Pies and Puddings 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 is 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.

..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.

We're getting our teeth into pies in today's programme

and exploring the royal passion for pudding.

Coming up...

..Anna Haugh makes a firm favourite of a formidable queen...

I'm just checking here with Queen Victoria's recipe to make sure

you're on track here, Anna!

Thank you, Michael!

..chef Cyrus Todiwala OBE recreates a pudding enjoyed by Her Majesty,

his twist on a British favourite...

We did take the crust out, we didn't keep the crust.

Come on. She's the Queen! You don't want to give her crusts, do you?

..Dr Polly Russell heads to Gloucester to trace the history

of a dish that was once a royal prerogative.

The sort of firm, bloody, meat-like flesh would have been very appealing.

Oh, I think it would have been, but I'm a vegetarian, so...

..it certainly wouldn't have been for me!

But where better to start tucking into pies and puddings than with an

elegant pastry dish served up for some royal nuptials?

Well, I'm here in the Royal Recipes kitchen with executive chef Anna Haugh.

What's cooking?

Well, I'm going to make smoked haddock coulibiac.

-Coulibiac?

-Yes.

-And what's that?

-Well, essentially, it's a posh fish pie.

-Ah.

We're going to poach some haddock and then wrap it in some puff pastry,

bake it, and serve it with a lovely sauce made out of the liquid that we

-poach the haddock in.

-It was served at the wedding of Prince Edward and

Sophie Rhys-Jones.

And I did the BBC coverage of it with Sue Barker.

And did you get to eat it?

I didn't, actually, no, so this is going to be a wonderful opportunity.

What is it, 18 years later?

I'm actually going to get to eat the coulibiac.

First of all I'm going to poach the haddock.

Once you've put your smoked haddock in,

you're going to add in some peppercorns, parsley stalks here

and bay leaves. Just make sure you give your bay leaves a little fold

if they're fresh. This kind of releases the smell.

Mmm! Oh, that's really nice.

-It is really nice, I like a bit of bay leaf.

-I like that.

-Now, this will take about maybe eight to ten minutes to poach.

-Mm-hm.

And it's important that your liquid is just simmering,

not boiling too heavily.

And then afterwards you must let it cool,

because if you have a hot mixture going into cold puff pastry,

it'll just melt the butter in the puff pastry and it'll all be an oily mess.

I've also cooked here some mushrooms, some shallots in garlic and butter,

and some spinach, which I've squeezed out gently.

-You haven't actually gone...

-No!

-..with the spinach.

-Not squeezed the life out of it.

-No.

But just removed a bit of the juice so that it stays nice and moist,

but not too dry, inside the case.

If you wouldn't mind flaking a bit of the smoked haddock...

-Yep.

-..into the rice.

I remember the wedding. I mean,

it was thought to be really quite a simple affair for a royal wedding.

-Yes.

-By comparison.

Only 500 guests,

only 250 million people watching on TV and all that kind of stuff.

And the meal, I remember, was this smoked haddock coulibiac.

-Yeah.

-Boeuf stroganoff as the main thing.

And then fresh raspberries. That was it.

-Just the three courses.

-Still, loads and loads of flavour.

-But, yes.

-Have I done this OK?

Yeah, perfect. We're going to add in now some parsley with the mushrooms.

-The mushrooms.

-And the onions.

-The half-squeezed spinach.

-Half-squeezed spinach.

Going to give it a little pinch of salt as well.

And this is a Russian dish, is it?

I think it's more to do with the pastry cases.

-It's kind of a Russian...

-It's the pie bit.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK, so I have some puff pastry down here...

-Right.

..that I'm going to build the pie with.

I actually remember being in St George's Chapel the day before

the wedding, and Sophie Rhys-Jones, as she then was,

came in for the rehearsal, and it was obviously a very emotional time.

-Mm.

-I suppose it is for all brides the day before, isn't it?

-And grooms, I'd imagine, Michael.

-Well, yes, yes.

Grooms are probably still on their stag night.

Just going to egg-wash the sides here and take another sheet of puff pastry.

-Right.

-Place it on top.

Yeah.

-And just press that down really, really well.

-Mm-hm.

So at a wedding there would be lots of these, would there?

This would be something spectacular to see in the back kitchens.

-Really?

-Can you imagine for 250 people, just trays...?

-500, 500!

-500, 500 people!

