03/01/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

If you like good food with world-class chefs

all sprinkled with a touch of celebrity stardust,

there's no better place to be. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

I hope you're hungry, cos we've got an hour and a half

of fantastic cookery lined up just for you.

Coming up on today's show,

Jun Tanaka serves up slow-cooked spicy pork cheeks with polenta,

perfect for your Sunday lunch.

Theo Randall's got squid on the menu.

He's cooking it in seconds to go with borlotti beans

and a touch of chilli,

and the first lady of Irish cooking, Rachel Allen,

has the ultimate recipe for those with a sweet tooth.

It's a classic baked Alaska

and she's serving it with an instant chocolate sauce.

It's a dessert that's guaranteed to make everyone,

not just the Irish, smile around your dinner table.

And comedian Micky Flanagan faces his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven,

an Indian-spiced shoulder of lamb with red lentil dhal?

Or would he get his Food Hell,

a salad made with mozzarella and beetroot with beetroot meringues?

You can find out what he gets to eat at the end of the show.

But first, here's Adam Byatt with a great recipe using wild sea bass

and a parsley-infused mayo - that's if you can hear him

above the noise of the blender, of course.

-Good to have you back on the show.

-Thank you for having me, James.

You've upped your game a bit for this one. What are we doing?

We're doing something a bit more interesting today.

We're going to treat this beautiful sea bass, line-caught sea bass,

with ultimate respect. We're going to make

a wonderful mayonnaise in a really traditional fashion but using an infused oil.

-I love it how you say "we".

-Yeah, we, very much we.

And then we're going to make a walnut and truffle pesto,

so quite a luxurious ingredient. So if you can get on with that,

-if you just pick the parsley down.

-Pick the parsley down.

And blend it with oil.

Obviously, a mayonnaise you just need to make a...

You need oil for it, sunflower oil.

Now we don't often get served the whole fish,

particularly whole line-caught bass.

I was going to say, "How can you tell it's fresh?" but you've taken the head off.

-Well, I could...

-That's really the way of testing it, isn't it?

Very quickly I'll show you. I'll show you very quickly.

You want to look at the gills and the eyes.

Lovely bright red gills and lovely...

-BLENDER WHIRS LOUDLY

-Thanks, James.

-Sorry, carry on.

-Thanks, James.

-Nice protruding eyes, that's how we tell it's nice and fresh.

-Protruding eyes.

-Yeah.

Let me get this off the bone and I'll show you how we do that.

Straight down the back.

Actually, oils are pretty simple to make, aren't they, really?

Yeah, and this mayonnaise works with crab oil, tarragon oil...

You can make all sorts of oils.

Watercress on the menu at the moment in the restaurant.

We've got a watercress oil and we do it with salmon.

SHOUTING: If you can hear me, do you make your own oil, Si?

Yeah, we use a lot of oils.

We make a lobster oil from the by-products of the lobster

so we don't waste the shells.

You can make a mayonnaise from it like Adam's doing today.

This is it. It's just basically herbs and oil, that's it.

-Blend it up really well and you use that.

-Look at this fabulous piece of fish here.

This is line-caught. The difference is, people often see sea bass

in the supermarkets quite small. That's farmed sea bass.

Yeah, absolutely, farmed.

You have to put it back if you catch this out in the ocean

but this is line-caught.

This is line-caught sea bass, yeah, really beautiful.

If you can do another quick job for me there, James,

you can just get the endive prepped for me.

I'm just going to take any of the nasty bits off and put it into...

The French use this a lot, don't they, endive? It's great in salads.

Yeah, I love it. Nice cooked, as well.

-Yeah, braised down it's really nice.

-Yeah, beautiful.

There's a couple of pin bones in the bass, which we need to get rid of.

-Just move that to the front there.

-BLENDER CONTINUES TO WHIR

I will turn it off in a minute, don't worry.

You've got to blend that oil quite well.

-What was that? SHOUTING:

-You've got to blend that oil quite well, James.

There we go.

WHIRRING GETS LOUDER

So, the idea is, the longer we blend it, and like you say,

you can do this with watercress,

-the deeper the colour will go.

-Yeah.

You know what, what I find with watercress,

the only problem with watercress is,

funny enough, it has a lot of water in it,

so it makes a mayonnaise quite thin but parsley works really well.

But it can also go brown cos you're cooking it,

the temperature is going round and round and round.

I can't hear a word you're saying but I'm sure it's right.

WHIRRING STOPS

-Is that it?

-Yeah, that's great.

-Happy with that?

Yeah, that works really well.

Now if you can turn that into a lovely mayonnaise for me...

I can but you need to use the machine first, don't you, this one?

No, it's fine. You can do that now and we'll put it into a bowl.

I'm going to thinly slice this sea bass, very thin across the...

And line it on a piece of lovely parchment paper.

It will all make sense in a minute.

And this works well as a starter or a main course

but I'm going to cook a slightly bigger main course portion.

So this is the kind of thing that you serve in your restaurant?

A very similar dish to this is on the menu at the moment.

I'll wash my hands.

But we use salmon and we use a watercress mayonnaise, so similar.

Same-same but a little bit different.

You take the chicory, the endive... That goes straight into there.

That's right. They'll crisp up really nicely in there.

I'm going to make a pesto, slightly different.

What I've done... I'll make some but it's very important

good quality virgin olive oil and some lovely walnuts in there.

Toast them off. It's really important to get a toasted flavour

also infusing into the oil.

It's also most important, as well, that we cool it down

cos we're going to add Parmesan to it.

It's very important that it's cold,

otherwise the whole thing's going to go really claggy,

so really important we cool it down first. Pour that.

-So the whole lot goes in?

-Yeah, really simple.

The whole lot goes in together.

They'll just toast away and leave them to cool after.

They'll take, what, a minute, couple of minutes to toast them?

Yeah, two or three minutes.

Some Parmesan, as you would in a normal pesto.

-This is just taking a pesto and doing something slightly more interesting with it.

-OK.

There you go.

The secret with that is always buy fresh Parmesan, if you can.

Try not to buy that dried stuff. You often get that dried stuff.

-Not good.

-No, a nice Reggiano Parmesan is really good.

A little bit of garlic, not too much.

Do you want to pick some thyme in there for me,

just to continue the earthy notes?

While I get the job of putting this little puppy in -

a beautiful Perigord truffle.

Truffle. Yeah, that everybody can get at home, yeah.

No, this is a luxury ingredient. I get that...

-Looks great. That's 10, 20, 30 quid.

-No, it's not.

That's it, nice little truffle and just to carry that through,

a bit of truffle oil, which is a product that's quite readily available.

You don't want to use too much of it.

But you can buy a bottle of that and mix it together with some

vegetable oil or sunflower oil and it lasts a lot longer, doesn't it?

Yeah. I was just going to hit that

when you were talking there just to make sure...

So, the fish needs to go in, yeah?

