11/02/2018 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

We've got a great line-up for you today, with breakfast, lunch and dinner all sorted out.

As ever, another celebrity faces their food heaven or food hell.

And it is my turn to battle it out

in the Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge

and trust me, you won't want to miss that.

So, grab yourself a cuppa, put your feet up

and enjoy another slice of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Now over the next 90 minutes,

we will be bringing you top chefs, hungry celebrities

and some amazing dishes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Coming up, love is in the air as James Martin cooks

actress Nina Wadia Thai green curried mussels for Valentine's Day.

Irishman Kevin Dundon is here with his individual pork Wellingtons.

He tops fillet of pork with an apple and mushroom duxelle

before wrapping in Parmesan, puff pastry and

serving alongside Savoy cabbage with bacon and port and red wine jus.

Ching He-Huang is kicking off Chinese New Year celebrations

with sticky belly pork parcels.

She mixes the belly pork with Chinese mushrooms, soy sauce,

star anise, Chinese five spice

and sticky rice before wrapping in lotus leaf

and serving the stir-fried pak choi and pickled shallots.

And it was only a matter of time before one of my attempts

at the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge was shown

as I take on Tony Tobin at the hobs.

And then it is over to John Campbell

who is making his Saturday Kitchen debut

with a two-Michelin-starred dish.

He makes slow-cooked fillet of beef with horseradish mash, chicken

and wild mushroom tortellini, buttered cabbage

and a red wine sauce.

And finally, cricketer Phil Tufnell faces his food heaven or food hell.

Will he get his food heaven - a leek and lamb pie made from hot water

pastry, with buttered new potatoes and Chantenay carrots -

or his food hell - cream of celeriac soup with pan-fried

curried scallops?

Two comforting winter warmers, but which one did he get?

You're going to have to wait till the end of the show to find out.

All of that to come.

Plus, a bit of Rick Stein and Keith Floyd thrown in as well.

But first up, it's over to Anna Jones who has got breakfast

sorted with banana, blueberry and pecan pancakes.

Anna, remind us what it is you are cooking for us, dear.

We are going to make some delicious blueberry, pecan, banana pancakes.

But we are going to make them in a bit of a different way.

You haven't got the normal ingredients here.

We've just got some oats. We're going to make them into a flour

and we are not using any eggs, so...

First, you are going to tell me what I need to do.

Yes, I would love you to just peel

and chop those into some slices and then just give them

a little fry there, so they are lovely and caramelised.

Then just make a quick, little compote with the blueberries

-and just a splash of Maple syrup.

-A splash?

-Just a splash.

Fantastic. OK, right, so tell us what you are going to do.

So, I'm just going to pop these oats into the blender and actually,

what we are doing here is we are sort of milling our own flour.

So when you have the whole grain, which oats are, you get

kind of more of the nutrition, more of the nutrients.

Cos when it's ground into a flour it kind of loses

nutrients as it sits on the shelf.

So we're just going to grind it up ourselves.

-Right.

-It's going to turn into a sort of a scruffy kind of a flour.

It is not going to be quite as fine as, you know,

the flour you get in a bag.

But it is going to add some lovely texture to the pancakes.

But that's one of those words we use a lot these days, texture.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sometimes you can do it finer, sometimes less fine

-and it makes it a different dish.

-Yeah!

I think that is one of the things that we really need to remember,

that I try and remember when I'm cooking, anyway, is that

texture is such an important part as well as the taste side of things.

So, that's the oat flour in there.

You can see it's a little bit scruffy.

Not quite as fine as a normal flour, but that is exactly what we want.

The baking powder goes in there.

That's just about a teaspoon and then a little pinch of salt.

-You are cracking on there with the bananas.

-Yeah.

Now I have to ask you about this

cos I'm being told that I've got to put this in coconut oil.

-Yes!

-A, it's solid, so it doesn't look like oil to me.

Well, it solidifies at room temperature.

But it goes lovely and liquid in the pan.

Basically, coconut oil is a really good oil to cook with,

especially when you are frying something at a high temperature

like that because it's got a higher smoking point,

so none of the kind of nutrients and the bits and bobs that are good

for us in the oil are damaged when you heat it up.

So that is why we use it. And I like to use it.

And also with all of these flavours, I think

-that coconut is really great.

-Is it easy to get hold of?

Yeah, it's in all the supermarkets these days. Absolutely everywhere.

You are learning. You are learning.

Teaching him a couple of things.

I think I can probably learn more off you...

I want to tell you, I've tasted it and it tastes to me

like very nice lard.

It doesn't taste like coconut oil. You can't taste a coconut anywhere.

Oh, well, that sounds right.

So, in here, I've just got a banana,

and I've got about 150ml of coconut milk.

It's the drinkable kind. Not the really thick kind you get in a can.

You could use almond milk, you could use regular cow's milk if you want.

But I like mixing things up a bit.

So I think the wider I cast my net, in terms of the things I eat,

the more nutrients and the more sort of interest I'm going to get

-in my diet.

-What about goat milk? Yes?

-Goat milk would be

-absolutely amazing.

-Fantastic.

-It would be brilliant. So...

It's an interesting one, isn't it, because milk isn't...

There are so many varieties these days. And I...

I'll tell you a secret.

-I actually have porridge made with almond milk most mornings.

-Do you?

-Yeah!

-I would have never guessed, Brian!

Well, I'm now fitter than I ever... It's wearing out faster.

You are letting us into all of your secrets.

But it is quite important. And it does make a difference in flavour

-if you choose a different...these different components.

-Absolutely

and especially if you are sort of eating more vegetables,

it is really great to have that almond milk because it's got a bit

of protein in the morning,

which really keeps you, you know, full of bit longer.

-Yeah.

-So, I'm just going to...

..pop the pancakes in here.

Actually, I should have put a bit of coconut oil in there first to melt.

I'll just pop it in here. It melts nice and quickly.

-Is it expensive?

-It is a bit more expensive than a normal oil.

But it goes a really long way and I think, quite often, I think

those things that are better for our bodies, it is

sometimes worth spending a bit of extra money on.

Yeah, no, couldn't agree more.

So, we're just going to fry these off.

You have to cook them a little bit longer than a normal pancake

cos they don't have the eggs in.

So they don't set in quite the same way.

Right. But when they set in the middle,

they won't be soft in the middle and spongy?

-They won't be soft in the middle, at all, no.

-OK, right, fine.

-So...

Just pop those in there. Those bananas are doing beautifully.

-Oh, fantastic.

-Lovely and caramelised.

I could be the new banana chef.

I'm really testing you today, Brian, aren't we?

Don't you say too much over there, Gennaro.

LAUGHTER So how did you survive working...?

Did you work for him, with him or in spite of him?

Ha!

Go on, tell him. Tell him.

A bit of everything with Gennaro.

But we worked together at Fifteen for quite a few years and then we

worked together working at Jamie's Italian restaurants and stuff like that.

