01/11/2015 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. If you want some mouthwatering inspiration,

then you're definitely in the right place.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Stay where you are because we have got the very best chefs,

the finest food and very keen celebrities waiting just for you.

Coming up on today's show, Atul Kochhar treats us

to a traditional South African curry - a lamb bunny chow.

I stumbled upon this recipe.

I learnt it from somebody in South Africa.

Will Holland showcases teriyaki glazed salmon.

He leaves the salmon to marinade in a teriyaki brine overnight

before char-grilling it and serving it with a tasty teriyaki glaze.

Something that's a little bit different and doable at home.

And chef Andrew Turner,

serves a marvellous mango egg on brioche.

He flavours the pain perdu with cinnamon and cloves

and some star anise.

This is where we get jiggy.

And Idina Menzel faces a Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get a Food Heaven, some Parmesan crusted chicken with

slow roasted tomatoes or would she get her dreaded Food Hell,

a plum tart with star anise?

Find out what she gets to eat at the end of the show.

But first, if you're after a versatile dish,

that would work well as a starter, or as a main course,

then the masterful chef Theo Randall is the man just for you.

He's serving up pansotti with ricotta and a walnut sauce.

Great to have you back on the show. Nice to be back.

Now, so what have we got, pasta on the menu for you, as usual.

It's funny that. It's funny that.

I'm making pasta, you know, eggs,

Tipo 00 flour, semolina flour.

You get a nice, kind of, rich dough using lots of egg yolks.

You do use a lot of egg yolks in your pasta, don't you?

I like a rich dough and it adds a nice texture to the actual pasta.

You can see from the colour there.

This is 250g of Tipo 00 flour,

semolina flour, three egg yolks and two whole eggs.

So, it's quite rich.

And you make that on a machine or you do that by hand?

I do it in a machine, you know. OK.

And the sauce, you want me to get on and do that first of all?

We've got these lovely wet walnuts, which are fresh walnuts.

"Wet walnuts"? We're going crack them with some garlic and salt

and make a really delicious sauce with some lemon juice. OK.

A bit of lemon zest, Parmesan, parsley and a bit of milk

and some olive oil.

We call these wet walnuts because they are actually soft in the middle.

They are basically just fresh, new season's walnuts.

I always think with walnuts, if you think of game,

then literally, the walnuts are in season at the same time.

Yeah, exactly, perfect. Because the two go together.

I've rolled the pasta out and put it through the machine two times.

It's proving, it's got a bit more elasticity to it.

The thing is about pasta is the tougher it is, the better it

is because that means you can roll it thinner, so it's much lighter.

All right.

I'm just going to roll that through.

I know that wet walnuts are used a lot in Indian cooking, as well.

Yeah, they are.

They grow in Kashmir and they make them into all kinds of chutneys.

There is one in which you can use dried, sour cherries and walnuts.

That sounds nice. It's absolutely wonderful.

And any kind of sauce is really a chutney.

We would call it a chutney.

I don't know if you have tried those, but try them,

they're very different to what you normally have.

Obviously, the walnut halves, which are dry,

and these...they are soft, that's the key to them.

That's why they call them wet walnuts.

Shall I get some water on?

Sorry! I've got everything else.

I've got to cook the pasta.

I've got these two sheets of pasta.

I got my ricotta, this is sheep's ricotta.

It's got a much lighter taste

than cow's milk ricotta.

And then, I'm just going to break that up.

Congratulations are in order,

because you won another award for your Italian restaurant.

Oh, yeah, we won the Best Italian Restaurant in the Harden's Guide.

That's fantastic. Highest rated.

OK, so we've got some fennel greens here.

I'm just going to chop them up with a knife.

I'll season it with a pinch of salt.

Tell us about ricotta, then,

because it's like a by-product of cheesemaking?

So, ricotta is the whey,

it's the leftover of the curds.

They boil it up, almost like sort of cappuccino,

so you get this froth and when it gets to about 95,96 degrees

it starts to solidify. Yeah.

They put it into these baskets and so all the water goes

and you end up left with this sort of like, you know,

almost like a cheese. Yeah.

In southern Italy, they use it for desserts and cassata

and all those kind of delicious things.

They just mix it together with honey a lot, don't they?

It's really nice with honey.

We've just got our pasta.

That's pretty much it. I'm just going to check the seasoning.

A bit of salt. I kind of get the feeling I've got the bum job here.

You have got the hardest job.

I've got the easy one. So...

Just crush that in the pestle and mortar

with a bit of garlic and salt.

I'm going to put the little bits of ricotta,

like you're making ravioli on the pasta.

What's the best way to actually store it once you've made it

because...? You can make the dough and you can freeze it,

but the best way to make pasta is to make it the day before.

It takes a bit of time making things like ravioli

and the thing to do...

It takes a lot longer to do this, I'll tell you that!

Although the speed you're going...

I didn't get a taste of the walnuts.

I don't know why I got left out.

It was only given to one person.

I get the message! I get the message. Come on.

Thank you, thank you so much. Careful!

There might be a bit of shell.

Add insult to injury.

So, garlic and salt.

Half a clove of garlic, a bit of salt.

Mmm.

Get your walnuts in.

Don't splash my hand.

I'm there,. You're there.

They're really fresh, they're really soft.

Almost quite wet.

It's like a almond.

To make this pasta, a little bit of water in between each bit.

Now, you want Parmesan and lemon in there, yeah?

Parmesan, a bit of lemon zest and lemon juice. All right.

Can you see what I'm doing with this pasta,

I'm brushing a bit of water there

so it seals and then we're going

to push down on the ricotta.

And then, we are going to...

You wouldn't freeze this with the filling in, you'd just leave it...

You can do.

As long as the filling is quite dry

because the problem is when it starts to defrost,

if it's very wet, the pasta will go all soggy.

The best way when you have made them is to put them on a tray with some...

Put them on the tray with a bit of semolina flour

and a bit of clingfilm on top and leave them in the fridge.

They'll be fantastic the next day.

The fridge will slightly dry them out

and you'll get a lovely al dente bite to the pasta.

Right. OK.

So, that's our little kind of...

You can make ravioli or you can do pansotti.

We'll do little kind of...

"Little bellies".

"Little bellies".

Well, those are quite big bellies, actually.

What are you looking at me for when you said that?

I wasn't looking at you!

Remember I've got this in my hand!

What have I got in here? A bit of milk. Yeah.

A bit of Parmesan. That's in there already.

OK, I didn't see.

And a bit of chopped parsley. OK.

You want some oil in there, as well, do you?

We are going to emulsify a bit of oil in there, as well,

so it's a lovely, oily sauce. There's no butter in that part.

The butter comes later.

Yeah. So, we'll get rid of all these.

Thank you.

So just crimp the edges.

