Episode 124 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Prepare yourself for amazing food. We've got loads of great cooking

specially for you, right here on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

And welcome to the show. You're in for a real treat this morning,

because we've got some world class chefs and celebrities,

including Mel B and Chris Isaak, ready to taste

some of the best food around.

'The pride of Wales, Bryn Williams, braises pork cheeks'

and serves them with honey and ginger roast carrots

and delicious new season Jersey Royal potatoes.

And Mark Sargeant pan fries line-caught sea bass for us.

He serves the fish with a unique fennel pesto and a tomato salsa.

Michael Caines comes all the way from Devon to honey roast

some succulent breast of Barbary duck.

He serves it with a simple, yet tasty wild mushroom fricassee

flavoured with tarragon and spinach.

And Spice Girl Mel B faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get a Food Heaven, salmon with my tasty salmon coulibiac?

That's a fillet of smoked salmon wrapped in pastry with spinach

and served with carrots and asparagus.

Or would she get a dreaded Food Hell?

Scallops, which could be pan cure-topped scallops

with black pudding, cauliflower puree,

and a vanilla and curry oil.

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

But now it's time for a small dose of Silvena Rowe.

It's the time she came armed with a fish she calls the new cod.

Bryn Williams and Lisa Snowdon were there to keep me sane.

-Come here, big boy.

-It's Silvena. Now, treat me nicely.

-I will treat you nice.

-Great, go on...

-Continental, we kiss twice, you know.

-What are we cooking?

-Barramundi.

-Oh, three times now!

-What are we cooking?

-Barramundi.

-Yeah.

-Barramundi because it is the most

delicious fish and I love fish, but, then again, I do come from

a meat country where we don't eat that much fish, so, in this

country, in England, I discovered all different varieties, amazing fish.

This, basically, is an Australian fish,

but it's been actually farmed, or, as you said earlier,

grown in this country, in the New Forest,

so, in my book, this is delicious...not just a delicious

and sweet fish, but, also, environmentally friendly,

-ethically correct fish.

-There you go.

-It carries a rating of two,

which is excellent, so you can eat it

-with your conscience very clear.

-Right.

And, you know what? It is delicious, very meaty, extremely sweet...

Kind of like a sea bass sort of texture?

Yes, and slightly sweeter even than that. So, look how easy...

Now, you said barramundi, which, I believe,

-translates from Aboriginal to large scales, so, this is...

-Yes.

Well, you said, sort of, you know, one of these sort of good fish,

-on the scale of two. That means it's...

-Yes, it's sustainable.

Sustainable. Yes, now, these things grow to be massive, don't they?

About 2m big, some of them can be massive.

They do in the wild, but, you know what?

There is no concrete evidence that this is...if you get a wild one,

it's been actually caught wild and, you know what?

In Australia, they blacklisted the wild fish,

so, this is the best you will ever get knowing that you

actually are saving the planet in some way.

This is the regular size that you can get from British supermarkets here.

-Yeah.

-And what I'm doing now here...it's very interesting,

it doesn't have a middle bone, it just has one big bone,

so, it's extremely easy to fillet as you see and I'm no fishmonger,

as you probably can see. Let me take you through the next ingredients.

Now, I'm going to trim it nicely here...

-Yeah.

-..because this is quite a big chunky fillet.

Right, there it is, gorgeous fillet. Let me do the other side.

While I'm doing that, I'll show you my other ingredients.

-Do you want me to chop some shallots for you?

-Yes, please.

-I wouldn't mind if you...

-Explain to us these spices,

-cumin being one of them, which everybody's familiar with.

-Yeah.

Cumin is great and it's something I was brought up with,

so, I'll never, ever leave my favourite cumin,

but sumac is something I discovered very recently.

Um, you know, through my journeys in Eastern European cuisine,

I discovered a lot of Ottoman influences and you do know,

of course, that I'm half-Ottoman, half Turkish, so, I have to

tell you that, uh, sumac,

it's extremely versatile, works very well...

-And this is the sumac?

-That's right. It comes from the sumac berry.

-Yeah.

Do not use too much of it. It's not particularly hot,

but it is very zesty, very tangy,

and I'm surprised that our big chefs in this country do not use

-more of it, because...

-Blame him. Bryn, why aren't you using sumac?

-Yes.

-It's not my fault!

-He's not even using barramundi!

It's a new herb for us, it's something we've not cooked with,

so, it's a case of, maybe after today we'll use it.

Again, it's one of these ingredients that I've never heard of...

I've never heard of it before, no.

Well, sumac, it's everywhere in Middle Eastern cooking,

Turkish cooking, goes very, very well, ideally, with fish,

but, if you do a tomato salad, tomato, sumac,

parsley and a bit of pomegranate molasses...

-Is it easy to get hold of?

-Very easy. Everywhere.

You can bring it back from holidays, I suppose, can't you?

Yes, that's what I did.

I was in Istanbul recently and I brought my own

because they grind it for you in the spice market there.

Don't make the mistake of what my sister did,

which was brought back some spice that looked like this white powder

-in a little bit of clingfilm bag.

-And... Oh, I see, I see.

-The gloves were on as she walked through Customs.

-Say no more.

Not a good idea! Right, go on.

-Right, now, before I take you through the rest of my ingredients.

-Yeah.

Actually, I'm going to sear my fish. Now, very simply pan-fried.

I'm going to make sure I'm pushing it down because I don't want it to curl.

Skin-side down. Do you want me to hold that while you wash your hands?

-Yes, thanks so much.

-I'll move that out the way. There you go.

-There we go.

-Right, so, it's about three minutes on one side,

on the skin side, and about two minutes on the other side.

-Right, now, my fingers are starting to cook.

-No, no, they have to be

-used to it by now.

-So, this is just holding the fish down. You

could have cut slits in the top of this, couldn't you?

Yes, you could to make it more pretty, but, we're talking

very home style here, because it's something available in supermarkets.

In my opinion, this is going to be the new cod.

-It is so, so, so amazing.

-This is the new cod in the New Forest, is it?

Yes. New cod in the New Forest, that's my opinion.

Now, what I'm going to do is just a little bit of white wine sauce

-with the shallot.

-Yeah.

Once this is cooked here, I'm going to actually sear my shallot

and my white wine and oregano and chives.

-Oregano reminds me very much of summer savouries, delicious.

-Yeah.

And, also, we are entering now the spring, so, it's very inviting.

-Do you want me to chop that?

-Yes, please, just very roughly.

And here are my ingredients for

my avocado hummus.

Now, unlike regular hummus, I'm not using chickpeas.

What I've done here, I'm using actually a small quantity

of very good quality tahini.

Tahini being sesame paste, so, it's very, very strong,

so, you don't want too much.

In the UK, there's two main types, isn't there, really, of

sesame paste? One toasted and one not.

-Yeah, this is the toasted one.

-Toasted one.

I mean, normally, in the Middle East, there's about 11 different

tahini qualities and you should try and aim for the best one. So,

we have particularly amazing quality of avocado here.

