Apples Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets

For 35 years, Raymond Blanc has inspired the world with his cooking.

It's about celebrating the gorgeous, glorious food, and sharing a special moment with your loved ones.

Now, he's opening his kitchen and sharing his secrets.

I've made all the mistakes which could be made, so you don't have to make them yourself.

-Showing, with a little effort...

-Food is so, so beautiful.

..anyone can bring some joy to the dinner table.

Even the most complicated dish is not impossible to make.

On Kitchen Secrets, Raymond celebrates one of Britain's favourite fruits - the apple.

From the perfect baked apple...

It tastes absolutely amazing.

..to a dessert full of childhood memories - Maman Blanc's apple tart.

I hope that every family in Great Britain tries this dessert.

Apples complement a salmon confit.

Ah, that's making me very happy.

And finally, a light and fluffy apple souffle.

It's so simple. It is truly simple.

In his working kitchen in Oxfordshire, Raymond and his chefs begin their day.

Good morning, Dan.

Could I have an apron, please, and voila, thank you very much.

-Adam, why isn't it here? I want to be ready!

-That was a display, Chef.

Perfect. That's what I want.

Raymond's first dish brings back memories.

When I think of apple, I think of Maman Blanc's Tarte Aux Pommes.

In the afternoon, the tart would be slowly baking in the oven and all the wafts of these amazing apples

would come through and I knew we had apple tart.

Just shortcrust pastry and apples, OK, and that will be delicious.

That's a world class apple. OK, that's a Cox Orange Pippin,

and that to me is the best apple for a tart.

A wonderful balance of sweet and acidity,

very complex flavours, and a great apple experience.

Give me another apple.

Yeah, I'm short of a... I've eaten one and I've got only four. Sorry.

-Mon petit?

-Yeah, more apples.

For the filling, start by peeling four medium apples.

Raymond's using Cox's Orange Pippins, traditional British apples which work perfectly in this tart.

My hands were...at one time. My peeling was so thin. Voila.

So, obviously you can't make a tart without pastry, that's for sure, OK?

So I'm going to do a very simple shortcrust pastry. No sugar, OK?

That's how it was done at home.

Mix 250 grams of flour, a pinch of salt and 125 grams of unsalted butter.

I can do it by hand, but I've got a machine as well.

You can do it in a machine in about three minutes. By hand, it will take you ten minutes.

OK, it won't be better either.

Lovely. See? It's sandy.

Add an egg and a dash of water.

Voila.

OK, yeah, tres bien.

It's ready now to be compressed together. That's it. Voila.

Raymond places the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm,

so there's no need to use flour when it's rolled out.

The amazing, magic clingfilm.

It is! It does everything!

Then it's into the fridge to cool for half an hour.

Once the pastry's cool, roll it to a thickness of about two millimetres.

The best roller is a good old-fashioned, very heavy...

I nearly bought one, but they were £86.

I said, "No way. I'm not going to pay 86 quid."

And there I've got a nice, very thin...

You can see it, very thin pressed.

Put a 22 centimetre tart ring on top of a baking sheet.

Voila. Now...

Oop! Typical. Typical, isn't it?

Delicately lift it, and try to fold it in inside.

Then thumb up your pastry - lift the pastry a little higher than the ring.

When you cook it, there will always be some retraction.

Prick the base to keep the pastry flat while it cooks.

Voila.

Then cut the apple into chunky slices.

You want about that thickness, OK?

Very important. If it's too thin they'll collapse.

You want nice, fleshy, apple flavour.

Arrange in a circle within the tart.

Make a calvados butter to caramelise the apples while they cook.

-Adam, please. Can you get me a bit more butter, please?

-Oui, Chef.

Melt butter...

add a dash of lemon juice...

Just to heighten the flavour. A tiny bit. Like that. No more.

..sugar...

and a splash of calvados - a brandy made from apples.

Oh! A bit too much. There's never too much.

Tres bien.

Brush the calvados butter over the apples.

