13/08/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning, I'm Matt Tebbutt and I've got some outstanding dishes to

kick-start your Sunday morning, so please just sit back and enjoy

today's line-up of brilliant Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Now, I hope you're hungry, because we've got top chefs serving

fantastic food and a handful of celebrities that all need feeding.

Coming up on today's show...

James Martin makes the ultimate cheese and tomato sandwich

for Edith Bowman.

Michael Moore is here with a delicious dish of honey and hoisin.

Pan-fried chicken breasts are drizzled with honey, and plantain

is drizzled with hoisin before being served up with wilted garlic stems.

Vivek Singh shows us a spicy way with mackerel.

He drills mackerel fillets and serves them up with a spicy yoghurt

and a curry leaf and spinach poriyal.

And taking up the Omelette Challenge today, we have Gennaro Contaldo

and Tom Aikens, and both are looking to take the top spot.

And then it's over to Scott Hallsworth,

who's here with a dish full of Asian influences.

He tea-smokes lamb chops, grills aubergines with miso,

and then serves them up with pickled daikon.

And finally, esteemed actor Brian Cox faces his food heaven

or his food hell. Did he get his food heaven -

pan-fried rainbow trout with dwarf beans, peas and almonds -

or his food hell - Earl Grey sorbet with pear, Earl Grey

and cinnamon strudel?

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

But first, it's over to eco-chef Tom Hunt, who is getting creative

with kimchi.

-Great to have you on the show, Tom.

-Hi, there.

-And something we've never seen before on this show.

-Yeah.

-So I'm going to do a kimchi.

-Kimchi. Which is?

It's Korea's national dish.

It's normally made with cabbage, which is fermented.

I'm going to make it with British seasonal greens.

-We've got beetroot tops, cavolo nero and rainbow chard.

-OK.

The way I cook is to waste nothing, so we're going to put in all the stalks,

that's why we're using the leaves of the beetroot and all that.

-Waste nothing. Right.

-Waste nothing.

-I'm going to make a sauce,

which I don't exactly know what it's for yet.

OK, so the base of the sauce is an onion

blended with eight cloves of garlic, and some fish sauce, 50ml.

-Right.

-And then I'm going to...

-Eight cloves of garlic?

-Eight cloves of garlic.

-This is incredibly potent and it's delicious.

-Right.

-Really punchy.

So I've got 400ml of water and four tablespoons of rice flour.

That's the other half of our sauce

that's going to be the base of the kimchi.

-Yeah.

-Just need a little spatula.

Now, this cooks for a couple of minutes,

and it'll turn into porridge, it'll start to thicken

-and become translucent.

-So what...

-That's rice flour you're using.

-Rice flour and water.

You can buy it, you can get it from supermarkets now, it's quite easy.

So, what is it? Does it get thick or...what's the idea of this?

So it thickens up to make a kind of base that will then ferment.

-Right.

-We're going to serve it fresh today, it's delicious fresh.

-It's kind of a little bit more punchy.

-Yeah.

-But if you ferment it, it mellows out a little bit and gets a nice tangy flavour to it.

-Right.

So, first...

So is this a dish that you've got in your restaurant, then?

-Yeah.

-Tell us about your restaurant. It's tapas, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So I do British seasonal tapas at my restaurant, Poco, in Bristol.

-Right.

-And basically the focus of everything I do within food is

around sustainability and covering my back, and making sure all our

food is kind of, like, chosen well.

-Right.

-So all our fish is kind of vetted and our meat is all local.

Most of our produce is grown within 50 miles of the restaurant.

-Right.

-Yeah.

So the greens, I'm going to take some cavolo nero here as well.

-You've got a great part of the world down there, cos you've got the coastline as well.

-Yeah.

Yeah, it's really beautiful, and we are spoiled for produce.

As is Jersey.

I would say we've perhaps got even more choice, but...

Nowhere near as much as God's own country... LAUGHTER

-..Yorkshire.

-Right, yeah.

-That's the paste mixing up there.

-Paste is mixing up...

And what's the idea with that? You don't...you don't boil it.

So we don't boil it, we just want to tick it over slowly until it thickens and becomes translucent.

It just takes...

Once it comes to a simmer, it'll just take a couple of minutes.

So, the greens first of all.

-Yeah.

-I'm just going to shred them.

This is one of my favourite recipes for my book, The Natural Cook.

And also the second part of the title,

"Eating the Seasons from Root to Fruit,"

really encapsulates my ethos for cooking.

So, this is on 26. Is it 26 ingredients or...?

-What's the whole idea?

-Yeah, there's 26 hero ingredients, like,

everyday veg that we all eat,

and then it gives you kind of basic recipes that

that then form up into a kind of more elaborate world food,

-but all cooked with British seasonal vegetables.

-OK.

So how do you end up, from working down with Hugh, to Bristol?

How did you end up with that?

Well, Hugh's in Dorset, I'm from Dorset,

and that's how I started working there with Gill.

Which was brilliant, amazing.

And then, yeah, just kind of, Bristol, I've run a festival cafe

for 10 years, travelling around the music festivals.

At the moment we're at Green Man Festival.

So tell me about these festivals, then.

-Cos I've never been to one.

-So...

What's the one you're at, at the moment?

-So at the moment we're at Green Man, in Wales.

-Right.

It's a music festival - lots of folk, bearded men, ales.

-And yeah, we've got a cafe there.

-LAUGHTER

-You're really selling that, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

No, it's an amazing festival. The countryside is beautiful.

-And you all stay in a tent, eating fermented cabbage?

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

-That's a joyous weekend, that is, isn't it?

-It is, isn't it?

Four bearded blokes in a tent, after eating that stuff.

-LAUGHTER

-We actually serve ...

-We actually serve posh kebabs at the festivals.

-Right.

-So we're doing slow roast British lamb in wraps.

-Right.

-And that's with, yeah, kind of seasonal salads, basically.

-Right.

So, in here, I mentioned, basically, the way the book works, it starts

with the really simple recipes.

-So the first recipe in this instance is raw kale salad.

-Yeah.

And so I'm just going to...

So how does this differ from the true authentic one?

How does that differ, this?

-So normally it's made with Chinese cabbage.

-Right.

I like to make it with these kind of lovely, vibrant, different-coloured

vegetables that the roots and everything,

and the stalks look like jewels, it's really brilliant.

But...so you've just chopped up some carrots and leeks

-and kohlrabi there as well.

-Yeah.

That's going to go in.

So you could serve that as a kind of raw kale salad, delicious as it is.

Or you can add these vegetables and make the sauce into a kimchi.

So, the kimchi is the fermentation process, is that right?

So, kimchi is the dish of cabbage,

which has been fermented, or it can be served fresh, like we are today.

-OK.

