Episode 118 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Let's beat the January blues with 90 minutes

of top-class cooking on today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've rounded up some incredible chefs

to cook up some great food for you this morning.

And we're joined by plenty of celebrity guests, including

Emilia Fox and Nigel Planer,

ready to give their verdict on the cooking.

Fernando Stovell brings a little Mexican heat to the proceedings,

with a braised and pulled beef taco shell salad, with a zingy

tomato and chilli sauce.

And Mark Sargeant creates a mouth-watering winter seafood broth.

He steamed clams in cider and makes a broth with smoked bacon, anchovy,

carrots and leeks. And it's all served with charred country bread.

And Shaun Rankin comes all the way from Jersey, armed with a lobster.

He roasts it with curry salt

and serves it all with a delicious coconut and coriander dhal.

And Nigel Planer faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get his Food Heaven -

courgette flowers with my mozzarella-and-basil-stuffed

courgette flowers with halibut and a tomato, courgette and basil sauce?

Or will he get his Food Hell -

pork chop, with my rosemary chargrilled pork chop,

salsify and warm borlotti bean salad?

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

But first, we go back to the time Jun Tanaka came to visit us

when he worked at a restaurant that was decorated

by one million pearls.

Well, I think it was one million. I didn't count them myself.

-Welcome to the show, Jun. Happy New Year.

-Yeah, happy New Year.

And on the menu, you brought about 16 gallons of rapeseed oil.

You don't have to use that much.

-You can use veg oil and you can re-use it over and over again.

-Right.

-It makes a change from butter.

-Exactly.

We didn't have any butter for two weeks. So what's on the menu?

This is a Street Kitchen dish. I started a business with a really

good friend of mine, Mark Jankel, and it's a street food business.

And we launched last year, in May,

-and we bought one of those vintage Airstream trailers.

-Oh, right, yeah.

And we have one in Liverpool Street

and we serve British bistro dishes, for the price of a chilled sandwich.

-This is one of them.

-This is one of the dishes.

What have you got there, the neck?

This is the pork neck, which I've brined.

I absolutely love brining.

You've got water, some salt, sugar, garlic and rosemary.

And I just left the pork in the brine for about ten hours.

It just gives it this wonderful flavour

and also, it keeps it really moist.

Right. That's the confit side of it?

Because normally we do that with duck legs salted.

It's wet brine, but you do that with dry and then you cook in duck fat.

You're doing it with rapeseed oil.

I've got the last remaining bottle in Britain, to make my mayonnaise.

-Don't split it.

-I'll try not to.

-OK, get rid of that.

And the pork neck, you could ask your butcher to get it for you,

but you can use pork belly, pork shoulder, anything that's

got some fat running through it will work beautifully with this.

It takes about four hours to cook.

You say you can re-use that oil

-but you can't deep-fry in rapeseed oil, can you?

-You could.

I don't see the point in deep- frying in rapeseed oil,

it seems a waste.

But if you do this dish you'll have rapeseed oil

for the rest of your life, won't you?

-Yeah, that's true.

-Yeah.

OK, so we've got the pork neck, which has been cooked.

Test it with a metal skewer.

If it slides in easily it's perfectly cooked.

All that rapeseed oil, just put it in the fridge

and you can re-use it over and over again.

OK.

And then I'm just going to roll it up when it's slightly warm,

just to shape it into a nice, kind of, sausage shape.

Right.

This is hot.

-It's a bit chilly in here today.

-It is a bit.

Or maybe it's because we've been in hot countries.

-You've been in Thailand, haven't you?

-Yeah, just got back yesterday.

Amazing. Amazing street food in Thailand.

Some of the best in the world, I think.

So, roll it up really tightly, with loads of clingfilm.

You're doing this with the neck.

It's not often a piece of meat that you use.

-You can use lamb neck as well, which is fantastic.

-Yeah.

It's all those forgotten cuts I love cooking with.

-Inexpensive as well, if you can get hold of it.

-Packed full of flavour.

They use it for sausage meat.

You've got the mayonnaise, which hasn't split!

CHEERING

-I had some underneath ready for him.

-Yeah, yeah.

-There you go.

A little bit of mayonnaise. Are you proud you've made mayonnaise?

LAUGHTER

OK.

Once it sets...

Five years of doing this and 30 years in catering

and now I'm doing coleslaw!

But, go on.

And just slice it into nice one-centimetre pieces.

-And it sets really, really firm...in the fridge.

-Yeah?

-Blowtorch? Maybe?

Yet, I'm getting it on there first,

-because I've got to make the coleslaw.

-So get that nice and hot.

Now, I'm just going to caramelise the outside of the pork neck.

Just give it a nice crispy shell.

So this is a thing, if you want to do it in advance, you can keep that,

-but also, I suppose that freezes well.

-Yes.

And in the fridge, that will keep for a week, no problem at all.

-Give you more ideas for Marlow.

-Yeah, I'm thinking about that.

-If you're not busy.

-Coq au vin.

LAUGHTER

Street food in this country has got a bad reputation still, hasn't?

And it's, kind of, taking it to a different level.

There's many people waking up this morning with a doner kebab

stuck to their face, you know what I mean?

-Don't deny, Robert, we've all done it.

-I know! Scraped it off.

-Right, I'll lift this off.

-Could you crush those potatoes?

-Yes, I'll do that, as well.

-With a bit of butter.

So, this dressing, you need the peppers to go in there.

-Yeah, I'll do that as well.

-You're working hard today, Chef.

A little bit of vinegar goes in.

On the gas and with a blowtorch!

Yeah.

So, dressing, you've got parsley, mint and basil,

a little bit of English mustard goes in there...

A little bit of the white wine vinegar.

-Have you got any rapeseed oil left?

-Yes, I've got that.

There you go.

Rapeseed oil goes in.

And then we are going to add a roasted green pepper,

and that, kind of, helps to hold the whole thing...sauce together.

It's hardly a roasted green pepper, though, is it?

A burnt green pepper.

Yeah.

-Is that enough?

-Yeah.

-Right, there you go.

And that goes straight into cold water...

Move that out of the way.

We've got raw celeriac going in here, which is remoulade, which is

that fancy French dish made with mustard and...

grain mustard but, because you're using all British ingredients,

-we're using English mustard.

-Exactly.

Isn't that quite difficult to find, literally, the entire menu 100%?

It's really difficult.

And the thing about it is, to do it in a restaurant,

where you need a varied, extensive menu, it's almost impossible.

But because we only serve four dishes per day,

which we change regularly,

it actually makes it a little bit more realistic.

And it's a challenge.

I wanted to do 99.9% British produce.

Mark, my business partner and a really good friend of mine,

he wanted 100%, wanted to keep it really pure.

And so we don't use lemon, black pepper, no vanilla...

-Butter's allowed, though.

