Episode 104 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Morning - a mouthwatering selection of some of the finest cooking on TV.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got chefs and celebrities aplenty today,

and some great cooking, too.

Theo Randall makes a tasty fish stew -

he cooks a medley of seafood in a tomato, carrot and fennel broth

and serves it with a delicious saffron potato garnish.

Lawrence Keogh keeps things strictly British

with his steak and onion pudding -

he browns the steak and onions to make a rich bone marrow gravy,

steams the pudding in a suet pastry made by yours truly,

and serves it with a buttery mashed potato.

Calabrian sensation Francesco Mazzei brings octopus to the table -

he boils a whole octopus before pan-frying it

and serving it with cannellini beans and smoked ricotta.

And Angela Griffin faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven -

a classic lobster thermidor served with Caesar salad?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell - mackerel,

with my honey and mustard-glazed mackerel with avocado?

Find out at the end of the show.

But first, Tony Tobin's making goat's cheese gnocchi,

and after his previous appearance, he decided to stay well clear

of wearing one of his favourite shirts.

-Great to have you on the show again.

-Thank you.

What are we cooking?

Well, I want to mention first that I've been having

a lot of counselling since my last visit...

-What have I done?

-Well, your mention of my shirt...

You wore it!

This shirt? You've got to watch this...

Do you mean this shirt?

-You mean that one?

-That shirt there, that very shirt.

I had letters, I had people saying, "What was that shirt?"

I tell you what, I've had to go to counselling.

Your wife's burnt it.

She's burnt it, she says, "You're not wearing that again."

-On the bonfire...

-Anyway, you've gone safe today.

-Fire away.

-I've gone safe with a jumper.

-What are we cooking?

-Sage roast chicken.

What we're going to do - you could pick some sage leaves -

we're going to put the leaves underneath the skin.

This is with gnocchi and a cream sauce?

Yeah, with goat's cheese gnocchi, which is a potato dumpling,

and just a little cream sauce,

which we're going to make from the juices from the pan.

Gnocchi is Italian - it translates as "lumps", I believe.

Is that right?

-Depends who's making it.

-You're a wiser man than me, James.

So, what I'm doing is I'm just going to put some leaves

underneath the skin here,

so they're in contact with the actual breast meat.

You could do this with roast chicken as well, a whole roast chicken.

It's lovely, yeah.

We've got Christmas rapidly approaching -

you see that with all the Christmas stuff all around the shops.

Turkey, as well - it's a good way of increasing the flavour in turkey.

-Getting flavour into it, yeah.

-Also stuffing underneath the skin.

A little bit of stuffing's nice. Butter...

Talking of butter, I'll get a little bit of butter in my pan.

I'm going to start these,

just get them sealing here, in the pan,

and we're going to pop them into an oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit,

whatever that is in centigrade.

200 degree centigrade.

For ten minutes - you're very good, you are.

Then after ten minutes,

we're going to reduce it down to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, which is...?

-150.

-There you go!

For 15 minutes - that just...

The first heat allows the chicken to seal

and get a bit of colour on the outside,

then the second heat just finishes it off.

-Gently cover those then, yeah?

-Yeah, just like that.

-Want to put those in the oven for me?

-I'll stick those in.

I'm going to make some gnocchi.

These chickens look great - lovely.

Is this the kind of dish you'd serve in your restaurant?

It has been known to be on the menu in the restaurant, yeah,

but also at home, as well -

it's the sort of stuff I love to eat at home.

There's the chicken - it's cooked.

We're going to rest those - that's lovely.

Now I'm going to get on with my gnocchi, James.

-I've got a job for you here.

-I knew I would.

-Just leave that there...yeah.

-Yeah.

Here, we've cooked some potato and we've boiled them in their skin

so that they don't get too wet.

-I'd like you to mash that up.

-Do you often boil them?

You could use baked potatoes.

You could - you can actually microwave them as well.

I think a potato like this takes about seven minutes in the microwave.

I thought different areas of Italy produced different types of gnocchi.

One has potatoes, other ones have choux pastry...

One's made with choux pastry.

That's more a French style, that's called Piedmontaise,

and then there's one made with semolina

which is called Romaine, so that's Roman-style.

I'm going to start making my sauce for this.

I'm just going to pour all the butter away from the chicken pan.

Of course, it's a variation of a dish which is "a la Romana",

which is the one with sage and that sort of thing,

-sage and Parma ham, pan-fried.

-That's right.

Can be done with veal...

You could wrap those in Parma ham, they'd be quite nice.

So, that's beautifully mashed there.

What I'm going to do now is add a little bit of flour.

When you're making gnocchi, some people put egg in it -

I really don't feel that it needs it,

but the trick is when you're adding the flour, just add a little first.

You don't overwork it - we want to...

Going to put some goat's cheese in there to flavour it.

It's a strong, soft goat's cheese.

Right - the trick is not to overwork it,

because if you work the flour, it goes all glutinous,

as you know, and it gets really, really starchy

and you end up with quite hard gnocchi.

The goat's cheese you use has a slight creaminess to it,

-not the chalky one.

-That's right, nice and creamy.

Going to add some more flour,

and then I'm going to use my hands to get in...

We need a nice kind of dough, almost.

There - a little bit of flour, to the side, on my board,

take some of this, and then we're going to roll it

into a little sausage.

Can you put fresh herbs into there as well?

Yeah, I suppose you could.

You could do. The reason I haven't

is because I want to really taste the goat's cheese,

so I don't want to overpower

the lovely, delicate flavour of the goat's cheese -

although we've used the strong, soft goat's cheese here.

We're just rolling them out into little sausages.

Had gnocchi before, Ray?

Never - first time I've heard of it, yeah.

-Very simple.

-Very simple.

-Cut these into small pieces.

Yeah, just like that.

Then we'll pop them into boiling, salted water,

and what will happen is, when they cook,

they'll float to the top.

They sink to the bottom. As they cook, they go to the top.

Down there, as they cook, they'll float to the top.

Once they've floated, you want to give them about 10-15 seconds

from once they float up.

Yeah. You can actually prepare those in advance, can't you?

You can prepare them in advance - if you're doing a dinner party,

and you've got to do six, eight portions, whatever it is,

you won't be able to fit them all in the pan.

As they come out, we've got some iced water -

you put them into the iced water, they'll cool down and firm up.

Take them out, dry them and leave them on a tray,

with some oil on them.

-You can reheat them if you need them.

-You can fry them.

My chicken stock, with all the lovely sediment from the chicken,

is reducing down there - we'll make a nice, creamy sauce.

A little sage to finish that off.

The chicken is resting over there, that's cooked nicely.

I'm just going to wilt some spinach in a pan here with some butter.

Spinach - I always remember, sort of...the olden days...

