16/10/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. I'm John Torode,

and I've got a seriously mouthwatering menu lined up for you today,

which I hope will give you plenty of culinary inspiration.

So, please, sit back and enjoy some of my Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. Don't go anywhere.

I have loads of amazing chefs cooking up brilliant food

and some celebrity guests who are eager to get tasting.

Coming up on the show today:

internationally acclaimed chef Michael Caines

whips up a pan-fried sirloin steak

with roasted shallots, celeriac puree,

wild mushrooms and a Madeira sauce.

And from turf to surf -

master of Asian cuisine Nic Watt makes sea bream in sweet white miso.

It's his twist on the fabulous and famous black cod recipe,

and he serves it with fresh red onion pickle,

tomatoes and green beans.

Well, there you go. That's Sunday lunch sorted.

And then it's time for a hearty Greek dish from Maria Elia,

who needs to persuade James Martin that Greek food

is not all about stuffed vine leaves.

She's cooking slow-braised pork belly

with wilted greens, feta and polenta.

And West End and Broadway star Ruthie Henshall

faces her Food Heaven or her Food Hell.

Did she get her Food Heaven,

sticky toffee pudding and toffee sauce?

Or did she end up facing her Food Hell,

scallop ravioli with seared scallops and a white wine cream sauce?

You can find out at the end of the show.

Now, kicking things off

is the brilliant Michelin-starred Angela Hartnett.

She's going back to her Mediterranean roots

with this triumphant trio.

It's the fabulous Angela Hartnett.

And on the menu for you, we've got three different dishes.

Three different dishes - lots of work this morning.

Straight away you're diving into it.

So, what are we going to do?

Well, it's like, I suppose, a Mediterranean meze, really.

It's just all stuff that you love to eat in the summer.

And to me, it evokes the summer,

it's sort of holiday food, you go away...

Lovely olive oil, lovely vegetables

-so all good stuff.

-So this is a little bit of your Italian influence

-coming into this?

-Yeah, a little bit,

and also there's some great books out there.

I think who does it really well is Simon Hopkinson, has great ideas,

and Yotam Ottolenghi and all those sort of things are fabulous.

-Yeah.

-So we're going to put our aubergines straight on the grill,

bit of oil, bit of salt.

-Just really get a nice grill there.

-OK.

So in there, we've got runner beans,

we've got French beans in that one as well.

I'm just going to make a dressing of onions,

garlic and chilli for this one.

And they're all very simple to do

and also the great thing about all of these dishes,

I think you can adapt them slightly.

So, you know, if you've got basil, tomatoes,

you can do something with that, you know?

It's a great way of using bits and bobs in the larder.

You know, especially the chickpea one, you know.

You could put loads of mint in there,

you could even put tomatoes, etc, etc.

I'm going to start the chickpeas off as well.

So you've got three different spices going in there as well.

Yeah, so we've got sumac, some chilli and some cumin.

So I'm just going to put a little bit of oil in the pan,

toast those off a bit with the oil and then add the chickpeas as well.

We'll hold a little bit of the sumac powder back

cos we'll put that on the yoghurt as well.

Now, it's already been a busy year for you

because you've got, well, your restaurant down in the New Forest.

Yeah, I'm doing Lime Wood Hotel, it's called Hartnett Holder & Co

and it's... Basically, how we've done it

is it's myself and the chef there,

Luke Holder, who is fantastic, and the Co is obviously all the staff,

cos we've made it a real team effort.

And you were down there with us

because we were doing that brilliant filming for the Roux Scholarship.

Absolutely, which is coming out this week, isn't it, really?

Well, it starts on Monday, on Watch and it's two weeks, I think.

Every night for two weeks.

And that to me was fantastic, filming down in Lime Wood,

cos we had all the smokehouse,

you did that amazing dessert which really shocked all the scholars,

they'd never seen anything like that.

I was doing pasta out in the middle of the sun, so it's great.

And it also shows what cooking's about,

it's not just about fancy techniques,

it's about basic, proper desserts,

really great pasta, and really for them

to really show their skills as chefs.

It's proper cooking, really. No water baths or anything like that?

No, God, no, they weren't allowed any of that stuff.

So it was great to do it

and also I think because it's the Roux Scholarship,

we had so many other great chefs.

I mean, you were doing it, we've got Andrew Fairlie doing it,

Rick's there, Raymond Blanc's there. You know, there's a host of people.

Andrew Fairlie was the first Roux Scholar, wasn't he?

He was, yeah. Oh, my gosh, yeah, I know.

I mean, what was the name of your dessert called?

Well, it's Gateau St Honore.

I mean, to be fair, I didn't know what it was.

"What is that? What do those poor guys have to do?"

And I think they were quite shocked when they saw what they have to do.

It's actually a cake named after the patron saint of pastry cooks.

And who's that?

Gateau... St Honore.

But it was a choux pastry dessert

that they make as a disc with choux buns all the way round it,

-filled with cream.

-I'll put those in there for you.

And they had to do that with no recipe, James, is that right?

Yeah, I didn't give them any recipe.

It's just quite funny to watch them.

So did they have to make puff pastry as well?

Yeah. No, they made... Yeah, they made...

Cos choux pastry and then a...?

-Yeah?

-This one into there.

-That's chickpea one, yeah?

-You've lost me, which one is this one?

This one's the bean, that's the chickpea.

-That goes in there.

-That's it. Perfect. Good, good, good.

So what herbs, spices have you got in there?

So, in there, I've got cumin, I've got chilli and I've got sumac.

And then we've put mint in there, parsley, touch of lemon.

In with the aubergine, I'm going to put some fresh garlic

with a little bit of oil

and some golden raisins, some pine nuts and toasted breadcrumbs

cos they're going to go on top of it.

OK, so it all just amalgamates together.

And we mentioned the restaurant you've got in the New Forest.

But Murano where you're based, really, that's in central London.

Yeah, so that is going great, and you know, it's like anything,

it's your team, isn't it? I've got great guys there.

Diego's the head chef.

Pip, who's the sous chef, you know?

I can't do Saturday Kitchen without these guys,

cos they're there doing the whole thing,

so you look after your team and make sure they have a good time, as well.

London never ceases to amaze me,

it just never stops, really, in the restaurant scene.

Oh, my God, it's just going more and more.

-Yeah.

-I can't quite believe how many restaurants are opening,

-but they are, but it's good.

-But they all seem to be full, you know?

Well, you know, food's the thing,

and also the great thing now about London,

I think we're getting lots of neighbourhood restaurants.

It's not like before that you just had to go into central London

or Covent Garden or whatever. Now, everyone has got a local restaurant.

I mean, where I live, sort of Shoreditch way,

you just don't have to come into town, you know,

you can have all your great time out there in the summer.

