Episode 122 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. We're ready to set your tummy rumbling.

It's time for Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

And welcome to the show.

We've got some amazing chefs cooking for you this morning

and there's some pretty peckish celebrities ready to tuck in.

Cyrus Todiwala treats us to some amazing Keralan cuisine.

He prepares Keralan crab with a tasty salad.

Tom Kitchin, who's always a popular chef on the show,

shares his special take on a warming leek and potato soup.

He serves it with a crispy ox tongue and a soft poached egg.

It was delicious!

Jason Atherton is talking Japanese

and he made a great dish with seared tuna.

He serves the tuna with soy, ginger and chilli glaze and bok choi.

And Jason Donovan faced his food heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven, fillet steak with my pan-fried steak

sandwich with caramelised red onions and home-made Stout mustard?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell,

calves' liver with my pan-fried cows' liver,

bacon, lemon and cavolo nero?

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

But now, it's time to revisit the first time Mark Hix

came into the studio, and he cooked beef in beer.

Great to have you on. Now, I love your food. Simple, to the point.

-Great food. What are we cooking?

-Yeah. OK.

-So today, we've got beef ribs. Quite an unusual cut of meat.

-Yup.

This is kind of the bit above your Sunday roast.

-Now, there's a nickname for these.

-Jacob's Ladder. Yeah.

So when they're all attached, you've got your bones

-and your strips of meat in between.

-Yup.

-So it kind of looks a bit like a ladder.

-Looks like a ladder. Yup.

So what we're going to do today is braise these in this Innis & Gunn.

-Right. Which is beer.

-A great beer to cook with.

-OK. Right. Lovely.

-So what do we need to do first?

-OK.

-Firstly, we're going to season them up.

-You need to chop a load of veg.

-Yup. You're on the veg today, James.

-OK.

Now, these ribs, people buying these ribs...

They'd buy a rib roast, really,

if the people are buying them from a butcher's.

-These would be above that?

-Yeah.

Your butcher may give you a funny look when you go

and ask for these things,

but I think if you give him a few days' notice, um...

But they're a cracking cut of meat to use, aren't they, really?

They look pretty chunky, but by the time they're cooked,

they kind of shrink back onto the bone quite a bit.

-Phil, have you used these sort of things?

-No. Not at all.

-Looks a little bit complicated to me.

-They're very tasty.

It tastes a bit like oxtail, you know, when they're finished cooking.

-Yeah, they've got an element of fat in there, haven't they?

-Yeah.

OK. There's loads of veg coming towards you.

-So you've put just a bit of flour on there?

-Yup. Bit of flour, seasoning.

-Yup.

-Um...

-That's it.

-In there, we've got celery, we've got onions, carrots.

-Do you want another onion?

-Little bit of garlic. That's fine.

Then we're going to pop those into the oven.

It's all right. I've got it.

OK. Now, how long do they roast for in there?

They need, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes,

until the outside of the meat is nicely caramelised.

OK. Right. What's next?

-Good. And we're going to serve, with that, salsify.

-Right.

-Right.

-Tricky veg, salsify. You don't really...

-Tricky veg. Yeah.

..buy it at the supermarkets that often. Um...

Quite difficult to peel.

You'll find you end up trying to sort of peel it twice cos you get

-all these black bits.

-Yeah.

-But quite a nice flavour.

-It's a bit like somewhere between a parsnip and a sort of turnip.

-Yeah.

Great flavour. What do you reckon that people really don't buy it for?

Is it because it's quite difficult to prepare?

You wouldn't really pick that up off a supermarket shelf or

-a greengrocer's, would you? It looks a bit ugly.

-Right. OK.

So I'll prepare those and I'll go and get the ribs for you.

-So these ribs have been here for, what? 40 minutes?

-Yup.

So as you can see, they're nicely caramelised now.

-Yup. Right, I'll continue to prepare these.

-Good.

So we're going to put those into a pot.

Now, if you were preparing these in advance,

you put in a bit of water with a touch of lemon?

If you're doing a lot of it, just lemon juice and water,

-just to keep their colour.

-Cos they'll brown a bit?

-Yup.

-OK.

So what are you doing over there, then?

OK. I'm going to put all the veg...

-Apart from setting the fire alarms off!

-The beef here, into a pot.

-Yup.

I'm then going to use the cooking juices to make the sauce,

so I'm going to dust it with a bit of flour.

Yup.

-Just get the gas on here.

-Get that one on full for you. There you go.

-It's on.

-OK.

-Spoon.

-Put it on this one. It's a bit quicker, this ring here.

-It's a bit like you're making your Sunday gravy, really.

-Yeah.

Get that fat stirred in.

So tell us a little bit about this new restaurant because, obviously,

we've heard of The Ivy, we've heard of all those restaurants.

-Scott's is the second-oldest restaurant in London.

-Right.

Those of you who know London, Rules in Covent Garden is the oldest.

-And it's been around since sort of early 1800s.

-Yup.

-It's predominately a fish restaurant, though, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It was always famous for its oyster bar,

and what we've done is completely gutted it

and recreated a big oyster bar in the middle,

-so that you can kind of sit in the middle of the restaurant.

-Fabulous.

-Eat oysters, seafood.

-Lovely.

So you've got in there tomato puree, a bit of flour.

-In we go with the beer.

-Yup. Of course, in restaurants,

we'd use some sort of veal stock that's been simmered away

for hours, but at home, you know, this is kind of the quickest way.

Now, you're using a particular beer.

-For people that can't get that, any bitter...

-Yeah.

-A good brown ale, bitter, Guinness even, would be a good option.

-OK.

Lovely.

Now, when you're cooking the salsify, just put,

-literally, just water, bring it to the boil and that's it?

-Yeah.

-That's it. Then we strain it off.

-I'll do that one.

This beer in particular that you're using,

-it's got quite a special story behind it, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

What happened was the brewer used to bring in oak casks

-and use this to kind of season the cask for a whiskey maker.

-Right.

He then found that some of the staff were siphoning it off instead

-of sort of flushing it down the drain and drinking it themselves!

-Right.

So this was a kind of accidental...

-Bad for the staff but good for us?

-Yup.

OK. So I'm going to get the rest of that in there.

Just going to get a little bit of butter out the...

Obviously, cos these take a few hours to cook,

you need to cook them in quite a bit of sauce.

Cos also, you don't have to boil salsify.

-You can pan-fry it, can't you, really?

-Yeah, you can do.

You know, these are quite small ones.

You could kind of almost cook them like glace carrots, you know,

a little bit of sugar and water.

-Yeah.

-You could even roast them, in fact.

OK.

That's lovely. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

-So that all goes into there as well?

-Yeah.

-We're going to put that into the ribs.

-OK.

Now, you're a massive fan of sort of traditional British food,

-aren't you, really? Regional food as well?

-Yup, yup.