Well, not-so-olden days,

but we always used to cook spinach in boiling water.

-I've never understood why.

-We did as well.

Nowadays, because the leaves are smaller, they pick...

It's called the pousse spinach, isn't it?

The baby spinach, where the stems are more tender.

You can eat them.

Otherwise, you're peeling off all the big leaves.

But you just fry it off nowadays, a bit of butter...

-Wilt it down.

-Yeah.

See this sauce here -

just going to get some...salt and pepper in there.

Literally, as the gnocchi comes up to the...

It comes up and then at about ten seconds,

-we can just stick it straight into...

-In there now?

-Yeah.

We'll finish that off, get some lovely sauce all over there.

It will actually firm it up as well -

if you want to fry this in a touch of butter...

We were talking about pumpkin - Halloween's just round the corner,

but you can fry that off with a little bit of pumpkin.

Absolutely. If I was going to fry that though, James,

I'd put a little bit of egg yolk in there and maybe some Parmesan,

along with the goat's cheese, to allow it to caramelise -

you need to get a nice, golden colour on it.

Wouldn't do it if he was coming round for dinner...

You would, actually - you'd do it with more pumpkin on the side!

-That's like dumplings, though, isn't it?

-It's like dumplings, yeah.

Kind of - don't tell him it's like dumplings.

That's what it is, actually - potato dumplings.

Right, spinach is wilting down nicely there.

-I'll get that for you.

-Sauce is a nice...nice consistency.

It's not too thick - we want a nice, light, creamy sauce there.

I've just seasoned it with some salt and pepper.

My chicken...I'm going to slice.

You can just see that,

where we've got the sage underneath the skin.

It's beautiful.

It's had a nice rest, this chicken,

so all the juices have flown through it,

it's a really nice, moist piece of chicken.

I think we've got enough slices there for everyone to have a little bit.

But gnocchi is so easy. It makes a nice variation to pasta as well.

I know you love your Italian food,

but it's a lovely variation to pasta.

-Look at that.

-Just delicious.

Then pour a little of the sauce over the top, like that.

-Look at that - beautiful.

-Clean the edge of the plate...

Tony, just remind us what that is?

-That is sage roasted chicken with goat's cheese and gnocchi.

-Lovely.

Look at that! Smells delicious.

Give me a spoon!

-Ray, you're first.

-I'm first?

-You actually get fed on this show.

-Dive in, tell me what you think.

-Right...OK.

-Tell me what you think.

-Little bit of that.

-No plantain on it, but you know...

-It's very classic, really nice Italian.

-No hidden pumpkin.

If you didn't want to use it with chicken,

-you can so it with fish - salmon, maybe?

-Yeah.

OK - that sage thing...might work.

When you talked about wrapping in Parma ham,

that works well with fish as well,

so you can put herbs between the fish and the Parma ham and roast it.

-How is that?

-Very, very nice.

That's all you're getting, Ray.

You only get one mouthful.

-Very nice.

-Allison, dive into that. Go on, Simon, dive in.

-Do I get the plate, then?

-You just get the empty plate at the end.

You get to do the washing up.

-Yeah, thanks(!)

-Do you need to use a particular kind of potato?

The flourier the potato, the better, but because you're adding flour

and, if necessary, an egg yolk, it doesn't really matter.

But some potatoes that are very starchy will go gloopy.

The secret is not to mix it by machine,

but do it by hand, otherwise you continue to work it.

-It's lovely.

-I haven't had any yet!

Nodding heads over there.

You see, gnocchi isn't as hard to make as you may think.

Coming up, I'll be stir-frying beef for actor Wil Johnson

after Rick Stein travels to France as part of his French odyssey,

and oysters and steak tartare are on the menu.

I'm going to the famous Ile D'Oleron,

the place that launched 1,000 postcards,

and some of the best oysters in the world.

They're not everybody's cup of tea,

as they're as salty as the sea itself.

I had some of these oysters last night,

and seriously, it was a bit like tasting a good wine -

it had a start and a middle palate, as they say,

and a finish, this lovely, salty, sea watery flavour. Chantal...

HE ASKS A QUESTION IN FRENCH

SHE REPLIES IN FRENCH

'What Chantal was saying was that the oysters, they're reared at sea,

'but about three months before they're sold,

'they're brought in here and put into these old salt pans,

'old sea-salting pans,

'and that's what gives them this really fine flavour.'

-Des huitres vertes.

-Des huitres vertes.

-Oui!

This is a family affair, with uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews,

and the whole place is organically knitted together by one common bond -

that is to produce the best oysters they can.

Their huts may look a bit ramshackle, but these people make a good living.

Their oysters sell for a euro apiece and there's no shortage of takers.

Look at that lovely big meat in there.

I love that - I really like lots of salty water in my oysters,

cos it just accentuates the sweetness in the meat.

Parfait!

It's very good.

And with all her experience, she should know.

But if you don't fancy oysters on their own,

you can make a classic sauce mignonette.

It's dead easy,

it's simply made with some very finely chopped spring onion,

and you can use the green part.

It's actually got a bit of an Oriental feel about it.

This is one of the things I purloined from France in the '70s,

when my restaurant was starting to get going.

It's white wine vinegar, a little light vegetable oil,

and some coarsely cracked white peppercorns,

all mixed up together.

That's all there is to it.

When I first discovered this, I thought the only way to eat oysters

was with a dash of lemon juice or a spoonful of shallot vinegar.

But this works just as well, and it's a great way to start a meal.

This is Charente, an absolute Mecca for seafood lovers.

The mussels here are world-famous.

These muddy kids are collecting tiny clams,

which they'll no doubt flog to the nearest restaurant.

I'm off collecting mussels with Jean-Paul Boutellier.

To him, this is the centre of the universe.

He describes his fishing grounds as a large wine glass,

filled to the brim with a perfect cocktail

of sea water and fresh.

It was a shipwrecked Irish sailor, some 800 years ago,

who came up with the idea of growing mussels on these "bouchots".

All they have to do, it seems,

as Mother Nature has been so bountiful,

is to devise a contraption that takes all the strain out of harvesting.

But they've got a very special way of cooking them, too.

JEAN-PAUL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

What he's saying is that they have to arrange the mussels that way up,

because when they open under the fire,

they open like that,

so the ash can't fall down in, cos they're open underneath.

He's just said these eclades are for special occasions,

festive occasions, big family occasions

when you sit down and eat the mussels

and drink lots of the nice, white Charente wine with it.

Sounds very good - wouldn't mind joining in myself, actually.

JEAN-PAUL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Oui, oui.

HE CONTINUES IN FRENCH

It's really important to keep alive these traditions,

in this age of fast food - a sentiment I totally agree with.

-Sante!

-Sante.

I tried this once in Padstow, on the beach. It's called an eclade.