-So, in there, we've got the garlic, onion, fish sauce.

And we've got four tablespoons of this amazing vibrant Korean chilli powder.

So, what is it? Cos I've never seen this stuff before. What is this?

I'm going to put a little bit extra in, because I like it nice and hot.

-Right.

-But...

-Do you have to warm it up or...?

-No, no.

-Ideally I'd let this cool before adding it.

-Right.

But we obviously haven't got time, so I'm going to pop it straight in.

Now that's mixed in, now it all gets mixed in together.

Just like that.

You want to get your hands stuck in at this point, it's the easiest way

just to get all of the vegetables mixed together

and coated in this sauce.

Now, what you can do now is put it in Tupperware and leave it for two days at room temperature.

It will start to ferment.

You can tell this is your first time on this show.

-Other plastic containers are available.

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

-Don't know which ones, but they are.

-Yeah.

-A carrier bag.

-Yeah.

-LAUGHTER

-So you can put those...

-Go on.

-Yeah, so otherwise, you can just eat it fresh.

If you let it ferment, then it starts to kind of mellow out and

-gets a nice tangy flavour to it.

-So you let it ferment...

Where are you putting that, to let it ferment? Where does it go?

Literally just anywhere warm, like, in your kitchen, anywhere.

It'll create natural kind of bacteria and probiotics that are

incredibly good, and good for your gut and healthy for you.

Yeah, but Tom, you're serving it with crackling, mate,

so it's really...

-I know, so it is a contradiction, isn't it?

-Yeah, exactly.

We've got this amazing pork belly.

The kind of idea behind this

is that, if you've got any leftover roast,

then you can pull it down like this and it's an amazing topping.

It's actually better than your roast...

You'll be looking in my house.

-That's all you've got left after a leftover roast in my spot.

-Yeah.

Well, cook some extra so you've got some meals for the rest of the week.

-All right, the bread's ready.

-Cool. So you've got the bread there.

-So that's nice sourdough bruschetta.

-OK.

-And I'm going to put on top...

-So what is in this?

So this is just chillies, ground down.

They're just particularly vibrant and bright and colourful, which gives us this amazing...

And why this kind of food for you? What...?

Well, I've done a lot of travelling over the years.

-Right.

-And I just...

I kind of... I'm really inspired by world food.

I'm off to India, cycling across Rajasthan

for Action Against Hunger in a fundraiser soon as well,

so it's kind of just that exploration of discovering new food.

-After Padstow?

-Yeah. After Padstow.

-That's where I'm off.

I love Cornwall, I lived in Cornwall for a few years as well.

-But Korea's got to be a fascinating place to go to, it must be, for food. Fantastic.

-Yeah.

-I haven't been yet. It's still on my list. So, yeah.

-OK.

Here we go. So there's the pulled pork on top.

Do you want a little bit of oil?

-A little bit of oil over the top would be lovely.

-OK. There you go.

-A few sesame seeds.

-A little bit of that. There you go.

Cool. So then we have...

So, would you leave that for a little bit longer or not? The cabbage.

-It's totally delicious fresh.

-Yeah.

-Nothing wrong with it at all,

but if you want to get the benefit of the probiotics

and the natural bacteria, it's better to ferment it.

Leave it. Tell us the name of this, then.

OK, so this is a kimchi with British seasonal ingredients,

pulled pork on a sourdough bruschetta.

Easy as that.

-A bit of crackling, there you go.

-Come on, come on.

-Right.

-Have a seat over here, Tom.

-Aw!

-There you go. Dive into that.

-That looks outrageous!

-It's a bit different, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Oh, I love...

-But this is really spicy, isn't it? It's quite...

It's really spicy, it's quite potent for breakfast,

-but hopefully you'll get on with it all right.

-It's got a kick.

And that is the powder, the...

-Yeah, the chilli, the Korean chilli powder.

-Yeah.

Which is just ground chillies, you can use cayenne at home

or anything like that, just use a bit less.

-There's nothing else in it?

-It's all really simple.

You can get hold of all these ingredients, yeah.

-That's beautiful.

-Cool.

-I'm buying your cookbook.

-Nice one.

And if you want a veggie version, just leave the fish sauce out,

-and obviously the pork off the top.

-There you go.

Wow! What a way to start the show, and we've got plenty more where that came from.

Now, coming up, James Martin makes the ultimate cheese and tomato

sandwich for Edith Bowman, but first, it's over to Rick Stein,

who's getting all excited about fish and fungi.

GENTLE PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

One of the great joys of a seaside holiday in Britain is catching fish,

and everybody has such fascination with standing on a quayside,

looking over and waiting for a bite.

I think mackerel are a deeply underrated fish.

I think it's because they're so easy to catch.

People sort of regard them as, you know, a bit like the, sort of,

Ford Escort of the fish world.

But in fact, a fresh mackerel is a total delight.

And you tell my son Charles that there isn't something special

about a mackerel.

So we're just going to whip the two fillets off this.

I don't even bother to gut or wash these fish when they're straight

out of the sea like this - there's no need to whatsoever.

They taste better for being left just like that.

No problem filleting a fresh mackerel like this at all.

They're so firm, the knife just goes straight through them without any problem at all.

Drop them into a bit of seasoned flour,

seasoned with black pepper, salt.

Put some clarified butter in the frying pan -

clarified, because otherwise it'll burn when you fry the fillets -

and leave them to cook.

While I'm frying those, I'm just going to cut up a little bit of

dill, which I'm going to sprinkle over those cooked mackerel fillets.

Just want to tell you a thing or two, but you don't always have to

put mint in the new potatoes, you can put dill in,

the Swedish do it.

it gives them a lovely flavour, unusual flavour.

Now those mackerel are fried quite enough on one side.

I'm going to turn them over.

As they're so fresh, they fry in a deliciously squat sort of way.

When they're older, they go much more long

and they're really, sort of, stumpy,

and look very appetising like that.

Four delicious fillets.

I'd say this is about a nice, good-sized main course

for one hungry person.

Just a little bit of dill on the fillets,

maybe a touch on the potato as well.

And just a little bit of lemon juice on there, maybe just a couple of

little pieces of lemon as well.

And that, in my opinion, is real fast food.

I mean, don't give that to the cat.

It's the most perfect fish,

but it has to be perfectly fresh, like that.

Every country restaurant should have

somebody like Jenny Green supplying them.

She's like a sort of heroine from one of Thomas Hardy's more

optimistic Wessex novels.

And although she's an urban person originally, because she's got so

into her life in the country, she seems to fit perfectly.

Well, I'm looking for fallen logs, first of all.

When I find a fallen log, then I know there's be a chance that

there'll be oysters on it.

It's usually beech, they seem to like beech for some reason.

