Episode 127 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Loads of great food for everybody here on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

What better way to spend the next 90 minutes than enjoying

some of the best chefs on the planet cooking for you,

and celebrities, including comedians Jenny Eclair

and Lenny Henry, who are on hand to give their opinions?

The talented John Campbell serves up a seafood treat - he roasts scallops

and crayfish and serves them with smoked beetroot and asparagus salad.

The pride of Wales, Bryn Williams, cooks us lunch in a paper bag.

He steams a delicious piece of lemon sole with courgette,

black olives, spring onions, basil and white wine,

and serves it with a cheesy wet polenta.

Hairy biker Si King gets creative with guinea fowl.

He spices the breast with coriander, fennel and cardamom

and roasts it and serves it with coconut, cucumber, and carrot salad.

And former EastEnder Kacey Ainsworth faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven - oranges with my orange cream-filled

choux buns with chocolate sauce and caramelised oranges, or would she

get her Food Hell - my goat's cheese and shallot tarte tatin with salad?

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

But first up is one of the most talented chefs

the world has ever seen. The great Michel Roux senior.

He's cooking sea bass in spinach, but, Michel, you don't even need to

do any cooking to impress the ladies in this clip - just keep talking.

-Welcome to the show, Michel.

-Thank you.

-What are we cooking, Chef?

-Steamed fillet of sea bass.

-My boys are going to be texting me now.

That's how the fish looks like before we fillet it. But you know that.

This is a line-caught bass. Slightly bigger than the farmed ones.

The idea is 1kg, 1.4kg, then you have a nice fish to cook.

Or 2kg, but then it's for six or eight people.

-That's going with me on my way back home.

-I've got a nice fillet.

But let's go through the ingredients

because we know what we're using for the recipe.

So we've got leeks, obviously.

That's magical because it's for the sauce, the coulis.

I'm doing a leek coulis with a nice little saffron thread

because it's more tasty, and then the dill.

And then I need cream, and then I've got chicken stock.

-But it could be vegetable stock if we wanted.

-But not fish stock?

-No.

Because it's dull, it's boring.

And then I've got spinach leaves to put in the jacket for the sea bass.

-A little beurre.

-And this is the julienne.

-Can you do the julienne?

-I can.

-So now I'm going to obviously take the skin...

You've got to fillet the bass and basically de-skin it as well.

Absolutely. And I've been checking if there is any bones

because what you do normally, you've got to be careful not to have

any bones in the middle, so you borrow the tweezer

-from your young lady.

-Is there any bones in there?

-No, there is none, because you've done it before.

-Did it this morning.

Lovely. So here we are, there's the sea bass.

It takes a bit of time. A small fillet will take about six minutes,

seven minutes, so we have enough for two portions there. That's done.

There is the spinach, that should be blanched.

-Make sure you buy the big spinach leaves.

-It could be lettuce as well.

Because lettuce is very delicate and it's not a bad idea to use lettuce.

But spinach is perfect.

-Often the French wrap lamb and stuff...

-Sometimes you don't find

those big large spinach leaves now,

you find the tiny ones, which are perfect for salads but not so good

for cooking or for vegetables, really. So here we are.

When you were last on, the restaurant, the Waterside,

had just closed because of a kitchen refit.

Yes, we closed for three-and-a-half months.

50 people on holiday for three-and-a-half months!

No, no, they were not on holiday.

We were all doing some work. You know me!

-Yeah, I know you!

-Nobody goes on holiday!

Put the oil... Thank you.

So there's a space for me in your new kitchen, then?

Oh, good Lord, yes, we have 22 chefs.

-But I tell you, the kitchen is absolutely superb.

-Is it?

They built... Everyone, the kitchen designer, my son, the chefs,

everyone has done a fantastic job.

I think they've done a better kitchen than I had, I'm very jealous!

I want to go back in the kitchen! Takes me back!

I'm coming for a night to work, definitely.

-Are you?

-Yes.

-I want to be off on that evening!

LAUGHTER

This is brilliant. There you go.

-What am I doing with the leeks?

-The leeks?

LAUGHTER

It should be a young leek, not a big one like that.

-And you want these blanching?

-Yes, please. Thank you. Snip it.

So the spinach leaf, by the way, must be dry, so I pat it dry.

But what was unique, just to go back about the kitchen,

they have done a fantastic job in three-and-a-half months.

And they were ready on the day we wanted them to be ready, no delay,

-that's fantastic.

-None.

-Not at all.

Did you use French builders, or what?

No, British builders! But still, you can still find some people

who are really doing a fantastic job. So here we are. Pat it dry.

A little salt and pepper, very quickly, on there. There we are.

Thank you very much. And then you roll it.

You've got to put them into the little spinach leaf.

Into the jacket. And then you want some Clingfilm for this?

I'll just put the leeks in the pan.

If the stalks are a bit too hard and big, you cut a bit of the stalk.

That's not the case.

We've got the leeks blanching, the other leeks are frying away.

And then we now are cooking and sweating the other leek.

We've got the butter there. There's the butter.

Blanching it, and as soon as it's blanched,

and it is blanched now - whoa, we don't want a beurre noisette!

Just on time, huh?

So you've got to sweat now the leek. Here we are.

-Thank you.

-I'll do the other one, Chef.

-Thank you.

Wrap it in the Clingfilm, we've put the salt, the pepper, in the steamer.

-Michel, you can put the Clingfilm in the steamer?

-Yes, you can.

No, no, it doesn't melt.

What you must always remember is taking it out

when you put it on the plate.

"What's that strange texture?"

Especially when you are on the television!

Because people think you're getting a bit oldie.

LAUGHTER

They give you your P45!

LAUGHTER

-Saffron, Chef?

-Yes, please.

Saffron, saffron. Look at those lovely threads of saffron.

Worth a fortune, you know that. Chicken stock, thank you.

The cream.

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

Now, in fact, the cream should go,

it's going in that one, which we just started cooking a few minutes before.

-We had to!

-Yeah!

-Because I'm a bit slow!

-I didn't say anything, Chef.

Would you switch that on for me? Thank you very much.

Now we've finished, we can put it back in there.

So, now it's cooking. Now we need that little board.

So this is basically just deep-fried so they're nice and crispy.

Absolutely.

-I'll sort out the...

-You talk so quickly that if I was listening,

I would have no time to write down all those things!

You've got to buy the book, I suppose.

-That's what you're doing, though - a new book?

-Well, talking about books,

my pastry book, Sweet & Savoury, is doing extremely well in the UK.

It has been in fact translated over the last six months

in seven languages. And I'm going to New York and Canada

to promote it in the next month.

-So... You want to come on the trip with me?

-I'm there!

