Episode 108 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning.

It's time to feast your eyes on some of the tastiest food on the telly.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got loads of mouth-watering food

cooked by some of the best chefs in the world for you today,

and some pretty hungry celebrity guests too.

The ever enthusiastic Frenchman Daniel Galmiche pan-fries

venison loin, and he serves it with confit butternut squash,

roasted salsify,

venison jus with dark chocolate and a Brussels sprout salad.

Stuart Gillies makes the ultimate cheesecake -

perfect for the Sunday lunch.

It's a truly tasty vanilla

and gingerbread cheesecake served with warm balsamic strawberries.

The undisputed master of the wok, Ken Hom, stir-fries some beef.

He coats the fillet of beef in oyster sauce

and serves it with a warm veg salad and a curry soy vinaigrette.

Amanda Redman faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven - potatoes with an indulgent

potato dauphinoise with stuffed roast leg of lamb?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell - broad beans?

I could be making a broad bean puree with a broad bean

and mushroom ragout served with Dover sole.

We'll find out what she gets to eat at the end of today's show.

But first we go back to the days when Jason Atherton

was in charge of Gordon Ramsay's Maze restaurant in London.

He's got a brilliant idea for your brunch.

Good to have you on the show. Nice to be back.

Amazing dishes whenever you're on the show.

This one, in particular, intrigues me, cos it's so simple.

These are the ingredients in front of us, but great flavour.

Yeah, yeah, all we've got is salmon, we've got our duck eggs,

we've got our creamed butter, little bit chervil for garnish,

some watercress and that is it.

This isn't just any normal salmon.

No, it's kiln smoked, so it's hot smoked.

You'll notice this if you turn it over the other way.

That's what it's like.

You can use normal smoked salmon if you can't get this.

You can use raw salmon by sort of curing it a bit.

What do we have to do?

I'm just going to pop this into the confit, get it nice and warm.

That's 65 degrees. That's just pure olive oil.

This is just pure extra virgin olive oil or just normal olive oil?

Just pure olive oil.

65 degrees. Yeah, 65 degrees.

We tested that with the thermometer we've got on here.

I suppose if you're doing this at home,

you really need one of these sugar thermometers.

Yeah, you do, really.

It's not going to cook it, cos it's already cooked.

All it is, is just warming it up.

I'm going to do the duck eggs.

If you can go to the fridge and get me some eggs to start these...

What I'm doing with these is cooking these.

Basically we pop them into the water, and you want them to slowly cook.

Just underneath tumbling. Again about 60 degrees.

These are ones that we've got in here as well.

Yeah, they're pre-cooked.

So what is it about duck eggs? You chefs and duck eggs.

They're all a bit trendy at the moment, aren't they? Yeah.

They're just really rich.

I'm surprised there are enough ducks, to be honest.

There are. You use a lot of them. Yeah, absolutely.

I absolutely adore them. They're really good.

We're going to quickly separate them. I'm going to pick the watercress.

All you're literally doing is you're literally just tearing this.

So... Separate these as in we're going to take the yolks out as well?

Yeah, take the yolks out and take...

We're going to chop them down nice and fine.

Then we're going to finish them like a risotto.

The last time you were on here, you just had Maze. Yep.

Now you've got Maze Grill...

Maze Grill, yeah. ..which has won every single award going, hasn't it?

It's done really well. People say it's the best steak in London.

That's what we set out to achieve.

We've achieved that, so it's been a big success.

What was the whole idea of it? Making something much more simple?

Thing is we've got a restaurant in New York,

so I travel quite a bit to go and check out the Maze in New York.

When you go to New York, they take their steaks very seriously.

The biggest one in New York is a restaurant called Sparks,

that huge steakhouse?

Yeah, there's Sparks, there's Peter Luger and there's BLT Chain.

They just treat it like a three Michelin Star restaurant.

Really take it seriously. In Britain, it's almost...

If you say to someone, "I'm going out for steak and chips."

They say, "Oh, just steak and chips?"

It's a fantastic meal, as you've just proved.

Exactly.

I thought, I've got this restaurant next door to Maze, I want to

do something completely different, so I decided to open a steakhouse.

It's become a big success.

Talking of big success,

you've not just got that, the chain is literally expanding.

Oh, don't say chain, James.

Well, the restaurant. The restaurant, the brand.

The brand, sorry. The brand. The brand. But it is.

Literally, you're taking it worldwide, aren't you?

Yeah, we are. We're opening up in Doha in about six months' time.

As long as it's on schedule. Then after that we go to Melbourne.

We do two in Melbourne.

Doha is, of course, Qatar. Qatar, yeah, the Middle East.

Yeah, it's going to be a Maze - Maze Fine Dining.

We're going to incorporate some Arabian food,

cos I lived in Dubai for four years.

We had some real fantastic Arabian food on the menu there,

so we're going to do 50% Maze food, 50% Arabian food.

I've just come back from Dubai this week

and it is just incredible what you see out there.

Yeah, the investment and the vehicles the chefs have as restaurants

and businesses to run are quite phenomenal.

So we're doing that and then down to Melbourne to do our first Maze Fish.

Using local seafood and local produce - vegetables, etc.

That'd be more like a brasserie

and then we're going to open a Maze Fine Dining at the same time.

So not a lot, then(!)

Enough to keep me off the streets. Exactly.

The salmon's cooking away nicely. Tell us about this.

This is interesting. We're chopping this up really nice and fine.

You want me to chop this as well?

Yes, please.

You can... Yeah, just roughly chop that.

What that does... This is really posh scrambled eggs.

That's what we're doing there.

Where'd you get the ideas from?

You've worked in some amazing places.

The highlight on your list was probably elBulli, was it?

Yeah, elBulli and I've worked in six freestyle Michelin restaurants.

I've been lucky enough to work my way through them all.

It's probably through lack of sleep, I think.

Is it right that you're the only British person ever to have

been on the pass at elBulli?

That's right, yeah.

I was extremely lucky to work for Feran Adria.

It was the right place at the right time, really.

And this restaurant, if nobody's heard of it, in Spain?

Yeah, it's in Spain, it's in Rosas, just an hour north of Barcelona.

It's famous for what people...Heston Blumenthal and that kind of food.

Yeah, absolutely. It's really modern contemporary food where...

I was there five weeks ago for the launch of his new cookbook

and...he had a lot of his old proteges back.

He cooked a 36-course menu. It was just phenomenal.

Absolutely unique.

There's two million people apply for 8,000 seats there every summer.

That's what he gets. Two million... Take it off the heat.

Prospective bookings.

Yeah, people want to turn up. Incredible.

It's a busy, busy place.

It goes in there. You can't phone up,

you have to write the reason why you want to go. Yep.

LAUGHTER

Beg. Begging letter.

Exactly. I wish people would beg to come to my place.

In goes the cream, in goes the eggs.

That's literally it.

The watercress you're just going to lightly blanch it.

Yeah, we're just going to cook that through. Throw that in.

You mentioned the fact you could use raw salmon for this, you can

actually use the cold smoked salmon, this is hot smoked salmon.