If you don't crimp the edges, they'll explode.

These are better made the day before,

or a few hours before.

One question that I always wanted to ask you is how do you make

alphabet spaghetti?

It's very technical, you've got to get a big sheet of pasta

and you get a knife...

Can you do that the next time you come on the show?

I would love to do it. There we go.

As long as you make the tomato sauce to go with it. I can do that, yeah.

Alphabet spaghetti. OK. THEY LAUGH

Right, we've got a minute left.

You've got a minute left. Quick...

Parsley, you want this chopped?

I'll have the sauce ready. Butter.

So, with it being fresh pasta, you don't cook it for very long then?

It's just been made, so it won't take more than a minute.

It's a good job then, really!

Have you got some seasoning in there?

Not yet. OK.

Have you got lemon juice?

Yeah. I've got lemon zest. But not juice.

Lemon juice, that's all over my shirt.

There you go. Give that a good mix. Do you want to mix that?

You've put inside that ricotta, you've put this sort of fennel tops.

Fennel and ricotta goes really nice.

It's a nice aniseedy kind of taste.

Have a taste of that.

Our pasta looks like it's ready. Yeah.

And you finish it off in butter at the end?

There's a bit of butter just to toss pasta through.

You can just use olive oil, it doesn't have to be butter.

Of course you do!

There you go.

Are you mad?

Then just put that into the butter

and just toss it around so you get all that lovely butter

in that pasta.

Not quite as much butter as this but never mind.

And then...

There you go.

A bit of black pepper.

Very simply, just put them on the plate.

A nice, generous portion for you, James.

It's not me, I haven't got two shows to do today.

Then we get our delicious sauce,

which is delicious.

I'm now armed with a rolling pin, just in case.

Then just spoon that over.

So, the sauce had got the wet walnuts, the garlic,

a tiny bit of garlic, milk and I just going to put these...

Lemon, olive oil.

We will finish with a little bit of Parmesan.

We've got a few added bits of walnuts over the top.

A bit of black pepper. So, tell us what that dish is in Italian.

Pansotti con ricotta, so it's pansotti with ricotta,

wet walnuts and fennel tops.

That means "little bellies and walnuts".

Wet walnuts!

It looks great, I know it's going to taste good, as well.

There you go.

You get to dive into this one.

Tell us what you think of that for breakfast? Dive in.

We already like the walnuts. Yeah, exactly.

I'm going to hold you to that alphabet spaghetti,

though, definitely. OK. That's a deal. Yes.

You can mix and match the fillings, you can do whatever you want.

You can do a meat filling with that

but it's the simplicity, the fact that you've got that lovely ricotta,

you don't want to change the flavour of it too much.

With game, that would work fantastic. With the walnuts, as well.

You've got a bit of lemon, or something. That hits you. Mmm.

Happy with that? Mmm.

I'm still waiting on alphabeti spaghetti, Theo.

Coming up, I cook a classic Bakewell tart for a certain Jo Brand

after journeying to the south-west of France with Mr Rick Stein.

Today, he gets a lesson in French patisserie

and prepares a classic poule au pot.

I can honestly say that travelling by barge beats the motorcar

any day of the week and this is the perfect way to explore a

country's cuisine, meeting some very strange characters along the way.

My name is Jean Francois, the king of the duck!

Jean Francois, le roi de canard!

The freshwater fish from the nearby Garonne River,

barbecued on vine twigs and eaten under

the trees by the river bank, takes an awful lot of beating.

In fact, this whole trip takes you gently slipping into villages

and towns where sometimes they'd be having a food festival.

In this case, an escargolade, snails cooked in a meat sauce.

And then, this would be followed by the famous

prune and almond tart

with prunes made from the prize plums from nearby Agen.

A few weeks ago, that's probably 20 miles or so

down the canal back towards Bordeaux,

I was invited to a party by the food writer, Kate Hill,

and lots of American ladies who holiday in France -

at their own places, naturally.

Well, I have to say, I loved her kitchen

and as Bernard is a bit funny when it comes to using the barge galley,

I decided to do my cooking here

with a famous dish from Agen,

rabbit and prunes.

You can get your rabbits here ready for the pot,

you just have to do joint them.

Then you need a bacon joint, it's not been smoked

and it's cut into lardons, little chunks that fry easily.

Well, I have to say, this is the first time I've done this dish,

and I'm a bit shaky, but what's making it worse is Kate Hill,

who owns this house, and this fantastic kitchen,

it's her recipe and she's just sitting up the top of the stairs

there watching me. How am I doing?

You're doing all right, just don't forget the wine. No!

What she says is it needs a whole bottle of Madiran, right,

except one glass.

That's for the cook, which I think is very civilised.

Cheers!

Right, back to business.

We've done the carrots,

we're going to do a couple of sticks of celery now,

and then we're going to make up a little bouquet garni

of Provencal herbs and get cooking.

I love earthy dishes like this.

JB Priestley, a man of profound common sense, who was irritated

by food snobs said, "There is a decent area somewhere between boiled

"carrots and Beluga caviar,

"sour plonk and Chateaux Lafite where we can take care of

"our gullets and bellies without worshipping them."

I've never really been attracted to the idea of rabbit

and prune simply because I used to think it's got cream in it

and I just didn't like the creamy rich sauce with it.

Now I looked at Kate's recipe and I realised, no cream at all,

just lovely big lardons of bacon, onions and,

above all, a whole bottle - less the glass - of red wine.

A much more rugged, peasanty sort of dish.

The other one I thought was a bit restauranty.

This I'm really enjoying cooking, I have to say.

Put in those carrots and celery,

those lardons that have crisped so beautifully in the duck fat,

and the onions and shallots,

and the dried bouquet garni made up of rosemary,

thyme and bay leaf, then the little black jewels of Agen

and then, of course, the rest of the Madiran wine.

And as a final treat,

Kate suggests putting the liver on top

because it's not everybody's favourite

but can still give off its rich flavour

and also can be snaffled by the chef easily.

The whole thing cooks very gently for just under an hour.

Mmm. That's delicious.

That's a very good idea of Kate's,

because certainly my boys wouldn't eat something like this.

They'd put it back and say, "What was that?"

But I love it, just enough for me.

There's a saying - "In cooking, as in all the arts,

"simplicity is the sign of perfection."

And it doesn't really come more simple than this.

To get the maximum flavour out of those prunes, I'm going

to mash them up so their fruity flavour combines with the wine.

Then a touch of salt - fleur du sel - and then add some more fresh

prunes to the now rich sauce, but only warm them through.

The meal is ready to eat.

Pour the sauce over everything and serve on a shaded terrace,

with another bottle of Chateau de Gayon Madiran.

Bravo. That looks lovely.

I have to say, I've really enjoyed making this.

But how have I done?