-Then we can sell the book! And your book!

-My book's not out in America,

so we'd have a job! But I'll sign yours!

-This doesn't take very long.

-No, no. Five minutes, it'll be ready.

It's been there a couple of minutes, it'll be fine.

I think we'd like an audio book.

Someone is asking something.

Could you do an audio book so we could hear your accent,

because that would be very nice, wouldn't it?

-Me and Liz are like that, "Please speak!"

-Was that me or Michel?

Yeah, no, that's Michel.

LAUGHTER

It's by popular demand! Popular demand.

Camera 2, it's all yours.

Come, come back, come back.

LAUGHTER

-Right, we're frying that...

-I'm used to 22 chefs, not one.

-Right. You wanted me to blend this?

-Can you do that? I'm sure you can.

Just to recap what's in here, we've got the stock...

The leek.

A little butter to sweat the leek and then the saffron threads,

-and that's it, cream to finish.

-I'm just going to blend this.

James, would you ever use a bought chicken stock?

You can even use water, if you want to,

but vegetable stock is perfectly all right.

But chicken stock is a nice flavour.

I'm just going to add this slowly to this mixture.

There you go, a minute to go. The leeks are nicely cooked.

-Voila!

-And this, you're creating a nice sauce with this.

-There you go.

-That's it.

-You've got the ladle?

-I've got the ladle.

OK, give that a quick blitz.

There you go. Make a wonderful soup, this. Nice and simple.

And then we're going to pass this through a sieve.

Take the little Clingfilm off.

There you go.

Could you wrap the fish directly in Clingfilm with no spinach?

-I'm sorry?

-Can you wrap the fish in Clingfilm with no spinach?

-Would it melt?

-Yes, you can. Yes.

But the way... Look, that gives a little shine.

A little pile of little leek...

angel hair, I call them.

-Bit of salt and pepper, Chef?

-Thank you.

-I shouldn't do that, but I've done it.

-This is white pepper.

Good, perfect. The dill...

And then we put the sauce. Thank you, Chef. Here we are.

The coulis around...

And all you've done is brush those parcels with a touch

-of clarified butter.

-Then... I had something there, but I've lost it.

Doesn't matter. A little fern, you took it, I'm sure.

-You know when I've got something missing.

-I'll find it, Chef!

I always say my assistant's got it. Ah, yes. Put that there.

-Steamed fillet of sea bass in green jacket.

-Simple as that.

The man definitely is a legend. Definitely a legend.

Come on over here. Have a seat, Michel.

Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Tell us what you think.

You're over here, Michel. I don't know where you're going.

I was worried you didn't want me to sit next to you any longer.

-Absolutely stunning. Stunning.

-Sauce is delicious.

-Stunning.

Guys, dive in.

Other types of fish that you could use instead of using sea bass?

Yes, sea bream is perfect. Even a small piece of haddock.

If you take haddock, small pieces.

-It's hard to cook it.

-There you go.

If you haven't tried that recipe before, you really should.

It was delicious.

Coming up, I'll be making something for John Barrowman that's perfect

for a spring barbecue - fruity pork with cashew nut couscous -

after Rick Stein takes us to the North Cornish coast.

Today he's on the hut for black bream.

This is my friend Henry Gilbey. Henry lives for fishing.

In fact, he's completely mad about it.

Last night, he persuaded me

to go out fishing for black bream off the North Cornish coast.

Well, I thought, "We certainly ain't going to catch anything." Fishing,

for me, out from Padstow, it's mackerel, pollack, mackerel, pollack.

Just like that. We never seem to catch anything else.

But you go out with Henry, and everything's different.

We caught these fantastic black bream.

I mean, I'd never seen so many.

You look at the black bream and you think Mediterranean.

That's what's so good about fishing off the southwest -

that you do get these species that come from the Mediterranean

like red mullet, gurnard, black bream, John Dory,

all those sort of fish that you associate with fish soup.

It's of such great quality. It's a great eating fish, and rare.

I just feel so lucky. We've caught so many today.

I'm going to take this up.

I'm going to take a few lessons from Henry and keep at it.

Now, to cook them, first of all, a big pan on the stove

and in goes loads of seaweed.

A bit of water in there.

SIZZLING There we go.

First, one of these bream, then another.

They're about a pound-and-a-half fish, pound-and-a-quarter.

Great for one portion.

Lid on the top. There we go.

Just leave those to cook for about six minutes. Now to make the sauce.

It's a fennel sauce. Fennel and hot butter sauce.

I'm just going to slice up one bulb of fennel.

There we go. Now the other side.

Put a pan on the stove and a knob of butter in there.

Just let it melt down a bit and then add the fennel.

I think fennel has a particular aptitude for fish,

particularly the Mediterranean type of fish like bass,

mullet or bream.

I've added some wine just to sharpen it up a little bit,

and a dash of Pernod to reinforce that fennel flavour.

Just let that soften,

add some salt and a little bit of black pepper, reduce it down till

the fennel's really, really soft, and then pour that into a liquidiser.

Now I'm just going to add one egg yolk

and make a hollandaise-type sauce.

But I'm also going to puree the fennel to give it lots of body,

and finally add the melted butter.

I first had this sauce in Versailles with some grilled sea bass,

miles from the sea.

I forgot to mention, when you're steaming the fish,

you must take the scales off the fish and the fins, otherwise, disaster.

Anyway, to finish the sauce, you need some finely chopped fennel herb.

I don't think the tops of the bulb fennel work,

they're not fennel-y enough.

Just chop the fennel very finely and fold it into that lovely,

fluffy sauce.

Now, let's have a look at these fish, they should be cooked by now.

Oh, gosh, that's... Oh! I love that smell. It's just so exciting.

It's such a simple idea and it's so effective. They're cooked.

So let's just get those onto a serving plate, like that.

Look at them.

Put a nice dollop of sauce on there, that will set it off very nicely.

I would like to taste some of that now, a bit of the sauce.

It works very well together.

A really good flavour, somewhere between an oily fish like a mackerel

and a completely non-oily fish like cod.

It combines the best of both, I think.

As this is a seafood lovers' guide, you have to make room for rarities.

Delicious rarities.

In this case, the ormer,

a gastropod that is cherished in the Channel Islands.

Bip and Billy from Guernsey live for the ormer season.

Up to their necks in freezing water,

they can only stay in the water a short time

because they are not allowed to wear wetsuits.

That's a conservation measure.

You get this sensation when there's about a month to go before the tide,

you start getting that feeling in your stomach.

You start preparing all your gear and everything,

making sure you've got everything.

You find you will start talking about it to all your friends.

I wouldn't give it up for anything.

I've never missed a tide and hopefully I never will.