So we have had a lot of adventures together on Gennaro's TV shows

-and books.

-On the book.

-And stuff like that, so, yeah.

We've been all over the place.

What a lovely girl, she is. Bless her.

-You've got a book out at the moment.

-Yes, I have.

-Tell us what it's called.

-It's called A Modern Way To Eat.

It's all about joyful, delicious,

kind of celebratory vegetarian food.

So putting vegetables at the centre of the table

and using some of these more unusual, maybe slightly sort of...

..better for your body and lighter ingredients, but in a way that,

you know, you might sit round the table and be satisfied.

I've just had a word in my ear that Jamie is watching.

-Do you want to say good morning, Jamie?

-Morning, Jamie.

-Morning, Jamie.

-Nice to see you.

-She's doing well, she's doing well.

-Bless him.

-There are some...

I've noticed there are some quite rare or unusual

or different vegetables and herbs that you get in there.

Is that sort of crucial to...?

Yeah, well, I think that, as I said before,

casting the net as wide as you can when you are eating sort

of vegetarian food, but when you are eating any kind of food, I think

you've just got to keep yourself interested and satisfied.

I think one of the ways to do that is just vary things

up as much as you can and make the most of the incredible

vegetables that we have and that we grow here.

-So...

-OK, now are you all right with turning those over?

Yeah, let's turn those, yeah.

Now, of course...

Lovely.

Think we might have needed our pan a little bit hotter here,

but they're going to be perfect.

Now, of course, you can do them a nice colour.

-Yeah.

-I like a good colour. Those look lovely.

Those look nice and soft to me.

They look squidgy, I think, is the modern word.

They're squidgy, and they're lovely and light, these.

I hear from my grandchildren. They look squidgy.

Squidgy - that's a great word.

Is that compote all right over there for you?

-Yeah, that's perfect, Brian.

-OK.

-Fantastic.

So, I'm going to chop up these pecan nuts,

-which I think are delicious.

-Just a few of those,

and those go really, really well with the maple syrup, don't they?

That lovely kind of sort of Canadian...

Now, sugar's another thing, is it not, that's going to now,

this next year - everybody's going to find alternative sugars?

-I think so.

-And Canada's economy's going to go mad.

Yeah, I think the Canadians have probably got a big smile

-on their faces.

-Maple syrup.

-Are we going to start plating up now?

-Absolutely.

-Is that compote OK for you over there?

-Yeah, that's lovely.

So, just a few of these pancakes on here.

We're going to have a few bananas in between.

-Don't catch your finger, Brian.

-These are lovely and caramelised.

And just be careful with those bananas

-cos they are quite warm and...

-It should be all right, I think.

Yeah, I was really talking to people out there cos, you know,

-sometimes, people cook, and then try to pick up...

-Absolutely.

..cos they've seen chefs on television do it.

-There's your lime juice for you.

-Thank you.

We'll just have a little bit of this compote here.

Nearly finished now. A little bit of lime, we'll have at the end,

cos that goes beautifully with the pancakes.

-The concentration on your face is marvellous.

-Yeah, I know. I know.

-But quite right, too.

-Yeah, you've got to get it right, haven't you?

-There we go.

-Let me move this out of the way here

-so we can show it there.

-A few of the lovely pecans.

A couple of those on there for decoration.

-Lovely.

-I feel I've done my bit.

-You've done a fantastic job.

-Get rid of that.

-There we go. Ooh, that one's fallen off the top.

-Little bit of maple syrup, and we're done.

-There it goes.

-Mm.

-Mm!

-Delicious.

Now, remind us the name of the dish.

These are my oat, blueberry, and pecan pancakes.

Fantastic. SHE CHUCKLES

OK, bring the maple syrup with you just in case

cos knowing these gannets over here...

They might want a bit more.

..they'll probably want a bit more.

-I have to say, it looks amazing.

-Oh.

I love the way you just blended...

-Made that flour.

-Yeah, it's a good trick.

-Yeah.

-It's a good trick, that.

Is that the kind of thing that you can be bothered to do in your house?

Well, you know... Listen...

-Being honest?

-No.

-We'll let you off.

But, you know, seeing how you made it look so easy,

-I would give it a go.

-Yeah, they're dead easy.

And, you know, you can do those in sort of 20 minutes.

Anna Jones with a big gold star from Martin Kemp there,

and the perfect dish for any time of the day.

Coming up, it's Valentine's Day in the studio

as James Martin serves up Thai green curried mussels for Nina Wadia,

but first, it's over to Rick Stein who's going cockle fishing

before a busy service in the kitchen.

One way I like to eat cockles is to cook them

just like moules mariniere -

steam them open in their own juices with chopped shallots,

white wine, parsley and butter.

And as long as they're cooked well enough, there's little danger,

but because so many of our estuaries where cockles live

are still polluted with sewage, do be careful.

One mackerel, one shellfish,

two ragout, two linguine,

one fruits de mer, five grillade, one bream, one turbot,

one steak medium-rare, eight pot, and they're seated.

-Yes? Can we go, Vince?

-Yes!

Hang on, this fish has got scales all over it, Colin. What's he doing?

Two mackerel, table 15.

You lose your speed.

You lose your sort of killer instincts over the winter months.

Everybody's sort of relaxed and, "Isn't cooking fun?"

-And now it's not fun, is it, Paul?

-It's not fun at all.

Easter comes down on you like a wolf on the fold, you know.

The Assyrians came down like a wolf on the fold. That sort of thing.

And there's, like, loads of Assyrians out there

all wanting their food, and we're going, "Aaah!"

Three soup for 15.

Yeah, I know, Rosemary. That's it.

If you don't like fish, you just don't come here.

If you don't like fish, it would be a nightmare.

Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish. Oysters.

-Ooh, let's get his book.

-What was his name, again?

Well, it's Sunday afternoon. It's about the only time

I get in the kitchen to do a bit of filming now

cos the chefs have got bored with the whole concept

of sort of being on telly.

I'm going to try and get in there between services,

but not very often. This is a turbot dish,

and this comes from just off Trevose Head, this turbot.

My favourite fish, actually. Let you into a bit of a secret.

Unfortunately, about the most expensive fish in the sea.

I'm going to cook it with some cockles,

and these come from the sandbar down near the end of the estuary,

and they're lovely. They're very underrated, I think, cockles.

They're nearly as good in flavour, to me, as oysters.

And then, also, I'm going to cook the dish with these clams,

which are called soft-shell clams.

Now, these live up the other end of the estuary under the mud.

And if you ever try digging for these... Do you remember,

as a kid, when you sort of were in your wellies

and you went about 3ft down in the mud,

and then you'd find yourself dancing around in your socks on the mud?

Well, that happens all the time with this.

First of all, I'm just going to steam the turbot

in this makeshift steamer, which I've done.

So, you can see it's dead easy to do at home -

just a big saucepan, upturned colander and a plate.