I think, these days, you know, we need to support our producers,

you know. We've got some great ingredients out there.

You know, we've got farmers, guys growing some great fruit

-and veg now and, you know, why fly stuff from all over the world?

-Yeah.

We've got it on our doorstep.

-And that's what your new book tells us a little bit about as well?

-Yeah.

-I kind of did a little tour of the country.

-Yeah.

-Only really scratched the surface, to be honest.

-Yeah.

-Um...

And, you know, flagged up some good producers that, you know...

Some, OK, aren't available for the average punter, but...

-Where do I find a lid, James?

-Sorry?

-A lid.

-We can swap one in the oven.

-So this would go in the oven, yeah?

-Yup.

-Lid on, in the oven.

I'll swap that over.

There you go. How long would this go in there for? A couple of hours?

For those sizes, you want to probably allow about two hours.

Two and a half hours, maybe.

-Got a colander there for you as well.

-OK.

So as you can see, this one,

you've got a lovely, dark-coloured sauce now.

-There you go. You can use that.

-The beef's looking good.

So we mentioned the A-listers that come into your...

I mean, Posh Spice!

Is this the type of thing that she'd be going into?

You're not going to ask me those sorts of questions, James. Come on!

-Not really.

-Ask me some proper questions!

-Exactly!

-What are you doing now? Just draining off the gravy?

-Yeah.

-So we're going to drain that through there to get the sauce.

-Yup.

There we go. Oops!

I tell you what, I hope you've got a big brigade behind you cos

you make a hell of a lot of mess!

We normally serve two of these a portion,

-but I think we might get away with one today!

-Right.

-So I'm going to mash this, yeah?

-Yup.

So we're going to serve this with some bashed neeps,

keep it in a sort of Scottish tradition, with the beer.

OK.

I think this is swede in here with a touch of butter.

Plate. There we go.

Salt and pepper.

And all I've done is put the parsley in with the salsify

and a touch of butter. OK.

Now, if that gravy's a bit too thin, what would you do with it?

-Well, you could kind of thicken it up with some cornflour.

-Yeah.

Or continue simmering it

until you've got the right sort of thickness.

-But this one looks pretty good, doesn't it?

-Yup.

Lovely. Look at that for a serving!

Don't go hungry. Lovely.

I think when you're buying these,

you need to kind of assess what size they are, you know.

You may well need two.

Put the sauce on as well, when you're ready.

There you go, Chef.

-You hungry, Tuffers?

-I am! That smells delicious!

-Better be!

And these just get sprinkled over the top.

Look at that.

Look at that! I don't know about a plate for one.

It's a plate for all four of you, I think! There we go. Fantastic.

-Remind us what that is again.

-OK.

So this is braised beef ribs in Innis & Gunn beer and salsify.

-A-list chef, Mark Hix. Brilliant.

-Thank you.

Let's see.

See what they think. Follow me. Dive into this.

If you want seconds, let us know.

-Crikey.

-I think you've got enough for Monday as well!

That actually looks like Posh Spice, to be fair.

-What, just the ribs?

-Yeah.

Oh, it's absolute... Texture feels lovely.

-Oh! Delicious. Mm.

-Delicious.

-I've never had any salsify.

-That's it there, is it?

-That's it. Go on. Fiona, dive in.

Tell me what you think.

Hm. Delicious. Lovely.

It's funny - it's kind of in season with all the root veg,

-but nobody really...

-But again, quite an unusual piece of meat to choose.

-I love it.

-Braised meat just falls off, doesn't it?

-What other meat could you use?

-You could use a cut of lamb, yeah. Venison, even. Shank of lamb.

-Mutton?

Mutton, definitely mutton, yeah.

It lends itself to that slow process of cooking, doesn't it?

-We're flying the mutton flag.

-Nods all round. Everybody's happy.

Fantastic stuff from Mark there.

You can see why his restaurants are so popular.

Coming up, I'll be making queen of puddings for EastEnders actress

Samantha Womack after Rick Stein visits

the Severn Estuary in Somerset.

I wish I had time to stop and explore every little creek,

estuary and fishing village, but if I did,

this seafood journey would take years. But this is a must.

It's the Severn Estuary, and Brendan goes out on what he calls

his mud horse to tend his nets on the mudflats near Stolford in Somerset.

There's nowhere else in the world doing it like the way

we do it here, with the mud horses, across the mudflats.

It's been going on here for centuries, hundreds

and hundreds of years, and we're still doing it right up to this day.

The joy of this fishing is to catch what's there.

Sometimes it's dabs, sometimes bass, but usually,

it's a whole medley of fish.

Once upon a time in Britain, every tidal river was fished like this -

something that people did.

When Brendan gives up this job, that's it.

None of his children want to follow in his muddy footsteps.

We catch all sorts, from a Dover sole, to a silver eel, to cod.

In the winter, lots of cod, sprats and whiting.

This time of year, we have shrimps and a few prawns and sole, skate.

Look at that skate.

It makes one of those classic dishes, the first fish dish I ever cooked.

I think we're witnessing the passing of history here.

Soon these scenes will be just photographs on the local pub wall.

And Brendan's mud horse, well, that'll be in the museum.

But back to that skate, and I think a classic dish of all-time,

skate with black butter.

First of all, you poach skate wings with carrot, onions, celery,

bay leaves, black peppercorns.

You poach it for about 15, 20 minutes,

till it's nicely cooked through.

Now for the black butter.

Get a frying pan searingly hot,

and add two or three knobs of salted butter.

Now, it needs to be salted because you want that to catch,

to give the butter a lovely deep brown colour, not black.

Everything happens at the last minute, so lift your skate wings,

straight onto a plate,

cos the sauce is going to take seconds.

Sprinkle the skate wing with about 15 or 20 capers. Now back to the sauce.

It's bubbling away now, and when it starts to firm like that,

add some red wine vinegar, and the kitchen immediately fills with

that pungent smell of hot vinegar.

It catches the back of your throat,

but it's also the smell that entices people into restaurants.

Add chopped parsley and shake it through the butter,

then lift the pan straight off the stove and onto the fish,

and straight out to the customers - the quicker the better.

In South Wales, on the Gower Peninsula, is Penclawdd,

very famous for its cockles.

The cockle gatherers here use little forks and rake them up.

As I watch these bent figures scraping away at the sand,

looking for those jewels on a freezing March morning,

I couldn't stop myself thinking about where they were going to be sold.

Well, they go to Holland and they're put in little tins

and the tins are sent to Spain where they use them for paella.

Maureen is one of the stalwarts who supply the trade.

-We started off out here with bare feet.

-Bare feet?

-Yeah.

Always bare feet out on the sands here. The old ladies.

My mother, my father's mother and generations before,

they've always come out here.

I married my husband, he was a steelworker,

and he joined me at the job and that's it.