It's just got a better flavour, that's all.

The length of time it takes to cook, you just extend that.

Six, seven minutes, for that.

If you want to use raw salmon, take it up to 12.

If you want to use the normal smoked salmon, it's about eight or nine.

You've got the egg yolks in there as well. That's it, it's all in there.

Lightly cook those.

Season it up.

I'm going to take our watercress out. Please, yeah.

We're going to blend that with olive oil. I'll get the olive oil.

Just literally blanched.

This is probably one of the most simplest recipes we do.

It really is that simple,

but it is the technique what gives it that depth of flavour.

Exactly. Just drain off the water. In goes the watercress.

Olive oil? Olive oil, please.

Quickly blend.

You cut out the eggs, while I blend that. There you go.

Just blend this. Touch of salt?

I put a touch of salt in it, but you can quickly test it, if you like.

There you go. You've got a puree there.

Do you want to put that on the plate for me?

You want me to put it on the plate? Please.

You've got to earn your money, James. There you go.

Bit of the old watercress.

Nice and simple.

On goes the chopped duck egg.

This is great also for breakfast.

This is a great breakfast dish. A brunch dish.

Wonderful. Lovely and creamy.

Yeah, it's great. Just cos they're so rich.

If you pick me a few bits of chervil, please.

I am a Michelin star chef, after all.

Chervil everywhere. That's where I'm going wrong.

Yeah, you need the chervil. That's what it is.

I'll send you some down. Cheers.

OK, so we just whack a bit of that on.

That is our smoked salmon confit with chopped duck egg and watercress.

How amazing is that? Brilliant.

At the moment, coming to a country wherever you live at the moment,

it's just delicious, smells amazing.

There you go.

Don't know if you've ever tried something like this before.

No, I've never had duck eggs. Dive into that.

Duck eggs, like you said, they've become sort of trendy.

All the chefs are using them. Oh, wow.

I can't believe everybody is watching me eat. It's ridiculous.

Don't make a mess. The way you cook that salmon softens it right down.

Yeah, so it's almost really flaky and warm, so it's not so dense.

Lovely, it's really lovely, thank you.

Dive into that. Delicious.

Like I said, it's just the cooking time that you...

If you want to use normal salmon, cook it exactly the same way,

but just for longer.

Just double the time.

If it's normal smoked salmon, add another three minutes. That's it.

So simple and really impressive.

Coming up I'll be making a cauliflower

and chorizo risotto with seared squid for Neil Dudgeon.

Before that, Rick Stein enthuses about octopus

before treating us to a cockle soup.

When I first tried octopus, I thought, "No, that's not for me.

"The Greeks, the Spanish, fine. Not me."

But it's funny how you change. Over here everybody eats it.

Octopus is the biggest catch.

Everyone's mad about percebes and octopus.

What is it about human beings?

One minute you don't want to eat it

and the next minute you can't get enough of it!

But I suppose when you look at octopus coming

But I suppose when you look at octopus coming

out of a pot like died rubber, well, does that make you want to eat it?

Well, maybe, no. But now I'm a total convert.

This dish is called pulpo a feira,

that's octopus in the fairground style, I suppose.

Snipped with scissors, then olive oil poured over it.

Plenty of cayenne pepper and paprika,

and finally a good sprinkling of sea salt.

I don't know why these ingredients work so well.

Is it the crunch of the sea salt, the slight toughness of the octopus,

or the smell of the pine, almost in the boards they serve it on?

I always bring a suitcase of guidebooks when I come abroad,

because I think, "I need to look up all the good restaurants." But

I forget every time I've actually got quite a good nose for finding places.

What I tend to do is go down on the quayside in a port like this

and just...just walk into a bar and maybe ask some questions.

I came in here the other day and it was really busy.

It was filled with fishermen and there were a couple of guys

drinking a bit too much red wine on the bar.

The guys behind the bar were working flat out.

I just noticed there were a few tables set for dinner.

So I said to everybody, "Oh, let's eat here.

"I've got a nice feeling about this place."

You know what it's like being in love, right?

When you suddenly realise you're in love

and it's like a sort of...almost you're so happy,

so full of joy, it's almost like a sort of out-of-body experience.

It's like that with me and food.

When I get somewhere where everything's right,

we have dishes like this. This is razor clams, which I just love.

They're just simply grilled,

because that's what they know how to do them like here.

Just leave them alone. Look at those. These are these swimming crabs.

Velvet crabs, they call them in England.

I swear they're better than the ones in England. They're sweeter.

We just had those to start with, then some deep-fried peppers

and then some great big spider crabs, which were, again, so sweet.

The wine was flowing, it was that Albarino wine.

It was just like everybody just suddenly burst out laughing,

cos we were all so happy.

I guarantee this place is so organic you couldn't,

if you were the most cultured, style-orientated person,

you couldn't in a million years dream up a place as perfect as this.

If you're a bit of a serious foodie like me, to find

somewhere like this, it just makes you...

It makes you so happy. I just love it.

Just as it is with octopus in Spain, so it is with cockles in England.

People make fun of the East Enders' love of cockles with malt

vinegar and pepper.

But if you haven't tried it, don't knock it.

I'm here at Leigh-on-Sea, which is a Mecca for cockle lovers.

I met a bloke called John who just lives for them.

Well, I must say, John,

the first time I saw these cockles, I thought,

"Well, what a blinking waste that is.

"What you need to do is get some

"nice Muscadet, open them up in a saucepan

"and none of this blinking malt vinegar.

"You want some nice white wine vinegar

"with some shallots chopped into it."

I don't think so. I think you're completely wrong.

I mean, I was brought here by my dad years ago, as a small child,

and I didn't realise then the significance of the place -

the beer, the cockles.

And, all of a sudden, this nostalgia struck me.

I was driving down the hill one day

and I could smell the estuary,

the seafood, the cooking, the cockles.

The actual smell of the sea coming in the window.

And it must have just taken me back and it started me off.

Now it's very difficult to drive past Leigh-on-Sea

without actually coming in and having a plate of cockles.

Also, it's the vinegar and the pepper. I really mean this.

I'm starting to get hooked myself. I'm getting worried.

So you're not going to cook any more in mustard, hey?

Not cockles, probably. No.

Look at the size of them.

They're plump,

they're like little fat friends

that you want to eat.

RICK LAUGHS

Those cockles in Leigh-on-Sea

were great with the vinegar and the pepper, but, to me,

you can't beat freshly opened cockles.

Just steam for two or three minutes,

almost in their own juices.

Just like that. Fantastic.

Thinking about cockles, I always think about English cockle soup.

In the early part of this century,

they were so plentiful and free

that there's lots of recipes for cockle soup.

I found this one in a friend of mine's book

called Lindsey Bareham the other day

and I just thought it was fantastic.

Now, what you do is just take a big pan over plenty of heat,

a little bit of water, quarter of a pint, no more.

Lid on the top, very, very high heat.

Just let them open almost in their own juices.

Take about two, three minutes and they pop open.