But I made a right pig's ear of it,

because all the ash went into the mussels.

I was just thinking this is a handy dish

you could do somewhere like Bournemouth,

where there's plenty of pine trees and plenty fresh moules around.

JEAN-PAUL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

You can see they're starting to cook,

cos there's all this liquid coming out from them.

JEAN-PAUL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Once the fire has died down, it's easy to waft away the ashes.

JEAN-PAUL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Oui - because he's put them upside down,

there's no ashes on there at all.

Here we go...

They're beautiful.

I have to say, I thought there would be a taste of Yellow Pages in there,

but no - just the taste of that piny wood smoke.

Absolutely delicious and so simple - no sauce there and so easily done.

Can I have another? Un autre, s'il vous plait?

I see the fishermen and women

that line the banks with their long poles -

do they know something I don't know?

Is this water that, apart from having a high percentage of duck poo,

washing up and shower water,

plus other human deposits

from the high number of fibreglass noddy boats -

that's what the bargees call them -

is that capable of sustaining fish that tastes good?

Well, they say that the perch are good,

providing you use plenty of salt.

I've just been told they've had a festival of beef here in Bazas

for 892 years, in this area in front of the cathedral.

I'm just looking up here - fantastic carvings up there,

really lovely local people.

I just wondered if there's any cows up there.

Because I remember when I was in Santiago de Compstela in Galicia,

they had lots of seafood all over the front of the cathedral,

and there should be some cows, but...

I can see a griffin up there, but not a cow.

People who love their food make a pilgrimage to Bazas

just to sample the local beef.

Gosh, that smells nice. Well-aged beef - I love it.

First thing the butcher did was to give me a little lesson.

Vache, boeuf.

James the butcher's just explained

that you've got "vache" - cow - and "boeuf" - steer.

We don't get that distinction in British butchers' shops -

well, not many that I know of.

I think it's very important,

because it's completely different-looking meat

and tasting meat as well.

He was so proud of his beef, he cut me a slice to take away

and sample it.

Look at that - the knife's almost fallen through it, like butter,

it's that tender.

Voila.

-Merci. Au revoir.

-Au revoir.

Oh, dear - I feel a bit embarrassed about this,

but I never realised there was a difference between cow and steer.

I do now, and I've been a chef for all these years -

I know seafood, but I should have known something as basic as that.

But it's not the first thing I've learned for the first time

on this trip in France,

and I suspect it won't be the last, either.

Well, these are the big boys that put Bazas on the map,

and it's this man, Henri, who's devoted his whole life

to rearing the Bazas.

HENRI SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Henri's just said that these Bazas cattle were originally bred

for "being tractors" - that's how he put it.

They pulled carts and things.

And although they were revered for their meat,

that wasn't their primary function,

and it's taken him 20 years to build this herd up

and build the whole breed up.

HENRI SPEAKS IN FRENCH

The way he likes to cook the Bazas beef is an entrecote -

he said "a really thick one".

I remember Elizabeth David saying

it had to be at least two fingers thick.

But the point, he said,

it has to come from a five to six-year-old steer.

We just don't sell them as old as that -

it's 30 months maximum back home.

And that would bring in so much flavour.

HENRI SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Oui - and he likes to cook them over vine trimmings.

Not charcoal, only vine trimmings.

You cook them on one side, turn them over

and add some chopped shallot,

and, as he said, a "filet" of olive oil,

"si vous voulez" - if you like.

Just a little bit of oil.

Also, he mentioned some chopped bone marrow as well.

A lot of people don't like that, but I do.

Then you turn it over on the plate when you've cooked that side

and just leave all those shallots, bone marrow and everything

to warm through and serve, as he said, with a really good Medoc.

And that's what I have to have back in the town square in Bazas -

and very good it was, too.

So with the fillet of Bazas beef,

I made the most famous raw steak dish in the world.

Well, legend has it that the name "tartare"

came from that war-like tribe from Central Europe who,

during the 13th and 14th century,

were savagely going about their business of killing, raping,

pillaging and generally being disagreeable.

They were great horsemen

and they kept lumps of meat under their saddles

during the heat of the day which,

by the time they came to camp in the evening,

was nice and warm and tender.

Then they'd get out their knives, slice it up and eat it.

If that doesn't put you off steak tartare,

I don't know what will.

It's one of those dishes that separates the men from the boys,

but I love it.

Now this is fillet steak, and it's just cutting like butter.

I'm using fillet because I do think it makes more sense

to cut it up with a knife rather than put it in a food processor,

mainly because with something as tender as this,

you'd have, like, meat paste in about two seconds.

Once it's chopped,

add chopped shallots, some whole capers,

some finely chopped cornichons, or gherkins,

a dash of chilli sauce...

..olive oil, sea salt, a grind or two of black pepper,

chopped parsley and mix.

You know, every time I order steak tartare in France,

the waiter's bound to say something like,

"You realise it's 'cru', sir? Raw."

I say, "Yeah, I know, I know."

Obviously, so many English people

must send it back and say, "It's raw!"

Oh, dear.

To finish it off, form a little nest on the plate

before adding a fresh farm egg yolk, to give that unctuous finish.

Something tells me that Edwina Currie wouldn't approve,

and I know lots of people who can't stand the thought of it -

a bit like trying sushi for the first time.

But the taste and texture is wonderful,

and I sincerely hope Henri would approve.

Classic stuff from Rick.

Now I love steak tartare

and France is full of amazing produce,

but beef is definitely the best in Britain.

-Isn't it, Daniel?

-Actually, I do like Scottish beef, a lot.

It is fantastic. Well, this one, you probably never tried before.

This is White Park beef and it's an interesting story.

2,000 years ago, there used to be loads of White Park beef

all over the place.

In the '70s, it was down to about 65 breeding animals,

but now it's become a little more popular.

It was actually said to be Winston Churchill's favourite beef

and he ordered three cows to be sent over to the USA during World War II,

just in case we got invaded,

so the Germans couldn't have our beef, you see?

-There you go.

-So that's an English breed, yeah?

It's an English breed. Wonderful stuff, as well.

What we're going to do is a fillet of beef,

a black pepper fillet of beef - almost like this Oriental dish.

I've got some fillet here.

You can use some rib-eye, sirloin, that kind of stuff,

but the thing about this is you need to use a tender piece of meat,

cos it's quick to cook.

In the main ingredients here, I've got in some light soy sauce,

some sherry, we've got some cornflour, black pepper,

touch of garlic, and we basically put all these mixtures together.

Additionally, for our sauce, we've got red pepper,

some oyster sauce, water, soy and some sesame oil.

I'll get onto our egg-fried rice in a minute.

We're going to make a little marinade to go with this -

we take the sherry, the black pepper and the cornflour all together,

with the light soy sauce, and throw in the beef

and give this a quick mix together,

cos this is going to sit in the fridge.

