Episode 125 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. For the next 90 minutes,

we have got loads of great cooking on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. I hope you are hungry, because we have got

some culinary treats for you this morning from some amazing chefs.

Celebrities including Jenny Agutter try their creations.

Spain's very own Jose Pizarro makes his spicy Spanish lamb meatballs

and serves them with very English-looking chips!

And the pride of Birmingham, Glynn Purnell, roasts Gressingham duck.

He rolls the duck in liquorice charcoal - yes, you heard it right -

and serves it with green beans, rocket, tamarind and lime.

And the first-ever Northern Ireland chef to get a Michelin Star,

Paul Rankin, cooks us a great piece of steak. He char-grills

a fillet steak and serves it with smoked chilli butter, mushrooms,

purple sprouting broccoli and sauteed potatoes.

And actress Lisa Maxwell faced her Food Heaven Or Food Hell?

Would she get her food heaven - haddock -

with my smoked haddock and leek risotto,

served with pan-roasted smoked haddock and parsley oil,

or would she get food hell - dried fruit - with my delicious

stuffed dripping cake and orange marmalade?

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

First, Lawrence Keogh is here and he is serving whiting,

so prepare to watch fish filleted by the master...

-me! Welcome back, Lawrence.

-Thank you.

Good to have you on the show. What are we cooking?

We're going to do a lovely whiting.

This is whiting.

We're going to panier it in flour, egg wash and pan it in oatmeal,

for a change. The Scottish do it with kippers a lot, don't they?

And it's a lovely fish, whiting, and it's very cheap. It's only about

£3-£4 a kilo

-and very underused.

-Part of the cod family. Needs to be fresh.

-If you fillet that for me.

-I'm going to fillet it.

You do the smelly jobs!

I'm going to get the panier ready for it - flour, egg and breadcrumbs...

Oatmeal, sorry.

-Yeah, also.

-We're going to do a warm potato salad,

cos obviously, you might miss your chips with your...

-your fish.

-Yeah.

-We will do a warm potato salad,

dressed in malt vinegar. So you have the aroma of the chippy,

minus all the grease and fat.

You wouldn't get a fish and chips like that in Scotland!

Definitely wouldn't.

-I should get a little Mars Bar, shouldn't I?!

-Yeah!

We've done our whiting here. Like you say, very inexpensive

-piece of fish.

-Yeah.

-Just fillet this underneath.

-Very, very delicate, isn't it, James?

-It's not the easiest to fillet,

-put it that way.

-I gave it to you so I can just chat and do this bit.

There we go.

We're going to flour it,

egg wash and oatmeal, then we'll put it in the fridge and let it set

for about an hour, so the oats get a nice stickiness and stay on it.

-You want this skinned, as well?

-Can you skin it for me?

When I eat fish and chips, I don't like eating the skin.

I'm a bit funny like that - bit particular.

What we're going to do is...

I like everything done for me. I want to just eat the fish.

-I don't want to play around with it.

-There you go. We'll fillet this

and skin it.

You see how delicate that flesh is. It's absolutely fantastic.

To skin it, put your knife underneath,

and keep the knife flat on the board, like that.

Then, actually, the skin moves, it's not the knife that's moving.

I'm wiggling the skin, like that, and it just falls off.

Bit of salt and pepper in the flour.

I did this dish as a starter, with, like we said, kippers

at the restaurant. And it was very nice. Or herrings, should I say?

-Yeah, herring is traditional.

-So, a nice bit of flour.

-OK.

-Into the egg.

And then, basically, straight in the oatmeal, OK?

And whiting, people trying to get hold of it -

fishmongers. On the line could be another thing,

if you are fortunate enough to live by the sea,

but it is very cheap. Compared with cod, it's...

When I was at the Ritz Casino in the '80s,

as a young lad, we used to buy whiting for the fish stock.

Dreadful, isn't it, really?!

-We used to chop it up.

-When I was training, it was used as fish stock.

Once you have done it in the oatmeal, in the fridge.

-I'll just wash my hands.

-This goes in for how long?

-Just a firm-up?

-About an hour. Take out the other one, James.

To deep-fry, it's going to be about four minutes.

Tomato ketchup.

Basically, tomatoes, bit of tomato puree, bit of sugar

and a bit of vinegar. Very quick ketchup.

You can make this and put it in the fridge and keep it.

You can serve this hot or cold. We're going to serve it warm.

-It would store well, too?

-Really well.

We're going to put the tomatoes... Got a nice hot pan. The only oil

so far is in the sauce, so, stand back...

And the one you're deep-frying the fish in?

LAUGHTER

-I'm trying to do this healthy stuff.

-But you are, cos you have been busy.

This week has been important, cos it was World Kidney Day.

Yes, it was on Thursday and, every year, I promote it as much as I can.

I'm very fortunate that I had a kidney transplant ten years ago.

Being a cook in a kitchen, the diet was quite shocking.

You can't eat spinach, tomatoes, nuts and cheese

when you're on dialysis. It's quite heavy going,

so I started putting some interesting little recipes together for myself.

Is the idea of World Kidney Day raising awareness

-of diabetes and stuff like that?

-Yeah, it is one of the biggest

problems with people. It can go on to kidney problems,

-cos of the amount of pressure it can put on the kidneys.

-Yeah.

So, it is all about raising awareness, keeping yourself healthy,

fit and active - all the usual stuff that we know we should be doing.

Basically, it's things like that. And, bless him, he kindly turned up

and helped me out.

I asked him for a favour. We did canapes at the House of Commons.

I dragged him in. He backed me up on that one.

-So, run through this ketchup, then. How to make ketchup.

-A quick one.

Here we go - tomatoes, shallots, garlic, OK? Little bit of sugar.

Little bit of brown sugar in there. Just get a bit of sweetness in there.

The difference between this

and a traditional one is the length of time you'll cook it?

I will soften this very quickly.

Get the potatoes out of the water and could you slice them up for me?

-You have tomato puree in there.,

-Just a bit. When we liquidise it,

you do lose the colour, so we want that nice tomato-redness,

like your dress.

Give it a nice good season and once that is cooking out,

you can let that stew down.

In goes the vinegar, get that sharpness. And watch that evaporate.

-Ever made your own ketchup, Pauline?

-No.

-No?

-No.

Good when all the tomatoes are cheap and mushy. Do a big pot and keep it

-in the fridge or freeze it.

-You make this when it's bang in season?

-Yes, the tomatoes. There good things around at the moment.

-What can people

be looking for? Your restaurant's famous for using British produce

and local produce, bang in season. What really should we look for?

We've got the wild garlic starting off very soon and soon,

these will be Jersey Royals. They are just about to come in.

So, they are a lovely potato.

Obviously, there is loads of rhubarb around at the moment.

-Rhubarb's great.

-Fantastic. Very good for you, isn't it?

The thing about the UK and your menu, in particular,

-it changes quickly. The seasons in the UK...

