 minutes at 180 temperature.

While the turbot is roasting, fry already cooked fennel

which will complement the herby tastes of the fish.

What a lovely noise. I could stay here all day. So beautiful.

Listen to that noise.

Wonderful, wonderful, caramelised brown smell of fennel,

orange, lemon, anise.

And then what you do, always when you roast, baste a little bit.

The juice of olive oil now has got the most incredible flavour. OK?

So use it.

My fennel now looks lovely. I smell them and they are groaning.

Ooh la la, camera, s'il vous plait.

You must see that. Look at that, sir.

Slow caramelisation. Some salt.

Very little.

That takes a lot of practice.

-Very few people are able to do that.

-Like Mr Miyagi!

Dress the fish with a buttery sauce.

First, soften shallots in a little butter and water.

Add white wine, tomatoes, chives and chervil to make a light fresh,

herby jus.

All the herbs. Beautiful.

So lovely, so simple.

Leave the roast turbot to rest.

Leave it two or three minutes

and your fillet will be absolutely lovely.

This will intensify the flavours and firm up the flesh

which will be easier to cut.

Serve the fish with the braised fennel and buttery sauce.

Very simple jus here.

Then move the skin away, the black skin, if you don't like it.

Look at that. Beautiful.

And that is... Look at how shiny it is.

Look at that. Barely cooked. You can see it is not overcooked.

Roasting gave the turbot, a wonderful fish, even more character.

I mean that is divine.

That's very good.

Fish, meat and even salad can be enriched by oven roasting.

In this next recipe, beetroot, a tough root vegetable, is transformed,

becoming sweet and tender when roasted.

The beetroot is mixed with chicory and walnuts, then paired with

a roasted goat's cheese in golden breadcrumbs to create a warm salad.

A classic combination of flavours and techniques.

Cooking techniques, there's always a crossover between roasting,

poaching, bit of steaming and that is typical of that dish.

The roasted cheese is simple and straightforward.

The beetroot, although they are roasted in the oven, actually,

they are being steamed through their own juices, their own steam.

They produce their own juice that should be used for the dressing.

It's a bit of poaching, bit of roasting, c'est la vie.

Sometimes lines get blurred.

Here it is.

First, I've got my beetroot from my garden, of course.

I'm lucky, I'm very, very lucky. They're seriously organic.

They have their own personality. They're delicious.

See, I told you they have their own personality.

All we're going to do is to keep to cook them in a papillote,

an envelope made of paper or aluminium, generally,

where you wrap the food hermetically and steam in within their own juices.

That's very, very simple.

Roasting breaks down the beetroot's tough cell walls,

softening it as it cooks.

Its earthy notes will sweeten as starch converts to sugar.

Then press it, fold it, voila.

You've got a sealed papillote here which I'm going to bake

for two hours, 160.

Tres bien. That's lovely.

Of course, you can see they've lost their perfect shape,

they are a little bit like me, un-shapen, a bit of a bulge here.

Of course, the water has gone out of them.

Then I've got this beautiful jus from my olive oil which I'll

keep, of course. Tres bien.

Look at that, they are beautiful.

Look at this colour. The smell of it.

The smell of it is so different than poached with lots of water.

Here, by roasting it in its own papillote, you add flavour.

The roasting juice becomes the base of the salad dressing.

Add olive oil, shallots and red wine vinegar.

A splash of water to thin.

And season.

Next, mix the chopped, roasted beetroot

and raw chicory into the dressing.

That's absolutely lovely.

The delicate goat's cheese adds a creamy texture to the salad.

What we're going to do is this wonderful

cheese from the Loire Valley.

First, dip the cheese in flour to help the beaten egg stick.

A tiny amount.

Voila.

This in turn will allow breadcrumbs soaked in olive oil to stick to the

cheese and create a crispy coating

as the goat's cheese roasts in the oven.

Voila. So, what you want here is fast roasting,

so you'll need six minutes at the highest temperature of your oven,

which is about 230, to colour, give a crust

and have a lovely melting inside.

Voila.

Don't forget your timer. Six minutes, that should do.

After just six minutes, the roast cheese is ready to come

out of the oven.

OK. Ooh, I love to see that.

Look at that cheese.

Just melting down here, leaking out just perfectly.

Leave it to rest so the heat can go on to cook perfectly

the inside of the cheese.

The goat's cheese becomes the centrepiece of the salad,

which is sprinkled with crushed walnuts and chopped chives.

A simple dish that can be prepared in advance.

Goat's cheese ready to go in the oven, beetroot done.

It's a no-brainer. It's an easy one and very lovely and delicious.

Really lovely. Which is why it mustn't be too hot.

