Sunday Edition Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning, get ready for some tasty winter warmers on today's Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got some tasty seasonal cooking

from some truly great chefs for you this morning,

and a great line-up of very hungry celebrity guests

ready to sample their wares.

Mark Sargeant pan-fries chicken breasts and serves with an indulgent

Jerusalem artichoke risotto and honey-glazed roasted veg.

Bill Granger gets creative with Christmas ham.

He covers the ham in a sticky hoisin and plum sauce

and serves it with a zingy lemon potato salad.

And the effervescent Gennaro Contaldo shows off to Nigella Lawson

and gets creative Italian style at the hobs.

He makes anatra con melograna -

that's duck and pomegranate to you and me -

and he serves it with a type of sauteed endive.

EastEnders actress Laurie Brett faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did she get her Food Heaven - blueberries with an individual

blueberry and blackberry pie served with fresh cream?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell - peas served with

pan-fried chicken, lettuce and more peas and pancetta?

Find out what she gets to eat at the end of today's show.

But first, we rewind the clocks

to when Will Holland was in charge of La Becasse.

He's making a soup and answers the age-old question -

what on earth do you do with quince?

Right, what are you going to show Warren how to cook?

What's the first dish he's going to learn over there?

The first dish we're going to teach Warren today,

we're going to do a lovely soup of parsnip and vanilla.

And then, we're going to have some quince poached with saffron,

and we're going to pop some scallops in there as well.

OK. All right, so do you want me to do the quince first?

If you start with the quince.

I need you to make a stock syrup with some saffron in there.

-The poaching liquor is water and sugar, yeah?

-That's the one.

I'm going to get on with the soup straightaway.

-Yeah.

-So...

-So, that's going to go on there.

I'll turn that one up and that one up.

You don't sequence used very much these days, do you?

-Well, it's in season, really.

-It's in season.

I think the reason you don't see it very often is

because people don't really know what to do with it, you know?

Warren's looking and thinking, "I don't know what it is."

That's what it is, mate.

Brilliant. I was thinking it was a kumquat.

What's a kumquat?

It won't ever get softer than that. Quince don't ripen.

Or, they're ripe and they're still firm, so...

It's between a pear and an apple, isn't it, really?

But you use them when they're really, really hard like that.

But you have to cook with them, and also, they go brown.

Yeah, they go brown, so I'm going to get you to do

a little bit of water with some lemon juice in there for us,

and that'll just help stop that.

Yep. We've got some saffron in there as well,

in that poaching liquor as well. You're going to cook them in sugar?

Although you're serving this as a soup,

you're going to put them in sugar as well, yeah?

Yeah, well, I'm going to get some sweet elements going on in there,

because parsnips are quite sweet,

scallops are actually quite sweet,

so it's a nice, sweet soup for a cold day.

What I've got in here is butter, onion and garlic,

and I'm going to stick a lid on that just so that we don't get any colour.

I don't want any crispy onions while I prepare my parsnips.

So this is a white soup, basically?

It's a white soup, yeah, all being well.

So, 2010 has been a great year for you in the restaurant?

It's been really, really good, actually, yeah.

Started off with retaining my Michelin star, which is always good.

And then we've just got a really nice momentum to the restaurant, actually.

Various awards and accolades have been coming in.

Ones like the Sunday Times did their

Top 100 Restaurants In The Country list,

and I managed to get number 19, which was good.

You're going in the right direction.

I mean, in all of them, really, you're going up the charts.

Yeah, there's the National Restaurant Awards as well,

held this year. Last year I was 87, and this year,

I managed to climb to 44,

so I kind of halved my score, which was good.

-Give us a hand chopping that.

-So you've taken the skin off already?

I've taken the skin off but I haven't taken the core out.

Some people, if they make parsnip puree or soup, take the core,

but I think that this sort of time of the season,

parsnips are still nice and tender,

so I'm quite happy to leave the core in there.

Maybe after Christmas, as the season goes on,

they become a little bit more woody,

and so then it might be a case of taking the core out.

Getting them out of the ground in Scotland is the difficulty,

-isn't it? Finding them?

-They'll be frozen into the ground.

But you do need a bit of frost on parsnips, I think,

to bring out the sweetness.

A little bit of frost, not rock-hard.

-There's about two foot of snow where he is!

-That's it.

So, they're in there, sweating with the butter.

I'm going to put the liquid in there straightaway.

I've got some chicken stock, good-quality chicken stock.

You could use veg stock for this?

Yeah, if you're vegetarian, then by all means use veg stock.

And I've got milk.

So, it's half-half milk and stock,

-and it's quite a nice way of making a soup without cream in it.

-Right, OK.

-I know that's not right up your street...

-No, it's fine by me.

-..a creamless dish...

-I've seen the pile of butter over there.

That's all right for me.

And then the other ingredient I've got here is the vanilla pod.

As opposed to splitting it and scraping the seeds out,

-I'm going to put the whole lot in.

-The whole lot?

I'm just going to use half of that, but I mean the whole lot in that

I'm not just going to scrape the seeds out,

we're going to use the whole thing. That's going to go in there.

We'll blend the soup and pass it, so that'll take it out.

But it has to be this and not vanilla essence or extract?

-Yeah.

-Can I ask a question?

-Fish and vanilla, I just don't get it.

-Is it not up your street?

-No, I've really tried...

-It's quite kind of 1980s, isn't it?

But what about parsnip soup?

Parsnip and vanilla I can start to begin to understand.

This isn't 1980s. What are you doing here, then?

What you're going to do for me, James,

you're going to take some lovely sprigs of tarragon...

I see what you mean, but it is French.

I mean, the French do like it.

I know where it comes from and some of the best chefs

in the world use that combination, it's just one that I just don't get.

Let's see if I can change your ways.

Parsnip could be the vehicle to carry the vanilla to the fish.

-Let's see, let's hope.

-What on earth are you doing now?

I hope you've dusted the microwave off today,

because we're going to use the microwave.

I've put some veg oil on a clingfilmed plate,

and then a few sprigs of tarragon.

-You would be able to do this but for your wife.

-You can do this, I'm sure.

A bit of tarragon, microwaved tarragon, it would be great.

Loads of that in my fridge.

We're basically making tarragon crisps.

So, as opposed to deep frying herbs to make them crispy,

we're using the microwave, and it's a really good way.

You can do it with all sorts of herbs.

I mean, we're doing it with tarragon today,

but you can do it with parsley,

basil's a great one - little basil leaves. It's really, really good.

-So, this is a little bit of veg oil on here?

-Yeah.

I'll let you carry on with that while I start edging my scallop.

Thanks for that, cheers.

-You look like you're enjoying yourself, James.

-Sorry?

You look like you're enjoying yourself.

-Are you happy with that?

-That looks absolutely perfect.

And then full power for about two minutes, yeah?

Full power, two minutes,

or it might even need two and a half, three minutes.

-I'm just opening these scallops.

-Full power there.

Right, the quince is poaching there, the soup's cooking away nicely.

-Boiling away.

-Scallops, tell us about these hand-dived scallops.

-Hand-dived, always buy hand-dived scallops.

-Always from Scotland!

Always from Scotland, that's it. Scottish scallops.

