Episode 126 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

It's time to give your taste buds food for thought. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got some top-class recipes for you,

so if you like great cooking from some amazing chefs,

with the extra ingredient of great celebrities,

then you're in the right place.

Francesco Mazzei is one of the finest chefs

Italy has ever produced.

He cooks artichokes Romana-style,

he stuffs the artichokes with anchovies, mint, parsley,

marjoram and Pecorino cheese, and serves them

with wedges of garlic potatoes. And one of the finest chefs Britain

has ever produced, Michael Caines, pan-fries a juicy sirloin steak.

He serves his perfectly cooked steak with roasted shallots,

celeriac puree, wild mushrooms, spinach and a Madeira cream sauce.

Tristan Welch introduces us to the wonders of home-smoking fish.

He hot-smokes trout before our very eyes

and serves it with fresh peas and mint and pea puree.

And Robert Bathurst faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get his Food Heaven?

Pears with my hot pear tart with Poire William cream.

Or his dreaded Food Hell?

Mexican food with a chicken and cheese quesadilla,

refried bean chimichanga, and sweetcorn chilli salsa.

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

But, first up, Pascal Proyart serves up a piece of the largest crab

I have ever seen on the programme. Get a load of this.

-Great to have you on the show.

-Thank you.

Now, this king crab, I mean, look at the size of this thing, it's just...

-This is a small one, innit, really?

-Well, yeah, it's only a part of it.

-Only a cluster.

-Yeah.

-You know, it can get really big,

-around six or seven.

-So, these are really...cold water is

where these are caught then, yeah?

Yeah, very cold water in Norway, very deep, you know, 40 or 50 metres,

-so it's really deep.

-So, what's the name of the dish?

We're going to do a Norwegian King Crab. We're going to roast that,

I'm going to make a wild garlic polenta with that. OK, I'll need a

rocket leaf on that. And we're going to make a little crab dish,

-which I'm doing, actually, right now.

-Sounds good.

Do you want me to get on and make the polenta?

Make the polenta, so, you know, you shred the wild garlic

-and a bit of shallot.

-OK, no problem.

-I've already started the bisque,

so I've sauteed a bit of the crab with some vegetables.

OK? And I'm going to flame it a bit now.

OK, with a bit of brandy. It's a classic, classic bisque, really.

Would you use the shells as well as the meat in here, really?

-That's right, yeah.

-You use all the leftover bits.

Yep.

OK, yeah, the shell, absolutely. You keep everything.

We don't throw anything away in a restaurant, you know?

-I'm going to swap that over.

-Sauteed with that.

-Then, after that, you put some white wine inside.

-Yeah.

And then this wild garlic stuff, it's in season at the moment.

-It's in season.

-You just eat it as it is.

-We got lucky weather a week ago for a change.

-I want that one!

-Well, there you go.

-Put in the tomato paste,

we cook it all together.

Cook it down around three quarters, then I'm going to add a bit of water.

A little tip as well, when you make your first bisque, you can

use water, but after that, you know,

use back the bones, put back some water in it,

cook it back again for 30 minutes,

and, after that, cook it down and then you have a ruminage.

You can put it in the freezer.

-Ruminage is the second heat, isn't it?

-Absolutely, yeah.

-So, you don't waste anything.

-Absolutely.

You're going to cook that for 25 minutes, and then,

-put in a bit of double cream and then we're going to pass that.

-OK.

You get on with the polenta, fantastic. I'll put that over there.

So, that's basically got the shallot, the wild garlic,

the mixture of milk and water in there,

and then we're going to put this polenta in. And then cook it out.

Brilliant. I'm going to show you a tip as well, which I'm going to do with that.

I'm going to make a little wild garlic, OK? It's something where

we use the microwave, which is fantastic.

You can do it with basil, with parsley, it's really,

-really easy to do.

-This is the little crisps then, show us...

That's right. OK, so I'm going to take some wild garlic leaves.

OK, just put that on your plate.

Then I just need a bit of olive oil.

-Now, you can do this with parsley and...

-Yes.

-It's a nice little garnish for things, really.

-Absolutely.

It's a bit like we used to do fry up, you know?

But it's done with olive oil, so it's very healthy and really nice and...

Just brush it with olive oil.

Just after that take some more clingfilm...

-So, what you're making is basically a crisp.

-A crisp, absolutely.

-Tidy it up nicely. Everybody's got a microwave at home.

-Crisps?

-I like crisps.

-You like crisps?!

-OK, tidy it up, and then we're going

to put it in the microwave for...

-Here's your microwave moment, you see, Matt.

-Lovely.

James, for Christmas, I'm going

to buy you one of those aprons with a pair of bosoms on them.

Thanks very much!

-HE LAUGHS

-I'll use it. I'll definitely use it.

Put it on for two minutes in the microwave.

-Two minutes at high temperature?

-Yeah, high temperature.

-Right, salt, pepper in here.

-Yeah.

-So, you've got the rocket, we've got the...

-That's it, yeah.

..rocket, I've got some pine nuts in there,

this is the little dressing, touch of lemon juice.

Very simple, it just really gives a kick to the crab.

We're going to make, like, luxury sandwiches if you like,

-with the king crab. You'll see.

-Right, a luxury sandwich.

Right, that's that one.

-Did you put a bit of salt in the polenta?

-Uh, not yet...

-All right, I'm going to do that.

-You do that.

Now, you've put a bit of cayenne in here, haven't you?

-To give it a kick.

-Yeah, over there, yeah.

This is the cayenne and you've got the tomatoes in there,

-which is all...

-That's right. Yeah, absolutely, tomato...

Italian, of course.

Polenta is ready.

What I'm going to do now, I'm going to put it in a little mould.

You can put it in a tray, you know, no problem at all.

And then you can just cut it off, but, you know,

-I don't like wastage, so...

-This is instant polenta, so...

-Instant polenta.

-..it doesn't require much cooking.

No, it's around two or three minutes cooking.

All right.

You put that inside.

And then we're going to put it in the fridge and we're going to cool

it down for, you know, one and a half to two minutes.

Hopefully, they're going to be hard enough

-and we're going to pan-fry that...

-Right, now,

Tell us about One-O-One cos you've been there nearly ten years now.

Well, more than that, nearly 15 years, I will say it.

But you have, you know, I mean, literally, last year,

you were in the top six best restaurants in...

-That's right, yeah.

-..in the UK.

-It was for the food...

But the king crab in particular, I mean, people phone up

saying "Is it on the menu?" And then, basically,

-just come specifically for this.

-If it's not on the menu,

I'd actually get trouble, so they call before to make sure,

but, you know, we always have plenty. We put that in the fridge

just to cool down

-for one or two minutes, yeah?

-So, tell us about this, then.

Bisque is cooking now. Let's go with the main thing.

-And you want me to do this?

-Yeah. Again, another microwave.

-Oh, very good!

-This is the crisps.

-The Parmesan crisps, yeah.

Everybody do it on the grill at home, you know.