So if I'm going through a field, I look for old tree stumps

or logs on the ground, and this time of the year, nine times out of ten,

I'll find oyster fungus on them.

And in profusion, like this, they seem to breed almost.

There's masses of them.

They're much nicer than the shop - well, all wild mushrooms

are much nicer than shop-bought fungi.

They have a very perfumed scent, and a wonderful, delicate flavour.

I have to go out every day, looking for wild food.

I do it because, A, the type of things I pick and eat,

and my children, you can't get them in supermarkets.

You simply can't buy it.

If you want it, you've got to go and get it yourself.

And it's interesting, in this field alone, we could live here.

Set up a little, you know, campfire

and we could eat all the way round this field.

There's food in abundance here, but other people just walk past it.

They don't even know it's here.

This is a great autumnal dish - John Dory and wild mushrooms.

In this case, I'm using chanterelles,

which are even better than oyster mushrooms.

Now I need a dark, almost beefy stock for this,

and in goes a mirepoix of carrot, onion and celery.

And into that goes some dried ceps for that slightly beefy flavour

which comes from dried wild mushrooms,

thyme and celery herb.

Now we add some balsamic vinegar for a slight tartness and colour,

and then some Pineau des Charentes - a sweet wine from the Cognac area -

some chilli, just a little bit,

and finally a good, rich chicken stock.

So I'll leave that to cook for about 30 minutes, just simmer away,

and now we're going to caramelise the garlic and the shallots.

Bang some butter in this hot pan, in goes the garlic and the shallots.

They're both cut to about the same size,

so that they'll cook at the same sort of speed.

Now, I want to get this really, really hot, bring out the natural

sugars in the garlic and the shallots,

and also add a bit of sugar as well.

I've got no qualms about using plenty of sugar in savoury dishes,

as long as they're balanced with tart things

like wine, lemon juice or salt.

I need lots and lots of temperature there to get those really brown,

and the temptation to pop one in the mouth is simply irresistible.

I'm just going to add a little bit more chicken stock and cook that

down till it's gone to a lovely syrupy glaze,

a bit like a sort of sweetie.

And now to froth the John Dory,

I'm looking for some colour, so I've got a jumping hot pan here.

I want to just caramelise the outside of the John Dory.

I've got dark sauce, I want brown sauce, everything's got to look

sort of autumnal and brown.

But when you cut into the fish, you get this lovely streak of white

in the middle of it, which is incredibly satisfactory.

See, that's got a nice colour on it, that's all I want at this stage,

because I'm going to finish off the dish by braising it.

First of all, put some of these caramelised garlics and shallots

in the pan, then the Dory on top.

Now a little bit of thyme on top of that.

Some of this wonderful, dark stock which has been simmering away

for 30 minutes.

All over the place.

We're talking real-time now. You can't stop and do it again.

Lid on, and now for... HE SNIFFS

..the autumnal chanterelles. They're so wonderful.

Just give them a bit of a fry to get the flavour out on them.

I used to be very, very nervous about mushrooms.

Jenny, who gets all our mushrooms, used buy me, like, bring out six or

seven different types - ink caps and blue ones,

you've got a black one, trompette de la mort.

All of them, I used to eat a little bit,

wait a night, see whether I woke up in the middle of the night dying

before I'd give them to any of my customers.

Shows how dedicated I am to my public.

I must say, the death cap, which really strikes fear into my heart,

the description of how you die on the death cap says,

terrible stomach pains, awful, awful stomach pains.

And then it says, "The patient has a haggard expression

"and suffers a state of deep anxiety,

"and then he dies."

Oh, God, Paul, I know. OK, let's get on with this.

Right, we are really in a little bit of a spot of bother here.

Now the restaurant is just, there's people coming through the front door, almost.

So I'm just going to have to do this a little bit quickly.

There's that beautiful gravy going on there,

and the chanterelles as well.

I just think this is wonderful.

A certain amount of hurry. PHONE RINGS

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Listen, there's the phone going.

Gosh, gosh, gosh. And that's it.

Let's get out of here.

Great stuff there. Now, I've been foraging for ingredients this week, too.

But I've not been to the forest looking for mushrooms,

I've actually been to the Nantwich Cheese Festival, where I managed...

Oh, yes, it's rock and roll. I tell you. LAUGHTER

Wait and see.

To uncover some amazing new cheeses, and I brought back this one.

It's actually called Crumbly Lancashire,

and I'm going to show you how to make it. It's from Lancashire.

-This was supreme champion, this one.

-Wow. It's enormous!

Yes, it's produced in Greenfields Dairy in Preston.

It's fantastic, tastes wonderful. Have a taste of this.

Thank you. I love cheese.

It's the biggest cheese show in the world.

-It's kind of like...

-She's not listening to me. LAUGHTER

-I am. I am.

-This market is 4,000-odd cheeses.

It's the biggest single marquee for one day.

-That's my next festival.

-It's the best festival in the world.

You say that...

LAUGHTER

It's just full of cheese. But it's amazing. It's amazing.

They have cheese at music festivals, too, James.

Yeah, I know, but it's not a cheese show.

Anyway... Right, I'm going to make this.

I'm actually, fundamentally, going to make

-a cheese and tomato sandwich for you.

-Great.

Mainly because of the fact that, after nine years,

I'm running out of ideas on this show.

So, we're going to do a nice sandwich.

First of all, we are going to hollow out a piece of bread.

I thought of this because I thought of you with all these festivals,

-you could make something like this and take it with you.

-Great idea.

-They also do have food at festivals, James.

-Well, I know that!

LAUGHTER

Look, I'm at a festival at the moment.

I know, I saw that.

I feel like a rock god with these on.

-Look.

-Yeah, your wrist looks the part. Definitely.

LAUGHTER

This is the thing, though. When I was writing the book...

That's a nice plug for you.

The idea of the festivals

all being kind of clumped together was one thing.

They're all really different, and the food has become such a big part of them,

which I think should be the attraction for you

to attend your first-ever music festival.

So, tell me about these festivals.

Is there cars and are there motorbikes?

In the car park, yeah.

Right, OK.

And if me and Kenny were going, in our nice little VW camper,

other campers are available...

You guys would be a big hit.

..but if we're going in this little camper,

and after we've broke down a few times,

we get there to the festival,

which one would me and Kenny go to?

-As a first-timer.

-I think you guys should...

Because of the food thing as well, there's a couple in Wales,

there is Green Man and there's also Festival No 6,

that happens in Portmeirion in September,

and food is such a big part of them, now,

especially the little festivals.

It's about encouraging and promoting local produce,

and all that kind of thing as well,

so you guys get in your camper van,

head down to Portmeirion in September.

You could even set up a wee stall, get a wee picnic bench out there...

-I'm not cooking.

-Oh, right. OK.