Definitely, Scottish scallops are some of the best

in the world, definitely. Dived as opposed to dredged.

-Did you say the west coast of Scotland?

-Mainly the west coast.

The great thing about the west coast of Scotland is it's very rocky,

so the dredgers can't get in close to the coast,

so there's plenty of scallops there for the divers to pick up,

and only 3% of the scallops we eat are actually hand-dived.

The difference is unbelievable.

I would never use a dredged scallop, only hand-dived.

Don't worry, nobody's noticing this, Will, don't worry.

You carry on boiling my soup over for me.

That sound effect is me rustling some sound effects up for you.

So, the scallops. You don't use the roe for this?

-No, I'm not a fan of the roe, actually.

-I'm glad you said that.

I'm not a fan at all.

The only thing I could possibly do with it is dry it

-and turn it into powder.

-Powder, yeah, totally.

-For your bases and...

There is no point being nice after you took the mick out of him saying vanilla...

No, I'm going to convert Nick today, definitely.

You get a lot of chefs and they leave the roe on the scallops, and you know what?

It tastes like overcooked, fishy scrambled eggs.

It's a totally different thing.

The meat is protein and the other thing is a bag of eggs.

-Definitely. I'm glad we've agreed on one thing today, Nick.

-One thing!

What I've done here as well, James, is a nice one,

is I've cut them in half straight through,

as opposed to cutting them into pieces that way,

just cos I don't want thin discs that are going to overcook.

I want nice chunks.

I'm going to take this soup now and give it a quick blend.

So, it will actually cook in real-time.

-There you go.

-I've just heard the beep of the microwave.

I'll do that, I'll get that bit.

Right, so, cooking these scallops, I've got my pan here,

and it's warm, but it's not smoking hot.

So, you don't have any cream in here, just a bit of milk?

Just the cooking liquor that it's in.

So, it's got a creamy consistency to it,

but you don't need to add a hell of a lot of cream.

I'll go check these.

I'm just going to put the scallops in flat side,

so the cut side down, and I've lightly seasoned those with salt.

Season this up.

Salt in here.

Right, the scallops only take, what, 20 seconds?

I'm just going to literally colour them one side,

and then I'm going to turn the pan off, and we're just going to

let them cook through on the other side really, really gently.

There's a sink in the back there if you want to wash your hands.

-A knob of butter in there.

-And just pass this soup through?

It's got the vanilla, the parsnips, everything else in there.

You can see how lovely and creamy it is.

The parsnips just emulsify into that lovely soup.

Touch of lemon in there as well.

-That's it.

-There you go. Give that a quick stir, and we're ready.

And so you can see with my scallop pan,

I've actually turned that off the heat,

so it's just the residual heat cooking those through beautifully.

-Ready when you are.

-We can start plating up.

I believe that Claire's got an allergy to scallops,

so I'm not going to try and kill

one of the guests on Saturday Kitchen today.

How do you find out you've got an allergy to scallops?

You'll find out whether you're allergic to scallops in about ten minutes!

And when your face resembles the Michelin man...

-CLAIRE:

-Then you stop breathing.

So we're going to put these beautiful scallops,

just nice and plump pieces.

If you ladle that soup in for us...

You can see my microwaved tarragon.

-Just little pieces.

-Happy with that?

Like you say, you can do different types of herbs with this.

It doesn't have to be tarragon in the microwave.

Also, the soup's just a really nice winter warmer.

If you don't want to do the garnish, then just do the soup.

I'll get that, you finish that one.

So remind us, what is it again?

It's saffron-poached quince with parsnip and vanilla soup

-and pan-fried scallops.

-Easy as that.

I'll just put that extra little bit of microwave on there.

Right, there you go. Dive into that. There you go, without scallops.

-Thank you.

-Tell me what you think.

Have you ever tried scallops and quince before?

Oh, I eat it every Friday, yeah.

THEY LAUGH

Is it a regular flavour combination that you have, Warren?

-That's fantastic.

-Do you like that?

-Mmm!

Pretty good. What about the quince? Try the quince and the saffron.

You put quite a bit of saffron in there to get the colour, really?

Yeah, get the colour.

It just adds a really nice sort of perfume to the dish as well.

The vanilla adds a nice aroma to it, and then you've got the saffron,

-that's quite potent.

-That's brilliant.

-Warren's discovered a new favourite food.

-You were just making food!

-What's quince?

-I think it grows on a tree!

-There you go.

Did you have to go shopping in Narnia to get these?

Now, that's an impressive winter starter for you.

Coming up, I'll be making a selection of tapas for Richard Madeley,

but first, Rick Stein is on the hunt for barnacles in Galicia.

The Atlantic in winter - days I love

away from all the shouting and bustling of a hot kitchen.

It was really rough. I love going walking when it's like that.

The Cornish call it a gale of wind,

but it really was a gale of wind - force eight, even force nine.

There was spume coming up over the cliffs,

and the wind was so strong that

the stream that would just fall into the bay normally

was just being driven right back on itself.

It's not Chalky's favourite weather, and the sea was really rough.

But it also makes you think about

the communities that used to have to survive on the sea.

I mean, you can imagine at winter everybody went hungry,

with storms raging for weeks on end.

In fact, in Mousehole, two days before Christmas,

they celebrate a man called Tom Bawcock, who risked his life by

going to sea in a terrible storm and bringing back a boat full of fish.

Although this happened 100 years ago,

it still lives on in a dish that the villagers create

with the fish heads staring at the sky out of the pie crust -

starry gazey pie.

You take a big roasting tray and melt some butter in it,

then soften some onions in that, roughly-chopped onions.

Now, the fish - cod, coley, monkfish, that sort of thing.

Fresh parsley, dried herbs,

and good, fresh bay leaves, about six of them.

Turn that all over, and then plenty of lemon juice on top of that.

Now, make a soft, buttery, creamy mashed potato.

Nice and soft so you can fold it over on the fish without breaking it up.

-This is Lorraine Edwards, by the way. Her brother's the landlord.

-Hello.

Now, you smooth that mixture all down nicely,

and then you sprinkle it with lots of grated boiled egg.

Then, you roll out your pastry.

And cover that with grated hard cheese - Parmesan or Cheddar.

Then, you stick the pilchards through,

some with their heads looking to the sky,

some with their tails as if they're diving through the waves.

Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.

After that, all you need is a man dressed up like the original

Tom Bawcock, and then into a hot, steamy pub with lots of locals

singing and drinking, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the pie.

This is really Mousehole's equivalent to May Day.

Every place needs to have a special day,

when you have a dish linked with a hero, a man who saved the village

all those years ago.

Just for one day, the whole village becomes unified.

But they'll squabble and argue the rest of the time like anyone else!

# A merry place you may believe

# Is Mousehole 'pon Tom Bawcock's eve... #

I'm not all about posh restaurant foods.

I can go into a pub and drop a few pints of Tinners Ale

and have a good chat with a few fishermen

and enjoy the whole sort of romance of there.

There were no visitors around, it was all local people.

I was just thinking, "Well, this is a story,

"this is what the series is all about."

It's finding those moments

where food and life sort of blend into one,

and those are the dishes that mean so much to me.

