Sunday Edition Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Christmas is just around the corner so stay tuned to be inspired

by some of the best cooking around. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got plenty of festive treats for you this morning

from some truly talented chefs.

And there's some pretty hungry celebrity guests, too,

joining our feast.

Stuart Gillies char-grills pheasant and serves them with creamed

Brussels sprouts, chestnuts, smoked bacon,

and a tangy red wine sauce reduction.

And the legendary chef Brian Turner roasts

partridge in readiness for Christmas.

He serves the bird on a bed of caramelised butternut squash

with green herb sauce.

And Bryn Williams brings us a fishy seasonal treat.

He pan-fries salmon and makes Parmesan gnocchi

and serves it all with a butternut squash and chestnuts.

And comic Sarah Millican faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven?

A stunning home-made passion fruit delice with tuiles.

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell, ribs?

It might be a spiced rib of beef with sticky chicken

and egg fried rice.

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

But, first, master of seafood Nathan Outlaw

gets creative with another salmon dish.

We're doing a lovely beetroot-cured salmon, which is done in advance.

-Yep.

-Christmas, we don't want to be doing anything.

Smoked mackerel pate,

and then we do a nice beetroot salad.

Then we're going to do some deep-fried oysters. The reason I do deep-fried oysters,

I think it's more accessible for everyone to try.

People don't like the thought of oysters cos of the texture.

If you fry them, it's something different.

I know you want to get on and do the beetroot. Do you want me

-to do the smoked mackerel pate?

-You can.

This is like a little smorgasbord of different seafood, then?

Yeah, smoked fish.

What's nice about this is you don't want to be rushing about

at Christmas doing all the different, sort of...in the kitchen.

You want everything done, enjoy yourself.

Cos everyone seems to be stressed out at Christmas sometimes.

-I don't know what you mean!

-Everybody comes round.

This is just the perfect sort of thing

to have in your fridge as a backup.

If someone pops round, you've got it there,

and all of a sudden, you've got a meal in front of them

and they can, er...you know, you can enjoy the time with them.

Preparation is the key, more than anything else, isn't it?

Yeah, definitely.

Then you're just making it a little bit different

and a celebration. In its entirety, the dish has everything.

The deep-fried oysters, which are something that you may not

have tried before because you're not too sure.

So this will just make them a little bit more...

I'd hate to say it, but almost like they're nuggets, sort of, fried,

-which...

-Nuggets?

Yeah, that sort of... It's covered... It's what people eat...

I build you up into this to two-star Michelin chef.

And there you are with your nuggets?

Right, what am I putting in here with the mackerel?

So, in the mackerel pate, you've got a bit of cream cheese, yoghurt,

and then we've got some horseradish.

And I don't think you like horseradish.

We'll leave the horseradish out of this, won't we?

So, in the marinade, we've got the raw beetroot, some sugar,

a lot of salt. You are curing the whole side.

And then we've got some fennel seeds, which go very well with seafood.

And then you've got a bit of tarragon,

which gives it that sort of anise flavour, which is very nice.

All that goes in there.

Tarragon and fish are a great combination, aren't they?

Especially with oily fish.

Some of the whiter fish might not be able to handle it,

but I think with...

ERRATIC WHIRRING

Never use these things... There we go.

Got there in the end.

Lovely. I'll just blend all them ingredients up.

PLASTIC LID FALLS TO THE GROUND

-I give up!

-Do it by hand, do it by hand!

WHIRRING

-Wouldn't smoked salmon be easier?

-Much easier.

So, you blend that up.

-There you go.

-So what we've got in here is all the cure, basically.

-What you want is a balance between the sweet and the sour.

-There you go.

-Do we want this again?

-No.

We'll put that onto our tray.

Like so.

There's a lot of water inside the salmon

which will be drawn out by the salt.

So, this is kind of like making your own gravadlax, would that be right?

Yeah, it is.

What you need to do - it's quite a thick bit of fish, salmon,

so it will take a bit of time. It'll take 30 hours in total.

But you've got to turn it over halfway,

so after ten hours - start it off on the skin first.

Get a bit dirty with this bit.

Rub it over the fish.

That goes into the fridge.

So, you turn that after what?

After ten hours, you turn that over and give it another 20 hours.

And what you end up with is something that looks like this...

..in here.

-It goes really, really dark.

-Yeah, really dark.

All the water, the natural water that's in the salmon, it'll come out.

And it will leave you with this.

What you need to do is wash it off, the best you can.

You scrape off all that cure.

Like so.

Now I know why you wore this.

If you wore a white one, you'd get it everywhere.

And then we need to wash that off.

-It's just plain water?

-It's just plain water.

-For the salad, do you want more beetroot?

-Yep.

I've got a little bit of shallots and garlic there.

This beetroot just basically finely diced, I take it, or just diced?

Just diced up. Doesn't really matter.

Just whatever you're comfortable with.

Once you've washed the salt off, how long will that keep?

Once you've washed it off,

this will last for a good week, maybe even two weeks in the fridge.

It's the curing process before you do smoke salmon.

But it is actually a good thing to freeze as well.

So if you do buy a whole side of salmon,

then you can actually keep it for a long time.

You've got it there, all dried off.

And that's ready to slice and use.

We're going to take these oysters off. Open them up.

The most important thing when you're doing oysters, the safety element...

-Get somebody else to do it!

-Yeah!

The best thing to do is hold the oyster very firmly against the board

and then don't use too much pressure.

There is naturally a little hinge there,

and you'll hear it when it pops. You can hear that.

And then what you do is...

The safest way is to hold, get your finger underneath there,

and then cut along the roof of the oyster.

And at the side, you've got a little hinge.

As soon as that hinge is released, you open up the oyster.

What we're trying to do is get the oysters out.

And all the juice... In this recipe,

we're not using the juice, but it is very good to make a mayonnaise with,

as a base, which I do like.

There you go. So, flour, egg.

Including the shell. And breadcrumbs.

And you use these little dried breadcrumbs as well.

-So, straight in?

-Yep.

You need to dry these off otherwise you'll end up with a soggy crumb.

Do you want me to flour, egg and breadcrumb these?

If you go flour, I'll go egg.

That's it.

So, what's the order? Flour...?

-Flour, then egg, then through the breadcrumbs.

-It's like for nuggets.

LAUGHTER

This is the way you make a nugget.

Right, flour, egg... It's how you do scampi and all that sort of stuff.

-Is this how you get the kids to eat them?

-It is.

My children will eat them, that's how I got them into oysters.

-So, the oysters go in, one minute?

-Yeah.

Just until they're crispy

cos you want to keep them as rare as possible.

What we do is take the end off.

Put a bit of salt on these.

-If you can bring that over here, I can put these on.

-There you go.

So, these are lovely.

-The texture changes from the salt and the sugar, yeah?

-That's right.

You've got a lovely D cut of salmon.

