Episode 6 Ready Steady Cook

APPLAUSE

Hello. How are you all doing? All right? Thank you very much.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ready Steady Cook.

Fabulous food coming your way, all in 20 minutes.

Let's meet our chefs and special guests.

First up, in the Green Kitchen, please welcome Richard Phillips with actor and comedian, John Thomson.

APPLAUSE

And over in the Red Kitchen with Lesley Waters, we have John's wife, Sam Thomson.

-Come on and join us, guys.

-APPLAUSE

-Hello, mate.

-Gotta applaud the wife!

-It's healthy competition.

-Is it healthy competition at home, in the kitchen?

Yes, er...it's equally shared.

We both have strengths and weaknesses and we know what's what, and we act on 'em.

And when you were off doing Cold Feet or The Fast Show, and you got home at night,

was a nice meal waiting or was it straight down the takeaway?

It... Depending on how tired the wife is...

-Er, no, she's good like that, but she likes to be a wife.

-Mmm.

But not old-school, like, you know...

Like old-fashioned Seventies wife.

-Like I go, "Go on, sort it out."

-Yeah, sort it out.

Suddenly became a Cockney for some reason!

Let's sort out your bag. How are you, Rich?

-I'm good, thank you.

-Nice to see you.

-Good to be here.

-OK.

-Ooh, now!

-Is that a bit of sea bream?

-Bit of sea bream,

chorizo sausage,

pine nuts, red pepper, basmati rice,

purple-sprouting broccoli and...a peach.

-A good old peach!

-Very nice.

-It's a lovely bit of fish.

-Yeah, it's great.

How much did you spend on that?

I spent £9.53.

Ooh, a gourmet bag, ladies and gentlemen.

If you're prepared to spend more, you can get quality.

-What would our chef do with it?

-Really nice.

-You and I will get on famously.

-Oh, good. I'm glad.

Yeah, really nice. Obviously, I'll take this off the bone.

I'm not gonna cook it whole. I'll try and do it in two ways.

We might make a fish mousse, which I don't think I've done on the show.

So, we'll push the boundaries. I'll fry the chorizo and cool it quickly.

From the tail-end of this,

I'll make a chorizo mousse, with the fish, bound with egg and cream.

We'll stuff one fillet. The other one I'll do quite traditional -

just pan-fry, a little bit of flour. Very important to get crispy skin.

-Yep.

-Makes it more digestible. Make a nice little risotto.

Maybe a really nice, um, peach, er...

-That's the wild card, isn't it?

-Is it?

You don't want to see the peach with the bream, do you?

-No, I wasn't head over heels...

-I'll leave you two to talk.

They can talk. We've got some great dishes coming! For the moment, John and Richard!

APPLAUSE

They're like a love-in, ain't they? How are you?

-I'm good, thanks.

-Good to see you. Are you well?

-I'm very well.

You used to be an interior designer. Are you still doing that?

No, I keep getting asked to do bits and pieces,

but like John said, I enjoy being at home and looking after our daughter, and him and...

-I've got two kids, you see!

-But doing a job like that, you're wonderfully creative.

-Equally creative in the kitchen?

-I'd like to think so, but I'm not.

I like the presentation side of it, but John's more creative.

John can open the cupboard and create something.

Absolutely. Well, this is the perfect person. Tip out your bag.

-I'm dying to see what you've brought!

-Ooh, this is exciting!

-OK.

-You've got two bags there. What's all this?

-Is that your handbag?

-This bag here?

-Yeah.

Oh, er, John and I just had a holiday in Papua New Guinea...

-Wow!

-..and we thought we'd bring back a local delicacy.

-Oh, yeah?

-And wondered what...

..you think... What you can do...

-..with this.

-Oh, my word!

Now, it's a brain. And it's human.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS GROAN

-Only the best.

-You've just lost 20 votes over there!

THEY LAUGH

-Ooh, Les, look at that.

-Smell it!

You're joking! Look, it's rubber!

AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

You're having a laugh, ain't ya? Poor Les was panicking like mad!

Did I get you?

Did I get you?

SHE SQUEALS

-AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-It's when you smelt it!

-I know!

And it makes a noise when you sit on it, an' all! Go on.

OK, we've got a lovely poussin, pineapple.

Are these shiitake mushrooms?

Yeah. I love a mushroom, but I've never cooked with those.

Er, poussin I love.

Pak choi - John usually does something with that at home.

The chilli and ginger I'm used to cos I make a lot of Indian food.

The rice noodles - that's John's area so I'd like to see what you can do.

-Fabulous. How much did you spend?

-Ooh, er, £9.95.

-Ooh, 9.95.

What do you think, then, Les?

Well, I'm relieved that's gone, that's for sure!

Wow, it's a beautiful bag. We can do lots of things.

Er, we've got a lovely big pineapple

so we've got to do a pud of some description with half the pineapple.

But I think chicken and pineapple together is fantastic,

and we should do some sort of Thai sauce to go with that.

We'll put a nice glaze on it and roast it in the oven.

Then we'll do some crispy noodles and something with the shiitake.

-It's a beautiful bag.

-Aww!

-It certainly is a beautiful bag,

for a couple of beautiful girls.

Let's hear it - Samantha and Lesley!

APPLAUSE

OK, ladies and gentlemen, fabulous ingredients but will it bring about fabulous results?

