Episode 136 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

It's time for some cooking inspiration. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got a feast of tasty recipes for you this morning

thanks to our line-up of top class chefs.

As usual, we've got some pretty peckish celebrities happy to give

their verdict including the stunning Hollywood star, Julia Stiles.

So, coming up on today's show...

One of the finest Indian chefs in the world.

Atol Kuchar creates a masala machchi in front of our very eyes.

He coats the cod in a host of dry spices and then fries it

until it's crispy and serves it with a cucumber,

tomato and red onion salsa.

Theo Randall serves up the perfect Italian summer lunch.

He gets me to make fresh tagliatelle

while he cooks squid with Sicilian tomatoes and courgettes.

And he serves it all with shavings of botarga.

James Tanner cooks a spicy rubbed piece of pork fillet.

He serves the delicious lean piece of meat

with some freshly made tzatziki and romesco sauce.

And Hollywood superstar, Julia Stiles,

faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell. Would she get her Food Heaven?

Salmon with my home-made gravlax with deep-fried egg

and avocado salad. Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell?

Octopus, a delicious stewed octopus with herb tabbouleh.

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

But first, we're travelling back to our very first episode

back in summer 2006,

when Paul Rankin served up a fantastic salmon salad.

Very simple, summery, seasonal.

It's all about that fresh, local food that's going to taste great.

We're going to start out poaching the salmon...

-What's your dish first of all?

-Summer salad Roscoff, I call it.

It's a summer salad I used to do at the restaurant quite a lot.

But it's basically a nicoise salad done with salmon.

-I do it poached, to keep it nice and light and fresh.

-Let's cook it.

First thing we're going to do is make a court-bouillon.

-I need a little bit of wine for that, James.

-Bit of wine. I can get that, that's no problem.

-Get you a little bit of wine. There you go.

-Thank you, sir.

I see the way they put that fridge there.

-Every time you go into it, they see your bum.

-Thank you very much!

-It's started already!

-They were looking.

-A lovely bum it is!

-Simon!

So for a court-bouillon...

Here I've got a little bit of water, good splash,

-good glug of wine in there.

-Any wine? Any white wine?

-Any dry white wine.

-Good.

-Little bit of vinegar going in there.

Do you want me to get the fish out of the fridge?

Oh, yeah, get me some fish. A bouquet garni now. Little bit of parsley.

Little bit of leek, celery, thyme, something like that.

And it just goes in there to give it a lovely savoury flavour.

This bouquet garni, you've made it out of leeks

and that sort of thing, but what do you think of the dried one?

-It looks like a tea bag?

-It's not a bad product.

-I suppose it's a bit early for a glass of wine is it?

-Not for you.

-No.

-Oops!

-Have you broken my glass already?

-That was a trick!

-He set me up! A little Irish thing.

-Got him!

I'll just have to take it from the bottle, then.

-It's going to be a great show.

-We'll get you one of these. Here you go.

A lovely piece of salmon here.

I've kept the skin on, because the skin protects it,

-keeps it moist while we're poaching it.

-Right.

What I've done, I've chosen a pan

where it's going to be a very tight fit.

So, in goes the salmon and lots of salt in there. I always taste it.

The amount of salt in it should be

almost like it's been poached in the sea.

-Right.

-So, lovely and salty.

Going to get my beans in.

I'll just come to the other ingredients in a second.

The beans take a little while to cook. Again, nicely seasoned.

-Just French beans?

-Yeah. So, I mean it's...

It's not really classic salad nicoise garnish

but it's summer salad garnish.

If you have time, perhaps you could cut up the tomatoes.

-No such thing as a free lunch.

-Can I ask you a question?

-Yes.

Why has the salmon got to be in a small pot? Why have you done that?

What it does is, it keeps the amount of liquid to a minimum.

-OK.

-So you're not diluting the flavour of it because you get that

dilution of flavour. If you poached a cube of salmon in a big pasta pot,

-it sort of dilutes the flavour of it.

-OK.

-So it's to keep it...

You bring that to the boil, which that is.

Bring it to the boil, simmer it for a couple of minutes

and then I'm going to put a lid on it and put it to one side.

