Festivals Royal Recipes

Hello, I'm Michael Buerk.

Welcome to a brand-new series of Royal Recipes.

This time, we're at Westonbirt House,

formerly a grand country house, now a boarding school,

which has played host to royal visitors for over 100 years.

In this series,

we're delving even further back in time

to reveal over 600 years of royal food heritage.

You play Anne Boleyn.

And I will play Henry VIII.

And we've been busy unlocking the secrets of Britain's great food

archives, discovering rare and unseen recipes that have been

royal favourites through the ages.

From the earliest royal cookbook in 1390...

It's so precious, so special, that I'm not allowed to touch it.

..to Tudor treats from the court of Henry VIII.

I can't wait for this! One, two, three.

We'll be exploring the great culinary traditions

enjoyed by the royal family.

From the grand, to the ground-breaking,

as well as the surprisingly simple...

I did think that was going to be a disaster.

Oh!

..as we hear from a host of royal chefs.

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in and say,

"What's for dinner? What are we having?"

Oh, yeah. It's not just a normal kitchen.

..and meet the people who provide for the royal table.

If it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

Welcome to Royal Recipes.

This time, we're exploring festival food, and we'll discover whether the

royals like to do things the traditional way

when it comes to celebrating the various feast days and holidays

in the British calendar.

Coming up, we discover how a Tudor king dined at Easter

after giving up treats for Lent.

The idea of Henry VIII giving up anything...

-Well, you know where I'm going there!

-Yes.

We'll delve into the records to see what Queen Victoria was served

at a royal family Christmas dinner.

Here you've got a roast turkey and sausages. Plum pudding.

And we'll find out what Prince Charles tasted

to celebrate the Hindu festival of lights.

That was one thing he sampled. He loved it.

Well, we're in the Royal Recipes kitchen

with Executive Chef Anna Hart, and take a look at this!

-What are you cooking?

-I'm going to make Boeuf Roti a l'Anglaise.

It's English roast beef, for goodness' sake!

As served to the Prince of Wales, Bertie,

eldest son of Queen Victoria,

in 1875 on a naval ship in Calcutta harbour.

And they did a Christmas banquet for him.

And this was one of five main courses,

let alone all the other courses that he had, on that ship.

Boeuf Roti a l'Anglaise.

-What sort of cut of beef is it?

-This is a rib of beef.

It's a perfect cut for a large roast dinner.

The best way to cook this is to cook it at a kind of medium temperature,

-180 degrees.

-180 degrees. Well, what do you know?!

For about two hours or so.

I'm going to cut some vegetables to go underneath the beef.

That will really help to make a delicious gravy at the end.

OK. This is a big, big dish, isn't it?

This is a big dish.

He had a hearty appetite, did Bertie.

He had 50 of his closest friends on the ship.

-HMS Serapis.

-Yeah.

Just think, in Calcutta harbour.

-I know!

-In all that heat!

-Yes!

-Do you know what they had?

They had the ship's crew try to turn the deck into a Christmas,

wintry scene.

They used lots and lots of cotton wool to make it look as though it had snowed in Calcutta.

It must have been incredible.

Tell me, what do you look for

in a really, really wonderful joint of beef like this?

Well, you're looking for a beautiful, bright red colour.

You're also looking for good marbling.

What, the fat inside the meat?

That is the fat, and it's so important.

Because that's what gives it loads and loads of flavour.

So I want to place my vegetables in this roasting tray.

My beef is going to sit on top of them.

And then all the juice, as it comes down into the pan,

essentially, we're going to have a gravy from it.

So, I'm just going to season the beef.

-Very important.

-This is the ultimate British or English dish, isn't it?

Yes. Absolutely.

Especially when it's served with the famous Yorkshire pudding.

Yorkshire pudding, absolutely.

An Irish woman making Yorkshire pudding.

This should be interesting!

Should it be allowed?

-OK.

-There we go. Are you OK? Do you want a hand?

-Oh, I'm fine.

So, I'm going to put some beef dripping on top of this now.

This was his Christmas banquet dish for him and his mates in India.

But would you rather have a great, big joint like this of beef,

or would you prefer turkey?

Now, I think, you know, turkey's the traditional Christmas dish now.

Absolutely I would prefer to have this.

Turkey for me is an interesting meat.

But not as glamourous and delicious as a rib of beef.

What are you going to do with that?

So, this would go into the oven for at least two hours.

-Yeah.

-You'd check it after two hours.

-Yep.

-But I was in early today, and...

-We can't wait!

I've roasted one up already for you.

-Ah!

