01/01/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning and Happy New Year.

I'm Matt Tebbutt and I've got a mouthwatering show lined up

to start 2017 off in a tasty fashion.

Trust me, you won't want to go anywhere, so sit back

and enjoy another serving of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

I've got celebrity guests with forks at the ready,

waiting for our world-class chefs to serve up some more top-class food.

Coming up today, James Martin treats comedian Stephen K Amos

to a simple but delicious semolina and honey cake,

Theo Randall shows us a fresh pasta dish

that you can have on the table in 15 minutes.

He keeps it simple, with an artichoke and garlic pasta sauce,

served up with his homemade taglierini.

Then it's time for some Michelin-starred Indian food,

as Atol Kochhar works his magic on the humble chicken.

He cooks a traditional north Indian dish that's all about the warmth

and fragrance of the ginger chutney.

It's served with the chicken and a spicy curry sauce.

Ken Hom and Tom Kitchin go head-to-head

in the Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge,

and it's Tom's first time,

but I think he may have a good chance of beating Ken's slow

and steady approach. Then it's over to Monica Galetti,

who is making a dish that's bang in season.

She's making brined and griddled quail with chestnut,

cranberry and butternut squash salad.

And finally, cricketer Michael Vaughan

faces his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did he get his Food Heaven, beef and ale pie, or did

he end up facing his Food Hell, lamb shank tagine with tabbouleh?

You can find out what he got at the end of the show.

But first, it's over to Paul Rankin,

who learned his trade working under the legendary Roux brothers,

and he's cooking fillet of salmon,

but the real star of this dish is the fennel.

-Mr Paul Rankin.

-Hi, guy.

-How are you doing?

-I'm grand, thanks.

-Good to have you on the show.

-Good, good.

Right, what are we doing? It's a great dish, this.

We're doing salmon with fennel,

basically. And a little bit of red wine vinaigrette,

-so if you could grind up that fennel.

-I've got something to do straight away.

-These are fennel seeds.

-Yeah.

And they're too bitty when they're like this,

-so we need to grind them up.

-There you go.

But they add so much perfume and flavour. I really love it.

Now, fennel bulb, wonderful, wonderful winter vegetable.

Best in the winter.

And what I'm going to use to give it a little sort of topping on it,

a nice little presentation thing are these little sprigs of fennel,

which a lot of people just throw away, you know.

Would you say fennel's quite...?

I would say fennel's quite underrated really,

cos it's a great veg to use,

not just raw in salads, thinly sliced, but slowly cooked.

It's often poorly cooked, I think, is what it is,

-and it puts some people off, you know?

-Right.

So, when it's cooked properly, I think it's really, really delicious.

What do you mean properly cooked?

Cooked long and slow, or is it cooked fast, or...?

I just think when it's cooked by a good cook..

I think a lot of people either cook it to death and ruin it...

-CHARLIE:

-That's no help to the viewers at home.

THEY LAUGH

There's good cooking and there's not good cooking. You know?

And quite often, people will sort of blanch it and they will just

serve it all sort of half cooked, sort of thing.

I love it done in salads or cooked quite soft, actually.

OK, with the salmon, a very simple recipe, this.

-All we do is... A bit of oil on there.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

A bit of salt going on here.

Both sides. Get the oil and salt on there.

Then what we do with this fennel mixture is

we just sort of rub it on top. Quite a lot of it.

Now, fennel and oily fish are really, really delicious.

Mackerel's brilliant with fennel, I don't know about you.

You know, when I was working at the Gavroche with the Roux brothers,

sea bass and fennel was a great thing, you know,

we used to do it all the time.

And a really, really magnificent combination. So, in the pan,

and we're going to do this sort of nice and simple,

almost what I would call housewifey style. Sorry, folks.

-It's just...

-You're not getting any votes, you are.

It's like my mum would do, you know?

Yeah, get the salmon, put it under the grill.

And it's a beautiful, old-fashioned way to cook fish.

-So just whack that under the grill.

-I'll put some butter in the sink for you.

-Good man.

-OK, so, straight under the grill. Hot grill?

-Yeah.

About three minutes on that side, then we'll flip it over.

Look at this.

I got this from America. I was in America last week. You ready?

Like this?

-It's cool, isn't it?

-It's cool. It's a bit of fun.

-I don't know what you do with it.

It's a bit childish, maybe.

It's completely useless, but I think it's brilliant. Look at that!

I was well impressed with that.

-Now, with potatoes...

-10!

-10.

That is a bargain.

I think you should all go to New York and buy yourself one of these.

When we're doing mash in Ireland, we're very fussy, you know?

So you've got to get your potatoes to where they're only just cooked.

And then we put a cloth on top, quite often,

and we'll just dry them.

And what happens is that moisture coming out gets caught in the cloth.

They get lovely and dry, they're delicious. OK, fennel.

A lot of people think, "That's a weird looking thing, I don't know what to do with it."

This is what you do with it, OK?

-Cut it in quarters.

-Yeah.

-A little root in there... Yeah?

-Yeah.

..which we normally take out.

Now, if you were going to have roast fennel, you could leave the root in.

And then you sort of roast it, you get those lovely lines there,

you know?

But what we're going to do is a fennel and potato mash,

so we want to cook it very softly.

You know, pastry chefs love fennel as well.

I know you're going to squirm at me, but chocolate and aniseed,

great combination. Next time you make a baked chocolate cake,

thinly slice the fennel onto your sponge

-and then pour your sponge mixture over the top and bake it.

-James, no.

-It's true.

-No.

-It is true!

-No.

Oh! Anchovies and pears, or something weird.

-No, you're just nuts.

-You could put it in with...

Could you put in some fennel liqueur or something?

Yeah, something like that. I would use veg fennel.

Pernod's a bit too strong.

It would certainly make it more healthy, then, wouldn't it?

-OK.

-Right.

Now, if I'm doing fennel as a garnish for something like this,

I would blanch it first until it's quite soft,

and then I'd just sort of meuniere it, as we call it.

Just saute it off, a little bit of salt and pepper.

And that way, it keeps a lovely sort of aromatic flavour.

A little bit of salt in there. And again, a little bit of ground...

-Come on, boy.

-Go on.

-Throw those in there.

-Whack that in there.

And I just... I just think the seeds add so much flavour.

Now, these seeds, if people have got these at home,

which generally they do, when they got married 25 years ago as

a present, once the label changes colour on the seed, they're ruined.

Yeah, I think the best place to...

buy fennel seeds is at Asian supermarkets,

because they turn over much quicker,

they're a much brighter green, they're much, much better.

-OK. Is that all right?

-Yeah. Just whack some of that in there, James.

Whack some of that in there.

How long will you cook this fennel for now?