Like that.

If you cut it too thin, you actually don't get the texture of it.

It's almost...there's nothing to eat there. So cut it a bit thicker.

-There you go.

-A little side. There you go, just a little.

That's it.

Good.

And then I'll leave you to put a cheffy little pile.

-Did you season them, chef?

-Yes. Ah! Ah! They're done.

-Just making sure.

Then we've got our deep-fried oysters...

..on the plate, the next two,

and there you have it.

So, you've got beetroot cured salmon,

smoked mackerel pate,

deep-fried oysters, and a nice beetroot salad.

If you're doing that this Christmas, I'm coming round.

It looks spectacular, I have to say.

There you go.

You get to dive into this.

Your first dish, Julie. Dive into that.

You've probably eaten this already at his place.

-Cos I know that's on the menu.

-Do I try it first?

-Yes.

Do I dig in with my fingers?

Yeah, dive in. There's knives and forks for you.

What's nice about it is the different textures.

It's hot and cold as well. And I think it's interesting but simple.

And you'd serve that altogether in your restaurant like that?

Yeah, like that, together, or individually.

But I like it on a big platter.

When you've got 10, 15 people coming round, it's perfect.

Those oysters are... Mm!

-I don't think the girls are going to get any.

-Sorry!

The idea is you pass it down.

That's the perfect seafood treat for Christmas morning.

Coming up, I'll be making an apple chutney

with grilled John Dory and scallops

for Star Trek actor and self-confessed seafood lover George Takei

after Rick Stein gets festive with pickles.

'This doesn't look like a ham shop but I'm told it's the right address.

'The family here are the Craven-Smith-Milnes,

'and they make really good hams from an old-fashioned recipe

'named after the village of Alderton in Suffolk.

'It was originally made there by a colonel who discovered

'the method over 100 years ago across the Atlantic in Virginia,

'a place well noted for its fine hams.'

Have I come to the right place?

Absolutely, how do you do? Charlie Craven.

-I'm Richard.

-Very nice to meet you.

'I came here to meet father and son team, Richard and Charlie,

'who continue the tradition in their stately pile in Nottinghamshire.'

I must say, it looks lovely.

I mean, I haven't heard so much about the ham.

Just try it and see what you think.

-We'd love to hear what you say about it.

-Well, I mean, need I taste it?

It's so wonderfully moist. I'm sure it's...

Have a bit.

I'm going to taste it, too.

-Good?

-I shook my head in wonderment.

THEY CHUCKLE

The original recipe came from Colonel Dickinson,

who was a great character. And we've developed it slightly.

We think it's a very good product. And we simply love it.

We eat an awful lot of it ourselves, I'm afraid.

Cos it's wonderful if you've got people staying,

or if you go... We go for what one might call self-catering holidays.

And it's wonderful to take a ham. I never get tired of it.

My wife says I mustn't eat too much of it

cos it'll make me fat, but...

It doesn't seem to have done, I have to say.

'The family have converted one of the outbuildings on their estate

'and produce the hams by first steaming them

'and then removing the rind,

'revealing a fine layer of fat underneath.

'This they plaster with generous quantities of marmalade.

'It's this that gives the sweet and sour taste which is so attractive.

'Then they're roasted and come out amazingly moist.

'Long may Colonel Dickinson's Alderton Ham continue.'

I don't know whether it was the '60s or early '70s

but about the time of The Good Life,

that everybody started getting chest freezers

and the reason for it was all your garden vegetables could go in there -

your runner beans, broad beans, peas, even carrots.

And you put them in like a little packet and, if you were clever,

you labelled them but I never did

and they stayed there for about three years and then you threw them away.

And it's actually a lot easier to make chutney

and it's certainly a lot more stylish.

And, to me, nothing sums up better the whole joy

and anticipation of Christmas than chutneys and pickles

with the cold turkey and, in my case,

always with lovely, crispy baked potatoes.

So where better to explore

and celebrate the fruity delights of English pickles and chutneys

than the heart of the WI, the nerve centre of this esteemed movement

in Denman College in Oxfordshire,

where I met the ladies who really understand the art of preserving.

Right, well, here... this looks interesting.

Crunchy courgette pickle.

So what have we got in here apart from courgettes?

It's onion, just a little bit of onion, mustard seed and sugar

-and that's it.

-It's so nice!

-Yeah.

-Cranberry and orange?

-Yes, it is.

-What is in it?

-Fresh cranberries.

-You can make this about a week before Christmas.

-Oh, really?

It doesn't need to mature like a chutney.

And it's just fresh cranberries, sugar and a fresh orange,

grated zest and the juice.

Extremely simple and that's lovely obviously, with turkey.

-Yeah, and lovely colour.

-Yes, it is.

-I'm thinking turkey sandwiches here.

-Oh, I like this.

-Yes, it's Moroccan preserved lemons.

-Oh, good.

And it has some very good instructions here,

"Rinse well and chop, add to rice, couscous, salads and fish recipes."

Quite right. Well, I'm not... Can I just...?

Ooh, it's going to be very salty. Do we need to rinse it?

No, no, it's fine, cos I'm very used to them.

Just try the juice.

Lovely. I think people put too much other flavours in Moroccan lemons.

Just trying to break a bit off here, not very successfully.

-It's going to be very salty, though.

-Don't you worry. I do them myself.

Excellent, excellent.

-OK, Jules, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

-So we've got mango... Is that what it is?

-Mango.

It's very posh writing, I can't read it.

THEY ALL LAUGH

-And prune.

-Prune, yes.

-And it says "great with ham" on it.

-Great with ham.

So let's try the prune first. It's...

That is seriously, um...

committed chutney, that. It's really good.

I mean, really thick and...

What would you like to eat that with, apart from ham?

-Um, a strong mature cheddar...

-Yeah?

-And, um...

-And this?

-I always put that with coronation chicken.

-Oh, what a great idea.

-Of course, cos it's mango chutney.

-Yeah.

Indeed.

It's very delicately spiced. Yeah.

That's beautiful. And do you like making chutney?

What's so special about chutneys to you?

I sort of got into that just by mistake

and, um, that's just been something I've been doing

for the last two years.

You know, and it's something I've been doing

with, you know, the Fulham WI.

-The Fulham WI?

-The Fulham WI.

THEY ALL LAUGH

Well, that's very posh. I see. That goes with the writing.

I can't stop thinking about the Fulham WI.

But, Chalky, the chutneys are really good.

And I know precisely what they go well with.

Now, I mentioned, right at the start of the programme, game pies.

I love them at Christmas.

I've tried many over the years

and, deep in the heart of the Devon countryside,

you'll find one of the best there is.

It's made here in the village of Silverton by Dave Haggett,

who uses local game.

It changes depending on what's available

but usually it's venison, wild duck, partridge and pheasant.

He makes it with red wine and a mixture of dried herbs

and pork forcemeat to hold it together.