-Butter is allowed, yeah. In moderation.

LAUGHTER

I'll leave you a little bit. There you go.

-And obviously rapeseed oil.

-Yeah.

-If you can find any, that is.

-Yeah.

-Right, so we just mash this up.

-Yeah. Half the green pepper goes in.

-Yeah.

-Just get rid of this.

And then just blend it up, to make the dressing.

Then, to finish it off,

we're going to dress some mixed leaves with the sauce...

Which I'll do now.

We are going to run out of rapeseed oil.

Might as well use it all up, eh?

LAUGHTER

Right, there's your plate.

So that's just white wine vinegar in there, yeah?

White wine vinegar, mustard, roasted green pepper and herbs.

And this roasted pepper, you just plunged it in water

to get rid of the skin, you see? Nice and simple.

Often you would roast this for a lot longer,

but this is a much quicker way to do it.

And we've invested in two blowtorches to do Tom's dish,

-you might as well use them up.

-It's the new chef's tool.

Water bath, not any more. It's all about the blowtorch.

The trouble is,

you won't be able to find one this afternoon, even if you want one.

-There you go.

-Have you got the coleslaw?

-Got what? Coleslaw is done.

Bit retro today - coleslaw, chicken chasseur.

Yeah. There you go. Dressing.

-You want a little bit of that in there?

-Yeah, please.

Touch of this dressing.

There you go. Black pepper...

..that you can't find in the UK, but you admit that, for your bit.

Did you put black pepper in that?!

LAUGHTER

-I've been banging on about...!

-No, that was salt.

Just get it on the plate.

There you go.

A little bit of the...

If anybody asks, just say we didn't wash the lettuce.

LAUGHTER

Sauce goes on top.

And that is your confit pork neck with carrots,

cabbage and celeriac coleslaw and a herb dressing.

And a little bit of black pepper - sorry about that.

There we go! Right. Get stuck into this.

-The food just keeps coming to you, Robert.

-Yeah, I like it.

Dive into that.

-But that would work really well with lamb...

-Yeah.

That dressing's, kind of, like a salsa verde,

-but you obviously can't use capers or gherkins.

-Or anchovies.

It makes it a bit challenging,

but when you taste it, you don't really miss it.

Mm.

-Beautiful.

-Happy with that?

-Mm.

-Happy with that.

-So, you're not going to get any.

-Not now.

-I'm the wrong end.

I'm sorry for the addition of black pepper, Jun.

Coming up, I'll make a delicious winter desert for Emilia Fox,

after Rick Stein takes his French Odyssey to the South of France.

There's a lovely description of a boating adventure by the writer

Guy de Maupassant, when he took to the rivers

and canals of France with a couple of friends, nearly 150 years ago.

He wrote, "Just as others remember nights of passion,

"I cherish memories of sunrises on misty mornings, with floating,

"drifting vapours, white as ghosts, before the dawn.

"And then, as the first ray of sunshine touches the meadows,

"lit with a rosy glow." It puts a chill down my spine

to read something like that I'm actually experiencing myself.

It's easy to forget that the Canal du Midi was the brainchild

of a formidable engineer called Pierre-Paul Riquet

over 300 years ago.

He was the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of France.

Riquet, according to the legend,

quietly and secretly dug this tunnel at Malpass in just a few days,

to thwart bitter rivals who were desperately trying to stop him.

And it happens to be near a very good baker,

where it was Philippe's turn to collect the still-warm bread

for breakfast, one of life's simple luxuries on the Canal du Midi.

At Fonserannes, these eight locks, staggered like a giant staircase

on the outskirts of Beziers, are again testament to Riquet's genius.

As a very small boy he went to a meeting with his father,

who was on the council of the Languedoc, and there

they talked about a plan to link the Atlantic with the Mediterranean.

It made a great impression on him,

but he had to wait 40 years to realise his dream.

The locks of Fonserannes

are regarded as one of the marvels of the world.

Imagine if you were on a holiday on a noddy boat

and you had to negotiate this as your first set of locks -

it would put you off boating for life!

The writer George Miller once said that the problem with Italian food

was that, five or six days later, you start to feel peckish again.

I feel a bit like that when I think about the food

I've had on my journey so far, especially in Gascony and Aquitaine.

Chips fried in duck fat, with a rare Cote du Beaune.

Then, of course, seemingly endless duck dishes, like this magret,

a breast of foie gras duck with a rich red wine sauce.

And one of my favourite dishes of all time - confit of duck,

especially with red cabbage.

It's something that, long after this journey is done and dusted,

I'll continue to cook at home.

So now, as I approach the Med,

the food starts to change to lighter flavours.

And this is a good introduction to the Mediterranean,

known locally as Anchoiade.

The sauce is simply made by pounding half a dozen anchovy fillets

with a clove of garlic, some seasoning, red wine vinegar

and olive oil.

The preserved anchovies from the South of France are arguably

among the best that you can get.

There are loads of versions of this and some people like adding

black olives, a splash of cognac or chopped tomatoes.

The food writer Elizabeth David said in the '50s,

"It is by no means an everyday dish but,

"like so many dishes which one forgets about

"for months at a time, when one wants it,

"one feels like nothing else will do." Quite so, Elizabeth.

We sat down the other day and worked out just how many locks

we'd been through, since we started our journey from Bordeaux.

And, by my calculation, this should be lock number 175.

Well, this is quite a momentous occasion for me,

because we just passed through the last lock.

The first lock was near Bordeaux and locks have

been our life for the last month or so, so it's quite meaningful.

And beyond is salt marsh, the Etang de Thau...

HOOTER BLARES

Thank you! ..and the sea.

And we've had tripe, we've had all kinds of cheeses,

we've had shad, eels, we've had cassoulet, confit, magrets,

foie gras, fantastic wine from the Medoc, interesting little wines

all the way down and some great wines in the Languedoc.

But now, it's Mediterranean food all the way.

So this is the end of the famous Canal du Midi.

Or the beginning if you happen to be heading for the Atlantic.

I'm still not entirely comfortable with steering.

There's a sign at the end that thanks you for your visit.

Well, merci beaucoup for votre hospitalite!

Well, this is quite a change, after all those days and days

meandering through the canals under arches of trees.

It looks like the sea, but in fact it's not, it's the Etang du Thau,

a great big lake full of oysters and mussels.

But the Mistral is blowing quite a bit

and Sonya's just been sent down to the cabin to close the portholes.

The Etang du Thau is an inland sea and its waters are renowned

for superb seafood - oysters and mussels, especially.

And something else,

which goes incredibly well with all sorts of fish and seafood

is a vermouth, which has been made here in the Port de Marseillan

for nearly 200 years.

Ernest Hemingway once said, "I love drinking Martini.

"It makes me feel so sophisticated." But I love cooking with Noilly "Pra".