Until it's very soft, sort of fondant, we call it, you know?

What, for about 20, 25 minutes, something like that?

It probably won't take quite that long. Sort of 15, 20 minutes.

But nice and slow.

Now, you're turning the fish.

That just wants what, another two minutes, something like that?

-Yes, something like that. OK, nice and soft on that.

-That's fine.

This one here is cooked already.

We lose the colour,

but that's not particularly important for this recipe.

So, now, we're going to just blitz it all up in here,

but what I'm going to do first is add some cream to this.

-Yeah.

-And that will just warm that up.

We'll get the potatoes in there.

-Straight in.

-And, James, if you could just...

I normally wouldn't do potatoes in a food processor like that.

But because we've got the fennel in there, it's going to loosen

-it up, and they're not going to go too gluey, OK?

-Right.

Now, I love...

..fish with red wine sauce. Especially something like salmon or sea bass, you know? So...

You know, classic red wine sauce has got meat stock in it, reduction

of red wine, finished off sometimes with a little bit of butter, etc.

-But it's a very French way of doing it.

-Very French.

-Red wine and fish.

This is so much easier.

This is what I call a little red wine vinaigrette, you know?

So, all I do is, I don't even bother sweating the shallots.

-I just put the shallots into a pan with the red wine...

-Yeah.

..and reduce that down.

-Don't need to sweat them off, nothing, just straight in?

-I just...

Straight in, straight in.

Reduce it down.

Basically until it comes up like this. Yeah?

Now, it's nice to do it a little bit in advance

because the shallots take a little bit of time to absorb the red wine.

So if you can do that ahead of time, you'll get a much nicer result.

I'll leave you to finish that off. I'll go get your fish.

So, a little bit of salt and pepper and sugar going in here.

What did you do with the salt there, James?

Yeah, salt's near me. There you go.

If you've got some red wine that's left over, that's just not

-quite drinkable any more...

-Atta-girl!

-..is that all right to use?

Yeah, use that, absolutely.

Just a dollop on this?

Yeah, a nice sort of quenelle near the back of the plate.

-Yeah, just a...

-JOHN:

-Quenelle? How can you quenelle that?

-Quenelle...

That's plenty, that's plenty. A dollop.

Sort of quenelle-shaped sort of thing.

-So you're just putting butter in there, are you?

-Yeah, put in the butter.

-Right.

And it's, you know, you just sort of stir it, like that.

I'll put the sauce on the plate first.

But the lovely thing about this is it kind of splits.

-Pop that on.

-Then we get the salmon on.

-Lovely. That looks delicious.

Remind us what that is again.

-That's grilled salmon with fennel and red wine vinaigrette.

-Delicious.

Mmm, smells really good. Follow me, Mr Rankin.

-Charlie, get another bite into there.

-Mmm.

Dive into that. Something that you'd attempt at home?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-Try and tempt the kids?

Er, yeah, maybe if you took all the fennel off.

If you took all the fennel off! Dive in.

But the mash would be quite a good idea

to try and get them to experiment with different things.

I think, you know, kids surprise you sometimes.

And I think, also, if you do the potato with the fennel,

it's not as strong and actually the children don't...if you sell

it to them like it's an interesting mash with the fish,

I think they're great with it.

One of the nice things about that sort of sloppy mash is

it's a half sauce, half starchy sort of thing, you know.

So it's working a little bit as a saucy kind of thing as well.

-Great with scallops.

-Great with scallops, yeah.

-Debbie?

-Mmm!

-Oh, it's lovely.

-You like that?

-And it's dead easy to do.

You just shove it under the grill. I could do that.

Even I could do that.

Great tip for mash potato there - pop a cloth over the pan

to dry them out first.

Thanks, Paul.

Coming up, James cooks his semolina and honey cake, but, before that,

it's over to Rick Stein, who's visiting the Foreign Legion.

Hope he's not thinking of leaving us.

THEY SING

Napoleon said that an army marches on its stomach,

and I was quite interested in the French Foreign Legion's food,

because there are so many nationalities involved

that mealtimes for the chefs must be a nightmare,

but they cook simple French dishes.

In the officers' mess, they're making haricots verts wrapped

in bacon, then a salad of gesiers, which are a confit of duck gizzards.

That doesn't sound very nice, but they're lovely.

And in the legionnaires' canteen, it was pasta with duck.

Well, as you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to get in here.

Lots of red tape.

I'm so glad we got here, because I just really like the food.

I'm very hungry, as it happens, and I could eat this.

They've got a tomato salad with Provencal herbs,

they got duck confit and macaroni and a nice mushroom sauce,

and some little amounts of Coca-Cola,

cos it's the army, you see.

But, just look around. I mean, it's just sensational.

These pictures here, they're just sort of...

They're so evocative and I'm sure it's all part of belonging.

You know, I'm just so enthusiastic about the French Foreign Legion,

ever since I was a boy at prep school, reading Beau Geste.

I've still got that enthusiasm and I'm here - I can't believe it.

THEY SING IN UNISON

I've just stood in front of that column marching towards us

singing so slowly and marching so slowly.

I mean, the whole thing is about this sense of esprit,

but this one was incredibly moving and it's odd, really,

because it's so sort of mournful.

It's like a sort of troop of monks singing some dark, Jesuit song.

But there's something also incredibly menacing about it and

you can't sort of explain it,

but you can feel the way that it bonds men together.

These men have joined for all sorts of reasons.

They've left their family and friends,

like Chief Sergeant Andy Robeson.

I joined for adventure.

Nearly 18 summers ago, I took the ferry.

I already spoke French at the time and I decided,

"Yes, let's have a go."

I fancied a working holiday in the south of France and

this was one of the easiest ways to go about it.

Well, this is a lamb tagine in memory of that fantastic day

at Castelnaudary, and the French Foreign Legion.

There's 139 different nationalities in the French Foreign Legion.

It's amazing, but actually it's the North African association

that interests me most.

Funnily enough, I was talking to the chef at the Foreign Legion -

a guy called Big Mac, would you believe? He's actually Burmese.

We couldn't film him, he didn't want to be filmed,

cos his family's still in Burma.

I didn't ask any more questions than that.

But, I asked him whether they cooked couscous and tagines and he said,

"Yeah, quite often. Lamb, fish, vegetarian, you name it."

But it's really the lamb one that I go for most, I think,

cos that's this sort of thing that one associates with Morocco

and Algeria and that sort of thing.

So, this is lamb shank and you can get your butcher to cut it

into manageable-sized pieces for you.

I'm browning them using olive oil, which gives them a lovely colour.

It's always important to do this to any meat used in a stew and,

after all, a tagine is just a stew.

The point is that caramelising the exterior of the meat

vastly improves the flavour and the colour of the finished dish.

