Sunday Edition Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. It's time for some adventurous cooking for advent.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We're warming up for Christmas with some fantastic seasonal cooking

from some truly great chefs for you this morning,

and a line-up of celebrities with cutlery at the ready.

Nic Watt gets our taste buds going as he roasts a leg of lamb

and makes a tangy salmoriglio sauce with tempting almond croquets.

And the legendary Antonio Carluccio gets creative with a stunning

vegetarian pasta recipe.

He covers a rigatoni with a rich courgette sauce

and serves it with tasty fried spinach balls.

John Burton-Race brings squid ink into the kitchen.

He makes the perfect seafood lunch, involving mussels, saffron,

tomatoes, spinach and black squid-ink pasta.

Michael Ball faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven - pork belly with my poached

and roasted pork belly with sauteed cabbage and bacon?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell - monkfish,

with a monkfish and mussel curry with saffron?

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

But first up it's Strictly Come Dancing's twinkle toes,

Dave Myers with his tasty Keralan prawns.

Welcome to the show, Dave. Good to have you on the show.

What are we cooking then?

Well, it's one of my favourites. I love South Indian food.

Kerala parathas are different. They're flaky.

-This is like a doughy sort of thing.

-Yep. It's...

-Not a naan bread.

-I'm kind of northern, it's fried bread.

-Go on, mate. Go on.

But to go with that, again a South Indian curry

with curry leaves, asafoetida all the lovely things.

Run through this, cos you want me to do the onions

and that sort of stuff.

The basic for it to start off, if you could do some onion, chilli,

ginger and garlic, and just puree it up.

What I'm going to do - I'm just going to pop my whole spices.

I've got some mustard seeds and some fenugreek powdered.

Did you get this idea from your travels?

Yeah, very much so. Some curry leaves, which I love.

You just need to pop them, just to release the flavour.

Now making bread live on television is a bit of a worry, but here we go.

Go on, you can do it.

The bread mix, it's flour...

-You can smell it already.

-Just plain flour?

Yeah. Ordinary plain white flour.

Some salt.

Some sugar.

All I'm doing is just chopping... Don't worry that's fine.

Ground glass in your paratha...

LAUGHTER

Makes for interesting eating.

That's an egg. Take care you don't get any eggshell in.

LAUGHTER

You know where that eggshell's been to, don't you?

Oh, I know.

At least we know that glass has been in a dishwasher.

Like a lot of Asian food, condensed milk is brilliant.

Put that in.

The bread. All you do to make a dough is blitz it. We add some milk.

Yeah, don't try this at home.

You don't get this on the late-night shopping channels.

It's the only way to chop it.

My spices have popped. Now look, just watch a ball of dough appear.

Come on.

We're going to cook this - the onions,

the chilli and the ginger, and just sweat that down.

-It's appeared. It's appeared.

-It has?

A ball of dough.

Now we need to chill that for half an hour, so...

LAUGHTER

Why is it always me?

LAUGHTER

Have you got one of those you made earlier?

And here's some dough I made earlier. It's chilled.

Now this is were it gets interesting.

-That just needs to sweat down nicely.

-You need to do the prawns, yeah?

Look at those.

Big, big prawns.

If you could kind of pop the heads off, peel them,

leave the tails on for that Balti-house chic,

cut down the backs so they butterfly and they look like

a set of boxer's knuckles on the plate.

Fantastic.

Cooking metaphors.

We'll give that a stir.

The smell is fabulous, mate.

I know, but I've a lot to do, a lot to do.

Take a piece of dough, about the size of a lime.

Dust your board. Now this has to be rolled really thin.

Why couldn't I ever do a stir fry?

I've seen chefs do that on here, you know?

Exactly, you know, you could have done ham like me.

Really rolled thin.

Because it's like puff pastry with the butter and everything.

It's a special paratha and I want two per serving.

Eh! Eh!

There's nothing mean about my cooking.

What do they serve them with then?

Is it garnish for something or what?

What the parathas? That's your bread. It's your carbohydrate.

Is it traditionally served for something or not?

Breakfast. A lot of these parathas for breakfast

with idlis and dosas.

It's heaven. But these prawns go great...

The thing is, it doesn't matter what culture or cuisine you have,

if you've got bread, you've got great gravy, you've got paradise.

Exactly. Bread and gravy, dude. It's the thing.

Now...dust that over...

with melted butter like so. This is the trick.

You make like a concertina.

-Like that. This is brilliant.

-It's origami, isn't it?

You'll all be doing this come Boxing Day, you know.

-Prawns.

-Yeah, if you just...

What I'm going to do is just take this little...

-Yeah, you need to take the black vein out, cos that's it's...

-Poop shoot.

Yeah. Look what I've done here.

I've got my concertina dough. I'm making a walnut whip,

tucking the end in.

You'll see the purpose of this. It'll all come clear. We roll that out...

..like so.

-I love these.

-They are fantastic.

But where the butter's gone with the dough,

it's going to make a nice flaky bread.

Flaky fried bread.

Yes, it's a Homer Simpson now.

It's a minute on each side.

Is my gas on?

Is my gas on? Somebody put another 50 in the meter, will you?

-How are you doing, James?

-I'm getting there. Done.

-Ah, fantastic.

-Do you want those in now?

-Yeah, I just want those colouring up first.

I wish you could smell it at home.

Well, it's what I love about South Indian food.

-James?

-Yes.

-Just add a touch of water to that.

-Water, right.

-Is that going?

-Yeah, it's going.

-Great.

Do you want the turmeric in there?

Yeah, the turmeric and a pinch of one of my favourites - asafoetida.

There's various spellings, but the middle spelling of one is "Fetid".

It does indeed smell like a dead cat, but a pinch...

LAUGHTER

-It's a resin. It's heaven.

-In goes the coconut milk.

-Yeah, just let that boil for a minute whilst my parathas do.

-Add cat stock.

LAUGHTER

No, I tell you, there's something...

See in South Indian food for thousands of years,

-there's alchemy to it and it works.

-Oh, it's brilliant.

-It is.

I think the skill, I think what we found when we were in India

was the skill, the absolute skill of balancing spices and flavours -

just superb.

-You know...

-This...

That does look like a little Catherine wheel thing.

It's Catherine wheel stroke Danish pastry. We just fry those off.

-Traditionally you just fry them off or bake them in the oven?

-Fried.

It's a paratha. Paratha is fried. Look at that.

Always fried in oil?

Oh, yes, or ghee. Ghee would be good.

That's clarified butter that you can buy.

Yeah, I like to be healthy, really.

SI LAUGHS

Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh.

Body's a temple, dude, body's a temple.

Temple? Mine's a Taj Mahal.

Well, you know, we've been cooking... Oh, this isn't really hot enough.

That one's going.

We've been cooking Christmas food with our highly successful

Christmas special, since September. I was craving something spiced.

