28/05/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. We're back to deliver more creative cooking,

world-class chefs and great food,

so sit back and enjoy as we dish up another portion

of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. Now, top chefs, creative cooking,

hungry celebrities and an Omelette Challenge

lie ahead in the next 90 minutes.

Coming up on today's show,

James Martin serves up strawberry cream-filled meringues

for actor Sean Maguire.

Lawrence Keogh is here with some beautifully smoked fish.

He hot-smokes mackerel fillets

and serves with honey-spiced beetroot, beetroot leaves

and fresh horseradish.

Mark Sergeant shows us a great dish with new season lamb.

He pan-fries lamb cutlets with garlic, rosemary and anchovies,

and then plates up with crushed peas, flavoured with marjoram,

and a tomato and olive dressing.

The brilliant Brian Turner and the awesome Henry Harris

go into battle at the Omelette Challenge hobs.

Then it's over

to Jose Pizarro, who's cooking up two tasty tapas dishes.

He deep-fries chicken wings and spices them up

with sweet paprika, chilli and garlic,

and he also makes savoury braised peas

with egg and Serrano ham.

And finally, Jessica Hynes faces her food heaven or food hell.

Did she get her food heaven, rhubarb rum babas

with roasted rhubarb and rhubarb cream?

Or her food hell, grilled sardines with sauce vierge,

pan-fried Jersey Royals and salad?

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

But first, over to a chef who once spent six years

teaching skiing and snowboarding in France and Colorado.

It's Alyn Williams, and he is getting creative with cuttlefish.

-Great to have you on the show.

-Thank you.

-It's been a long time.

-It has.

You brought some cuttlefish with you -

only the second time we've ever done that.

-I think Mr Koffmann cooked it on our show once.

-I believe so.

-He minced it, though.

-Yeah, he did, like a Bolognese.

-You are, going to sort of chargrill it.

-I am.

But I'm going to chargrill that,

I'm also going to chargrill this big boy.

The watermelon. So, off we go.

I'm going to basically get this on for you, as well,

cos we've got the almonds in there.

OK, I'm going to get the watermelon on first

because that takes a little while to break down and to caramelise.

Yeah.

So, cooking watermelon - there will be, hopefully,

a few people doing barbecues this weekend.

-Hope so.

-Great on a barbecue as well, innit, watermelon?

It's lovely. It's lovely, it's got a really nice character.

The thing is, it's quite neutral in flavour at first,

but then when you cook it and when you barbecue it...

-I'll get rid of that.

-..the sugars in there caramelise,

and it takes on a whole new character.

-Yeah.

-It looks pretty cool as well.

I can pop the almonds under the grill for you.

They want to go in there for about 30 seconds.

And you're going to do a dressing with...

You want me to do that, with mint...

-Yes, so if you can chop the mint.

-Roughly chop it.

Roughly chop the mint and we're going to mix that with some...

Just a bit of oil and some Chardonnay vinegar,

and that's what we're going to marinate the cuttlefish in.

OK. So, no oil on there. Just straight on the chargrill.

Nothing at all, because it's got...

Even though there is a lot of water in there, it's quite sugary as well,

so the sugars caramelise and you really don't need to oil it.

Right, and now we are on with the cuttlefish.

Now the cuttlefish, so...

Just...strips of cuttlefish, a bit like a tagliatelle, really.

Yeah.

Um... And the thing with cuttlefish is it's a bit like a squid,

a similar sort of thing as a squid.

More people associate it with this, don't they?

-They associate it with budgerigars, rather than dinner, I think.

-Yeah.

But it's a bit like squid,

and you could quite easily translate this with squid.

-Yeah.

-You could use squid instead of the cuttlefish.

Now, tell us about the restaurant - you've been open how long?

-We've been open for 18 months now.

-Yeah.

Yeah, in the Westbury Hotel,

which is just off of Bond Street in the middle of London.

Right.

And it's my first stand-alone venture -

I've never done anything like this before.

-Always worked under the watchful eye of other chefs.

-Yeah.

And some very good chefs, at that.

And I got the opportunity to open my own restaurant,

-under my own steam, and thought, "Why not?"

-And away you go.

Thought I'd go and do it,

and never looked back, really, it's been great.

I've really enjoyed it.

Right, I'm going to get the sugar on for you,

cos I know you want to get that caramelised.

So, I'm marinating that for a few minutes.

That's going to take on...the mint,

you want to get the flavour of the mint...

-There's a sink, if you want to wash your hands.

-Thank you.

I'll wash the knife as well. Take that.

I'll lose that.

-I'll let you get this sugar on to caramelise.

-OK.

There you go.

-OK, so what we've got, we've got some toasted almonds there.

-Yeah.

What we're going to do is we're going to sweeten them up.

We've got sugar, which I'm going to caramelise in the pan

and make, almost, a spicy toffee, if you like.

-Yeah.

-Because I've got these spices, I've got some chilli flakes,

some fennel seeds, some coriander,

some fenugreek, black pepper and salt,

and I'm going to mix all of that together...in here.

Now, as well as a shiny Michelin star,

somebody tells me you're also National Chef Of The Year.

-National Chef Of The Year!

-What does that mean?

-It is a very grand title, for a start.

-Right.

It's a competition, a yearly competition,

that's run by one of the bigger organisations

for professional chefs and you compete.

You go through semifinals and a final

to compete at the restaurant show.

-Right.

-Eight of you in the final and you battle it out, basically,

to see who's the best out of them.

I did it twice, I came runner-up last year...

-Right.

-..and won it this year.

-Very good.

-Which is...

Got the radishes on there.

Which is a lovely thing to win,

and it was nice to get it out of the way,

cos at least I don't have to do it a third year!

You not going to go back and defend your title?

I think it's one of those titles

that...best not defended.

Right, your sugar's nearly there.

The sugar is almost caramelised,

so I've got my Moroccan spices

and I've got some lemon zest in there.

We're going to use a little bit of lemon juice, too,

and some butter, so...

-It's just about there.

-Yeah, that is there.

No further than that.

OK, thank you.

-So, we make a little bit of a toffee.

-Yeah.

Got my spices.

I've just basically toasted the almonds under the grill.

-That's it, yeah.

-This is kind of Moroccan-y sort of...

-It's a bit North African.

-Yeah.

It's got those sort of flavours.

-Almonds in?

-Almonds in.

-Wonderful.

-There you go.

And so just coat the almonds in the butter.

The almonds will toast a bit further.

What you don't want to do is toast the almonds

all the way under the grill first of all,

cos they will take on a bit more colour.