-So, I'll get rid of this down here.

-OK.

-And I'm going to show you how to make Yorkshire pudding batter.

-Ah!

-300g of flour.

-Yep.

-Five eggs and 250mls of milk.

-That should give you actually quite...

-That's the right combination?

That's the right combination.

I'm just going to give this a whisk,

and then I'll add the last of the milk just in at the end.

So, you're doing this for...

Imagine you're doing this for the future Edward VII,

he was Prince of Wales then. He was really rather wicked.

Wicked naughty or wicked bad?

Oh, no, no, no. I think wicked naughty, rather than anything else.

-OK.

-Had a bit of a reputation, you know.

Drank quite a lot. Ate an enormous amount.

Gambled... And did have a bit of a reputation with the ladies.

So much so, he had a wonderful nickname.

He was called Edward The Caresser!

So I've just added the last of the milk.

It should be the consistency of double cream.

Oh, right, OK.

So, it's really important that you rest this mixture.

Is that the most common mistake people make with Yorkshire pudding?

I think there's so many mistakes with Yorkshire puddings

that people make, that when you are cooking it in the oven,

the oven needs to be very hot.

Your tray that you cook your Yorkshire pudding in

also needs to be very hot.

Your fat needs to be hot.

You need to be very fast when you open the oven and pour your mix in.

-If you leave the oven open...

-Yes.

Yorkshire puddings are not for the faint hearted.

They're the souffle of the English world.

OK, so this mix, you know, you put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

But I did rustle one up earlier on.

-We're going to make some now. If you want to follow me through.

-OK.

Now, in here we've already got our hot tray.

-Yep.

-As you can see.

And then we're just going to pour it straight in on top.

That's it.

Oh, you've got a steady hand.

-There we go.

-Closing up quickly.

-There you go.

-Now.

-I don't know how you can walk away from them.

I'd be sitting there watching them to see if they actually work.

-OK, what next?

-OK, now we're going to make the gravy.

-Ah-ha.

-This is the best bit of a roast dinner for me.

I'm going to use the dripping that we cut from the beef earlier on

-when I was roasting it.

-Yep.

-I'm going to pour that in the pan.

-Oh, that looks fantastic.

-And that's just going to give it a gorgeous...

-All golden.

-..beefy flavour.

I'm going to have a tablespoon or so of flour.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to give that a little mix.

-Yeah.

Then I'm going to add a very small teaspoon of mustard powder.

-Ah!

-So, we're just going to cook this flour out a little bit.

And then I'm just going to warm this up slightly.

So you want these two pans to be roughly the same temperature.

OK. So, what's in this new pan here?

So, this is the meat juices from the beef after it came out of the oven.

-Right.

-So, now...

-Gosh, it all looks...

-..I'm going to add...

-..really rich.

-..this.

-Are you going to put the two together?

-Yep.

-Oh!

And now I'm going to add some red wine.

Oh, an absolute essential, I'd say!

-Yep.

-Then I just want to cook that wine out.

-I think so.

-I think Bertie probably had a few glasses of wine.

When he eventually became king, he was quite a successful monarch.

Well, I'm going to add a little bit of butter to this.

Just stir that butter in.

Gosh, that's gone really dark and really rich, hasn't it?

-Yeah. Well, the red wine...

-It's the wine, of course.

Yeah, I think it's a Bordeaux.

-Going to have a little taste.

-Yep.

Unless you want some more red wine in it?

It's delicious! No, that's perfect!

-Have you got enough?

-Nope.

-Gosh, that looks smooth.

Yeah, I think that we are done now. If you want to get the beef.

Oh, yeah. Let me create a bit of space. There we go.

Here we come.

HE STRAINS

It really is unbelievably heavy!

There we go.

Oh, yeah. Go on, pour the gravy first.

And then, we'll do the big reveal.

If I grab one side, you grab the other.

Yeah, yeah, thunder of drums...

You grab that. OK?

One, two, three...

Yay!

-That's beautiful.

-Whoa, where do you start with that?!

I also have a little bit of cabbage to put in there.

Oh, yes, must have a bit of cabbage.

It's so important, with a large piece of beef like this,

to be honest with any meat, that after you've roasted it,

that you rest it.

Usually it should be approximately half the time, approximately,

so we're almost there, but we can't forget...

-Don't forget the...

-..the most important part.

-Those Yorkshire puddings.

-Those Yorkshire puddings.

-Are you nervous, Anna?

-No, I'm not.

-Quietly confident?

-Yes, loudly confident.

Loudly confident! Yeah, you're not quietly anything, are you, Anna?