We'll find out in 20 minutes, as I say Ready, Steady...

Cook!

There's a chopping board here for you.

-OK, mate. Let's get going!

-Give your digits a little wash.

-Will do.

-Right!

Now, tell us about sea bream. A good fish?

-Would you use it in the restaurant?

-All the time.

I like pink bream, too. This is obviously one variety of sea bream.

-OK.

-You can get pink bream, royal bream, royal dorade...

-There's lots of varieties.

-I wonder if our audience would know that.

Audience, what I want you to do...

I just want you to put your hand up

if you knew there was more than one variety of sea bream.

Only one gentleman there. So, all of you think there's just the one.

You didn't know. So it's always nice to know.

-As the chef says, lots of variety.

-There's seven seas, in't there?

-Huh?

-You sail the seven seas,

so there's obviously seven sea bream, in't there?

AUDIENCE CHUCKLE Obviously!

-All right, then. Thank you, John(!)

-My pleasure.

HE CHUCKLES

So, I just whipped off one fillet. Let me show you.

So, a sharp knife. I'm going into the head.

And then, just cut through.

Then, using the bone as our guide,

slowly cut through,

-and then the fillet will come away.

-The knife is very important.

-Just keeping the knife on the bone.

-And sharp.

-Let the knife do the work. Don't start hacking.

-Mmm.

Then you've got some lovely fillets.

I would normally not disregard this. I'd use this - lovely stock.

But stock takes 22 minutes to cook to perfection - not go too bitter.

I don't have that, unfortunately, so this is going over here.

I think the key word there was that it wouldn't go too bitter.

When you're doing chicken bones or you've got beef bones,

which take much longer to draw out the flavour...

Fish - no more than 22 minutes, otherwise you just lose it.

Up to the boil, and then pull it off and that's all you need.

I'm taking one fillet here, and I said I'd do it quite traditional,

so I'm gonna take off this end bit.

And these small bits at the end, I'll use to make my mousse.

There's a lovely portioned piece, there.

That's gonna sit on top of the risotto.

So, I'll just make some nice incisions there.

Put it to one side, into the fridge till about four minutes to the end.

OK, just over two minutes gone.

You said "mousse", Chef. Don't be put off -

it's very simple. Do you blend yours down with cream?

Yep, I'll blend it down, add a little egg white,

then incorporate a little bit of cream.

It triples in size, the gauge. Once it's tripled in size,

-pretty much a good quantity.

-Steam or bake?

-I'll steam mine.

Steam. There you go. You pick up a couple of nice things,

-but what about John?

-What do I want to learn?

Yeah, what do you want to pick up from our special chef?

-A Michelin star.

-A Michelin star?!

-Yes, please.

-Thank you.

-Gotta go and see Lesley, for the moment. Let's see...

Yeah, now, they had a poussin.

Poussin - baby chicken - remember that? Lesley had that.

What's she doing with it? It's kinda small -

-you wonder what she wants to do with those legs.

-I've stuck 'em in there.

-Can you check that oven's on as high as it can be?

-I certainly will.

-That would be fantastic.

-OK.

-Didn't feel very high to you, Les?

-Does that feel OK?

-Feel nice and high, yeah?

-I'm sure that's lovely-lovely and fine.

-Great.

-I can't see the dial,

but I'll turn everything up to "plus" as much as possible!

Absolutely! That's what we like here. He knows me well!

-AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-Ooh, that's hot now!

What I've done is, because we won't cook the poussin in that time,

-I've just boned it out.

-OK.

And what I'm gonna do now is skewer it...

I'm gonna leave the skin on the pineapple,

because that perfumes the dish.

And protects it a bit, too.

It does, and it just gives it

that wonderful, sort of...

-Is it rustic?

-Rustic - you know me, Ains.

-I'm a rustic girl at heart.

-I like rustic.

-Do you?

Well, my version of rustic is just roughly chopping.

If it's roughly chopped, it's rustic.

AUDIENCE TITTER

-Are you a one-pot girl, by any chance?

-If it's one pot,

then it's easy for me.

-Was your mum a good cook?

-My mum was a one-pot, one-meal girl!

-Oh, I see.

-She's gonna kill me for this!

No, my mum's Indian-Irish, so we were brought up on Indian food.

-So you've got a bit of Indian in the blood?

-Yeah, there's a bit there.

-How lovely!

-So, I've been helping her make curries since I was eight.

Mum would prepare a curry for how many?

She'd just do a couple of big pots.

-Whoever comes over just helps... She makes about three a week.

-Wow!

The other thing she used to make - the second thing she used to make,

and it was awful - was, er, home-made burgers.

-Sorry, Mum!

-Sorry, Mum.

Home-made...which was just mincemeat and onions,

mashed together, grilled,

put on the plate and it was like a cowpat!

-Ooh!

-A huge, steaming cowpat. It was awful!

-Did she cook it for a long time?

-Yes.

We used to look at each other, like, "Oh, no! Not the cowpat again."

Awful! Awful!

-Sorry, Mum!

-She didn't mean it, Mum! She loves your food really.

You'll have to watch it when you go round for a meal!

-Les, you're throwing all sorts in the pan.

-Soya sauce.

-It's sizzling.

-Tell us what's gone in there.

-We've got honey, soya sauce,

we've got orange, we've got chilli.

-Oh, I need ginger, actually.

-Have a smell.