-Almonds, of course, great combination with fish.

-Yeah.

-Classically with trout, but...

-Yeah, it's a similar sort of thing.

Yeah. Now, you want to use the leaves for this, as well.

Yeah, just a few of the leaves,

and you've already sliced the radishes,

but a couple of the leaves.

The leaves, I love using the leaves from the tops of radishes

and turnips and kohlrabi, and so on,

cos you tend to find that there's as much flavour in the leaf

as there is in the vegetable itself.

Cos many people just throw them away, don't they?

I remember throwing them away when I worked for Koffmann

-and getting a swift...

-Did he punch you?

-..kick up the backside.

-LAUGHTER

So, I'm just going to turn over the...

..the watermelon, now, cos that should be quite nicely

caramelised on the first side.

Now, as well as busy running your own restaurant,

you're also running a lot of

these collaboration sort of dinners in your place.

Well, we've just... In fact, we're just starting.

So this September, for the month of September,

I've got four chefs coming to cook each Tuesday with me,

and four very...

Four amazing chefs, really.

-I've got Sat Bains, Simon Rogan, from the UK.

-Yeah.

And then I've got a chef called Bart de Pooter from Holland...

-Sorry, from Belgium.

-Right.

-Excuse me.

..who's got a two-star Michelin restaurant in Belgium.

-Yeah.

-Cooks very progressive, incredibly good food,

and a man called Iggy Chan.

-Singapore.

-From Singapore, yeah,

who I met a couple of years ago and got on famously with,

and I've asked him to help out as well.

-So the key to this is cooking it quickly, like squid.

-Quite quickly,

cos you don't want it to... You don't want it to go tough.

If you cook it for too long at this high temperature,

it'll toughen up, so I'm just going to...

Best to do this outdoors, really, isn't it?

LAUGHTER

COUGHING

I'm glad we disabled the fire alarms before we started this one!

-OK.

-So it really is that quick.

-Really fast, really fast.

And you can... I mean, you can do it in a pan of oil as well.

-Just as easy.

-Take that off for you.

Just going to put a little bit more of the... Thank you.

A bit more of that dressing over the cuttlefish,

and then I'll season that a touch.

-But into there, I'm going to...

-Throw in the leaves.

The leaves, so that they wilt down a little bit,

so they'll just soften up.

And really, it's as simple as that,

and all I'm going to do is put it together.

So I've got the grilled watermelon.

This could have...

This could probably have done with being on

for another five minutes or so, cos you get it really, properly...

Soft, and the juices start to come out of it...

Soft on the outside and nicely caramelised,

so you've got the natural sugars, but the inside is always

going to stay crunchy,

and you've got that nice sort of fresh bite that you'd expect.

Get you a spoon.

Cuttlefish -

don't know whether supermarkets sell cuttlefish, do they?

-Get down to the fishmonger's, guys.

-Fishmonger's.

Right, and then you've got these radishes.

Fresh radishes, which I'm going to sprinkle over, and then,

of course, the almonds,

which add that kind of spicy warmth.

They've just been blanched in ice-cold water as well.

-That's right.

-And then the almonds over the top.

The almonds, which, as you see,

they're nice and sugary, nice and caramelised,

so they've got a nice sweetness, but with a heat from the chilli.

And then these fellas over here. These flowers.

These flowers over here - I've got an amazing man

down in Cornwall who runs a cooperative of farmers

who grows lots of little, spicy flowers, wild flowers.

These are the first radishes of the season that he's got here,

tiny, weenie radishes, there's a nasturtium flower...

All with flavour. So they look pretty,

but they've got flavour.

Rocket flowers, those, aren't they?

Rocket flowers, yeah, which, you know...

The great thing about this is that...

The great thing about the flowers is they're not...they're only in

for a few weeks of the season, so it's nice to jump on them and...

Of course, you've got the wild garlic flowers now, as well.

-Year, definitely, yeah.

-But pretty strong, so...

-Very strong.

-I'm just going to dress...

Courgette flowers are very nice, James.

LAUGHTER

They're nice stuffed, apparently, with risotto!

-Right, and then finally, we've just got...

-Finally...

-Almonds grated over the top.

-Just a little.

-Fresh almonds as well.

-While you grate that,

tell us the name of the dish again.

So we've got cuttlefish with mint,

served with grilled watermelon and a radish salad.

-It was worth the wait. Well done.

-Thank you.

We get to dive in to this one, so...

-See, the food just keeps coming, you see.

-Yeah.

-Dive in.

-Look at that.

-Look at that.

-Have you ever had cuttlefish before?

-Never.

-The first time.

-A first.

Like a picture, though, isn't it? Beautiful.

It is. I mean, those flowers and bits and pieces,

and the radish tops as well.

-Often people just throw them away.

-They do.

Try and use everything off a vegetable,

I think, it's important.

In general, try and use everything on the animal as well.

With the mint as well, cos it's quite a strong herb with fish.

But it adds that sweetness, doesn't it?

It marries along with the watermelon and back again with the spice.

-He likes it.

-Like that?

-Yeah, that's right...

Well, it's better than lobster!

LAUGHTER

Courgette!

That would make a real showstopper starter,

and if you can't get your hands on cuttlefish,

then squid or octopus would work just as well.

Coming up, James cooks strawberry cream-filled meringues

for Sean Maguire, but first, it's over to Rick Stein,

who is in Nottinghamshire, finding out about the secret

to a good pork pie.

In the grounds of this detached house

in Cropwell Butler in Nottinghamshire

are three brothers who make the best pork pies

I've tasted in a long time

from a recipe going back 150 years.

Can you just smell that, Rick?

I think pork pies are regarded generally as the butt

of many a British Rail joke,

which went with the curled-up sandwiches.

In fact, I've noticed that in most of the pork pies

I've had recently, there's a serious absence of jelly.

This is the heart of a pork pie - jelly made from pigs' trotters

which have been simmered until they fall apart.

This mixer looks as though your grandfather may have...

Yeah, yeah, sure.

This mixer has got a lot of history with it, and my grandfather,

when he was in business, in Nottingham,

he had 16 of these in a row, all working,

mixing pastry, mixing meat,

and I think this is the only one left probably in England today.

We can get our hands into it

and mix it at the pace we like to mix.

So it's like making handmade pastry?

Sure, sure, there's no whipping it round and round.

I can control it with this,

and then when the lard, the hot boiled lard

and water and salt go in, I can mix it all with my hands.

So it's a hot water paste you're making?

-Yeah, boiling water, which we're going to tip now.

-OK.