Or is it "Prat"? We shall find out.

My gosh, look at that! That's fantastic. The enclosure.

This is a true flavour from the Languedoc, using local grapes,

like Picpoul from the slopes and Clairette from the plains, and stored

in oak barrels kept out in the Mediterranean sun for nearly a year.

One thing I want to ask you both, this is very serious for me,

Jean-Louis, Audrey, is it...

Noilly Pra, Noilly Prat? How do you pronounce it?

-Noilly Prat.

-Noilly Prat.

Noilly Prat. Fine. I will never forget that.

What Jean-Louis was telling me is about how it's produced.

And it's so interesting

because I've been cooking with Noilly Prat for 25 years.

But it was such a good idea.

Mr Noilly noticed that these barrels are being transported by barge

all around here and there was something

really special about the wine after it had been transported.

And it was the concentration of the wine,

the effect of the sunlight, the wind, the open air, that caused it

to concentrate and get a bit oxidised, which improved the flavour.

And that's what they are replicating here, by putting it out

in the sun, giving it wind, a bit of rain, which has just caught us.

So, there you have it.

The other thing I'd like to say is,

if you ever think it's called Noilly Pra, don't be such a Noilly!

So, after sunbathing in the showers for a year, the wine is then

fortified with eau du vie and a mysterious blend of herbs and spices.

Mm, that is so nice.

So often when you smell dried herbs, they just smell of dust,

but this is so pungent.

I can tell there's 21 herbs and spices in this mix and many of them

are secret. I can see a lot of orange peel in there,

and there's cloves and I can see some coriander and I can see...

I can smell nutmeg and a bit of cinnamon, too.

I can taste quinine there, as well.

I wonder if they've got any vermouth, any wormwood in there.

I think that's what makes you go blind in absinthe.

This dish requires the flavour of those herbs

and spices to come through in the finished sauce.

I just pour some of the vermouth into an already-hot saucepan,

followed by about a pint of fish stock.

I let that reduce, until it becomes concentrated.

I'm going to accompany this with some sliced cucumber.

Not a lot of people use cucumber as a vegetable.

But I think, with fish, gently sauteed in butter, it works a treat.

Everybody thinks of it as a salad vegetable,

but it makes a very nice cooked vegetable, too.

So after melting some butter in a pan,

I brush these John Dory fillets with it.

These are really easy to get back at home.

Season with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper,

making sure that the stock is reducing beautifully.

Actually, I heard a story in Cornwall about John Dory,

that it comes from the French fishermen's nickname for it,

jaune dore, meaning "yellow gold",

because freshly caught, they have a lovely lemony-gold sheen to them.

These go under a hot grill for three minutes, while you get on with frying

the sliced cucumbers with some more melted butter, salt and pepper.

I cooked this dish in France, but it made me very homesick for Cornish

John Dory which, I'm happy to say, are not currently under threat.

So, they look nicely done. That's three or four minutes.

You may think that's not enough,

but it is, as long as you've got a hot enough grill, of course.

So, just finish of the sauce with a bit of creme fraiche.

I've been cooking this sauce for years.

It's very simple and can be used for practically any fish

and I've had no complaints.

Once you've brought the fish stock and creme fraiche up to a simmer,

add butter cubes in stages, because you want your sauce to be silky.

The combined smell of the fish stock, vermouth

and the butter is the essential aroma for any good fish restaurant.

It's the first thing you should notice, before the decor,

linen, tablecloths and waiters' uniforms.

It's what creates a wonderful mood for eating fish.

And all you need now is a chiffonade of fresh basil and nothing else.

Now, I do love that part of France.

It was not far from Marseille myself over Christmas.

Rick was using dry vermouth for his John Dory dish.

But there are also sweeter varieties that you can find

that are great for cooking, too.

I'm going to show you a really nice, simple dessert

that is really easy. It's like a sabayon, which is the French word

-for zabaglione.

-Zam-by-own-eh!

-Come on. Speak properly. Come on.

-Speak properly?!

No, no, no. I don't understand you.

-We're going to do a zabaglione.

-Zam-by-own-eh!

-We're doing a...

sabayon. Sabayon. But it's nice and simple.

We're going to do that with fruits.

We've got some blackberries here, a little bit of cherry, some pears.

It's almost got, like, that wintry sort of feel.

And then I'll do that with a little cherry...

almost like a syrup, to go with it with ice cream.

I'm going to get the cherries on first. All you do is just take

a little bit of water. There you go. And some sugar.

And pop that into a pan. That goes straight in there.

And create a syrup out of this first of all.

I'm going to then take my pear and cut it up and poach this.

-But I was talking to you while Rick Stein was on there...

-Yeah.

Acting, you said you fell into acting, really,

cos you used to work as a waitress,

-which a lot of actors and actresses do.

-Yeah.

But it was never a career that you, kind of, wanted to do.

No, that was a disaster, too.

Anything to do with the food industry with me is a disaster.

I was so bad at it

that a friend of mine

who runs a restaurant said, "Look, it's just not for you."

I kept being demoted.

I was demoted from being a waitress

to cleaning glasses. That didn't work, either.

So then, I was put in the loos, cleaning the loos,

and then that didn't work, either. It was all over.

The restaurant's loss was our gain,

because it wasn't long before you were appearing with Colin Firth.

-Yeah.

-When was that? '96? Around that time?

Well, it was a different holiday job and I thought, "I've got to take it.

"I obviously can't keep on doing waitressing."

And then I guess I caught the bug for it. Really enjoyed it.

How do you get on to working with Colin Firth? Pride and Prejudice?

I mentioned this and all the women went nuts

and all the guys hadn't a clue what we're talking about.

Colin Firth, apparently, came out of the water a bit...

With a wet shirt or without a shirt on or something like that.

-Anyway, you played his sister?

-Yes. I've worked with him three times now.

-Right.

-Recently on Dorian Gray, playing his wife.

We've, sort of, been together over each other's careers.

Now, the roles that you play are quite...

They're quite hard-hitting roles, aren't they?

They're quite intense. Would you say they're intense?

You quite like a serious role. Would that be right?

Well, Silent Witness, definitely is quite serious. Um...

-What was the one where you... Fallen Angel, I remember watching.

-Yeah.

-I thought that was fantastic, where you play a serial killer.

-Yes.

Again, quite deep and intense. I mean, they must take

a lot of preparation, to do the sort of roles.

Well, that one was...

She did awful things to children, so it was really getting in the mind

of someone who would do something

so horrible, but it was a great story.

It was a good backwards-told thriller.

-Silent Witness is pretty gruesome, as well.

-Yeah.

I was... Seven million people are watching it.

-Congratulations, by the way.

-Thank you.

-I was one of them, as well.

Literally, when you're watching it, you're amazed at the amount of work

that it obviously took, cos it's almost a film in itself.