-Ginger, ginger!

-Bring the ginger over.

-How much?

Ooh, that end there'll be great.

-Do you like the smell of this, Sam?

-Oh, yeah, I love all these smells.

-Could you pass a grater?

-Which one? Coarse?

-Yes, coarse. I'm such a coarse girl!

-AUDIENCE LAUGH

Right, Sam, can you crush me some garlic?

OK? Here we go, my poppy.

-How do you feel about doing that?

-Do you want a crusher,

-or you wanna go for the...?

-I'll have a crusher, if you don't mind.

There's your crusher. Pop it in there. With the skin!

There you go. Where do you want it, Les?

I want it in here.

-I want you to stroke it over the chicken, if you can.

-Oh, really?

-Yep. Nice bit of garlic.

-Squeeze it hard. Really squeeze it.

Ugh! Oh, it's the wrong way!

That's it, that's it!

AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-Are you ready? Are you ready?

-Here we are. Here's another one.

-I'm so sorry!

-OK, in it goes.

-Let's get it in the oven.

-There you go.

RAUCOUS LAUGHTER

-OK?

-I'm going. Get out of it, go on!

-THEY ALL CHUCKLE

-I'll see you later.

-See you later, alligator.

-Don't it smell good over here?

-AUDIENCE: Yes!

-Lots of lovely smells.

You should get down to the studio. Really cook up a storm down here.

-How's it going, Rich?

-All good.

-12 minutes to go.

Just putting my egg white into the mousse.

I've blended the fish up - pulsed it - cos people don't realise

these give an awful lot of heat.

So, on pulse, little but often, then it won't warm up too much.

You won't start to cook it. Pinch of salt.

A lot of us didn't know that. As you blend it, you create the heat.

And then, dash of cream to begin with.

And then we're going to pop on the lid.

Give it a good blend, and then I'll check the consistency.

Touch more. I don't need a huge amount - I'm only doing one portion.

-Like I said, tripled in size.

-Yeah.

Then we're ready to go.

I'm gonna put it in the fridge to rest up - let it relax a bit...

-OK. How long for, Chef?

-Ideally, an hour.

But I'm gonna leave it about five, ten minutes to let it rest up,

-then stuff my fish with it.

-How long does it take to cook?

-You see the lovely consistency?

-A-ha.

I'm gonna bat out my piece of fish,

then I'll stuff it.

-It's gonna take probably six, eight minutes in a steamer.

-There you go.

Doesn't take long. And don't get confused -

I know you see the chef putting a bit of egg, a bit of cream,

and you don't know whether it's three or four tablespoonsful.

It's all on the website.

Just check it out.

All the information's there. It breaks it down for you,

so you can cook like Richard here.

Just quickly, risotto...

-Excellent. Pop that in the fridge, please, John.

-Yep.

-Let me tell you about the peach fool.

-Please do.

So, we've just diced up the peach,

popped that in here with a tablespoon of caster sugar,

a little bit of white wine. Smell that aroma - beautiful!

The fresh peach flavour is coming through.

I'm gonna pop that in the fridge, let it cool down.

I've broken it down so it releases the lovely flavours,

but not cooked it so it goes like a puree.

I still want to have the nice texture of the peach.

We whisked up some double cream, a bit of vanilla pod,

a touch more white wine, a bit of sugar. That's our fool base.

-Just gotta go in the fridge.

-Simple! Sometimes it is that, that simple.

Was it simple for you developing all those characters for The Fast Show?

-How did it all come about, John?

-Some just happened by default...

-Just past half way! Sorry, mate.

-Thank you.

The jazz man, that everyone loves.

IN CHARACTER: Great! Great!

Er, we didn't know what look to have for him,

-and I said - cos I play drums professionally, as well.

-Really?

Jazz is the music I'm into, so when I buy a CD,

they'll scan a few... IMITATES SCANNER BLEEP

-They'll look at me and go, "Oh, no, it's you!"

-Why?

"Every time people buy jazz CDs, they go 'great!' or 'nice!',"

and they go, "You've made my life a misery, basically!"

So, er, that character - there was a wig, literally sitting on the side,

and it was way too small for me and I just put it on and went like that.

That is a great beatnik jazz look. But it was just grabbed randomly.

The voice was based on Roger Moore and Whispering Bob Harris,

and the look was like - for those who can remember -

Commander Straker from UFO, played by Ed Bishop.

And this is just you sitting down with - was it Steve Coogan?

That was Paul Whitehouse - that was The Fast Show - but with Steve,

we had a pub opposite drama college, and we'd go in.

You know what local pubs are like.

People wanna read the Racing Post and drink mild in t'quiet,

and the fact that students come in their pub is red rag to a bull,

but drama students?! Oh!

So, we used to watch when they'd go, "Ugh, to be or not to be? Oh!"

And that's where... D'you know what I mean?

That's where Paul Calf came from.

Steve's observations of the local,

-er...shall we say hostelry frequenters?

-Yeah!

-Do you think it's changed, comedy, very much?

-Yeah, it's rubbish.

-You've got a new one coming up, haven't you?

-I have got a new one.

We've broken the mould of middle-class-family-in-a-house sitcom. It's set in a circus.

It's me, Amanda Holden, Ruth Madoc, Sophie Thompson,

Tony Robinson and Bruce Mackinnon.

Let's quickly find out about what's happening here.