And that's put into a hot water pastry case,

very similar to the casing on a pork pie.

They take a lot of care over their pies

and they did this one for us to show how it was done.

Pies mean prizes for Dave and his boys and, in the world of pies,

it's very important to look pretty and elegant.

I know some people find game pies far too powerful

and the domain of plus-four-wearing,

claret-swigging, modern-day country squires

but what struck me about these pies was that they weren't too gamey

but were moist and luxurious.

Lastly, the seasoned jelly is added while the pie is still hot

and that sticks to the pastry and meat.

So many sad little pies are made without jelly these days.

But this ain't one of them.

This is a real bite of the countryside

and what better to have with it than the best of British pickles -

piccalilli?

Well, I've bought about six or seven piccalillis from the shops,

just to see how to make the BEST one.

And, generally, they were either too weak and just yellow with no flavour

or too acerbic, too salty, too coarse.

What I'm looking for is subtlety, really.

A good mustard flavour, a bit of chilli in there, too,

and a touch of sugar but not too much sugar -

it has to be slightly more salty - and a good texture.

You prepare the veg and put it in brine until you're ready to cook it.

That helps to keep it crisp.

Well, it is a lovely late September day

and it's the sort of time of year as a cook that I love the best

because you've got so many vegetables ripe, so much fruit ripe.

And it's the sort of time that I think preparing for Christmas

is the most satisfying because making something like piccalilli,

where you're taking the abundance of vegetables

and chopping them up in anticipation of opening

that lovely piccalilli on Boxing Day and eating it

with maybe some cold roast goose or some game pie, it just...

Just there's a sense of building up the excitement for Christmas,

even three months ahead.

Dissolve some sugar into a pan of distilled malt vinegar

and add three cloves of crushed garlic.

When the sugar's dissolved,

put in the veg and bring it gently to a simmer.

Now, add flour and the main flavourings -

mustard powder, ginger powder, turmeric, allspice,

cayenne and a grate of nutmeg.

Add some vinegar to make a paste

and then loosen it with a ladleful of stock from the cooked vegetables.

Take the veg out of the stock and keep to one side

and put the paste into the hot liquor then allow it to thicken.

Then put all your veg back in.

They say that the word "piccalilli" comes from India

and it's an amalgam of "pickles" and "chilli".

Recipes like this were all the rage in the 18th Century.

Or all the RAJ!

Er, sorry about that.

Great stuff from Rick. I love piccalilli, too.

There are other simple pickles you can make at home

and this is one of them.

It's a simple little chutney, or you can do it with a pickle.

But it's instant. Takes about four minutes to cook.

But what it is is an apple and ginger chutney

with a little bit of sultanas in there. Very, very quick.

I'm going to serve that with this lovely fish here.

Have you ever seen one of these before? I know you love your fish.

-I love seafood.

-This is St Pierre.

-The French call it St Pierre.

-John Dory.

-John Dory.

It's named after the patron saint of fishermen

and the reason for that is he's thought to have gone into the water,

put his hands in and they're the fingerprints.

Biblical loaves and fishes, dude!

Look at the size of the mouth on that St Pierre fish!

It's absolutely beautiful.

I'm going to pan-fry that with a bit of scallops.

Very, very simple. First off, I'm going to make my chutney.

Very quickly.

I'm going to dice my apple, dice my onions and dice my ginger.

But, I mean, I was reading about your career.

Like I said, the CV is just...

It's the longest CV I've ever read in my life.

It's about 12 pages long. They're just the films you've been in!

I've done a lot of things, yes.

Over the past 50 years,

I've been privileged to work with a lot of icons of the industry.

-Take one of them, Richard Burton.

-Richard Burton.

-That was my very first film.

-Yeah?

And I was still a theatre student at UCLA,

a casting director saw me in a production, a student production,

and plucked me out of that

and plumped me into my first feature film.

Was it...?

Was it easier then to get into movies than it is now?

-Do you have to go through several things?

-It was totally unexpected.

You know, I was doing a student play.

And I tell all the other young actors

who ask me about how I broke in -

I tell them it doesn't happen that way.

I just happened to be very, very lucky.

And it was a feature film about Alaska,

shot two weeks on location in Alaska and two months back at the studio.

-This was called the Ice Palace?

-Ice Palace, yes.

With Richard Burton, who was a legend already, even then.

This great Shakespearean actor from England

and, when you're on location, you get very close

and here was this stage-struck, starstruck young actor,

full of questions, eager to know about what this legend had lived

and Richard loved talking about himself,

-so we were an ideal combination.

-Fantastic!

-And he would regale me...

-Got any advice ask, George?

For Dave and I, you know, to break into movies.

Cos we fancy doing, you know...

Um, well, do a student production.

That's how I got in!

That's it, mate! That's the answer.

Well, you're on camera right here.

Who knows? You might be discovered by someone who's looking for your type.

-You mean like Shrek?

-Exactly. That's the way it happens.

That's where it happens.

I'd make a good hunchback, me.

I think you guys would make great dames.

Over here, while this lot are nattering.

Look at this - bit of caramel.

I've just got to stop you for a second.

A bit of caramel. Deglaze that with a bit of vinegar.

The apples and the ginger and the onions have gone in there.

We're going to just literally...

Lid on and that just sweats now for two or three minutes, all right?

From there, movies, um...

Obviously, we've got to talk about Star Trek.

Because a lot of people think Star Trek went on and on and on.

How many episodes were there of Star Trek?

-There wasn't that many, was there?

-Only 79.

We literally were boldly going where no-one had gone before.

It was so original, so different,

so unique that the programming people were absolutely baffled

and they stuck us in the worst possible time slot,

so our ratings were very low, all three seasons.

And, despite the fact that at the beginning of each episode

we announced that we were on a five-year mission,

the real Klingons were those NBC programming executives.

THEY ALL LAUGH

They aborted us in three seasons, only 79 episodes.

So it kind of became...

Do you think became a cult because of that?

It was a success because of that?

There was that feeling of, you know,

something beautiful that was lost and the fans who discovered it,

once we got into reruns, then the ratings soared.

And they were determined to save it and the tidal wave of fan mails

that assaulted both the studio and the network was incredible.

And so, ten years later, they... We came back as a major motion picture,

directed by Robert Wise, another legend of Hollywood.

You know, he directed West Side Story, The Sound Of Music,

all the great musicals.

And that was a big box office hit.

And so it became a series of feature motion pictures as well

and now we're back again with a new movie, the 11th one,

titled simply Star Trek. No subtitle.

Talking about box office.

Because you're appearing in... in, well, pantomime.

Because we talked at the top of the show - the Americans don't...

don't understand what you're doing.

They have no idea what kind of theatre it is.

So where are you appearing and what are you appearing as?

It's in Chatham, at the Central Theatre.

The play is Aladdin and I'm the Emperor of China.