You do it in the microwave, I promise you, it's beautiful, always

works, and, if you have friends at home, and it's really crispy...

-Don't big it up too much. I haven't done it yet.

-OK, let's go. OK.

So, my crab, guys, look at that, nice little loin...or the shoulder.

Look at the meat in there. Can you see that?

I mean, this is from the larger part of the legs, which is

-this part here.

-That's right, yeah.

We use different parts of the crab for different things, ravioli,

risotto, everything, look at that.

And I think it's one of the only crabs in the world which you can

actually pan-fry like lobster or scallops, you know?

But these things are quite severe scavengers, these things,

-aren't they?

-Oh, yes, they eat everything.

We don't really want them to come too near our waters.

Some fishermen say they are literally entering our waters.

Yeah, because of the global warming and stuff like that, you know.

Right, now, we're going to go...

-Is that because there's so many of them or is that?

-Sorry?

I mean, how come they're migrating to these waters?

Is that because there's so many of them?

So many of them and they're looking for food also and I think the water

getting warmer, colder, so they're chancing immigration.

Also, they don't like the French.

That's possible, yeah.

How long are these going in for?

Oh, these are going for 30 seconds exactly, James.

OK, I'm going on with the cooking.

I just need my polenta back.

When he slows down, he's going at 100mph.

Here we go, look, I'll show you these crisps, look.

Look at that. Is that beautiful or not?

That's superb, so you do that with basil and everything,

it gives a lot of intense flavour as well.

OK, the polenta is here. We're going to pan-fry the polenta.

-Right, do you want me to lose this?

-Yes, please.

So, this would be, what, a quarter of it?

This is a cluster, this is half of the leg,

-only then you've got a big, big head.

-Yeah.

And, you know, fantastic. You don't want to know how much it costs, that.

-And it is expensive?

-35 quid.

-A kilo?

-A kilo, yeah. Absolutely.

-Right, my Parmesan crisps...

-Let's put that in.

-Not ready yet.

OK, a nice seasoning.

Then I'm going to fry the polenta. OK?

Beautiful.

And I even made the polenta without Parmesan cheese for yourself.

-You're very kind. How nice.

-There you go.

-OK, brilliant. This is cooking...

-Do you want to wash your hands?

Yeah, thank you. What we've done as well is we've have some

-candied tomato into your oven, James.

-I'm getting it now, Chef.

-Yeah.

I've got it. I'm on it.

-Candied tomatoes...

-I'm liking my kitchen, you know,

I'm moving, moving, you know.

-I feel like I'm in your kitchen! Right, there you go.

-Look at...

-Candied tomatoes, which are just bases.

-Beautiful.

Yeah, basically, we seeded the tomato we blanch it, salt, pepper,

a bit of sugar. I used the stem of the garlic and cook it for

-two and a half hours at 90 degrees.

-Do you want that more?

A little more, yeah, ten seconds.

OK, when your king crab is pan-fried, we're going to add a bit of butter...

-Yeah.

-..in it, and butter, we know, we're happy with that

and we're going to keep the cooking juice.

Look at that, a little galette pan-fried, looks stunning.

-Right, well, ready when you are.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

All right, so that polenta, you just literally set it in the fridge

-and then put it up?

-That's right, yeah. Absolutely.

-There's that one.

-And the sauce, yeah, are you working on the sauce?

-I'm on it, Chef.

-The sauce we just...

-I'm doing it, Chef! I'm doing it, I'm doing it!

-There you go. Right, that's there.

-Thank you, thank you.

-Sauce...

you want it whisked up, you want a little bit of foam in that,

-then, I take it?

-Yes, please.

Do you want a bit of butter in here? Do you want a bit of butter?

-A little bit of butter, Chef.

-Thank you.

There you go.

Cos you're, of course, from Brittany, which has, obviously,

great seafood around there, but no king crabs, so, what made you...?

Oh, I tried it once when I working for this super restaurant in Paris...

PAN CLATTERS ON FLOOR

Whoops! Sorry.

And I fell in love with it, really.

-Right.

-OK. Bon.

Right, can I take this one for, um...?

-Matt over there.

-Yes, please.

-So, some of this...

We keep the cooking juice.

-There's that one.

-Beautiful.

So, now, we're going to take one crab.

Cut it in half. Look at that.

The other one we're just going to cut some little...

Beautiful.

-Then I take your rocket salad...

-Yes, Chef, one second.

-There you go.

-Beautiful.

I'm going to pick the leaf.

So, you see, I'm making...a little...

-..I'm going to call it a sandwich, but...

-Yeah.

Beautiful.

I just need one polenta...

..in there, my little crisp...

-..which goes in there.

-There we go.

Beautiful.

And you've got a little bit of creme fraiche

-at the end, in the bisque, here.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-There you go.

-I need some of my little leaves.

-Leaves?

-You know, my little...?

-I've got them.

-Fantastic.

Just put that on the top of there.

-Beautiful.

-There we go.

-And then we just put a bit of that.

-Et voila.

-Et voila. So,

-remind us what's in the dish again?

-And the juice, sorry.

This a Royal King Crab roasted with a wild garlic polenta, um...

-beautiful little bisque.

-And I need a drink after that!

Thank you very much. Enjoy.

He's worked me, today!

It does look incredible, I have to say,

so it was worth it in the end, but, would you ever try this at home?

-Uh...no!

-There you go!

Thank you very much. That's the one without cheese, is it?

-Pascal, have a seat over here? Tell us what you think, dive in.

-Right.

There we go.

Now, yours has got...without cheese, without any crab on it as well,

but taste the tomatoes.

When you slowly cook them, that's the secret with those,

particularly if you...

And you can make a lot and use it for salad and whatever.

Wild garlic?

-It's very nice.

-Tastes good, don't it?

You've done it before, haven't you?

-A little bit! Thank you.

-What do you reckon?

-That's fantastic! This is the best!

-It is.

-I get a dish to myself.

And I don't know where you're going to get king crab from,

because it's always frozen, but you can get some from...

Well, come to the One-O-One.

And now, of course, we're coming into the wild garlic season,

so it's good to make the most of it while you can.

Now, coming up, I make a goat's cheese pithivier with

apple and sultana chutney for the brilliant Suzi Perry,

but, before all that, Rick Stein takes a trip to Scotland where

he finds a rather large halibut.

'This Scottish pub is alive with voices from Spain, Portugal

'and France. They're waiting for the tide to take them way out

'into the Atlantic to very deep water.

'They'll be at sea for ten days, fishing continuously down into depths

'almost beyond the imagination.'

I've been into fish for about 25 years and I'd like to think,

if you ever put me on Mastermind, I'd do OK. That is, until today.

I mean, I've seen fish today I never could have dreamt about.

They're terrifying some of them. I mean, look at something like this.

That's called a rabbitfish. Why is it a rabbitfish?

Maybe it's its big floppy ears or its sort of rabbit-like mouth,

I don't know, but it looks really weird, doesn't it? Look at this.

This is an orange roughy.

Now, one of the things about all these fish which come from the

deep, deep Atlantic and the Rockall Trough is they take ages to grow.