Risotto rice. I cooked down my onion till it was translucent - no bite.

Then, I've added my rice. Cooked it till it goes sticky,

white wine on top till they pop open.

Now, if you're not into wine, can you use stock, apple juice...?

I'm using stock on top, so then I just put a fish stock cube in,

added some water to that. Just don't use the wine.

-Can I lift this up?

-Of course.

-Have a look at this.

-You can pick up these steamers for - what, a couple of quid?

-Absolutely.

They're so diverse. Good for healthy eating - you're steaming something.

I've wrapped it in cling film to create the sausage shape.

All the flavours are staying in there - that's important.

-You've got your fish.

-The fish mousse.

-You put the mousse inside.

-Exactly. Wrapped it up, salt and pepper in,

seasoned it nicely. Touch of paprika, then popped in to steam.

-Fantastic. Sound good?

-Sounds good, and that looks painful!

John, I've got a job for you. We need to make a crepe mix.

We've got six minutes to go. Let's leave our chefs to get on with it.

It's interesting to find out how these things are cooked.

Steaming's not necessarily something that everybody does,

but once you try it, you realise it's very advantageous for here,

because it's a very healthy way of eating. Check it out!

Have a look at the website. What have you got in there, Sam?

-Haven't got a clue!

-Really?

-AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-"I don't know!"

-Les, what's going on here?

-Er, chilli, garlic,

ginger, a little bit of cream.

OK, poppy. Stop it now.

Take the lid off. We're making a bit of our own paste, really.

-OK.

-Yeah. Have a smell.

-Oh!

-Lovely and fragrant.

-Is that lovely?

-Gorgeous!

Nice and simple again.

Sam, what I want you to do is scrape it into there as quick as you can.

-Off you go.

-Into what - there or there?

No, into here. OK.

-Butter.

-There you go.

-Sam, what'd you do with the butter?

-It's there, under the pineapple.

OK, and what have we got happening here, Les?

What we've got happening here is I've got a bit of pineapple here,

griddling on the top nicely, which is looking good.

I need this to get a little bit hotter, this oil.

OK, five minutes to go. It does need to get a bit hotter, doesn't it?

It needs to get really hot. I think we're nearly there.

-Shall we swap those around?

-Let's swap.

I want you to be really careful, Sam - it's oil.

-OK.

-So just be really careful.

Shall I turn this?

-Yeah, give it a toss. Use a couple of wooden spoons.

-OK.

Very good. Toss, toss, toss! Quick, quick, quick!

-Whoo!

-Thank you, Ains. Thank you very much.

Let's just flip that over, like that.

-Oh, lovely.

-Doesn't look as good.

-Doesn't look as good as it smells.

-Looks fantastic to me.

-I love that feel to it - the aromas and everything.

-It smells gorgeous.

With the lovely bok choi there. Very nice.

Does your husband woo you when he starts cooking in the kitchen?

Well, he does now but in the early days,

he tried to make me a lovely meal when I went to London to see him,

and, er, he made me liver and mashed potatoes.

Firstly, John's mash is rubbish. He's never got over that.

-What do you mean - lumpy?

-Well, he tries to...

He puts stuff in it, like eggs and cream and all sorts.

I just put butter and milk,

-and a good, strong fork action.

-Is that true, John?

She's queen of mash in our house.

Anyway, I went down to London to see him

and he had this big plate of awful, lumpy mash

and these two pieces of liver stuck in like aerials!

-AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-Lovely!

-No, his cooking's fab.

Well, you've been together a while.

-You've got a daughter, Olivia. Six, I believe.

-Yep, definitely.

-She has Daddy round her little finger, totally.

-Aww!

-So, yeah.

-That's what you want, though, isn't it?

-Beautiful.

-Do you like being a dad?

-Love it!

-Best thing that ever happened to me.

-Yeah?

-What about me?

-Do you not go out any more?

-Eh? No, no.

Once you've done it as well as I did, you just think, "Nah!"

-I love being at home now. It's great.

-Life-changing.

-Maturity - it does work.

-Absolutely.

Sam, don't touch this. It is so hot!

-Don't touch it!

-Tell us what you've done. Taken your chicken legs...

-And roasted them in the oven.

-Everything's roasted in the oven!

OK, only two minutes to go.

Let's briefly go down... Where does the time go? Isn't it amazing?

Like that! Couple of minutes, Chef. Are you gonna be there?

Yeah, I'll be there, Ainsley.

Fantastic. OK. All sorts of things.

Fish cooked down there, looking really lovely and succulent.

Not overcooked. How long would you cook that little fillet?

-Three minutes, three and a half maximum.

-There you go.

So many of us overcook fish and say we don't like it.

-Just cook it very lightly.

-Always think of fish as medium rare.

-OK.

-Then it's nice and pink, and it's perfectly moist.

-Could you pick me some parsley and coriander?

-Sure.

Nice and pink, and...

Let's think about one of the most popular dishes in the world - sushi.

-If you buy it fresh, it can be eaten raw.

-Absolutely.

So, don't be scared to undercook it.

So many people overcook it, it goes dry,

have a bad experience and think, "I'm not a fish lover,"

but that's because it hasn't been dealt with correctly.

Tell you what, the food looks fantastic.

Let's see our chefs get it on the plate. One minute to go.

BOTH CHEFS SHOUT INSTRUCTIONS

OK. 50 seconds to go.