-Oh, my goodness!

-Yeah.

-Look at that.

-So here's our Yorkshire puddings.

Oh, eight huge nuclear explosions in the oven.

-Look at that!

-Yeah.

Oh, my goodness, well done.

Ta-da. Boeuf Roti a l'Anglaise.

As served to the Prince of Wales in Calcutta harbour,

Christmas 1875.

Perfect fare for a royal Christmas, even one spent in the heat of India.

And a fine festive dish to set before a king in waiting.

-After you.

-No, I insist, you first.

-Are you sure?

-Yes.

Lovely meat.

Mm!

Oh!

Absolutely melting.

That's a dish that makes you feel patriotic.

The roast beef of old England that Bertie had for Christmas.

Christmas as we know it today

is very much an invention of the Victorian era.

The Christmas tree, crackers,

even the food we serve

all owe a great deal to the influence of Victoria and Albert.

This is Osborne House on the Isle of Wight,

where Dr Annie Gray unwrapped the story.

It was Victoria and Albert's holiday home,

a place where they could play with their families, bathe by the sea,

but it was also, after 1861 when Albert died,

the place where Victoria spent all of her Christmases.

The English Heritage curator at Osborne House is Michael Hunter.

I know that Queen Victoria liked to say she was responsible

for introducing the Christmas tree to Britain.

Is that really true?

She didn't.

The Christmas tree was introduced much earlier in the 18th century

by Queen Charlotte, who was German.

And the whole idea of bringing in a real tree and decorating it

is a German tradition.

So, of course, when she married the German Prince Albert,

well, of course, what do you have to have at Christmas?

A huge, decorated German fir tree.

And so the idea of that was really popularised by Queen Victoria

and Prince Albert in the early years of their marriage.

This period also gave rise to a number of other Christmas favourites.

Crackers were invented,

and the sending of Christmas cards first began during Victoria's reign.

But the royals also influenced the meaning of Christmas,

making it far more family orientated.

The Georgian Christmas before Victoria,

was much more riotous and fun and full of drunkenness,

and very, very adult.

Victoria really did change a lot of that, didn't she,

by projecting this image of family,

and what I suppose is really quite a conservative, intimate Christmas.

Generally, I think they were trying to improve

the image of the royal family.

There was an effort, I think,

to make the monarchy at that time a bit more sort of respectable,

bourgeois I suppose, middle-class in sort of image.

And so the...

That ideal family unit that Victoria and Albert were projecting

was something that certainly focused in on Christmas,

and the Illustrated London News in 1848 famously published

an engraving of Victoria and Albert standing on either side of

the wonderfully decorated lighted Christmas tree with their family.

A scene of festive domestic bliss.

But, despite the similarities,

there were still a few differences between today's Christmas

and those enjoyed by the royals in the mid-19th century.

Queen Victoria was fond of presents and the presents were displayed

with the tree, but they weren't wrapped, were they?

No opportunity to tear off the wrapping paper on, you know,

Christmas morning, or Christmas Eve, as it was here at Osborne.

Everything displayed very formally on these Christmas present tables.

But they did have candles, didn't they, they were lit up, the trees,

in a delightful display of possibly burning down the entire house.

Yeah, no electric fairy lights in those days, all real candles.

I mean, they were only lit two or three times over the festive period.

I think it must have been quite memorable,

because visitors to Osborne, and members of the household,

do record the fact that, you know, the rooms were glittering

and, you know, the trees looked fantastic,

and all the decorations were absolutely, you know, breathtaking.

So it must have been quite a sight.

Queen Victoria had a significant impact on our Christmas traditions.

In particular, the festive foods that feature on dinner tables today.

In front of me I've got a dining ledger.

These ledgers were records of all things eaten at the royal palaces

for whichever day of the year it was.

This one is for Christmas Day 1897.

By the 1890s, the Queen was eating sequential meals.

She had seven or eight courses.

So, she starts off with pheasant soup and goes on to fried whiting.

But here you've got a roast turkey and sausages.

Plum pudding, what we now know as Christmas pudding.

Going onto the entremet, she's got asparagus, which, of course,

is not in season at Christmas.

A tribute to the brilliance of kitchen gardens

at the royal palaces.

She has mince pie, she has a rice pudding.

One of the most interesting features is a side table,

which was always a feature of the Queen's Christmas dinner.

And it was an enormous table, laid out with a stuffed boar's head.

A huge game pie.

A massive baron of beef, 300lbs or 400lbs in weight,

with the tail curving over it.