That is 80 years old. 80 years old!

And what worries people is how long they'll last for?

What worries me is who the hell would want to eat them?

Look at this one over here!

No, that ain't made out of rubber,

it's a type of shark called a Siki

or a Portuguese Dogfish,

and I've been trying to find out who eats this sort of fish.

I don't know if I ever saw a John Dory for the first time,

I still think I'd want to eat it, because I think it's very pretty,

but some of this fish, well, it just don't pretty to me at all.

I mean, look at this over here.

I mean...honestly, would you want to eat that?

I mean, compare that with something like a bass or a salmon.

I'm sorry if I sound unenthusiastic about these fish,

but it really worries me that we don't know enough about them.

All we know is that they come from the abyss and most of them

are as old as your grandmother.

But they're cheap and this lot is destined for

school dinners in France.

I watch these guys load up before they caught the tide.

I always used to think when I saw fishing boats going out, how exciting

'and romantic when they were going after silver darlings'

or chunky, white-fleshed turbot or red-spotted plaice.

This time I felt how much they were going out

and scooping up just another commodity.

It's a tremendous fish market, one of the biggest in the country.

Superb cod and haddock, all in lovely condition.

But I was looking for a fish which is a real favourite.

Unfortunately, it's getting scarcer

and trawlers have to go way off Northern Scotland to find them.

One of the great things about this market is species that

I don't get a lot of down in Cornwall,

particularly this one, which is one of my favourite fish, halibut,

it's so good and, actually,

this comes from way north in the Norwegian sector.

I don't know whether they're catching so much around here,

but what would I do with halibut?

Well, one thing you have to watch with halibut is it can get

a bit dry if it's sort of a bit overcooked,

so I tend to favour thin slivers of halibut just cooked very,

very quickly and I'm thinking of doing this in a little

bit of olive oil and cooking it very, very gently, but, as I said,

I love this fish and it's such a pleasure to see so much of it.

So, I take a shallow pan, I put it on the heat and I add some olive oil.

I put the fillets of halibut into the pan

and then I'll barely cover the pan with the oil.

I'm trying to be as mean as possible with the oil, because it's

very expensive, but I don't want to avoid covering the halibut.

Now, then, just look at those fillets of halibut.

It's a big fish and it's steaky, it looks like a big rump steak,

but, of course, much more delicate.

I put it on a heat and I bring the heat up very gently.

Now, all the time, I'm testing the temperature with my little finger.

It's a great thermometer and when the oil gets too hot for my little

finger, but only just too hot, I know it's right.

When it's beginning to get there, I just move

the fish around a little bit, just to redistribute the heat in the oil.

Test it again and when it's just getting a little bit

uncomfortably hot, I pull the pan off the heat

and that's it, I leave it for five minutes.

You may not think it'll cook in the middle by then,

but, believe me, it will.

Now, during that five minutes, I prepare the base of my dish,

which is just some thinly sliced cucumber.

Now, get a sort of wok type of pan, get that really hot

and add some olive oil, a couple of tablespoons.

Get that hot, throw in the thinly sliced cucumber,

and then a really big pinch of freshly chopped dill right in there.

Stir-fry, turn it over with a big spoon.

Now a fillip, a sort of slug, of good wine vinegar, not too much,

probably about a tablespoon. In that goes and a tiny bit of salt.

Turn that over very quickly, take off the heat

and now to assemble the dish.

I put the cucumber on the warm dish, I lift the fish

out of the olive oil and put it on top of the cucumber on the plate.

I'm going to make a bit of sauce with what's

left in the bottom of the pan so I'll pour the olive oil off the pan,

but leave a little residue in the bottom where the

juices from poaching the fish have collected

and you can use that olive oil for frying chips, it's brilliant.

Chips made in olive oil are fantastic so don't throw it away

but I just spoon that liquid in the bottom of the pan around my plate,

make a little sauce

and sprinkle some sea salt around there then just a sprig of dill on

the plate and that's it but when you part the flakes of halibut and you

see how moist and fresh it is, you will see the point of the whole dish.

It's clear that fish farming has a big future.

Even the World Bank admits that and I am pleased attempts are being

made to farm one of my favourite fish, the turbot in Tayinloan in Argyll.

Seeing a turbot at close quarters,

I was quite surprised how boring they are.

They sit at the bottom and do nothing.

In fact, they need a few cod swimming around too to stimulate their appetites.

But, that being said, it's a great idea because they are naturally

non-movers, unlike salmon, and it seems OK to keep them in pens.

I have a friend who goes apoplectic at the mention of salmon farms.

He says it's like putting a swallow in a cage.

The salmon is, after all, a migratory animal

and needs plenty of room.

But there's no getting away from it

freshly poached salmon was once a dish only for the rich man's table

but now, it's one of the cheapest good quality

fish on the fishmonger's slab.

Lessons, I know, are being learnt in this business.

The worst mistake was to overcrowd the salmon in pens

and douse them in chemicals which kept them free of lice

and disease but they were fat and flabby

and it did a great deal of damage to the wild stock.

But here, at Loch Duart in the Highlands, Andrew Bing explained

what they are doing differently.

Well, we believe we have an entirely sustainable form of agriculture.

And everything we do works to minimise any effect on the environment

and we do everything we can to promote the welfare of the fish.

Everybody talks about sea lice, fish being eaten away by lice

caused by the concentration of fish. How do you deal with them?

As you've seen, we've got populations of fish here with no sea lice on them at all.

We've got extensive husbandry practices here, low stocking

densities and guys who know how to look after the fish.

And these are fit and healthy fish and hardly any sea lice here at all.

I must say this is the closest to a wild salmon I've ever seen

a farm salmon, it's got a sleek torpedo shape, good fins on it

but above all it feels firm and not flabby like a lot of farmed salmon.

This is a very old English recipe, salmon en croute with currants

and ginger.

But first the stuffing, it is chopped ginger and syrup, butter,

currants, mace, salt and pepper.

It is quite sweet, but that befits its old English nature

so you mix those ingredients together to make the stuffing.

Now, you take the salmon, season it with salt and pepper.

It's in two pieces and best to have a nice loin of salmon so it's really thick.

Spread the butter over the top of one half of the loin,

spread it evenly right over there and then lay the other part on top.

Now, take some puff pastry, a layer underneath

and another layer over the top having just egg-washed the bottom layer

so they will stick together nicely.

Salmon en croute used to be a great favourite in the restaurant.

We stopped doing it.

This one comes from George Perry Smith who used to have

The Hole In The Wall in Bath.

He taught me how to do it.

So, you use the back of a fork to make a pattern all the way round

and then a spoon to make some nice fish scales - nothing too

complicated but when that bakes and puffs up it will look great.

Then you brush everything with egg wash - that will give it a nice bronze

slightly shiny colour and bake it in the oven for about 30, 35 minutes.

Out it comes, doesn't that look good?

Just slice off the outer layer of puff then a good slice.

I think this is fantastic.

