Compilation Rick Stein's Cornish Christmas

BRASS BAND PLAYS SILENT NIGHT

'I think we all feel that Christmas is a time

'to tighten the fabric that keeps the community together.

'In Cornwall, even the big places are small enough

'for people to easily enjoy a sense of belonging

'and Padstow would never be called big.'

I really like the Christmas lights in Padstow, even in the rain.

I particularly like the sort of

Loch Ness monster. It's our own version.

Whenever that gets lit up every year, I think Christmas is here.

I think a small place like Padstow,

just because it's so small and you know everybody,

it just feels really Christmassy as soon as the Christmas lights are switched on.

There's something very sort of convivial about people meeting in the streets,

having a mince pie, a bit of music.

I'm there, I'm ready for Christmas,

I'm full of fun and excited about it.

CORK POPS

I love spending time in Cornwall at Christmas

and creating dishes that celebrate the best the county has to offer.

This year, I'm being joined by a few close friends for a lunch

that highlights the culinary treasures of Cornwall.

All the dishes are made with my favourite ingredients

that are caught or grown in and around the county.

And talking of Cornish treasures...

Well, as you might probably know, this is Jethro.

and we go back a long way, cos we used to play rugby together, didn't we, Jethro?

Yeah, we was a very good side and we beat most people

until they introduced the ball and that finished our game completely!

-It was good fun after the games.

-We had some fun, we really did.

Just tell me what a Cornish Christmas means to you.

Christmas is...food, isn't it? Everything is food.

Everybody gets all the food they can possibly get,

go to the big store and just fill up with food. They'll never eat it! Why do we do that?

I'm simple. I cook my own Christmas dinner. I have a chicken, I put it in a dish,

about two bottles of malt whiskey, a bottle of brandy, two bottles of wine.

I do that for an hour and a half - not too long -

and then I leave that to simmer, then I watch the Queen's Speech,

then I throw the chicken away and drink the gravy!

'And it's not just about the food.'

It's also about everything else happening in Cornwall.

After a tour round the county,

I get together with my pals for a special celebratory banquet...

Merry Christmas!

..at Little Petherick village hall.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'Hard to believe it, I know,

'but it really does snow sometimes in Cornwall.

'And as luck would have it,

'it arrived right on cue to add an even more festive touch

'to the annual wassailing ceremony at Cotehele,

'something celebrated with huge enthusiasm by all concerned.

'And even the apples apparently love it.'

Green Man, would you tell us about wassailing?

Well, wassailing comes from Saxon times, I believe

and it actually is just celebrating the earth

and celebrating the fact that these trees bring forth fruit

every year, time after time and paying them back a little.

This gentleman in a moment will put some juice back into the earth,

which symbolises the full cycle of nature

and that's we're here to celebrate. Yes.

It is customary at this time of the year to stand on the ancient land

and celebrate the earth's cycles,

the renewal of life

and the hopes for a good harvest of food and other produce in the next growing season.

We wish you all a happy New Year and a wonderful wassail!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Old apple tree, we wassail thee and hope thou will bear.

Hello!

We wassail thee and hope thou will bear!

-Hats full.

-Hats full!

Three-score sacks full.

Three-score sacks full.

Holler, good folk, holler!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'And a good splash of this year's cider

'makes sure we get gallons of the stuff to drink next year.

'Wassail ceremonies like this take place all over the country,

'wherever apples are grown and cider made.

'It may look crazy, but I like it and I think it's great there are people around

'who still want to keep these pagan traditions alive.'

SINGING

Well, this programme's called A Cornish Christmas.

How much more Christmas can you get than this? It's snowing!

There is a God! And this is so wonderfully atmospheric.

I mean, I just love that horse. I mean, that...that...

that in itself is enough for me.

It's just that sense of sort of medieval life

in this beautiful house and blessing of the apples.

I mean, that's what Christmas is, really,

it's a sort of time to cheer yourself up

in the dead heart of the season and think about the new season to come.

One of the great things about cold, snowy mornings at Christmas time

is the recovery period, which at this time of year should mean

a good, hot punch to get the heart started again

and the gastric juices flowing.

This is a good one. It's called Smoking Bishop -

citrus fruits studded with cloves

and gently roasted until they're softened.

A good sprinkling of sugar and lashings of wine and port

with a stick of cinnamon, all left to steep for a while.

Then squash the fruit to get all the juices out, strain it,

warm it and serve it.

I was introduced to it by master of wine Xenia Irwin.

OK.

So what's this called?

This is a Smoking Bishop

and it's a recipe that I found in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

-Oh, good!

-It's a traditional Cornish recipe.

Well, not necessarily Cornish, but it's a very traditional recipe.

-Yeah.

-And it's sort of an old-fashioned punch.

It's quite weird, quite interesting.

Very grapefruity. I rather like it.

It's a little sweet.

SHE SLURPS

You're applying your wine taster's skills there, I note, to a...

You've got to slurp!

You've got to get the air in to get the flavours out.

-It's quite bitter. The grapefruit comes through very strongly.

-Mm.

Possibly, I underspiced it.

Maybe more cloves to make it more traditional.

Well, it smells of cloves and citrus. I do like that bitterness.

It's like having Campari in the background.

Yes! It's a good kind of balance to the sweetness. It's very, very sweet.

All that port.