Apart from food, you're on Mastermind, is that right?

-I am.

-Are you?

-I am.

December 28th. BBC One.

Sorry to be stupid, what is your specialised subject?

My speciality was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

-Really?

-He said that with such a smirky grin, didn't he?

-They look a bit shocked. Don's there...

-Look at Don.

Not half as shocked as John Humphrys!

LAUGHTER

I need paddles for Don here. What's happened to you?

-You can season that.

-I can ply my magic and season that.

The pre...

-Some lime wedges.

-So were they a rock band, dude, or what?

-I've got you down for it next year.

-Eh?

Look at that. See? Now a good paratha, see how it flakes?

Oh, look.

It's soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

A bit like yourself, mate, a bit like yourself.

There you go. It's nearly there.

Outward rock-hard exterior. And, as ever, I like a few sprinkles on top.

-But it's...

-It smells incredible.

-Well, it's proper.

The thing is, all the spices retain their identity.

It's not a mishmash in mud.

I think that's the skill in that particular cuisine, isn't it?

It's really, you know, all the flavours and spices

are balanced perfectly, so they hit you.

How could this not taste wonderful? There's not mystery to it.

It's absolutely banging good grub.

You want a few sprinkles?

Yes, please, James.

So remind us what that dish is again.

This is Keralan flaky parathas,

proper traditional Keralan parathas,

with a lovely king prawn and coconut curry.

It's designed to be with bread so you just scrape the gravy up.

-Easy as that.

-Yes.

-Thank you.

There you go. Right, over here.

-Dervla, I know you like your curries.

-I do, I love curry.

Dive into that. That's done in literally no time at all.

This looks incredible.

-DON:

-It's such a big difference watching it from home

and actually coming here. The smells of it are fantastic.

Yeah, it's fabulous.

OK, I'm tucking in, I'm tucking in.

No pressure, no pressure.

-SI:

-It's not that there's pressure, we just want a bit.

The secret is the onions. The paratha is just...

I think your dry spices, you need to roast them

to release the flavour, like the mustard seeds.

You've got your base with the chillies and the ginger.

You mix the two together and it keeps that level of spicing.

The idea with this is literally it just flakes off into pieces.

Yeah, it's flaky bread, but it's so tasty.

Of course, you've got the butters in between the layers,

which is nice, eh?

That was exhausting, but believe me those prawns were worth it.

Coming up, I'll be pan-frying halibut for actress

Julie Graham, after Rick Stein gets some

inspiration from the Far East on his Christmas odyssey.

OK, admission time.

When I saw that wonderful Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific,

I thought that haunting song Bali High

was about the island of Bali.

In a way, I still do,

because it evokes a type of paradise we all strive for in our minds.

It's an escape to a place that's calm and serene.

Although 50 years on I know that the island and that famous song

was an entirely different place, the sentiment is still the same.

But my reason for being there was for the special food,

and it didn't come more special than this.

Now I know a lot of you will be cooking a pork joint at some

time over the Christmas period,

so I thought this might set your juices flowing.

It certainly had quite an effect on me.

That is fabulous.

I just know looking at that that I will never taste more

succulent or crispy crackling and pork in my life.

Watching it, I just thought

when I was setting out on this journey to South East Asia

that this is the sort of thing I was thinking of -

wood fire, whole pig, rather hot and sweaty, lovely aromas.

I mean, this babi guling...

Babi means pig and guling means tumbling or rolling.

His skill is marvellous.

I'm just watching him dampening down the flames,

cos of course pork is very fatty and it could just all flare up.

It reminds me more than anything of Tudor England -

the roast beef of England

where some guy like this would be right up to the spit

turning it, getting incredibly hot, as indeed he is,

just to see that the thing was cooked perfectly.

Even the cooking process needed the security of offerings to the

relevant gods in an effort to secure success for the enterprise.

What I'm learning about Balinese culture is incredible

intermingling of religion and food.

This is almost like a religious ceremony in itself.

It's a new dimension to food to me, the religiousness of it.

Just thinking, imagine in the Church of England if you went into church

and you had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding as part of the ceremony.

I'd be in there every Sunday.

Perhaps that's one of the things that makes Christmas lunch such

an essential part of the celebrations.

The anticipation of the meal is almost as important as the eating.

I feel with a lot of cookery programmes, myself included,

that it's too much about the recipes. Some of this goes in, some of that.

And not enough about appetite, about hunger,

about the absolute anticipation of watching that pig being cooked

over that smoky fire and the realisations that the skin was

going to get ever crisper and ever more delicious.

So here's to appetite.

To me, at the moment,

I'm thinking this will be about ten on the Richter scale.

One of the most impressive things about the Far East was the way

they don't waste as square inch of productive land.

It makes for a lush, green landscape which,

when you look closely, contains every ingredient you need for a good meal,

from starters to that all important drink at the end.

When you reach for the coffee after your Christmas dinner,

think about this as an exotic change.

This is civet cat.

What I'm giving him to eat is what he eats all the time - coffee beans.

Some very bright Balinese person

worked out that if the entire diet of the civet cat was coffee beans,

then they must know a thing or two about the coffee bean.

Indeed they do, because they always select only the very best beans.

They reject the acidic ones or the overripe ones.

Then, well, out they come as civet cat poo.

This Balinese person noticed that actually the coffee bean is

only partly digested. This is the husk.

Inside the bean is retained in its perfect form.

So don't think that drinking Balinese coffee

from civet cat poo might taste of anything,

it only tastes of pure beans.

It is the best coffee known to man. Also the most expensive.

# I love coffee

# I love tea... #

Well, back in Padstow, I thought it would be a very

good idea to challenge my staff to a blind tasting of coffees.

So we gathered together in the cafe courtyard just to see

if they can actually tell

if the civet cat coffee does indeed stand out.

So here we are. It's all set up.

We've got a Kenyan coffee, a Costa Rican coffee and a Brazilian coffee.

There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil as we know.

And finally the Balinese cat poo coffee, so which is which?

It's going to be really interesting.

Bring it on.

This is coffee A.

I'm detecting...

..notes here already.

I mean, one of the things that's interesting about actually

the Balinese cat poo coffee is they think that the gastric juices

of the civet cat actually affect the flavour.

So I'm sniffing for gastric juices here.

LAUGHTER

Well, we move quickly through the various coffees

in the hope of detecting something of the feline nature,

but not too much, if you catch my drift.

Then we were ready to decide which coffee might have come from a cat.

Who thinks that coffee A is the Balinese cat poo coffee?

Right.

B, who thinks that coffee B is the Balinese cat poo coffee.

Thank goodness.

Coffee C? Who thinks that coffee C is the Balinese cat poo coffee?

Zero. Finally, coffee D, who thinks? Two.

Right, here we go. Right, coffee A.

-Is Kenyan AA coffee.

-Yes!

-Yeah!

Coffee B.

-Well, what do you think?