I've had four children and still worked at it, you know?

I'd heard of Penclawdd's cockles because they're legendary,

but I'd sort of thought they were done with mechanical dredgers,

but not a bit of it.

It's all done by hand, and that is terribly heartening to me.

Everything's on a human scale.

It's a very, very rich estuary in cockles, but it's looked after.

They're conserved and the natural conservationists

use human beings to fish for them.

It's one of those optimistic stories I love to find.

But it's not just cockles you find here.

When the tide goes out, and it goes out a very long way,

you find seaweed, what they call laver.

This is like wet strands of silk ribbons,

and they boil it for ages and then serve it up.

It's known locally as Welsh caviar.

So, I've never tasted laver, but I'm told it's best hot from

the cauldron like this, and still in its leaf form -

in other words, un-minced.

Well, it smells and it tastes of the beach.

It smells like a cauldron of boiling shrimps to me.

I'd love that on toast for breakfast, I really would.

The other thing about it, it's got this sort of evocative quality

that I can understand why the Welsh get so homesick for it.

It's not like everyday food. You can get mangetout peas

from Thailand any day of the week, right through the winter.

This has got a real sense of place about it.

I'll always be mindful of these cockles,

which I do think are the best cockles in the world.

They're just sensational.

Well, I came up with a dish there and then which I think combines

cockles and laver in a very, very enjoyable way.

It's cockle and laver vol-au-vents with hollandaise sauce.

First of all, cook the cockles,

just a bit of water in a hot pan, and let them open in their own juices.

That will take about two to three minutes. No more.

You don't want to overcook them.

Now the vol-au-vents.

You can find the cases pre-baked, but it's so easy to make.

Just buy the pastry instead.

You just cut little discs out, quite thick,

and then make the lid shapes with a slightly smaller pastry cutter.

Brush them with egg yolks and straight into the oven.

Incidentally, it's puff pastry, of course.

Now the sauce, the hollandaise sauce.

Just a small amount of hollandaise, just one egg yolk

and some lemon juice over some boiling water,

and whisk it hard to make a nice voluminous sabayon.

That's a posh French kitchen word for a fluffy custard.

Now you add clarified butter, whisk that in, then the cockles,

and finally the laver bread, and you fold the whole lot in very,

very gently to avoid losing any volume in that lovely hollandaise.

The vol-au-vents should be baked by now. Take them out of the oven.

They cook for about ten minutes.

Just lift the lids off very carefully.

Now scoop the centre out with a teaspoon so you can fill them

with as much cockle, laver bread and hollandaise as possible.

I suppose it's blowing my own trumpet a bit,

but I thought of this dish with those cockles and the laver

and that lovely expanse of beach and rock and seaweed

and I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have three or four of these

"in the local pub with a pint of Welsh bitter?"

Now that's regional food.

Great to see Rick celebrating retro vol-au-vents there,

proving they've still got a place on menus today. Another

retro dish which I think is well worth celebrating

-is one of my favourite desserts. Queen of puddings.

-Yeah!

-Ever tried queen of puddings?

-No.

-You don't know what it is yet!

-It's got walnuts in it.

-Good!

-Only joking.

No, queen of puddings is like a custard base, really.

A bit sort of like an old version of a creme brulee.

It starts off with milk, cream, sugar, lemon, vanilla,

-eggs and breadcrumbs.

-Full fat milk?

-Full fat milk, full fat cream.

-Where does the name come from?

-Well, the name... I did a bit of a search on the internet.

-Good.

I always thought that it was named after

Queen Victoria, Victoria sponge, around that time.

The only reference I could get that it was around the Victorian time,

so I'm assuming it was around that time, that they

used to use stale bread, about the late 18th century.

But this one here, what I've got is milk and cream boiling up.

Before I add my crumbs,

I'm going to separate my eggs. So we need egg yolks and egg whites.

This is a great way that was invented, rather than using

just egg yolks, the whites are used for the meringue later on.

-Just don't shake anyone's hand too soon after.

-Exactly. Yeah.

This is how I do the eggs. Make sure you've got clean hands.

Put the whites into one, the yolks into another. Oops.

If my little boy's watching

in the green room, I promise

I'll save you some Victoria sponge because it's his favourite.

There we go. Next, what we're going to do...

get some vanilla. A nice piece of vanilla.

My grandmother used to do this dessert a lot

but instead of using vanilla pod, which we can use nowadays,

she used to use vanilla essence.

-Throw that into there.

-Just because it wasn't available?

Yeah, it's expensive as well.

Vanilla pod now is quite expensive but if you can buy it,

buy the extract, not the essence. That's what you're looking for.

So bring this to the boil, add the sugar...

Don't add the sugar to the eggs

because you end up with little yellow specks in.

You can't get rid of those. It starts to burn the yolks,

cook the yolks.

Can you use vanilla sugar?

-Could you use vanilla sugar?

-Yeah, you could.

Yeah, if you want to use that pod.

Once an Irishman, always an Irishman. Like Yorkshiremen.

-Take that back to Ireland. There we go.

-Put it in my pocket.

Exactly.

What we're going to do is mix this now and pour that onto there.

And to kick-fire the flavour, I'm going to add some lemon.

It's unusual putting it with this but it's the main flavour -

that lemon and vanilla combination is great.

So while I put the lemon in, tell us

a little bit about what you're up to at the moment.

I'm doing Guys And Dolls. Two shows today in the West End.

Soon to take it out on tour.

Two weeks in Sunderland, three weeks in Milton Keynes.

And back into the West End.

We know you from TV hit shows like Pie In The Sky

and that sort of stuff.

What's it like going to the West End and doing something different?

It's great. If you can change it as much as possible,

it leads for an interesting life.

I've done predominantly TV for quite a few years.

I was terrified at the idea of coming back on stage

but I'm loving it now.

There's just something about working a story in chronological

order which makes far more sense to you, instead of coming in

-and doing it back to front.

-And you're on stage with Don Johnson.

Yes, who I'm not having "a special relationship" with.

Get rid of those remarks.

Can I just say? I'd met him twice when that came out in the paper.

I'd had one rehearsal with him and an initial meeting.

So, yeah, thanks(!) No offence, Don.

It's the usual stuff that's written.

What I've done with those is I've put the crumbs in there.

Ideally you pop them in a bain-marie,

which is a tray of hot water.

Bake them in the oven really nicely. I've got them in there.

They want to go in the oven...

Because it's quite hot water you're going to put in the tray,

they only want to go in for about 12 minutes - ten to 12 minutes.

Because it's got breadcrumbs in there, they set quite quickly.

-They look like that.

-Oh, wow.

It's almost like an old version of a creme brulee, that sort of thing.

Whisk up the egg whites.

Just add a pinch of sugar, not too much. Mix that together.

Just a touch,

to start the whites going up like that.