Right, so my aubergines are done,

so you want them when they are really nice and soft.

I'm going to move this plate over this way.

Sorry, James. I'll finish them off here.

So the dressing for this one, which we've got in here,

we've got mustard, is that a vinegar?

Yeah, mustard, a little bit of vinegar and oil.

-Oil, this is for the bean one.

-And also you put them on top, like this,

so the heat of the aubergines is going to carry on

sort of cooking them as well.

And they are so nice, aubergines, as well, they are just beautiful

when they're grilled like this fresh, fantastic.

I'm going to get this bread on for you as well.

-You want me to do these flatbreads as well?

-I do, James.

I like you to work a bit, you know how it is.

I had to do all the work on the Roux Scholarship.

I was there whipping the cream and doing everything.

I'm getting my own back now.

I was getting my own back really, yeah, exactly.

But Nigel's will be easier.

So I'm going to sprinkle all the pine nuts, breadcrumbs on there.

So, like that. You can smell the garlic, which is great.

Finish it with a touch of the mint and the parsley.

Then we're going to put some crumbled feta

on top of that as well and then finish it

with a bit of oil and a touch of vinegar.

So that's sort of one meze dish.

So what's in here, then? What's in your dough here?

So in the dough here, it's literally a touch of flour,

some people make it without yeast, I put a little bit of yeast in, flour,

salt and a bit of water.

And that's it, and just let it prove up, and then really hot pan,

or you can do it in the oven as well.

-Or you can do it on a griddle pan.

-Or a griddle pan, exactly.

So what you want is that sort of blistering effect.

We've got some yoghurt here that we're going to put in here

cos it's nice to. And the idea is that you have the, if you like,

the dough, and then you feed through,

have it all together, eat it.

A little bit of the chilli powder on top. This one is ready to go.

So this dough has probably proved,

what, for about an hour, an hour and a half?

Yeah, an hour and a half, so it's nice and hot.

And you see now it starts to bubble up.

You want that sort of golden, exactly like that,

that lovely sort of goldeny flavour.

I'll put that on there. It's actually really simple, isn't it?

Did you want to come and have a vegetarian breakfast, Nigel?

Are you happy about that?

I'd love to, yes, absolutely.

You're up for that, yeah?

-Right, you've got some black pepper in here.

-Yep, lovely.

-Some salt in this one.

-And then the final thing with those

is we're going to put a lovely soft boiled egg on top as well.

-A little bit of salt.

-Some oil.

-A little bit of pepper.

And then we'll cut our sourdough.

I'll give you that, I'll do the sourdough first.

-Beauty.

-I'll give you that.

So, give that a really nice toss.

I'm going to use my hands a bit in there.

And the secret to make a great bean salad is,

as you've done it perfectly, James,

is to season them when they're hot, you know,

cos then they absorb all that sort of vinegar,

oil and chilli sort of flavours.

You know, it's that horrible thing, like potato salad

when they make them with cold potatoes,

it never takes any of the flavour in.

OK. Then we put our sourdough there.

A little bit of yoghurt.

Oh, and our little eggs on top.

-But you've got...

-Another one there.

Another one on there. There you go,

I'll leave that with you. You can chop it up.

I just wonder whether there'll be enough for us all.

Just wondering whether there's enough?

-I hope you're hungry!

-Quite a lot of food there, isn't there?

-Generous portions.

-Give me the name of this, then.

So we're going to call it a Mediterranean meze.

Chickpea salad, grilled aubergines, bean and egg salad,

fresh flatbread and yoghurt, sour cream.

Did you put the vinegar over the top?

A little bit. Oh, yeah, I always forget something, don't I?

White wine vinegar over the top of the aubergines.

-Beautiful.

-Looks fantastic.

-Bon appetit!

Looks pretty good to me.

Big portion.

I don't know where you start with this one, to be honest.

Do you start on the left or work to your right?

I'm not quite sure where you start with this one.

Isn't that absolutely lovely?

-Do you like vegetables, Ann?

-Well, I love meze

and I love sitting outside, you know, in the open.

Either in Greece or in Italy or whatever and just enjoying meze.

Or in the car park in Clapham!

Dive in, tell us what you think of this one, but, like you say,

you mix and match and then the chickpeas, those weren't,

those weren't dried chickpeas...

No, soak them, you can do those...

Oh, you can use dried or those tins, and that's it.

You can use Borlotti, you know, beans, white beans...

-That's very good.

-And just, you know, and it's...

-Great.

-Happy with that one?

And I love these, these summery yellow beans.

The yellow beans are just coming into season now.

Particularly when you have those warm, as well.

I think that's the key to any vegetable -

serve it at the right temperature.

I hate tomato salads that are served from the fridge.

That's very nicely seasoned.

-Thank you. That was my one. Brilliant!

-Well done, James!

1-0!

I thought Ann Widdecombe was so polite there

with her small bite of flatbread and yoghurt. Had it been me,

I would have been tearing into that grilled aubergine with feta

and made a right old mess of it.

Anyway, coming up, James Martin cooks a rack of lamb

with smoked garlic mash for Kim Wilde,

but that's after Rick Stein puts on a seafood banquet

for 150 hungry people at Blenheim Palace.

The question is will Chalky behave?

Will the panna cottas set in time?

And will his team of chefs slice the crawfish correctly?

You're about to find out.

Why I feel the need to leave the tranquillity of Cornwall,

and to journey off to away matches, to cook in other people's kitchens,

I will never know.

I suppose I'm just an easy touch,

so that every now and then I go off with Paul to places like Blenheim,

and do things like hold a masterclass

to a load of chefs that I've never met before,

and who make me very nervous, well, just to prove what?

So, with our little green fish van loaded up with crawfish, squid,

scallops, John Dory and clams,

we're going to cook for about 150 top executives

in the catering industry

a special seafood banquet, right in the main hall,

the Great Hall at Blenheim Palace.

Don't go on the lawn!

Will you just see if there's anybody in there to give us a hand, Paul?

We are a bit late, actually.

Where's that... Oh, that's it.

Cheers.

Just keep an eye on the dog,

cos the Duke doesn't like him going on the lawn, all right?

Blimey, this'll do!

'Talk about organisation!

'You call this a field kitchen?

'I mean, I'd be so pleased to have a kitchen like that in my own place,

the banks of steamers and ovens and grills and ranges

'and preparation tables as far as you can see.'

Just sling them on the floor.

Hey, get out! Out, out, out!

Dog in the... Oi!

Can somebody put the dog in the van?

Stopping before we start!

'Chalky will stay in there all day.

'A place like Blenheim has got to have strict rules.

'You can't have dogs running over the Duke's lawns.

