06/03/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. The next 90 minutes is filled with ladles of tasty recipe ideas.

You won't want to miss any of it, trust me.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got a cracking line-up for you today.

There's top chefs, delicious food

and a whole host of celebrity guests, too.

Coming up on today's show...

Silvena Rowe treats us to some tantalising Turkish street food

with chicken halloumi and green chilli spring rolls.

Chris Wheeler is serving his take on a French classic, salade nicoise.

He uses hand-dived scallops for his version of the dish

and finishes it with a touch of smoky drama.

Bryn Williams presents us with his play on a much-loved Chinese

classic, sweet and sour pork.

He's serving braised pork cheeks with ginger and honey,

glazed carrots and Jersey Royal potatoes.

And Bradley Walsh faces food heaven or food hell.

Will he get his food heaven -

duck three ways with roasted pears, shallots, wilted chard

and a red wine reduction sauce?

Or will he get his dreaded food hell -

chicken escalope with a tomato and artichoke salad?

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

First on the menu is the gastronomic Galton Blackiston.

He's serving a superb souffle, so enjoy this one.

-Good to have you on the show. Now, souffle!

-Yes, souffle.

A bit of a risky one, but get it right... It's fantastic.

Here's one we did earlier.

We had to do this little...

We've got this souffle made and it's ready to go in the oven. 425.

-Put it in?

-Put it in.

-How long for?

It's going to take about five minutes, OK?

-So there's a precise timing with it.

-I'm going to put it on there.

-Well done. 5½.

-How's that?

-Perfect. Right.

So that's one made, but you can make the base well in advance

and to make the base... Let me just get this first.

Sorry, Chef.

500mls of full-fat milk into a nice hot pan.

-Yup.

-Along with a sprig of thyme. Hang on!

-Eggs!

-You can split those.

-All right. Five eggs.

-Yeah, five eggs split.

Thyme, bay leaf, a little bit of nutmeg.

-Right.

-And some seasoning, OK?

Into the milk Bring it up to the boil.

And once it's brought up to the boil...

Now, you're making it as per normal, which is a white sauce.

-Is that right?

-Yeah, yeah. Per normal.

So, into another pan, whilst that's coming up to the boil,

65g of butter.

And then once the butter has melted, we're adding plain flour

and English Colman's Norfolk mustard.

All right?

Oh! Also get on the go some cream, just reducing for the end of it.

-It will all... It'll all...

-What's that?

-No, that's OK.

-OK.

-Oh, go on.

-I will put a bit more in.

-Go on!

Go on, go on! Cholesterol city here!

-Right.

-Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute!

Keep that for the time being.

Now, this bacon. I like this because...

It's the Galton Blackiston show, isn't it?

It's my chance to be domineering! Can you find me...?

WHISK STARTS UP

Oh, get on with that, then!

-Right, souffle base - butter melted, flour goes in.

-Yeah, plain flour?

Making a roux. Plain flour. Add the mustard powder. OK?

Into there.

Give it a good stir, cook the flour out.

You do it slightly differently to Michel Roux.

-Oh, you're not going to compare me!

-No, I'm just saying.

Yeah, well, you know... That's where this recipe originally came from.

-Michel Roux for me is the sort of Alex Ferguson of cooking.

-Yeah?

-There's nobody better.

-But you ignore all that and do it your way?

No, I'm just adding a twist to it.

I'm adding a twist to it, which Michel Roux would love, I'm sure.

The cream is for the sauce, yeah?

Yes, the cream is for the sauce at the end so keep an eye on it

and we want to reduce it. Cook the flour out.

Once this has come up to the boil, which it very, very nearly has,

we strain it immediately straight into the...

-Right?

-So, butter?

-Butter, flour, mustard. Into there.

In one "foul" swoop, no messing about, right, James?

Add a bit of salt and a bit of... to those egg whites, please.

Brilliant, isn't it?

-Like that?

-That's good! Now stop that.

-Stop that.

-All right?

-And finely chop your bacon, please.

-I'm doing it. I'm doing it!

Good boy. Good boy! Can you see now?

I'm sure you'll think that will go lumpy and that sort of thing.

-There's no lumps.

-So you use a whisk to stop it from going lumpy?

I use a whisk and a decent, heavy-based pan.

-Right, this bacon is your bacon.

-It is, it's our bacon.

Um, Richard the head chef is into curing.

We have a smoker so we brine it and cure it and then we smoke it

and it is pretty amazing. I'm not just saying it, but it is good.

I wouldn't do it if it wasn't.

Now, this is really nice and thick, like so.

-So you transfer this...

-Smells like stuff from the supermarket!

-..to a bowl, right?

-Yes.

-It doesn't matter it had an egg yolk in it.

-It smells...

-Yes?

It smells more smoky than stuff from the supermarket.

Well, it's actually got lots of garlic and molasses in there.

-It's just a cracking recipe and I like it.

-In the cure?

-Pardon?

-In the cure?

-In the cure. Yes. Herbs...

We tasted some in rehearsals. It's brilliant.

Yes, it's powerful. You don't need a lot of it.

Now, add the egg yolks hot...

to the souffle base mixture, OK?

-Fry this off?

-Yes, please.

-There you go.

-So you get...

Is there any cheese in there yet?

No, you can grate that in a minute, James. And then you can finally...

THEY CHUCKLE

OK. So, you end up with this.

This, then, you can leave.

You can make it a day in advance and you can leave it.

Cover it with a butter paper or grease-proof directly onto it

-and leave it.

-Yep.

But come the next day, you'd whisk your egg whites like this.

-OK?

-Yup.

-Are you following me?

Add your third of egg whites, imagining this was cool.

-I'm imagining it.

-OK.

Good, good. And whisk the first lot in sharpish, like so.

No messing about with that first one.

What is it about souffles that people are put off by?

-Is it this sort of stuff?

-It is.

It can be hit and miss and, you know,

you are reliant on a good temperature on your oven

and if you're doing the once-bake souffle then it is "a la minute".

We have to do these and get them out.

-The next two thirds you actually add nice and slowly.

-Yes.

Cutting and folding.

But you don't overdo it.

So, almost, if you can see?

-I don't want to mess about with that much more.

-A few chives in there?

A few chives going in there.

Perfect, like so. This bacon is...

..beautiful!

With your curing it yourself, it's more dry, isn't it, that way?

Yeah, yeah. We then hang it in a cool airy place.

-Yes.

-And then we smoke it. Put it in the smoker.

So, those people who haven't been up to Morston Hall, tell us

-about Morston Hall, then, because I went there late last year...

-Yeah.

-You've built on and built on?

-Yeah, we have.

So, we've gradually... My wife and I started this 18 years ago

and it's gone all right.

And we've now got 14 bedrooms and we have added on as we go along.

That's the beauty of the place.

-It's always got enough space to do a bit a little bit to it.

-Yes.

-Now, hang on!

-Yup.

-Next bit.

The ramekins.