-B.

-Yes!

-Yeah!

Cat poo coffee!

LAUGHTER

# Coffee and tea

# And the java and me

# A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup

# Boy. #

The rice fields of Bali are works of art in their own right.

They go back over 2,000 years, creating these wonderful

terraces where the water cascades down as many as 30 levels.

Rice, like everywhere I went in the Far East, is a key to life

and never more so than in this dish called Nasi Goreng.

This will be an excellent dish

to have on New Year's morning for breakfast.

Here's how you make it.

So having got my wok really hot,

I'm just adding two or three tablespoons of oil,

ordinary vegetable oil, some garlic and two types of chillies -

first a medium-hot ones and then just a little hit of bird's eye chillies

and some sliced shallots. Just stir-fry those together.

Nasi goreng, it just means fried rice.

You can get it all over Indonesia and Malaysia as well, as it happens.

'If you're me, you get it all over your shirt as well.

'Now some carrots.'

You just want to take the crispness off them,

but they still want to have a bit of al dente-ness to them.

There we go. Now the spice paste. In that goes. Lovely.

Lots of spice paste, cos that's where all the flavour comes from.

'If you want to know how the paste is made, wait for it,

'black pepper, sesame seeds, nutmeg, macadamia nuts, shallots, lemongrass,

'ginger, galangal, garlic, fresh turmeric, chillies, palm sugar,

'shrimp paste, lime juice and a little oil all mashed together.'

Now a little bit of tomato puree

just to bring the colour up like that.

Very important in Indonesian cooking, some ketchup manis.

Obviously where the word ketchup comes from,

not an American word, Indonesian. Just stir that in a little bit.

Now for the rice. It is a way of using up lots of leftovers with rice.

Obviously in that case, this is the perfect dish for turkey.

In that goes.

I'm going to put some prawns in there as well to give it

a bit of deluxeness, make it a really special dish.

Now I'm just going to put some green beans in there

just to bring up the colour.

Again, Indonesians like all South East Asians

looking for texture as well as lovely colours.

Now the turkey. I've cut it into inch slices.

This goes in right at the end cos you don't want to break the turkey up.

It's already cooked, of course.

A good lot of spring onions just to go in at the end so you've got that

slightly raw taste of the onions, some soy sauce, a tablespoon or so.

Just stir that in very gently. That's it except for my fried egg.

This is what I had for breakfast nearly every day.

The fried egg seems to make it just right.

Oh, by the way, you sprinkle some slightly crispy fried onions

on top of the egg, almost like a seasoning.

Then you add a bit of tomato and cucumber as a garnish.

Malaysian cuisine is made up of three things - Chinese, Nyonya,

a cross between Chinese and the indigenous Malay, and Indian.

I was taken to this restaurant where they cook a whole

variety of curries on the most amazing scale.

The best time to go there was lunchtime

and their most popular dish was beef rendang.

The way I make it at home is like this -

I'm using some blade or chuck steak, which I fry off in some coconut oil.

Then I put in a very specific curry paste,

which I made with a pestle and mortar earlier.

It's a mixture of fresh turmeric, galangal, chilli,

grated coconut, shallots, garlic, coriander and cumin.

Then, in with some coconut milk.

Now the bit I really like doing, smashing the lemongrass.

Next, cinnamon sticks. They always remind me a bit of dried up cigars.

Lime leaves roughly torn up.

Then some tamarind juice for sharpness.

A little salt.

And lastly, palm sugar.

I ask practically everyone I came across in Malaysia what there

favourite dish was.

Without hesitation, they said beef rendang.

It's great to see some alternative ideas for festive dishes.

I've got something a little different to do with these

little things over here, Brussels tops.

-Have you used these before?

-No, I haven't.

The Brussels plant actually comes from the top of it like that.

This is the flower at the top.

It's like a little cabbage.

You see the Brussels are actually just underneath it.

The smaller ones are at the top, the bigger ones are down.

It'll come out of the ground about that,

then you've got the sprout tree off it.

But the Brussels tops are great.

I thought I'd do a nice little halibut and seafood-y thing

for a little homage, cos we've got Nathan here,

to celebrate his two stars.

This isn't a Michelin-starred dish, far from it.

But it is something you can do at home, really.

We've got a little bit of halibut here, which I'm going to season up,

just with a little bit of salt and pepper and get that cooking nicely.

Just in a gentle pan.

Little bit of olive oil, maybe a couple of knobs of butter as well.

Those people that are thinking about a diet this Christmas,

you don't want to be doing this dish

because there's about two kilos of butter about to go into it

again in a minute.

If you are at the gym watching this, run a bit quicker.

-Who diets at Christmas?

-Exactly. Exactly. Diet at Christmas. What?

What are you doing? In goes the clams.

Is that just straight into a hot pan?

Yeah, and then we're going to put some wine in.

Literally bring this to the boil like that,

and then this is almost ready.

We're going to make a little sauce out of it as well.

You say your first acting job wasn't a receptionist...

Yeah, I got a job as a receptionist,

but part of my job was to lure the men in.

-Right.

-The guy said,

"Your Scottish accent is kind of scaring everybody away,"

because I think I was a bit aggressive.

LAUGHTER

So he asked me to tone my accent down,

so I ended up doing just a London accent.

So I got my first sort of acting job, I suppose.

That was it.

The rest, as they say. The CV reads, I mean, huge amounts on television.

Taggart, I remember seeing you, you did a little bit on Taggart.

At Home With The Braithwaites, you did quite a big stint on that.

Yeah, we did four years.

Is that a good way to learn your trade, on television?

Cos you get such a variety of different roles.

The best way to learn your trade is to do theatre.

-You reckon that's still the best way?

-Yeah, absolutely.

I would say to young actors

if they're thinking of the profession they have to do theatre.

Because you learn so much and you get time to make mistakes

and television is so quick these days.

Is that because you can make the character your own in theatre?

Yeah, you just have time to explore

and round the character out kind of talk about the play and what it's

about and television is so quick now, you've got to be so on it.

It's a whirlwind and you don't really feel like you've

learned anything.

I know. I've been doing it for years and I'm still making it up. Exactly.

But you've done theatre as well

but film you dabbled into a bit of that as well, with Daniel Craig.

Yes, I've done my fair share of movies. They've all been low budget.

I've done my fair share of movies.

-No huge films but I just did a film recently called Tower Block...

-Yeah.

..which was a sort of low budget British independent film

which is coming out next year.

With the lovely Sheridan Smith and Russell Tovey

so we had a great time doing that.

And something new for you now, a comedy.

-Yeah.

-Back into comedy on TV.

I haven't done comedy since At Home with the Braithwaite

so it was really nice to do it again and it's a fantastic

script by a wonderful writer called Michael Winn.

And it's got Sue Johnston, who is wonderful.

This is obviously from the Royale Family connection.

Stephen Graham who is a fantastic actor.