You mentioned at the start of the show that you've

-two great kids now.

-Yeah.

-Do you cook at home quite a lot?

-What do you cook?

-I do. I try and cook fresh food as much as possible.

Kids are always difficult.

They have their preferences.

You've got that battle of trying to get veg into their dish

without them seeing them look like vegetables.

Also, my partner is wheat intolerant,

so I find it really difficult finding dishes that we can all eat.

So I try and write them down.

When I know that one works, that's it, we repeat it.

And they all enjoy getting involved.

-But we're a very messy family. We cook messily, so, er, yeah.

-Great.

-Enjoy your food.

-Yeah, we do.

-Enjoy your food.

What I'm going to do with this is whipping up the egg whites

and you sweeten that up with a touch of sugar

just to make a little meringue.

What you want to do is whip these up nice and gently.

Like that.

The real secret of queen of puddings

is the combinations of three flavours.

You've got this custard base and this stuff.

-This is raspberry jam.

-Phwoar!

-You can mix and match.

Delia loves this dessert and she does it with cherries,

which is really nice. It almost turns it into a Black Forest

queen of puddings by using cherry jam.

It's just this combination of the sweetness of the custard

and the sharpness of the jam and everything else

that I think works really well.

When we make our peach crumble, we often put in red berries

or raspberries just to give it that sharp edge.

-There you go. And top the meringue on there.

-It looks amazing.

It's such a simple dessert that you could

easily do it for a dinner party but it's great for kids too.

Yeah.

I love that sort of old, classic sort of feel.

And we need to bake that in the oven.

Keep the temperature exactly the same,

just bake that in the oven, in the bain-marie,

cos you don't want it to overcook.

And that'll cook for another ten minutes - eight to ten minutes -

and you end up with this lovely, crisp meringue.

Oh, wow!

I just think it's a great one...

It's kind of like what Rick was doing with the old vol-au-vents.

A very retro dish.

-There you go. And you just pop that onto our plate.

-Onto MY plate.

Yeah, onto your plate.

So, onto YOUR plate, Sam.

A dusting with icing sugar

because my grandmother used to love this dessert.

She'll be watching from above.

"Must put icing sugar on it, lad."

-There we go. Dive into that.

-Can I?

-Go on, tell me what you think.

Try and serve it warm, that's the great thing about this.

Make the meringue at the last minute, stick it through the oven.

I am so happy at this particular moment.

-Anyone that knows me will be laughing.

-Dive in.

-It's unusual.

-Oh, cor...

-I'll pass it down. There you go.

-I can't tell you how good that is.

-Dive in. Do you like it?

-More than like it.

-She loves it. Brilliant!

That's a great pudding to try this Sunday lunchtime.

If you want to try and make that dessert or try your hand at cooking

any of the food you've seen on Saturday Kitchen,

all the recipes are just a click away at

bbc.co.uk/recipes

We're not live today so instead we're looking

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

Now it's time for some Keralan inspiration from Cyrus Todiwala.

Oh, and a crab.

Good to have you on the show, boss. Put the omelette pan down.

What are we cooking, cos this dish requires

a marathon of chopping?

We're going to work very fast and you're going to help me achieve that.

I'm going to start this already.

-Peel this bit of ginger.

-What's this dish called?

This is Kerala nyandd masala...

if you want to pronounce it right for want of a better word.

It's a crab which is lightly tossed with a combination of ginger, garlic,

shallots, green chilli, curry leaves, that I'm chopping up very fine.

And we finish off with a bit of coconut.

Is it fair to say this would be... Would it be dry, or is this...?

It's going to be dry.

This is quite dry because the coconut at the end,

lovely shredded coconut up there,

the coconut at the end is just going to make it a little bit more dry.

We then serve it with a lovely Currimbhoy salad.

-It's more like an Indian style Caesar salad.

-Yeah.

-It's fantastic.

It gives a lovely twist to the whole dish.

But traditionally, what would it be?

Traditionally it would be you having a large bowl full of crabs,

on the shell, cut into pieces, tossed like that, cooked nicely.

And you'd be messing your whole self up,

eating away through a whole pot of crabs.

-I know you don't like squid. Crab?

-I've never had crab.

-Never had crab?

No. I know, that's terrible.

-The best thing is you serve it up with a nice little curry sauce...

-Yeah?

..at the end, which is fantastic.

So that's what they would do traditionally.

-Right, what else can I chop?

-What about this?

-The chilli?

-The chilli, shredded not chopped. A red one.

-Shredded.

-Red one, shredded.

So this is all about getting everything ready.

It's all about getting everything ready and as you'll see now,

we'll finish it off in a couple of minutes as we go.

I think you can start on the croutons and the other mincing for the salad.

It's like marathon chopping. There you go.

Fantastic, sir. Thank you. That's got me started very nicely.

India is split between so many different cultures and different

areas, how many different languages have you got there?

126.

-126 different languages?

-Yes.

And the country separates so much with food, you go north,

it's very different to the south.

It's amazing. I think if I live to be 1,000

I wouldn't learn Indian food, I'd just be scratching the surface.

Where did you learn the training when you started in India?

I started in Bombay.

And, of course, the boss at home at the time, now I've got a new boss.

-But the boss then was Mum.

-Mother. Yeah.

-Yeah, as usual.

You pick up things from mothers

and then we've recipes handed down from grandmas, et cetera.

And that's where the real excitement starts,

if you're allowed to enter the kitchen as a young boy.

Considering where you come from, cooking

professionally in India at the time, was considered a low profession.

-Yeah.

-So it would have been treated like you're a domestic hand.

To enter the profession was bad enough

because everybody laughed at us.

-So you need inspiration.

-Right.

Right, what goes in the wok?

-Now I'm going to start with the mustard seeds.

-OK.

And as they crackle... When you're doing mustard seeds,

first of all you need the oil to be nice and hot,

but you also need a lid next to you because if you don't,

-you'll end up getting freckle-faced.

-Freckle-faced?

-OK.

-Or worse than that,

-it's going to be a very sad freckle face.

-Freckle face, right.

-OK.

-Because they end up going all over the place.

Now, this dish, start to finish, what's this? You've got four minutes to cook it in.

We've got four minutes to cook it in and that's exactly what we'll do.

In go the shallots, curry leaves, the ginger and the garlic.

Yeah.

The order's quite important, isn't it?

The order's important because the first thing you need to make

sure is that the pan cools down instantly.

Add the tomatoes towards the end.

And the curry leaves need to be fresh?

The curry leaves need to be fresh but if you can't get them fresh,

you've got dried ones,

Would you advise freezing them if you can get them fresh?

The best way to freeze them is buy them fresh, if you can find them.

Put them in a blitzer with a little bit of water,

make a little puree, set it in an ice tray and chuck it in the freezer.

Every time you need to use it, just take it out of the freezer

and put a cube of ice into it.