Sniffing and drinking this,

I'm thinking Dickens, I'm thinking Victorian, rosy-cheeked people,

probably through too much punch...

-Probably.

-..by the coal fire there.

I'm thinking of putting my boot up by the fire

and calling for one of those long clay pipes

and maybe bring on the serving wenches!

'Xenia's a girl who knows her drinks,

'and her next suggestion was a sort of Cornish Kir Royale

'made with sloe gin and a local sparkling wine.'

My own sloe gin,

made by my own fair hands.

What, from hedgerows and...?

Local hedgerows, local hedgerows, a lot of sugar, a lot of gin.

Picked the berries, froze them, beat them up with a rolling pin,

put them in a large one-gallon container

with a lot of sugar and a lot of gin and a vanilla pod

and then put them in the boot of the car

to roll around in the dark to really macerate.

Everyone says you should shake it every day. Much easier

to stick it in the boot of the car for a month. Let's have a taste.

That is very good. I must say, I thought it would be

a lot sweeter, but actually it's quite austere,

-but it's quite astringent.

-It's quite lean and racy and dry and...

Lean and racy, yeah.

And it's quite elegant.

It's got that sort of plummy, plum-stone taste as well.

-It has, it has.

-I mean, a great fruit, sloe, isn't it?

It's also...surprisingly alcoholic

-and it gets in the...

-Oh, not again!

I'm really sorry about this.

-That's why it's called a heart starter.

-We need a spittoon.

-It's Christmas, we're not doing spittoons.

-Fair enough.

That's why we call it a heart starter.

We discovered it on my local shoot, where I beat,

and we have it as a mid-morning nip just to warm me up and keep me going.

My God, when you're cold, large gulp of that and you're off and away again.

-So you like shooting?

-Yes, yes. I'm often to be seen behind a batch of brambles

with a large flag, shouting at pheasants.

Sparkling wine is really what...

It's not British wine, that used to be sherry, but English wine it's called, isn't it?

No, British wine is something that's unspeakably nasty and made from molasses and other revolting things.

English wine is made from grapes grown in England, essentially

and the English should be making sparkling wine.

We've got the right climate, the right soil

and we're really, really good at making sparkling wine.

And I think we can beat the Champagnoirs at their own game.

-Yeah.

-And what I like about Cornish sparkling wine is it's got that real cool freshness

that comes from wet hedgerows full of elderflower.

You're poetic. I like this, I like this.

POSH ACCENT: It comes naturally, darling!

THEY LAUGH Put Dame Edna away!

The Cornish coastline isn't always as benign as the Fal Estuary on a misty morning.

The sea and the fishing industry still remain Cornwall's main claim

to fame, and at this time of year, it's particularly perilous.

# The mackerel shoals we hope to find

# And soon we left Land's End behind

# For Cornish lads are fishermen

# And Cornish lads are miners too

# But when the fish and tin are gone

# What are the Cornish boys to do? #

I never fail to be in awe of the guys at the sharp end of the fishing industry.

Working day and night in conditions which most of us would do anything to avoid.

I must say, it's really nice to be in Newlyn market again, albeit it is the middle of the night.

They've just landed this beautiful-looking hake.

I'm always banging on about hake.

I don't quite understand why we don't eat more of it in this country.

I think it's the best number of the cod family, and Phil Mitchell

and his boys have been out in the Irish Sea fishing for this.

They've got about 204 boxes,

and there's five stone in a box, so that's about 6,500 kilos of fish.

Hake is a bit of a good-news story as far as fishing is concerned,

there's plenty about, and the Spanish love it.

This is all going off to Roscoff, but then it'll be distributed

to all those hake-loving countries in Europe, like Spain, even as far as Italy.

I've been filming in Spain recently, and one of the ways I love to eat hake

is just cut into thin little steaks, about that wide, and cooked a la plancha,

on a very hot grill, with just a little bit of olive oil, and served with caramelised onion and garlic.

It's fab!

Phil, the thing that really upsets people - ordinary people that don't know about fishing

is the way that fish get just thrown overboard and not landed.

People understand the need for conservation and conserving stocks

but they can't understand throwing stuff away. Why is that?

The way it's being done at the moment, bigger fish will command a better price than smaller fish.

If you're only allowed to catch two tonne of fish,

-you're not going to land two tonne of mixed fish.

-Little fish or mixed fish.

You're going to land two tonne of big ones to get the best money.

-And all the small and medium ones, which are already dead, are getting thrown away.

-It's criminal.

It's just heartbreaking, heartbreaking.

So you've been at sea a long time, you're coming back for Christmas.

What does that mean to you?

Well, it usually starts off with everyone looking forward to it.

Come home - week, ten days off - really looking forward to it

and then, by the time you get here, fish prices have dropped. This, that and third thing.

Everything you thought you were going to make, and then, "oh". Now you can't.

Usually, it's a big disappointment and you can't wait to go back to sea again!

THEY LAUGH

The fishing industry has changed almost beyond recognition in recent years

and there aren't as many trawlers as in the past.

Interestingly, though, a smaller fleet is giving local stocks a chance to recover

and seeing that hake makes me want to use it in my Christmas banquet.

I asked my son, Jack, who's one of my chefs, to come up with a dish.

'This is his braised hake with a seasonal Cornish salad.'

And that is sea beet, from the seashore.