Trays and trays of these coulibiacs.

I'd say it would be amazing.

-So what's next?

-Now, I'm going to use a lattice roller to...

-Lattice.

-..finish the pastry, yeah.

So you're cutting grooves in it?

Yeah, and you need to use quite a bit of pressure all the way along.

Oh, you did that beautifully.

-And then you just separate it nice...

-Oh, yeah. This is just decoration?

This is just decoration, and it adds a little bit of extra crunch.

-Right.

-Just going to egg-wash the top of the pie,

it's going to give it a lovely gloss, but it'll also help...

-So it comes out shiny?

-Yes.

And it'll also help the lattice stick to it.

And then you're going to plonk it on the top?

Then I'm just going to place it elegantly, with a bit of finesse,

-on the top.

-You can imagine them all, can't you?

All those, you know, the crowned heads of Europe and all that sort of thing.

Because there are a lot of, you know, very important people at this wedding.

-Absolutely.

-You could imagine them sort of tucking in.

-Yeah.

-And breaking it open and...

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, I'd say it was fantastic.

I mean, it makes you hungry, these royal weddings.

-Well...

-I had... Sue Barker and I had sandwiches, I remember.

-Oh!

There might have been a bag of crisps, as well.

But... I can't remember now.

Yeah. No crisps for you today.

-You can, you can have your...

-I can actually have it.

-..coulibiac today.

-The coulibiac.

I'm just going to trim this, just so it's nice and neat.

I couldn't have you eating anything that isn't perfect, Michael.

Artistically as well as culinarily.

SHE CHUCKLES

If that's a word. Somewhere in there, there's a word.

So... This is off to the oven, eh?

-Yeah.

-OK, now, at what heat and for how long?

200 degrees for about 25 minutes.

200? It's normally 180 for pastry, isn't it?

-You know, I know about these things.

-You do, now, yeah.

And you should also find one in there.

Look at this, Anna.

That looks gorgeous.

-Gorgeous.

-Look.

And that latticing has made it look really, really perfect.

And quite simple to do.

OK, so here we actually have the poaching liquid,

and I'm going to add some white wine.

-Oh, gosh.

-And some double cream.

It's quite a rich dish, then, in the end, with that on top.

Well, I think it needs it, because when you think,

inside the pie there's vegetables, there's rice,

there is some smoked fish.

So I think the idea of a lovely kind of rich cream sauce will go very

-well with this.

-Yeah.

-So we just want to bring this up to the boil.

-So I'm going to cut our beautiful pie.

-Ah!

This would have been the moment...

What would it have been? Early afternoon, I suppose.

500 guests sitting there, and out the back... I mean,

how many of these would there have been?

-Michael was tucking into an egg sandwich with a bag of salt and vinegar crisps.

-Exactly!

Oh, isn't that terrific?

I think so. A lovely crunch to the pie, which is absolutely what you want.

I'm just going to add some parsley to the sauce now.

-Give it a little stir.

-I can imagine, can't I,

all those 500 guests in there, knives and forks at the ready,

waiting for the coulibiac to arrive?

-That's it.

-They probably already had their champagne, don't you think?

-I should hope so.

-Yeah, I would hope so, too.

I didn't get any champagne either, you know.

-That's outrageous, Michael.

-Orange juice, I think.

-OK.

-There we go.

-There we have our...

-Look at that!

-Yeah, it looks great.

We use a little bit of watercress in here, as well.

Now, for the freshness, for the look, for the decoration?

For the lovely peppery flavour we get of watercress,

but also for the crunch.

-It's great.

-And there you have it.

Smoked haddock coulibiac with haddock and white wine sauce.

Finally...

..18 years afterwards...

..I get to try the royal wedding starter.

Mmm!

-You get a real taste of the smoked fish.

-Mm.

The spinach, the mushrooms, the rice.

-But it's the pastry that makes it.

-Mm.

It's kind of crispy, but it's kind of melting at the same time.

Mmm. The wait was worth it.

THEY CHUCKLE

A fine fish pie.

The perfect crowd-pleasing platter for a more modest royal wedding.

Britain's royal heritage means we're awash with traditions,

some arcane, some downright peculiar,

and many involving food.

One of these royal food traditions originated in Gloucester,

as far back as the Middle Ages, and continues to this day.

It features a very unusual ingredient that predates the dinosaurs.