Now, I let it cool down but I don't put it in the fridge, OK.

I always think all these sorts of things...

Are you going to do those things?

-Sorry, I'm going, I'm going as quick as I can.

-Not like... No!

-No, those are lovely. Perfect.

-What have I done wrong?

No, I'm just teasing, teasing. So...

-Just fish these out.

-There you go.

What I'm going to do, I'm just going to flake the salmon,

going to keep it really nice and casual.

So, anyway, that's the tomato. What else do you want doing?

-The cucumber I need done.

-You know this cucumber's from my garden?

-Yes.

I picked this for you this morning.

I suspected it might be from your garden.

-Now, how much do you actually have to do with...?

-A lot, I do it all.

-I do it all.

-Show me your nails.

-I do it all!

-He's such a fibber, you know!

You can always tell a chef who works in the kitchen by all the burns

-he's got in the inside of his arm.

-There you go.

And you can see how moist the salmon is just underneath the skin there.

What we do here, this has simmered for a couple of minutes.

All I do, put on the lid

and leave it to cool down and it will continue poaching.

-As I said...

-Taste that. Straight out of my garden.

Look at that. What's wrong with it?

-It is delicious, actually, it's got a really vibrant flavour.

-Superb.

So, nice big chunks of salmon.

Nice big generous flakes.

-Want another job?

-Yeah, give me another job. Make the dressing?

What I want you to do is, what I've got here is some mayonnaise,

a little bit of anchovy, a little bit of basil.

We need to combine all those so if you just crush the anchovy.

-Crush the anchovy.

-Mix it with the mayo.

-Mix it with the mayo and the basil, yeah?

-And the basil.

-Lovely.

That's our base for the dressing.

You use salmon but could you use white fish for this as well?

I think you can use virtually anything.

You don't have to poach it,

you could char-grill it or you could pan fry it.

Anything like that will work quite well.

-Antonio's sat over there looking on.

-I'm salivating.

-Salivating!

Now, one of my favourite things to put in a summer salad

are boiled eggs.

What I do is, I boil them

for about seven minutes and like that they stay beautifully...

They're cooked but they're slightly soft in the middle

and that's the way I love them, with the yolks nice and bright.

To me, it's all these little details that make the difference

when you're cooking.

We've actually got a clip coming up later on with Rick Stein

doing a lovely dish with artichokes and poached eggs.

Artichokes would be great in this.

Basically, you can use anything in this salad that is in season.

What I particularly love are broad beans, new potatoes,

things like that, which are absolutely delicious.

-So, how's it looking so far, Emma, Simon?

-Looks good.

-Looking forward to tasting this?

-It looks ever so good

-but we could do with a glass of wine over this end.

-Wine's coming. Don't worry!

I was trying to do that for you, Natalie.

Right, what's going in this dressing now?

The only other thing we're going to do is just dilute it a little bit

with a little bit of the court-bouillon.

-A little bit of this liquor.

-About two tablespoons.

I don't know, you're just destroying my kitchen already.

It's only a day old.

-It just makes it a little bit... That's terrific.

-That's lovely.

-Seasoning?

-I don't normally have these problems.

-Seasoning?

Yeah, and what we're going to do, are these your salad leaves as well?

These are from my garden - salad leaves. Look at that.

-A nice sprinkle of olive oil.

-Lemon juice?

Little bit OF lemon juice with a bit of salt and pepper.

-I'm going to start to build the salad.

-Start plating up. There we go.

-Right, fire away.

-A little bit of salt on to here.

-Yeah.

Little bit of pepper for the tomatoes.

It's important when people season that they use sea salt

not the table salt because it's a totally different flavour, isn't it?

Yeah. I love the fresh, clean taste of a good sea salt.

I think it makes it a pretty big difference, actually.

Perfectly cut tomatoes. Look at them.

I've never met a guy who can cut tomatoes like you.

And be very casual with this. You can just whack everything on top of that.

That'll be grand. It can come off the plate a little bit.

-Put these on as well.

-Yeah.

Lovely. Simple food, that's the secret with this, isn't it?

