Episode 106 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

The chefs are ready and so am I. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got a great line-up of hungry celebrity guests,

including Ade Edmondson and Emma Forbes,

ready to be fed by some great chefs this morning.

Galton Blackiston roasts Gressingham duck

with wilted watercress and serves it with a mousse of butternut squash

and bigarade sauce.

Jose Pizarro brings his unique touch of Spanish flair to the studio

and cooks sea bass. He pan fries it,

and serves it with sauteed wild mushrooms,

sage and crispy Serrano ham.

We look at the first time Bryn Williams came to the Saturday Kitchen hobs.

He seared tuna, made an avocado puree,

and serves it all with a radish and apple salad.

And Emma Forbes faced her food heaven or food hell.

Would she get her food heaven - blueberries -

with my home-made blueberry pie with custard and clotted cream

or would she get her food hell - lamb -

with my mozzarella-stuffed lamb chops

with artichoke ragout?

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

But first, Hairy Biker Si King gets all cheffy

with some venison.

What are you cooking, Si?

Well, we're going to cook a loin of venison

with some blackcurrant and sloe gin glaze

on a clapshot -

that's easy for me to say - rosti

and with some parsnip crisps.

-Which is a bit fancy, I hear you say.

-Bit poncy for you.

-It is.

You wouldn't let us do a stew, though.

Right, I'm going to do our rosti. Tell us a bit about this venison.

OK, loin of venison. Venison is a great sustainable meat.

I know "sustainable" is a word everybody uses just now.

But it really is great.

It's a good time to eat venison,

because it's starting to put its fat on for the winter.

There's plenty of water about, so the meat's just really good.

Now, what we're going to do is...

Maybe about an inch and a half thick.

-There's several types of venison.

-There is.

-The roe and...

-There's roe, red and fallow.

And this looks like, by the size of the meat, roe deer.

Bambi! >

Yes, it is!

Closely related to Walt.

So, now, we're going to cut these like that.

Every time I come on the show, I seem to be wrapping things in bacon.

Guess what? Now is no exception.

To keep the venison moist,

what we're going to do is

we're going to wrap that lovely loin

in some bacon, like that.

Now, this is streaky smoked bacon.

And what you do is,

because you want that to be as thin as you can get it...

With the back of your knife, just pull your knife across

the bacon rasher.

Take your little nugget...

It's best to use dry-cured bacon, isn't it?

Yes, cos you don't want it wet.

You don't want that horribleness going on.

What happens is, it fulfils two purposes.

First of all, there's a flavour issue with this,

but also, there is... It keeps it really moist.

OK, now, for your clapshot,

I've got the...

neeps and the tatties - the turnips and the potatoes -

-and the carrots in here.

-Yes.

Some butter to bind it.

Traditionally, all clapshot is

is root vegetables mixed and served traditionally with haggis.

It's a fabulous recipe.

Lots of seasoning.

Now, these little lovelies - look -

are chef's rings.

Little chef's rings. Now, you oil the ring.

Now, the reason for that is you don't want your clapshot

-to stick to the inside of your oiled ring.

-SNIGGERING

So there's nothing like a good oiled ring!

There we are.

-There we go.

-There's your mixture.

Smashing. Thank you very much.

They go into a pan. Little bit of oil in.

Do you want me to get that in there?

Smashing. Thank you.

Little bit of oil.

Now, all you do...

I haven't followed any of this - go back to the beginning again!

Keep up, Griff! Come on, man!

I drifted off there!

What are you trying to say?!

Clapshot - is that a Scottish dish, then?

It is.

It's traditionally served with haggis.

So what you have is clapshot,

which is root vegetables, which is...

I'm cooking it, by the way!

On you go!

-..carrot and turnip and...

-I see.

All the things those Scottish people eat.

Well, everybody eats it. I'm not Scottish.

Rosti is a Swiss term, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Right.

Fusion food again!

It's a bit of a fusion going on!

Two mountainous countries in one dish!

Yes, it's an eclectic mix of loveliness.

I get it. OK.

An eclectic mix.

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here

and say that game...

For goodness' sake!

-..game is normally served with game chips.

-Very true.

Which are these things I'll show you in a minute.

Now, traditionally, you could do roast chicken with this.

Game chips, you'd have to use one of these mandoline things here.

-They're good, those.

-Which are great,

cos it takes all your finger ends off.

George Formby was good with one of them, wasn't he?

LAUGHTER

DAVE MYERS: His little mandoline!

But the idea is, what you do is you get this right

and you can make little game chips.

Little gaufrettes, and you fry these off.

Basically, I'm just going one way and the other.

-Is that potato you're doing?

-Yes.

-So, basically, these are crisps?

-They are.

They're crisps, but they always used to be served

with roast chicken when I was at college,

bread sauce, and sausages wrapped in bacon.

I need that mandoline, don't I? Got to do these parsnip things.

Do the parsnip crisps as well.

We'll have an eclectic mix of loveliness.

Your chips and the parsnip chips.

I like pizza and chips myself.

-Will we turn those over?

-No, they're not done yet.

Right, parsnip chips.

Now, the good thing about this rosti thing

is you just slide a little, you know,

a little fish-slice or something over the top of it,

underneath it, and then just flip it over, like that.

What have you been doing in the summer, you two - filming?

Having a nice time, really. I took me clothes off in Corsica.

Then we went to Singapore with you.

We did go to Singapore.

You've never seen a man drink so much!

Martin - by heck, he can cook,

but by heck, he can sup it!

I tell you what...

You should see the Singapore Sling!

It was the sling I was worried about -

Singapore just happened to be there.

You chefs!

You just spend your entire time travelling the world!

Don't tell anybody, Griff!

I go to media studies courses and people say,

"I want to get into television."

And they talk about how they're going to study to be an editor.

They don't want to do that - they want to learn how to be a chef!

What do you go to those for? That's daft!

We had a line-up you couldn't write in a Hollywood script.

We had these two, myself, Ray Mears and the Teletubbies.

ALL LAUGH

We're not going to go into what happened with Dipsy and Laa-Laa.

-We'll move swiftly on.

-Don't tell me, you bumped into Rick Stein

on his way home from the Galapagos Islands,

where he'd been cooking up an iguana!

