23/10/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Today I've got a fantastic menu lined up for you

so sit back and enjoy as I dish up

a portion of my Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Today I am back with an irresistible line-up of world-renowned chefs

cooking lip-smackingly good grub for a host of celebrity guests.

You won't want to miss any of it.

Coming up on the show today,

the man who brought fine dining to the UK, Michel Roux Sr.

He's cooking guinea fowl with Riesling and chanterelles

for Mary Berry and Sir Michael Parkinson, no less.

Tana Ramsay has a brilliant recipe for the whole family -

home-made lamb sausages wrapped in prosciutto.

She mixes the lamb mince with coriander, cumin, onion, parsley,

chilli, egg and breadcrumbs, and wraps it all in prosciutto.

She serves up her sausages with a fresh green salad and bacon.

Then the manly Mark Hix takes over the kitchen. He'll be showing us

his unique take on a beef salad using hanger steak,

the butcher's choice.

And EastEnders star Kellie Bright faces her food heaven or food hell.

Did she get her food heaven,

pineapple tarte Tatin with spiced ice cream,

dried pineapple and hot caramel sauce,

or did she end up facing her food hell,

pan-fried calves' liver with mashed potato,

cavolo nero, wild garlic and a Madeira reduction?

You can find out at the end of the show.

Now, to kick things off it's the brilliant Atul Kochhar,

the very first Indian chef to receive a Michelin star,

who broke with tradition and made a Malaysian dish,

though he did have to face the wrath

of Monty Don, who was on an apple rampage.

-Welcome back.

-Thank you.

-Good to have you on the show.

I love the food whenever you cook here, because in essence it's

-really very simple. Simple and fresh.

-Absolutely.

So what's on the menu today, then?

On the menu is Malaysian-inspired stir-fry squid

with Granny Smith apple salad.

-I know Monty is going to slate me for my apples but...

-Moving on.

-I'll take advice from him today.

-OK, OK.

The whole basis, it's based on the dressing first of all.

Do you want me to get on with that?

Yeah. The dressing, I would need thick julienne

of this for the apples, and for the dressing

there's a galangal, which you just need to use

-the white part.

-Yeah.

-Very little.

-Not too much.

-Palm sugar.

-Palm sugar.

All to be pounded together with lemon juice, peanuts

and some chutney...

-I'm saying chutney, it's a chilli sauce.

-Chilli sauce.

This galangal is similar to ginger...

-It's similar to ginger.

-..but more fragrant.

It's more fragrant.

And you should use in less quantity than ginger because it can

-make your dish very bitter.

-OK.

And I think it's becoming slowly easily available in this country.

What's the difference between galangal and ginger?

-What's the difference?

-Yes.

It belongs to the same family but it's more fragrant

-if you smell it or taste it.

-Do you peel it the same?

-Sorry?

-Do you peel it the same way?

-Yes.

-I hope you do

cos that's how I've done it.

LAUGHTER

-Does it grow the same way?

-Use only white part of it.

I think it grows the same, doesn't it?

It grows the same, yes.

-It's almost sweeter.

-Right.

-It is really nice.

If you can get it... You can get it in supermarkets now.

They are doing those little Thai packs where you can get often

galangal, lemon grass, which we've got here as well,

and a little bit of Thai shallots in there.

You can get that all as a pack already.

I think the oriental ingredients are becoming slowly more

accessible, more easy to get here.

I think it's about us using it more often. Oops!

So we've got some of this lemon grass here.

Tell us about Malaysia, then.

Why did you go over there in the first place?

It's a new series which I've done for the Good Food Channel

and it starts tomorrow night at 8pm.

It's called Atul's Spice Kitchen: Malaysia.

So I went to Malaysia first in the series to see what other

influences exist in Malaysia other than just Malay.

I found out there are huge influences.

This country is just amazing.

It has got Chinese, a bit of Thailand,

Indonesia, Japanese as well.

It's a country which truly we can say

that it has got everything from the world, so it's quite

a diverse culture and everything has grown side-by-side,

helping each other, and they have come up with a great fusion cuisine,

-so to speak, which is truly Malaysian in character.

-Yeah.

And it's quite rich, quite diverse, and I think it's growing.

It's about time that we recognised this cuisine in this country

and used it more often because there are some fabulous ingredients.

-I'm a person who cooks with spices every day.

-Yeah.

I was taken aback by the amount of spices they use and the way

-they use.

-Are they different to the way you incorporate them

in India or not?

We do use a lot of ingredients in Indian food as well

but something like turmeric, I would use dry turmeric powder,

or if I have the dry turmeric I would make a powder out of it.

-But they would use fresh.

-Right.

They would use fresh turmeric root, mince it, and then use it.

It has got a different flavour profile altogether.

And then ginger, we would use only ginger root here.

Sometimes ginger stem.

But they would use ginger flower as well, which is amazing.

I had never used it before I had gone to Malaysia.

And I learned so much in terms of balancing of the flavours.

-They always go after fresh spices because they grow so many.

-Yeah.

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

It's the squid, I just added the squid, and it's a good practice

once you've sauteed the squid, add a little bit of water

so that it kind of loosens up the squid. Not too much salt as well.

You want these thinly sliced?

-Julienne, Chef.

-Julienne, OK.

-Think julienne, Chef.

-All right.

-And some spring onion as well.

You're using Granny Smiths, any reason why?

It just balances the flavour of the squid very nicely.

You've got all these English apples around...

I know. Don't pick on me...

I'm glad you raised this point.

..because he's already given me a one-hour lecture on that.

LAUGHTER

But what other ones...?

I mean, I have to say, we are now in October,

at the peak of the apple season,

and as you know, there are about 600 different varieties of apple,

every one of which is better than Granny Smith.

Yes, exactly. You grow your own...?

-I've got about 40 different varieties in my garden.

-Wow.

And, you know, you can have wonderful russets

like Rosemary Russet, Egremont Russet. You can have...

Obviously everybody knows about Cox's Orange Pippin,

but, actually, it's by no means the best and is very difficult to grow.

But there are wonderful pippins.

There's Ribston Pippin, I've got Stoke Edith Pippin.

There's so many different ones.

Over 1,200 varieties of British apples, originally,

and you're using none of them.

-Er... I'm sorry.

-I mean, the serious point is...

-Maybe they use it in Malaysia.

-Actually, you know what?

I don't think Malaysians grow apples - they always import them.

-Yeah.

-..is that that will have been shipped over from France.

-Yeah.

Whereas there are wonderful apples growing here, just down the road.

I think one of the most important things is to try

and have as few food miles as possible as well as beautiful taste.

I grow them in my garden, but unfortunately I didn't bring any in.

Shame on you, Atul Kochhar, for using French apples.

But the dog likes my apples.

-There you go.