Really, all I can say to you is, just peel it in the last minute,

because, we have to make sure that it does not discolour.

I'm going to let you do that.

Right, I'm going to watch my fish while you're doing that.

So, although you are calling this a hummus,

-normally made with chickpeas, of course.

-Yes.

This is done with, um...

It's a bit like carpaccio, beetroot carpaccio, for example.

So, if you're a stickler for it, really, maybe it is correct,

but, it is the same consistency, the tahini gives this smooth,

-velvety, marshmallowy kind of touch to it, you know. Very, very silky.

-Yeah.

-So, the avocado is going in, the garlic goes in.

-Get a plate for that.

A touch of cumin. So, we continue with the same theme of our fish.

-Yeah.

-The sumac goes in here and I'm going to pour my tahini.

Like I said, not too much, because it will get too bitter.

It is quite...it's almost like chewing on wallpaper paste,

-isn't it?

-If you use too much, yes, it is, but we're using a little.

You know what? I think Lisa will be very interested in that,

because she mentioned guacamole and this is just as delicious.

Very different, of course,

but, if you like your avocado, you're going to love that, Lisa.

-My mouth's watering.

-Oh, good. MIXER WHIRRS

-You want those shallots in there?

-Yes...

-I'll leave you to do that.

-Thank you.

-So, you've got...

-Oh, gods! See?

I've not been here for quite some time, I've forgot my way around it.

-Who's fault is that? Who's fault is that?

-There you are.

Do you want some olive oil in here, Silvena, or...?

A touch, please, yeah.

-So, you've just got lemon juice in there.

-Yes.

-Yeah?

What about the spices that you're going to put in there?

Sumac, cumin, a bit of salt, a bit of pepper, I'm going to add now.

Not too much.

-And you want it fairly...

-Olive oil?

-Where's the olive oil?

-Yeah, please.

-Tell me when.

That's great, thank you.

Because this will make it delicious and creamy

and look what we've got here.

Look at this.

Can our camera have a look inside?

-Because the colour and the velvet is just...

-Look at that.

I mean, it's so silky. Amazing. Great, now, wine goes in here.

Wine, all right.

I'll chop your chives, shall I? Is that what you want?

Oh, yes, please.

-OK.

-If you can chop my chives.

I mean, the white wine sauce for this is nothing else,

-just the white wine.

-And, you know what?

I like the wine to really almost evaporate to give this

-flavour into the shallots. I like the crunch with the fish.

-All right.

-So, the fish is there. Right. Now, let's see.

-I'll get you a spoon.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-A little bit higher temperature...

-Thank you so much.

-There you are.

To infuse it now, let's put a bit of salt, a bit of pepper here.

-Do you want that on a plate?

-Yes, please, thank you very much.

-Like that?

-That's great, that's beautiful. Thank you, James.

Or, shall I say, baby James?

I don't know why! Sweet baby James, I'm sorry...

Oh, God! I knew this would start already. There we go.

A bit of chives in there...

I mean, you reminded me of it, very kindly earlier.

You said, "This is what they call me now, sweet baby James!"

THEY LAUGH

-That's fine.

-No, I didn't!

Oh, don't be shy now! It's only national TV!

-Just get the thing on the plate!

-It's only national TV, you know!

Don't be shy! We all know you're sweet.

That's why I'm here, really, not because they're paying me

or anything. You're asking me nice to be here. OK, it goes in here.

A sprinkle of sumac, because...

And they're black sesame seeds, are they?

Bryn, I worked in a restaurant once upon a time too, so...

Oh, this is how beautiful it looks. Gorgeous.

-So, remind us what that is again.

-This is...

-In one sentence, please.

This is cumin and sumac crusted barramundi with avocado hummus.

Brilliant. Easy as that.

There we go.

Now, Lisa, have you ever had barramundi on your travels?

Never had barramundi before.

There you go. You don't have to go to Australia for that.

It is Australian Model's favourite fish, apparently.

-It's a lovely plate as well, isn't it?

-Do you know why?

Because it's totally...but I don't want to tell you anything any more.

I don't want to put words in your mouth.

Please, of course, be aware, there shouldn't be any bones,

-but, of course, it's fish.

-OK.

-Yeah, here we go.

-Mmm.

-It's all right?

-You see?

-It's better than all right. It's lovely.

-It's crispy.

-That's all you get.

You need to learn to get a big spoonful on here, you see. But nice.

Other types of fish that you could do it, if people couldn't get

-barramundi...?

-Sea bass, very similar to sea bass,

although, the sea bass will not give it the sweetness and,

with sea bass, you have to check if it's a sustainable source.

The most beautiful thing about that fish is it's sustainable,

and it is available in our supermarkets.

It is very rare here, it is a new thing in this country to farm,

-the farm was, you know, created, I don't know, very recently.

-Yeah.

It's great to have it as a choice, I'm not saying every day,

but it's great to have it as another choice.

-Bryn?

-Delicious.

-I haven't tried it yet.

It took you, like, five minutes to make it as well.

-How quick and easy is that?

-I know...

-A lot of spice.

-You like that?

-This is good. It's hummus.

-All that craziness was worth it, I think.

-Ah!

What a great recipe, and if you can't get your hands on barramundi,

then any sustainable white fish should do the trick.

Coming up, singing sensation and former boxer Chris Isaak

sings for his lunch, but first, Rick Stein

is on the hunt for watercress and a long-lost Dorset cheese.

I'm on my way from Southampton to the Isle of Wight for their

famous annual Garlic Festival.

'On the way over, I met this really nice chap. He really loved his food.

'I think he said his name was Onslow.'

He was going over for Cowes Week, and, with all those large yachts

from all over the world, there was a serious smell of money in the air.

No doubt, people would be eating lobster and popping champagne corks

over in the marquees, but I had other things on my mind.

I'd never been to a Garlic Festival before,

'and I didn't really know what to expect.

'I'd heard that garlic grows really well on the island and it was

'a must of things I had to do on my Gastronomic Tour of Britain.'

But it didn't look very garlicky to me.

So, we've got the circus, candyfloss, um,

there's a doll's house shop over there.

Some sumo wrestlers up there.

There's a clairvoyant and the Army are here,

there's lots of big army trucks.

Um...

I've almost forgotten what we've come here for.

I mean, the garlic...I wonder where it is?

Now, this was worth coming for...

freshly barbecued corn on the cob brushed with hot butter.

It had that mouth-popping crunch when the veg has just been picked

and still retains its sugar content.

That's the first thing to go, actually,

when it's been lying around. Ah! Getting warmer.

Moules mariniere then a nice smell of garlic from some moules Provencal.

Did you say you had some garlic fudge?

Yeah, we've got chocolate and vanilla.

-Could I have a vanilla one, then?

-Yeah, that's that one...

'Only in Britain could anyone come up with this, garlic fudge...

'now, this is a first for me!'

Oh, dear!

But the day was full of happy eaters, mainly eating hot dogs.

Actually, garlic was a symbol of our emerging culinary

sophistication in the '60s.

A point recognised by the garlic growers, Colin and Jenny Boswell.