And I fall in love with Widow Twankey

and, as a matter of fact, Si,

I think you could play Widow Twankey if you shaved your beard off.

Oh, don't tell Dave, for goodness sake!

He thinks I should be up a beanstalk as it is!

I think it would be great making love to you.

THEY ALL LAUGH

I'm not so sure!

You know, I want... I'm not a cheap date, you know.

I can lift me skirt up and that's you for life, dude, I tell you!

-You do your own cooking.

-That's fine, aye.

-That alone...

I tell you what, that's a thing, isn't it?

I've been offered to be made love to

by the helmsman of the Starship Enterprise!

-It's not everyday, dude, you know?

-Moving on.

-Let it be so!

We have a song and dance number as well.

How do I go back from that to chutney?

THEY ALL LAUGH

-Chutney.

-This is my chutney that's in my blender here.

-As sweet as Si.

-Exactly. A bit of salt.

Over there, I'm pan-frying my John Dory

and I've got in here literally just a touch of butter,

a little bit of olive oil and just colour this nicely.

And the John Dory will just quite happily sit there. A nice hot pan.

-Oh, you skinned it already.

-Yeah, it's just been skinned.

I took the skin off, nice and simple.

A little bit of butter there.

And then we're just going to blend our chutney, just blitz it.

It should go into this paste, which is what we want. This has got our...

little bit of sultanas in there as well.

And is that for just a bit of sweetness, James?

Yeah, yeah, you can put this in a spumer if you want but...

See? I told you it'd catch on.

THEY ALL LAUGH

I'd rather just leave it as it is.

A bit of salt and pepper and that's it.

I mean, seriously, you've been pantomime, theatre, TV...

I can't believe... I was looking through the list

and you've got things like The Simpsons, like peculiar ones.

The Simpsons and one thing that I spotted was Miami Vice.

Did you know he was in Miami Vice?

-Were you? What were you doing in Miami Vice?

-It was a guest shot.

I made love to Melanie Griffith

and we were directed by Don Johnson, her husband at the time.

I bet that was uncomfortable, dude, was it?

No, because their marriage was sort of on the rocks.

And, after I made love to Melanie Griffith,

they came together again.

I showed him how to do it.

THEY ALL LAUGH

Yet they divorced about three years after that.

This is your chutney like that.

-And all we do with that is just...

-Can I taste it?

-Not yet, not yet.

Oh, not yet. I'm eager to.

Here, is there a job lot of knock-off slates

-here on Saturday kitchen this week or what?

-It smells wonderful.

They're off my house. There you go.

And you've got the scallops, which...

We can just basically pop these on.

-These just sit on...

-Oh, that looks fabulous.

-Is that a drag quenelle, James?

-It is a drag quenelle , yes.

And then we've got some of this red amaranth, which is delicious.

But you just put a few bits of that on the top.

-The Japanese would call that "shibui".

-Shibui?

-Yes, astringent.

-Astringent.

And then we've got a little bit of that as well,

a little bit of coriander cress and a touch of oil and dive into that.

Beautiful. Visually, visually beautiful.

Tell us what you think of that. I know you're a big fish fan.

-Oh, my! I am indeed.

-Tell us what you think.

-The aroma already!

-The John Dory is just...

Take it with the little bit of the chutney cos it's just...

It's that...little bit of sultanas, a touch of apple, a bit of ginger,

just pureed up. That's an instant chutney. It's taken, what?

No more than five minutes.

Mmm!

-The combination of...

-The sweetness and the sour?

-Well, it's a unique sweetness.

-It's nice, isn't it?

The sultanas, we call them raisins, that combined with the succulent...

You don't overcook the fish.

No, just literally that's had about three or four minutes.

-That is wonderful.

-Thank you very much. Easy as that.

And that home-made chutney would, of course, be great with cheese, too.

Now, if you'd like to try cooking that recipe

or any others you've seen on today's show,

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

now, we're not cooking live today.

Instead, we're looking back at some of the delicious cooking

from the Saturday Kitchen Christmas archive.

Now if, like me, you're not a huge fan of turkey at Christmas,

then why not take a leaf out of Stuart Gillies' book

and try pheasant?

-Hi.

-Good to have you on the show. What are you cooking?

-OK...

-Better hurry up - he's taken all your time.

You've taken all my time, so I'm under pressure.

-So I need some help here, big boy.

-So pheasant.

-Want to start peeling the chestnuts?

-OK.

-We're going to do pheasant. Grilled breast and leg of pheasant.

-Yeah.

And then we're going to have chestnuts, bacon

and Brussels sprouts.

We're going to cook them in cream

and we're going to finish that off with a bit of reduced red wine.

Tell us about the pheasant.

I mean, obviously, you buy them by the brace

or you buy them individually

but you've got the cock and the hen. What is the best one?

-The hen's the female.

-The hen's the female and it's smaller.

-Personally, I prefer the meat on the hen.

-Yeah?

Yeah, it's a bit smaller

but you can always get two portions out of a pheasant.

To be honest, you get the pheasant, you buy it from your butcher

and I think people are often put off by the fact it's dry.

Do you find that females are quite short in general, small?

No, but then I like them short!

Right, so you're buying...

You could buy just the breast on its own, really.

You can just buy the breast if you like but the top of the leg is good.

The drumsticks are very tough.

A lot of tendons in there, so don't use that.

-Don't want to use that.

-But the thigh's perfect.

So you've got your breast there and your thigh.

The butcher can bone that out for you.

You don't have to do that yourself. It's a little bit technical.

Because it's in season, the prices are quite good as well, nowadays.

You can go hunting for them.

-It is amazingly cheap.

-Sorry?

It's very cheap, pheasant.

Yeah, it's a very cheap bird, actually

and I think it's just because people don't buy it.

But it is very lean.

It's just got fat on the top, so we're going to grill this

-mostly on the skin, straight on a chargrill like that.

-Yeah.

-Just olive oil, very simple.

-Very quick to cook, isn't it?

-Because we don't want to dry it out.

-It takes about four minutes, luckily.

Cos we've only got two and a half left!

So this one might be a little bit medium!

Right, meanwhile, you're doing the chestnuts.

I need eight of those. Get rid of that. Give my hands a wash.

These chestnuts, you can buy them like these,

which are vac-packed, which a lot of people buy them as well.

But if you wanted to roast your own, you literally just take these,

-nip it with a knife.

-Yeah, you just score them with a knife and you...

All you do is roast them in the oven, 20 minutes

and then just pop the skins off.

And so much cheaper if you do it this way.

And also the flavour's completely different.

It's a beautiful flavour.

Right, the bacon we're going to chop up very fast

while we check the pheasant.

OK, the pheasant's good. Perfect.

Don't worry about the smoke. Smoke's good when you cook.

People are always scared of a bit of smoke.

Trust me, I'm a professional. I do this for a living!