Polly Russell has been finding out about this bloodsucking parasite.

It doesn't look very appetising, does it?

But, amazingly, this was once a real delicacy,

and was a favourite of kings.

It's called a lamprey, an ancient eel-like creature,

which used to be plentiful in British rivers, like the Severn here

in Gloucestershire.

About 200 years ago, because of declining water quality,

they were almost totally wiped out,

along with them, a tradition

which had been beloved by generations of royals.

The city of Gloucester has a long history of marking royal occasions

with a lamprey pie.

It dates back to the 12th century when Henry I would come to

the city to meet with his council.

The lamprey was a local speciality,

and it's likely that the king was presented with a pie as a gift from

the great and the good of the city.

Dame Janet Trotter, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire,

knows more about this unusual custom.

Gloucester's this amazing sort of city, really steeped in history.

Can you tell me a bit about the lamprey pie?

And where that comes from, what you know about it?

Well, the lamprey pie, old tradition,

and I know that King John loved lampreys.

-Henry I died of a surfeit...

-Yeah.

-..of lampreys.

So lamprey poisoning.

So they were really loved.

And I think it was the Earl of Chester who said at one

point that he would exchange a horse for a lamprey.

I suppose in the sort of medieval period,

where people were having to have flesh days and fish days,

not able to eat meat for so many days in the year because of the

religious calendar, the sort of firm,

bloody meat-like flesh of a lamprey would have been very appealing.

Oh, I think it would have been, but I'm a vegetarian, so...

..it certainly wouldn't have been for me!

The tradition continued until lamprey numbers dwindled during the

Industrial Revolution.

It was revived in the 1950s when the Sheriff of Gloucester

decided to send a lamprey pie to the newly crowned Elizabeth II.

So 1953 and the coronation, and that tradition gets resurrected.

Have those pies been made since for the royal family?

Oh, yes, memorable pies.

The Queen's Jubilee, we had a visit from the Earl and Countess of Wessex

for a service.

And we came out,

and I'd said that the presentation could take place there.

And I was expecting a small pie.

And it was huge.

This really monster pie that was in the shape of Gloucester Cathedral.

-Really?

-In the shape of Gloucester Cathedral.

-Ornate and beautiful?

Oh, they had been a week doing it.

And the pastry was just...

I could have eaten the pastry.

They presented it to the Earl and the Countess,

who then had to think how were they going to get it back to Buckingham Palace.

Much to the police's horror,

they decided to put it in their rather small helicopter.

They insisted that it went in the back, and off it went.

So we were rather pleased to see it intact going into the skies

-when it went.

-Pie in the sky!

The citizens of Gloucester continue to celebrate royalty with this

rather extraordinary dish.

Cheryl Spence helped make one for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

And how did you come to make a lamprey pie for the royals?

Oh, gosh. At the time I was cheffing for our pub in Gloucester,

and Martin Kirby,

a local reporter from The Citizen in Gloucester came along and said,

"I want to see your oven."

And I looked a bit surprised and he said,

"I want to see if it's tall enough

"to make a lamprey pie for the Queen."

Our oven was going to be tall enough.

So, he sort of said, "Would you like to make the lamprey pie?"

And I said, "Yes, that would be lovely, thank you!"

What was the recipe that you used?

-Well, of course, lampreys, two of them.

-Yeah.

-They were quite long. Fish stock.

-Yeah.

-Some lemon juice.

And the mushroom ketchup.

And the lampreys, where did you get those from?

They had to come from Canada,

where they're quite plentiful and considered a pest.

How fantastic to be part of this sort of tradition that's gone back

-to the Middle Ages.

-Gloucester is full of history, as you know,

so to be part of that history has been absolutely amazing.

We don't know if the Queen likes lamprey pie,

and for the time being the British lamprey is so rare, it's off the menu.

But the good news is this weird- looking critter, after 200 years,

is making a comeback into British rivers.

From an exceptional creation to mark royal occasions

to a more appetising variety,

formerly enjoyed by a most particular monarch.

This is Queen Victoria's pigeon pie, which is only meat,

pigeon breast and also rump steak, but no vegetables.

What kind of pigeon is this?

Is this the kind of Trafalgar Square type pigeon,

or is it a really special pigeon?

This is squab pigeon.

-Squab?

-Yeah, this is like a happy little plump pigeon,

and the meat is quite tender compared to a wood pigeon,

which has its own merits, but today we are using squab.

