The Commonwealth Royal Recipes

'The royal family are steeped in tradition and throughout history,

'the royal tables have showcased culinary excellence.

'In celebration of royal food...'

We know it's the Queen's recipe

because we've got it in her own hand.

'..from the present and the past...'

That is proper regal.

'..we recreate old family favourites.'

Now, the Queen Mother had this really wicked trick with these.

What a mess.

'We sample royal eating alfresco...'

-Oh, wow!

-That is what you want.

'..and revisit the most extravagant times.'

Pheasant, stag, turkey, salmon, oysters, and turbot,

-dressed in a lobster champagne sauce.

-Unbelievable!

'This is Royal Recipes.'

Hello. I'm Michael Buerk

and welcome to Royal Recipes.

This is Audley End, one of Britain's finest stately homes.

Built in the style of a royal palace and once owned by a king.

In the splendour of the gardens,

halls and kitchen of this grandest of country houses,

we'll be recreating the food served at the highest royal tables.

And it all starts here, with this gem.

A royal kitchen maid's cookbook.

The only surviving recipe book of its kind in the royal archive.

This is an exact copy of the original,

which is kept at Windsor Castle.

Inside, the recipes of Mildred Nicholls,

who worked at Buckingham Palace in the early 1900s.

And for the first time in over 100 years,

we'll be bringing these recipes back to life.

This time, we are cooking royal food inspired by the Commonwealth.

The political union of 52 countries operates for the good of all.

And it is said to be the Queen's proudest achievement.

Today in the Royal Recipes kitchen,

Paul Ainsworth cooks up some tropical delights.

And it's another one of those royal recipes that's just really

extravagant. In fact, it's bonkers.

Chef Anna Haugh tours The Royal Yacht Britannia,

scene of so many Commonwealth and diplomatic banquets.

Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill were all entertained here.

In the historic kitchen wing of this stately home,

we begin with a dish from Malta,

one of the Queen's favourite Commonwealth nations.

Welcome to the great kitchens and the equally great Michelin-starred

chef, Paul Ainsworth.

We are cooking with the Commonwealth today.

It is said that the Queen regards the Commonwealth as her greatest

achievement. She is the first head of the Commonwealth,

titular head of 52 countries.

-Incredible.

-So, what are you going to do?

Today, Michael, we are going to cook mushroom-stuffed quail with a

beautiful truffle butter sauce.

Now, this is based on the dish that was actually the main course for the

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta in 2015.

Absolutely. Yeah. So, we've made a couple of little changes.

We are going to stuff our quails with what the French

call a duxelle, which is this here.

So we've got chestnut mushrooms, Parmesan, some cream,

garlic, thyme, some shallots, and some wonderful English truffle.

Now, here is the quail.

-Do you like quail?

-Lovely little fellas, aren't they?

But they are very controversial in Malta, where they had this banquet,

because they shoot the quail when they migrate north in April and May.

And of course, the environmentalists were all up in the air about it.

-They had a referendum and...

-A referendum.

-A referendum.

..and by a thin majority, they decided they'd go on shooting them.

THEY LAUGH

-Fancy that, eh?

-Yeah, fancy that.

So you are... That's where the stuffing...

This is where the stuffing goes.

So, this quail has just been boned out,

so basically we've taken the carcass out but left the legs on.

So, the idea is now to wrap it back up so it resembles...

It resembles the bird again as a whole.

So what we do is we just pull it over like that.

-Fiddly, isn't it?

-It is fiddly.

We are just basically putting these cocktail sticks.

And that is because when we turn it over,

it's also going to be down this side,

so it's going to just seal in when we cook it.

OK? So we are going to turn it back over and now you can see,

it starts to resemble...

-The bird.

-..the bird again.

-Yeah.

-Now, this technique is called trussing.

So again, I know it's quite fiddly.

Shall I hold it while you do it?

Yeah, if you could. Just at the top there like that.

And we are just going to go like that and then back under the bird.

-Oh, that's clever.