Now, into the same pan I'm frying off a paste I made earlier

of garlic, ginger, shallots, red chillies, white peppercorns,

coriander stalks and salt.

Next, two teaspoons of ras el hanout -

that's a pungent mix of spices used all over North Africa.

Then, add chunky pieces of carrot, onions and a little more olive oil.

Coat everything with the paste,

and then in with some more potatoes, both ordinary and sweet.

Three to four sliced tomatoes and a handful of dried apricots.

To accentuate the sweetness, a good tablespoon of honey,

typical of so many North African recipes.

Finally, back in with the meat and a pint or so of stock,

chicken will be fine.

I actually sent somebody out to get me a tagine.

As you can see, you couldn't fit

more than about one hungry person's portion in there.

It's a bit like Spinal Tap.

You know, the film where they have this sort of backdrop of Stonehenge,

but somebody had got the measurements wrong and it was

sort of like 17 inches rather than 17 feet.

But, that's a proper piece of equipment,

but this will do just as well.

Three to four bay leaves and a little salt and we're going to

let that cook away gently until you're ready for it.

Now, this is traditionally eaten with couscous,

which is coarsely ground durum wheat or semolina.

"Semolina" means "semi-milled".

It's the same stuff that's used to make pasta.

You just add boiling water and when it's all soaked up,

coat it in a little melted butter and a splash of olive oil

so that it doesn't clump up and that's ready to go.

I think Big Mac and the rest of those tough legionnaires

would enjoy my version of the tagine,

and it'll certainly always remind me of my day with them.

Virtually anything can be cooked in a tagine,

but it seems as though this sweet and savoury combination

has particularly captured the European imagination,

largely thanks to Arab tradesmen,

who brought it to Europe in medieval times.

As always, wonderful stuff from Rick.

Tagines aren't the only great dish to come from that part of the world.

There are also some delicious sweet things you can try.

I'm going to show you a great dish that I've come across,

which is a honey and semolina cake. Very, very simple.

It's got no eggs in it. It's quite a dense cake,

but it tastes wonderful when you soak it in this liquor at the end.

So, first thing, we've got some sugar, flour,

orange zest - that will become important when you do the syrup -

some semolina, a little bit of baking powder,

some almonds, butter and milk.

Mix the whole thing together and then we're going to top it with

a syrup made out of water, a little bit of honey, and this stuff.

Orange blossom water. What does that remind you of?

It used to be potpourri.

You know, actually, I was going to say, this funny-smelling thing

and semolina - the last time I even heard the word semolina was 1986.

Thanks! Thanks, Stephen. I'm bigging up this dish.

I'm just intrigued that you're going to make a cake.

Anyway, we'll just throw it all in...

But, your childhood, spent travelling around London

-in various different places.

-Yes.

Your parents were thought to be property developers,

but you thought otherwise as kids, didn't you?

Yeah, we thought we were in the witness protection programme.

It's true, cos they used to buy and sell houses and I had loads of

different primary schools, loads of different mates and, erm...

But it was quite fun though, because I come from quite a big family,

and there's about, ooh...there's seven... About? I should know!

About? Six and a half?

There are seven children in total and I'm joint third,

because I'm a twin. I've got a twin sister.

But, I mean, this childhood, was it a fight when you were growing up?

Is that why you went into comedy,

to try and be the best and the loudest person in the family?

Well, you had to be kind of noticed somehow and, you know,

it was quite easy to get lost within such a big family,

that I used to do kind of really silly things like, you know,

twirling on the spot, seeing how fast I could go.

Jumping off the stairs one step at a time,

seeing how far I could get.

Erm, I won the last one,

cos I pushed my brother at the top of the stairs,

which led to other games - who could cry the loudest,

-who could hide from Mum the longest.

-Yeah.

My sister won in '87, cos we've not seen her since.

We used to have a game.

We used to have a fishing rod and they attach it to something

at the top of the stairs and it would slowly come down the stairs,

bounce down, like a cuddly toy, and you'd have to guess what it was.

Till my sister decided to put my mother's Parker chair and pushed it

to the top of the stairs and it went straight through the front door.

I was really impressed with that one. I guessed what it was though.

You don't want to try that one at home. But, anyway, right...

I can't top that story. Can't top it at all.

We weren't allowed to go up the stairs.

-You weren't allowed?

-Yeah, that's how strict my parents were.

But, I mean, talking of comedy... Cos it wasn't till what,

2001, when you were at the Edinburgh festival?

It seems most of the comedians we know about now,

the Edinburgh festival is a key thing.

-It's still a key thing for you, isn't it?

-It's a very key thing.

This is probably my 11th year going up to Edinburgh.

Because you get a chance to experiment and do, like,

more than a 20-minute set.

You'd normally do an irregular club.

You do an hour's show.

And it's a level playing field, cos people come and see you or

they don't, your posters are everywhere, and I just have a laugh.

I love the Scottish people, cos the Scottish people,

they say it like it is.

They don't mess about. I was in a fish and chip shop in Edinburgh...

Surprise, surprise!

Eating up there is a very difficult thing to do

because you're there working every single night.

You don't get time to cook anything.

So I went into a fast food shop. Fish and chips.

I said to the woman, "Excuse me, love. Is that cod or haddock?"

She went, "Fish."

You can't really fight with that, can you?

Can't really fight with that one, can you?

I would say predominantly up north -

being a Yorkshireman, I like my fish and chips -

if fish has got skin on, it's haddock.

And if you ask for fish and chips up north,

it's predominantly haddock, whereas down south, it's cod.

-Right.

-There you go. That's the difference.

-So do I...?

-I'll give you a recipe, you'll cook it yourself.

When it's battered, you can't tell.

You can. Flip it over to see the skin on it.

And if it's got a line running down the centre of the skin,

-then it's haddock.

-Ah!

-There you go.

-I'm going to do that next time.

And also, you can get deep fried Mars Bars up north.

-You can get a lot of things.

-What's all that about?

-I don't know what that's all about.

-Are we at war?

Yeah, I don't know. Look at this. This is our new tin.

It's a new year, and we've got a new tin.

Unfortunately, we haven't got a new spatula,

cos this thing is useless.

LAUGHTER

-This is...

-You just don't know your own strength, James.

No, this is the department

that we've got looking for new and innovative items.

Look. This is just brilliant, innit? We get a new tin... Look at that.

You've just taken me back to my childhood as well,

cos I'm looking at that bowl and something inside me

wants to put my finger round it and lick it.

-Is it nice?

-Ooh, you'll be sorry.

-Yeah, it is.

There's no eggs in it there, so you'll be fine.

And what we do is just literally spoon that over the top of there.