Massively important that these ramekins get well buttered.

-Right.

-So, you butter them once, you put them in the fridge.

You let them firm up and then you butter them again and again.

-Three times?

-Three. You don't want them sticking.

There's nothing worse and if you're sending them out in a restaurant...

I'm using Gruyere, but you could use a Cheddar.

You could use a strong Cheddar or something like that.

You don't need to do that much!

I'm only doing one plate!

-I'm doing it for a ham and cheese sandwich for all these lot.

-OK, OK.

And then what we are also going to do is serve it with a little

finely chopped parsley and chives. I think it is all about timing.

It's all about timing, Chef, right.

It's massively important that we try and get it right.

And it isn't like that twice-baked souffle which rises up and high.

-This tends to go flat.

-OK.

It's all about the taste. Let it settle down.

-We want a plate for this?

-Yes, please.

-Leave that for a second?

-In an ideal world you would.

And you'd always do one extra as well.

-Right.

-In case you have an absolute disaster with them.

Which is a potential.

THEY CHUCKLE

That's why he's leaving it!

-Yeah.

-Ee-ee!

I don't mind it slopping.

I don't mind it, but you do need to leave it. Go around it.

We'll try one spare, first of all.

-Do you want the sauce on the plate?

-Yup. Plenty of it.

Plenty of it.

-How's that? Is that all right?

-Fine.

-Bacon?

-Bacon.

-Bacon. Plenty of bacon.

-If this one doesn't work, this one will.

-And if they both don't work, I'm going home.

-There you go.

There we go.

That's cool. That's cool!

-Is it cool, that, Galton?

-Yeah, it's cool.

No! This is what I've told you before!

-Right.

-It's not your souffle that goes high and wide.

A good job I did all that cheese. You can cover it up now, can't you?

THEY CHUCKLE

So leave it under there for about 45 seconds.

-The longer you leave it...

-I'm leaving it! I'm leaving it!

..the better it is to take it out. OK? So you leave it to go...

As I said, it is "a la minute" souffle.

If you go to the Waterside or the Gavroche,

-you pay 25 quid for this.

-Yep.

Don't you? But that's what I mean.

Ramekins. All about ramekins.

-OK. This is in the oven?

-Yeah.

-Under the grill?

-Yes. And now, also, it's all about the taste as well.

-Some chives?

-Yeah, yeah. Chop some chives.

-OK.

Chop some chives.

There's still a lot of cheese there if you want to use more.

-I don't want any more cheese.

-Are you sure?

-Absolutely so.

45 seconds is up. This comes out.

Guys, when it comes over to you, for goodness' sake,

don't hold the side of the plate.

It's going to be very, very hot. OK?

But it is good, trust me.

You want more colour on it than that, Jamesy Boy, I think.

I think we do. More colour than that.

-We can have a little chat while I'm waiting.

-Yeah.

What shall we chat about?

-You've made a bet with somebody, a little birdie tells me.

-Yeah?

-About Norfolk going up in the...

-Oh, you mean Norwich.

-Norwich going up in the Football League.

-My pride and joy, Norwich.

Yeah, yeah. Stupidly, in a moment of absolute madness, I had a little bit

of a wager saying that if Norwich got promoted, I'd have a tattoo.

-A tattoo of what?

-Norwich.

LAUGHTER

-I know!

-The word "Norwich"?

-Norwich, the emblem.

I don't know where I'm going to have it or what, but anyway...

And it looks like we're doing all right.

-You could get people to phone in for suggestions.

-Oh, yeah, cool!

And then over the top like so.

Now, that, in real time, is a souffle Suisse with bacon.

It's delicious.

-Do you want more cheese?

-No!

-All right.

-Mind that side of the plate.

-Taste it, guys. You'll love it.

-Taste it, cos you'll love it.

Check that out!

I'm there! There you go. Right, dive into that. It's very, very hot this.

-Very hot.

-There you go.

You get to dive into that and tell us what you think of that one.

-Oh-ho! I get to go first?

-You get to go first.

-It's very hot.

-The souffle is going to be hot, is it?

-The whole lot.

Everything about it will be hot.

-You can see that.

-Couldn't you allow those souffles to cool?

Yeah, yeah, in an ideal world, which sort of reminds me

-why I should never, ever do it on live TV...

-Yes!

You would let them cool down a bit, but, hey! It's just showing you...

The bacon's amazing.

-In six minutes you can do something.

-Yeah.

-Go on, dive in.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Without the bacon, though, you wouldn't get that texture,

that crunch, and that just makes it for me.

That's all you're getting, mate! It's going to be passed down here.

Mother wants a bit. There you go.

But that's the key to that bacon, use a dry cured bacon?

Yes, the bacon is just my twist to it.

It's a very rich dish, but I like the bacon.

You can also put tomato through it as well.

Rich, creamy and very light, even despite that amount of cheese.

Coming up, I cook a cracking coffee and cardamom cake

for former Westlife singer Kian Egan.

But that's after a trip to Kerala with the fabulous Mr Rick Stein.

He's cooking a traditional Indian dessert today. Enjoy this one.

Now for a relatively short road trip to the coconut heaven

which is Kerala.

This is a lovely opportunity to drive through the beautiful

spice-laden hills that form a border between Tamil Nadu

and the holiday destination of Kerala.

These famous hills are known as the Western Ghats.

Mile after mile of fertile plantations producing

a fantastic array of spices, like vanilla and cinnamon.

We're travelling west, heading for the town of Thekkady.

Look at all these shops selling spices cheek by jowl.

I'm reminded of when I first came to the Costa Brava in the '60s, when

practically every shop sold the same thing, straw donkeys and sombreros.

Well, here, it's hot and tasty spices all the way.

CAR HORNS BLARE

We've just driven through Thekkady a few miles back.

I was just astonished by the number of spice shops.

There must have been 20, 30, 40 all next to each other

and all on the high street.

That's not for the locals - that's for sure!

It's for the tourists and I think it's testimony

to how important food has become in tourism.

You come to Kerala, somebody from Europe now, and you don't just

go for the beaches, you go for the trip into the hills and the spices.

Well, Kerala's known to have the best cardamoms

and pepper in the world, but I wouldn't be surprised

if that wasn't true for such things as cloves and cinnamon, too.

'Just outside Thekkady

'is a plantation growing cardamoms and pepper.

'Do you know, I've been a chef for over 30 years

'and I didn't have a clue - until now, that is - how cardamoms grew?

'There's something so tantalising and special about them.

'A sweet scent that transforms all curries.'

Well, I was sort of wondering when I came here this afternoon

in the minibus, I was thinking, "I wonder what a cardamom is.

"It must be like a sort of tea bush,

"probably, like, hanging from under the leaves."

Not a bit of it. These are cardamom...

Well, you can't call them bushes -

they're rhizomes.

They're like ginger or galangal or turmeric

and the cardamom pods actually grow right down near the ground,

and the flowers pollinate, they have bees to pollinate them,

and then they have these little green pods.