LAUGHTER

But music festivals aren't just about music any more.

-A lot of them are.

-Yeah.

-And with the book,

I didn't want it to feel like it was me kind of...

I've been so lucky with all the festivals that I've been to,

through work and through being married to someone who's in a band,

I didn't want to feel like it was me, kind of, showing off,

so I did a lot of research to find out who set them up,

why they were set up, what they wanted to achieve,

and what makes them kind of different from the other ones.

Didn't you get your first big break at a festival?

Yeah, I was doing work experience at my local radio station

when I was at university, and we went to T In The Park,

when it started out, and they sent me off into the wild

with a little recording device going,

"Go and see what you can get."

I spotted Kylie Minogue going into the toilets, as you do,

and waited for her, like a weird, sad stalker, and she came out

and I was like, "Any chance I can interview you?"

And she said yes, and that was kind of my first gig, really,

-for work at a festival.

-So, what's your favourite?

Because the minute people say "festival", they instantly

think Nantwich Cheese Show, and then, after that, Glastonbury...

LAUGHTER

After that, Glastonbury.

I have a really special place in my heart with Glastonbury.

-Lee, I know you have been a few times, haven't you?

-Yeah.

Last year, I went to Bestival

-and I took my seven-year-old for the day.

-Bestival?

Yeah, it's on the Isle of Man.

This weekend is their child equivalent of Bestival,

Camp Bestival, and we went for the day,

and it's a great place to take kids.

Not all of them, but a lot of them are great places to take kids,

because it almost encourages you to be childlike

and leave your inhibitions at the door and be silly.

You say that, but we've kind of got a festival near us in Hampshire.

I don't know what it is. I think it's some dance festival.

-Creamfields?

-Something like that.

-That's a slightly different...

But after the festival's finished, you kind of see them

all emerging from bushes and trees.

They look like a cast of Fraggle Rock.

They've got, like, purple furry moon boots on.

-That's a dance festival for you.

-Is that a dance festival?

-Yeah.

It's a slightly different beast, sort of thing.

But there must be music on at your car festivals?

-There is.

-Texas are playing, are they not?

-There is.

Other bands are playing as well.

Joss Stone, I think, is playing as well.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Boomtown Rats.

But that's thing as well about festivals.

What do you listen to in the car?

-Sorry?

-What do you listen to in the car?

Not a lot in my car. I've got my radio in it.

Festivals is a great way to kind of discover new music,

whether it's a band who are 40 years old

or a band who are four years old, four weeks old.

It's a great way to hear all types of music.

It's just a great environment.

-Because they are all over the world now, apparently?

-Yeah.

It is incredible, the selection of bands you get on, as well.

Glastonbury has got to be the biggest headline one,

but they're all incredible, all over the place.

I did Isle of Wight this year,

and Fleetwood Mac were one of the headliners,

and I never thought I would get the chance to see Fleetwood Mac,

the original line-up with Christine back, and I got to see them,

and it's one of those places, where you get to tick off those,

"I'm never going to see Shirley Bassey live."

"Oh, yeah, you will at Glastonbury," or...

So, Kenny and I are just about to book our tickets.

If people have never been before, what are the survival tips?

I would buy my book and that would be a great way to...

There's a lot of good advice in there.

You've got to tell us what it is first. What's the book called?

It is called Edith Bowman's Great British Music Festivals.

That's what it is.

It depends on your situation and what festival you are going to,

because they are all really different.

But it's that thing that I would say -

don't get het up about the weather.

We live in the UK and have the most unpredictable weather system ever,

so just prepare for it, take layers,

and then you will be absolutely fine.

-Pace yourself is what I would say.

-Pace yourself.

That's from past experience. You'd agree?

-Yeah. Totally agree.

-Yeah.

Because I've lost a day or two over the years at festivals.

And try not lose your mum at a festival,

like I did a few years ago at T in the Park.

Now, in my ear, I've been told there's a lady on Twitter

that has just said,

"What is the best festival to go to for a hen do?"

Ooh... Best festival for a hen do?

-Now, you see...

-She doesn't say where she is?

She's out there, somewhere.

-I would say Bestival.

-It's Twitter. It's out there.

I would say Bestival,

because they have a fancy-dress policy as well,

so every year, there's a theme

so you can get completely involved with the hen do,

which normally involves being dressed up as well,

so I would suggest Bestival for a good hen do, Isle of Wight.

You can make it the weekend as well.

If you don't want to do the whole festival for the weekend,

Isle of Wight is a lovely place to go.

You've packed that so full.

Obviously I have done enough for one!

You can double it up if you're serving two or three but, yes,

this is for me and Kenny. We're on the road after this.

We're on our way.

That is going to feed the entire campsite for the weekend.

No, it's not, really.

You pile this all up with the tomatoes and everything else,

the peppers.

My God! Is that pesto?

Yeah, it's like a basil and rocket oil, garlicky oil,

that kind of stuff.

And then what you do, quickly wash our hands,

and this is ideal, you see?

Next time you go to one of these festivals,

you switch the heating on in your car,

and then have this in the footwell, just gently warming.

About 30 degrees. So, when you do get down...

-A lid! I love the lid.

-You'll be stuck in traffic

for quite a long time,

so it's a good eight hours sat in traffic, in clingfilm,

and it melts, and when you get there, as you're unpacking...

Oh, man, looks amazing.

..you slice this up, you see?

-Ohh!

-Oh, that looks amazing.

-Exactly.

-That's your piece, that's mine.

-Brilliant.

I would chop it for you even smaller but...

-Am I going to try?

-Yeah.

-Am I, guys?!

LAUGHTER

No chance.

I'm going to have to get a corner.

Mmm!

That's the Nantwich Cheese Festival in a bun, done.

That sandwich was ridiculous.

We are taking a look back at some of the tastiest dishes from

Saturday Kitchen archives, and we've still got so much more to come.

Up next, it's Michael Moore with a dish that combines both

Caribbean and Asian flavours.

Welcome to the show, first of all.

-How are you?

-I'm great. I'm looking forward to this dish.

It's very simple, the flavours are superb.

Well, the thing about it is, when I cook, I like to blend food,

like how people are blending these days,

so you take different ingredients and put them together.

-So, a simple chicken breast, cheap, easy money.

-Yeah.

Take it, and we are just going to clean it up first of all,

which we call "French trim" in our world.

I like to show off the knuckle a bit, so you can see the bone.

-If you want to get your butcher to do this...

-You can do.

All I am doing is using the knife

and just scraping back the meat after I've cut round the top.

-You see it comes away quite easy.

-Yeah.

-Just like that.

And then use the bottom part of the knife just to remove that.

It's a simple tap and it is out of the way. OK?

-So is the breast is ready now.

-I'll get that for you.