Leave it two or three minutes. It's perfect now.

The goat's cheese salad shows that combining techniques is

the secret to many successful dishes.

But using different techniques to cook a single ingredient can

have stunning results as well.

Raymond goes to London to meet chef, James de Jong.

He's reviving the age-old tradition of brining,

a wet curing technique, in his quest for the perfect roast

and it's won him rave reviews.

James learnt on the job working in respected restaurant

kitchens around the country.

At just 25, he was fast-tracked to head chef of this North London

gastro pub's kitchen, famous for its roasts.

I've actually heard that you are the very best roaster in town.

Not the best roast beef, the best roaster.

We kind of do things traditionally here.

We don't use any kind of new, modern techniques.

We like to keep things quite simple.

You do a lot of roasts, so how do you do it? What kind of brine do you do?

We do a salt, brown sugar, juniper, star anise.

Brine is salted water infused with flavours.

-OK, can we taste it?

-Yeah.

It is typically used with poultry and pork before roasting.

The meat is immersed in the liquid,

so the salt can break down the muscle filaments.

This allows the water to be taken in,

making the meat incredibly juicy.

Sugar is often added to counterbalance the salt.

Yes, it is not too aggressive. Some can be so salty and aggressive.

-It is lovely.

-It is almost caramel.

Beautiful taste of the juniper berries.

-Good flavours complement the pork.

-OK. How long do you brine it?

We brine it for 24 hours, a joint like this.

We want to get that flavour of the brine into the pork.

But we don't want it to be overpowering.

After soaking the pork loin in the brine for a day,

James rubs olive oil into it before it roasts in the oven.

The oil distributes the salt from the brine evenly,

which will help the skin to crisp up.

-You know, you touch your pig like it was your lover.

-It almost is.

-You have to feel it.

-Very romantic. Absolutely, I fully understand.

While it roasts,

the salt in the brine gives the pork a tender texture.

The sugar adds another quality,

producing a beautifully crunchy skin.

So, this is one that's been brined overnight in the salt

and brown sugar solution and these two here haven't.

You can see the difference between the colour on this and also,

you know, a lot crispier crackling.

That's full of sugar in the brine which has caramelised it

on the outside.

You know, it does kind of pay off doing that little extra step.

The brining takes the Sunday roast to another level.

All that remains is for Raymond to sample James' award winning cooking.

-There we go.

-That looks lovely.

-Fantastic.

Beautifully moist, beautiful and moist. James, you're a genius.

Thank you very much.

Shall we drink?

-To good food, the roast beef, to James, to life.

-Cheers, to life.

The Sunday roast mastered,

now the challenge of roasting a whole game bird.

Its lean meat responds brilliantly to roasting

as it cooks quickly and evenly,

adding richness to its unique flavour.

This next recipe of roast pheasant served with bread sauce,

and a fragrant berry jus,

brings out the very best of British game.

I'm going to roast a beautiful bird.

It's a lady bird, it's a young pheasant - a young, female pheasant.

How do I know?

Look at the legs, beautiful legs.

No, it's a small pheasant.

That's perfect for roasting.

The problem that we often have is the breast is quite tender

but the legs, my God, they can be so tough.

They can be and do you know why?

Because the pheasant, most of the time runs.

Look at those legs, beautiful legs, well formed,

but full of tough ligament, ossified,

OK, which are running right through the legs, about eight or ten.

By removing these tough splinters you make the legs much more tender

and it will cook at the same time as the breast.

That's very important when you cook any game bird. So, here we are!

Cut here, I liberate here.

Voila!

I can see the stick out here.

A little bit of salt to have more grip.

Voila! Look at that - those are bones.

Look at that - that is bone.

Voila!

Tres bien!

So now she's ready to be roasted.

Now...ready.

Before roasting in the oven

the pheasant is pan-fried in rapeseed oil

for around four minutes on each leg side.

This begins the cooking process and gives a great, nutty flavour.

Look at that, it's got...

Ah, heavenly.

I think we should eat more game in this country.

It's fantastic. It cannot be more free range than that, it's wild.

It's delicious. Wonderful flavour - easy to cook.

Low fat, as well.

Once the pheasant skin has turned a golden brown,

keep it in the frying pan with all its juices

and place in a preheated oven at 170 degrees.

After 20 minutes roasting in the oven, take the pheasant out.

My pheasant is ready.

There it is.

It's beautifully gold outside,

crispy, as well.

Rest it, about ten minutes

before carving it.

Put it in a warm place.

While the bird rests, and the meat tenderises further,

the roasting juices left in the pan can be turned into a fruity sauce.

Add port, juniper berries, red wine,

redcurrant jelly and blackberries.

That's really rich.