So, in they go, the pieces of turbot,

lid on, and they'll cook for about ten minutes.

And while that's cooking, I'm going to start cooking the cockles

and the clams.

The cockles.

And then the clams.

And then a bit of white wine.

And, finally, some chopped shallots.

They're just beginning to open already.

In fact, I do want you to cook this dish at home,

and I do realise it's a bit difficult to get cockles and clams,

but you can use mussels. But do use small mussels, not big ones,

cos we're going to use the shells -

some of the shells - as a sort of decoration

to make the finished dish look more exciting.

Anyway, they've opened already, so let's make the sauce.

All I do is just pour these shells through a colander into a pan

to collect the juice underneath.

Lift up the clams.

Just give them a good old shake. And the cockles.

And now I'll put that on to reduce with a bit of white wine -

bit more white wine -

a little bit of fish stock just to sort of round off the sauce a bit,

and a pinch more shallot.

So, I'll leave that to reduce now for about five minutes.

And while it's reducing, I'm just going to,

just take the meats out of most of these cockles and clams,

because, although I'm going to put some shells on the final dish,

I am going to leave some meats in the shell for garnishing.

But, really, this is to make the dish easier to eat.

You know, dishes aren't just a matter of taste.

They're also a matter of excitement, of interest,

and that's what this dish really does have.

And now to finish the sauce.

Just taste that. It's come down, reduced quite enough.

It's quite salty - there's quite a bit of salt

in the clams and cockles -

but I want the sauce to be a bit salty.

Now, loads of butter in there. Just give that a quick old whisk.

And then some parsley. Just get that butter amalgamated into the sauce.

So, that's fine. Perhaps a little bit more butter

cos what I'm looking for is a sort of sheen, a sort of a glaze almost.

It's got to be shiny with butter

cos that makes it look so good when it's finished.

And, finally, a little bit of parsley. Broad-leaf parsley.

I haven't chopped this parsley up at all. You don't always need to.

I just picked it cos I just think it looks very pretty like that.

And now to see if the fish is done.

It is cooked to an absolute turn. Watch my poor fingers.

Just going to dish that up now.

That is great. Look at that.

That is what beautiful, fresh turbot looks like when it's cooked.

And here, the juice is going to go into the pan,

which is why I put the turbot on a plate in that steamer

and not on something perforated.

So, into that pan also goes the cockles and clams.

Just turn them over a bit just to warm them through.

No more cooking cos they'd be overcooked then.

Then just put the whole lot over the turbot - shells and all.

Just a little bit of a sort of rearrangement.

Do you know what I think about this?

I think that this is a chef's statement

of summer by the sea in Cornwall.

It's a great dish, that, and it's amazing how Rick seems

to throw things together and they look so delicious.

And it's a great time of year to enjoy shellfish,

although it's quite difficult to get clams, really, in supermarkets,

but one that you would be able to get, really...

You can get clams from fishmongers, of course,

but one thing that you will be able to get in abundance

is mussels this time of year. They're all over the place.

I'm going to show you a really simple dish to cook right now.

It's a Thai green mussel curry.

Very, very simple. We've got some mussels here.

-To make our Thai curry, we've got galangal. I know you're a big fan of Thai food.

-Yes.

Galangal, which is like a Thai ginger.

We've got some chilli here. Green chillies, of course,

with green curry. You can use the smaller one.

Lemongrass. A little bit of shallot.

You can use the Thai shallots, which are the small ones.

Ground cumin, ground coriander, black pepper.

We've got some garlic, kaffir lime leaves,

which are generally frozen, but you can actually buy fresh ones.

Fish sauce, a bit of water, coriander.

This is Thai basil, or holy basil, they call it.

Lime and coconut milk.

What I want to do, first of all, is just blend everything together.

Now, before we start talking about what you're doing at the moment,

which is, of course, EastEnders, how did it all start for you?

Because, I mean, you travelled all over the place,

from India to Hong Kong,

but it was food that sort of took you to Hong Kong.

Yeah, well, my dad was with the airlines,

and then he got offered the opportunity to set up a restaurant

-and run it in Hong Kong called the Ashoka, which we did.

-Yeah.

I was waitressing from the age of 11, which Dad says was a sign

-I was going to be an actress, so...

-THEY LAUGH

Took me down the right route.

And then I decided that, actually, when I was 18,

acting was what I wanted to do.

And did your parents still keep the restaurant, though,

and you just came back or did you all come back together?

No, we all came back together, actually. Yeah, we just...

I think it is a hard life.

I don't think people realise what a hard life running a restaurant is.

So, I decided to go into an even harder life

-and go and be an actor.

-I think these two boys do.

You've got lots of tables of two tonight, eh?

But, I mean, going into acting, as well, was it drama school that...?

Yes. Yeah, went to drama school and then I trained in radio.

-I went to the Radio Drama Company.

-Yeah.

-From there, I did...

-But some of these radio programmes are huge.

-Yeah.

I mean, the biggest one that you did - what was it?

-34 million listeners or something like that?

-Yeah.

Yeah, it was the largest soap in the world.

It was called Westway for the BBC World Service.

-Right.

-And it was an amazing, amazing show, but, sadly,

did come to an end because of budget cuts etc.

And then Goodness Gracious Me was around at the time.

-We did the radio version of it first.

-Yeah.

Next thing we knew, it was on TV, and then, honestly, it was...

-But that was just huge for you?

-Oh, it was incredible.

-That was just a life-changing thing?

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, enjoyed that.

Then a bunch of sitcoms with a variety of fab actors.

And then ended up going into EastEnders.

Now, when you went in for the job for EastEnders,

you were pregnant at the time.

Yes, and my agent didn't bother to tell them.

No-one bothered to tell them.

They're just pleased that you're in it - that's the thing.

Well, I turned up. I was literally eight months pregnant,

and the casting director said, "Ah, can you start next month?"

And I said, "No, I can't."

So, they waited six more weeks for me, and, yeah...

But, I mean, you seem to have made that show

-kind of like your own now. It's quite an integral part...

-Oh, it's fun.

-..of the whole programme.

I think the Masoods really kind of blend in nicely.

And, you know, it's a great team of actors,

great team of writers. Everyone. I mean, you know...

And you meet a variety of directors within it, as well.

-So, it all works nicely.

-Right, just quickly,

I've got my paste there, which I'm frying off nicely.

-So, in we go with our mussels. Just de-beard the mussels there.

-Wow.

Get rid of the beards out of the mussels.

They're the bit that attaches the mussel

to the ropes to which they grow on.

They're actually grown in estuaries and in rivers.

I've seen them grow on big, long ropes.

And what they do is they put the little spores of the mussels

impregnated in the ropes and let them grow.

-Oh, right.

-And pull the ropes up. Some of them can be sort of...

-You know, a couple of tonne in weight, these mussels.

-Wow.

And they kick them off.

-So, as they kick them off, the smaller ones grow bigger...

-Oh, wow.