-Yeah. If you just hold it there like that.

-Fiddly but clever.

-And then just...

tie it round. It actually doesn't take that long.

We are just going to cut the string there like that.

-Yeah.

-And there we have our two trussed birds.

It's actually not that bad.

-No, no, no.

-OK? I'm just going to hand those to you.

-They are not going to get away.

-No.

In the oven, 200 degrees, for 20 minutes.

-Done.

-OK. Thank you, Michael.

-These ones look ready, Paul.

-Oh, look at those.

Fantastic. Beautiful.

-Standing to attention.

-Standing to attention, aren't they?

Yeah. Look at that. Beautiful. Right.

-You going to let them rest?

-Yeah, that's it...

Ah... Yeah.

Right. On to our sauce. So what we are making here is kind of...

It's a truffle butter sauce, it's a bit like a beurre blanc,

but a beurre blanc, strictly speaking, is no cream.

So it's just butter and then white wine vinegar and white wine.

This sauce, very simple. Shallots, finely diced,

to get the flavour of them quick, white wine, reduced right down,

so that the alcohol is burned off, a clove of garlic, some thyme.

So, we are just going to add some cream.

That's your signature dish, cream, isn't it?

Not mine, the French.

-Ah! Right, right.

-OK.

-So, we are just going to stir our cream.

-Yeah.

Like so. Got that lovely flavour of the thyme.

Next, the butter.

Yes, of course, the butter.

See, the sauce is just coming to the simmer there, Michael.

-We are just going to add in our butter.

-Yeah.

I'm going to season now, not at the end,

because I want to bring that flavour out as much as I can from the thyme,

the shallot, that lovely white wine.

And just now, with a whisk, just stir it in.

Must have been quite a nostalgic trip for the Queen, actually,

because the Queen was in Malta as a young married woman, you know,

when Prince Philip was a first lieutenant in the Navy in 1949.

Before she became queen.

So she must have had... Because quail is quite a dish there.

She must have had quail then.

And it must have kind of taken her back, I think.

Right, there we have it.

-Yeah.

-So, we are just going to move our sauce onto the board there now.

And now we just add a little bit of lemon...

-Look at those.

-They are standing to attention, too.

-Pomme fondant.

-Pomme fondant?

Basically, butter roasted potatoes, little bit of chicken stock,

some thyme, some garlic,

and just keep cooking them and cooking them and cooking them and

eventually, you will end up with that.

The ultimate roast potatoes.

-Yeah.

-Next to that, we've got some delicious green beans.

So we are just turning those over in some butter.

And we are ready to plate up. Here we go.

-Right.

-Yes, please.

Right, so just a little pile of French beans, like so.

See, we've removed the string and taken the cocktail sticks out.

OK? And now that'll be nice and full, like that.

OK? Going to take one of our gorgeous pommes fondant.

-Just the one?

-Just the one, next to it like that.

-Wow!

-OK? And now this beautiful ingredient here,

English truffle.

-Have a smell. OK?

-Mm.

They don't taste of much, do they, but they smell...

These are from Wiltshire.

-Oh, really?

-So, yeah.

And they use dogs, as opposed to pigs, you know?

The reason for that is because pigs will eat them.

-Oh, yes.

-They've got ultra-sensitive noses, but they will eat them.

-Yeah.

-So...

Now... That lovely sauce just over our beans, like so.

-I love truffles.

-Like that.

Such a powerful perfume, isn't it?

Now, for me,

we are just going to hit that dish again...

..all over.

And there you have it.

Let's have a taste.

Yes. You've done it beautifully, actually.

Haven't you? It seems a shame to break into such a perfect...

But I think I will. There you go.

-Thank you very much.

-You first. Show me the way.

And that meat is still so juicy.

-A bit of the sauce.

-I'll have a go.

It's that fondant potato that I'm really...

..keen to have a go at.

Mm-mm. There we are. Now, that's what I call a mouthful.

Don't look.

That lovely earthiness coming through from...