Are we going to take these off now?

No, not yet. They're not cooked.

We'll not be a minute, though.

So...where's me plate?

Right.

So...

I think they're about ready now.

I was just being particular.

I'll take these out.

So, there's our rosti.

And you just do that, like that.

Look at that!

-Sauce on?

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Thanks, mate.

Now, to deglaze the pan that we've cooked the venison in...

-Where are you going, you?!

-Here!

-All right, then.

..you put...

some chicken stock...

-Argh!

-It's hot, that.

-Swap this round. Stay there.

-I'll stay here.

And then we put some blackcurrants...

Blackberries, I mean, even!

You could have blackcurrants if you want!

But this is blackberries.

Now, what's good about this is you can go and pick them,

and it's nice picking your own food. I like it.

Now, the good thing about this... Look.

This is sloe gin.

I have a very close mate of mine who makes his own.

-Dave Myers, over there.

-Every year.

I've done it this year already.

September, October, when the sloes are just ripe.

Go to the Lakes, get a couple of bucketfuls.

You've got to prick each berry, though.

So, prick it, put it in a demijohn, caster sugar, gin.

Turn it every other day

and by Christmas, it's perfect.

-It's lush.

-It is lush.

It'll be Christmas by the time we finish this dish!

-Just get the stuff in!

-Oh, there's no need to be rude!

Here I am...you invite us on...

What we do is we put some sloe gin in.

There we are.

About a tablespoonful.

Or more if you're from the North.

And what happens

is you just break those strawberries up slightly.

-Strawberries?!

-Oh, man!

It's blackcurrant!

I know it's blackcurrant. You don't.

-It's blackBERRIES!

-It's seasonal!

It's seasonal. It's blackberries.

Anyway, anything beginning with "black", it's in the pan.

It'll be venison with a kiwi fruit coulis!

It's the abuse when I was little, I'm sure.

LAUGHTER

All that time

spent in rock concerts.

-Right, now...

-Are we going to get it on the plate?

-We are.

You worried now?

So, now, look.

So now, this is reducing down really quite nicely.

So we take a lovely spoonful of that...

-Do you want that?

-Yeah, please.

And we put it over.

Look at that. That was a prop from Lord Of The Rings, that.

And we put that over...

If you missed any of that,

that was mangetout and some green beans that went in there,

served with it.

There we are. Look at that.

The reason I'm shaking is that pan handle's really hot!

Chips...

Now, these are our lovely parsnip crisps

that we put on the top in a jaunty sort of...

jaunty sort of chef fashion thing.

There we are. Look at that.

You'd never get it to the table -

-it'd fall over before you got it there.

-Remind us what this is.

It is loin of venison

with black...berry...

with blackberry and sloe gin glaze,

with parsnip crisps and a rosti of clapshot.

If you follow that, you're better than me.

-It's on the website.

-He's a nice man, really.

Here we go, right.

LAUGHTER

You see? You've knocked... You've broken it already!

No, I haven't.

-Looks good.

-It's purple.

-It's supposed to be.

-It's what Prince would have for his dinner!

Was that honestly...?

You produced this in less time than it takes

to produce a McDonald's!

Sorry, I'm not allowed to mention...

A burger.

This looks delicious.

I've just had my pudding, which is confusing.

Early in the morning, it looks...

very good.

-It should be nice and pink on the inside.

-It is.

It IS nice and pink, don't worry about that!

That's cos it's took less time than a burger!

It's still got its horns on!

-I like venison. It's got a bit of flavour.

-It's nice.

Like I was saying, it's a really good time to eat venison just now,

because it's putting its winter fat on and tastes great.

-The capshot...

-Clapshot.

Clapshot.

Think clap...

-shot.

-Right.

I see. I'm just having a little bit of this rosti.

What do you think?

Yes, that's nice as well.

Shame he didn't know his blueberries from his blackberries!

Now, if you're using a mandoline at home,

be careful of that sharp blade.

Coming up, I'll be cooking sole for Ade Edmondson,

but first, Rick Stein is in Italy, discovering the delights of Naples.

Travelling changes you.

The way I cook now,

the recipes I write,

the way I look at food,

can never be the same as a result of my travels

and my quest to find new seafood dishes.

As Tennyson in his poem Ulysses wrote,

"I am part of all that I have met;

"Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

"Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades

"For ever and for ever when I move."

There's an old Italian saying, "See Naples and die."

To me that definitely means your life is incomplete

if you haven't been there.

I chose Naples to start this odyssey,

because it's a city where life revolves around food.

This market, Pozzuoli -

well, it's the nearest thing I've seen to pure theatre.

Everything's so fresh -

lots of it still alive.

They're cutting, filleting, shouting.

It's like an opening scene from Verdi.

VENDORS CALL OUT IN ITALIAN

At first sight, it seems as if these guys are very angry

in what they're saying to one another.

But they just involve everyone in what they're selling.

And I was so happy to be caught up in it.

It was there that I met one of the most passionate women

I've ever met on the subject of food -

Giovanna Raffone.

HE CALLS OUT ANIMATEDLY

It's like the opera, you know?

Everybody sings,

everybody shouts

to sell their goods.

-So they're enjoying themselves?

-Very much.

If you think it's noisy, or that the people are quarrelling,

it's only their way with doing things.

They love it!

Shouting, selling stuff...

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Like they are doing now!

RICK LAUGHS

Gosh!

Everybody is an actor, you see. Everybody's an actor.

You're very brave, Giovanna!

I am a Neapolitan woman. Look.

This is octopus.

We Neapolitans have the cooking under our skin.

For Neapolitans, the table is very, very important.

Tradition.

It's history, sculpture, it's art.

And then fantasy and the happy hand.

Only if you see, you can understand

how we cook.

How we can make our dishes delicious.

You must catch the secrets

of our fantasy, not of our cooking.

Well, this is one of the dishes we came to Naples especially to find,

and it's called pasta with puttanesca sauce.

First of all, let's put some chopped garlic, some sage and rosemary.

What I've learned out here is a good way of deseeding tomatoes.

Use these little tomatoes like this, full of flavour.

Oh, dear... Just squeeze them, like that.

None of this business about

deseeding and chopping tomatoes here.

