13/03/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Today's show is bursting with fantastic food and flavour.

You won't want to go anywhere, trust me.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got talented chefs treating us to some seriously good food.

It's all finished off with a sweet sugar-coating of celebrity guests, too.

Coming up on today's show...

Glynn Purnell treats us to be brilliant dish of

brill served with scorched lettuce.

Catherine Fulvio is serving pistachio-crusted lamb cutlet

with orange-roasted root veg.

And she finishes the dish with a tasty fig and olive tapenade.

Martin Morales is turning up the heat with his

Peruvian beef stir-fry.

He marinades the beef before searing it in a hot pan along

with some onions, tomatoes and chilli.

And Pauline Quirke faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will she get her Food Heaven - a lamb madras curry with chapatis?

Or will she get her dreaded Food Hell, pasta with squid

and an oven-roasted tomato sauce?

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

But first, what could be better than freshly-made crumpets

on a Sunday morning?

Well, Marcus Wareing is here and he's serving just that.

Enjoy this one.

After working under the Roux brothers at Le Gavroche,

he worked for Gordon Ramsay at the Aubergine in London.

14 years later he's now running both the Savoy Grill

and Petrus for Gordon.

Both of which have Michelin stars. Petrus has two.

And he's very, very happy. He's still got the grin on his face.

-Congratulations, first of all.

-Thank you.

-I know that you work incredibly hard and well-deserved.

-Thank you.

It is, of course, Marcus Wareing. Now, what are we cooking?

-Well, today, home-made crumpets.

-Home-made crumpets.

Very, very, very simple.

Now, we're going to be serving those with a little duck egg,

bacon and some mushrooms.

-First of all, what we're going to do is make our batter.

-OK.

-It's very simple.

-Yep.

Fresh yeast and a little bit of warm water, salt and plain flour.

-Yep, lovely.

-What we are going to do is just basically...

Now, fresh yeast, where can people get fresh yeast from nowadays?

-Most people buy the dried stuff, don't they?

-Yeah, they do.

You can get them from good delis and also from your milkman.

The thing is, there's no problem with using powdered, you know,

whatever you can buy from the supermarket.

I think as long as you just treat it right and crumpets are good fun.

-It's really simple, good fun.

-The difference between fresh yeast

-and dried - it might take a little bit longer.

-Yeah, it might do.

You might just need a little bit more. So flour straight in.

There you go. A pinch of salt.

The salt is going to activate the yeast, the warm water as well.

That's going to help it to rise and aerate.

What we're looking for when we're making the crumpets

is these little holes, little aeration holes that come through.

Crumpets have been around for years, haven't they?

I think 1670, or something like that, they were actually invented.

Normally as, like, a little cake.

-So easy to make yourselves.

-They are. This is just good fun.

This is a really good Saturday/ Sunday morning...

You want to do this with the kids. They can get on and do this.

-Make a batter and go back to bed!

-Yeah!

-Let it rise up.

-Exactly. So that is it.

-OK.

-Mixed up.

Then what we do, we leave it to rest?

-You can leave that to rest.

-OK.

Clingfilm, give it about an hour in a warm place whilst you get

everything else ready, or whatever you're going to do. This is it.

-I'll get you a spoon for that.

-Yep.

What I've got is... As you can see as you just pull back the top,

you can see how aerated it's become and how elasticated.

That's just the yeast and the flour all working together.

What you mustn't do at this stage is start beating it together.

You don't need to because you're going to knock all the air

and it's going to deflate. A very lightly warm pan.

It doesn't need to be hot either.

I'm going to use a ring.

-What I'm going to do is oil the ring very, very lightly.

-Serious chef.

Look at that, hands in. What have you put in there?

It's just normal vegetable oil.

You don't want an olive oil because you don't want any flavours.

-OK.

-You want to keep it nice and plain.

Just take your batter and, like I said, I'm using a ring.

You don't need to, you can just put these in individually.

Almost like little drop scones.

-Little pikelet, I think they call them.

-Pikelets.

As a chef, you know what we're like.

-We use all these rings.

-Piclets or pikelets, it depends where you come from in the country.

-Exactly.

-What you can do...

-Yep.

You can just leave that is to colour for a couple of minutes,

maybe a minute. And, as you can see,

as it starts to cook, all the holes will start to form.

-Then we're just going to put that into the oven.

-OK, right.

That's going to cook for about five, six, seven minutes.

-What else have they got?

-OK, some bacon, which you can start cutting.

I knew I'd have to do something.

-Some lardons.

-Lardons, yeah?

Yeah. What I've got is just nice chunky lardons.

OK, what I've got here...

I'm just using normal...

-button mushrooms.

-Yeah.

-You don't need anything special.

This is just a really great bacon, mushrooms, parsley.

You can do whatever you want. You can use mushrooms.

You can use sausages if you wanted to incorporate sausages with it.

-Obviously, bacon.

-But is this where your food's going now?

-It seems to me as if everything is just simplicity, simplicity.

-Yep.

I think the key for a lot of chefs and I think everybody at home...

Everybody is looking for great ingredients and everyone wanting

to spend time buying great ingredients

and doing very little with them.

At the end of the day, good ingredients will talk for themselves.

That's your big thing, the quality of the ingredients.

-Is that what you're writing about in your book as well?

-That's right.

It's just great, simple recipes with a twist of how to cook them.

It's called How To Cook The Perfect...

What I want to do is get all the information and put it into the book

so that people can get the understanding of why

the holes appear, why we do certain things and answering the questions.

So basically that's had a couple of minutes.

-We're just going to place that into the oven.

-OK.

I think the book is more about teaching people a little bit

more detail out of simple recipes.

That oven's gone in at 400 Fahrenheit, about 200 centigrade.

-Gas four, or something like that.

-Exactly that.

-So bacon in there, James.

-OK, there we go.

I suppose that's where the Italians get a lot of their influence from, isn't it?

The really quality ingredients. Isn't it, Theo?

You have to do so little to it, if you get really good ingredients.

-OK?

-Yep.

-So the bacon's gone in there.

-The bacon's in.

And a little veg oil.

-I'm going to very lightly fry this beautiful duck egg.

-Right.

In fact, if you could just chop me...

-Chop some parsley.

-Some parsley there, that'd be great.

So duck eggs, chefs are really into duck eggs, aren't they?

They are. They are very accessible now.

You can find them in supermarkets. They are getting very popular.

Farmers' markets always do duck eggs.

Basically, the reason why I'm using the duck egg is because

I want the large yolk, because I want the yolk to become the sauce.

What I'm going to do is let that fry very, very lightly.

I'm not going to colour the yolk, I'm not going to put any fat on,

-or turn it over, like they do for...

-Sunny side up.

Yeah, that's what I was looking for.

-They are also better for us, aren't they?

-Oh, they're great.

-Look at the size of the yolk.

-It's beautiful.

We're just going to put our mushrooms into there first.

Put them in together.

-Do you want this finely chopped, or what?