I don't know why we ever took it off the restaurant menu!

How delicious does that look? I love salmon en croute

and I would put it back on the menu if I were you, Rick.

Cheese is another thing that is great cooked en croute,

a good brie works really well

but now I'll show you a simple en croute recipe

using an unusual English goat's cheese from my neck of the woods,

Yorkshire, which we've got in here.

Swaledale goat's cheese made by a great lady called Mandy Reed.

This is from Richmond, Richmond in Yorkshire,

not Richmond in Surrey but it's a great goat's cheese.

A crumbly texture of cheesy, like a cow's milk cheese

but it's really really delicious and those people who don't like goat's cheese

because they are put off by the smell and strength, that is

a good one to look for and also Perroche made by a company called Neal's Yard.

But what I'm going to do first of all is make a nice little pithivier

a traditional French-style dessert, generally...or normally.

Normally done with apples and pastry cream

but this one, I will do a savoury one which has spinach.

In there, I'll put some spinach in here.

Bit of butter. Wilt this spinach down with some salt,

a nice bit of salt, a bit of pepper.

Wilt that down nicely.

We'll get a little fork there.

Bring this so it colours very quickly

but we don't want to overcook it

cos this is going to be in the pastry so it will be cooked again.

I put that into a bowl.

That will quite happily cook nicely.

Next, turn to our little cheese before I talk about the pastry.

I've used the smaller cheese, you can get this in a wax rind,

take the wax rind off and it's a perfect portion or two portions

if you're cooking dinner, Suzi!

If you bother to turn up on time!

Two portions. We've got some pancetta here.

You don't have to use pancetta, you don't have to use pancetta

or bacon for this but it adds to the flavour nicely and works well.

A bit of saltiness to it

and we wrap this just carefully just over the pancetta like that.

Fold that over and quickly I will pan-fry it to seal it in a dry pan

like that just a tiny bit of black pepper,

not too much salt because the bacon is quite salty.

Pan-fry that a touch.

While that is pan-frying, talk about you, Mrs Perry.

Right. Mrs Perry? That's my mum!

So, you've gone almost full circle in your career

because you started MotoGP which you are known for now

and a great show at the moment, Channel 5, 7:15pm.

The Gadget Show. On Monday night.

-And on Saturday after your show, actually.

-Exactly.

But you've almost gone full circle with the MotoGP.

How did your love of bikes start?

Well, I think really I got fed up watching Formula One.

It became very processional after Nigel Mansell left

and my friends at the time were very into bikes and they rode bikes

so I took my test and loved watching the bike-racing,

found it so exhilarating and exciting, proper road racing,

proper true racing, and I got really passionate about it

and called the producer up at Sky Sports

and asked why there wasn't more lifestyle stuff done on the bikes

and why didn't we know any of the riders and he offered me

a job as a reporter and that was ten years ago, so I started on Sky.

The MotoGP starts this weekend.

It starts next weekend in Qatar.

We go on Wednesday and start on Saturday, race one

-and then 18 rounds.

-Where is Qatar?

-It's near Dubai.

So, we're having a bike race in the middle of a desert.

-And you have 18 different locations?

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

This goat's cheese here, the spinach on here,

the goat's cheese wrapped in pancetta which looks lovely.

We take another piece of the pastry over the top

and press this down so it nicely seals it.

Now, what pithivier is would be this bit of pastry cream

and the shape is important.

We cut the pastry.

It almost looks like a little flower so the idea is you cut around...

It's quite an old-fashioned dish, this, pithivier.

I love it. Do you still have it on the menu?

We do from time to time for lunch.

We do game pithiviers and different things for lunch menu. Very popular.

Really popular.

The great thing about it is it's almost like fancy pasty.

The French will go nuts about it!

It's literally keeping all that nice flavour

all in a pastry case, really.

And make these little lines with the back of a knife over the top.

You make these lines over the top so it looks nice when it's cooked.

Egg wash over the top, use a whole egg yolk is best.

Throw it in the oven and then I've got one in here

which we need to cool down a touch.

This needs to go in 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 200 centigrade.

There we go. Quite a hot oven.

You want the puff pastry to cook right the way through.

I will leave that to cool down. In here, I will do my garnish.

Yorkshire folk love chutney as well as a roast dinner

which you did cook for me and you've said I was late. But it was traffic.

-It was not traffic!

-You do make good roast potatoes.

-Thank you.

So, start off with a little chutney. When you're making chutney...

People often think it takes for ever, I will never make my own.

This is so, so simple. Throw the sugar in, nice hot pan.

This is a quick way of doing it. Sugar goes in straightaway.

Caramelise that nice and quickly. While that's cooking...

-Have you got oil in there already?

-No oil.

It's just from the juices from the goat's cheese, that's all.

You don't need any oil in there whatsoever. A touch of vinegar.

This is for our nice salad that is going with it.

The idea is, you caramelise it. Normal chutneys take for ever.

People throw the stuff in the pan and it ends up stewing.

It doesn't look that great when it comes out.

You cook it for quite a long time, about 30-40 minutes.

This way of making chutney, 10-15 minutes.

You can see the sugar caramelise.

We throw in the rest of the ingredients, the shallots,

the ginger, the spice, a bit of chilli powder

if you want or fresh chillies.

Apples.

Not cooking apples,

eating apples, because we will cook it quite quickly.

You can throw tomatoes if you want,

but I will put in some sultanas.

And then our other spice comes from vinegar. Throw the whole lot in,

mix it all together.

The caramel has caramelised which is nicely.

Cook that for ten minutes and we end up with this.

-You see that lovely colour you get?

-Looks great.

-Look at that.

And it's totally different when you make it yourself to the stuff

you buy in jars because it's much richer, sugary, delicious.

All I do now is take our pithivier.

Bring that over.

Chop a wedge out of it.

Cut that through. You see you get that lovely cheese inside there.

-Dive into that and tell me what you think.

-Fantastic, thank you.

I will switch everything off here.

But this cheese, quite unusual,

but made by a lovely lady called Mandy Reed.

I would like to thank her, actually.

She has sent this down on a bike this morning.

So, I do apologise to the courier whose rucksack will stink!

I could have brought that down for her.

Tell me what you think.

Cheese and chutney, served hot - great combination.

-Mm.

-There you go.

You see Yorkshire goat's cheese, you just can't beat it.

If you would like to try cooking any of the food you have seen

on today's show, all the recipes are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Today, we are looking back at some of the fantastic

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen recipe book.

Now, it's time for Francesco Mazzei to get creative with artichokes

and you may notice the plate he serves them on is a little

bit different than usual.

The world had seen the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton

and how better to celebrate than with a commemorative plate?

-Great to have you back on the show.

-My pleasure to be here.

-Artichoke.

Great stuff. Just to show you,

-this is a spina artichoke.

-Spina?

-Spiky one.

It's from Savina, originally.

-It is great for salad. You just clean, and...

-Slice it raw?

Slice it raw very thin with lemon juice, olive oil,

salt and pepper and a few shavings of Parmesan.