-Exactly.

-..change so quick.

-As soon as it's out of season, it's off the menu.

You have in here the potatoes, you have got the red onion rings.

I'm going to dress that with a nice big dollop of malt vinegar -

quite a lot - and to give it a really good season,

chopped parsley - some English curly parsley -

cos I'm a bit tired of the flat-leaf stuff.

-OK.

-There we go.

Mind your shirt, Cheffy!

-There we go.

-OK.

-I'm being...

-Do you cook that almost till it's dry?

Yeah, you're going to get a bit of pulp sauce back out there.

If it gets too dry, put a bit of water in there.

Down it goes. Quick pulp.

There you go.

-That fish...

-It wants another 30 seconds, I think.

-Yep. The fish?

-Yep.

-Bit of salt.

-Do you want some lemon juice in there?

-Bit of lemon.

-Half a lemon juice.

-It's quite sharp, this, then?

-Yeah.

But you have got that aroma of the vinegar, like the chip shop.

-Ah! You'll get told off.

-Just testing you!

-Mother will be watching!

Just testing! "He had two different spoons."

Yeah!

Guess which spoon I used? If you phone in...

-Basically, you use one of these, as well?

-We use them a lot

in the restaurant for little garnishes and the chips

and other little things - scampi in a basket on the bar, for a bit of fun.

-You have got this little salad...

-A nice bit of tomato ketchup

-or a quick tomato sauce.

-Put a few capers on there, as well.

-Yeah.

In there, you have got a little bit of pickled onion?

-Yes, pickled onion quarters.

-Right.

There we go. Got to be careful with this fish.

-When it comes out, give it a little season.

-I'll wash my hands.

So, if people can't get whiting, you could use haddock?

-Haddock. Haddock whiting.

-Cod has got really expensive now.

-Yeah, try and avoid it.

-Yeah.

Take this out very, very gently.

-It is quite delicate, even after it's cooked?

-Very delicate.

-It can break up very easily.

-Happy with this sauce?

Look at that. there you go.

-Don't it look lovely?

-Yeah.

-OK, there we go.

-So we have got your nan's board.

-Granny's chopping board.

-Any old newspaper. They're

-grease-proof. Yeah.

There goes our whiting. Wedge of lemon.

It's all in the presentation. Look at that.

Nice wedge of lemon on the side and there we have my deep-fried whiting

in oatmeal, tomato ketchup and warm new potato salad

-with malt vinegar.

-How fantastic is that?

That's made people hungry,

especially with the early start this morning. Pauline...

No, not for me, thanks(!)

LAUGHTER

-"Lay it down!"

-Get it there!

-"Get it here!"

Dive in. Dive straight in,

tell us what you think.

-Is that yours?

-No, you can dive in.

-You can see how delicate that is.

-Yeah.

-The oatmeal is fantastic.

-Gives a nice crunchiness.

-Yeah.

-A real nice crunch.

-Do you use much whiting in your place?

I don't, but I'll certainly think about it, I think. It looks great.

It's definitely around.

-Happy with that?

-Mmm.

-Tastes really good.

-It's very hot!

LAUGHTER

Of course, if you can't get your hands

on your granny's chopping board, then any board will do.

Coming up, I'm making lemon posset for Jenny Agutter,

but before that, Rick Stein takes a trip to Ireland.

Today, he's in Cork's English market before he meets

Rachel Allen's grandmother-in-law, Myrtle, at Ballymaloe House.

Cork is an excellent place to eat.

It's full of good restaurants. One of the reasons is that

it has a large indoor market in the centre, called the English Market.

No-one really knows why it's called that.

Maybe cos it once sold English produce.

This stall is run by Pat O'Connell.

He says that no city can call itself a city without a market.

Just look at this fish!

Now, this is the reason I came to this market -

to Eddie Shean's fish stall, famous throughout Ireland

for his salted ling, which is one of the cod family.

We'll fillet him now. Salting is used a lot during the winter time

and especially at Christmas,

Good Friday, Lent - during the Lenten season.

So how would you cook it?

You'd cook it... You'd boil it for maybe ten minutes,

after soaking it overnight in cold water and simmer it,

maybe, gently for another ten minutes in milk.

Then, you would add some parsley, chives and, maybe, some onions

and a good blob of mustard.

That will make the sauce go yellow.

And that's it. You serve it up then,

maybe with mashed potatoes and butter

and that's how you serve it here.

Eddie's family have been selling this for generations.

I hope they'll approve of the way I want to cook it.

I like the look of Eddie's Lenten dish, with salt ling,

but I wanted to put some salt ling in some Cornish pasties.

I don't know that he thought it was such a good idea,

but if you live in Cornwall, this in a Cornish pasty's gotta be good!

First of all, I soaked the ling for 24 hours in plenty of cold water.

and then I skinned it, just like you do a normal fillet.

Just take a knife and slide it against the skin

from the tail up towards the head.

Then, I sliced the fillet up into small pieces

to go into the pasties, checking for bones.

I put that in a bowl, with some cubed potatoes.

All raw - it'll bake in that pasty in the oven.

Next, I added chopped vine tomatoes, for their lovely tart flavour,

then a good quantity of sliced onion.

Now, I add some chorizo, which is the Spanish

paprika, pork, garlic and chilli sausage.

I'm thinking about empanadas here, from Northern Spain.

They're similar to pasties,

but they mix fish and sausage in a very agreeable way.

I've just thought - I'm slightly thinking on my feet here -

I think it just wants moistening with a little bit

of Spanish olive oil. There we go.

Done and dusted. Finally, some salt. Quite a good lot of salt.

We'll have lost most of the salt in that soaking of the ling.

And lots of pepper,

just adding to the chilli flavour in the chorizo.

Finally... Nearly forgot it.

I'm just going to add a good lot of freshly-chopped broadleaf parsley.

Stir that in...

comme ca.

That's looking pretty good.

Now, to fill the pasties. Get as much into the pasty, as possible,

otherwise it's a bit empty when you bite into it.

Then you crimp it and egg-wash it and bake it for about 35 minutes.

I expect the Cornish will be saying

"Gosh, not another weird filling, like banana and curry

"and chicken tikka."

But thinking about it, you've got Galicia, Ireland and Cornwall -

a sort of Celtic tie-up.

I think it's very apt. Just look at that!

I must try some. Oh, it's lovely!

The potatoes are so good in there.

This is Cobh Island, a few miles south of Cork.

Once upon a time, the big transatlantic liners

used to come here on the way to America.

It's now home to a fellow seafood lover and a good friend of mine,

Frank Hederman. Last time I was over here, I had these wonderful

smoked eels, eaten hot from the smokehouse. It's one of those

gastronomic memories that stay with you always.

You get a lovely layer of fat, just under the skin you can see it.

This is all flavour. This is all just absolutely lovely.

-Slice across the surface of the fish...