That table was there in case the diners at the Queen's Christmas meal

got a little bit hungry after their seven or eight courses

and decided to have a nibble on something else.

This is a tremendous amount of food.

But through it, we can just see

the glimmerings of a modern Christmas meal.

So perhaps this Christmas, when we sit down to our beef and our plum

pudding, we could raise a small glass of whisky to Queen Victoria,

for helping us to reach the modern Christmas.

It isn't just the modern British Christmas

that bears Victoria's regal stamp.

It was during her reign that chocolate Easter eggs

began to be enjoyed.

And sending Easter greetings cards to friends and loved ones

became fashionable.

Easter, of course, celebrates the new life that bursts forth

in the spring, and no Easter feast is complete

without some spring lamb.

Meirion Jones has farmed the slopes of the Cambrian mountains

since he was a boy.

And his lamb has graced the royal table.

This is a classic crossbred lamb.

Out of the Welsh Mountain ewe, and the father would be a Texel tup.

This is pretty lively.

This particular lamb is about three months old at the moment.

And these crossbred lambs,

if we can show you, they are wider,

so there's more meat on the bone.

We specialise in the spring lamb market.

The lamb in January and February,

the grass quality is so much better in spring, March and April.

It's nice and fresh.

They're sort of slaughtered around 12 to 16 weeks old.

And the meat is very, very tender and sweet.

And the feedbacks we get is very encouraging

all the time.

Meirion is among a band of sheep farmers on these hills

who've joined forces to promote their wares.

The Cambrian Mountains Lamb group,

Prince Charles has put his effort and weight behind the group.

At the very outset,

he made a painting of the local mountain area.

And that painting is on the Cambrian Mountain Lamb branding

on the packages when it's been sold.

Meirion's biggest royal claim to fame was supplying the lamb

for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Coincidentally, in the year 2012,

we met Prince Charles in person in the Royal Welch,

and we asked him how the meat was and he said very, very nice indeed.

Ten miles from the mountain fields is the village of Llandovery.

Butcher Dai Mathews has been running a family business here

for nearly 30 years.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers, thank you.

Dai's shop has had royal recognition.

Charles visited in 2011.

And Meirion's lamb is on the royal shopping list.

We've been supplying him now for about eight years.

And, you know,

it's something that we are very pleased and privileged about.

Today, Dai's preparing a leg of Meirion's spring lamb.

It's quite a simple home-made stuffing made with breadcrumbs,

we've sauteed off some onions.

Some apricots, and some lemon and thyme.

It's a very easy stuffing, but a very tasty stuffing.

The vegetables will help with the gravy.

So, if we put the lamb on there, the flavour of the lamb is so good,

we don't need more than a little bit of salt and pepper.

The flavour that's in the stuffing will complement the lamb perfectly.

And that then will go in the oven for about three hours

on 180 degrees.

And that should be absolutely gorgeous when it comes out.

While the lamb's roasting,

local carpenter Mike Blofield installs a plaque

to celebrate their royal seal of approval.

There we go!

-Bit of a wipe now?

-Yeah, you can give it a wipe.

Really, really good. Pleased with that.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah.

-Excellent. Thank you.

This year, they were officially granted a royal warrant.

It's a huge honour.

It did almost bring a lump to the throat.

It was...

It was a real...

Really proud moment, you know.

I thought, well, yes, I have achieved something.

It was... It was...a wonderful feeling.

And it's all down to the finest cuts of lamb.

It isn't about me.

It's about the producers.

It's everybody that plays a part in having this fantastic piece of meat

on your plate, Sunday lunch.

Proof of the pudding, it's in the eating.

And that, believe me, is worth the effort.

It's become a tradition to have lamb at Easter.

But this is a much older tradition.

There's no lamb or any other meat in sight.

What are you doing, Anna?

-I'm going to make Tarte Owte of Lent.

-Tarte Owte of Lent.

-Yes.

-Much older, Tudor dish. What's in it?

All the things I guess you weren't allowed to have at Lent are in it.

So we have a lovely Cheshire cheese.

Definitely no cheese in Lent.

Cream cheese, eggs, flour, butter and spice.

Pepper, something very special to have back then.

Pepper would have been incredibly expensive, wouldn't it?

OK, so where do you start?

So, I'm going to start with the pastry.

Nice shortcrust pastry.

And roll it out.

-With some flour?

-With some flour.

This is a really, really, really old tradition.

-Yeah.

-Henry VIII would probably have had something like this

at the end of Lent. Though the idea of Henry VIII giving up anything...

-Yes!

-Well, you know where I'm going there.

Yes, yes. Absolutely.