I would have to be very ill to miss a tide, I can assure you.

-Here we go.

-Nice one, Billy. That's not a bad size.

Everybody in Guernsey loves the taste of ormers,

but more important to me is what it means to them.

It's a sort of emblem to them,

a link with their past and that, I think,

is one of the main reasons they are so passionate about fishing for them.

The state parliament here, it's called the States,

they spend more time debating ormers in parliament than anything else.

Anyway, I had to try them,

so I went to a pub filled with ormer fishermen.

Basically, they casserole them in beef stock with carrots,

onions and bacon, very slowly.

'Do you ever have that feeling that all eyes are on you?'

-This tastes like nothing you've ever tasted.

-Fair enough.

Well, here goes.

They cook it overnight for about 12 hours in a very low oven,

so it is incredibly tender.

It is more like meat really, I suppose, like kidney.

You really have to have more than one mouthful to form an opinion.

They've lost that sort of seafood flavour,

so they are quite steaky and meaty

but they do have this flavour which is unique.

It's a bit like truffles.

It doesn't taste like truffles

but it's that sort of sought-after flavour

that truffles have, and so do ormers.

Those ormers were tasty but I just felt that it could have been

a piece of meat, a piece of kidney.

It just didn't taste of seafood.

I was thinking, when I was over in Guernsey,

I have this friend in Sydney who has this really great restaurant

called The Rock Pool, called Neil Perry.

He does this dish with abalone, and ormers are actually abalones.

What he does is, first of all,

he cooks them for a long time, just like they do in Guernsey.

They do have to be cooked like that.

He takes a small casserole dish and adds the ormers to the casserole dish

and some olive oil.

About that long a piece of cinnamon bark

and a couple of whole star anise.

He puts that into a low, low oven for about three to six hours,

depending on the size of the abalone.

Then he takes them out and they look great. They smell wonderful.

The smells of the cinnamon and the star anise,

it's already beginning to smell

quite oriental, and of course, that is the other thing,

the abalones are revered by the Chinese and Japanese,

and casseroling them doesn't quite seem to do them justice.

So, he takes them out and lets them cool.

Then he very, very thinly slices them.

I am getting a bit excited now

because he just makes this sensational salad.

Firstly he takes some rice noodles, the fine ones,

and he lets them go cold.

Then some shiitake mushrooms, raw but thinly sliced.

He follows this with some Japanese mushrooms, those long tin ones,

and he adds those.

Then some ginger on top of that.

Then some very thinly shredded spring onion

and then some slices of abalone or ormer.

Then he builds up another layer of the same.

Some noodles, the two types of mushrooms, the ginger,

and he finishes with the rest of the abalone.

Now, the important bit,

and it's like the most perfect combination of East and West to me,

because he then adds Italian truffle oil,

that beautiful truffle-scented oil, olive oil in fact.

Plenty of that over the top of it and then a little bit of soy sauce.

What works for me is the combination first, of course, of the abalone

and just beautifully scented with the cinnamon and star anise.

Then the truffle oil and the soy sauce.

The combination is utterly, utterly irresistible.

Of all the dishes that I ate in a long trip to Australia,

all over the country, that was the best one.

When I finished filming in Guernsey, I came home

and a friend of mine from there sent me a letter from the local paper

in which this woman was really upset and said,

how could I smother Guernsey ormers

with all these unspeakable bits and pieces?

Leave it to the islanders, she said, to show us how to cook ormers!

That salad looked delicious. Australian food is great

but there's one thing they do better than anyone

and that's the barbecue, of course.

With the great weather we've been having,

what a good chance to cook outside this weekend.

I thought I'd show you a really simple recipe using pork

for the barbecue. Perfect for this bank holiday.

What I've got in here is a fillet of pork

which is easily available from supermarkets and butchers.

I'm going to do this Andalucian-style

so a little bit of Spanish style which I will do with paprika.

Make a marinade with paprika, salt, olive oil, oregano, thyme,

a little bit of garlic

and then I will stuff it with prunes and apricots.

A little bit of parsley and wrap it all up.

Firstly I will take the pork and cut it straight down the middle

because the thing about barbecue food,

you need to make sure it's all the same thickness.

Otherwise it won't cook right through the middle.

Open this little fillet out -

and this is one thing about these pieces of fillet.

There are so many jokes I could make right now but I am refraining!

-No, don't.

-It's too early.

-No joke, please!

I love it!

Then we've got the prunes there, absolutely delicious.

-Then add parsley.

-James, you're going red!

It's the heat of the grill, that's what it is.

Can I just say, ladies and gentlemen,

how much more handsome he is in person

than on camera!

And we have some couscous. I will serve this with couscous

because I think it is great for a barbecue

because you can make it in the morning and it lasts all afternoon.

Would you put stuff in the couscous?

Yes, I'm going to put that in in a second, but I will just leave it.

Cover it with boiling water, a little bit of salt,

leave that to one side, and that will puff up nicely.

Into there, I am going to take this and place it all in the middle

so we have a nice fruity filling in the centre.

I will roll this over and tie it up.

We mentioned the fact that you went to America.

When did you actually come back from the States, and into the West End?

I was studying musical theatre in Southern California

and I came to the UK in '89 to study Shakespeare.

I went to an open-call audition in Glasgow

for a show called Anything Goes

opposite one of the greatest leading ladies in British theatre,

Elaine Paige. I ended up getting the starring role opposite her.

In a way, everything that has happened,

obviously I have worked very hard to have it,

but Elaine was the one who set me on my journey.

I am very thankful and grateful to her.

You are familiar with Saturday mornings also, aren't you?

-You used to do Live & Kicking?

-That's right.

I know what it's like to get up very early on a Saturday and work.

Yes, Live & Kicking, myself and Andi Peters and Emma Forbes.

I did that for two years.

Then I went back to the theatre and stuff.

I loved doing children's television.

Kids, it's very funny because in the mornings when we were there,

sometimes Andi would be like,

"Get the kids away from me, get them away from me!"

But I think kids are great because they are spontaneous

and they are really honest with what they say.

You mentioned Elaine Paige but you've got a great foodie story

with another great, great singer, Shirley Bassey. Tell us about that.

Dame Shirley Bassey, yes, I was on a flight from Los Angeles to London

and I had been singing at a Frank Sinatra gig that she was also at.

I am not a good flyer. I don't like flying.

I enjoy up-in-the-air flying, but takeoff and landing

I am not really comfortable with.

I am sitting next to Shirley Bassey

and it was one of the first times I had been in first class.

She saw that I was really nervous.

She grabbed my hand and said,

"Darling, nothing can happen when you're with Shirl!"

As we were coming down the runway, she starts singing...