-Gosh, it's good.

I've just got to say this... I think there is a sort of top ten

of world-class delicacies.

This has got to be one of them, along with things like, you know,

Tuscan virgin olive oil and the ham from those black pigs

in Spain, Iberico ham, and caviar. It's just got that sort of

tingling taste. When you taste it, you just think,

this is the sort of thing I am looking for wherever I go.

Smoked salmon is so varied. It ranges from the dreadful stuff

that has got the taste and consistency of soap

and has never seen the inside of a smokehouse,

to this - sides of wild, prime-quality salmon,

gently absorbing the smoke from beech shavings

over an 18-hour period.

I had worked out that it was just keeping the fish in an area

and filling the area with smoke. There wasn't an awful lot

could go wrong with it. When I took it out and I tasted it,

I thought "I have something here."

It's the only thing I have ever done right consistently!

So, I get a great buzz out of this. You're making something.

You're taking raw material and making a finished product

and I find that very personally fulfilling.

We have this wonderful raw material here in Ireland -

absolutely outstanding raw material. We must get that into niche markets.

We mustn't be sending it out live for it to be processed elsewhere,

sending out the fish on ice. We must add the value here.

We're not making nuts and bolts here.

This is beautiful wild Irish smoked salmon.

Same with the wild Irish eel and wild Irish mussels.

I smoke those products, as well.

Creating markets for them, that's the great buzz and drive.

Getting people to understand that Irish food

is like Swiss engineering, it's like French wine.

That's our raw material, our product. That's what we should be selling.

It's really good to meet someone who feels as passionately about

the quality of fish as I do.

We talked for ages about seafood and we went from pub to pub

rattling on about fishing and the way fish are caught

and what we can do to try and conserve them.

Ireland's a good place to talk about these things.

This is sea trout. It has a lovely silvery skin, just like salmon.

It's halfway in flavour between salmon and trout.

Sadly, 15 years ago, at this time of year, in early June,

they'd be running up the estuary there in their thousands.

The fishermen would be coming in the back door by the bucketload.

They came in buckets in those days!

But I haven't had a single one this season. This is a farmed sea trout.

If I had a fresh one, I'd probably just grill it and serve it

with a little green sauce.

But the recipe I'm going to do here really suits a farm fish like this.

It's a red wine sauce. I'll use some prawns to flavour the sauce.

I'm using shell-on prawns,

because I want the shells to add extra flavour.

Don't buy the peeled ones. These have much more flavour.

I'm just going to peel a few of these.

This sauce does take time, but it's worth making.

You melt some butter in a saucepan

and you add the prawn shells and stir them around a bit.

There's lots of flavour in them. Next, you add a mirapoix of onions,

carrots and celery, all chopped up.

Now, some porcini or cep mushrooms. They've got lots of flavour.

You can get them even in supermarkets now.

They're excellent in sauces, the dried ones.

A good pinch of chilli.

I like chilli in my red wine sauces, just for a subtle background heat.

Star anise. I got the idea for this from a Marco Pierre White recipe.

Now I add some balsamic vinegar.

There's two reasons for putting this in.

First, to give a little tartness to the sauce,

but also for colour, just to make that red wine colour deeper.

Then, red wine. About a pint. This might seem absurdly extravagant,

but it's not. I'm looking for that intensity of flavour.

Last, a pint of chicken stock. Now the reduction. This is SO important.

You have to reduce the volume right down to almost nothing.

That's come down very nicely. Look how dark that is.

Fantastic - comparing what it was like before.

I'm just going to empty that through this sieve,

which has got a saucepan underneath.

I'll force as much juice as I can

through the sieve with the back of a ladle, so I don't waste a thing.

When you think about all the wine that went in,

plus those expensive mushrooms and the balsamic vinegar.

Just push as much as I can through.

That's fine. Let's have a look at the sauce underneath.

Well, I wouldn't say it was the most photogenic-looking sauce.

It reminds me, looking into the pan, of being on Bodmin Moor at night

and looking into a sea trout pool.

Talking of sea trout, let's go on and cook some.

Bake it in the oven. First, brush the fillets with melted butter.

Season very lightly with salt on the cut side.

Sea trout's also called salmon trout because it follows

the same migratory pattern as salmon

and also eats prawns out at sea, hence its pink colour.

Fold those fillets over and put in an oven-proof dish.

Season on the outside, as well.

Then cover with foil and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.

I know I said the sauce was complicated,

but I believe cooking a fish should be very simple.

Just heat and seasoning.

Don't lose those juices. They add so much to the sauce.

Sprinkle the prawns over the fish. Keep them warm, while you finish.

Whisk in some chilled butter. This enriches the sauce,

thickens it and gives it a nice shine.

The French have a word for this - "monter au beurre".

A bit like the Eskimos and their 40 words for snow!

Now, all you need to do is season with a little salt and lemon juice.

A final whisk...and it's done.

And now pour right over the prawns and those lovely fillets of fish.

Add a sprinkling of parsley.

Farm fish really does have its moment.

No, I wouldn't cook this with wild sea trout,

but it's SO good with these fillets.

20 miles out of Cork is Ballymaloe House,

filled with peat fires, wellies and children.

Here, food's the thing, inspired by Myrtle Allen.

-How do you see the future of Irish cooking?

-I'm worried about it.

I'm worried about the future of Irish materials, same as everybody else.

Because now people are not thinking about flavour, at all,

or the sort of goodness of food.

It has to be cheap, it's got to be safe. Cheap and safe.

That's all anybody wants and, you know, that's not good.

Take carrageen, it's got a very subtle flavour.

It's a seaweed which grows in profusion round here

and Myrtle makes a brilliant pudding.

It's stiff and prickly at first, so it has to be soaked in cold water.

Then it's added to milk and brought to simmering point.

As it simmers, the carrageen thickens the milk.

We had lunch together. She insisted on preparing a turbot.

First, she cut round the outside of the top of the turbot.

This was to free up the skin. She seasoned it with pepper and salt.

Then, she prepared a roasting tray, into which she put some water.

Not much, but enough to keep the flesh moist while she baked it

in the oven for about 35 minutes. With the turbot on the go,

Myrtle went back to finishing the seaweed pudding.

The milk was thick. She passed it through a sieve into a bowl,

scraping off as much of that thick carrageen jelly as she could.

Then she whisked it all together

and added about half a capful of vanilla essence.

Next, in went about four ounces of caster sugar

and then a single egg yolk. Myrtle said, when she was a little girl,

carrageen pudding was eaten as a cure for coughs and colds.

Finally, some egg white.

She whisked that into soft peaks and folded it into the pudding.

It reminds me of junket. We had that as kids.

Everybody just eats yoghurt now.

She chilled it for a couple of hours and that really thickened it up.

It had a lovely consistency and a definite taste of the sea.

She served it on a lovely, damp, but warm, Irish afternoon in the garden.