-All right.

-So bacon we just chop up, James.

-Yep.

And that goes straight into a very hot pan with no oil at all.

Now the bacon you're using - dry cure bacon, not the old...

Dry cure from Smokebelly Pork.

Straight into a very hot pan there.

Right, bacon in there. Now the chestnuts...

You must use the dry one

cos if you use the water-brined one...

If you use the one they cure in water...

It'll sweat in there, really.

It comes out with this white mush, like cheap bacon.

Can you just chop those up for me? Shred them up nice and fine, James.

The sprouts and the chestnuts, the same.

-Using this knife that was sharpened on my car window.

-Nice.

-The Saturday car window.

-Yeah, exactly. Saturday car window.

-The chestnuts can go straight in the pan when you're ready, James.

-OK.

I'm going to turn that pheasant over. How long have we got?

All of these, really seasonal produce, isn't it? The pheasant.

-You know, this is really seasonal produce.

-And the game season is what?

1st October to... 1st February, isn't it?

Till 1st Feb, yeah, that's right.

The Glorious Twelfth is for grouse, isn't it, really?

Grouse is the start of the game season in August,

which is the end of the summer but this is a proper game season now.

Pheasant, partridge, venison. It's all in season now.

-Straight in the pan, James.

-Straight in there with your bacon.

Just give it a shake, please. Give it a shake and a stir.

Good and then into that, James, we add a little bit of cream.

We're going to start to cook the cream down.

How long have we got left, about ten seconds?

No, you're all right, you've got time.

-So the cream goes straight in there.

-Yeah.

And with the sprouts, doing them like this, you see,

you are not boiling them, you're not losing the colour

and sprouts when you've got them almost raw, they're very sweet.

Often people eat sprouts and you never get that sweetness

cos you lose it in the water.

I also think when people are buying sprouts as well,

they shouldn't buy them cut like this,

you should buy them on the stalk.

-If you can get hold of them.

-And use the leaves.

The tops are really nice, aren't they?

The top flowering parts.

Beautiful flavour, James.

It stops them from drying out as well,

particularly at Christmas. If you're going to stock up on Christmas,

by them on the plant, it's much easier

-and then you can pick them off.

-So the whole thing in the pan.

Just going to add a touch of water to that,

cos it's a little bit thick, that cream. A bit of water.

You're obviously buying organic cream, very thick.

Right, the pheasant's almost there.

You see, with the fat on the top of the bird,

by cooking it on the skin, you just melt any of the fat.

You've got a completely clean piece of meat after that.

I think that's the secret with this - you don't cook it...

-You oil the product, not the pan, don't you?

-Exactly that.

And what you don't do is you don't dry it out.

You just cook it very quick, very gently

but it retains all of the moisture.

-You don't lose any of the moisture.

-You ever cooked pheasant like this?

No, why does it retain, even if you cook it so quickly?

How come it stays moist?

Because you're not losing any of the natural juice.

And the fats that are on the skin are just going back into the bird.

Got you.

You don't take it till it's well done,

you keep it slightly under, like your pork.

You can write that down in your notepad and take that away.

Hey-hey! I'm done with this!

THEY ALL LAUGH

Now, just the red wine, James.

We took some red wine and we just reduced it down slightly.

-There you go.

-Normal red wine, just use a cooking red wine.

PAN SIZZLES

Hot pan. Straight into a hot pan.

That just gets reduced down until it goes thick.

-That's all that's in there?

-Yeah, that's all you do to that.

All that does is it produces a really sharp,

slightly bitter edge to the flavour and it just cuts it.

Right, this is almost done. That can come off there.

All right? And you don't worry about the flames, really?

-It just the fat coming off.

-That's an Australian thing.

Bill told me about that. He said, "You want loads of smoke, Stuie."

You can barbie anything! Exactly.

-There you go.

-Right, we're just about there.

-Bit of seasoning.

-Just check the seasoning, James.

Not too much salt, really,

cos the bacon can be quite salty, sometimes.

Exactly but what you really need is pepper. Pepper complements this.

Goes particularly well with Brussels sprouts, doesn't it?

-Needs loads of black pepper.

-Yeah, exactly that.

Right, we're good.

So what a beautiful mix. Look at the colour of that.

Lovely. So quick and simple.

Exactly but you get all that pure flavour in the ingredients.

You don't lose anything in water.

There is a hell of a lot of smoke, isn't there, in this place?

I mean, if you did this at home, in your house,

the fire brigade would turn up, wouldn't they?

-I mean, seriously. No offence.

-He's cooking it, don't look at me!

You've got all these extractor fans, haven't you?

That's why I need a whole restaurant to cook at.

-Yeah, I suppose so.

-The home's a disaster.

-You're smokin'!

Right, there you go. That's your Brussels sprouts,

your chestnuts and bacon. The pheasant there is perfect.

We'll just cut that so you can see it actually.

-Keep it nice and pink.

-Keep it just under. Just under.

A little bit under there cos we rushed it.

But you normally have another minute. I'll just sear that edge.

-You've got time. It's all right.

-We'll just sear that edge.

Even if it is bit under, no drama, you just sear the edge.

We've got time, we've got time. It's all right.

You can just push them back in again.

The thing about game, you can serve it nice and pink, really.

Exactly. Fortunately for me!

If it's oven-cooked, it will dry out.

What you don't want to do is overcook it. Don't cook it well done.

You keep it just under.

-You can always cook it more, but you can't cook it less.

-Exactly that.

-There you go. That there, our reduced red wine.

-This is...

Need a spoon. It just goes to a syrup.

Sometimes you might worry about making a rich sauce that

takes a couple of days and that's what we do in restaurants.

We don't need to do that. Just reduce red wine. It takes ten minutes.

You just dribble it over.

-Nothing else?

-Nothing else, just pure red wine.

When you taste it, you'll see how it cuts through the cream.

-Do you put any sugar in or anything to sweeten it?

-Nothing.

No, because it brings out...

If you don't put sugar, the bitterness of this brings out

-the sweetness of the chestnuts and the sprouts.

-He'll put sugar in it

tonight. He likes changing recipes. Remind us what that is again.

-That's the grilled breast of Essex pheasant.

-Yes.

-With the creamed sprouts, bacon and chestnuts.

-Lovely.

There you go. Right, let's have a taste of this.

-Here we go again.

-It's good here, isn't it?

-Yeah. To start with.

Can I just have the check as well, please, so you can go home?

-We've really got to go.

-Tell me what you think.

-It looks brilliant.

It's great the way it's burnt on the outside and gorgeous on the inside.

-Here we go. Stunning.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-Really unbelievably moist and tender.

-So simple.

I think that's the thing about it. It's seasonal food, nice and simple.

That wine reduced, I've never seen that before. Just reduced wine.

-Have you had that before?

-Yes.

-Gorgeous. Stunning. Very good.

-Christine?