But, I mean, talking of Edinburgh,

but you've gone quite a lot to the other side of the globe. Melbourne.

Yes. Melbourne, Australia. I go to Australia quite a bit.

Melbourne Comedy Festival is quite a big one on the calendar.

It's every, kind of, March

and thankfully the audiences kind of get me,

so when I released my DVD at the end of, er...

-..November last year, we filmed it in Sydney, in Australia.

-Right.

It's quite nice. Very exciting.

What is it about the Aussies and British comedy, then?

Or do you have to adapt it for their comedy or not?

Do you know what? People always say to me, "Oh, aren't they different?"

But the point is they speak English.

-It's our language that we leant them.

-Well, kind of.

Well, they kind of messed it up a little bit, but essentially we speak

the same language and once you can do that, then you're halfway there.

And the Aussies, like the Scots, they like to laugh at themselves.

-AUSTRALIAN ACCENT:

-They don't take things too seriously.

-You can laugh at them right in their faces.

-Sounds good to me.

And sometimes, they don't even get it!

Right, this goes in the oven. 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about 170 degrees Centigrade.

It wants to go in for about 30-40 minutes

and we end up with what we've got here.

Now, before you actually serve that, what you need to do is soak it,

and we're going to soak it in a syrup of water, some honey...

That's quite a hot pan, actually.

In fact, I've probably got no water left at this rate.

In a hot pan, and then some of this orange blossom water.

But a small amount. Whoa! That's it.

-No more than that. There you go.

-Is that alcoholic?

No. It's just really, really strong. My granny used to put it on...

You know the toilet roll cover with the Barbie doll on top?

-No.

-You didn't have one of those?!

-No.

The old knitted toilet roll cover, to keep it warm?

-No.

-My granny thought of everything. She's thought of everything.

But anyway, you've got a tour coming up. Tell us about your tour.

I have got a massive tour coming up.

I'm going to go all over the country.

-60-odd dates, innit, this thing?

-75.

-75?!

-75 dates.

We started some of it early, towards the end of last year,

and we're finishing the next half

and we end up at the Hammersmith Apollo in February

and hopefully we'll do another DVD then.

-Exciting.

-Another DVD. Cos they're hugely popular at Christmastime,

-aren't they, these DVDs?

-Well, do you know,

I think because of all the kind of horrible things, negativity

happening around the world, people do genuinely want a bit of release.

And what better way to find some release than through laughter?

So what's your tour all about then? What's the theme of it?

It's called The Feel-Good Factor. Yeah?

And basically I want people to leave all their problems at the door,

to know that they can come and see my gig

and laugh solidly for two hours.

I've got no rhyme, no reason, no axe to grind, no secret agenda.

It's just laughs. And we all like a laugh, don't we?

We do like a laugh, absolutely.

You might get one when you taste this. There we go.

With a bit of cream over the top.

-Just a little bit of cream.

-That's lovely.

Tell me what you think of this.

-It's semolina.

-Semolina, right.

I know you've probably had semolina, like you said, ages ago.

-But not in cake form.

-Taste it in the cake. I think it's all right.

-With that syrup.

-It looks stunning. Come on.

Sounds good?

That's really good.

You sound surprised!

But you've got... Tell us about your...

Cos I'm interested in what's happening. You know, 2010.

-Exciting things for you.

-Oh, very exciting.

I can reveal hot news off the press.

I will be filming and making a comedy show for BBC Two.

-So coming straight out of the tour, straight into the studio.

-Yeah.

-I'm excited about that.

-Best of luck with it.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Due to past experiences, I don't think Stephen was expecting

to like that cake, so, proof - semolina isn't all bad.

Now, today we're taking a look back

at some of the tastiest recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archives,

and there's still a full menu of mouth-watering food to be served.

Up next, Theo Randall, who, like the Italians,

is keeping it simple with a dish that's all about artichokes.

And apparently it can be made in minutes.

And we're starting off the New Year with some Italian magic

from this man. It's Theo Randall.

On the menu, we've got artichokes, I see there.

Lovely, lovely fresh artichokes.

So what are we going to do with them, Chef?

So we're going to do a simple pasta.

-You've got taglierini pasta.

-Now, this is yours. You made this.

I made this last night. Look at it. It's beautiful.

There's 20 egg yolks per kilo of flour for that,

so that's why it's so rich in colour.

I thought you put yellow food colouring in it.

No, no saffron in it.

So what we've got, we've got artichokes - the small,

little, tame artichokes, which are very, very...

Quite young, and that's why they're so pointed.

Parmesan, black truffle...

-Sounds pretty good.

-Bit of parsley, garlic.

-Nice and simple, then.

-Very simple.

-So we're going to prepare these artichokes.

So take the outer leaves off.

Now, the thing about the stem of an artichoke - it's quite tender.

Can you see that, there? That round bit? It's very tender.

What people tend to do is they tend to take the whole stem off,

which wastes so much of the artichoke.

You want to keep some of the stem on...

Are these particularly good with the young artichokes?

-You wouldn't want to do that with the larger ones.

-The larger ones...

You can do, but they're a little bit stringy.

So we're just going to peel the stem down

and kind of waste as little as possible.

Just take all the dark green bits off, and then cut the top.

Now, the reason for this - these are in season at the moment, then?

-Very much so.

-Yeah?

-And then we're just going to cut the artichoke in half.

-Yeah.

And then just use the little melon baller.

Artichoke's the same family as the thistle, so you get that kind

of very sort of thistly centre bit, which isn't very nice.

You want to cut that out.

But the younger ones sometimes -

particularly smaller ones than this -

don't even have the choke in it at all.

When they're really small - the ones they use for pickling,

they have no choke at all.

The best thing to do with those is just to boil them

with some thyme and some garlic and then just marinade them.

They're absolutely delicious. So just get the artichoke,

cut it flat side down

and then just cut some nice thin slices of artichoke.

Like so. So, you take the whole length of the artichoke

and then get a little bit of garlic

and then we just put some olive oil,

bit of garlic, not too much, in the oil

and then soften that slightly.

There is hardly any choke in here, though... These ones.

-It's not a lot.

-Look how soft they are as well.

They're very sort of tender.

That's what you want. So I'm just going to chop these ones up.

-Length-wise?

-Length-wise.

So, pop them in the pan.

A bit more.

Just the stems, yeah.

So take those bits off, and then in the pan.

I think the reason why we don't eat so much of it in the UK is

people don't know what to do with it, really, preparation-wise.

I think it's the preparation,

and also the ones you tend to get in the UK tend to be these really big,

bulbous ones, which actually are quite tough and it puts people off.

If you can, just try and get these small ones,

cos they just are so sweet in flavour.