I'm very pleased because I enjoyed watching you make it.

I know that the recipe actually works with somebody else doing it.

Ah! How like a cook.

Well, I do think that prunes

and that red wine give such a deep colour to the sauce.

People really like that.

I think that's what's characteristic of cooking of Gascony,

that there's a slow cooking,

very natural simple ingredients,

but each one's flavour comes through and you have the integrity of that.

It's part of what life is about here.

What is name of the house? It's very romantic.

I dubbed it the Roulette of the Longue Jour.

The Roulette... "The End Of The Long Days".

Because that was what they called the men who hauled the barges

by horse - the carters of the long days.

They would come here at the end of their day

and put the horses in the barn next door

and go in and make their meal over the fireplace.

Somebody has been barging and eating here from the middle of the 1800s!

There is something to be said

about journeys planned in the winter months.

Shaped and honed in the early spring,

when the very name Canal du Midi conjures up scenes of cypresses,

endless vineyards, lavender fields and sunflowers.

And what better way of tasting the delights of south-west France than

by this plodding old barge pootling along at three miles an hour?

Old ladies on zimmers could whip past us,

if they were inclined to do so, as we make our way to the next lock,

and the next lock, and the one after, and so on.

Good cooking, I think, still rules in France.

The hamburger joints and pizza places haven't taken over yet.

And this is particularly true in the rural areas where little

auberges and family-run food businesses

cater for a local trade.

Like Lucienne Chauvel, with her sought-after tourtieres,

the basis of which is this incredible pastry.

I'm just amazed at this.

It's like the Greek filo pastry, but I've never seen it before.

Thing is, she makes it look so easy, it's like stretching a skin, really.

But I bet you it's not as easy as it looks.

That's what I like about watching people do something incredibly

skilfully, they just make it look so easy.

I've never seen anybody describe a perfect circle before,

but Lucienne's just done it.

And I'm just speechless with the skill here.

I mean, it's just... It's just such a pleasure to watch.

She lays these sheets of tissue-like pastry in the bottom

of a well-greased pan and using her granny's apple slicing machine -

well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it -

she fans the apple slices around the top of the pastry base.

She adds a very generous glass of Armagnac, which is again local,

and some caster sugar.

I just know I'm going to like this.

Le sucre.

But just imagine trying to do this in a restaurant? Well, you couldn't.

Sugar and vanilla.

Now for the crown.

These tourtieres came about after a meeting about farm diversification.

Lucienne served her pies as a treat to the good people that turned up.

And they said, "Mon Dieu, Lucienne! "You must make these pies.

"People will come from miles around to buy them." Voila!

And that's exactly what she did.

I'm lost for words. It's just...

If you just think about the French skill with patisserie,

this is it.

This explains what it's all about.

It is so light, the Armagnac just gives it a sort of real luxury.

There's no pastry cream or anything, it's just like a vol au vent.

It's just like a breath of wind, it's utterly, utterly, butterly.

So, laden with pies, we return to the good ship Rosa.

And I think Michel was pretty impressed.

But this is a real jewel, Nerac.

The wife of that famous king who gave France the poule au pot

came from here.

I like to think of Henry IV as a good Gascon boy.

He wanted all his subjects to eat chicken

at least once a week on Sundays,

and the most

famous of those dishes was poule au pot, or Henry IV chicken.

Very nutritious, lots of vegetables, low in fat,

would feed a family for a couple of days at least.

We need dishes like that now, for goodness' sake!

The important thing is a good stock with all the usual suspects,

plus whole garlic and belly pork.

Well, I have to say when dealing with French produce,

even the wrappers gladden the eye.

I mean, look at that paper.

So much more sensible than plastic.

Plastic makes meat sweat.

And with wrappings like that,

I can expect the head to be left on and the giblets in the cavity.

First of all, let us remove the head and neck.

And that can go into the stock pot, with the giblets I'm going to

use to make a lovely stuffing for my poule au pot.

Making forcemeat stuffing was the order of the day in those times.

It just made the meal go further.

So, after chopping up the giblets, you take some breadcrumbs,

chopped shallots, parsley, garlic, ham and bacon,

bound together with a couple of eggs.

Sometimes the stuffing is more delicious than the expensive meat

it's supposed to accompany.

It needs to be seasoned generously.

Talking of flavour, don't forget the head and neck. Waste not, want not.

Put that forcemeat into the cavity of the chicken.

Let's face it, this is not the sort of dish you're going to do

when you come home from work of an evening.

You need to spend time enjoying every part of the process,

even the fiddly bit of tying up the chicken

so all the precious filling doesn't fall out into the stock.

Remember, in the days of Henry IV, nobody had an oven

so everything was cooked on top of the fire in a pot.

Hence, "poule au pot".

Simmer for 40 minutes, and after that, take out those vegetables

and chicken head, which were used purely for flavouring the stock.

And even in those days,

Henry knew the miraculous benefits of chicken soup.

Put the chicken back in, followed by some fresh vegetables,

crunchy cabbage, leeks, fennel.

In fact, anything you've got to hand.

A recipe should be a tune to which you can sing your own song.

The soup itself will be worth drinking,

never even thinking about the chicken.

But that's what's so great about this dish.

You've got the chicken, you've got those lovely vegetables, as well.

It really is a sort of all-in-one-pot meal.

There's a special sauce to accompany this, sauce gribiche.

And I think it's what makes it really French

and lifts it from being a simple chicken stew to a gourmet meal.

The whole thing is made with Dijon mustard,

a splash of white wine vinegar, I'm using olive oil, capers,

and some chopped up cornichons, or gherkins as we call them.

Now here's an interesting twist -

add some chopped hard-boiled egg, then

flat leaf parsley and more vinegar and olive oil to loosen it up.

You've got to be able to almost pour it off the spoon,

because you're going to drizzle it all over the finished dish.

Once that's ready, season it generously,

because it must have a bit of a kick, and it's ready to go.

Joint the chicken into peasanty chunks.

I've got a friend to obects to the word "peasanty"

when describing food.

But in this case, it's perfectly legitimate, because that's

what it was designed to do -

feed the poor people of the land.

Incidentally, this stuffing is really good, almost like a pate.

We call it "forcemeat" and the French call it "farce",

which means to pad something out.

Chop up that belly pork and with those vegetables,

one chicken feeds six people, no problem.

This is hearth food.

This is the sort of stuff that, you know, you can think of some

peasant's cottage and go in there.

You walk in and there's lovely smells of chicken,

vegetables and broth all simmering away together.

I mean, we've lost the sort of enthusiasm for dishes like this.

You know, in the last series, I did a dish of corned beef with cabbage?

And it was singly the most popular dish that I did.

And I just feel that it's the same with this one.

It's just so sort of elemental

and really the sort of thing that people yearn to eat.