Various different cabbages, red cabbage,

hispi, beetroot, cavolo nero, but Cornish.

What about these?

Pomegranate? Not exactly Cornish?

It's the only winter fruit I could think of at the time, but I just thought, the colours and everything,

-went for the Christmas ornament, sort of holly bush.

-And berries.

And berries. That's the pomegranate, that's where that's come from.

Brilliant. I've never asked you this, Jack, so it seems a good time, but why are you doing this?

Just to please me, take over the family business? Do you like cooking?

Yeah, to get your undivided attention, mostly, and because I love working weekends and late nights(!)

'Thanks, Jack! The base of this sauce is beetroot, so in order to extract the juice,'

it goes into a rather posh food processor to be blitzed.

You can do it at home by simply softening the beetroot and putting it through a sieve.

The idea here is to get that rich colour of Christmas.

OK, the first thing we need to do is chop the veg, so just give us a hand here.

-Nice and tight.

-How fine do you want?

-You mean... Tight means fine?

-Yeah.

It's not really the time of year for a conventional salad, so best to use what's available.

You can tell which the youth is here, going like crazy there.

I just like to be a bit more methodical, go along at my own... my own speed.

This is almost like a really vibrant coleslaw - all the different leaves will each have a very particular

influence in the salad, and none will be too prominent.

The whole thing will have plenty of crunchy crispness, which will complement the warm, flaky fish,

and the cavolo nero leaves will be slightly bitter against the slivers of beetroot.

The chunky fillets of hake are pan-fried in a little butter,

skin side first, of course, to hold them together.

Once the skin's nicely caramelised and flipped over, coat them with more melted butter.

Don't they look good as they take a little bit of golden colour?

Now put in a good glassful of sparkling wine to deglaze the pan and gather every scrap of flavour.

Add a ladleful of fish stock, and then cover the pan and let the fish poach for just a few minutes.

I like the idea of the pomegranate seeds.

How come you came up with that?

Just thought of a non-toxic holly berry, really, just for the final dish.

I just remember seeing around the house in wreaths, dried out pomegranates adorning the middle.

-That's really good, it's really imaginative stuff, Jack!

-Thank you very much!

When the fillets are done, keep them warm, and add the juices from the pan to the beetroot dressing.

Now, put in some rapeseed oil - Cornish, of course - and a dash of cider vinegar.

Mix it all up, just like any other salad dressing.

Put some on the salad, and toss it together just before you serve the dish.

I can see you've thought about this, Jack, that's really nice. It really does look like Christmas.

Can I just taste a bit?

You know me, a bit more salt.

-Just a tad more dressing, do you think?

-Yup.

The whole thing is served on top of thinly sliced beetroot.

And with Jack's pomegranate seeds mixed in with the rest of the saucy dressing, then dribbled around

the edge of the plate, it all looks like a Christmas decoration itself.

I'm still amazed that this extremely fine fish isn't more popular in this country.

Why on earth do we not recognise our treasures instead of flogging them abroad?

# We're making money with this sound

# Rattle them winches, oh!

-# Soon we'll all be homeward-bound

-Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh! #

Music is in the Cornish fishermen's soul, but only recently has the rest of the world woken up to that fact.

These guys from neighbouring Port Isaac call themselves Fishermen's Friends.

And they won a huge recording contract, which will bring their music to a much wider audience.

I will definitely be inviting them along to my Christmas banquet!

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh! #

I'm off with one of the boys, Jeremy Brown, to pick up his lobster pots, which I'm pleased to see,

have plenty of lobsters and crabs in them.

Even some tiddlers!

They're the fastest ones to grow. They grow very quickly.

Lobsters grow a little bit, little bit - these grow really quickly.

This is really good fishing, I must say.

-So you reckon that's out of the hatchery?

-It could be.

We've seen lots of small ones around. It's nice to think...you know?

See, in Padstow, there's this lobster hatchery,

and when lobsters are born, they're born as little fry, tiny little things.

They're up in the water for a long time, up with the plankton for a long time, then they get swallowed up.

And they reckon 99% of all the little fry that are born are eaten by predators.

-So what they do is take these tiny little lobsters and grow them to about two centimetres.

-Two inches.

And then they put them back in the sea.

And Jeremy is saying they get a lot of these in the sea, so it's good news.

I assume they can fend for themselves, they can do a bit of damage with these claws now!

-Wouldn't even want to get my finger...

-They'd give a pollack a little nip on the nose, or a bass!

We just feed these up and throw them back, so it's almost like farming, in a way.

It is, really.

Only you're not having to pay for the feed.

That one's just big enough. Just made the measure.

So you've got quite an optimistic future, lobster fishing.

Then you've got your Fishermen's Friends as well.

-That's right, it's all going on!

-How did you get involved in that?

Well, we are literally all friends, and we would've been out, down the pub on a Friday night anyway.

So why do you think fishermen sing on boats?

The sea shanties on board sailing ships were actually essential to bring up the heavy ropes,

to bring up the chains, the anchors...

-So it's like...

-They'd have a chant going, sort of like...

# In South Australia I was born Heave away... #

Just to keep everyone in time. If you've got ten people pulling on a rope,

you need 'em all to pull at the same time.

It's no good one having a go, you need 'em all to lean back at the same time.

And there's different shanties for different jobs.

-# In the hold this gear must go

-Rattle them winches, oh!