You pour them through a colander to collect the juice.

You take another pan, you put in a knob of butter

and you let that heat up till it's bubbling up and fizzing.

Then you add some slices of bacon -

lardons, we call it - really good, fat, dry bacon,

smoked, if you like.

And just brown that off in the butter.

Just turn it over.

Now, you get lots of leeks.

Two or three big leeks, chopped up very finely.

Stir them in.

And then some celery, again chopped up finally, and some tomato.

Just turn that all over in the butter.

Take the cockle cooking liquor

and just pour that in.

And add some potatoes,

cut into half-inch dice, we call it, little squares.

Then you take some more water,

bring the whole lot up to a boil.

Thinking about it, potatoes, bacon,

things like clams or cockles,

it's a bit like a New England chowder.

You know, all dishes are sort of derivations of other dishes,

and that's what it seems like to me.

Bring that up to the boil and simmer for about ten minutes.

During that ten minutes, you do what I'm doing here.

Just take all the cockle meats out of the shells.

A good fun thing to do.

Just eat the odd one.

The second thing you've got to do is to make a thing called a liaison.

You take some eggs, you whisk them together with lots of lemon juice.

And it's really the good thing about this dish, because it gives it

a lovely tartness that you don't really expect in an English soup.

Take some of the boiling liquid.

You just stir it into those eggs and lemon juice,

just to get the heat up a little bit.

The point of that is so it doesn't curdle too easily

when you pour the liaison back into the soup.

Just before you pour the liaison back into the soup,

you put your cockle meats into the soup.

Just put those in, but just at the last minute,

then in goes your liaison.

Just stir it in very gently.

And the final thing is just some freshly chopped parsley.

And I guarantee, I don't care who you are, what you do,

you won't taste a better soup than that.

And that cockle soup looked perfect for a cold Saturday lunch.

Octopus is something you can also try if you can get hold of it,

but if you can't find it,

there are other great seafoods I associate with Spain and Greece.

And it's this stuff. It's squid.

I thought, obviously, you're doing another one of Spanish's

great exports, which is chorizo, which is wonderful.

This is chorizo picante, and it's the soft one.

You can get the firmer ones as well, which you can just eat raw.

These are the cooking ones, the softer ones.

And we're going to mix the two together in an Italian dish,

in a risotto.

So it cooks like a paella, but it's done like a risotto.

So, first off, we're going to take

some onions and some garlic.

Start sweating that off and then pop in our chorizo into there.

Now, acting. When I was reading about you, you kind of fell into it

and you want to thank your English teacher for it?

I didn't fall, I was pushed into it more, really.

It was Trevor Drury, my English teacher,

in Doncaster.

And there was a lot of mucking about in an English class one day.

He said, "Whoever shouts out next is going to

"have a terrible punishment." And it was me.

And he said, "Right, you've got to read something out

"at the school carol concert in front of the whole school."

And I said, "Oh, you can't do that.

"That's not a proper punishment."

But he made me do this and I read out a piece of

Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales,

that was fantastic.

And I remember, I got up in the pulpit, in the big church,

in front of the whole school,

and I think something in me just went,

"Oh, this is great, isn't it?"

It was power, it was power mad, I think. And I did this,

and I enjoyed it. So I did that, and then he said to me,

"Oh, that wasn't much of a punishment, was it?

"You liked that?"

And I said, "I did, rather. Yes."

So I thought I'd won that round, and that was the end of it.

He said, "I need somebody to be in the school play. You've got to be in it."

I said, "Oh, you can't do that.

"I can't wear make-up and tights and things like that!"

I was 14 or something. I thought, "I can't do that."

So he made me do that, made me do another school play.

And then he sent me off to a group called

the South Yorkshire Theatre for Youth. Right.

Which was then, I think, in Rotherham,

which was very glamorous,

you as you can imagine. That attracted me to showbiz.

Did your parents have the same sort of view of acting as certainly

my grandparents had of me doing cooking?

It wasn't the done thing. Was that...?

No, I don't think they did. I think they were...

I didn't really sort of take up the proper acting

for many years after that, really.

That was where it started.

But, no. My mum had trained as an opera singer,

and my mum and dad used to have an act

that they did in the northern clubs.

So there was that sort of

showing-off strain, I suppose.

Is this in Doncaster?

One of the researchers told me this morning you're from Don-car-ster.

Don-car-ster. It's gone up, you see, in the world.

She's a Chelsea girl.

Oh, I see. Doncaster.

This was all in Doncaster.

Yeah, so I suppose, to an extent, it was in the genes or in the blood.

I suppose they weren't as horrified

by the interest as some parents might have been.

I'll run through - I've got shallots, garlic in there.

We've got the chorizo in there. The rice has gone in.

I always put white wine in my risottos.

I don't know what these guys...

But I like the white wine in there.

And obviously we've got some chicken stock in there as well.

We just basically cook this, gradually add in the stock,

cook this for about 12-14 minutes and you end up with

what we've got here, which is basically this risotto mixture.

And also alter this by adding a little bit more stock

and at this moment in time I'm going to add my cauliflower in there

as well, which we're going to thinly slice our cauliflower.

Now, looking back at your career,

you've done everything from London's Burning, Casualty.

He was in Bridget Jones's Diary.

I was in the, er... I was in the second one, yeah, yeah,

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason.

But - dare I say? - all small bits.

People would see your face but is it

because you've done all these little bits and pieces that makes you,

you know, learn the trade a little bit more

cos you do a variety of stuff?

I've done a variety of things. I'm also doing...

There was a series years ago, Common As Muck, on the BBC,

that was less...

I was pretty, you know, big bit of that and other things but,

yeah, you do all sorts of different things and, you know,

somebody gives you a large opportunity and you take that.

With Bridget Jones,

I remember they had been filming the second Bridget Jones film

for about a year and they rang me up on the Monday, I think,

and said, "Will you come and do this part?

"We've just written it for the end of the film."

To start on the Wednesday and do this thing,

driving around with Renee Zellweger round London in a taxi.

And I kind of couldn't believe that they'd spent so much money

on this film and done so much of it and that with two days' notice

they thought, "We need a scene at the end where she's in a taxi.

"Ring somebody up and get a taxi driver."

So they'd written this. It was kind of a bit, you know, last minute.

Very different to what you're doing now, of course.

Yes, now we're in the beautifully well-prepared and organised Midsomer.

So you've taken over from John Nettles. Yeah.

Who has retired. I thought, to be honest...

No, well, he's retired from Midsomer.

No, I think they thought it would be a bit overly dramatic to kill him.

Overly dramatic? I read...

This is the stats of Midsomer Murders - 246 murders,

12 accidental deaths,

11 suicides, eight deaths by natural causes,

and one geezer died in a vat of soup.

Soup? Yeah. Now, that's in a village. My village has got 30 people in it.

It's not a village.

It's a county. It's the whole of a county, it's a huge area.

There's thousands of people haven't been killed or poisoned

or drowned in soup.

There's lots of others there.

There's still lots of people to go through.

Cos this is your second... This is my second series, it's the 15th...