So that's ready to be put in the oven. Voila.

The tart will cook for ten minutes at 220 degrees centigrade.

Then we'll bring down the temperature at 200 and cook it for a further 20 minutes.

To finish the filling, Raymond makes a quick custard.

100 grams of double cream, one egg, and 50 grams of sugar.

And all what you have to do, whisk it.

That's rather nice.

You see there's a light coloration, so add a bit of sugar like that.

Pour the custard over the cooked tart and return it to the oven for ten more minutes.

-Adam? Ca va?

-Oui.

The tart needs to stand for about an hour before serving.

Barely warm. That's when you eat it. That's when it is at its best.

Once cool, dust with icing sugar to serve.

To me, this apple tart sums up my youth,

where the mother would bring this amazing, simple dessert, OK, and it will be shared with the family.

So I hope that every family in Great Britain tries this dessert.

There is that...

-You are drooling. I think I see juices rolling...

-It's my favourite.

It's your favourite? Voila.

-Lovely.

-That's for both of us, OK?

That's for my family.

Go ahead, Adam. Voila.

-That's special, huh? It's so simple.

-It's good. Really good.

Are you sure there's just one slice?

We have to feed you properly.

That's lovely.

Right, no, the Granny Smiths are too hard.

All the Bramleys are small.

-OK.

-Do we have any in the garden?

-Yes! Yes!

OK, mon petit, could you run the garden, and I mean run,

-and get me two fat, lovely Bramley from the top of the tree in the orchard?

-Yes, Chef.

A terrible man I am!

To get your produce, you have got to hunt them and gather them.

He's a hunter gatherer, he's a chef.

That's what chefs should be, no?

Raymond has an extensive kitchen garden, brimming with herbs and vegetables.

But his apple orchard is a little bare.

Huh! Couldn't you find some better one, no? All these scabby apples.

-There's no better one?

-This is all there was in the tree, Chef.

I can't believe that!

To find the best ingredients, Raymond goes to great lengths,

and this year he's tasted 80 different varieties of apple.

No, I want you to have them quite large, chunky, so they have time...

to show they can caramelise and the texture you have.

William Sibley, a fruit expert of 40 years, has brought five new varieties for Raymond to taste.

There's enough for you to try.

-You only want a few to try.

-OK.

Difficult to judge an apple on its looks.

It can tell you a few things, but not everything.

You have to cook it, eat it, cos then you know.

As well as trying them raw, each apple is baked and stewed, as its texture, colour and flavour

will change during cooking depending on its sugar, water and acidity balance.

So much to learn, eh?

Raymond wants to find the perfect variety for each of his apple recipes.

-And these are?

-Rubens.

-Rubens. What a lovely name.

It's juicy, wonderful texture, great acidity, fantastic complexity of flavours.

And I think that one, I think it will bake well.

I don't think it will stew well, but it certainly eats very well.

-Voila.

-Ah!

-Ah, that...

-This was your favourite one to eat.

-Oh, yes. What do you think of it?

-This is nice! I like this!

It's a bit on the dry side.

-But look at that skin, it's amazing.

-Ah, it's got lots of flavour.

I like that. What I am trying to do as a chef, as a cook, is finding the best baking apples.

OK, the best chewing apples, the best roasting apple, right through the season.

And this one is going to help me a great deal.

You keep cooking 'em, I'll keep planting 'em!

Raymond's next recipe makes a whole apple a dish in itself.

Baked apple with a caramel and calvados sauce.

The variety I'm using here is called Reine de Reinette, OK?

The Queen of Russets.

Lovely flesh, delicate flavours, and they'll bake brilliantly well.

-Have you finished the melting butter?

-Yes, Chef.

Although the apples can be baked whole, to make them easier to eat

and to cook them faster and more evenly, Raymond trims the bases and removes the cores.

Voila.

Brush butter on your baking tray to stop the apples from sticking.

Then add a sprinkling of sugar, which will turn into a caramel sauce as the apples cook.

