14/05/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Over the next 90 minutes we're going to serve up

a seriously mouthwatering menu of fantastic food.

So, sit back, relax and get ready to enjoy another helping of

brilliant Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

I hope you're hungry because we've got world-class chefs serving up

top class food and there's a healthy portion of guests waiting to be fed.

Coming up on today's show -

James Martin serves herb crusted plaice with Jersey Royal and

spring green broth for Jon Culshaw.

Theo Randall cooks up his Italian twist on meat and two veg.

He wraps pork chops in olive oil and rosemary before pan frying

and serving with a creamy leek and potato al forno.

Jon Rotheram is here with a fresh take on river trout.

The trout is cured and the skin is blow torched and plated up

with Jersey Royal crisps, ricotta and preserved lemon.

At the omelette challenge hobs today are Nick Nairn and Richard Bertinet.

And as both have already proved themselves to be speedy,

it should be a close one.

Then it's over to Vivek Singh,

who's here with an Indian-Chinese fusion dish.

He coats chicken thighs in a cornflour and spicy

soy sauce mixture before deep frying and serving with

a green and red pepper stir-fry.

And finally, John Barrowman faces his food heaven or his food hell.

Did he get his food heaven - toffee baked Alaska with toffee sauce?

Or his food hell - watermelon sorbet with rose water gulab jamun

and marinated watermelon wedges?

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

But first it's over to Bryn Williams who, in this dish,

is using vanilla but he's not making ice cream, he's cooking shellfish.

Bryn Williams, welcome to the show again. What are we cooking, mate?

I see we've got scallops here.

Hand dived scallops, the best you can get really, with cucumber,

crab, lime and vanilla dressing.

Vanilla is quite unusual, but it does really work.

-It works really well with certain fish - sea bass, scallops...

-Crab.

Yeah, crab, otherwise it's too strong.

We're going to use a nice bit of vanilla and lime.

-And I'm going to make a mayonnaise with that.

-You're going to.

Mayonnaise? Two egg yolks...

-And we're going to use half oil.

-Half rapeseed, half olive oil.

Otherwise it's too strong and overpowers all that crab.

We want to keep the sweetness in the crab.

-I shall get on with that.

-I'm going to open these hand dived scallops.

For me, these are my favourite ingredients ever.

-These would be your food heaven?

-This would be my food heaven.

LOUD CLATTERING

-If we still get a mayonnaise(!)

-Yeah, don't worry.

Carry on, nobody's noticed.

Thing is, it's so important we, as chefs, use hand dived scallops

because they are much better, they're much firmer,

and when they're hand dived, they're picked the right size.

They don't pick any small ones. They leave the small ones there.

If they've been trawled, they get the small scallops up.

And, also, when they go round with the nets,

they flap open and get full of sand and stuff like that.

Look at how clean they are, beautiful.

Just easy to prepare.

We're going to take the roe off,

we're not going to use the roe this morning.

You can use them,

you don't have to get rid of them, but we're not going to use them.

The thing that amazes me about hand dived scallops, I was watching

some guy catching them on the west coast of Scotland, near Bute.

I couldn't believe how close they are from the sea shore.

He was literally...

He went out and I thought he'd go out like the Man from Atlantis, wandering out.

He just stuck his head in the water about seven feet out

-and picked up these scallops.

-Seven feet?

-Yeah.

Literally the end of this bench and he was picking scallops up.

I waited until he was gone, went back and got myself...!

But the scallops, touch of water and then you're going to dry them out.

Dry them out. So important... Don't leave them in the water too long

because you don't want them to absorb all that water.

The thing about scallops, you must buy the fresh ones.

If you buy them in their shells, you know they're fresh

because if they're dead, the shells will be open.

-We'll let them to dry off.

-OK.

I'm just going to make a quick dressing to go with the crab.

First, we're going to peel some cucumber.

I'm just going to leave the scallops there to dry.

The mayonnaise, I'm just going to add this oil slowly to start with.

You can quicken up as it starts to get thicker.

But the thing about mayonnaise,

you don't keep adding oil to make it thicker.

Once it's thick, the more oil you add, it just goes into a solid lump.

Add a touch of water to bring it back.

-Or even lemon juice if you want to get that kind of...

-Yeah.

I'm just going to keep two cucumbers there.

-That's what we're going to dress the crab itself in.

-Right.

And using the rest of the cucumber just for texture reasons more

than anything else, so we're not having all the same textures the same time.

You're going to marinade it as well?

I'm going to marinade it in the dressing,

but it's a very, very quick dressing of the lime and the vanilla.

Apart from Odette's,

are you going to be opening another place this year?

-Hopefully.

-You guys never stop.

-Well, we're busy, busy, busy.

Hopefully, towards the end of the year, we should have a second place.

-I don't know where yet.

-But you're looking?

-We're looking.

Here we go. Is this on the menu at the moment? This kind of food?

This is just going on the menu next week because it's a nice,

light summer dish. Very different to Marcus's hotpot.

I think this is food you like to eat in the summer.

Once I can get this vanilla out.

This will be on the menu in about a week's time.

There you go. This rapeseed oil is amazing stuff.

You can get it in the UK now. It's very rich in Omega 3, good for us.

It also makes mayonnaise beautiful and really yellow.

It's amazing stuff.

-There you go. So, vanilla.

-Vanilla. If I can get it out.

People should look for the Madagascan vanilla.

Yeah. It's really plump. And you get a lot of seeds out of it as well.

Especially with this dish,

you want to try and keep as many seeds as you can into the dish.

Now, vanilla and fish is common, isn't it? It's used quite a bit?

-Certain fish.

-In certain fish. I wouldn't say it's common.

-You use it, don't you, as well?

-I use it with sea bass.

I like it in dressings, pretty much like what you're doing.

It's a beautiful background flavour that's unusual.

It's quite intriguing.

There we've got...

A squeeze of lime and half a vanilla pod.

The secret with this dish,

we need to keep on tasting it because we're going to add salt

and pepper to it and a bit of sugar if the lime's a bit too strong.

-It's the sweetness and the sourness with it.

-Yes.

You have to taste it as you go along.

In service when we have it on, chefs are tasting this 20 times a night

because every time you make it, it's always different.

It's always important to keep tasting it as we go along.

That's fine.

We're going to do a quick marinade with this cucumber.

In with the dressing.

You can see the colour of that lovely mayonnaise there.

And I'm going to leave that to just sit in there now.

How long would you leave that there for?

Ten minutes tops, otherwise it'll start breaking down all the cucumber

and we want to keep it with a nice bit of texture to it.

I'm going to pan-fry the scallops itself. Nice hot pan.

I'm not going to season the scallops now, I'm going to season them later.

I think if you season them now,

you start to take all the sweetness out of the scallop.

It's always good to finish them off after

with some really, really good organic sea salt.

-You've got the crab mix.

-I'm coming, chef. I'm being quick as I can.

Here we go.

-Chives.

-A little bit of chives.

Now, you're a fan of seafood, ever done seafood with vanilla?