So this needs to be quite a thick base.

-Why?

-Because it... I mean, this is fascinating.

There is no mould to hold the case in place.

-Right.

-So the first thing we need to do is...

make the shape...of our base.

-A perfect circle.

-Better with that.

-Yep.

-And the pastry.

-Can I take that somewhere?

-Yes, thank you, Michael.

And then, all you need to do is give it a pinch all the way around.

It's great technique, isn't it?

It's like a tart and a tin in one.

Yeah, yeah. That's ingenious!

OK, so I'm just going to move that onto my baking tray there.

-OK.

-And I'm going to move onto the filling.

-So, I'm going to take my cheese.

-Now, what cheese is that?

This is Cheshire cheese.

So, it's got to be a crumbly cheese like Cheshire.

-Yeah.

-So, Cheddar wouldn't work?

Well, Cheddar wouldn't work as well. It would be just a bit greasy.

-Right, right.

-So, this is nicer.

So, I'm just going to crumble this into our food mixer.

It's actually quite easy to crumble.

Then I'm going to pulse it a bit to break it down

because you essentially want to make it into a paste.

I'm going to pop the lid on here.

These days of course, those people who do observe Lent

tend to break the fast with chocolate now, don't they?

But of course, Henry VIII didn't know anything about chocolate.

We didn't have any chocolate in this country until the 1650s, I think.

So, whatever else he might have overindulged in,

-chocolate wasn't one of them, OK?

-Chocolate wasn't one of them.

So, I'm going to add in my cream cheese now.

Now, why the cream cheese, as well?

Is that all part of consistency?

Yeah, exactly. It helps with consistency.

So eggs, pinch of salt.

Not too salty, yeah.

And then this.

-The pepper.

-The pepper.

Pepper really makes this dish sing.

-Nowadays, salt and pepper everywhere.

-On every single table.

It's so common. It's so reasonably cheap.

Yet in those days...

-Some people would never have had it.

-Absolutely. Far too expensive.

Now, you don't want to leave it in the mixer too long

because you'll add too much air into it,

-and then it'll balloon up too big.

-OK, slop it in.

Yeah, that's it.

That does look good, doesn't it?

Actually, you need the pepper, don't you to give it a bit of briskness?

-Yep, yep. Yep. A bit of bite.

-Yep.

Now, almost there.

Yeah, you've done that.

Now, just flatten it out.

You want to make sure that you haven't got any little air pockets

so you're just pushing it to the edge each time.

-Into those little grooves that you've made.

-Yeah.

Now normally, you'd want to chill this for probably about 40 minutes.

If you put it straight into the oven and the pastry hasn't rested,

and the mix hasn't rested, it's likely just to kind of spread.

-Go blurgh?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK, so would you mind popping that in the fridge for me?

OK. Yep. Here we go.

And hopefully on your way out, you'll pass by the oven

-and there should be one already in there baking.

-Excellent.

Look at that!

-Oh, beautiful.

-Look at the colour of that.

-Beautiful, that looks great.

-Put it on here?

-Or maybe here would be good.

-OK.

-That looks great.

-There we are. Ah! There we go, another burn.

THEY LAUGH

-I blame you, Anna, actually.

-Oh, I'm sorry, Michael.

-Health and safety, come on.

-Yes. OK, so...

-What now?

-..we're going to make our vinaigrette mix.

This is a mustard vinaigrette which I think goes

really, really well with the cheese and also the pepper.

-Bit of sharpness.

-And a bit of sharpness, yeah.

So, a spoonful of your wholegrain mustard.

-That's wholegrain, yeah.

-Maybe... I'd say, yeah.

A teaspoon of honey.

-Oh, right.

-And then, just English mustard.

You use honey rather than sugar, I noticed.

Yeah, I think honey... Well,

I think honey's got a little bit more flavour to it.

-And in Tudor times, of course...

-I'm sure they used a lot of honey.

Cos sugar itself was...

-Very hard to come by.

-Very, very, very hard to come by.

-Now, what's this?

-This is a teaspoon of white wine vinegar.

-Yep.

-And then I'm going to put, erm...

I think maybe three teaspoons of olive oil.

-You seem to have rather more oil... than vinegar...

-Yes.

..then I would in my... untutored way do.

What, you like more vinegar?

Mm. Yeah, I'm a bit of a vinegar freak, really.

Well, that's actually a good sign.

-Is it?

-It's a sign of someone who has a good palate, yes.

-We prefer acid to sweetness.

-All right, you.

So, it's a nice emulsion there.

-Oh, it's looking good.

-Just going to give it a little taste.