Now, I was reading about you last night.

Very interesting - you kind of fell into acting.

-You were a big sportsman, weren't you?

-Yeah, yeah.

You wanted to take that as a career, athletics.

I mean, I was very serious about my athletics when I was younger.

But then, you know

when you get to that stage where you've either got to make that

full-time commitment to it or you've just got to forget about it...

-Paying the rent, I think, that's the thing, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Then it moves to that next level.

And I wasn't really quite ready to go to that next level with it.

Because it was that, I suppose, your athleticism and everything else that

got you into dancing and you pursued that as a career, didn't you?

Yeah, yeah. And then I danced for quite a few years

and I realised that dance was something I really

enjoyed as a hobby and not something that I wanted to pursue as a career.

I used to do dancing as a career.

Particularly one style of dancing that you're pretty good at -

-break dancing.

-You used to break dance as well?

-What you laughing at?

THEY LAUGH

Me and a guy called Alistair,

Alistair, if you're watching this, I've named you and shamed you.

We used to dance in Parliament Square on a Saturday afternoon

to raise pocket money for fish and chips.

By 11 o'clock, you'd have enough for fish and chips then you'd have

indigestion and you couldn't do it in the afternoon.

But that was... I was break dancing, all that sort of stuff.

We used to take a little bit of lino - cos you used to do all that.

-That's right.

-Spinning on your head and all that sort of stuff.

As you get older, you get fatter and it hurts.

So, anyway, from there, what's this about a funeral parlour?

-You used to work in a funeral parlour as well.

-Yes, I did.

-Jack of all trades.

-Yeah.

This was just before I started Waking The Dead.

I was going through a period where work was very up and down

so my dad, who works for this funeral parlour, he said to me,

"Do you fancy coming and doing a bit of driving?" So I said OK.

So I started driving some of the hearses, etc and then moving

the bodies around to the morgue and all that sort of stuff.

And it was a very, very fascinating time, actually.

I remember when I saw my first dead body in the fridge.

And my dad came to me and said, "You want to see a dead body?"

So I was like, "OK, all right..."

Cos you get to see quite a lot of them over the last eight years

cos you've been doing Waking The Dead. I believe they're dummies...

No, no, no, they're called cadavers, darling.

-Are they?

-Yeah, that's the correct terminology.

What do I know? I'm a break dancer, I don't understand all that.

-But Waking The Dead, you've been doing it since

-2000? Yeah.

Did you know when you were doing that

it was going to be that popular? I mean, it's hugely popular now.

We had no idea, in the beginning. We literally shot the pilot,

didn't know that we were going to go to a series,

then it went to series one, and we thought,

-"OK, we're just going to do one series."

-Yeah.

And then from there it just kept growing and growing

and here we are today, series eight.

Cos the great thing about that show,

it's not highly scripted, it's a little bit flexible,

you seem as if you get a little bit of say in how you want to

evolve the character a lot more.

We do, yeah. Yeah, we do.

And we're always kind of challenging the scripts

and we're making certain adjustments, just to try and make it a bit more

naturalistic and a bit more real

and give it that slightly improvised sort of feel.

-The new series started last weekend?

-Yeah.

Anything you want to...

let out, spill the beans on?

-I can say...

-Anything happens?

Well, I can say that in this series my character has a major run-in

-with Boyd.

-Right.

-Yeah.

I have to say I do watch it and in conjunction with that,

at the same time, you're doing another series, which...

I mean, you literally finished at five o'clock this morning.

-Well, it's a movie, actually.

-It's a movie?

-Yes.

Can you tell us a little bit about that or not?

The film is called Hard Shoulder

and I play the main character in this film, a guy called Carl Foster,

who's a computer consultant. And he takes his family away for a weekend,

just to have a weekend break, and during their journey to their

destination, they get kidnapped and held hostage by these roving Gypsies,

who torture them and try to kill them.

And then it becomes about the great escape, him trying to save his family

and save himself and trying to get out of this predicament.

That's kind of the movie, yeah. So it's a bit of a thriller

stroke kind of slight kind of horror aspect to it as well.

Very good.

I better tell you what I've been doing cos I've nearly finished it.

We've got our peppers in there.

The black pepper beef. All I've done is put it in the marinade.

It's gone in the fridge.

Take it out, fried it. We then got... Our peppers have gone in.

In there, we grab some oyster sauce.

A little bit of this oyster sauce.

I'll explain my fried rice in a minute

but the oyster sauce goes in there, that gives it a nice little kick.

There we go. Water. Touch of water.

That'll steam and create a nice little sauce

and a glaze to go with that.

That's your black pepper beef.

Over here we've got our rice, our egg fried rice.

Soy sauce mixed with egg.

In the pan.

Fried off. Throw in the cooked rice.

And then finally we're going to add some spring onions,

nice and thinly sliced.

Little bit of spring onion.

And the beef really doesn't take very long at all.

Bit of coriander.

Lightly chopped.

And if you want to finish it with a bit of sesame oil,

that's great in there. But this one is more or less finished,

so just literally throw everything in, stir it around.

If you've got any leftover chicken, Wil, that goes in there as well.

Bit of chicken in there. There's your egg fried rice.

-Keep it nice and light.

-Can I...? Or do I have to wait for...?

Not yet, Wil, hold your fire.

I know you haven't had anything to eat all night but hold fire.

I'm good but I ain't that good.

And a bit of beef.

Wow.

-A proper meal for a hard-working man.

-Yeah.

-Dive into that, tell us what you think. Black pepper beef...

-Wow.

..in about five minutes.

And it'll be hot, Wil.

-Good? Spicy?

-That is gorgeous.

-Like that?

-Mm.

And if you're going to make that steak tartare like Rick,

make sure your steak is really fresh and great quality.

Now, if you'd like to stir-fry like that or have a

go at any of the recipes you've seen on today's show, they're just

a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Now, we're not not live today so instead we're looking back

at some of the best cooking from the Saturday Kitchen Cookbook.

And now it's time for Theo Randall to show us how to multitask.

Here he is cooking a fish stew

while name-dropping a celebrity customer or two.

-Good to have you on the show.

-Thanks for having me back.

Right, so what are we cooking?

We are cooking a fish stew, it's a wintry fish stew and we're going

-to use some fennel, some onion, carrot, which is the base.

-OK.

And with that we're going to add a seasoning of some fennel seeds,

-some chilli, and some dry porcini mushrooms.

-Yeah.

And then we're going to add tomato, reduce that down,

and then add this lovely fish stock.

-Fantastic.

-And that's the base of the fish stew.

After that we're going to make the... Cook the fish.

So what do you want me to do?

-OK, can you chop this onion and carrot, please?

-I can.