Yeah, they're two-hour dramas.

They're quite hard to write, as well, I think,

because you've got three pathologists that you're fitting in,

having to be involved in the detective process.

But I think that's what's interesting about it and makes it a bit different

is that the detective process is through the body.

Certainly, when I went to see autopsies, it was incredible.

Each organ holds a different clue to how someone died or, you know...

Do you think it helps because it was written by an ex-detective,

as well, wasn't it, Silent Witness?

-What, that...?

-Created by an ex-detective.

-At the beginning?

-Yeah. Do you think that helps in the writing of it?

Yeah. Now, all different writers...

We have a different writer for each episode

and really amazing, the research that goes into it,

and the pathologists and the detectives

and the coroner that we work with.

They try to keep it as close to the truth as possible.

Obviously, with a bit of dramatic licence.

Certainly, we're coached quite heavily on set

to get the autopsies to be as real as possible.

So, what's next for you, then? That's out the way, in the bag.

What's 2010 bringing?

I start a film next week, called Harmony, and then...

Silent Witness starts again and, I think, Merlin.

I did a bit on Merlin last year,

so hopefully, I'm going back to do a bit more.

It's looking good. I'm just going to run through what I've got in here,

cos I'm busy whisking away.

Gennaro's checking to see if I'm doing it properly.

What are you making, anyway? Sorry to ask you.

-What are you whisking inside there?

-This is egg yolks and sugar.

Yeah, what do you call them?

-Sabayon.

-Zab-aye-own-eh.

-JAMES LAUGHS

You have to speak English and Italian, properly.

-I'm sorry. You lost a point.

-You're like an annoying grandad

in the corner at Christmas.

All we do is we whip up this,

it's sugar and egg yolks, and put this sweetened vermouth in there.

Then, I've got the cherries here.

This is over, literally, a pan of hot water, by the way.

All you do with the cherries is you just pop them in your blender,

-Brian.

-Two blenders!

-You don't need to wash yours, cos you've got two!

-That's true.

Take the lid off. There we go. And just give this a quick blitz.

Keep the skins on it, as well.

That will give it the tannin, but it will also give it the colour.

And then, what I do is just, literally, pop it through a sieve

and just leave it to just drip through.

What would have happened if you'd have left that bit on?

It creates a vacuum and you would get covered in cherry juice.

You and I would get covered, yeah. Exactly that.

What you do is you leave it to drip

and it just creates this nice little syrup that we have here.

Keep the egg whites. These will freeze, as well, if you wanted to.

The idea is, we just cook this until it starts to thicken.

You can see it start to thicken up nicely.

Just keep whisking it and whisking it.

It's not the type of thing that will hold.

You need to do it almost at the last minute, for a party.

All you do is just take our pears out now.

These have just been poached.

You can put some of that vermouth in there, as well.

These will just take, literally, about...

six, eight minutes, something like that, just poaching

in that sugary sort of syrup.

Then you pop the pears on here. Just any old way.

I'm using it on black because it shows up a little more.

We've got some of these cherries.

They can go on there. And these blackberries.

Interesting fact. There's 2,000 varieties of blackberries.

-I thought blackberries were blackberries.

-Yeah.

But there's 2,000 varieties of them. There you go.

Interesting factoid.

And we then grab our...

-zab-ag-lee-own-eh.

-Bravo!

And all we do is just pour this over the top, like that.

It keeps it nice and simple, because it's really light, this, as well.

There you go. Now, you said you were filming

a new bit for Silent witness.

But we've got it for another nine weeks, is that right?

Another four weeks. You've got eight episodes, but it's every Thursday

and Friday for the next four weeks.

Every Thursday and Friday. Right. We need a blowtorch.

-So, that's like a special custard?

-Have you got one of them?

-That's the next Christmas present.

-He hasn't got one!

Right. You get yourself a blowtorch.

You need to go to hardware store for this, not a cook shop.

This comes free with a mask.

LAUGHTER

There you go. And the idea is you just...

Makes it look pretty and then you've got the ice cream...

-which we can then take. This is just some vanilla ice cream.

-Lethal.

-That would be my house burnt down, if I did that.

-Would it?

-Wow.

-Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

-That's amazing.

-Dive in.

-I'm so impressed.

-Dive in. Tell us what you think.

You need a bit of ice cream with it. It's that warm and cold, as well.

If you taste the pear, that's probably the nicest.

-Can I taste the blackberry?

-Yep, the blackberry.

-It's nice and light.

-That's incredible. It's delicious.

That's a really great pud for after your Sunday roast.

Now, if you'd like to try making that recipe or try your hand

at cooking any of the food 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 delicious cooking from the Saturday Kitchen larder.

Now it's time for Fernando Stovell to serve beef tacos

with the help of a pig made out of volcanic rock. Watch this.

It all happens on this show, I tell you.

Fernando Stovall, great to have you on the show.

I love this type of food.

cos it's the kind of food that everybody can dive into

-and it's accessible.

-And it's very healthy and cheap to actually buy.

-OK. So, what are we cooking?

-Basically, it's two different parts

-and you're going to help me with the salsa.

-Yeah.

-We need tomatoes.

We need to blacken some tomatoes. We need to blacken the onion

and blacken the chillies. So, if you don't mind helping me with that?

-I'm going to be doing that first of all.

-In the meantime,

for the beef, to braise the beef, and the salad,

-there's two different parts to that.

-Yep.

-First, I seal...

-Now, this is the brisket.

-This is the brisket.

You can buy all the different cuts of meat, like flank,

-but it's a little bit fattier than that.

-Brisket is fantastic, isn't it?

I love brisket. You can do so many things with brisket.

Basically, what I'm going to be doing with it is I'm going to be cooking it

for two-and-a-half to three hours.

-I'm going to be cooking it for two to three hours.

-Right.

I've got my onions just... They're already blackened under the grill.

-Sure.

-I'm going to run across, get my tomatoes.

-Now, we're going to blacken the skins cos we use the whole lot, don't we?

-That's right, yes.

It's a good way of actually creating a smokiness to this salsa

which is really nice, if you blacken the tomatoes and the onions

-and the chilli.

-Basically, what I'm doing with the brisket is

just very lightly caramelising it.

-So, the brisket is from the breast area.

-That's right.

It's from the breast side of it. I'm lightly caramelising it.

With that, you need just half an onion, two pieces of garlic clove.

-There's a nice marbling to go with it.

-That's right, yes.

Two pieces of garlic clove.

And a little bit of very light beef stock.

I wouldn't do a very heavy beef stock on it.

Just cover it, all the way to the top.

How long would it last after cooking, if you didn't have to eat the whole thing in one time?

How long?

I would keep on topping it up with more liquid.

And after it's cooked, you could keep it for...?

-Once it's cooked, I mean, it could last...