It's great, isn't it?

-Oh, it really is nice.

-Mushroom, truffles, potato...

And the quail is a lovely consistency.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

-Happy with that?

-Mm.

I bet the Queen loved that.

I bet she did.

Roast quail, Commonwealth style.

The Queen has been hosting such dinners for over 60 years and many

were held on board The Royal Yacht Britannia.

Chef Anna Haugh has come to

Edinburgh, where the Britannia is moored.

Launched in 1953,

the Royal Yacht was designed to travel the globe and it became an iconic symbol of the Commonwealth.

Travelling a million nautical miles on over 900 state visits.

This is a floating palace.

There is no gold, there's no pearls, and there's no sapphires everywhere.

It just feels really cosy.

The yacht was finally decommissioned in 1997 and has been moored in

Edinburgh ever since.

Noel Coward, Nelson Mandela and

Winston Churchill were all entertained here.

But I bet none of them got to cook in the kitchen.

Now, Anna is going behind the scenes to the royal galley...

It's much bigger than I expected.

..to whip up a dish that was served on board on a 1995 trip

to South Africa - roasted duck and peach salad.

The first thing you've got to do is marinate your duck breasts.

So, what I'm going to add to this is some crushed juniper berries.

So they are pretty easy to crush.

You can crush them with the back of your knife.

OK, so, we'll take a bowl, scrape them into it.

And all it needs is just like a little sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

I'm going to season the duck with a bit of salt and I'm also going to

add olive oil. I'm just going to give that a little mix.

OK, so, next we are going to slice the Brussels sprouts.

Now, I am going to slice them really thin today.

But you can grate them or you could

just roughly chop them if you wanted.

So, the next thing I'm going to prepare is the vinaigrette.

So, I'm going to start off with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

Then I'm going to go with white wine vinegar.

Then I'm going to go with extra virgin olive oil.

A pinch of salt.

Very important. And then I need to add my marmalade.

The flavour that marmalade gives,

which is kind of tangy and interesting and a

little bit, kind of, warming, which goes so well with the duck,

and all you need to do is essentially just

stir it in really well.

OK, I think that looks nice and mixed.

So I'm going to throw my sprouts in.

Now, it's time to get the duck breast cooked.

Anna fries the duck to crisp up the

skin before finishing it in the oven.

So, while the duck is cooking in the oven,

I'm going to get the peach ready now.

It's always good to try your peach to see how sweet it is.

Mm! And then we are just going to caramelise it on quite a high heat.

Don't be afraid to add maybe a little bit more oil.

So you want this nice, golden, caramelised colour

on top of your peach. So I think we can take these off.

I'm just going to add them straight into the salad.

And I'm going to add the pearl barley, two generous tablespoons.

So, it's time to get the duck out of the oven.

So, you want to slice your duck, you know, nice and thin.

You can make this salad so elegant.

A couple of heaped spoons of your, kind of, cabbage salad.

You can see the lovely flecks of

your marmalade just coming through that, the orange zest.

And then we are just going to layer it up with your beautiful pink duck.

One more peach would be nice.

And there you go. You have your roasted duck and peach salad.

Looks good. We are talking about royal food in the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is quite close to your family story, isn't it?

Very close, very close, yeah.

My heritage is that my mum is from the Seychelles.

Oh, those paradise islands in the Indian Ocean.

Oh, absolutely. No place like it. Beautiful place.

Famous for Creole cooking in the Seychelles.

And are you going to do us something?

Lots of fish, lots of seafood.

-Yeah.

-And something they have out there, which we do here as well,

is octopus. And lots of octopus dishes but in particular,

beautiful salads.

And basically my mum's recipe, my mum's dish,

so it's kind of like a salsa.

So we've got this wonderful octopus here.

Now, the variety like this is the Octopus vulgaris,

which is basically a common octopus.

But essentially, it's the same as

the octopus you get round our shores?

No, no, not quite the same.

Like I say, this is the double sucker variety.