I absolutely love pigeon.

And so, I think, did Queen Victoria, because, actually,

this recipe is in her own handwriting,

so she was obviously very, very keen on it.

It just seems incredible, you couldn't imagine,

you know, a queen sitting down to write a recipe!

-You just can't imagine it.

-Well, actually,

there's a bit of a connection to one of the great mysteries of her time,

because she had a chef, a German chef, in fact, or Prussian,

he would have been then, called Daniel Ott,

and around about this time, he was mysteriously killed.

Nobody really quite knows what the story is.

He was killed in some sort of brawl

and it was a terrific kind of scandal and mystery at the time.

And around about this time was when Queen Victoria actually wrote this

recipe down in her own handwriting.

The speculation is that she kind of wrote it for whoever succeeded this

poor Daniel Ott fellow, her chef, her personal chef who was killed.

-So what are you doing?

-Um, I'm just, er, there's a bit of pepper in here,

-a little bit of salt to season the meat, and some flour.

-Yeah.

This will really help to thicken the sauce when it's cooking.

My pan is just about hot enough now.

That's a beautiful rump, isn't it?

Yes, it's a good piece of beef.

Again, you want to cut it into bite-size pieces.

-Why are you taking all the fat off?

-Well, there's sinew on top of that.

-Aah.

-So I'll put this into the pan when I go to sear it as well so you

get the lovely flavour of the fat.

But we won't be putting it in the pie...

You just want to make sure all your meat is coated in the flour.

-Tip it into our pie dish.

-MEAT SIZZLES

Ooh, listen to that!

-Smells delicious.

-I'm just checking here with Queen Victoria's recipe to

make sure you're on track here, Anna!

-Thank you, Michael!

-Aah, look at this.

"Cut off the pinions and the necks of pigeons.

"Gizzards, livers in the centre."

-Would you do all that?

-I would love to do all that,

-but I didn't think you would like to eat it today, Michael.

-No, maybe not.

It doesn't sound that appetising, does it?

-Pinions, gizzards, liver...

-I think it sounds delicious!

-Aah!

I think in Victoria's time people were keener on the kind of innards

-of animals, weren't they?

-Yeah.

And entrails and heart and liver and lights and all that kind of stuff.

-So we'll just essentially flash-fry that.

-Yes.

Just to kind of get the flour on the outside of it cooked onto it.

This is a demi-glace,

so it's a very rich kind of flavoursome stock.

-Pour that in.

-Oh, yeah!

And the last of our flour I think we should pop in there, as well.

I wish you could be here for the...

-..for the smell.

-Mm.

-Pity you can't get smell on television!

Not yet, not yet!

Oh, wow. That's terrific.

A little bit of a stir. It does smell delicious.

It does.

Now, is that bit of fat going to go in, as well?

No, I'm going to take the fat out but I'm just going to scrape all of

the goodness off the bottom of the pan.

-The lot, hey?

-That's just the best bit.

-It does look good.

-Yeah.

-And then?

-And now we're going to add the bone marrow.

-So...

-Getting it right out of the centre of the bone there.

That's it, yeah. I just think this is a more interesting way of making

the pie more rich as opposed to adding butter.

So this was obviously Queen Victoria's favourite,

but we don't know about our present Queen and whether she likes...

..likes pigeon. Actually, a bit unfortunate, and a bit tasteless,

really, but she's actually

patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association,

so I wonder if she eats pigeons, as well!

-I'm sure she...

-That's why we don't know!

I'm sure she doesn't eat racing pigeons!

No, well, that's true, that's true! That's all right, then. OK!

So here I have some shortcrust pastry that I made earlier on.

This is 300g of flour, 180g of butter, one egg, a pinch of salt,

a spoonful of cold water, and you have a nice shortcrust pastry.

-So I'm just going to roll this out.

-So, how thin do you roll it out?

Um, probably to about a half-centimetre I would say would be kind of thin enough.

Just a little bit of flour.

-I love a pastry top to a pie!

-Yeah.

OK. So I'm going to put this on top of our pie.

-OK.

-So first of all,

I'm just going to put a little bit of egg wash on top,

so this is what's going to help the lid stick to the pie dish.

-OK.

-And then I'm going to use this...

-Plonk it on top?

-Well, you've got to...

-Oh, no?

-If you're not careful, the pastry might tear...