Is this a lunchtime dish? You'd have this at lunchtime.

I think it's very much a lunchtime dish.

It could be a lovely light supper dish especially with new potatoes.

You can serve them on the side or tossed

with a little bit of vinaigrette or mayonnaise or dressing.

But the secret is to serve that salmon at room temperature.

I think everything kind of needs to be at room temperature, really,

because the eggs and everything, it makes such a difference.

-As much of this dressing as you want.

-And the beans as well.

Try not to blanch them in to cold water

-because the flavour changes them quite a lot, doesn't it.

-I think so.

I love that sort of warm potatoes and warm green beans.

There we have it. That's my summer salad Roscoff.

-Doesn't look too bad that. I quite like the look of that.

-Very nice.

It's not bad.

Right, but the real truth is in the tasting. Here we go.

-Come on over, Paul. Natalie, you get first dive in with your fork.

-Do I?

I can't believe so many small disasters happened.

I can't believe it as well. My brand-new kitchen.

-And your brand-new show.

-Yeah, brand-new show, brand-new kitchen.

-Good luck.

-Hang on a sec.

-Mmm!

-Do you like that?

-Really, really nice.

Is this the type of thing you would cook?

Yeah, I'd have a go at this, definitely.

Are we going to encourage the guests to speak their mind completely

-so if it's absolutely terrible...?

-No, no, no.

Actually, it's as bad as your singing!

None left.

-Tell me what you think.

-It's lovely, really nice.

-It's very light, like you say.

-I think it is really light,

I particularly like the warm salmon and the warm beans.

It makes a big difference.

Quite often, if you get a salad like that in a restaurant,

-everything's coming fridge cold.

-Yeah.

-And it's just not the same at all.

-Taste good?

-Tastes great.

-Pass it down to Antonio right at the end.

You see, I've learned - never give Paul Rankin a glass of wine

when he's cooking live on TV. He'll ruin your kitchen!

Coming up, I'll make champagne zabaione with griddled strawberries

and candied tarragon for Rory McGrath, after a young looking

Rick Stein visits the South of France in search of some fruits of the sea.

MUSIC: "Green Onions" by Booker T & the M.Gs

You know, I really like Brittany but for the true seafood,

for the heart of seafood, I like to go a lot, lot further south.

I love this Green Onions, actually, it always reminds me of the

first time I came to Marseille which is where we're headed for.

And funnily enough, it was from the '60s and the first bouillabaisse

I ever had was in a smart restaurant in London, of all places.

So I just connect Green Onions, bouillabaisse.

But then I had to come to Marseille and try the real thing.

It was then that a real love of Provencal fish cookery

got hold of me. I just keep coming back and back.

I come back for sort of simple red mullet dishes.

There's a restaurant just in this very, very remote cove

just outside Marseille where they do this pan-fried mullet.

Just simply, a little bit of flour, olive oil in the pan

and this fantastic confit of potato, basil, and tomato that goes with it.

I just love those simple dishes.

MUSIC: "Green Onions" by Booker T & the M.Gs

There's another dish that I really like down there, it's cuttlefish.

It's sauteed in olive oil with tomato, garlic, parsley

and then you add a few courgettes which are just left nice and crisp

and that's the point of the dish.

It's a shame about cuttle fish really

because loads of it's caught off the Cornish coast

and it all gets sent over to France, we don't seem to eat it.

I'd really like that with a crisp glass of wine, cold, really cold.

Maybe some rose from Bandol or Cassis just down the coast. Lovely.

There's other sort of elaborate things but really it's those

simple flavours, sort of evocative of the colours

and sense of Provence that really do bring me back year after year.

WOMEN CHATTER IN FRENCH

I don't need to say anything about this market.

I mean, the fish is so wonderful.

Look at the colours and the lovely blue trays and the fishermen behind.

This is how fish ought to be bought.

How it should be bought in England.

Why can't we have fish stores like this on harbour sides in England?

Why does it always have to be done in clean hygienic fish markets

in the middle of the night?

SHOUTS IN FRENCH

And really, this is why the French love fish so much

because they get to see it in such beautiful condition.

Just think about that market right in the middle of the night.