-There you go.

Nice and fine. I'll cut the fennel up.

So, chop this up.

So nice and fine cos it's got to cook...

The fish for this, we're going to use this kind of fish afterwards,

so we're making the base first.

Basically, we're making a kind of soup base

and the idea is that the fish is then sealed off in a pan...

but you kind of seal the fish,

-then you use the fish base to give it all that flavour.

-OK.

And we're using lobster, which is obviously a very expensive item

but really gives it loads of flavour. But you can use prawns...

Even better langoustine, if you can get langoustine as well.

If you get English lobsters, better, even better.

Most of the lobsters that generally people would buy from supermarkets,

if it's not "English" on the packet, generally it's from Canada.

This time of year, you'll get a lot of Canadian lobster.

Lobster gets horrifically expensive at Christmas,

it's kind of crazy, but you can make this in the summer with fresh

-tomatoes and even fresh mushrooms.

-But it's a treat.

If you didn't want to use lobster I suppose you could use langoustine,

-bit of prawn, something like that.

-Yeah, absolutely.

So first of all, we're going to put the fennel seeds in.

Little bit of garlic. And some chilli.

I mentioned your restaurant there,

you're celebrating one year open, is that it?

Yeah, we're a year old last week, which was pretty exciting.

-And quite a successful year as well?

-Yeah, really, really successful.

It's amazing, it's just flown by.

It feels like five minutes ago we opened the restaurant.

And cooked for many, many people, especially in London.

And one in particular, was it Rod Stewart?

-Yeah, we did Rod Stewart's, his London wedding.

-His London wedding?

His London wedding. Some people have two weddings.

Yeah, and that was with Penny, yeah?

And that was with Penny and they had a good time,

they were around the restaurant till sort of three or four in the morning.

-Onions and carrots in there?

-In there, yeah.

So we're going to cook that as...fast as we can.

This should cook for about 45 minutes cos you want to get all that

lovely sweetness out of the onion and the carrot.

I don't know why but in the UK we don't really eat as much

fennel as in Europe, do we?

-The French love it, the Italians love it.

-Very underused.

The French love the Pernod. What's the drink?

The one with Pernod?

What's the famous...aniseed-y drink?

-Pernod.

-No, they have it...

-Pastis.

So that's going to cook down, so we're going to...

We're going to add our tomato to this.

And that should reduce down to get nice sort of thick...um...reduction.

And then fish.

That's for later on. Thank you.

And then we've got fish stock, which is lovely, look how thick that is.

It's amazing. It's amazing how gelatinous fish stock can be.

That's obviously come from the bones, like it would do anyway.

I've got a theory about fish stock. I hate fish stock when, you know,

everyone says you should only cook it for half an hour?

When you've got nice fish like turbot or something, you should cook it

for much longer, cos then you get all the flavour out the fish.

Sometimes if you cook it with different fish, it can go bitter,

-can't it?

-Yeah, that's true.

-You've got to get the right fish.

OK, so that should cook... Porcini in the end.

Forgot them. So tell us a little bit about these.

Well, these are dry ones.

The thing about porcini is you should always try and use the new season so

now you get all the new season ones and they're much paler in colour.

These are the fresh ones?

These ones are a little bit dark, which means they're a bit older,

so the lighter they are usually the better they are.

But generally the older ones, they dry out, like these are.

Yeah, exactly. So we're going to cook that off for about 45 minutes.

Put this over here.

And this one's been cooking for about 45 minutes. If you could...

-I hate doing this live on TV.

-Go on, you get covered in everything.

OK, and then with a really hot pan, put some oil in the base

so the fish doesn't stick.

And then we're going to season our fish - where's the salt and pepper?

-There you go.

-Is it over there?

-Salt and pepper.

-Thank you.

So you've got the mullet there.

I've got mullet and I've got monkfish.

And these clams, they're actually moving, they're still alive.

And this lobster.

Now, monkfish is always quite an interesting story, I think.

There's quite a lot of waste on monkfish,

maybe about 60%, but I think the look of kind of put people off

some sort of 20 years ago. And they used to be used in scampi.

But you're talking about the lamb shanks. When I first started cooking,

monkfish was one of the cheapest fish you could buy.

-And now, in France, it's incredibly expensive, isn't it?

-Yes.

But it never used to be popular, did it? What did they do?

The head, people are afraid of this head, so they cut the head,

they change the name of the fish and it's only the fillet

and it becomes very expensive.

It's got really expensive now.

OK, so I've got... The clams are in.

And the monkfish is in.

I'm just going to close the lid so it all sort of steams together

so you get a nice sort of seal on the fish.

And while I'm doing that,

I'm going to...

..get this lobster cut up.

I suppose about this sauce, you could keep this, couldn't you?

So once you make it, pop it in the freezer or something like that?

Yeah. And you could just buy the fish, have the fish stock made,

and then buy the fish on the day you want it

and cook the fish off and add the base.

Now, we've got these... We've got this head.

Again, you could make a stock with a lobster head or...

-You make some chilli oil, do you?

-Yeah, I make an oil.

You need a lot more shells than that

but if you take the crab shells and the lobster shells and literally

roast them off with some tomato puree

and some veg it makes the most amazing-flavoured oil.

So while that's all steaming away nicely, add some white wine.

-This smells unbelievable.

-And all the clams are going to open up now

and the fish is going to cook.

You could use other fish. Skate's quite a good fish in this.

The thing with monkfish, it's got a little sinew round it as well,

so if you're unsure about it, get your fishmonger to take that off

cos you need that off, otherwise it'll shrink too much.

-You chop the parsley?

-I will chop the parsley, yeah.

So I'm just going to split this lobster into two.

Right, what else are we doing?

So the fish is all cooked, well, almost cooked,

and I'm going to add the fish base, which you've pureed up.

If it's a bit thick, you can always add a little bit of fish stock

you've left on the side.

I'm chopping, I'm chopping.

Hurry up!

-OK, and then just got to cook this.

-Here we go.

My granny used to have one of those things that used to go through,

you used to be able to do it much quicker.

-Oh, really? What, the press?

-Yeah. You want a bit of garlic in here?

Yes, gives it a nice sort of freshness, a nice sort of fresh...

This is like a little garnish, obviously you only need lemon,

it's classic garnish...

-Sink in the back if you want to wash your hands.

-Thank you.

Right, that's chopped.

Probably only want a little bit of it.

-Sorry?

-How do I learn to chop like that?

Five years stood in a kitchen just saying, "Chop that.

"Don't say anything, just chop."

"Just wait for the clams to open up.

-OK.

-Parsley and garlic.

-Put a handful, be generous, put it all in.

-All in?

-That's it.

-I've chopped it, may as well have it all in.

-Fantastic.

-Get you a spoon.

-Start to serve it up, could we?