So, I'm going to take that off.

So you've just got water and lard in there?

-Water, English lard, sea salt...

-Sea salt?

Sea salt, and we're going to slowly tip it in, Rick.

And all that should mix in with that pastry

and really hit it with some power.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you, Rick.

-That's all right.

So, what's the secret of a really good pork pie, then?

Well, I think the secret is the ingredients,

the quality of the ingredients.

What you actually use and what you're putting into it.

I don't think you see any finer pastry, hot water pastry,

than this one.

Then we move on to the meat, which is hand...

We hand-butcher everything, chop it, in a mincer,

but chop it in a big mincer.

-Yeah.

-So we've got the quality of the meat, there,

big chunks of meat.

That's mixed perfect now.

No need to mix that no more, job done.

Everything about this is sort of apt, this pork pie,

because the pigs are local, and it's tied in with the cheese,

isn't it, with Stilton?

Yeah, I mean, the history goes back years ago,

where everyone produced, local farmers produced the pigs,

the cheese was being produced, they needed something

to feed the pigs on, so they fed them with the whey.

Course, the quality of the pig when it's fed with whey

is beautiful, the meat.

So I think they had so much pork around, they said,

"Right, let's make a pie."

So they just made it by hand, which is a Melton Mowbray pork pie,

when it's made by hand.

They look fantastic.

Beauties.

You know they're cooked and they're ready...

-They're bubbling.

-They've been in there an hour.

Simple question, but what do pork pies mean to you?

Oh, I suppose everything, really. It's my life.

Sadly, at 2.30 in the morning, you can wake up,

wondering if you've jellied the pies

or if they're ready to be sold the next day.

It's a passion.

And once you've picked the pie, you've cut it,

and you've got that segment in your hand, ready to eat,

and you bite into it and you get that lovely crunch of the pastry,

and then you're into the softness of the jelly,

and then you're back into another texture, with the meat.

Hand-in-hand with the making of pork pies is Stilton cheese,

one of the most famous cheeses in the land,

and it all started here at this pub, The Bell.

This was a coaching inn on the Great North Road -

the equivalent now, I suppose, of a motorway service station.

The coaches used to stop on the way to London

and people with sophisticated palates would taste the cheese

and recognise it for its greatness.

And interestingly, Stilton wasn't actually made

in the village of Stilton.

It was made a bit further north, at a place called Wymondham.

But the landlord of the pub here, The Bell,

was a real entrepreneur and built up this sale for cheeses,

had a sister-in-law who made fantastic cheese up there.

And she had a bit of sense,

cos she only sent the best cheeses down here to her brother-in-law.

So, not unnaturally, the cheeses flourished

and ultimately became one of the world's most famous cheeses.

I wonder if you could say the same for the development

of the motorway sandwich?

As for the taste,

the blue veining in it gives it a tartness.

Like a lot of food, it's sort of point and counterpoint,

and that's what makes it so satisfying, and actually,

what they eat with it around here is a sweet plum bread,

which again emphasises this point and counterpoint

which I love so much.

Actually, in these days of squeaky-clean hygiene,

this is a really interesting quote from Daniel Defoe,

who passed through the village in 1722.

He said, "It's famous for its cheese,

"which is called our English Parmesan,

"and it's brought to the table with the mites or maggots around it

"so thick that they bring a spoon with them

"for you to eat the mites with as you do the cheese."

But I prefer it, actually, as Stilton cut thinly

with honey and walnuts,

and a nice, healthy absence of mites!

To Malvern - a very English town.

Every time I come here, I think of Elgar

and all things English.

Well, it's difficult not to.

To me, in gastronomic terms,

one of the things that is special about Malvern is English sausages

and, in particular, Chris Titchell's award-winning ones.

They just look so appetising, Chris.

Just run through them and tell us about

the different types of sausage here.

These are only a small selection,

but a quick resume is pork and chive,

just a mild hint of oniony flavour, really complements the pork nicely.

Pork, cider and apple, local specialities.

Beef, stout and mustard -

the stout gives a lovely, soft texture to the beef,

which can be a little bit...

-I've never liked beef sausages, but...

-It's because of the fat.

There's a little pork in there as well,

helps the succulence, so we're looking for succulence in that.

These are our continental cousins, the merguez.

They look real flash!

Lots and lots of paprika in there.

They're not that spicy, but, you know,

nice tones of paprika in that.

Another one designed by a customer, she called it "Spicy Old Tomato",

but we call it our Worcestershire Tomato -

Worcester sauce, spring onions, tomato puree, again, pork-based.

And last but not least, the classic - plain pork.

The biggest and best seller.

So that outsells the others?

Outsells all the others put together.

We buy all our pork local from a free-range farm,

and there's nothing overpowering -

it's just a combination of light seasonings

and textured properly, because we only mince it.

We don't put it through a bowl chopper

or anything that puts any pressure on the meat,

so you've got a nice, loose-textured sausage

and a good-quality skin,

good-quality, natural skin, very important,

because you've got to remember that a sausage is not only

a combination of flavours - it's the whole eating experience

of having that skin pop just as you bite it,

and that's all part of it.

It's getting all of the little bits and pieces together.

It's all to do with just coming up with blends of flavours

and putting things together that keep people interested,

as well as not neglecting any of the things from hundreds of years

of sausage-making that's been going on for ages.

It's the original fast food.

You look like a conjurer, you know, making sort of balloon shapes

out of those long, thin, sausage-like balloons.

-I still can't make any poodles.

-Can't you?

-No, I can't make a poodle.

-You look like a natural!

You can have a link of sausages, any flavour you like,

but you can't have a poodle!

So far on my gastronomic journey,

I feel I haven't done justice to the vegetables we grow here.

I've come to Coleshill Organic Farm to meet Peter and Sonia Richardson.

It must be a very nice place to work.

I mean, it's very nice, all these flowers everywhere.

That is our singing gardener.

She planted all the flowers and everyone that walks through -

we have a lot of people walking through,

there's a short cut into the village -

and they all comment on the flowers.

-So you've got a singing gardener?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Why? Cos she's so happy working...?

-That's it, yeah!

She likes being in a walled garden.

There's something timeless, isn't it?

You know, it's sort of like...

It just goes back to The Secret Garden

and Mr McGregor and all those sort of fictional characters, really,

and...yeah, it's just a very special place to work.

What we try and do when we do our boxes

is we sent out newsletters too, with recipes and things.

Just so that when people get an unusual vegetable,

like a celeriac - you know, "What's this knobbly swede? -

they can actually do something with it

that they are going to enjoy, hopefully.