The reason for getting the seeds out

is you just get all that moisture out

and thereby make the sauce much stronger and quicker,

because this is literally a 10-minute sauce.

Stir them around.

This is the heart of the sauce - the anchovy.

Always have to have the anchovies in there.

And next, and this gives it a real bite,

capers. Look at those lovely little capers,

freshly salted and bought on the market this morning.

Now olives. Just black olives.

You can use black and green mixed, if you like,

but I always put black olives in there.

So it's all about power, about pungency, this dish.

The point is not to have too much liquid,

so as it cooks down in ten minutes.

It's really, really tight and strong.

And quick.

Next, some oregano.

I put lots of herbs in here. You don't have to.

Some people make it just with parsley,

but I love those Italian herbs.

Just leave that to cook away a bit. Add a little bit of salt,

little bit of pepper.

Ten minutes and we're there.

While that's cooking down, I want to talk about the pasta.

This one's called perciatelli.

What happens is the sauce goes right inside the pasta

and it's so concentrated then.

And the Italians are all into just getting the maximum concentration

on the pasta.

I don't think we understand about pasta in England.

We go for loads of sauce,

but in Italy it's entirely the other way round,

just to make the pasta taste wonderful.

Giovanna asked me to stay for a snack in the evening,

but this is Naples,

so she phones up everybody -

every relative, cousin, aunt, uncle and niece

and they all come round.

They all bring wine and food

and the whole thing turns into an amazing party.

You've got the feeling that this is what they did every Sunday night

and the rest of us were missing an important part of family life.

HE SINGS IN ITALIAN

Look at this glorious dish.

All Neapolitans can make it.

To make this dish, you need about

four kilos of seashells' fruits,

with parsley, tomatoes,

garlic and pure extra-virgin olive oil.

This is health,

vitamins,

proteins, carbohydrates.

You don't need anything else.

Just Neapolitan dishes.

ALL SING ALONG

This is another dish.

And again you'll find

tomatoes, olive oil,

cuttlefish,

garlic and plenty, plenty of parsley.

Plenty of parsley.

Then you must boil the spaghetti al dente.

There's something about the traditional Italian Catholic family.

I mean, we've seen it in so many movies

and it's really like that.

Two things forge this closeness -

music and simple dishes.

What I'd really like to ask you

is why do you love cooking so much?

I don't know. You can't explain what comes from inside.

It's something which you've got under your skin,

in your blood.

It's a tradition which goes back to a thousand year ago.

It's a part of your blood,

of what you are made of.

You know, when you talk like that, it's sort of like...

I hope you won't mind me saying this,

but you're very sort of sensual.

It's almost like you're talking about, well, making love.

-You know?

-This is making love,

because making love is not always the physical, sex, physical, sex.

Love is for everything.

For what you see all around you.

For the flowers.

This is the orgasm of life.

It is not only sex.

That is the big mistake of life.

Love for cooking, for flavours,

for creating a dish.

If you don't feel that, you'll never be a good cook.

I'm booking my ticket to Naples straight after the show.

That fish market looked incredible

and lots of great fish around the UK,

so I thought I'd show you one now, which is not so well-known.

This is Megrim sole, or Cornish sole.

It's a deep-water fish.

Avoid April, March, when it's the breeding season,

but these grow up to a kilo in size.

-It looks quite fat for a sole.

-The flesh is slightly flaky.

It's softer. So what I want to do with that

is just do a little sole meuniere,

but I'm going to use some lovely little brown shrimps,

or crevettes grises, as the French call them.

These lovely brown shrimps that you get from around Morecambe.

I've been shrimping in Morecambe.

This is for when you did that...

I've been making a series which is yet to come out

where I go round Britain looking at traditional foods and customs.

I went shrimping with a chap called Edmondson, same spelling.

He's got a fish shop in Morecambe called Edmondson's.

It's not my shop!

How do they catch them?

You go on a boat and you trawl for them, really, against the tide

in the estuary there.

-And he cooks them up straight on the boat.

-Delicious.

He boils them up in seawater from the sea.

-Bizarre, isn't it?

-We're basically used to having them

potted in the butter with the mace.

He takes them back and pots them after that.

-Lovely.

-You say he boils them up in seawater?

Yeah. On the boat.

He catches them, boils them up immediately

and then, for me, he peeled them and put them in my mouth.

It was just heaven!

It was brilliant.

What we're going to do is just skin this.

Just hold the fish like this.

Now, this is one of the many places you've been to on your travels,

because you started travelling basically when you were very young,

because your father was, what - in the Army?

Dad was sort of part of the Army. He wasn't in the Army.

He used to teach at Army bases and things like that.

So we spent all my childhood in Bahrain, Cyprus and Uganda.

-Uganda?

-Yes.

So we've eaten quite a lot of strange things.

But then, when you first came back to the UK,

obviously university is where you kind of...

-You went to Manchester University?

-Yes.

Where you met... It kind of changed your life, really.

Rik and I met there and it turned out we were the same people!

Our mums had sent us with the same dressing gown

and we had the same kind of record collection,

chiefly Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band...

and we just started doing what we eventually did

as soon as we met, really.

This is Rik Mayall, of course.

And you also met Ben Elton, didn't you?

Yeah, Ben came a year later

and it was a little fertile time for us.

Is that when you decided to write The Young Ones?

The Young Ones came a little bit later,

five years later.

I can't remember these dates!

We kind of... We left uni

and we used to do the Edinburgh Festival

when it was a proper fringe festival

and...sort of didn't get anywhere!

-Didn't get anywhere?

-Yeah.

So it was, we'll move to London,

where the streets are paved with gold,

and they weren't.

It was a very slow burner. I think we did about six gigs

in our first year out of uni,

and spent most of our time working in exhaust pipe warehouse factories.

And, um...

So when did the idea of The Young Ones come?

It just suddenly came on the screens and took off.

Well, we eventually started up our own clubs,

because there were no clubs. We sort of invented a circuit of clubs,

We invented The Comedy Store and the Comic Strip clubs.

And it kind of took off from there.

It was the time when Channel 4 was born.

And they were very keen for kind of new ideas,

-so we sold them the Comic Strip idea...

-Yeah.