That way you get a lovely flavour.

-OK.

-Right,

-don't want that to happen.

-OK. What else have we got in here?

-You're frying off everything.

-Just softening it off nicely.

We want the garlic to get a little colour. Not too much.

If it gets too coloured I'm going to mess up my crab.

-Just getting my...

-I'm just sorting out my little croutons.

Stop these from burning.

-So these are fried in oil.

-Yeah. A bit of oil, if you fancy.

Where would this dish come from in India? North? South? South, really.

-It's southwest - Kerala.

-Right.

Great food in Kerala. Lots of use of coconut.

They love their coconut along the whole coastal regions of India.

But in the south, coconut becomes a mainstay.

You've been travelling around India, haven't you?

I spent three weeks there last year.

To Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Amazing culture - it's just so different everywhere you go.

Did it hit you as you got there? You got struck?

You arrive and unless you know a lot about India,

you can't believe how deep a culture it is that you know nothing about.

-Everything you thought you'd expect, you didn't find?

-Exactly.

It's a land of contradictions.

-That's what it's like.

-So, anyway, we've got the coconut in there.

We've got our coconut in there.

Just a bit of a toasted smell coming through now.

So we're ready with that.

And we chuck in the crab meat now.

OK.

Give it a bit of a toss. The crab meat is already cooked.

It's cooked and flaked so you've got to... You don't have to cook it much.

-You've made your own mayonnaise which we've got in here.

-Yeah.

That was something my mum taught me when I was 12.

Yeah, but you've changed it so your mother won't be happy.

I changed it slightly. I put Worcester sauce in it.

She thinks I'm destroying her image.

She actually told me,

"You can read his book

"but don't follow the mayonnaise recipe - it's not mine.

"It's just got my name to it."

She was horrified when I put Worcester in the mayonnaise.

-OK, so this is a dry...

-That's done.

-..a dry mixture.

-That's done.

-Just need to taste it.

-I'm mixing the salad.

I've got some cos lettuce, a bit of this mayonnaise.

The egg, we've got in there.

We've got some chopped, boiled egg in there.

-A bit of coriander.

-Yes, sir.

And we're done.

If you can pile it up on the plate nicely.

-There you go.

-How do you like that? Taste it.

-It might want a bit of seasoning.

-Yeah.

-Seasoning?

-Mm-hm.

A bit of black pepper?

-There you go.

-Perfect.

-There's a plate.

Absolutely record time.

Quick.

Here we go.

-Pile this on there.

-Yes, sir.

A beautiful salad.

I love the salad.

-There you go.

-You're going to love the prawn too.

The crab, rather.

There you go.

This is fantastic.

-Nice as a starter as well as a hot main course.

-Yeah, yeah.

Good for so many different things.

Yeah. You can serve it with a sauce, if you like.

What about in pancakes or something?

Oh, pancakes? Brilliant! It's absolutely perfect in pancakes.

-Absolutely perfect.

-So remind us what that is again?

It's Keralan nyandd masala, if I can come close to it,

cos I can't pronounce it the way they turn their D.

-You do better than me.

-Nyandd.

-Nin-da. With what?

-A Currimbhoy salad.

-It's as simple as that.

Simple as that.

How fantastic is that? It smells absolutely amazing.

Look at you.

We'll pass it straight down there.

-Now.

-It's your first taste of crab.

-It is.

-It's got a little bit of a kick to it.

It's got a good kick because it's got chilli in it.

Excellent. I can smell it, actually. It's amazing.

The coconut helps to bring the chilli down a bit.

Mm...

That's beautiful. I can't have the mayonnaise.

-You don't eat eggs. No mayonnaise.

-The home-made mayonnaise.

-But, oh, wow!

-A bit of a kick to it.

-Yeah, it really has.

-As well as crab, you could use it for lobster?

Anything. Prawns. Lobster. But, yeah, prawns, lobster, scallops.

It's excellent with mussels and clams.

-The secret with that is don't overcook anything.

-Don't...

Like any seafood, don't overcook it.

-Are you happy with that, girls? Silence.

-We're busy.

-They're busy.

He's looking at new dishes for his menu.

-I'm downloading the recipe.

-Exactly, yeah.

And that really is a great way to serve crab

and it's sure to warm you up. Now it's Keith Floyd time.

And today for Keith, it's all about the pig.

So, my little gastronauts, you all think you know what a pig is,

don't you? Richard, sorry, I am talking to the punters, all right?

Would you mind looking at me? Thank you very much. Right,

today we're talking about pigs.

I bet you there's not one in ten of you that knows what a real pig

is because you accept the real rubbish that the breeders of

injected, bloated, plastic style, factory-made pigs pass off as pork.

Come back down here, Richard. I've got a REAL piece of pig.

Look at that thick fat there.

Look at that little line of gristle under there which makes

the crackling. Look very close here. It's still rough.

You could sandpaper the window ledges with this

and that would make the mustard, the salt and things stick on there

to get the crackling on a proper roast joint that you want.

But, as I said, most of you are such fools, you put up with

the rubbish of supermarkets, hypermarkets and pig breeders.

You don't realise that like here, on Heal's Farm in Devon,

you can get fabulous pigs.

Enough of that. That's my lesson, my lecture, we're now going to cook it.

Before I cook it, because it's very hot,

the lights have been burning on me all morning...

a sip of cider from a field right outside this kitchen window.

Here's an interesting thing about this dish.

Not only is it simple to make, of pork, but come and look at the ingredients,

because it's significant - they all come from the same field!

The pig lives off the apples.

Which I've turned into a smooth apple puree there, by the way.

In the adjoining field is a cow,

from which they made the milk and the cream.

The apples are also turned into cider.

The only foreign thing here... We couldn't make it ourselves because

it's against the law. We distilled some cider to make some calvados.

We've butter - also from the farm.

Foreign salt and pepper. Right, that's it.

Over here, please. This is the frying pan.

This is for Richard's benefit, he's our new cameraman.

He's still feeling his way. No! Stay over here!

Into the pan, a little bit of pork like that.

Stay with that while I wander around.

A teeny-weeny bit of butter. The pan is hot already.

Seal it quickly on both sides.

Because this is a real pig that hasn't been fed on additives

and alleged nutriments and things, it's going to be tender

and very, very delicious. That's too hot now,

so put that over there and let that cook away for a while.

While I've a little slurp.

# Slurp, slurp, slurp! #

Great, so the pork is nicely cooked now. Add a little drop of calvados.

Like that.

Push it over onto the hotter of the two gases.

Immediately lift out the pork because that's lightly undercooked.

Although it's crunchy on the outside,

We don't want it to stew in this liquid.

Then a bit of cider into the calvados.

Meat drippings stirred like that. And using the magical...

Richard, could you come to me a second?

Using those magical mixers we have on television,

the next time you see this, the sauce will be reduced,

five minutes will have gone by and the dish will be continued.