Thank you very much. You leave the fillet on.

We're going to season it and then pan-fry it

and place it into the oven.

Place a bit of oil into the pan.

You talked about your influences from around the world.

You started off, really, I suppose in London at the Savoy.

The Savoy Hotel.

-Mr Edelmann.

-Anton, yeah.

-Anton Edelmann.

He'd hate me for saying that.

He gave you some advice about relationships as well, didn't he?

Oh, yeah. I remember when I first went for the interview

and I was terrified seeing all these chefs in chefs' jackets.

He said, "Listen, young man.

"You better go home and tell your girlfriend..."

This is the first instance I knew I had the job.

He said, "Have you got a girlfriend?" I said yes.

"Go home and tell her it's all over."

I literally did that.

I went home and I told her this, and never looked back.

Never looked back!

It was probably the cheapest thing you've ever done!

-The easy way out.

-Exactly. Fire way.

We've got the chicken. We're going to get it a nice golden brown,

then get it golden brown on the other side

and place it straight into the oven. While that's cooking,

we can play around with the rest of the ingredients.

The presentation side is always the side you'll show when it's cooked.

That's the secret with butter and olive oil.

-The butter gets that nice colour...

-And the temperature from the oil.

The oil gets hotter than butter. So, here we are. Nice, golden brown.

Mind the fingers. Just turn that over.

-Do you want me to pop that in the oven for you?

-Yes, please do.

I'll quickly wash my hands.

How long is this going to cook in here?

That's going to be about... On 200 electric, Gas Mark 6,

that's going to be about between six and seven minutes.

So that gives us time to really mess around.

So, right, hands cleaned,

let's introduce the rest of the ingredients here.

I've got some garlic stems.

There are two types of garlic stems,

both from the Thai region.

These are quite interesting.

I've seen these in Chinese supermarkets.

That's right. I can't remember the name. I think it's called coi -

-C-O-I. I might be wrong.

-I don't know.

-Garlic stems to me, mate.

-Garlic stems.

And there are the other stems. These are the real stems.

They're two different types. I just thought I'd show you.

I'm going to use these ones

and use the other ones for a garnish.

-They're quite hard.

-They are very hard, but taste mild garlicky.

I'm just going to quickly cut them. Just a few.

And these are already prepped, so you don't have to clean them

or anything like that.

You'll find, in most Oriental shops, they're already cleaned up.

Now, these influences... We said you travel the world.

You started at the Savoy and then you moved to where?

Because you've worked in Switzerland, Barbados...

We could be here all day.

I've been to Switzerland, I worked in Switzerland for a while,

also the Caribbean, then the Maldives.

It goes on for ever...

It's an easy life, this cooking thing, isn't it?

Yeah. Keeping away from the law.

So, let's introduce the rest of the ingredients.

Plantain. That is the largest member of the banana family.

Now, the plantain has two lives,

because when it's green, it's considered a vegetable,

and once it's ripe, it's considered as a fruit.

-Yeah.

-So, I like to use them while they're ripe.

My family back in the Caribbean like to use them when it's green,

they like to cut it up really small, put it into their stews.

Let's have a look at it in the middle.

Take off the top, like that. I am just going to use half of it.

It also makes great chips, this stuff, as well.

Yes, you can make great chips from this.

It is a fascinating vegetable fruit.

I don't know whether you've ever tried plantain?

-It's great.

-Yes.

-Did you like it?

-Yeah.

-It's that sweet flavour.

So we're just going to peel it off, like that. Let me get that.

I do it this way because it's easier to peel once you've done that.

Do you want me to pop those garlic shards in there?

Yes, pop them in the water.

Just going to blanch them for about two to three minutes,

so they're al dente.

We don't want to cook them too much because once they're done,

we're going to place them in a pan with plantain.

So, we've got that done, we've got a pan on,

a touch more oil into the pan, not too much.

-Do you want me to chop these ones as well?

-Chop those up.

One you're going to cook, the other you're going to serve raw?

Serve on top. Those ones can be served raw.

They're great for using in salads. We're going to quickly season this.

I want the butter to quickly get a nice caramelising touch.

We're going to add the cinnamon, which we have here,

a touch of cinnamon onto the plantain and place it face-down,

and this should brown quite quickly.

Now, remember, it's the family of the banana, so it's very sweet

and it's very soft already, so all we're doing is getting the colour.

We are getting the colour here.

You'll find it'll colour very quickly.

If I can show you one... There you go.

Yeah, it's nice and quick.

Do you think the secret with plantain is you either

cook it for longer or cook it for a small amount of time?

A small amount of time. You need a little bit of crunch.

You can cook it, but it goes like a banana -

it starts to break up in the pan.

Some people like to slice through them. You can do that.

I just do this for style. Place the plate there. It's a very quick dish.

It's the great thing about this.

You get home from work and you're feeling a bit peckish,

you don't have to go through potatoes...

-I'll get the chicken out.

-Yes, grab that for us, please.

I'm just going to quickly strain off...

Let me try and strain this into here.

I'm just going to allow that to rest nicely.

I'll turn this off. Thank you.

Now, this has probably had, what, about eight to ten minutes?

Eight to ten minutes it has been in the oven and it's nice and tender.

You can feel that. I've got the plantain there.

I'm just going to quickly add these. Make sure you get all the water out.

We've got that lovely little flame going up.

We'll quickly season them. Like that.

I don't know whether any of you guys have cooked with these little

garlic stems, but they're really unusual.

I'm going to start garnishing this.

One thing I forgot, I forgot to place the honey.

-We'll do that. I'm going too fast.

-He's going too fast, there you go.

The honey, you place over the chicken before it goes in the oven.

All it does is glaze over it,

but it doesn't matter because you can drizzle it afterwards.

It gives you that option -

if you don't like honey, you don't need to use it.

You just want to get some colour on that.

Some slight colour on them, like that.

Right, there we go. Place these over the top, like that.

They're unusual, aren't they?

You will find that these are really, really crispy.

There you go.

And the chicken breast...

-Just sliced at an angle.

-Slice it once.

I suppose we have got two influences -

-maybe Asian and Caribbean-y sort of flavour.

-Absolutely.

And then the hoisin sauce, which is last.

We've got it in a bottle here, but I have placed it in here

so I can work with it a bit better.

And then you want some honey over the top.

Just a little bit of honey to drizzle over the top.

It's so simple.

And it's a very simple dish, and very effective, cost-effective.

So, remind us what it is again?

Right, so it is a honey-baked chicken breast

served on plantain with cinnamon, garlic beans - bingo!

Easy as that.

Right, well, you've tasted the little garlic.

Now you get to taste the whole lot. Look at your eyes light up.

-There you go. Dive into that.

-Oh, wow.