So, what we do, very simple with the fish.

Just season it really lightly, little bit of olive oil

and I'm going to grate a little bit of lemon zest on there, as well.

-A little bit of olive oil.

-Can I take this off now?

Yeah, keep it quite... Oh, dear, sorry.

Keep it quite chunky.

There you go, and I'll get on...

And I've got a baking tray in the oven.

The oven's at full tilt, really hot, and a baking tray in the oven.

-Leave it like that.

-For people at home, as hot as your oven will go?

Yeah, that's right. And leave the baking tray in there.

Leave the baking tray in the oven and just slip the fish onto the baking tray.

It works lovely for parties.

You just do four or five at a time, store them in the fridge like that

and it cooks on the underside on the baking tray. It's really simple.

So, how long are you looking at cooking? A couple of minutes?

Yeah, it'll probably take two minutes maximum to cook that,

which is really fantastic.

We're starting to get a bit of a mayonnaise here.

-That's an egg yolk, mustard, touch of vinegar in there.

-That's it.

Completely traditional. I've put in a bit of water as well

just to let it down.

It makes it more emulsified and allows you to add the oil quicker.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, it looks lovely.

You can store that in the fridge.

That'll happily sit in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

-I haven't had any water in here.

-Have you put any salt in?

Nothing yet. Just that.

-That's all.

-Beautiful.

A bit of salt, and because it's a tiny bit thick,

I'm just going to add a little bit of cold water.

If you make a mayonnaise, that's the way to bring it down.

Yeah, a little bit of water,

and lemon juice to cut through the fat is obviously really important.

And these lovely endive leaves... I like these.

-They add a real crunch to the dish.

-They're great, aren't they?

-Yeah.

So we just dress them in a bit of this pesto

just to give them a bit of... You want them to be dressed.

Quite important that they are dressed.

And I'll just plate up now.

No pans, look, one pan. It's very different for me, you see.

No fish either, mate, at the moment.

Yeah, no fish. There will be, don't you worry. Don't you worry.

In the restaurant, I put the fish in the oven

when the plate is virtually ready.

So we put some nice mayonnaise on the plate like that.

Painter and decorator now, look at him.

That's it. A few of these beautiful endive leaves.

I can see people doing that tomorrow for Sunday lunch.

Well, you never know. It might catch on, James.

You never know. There we go.

Let me just dress some of that beautiful pesto around there.

Like you say, the French cook with the endives quite a lot.

It's brilliant braised. It makes great jam, as well.

-Yeah, with a little bit of orange juice.

-With orange.

Cooked with orange, it holds up really well.

A little bit of parsley cress just to continue...

Do you want me to go get the fish?

Watch your fingers, James.

There you go.

It's all there.

That's it cooked.

It's all there. It's all cooked.

And literally just turn it out onto the plate.

-Done. There you go.

-Looks pretty good to me.

Remind us what that is again.

That is my baked fillet of sea bass with a walnut and truffle pesto and parsley mayonnaise.

-That's the reason you need to go to his restaurant.

-There you go.

Absolutely looks fabulous. There you go.

Would you ever attempt something like that?

-HE LAUGHS

-I'm getting some tips.

The mouth opened when he did that swirly bit.

-I'd probably leave the swirly bit out but...

-Dive into that.

-Like you say, very quick to cook.

-Yeah, very quick.

I always come on here and cook things that are quite homey

and I wanted to do something that was a bit more restauranty.

-And this is it, yeah.

-This is it.

The walnuts are really earthy,

goes really well with the parsley and the bass can hold up to it.

-It's a great fish.

-That's beautiful.

-Can I keep it?

-THEY LAUGH

-It has to get passed down. There you go. Dive into that, girls.

-OK.

Dive in all together.

If you can't find sea bass, other fish that you could use...?

We do it with salmon at the moment, which, if it's a beautiful salmon,

nice and firm - absolutely fantastic.

Doesn't work with flatfish, so don't try this with flatfish.

-A lovely round fish, and oily is better.

-There you go.

-Spanking, isn't it? It's lovely.

-When you say flatfish, you mean...?

-Flatfish.

-A halibut, a plaice, a sole, it's not going to work

because there's just not enough in there.

-Happy with that, guys?

-Fabulous.

You could also do it raw, marinated, can't you, as well?

Yeah, you could just ceviche that on the plate.

Now, if you're not a fan of walnuts,

you could always make that pesto with almonds in exactly the same way.

Coming up, I make Welsh rarebit for One Show presenter Alex Jones,

but that's after we get a recipe from a certain Rick Stein.

He's dealing with the old question of what to do with leftover turkey.

Not a question that troubles me in my house.

I give it to the dog.

As this programme is predominantly about taste,

there is one particular place which is, historically,

one of the most important places in the culinary world -

Melaka, towards the southern tip of Malaysia.

I've always associated it with spice.

Think Melaka - think Christmas cake, Christmas pudding,

mulled wine and mince pies.

I think you really have to come to somewhere like Melaka

to really feel the importance of spice historically

to our own country.

It's only when you smell the smells and feel the heat

that you realise that spice here virtually grows wild and it's cheap.

It would have been so cheap.

But take those spices, which would be SO distant

to life in the 13th, 14th, 15th century in Britain,

and bring them there, no wonder they fetch such enormous money.

Apart from anything,

half the stuff I imagine that they ate there

was verging on the rotting,

so it had an enormous import in making food palatable and pleasant.

But just think of the smell of something like nutmeg

or cinnamon or cloves, or even pepper,

to somebody in the 14th century in England, how exotic it would be.

It would be more wonderful than gold.

Malaysian cuisine is made up of three things - Chinese,

Nyonya, a cross between Chinese and the indigenous Malay,

and Indian.

I was taken to this restaurant where they cook a whole variety of curries

on the most amazing scale.

The best time to go there was lunchtime

and their most popular dish was beef rendang.

The way I make it at home is like this.

I'm using some blade or chuck steak,

which I fry off in some coconut oil.

Then I put in a very specific curry paste,

which I made with a pestle and mortar earlier.

It's a mixture of fresh turmeric, galangal, chilli,

grated coconut, shallots, garlic, coriander and cumin.

Then in with some coconut milk.

Now the bit I really like doing - smashing the lemongrass.

Next - cinnamon sticks. They always remind me a bit of dried-up cigars.

And lime leaves roughly torn up,

and then some tamarind juice for sharpness.

A little salt.

And, lastly, palm sugar.

I asked practically everyone I came across in Malaysia

what their favourite dish was

and without hesitation they said, "Beef rendang."

While I was in the Melaka, I met a very popular man called Chef Wan.

'He was a sort of Delia and Jamie

'rolled into one exuberant galloping gourmet,

'quite irrepressible and full of local culinary knowledge.'

Honestly, I had no idea how popular he was.

Everywhere we go in Melaka they're saying, "Hello, Chef Wan,"

and, actually, they're much more...