Now, tasting them, I suddenly see, yes, of course they're rhizomes.

They taste, to me, a bit like galangal more than ginger

but they've got that distinctive taste.

But of course, when they're dried, it becomes much more subtle.

No wonder they call them the queen of spices.

'Well, if cardamom is the queen of spices

'then pepper is certainly the king.

'It's what started the Portuguese quest to the East,

'beginning the Spice Route as we know it.

'Today, these little corns are said to outsell

'all other spices put together,

'and these hills provide a perfect growing environment.

'Lengthy monsoon rains, high temperatures and good shade.'

I mean, look at that. It's not a pepper tree.

There is no such thing as a pepper tree. It's a vine.

Most of the heat in Indian cooking comes from chillies now,

of course, but there is nothing to beat pepper,

particularly in the cooking of southern India.

Pepper really matters. It really is the king of spices.

And, thinking about it, that trade - you know, boats coming from Europe

to India and back again - it would have been worth,

in today's values, billions.

'I had the chance to taste a local dish

'using the freshly harvested spices from the plantation.

'Matthew, the owner, is cooking me a pork curry flavoured with

'spices virtually growing outside the kitchen door.

'So here we are, then. The spices.

'Mustard, cumin, cloves, crushed cinnamon

'and, of course, a couple of cardamom pods.

'Matthew's already fried the pork with some shallots, garlic cloves,

'green chillies and sliced ginger.'

Tell me about cardamoms. Why they're so important.

It's one of those spices which, when used sparingly, is just fantastic.

It's just very subtle and nice.

But the moment you add a little extra,

it can get very overpowering.

So, but traditionally in Indian home cooking you add maybe just

one or two pods, that's about it.

'Before serving, he brings the curry to a simmer with water

'and finishes by adding

'some tamarind and crushed coriander seeds.

'This recipe is from his grandmother,

'who Matthew says is the best cook he's ever known.

'They all say that, don't they?!

'Simply because she created delicious dishes

'out of very few ingredients.'

Well, I'm looking forward to this.

It's totally delicious.

What I really like about it is it's very... It's sort of simple,

it's sort of got... It's sort of vigorous, it's fresh-tasting.

Pretty much what I liked about this dish is just the freshness of it.

It's not what we would call masalafied

as most Indian restaurant food is.

It's typically what Indian home cooking is all about.

Dancing food, you know?

It just dances on the plate.

I'm getting a bit carried away, but that's the way I feel!

MATTHEW CHUCKLES

'Seeing all these cardamoms gave me an idea for what is probably

'South India's most popular dessert, payasam.'

It's a very simple dessert and, actually, after many,

many sticky Indian desserts, I found this a total delight.

First of all, you've got to reduce a lot of milk

down to a very little.

'And while that's happening, in another pan,

'add teaspoon or so of ghee.

'You need this to fry off some rice vermicelli

'which forms the starch base of this dessert.

'Cashew and pistachio nuts and a handful of raisins are also

'fried in ghee to garnish the finished dish.

'Once the milk is boiled,

'simply add the fried vermicelli and a good amount of sugar.

'But the main point of this dish is the cardamom.

'Use green cardamoms, never black.

'Black cardamoms would give it a smoky flavour.'

Well, one of the things that I really like to do,

filming here in India and collecting recipes,

is to find things that I actually want to cook at home.

And this is one of them. It is a lovely, lovely sweet.

Just a little bit of ice-cold cream, beautifully flavoured with cardamom.

Yum!

'Popular holiday destinations mark out, I think,

'great chunks of social history.

'Package deals to Spain, villas in Tuscany, gites in the Perigord

'and now, I think, this is probably the latest -

'rice barges with all mod cons in Kerala.

'Cruising through palm-fringed backwaters

'with full air conditioning, your very own cook, sundeck and balcony.

'They once brought rice from the paddies inland.

'Who'd have thought - what a leap in imagination - they'd be

'taking honeymoon couples on the holiday of a lifetime?'

I suppose this is what Kerala's all about.

Going in a boat up and down the backwaters.

It's a bit like the exotic version of the Norfolk Broads,

I was thinking. You know, you've got these sort of wide rivers

going into big lakes.

But looking around, it just sums up Kerala to me

because - I know I use this word a bit too often - fecundity.

But it is so fertile.

And the water is teeming with fish, with shrimps, with prawns,

with crabs, with clams, you name it.

And fringing the water you've got coconuts.

Beyond that, the rice paddies.

And what I've eaten so far in Kerala, it's just simple food

that takes advantage of all these local ingredients.

Not just the fresh vegetables and seafood and fish,

but also the spices from the Ghat Mountains further east.

Those lovely cardamom, cinnamon, coriander.

All those wonderful spices which are supposed to be

the best in all of India.

'I can watch fishermen all day long. It's timeless, basic and magical.

'This guy's catching the most popular fish here.

'It's called karimeen.

'And lots of little cafes along the backwaters serve it with masala.'

Well, we just stopped off for a coffee from filming them

catching karimeen, the famous fish of the Keralan backwaters,

and they just said, "Would you like something to eat?"

So I just had a look at this,

and this is such a lovely advertisement menu,

so I said, "Can we have some karimeen fry please?"

I'm really looking forward to that.

They said, "Would you like some prawns, too?"

So these are prawns.

I mean, call that... I mean, this is a bobby-dazzler of a prawn.

So I said to them, "Is there any chance we can film them?"

Because, you know, it would be so good to be out there

watching them come in, and they said they only do them at night.

So we can film that, because you wouldn't be able to see 'em.

So, we said, "Well, do you fancy cooking some for us as well?"

So we're going to have them - fried!

'I was a bit peckish so they ended up making two dishes for me,

'starting with these giant prawns

'that were fried with onions, tomatoes and curry leaves.

'When the prawns have taken on colour,

'he puts in freshly ground garam masala, ground cumin,

'turmeric and more curry leaves.

'I think this is a prawn curry by which other prawn curries

'may be measured.'

What they're doing now is cooking the karimeen fry.

That's the one that's just coated in the masala with cornflour.

Now, in the masala you've got garlic, ginger, chilli,

ground pepper, cumin, turmeric, cornflour and lemon juice.

'You won't be able to get the karimeen at home,

'but it would work really well with bass or bream.

'And of course, what's really important,

'it's got to be fried in coconut oil.'

'The guy helping us out here on the backwaters is Floyd.

'No, not that one, but he was brought up here,

'and he's also a chef.

'He worked in the Middle East, in Bahrain.'

Any food in Kerala, if you go to any house,

they don't set you with fork or knife or spoon,

you have to eat it with your hands.

Let's go, then. You start.

-You start from here.

-Let's just see what it's like.

Mmm! What a good fish!

Now that tastes almost like a sea fish.

Sea fishing.

The way it's cooked is wonderful.

-This is the karimeen fry.

-Karimeen fry, yes.

This is the one you have which, you know, when you're having

a small function, like you're sitting with your friends,

you're having a beer or wine, they serve with this.