Or tried it with vanilla?

Never. No, I don't cook seafood.

Just eat it?

-Occasionally, if I'm in the right place where I can trust it.

-Yeah.

It's got to be absolutely fresh,

that's the secret with crab and stuff like this.

-Look how yellow that is. That's enough.

-OK?

-Yeah.

Just a little bit of that to bind it together.

A little bit of lime juice just to bring out the flavour in it.

That's the lime in there.

We're going to roll it up in the cucumber itself.

Just grate these off.

There you go, I'll bring your plate over.

These scallops, they're cooked very, very quickly.

Very, very quickly indeed.

I think, you know, two minutes, three minutes tops.

Once you've got a nice bit of colour on them.

I think another minute and they'll be fine.

Just going to roll the crab...

-..in the cucumber.

-Make a nice little starter

just on its own, this.

-Fresh ingredients.

-This could be on itself.

But that bit of luxury by having the scallop as well, I think.

Me, I can't resist a bit of scallop.

So, in with a bit of butter just to finish them off.

-Touch of butter there. OK.

-Just get a clean spoon.

-You'll start to build it all up.

-You can do as much as you want of these.

-I put three on the plate.

-You can do them into ribbons as well.

-Yeah.

You can grate it. You can even grate it as well if you really wanted to.

On with the scallops.

I'm just going to finish this dish off

with a little bit of basil cress.

Lightness in the summer.

Just wash it in a bit of water, take out the basil,

just season with a bit of salt, on with the basil and finish off

-with literally... With the lime.

-A chefy drizzle.

I think it keeps the flavours going through the whole dish.

Looks great, smells delicious.

So, Bryn, remind us what this is again.

Pan-fried scallops with vanilla and white crab meat and cucumber.

Simple as that.

Lovely.

Well, this is the first time you've probably tried fish and vanilla.

-There you go, dive in. Tell us what you think.

-Wow.

-Tell us what you think of that.

-I'm not...

You're not going to make me burn the roof of my mouth again?

No, not again. Sorry about that. It was a bit hot, that scallop.

Maybe hot, but not as hot as the chicken.

Mm, lovely.

The vanilla, like you say, just adds that little background flavour to it.

It just brings something different to the plate.

I think people always think vanilla's a sweet and I think

it's something to give the customer it in a scallop dish.

-A lot of people don't use cucumber, do they?

-Erm...

They don't use it like that for pickles and stuff like that.

-It's wonderful.

-It's fantastic.

Cucumber with shellfish is fantastic.

-You get the texture, the crispness, the cucumber. Fantastic.

-It's very unusual.

Thanks, Bryn. A real light, refreshing recipe

that's perfect for a warm spring day.

Coming up, James cooks a herb crusted plaice with Jersey Royals

and spring green broth for Jon Culshaw.

But first, it's over to Rick Stein who's visiting

an historic smokery in Lowestoft.

'Now, there's nothing to me like tasting a shrimp

'straight out of the boiler at sea.

'That's how they should be tasted.

'And you really can't call yourself an expert until you've done it.

'The great thing about these shrimps is that they're all destined

'for the English market.

'Maybe because they're too small and too insignificant for anybody else.

'They're missing out on a rare treat.'

I was just thinking about a dish that could use the shell

as well as the meat of the shrimp

because there's so much flavour in the shell.

And risotto is the obvious choice because you can use this shell for

making a really good shellfish stock or fume as we call it in the trade.

So, put a little bit of butter in this hot pan

and just throw in some onions.

Let them soften in the butter a little bit.

And then all these shells.

There must be about two pounds of shrimp there.

Into this pan go those shells, like that.

And just turn those around, just let them fry a little bit.

I'm going to add a few blades of mace

because this is a British risotto and that's a very significant taste

in a lot of things like potted shrimps and things like that.

It will come through in the final dish.

Just stir that in.

And now some good quality fish stock.

About a couple of pints.

There we go.

Now, you can use chicken stock if you like.

It's quite hard to get fresh fish stock even now,

it seems a real shame.

Obviously, people aren't getting the message.

If you want to cook nice fish dishes, you want nice fish stock.

You know, you don't have to make these things on your own.

Right, there we go. Just leave that to simmer now for about 20 minutes.

We're just going to pour it through this conical strainer.

Get rid of the shells.

There we go.

Just tap it down a little bit or tamp it down it bit with this ladle

just to force the last of the juices into the stock.

That's great. And now, to make the risotto.

I like a nice shallow pan for making risotto

so I can see easily what's going in.

With this one, I'm going to start off

with a generous amount of butter.

And about three chopped shallots

and about three cloves of garlic.

So, just quickly stir that round until the butter's melted.

And now in goes the rice, risotto rice, Arborio rice in this case.

In that goes.

And just coat the rice with the butter.

And that's an important point in making risotto.

Then I'm going to add some white wine.

I've chosen a fairly sort of neutral tasting Italian white wine.

Personally, I love the back taste of wine in risotto.

That slightly, slightly tart taste which just sets off

the other flavours beautifully.

And now to add the stock.

You add it in about three or four stages,

letting it all get absorbed in one stage before you go to the next.

And that'll take an increasingly long time.

So the first one, it all goes down fairly quickly.

While I'm letting that become absorbed,

I'm going to add the other serious ingredient to this risotto,

which is samphire.

I'm just going to blanch that very quickly in some boiling water.

All I want is about two minutes because I want it to have

that sort of salty crunch which is what's so perfect about samphire.

That's just about enough for the samphire

so I'll just pass that off through a sieve.

And that's then ready to be stirred into the final risotto.

It's quite interesting about how recipes get thought out.

One afternoon, there I was out on the mud flats gathering samphire,

that night, out in the Wash trawling for shrimps.

And I think the best sort of recipes come from that,

not from reading books or copying other chefs,

it's out doing something yourself like that.

I always find that if I'm doing something like shrimping

or gathering samphire, the whole naturalness of it just gets me

very inspired to think of something up.

This risotto is the result.

It is actually extremely good.

So, that's another lot of stock there

and the rice is really beginning to thicken up nicely and get creamy.

And it's looking great, I might just have a little bit of a taste now.

Yeah. Oh, that's ever so good.

We're just about there.

I'll just put a bit of seasoning in,

not too much salt because there's a lot of salt in that samphire.

That's fine.

Little bit of pepper, always like pepper. There we go.

And now the samphire.

Just pour that in. Now, that's just got about the right consistency.

A risotto doesn't want to be too wet,

but it doesn't want to be too dry, either.

And finally, last of all, the shrimps.

I say last of all because they only want to be heated through,

we don't want them cooked any more because they'll go all hard.

So, now we'll just dish that up.

Don't think that looks too bad.

That's about a portion, a starter portion,

don't want to give too much.

Let's take a few of those grains out of there.

A couple of shrimps on top.

And that's about it.

It's a bit of a story on a plate or, I suppose,

it's a bit like a painting in a way.

It's a bit of a memory for me.