-# For Mr Mate has told me so

-# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh!

# Rattle them down and stamp and go

# Rattle them winches, oh! #

So you want to see our crab shops? You've seen us catch crab and lobsters.

-So you've got it from pot to table then?

-That's the idea. I want to get this continuity going.

-Oh, fair enough.

-Got the wet fish on this side and on this side...

-my grandfather used to smoke the herrings in here.

-In here?

-Yeah, locally smoked herrings.

-Wow!

-Now it's a crab shop. Crabs and lobsters.

-And there's the crab pickers.

-This is my wife, Elizabeth.

-Hi.

-Very nice to meet you.

Oh, I've got gloves one.

This is Kim and my daughter, Lisa.

This is our happy little team of crab pickers.

I LOVE crab. Look at that.

It's really good value for money, crab.

In this country, it's as cheap as chips.

-Can I try a bit.

-Er...yes, you can.

Love it.

A nice bit of meat. I mean, that is it!

Let's hope there's no crunchy bits in there!

Ahh.

Would you ever think of having crab over Christmas?

Lots of people want it at Christmas - crab AND lobster. Yep.

-It's a pity we don't eat more over Christmas, really. It's a real...

-It makes a lovely salad

for those days when you want something a bit lighter than heavy old turkey.

I was just thinking, this at Christmas - what could be better?

I spend a lot of time in Australia and around Christmas, they always go for the seafood,

but why don't we? We just think of turkey and really...

But some crab at Christmas!

'Crab, yes. Lobster, even better as far as I'm concerned.'

I've got my Breton chef Stephane Delourme to come up with a lobster pithivier.

He's cooked the lobster for just a short time.

It shouldn't be cooked completely, because it's going to be finished off

when the little pies are baked in the oven, and he doesn't want it to be overdone.

Steph and I are making what I like to call a shellfish reduction.

I'm just cutting up these lobster shells here -

what a lot of people don't realise

is how much flavour there is in a lobster shell.

Also in prawn shells, also in crab.

Once the smashed up shells are in with the sizzling vegetables,

you add a large pinch of saffron, and another of cayenne pepper.

Mix it together, and then flambe the pan with cognac.

Add a generous glass of white wine, followed by some tarragon, and a pint of chicken stock.

That has to cook away for an hour to extract all the flavour from the ingredients,

before you strain the liquor into another pan.

For the filling, Stephane makes up a fish mousseline with uncooked hake.

I'm keen to use this fish.

Fresh double cream.

One whole egg.

And some finely chopped shallot.

Then with another egg, beaten in a bowl, he adds some of the reduction,

before gently folding in the smooth, creamy fish.

Believe me, this is all worth it.

The pastry is a straight forward puff pastry and the filling must always be generous.

The lobster hasn't been overcooked in the first place, because it will

cook some more when it's baked.

And, of course, the fish mousseline will cook at that time, too.

What would you have in Brittany over Christmas in Quiberon, then?

We will have a lot of shellfish.

Fruits de mer to start.

We used to eat goose a lot, but it's mainly beef now.

Beef en croute or a nice fillet of beef.

And of course this is lobster en croute, really.

Yes, it could be lobster en croute.

But, yes, that's a bit posh for family.

Now we use a lot of shellfish, a lot of fish, and a lot of wine.

Before baking, just give them an egg wash to make them turn to a golden colour.

And because he's a Frenchman,

Stephane has an irresistible need to draw on them.

But it does make them look very pretty.

Back to the sauce to thicken it with butter and cream

and to prepare a chiffonade of basil leaves.

That's very French of me, isn't it?

Very nice, very lobstery, isn't it?

And the basil in just before it goes out.

It comes out of the oven looking a bit like a high-class Cornish pasty,

but don't be fooled by the looks.

It would be superb on its own, but surrounded by that

unctuous creamy sauce with basil,

and it reaches a new plane altogether.

Just thinking, at Christmas, just the best bottle

of old white Burgundy I've got will go with this.

I had in my head as I was eating that lovely...

I mean, the saffron works really well with the lobster reduction.

Very deluxe food, I'd say.

-Bon appetit.

-Merci.

Firstly, I'd like to welcome you all tonight to another Dickensian evening.

THEY PLAY THE FIRST NOEL

As well as great food and drink, Christmas has come to be synonymous with Dickens.

In Lostwithiel, they really know how to celebrate the great man,

who came to Cornwall with his artist friends in the 1840s.

If you know your Dickens novels,

you should be able to spot each and every character

in this annual Christmas ceremony,

which brings the whole community together.

Everyone joins in the spirit of Christmas past.

BELLS PEAL

There's free mince pies and mulled wine in almost

every shop you choose to visit up and down the High Street,

but for serious foodies, the local delis provide

plenty of Cornish festive fare to stock up your larder.

I love Lostwithiel!

Cornish Christmas, quite simple.

It means good food, family, friends and fun really

and we have all those things in abundance in Cornwall.

We've got great producers, great suppliers

and put all those things together with a bit of festive cheer,

that's it.

But if Dickens is not your style, that's fine.

Some characters seem to have escaped from other authors.

There we go! Happy Christmas... from Captain Pugwash.

I'll be on my way now.

'In years past in Cornwall,

'the joy of Christmas was that it was a short respite

'in the day-to-day struggle to put food on the table

'and in those days the choice of food was very limited

'for ordinary working folk.