And this fish, the karimeen, is the most famous fish in Kerala?

Yes, sure, the most famous fish in Kerala.

You can go anywhere in Kerala but most in Alleppey.

-You come to Allepey. They ask for curry here.

-Tell me this.

What dish would you be most homesick for

when you were cooking over in Arabia?

The most dish which makes me, like, homesick,

which I feel like eating is fish molee

and prawn curry.

Because whenever I leave Bahrain, before I could leave there,

I call my mother and I tell her, "Mummy, I want this dish!"

HE LAUGHS

-So she keeps it ready for me.

-Nice!

'I can see what Floyd means.

'This prawn curry certainly didn't disappoint.

'It was bursting with the flavours of pepper, chilli,

'cumin and the restaurant's home-made garam masala.'

Words fail me. I mean, just looking at those prawns when they were raw,

I was just thinking, "This is going to be fabulous."

I mean, I just love seafood and that is spectacular.

And what I really like is of course, the most, to me,

the most important ingredient in Kerala is coconut.

Kerala means "land of coconut".

And the coconut oil flavouring this is superb.

Now, cardamom's such a great ingredient.

-I'm sure you agree, Aktar.

-I do.

So much so, I'll be using it in a short while.

You're going to use that in a milky dessert, I'm going

to use it for so many different sweet desserts as well

throughout this series, but it's brilliant for this one.

I'm going to do a coffee and cardamom cake.

Keeping it nice and simple.

It's really kind of like an all- in-one recipe, really. For this one.

But we take some sugar, throw it in with some butter

and then I've got some cardamom here which we're going to add.

Now the coffee and cardamom, first of all,

there's your cardamom pods, which you grind up in a spice grinder,

and we've got that in the bottom here.

I'm going to add some coffee essence.

That's going to go in there, as well.

Just get this started, then we're going to add the eggs and flour.

I'm going to serve this with, like, a peanut ice cream

and some popcorn to go with it as well,

so just keep it, it is actually like simple little pudding or dessert.

But you want the butter sort of at room temperature,

otherwise you can't incorporate the eggs into it as well.

I don't know whether you're a keen baker at home, you know?

Baking isn't my thing, really. Yeah.

I do all the cooking at home, but baking, I just haven't got.

My wife has recently got into a bit of baking. Which has been fun.

But we're just shocked at how much sugar

and butter goes into everything. It's like, man! The calorie count!

Don't worry about the calories!

This is not the show to worry about, or the chef cooking it,

-to worry about the calories!

-No!

No, I don't know how many calories this has got in, but you know...

Having a six-pack isn't a must on this show, is it?

Well, it's kind of, I once wrote a recipe for a magazine

and they called me back, questioning the amount of calories per portion,

because there was 2,800 calories per portion.

They wanted to know what the problem with the recipe was.

So I looked through it and actually figured out,

we'd forgotten the ice cream!

So in goes the flour, we're going to mix this together.

I always do this bit by hand, really, that's the best way.

If you do it by machine, it toughens up the cake mixture,

but you just incorporate this by hand and mix it all together.

First of all, I mean, congratulations on the album.

Thank you very much.

I mean, you were saying earlier, it's unexpected for you, really.

And everything else, after Westlife, it's a bit of a bonus.

-Was that really the case?

-Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you know, Westlife ended in 2012 in the summer

and I kind of thought, well,

I had an amazing music career with Westlife, 14 years at the top,

and, you know, I was doing a small bit of TV work.

I did The Voice Of Ireland, similar to The Voice here.

Is that what you enjoy, that mentoring?

Yeah, I do, I really do enjoy that.

But apart from that, really, I did a tiny bit of TV presenting

over here as well, but that was really it.

So I kind of thought, "You know what? That's cool.

"I've had an amazing time at the top

"and I'm really grateful for everything I have."

And then I was asked to do I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here

two years in a row, and I said "yes", the second time,

because I kind of realised, you know what?

It's just going to be a bit of fun, isn't it?

Because often, when people do that, they want to

progress their career forward and do something off the back of it.

But it was never really the case for you.

The album wasn't planned afterwards.

No. The jungle, for me, was just an experience.

I thought, I'm an outdoorsy guy, I do a lot of surfing,

I do a lot of, like, hiking and stuff like that, with my buddies.

So that was what it was. It was like a cool experience.

And then I came out of the jungle and got offered a record deal

straightaway and I was like, "Wow, OK."

For one of the non-lead singers of Westlife, I thought, "That's going

"to be fun," and got in the studio and, you know, started recording

the album and now it's ready to rock and coming out in a week and a half.

It's quite scary.

St Patrick's Day it's out as well. It had to be as well, really.

I think it's more about, you know, Mother's Day.

The record label were like,

"Let's get it out for Mother's Day." I was like, "OK."

It's a very personal album for you

-because your wife's on one of the tracks, track five.

-She is.

She is on track five. We done a duet of a song called I Run To You.

You know, and I know normally you'd get the cheese board out

when you think about a husband and a wife singing together.

That was a cover, it was Bryan Adams?

No, it's not. That's a different song.

It's a Lady Antebellum song, which are an American country act.

Which one was the Bryan Adams one that I was listening to?

That's Run To You, not I Run To You. So there's a difference there.

-I was close. I was close.

-You were close. No coconut.

But, yeah, so, no, you know, when you hear the song,

the cheese disappears because it's really, really strong.

My wife's an amazing singer.

She's a better singer than I am, so I was kind of like,

"Babe, when you go into the studio, don't show me up.

"Just, you know, keep it simple, just put the vocal down,

"keep it nice and simple, don't get all frilly and filly with it."

But, no, it sounds lovely, so really excited.

I mean, you know, honestly,

it's all just a major bonus to be doing it all.

-I never expected it.

-So, you'd never expect a tour later?

I don't suppose you know what's going to happen next, then, really.

Well, it's been so manic that I've just kind of got to a point where

it's like, "OK, cool, all this amazing stuff is happening

"so let's just do that and see how it goes from there,"

and, you know, if there's enough people

that are interested in me doing a tour, I'll do a tour.

It's as simple as that, really.

I'm just going to recap what I've done here.

We've got popcorn in here. Sugar popcorn.

-I don't mind. That's all right.

-We just blitz this.

-I love popcorn.

-Yeah.

When I go to the cinema, it's always,

"Can I have a mix of sweet and salt?"

Cos you get a handful of sweet

and then all of a sudden you get a handful of salt.

You don't want the salty popcorn.

I don't know... Life's too short to eat salty popcorn.

-It's just the contrast of the two in the same box. It's so nice.

-Is it?

-Have you not done it?

-No.

-You should try it.

-It's got to be sugar. It's got to be sugar on it.

Anyway, we're just going to mix this up.

And you pour that over the top, you see.

This is just a little bit of oil.

I was going to use butter but I wasn't allowed to.

-Too many calories.

-Well, too many calories, precisely that as well.