# Goldfinger! #

# He's a man! #

And I'm sitting in first class as Shirley Bassey's singing

going down the runway. It was surreal.

But as the flight continued and we kind of levelled out

and I chilled out a little bit, on this particular airline

they used to serve caviar when you were at, you know, 39,000ft.

So you weren't sat at the back, then?

No! At the back you don't get the caviar.

-You get a boiled egg in the back!

-I can't say the airline.

But it's a popular United States airline.

Oh, right.

And we were upfront and they brought out the caviar

and they give you this minuscule little dollop on your plate,

a dollop, blimp, and all the trimmings.

And Shirley leaned over to me and said, "You know, darling,

"I do know that they throw the caviar away

"before you land in the United States,

"because you're not allowed to take Iranian caviar into the US.

"Which is ridiculous."

She said, "Why don't you go up, ask them if they can give you caviar?"

So we waited until everyone was asleep and I went up

and I asked the flight attendant, I said,

"I know you throw the caviar away - can we have the whole tub?"

And they gave it to us.

And Bassey and I sat and devoured that whole...

It's enough... You can buy a car with that amount of caviar.

I'm glad you got that story out of the way -

in the meantime I've made this dish already!

I thought it was only going to last ten seconds, this. But anyway...

As you can see, I've finished this! It's on the website, don't worry!

We have got our pork here.

I've got my marinade, which has got the smoked paprika,

olive oil, oregano, thyme, all that kind of stuff.

You see the colour of this. It is just unbelievable, this stuff.

No salt and pepper.

What you do is just pop it in the fridge.

It needs to go in the fridge for 20-30 minutes just to marinate.

You don't want it any longer than that cos it's very strong,

cos of the smoked paprika.

Can you show me again the way you... I missed it.

THEY LAUGH

And place it on the barbecue, all right?

Now, that is basically just going to seal.

Great thing about pork, as you've stuffed it in the middle,

you can keep rolling it while it cooks.

I thought I'd serve a couscous, which also I have made already.

We have got the couscous, the apricots, the lemon,

a little bit of salt, a bit of pepper.

And obviously fresh mint and fresh parsley.

Which I'm just going to sit on the side there.

This pork will take a good 20 minutes to cook on the barbecue.

Keep it rolling around. Like that.

This is what's great about... I love couscous salad,

you can sit it in the middle of the table,

doesn't go off with hot weather,

and then what you can do is just take this pork.

Do you want me to give yes and no answers from now on?

This is delicious. This marinade is so simple.

Like I said, it's literally got the fresh thyme, fresh oregano.

You've got smoked paprika, which is delicious.

Now, there's two ways of buying smoked paprika - hot and sweet.

It is not sweet as in SWEET sweet,

but it is less heat than the hot paprika. But it just...

Stick it in with oregano,

fresh thyme and then taste that.

It's just a great, great marinade on the side. Just keep rolling it.

If you feel your pork is too thick, you can

bake it in the oven and then just finish it off on the...

-barbecue. Happy with that?

-That is delicious.

Boy, that man can talk. If you didn't understand that recipe,

or if you'd like 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 look back at some of the great cooking

from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

If you're in the mood for shellfish, this is a recipe

that's perfect from John Campbell.

He's armed with scallops and a crayfish, and look out for the

most beautifully prepared asparagus you are ever likely to see.

Welcome back, John. Good to have you on the show.

I know the first time you were on, you cooked that amazing beef

and we got a huge response over it,

people started to cook beef like that. Absolutely love it.

Cooking it in Clingfilm and cooked it, what was it, at 65, 70 degrees?

-Just over 60 degrees.

-Absolutely amazing.

-What have you got for us today?

-We've got beautiful crayfish.

I am a huge fan of crayfish.

They're in the River Kennet just down from the vineyard.

Hand-caught scallops, which I think is essential. Instead of dredged.

We are going to smoke the beetroot.

You can smoke other things, not just beetroot, you can

-smoke meat, fish, loads of things.

-You can smoke loads of things!

Beetroot, it's quite unusual because it has got a weird flavour.

I tasted it in rehearsal, but it is...

Beetroot's earthy and has got sweet notes,

but what the smoke does, it gives it a nice constant undernote

-throughout the whole dish.

-Right, OK, so this is a nice little salad

of these things. What have we got first?

First thing, we smoke the beetroot,

so we have got a hot pan, oak chips.

Now, oak chippings you can buy from...well, buy online, I suppose.

You can. Avoid pine if you've got... If you are using pine at home,

don't use pine, it's carcinogenic.

Avoid net curtains, this thing stinks,

you'll never get it out.

-My grandmother tried doing this once.

-Did she?

-God bless her.

She's no longer with us, but tried it with tea.

-Nearly set the house on fire.

-You can smoke with tea.

As you can see, the smoke is rising.

That can be done the day before, but at least two hours. At least.

-Always use somebody else's pan.

-Always.

-Exactly.

Because it's going to be ruined. Anyway, all right.

The first thing we are going to do is open the scallop.

A firm knife, not too sharp. I have used this boning knife for years.

It's a little bit blunt. Now, you crack the hinge.

And then just scrape the meat off the top shell.

-These are hand-dived scallops.

-Yes.

You say you can tell the difference between hand-dived

and dredged, even though it's king scallops?

Yes, just on the hinge, if they have been dredged, they have a white

piece on there where they've been dragged along the sea floor.

And usually the edge is usually chipped. Full of mud, not very nice.

There we go. I'm going to do asparagus with this.

You literally just pop the oak chippings in that,

you mentioned other types of veg, you could do smoked asparagus

bits and pieces. You cook it beforehand,

like you've done with the beetroot, and leave it off the heat.

Beetroot skin on. If you cook it peeled, it tends to go

-a bit brown, loses all of its colour.

-Right, OK.

So what I'm doing now is just moving that muscle away

and just turning that skirt off. You can use this.

This is called the roe, you can use the roe.

We used to dry it out, powder it down and season some fish with it.

Sean is looking as if... As if he is going to do this tonight.

I'll to steal everything I've seen here,

-take it back and pass it off as my own idea.

-Exactly.

Yeah, it drags along the bottom of the ocean

and then just do the thing with the blunt knife.

It's not a big deal.

-It's what we do.

-We've washed the scallop.

That meat really needs to go into the fridge to rest.

-For about 30 minutes at least.

-Just to firm it up?

-Yes, it just firms that protein up, just helps it cook.

-OK.

Right, these little fellas that we've got on here.

There's a fantastic story with these things, the little crayfish.

-Yes.

-Weren't they American ones that...?

-Called signal crayfish.

They were introduced in the '50s.