In England, people say, "Oh, that's Rick Stein."

Over here it's, "Hello, Chef Wan!"

'He wasn't just a TV chef.

'He really knew his stuff about the spice trade in Melaka,

'but what were the spices?'

Many. We're talking about... For example - clove,

we have black pepper, we have cardamom,

we have cinnamon, and then it spread to the whole of the Spice Islands,

all the way into Indonesia.

And today you find many of these spices being traded back and forth,

coming from this part of the world, from the East to the West,

and what about the monsoon?

The north-west monsoon and north-east monsoon helped traders

because back then there was no oil,

nothing in the boat because everything was sailing

and they have to depend on the wind to blow them,

and so this ship helped to bring all the traders

and all their goods from that part of the world.

Can you imagine from Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey

arriving to this shore and the Arabs, the Gujarati merchants,

and of course when they arrived, darling,

we took all the spices and we steal them, we're good at that,

and we make them our cuisine, and mix in all the...

OK, OK! Just one last question.

How long have you been doing this for then, Chef Wan?

Oh! I ain't no spring chicken no more. 21 years.

-21. That long.

-I've got a bit to learn from you, Chef Wan.

Wait, let me... Oh, let me... I'm learning more from him.

He is the guy who inspired me, OK? I have all his books.

I love his programme, I love his seafood stuff and all...

-Thank you for coming to Malaysia.

-It's a delight.

Anyway, my journey ended in Bangladesh,

a place integral to our love of curry back at home.

It's no secret that chicken tikka masala has ousted fish and chips

as our most popular dish, and probably 90%

of the restaurants selling it will have connections back in Bangladesh.

But here I find a place that specialised in yet another

very popular and well-known Indian dish.

Biryani!

Just look at this.

Cooking on this scale isn't something you come across often,

and what was so impressive was that everyone seemed to know

exactly what to do and when to do it.

At first glance, it looked a fearful place to suddenly find yourself

having to work, but there wasn't any confusion or uncertainty.

I need hardly say that this is very exciting for me.

You may not like the look of it. You may want your biryani made

in a nice, hygienic bratt pan back in the UK,

but for me, I just know that when I get to taste this biryani...

-Now, now...

-Thanks, thanks.

I'm just talking to the television just for a minute.

I know it's a very odd thing to do.

When I get back to the UK, I'll remember this as being

the best biryani I've ever had.

There is so much sophistication going on here.

It may not look like it to you but the stages that it's made,

the way that the meat is first boiled

and then gently marinated in all these spices,

some of which I still don't know what they are,

but there's about 20 spices in it,

then the meat is very slowly cooked with potatoes and onions and garlic

over a charcoal. And just look at this!

You've got little piles of charcoal anywhere you want to put them.

If they fancy cooking the biryanis over there next week, no problem.

And the big gas burners are for the fast cooking

but the gentle simmering is done here with the charcoal

with a covering of pastry, of bread, I guess, to seal it all in.

So I just know this is going to be, as I said,

the best biryani I've ever had in my life.

'So I sat down to enjoy the feast with the boss

'and his trusty managers.'

That is just so fragrant.

It's got lovely flavours of rose-water and saffron,

and the mutton I think is absolutely the best meat for a biryani.

That is tasting so well.

And, do you know, in truth,

this is the biryani by which all others will come to be judged.

Going there was an eye-opening experience

and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity.

I don't think I'd make a biryani with my leftover turkey.

Out of all curry recipes,

the best one I've found was across the Bay of Bengal in Sri Lanka.

You start by frying off some spices.

They're cloves, cardamom and some cinnamon.

I'm cooking this in coconut oil,

which you can get here in Asian supermarkets.

Into the spices go some finely chopped onions.

They're allowed to soften until they're transparent.

Then a spoonful of crushed garlic, a loving spoonful.

Well, it is Christmas, and about the same amount of ginger, loving again.

Now some roasted Sri Lankan curry powder,

which has a great depth of flavour,

chilli powder and some ground turmeric.

Get that all mixed through and then put in

some chopped and de-seeded fresh tomatoes.

Best not to use tinned ones for this,

they're a little bit sweet, and you want to end up with a sharper taste.

Now put in a twigful of curry leaves

and while they begin to infuse the curry,

you can soften up a couple of sticks of lemongrass.

Don't bash them too hard this time.

Then some pandan leaf, coarsely chopped.

Very subtle, a must-have in Sri Lankan cooking,

I'm sure they'll be in the supermarket in a year or two.

And, lastly, to finish the sauce, a tin of coconut milk.

I just remember saying not so long ago that one of the things

I remember about leftover turkey was the curries I always had

when I was a child and how it wasn't the best thing.

Well, I mean, I like my mum's curries.

They had sultanas, desiccated coconut, apple, in chunks,

and tinned curry powder, but this is slightly different.

Sri Lankan curries are a bit of a revelation to me anyway.

I'm rather used to... You know, 90% of all the Indian restaurants

in Great Britain originated in Bangladesh,

so coming on to Sri Lankan curries was just marvellous,

that trinity of flavours in most Sri Lankan curries -

pandan leaves, curry leaves and cinnamon.

When you taste that, it takes you right back to that lovely island.

Now for the rest of that cold turkey, whatever you've got left.

I've got still got some white breast meat to use

but the legs are just as useful.

Hopefully you'll have some reasonably chunky pieces

because they will be more satisfying.

Season it all with some salt and then, for that specific bit of fire,

put in four or five hot chillies, seeds and all this time.

Let's not be shrinking violets about this. You want some heat.

Lastly, the juice of a lime.

I wish I'd learnt the trick of massaging the fruit

before we filmed this bit

because it certainly does make it easier to get more juice out.

One of the things that I need to add here is that

when you're stirring these curries or other dishes with leftover meat,

do it very gently, otherwise it all breaks up

and just goes into a rather unattractive mush.

You want lumps. Final taste.

That's it. That is delish.

Serve with rice, and that's the end of your cold turkey, oriental-style.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

That curry looked delicious and spicy food is just what you need

after a late night of New Year's Eve partying.

Now I suspect a lot of you are feeling a little bit fragile

this morning, so I thought I'd show you a very simple recipe

that's perfect to get you going for the day ahead.

This is like a Welsh rarebit, quite appropriate, really.

Like that? It isn't just cheese on toast.

You don't throw these together, do you, James?

-No, this is assembled together, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So how would you make your Welsh rarebit, please, Alex Jones?

-Me?

-Yeah.

-Um...

Gosh... So a Welsh rarebit is basically a toasty with cheese

-and a bit of bacon. Am I right?

-It could be. Yeah, it could be.

-It doesn't have to have bacon though, does it?

-No.

So I would probably buy one of those machines that make toasties

and put two pieces of bread and some cheese in it.

Yeah, that would be a cheese sandwich.

However, what I am going to try and attempt is to make

a proper Welsh rarebit. Over here we've got a mixture of Cheddar...