She added soft brown sugar, which I loved with it,

and a spoonful of stewed gooseberries from her garden

and a little cream. Just a matter of common sense!

But, as Myrtle always says,

common sense isn't that common any more.

I don't think people are half careful enough of the fish.

It's a sin to waste fish. I hate promoting fish.

Terrible thing to tell YOU! The fewer people that eat fish, the better.

I hate it when doctors say it's good for you.

Everybody will eat too much fish and it'll be gone, the wild fish.

They should say "just eat a little". It's special.

It's so satisfying to see that skin removed so effortlessly,

showing the lovely flakes underneath.

Then, it's chopped herbs - chives, parsley, thyme - and melted butter

to pour over the turbot.

Myrtle's just been made an honorary doctor. She deserves it.

No-one has been more influential in reminding people

of the joy of local ingredients and the simple cooking of them.

That turbot looked amazing and milk puddings are great,

but I'm not too sure about using seaweed. Rach?

It's great, carrageenan. I love it. I use it a lot.

-Come on!

-If you can taste it in the pudding,

then you've used too much, you shouldn't use too much.

It's just a natural gelatine. No, it's gorgeous!

Don't put it in altogether.

Next time I'm on the show, maybe I'll make it.

Yes, if you're invited back.

-Thanks, James.

-I've got a classic milk pudding to show you right now.

It's called a posset, an incredibly simple way to make.

It's really delicious,

especially with my home-made shortbread biscuits.

So, first thing, I'm going to get the posset on.

Run you through the ingredients for the posset.

This is how simple it is. It's been around since about 1530.

Been around for years. This is just it.

Double cream, a little bit of caster sugar and lemon. That's it.

-That's all that's in it.

-A very, very old-fashioned recipe.

-A great recipe.

-You see it in Mrs Beeton's and everything.

I mean, it's very typically about the French.

The French love their past and they almost praise their past,

whereas, in England, we kind of almost forget it.

-Yes.

-Things like this are so simple, so delicious.

We should be back to those kind of dishes more often. Superb.

-Absolutely superb.

-It should be delicious.

So we just put double cream and some sugar together.

What I'm looking for is the style of his work.

You see, that's what I'm looking for. Not the result. The style.

Show us a bit of style.

This is the first time I'm panicking on Saturday Kitchen.

Right, so we just put in sugar and double cream. Mix this together.

I'm going to keep my lemons towards the end.

Next, for our shortbread, we've got in here some butter.

We always make shortbread and pastry by hand, never by machine.

I got that from watching that fella over there, many, many years ago.

But shortbread, soft butter.

See how soft that is.

-We throw in some icing sugar.

-Do you have cold hands?

-I have warm hands.

-Most pastry chefs have warm hands.

-Is that right?

So how do they manage not to make the melt...

We either roll it in between clingfilm or we use a marble slab.

Only use your fingertip, not your whole hand.

-Exactly.

-Please.

Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef!

So we've got our butter and our sugar together.

Next, we'll throw in the cornflour.

There's two types of flour in this one.

Normally shortbread would be just made with plain flour,

which I'll add now.

I use a mixture of both.

So what does the cornflour do to it?

The thing about shortbread is it needs to be very, very light.

Almost a texture that you'd just be able

to put in your mouth and just dissolve.

Shouldn't even need to bite it.

So, when you add the flour, you carefully fold it in.

Then we're going to add the almonds.

Not fully folded in first.

Throw in the almonds and throw in the little bit of almond liquor.

So, while I'm mixing that...

Where did your love of food originate from?

Cos you've got quite an eclectic mix of food.

You love Japanese, that sort of style.

Where did it all start for you?

I've always been travelling since a child.

My father was in the army.

So the first foods I tasted

were in Singapore.

I remember going to the Armour's quarters

and eating rice wrapped up in leaves and things.

My parents both enjoyed the foods in the places we lived in.

They didn't stick to the British cooking, wherever we were.

They would go and actually try all the different foods.

So we lived there, we came back to England, we lived in Cyprus.

And then we were travelling to other places.

And I've always enjoyed different foods.

I think that just kind of sparks off one's appetite for different

kinds of ingredients and all of that.

I mean, what's interesting is today

one can buy so many foods from around the world.

You mention Japanese, which is another food, as well.

All that sort of oriental style of food's really

coming to the fore now, I suppose.

Yeah. I was lucky enough to go and work in Japan.

I spent five weeks, actually, in Tokyo, in the theatre there.

And got to taste some really amazing foods and see

some extraordinary food halls and things.

And talking of theatre, that's why you're back again now?

I'm in the theatre at the moment, yes.

I'm having to be very careful about drinking too much wine.

-What's the play?

-It's Equus,

with Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.

Daniel Radcliffe is famous for Harry Potter,

which I'm sure a lot of people know of nowadays.

Equus is, of course, a horse.

It's about a young man who becomes passionate about horses,

but it goes in the wrong direction.

The play starts with knowing that he's blinded the six horses.

And then one has to discover why this happened.

And then the psychiatrist, at the same time,

is having real doubt about what his work does and what it achieves.

-And you've got two of those to do this afternoon?

-Two of those.

One this afternoon and one this evening.

Anyway, with the lemon posset, this cream and sugar

has just been boiling for two or three minutes.

In we go now with the lemon zest.

In we go with the lemon juice.

Just fresh lemon juice.

There we go. Throw all that in.

-Now, the cream is not bubbling?

-No, it's been boiling.

So we just boil it and then we leave that to one side

and then mix this together.

-See it's quite liquid?

-Oh, yeah.

It's thick. The mixture is quite thick.

-It's almost like a tarte au citron.

-It smells so beautiful.

A lovely lemon tart, a French classic mix.

But then what you do is just set it in the fridge,

which I've got some in there.

I'll leave that to one side for a second.

I'll talk about my biscuits, quickly.

You take one of these little nonstick mats. These are great.

Take one of these nonstick mats.

And then, using a teaspoon, we can take our mixture.

See the difference between this and a normal shortbread?

Normal shortbread, you'd be able to roll out. This one, you can't.

-So just take a teaspoon.

-It's all going to flatten out?

Pop it in here. And ideally, you need to bake this.

Yeah, bake it about 150 degrees centigrade.

So quite a low oven, shortbread, for a small amount of time.

For about eight minutes.

Once it's cooked, we end up with this.

Which you just make a little indentation on the top

with your finger and then we take some lemon curd.

This is where you can change it and you can put...

You do the indentation when it just comes out of the oven?

Yes, just a little bit. As soon as it comes out of the oven, Chef.

Very good.

LAUGHTER

-Not when it's in the oven?

-That would burn your finger, Chef.

Don't do it.

Mind you, if you told me to do it,

I'd probably do it anyway.

What we do is just leave those to one side.

You can put jam in there. if you want. In the fridge...

This is why you should make your guest work. We could have completed this.

Soon as it comes out of the oven, just press it with your finger.