You're not wrong there, Rick.

We saw brilliant pastry work in that film

and it's something the French are brilliant at. We've been lucky

enough to have Michel Roux Sr teach us a few things

about pastry on Saturday Kitchen.

In Britain, we aren't too bad at baking, either -

my granny was particularly good.

I've got a great recipe now.

This is a classic Bakewell tart. Really simple.

What I have here is a lined flan case.

I've got some sweet pastry here which has been baked blind -

baked without colour, ideally.

You need to allow the pastry over the edge first and trim it off after.

Go round with a knife, like that, and trim off the pastry.

That way, you don't have problems with it all collapsing in the tin.

You're looking confused, Jo.

I'm not confused, but already it's too much work

and you haven't put anything in it.

I've got a life, I've got kids.

I just would go down the shop and buy one.

To have to trim the edge of the dish is like, no way...

Moving on to my frangipane.

You can't buy this. This is butter and sugar.

Almonds...

What do you mean, you can't buy it?

You can't buy this... Butter and sugar. ..already made, I mean.

I see what you mean. OK.

Then we are going to mix this up.

Talking of cooking, didn't you do jobs when you were younger,

before comedy and before nursing - cos we know a bit about nursing -

before that, you worked in a French restaurant.

I did and I worked for a sort of

very cliche bad-tempered French chef.

Right.

I'm not looking... No. LAUGHTER

He wasn't like you at all.

And he did the cooking and I did everything else -

I did the washing, the waitressing, everything.

And, er...

we parted company because one day he got me

to peel a massive bowl of garlic and, as he was walking past,

he knocked it off the side and it all fell on the floor and he pointed

at me and went, "Pick that up."

Didn't even say please. I picked it up and

knocked it back on the floor

and said, "Now you pick it up," and walked out.

And that was it? That was the end of my career. Your career in catering.

Didn't you work in a pub, as well?

I did - full-time for a year.

Right. Was that a basis of inspiration to get comedy from?

Not really - a pub's such a weird place to work.

It changes throughout the day. Between when it opens

and the lunchtime rush, you get the very sweet bar bores.

They all sit at the bar and talk absolute tosh to you

for an hour and a half

and you slip gently into a coma,

and then you have to wake up again for the lunchtime rush.

In the evening, the same thing happens again. I did love it.

It was really good fun. And then you went into...

In your new book - you have an autobiography out at the moment -

it talks about the inspiration from that and you went into nursing.

You must have got a lot of information for gags from that.

You spent ten years as a nurse. I was ten years as a nurse.

I worked in a walk-in 24-hour psychiatric emergency clinic.

There were some fairly hideous events there,

as you can probably imagine.

Just to run through what you've got here...

This is the butter, the sugar, the eggs have gone in here.

Mix that with the machine.

This bit you always do by hand - this is the ground almonds.

We mix this together and the reason why I am mixing this by hand

is that it doesn't toughen it up, it keeps it nice and light.

Fold this all in.

Bakewell tart should have raspberry jam on the bottom.

You can buy this - I haven't made it. Have you not? Good on you.

Pop that in the base and top that with this almond mixture.

Flaked almonds on the top, and bake it in the oven.

That's where you have a nice, hot Bakewell tart.

We talked about your autobiography - it stops at a certain point.

It stops at age 30, after I have been doing stand-up

for a couple of years.

Wonder why that is(!) Would that for the next one? May well be.

Wasn't it... Talking about your comedy,

Wasn't it Friday Night Live that really got you out?

That was my first live telly, yeah.

It was a real experience, actually. I was on with The Pogues

and they had a fight in the dressing room next door

when I was getting ready to go on - that was exciting.

I've read a little snippet from your book.

It talks about the first ever comedy stand-up you ever did.

It must have been frightening anyway, but you drunk about seven pints.

I had seven pints of lager.

Every single act that had been on before me - professional comics -

had all died a terrible death.

I staggered on at midnight,

expecting, with my sad little five minutes about Freud,

that I would absolutely entertain them

and, of course, I didn't, it was appalling.

Some bloke started shouting, "Get off, you fat cow!"

as soon as I stepped on stage

and then chanted that continuously for two minutes until I got off.

LAUGHTER

A nightmare.

My dad, that was.

Your dad! LAUGHTER

Poor old dad. It wasn't.

Look, that's... You can't buy that, you see. That looks beautiful.

Then you bake it in the oven, Jo. 350 degrees Fahrenheit -

that's about 170 degrees Centigrade.

Let me write this down in my cookery notebook.

There we are.

We end up with that, Jo. Wow, that's quick. That's quick.

It's not autobiographies that you're known for writing.

You have wrote fiction as well. Yeah, three novels, yeah.

In fact, I wrote the last one in the year just gone. I can't

believe I've written two books in a year,

I don't know how that happened.

Well, my house is very messy and the children are in a cupboard...

Hard work, I think that's the key to it.

..but apart from that, it's all going well.

Bit of icing sugar over the top.

Then we lift off. Look at that.

That looks gorgeous.

Because I like this sort of stuff...

And because, when people are watching this,

they keep reminding me, they're at the gym,

so what we do, to make them run quicker,

put double cream on the top... Wow.

And to make them run even quicker,

we get clotted cream.

That's all quite healthy.

This is the healthy part.

And put that on the top.

Only one calorie in that.

And there we have Bakewell tart with clotted cream.

That looks gorgeous. Am I allowed to have some?

Dive in, tell us what you think. I quite fancy THIS.

LAUGHTER

Michel, you wouldn't call this frangipane, would you?

You would call this something else. Tarte amandine. Tarte amandine.

There you go. That's gorgeous. Bakewell tart where we come from.

Lovely. You like that? Lovely. Happy with that, there you go.

I told you, Jo, you can't buy that.

Now, if you'd like to try to cook any of the amazing studio recipes

you've seen on today's show,

then all of those are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Today, we're looking back at some of the finest cooking

from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now, it's always a pleasure

to welcome a certain Atul Kochhar to the kitchen.

Here he is armed with a delectable Durban curry.

Great to have you back on the show. So honoured to be back.

So, what are we doing, then?

Something from your travels, really, this one.

It is indeed. It's a bunny chow, which is a South African curry.

Can I just borrow some oil from here? Yeah.

A bunny chow? Yes. Right.

And it's - a lot of history and heritage, there. Yeah.

It's Indian workers who were brought in

for the plantation in South Africa. Right.

They brought a piece of India with them -

their culture, their cuisine -

and they started this,

and obviously, there have been some South African infusions in this.

Yeah. So, I'm going to start with spices,

which is cumin, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaf.

Right. OK?

Now, I'm assuming the spices vary from country to country in a curry,

but this one in particular, really, this one?

It does, because something like star anise and fennel -

in Indian cooking, we would not normally use it together.