-Tell me what you think.

-Yes. This is a treat.

-Breakfast at 10 o'clock in the morning.

I was just checking my watch.

That's so simple.

It's very simple because what you are doing,

really, you're making cooking time a lot simpler and more exciting.

-Mmm!

-So, what else, apart from chips and stuff like that,

what else can you use plantain for?

I've taken a plantain and sliced it very thinly.

You can do this on a slicing machine

or a professional mandolin, what we use.

Once again, you can deep-fry them, thin crisps,

make a lovely salsa, mango, tomato, spicy salsa.

-Place on top.

-Dive in, guys.

-It's gorgeous.

-Do you like that?

-Mmm!

I would like a little bit of rice with that, though.

-There you are. You could have rice.

-It's beautiful.

You could also cut that and place it inside the rice.

It is quite unusual,

-putting on those countries together in one plate.

-Definitely.

The thing is, it works.

You've got the sweetness, the perfume of the garlic...

Excuse me, talking with my mouth full.

-And the hoisin really brings it out.

-Really lovely.

Some great tips on plantain cooking there. Thanks for that, Michael.

Now time for more Keith Floyd,

who's continuing his Spanish adventures.

FLAMENCO MUSIC PLAYS

It's quite stunning, isn't it?

Fabulous mountains, ancient, ancient olive trees,

the azure sky and the cobalt-blue sea.

It's no wonder that people like Chopin got hooked on the place.

Robert Graves, after the horrors of the First World War,

came here to live and wrote those wonderful poems.

And I can share in some of that, you know, because...

Although I'm only a cook,

to get some kind of feel of the place,

as I take a drive along this mountainous coastal road

to find a little spot, some shady nook,

to cook a classic Majorcan dish called fritos,

which is a thing of lamb's liver and peppers and garlic and potatoes.

And what could be better,

under the shade of an ancient, almost biblical olive tree,

than to cook a classic dish,

to paint a simple picture of food here on this wonderful island?

BRAKES SCREECH

Incidentally, throughout this trip, we've been bickering about

different kinds of cars - four-track sports cars, turbos and things -

but, quite frankly, it's only a hired car

that can go absolutely anywhere.

Anyway, now the dust has settled, the classic Majorcan fritos.

First of all, we pop our liver in. Some bits of peppers.

Let that sizzle and fry.

Now, have a good look at that.

One of your fattest, one of your finest,

one of the most handsome, full-bodied close-ups.

And then back to me, because I've a little explaining to do.

Now, the essence of Spanish cooking

is that every part of a composed dish

is cooked separately and then amalgamated together at the end.

Now, if you happen to have a six-burner stove,

the best way to cook this is to have six little frying pans,

one for the peppers, one for the onions,

one for the liver, and one for the garlic,

and so on and so forth.

Then, when they're all cooked, combine them together

in a last bit of olive oil.

But we haven't got six burners up here,

so I'm doing it all in one pot.

It will still have the desired effect

of succulent pieces of lamb's liver, beautiful vegetables...

..and of course, nothing goes without a few fresh Majorcan herbs.

A bit of thyme, a bit of that in,

a bit of fennel, like so.

And even... Cos you can add...

This is a make-it-up-as-you-go-along dish.

As long as you've got the liver,

you can add any kind of vegetable you like.

It doesn't have to be peppers,

but the one thing that must go into it are some fried potatoes.

There we are.

Now, we'll say, by the magic of television,

that about 15 minutes have passed, which they have, zip,

just like that, 15 minutes have gone by

and you have a typical Majorcan dish...

..in a typical Majorcan bowl...

..called fritos Majorcan.

Now, if it's all right with you, Clive, I've had a very hard day.

Would it be any nuisance to you if I swivelled down and sat on that rock

and enjoyed myself

and we've can perhaps gaze at the sea or go into one of those

little sketches where I think about things and then later on

write a witty commentary or a profound commentary,

maybe gazing out over the sea and wondering...

I wonder if Robert Graves sat here and mused.

Did Chopin sit here and compose something?

Perhaps they came up for a picnic

and perhaps they had the Majorcan fritos.

I was browsing through

the Boys' Bumper Book Of The Balearics

and came across this fascinating nugget of information.

These islands used to be governed by Carthage and then by Rome,

before they became an independent kingdom in the 13th century.

The natives here had a great reputation as slingers

in the Roman army, I suppose because there were lots of stones around.

Anyway, as the oldest slinger in town,

I'm going to paint my own culinary impression of Majorca,

because I'm fed up with being a detective

and I want to be a painter and a historian instead.

The most popular is fish in Spain is hake. I love it.

I love garlic, I love onions, I love tomatoes,

I love olive oil and I like brandy.

And I sometimes like a bit of time on my own

and have a bit of space, a bit of freedom.

So I am cooking very simply... Clive, come over here, if you would.

..some onions and some tomatoes and some garlic, chopped up very finely,

into the pot with olive oil.

Simmering away. So we've got a nice, rich base of tomato sauce.

And then a couple of fillets of absolutely fresh hake

and some mussels.

All I want to do is pop the hake into there, like so,

another bit there, then rub those over with some saffron.

Saffron is a very Spanish, Moorish-y kind of thing. Goes well with fish.

And also paints a lovely picture of colours.

Then whack the gas up to maximum.

Stand back a bit in case I set fire to you, Clive.

I don't want to do that. Oh, there we are. It's coming.

Let that simmer away for a second.

What a wonderful spot, isn't it? It's really pretty round here.

Into that we'll add our tomatoes...

These aren't tomatoes, they're mussels!

They go in there, like that.

A little drop of white wine.

There.

Now, that simmers away for about 15 or 20 minutes

until all the juices have permeated with the fish,

but I was thinking, there was some frightfully clever chap,

I don't know who, a Frenchman - Jean-Paul Sartre, or someone -

who said when you visit a strange country,

the only way to find out about it is to eat its food.

Eat the country and you will understand it.

Well, I think this dish sums up that attitude very carefully,

with its hake, the mussels, the brandy, the tomatoes,

the onions, the garlic, the olive oil.

All the colours and the flavours of Majorca are in that pot.

STIRRING MUSIC PLAYS

Paradoxically, just a few miles from Benidorm, which is

quintessentially capitalistic, lies the restaurant Casa Pinet,

which believes strongly in the communist cause.

Senor Pinet, the patron's father,

used to be a sort of Robin Hood figure in these parts,

robbing the rich to feed the poor,

until he was incarcerated by General Franco for his troubles.

Now, Pinet the younger is taking loot from coachloads

of Belgian tourists, which seems perfectly fair to me.

With the strains of The Internationale reverberating

through this Marxist museum...