Elizabeth Barrington, Zawe Ashton, William Ash. It's a great cast.

-And it's hopefully going to be very funny.

-So it's called Lapland.

-Yep.

-I take it the cue is in the title.

-Yep.

So give us a little bit of insight on it.

Well, it's about a mad family from Liverpool

and their father has died the year before and that's been their

last Christmas and this Christmas they want to take the family away.

So the mother Sue doesn't have to do lots of cooking and take the pressure off.

So they decide to go to Lapland with hilariously,

hopefully hilariously bad consequences.

Right. And this was filmed in Norway, was it?

Yeah, we filmed in Norway, yeah.

-Peculiar food in Norway, don't you find?

-I ate reindeer.

-Yeah.

Don't tell my kids that.

Just to recap what I've done. Halibut pan-fried there.

-Brussels tops they just go in.

-I cook cabbage like that.

A lot of people just boil it but it's much easier, I think

if you basically saute it off with a little bit of water.

We've got the pan juices there.

But this is like I was saying, this is the sauce.

-Yum. I love butter.

-You need more butter in that, James.

You reckon a bit more, Nathan? Yeah, go on, then.

Little bit on there. Pop that in. Look at the butter.

So the whole premise of Lapland is it's based

on a family on their holiday.

How many parts of the programme have you got to watch.

-It's a one-off film. It will be on around Christmas time.

-Right.

Not quite sure when but it's a one-off.

-I always quite fancied doing a pantomime.

-Oh, yes.

-See.

They're all laughing.

-You think I'd be good at pantomime?

-Widow Twankie.

-Yeah.

-I could just see you.

-Can you? I quite fancy doing pantomime.

-I did that when I was a young kid.

-Did you? What did you play?

I was the king.

Come on, you know you want to squeeze into a corset

and a pair of heels.

No, definitely not.

-I did all that when I was doing Strictly.

-Only on the weekends.

No, I did all that when I was doing Strictly and it's... No, not again.

I always fancied doing that. A bit of pantomime.

Mainly because you just have a poster of yourself.

-You know what I mean.

-Feed your ego.

-Yes.

So we've got this little bit of Brussels tops, salt and pepper.

I don't know what this is going to give you

but the idea is the Brussels tops.

You can use up all of the ingredients, you see.

-I roast my Brussels sprouts, I have to say.

-You roast them?

-Yeah.

Do you put a star in the bottom or not?

I do and I roast them with lots of garlic and olive oil.

And I just let them roast very slowly with swede as well.

They're much nicer cos just before they turn all mushy.

These are our mussels and our clams, you see.

-They go in the pot.

-Look at all that butter.

In with the chives.

They go in the pot. And then we've got some cockles, you see.

These are the pickled cockles

and it's the cockles that give it that little sharpness, as well.

-Don't worry about all this butter.

-I'm not.

Well, I would if I were you. Black pepper.

You just want to melt this nicely.

Takes a second.

Here we go. Right and literally put...

..our mussels and our cockles and everything else over the top.

And then you need to put a bit of chervil on which is a herb

and technically a vegetable.

Which is also part of your five a day. So there you go.

That looks delicious. Do I have to share this with anyone?

No, you don't have to share it with anybody.

-Oh.

-Meanwhile I've got my

Food Heaven soup over here in the pan.

-Butter soup.

-Exactly.

-Lovely and crispy.

-And I've still not done panto.

-Oh, yes, you have.

If you'd like to cook that recipe or have a go at any of the dishes

you've seen on today's show,

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

We're not live today so instead we're looking back at some

of the delicious cooking form the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now, it's time for a festive treat courtesy of Nic Watt before he

moved back to his native New Zealand where Christmas is blessed

with sun, he showed us an amazing warming winter recipe for lamb.

Take a look at this one.

-It's behind you.

-Cheers.

-Welcome back.

-Thank you. Thank you.

-Nick, Mediterranean.

Why the Mediterranean? You spent years studying Japanese food.

-Absolutely.

-You're still doing that but...

-Still doing the Japanese

but with the influences of Aurelia tapping into the flavours of the

Mediterranean and the philosophy of what we're serving is the same.

We have the very best tuna sashimi or salmon sashimi just served like that.

We have the very best jamon iberico or San Danielle just served

-beautifully.

-Sounds good.

So this is one of the dishes you've looked at on your travels.

-Absolutely.

-What is it?

-I've got a beautiful lamb leg.

The important thing is we're going to stud it with some rosemary,

some garlic and some anchovies.

And just allow all those flavours to get in there while it roasts slowly.

This would be English lamb, yeah? Yes, it is.

Don't want any of that New Zealand stuff.

Not when you're all the way over here

but when you're in New Zealand it is the best.

-It's the best. Fed off all those beautiful salt marshes.

-Yep.

So what I'm doing is just studding or starting to spike

the leg about every inch.

Now this is the salt marsh lamb that you're using there.

Why do you think this is so good?

It's fed off the salt marshes and why is it so good,

it's the closes you can get to New Zealand lamb all the way over here.

-It's fed off the New Zealand pastures. New Zealand pastures?

-New Zealand pastures?

The salt pastures and the flavour comes into the lamb without question.

So nice big chunks of garlic into there.

I've got some garlic chips here which I'm going to fry.

-You want these frying off.

-I want them fried off nice and golden.

And it's going to soften the flavour

but still give you that nice little garlic note coming through.

And as well as that you're going to do these sort of little potato

-things. Tell us what am I making?

-You're making an almond croquetta.

-It's going to be the starch or the veg to go with the...

-Don't worry.

-Carry on.

-With the meal.

And the important part is to get some roasted potatoes first

-so you get that lovely dry roasted potato.

-Yeah.

And instead of bread crumbing them or coating them,

we'll coat them in a lovely almond crust.

-Right.

-What I've got here is the rosemary is going in.

And the important part is to really get it every inch apart because when

you carve the meat, which we're going to do to this, every slice is

getting a nice component of rosemary, garlic and anchovies.

Tell us about the new restaurant then.

-So you've been open a couple of months now?

-No not even.

It's four weeks. Four weeks now.

It's in Mayfair and it's a beautiful location we've taken over.

Split over two floors. Upstairs is a charcuterie,

bar and salad bar where we're slicing all the fresh hams,

all the fresh octopus and peppers etc are all sliced up there.

And then you go downstairs and what we have is an open kitchen.

As we do in the Rokas. But it has a rotisserie which is new.

-Cos you're got the old robata grill at Roka.

-Absolutely.

The important part of the rotisserie is when you go into

so many restaurants you see a lonely quail spinning around.

This rotisserie you'll see a whole leg of lamb spinning around.

-You'll see whole five bone ribs of beef spinning around.

-Right.

And they take about an hour and a half to two hours to cook.

And then they're beautiful and soft. Here we go, it's studded up.

Little bit of salt and pepper.