Right. We would either use star anise OR fennel -

but they're both used together,

so it shows that there's a huge infusion of different cultures,

because South Africa also had a lot of people from the Far East -

China - and also Africa.

So, they have had all the influences mixed over. Yeah.

And different kind of foods have come out.

Another great dish in South Africa is called bobotie.

Oh, I've had a bobotie. You've had a bobotie? Yeah.

So, it's sort of like a baked meat custard, so to speak. Yeah!

That's what it is. You've really sold that one, haven't you?(!)

ATUL LAUGHS Meat custard? A meat custard, yeah!

I'm sorry - it sounds horrible, but it tastes delicious. Yeah.

OK, the oil is hot, and the first rule is,

oil always has to be hot before you throw the spices in.

So, if you could pick which area of India where this, you think,

would originate from - I'm assuming this would be from the south,

with spices like that. You're absolutely spot on,

because a lot of workers

were brought in from South India,

and that's how use of curry leaf, fennel, cinnamon,

all these things come from. Right. And they've used it really well.

So, once the onion is in, add a pinch of salt

so that onions lose the water fairly quickly.

It's water that...

Now, often, with a lot of Indian curries, really -

I mean, Dawn was on about learning to make one -

but you brown off the onion quite a lot, don't you, in a lot of...?

Yeah, you have to... Well, if you want to cook Indian food,

you've got to know your onions. That's what I say. Yeah! Yeah.

So, you have to salt it - there are three clear stages.

Translucent, medium brown and deep brown... Right.

..and depending on that,

we actually decide the colour of the curry. Yeah.

So, with this one, we just need to kind of colour it to translucent,

and once the onion is kind of at this stage, which is a good stage -

South African curry powder, which has got...

South African curry powder? Yeah!

..fennel, cumin, coriander,

red chilli, black pepper.

So, about two tablespoons of that gone in,

for about a kilo of meat, I'm using. Yeah.

So far, so good. So far, absolutely delicious.

Going to serve this one? Yeah, loving it. Yeah!

Once the onions have - sorry, the spices have gone in,

add the tomatoes, because you don't want your spice powder to burn.

Right.

Now, often, with a lot of curries, and particularly stews,

you brown off the meat -

apart from, obviously, Irish stew, that kind of stuff,

but you're not browning the meat, so this is...

I know, James - I was actually amazed

when I stumbled upon this recipe.

I learnt it from somebody in South Africa, in Durban,

and tomatoes go in first, because you would actually brown the meat,

and actually half-cook it before you add the tomatoes.

Otherwise, acid from the tomatoes wouldn't let the meat cook properly.

Right. Well, I guess this is one of those recipes where it needs to be

cooked slowly over a period of time.

So, because it's slow-cooking,

I would recommend the whole leg of lamb -

or shoulder would be amazing in this. Yeah.

OK, at this stage, I'll add the meat, as well.

And I'll remember to wash my hands. Garlic's gone in there, as well.

So, the meat that you use in there...

Bit too much meat, I'm going to use only that much.

That's been trimmed a little bit, this meat. Yes. It's not too fatty.

It's not too fatty,

you don't use too much of fatty pieces in Indian food,

or Indian-style food, I would say.

And then once you seal the meat lightly,

we can add a little bit of water.

Of course, salt needs to go in now.

Now, every time I see you, you've got things in the pipeline.

Yes. I mean, your travels were - what?

To get inspiration for your book?

This was for my... Which is out next year.

Yes, I should have mentioned on the go, actually,

my book, Curries Of The World -

Atul's Favourite Curries of the World, that's how it's called.

That was a line-up, you see? Nicely done.

Nicely done.

I'll add some water, James, here - about 150...

You're also, as well as that, I mean,

you're setting up another restaurant, as well, of yours.

That's true - I'm setting up a restaurant.

Again, I'm going to plug another book, I'm sorry about this,

but it's my first book, Indian Essence -

my restaurant is called Indian Essence. Yeah.

Sorry, I'm shameless!

I'm so sorry.

All right. You're not at all sorry!

Yeah. No, I'm not, actually. Dawn...

There's only a small portion of curry for you.

Ginger. So, ginger and garlic together, that's great. Yeah.

And I will let this cook for about half an hour.

You've got these to go in - do you want these curry leaves?

Curry leaves can go in now. Missed those.

Right, so, you cook that for half an hour, just with the lid on.

With the lid on, and... And then put the potatoes on.

..then put the potatoes in.

Right. And potatoes would cook for another 20-odd minutes.

Well, I'm going to leave you to do that bit, anyway.

That goes here.

What do find, on your travels -

what's the main difference between the curries?

I'm assuming there's just masses of difference, but...

Huge difference...from... If you take it that?

Have you got a bread knife, Chef? Yeah. Thank you.

If you take it from Far East to India, to Caribbean,

it's all kind of... changed scenario everywhere. Yeah.

And people would use curries inspired from India,

but use their own local ingredients, as well.

Yeah. And that's what is amazing part.

So, somewhere in the Caribbean,

where they would use something like allspice, they would also use...

Old Spice? Allspice.

Oh... Not Old Spice.

I always knew that Yorkshire people speak a bit differently!

I suppose...!

Allspice, and they would also use something like thyme and parsley

in their curries, which is very unusual.

And this was actually...

Where's the best curry to be found in England, then?

Cos Madhur Jaffrey was on the show last week... Er...

She told me where the best curry was to be found.

I know, Madhur would say Leicester. Leicester?

And I would say Birmingham. Yeah?

Yeah, Madhur said Leicester, as well. You would agree, Mark?

I am a Birmingham boy, so... Birmingham boy! There you go...

I'd say Birmingham, too.

You say it - well, apparently Leicester's pretty good, as well.

So, this was a kind of first Indian takeaway, so to speak. Right.

Yeah, I think - that's great. Looks fantastic.

Right, I'm going to put the coriander in...

Chopped coriander, and I need some lime, also, Chef. I'm doing that.

I'm doing that, I'm doing that.

There you go.

Now, lime.. Lime, please, Chef. Thank you.

Plenty of lime juice in there. Tastes nice.

Yeah. I'm selling it.

There you go.

How many do you want, two? Sure. Can I ask you something?

Sure. Just that occurs to me -

what's the worst mistake people make when they're making a curry, then?

Er, I think they try to put too many spices too quickly.

So, with the spices, you have to remember that it's only seasoning -

and the bigger quantity doesn't make better curry.

I see, OK. Or make better food.

So, use as much as salt and pepper, that's what I would always say.

Right, so, what... what's going on here?

OK, this is the bread -

it's a kind of first Indian takeaway, so to speak.

Your Cornish pasty, is it?!

There you go - there you go, I'm just making Dawn happy today.