When you walked along the street 25 years ago

and you smelt that smell of garlic coming out of a bistro or

something, it said to you, immediately in your mind,

it said it was good times, it meant wine and drink,

probably in a foreign country.

Now, when I smell garlic today, I still think of good times.

But you're so right, I mean, thinking about it, I mean,

I started my restaurant 25 years ago and it was garlic.

I can remember I went to a seafood bar in Falmouth

and it was that smell of hot shellfish and garlic and it just...

it was just so exotic, and I was thinking,

-"Yeah, I want to do this!"

-That's right. You even smote seitan to

-get the scent...

-Well, I was smoking seitan at the time, but

I've given them up, I've given them up!

I used to smoke seitan in that restaurant too. How did you know?!

THEY LAUGH

Now, this was a dish that was on the menu of every bistro

in the late '60s...

sauteed chicken with 40 gloves of garlic.

You joint a couple of chickens jointing for saute,

that means on the bone, and then you fry it gently in butter to get

a nice brown colour and then 40 cloves of garlic, seriously.

And that was so adventurous.

Seasoned heavily and then some white wine.

I can remember once using Mateus Rose when I couldn't get some Hirondelle.

Then chicken stock and put the lid on

and leave it to cook very, very gently.

And that's it. It's ready.

You just turn it out on the plate,

reduce the liquid down a little bit, nap it over the top, and serve it.

Well, what with?

Well, these days it'd be mashed potato,

but then it was pilaf rice, cos that was very trendy.

A visit to Dorset wouldn't be complete,

without including Hardy's favourite cheese, Blue Vinney.

It almost disappeared forever, until, a few years ago,

it was revived by Mike Davis.

During the Second World War,

the farmers weren't allowed to make Vinney

because they were under strict instructions to produce a hard,

durable cheese that was easy to transport.

To think that we almost lost these local skills like cutting curd

and draining the whey.

Stories abound about the making of Blue Vinney.

It's widely believed that sweaty horse harnesses were

thrown into the curd to create the mould.

Until Mike revived it,

what we were really all buying was second-rate Stilton

sold on the cheap, but some said you could buy the real thing,

but only by moonlight.

It was so mysterious that people used to put in an order

somewhere and then it would just end up on your doorstep

and nobody knew who made it or where it came from.

Well, that's how the story goes.

She's spiking the cheese with mould. Vinney's Old English for mould.

I've noticed their real sense of pride in the cheese's rarity.

We have been to Harrods and seen it in their coolers there

and, yeah, it's...

you know, pride, really, thinking, "Hmm, yeah, I've had part of that."

If I was a vegetarian,

this would be the sort of dish I'd really like,

because it's sort of light, it's full of colour,

it's full of flavour, and, above all, I think it's exciting.

It's a tart of oven dried tomatoes, Blue Vinney cheese, and rocket.

So, first, to oven-dry the tomatoes.

Now, they need to go into a low oven for a long time, about an hour

and a half, and the purpose, really, is to dry them out,

is actually to concentrate the flavour of the tomato.

The cheese, well, it's lovely and crumbly Blue Vinney, and this

is ideal for the tart cos it's really easy to sprinkle over the top.

So, you bake some puff pastry and layer it with the tomatoes.

And now, you sprinkle the cheese over the top and add lots of thyme.

Now, I'm particularly fond of thyme in this dish, because it's a

strong herb and it works very well with that strong cheese Blue Vinney.

Finally, sprinkle with olive oil and pop it back in the oven.

Now, you can use other cheeses other than Blue Vinney...Feta,

for example, works very well.

But there's something about Blue Vinney.

It's the mould in it, a slight taint, which makes it special.

Final the tart off with some lovely fresh, peppery rocket

and more virgin olive oil

and it's that combination of the freshness of the rocket

and the warm, crisp tart underneath, which makes this a wonderful dish.

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

The Watercress Line cuts through the chalky water meadows

of the Meon Valley.

I'm on my way to a watercress farm owned by Neil Allan.

Neil carefully restored these abandoned growing tanks and, although

he's surrounded by huge cress farms, you can only get his watercress

at the local farmers' markets in Winchester and Romsey.

What do you like to eat it with?

-Cheese.

-Cheese?

-Cheese and Marmite sandwiches.

I just find it terribly sort of calming in a way,

watching people that, without thinking,

they're doing something incredibly skilful.

It's like watching a good fish filleter.

I once watched a guy just carve a whole tuna with

such sort of surgical precision, and, really,

the way he's operating his knife, it's the same thing,

it's just...well, it's sort of poetry to me.

Ideally, how should the best watercress taste, then?

Hot as possible. It's a member of the mustard family, so it should be

hot, and, um, the bigger, the better, the hotter it gets...

I love seasonality in vegetables and the idea of winter being a

watercress time, the trouble is, you can just get everything from anywhere

-now, can't you?

-Well, yeah, I mean, um...

You go to the supermarkets in Hampshire or anywhere

-and it comes from Portugal.

-What, watercress?

Yeah, yeah, it brings it in from Portugal, South Africa,

all over the place.

It's crazy, I mean, it's just a natural, native plant.

-That's ridiculous.

-Yeah.

Well, this is the sort of watercress you're likely to buy

..in supermarkets, small-leafed, a bit immature, and lacking in flavour.

This is the sort of watercress that Neil would

like you to be able to buy.

It's much longer, it's more mature and...

HE CRUNCHES

..it's got a lovely pepperiness to it and, you know,

steak is often sent out with watercress like this.

Well, what's the point?

You've tasted nothing, it's just like a silly garnish,

but if you sent it out with this, it's sort of very peppery

and horseradishy and just what you need with beef.

This is big hunting, fishing and shooting country.

What immediately springs to mind when I think of Hampshire

is wild brown trout and watercress too.

But it's also a great county for game.

90% of the time, I just roast pheasant,

but here I've turned it into rather a pleasing, modern,

hot and cold, I suppose, first course.

Now, I'm just using the breasts and I'm frying them quite gently

in a black skillet, having seasoned them very well with salt and pepper.

Now, I want to keep them quite nice and moist in the middle.

CHICKEN CRACKLES

It's a good idea just to have a little skewer to

push into the centre of the piece of meat like this pheasant.

Just touch it on your lip and you can tell very easily

whether the thing's cooked or not.

It just needs to be sort of warm in this case,

cos you want slightly pink inside.

If it's hot, it's well-done. If it's cold, it's not cooked.

So, now I'm going to make a dressing with the juices from the pan.

I take the breasts out and keep them warm on a warm plate,

then add some balsamic vinegar to the pan.

And then, I do what they call deglazing,

which just means scraping around the bottom of the pan to collect

all those nice caramelised juices.

I put them into a bowl and add chopped garlic and onion

and then chopped chives.

Now, two oils, first of all, a small amount of walnut oil...

the nuttiness in that combines well with

the pepperiness of the watercress, and then a lot more olive oil.

And now slice the pheasant.

Now, I'm doing it quite thinly and I'm doing it on the diagonal.