Look at these chefs now. Remember, about - ooh, I dunno -

19½ minutes ago, we had a couple of bags of ingredients,

and look - it's suddenly transformed into all these wonderful dishes.

All right, about 35 seconds to go.

Oh! Oh, that's hot, baby. That's hot!

-AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-OK!

-OK, 30 seconds.

-Fetch the lemon, please.

-Coriander, my darling.

-Coriander.

-Mind your back.

-Mind your back.

-Top man.

-Do you know where coriander is?

-Yes, it's here. It's here.

Audience, get ready to count down any moment now. 15 seconds to go.

OK.

-D'you get that parsley?

-Ten.

AUDIENCE CHANT: 9, 8,

7, 6, 5,

4, 3, 2, 1.

-Stop cooking!

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Very nice, indeed!

Lovely!

OK, let's see what's on today's menu.

In the Green Kitchen,

Richard and John have come up with chorizo and sea bream boudin,

on a bed of purple-sprouting broccoli, with a chorizo dressing.

Also, pan-fried sea bream on red pepper and chorizo pine nut risotto.

Sea bream blinis, with a lime and Greek yogurt.

And finally, JT's peach and white wine fool.

Over in the Red Kitchen, Lesley and Sam have been equally busy.

We have spiced chicken and pineapple kebabs on a bed of crispy noodles,

Sam's Thai chicken broth, with pak choi, shiitake and crispy noodles.

And finally, lemon and honey pudding with pineapple and lime jam.

Not bad, eh, guys? And it looks really exciting, too.

-You ready for this, John?

-Absolutely!

-Get tucked in!

Where should he start?

Let's start with the boudin - we spoke a lot about this.

We made the mousse, blended down the sea bream.

Fresh sea bream, so the mousse was firm, with egg white and cream.

Put a bit of chorizo through that, and a bit of the oil.

I put the chorizo into a dry, hot pan, released the oils,

so it goes crispy, but you can use the flavoured oil as a dressing.

-What do you think?

-We're poised!

AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

It's not at all what I expected, texture-wise. It's a lot lighter.

-It's fluffy. It's like a sausage mousse.

-Exactly. That's what it is.

A sausage mousse.

-I'm glad we achieved what we set out to.

-I thought it'd be heavier.

-It's very nice.

-It's a fishy sausage mousse.

-So we've got...

-I haven't sold it very well, have I? It's very tasty.

This is another, er, brunch dish.

I've put a little bit of sea bream through, er, a crepe mix,

like a blini. Again, a bit of broccoli,

Greek yogurt - a little bit of lime running through that.

And just a bit of bream. It's nice with a fried egg on top.

A great brunch dish - put it with tuna, adapt it to whatever you like.

-Flavours are coming through?

-Very nice.

The lime coming through the yogurt takes the acidity off it.

The broccoli just a little al dente, which is the way I like it.

And with the blini, lovely.

That's a very nice... Make a nice lunch, that.

-OK, on to your sea bream.

-Pan-fried bream, made the risotto -

I explained how we done that - fried the sea bream for a crispy skin.

Really nice texture - light and fluffy in the middle.

Nice and moist. The chorizo through that, with some pine nuts,

finished off with butter. A bit of yogurt as well.

-Is that more your thing?

-That's my thing. See, I prefer rice...

-..to spuds.

-Oh, right. OK.

More exciting. You can do more with it, I suppose.

Lovely. That oil - the chorizo's come through, flavoured it.

-What about this?

-It's what John did. We cooked the peach with white wine,

and sugar, just to break them down - release the lovely flavours.

Whisked up the cream with vanilla, a touch more white wine,

and some caster sugar, just to a semi-whipped stage -

not turning it into butter. Then just folded the peach through that,

and popped it in a glass. It can be done with all sorts of fruits -

-gooseberries, peaches, nectarines.

-Good. Happy?

-Damn fine!

Hey, give it up for Richard and John!

-APPLAUSE

-That's lovely. That's fantastic.

He takes a while to get going when he's eating, doesn't he?

Oh, don't I know!

-OK, you get stuck in and tell us what you think.

-Thank you.

Mmm. Tell us what you did, Lesley.

We had a poussin, which wouldn't have cooked in the time,

and we took the chicken breast off, kept it very simple -

tossed it in garlic, ginger, chillies.

Loads of orange juice and you can see - it caramelised in the oven.

The pineapple, if you have curry sauce with it, is lovely too.

But you can also have it with the crispy noodles,

-which have been finished off with sesame oil.

-What do you think?

Absolutely amazing! The chicken's so tender.

I can taste all the flavours coming through. I just wanna...

Absolutely amazing.

-Lovely?

-Oh, yeah.

-And the pineapple works with the curry?

-It's a bit hot!

-Yeah, it's got... You get a little kick of...

-Ooh, that's a surprise!

Life IS a surprise, my darling! Er, and then here,

what we did was... Have a taste of this. This has got a kick.

-Good!

-So, what we did here was we took the legs off of the poussin,

roasted them in the oven really fast

so they were cooked all the way through, deglazed the pan a bit.

Then we made a curry paste, using coriander, ginger, garlic, chilli.

-Yeah, got a kick?

-That's a lovely kick.

-That's beautiful.

-Stir-fried the mushrooms and pak choi,

added the curry paste with the cream.