Well, the fishermen of Cornwall and the fishermen of northern Spain,

Galicia, have a lot in common.

They're both Celts, and their life is equally as hard.

But here, they fish for a delicacy which is loved all over Spain

called the percebe, or otherwise known as the goose barnacle.

I've just been down there watching the percebe fishermen,

and it is quite dangerous.

I mean, it's pretty rough today, but not that bad.

In testimony to this danger is this cross here,

which actually commemorates somebody that drowned doing it,

and all the way up and down the coast, there's other crosses.

But it's a community thing down there and it's quite interesting,

because the women are on the rocks,

but the young men are right down where the swell's licking in,

and another word for the percebes fishermen is the mariscadores.

That seems to me to mean like matadors.

And in a way, they're playing with the waves.

The wave is like a charging bull.

But the problem is, always with surf, is the seventh wave.

And this coast, another name for it is the Costa del Muerte,

which means the Coast of Death, and it's that seventh wave which does it.

I've nothing but admiration for these people.

It's a risky job, but worth it.

These percebes can fetch up to £70 a kilo.

The whole community is out there catching percebes.

You see, the bigger the sea spray, the larger the barnacle,

and the better they are.

This is why they're found along the Coast of Death -

they seek out the rocks where the waves are the highest,

and these choppy conditions provide

a bigger oxygen supply to the percebes,

so they grow much sweeter and fatter as a result.

The reason why there are so many people out today is

because tomorrow is the big seafood festival in Corme,

where they really do celebrate

the sweetness and utter perfection of the percebe.

Coming from Cornwall, it's not good to talk enthusiastically

about Spanish fishermen, because of lingering anger about fishing rights,

but I'm torn.

The Spanish love fish and so do I, particularly hake.

Well, I couldn't resist buying these hake in the market in Puerto del Son

in Galicia, where we are this morning, because look at them.

They were just the best fish in the market,

and actually, this really happens, but filming on location like this,

all we do is just go down in the market and just say,

"What looks good today?" So that's how it happens,

and that's how fish cookery should always happen.

You just buy the best stuff you can get in the market

and build your recipe around that.

So, first of all, we start off with this cazuela de barro, which is

a terracotta pot very typical to this part of Spain.

I've got some lovely olive oil - it's smelling brilliant,

really smoking hot in there.

Actually, I think I'll put the onions in first,

cos the garlic would cook a bit too quick.

So what I'm going to do is a very typical baked hake dish,

and it's called just Galician hake.

The joke is, though, I've probably had this dish, I don't know,

six times now? Seven times?

And every time, it's different,

so you never know exactly what's in Galician hake, except pimenton,

which we call paprika, and that's probably the Hungarian name.

You know, it's dried red pepper.

But do make sure you get a nice, fresh one, a sweet-tasting one.

Slightly smoky flavour. Some of the old ones just taste like dust.

OK, now, the next really important ingredient is chorizo,

and that's a dried, cured pork sausage,

with more pimenton in it, chilli and lots of garlic,

and that is such a distinctive flavour of Spain.

Nothing like it with potato or with chickpeas or lentils.

Stir them around nicely.

The other ingredient, which sometimes you get in these dishes,

and these are very, very special to this area,

they're peppers from Padron, which is

about 20 miles down the road, and the great thing about these peppers is

you cook them whole, so I'll just bung those in,

but about one in every ten of the peppers...

I mean, they taste like green...

you know, the bell peppers we have at home,

but they're a bit sweeter and more interesting, if you like.

But about every tenth pepper is as hot as a Mexican chilli,

so it's a bit like sort of a pepper Russian roulette.

About every tenth one, you just go bang!

And it's just a little overpowering.

So I put them in whole like this, so nobody knows,

cos it's a bit of a sort of joke. So next, in go lots of potatoes.

I'm just going to sort of fry them off a little bit in here,

and that looks like a lot, but...

PAN LID RATTLES

Sorry, sorry.

Always was a clumsy fool in the kitchen.

So, just turn those over in this lovely, already very nicely

coloured and flavoured oil.

I'm just going to add a little bit of this wine that's special to

this area, called Albarino,

and it's really good, cos Galicia's not really that well known, but

to have a wine like this in an area that's not that well known,

it's just fantastic. This is the sort of wine...

You know when you go on those holidays -

about three fluid ounces, incidentally -

and you go on those holidays and you have just a fantastic wine

and you say, "I've got to take crates of this back," with you,

then you come home and invite some friends round, you say,

"I've got this really good wine, particularly sort of southern parts

"of France, come round and try it," and everybody sort of says, "Yeah?

"Well?" But this one, I promise, when you get home, it's lovely.

It's got a sort of appley, floral taste, and really nice and tart,

as befits quite a sort of cold area.

A bit like Cornwall, only, as you can see, a little bit hotter.

So, Albarino. I'm just going to add a little bit of water.

Not too much, cos I want this to cook down, probably half a pint.

Plenty of salt. Leave that to cook for about ten minutes or so.

So now, just to cut the hake up,

and just notice I'm cutting them into fairly thick steaks,

about two inches thick, and I've done something different, which doesn't

actually happen in most of these Galician hake dishes.

I want to cook the hake just on top of the stew

and allow the hake to cook in the steam coming up from that

wonderful paprika, potato and chorizo stew. Just leave that.

That'll take just about another seven or eight minutes to steam through.

Look at the lovely white contrast between the fish

and the paprika potato.

I think one thing I'd like to say about this is, you don't

always have to put delicate fish like hake with delicate flavours.

I got the sort of idea of that from India, really,

because fish curries are just like that,

and I suppose this is my Spanish answer to a fish curry,

particularly with these Russian roulette peppers.

I'm still alive!

HE LAUGHS

Like Rick, I'm a big fan of Spanish food.

I've spent quite a lot of time in Barcelona,

and the one thing I love there is the market, La Boqueria market.

Inside it, there's loads of different tapas stalls,

loads of stalls where you can get different ingredients.

I'm going to show you a few of the inspirations that I've got along my travels.

First thing, Richard, I'm going

to dive into these little peppers so you can try these.

These are these little peppers.

Now, this is a little bit of Russian roulette.

Hope you're better with this than you were with the leeks.

Yeah, I used the green bit. Thank you very much. I got told off, yeah.

So, throw in the peppers, olive oil, that's all there is with this one.

They'll get salted off. And the only thing is, into here, is salt.

Decent amount of salt. That's it.

We salted those off just as they are. Fantastic.

-Over here, cooking away, we have... Spain love pork.

-Hmm.

Absolutely love it, and this is the sausage from the iberico ham,

-or the black-footed pig.

-Right.

The reason why this is so special, it's called pata negra.

It's basically bred on acorns, and it walks up to about ten,

12 kilometres a day in search of its food, but the ham from it,

I think it's some of the greatest ham in the world.

The difference between this and Parma ham, it's about four times

the price, but it is around,

something particularly good for Christmas.

You ought to buy it. Look out for it.

Is it so expensive because it's non-labour intensive?

-The animals just wander around?

-Yeah, exactly.

They just wander around, but also, their legs are much smaller,

so unlike a Parma ham, which is much bigger, this is much smaller.

And then, obviously, what you then do is

just take some manchego cheese, which is wonderful.