-So you've got all that lovely lobster...

Lobster flavour's going into the stock

and the fish is just nicely soft, it's not too overcooked.

Looks cooked to me.

-Yeah.

-Perfect.

Right, so how do we serve this up?

Got a few potatoes right at the end, a bit of saffron potatoes.

This is just saffron...?

Yeah, the saffron gives it a nice flavour without overpowering

with loads and loads of saffron.

-And obviously looks nice as well.

-OK.

I love these type of dishes, they're just...

The French are very classy with this,

and it's just dumped in the middle of the table, help yourself.

-You could almost serve it in a pan, couldn't you?

-You could, yeah...

This is the type of dish you've got in your restaurant at the moment?

This is on the menu at the moment, yeah, it's on the menu tonight.

-How much?

-25 quid.

-That's with half a lobster.

-That's a bargain, that's pretty good.

Nice lobster claw in there.

-How's that look?

-Looks pretty good to me.

We've got a fish stew with lobster, monkfish, red mullet,

saffron potatoes, and clams.

It's as simple as that.

But what does it taste like?

Smells unbelievable.

There you go, have a seat. Ben, you get to dive in first.

All right then.

-It's a tough job, isn't it?

-Twist my arm.

-Straight in to the monkfish.

-Wow, yeah.

-What do you reckon?

-That's quite delicate, isn't it? It's quite...

Sorry...

I'm just going to get a bit of the lobster.

The great thing about this, you can mix and match your fish.

The lobster, in people's eyes, can be quite expensive.

Other type of fish that you could use? Salmon...

Skate, you could put salmon

but I think white fish is probably the best.

Put sole in there.

Have a taste.

The addition of the clams as well, you could put mussels...

The clams give that richness of shellfish.

You could put squid in there, squid's always quite good.

I like the idea of the sauce though, cos it could freeze quite nicely.

Yeah, yeah.

Terrible, was that?

What does that mean?

That's a very French gesture. Just says nothing.

Can I make a reservation tonight?

-What do you reckon, girls?

-Very good.

-Happy?

There you go, fantastic.

That really was delicious.

Now it's Keith Floyd's turn to cook

and today he's in the wilds of Ireland.

Before I started making these scrumptious little programmes,

all I'd seen of Belfast was pictures on the news,

pictures that for some strange reason didn't dwell on the culinary heritage

of this proud city. I must confess, though,

I didn't actually come here with a song in my heart,

but after a blinding breakfast at Benny's Cafe, and a few pints of

the Imperial stout, not to mention an ear bashing by the most

loquacious people on earth, I thought I was in Florence.

This is the kind of thing that gets you arrested in these programmes -

walking around the streets of Belfast gazing at the buildings

and the things behind you and talking to yourself.

Whereas really, of course, I'm thinking about the deep and profound

culinary meaning of this splendid city here in Northern Ireland.

I mean to cross the road here but I forgot to do that.

Because "La direction",

as our producer is affectionately known,

insists on giving a sense of place, here's one of me yet again

strolling through another anonymous city centre of these fair islands.

It's a great pity, you wouldn't even know you were in Belfast,

a city that exudes joie de vivre

like buckets of Guinness washing around your toes.

We went to celebrate the architecture of this city by going to

probably the most famous pub in the world...

But the BBC, through painstaking research, turned up when,

of course, this architectural jewel was clad in tarpaulin...

According to Oscar O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, there are three great arts -

painting, music and ornamental cake decoration,

of which architecture is but a subdivision.

This is a brilliant pub, you know? John Betjeman said it was,

"The best in the universe, the best in the entire world."

Artists through the generations have adored it.

In fact, James Mason used it for his great film The Odd Man Out.

The advantage, of course, that he had over me

was that he had a real director, Carol Reed.

But, you know, look at it. It's a cathedral to drink, isn't it?

And that is not just a quick pun, this was actually made

and decorated by Italian craftsmen - plasterers, sculptures and

painters who were moonlighting whilst building cathedrals and stuff.

What a wonderful way to earn a living.

Much better than making spaghetti.

Come in, my son, I'll hear your confession now.

Richard, don't look so serious, I know you've been a naughty boy

but that was only a little joke. What we're really going to do here is

because I'm a kind of a sleuth and detective champing round

the lanes, the byways, the pubs, the bars, the bistros,

of these great British Isles of ours, Ireland included,

looking for things, I need help.

So I read the Belfast Cookery Book and it says,

"pizza a la Napolitano, "fritto misto", "Quiche Lorraine" -

all that sort of stuff.

I thought, "That's not Irish food."

Somebody who knows about Irish food is my great mate -

and we are friends, unusually, because often I say we've been

-friends for like minutes, we've been friends for years...

-Yes...

This is true, is it not?

She's the leading writer on the world's oldest

English-speaking, or English-written newspaper,

which is called the Belfast...?

-Newsletter.

-The Belfast Newsletter.

-250 years.

-Man and boy?

-Yes.

-It's a brilliant paper.

She wrote very nice things about me in that one. That's why I've invited

her onto my programme today to pretend to be an expert.

-Because you are in expert, aren't you?

-Oh, gosh, yes.

-On everything?

-Yes.

-On food in particular?

-Yes, very much so. A great eater.

And a great eater. I mean, is this stuff, this champ, this Irish stew,

this hot whiskey, this Murphy's this brown bread and butter,

these oysters - is this Irish food?

The stew's not quite right.

Well, you know, a stew is a stew is a stew.

The champ's not quite right but it's almost right

because champ is a big mound, it's like making cement.

It's a big mount of mash potato with scallions in it.

-What are scallions?

-Scallions are spring onions

and the spring onions must be stewed in milk beforehand,

so they're all nice and soft.

And you make a big hole in the middle, as I say,

like making cement, and you put the butter in and you make cement

and it's high in whatever you like to think, but it tastes gorgeous.

Mrs Currie, if she's still in power,

I don't know, I don't follow politics,

says that the Northern Irish people are even worse then the naughty

people up in the north for eating high cholesterol, fatty foods.

Well, it's eating and drinking.

We talk about having a feed of drink and we have a feed of food, too.

I don't care about it, it's lovely.

Without the Ulster fry after a night's drinking, you'd be done for.

How much has food changed?

I mean, trotting up and down the streets here,

the Golden Mile, which I think once was a street of brothels...

No, not quite. No, no, it was all insurance companies

but it's now all restaurants.

Because everybody decided when the Troubles hit Northern Ireland

in 1969, they said, "Where am I going to go for my holidays?

"I'm going to get the hell out of here." So they went to France

and they went to Spain and they came back saying, "I want paella.

"And I want all these goodies."

So hence the Golden Mile and hence all these restaurants.

But listen, I am not an interviewer.

I'm getting fed up with this journalistic bit of it.