There you go.

And some Ogleshield, which is lovely.

It's basically a cheese made by the Montgomery brothers,

who make Cheddar, and it's from Jersey cows.

It's wonderful stuff.

And the way you make this is basically take half and half...

You can use all Cheddar. You can actually do this with Stilton, as well.

A bit of milk in there.

Now you could, of course, in Ireland,

whack a bit of Guinness in there or beer.

The idea is we melt down the cheese. And the idea is not to boil it

cos if you boil, the fats in the cheese split.

So, while that's cooking... You can see it's just melting down nicely.

At this point now I can add some Worcester sauce, some Tabasco,

a bit of mustard, some flour, and some breadcrumbs.

Add an egg yolk and it's done. There you go.

This is kind of a difficult way around making

-a cheese toasty though, isn't it?

-Is it? Kind of, yeah.

But you cook a lot on the One Show, don't you?

We do the odd thing. I mean, they've stopped ME from cooking.

They've stopped YOU from doing it, yeah.

Congratulations on it, by the way.

-Thank you.

-What happened when you got the phone call? Where were you?

Cos it's a massive job.

It was a massive job. Well, it is a massive job.

I was in Brighton doing a skateboarding competition

for an extreme sports programme.

You couldn't get more far removed from The One Show.

And the editor of the programme phoned and said...

I said, "Sorry I've missed all your calls

"but I've been interviewing these skateboarders,"

and he said, "Well, you will be cos I was just about to offer you the job,"

and I sort of dropped my phone in the sand.

-THEY LAUGH

-Bad start.

And that was it, really, it's just gone from strength to strength.

It's just gone on from there and luckily it seems to be working,

which is brilliant. I love it.

Is TV something...? You always wanted to do it.

You did it when you were at college and stuff like that?

Yeah, I'd been doing it for ten years before I got

The One Show job, in Wales, which was great training.

Cos, as you know, live telly every day is quite difficult.

How you do live telly and cook at the same time, I don't know.

Cos I've got six days in between working with

the likes of Gennaro Contaldo, so I can recover.

-Well, you need the break.

-That's the idea.

-He needs the break.

-Why always me? Why?

I need the break more than anything else. A little bit of toast in here.

That's going to go on there, and I've just added an egg yolk

into here so you've got this.

The idea is you can make this in advance,

stick it in the fridge, and when you want it,

you can put it on your toasty.

But isn't it dangerous, James, to eat eggs that haven't been cooked?

-They are going to be cooked in a second.

-Right.

-It gets put under the grill again.

-OK.

-That looks really nice.

-Some black pepper, some salt, that goes in there.

So you got the phone call,

but all that training you did on all those sport shows

and particularly those kids, shows that you did in your early years,

must have stood you in good stead.

It does, yeah. On kids' telly you've got to be game for a laugh,

you've got to be quite adaptable

and able to go with the flow, so it's really good training.

All those custard pies...

I didn't think I'd see any of those on The One Show

but then obviously Chris Evans joins me on a Friday

and he's reintroduced custard pies.

Well, this is not custard. This is a quick and simple chutney.

Shallots, apples, tomatoes, which I'm just going to dice up.

When you add that to caramelised sugar and vinegar,

it makes a very, very quick and simple chutney to go with this.

-OK.

-So that's that one. Just in the oven here.

This is a good brunch dish, isn't it?

Well, it's a brunch dish but you could have this any time, really.

It is actually a really simple, simple little dish.

It's not rocket science, it's very, very simple. Very quick, as well.

The chutney literally goes like this.

But, like I said at the top of the show,

cookery isn't your strong point. Lots and lots of disasters.

I was looking at all the disasters that you've had.

Some memorable ones like...

-Well, it didn't involve cooking, but oysters.

-Ugh!

-Go on, then.

-I can hardly think about oysters.

You see, every time we film, for some reason,

when it's something to do with seafood and a food item,

the oysters come out.

And we went to Brittany to film a holiday show

-and they're quite famous for their oysters.

-Very famous.

I used to work there, yeah.

So we went to a port where they were bringing the oysters in.

They opened it fresh from the sea.

Full of saltwater.

I knocked it back, as you do, without any...

-First time you've ever tried an oyster?

-No, this was the second time.

The first time was a disaster but at least they'd seasoned it

with a bit of lemon juice and lime and what have you.

This time it was seasoned with the sea, basically.

Nothing.

So I knocked it back and it was a really large oyster

and it just got trapped here.

-There.

-Was it trying to get out?

I know. And I was trying to be polite

because I didn't want to upset the man,

and my eyes were watering because I really didn't like it,

really watering, and in the end I just choked

and the oyster flew back out and landed on the man's cheek.

-On his face?

-And slid down his face.

-THEY GROAN AND LAUGH

-You're making that up.

-Me and oysters, we're finished.

You're making that up.

I mean, eggs are hell, but oysters are another level of hell.

Right, look at this. This is nearly ready now.

Look, you've got our chutney. I can do this... You can make this easy.

-You could easily do this at home.

-Right.

-I've made the chutney,

done the Welsh rarebit, got the bread on there,

all while talking to you. At home tonight - easy.

-OK.

-Chutney's on here.

You've got a bit of chilli in there to give it a kick.

The apples and tomatoes have gone in there. The bread has been toasted.

I've taken that filling that's got the egg yolk in,

which is this stuff that you can sit in the fridge. Delicious.

You can make that with Stilton, like I was saying.

Pop it under the grill...

and you end up...

-with my version of Welsh rarebit.

-That looks amazing.

So when you can actually serve this,

you can take a slice of this,

you can have it with salad like that..

That looks really nice.

Now I put tomatoes in here cos I know you like those.

That's with a little bit of apple,

and the idea is it needs this little bit of spice with it,

particularly the tomatoes and the apples, to go with it.

Thank you very much.

And there you have my version of a grilled Welsh rarebit.

Slightly different to yours, just cheese on toast.

I don't have one, James, let's face it.

It's tasty with those tommies and stuff,

just a little bit of that, the whole lot together.

It'll be quite hot cos it's just come out the grill.

Mm...

Better than cheese on toast, isn't it?

Mm! Mm!

And if you'd like to have a go at making that rarebit

or trying your hand at any of the recipes you've seen on today's show,

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

Today we're looking back at some of the tastiest dishes

from the Saturday Kitchen recipe book.

Now it's time to warm you up with a spicy recipe using pork cheeks.

Now they're a great inexpensive ingredient at the moment.

They just need a little time to cook and a top recipe to follow.

Here's Jun Tanaka with just that.

-Great to have you on the show again.

-Cheers.

What's the name of our dish? What are we cooking?

It's going to be spicy braised pig's cheeks with caramelised squid

-and a wet polenta.

-OK.

One of the best cuts of pork, it really is.

I always say that the part of the animal that does the most amount

is the best tasting but takes the longest time cooking.