Then this. This is the lovely little lemon posset.

-Dust it with icing sugar.

-Oh, yes.

Get your spoon ready.

And then dive into these.

-Dive into this, have a taste.

-How wonderful.

Tell me what you think.

Mmm. Mmm, mmm!

Cos we've got the true pastry chef, the guy that got me in pastry

-in the first place. Pass that along.

-Oh, how lovely.

-Can I dive into...

-Yes, dive in.

And it sets like a lovely cream.

Oh, it does. It's really... Wow.

Mmm! One doesn't expect it to be quite so...

-Perfect time, in the morning, isn't it?

-Amazing.

Bring them back onto the menu. They are superb, those classic puddings.

Now, don't be afraid to try making posset.

It really isn't that hard of a dessert to make,

and it can be the perfect end to any dinner party.

If you'd like to have a go at cooking any of the food you've

seen on today's show, then all the recipes are just a click away at

bbc.co.uk/recipes

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

from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now it's the time for our very own ray of Spanish sunshine,

Jose Pizarro, to cook.

And he solves the age-old question,

what do you serve with meatballs?

Chips, of course.

-What are we cooking?

-It's going to be meatballs, we say albondigas.

-Albondigas.

-Albondigas.

We are going to season with some cumin,

fennel seeds and paprika.

-They're the spices.

-Yes, the spices.

With some Serrano ham.

-Serrano ham.

-Not Iberico, I know you love Iberico.

I love Iberico. That's from the black-footed pig.

-This is much cheaper, as well.

-A lot cheaper.

We can go for up to £80 a kilo,

-for Iberico ham.

-£80 a kilo?

High, amazing quality.

And the sauce for this is what?

The sauce just some shallots,

garlic, and some tinned tomatoes.

Now is not a really good season for the fresh tomatoes,

just use tinned tomatoes.

But when they're in season, grab them.

There are some in the UK you can get nowadays.

We've got some sherry, a bit of stock,

a bit of chilli to give it a bit of a kick

and some bay leaf.

-I'll get that on the go.

-Now we have the bread with milk.

Why do you do that? Is that to keep it nice and moist?

There. Going to take it out

of the milk like that.

Bring it to the bowl.

And now, some mince.

Do this. Start like that.

So this new restaurant concept,

it's one of your very own.

Are you going to open them both at the same time?

Like I say long ago,

no-one opens two restaurants

and write a book at the same time.

And I'm doing it again.

Opening two restaurants and writing another book.

But it's lovely. So happy.

The first book has just been published in Spain.

Now my mum and my dad,

they can't read my own book.

How frustrating is that?

You've got to do an audiobook. I love the way you talk.

LAUGHTER

Anyway, lovely.

That is the shallot and the garlic.

-Sherry's gone in there as well.

-It's gone in there.

And now, the tomatoes. Like that.

A little bit more meat.

Oh, sorry.

And just take the heat down

and leave for one hour.

-Just cooking slowly.

-We end up with that one.

The restaurant concept is quite small, the first one. 17 seats?

The first one is going to be only 17 seats.

Where did you get the idea for that?

The idea is, I want to bring together La Boqueria market

from Barcelona and the south of Spain from Jerez.

Altogether. La Boqueria is small... It's quite small.

It's a bar, it's only a bar.

And then in South of Spain it's more bar busy, busy bar.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Simple, really, really simple food.

You mentioned La Boqueria market.

I actually think that's one of the greatest markets in the world.

-I think so.

-You want the ham in there?

-Lovely, perfect.

-There you go.

-The ham is going to be lovely flavour

and then it's going to be nice and crispy outside the meatball.

If you've never been there, it's bang in the centre of Spain,

Barcelona, but it's got little tapas bars right in the centre.

Whereabouts is that? I've just been there...

Right down the main street in Barcelona, towards Ramblas.

-I've been there.

-Towards the water there. And it's amazing.

Full of fantastic food.

They've got these great tapas bars smack in the centre.

-I love Spanish cooking.

-Everything is just very simple, from the market.

You take from the market, go straight to a la plancha.

And this is the thing I really want to bring here.

You know, the simplicity, the quality of the food.

OK, here is the olive oil.

You cook it in quite a bit of oil.

Yeah, I already fry, to say that.

Now, I'm going to put some oil in my hand

just to stop it sticking.

The meat is in there.

Small one like that.

-La Boqueria is really the place to go.

-It is fantastic.

-It's really, really lovely.

-Really interesting market.

-Is it big? Can you not miss it?

-It's massive.

-I've missed it, then.

I am telling you, I have spent there hours.

I go there for breakfast, I am leaving after my coffee...

-Do you?

-In the afternoon.

It is great.

But they have all different types of hams and fish in the centre.

Just some fish that you've never even seen before.

I take a friend of mine there

and he say, "This is the fish market,

"and doesn't smell."

Cos it's fresh, isn't it? Yeah.

Right, so we've got more of the meatballs here.

Now, why 17 seats in your restaurant? Why is that?

-Why an odd number?

-It's really, really tiny.

Is that just the restaurant or is there more seats in the bar?

It's a sherry bar. It's going to be... Not huge menu of sherries.

Not a celery bar. A sherry bar.

Sherry. Sorry about my English!

You're getting better with my name, I have to say.

Listen, you're better at English than I'm better at Spanish.

I need to learn English. Anyway. Here it is.

-Chips are going in.

-Just fry.

Cleaning down.

Spoon, please.

You see, just the ham is giving beautiful golden colour

and it's going to be nice and crispy outside. And nice and moist inside.

Now, a lot of people, when they are doing meatballs

would cook them in the sauce. You don't do that?

No, I just fry first. Again, to be nice and crispy.

And then just dip on the sauce.

So, basically, we cook it in here like that. And plenty of oil.

Plenty of oil. It's not deep-fried, but it's quite...

Olive oil for this?

Olive oil, you know me. Always olive oil.

I love this one. I think meatball is so underrated. It is so stunning.

And this is really good value.

Did you put any breadcrumbs in with it?

-Did you put any breadcrumbs in with it or anything?

-No.

Fresh bread with milk.

Just that bread and milk.

And sometimes you can put egg.

I have amazing recipe.

It's beef and pork mix together and then inside,

like you did before with the butter,

I do with cheese.

Right, the sauce here, that can go here.

Literally 45 minutes, you end up with that.

You need nice...

See, I've used quite a lot of the sauce.

All this stock and all the wine is really gone.

-Parsley, please.

-Sorry. Parsley chopped, sorry.

Lovely.

Like that, nice and beautiful colour, you can see.

The smells is gorgeous.

The smell is stunning.

-It is quite nice smell from, you know, cumin.

-yeah.

Sounds good. Right, parsley.

It's time to plate it then, no?

I'm there! Chips are nearly there.

We're ready.

-When you're ready.

-I'm ready.

Nice. The smell is just beautiful.