-Oh!

-..four or five days?

-Absolutely. If you vacuum pack them

or just put them in the freezer.

I thought that was a vase of grapefruit juice.

That's how good I am!

LAUGHTER

-There we go.

-You're going to bake that in the oven now.

It goes in the oven for two-and-a-half to three hours.

160-150 degrees centigrade.

Probably 300 degrees is fine.

Probably say gas mark four, five.

Right. OK. Now, we're going to do a little bit of salsa with this

-and bits and pieces?

-That's right.

-The salsa is...

The salsa is pretty straightforward. It's three ingredients.

You've blackened the tomatoes, the onions and the chilli.

You just pound it all together and that's the end of that.

And you want a little bit of tomato concasse with this, as well.

That's right. Well, the tomato concasse is for the salad.

The salad will go on the serving dish.

Now, last time you were here, obviously, The Cuckoo Club...

-I did mention just now that you're looking for a restaurant, is that right?

-That's right.

My wife and myself, we're looking for a new venture.

We actually want to do our own.

We're looking for a restaurant in the Surrey area.

Right. Found any yet or not?

-There's a few places that we like a lot.

-But you're not saying anything?

-We're not saying much, no.

-Good choice. The price will go up.

-Right. So, we've got the brisket.

-We've got the brisket.

What I'm going to do right now is pull the brisket. In the meantime,

-you're going to do the tomato concasse.

-Yep.

We're going to chop a little bit of coriander, slice the avocado,

just chop a little bit of the olives

-and slice...

-This dish is called salpicon.

Salpicon. It's a French terminology that the French used to use

in the 18th-century. And basically,

when the French went to America, Mexico, mainly,

there's a huge influence of Mexican-French cooking.

It roughly translates in the UK as...?

Salpicon, the actual translation stands for...

Like a salt and cooked?

Erm, it's meat and sauces together, combined.

-Right.

-Basically, what the French believe in is to put it

on a vol-au-vent or a tart or something like that.

-Are you a big fan of Mexico?

-It's like another world, sitting here.

-What?

-Like a foreign country. I've no idea what they're talking about.

-Are you a big fan of Mexican food or not?

-Who, me?

-Yeah.

-I like a little taco.

-A little taco?

-I've had a few of those in my time.

The secret of it is... Like you say, it's very, very healthy.

Absolutely, yes.

-Now, for this, this is for our salad.

-Basically, very simple.

The meat, obviously, has been braised for three or four hours.

-Right.

-Very important, the meat has to be warm

and you can mix the vinaigrette.

-Malt vinegar.

-Yep.

-Not olive oil. Olive oil is very, very heavy,

-so I would use grapeseed oil..

-OK.

-..or an oil similar to that.

-The secret of this is it falls apart.

-It has to be warm

and it has to go with a warm vinaigrette, if that make sense.

-Use a fork or just your hands.

-OK.

While you do that...

-This is well browned. How brown do you want it?

-Ah, that's perfect.

-That's perfect.

-It's supposed to be like that. Trust me!

-It gives the smoked flavour.

-That's definitely smoky flavour, not burnt!

Right. OK. We've got that. They're just going to be left to cool down.

-Just pound the...

-I'm going to leave you to do that one.

-Do you want me to rip that up?

-If you don't mind.

James, can I help out at all?

-No, you're right.

-Just let me know.

-Exactly! You just stay where you are!

I'm just going to put a little diced chillies...

-Yep.

-..on the salad as well.

-I've got some diced chillies.

-You have? Brilliant.

-There you go.

So, in there, you've got chilli, onion, tomato.

-That's right. A little bit of shredded lettuce.

-Yeah.

-A bit of coriander in there as well.

-That's right.

And if you don't mind helping me with...

-the avocado.

-I'll do the avocado. No problem.

You call it pulled because you pull the meat apart?

-Is that why you call it pulled?

-Pulled. That's right.

I just recently went to America for holiday

and they've got a very popular dish which is pulled pork.

Basically, they combine that with... I personally find that really tasty

and they combine it with barbecue sauce.

They actually barbecue the meat instead of braising it.

They barbecue it for quite a long time on a very low temperature

and it's very, very tasty.

-OK.

-We just mix all that together.

The lettuce has gone in there as well. In we go with the oil.

-Half of it.

-Half of that.

-What vinegar's this?

-That is malt vinegar.

A little bit of oil.

-Fresh oregano or dried oregano, which is very good.

-OK.

-A bit of the dressing over the top.

-That's right.

-A little bit of seasoning.

-Sorry? A bit of salt.

And then you're going to do this. This is what fascinates me.

You brought this with you last time. This is made of, what,

-volcanic rock?

-Volcanic rock and it comes from a place called

-Popocatepetl which is...

-From where?!

-Popocatepetl which is a volcano

-Are you making this up or what?

-No, I'm not!

It's lava stone. It's lava stone.

Now, it's got... Does that...?

-Is that supposed to be anything, the pig?

-It's the shape of a pig.

Basically, they have shapes of pigs.

Sometimes, they don't have shapes of pigs,

they have shapes of donkeys or different forms.

But the idea is that it keeps it warm?

Is that the reason why it's volcanic rock?

This volcanic rock really does help to pound things properly.

We call it the liquidiser, the blender of the Aztecs.

Obviously, they didn't have electrics in those days.

-Isn't that where the word salsa comes from, the Aztecs?

-Um...

It's way back. It's very old.

Well, the word salsa itself...

I personally think it probably comes from Europe

because salsa base would always be from tomato.

I think that tomatoes were introduced by the Americans...

-by the Europeans to the Americas.

-OK. We're nearly ready.

-Have you put the olives in?

-Yep, they're in the salad.

-Perfect.

We've got our avocado here all done.

-And then we can start to build this up.

-Absolutely, yes.

The idea is...

you get some of these here.

-Fill them up, yeah?

-That's right, yes.

-I'll leave you to do the first one.

-Season that.

There you go. I'll fill up the other one.

So, this salad, the idea is you just plonk it in the middle of the table

-and everybody piles.

-That's right, yes.

-Everybody dives in.

A bit of avocado there.

-Make your own, isn't it?

-It is kind of like that, Mexican food.

It's very much, you know, pop it in the middle of the table

and everybody helps themselves. Very informal.

Mexicans are well renowned for being very friendly

and home comforting, so I think this dish is pretty appropriate.

-No nail polish when you eat that stuff.

-I'm sorry?

-No nail polish when you eat that stuff!

-Exactly.

I suppose you could do this... You've got it with brisket.

You could do the same thing with chicken,

-cook it exactly the same way.

-That's right.

It's very versatile, like the last dish I made.

You can use anything, really.

You've got the avocado to sit on the top. While you're filling that one,

remind us what this dish is called again.