So after, I'll simply just bake it like that.

Or you can brush it with a little bit of butter,

roll it in a bit of sugar or cinnamon, whatever flavours you want inside.

Just will create a nice little coat.

Voila. Tres bien.

What my mum would do, she would just leave a bit of that,

then a bit of sugar. Voila.

Put the apples in the oven at 170 degrees centigrade for 30 to 35 minutes.

No fan. Very important, because the fan is too aggressive.

It drives the heat inside and often the apple will burst.

I'm going to make a caramel sauce.

The apple will love it and you will love it too.

With your pan on a medium heat, add 50 grams of sugar.

As it melts, it'll turn into a caramel.

The caramel is nice and blond now.

We'll bring it to quite a dark colour.

When browned, stir in 20 grams of butter.

It's going. See look, look at that.

Add diced apple and cook for about 30 seconds.

Don't shake your caramel, because that temperature is really seriously high.

Use a bit of apple juice. Oh, lovely.

To thicken the caramel, add half a teaspoon of arrowroot mixed with a little water.

Little by little is very important.

You cannot take away, you can always add.

It's a great rule, but it works, believe me.

Voila. We have now a beautiful sauce.

Next, make a simple garnish by toasting cubed wholemeal bread and icing sugar.

Mix pistachios, almonds - whole and flaked - and icing sugar with a few drops of water or calvados.

Water is nice, but a little bit of Calvados is much nicer.

Sprinkle the garnish on a baking tray with an extra dusting of icing sugar.

To create some amazing textures, colours, it go baf! Baf! Lovely!

The gastric juices start to run.

And it looks delicious, but it tastes absolutely amazing!

Place at the top of the oven for eight minutes until golden.

So look at your apples.

If you can see it start to break up a little bit outside, then you know it is about ready, OK?

And you can smell.

Voila.

Oh, lovely.

Food is just not about flavours, it's also about textures.

And flavours and textures work together to create something truly exciting.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say, so.

Mmm. That's a bloody good apple.

Melting, moist, and that amazing apple flavour.

It's absolutely delicious.

Kent - the garden of England.

William has invited Raymond to East Malling Research centre

to learn a technique to help his orchard thrive - grafting.

There's a lot of apple trees around here. As far as I go you can... How many apple trees?

-I don't know. 500 acres. 500 acres.

-That's a lot of apples.

-We've got some Bramley apple trees here.

-Yeah.

But the crops haven't been quite so good of these, and I think we're a bit short of pollination.

Most apple trees need pollen carried from tree to tree to produce fruit.

So we can put a piece of another variety into this tree,

so that when it grows there'll be a branch which is another variety,

so the bees can hop on from the branch we're going to graft

and onto the Bramley tree, and we can get lots more Bramleys.

Encouraging insect pollination will increase the fruit yield.

But you are going to mix your varieties?

We're going to have two varieties on the same tree, yeah.

-So you are telling me that on that Bramley tree I could grow as many varieties of apples...?

-Yeah.

-Hundreds.

-That's amazing.

Although different apple trees are fused together,

the grafted branches continue to produce their own varieties.

I've heard that you've been able to grow 120 varieties on the same tree?

Yeah, that was the most that I'd ever done, yeah.

So, we need a saw to cut the wood, we need secateurs, we need a knife.

-You've got the knife. Don't cut yourself with it.

-I think I could manage a knife.

-Ah! You've used one before then?

-A few times, yes.

Raymond's first graft will attach a young Jonagold branch to a Bramley.

-That's it.

-What a good partnership.

-Perfect.

So that's the first step. Tres bien.

We're going to cut some one-year-old branches from Jonagold.

We'll strip the leaves off. We're going to introduce this into that branch.

See, I would have taken that one.

-That's a two-year-old piece of wood.

-Ah.

-That's your inexperience showing.

-Obviously.

We're going to make a long, sloping cut.

The perfect cut.

Perfect. ..Now, you don't want to do that.

You do not want to touch the graft.

Oh, perfect!