Now, are these a tradition in Spain?

Served at a particular time of year or not?

Not really.

"Not really."

All the time is fine.

Meatballs are always good. Like that.

Nice. One more. Five.

Some more sauce. You see, that's beautiful.

Like that.

Is it true sometimes, you know, if I cook meatballs at home

and it's that the next day, when you eat them,

-they taste nicer.

-Nicer.

Yeah, they do, don't they?

This is really cheap to make, meatballs.

For dinner, or when you are hungover.

LAUGHTER

Chips, meatballs, lovely. Some salt and pepper there.

There's bound to be people waking up in the UK

with half a doner kebab stuck to the side of their face.

LAUGHTER

They fell asleep somewhere and the TV's left on.

But this is proper, proper grub.

Some here, like that.

And, in the middle, lovely.

Go on, you put the added bit of tinsel on it.

I'll put these in...

There.

I have to finish with some olive oil.

Now, James, I promise you, next time,

I will be cooking with butter.

I promise next time we'll get a bigger dish

to put the chips in, as well!

Remind us what that is again.

That is a spicy lamb meatball

with Serrano ham and some fries. Chips. Fried potatoes.

Yes, we've got to dive into this. Look at that.

Have you got any gravy for the chips?

LAUGHTER

-Don't say that!

-It's Northern. I'm only joking.

Oh, wow, this looks great!

-Bowl of chips at the end.

-Not just for you.

Now, you can mix and match the meat in there. Like you said,

you could put beef, we've got lamb in here, but beef, pork, anything.

-Anything, really.

-Spain, famous for pork.

-Yeah.

-It's gorgeous.

Mmm.

-Happy with that?

-That is really nice.

-Yeah.

How do you say in Spanish, "very good?"

-Muy rico, muy bueno.

-Moh-weno.

I'm glad you enjoyed that, but I'd avoid speaking Spanish if I was you.

Now, it's Floyd time now.

Today he's in Jersey and with a glass of wine in hand,

he's celebrating the good old Jersey Royal.

One of my duties as a kid on Sunday mornings,

when I lived near Wiveliscombe, when we had our big feast of the week,

in the week itself it was dripping

and shepherd's pie and pig's trotters and things like that,

but Sunday was a really, really...

PAN SIZZLES LOUDLY

Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it?

..was a really great day

because just as the lunch was coming to the final, ultimate,

succulent roasting, you would go into the garden,

dig the potatoes, and pick the Brussels sprouts,

which still had frost on them.

I can remember to this day my fingers, blue with cold,

but I can still remember the superb taste of that fresh kind of food.

And that's what I've got here.

I mean, you saw me dig the potatoes out of the field,

away with the lid, no kitchens here, you see, just the field.

Beautiful Jersey New potatoes, and I've fried a bit of liver,

and into the juices of the pan I've put a little glass

of Jersey white wine,

to make a very, very simple and elementary sauce.

Now I'm going to add some beautiful Jersey cream to that.

Keeping stirring the thing the whole time.

You know, in real cookery programmes they have seven home economists,

a studio, 18 backup men, 14 examples of the same dish, but

we're just going to do this because we're a very talented sort of lot.

Some fresh chives, which we picked on the way here this morning.

We did ask permission, as well, I can tell you,

which I put into my pan.

And because I want this to be super-duper good,

because I've got a very important man coming for lunch today,

I told you, he's a senator, you'll recognise him, because

senators wear togas and laurel leaves around their head, don't they?

And I've got to do this for him.

So, I put my bit of egg yolk into the sauce.

So, one thing is for sure about this meal - hey, look, come and see -

one thing for sure about this is you won't get a fresher dish anywhere.

Now, back onto here. Thank you, Richard.

The beautiful chive and cream sauce over there.

Turn off the gas so we don't blow the countryside up.

Put the potatoes on here.

Hoping they're not going to crush and crumble as I put them on.

I don't care who you are, but I don't think you could get

a better, simpler little dish than that.

Which, if you don't mind, my man awaits me,

my bottle of wine awaits me. I'd better have a quick slurp.

And off I go.

# Spuds, spuds, spuds # Spuds, spuds, spuds

# Spuds, spuds, spuds... #

Here we are, Your Majesty.

New Jersey potatoes... It's not Majesty, is it?

It's Lord? No. What are you? Senator!

Well, it's a bit disappointing, no toga and no laurel leaves.

I did ask for them, you know.

Well, I'm afraid the toga's being dry-cleaned at the moment

and the laurel leaves, I think, are caught by the frost.

-It's been a funny winter, hasn't it?

-It has, extremely.

-Has it affected the business of the island?

-It has to a point.

Our beautiful potatoes are a little bit later than they normally

would have been, but other than that, we're managing OK, thank you.

Great. Tell me, the popular conception of Jersey is in fact

an island of fun, of high-rise banking offices with sinister men

in Mercedes-Benz and tinted sunglasses and stuff like that,

who whisper to each other. But that's not the whole picture, is it?

I mean, what is your job?

Well, my job is to be responsible for agriculture in all its aspects

in the island, and that of course

is probably the most important part of the island economy.

Not necessarily money, I might add, it's the character.

Jersey wouldn't be what it is without it.

What is this business about the fluke?

-I mean, these potatoes were a fluke, weren't they?

-Yes, they were.

-Excuse me while I sit down.

-OK.

They were a fluke.

I believe you know the story, the chap had the 16-eyed potato

and he planted it in the ground,

and he produced this remarkable strain of potatoes

on which the island's economy has been based for a number of years.

And when I look back, I think it's a remarkable thing.

First of all, that he should realise what an important discovery

he'd made, and secondly, imagine if he'd been a very greedy person

and eaten them all instead of putting them back for more seed?

The island's history may have been changed by a single meal.

What do you think of my setting, my little restaurant here?

-You like it?

-I think it's fantastic. I'd like to come here every day.

-It really is a beautiful place.

-But a very serious point.

What is it like being a lord or a senator or a king?

I mean, do you eat in cloistered halls with rusty servants

in green dinner jackets shambling, perhaps a club-footed one

dragging the trolley of the baron of beef as the band play in the food?

I mean, what's life really like for you?

No, that sounds like the BBC canteen.

As far as we're concerned, we don't go in for that sort of thing at all.

It's a very ordinary sort of existence.

We do our job to the best of our ability.

But at the same time, we get certain advantages.

If I wasn't a senator, I wouldn't be sitting here with you.

And I must say, I'm enjoying it very much, and I thank you for it.

Well, I actually think that's enough senators.

I mean, he's been plugging this Jersey Island for the last 15 minutes

or something like that.

I reckon it's time we got on with what Floyd is all about,

which is a slurp and a mouthful, and hope that you enjoy

what is going to be a magical, but very sadly last programme.

Bye now.

That was great, Pierre, thank you very much.

Oh! I forgot to say one thing! The senator has a name!