We've just started shooting

the 15th series of the show.

I took over at the beginning of series 14,

which is going out now.

I believe there's another episode on ITV

at eight o'clock on Wednesday.

How do you do that, taking over? Do you try and put it in your own...?

Well, I wasn't taking over the same character,

they changed the character.

John Nettles' character was retiring from the force and leaving

and it just so happened that his cousin

was also a detective chief inspector with another police force,

who then moved to Midsomer to take over.

In terms of success...

it is huge, I mean, globally huge, as well. It's 200...

It's about 200... I don't know how many territories there are

but I think we go everywhere. I think there's about most of them.

I think it is. I think North Korea and Burma don't have it.

Afghanistan to Zambia, I looked at.

Oh, that's good. Can I say that in future interviews?

Afghanistan to Zambia. I was looking at them as well.

Anyway, we're just going to finish off this.

The idea with this squid is you get the pan nice and hot.

We're going to finish off this.

I would finish off this with a little bit of mascarpone cheese.

But I've been banned from using mascarpone cheese in this. Why?

Because I've got Italians who are watching and they go a bit crazy.

Mind you, you're not supposed to put fish with risotto as well,

but anyway, I'm a Yorkshireman so we do what we want.

You're not supposed to put fish with risotto?

Apparently, so I've been told, yeah.

Don't ask my why. Fish and cheese. I don't know why.

Fish and cheese, yeah.

Why, cos fish and cheese are thought not to go? Yeah.

Well, it does in this.

But then they say things like onion and garlic not together, but...

Really?

I know. You're not supposed to put onion and garlic in the same thing?

You're not meant to in Italy.

That's this week, they'll change their mind next week.

Anyway, we've just got a little bit of risotto.

We're just going to finish that off. Salt and pepper.

That's your Parmesan cheese gone in there.

Good quality Parmesan as well.

Little bit of seasoning.

You're a top chef, James,

can I ask you something that's been worrying me for some years?

It's not about me, is it? Not so far as I'm aware, I don't know.

Are you aware of something called "non-brewed condiment"?

Non what? Non-brewed condiment. No.

I thought he was a chef. Do you know non-brewed condiment?

I...

Oh, for goodness' sake.

There's a crisis over here.

Look, several times I've been into fish shops...

Is this in Midsomer? No, no, no, this is absolutely real.

You go into chip shops or chip restaurants

and you ask for the vinegar

and they bring you something called a brown, watery liquid called

non-brewed condiment and you say, "No, I want vinegar."

And they say, "That is the vinegar." And you say,

"It's not, it's non-brewed condiment."

And it's water that is brown.

It's odourless, it's tasteless,

it doesn't do anything that vinegar's supposed to do with food.

And I can't understand why somebody's invented something

to replace vinegar.

Is it so hard to find or expensive to make or produce?

It's the only reason I've come on the programme to ask a top chef

about why this is happening. Bit like non-alcoholic wine. It is.

It's kind of mad, it's "What's the point of this thing?" There you go.

Oh, is that for me? Thank you.

And I've got no non-brewed condiment to go with it.

I'm very sorry about that, I thought you'd have an answer for that.

Lovely. Little bit of risotto.

Dive in. Tell us what you think. It'll be hot.

Just nod or shake your head.

Oh, it's cheesy!

Take it from me,

never be afraid to put mascarpone cheese in your risotto.

It makes it lovely and rich and creamy.

If you'd like to make that risotto or fancy having a go

at any of the recipes 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 delicious cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now it's the turn of Daniel Galmiche to cook

and he's celebrating all the best ingredients of autumn.

And watch out for a surprise appearance from a souffle, too.

Great to have you on the show.

The souffles, by the way, are still in the oven.

I was going to ask but I didn't want to interrupt there.

Looks good, looks good. Looks good, inviting.

What are we cooking? We're doing a game season, lovely piece of venison

wrapped in pancetta. It's a lean meat

but we give back a touch of fat in it.

It will keep it moist.

And we're going to do that with confit butternut squash.

Salsify, which is a vegetable which is a little bit underused

but is actually really, really good.

It's called the oyster plant, bang in season at the moment.

Distinct taste of little bit of oyster to it.

It is great but I think people are wondering, "What on earth do

"I do with it?" But you peel it and it goes brown quite quickly.

Yeah, so we're going to cook it straightaway, yeah.

Great pan-fried. Brilliant in soups.

And brilliant for mash as well, isn't it, really? Yes.

Why does it have an oyster taste?

It just does, it's just the flavour of it.

Some people say it's the oyster plant. You'll taste it.

So, I'm going to... Oh, sorry, that is in here. Bit of clingfilm. Right.

So what part of the venison is this? Loin.

Would you use a haunch for this?

Yes... I know where a loin is, you don't need to point it out on me.

He did it for the viewers, we didn't know necessarily where it was.

Exactly. Thank you very much. It's a good job it's not the rump!

Ou est le rump, Monsieur?

Le rump de jour.

You know what I mean. Anyway.

Right. So I wrap it up. Look at that.

So you roll that in pancetta cos it's quite dry, isn't it, venison?

Very lean, yeah, so you want to keep the moisture, not too dry.

So I just tighten it up for a couple of seconds.

Right, we're going to...

And pan-fry and put in... Squash in there.

That's just in oil, nothing else. Just a bit of garlic.

Just a bit of garlic, little bit of thyme. Crushed garlic.

There you go. That's crushed, all right.

Et voila.

Straight in there.

And we cook that gently for what? Five minutes, something like that?

It's going to cook in real time. It's going to cook really well.

And it's quite tender, that's why I chose that.

We've got six minutes to cook that. That'll be nice.

I need a nice pan. I've got you a nice hot pan there. Merci.

OK, little bit of oil.

Can I look at my souffles, James?

Yeah, I've looked at them.

Happy? Yeah, I'm quite happy.

So I'm going to pan-fry that.

Give it a nice colour all round.

And after that, finish and cook in the oven for about 8-10 minutes,

115 or more.

Slow cook.

Slow-cooked, yeah? Yes, I prefer because... Leave that to rest.

..meat is better, much tender.

So you pan-fry it, like what we're doing here,

get a bit of colour, and then straight in the oven.

Salsify. Yeah, which is a lovely vegetable, really underrated.

So that's white in the middle.

Really underrated, I think, and underused

and the reason behind that, I think people don't know what to do with it.

Is it easy to find?

Yeah, it's true, it's not easy to find as well.

I think supermarkets are selling it, aren't they?

I'm not sure but you can find out on market, on the town, once a week.

Farmers' market and stuff, I'm sure. Yeah.

It's almost sticky, isn't it? It is. You need to use gloves.

Get somebody else to peel it. Your finger will be absolutely black.

It is, it's literally got black, it blackens your fingers.

Yeah, it's like when you do artichoke,

and you do that without a glove, your fingers are black.

Beetroot's the same, isn't it? It's even worse.

So couple of wild mushrooms to season.

We've got three varieties we're using there.

Which is girolle,

trompette de la mort, in French which is horn of plenty.