So, what we've done is previously we've cooked it for

two to three hours, basically until it is nice and tender,

so you can just put a knife through it.

And what we are going to do, Michael, is

we are going to have some nice little tentacles,

-because they are nice through the salad.

-Yeah.

-Next to me,

I've got a char-grill that's just warming up and getting nice and hot.

And then we are going to take some nice midsections like that and you

can see just how tender, but it's still so juicy.

-Very tender.

-Yeah. Really tender.

So, in here, we are just going to take some large pieces,

some small pieces and some tentacles.

So, here we've got a nice hot char-grill,

we are just going to very lightly...

We don't want a lot on there, because we don't want it to smoke,

we are just going to basically coat it.

-With olive oil?

-With olive oil, OK.

And we are just going to... Not pepper, just some salt.

If I can just get past you there.

Thank you, Michael. And we are just going to move that round like so.

So, just a little bit more...

A little bit more oil and get it straight on cooking.

And the reason we don't put lots of oil on there, Michael,

is because we just want it to gently seep down onto the char-grill.

Oh, man, the smell!

Right. On to the salsa.

So, over here, we've got some beautiful...

A lot of onions in Seychellois cookery,

so what we've done with these,

thinly sliced and pickled them in

just a little bit of sugar, olive oil,

white wine vinegar. So they go in there like so.

-Does that make them softer in taste?

-Softer and acidity.

Lovely acidity.

We are going to take a chilli.

And just really thinly slice the chilli.

If you want a bit of heat in there, leave some of those seeds.

OK. Next, we move on to our tomatoes.

Some yellow peppers.

The colours in here are wonderful.

Now, we are going to take some spring onions.

Just slice them on the diagonal like that.

-That's a good idea.

-OK.

Do you know what I mean, rather than just little round circles?

Right, just going over to our octopus now, Michael.

And I'm just going to turn it over like that.

Look at that. That's what you want. That lovely char-grilled flavour.

Have you got a cook's asbestos hands?

Yeah. I have, actually.

OK. Now, I've turned those over like that.

-Yeah.

-OK? Now we are going to put our tentacles just next to it in the

corner. The smell is gorgeous.

And what is lovely as well, you've got these lovely, light, fresh,

beautiful, sort of, acidity kind of

happening with these flavours and then

you've got this lovely charred octopus.

Now we are going to get some zest.

So we are just going to lightly zest a lemon.

-It's exciting, isn't it?

-OK.

-It's a quick dish, isn't it?

Yeah, it really is a quick dish.

OK. Now, I'm going to chop some coriander in there.

-Again...

-Oh, that's a really fresh taste.

Seychellois cooking is... I think a lot of people think that

it's quite spice-orientated but there's a lot of fresh green herbs.

They love basil, chives, coriander, that sort of thing.

OK, some more oil.

In there like so.

Now I'm just going to give that a little mix.

Look at that. Absolutely delicious.

And the colour is terrific.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

OK. Now, we are going to go in with our octopus, into the salad.

And the reason I do that as well,

so you are adding a little bit of warmth going through there.

Just gets all those lovely salsa

flavours we've got in there coming alive. Like so.

And now, we just plate up, Michael.

So, we just stir like so.

OK. Get our plates.

I can't wait for this one.

And just...

..like that, in the middle, all those beautiful flavours, crunchy...

This dish literally has everything.

And some lovely fresh rocket,

just for a little bit of pepperiness as well.

And there we are.

-Have a taste. Ready?

-Yep, here we go.

I mean, that octopus just...

-It is beautiful.

-Beautifully tender but slightly charred on the outside.

It is the acidity of everything and

the crunchy vegetables and the sweet, salty, savoury.

-Mm! What we need...

-A crisp glass of white wine.

And a white beach and a sunset somewhere over Africa.

Yeah. Nice. Absolutely delicious.

A feast for the eyes and for the palate.

Commonwealth ingredients at their tastiest.

Pineapple, one of the Queen's favourite fruits.

Historically grown in the

royal gardens and still growing the Victorian way in Cornwall.