Whoever thought up vegetable boxes was a genius -

paying a small sum of money each week to a local farmer

for a selection of his fresh produce.

Well, it inspired me to come up with this dish -

leek cannelloni with provolone piccante cheese.

First of all, melt some butter in a nonstick pan

and add three or four sliced leeks.

Stir the leeks around in the butter and add some thyme.

I'm using lemon thyme here.

Continue to cook gently while you crush some garlic.

These organic leeks taste hotter and more peppery than ordinary ones.

Now, I add a small amount of water.

A little more stirring and then some salt

and freshly ground black pepper.

I need a good, concentrated tomato sauce

to spread under the cannellonis.

Just take some olive oil and some chopped onion,

finely chopped onion, and chopped garlic.

Sweat off the onion and garlic in the olive oil,

then add a can of chopped tomatoes, Italian chopped tomatoes.

Don't bother with fresh British tomatoes,

they won't taste good enough.

And then you just knock that down.

In other words, you sort of reduce it right down,

and you make a thing called a gastrique,

and this is a real little tip -

what it is is just a little bit of vinegar,

about two tablespoons of vinegar,

with about a teaspoon of sugar,

and you just boil that down to a real essence and add that,

then a bit of salt and pepper.

But the gastrique really gives the tomato sauce a real lift

and people say, "Gosh, what is so special about that tomato sauce?"

Don't get me wrong - I really like English tomatoes in the summer,

and they are perfect for this sauce then.

But not the hothouse winter ones - you're better off with tinned.

Now I add some ricotta cheese to the nicely softened leeks,

and roll about a tablespoon up in some soft lasagne.

Cannelloni were my first introduction to Italian food,

cos my parents had a flat in London

and there was an Italian deli on the corner

and I just remember going...

little cardboard boxes of cannelloni,

that delicious tomato sauce

and the bechamel and the Parmesan on top.

So I am always trying to slip cannelloni recipes in somewhere.

Now, to finish the dish off, a simple bechamel sauce.

First, I need to infuse flavour into the milk.

I tip it into a saucepan, add half an onion,

studded with three or four cloves.

Then I add a bay leaf or two and a few peppercorns,

and then I simmer.

But I don't let it boil.

I take it off the heat and in another saucepan,

melt the butter and some flour and stir to make a roux.

I'll cook this gently for three or four minutes.

Now, I pour the milk through a sieve and into the roux,

and whisk briskly to make a smooth sauce.

Bechamel's the easiest mother sauce to make and goes back to Louis XIV.

There's loads of rows whether it was French or Italian in origin.

I'm not too bothered - it just works for me.

I add a bit of cream and some grated provolone -

it's a cow's milk cheese from southern Italy.

Finally, I add an egg yolk for an extra bit of richness

and to make the sauce brown on top in the oven.

Then I whisk in some salt.

I have to admit that the idea for this dish

came from our own leeks with plain white sauce,

which goes so well with roast lamb,

and I pour the sauce right over the cannellonis

and sprinkle with the cheese.

So, all that remains to be done is to bake in an oven

at about 200 degrees - centigrade, that is -

for about half an hour.

Now this, of course, is a vegetarian dish.

I feel a bit sorry for Christopher, our cameraman.

He's a vegetarian and he suffers awfully bland food

with such stoicism on our travels.

It's so rare to get something good.

This is for him - he really liked it.

I'm not sure the cameramen on this show would be quite as excited -

they're all a bunch of carnivores, really.

Rick is right, and it's great to celebrate great vegetables

we grow in this country.

But it's not just veg that we should be proud of.

At this time of year, there are other great produce,

like British fruit, for instance,

and they don't get any more British than these fellas here.

The first crop of English strawberries.

-Do you want one?

-Yes, please.

-Proper English...

If you've been in LA for too long, you'll have missed them.

Proper English strawberries - absolutely delicious

throughout the whole of the season.

-Wonderful.

-Very good.

What I'm going to do is a proper dish as well with strawberries -

not an Eton mess, not that kind of stuff.

I'm going to do meringue, I'm going to do meringue

stuffed with the nice little strawberries and fresh cream.

Very, very simple. All I'm going to do is,

first, make our meringue.

We need four egg whites for this, so I'm just going to crack the eggs

into our little pot there and we'll just lose that.

Now, I mentioned at the top of the show about EastEnders.

-Mm-hm.

-And obviously, Grange Hill, but it was before then.

You worked, five years old, with Sir Laurence Olivier.

-Yes, yes.

-Incredible.

-I hear he was thrilled to work with me!

-Exactly!

And seven?

You played what at seven years old?

Monty Python...

I was one of the children singing Every Sperm Is Sacred

in The Meaning Of Life.

-As you do.

-Which my Catholic schoolteachers were delighted about!

I bet they were!

And your career kind of took off from there.

Er, yeah. I've just sort of...

Like every actor, you have peaks and troughs,

but, yeah, I think that you're really, really just fortunate

if you manage to just keep working.

I mentioned the fact ... You must work incredibly hard,

because I've read your biography.

I mean, literally, you've done everything, from theatre,

television, back into film,

-Music...

-Yes.

What was this music thing, 1996, was it?

Yeah, I just felt like, you know,

the music industry needed a little help, so...

To be honest, it was one of those things after leaving EastEnders,

it was kind of a long story, but I resisted it many times.

I was asked if I wanted to do it,

and I was like, "I don't have any musical talent."

They were like, "That's not a problem.

"Not important - don't let that hold you back!"

And I ended up having a bad motorcycle accident,

and was lying in bed, in hospital and I thought,

"Oh, you know what? I'll give it a go.

"Probably be one record and then it'll disappear."

-Three albums, four tours...

-Yeah, yeah.

So it was one of those things that I just didn't...

I didn't foresee it lasting as long as it did, and I apologise.

-LAUGHTER

-I apologise for putting you through that!

The bright lights of Hollywood took you over to LA,

like a lot of actors.

But it must be difficult out there.

Yeah, I didn't really...

It wasn't a strategy or a plan.

I was just sort of going about my business here

and my manager sort of saw me in something that had been on the BBC

and said, "Would you like a manager?"

And I was like, "Yes, that would be nice."

And one thing led to another, did an audition on tape here,

it was sent over there, the director liked me,

flew me over and then...

-And lead role.

-Yeah.

-In, what, Meet The Spartans, it was?

No, this was about nine years ago, when I moved there.

I actually went to Warner Brothers

and they just sort of liked me for some reason.

I think they probably drink a lot there.