Perfect, isn't it?

MUSIC: "The Sun Has Got Its Hat On"

# The sun has got its hat on

# Hip hip hip hooray

# All the little boys excited All the little girls delighted

# What a lot of fun for everyone

# Sitting in the sun all day... #

SIZZLING

So that's reduced to almost a syrupy consistency now - the calvados

and the cider.

In we put a spoonful, I should think, of this beautiful apple puree.

Stir that well into the juices.

At the same time, pour in this lovely Devon double cream.

Stir round. Test for seasoning.

Oh, ah... Ah... Come here a minute, Richard.

That's brilliant.

I'm sorry that none of you are going to get to taste this.

You'll have to take my word for it - it's fantastic. Over to the plate.

Over to the plate. Beautifully liaised. Just pour that gently over.

Like that. And there you've a dish which is called pork Normand.

In fact we shall call this pork Heal Farm style

because it's all the wonderful ingredients of the calvados

countryside in northern France you can find here in Devon.

And since I'm such a brilliant cook, first class ingredients,

there it's...pork Heal Farm style.

Fantastic. I'm going to eat it.

PIG GRUNTS

You know, I'm a lucky fellow.

As we charge around the countryside with Floyd and the BBC,

who very kindly don't pay for the things that we have,

because we have to beg and borrow and steal, even the kitchens we use,

the hotels, the restaurants and stuff,

we con our way in, like with Ann's kitchen here.

This beautiful 13th-century farmhouse,

which has got oak beams.

Probably the same oak that Drake used for his ships for the Armada

and also, Ann breeds the kind of pigs and makes the kind of hams

that probably Drake himself would have eaten.

Ancient breeds, collector's items, the antique pig.

That's what we're here looking at today.

Ann, do you think that the vast plethora of piggy products

that you've got around the place really does prove the point

that a well-butchered pig leaves nothing but the grunt, doesn't it?

I think you've proved that point, we've even used the grunt today!

We have taken it a bit over the top in a way, perhaps.

I enjoyed meeting them in the field, they are very friendly things.

They're sort of... They can't be pets, but they've got

this lovely warm feeling about them, haven't they?

They have, they're terrific personalities,

some are more attractive than others,

but in the main, they're absolutely super.

Why are you taking agricultural history back 100 years

when we've got all these splendid ways, they tell us,

of farming without getting muddy,

of farming without getting wet or cold? You're up to your neck in it!

We work from the ideal product backwards.

We thought, "What ought to be in a sausage?"

Well, there ought to be proper meat in a sausage.

And that's what we've done - we've experimented,

we've gone back to our recipes.

-I'll tuck in, by the way. Sorry to interrupt.

-Have a chunk, yes.

That ham was cooked with Devon cider and spices and orange peel,

which is an ancient recipe.

And we find that everybody loves it.

Out of all the Floyd food programmes, people write to us and say,

"It's all very well for you, having all this expensive food,

"we haven't really got the money to indulge ourselves..." in the way that I appear to be doing.

But isn't it so that, if you use real produce,

which is a little bit more expensive,

you're not going to get the weight loss in cooking and stuff like that.

Take bacon, for example. The stuff you get often,

it doesn't fry, it boils.

It's been injected with so much water that if you actually weighed

-the cooked product, it's very expensive, isn't it?

-Yes.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit bored with this TV bit, aren't you?

And we've been as good as gold. We've been answering questions,

asking questions, explaining country life.

We've told them about pigs,

we've told them about how crackling was invented.

Why don't we just ignore them now?

-In fact, I'll tell you what, the best way...

-That's right. Why not?

The best way to cheer ourselves up is to have a drop of the proper

Devon cider and forget that they ever existed.

-When does your husband come home?

-About three hours' time.

Come on, own up, this programme's got everything!

A rerun from Animal Farm,

a terrific performance by Napoleon there.

Good on you, Nap!

Its wonderfully witty archive footage, style, elegance and taste.

In fact, it's an everyday story of television folk. Ha-ha-ha!

I reckon that's enough country, don't you?

PIG GRUNTS

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

As you can see, the producer's love affair

with our stormy coastline continues.

Thank heavens it's too rough to go to sea

or he'd have me doing the shopping for the next scene by boat.

Attention, all shopping, especially Sainsbury's, Safeway's

and... Sorry, Tesco's.

And now, back to Floyd On Food,

and let's see if I can con a kipper for breakfast.

-Hi, Martin. Nice to see you.

-Hi, Keith, good morning.

You know I've come for the stuff for Mary Flynn

-and it's in this thing, isn't it?

-That's right. Shall I get it out?

Yes, please. It'd be terrific.

-Now, a-ha!

-I think she wanted some kippers, didn't she?

-She did, indeed. Hey, is that a real kipper?

-That's a real kipper.

Why isn't it sort of bright orange or yellow?

-Well, you see, we haven't used any colour...

-Look at that.

Look, this is the beginning of the

Floyd campaign for real kippers, OK?

Jack the Ripper, as she was born,

not a golden smoked thing with nasty chemicals in. Brilliant.

-There we are.

-Great, thank you very much.

Come on in, Richard, we want to see into this oven.

Is it called an oven or a smoker? What's the proper term?

-Well, it's a kiln. It's a smoking kiln.

-Right.

Here is what I like the look of very much.

This is a smoked herring of some kind, but different to the others.

Yes, it's a buckling. Instead of being done without heat,

these have been cooked in the same way as the mackerel have,

so they're ready to eat as they are.

And this is very much a delicacy in Scandinavia and Germany?

-That's correct.

-Yeah, delicious.

You could eat that, by the way, with some soured cream

with chives chopped in it,

or some horseradish sauce, slightly weakened with cream.

-Now, Mary wanted some trout, I think.

-Good, yeah.

-Grand.

-And what else have you got here?

-I also have an eel. A monster eel.

A fresh-water eel. Isn't he smashing?

Yes, he is. The colours are slightly different here.

Can you change the colour by the texture of the wood

-or what happens there?

-Yes, if we want a darker colour,

we can use more soft wood.

-Though we don't want to use too much, obviously.

-Right.

Oak is the prime, or apple,

but availability and the mix required to get the colour.

Right, so like a painter, you mix the pigments and colour the thing.

-That's right.

-Right.

-A smaller one too.

-A smaller one.

-Now, did you want a salmon?

-Yes.

-I think Mary wanted a salmon.

For those who can afford it, that is delightful.

-Isn't that beautiful?

-Yeah.

-Smashing fish.

-Good-oh.

-We also have some trout in the same way, which is

-they're large trout which we smoke like salmon.

-Very good.

-Which, I think, Mary's got already.

-Right.

-Now...

A bit of bacon, cos I'm going to stuff a cabbage later on

and I wanted some really good smoked bacon.