'The Duke's manager's got two big Jack Russells

'and they understand about rules.'

THEY LAUGH

-Hi, Peter.

-Morning, Rick, how are you?

-Very well, how are you?

I'm fine. Come on through.

-Here's our chef for the day.

-Morning, chaps.

-Good morning.

-Ladies, too.

Right, well...

Well, if you're as nervous as me, you're pretty nervous, I think.

OK, what I wanted to do is just run through the menu...

The first dish, which is called cherrystone clams with aioli,

is very, very simple...

You have to eat with your fingers and I thought about this a bit

and it's not the sort of thing you'd expect to eat

at a sort of banquet like this, but...

What I'm going to do is just demonstrate cleaning squid,

filleting Dories and then we'll get you all doing it

and I'll just walk around and...

Paul, I forgot to introduce you to Paul.

Where are you, Paul? Ah! Paul's the head chef at the seafood restaurant.

He does all the work.

I just go in there and bark at him occasionally, you know the feeling?

OK, let's run through the dishes we are going to cook for this banquet.

First of all, clams with aioli.

You just steam open the clams with a bit of white wine,

bung in some aioli - that's garlic mayonnaise, lots of parsley.

A beautiful, simple dish to eat with your hands.

It's the sort of dish that gets everyone talking.

Then a panache of squid, scallops and John Dory, fried in olive oil

and the fish only cook for a minute or two so it's just on the point

and serve with a light dressing made with clarified butter, saffron,

chopped tomato, chervil, tarragon and a little white wine vinegar.

Just a simple dressing.

The way it turns out is so fresh, delicate and delightful

and just a few salad leaves to set it off nicely.

And then the piece de la resistance, crawfish,

or spiny lobster as it is also known,

which is steamed off, sliced thinly,

and served, curiously, with a vanilla sauce,

which is a hollandaise-based sauce, with vanilla pod added to it.

A little lemon juice,

cayenne pepper and then some summer vegetables on the plate, too.

And to finish, the delicate, delicate panna cotta,

Italian set cream with raspberries and a little raspberry puree.

That's the banquet, but, first, the masterclass.

OK, as soon as we've got the veg all prepped,

I want it all blanched off and refreshed, is that all right?

Then we'll just get it in trays, in the cold room, ready for service.

Yeah, yeah, you can bung that,

store it over there, that's lovely, thanks.

Oh, that's great, that's just right - nice and neat and tidy.

Anybody want a job?

I had a vision of those nice little slices of white crayfish

with an orange border and it's going to be tinged with black.

The other worry we've got is this little set cream,

-called panna cotta, with...

-Rick?

-Yeah?

-INAUDIBLE

-Oh, cheers, John,

just turn them over a bit.

They're taking a long time to set and they may not hold their shape.

Now, if they don't, when it comes out on the plate,

it's just going to go like that, right across the plate.

OK, so at the moment I don't really want to talk to you,

I just want to get on and worry!

-Do you know where Chalky is?

-Chalky? Oh, he's all right.

he's very good-natured, Chalky.

He'll be just sitting in the sun somewhere, being a nice dog.

In fact, he's very well-behaved when he's away from home, you know?

Don't worry about Chalky.

OK, now I'm just going to demonstrate

the first two dishes for you, all right?

Because I won't be here

and I just want you to see how they're arranged.

First of all, these are the palourdes, carpet shells, all right,

vongole in Italian - the best clam there is going, in my view.

They don't need to be enormously hot.

Just turn them out into the middle of the plate

and it doesn't matter if some of the meat has come out of the shell.

OK? Just arrange them in the centre of the shell like that.

If you've got time, group them properly.

And that's all it is, OK?

Maybe just a pinch more parsley on the top.

'Now, these are all very well trained chefs -

'most of them are head chefs,

'and of course there's a little bit of anxiety on my part

'about whether there's anything really that I can tell them.

'I mean, you know, teaching your grandmother to suck eggs,

'I think is the expression.

'But in the end, it's like they're so skilled and so experienced

'that it becomes more a sharing of information

'than me, the teacher, teaching them, the students.'

What we are looking for is colour here.

That's why we're frying the stuff, to get colour,

and you can smell that smell already,

that lovely sort of caramelising smell of seafood.

It's the sort of... That's the smell

that really is the hook to people, you know?

When people think seafood,

they think of that sort of smell of frying squid and scallops,

that's what I reckon.

If you could just cook the stuff, plate it up and out,

and then cook another eight, plate it up and out,

everybody would get the best possible food, yeah?

'I suppose, having had so many bad experiences from away matches,

'I expected everything to go wrong.

'But I needn't have worried.

'These chefs were really experienced

'and there are a lot of them and nothing was left to chance.

'The slicing of the crawfish was done with extreme precision

'and I was left just wandering around the garden,

'generally thinking about Chalky

'and trying to keep him out of the Duke's way.'

Come on, Chalky, I know you don't like leads,

but the Duke goes absolutely ballistic

if dogs are around here chasing his pheasants and sheep and all that,

so get on with it. Come on!

'Well, I must say the first course gave me a bit of anxiety.

'It was a bit slow coming out, of course,

'and I remember thinking, "Oh, I wish I had given them a salad."

'But I sort of believe in living a bit dangerously as a cook.

'And after a while, I began to notice

'there was a sort of pleasant murmur around

'and I began to relax.

'Back in the kitchen, there was a real buzz

'and everybody was getting on well with it.

'Once you've got it with good chefs,

'everything goes absolutely lickety-split.

'It makes you pretty nervous,

'having to sit down and eat new dishes with your customers.

'I might do another, but not this year.

'Not next year, but sometime.'

Now, cooking for large numbers is always stressful,

however good a chef you are.

Last year, I was lucky enough to cook at Blenheim Palace,

just like Rick, but for 400

and this is one of the dishes that went down a storm that night.

It's a best end of lamb with smoked garlic pomme puree.

Now, it sounds much more complicated than it is.

It's dead simple. I'm going to show you how to make it right now.

It's perfect for a dinner party. You can easily do it.

It uses one of these, which is a rack of lamb,

or a best end of lamb.

Conventionally, these have between seven and eight ribs on them

and then what you have is one this side and one the other side

with the spine running down the middle.

Now, what you need to do is ask the butcher to French trim it,

which means remove all the flesh off these bones here,

so it's nice and easy to use.

But most importantly, the chine underneath here.

So when you cut it through,

it's very easy to serve for a dinner party.

But this is where you get your lamb chops from. Nice and simple.

So remember that French trim bit.

-French trim.

-French trim.

A little bit of oil in the pan,

I'm going to season this first of all with some salt and black pepper.