He's called Pierre Horsfall.

Lord, Senator, President Pierre Horsfall, King of All Tomatoes,

and all the potatoes of this island.

I wandered about a bit on my own

and as I strolled through these fields on my tod

strange visions of the director's parenthood filled my mind

as I strived to make my words rhyme.

But even with a slurp, there was no doubt,

Floyd, leave the poetry out.

It won't reach the parts it should, so here's a note on Jersey.

That's good.

Observe that the cows are neatly dressed in Barbours,

and the fields in nylons.

But happily, the tide rushes in,

bringing with it a link for the next sequence, which is eels.

Shallot, orange leaves, Marigold leaves, parsley and thyme,

plain flour, a quart of milk, I like that.

And a pint of green... Oh, good heavens, you're here again already.

I hadn't realised.

And you've caught me at my favourite tipple as well,

because actually, I only swig this lot down to wind you up.

Like I sometimes think you wind me up.

I was in the pub the other day, a big fishermen came up to me

and said, "Ever eaten Conger eel and flowers, John?" I said,

"Conger eel and flowers? You're putting me on."

He said, "No, I'm serious.

"It's a very, very old dish. Very famous here in Jersey."

On these programmes,

we've trundled around really looking for what we've decided

are a dying breed of regional specialities.

There aren't going to be any soon!

And that's why I'm so thrilled to cook this Conger eel dish.

The reason I'm reading it from here is,

A - I'm at a distinct disadvantage.

I have never cooked it before, and I've never eaten it before,

so I'm really on the line.

Let's have a quick, no further ado,

a quick whiz around what we've got here.

We've got my favourite old mother-in-law here, the old trout,

with flowers and peas up her nose like that.

And all I did was cut off the head and tail,

and I popped it into water, and I simmered it for an hour,

I took the head out, leaving the stock, which I will show you.

Now, Richard, come over to here.

I'll show you the ingredients that we have, most remarkable.

Chopped cabbage,

a few peas, some borage,

no, these are marigold leaves, I beg your pardon.

Marigold leaves. Chopped borage.

Dried marigold flowers,

chopped shallots, petals of marigold

for a garnish later, to make it look really superb.

Fresh parsley, and fresh thyme. I've also got some flour and butter.

Come back to me, Richard, I'm feeling a bit lonely here.

Flour and butter to thicken the whole thing up. Right.

The endangered species, get your notes ready,

your pencils ready, I'm going to be asking questions,

and if anybody on Jersey would like to challenge me on this recipe,

be kind to me, I've never done it before,

and none of you have ever offered it to me before.

But it's going to be for real.

So, over here, Richard, into our fish stock

first of all we put the cabbage, OK?

Cabbage goes on. The peas go in.

I bet people in Jersey are reaching for their pens

and telephones right now to say he's doing it all in the wrong order,

all the wrong way round. That is the marigold leaves going in.

This is the borage going in, it's absolutely splendid.

This looks like saffron. In fact, it's dried marigold petals.

They're going in. Give those a little stir round.

Oh, nearly set fire to the recipe! Not to worry.

So, in we go with the shallots.

A bit tedious, all of this, isn't it? Here I am stirring.

Only two more things to go. But you know, it's a curious soup, isn't it?

These folk tales are wonderful.

I'm creating something which is 400 years old. I'm only 40.

I'm a tenth of all of that! I've never heard of it before. Great.

Anyway, as I say, thyme,

sorry to be a bit boring about that kind of thing.

And the parsley.

Now, this is the bit where I reflect,

I reflect deeply on the meaning of life. Conger eel and flowers.

Will they tell me next they have seagulls roasted for Sunday lunch?

I don't know.

But I'll have to leave the director to get me out

of this tricky sequence while this simmers away for an hour so.

I'm going to have another glass of milk.

That was really interesting, wasn't it?

You know, how he dreams up these brilliant little interludes,

I shall never know.

Not sure that I really care.

Anyway, while you've been away enjoying yourselves,

I've thickened the soup with a mixture of flour and butter,

added some thick, rich Jersey milk to it, it is delicious.

And if you cast your mind back to the beginning of the programme,

where the senator was there laying on a bit like,

"I run the agriculture of this island.

"Everything that happens is all down to me." Well, it isn't really true.

He, like any other politician, is only a minister, really.

And behind him there is a real expert, a real man, who grades

every potato, tastes every tomato, measures every strip of calabrese,

susses out the scallops and fiddles with the eels and things like that.

Or whatever he does.

Anyway, he's the man I need to test my soup, and he's called Francois.

-Francois, it's great for you to come along on the show.

-Hello.

-Thank you very much.

-Not at all.

Now, you've got to be really straight with me.

-You are a Jersey man, born and bred.

-Yes, I am.

I have reason to believe that you have eaten this in the past?

Oh, yes, yes. In fact, in this very house.

Great Auntie used to make that soup.

So, when you get to taste it,

and I'm going to float my little marigold leaves on the top...

Richard, just come in close to that.

Marigold leaves on top, that's lovely.

Francois, it's down to you. This is Floyd versus Jersey.

Could you please taste it, and tell me what you think?

This is a very worrying moment, chaps. Worry for me. Pray, pray.

-Oh, superb!

-Is that true?

Superb! No, it is, it is.

-And is it better than your granny used to make?

-No, it's as good.

It's as good. It is superb!

Well, I'm very thrilled.

Now, I know you like this, and I like it, you're an old Jersey hand,

you reckon it's great.

But have we in fact resurrected a culinary dinosaur?

Do people, do real people still eat Conger eel and marigold soup?

Of course they do, of course they do.

Not so much as they used to in the past.

I think because we've got a cosmopolitan population now,

we don't have so many of the Jersey people left, as it were.

But there are still quite a number who love this.

What are we going to do to stop, I mean, wouldn't it be better

if the States of Jersey, instead of not making cheese, which is

another little bone I want to pick with you in a moment, by the way,

propagated the ancient Jersey dishes?

I mean, we're going down a hamburger and chips road.

Well, I'm not.

I prefer my wife to do all things fresh

and she, in fact, makes lovely vegetable soups, all fresh,

-not out of packets, that's no good at all.

-All right, that's very fine.

But, I'm still going to pick this bone with you,

what about the Jersey cheese?

You have got brilliant milk, why aren't you making any cheese?

And the other thing I want to complain about,

and I mean this quite sincerely, Jersey is a fabulous island, but

all its butter is an little tiny packets and I really resent that.

-Oh, that's not true!

-It is.

Why can't we, in the restaurants, have slabs of this fabulous butter,

-not these naff little packets?

-Ask the hoteliers.

-That's not me.

-Not you. Right. Your fault is the cheese.

What about the cheese?

Well, I think, we tried it, you see, we tried it once.

The Milk Marketing Board here tried an experiment, and it didn't work.

I think, and it's only my opinion, I think

it's because our milk is too rich.