Once upon a time, the herring fishery extended

from the north of Scotland way down to Great Yarmouth,

Lowestoft and beyond.

Sadly, all that's declined now, leaving ports like Lowestoft

a shadow of their former self.

Donny Cole, a local fish merchant, remembers how it used to be.

For every man that went to sea on the drifters,

there were seven men ashore backing him up.

The people who built the boats, the beasters that made the nets,

the people connected to the industry, the box makers, everybody.

And that there is how it used to be.

But if that dock is the one you saw today, right,

there is not one boat in it.

Not one boat in that dock.

I mean it is, for me, heartbreaking.

There was 200 smokehouses in Lowestoft.

The air was thick with the smell of herrings and kippers.

Everyone ate kippers.

It was an era, just a complete era, which unfortunately has disappeared.

Well, I say unfortunately disappeared

because the whole thing's changed.

But for me, being in the fishing industry, I think it's a disaster.

Donny and his brother Michael own one of the last smokeries

in East Anglia.

Colin Burgess, who does the smoking,

wonders whether anybody will take over from him.

Not even the herrings are local any more.

They come from Norway or Iceland.

There's not many people who do it, who carry on doing it

and it's just nice to be a part of something that is going to die out.

No young person want to do it.

Erm...

I'm probably one of the youngest fish curers and smokers

there is left and nobody wants to do it after me.

There's no good doing it for five minutes and thinking after

five minutes, after six months, you know it or you think you can do it.

Because that's an impossibility.

You learn something new every day, you know.

It's extraordinary to me that a product which is so good,

which is so skilfully made, should be in danger of dying out.

Why is it we turn our back on the really good things in life

in favour of what?

Hygienic little fillets, stainless steel, vacuum packing,

artificial colouring, no bugs?

I don't know.

It would be great if somebody started a campaign

for real smoked fish.

That, to me, is a great delicacy.

An undyed kipper hanging on tenterhooks with a good fat content

that all herrings have at this time of year.

It needs to be about 15%.

This is very interesting to me. This is a bloater.

It's like a kipper smoked in the same sort of time and brined first,

but it's smoked with its guts in.

Cold smoked again so it's part raw.

Called a bloater not because it sort of bloats up and gets all off,

but because it's slightly puffed up

with the guts still in it and a little bit gamey.

The Victorians used to make a great bloater paste with it.

This is even more interesting.

That's called a golden.

That's been salted for two days and smoked for about five to six days.

And that one's for the export trade.

A lot more salt content,

perhaps a bit salty for today's taste, but a lovely colour.

But this is the most interesting thing,

if I can find it hanging up here in the rafters.

That is a red herring.

Now, that again is salted for about two or three days.

But then it's smoked for about five to six weeks.

So you could actually eat this for weeks and weeks

without refrigerating it. And that was for the African trade.

Well, the slave trade, in fact,

cos it's something they could eat on the ships, but it's got into

the African culture now and that's where all the red herrings go.

Rick, try one of these. These are Buckling.

-Ah, hot smoked, aren't they?

-They're hot smoked in a smokehouse.

-Cor, that's good! What do you think of them?

-They're great!

They're gorgeous, aren't they?

I mean, that is just wonderful.

The thing people think about herrings,

of them being a bit sort of, I don't know,

overpowering or something, but this is lovely and soft and creamy.

And the fat content, it's a bit like eating smoked eel, actually.

It's got that same luxury taste to me. It's just absolutely fantastic.

-Lovely texture to it.

-Mm.

Lowestoft will probably never see a busy market for herrings again.

But, instead, there's huge landings of plaice, the most popular

flatfish in Europe, and a fish, incidentally, at its best in spring.

Well, just look at these plaice.

I mean, they're a beautiful looking fish,

with those lovely fluorescent orange and red spots on them.

And I think people tend to undervalue it.

You hear people in restaurants saying,

"Oh, I think I'll have the lemon sole," because plaice is sort of...

You're making a statement of being a bit more upper crust, if you go

for lemon sole, rather than plaice cos you see plaice everywhere.

But, actually, it's just as good.

And I've got this dish, which I'm just really excited about

because I just think it does real justice to the plaice.

I've just got about quarter to half and inch of vegetable oil in

this frying pan, which I'm getting really, really hot,

and I'm just going to add some chopped onion.

Now, this is for a dish of plaice with like

a sprinkling of sort of savoury things and when I thought

about this, I thought of deep-fried goujons of plaice in

a light batter and I'm going to use a tempura batter,

with just dry ingredients, with lots of flavour.

So that onion's beginning to brown up very nicely.

Now I'm just going to add some garlic as well.

Finely chopped garlic. And some red chilli as well.

Some very finely chopped deseeded red chilli.

Just frying that off together till it's sort of dry fried.

It's a bit like the sort of coating of those peanuts you get

in bars, you know? But much nicer than that.

OK, that's done. Now I'll just bring that over here.

And pass it through that colander there.

OK, now, I'll just pour my colander full of fried bits and pieces

on to this little kitchen paper, just to drain off all that fat.

And now empty that into this bowl.

Now, I'm adding some sliced spring onions and some Szechuan pepper.

It's got a very odd taste, Szechuan pepper.

It's a bit like cloves at the dentist.

It slightly numbs the mouth. It's very satisfying because of it.

Now, just a few flakes of sea salt as well.

So that's my sort of coating material for the goujons, all ready.

And now to cut up the plaice.

Now, I've filleted them, skinned the plaice already,

and I'm going to cut it into goujons or gudgeons - it just comes from

that English-French word, meaning those little fish,

like sort of minnows and sticklebacks, freshwater fish.

And about the size of your thumb. So, there we are.

And now, we're going to make that tempura batter

and drop the gudgeons in it.

So, here, I've got some cornflour and flour and some salt,

which I'm just going to sift through this sieve into a bowl.

Now, I'm just adding some soda water here and that's all

I'm putting in here. Just cornflour, flour, salt and soda water

and it's ice cold, the soda water.

Don't ask me what happens with using soda water, but it works a treat.

So just before I drop those goujons in, just given them

a little bit of a season, just with salt, and into the batter.

Now, the whole point of this batter, as I said,

it's got to be made at the last minute,

it's got to be cold and the reasons for both those things,

the last minute and the temperature, is you don't want to develop

the gluten in the flour because that makes the batter sort of

elastic and what you're looking for is crispness.

That's the whole point of tempura batter.

So, I put about four or five pieces in at a time.

They only take about a minute each.

And straight out of that onto some paper,

just to drain the excess oil off.

Just look at those. Look how thin the batter is.

That's what I really like about tempura is you can actually

see the food through the batter.

So there we go. There's the whole batch fried.

And now just to make up the dish.

Just plonk all these goujons on to this wonderful big plate.

Sprinkle this lovely savoury crunchy garlic, onion,

Szechuan pepper, spring onion, etc, mixture all over.

Just turn it in a little bit, so it's everywhere.

Just a few drops of lime juice over the top.

You don't want to overdo it.