-For acidity...

-Mm-hm.

-..and deliciousness.

-Mm.

-It's good?

-Yep.

-Shall we get those?

-Just grab the leaves, yeah. That would be great.

-Just keeping it fresh. There we go.

-Yep. That's wonderful.

-OK, great.

-OK.

So, this is just pea shoots, mustard cress and mustard frills.

So, I'm going to take a little bit of the dressing.

Get the spoon.

OK, and now I'm going to give the tart a little cut.

It's a lovely, lovely colour. Kind of apricot colour, isn't it?

Yes, it is. That's the cheese.

Aw, yeah.

-Yes. That looks beautiful on the side.

-Looks brilliant.

Grab a plate.

Now, the last thing I'm going to add to this is caraway seeds.

Now, caraway seeds are very special.

I think they're extremely versatile.

-Mm.

-And very memorable.

And caraway is most delicious when you've just chopped it,

a little bit like pepper.

You know, the reason why we like to ground that.

I think caraway was in much more widespread use in Tudor times,

because it had been around longer...

-Oh, my God. You can just... You can smell the snap.

-You can!

-It's beautiful.

-And apart from that wonderful, erm, smell...

-Mm.

-..what do you think it adds to something like this?

-A depth of flavour.

-Yeah.

It's depth of flavour. And that's the whole bonus from spices.

No wonder the Tudors and all those people in medieval times

-valued it so much.

-That's it. And we just give this a little...

Now, what are you doing here?

A little roll of our hands, in our hands,

so you can kind of create a neat presentation...

-Yep.

-..of your...

-salad.

-Oh, now you put the salad right on top.

And that way, it sits kind of nicely.

-Yep.

-And then a sprinkling of the caraway seeds on top.

On top of the salad and the pie?

And that's it. And there you have it.

Tarte Owte Of Lent.

Oh, a celebratory tart. Come on.

-What's it like?

-Mm.

-The acidity of the vinaigrette goes so well with the...

-Mm.

..the cheese tart and then the finish of caraway.

Mm. Oh, that's really nice.

-Mm.

-It's so cheesy.

-Mm.

And so smooth. And you're right -

the salad makes it.

A delicious dish to break a Lenten fast

and satisfy even the most indulgent of kings at Easter.

BEE BUZZES

Christianity isn't the only culture to celebrate festivals with food.

Prince Charles has let it be known that he intends,

when he becomes king, to be known as Defender of Faiths,

to reflect modern Britain's multicultural society.

Charles's enthusiasm for the diverse culture in Britain is also reflected

in the food he eats.

He's visited the West London restaurant of Dipna Anand

and her family on a number of occasions.

Smells and looks yummy.

Dipna now serves the delicious Punjabi delicacies

her grandfather once made for maharajas to British royalty.

One visit from the Prince was at a very special, festive time of year.

When Prince Charles visited, that was during the time of Diwali.

In fact, it was Diwali Day.

So we were quite lucky to have him here with us.

Diwali is the festival of lights.

We celebrate it in a really big way.

So, like Christmas, we light lamps,

we share great food, especially sweets.

And that is said to welcome the goddess Lakshmi,

who is the goddess of wealth.

A Diwali tradition is the making and eating of sweet treats.

One of the main desserts is gajar halwa.

Everyone loves to cook that.

And when Prince Charles was here at the restaurant,

that was one thing he sampled. He loved it.

Today, with the help of her dad Gulu,

Dipna is recreating the festival dessert

enjoyed by Charles and Camilla.

Gajar halwa simply means "carrot pudding".

It's a hot pudding that I love to eat with ice cream.

But it goes really, really well with even some single cream.

So, it's a really royal dessert dish.

Right, now that we've grated the carrots and got a bit of strength

in our arms, it's time to make the gajar halwa.

And we're going to start by sweating the carrots down in the milk.

The reason we add milk is to help the carrots cook faster

and also add some moisture.

When Prince Charles visited,

both the Duchess and His Royal Highness were quite intrigued

as to how carrots can be made into a, er, Indian dessert.

And then they tasted it.

-Yes.

-They really liked it. They really, really enjoyed it.

Indian desserts are massive during Diwali time.

Not just things like the gajar halwa,

something else that we love eating during Diwali...

Dad, bring us over that barfi.

Barfi is an Indian sweetmeat,

traditionally made by condensing milk and sweetening with sugar.

They're often flavoured with fruits, nuts and spices.

That's a chocolate one.

That's a toffee one.

And you've got some orange here.

You've also got gajar halwa barfi.

-Yeah, that carrot pudding in there.