LAUGHTER

And I got a deal to make a show for them

and it lasted for about a year-and-a-half,

and by then, I sort of liked living there, so I stayed.

-And the rest is history.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

Just quickly, make the meringue, whipped egg whites.

You can have this after your Sunday lunch.

Sugar - no need to follow the old recipes

of folding in figure of eight,

just get the sugar in as quick as possible.

There you go.

Now, if you want sticky meringue, it's what you do next.

You put either cornflour or white wine vinegar in it,

and that way, when you cook it, it'll go very sticky in the middle.

-And crunchy on the outside.

-Vinegar? In meringue?

Vinegar in meringue, that's how you get sticky meringue.

If you've got a fan oven, like I have,

a bit of meringue on there.

It sticks the paper down, otherwise, if you have got a fan oven,

your meringues will be flying around the oven when you open the door.

Just sticks to the bottom there.

And all we do with that is just lift these on and just pop them on...

..like that and they just literally sit on top like that.

So, from Hollywood, now you're back into the UK. This new...

-It's like a comedy, isn't it?

-It's... Yeah, it's a sort of...

It's a co-production between an American channel and the BBC

here and it's, yeah, it's a sort of action adventure fantasy comedy.

We were trying to squeeze as many genres as we could.

What's it called?

This is always the fun part.

-It's called Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire.

-Right.

-Yes.

That's normally the reaction I get.

"And that's the title they're sticking with, is it?"

And it was actually funny, that was the thing that nearly put me off.

"Who's going to watch Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire?"

And then I read it and I was like, "Oh, actually pretty funny."

So what's different about it, then?

Cos they're saying that it's this new form of comedy.

I don't know if it's anything new, per se.

I mean, everything's just a regurgitation of the same thing, but

I don't think it's been done or seen and it's sort of

a little bit Monty Python, it's sort of a bit sort of Blackadder.

And it's got Matt Lucas, who I think is probably the funniest guy

I've ever met, so it's worth looking at just for...

-And will it go across to America as well?

-Yes.

Well, it just aired there.

-It aired there first and now it's going to start here.

-There you go.

And you mention Matt Lucas - it must give you a big boost.

Oh, it's amazing.

Cos I'm just, like most people, I'm just a huge fan of his,

so when you're standing opposite him, trying to do a scene and he...

I always thought that funny people could, you know,

-manage to not get the giggles, but he's a giggler.

-Yeah.

And if he laughs, you've got no chance, have you?

Right, just finish this off. We've got our meringue.

In we go with the strawberries now.

There you go, good old-fashioned English strawberries.

Bit of whipped double cream. There you go.

And then what I've got in here is just got some strawberries

just in there, in the blender.

We just blend roughly...

-to a little paste.

-It's a nice little mini one, isn't it?

-You like the little mini blender?

-Yeah, it's nice. Sweet.

-Very sweet.

And then we can take our puree and throw that in as well.

So the idea is we give this a quick mix.

But then this is where it gets better.

You take a dollop of your meringue, which I've got on here.

-Look at these.

-You've made one earlier.

-Yeah.

Well, it takes an hour and a half in the oven. Low oven.

These were done this morning.

There you go.

-I was up at 6am making these.

-Yeah, me too.

I made a bunch of meringues before I left the house.

And then a pile of that on the top.

Then, if you're into Michelin Star cooking, like John,

-bit of icing sugar on the top.

-Is that it? That's what gets the star?

That's an extra fiver in his restaurant! That's what that is.

-Dive into that.

-What's the correct, polite way?

-There isn't one.

-So I just pick it up like a hamburger?

-You can use your...

-OK.

You can pick it up like a hamburger if you want.

-I don't want to look uncouth on a cooking show.

-It's all right.

Cos I am, obviously, but...

You can just dive in.

That's a pre-dessert in Yorkshire, isn't it, James?

-This is a petit fours in Yorkshire, mate.

-Wow, that's really good.

-Eh?

Look at that. It's proper. There you go.

There you go. Bit of that, there you go.

This is just for you, John Campbell.

-There you go?

-Where's my icing sugar?

-You want your icing sugar?

-Make you feel at home! There you go.

-Thank you.

-What do you think of that?

-So good!

-Happy?

Yeah!

I'm not sure whether Sean Maguire liked that or not,

what do you reckon(?) Anyway, today,

we're taking a look back at some of the delicious recipes from

the Saturday Kitchen archives and there are still loads of

inspiring dishes to come.

Up next, it's Lawrence Keogh with a tasty mackerel dish.

And watch as James' shirt changes colour.

He also changes the colour of Lawrence's jeans. Take a look.

-Good to have you on the show again, Lawrence.

-Morning, mate.

-Like I said, something very, very seasonal.

-Yeah.

-And quick as well.

Very quick. We're going to do a freshly-smoked mackerel.

OK, that's been filleted

and V-boned, actually.

You can see the line down the centre.

That's where it's been V-boned.

But before we get cooking, I've been doing the show for four years.

My mother, this is the first time she's watched it live,

the very, very first time.

She's now petrified and has probably spilt the coffee all over the place.

But she's always moaning about my hair and my shirt.

Mother, if you don't like the shirt,

you can have this colour...or this colour...or this colour.

But we'll go back to this colour. It's good that, innit? I like that.

-Been playing with that all morning.

-I have! Well, they have, yeah.

I'm wearing blue again, yeah? There you go. Right, fire away.

We've got some beetroot.

We're going to smoke the mackerel in hickory wood.

We've got coriander seeds, garlic, lemon and, obviously,

which you absolutely hate and that's why I brought it along...

-Look at it!

-It's horseradish, fresh horseradish.

-Horrific stuff.

And he can't stand it.

And also we've got smoked paprika - two types. We've got sweet and hot.

Right, so, first thing we're going to do...

I'm going to lightly oil the mackerel.

-Just a bit of oil on the skin.

-Now, you want me to slice this garlic.

-Slice the garlic wafer thin, please.

-And the coriander seeds.

Yes, crush those. I'm going to season the mackerel.

I hope you turned the smoke alarms on earlier.

Now, we'll get that in there and explain what it is,

because it needs to cook. It needs to cook for five minutes.

Just lay it down on that hickory wood that's smoking.

If we want to preserve this,

we'd soak the mackerel in some salted water,

like two ounces of salt, 600mls on water,

for four hours to cure it with some salt first.

But it kind of puts people off when you start talking about that,

but smoked fish, you can buy that sort of stuff from garden centres.

Exactly. This'll take about five, six minutes. It won't take long.

Now, the beetroot is lovely. This is golden beetroot.