'For much of the year, their diet consisted of little else than pilchards,

'fresh when the shoals were running

'and when the fish had moved on, it was yet more pilchards,

'this time dried or preserved in brine. There was no escape from it.

'Some time ago I was able to go out and catch some for the Cornish Pilchard Museum,

'but these days pilchards have a new image.'

Oh, brilliant!

'Rebranded as Cornish Sardines, they're very popular.

'I love it when previously humble food becomes the height of fashion.

'In this Newlyn pub, I met up with a few local lads -

'Nick Howell, Laurence Hartwell and James Hicks - who know what it was like in the bad old days.'

So, um, what sort of things have they, you know, in times gone by...

I mean, it's a pretty poor part of the country really,

what would they have had around Christmas, do you think?

-I think poor's the word, isn't it?

-Poor's the word, yeah.

Whatever you could preserve during the good times really.

If you're a bit dryer, just like, just further south in Brittany

here's the... This is sun-dried as opposed to salted.

Now here you've got salt conger, salt pollack,

little pollacks they are.

-Yeah.

-Salt conger again.

Goodness knows what it tastes like, not much of a smell to it.

No, I mean, if you said...

-It's incredible.

-..you could eat this, you'd say...

-Soak it and...

-No, it's a piece of wood, you can't eat that!

I mean, how would you go about, you know, cooking something

maybe that I could, maybe sell in one of my restaurants?

I think one of the things if you listen to some of the meals that people talk about,

it's incredibly simple because,

especially this far south away from a lot of trade, I guess,

the basic ingredients are what's growing outside

or what's swimming around out there,

and the simplest one I know of is literally the fish, the potatoes,

and using sea water rather than fresh water.

-You mean you just take...?

-And if you had the money, an onion.

What you've also got to remember is one of the most famous things in this area -

my family comes from Mousehole originally - is Tom Bawcock's Eve.

He was the fisherman who went out and caught the fish to feed the families of Mousehole

after a period of storms and it still goes on to this day,

it's quite famous and it was really pilchards and potatoes.

What else went in it, I don't know.

Another thing is,

Henry VIII, one of his favourite meals was Stargazy Pie.

-Yeah.

-And he found it somewhere, they used to send them to...

-Well, he looked well on it.

-He looked well on it, yeah, like me.

-Yeah.

-'A few years ago'

'when I was a young lad with more hair

'I went with a film crew to Mousehole, Mouse hole as the locals call it,

'on Tom Bawcock's Eve to sample for myself the famous Stargazy Pie.'

# A merry place you may believe

# Was Mousehole on Tom Bawcock's Eve... #

'I wonder if Tom Bawcock would recognise this version.

'It was a pastry base filled with mashed potatoes

'cooked with cream and parsley

'and, of course, the pilchards

'popping their heads through to gaze at the stars.

'No doubt Henry VIII would have joined in with no trouble at all.

'It was a great night

'and a very lively start to the Christmas good cheer.

'Good Lord, I did have a lot more hair in those days!

'While Tom Bawcock's Eve dates back into the mists of time

'a new kid on the Cornish block by comparison is the Eden Project,

'visited by tens of thousands of people from all around the world.

'Here too they've embraced the Christmas spirit

'and with a strong environmental message regarding waste.

'Very apt I thought, just like Ted Hughes's The Iron Man.

'Remember all those wonderful pictures of people skating elegantly

'on frozen ponds on Christmas morning?

'Well, you can't say I didn't try.

'Once upon a time I was quite good at skating, honest!'

# So let's celebrate

# All that is great

# In our green and pleasant land... #

You can do it!

Well, I could,

it's just...

these guys want to make fun of me.

I haven't done it since '63,

the bad winter on the lake just near Uppingham School.

It's easy!

# ..To you a joyful New Year To you a joyful New Year. #

'Well, all that skating gave me a bit of an appetite

'so I joined the founder of Eden, Tim Smit, for a bite to eat.'

Oh, this is very nice. It's sort of vegetarian Christmas dinner.

It is, yeah.

-Vegetarian suet.

-Yeah and chestnuts

-and small mushrooms.

-All lovely.

Everything is local, probably 83% of everything we actually sell across Eden is local.

You're obviously rather romantically inclined towards Christmas, Tim,

cos just coming in tonight and just looking at those enchanting

sort of Christmas trees, that lovely shimmering Christmas tree and all the others

and the ice-skating rink, I mean, it must mean a lot to you.

Yeah, I love the idea of Christmas.

I know that for many people it's a terrible pressure of expectation,

it's a bit like the gold-embossed party invitation, which can never live up to the real thing,

um, but what I do adore about Christmas in the build-up to it is that sense...

It's the imagery that comes to you, isn't it?

Here we've got candles on the table.

Why is it that candles make you want to talk?

Why is it the glint of a wine or cider or something through a candle

makes you feel the tremendous sense of wellbeing and want to share it?

It's a lonely... You'd be a lonely old sod to do that on your own,

and I think, for me, the Christmas thing is about...

Um, it's an often-used word, "community",

but someone taught me about a year ago what the word "community" actually means.

It comes from the Latin word - two words - "com" and "munus",

"com" meaning together and "munus", in gift.

And I thought, "That's gorgeous!"