There's a little jus in here that we are going to add to the sauce.

So just carve here,

the breast we will carve here like that.

The roast pheasant meat is perfectly pink and tender

and sits on a bed of bread sauce.

Put the leg here.

And then we've got this wonderful little jus here,

but you really don't need very much.

It's tasty, it's simple to cook.

It's relatively inexpensive, as well.

And so gorgeous, it roasts so beautifully.

Amazing flavours.

But don't just think of roasting for savoury dishes.

This classic technique, using one ingredient

and its rich basting juices,

creates stunning desserts too.

In his next recipe, Raymond roasts a pineapple,

caramelising the whole fruit,

serving it with a pineapple crisp and a cool pineapple sorbet.

A spectacular dessert, fit for a queen.

Of course we all know pineapple is delicious just on its own,

but this one I'm going to roast it whole.

The dry heat will completely brown and caramelise the pineapple.

The juices will come out.

I'll put a beautiful vanilla syrup, as well, onto it,

so the caramelisation will go on for two hours!

It will show the wonderful technique of roasting.

Actually, it's a dish which I created for the Queen Mum,

many, many years ago.

First carefully peel the pineapple's prickly skin.

So don't go too much into the flesh.

Parfait! OK, tres bien. I would like to do something fun, OK?

Just something to add something to my dessert.

Something surprising.

I work my mandolin to do some pineapple sunflowers. That's it.

The pineapple slices are soaked in a sweet water and sugar syrup.

This balances the acidity of the pineapple

and gives the slices a crisp texture when they're dried in the oven,

for an hour at 100 degrees.

I've got this wonderful pineapple here

but it is full of eyes, too many eyes for me, looking at me.

Too much, too many. So I want to remove those eyes.

So you do little cuts.

Oh, Raymond, you're a genius. Unbelievable!

Look at that. HE CHUCKLES

Voila!

And just around the top here...

So it's lovely and rounded

and attractive.

Voila! We've got our pineapple now.

That's all my trimmings for my caramel, so nothing is lost.

The pineapple will be basted

with this sweet caramel sauce as it roasts.

For the caramel, mix sugar and unsalted butter

and flavour with the pineapple trimmings.

A bit of skin, no problem.

Add 200 mls of water.

So bring back to simmering point

so there's a beautiful exchange and cook it for about 15-20 minutes.

No longer, it will kill the flavour.

And finally, with the sauce simmering, a Caribbean touch.

So rum, that's a special basting juice called rum,

which will add that extra flavour.

30 gram, roughly, you can always add more later.

While the sauce reduces, make a citrus sugar

which will add sweetness and a zingy flavour to the roasting pineapple.

Grate the zest of a lemon,

orange and two limes onto a bed of caster sugar.

Voila! Tres bien, that's plenty.

Then all what you have to do is to mix the sugar together.

OK, so now we have our pineapple.

I'm going to brush it with clear vanilla.

It smells good - amazing.

That is so lovely.

The puree of vanilla syrup will add another fragrant

layer of flavour as the fruit roasts.

Roll the pineapple in the citrus sugar

and finish by coating with the strained caramel sauce.

Make sure you use the right saucepan.

If it's too small, you cannot baste

and if it's too wide the caramel keeps evaporating.

I'm going to roast the pineapple,

170 degrees for two hours.

Baste the pineapple with the caramel sauce

every 15 minutes to keep it moist.

And the more you baste it, the more caramelisation will happen,

deeper flavour, better exchange of flavours,

you win all the way.

After two hours roasting in the oven,

the sugars in the pineapple have caramelised

to give it a rich, golden brown coating.

The dense fruit fibres have softened

producing a melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Hey, Benoit!

Ah, c'est joli.

Can you speak English?

Yes, I can make an effort for you

with my very strong French accent for you.

You have a very strong French accent.

It's unbelievable, I can hardly understand you.

-Well, there you go. You take it, or leave it, it's there.

-RAYMOND LAUGHS

It's beautiful, you see inside, it's just like, wow!

Benoit has made a refreshing pineapple sorbet

to complement the sweet, sticky roast pineapple.

There's the expert, best patissier in England,

well one of the best patissiers in England.

We've worked together 17 years.

-How did we do that.

-I don't know.

To me, really what you have here is the best of roasting.

You've got a beautiful caramelised flavour,

the pineapple is king on that plate. You can smell it from here.

It's pineapple three ways, in fact, yeah?

You've got the crisp, you've got the roasting pineapple

and you've got the sorbet, all pineapple kind of flavour.

Mmm.

-Thank you very much.

-Merci.

Excellent dish. So let's arrange a dish together.

That's OK. No problem.

Aww! Merci.

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