There was a producer at the BBC, Paul Jackson,

who was kind of aware that there was something going on,

so he thought he should have his own programme,

so he said, "Have you got another idea?" That was The Young Ones.

So we managed to flog two programmes at once to different channels.

-Two at the same time.

-It was a good start.

Now throughout that, as well as doing that,

you've done all manner of different things -

West End and all manner...

I didn't know you were producing videos as well.

Yeah, I did a good year and a half of doing pop promos,

as we called them in those days.

But these are the likes of Elvis Costello, The Pogues...

The Squeeze.

I did about 40 of them, I think, in about a year and a half.

Where did that come from? Have you always had a love of music?

I did. There's one of the Comic Strip episodes

where we had Bad News.

Do you remember the episodes about the heavy metal band?

I made a promo in that.

And Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction...

-Right! So...

-said "We'd like one like that!"

So I made one like that, and people started wanting similar things.

And the rest, as we say, is history.

Well, it was history until Black Wednesday.

There was a big financial crisis in the late '80s

and the budgets went out of promos

and the promos became very different then.

Kind of in and out of focus and people's hands and legs and bodies.

And all the kind of conceptual big art-directed ones

sort of went out the window, so that was me finished.

But you're making your own music now.

That all started from a little bit too much to drink, was it?

Well, I've always wanted to be a rock star. Who hasn't?

And, er...

Have you ever done that thing

where you go on a boozy pre-Christmas lunch with your mates

and then you go to Denmark Street, which is a lovely street in London,

full of musical instrument shops

and you accidentally buy a mandolin?

-No.

-You've never done that?

-No.

I've had a doner kebab stuck to my face when I woke up!

Well, I did that.

I play string instruments anyway, so I had a mandolin

and was toying with this thing that I found on the kitchen table

the morning afterwards,

and I started playing songs I grew up with and it became

a kind of...a kind of idea.

Normally, you sit at home... A lot of people will recognise this.

There's a lot of competent people, they sit at home with their guitars

and they play songs and it just sounds like karaoke.

But when you change instruments

and you start having to rediscover the song

and reinterpret the song,

then it becomes a different kettle of fish.

And you've suddenly got...your own version, you know? And it's...

But as a Yorkshireman, you decided to go into Irish folk music

with a bit of rock and...

Oh, YOU call it Irish!

The Irish pretend they invented everything.

You know - fiddles and...

pipes and things like that.

PAN RATTLES

I was going to say - it'll make more noise - this is the butter here.

I've just turned it brown a little bit.

I'll take that off the heat. I've got shallots here.

-Did you mean to turn it brown or is that a mistake?!

-No mistake!

We're going to use a touch of lemon.

Touch of lemon.

Just put it in there.

Little bit of meuniere sauce.

In we go with the shallots.

I'm amazed you can talk and cook at the same time.

I find it very difficult. I cook a lot,

but I find it very difficult to be disturbed when I'm cooking.

Touch of this gentleman's relish.

-See, you can't, can you?!

-No! I'm concentrating.

-You're lost now!

-I know!

Is it going wrong?

No, it's just gone all over my shirt!

Right, we're just going to pop that in there.

Mix that gentleman's relish just together

so it's all created this nice little butter.

Now, you say it's not Irish folk music,

but you have got some amazing musicians on there.

I was listening to it last night.

It's a mixture of your own... You're singing, playing the music,

but you've got some other incredible musicians.

I've got Troy Donockley, who's one of the masters of the uilleann pipes

or the Irish bagpipes,

and I've got the all-Ireland fiddle champion,

so, yeah, it's not a bad line-up.

I was in Ireland the other day, and it was amazing,

because you just walk down the road and there's a guy on the fiddle,

-playing away.

-Yeah.

I think that Irish kind of ceilidh music,

when things kick off, when jigs and reels start happening,

is as exciting as when I first heard punk.

There's a kind of energy to it, isn't there,

a kind of...

joy to it. A kind of glorious racket, we like to call it.

It's not only your own music as well -

-you're doing bits of Morrissey and bits and pieces like that.

-Yeah.

We chuck in a load of kind of traditional tunes

and jigs and reels,

but we're basically covering punk and new wave.

Morrissey is about as modern as we get!

I really want to get some kind of

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark into it,

but I can't find the right song that works yet, but we'll get there.

Well, best of luck, because you're on tour.

-You start the tour this month?

-At the end of the month, yeah.

Go through to the end of November.

-There you go.

-That looks delicious.

There's your little shrimps, and a little bit of lemon on the side.

And there you have it.

-This isn't food heaven or hell? This is...

-Not yet!

But dive into that.

You've probably never tasted Megrim sole.

Why is it called Megrim?

We're not quite sure. Thomas has asked us that.

We've been searching Google and we still don't know!

Mmm.

-I love a bit of sole.

-Very delicate.

Very different to Dover sole. Much, much cheaper.

What's the, um...

what's the...?

-Oh, yeah, it's the relish.

-It's the relish.

-Which is basically anchovies?

-Anchovies. Gives it a bit of spice.

And if you'd like to try cooking my recipe for sole with brown shrimps,

or you'd like to have a go at any of the dishes

you've seen on today's show,

they're just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

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

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

Next up is Galton Blackiston,

and he's going to share his take on a classic duck a l'orange.

-What are you making?

-I'm doing this roast breast, or crown,

of Gressingham duck.

I have to get it in the oven sharpish

and get it into the pan to seal it and colour it really well.

It goes into an oven

for probably about half an hour.

So it's quick roasting.

What's the name of this dish, then?

It's roast breast of Gressingham duck

and it's served with a butternut squash mousse,

which you're going to do,

and also wilted watercress

and a sauce bigarade.

-He left the sauce to the very last minute.

-Absolutely.

You want to pick your chefs next time.

-It's a great sauce, it's a classical sauce.

-Duck a l'orange to me and you.

-What does bigarade mean?

-Orange.

-Good question.

-It does!

-In what language?

Bigarade. Yes, it basically does mean orange.

But it's a classic sauce to go with duck.

There's a reason why sauces and things are classic,

-because they stand the test of time.

-I agree.

The difference between bigarade and duck a l'orange is 28 quid.

Now then, to start off with the bigarade sauce,

you have to make a gastrique.