You suddenly understand that why we've lost so much in our society

is because we thought of community as being a line on a bloody map

as opposed to actually about the relationships of those people who are within the line on the map

and, you know, I think you get that sense here

when we have all those torch-light processions and everything,

a sense... It feels a bit pagan, but Christmas is a bit pagan in terms of emotions about it

and I love that sense of a larger togetherness than just the family.

Tim mentioned the pagan element of the celebrations and that's

certainly true today a bit further down the Cornish coast

in Penzance.

One of the organisers is Chris Nixon

who told me a bit more about the Montol celebrations.

We're in Penzance at the moment and we're celebrating the winter solstice,

and people have been celebrating solstice since time immemorial.

But I suppose, over the years, things have, um...

The old traditions have, um, waned if you like

and what we're doing is we're reviving what used to happen here,

in some cases, until quite recently.

In other cases, you know, several hundred years ago,

but everything we do now is based on a core tradition, if you like.

And all the Guise dancing, until quite recently,

within people's living memory, people did this Guise dance.

Basically that's how you see us dressed up in black, masks, tatters

and people dancing in and out of people's houses, in the streets.

This is what people did.

It's an interesting time of year, it's a time of change,

with the death of the old year, birth of the new year

and it's a portal, if you like.

Er, um, it's a time of topsy-turvy, misrule.

They don't actually have a wicker man here,

but although everyone is having a great time,

there does seem to be something slightly sinister about it all.

Throughout tradition this represents the end of the old

and the beginning of the new.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

There's a tangible sense of mischief and it's not altogether comfortable,

but I suppose this is how it was back in pagan days.

Or maybe it still is.

Back in one of my favourite Cornish pubs,

Christmas is celebrated in a more traditional way.

This is the centre of the village, our local reverend would love to have this many people in his church.

I mean, we have carol services and we have the charity auctions, whatnot over Christmas,

the local school comes in for our carol service.

It gets busy, which is good for me and, er, for them.

It is, we're into Christmas here, it's a happy, great time for us.

This pub is particularly well known for its speciality game pie

and it's made by Mike Jones, the landlord.

Game pie is the food of the season.

To me, it's a mixture of all the birds, all the animals,

the ground animals that we shoot,

and it's a great flavour, it's a wonderful product

and I love it, it's always been happening forever.

It takes an awful long time to make,

you got to be a bit passionate about the thing,

you have to feel good about making it

and everyone can make mistakes,

but when it comes out right, it is the best thing,

it's just fantastic food.

At least you don't have to be landed gentry any more to enjoy this sort of stuff.

I suppose you could make it yourself,

but wouldn't it be better to take yourself off to the local pub

and join in with a lot of other people beside the roaring fire and enjoy it with a pint?

Good conversation and a slice of pie with pickles, you can't beat it.

After all, that's what Christmas should really be all about.

Game pies don't come any better than this, and to help wash it down,

a new discovery for me - a delicious sparkling perry made by Andy Atkinson near Foye.

Pears in Cornwall have been around for many, many years.

They're not very popular at the moment.

We haven't got any major pear orchards in the county,

but we have records back in the National Trust properties

that go back many, many years, of large pear orchards being around.

The Tamar Valley has always been a great area for growing soft fruits -

strawberries, raspberries, cherries

and pears were just the same, very popular many years ago.

Perry in itself is a very traditional drink, and, you know,

Christmas is all about that, it's all about tradition.

Cider gets all the good press, if you'll pardon the pun.

But I reckon it's time to raise the profile of Cornish perry.

The pears are washed and pulped and every last drop of juice extracted.

Nothing is wasted. Even the pulp is collected and used for animal food.

But sadly for the animals, they get it before it's fermented.

Merry Christmas!

That's convinced me, then. I decided to use pears in a Christmas banquet

and this time I have asked my pastry chef, Sam Eden, to come up with a suitable dish.

She's going for a pear souffle.

She is using soft, ripe sweet Conference pears

and she's stewing them down with a little sugar and a small amount of the perry to enhance the flavour.

Then she simply breaks them up into a sort of smooth compote

and then thickens it with cornflour, also slaked down with the perry.

She adds it slowly, because you can't afford any lumps in a souffle.

What I really like about it, it's going to be really light,

because you're just using cornflour and, what, you have some egg in there, I guess?

Yeah, we mix it with a meringue,

which is just egg white and sugar-based, so it's a lot more stable,

which is great for a party, because everyone's always scared that they are going to collapse.

We don't want that. It's too embarrassing.

Especially with all the people we have got to serve.

But I really love a souffle.

I always think it's the mark of a good pastry chef to be able to make

a lovely light and simply flavoured souffle.

Well, I'm sure you all know how to make a meringue -

with egg white, sugar and plenty of arm-aching whisking, until you get your peaks to stand up.

When you have done it, simply put half into the pear compote and mix them thoroughly.

Then put the other half in and fold it in gently so as not to lose the light fluffiness of the meringue.

Pipe it into the buttered and sugared ramekins

and make each one look tidy with a flat top.

Now they're almost ready for baking.

I love my Christmas puddings,

but occasionally this would be a most welcome change.

It's some days since my pastry cook days.

Why do you rub your finger around there?

-Because it helps bring the souffle away from the edge and helps it to rise nice and flat.

-Oh, I see.

Well, you learn something every day!