You can get this at the market.

-Is this like Parmesan?

-You need to try it.

It's kind of like that, but a different sort of flavour.

Now, if you taste that, just with the manchego cheese...

-It's a bit milder than Parmesan.

-Try that.

Try that, tell me what you think.

Now, over here, we've got the sausage from the same pig,

-which I'm just basically sauteeing off.

-Wow! That's worth it.

-Absolutely incredible.

-That is worth it.

-You can only hand slice that, you can't slice it by machine.

-OK.

So, it's hand sliced,

that's probably the reason that it's expensive.

-Delicious!

-Into here, I've got the sausage from this,

and then we take the potatoes. That can go in.

These are cooked potatoes.

And some tomatoes.

The great thing about this is, crossed with the sausage,

got a lot of paprika in there. There's loads of different types.

There's sweet paprika, spicy paprika, all that kind of stuff.

It smells amazing.

Now, the peppers really don't take much longer than that,

about another 30 seconds. Over here, we have another classic thing.

The market is split into two parts.

You have the fresh ingredients round the edge,

but the heart of the market in Barcelona is the fish market.

Most of all, salt cod. Bacalla, it's called.

The reason why this is particularly really good,

it has a really intense flavour.

You need to marinate it, leave it in water overnight.

-To leach out the salt?

-To leach out the salt, but it also goes soft.

Then, soak it overnight, then cook it.

I have cooked it in a little bit of onion, garlic, parsley,

some bay leaf and water.

And this is going to be transformed into a traditional dish.

You know, I've never had salt cod.

Oh, this is absolutely wonderful stuff. It is absolutely delicious.

But what I'm going to do is mix it together with a bit of potato.

So, we have some potato and garlic.

Make sure you go through it carefully.

Let me show you these peppers. All that is is just salt, olive oil.

I'll put that on there and you can dive into one of these.

You can taste those. But this is a great thing.

If you want an alternative Christmas,

stick those in the middle of the table, they taste amazing.

-Where has my fork gone?

-There you go.

The idea is you pick them up and bite them.

-Gorgeous!

-Aren't they unbelievable?

But the problem is, one in ten is pretty hot and spicy.

-THEY LAUGH

-Don't worry.

-I was going to change them and put all the hot ones in.

-It's very good.

There you go, you can have a dive into that.

So, Richard, where did all the TV business start for you, anyway?

Were you a reporter or what?

I was a journalist, I worked in newspapers and local radio.

Then, in '78, I transferred to a tiny company

called Border Television, up in Carlisle,

covered the Scottish Borders and Cumbria,

and kind of made all my early mistakes there.

Spent a couple of years there, then went to Yorkshire Television,

again on the news beat,

and then Granada Television on the news beat. Met Judy.

Started doing This Morning, and the rest is history.

We mentioned at the top of the show, a keen cook as well.

I know you are a keen cook, and you had Jamie round for dinner, right?

Jamie Oliver was doing something on the show about a year ago,

and afterwards, we were in the green room,

having a drink, and we started talking about cooking at home,

and he rather wistfully said, "You know what, Richard,

"I have not been to a private house for dinner in nine years, since

"I started on telly."

I said, "Did you do something, do you smell? Is it what you wear?"

He said, "No, people are just frightened to cook for me.

"They're frightened I will come in and criticise."

He said, "I'm a pariah." So I said,

"Come to our house, I'll cook you Sunday lunch this Sunday.

"Bring Jools, bring the girls." And the guys from Little Britain,

David Walliams and Matt Lucas, were there as well.

They said, "Can we come too, please?"

So we had this very showbizzy Sunday lunch. Jamie came around.

When I am in my kitchen, it is my kitchen. That's it.

-Typical chef.

-I don't want anyone in there, talking, bothering me.

And Jamie came in after about half an hour and said,

"I'll help you make the gravy, Rich."

I said, "No, the whole point of this, Jamie, is that I am cooking for you. So, no, thank you!"

He wandered off, looking a bit disconsolate.

He came in again about five minutes later and said,

"Just let me do the gravy."

I can't repeat what I said to him,

but I ordered him out of my kitchen, and he went, and he cleared his plate later.

-Has he been back since?

-No.

-And actually, he hasn't asked us round.

-Oh, right.

-Jamie?

We have a tiny bit of salt there.

We should be careful about the amount of salt,

because it is salt cod.

Just a touch, but the idea is a bit of black pepper.

-What you do is place it inside a piping bag.

-Inside a what?

A piping bag. You can serve it as it is.

Alternatively, you need to try those, the potatoes and the sausage.

Try that. Also, these are absolutely brilliant,

and so good value for money. Wood-roasted peppers.

-They are unbelievable.

-What does wood-roasted mean?

In a wood-burning oven? All right, I'm only asking!

THEY LAUGH

They stuff inside here and we roast these off.

-Obviously, Richard and Judy at the moment...

-This is delicious, mate.

Channel 4.

But you are superbly well-known now for your book club thing.

That is amazing, the way that has taken off.

Particularly the sales of it.

You have made several authors multimillionaires, as well,

-over the years.

-Not ourselves, it's most unfair!

It was just an idea we thought we would try out on the show,

just as a programme item, and that is really what it is still.

But the knock-on effect on sales, I think 25% of all books

bought in Britain are books that are on our book club list,

which is incredible. We didn't look for that, it just happened.

Shall I mention our Christmas show at this point?

-Is it December 15th?

-Yes, I think so.

OK, December 15th, we've recorded a really, surprisingly good show

with Helen Mirren and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones.

-And are you plugging cookbooks on there as well?

-Um, yes.

Not mine!

I was going to say, James.

We tried to squeeze it in - it was that chapter on leeks.

Yes, the chapter on leeks - don't use the green tops.

Just dive into these. These little peppers. Just try that.

You're trying to burn my tongue.

No, this is the salt cod. Try that and tell me what you think.

And how long have they been in there for?

About five or six minutes, something like that.

-Warm it up, it's brilliant.

-That's bloody marvellous.

-There you go.

For easy dinner parties,

you can't beat serving a selection of tapas.

If you'd like to try your hand at those dishes,

or if you want to have a go at any of the recipes that you've

seen on today's show,

they are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

We are not live today, so we're looking back

at some of the delicious cooking from our back catalogue.

Now, let's go back to the time before Mark Sargeant upped sticks

to the Kent coast.

He introduces us to a chicken from Essex.

Right, what are we doing?

We are doing a really nice chicken dish,

using a really good English chicken, like we said earlier, bred in Essex.

It is called - a little bit of a quirky name - Label Anglais.

It is a sort of breed like the Poulet de Bresse,

-the famous French chicken.

-The big white one.

It is like royalty in France.

This is a really fantastic one,

I have been to the farms and seen it roaming wild.

It is a fantastic product.

We're going to make that with Jerusalem artichoke risotto.

Jerusalem artichokes, most people peel and then put them in lemon water

and you get this kind of anaemic, pasty, acidy flavour.

We're going to slice very finely with the skins on,

so you get the really lovely earthy flavour.

Put that in a risotto and we're going to finish that off with some

really nice roasted root vegetables.

Some small Chantenay carrots and turnips, just deglazed with honey.