-So I'll just gently...

-So you always roll it up like that?

-..roll it up.

-Oh, that's ingenious.

And then roll it back...

I love it when you pay me a compliment, Michael!

HE CHUCKLES

-OK...

-There we go.

You can just imagine Queen Victoria licking her lips at this sort of thing!

I think she liked her food, Queen Victoria, one way or another.

-Her table manners were not that marvellous, though.

-Oh, really?

No, no, apparently there was a number of senior politicians who

have left odd notes saying she used to eat very fast,

and she didn't make very much conversation!

Maybe she didn't like their company!

Well, I suppose that's possible, that's possible.

Maybe she was just, you know...liked her food a little bit too much.

Her royal physician, Sir James Reid,

he left notes about how she did suffer an awful lot of...

..how can I put this, intestinal upsets, apparently.

-Oh, dear!

-That's probably because she ate too fast.

-Didn't do enough talking.

-Oh.

-There we go.

OK, so I'm going to cut a little hole in the centre of the pie,

and this will release some of the steam.

I'm just going to egg-wash the top of it.

-So if you wouldn't mind popping that in the oven.

-OK, at what temperature...?

Aah! What temperature?

-So, 180 degrees...

-Of course, 180 degrees!

For about 25-30 minutes, until it's golden brown.

-OK, here we go.

-OK.

This pie has been resting for ten minutes now.

-Aah...

-Check this out.

-Ooh!

-It's very nice...

Oh, that looks brilliant, doesn't it?

Yeah. OK?

And I'm going to serve it with some buttered cabbage

and some buttered carrots.

Yes, I was going to wonder when we were going to get any vegetables with this dish!

That's it. I don't want you suffering from gout after this!

And they are kind of wintry vegetables, aren't they,

to go with the sort of heartiness of the pie?

Absolutely, absolutely.

This is something you want to have in wintertime.

After going out shooting, do you think?

-Is it that kind of thing?

-I think so, yeah!

Ooh... Now...

Oh, this smells amazing!

Some lovely buttered carrots...

-Cabbage...

-And not too cooked cabbage.

My grandmother used to cook cabbage for days!

-I hated it.

-So there you have it.

Victoria's pigeon pie

with some buttered carrots and buttered cabbage.

Well, like Queen Victoria, I think I might eat this fast.

A delight, here we go...

-Ooh!

-Oh, it's hot, it's hot!

Mmm! Mmm!

That's really rich.

-It's bursting with flavour.

-Mm.

It's so gamey. I mean, you can really see why Queen Victoria was so

determined that even though her royal chef had been bumped off,

that she was still going to get her pigeon pie!

A hearty, rich pie.

What a lovely, dainty dish to set before the queen!

The royals are known to partake of a pie now and again,

with pork pies a particular favourite.

But a pie doesn't get more British than when it's filled with succulent beef!

Just around the corner from Balmoral Castle,

thriving in the Scottish Highlands is a very fine breed of beef cattle.

Anna Haugh went along to cast an expert eye...

As a chef, I like to know where my ingredients come from,

especially when it comes to meat,

which is not a bad thing when I get to come to beautiful places like this!

Stephen Allardyce is the third generation of his family to rear

beasts on these lands.

-Stephen, hi, how are you?

-Hi.

-Hi!

It's so beautiful here, and these cattle, these jet-black cattle,

-tell me about them.

-The Aberdeen Angus, as we see here,

originated back in 1879 from Aberdeen doddies and the Angus hummlies.

They both were black and both were polled, no horns,

so that's why we've got our Aberdeen Angus of today.

So, do they thrive well in Scottish weather?

Yes, they do, yes. They acclimatise to it.

They've got thick coats in the wintertime and they lose that winter coat,

as you can see they've got the summer coats, which keeps them cooler.

What do you feed the cattle, in the winter, when you don't have the grass?

-In the winter, we make hay and silage.

-Mm-hm.

We've also got a by-product from the distillery called draff.

So if it's a by-product of whisky,

does it mean the cows could get drunk on their feed?

If they could get drunk, so would I!

You'll be eating the cattle's feed!

No, there's no alcohol in it!

Who do you supply your beef to?

The local market and also the local butcher who supply the royal family.

That must feel quite special, no,

that the royal family could be eating your beef?

Yes, it satisfies myself.

-It's something to put on my CV!