-Yes, please.

A little salt and pepper.

OK.

-So you're frying these on a decent heat.

-Just a medium heat.

-Yep.

-You can get more colour if you wanted to in the...

If people can't get a chunk of bacon like that, what do they use?

-A little bit of streaky bacon, something like that.

-Maybe some ham.

-Ham would be fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Some gammon.

-OK, so I'll leave that there for you.

-Yep.

What you've done is just cook that, turn it out the ring

-and cook it on the other side.

-Yep.

What you can do is pre-prepare them and get them ready the day before.

Then all you've got to do is warm them in the oven or toast them.

Smells delicious, I have to say.

OK, we'll just turn that down.

Got a little bit of colour onto those.

What I'm going to do because I don't want all of the excess white

I'm going to take a cutter and just cut out the egg.

There's a little knife for that.

Like so. That's it.

-There you go.

-Parsley into there.

-A nice bit of parsley.

There you go.

-Fantastic.

-Now, you've got one quite unusual ingredient

going in there at the last minute, this stuff.

A little bit of red wine vinegar.

Because this, believe it or not, is a very rich egg -

very, very rich. What I wanted to do with vinegar,

almost like lemon with fish, is give it a little bit of cut

and just cut through the richness of the whole dish.

-OK. That's basically it, James.

-Lovely.

-We want to take our egg.

-So simple. Look at that.

-Yep.

-Be careful at this stage you don't drop it.

-Yep.

This is the type of thing...

Not in Petrus, but you serve it in another restaurant in the Savoy, don't you?

Yeah, there's a little restaurant just above Petrus called Banquette.

-It's a little diner, easy eating.

-Right.

It's the sort of thing that we do there for brunches.

-Basically, you can smell the vinegar coming out.

-It smells delicious.

It is lovely. Unusual putting that vinegar in but I guess it will work

with the richness of the egg, because it's much richer than a hen's egg.

Very much so. You can use normal eggs but I just love the yolk.

The yolk's my favourite part and it's got a really great flavour.

I'll just place them around the outside, like so.

-Lovely.

-You know, be generous with that.

-Rock salt.

-A bit of salt on the top.

-Marcus, remind us what that is again.

-Home-made crumpets.

Bacon lardons, parsley, a little bit of red wine vinegar at the back.

All that but no sausage.

There you go. Oh, look at that!

I tell you what, it smells superb!

That red wine vinegar. There you go, Suzi.

-You actually get to dive into this.

-Oh, great.

-This beats your bacon sandwich.

-Thank you very much, yes.

Cheers for that. Dive in.

Like you say, that egg yolk will create

a nice richness to the sauce and everything.

-Amazing colour, that yolk.

-It's great, isn't it?

It's huge, isn't it?

It's like torture sitting here being able to smell it.

That red wine vinegar...

Mmmm.

-It just cuts through the flavour, that rich egg, doesn't it?

-Mmm.

Em.

That's all you get. Pass it down.

Let me move that for you.

That's all you get. You'll need to learn to get a bigger mouthful.

-It doesn't come back.

-It comes back empty.

It's quite strong, that taste, isn't it?

-It is.

-It's quite a vibrant taste in your mouth.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-It's quite rich.

-You don't realise how rich

because it's so big and so much flavour.

I just find the vinegar really brings the whole thing together.

Oh, wow!

-Theo?

-That's Delicious. The vinegar...

-Duncan?

I haven't tried it yet.

-Go on!

-How's the crumpet?

-Very good.

He likes that. He's going to be making those tomorrow.

Great stuff.

Honestly, they are so easy to make. Give them a go if you can.

Coming up, I cook a chocolate and whisky genoise sponge

for comedian Jason Manford.

But that's after Rick Stein introduces a rather unusual

type of fish

and it looks just as menacing as the name suggests -

wolffish.

Well, yet again, I'm overexcited in a fish market.

I suppose it's like being kids in a sweet shop.

290! £295!

Ah, this is what I'm really after.

I've been on a quest for this fish for ages

because we don't get it down in Cornwall.

This is called wolffish and I don't know whether it really

looks like a wolf, but it's pretty damn frightening, don't you think?

That's because it eats barnacles off the rocks.

So it has to have these immensely strong jaws.

Now, it's called wolffish or catfish

but it is sold as rock turbot because, well, it's felt

that the consumers wouldn't put up with a name, a proud name,

like wolffish. They have to give it a euphemism, like rock turbot

or rock salmon in place of dogfish or huss.

But it's great. I tried it the other day.

Just very simple, just a big fillet with some lemon.

It's thick and it's firm and it's sweet.

I've got a really, I think, quite good idea coming.

I love this part of my job, just coming up with new recipes.

I'm thinking of some nice tender young greens to go with this

back in the restaurant.

So this is the way I know best to cook wolffish.

It's got such good flavour that I don't want to mask it with

anything that would overpower it.

First of all, you start with the fillet.

Now, it may have the skin on but it's relatively easy

to cut the skin away.

You just take a sharp knife and you work from the tail up to the head,

just cutting into the skin.

Now, it's quite elastic, the skin, quite, sort of, leathery.

So you won't cut through it.

Notice how lustrous and pink it is.

It's really good fish, I think.

Now, to cook it.

I think it should be steamed and I'm going to steam the fish

and steam the accompaniments.

First of all, a steamer.

Now, what I like is one of those dead simple flower shaped

petal steamers that you can buy in any ironmongers for pence.

First of all, before I steam the fish I'm going to add some ginger

because this is a Chinese-influenced dish.

Even though I thought it up when I saw those beautiful wolffish

in the market at Peterhead.

So I'm going to cut some thin matchstick...

Well, we call julienne in the trade - very posh.

..pieces of ginger.

I'm going to sprinkle those onto the top of the fish with some salt.

Then into the steamer go the fillets of fish

and lid on and cook for about five minutes.

You can easily tell whether they're cooked.

If you push the point of a knife into the centre

and just touch it against your lip, it should feel quite warm.

That'll be just right. No more than five minutes.

It's got to be just on the point.

OK, while that's cooking you can start the bok choy as well.

It's such a pleasure to be able to get it everywhere now.

It used to be the only Chinese cabbage type of vegetable

you could get were those Chinese leaves.

This is much, sort of, firmer and the flavour

is more intensely cabbage but it's still quite mild.

It just takes up the taste of soy or oyster sauce or

roasted sesame oil so well. I'm so pleased to be able to get it.

Now, I'm just going to slice the bok choy into quarters

and that's simply to make it easy to eat

but also because I only want to steam it for a short time.

I want the centre of the bok choy to be cooked right through

but still crunchy.

Meanwhile, the fish will have been just about cooked.

So just take it off the heat to stop it cooking any more.

Leave it with the lid on, just keep it nice and warm and moist.

Now you assemble a dish.

I mean, it's very, very simple but it's just what I want.

First of all, take four warm plates

and put about six pieces of the bok choy on each.