You can also do salad with this one,

but this one is famous for artichoke Romana-style.

A lot of the time with artichokes, particularly in the UK,

we take the whole artichoke like that, cook it and you serve

it with hollandaise and people get it stuck in their teeth for days.

Exactly. Let me show you a different way to do that.

You can do this with the larger ones but the smaller ones are nice

-as well.

-Tender and perfectly in season now.

-Let's hope you can enjoy this.

-They cook quick.

If you want to know what a Jerusalem artichoke is, that's the difference.

Two totally separate plants,

this one is below ground, part of the sunflower family

and they grow up to be six or eight foot high,

these plants from these little fellas.

-You can grow these in your garden at home.

-Yes, you can.

I saw a few around in the UK,

but they are much more for like an ornament rather than eating.

But they are really really beautiful.

OK. Thanks for the potato there.

You peel the outer leaves.

Peel the outer leaves, we cut the stalk, clean around

and with the lemon as well so we keep the colour

and avoid them becoming black.

-The choke itself is actually in the middle.

-Yes. Very nice.

Very, very nice.

And you also need to know it's a quite healthy vegetable.

It's good for...

Perfect for your liver and also it's a great antioxidant.

It's really good. As far as I know, there's 90 different types

-of artichokes.

-Did you google that a minute ago?

Yeah, I did this morning, of course!

Gave a meal to my daughter and then google. You have to be prepared.

Exactly. So, using the stalks as well.

Yes, and if you don't mind to chop the herbs for me as well

-so we are preparing. Thank you very much.

-You've got your potato there.

Both artichokes will go brown if you're not careful.

And also, your hands will go very brown, so just use the lemon rind

when you finish. We cut the potato like wedges.

What does the potato do for this?

People do and don't use potato, but it's a dish.

You tend to serve with rice, really.

We put potatoes...

I like it as well.

If you can chop some of the herbs, and a bit of garlic.

-So, a couple of cloves?

-Thank you very much.

Mint and parsley.

Mint, parsley and a bit of marjoram.

Usually there is a special ingredient called mentuccia Romana

it is between like mint and marjoram.

Very similar to golden marjoram.

Very, very nice.

-Artichokes in season, you must use them in your restaurant?

-Love them.

I actually quite like the Jerusalem. They are great in soup.

Fabulous with marjoram.

Beautiful, with a little bit of truffle.

With these, as well, you can pickle the smaller ones, can't you?

You can. It is fantastic. What you do is just water and vinegar

and bay leaves, if you want.

Just clean the artichokes very carefully, as we did,

and then, you just blanch them.

Then you fry that up. You can grill,

you can keep in olive oil.

OK, fantastic. I'm going to add a bit of Pecorino here.

-We'll add the herbs at the end.

-Is this standard Pecorino?

-This is Pecorino Romano.

-That's the mature one?

-Yes.

That doesn't mean it comes from Rome. It comes from Sardinia.

It's great. It gives that beautiful pungent...

-Can I say pungent in English?

-Pungent.

-Pungent. Pungent taste...

..to our dish. OK, potato.

Looking nice. Could you use Parmesan, if you couldn't get...?

You could if you want, if you are not keen on Pecorino, strong cheese,

-use Parmesan.

-Pecorino is more salty?

More salty, more acidic,

-more really strong in flavour.

-Yep.

So, we open them up, like that, OK?

And you can also go like this...

We put a little bit of salt inside.

-You are just opening up the little hats.

-They look like a flower.

-Yep.

-That's very, very good.

-OK.

-So, if you wanted to pickle the smaller ones,

-cos they don't take very long to cook.

-As I said, water and vinegar,

bay leaves, if you want, some white pepper.

-Do you want the breadcrumbs in there?

-Yep. Thank you.

So, you bring the mix to the boil and then you clean the artichoke.

You can also do this one.

Then, when they come to boil, a couple of minutes...

Then, take them off. The idea is you take the crumbs in this.

-The reason you open the leaves is so it goes inside?

-Goes inside.

It gives the flavour to the beautiful...beautiful ingredients.

-Do you like it?

-Sounds good to me.

A little bit of salt again around here.

It is very important that, it's very powerful, the fire underneath.

-Then, we put some white wine.

-Yep. Wow!

-OK.

-Any white wine or...?

-Dry white wine. Nothing really aromatic.

-They are quite spiky, aren't they?

-Very spiky. Very spiky.

-But the heart is absolutely fantastic.

-OK.

-Beautiful.

-So, which is the Romana style?

-Is it this or is it..?

-All of them.

-All of it!

-All of them are Romana style.

I'm trying to get it out of you.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

That's the real one.

OK, as I say, there is lots and lots of different

recipes you can do, but the one I really suggest is this one.

Of course, if you want to enjoy this best, just do a salad -

clean, julienne of this artichoke.

Little bit of oil and lemon juice.

-Lemon juice. And why not some shaves of Parmesan?

-OK.

OK. Now, as I say, it is absolutely easy to do.

Just put the lid on top

-and we go to the oven.

-Yep.

-It will take about 25 minutes.

I'll swap that one over. There you go.

I'll leave you to lift the lid off that one. It's quite hot.

-Literally, in the oven for...

-Whoo!

-..20 minutes?

-Yep. Nice.

-We have got a special plate for you.

-A beautiful special plate.

Now, can you chop a bit more of that?

Lots of these on eBay at the moment.

-There you go.

-OK. Right.

-Take one of those. Can you chop a bit more of...?

-Absolutely.

You have some there. Don't worry.

Do people have their breakfast on these plates?

-Yeah, why not?

-I don't think so.

-No, not really. My breakfast is just espresso, really.

-Espresso!

Couple of espressos and I'm happy.

All right. I suppose you can have these hot or cold?

Hot or cold, yes. I prefer hot now, but you can have cold.

-It's a fantastic alfresco option, as well. What do you think?

-Lovely.

OK. One...two...

Little bit of garlic. And we take...

Be careful, it's very hot, we take the jus... OK?

So, that's the white wine and the stock?

Just veg stock. You can do it with chicken stock if you want, but...

-It is up to you.

-Plenty of flavour in there, anyway.

Just finally, a sprinkle of the beautiful herbs

and as a very good Italian manner,

-with a little bit of olive oil.

-There you go.

-Sounds good to me.

-Now I'm worried about what Dom has to say...

Remind us what that is again?

Artichoke, Romana-style, Carciofi alla Romana.

That's what it is!

There you go. Right. Over here.

-So, a triple espresso, that's breakfast, is it?

-That's it!

-Espresso first.

-Look perfect. Is this my Hell, then?

Eh... They are totally different in taste, aren't they?

Yes, completely different taste. For the...? No, actually,

strangely enough, they taste very similar.

That's amazing.

-That's just what I like. I love that.

-Happy with that?

Yeah, yeah. It's just preparing me for the Jerusalem.

Nice and easy.

You can take them, cut them into quarters, pickle them.

You don't have to serve them whole.

So much better then the standard way of doing it.

Yes, with the Hollandaise

is maybe the only style we know, but...