After about seven minutes, they'll have risen with a golden top.

We're serving it with a home-made ice cream, again infused with perry,

and some very smart and festive pear crisps.

I'm not going to cook goose for my Christmas banquet,

but I don't want to ignore it either.

And I've cooked it before. About five years ago,

I remember cooking the best roast goose ever.

I remember it for very different reasons.

The goose and all those wonderful trimmings were perfect.

The stuffing took ages - it had chopped onions, fresh white breadcrumbs,

zest of lemon, chopped sage, parsley and an egg.

It took a long time to get these things right.

It started to rain

and I sensed the crew were desperate to get to the pub.

And then I had to make the apple sauce.

Goose and apple sauce is a joyous combination.

By this time the director was insisting I bought a jar from the corner shop down the road.

Unbelievable!

And then when the time came to make the gravy - giblet gravy -

I sensed I had a revolution on my hands.

These were the days when the pubs closed at 3pm

and it was already an hour after opening time.

You can't rush good food.

And so I made the gravy with streaky bacon, goose giblets,

chopped onions, carrots and celery.

Then the water, of course, and bay leaves and peppercorns.

The director was quite serious about using a well-known brand!

You know the one with the label featuring those scruffy kids

smelling the aromas of a roast dinner and going, "Ahhh!"?

But nothing was going to stop me

from making the best roast goose ever.

Ahhhh!

Back in Padstow, I thought it would be a good idea

to arrange a goose taste test, for two reasons really.

One, because it's increasing in popularity as a choice for Christmas day

and two, because it varies so much in price.

£25 will get you a frozen supermarket bird,

but you'd be lucky to see any change out of ninety quid for a free-range organic.

'As far as we were concerned there were four birds.

'One was the cheapest frozen supermarket version,

'another was wild, then there was a free-range bird...'

Goose A, right help yourself, have a look at the goose, have a...

'..and finally the free-range organic.'

Made with good fat, um, but a bit tough.

'Naturally, as we're all chefs here,

'we prefer to cook it slightly underdone,

'but which one tasted the best?'

Not as lean as the first one so I think this is a bit of a better bird.

-OK, this is goose C.

That goose was very nice and it's quite tender, full of fat,

er, full of flavour.

Do you know what I think about this goose?

I don't care if that's the supermarket goose

because it is so much nicer than the other two,

if I lose, if it...

I mean, it is a bit of a loss to go for the frozen goose,

but if that remains the best one,

it's so much better than the other two, if it's a frozen goose,

it doesn't matter.

This is, um, goose D, so everything hangs on this really.

Taste-wise, it was lacking a little bit,

um, I don't think it was as good as the last one.

Yeah, right.

Er, it's simply the best goose.

I don't want to know what goose is what,

I just want to know what the best goose is on the day,

so I just want to show of hands.

Who thinks that goose A was the best goose?

Nil points.

Who thinks that goose B was the best goose?

Me, actually.

Two. Who thinks that goose C was the best goose?

Could somebody count because I'm not very good?

-Seven.

-Seven.

And that leaves goose D.

-None.

-Nil.

-Nil.

OK, right, goose C. Anybody got their fingers crossed?

Well, I have a bit.

Goose C is...

the free-range organic.

Well done, everybody, your palates are absolutely tippy-top,

well, except for the, er...

And that came from Debbie and Simon Andrews from their farm near Golant.

We were so impressed,

we decided to have goose for our staff Christmas dinner

along with all the trimmings, of course,

and none of that packet gravy!

Is that gra...? That's a serious amount of gravy!

These are good times for me because it's the one occasion

I get a chance to spend time with most of my staff.

What a mellow sound.

I just thought I'd, um, say a couple of words

as this is the last time we'll all be together before Christmas

as you haven't got to work tonight

and, um, I would like to just thank you very much for a sensational season.

Everybody, in all departments, has been excellent,

it's a real pleasure to be sort of nominally in charge of such a professional group of people,

so thank you and as it's Christmas,

-a merry Christmas to you all. Glasses, please.

-Merry Christmas!

I was having a bit of a rethink about the start of my banquet lunch.

I'd heard about some wonderful prawns being caught around the Fal river by David Thomas.

This would be an ideal pre-starter for our meal,

and it's high time we started using these prawns in Cornwall

instead of sending 99% of them off to Spain!

This is going to be not the first course, but like a pre-first course.

To me, it's one of the best things you can have, when you sit down,

and you're full of joy, having a drink, is to pick at some prawns.

Look at these prawns.

These came from Falmouth this morning.

Look at those. You don't need to do anything but drop them into seasoned flour and fry them,

very quickly, and serve them up with garlic mayonnaise, aioli.

It's just perfect, you just dip it in the aioli and eat them, you eat them in the whole shell,

because by frying them, the shell crisps up, and people don't mind.

They don't notice, but actually, there's so much flavour in the shell.

I've seasoned the flour with a little cayenne and some sea salt.

And once the prawns are coated with it, they go straight into the hot oil, for just a few moments.

Let them drain, and then serve them straight away, with another sprinkle

of salt, and a good dollop of the freshly made aioli

for dunking them in.

The garlicky smoothness of the aioli just goes so well with

the slightly crunchy prawns.

Cheers, David!

Now, Rick, with great respect here,

many people might think that the food you're cooking

for this sort of Christmas lunch is a bit on the sort of fancy side.