Now, I mentioned at the top of the show, music was in your blood,

your family and stuff like that, but it wasn't until was it, the '80s...

I mean the '80s in music was incredible, anyway.

-Yeah.

-But you were having huge hits in the '80s.

-It was...

-But it started quite soon in the '80s, didn't it,

particularly in the UK, you had your first big hit?

Yeah, right in the beginning of the '80s.

Kids In America was a hit in 1981

and I was about 20 years old.

-And...

-20 years old?

But that got to number two, did it?

It did, it got to number two.

And then I started selling records all over the world

and that's when life got very busy. I started doing a lot of travelling.

But it was great. I used to do Top Of The Pops

with Madness and ABC and...

But it wasn't until... I suppose everybody at that time,

-everybody still does now, wants to hit America.

-Yeah.

But it was '87 when you hit America big.

-Yeah.

-Cos you are one of only six British women

to get a number one single?

To number one, yeah, which is great.

Can you remember the other five, boys?

We were talking about it earlier.

The latest one, I'll give you a clue,

-Leona Lewis.

-Oh, yeah.

-Petula Clark.

-Who are the other four?

-Bonnie Tyler?

I'm going to let you think, let you think for a while.

-They're all odd ones.

-So we've got our smoked garlic here.

Now, you've been a gardener as well, obviously.

Yeah, I love growing garlic.

-Love growing your own garlic?

-Yeah.

-This is smoked garlic,

-which you've had before.

-OK.

This is beautiful smoked garlic.

Most of the garlic, of course, comes from the Isle of Wight, doesn't it?

-Does it, really?

-Yeah.

I believe it's got its own little microclimate...

-I'm a big keen gardener, you see.

-Oh, OK.

It's got its own little microclimate, has the Isle of Wight,

and it produces the most amazing garlic.

You can get garlic now which has just got one clove.

But this is smoked garlic. A bit of salt, some oil

and what I'm going to do is roast this in the oven

and literally cook it in the oven with my lamb.

So, we've got the lamb there, nice and sealed.

We take the whole lot and throw it in the oven.

This is set for about 425 degrees Fahrenheit,

so quite a hot oven.

Just move that to one side.

And then we've got our garlic over here.

Now, talking of the '80s,

you're back out on the road again, aren't you?

I am, this May. When do we go?

We go out on the 13th...

This is the Here And Now tour, is it?

The Here And Now tour on the 13th, which starts in Liverpool

and then we finish in Wembley on the 23rd,

which is the day before my sister gets married.

Right. But not only that,

you've got the Here And Now tour and then you're doing your own tour.

I'm doing my own tour in March, which is I'm going all over Europe,

Paris and Amsterdam and all over there,

doing small rock and roll clubs which will be a hoot,

and the Here And Now is in May

and I'm really looking forward to being on tour

with a lot of the artists I have worked with many times.

But the other artists that are doing it as well, I mean...

-Cos I went last year,...

-The Here And Now?

I did go, yes, and I froze my backside off,

sat there outside listening to you lot.

But it was fantastic.

-Did you enjoy it?

-I did, cos it brought back so many memories.

I think if you ever go see stuff like that,

the memories that you used to have as a kid, I used to have the...

You did the same, I remember talking to you earlier.

But the photographs of the Ferrari and the Lamborghini on your wall

together with the bird with the tennis racket, that one?

Everybody had that one or was it just me?

But that just brings back so many great memories.

The '80s was such an amazing time, wasn't it?

It was. It was a really optimistic time and, of course,

we were all a bit younger then, of course, that did help.

And some great pop songs and really songs

that have stood the test of time.

I mean, you go to the Here And Now concerts and you hear these songs

and you go, "Oh, wow, I remember exactly what I was doing,

"who I was dating, what car I had."

So it was a nice decade to go back to.

Exactly. The pop music has changed so much over the years.

It seems today you have got to be associated with a TV programme

to get anywhere in the pop world nowadays.

Well, there does seem to be an element of that.

But of course you have the internet, and you have...

There is a huge access to music that you never had before, so, actually,

in many ways, it is a very exciting time for music, I think.

-Yeah.

-Especially, technology is so accessible now and affordable now,

so people can get involved in making their own music.

They don't have to spend thousands

going into some fancy recording studio.

So, actually, I think music is very exciting now.

I'm very excited about downloading, isn't that fun?

-Downloading!

-It's great, I love it.

You just go, "Oh, I fancy that,"

and you click on a button and, hey, presto...

But you've got the same excitement when it comes to gardening, as well,

because that is a huge passion in your life now.

Well, it is. It started when I had the children, when I got married

and we have a go at growing vegetables every spring.

We have varying results,

but we always get out there just before Easter.

We direct sow most of our stuff.

We get our potatoes in, get the beetroot in,

the raspberries are already up and running.

We talked about rhubarb, such an easy thing to grow.

Less easy to make it taste great, sometimes, I think.

That's why I mentioned it as a food hell.

But it's not actually a food hell, it's actually a fabulous food,

I just don't know really what to do with it.

Well, I'll just run you through what I've got on here.

This is the mash, which I have passed through one of these things,

which is a ricer,

which every kitchen should have for mashed potato.

A little bit of butter, some double cream...

Does that mash it up, that thing?

-Yeah, it literally makes it go very fine.

-Wow! That is brilliant.

It makes it go very fine. But this is the secret.

Look, we've got our garlic in here.

If I press this garlic, you'll see that all the garlic cloves come out.

-Fantastic"

-They squeeze out.

And roasted garlic, I know the chefs absolutely adore roasted garlic,

but it's one of these wonderful things.

If you want to make garlic bread, do it this way.

So, when you chop it up...

And it's so healthy for you, it's a fantastically healing vegetable.

There you go. Literally, we chop it all up.

And make it nice and fine

cos then we're going to throw all that into our mash.

This is the great thing.

I know you do cook quite a lot at home, as well.

I like cooking, a lot, yeah.

And you've got one of those, I call them dog warmers,

but you've got an Aga.

-Bum warmers!

-I can't cook on them.

But if you've got one of those at home, this is great.

When you're doing a dinner party, you take your piping bag,

obviously not a plastic piping bag,

-but a normal piping bag...

-So you can't just slosh it on?

You can, but it's a good way of keeping it warm.

You can take your normal cloth piping bags that you've got

and you can take the whole lot and place it into an Aga warming drawer.

Don't do what my mother did and place it in the oven part.

Not good.

And when you want to serve it, you can take a nice slice off here.

-They're great, aren't they?

-And then pipe it.

Careful when you pipe it like this,

cos you don't want it to look like some whippet

has just left it behind in a park.

Like that. Only joking, boys, but you know what I mean.

You slice that. And then we've got our lovely lamb.