I could actually eat that raw, couldn't I? If I wanted to.

-That's beautiful.

-I think you might cook it, but you could,

-yes, certainly, it would be in some places.

-Yeah. That is delightful.

That's going into my stuffed cabbage later on. And...what else?

-The cold-smoked mackerel fillet.

-Right.

-This is rather fun.

-It's a mackerel fillet smoked in the same way as that.

-Yeah.

You slice it in thin slices and eat it as it is.

I'm overcome with hunger here. I'm sorry about this.

That is beautiful.

-That's good, that's a triumph, isn't it?

-Lovely.

Mm! Have a go at those, damned good.

Right. And that about...

-Oh, and chicken.

-Smoked chicken and pheasant, of course.

-Right.

-Which you've already got, haven't you?

-Yes, we have.

But that's what it would come out like.

I mean, this is a chicken that has been smoked and cooked...

-Great.

-..and slightly salted, so that it's a firmer texture

than you would normally expect from chicken.

Yeah, what a golden, natural feast that is.

That's splendid, isn't it? I've got right into colours.

I'd like to be a painter, you know,

but who needs to be a painter when you can prepare food like that?

That's absolutely fabulous. And just have a look.

I can't emphasise how beautiful

that little gibbet of Jack the Rippers are. Isn't that fantastic?

# Smoke a little kipper And you smoke a little trout

# Then smoke a little mackerel That's what it's all about

# And if you want to beat that old fish fry

# You can smoke a little eel if you really try. #

All this smoke has made me feel a bit eel. Sorry about that.

Anyway, what we've done is we've begged our way,

conned our way into a kitchen which we couldn't afford to own,

certainly not even to rent, from Mary Flint.

Mary, thanks very much for having us.

Let's start our little acquaintanceship

as we mean to carry on,

-with a quick slurp of your wonderful wine.

-Nostrovia!

And thanks for having me here. You love all this kind of fish.

Have a good look at this fish, Richard, please,

because I think this buckling, for instance...

They're like golden bars.

They look as though they've been

dredged from the bottom of the sea, from a sunken wreck.

Tell me all about this lovely fish and what you're going to do with it.

OK, that's enough fish now, Richard. Back to us and to my friend Mary.

What are you going to do?

I'm going to cut it up and put it on a platter and hopefully

concoct a little hors d'oeuvre

-before your other dish.

-That's really nice.

-Do you want to get started on that?

-Why not? I'll start with this.

This is this fabulous eel, isn't it?

Yes.

And I'm going to cut it in pieces,

skin it and have it ready.

Just skin one bit right away so that

people can see how that's done.

I'm going to take a larger knife,

-because...

-Yeah.

-There you go.

And pay attention to this, Richard.

You just peel the skin off, you see?

No problem, and heave that away.

Great, I think she deserves a...

Have a drink, Mary, have one on the firm there.

I think I'll have one too. Not a bad idea. Excuse me,

I've got to roll my sleeves up to do a bit of work, you see.

Right, quick slurp for me.

Cheers to me. Cheers, Mary.

Now, a little story here.

A few weeks ago, I was at some public exhibition

and a fishmonger came up to me and said,

"Look, would you mind putting your programmes on at the time

"of the year that match the way we catch the fish?

"Because it's very annoying when you cook something,

"people come to buy it the next day and it's out of season."

It'll be even worse this time, because this is the middle of winter,

OK? This is the middle of winter, but when you see this cabbage,

it'll probably be June or July, something like that,

and you won't be able to buy them. Bad luck, so remember it for next time round.

Anyway, we're doing cabbages today.

So, Richard, if you'd like to come round and have a little look

at what we've got here - some ground pork,

minced pork, belly of pork, that is.

The cheapest possible cut.

Then, across here, a little bit of chilli powder.

A little crushed garlic.

Because it's winter, dried dill,

but if we could have got fresh, we'd have preferred it.

Dried apricots, tomato puree,

parsley and chopped onions.

Right, up and over, I'm going to make a nice little mess.

You can come down again as I chuck all these things into here.

A bit of onion, like that.

A bit of parsley in.

I'll be mixing that with the other herbs.

These lovely pieces of... Ah, I'm getting some assistance here.

A bit of dill, bit of garlic - in we go.

And then, nice, gungy tomato puree.

And a bit of the chilli powder, not too much of that.

And my assistant director's ripping me off, at this very moment,

which he usually does, a piece of tissue so I can clean my hands.

This will provoke a lot of letters -

"He's used his hands again." Never mind. Right, that's that.

Tissue, please, Director... Assistant Director. Thank you.

See how good they are to me, don't you? Excellent, aren't they?

Right, one of the things I did earlier on was

I blanched this whole cabbage, so it's partly cooked.

And the heart's taken out.

So all I now do is whack a few leaves down, like this.

And put in my first...

little layer of my mixture.

Fold the leaf over, like that.

OK. Then I put another bit on, like that.

I get another leaf out.

And I expect you're all fairly bored with that process,

but you go on assembling the thing in that way.

Now, um, great chefs, people like Auguste Escoffier,

who for me is sort of a saint,

were not only brilliant, but they were humble.

This simple recipe I'm making today I've ripped off from him.

What would be really good... If the BBC,

you know all those intelligent programmes they have, like, um...

-um...

-Omnibus, er, Arena. Um...

-arts programmes.

-Oh, yes. Yeah.

I know, yes, sorry. All those...

Actually, he's got the heart of a cabbage as well.

If they, instead of doing these weird flautists and poets and things,

devoted, you know, 40 minutes to the life and work

of a great man like that, television would be all the better for it.

Anyway, I'll get on with cooking, have a slurp...

and see you again in a moment. I'll carry on doing these.

# Escoffier... #

Auguste Escoffier, held by some to be one of the greatest chefs,

was born in 1846, the son of a blacksmith.

He was best known in Britain via the Savoy, for making super puddings

for the petulant singers. Ever heard of peach Melba? Get it?

# ..Voila!

# Escoffier

# Escoffier... #

With his friend, Cesar Ritz,

he fed the monarchy and superstars of his day.

But, like many geniuses, he died a poor man.

And although the culinary pendulum has swung far from his style,

his spirit lives on in kitchens everywhere.

So I'm sure you feel pretty enriched and happy by that, don't you?

Mervin Bargg, eat your heart out.

I've finished the cabbage.

Just tie it with string so it doesn't fall apart

and pop it into a richly made chicken or beef or veal stock.

I'm walking slowly because the cameraman can't keep up with me.

In it goes for about 40 minutes.

The next time you see it and me, I shall be sitting

with my new-found friend Mary, bottle of wine, wonderful fish,

wonderful cabbage, having a fine time.

This is absolutely delicious, but the point is, it's totally fresh.

I know it's smoked, but it's fresh. It's not out of horrible packets.