Horn of plenty, in English,

which is called trompette de la mort in French. Not bad for a Saturday.

And you've got the yellow chanterelle. Right, in here?

In here, yeah. You've got milk. Just going to cook that in milk or...?

Just milk?

Yeah, milk with crushed garlic again because, you know, that bang.

And a little bit of thyme.

Little bit of thyme in there. And you cook that for how long?

Until it's quite tender when you put through a knife, yeah?

Cos after we're going to roast them again with the wild mushroom.

There's a lot of technique in this dish, isn't there?

Well, a little bit.

That's the thing, your training, it's very, very classical cooking

but you love to use sort of British ingredients, don't you?

Yeah, I do, actually. 80% of what I use is British ingredients, yes.

And a lover of the season as well.

A lover of the season, yeah, because look at the colour,

look at the produce we've got.

It's fabulous. Talking about seasons, Brussels sprouts.

Ah, yes, that's a kind of gimmicky thing.

Well, I hate Brussels sprouts when they are cooked,

but I love them in salad, so we're doing a salad of Brussels sprout.

In French, Brussels sprout? Choux de Bruxelles.

Sounds a lot better, doesn't it? Yeah, what's "gimmick" in French?

I don't know! You don't know?

What do you mean, you don't know?

He's not French, really, he's from Watford.

Le Watford!

Sorry, I've been here too long, guys.

He went on a French course when he was 16 and stuck with it.

Do you like cooking with spice?

Yeah, but I'm not an expert in spice.

I love spices but I use one I know well and I mean,

I love cinnamon, I love Sichuan pepper.

All kind of pepper. But you guys are masters

because it's coming from the spice rolled by generation and generation.

They make it look easy, these boys, but it isn't actually that easy.

You know what mix, how to make them work properly.

We love cooking with pumpkin as well.

We use a bit of black onion seeds

that we used on top of the naan earlier.

And it's really, really good.

But what would you do? Is that what you would do with these?

With the sprouts? Brussels sprout.

You could blanch them like you would, put a cross onto them,

top and tail them.

Put a cross and blanch them

and then just stir-fry them with a bit of cumin, garlic and pepper.

Right. It's brilliant like that.

Just sort of cooks... Some do, some don't, though, don't they?

There's big debate whether you cross your bottoms or you don't cross your bottoms.

Your cross your bottoms. Do you cross them, Chef? I do normally.

Anyway, we've got these over here.

Right, that's the sauce on.

Switch that off.

That's the sauce. That's done.

I'll go get the chocolate, you carry on.

Small pan for the mushroom. It's warm in here.

The chocolate had to be in the fridge with your tandoori oven.

Yeah, exactly. It is fantastic.

Thank heaven you brought it in, to be honest.

Bit chilly in here otherwise, isn't it?

Bit of butter.

So I wash the mushroom. Clean them, because you need to be careful.

There's plenty of inhabitants who stay within the horn of plenty.

So we need to wash it.

Inhabitants? Yes, because it's woodland, it's in a forest,

so you've got some mini slugs sometimes.

This kind of thing will go in.

Right, and you want this in as well at the same time? Yep.

Those ones. Oh, these ones.

That's why I salt it.

There you go. Yes.

Right, so we put our salsify in.

And they cook quite quickly. Yeah, they do.

But you keep them a touch firm because after, we roast them again.

The venison's behind you, you can get ready.

I'll get this ready for it.

Keeping a good bit of colour. Plate. Which plate are we using, James?

Whichever plate you want. That one over there.

Done.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

Venison.

You want the shallots in the mushrooms?

Yes, please. And the parsley.

Good team, you two.

Should get a place together.

Not a house, I mean a business.

No, thank you.

Remember who's holding the knife.

Right, I'll finish off that with chocolate. OK, yeah.

I need to roast a little bit more.

Touch more colour in here.

You carry on with that.

I like that. There you go. Right, we're ready. Let's plate.

Let's go for it.

How dark is that chocolate that you're using?

How dark is the chocolate, James?

It's dark. It's dark.

It is not milk or white chocolate, that's for sure.

It is not the same thing. Just put this on a plate. Need a spoon.

With something like venison, and especially with the loin, it's

very important to rest it for almost as long as you cook it, isn't it?

Yes, correct. Just to... Yeah, because you make it much more tender.

Spoon? The best part of the rehearsal was rehearsing tasting this dish.

You liked that? Yeah. We're going to taste it for real now.

So, nice, slow, it has been cooked slowly so it should be very tender.

9And on top that, rest it.

How about some kind of souffle starter with this?

It's got ten seconds left. Ten seconds, it's perfect! Come on!

JAMES LAUGHS

Souffle starter, one spoon. Let's plate this up as fast as possible.

Yeah. You want your souffle. So... Bit of mushroom there and there.

That's your timer on the oven. OK. Do you want me to get it out?

No, I'll leave it in there a little bit.

What do you mean, "Leave it in there a little bit?!" What do you mean,

"Leave it in there a little bit?!" James, what are you doing?!

I'm doing your sauce!

Right. OK. We need to grate some chocolate. Have you done it?

Yeah, I've done it, Chef, it's in there. OK. Hurry up! Don't worry.

GUESTS LAUGH

Yes, Chris, sorry about your souffle. Don't worry, just carry on.

A little bit more at the top. Sorry, Delia! Do it.

So, remind us what that is again.

That's roasted loin of venison, salsify, Brussels sprouts

and a chocolate sauce with some...

While you look at that, I'm going to go sort out this. Check that out.

Yeah.

CHRIS: Brilliant.

Right. Dive over there. Hup! Chris, try that. OK, Monsieur.

Merci beaucoup. Thank you so much. Here we go. And voila.

And we do have souffle. Is it risen? Yeah.

Oh, it's "ris", everyone, it's "ris"!

This is not actually Chris's,

we've actually got Gordon Ramsay in the back.

GUESTS LAUGH

Now, you'll want to try that first, yeah?

Even better than rehearsal, that. Even better than rehearsal.

Very, very good. Dive into that.

That venison, you could use haunch with that?

Pour the sauce into the hole.

Er, yeah, but if it's not a big beast, yes.

The haunch you'd cook that for a little bit longer.

I think the secret of that is the pancetta, don't you think?

It gives a lovely kind of... Keep the moisture,

lovely flavour, and I like the crunchy part of the pancetta.

If you've not cooked venison before, just try that recipe at home.

It's time now for a culinary legend.

Today, the Black Country is getting a visit from the one

and only Keith Floyd.

MUSIC: "Cowboy Time"

'My producer is shortly going on a course on how to choose

'music for television programmes.

'I wish I'd sent him on one before we started making this modest little series.

'For example, this particular piece is called Cowboy Time,

'most appropriate for taking a narrow boat out to lunch.

'Yee-haw!'

I've racked my brains to create this dish,

which somehow reflects the Black Country, at least as I've seen it.

Quite a difficult task, but to make it even more difficult,

of course, they've put me on a seven-foot-wide narrow boat.