We didn't actually mention the title of the album, so...

Yeah, it's called Home, which is the lead track of the album as well.

So, yeah, you know,

it's just a song that had been sitting on my iPod for a while

and I thought, "Such a great track," and I think it kind of

resonated with me with everything that had gone on,

being away from my family for so long, doing I'm A Celebrity

and things like that, you realise that it's what

we all kind of really care about the most, isn't it?

Getting home to your family and your little boy.

I have a little boy now who is two and three months.

You know, he's probably at home watching. Hi, buddy.

His name's Koa.

But isn't there a temptation to sort of put your feet up

and think, you know, "14 years doing what I've been doing,

-trawling around the world," just to go...?

-I mean, yes and no.

I think there is, you know...

You can't live your life like that, can you, just doing nothing?

Plus, you know, you can't turn down these opportunities.

They are such amazing opportunities to be given that,

you know, just like, yeah, somebody is asking me to release

an album, wow. I never expected that to come in my lifetime, so why not?

It's not about even how well it does or how successful it is,

it's more about I got the opportunity to do it.

If people buy it, I'll be blown away even more, you know?

The temptation must be...

I mean, you guys, you know, you must speak regularly, you guys,

and to sort of look at what Take That's done and reform

and think, "That's always something we can go back to."

-Is that something that is definitely not...?

-No.

I mean, for me, I would find it strange if Westlife never

stood on stage together again but that's not to say that will or

won't happen because it's only been two years and you just don't know

what's going to happen in life

in the next five to ten years, 20 years, you know.

Some of us might decide, "You know what?

"That's a thing of the past and I've had an amazing time doing it

"but let's not go back there," or we could all be going,

"Let's do it. Look at the amazing time we had."

So it's really early for me to even think about that.

I think we're all kind of only

right now finding our own feet as individuals.

We've been together since we were 16, 17 years of age.

The original band... Simon Cowell as well didn't really have

many good things to say about Westlife, the original band.

He said we were one of the ugliest boy bands in the world.

I thought, "Excuse me!"

And I actually interviewed him a few weeks ago and I pulled him up on it,

so you'll probably see that on the television soon.

He was like, "I wasn't talking about you, kiddo."

I went, "Yeah, I knew you'd say that."

But, no, Simon, I think Simon was...

We were pretty ugly, I'll give him that much, when he first met us.

Then he got his hands on us

and got a good stylist and a good hairdresser

and, you know, got all the glam squad out

and turned us into half-decent-looking all right ones.

Do you miss it at all? Do you miss it or...?

I miss the performance... I miss the boys.

You know, I miss... You know, doing things on your own is so different.

It's such a different experience.

So I miss that, I miss bouncing around the country with the lads

and having a laugh, and I miss the performing.

I miss being on stage and being in front of an audience.

-Well, hopefully if the album does well...

-I'll be back there.

-..you'll be on your own onstage.

-Fingers crossed.

-With a Brummie backing singer.

-Most definitely.

Birmingham was amazing for Westlife.

We played in Birmingham so often it was unbelievable.

-The Brummie fans are amazing.

-One question I want to ask you.

-Have the boys heard your album yet?

-Yeah, I've been...

You know, text messages and tweets and stuff like that,

wishes of good luck and stuff like that.

I mean, everybody, we're all genuinely good friends.

You know, there's no kind of nasty rivalry or anything like that.

And everybody's doing really, really well since it all finished

so it's quite good.

Just always be very careful with cardamom.

It's very strong and can easily overpower a dish.

Now, if you'd like to try cooking any of the mouthwatering recipes

you've seen on today's show,

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

And today, we're looking back at some of the very best

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now, next up is a chef whose personality in the kitchen

is as big and as bold as the food she cooks.

She needs no introduction indeed. It's Silvena Rowe.

-Good to have you on the show.

-Hey, good to be back.

I know you want to get those in the oven first of all.

They're going in cos they need five to seven minutes cooking and they're

going in a fairly hot oven, and those are pies, Paul, by the way.

-Right, pies.

-Is Paul listening?

-Yeah. Hey!

-Absolutely. Good.

-What's the name of this dish, then?

-This is borek.

This is another word for pie but it's actually a Turkish pie,

-and this is a famous street food in Turkey.

-I love Turkish food.

Oh good, then you half love me already.

And basically it is delicious because we put very healthy

chicken in there, like, you know, delicious, I take the skin off.

-Halloumi. And halloumi actually is...

-Hellim.

-Hellim. What is this?

That's the Turkish word for it, isn't it? Hellim?

Oh, yes, it is, actually. You're very well versed.

I didn't know he was fluent in Turkish. You didn't tell me that.

-Turkish girlfriend.

-Oh, say no more. Say no more.

Got to get it right or I'm in trouble.

Right, chicken is in.

What I'm going to add to it is some cumin and some dry mint

and a bay leaf. And those are kind of quite unique, typical, iconic

-spices for this type of eastern Mediterranean cuisine.

-OK.

Just move this away from here.

So there you've just got the thigh and the leg.

Any reason why you're using the dark meat? Tastes better?

I kind of like it. It's quite juicy.

When it goes into the borek,

because you have another five, six minutes of cooking

and you don't want it too dry, so it's quite delicious.

-This is going in... Salt...

-Salt, I'll get it.

-OK.

So tell us about your new kitchen, then. You've got a fancy kitchen.

Well, it's going to be an amazing space.

It's going to be open plan kitchen, a theatre kitchen

so people can see us cooking, we can see people eating and enjoying

themselves, and it's actually rather like...rather large kitchen.

About eight metres is my pass.

And it's going to be beautiful grills and griddles.

I'm going to have a robata grill, I'm going to have a char-grill,

I'm going to have a vertical grill as well.

So I'm going to grill everything and anything. A lot of fish, Paul.

Can I ask you a question?

I go fishing, right, and I like to get, you know, the top gear and

all that, but I turn up sometimes people say, "All the gear, no idea."

-No, no, no.

-So you've got all this stuff...

Been around for a bit. Been around for a bit.

You are a brave man. I wouldn't say that and I'm stood here.

You're going to be eating my pie in a minute so watch this space.

The chicken stock going in. Right, so what we're going to do next is...

-What have you put in there? Chicken stock?

-Chicken stock.

Actually, just a little bit. I'm going to reduce the heat.

So give it 25-30 minutes in here or pop it in an oven

if you want, to finish it off.

Now what we're doing now, we got our halloumi. Now, let's see. Oh, yeah.

-What are you doing?

-If it squeak it's good halloumi.

-Squeaks?

-Yes.

-Is that speak or squeak?

-That's a very... Squeak.

I didn't say that. That was Kitchen. That was Kitchen.

Kitchen, I didn't know you were a comedian as well as a chef.

-I'm learning.

-It's not squeaking.

-It's squeaking.

It's fairly squeaking. You can hear it. Listen.

-Can you hear it? It's squeaking.

-I don't know if that's your ear wax.