And a final sprinkling of chopped coriander and that's it.

You know, none of the fish I've been using in this programme is

terribly expensive. And if you get a chance, do try the Cromer crabs.

They're easy to get in supermarkets now.

Now, the fresh shrimps, sadly, they don't travel too well.

So you've got to make a seafood pilgrimage to the east coast.

And if you get the opportunity, you've got to try these

Lowestoft kippers, even if it's to keep Colin going in his smokehouse.

I have to say,

that dish looked delicious and there are lots of great ways to

cook plaice and I'm going to show you another one right now.

It's very different to Rick's and it goes with

a simple sort of spring green broth. Very, very easy.

So we start off with our plaice here.

Now, the fish supplier has given us two bottom parts of the plaice,

which is not that bad. Obviously, the darker skin is the top,

but plaice actually start out as round fish and then up until

two months old, then they turn and the eyes move round.

-I didn't know that.

-There we go.

That's just going to get filleted, pan-fried,

and the broth for this is pancetta,

we've got some Jersey Royal potatoes,

so really in season now, a little bit of flageolet beans,

these are out of a tin, some spring greens, chicken stock,

butter, shallot, garlic.

All of that just gets put in a pan and we're going to serve that

with some pan-fried plaice, so very, very simple.

-Now, talking about yourself...

-Yes.

It was radio, wasn't it, it's been right throughout your career,

but that was one of the things that started it all off for you,

hospital radio.

Yeah, that's right. I remember doing a Sunday show on hospital radio.

I had some friends who worked at the station and I sort of

gradually joined in and, yeah, it was a fascinating thing,

walking round the wards,

taking requests from people and going into this little sort

of grey tin shed, which was the studio, and doing the show,

all connected to the main hospital,

through a sort of...almost like a washing line,

that carried the signal that carried the hospital radio.

But it was one of those friends and work colleagues that told you

to sort of do it professionally, impressions.

Yes, a few years after that, I worked at Viking Radio in Hull and

I'd always had this habit of reading the weather in another voice.

-AS BOB GELDOF:

-I always would read the weather as Bob Geldof.

For some reason, I don't know why I did it.

And Anne Marie who worked on reception, bless her,

at the end of one show, she said, "Pack in being a DJ, do those

"voices, do that instead," and I just thought, "Ah, maybe I will."

At the time, it wasn't as huge, it led on to massive things, but at

that time, it wasn't as big as what was just around the corner for you.

-Spitting Image.

-That's right, Spitting Image.

It was that sort of moment where I thought - maybe I'll make

some tapes together and I'd stay late at the studio after the

programme and chop voices together.

Lots of voices from that time, Terry Christian from The Word.

-AS CHRIS EUBANK:

-And Christopher Livingstone Eubank.

Edit them all together and I sent them off to Spitting Image

and then one day, a vacancy arose.

I can't remember who had moved on from the show.

It might have been Steve Coogan. But there was a space anyway.

So, yes, I got a chance to join on Spitting Image.

I mean, that was it. It just became a huge, massive, massive success.

Well, Spitting Image was one...

I'm sure it's one of those programmes,

a bit like Doctor Who did, after a long break, it comes back.

-Do you think it will come back?

-I'm sure.

Because there was something so immediate about it and the

grotesqueness of the caricatures.

They were such a commentary on the characters themselves.

Just the extremes of the caricature.

And I think most people quite liked being on there,

even if the take off was a bit cruel.

Spitting Image was always very ruthless in the scripts.

It was kind of if you were on there, it meant that you'd kind of made it?

-Usually.

-Yeah.

-Although, there were some who didn't like it.

Some of the politicians. If it portrayed them a little bit

weak or in somebody's pocket, didn't like that.

For the most part, to be on Spitting Image was pretty cool.

-Your repertoire now, what is it? 300-odd, must be.

-I don't know.

Sometimes, if you count, I suppose if your voice moves

in one direction, it can move all over the place.

How do you start with impressions, then? What do you start with?

Body language, facial expressions?

How do you begin to start off with it?

I suppose the first thing is you just look at

a character that you're drawn to, for some reason,

there's something interesting about them or something quirky about them.

And you just have a look.

I think first of all, you just have an open mind, just watch them,

and just see what your subconscious takes in.

I remember watching Simon Cowell a few years ago, thinking,

right, what is it about you? And then you start to see

the shapes, you start to see the outline.

-AS SIMON COWELL:

-You start to see the movement,

there's a lot of this sort of body language going on.

A lot of that sort of stopping the traffic hand gesture.

Head to one side.

Bewildered look, OK, I'm going to put you through, three yeses.

And you just put together all the recognisable things that

people don't realise they've spotted about a character.

It is a talent.

It is very, very clever cos like I said at the top of the show,

-you set me up, Frank Bruno - it was brilliant.

-Yes.

But your new thing at the moment, it's nothing to do with that.

-Comedy as well. This is a fantastic story.

-Oh, of course. Yes.

Tell us about that, the Morecambe and Wise.

Morecambe and Wise, the Garage Tapes, yeah.

Basically, in the early years of their career,

Ernie Wise was a great archivist,

and he'd always record anything that they were doing,

just on a reel to reel tape,

so it might have been early theatre productions and shows that

they worked on in the '50s, the late '50s, or it might have been

rehearsal, or it might have been some radio shows,

it might have been a script meeting.

-This is everything, behind the scenes.

-Yeah, behind the scenes.

Real rare moments, which, until now,

-were never known had even been captured.

-Yeah.

And Doreen Wise, Ernie's widow,

had all of them in a very robust 1960s suitcase,

this bright red plastic suitcase, very much the '60s look,

and it was full of all of these recordings on reel to reel

tape or 78 acetates, records.

And there it was, all there.

I think she just tidied it away one day, just put it in the garage.

So it could have gone to the car boot.

Yeah, it could have ended up in a skip, this amazing archive.

But of course, it didn't. That didn't happen.

And to look through it all,

-two big suitcases of all of this archive material.

-Yeah.

Sometimes, Ernie would leave a tape running of

he and Doreen watching one of their early TV shows.

And in the background, you can hear them sort of laughing at

certain moments or recanting certain anecdotes.

And you can hear them just chuckling in the background,

eating their tea and things like that.

But it is fascinating.

-When you listen to the 1950s style of their act.

-Yeah.

It wasn't yet the act that we went on to know and love,

-but the beginnings of it were there.

-It was very raw.

It was raw, it was experimental,

but the camaraderie between them was there, the chemistry was there,

that knock-about, two buddies, song and dance act was there.

Do you think it's important to have that?

Because a lot of the comedy duos have had that,

-one straight guy, one sort of comedy sort of thing.

-Well, yeah.

I think because they knew each other so well and they knew what

-each other's strengths were.

-Yeah.

Eric was really helped to be as funny

as he was because Ernie was doing such a brilliant job of setting

him up and everything like that. And the same, vice versa.

From Eric to Ernie.

And to see the initial formation of that, it's fascinating.