And the reason why they are called the signal crayfish,

when they are under the water, you can see these small white dots

in between both claws. When they're underneath the water,

it looks like they've got two little flashing torches,

hence signal crayfish.

-It's its headlamps, you see?

-I knew that. I knew that.

I was going to say that before you said it.

It's so funny we are on the same... the same mind thing there.

-But there are a lot of them around, these things.

-Huge, huge.

I would encourage people to try.

And if you can't get crayfish, blue prawns are great. Cooked crayfish,

you can buy in shops. Langoustines.

What we've done, we've blanched these for about 20 seconds.

And what it allows us to do is,

there are five blades at the back of the tail.

So what you need to do is pull the middle blade.

And just rock it from side to side.

And what this does, it just pulls out the entrails.

It cleans. I'm sure people have had prawns

and they've got black line down their back. This removes it before...

-That was its Sunday lunch, Sean.

-Exactly.

-It's very appetising(!)

So you've just removed those. Very simple to do.

-Which ones are open? These ones?

-They are ready.

Then you just literally crack them open,

and this will reveal the little crayfish.

What is it about crayfish that people...

Do you think they're a bit fiddly, or what do you think people...

-Back in, over in Europe, they seem to eat a lot of these.

-Yes.

It's probably because they are small or people can't see them readily

available, but on the Continent they are readily available every day.

In New Orleans, I was working there and after it rained, there was

hundreds of them all over the street and I had never seen them before.

And I thought we were being attacked.

Because there were just thousands of them everywhere

and I didn't understand... I'd never seen that before.

They can last six days out of the water.

They can travel across a lot of ground to the next stream or river.

Some of them just get caught and...

But they are eroding all the riverbanks.

So the riverbanks are twice as wide and half as deep

because all the silt goes into the middle. They are a bit of a pest.

-Also, they eat all the British crayfish, don't they?

-Yes, exactly.

We need to eat a lot more of them. There you go.

-Do you want me to do that?

-You do that one.

The asparagus I've just peeled, that has gone in there to blanch.

There you go.

And the beauty about this dish is the sauce for the dressing is

made in the pan.

-Right. So it is the juices from the pan?

-Yes. Everything goes in there.

-The asparagus, the crayfish, the scallops.

-There you go.

I'll quickly wash my hands.

-So we are just going to season the scallops lightly.

-Yes.

-They are just going in a nice hot pan.

-A nice hot pan.

The asparagus, you just literally...

lift these out.

-Do you want that pan hotter?

-Yes, that'll come up.

-There you go.

That is your asparagus.

Obviously, many people have not been to your restaurant.

The whole ethos behind it is this, people think it is slow food

but you take it to a different level, it is another way of cooking.

It is. It's respecting the proteins in the meat or the fish

and it gives you a different mouth feel.

Instead of it being quite tough for overcooked, it is

just beautifully, delicately, slowly cooked.

There you go. Got another one in here as well.

There you go. Beetroot, like you say, leave the skin on.

Leave the skin on. I'm just going to trim the skin off with a cutter.

And do nice fork-end slices.

There you go. So this is nice, sort of like salad?

Yeah, it's beautiful, you can even cook these on the barbecue.

There you go, there's your plate, ready to rock'n'roll.

Start the beetroot,

wash your hands or you'll have pink fingers all day.

Little bit of oil stops that, or not?

Yes, I mean, we do kilos at the time, so just some nice surgical gloves.

-Crayfish are going to go in now.

-Yeah.

I'm going to add more oil for the dressing.

So have you ever thought about opening another restaurant,

maybe in Heathrow Terminal 3 or...?

-Nah, it's too late.

-Yeah, it's too late! He's got the franchise.

But have you ever thought about that?

Yeah, I've thought about it, things come up.

I'm quite happy where I am at the moment,

it's beautiful countryside, I go shooting, great part of the world.

It's an amazing restaurant,

cos it's got quite a strong connection with wine.

Yeah, wine is president at The Vineyard, we've got

probably one of the best wine lists in Europe.

Great Californian list. Our owner, Sir Peter,

is a really great wine lover,

it's just a great place

and I've got probably one of the best kitchens in the country, it's HUGE.

So I don't really want to leave that behind.

As you can see, the crayfish are nearly there,

the scallops 30 seconds away.

Asparagus goes in...

Just been blanched, the asparagus, two ore three minutes maximum.

Yeah, beautiful colour.

The salad leaves we've got, what are these ones?

-A little bit of frisee...

-We've got mixed cresses, pea shoots...

some frisee...

Pea shoots? You don't like pea shoots?

-They're the new rock'n'roll, mate.

-I know. I'm on it.

The new Gucci black dress of the food world, pea shoots.

OK, small amount of lemon juice, little more acid, balsamic vinegar.

So this is the dressing all in one go?

-That's going to make the dressing.

-OK.

Leave you to drain that in there.

-Perfect.

-One-pan cooking.

Scallops go on. Literally, they don't take long at all.

No, very quick, once you start to overcook scallops,

they just tend to be a little too tough.

A little spoon there.

Dressing. On go the little crayfish.

If you couldn't find those prawns, maybe langoustines,

they're really good.

Any shellfish with this is great.

-A nice pile of asparagus, beautifully prepared. Did I do that?

-I did those.

-Your salad's prepared there.

-Little salad.

That's the pan juice in there as well, you don't waste anything.

No, retain the flavour. Just going to add a touch more virgin olive oil.

Turn that round so you can see it, just looks amazing.

Spot of balsamic.

And this is great cooking, this is chef's food.

Yeah, it comes to me first actually!

LAUGHTER

So remind us what that is again?

OK, we've got smoked beetroot, asparagus,

hand-caught scallops, crayfish, asparagus.

One of only 16 chefs in the country that can do that. Beat that.

Looks absolutely delicious, smells delicious,

but does it taste as good as it looks?

Have a seat. There you go, Sean.

I don't know how you feel about scallops...

-I'm very excited!

-..at quarter past ten in the morning,

-but tell him what you think.

-The one thing I've just noticed is,

when you're sitting at home watching a cookery show, you think,

"I bet it smells great." It really DOES smell really good.

Taste it with the smoked beetroot as well - really unusual, that.

Wow, that's great.

-And I'm not really a big scallops fan, but that is amazing.

-Thank you.

Make you all jealous at home.

No, you've got to pay the bill later! You've got to learn

to take a big mouthful. But other fish you can do like that.

You can do John Dory, sea bass, maybe a bit of cod.

Really, the essence of this dish is that smoke note from the beetroot

will cook everything in the pan, and that pan will reveal

-all the flavours for the dressing.

-There you go.

It's great to see asparagus on the menu,

it's just coming back into season right now.

It's Keith Floyd time now, and I hope he's packed his sea legs

with him, as he's about to cook fish for a bunch of French fishermen.