-Well...I'm sure you'll pat me, Monty, for this.

-The dish is brilliant. You'll enjoy it.

-I'm looking forward to it.

I'll forgive you your apples if it's delicious.

So, anything else added to this?

I've just added the toasted cashew nuts in there.

-Lime juice to this?

-Lime juice, Chef. That's it.

-Yeah.

-And...sweet chilli.

-Chilli sauce, right?

Sweet chilli sauce. We'll mix it all together.

So, where have the sauces come from?

How do you make those?

The sweet chilli sauce, you can make it yourself.

It's sugar, vinegar and chilli, literally, and salt.

-Supermarket.

-But this is supermarket.

And fish sauce.

You could use balachaung, which is the dried prawns.

But if you can't get that easily

then fish sauce is a good alternative.

You ain't going to get that in Scarborough, Mother,

so just use the Thai fish sauce.

Which is fine, cos you can get the squid one as well as...

You can get all different types.

Where did your salad stuff come from?

-The salad stuff is very much local.

-Really? You grew it, did you?

Yeah, you can grow this red amaranth stuff,

I've grown this in the garden.

What do you feel about mini salad stuff?

Fantastic, and this is what we've got here.

-Little mini coriander cress.

-Careful, James. He's a gardener -

he's going to take a pick on us for using the mini cress.

But I think these grow in their trays.

I've produced this and brought it in before,

these little micro cresses, but they're fantastic.

You can grow them at home, can't you?

They've got a very intense taste.

You have to be very careful with them, very careful,

very sparingly with them sometimes.

-Some of them are quite overpowering.

-Sauce on top.

Now, remind us what you've got in that mixture as well.

The sauce was made with honey, vinegar,

soy sauce and chilli sauce.

-Did I see any oyster sauce go in there or not?

-And oyster sauce.

You're absolutely right. And just mixed together.

Add the sauce almost towards the last minute

when the squid is almost cooked.

Toss it all together and done. It's very quick.

So, remind us what that is again.

It's Malaysian stir-fried squid with...

-Granny Smith apple salad.

-LAUGHTER

Struggling to get that out. Have a look at that.

-There you go.

-I've let everyone know already.

Right, dive into that. It looks fabulous.

I'll tell you what I love -

I love hot sauces with a salad, it's always delicious.

They do that quite a lot, that ying and yang sort of flavours.

-Absolutely.

-The sweet palm sugar.

-They mix a lot of flavours.

Palm sugar and lime is just fantastic.

And I know why you've used the Granny Smith -

-it's cos it's crispy.

-That's right.

It's got that clean, crispy texture.

I mean, in all seriousness, there are lots of others you could use,

but it is important to have that crispiness.

-It is extremely important.

-It's delicious.

-Happy with that?

-For breakfast?

-Yeah, I'd eat anything for breakfast.

-Pass it down.

-Have a go.

-But, I mean, if people...

Often squid is difficult to get hold of...

-You can use prawn.

-Yeah. I suppose chicken would work.

Chicken would be fantastic with this.

And you can use small fish as well.

Something like pilchard would be fantastic,

just to quickly pan-fry them and just put the sauce on top.

Anything nice and quick.

What I like about the philosophy is you're taking good ingredients

very quickly, very simply just heating them up,

putting them together, getting the balance right, and there it is.

You haven't seen Tristan's dish. He takes about 14 days.

-What do you reckon?

-Worth the wait! I love it. I think it's fantastic.

-That is a typical taste of Malaysia, is it?

-It is indeed.

-Amazing.

Well, I think Monty Don forgave Atul for his Granny Smiths

once he tasted that squid.

Of course, it was yum, Malaysia on a plate.

Coming up, James Martin shows off his dance moves while cooking

some sweet pumpkin pastries for Zoe Ball.

But now let's join Rick Stein on his Seafood Odyssey.

Well, I'm on my way to Bowens Island in South Carolina.

It's quite a nice story behind why I'm here, really,

because there's this journalist in Philadelphia who wrote me a letter.

Well, she'd heard I was making a seafood programme from the States

and she said one of the best kept secrets, seafood secrets

in the whole of the eastern seaboard was Bowens Island.

And I just had this sort of image in my mind - and I've always had it.

I've always wanted to do this, is to go somewhere on

the eastern seaboard and find a seafood shack.

You know, a sort of sun-bleached...

..bare boards and just nothing to eat

but simple shrimp, lobster, oysters, clams

on open tables, maybe no tablecloths,

and just throw the oysters into a bucket when you'd finish them.

So...I'm hopeful.

Well, this is it. The ultimate oyster experience.

They've been cooking oysters like this since the last war,

and it hasn't changed a bit.

The Bowen family that own the island,

well, they just take the oysters, put them on a hot piece of steel

and cover them with a wet burlap -

I love that word, American word - burlap sack to trap the steam.

Anyway, they steam them for about ten minutes,

and then they just shove all of them into the centre of a table.

And it's just totally classless.

There's lawyers, there's lovers, there's politicians -

everybody mixes together.

Their link is the consuming love of oysters.

It's not to everybody's taste, this way of eating,

but honestly, it is to mine.

I mean, you know, I've been to lots of three-star restaurants

all over the world and had some great food and all that,

but this really beats it for me.

I mean, just sitting here eating these oysters

just straight out of the creek just over there,

and these nice little dipping sauces.

What more could you want?

It's just so, sort of, satisfying,

and...well, as you can see, it's so prosaic.

You know, there's no illusions about this place.

It's "what you see is what you get".

You know, I mean, you sort of get this image of America

being so, sort of, clinical and wholesome

and everything working so wonderfully.

Well, you come here and it's just like...used papers,

big piles of oysters thrown onto an old fire,

steam everywhere and burlap sacks.

And you think, this is a great country,

this is what I've really dreamed of finding.

Yeah, I'm sort of thinking I can go all the way around the world,

I can go - as I do - in the best restaurants in the world.

But I bet you this is the place I'll remember best.

Now, there's two things that I'll remember

about the cooking of South Carolina.

First, shrimp.

Second, oysters.

And here the oysters grow everywhere,

and the locals have a right in law to pick them when they're in season.

There's so many of them they just grow together in big clumps,

and Goat Lafayette lives for them.

So how does he like to eat them?

Sometimes we roast it. Do the same thing, you know.

But we don't cook it up like some people cook it up

then they swank up...

No, we don't like that. We like a bit of milk in it.

Oysters are a main part of South Carolinian gumbo.

Gumbo's not just from New Orleans -

here they have a special way of making it.

First of all, you need to make a really good stock.

Vegetables like carrot, onion,

parsley, shrimp peelings, crab shells,

and plenty of chicken wings.

Fresh bay leaves, celery -

I forgot to mention that. Plenty of that.