-Perfect.

-Happy with that?

-Really lovely.

-Would you say if it wasn't?

-Yes.

-You never know, do you?

-Pass it down.

-I'm having some more.

That's what I think when I'm watching at home.

If they didn't like it, would they ever say that?

Christine runs a real business. She's going to say what she wants.

-Bill, do you eat much pheasant over there?

-It's not that popular, I've got to say.

I always thought it was going to be richer

-but it's a lot more like chicken than duck.

-It's really light.

-It's not too gamey, pheasant.

-Great if you cook it that way.

-It's so much quicker.

-It's easy, isn't it?

It doesn't taste like a dark meat. It tastes like a light meat.

-BILL:

-It tastes like chicken.

-It tastes like pheasant.

That's what it tastes like.

What a great way to convert even the most ardent sprout haters.

Now it's time to head east with the legendary Keith Floyd.

He is going to a county famous for Delia Smith. It's Norfolk.

It's time in the programme for a piece of serious cooking.

I'm going to take a back seat here

and let Robert my old mate cook some scallops for us.

I know he's already got some chopped shallots,

little bits of chopped bacon. That's a julienne of vegetables.

-That's right.

-What are the vegetables in here?

In this case, there is a mixture

of peppers, green, red, white peppers, carrots, celery, leeks.

-But anything you want really, that takes your fancy.

-Fine, good.

Some fresh, and that's the exciting thing, fresh chopped basil.

-That's the main ingredient.

-That's the main ingredient.

-This is lime juice.

-That's right.

And some excellent Norfolk fresh scallops

and a bit of gewurztraminer as the wine. So what do we actually do?

-Right, shall I start cooking now?

-Yes, please.

-Put the butter in the pan.

Get it very, very hot. Fry the shallots and the bacon.

Very hot, but no colour. It's very important.

Those have got to start off on their own before the bacon goes in?

-No, the bacon at the same time.

-Right.

-Lovely.

-And about half of that.

-About half.

-As quick as you can!

-Right.

-OK. So, you fry it really well. No colour whatsoever.

-Right.

Now it's time for the scallops. Lightly season.

-Throw it in.

-Are you in on that, Richard? I think you are.

-Scallops, shallots, and bacon at this stage.

-Again, no colour.

And we cook the scallops until they're just opaque

and no more, otherwise they get very tough, very chewy.

Fry them quite well. And now the second main ingredient,

the gewurztraminer.

-Right. And how much of that?

-Pour. More. That's fine.

And the lime juice, please.

-Whoa! Too much lime juice.

-I put too much line juice in.

You're going to be eating it, so it's OK.

So at this stage, they're quite opaque. They're fine. You take them out.

Keep them warm. Later on we can put them back in just to finish cooking.

Again, it's very important not to overcook scallops,

or even boil them.

OK.

-So those go to one side for the second.

-They go to one side.

We've reduced the liquid with all that lime juice.

-Then we're going to add butter as in a beurre ballon.

-Sure.

So that sauce is now reduced thanks to the magic of television

and the next phase continues with what? The julienne...?

-The julienne of vegetables.

-What's the...?

I'm totally convinced that British chefs are in the ascendancy,

we're not so frightened of imitating the French and so on any more.

What in your mind is the state of British cooking?

I think with all the local produce we are getting,

especially the young vegetables that are now being picked, new suppliers

coming along, that's why chefs are becoming better cooks really.

-It's a matter of supply, I think.

-Matters of supply.

And the great interest taken of course by the suppliers,

by the cooks, the housewife now is getting more involved,

so they are demanding more all the time.

You have got it absolutely made, of course, because you can just walk out

into the garden and pick whatever you like.

It's perfect. Excuse me.

What would you do if you weren't a chef?

Have you got something else you would really like to do?

I always wanted to write.

So the butter is in there, Richard, if you'd like to have

a very good look at that.

And just lier that in the liquid.

And there's no cream in there at all, just butter.

Keeps it very velvety, very light, no cream.

At that stage we add the scallops, and the juices.

Just again reheat, finish their cooking process very carefully.

Do you have difficulty in getting people to work along with you?

No. The boys in the kitchen are very into the food as well.

They really enjoy it. They show a lot of interest and they give me ideas too, of course.

-Oh really?

-Lots of ideas.

What's the next phase?

The last thing is the basil which I add at the end

so it stays very fresh, very green.

The flavour really comes out. Lots of basil. I love it. It's up to you.

In the summer in the garden we have red basil,

we have cinnamon scented basil, lemon scented basil.

It's lovely, you can have

a whole combination of flavours just from one herb.

-It really is my favourite herb.

-You need to be as much a gardener

-these days to be a cook as anything else, don't you?

-A greedy gardener, yes.

A greedy gardener. You don't look a greedy man to me. You look quite...

It's all the hard work picking herbs. So that's it.

Whack it on down here.

I'll pour some wine because I think you deserve some.

That looks a supreme dish to me.

Whack it on.

-You can smell the basil coming through.

-You certainly can.

The gewurztraminer wine keeps its scent so well

in the cooking process.

-Have some more.

-Mm.

This isn't actually a difficult dish to cook, is it?

There's an awful mystique which surrounds cooking

and here's one dish which is simplicity itself. As long as what?

What are the golden rules for this dish?

You've got to watch. A lot of people put cream in beurre ballons

to stop them curdling. I just don't like cream in beurre ballons.

It must be very velvety, very light.

That's got to be watched to make sure it doesn't curdle.

And just your own sense of flavour really.

And the freshness of the herbs

and the freshness of the vegetables is essential, isn't it?

-That's right. Can I pinch some too, please?

-Sorry!

And again, not overcooking. Keeping everything very fresh.

That's why it is simple. Very fresh, very light. But too much lime juice!

That was me. My fault.

It doesn't matter. They can't taste it.

'Now, are you sitting comfortably?

'Because I mean this in the nicest possible way.

'I don't want you East Anglians to get upset about what I'm going

'to say. Promise?

'But, you see, this placid region is set in a sort of time warp.

'Even the village names are carved from marzipan

'and I feel that the spirit of Good King Wuffingas lives,

'or has in fact never gone away.

'But back to the cooking

'and I want to create something which says East Anglia on a plate.'

Because it's the garden centre of England like this and peas and things like that,

so if you've got a couple of good ducks and a big chunk of smoked bacon.

-Well, we have fresh ducks from one of our local producers.

-Brilliant.

We'll have three of those. If you've got three.

-And a large chunk of that smoked bacon.

-You say where.

-About there.

-That'll be fantastic.

-About there.

-That would be superb.

Thank you very much.

Now while you are just cutting that I've spotted something here

-which rather fascinates me. Can I cut into this?

-You may.

In my programmes, I keep telling you about the importance

of dripping for cooking.

And what is underneath it is that rich brown jelly that you can make stocks and sauces from.