The cream is too rich.

Guernsey do it, and they get a lovely cheese, I'm afraid to say.

I love Guernsey Cheddar.

Yes, but aren't you... you're a bit of a hypocrite,

because the last time I was here when I met you

and we were doing the recce, you said,

"What really cheers a Jerseyman up is to turn into the sunset

"and see Guernsey on fire."

Oh, wait, wait, wait, come off it!

-I didn't quite say it like that.

-You did!

Anyway, you quite liked my soup.

Tell me you think my soup's OK in patois or argot or whatever..

La soupe d'andgulle, c'etait superbe!

Absolument merveilleux.

There you go. Another day, another dinner. I think we've cracked it.

I never get bored of watching the great man cook.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at

some of the fantastic cooking from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites,

there was only two seconds between them on the leaderboard when

Bryn Williams and Marcus Wareing met at the omelette challenge hob.

I was hoping they'd make edible omelettes. Would I be disappointed?

Find out a little later on.

And Northern Ireland's favourite son, Paul Rankin,

char-grills fillet steak.

He serves the fillet with smoked chilli butter,

girolle mushrooms, purple sprouting broccoli and sauteed potatoes.

And actress Lisa Maxwell faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her food heaven,

haddock, with my smoked haddock and leek risotto

served with pan-roasted smoked haddock and parsley oil?

Or would she get her dreaded food hell, dried fruit,

with my delicious fruited dripping cake with orange marmalade?

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

It's always entertaining when you've got yummy Brummie Glynn Purnell

cooking for you, especially when he makes you chew edible twigs.

I kid you not. Take a look at this.

Glynn Purnell, complete with liquorice ash.

I've even worn a jumper that represents the liquorice ash as well.

-There you go, OK.

-There's no jumpers for you today.

Thank you for that,

-because you did give me one for Christmas.

-I did,

and I'm very disappointed you haven't got it on. First of all...

First of all, we're going to put the duck on,

-but we'll have a little look at tamarinds.

-Yep.

They're quite sweet but with a sour sort of flavour.

They're a pod, so you break them open.

Sometimes, obviously you get this in paste form.

-This is how they would look.

-OK.

So if you can pop a few of them for me,

I'm going to make a little almost sauce-type puree,

and it you take the spine out like that,

and then we'll melt them down with a little bit of water

then pass out the stones once we've done that.

-In the meanwhile, we'll put the duck on.

-I'll do a few of those.

The timer's going on the oven. Concentrate on the duck.

-Tell us what type of duck this is.

-This is a Gressingham duck.

And it's bred so the fat's not mega, mega thick.

It's got a nice amount of fat on, but it's still lean

-as far as duck's concerned.

-It's a cross between a wild mallard

-and a Peking duck.

-Yes.

-It's got less fat on it.

Just taking the outside edge off and then we are going to slash the duck,

not cutting into the flesh, but just through the skin.

We want to render it down, although it's delicious,

we need to take a bit out, so I'm going to that

into a medium sort of hot pan, press down

and try to extract as much of the fat out as I can.

You've got the...

I've got the beans on. Do you want these blanching?

Yes, so we've got green beans and rocket.

We've got some tamarind there that we're going to put into the pan,

splash of water and then also we've got some Pontefract cake.

-There's a sink in the back if you want to wash your hands.

-Soft...

Now, Pontefract cake, liquorice, this stuff.

There are like jellied sweets, really.

They're pure liquorice and they make a beautiful puree which goes

really nice with duck, venison, or any sort of game.

So where do you get these ideas from, where is this lot

coming from, this tamarind and liquorice and things like that?

Tamarind is from going around the market in Birmingham,

it's multicultural, so it's good to see all different ingredients.

I took one home and I thought, "What is this?"

Took it home and smashed it open and tasted it

and I thought, "Oh, I could use that."

And the liquorice comes from when I was a kid,

we used to buy the sticks at the shop.

My mum is not a Jack Russell so she didn't give me a stick,

you know, on the way to school.

Basically, we used to chew them on the way to school, the sticks,

to get the liquorice flavour.

You used to eat a stick on the way to school.

-You'd go crunch, like that.

-It's a Birmingham thing.

Did you ever do that?

I went to school in Birmingham and we did exactly that.

Thank you very much.

-You're the first person I've met...

-I think it was just some

-random twig from the garden.

-We're going to put the liquorice sweets...

-We used to have a Sherbet Dib-dab for that.

-We did that as well.

When you're really, really good, you get a stick to chew on.

So we've got the liquorice which we're melting down,

the tamarind which we're melting down.

But you used to eat this as well, didn't you?

Tamarind pods, yes, we used to have it as a real treat,

like on Saturday morning in front of the TV.

We used to have big bowls of tamarind pods, yeah.

We used to get a bowl of rhubarb and custard for a treat, you know.

-Yes, just sat there with the pips.

-You get a pod and a stick.

We're having a little bit of lime in with that tamarind,

just going to melt down.

Just to speed things up, we've got two...

Once they've been melted down for a good

10, 15 minutes, they should end up with something...

So what's that in there, just water, is that?

Just water because they're so strong in flavour, the liquorice

and the tamarind.

We've got a bit of stock, oh, that's going in our sauce at the end.

That's going in with the...

So you've done the green beans, they're blanching,

the duck we'll put in the oven.

That's going to take about eight minutes on about 220.

You're cooking that just on skin, yeah?

Yeah, on the skin, so you can flip it over and then flip it back.

-We've got one that we've got out.

-We've got one that is resting.

-It's always important to rest the meat.

-These have just been blanched.

-I'll take these off.

-The liquorice, we'll put it in a blender

-and blend now, James.

-OK, so that liquorice is just these sweets...

-Melted down in water, that's it.

-That's it?

It makes such a beautiful sort of, like,

-a shiny puree/sauce.

-Put that on there.

Cheers, thank you, James. And then we got the tamarind which is...

And basically that tamarind, we're just going to push

-the stones through the sieve, for a really nice puree/sauce.

-Right.

-Did you want to chew on one of those sticks, James?

-Not particularly, no.

For me, a lot of my food is nostalgia.

-The reason why I burned the wood... I dry the wood out.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

-Don't eat it all at once.

We dry the wood out and we burn it like a little bonfire.

-Right, hold on a second, this is this?

-Yes, so that's the stick.

Sorry, it is a stick. Like, it tastes of stick.

LAUGHTER

In Norfolk, we used to chew bones.

Basically, I burn the liquorice, make a powder,

so you get the bitter sort of wood taste, and then mix it with

-another liquorice powder to make like a charcoal...

-Wood taste.

..which is this stuff.

-Tastes of forest.

-Very good.

-Try that.

-You want me to...?

-Very little taste, that.

Come on, taste it when the dish is finished.

-James, do you want to pass that in there for me?

-Yes.

-Pass that through there.

-It's got a sweetness to it, though, hasn't it?