Look, it's Christmas, OK. It's intended for after Christmas.

I know you love your turkey, your cold stuffing,

your pickled onions, your baked potatoes,

but there's life after the cold turkey, if you catch my drift.

OK, it is a bit elaborate.

But we've got that lovely lobster pithivier, which is luscious and full of flavour.

And Jack's little hake dish with the lovely winter salad underneath it.

I think it's very light and just what you need after a heavy Christmas.

We have got the shrimps. And we've got that souffle - it's just a little puff of air.

Christmas - weeks of planning and preparation, and before you know it, the guests are turning up.

Among them is Simon Reid, a man who knows heaps about the history of Cornish food.

At Christmas, what traditionally did the Cornish do, what special things happened in Cornwall?

There is the more revolting end.

Pies were very popular in Cornwall

for the feast, especially in the 19th century,

and there is a particularly revolting one called muggoty pie.

Muggoty? It sounds a bit revolting.

It is, it is sheep entrails braised in clotted cream.

-Really?

-Absolutely appalling.

And also, in this part of world, one that was very popular was Cormorant pie layered with bacon and raisins.

Which is absolutely disgusting.

CHINKS GLASS

I'd just like to welcome you all to this little lunch of Cornish produce.

We are starting with some Falmouth Bay shrimps.

Well, actually, they are a bit of a prawn, aren't they?

We have got lots of nice courses to come, all with a Cornish theme.

So let's have a bit of a drink!

Cheers!

-Somebody once told me you wouldn't come to my restaurant because you don't eat fish.

-I don't eat fish.

I will eat that. It look good.

Everybody else has got fish, so I've got fish as well.

I'm touched!

What was that one you were saying about some goat around here, you know a story about a goat?

Well, Little Petherick, the first time I came to it,

there was a well just out on the green

and I can imagine in years gone by all the people came to the well

for their daily water and I looked down the well and couldn't see the water.

So I threw a stone down and never heard the splash.

I thought, "That's very, very deep.

"I must get something bigger than the stone."

There was a railway sleeper and I dragged that over and I got one end up on the wall and edged it up

on my shoulder, until I got sleeper -

it was about 12 foot long and wet - crashing down the well.

I could see the sleeper crashing down the well, but out the corner of me eye, a goat -

he tried to kill me. He put his horns down, a goat, and he's flying.

-And he had a nasty look on his face, Rick.

-He was trying to butt you down the well.

I jumped out of the way and...

Hur, hur, hur! Don't start me laughing.

This goat jumped straight down the well.

I just saw a goat disappear in the distance, gone out of sight. Gone.

A fella come walking across the green, he said, "Good morning."

I said, "Oh, good morning!"

He said, you haven't seen a goat?

I said no.

"Well," he said, "he can't be very gone very far - he's tied to a sleeper!"

Well, I hope you're enjoying our little festive lunch.

That is damn good.

I love Christmas in Cornwall. But I think one of the things that...

I've got really upset about over the last few years, has been,

it's become too absorbed with consumption and purchase

and Christmas starts with bloody television advertisers.

Good on you, Tim, I have to say!

I love to hear this. You're a serious person.

-But don't you feel that?

-I do.

-Some friends of mine did something that is really beautiful.

They all agreed as a big family group that they would spend no more than a tenner

and what they discovered was that normally at Christmas

if you just at Christmas Eve go to a shop, buy something, it means actually nothing.

People judge it according to how much money you spent, or whatever.

They found that last Christmas, everybody couldn't wait for each other's presents to be opened,

because each present had a story in it - the second hand book about fly fishing or whatever it was.

Everything that was opened had meaning.

It provided it with meaning.

And a sense that you're thinking about the person you're giving the present to.

Exactly. That is actually what it's supposed to be about, isn't it?

You're off, aren't you? You're a busy man.

I must fly on. Thanks for having me and great to see you.

Just before you go, one final word about Christmas.

Oh, Christmas is all about the kids, and the bonus is we get a new jumper as well, don't we?

Do your best, Rick.

Well, there you are. I hope you have enjoyed looking at

some of things that go to make a Cornish Christmas,

and perhaps you will have a go at your own festive menu.

It doesn't have to be too elaborate, just some great local produce closer to you.

As for this one, everything seems to be going down very well.

Anyway, however you're planning on spending your festive season,

I wish you and everyone a very 'ansome Christmas and new year.

Another chance to bang the old glass. Just been a lovely lunch.

Thank you very much for coming.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers.

APPLAUSE

So, well, anyway, I think there's only one thing to do now which is to have

a rousing chorus of something lovely and Christmassy from the Fishermen's Friends. Take it away.

# While shepherds watched their flocks by night.

# All seated on the ground

# All seated on the ground

# The Angel of the Lord came down

# And glory shone around

-# And glory shone around

-And glory shone around

-# And glory shone around

-And glory shone around

-# And glory shone around

-And glory shone around

# Fear not, said he

# For mighty dread

# Had seized their troubled minds

# Had seized their troubled minds

# Glad tidings of great joy I bring

# To you and all mankind

# To you and all mankind

-# To you and all mankind

-To you and all mankind

-# To you and all mankind

-To you and all mankind

-# To you and all mankind

-To you and all mankind! #

Brilliant. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Merry Christmas!

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