I mean, the big ones are good, but you've got to treat them very,

very differently. You cook them in a Blanc, don't you?

Yeah, you've got to either boil just the choke,

or you've got to chop them up, but they can be a bit tough.

So, I'm just going to put some water in here

and we're going to put the lid on,

and we're going to cook this very, very quickly.

-Also waste-wise, I think, really.

-There is a lot of wastage.

Do you put a little bit of garlic in there as well?

A little bit of garlic. Chuck that in,

and then I'll put my pasta in.

So, taglierini into some salt...

Always, always be careful - you always salt your pasta water.

It's like boiling potatoes.

If you don't put salt in the water when you cook them,

the pasta won't have the flavour you want.

Where does that myth

about adding oil to pasta water come from?

I think the idea of it is so it doesn't stick, but I don't do it.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't think it really works.

-So the secret is plenty of water?

-Plenty water.

Loads and loads of water. Loads of boiling water.

OK, so, let's look at our artichokes.

So, they cook incredibly quickly cos they're very thinly sliced.

Now, you made that pasta, you said overnight,

but you can't make that pasta and cook it straight away?

If you make pasta, then roll it and cook it straight away,

what tends to happen - it goes quite slimy.

The pasta needs to be dry, cos it's got to have a bite.

The thing about pasta is it's nice

to have that kind of chewiness to it.

If it's too slimy it becomes very heavy and it's not as palatable.

-OK.

-OK, can you chop some parsley for me?

-I'll chop that. Yeah.

OK, so we've got some cream

and we're going to add a little bit of cream.

The cream's just almost to emulsify it.

It goes really nicely with the Parmesan and the truffle.

So we put a little bit of cream in there.

2014 starts off a busy for you because the restaurant is

-unbelievably busy.

-We've just had a very busy period, yeah.

Very busy, but you are jetting off to warmer climates as well

on this food festival.

I'm going to the Abu Dhabi Food Festival

which should be really good fun.

I'm doing a restaurant at the Intercontinental for four days

and then doing the big grand dinner there, which should be fun.

-It should be good.

-Italian food over there?

I'm doing an Italian restaurant so, yes, it's going to be

Italian... Theo Randall, trying out a bit of time in Abu Dhabi.

So you've put some double cream in there?

Double cream in there and then we get some Parmesan,

just grate some Parmesan. And our pasta's cooking.

Now, Parmesan cheese,

whenever you go to Italy it's almost like rich cream...

Smell that. That came from the restaurant.

Yeah, this is... The Parmesan cheese that you have over in Italy,

I think is a lot of the time very different to the stuff that

you buy in the supermarkets because they age it a lot more, don't they?

Yes, the thing with Parmesan,

when it's packaged and put into those cellophane wrappers

it tends to lose a bit of its flavour.

-I'll grate a bit more of this.

-But it's a really good way of using artichokes.

You don't need that many artichokes.

That's the great thing about pasta and pasta sauces - you can use

reasonably expensive ingredients and it goes a really long way.

So we'll just mix that all together.

Can you come back on again and show us

how to do the large globe artichokes?

Because my producer has an obsession

with trying to get me to do it.

For the last seven years, I've tried to put it off.

-I'd love to.

-The large one.

You cook it very differently, don't you?

You cook it with flour and lemon juice, water.

The best to do with them is to boil them first and then cook them.

You can then put them in breadcrumbs or flour and milk and deep-fry them. They're delicious.

That is incredible.

-It looks like saffron pasta.

-Yeah. So, then put that in.

The most important thing about pasta

is always take some of the pasta water

and take the pasta out with a tong or a scoop or something.

The thing to do... Stand back. ..is to toss the pasta.

-You can mess up your shirt, not mine!

-I know.

The thing about it is you want to use the starch from the pasta

to thicken the sauce.

You basically make it quite wet, almost soup-like,

and then you just use the starch in that pasta,

just keep tossing it, and it will come out.

-Can you see it getting thicker? It's almost emulsifying.

-Yeah.

-The Parmesan's in there already?

-The Parmesan... Let's put a little bit more in.

Then just check the seasoning. I'll just check that.

Now, you haven't cooked this pasta all the way through, then?

-You've kept it...

-I've kept it really nice and al dente.

It's important to have the pasta with a nice chewiness to it.

Cos it's quite nice with the artichokes.

You've got the texture of the artichokes as well -

a little bit of bite to it as well.

With you putting quite a lot of salt in the water,

-do you need to season it?

-Yes, you need to season it less

but you need to make sure that there is seasoning in there.

But also there's Parmesan as well which is quite salty,

so you've got to be quite careful.

-All the sauce is basically absorbed into the pasta?

-Yeah. Exactly.

And it's very important that you actually cook the sauce and

pasta together, because then the pasta tastes of the sauce

as opposed to having two different things.

You know, like how you can actually taste the sauce

-with the actual pasta.

-Yeah.

-OK, so, artichokes on top.

Then the final bit, which you found so difficult to find - the truffle.

-But this is Autumn truffle.

-Let's use this one.

-Yeah.

And then a nice shaving of Autumn truffle all over the top.

And there you have a delicious tagliarini with artichokes,

cream, Parmesan and black truffle.

That's pretty good, that, isn't it?

It looks pretty good to me, does that. It smells fantastic.

I'm going to take this with me cos one of these crew...

Camera one will nick it! There you go.

Right, dive into that.

-Tell us what you think of that.

-Smells lovely. It really does.

So you're looking in the wrong place to find truffles. Basingstoke.

-Is that where you get them?

-I went looking...

I went truffle-hunting in Basingstoke on the motorway...

-I did. I found them.

-By the lay-by.

And they weren't covered in chocolate either.

-They were proper truffles.

-They do smell lovely, those.

-Happy with that?

-Mm!

-So simple, that's the key to it.

-That's it, that's it.

Italian food is all about simplicity.

And that pasta is fantastic as well, isn't it?

It's really, really sort of...

There's lots of egg yolk in it, so it's got that kind of bite to it.

-It's got a lovely colour to it as well.

-There you go.

So, there you go. If you live in Basingstoke,

get out truffle-hunting.

Who knew? Thanks for that, Theo. Now, time for a true TV legend,

it's the amazing Keith Floyd.

Yes, Hector, I've finally done it - my very own desert island.

There's not a soul on here but me.

Well, apart from the director, cameraman and that lot,

I'm entirely alone.

Lord of all I survey.

My larder is the sea and the coconut trees

and the only footprints in the sand will be mine...

or Pauls', or David's, or Timmy's or Steve's...

If you know what you're doing, Hector, you'll never starve here.

These funny-looking creatures are sea cucumbers.

Once cleaned and blanched, they're quite tasty.