Right! So, when the Indian labourers came from India

to work in South African fields,

they didn't have takeaway containers... Right.

..and somebody came up with this ingenious idea of using bread

as a takeaway container, and served the food in this,

so that they can take it to their field and eat it.

So, the bread will be soaked up...

with all the juices... That's amazing!

..and still, they'll be able to have a good nourishment.

And you've just turned it into a Michelin-star dish

with a little bit of coriander cress!

No, it's not a Michelin star, please don't pull me on that -

it's just the way it is. This is how, classically, they serve it,

and I've eaten it in this form - I just love this curry.

So, tell us what it is again.

It's bunny chow from Durban. That's what it is.

And the difference between that...and that -

28 quid. Innit, Chef?

There you go.

Just a little bit of coriander cress.

Ahh! Right, now you get to dive into this.

Yeah! Wow. A curry in the morning.

Half a loaf of bread! LAUGHTER

With a curry inside it. It's a great idea, cos like you say, it's...

I would say, forget the knife and fork, tear the bread and go for it.

Tear the bread and... What do you think?

Tear it like this? Yeah, just go for it.

Gosh! Oh, my gosh - look at this.

You've torn it too much, but it's OK. Right I've torn it...

All right - I'm going back, don't punish me.

Don't punish me yet, I'm going back.

Oh, look at this - look at this.

Now, would that one in the bread always be served with lamb?

Can you manage that? Originally it was served with beans -

it's vegetarian, because Indians were vegetarians... Yeah, yeah.

..and they were called "bunyas" - traders -

and that's how the name "bunny chow" got abbreviated out of it.

But later, people introduced beef and lamb and whatnot.

That's a huge piece I've taken, there.

This is a huge piece I've got, here! Go for it, go for it!

Ohh!

Just nod. Mm!

There, that's it!

You see, who needs a plate when you can use half a loaf of bread?

Cracking stuff, there.

Now, it's time for a dose of the great man - a certain Keith Floyd.

Today, he's back in Provence cooking alongside one of his food heroes.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

The classical views of Provence - classical music,

the air, brilliant and clear.

The bright sun, the architecture.

He wanted lots of culture in this bit - I'm not really good at that,

and Frank Bough couldn't do it,

cos he was away on holiday somewhere,

and so I've got to stumble through as best I can.

Anyway, there's a church, you see, really good church.

Think of something deep and meaningful to say over this bit.

Um... Look, there's - those belfries on the top of churches,

that's very Provencale.

All these little villages on the sides of hills, and stuff like that.

And vines, you see...

Ah, and here's one of me again,

dressed as a custard tart.

But seriously, I'm on a pilgrimage, actually,

coming back to Saint Saturnin D'Apt and the restaurant St-Hubert -

a place which inspired me with its good cooking

many more years ago than I care to remember.

Look at that - that is a shellfish soup,

and when you break into the crust

and you smell the fragrant aroma of fresh langoustines,

you're in heaven.

It's very difficult for me to sit at a table and talk to you -

you've watched some of my programmes before,

some of you have never seen me before - and for some of you,

you're going to think I'm an arrogant twit and you don't like me,

and all the rest of it - I'm going to let you into a little secret.

The only reason I'm sitting here is because once, about - I don't know -

nearly 20 years ago, I met a man who profoundly influenced my life.

He was a local lad, actually - simple chap,

never really went to school, left when he was 15,

took over a cafe which he couldn't really afford -

it was full of rough drunks,

sometimes people burst in with shotguns,

and all sorts of bizarre things happened

while he served them great bowls of steaming Provencale soup

and crude bread, and litres of rough wine.

Anyway, 20 years later, he's cooking some of the finest food.

You won't find him in the Michelin Guide,

his name isn't Paul Bocuse or the Roux brothers -

he's called Claude Arnaud. He's a simple man.

He cooks brilliant food.

He's my hero - that's why I'm here in Provence.

And, you know, there's absolutely nothing magic about cooking.

Good cooking comes from years of learning

and of dedication and of discipline.

When I started cooking 20 years ago, what I know now is,

I'd have given my right arm to have worked under a man like Claude.

He's very strict, I know, but he is a perfectionist,

and he drives these blokes, but not only is he harsh on them,

he fills them with enthusiasm and dedication -

look at that, for example,

and the way that this guys is folding up the envelope

for his fish en papillote.

In Britain, we don't take that kind of trouble.

Incidentally, those of you who write to me

about dipping my fingers in food had better stop, after you've seen this.

HE CHUCKLES I'm not TOO sure about that - I think it's OK...

Anyway, the cooking will get rid of anything nasty

that he's blowing into that, and he does drink plenty of pastis,

which is a hygienic sort of drink.

Cut it open, and the aroma comes wafting out -

fresh courgettes, tomatoes, onions,

lemon juice, fresh bream and herbs.

It's delicious.

Cooking under a guy like this makes you a little nervous -

and also there's some blinking canaries

twittering away in the background,

not to mention the director, who's twittering quite a bit, as well.

So, we've already started making this wonderful dish,

which Claude has explained to me

is a very white chicken breast fried very gently in butter

and then served with a curious beetroot sauce -

and to save camera time,

we've already cooked that for about four minutes on each side,

very gently so that it hasn't taken too much colour,

and it hasn't dried up - that's very important.

And I put it on there.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

I cover that - that's very important -

so it doesn't dry, he tells me, while it's...

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

I've got to lift off a bit of the grease...

C'est chaud. C'est chaud. Oh, oui!

Listen, it takes two to tango -

we've never worked together before - I've always been a customer here.

Un peu comme ca - we take a little bit... Ah, oui, c'est bon.

C'est bon? C'est bon. Take away a little bit of the fat...

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

..and a little bit of echalotes, like that, which is shallots...

..which I let just soften - is that right?

C'est vrai, comme ca? Yes, OK.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I leave them there for about 30 seconds or so, while they soften.

Un verre de vin blanc. Un verre? Mm.

Right, I've got to put nearly a glass of white wine in. OK.

OK?

And let that, I think, reduce a little.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

You know, you can see, can't you?

I don't even know where the hot part of the stove is.

In my own kitchen, I would know -

but it's funny how working under these really good people

makes you a bit nervous.

Anyway, we'll have to let that bubble down for a second or two.

We might as well just have a little glass while that's reducing.

Cos as you know, that's what I really enjoy doing -

is wittering on, chattering, drinking -

and actually, to have to really do this is, ahem, a bit worrying.

Right, that's nearly ready now.

Oh, c'est bon. C'est bon? Non, non...

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

I've still got to leave it a little bit longer.

What do we do...? I'll ask the director - what shall we do now,

while I'm just waiting for that to evaporate a bit?

Walk out of shot would be a good idea.

I'm going to walk out of shot.