So the reason why we baked the potatoes is just to keep them nice and dry?

You want a nice, dry potato, exactly.

I want to just pop this into an oven.

About 350.

Could you do this shoulder and cook it for longer?

You could do it with shoulder.

The only thing is if you did it with shoulder it's not going to

carve as nicely as a nice leg like this.

And you want it to be nice and carveable.

So next we're going to go for the salmoriglio sauce. Some capers.

-You don't want these?

-No.

Jacket potato skins. You can't waste them.

Potato skins roasted in the oven with garlic and rosemary,

absolutely beautiful.

Brilliant. That's enough, yeah?

-Yes, perfect. Perfect.

-These are these little garlic chips.

What I'm doing here is picking down the oregano.

This salmoriglio sauce is a South American version of a salsa verde.

-Right.

-So, here I've got oregano, mint. Classic combination with lamb.

And some parsley. Parsley's just to stretch those flavours out.

-Mint is to give it that nice minty note.

-Minty note.

-Minty note.

Right, so in here you've got the egg yolk, little bit of nutmeg.

Little bit of nutmeg.

-And you want to just add in a little bit of sliced parsley.

-Right, OK.

-What's this about you opening a Peruvian restaurant, as well.

-Yes.

The next one on the cards is a Peruvian restaurant.

It's going to be called Coya.

He only does this to get a free holiday to do a bit of research.

I'm off to Peru... to Lima, Peru in the first two

weeks of January for food research.

-Right. What's in Peru?

-What's in Peru?

The beauty about this restaurant is it's going to have a ceviche bar and tiradito bar

so you go up there hand have freshly cut ceviche and tiradito.

And we'll have a big, open wood grill.

So we're going to tap into the flavours of South America

with the wood grill and the ceviches and the tiraditos.

I think the South American

and Peruvian food movement is coming to the global scene.

This is going to be in London, as well?

This is going to be in London, absolutely.

I've got this in here.

You want flour, egg and the crumb in here, don't you?

I'm going to move that down there.

-It's got to be rolled into little balls.

-Flour. Bit of egg.

-Yes.

-And then instead of the crumbs you're going to use some almonds.

Yes. But we want the almonds crushed up.

Do you want me to crush the almonds for you? Give them a crunch up.

There you go. What's this you're making here? Tell us about this.

This is the salmoriglio.

I'm going to make quite a rough style pesto

and we'll use this to serve on the side and drizzle over the top.

Couldn't you have brought ready-crushed almonds?

I could have but I wanted something for you to do.

-It gives it that handmade feel.

-Yeah. Flour.

-About the size of that?

-Perfect.

And we want to make this quite thin to stretch it out.

-How many do you want?

-I think, realistically, we need five.

-Five!

-Right. That's fine.

-Shall we go for three?

-That's fine. No problem.

In we go. Finish with the...

Sometimes you would baste that, wouldn't you,

-over the top of the lamb while it's cooking?

-Yes, absolutely.

It just gives it that beautiful finishing touch.

-But what you're going to do is just finish it over the top?

-Yes.

So we got flour, egg and the crumb.

And these go in the fryer.

-They don't have to be all the same size, do they?

-No, no, no.

-This is home-made, handmade.

-It's lucky because they're not.

Right.

I'm going to go over here. It's a bit like a salsa verde?

It's very much a salsa verde. That's exactly what it is.

What I'm really tapping into is the oregano. That nice flavour in there.

We've got our...

Where's our one that's cooked?

Our one that's cooked is coming out in just a second.

Just grabbing some mint tops.

Have you got a favourite cuisine that you like to cook?

Cos you've got such a big repertoire.

I know you're really into your food

but anything that really stands out for you?

My two favourite cuisines are definitely Spanish and Japanese.

And that's why I really like this Mediterranean that I'm doing

because they're similar.

It's all about enhancing the flavour and enhancing the ingredient.

Keeping it simple.

The great thing about Spain, we talked about it about a month ago

with Rick Stein is the great larder, the great ingredients they have.

It's not just great seafood, they have everything.

Check that out. You can just leave that as it is if you want.

-You could just serve it like that.

-I'll just eat it as it is.

If you could take that straight to the dining table, that would be perfect.

I don't know what you lot are having!

Now he's going to ruin it by poncing around with it, you see.

No, no, no, no.

Nice crusty sides.

Smells great. Hey, they look good.

There we go.

We're getting all that anchovy and garlic flavour straight in there.

-Bring that round. Liking the look of this?

-Liking the look of it.

-That will do.

-No, no, no, no.

One more for good luck.

We've got these things.

These colour up so much quicker

-because you've got the almonds in there.

-Yeah.

Little bit of salmoriglio sauce.

And a little bit on the side to dip the croquettas in -

like that.

That and that. You know I told you to make five.

-I'm probably going to just put three on.

-See, I knew that was coming.

-And there we have it.

-What about my garlic chips?

Pardon me, that was close.

-And there we have it. Round two.

-What is it again?

-It's our lamb leg with salmoriglio sauce and almond croquettas.

-Pretty good.

It looks lovely. You can take that over there.

Meanwhile I'll just finish off this piece of meat over here.

-Smells...

-Looks great, doesn't it?

-Yeah. Smells incredible.

Looks lovely. I would say you can't do with anything else

but you kind of wouldn't want anything else.

-Nice and simple.

-Roll VT. I might be some time.

-Would you leave it to rest before you actually carve it?

-Yeah.

Roast it, leave it to rest for about 20 minutes

and then we just flashed it back in the oven to bring the heat

back into it.

And then carve it.

That is sensational. The crust and that sauce is beautiful.

I've got a feeling you're not going to get any.

It's got to get past me first, as well.

Trust me, I tasted them,

those croquettes are great with any recipe this Christmas.

Now it's time for Keith Floyd to travel across the Irish Sea

and sample some of the delights of the Emerald Isle.

No cooking programme of mine would be

complete without a dollop of mythology

and I'm standing here on the

Giant's Causeway which it says here

on my tea towel issued by the National Trust was

made by Finn McCool.

You remember Finn McCool and the Heartbreakers?

Great band in the early 17th century.

Anyway, he was fighting for ever with his Scottish giant over

the water there.

And they built this causeway so they could do battle in the middle.

But Finn McCool was a smart guy

and he heard that the Scottish giant was so big that he borrowed his

son's school uniform, you know short trousers, a blazer and a peaked cap,

walked across the causeway -

so petrified the Scottish giant who thought,

"Blimey, if that's his son, what's his dad like?"

Threw a little fit of pique and ripped up the causeway.

And this is all that remains. Ah-ha!

Ah, the Bushmill's distillery. Yes, I remember.

Of course taking me there is a bit like giving a strawberry donkeys.

But simply to make the mash at the first stage you add

water from the River Bush to Irish barley.

And the next thing I recall is the heady fumes of the wash.