You know how to work up an appetite, don't you?

I do, really, yes. Know what I mean?

And we've got our nice lamb.

-I love this lamb.

-You can write my menus, James.

-Exactly!

-Yeah!

Well, I say it how it is, you know, being a Yorkshireman.

There you go. And then we've got our sauce,

which is basically reduced chicken stock.

You can buy some lamb stock if you want,

just chicken stock, bit of the old red wine.

-Red wine, lovely.

-Over the top. It's a very simple...

We actually serve that with some nice mixed veg,

some beans and stuff like that.

But there you have roast lamb with smoked garlic mash.

-Gorgeous!

-Dive in, see what you think.

-OK, yeah.

-Remember, that lamb has had ten minutes.

If you want it a little bit more well done,

you can cook it for 12 minutes.

Leave it to rest, but it should be nice and pink.

Tell us what you think.

Smoked garlic mash, it's there, it's rock and roll.

Truly impressive to make that for 400 people,

and even more impressive to pipe your pomme puree so neatly, James,

and on live TV, too.

Today we're taking a look back at some of the tastiest recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

And there's still loads of inspiring dishes to come.

Right, here to show us how a Michelin-starred chef

cooks his steak and mash is the hugely talented Michael Caines,

who proves that men really can multitask.

Good to have you on the show, mate. Do you want me to stop the ticking?

-There you go.

-Excellent.

-So what are we cooking, Michael?

We've got the pan-fried sirloin steak with roasted shallots,

we've got the celeriac puree

and this wonderful fricassee mushroom with Madeira sauce.

-Right.

-We've got a lot to do.

-I know we've got a lot to do.

We've got the celeriac. We've got some onion and some celery.

Sweat down. And then we are going to add the celery to it.

Celeriac. And of course we are going to use a little bit of water

and a little bit of milk to cook it in.

-This is for a puree, yes?

-It is, it's going to be a lovely puree.

Obviously cooking it in a white stock, a little bit of...

Most people when they are doing this would put it in water and then pass

it off and then add the cream. But this gives it a lovely texture.

Absolutely, it does. I'm going to start that off sweating in here.

We've got some already made.

It takes about 20 minutes, half an hour to cook out the celeriac.

And it's a great vegetable, celeriac.

Commonly used for soups or perhaps within a mash,

but it is also nice roasted for Sunday roast,

just chopped up in big cubes.

But people don't really use it as much as they should, really.

The French love it, that celeriac remoulade which is mustard and mayo,

-which is delicious.

-Absolutely.

-Great with ham, raw.

It's a wonderful, wonderful dish.

-It's a beautiful dish.

-It's got that fennel smell.

We are going to roast of some shallots here.

I've blanched off the shallots in a bit of water...

We're going to roast that slowly

in some butter and deglaze that

with some vinegar.

Now, while that's sweating down...

Yeah.

You did say you've got a lot to do.

-We have.

-We haven't got any pans left, actually, in the studio.

This must be a record.

It is a record, trust me.

Fantastic. Just a little bit of milk.

And a little bit of water.

And we've got a little bit of chicken bouillon to go in with this.

And then we are going to cook that out slowly, and that's done.

That takes what, 20, 25 minutes?

Absolutely. We just need some shallots and slices of mushrooms.

And we're going to make our Madeira sauce,

just a little bit of butter in first.

No colours really necessary here.

Just to sweat them down.

A pinch of salt in there as well.

Then we will add the mushrooms.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Great.

And then the steak itself, salt and pepper, both sides.

-About 200g, 240.

-This is a sirloin steak?

-Yes, that's right.

-You could use fillet, I suppose.

You can use fillet. And also you can use ribeye,

you can use the cheaper cuts, like the rump or the topside.

Do you think with rump steak and stuff like that,

you've got to make sure you get it from a reputable butcher,

because you want it to be nice and tender, don't you?

Yes, we do. This is a kind of quick cooking technique.

You are always looking for your joints of meat,

which are going to be tender.

So foaming butter, in goes the steak.

We are going to cook that medium rare.

Got a wooden spoon here.

I mentioned at the top of that, September, you were voted,

one of the ultimate accolades you can achieve, really,

I suppose, Chef of the Year.

I know, crikey. It was fantastic, that particular award is the AA

and it's voted by your peers so it makes it extra special.

You know what these chefs are like,

we are not very complimentary of each other.

-I didn't vote for you.

-That's cos I couldn't afford to pay you.

Your rates these days are extortionate.

Run out of money towards the end.

THEY LAUGH

So what we've got there is the, uh...

Madeira. We sweated off the mushrooms with the shallots

until they're slippery. Added a little bit of thyme,

going to reduce that. And the best thing to do is wait

until the alcohol goes, so don't worry, you can have this dish.

Going to burn off that alcohol.

Get the sweetness from the Madeira,

and then we pan-fry off the mushrooms in a minute,

we use the same pan that we've cooked the steak,

we're going to have the flavours

from that pan going into the sauce a little bit later.

We've got the mushrooms there. Just a little bit of chicken stock now.

-You are still based down in Devon.

-That's right.

Although your restaurants are all over the place...

-the hotel chain as well.

-Absolutely.

Do you still take your influence from local ingredients?

-British ingredients.

-Yeah.

The Great British Menu series, fantastic, it really highlighted

just what types of ingredients we've got in the UK.

We've got a great larder, perhaps one of the best in Europe.

And we've got to keep farmers in farming as well,

that's very important. So, you know,

regional food is very important, seasonal as well.

And this time of year, we're making the most of game,

making the most of the root vegetables and you shouldn't be

seeing any red peppers and asparagus

on the menu at this time of the year.

There's no need, there is just such a great array of produce to be had.

We are just going to cook the steak medium rare.

All looking good.

This puree, drain it off, you don't want the cream.

No, but you can add a bit of the cooking juices back in

to get the right texture, which is fine if you need to.

Looking good. The sauce is reducing here.

Which is great.

Nice and fine.

-It's fine, Michael, it's fine.

-Fantastic.

-It's getting there.

-We're going to rest the steak once we've cooked it,

now we're going to add... Just turn this down a tad.

A lot going on here.

Who said men can't multitask?

Just put the mushrooms in.

It is important, you've taken that steak out. A lot of people

make the mistake when they're cooking steak at home,

as soon as it is cooked, straight on the plate and eat it.

You need to let it rest, absolutely.

Quite an important stage.

I'm just going to saute down these mushrooms,

got a little bit of trompette in here, some enoki mushrooms,

girolles are good as well this time of year, just coming to the end

of the season. If you've got some ceps, that will be delicious.

Nice colouring on the shallots, which is great.

Just going to add a bit more of that liquid.