Then a little sprinkle of roasted sesame oil.

Don't go crazy with that because it's got a very strong flavour

and a little goes a long way.

So only a few drops just sprinkled over that cabbage.

Now some soy sauce.

Quite a good sprinkle of that over the top

and let it fall down onto the plate.

Now, some of the cooking juice from the fillets of fish will have

gone down into the juice and given really quite a nice sauce.

So just add a little bit of that to the soy

and the sesame round the outside.

So now you just place the wolffish on top of the bok choy

and finish it with some very, very finely sliced spring onions.

Just sprinkle those on the top.

Now, I do think that brings out the best of this really brilliant fish

which, you know, I only discovered when I was up in Peterhead

and tasted and just thought how great it was.

Nobody in this country knows about it.

What's quite odd about going round the country is you say,

"I'd really like to get hold of this wolffish."

And I say, "Well, sorry, it all goes to Spain and France.

"You'll have to virtually ring up France if you want to buy any."

So please go out there and buy it because

honestly it's such a revelation.

I promise.

50 miles north-west of Peterhead on the Moray Firth is Cullen,

famous for Cullen skink.

Skink's a German word for a type of soup.

And it's a celebration of haddock, potatoes and full-cream milk.

So this is how you do it.

You take a pan about this wide and you add a knob of butter

and some onion - a large mild sweet onion, chopped up.

Soften the onion in the butter

and then pour on a couple of pints of fresh full-cream milk.

Previously you've peeled a couple of potatoes about this big

and chop them up about the size of your thumbnail.

Add those and bring it back to the boil.

And let the potatoes soften in the boiling milk.

Now you add the haddock.

A couple of fillets about this long and not the dyed stuff, please!

Poach the fish in the same milk that you cooked the potatoes in

for about four minutes.

Now, just scrape the skin away and flake the fish up a little,

removing any bones that might have been left in the fillet.

Put the fish back into the soup.

It'll now be starting to smell lovely and smoky from that haddock.

And add some salt, sea salt preferably,

and a good lot of freshly ground pepper.

Now comes a big handful of freshly chopped parsley.

Lovely and green in the white of the soup.

Stir through gently and ladle the soup out into a bowl.

Finish with a bit more parsley.

That's great British cooking.

Not much to it, but everything's just right.

Actually, the local kids here call it

Cullen stink but they really like it.

They say it's magic!

It is magic, indeed. I love it. It's delicious.

Two of my favourite other Scottish products are made with

marmalade and whisky.

I'm going to combine them both now

to make a delicious cake that's perfect as a tea-time treat.

It's a genoise sponge, a chocolate genoise sponge

which obviously comes from Italy.

The difference makes it between our sponge

and theirs, is the addition of butter, of course.

-We like our butter on here.

-Big time.

What we do first of all to make our sponge

is start off by warming the bowl, all right?

That's the key to this one.

Often what chefs do in restaurants and bits and pieces,

they'll do this over a bain-marie, which is a pan of hot water, Jason.

-Okey doke.

-That's it, right.

You just basically add the eggs and sugar to the warm bowl

and warming the bowl up allows the sponge to rise much better.

So we crack the eggs in straight in here.

-I love the one-handed thing you're doing there.

-You like that?

That's nice. You don't even show off about it, you just do it.

-I respect that.

-You respect that?

Wait until you see their omelettes later!

He's going to eat them!

They go straight in.

So it's five eggs, a little bit of sugar, and we whisk that up.

Then I'm going to melt in some butter.

Now, you're about to start on this tour. Tell us about that, then.

-It's exciting.

-Well, June it starts.

Yeah, so June's like a month of warm-up gigs at smaller venues and...

So don't go in June. Is that what you want to say?!

Yeah, basically, yeah. That's the rough around the edges.

-That's why it's cheaper on the ticket price.

-Right.

It starts in July right through to April next year.

Then probably a little bit later than that.

A little bit later... You're going to split this because

-you just got two twins.

-Two little girls, yeah.

-Is that the reason why you're not on it all the time?

-Yeah.

I could probably do the same amount of gigs in about

three and a half months but I've worked it out so I'm only away

-one night a week, you know?

-Yeah.

You don't want to miss out on...

There's nothing worse than getting a phone call to say...

-I get all the good jobs.

-Yeah!

..your daughter's just walked or talked and you've missed it

because you're in Basingstoke or something.

Tell us about your DVD. Hugely popular. I watched it last night.

-Yeah, you said you watched it.

-What is it about the Northern thing?

I mean, it's not just yourself, there's Peter Kay...

Yeah, yeah, I don't know really.

It's just suddenly kicked off for you, hasn't it?

Yeah, the last couple of years it's gone really well

and I don't know why.

I don't like to think about it too much just in case I break it.

No, it's gone well and I think just because I, sort of, enjoy it.

I enjoy making people laugh as well and it is like...

The same things I say onstage are the same things

I'd say to my mates, I suppose, in the pub and that.

-We don't mind taking the mick out of each other.

-I think that helps.

Yeah, definitely. Certainly when you go to different cities

they do like to...

The northern cities do like to join in a lot more.

The DVD's based at Manchester Apollo?

Yeah, I did it at Manchester Apollo.

-We have seen you at the Apollo here in London.

-Yeah, that's right.

Done Hammersmith a few times.

Yeah, and, of course, last night you had 8 Out Of 10 Cats.

-Yeah, that's right.

-The series has just finished.

Are we going to see you back on again?

Yeah, we've got an election special coming in the summer.

-So that'll be fun.

-Election special!

-Election special, yeah.

-Yeah, they've let us talk about serious things.

-Right.

Then, I imagine, because we've had this series so early on,

they'll come back, either a summer series or an autumn series.

So, yeah, it should be good fun.

Any series of your own lined up, or not?

Yeah, I've got a few bits and bobs on the go.

It's just, sort of, picking the right thing

because if you pick the wrong thing then, that's it, you're out on your backside.

With people seeing you,

you've lost loads of weight over the past 18 months.

-Yeah, I've lost a few stone, about 3st.

-Why was that?

I think it was the babies, really.

I just thought, I don't want to be a fat bloke chasing kids.

I don't want to be a fat bloke chasing any kids. I mean my own kids.

-You can't be a fat bloke chasing kids any time.

-Yeah.

-We are live, get that right!

-Certainly when they're your own.

I thought, I don't want to be doing that, really.

I'd like to be... Although, you know, fatter people are funnier.

But, you know, I just have to take that on the chin.

On my many chins, as it was,

and just lose some weight.

-That's your cream back.

-He's whipped my cream.

That's a good thing about having chefs on the show.

-You have to use them.

-Abuse more like.

-They're cheap.

There are loads available off the internet. Chefs, I mean.

Right, we whisk up this. It should be a figure of eight here.

If you're making this for your kids, figure of eight.

That's what we call the ribbon stage, all right?

That goes in there and then what we're going to do

is then add some butter.

In we go with the butter.

That's the cooled butter and then we add our cocoa powder.