This is where the yeast is added which feeds off the sugar

to make the alcohol.

Then it's but a few wibbly wobbly steps to the distillation plant

where the raw spirit is circulated through the system three times.

I was surprised to learn this is the oldest distillery in the world

and was first granted a licence in 1608. AD, of course.

So this is the end of the process, the end of the line.

This is where this wonderful spirit is stored in oak barrels for up

to ten years. You know that? Before it's bottled.

But in the meantime there's some other people getting a real

kick out of it - the angels.

Because 20% of the liquor in these barrels evaporates up

and they call this the Angel's share.

Because I've got the breaking strain of a hot Mars bar

I tarried a while, as one does,

assiduously discovering the differences of the three

whiskies they make.

Meanwhile, my devious producer stitched me up by entering me for the

Taste of Ulster culinary competition at the catering college in Portrush.

You may start your cooking at any stage now.

And we shall expect you to present your dishes to the judges at 2:45.

Good luck to all of you.

Forgive me but cooking competitions make me very nervous.

Especially in the company of Ulster's finest chefs.

These guys had no intention of taking any prisoners

and are going the whole nine yards.

When the whistle went, it was chop, chop, busy, busy, bang-bang.

The competition was simple. Create an original dish from local produce.

It's a good idea to establish the regional identity of food.

And I'd like to see a series of nationwide events like this,

which could result in British dishes being proudly presented in pubs,

restaurants and hotels instead of being a frail candle in the wind.

What I'm doing here is frying

until golden brown some finely chopped onions,

which are partly done now and some very finely diced red pepper.

Now I want to make these a little bit golden and a little bit burnt

because they're going to go into the stuffing of my fish faggots.

Another name which we'll find before the programme's finished, OK?

These need to be a bit crisp and golden

because I want them to bring the sunshine out,

to be a little bit crunchy, a little bit caramelised, to lift up

the flavour of the scallops, which is the basic ingredient in my dish.

I can trust those to simmer. Using your feet walk over here,

I can explain a bit better exactly what I'm going to do.

Close up here.

Look, this is the scallop meat chopped into small dice, OK?

On top of which I'm going to place the coral of the scallop.

What's going to happen is that's going to sit on the bed of salmon,

like that.

Mixed with the things I'm frying over in the pan over there.

Then I'm going to cover the whole lot.

You have to keep coming back with that, you see?

That's the best I can do cos this is a competition and this is burning. And I don't want to...

I don't get a second chance on this time.

We can't do one of those things like,

"Oh, I already have one prepared in the oven."

because this is for real.

'To take the spotlight off me for a bit, have a look at this.

'Lightly beaten out chicken breasts rolled over a salmon mousse

'studded with prawns.

'And here's brilliant dish called Lamb Gortfinbar.

'Essentially a loin of lamb wrapped in cabbage and pastry.

'You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that this lot have

'really put some thought and effort into this.

'They are as we say in the trade, cooking on gas.

'Unlike me, who came on a wild card, a cabbage and a bit of fish.'

Go away, look at them. Go away!

This is a secret winning recipe, go away.

Here you are, come on. Some little bourbon biscuits for you all.

That's the trouble with being in the public eye.

You can't even step out of your own front door without finding

a blasted camera crew there. If it isn't the Daily Mirror, it's the BBC.

And I'm a shy and retiring person, which is why I live in this humble cottage here in Ireland.

Where I write my novels and compose my programmes and think very

deeply about life and the meaning of cooking and stuff like that.

And as a rule, I wouldn't let you in but the director really begged me

and said, "Please, please show them your house and show them

"something essentially Irish to cook."

So I thought, "Oh, all right." So come on in.

Potato cakes, potato breads are very important to Irish cooking,

Irish diet, the whole bit.

And the best way to get them is to go to Marks and Spencer's and buy a packet.

of course, we wouldn't do a thing like that,

we have to stand burning in front of a peat fire in front of an 18th century stove.

No magi-mixers, no electricity

and I want to do the real business in the 200-year-old fashion.

This is a pot of potatoes, OK?

Back over here, Richard. Close up on this wicker work sieve strainer.

You pour the potatoes out if you can. Oh, dear. Into there.

This is very difficult.

Right. Carefully put them in so as not to damage them.

There we are.

You lift those up and it's about this time you begin to wonder why you're here.

Happily, I'm here with my great chum Fionnuala who knows

all about potato bread.

First of all, Fionnuala,

why couldn't we have saved trouble by peeling the potatoes first?

That would have been very helpful, wouldn't it?

Because it's traditional to boil them in their skins.

Also you can save the skins and you can feed them to the

chickens or the pigs or you can throw them back in the fire again.

Do people still eat potato cakes a great deal in Ireland?

-Or is this a trip down memory lane.

-Oh, yes. They eat them still.

You can buy them from bakeries, you can make them at home

or you just go to any supermarket and buy them.

You use them with Ulsterfry and it's very popular still.

Well, look, Richard, I have to...

I mean, this is the highpoint of a regular 18th century farmer's day.

There were no television on those days.

He would dress in the typical apparel I'm wearing today.

Silk bowtie, hand chase cufflinks, suede jacket, Rolex watch, everything like that.

And he would set about peeling these. That's in fact a rather boring process.

So you take a little tour round this wonderful estate - the Ulster Folk Museum -

and join us a again when we're at a really interesting bit.

Right, off I go.

They're hot!

Oh, I see. You pick them up with a fork.

'Every Sunday,

'they come in their thousands to savour the delights of yesteryear.

'I think there's a great plan afoot to turn these islands into one

'great theme park where nobody ever gets old.

'And where Uncle Mac is still on the radio saying,

'"Goodbye, children everywhere."

'Thrilled with the memories of the three Rs, Christopher Robin

'and I wonder what prayers were said at the foot of this bed.'

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little mini tour round the park,

round the estate. Interesting, I think you'll find.

While you were away, I've been beetling away - ha-ha - this is a beetle.

Crushing the potato into a fairly smooth

but still lumpy mixture adding some plain flour.

You could add wholemeal flour if you want to.

Bit of butter, bit of salt and now all I have to do is roll it out.

If I'm a bit strange this morning, they built this cottage with doorways

five foot three high and I just cracked my head in the most

monstrous way on the top and it is actually spinning. So I have quick cup of tea.

Cos they always say in a an emergency have a quick cup of tea, don't they?

Forgot to put the milk and sugar in. Never mind.

So we roll those out very quickly. Bit more flour on the top.

-How thick do you think they ought to be?

-A bit thinner than that.

A bit thinner than that.

And then the griddle's up to frying speed, you cut out some little

wedges using another 18th century implement, the eggslice.

Like that. Whizz on round here, Richard, cos on they go.

Notice I have the griddle already dusted impeccably. Do a few more.

Sorry to keep running in front of you but we're not a studio

production, we don't have 18 cameras and cutaways and stuff like that. We pop those on there.