I mean, there's no room to manoeuvre here at all,

and there's a huge crew of people all behind me.

It's very, very difficult indeed. But I thought about it all,

and I reckon the secret, for me at least, was beer,

because the Black Country beer is terribly good,

and I'm not a beer drinker, but up here, I've been swinging back

a few different kinds of pints and enjoying them very much indeed.

So, I thought I would cook some beef in some beer with some onions.

Now, years ago, of course,

this typical kind of barge dish would've been a long pot.

It would've been filled with apples,

that would've been covered with suet pastry, on top of that

would've been meat, that would've been covered in suet pastry, on top of that would've been vegetables,

that would've been covered with suet pastry.

They'd have popped it on top of their coal burning stove all day

while they chundered up and down the canal,

and when they'd finished working, the whole thing was cooked,

the vegetables, the meat and the pudding at the bottom. Anyway, I can't undertake that.

I haven't got that kind of, well, experience, really.

So, all I'm going to do is fry some little pieces of meat here,

some stewing steak cut in nice little collops.

That's a good Midlands sort of word, collops of steak. OK.

Get those quite nicely brown, and then, now that they are brown,

we shall transfer them into this other dish,

which has got some good onions sizzling away in the bottom.

There's a delicious smell in this little narrow boat.

You mustn't call these things barges, by the way.

Captains of narrow boats get very upset if you call them barges.

You pop that in like that, then...

a drop of excellent mild ale,

turn up the gas to maximum, a drop of mild ale in there like that.

Then a little tiny bit of tomato puree. Stew that round.

A few good English herbs, a sprig of parsley, a little bit of thyme

and a little bit of sage.

They go in there and bubble away for, oh, 20 minutes or so.

When that's reduced, you then add some excellent dark meat stock. OK?

Then you cover the whole lid, let it simmer,

but that altogether will probably take about two hours.

So, you go out, look at the lovely countryside,

see the salmon leap, the kingfishers darting up and down,

and the fisherman pulling out crayfish and lobsters

and stuff like that, and the herons flapping,

and look at the wonderful sights you can see, and when you return,

fresh from this wonderful experience, my dish will be ready.

# The gas was on in the institute

# The flare was up in the gym

# A man was running a mineral line

# A lass was singing a hymn

# When Captain Webb, the Dawley man

# Captain Webb from Dawley

# Came swimming along the old canal

# That carried the bricks to Lawley

# Swimming along, swimming along

# Swimming along from Severn

# And paying a call at Dawley Bank

# While swimming along to heaven. #

Mm!

You know, a terribly good thing about the Black Country is

the availability of toffee apples.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the leaping salmon,

the kingfishers and stuff like that. While you've been away,

I've been very busy. Richard, come and have a little look.

I fried away my black pudding and my little beetroots, OK,

so they're succulent and ready now,

and lift up a little tiny bit to pop into my beef,

which has been simmering in the beer and the stock and my thyme,

bay leaf, parsley and sage.

Now, while you were out there looking at all those things, my producer

nipped off the barge... Sorry, the longboat, narrow boat,

for a few seconds, Vikings as we are,

and nearly bought a Staffordshire Terrier,

and while he was doing that he explained what I was cooking.

They said, "That sounds very good."

As a matter of fact, I'm very proud of this little dish.

We now have to finish it off very slightly.

Now, I have to put...

..the beetroot and the black pudding into the sauce there.

OK.

Turn the gas up to maximum for a second just

so they can absorb their individual flavours.

Witness, my dear Watson, Richard, as I call you normally, witness

the interesting colours in here.

Can we see the purple and the beef and the black?

That is my Black Country dish...

I think.

The only way to test anything like this is to ask a knowledgeable

man from the region to try it.

And how we get out of the sequence to get the captain to taste this,

I'm not quite sure but while you think how to do that,

I am going to pick this up, tip it into my lovely white dish

because I always like food to be the star of the whole thing.

Pop it into my dish like that - a delightful arrangement of colours...

..and flavours.

A few chives on the top.

And that, I think, sort of sums it up.

Beef simmered in beer, beetroot, the kind of thing that grows

out of lovely, sooty black oil and the black pudding.

Before you reach for your pens, of course I meant black soil,

not oil but I do get carried away by it all.

But not as much as my producer who after seeing

this Staffordshire bull terrier, who will be here in a moment,

immediately stopped the shoot and tried to buy it.

When none of us would lend him

the money, he spent the rest of the day singing Old Shep.

It was really tedious.

FAINT SINGING

One very small step for a person.

I'm incredibly proud of my dish.

I hope you're not too busy pulling your boat in.

I won't be a second. Right.

You know, they do get me doing some very silly things on this programme.

It's not easy cooking on a narrow boat.

A couple of knives and forks and he's now probably going to tell me

he's a vegetarian or something really strange like that.

Not quite. Excellent.

Beef stewed in beer with beetroot and black pudding.

My interpretation of what could be a dish of this area.

Love you to try it. It's got all the makings, hasn't it? I think so.

You must tell me precisely what you honestly think.

Very nice.

Yeah. Want a bit more? Yeah, bit of black pudding.

So what do you cook on the boat most of the time?

We are near enough vegetarians.

My wife does lots of things with beans and things like that.

We don't eat much meat, mainly because we can't afford it,

I suppose.

If somebody said tomorrow, "Don't have any meat." It wouldn't worry me.

Wouldn't worry you. This is very nice, this is.

I have no views about it, really.

Lonely living on a boat? Not really. Can be.

It's not like in the old days when there was hundreds

and hundreds of people on boats.

There was all the things, shops and that catering for the boat people.

But now you haven't got that sort of support.

People think you're a bit of an oddity anyway.

But you can live with that.

It's better than living in a council house.

I could sit down and eat this. Definitely. You go ahead.

You go ahead. I think with that I shall leave you. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the wonderful ride. Much obliged.

Take care of that little baby. Right.

She's fast asleep...

..I hope.

No sooner have the planners, under the banner of progress,

of course, razed the place to the ground, then up pops somebody,

thank goodness, who realised that people are actually

interested in the way we used to live

and sets about recreating a bit of the Black Country -

to wit, the Black Country Museum where crocodiles of children

and Japanese tourists alike can discover the lifestyle

and architecture of yesteryear.

Yesterday when I arrived here, I parked the Bentley

on the forecourt of this pub in the middle of the industrial estate.

Walked into the pub, bought a packet of Park Drive,

had a large Scotch, looked around and leant against the bar like you do.

Mitchells and Butlers and Mansells all over the place

and all these blokes were looking at me and they said, "Hello, Floydie.

"You going to be doing some groaty dick, then?"

And I thought, "What on earth is groaty dick?" Well, I have to explain

that this is a programme about food so I do little researches.

I don't do it, people do and I end up by meeting people like Joan who

knows all about groaty dick.

Because here in the Midlands, like in Yorkshire where there is pudding,

Lancashire where there is a hotpot, here there is groaty dick.

What on earth is groaty dick? Well, it's...a nice nourishing meal.

It's cheap. You get the groats, there they are.