Simmer for about 40 minutes to make a really good stock.

I may not be a gumbo aficionado,

but the secret I know is a really good stock.

Now for the gumbo, and first of all, a roux,

and what could be better for making a roux than bacon grease?

OK, this is real South bacon grease.

It doesn't taste like lard - it tastes a lot finer.

Beautiful stuff. Much more interesting than butter.

But if you haven't got good bacon grease for your gumbo, use butter.

Then some flour. OK? In we go with the flour.

Just stir that around, and you have to cook it out very, very gently.

So, what you're looking for is quite a lot of colour.

In fact, funnily enough, you have to get such colour in it

that Escoffier, the famous French chef, saw a roux made for a gumbo

and just despaired cos he just thought

it was going to be burnt and frightful.

But the French way of cooking is all refined and delicate,

whereas this sort of food, well, it's got chilli in it,

it's got bell pepper, loads of garlic, lots of gutsy flavour.

Cooked out to a good light brown colour is just what you need.

Now to add some good smoked bacon. Look at that.

Lovely thick lardons of local bacon. No water in there. Good dry bacon.

Slightly running in this hot, hot sun where I'm cooking today.

So in that goes.

Keep stirring quite, sort of, regularly now,

but once you get other ingredients in there

you're past the danger point of burning the roux,

so just stir that in.

And now the trilogy. The bell pepper, onion...

And they are called Vidalia onions.

They're really sweet. Not at all sharp, ideal for salads.

Beautiful onions. Grown round here, in fact.

And celery.

So stir that in with the bacon

and just let it cook down till the onions are nice and translucent.

Now to add the most important thing in the whole gumbo - the okra.

So that goes straight into the pot.

And just cook that for about a minute or so.

Next we've got some tomatoes.

These are nice local beef tomatoes,

but if you've got those vine tomatoes,

they're really good in a dish like this.

No problem out here using fresh tomatoes.

They've got so much flavour.

It's about three or four tomatoes' worth

of chopped tomato go in there now.

And now some chilli.

These are jalapeno chillies, which are actually a bit hotter

than the ones we have at home, so I'm not going to put all these in.

I'll put about, I don't know, four, five, six slices, I think,

cos I haven't taken the seeds out.

And now some herbs. Parsley, bay leaf and thyme.

Just stir those in a bit,

and now for that lovely stock that I've made.

That's now beginning to look like the final dish,

which is actually...

Particularly here in Carolina, gumbo is more of a sort of soup

with lots of bits in it than a stew.

Anyway, on with the clams now. These are called little neck clams.

So just put a couple of good handfuls of those

and just stir those in for about two or three minutes

before we add any other ingredients.

Now, these won't take at all long to cook

cos they're all small bits of delicious, sweet seafood,

and this is really the making of this dish, I think.

And they're some good shrimp and,

well, the shrimping season's just starting around here,

so they're really good, fresh, local ones.

Now, just look at that. I mean, that really is beginning to

look something like it's supposed to be.

All that seafood food in there, it's a bit like a bouillabaisse,

and it's the same sort of dish.

Absolutely exquisite.

And now for some final ingredients which need no cooking, really,

just like a minute, no more than that.

First, some oysters. They're beautiful oysters,

and look at all that juice there which is going to go in as well

cos it's nice and salty.

Now then, look at this crab meat.

I know we've already put a whole crab in,

but some meat is a very good idea too,

so just add a few good dollops of that.

Just a few chopped spring onions near the end.

They'll cook out a little bit, but they'll still

have a bit of crunch and a little bit of freshness.

So, in they go.

And finally some more greenness, just to finish the dish off,

some chopped parsley.

All that chopped parsley straight in.

And that's it. Let's try it.

Pour it over some rice - it's fantastic.

What a brilliant-looking place to make gumbo.

Rick gets to travel to some amazing places,

but I've been abroad this week to Valencia in Spain,

where I came across some incredible food.

Something I tried was a local pastry called ensaimada,

which is my type of grub.

-I'm glad you said that.

-Icing sugar and lard.

-Ooh, perfect!

-With your figure, you'd never tell that.

-Absolutely, can't you tell?

And it did have a vegetable in, which is part of your five-a-day,

-so it's very good for you.

-Great.

-Which is this.

Which is pumpkin. Or you can use butternut squash.

Over in Ibiza...

Oh, yeah, you've been to Ibiza, have you, Love Island?

Yes, that's the one. I'll get onto it in a minute.

We've got pumpkins or little butternut squash

and I'm going to sugar this, or candy it,

to make these pastries. Of course, in Spain, they love the pig.

And love everything about the pig, including the fat.

And they use the fat to create these lovely ensaimadas

and this is a little homage to it because

I watched a chef make it, and there was no way I was ever going to

try and do that on a live show in front of three million people,

was to pin out the dough, and he spread it all with lard.

You could have wrapped herself in it, it was like a big duvet of lard.

Then they take a bit of pumpkin,

roll it up and circle into a little Catherine wheel and bake it,

dust it with icing sugar and eat it.

Sorry, I'm still thinking about you covered in lard.

It's not an image I need in my head.

-And pastry.

-Thank you very much.

We take our nice little squash, you can use pumpkin for this,

and we roast it in the oven. Enough about the pumpkin. More about you.

-Congratulations on your new job.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Fantastic.

-I must say thank you very much to Claudia Winkleman for having

-another baby.

-Another one.

-So she's got two, so this will be her third.

I get to stand in on It Takes Two while she's off being a mum,

which is brilliant. It's the best job.

-Right up your street, that, as well.

-Right up my street.

Cos Strictly was where we first met, really.

Where we first met, across the dance floor underneath the glitter ball.

We were wearing Lycra.

-I wasn't.

-I think you might have been wearing eyeliner as well.

Possibly a few sequins.

-I'll never forget...

-Anyway, moving on to our butternut squash.

-Was it your tango?

-You'll never forget what?

-Forget your tango.

-What's wrong with my tango?

Didn't they tell you you looked like a murderer or something?

Didn't Craig say that?

He's so harsh. It was a very good tango, you and Camilla.

It's a bit harsh, it's a bit harsh.

But I did actually look like a murderer.

Anyway, you weigh the pumpkin. Sorry to change the subject.

Or the butternut squash.

That is, in new money, 300 grams-ish.

Old money, 14 ounces and a bit.

I don't know, but you put two thirds sugar, about that.

500. There you go. A little squeeze of lemon.

Goes in there, squeeze of lemon.

You put the entire lot in a blender.

It's looking good so far, isn't it?

Yes, that's almost as much sugar as there is pumpkin.

-I'm liking it a lot.

-Lid on.

Do you still dance? Do you do still do a few moves?

Having said that, I did.

-I've been to a place where you met Norm, your husband.

-Yeah.