These are Cornish pineapples,

growing at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

in the only working manure-heated pineapple pit in Britain.

It took three years to grow the first fruit and the team here were

so excited, they decided to mark the achievement by

sending one to the Queen,

as Heligan's archivist Candy Smit explains.

It was the Queen's Golden Wedding Anniversary and so,

knowing that the pineapple was her favourite fruit,

we decided that we would deliver her one of the first crops.

It had taken a huge amount of work.

Restoring the pineapple pit, which looked like this before work began,

was just one small part of the massive restoration project which

has been going on at Heligan for 25 years.

The gardens were really created by

four generations of the Tremayne family

and occupied Heligan from the early 1600s right through until 1920.

We came upon them in 1990, when they were totally overgrown.

What were the gardens to the house had not been tended

for around 30 years or so.

The transformation of the gardens is staggering, but learning how to grow

the exotic fruits the Victorian way proved almost as challenging,

as gardener Nicola Bradley explains.

If you've got the heating and the humidity, then that's fine,

you can grow a pineapple at home.

No problem. The problem comes when you are growing them in this way,

with this structure, without the use of modern technology.

The team had no written instructions,

they just used trial and error.

And shovelled a lot of manure.

So, the actual part that I'm standing in now is one of the side

trenches and there's one on either side.

This we stack with really fresh, hot manure.

And that will give off a heat,

as it decomposes and we have this honeycomb venting in the wall,

which the heat travels through, and then travels down through this

sort of gap in the wall here and as heat rises,

it comes out of the other side, the honeycomb venting,

into the growing chamber and just provides a nice, gentle,

steady heat throughout the winter months.

Probably takes about four people a whole day to barrow the manure in.

It's a very physical job.

But strangely satisfying.

Really satisfying.

This is how pineapples would have been grown in royal gardens,

dating back hundreds of years.

Pineapples started to be grown early on in the 1700s.

I'd say they were probably at the height of their fashion in the late

1700s, going through to the 1800s.

And they were huge status symbols.

It would have been quite important

for them to produce very high quality pineapples.

And after adopting those same labour-intensive practices,

the team at Heligan got their reward.

No-one was more delighted than their royal neighbour.

We were lucky enough to have a

private visit by Prince Charles in June '97

and showed Prince Charles these buds on the pineapples.

It was wonderful to watch this exotic fruit in the making and then

by October, we had, I think, it was five or six fruits.

We decided that the first one had to be tasted by staff,

in case it should taste of horse manure.

And it was indeed delicious.

It was like nothing we've ever tasted before.

The second fruit was then packaged up for Her Majesty.

And the third fruit was sent to Prince Charles.

OK. So, this is a pineapple dish, as I understand it.

And an invention of one of the most famous royal chefs,

Monsieur Careme,

who was George IV's chef at the beginning of the 19th century.

What are you going to do, what is it called?

This dish is called Pouding d'Ananas a la Royale.

"D'ananas" is French...

It should be banana, but it is French for pineapple.

-Absolutely.

-And it's another one of those royal recipes that is really

extravagant. In fact, it's bonkers.

So...

We are going to take some sugar and some egg yolks, just like that.

And we are going to whisk those together because the first part of

this dish we are going to make is essentially a custard but a custard

like I've never made before.

So, I'm just going to whisk these egg yolks and sugar together

until they start to go nice and pale, so basically,

we've blended the sugar right into the egg yolks.

Just to my left, Michael, we have got the pineapple skins,

just infusing into some cream.

OK, so we've just emulsified the sugar and the egg yolks together.

Over here, we are just going to pass...

..this mixture

which is basically the infused cream...

..and I've never ever done this before, so this is a new one to me.

-OK.

-So now, back over there like that.

And we pour this mixture...

-Back into the pan.

-..back into the pan.

Get everything in, like so.

So basically we've got this sort of

infused pineapple custard.

These moulds, you use plastic now, in those days,

moulds were terribly popular.