So I've got some red wine vinegar here

which I'm putting into a dry pan with a bit of sugar.

-That's what makes your gastrique. OK?

-Yep.

Then, once that caramelises,

I've got a bit of duck stock over there which I'm going to add to it.

-Yep.

-Meanwhile, we get that sealed.

-You get the gist of it?

-Have you got some sugar in there?

Yes, I've got sugar in there. I've got one which is almost finished

-because you need to reduce it and it takes time to do that.

-Yes.

Whilst you're doing that, I just need to talk about

-the gelatine leaves which are going to go into...

-Gelatine?

-Gelatine leaves.

-There was I thinking the '70s were disappearing,

-you've brought gelatine back again.

-Shut up, you.

Gelatine leaves make the most wonderful mousse.

You serve it cold with the hot duck.

I like the contrast between hot and cold. You don't give a lot of it.

If you were serving it, James, you'd give them a plateful.

That's where you'd go wrong.

-So mousse, as in Angel Delight in the '70s.

-Yeah.

Now then.

So you get the gist of it. You're going to colour this off nicely.

I'll get this in the oven because it needs to go in.

If you haven't coloured it off well, just leave it longer in the oven.

So, Gressingham duck.

-Yes.

-There's Aylesbury duck as well.

There's all sorts, but I like Gressingham ducks

because they're from East Anglia.

That's why I use them and I like them. That goes into a hot oven.

-There you go. You've been told.

-I am being authoritative, aren't I?

-Are your oranges from Norfolk as well?

-No, not yet.

But, now then...

-I'm ready.

-Get that into tinfoil.

-Sorry.

-Into loose tinfoil.

-You did this in rehearsal, you want me to do it now.

-Get on with it.

What about the caramel, will it burn easily?

It will burn if you leave it.

So I watched it and then put some duck stock into it

and now it should be ticking over nicely.

Until it gets to this stage, that's almost your finished sauce.

-Do you want olive oil and salt and pepper on here?

-Yes.

Yes, that's it. You are doing all right, actually, James.

He is well trained by chefs like you and me.

-Salt and pepper, there you go.

-Now, once you get that into the oven...

-I can't wait for the prawn cocktail next week.

-Absolutely.

Yeah, but again, there's nothing wrong with anything like...

Get that in the oven!

This goes into the oven, how long for?

-That will go in will it's cooked.

-Right, you want orange?

-Yes.

-This is orange for your duck.

-For my duck.

You say this, but it will definitely be on your menu.

It could well be. So you want some... Anyway.

It is the most popular way of serving duck, and why not?

It's called bigarade sauce in Delhi.

-Pardon?

-In black pouches. It's called bigarade sauce in New Delhi.

-So, you've got to julienne this, yeah?

-Yeah, julienne it

and blanch it in boiling water.

I haven't done this since I was 16. Carry on.

That's a long, long time ago, James.

Now, I'm just pureeing up the butternut squash.

-Butternut squash is a bit like pumpkin.

-Yes, but you will like it.

-But they're good.

You will like it. Blitz it.

You don't have an option, really.

But I only have to have a little bit.

You are only going to...

Yes, that's the beauty of cooking. You only give people a little bit.

-The difference between me and you on something like this, James.

-Yes.

-Would you sieve that?

-No.

-Yes, you see, us proper chefs would sieve it.

-Would you?

-Yes.

And we put it in a little neat terrine mould

and make it very pretty and it doesn't taste any different.

I put it on a tray. Who has one of these moulds? Nobody.

However, I'm going to get my own back now.

I had some spare time last night when I finished rehearsals

and I've done this. This is for you guys.

I've actually carved a pumpkin.

-Here we go!

-That's you.

-Have you put me with hair on?

-Yes, plenty. That's Galton.

See, you've got Galton there.

-That's not too bad.

-That doesn't look too bad.

-That's brilliant.

-It's a bit quiet over there.

-You've done very well, James.

-That is a wooden spoon.

-Yeah.

This is Cyrus, who looks a bit like a Japanese emperor.

But it kind of looks a bit like Cyrus.

I wouldn't mind being one of those.

However, Lynda, it was a work in progress,

but it kind of stopped really. You look a bit like Moira Stuart.

-You need a vivid imagination.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Moving swiftly on.

-Absolutely brilliant, well done, James.

-It was a bit of work, that was.

-Dear, oh, dear!

Now, that has been blanched and we just take those off.

So, where is the orange juice gone now, Chef?

The orange jus is this beauty.

As I say, you can either make a dish or ruin a dish...

-Put that in there, yeah?

-Yeah.

..by the strength or weakness of your sauce.

-So it is the most important thing you do.

-Orange juice and lemon?

Orange juice and lemon into that.

Then you reduce that down until you get something like this.

-Yes, exactly.

-A classical sauce.

Now, we are not a million miles away.

I'm just going to quickly fry some watercress because I like it.

Don't ruin that now, don't ruin that.

Now look, if Michel Roux was to do bigarade sauce,

you'd say, "Oh, brilliant, Michel, that's absolutely amazing."

-When Galton does it...

-Does he say that?

That wasn't a French accent, was it?

-So, there we go.

-Do that French accent again.

We'll have a lot of fun with him in a couple of months' time.

Go on then, tell us about Morston Hall.

Because you're building as well, aren't you?

Yes, we are doing some building work, putting a conservatory on

for a private dining room and all that kind of thing, as you do.

And you're having a load of chefs round for a shoot.

You, Michel Roux, one or two others,

Matt Tebbutt, are all coming to Norfolk for a day's shoot.

-Did you get an invite, Cyrus?

-No, I'm not important enough.

Anyway...

When I start making duck a l'orange, I'll start getting an invite.

-Yes, if you can...

-Bit of green chilli inside.

Get on with it. What am I doing with this?

A couple of really nice little... Don't give loads, please.

All right? And we're just about there.

What I've done also is to take the wishbone out of the duck breast

because it makes it easier to carve...

before I roast it.

This duck is just pink, which is the way I like it.

I've gone through years of having blood-red rare duck.

I now actually like it better cooked.

-That's perfect, James.

-Is that all right?

-Yes, well done.

-Is it important to rest the duck as well?