And these tiny, sweet, succulent rock oysters, highly nutritious,

but unfortunately you need 500 of them to satisfy a normal appetite.

'Nevertheless, they're a pretty good bite of the sea.'

These are sea eagles. You can't eat them,

but I thought you'd just like to see them there, Hector.

The lizards here are supposed to be tasty

but I'd rather see them strolling about.

Oh, yes, to wander around these warm waters with my spinning rod

in search of lunch is the stuff of dreams.

Especially if you have the foresight

to call up the fishmongers on the way here.

As Confucius says, "Give a man a fish" et cetera.

You know. You've heard it before.

Ha! The perfectly opened coconut,

an essential ingredient for my next dish,

which is, quite simply, coconut curried fish.

First, coconut into the saucepan.

Second, some fillets of fish straight into the coconut milk.

In these tropical islands, we don't need things like French

fumees, French reductions of white wine, shallots,

wine vinegar, all those kind of things,

just everything that nature gave us.

Right, pop that on

and simmer away for a while and now, if you would, Paul, please,

we'll have a quick spin around the ingredients.

Down here.

First of all, any fillets of fish you like.

We had a choice of red snapper, breams, trevallies, mackerel.

I, in fact, used red snapper.

Then we have fresh ginger, shallots, lime juice, chillies,

fresh turmeric, salt, fish paste, prawn fish paste, powdered turmeric,

sugar, and finally coconut milk.

That is it.

Now then, think for a moment, my dear friends, of the coconut.

I mean, it's done so much for us, hasn't it?

In fact, it's done so much

I need a little walk around the island to think about coconuts.

Monkeys pick coconuts in these parts, around 400 a day,

and they do it for peanuts.

Little boys make footballs out of the tough stems of the leaves.

Old ladies remove the husks to use as fuel and matting.

Knives are used expertly to prise away the shells,

which are burnt for charcoal.

The meat of the coconut is ground into tiny succulent flakes,

then it is squeezed by hand to make a rich coconut milk.

Finally you can make baskets,

and the palm leaves make excellent roofs.

Oh, and coconut oil stains shirts very badly, as you'll see.

Now, while you were away,

I took the fillets of fish out of the coconut milk

and reserved them there.

And if you follow me over here, please,

Paul, I then fried the shallots until they were crispy golden brown.

That's very important. Right, next, we put in the chillies.

They go straight in and sizzle away in the oil.

Then we put in the finely chopped ginger.

Give the oil a moment or two to recover

because as you pour cold things into hot oil,

it obviously slows down a bit

so you need to just let it regain its frying speed.

OK. We've got that happening nicely now.

Ooh! Ginger and chillies and golden shallots. They smell fabulous.

On my desert isl... By the way, we've renamed this island.

It's called Floyd Island.

Right, that's gone in. Then we put in the fresh turmeric.

Lovely orange... Wonderful colours, aren't they?

Then, this is very interesting,

can we have a good, fat close-up on that please, Paul?

This is shrimp paste, or fish paste.

You can buy it quite easily

in your Asian supermarkets and delicatessens.

It's a very, very strong concentrate of fish.

Essential for these fish curries.

Fine. Then a little bit of ground turmeric goes into that.

Stir that around really, really well.

Sorry, a grind of pepper

or a shake of pepper.

Mix that fish paste right into the oil

so it all amalgamates beautifully.

We're getting going quite well.

Then we put in some sugar. Up here in north-east Malaysia,

they really do like their curries sweet. This is not an exaggeration.

They love them sweet and creamy.

And the most wonderful of all things that we add

is some thick coconut cream.

OK.

Look at that.

Oh, boy.

Then...

not only do they like things sweet and hot,

they like them a little bit sour, as well.

So, a perfect souring agent is three or four freshly squeezed limes.

That goes into there.

Like so.

I can't emphasise enough that you must keep stirring this

to amalgamate all the flavours

and to make sure you crunch that fish paste, that shrimp paste,

right into the sauce.

Just a little...

Mm! It's... Oh, my goodness me,

I haven't even put the fish in yet, and it tastes like heaven!

I must have a quick slurp. Excuse me.

Celebrate with a slurp - which, by the way, as you know,

means all of this month I'm going to be so fit

and bright-eyed and bushy tailed,

because not a drop of alcohol is passing my lips.

Ah!

Mango juice.

Right, the final little thing now is to pop our fillets of fish,

which are almost cooked,

into the sauce...

like that...

and like that...

and like that...

..and we just let that simmer away, now,

really for only about 10 or 15 minutes,

until the fish has absorbed the flavours of the coriander,

the ginger, the chillies, the turmeric, the coconut milk,

the lime juice, all those wonderful things.

A big fat lingering close-up on that, please, Paul.

Good. Well, that's been 20 minutes or so, simmering away there,

and I must say, it looks absolutely superb.

Onto the authentic banana palm, of course.

And, boy, this is quite a little feast.

Mm!

That is... I know you've seen that grin before,

but it's authentic, it's real, it's delicious.

HE CHUCKLES

Thank you.

I've always thought it would be marvellous

to be a real-life castaway for a year -

but I forget about those little stinging insects you can hardly see,

the loneliness, the pubs - or lack of them.

I'm sure if I was here any longer,

I'd spend my time thinking up desert island dishes,

like these superb prawns cooked in the hot red spicy curry,

flavoured with tamarind and coriander

and served with a cooling samble of cucumbers.

Oh, I could eat that now - but, unfortunately,

this is a dream sequence,

and it's another two hours before the boat comes.

Robinson Crusoe I am not.

Now, while these women collect shellfish at low tide,

we'll have a little history lesson,

because - well, because.

As you know, Hector, food and recipes are a result of battles,

conquests and trade - and Malaysia's had its fair share of those.

Up here on the northeast peninsula,

the Muslim influence runs deep,

but once upon a time, the people who lived here were Hindus.

Then the traders from East Bengal and other areas of India came,

and introduced the new faith along the trade routes.

That's probably why many of their dishes here

have a strong Indian influence -

spicy curries and the like.

Actually, Hector, it feels more like North Africa to me.

Simple, uncompromising and timeless.

And careful shopping for the family meal is a time-honoured process

of bargaining and selecting the best ingredients,

and in a place with few formal amusements,

the daily market is an important social event, too.

I don't know how many converts there are to Californian hippydom -

or Eagles fans,

but this coast is definitely on the backpackers trial of enlightenment.

You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

There's a hundred-mile stretch of coastline here,

and not one single high-rise to spoil the view.

Yet.

Here endeth the history lesson -

and now on to my next cooking sketch.

One of the nicest dishes I've experienced here in Malaysia

is tamarind chicken -

that's if I can make myself heard between the cicadas and the waves,

I'll explain it to you.