Quick slurp for me.

Cheers to me. Cheers, Mary.

Now, little story here, few weeks ago I was at a public exhibition

and a fishmonger came up to me and said, "Would you mind putting your

"programmes on at the time of year that match when we catch the fish?

"Because it's very annoying when you cook something

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

It's going to be even worse this time,

because this is the middle of winter,

but when you see this cabbage it'll probably be June or July

or something like that, and you won't be able to buy it - bad luck.

Anyway, we're doing cabbages today.

If you'd like to come round and have a little look.

Some ground pork, belly of pork, that is - the cheapest possible cut.

Across here, a little bit of chilli powder, crushed garlic...

Because it's winter, dried dill, but if we could have got fresh

we'd have preferred it, dried apricots,

tomato puree, parsley and chopped onions.

Right, up and over into the thing here,

I'm going to make a nice little mess.

Come down again as I chuck all these things into here,

bit of onion, parsley in.

These lovely pieces...

Getting assistance here, this is really helpful.

Bit of dill, bit of garlic, in we go, and then gungy tomato puree.

A little chilli powder, not too much.

My assistant director's ripping me off at this very moment -

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

This'll provoke letters, "He's used his hands again!"

Right, that's that. Tissue please, Director - Assistant Director.

See how good they are to me, don't you? They're excellent.

One of the little things I did earlier was blanch this

whole cabbage so it's partly cooked and the heart's taken out.

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

And put in my first little layer of mixture.

Fold the leaf over.

And I put another bit on like that, get another leaf out,

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

but you go on assembling the thing...

..in that way.

Now, great chefs - people like Auguste Escoffier,

who for me is sort of a saint,

were not only brilliant but humble.

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

And what would be really good, if the BBC...

You know all those wonderfully intelligent programmes

they have, like...

Omnibus, Arena, um...arts programmes.

Oh, yes, I know, sorry.

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

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

devoted 40 minutes to the life and work of a great man like that,

television would be all the better.

Anyway, I'm going to get on with some cooking. I'm going to have a slurp...

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

METRONOME TICKS

# Escoffier... #

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

was born in 1846, the son of a blacksmith.

He was best known in Britain via the Savoy,

for making super puddings for the petulant singers.

Ever heard of Peach Melba? Get it?

With his friend Cesar Ritz,

he fed the monarchy and superstars of his day.

But like many geniuses, he died a poor man,

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

his spirit lives on in kitchens everywhere.

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

Mervyn Bargg, eat your heart out.

Anyway, I've finished the cabbage.

Just tie it up with this little piece of string so it doesn't

fall apart, and pop it

into a richly-made chicken, beef or veal stock.

I'm walking slowly because I don't think

the cameraman can keep up with me.

In it goes for about 40 minutes. The next time you see it and me,

I shall be sitting with my new-found friend Mary, bottle of wine,

wonderful fish, wonderful cabbage, having a fine time.

This is absolutely delicious, isn't it?

But the point about it is it's fresh. I know it's smoked,

but it's not out of horrible little packets.

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

-Yes, what are you going to have - some eel?

-I'll have some eel, yes.

This is the delight of the whole thing, absolutely beautiful.

Thanks to Martin and his wonderful smoked meat.

-A bit of...?

-Yes, that is the smoked mackerel.

-And that's nice and flavoursome.

-Let me help you.

-And a little bit of the trout.

-Wonderful.

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

Why are YOU so fond of eel?

Because it has this wonderful damp texture and taste -

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

I think it tastes like fishy truffles.

-That's a good idea.

-It really does,

it's got a long-lasting flavour behind it which

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

like a factory-produced smoked thing, it's still...

It's still moist, very slightly oily.

Wonderful.

One of the things that's quite funny on these programmes,

I am at this moment actually quite angry.

We've spent, for technical reasons, quite a long time,

when we should have been enjoying ourselves, sorting a little problem.

So I had a small row with the director.

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

of this fabulous - I hope it's fabulous -

-stuffed cabbage.

-Wonderful.

Can you see it all right, Richard?

See how nicely layered it is.

I wonder if it's going to taste right.

All I've done is pour a little bit of melted butter over the

chicken stock in which we cooked it, and for those of you who

really want to know how long these things took, it took about 55 minutes

-to cook properly. That enough for the moment?

-Yes, that's fine.

Cut myself a little piece.

Doesn't matter if it crumbles up.

I think this is a lovely follow on to the luxurious part of the meal,

which is the beautiful smoked fishes,

and now this very simple, inexpensive thing.

-Great, isn't it? Smells rather good, have a quick taste.

-Let's try.

Oh, that's all right, isn't it?

-It's very good indeed.

-I'm quite thrilled with that.

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

When I cooked this,

it's the first time I've ever cooked a stuffed cabbage, you see,

and I wanted to do something really simple, because some

other programmes are extravagant things, and I like a nice balance.

I was happily making this, and you said,

"Oh, you're going to be doing this little Polish number?"

And, "Oh, my God." How would you have made these?

I was quite interested.

I would have done them as individual little parcels,

but the effect would have been virtually the same,

that instead of making a big parcel, you make individual parcels.

And you like the idea of a tomato sauce with that, perhaps?

Yes, and that is called golabki, which is a well-known,

extremely good Polish dish.

-And slow, simple peasant cooking...

-Wonderful.

-Doesn't need a lot of money. Just needs, what? Patience...

-Love, love.

-I'll drink to that.

-And I too.

-Cheers.

-Thanks very much, Mary.

-Great pleasure.

MUSIC: "Rule, Britannia!"

'Great moral uplift, this stirring music from the London Philharmonic

'and I need it, too, because armed only with food and wine,

'I'm engaged to do battle with what some say are our oldest enemies -

'you've got it, the dreaded Frogs.

'Actually, it's jolly funny to find these garlic-chewing matelots

'storm-bound, hungry and helpless here in Newlyn

'and down to their last tin of foie gras.'

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

They've been here for four or five days, they've got no food,

but they are gastronauts and they phoned the Samaritans, you see,

so here I am, going to cook for them.

Our colleagues across the water might have some dubious political motives

from time to time, like Exocet - we're not talking about that -

but they really love us when they're in trouble about food,

and here I am to the rescue. Rule Britannia...

Mustn't say that, up the Marseillaise.

Because we're in a galley, it's very cramped and very difficult.

I've started frying some chicken for them.

You're going to have to put up with the difficulties here,

like they would have to do if they were those souls in peril on the see.

There's some chicken frying in olive oil.

I will make the point, this is a free-range, really good chicken.

This tea towel I'm using is called denim

and denim comes from Nimes in the south of France.