-Yes, of course it is.

How long should one rest it when it comes out of the oven?

I think you can leave it out between 10 and 20 minutes easily.

Once it's been rested on the bone, this is still really hot...

-Can I ask a question about this resting business?

-Yes.

Then the meal is never hot.

Yes... I know what you mean.

I know what you mean, I don't like food that when I put it in my mouth I go...

No, I agree, but sometimes it's not even...

It's a fine line to get it right.

Heston will have a chemical reaction that takes place, Heston Blumenthal.

The simple rule is, Lynda, if I sat you on that gas flame,

it would clench.

If I left it off for 10 minutes, it would relax.

It would still hurt, same with a piece of meat.

-Can't think of anything more lovely.

-It relaxes the tendons.

-You explained that beautifully, James.

-You liked that?

Don't try that at home.

A little bit of the duck on the side.

It is on the medium side, but that really doesn't bother me.

-Now for the orange sauce.

-The orange sauce.

Lynda, you taste this and tell me if you don't like it.

-I'm a fan of orange sauce.

-Yeah, I'm off to get a basket.

-I don't get that.

-Chicken in a basket.

-Oh, I see.

It looks good to me. So, remind us what that is again.

Roast breast of Gressingham duck, butternut squash mousse,

wilted watercress, bigarade sauce. Do it.

Chicken... Sorry, duck a l'orange with butternut pate.

There you go, dive into that.

The man is a genius though, I have to say. You are pretty good.

There you go, have a seat over here.

-Dive into that.

-Wow, look at this.

Is this type of thing on your menu?

Yes, we would do a few potatoes with it,

some crispy fried potatoes are lovely with it.

But the secret of that, you said that is cold,

but it's served at room temperature, is that right?

You don't want to take it straight from the fridge onto the plate.

But that's all right, isn't it, Lynda?

as you said, there's nothing wrong with an old dish.

I know this myself.

-If it's classic. Now, I just do this...

-Have it with the other accompaniments.

Shall have it with a bit of watercress and meat?

But that little sauce is not just duck a l'orange, it's bigarade.

-It's the...

-Oh.

-Happy with that?

And when you are finished, madam, we're waiting.

You see, I couldn't resist carving that pumpkin.

And I'm sorry that picture didn't look much like you, Lynda.

Now it's time for Keith Floyd to visit Galton's neck of the woods,

that's Norfolk to you and I.

In the words of the master,

and I hardly think you need reminding that I refer to Ernest...

I mean Noel Coward, Norfolk is, in a phrase, terribly, terribly flat.

But East Anglia, once the kingdom of that wonderful Saxon king at Wuffingas -

great name, great bloke -

has always been one of Europe's rich melting pots.

This is where the Norse, the Danes and the Flemish,

not to mention some brilliant thriller writers, decided to settle.

And the region became prosperous from wool, weaving and corn.

Despite the polyglot influence - that's this week's word -

it's managed to retain a unique character.

Although on the surface it seems the epitome of peaceful,

Merry England, its reticence belies a strong character that is reflected

in the recipes and produce, not to mention Oliver Cromwell

who, like myself, was a very misunderstood man.

Notwithstanding Oliver's peccadilloes - that's next week's word -

he wouldn't approve of plans to dredge the seabed, the habitat

of the shrimps, whelks and mussels, in order to build motorways.

While I was there, not that I have any political aspirations

or a desire to interfere,

there were plans afoot that could put an end to this plentiful source of seafood.

I have a fine time, don't I, cruising down the river, late afternoon,

early spring? Absolutely idyllic.

I'm headed for the Wells Bar, which is not, for once, a pub.

This hell of white water with teeth like bananas ahead of us,

that is the Wells Bar. Beyond them are the shrimp grounds.

And on this little boat, the Romulus, we are going to throw some nets,

or whatever they do, I don't know because I haven't done it yet.

And sure as eggs is eggs, we ain't already got some in the oven or in the deep freeze.

We are going to catch these delicious little brown shrimps

and I'm going to cook you some proper potted shrimps.

In short, the title of this little cooking sketch is

"Potted shrimps the hard way."

The shrimp, or even better still, Crangon vulgaris,

is a totally inadequate word

for up to 2,000 different species of crustacea.

These little brown relatives of crabs, crayfish and lobsters

have a funny habit, like most senior BBC personnel, of swimming backwards.

No names, pack drill.

So, these then... these little things here,

are the freshest little brown shrimps I think you'll ever see.

No wonder they're so expensive.

That's not exactly a huge catch, is it, for four or five hours' trawling?

And it's jolly hard work.

They did have a winch, they could pull it in by machinery,

but there weren't enough to justify it.

And I was going to cook these on the boat,

potted shrimps my way,

but it's a bit rough, a bit choppy and it's not easy to do it.

In fact, I could hardly open the caviar I had for my lunch,

my hand slipped on the tin opener.

So we'll get back behind the breakwater, in the calm waters,

and do these things with a bit of butter and mace and stuff like that.

The man who wrote that stuff about those who go down to the sea

and do their business in small boats knew exactly what he was on about.

So don't whinge about the price of a saucer full of fresh shrimps

or that matter anything that's won from the unforgiving sea.

But at Wells-next-the-Sea, the serious business

of preparing shrimps continues,

as it has done for the past 500 years or more.

More or less.

You'll notice that these little boats have shrimp boilers on board.

This is to ensure maximum freshness, flavour and taste.

But sifting these little beauties reminded me of those days

when you went blackberrying. One for you, one for the basket.

And indeed, just the smell of freshly boiled shrimps

wafting on this cool April evening

became one of the most endearing memories of Norfolk.

867.

868.

I actually think that's enough.

I mean, this is the freshest and biggest potted shrimp in the world.

It is, as we say, from trawler to table in only actually 5.75 hours.

That's a very quick preparation.

But look at the little beauties, aren't they fabulous?

Brown Norfolk shrimps. You need - it's very important -

some melted butter, which I've melted on the galley below.

You've got to skim off this scum from the top

because you don't want that to ruin the dish.

All you otherwise need to make this superb thing is...

..a good pinch of mace into there.

Quite a lot of mace

because we've got enough shrimps here for a little army.

Stir the mace in.