And that goes in. Plain flour, no need to use self-raising flour for this.

You pop it through a sieve.

You press it all nice and compact

through a really fine sieve like that.

There you go. And then we can grab this. Then you really need to use your hands for this bit.

You can use a spatula but it's better doing it with your hands.

Fold this in.

Are you going to get flour on your chunky jewellery, there?

-That's what I'm worried about.

-HE LAUGHS

Man jewellery. There you go, we literally just fold all this lot in.

There we are. And open up your fingers, while you fold

cos it will actually go in a lot quicker and a lot easier.

-Lovely.

-And as you fold it in, you can...

-Have you ever had Gillian McKeith on? She'd be good at this.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-LAUGHTER

That goes straight into that pot there. Two lined cake tins. Straight in.

There you go. Like that.

And then, this can go in the oven.

But this is going to be far removed from the stuff that you

-normally eat on tour, isn't it, really?

-Yeah.

-I mean, it must be just living on takeaway...

Are you going to put a pasty in either of those?

-A pasty and a burger!

-That's it.

This goes on the oven, basically 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about 170 degrees centigrade. So, slower than a normal cake.

And cook it separately. That goes in there for about 15 minutes.

Don't over-cook them. That's key to this one.

-Go on, you were on about pasties and stuff...

-Yeah!

Well, that was the other thing on the last tour. the last.

You just end up nonstop, eating rubbish, really.

Because, you know, it's one o'clock at night, you're driving home,

you get to a service station, there is no nice food, really.

It's all rubbish.

So, you've got to just eat what's there, really,

what you can, there's no calorie counting. So, you...

-Well, you'll like this. This is full-blown whisky going in.

-Right.

This is basically the marmalade.

This is Seville marmalade.

It's said to actually originate from Dundee,

by a grocer, that obviously ordered too many Seville oranges,

and his wife actually invented Seville marmalade.

That's where it comes from, apparently.

-So, we just put a little bit in here.

-Yeah, just a little bit.

This is for one, Jase. You can double this recipe if you want, for two. There you go.

LAUGHTER

It's petits fours where we come from, this, isn't it?

I'll just have one, James. I'll just have one.

-On the top.

-Lovely.

And then icing sugar over the top, just a bit of dusting.

Icing sugar over the top. And then we cut a nice wedge out of it.

-Brilliant.

-And that's what you get.

-Is that what this plate's for here?

That's what it's for. Or, you can just have the whole thing.

I thought you were going to give me the big bit! Look at that! Yeah!

Dive into that, tell us what you think.

-Let's have a little go of that bad boy.

-Best of luck with the tour.

-It starts when?

-It starts June, summat or other...

-Second of June.

-Well, I'm glad YOU know! Yeah, so...

-In Didcot.

-Mm!

-There you go.

-Oh, yes, showbiz!

-Happy with that?

-There's a lot of whisky in that.

-There is.

-I'm not going to be able to drive home after that!

Now, you don't have to use as much whisky as I did but trust me,

it does taste good with a generous splash or two.

Now, if you'd like to try cooking any of the delicious dishes

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 most mouthwatering food

from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

And next up is a brilliant Brummie chef,

otherwise known as Mr Glynn Purnell.

He's plating up a fantastic fish dish for us today. Enjoy this one.

-Welcome back, Glynn.

-Thank you very much.

-So, a culinary empire...

Two and a half... It's saying, "Two and a half restaurants" in my ear!

Well, I've got two restaurants and a cocktail bar, so

-I say two and a half because the bar's not quite as big.

-OK.

-You've been there anyway.

-So, on the menu is what?

So, we've got some, I want you to crack on and do a little fondue of onion,

which is basically shredded onion cooked down quite slowly in butter.

I'm going to whip the...fish here, which is brill,

which is very similar to turbot.

-Obviously, size, the brill's... Turbot can be huge.

-Huge, yeah.

This one is slightly smaller. We've got four fillets.

You got one there, one there, one there, one there.

-And we'll just take the one fillet off.

-Yeah.

It's a nice, white fish. It's a little bit cheaper than turbot.

If you go to a good fishmonger, you'll probably get it. So...

Using a filleting knife there? Yeah.

So, we're just going to take that off.

So, you just want these onions cooked in a little bit of butter?

Cooked in a bit of butter and I want you to shred some spring onions.

We have got some leeks but you're not a fan of leeks, are you?

-No, not a fan of leeks!

-Normally, I would just put them in but because,

you know, attractive female, I'll leave the leeks off!

-LAUGHING:

-So, I will take that off...

LAUGHTER

-Are you blushing?

-Concentrate on this!

Sorry, I nearly took me finger off! So...

So, it's becoming popular, this, to use, isn't it, really?

Yeah, the brill is... It's a nice fish.

And also, I generally get fish off day boats,

so we know it's sustainable and all the rest of it.

What about in Norfolk?

Yeah, we use brill caught from the North Sea. Great fish.

We use stuff from Devon, so, we get a lot of Devon or Cornish brill.

-Which is fantastic.

-And like you say, the price is a lot cheaper...

Yeah, halibut and turbot, it's a lot cheaper.

So, before, we just put a little bit of flour,

so we get a nice colour on the fish.

What's the flour going to do to this?

-Because it's a light dusting of flour...

-Yeah.

It'll just slightly caramelise, so you get a nice colour

-and a little bit of texture to it as well.

-OK.

What we do is we put flour,

rub a bit of olive oil over the top as well.

Now, a little bit of chicken stock in here as well.

Yeah. So, you cook them right down, James. Put our fish in.

-So, just in oil, yeah?

-Yeah, just a little bit of oil.

And you have no bit of seasoning in there yet?

No, I always season afterwards, really. I always find

if you put loads of salt on, you start throwing it like this!

It goes all over the place. Half of it stays in the pan.

-You might as well throw the fish around, lick the pan.

-Right...

So, I don't recommend that one. So, we'll pan-fry the fish.

We've got our onions on.

Now, the spring onions, you're going to put in the

-onion a bit later, yeah?

-Yeah, so, we'll bring the onions right down.

Then we'll finish with the spring onions and chives,

-a little bit of creme fraiche at the end.

-Right.

So, we'll cook the leeks and we'll debate putting them in at the end!

So, we've got a bit of boiling water for the leeks.

-These are little baby leeks.

-Yeah, baby leeks.

PAN SIZZLES

Now, is this the kind of dish that is on at Purnell's at the moment?

-In summer.

-Because you're into quite unusual mixtures of flavours...

-Yeah.

-We talked about the cocktails, when you were last on.

You have this roast dinner cocktail and all that stuff?

-It's actually in a drink!

-It's a drink, yes, Chef.

It's a bit of fat washing.

I've got Mark and Josh, my two cocktail guys.

Basically, they get the alcohol, you render down all the fat

and the flavour and you pour it into the alcohol and you freeze it.

-So, the fat that washes the flavour.

-You're really slimming!