We will get on those in a minute.

-What are we doing over here?

-First of all, take these chicken legs off.

We'll poach the chicken first.

This is an unusual way of preparing a chicken that people

wouldn't often do at home, it's a great way of doing it.

The best thing about it is you can actually do it the day before,

leave it in your fridge overnight, let it go cold.

When it is cold, it is easier to take the breasts off anyway. You are

making your own chicken stock at the same time, which is fantastic.

The legs, we can save for anything.

Cooking them slowly, roasting them,

taking the meat down and making a terrine.

You have the breast there and the legs and thighs on here.

Garlic, seasoning, thyme, black pepper.

Very simple, you have some simmering chicken stock, pop that in there.

That will simmer for about 20, 25 minutes.

Obviously, we can't wait that long, so wash my hands quickly.

That's in there 20 or 25 minutes.

Do you allow it to cool down or do you take it out?

Allow it to cool down inside the stock,

so it maintains all the moisture.

Then you get this, nice and firm, but not overcooked.

You will see inside it is really nice and moist.

I will just take one breast off for now.

Is this what you do at Claridge's? Is this the sort of thing you do?

Absolutely. Just a really nice way of getting the moisture into the breast

with all the herbs and stock, you get all the flavour in there.

Just take that one off there.

Take the wing bone off.

If people can't find this chicken, although it is bred in Essex...

They are quite readily available, but if not, just a really,

really good-quality chicken. Don't skimp on the ingredients.

Just something really nice, like corn-fed, free-range.

Oil in the pan. Get a really nice colour on this.

Because we have put the chicken first, that renders down the fat.

So you have a really nice, healthy chicken.

We know you from Gordon Ramsay, but before then,

-you were Young Chef of the Year back in '96?

-'96.

-Then, National Chef of the Year in 2002.

-Yes.

So, let's hope I don't go down today, or I will look like a right wally.

-We have artichokes there.

-Which have been very finely sliced.

Sweated down in butter, so they're cooked nearly all the way.

Then, a little chicken stock, bring that down to reduce it.

Add a touch of cream, and if you could blitz that for me...

-This will be for our risotto?

-Yes.

Which I'm going to get on now. The risotto rice, we have parboiled this,

so we put it into some stock, brought it up to the boil,

and basically, what you are doing, blanching it,

is taking a lot of the starch out of that, so it makes a lighter risotto.

You are also cutting down the cooking time.

In the restaurant, you don't have 25, 30 minutes to make it from scratch.

So, it is a really good way of doing it.

So, the chicken stock goes in, a touch more rice.

We have the risotto rice now. Turn that up a touch.

You can see the colour on the chicken breast there.

It colours instantly, and you have no fat underneath,

so it goes really, really crispy.

All you're doing in this is heating it up,

so a little bit of butter in there.

Few sprigs of thyme.

Just take that off to rest nicely.

The butter absorbs into the chicken. We have our risotto there now.

He's off like the clappers.

-All my boys in the kitchen are watching me now.

-And your mother.

-Your mother texted.

-Yes, hello, Mother! There you go.

-Hello, dog!

Hello, canary! Even the goldfish are blowing bubbles.

If you could dry those off? They have also been... The same situation.

Brought up to the boil, cooked. They can be done the day before.

It's all about organisation.

You are on about these little Chantenay carrots here.

Yes, they are fantastic. They just taste like carrots.

-How carrots should be, or used to be.

-Like when you used to pick them

out the garden and just wash them in the water butt, like I did.

I've added a spoonful of Jerusalem artichoke puree to that now,

so the rice is just starting to cook. The puree has gone in there.

We finish this.

We have the risotto here, this is the artichoke puree going in there.

I'll put some more in. Yes, it is very rustic.

It gives it a really lovely earthy flavour.

You roast those off to get some colour,

with some crushed garlic and a sprig of rosemary.

This is a great way to do them for Christmas, because these can be cold

-and you can easily flash them through in the pan.

-Yes, day before.

You could get all this done the day before, have it all ready,

prepped in your fridge, and it's just a case of bringing it all together,

a fantastically organised way of doing it.

So, I have put some Parmesan in there.

Because there is no sauce with this, you want the risotto to be

really light and runny, so that it relaxes onto the plate.

I'm going to finish off with a few knobs of butter, touch of salt,

obviously.

Once you have got some colour on those, James,

a little bit of butter in there as well, we'll add some honey

to that and deglaze with a bit of sherry vinegar.

So you get a really nice sweet-and-sour flavour.

It is quite an unusual combination, sherry vinegar with roasted veg.

Yes, just a touch to give a bit of sharpness to it,

because this is very rich, and using the honey, which is very sweet.

I will pop that in. So, which goes in first?

The vinegar you want in first?

Honey first, get some really nice colour on there.

And then deglaze it with the vinegar. I'm going to chop some chives.

I'm just going to finish this risotto off with some chives.

Again, you have that slight oniony flavour to it.

Let's not forget we have butter in there, Parmesan, stock, it is

really quite rich, so you do want something to offset that.

-Looks lovely.

-So, you want that really relaxed texture to that.

-It's not too firm.

-The chicken looks lovely and moist.

-Great colour on the chicken.

-Serve up when you're ready.

If you could just pick those pea shoots for me...

-These pea shoots are quite trendy now.

-They are.

They are fashionable, but not for the wrong reasons.

They actually taste nice.

And we have gone from putting on little silly sprigs of chervil

to putting some pea shoots on now, and they taste absolutely delicious.

If you are a keen gardener at home, these are fantastic.

Just take the curly shoots off the pea plant and just put them

in salads, they just taste delicious.

Everything in there, James?

No, not that one.

Perfect. Fantastic glaze in there.

I have to say, it just looks amazing.

Well, it is so simple.

It's all preparation work - something like this has probably taken

eight and a half minutes, I am probably running over,

but just taken a little while to put together.

And just finish that off with the pea shoots on the top.

And you have a little bit of juice in there, mate.

-Just drizzle that around.

-It looks amazing.

-There you go.

Little drizzle of olive oil.

-What is that again?

-So, we have Label Anglais chicken,

honey and sherry-roasted root vegetables,

with a Jerusalem artichoke risotto.

-You're not bad at this, are you?

-Tasty.

Right, follow me. Look at this. Look at them all waiting for this one.

-There you go.

-I am so excited about this.

This has got all my favourite ingredients. Rice, I just love rice.

But that is a great tip about the risotto,

about parboiling the rice first, because it takes so long to make

risotto, and busy women and busy men...

Also takes the starch out of it,

-because sometimes risotto is really gloopy.

-Yes, yes.

And it is just a perfect way of doing it.

You have it in your fridge, then you can just knock one up.

And these vegetables look amazing.

The other thing about the chicken, Christmas is just round

the corner, this would be great for an alternative to turkey.

A really good roast chicken, proper roast chicken.

And it is a healthy way of doing it.

Because you have rendered all the fat down by poaching it first,

and you have all the fantastic flavour from the herbs and garlic.

It is all moist, it doesn't dry out.

This is fantastic.

And don't be afraid to try cooking Jerusalem artichokes at home,

they really are delicious. Now, it is time for Keith Floyd,

and today, he is exploring the delights of the West Country.