-Just so it goes more puree.

-That looks fantastic.

Shallots look good.

Towards the end of the cooking of the shallots, we're just going to...

He's off like the clappers. Look at this.

Deglaze with a bit of vinegar, which is nice.

-What is that going in there?

-Sherry vinegar.

And that's just...

Right at the end, just let it rest.

We've got the mushrooms in there, this is the juices from the pan

-for the beef.

-That's right, to take all that flavour.

-Reducing that down.

-Absolutely. And now just wilt the spinach.

And once this is cooked out, you can make the sauce before,

we are going to strain it off, so it has the flavour of the thyme,

the mushrooms have cooked out completely.

And now we are just going to add the sauce back into the pan,

just reduce it quite quickly here.

-And ready to go.

-Those onions in there, are they blanched?

Are they boiled?

I took the shallots themselves first, and I, um...

just brought them from cold water to the boil and cooked them out,

so they're half cooked before you put them in the pan.

And then you're caramelising and roasting the outside of the shallot,

little bit of flavour and caramelisation.

You can take it from raw to finish, but this is a little bit quicker.

Looking good now.

-Fantastic.

-We just bring that down.

Absolutely, bring it down. We've got the steak here,

which I think medium rare, which is fantastic.

So if you'd like to slice that, I'll do my...

I'll start thinking about dressing this.

I'm going to do a nice little tear.

I'm not going to repeat what you call it.

There we go. It's quite artistic. I think it's quite nice.

Just going to taste the sauce

cos it might need a little bit of seasoning. It is quite sweet

because you've got the Madeira.

That's nice. Just a tad more salt and pepper in there.

-Which is good.

-What's next for Michael Caines?

What are you up to next? What's the next thing, what's next year?

Well, we've got Manchester opening next year.

Currently at the moment it's closed for refurbishment,

-which is fantastic.

-Right.

-And that will be...

-This is the hotel and restaurant?

Absolutely. We're going to have a fine dining restaurant downstairs,

and we're going to do a tapas-style food menu.

And then we've got Chester in 2009.

So there's lots going on.

Which is great.

A few shallots around the outside.

And of course Gidleigh Park continues to develop at speed.

-Which is your little baby.

-Absolutely.

There we go, just the sauce on at the end.

Like so.

Just a lovely flavour. And of course,

you could be using fillet steak, ribeye, rump.

A nice organic chicken breast.

Chicken would be fantastic, a little bit of guinea fowl.

What a treat to watch a two-starred Michelin chef at work and cook that

-in real time.

-Thank you.

-Michael, remind us what that dish is again.

Pan-fried sirloin steak, a little bit of celeriac puree,

roasted shallots and a ragout of wild mushrooms and spinach

-with a Madeira sauce.

-Chefs' Chef of the year.

And also you can tell he doesn't do the washing up in his kitchen,

look at the state... Come over here.

Have a seat. Dive into this.

I don't know how you feel about steak at 10:15am.

It's great for me.

You like that? Dive in.

The smell is absolutely fantastic.

And like you say, you can mix and match the meat.

-Great with pork, I suppose.

-Pork would be really good.

Chicken is an obvious.

That Madeira sauce can go with quite a number of things.

The wild mushrooms and the Madeira, quite woody.

-Very seasonal at the moment, wild mushrooms.

-Absolutely.

Celeriac, at this time of year, fantastic.

-Really good.

-Beautiful.

-We don't use it enough, do we?

-Well, you don't.

THEY LAUGH

Your husband might. But it is fantastic to make that puree.

-Beautiful.

-Happy with that?

-Mm!

-And the steak, it's really important to leave it to rest.

-Absolutely.

Leave it to rest so it retains its juices.

A lot of people cut into it and you see all the blood coming out.

If you cook that medium rare, medium, well done, it's up to you,

but just allow it to rest.

-Sam?

-Excellent.

Excellent, just a one-word answer, that's all we need.

He might have used every pot and pan in the studio,

but when he delivers food that looks and taste that good, who cares?

Up next, we are joining Keith Floyd

on another of his amazing culinary tours. Enjoy.

Here's one of me in my new boots. Like them? You know,

it's not easy to find a culinary craftsman of yesteryear

when England was truly merry,

but my spies tell me here in ancient Frome, there is one -

Margaret - with whom I'm going to have a teddy boy's -

I mean teddy bear's, picnic.

As you can see, with Richard's brilliant camerawork here,

I'm in the baker's kitchen.

This is bread. And you know, one of the worst expressions

that has crept into the English language

is the best news since sliced bread.

There has been no good news since sliced bread,

it was the most terrible thing that ever happened to us.

And this is living - and bread is a living, organic thing -

this is the living proof of the mistake we as a nation

and the bakers of the new vogue have made.

I know nothing about bread.

Look at this, Bill and Ben, the flowerpot men, I think.

Does that come from there? But my friend Margaret. Margaret, hello.

-Hello.

-Tell me all about this wonderful bread.

There are so many varieties, I don't know any of them.

I know I'm an expert in many things, bread isn't one of them.

-What have we got here?

-Everything.

Everything. What is this one, for example?

That is a vegetable bread. That is tomato bread.

A tomato dough. Just made with pure tomatoes.

White dough and tomatoes.

-Brilliant.

-That's rather fun, that's a cheese...

-Onion loaf.

-Could you come really close?

You can see the flecks of onion around in there.

-Can I rip this open?

-Yes.

-Smell it.

-You can see the pieces of onion.

HE INHALES

Oh, gosh, that's beautiful.

That's lovely toasted for supper with a slice of cheese.

-Or dripping.

-Absolutely marvellous.

-First class.

-And of course this is the cheese loaf.

That's a very light one. That's beautiful.

I wish you could smell. Can the BBC afford some little sachets

to be attached to the Radio Times, please,

so they can break them open and smell what we can smell?

And of course half the joy of baking bread is the wafting it out.

When everybody comes past the bakery in the morning

it's a great temptation to come in.

This one, in the days...

I've been baking bread for a long time because...

You don't look old enough to have been doing it for very long.

I do love you. You are one of my newest, nicest friends.

You are my best friend, ever.

I remember once, we were having a party

and I didn't have any tins - it seems extraordinary now -

and I remembered being friends with an old village baker,

and he told me he used to bake them in terracotta.

And so I baked these in the flowerpots.

And they're tremendous. Of course you get this lovely crust.

Just look at this. Just feel it.

And inside, you've got to rip that one, Keith,

because inside you get this beautiful continuity.

It is slightly extraordinary, it does taste different.

-And the crust is heavenly.

-You've never read Private Eye?

When people go on too much,

the editor always says in brackets afterwards,

"That's enough bread, Ed." No more bread now for the moment.