It's very special.

Well, we'll look forward to it and that's Radio 4.

-Radio 4, that's right.

-Fantastic. I'll just run through what I've done cos I've more or less done

-everything for you. This is the plaice.

-It all happened so quickly.

-Yeah, it's all done.

-None of this - here's one we made earlier.

-No, it's all done, it's all done.

This is the cabbage and everything else that all gets put in.

We've got the stock in there, the butter and everything else.

Cabbage goes in at the last minute.

-It's like a simple little broth, really.

-Mm.

And all we do with that is we switch off our fish.

I think a broth was soup.

Well, it can be, yeah, a thickened sort of soup,

but you'll see there's quite a bit of liquid in here

that I'm going to put on, but it's something really simple.

The idea is you keep the flavour of the cabbage,

right at the last minute. We've got Jersey Royal potatoes in there.

Very simple. Take this juice - remember, this is chicken stock.

So it's not fish stock.

Pop on there as well.

Pancetta's gone in there, the flageolet beans, touch of garlic.

And then, grab my fish. Chervil's gone in there, last minute.

Then we grab our plaice, which has just been cooked.

-I can't believe you've done that so quickly.

-Simple. Filleted.

And then a drizzle of olive oil.

-There you have it.

-I promise to share it this time.

-I was just hogging it before.

-But it is very, very simple, nice and easy.

Now, when you're given something like this,

-it's hard to know where to start.

-Start in the middle and work

-your way out.

-You can do what you like, OK.

And an answer in the style of Michael McIntyre, please.

Michael McIntyre, OK.

Mm.

-Ah, Michael McIntyre.

-AS MICHAEL:

-Well, the fish is very wonderful. And beautifully cooked

and very soft and flaky. And the cabbage, I've not come round to the cabbage yet,

but cabbage, what is going on there?!

Well, James certainly left a good impression on Jon Culshaw with that dish!

Now, today, we're taking a look back at some of the most delicious

dishes from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard and there's still loads more to come.

Up next, it's Theo Randall with a super simple dish that

-doesn't hold back on flavour.

-And on the menu today,

you've got a pork chop and you want to get that on as soon as possible.

I do. I want to get that on very quickly.

So, we're going to get the pork chop on first, get that in the oven.

-Yeah.

-So what are you going to do with it then?

-I've got

this pork chop. I've marinated it with some rosemary and lemon,

which I'll show you in a second. I'll get them in first.

The thing about these pork chops is this is the top end, it's

the sort of top end of the loin, where you get a bit of the flank.

And that's where you get this lovely flavour because you've got

all that fat, and if you just use the eye of the meat, you don't

get the fat and the pork fat is obviously where all the flavour is.

Now, you're colouring this first of all.

I'm going to colour on one side, turn it over,

then pop it in the oven.

-Cos we're going to cook these in real time.

-Real time.

-OK.

They don't take long.

So I'm just going to trim off the skin of the pork,

leave as much fat on as possible.

I know it looks kind of very fatty, it's unhealthy,

but the thing about it is fat is where all the flavour is.

It's very important to keep that on.

-I've been saying it for ten years.

-I know you have, yeah.

The trouble is I've been eating it at the same rate and all.

So, with it, we're going to serve a potato and leek

al forno sort of bake, which is basically boiled leeks,

-mixed with some nice waxy Charlotte potatoes.

-Yeah.

And then we're going to make a sort of cream and anchovy with

garlic, like sort of kind of sauce,

and then we're going to mix the leeks and the potatoes

-together and bake it in the oven with breadcrumbs.

-OK.

Let's put the pork in first,

-so that's going to go in a nice hot oven.

-That's the left-hand side one.

Yeah, don't worry, I've got it right.

-Very good, James.

-About 400 degrees.

So just to marinate these, we just want to get these,

-put the pork on to a tray.

-What you're on about is keeping this on.

-This part of the fat on it.

-Absolutely.

-OK.

And that's where there's so much flavour.

So put some salt on there, some pepper, and then squeeze some lemon.

Where's that knife?

Anchovies are also very good with lamb, aren't they?

-Yeah, anchovies are lovely.

-Beef as well.

-An underused seasoning.

I love using anchovy. It's really good with pasta sauces as well.

OK, so a little bit of chopped rosemary.

Lemon and olive oil, so just leave those to marinate for about an hour.

-So a simple marinade then.

-A very simple marinade,

but it takes on such a nice flavour of the rosemary.

I think rosemary and pork is such a great combination.

So leave those to marinate.

-Do you want me to take that as well? OK.

-I'll just wash my hands.

-In the fridge for an hour, no more.

-In the fridge for an hour, yeah.

Just so it takes on that lemon juice.

-OK.

-Then we've got some... We're going to make a salsa verde.

Do you mind making me a salsa verde with some parsley, rocket,

mint, and basil? And capers and some mustard.

-I can do that.

-And some olive oil.

-Yeah, I can do that.

And then I'm going to make this anchovy sort of cream stuff,

so we're going to put a little bit of oil in the pan

with some garlic, just sort of soften the garlic.

And then we're going to add the anchovies,

-these are salted anchovies which have been kept in olive oil.

-Yeah.

And I'm just going to literally just throw those straight in with

the garlic. Don't brown the garlic, whatever you do. Just get some...

You've been busy because you've just written a new book.

-Yeah.

-It's out now.

-Yeah.

And this is one of the recipes from it.

-All right, OK. So, double cream.

-Double cream.

-Yeah.

So there's garlic, oil, anchovies, double cream, and then just

bring that to the simmer and then we've got some potatoes here.

Now, I've used Charlotte potatoes.

The thing about potatoes is if you use anything fluffy,

like a Maris Piper, it won't work, it'll just break up,

so you need something quite sort of waxy,

like a Charlotte potato or a Ratte, something like that.

Ratte, they're the French ones,

but they grow them in the UK now as well.

Yeah, and they're really good because they're incredibly firm,

so even when you boil them all the way through,

they still remain very firm.

The look kind of like a Jerusalem artichoke, when you look at them.

-Yeah, they look similar to a Jerusalem artichoke. They're more pointed, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Are they easy to get hold of, the Ratte potato?

-Yeah,

they're producing them in the UK, I definitely know that. Yeah.

So we're just going to sort of boil that all together, add a bit

of black pepper, so you've got that sort of real lovely sort of

depth of flavour from the anchovy and the garlic.

-Now, a lot of people don't like anchovies.

-I know.

Well, this is a great way to try anchovies cos they just taste

-so good.

-It kind of dissolves all in the cream.

It dissolves in the cream,

so you don't actually get that sort of fishy taste.

OK, so take the leeks out,

so literally just boil them for about three minutes in

boiling salted water and then we're going to mix it all together

and pop it in a dish with some breadcrumbs on top to get

this lovely sort of crispy top, so I'll pop that in here.

Life's going to be busy for you this year cos you've got

-a new restaurant, your second restaurant.

-Yeah.

-Not really local to Mayfair.

-Not very local actually, no.