..like that, and the rest just disappear in the estuary.

But, I mean, talking of food,

you've got a huge selection of cookbooks, haven't you?

-Yes, I do.

-Another passion of yours.

-Yes, it is. Yeah.

My friends - every birthday, every anniversary, that's it.

I get another cookbook. Another type of food to try.

-Yeah.

-So...

-I'm surprised you get time, really,

cos not only are you doing that, you're going into movies.

-So, you've done TV, radio, theatre.

-Yeah.

-Movies. Cos you were in...

-What is it? Code 46?

-That's right, yeah.

-Bend It Like Beckham.

-Yeah.

-I can't remember seeing you in...

Yeah, no, right at the end as a...

-I was a wedding planner and they cut it a bit, so...

-Right.

It must be very, very different, though, movies to television.

-It is.

-Cos, you know, TV's very fast-paced and...

TV is incredibly fast. I mean, look at you.

You're cooking a dish in, like, four minutes and, you know, 15 seconds.

-Four minutes, 45 seconds, to be exact.

-There you go.

So, yeah, it does move very fast.

I mean, we can do 17 to 20 scenes in a day.

-That's a lot of lines to learn, so...

-Yeah.

-Whereas a movie takes, obviously, much more time.

-You can take your time.

-It's a lot more detailed, and, yeah...

-There you go.

Well, what I've done is, basically, the idea is this -

you should fry off the curry paste to start off with.

I'll show you a little bit of that curry paste.

You can actually keep it.

It will actually go brown if you don't keep it in the fridge.

Just slightly covered with oil, all right?

So, you can blitz it to a finer paste if you want,

but you just stick with the Thai fish sauce

and remember to put the water in there.

The water's quite important.

Now, halfway through the cooking - about halfway through -

we lift off the lid and we place in the holy basil,

which is this Thai basil, and the coriander. That goes in.

Cos coriander's one of these herbs

-that does require a little bit of cooking.

-Yeah.

People often think you can put it in right at the end,

but I think it does need a little bit of cooking out. CLANGING

Don't worry about that one. LAUGHTER

Give that a quick mix, like that.

Some lime.

I never liked that pot anyway, to be honest.

LAUGHTER Bit of lime on there.

And then give this a quick mix, like that.

Do you know, when I do Parsi food,

I'm always told to put in coriander just at the very end.

I don't know about you, boys, but I think if you put it in

right at the end and serve it to the table,

-it is quite raw in taste.

-Yeah.

-But I think it does need about two or three minutes.

-Yeah, it's nice.

-Spread the flavour around.

-Yeah.

-At the end, I prefer...

It's like chervil. In the soup in France,

we put chervil at the last minute,

-for example, in the soup. It's really nice.

-Oh, very nice.

Now, the thing about mussels is, obviously, when you've cooked them -

and these want to cook for about sort of two minutes -

once they're closed, once they're cooked, don't prise them open.

That means they're dead before they've actually been cooked.

So, only eat the open ones, which we've got here.

So, we take the lovely mussels

in this sort of delicious sort of Thai liquid.

You can, of course, use this same paste to do chicken

and all that kind of stuff, but any seafood here - salmon,

prawns, mussels, anything like that.

Remember to take some of our juice, which we've got over there.

Pour that over the top.

-And there we have it. Now, I know you're not a fan of mussels.

-No.

-Try the sauce.

-All right, will do.

-Try the sauce, see what you think.

You can, of course... If you use the bird's-eye chilli, it's hot, hot, hot.

-Oh, it's gorgeous.

-All done in about five minutes.

Aw, that is amazing!

I think Cupid's arrow certainly struck Nina there

with those Thai green curried mussels.

And what a perfect dish for sharing on Valentine's Day,

if a bit messy. Now it's over to Kevin Dundon,

who's adding his own twist to a classic

with his individual pork Wellingtons.

-How are you?

-Good to have you back on the show.

So, what are we making, then, boss? What's the name of our dish?

-It's a pork Wellington.

-Yeah.

And we've got a shallot and port wine jus going with it

with Savoy cabbage, which is really good.

So, the first thing we need is we've got two fillets of pork here.

We're going to season that with a nice bit of salt.

So, for our Wellington, of course, we need puff pastry, which this is.

-Yeah.

-All-butter puff pastry.

But you're going to sort of flavour this with a little bit

-of Parmesan cheese, yeah?

-Parmesan cheese.

It's nice because I always like a little bit of mystique to our food,

so it's using simple ingredients but using the best.

So, we've got beautiful pork,

and then we'll just put a little bit of Parmesan cheese

through the puff pastry,

and it just kind of gives you that little bit of flavour.

-Nice bit of saltiness happening there.

-OK.

OK, so, what we have then is we have our pork on. It's being seared.

Now, this is the fillet, or people call it tenderloin now.

-I don't know why, but...

-Tenderloin, yeah.

-Yeah.

-That's what the Americans call it.

-Tenderloin?

-Yeah.

-Fillet's fine.

-Fillet's proper, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Tenderloin.

-There you go.

-It's the tenderest bit, James.

Exactly, but it requires... I mean, the secret with this,

it's the same thing as a fillet on beef, isn't it, really?

-Yeah.

-It's from the same part of the animal, so...

In there, instead of the mushroom duxelles,

-you're going to add a little bit of apple to it, yeah?

-Yeah, exactly.

So, just apple goes so well with pork,

so I thought it'd be nice to put some apple into the duxelles.

So, tell us about Dunbrody House, then. Cos you just got a...

You've got a lodge that you've taken on, as well?

Yeah, we've got a three-bedroom lodge

right beside the front door of the hotel, which is super

because we get families that want to come down,

and if they've got a few kids, it's ideal for them to stay there.

They've got a TV room, they've got a kitchen,

they've got three bedrooms, two bathrooms, front garden,

back garden, but you have all the services of the hotel,

which is super. So, you can get room service.

We do private dinners in there...

-..as well.

-So, tell us about Dunbrody House, then.

Is it an old country house or...?

Yeah, it's an 1830 Georgian manor on 300 acres,

right in the south-east corner of Ireland.

So, we overlook... You know the saying...?

We're on the Hook Peninsula and we overlook Crooke.

So, Cromwell was going to conquer Ireland by hook or by crook,

-so we're on that estuary.

-Oh, right. OK.

How many acres have you got in Northcote?

It sounds similar. We're just short of 300.

THEY LAUGH

-I think about seven.

-Seven acres.

Five of that is a car park, but, yeah...

-LAUGHTER

-Yeah, well, I wouldn't mind

-five acres of a car park...

-Yes.

-..if it was full.

-It is busy up there. It is busy up there.

-Yeah.

-And you've got a cook school, as well?

-Yeah, we've got a cookery school.

-Yeah.

And we do a number of different courses.

-We do a one-day course or a two-day course.

-Yeah.

And then we do a five-day master course, as well.

-Who cooks that, then?