-Ibiza.

-Oh, yes.

-I was there last week.

Do you like Ibiza? Do you spend much time there?

I've never been to Ibiza in my life, this is the first time,

and it's the only place in the world where you get to see

a whole cross-section of the world's population.

You do, actually. It takes all sorts.

You get the really hard-core people who are in that,

er...what's that place called? San Antonio.

Oh, San Antonio, yes.

And then you get the sort of people who have actually gone out there

and got off the plane who actually look like this pumpkin in colour,

with a spray tan. They do, they look like a big cheesy Wotsit.

They're bright orange.

I never understand people getting spray tanned

before they go on holiday.

Then you get a lot of people with corned beef legs,

a lot of people that look like red-legged partridges,

but they're all dancing. But it's quite a cool place.

It is a great place. Did you eat the food there? It's amazing.

I'm supposed to be interviewing you at this point, not you...

-Sorry, force of habit.

-Anyway, the producer is telling me in my ear,

tell me what you're doing now with your festivals.

Yes, those. Thank you, James, thank you, Producer.

Yes, I'm working for Sky Arts at the moment.

We're doing festivals. We did Isle of Wight. Next weekend

we're doing coverage of the Latitude Festival in Suffolk.

Beautiful setting.

We're going to be live on air Friday, Saturday and Sunday night,

bringing you all the highlights.

-This is in HD and stuff like that.

-Yes, in HD.

-And in 3-D.

No, Latitude is not in 3-D. Bestival will be in 3-D.

-That's the last one?

-Yes, that's the last one, which is in September.

Next weekend I'll be with Shaun Keaveny from 6 Music,

one of the funniest men around. We've got all kinds of music.

The great thing about Latitude is you get the music - The National

and Suede and Paolo Nutini and lots of other people playing,

like Lyle Lovett. But there's also poetry.

-I'm having a go at performance poetry, which is...

-Poetry?

Yes, a little worrying for me

cos I'm from the Pam Ayres school of poetry,

so that might be quite tricky. Shaun will be doing some stand-up.

And we've got Steve Coogan on the show, David Morrissey,

cos there are actors giving talks and there's poetry and ballet.

So that's next weekend.

Do you have any dance music, cos I'm feeling...?

Have you fallen in love with dance music?

-Were you on a podium, James Martin?

-I was there.

Were you?

LAUGHTER

With the 9,000 other people

that were all moving in the same direction.

-Oh, no!

-You couldn't move,

you couldn't do any of that, there wasn't the space.

Believe you me, I tried.

Strange looks if you tried to do a bit of that.

If you were on a podium with James Martin in Ibiza, please text us.

-Did you have your shirt off?

-No.

-Oh, no, please.

-I was the only guy there with a jacket and a jumper on.

-In Ibiza?

-That's a good look.

-Anyway, I roll this all up.

-How are you getting on with your parcel?

-I'm doing fine.

So we're rolling these up into little sort of parcels, like that.

So you get this. This is the stewed...

-Basically, you put it in a blender.

-Yeah.

Blend it up for about three or four minutes

and you end up with this sort of sugared pumpkin,

which tastes fantastic.

Or, like I said, I'm using squash.

Now, they would use normal sort of pastry for this, with lard.

I'm using a little bit of filo pastry.

We roll this up, like that.

You look like you could have worked in a jumper shop doing that folding.

Well trained.

Fold it like that.

Then you take the entire lot and deep-fat-fry them.

That's my favourite bit.

Yeah, this would be my favourite bit if our home economist

wasn't on a health kick and she's got this fancy sort of

low-cholesterol oil stuff.

I would use lard or dripping to fry.

That's what they use, it's fantastic.

Do you have a dripping pot at home that you put all your bits into?

-Absolutely! You don't get this figure without that(!)

-Right!

Anyway, we're going to mix this all together.

-I first met you - Saturday mornings is not... It's normal for you.

-Yeah.

Because, obviously, you've got the Radio 2 that you're doing now.

Yeah, Radio 2 from six to eight every Saturday morning.

-Live & Kicking.

-Yeah, obviously, in the old days, Live & Kicking.

But this has kind of replaced Live & Kicking, hasn't it?

You've got the same things.

-It has, really, hasn't it?

-All you need is a couple of puppets.

Cos your dad was doing it as well, wasn't he?

Yeah, I know - back in the day.

I remember my dad standing in for Tommy Boyd on the Wide Awake Club

and he had to interview Tears For Fears when they were at number one.

And I just thought that was so cool, it was my dad with Tears For Fears.

And he had no idea who they were!

Morning, Dad, if you're watching.

Right, look at these.

-Mmm!

-They look great.

And we can just put a little smidgen of that on there.

Like that.

Starving now.

I'm just doing a bit of Nathan Outlaw stuff,

making sure it's nice.

Fancy finishing touches.

Eat with your eyes, James.

Ice cream as well. That looks great.

Look at this. Eat with your eyes.

Proper feast.

Proper feast.

And then we take this.

Yummy.

I feel there ought to be clubbing music going in the background.

-I know!

-SHE MIMICS CLUBBING MUSIC

Cos you're back out there in... Are you back out there in August?

We go every year for two weeks because Norm plays Space.

-Can I tuck in?

-Space?

-Yeah.

-I've been to Space.

-You've been to Space?

-No, I haven't been to Space.

I went to...Pacha.

You went to Pacha? Yeah, that's the posh one.

You're really pretending you know, aren't you?

I went to that one beginning with A.

Amnesia? You've forgotten!

It was dark, I couldn't see the sign on the door!

THEY LAUGH

-That was quite good.

-Oh, dear.

And did you fall in love with it? Will you go back?

I was. I'm there. Big box, little box, cardboard box.

Oh, James, that is so good.

-Happy with that?

-Oh!

A big box, and a sort of little box,

and...I'm actually really not a dancer like you.

But thanks, James.

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

from the Saturday Kitchen larder.

And there's still a full menu of mouthwatering food to come.

Now, for Sunday lunch - Roux-style.

He is Mr French Gastronomy himself, with guinea fowl recipe number one.

A true classic.

-Great to have you back, Chef.

-Thank you.

Celebrating 30 years of three-star Michelin,

-just got announced on Thursday this week.

-Absolutely right.

The most successful restaurant outside of France, is that right?

But I've got to say, my son's been holding the fort

-for the last ten years.

-Yeah.

So Alain's been doing very well.

The whole team's been doing fabulous. And Diego.

And Diego as well? Front of house.

So tell us what you're cooking today, then. Classics again?

-Guinea fowl cooked with Riesling, white wine.

-Yeah.

And, obviously, a little touch of cream into it as well,

and chanterelles.

And chanterelles? We're going to get to that in a minute.

But you want me to get on. I'm going to blanch this broccoli.