I'm going to show you one here.

Right, we're going to blanch this beetroot leaf,

so you want lots and lots of olive oil.

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

You want lots and lots of olive oil, make a little bath.

We've got sliced garlic in there and the crushed coriander seeds.

-OK, that's in there.

-This is golden beetroot.

You don't often see this very much.

Now, this is your ethos as a restaurant, isn't it?

Golden beetroot. That's lovely. So you've got golden beetroot.

So you're trying to find historic, small quantities of veg.

-And that's your candied beetroot.

-He's not listening to me.

-I'm showing the camera.

-These. These.

You're trying to find this sort of historic sort of veg,

-and small quantities.

-Yeah, and this is in season.

These have come from Colchester. So these have come from Borough Market.

We change the menu, as you know,

every month for the seasons and, er, you know,

it might be a bit boring some times of the year,

swede and curly kale but, hey, we do swede with butter and nutmeg

and curly kale and sprouts with cream and things like that.

We play with it.

What I want you to do is take the nice red leaves here, OK?

Now, you can eat these leaves.

We're going to blanch these in boiling salted water for

about 20 seconds.

A lot of people think these are poisonous, but they're not.

No, they're really good for you.

Some good acids, good sort of things in there.

Now, these ones we're going to take to one side.

So we'll take the beetroot leaves...

I'm going to refresh... Do something unusual.

I'm going to refresh the beetroot leaves in cold olive oil.

It's an idea I got from an Italian restaurant that I worked in

many years ago as a young lad and it was nice.

We used to do it with a mozzarella salad. It was quite nice.

Now, the other tray for me, chef. These beetroots...

Just to recap, in there,

there's nothing else other than the hickory chips, which are those.

-Hickory chips, there.

-On there, with a little bit of...

You can use a baking sheet, or even a bit of tinfoil on the bottom.

Yeah, yeah. If you're at home, what I do is get your hand like that,

wrap some foil around your hand, like a cup,

put the hickory wood into a pan, and, same way.

And this is great for a barbecue and things like that, James.

It's lovely.

So these literally just want 20 seconds.

20 seconds and refresh in the cold olive oil.

These beetroots,

we need some more olive oil and just kind of glug, glug, glug over.

Do you use the beetroot leaves and stuff like that?

Because I know you can use turnip leaves and all that sort of stuff.

-Absolutely.

-I think chefs have become quite used

to using the whole vegetables

these days. And, as Lawrence said, great flavour as well.

I always like blending my paprikas, cos, many years ago,

when I was at the Ritz in London, we used to do stroganoff,

the old-fashioned stroganoff,

and I was always taught to blend the hot and sweet together.

So we're blending that and if you have about two grams of each

and just sprinkle it over the beetroot, so it's olive oil,

salt, pepper and beet and that goes in the oven.

-Yeah.

-OK. That's it.

If you can get them pea shoots and cut them into some ice water, chef?

-Yeah.

-OK. Now, there's one...

There's one prepared earlier.

-There's one prepared earlier.

-How long is that...

You don't need to peel those, but how long does that go in for?

-That's taken about 10, 12 minutes, to be honest.

-Right, OK.

-OK.

So they come out and what's nice is to get a little glug, glug,

glug of...some nice honey. I want you to peel the horseradish, James.

I know you... The only reason I brought horseradish on

is I know you hate it. He comes to the restaurant,

has roast beef and goes, "Take the horseradish off, Keogh.

-"Don't like it."

-JAMES LAUGHS

-"Hate it."

-I mean, look at it! It's just horrific stuff.

Before you start peeling it...

If you plant this in your garden, you can never, ever get rid of it.

He hates the smell of it. He can't stand it.

-I can't stand the taste of it.

-It's going to be all over your hands now.

-Because he's been complaining all morning...

-What have you done?

BBC props department... have brought this along.

JAMES LAUGHS

-Brilliant.

-There you go. If you grate that for me...

He can't stand it.

-It's a good look, James.

-MUFFLED: I can't breathe!

-Fantastic.

Suits you.

There you go. Change your shirt at the same time.

There you go.

-Right.

-Where has this been in?

-You don't want to know.

-Exactly!

Andy, the producer...

Let's have a quick look at the mackerel.

Next time you phone up, wanting to be on this show, we're full.

-Right, that's doing lovely well now.

-Yeah.

-Right. Erm, lemon.

I want one lemon grated in there.

I'm just checking to see if you've got anything else underneath there.

-No, no.

-One lemon grated.

-One lemon grated in there. OK? That's it.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Lovely.

-So this is kind of like a dressing as well, yeah?

-Yeah, this is going to make the dressing.

-Right.

And it's nice, you can play with that marinade, if you want to,

a little bit, you know? Do something...

-Put some fresh herbs through it, you know.

-Yep.

-Tarragon, parsley.

The horseradish is so strong, it makes you cry.

It genuinely would be my food and I would gag as well, at the end of it.

-It's just...

-There you go.

-So the fish is ready.

-Fish is ready.

-Take the lid off there.

-Look at that.

That's nicely seasoned.

Don't do that next to your net curtains at home.

-There you go. Right, you going to plate up now?

-Yeah. There we go.

Now, what's nice, while I roast these whole, is when you cut

them in half now, you've got the lovely colours coming through.

It's best to roast them whole.

There we go. Look at the beautiful colours there, James.

Fantastic, isn't it? Right? Look at that.

-Licking fingers.

-OK.

-Wash me hands.

Right, pick up some of this...beetroot leaves, OK?

Bit of garlic and coriander in there.

-And I suppose you could pop this in a jar, this.

-You can jar it, yeah.

It's nice with a bit of grilled salmon, or bring it to a barbecue.

-Yeah.

-Bit of chicken.

-There we go. A bit like spaghetti, isn't it?

-There you go.

It's interesting...

Clare's looking...!

Well, I'm just slightly concerned when you said earlier,

"Some people think it's poisonous...but it's not."

You know, that's quite an extreme thing for some people to think.

I don't know, we're about to find out.

Wait till you taste the monkfish, love!

LAUGHTER

We've got a bucket down here for you.

-Right.

-Right, better scatter on the garlic, OK?

-Yeah.

Let's put these pretty beetroots around here.

-Got a nice palette knife there, chef, for me?

-Yeah.

-Do you want me to grab this fish?

-Yeah, that's it.

-Just turn this fish over?

-Yeah.

Can you put it, that's it, on the skin side?

Skin side down, all right?

-Fantastic.

-There you go.

Nice bit of charred...lovely fish, there.