That's why it's called denim, "de Nimes", "from Nimes".

Get it? Right. OK, then... Richard, you're going to have to stay with me.

Here we are, our elegantly prepared ingredients.

We have some red peppers, some green peppers, some onions,

some garlic, some parsley, olives,

a beaten-up couple of eggs for later use and some double cream.

Also, we're going to use some canned tomatoes.

Didn't grow on the mast on this ship. They normally would.

Right.

So it's a state of go.

We've got to go with it. Into this pan here, Richard, if you would.

Never mind the fumes.

Olive oil, and we put our onions in.

"Sizzle, sizzle," the onions they go.

And we stir those round until they're a little bit brown.

They're going brown already. Isn't it magic the way we can cook on a boat?

A lot of you can't cook at home, even.

In with the red peppers.

Stir those round.

Richard, come back to me a minute.

You realise that my reputation's really on the line.

I know they sent out an SOS, "mayday, mayday, send Floyd, send Floyd,"

but if I screw up this dinner, I've really had it, don't forget that.

So pray for me, OK?

Come back.

In we go with the garlic, whole garlic.

A little branch of thyme is going to go

into this other pot with the chicken.

Come over here, Richard.

Into the chicken.

Now, that all has to settle and brown down for a moment or two

before I can add the tomatoes.

# Slurp, slurpity, slurp, slurp

# Slurp, slurp. #

Very necessary quick slurp, there, actually.

Things have progressed a bit, cooking's going quite well.

A rather delicate dish, despite my rough handling of it

because I'm under a certain amount of pressure here - the space,

Richard having difficulty seeing things.

You have to take my word for what's going on in a lot of ways.

Anyway, I must now go on to the second phase of the cooking

which is to add the tomatoes to the chicken.

Like that.

That's one thing.

Now, using this wonderful cloth...

..I must put all the peppers...

..into the chicken too.

This is where I like to pass it to my assistants,

the 20 or 30 people that are behind us, working away to help me,

but I'll give it to the director in the hope he burns his little fingers.

-Ah!

-Oh, he DID, ha-ha!

Excellent. Right, so I'll move that nearer the cameraman.

Sacrifice...

all my problems.

So all I have to do now is let that cook for 25 or 30 minutes

with the lid on, and talking of the lid -

aren't the French a very ingenious lot?

I'm having to hold this by a cloth because it's so hot,

but they, as a wine-drinking nation, utilise their corks to the limit.

That will save you from burning your little fingers.

Rather good, isn't it? That goes on.

There. I have a little glassette...

..which will cheer me up enormously

and in a little while, say, 25-30 minutes, we'll come back,

have a game of cards, possibly, with the lads

and have a really good supper. See you later.

-TO TUNE OF LA MARSEILLAISE:

-# You matelots are feeling hungry

# So have some chicken casserole. #

CHATTER IN FRENCH

Silence, s'il vous plait, silence!

THEY ROAR

FLOYD REMONSTRATES IN FRENCH

Oh, they're impossible, these French. They make so much noise. Anyway...

IN FRENCH: Silence!

SAILOR RETORTS IN FRENCH, LAUGHTER

Sois sage!

Bon, right, Richard, ici, while you were away,

I just stirred in some cream, some egg yolks and some olives, OK?

Got all that. Now we're going to feed the boys.

I want to tell you something.

Follow me round. It'll be tricky in this cramped galley,

but it was they who cooked the rice,

so if they really complain, it's their problem. Right, chaps.

Thank you, merci.

THEY CHAT IN FRENCH

CHAT IN FRENCH CONTINUES

I don't know whether this is really going to help us out.

They'll probably cancel the Channel Tunnel as a result of all of this,

but I've done my best. It is the moment of truth.

These are hearty trenchermen.

They are loudmouthed, critical,

arrogant Frenchmen who are looking at me as if I've got green horns,

which they think we have, and I've come off the moon.

Listen, boys...

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

SAILOR SPEAKS FRENCH

He thinks, Richard... You see, they're all experts.

The French are experts on rugby, on Channel fixed-link crossings...

-SAILOR:

-Rugby...

-Ta gueule!

Which is, in French, "Silence, if you please."

OK, they're experts on everything.

He, as a cook, said to me,

"I think you added the cream a little bit too quickly,"

but you can't win them all,

but if we hadn't have fed them, they'd have starved,

they're stuck in Newlyn.

I would say, England 6, France 5½.

LAUGHTER

Fantastic stuff.

Now, as ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at some of

the top-class cooking from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites,

Martin Blunos was hoping to make it onto the blue board

when he battled against Marcus Wareing in the Omelette Challenge.

Both men could do with improving their times, but would they?

I have to admit, I didn't have any high hopes for these two.

Find out how they did a little later on.

Hairy Biker Si King roasts guinea foul.

He spices the breasts with coriander, fennel and cardamom

and roasts it and serves it with a coconut, cucumber and carrot salad.

And former EastEnder Kacey Ainsworth faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven, oranges,

with my orange cream-filled choux buns

with chocolate sauce and caramelised oranges,

or would she get her dreaded Food Hell, goat's cheese,

with my goat's cheese and shallot tarte tatin with salad?

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

Now, if you've got any paper bags lying around,

then don't chuck them away just yet,

because Bryn Williams is here, and he has the perfect use for them.

All you need is some white wine, olives, spring onions,

herbs and some sole.

-Welcome back.

-Thanks very much.

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

-Fish in a bag?

-Literally. We've got lemon sole,

courgettes, olives, spring onions.

We're going to put it all together and bake it en papillote

-in the oven.

-And we've got one in there.

If you get that one first of all.

We'll get the pan nice and hot, we'll give it 30 seconds or so.

Straight in, a little bit of white wine in there

-to help it steam at the same time.

-We're going to get on here.

You're using lemon sole, which isn't, in fact, a sole.

It's a flounder become flat, isn't it?

-A cross between a plaice and a turbot.

-Yeah.

They start off as a round fish then it finishes off as a flat fish

as a lemon sole, so that's what we're doing.

That's fine.

Is there any reason why we do this, first of all? Speeds up the cooking?

It speeds up the cooking process.

You don't want to put the fish straight into the oven cold.

You want to start cooking straightaway, so that's the reason.

So there's nothing on there, just the greaseproof paper?

Greaseproof paper, white wine, a little bit of butter

and courgettes and olives.

If you want to slice those courgettes for me, and the spring onions.

Just cut the olives in half.

Now, the flat fish, it's got four fillets on it?

Four fillets, so we're going to take all four - the top two,

which have got the coloured skin and the bottom's always got the white,

so we'll take all four off.

You can skin it first, or get your fishmonger to do it.

We're going to take them off individually.