It always looks better sliced like that.

To assemble the salad, first of all some watercress,

then some slices of pheasant, then some saute potatoes, now, that

is a really interesting thing in a salad, I think.

This is a guaranteed way of enjoying pheasant.

Quite often, when it's just roasted, it's dry, disappointing

and tasteless, but this couldn't be more different.

And that's it, it's pretty appetizing and I just love that

sort of combination of warm things and salad leaves, it's a sort of

variation of what the French call a salad tiede.

It's really good.

And thank you, Rick.

I think the less said about you and that film this week, the better.

Instead, I'm going to give you a masterclass on something that

you'll have in a jar in your fridge.

It's mayonnaise, and it's so simple to make yourself.

Now, traditionally, this mayonnaise would be done with vegetable oil

and it would also be done with normal egg yolks,

but the way that you can change the flavour of this,

not by changing the recipe itself,

is by changing the type of eggs that you use

and I'm going to use these really good organic egg yolks

and you can see already the colour of the egg yolks, that they

go in there, but, also, I'm going to change the oil that we put in.

Now, like I said, traditionally,

mayonnaise would be done with vegetable oil and just plain eggs,

and we end up with this sort of a paler colour here.

There's nothing wrong with that

and then the flavouring has been either vinegar or lemon juice,

but what I'm going to do is change this slightly differently and use

some rapeseed oil, which I know the guys over there are a big fan of.

-Yeah.

-They used to use this oilseed rape...I don't know

if you've heard of oilseed rape,

but they used to use it as pig-feed and it sounds really big

and I've outdone it, really,

but they cold press it now and use it as biofuel,

but the idea being that it's very yellow in colour

and you can already see this, the yellow of the egg yolks,

but, gradually and slowly,

you pour the oil onto the egg yolks using a blender like this.

And just slowly pour it in.

Now, the more oil you add, the thicker it will become, but a bit

like making anything, really, that's got egg yolks in it,

emulsifying it, so you add it really, really slowly.

Too quickly and it will split...

you can never really go too slowly with this, really.

So, you just keep adding it slowly,

but the more oil you add, the thicker it becomes.

You can loosen it down with a touch of, uh, water,

or you've got a little bit of vinegar in here.

Here, I'm going to use a touch of vinegar, some mustard, I've got

some chilli sauce, chilli dipping sauce, and some of this,

cos I know you went to Japan for a while, this is Yuzu juice.

I don't think you've tried this.

-No, I haven't tried that one out.

-It's got an amazing smell.

-Just smell that. Just smell that.

-You know...

-Just smell it.

-It's a cross between a satsuma and a mandarin.

-I boxed when I was

-in Japan and I can barely smell anything, so...

-Oh, right!

But, literally, I'm going to add a little bit of that,

but you can take the base of a mayonnaise, which I'm adding

before I add all these, and change it to so many different sauces.

This one here is a little tartar sauce.

You add chopped gherkins, capers, shallots, lemon, uh,

dill and parsley, and you end up with a tartar sauce.

This one here, obviously famous in the UK, Mary Rose sauce, ketchup,

a little bit of Worchester sauce, you've got some Tabasco,

a bit of brandy in there really does give it a nice kick,

and then some cayenne pepper or a bit of paprika and some lemon,

but it's actually thought that mayonnaise isn't actually French,

or, I thought it was, it's thought to be Spanish of origin, really.

But I know it's used all over the world, different types of bases,

but, gradually, you slowly add the oil

and I'm going to mix this together and serve it with

a little bit of chicken goujons that I'm going to deep-fry as well.

So, we just keep slowly, slowly adding this in here.

Now, a fascinating childhood for you, really,

when I was reading about you, because

your mother was part Italian, your father was part German...

Yeah. I have, I'm...

From a German and Italian background,

so, I don't really speak either language

except I don't want to be yelled at in either language.

I know that, but music was a huge influence in your life,

listening to stuff on the radio...

My dad, when I was growing up,

my dad had just got out of prison and he had...

-like, one box of records.

-Right.

There was all just great singers, it was all Johnny Cash and Elvis

and Carl Perkins and Orbison and, amazingly, you know, we didn't have a

bunch of records, but he would let us play them, you know, you're kids.

You'd think you'd be scratching 'em up and they'd be yelling at you,

but my dad was so cool. He would just say, you know...

"Have at it. Go ahead."

But music wasn't the first thing for you.

When I was reading about you, you went on to be a lightweight,

light heavyweight boxer.

I was a light heavyweight and I boxed the Police Athletic League,

which is maybe the stupidest thing...

-Right!

-No, it's the stupidest idea ever.

In America they have a Police Athletic League and the police take

kids that they think are in danger of, like, becoming delinquents.

-Right.

-And they teach them how to throw an overhand right, you know?

-THEY LAUGH Nice!

-Great!

I don't know, but it worked. They taught me something.

So, music then was a big thing for you, like you said,

and then, that's where it led you to come back to the UK after

doing a little bit in Japan, but, you say,

when I was reading about you,

in Japan that it was one moment that you went into an old record store

and bought an old record that changed your life.

It's weird how your life turns on a dime.

Like, you know, I think back and I go,

if that day had gone different, I did something else,

I don't know, but I walked by a record store and every day I'd

walk by this store and they had a white guitar in the window

and, to a redneck like me, that white guitar was like,

-"Wow! That's really classy!"

-Yeah.

And I couldn't afford the guitar and I went in the shop

and they had an album in there called Elvis Presley "Sun Sessions."

And I didn't know what that was, but I bought it and, at the time I

-bought it, I had a flattop haircut, it was about as long as yours.

-Wow.

And I went the next day to my boxing coach and I said,

"I don't want to cut my hair any more."

And he said, "Well, you have to, to be on the team."

And I said, "I can't do it then." He said, "Well, you can let it grow

"as long as you win."

So, I boxed and I let my hair...I was just fighting to keep my hair

and that was the start of, you know, rock n' roll.

But, coming back to the US, and particularly San Francisco,

-that's where you set up your band, weren't it? The Silvertones.

-Yeah.

Yeah, and then you played every single pub

-and gig going just to get a record deal.

-Yeah. I played every...

You know, we played bars, and, and....I mean, any place that you

could set up a band, any place that had a...sold beer or had a urinal...

THEY LAUGH ..we played.

But you still play with the same band, don't you, now?

I've had the same guys for 27 years.

I'm looking for better musicians, but I can't find them,

I just can't find them. They're good guys.

But, talking about the greats, I mean, you mentioned Roy Orbison,

Jerry Lee Lewis, I mean, you managed to... It must be incredible to

work with these guys, having listened to them on the radio

-when you were younger.

-And I don't, you know, looking back on it,

I don't really know how I got to do it, but..some part, you know,

some luck in my life...the people that I loved and I grew up listening

to...I worked with Johnny Cash, I got to be friends with Roy Orbison...

I went to Roy Orbison's house

and I still remember sitting there playing guitar with him

and singing and at one point he goes,

"I like the way you sing that part because you sound a little bit like

"Buddy when he did that." And I said, "Oh, yeah."