I mean, revolutionary restaurant - or is it a commie cafe? -

it's humorous to think that in a few years' time,

when the whole world has reverted back to free-market economy,

Senor Pinet's restaurant will still be flying the Red Flag

for fun...and profit, of course.

Once upon a time, many hundreds of years ago,

some fishermen set to sea for a day's fishing.

They fished very busily until 12 o'clock,

then they thought they should have some lunch,

so they went to look for the rice to make a paella,

only to discover, to their chagrin and dismay,

that they had forgotten the rice, but they did have some noodles,

and hence this amazing dish - which I'm about to learn

from my latest, newest chum, Anita - was invented.

First of all, we have a quick spin round all the ingredients.

First of all, Clive, we have some calamaris,

some squid-lets, OK? Some tuna fish, some mixed white fish,

a bowl of peppers, prawns, clams, shrimps and peas, OK?

Some tomato sauce.

Here is what we have in virtually every Spanish dish,

a thickening agent called piccata, and this piccata

is made from bread, olive oil, garlic and red pepper and parsley.

The raw ingredients are those ones there.

We also have the noodles themselves. OK?

And to decorate the dish, finally, at the end,

some lovely mussels and prawns, and right over here,

some red peppers which have already been fried in oil.

Now, that is all I know of this dish,

because Anita is going to show me what to do,

so we are all in for a learning experience this morning.

-Primero?

-Primero. Si.

Primero - the little squid-lets. They go straight into the oil.

-OK? Correct?

-Correct.

And they fry away there for...

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

OK.

The next thing that goes in, as soon as Anita tells me it's OK,

will be the tomato sauce.

Segundo is the tomato sauce. In that goes.

Right.

And then next, this one? This one. Right.

Then the mixed fish goes in. Got that, Clive?

All the lovely mixed fish.

Monkfish and haddock and hake and goodness knows what.

That's all in there.

Next, the peas, the peppers, the clams, the little shrimps,

they all go into the pot. Like so.

It's looking quite colourful now.

Now, I can't put the tuna in yet,

but what I can put in is the piccata.

Now, we've seen this throughout Spain in different forms.

This particular one is made of dried red pepper, garlic,

olive oil and I think she has put a few almonds in there as well.

And some parsley.

And this is the thickening agent for the stew.

So one... Dos.

Dos. Very large mixtures of that.

And stir it in.

Ow!

I burnt my finger.

That's OK. My fault.

I should not have left the ladle on the gas, like that.

Mm-hm. Next, little fillets of tuna fish.

They're going in last because they take, virtually,

the shortest time to cook.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

HE LAUGHS

Right, tuna.

-And then some sel? Sal?

-Sal.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

That's a lot of salt.

Right, salt. Right...

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

Ah, right. It's now got to simmer in here for a second,

and we transfer it to the massive paella dish itself

for the next phase.

OK.

This is not for the limp-wristed, I can assure you.

Right, there's that.

So, now we have to add the pasta.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

That's all the noodles in there.

And now we add many, many, many, many ladles of fish stock.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

It's time to finish it off just by garnishing it,

firstly with some fresh mussels,

arrange them in a sort of circle around the whole pan, really.

And some lovely Mediterranean prawns, the black against the red.

Right. And last, but not least, some wonderful roasted red peppers.

The peppers have been roasted in olive oil and cut.

This is actually a bit like being a childish painter, isn't it?

Making a lovely big round-faced sun out of food.

A happy plate of food.

Painted in broad brushstrokes of colour.

The ochre, the black, the red, the gold, the green.

SHE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

We don't waste anything in a Spanish kitchen.

That lovely flavoured oil from the pimentos

goes around the whole thing.

20 minutes.

Bubbles away like that on a low heat on this fabulous pan,

and the next time you see it,

we'll have either dropped it on the floor or we'll be eating it.

Mr and Mrs Pinet proved that the cooking of really good food

crosses all political boundaries.

They liked it. They really liked it.

And I liked it.

It's a great dish, this noodle paella,

absolutely perfect for any kind of fiesta or a party.

Now, round here, they're really big on paellas,

and for parties and festivals they make these enormous ones.

You can do this at home, if you want.

First of all, put some olive oil, around about five gallons,

into a large pan. Wood - mark 4.

By the way, make sure it's orange wood.

Add the chicken, rabbit and duck to get the juices going

and the meat browned.

This is superb fun, you know. Look at that sizzling. Magnificent stuff.

Then chuck in a few tonnes of red and green peppers...

..about a kilo of finely chopped garlic

Hmm... Yummy, yummy, yummy. I can smell it already.

Then you need the entire contents

of one supermarket's tomato department, about ten buckets full.

Check the fire again. Make sure it is simmering gently.

Then a few bucketfuls of red and white and green beans.

Actually, this is a genuine Valencian paella.

It doesn't have any fish in it, you notice.

Then five or six milk churns of water.

You can get your husband to fetch that in.

And meanwhile, go out into the garden

and get about 8,000 snails and sling them in.

Then start ringing up your bank manager,

because you'll need a mortgage for this. Saffron is so expensive.

Right. Now, some really good rice. Several buckets of rice.

Incidentally, it's a short-grain rice that comes from Valencia.

Let that simmer away gently for 20 minutes or so.

Dampen the fire down so that it doesn't overcook.

Hmm. Look at that.

Brilliant.

And all you have to do now is to declare the day a national holiday,

invite all your chums round, the doctor, the dentist,

in fact the whole town while you're at it,

and you'll never have to give another dinner party ever again.

BAND PLAYS

This is a celebration of the Christians and the Moors.

500 years or so ago, they were at each other's throats,

and now history is an excuse to have one hell of a party and dress up.

"And what's wrong with that?" I hear you cry!

It's customary on these occasions

for Visigoths and Moors to smoke fat cigars.

Thank goodness for Christopher Columbus.

Or was it Sir Walter Raleigh?

During the day, these guys are debt collectors,

or they sell leather handbags, and cook chicken and chips,

but tonight, they're all Charlton Heston!

Loving your work there, Keith.

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

some of the most delicious recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show,

it's omelette challenge time as the talented Tom Aikens

and the genial Genaro Contaldo square up at the hobs.

Scott Hallsworth is here

with a restaurant-style feast of Asian flavours -

lamb chops are smoked over tea, aubergines are brushed with miso

and grilled, and it's served with pickled daikon.

And Brian Cox faces his food heaven or food hell.

Did he get his food heaven,

pan-fried rainbow trout with broad beans, peas and almonds,

or his food hell, Earl Grey sorbet

with pear, Earl Grey and cinnamon strudel?

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

Now, up next is a master of Indian cuisine,

it is the superb Vivek Singh.

It's his very first time cooking for us on Saturday Kitchen.

It is Vivek Singh. Now, Vivek, what are you cooking?

-Because this is an interesting dish. I'm looking forward to this.