Salpicon. It's braised pulled beef

with a taco shell and it's just a very, very healthy salad.

-Don't forget that smoky sauce on the side.

-That's right.

There you go. Right. Let's have a taste.

Tell us what you think of this one.

-There we go. Healthy dish.

-Yeah, healthy dish.

I think the idea is you just...

Well, take one and then pass it down, I suppose.

-You put it right in front of me.

-Yeah, exactly!

-Shall we all share?

-I'm not selfish.

-Tell us what you think.

Like you say, you could... You've done the brisket,

-you could do it with chicken.

-You can do it with chicken, lamb,

veal, pork. I think pork would be amazingly good as well.

-The secret is make sure it's still warm.

-When it's warm.

Any dish, any salads you're doing from warm to cold,

always put your vinaigrette on when it's warm.

-That's the biggest secret.

-I'd rather buy you than the ingredients,

-to be honest, cos you'd be so much more useful.

-What do you think of yours?

-What do you think?

-Gorgeous.

-The salsa?

I think that smokiness really made the tomatoes.

Really does lend itself well.

Cyrus? Have you just got a mouthful?

CYRUS MUMBLES

Not easy to talk when you're eating, is it?

That's a great lunchtime treat for any day of the week.

Now it's time for a slice of magnificent Keith Floyd.

Today we share his unique perspective

on the delights of Ireland.

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

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

Now, we all know Ireland's very green, but there is something

extra special about this rich grass,

washed, as it is, by the wet winds from America

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

and cows munching on this untainted carpet

produce thick, creamy milk, perfect for making cheese.

There we are. Thank you, my dear.

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

there was a dashing young professor of philosophy

and one day, as professors do,

he fell in love with a charming young lady.

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

in a busy capital city so they ran away here

to the western coast of Ireland,

the furthest extremities of Europe, and they fell in love.

They were so deeply in love, they got married

and they had little cheeses. Sweet, isn't it?

We've travelled many hundreds of miles to come here

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

It's the first time for several hundred years

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

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

I believe it is that when we began to make Milleens here,

it was the first time for hundreds of years that a soft cheese

had actually been manufactured in the British Isles.

What is it about the Irish, then? Why do the Irish know about cheese, for heaven's sake?

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

Following the fall of the Roman Empire,

a dark age descended on Europe

and a great deal of the skill and culture was temporarily lost.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, where the Romans never came,

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

When the Renaissance came along,

out went Irish monks and scholars across Europe,

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

but reintroduced these skills and cultures again

to those places where they were gone.

To many people, Irish cookery is just all about potatoes. It's partly true.

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

Where are you, please? This is vital. Breaking brand-new ground here.

Potatoes, that's the whole thing here. This potato and apple pancake

is traditionally made by mixing mashed potato with flour,

rolling it very thin like a pancake, stuffing it with apple,

folding it like an apple turnover and frying it in butter.

What they don't say in the recipe books, but what I'm going to tell you to do,

is pour whiskey over it like that and then set fire to it

and you absolutely have something that should dazzle

even these academic and very brilliant cheese makers.

And if it doesn't, I won't eat their cheese. Is that OK?

Right. There we are. That is a new thing of apple and potato pancakes.

-Can I give you a little tiny bit?

-Yes, please.

-Brilliant.

-I'd like quite a generous helping.

-A generous helping.

Norman and Veronica are these brilliant people

who I told you about in the fairy tale when we started,

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

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

Taste that, if you would, please, because I think it's quite brilliant.

You've got to do it quickly because we haven't got lots of film.

Just say it's really brilliant.

-Super.

-Quite brilliant? Or very brilliant?

-Very brilliant.

A definite breakthrough. Brilliant.

An Anglo-Irish first.

-Absolutely.

-Superb. Right. We can't have any more of that. Thank you very much indeed.

You can eat that after you've done your work cos what I want to know

really quite seriously, this IS a cookery programme,

we DO try to give you information too,

is about your brilliant cheese. Now, can we start with this one

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

-It is.

This is a young cheese.

-You can see it's young inside.

-Can you just say why exactly you can see that's young inside?

-Well, you can see the cheese is ripening here from the outside.

-Yes.

And it still hasn't ripened all the way through.

-But it's very mild and it'll be very nice.

-Can I taste a bit?

Is he saying the right things? Because you actually make

-the cheese, Veronica, don't you?

-This will taste quite acidic,

Clean, acid flavour which... I love young cheese.

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

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

-Yes, indeed.

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

It's strictly for the initiated, I think.

Does a beautiful countryside make a beautiful cheese?

Yeah, I think if you're happy somewhere and doing something well,

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

The cheese seems to be happy here.

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

There's no point fighting with the environment you're in.

Why not make and do something that's going to fit in with it?

There is no point making something that'd be better off in a desert, is there?

I tell you what. The toil and strife doesn't fit in.

I haven't seen your lovely Irish locks.

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

-How do you know I'm not bald?

It's a chance I'm going to take. Wow! Beautiful. Now listen.

You've come all this way from Dublin.

You've forsaken the port and the parties,

the conversation of Joyce, Nietzsche and all that. Was it worth it?

-All the boring old soaks and the pubs of Dublin.

-Oh, come on.

You can replace the port with porter

and you can have some very interesting conversations down here.

No, I think we're very happy here. We've a nice family and a lovely place to live.

It is really nice putting a bit of this

part of the world into a lot of other ones, of our cheese turning

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

-I'll drink to that.

-Good luck.

-Better luck!

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

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

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

a passion and a certainty that defies logical explanation.

So it was with me when I staggered shaken

and slightly unsteady from a buffeting ride on a

little aeroplane at Cork airport for the first time.

Quite frankly, Ireland gobsmacked me

and I don't care if this sounds pompous or pseudo.

I felt a sense of excitement and thrill that had been

missing from my life for years. Phew!

I've got that off my chest now, thank goodness.

I feel a little better. But this isn't the psychiatrist's chair, you know. Not yet, anyway.

It's a cookery programme

and First Lady of Irish cookery is Her Grace, Myrtle Allen.

-I was relixing...

-I beg your pardon?

-I was relaxing with

a glass of stout in the pub the other day after a very hard day's filming.

We got to chatting and as usual we start talking about food

and not food in general, but Irish Stew in particular.

Do you know in Ireland it is difficult to find, sometimes in pubs, midday, you can get it.

In England, it's often a disastrous mish-mash of potatoes, lamb and onions boiled to death.

Tastes absolutely awful.

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

So, I came to my friend Myrtle Allen who is undisputedly

the Queen of Irish cooking.

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

and throughout the land. It is true, isn't it, Myrtle? She is absolutely brilliant

and she knows all about it, but before we go into all of that, Richard, usual business.

Spin round the ingredients.

Most important thing is a splendid shoulder of lamb.

Traditionally butchered. More of that later.