-Now, we have got a new one - Romana style.

-Romana style.

Still haven't got a clue what it is!

Don't be afraid of cooking with artichokes.

They really are delicious. It's Floyd time now and today,

he is checking out what is on offer in the Irish city of Cork.

On my travels around the country on these whimsical little

Floyd programmes, where we are looking for food

and trying to teach you to enjoy yourself and to cook good things,

I sometimes, quite frankly, get a bit bored with fish,

with bouillabaisse, with lobsters, with pigeon in red wine

and boeuf Bourguignon and stuff like that.

Sometimes, I really crave something quite simple, like my grandfather

used to have on Saturday nights - a plate of boiled pigs' trotters

or a plate of tripe and onions or maybe cabbage boiled with bacon.

Anyway, I wanted to go somewhere where they are not proud,

where they care about their cultural and gastronomic heritage.

It's not France, it's Ireland we've come to.

MUSIC: Theme from "Cal" by Mark Knopfler

This is all very well, isn't it?

A brilliant track from Dire Straits, lovely views,

typical BBC fine camera work - well done, Richard - you'd hardly think

this was a food programme.

So, we'll knock the travelogue on the head and get down to business

in the market. And the marketplace is where it's at.

This spiced beef, a Cork speciality, looks as if it's been hewn

from the ground and rolled in gunpowder, but believe me,

after a few hours simmering,

it makes the most superb beef sandwiches.

And look at these inexpensive delicacies - pigs' trotters,

or crubeens, as they are known here, and treat of treats,

pigs' tails. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

And here is one of me now, just coming up

'in my green hat, posing as a leprechaun.

'But that has nothing to do with the price of fish.'

What I would like is some of these fantastic prawns.

-Are the Dublin Bay prawns?

-No, they are Castletown Bay prawns.

-How far away is that?

-100 miles down and 100 miles back.

-My God, did you go and get those?

-We travel every...

-Two or three nights a week.

-Good God! What is the best...?

-We arrived home

-last night after buying at 12 o'clock in the night.

-Goodness.

-And they are alive, too. Ooh!

-Yes!

-That's a live one, isn't it?

It's "Alive-alive-ooh!", as we say in Cork.

-Can I have about five quid, five pounds' worth?

-No problem.

Lovely, thank you very much, indeed. What's the best way to cook them?

What we do, we tail them, just like this, and you get this portion.

You put them in to a little saucepan. lukewarm water,

a little bit of salt and you bring them up to the boil

and boil them for three minutes.

-Shell them off.

-What have we here?

-Lovely herring.

-Can I have a look at the herring?

-Yes, you can, my love.

-That's nice, isn't it?

-Very nice.

-One of those for breakfast

and a pint of stout. Couldn't think of anything better.

You could have it grilled, which is beautiful. We take the head off

-and we gut it and we do three little cuts in the back on both sides.

-Yes.

Little bit of butter in and you grill them and it's an excellent dish for

-15 pence each.

-Beautiful.

-It's the most beautiful thing in the world -

-our own Irish smoked salmon.

-It is better than Scots' smoked salmon?

I would think so. I wouldn't dream of running down the Irish!

Dear me. I really must have a word with Declan

about his choice of hats. He look more like a short-order cook

than one of Ireland's leading restaurateurs and jolly gastronauts.

Seen here, by the way, preparing crubeens, or pigs' trotters.

You can do this simple dish at home.

You simply poach the feet until they are tender, allow to cool,

split in half and roll in melted butter and breadcrumbs

and slip under the grill.

This really is, isn't it, making a silk purse from a pig's foot.

Declan, I've been charging around the West Country of Great Britain

looking for simple foods. All I seem to find are pasties

and beef stroganoff. If I ask for a regional speciality,

it doesn't seem to exist. Against my will, I've been forced over

to Ireland, where I find things like pigs' trotters and tripe

easily available. But why do you, who fly the gastronomic flag

virtually for the whole of Ireland,

with your splendid establishment here, why do you put on

-pigs' trotters and tripe and stuff?

-Well, we are not just a restaurant.

We're a hotel. So, a lot of our guests are from abroad.

The last thing they want to see is international food.

So, we give them traditional Irish dishes.

On top of that, a lot of my local customers

can now come back to the food of their childhood

or of their student days,

when they went out on the town, drinking large numbers of pints

and using crubeens as a liner.

To get back to the tripe and stuff, then, why... You know, I have to beg

for tripe from my butcher in Bristol.

He says, "No, can't get it any more."

It's like asking for a veal knuckle to enrich a stew with

-or a calf's foot or something.

-Yes.

Why is there so much tripe around?

Everywhere you go, there's tripe.

Well, that goes back to the economic history of the city of Cork.

Cork was, first of all, the largest butter market in the world

and, secondly, one of the major provision centres

for Britain and Ireland. And in those days,

a man's wages were a shilling and a penny a day,

-as much bread and beer as he could eat...

-That's not a bad life.

..and seven pounds of offal for his family.

-Gracious me.

-So, there was a traditional of eating offal.

Partly it's because the rest of the animals were packed in salt

in barrels, for export.

The offal they couldn't do anything with, so had to eat it themselves.

I mean, where did you learn all of this, Declan?

Where did you get your enthusiasm for food

and hospitality and cooking from?

Well, my mother was a marvellous cook,

so I grew up with good food.

After that, I trained, first of all, in London, under some of the old boys

who were just... who had done their apprenticeships

in Escoffier's kitchens.

But that gave me hang-ups that took a long time

-to break afterwards.

-What kind of a hang-up, might I ask?

I felt I was cheating people

if I did not do things as Escoffier had done it.

-I was shackled.

-He was such a great man, you lived under the shadow?

We were trained under the shadow, yes.

What is really strange is that now we have gone so far away,

the pendulum has swung right to the other direction

and you don't get those rich, slowly-cooked stews and things.

You get thin slices of duck breast, fanned on to a white plate

or a black plate, even,

which, to my mind, is the EXTREME opposite of Escoffier

and not necessarily quite where it should be.

Well, I had begun to evolve away from this, but I felt a little bit

guilty about doing so. Then, I went to work for

one of the best of the three-star Michelin restaurants in the centre

of France, away from the big cities.

And they were doing what I was almost afraid to do.

They gave me the self-confidence to follow my own ideas after that.

So, when I came back - wham!

Everything I wanted to do, I just did it.

-And to hell with everybody!

-To hell with everyone!

HE PLAYS MOUTH ORGAN AND SPOONS

I'd rather have more of the street musician, frankly,

but my director is never happy

without some passing reference to architecture -

the bridge, in this instance. OK, this is a really nice bridge.

Will that do you? Lovely. I forgot to mention, it's full of

great second-hand shops, as well. You realise that he does this

to give you a sense of place,

when, in fact, I'd much rather be in the pub.

If he cues it right, we should find one any minute now.

What a good director. Right on cue, into the pub we go.