-Finished off with crispy noodles.

-Better than Mum's curry?

Totally different. It's absolutely fantastic.

I can really taste the mushrooms, and...all those flavours.

And it has got a lovely kick to it as well. It's really clever.

Then here, we've got the pineapple jam,

so we just did brown sugar, butter and pineapple, cooked it on the top,

made a sort of lime-style and ginger pudding,

baked them in the oven,

put the jam on top and finished off with cream.

-Good?

-Superb!

Superb! Ladies and gentlemen, Lesley and Sam.

APPLAUSE

Oh! Now, ladies and gentlemen,

some superb dishes there, I think you'll agree.

The sea bream - three ways of cooking that.

And what about the chicken with Thai broth? Bursting full of flavours.

But what does our studio audience think?

Will it be a Red Kitchen win today, or a Green Kitchen win?

Of course, the choice is theirs. Let's find out how they'll vote.

Please pick up your keypads,

and will you all...vote now?

Let's have a look at this.

OK. The smells are circulating around the studio,

so you obviously know what you're dealing with, audience,

but how will you vote?

Ooh, it looks a bit red, but computer, sort this out.

Who's won today's 20-minute challenge?

It's a Red Kitchen win!

APPLAUSE

Hey! Well done to you, my darling!

-Oh, wow! She's good. She's good.

-You're a Ready Steady Cook winner,

-and here's your plate to prove it.

-I love it.

And we'd love to make a donation to your favourite charity, which is...?

It's Cancer Research UK.

Brilliant. Lovely to see you, Sam.

-Good luck with it. Good luck with the baby. Well done, Les.

-Thanks.

-Now, you ain't going away empty-handed.

-Really?

I'm not sitting next to her on the train! No way!

Well, she can eat something off the plate

-and you can have a nice cup of tea.

-That's me - a mug!

Yeah! Great having you on the programme.

-Cheers. Pleasure.

-Good luck with the Big Top.

-Thank you.

-Regards to everybody there. And well done to you, too.

-Thanks.

Very nice indeed. Great food, ladies and gentlemen, and fabulous guests.

-A very big thank you to Sam and John Thomson.

-Thank you.

OK. Now, it's time for today's Quickie Bag Challenge!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is our Quickie Bag Challenger,

-Maxine Grout from Oxford.

-Hi, Ainsley.

Welcome to Ready Steady Cook. Good to have you.

You have a challenge for our chefs - tell them what it is.

My family are a family of sweet tooths. We all have sweet teeth,

and we love eating puddings as a family together.

But my challenge to you is -

I'm a glucose intolerant, and my dad and sister are diabetics.

I want you to cook us a pudding we can all enjoy as a family together.

-Putting the pressure on the chefs, isn't it, eh?

-Yeah.

-Will you come over afterwards and have a try, Max?

-Definitely!

Lovely. Give us your bag of goodies.

For the moment, though, Maxine Grout.

-How you doing, my man? All right?

-Yeah, good.

OK. A bit of a challenge for you, then, Les.

Did you get a bit nervous when you were seeing what she wanted?

Dessert's one of those things - we like a sweet kick, don't we? That's what puddings are about.

You've certainly got to have a sweet kick here.

Very light, these boxes - doesn't feel like granulated sugar.

-Obviously, it's the substitute.

-OK.

-And we've got digestives,

pecans, raspberries, blackberries,

cream cheese and blueberries.

First up for the challenge is chef Richard Phillips.

Well, what is good about this is you've brought berries.

When berries are in season, they're packed full of natural sweetness,

so we haven't got to add much. That's a really good sign.

Well, digestives, cream cheese -

we've gotta have ourselves a cheesecake going on there.

So, I might just do a mixed berry cheesecake.

I know we've got a bit of Greek yogurt,

and I'll cut the sweetness down a little bit with some lime and lemon.

Er, and then what else are we gonna do?

We'll do some...

I might do a lovely, um...

..raspberry syllabub.

We'll cook down the raspberries, with a bit of alcohol.

-No sugar - just keep it very natural.

-You've got some sugar.

Yeah, we've got the fake sugar. I'll add a little, to sweeten it up.

OK, time up. And you're glad I said that. You were struggling!

And Les, you were folding your arms, thinking, "He's taken my choices!"

"What am I gonna do?!"

Ooh! Um, right, OK.

Er..

So...

Let me have a think. Right, I would do...

..a classic, er... Oh, goodness, what's it called,

with breadcrumbs and custard,

with jam on top and meringue?

-Trifle?

-Queen of puds?

-Queen of puds - that's it!

-Will this work in meringue?

-We're certainly gonna have a go.

Yes, we are! We're gonna have a go at that.

-If you win!

-Absolutely.

And then, I think it would be nice to do like a hot summer pudding.

So rather than doing the cold berries with the soggy bread,

it's crisp cinnamon bread, with hot berries, served with cream. And..

-Time up, Les.

-Oh.

-There you go.

I'm ruthless, aren't I? I know what you're thinking!

Audience, please pick up your keypads - it's down to you.

Both chefs have come up with some really lovely ideas,

considering the type of bag we've got. Nothing against you, Max -

lot of diabetics out there. We want to do as much as we can for them.

Help the chefs out first. Red or green? Please, vote now.

OK, remember it's green for Richard and it's red for Lesley.

Let's see which way the audience are gonna swing this time.