They're like the husks of the oats.

It looks like birdseed. Yes, it does.

You get it from a pet shop anyway.

So you see what type of pudding it's going to be.

But it is a very filling pudding where you put your meat

and leeks and stock and you've got a nice meal,

for the children or for anyone really.

You say for the children but the children are all now in Pizza Land

and Wimpy burgers. They won't eat stuff like that. They do.

You still get children that do eat that.

My own daughter, you've seen her, she'll eat it. Tasty.

And when we have Bonfire Night,

especially down the Black Country Museum we have groaty pudding

and it's amazing the youngsters that will try it.

Doesn't look very appetising.

But they will try it. So it is a dish that most people will eat.

I think that's wonderful.

But what could be better on Bonfire Night, rather than a few flat

hamburgers, that people down in the succulent south where I live,

frozen horrible hamburgers

they chuck on their little gas barbecues?

You are actually stewing one of these things for the people to eat.

Let off a few Whoppers and get stuck in which I must do right now.

If you'll excuse me, Richard. He's my cameraman. Yes.

He will now do what we call a tour of the ingredients.

And starting from your right to left, Richard, we have some meat.

And here the important thing is just a few ounces.

Slightly fatty, cheap stewing beef. OK. Some leeks. Very good leeks.

Some onions, and of course the imperial groats,

one of the oldest seeds known to man, I might add,

and bought as birdseed here in the Midlands.

In the soft Somerset slopes where I live

I walked into the health food shops and say, "May I have some groats,

"please?" They'd direct me to the seeds merchant next door.

Strange, isn't it? Anyway, we need to chop up an onion.

First time I've been back on the road for a few weeks

so I'll probably cut my fingers.

You see, that's OK.

Sort of chopped like that.

One of the other important things for this dish

and all thrifty housewives and real cooks will know

the importance of maintaining stock in your kitchen.

A bit of chicken or whatever after it's been used.

Boil the bones, have some stock. So we do need some stock.

We've got beef stock here.

Very simply, then, we put the meat into this earthenware pot, like that.

Raw, no pre-frying. No nothing like that. Then we add our leeks.

And I'm not going to give you quantities for this kind of dish

because all the quantities depend on the size of the pot. OK.

And how much money you've got.

It's going to be great fun down in the south when... Onions.

And the onions, thank you. Good job we've got an expert amongst us.

And they do throw me into these things, you see.

I have to talk authoritatively, passionately

and intelligently about groaty pudding for three minutes

never having seen it, tasted it or known of its existence before this very moment.

Bit of salt and pepper at this stage, perhaps. That's right.

Beware those wizards of you who might cheat and use a chicken

or beef stock cube, they are quite salty, so put less salt in.

Right, then our groats in next? That's right.

And the stock in at the last minute.

Like that.

Now, don't put this out on your bird tray those of you who

live down in that part of the world. This is real food.

Pop that in.

Actually this pouring...

It always does something strange to me when you pour liquid.

Do you know what it does to me?

It makes me feel that we should reach for the old jug of the ale here

because ale is what life is all about up here.

That's right.

Now then, cheers to you for explaining everything about that.

This has now got to go in the oven.

If I had a lid, I'd put a lid on it. Do I need a lid?

Take the spoon and... Stir it all in. Yes, if you will. That's it.

They said it was only French women that treated me like this but...

There we are. We stir that all in.

This is a dish that a child could make, for heaven's sake.

I can do it. Over there. Excellent. Lid on. Pop it in the oven.

And then it goes into the oven down here.

That's it.

The oven for you technocrats is set at quite a medium low temperature.

150. How long? About 16 hours. I beg your pardon? 16 hours.

16 hours! Well, look, I tell you what.

We're going to go and do some pigeon fancying,

a bit of dog fighting, all the usual traditional Black Country pursuits.

It's cock fighting, not dog fighting. Cock fighting.

A bit of cock fighting if that's all the same to you and

we'll be back in about 16 hours.

OK? OK.

We've got the cat out. Yes. Won't come back in, will it?

Done the dustbin? It's quite late. It is.

No more television and actually it's true we have watched these little

hours tick by.

What have we been playing? We have been playing

Trivial Pursuit, Snap, things like that.

But it's ready. Shall we take it out? Yes.

This is, I hope, not love's labours lost, but love's labours won.

Oh, my goodness! That is terrific. That is beautiful.

Look at that! Richard, have you got a proper good close-up of that!

Let me give you some, my darling.

Look at that. The juice has all soaked into the groats.

The groats have inflated.

The meat is shredded. Thank you. And all joined together.

And you were saying - that's a terrible thing to say on television -

but she did tell me, you know, in the olden days,

they'd cook this so thick, let it get cold

and then cut it like a cake,

and before he went off to make his shackles and his ball bearings

and stuff like that, the husband, the man,

would take a slice of this, a bit like a vegetarian nut bar these days,

in his satchel, or old gas mask case, usually, to work and munch on it.

That's true, isn't it? Yes. Yes, very true.

And you'd have a piece of bread, you know, if it was...

It's lovely, isn't it? Beautiful.

It really is good. It is.

I've just been reading the Express and Star,

the Wolverhampton Express and Star, dated this day, when we are filming,

this is a real programme, OK, this is 15th February 1988,

you'll see it later, and it says here, look,

"Plain truth of French cuisine.

"The French are turning up their noses at frogs' legs and gimmicky food

"in favour of traditional British dishes, according to a new survey.

"The menus showed a return to old-fashioned dishes

"such as boiled beef and carrots, steak, roasted joints, stews,

"tripe and freshly cooked vegetables."

We've hit another winner.

We really have. There you are! Come on. This is the day, this is it.

And we don't follow newspapers.

They actually follow us, but we've hit it rich again. Yes, very true.

Especially because of people like you. Absolutely! And it's bedtime.

Yes.

We're going to bed now.

And there'll be more from the brilliant Keith Floyd next week.

We're not cooking live in the studio today.

Instead we're looking back at some great recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen cookbook.

Still to come on today's Best Bites, the mighty Atul Kochhar takes on

the very competitive Bryn Williams in the omelette challenge today.

Both chefs had previous times close to a minute,

so there was room for improvement.

Find out how they both get on a little later on.

And the king of Far Eastern cooking, Ken Hom, stir-fries beef.

He coats the fillet of beef in oyster sauce

and serves it with a warm vegetable salad and a curry soy vinaigrette.

And Amanda Redman faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven? Potatoes with an indulgent

potato dauphinoise with a stuffed roast leg of lamb?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell - broad beans?

I had a broad bean puree with broad beans and mushroom ragout

served with Dover sole lined up for Food Hell.

But what did she eat? Find out at the end of today's show.

It's time to go back to Stuart Gillies' first appearance on Saturday Kitchen.

He aimed to please

with what he described as the best cheesecake in the world.

Great to have you on the show. Thank you, James. Hi.

I'm looking forward to this dish,

cos you say it's the greatest cheesecake in the world.

Possibly, and two out of three's not bad, is it?

Run through the recipe.