My unceasing search for regional culinary excellence has become

almost like the search for the Holy Grail -

or, as we say in the trade, the Holy Quail.

So I thought I would come here and see if I could get a little

assistance, but as Richard Harris said, there is not a lot in Camelot.

But is there not? Could there not be in this sombre castle behind me

a culinary Merlin who could cook for me

an oxtail like you would like to see in Camelot?

First order, five covers, one sardines, three cream, one broth.

Ca marche. Four liver, one veal...

When I have made my second million...

No, when I have finished building my small palace in Provence, I will let

Gary Rhodes, the chef at the Castle Hotel in Taunton, take over my job.

His skill and passion have silenced the music hall jokes

and put British food where it truly belongs.

Gary was just recently a finalist in a very important

gastronomic competition, and it had a French name.

I think that is appalling for a British cook.

When are we going to get a grip of ourselves?

Why do we have to be called

the Meilleur Ouvrier Gastronomique de Grande Bretagne,

when we could be called a really good British cook? Strange, isn't it?

Watch the man, he's the business.

What I'm actually going to do is just quickly prep this up.

I take off all the fat from the actual oxtail itself

and obviously retain all that fat, because I am a great

believer in putting as much of the flavour into everything as we can.

So if we get started straightaway,

I have some oxtail fat that has been rendered here.

Right, Richard, closer, this is very important. Oxtail fat.

Cook that down, so we keep the maximum flavour. When it is fried,

we are putting oxtail flavour

back into the oxtails, so that is the most important thing, firstly.

So, I'll stick a bit of fat in here

and will start to get these oxtails on.

OK. Notice, all trimmed of fat now. The fat has been rendered down.

These have previously been seasoned,

with salt and pepper. And in they go. I think that will do.

We just brown those off?

Yes, almost like roasting them on top of the stove.

Get a nice colour on those, seal the flavour in.

And using that oxtail fat, keep as much flavour in there as possible.

-So, we will just let those turn in there.

-He's going like a train!

What we need is some mirepoix of vegetables.

Mirepoix - now I will take you to task.

You are cooking a British meal and you use French words like mirepoix

-for chopping vegetables. Chopped vegetables.

-Chopped root vegetables.

We have some onions, celery, carrots, leek in here.

All the flavour we are going to put into these braised oxtails.

So we just quickly turn these in the pan. They are getting a nice brown

colour onto them, sealing the flavour inside.

Beautiful, meaty oxtails.

As soon as these are browned off, we will put them into a colander

and drain off the excess fat.

One thing I don't want is putting the excess fat into our sauce,

because we will end up with a fatty-looking sauce.

Quickly turn those.

You're the guv'nor.

Once these are just nicely sealed, we will get the vegetables

in the pan to bring off any residue from the base of the pan.

Putting that into the sauce itself.

So, we strain the oxtail into here,

then tip the fat back into there again.

There will be enough fat in the bottom.

We may need a little bit. If you could get those into there...

When we cook our vegetables...

Sorry, Richard, were you asleep?

The point is here, when we cook our vegetables, we are

going to cook them in the oxtail fat. That is very important.

At the same time, Gary is making the point for those of you

who are cholesterol conscious that the fat is going to be

drained away from the meat itself, so the fat does not go into the sauce.

But the fat is used for enhancing the flavours.

-And by God, it is hot in this kitchen.

-It is, yes.

If I can just get these vegetables into the pan,

just enough to take the residue off the base there.

We will fry those off just for a couple of seconds, and then we'll swill out the pan

with a little white wine to lift everything off the base there.

Do we want these to take colour in any way?

Just a slight colour.

It is really just to moisten them a little bit in there.

The most important thing here,

cooking oxtail seems to be a three-day event.

It is not something you can just throw into a pan and neglect

and leave. It is something that has to be mothered.

The dish has to be mothered. So we start off by making a good oxtail stock, which we have on here.

That stock will cook for at least a day, and then

we will reduce that stock down until we're left with a good, shiny...

It's reduced down like that.

And for those of you who don't know what a three-day event is,

phone up Princess Anne, because that isn't where it's at, OK?

If we take the vegetables from the pan, we can put them into here.

-On top?

-Yes, draining off the fat.

And then take a little bit of white wine.

And this is called rinsing out the pan with white wine.

Or, as we say, deglacer la poele.

Make sure, in our economic way, we're not losing one smidgen of flavour.

We have had the fat,

we have had the wine to make sure it comes out of it, it is all there.

It is economic and it is delicious. Right, phase next.

Pull the pan and let's get this on the go.

All of the fat is now drained from there.

All the fat has gone.

Into another pan, which is slightly warm.

Don't put anything into a cold pan, that is the first mistake.

And in there with our deglazed wine.

That's enough.

-What I actually need...

-Can you just see him there on bass guitar,

laying it down? It's like that, isn't it?

What I have got here is some tomato.

Again, I only like to use the flesh of tomato.

There is no tomato puree, let's just use the flesh.

You can leave the skins on if you want to,

but here, I have just chopped some up roughly to put in here.

I just want to get the flesh flavour from the tomato into the sauce,

so we can add a bit of tomato at this stage.

In terms of rock 'n' roll, though, is this Maybelline?

Where is this dish in your feelings?

Is that the heart of the British stomach?

I can't think of a really good question to ask you,

the kitchen is so hot.

I really do believe that this is the heart of British cooking.

This is what British cooking is all about.

I think this holds all the fundamental elements

of good cooking, it really does. I think cooking things on the bone,

and particularly a thick bone like this, there is

far more skill in cooking this than any duck breast or chicken breast

that you might get in France.

With this, the degree of cooking for oxtails has to be absolutely perfect.

It has to be tender, but not falling off the bone and stringy.

And you can't undercook it, where it's tough and you can't even get it off the bone.

And all that takes about three hours. Shut up. You have been bossy enough.

It takes about three hours.

My director will dream up some little interlude.

We will have a glass or maybe even a cup of tea,

and we will be back when this is beautifully cooked and taste it.

Look in there, Richard.

Slow cooking in the oven.

# Every morning, true as the clock

# Somebody hears the postman's knock

# Every morning, true as the clock

# Somebody hears the postman's knock. #

Dans les villages du Devon, on se prepare pour la foire de camp.

Devant le pub, coin populaire du village,

les passiones du folklore font leurs repetitions.

Car cette annee, ce sont les gens du Devon, les Devoniens,

comme on dit, qui sont invites d'honneur a la foire.

Un, deux, trois!

So, there it is, that was an amusing interlude.

Whack the thing on the plate, old bean. What have you done in the meantime?

I've strained out the sauce into there,

added a little diced vegetables, same that are in there but nice

and small, just cooked in a little butter, a little bit of onion

and tomato and also thrown in some parsley.

If we could just put that there.

I think it's a nonsense to start sprinkling things with parsley.

Let's put it in and get all the flavour out.

So here we have typical British cooking, very rustic on the plate,

full of colour and a lovely shine to the sauce.

This is what oxtails can do for a sauce.

So I'm just going to nap this on top and here I hope

we have Britain's signature dish, braised oxtail.

Absolutely brilliant. Richard, sniff into that.

If only the camera could sniff. Oh, boy, it smells so good.