-One of the two.

-Oh, my God. So unkind to me.

-You know, James...

-Chopping it up nice and fine, yeah?

Yeah, nice and fine, or grated.

-This halloumi is normally char-grilled, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

It is normally char-grilled but, you know, this is quite good

and it's fairly low in fat. So it goes here with your green

chilli and while I'm cooking my chicken, I've got some already

cooked, prepared, I'm going to start taking it off the bone.

And how long would that take to cook with the lid on?

-Well, about 25-30 minutes.

-Right, OK.

So, take the skin off, all of the skin because really that's no good.

-Not nice.

-The chicken needs it.

It would be nice on your grill, though.

Well, I think we all need a bit of skin on us at the end of the day,

but it can be very nice, you know.

Actually, when you roast chicken, it's delicious,

but I think it's not good in this particular preparation

because it's not crispy and...

Really remove it, it's just not healthy. It goes in here.

In the restaurant, we make this dish.

At Quince we're going to be making this dish with duck and foie gras,

which is a little bit more restaurant

but this is a perfect version for home.

What you're doing there, sauteing those delicious carrots

and by sauteing them just a few minutes without browning them,

you actually give them a little bit of sugar extract because

they're very, very high in natural sugars.

-Move that across there.

-And...

-You want a bit of garlic in there.

Yes, little bit of garlic, a little bit of cumin. A touch of mayonnaise.

I usually use home-made mayonnaise but you don't have to put it

if you're calorie conscious, which I don't think Paul is.

-You don't need to be, do you?

-No.

-You're so skinny.

-More. More.

-More.

-I need more.

-Good. We've got lovely pies for you.

So you're stripping that literally all off.

Yes, stripping it off, chopping it.

This would be a good way to use any leftover bits of chicken

-you've got, a Sunday roast or something like that?

-Perfect.

You can make it with pork, you can make it with lamb, anything.

You can make it with crab as well.

You know, I haven't tried it with any fish but,

to be honest with you, I wouldn't.

I kind of like the meat preparation better.

-Maybe with the halloumi.

-Yeah, so this is going in here...

-Want to pop that...?

-Yeah, a little bit. You know what?

I'll put a little bit of my juices in, just for a bit of wetness.

Get rid of that for me, please.

LAUGHTER

Why do you always come here?

Otherwise unless I tell James what to... Hold on.

I need to wipe my board

because we're going to have the fun part now.

We are going to roll our little pies.

-OK. There we go.

-And this is dead simple. Absolutely.

There is some magic about the chilli, the halloumi

and the chicken and, of course,

you've got the beautiful spices in there as well.

And you're using filo pastry, yeah?

Yeah, filo pastry, it's what I use where I come from.

It's very, very light. It's made of flour and water only,

so it's extremely fat-free.

We're going to brush a little bit of butter today but, before you

say anything to me, use egg if you are, again, calorie conscious.

James isn't, is he?

-No, trust me.

-Do you think he should be?

LAUGHTER

-Just throw that question out there.

-You are a fine one to talk, dear.

You know. Good, so nice and easy.

-A little bit of brush here on the side.

-Yeah.

So, basically, when you come to Quince, you're going

to have those little baby parcels, beautiful,

with gorgeous, little... Quince is going to be a lot about street food,

a lot about delicious, home-made cooking with great flavours.

Beautiful home blends,

beautiful kind of amazing mixtures like pomegranate molasses etc.

Oh, those are getting very fat.

-And you don't want any colour on these carrots, do you?

-No.

-Not any colour.

-Can we get a table already or is it already booked up?

We're getting very busy. We're very popular you know.

-Very much in demand, you know.

-SILVENA CHUCKLES

These are raisins you've got in there, yeah?

Yes, these are raisins but you can use sultanas, you can

-use dried cherries, and I love the fruit because...

-And the spice?

The spice is cumin. Cumin is my religion.

I love cumin in everything.

It just lifts things up, gives such a wonderful kick.

Basically, Quince is going to be British, best of British

with a wonderful eastern Mediterranean tale.

You've got a little bit of butter to hold them all together.

Yeah, and basically I'm not even using the butter, to be honest.

What I'm going to do now is actually put the butter on the top

because I'm using seeds. At the restaurant we are using hemp seeds.

-And don't worry...

-What seeds?

-Hemp.

-Hemp.

-Hemp, good for your body.

-Very good for you, isn't it, hemp?

-Very good.

You see? We're already speaking the same language with this Turkish.

-I know this stuff.

-Do you?

You've got mayonnaise in there and what's this?

Mayonnaise and this is actually strained yoghurt, or labneh.

-Labneh.

-It's yoghurt without the moisture. So it's the best of it.

And you know what? You can obtain it from the supermarket,

fat-free again it should you decide to do that.

A bit of sesame seeds goes on the top here.

Sesame seeds are great, sold everywhere.

You can buy black sesame seeds or you can use poppy seeds.

Anything... Seeds are great, really. Fabulous.

Fabulous for your diet. OK, I'll put this in the fridge.

Got those ones in the oven already.

And I'll bring the ones from the oven. They should be ready by now.

And you know what the beauty of it is?

You can prepare it in the morning, glaze them with your butter

or egg wash and actually have them

ready for when you want to cook them, or indeed you can freeze them.

Now, would you serve this coleslaw warm like I've done here?

Ideally we should really cool it down but it doesn't...

Remember you're putting the cold yoghurt

so it's absolutely fabulous now.

And you tell me if you do not like that because this is very special,

I have to say.

How are we doing with time?

-Yes, we're doing fine.

-Is it delicious?

-Yes. Do you want me to put this on the plate?

-Yes, please.

-You can serve for me.

-How do you want it on the plate?

-Any way you like, James.

-No, because I'll get told off if I do it wrong.

-Just do it beautifully. Do it in your sweet James baby manner.

-There.

-No, for goodness' sake! Do not play with me!

-Like that.

OK, this will do.

Nobody will accuse you of being anything other than just wonderful.

This is gorgeous. Thank you. OK, I'm coming with my chunky pies, Paul.

OK, lovely, yeah. I'm just enjoying the banter here, though.

Seeing Martin humiliated.

-Please, don't say that.

-That's the stuff, isn't it?

You do know the reason he's not getting married,

-because he's waiting for me.

-Just get it on the plate.

It's a marriage made in heaven and hell, isn't it?

-See what I did there?

-Oh, my God.

You're funnier in real life.

LAUGHTER

And this is it. Get yourself into that. This is absolutely stunning.

-Do you want some sprinkles?

-Oh, yes, please.

Remind us what that is again.

So, this is borek or spring rolls with chicken, halloumi

and green chilli, with delicious eastern Mediterranean coleslaw.

Who am I to argue?

-There you go. Right, over here.

-Fantastic.

-There you go, Paul.

-Where do you want me? I'll stay here then.

-Dive into that.

-Can I?

Paul, be careful. We don't want to damage the...

-It looks fantastic, it really does.