-Well, it's a combination of myself

and the chefs from the kitchen, pastry chefs.

So, it's a combination of...

-So, what we have is we're going to use the same pan again.

-Yeah.

We're going to put in our shallots and our apple in there.

A little bit more olive oil.

-We've got some wonderful mushrooms here, as well.

-Yeah.

Some chanterelles there and some oyster mushrooms.

Now, as well as the place in Ireland, you've got...

I mean, the States is quite big for you, as well, isn't it?

Yeah, we've got a restaurant called Raglan Road

in Downtown Disney, Orlando, which is super.

It's kind of like a gastro-pub.

And we've got a second restaurant then in Kansas City,

also called Raglan Road.

But you mentioned it's extremely busy.

Really busy, but it's...

What's really cool about it is that you go from Dunbrody House,

which is like the baby of...

-Everything starts in Dunbrody.

-Yeah.

And then we kind of do a gastro approach on food in America,

which is just nice.

It keeps me interested.

So, we're just going to put a little bit of cream in there.

-A little bit of salt and pepper.

-Your pastry's rolled out the back.

-Lovely.

-There we go.

Take that off and put it on a tray.

It's important now that you let that cool down.

Now, besides the restaurant, you've been busy writing a book.

-It's just come out this year, hasn't it?

-Exactly.

This dish is actually from it. It's called Recipes That Work.

-It's literally just in the shops.

-Recipes That Work?

-Yeah, as opposed to the ones that don't.

-Right, OK.

What, was that your first one? HE CHUCKLES

No, actually, do you know, it was supposed to be called

The Classics With Kevin,

and then everybody kept on coming up to me saying,

"You know what we love about your recipes, Kevin? They work."

And I said, "What a great name for a book."

-Sounds good to me.

-So, that's how it happened.

-Sounds good to me.

-So, you just cut your puff pastry into a square.

Yeah. Now, if you're buying this, by the way,

make sure you buy the all-butter puff pastry.

Exactly. It makes a big difference.

And it's important that your puff pastry is cold

before it goes into the oven, so you let it rest,

because then it gets lovely and crispy.

But it is one of these dishes... We mentioned Sunday lunch.

You could prepare this today, put it in the fridge,

-and then cook it tomorrow, couldn't you?

-Perfect.

So, we've just got a whole egg and we're just going to...

Right, I've got my pancetta here.

The bacon's then just blanching.

Exactly. I'm just going to egg wash around

the sides of the pastry.

Is there a pancake involved in this?

No, actually, but normally I would do it with a beef Wellington,

but on pork, I didn't.

It's basically to soak up a lot of the moisture.

To keep the pastry...

Yeah, and it keeps it all together, doesn't it, at the bottom?

-Keeps the meat and the stuffing altogether.

-You could, of course,

put one in, or else a nice bit of Parma ham

or something like that would be nice in this, as well.

But I always find that recipe books are there for inspiration, you know?

So, you look at the recipe, you know,

and then you go from there. So...

-So, now with the pork.

-Yeah.

-There's our cabbage that's been blanched.

-Perfect.

Do you want me to slice up some onions or something for that?

Yeah, some shallots there for the sauce.

OK, I'll get those done while you do that.

-So, a little bit of egg wash.

-A little bit of egg wash.

Wrap it around both ends, and then roll it.

Now, of course, traditional Wellington would have

-a bit of pate in there.

-It would.

And then you can do, like, a whole fillet.

You could actually do this as a whole fillet and then slice it down,

so it's quite impressive if you were doing, like, a Sunday lunch.

-Cos you had, like, a pigeon one, didn't you?

-Yeah.

I mean, I don't know whether you find this, Kevin,

but anything in puff pastry baked in the oven sells really well

and just works a treat cos it keeps everything so moist,

-and people like that.

-Even a salmon coulibiac.

So, we're going to pop that into the oven, then,

for about 25 minutes.

But, ideally, you want to then fridge that, basically?

Yeah, you want to fridge it so it's nice and cold.

-For our sauce...

-Yeah.

..we have a pan, a little bit of olive oil.

Kevin, you need to get James doing a little bit more here.

I know, yeah. Are you taking note?

I'll have a guilt complex when I go home.

Some garlic. Thanks, James.

-So, some garlic.

-Yeah.

-Some shallots.

Bit of fresh thyme.

-OK, into there, some thyme.

-That looks great.

-We've got some tomato puree.

-Yeah.

So, this is my pancetta done,

and all I'm going to do with that is just take some of this cabbage,

pop it in there, a bit of water and some butter to it, really.

Yeah, we're putting some dark brown sugar in there,

just to give a little bit of sweetness to your sauce.

-There we go.

-A little bit of port - port wine.

-Yeah.

-Smells great. And then some red wine.

You're now going to pass this,

so you need to make sure it's nice and thinly sliced?

Nice and thin, yeah.

You can see there, and you just let that reduce down.

Then, for about 15 minutes, it gets into a nice kind of sticky sauce,

which is nice, particularly with the pork.

Salt.

There you go. Look at those. They look fantastic.

So, these have been out of the oven for about 20 minutes to rest,

-so the juices don't flow out.

-Yeah.

We're just going to get...

Just slice it down.

-How are you doing with the cabbage?

-Cabbage is done. Sauce is done.

-Perfect. And our plate.

-And a plate.

So, just take the...

-..the top and the bottom off.

-Yeah.

This is quite a hearty dish,

so just slice it down in three.

-Perfect.

-Probably two would have been fine.

-Yeah, it would be, but...

-LAUGHTER

-But I...

-Spoon?

-Thanks.

-I noticed we're a hungry bunch, so...

-Absolutely.

And when you taste this, you're going to say,

"I wish he put four slices on it." I hope!

-But that would be great with scallops, as well.

-Superb, yeah.

Put your scallops with just the cabbage and bacon. Lovely.

-Don't give him too many ideas, eh?

-LAUGHTER

Proper hearty portions. And then you've got your sauce there.

-Lovely.

-There you go.

You can see how that sauce has just gone down into a lovely, sticky,

onion, port wine sauce.

Delicious with the pork.

There you go. Mm.

-Would you wipe that?

-So, remind us what that is, again.

This is a wonderful pork Wellington with an apple stuffing.

-As easy and as simple as that.

-Exactly. Recipes That Work.

There you go. Right, we get to dive in.

-Let's stop mucking around.

-LAUGHTER

-Dive into that one.

-Wow.

-It's a good show to be on, this, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-There you go. Dive into that.

-That looks amazing.

But, like you say, you want to be using that sort of

fillet or tenderloin, whatever they call it.

You want to be using that cut for this.

-Even like a leg of lamb would be super, as well.

-Yeah.

-Mm.

But the idea is the fillet or the loin, basically,

you want it nice and tender in the middle.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah, it's amazing.

You ain't going to get any of that, guys!

LAUGHTER Nigel, you've got no chance, mate!