And then as I was walking out of the house later I went..."Buddy Holly?!"

THEY LAUGH Like, you know, you just...

it blew your mind to think who he knew

-and hung out with, you know?

-It must have been incredible, I mean, is

that why you done the album that you're doing now?

Because, you know, you've picked all the great...it must have been

the album that you've always wanted to do?

This music is the music that I just love and...the guy who

discovered all those artists...Elvis, Jerry Lee, you know, Orbison, it

was...and Memphis made Sun Studios, this little studio, and that studio's

still there, and I took my guys to Memphis

and we recorded at the studio and they would open up at midnight,

they would open up the little diner next door and we'd go in there

and we'd make hamburgers and stuff...and it was, you know,

just kind of like recording in 1953, you know.

Incredible and, of course,

we first knew you in the UK...it was around about your third album,

The Wicked Game, that really launched your success cos

that was together with a film, weren't it? Wild At Heart.

But you actually went into acting as well, didn't you? You did a few...

-You know, I...

-Silence Of The Lambs, you were in that as well.

I've been in films, but, I don't think, um...

I love doing films, it's a lot of fun,

I've done television shows where you get to act and stuff,

but, when I go home I don't stand in front of the mirror

and do Othello or something, I go home and I grab a guitar.

Well, you need to grab your guitar, cos... You get yourself ready,

-cos I'm just going to show you what we've got in here.

-I'm ready.

"I'm ready!" I'm not ready yet! There's the two different types

of mayonnaises. Look at the one that I've done. I'm going to add this

lot together, we're going to serve it with goujons. You're going to

play out to the girls and try and convince them to choose sardines.

Away you go, Chris.

# Love is a burning thing

# And it makes a fiery ring

# Bound by wild desire

# I fell into a ring of fire... #

Everybody!

# I fell into a burning ring of fire

# I went down, down, down and those flames grew higher

# And it burns, burns, burns

# The ring of fire

# The ring of fire... #

Please don't make me, don't make me eat them!

Come on, Hannah, give me a break,

for God's sakes, give me a sardine, will you?!

CHEERING

There you go. Well, that's it.

-You know, you sing for your supper.

-Exactly!

-Give me a hold of that thing.

-What do you want to sing for us?

Not me! Definitely not! I'm not playing this!

Dive into that bit of chicken.

Now, tell us, cos this is a special guitar. Tell us about this then.

It's a Gibson J 200 and it's, you know,

all the Gibsons sound good, and this one sounds especially good.

And as much as I've played it, it's all kind of beat up,

if you get close, it's all beat up.

I think this works out to be a penny a play,

cos I play that night and day, boy.

Cos your famous one is the all-white guitar that you saw in the window.

Be careful! That's Mother-of-Toilet-Seat, so

you don't want to knock that off.

This is going on eBay, mate! What do you think of the goujons?

Don't talk to me right now, I'm eating.

Well, if you bring your guitar with you,

you're going to be asked to sing.

Great to have some live music on the show

and don't be afraid of making your own mayonnaise,

it's not that difficult and, trust me, it tastes miles better than

that shop-bought stuff. If you'd like to try making that lunch,

or try cooking any of the food you've seen on today's show,

all the recipes are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Now, today we're looking back at some of the great cooking

from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Now, it's time for a cheeky plate of food thanks to Brian, I mean, Bryn Williams.

-Welcome to the show.

-How you doing?

Something slightly different that you're cooking for us today.

-We've never had these on the show...

-Pork!

I'm going to get the potatoes in.

-We're doing pork cheeks.

-Yes.

-A very cheap cut of meat.

-Right.

Um, sometimes they're called...this one, actually, is called a pork chap.

-Chap? That's the whole piece?

-That's the whole side of the face,

so, just take one muscle out.

-Which is the actual cheek itself...

-There's going to be people waking up

from their hangovers this morning! You take the side of the face!

-That gets used for sausages, burgers...

-It tastes delicious,

-this stuff though.

-It's great. We're just going to take off the sinew.

What we're going to do, we're going to roast it all off with some

carrot, onion, some fresh ginger,

-fresh thyme, ginger beer, some white wine...

-OK.

Then we're going to do some ginger carrots with honey,

ground ginger and just toss it all together.

Now, you treat these the same as...the French love the

monkfish cheeks as well, so you have to trim the same sort of sinew off.

Just take the sinew off.

I think monkfish and skate cheeks as well,

they're quite easy...quite nice.

Um, just pig cheeks there's loads of flavour

and if you put a bit of time and effort into it,

these will take roughly about an hour,

an hour and 20 minutes in the oven, nice and slow, but when you've

-got to work at something, you get more flavour into it, I think.

-Yeah.

Bryn, are they easy to get hold of?

I think...they're not easy to get hold of in supermarkets,

but, if you have a good butcher that you regularly go to,

he will always keep you pig cheeks and it should be fine,

so, going back to basics, you know, a good local family-run butcher.

-You'll always get them.

-That's the thing. There you go.

So, what you're going to do is just seal these off first...

I'm just going to season them up, yeah.

A bit of salt, a bit of pepper, nice warm pan.

-OK.

-And some colour.

So, the basis of this is just basically carrots and onion

-and, obviously, the pork.

-Yeah, and some ginger.

Ginger is the dominant flavour in this dish.

Um, so, it's a play on sweet style pork.

We're just using different ingredients, really.

So, Bryn, what other cut of meat could you use on this?

You could use the leg if you got some nice big dices,

but I like pork cheeks, so I always use pork cheeks,

but if he really wants to change it, a nice chunk of leg.

-Is that the dish I taught you about?

-Pardon?

Isn't that the dish I taught you about?

Taught you? Didn't you work together?

We used to work together at the tea room, yeah. Um...

So, if I'm rubbish, it's his fault,

because he was supposed to be teaching me.

-So, um, no, but...

-He told me earlier you were called Brian. Were you?

Amongst other names as well.

Which you can't repeat on a Saturday morning.

That was one of the nicer ones I was called.

-You know, coming down from Wales 12 years ago...

-So, why Brian then?

-What's that?

-Why Brian?

Well, you know, Brian, Bryn. Bryn's a bit too hard for us to say,

-it was too exotic 12 years ago!

-No!

It's pronounced Bryn, so, they just called me Brian.

The minute I saw him this morning, "Hi, Brian." I was like,

-"Here we go." So, it's got a bit of colour on the cheeks itself.

-OK.

-In with the vegetables.

-In we go with the veg.

And we're just going to stick... In with the ginger as well.

At the same time, I'll do these carrots.

These have got these small...I love these sort of...nice and sweet...

Just young carrots, they're really good. Put a little bit of

-butter on this as well.

-Grill this on the garden, Lee.

-Oh, yes.

-Pack of seeds.

There you go, straight in. Boil it in salted water.

That's those.

And we've got our Jersey Royals,

-which are just starting to come into season.

-Just in.

As you see, they're very, very small there, so just the new crop.