Spring onions, new potatoes, not the flowers...

young baby carrots a bit of fresh thyme,

-a bit of fresh... I forgot the name...

-Marjoram.

-Marjoram.

Then I've butchered the chops... over this way...

to take off all the fat

because we need those to cook the chops in later and that's where I cut my finger.

So we've got... Down here again, Richard. Don't smirk!

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

Bit of parsley to garnish. Over here we are going to need some stock.

We use this piece, stay there, from the end of the lamb.

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

parsley stalks, economical use of parsley, a few chopped carrots,

covered with water, like that.

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

There's another chop in the bottom. That's the first thing.

As you can see, I've been frying them in the sweated down lamb dripping.

-I'd like to eat a little piece of that. Myrtle, do you want a little bit.

-Yes. Thank you.

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

-Right. Now the next thing is what? The onions and carrots.

-That's right.

Just give them a quick turn.

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

A little bit of thyme. That's enough.

Let's put in that bit of marjoram we've got. That's enough.

My viewers have seen an Irish Stew made with whole potatoes.

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

There are different ways of doing it. Some people slice them and they say the potato thickens the gravy,

but I love them whole on top and they get brown in the oven.

-Now you want to get this... Have you got the lid or something?

-No.

-You strain it.

-Trouble is under pressure like this, I sometimes have to improvise

because once this goes in, I have had it.

So, I'll strain it through like that.

Now, that doesn't have to cover the potatoes

because with the lid on,

they'll sort of steam and glaze as they cook.

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

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

-toss it with a bit of vinegar or something.

-You could.

-Or something.

You wouldn't necessarily throw that away. What would you do with that?

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

These people who live in castles...!

Anyway. That goes in the oven for what, how long?

That goes in... At this time of year the lamb is young,

say ¾ to one hour.

¾ to 1 hour and we'll go and do something really amusing

-until that's ready to eat.

-Fine.

-Let's wander off.

And he'll think of something to make us look pretty interesting.

By popular request and overwhelming demand I have been asked to

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

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

people who individually can do nothing

and collectively decide that nothing can be done.

The Irish Stew, in the name of the Lord - the producer made me

say that bit - turned out to be superb,

but after simmering for an hour or so,

it's worth skimming the fat before serving.

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

and Myrtle Allen sets greater store on the quality of ingredients

rather than the variety.

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

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

And it contained so many little flowers, the clovers,

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

He'll not give his cattle for instance, silage.

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

which of course is very uneconomical for farmers to grow.

So, we still have these people in the country.

They need to be encouraged.

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

Well, I haven't had a chance to try, you see,

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

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

but I have the feeling it's not what it used to be!

It's wonderful to see a classic piece of Keith Floyd there.

We're not live in the studio so we are looking

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

Still to come on today's Best Bites.

Ken Hom faces his own food hell against first-timer Tom Kitchin

in the omelette challenge.

Ken had been dreading the duel, but for Tom,

he was relishing the challenge.

Find out how they both did in a little while.

Jersey's honorary son Shaun Rankin serves up an Indian-inspired

lobster lunch. He sprinkles the lobster with a curried salt,

roasted and serves it with

a delicious coconut and coriander dhal.

And Nigel Planer faces his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven - courgette flowers with mozzarella and basil-stuffed courgette flowers

with halibut and a tomato, courgette and basil sauce, or his Food Hell -

pork chop with my rosemary chargrilled pork chop,

salsify and warm borlotti bean salad.

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

Now, let's look back at a visit from the wonderful Mark Sargeant.

He joined us armed with a little inspiration from Shakespeare's Globe.

-So, what's on the menu for us today then?

-We've got some lovely clams.

I love clams, they're really fantastic.

Prefer them to mussels, but you cook them in the same way.

So we're going to cook them with some smoky bacon.

The bacon and clams go well together.

A little bit of anchovy as well to melt that down

and dissolve, give a bit of impact to the flavour.

We're going to make it as a stew so we're going to have carrots,

celery, leek and some onion. Sweat all that down.

-The secret ingredient is this.

-Cider.

Obviously, the moules marinieres you do with wine,

-I think I've seen you do it with beer.

-You can do it with beer.

And we're going to chargrill some bread

and put that in the bottom of the bowl so it soaks up all the juices.

-There's perry that you could use as well.

-That's pear cider.

So that's fantastic as well.

What we'll do to start with is get the smoked bacon going.

Really good quality, dry, smoky bacon.

-We want the fat and the flavours to come out.

-I've got to ask.

-Years at the restaurant. Just lost its Michelin star?

-Apparently so.

I heard that yesterday. I wouldn't say it was now I've gone necessarily!

That's the news, which is very, very unfortunate,

but knowing Gordon, he'll do his best to get straight

back in there and get on it and get that back.

-You were there, side-by-side, 13 years.

-Yeah.

He's like my big brother still and this is a very positive move,

there's nothing untoward about it or anything like that.

It was just time for me to have a bit of a change

and take things in a bit of a different direction.

-But I've still got him on the side.

-Looking after two restaurants?

Two restaurants which have got fantastic chefs already,

so I'm not actually physically cooking there.

We've got The Swan down in West Malling which is in Kent

and that is actually a village I am originally from.

So it's kind of I can go home a little bit now

and back to my roots a bit.

That's been going for ten years.

Fantastic chef doing good British food.

Then the other one, as you said, it's attached to the

Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre,

so that's The Swan at the Globe Theatre.

Basically the food is fantastic,

you're right on the riverside

on Bankside, it's got an amazing location.

Yet again, another fantastic Marco Pierre White trained chef there.

Have you ever thought about going

-on stage or not?

-Well, it depends.

-Where're you leading this to?

-Because I've got a little test.

I've got a little test for you.

In here, I've got three quotes from Shakespeare.

Now, they're all food-related.

And I want you to name the play for one point. The act and the scene.

-Well done.

-I know these.

-Of course you do. They're written down!

-Are you ready for the first one?

-Yeah, I'm ready.

Truly, thou art damned like an ill roast egg...

all on one side.

-Where was that from?

-Macbeth.

-You're just going to say Macbeth to all of these!

-No.

You've got the answer. Where's it from?

It's Touchstone from As You Like It, isn't it?

That's an actor for you. Another one.

'Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.

I apologise for the Yorkshire accent!

'Tis an ill cook who cannot lick his own fingers!

It's a poor cook can't lick his fingers!

-Merchant of Venice?

-Merchant of Venice. No.

-It was from...

-Romeo and Juliet.

-Look at that.

-If memory serves.

Yeah, Act Four, Scene Two. You're useless at this. And the last one.

-If music be the food of love, play on.

-Othello.

-Everyone... It's Twelfth Night.

-Everyone knows that.

-Act One, Scene One, that is the opening line, isn't it?

-It is.

-There you go.