-You've got a layer...

of carrot pudding here.

And then, on top, you got the actual barfi.

-Which is cooked with the condensed milk.

-Milk, yes.

Dad is the worst because he eats too much barfi.

-My tum.

-So, after his dinner, he likes to have,

I think about two, three pieces on average.

-Once a year, I think it's fine.

-Yes.

-GULU LAUGHS

It takes around 25 minutes for Dipna and Gulu's grated carrot to cook

and for the milk to evaporate.

-You add in that sugar. Shall I do that?

-Yep.

Still on a really high heat.

And that's really nice now. So let's add the ghee.

Traditionally in Indian desserts, we do use ghee, clarified butter.

It kind of melts in your mouth,

and I think that's what the Duchess and Prince Charles

were quite wowed...

by when they tasted this.

So right now, I can see it's ready for the milk powder.

And the milk powder makes it even creamier, and more rich.

And now, you really have to work this with your arms.

Once the sugar, ghee, milk powder and carrots have cooked through,

it's time for a hint of spice.

Green cardamom powder.

And some crunch.

We're just going to add a little bit of pistachios and almonds.

Mm, that looks good.

-Tastes fantastic.

-And it smells even better!

I'm happy with that.

Switch that off. And time to plate up.

I'm going to add a little bit of pistachio to the bottom of the bowl.

And then some carrot pudding, inside this bowl like this.

And then what I'm going to do is carefully...

tilt it like this.

Wait for it to come out. Put the ice cream in there, yeah.

And that's my gajar halwa and ice cream done.

The perfect Diwali festival pudding,

fit for a maharaja or a British prince.

You can't have a festival, you can't have a feast in a festival,

without a sweet course.

So Anna, what are you going to do for us?

-I'm going to make Yule log.

-So a royal family tradition?

Apparently, they have their Christmas lunch at Sandringham,

they go off for a walk, they come back,

they watch the Queen doing the Christmas message...

-And then they sit down to Yule log.

-Yule log.

I thought you were going to say that they made it,

I was like, "God, these royals are great."

-No, they just eat it.

-Well, maybe sometimes they do, who knows?!

So the first thing I'm going to make is actually the last thing

we're going to put on the log.

Because we need it to be cooled and set enough

-so that we can work it on top of this.

-Ah, so you do it first.

And what is that? What are you doing?

This is a ganache.

Ganache is like a thick emulsion of chocolate and cream.

-Whoo...

-So, our cream is coming up to the boil,

and this is essentially what's going to melt our chocolate.

-I'm going to pour that over the top...

-OK.

And this has to cool.

Next, I'm going to make the actual sponge.

-Right.

-Erm, so I need to crack my five eggs.

Every culture's got a midwinter festival, haven't they?

-Mm.

-And in the Norse countries, the midwinter festival,

they actually had a log, they get a log covered with holly and ivy,

and they burn it, and the idea is that the smoke would somehow

cleanse the atmosphere of the evil spirits,

or the events of the previous year, it was a way of moving...

A transition from the old year to the new year.

Rather nice idea. And this kind of duplicates that, I suppose.

-That's quite fascinating.

-Yeah, I know.

-OK...

-We're going to whisk this up into a beautiful sabayon,

where you whisk eggs and sugar on a high speed,

and this dissolves the sugar into the eggs and adds lots of air.

Lots of air, fluffing the whole thing up,

making the resulting sponge very, very light?

-Light.

-Exactly. You hope! OK.

You hope too, because I'm assuming you want to eat it.

Well...

If you press me! SHE LAUGHS

-Oh, look, it's really getting...

-Yes.

-Looking pretty good now.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I think we're good now.

-Surely it must be done.

Yeah. Looks good now, let's have a look.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's done.

-OK.

-Well done.

-So now, I'm going to fold in the...

Shall I hold this?

-Thank you.

-There we go.

Thank you. I'm going to fold in all our dry ingredients.

Cocoa.

-Some flour...

-Mm-hm.

..and our mixed spices,

which gives it, like, a little secret hint of flavour.

And you just want to fold that through.

Yeah. Don't beat the air out of it.

We do not want to beat the air out of it.

-OK, now what?

-Then pour it in...

-I'll make some room.

-Thank you, Michael.

-There we go.

OK. So I'm going to pour it in...

-Yeah.

-And...

I think that looks...

quite enough.

-It's going to rise a little bit.

-Yeah.

-So you don't want it too thick.

-You don't want it to overflow when it rises.

-No. OK.

So, if you wouldn't mind popping that in the oven for me, for...