At the end of the day this is a cookery programme

so if you excuse me from trying to interview, which I do very badly,

I want to go off and do some real cooking. OK?

So, let's drink to ourselves,

let's forget the camera cos we're fed up with them.

We can talk about the Golden Mile as it used to be 50 years ago when....

SHE LAUGHS

In this booth?

Well, what about this booth?

'I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, to the

'gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a wetted night.

'And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover

'and quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.'

Good, eh?

But it's really interesting, isn't it? In Portrush it's great to find

a little restaurant that celebrates the area.

George McAlpine is one of a growing breed of young chefs

who are not content to pay lip service to the French but develop and

exploit the local produce to create dishes that are second to none.

Here he's cooking salmon, halibut, lobster in a light,

creamy champagne and butter sauce.

Although it looks extravagant, this dish is quite simple,

but what makes it superb is the freshness of the fish -

and lobster isn't essential by the way -

and the immediacy of the cooking and serving.

You have to admit that was a virtuoso performance from my new chum George.

George, I must taste it.

But look, this is a town like Clevedon in Somerset.

You would hardly find this sort of dazzling selection of stuff

around there and yet here we are on a blustery Northern Irish coast.

George, I must just taste this. Excuse me.

Divine.

What's this got to Ireland? Where's all this stuff come from?

This is all locally caught.

We're on the harbour and it's all caught by local fishermen.

Absolutely supreme.

Look, look at this. This I've never seen before.

Richard, come really close into that.

It's got corn on the outside like a faggot

-but where did this dish come from?

-Well, it's vegetables,

and fillet of lobster, roasted it in the oven,

served with a lobster sauce.

-And you're...?

-Yes.

-Where do you get...?

Do you wake up in the middle of the night like a musician

and run for the Yamaha and say, "I must get that tune down."?

Or is it carefully thought out kind of thing?

Sometimes things come to you easier than others.

Obviously you have to work at it and try different ideas

and sort of try blend them, get them to all work nicely together.

This has really come to me a major way. Richard, look at this.

I'm going to cut right through the middle of this.

See these very finely diced vegetables on the top?

Inside... The wonderful fillet of turbit at the bottom there.

Must just taste that and this fabulous rich fish sauce.

You should feel very jealous, you lot.

Now, this is also fascinates me. What are those?

They're little pork fillet chimneys wrapped in puff pastry.

-What's that stuff on the top?

-It's mushroom duxelle.

That sort of minced mushroom and onion and stuff like that?

-Yes, and it's served with a rosemary jus.

-Wonderful.

Richard, come back here.

A Lovely rich meat glazy sauce flavoured with rosemary.

And this. Over here, quick!

We just haven't got the time to do this brilliant young chef

the justice. What is this here?

It's a fresh orange terrine, filled with fresh summer fruits.

A masterpiece. I have to say, George,

that I award you the Imperial stout for being brilliant.

For being young, you make me feel like a passe 40-year-old

but it is my programme so shoot off if you don't mind.

I'm going to do some cooking now.

So, Richard, stay with me.

Off with the coat and onto a cooking sketch right away.

So this then is the beef simmering gently in beef stock and stout.

Absolutely perfect.

Richard, I hear you cry, "What beef, what Guinness? What beef?

"What stock?" Actually, this is the classic modern way of cooking

beef with oysters and Guinness.

You could say the perfect TV meal. No, not that one, my dear,

this one, a actually.

This is the perfect TV dinner - look, wonderful local oysters,

fabulous fillet, little shallots, bit of brown sugar, wonderful

meat glaze, the reduction of beef bones and stock and stuff like that.

A little butter and some stout.

And as I always say, if it isn't good enough to drink, it's not good enough

to cook with so I'll just check.

Absolutely perfect. Right, we haven't got very much time so I have already

poached my fillet of beef in some meat stock and some stout, OK?

I've got it reduced down to that with a few shallots in

and a bay leaf. Now for the important part of making the sauce.

Come in very closely. You may walk, you have actually got legs.

Because of the bitter sauce you get from the stout

and the beef stock, a little of the brown sugar, like that.

Dissolve it in. And then whisk in a few little knobs of butter.

Whisk...

And we whisk that until it gets creamy, shiny and unctuous.

It'll take a second or two.

While that's just finishing off there, I must now...

..concentrate because I've going to offer this to George in a moment

and you've seen what a brilliant chef he is.

Just taste.

Brown sugar is essential into that, it takes the bitterness away

and gives it a superbly unctuous flavour.

Back a bit, please, Richard.

Right, sauce onto the plate first of all.

Strain through so we don't get the shallots and things.

OK, like that.

Which is perfect.

Save a bit of that over there.

Now, while I cut up the meat I'm going to pop my little

oysters in for a second or two.

OK, you can have a little close-up into there, Richard,

if you can get it.

Just warm the oysters through, they're naturally raw.

Just want them glazed with the sauce. Only there for a second.

OK, you've seen those. Right, back.

The difficult bit.

We just carve that down. Oh, cooked, if I may say,

to perfection, pink in the middle.

Thin slivers

of fillet of beef.

One, two, three.

Maybe, cos this is for George,

maybe I should make a bit of a better effort there.

And overlap them like that.

A little bit of my julienne of vegetables.

Trembling hands. Do you know, I've made hundreds of these programmes,

I still get very nervous cooking for really talented people.

It's genuinely true, you know?

I haven't cleaned that as well as I might.

Oysters.

Oysters can go round here.

Like that. And I'll get a bit more of this sauce.

OK, under the pressure,

I don't suppose I've presented that as beautifully as George could do.

But, George, come and have a taste. Tell me what you think.

I know you might criticise the presentation.

But see if the flavours are there.

Well, it looks very good.

Certainly tastes very good.

Do you want tell several million people what you really think?

I think it's absolutely fabulous and I think that's one for our new menu.

-Really?

-Yes.

Can I taste it? Let's see how I feel about that.

Beautiful oysters. Beautiful beef.

Well, I told you George was a man of integrity.

Everything he said is true.

Those oysters are perfect, the beef is brilliant,

the sauce is fantastic. I'm a bit proud.

No cooking programme of mine would be complete without a dollop

of mythology and I'm standing here on the Giant's Causeway,

which it says here on my tea towel, issued by the National Trust,

"The Giant's Causeway made by Finn McCool."

You remember Finn McCool And The Heartbreakers,

great band in the early 17th century. Anyway...

He was fighting for ever with this Scottish giant over the water

there and they built this causeway so they could do battle in the middle

but Finn MacCool was a pretty smart kind of guy.

And he'd heard the Scottish giant was

so big that he borrowed his son's school uniform -

Just William short trousers, a blazer and a peaked cap,

walked across the causeway

so petrified the Scottish giant thought, "Blimey,

"if that's his son, what's his dad like?!" Threw a fit of pique

and ripped up the causeway and this is all that remains. Ha-ha!