-Well, that wasn't very good, was it? I got nil point.

Mind you, the last book you ever read was Peter and Jane, probably.

-Anyway.

-Roger Rabbit!

More importantly about the food, James, we have got all the

vegetables in there, bacon, carrots, onions, celery,

-sweated down nicely with some thyme.

-You forgot the leeks.

That's good. Get them in.

We could have easily just said I hadn't forgotten the leeks.

Give that a really good shake.

I did have more for you, as well,

-but you've changed the subject.

-I haven't!

Those clams are going to steam in there really nicely

and start opening up, but just to get them going,

we've got the cider. So get some cider in there. Just a little splash.

-Organic cider?

-Really good quality cider.

Obviously you don't want to go and put anything in there that's too sweet. Really nice and dry.

It's going to steam in there.

You don't want too much, it's just to help it get going a little bit.

We get some bread. Now the idea of this bread is that we chargrill the bread.

We're going to put a slice on the side

to have nice and crunchy with it.

We're also going to put a slice in the bottom of the bowl

and what that's going to do is when I tip the clams and all the juice

on top of that, it's going to absorb all that and go slightly soft.

So, it's going to be a little bit like a kind of a sort

of Italian bread soup style.

You know, so it's going to sort of melt in and thicken it up slightly.

Now you mention moules marinieres.

What should people be looking for with shellfish, in particular?

Clams and mussels...

It's a classic thing that everyone knows,

if they'll open and they don't close when you sort of knock them

or tap them, they're no good.

So, they're going to be bad and make you ill.

But when you're preparing the clams, you should soak them beforehand?

Ideally, yeah, cos there's quite a bit of dirt on the outside

of the shell and things like that.

So, yeah, give them a really good soaking.

Preferably overnight, if you can. Change the water a couple of times.

Yeah, so that's that, really and obviously, you know,

get them from a good quality supplier.

I like using the ones we've got here, nice kind of medium,

so you get like a nice, good chewy...

Not too small. Starting to open... Very quick dish, this, as well.

It is. So, when you've got all those really lovely vegetables in there,

-that's what's going to make it more of a stew.

-Yeah.

Yeah, so that should give it a bit more body.

So there's no garlic in there?

No garlic in there because what I'm going to do is,

I'll show you again, the very Italian thing,

like with the bruschetta,

is when you've charred this, just get a little bit of garlic,

cut it in half, just rub that gently over it and it really is

amazing how much flavour that impacts onto the bread itself.

-So, that's nice there...

-And you've got the anchovy in there.

Yeah, the anchovy, so basically the anchovy, as we all know,

the anchovy go really, really well with meat and also fish.

It's the dried, salted anchovies and they just basically dissolve

and melt away into nothing.

But what that will do with the bacon, it gives it a really fantastic,

I suppose, body and a strength to the sauce.

Notice as well, I didn't put any salt in there either,

because the clams are actually quite salty as well...naturally

and the bacon as well, the smoked bacon...

Rub that over there. We've got a really lovely flavour.

Just one to go on the side.

So, you've just got a little bit of oil and salt.

Oil and salt, just a touch of salt, again.

Cos this is quite a strong dish.

They're all open beautifully in there now.

We'll have a little bit of juice in the bottom of there.

So, I'll just spoon that in.

I've got some parsley here, if you want to...

Yeah, I'll just finish that with parsley.

You can smell it from here, it smells fantastic!

-Yeah, it's good.

-Yeah, it's brilliant, really good.

The cider is, I think, the key to it.

A nice, dry cider gives that really fruity flavour

and that to me looks absolutely fantastic!

But it's the dry cider that we should be looking for.

Yeah, so just...

And like moules marinieres, you've got this fantastic juice

-that you can eat with the bread afterwards.

-Exactly.

That soaks in and you've got those lovely colours of all

the vegetables and stuff.

All that lovely juice. Another thing, if you don't soak the clams overnight,

this juice then becomes really gritty.

And I know, that's really, really quick, not taken that long

but it is very, very simple.

It looks like a big portion but you make it small, as well.

It looks amazing with all the shells.

Bread on the side there and that's a really simple dish,

but absolutely delicious.

Remind us what that is, again.

So, it's clams, really nice clams, with smoked bacon and anchovies

-and finished off with some cider and charred bread.

-In his new restaurant.

There you go. I have to say, it smells fantastic. There you go.

Looks stunning, over here.

Tristan, I don't know if you've had clams at this time in the morning...

-Yeah, why not.

-Dive in, dive in.

-What's the etiquette of clam eating?

-Fingers and slurping.

Is it fingers and slurping, can I do that? Would anyone mind?

-Absolutely not.

-It's not really shell to shell like mussels.

No, no, it's like in, slurp it out, get some of the juice.

-Mmm, mmm, that's beautiful.

-So simple.

-Really lovely.

And something that you could probably have a go at.

-A lot of the girls were nodding there.

-It is pretty quick.

And pretty simple.

But the secret is, most importantly,

-getting fresh...

-Really good quality clams

and nice medium ones, not too small.

And good quality bacon, cos that really flavours the stock.

Cos that was the pancetta that you used.

-You used the dry, cured, smoked bacon.

-Yeah, that's perfect, yeah.

As long as it's nice and dry, you know, it doesn't

release too much liquid and things like that.

Generally, how long would you cook clams for?

As soon as they're open, that's it, they're done.

I mean, you saw, it was like two or three minutes in a hot pan.

-That's brilliant!

-Really good.

The woodiness that's coming out through the bacon is...and then the apple cider...

There you go.

That's a really tasty bowl of food and it's not hard to make, either.

Nobody seems to dread the omelette challenge more than Mr Ken Hom.

Armed with a wok and chopsticks, he wasn't looking forward to

doing battle against Michelin starred first-timer Tom Kitchin.

But did either of them make a decent omelette?

Take a look at this.

All of the chefs that come onto the show battle it out

against the clock to see how fast they can make a simple, straight-forward three-egg omelette.

This is my hell!

LAUGHTER

Now, Ken, pretty respectable... Well, I say "pretty respectable"

-time, 51.36 seconds.

-I know I'm going lower.

51 seconds, I mean, you've been on quite a few times,

but you need to pop up the board a bit.

-Your first time on the show, Tom.

-First time today, yes.

Who would you like to beat on this board, then?

Erm, yeah, if I could beat Mr Jason Atherton, that would be good.

-45 seconds...I think you can beat him.

-Yeah, I should do.

Now, usual rules apply, you can choose what you like from the ingredients in front of you.

I'll taste it to make sure it's an omelette, not a scrambled egg.

Three-egg omelette, because it's Chinese New Year, we're going to let him use a wok.

Aw, yes, yes, yes...

He'll never forgive from showing that clip earlier.

Just for you at home, let's put the clocks on the screen, please?