It's in Bangkok,

which is quite a long way away.

So one of my chefs is going to go out there and live there,

-and run the restaurant.

-Does he know it yet?

I haven't told him yet.

I was going to actually tell him after the show!

You just told him it was in Balham, didn't you?

Yeah. It's quite similar, it's B...

Anyway, so it's really exciting, and it's going to be a great place.

That's going to be opening in August.

-And then doing Taste of London in June. Ben's going to be there.

-Yeah.

-I'll be there.

-Yeah, so it's all busy, busy times at the moment.

-Right.

-Which is great.

So, just sort of bring that to the simmer,

just so everything starts to come together.

And then pop it into a nice earthenware dish. And then...

Smell that. It just smells so good.

So I take it because the potatoes are cooked and the leeks are cooked,

you don't need long in the oven at this stage?

No, not very long at all. You just want to brown it.

But make it quite wet so it stays really juicy,

because the potatoes will absorb some of the moisture, so you get a

nice creamy kind of sauce, because you want that to go with the pork.

All right, OK. So, when you go over to Bangkok,

presumably it's going to be Italian influence, then, as well?

Yeah, it's going to be Italian,

it's going to be quite sort of sharing menu sort of style.

Very simple, easy food. It's going to have a fabulous big bar,

and it's got this outside terrace as well,

so it's going to be a really great place.

OK, so, the pork is cooked. That's cooked in real time.

It cooks incredibly quickly. I think people overcook pork.

If you let it rest, the residual heat will let it carry on cooking.

You'll get lovely juice in there. OK, so...

Now, Ben mentioned northern Italy.

Where does your style come from? Where does that come from?

Uh... Well, the thing is all over, really.

I love the food of northern Italy,

but I also love the food of southern Italy,

so I kind of get a bit from everywhere.

And, you know, I wouldn't say I specialise in any particular region,

I just love Italy.

I love going there and getting inspired by recipes and ingredients.

Well, I'm going to see it in a couple of weeks. Very quickly.

-Really? What are you doing?

-I'm doing this Mille Miglia thing.

-Oh, of course, yeah, wow.

-I'll be going north to south and back again.

-And what are you driving?

-A Jaguar D-Type.

-Ooh!

-Yes.

Cor! Who's let you have one of them?

-Jaguar.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-And they're going to let you loose on that?

Well, they have, yes, yes, they have. Yeah, it's very, very special.

That is a very special car.

-We won't see much of Italy, it's just... Zoom!

-With your goggles on!

-Yeah, exactly!

-So, the potato and leek, anchovy,

they've all gone nice and crispy on the outside.

And gooey in the middle. We pop that... Whoops.

-Do you want a bigger spoon for that?

-I think I need a bigger spoon, yeah.

-OK.

-And, then, just pop that with all those... That's better.

Now, they're quite thin, those chops,

-so they will cook in real time.

-They cook very quickly.

You're better having a thinner chop and leave all that fat on,

and cook it in the oven, than doing a great big thick one,

cos the big thick ones are going to slightly dry out.

So, that's our potato and leek al forno.

And then we get our beautiful-looking salsa verde.

And then, get our nice...

Which one shall we have? That one looks nice and juicy.

A nice pork chop.

A little bit of that juice. There are some nice juices in there.

That's going to go on top.

And then finish off with a delicious-looking salsa verde.

And that's got the mint, the capers, the mustard, rocket,

basil, parsley... I think that's it, yeah.

That's it. And that is it.

That is my lovely roasted marinated pork chop with rosemary and lemon

with a potato, leek, and anchovy al forno.

I'd eat that. Definitely.

It's pretty good, that, isn't it? It just tastes so good, this.

Right, dive into that one.

-But this is the key that you are on about.

-There?

-Have this bit.

-OK.

-That's where there is so much flavour,

there's fat and... Look at it, it's cooked through,

that's literally cooked in the oven at 400 degrees

for about five, six minutes.

-A really hot pan to start with.

-A really hot pan, that's it.

-Anchovies work perfectly in that.

-It's quite hot.

-Very subtle.

It's actually quite subtle, it's more of a seasoning,

-but they're delicious.

-That is so tasty.

That looked great, didn't it? Creamy potatoes - what's not to like?

Now, look, we always like to show you a Rick Stein clip

on this show, which we did earlier, so now it's time for

a Keith Floyd clip with Rick Stein in it,

because you can never have too much Stein.

So, off I go again,

this time to Padstow in North Cornwall,

and I'm happily anticipating a lunch of bass

with one of the most agreeable cooks I've met in a very long time.

It's coming in really well now.

Every day, the line fishermen are catching them.

So they're coming in in small quantities,

which means they're sold quickly and they're nice and fresh.

'After a lesson in selecting bass,

'we bought some fresh line-caught fish,

'even though they cost a little more,

'and, stopping only briefly for a pint and a packet of crisps,

'we got down to the serious business of cooking bass with a vengeance.'

There. One of the most important things about Floyd On Fish

is the drinking that goes with it,

because no good cooking comes without good drinking.

And today, as usual, we've conned our way into one of

the best kitchens in the West Country -

in fact, probably one of the best kitchens in England -

certainly according to the RAC, The Sunday Times, Egon Ronay, et al.

because Rick Stein's restaurant here in Padstow was voted

one of the best - in fact THE best seafood restaurant in the country -

so what better place could we come to to cook my favourite fish,

which is a bass. Now, for me, this is the king of fish.

You can grill it, you can steam it.

You can cook it in fennel, flaming with Armagnac.

You can cook it in a bouille, that classic Mediterranean dish.

You can roast it, Nick tells me, too.

So that's what we're going to do with this one,

and he's going to show us how to do it.

Rick, you'd better come into the body of the cook.

If I may say, on behalf of us,

I'm sorry we've ripped you off in this way.

-Welcome to your kitchen.

-Well, cheers.

-The wine is very nice.

-It jolly well is, isn't it?

Tell me... Tell me all.

Right, well, what I'm going to do is roast or bake...

I call it roasting on the menu, cos it sounds unusual to roast a fish.

Does that freak the customers?

Well, I think it gets some raised eyebrows, because it seems odd,

but we do roast it.

We put it in a hot oven and baste it, as you would a roasted joint.

I'm going to stuff it with just some ordinary root vegetables.

Can I just bring the cameraman down to see these root vegetables?

Would you like to explain what we've got here?

Yes, well, starting from here, we've got celeriac, which is

like celery but comes in a root form. Carrots, fennel, onion, leeks.

And here we have sorrel, which we're going to finish the sauce off with.

A nice tart flavour, the sorrel has,

which really brings out the flavour of the bass.

OK. So you've all got that at home, those are the ingredients.

In fact, you could use any root vegetable you fancied.

-This is Nick's own very special recipe.

-Rick, dear boy.

-Rick!

Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Once you've seen one cook, you've seen them all.

Never mind. I'll call you Charles for the rest of the programme.

-Why not?

-Look, this is a television programme, film is very expensive,

get on with the cooking.