Some years ago, a painter from Paris came down here on holiday

and, like everybody does, he fell in love with the place,

and decided to stay,

and started painting these wonderful pictures of the area.

The trouble was, he was broke,

and he couldn't afford to pay for his bills,

so he gave the hotel these pictures -

which, believe it or not, are now worth an absolutely fortune.

Who said cooks are daft?

CLAUDE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

OK, right, so we've reduced the shallots and the white wine,

and then we've put the creme fraiche in, the fresh cream,

and we just let that reduce a little tiny bit on this very hot stove...

Sel et poivre. Salt and pepper -

stay there, Clive, I'll just go and get the salt and pepper.

I forgot that.

Little bit of salt.

A grind or two of pepper, like that.

I tell you what - I mean, it's about 102 degrees OUTSIDE,

in the shade - it really is.

This is July in the middle of Provence, it's dammed hot,

and it's unbelievable in here - I reckon it's about 130.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Ah - there's a tip for all of you at home

making cream sauces at any time -

as soon as the cream sticks onto the edge of the spoon like that,

it's ready. OK?

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

Now, I put in - he's a bit hard, actually, this guy!

Jusque un petit peu. Un petit peu?

Un petit peu. Voila. Oui. Like that? Voila, c'est bon.

This is beetroot - cooked beetroot mashed up with butter.

OK - and look how lovely it turns into this purple,

lovely purple sauce.

I'm not going to take this pace, you know...

CLAUDE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

All right... Oh, I was cooking it too fast, there.

So, that's ready.

Et maintenant...?

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

God, I'm glad I'm a television presenter, not an apprentice.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

Ah, there's another important thing he was just telling you, you see?

The little bit of juice that, by covering it, has been saved,

gets poured into there just to enrich the dish,

That's the sort of detail we just don't...

CLAUDE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Ah, I see.

It's just the sort of detail that we don't do in England, do we?

Ooh...

And then I sieve this through,

because we're going to put the chicken

on top of this beautiful sauce.

Oui, c'est bon. C'est bon? Voila. C'est bon, c'est bon.

Like this.

Oh, mais non - non, non. No? HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I can't do that, I'm being... Sur la table.

I put this over here. You have to follow me around, Clive -

I'm actually getting a proper lesson, here. Ici. Yeah.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Ah, bon.

Voila.

Now what have I got to do? HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Cut it like that? OK.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I see.

Right - I've got to slice it like this,

and then put it back together again.

Notice we're both wearing glasses today, Claude and I.

That's how close we are.

HE CHUCKLES

In fact, culinary-wise, we're miles apart.

He is streets ahead of me, this man.

I've never admitted that on any other programme I've done before.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Voila. OK.

I put the... HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I put the garniture on - the garnish on,

which is very thin slices... A cote de... Voila.

..very thin slices of tomato and courgettes

baked in olive oil, onions and herbes de Provence,

and then I put a few little bits of...

Juliennes de carottes, et voila.

..julienne of carrot, which is lightly cooked, slightly croquant.

Et le juliennes de haricots verts.

And little haricots verts, little green beans...

like that.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

C'est bon. C'est bon? C'est bon - oui, oui.

He says it's bon - it's OK.

I found it a bit difficult!

He's a bit exigeant, as we say.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I could've put a little julienne of - that's very thin strips -

of beetroot over it, as well, to make it really superb,

but he says, "What do you expect from somebody like you,

"who makes television programmes?"!

Bon!

Claude, merci beaucoup. Chin-chin. Chin-chin.

MUSIC: La Marseillaise

The river's flowing by and time's running out - this is the end.

It's the end of the most fantastic programme I've ever made in my life.

I used to live here years ago,

and I came back - you know, as if it was a present from the gods

to make a film about this fabulous country,

with its wonderful colours, its flavours, its scents -

the fireworks going up celebrating Bastille Day,

when they knocked the king and queen of France out of existence -

but they're still a crazy lot, getting drunk,

having a wonderful time, dancing in the streets.

I'm sitting here with my feet in the water,

stuck inside of Memphis with the Mobile blues again, you know?

It's grim - but there's a happy side to everything.

We've got a huge fire going over there, a feu de bois,

a barbecue like you've never seen -

and to get out on this night of explosions, fanfares,

trumpets and fireworks, I'm going to cook a brilliant barbecue

for all the friends that I've made,

because, you know, we're not a big-budget production -

we don't have 28 vans of catering equipment behind us

and stuff like that, we have to con our way in, beg, steal,

borrow - and in the same process, we've actually made friends,

and I've invited them tonight to say, "Au revoir, Provence."

This might look amazingly luxurious to you, you know,

as you sit round your little ?4.25 Hibachi barbecues

in the middle of winter,

watching this extravaganza of fire - Floyd On Fire -

but it's not extraordinary for these people here.

They live outdoors, they cook outdoors - these simple sausages,

Clive, if you can come down and have a look at them as I'm speaking.

These are merguez, spicy sausages -

all you need is an aeroplane ticket and three and six a pound.

Move over to the left, beautiful andouillette -

these are chitterling sausages, but you can buy chitterlings on Exmoor.

You can buy them in butcher shops all over the place, and make them.

Here, they're just a normal thing to have.

More merguez. Spicy, Arab-style sausages.

Here, just a little tray of sardines sizzling merrily away...

and a little bit of luxury, some quail on the fire here...

and over here I've got some marinaded lamb kebabs.

Marinaded in just lemon juice, herbes de Provence and olive oil.

And what I'm going to try to do, if I possibly can,

before I feed all my friends - and they are getting...

Actually, we said, we promised we'd feed them at 7.30.

Right now, it's 11.05, they're all sitting there very happy,

very, very - you know what I mean? Sort of like that...

But any minute now they're going to erupt, like the fireworks,

like the spectacular visions of this country,

this old, ancient, erotic place that it is.

It's absolutely amazing -

and if all goes well, the piece de la resistance

is going to be this bass, which is going to be flamed in cognac

and fennel which I picked up from the hedgerow this morning.

Voila, messieurs, 'dames, je regrette de...vous avez attendez...

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Bravo!

THEY SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Oui, oui. What he's told me is it's bound to be disgusting,

but the pictures are going to be fabulous.

Clive's back in the business, I'm back in the business,

I say goodnight to them - watch the fireworks.

Cheerio, Provence. We'll be back.

Great work from a legend, there - Mr Keith Floyd.

It looked pretty good to me.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at some of the fantastic recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Still to come on today's Best Bites -

When Marcus Wareing and Vivek Singh went head-to-head

at the Omelette Challenge,

they were both doubtful they'd be able to better their times -

but how did they do?

Find out in just a few minutes.

Chef Andrew Turner brings some wizardry to the studio.

He serves eggs on toast - but not as you know it.