No, no, no, absolutely genuinely... Are you going to give me some?

-Yes, will you have some eel?

-I'll have some eel, yes.

-Right.

-This is the delight of the whole thing, the eel.

-Great, wonderful.

Thanks to Martin and his wonderful smoking.

-A bit of...?

-Yes, that is the smoked mackerel.

-And that's nice and flavoursome.

-Let me help you.

-That's quite difficult.

-And a bit of the trout.

-Wonderful.

-OK.

-Really nice, thank you.

-I'll have a bit more eel cos I'm fond of that.

-Why are you so fond of eel?

-Because it has this wonderful damp texture

and taste which... I don't know how you'd describe it. How would you?

-Tell me what you think of it.

-I think it tastes like fishy truffles.

-That's a good idea.

-It really does, it's got a long-lasting flavour

which isn't overpowering and it's not dry and heavy,

-like a factory produced, er...smoked thing.

-No.

It's still...

It's still moist, very slightly oily.

-It's wonderful.

-Very good indeed.

One thing that's quite funny on these programmes -

and I'm at the moment quite angry - we have spent, for technical reasons,

quite a long time when we should have been enjoying ourselves,

sorting out a little problem, so I just had a row with the director.

Anyway, all that's better now, and we're going to have the other bit

of our meal, which is this fabulous - I hope it's fabulous! -

-stuffed cabbage.

-Wonderful.

Can you see it all right, Richard? See how nicely layered it is.

I wonder if it's going to taste all right.

All I've done is poured a bit of melted butter

over the chicken stock in which we cooked it.

And by the way, for those of you who really want to know how long

these things took, it took about 55 minutes to cook properly.

-Is that enough?

-Yes, that's fine.

-Cut myself a little piece.

It doesn't matter if it crumbles up.

I think this is a lovely follow-on

to the luxurious part of the meal which is the beautiful smoked fishes

and now this very simple, inexpensive thing.

-It's great, isn't it? Let's have a quick taste.

-Let's try.

-It's all right, isn't it?

-It's very good indeed.

I'm quite thrilled by that.

I want to tell you something that you really frightened me about.

It's the first time I've ever cooked stuffed cabbage, you see.

And I wanted to do something really simple because some

of the programmes are extravagant things and I like a balance, you see.

I was happily making this, although I'd never made it before,

and you said, "Oh, you're going to be making this little Polish number."

And I thought, oh, my God! How would you have made these?

I would have done them as individual little parcels.

But the effect would have been virtually the same.

Instead of making big parcels, you make individual parcels.

And do you like the idea of the tomato sauce with it?

Yes, and that is called golobki.

It's a well-known, extremely good Polish dish.

-And slow, simple peasant cooking.

-Wonderful.

-It doesn't need a lot of money, it just needs patience.

-Love, love.

-I'll drink to that.

-And I too. Cheers.

-Thank you very much, Mary.

-Great pleasure.

It's always great to see a classic piece of Floyd.

On today's Best Bites, as always, we're looking back

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

Still to come, it's Scotland versus Australia in the omelette challenge

as Nick Nairn takes on Donna Hay.

Would either of them be able to better their times?

Find out later on.

And Jason Atherton serves up Japanese-style seared tuna.

He serves the tuna with soy, ginger and chilli glaze and bok choi.

And Jason Donovan faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven?

Fillet steak in a hearty steak sandwich

with caramelised red onions and home-made stout mustard?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell with calves' liver -

my pan-fried calves' liver with bacon, lemon and black cabbage?

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

Now, it's time for soup.

But not just any soup, a Michelin-starred bowl,

thanks to the brilliant Tom Kitchin.

It's a different ingredient, but it's fashionable now,

all these different cuts, they are fashionable.

We use it in the restaurant and it sells well.

-So I thought I'd do it today.

-Fashionable people waking up

with a hangover, this time in the morning.

We've got ox tongue, what are we doing with it?

We'll make a leek and potato soup, very fast,

nice and bright green, and serve it with a soft poached quail's egg.

-Not quail's, hen's.

-You need me to get on and do the potatoes for this.

-Yeah.

-Because this soup will be cooked from start to finish

-in six minutes.

-That's the idea, anyway. See how we go.

I'm slicing my onion

and you are going to do the garnish to serve with the dish.

-You want a bit of potato in the soup as well?

-I think so.

-OK.

So, very fast.

The ethos of your cooking is a bit like Lawrence -

Scottish ingredients, local ingredients.

Yes, it's just local ingredients, seasonality, fresh produce,

good tasty food. It's worked so far, so we'll keep going.

You have a great larder in Scotland. Fantastic, right on your doorstep.

Yes, it's absolutely fantastic.

We're just waiting for spring to come and all the lovely spring vegetables

and lamb and all those kind of products.

-Right, you are using the green of the leek for the soup.

-Yes, exactly.

The green of the leek is a part people don't use enough of.

It's going to give a wonderful green colour to the soup.

-Yeah.

-And also, instead of it going in the bin or in the stock,

it's going to be used.

We'll get that cooking. We'll get it cooking as quickly as possible.

I've got the kettle boiling at the side

and I'll pour the boiling water on top

to help the soup cook as quickly as possible.

The reason why we're cooking it quick is

because if you leave it, it goes a horrible muddy colour.

Exactly, we don't want that.

There we go. We put the boiling water in and that's it,

the soup boiling away already.

I've got some potatoes blanching for our garnish for our soup.

And you want some diced white of leek for the soup as well?

Yes, please. OK, so now we're cooking the ox tongue.

-I'll give you that bouquet garni here.

-Thank you.

This is just a mirepoix of vegetables -

carrot, celery, leek, bouquet garni.

And some garlic. OK?

Now, bouquet garni is what? Parsley, a little bit of bay leaf?

Classic. Parsley, thyme, bay leaf,

wrapped in a bit of leek.

Classic, classic cooking, there.

And we've got a pot of boiling water.

Now, talking of classic,

we're moving on to the old ox tongue here.

These sorts of dishes and these particular

cuts of produce are coming back

with a vengeance now, aren't they?

Yes, I think it shows a great skill of a chef of knowing

how to cook these products.

In the middle of going through these recession times,

chefs have to use different products, which are going to make their GPs.

Talking about the tongue, literally, that whole piece,

you're looking at no more than a tenner, really.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's go to cook for about four to five hours,

depending on size.

And a good way to check there is to stick the knife into the tongue,

and if it falls off, we know it's ready.

You start it with cold water and bring it to boil?

Bring it, skim it and then we'll cook it there.

-That's that one.

-So, we've got one I cooked earlier.

I'll put that pan on for you.

CRASHING AND CLATTERING

Don't worry, carry on!

LAUGHTER

He's throwing that at me there!

I never did like that pot, anyway. Right, OK, carry on.

-Nobody's noticed.

-You've flustered me now, James!