But don't keep...

Why have you got to touch it? All the acid and the stuff on your fingers has now got on there.

You wouldn't do it with some of your food, would you?

-Definitely not.

-Exactly the same.

That's better. You've got it! By darn, he's got it!

Now, don't touch it.

Underneath the bark lies something called the cambium layer.

This is the growing part of the tree.

We have to match the cambium layer of our graft

with the cambium layer on the branch that we're going to graft onto.

Get the knife, we push it in, give it a little twist,

and then just push it home, and that is it.

OK, that's fine.

-But you see I, I don't have...

-No, that's it. You're done.

That's it.

The branches are tied together with tape.

-Now we need to wax it.

-It's like being in a kitchen after all.

Glazing a creme brulee, OK? There it is.

Wax is painted onto the join to keep the rain out and the plant moisture in.

So that's it! That is the graft complete.

-Your first graft. Congratulations, you are now a grafter.

-Well, that's cool.

That's the first bit of hard graft you've ever done in your life.

You could say that.

-Will that tree taste of that variety, no?

-No. Absolutely not.

From the point of grafting, it will always be Jonagold, and back to the tree, it will always be Bramley.

It will never be any difference between the two.

As a cook, as a part-time gardener, part-time grafter, I'm very impressed.

Good luck, little ones.

In the kitchen, something savoury is on the menu.

When you think of apples, you don't automatically think of fish.

But, actually, often apples can be used in savoury dishes.

In his next dish, Raymond pairs apples with lemon verbena to complement a salmon confit.

Confit. What is a confit?

A confit is a very old technique from the South of France.

You cure the meat or the fish, OK, then you slow cook it, OK,

in a bath of goose fat, or in this case olive oil.

First, cure the fish by rubbing it with a mix of dill, sea salt,

sugar, white pepper, lemon zest and the herb lemon verbena.

It's a wonderful herb.

It's very lemony, very fresh. Like a cross of lemon grass and lemon balm.

-OK, perfect. Adam, please.

-Chef?

Can you clingfilm it and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes?

Tres bien.

That's great. That's plenty. I've got plenty here. No, leave that here.

To complement the fish, apples are marinated in lemon verbena oil.

The flavour, the aroma, it's like being into a...

in Amalfi Coast into an orchard of lemons.

Liquidise fresh lemon verbena leaves with your best olive oil.

Voila. So now I'm going to warm it up, OK,

and let the, the herb infuse the olive oil.

Once warm, leave to infuse for a minimum of two hours.

Then pass the oil through a fine sieve.

This apple is a Cox Orange Pippin.

That one goes extremely well into any savoury dish because it's not over sweet.

Place pieces of apple in a plastic bag.

Add the lemon verbena oil and leave to marinate overnight.

Raymond takes advantage of his professional kitchen, using a vacuum packer to speed up the process.

All the air's being sucked out of the vacuum pack, and the apple is drinking the oil.

After half an hour in the fridge, the salmon is cured.

You can see the salt has made his magic work - drawn out some juices.

And so in 30 minutes it's already much firmer.

The curing processes release juices and intensify the salmon's flavour.

Rinse, then pat the fish dry.

I am now ready. ..It's not! Voila.

Then cut into 150 gram portions.

Heat olive oil and lemon verbena in a bain marie to 43 degrees centigrade.

Add the salmon for 12 to 15 minutes, keeping the temperature constant throughout.

What makes the magic in that dish is that the temperature

will be just enough to separate the collagen holding the flakes of fish together.

You don't know if it's raw, cooked.

That texture and flavour, you get it at that particular temperature.

OK, so the salmon is confit. It is warm and uncooked and raw.

But the texture is so different from raw salmon. Completely different.

OK, tres bien.

To decorate the plate, use apple puree.

Raymond is adding dandelion and sorrel leaves.

I realise how lucky I am to have this wonderful garden.

But in your own home you can use any salad such as rocket, Little Gem lettuce.

Spoon on creme fraiche and apple jelly.