So, in with the vegetables, onion, carrot, a bit of butter,

in with some thyme, if you just want to grind those coriander seeds.

I will grind them. No problem.

I'm just going to roast all this off.

There you go. OK.

-So, you're just using a bit of coriander seeds.

-Yeah.

Once you've done that, we'll stick a little bit into this.

There you go. That's ground up.

-OK, just a small handful.

-There you go.

-Again, just helping the flavours of the ginger.

-Yeah.

-Just the cheeks back on top.

-Yeah.

And we're just going to cover...

-with...

-You've got the ginger beer in there as well?

-Oh, ginger beer!

-Yeah, see!

-So, in with the ginger beer first.

-I told you it was my dish, didn't I?!

THEY LAUGH

In with the ginger beer, reduce by half

so you concentrate the flavours of the beer.

-OK.

-Once it's down...

..in with the chicken stock just to cover...

Chicken stock, we're using that

because pork stock's quite fatty as well.

It is, yeah, so chicken stock has a nice, neutral flavour, so...

And then this goes in the oven?

In the oven for about roughly, you know, an hour,

-an hour and 20 minutes.

-What temperature?

-120 degrees.

-Right, you've got your pigs' cheeks.

-You're in trouble!

Pigs' cheeks are done, so we're just going to strain them all off now.

You want to strain those in there?

Strain the liquid into there, yeah.

Now, what we're going to do is we're going to glaze some of

that juice and put the pig cheeks into it.

So, we just leave that.

We'll just leave them to sweat down.

-In this frying pan, the carrots are nearly there.

-Yeah.

We put a little touch of honey...

OK, you want me to strain off these carrots?

Yeah, strain off the carrots. In with the honey...

Now, this is trendy honey, isn't it, really?

It's Regents Park Honey, uh...

which, obviously, is round the corner from the restaurant.

One day I was using organic honey from New Zealand, believe it or not,

I thought, there's got to be an easier way.

So, we looked on the websites and we googled local honey,

and we came up with Primrose Hill Honey.

Well, Regents Park Honey, and it's great, it really is,

loads of flavour, you know, and it's different every year.

-You can't get more local than that, can you?

-No.

We've got our carrots here. You basically just get the carrots.

A little bit of water left.

So you've got the honey, ground ginger,

a little bit of water from the carrots.

A little bit of butter there.

We're going to add the cheeks

back into the sauce.

That will just help to glaze them up.

-Glazing those nicely.

-Yeah.

-You need about four or five.

-You need four or five,

my dad says that's a starter portion up in north Wales.

Right.

-Lose this for one sec.

-So we don't use the veg?

No, we're not going to use the vegetables.

They've been cooking for a good hour and 20 minutes.

They'll be very, very soft.

-So, just season...

-I'll take your Jersey Royals out.

There you go.

They are small, these tiny ones, but it's worth the wait, I have to say.

Definitely.

Jersey Royal potatoes.

-But Jerseys have got to be with butter though.

-Yeah, definitely.

-I know you're a big fan of butter, James.

-Nah, not me(!)

-No idea what you're talking about.

-Definitely with Jersey Royals.

Any new potatoes really, I think, butter is essential really.

We'll just put a nice...bit of honey roasted...

-So, just the carrots, a little bit of ginger.

-Ginger, ground ginger.

Yeah.

On there.

I'm just going to serve the new potatoes

on the side as well. I should say Jersey Royals.

And just a little pile of the old Jersey Royals. You can't beat these.

-The season's short, but they're...

-About four weeks, the season.

-They've extended it, six to eight weeks.

-Is it?

-About that.

It's definitely worth the wait. And that is...

Just looks and smells delicious. Remind us what that is again.

Braised pork cheeks with carrots with honey

and ginger with Jersey Royals potatoes.

Proper grub.

I have to say, that ginger... It smells...

-The ginger's the main flavour in this dish.

-There you go.

-Shall I tuck in first?

-Yeah, you get the first bite.

Lucky.

-Full on food today.

-That looks great.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Pigs' cheeks. Have you ever tried pigs' cheeks?

-Never.

There you go.

-Very chewy.

-Chewy?

-Mm.

Chewy?!

LAUGHTER It was his recipe!

LAUGHTER

I think we call that flavour!

-Yeah.

-It's lovely.

-The ginger in there really does work.

-Just a play on sweet and sour.

Instead of mixing anything in with a rich heavy sauce, just a nice,

-light, early summer dish.

-Yeah. There you go, see what you think.

But if they can't find pigs' cheeks, any other

-type of cut they could use?

-You could use the top of the leg,

the nice, diced pork, but cheeks, you can't beat them. Loads of flavour.

-Secret is slowly roasted.

-Slow roasted.

-There you go.

Not only can you get great honey from Regent's Park, there

are hives producing fantastic honey in cities all over the country now.

What a brilliant recipe to try for your Sunday lunch.

Now, get ready for a classic piece of Floyd On Food.

This week, he starts of by reading some viewers' letters.

That's dangerous!

Talking of great things, we've had millions of letters,

most of which have been full of praise and cheering us up

and encouraging us to make these programmes.

I'm sorry I can't reply to them all, there have just been too many,

but thanks for all your lovely invitations

and all your kind offers, especially that... Anyway, um...

The other trouble is we've had a few complaints too.

People keep saying, "What does all this cream, butter,

cholesterol and all that business...?

It's most unhealthy and you drink far too much."

Look, we only make six programmes a year.

It's like six dinner parties a year.

Obviously, if you ate like that every day, you'd be ill.

Of course you would. But every now and again does you good.

And then there's this other thing about my casual attitude.

I wouldn't say I was terribly casual, actually. But it's just for fun.

And it's not just a cooking programme. Tune into the others

if you want a really painstakingly follow the CSE course.

This is to inspire you and cheer you up, have a laugh, have a slurp.

And then they say things like, "You keep abusing the BBC personnel."

Well, whoever said they were human anyway?

And they're not here against their will, you know.

They do have to do what they're jolly well told.

Do you understand?

Do you not think we've had enough now? Is that all right?

Do you want to do one more? Can we get off the letters fairly quickly?

That's enough letters.

If I carried on eating fish like I was doing in the last series,

I'd have developed fins by now. And I'm bored to death with fish.

I want to get back to a bit of simple peasant cooking and some red meat.

And for those of you who are vegetarians,

switch off because this programme is really going to upset you.

Richard, who is our cameraman here, come down,

look at the ingredients, I'm going to show you what it all is.

This is some lovely fatty and gristly shin of beef.

It's important that it's shin because the veins and the gristle make

it a very umptuous flavour when it's finally cooked.

I've picked in some little holes

and stuffed in some garlic into all of them.

That's important. Over we go, Richard.

Little shallots, beautifully peeled, fresh garlic, orange peel,

an onion stuff with cloves... Can you see that all right?

Just three cloves in an onion like that.

Some very fresh herbs - rosemary, a dried bay leaf, fresh thyme

and fresh parsley.

Some chopped up tomato. OK.

Some fatty pork or bacon.

And some bacon without any fat on it.

And a bowl of mushrooms.