So, Paul, no further ado - straight on to the ingredients,

which we have.

First of all, shallots, very finely chopped, salt,

coriander, finely chopped garlic,

sugar - white or brown, you can use,

I'm going to use this rather splendid palm sugar -

and the star of the show is, in fact, tamarind.

Now, let me lift that up to you really closely, OK?

Now, back up to me, please.

Tamarind is a broad-bean-like pod, salted and dried,

and eventually turns into a mushy kind of date sort of substance.

You'll find it in your supermarkets quite easily.

So, what you have to do, first of all,

is tip the tamarind into the pot -

and, as you can see, it's covered in little stones

and all unctuous and gooey and things like that.

So, you have to make a marinade

by pouring in some boiling water onto that.

Like so.

What you should do at this stage, with your fingers, with your hands,

get right in there and squeeze all the pulp off the stones

and then, after it's cool - it's far too hot for me to do it now -

you strain it back through into another saucepan, OK?

Well, I'm going to pretend I've done that,

cos it's very hot out here,

and I want to get back into my jacuzzi and my air-conditioned room.

So, we've got the tamarind and the water, there -

we then add a good dollop of rich, dark, thick soy sauce, OK?

Then we add - you might as well stay on this pot for a moment, Paul.

Then we add the shallots, like so.

Then the garlic.

Like so.

And, of course, salt and coriander can both go in.

Now, back up to me for a second,

because you can use any kind of sugar -

white sugar, demerara sugar -

but here in Malaysia they have these wonderful discs of palm sugar,

and it's absolutely scrumptious.

It's a cross between... Mm!

..honey, fudge and toffee. It's delicious!

So, you plant one of those in, OK,

and you let the whole lot steep till it's all cool and all lovely.

In the meantime, you take a lovely free-range chicken,

chop it into joints, plop it into there -

I won't chop it up now, because I've already done that -

throw that in there, and you end up with -

come over here a little bit, please -

you end up with this. A wonderful, smelly, spicy, sweet, sour marinade,

lovely joints of chicken, little specks of garlic,

and shallots in there -

and all you have to do...now...

First I must get rid of that. Stay there a sec.

Get rid of that. All you then have to do is pop this into a saucepan...

..and let it simmer gently away

for about 40 minutes.

There is an ancient saying here

that when the lizard and the field vole

smell the scent of tamarind from their burrows,

then the meat is cooked, and it's time to serve.

I presented it to my latest chum Osman -

a devout Muslim and a serious gourmet -

and asked him to be honest in his judgment.

Well, it tastes good.

-Certainly better than my wife.

-Good Lord!

-FLOYD LAUGHS

-Indeed.

-I enjoyed.

-And it's fairly authentic, is it?

-Yes, yes.

-Even though I'm a European...

-Yes, indeed, indeed.

You have done a good job.

Thank you. Wow! Hey, that's quite good, isn't it?

I don't know many Muslims, more's the pity,

but there's one thing I've always wondered about.

It's the business of marrying more than one wife.

Is it accepted or frowned upon?

I'd rather say it's a good deed having extra wife,

-probably avoiding adultery.

-Mm.

And we are introducing certain laws now -

I can marry an extra wife, with the condition if my wife allows me,

and, of course, if I'm capable - financially healthy.

If I've got extra, why not?

But I think one wife's already too much.

FLOYD LAUGHS

There's an old saying here,

used among the villagers of the northeast coast -

the chicken who eats the flesh of the coconut from the table

is getting nearer to the pot.

That's about someone being too big for their boots, I suppose.

No names, no pack-drill, of course.

The daily routine is simple.

Family spend most of the mornings grinding fresh spices with oil

to create strong pastes to use in curries and stews

which they sell in the market.

The art of cooking here is learnt young.

In a house built on stilts, I borrowed a kitchen,

and with great trepidation,

I started to cook possibly the most famous dish in Malaysia -

a beef rendang.

Now, around here - back on me just a sec, Paul.

Around here, normally, they would use buffalo meat for this.

Now, I was talking to the chef of the hotel where I'm staying,

he said, "Yeah, we do use buffalo meat,

"but I think for you Westerners,

"you ought to have tenderloin or something like that."

I don't know whether he was putting me down or not,

but the advantage of using this tenderer cut of meat

is I can cook much more quickly,

which is one of the big bones of contention

I always have with my director -

he's forever saying to me, "Can you just take three minutes

"to do this, please?

"I mean, film's very expensive and we want to get on

"with the next shots and do all the scenery and things like that,"

and it's always a problem, he's always chasing me

when, in fact, I need hours to cook these things, really.

Right, that's there.

Give those a twizzle round.

Little bit of salt and pepper.

Those weigh in.

Now, once the meat is sealed, which that just about is,

we can add - and, by the way, you can add this mixture

of the chillies, the onions and the garlic, and so on and so forth,

but I did crush that in the pestle and mortar,

because, here, I wasn't able to use my trusty electric machine.

And they were watching me while I was doing this thinking, you know,

"Why isn't he rolling it out on a stone in the pavement?"

It's the sort of thing they'd do - but there it is.

CHICKENS CLUCK

You might hear some odd chickens and cockerels clucking away in the back,

because they actually live underneath the houses here.

The houses are on stilts.

The houses are on stilts, and that's where they keep all their livestock,

so, if you suddenly hear a quack or cock-a-doodle-do...

COCK-A-DOODLE-DO! ..it's real,

it isn't just added on by the sound editor.

BAA! Right, that's in. That's good.

The next thing to go in is the turmeric, OK?

Ground turmeric.

Quite a lot of that.

I mean, there are no measurements here in Malaysia.

Everybody cooks. It's a country which staggers me,

because everybody - children, men, wives -

they don't go to school about it,

it's something they do from the time they're about three years old.

Everybody cooks. They don't weigh things -

there's no such things as scales in Malaysia.

Right, there's the coriander in...

..which is very important.

Then our wonderful tamarand extract...

Tamarind, actually. Tamarind.

Now, then, the lemon or lime leaves - doesn't matter which.

These happen to be lemon leaves, but you can use lemon or lime leaves,

four or five of those to add more pungency to the dish.

Then a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice.

Like that. And then, last but absolutely not least,

is the double thick, creamy coconut milk.

Where would we be without it?

Oh, look - Paul, back in there again, a minute,

because that is beautiful.

It really is beautiful.

And that's going to simmer away now for about -

probably 40 minutes or so.

Right, that's long enough, Paul, thank you.

That will simmer away for about 40 minutes.

The next time you see it, there'll be a bunch of very curious,

very worried, very concerned, proper grown-up Malaysians

thinking, "Have I got to eat that?"

This is the absolute moment of truth,

the moment I've been dreading,

to see whether my beef rendang is real or not.