Terribly fashionable. Actually, I

-think it was rich people who had those, the copper ones.

-Yes.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Poor people had tin moulds, didn't they?

Yeah. What we are doing here is now we are adding some pineapple syrup.

We are just putting that in bit by bit.

So, you've basically got this really lovely infused kind of pineapple

-custard.

-You are getting that pineapple flavour in every way.

Every way, from the skins, everything.

Now, we are just going to gently pour this into our mould, like so.

Nice and gently and fill it up.

And the best thing to do here is eventually those air bubbles will

pop but we are going to let that settle.

So that is the first half done.

Ready to go. Right, next, we are going to go on to the bottom half.

It's complicated, this dish, isn't it? You are earning your money today.

I am. So, we've just got some whipped cream, OK?

Some pineapple that we've cooked in syrup, some pistachios,

love pistachios, and we've got some beautiful diced pear.

So we are just going to literally

-put those ingredients into this cream.

-This is an assembly.

And now in with our pineapple.

And it's...

I just would never think of putting these two things together like this.

It's fascinating for me.

I suppose the pear has a kind of softer taste and the pineapple

has a sharper taste, so maybe they go well together.

-We'll find out.

-We'll find out.

So, just in there like so.

Very rich, again.

Another rich royal recipe.

-Yeah.

-OK. So, that's in there like so.

Now, like this, Michael, right to the edge.

Keep that mould in place because you don't want to move it,

you want to keep it really firm in place,

so you can get that fruit right the way to the edge.

Right. So you've got that nice and smooth kind of surface, like so.

Now, that's going to go into the freezer for several hours but before

it does, I am just going to let both of them settle.

OK. While we wait, can I show you this?

-Yes.

-Looks like an ordinary pineapple, doesn't it?

-But it's not.

-But it's not.

It's a decoration.

In the olden days, right up to today, at banquets,

of course, they were exotic and everything in the olden days,

but they are still a lovely decoration now.

At royal banquets, you'd have as many as 80 of these pineapples as

decoration on the table for the first three courses.

And then, when the time comes for the fruit course, the fourth course,

-maybe the 5th course...

-Yeah, yeah.

-Look.

-Look at that.

-What do you think of that?

-Look at that.

It's in there.

-You don't even have to bring it to the table.

-Let's have a look at it.

-Would you like a slice?

-Yes, please.

-There we are.

-Lovely.

-Lovely.

Presumably, it is tipped out with a bit of fanfare and a bit of business

-and all that kind of stuff.

-It's such an acidic fruit, though,

-a little palate cleanser.

-Absolutely.

-For your next course.

But it is such a lovely idea, isn't it?

Right, where are we with these?

-Come over here.

-Oh, right. Oh, my goodness.

-Have a look under there.

-You might find something.

-OK.

Oh, right. OK.

I'm going to... Gosh, it's heavy, these things.

Aren't they?

Look at that.

-Look at that.

-Oh, I say.

A proper royal pudding.

It is, isn't it? This is unbridled extravagance on a plate, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Fancy a slice?

-Maybe.

-Come on, Paul.

-The anticipation.

Don't knock it over.

Yes. The pressure.

-The pressure of this.

-I know, I know.

Don't hang about, come on.

Right. In we go. Grab our plate.

Yeah. Oh, I say.

Oh, look at that.

-It looks good.

-How regal is that?

-Proper regal.

-Proper regal.

-Go on, after you.

-Me first.

Oh, look at that. You get two puddings in one here.

You want to let it come up to temperature as well.

-Yeah.

-So, you know, a good sort of 10-15 minutes out of the freezer.

Mm!

I didn't expect the top to be like that.

-Really, why?

-No. I really didn't

because of the amount of pineapple juice

and syrup that's in that custard.

-It really works.

-It's got like a condensed milk texture.

-It has.

-A lovely pineapple flavour.

There is a wonderful contrast with the bottom.

Perfect. Perfect end to something like a Commonwealth banquet.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Perfect end to this programme. See you next time.