So this is hot-smoked, so it's cooked all the way through.

It's hot, it's smoky. You've got lovely flavours in there.

You've got the smoky beetroot.

You've got the pea shoots, a little sprinkle.

-OK. A little squeeze of lemon...

-Yeah.

-..over the plate.

Nice bit of garnish and that's great. Great summery dish.

And then just leave it at that. No, go on.

Your best bit(!)

And then just grate the horseradish like you would

a bit of Parmesan... all over the dish.

-That's a lot.

-There's honey in there.

A lot more than he did in rehearsal, I know that for a fact!

So, freshly smoked mackerel, with beet leaves marinated,

-roast beets in paprika and honey and...

-With the dandruff on top.

-..fresh horseradish.

-Lovely.

Oh, it's bad, is that sort of stuff.

There you go. Right.

Dive into that. Tell us what you think of this one.

-OK.

-You get to dive in.

So, do you know what your mum's thinking now is,

-"He hasn't washed his hands."

-Yeah, I did wash my hands. I did.

I don't think you did. You did that garlic thing...

-I'm going to go and wash my hands.

-Exactly. There we go.

-There you go.

-That's nice. That's a strange thing to do! "Smell that!"

-What do you think?

-Well, I'm thinking already that,

as we've got cod cheeks to come and we're having mackerel here

that to have monkfish as well would just be wrong. Too much fish.

That would be too much fish.

But, I mean, you could use salmon for that.

Salmon would be lovely for that. You know, mackerel's great, obviously.

Erm... Try a bit of monkfish.

Mackerel's good cos it's so cheap as well.

It's cheap and it's a good, oily fish. Very good for you.

I'm trying a bit of the poisonous beetroot leaf.

Get everything... Beetroot leaf, yes.

And if she collapses on the show, well, you know.

-Happy with that?

-Can't tell yet. Give me a minute.

I want to change the colour of MY shirt.

Anyway, clearly, the budget doesn't stretch that far.

Only happens to special people.

Anyway, now it's over to Keith Floyd,

who's meeting with an expert on oysters on a rainy day in Cornwall.

The oyster. The poor, crazy oyster.

These androgynous aphrodisiacs,

once the staple diet of apprentices,

are now consumed by Gucci-shoed executives who also swallow

big deals and wine, regardless of expense,

and are quite ignorant of the labour of love here on the beautiful

Hillford River, which provides the currency of their credibility.

And a labour of love it is.

In this damp, dim shed, a beautiful girl,

her fine fingers clad in gloves,

chips away the barnacles to make the pale,

silver grey and sometimes creamy brown shell more appealing

before they are hand-graded on this clacking Victorian roundabout

and slid into the purifying tanks to await

a seaweed-wrapped train journey to Paddington.

My love of oysters, like all true love, has caused me pain.

Good friends have shied from the zinc bar,

and would-be lovers have said, "No, no, if you don't mind,

"I might be sick."

How sad.

I felt good, even involved in this gentle industry,

and my mouth watered as I plucked fresh mussels

from the tanks to cook later...

..but something was wrong.

On this fine, autumnal day,

with the drizzle falling and the soft river lapping, I felt uneasy.

The man who owned the place was clearly distressed

by the frenetic activity of a film crew,

and it wasn't until we struck up a conversation about rugby

that this shy and gentle man began to trust

and tell me about his life and work on the river -

and Len Hodges is passionate about that.

Len, I'm speechless.

This incredible view and these fantastic oysters,

and you live here. I mean, you must be the happiest man in the world.

Yes, I do love my work, and I love the food I produce too.

Tell me, everybody knows oysters in restaurants and things,

but we've seen them coming out of the river and stuff.

How old is one of these?

-They vary between five and seven years.

-Five and seven years.

It depends, really, on if you get two hot summers

in a row and get a very big growth, then you'll get them in five years.

But if you get cold summers, they take longer to grow.

I'm just going to carry on eating a few of these for a moment.

You don't mind if I don't talk to you, do you?

You don't really care much about...

What else has come here from the Helford River, then?

It's all your territory, if you like.

-Cockles?

-Yes, the cockles.

-They're yours too?

-That's right.

-And the winkles.

-The winkles.

-And the mussels.

-And the mussels.

I'm going to have a mussel.

-Thank you.

-Might as well enjoy ourselves, won't we?

-That's right.

They're very rich, orange colour, aren't they? Can you see that?

They're such a beautiful colour.

Last year, on my birthday, at the very ripe old age of 40,

I sat out in a brilliant pub in Bridport in Dorset,

just tried to eat 40 oysters, one for each year of my life.

I got to 37. How many is the most you've ever eaten?

I mean, would you eat lots and lots?

-Oh, yes, I've eaten 60, 70 at a sitting.

-Have you really?

The ideal amount, I think, is nine, ten oysters.

One of the very important things, of course,

is opening these damn things.

I've had a feast, I've had a great time, I don't want to stop,

but can you just, for them, you know -

who are people who apparently count -

they'll want to know how to join in our good time.

Just show them how you actually open the damn things?

Well, the important thing is to make sure

that your thumb is there, like that.

A lot of people open it like that,

and it goes into their hand and it's cut,

and we've lost a good oyster eater.

KEITH LAUGHS

But if you get your finger like that, or thumb, rather, like that.

And you're in control.

Pan down on that, because he's got these big, fishermen's hands,

and you're not going to see it unless you get...

It is a cookery programme, it is quite important.

Can you put it in, please? Thank you.

And then you cut the muscle in the centre. Lift it off.

Go over it like that, gently, in case you've taken any shell in.

Cut the muscle underneath, and turn it over and bring the fat side up.

And hand that over to me. And just do another one,

because the cameraman isn't terribly keen on oysters,

-I don't think he paid attention.

-That's a beautiful oyster, that one.

-Plump little dream, isn't it?

-It is.

But we are today enjoying...

This is all very luxurious for us, but 100 years ago or so,

it was the staple food of apprentices and working men

and stuff like that.

It is what people ate to survive, wasn't it? It wasn't a luxury.

No, no. When you go back to the 18th century,

oysters were produced everywhere.

In those days,

there were 400 million went into Billingsgate alone.

-400 million into Billingsgate?

-Yes.

That's very interesting, because the last time we quoted that figure,

my director said I was talking nonsense -

and it's now just been proved by an expert, Mr Pritchard.

Thank you very much. 400 million.

-Into Billingsgate?

-That's right.

How much would they have cost in those days?

Well, they were very, very cheap.

I've got a letter that was sent out years ago, and they were,

I think it was, 45p for 100,

something like that.