Another potato cake.

And then... You come back here, Richard.

I didn't say you could leave the stove.

I want you to take a nice little shot of me roasting.

Because I have a little thing, what we call a pay off.

See, in a minute they'll do one of those magic things

and mixers or a wobbly picture and you'll see us

enjoying these crisp, cooked, golden delicious potato cakes.

Close up on there and I'll step out of shot.

So there you are. 15 minutes later they are cooked to perfection.

Well, I think perfection. You just place them onto the plate like that.

Add a little butter, have a little taste.

-Fionnuala, would you like to have a little taste?

-Yes, please.

So you tell me if they're OK. Bit of butter on there for you.

Thank you.

While Fionnuala's chocking on that I must tell you that we've had

lots of letters from people saying how do you choose your locations?

We all know you've got griddles at home and 18th century fireplaces.

In fact, you don't really need this lesson.

But the way we choose the programmes, in the directors' office there's

a very large map of the British Isles and three darts and we throw them

at the board and this one happened to land near Belfast.

Anyway, enough jokes and things like that.

Business is business, we've only booked this place till half 11.

The next party's coming in for one of her real demonstrations so we must be as they say, trotting along.

See you in the next sequence.

Right, I'm in fact in a state go. Now, look down here, please.

I've got my web of caul, OK? This is the fatty bit.

My bed of salmon sitting there.

Now, raw chopped scallops as I told you...

..mixed with my cooked peppers, onions, parsley, bread crumbs,

egg yolks and cream, OK? Packet that on the top like that.

Then a piece of splendid Ulster bacon on the top

and the coral of the scollop on top of that.

Right, fold that over. I'm going to trim this.

OK, Richard, you can come back to me now.

I'm going to trim that into a little packet.

Now, when I put this into the oven it's going to be

10 minutes before they judge it. I've never cooked this before,

I've created it especially for this competition.

I mean, obviously I can't win but I am trying to use

the things of Ulster the fish, the cabbage, the bacon.

I don't know if it's going to come out properly.

Hopefully, my experience as a cook tells me that it should work.

I'm trying very, very hard on this, OK?

This is absolutely for real and you just leave me

now cos I'm going to put it in the oven.

'This is the bit that reminds of sitting O-levels.

'Gazing at the ceiling while everybody else is scribbling furiously away.

'John Cross Kerry's putting the finishing touches to his bowl of Aughnacloy.

'I think the judge will probably need sunglasses to appreciate this one.

'Still, I must say the competition is looking pretty stiff, what?

'And Archie's lamb is looking tickety-boo.

'It's got to be up with the leaders, you know, this one.'

Bacon and cabbage. You see? Little lardons of bacon.

Fresh Ulster cabbage.

-Now Chef Floyd, I must tell you that you have five minutes left.

-I...

To bring your dish forward.

I'll be here, I'll be here, don't you worry about it.

Thank you, Your Majesty.

Ouch!

'Do you ever get that sinking feeling? They're all here.

'The Lamb Gortfinbar, the Chicken Picasso.

'And if it doesn't win here I'm sure the ICA will snap it up.

'Then of course for the Salvador Dali award there's this huge

'expanse of white Irish linen where my Finn McCool burgers will lie in state.

'Medallions of beef with a herb sauce and finally it's

'breast of chicken stuffed with salmon mousse and prawns'

Richard, I'm not remotely interested in what you're doing, OK?

If you want to re-shoot this, you've got no chance, because this is where it's happening here and now.

These are my little...

My little Finn McCool burgers.

'Considering I've never cooked this before and certainly didn't do

'any homework, it's turned out really well. And do you know?

'I don't mind if I win or not,

'at least my own sense of honour is satisfied.

'I've stayed with the rules,

'I've created an original dish that tastes nice and looks good.

'The sauce by the way, very simple.

'Just the old egg and butter routine

'but all you have to do is beat a couple of ounces of softened

'butter into two egg yolks over a very low heat for a second or two

'and pour it over your cabbage.

'By the way, it's good with anything from asparagus to fish.'

It's great entering these cooking competitions.

Look this is critical. My sauce is separating, my cameraman says,

"Could you do that once again, please?

"Because there was a shadow." To hell with the shadow, this is

a taste of Ulster and I'm now going to be disqualified because of you.

APPLAUSE

Well, the winning dish was lamb Gortfinbar.

Well done, Archie Stewart.

How good is it to see the great man in action?

We're not cooking live in the studio today,

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

the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue. Still to come on today's Best Bites:

Jun Tanaka takes on Theo Randall in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

One of them actually makes a pretty impressive omelette

but I couldn't possibly reveal who it is right now.

So keep watching, you'll find out a little later on.

John Burton-Race makes a warming portion of squid-ink pasta.

He creates a stunning seafood lunch involving mussels,

saffron, tomatoes and spinach.

And Michael Ball faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get his Food Heaven? Pork belly with my poached

and roasted pork belly with sauteed cabbage and bacon.

Or will he get his dreaded Food Hell?

Monkfish and a monkfish and mussel curry with saffron.

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

Now though, it's time for visit from the amazing Antonio Carluccio,

who shows us that if you're armed with a courgette, spinach

and rigatoni, you can make a first class meal. Take a look at this.

-MOF, MOF, minimum of fuss.

-Minimum of fuss.

I'm going to get this on cos I know we've got to cook it.

-And I do this, yes.

-So literally... Salty boiling water.

What's the name of this dish that were going to make?

-This is penne usually but we use rigatoni.

-Now this is this one.

This is this one, it's got the ribs on it as well.

-Yeah, the rigatoni rigate.

-Rigatoni rigate. Which is the ribs?

-Yes.

And the reason why it's got the ribs is its going to

-hold in the sauce, is that right?

-Yes, a little more the sauce holding.

Here, I'm just blanching the spinach because we have to shorten things.

-A little stir here, no olive oil on top.

-OK. So just...

The secret of cooking pasta is literally just...

If you could do that, it would be wonderful.

-It's literally salted boiling water?

-Yes.

-Don't put any oil in the water.

No. Right.

And if you give me now the spinach, squashed and squeezed of all the...

We start to do the spinach balls.

So the spinach, what we need to do I just drain this off.

-Now, I'm going to get a cloth for this bit.

-Aha!

-I'm going to press this through.

-Before, I've done it with my hands.

Yeah, and it's hot, isn't it? There you go.

So the idea is I'm just going to press out the water for this.

Fantastic.

There we go, get rid of all the water. I'll get you a knife.

There you go, chef.

-There you go.

-Thanks.

So whenever you come on the show, you never stop.

-You're always working.

-Well, I like working.

-Yeah?

I like working and I do a job that I really like to do.

So producing food for sharing with people

and this is the most lovely thing that you can do in life.

-Yeah, and that's the ethos of your restaurant, isn't it, really?

-Yeah.

-I mean, you've not just got them n London.