Very good idea. And I'm going to start cooking.

I think I'll leave you the veg, if you don't mind.

-I can do all of it.

-That's perfect.

So you've got the broccoli, you've got the little baby onions.

And then you can clean the mushrooms.

They don't need much cleaning, that's why I'm giving you that job.

And you want me to chop the shallots and bits and pieces?

-Do all that as well?

-Yes.

I need some butter, and I've got it here.

So I'm going to, without any further ado...

So the baby onions go in there as well. That goes straight in.

Now, it's 30 years at The Waterside, three stars.

-But also, what, 32 years for the Roux Scholarship?

-Absolutely.

32 years and we are open for entry form sooner than later.

End of October, we'll be there.

So I like to see a lot of people coming

and entering in the competition.

We've got over 100 people normally.

The first Roux Scholar is going to be extremely busy at the moment

cos Andrew Fairlie, up at Gleneagles...

-He's very busy at the moment.

-Yeah, exactly.

Tell me about the guinea fowl. What are you doing with it now?

Do you know it's poultry family, obviously.

I'm just searing it and I'm going to put it in the oven

for about 10, 15 minutes.

Very quickly cook, because you don't want the meat to be dry.

And the bones, the carcass, I'm using it for the sauce, indeed.

So, here we are.

-That one in as well.

-Here we are.

Now, you say the guinea fowl.

A lot of it's farmed now. You can get farmed guinea fowl.

You can get it in the market.

We get it from France as well.

I never put peppers in the sauce before I cook the meat.

So I'm putting that one there.

I'll take this one out for you.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Swap.

-Lovely. Wunderbar.

So I've got the broccoli on.

You only need to cook them with a bit of butter as well.

Then take the meat out.

Yes, absolutely. And do the sauce.

Can I just say about Michel, and Albert, too, I mean,

they were the guys who actually revolutionised cooking in Britain.

I remember them arriving in 1970, because I live Bray.

I lived about five doors down from the actual restaurant.

It used to be a pub.

And when he came there there was a wonderful buzz about it all,

except there wasn't quite an acceptance or understanding

of what they were going to do.

There was a wonderful letter in the local paper when it was announced

that the Roux brothers are moving in.

It said, "Dear Sir, what can the French teach us about cooking?"

Well, in 1972, just about everything!

I mean, it was extraordinary, but they soon overcame that.

The restaurant is just... It's exemplary now.

It's an institution now.

Why, particularly, why was it Bray for you?

What brought you to the UK in the first place?

I took the wrong turning.

THEY LAUGH

I thought that was Italy and I went to the north.

-No, no, no.

-Well, thank God you didn't.

-We came because we thought there was quite a bit to do here.

-Yeah?

Albert was working in the UK and we went out a few times.

London was pretty poor as far as restaurants were concerned.

Then we thought, that's it. That may be the chance of our life.

So here we are.

-How are you doing on the vegetables?

-Getting there.

-Getting there.

-It's ready now?

-Can I pass that one off?

Yes, lovely. Look at that.

Mushrooms, you've got them? Excellent.

We're doing extremely well. I can see.

-Speed it up now!

-Yes.

Your onions are chopped on there.

Lovely, excellent.

The cream, the chicken stock.

I will use the wine, by the way.

-OK.

-Do one third.

Then I'm going to put a bit of chicken stock.

Here we are. And then the cream last.

-Now, Riesling, you've put in there as well.

-Yes.

A lovely wine.

I'm going to use that for reduction, too.

Lovely, I like that.

Now the broccoli, I'm just going to blanch.

Only three minutes because they're very tender.

There we are.

Reduction takes five minutes.

Michel, is there one thing you can put your finger on

which would explain how you've hung on to three stars for 30 years?

Well, not hung on. You've been adorned by them.

You need to have people around you.

It's teamwork.

-And it's really...

-Running around behind you!

Yeah, I know the feeling.

You would not have been able to do 30 years.

-Exactly!

-You're talking a lot, you see,

and you're talking beautifully well.

-Thank you.

-No, no, no.

I'm just saying,

that is constant pressure.

It's what we call just wanting to get the best for your client,

your guests.

It's attention to detail, it's consistency.

It's everything, really.

It's easy to say, but it's difficult to do that.

-It's difficult to pinpoint.

-Absolutely.

-Consistency really is the key, don't you think?

-I think it's everything.

Because a lot of people really can have one star, two stars.

But getting three stars and keeping them for 30 years,

that is not a piece of cake.

Extraordinary.

Because everybody looks at Michelin stars for the food as well.

But the service is equally as important.

-And they are putting fingers in the sauce normally.

-OK, all right.

So I've just done what Albert has normally.

You can get away with that, it's all right!

I'm going to pop that back in there and reduce it down.

-Michel, is he a good sous-chef for you?

-He's a very good cook.

I love his food.

A bit rich.

Mine's a bit rich? Mine's a bit rich?!

-No, no, not you. My brother.

-Oh, all right.

-I thought you were talking about me.

-No, no, no, no.

Your cooking is perfect.

It's creative, inventive,

but I'm going to stop there because you're going to get ahead.

I was going to say, I would have that as my ringtone

-or something like that, just you saying that.

-Yes, yes.

A bit of salt there.

Right, now, we've got all these veg.

So you can explain what I've been doing. You can explain it.

Onions have been cooked ten minutes with a bit of butter and water.

The mushrooms have been seared and salted for three minutes.

Just time for the water to get out.

And the spears, the broccoli spears, very tender.

Two minutes, boiling the water.

Now I'm going to put that back into this pan over here.

Yes, please. That's it.

It's all a question of playing with time,

for having a quick reduction.

Then we're going to go with the meat and the veg, and we dress it.

You haven't dug out my new book.

Sorry, I haven't had time, really, but anyway!

Seriously, you're a bit slow, aren't you?

Because it's something you've been working on for...

-Eight months, spread over the last three years.

-Yeah, exactly.

And you know what I've been doing.

I've been travelling in France

from the south to the north, the east to the west

and I've got 120 recipes which...

I've got from the most humble recipe to the most complicated recipe

and that, in fact, is what French cooking is about,

the essence of French cooking, and the photographs here

-are beautiful, all done on location...

-Yeah.

..in the South of France, in St Tropez...

He's dropping names again, in the north of France...

-Bit different to Barnsley, isn't it?

-..in Alsace.

I even went to Alsace. Look at those babies.

Oh, look at the chanterelles, aren't they lovely? So now a little stir.

-Yeah.

-Have you got the big spoon, by any chance? The big, big one.

We did have one.

We had one. I knew we had one. We can't trust people these days.

-Here... Ah, that's my fault.

-Yeah.

-We don't want...

-So your onions going in?

-I think we've got enough.

-So where would this be from, then, classically, in France?