OK. What I'm going to do is just gently sweat

-these root vegetables off in a bit of butter.

-Right.

Because the cooking is so quick in the oven, the hot oven

and the bass, they wouldn't have time to cook as a stuffing,

so I just take a few of these vegetables,

cos we're only going to cook one fish.

Which, incidentally, is jolly expensive fish, isn't it?

It is at the moment. It's about £3, £3.50 a pound.

Excuse this rotten old pepper grinder,

but it doesn't half churn out some chunky...

-Right. Salt?

-Salt. Just a bit of salt, yeah.

-And then, on a low heat...

-Do you want to come back over here?

-Sure.

Sorry to interfere with this, but the cameramen do insist

on getting photographs of what we're doing

for the benefit of our viewers, Charles.

-RICK LAUGHS

-All right?

OK, well, they've got to cook away for four or five minutes now.

Stay with us. I'm not going to give you a fixed grinning smile,

I'm going to have a glass of wine and talk to Rick

-about the rest of the process.

-Right.

Sorry, I was thinking, while that's cooking,

I was thinking about these herbs, because on a recent holiday...

-You want the herbs explained, or the weeds?

-Take out the weeds.

I'm terribly sorry, Charles. Rick.

But when I was on a recent holiday in Cornwall,

all I could see the farmers growing was fields and fields of tyres.

I mean, here you are, deep in darkest Cornwall.

How do you get herbs? Why do you use them?

30 seconds, starting from now,

on the importance of fresh herbs in the kitchen.

Well, for my style of cookery, which is simple, I'm not involved

in elaborate cooking at all, herbs are the most important part.

They've got to be fresh herbs, so I have to grow them myself,

cos as you probably know, Keith,

trying to buy herbs in a greengrocers in England is a joke.

The last load of herbs I bought from a greengrocers,

which I managed to get sent in from France,

was a small packet of fresh dill which cost me £6.50. OK?

The tarragon I bought was seven quid.

I mean, there's a lot of incentive to grow your own herbs.

It's more expensive than certain other substances, isn't it?

-THEY LAUGH

-Also known as herbs.

-But in your new cookery book, your first cookery book...

-Yes!

..you'll devote a chapter to growing herbs?

The thing is, you can't buy them, so you've got to grow them.

Not just things like this, but if I just reach into my basket here,

here's something I've just grown for the first time this year.

It's called Good King Henry, OK?

And all who sail in him!

THEY LAUGH

You can use it as a vegetable or a herb.

It tastes a bit like watercress, a bit like it.

It is a bit watercress-y. Superb with fish, I should think.

Just blanch it, and serve it with fish on it. Absolutely wonderful.

-It's brilliant, isn't it?

-You try and buy that in a shop...

Just throw the seeds anywhere. There's no problem growing that.

I reckon that, very finely chopped in vinaigrette

over oysters and things, or raw seafood, would be superb.

A true professional at work, there.

Absolutely perfect, yeah.

Right, how's the pot getting on?

It seems to be...

Yeah, they're just nicely...sweated down.

Cameraman, could you come over, please?

Soft, but still a bit crunchy, really.

That's the state we want the vegetables to be in.

And slightly caramelised.

It doesn't matter that they've slightly burnt,

cos that's the aroma I want when we send the dish out to the restaurant.

-Fine.

-OK.

-Good, good.

Right. So, we go on to the next phase,

-which is going to be stuffing the fish, isn't it?

-Right.

It is indeed, it is indeed.

Right, what I've done is actually gutted this fish, very skilfully,

-or not, if you like.

-Oh, yes...

-Leaving a bit of...

So the stuffing is going to stay inside.

I'm going to show you that. He hasn't hacked this to death.

He's used very sharp knives to cut a small incision, clean it out.

Incidentally, he's already scraped the scales off previously,

and cut off the dangerous spine of the bass.

Very sharp, and slightly poisonous too.

So Rick is now going to stuff his vegetables

-into the centre of the bass.

-I'm just going to get a spoon.

Right. I'll just amuse the crowds while you get your act together, OK?

Don't worry about me, just enjoy yourselves.

We can afford it, we've got the place for free.

Typical, isn't it? The BBC are such rip-off merchants.

It doesn't actually need a lot, but it doesn't half improve...

I'm just going to... Are you going to bake it on here, perchance?

Yes. Just brush it with some butter. There's a pot behind you.

-Right.

-Then we want salt and pepper.

I'm just going to put a few of these root vegetables underneath the fish.

And what will happen when they're roasting is they'll actually burn,

which you might think is very bad practise,

but it doesn't half make the flavour... It's actually a smell.

When you take it out into the restaurant,

you've got this tremendous smell of root veg.

What is interesting is, in these days of nouvelle cuisine,

the photograph on a plate at £20 a head, you're actually serving

a whole fish with the head on, the way I like to see food served.

But, is there a...?

Is nouvelle cuisine here to stay, does it affect your customers,

are they frightened of seeing a fish?

Well, you get the odd one that wants the head taken off it.

It comes in about 50 seconds after it's gone out,

"Don't like the head," which is... What's wrong with a fish head?

The Chinese have fish head soups, for God's sake,

so there's nothing wrong with them,

but then, some people are very squeamish about such things.

But on the whole,

I find that the customers prefer to get the whole fish.

And, of course, it cooks much better on the bone anyway.

And you get the flavour all the way through from the bone,

-from the head, as you say.

-Absolutely.

I was cooking a hare earlier on in the year,

and someone said, "I hope it won't look like a hare."

I said, "Damn right it's going to look like a hare,

"that's what we're trying to do!" Come down to this. This is a fish.

It's going to cost you a lot of money, mind, obviously,

cos it's been taking Rick AND I to cook it. But that's a real fish,

and we want to see real food on the plate,

real fresh herbs he's grown, stuff like that.

-I'm waffling. Get it into the oven.

-Top of the oven.

-Top of the oven.

-What sort of heat?

-Absolutely flat out, Keith, to tell you the truth,

because you've got no worries about it toughening up,

you're not going to toughen a fish up,

so the more heat that you can hit it with

-and the quicker you cook it, the better.

-Great.

You'll find it comes out very, very juicy. No problem.

I'm now going to make Rick Stein's fabulous sorrel sauce,

to go with his bass, but I'm afraid I've made a few modifications.

What he's already done, in this pan, is chop some shallots, added some

dry white wine, and fish stock, and reduced it to that consistency.

At home, it may be out of the question to make a fish stock.

You can take my word for it - you could eliminate the fish stock

and just use the white wine.

Then, now scrupulously following his recipe,

fresh sorrel in whole leaves and fresh sorrel chopped, goes into the

chopped shallots and the reduction of white wine and fish stock, OK?

Into that, we pour about half a pound of melted butter.

Now, this is unsalted butter.

If you're using the salted variety, melt it first,

and then skim off the salt from the top,

otherwise you're going to spoil the delicate flavour

of this beautiful sauce.

So, there we are.