Very easily made. Organic apple juice, a little bit of agar or gelatine leaves.

A bit of lemon juice for sharpness.

Then, what do we need?

-Apple! Apples! Adam, can you give me my apples, please?

-Here, Chef.

You can see all the oil is gone.

The juice is out and all the oil is in the apples.

It looks like a peach. Of course, you want to know - how does it taste?

Ah! Ah, that's it. That makes me very happy.

It's such an incredible flavour. Really so fantastic!

You can put them as you want to. Just like that, for example.

To place somewhere here.

Finish with a few drops of verbena oil.

I think that's lovely just as it is. Bon appetit.

-Bonsoir. Chef.

-Hello.

-Please join me.

-Chef.

-You are going to be my judge.

OK, so have a nice big mouthful.

You don't expect it to have such a soft...texture

and quite a herby lemon flavour.

-So...

-Very nice.

-Mmm-hmm. Out of ten?

-Ah-ha!

-I think it's ten. It's a very light dish.

-A very....

-Do you want a promotion?

Emily, promotion?

Well, of course, Chef!

I think sugar. I think sugar, please!

-Hello!

-Chef?

-Can we put icing sugar, please?

Raymond's final dish is a light and creamy apple souffle, cooked in a buttered baked apple.

To prepare the apples, scoop out the flesh of the fruit,

brush the insides with calvados butter and bake for nine minutes.

Then cool them in the fridge.

All what we have left is to do a souffle.

For the souffle, first make the base.

OK, so it's very, very simple. Sugar, vanilla, milk, eggs, and flour.

Simmer 170 millilitres of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla essence in a pan on a gentle heat.

You need two egg yolk.

In a bowl, separate two egg yolks.

So keep your egg white for the souffle later.

You add 20 gram of sugar, no more.

You cream it.

Add 30 grams of plain flour.

It's like making concrete, the nicest concrete you have ever made, and you cannot go wrong.

And it's so simple. It is truly simple.

Pour the heated milk and vanilla slowly into the bowl while whisking to prevent lumps.

Voila. At the moment, it's very thin.

It needs to be thickened up with heat.

Then pour the mix back into the pan and return to the hob.

Because these lovely little bits of vanilla popping out. It's beautiful.

And you can see so...so it is thickening a little bit.

Voila. It's thickened, it's smooth, it's shiny, you know it's cooked.

Raymond adds calvados for extra flavour.

When the pastry cream has thickened, remove it from the direct heat and put it in a pan of warm water.

It's very important for all souffle to have the pastry cream warm,

because that does help to give an extra lift.

Equally, to mix egg white to a cold pastry cream, good luck to you. It's very hard.

Next, whisk five egg whites in a bowl, add a squeeze of lemon juice,

then slowly add 55 grams

of caster sugar, whisking all the time.

We're just laughing about...

Adam?

Adam? Adam, can you do it a little quicker?

I'm exhausted.

I'm knackered. Absolutely knackered. I don't know why, but...

More. Voila.

OK, tres bien. Yeah, yeah.

That's perfect.

In a separate bowl, whisk a third of the egg whites into the pastry cream.

Of course my base is warm enough. Quickly lighten my base. Tres bien.

Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Don't over mix. That's a big mistake when you over mix.

All the little bubbles of air go psh and all the lightness is going away.

Apples, please! Could I have them, please?

They cooled? Yeah.

Remove the cooled apples from the fridge and spoon in the souffle mix,

shaping the tops so they're round.

A bit of icing sugar just to create a lovely crust on the top.

Then place each souffle in the oven on a square of greaseproof paper to stop them sticking.

Those will take about seven minutes.

The sabayon has arrived!

The apple souffle can be eaten on its own,

but Raymond serves it on a layer of sabayon with caramelised apples,

and adds a sorbet topped with an apple crisp.

There's three main components of food which are crucial -

the ingredients, the creativity and the people I share it with.

Then food gets exciting.

Taste it. Enjoy. Celebrate it.