-45p by today's rate, for 100 oysters?

-No, old p, that is.

-Old p? My God.

-Yes.

And so, what would they cost today?

Well, in London now, they're anything from 5.50 to £15 a dozen.

Good Lord above. And who's making all the money there?

You're not making all that money.

Well, I think everyone's making a little,

but we've got the little and leave the rest to somewhere else, I think!

How would you describe the taste of them?

To me, it's like having a taste of scent, rather than an actual thing.

I mean, there's no unpleasant texture, it's delicious -

but how would you describe it?

Well, I think it tastes of the sea, it's fresh,

and leaves a lovely taste in your mouth

and gives you an appetite for your next course.

Does it give you an appetite for women?

Well, I don't know about that.

I think the story for oysters does indicate they help your sex life.

Well, I tell you what, eating these wonderful oysters,

drinking the wine, the whole bit - it's given me such an appetite.

I actually want to go and cook something myself, now.

Can I borrow your kitchen for a moment or two?

Yes, and may I say, I've enjoyed your company very much.

-That's kind of you.

-I'll lead the way.

OK, off we go to your kitchen, then.

Make a bit of a change from the rain.

We've done our bit out there, we can have a bit of fun for ourselves now.

So you see the importance of my little black box,

it's actually got the tools of my trade in -

and if the worst comes to the worst, if the BBC goes bust,

I can still get a job as a cook any day.

In fact, a cook is what I am but although I've been enjoying myself

with the oysters outside, Len did give me some mussels,

and I thought it would be quite good if I cooked you

a few of Len's mussels which have come from the river,

which is right outside this kitchen where I'm sitting now,

Erica's kitchen. It's really great. I'm standing, not sitting.

But one of the very important things about mussels,

and this is a mussel here, it's got this beard,

this is the bit that attaches itself to the rocks.

The way it lives is, it's held on by this beard.

Obviously, it's inedible. Vital thing, rip that right off.

By the way, it's quite a hard task. You've got to rip that thing off.

Another thing that mussels often do to you

and confound all of your best laid plans is often they're full of mud,

and if you've cooked them, as you'll see in a moment,

and one of them's full of mud, then you've blown it.

So, the essential test with every mussel

push it sideways, like that - and if it was full of mud,

it will have separated to reveal two halves of mud. That one's good.

So, just to repeat that, do clean off everything.

If it's got barnacles, scrape it, use a knife, scrape it away,

get them as clean as you can. That's enough lessons.

What we want to do now is get on with the actual cooking process

of these things, because they're beautiful.

And, actually, Erica, whose kitchen this is,

cleaned a pile of them for me earlier on.

Speeds things up, makes things a lot better.

Because mussels are fun, because you can cook them in white wine,

which is one of the prime ingredients

of this particular little dish...

I'll just open that.

Just some dry white wine.

If you can't afford dry white wine, use some dry cider.

Doesn't matter too much.

If you're going to stop eating mussels

because you've got no wine or cider, then use a drop of water.

But, if you can, use some wine.

Other ingredients are one onion,

for the amount of mussels we're doing, a load of garlic here.

Make sure they can see this garlic.

And then quite a bit of parsley.

We'll say about that much parsley.

And we want a bit of butter.

And you can't economise on these things.

You know, chuck in a quarter of a pound of butter

into a pan like that.

While that butter's melting,

I'm going to crush these cloves of garlic.

There's no need to peel them, by the way,

because you won't actually be eating the garlic,

you'll just be using the flavour of it.

So you're wasting your time -

you could be better off having a glass of wine

instead of painfully getting garlic skin under your nails.

Actually, on the subject of wine,

it's a myth you have to drink white wine with fish.

You can drink anything you like.

Red wine's perfectly all right.

And I'm going to have a drop of that just for the moment.

Under this intense pressure we've been working under this morning...

..to eat oysters, and cockles, and things.

Right, little slurp goes down very well.

We've got to chop the onions, it's a thing that's always...

You can show off doing this.

It's quite good, you chop it finely, like that,

and then back like that,

and you never cut your fingers,

which is quite important,

because the resulting mess is an inconvenience.

Chop, chop, chop,

fast as you like or as slow as you like,

but, actually, although I'm sort of showing off in half a way,

I'd rather you didn't show off at home and cut your fingers.

I'd rather you enjoyed the mussels, you know. Take your time.

Actually, I think with things like this,

it's a cheap meal to prepare, it's a feast, as well.

So, now we want to get all of these elegantly prepared ingredients

popped into the melted butter.

Chuck them in.

Just to remind you again, I'm sure you haven't paid proper attention,

it is parsley, garlic, onions and butter.

Right. Maximum heat.

I don't cook on electricity often, as a matter of fact,

so it's like the last thing we did on the damn boat,

on a camping gas thing, now electricity...

Anyway, so, in they all go.

All the lovely mussels.

I'd add a drop of white wine.

Talking of which, I actually haven't had a drink for a while.

Don't think it'd do me any harm to have a quick slurp.

Because it's hot in the kitchen and one needs a drink from time to time.

Now I'm going to put the lid on. Let them stew away for a while.

You can just stop because they've got to cook for a few moments.

Come back when I'm ready, OK?

OK, you can come back now. All right, bring your camera in.

I'm going to take the lid off, and if it's all gone well,

we're going to see these little dreams opening up.

Now, you see, look at those bubbling away.

Always test the stuff.

God, already tasting terribly good.

I'll give those a little stir around...

with the thing here.

You see how they're beginning to open.

Incidentally, any that don't open,

after this cooking process is complete, don't eat them.

The ones that don't open are going to be dead.

But come right in there, Malcolm, would you please?

We've got wonderful colours in there. We've got steam bubbling up,

you've got the whole heart of food happening here.

Come closer, closer, closer.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, and people we've met on this trip,

who've all thought we're a bit strange,

there you have a magnificent dish of moules mariniere.

Gosh. OK, so, there we are.

The cooking is done, we've got Erica's mixing bowl.

I'd actually wanted some rather fine, sort of, porcelain,

but beggars, which we are, I can assure you we can't be choosers.

Anyway, these mussels are cooked.

Tip them into the bowl.

I'm not going to put all the juice in,

that's why I'm using this spoon with holes in, you see,

because we don't want to burn our little artist's fingers

when we eat them with our fingers.

We're going to drink the sauce a little bit separately...

..later on.

That was one for the Queen.

God, I'm actually quite hungry,

despite all the oysters we had earlier on.

Hold on a minute, hold on a minute, hold it, hold it.