-Alsace.

Alsace, and obviously you can use chicken

if you can't find, or you don't like, guinea fowl.

It tastes a bit like partridges, it's a lovely taste.

-It's not a strong taste, but it's got some character.

-OK.

So, here we are. Now, can I start to plate it?

And I'm going to let the sauce reduce for another minute

-if I may, or 30 seconds.

-There you go.

Ah, that's better. Look at that.

I don't have to ask for it.

Voila!

Steam up my glasses.

But cooking on television, I mean, I remember being - what? -

a student at college and I see you and your brother

-cooking on television as well, all the French classics.

-At Home...

It was At Home With The Roux Brothers, that was 25 years ago.

It's amazing, isn't it?

Yes, we were bouncy at that time, absolutely bouncy. That was...

My brother was bouncy.

He's not really bouncing now,

but he's still doing very well in the kitchen.

But this is another classic of yours,

particularly you mentioned your mother as well, this is...

Ah, there are plenty of dishes in my book,

it's also "French cooking with Mother" dishes.

It's fantastic, and by the way, if you want to come to Vietnam

with me next week, I'm on my way there to my restaurant.

Oh, yeah, cos you've got one that's celebrating two years of opening.

Two years opening and it's going strongly and I love it.

-Right, then, give us the name of this dish, then.

-Ah!

-You want to know everything.

-Yes.

-That's the guinea fowl cooked with

Riesling, chanterelle mushrooms, a little cream. And that's the dish.

The legend, Michel Roux.

Right, we'll pass it over.

I'm assuming you could drink this with it as well, if you wanted.

-Oh, we can, yes, yes.

-Right, you get to have a seat over here.

There you go. Dive into that one, guys.

-That looks wonderful.

-Thank you.

-After you, boss.

-Gosh.

We should have a spoon, or bread.

-Oh, we've got a spoon, lovely.

-We've got spoons.

-For the sauce.

And you have a knife, I hope.

-Have you got a knife?

-It's so colourful.

-So you cut that guinea fowl up into, what, eight?

-Yes.

-Eight.

And if you cook it in the oven for about 200 degrees centigrade,

-but the recipe is all there, so...

-Happy with that?

It's more tasty than chicken.

I love the way you've left the skin on and it's a beautiful brown.

Well, you've got to brown the skin

or the skin is not pleasant, you see.

I love that kind of dish.

On a Sunday, at home, in the middle of a table,

you've got everything in it.

Well, if Mary Berry and Parky enjoyed it, you can be sure

it's going to be pretty good for anyone's Sunday lunch.

Merci, Chef.

Up next is the inimitable Keith Floyd

on another of his culinary adventures.

On my travels around the country

on these whimsical little Floyd programmes

where we're looking for food

and trying to teach you to enjoy yourself

and trying to get you to cook good things,

I sometimes, quite frankly, get a bit bored with fish,

with bouillabaisse, with lobsters, with pigeon in red wine

and boeuf Bourguignon and stuff like that.

Sometimes I really crave something quite simple,

like my grandfather used to have on Saturday nights -

a plate of boiled pigs' trotters

or a plate of tripe and onions or maybe cabbage boiled with bacon.

Anyway, I wanted to go somewhere where they're not proud,

where they care about their cultural and gastronomic heritage.

It's not France, it's Ireland we've come to.

MUSIC: Theme from Cal by Mark Knopfler

This is all very well, isn't it?

A brilliant track from Dire Straits, lovely views,

typical BBC fine camerawork - well done, Richard -

you'd hardly think this was a food programme.

So, we'll knock the travelogue on the head

and get down to business in the market.

And the marketplace, my dear gastronauts, is where it's at.

This spiced beef, a Cork speciality, looks as if it's been hewn

from the ground and rolled in gunpowder, but believe me,

after a few hours simmering,

it makes the most superb beef sandwiches.

And look at these inexpensive delicacies - pigs' trotters,

or crubeens, as they're known here, and treat of treats,

pigs' tails. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

'And here is one of me now, just coming up

'in my brilliant green hat, posing to perfect as a leprechaun.

'But that's got nothing to do with the price of fish.'

What I'd like is some of these fantastic prawns.

Are these Dublin Bay prawns?

No, they're not, they're Castletown Bay prawns.

-How far away is that?

-100 miles down and 100 miles back.

-My God, did you go and get those?

-We travel every...

-Two or three nights a week.

-Good God! What is the best...?

We arrived home last night after buying at 12 o'clock in the night.

Brilliant. And they're alive, too.

-Ooh!

-Yes!

-That's a live one, isn't it?

It's "alive-alive-ooh", as we say in Cork.

-Can I have about five quid, five pounds' worth?

-No problem.

Lovely, thank you very much, indeed. What's the best way to cook them?

What we do, we tail them, just like this, and you get this portion.

You put them in to a little saucepan, lukewarm water,

a little bit of salt and you bring them up to the boil

and boil them for three minutes.

-Shell them off.

-Lovely.

-What have we got over here?

-Lovely herring.

-Can I have a look at the herring?

-Yes, you can, my love.

-That's nice, isn't it?

-Very nice.

-One of those for breakfast

and a pint of stout. Couldn't think of anything better.

You could have it grilled, which is beautiful. We take the head off

-and we gut it and we do three little cuts in the back on both sides.

-Yes.

Little bit of butter in and you grill them,

-and it's an excellent dish for 15 pence each.

-Beautiful.

It's the most beautiful thing in the world -

our own Irish smoked salmon.

It is better than Scots smoked salmon?

I would think so. I wouldn't dream of running down the Irish!

'Dear me. I really must have a word with Declan

'about his choice of hats. He looks more like a short-order cook

'than one of Ireland's leading restaurateurs and jolly gastronauts.

'Seen here, by the way, preparing crubeens,

'or pigs' trotters as we call them.

'Watch carefully and you can do this simple dish at home.

'You simply poach the feet until they are tender, allow to cool,

'split in half and roll in melted butter and breadcrumbs

'and slip under the grill and there it is.

'This really is, isn't it, making a silk purse from a pig's foot?'

Declan, I've been charging around the West Country of Great Britain

looking for simple foods. All I seem to find are pasties

and beef stroganoff. If I ask for a regional speciality,

it doesn't seem to exist. Against my will, I've been forced over

to Ireland, where I find things like pigs' trotters and tripe

easily available. But why do you, who fly the gastronomic flag

virtually for the whole of Ireland,

with your splendid establishment here, why do you put on

-pigs' trotters and tripe and stuff?

-Well, we are not just a restaurant,

we're a hotel. So a lot of our guests are from abroad.

The last thing they want to see is international food.

So, we give them traditional Irish dishes.