-It's the same thing with these.

-Yep.

-So, pig's cheeks,

these will be braised. What's the rest of our ingredients?

I'm going to braise it inside spices.

It's going to be ginger, cinnamon, star anise, some mixed spice

and some coriander,

and then I'm going to put some soy sauce and honey,

give a nice sweetness to it,

a little bit of a red wine vinegar and chicken stock,

and then I'll serve it with some squid.

Pork and squid works beautifully together.

It does work well.

Chorizo and stuff like that with squid is fantastic. Wet polenta.

We've got some polenta here, we've got milk and chicken stock.

We're going to add some cheese and butter at the end.

Then you've got this great seasonal ingredient - curly kale.

-I'm going to do the wet polenta cos that does take a while.

-OK.

-Over to you, then.

-Fire away. First thing...

-OIL SIZZLES That's hot.

-The pan is smoking.

OK. ..is to seal off the pig's cheeks.

We're going to give it colour.

We're braising it so we're cooking inside liquid,

but we're going to caramelise it on both sides just to give it

that caramelised flavour before we add all the rest of the vegetables

and the stock to it. So nice and caramelised.

The great thing about these is all the fat that runs through it

because that melts and makes it really tender,

and prevents it from drying out, as well.

They're becoming more and more popular, these.

There were things in the newspaper about pig's trotters

and oxtail and stuff like that.

Cheeks are another one that people should look out for

because braising them, they are absolutely delicious, aren't they?

Yeah. And they're really, really good value, as well.

You can get... I buy it at the restaurant

and I've got this dish on the lunch menu,

and we buy a kilo of pig's cheeks, which is a good quantity,

-for £8. Which is hardly anything.

-It's a lot, yeah.

-OK, carrots go in.

-Shan't ask you what you sell them for either.

-LAUGHING:

-Quite a lot. You should come down.

So literally this is your wet polenta.

That's what you're looking for.

The secret is not to add too much of the liquid first.

You can always add more of the milk and stock a bit later

and finish it off with butter and some Parmesan cheese.

I might need a bit more milk in there.

So you're sealing these off to get a little bit of colour in there.

-On both sides.

-The veg, what have put in there, veg-wise?

I've put some chopped onions, some carrots, some thyme, bay leaf,

and a clove of garlic, as well. Get a nice caramelisation on it.

So what does the New Year bring for Mr Tanaka then?

What's the New Year bringing?

Top of the leaderboard on the omelette challenge.

-Really?

-That's it.

-Pressure's on then, isn't it?

If I start the New Year like that, I know everything else...

A little birdie told me... You don't know this but a little birdie told me

in your restaurant you practise the omelette challenge.

-No, I...

-Come on!

-No, honestly!

-Yes, you do! Yes, you do!

-He said you've

-practised. I don't.

Well, OK. There we go. I do.

Yes, yes, yes.

Right, so we're covering these up.

No flour in here like normal stew? Just literally as they are, yeah?

-Yeah, no flour inside that.

-And you want to glaze the pan out there.

Yeah. We're going to reduce down the stock afterwards

and that's going to help thicken it up.

A little bit of red wine vinegar goes in there.

Now in there, I've added some of the spices.

-Actually, I'll add all the spices.

-OK.

-Cook those out.

-Red wine vinegar has gone in.

-That's the star anise gone in there as well.

Then I'm going to add white wine...

some honey...if it comes out,

and the soy sauce.

If you're wondering why I'm still stood here,

you HAVE to keep stirring this, cos it can catch quite quickly.

So literally keep cooking it.

It takes about a good five minutes to cook

but just literally keep stirring it. It will catch quite badly.

OK, chicken stock goes in, and you don't want to add too much,

just enough to cover the pig's cheeks.

-Do you want that in the oven?

-Yeah, please.

There you go. Lid on.

180 for about an hour and then take the lid off for the last half-hour.

There you go. Don't forget that all of today's studio recipes,

including this one from Jun, are on our website.

Go to bbc.co.uk/saturdaykitchen.

You can find dishes from our previous shows on bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Right, there we go.

You take the lid off to allow it to reduce down a bit, right?

That's it. So it glazes

and you can see it's gone a really nice...

OK, I'm going to turn that off and just keep that on there. There we go.

..glazed. And just spoon the sauce over it.

You can see it's gone a really nice shiny...

And these will literally just fall apart,

they are absolutely delicious.

Watch your hand on that pan.

The thing is, you don't want to overcook it

because you don't want to lose that shape.

Strain the sauce through, get rid of all that onions and carrots.

Wet polenta then, Stephen?

-I've never seen or tried polenta.

-Another first?

-Yeah, it's a first.

And that's a lump of Parmesan.

Mm, yeah, great, bring it on. Yeah, bring it on.

And usually on this show we've got a bit of butter

somewhere along the line.

Get that in there and mix it all together. That's going to be that one.

So tell us about your squid. What are you doing there?

I'm just... It's been cleaned, I've cut it in half

and I'm just scoring the underside of it.

Now, I was talking to Phil earlier

and he said that every time he cooks squid it tastes like rubber,

and the secret is don't cook it a lot.

You cook it literally for about 30 seconds

and if you really want to, you can marinade it beforehand

in papaya or pineapple for about half an hour

and it totally rises it.

Aren't there two rules of thumb? You either cook it for a long time

-or cook it quickly?

-Yeah, exactly.

-Cos it'll do the same as the pig cheeks,

it'll start to break down, but the secret is not to cook it in-between.

-I think that's the key to it.

-Right, is the polenta ready?

It's nearly there. You want to season it up? It's not far off.

I'll just season it up for you.

This is a bit of the old chard, which I'll get the butter on here.

Nice hot pan, get some butter in there

and then cook it how we've cook it in the past.

You put butter and water together in the pan

and you get this emulsion, which is what you want.

Right, so salt and pepper on your squid.

Yeah. Has that been seasoned?

No, not yet, not yet.

-I'm not as quick as you, you know.

-There you go.

I always pick recipes where there's far too many pans.

Yeah, I know, a million different pans.

Happy with that?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Large spoon.

-Large spoon, there you go, large spoon.

-Cheers.

-So, black pepper in the old chard there,

and keep the colour on that. That's the secret.

See how quickly it takes to cook. That's that one.

Now squid goes in at the last minute.

-30 seconds.

-There's a sink in the back to wash your hands.

There you go. Really, really hot pan.

Seriously hot. You can see that's very, very hot.

It's curling up there.

And you're scoring it because it's easier to eat, isn't it?

Yeah, and also once you've scored it,

-it curls up really, really nicely.

-Yeah.

-Are we plating on this one?

-You can plate it there, yeah.

-I started on this one.

-OK.

GIGGLING You've lost me, Jun.

I haven't got a clue. I'm going to step back

-cos I haven't got a clue what's happening.

-I'm enjoying this.

Next time I'll pick a recipe with less pans.

-Oh, you and your men.