We've got to do a little work. We need some dough.

What we're going to do, Richard, if I gently smile at you,

there is a very special thing that happens to Margaret's bread.

And she makes things called trenchers.

And this is a trencher.

And this is what people used to eat their food from before plates

were invented. Hence the trencherman,

cos he was the guy who kept these warm whilst spit-roasting the meat,

keeping these warm. you would slice your meat,

put it on there and you had a trencher.

And that is where a trencherman comes from.

Which brings me onto a little pet hobby of mine.

This is not dissimilar to a pizza.

In this country, we think pizza has only just been invented.

Throw me over some pizza dough.

Thank you very much. Handmade dough, by the way.

Which Margaret will show me how to roll out in a moment.

We all think that pizzas,

which have become, in my view, a kind of gastronomic dustbin,

a kind of pastry case filled with yuck,

is nothing to do with where pizzas originally came from. They were made

by a baker one day who had a little bit of dough left over,

rolled it out and put nice things on it.

But we've been doing that in this country since when, the Middle Ages?

-Before the Middle Ages.

-Before.

-You see, nothing new under the sun.

So while Margaret makes us a trencher,

I'm going to make us a pizza. You're going to have to talk me through

-all this because I've never done this before.

-I am sure you have.

-You've made pizzas, haven't you?

-I've made pizzas, yes.

Not with an expert baker overseeing what I'm doing,

-so I'm bound to roll it out the wrong way.

-I'm an amateur.

-What do you mean, an amateur?

-I am, really.

-Doesn't it feel lovely?

-It's beautiful. Very sexy.

-I know!

-Yes!

-Very sensual.

-Later, later.

-Is that a promise?

No jokes about buns in the oven, OK?

From anybody.

-But it is a very sensual thing.

-Oh, it is delightful, isn't it?

-You're teasing me now. Have you got a roller?

-Yes.

You really have to go at this, it's not like pastry.

It is just like most lovers,

it tries to get away from you to start with,

and then you really get hold of it.

Stop, Margaret.

I can't take any more!

You beast, you.

I've always said on this programme, we've never had anybody on this

programme who has never been full of love and happiness,

often wine as well, it is true to say.

-I haven't had any wine.

-Yes, you have.

-Have I?

Did you pour me wine?

-Of course I did, my darling.

-I was too busy getting the dough ready.

I have been standing rather a long time.

I've only got a wee one. That is great.

Mine is going to go on a small plate.

Mine is shrinking back again. Help, Margaret!

Obviously you're not a gentle enough lover.

How dare you. Casting aspersions upon my...

You have to coax it down.

-Right.

-Now then...

-That is coaxed.

-Can you pass me a fork from behind you?

There is a thing called docking.

All the bakers that are watching are going to be saying, oh, my goodness,

there's a docking.

Yes, but we're not all professionals at what we are doing.

And although it is nice to know the terminology,

-which is for pricking it... is called docking.

-Yes.

We're putting these onto plates with a little bit of flour

-and lard underneath?

-Yes.

And the vegetarians amongst them can do vegetables.

They can use vegetable oil. But then they're going to spoil the flavour

-of the thing.

-Well, I think so.

I used to make bread originally and I used to use...

we used to get real good dripping from the butcher.

Sorry to interrupt you, Margaret. For my little bit, I hope it is

self-explanatory what I'm doing here.

Tomato crashed up onto the bread.

Anchovy fillets.

And a simple pizza should have no more than things like this.

It's not meant to have artichoke hearts and sweetcorn

and all the junk. Elizabeth David

very correctly spoke of the wonderful quiche Lorraine

that in the '60s was degenerated into a culinary dustbin,

and I regret to say the same applies to the pizza.

It has become a travesty of its original simple flavour.

And what's the bottom of them made of?

They're sort of hard cardboard things.

You eat this lovely gooey stuff on the top - sometimes it is lovely -

you go through it... What cheese are you putting on?

This is grated Gruyere.

OK? And a bit of olive oil to make that look...

for it to shine a bit later.

Fraction too much there, but never mind.

-Can I have the docker?

-You can have the docker.

-Can I be your docker?

-That is the final bit.

Into your sexy dough.

We'll make a few marks with this fork.

So, they're ready, but they can't go into the oven for, what?

I would say about ten minutes. They ought to prove.

What does prove mean?

Well, they have to... They've still got this live yeast in there,

and it has to come to its full maturity.

-It has to rise.

-It has to rise, yes.

-OK.

-There is a marvellous old test.

Very quickly, a marvellous...

I think a lot of people making bread

get really worried about how long to prove it. A tiny piece of the dough,

the same dough, pop it into tepid water. It goes to the bottom.

-And when it comes to the top, it's ready to put in the oven.

-OK.

-By the magic of television, that has come back to the top.

-No, not quite.

I know it hasn't, but by the magic of television it has.

And so off this goes, bring this spatula in, bring our baker in.

-There we go.

-The peel!

Right, run along with the peel and into the oven, please.

-Thank you, Robin.

-'Trenchers are great, it's true,

'but with a slice of beef and a drop of real gravy, they're brilliant.

'But of course the Beeb couldn't afford a joint this size,

'so I've bought it myself,

'with the fee from my last series.

'A bit extravagant, but you can't beat a good British roast, can you?'

Right, Margaret and I would like to register a protest that we don't

approve of lean-bred beef,

and we don't think housewives really want it either,

we think they've been conned

-and hyped by the doctors in the advertising world.

-Look at that.

Just those veins through it like that. Just to give it the flavour.

It's not quite ready.

Well, let's pop it back in the oven.

It needs to go back in. I would suggest without the top.

Without the top cos the vegetables have to brown and so on.

Thank you, my darling.

Oh, that looks lovely.

-It looks all right, doesn't it?

-Yes. Aren't you clever?

I think even my Italian friends who make real pizzas would approve

-of that.

-You taught me something today. I've never made a pizza.

I suppose we have the trenchers.

The trenchers are exactly the same thing.

You are so clever.

There is a little bit for you, see if you like that.

-Oh!

-Is it too hot?

-It's terribly hot!

Have a quick swig of wine, cool your fingers down.

Here's a little tiny bit.

-See how that is.

-I like your filling.

Oh, I've missed my olive.

Now, that's a real crust.

Can you tell the difference?

-It's real.

-And the middle is soft and gooey, look at that.

That is excellent, isn't it?

It's doing exactly what the trencher does.

It's all soaking in, look.

-Lovely.

-Instead of it all sitting on the top and you cut through it

-and you get that hard piece of cardboard.

-That's right.

-Aren't you clever?

-I'm pleased. Oh, do you know?

-You're brilliant.