But you know, it's for your benefit, so that you can observe

the dying art of preparing a pint of stout,

which here is enacted as a divine ceremony, not a quick slap

on the counter and saying, "All right, John?"

Long live Mr Murphy, that's what I say.

That's just what I needed. After all that information,

interesting though it was, I'm absolutely exhausted.

The trouble is, my old mate -

I never met him, he came back to haunt us -

he used to drink so much of this he got heaved out of the pub.

But in the Irish way they do things,

he's come back to haunt them for ever.

There he is, grinning at us.

Do you know, around the country I go,

eating all these delicious things,

and they always make me eat oysters.

I used to love them. I've had so many, I'm quite bored with them.

Yet, here I am, in Cork, and as Disraeli said,

"What could be better than a BBC mini-break in Cork,

"with a pint of stout, a load of oysters, to really cheer you up?"

And the chef here has made me some brilliant red spicy sauce

to go on them.

And, you know, it is true - they do put lead in your pencil.

My God, they do!

# It's the finest of drinks, there can't be any doubt of it

# Tickle your taste buds and knock 'em about a bit

# Ladies will love it and sailors will shudder

# Give 'em a treat with the oysters and stout! #

Enjoying yourselves? Good.

But I bet some of you are beginning to mutter,

"When is he going to stop chattering and get on with some work?"

Well, as I speak, I am on my way to Kinsale to do it right away.

Now, my little gastronauts, if you spend a little more time with

the simple things of life

and less showing off with expensive fillet steak, not only would you

be a healthier person, but you would be a better person.

And that is why we are here. Because once again,

the BBC mini break has conned its way into Kinsale and borrowed

a restaurant from a friend of mine who, later on, you will meet.

But in the meantime, back to business.

Richard, show the customers the ingredients.

The tripe you have seen. Very simple.

Over to here, some sliced onions, some sliced leeks, some parsley,

breadcrumbs, milk just to the side of it there. And salt and pepper.

That is all we need, except for a mystery

ingredient which is coming later on to make the superb tripe dish.

Now, it is simplicity itself.

Now, Richard, following me carefully as you always do,

you put the pieces of chopped up tripe into there like that.

Then you put in some leeks, very easily. This dish is not expensive.

This is the very good thing about it. While that is just there,

I will cut up these last little pieces of tripe.

Pop those in like that.

A little bit of pepper to go over it, to flavour it,

a little bit of salt which you can see going in. Very boring, isn't it?

Who needs to know about salt going in. You can add a bit more later.

Handful of parsley.

Then in with something which I never drink myself, but in fact, I might.

I think I might. Director, pass me a glass. I want to lay a myth here.

I want to lay a myth. Thank you. Quick! For God's sake!

You cannot get the staff... Thank you very much.

You ask for a glass and he gives you a jug.

That is the assistant director, the EX-assistant director.

Anyway, I want to welcome you all to Ireland in a major way.

This is Floyd on milk. Get it? Right.

And the rest of it, back here to the pot, goes in like that.

And now, very simply, get a good look at that. Isn't that beautiful?

Is going to be unctuous, delicious, good if you are feeling ill,

if you have had too many stouts, like I might have done last night.

Really a fine dish.

In France, by the way, they make it with tomato sauces and garlic

and stuff like that. I don't think it is a patch on this.

Anyway, it goes in the oven. While it's cooking for about an hour,

we shall entertain you in all sorts of magical ways.

FIDDLE MUSIC

The committee is a group who individually can do nothing

and collectively decide that nothing can be done.

This steam roller was unloaded by a committee.

Michael, that looks fantastic. Thank you very much indeed.

I am sorry we have interfered with your day.

I know you are a busy chap.

But we will do the washing up, I promise. Have a drink, anyway.

-Thanks.

-Because it is delicious wine. Cheers.

Thanks for having me in the place.

What is this superb dish you have cooked me?

-That is Dublin coddle.

-Dublin coddle?

-Dublin coddle, yes.

It's made from...

boiled bacon, some home-made pork sausages, sliced potatoes

and sliced onions and parsley.

And cooked in the oven for...?

Cooked in the oven for about one hour.

It looks absolutely fantastic, doesn't it? Anyway.

A very vexed problem in English restaurants is the price of wine.

You can get one restaurant and it's X pounds per litre,

another one, it is X-plus pounds per litre.

Here in Kinsale, restaurateurs cooperate

and they buy their own wine, they fix the price for it

in the same ten restaurants throughout the whole place.

Cooperation, happiness between the restaurateurs, delight

and pleasure for the customers.

It is a thing you restaurateurs could take a note of.

And on the back of the bottle here,

there are all the members of the circle, you see.

There they all are. So, quite simply, I am going to pour myself

a glass of this splendid wine, drink to the cooperation,

the successful cooperation of the restaurateurs of Kinsale,

drink to my friend Michael here, and drink to Ireland.

And we're having a ball.

This is the best place I have ever been in my life!

I didn't involve you with this before cos

you are such a lily livered bunch of people, you would say,

"Yuck, he is going to put that nasty looking sausage in it."

So, that one is drisheen.

It is a beautiful, delicate sausage, made of sheep's blood.

And for those who are a little squeamish,

I didn't want to distress you.

I popped it in when you weren't looking

and I covered the dish with wonderful fresh breadcrumbs.

And slipped it under the grill.

And let it go golden brown, like that.

Tripe, drisheen, breadcrumbs, leeks, onions, milk.

The very goodness of everything there is about food.

And look at that.

That is a delight.

A little gastronomic treat to warm the cockles of your hearts,

me darlin'. And there is the gently poached drisheen in the middle.

I'm rather proud of that dish.

Fantastic to see that classic piece of Keith Floyd there.

As ever on Best Bites, we are looking back at some of the great

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's Best Bites.

Matt Tebbutt judges the fiery pairing of Glynn Purnell

and Richard Corrigan in the Saturday kitchen omelette challenge.

Thank goodness I did not have to keep them in line.

And who would get highest up the leaderboard?

Find out a little later on.

Tristan Welch brings trout to the table.

He smokes it from scratch before our very eyes.

And serves it with fresh peas and a mint and pea puree.

And Robert Bathurst faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven, pears,

with my hot pear tart with Poire William cream?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell, Mexican food,

with a chicken and cheese quesadilla,

refried bean chimichanga and a sweetcorn chilli salsa?

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

If you have ever been in two minds whether to serve steak for dinner,

this recipe from Michael Caines will definitely make your mind up.

Michael had just won the accolade of Chefs' Chef of the year.

And I apologise in advance for the dreadful shirt I'm wearing.

What was I thinking?

-Good to have you on, mate. I can hear... Do you want me to stop the ticking?

-Turn them off.

-There you go.

-Excellent.

-So, what are we cooking, Michael?

OK, here we have the pan-fried sirloin steak with roasted shallots.

And we have got celeriac puree

and this fricassee of mushrooms with Madeira sauce.

-First of all, we have got...

-Right!

-We have got a lot to do.

I know we have got a lot to do(!)

So, we have got the celeriac

and basically we have got some onion and some celery to sweat down.