And lots and lots of grinds of lovely black pepper.

It's 6.45 on this lovely April evening

and my little fingers are frozen. They really are.

It does worry me, though, as I tuck into these and prepare these,

this aggregate thing, I know nothing about politics

and stone dredging and stuff like that, but it does seem to me

a bit worrying that if they do dredge up this 140 square miles around here,

we are going to lose these sorts of things and the whelks and stuff

and that will be a bad, bad thing.

So the White Fish Authority and everybody must get behind it

and make sure it doesn't happen. Whoever the responsible people are.

Right, the mace, the powdered mace, black pepper,

and then you simply pour in this wonderful melted butter.

Until it comes to the top like that.

So that when it sets, you have a golden crust of butter.

And we won't even bother to put that in the fridge.

I think we'll leave it here for an hour or two

and I'll have to take it on into the next cooking sketch

because it's 6.50 and although it's Norfolk,

they're open in a couple of minutes. So I'm off.

And so to the US base at Mildenhall in my armoured potted shrimp carrier.

A brilliant piece of saluting, by the way.

And a quick rundown on American food from Sergeant Joey Garcia.

If you were down in Florida, in Georgia, in the Kentucky area,

they have a tendency to make fried chicken a little spicier.

-Right.

-Compared to the north, it's more crispier and greasy food.

-Up north.

-Yes.

-Then you go towards the west

and they have a tendency to make chicken a little more extravagant,

like sauteing the chicken, then frying it.

But me, I just eat anything. I love chicken.

Tell me, have you ever eaten any British food while you've been here?

Yes, when I'm off duty, I like to try different things,

like I believe it's called Yorkshire pudding.

-You are right.

-And the traditional Sunday English dinner.

Good afternoon. See you at dinner. Have a nice day.

It's brilliant, isn't it? The flying suit.

Getting into the American way of life is quite fantastic.

But also armed with the imperial British potted shrimps.

Anyway, I've never been to the States before.

This is the closest I've been to it for some real American cooking.

Black-eyed beans, fried chicken and stuff like that. And I can't wait.

Far too hot in here for the flying suit, but the American mint julep

really cools you down. I've got some chums here. One is a sergeant.

-Sergeant, please?

-Yes.

-Sergeant Susan Luck, isn't it?

-Yes.

-What are you doing here?

-I'm cooking.

-What are you cooking?

What are these things?

Richard, climb in behind our shoulders.

What is this lady doing, please?

You have to treat me as a simple English native

because I haven't been to America before.

She's doing southern fried chicken with her own recipe.

What is special about your recipe?

-It's not her recipe, it's my recipe.

-Oh, sorry.

-You're doing the wrong person here.

-What is your special recipe?

Tell me about it.

My special recipe, what do I do?

After I've cleaned the chicken, I marinate it in red pepper,

a little ginger, some hot sauce.

White pepper,

and a little chicken baste. So marinate in there.

I marinate it for a while and stick it in the wok in a refrigerator.

Then afterwards, I have an egg wash and flour mixture.

Just regular flour and egg wash with milk in it.

And I dip the chicken in there, dip it in flour

-and then double-dip it again, which makes it crunchy.

-Crunchy.

Brilliantly crunchy. Excuse me,

I know this is going to deprive some poor airman.

It's very good.

-It's really good. What's happening here?

-These are black-eyed peas.

What, from the song like, "It was the third of June,

"another dusty Delta day", isn't it?

-Yes, that's right.

-"Papa said pass the black-eyed peas."

-And what else is in here?

-They are made with ham hocks and onions.

-And cooked for about eight hours in their own sauce.

-That is fabulous.

This is...

Well, I mean that is like a sort of cassoulet,

a French dish, beans and pork and stuff.

I think it's absolutely fabulous. I've been making these things.

This is a very British kind of dish.

Richard knows I made it on a fishing trawler.

I actually went out and caught these myself,

shelled every single one of them, melted the butter over them.

Look at that face! I didn't do that to your okra!

-And your black-eyed peas.

-It might taste very good.

-Look, OK, these are what, these that you've made?

-Cornbreads.

These are individual cornbreads, right.

And I reckon my potted shrimps on top of your cornbread,

as a little aperitif to a meal, you would really enjoy them.

I think you will. And I'd like you to taste some and see.

Now it's perfectly OK, if you say they are dreadful,

we will of course edit this whole sequence...

-from the programme.

-Of course, of course.

-You see. So, tell me...

See what you think.

-These are really good.

-Mmm.

-These are cooked with...

Just boiled, and then mixed up with melted butter

and mace and black pepper.

It needs a little bit of salt.

-It tastes like shrimp.

-It does. It tastes like shrimp.

It's kind of overpowering.

It is shrimp. It is.

You need more salt, do you think?

Yes, I do.

I don't think I will open up a potted shrimp factory in Memphis, Tennessee.

I think I go and have another mint julep with some people

who really appreciate me. See you later, girls. Bye!

THEY LAUGH

Who was that schmuck?!

THEY LAUGH

'BBC commissioners would do well

'to take this guy's correspondence course. He's brilliant.

'Even so, I feel a little hurt that my potted shrimps

'didn't meet with Auntie Sam's approval.

'I'd love to know what they were saying behind my back,

'the little monkeys. Never mind.

'I've booked a table for lunch at Congham Hall,

'cooked by ace chef Robert Harrison.'

It's time in the programme for a piece of serious cooking.

I'm going to take a back seat here, and let Robert, my old mate,

cook some scallops for us.

I know he's already got some chopped shallots,

little bits of chopped bacon, and a julienne of vegetable?

-That's right, yes.

-What are the vegetables in here?

In this case, a mixture of peppers, green, red and white peppers,

carrots, celery, leeks. Anything you want, really, that takes your fancy.

Fine, good. Some fresh - and that's the good, really exciting thing -

-fresh chopped basil.

-That's the main ingredient.

That's the main ingredient. This is lime juice.

-That's right, yes.

-Lime juice.

And some excellent Norfolk fresh scallops,

and a bit of Gewurztraminer as the wine to do it.

So what are we actually doing?

-Right, shall I start cooking?

-Yes, please.

You put the pepper in the pan. Get it very, very hot,

and we fry the shallots and the bacon. Shallots first.