An "amazing" from Nick Frost there,

and that was certainly a recipe that worked, Kevin,

so don't worry about that.

Now, we've also been digging through the BBC archives

for some of our favourite moments, and up next,

Keith Floyd takes us on a trip to Texas.

Now, so far in this series,

I haven't mentioned the great American breakfast,

and the finest connoisseur of this American phenomenon

is the truck driver.

But I can't help being reminded of that wonderful poem by WH Auden.

You know, the one that goes

This is the night mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor

The shop at the corner, the girl next door

Eggs over easy, toast on the side

Or sunny side up and ready to slide

An order of bacon and a cup of decaf

Chicken fried steak and an order of hash

Pancakes and fruit, griddle or fried

Don't forget the bacon well cooked on the side.

Or words to that effect.

I have a wheat toast coming out, Mark, with this order.

Everything here, it seems, is cooked on the griddle -

a brilliant invention, which is sadly misused, I think,

in England, limiting itself as it does to hamburgers and fried eggs.

As President Truman once said, "The truck stops here."

And now Lockhart, and, as the guidebook says,

when you come to Lockhart for the first time,

you are struck by the beauty of the place

and the obvious pride the town takes in preserving its heritage.

But try and get a drink round here!

Not, of course, I need one as early as this,

which is just as well because this is a dry town.

But not too long ago, these streets on a Friday and Saturday night

would echo to the sound of drunken cowboys and gunfire.

A bit like the BBC Club, as a matter of fact.

And now architecture.

The architects of the Old West used to travel around with catalogues

full of town halls influenced by the great palaces of Europe.

It's a great shame that practice has died out.

Ooh, this is more the sort of Texas I've been looking for, you know.

I mean, you could make any kind of classic film here,

from maybe James Dean's Rebel Without A Cause

right through to The Dukes Of Hazzard.

All you'd have to do is change the vehicles.

Everything else is here. HORN HONKS

Pick-up trucks, Chevrolets with broken exhausts - the whole bit.

Anyway, the hub of this place is a famous barbecue thing,

and this is, after all, meant to be a cookery programme,

so we better go and do a bit of it, hadn't we?

In fact, I'm not going to cook right now

because when I told my chum Barry how impressed I was by this place,

he was so impressed, he put down his pint

and wrote this brilliant piece of commentary on the beer mat.

-Barry?

-Thank you.

-BARRY CLEARS HIS THROAT

The word barbecue derives from the Haitian word barbacoa,

meaning framework of sticks set on posts.

Such a framework could be used for sleeping on

or for roasting a carcass.

Care was needed choosing which barbacoa to turn in on.

The term barbecue has widened to embrace the full entertainment

at which animals are roasted whole.

At Lockhart, they reckon to do it bigger and better

and spicier than anywhere else in the world.

OK, ma'am, you can have crackers or bread on this thing.

Lawyers, accountants, surgeons and salesmen flock

to the sweet-smelling pyres,

and if it can be smoked, it will be smoked.

For the folks of Austin, barbecue is a serious business.

10,000 Texas sausages of pure pork and seasoning

are smoked every day in Lockhart.

Somehow, the smell of the woodsmoke and the roar of the fire

encourages the crowd to disregard the fat and get into the food.

I don't know what the...

Whether there's any heart attacks in Austin,

but they have no fear at all, have they, Keith?

No, it's strange, isn't it, for a supposedly diet-conscious nation?

Anyway, here's one of me in the work's Cadillac -

a modest but clapped-out heap of bullhorns

en route for Austin and a Mexican cookery sketch.

Of course, the car blew up on the way because someone -

no names, no pack drill - forgot to put water in the radiator.

Barry wasn't at all impressed.

Anyway, as Luis Montemayor says, "First, take your taco."

-You can do a taco...

-What is a taco?

A taco is just a tortilla with a little bit of filling inside.

A little salsa. Maybe this nice-coloured salsa.

-And you've got yourself a nice taco.

-That is a taco?

-Yeah.

-Right.

-It's hot. Watch out.

-It's hot, but it's lovely.

But isn't it like the Mandarin pancakes?

You know when you shred off the duck from the bone

and put it into a Chinese pancake? Or doesn't it remind you...

-Is that good?

-..of Indian chapatis and things like that?

Most interesting.

May I just say something here, Clive?

These wonderful sauces, which Luis makes,

he calls them his seis salsas - six sauces.

All come from various purees and oils

of these kind of different peppers, onions, chillies, dried chillies,

sun-dried chillies, curious tomatoes and stuff like that.

-Yeah.

-But he won't tell me the secret ingredients of them.

But that's what those things are there.

So, what, then, is an enchilada?

Everything goes in the enchilada. It's really like a taco.

We've got chicken right here,

but you can have beef, or anything goes there.

Then the way we eat this...

-You eat it with a spoon or a fork.

-Right.

-And you have your taco here.

-Sure. That's an enchilada.

And what, in fact, really happens is,

you take one of your corn tortillas, you dip it in a chilli marinade,

and then you quickly fry it in the pan, roll it and stuff it.

-Mm-hm.

-As you do, Italian cannelloni.

-So, there's another influence that's coming in to the whole thing.

-I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is.

I learned this in Mexico,

but they probably have another influence from...

-That's right.

-..from Japan and other countries.

If you haven't time for tacos,

get some tortilla chips and dip them in spicy sauce.

So, after seven margaritas

and seven seconds of in-depth research into Mexican food,

I am the world's leading expert,

particularly in the question of chicken fajitas,

which are wonderful little chicken fillets.

Down here, Clive, if you will, please.

Little chicken fillets dipped into a smashing red chilli sauce

and popped onto the grill.

We'll do three or four of those

and I'll explain everything as we go along. And two.

Three.

Four. Right, while they sizzle happily away there for a moment...

Clive, back to me, if you would. ..we'll spin round the ingredients.

The essential thing here is this sauce,

which is made from oregano, garlic, dried chillies,

pepper and salt, a little olive oil, a little water,

all whizzed up in the liquidiser and the blender.

The garnish for this dish,

rather like a stir-fried or skillet-fried Chinese dish,

are spring onions, which are there very simply,

and raw onions, and this long, thin, slightly spicy pepper,

which has just been grilled on a bit of oil to make it look like that.

So, that's all that has to happen, right? We'll turn these over...

..cos they're coming along at a rate of knots.

Then we put our spring onions on, which we dip into a bit of oil...

..like that. They sit on there and sizzle away.

Furthermore, a little bit of this sizzles away

on the cooler part of the thing...

..like that.

And, of course...

Clive, where are you, please?

And, of course, you eat those with tacos.

So, go and see how you make the little tortillas.

When I told Barry, the world-famous wildlife film producer,

about the Mexican restaurant, he was so impressed,

he wanted to read a piece from my new BBC book, Floyd's American Pie.

-Barry?