LAUGHTER

Norfolk's not quite ready for that yet.

-But it's lamb fat.

-Lamb fat, we do it with duck as well.

-We do a duck a l'orange cocktail as well.

-Oh!

-You got to get yourself to Birmingham!

-Apparently!

I might treat you to a cocktail at this rate!

So, we put the leeks in there.

-But the food you serve in the restaurant is also quite unusual.

-Yeah.

-I mean, some of the dishes, that little... The cornflakes one.

-Yes!

So, basically I do...one of the dishes is...smoked haddock, milk,

with cornflakes, erm...poached egg yolk...

It's, you've got to eat it to believe it, really! James ate it.

-He's not the biggest fan of it.

-No, it's all right!

-Right, the lettuce.

But, I mean, at the minute, at Purnell's,

we're just sort of really into sustainability...

so we're looking at the way we use electricity, the heating,

the lights, the way we get rid of our rubbish and all that sort of stuff.

So, that's what's going on at the minute at Purnell's.

That's what the Young Vic Theatre is doing, with the play I'm doing at the moment,

it's all part of a programme of sustainable eco-friendly theatre.

So, we are doing a similar thing at the Young Vic.

I think it's important that, you know, because, obviously, as well,

when you look your electric bills and they're massive,

that's another thing, another reason to look at sustainability.

I'm a bit like Bob Dylan,

we've gone all electric at Purnell's.

LAUGHTER

There we go. Right, lettuce on there, James.

-Can I get the blowtorch fired up?

-Yeah.

-And I need you to knock a vinaigrette up.

-Right, OK.

-There you go.

-Thanks very much.

-So, the fish you're going to cook on one side, yeah?

-Yeah, I cook 90% on one side.

Then what we do is put a little bit of butter in.

-Yeah.

-Our onions are coming down.

-4-1, you want this, do you?

4-1, yes. So, basically vinaigrette, one part vinegar, four parts oil.

A touch of lemon juice. And some olive oil.

Now, this way of actually charring the...

I mentioned at the start of the show, the French do this quite a lot,

-they braise their lettuce quite a lot.

-Yes.

I mean, the nice thing about it, you can do this with most lettuce,

-but ideally, you want something with a nice sort of stem on it.

-Yeah.

So, this is cos

and you get some fantastic cos lettuce from England as well.

There you go.

But you can do it on the barbecue,

where I've seen it done before as well. It's lovely.

And particularly the baby ones, the little gems. Which are really nice.

So, we're going to blitz that up.

Right, so you're just basically getting colour on these

-first of all.

-Yeah.

-And then you want them under the grill, yeah ?

-Yes.

The fish is cooked. So, we can use the pans.

We're going to put another knob of butter in the pan.

All right, James, one second... Drop our leeks on.

-Under the grill for a second.

-OK.

Onions are coming down.

Ideally, we cook them with 90% butter, really, really slow.

A couple of hours to cook, really. But, obviously, I've only got 6 minutes.

I think you got 7 minutes, I notice some favouritism.

Is it because you're turning 50 and you need a bit more time?

Oh, come on! It's all going to happen, I have to say...

Talking about that, I went for a beer with Galt last night

and I could tell his age because there was an Abba tribute band

-in the bar and he couldn't stop singing, that boy there.

-Shut up!

Eh? And the best thing, the two people that were doing Abba,

they had these Scandinavian accents and then they came over and

-obviously spoke to Galton because he's got that, sort of...era.

-Era!

And one was from Leicester and one was from Cardiff!

-So, we had a good time, didn't we, Galt?

-We did!

-You were the best Dancing Queen, I must admit!

-LAUGHTER

-Can we just get on with the food over here?

-I'm ready, James.

-Have we got the vinaigrette, chef?

-The vinaigrette's made, yeah.

-Whack all that in there now.

-That's the spring onions and the chives.

What's that you got in there?

Nice big dollop of creme fraiche. We'll cook that down...

And we're going to... Can you put our heat back on, chef?

There you go.

-So, we've got...

-Season this up, yeah?

-Yes, please.

-And...

-Some salt and pepper.

-Yeah. And we've got the fish cooked.

And rather than make, because obviously the creme fraiche

is quite rich, we're going to make...

just a little juice of lemon.

-In there.

-And a bit of stock in there?

-Yes, a bit of cheeky stock in there.

And we're just going to deglaze the pan. A touch more, chef.

-There we go.

-So a little glaze.

-Ready to go?

-Ready when you are. I'll do that...

A spoon for the lettuce, please, James.

So, that's the dressing we made, one part of the vinegar

and four parts oil, over there.

So, we've got a little bit of the fondue.

-So, they're cooked without colour.

-Yeah, no colour, so, sweated down.

Sounds good.

And you cook that almost on one side, all the way through.

Yeah, on one side all way through. We won't put the leeks on.

-Thank you.

-Eh?

-Small mercies...

-1-0 to me, James!

LAUGHTER

-Have you got some watercress for me there, please, James?

-Sorry?

-Have you got some watercress for me, please?

-Yes, there!

LAUGHTER

2-0 to me, James!

People get aggressive when they start losing.

Some watercress leaves on there.

-I think I deserve a point for the shirt, though, don't I?

-2-1!

I'm a fair man, James! Love and war and all that. Go on, then, James.

You can finish my dish for me, if you want.

So, anybody, so, if you want to phone in...

Go on, then! So, we've got a lovely piece of roast brill,

a little fondue of onion, with some grilled lettuce, no leeks.

-And a leek!

-No, no, no! 3-1!

Have a look at that. Have a look at that, yeah! Done!

LAUGHTER

-Had to do it. It was on his recipe.

-Some people just cheat, don't they?

-Tell us what you think of that one.

-Don't eat the leeks!

-There you go.

I will eat around the leeks.

I don't know whether you've tried this type of fish before but it is

-nice and delicate, isn't it?

-Beautiful.

And you can get some real big ones, what they call, when I went fishing

with some of the day boat guys, they call them dustbin lids...

-Absolutely delicious.

-..because they're just big, round...

Turbot are a bit bigger but that's a fantastic fish.

And a lot more reasonably priced.

Turbot is cooked a lot on the bone but with this you can fillet it nicely.

It's a great fish.

-Happy with that?

-That's the second mouthful. You missed it.

-That's how much I'm enjoying it.

-The leeks are still intact, though!

Fast to make and bursting with flavour, the perfect midweek supper.

Now, it's time for another cookery classic masterclass with

the legendary Mr Keith Floyd.

He's back in Cork this week

and is sampling what he considers to be one of the finest dishes on Earth.

I have to agree with him. It's a classic Irish stew.

KEITH FLOYD: They say life begins at 40 and it's true.

In the way that you can, in a crowded room,

catch the eye of a stranger and fall head over heels in love with

a passion and a certainty that defies logical explanation,

so it was with me, when I staggered, shaken and slightly

unsteady from a buffeting ride in a little aeroplane at Cork airport for the first time.