Looks fairly even Stevens.

I dunno. Computer, sort this out. Who's won today's ten-minute Quickie Challenge?

By one, it's a Red Kitchen Lesley Walters win!

APPLAUSE

Your ten minutes' cooking time starts now, Les.

-Come on, let's go.

-Cheesecake, my boy!

And also, can you do me some breadcrumbs first?

-Some who?

-Just a few breadcrumbs - that'd be great, Ains.

-OK, I'll do the breadcrumbs.

-Cheesecake.

OK, Ains is on the breadcrumbs.

I just need a pan here for berries.

You'll want some berries, but I'm not gonna give you too many.

-So, we're having a berry-free cheesecake?

-Yes, abso...

No, you can have some berries but not too many, OK?

That's the sort of girl I am.

Have you ever been in a situation where you've had a dinner party,

and people have been, if you like, glucose, or is it, er...?

-Oh! They've got an intolerance that you have to...

-Yeah!

Er, gluten-free is one, for sure.

Glucose is... It's amazing what you can do. I hope you'll enjoy this.

-Yes!

-OK.

Now, this first one is a real old-style pudding,

so we've got... I need some eggs. Where have they gone?

Eggs should be in the fridge, there, Les.

-There they are.

-There we are. Lovely.

-OK.

-I'll get some eggs for you.

So, we just wanna heat those up, add a little bit of sugar.

Not too much. OK.

AUDIENCE CHUCKLE

-I just found the hen, Les!

-OK.

Let's put a little bit of that in,

with some vanilla...

..going in there.

Good, good, good.

-OK.

-I'm just getting the cream nice and hot for this.

And then, what I'm gonna do...

-What are you making, 'Chard?

-The base for the cheesecake.

Obviously, these do have some sugar in them.

So, what I've done is I've done two thirds of the pecan nuts...

-Mm-hm.

-..to one third of the, er...the biscuits.

Er, because obviously, we don't want too much sugar in there.

-But it'll work. It's a really nice crusty, crunchy base.

-OK.

That goes into our bowl.

I've just melted down a bit of butter, and that's what binds it.

Let's find out - you're talking about what we're actually doing.

I wonder whether that's OK for Maxine.

What about that, Maxine? Breadcrumbs, biscuits?

Yeah, everything in moderation, really. I mean, you know...

I understand there's sugar in it, but in moderation everything's OK.

-But you've got to be a bit sensible.

-Lots of us don't know - what does glucose intolerance mean?

It's a stage before diabetes.

Basically, my body doesn't handle sugar as well as a normal person's.

-It takes a long time to leave my body.

-Sure.

So, if I have too much sugar, it makes me feel ill.

-I bet you've got a few favourite puds, though.

-Yeah.

-Top one? Number one? Top of the list?

-Sticky toffee pudding.

BOTH: Ooh!

-Absolutely wonderful!

-OK, that's great.

Ains, could you give a FEW berries - like a third, third, third -

to my lovely man over there?

-Oh, you ARE being generous.

-Lovely.

OK, so I'm just gonna put this in here.

This is like a very quick bread-and-butter pudding,

cos we've got crumbs, vanilla,

cream, eggs and...the sugar,

-which is going in there.

-Yeah.

OK, and what I'm gonna do now is I'm just gonna put this

in a kind of soup plate, so it's not too deep.

And we're just going to bake it in the oven, because it's got eggs in,

so it's like...a bread-and... You're all looking like I'm mad!

It's like a bread-and-butter pudding, yeah?

-OK.

-And, of course, all the recipes

are available on our website.

You sometimes think, "Ooh, I dunno about that,"

then you cook it and get real confidence.

-Richard, what are you up to, Chef?

-So, I've made the base.

I then put it into a ring and popped that into the fridge,

just to get a nice cold base.

To get the butter set. That's how you get a crisp, crunchy base.

-So we've got digestive biscuits...

-Digestive biscuits,

pecan nuts and melted butter.

Maxine... Er, digestive biscuits -

why did you choose those? Does that work with you?

We often think of anything sweet, like a biscuit, "Oh, no!"

I suppose, really, the digestive is the less sweet of all the biscuits.

You know, it's just a plain biscuit. You can't go too wrong with it.

I know a bit about this, cos my dad's a diabetic

and he need to, you know, watch what...his intake, if you like.

-OK, Les.

-Sorry, Ains.

-Now, you're putting those berries into...

-A little bit of the sugar,

and also a touch of the butter.

And I'm just gonna let them pop in there.

Just to get... We're making like a hot summer pudding now.

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna whizz up these, OK?

-And we're gonna make some meringue.

-OK.

-OK.

Any particular secret?

Do you just whip them up? Or do you put your sugar in early or late?

Make sure your bowl's grease-free. The best bowl is a metal bowl.

When they whisk up, you want them not to be too dry,

so when they start going a bit dry round the edge,

stop and add a spoonful of sugar and beat like hell.

-OK.

-Before you add the rest. Add it gradually.

Don't add all the sugar at once - a spoonful at a time, OK?

Lovely. OK, well, er...

It's all start beating up here, isn't it? All very, very exciting,

but we do like to get our audience involved, ladies and gentlemen.

Today we've got a question that comes from Manshi Taka.

-Hello, Manshi. How are you?

-Fine, thank you.

-From Norwood, I believe. Northwood?