-Yeah!

Aberdeen Angus cattle have a long association with the royal family.

The Queen Mother was patron of the breed society from 1937.

Prince Charles has now taken over that role.

So it's no surprise that this beef is in demand when the royals visit Balmoral.

Butcher John Sinclair regularly supplies the castle's kitchens.

So is this Stephen's beef?

Yes, it is, actually. It's a piece of rib of beef.

As you can see, nice marbling on it.

Yeah. Would the royals eat a cut of beef like this?

Yeah, that would probably be their Sunday roast.

Maybe they would take the whole piece for the family, yeah.

Lovely. So have any royals actually come into the shop?

The Prince of Wales has been in. The Queen has been in, as well.

-Wow!

-Yeah.

Then we've had the Duke of Edinburgh in, as well.

We've had Camilla in.

-Aye, we've done well with royals.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Did they come in for anything in particular?

Well, obviously, they phone down for their orders,

but they do look at the stuff that's on the counter.

The Duke is quite partial to barbecue, as well.

-Has he tried the Irn-Bru and pork sausage that you do?

-Not yet.

But maybe this summertime, I might pop one up and try it.

Their top-quality meat graces the royal table and the royal grill.

But they also provide Balmoral Castle with prize-winning pies.

John runs the company with fellow butcher Barry Florence.

So tell me how you won this award for the best pie.

The butchers' federation run regular competitions and we entered

and we were lucky enough to become the champion.

Wow! That's wonderful.

Two of their pies have been honoured at the British Pie Awards.

One of them is - what else

but a steak pie made with Stephen's Aberdeen Angus.

And why do you think you won it?

We start with quality product.

-Nothing is made in huge batches and everything is handmade.

-Yeah.

And I just make stuff I like to eat myself.

-Yeah.

-And it obviously did the trick and we won the prize.

It smells amazing.

So do you know if any of the royals

have actually eaten your award-winning pie?

Well, we know there's award-winning pies gone up to the castle.

But you don't know whether they're going to the royal table or not.

And so I suppose the answer would be they possibly have.

The shop holds not one but two Royal Warrants.

It's a testament to all involved.

There we are. Nice, even rise.

They look incredible.

I wouldn't be surprised if the royal family did enjoy them.

Thanks a million. Thank you.

After all, who could resist succulent beef encased in a pie?

They go back a long time, these meat pies in this country.

They go back to the 12th century,

and I didn't know this but apparently in the early, early days,

in medieval times, you didn't eat the crust.

You'd take it with you to work or something.

It was just a matter of transporting the meat or the beef inside.

-Which would be a shame.

-I'm just picturing all these guys who work

in the City heading into work

with their pies. I don't think that would work nowadays.

But the royals and pies, the history goes back and back and back.

Elizabeth I, she was the first monarch, apparently, to have a fruit

-pie.

-Mm.

-Because normally it used to be meat in the Middle Ages and

everything, but she had a pie with cherry inside.

Elizabethan cherry pie.

God, I bet that was delicious.

Today's royals are no different from Elizabeth I

in enjoying a succulent, fruity pudding.

One royal chef was tasked with putting a different twist on a

classic British pudding for a very special occasion.

In the heart of the City of London,

Indian executive chef Cyrus Todiwala runs an award-winning restaurant.

He's not only been honoured with an OBE for his services to the British

food industry, he's also served pudding to the Queen.

I had the great fortune of being the chef to cook the first-ever luncheon

for the Diamond Jubilee.

This meant that we had to plan a menu that could not be all British,

but had to have a British influence.

That's exactly what I wanted.

Cyrus baked Indian-inspired bread and butter pudding

with a sloe gin and plum syrup.

It was a big hit with Her Majesty.

So what I'm going to do first is, of course, stew my plums.

So I put my pan a bit on heat.

Pour the sloe gin inside.

And with that, a bit of sugar.

And then I start with the plums, OK?

So, all we are doing is just trying to make neater segments, OK?

You can chop it up, you can square it up, you can do what you like.

Cyrus adds his carefully sliced plums to the gin and sugar to create

a delicious, fruity syrup.

While it's simmering, he makes a start on the bread.

Crust out, crust in, your choice.

For the luncheon, we did take the crusts off.

We didn't keep the crust. Come on.

She's the Queen! You don't want to give her crusts, do you?

Liberal buttering. OK?