And then we are going to add the...

the celery to it, the celeriac.

And of course, we are going to use a little bit of water...

-and a little bit of milk to cook it in.

-This is for a puree, isn't it?

Yes, it is going to be a lovely puree.

Obviously, cooking it in a white stock. A little bit of...

Because most people when they are doing this would put it in water

and then pass it off, and then add the cream.

-But this gives a lovely texture, doesn't it?

-Absolutely. It does.

So I'm just going to start that off sweating in here. We have got some already made.

But it takes about 20 minutes, half an hour, to cook out the celeriac.

And it is a great vegetable, celeriac.

Commonly used for soups, perhaps within a mash.

But it is also nice roasted, for Sunday roast.

Just chopped up in big cubes.

But people don't use it as much they should.

The French love it.

That celeriac remoulade, which is mustard and mayo,

which is delicious. Great with ham. Raw. It is a wonderful dish.

It is a beautiful dish. Absolutely.

It has that sort of fennel-y sort of smell. Celery sort of smell.

Now, we are going to roast of some shallots.

What I've done, I have just blanched off the shallots in a little

bit of water, bit of a soak.

We are going to roast that slowly

in some butter and deglaze that with Jerez vinegar.

-Now, while that is sweating down...

-Yeah.

-You did say we have got a lot to do!

-We have.

We haven't got any pans left, actually, in the studio!

-This must be a record, surely!

-It is a record, trust me.

-Fantastic.

Just a little bit of milk and a little bit of water and we have

just got a little bit of chicken bouillon as well to go in with this.

And then we are going to cook that out, slowly. And that is done.

-That takes what, 20, 25 minutes, something like that?

-Absolutely.

We just need some shallots and slices of mushrooms.

-Shallots are there.

-We are going to make our Madeira sauce.

Just a little bit of butter in first. Um...

No colour is really necessary here. Just sweat them down.

Little pinch of salt in there as well. And we will add the mushrooms.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Great.

And in the steak itself, salt and pepper, both sides.

-About 200g, 240.

-Now, this is sirloin steak?

-Yes, that's right.

-You could use fillet, I suppose?

-Yes, you can use fillet.

And also, you can use rib-eye, some of the cheaper cuts,

like the rump, or topside.

With rump steak and stuff like that,

you have got to make sure you get it from a reputable butcher,

-because you want it to be nice and tender, don't you?

-Yes, we do.

I mean, this is a kind of quick cooking technique.

So, you are always looking for your joints of meat which are going

to be tender.

So, foaming butter, in goes the steak.

We are going to cook that about medium rare.

Got a wooden spoon here.

So, I mentioned at the top of that, September you were voted

one of the ultimate accolades you can achieve, really, I suppose.

-Chefs' Chef of the year.

-I know, crikey! It was fantastic.

I mean, that particular award, it's the AA and of course,

it is voted by your peers, so it makes it extra special.

You know what these chefs are like.

Not very complimentary about each other.

I didn't vote for you, but, you know...

That's because I couldn't afford to pay you!

Your rates these days, extortionate!

Ran out of money towards the end.

THEY LAUGH

So, what we have got there is the...Madeira.

So, we sweated off the mushrooms with the shallots

until they are slippery. Add a little bit of thyme, Madeira.

We are going to reduce that and the best thing to do

is just wait until the alcohol goes.

Don't worry, going to burn off that alcohol.

You get the sweetness from the Madeira

and when you pan-fry off the mushrooms in a minute,

we use the same pan that we have cooked the steak.

We are going to have the flavours from that pan going into the sauce

a little bit later. We have got the mushrooms are there.

Just a little bit of chicken stock now.

-Now, Michael, you are still based down in Devon.

-That's right.

Your restaurants are all over the place at the moment,

-and the hotel chain as well.

-Absolutely.

Do you still take your inspiration from local ingredients?

-Big passion for British ingredients?

-Yes.

The Great British Menu series was fantastic.

It really highlighted just what types of ingredients

that we have got in the UK.

We have a great larder, perhaps one of the best in Europe.

And we have got to keep farmers in farming as well.

That is very important.

So, regional food is very important.

Seasonal as well.

And this time of year, we are making the most of game,

making the most of the root vegetables.

You shouldn't be seeing any red peppers or asparagus on the menu

this time of the year, there is no need, really.

There is just such a great array of produce to be had.

So, we are just going to cook the steak medium rare. All looking good.

-So, this puree, drain it?

-Yes.

-You don't want the cream and bit of...

No. You can add a little bit of the cooking juices

back in to get the right texture.

-OK.

-That is fine if you need to.

So, looking good. Sauce is reducing here. Which is great.

-Nice and fine.

-It's fine, Michael, it is fine.

Fantastic.

It's getting there.

We are going to rest the steak once we have cooked it.

Now, we are going to add... Just turn this down a tad.

A lot going on here.

Who said men can't multitask, eh?

Just put the mushrooms in.

Now, it is important, you have taken that steak out.

A lot of people make the mistake when cooking steak

as soon as it's cooked, straight on the plate and eat it.

Absolutely. You need to let it rest. Absolutely.

Quite an important stage. I'm just going to saute down these mushrooms.

A little bit of trompette in here, some enoki mushrooms

but girolles are good this time of year,

just coming to the end of the season.

If you have got some ceps that would be delicious as well.

Some nice colouring on the shallot this is great.

Just going to add a little bit more of that liquid.

-So, it goes to more of a puree.

-That looks fantastic. There you go.

A tad more cream in the sauce.

Now, towards the end of the cooking of the shallots,

-we're just going to...

-He is off like the clappers! Look at this!

Put in a little bit of Jerez vinegar, James. That is quite nice.

-So, what is that going in there?

-Jerez. Which is sherry vinegar.

And that just... Right at the end, just let it rest. That is great.

So, we have got the mushrooms have gone in there.

-This is the juices from the pan for the beef.

-Takes all that flavour.

-Spinach has gone in there. Reducing that down.

-Absolutely.

And now, just wilt the spinach.

And once this has cooked down, you can make the sauce before.

We are just going to strain that off.

So, it has got the flavour of the thyme.

The mushrooms have cooked out completely.

And now, we are just going to add the sauce back into the pan,

just reduce it quite quickly here.

And then we are ready to go.

Now, those onions that you have put in there, they just blanched,

or...? Are they boiled onions, or what?

What I did, I took the shallots themselves first

and I just brought them...

..from cold water to the boil and cooked them out.

They're half cooked before you put them in the pan.

Then you are just caramelising and roasting the outside

of the shallots for a little bit of flavour

and also caramelisation.

You can take it from raw to finish,

but obviously, this is a little but quicker.

Looking good, now.

-Fantastic.

-There you go. So, we just bring that down, reduce it down.

Yes, absolutely. Bring it down.

Now, we have got the steak here, medium rare,

which I think is fantastic.

-So, if you would like to slice that, I will do my...

-Yes, Chef.

I will just start thinking about dressing this.

-I am going to do a nice little tear.

-You are going to do this...