-What we need to complete a brilliant day is,

as they say, if music be the food of love,

then play on with a little music, a little relaxation.

-How lovely. Could we?

-I think we've earned it, don't you?

-Oh, I would like to. That would be lovely, shall we go?

-Yeah.

GENTLE MUSIC

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Oh, that's marvellous. Thank you very much.

Thank you, David, that was absolutely brilliant.

-That was our lutenist.

-Yes, thank you, David.

I loved the music, it was gorgeous.

Lutenist sounds a bit like a strange religion, doesn't it?

It certainly does.

Anyway, this is the business, chaps. Richard, you can have some of this

since you've been such a good cameraman.

The good old-fashioned way, you cut the meat

-and I'll do the vegetables.

-You hum it and I'll play it, darling!

Did you cook that fairly high?

-You did, my oven was really quite high when you put it in.

-It was.

-It's all unctuous.

-And the goodness has come out of these.

Lovely.

Anyway, here's to us

and here's to everybody who loves food and friendship and fun.

We don't know when we'll be back. Probably next week I should think

with another crazy programme. It might be goat's cheese next week.

-We'll see you then.

-With the serving wenches.

-With the serving wenches.

-You've got to become a serving wench. Come on.

He's just ace.

As ever on Best Bites we are looking back at some of the most moreish

recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show, it's back to where we all started,

the first-ever omelette challenge

with Paul Rankin and Antonio Carluccio.

One of them was destined for the top of the leaderboard, but who was it?

You'll find out in just a few minutes.

On her Saturday kitchen debut,

Maria Elia is championing Greek cuisine

with a slow-cooked braised pork belly.

The pork is browned before being combined with onion, leek, fennel,

garlic and anchovies and then simmered for hours

with white wine and chicken stock.

Then it's served with some healthy wilted greens

and delicious feta polenta.

Plate-smashingly good.

And Ruthie Henshall faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did she get her Food Heaven - sticky toffee pudding and toffee sauce?

Or did she end up facing her Food Hell - scallop ravioli

with seared scallops and a white wine cream sauce.

Stay with me and find out what she got at the end of the show.

Now it's time for one of the masters of modern Asian cuisine, Nic Watt,

to show us how to make a mouthwatering sea bream

in sweet white miso. If it's good enough for Penelope Cruz,

it's good enough for me.

-Good to have you on the show, Nic.

-Thank you.

-Good to have you on.

Right, Murray's been there.

I've always tried to get a table there but can never get in.

-These things can be arranged.

-The whole place is just full of women.

I'm sure he vets them all before he comes in.

Who did you have last night?

-Penelope Cruz and her sister, actually.

-There we go.

Anyway, what are you cooking?

OK, I've got the sea bream, it's going to be in a sweet

white miso which I'm going to turn into a refined miso.

We're just going to baste it in the miso for about two hours.

You can leave it for up to 24, but two hours is best.

This is what we are going to achieve, just to show people.

We need to get this under the grill to cook, but we will show you

-how to get this done.

-It has been marinated. Shall we pop it straight under the grill now?

Now, sea bream, quite an unusual fish for people to use,

but fantastic. Quite a meaty fish as well.

It's perfect for this, it's got enough flesh, it's got enough meat

to take on the marinade, so it's absolutely perfect for this.

-Fire away, then.

-We've got a sweet white miso here.

Oh. Otherwise known as saikyo miso.

-Explain to us how this is made.

-There's many different types.

This is the soya bean so they soak the soya beans in water,

they add salt and sugar and they add a culture,

a little bit like making blue cheese.

There's a culture they add in. And then they allow it to ferment.

-But there's a real art to it. It's like winemaking.

-Oh, absolutely.

-It's like a speciality.

-Definitely.

And some of them can be as fresh as three months old and some can be

three to five years old and then, like a wine,

-you get a stronger...

-The darker it gets, the stronger it gets.

Yeah, you get a much more mature flavour coming through.

-OK, we've got that.

-We're going to add a little bit of sugar,

we're going to add a little bit of mirin...

This is what the British palate likes, they love that sweetness

-with it as well.

-Absolutely. So we're bringing all that in.

We've got a little bit of soy. You can use a low sodium or dark soy,

-this is just a light soy here.

-It's less salty, isn't it?

Yeah, we're going to add a little bit of sake.

We can add...a little bit more.

There's ladies at the table, give them a little more sake.

And we're just simply going to incorporate all this together.

It's very, very easy.

And the beauty of this, I mean it's really, really versatile.

As we've got sea bream here...

Now, this dish is kind of a twist on a classic where you actually trained

way back in the late '90s in a very famous restaurant, Nobu.

-Back in the day, yeah.

-Their famous trademark dish, I suppose,

-is the blackened cod.

-Yeah, yeah, that was back in my youth.

When you opened Roka, presumably you didn't want to put that on the menu.

I made a conscious decision not to and that's how this dish came about

because everybody judges a modern Japanese restaurant on black cod

so I knew before they even looked at my food, they'd go,

"Can I have one black cod, can I have one black cod,"

and for this reason, I didn't put black cod on the menu.

-Right.

-Now I have black cod on, it's absolutely fine and our black cod

is actually unique to any other in London cos

it's done on the robata grill cos everybody else does their black cod

-in the oven so we actually get that really...

-Now, the robata grill

-is the charcoal grill that you're famous for cooking with.

-Open charcoal grill, yeah,

so you get all those beautiful flame-grilled flavours.

-You're oiling this. Why are you oiling it?

-I've added just a touch

of oil because essentially we're curing the fish

so in the curing process, it's a drying out process,

-the same as smoking or gravlax.

-Is this olive oil you've put on there?

You can use olive oil or you can use veg oil and we've just added a touch

in there so that when you cure it, it doesn't dry out the fish.

-To a Western palate, you don't want a dry piece of fish.

-Yep, OK.

So then what I've got here, I've just taken top and tail of a lemon

in a little wedge and this is what I call the Yoshi-san technique.

Yoshi-san is what?

It's got a little story behind it.

Yoshi's my head chef at Roka

and because this is normally done on the robata,

the robata naturally holds the fish in its shape so when I was just

test cooking this for the show,

I was doing it under the grill and found it kept slipping and Yoshi,

in his pure Japanese way, just came up to me, gave me a lemon,

a couple of slices and hooked it up for me without saying anything...

He was thinking something, though.

Absolutely! And showed me you can just simply add a little lemon

-and stop it from sliding.

-And why do we do this?

It's to stop it from sliding down the skewer... Yeah.

..and hold its shape and the reason we want to curve it all up

is so we get nice caramelisation on these tips.

The reason we want caramelisation is cos it's a sweet white miso and you

need the little bit of blackened edge to balance...