But I tell you what, if food was paintings,

this wouldn't be a Van Gogh. I mean, he encapsulated the spirit of Provence.

This would be a... What? A Joshua Reynolds, wouldn't it?

Difficult to find, a bit in the attic, absolutely brilliant

and truly British.

In my Somerset jaunt, I couldn't resist visiting the old alma mater, Wellington School.

The last time I came round here was on a push-bike

and they gave me 50 lines.

POLICE SIREN

GLASS SMASHES

Great showing off, isn't it?

Of course, you've got to be in the sixth form to drive on the grass.

But actually I'm a bit nervous

because I'm going to meet a few old chums, my old masters.

They'll probably be about 104 now.

CONGREGATION SINGS

You might think this is self-indulgent,

you might think it is nostalgic, you might think it is a bit wet. It's not true.

This is actually where, 30 years ago, I developed my first real

passionate interest in food.

I mean, after a hard day learning Latin, playing rugby and scoring tries,

the school dinner was what you really looked forward to.

But, my God, times have changed.

I mean, we used to have a drum of baked beans or butter beans,

a vat of stew, and that was it sometimes.

But now, look, you can have baked gammon, roast chicken,

smoked mackerel, tuna fish, assorted cheeses, coleslaw, potatoes, melons.

You can have roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, chicken casserole,

seafood au gratin, cheese and broccoli quiche, beef burger

and roll, three vegetables, apple tart and stuff like that.

Wine's extra.

But I tell you one thing - never mind the vegetarian stews,

never mind the quiches, one thing that hasn't changed - yippee -

is the steamed pudding with chocolate sauce.

Now, that is a part of a real school dinner

and I'm going to have three bowls of this, so it's not all bad.

I felt quite tearful after that morning but I soon cheered up

when I met my old baker chum Margaret Vaughan in Frome.

-So, how have you been? I haven't seen you for what, a year?

-Too long.

Too long, dear friend. I've been very well. I've missed you.

-Have you been busy?

-I've been absolutely frantic. I've been really, really busy.

Well, you become very, very popular. Of course I'm not at all surprised.

Oh, you are so smooth.

Be careful with this, you're going to fall in it.

-It's pretty, isn't it?

-Isn't it lovely? Never dries up.

Very cold. Yes. Do you know, the extraordinary thing is,

my bakery used to be a fishmonger for about 180 years

and the fishmonger would come out and wash the fish in the stream.

-How nice.

-Isn't it marvellous?

-But this isn't a history lesson.

-This isn't Look At Life or anything like that.

-Oh.

It's a cookery programme, you silly old bat.

-So have your flowers because I love you and take me to your hot, steaming kitchen.

-Oh, I can't wait.

That's will, of course, fade on the bosom of a flirt.

What a cruel thing to say.

SHE GIGGLES

Now an old Somerset dish is cod cheeks and tongues.

You know, we British are so wasteful.

All this wonderful rich flesh usually gets fed to the cat

but Margaret simply rolls them in fresh breadcrumbs and fries them

in butter for a few moments, and they taste as good as fresh scallops

but cost a fraction of the price.

-Don't go too far away, sweetheart. He's nice, isn't he?

-He's lovely.

-You shouldn't shout at him as much, shouldn't you?

-It's not...

Now then, you can come here. This is what he says, doesn't he?

He says, "Down here, Richard." That's it.

I've seen him on some of those programmes. He's quite rude to you.

-Where are you, dear heart?

-I'm here, sweetness and light.

-Oh, come along.

-You're supposed to be helping me do this.

-I know.

You're drinking all that cider behind my back.

Now that is all going to fry gently away.

Actually only for about a minute and a half. Turn them over.

I mean, really hardly any time at all. Because they need very little.

OK, now tell me, what is this lovely green oinks-looking liquid in here?

-Oinks?

-Oinks?

-That's a nice word.

That is gooseberry and tarragon sauce.

-Be careful, sweet, that's hot. Isn't it lovely?

-It's beautiful.

And that goes with the...?

And that is a lovely piquant sauce that we'd serve with these.

And to go with it, because these are all very soft and gentle...

See these, really, it's marvellous. The housewife should buy these.

There are so inexpensive.

Most of the fishmongers... They don't have to buy the whole head.

Look at that lovely white flesh. Can you see that?

Isn't it making your mouth water? Isn't it lovely?

And they're almost done. Oh, I'm sorry, am I...?

No, it's fine, it's fine. I recognise when I'm in front of a real trouper.

-You know, I'll take a back seat. Now, listen...

-I didn't mean to do this.

She's going to do that. We've actually got, upstairs,

sitting, eight beautiful maidens who work in this fine restaurant

with Margaret and I've got to cook them the other half of their lunch, which is rabbit.

And I don't want a little bunny-wunny in my little wo-boat

-because the bunny be cwazy and bite me in the thwoat.

-Bunny?

Was by the throat, wasn't it? Remember that Tom Paxton song? Brilliant, about President Carter.

Back to the real business now, Richard.

We've had all the jokes, all the fun.

The imperial spin round of the ingredients.

We know we've got rabbit joint and all that business.

Fresh field mushrooms chopped, parsley, root vegetables,

in this case onions and carrots, fresh thyme, good bacon,

tomato puree, garlic, rabbit I've already referred to,

dredged in seasoned flour, OK,

and the star of this particular little show is going to be the goosegog wine,

the sparkling gooseberry champagne.

Mushrooms at this stage can go into here with the bacon.

That and the carrots and onions, and they can all brown off quite nicely.

My champagne.

Do you know, the sound man

in television programmes doesn't like frying noises

but he insists on having that kind of noise

and yet it is the most uncool way to open a bottle of champagne.

It should be opened so that it makes no noise at all.

Right, that's all going well. Flip over here.

These are browning nicely. Free-range...

Not free-range but actually wild rabbit. Going well. Over like that.

My little fingers...have to be used.

Turn these things over. Those are brown, those are sealed, OK.

-Maximum... Who's talking to me?

-Oh, I'm sorry, I'm back, I'm back.

-Where have you been?

-I brought a loving cup.

I didn't see why you should get it all your own way.

You've been to the junk shop.

-I thought you'd gone to Marks & Spencer.

-Oh, I say!

Just keep an eye on there for a second.

-Isn't it gorgeous? Can I help?

-You can help by being quiet for a moment.

-You always give me the difficult things to do.

-I'm busy, all right?

-You don't want me to touch it.

-Stand here. Hold that. And shut up.

I'm cooking, Margaret. This is, after all, my job.

I'm not a television presenter, I'm not an interviewer...

That's what I'm like.

I don't work on Tomorrow's World or anything like that.

Actually, I'm a cook, and if it's all right with you...

It smells heavenly.

I wish we could have a smelling television.

Yes, a smellyvision, they used to have it in 1984.

Right, so we've got all our nice bits and pieces in there.

A bit of thyme - I don't have enough of it. Get the dreadful pun there?

Parsley. And then...

We add our tomato puree, which we will stir and that will all mix in

-in a moment or two. Like that. Then...

-Oh, look!

-English...

-goosegog sparkling wine.

-Lovely.