-Thank you.

-So I can go, and then...

-Yeah, the idea is... Yeah.

There you go. Pass it down.

There you go, ladies. I feel a bit rude, going in before the ladies.

-Actually, I don't care.

-I suppose lamb would work.

Lamb is very good but you're absolutely perfectly right

about the leftovers of Sunday dinner. Beef, lamb, pork - fabulous.

-And the spices that went in there.

-Cumin, dried mint and a bay leaf,

and obviously we remove the bay leaf. It stays with the sauce.

Add a little bit of the cooking juices to your mixture as well.

-How is that?

-9.999 recurring out of

-ten. Can we do...?

-Oough!

-Oough!

And if your halloumi doesn't squeak like Silvena's,

I personally wouldn't worry about it too much.

Now, next up we're back on a flavourful journey through

Britain and Ireland with the fabulous late, great Mr Keith Floyd.

His culinary adventure is taking him through Cork today. Enjoy this one.

BAGPIPES PLAY

Practically the only place in the world where you can hold an

intelligent and profound conversation in the street

without being either, A, arrested or, B, honked at is Ireland.

Not just a country, more a state of mind.

Like Provence, life is lived on the streets and, like Provence,

there is time for the young and old.

There is a heavy emphasis on food and the good things in life.

There is time for pleasure.

You see, the quality of life and the flavour of food

is more important than the dreaded work ethic

or the rush for forced efficiency.

Longueville House sits proud, not on a knoll or a hill, but an eminence.

Great word, great place. Overlooking what they call the Irish Rhine -

the Blackwater River, famous for its fine salmon runs.

These rich acres, with trees planted to celebrate

the Battle of Waterloo that surround the house,

provide most of the produce,

from beef and lamb to fish, from asparagus to strawberries,

that the present incumbents, Jane and Michael O'Callaghan,

use in the restaurant.

Even the wine from Ireland's on the vineyard is quite superb.

This is fabulous wine. It's a shame it's the last bottle.

-Is it truly the last bottle you've made?

-Absolutely the last bottle.

-We kept it for you, Floyd.

-That's wonderful.

When will there be some more?

Hopefully in September, October, if we get any sun.

But today's the 1st July and we have a fire on

-so it's not looking too good.

-Never mind. Never mind.

Anyway, let's get down to pigeons, because pigeons

people think are humble, common, peasanty.

How do you persuade them, in your fabulous dining room, to eat

such a thing as we might think is a bit, you know, not too good?

Give it a lovely sauce. Fabulous sauce.

And give it a nice accompaniment also.

Also give them a wide choice on the menu

so they don't have to eat pigeon if they don't want to, you know?

-But quite a few people do have it.

-How do you cook it, then?

-Cook it?

We start off with the... This is the leg. We just chop it up.

Well, actually, it's the leg of two pigeons here.

And we chop them up very small and we saute it off with

a bit of shallot and some garlic and maybe a little bit of thyme.

And cover that with water, about a pint of water, a pint and a half,

and let it simmer gently for maybe an hour, an hour and a half.

Then strain that off and then you have the base of your sauce.

Excellent. Then to prepare the pigeon itself, what do you do?

You just put butter on it.

-Not bacon and things like that?

-Not at all. You're in Ireland,

-it's all butter and cream over here.

-Right.

-So we put butter on.

Now, how long does that stay in the oven for, then?

How long would you think it should stay in the oven?

-I'd say probably 20 minutes?

-No. 10. 10. 12.

It's going to come out pink and people are going to send it back.

You've got to eat it rare.

If you don't eat it rare, you might as well eat this.

Here, take it and eat it. It's the same thing.

OK, well, you take it and cook it and pop it in the oven.

-Will you eat it?

-I'll certainly eat it.

Now, I'll just tell you about this wine. It's a Riesling sort of wine.

It's the only vineyard in Ireland. It's called Chateaux Longueville.

It's absolutely brilliant and it's as rare as anything.

And it's very worth drinking.

Nice and close there, Richard, OK?

Jane can you explain exactly what's going on, please?

John is making a brilliant sauce here, Floyd.

He's got the stock from the pigeon, which I showed you earlier on,

and it has been reduced a little bit because it was too thin.

He has reduced red wine.

He fried some shallot, he fried some...

a little bit of garlic, and thyme.

We're using thyme because we have thyme in the garden at the moment.

And now he's just beating some butter into it to thicken it

-and to enrichen it.

-Superb.

-I reckon that pigeon must be ready, mustn't it?

-Yes, I hope it is.

-It's a long 12 minutes. There it is. There we go.

-See?

-So you just carve that.

-Yes.

And John will put the sauce on the plate, OK?

-This is just right, Floyd, look.

-OK. Carve away.

-Yeah.

Oh, it's beautifully pink.

That's absolutely superb.

-Will you eat it that way?

-Yes, I will. I will.

-Good.

Going to have to...

Down to that bone.

-That's the way it should be.

-DOG BARKS

Jane, sorry to interrupt, there is

-someone at the blinking kitchen door.

-Oh, no. Sorry.

-I'm sorry about that.

-I am trying to make a television programme, Jane.

Is there some spinach?

-Strawberries. Can you take these away, please?

-Please.

Thomas, would you take this spinach? I'm sorry about that, Floyd.

That's all right. It's quite all right.

This has to go on, I'm sorry.

-I don't see why. I don't see why at all.

-It can't stop, Floyd.

-It can't all stop.

-Is that all from the garden, honestly?

-Yes.

Everything. We didn't go into town and buy it

and bring it through the window just for you.

Touche. OK, get on with it, then.

-John, can we have the sauce, please?

-Yeah.

I think Madame here is nearly ready.

Very hard to carve when you're looking at me.

-You've got it.

-I have it, have I?

-You have it. One big one there.

-OK?

-Pour the sauce on the plate, please, John.

Snap to it, we've got a television crew waiting here.

And, Richard, you look at that very nicely.

You see that lovely, rich, red sauce poured over the wonderful

white plate with the pigeon breasts on.

And Richard, up to me for a second.

Everyone thinks I've done nothing on this programme.

Actually, I've cooked the cabbage.

It's beautiful cabbage from my three-acre garden here, a walled

garden by the way, simmered gently in butter with little raisins in.

Absolutely superb. And, of course, it makes the dish.

And look at that.

A really super meal.

Magnificent.

The humble pigeon elevated to heights of gastronomy

you've never seen before.

And back up to us again, please,

because I want to make a little speech about vegetables.

Do you think they really taste so much better from the garden

or is that just sort of nonsense?

No, it's not nonsense. They have to be better.

That cabbage was growing half an hour ago.

And it's beautifully fresh and will taste completely

different to something that's sitting in a shop for the last week.

-Here. Here's to fresh vegetables.

-Yes.

It isn't only wine that needs to be grown on the perfect slope.

The identity of a good cheese, too, should reflect the very earth.