But because this is a Floyd programme and we always cook in lemonade,

as you know, one of the most essential things is going to

be a bottle of good, strong red wine cos you'll probably need half

a bottle to go into the dish itself

and you'll need half a bottle to go into yourself

to make things really cheerful.

SIZZLING

So, with a little olive oil, and our lean and our fat bacon,

we get the pan up to frying speed.

Highly humorous, isn't it? Frying speed.

And whack it, now that it's golden brown,

leaving the fat behind, into this lovely earthenware pot,

from which slow cooking beef really benefits from being

popped into that kind of thing,

but if you have to use aluminium or tin, it doesn't really matter.

Then, into the fat, we put our pieces of beef,

which you'll remember I stuffed little cubes of garlic into.

This is the importance of frying speed, you see,

because it quickly browns the meat.

And a little tip here, we've got to put some salt on,

but you never put salt on...

Isn't this crackling noise loud? Funny, isn't it?

It's real cooking, you see?

You never put salt on meat until it has been sealed.

Otherwise, it lets out all of the flavours.

Salt on like that.

Black pepper like that.

That's obviously got to cook for a moment or two.

I'll have a quick slurp.

And then... You see... Come back, Richard. You're too far away.

Come back. We've got that nicely sealed and browned.

And it goes straight... This is quite difficult.

We lift it into the bacon, which is already there. One...

There's a piece per person here, by the way. One piece per person.

Give them plenty, my old sergeant major used to say.

One per man per day. There we are.

There is the first part of our dome.

Now, we add the rest of the ingredients.

Richard, you'll have to follow me back. All these other things

now have to go in. And the first thing is a trig's potter. OK?

Trig's potter. A little landmine. Now, a sea mine.

An onion with its cloves.

The four or five pieces of orange peel.

A plateful of little shallots, or small pickling onions,

if you haven't shallots.

Some of these mushrooms. Like that.

OK.

Then, one sprig of rosemary can go in.

This is looking rather pretty, actually. A bay leaf has gone in.

A spriglet of thyme. Don't overdo the herbs.

And a little packet, as we say in French, of parsley.

Cover the lot with the tomatoes, like that.

I'll just lift that, so you can...

Looks like the front of an Elizabeth David book.

I shouldn't insult her. She's one of the finest cooks there ever was.

And then...in with our...lovely

bottle of wine.

All you now have to do is put the lid on and into the oven.

And I'm off and you're off for some magical trips around Newquay.

My correspondents tell me that there

are some of you that don't like me very much. You complain about me.

But some people really do like me, like the Ms from Muswell Hill

who sent me this splendid iridescent green bowtie.

And also, I've been hearing you've been having trouble

with your pollocks.

Now, pollocks are rather humble little fish, or a large fish,

that people who'd really love to catch bass or cod always end up with.

They write to me, the expert on fish - uh-huh(!) -

demanding, praying, pleading for information

on how to deal with a pollock.

Boring things, full of bones.

Happily, Valerie and Marianne Farrar Hockley,

who seem to live in the Cameroon

but holiday in Dorset, have the answer.

They have sent me, from the Cameroon, some pepper paste.

With that, I'll relieve your pollock problems. Come with me.

In this pan we have a fillet of pollock.

It's been sauteed gently in butter.

We're going to add some lemon juice.

Fresh lemon juice, I hasten to add,

and yes, I have put salt and pepper on the fish.

Then I put a little spoonful of my pepper paste...

Peter Piper picked some peppers from the Newquay shore.

Stirred it in.

Added some beautiful double cream, stirred the while...

till it became pale green and bubbled and well amalgamated.

Then, using a simple left-handed action over a right-handed sieve,

poured the simple hot pepper sauce over the pollock.

# Fish, fish, fish Gotta have some fish

# Fish, fish, fish Gotta have some fish

# Fish, fish, fish Gotta have some fish

# Fish?! Fish! #

So, while my vegetarian cameraman takes a big deep breath,

turn to page six of the Radio Times and scratch and sniff the sachet, OK,

for the Floyd daube. Doesn't that look wonderful?

Anyway, you've seen that.

I want to introduce you to our hostess, Trish.

She made the fatal mistake of saying, "You can use my kitchen any time!"

We did, and we've wrecked the day.

-Thanks, and here's to you.

-You're welcome.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers.

What I'd like you to do, and I'm not going to pinch you... Ow!

That's hot. ..is to taste this and tell me honestly...

We always say this and we edit it out afterwards if you don't agree.

Have a little go at this very simple, humble Provencal beef daube.

There's a little bit for you. Tuck into that. See what you think.

I'm going to help myself.

Richard, come back to my plate so we don't embarrass Trish.

She's not used to eating in front of a load of people like that.

This isn't a thickened sauce. It's deliberately thinned,

but it has all the flavours of wine and beef and the pig's trotter.

-How's it tasting?

-Good.

-All right, is it? Let me have a go.

-It is good, isn't it?

-Mmm.

We've got to go now because the producer's getting in a bit of a flap

and there you are. Cheerio. See you next time.

-So, are you going to have a bit of your own cheese?

-Please.

-No bread?

-No, thank you.

-Why not?

I prefer eating cheese with fruit.

Are you mad?

Actually, the whole thing about this programme is mad, isn't it?

I go to supermarkets and shops and you see these dazzling wedges,

multicoloured chunks of cheese... Or are they wax? We don't really know.

..because they never let us taste it before we buy it.

So the BBC, in its generosity, said, "Come down to Sharpham Farm

"where they make really good cheese."

So I've driven down here to meet Isabella here,

who's a media friend of mine,

and I'm surprised. I haven't found any Cheddar, any West Country cheese,

I've found a kind of a brie. What are we doing making brie,

if it is, cos that's what it looks like, in the middle of Devon?

Well, it's a Coulommiers, a farmhouse Coulommiers,

and it's made from unpasteurised Jersey milk.

-It's slightly runny. Should it be runny like that?

-Hmm.

It can be eaten either very young

or, depending on how strong you like it,

you can eat it as it matures.

I don't like the idea of English cheese

having everything squeezed out of it.

I like a soft cheese with a lot of moisture,

and where you're closer to the original milk that it's made from.

And so the shape of this cheese enables it to taste

in the way that you want it to taste?

Anyway, listen, believe it or not, despite our merry time here,

Isabella's got some work to do. There's a man coming in a minute.

He's going to come and buy some of your cheese.

-Hi,. I'm Keith. Who are you?

-Randolph Hodgeson.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

This is a small selection of what we've got today.

These I'd like you to try.

This is a Devon Garland, which I got earlier.

A garland of herbs through it.

It's a bit young to eat now

so we'll have some of these.

You must have an absolutely incredibly good lifestyle,

-charging around the country, buying cheeses.

-It's hard graft.

-13 hours a day, driving.

-Cor! Mon oeil, as they say.

What have you got here?

Richard, you're going to have to look at this lot.

We'll have to unwrap things.

You'll have to tell us all about it.

There's a nice, soft sheep's milk cheese from Round Oak, near Mendip.