-No.

I was out in Dubai, what, three weeks ago? In your restaurant over there.

That's extraordinary that you were there.

Because you know that that is a sort of,

-suppose to be the meeting point of all the ex-pats in Dubai.

-Yeah.

-An Italian restaurant.

-An Italian restaurant.

But the ethos if it is, it's the simplicity and the great ingredients, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Right, now tell us wheat's happening here then?

This is now the spinach slightly blanched and then we put an egg

and they'll be coming...

And a little bit of breadcrumbs.

-Now, this dish you invented, what, 30 years ago?

-This one, yes.

-Yeah.

-Little bit more. Yes.

-OK.

-A bit of garlic.

So I've got a bit of chilli here.

-Now, you're going to Germany this week?

-No, I was there.

-Oh, right.

-I'm going tomorrow.

-Right, and this is for reviewing a restaurant?

Yeah, it was reviewing a restaurant. And it's funny,

-because I was there 40 years ago just after the wall was erected.

-Right.

And I thought that people that would be happy.

In fact, I cried when the wall came down.

And I asked some people there, I said, "Are you happy now?"

-They said, "No, no, we preferred it before." What?

-Really? Well, there you go.

-Can you grate me a bit of Parmesan.

-I can great you a bit of that, no problem.

-So we've got Parmesan cheese.

-And the nutmeg.

-You do your nutmegs.

-Nutmeg? I shall get you some.

-No, you great the Parmesan there and then.

-What do you want?

-You want it on here?

-Come on, James, get a grip on yourself, please.

Listen, you just be quiet over there.

-There you are.

-And I'll grate some Parmesan cheese.

-Salt and pepper.

Yeah.

-There you go.

-So what kind of food was in the German restaurant?

-Where? In Germany?

-Yeah, what kind of thing?

Well, it was the same as 40 years ago.

-It didn't change very much.

-Yeah?

And this review's going to be...?

In the Jamie's magazine. But it's very good food, actually.

-A bit heavy, but very good food.

-Yeah?

-There you go.

-Wonderful. A bit Parmesan. Then a fork, a fork, a fork.

-Here.

-Ill get you a fork. Now you're just going to fry... I'm just going to fry these.

Can you put me some good olive oil there?

-I'm going to fry the garlic.

-Yes. You're a wonderful assistant.

-This is your oil in here.

-More, more, more, more.

That's not olive oil though, chef. Otherwise you'll tell me off.

Yeah, very good. Because...

good food is the component of many good items.

Yeah, good olive oil, there you go.

-There we are.

-A bit of garlic and a bit of chilli in there.

This is for the salt, and put that one...

My goodness, you know already everything.

And here we do the balls, look at this.

Now, this recipe may be 30 years old, but it's in your new cookbook.

It is, and it is called penne giardiniera,

and imagine that about ten years ago I had done it,

and now for the last two years it has been on the menu

-as a bringer of money for charity.

-Right.

So we have the Action For Hunger

and in one year we collected £400,000.

-By 50p per portion.

-Fantastic! Fantastic!

-Very good.

-Nearly 800,000 portions.

-Yes.

-Incredible.

-Can you put a bit of water on the pasta?

-Bit of pasta water in there.

There you go.

This is the secret, you were saying, just a little bit of pasta water.

Incidentally, the spinach balls,

they are very good for aperitifs, you know, drinks.

Yeah. So you would use these as little canapes?

So you just fry them until they are nice and golden brown.

The breadcrumbs, they hold it together with the egg

-and that's it.

-There you go.

So in there, just to remind you, you've got spinach,

you've got bread, Parmesan cheese, an egg, salt and pepper as well.

Very, very easy, yes.

-Nice and simple.

-It is very simple.

Did you put some pepper and salt in?

I can put some pepper and salt in in a second.

-You didn't?

-I haven't yet, no.

Garlic is there, yes?

So your new book, what is it called?

It's called Antonio Carluccio's Simple Cooking.

-Yeah.

-And the idea was to produce recipes,

simple recipes, with the possibility of upgrading

and the possibility to use the leftovers, which is

very important for Italians. The leftovers, use them in something.

A bit more water, please.

But you have a lot of recipes for leftovers.

-I was reading your book in the back with the jam.

-Yes, the fruttini.

I received quite a lot of jam about ten years ago from this place,

and what to do with it?

I didn't want to throw it away, so I collected it all in a pan

and I reduced the moisture until it became sort of a paste,

-Yeah.

-Then I made little bowls, put in sugar

and I put it in little papers, and this wonderful fruit paste.

-So it is like fruit pastilles?

-Yeah.

-How fantastic.

-You never stop learning in the kitchen.

-No.

The pasta should be, by now, cooked.

Bear in mind that if you have certain types of penne,

it cooks longer.

Are you putting salt and pepper in here?

I put it.

-I put a bit of oil in there.

-A bit of oil.

I am going to then take this off.

-Don't forget the salt and pepper, James.

-Sorry?

-Don't forget the salt and pepper.

-Don't forget the salt and pepper.

I'm trying my best. There you go.

We've just got, over here, these little balls. These are fantastic.

-They are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

-That is the point.

Delicious.

And the dinner is served.

-Look at that. That's proper grub.

-Yes.

-Vegetarian, edible by anybody.

-Apart from the cheese, of course.

Well... It's not vegan.

There you go.

Decoration, we have the flat balls.

There we are.

Like you said, you can use those as a little canape this Christmas.

-Yeah.

-Make them in advance.

-And they are tasty and good.

-Yeah.

-Happy with that?

-Give it to the ravenous people there.

Remind us what this is again.

This is penne or rigatoni giardiniera.

Cooked by an absolute legend.

Let's bring it over. Come and have a seat, Antonio.

Over here, have a seat. We've got some wine to go with this.

-It is just your type of grub, isn't it?

-This is right up my street!

Do know what I really enjoyed about washing you two cook that,

is that you have run approximately nine miles around that kitchen,

and Antonio just stood there.

"A little bit of this and a little bit of that!"

-He doesn't need to run, does he?

-That's what I do!

-It will be hot, but dive into that.

-Very hot.

These little spinach balls are fantastic.

Hmm!

How fantastic is that?

Deep-fried, and yet you can taste absolutely everything.

It's always an honour to work with the great man,

and you can catch him cooking on Saturday Kitchen Live in just a few weeks' time.

Jun Tanaka and Theo Randall can always be described

as two of the nicest guys in cookery, but when they met

at the Omelette Challenge hobs, it was about to get very competitive.

Take a look at this.

Right, let's get down to business.

All the chefs that come onto the show battle it out

against the clock and test how fast

they can make a simple, straightforward -

I say straightforward because I'm looking at Theo -

three-egg omelette.

27 seconds, Theo. Pretty good.

But on past sort of scores up against this fellow here,

at 17 seconds, if you were a betting man,

this is a one horse race really.