-Yes.

I am doing a Rajasthani-spiced grilled fillet of mackerel

with yoghurt curry sauce

and a Southern Indian spinach and coconut poriyal.

First of all, we'll get onto the mackerel in a minute.

What spices have we got?

This spices for the mackerel are going to be cloves, pepper,

cinnamon, a bit of red chilli and cumin.

These are the spices, we're going to grind them into a coarse crust.

-I don't like them too fine.

-OK.

I'm going to smear the fillet... I've got to fillet the fish first.

-Fillet the fish?

-Yeah.

Mackerel - we are cooking very much chefs' favourite things.

We had monkfish cheeks, we've got the old rump steak,

-mackerel is another great fish.

-Absolutely.

And it's this time of the year again.

I'm really surprised

how few Indian restaurants use mackerel on the menu.

It is local, seasonal and I think it handles spice really well.

It's a great fish but it needs to be really, really fresh.

-I couldn't agree more.

-I think that's the main problem, really.

I couldn't agree more. You've got to have it really fresh.

You can fish for it yourself at this time of year.

You just throw anything in the water...

Did you ever do that as a boy?

You would come up with six mackerel on the one line?

-It's such a gas.

-There you go.

So, we've got the mackerel. Just taking the bones out.

Now, these spices.

I've ground up the cinnamon and then you want me

-to put the rest of the spices in?

-Yeah.

-Not so many cloves, no?

-Not as many, no. Just use a few.

Two or three should be fine. I'll just trim this a little bit.

I'll give this a quick grind up as well with some salt. OK?

That's perfect.

Now, your early career, your father didn't want you to be a chef,

did he?

Well, I don't think any father or any parents in India,

at least in the time that I was growing up,

wanted their children to be chefs.

But like all other parents, they would want me to become

either a doctor or an engineer or go into administrative services,

or something like that.

-We've got some salt in there?

-Yeah, salt's in there.

My dad told me I should open up a fish and chip shop

-because I would make more money.

-Is that what he said?

He thought cheffing was a waste of time.

Well, I'm sure my parents would have changed their minds as well.

I wanted to be a vet. My dad said I was daft.

He said, "You like all your animals with chips anyway,

"so what's the point?"

Right, so we've got in here our mackerel. Lovely.

A tiny squeeze of lemon on it.

-Yeah.

-And a dash of oil.

-But your early career took you...

-Shall we have a bit of oil

-on the mackerel as well?

-There you go.

But your career took you to some unbelievable hotels,

one in particular which won the award, what,

the Best Luxurious Hotel in the World?

The Best Hotel in the World, by Tatler magazine in 2001.

This was Rajvilas. I was working at the Oberoi hotel.

In fact, I worked all my life at the Oberoi hotel before coming here.

I've got a pinch of chickpea flour, a tiny bit of turmeric,

and you won't even see it initially. You might feel it's not enough.

-This is the sauce to go with it?

-Yes, this is the sauce.

Essentially, with a very traditional basic curry,

you have this as a soup, you have it as a sauce with the rice.

So just mix it all up...

Vivek, turmeric, to my palate, there's not much taste from it.

Is it mainly used for colour, or is there a flavour?

Turmeric is phenomenal.

It's used in almost every Northern Indian dish you'll find.

The reason for that is, it's considered to be an excellent

antiseptic, it brings up your immune system to handle cuts

and wounds and stuff like that. It is very, very good.

And the thing about turmeric is,

you should always see it, never taste it.

-If you're tasting turmeric then there's something wrong.

-Yeah.

You've added far too much of it.

OK, so in this pan now I am going to put a little bit of oil

and then get your onions going.

No, that's for my tempering and that's for the spinach.

So onions in there.

So, tell us about the Cinnamon Club, because you went from

working in one of the greatest hotels in the world

to producing one of the greatest Indian restaurants in the world.

At the time, it seemed like the right thing

because I'd been in India long enough and worked up,

done a lot of Indian food, and I'd got to a stage where I thought

it wasn't going to get any better than that,

and wasn't necessarily going to get changed.

Indian food in India wasn't prepared to change or evolve,

and I thought it was high time, like everything else,

all other cuisines, evolution is so important,

and if you aren't constantly moving,

then you're definitely falling behind.

So that was the idea.

When the Cinnamon Club came about, I thought

it was a wonderful opportunity to create something new,

and what better place than London to do it?

Since curry is such a...

Are you thinking of taking it that way now?

I will eventually, yes.

The idea is, one day,

-to take a modern-day restaurant back to India.

-Really?

-But I suppose there will be a few stops before that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Cos it's not... This is... I mean, you're on about looking at, what,

a second restaurant as well, coming shorty as well?

Yes, I've got a very interesting concept we're working on right now,

looking at another opportunity. Um...

It's going to be slightly less formal than the Cinnamon Club,

of course. It's not going to be in the library, for a start.

But similar sort of creativity and innovation. I'm going to take...

-Yep.

-I think it's...

The onions could take a touch more oil. Have you ever salted them?

-No salt in there, chef, no.

-Let's do a bit of salt.

So that's had two and a half, three minutes in there.

-Yeah.

-Do you always put salt in your onions when you're cooking them?

I beg your pardon?

Is it important to put a lot of salt in onions, when you're cooking them?

-In the onions?

-Yeah.

-No, no, no, not a lot.

It's just if you add a bit of salt initially, it sort of releases

-the juices from there and cooks it faster, helps it cook faster.

-OK.

So, apart from the Cinnamon Club and everything else, the books,

you seem to be rolling them out more than Mr Rankin over there.

Well, I've done three.

I'm working on my fourth and it's going to come out later in the year.

It's going to be called Curry - Classic and Contemporary

and, um, when we first started thinking about the idea, there was

about 13,000 Indian curry books already in the market.

Why bother with another one?

But then we thought, hey, listen, there's so many curry books

but nothing really...nothing really has dealt with

evolution of food, or evolution of Indian food, evolution of curry, as

we've begun to see in this country in the last six, seven years.

We thought that was a fantastic and interesting subject to...

-That's what you're working on at the moment, but what's gone in there?

-Well...

This is the yoghurt and...

What have you got in there? Curry leaves, bit of chilli?

Curry leaves, a bit of chilli and a bit of cumin, just to temper

and it's called a tadka.

Tadka, essentially, is the process of tempering.

-And in here, we've got...

-We've got...

In there, we've got onions, we've got mustard seeds...

Onions, mustard seeds, curry leaves, so sweated off.

-Yeah.

-And we've got the salt and the seasoning in there. A tiny bit of...

And is this a traditional Indian dish? This is...

This is, yes, a very, very popular Southern Indian accompaniment,

I would say.

You could do this with beans, you could do this with cabbage.