Now, let me guess, temperature... 180 degrees?

-Oh, absolutely.

-Just came to me in a flash.

-And for ten minutes.

-Ten minutes. OK.

-Ten minutes.

-OK.

Wonderful. So now, I'm going to finish the ganache.

The chocolate's melted, look, hasn't it?

-That's it.

-Lovely great long, black streaks.

Does the butter give it that shine, or is it inherent in the chocolate,

-do you think?

-It's a bit of both, but yes,

I think the butter does increase the glossy look

-of the beautiful ganache.

-Yeah.

I'm just going to put a little splash of the rum.

Now I'm going to make the filling.

-Going to whip some cream and some sugar...

-Yep.

..and then I'm going to add some chestnut puree

-and some rum to that after.

-Oh, chestnut puree!

The French love it at Christmas time.

And this is Christmas, we're talking festivals, we're talking Christmas, we're talking Yule!

SHE LAUGHS

I'm just going to let that whisk.

-Mm-hm.

-And I'm going to add a little bit of rum to my chestnut puree,

-to loosen it up.

-Modest, I'd call it. Modest.

This is getting a lovely consistency here.

Yeah, it's looking pretty good.

-Yeah.

-That's it.

-Yeah, well done.

Oh, yeah.

Pretty smooth, in every way.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Now...

And then you put... Ah, right...

-OK.

-Really good.

-So that's our chestnut cream.

Now, I'd say it's about ten minutes now, you want to check the sponge?

You're absolutely right, I'll go and get it.

-My word, it's hot.

-Maybe just place it down here, that would be great.

-Way...

-OK.

-There we go.

So the key is that you want to roll this while it is hot.

-Ah.

-Because if you roll it while it's cold, it will crack.

-It'll split.

-Yeah...

But you've got to do it pretty quickly, before it cools down.

Do it quickly. Yes.

OK. Oh...

And then, we'll take our grease-proof off...

There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I want to just be really careful as I'm folding it over.

And I just keep rolling it...

And rolling it.

-Under the cloth?

-Under the cloth.

But you've forgotten to stick the stuff in.

Well, this is too hot now, I can't put the cream in it.

-Right.

-But earlier on, I did roll one.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

-So...

-There is a convention...

-..leave this one here.

-..isn't there?

And take this one out...

So this, you did earlier.

-Equally successfully.

-Equally successful.

I'm just going to put the cream...

-This is the bit you like, isn't it?

-I do, yes. This is great.

-When you're sticking the goodies into it.

-That's it. Yeah.

And you want to be quite generous.

-Yeah.

-A little bit...

-There's no point in scrimping, is there?

-Exactly.

-At Christmas time, with a Yule log.

OK. Just give it a little squeeze,

and then we'll just roll all the way to here...

It's not the oldest of our puddings, you know.

-No?

-No, I think traditional Christmas pudding, plum pudding.

It was another royal, George I,

in his first Christmas as King of England in 1714...?

He ordered up plum pudding,

and we've been eating plum pudding at Christmas ever since.

-Yeah.

-But this is the Sandringham favourite.

And all I want to do now

is that if you see that I'm just kind of running

my palette knife along to make it look a little bit more like a log.

Like a log. So you're making it look like bark.

Exactly. Like bark.

You're an artist, really.

I don't think this is art, I think this is cooking.

Aw.

-OK, that looks like a log.

-That's it? Is it finished?

Yeah, I'm just going to serve it with, erm, some strawberries.

Just a few berries.

And now I need to go through the nail-biting...

MICHAEL LAUGHS

Do you want a hand?

-No, I'm just about good to go...

-Oh, you're getting cocky now.

You're getting very, very cocky.

I wouldn't say that was cocky!

-There was a lot of fear there.

-Was there? You didn't show it.

-OK. And we put some strawberries...

-Throw a few strawbs.

Yeah. I might cut them...

-OK?

-Yeah.

-Just make it look good.

And maybe a little dusting of icing sugar?

And there you have it.

Yule log with the chestnut cream.

Would you like a slice?

I think that's what they call a rhetorical question.

-THEY LAUGH Come on, let's have a go.

-OK...

-Right. You grab your plate there...

-I've got a plate there.

-Very much to hand.

-OK.

Kicking the cutlery. There we are.

-That's nice.

-That looks good.

-Would you like a little strawberry on the side?

-I would.

Oh, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mm.

Really light.

-The chestnut...

-Mm.

It's a really brilliant thing to have at Christmas,

whether you're in Sandringham, or somewhere perhaps less exalted.

Join us next time, for more Royal Recipes.