-Probably going to get this in the oven?

-That's good now, yeah.

Six or seven minutes would be good.

Would you use dab or anything like that, Bryn?

You could use dab, yeah.

You might have to cook it straightaway

cos it's got a tendency of breaking up a little bit.

Lemon sole's a little bit firmer, a little bit stronger,

so holds its shape a little bit better.

You think dab's an underrated fish?

We should be using a lot more dab in Britain, yeah.

We've got loads round our British shores.

I can see Trish having a go for her next Come Dine With Me experience.

Yeah?

Filleting eight of these things.

How do they know the paper won't explode and burn your house down?

Good question, Lenny. We'll find out today.

If the studio's still standing, we know it works.

-But tinfoil, what's wrong with tinfoil?

-You could use tinfoil,

-or paper. Whatever takes your fancy, really.

-Right.

There's no real difference there.

-It's just that we choose...

-There is - one's foil and one's paper.

Well, yeah, there is. And foil won't go on fire,

so if you are a bit scared,

if you're thinking, "Will it set the house on fire?"

-maybe just use tinfoil.

-OK.

So we're just skinning off...

I'll start using tinfoil.

-It was a long way of getting round to that, really.

-Thanks.

-Skinning it as well?

-Take the skin off.

You can actually use tinfoil

and do en-papillote on top of a barbecue, couldn't you?

You'd have the heat coming from the bottom,

-the steam affecting the foil.

-Yep.

-Definitely, yeah.

You come from a part of the world that likes barbecues,

straight into a barbecue.

Absolutely. Always thinking that way.

Just going to trim all the fish.

-However, you can use paper on a barbecue.

-Can you?

If you soak it really well in water and then wrap up the fish

and cook it on there.

-Can you?!

-Yeah.

TRISH: I've seen it done.

Trish is going to try that one.

I'm looking forward to my next...

Next-door neighbour will be there with the fire extinguisher ready.

Right...

So what you've done - you've sliced all the auber... Aubergines?

-Courgettes.

-..courgettes. If you just want to cut the olives in half.

I'm doing that right on cue.

Now, is this on your restaurant menu?

It is in the summer. We're very, very lucky we have a garden in Odette's.

Very lucky in London to have a garden, aren't you?

Definitely, especially as a restaurant, as well.

So this is one of the dishes that we serve in the garden in the summer.

You can have it inside as well, not just in the garden.

OK, we're going to fold the sole in three. It helps...

So it doesn't overcook. If you just put them in half,

they've got a tendency of overcooking.

-It's a little bit thinner.

-It's a thin fish.

You can overcook it quite quickly.

This'll take six or seven minutes.

Hopefully we get it all done in real-time.

There we go, little bit of salt and pepper.

Get all your basil.

-That's it.

-Basil leaves.

-Basil leaves.

Bit of olives in there for a bit of natural saltiness. That's it.

Spring onions.

Little bit of basil on top. You can tear it.

-If you can't find lemon sole, any fish like this...

-Plaice is good.

Plaice would be good as well.

-Salmon's really good en papillote as well.

-Definitely.

Just take the skin off first

before you put en papillote.

What we're going to do - this is the most important part.

We're just going to fold all the edges.

Make sure we keep all the steam inside, cos that's how it cooks.

It's like a Cornish pasty.

QUIET CHUCKLING

-It is!

-But with fish.

-That's how you make a Cornish pasty.

Paper is the pastry.

-What we're going to do now - add the white wine.

-Yep.

-That's what gives us the steam.

-Ah, right.

Then we keep on folding it over.

If you're having a dinner party,

Come Dine With Me,

stick that in your fridge before your guests turn up.

You're ready to rock'n'roll.

Chef, I just dare you to drink all of them things now in them glasses.

Knock 'em all back in one. Go on, Chef.

-Maybe not, yeah.

-Double cream...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Go on!

Double cream, chicken stock.

-Chicken stock?

-This is for the polenta.

-We're going to infuse a little bit of thyme.

-Yep.

Little bit of garlic and a bay leaf.

Bring that to the boil and let it infuse.

You don't want to boil it.

You want to bring it to the simmer

and let it sit for about a minute or so.

We've got one here that's already been infusing.

-What we're going to do is strain it off.

-Yep.

How much time do we have?

-This is instant polenta you've got.

-Instant polenta.

-So we bring the milk back up to the boil.

-Do you want to grate..?

Yes, grate the Parmesan, please. We'll add that right at the end.

Little bit of salt in there.

Bring it to the boil.

You must make sure that when you're buying this,

it is instant polenta.

Instant, otherwise we'll be here for another 20 minutes

-waiting for the polenta to cook.

-You cook it in the same sort of way.

Yeah, I keep moving it, otherwise...

What it does, it absorbs all the milk

and the chicken stock.

If you just let it...just pour it in,

it'll just come out one big blob at the bottom of the saucepan.

Do you want any more cheese?

-That'll be enough.

-Sure?

-Yeah, that's good.

I'm just thinking of the souffle last week.

-Yeah.

-Or rather, soup.

-It wasn't a good one, was it?

-Right.

-OK, we've just got to keep on whisking...

-Yes.

-..to bring it up.

It will actually thicken quite quickly.

In the next 30 seconds to a minute, hopefully, we will have...

..wet polenta.

Now, a lot of people, when they have polenta,

you make it with water and butter, set it in a tray and grill it.

It's OK, but try it like this - it's something different.

It's something different.

You can add a lot of flavours into this, some olives, a bit of basil.

See it's now thickened up?

-Yeah.

-You don't want it too dry either.

What we're going to do now - especially for you, James -

a bit of butter.

We'll add the cheese.

Ah, look at that.

We're just going to whisk all of that in now.

-Salt in there?

-Salt is in there.

-A bit more cheese?

-Yes.

And you'd often put Parmesan in?

-Always Parmesan.

-If you start putting Gruyere in there...

It goes a bit stringy, you have to be cutting it off.

The fish is there.

We're hoping the bag is going to be nice and...raised.

-Look at that.

-Stick that there.

You could serve it straightaway out the bag if you wanted to.

What we're going to do is take it out.

We're just going to pick it all out.

Losing all our juices.

Pick it all up.

-I think Lenny likes a big portion. Can you hold that one second?

-Yeah.

I'll take that paper off.

All that's had is six minutes?

Six minutes in the oven, steamed with all the...

Get all the paper off. Don't want to be serving paper.

And then with a wet polenta to the side.

Get a bigger spoon, I think.

That is it.

Everything's there.

So, that is my lemon sole cooked in a bag with wet polenta.

How fantastic does that look?

Sprinkle some cheese on the top.

There you go. Looks great.

-Dive into that, Lenny.

-OK.