OK, so, for the vanilla cheesecake with gingerbread,

we've got double cream,

cream cheese, creme fraiche, sugar,

strawberries here, the last of the English strawberries,

balsamic vinegar, sugar and gingerbread.

And a bit of vanilla there as well. Lovely, fire away.

So the dairy, all the cream, the Philadelphia...

A low-fat dish, this(!) Exactly!

This is the sort of food that makes you feel good about yourself.

It doesn't actually do you that much good.

But there's different ways of making cheesecakes.

It's one of the oldest dishes there is.

I believe it was served at the first Olympics, there's rumours.

That's right, I've heard that.

It's a very classic fish, but some people say cheesecake should be set.

That's probably the European style,

and then others say it needs to be baked, which is the American style.

Everyone thinks theirs is the best, because everyone makes a cheesecake,

and baked is best, set in the fridge is best... We'll see.

I think this is the best. We'll see today. This is my day off.

I get to chop onions and whisk things! Meanwhile,

I'll prepare the strawberries.

These strawberries we're just going to trim with a small knife.

Tell us about the Boxwood,

because it's not just that you're working on at the moment.

Is it a new one in Amsterdam or something like that?

You're going to open a restaurant in Amsterdam?

And did I hear something about Heathrow Airport?

So, yeah, Amsterdam opens next year. A similar concept to Boxwood.

And then Terminal Five, they've signed a deal with Gordon

to open a restaurant there, which will be the first high-quality.

You sound like Gordon Ramsay when you speak. No, I don't!

Well, not that bit!

How does the food differ at the Boxwood to, say, at Ramsay's place?

It's very busy, your place, isn't it?

Yes, and we have more regulars than anywhere else in the group,

pretty much because we keep it very seasonal and very light,

so people can come a couple of times a week and not be overloaded.

They can come, they can have a different dish every time they come,

because we do daily specials which is based on market produce,

so we go to the market twice a week, James, bring stuff back, cook it,

see what it will balance out with... Lovely. ..with our other dishes

and we just create seasonal dishes.

Now, this is your dish, so do I put the vanilla in there?

The vanilla pod you split, straight in, keep whisking.

The strawberries we've trimmed there.

This is just the seeds you're using. The vanilla pod you could use for, what, vanilla sugar?

Yeah, you can put it in sugar to flavour sugar

or else put in olive oil.

It's great in olive oil and it gives you a lovely taste of vanilla,

which is great on fish or salad. A really nice touch.

How do you know how much vanilla to put in?

For this recipe, we're using two pods. That mixture's done.

You see how quick it comes together? So, this we put into a piping bag,

like so - we use two vanilla pods for this one

and you balance it out on the strength of vanilla.

You need to buy good vanilla pods.

Always use vanilla pods over vanilla essence or anything like that.

I don't think there's any comparison. Bourbon vanilla's the best, from Madagascar.

It's the chunkier pods, that's what you're looking for.

Yeah, they're really quite fat, the pods.

You need to bend them, don't you? Yeah, the grains are in there.

So, a piping bag with the mixture inside. OK.

The cheesecake, we're just going to pipe very simply into these moulds.

Two rings there, stainless steel rings, easily available,

on a silicon paper.

When we pipe this into the ring,

we keep the end of the bag inside so we don't get any air in there.

It pushes the air up around the sides

and you end up with a lovely smooth finish.

People could spoon it in, but they'd have to press it down well.

You could spoon it in with a teaspoon, and just keep pressing it.

And you get a little bit over the top like that. Did you oil the moulds?

No, you don't need to. Oh, wow. Excuse me, James.

No, you don't need to, because it's a cold mix,

as it sets in the fridge, it's just going to drop out at the end.

You'll see how it drops out, how gently, when we turn them out.

How long do we need to set that in the fridge for?

This needs to set about an hour.

So that can go there.

There you go. Right, good.

So take the other two out. I won't taste it. I'll taste it at the end.

Now, this has been just left out.

It's quite firm. It's like dry bread.

Drop it straight in there. On goes the top there.

Until that blends into a powder for me.

I'll heat up the pan.

But this is as opposed to setting it on the base.

Yeah, rather than making a crunchy base,

you're going to put the base on at the end of the cheesecake,

which makes a much softer finish. So the sugar goes on the strawberries.

Just toss those together, like so.

Crumbs are ready, they can go into that bowl, please, James. No problem.

You see how quickly they blend up to a fine powder.

When it's dry, yeah, lovely.

So the cheesecake...

Lovely.

You take each end of the cheesecake,

dip it straight into the crumbs.

This creates your base.

MURMURS OF APPROVAL You see!

See all you doubters out there! "He's got no base! It's rubbish!"

He's forgotten the base! So that goes in like that.

Do you have a plate, please, James? There you go.

Right, how do you get it out?

You just hold this in your hands. You've got to be a warm person.

Warm hands, it helps.

What are you looking at me for?!

Just hold it in your hands, about 30 seconds to a minute,

and that heat alone is enough to release it.

But if people can't get these metal rings, you can use a drainpipe.

I've used drainpipes in the past. Or a plastic drinking bottle.

Don't go home and cut the bottom off your drainpipe at home.

It's not a good idea. So once it's just started to loosen...

A little bit more! Ah!

Get out! It just starts to loosen. You can see it start to drop.

Very neat.

Nice and slow. You've got plenty of time.

Simple as that. Lovely.

Easy as that. OK, strawberries.

A little bit of the powder on the plate.

And the strawberries, straight in the pan, very hot pan,

strawberries straight in.

And the balsamic that you use, are you using...

Balsamic's an age thing, isn't it?

It is, yeah, we use an aged balsamic, three years old, actually.

Just get this up high.

Turn it up, that one. Thank you, James. Technology!

Normally we have young cooks to do this one. That's on a high heat.

That pan is just dry, is it? Sorry?

Pan was dry, just strawberries and sugar, very quick,

and all you do is caramelise the outside of the strawberries

so they give this beautiful shine and a slightly roast flavour.

And the balsamic, you just drizzle in, like so.

And that gets up all the colour

and the flavour from the bottom of the pan. So that's it.

Just pop that on the side? Just like that.

So that comes straight out of the pan, strawberries are hot, glazed.

The moment of anticipation. On there, like so.

Stuart, remind us what that is again.

It's a vanilla and gingerbread cheesecake

with balsamic roasted strawberries.

Smells divine.

OK, Stuart, follow me. This is where I get to taste it first.

Go on, then, you dive in.

Smells fantastic.

It smells divine.

You eat it. No, you have a taste.

I'll wait till it comes back, if it's going to get back to me.

If I send it back.

That's all you're getting! Pass it down. No, bring it back!

This is your Food Heaven now, is it? Is that good?

Yes, you didn't get to taste it. That is gorgeous.

The strawberries go with it so well. And the gingerbread.

Yeah! Go on. Hurry up!

I want to taste it.

It smells divine.

Even if you don't like gingerbread,

the flavour completely changes with that dish. Yeah, it does.

Now, that's the perfect autumn pud.