-Yes, it's all here. The dough is divided into balls

and flattened to make little pancakes,

rather like Chinese pancakes for Peking duck,

and cooked for the briefest of moments at either side on a griddle.

Once you have your tortillas, you can deep-fry them

to make nachos, crispy corn chips for scooping up salsas,

dips made from various combinations of peppers...

Barry, that's absolutely wonderful.

In fact, what we're going to go and do now, you see.

Good. I was beginning to drool.

So, a couple of moments have passed. The tortillas have been made.

The chicken is cooked. The onions and peppers are done.

And there, with their tortillas sizzling on a plate,

is a taste of Mexico.

Despite global, critical acclaim and financial success

of our little programmes, the BBC still adopt

a very parsimonious attitude towards our budget,

and I still have to beg, borrow or even steal a kitchen

for my little cooking sketches.

So, I sent one of my researchers out and I said,

"Get me a typical Texan home.

"You know, something modest, something quite ordinary."

Well, he was a Texan, so he came up with this.

He thought this was quite ordinary.

The chap who owns it is ONLY a multimillionaire.

But what is Texas all about? It's about Apaches,

it's about vigilantes, longhorn cattle, Lone Ranger,

Rin Tin Tin, politics slightly to the right of Vlad the Impaler.

Also, it's about chandeliers, dining tables and clothes.

As you see, I haven't changed my image a jot.

America hasn't affected me one little bit.

I mean, note the pigskin jacket, note the snakeskin boots,

note the little medallion. Well, it's only rock and roll.

Anyway, we're in the kitchen now, Clive, so let's go and do some business.

Here, what we're going to do is what they all do in Texas -

grill some steak and make a barbecue sauce

and have a little slurp. But first of all,

straight to business on the ingredients

for a Texan barbecue sauce.

Butter, pepper, onions,

Worcestershire sauce, malt vinegar,

lemon juice, Tabasco, sugar, water, garlic and catsup.

All I have to do, cos it is terribly simple,

although very, very important because they don't take any prisoners here in Texas.

If they want a steak, they want it tasting really good.

And because of the Mexican influence,

they like things a little bit spicy.

Right, so, first things first - in with the tomato catsup,

as we call it here.

As I say, America hasn't affected me in any way whatsoever, y'all.

It's all going perfectly well.

So, quite a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Stir that in. I can see some of you gastronauts at home wondering,

"What has happened to our dear Floyd?

"Tomato ketchup, Worcester sauce,

"and now wine vinegar into all of this?"

Anyway, this is Texas and we're going for it.

Right, a load of chopped onions into there...

HE WHISTLES ..like that. No problems.

Cup of lemon juice. Freshly squeezed, of course.

Dash of Tabasco. There we are.

You could use this for stripping the paint off things, I wouldn't be surprised.

And a load of sugar. Put in there.

And some garlic into there like that.

A knob of butter. Did I put the pepper in?

I did put the pepper in.

So we'll put some butter in, then the pepper.

Say, half a teaspoonful, like that.

Stir it round, whack it on the gas, and wasn't that a brilliant...?

Do you know, that was a whole take

right from the top of those stairs right into the kitchen?

It's the sort of thing that most cookery programmes don't do,

and even quite a lot of feature films can't get right.

Anyway, what I deserve is a little drinkette.

So, what do you drink when you are in Texas? You drink margaritas.

Margaritas are demon little things,

and when you've been walking up and down stairs like I have all morning

trying to get one take right, you deserve one. It's very simple.

You take some triple sec and you pour quite a lot of it -

as much as you feel like - into one... Goodness me.

This is Texas, and they've got these mean little pourers on the top.

Right, you pour triple sec into your little hand-blown jug like that.

And equal quantities of tequila, which is made from the agave plant.

I always thought it came from cactus, but never mind.

So, equal quantities of that. This is looking good.

HE CHUCKLES Yes, that smells quite good.

Then limes. Real, real limes.

Painstakingly and lovingly crushed, so you have them like that.

Limes into there.

And then icicles and icicles, twice as nice as Ricicles.

A load of ice goes into that.

Now, we've got an expert in the crew here on these margaritas.

She, in fact, is the world champion drinker of them,

and she says there should be no sugar in them.

Some people say there should be a little.

So, you know, Tex-Mex - let's whack the...

Is that the salt or the sugar? That's the sugar.

A little bit of sugar in there. A little stir around. OK?

Then, have you ever wondered...?

And here's a useful thing for entertaining at home.

I know you all have these dinner parties on Saturday night.

How do they get the salt round the top of the glass

for a perfect margarita? Do you know how they do it?

Over here, Clive. They dip the glass into some lime juice like that.

Then they whack it over to where the salt is,

carefully placed on the thing there. Twiddle it around.

And it's full of salt, which is essential for a margarita.

The other essential thing is to taste it,

cos if it ain't good enough to cook with,

it ain't good enough to drink.

Welcome to Texas.

# I feel tears welling up Growing deep inside

# Like my heart's got a big break

# And the stab of loneliness is sharp and painful

# I might never shake

# Well, you might say that you were taking it hard

# When you wrote me off in the dark

# Well, I wager that I'll hide my sorrow

# I might lay right down and bawl

# Now the race is on and here comes pride up the back stretch... #

I don't want your lonely mansion with a tear in every room.

All I want is the love you promised beneath the hallowed moon,

so the song goes.

Before I visited the Lone Star State,

my only experience of Texas came in a bottle,

and I thought of millionaires by the yard,

long-legged women and gold-plated Cadillacs.

In fact, after the fall in the price of oil,

Texas looks a little ragged, sort of unfinished.

OK, so, it's too easy to criticise.

Nevertheless, the countryside is barren -

in stark contrast to its tremendous international image of wealth.

These derelict shacks are all that remain of somebody's dreams,

people who came to find their fortune in God's little acre.

Steinbeck purists, of course, will know I've just shifted a few states.

# Now the race is one and here comes pride up the back stretch

# Heartaches a-goin' to the inside... #

There is tremendous pride in this state.

Texans think of it as another country,

and these dancers aren't wearing fancy dress.

High-heeled cowboy boots and Stetsons are worn with honour,

like a knight's sword, only to be taken off

in the sanctuary of your own home.

# And I guess that it looks like heartaches

# And the winner loses all. #

So, just to recap on the sauce - it's tomato ketchup,

Worcester sauce, lemon juice, drop of water, garlic,

onions, butter, Tabasco sauce,

and a bit of pepper bubbling away there very, very nicely.

The sort of thing Americans really like on their steaks.

The other thing Americans like - they have a thought for the day.

I was wandering around the kitchen waiting to do this take and I found it.

February 11th, which it is, 1989.

It says, "Oh, great father, never let me judge another man

"till I have walked in his moccasins for two weeks."

It's an Indian prayer. It's to think about, isn't it? Anyway, steaks.

This is a cookery programme, after all. Not the morning prayer.

There is a Texas steak.

It probably only weighs about, I don't know, 16, 20 ounces.