On top of that, a lot of my local customers

can now come back to the food of their childhood

or of their student days,

when they went out on the town, drinking large numbers of pints

and using crubeens as a liner.

To get back to the tripe and stuff, then, why...?

You know, I have to beg for tripe from my butcher in Bristol.

He says, "No, can't get it any more."

It's like asking for a veal knuckle to enrich a stew with,

-or a calf's foot or something.

-Yes.

-It doesn't exist any more.

Why is there so much tripe around?

Everywhere you go, there's tripe.

Well, that goes back to the economic history of the city of Cork.

Cork was, first of all, the largest butter market in the world

and, secondly, one of the major provision centres

for Britain and Ireland. And in those days,

a man's wages were a shilling and a penny a day,

-as much bread and beer as he could eat...

-That's not a bad life.

..and seven pounds of offal for his family.

-Gracious me.

-So, there was a tradition of eating offal.

Partly it's because the rest of the animals were packed in salt

in barrels, for export.

The offal they couldn't do anything with,

so they had to eat it themselves.

I mean, where did you learn all of this, Declan?

Where did you get your enthusiasm for food

and hospitality and cooking from?

Well, my mother was a marvellous cook,

so I grew up with good food.

After that I trained, first of all in London,

under some of the old boys

who were just... who had done their apprenticeships

in Escoffier's kitchens.

But that gave me hang-ups that took a long time

-to break afterwards.

-What kind of a hang-up, might I ask?

I felt I was cheating people

if I did not do things as Escoffier had done it.

-I was shackled.

-He was such a great man, you lived under the shadow?

We were trained under the shadow, yes.

What is really strange is that now we've gone so far away,

the pendulum has swung right to the other direction

and you don't get those rich, slowly-cooked stews and things.

You get thin slices of duck breast, fanned on to a white plate

or a black plate, even,

which, to my mind, is the EXTREME opposite of Escoffier

and not necessarily quite where it should be.

Well, I had begun to evolve away from this,

but I felt a little bit guilty about doing so

and then I went to work for Les Freres Troisgros,

or one of the best of the three-star Michelin restaurants

in the centre of France, away from the big cities.

And they were doing what I was almost afraid to do.

They gave me the self-confidence to follow my own ideas after that.

So, when I came back - wham!

Everything I wanted to do, I just did it.

-And to hell with everybody!

-To hell with everyone!

I'd rather have more of the street musician, frankly,

but my director is never happy

without some passing reference to architecture -

the bridge, in this instance. OK, this is a really very nice bridge.

Will that do you? Lovely. Oh, and of course, I forgot to mention,

it's full of great second-hand shops as well.

You realise that he does this to give you a sense of place,

when, in fact, I'd much rather be in the pub.

If he cues it right, we should find one any minute now.

What a good director. Right on cue, into the pub we go.

But, you know, it's for your benefit, so that you can observe

the dying art of preparing a pint of stout,

which here is enacted as a divine ceremony, not a quick slap

on the counter and saying, "All right, John?"

Long live Mr Murphy, that's what I say.

That's just what I needed. After all that information,

interesting though it was, I'm absolutely exhausted.

The trouble is, one of my old mates -

I never met him, he came back to haunt us -

he used to drink so much of this stuff he got heaved out of the pub.

But in the Irish way they do things,

he's come back to haunt them for ever.

There he is, grinning at us.

Do you know, around the country I go,

eating all these delicious things, and they always make me eat oysters.

I used to love them. I've had so many, I'm quite bored with them.

Yet here I am, in Cork, and as Disraeli said,

"What could be better than a BBC mini-break in Cork,

"with a pint of stout, a load of oysters, to really cheer you up?"

And the chef here has made me some brilliant red spicy sauce

to go on them.

And, you know, it is true - they do put lead in your pencil.

My God, they do!

# It's the finest of drinks, there can't be any doubt of it

# Tickle your taste buds and knock 'em about a bit

# Ladies will love it and sailors will shudder

# Give 'em a treat with the oysters and stout! #

Enjoying yourselves? Good.

But I bet some of you are beginning to mutter,

"When is he going to stop chattering and get on with some work?"

Well, as I speak, I am on my way to Kinsale to do it right away.

Now, my little gastronauts, if you spent a little more time with

the simple things of life

and less showing off with expensive fillet steak, not only would you

be a healthier person but you would be a better person.

And that is why we are here. Because once again,

the BBC mini-break has conned its way into Kinsale and borrowed

a restaurant from a friend of mine who, later on, you'll meet.

But in the meantime, back to business.

Richard, show the customers the ingredients.

The tripe you have seen. Very simple.

Over to here, some sliced onions, some sliced leeks, some parsley,

breadcrumbs, milk, just to the side of it there, and salt and pepper.

That's all we need, except for a mystery ingredient

which is coming later on to make the superb tripe dish.

Now, it is simplicity itself.

Now, Richard, following me carefully as you always do,

you put the pieces of chopped up tripe into there like that.

Then you put in some leeks, very easily. This dish is not expensive.

This is the very good thing about it. While that's just there,

I'll cut up these last little pieces of tripe.

Pop those in like that.

A little bit of pepper to go over it, to flavour it,

a little bit of salt which you can see going in. Very boring, isn't it?

Who needs to know about salt going in?

You can always add a bit more later.

Handful of parsley.

Then in with something which I never drink myself, but in fact, I might.

I think I might. Director, pass me a glass. I want to lay a myth here.

I want to lay a myth. Thank you. Quick! For God's sake!

You cannot get the staff. Thank you very much.

A glass, you ask him for a glass and he gives you a jug.

That is the assistant director, the ex-assistant director.

Anyway, I wanted to just welcome you all to Ireland in a major way.

This is Floyd on milk. Get it?

Right, and the rest of it back here to the pot, goes in like that.

And now, very simply, get a good look at that,

isn't that beautiful? It's going to be unctuous, delicious,

good if you're feeling ill, if you've had too many stouts,

like I might have done last night, or really a fine dish.

In France, by the way,

they make it with tomato sauces and garlic and stuff like that.

I don't think it's a patch on this dish. Anyway, it goes in the oven.

While it's cooking for about an hour,

we shall entertain you in all sorts of magical ways.

TRADITIONAL FIDDLE MUSIC PLAYS

The committee is a group who individually can do nothing

and collectively decide that nothing can be done.

This steam roller was unloaded by a committee.

Michael, that looks fantastic. Thank you very much indeed.

I'm sorry we've interfered with your day.

-I know you're busy chap and all the rest of it.

-Yes.

But we'll do the washing up, I promise you. Have a drink.

-Anyway, it's delicious wine. Cheers.

-Cheers.

Thanks for having me in the place.

What is this superb dish you've cooked me?

-That's Dublin coddle.

-Dublin coddle?

Dublin coddle, yes.