OK, what will have to happen now,

you'll probably go walking around the Somerset Levels or watching

combine harvesting or they'll probably cut to a song. I don't know.

He's quite a clever bloke and filling up with interludes

because the next time you see this dish...

Richard, just have a look before it goes into the oven.

You all know what the oven looks like. It goes into the oven covered with foil.

-It'll be in there for about an hour-and-a-half.

-Not much longer.

-Not much longer.

-Look at that lovely fleshy piece. I bags that bit.

You can have it later.

An hour-and-a-half and it'll be on the table. Is that Somerset?

That reminds me of the meadows and the green fields and...

Ah! Somerset. You're brilliant.

I tell you what, I'm not only brilliant about cooking,

I'll be running sort of business management programmes as well

because she's taken my correspondence course. The reason she's

so successful here in Frome, she surrounds herself with caring,

intelligent, loving, helpful staff. And that's where it's at, isn't it?

-Especially the caring.

-Let's go and serve them.

-They're hungry.

-Yes, I think they're hungry, they deserve it.

Classic Keith Floyd there.

Now, we're not cooking live in the studio today

so instead we're looking back at some of the great recipes

from the back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites...

Nigel Haworth and Phil Howard battle it out in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

Both are keen to succeed

and I can reveal that one of them has a secret ingredient up his sleeve.

Find out more a little bit later on.

And the Italian whirlwind Gennaro Contaldo gets a little helping hand

from Nigella Lawson when he cooks duck.

Nigella has to work for lunch as he serves duck with pomegranate

and sauteed endive. And Laurie Brett faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven - blueberries with an individual

blueberry and blackberry pie served with fresh cream?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell -

peas in a pan-fried chicken with peas, lettuce and pancetta?

Find out what she gets to eat at the end of today's show.

Now it's time for a seasonal lunch, Aussie style, as Bill Granger

brightens up a cold December day with a bit of Australian summer.

-It's great to have you back on the show, Bill.

-Good morning. How are you?

-I'm very well, very well. I see you've got your T-shirt on.

-I know!

-Straight off the plane in your Speedos and your T-shirt.

-Speedos?

-Go on, then. What are we cooking?

-Well, look, Christmas and ham...

for me, I can never have Christmas without a ham. I love it.

When I grew up, dad was a butcher,

-and he used to always roast ham at Christmas. I loved it.

-Yeah, exactly, all right.

I'm going to glaze this with a slightly unusual glaze.

-Because normally we would do it with honey and cloves.

-Yeah, really traditional.

-But Christmas is about sweet things so I'm going to do this with hoisin...

-Listening? Sweet things.

Yeah, I know you can mix it up. Heaven and hell together.

You've got some hoisin sauce, plum sauce, soy sauce,

some sweet sherry, dry sherry or Chinese wine,

a bit of five-spice powder, some sugar

and then I'm going to stud it with star anise.

We'll get onto that later but, hoisin,

you're going to warm that up. That's made from fermented soya beans?

Fermented soya beans. With this glaze,

you only want to heat it to dissolve the sugar.

You don't need to cook it too long. Reduce it a little bit.

-And what's that you just put in?

-That's the sherry. The brown sugar.

Now, it seems that these are all quite oriental flavours

but when it cooks up and goes on the ham, it doesn't taste like that.

It tastes incredibly Christmassy, all those sweet, spicy things.

-So I put the soy in there.

-You can tell I'm a Yorkshireman.

-You could work for me.

-Don't waste anything.

-Add a bit of five-spice.

That will really lift it. Now I've got the ham.

This has been precooked but... Which I find easier, I've got to say.

But if people were buying a ham, particularly in its raw state,

when it's salted, what you need to do is leave it.

-Under running water.

-Running water overnight?

Yes, which you can't do in Australia because of water restrictions.

No, you have to be very careful now with water.

They do it here, to be honest! Running water all night?

You don't, just leave it running all night.

Find a local leak and put it there.

Chris, you can put it in your swimming pool.

I haven't got a swimming pool. I haven't got a Saturday car, either!

Exactly!

What we want to do - I've cut a little zigzag pattern around it,

that'll look nice - is take the skin off.

-Just use your hand...

-Yep.

-..to lift up the fat.

You don't want to cut it off

because you don't want to cut all that fat off, you want to get...

And by doing that...

So we're leaving the fat on but just taking the skin off?

Yeah, because the fat will melt down when we roast it.

-Yep.

-Just use your fingers.

It seems a bit revolting but it's actually the best way to do it.

If it really makes you a bit squirmish,

it's a good thing for the guys in the household.

But ham's so good for Christmas.

-It can last from Christmas to New Year.

-Exactly, when people pop over.

That's what I like about it. It's great.

People have often got a lot of time off,

and it's a great way to entertain.

-Would you use this?

-Pardon?

-Would you use this?

I don't know, I sometimes keep it and put it on there to keep

-the ham a little bit...you know.

-Mate, salt these - pork scratchings.

-That'd be fantastic. Christmas, yeah, nibbles.

-Lovely.

I'm cutting a diagonal... Take that bit off. Just in across here.

You don't want to score it too far down.

If you do, the ham is going to... The fat will fall off when you bake it.

-So through the fat, not through the meat so much?

-Exactly.

-Just scoring it.

-Yep.

That's a bit... I'll get that off. Cross into that diamond pattern.

For Christmas, this in the middle of the table...

And the great thing is you can get it cooked up earlier in the morning

and then, if you want to do any roasted hot meat,

whether it be turkey, chicken, pork, you've got the oven space.

It's so inexpensive when you buy a ham like this.

-Great value.

-It feeds so many.

I eat leftover ham frittata at breakfast in the morning

with a bit of cheese.

I've got star anise. I might glaze it first. Let's pop that on there.

-Pop that over here.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

In real time, I'd let this cool down a little bit just to thicken up.

If we wanted to boil hams, how long would you cook them for, generally?

-A ham like that, about 3½?

-Yeah, it's about 20 minutes per 500g.

-About 3½ hours.

-Yeah. Let's just drag that on there.

You can see that great glaze.

You know the trick, James? Test the mustard bone.

-Test this one?

-At the top, yep. It's called the mustard bone.

-If you twist it, pull it out, then it's ready.

-Then it's cooked.

-You can cover that up. I save a little bit...

-Full of tips, isn't he?

Any tips on saving water?

LAUGHTER Shower with a friend!

-Shower with a friend!

-OK.

Let's pop that on there.

I'll just stud that with some star anise.

This is a bit of a modern twist on using cloves.

It's, again, that really spicy sweet meat thing.

Star anise, obviously got that aniseed-y, fennel sort of flavour.

Yeah, but again, it works.

You think of all those great Christmas traditions

like sweetmeats and spices, it works really well.

Even if people are a bit worried about it, this ham...

The star shape looks so good as well. Looks really Christmassy.

It does. And look, it's fun with Christmas.

I often cook really easy, simple things

but I think Christmas is that time to make a bit more of an effort...

-Yep.

-..and fun. Let's pop that in the oven.

OK. So how long does this go in for?

That's going to take about 40 minutes at 180-200.

-You want to heat it through.

-Do you keep basting it or not?

I baste it once or twice.

Just have a look at it, just to keep it glossy