And Idina Menzel faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell -

would she get her Food Heaven,

parmesan-crusted chicken with slow-roasted tomatoes?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell -

a plum tart flavoured with star anise?

Find out what she gets to eat at the end of the show.

Now, he earned his first Michelin star before turning 30,

and today Will Holland is treating us

to a delicious dish that's different to his usual, more classic style.

Over to you, Will.

The brilliant Will Holland - great to have you on the show.

Thank you very much.

Now, something different for you, looking at these ingredients.

Yeah, we've gone for something that's not the sort of classic dish

I'd serve in the restaurant,

but something that's a little bit different, and doable at home.

Doable at home. Right, you want me doing the peppers?

Yeah, you're going to do some sweet-and-sour peppers,

so - vinegar, sugar, chilli and some actual peppers. OK.

I'm going to get on with the salmon -

so, what I've got here is Loch Duart salmon,

so it's farmed salmon, but farmed...farmed well.

And instead of just char-grilling it straight like this,

I've actually made a brine. Right.

So, a brine is a salty liquid, salty water,

so I've got water, salt, and teriyaki - so,

we're going to start introducing the teriyaki flavour in at that stage.

All I've done, brought that to the boil, chilled it -

and that's in this dish here, with the piece of salmon -

and I'll bring this out, so you can see it. OK.

This is the base of how you would teriyaki chicken

and that kind of stuff - you would marinade it first.

Yeah, marinade it, so you can see the difference.

That's been in the brine overnight... OK.

..for up to 24 hours,

so you need to dry it off.

Right, sugar and vinegar you want in here. Yeah. That's gone in there.

And the idea is what? You just bring this to the boil?

Bring it to the boil, pop the peppers in,

and then just let them cool down in there. OK.

Just going to get rid of that fresh salmon...

So, it colours it a little bit, as well?

Yeah, you can see it's taken on a kind of brown colour. Yeah.

But it's also the salt in the brine

has taken some of the water content out of the fish. Right.

And so it's just going to be a lot nicer

when we actually come to cook it.

Now, tell us about Ludlow,

then - because it's quite a famous area for food.

I mean, you're there now, but really,

the guys who set it all off originally are the likes of - what?

probably Shaun Hill would be the...?

I think Shaun Hill's definitely sort of the pioneer

of putting Ludlow on the...

Yeah. ..on the foodie map...

but there's been lots and lots of chefs along the years... Yeah.

..and other things -

I mean, the town is just an incredible place for food.

You've got the food...

Cos you celebrate it, I mean, you've got the food festival,

which has just happened. The food festival, yeah. Right.

Second weekend of September every year. Yeah.

Don't miss it - but it's incredible.

I mean, the town population's about 10,000...

"Don't miss it" - you have missed. HE LAUGHS

Don't miss it - it's every year.

This is the 18th year that it's been going... Right.

..and, you know,

the town population's about 10,000,

and over 25,000 people come to the festival, so it's incredible.

The secret behind it is you're surrounded by great produce,

I suppose, aren't you? Yeah, absolutely.

It's just sort of about screaming and shouting

about what's good around there. Yeah.

Right, hot char-grill pan.

I just lightly brush the salmon with a little bit of sesame oil,

just to stop it sticking... Yeah.

..and you can cook this as much or as little as you want,

depending how rare you want it.

When that comes off the char-grill,

what we're going to do is make a teriyaki glaze.

Right, I've got the peppers, there. Are they going in with the chilli?

Yeah. We just basically switch that off...

Turn it off, and just let the heat do its thing.

We've got some in the fridge, anyway.

Right, you want me to do this bok choi?

Going to saute some pak choi for me. Yep, OK.

What I'm going to is take some of your favourite, James - here we go.

See, it was all going so well until this point.

It was all going so well... ..and you ruined it.

..until we got the dreaded green paste out.

See, broccoli to you is wasabi to me.

Not a fan? Horseradish.

It's the food of the devil.

Is that quite spicy, then? It's...

It's quite spicy, but it's good to use it sort of intelligently,

so, not too much.

LAUGHTER

Take it out. Yeah.

I've got off on a bad foot coming here and cooking this for James.

Yeah. Let me tell you about it, even if you're not going to eat it.

Yeah, tell us about it. Go on, sell it. Go on.

We've got lime juice, wasabi, and then, teriyaki,

and we just mixed that together and it makes this glaze

so when the salmon comes off the char-grill, we're going to

just paint that over it and it's going to be all lovely.

This is it in its raw state, isn't it, really?

Yeah. That's the paste I've put in there,

but this is the only company...

There's only one company in the whole of Europe that grow it fresh.

I know you're going to go, "That's for a reason." Yes!

But that's what it looks like fresh

and if we get time, I'll grate a little bit and show you.

Oh, yeah, put more on! Why not? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Lovely.

Right, I'm just going to turn this over...

and you'll see the lovely char-grilled lines

that we get on there. And, like I said,

you can cook this up to three, four, five minutes each side. It's just obviously going to cook more.

Give us your stuff for the Hollandaise

and I'll get that started. Right. Classic Hollandaise,

apart from I like to put a whole egg in mine.

So, we've got one whole egg...

The whole egg stabilises it a bit though, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, stabilises it and also makes it a little bit lighter

cos you've got the egg white in there. Yeah.

So, one whole egg and four yolks. Right.

Hollandaise, is that something you would never attempt?

I don't even know what it is. Don't even know...! Mamma mia.

I told you, I'm the worst guest imaginable for this kind of show.

Come on, what is it? Bless you. It's a butter sauce, basically.

A couple of eggs, egg yolks and butter.

Yeah, I would never attempt that. I'm more than happy to try it.

It sounds very nice. And then, classically, you put vinegar in it.

Will I just put this on here? Yeah.

Classically, you put vinegar in there to add the acidity to it,

but we're going to actually add lime juice in it today.

So, that's there.

Some lime juice in from the start.

And then we've got the pan of melted butter ready.

I'll leave that there just in case you need any more.

And then we're also going to... No, leave that over there!

We're also going to really spoil this for you, James. I'm insistent.

What is it with you lot? Look!

We're going to put some wasabi in there, as well.

Don't ever grow a horseradish though, you know that? Really?

Yeah, cos you'll have to grow via Ludlow.

You'll have to dig via Kent to get rid of it.

You'd never get rid of it. It's unbelievable stuff.

So, the restaurant's going well?

Cos when you originally opened it, you took it over, well,

you bought it about five years ago? Yeah. It was Hibiscus.

The restaurant's been open now for over five years,

so, yeah, it's going really, really well.

Going from strength to strength.

We're actually doing some building work at the moment.

We're opening a tasting room that looks into the kitchen,

a sort of chef's table area where you're actually going to be able

to see through to the kitchen.