Another one of the goat's milk cheeses.

A small smoked cheese that they do as well, which is delicious.

-Would you like to try?

-I'm desperate to try them,

-particularly that small smoked cheese.

-That's a sheep -

-the same as this but just smoked.

-Brilliant.

It's really rather lovely.

Quite delicately smoked. It's not too dark.

Thank you very much indeed.

Isa, you have some too.

-Oh, wow.

-Very moist. Very delicate.

If you ever are stupid enough to buy those little brown Austrian sausages

in supermarkets, when this kind of stuff is available,

-you're a lunatic. This is brilliant.

-Delicious, isn't it?

-What else have we got?

-There's rather a nice hard goat's cheese,

also from the Mendip, from Slate Farm.

That's quite a nice, crusty one.

It's about three months old.

I've been trundling all over the South West - I've never seen

one of these in the shops, anywhere. Why can't we buy...?

You feel as though you could play a sport with this. Hurling

or some kind of strange game.

-Fairly robust.

-Can we taste it?

Yes, let's bite into that.

I think it's quite a special one.

I ironed it earlier and it's got a bit of blue in it.

-What does "ironing" mean?

-I'll do it.

I've got my iron here.

When I try the cheeses,

first of all, we just take a little bore out of it.

Take a core. You see, that's how it normally is.

It's a nice, white, smooth, creamy cheese.

But this one has got a little bit of blue coming into it.

-Is that good or bad?

-Can be either.

-Matter of taste or...?

-Matter of taste

but quite often it's too blue,

or blueing not in the correct way, and that's not acceptable,

-but I think this might be quite nice and delicate.

-Can I have a taste?

Not too much.

I'd go for that. I think that's excellent.

Anyway, what else have we got?

I can see a piece of Cheddar.

Now, my favourite meal

is from the olden days, when they used to put a wire through a truckle

and slice a piece off, was to have a piece of toasted cheese.

As a kid, I used to live on it.

Since then, sadly, I haven't really tasted much good Cheddar cheese.

What should you look for in a good Cheddar cheese, and is that one?

This is. This is from Quickes, near Exeter.

It's one of their extra-mature cheeses.

Over a year old.

-Yeah.

-They're quite a big creamery

and they've just recently started making unpasteurised cheeses for us.

They're trying it out for us.

They've really come on very well.

I think you'll find this quite nice.

Isabella, are you going to comment on the Cheddar?

Oh, that's beautifully strong.

Now, the one thing I'm really fascinated by is this blue cheese.

That's made very nearby

at Sharpham Barton by Robin Congdon.

-It's a sheep's milk cheese.

-That's a very rare cheese, then.

It's a blue cheese milk, which is even rarer.

Very difficult to make, similar to a Roquefort.

-Which is a highly expensive cheese and highly esteemed.

-Yes.

As is Robin's.

Have a little piece of that.

It's very difficult to cut, unfortunately.

Oh, that's beautiful. Sheep's cheese.

Hands up everybody who's had a sheep's cheese. I bet you haven't,

but if you can get some, it's well worth trying.

One thing I'd like to say is,

this cheese is available. If you live somewhere near a farm

that makes it, go and buy it. Go to your supermarket,

demand that they stock it because they will. They want your business.

You've got all these people doing their best to get it to you.

Randolph, Isabella, that's fantastic.

I have to say to you, corny though it is, cheese!

It's always fantastic to see him cooking.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at some of the great cooking

from he Saturday Kitchen larder. Still to come -

I'm dwarfed behind two of the biggest chefs in the business

in the omelette challenge - Nathan Outlaw and Stephane Reynaud

both try to better their times but how will they do?

Find out a little later on.

Michael Caines had just been awarded an MBE when he came into the studio

to roast a beautiful breast of Barbary duck.

He covers the duck in honey and Chinese five spice and serves it

with a wild-mushroom fricassee flavoured with tarragon and spinach.

And Spice Girl Mel B faced her food heaven or food hell.

Would she get her food heaven - salmon with my tasty

salmon coulibiac - a fillet and smoked salmon wrapped in pastry

with spinach and served with carrots and asparagus -

or would she get her dreaded food hell - scallops?

It could be panko-topped scallops with black pudding,

cauliflower puree, and a vanilla and curry oil.

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

Now, Mark Sergeant is often known as a snappy dresser

and often gets compliments for the trendy jumpers he wears on the show.

But in this clip, he looks like he's borrowed a jumper

from the local cricket team.

Mr Mark Sergeant! I promise I won't talk about your jumper.

What are we cooking?

We're going to do some really nice line-caught sea bass.

We always use line-caught

because dredged or farmed - not the best quality...

By line catching it,

you're not raping the sea of its stocks.

-It's a much better quality.

-Exactly.

We've got line-caught bass and that's with what?

We're going to season that with white peppercorns and corianders seeds,

which we're going to crack over it.

And fennel pesto, where we're going to use fennel raw,

blitz it up with the usual kind of pesto ingredients.

-No garlic, cos it's too strong.

-OK.

Some nice pine kernels, olive oil, a little ground almonds.

-Standard... Normally, you'd use Parmesan.

-Exactly.

And then finish off with fennel herb

or some nice fresh dill.

And a nice tomato salsa on the side.

Cherry tomatoes, a little touch of sesame oil,

Tabasco, lemon juice. Nice and fresh.

-So you're going to get on and cook the bass.

-Yes.

This is a fennel pesto,

but I'm presuming, because it's got Parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil,

-you're calling it a pesto.

-Exactly, yeah.

-Different pestos can have different things in it.

-Yes.

The classic pesto, obviously, is the basil one,

but this is the usual play on words.

It's got the same principles but nice and light and fresh.

Fennel's got this incredible fresh aniseed taste.

Goes amazingly well with fish.

-You're scoring the skin on the top.

-Yes, two things -

that stops it from curling up and helps it crisp up,

but also, the oil can go through these little score lines

-and it helps to cook the fish a little bit quicker.

-Yeah.

Do you use bass much in your restaurant, Nic? Sea bass?

Sea bass? We do, definitely. We've got sea bass and sea bream.

We cook it over the char-grill

and we use a white miso,

-and we marinate it for 24 hours.

-It's delicious, that.

So cracking over the coriander mix there.

-This you can have ready in your pepper-grinder at home?

-Exactly that.

Remind us what's in there again.

White peppercorns and coriander seeds.

We use all sorts of different spice mixes at work.

You can add anything from toasted fennel seeds,

cumin, what we've got here, coriander...

Even just bashed down in a pestle and mortar...

some star anise. Fantastic with fish as well.

Everyone thinks when you're cooking fish,

you need to get a pan absolutely stinking hot. You don't.

You need to be in control of the temperature of your pan.

You need to get it hot enough so it won't stick to the pan

-but just a nice ambient temperature.

-OK.

So that's on.

If you see the fish starting to curl up a little bit,

just take the pan off slightly

and leave it to cool down, and it will relax the fish down.

And that's just in olive oil?

Just in olive oil. A nice temperature.