And it will mess up my hands a little bit because I'll butter

on both sides of the dish.

I'm just covering as much of the dish as is possible.

You see, I'm just covering it up.

So I've got this plum and orange marmalade.

And just dot it wherever you feel like.

Adds a bit of colour and it definitely adds a lot of flavour.

I'm going to sprinkle some of these

raisins, white raisins.

A few nuts in between.

OK. There we go.

When the plums are translucent yet still hold their shape,

Cyrus sets them aside to cool.

Now for the custard.

He lightly beats eight whole eggs and three yolks and

adds clotted cream, double cream, evaporated milk, sugar and vanilla.

Do not make the mistake of licking when you're scraping vanilla off.

Honestly, it will destroy your taste buds.

To achieve an Indian twist,

Cyrus adds ground cardamom and a splash of rose water.

All we do is pour a layer of this over.

And while we get ready with the next set of bread slices,

this will hopefully soak in.

Now, I'm going to actually divide the slices into triangles.

You, my dear sir, go that way.

Naturally, Her Majesty's PA was very concerned.

He was worried about the luncheon because that has spices in it,

and he was not confident that I would not put chilli into it,

because Her Majesty does not eat chilli.

And it was tasted by the royal chef

and he said it was perfect

and his boss would be very happy with that.

Cyrus pours the custard over the layers of bread and pops the pudding

into a preheated oven at 200 Celsius for ten minutes.

He then lowers the temperature to 160 degrees and bakes for a further

-five.

-So whilst the lunch was going on, of course we were all nervous.

You cannot walk up to Her Majesty and ask,

"Madam, how was the lunch today?" You can't do that.

But, of course, the Lord Lieutenant is my secret informer at the time

and I stood in a corner and I looked at him and he

looked at me and did that.

He just nodded. And I said, "Thumbs up, it's looking great."

After the lunch, before the royal couple had to depart,

he came into the kitchen and said, "Cyrus, can you get your entire team ready?

"Her Majesty would like to personally thank everybody."

And that was fabulous.

We were not expecting that, but she is very gracious,

as everybody knows,

and we all lined up and she came and met each and every one of us.

The Duke of Edinburgh met every one of us.

And it was a great celebration.

Once it's cooked to perfection, it needs to be left alone for an hour.

The last thing you want, of course, is to dig into it straightaway,

regardless of the temptation.

After it's cooled, Cyrus plates up

his Indian-influenced British classic.

Wow. See the lovely texture there?

So here's our very special, royal bread and butter pudding,

served with plums, stewed in sloe gin, very traditional, of course,

and lots of bread and butter.

The current royal family certainly enjoys a good old British pie.

It's a tradition that seemingly goes back hundreds of years to when a

Tudor king was reported to have his fancy tickled by a sweet pastry.

-What are you cooking now?

-Maids of honour tarts.

Little, flaky kind of lemony custard tarts.

Sweet little tarts.

And they have a bit of a story behind them, as well.

You start, because these tarts might have changed the course of English

history, if the story is true.

-If the story is true, yes.

-If the story is true.

And the story is that Henry VIII was visiting his wife,

Catherine of Aragon, at Hampton Court Palace,

and he was in the grounds and there were the ladies-in-waiting,

the maids of honour.

-That's right.

-And they were eating these sweet little pastries.

And one of the maids of honour came and offered one of the sweet little

-pastries to Henry VIII.

-And who was she?

And her name was Anne Boleyn.

-That's it.

-Dot, dot, dot.

And these maids of honour,

apparently they were the only ones who ate these tarts.

So they made them themselves, as well.

And I'm just pressing in discs of puff pastry into this nonstick

cupcake tin and then I'm going to get on and make the mix.

So first of all with the mix, I'm going to cream some butter

-and some sugar together.

-Yeah.

OK.

And I'll put my sugar in, as well.

Yeah. And some eggs?

No. First of all, I'm just going to cream this together.

-OK.

-So you've got to have a bit of patience, Michael.

-It goes in stages.

-I know, I'm just anxious to see and taste what

Henry VIII saw in this, or maybe he just saw it in Anne Boleyn.

But isn't it kind of fascinating,

the idea that this recipe was made so many years ago?

Yeah. And by the ladies of the court themselves,

not by chefs or anything like that.

Yeah. Well, they were the only ones who were allowed to eat them,

apparently, until King Henry VIII got his hands on them.