That's the sorrel and the melted butter, the white wine reduction,

little bit of white wine vinegar as well, if you like, fish stock,

which I've said is dispensable.

If you want to go to the trouble, do so. Anyway,

all of that now just cooks away on the gas for a few moments.

Our two other ingredients - our two eggs.

I never say anything like, "Separate two eggs,"

because I've seen people take one and put it that side,

and one and put it that side, which is highly daft.

And a liquidiser.

If - going back to my little merry jape about separating eggs -

if you were doing these the old-fashioned way,

by making an egg liaison sauce with a hand whisk,

then you wouldn't use the whites.

But using the magi-magi-magi-mix thing, you can use the whites

because it whizzes up so beautifully.

OK, this is absolutely terrific.

Rick's actually had to go off and do some real cooking

for people who actually pay money for this, you see,

and I've been left all on my own.

Help!

Whizz the thing up.

OK, this is the moment of truth, my friends.

Maximise the power.

Everything in.

To think of all the marvellous ways they're using processors nowadays,

it makes a fellow proud to be a cook! Ha-ha!

There we are - the perfect Rick Stein sauce.

Look at that. Isn't that beautiful?

Tastes very good, too. I hope he'll like it.

Runny, almost the consistency of custard,

made of egg yolks, butter, and fresh herbs.

Perfect for the bass, which should now be ready.

If you'll excuse me, I'll go and get him.

Wow, that's looking good.

Right, let's get that on the plate.

-Pick up that garnish.

-It smells wonderful.

No garnish at all. It doesn't need it, does it? It's so beautiful.

-No, just a few vegetables.

-OK, look, that's magnificent.

Let's see if we can get a table,

-and we can talk and drink and eat to our heart's content.

-OK.

I'll take this. Grab the sauce. Taste that sauce, actually.

Was it all right?

That's very nice. Very nice.

-This is quite incredible, isn't it?

-It is.

-This has to be the best table in the world...

-Look at this.

..in the best climate in the world with the best fish in the world.

-Absolutely.

-Which is the bass, isn't it?

-What a fabulous fish the bass is.

-What a fabulous-LOOKING fish.

They always stand out on a fishmonger's slab, the bass.

Beautiful, silvery, firm-looking fish.

Why are we so anti-fish in this place?

I know not in your restaurant, because you're just fish,

but the British as a whole reject this.

As far as I'm concerned, I've got the breaking strain of

a hot Mars Bar when it comes to fresh bass.

-It's a brilliant fish.

-It is. It's absolutely wonderful.

I can't understand why the English are so anti-fish.

I think you've got to get the setting right.

-What could be better than a setting like this?

-Not a lot!

Certainly, when they come to the restaurant,

they're a lot keener on fish, because we're by the sea, and

I think they feel it right to eat fish in that sort of setting.

Whether they would back at home again, I don't know.

I must say that this is absolutely delightful. It's really grand.

It's really going down well.

You're not smiling today just because

this is the most brilliant bass you've cooked in a long time,

not just because it's such a nice day. You remain cheerful and happy

despite the hard hours and the dreadful work.

-Yes.

-Why are you so fond of fish?

Well, it's a marvellous food to work with.

That's what all chefs say, isn't it?

It's the most dull thing you've ever heard!

I'm talking to you as a man, not as a chef.

Chefs are two a penny, you know?

-Yeah.

-Cooks are different.

I just really like the look of a fresh fish come into the restaurant.

It just really excites me. And you get such good fish here.

You just want to get on and do something really good with it.

A piece of meat is a piece of meat - finished.

But a fish straight out of the sea, you just feel,

"Wow, I'd really like to make that something special."

I'll drink to that.

-So, what a magnificent day.

-What fun.

And all the customers standing on the quay,

we can't say goodbye to them fast enough.

Thank you very much for joining us for our lunch.

I hope you'll join us on the next Floyd On Fish programme,

because believe me, my gastronauts, this is the way to eat fish.

KEITH LAUGHS

How young was Rick in that?

That was actually his first-ever TV appearance.

Where is he today?

Now, as ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at

some of the most memorable dishes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show -

Nick Nairn and Richard Bertinet go head-to-head

in the omelette challenge, and both are looking to move up the board.

Vivek Singh is here with a dish that is true Asian fusion -

he deep fries chicken thighs coated in cornflour and spicy soy sauce

mixture, and serves with a green and red pepper stir-fry.

And John Barrowman faces his food heaven or food hell.

Did he get his food heaven,

toffee baked Alaska with toffee sauce, or his food hell, watermelon

sorbet with rose water gulab jamun

and marinated watermelon wedges?

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

Next up, it's Jon Rotheram,

who seems to be really worried that his trousers might fall down.

-Great to have you on the show.

-Great to be back.

Look at you like that, I feel I should be walking over to you

with a cane, like this. That is a serious outfit, that.

-Well, yeah, they keep the trousers up.

-That's a serious outfit.

So, what are you going to make for us, then?

Today, like I said, a lightly cured sea trout.

Rainbow trout, sorry.

All we're going to do,

first of all, is just mix the salt and sugar together.

If I could get you to start making the Jersey Royal crisps.

Jersey Royal crisps.

Slice them on the mandolin - that would be amazing.

-We're going to deep fry these Jersey Royals?

-Deep fry them.

Again, we just slice them from raw, just run them under the tap

and then deep-fry them on a low temperature -

about 150 works just good.

So into this cure is a bit of salt and sugar.

Now, it's equal quantities - an easy way to remember.

So we put equal quantities of salt and sugar in there,

a little lemon zest as well.

It just goes through there.

And then we're going to add some spices as well.

We're going to add a bit of star anise,

some fennel seeds and coriander seeds.

So is this equal quantities of each, then, this cure?

Is that what you're using, salt and sugar?

Salt and sugar, yeah. Equal quantities.

And we're only going to put it in... Cos it's quite a small fish,

we're only going to put it in the cure for probably...

I reckon about eight hours would be just about right for this one.

But, again, if you get bigger fish, just cure it a little bit longer.

All you want to do is just cover it completely with the cure.

-So, the same, as well, with making gravlax.

-Exactly.

It's the same sort of thing with gravlax.

But, again, they're beautiful this time of year.

I think they're really lovely and fresh,

and it's perfect for this spring.

So we just cover that like so.

Just pop that in the fridge and just leave it for eight hours.

Now, tell us about Fifteen, then. Still going strong?

Cos you've got the one in London.

Well, all over the place at the moment.

Yeah, there's one in London, there's one in Cornwall as well.

Still going very, very strong, both of them.

Yeah, the restaurant's extremely busy this time of year,

which is great for us.

And you two implemented new changes on the new menu, then?

Yeah, what we do, we've both got the same love for food,

so we both have the same theories around it.

So, we write the menu everyday, which is nice.

Sometimes, if we like something, it stays on the menu.

We're kind of pretty much dictated by the seasons.

So if we get some lovely asparagus in, we'll use that on the menu.

We kind of write the menus backwards.