Quite frankly, Ireland gobsmacked me.

And I don't care if this sounds pompous or pseudy, I felt a sense

of excitement and thrill that had been missing from my life for years!

Phew! I've got that off my chest now, thank goodness, I feel little better.

But this isn't the psychiatrist's chair, you know. Not yet, anyway.

It's a cookery programme.

And the First Lady of Irish Cookery is Her Grace, Myrtle Allen.

-I was relixing...

-I beg your pardon?

I was relaxing with a glass of stout in the pub the other day,

after a very hard day's filming.

We got to chatting and as usual, we started talking about food.

Not food in general but Irish stew in particular.

Did you know, in Ireland it's difficult to find.

Sometimes in pubs, midday, you can get it. In England, it's often a disastrous mishmash

of potatoes, lamb and onions boiled to death, tastes absolutely awful.

So, I want to find out the secret of what I think to be one of the finest dishes on Earth.

So, I came to my friend, Myrtle Allen, who is undisputedly the Queen of Irish cooking,

famous here at Ballymaloe, famous in Beverly Hills, in Paris

and throughout the land. It's true, isn't it, Myrtle?

She's absolutely brilliant. And she knows all about it.

But before we go into all of that, Richard, usual business,

spin round the ingredients.

Most important thing is a splendid shoulder of lamb,

traditionally butchered. More of that later.

Spring onions, new potatoes, not flowers, OK?

Young baby carrots, a bit of fresh thyme, a bit of fresh,

-I've forgotten the name of that, Myrtle, what's it called?

-Marjoram.

Marjoram. A bit of fresh marjoram.

Then I have butchered the chops, over this way a bit, to take off all the fat.

Because we need those to cook the chops in later and that's where I cut my finger! Ho, ho, ho!

So, down here, Richard, thank you, don't smirk.

We've got these nice cutlets to saute off later on.

A bit of parsley to garnish it off with.

Over here, we'll need some stock. We use this piece of bone.

Stay there, Richard. From the end of the lamb there.

Pop that in with the tops of the spring onions, a bit of thyme,

parsley stalks, economical use of parsley stalks,

a few chopped carrots, covered with water like that.

And that's put on to simmer, to make our stock. That's fine.

There is another chop in the bottom.

Chops in the bottom is the first thing, isn't it?

I've been frying them in the sweated down lamb dripping. And I'd like to eat a piece of that.

-Myrtle, do you want a little bit?

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

This will have the doctors up in arms, won't it? Never mind about them...

Right, now, the next thing, we've got

-the onions and carrots there.

-That's right. Put them in.

Just give them a quick turn.

If it's a bit too slow, you may have to heat that fat.

A little bit of thyme. That's enough.

-Let's put in that marjoram.

-Bit of marjoram there.

-That's enough.

In my view, if I'd seen an Irish stew made with whole potatoes,

we would tend to think of it as being sliced in there.

There are different ways of doing it. Some people slice them.

They say the potato thickens the gravy but I love them

whole on top and they get brown, you know, in the oven.

Now, you want to get this, have you got the lid or something?

-No, I'll do it...

-Just strain it.

Under pressure like this, I sometimes have to improvise

because once this goes in, I've had it.

So, I'll strain it through like that...

-Now, it doesn't have to cover the potatoes, does it?

-No, it'll be fine.

They will steam and glaze, as they cook.

And by the way, you don't need to throw that away.

You could wait for that to be cold, you could chop it up into little

bits, you could toss in a bit of vinegar something, couldn't you?

-Well, you could.

-Or something, you wouldn't necessarily throw that away.

-What would you do with that?

-I'd give it to the dog, I'm afraid!

These people who live in castles!

Anyway, that goes in the oven for, what, how long?

That goes in the oven, at this time of year, the lamb is young, say,

-3/4 to 1 hour.

-3/4 to 1 hour.

-Yeah.

-And we'll go and do something really amusing until that's ready to eat.

-Fine.

So, let's wander off and he'll think of something to make us

look really interesting while we're gone.

By popular request and overwhelming demand, I've been asked to

show you the steam roller being unloaded by a committee again.

May I remind you that a committee is a group of well-intentioned

people, who individually, can do nothing

and collectively decide that nothing can be done.

WATER SPLASHES

COMEDY MUSIC PLAYS

The Irish stew, in the name of the Lord, the producer made me say that bit, turned out to be superb.

But after simmering for an hour or so,

it's worth skimming the fat before serving.

There's no hard and fast recipe for this classic dish.

And Myrtle Allen sets greater store on the quality of ingredients,

rather than in the variety of them.

If I had seen you a week ago, my butcher had brought me in

a sward of grass from the pasture that he likes to fatten his beef on.

And it contained so many little flowers.

The clovers, the red and the white, many, many grasses and plants.

He won't give his cattle, for instance, silage.

He looks for a sweet hay with plenty of meadow grass in it,

which of course is very un-economical for farmers to grow.

So we still have these people in the country

and they need to be encouraged.

Is there any other place in the world you'd rather be than here?

In...in Ballymaloe?

Well, I haven't had a chance, you see.

I've been here a long time, since I was 19!

And maybe there would be, you know, I wouldn't mind the Pacific,

but I've a feeling it's not what it used to be.

SHE LAUGHS

Bawnleigh House near Kinsale is a great place for the craic

and a fine plate of grub, run by my old chum, Billy Mackesy.

TILL RINGS I thank you!

We didn't go in to Billy's restaurant kitchen

because like all professional cooks, we get sick and tired

of fine, fine French cuisine.

What we like to do sometimes, have a few jars

and cook something really simple

and you know, this is genuinely my home because of the sign.

You all understand that, No prats in the kitchen.

And what Billy and I do, when we've finished a hard night's work

mucking about, really working, we like to have a bit of sliced old beef

and a few jars, but it's a very funny dish to make, this, isn't it?

What exactly is it?

It's a great Cork dish. It's spiced beef, Keith, it's called.

What they do is they corn the beef, put it into water

and a proportionate measure of, say saltpetre, things like that.

In fact we're going to interrupt ourselves,

this is in fact the third take we've done,

cos the director still hasn't understood what corned beef is.

He actually thinks it's got corn in it. OK?

Billy, in five simple words, what is corned beef?

The expression corned beef means that the beef is pickled

-in a solution of saltpetre, water and maybe salt extracts.

-Oh, yeah.

The reason you corn it is because,

besides giving it this beautiful flavour,

-it tenderises the meat.

-Sure.

-And then after you've done that for about a week...

-Indeed.

..you mix it up with this explosive-looking mixture of gunpowder.

Right, Keith, what we've got as you well know,

you have your ground black pepper, your white pepper,

your cayenne, your allspice, your nutmeg,

you've got your brown sugar,

cinnamon, your juniper berry, your saltpetre and your ground cloves.

-You whack the whole lot...

-You do, indeed. You do.

-You get a fistful of it.

-OK.

-In your hand like that.