Now, we all know Ireland's very green

but there is something extra special about this rich grass,

washed as it is by the wet winds from America,

and kissed by the Gulf stream, which brings fuchsia into bloom,

and cows munching on this untainted carpet produce

thick, creamy milk, perfect for making cheese.

Oi. Oi.

-There we are. Thank you, my dear.

-MOO

Once upon a time, in a university in Dublin called Trinity College,

there was a dashing young professor of philosophy and one day,

as professors do, he fell in love with a charming young lady.

And they didn't want the hustle and bustle of academic life

in a busy capital city

so they ran away here to the western coast of Ireland,

the furthest extremities of Europe. And they fell in love.

They were so deeply in love they got married and they had little cheeses.

Sweet, isn't it?

We've travelled many hundreds of miles to come here to the extreme

west coast of Ireland to witness a very, very strange and rare event.

It's the first time for several hundred years

that a soft cream cheese has been made in the British Isles.

Or, more precisely, here in Ireland. Is that actually true, Veronica?

I believe it is,

that when we began to make Milleens here it was the first time

for hundreds of years that a soft cheese has actually been

manufactured in the British Isles, yes.

What is it about the Irish, then, who know...?

Why do Irish know about cheese, for heaven's sakes?

I thought the French were the people who made all the cheese.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire,

a Dark Age descended on Europe and the great deal of the skill

and culture was temporarily lost.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, where the Romans never came,

we were a repository for a great deal of the art and culture.

And when the Renaissance came along, out went Irish monks and scholars

across Europe, reintroducing...

I'm not claiming that we invented cheese making by any means,

but reintroduced these skills

and cultures again to those places where they were gone.

To many people, Irish cookery is just all about potatoes.

It's partly true.

This brilliant thing you're seeing here is a potato and apple pancake.

Richard, where are you, please? This is vital.

Breaking brand-new ground here.

Potatoes, that's the whole thing here.

This potato and apple pancake is traditionally made by mixing

mashed potato with flour, rolling it very thin like a pancake,

stuffing it with apple, folding it like an apple turnover

and frying it in butter. What they don't say in the recipe books,

but what I'm going to tell you you should have to do, is pour

whiskey over it like that and then set fire to it

and you absolutely have something that should dazzle

even these academic and very brilliant cheese makers.

-SIREN WAILS

-And if it doesn't,

I won't eat their cheese. Is that OK? Right, there we are.

That is a new thing of apple and potato pancakes.

-Can I give you a little, tiny bit?

-Yes, please.

-Brilliant.

-I'd like quite a generous helping.

-A generous helping.

Norman and Veronica are these brilliant people who

I told you about in the fairytale when we started,

fell in love all those years ago, dragged themselves off down

here to this romantic part of the world and made brilliant cheeses.

Taste that if you would, please,

-because I think it's quite brilliant.

-Looks good.

And you've got to do it quickly cos we haven't got lots of film, OK?

Just say it's really brilliant.

Really super. Great.

-Isn't that brilliant? Very brilliant?

-Very brilliant.

A definite breakthrough. Brilliant.

An Anglo-Irish first.

-Absolutely.

-Super. Right, we can't have any more of that.

Thank you very much indeed.

You can eat that after you've done your work,

because what I want to really quite seriously...

This is a cookery programme, we do try and give you information, too.

..is about your brilliant cheese.

Now, can we start with this one,

-which I think is very young, isn't it, Norman?

-It is, yeah.

This is a young cheese.

You can see it's young inside.

Can you just say why exactly you can see that?

-You can see the cheese is ripening here from the outside.

-Yes.

And it still hasn't ripened all the way through

but it is very mild and it'll be very nice.

-Can I taste a bit?

-Yeah.

Is he saying the right things?

Because you actually make the cheese, Veronica, don't you?

This will taste quite acidic, clean, acid flavour,

which I love, young cheese.

Here is a riper one. This one here is very ripe.

It's ripened right the way through. Do you see what I mean?

-Compare it there.

-Yes, indeed.

It's very strong. It's got a fairly strong smell to go with it.

It's sort of strictly for the initiated, I think.

-Does a beautiful countryside make a beautiful cheese?

-Yeah, I think

if you're happy somewhere and doing something well,

it's going to show through in what you come out with, in what you make.

The cheese seems happy here.

-This is the taste of your home, isn't it?

-Well, there's no point in

fighting with the environment that you are in. Why not make and do

something that'll fit in with it? There's no point in

making something that would be better off in a desert, is there?

I tell you what, I haven't seen your lovely Irish locks yet.

Off with the hat, if you don't mind.

-How do you know I'm not bald?

-It's a chance I'm going to take.

Wow.

That's beautiful. No, listen, you come all this way from Dublin,

you've forsaken, you know, the port and the parties, the conversation of

Joyce, Nietzsche, JP Don Levy, all that lot. Was it worth it?

Oh, the boring, old soaks in the pubs of Dublin.

-Oh...

-Come on, you can replace the port with

porter and you can have some very interesting conversations down here.

No, I think we're very happy here.

We've a nice family and a lovely place to live in.

It's really nice putting a bit of this part of the world

into a lot of other ones, with our cheese turning up

in London, Germany, all over the place, and people enjoying it.

-I'll drink to that.

-Good luck.

-Good luck.

And there will be more from the fabulous Mr Floyd next week.

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

recipes from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Still to come on today's Best Bites,

Tana Ramsay and Michael Caines battle it out

at the Omelette Challenge hobs but how would they both do?

Find out in just a few minutes.

Bryn Williams plates up some perfect pork cheeks that he serves

with ginger carrots and Jersey Royal potatoes.

He pan roasts the pork cheeks and covers them with ginger beer

and chicken stock before roasting them in the oven.

And Bradley Walsh is facing his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven - duck three ways with roasted pears,

shallots, wilted chard and a red wine reduction?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell - chicken escalope

with tomato and artichoke salad?

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

Now, bringing a touch of theatre with him to the Saturday Kitchen

studio is a certain Chris Wheeler.

He's got a truly smoking scallop dish lined up in this next clip.

Enjoy it.

It's Chris Wheeler. So on the menu today we've got scallops.

That's correct. We're going to do home smoked scallops with a classic

Nicoise salad. Instead of the traditional dressing,

we'll serve a natural yoghurt and chive dressing.

So the classic is that it's got beans and...

-Beans, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers.

-And olives.

-And olives.

-OK.

-So you're going to do the peppers for me.

-I can do that, yeah.

-We managed to find one lucky diver who braved

the elements and the weather to find us some amazing scallops.

These are hand dived scallops that you want, really, for this one.

-Yes, that's the ones.

-Now, tell us about Stoke Park, then.

Because it's got an amazing history, really, the place, on the whole.

Yes, it was the first-ever British sporting club and obviously

since then it's grown and grown.

We've now got amazing sporting facilities, tennis courts,

a gym, obviously it's got Humphreys, which is

a three-rosette restaurant, we also have big banqueting

facilities and an amazing golf course.