Great stuff.

Now, we are not cooking live in the studio today so instead we are looking back

at some mouthwatering cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's Best Bites, confidence may have

been on his side but would Gennaro Contaldo

get a faster time than Tana Ramsay?

Find out in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

And one of the best Italian chefs in the world, Francesco Mazzei cooks

octopus for us. He boils the octopus before pan frying it

and serving it with cannellini beans and smoked ricotta.

Angela Griffin gets to face her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven - lobster with my classic

Lobster Thermidor served with Caesar salad or her dreaded Food Hell,

mackerel, with my honey roasted glazed mackerel with avocado?

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

But now it's time for Lawrence Keogh to cook a British classic

and if you're trying this at home get every pan you can

lay your hands on because you'll need it.

Good to have you back on the show.

You know I'm a fan of British food and you can't get any more British than this dish.

-Very heavy steaks.

-What's the name of it?

-A steam steak, shin of beef.

We've got some red wine, we'll cook the beef in suet,

we'll make suet pastry, a nice gravy chowder and bone marrow.

-And we've got every single pan in London.

-Every pan I can get hold of.

Let's get cracking.

If you're following this at home, you might need to stop

and pause it at some point. There's a lot going on.

Just finishing the washing up from this morning!

Anyway, I'm doing the... I've got shallots, red wine,

that's the reduction.

Season the beef nicely, straight into seasoned flour.

It's a shin of beef. It's a nice braising cut, this beef.

This is a shin of beef.

You can use a bit of chuck steak if you fancy.

Put some beef dripping in the pan so it's all beef, beef, beef.

It's going to get very, very hot and smoky. And in goes the beef.

I'll seal it but the most important part is getting this brown

and crispy and dark on all sides.

-Diced shallots.

-Yeah, chopped shallots.

-Red wine.

-Red wine.

-Reduce that all down.

-Reduce all that down.

-Sauce on here?

-Yeah, people always ask about how to make a good gravy.

My best advice is get a litre of chicken stock, a litre of beef stock.

-Reduce them both together...

-Chicken stock, beef stock.

Yeah, reduce them together with a shot of tomato juice,

not tomato puree.

That's how to make a nice gravy at home.

You'll reduce that right down until it gets quite dark and thick.

Now, pastry - this is plain flour?

Plain flour, half fat to flour.

-This is suet.

-Obviously not vegetarian suet!

-No, you could use vegetarian.

-Kind of defeats the object. Bone marrow and all that stuff!

You can make this out of vegetarian suet

if you want one with vegetables and that.

I've done a vegetarian pudding like creamed leeks and chestnuts,

curry powder for a vegetarian suet.

I'll chop the onions.

We've got self-raising flour in here, we've got suet,

salt, in goes the water.

Mix this all together and this will be for our pastry.

The idea is you cook that beef, you want it to colour really well.

That's the most crucial part of the dish,

getting the beef really nice and browned all sides.

Otherwise you won't get that nice colour into the gravy and sauce.

-Jose, do you have anything like this in Spain?

-Not at all.

We don't need it with the weather we have there!

LAUGHTER

So the idea is we basically knead this together.

There's no egg in this at all.

-Just flour and water.

-I mentioned this on your restaurant menu.

The thing about British food, the seasons change so very quickly.

Yes, you've got to be on top of it. One minute it's in, then it's out.

You've only got two weeks for greengage plums

and silly things like that.

You've got to be quick and get them in while you can.

Or try to preserve as much stuff when it comes into season, definitely.

Nice chopped onion.

That's the idea with this pastry, you want that sort of texture.

We're getting nice brown pieces.

Ideally you want nice brown pieces like that,

very dark.

This will create the brown stew, that's the key to it.

So, leave that as long as you can.

You are going to do that in this sorts of things.

Half pint pudding basin.

We haven't got a great deal of time so I'll show the quick process -

get it a lot darker than what I did.

Straight out of there.

Then use the same pan, let it sit there, for the onions.

In go the onions. And obviously get these dark brown as much as you can.

The key to this really is you want to cook it in batches really.

If you haven't got a nice deep cast-iron pan like that,

the heat will come out of the pan quite quickly.

In the restaurant, the guys do big pans in batches

and we do a bit at a time. Don't rush it.

Very important to get it nice and dark.

And get the onions nice and dark. The shallots are reducing the red wine.

This is how you make...

We want to get it to this stage.

That's the stage we will bring it down to. See how dark that is?

Without the tomato puree, it won't be sticky.

I'm putting it into a little plastic pot here.

You can put it in a china one at home, a pudding basin.

Yeah, or if you want to make a big one, it might take a few more hours though.

We're going to cook this, once it's in the pan,

cook it for an hour and a half

so you could make the meat filling the day before and have

it in the fridge and on the day you want it just have the suet done.

And you can freeze it.

It will take you a whole day to wash up the pans afterwards!

You've just finished the washing up not long ago out the back!

Mashed potato, I've got to do. In yet another pan! Mashed potato.

Onions are brown. Back in with the beef.

Scrape off all the juices, the most important.

In with a big glug of red wine.

That goes like that.

The studio smells a lot better now!

And in goes your stock. Nice bit of stock there. A bit of beef stock.

Right, that's going to come to the boil. I'll make a quick bouquet garni.

Parsley, thyme, bay leaf, no rosemary.

Put them two together and sandwich them like that.

Just put them in the big cup.

And often it's the same sort of ingredients, isn't it? Bay leaf and all that sort of stuff.

You have a boat of celery, a celery boat, if you want to look at it.

Put them all in. It's one of the things you make at college,

put the other one on top, OK. Very straightforward.

At college you call it a bouquet garni

-and when you get out of college you call it a bunch.

-A bunch.

Right, we've got our potatoes here.

Yeah, there we go, so we drop this in.

-So, butter and cream.

-That goes in, OK.

-In your mush.

-Lid on.

-There we go, OK.

-How long do you stew that for then?

That's going to take about an hour and a half, OK? So, lid on and leave it on the side of the stove,

just ticking over very, very slowly.

-Right.

-OK and I'll move this over to the back.

We haven't got any more room in the kitchen, Lawrence.

-I think we need another pan.

-Right and then in the fridge...

Talk amongst yourselves.

So the idea is, you chill that, once it's cooked, cool it down.

Cool it down.

Always make it the day before, you'll find it's a lot easier.

Comes up much nicer.

OK, that sauce has gone in there.

Right, hang on a second, re-cap that.

-That's the reduced shallots, right down, with red wine.

-Red wine.

-And that's the gravy that you've reduced down.

-Right down.

-With me?

-And then, you're filling this up. You want me to do that?