It's made from boiled bacon, some home-made pork sausages,

sliced potatoes and sliced onions and parsley.

-And cooked in the oven for?

-Cooked in the oven for about one hour.

It looks absolutely fantastic, doesn't it? It really does.

Anyway, a very vexed problem in English restaurants

is the price of wine.

And you can go into one restaurant and it's X pounds per litre,

another one, it's X-plus pounds per litre.

Here, in Kinsale, the restaurateurs cooperate.

And they buy their own wine, they fix the price for it

in the same ten restaurants throughout the whole place.

Cooperation, happiness between the restaurateurs,

delight and pleasure for the customers.

It's a thing you restaurateurs could take a note of.

And on the back of the bottle here

is all the members of the circle, you see? There they all are.

So, quite simply, I'm going to pour myself

a glass of this splendid wine, drink to cooperation,

the successful cooperation of the restaurateurs of Kinsale,

drink to my friend Michael here and drink to Ireland.

And we are having a ball here!

This is the best place I've ever been in my life.

The reason I didn't involve you with this before is cos you're such

a lily-livered bunch of people who would have said, "Yuck!

"He's going to put that nasty-looking sausage in."

So, that then is drisheen.

It's a beautiful delicate sausage made of sheep's blood

and for those of you who are a little squeamish,

I didn't want to distress you.

But I popped it in when you weren't looking and I covered the dish

with wonderful fresh breadcrumbs.

And slipped it under the grill...

..and let it go golden brown like that.

Tripe, drisheen, breadcrumbs,

leeks, onions, milk -

the very goodness of everything there is about food.

And look at that.

That is a delight. A little gastronomic treat

to warm the cockles of your hearts, me darlin'.

And there is the gently poached drisheen in the middle.

I'm rather proud of that dish.

You've got to love that man, such a wonderful series.

As ever, on Best Bites, we're looking back

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

Still to come on today's show,

we revisit my first-ever omelette challenge when I was

pitted against Oliver Rowe and was horribly distracted

by a certain Yorkshireman in a pink shirt.

Yes, he was in a pink shirt. How did I get on?

Well, he was in a pink shirt and you can find out in just a few minutes.

Champion of British produce, the great Mark Hix, is serving up

a delicious beef salad, perfect for lunch.

He's chosen hanger steak,

which he serves cooked medium rare and thinly sliced

on a peppery watercress salad,

with chanterelle mushrooms and crispy shallots.

And Kellie Bright faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did she get her Food Heaven - pineapple tarte Tatin,

with spiced ice cream, dried pineapple and hot caramel sauce,

or did she get her Food Hell - pan-fried calves' liver

with mashed potato, cavolo nero,

wild garlic and a Madeira reduction?

You can find out at the end of the show.

Now, a recipe for those busy parents who want some tea-time inspiration.

This next dish is simple, tasty and

a sure-fire winner for all the family.

To show us how it's done, is the wonderful Tana Ramsay.

-Welcome back, Tana.

-I bet you're demanding as well.

I'm not very demanding, give me

a bowl of profiteroles, and I'm a happy man.

-That'll do for me.

-I know, I love them.

But what are we cooking, then?

We're going to do a very simple recipe.

It's making home-made lamb sausages with lamb mince,

putting in there some ground cumin, ground coriander, chilli,

some breadcrumbs, an egg, half a red onion,

mix all of that together in a bowl.

Then roll them into sausage shapes and wrap them in some prosciutto.

We've got a nice little salad, so we're going to get the fire on

first of all, because you want to get these on and in the oven.

-Yes, absolutely.

-You want me to chop some onion and some chilli.

There's quite a lot of chopping to do, if you wouldn't mind,

-so half a red onion and the chilli.

-OK, nice and finely chopped.

I'm going to chop some parsley to put in there as well.

So the idea behind this, is what?

Well, you've got a new book out,

is this something for the kids and stuff like that?

Absolutely, my recipes are all almost like

a diary of what I cook at home for the kids.

Four kids, every night, it's quite demanding and like all kids,

or like all mothers, I suppose,

I get stuck in a rut of doing the same things over and over again,

so most of my recipes actually come up with things I need to use up

that are left over in the fridge

and it's just creating different ideas and sharing them, really.

I've never been trained as a chef, as you can probably see

by my chopping, so thank God I've got you there doing your bit.

You've got somebody else at home than can do all that, haven't you?

Oh, he's so messy.

That's what they say to me as well,

I'm always messy when I cook at home. No, I'm not!

And the grease that goes everywhere.

Everything is cooked over such a high heat

-and you just get this whole splatter of...

-We are chefs.

-Right, moving on.

-Sorry, sorry.

Right, minced lamb, that's what you're using.

Minced lamb and I've got that with the half a red onion,

I've got the parsley, the chilli... Thank you.

This is probably a bit of shoulder, I would have thought.

Bit of shoulder of lamb, something like that.

In with the ground cumin, ground coriander and again,

-a lot of this is... Thank you.

-Breadcrumbs.

You know, I cook a lot from the store cupboard as well.

-Having a good, stocked store cupboard as well...

-Yeah.

..just things you can drag out at the last minute when you've maybe

only got, say, the mince - one nice, fresh ingredient, because it's...

I don't spend all day worrying about what I'm going to do for the kids'

-tea.

-Right.

-And I think there's a lot of mothers in that position

as well, where they're working, busy,

you just want to put something together

really quick and simply and this is also something you could

maybe do the night before for the next day.

Now, talking of kids and something that can be better prepared

the night before, but the kids are watching at home,

they're probably thinking,

"Thank goodness it's the last time we're going to get to eat this."

-Is that right?

-You had to put that in, didn't you?

-You've been practising!

I've done this every night this week cos I knew you'd be chatting

and when I chat, I stop and get into the conversation and forget what

I'm doing, so it has to be something you can just sort of do.

I'm doing it again, aren't I? Can you stop talking?

Yes, I'll be quiet, then. So you've been practising this on the kids?

-Yes, I have.

-Yeah.

-For seven nights.

-For seven nights.

-In a row.

But, I mean, you've been extremely busy lately,

cos you then went into this... What made you do this ice thing?

-This Dancing On Ice?

-Shall we get this out of the way straightaway?

-Yeah.

-You did quite well and I went out quite early, so I knew you were

going to bring that up because you were quite good on the dance floor.

The reason I did it on ice...

Put skates on me, I'm not very good at all, to be honest.

Well, there was a bit of a reason for that,

because I figured that if I did it on ice, because you're on ice,

I had the excuse of being not very good at dancing and that could

kind of be hidden, but it all came out, according to a certain judge.

But never mind, I had such a great time. I loved it.

What amazes me about that is the fitness that you get to,

it's just unbelievable, isn't it? The amount they train...

-Are you still dancing?