-Are you following this?

Yes, got that.

The polenta goes on, nice and wet, mashed potato consistency.

Pig's cheeks go on top. It will be worth it.

Yeah, the flavour will be worth it, definitely.

-It looks fantastic, I have to say.

-Mm!

-A few of them.

-The sauce goes straight over the top.

-You've strained the sauce off?

Yeah, just to get rid of all the excess veg.

And then we've got the squid.

He's almost as quick as the omelette. Look at him, he's off!

-And then some of the squid.

-Now people just switching on would go,

"What, squid and pork?"

-Yeah, but the Spanish do squid and pork quite often, don't they?

-Yeah.

That goes on top and there we go, a simple, simple dish.

Ugh! Simple, simple, simple?

It is if you watch it back, yeah, on iPlayer.

What's the name of it?

That's braised spicy pig's cheeks, caramelised squid, kale and polenta.

Easy as that. With two people in six and a half minutes - done.

There we go. We get to dive into this.

Stephen, you're looking really happy with this.

You look as though it's your last supper, mate. There you go.

I'm really sorry but I'm one of these really odd people

that if something sounds funny or it looks funny, that puts me off.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-What's funny about the cheek then?

-Cheek? It's a cheek!

-Yeah, but all the times your mum goes...

-Look at that.

-Yeah!

What's the difference between an arm and a cheek?

-It's just the idea.

-Well, exactly. An arm is like, "Ooh," meaty.

Cheek is, "Aw," where you smile. It's sad.

It used to smile but then again... HE LAUGHS

Oh, and the tentacles. Oh, I can't do tentacles!

-Really?

-Eat it!

-No...

-Yes, you're eating it! Yes!

-All that hard work.

I know, the hard work, all those pans.

Ah, it's going to come and eat me.

-I'll do one of these.

-Try it.

-Ugh...

-Go for it.

-All right.

-Have a little cheek now.

Look, I'm shaking!

Just pretend it's steak.

And there's polenta with Parmesan cheese.

See?

THEY LAUGH

And? And?

Is that going to go on your hell list?

Do you want to pass it down? THEY LAUGH

That's a first on Saturday Kitchen! Look at that!

Instant reaction is what?

It's not my thing.

-I'm sorry.

-That's all right.

What do you reckon?

-Amazing.

-Amazing, you see.

I love the wet polenta, I love the pig cheek.

-Basically, it's like surf and turf, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

It's fabulous. It's really good, but simple?

Hm... I don't know about that. But it's an amazing dish, amazing dish.

Such quality in pig's cheeks.

Maybe I just don't like strong flavours.

That's what I'm getting from that, lots of strong flavours.

Don't worry. We did eventually cook something Stephen liked.

Now let's step way back in time to join the brilliant Keith Floyd

on a gastronomic tour of Britain and Ireland.

Sit back and enjoy the master at work.

All sensible television programmes

start with a man leaning over the gate telling you where he is.

Of course, we're not a sensible television programme

but we are prepared to give you some clues.

Cues on clues.

First, this land was invaded by these fellows.

The punks.

They were swiftly followed by all those chaps who invented tea,

Asterix the Gaul and his men, the Vikings. Then...

Oops! Good job he doesn't play for England.

Then swiftly proceeded, succeeded...

The ears have dropped off.

Well, look, there's no point mucking about.

Who do you think wore these? Not the Visigoths.

They were called the Border Reivers,

men of bloodcurdling dances, yells, yelps and healthy appetites.

So you know where we are, don't you?

North Korea.

# The fells are alive

# With the sound of curlews. #

This is absurd, isn't it?

Just so you can get what the director called,

"a sense of place", I have to stand here on this blasted heath

on these Northumberland fells so you can see the beautiful view,

when all I've got to do is "quite simply, love", he says,

cook up a little something with a Roman influence,

you know, to impress the visiting professor of Roman archaeology,

Hadrian's Wall, gastronomy, and Northumberland history.

Very simple, isn't it? And that lot, you,

are all standing there on your little tripods under umbrellas.

Just dismantle the whole lot. Dismantle the whole lot.

Come here and pay some attention to me!

Thank you very much indeed.

Now then, the real purpose of this little culinary exercise is to,

as I say, interpret what the Romans might have eaten, what, 2,000...?

I don't know, how many thousand years ago?

..several thousand years ago when they were building this wonderful wall.

I reckon they'd have eaten quite a lot of pig,

so I've got a piece of pig here,

which I'm going to cut up into little cubes.

Now, I want you to really believe and understand.

I don't complain as a rule,

but it is very cold, it is raining, I have got a temperature.

Richard might have to wipe his lens often, empty his mind

from time to time cos the rain is coming down.

So, I've got pieces of pork, I've got bits of carrot,

I reckon the Romans had...sorry about all this, but this is, you know,

this is real-life stuff.

Richard, I'm...I'm actually trying... This is my programme, please.

I mean, they all know what a carrot looks like. OK?

I am chopping carrots and onions.

You don't need to look again, they know what an onion is.

In this appalling weather trying to make this sort of Roman-type meal

so I won't do all those together.

I've got to chop up some garlic

because it was the Romans, after all, who brought...oh dear...

who brought garlic to this place.

I've got all those things together.

I need some parsley because they were great green herb users,

the Romans.

And also, of course,

what all history and all wars have always been about have been spices

and things. Even in Grecian, Roman times they were squabbling over it.

Well, they squabbled over these, cumin seeds, ginger,

marjoram, thyme, dill and stuff like that...

is a typical selection of Roman herbs.

I mean, they had more herbs than Sainsbury's, I can tell you.

Anyway, that goes into my pot like that

because you've got to remember, like me,

these guys were stuck out here, you know,

nothing on the clock but the maker's name

and if they didn't pickle, preserve or spice their meat,

it was...like this could be...it could be pretty terrible.

Anyway, they also had wine, so they whacked a load of wine into

their pot with these herbs, OK, and spices?

That's what they did and being Roman soldiers,

before those little signs that are now along the Hadrian's Wall

and the Appian Way and all that saying, "Please keep Britain tidy,"

they probably tossed the bottles into the hedge.

In we put our meat, carrots, onions and stuff like that

and we let that marinate now for about 24 hours.

For about as long as it will take you to do

the first 700km on a decathlon.

But let me tell you about something else.

In fact, I won't tell you about this.

This was the centurion's Worcester sauce.

This was the centurion's soy sauce, walk along the wall

and I'll tell you what it is and why I've got it.

Emperor Hadrian was a Spanish chap who got the idea to build the

wall from...the Chinese, of course.

It's a desolate spot

but you can easily imagine the legionnaires wrapped in their Armani

togas under the menacing Northumbrian sky, munching on roasted

dormice stuffed with minced pork and pinecones. Yum, yum...I think.

But Northumbria, and here we go for complaints from the other regions,

must be the most unspoilt and beautiful part of Britain.