And you see it on butcher stalls, especially around December,

the end of November, December

and they look really well-decorated like that, all on the stalls.

-Fabulous.

-And that would then go into a wooden barrel

-or an earthenware bowl?

-Indeed.

-For what, a month?

Indeed, Keith. Approximately a month and rolled and redone.

Sometimes what they also use is the mixture from the corning,

the water extract with all the spices put together

and kind of filmed around it.

Right, so that is now, the magic of television,

that's three months old now. Not off, three months cured.

It goes in, Richard, come here,

into a simple vat of water, root vegetables, leeks,

celery, haven't got any leeks there, onions and a bouquet garni,

there's a little faggot of herbs,

as we call it in English programmes, faggots.

Got a few of those. That goes in there.

OK?

And then, cos we're very strong chaps, we just lift that up.

Actually, Billy, you go there... BILLY STRAINS

..and we will see you in three hours' time.

GENTLE MUSIC

Ah, there you are. I've just been microwaving this mashed potato,

which I cooked earlier, very useful thing to do.

Nice, this kitchen, isn't it?

First time I've cooked here, because normally my staff

attend to all these kind of things,

but I thought to give you the real impression of being a genuine,

simple human being, I'd do it myself.

Because we like simple things, the good thing to eat with spiced beef

is a thing called colcannon, which is mashed potato,

hot, chopped, cooked cabbage, OK?

Over here a bit, Richard, difficult for you, I'm sure,

chopped shallots, or, I beg your pardon, scallions or spring onions,

we put a handful of those straight into the mashed potato like that.

Whisk it up a little bit. Stir them in, then we put in some hot milk.

There are no quantities or measurements to this,

-you do this the way it sort of feels.

-Waa!

And by the way, you don't particularly, back to me, Richard,

you don't particularly cook this for a dinner party,

it's the sort of thing you do when friends drop in unexpectedly

and you've got just potatoes, onions and cabbage lying around the place.

Right, whisked up in quite well there.

Then some of this lovely Irish cabbage, hearty cabbage,

slightly boiled and chopped fine, like that.

Better have a taste at this stage.

Good, but no seasoning. Needs seasoning.

Salt.

Pepper.

Is your beef doing all right over there, Billy, by the way?

Oi.

-No, not too bad, Keith. We'll have a quick look.

-Excellent.

Um, a handful of parsley.

Into that.

I still think that's a bit stodgy. Can you see that all right?

Nice mixture, though. I'm going to add now some melted butter,

good cholesterol heart attack-inducing stuff.

Please don't take me seriously.

I don't wish a heart attack on anybody, really.

This is the sort of thing doctors write to me about and say

we'd be much better off just having a lettuce leaf

and a plate of beans. Well, I don't go with that.

Well done, my dear. Right.

That is the colcannon. Off with the lid there,

see how we're getting on.

-Ah...

-Oh, boy. Richard,

that is superb.

Doesn't that smell good?

It smells like an oriental spice parlour, you know.

As opposed to a simple Irish kitchen, get rid of that over there.

Whack it up, Billy, my dear, cos we ought to have a slice of that.

Thing is, Richard, please, while Billy's taking that out,

this is traditionally cooked on Christmas Eve.

When you come back from mass, you have a slice hot

and the main deal is to let it cool until tomorrow

and have it for breakfast with a pint of stout

before you start your Christmas Day celebrations.

-Fantastic. You carving?

-Yes.

I'll dash up some...

some potato here.

But the trouble is with this, it's a superb dish, but it isn't

the kind of thing that the high-flying punters

in smart restaurants are going to get, are they?

A, they think it's not good enough, and B, the cook isn't going to offer it to them.

OK, let's look back after the last couple of years.

We've come a long way now,

not alone have we gone through the French era of dishes, et cetera,

but a lot of our own dishes, traditional dishes,

maybe thanks to people like you,

we're bringing these back to the fore.

Time will give us a chance to put these back on the menu.

I have no hesitation,

your programme is going to do that, the awareness is going to be made.

Because that is flavour, it's something that's not in the books.

God only knows, probably, but I do think it does stand a good chance.

It does stand a good chance.

-It's tasty, it looks well to the eye.

-Yes.

Maybe in a cold starter with various little types of salads around it,

you know, someone could take it from there.

I tell you what it does do,

it gives you a brilliant thirst, doesn't it?

-Because it is very, very spicy, this beef.

-Mm.

-Slainte.

-Slainte, stock.

BILLY LAUGHS Slainte, stock.

-Good, isn't it?

-It is very good.

Do you want a Roman one or an Etruscan one?

Floyd, tell me, how are you as a cook?

Well as a potter...well, as a potter I'm pretty good, really.

Yes, I reckon you're pretty good,

and your cooking is roughly the same standard.

KEITH LAUGHS

I came to Ballycotton, famous for its superb plaice and potatoes...

TILL RINGS I thank you!

To cook at the home of Stephen Pearce, the potter you've just seen.

Unfortunately the fishermen, because of a little dispute with the Irish Navy didn't go to sea that day,

so instead of cooking a plumptious plaice we just made the sauce.

As Hoagy Carmichael said, "Some days there just ain't no fish."

Brilliant interlude, wasn't it?

-Did you enjoy the interlude?

-Yeah, I love interludes.

He would never see it, he doesn't even have a television set.

Now, what have you done so far?

Now, I've put the yolks of two eggs in here.

I've put lemon juice, white wine, and...

I've decided that it's just about thick enough now,

so we're going to add the first bit of butter, I'm beating it in

and get the first little bit of butter beaten in

and then some more butter and you don't worry about quantities,

two yolks of eggs and put in anywhere four, six,

8oz of butter. It doesn't matter.

Even my mother, who was probably the best cook in Ireland,

used to get out her double boilers and we'd be sent out of the house

and everything, God was called upon when hollandaise sauce was made,

but I just slap it together,

the one rule is this you must have a thick bottomed saucepan,

um...and you can't fail.

Famous last words, I hope they are not.

what did you do before you became a famous hollandaise sauce maker?

Well, I've done a bit of everything. I've never done...

Everything I do, I do with gusto.

And I've never done anything in the form of a career.

When I was a young boy, I remember leaving school

and everybody was figuring out what they were going to do with their lives

and I'd been so involved with girls I never have the chance to choose

and I happened to fall into pottery

and I'd done that for a few years and I managed rock'n'roll bands in England

and I've done faith healing and...I do all sorts of things.

I like to play, just like we're playing now.

Why did you stop the rock'n'roll?

Well, you know, these old drugs and drinks, it burns you out.

It's fun at the time, but afterwards...

Nothing you can do with your faith healing with my director, is there?

You don't do spiritualism as well, and stuff like that?

-Sure. We'll have a shot at anything.

-We'll try him later on.

-Yeah.

-He's got all sorts of funnies...

-Oh, he's a nasty person...

-He's cruel, isn't he?

-Yes.

-Is that curdling or anything?

-Er, well...

-Ha-ha!

-This couldn't be the first.