-Northwood, yes.

Um, I'd like to ask you,

I made an almond tart on the weekend and I had to blind bake the pastry.

-Yeah.

-Except mine shrank, so how can I stop that happening?

Almond tart is one of the only tarts I make when I don't blind bake.

It does actually work,

because the almond paste sets and it doesn't really go soggy.

So, it's not like making a quiche.

-OK.

-So, try it next time but don't bake it blind.

What about you, Richard - shrinking pastry?

Er, making it, letting it rest.

That is the ultimate, er...sort of rule, really.

So you make your pastry, don't overwork it,

wrap it in cling film, put it in the fridge. Minimum of one hour.

Then roll it out in line,

then let it rest again. Minimum of half an hour.

The two restings, then it won't shrink.

-So you've... Talk about a six-hour quiche in your house!

-I know!

Did you allow it to rest?

I did, I did! I'm just wondering,

would it make a difference if I added too much water when I mixed it?

-Because it didn't come together.

-It makes it brittle.

-Next time, try not...

-SHE SHRIEKS

Don't bake blind. Try it without baking blind,

but all of those tips which Richard said were the real top tips.

There you go. Not too much water - makes it brittle.

OK, about 2½ minutes. Thanks very much for that.

Not much time to go now.

-Les, are you gonna be there or thereabouts?

-Yeah.

-Can I help?

Er, yes, Ains. How's that coulis going, Richard?

-Good. I've not got a huge amount.

-Let's get it.

-Let's do it!

-It's here. There's not much of it.

-You weren't joking, were you?!

-You didn't give me any berries!

-What am I supposed to do without using berries?

-Oh, don't worry.

-I want a spoonful myself.

-Give him a round of applause.

-He's done a great job.

-APPLAUSE

-A bit more...?

-No, it's fine.

Right, Ains, can you get those out for me? They're really hot.

-Do you want honey in there? Would that help?

-Yeah, maybe a bit.

I wanna get a bit over here then put the whole things back in the oven.

-This is now set.

-OK. Only two minutes to go, now.

-That's all right, Ains. Don't worry. We'll be all right.

-I'm not worried!

-Actually, Ains, we're gonna be OK, baby.

-All right.

-We're gonna be OK.

-No problem.

Let's just... Er, piping bags. Where are the piping bags?

Scissors.

OK, you've got about a minute and a half. Here we are.

What are you doing, Chef?

-Just loosening the cheesecake.

-OK.

Hopefully!

There you go. Beautiful. Look at that - very nice indeed.

Come on, ladies and gentlemen, how lovely! There you go.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Richard, that looks great. Mind your backs!

OK, one minute ten seconds to go. One minute ten.

You just wanna taste that for sugar for me. That'd be great.

-I need coulis on that, Ains.

-That'll be great.

All right. Let's get this in the oven, or a blowtorch might be good.

-I've got a blowtorch.

-You've got a blowtorch?

-OK, very good indeed.

-Blowtorch, blowtorch!

We just wanna get this toasted off. Get it toasted off, baby!

That's great. OK, spoon.

-SHE SHRIEKS

-Lesley's wonderfully excited now!

-There we are, Les.

-Give him a round of applause.

Fantastic!

OK, here we go.

Less than a minute to go.

-OK, spoon.

-Spoon?

-Spoon, spoon.

-Underneath.

-OK, 25 seconds to go.

-Richard, can you do some sugar and cinnamon, please?

-Roger that.

Sugar and cinnamon would be great.

OK, 20 seconds, Les.

All right, baby. We're there.

How can I fail with my brilliant team?

-Here we go, ladies and gentlemen...

-AUDIENCE CHANT: 10,

9, 8,

7, 6,

5, 4,

3, 2, 1.

-Stop cooking!

-APPLAUSE

Max, come and join us.

-Hi, Ains!

-How you doing, all right?

-Yeah.

-Mwah! Well done, you.

OK, grab your cutlery.

-What do you think - presentation nice?

-It looks spot on.

I've got my eye on the cheesecake!

Oh, go for it!

Go for it. Straight in to the cheesecake.

Tell her how you did this, then.

I made a lovely base, with the biscuits and pecan nuts.

And I like at least one third of the base,

two thirds of the cream cheese and the berries.

So, I sliced some and put those round the outside for presentation,

taken the Greek yogurt, a bit of the cream cheese.

A bit of lime to cut through. I didn't put any sugar or sweetener in.

The sweetness of the berries has lifted it. It worked perfectly.

-It's nice. The nuts in the base are lovely!

-Yeah, the pecans.

-Have a bit of the queen of puds.

-Queen of puds.

This is a real classic-style pud.

There you go, darling.

-How do you make this, Les?

-Er, breadcrumbs...

..vanilla, er, cream.

Baked it in the oven, lovely coulis on the top.

And then, the meringue, which worked brilliantly. Really, really well.

-See, all you people with glucose intolerance.

-That's nice and light.

-Really light.

-Get hold of that sugar.

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen...

Go on, you keep eating!

We've got a couple more people that have made our show rather entertaining.

Please welcome back Sam and John Thomson!

APPLAUSE

Come and have a bit of a nibble.

How you doing?

Yeah, get involved, there.

That's all we've got time for today.

Join us again soon for more delicious culinary ideas, here on Ready Steady Cook.

Till then, take care. Bye bye, everybody.

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