Polanski had it absolutely right when he filmed Macbeth...oops,

I mean, The Scottish Play, here.

And this is the home of St Cuthbert and a fine glass of mead.

Here endeth the first travelogue.

That took me seconds to research, fascinating, interesting, isn't it?

But back to the liquid.

This is the centurion's Daddy's ketchup, tomato sauce,

call it what you will.

He wouldn't have eaten anything without it

because basically his food wasn't too good but, do you know, I made this.

I knew I was coming up here and I make this about three weeks ago.

I've had it marinating,

I've had it...macerating is the word ever since.

It is anchovies, it's sprats, it's marjoram, it's red wine

and it's salt. It's all boiled up,

left to ferment for three or four weeks and strained

and there you have it. The Centurion sauce.

In fact, we ought to brand it, Floyd's Centurion Sauce,

it could be a big hit.

Anyway, you do tend to drop a bit of that into your pork marinade. OK?

And also because they didn't have sugar in those days

and this was a bit tangy and a bit pongy,

they used to put in a teaspoonful or two of honey.

That's why honey people are called apiarists.

I think, if I've got my words right, it's a Latin word too, isn't it?

Anyway, there it all is. Richard, close-up on that.

You can feel it, you can smell it.

There's the marinade, there's the pork, the onions, the herbs,

the spices and stuff, it's been in there for about 24 hours.

Now it has to go, wander round here, however you do it.

It has to go into my typical...on wood mark four or at home

gas mark six,

but wood mark four it goes into there...

SIZZLING

Four.

Put the lid on... Richard, I'm talking to you...

..for about 45 minutes.

Richard, you wipe your lens, I'll blow my nose

and that was a bit too hot.

I know I said gas mark four, I can barely see through the smoke

and the heat here but I have got this guy coming to do it.

I can't do that again so we've got to live with it. OK?

Now, listen...

HE COUGHS

Oh, dear, it is ridiculous.

I made a little joke about the Roman soldiers throwing their bottles

away but don't be a prat, don't listen to me,

please don't throw your bottles into the hedges.

OK? OK, Richard, back on the pot.

We're not proud on this programme...

if we need an expert on, say, the Romans, then the director, sparing

no thought for himself, goes straight to the nearest pub and finds one.

Hence, Donald McFarlane.

Donald, what did the Romans, I mean, you know, I feel

a bit like John Cleese here, what did the Romans do for us?

I mean, what did they do when they were here?

OK. I think the first thing is...

can you imagine the culture shock to the locals? I mean, look around you.

The locals, the Briganti, the Votadini, the Selgovae,

would live on the tops of these hills.

-These are people or birds?

-People in this instance, yes, that's right.

And, um, their quite primitive lifestyle would probably...they'd

roast an ox and everyone would partake of that.

What you had when the Romans arrived is a very highly civilised nation.

Even by our standards.

They introduced a disciplined system of society

and along with that, which is the reason why we're here,

is they introduced foods, commodities which the locals didn't

have at all, like turnip, like cabbage, like lettuce, like herbs,

name a herb, the Romans will have brought it here as spice.

You're telling me the British cabbage was invented by some centurions?

-It was brought by the Romans, yes.

-That's outrageous.

But I tell you what, Donald, if I don't serve this, you know,

using of course the standard issue imperial Roman utensils,

it's going to be cooked to a frazzle. There you go. Listen...

We had all the Romans, we had all them,

-but what other influences have sort of stormed onto Northumberland?

-Yes.

Well, following the Roman withdrawal from Britain, the Anglo-Saxons

came into the ascendancy for again about another 400 years.

So, as a Roman historian, you are clearly second to none

-but what do you think of my dish?

-I think it's interesting.

I think you probably recaptured... the flavour...

HE LAUGHS

..of yesteryear quite well.

No, it's not bad actually.

I think it's got that rough, coarse sauce if you don't mind me saying.

-My dear fellow...feel free to be edited!

-Yes.

THEY LAUGH

Which I believe,

sitting here for probably three hours trying to work my way

through this, but this rough sauce would be exactly, I'm sure,

as they would produce it. The liquid I feel has added nothing.

I know, but I must tell you what,

if I saw one of those posters in Rome that said

"Caesar needs you" and this was the kind of food

you got when you joined up, there's no way I'd go!

Well, I think we've got to ask the question, "Why did they withdraw?"

LAUGHTER

If my director had his way, this shot would last half an hour.

He loves Newcastle and thinks it the finest city in the world.

Joking apart though, we are very lucky chaps.

We asked the Newcastle College Of Science And Technology

to present us with a taste, just a taste,

of the northeast and with typical generosity, this lot gave up

a day to create an edible tableau. Fresh salmon from Berwick on Tweed.

An unusual dish, loppy dog, which has cheviot lamb

and vegetables cooked in Newcastle Brown Ale,

affectionately known as Journey Into Space or Electric Soup.

A soup even more nutritious than Popeye's spinach, the director says.

Craster kippers, probably the finest kippers in the universe,

ho-ho, were baked with some cranberries and rosemary.

A fillet of pork in flaky pastry.

My eyes were opened and my mouth watered but I'll let the boss,

James Walling, talk you through the rest.

Well, what we've got here... A traditional jugged hare.

Potted celery. We've got leek and onion stuffing.

We've got parsnips here.

We've got roast pheasant with an oatmeal crust which is cracked

in front of the customer to release the wonderful odours and flavours.

-What is this? What is this?

-This is a traditional northeastern dish...

A leek pudding... Suet pastry, leeks inside,

a little bit of ham running through the centre of it as well to

give an extra bit of flavour to it.

I been up here in the northeast, which I love,

now for five days to make this programme.

I've been into 128 pubs, 94 discotheques, 18 restaurants,

47 hotels and I haven't seen one of those on anybody's menu anywhere.

Well, I'm amazed.

It should be on every menu in the northeast really

because it is a very traditional northeastern dish.

But I mean, truly it is very old, it's very solid, very robust

and the type of thing that I think chefs in this

part of the country at any rate are trying to get back to.

And so they should, it's absolutely superb.

What a man.

There's more Floydy next week. As ever on Best Bites, we are looking

back at some of the great cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's Best Bites.

School food champion Henry Dimbleby has his first

attempt at the Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge.

He's up against the experienced hands of a certain Lawrence Keogh

but who will come out on top? You can see the action a little later on.

My good pal Rachel Allen is muscling in on my territory with

a stunning dessert.

She's making a chocolate Baked Alaska with warm chocolate sauce.

Not bad, to be honest.

And comedian Micky Flanagan faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven,

an Indian spiced shoulder of lamb with a red lentil dhal or

would he get his dreaded food Hell, beetroot

and a mozzarella salad with beetroot meringues?

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

Now, over the years we've had many fantastic

recipes from the brilliant Theo Randall.

Here he is now on his very first visit to the Saturday Kitchen

studios, not that you would know from this confident way

he makes squid with borlotti beans.