Something like that. They like them big around here.

It just goes whack onto the grill. One.

Two.

And...three. It's a very good thing.

You will have read - those of you who are interested

in these kind of things - the problems in the paper about American beef.

They inject it with steroids and all kinds of things,

and there's all kinds of battles going on.

You know, agricultural wars and stuff.

Texas would like to point out, through me,

that they're not part of that.

They do not do these funny things to their beef,

and their beef, they reckon, is pretty good.

And wouldn't the Ministry of Agriculture

in America pay heed to them? So, anyway, there we are.

That's my little political lecture for the day. Over we go. There.

If only I could get some stars on those stripes,

I'd have a real American steak.

Well, I suppose it should be ladies first,

but a man wearing a hat at the dinner table

has a certain authority, doesn't he?

Larry and Shelley Beard lost their handmade shirts

in the property crash just two years ago,

but unlike Britain, there's no great stigma in going bankrupt.

You just pick yourself up,

dust yourself off and start all over again.

It's always too soon to give up.

You know, you can be flat on your back, but, hey, you know,

Thomas Edison only, I think, tried 900 and something times

to get electricity, and his motto was he never had any failures.

He just had a bunch of processes of elimination.

And, you know, I didn't feel like...

I had a good wife that supported me through all these...

I had depression, like anybody else,

but there is a certain amount of Texas pride that comes out

where you say, "Look, when the going gets tough, the tough get going,

"and let's just see what we can do."

We did it once and we can do it again.

And I'm not saying I won't fail again, but, hey, we can do it.

You know, anybody that's down can get up. Just try. Keep it up.

-So, how's the sauce, Larry?

-Well, this is excellent.

I mean, if my wife doesn't put ketchup on it and drown it,

literally, well, then it's good.

I'm not near as picky as she, but this is excellent.

In fact, I want a copy of this because this stuff is going

to come home to me and I'm going to use it.

I don't know what your specialty is, but it's obviously very good.

We're big beef-eaters down here,

and we're real particular about our steaks,

and these are good steaks.

The sauces - like you said, we like things a little spicy down here

because of the Mexican influence. This is great.

I especially like things spicy.

I'm a hot sauce connoisseur, aren't I?

Say that to me again! It was wonderful.

Look at me and say it.

Say it with that lovely accent. It was beautiful.

-I am a hot sauce connoisseur.

-THEY LAUGH

I'll drink to that. HE LAUGHS

The excellent Keith Floyd there cooking up steaks fit for cowboys.

Now, don't go anywhere just yet, as there's still plenty more to come

on today's Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Coming up, it's my turn at the hobs

as I battle it out against Tony Tobin

in the Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge.

It's a double-Michelin-starred treat

as John Campbell looks to impress on his Saturday Kitchen debut.

He makes slow-cooked fillet of beef with horseradish mash,

chicken and wild mushroom tortellini,

buttered cabbage and a red wine sauce.

And, finally, Phil Tufnell faces his food heaven or his food hell.

Will he get his food heaven -

leek and lamb pie made from hot water pastry

with buttered new potatoes and Chantenay carrots -

or his food hell - cream of celeriac soup

with pan-fried curried scallops?

Two great vegetables, but will it be leeks or celeriac?

You're going to have to keep watching to find out.

All of that still to come. Up next, Ching He-Huang is here

kicking off Chinese New Year celebrations

with her sticky belly pork parcels.

-On the menu for you, we've got pork on the menu.

-Yes.

I'm going to make a Lo Mai Gai which is sticky belly pork rice.

-Not sticky belly.

-Sticky belly pork rice. OK.

-Yes.

Right, fire away, then. We've got the belly pork, here.

We've got the belly pork and it's already diced.

I need you to grate some ginger for me.

-I can do that. And chop the shallots.

-Chop the shallots.

And I'm going to just chop some Chinese mushrooms.

And these have just been soaking in some hot water.

About 20 minutes.

You can always use the liquor to make a nice soup or a stock.

Now would this be just standard belly pork or you can get

it from Chinese supermarkets or shops now and bits and pieces?

You can get...

This is just belly pork and that's been diced up.

Or you could use dry bacon lardons,

which are really nice and salty because it'll work really,

really well and it takes the fuss out of it because then you don't

-have to chop anything, you see.

-Sounds good.

Yeah, because with Chinese cooking, there's a lot of chopping involved.

-Tell me about it.

-Making you work hard today, aren't we, James?

-You love that.

-Yeah, I don't mind it, I don't mind it.

So we've got the shallots in there.

Now you've basically just put those dried mushrooms in hot

-water, then?

-Yeah, hot water.

You just need to soften them down but you know, in Chinese

cooking, Ken and I travelled across China, the same things came up again

and again and one of the classics is lots of dried ingredients.

Because it's a way of preserving ingredients and without them

going off. Actually, it really intensifies the flavours.

OK, just finely chop it. The trick is to really finely dice.

You want the texture still of the mushrooms.

And that's the trick, you know,

making good dumplings for Chinese New Year or a good stir-fry,

it's those balance of textures and flavours which is so important.

OK, lovely, thank you, chef.

So we've got the ginger, the shallots, the dried mushrooms

and the pork.

I've also got here some sticky rice that's cooking in there.

I'm using glutinous rice and it doesn't have gluten.

Gluten just means it's sticky. That's it.

That's just been cooked in the absorption method

but before that, you need to wash the rice really, really well.

Absorption, you mean you basically measure out the rice

-and the liquid and then just...

-Yes, exactly.

So basically, you know, if you did 300g of rice,

do 600ml of water, so double the amount of water.

Just put it on, the pan, bring it up to the boil,

as soon as it's come to the boil, pop the lid on and

turn it right down, let it cook in the steam for about 15, 20 minutes.

-Right, OK.

-Or do like the Chinese do, get a rice cooker. Right, Ken?

-Get a rice cooker?

-Just pop it in, you don't have to worry about it.

-OK, so we need some groundnut oil.

-Yep.

This is a dish that my grandmother used to make.

So just any oil. Peanut oil, vegetable oil.

The garlic, the shallots.

-Sorry, no garlic, I mean the ginger, shallots.

-Garlic is the next one.

And then the mushrooms...

..go in there.

Now were you taught from the love of your parents cooking at home

and that kind of stuff? Was that where...?

Yeah, you know, I grew up in southern Taiwan

at my grandmothers and cooking was such a pleasure and such a joy.

But I was still really, really young,

so I was more like a hindrance to my family at that time.

But I guess that's where a lot of my food memories come from growing up

during that time, watching them cook and kill chickens and...

..gut fish, you know.

Yes, nice childhood, kill chickens and gut fish. Nice.

Right. So this rice,

I can lift this off and show people what it looks like, which is there.

So we just want a good colour on the belly pork, get it nice

and browned at the edges.

And with the rice, you just need to fluff it up a bit.

Now, of course, as Ken said, when you're making fried rice,