-Right.

-So I just want to keep mixing this together until it kind of goes

a little bit like more of a creamy colour,

and this will lighten up the butter so that when I go to add the eggs

-and the other ingredients, that they'll mix in a bit better.

-Yeah.

And, of course, after he'd eaten the tart,

he fell for Anne Boleyn.

He got rid of Catherine of Aragon.

He broke with the Pope, the Reformation,

dissolution of the monasteries.

And it was all, according to the story, down to a sweet little tart.

Though whether you think that was the pastry or not...

Ooh!

-OK, what next?

-As you can see, it's changed colour.

It's gone a bit paler. So that's about time now to add in our egg.

-So I'll just give that a little mix.

-You're very dextrous, aren't you?

You've kind of almost got a backhand with that whisk.

Well, you know, I'm just skilled, you know.

It's years and years of training.

OK, so in goes the flour.

-So modest! What's that?

-And the nutmeg.

It's such a versatile spice.

I love it because you associate it with pastry,

but then it goes so well with things like scallops.

-It can be really nice.

-And nutmeg has a sort of almost medieval feel

-to it, don't you think?

-Yes, yes.

-A taste to it.

It's a real Tudor spice.

-Yeah, that's right.

-Must have been very valuable in Henry VIII's day.

-I imagine.

-Well, I'd imagine any spices back in Henry VIII's time

-would have been seen as such a luxury, yeah.

-Coming from the Far East.

-Absolutely.

-OK, and last, well, not last, almost last,

our curds are going to go in.

-Now, what's that?

-This is just curds.

Cheese curds. Give that a good stir.

-You need a bit of brawn for this, don't you?

-Well, you know.

-I know!

It's all the gym working out.

So last...

You're very careful not to get any of the white stuff from the lemon in

-there.

-That's because it makes it kind of bitter.

As opposed to the lovely kind of perfumey smell of your lemon zest.

There was a chef, apparently, I think,

who came up with this originally for the maids of honour to actually do.

And the King, again, it's said, it's a story,

had him locked up in the tower so

that nobody else should get the recipe.

My goodness. Imagine somebody doing that today.

Yeah, I mean, everybody... You know, people tend to think of him as a

-jolly old boy.

-Well, to lock somebody up for a cake, you know...

I think he did worse things, but anyway.

OK, so we're going to spoon our mix now into...

-I thought you were going to offer that to me.

-I'm afraid not, no!

This is delicately measured.

I need all of it. So just a nice heaped teaspoon.

You're not really filling it up, are you?

Well, the thing is that the puff pastry will rise and also the mix

has got flour in it and eggs.

-That will puff out.

-So it's all going to expand.

-Exactly.

-You will soon find out.

-OK.

Actually, it takes me back to being a kid again,

hoping that there would be some left by the time you get to the ninth...

I'm imagining little Michael as a young boy,

hovering around the pastry bowl.

-That's quite a nice image.

-Yeah, nice image.

And sugar was a rarity then, wasn't it?

You know, I mean, it's only really rich people who could afford sugar

-at all.

-Absolutely.

-Unlike today.

I mean, I think an awful lot of these ingredients are things that we

kind of take for granted nowadays.

OK, so if you wouldn't mind popping these into the oven for me?

That would be great. So it's 180 degrees.

Now, they are small, but they take a while.

-How long?

-25 minutes.

Well, I don't know if I can wait that long, Anna.

Well, Michael, you don't have to.

We have some ready and waiting for you.

-I knew you wouldn't let me down.

-I wouldn't let you down.

-Look how much they've puffed up!

-Yes, I know.

Only a teaspoon of mix.

It's beautifully brown on top.

That would be the sugar and the almonds inside it.

Yeah, of course, yeah.

And do you serve them as they are,

or do you do something really fancy with them?

That's it. That's how they would have been eaten before.

OK. Well, you play Anne Boleyn. And I will play Henry VIII.

Hang on a second. I need to stuff something up my jumper, don't I?

Come on. Oh, my pretty maid!

What's your name and what are you doing after the ball?

Mmm!

Ooh! That's lovely.

That's really nice.

-Mmm!

-Mmm.

-That's really good.

There's a real sweetness on the top.

-And a lovely flakiness of the pastry.

-Absolutely!

Mmm!

The little tart that changed the course of English history.

That's it for today. Join us next time.

Mm!