Enjoy this one.

-Great to have you on the show.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations on your

-new restaurant.

-Thank you very much.

Fabulous. But we are cooking squid today - tell us what we're doing.

OK, I'll clean the squid up. Take these tough wings off.

-What's the dish called?

-We are doing squid with borlotti beans, rocket,

anchovy, chilli.

I basically fry the squid in a very hot pan with chilli, parsley

-and a squeeze of lemon.

-Very Italian sort of stuff.

-Yeah.

-I believe you want me to chop things up.

-Chop the chillies.

-OK.

I want you to chop the parsley. Chop some rocket.

I always get the chopping jobs.

-You've got to do it fast because this is a very, very quick recipe.

-OK.

So tell us a little bit about squid

because the Italians love squid, don't they?

The thing about this dish is it accentuates the flavour of

the squid, which is quite sweet when you cook it quickly.

But the main thing is you've got to cook it quickly.

And have it not so big. This is as big as you should get.

The ideal size is about that sort of size.

Why, is the bigger the stuff, the tougher it is?

The tougher it is, the bigger it is, yes. The flavour is not as nice.

It's almost all muscle, isn't it?

-Yes, exactly.

-Talking of big squid,

last week in New Zealand, a fishermen caught a massive squid.

-I saw that, it was colossal.

-It was something like 990 pounds.

How old that thing must've been! It's frightening.

It's not happy now, anyway. So you scored the top.

I scored the top, criss-cross.

That will make the squid curl up and I'll slice it up.

I will season the squid. Some salt. Now we have borlotti beans.

These are dried beans. You need to soak them for 24 hours.

This would be absolutely brilliant with fresh borlotti beans.

But we haven't got them.

We soak them, put in some chilli, some garlic and some sage.

Cook slowly for an hour and a half.

Then we're going to drain them, which we've done already,

add some olive oil, take out this chilli that's in here.

Some nice oil.

Extra virgin.

Salt and pepper.

So I've chopped the anchovy, the chilli, what else do I need to chop?

-Parsley?

-You have to chop some rocket.

-Parsley as well?

-And parsley.

This pan has to be really, really hot.

I mean, beans, you're not supposed to season them

until after they are cooked, is that right?

If you put salt in with a bean, it tends to take the skin off.

These beans are quite nutty and have a really rich flavour

so it is best to keep them quite light.

-Now...

-I'm nearly ready.

-Hurry up, come on.

This is his first time on the show. Could well be his last.

LAUGHTER

OK, so...

This is the secret about this dish,

it's all about getting it all prepared in advance.

Yeah, but it is so last-minute as well. It's a brilliant lunch thing.

All right, parsley, anchovy, chilli chopped, boss, what next?

Great, now we're going to start on the squid. So, really, really hot.

You literally have to see the smoke coming out of the pan.

There is no oil in the pan. I've just oiled the squid. OK? So...

SIZZLING

-Tentacles in as well.

-Because of that, it should start to curl up a bit?

It should. It takes about 30 seconds.

Then you'll start to see the colour.

That's why it is important to score it, it helps it curl up.

-If you didn't score it, it would be rubbery.

-Exactly.

We don't want to use this bit.

-There is a sink over there to wash your hands.

-And then...

Let's get rid of all this.

So those bits left over, you could use those for stock?

I would use them for stock, yeah. Or even... risotto or something.

OK. Now this is the colour you want.

-There you go.

-No more than that.

Now this is your passion as well as Marcus,

-quality ingredients?

-Absolutely.

Italian ingredients are becoming...

You can get amazing things online now from various companies.

I'm getting amazing vegetables now directly from the markets in Italy.

-Do you go online to source your ingredients as well?

-Yeah...

-It's finding the new companies, really.

-Yeah.

A bit of lemon in there.

Also, grab that squid before the Japanese nick it.

I believe nearly half of the squid that we catch

-all around the world goes to Japan.

-Amazing.

-They love it.

-And it is a great, great thing.

-Right.

-OK?

-I will put the beans on.

-That was your job but I will do it.

-Sorry, that was my job.

-I'll start on that one.

-It's OK.

That's all right, there you go.

-Do you want me to dress that?

-Yes, please.

Bit of lemon. Bit of oil. I'm cutting this squid quite thin.

If it was a little bit thinner, the squid, I would cut it bigger.

Do you think this is the reason why people are put off by squid?

They have it in restaurants, it's overcooked and

they never touch it again?

You've cooked that in 15 - 25 seconds.

It's about sourcing the right squid.

Asking your fishmonger to get smaller squid.

It is quite hard to get but it is really worth it.

OK, so, I'll just put this on top of the plate.

Look, all that lovely...

Smell that, lovely chilli and anchovy and parsley.

-Is that the lot?

-That's it.

-As easy as that. What was that dish again?

It's pan-fried squid with chilli,

anchovy parsley with chopped rocket and borlotti beans.

The man's a genius.

Right. Here we go. Taste this.

-It smells great, doesn't it?

-It is good coming on this show.

-You get to eat everything, fantastic.

-Dive into that.

You're right about squid because normally you put it in your mouth

and you're still eating it half an hour later.

-Yes, chewing it and chewing it. But that is...

-With squid, either cook it very, very quickly,

as we've done here, or very slowly with the bigger stuff?

I think that's the best thing.

-That squid, you should cook it quickly.

-Yeah.

It's quite unusual with the borlotti beans as well -

-have you ever tried that?

-That's really lovely. Really, really light.

-It's quite light.

-Yeah, very.

-There's no fat or anything in it.

I'm not finished chewing.

I think they don't understand what it is that makes it tender

-and how to use the fish.

-Duncan, squid, big fan or not?

It's not really been my favourite in the past. It's good.

As you were saying, it's sometimes a bit rubbery, but that's really nice.

34 quid.

LAUGHTER

-Only joking. Marcus, what do you reckon?

-Fabulous.

I love the way you get the seared flavour around the outside

of the squid, it gives it a great added extra flavour.

Rather put the oil in the pan, you put the oil on the fish,

there you go.

It's obvious why Theo has been back so many times with dishes like that.

Now Henry Dimbleby is known as the champion of school dinners,

but would he be our Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge champion too?

Only Lawrence Keogh stood in his way.

And the fact that he couldn't make a very good omelette. Check this out.

All the chefs that come on the show battle it out against the clock

and each other to test how fast they can make a simple

straightforward three-egg omelette.

Lawrence, sitting pretty on our board there

with 17.72 seconds in the blue board.

-Ooooh!

-However, where would you like to go on the board, Henry?

Just get on the board!

I'm planning to start a whole new board just about here.

-We might need one.

-Maybe somewhere over here.

We've got so many chefs on there.

Usual rules, let's put the clocks on the screens, please.

Three-egg omelette, cooked as fast as you can. Are you ready?

-It's a living hell.

-Three, two, one, go.