And then the bacon. Very, very hot, but no colour.

It's very important.

Those have got to start off on their own before the bacon goes in?

No, the bacon at the same time.

-Right.

-And about half of that.

-As quick as you can.

-Right, yes!

-OK.

-So, fry it really, really well, no colour whatsoever.

-Right.

And now's the time for the scallops.

Are you in on that? I think you are.

Scallops, shallots and bacon at this stage.

Again, no colour.

And we cook the scallops until they're just opaque.

No more, otherwise they get very soft, very chewy.

We fry that quite well.

And now, the second main ingredient, the Gewurztraminer.

-Right. And how much of that is that?

-Pour.

More, more. That's fine.

And the lime juice, please.

Whoa! That's fine.

-Too much lime juice.

-I put too much lime juice in!

We're going to be eating it, though.

So, at this stage, they're quite opaque. They're fine.

Take them out, keep them warm, and later on,

-we can put them back in just to finish cooking.

-Right.

And again, it's very important not to overcook scallops,

or even boil them, etc.

-OK. So let's go to one side for the second.

-They go to one side.

We reduce the liquid. That lime juice.

-And then we're going to add butter as in a beurre blanc.

-Sure.

So, that sauce is now reduced thanks to the magic of television,

and the next phase continues, with what? The julienne of vegetables?

The julienne of vegetables.

You know, I'm totally convinced that British chefs are in the ascendancy.

We're not so frightened of imitating the French and so on any more.

What's, in your mind, the state of British cooking?

I think with all the local produce we're getting, especially

the young vegetables are now being picked, new suppliers coming along,

that's why, really, chefs are becoming better cooks, really.

Yes. Because of the...

-It's a matter of supplier.

-Matters of suppliers, yeah.

And the great interest taken, of course,

by the suppliers, by the cooks.

The housewife now is getting more involved,

so they're demanding more all the time.

You've got it made, of course, because you can just

walk out into the garden and pick whatever you like.

Yes. Excuse me.

What would you do if you weren't a chef?

Have you got something else you would really like to do?

I always wanted to write.

THEY LAUGH

So, the butter's in there, Richard,

if you'd like to have a very good look at that.

And just lie that with the liquid.

And there's no cream in there at all, just...

-Just the butter sauce.

-Keeps it very velvety, very light, no cream.

At that stage, we add scallops and their juices.

Just, again, reheat, finish their cooking process very carefully.

Do you have difficulty in getting people to work along with you?

No, I mean, the boys in the kitchen are very into the food as well.

They really enjoy it.

They show a lot of interest and they give me ideas too, of course.

-Oh, really?

-Lots of ideas, yes.

-What's the next phase?

-The last thing is the basil,

which I add at the end so it tastes very fresh, very green,

the flavour really comes out.

Lots of basil. I love it.

It's up to you. I get it in the summer in the garden.

We have red basil, we have cinnamon-scented basil,

lemon-scented basil. It's lovely.

You can have a whole combination of flavours just from one herb.

It really is my favourite herb.

You need to be as much a gardener these days

to be a cook as anything else, don't you?

-A greedy gardener, yes.

-A greedy gardener!

You don't look a greedy man to me. You're quite...

Well, it's all the hard work picking the herbs!

So, that's it.

So, whack it on down here.

I'll pour some wine, because I think you deserve some.

That looks a supreme dish to me.

Just whack it on, as you see.

-You can smell the basil, can't you?

-Certainly can.

I think the Gewurztraminer wine,

too, keeps its scent so well in the cooking process.

-Some more sauce.

-Mmm.

Now, this isn't actually a difficult dish to cook, is it?

I mean, there's an awful mystique which surrounds cooking,

and here's one dish which is simplicity itself, as long as, what?

What are the golden rules for this dish?

You've just got to watch... a lot of people put cream in beurres blancs

to stop them curdling. I just don't like cream in them.

It must be very velvety, very light.

That's got to be watched, of course, make sure it doesn't curdle.

And just, your own sense of flavour, really.

And the freshness of the herbs and the vegetables.

That's essential, isn't it?

-That's right. Can I pinch some too?

-Oh, sorry!

And again, not overcooking, keeping everything very fresh,

that's why it is simple. Very fresh, very light.

A bit too much lime juice!

That was me, my fault. It doesn't matter.

They can't taste it!

Classic stuff. We're not cooking live in the studio today,

so we're looking back at some of the truly fantastic recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen recipe book.

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

Things hot up in the kitchen when Atul Kochhar takes on the mighty Ken Hom

in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

Could Ken ever do an omelette in less than a minute?

Find out in just a few moments' time.

And fresh-faced Bryn Williams comes to the Saturday Kitchen studio

for the very first time.

He sears tuna, makes an avocado puree

and serves it all with a radish and apple salad.

And Emma Forbes faced her Food Heaven Or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

blueberries with my home-made blueberry pie,

with custard and clotted cream?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell, lamb in the form of

mozzarella stuffed lamb chops with an artichoke ragu?

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

Now it's time for a little Spanish sunshine from Jose Pizarro,

with a delicious take on sea bass.

-Pizarro.

-There, you can do it, my friend.

-I can go, Pizarro.

-You did very well before.

-Thank you very much.

-I just don't want to make a fool of myself when we go live.

-OK.

-What are we cooking?

-We are going to do

pan-fried sea bass with sauteed mushrooms,

and then crispy ham and crispy sage.

All right? And...

-With beans! With beans!

-We'll do some beans, OK! With...

-I think we will have plenty of ham. We will have to use it.

-We'll do ham.

In the meantime, I think you need to just start filleting.

-Fillet this? OK.

-Yes.

-OK, so I'll do that.

-And then, I'm going to add some olive oil.

-Yeah.

-A Spanish olive oil, of course.

-Spanish olive oil.

-Yes.

-Now, this is a line-caught sea bass as well.

-Has to be.

There is a big difference, purely the fact of size.

That's the main thing. Line-caught ones are much bigger,

so if you can get a line-caught one, the better it is. There you go.

The flavour always is going to be much better, for sure.

Well, a lot of them are farmed.

-You use a lot of sea bass in Spain, don't you?

-Yes, plenty.