I've never curdled it yet, but this looks like the first time.

You actually diverted me deliberately.

-How can you divert an Irishman?

-You are a naughty boy!

You're a very naughty boy.

You'll be getting smacked in a minute.

By the magic of television, I'm going to cast a spell on that

and make it absolutely brilliant.

Can you give me a tiny, little bit of hot water?

A little hot water, right.

Are you sure you know what you're doing?

I think I know what I'm doing. Is that hot?

-Right, yes, you tell me when.

-Stop.

Wonderful.

I don't want to show off, but if you just pass me...

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh, that's unfair!

Just pass me the sauce boat, would you, please?

Yes, one moment now. We're nearly in business.

Oh, you're a very nasty person.

A sauce boat, please.

Now that is all smooth and perfect again.

And there it is, it's made and ready.

-Shall we drink to that?

-Very well done, well done.

-Apple juice or wine?

-Apple juice, please.

-Right.

Here's yours.

I've taken a bigger glass than you, because

I'm not as modest as you are.

That man was a true genius.

And it's totally timeless. Brilliant stuff, there.

As ever on Best Bites,

we're looking back at some of the most tastiest recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen larder.

Still to come on today's Best Bites...

The two great Italians, Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo

battle it out at the omelette challenge hobs.

But how did they both do? We'll find out in just a few minutes.

Martin Morales introduces us to some traditional Peruvian flavours

with his flaming beef stir-fry.

He marinades the beef for 12 hours before searing it in a hot pan,

along with onions, tomatoes, chilli and a splash of pisco.

And Pauline Quirke faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

lamb with a lamb Madras curry with chapatis,

or would she get her dreaded Food Hell,

pasta with squid and oven-roasted tomato sauce?

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

Now with St Patrick's day soon approaching,

who better to have in the kitchen than Catherine Fulvio?

She's here with some seriously luscious lamb.

-Great to have you on the show, Catherine.

-Thank you very much.

And you're doing something from your hometown, really,

particularly this lamb?

Yes, I'm from a family of farmers in Wicklow...

-Right.

-..in Ballyknocken.

And we're lamb farmers now.

-And of course your Wicklow's famous for lamb.

-Right.

-Yes. So...

You mentioned at the top of the show that it's

-generally the diet, the heather, is it?

-Yes.

-That makes it so good?

-At the moment we have a mild winter, James.

-It's not mild.

-It is mild!

-I was in Ireland last week, it is NOT mild.

The Wicklow hills gets loads of snow, actually, don't they?

Not too much, actually. It's not too bad.

In general we really don't have the severity of weather...

I was in Portrush. Portrush, it was quite windy.

Playing golf, were you?

Yes, it was Portrush. It was minus...56.

-What?!

-Yeah. LAUGHTER

-Yeah. And windy...

-Here we go.

Any excuse for my golf. Anyway, over to you.

What we're doing is roasted roots there, normally we do them

with orange, we've dropped the orange today, Darcey.

What we have is some butternut squash,

we have some lovely carrots here, shallots,

little bit of thyme, and we're going to roast those off, James,

with some olive oil or rapeseed oil.

-OK.

-As you wish yourself. Now I need to make the crust for the lamb.

-Yes.

-So what I have over here is my food processor,

so I'm just going to take some figs here and breadcrumbs.

-Yeah.

-And pop it all in.

The ingredients you've got in here have got a little Italian

sort of thing, would that be testament to the hubby?

Yes, my husband's from Palermo in Sicily.

So we have a lovely mix of Italian and Irish food back home,

which is really, really...delicious.

Now I have honey here, I have balsamic, I have some herbs,

pistachios, and we're just going to get all of this in for the crust.

With the lamb, have you heard of that?

Yeah, Wicklow lamb is famous.

In general, Ireland's got great lamb.

In general, lamb all over Ireland is great.

It's got amazing produce in Ireland, really. Great seafood...

I think so, I think it's genuinely world-class.

Makes it really easy for us chefs to look good

-when we've got such good produce, you know.

-Yeah.

He's built you up now. LAUGHTER

We sell a lot of our lamb to France from where we are in Wicklow.

-Right.

-Yes, it's quite popular.

-Now...

-Right, the veg is going to go in.

-OK.

So we'll just give this a quick whizz here.

OK.

So this is the topping for the lamb, then, I take it?

This is, James, this is lovely as well if you were doing

a butterfly leg of lamb, you can put this on the top and put

the lamb on the barbecue in the summer, really, really delicious.

Right.

I'll leave that out the way.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

So then, just so that the crust sticks,

I've got some Dijon mustard here, brushing this on.

I mentioned at the top, you are a writer as well, your cookbooks,

-winning awards in Ireland.

-That's right, yes,

my latest book, Eat Like An Italian, which is Italian food

with lots of delicious Irish

and British seasonal ingredients in it,

it won the Cookbook Of The Year award. And this recipe's from it.

Fantastic. And tell us about the cook school, then.

-That's based in the farm itself, isn't it?

-It is.

Yes, I grew up, I'm third generation on the farm in Wicklow

and my mother opened one of the Ireland's first

farmhouse bed and breakfasts, James.

She cooked three meals a day and I learned to cook from my mum,

-but then I went on to train...

-Yeah.

..and I converted our old milking parlour on the farm

into a cookery school ten years ago.

-OK.

-Lamb's going in.

-Lamb's going in. This goes into the oven, then.

It's about 180.

-Um, 350 in a fan oven.

-Yeah.

And I'd say, James, you're talking about 20, 25 minutes.

-OK.

-For lamb that size.

-You leave it to rest, that's the key.

We've got one resting now over there as well.

And you were on about the tapenade bit, which is here.

-So I'll bring that over to you there.

-That's grand...

-The figs I've got in here.

-Mm-hm.

Which you can tell us about. Dried figs in this one.

Yes, what we have is the figs are just softening up,

they're quite soft anyway, James.

They'll probably be OK, but if you have them anyway tough,

soften them up and everything goes in here.

So you have your olives.

So even though there's quite a few ingredients it's a rather

-quick dish to make.

-Right.

-Pistachios in there.

I like a little bit of mustard in there, gives it a bite.

You've got the sweet and the sour, the salty

but you've got the capers going in here,

that's your sourness going in, which is very typical of Sicilian food.

-Yes.

-And...

-Now as well as Italy, you guys,

you guys are travelling to America quite a lot, particularly New York.

They celebrate St Patrick's Day, hugely, don't they?

I'm actually just back, I'm straight off the fight from JFK.

I was cooking live on NBC's Today Show for St Patrick's Day.

-Fantastic.

-So we were doing that.

Was it yesterday? I don't know what day it was any more, James!

-So, just getting a little bit of orange juice in here.

-Yes.

You can put the zest of orange as well, if you wanted to.

-Only a little bit.

-Yes, you won't notice it.

LAUGHTER Do you want the figs in there?

-Oh, yes, please, James.

-Do you want the water in as well?