Look at this. Here you can actually buy it.

This is what you must all have in your larders all the time.

Can't get it out. Hoist by my own petard.

There you've got that lovely brown stuff.

Just melt that over a little piece of fillet steak or a turkey breast

and you've got a fantastic sauce.

Good cooking has good larders and that is one thing we need.

There's something else here which is superb - I'm very fond of.

-This is called brawn. It is brawn, isn't it?

-It is brawn, yes.

And it's pig's head and stuff like that.

All simmered away, shredded off the bones, and allowed to set in that pot.

Something which typifies real, real English cooking.

Talking about that, I'd better get on with my next sketch.

I really like cooking with real cooks. It's good fun.

I learn a huge amount from them.

And I like to think that perhaps they learn a little from me.

But it's all very well. The thing that I really enjoy,

even though I've got a dreadful cold today and it's raining

and the river is babbling by, and the wind is blowing,

I like to come out in the fresh air and cook something on my own.

It is, after all, my own programme.

But, you see, here in Norfolk you have to share some things.

This is 1988 and today, well, not exactly today, it is an anniversary.

It's a birthday of something animal, vegetable or mineral, if you

remember that old radio programme, something very important indeed.

Guess what it is. Well, in fact, it's the frozen pea.

It's the 50th anniversary of the frozen pea.

That's why we made this little green pea-encrusted birthday cake.

But, you know, Norfolk's a great place.

The whole of Britain is a great place.

I've trundled around the thing and we stay in hotels

and restaurants and bars and pubs. They all look

after us very well, but we do tend to get the same kind of food.

When, I ask myself, do we get a simple, honest,

perfectly ordinary little dish?

I don't always want steak and sauce, duck and sauce, chicken and sauce.

Norfolk has the answer.

It has its ducks, it has its green peas, it has its weather,

that's for sure, and it's got me, so I'm going to prepare a very

simple little dish that I think is Norfolk on a plate.

So, Richard, spin round as per usual the ingredients. A duck.

We all know what a duck is. Over to your right a bit, I've diced it into morsels,

which is lovely. Norfolk is one of the gardens of England, so is

East Anglia. Some lovely carrots. Back towards me, some white turnips.

Some stock. Up to me now, Richard, if you will. Some stock that I've made.

You all know about that. The giblets, the feet,

the winglets and stuff, onion, bay leaf and carrots, stewed in water.

Back down, Richard. There it is. That's just some basic stock.

You don't have to use a stock cube. You can use the real thing.

Some wonderful bacon.

I've done it in France, I've done it in England,

some ordinary bacon to give flavour to the whole dish.

Some diced onion as I've said. But most importantly, the green pea.

So, without any further ado, in here I've got this heavyweight dish

with some butter burning in the bottom.

I'll put my bits of bacon in. In they go. In my onions go.

The onions and the bacon have to go a little bit golden brown.

My carrots have to go in. Stuff like that. It's not always easy... Richard, if I may.

It's not always easy to cook in the middle of a field with wind and rain

and rivers and stuff like that and we have to speed things up a fraction.

So although I would like those to be nicely sweated down,

this is the moment to put our duck pieces in.

OK, we let them go nice and brown.

We let that bubble away for a moment because we've got more things to do.

But do you remember Lear? Do you remember Shakespeare?

He was a great character.

Well, I actually can't, but I've got it written down here,

because when he was in Norfolk

having a holiday before he wrote the Scottish play he said, as he was

standing overlooking "Next-By-The-Sea's" beach, he gazed down and he said,

"Hangs one there that gathers samphire.

"A dreadful trade." He probably tossed that off.

Later a BBC assistant will pick that up from this picturesque scenery. But samphire. This is it.

This crunchy wild seaside asparagus.

The kind of thing that you could just,

if you want, pickle as they do here in Norfolk,

or you could toss in some butter for a few seconds like raw little

green beans and serve it under a fillet of fish

and cover it with hollandaise sauce. It's a delightful thing.

Anyway. We've now got to create some magic of television.

Wobble into there, Richard,

and we'll get ourselves out of that sequence in a second.

And thanks to the magic of television,

my beautiful duck is cooked.

Do you know, I wish

when I travelled around the country, as I checked into bars

and hotels and things, I could have a simple dish like this,

whether it's a duck in Norfolk, a rabbit in Somerset,

or a piece of breast or neck of lamb in Lancashire.

Some elementary, simple food cooked with love.

And talking of love, have a look at this.

Remember I chucked the duck and the onions and the carrots and the bacon

-and fried them?

-Yes.

-And remember the stock I made? Back to me, Richard, please.

-Yes.

The simple giblet stock of water, the neck, the giblets,

onion and stuff like that. I poured that in, let it cook for about

an hour, added my little white turnips, and here is one of those.

You will see one on the plate here.

Added a lot of lovely Norfolk green peas

and simmered it for another 30 minutes or so.

And if I say it myself, OK, the wind and stuff,

it's a bit crashed on the plate,

but it is absolutely delicious.

It's really real, simple, English, British food.

The sort of thing that you should all be cooking

instead of lasagnes and pizzas and chillis in your wine bars

and pubs. Sorry about that, but you should.

'And I know I'm banging my patriotic drum about British food,

'but I really do want an OBE, you know.

'And talking of tradition, I was very pleased to find in this less

'than romantic setting living proof of our culinary heritage.

'A Norfolk dumpling cooked by a Norfolk dumpling - Cath Harris.'

-How many dumplings have you made in your life?

-I don't know.

I couldn't tell you. So many. I've just lost count.

They call people dumplings here too, don't they?

-We are called Norfolk dumplings, yes.

-You're a Norfolk dumpling?

-I'm a Norfolk dumpling.

-Isn't she a nice Norfolk dumpling?

A little bit of salt. A little bit of pepper.

-And then carry on by putting the...

-This looks nice bacon.

Yes, that is home-cured smoked bacon.

-Smoked locally, you know.

-Brilliant.

-Which we are noted for.

-Is that enough?

-A little bit more.

I like to have plenty, you know. I like to make it nice and tasty.

Right. But enough of all this chat.

The proof of the pudding after all is in the eating. Richard, there it is.

Steamed away for a couple of hours, Cath said.

Oh, God, it's heavy. Now watch.

This is the excitement. I've never seen one of these before.

Look at that. Thank you, my darling. Look at that. That is brilliant.

-A golden crust. And it's going to tip out, isn't it?

-I hope so.

Do I need to run the knife around?

I'll just loosen it just to make sure.

It smells so good I want to get into that.

I don't want you to have a collapsed pudding.

No, we don't want a collapsed pudding. Right, tip that up for me. Thank you.

Look at that. That is a pudding.

That is a Norfolk dumpling, my little dumplings.

-Isn't that good?

-That's what you call good Norfolk pudding.

-It's real food, isn't it?

-That's true.