Have some first?

Nobody's saying a word!

I don't know what's happening.

What do they think?

'Cookery tip - the Malaysians, I've since found,

'prefer their beef to practically disappear in the gravy,

'and not, as we like it, in chunks.

'Probably because they like to mix it with the sticky rice

'and eat with their fingers.'

Well, I like it.

The drying and preserving of fish

is the key to survival for these villagers.

There are no refrigerators here,

and it is an industry that, again, involves the whole family.

Most of the fish here is simply split open,

soaked in brine for an hour or so,

and then put on these frames under a hot sun for the whole day.

Dried fish in this part of Malaysia are like pizzas back at home.

You buy them on the way back from work, and they vary in price

from the humble and inexpensive squid,

a mainstay of many local dishes,

to the noble grouper.

Anyway, Hector, I shall be bringing you a nice dried snapper -

and this is what you do with it.

You simply chop it up into handy bite-sized chunks

and whack it into a curry dish

flavoured with coconut, lemon grass and galangal.

Then you add chillies, spring onion tops,

tomatoes, shallots and garlic,

and then you boil the whole thing for 20 minutes

until the flesh of the fish has softened.

It's quite delicious.

I just hope they let me come through customs with it.

He really is something else.

Now, this week on Best Bites, we're looking back

at some of the best recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show...

Ken Hom and Tom Kitchin go head-to-head

in the omelette challenge -

and this time we've allowed Ken to use a wok.

Monica Galetti embraces winter

with a dish that's all about seasonal produce -

she makes brined and griddled quail

with chestnut, cranberry and butternut squash salad,

and batsman Michael Vaughan faces his food heaven or food hell.

Did he get his food heaven, beef and ale pie,

or did he end up with his food hell, lamb shank tagine with tabbouleh?

You can find out what he got at the end of the show.

Now time for Atul Kochhar,

who's making a traditional North Indian dish

where ginger is literally the star of the show.

So, on the menu today - I mentioned the ginger.

-You did. You've done the job.

-There's masses of ginger here.

So, what's the dish called?

-Well, it's originally called murg adraki...

-Yeah.

..but what I have done, James...

Does that translate to much, or what?

It translates to chicken flavoured with ginger.

-Right, OK.

-Originally, it used to be a curry...

-Yeah.

..but what I've taken instead of taking it just simple curry,

I've taken it from north to south of India,

so I've used influences from both the countries, and I've cut a -

-instead of just making with chicken supreme, or chicken thighs...

-Yeah.

-..I've made a roulade out of it.

-OK.

So, I've got mince and I've got two breasts here...

I won't go through all the ingredients at this stage,

otherwise that'll take eight minutes, but...

-OK, I've got salt...

-Yeah.

-..chicken mince, pepper,

-and I've got ginger, of course.

-Ginger.

-Sorry...

-This is some of the diced ginger.

-Diced ginger,

and a pinch of garam masala.

-That goes in.

-Yeah.

And I've got some chilli, red chilli, and spring onion,

-which goes in the mince.

-Right.

That should do.

So, it's almost like a little stuffing filling.

It's a filling, yeah. Absolutely.

And then I'll make a roulade out of it and poach it in chicken stock.

-Yeah.

-And then we'll sear the stock.

The ginger you're slicing for me,

that'll be for the chutney.

-Right.

-Which is from South India, from Kerala,

they call it inji chutney.

-Inji chutney?

-Inji chutney.

-Right.

I need to bat this first.

-Where is it? Here is the mallet.

-Yeah.

And what would this traditionally be served with?

Vegetarian dishes, or what?

-While we do the base of this.

-What, the chutney?

-Yeah.

-The chutney would be...

-Just the chutney.

It would be just a ginger chutney,

and it could be served with a snack,

-or even a meat course.

-Right.

But this one, I've made one chutney

and another caramelised onion ginger sauce.

Yeah. Cos this seems to me, you take influences,

and when you go to your restaurants and stuff,

you take influences from not just the north but the south,

and there's so many different influences

to take from, isn't there, really?

And different regions in India.

That's right - there are so many regions,

and that's the beauty of it,

you can actually make the fusion of Indian food itself.

And then, living in the UK,

I'm quite spoiled for the products and the ingredients,

so I just use all of it,

so my food really is kind of British-Indian fusion.

But it is kind of, you know, that fusion takes place in India.

You've got all the different spices, not just from India

but from all over the world, as well.

James, the fusion has always taken place in India,

for a very long time, historically,

because India has always used flavours

which have been thrown into...

-through the different invasions and trade.

-Yep.

-So, we have had Mogul and Turks, English, Portuguese, Dutch.

-Yeah.

So, different people have come through,

and they have brought in so many things.

So, what are we doing here, then?

So, here, I've just made a kind of a sausage, so to speak...

-Yeah.

-..and you can tie it so that it doesn't come out.

Do you ever cook with tea?

-Sorry?

-Do you ever cook with tea?

Have I ever cooked with tea? Yes, I have.

Are there Indian recipes with tea?

Cos there's a lot of tea in India, isn't there?

ATUL LAUGHS

And I've only ever heard of a... You know, a Yorkshire teacake.

Something slightly far away from India -

not very far away, but just by the borders of India -

-from Burma, they use fermented tea leaves.

-Yeah?

Which are fermented for a good eight, nine months,

and then it's made into a salad with fresh tomatoes and cucumber.

So, yes, tea is actually used in food quite a lot.

-And does it taste good?

-These two go for poaching.

-Yep.

-And I'll have...

-Doesn't sound nice!

..the ginger. Sliced ginger.

Yeah. Sliced ginger, I've got.

And I also need the onion to be chopped, Chef.

-Chopped onions done, Chef.

-Wow, you're quicker.

Quicker than I was in rehearsal, anyway.

-Next? Tomatoes I'm chopping up, as well.

-Tomatoes you're chopping.

-Yeah.

-I need a little more oil here,

-before I...

-There's a sink in the back there,

-if you need to wash your hands.

-I will wash my hands immediately.

-I'm sorry, I didn't...

-So the chicken's gone straight into the...

That's just chicken stock you've got in there?

-That's the chicken stock.

-Yeah.

So, it'll poach for about... 30-odd minutes, it'll take.

-Yeah.

-And for my chutney, I have some cumin and sesame seeds.

-Yeah.

The oil should be hot, as it crackles,

to start the cumin seeds and mustard seeds.

-Sorry, sesame seeds, I beg your pardon.

-Yeah.

And all the sliced ginger goes in.

And also a little bit of red chilli powder. Oops, sorry.

-Yeah. Most of it on the oven.

-No, it's not!

You don't need that much.

Right, for... So, that's the caramelised...