Heart is where your dumpling is. Here we go. Down through the middle.

That's right, yes, cut it right through.

You'll see the layers of bacon. If you pull it apart, you'll see...

Right, Richard.

I wish you could smell... Why doesn't the BBC have

scratch packs on the Radio Times? Look at that.

-The bacon, the onions, the steam.

-It's glorious.

Look at it, for God's sake. I haven't eaten for hours and days.

-That is real, real food.

-That's really filling too and really nourishing.

Oh, my goodness. Have a go, darling.

See what you think of your own cooking.

-That looks lovely, doesn't it?

-It looks brilliant.

What's this business about the Valentine card I sent you?

I didn't send you a Valentine card.

Oh, yes, I had a Valentine card from Floyd with love.

And I thought, "Well, I don't know, somebody is playing me up here.

"Floyd with love." They know I always watch it.

-Then it said, "Your plaice or mine?"

-How did they spell "plaice"?

-"Plaice", like a fresh.

-Like a fish.

-Because you do quite a bit of fish cooking.

-Yes, we do.

I could leave the fish for this any day.

You wouldn't like to either marry me or adopt me or anything, would you?

-I don't know. I'll think about that.

-Would you think about it?

I will. This is really lovely meeting you today.

I didn't expect to see you today.

Well, I'm afraid I'm not worth the effort because this is so good.

-I think it's brilliant. It's lovely.

-Bacon is lovely, isn't it?

It's smashing bacon. So take a tip.

If you're going to do this dish, get some real bacon, OK?

Really nice smoky bacon.

Because smoky bacon really gives the onions a nice flavour.

Yes, it does. The onions are delicious. The dough. The texture is fabulous.

That little bit of seasoning and stock makes it lovely and juicy.

Always a difficult bit for me to wind up a sequence.

I think the best thing to do, we never have scripts,

I've never met Cath before,

because we research for seconds on these programmes,

so, Richard could you work out a nice way of perhaps drawing the camera back,

giving us what we call a two-shot while

we enjoy our supper or lunch and leave us in peace?

Classic stuff there from Mr Keith Floyd.

We are not cooking live in the studio today.

We're looking back at some of the great

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen Christmas back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites.

After two disqualifications in a row, Nick Nairn was hoping to

triumph over Matt Tebbutt when they met at the omelette challenge

hobs, but could either of them make an omelette that I could eat?

Find out a little later on. What else is on?

Bryn Williams pan-fries salmon and creates a great seasonal lunch.

He also makes Parmesan gnocchi and serves it all with a butternut squash

and chestnuts.

And comic Sarah Millican faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

a stunning home-made passion fruit delice with tuiles

or would she get her Food Hell, ribs, with my mighty spice fried

beef ribs with sticky chilli chicken and egg fried rice?

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

Now though it's time for one of the founding fathers of modern

British cooking,

Brian Turner, to cook for an appreciative Nigella Lawson.

What do I get to do? Peel squash of course.

-Merry Christmas, Brian. How are you doing, mate?

-On your bike. These cheap shots.

-You're a star. What are we cooking?

-Well, it is...

-The turkey has shrunk.

It's... It's one man, one turkey.

-Is it?

-One bird for each person.

We've got a lovely classic roast partridge,

but then we're going to marry it with fairly new butternut squash, OK?

-Lovely.

-A bit of honey as well. Nice and sweet. A nice green sauce -

herbs, and nice midget gherkins and capers.

-Lovely.

-First off, pan on and get a bit of oil in here.

When you buy a partridge, make sure it's got a really nice dry skin.

Make sure it's got all the skin. It's got a bit of bruising here.

Try not to get bruising if you can help it. This one is a perfect bird.

It's lovely. Get the pan nice and warm.

Give it a bit of seasoning here.

There's two types of partridge, isn't there?

Red- and grey-legged.

We're grey leg. That's right, in this country.

What season do they run from?

-Is it September?

-The 1st of September to the 1st of February.

-That's the one.

-So the 2nd of February, partridges smile

for the rest of the year if they're still around.

The rest of the time they're running.

My view is that you need to colour this first before you

put it in a hot oven and I like to, with all these birds, be it quail,

partridge, pheasant, chicken, turkey, I like to cook them on their side

so that the leg cooks quicker so that they actually cook at the same time.

You don't have raw breast, or you don't have overcooked breast

and undercooked legs.

-Lovely.

-So on their side like that to get a bit of colour.

And what I've done as well, of course, is

I've put the breasts facing each other so we protect the breast.

This bit, if it's hot on the outside, it burns the backbone.

-It doesn't really matter.

-Because it's quite small.

We need to keep that moisture in there as well.

We do indeed. Because it's a lovely bird. Just remember.

Lots of people think that game birds should always be eaten blood red.

It's not the case with partridge.

You want it so it's cooked all the way through, but not overcooked.

So it's quite important to get it cooked nicely.

And remember you can always put it back in the oven and cook it

a little bit more, but if you overcook it, you can't undercook it.

So it's really a simple thing to do. But people can make a mess of it.

-OK.

-I'm going to turn it over now.

They're starting to get colour there

and that can go in the oven 200, 210 degrees, about 15 minutes.

-I'll put that in.

-Can you do that? I'll just give myself a hand wash.

-You're quite right. OK.

-So this goes in the oven?

-That's right.

We've got these lovely little fellas that have been in here already.

-Excellent. Don't they look good?

-They look fabulous.

-I

-did turn those over halfway through.

-Look at them.

-You get nice juice out of the pan.

-I'll leave those to rest.

This butternut squash is something that Turner would never normally do.

Why is that?

I don't use a peeler for this, I use a knife.

We're going to use a peeler. Look at that, wonderful, you see?

And I think it's really great -

this is one of the fun things about being in the kitchen -

-you can get someone else to do the difficult jobs.

-Thank you.

But it is good to take that off.

I've got a pan here, I'm going to put some butter in here, as well,

and these will take about 15, 20 minutes to do this.

-I grow my own squashes at home in the garden.

-Do you really?

This butternut squash is one of the most popular

squashes there is in the UK.

I think it's because of its colour and shape, not just its size, OK?

Are you going to peel the bulb at the end as well for me?

Well, I don't... Yeah. Do you want that bit?

-Just peel round there, just get on with it.

-Oh, come on!

It's all right you saying that, people out there are watching

-and want to know how to do this perfectly.

-Use a knife.

Oh, forget it, we'll do it without, I'll do that.

What I'm going to do now is, this is the difficult bit,

-so please be careful, OK?

-Do you want a hand with that, chef?

I can handle this bit, this is the professional bit.

I'd have put a cloth underneath, actually.

You would put a cloth underneath it, but if I put it down

he'll pick it up, and I'm not going to let that happen.

Do you want to take the seeds out of there, please, chef?

They are actually very hard to cut, aren't they?

Well, they are if you are not used to it, but once you're used to it...