Boxes being shifted across cold concrete floors and the codes

that everybody understands at the market, a bit like free masonry.

This is open to the public. This is how to buy your fish.

I mean, I just want to go and cook this fish.

I really do because it's exciting and the colours are so wonderful.

MUSIC: "Hommes de la Mer"

Les poissons... Ah! Made me jump.

'I'm with Suzanne Quaglio and she's about the best

'maker of bouillabaisse in the whole of Marseille.

'Bouillabaisse is what Marseille's all about.

'In fact, although it's such an expensive dish now,

'you can spend £55 for a double portion,

'it's made with all the cheapest fish.

'Fish like weevers, desperately poisonous weever, and rascasse.

'Those are all the fish that the fishermen couldn't sell.

'They used to take the fish back and just make a simple stew with it.

'Now, it's worth so much money.'

And what a pretty picture those fish make

but now I'm going to step aside and let Suzanne really show us

how to make a typical Marseille bouillabaisse.

SPEAKS FRENCH

First of all, she puts plenty of olive oil in a hot frying pan

and then adds some sliced onions and plenty of garlic

and fries that all off.

And then she adds some tiny fish she bought in the market.

This is just to make the stock

and this is the most important thing about her bouillabaisse,

the depth of flavour in the stock

using all these little fish first of all.

In go the little fish, guts and all, and then lots of chopped leek

and some parsley.

And then some dried fennel, other Herbes de Provence,

and finally a good slug of pastis.

I asked her if she ever got fed up with making bouillabaisse

but she said that would never happen.

She said, once we'd all seen this, the whole of Britain

would be eating bouillabaisse.

SPEAKS FRENCH

All those fish and vegetables are, for want of a better word,

rendered down and passed through a strainer

to produce this intensely flavoured base.

Then she just poaches the bigger fish in that wonderful liquid.

Fish like gurnard.

We use that for lobster bait in England

but it's got a great flavour and it's so pretty.

And in there too goes John Dory, a great flavoured, firm textured fish.

I love that.

And some little cooked crabs just at the end just to warm through.

I think they're more for garnish rather than flavour.

And that's how the dish is presented to you.

It's enormous, it's like a work of art it's so big.

But then you've got all this elaborate procedure of taking

the fillets of fish off the bone

and you know that's costing you a lot of money.

You can almost see the francs ticking away per minute.

It's like the fastest French taxi meter you can ever imagine.

Seriously expensive.

One of my real pleasures of being in somewhere like the South of France

is to buy fish and vegetables in the market and cook them.

I found this holiday cabin just outside Marseille

belonging to Monsieur and Madame Forte, and decided to cook for them.

So this is just a simple dish, char-grilled dorade,

bass and some lovely Provencal vegetables

made into a sauce with tomato and roasted peppers.

I just thought I'd show you all these ingredients before we started

because they're so wonderful.

The tomatoes smell so delicious, that lovely tart smell of the vine there.

And look at these lovely, knobbly red peppers.

You don't get red peppers like that in England.

They're all uniform in size and it's such a shame because this,

I know, just looking at it is going to taste so much better.

First of all, I'm just going to char-grill these peppers to get

a smoky flavour in them which will come out in the finished sauce.

So those are blistering very nicely.

I'm just going to make this simple tomato sauce which is going to

be the basis of the finished sauce.

Just a simple tomato sauce with some onion and garlic.

First of all, in goes the onion. Fizzing away nicely.

Then a good load of this sweet, local garlic.

Just take my mourice, which is a little spatula I use.

I don't know where the name came from.

So just need to sweat that off very, very gently.

And then add these beautiful tomatoes. There we go.

Now just a little splash of white wine.

Just leave that to simmer down for about 15 to 20 minutes

because that's the concentrated background sauce that I need.

Those peppers are nicely blistered and really cooked through

so I'm just going to cut them open and you can see there's a lot

of pepper oil and juice in there which I'm going to put in the sauce.

Don't need to be so fastidious about this.

I really don't mind if there's the odd blackened bit

going into this sauce so long as there's not too much.

I'm just going to cut that up into what we call in the trade

a dice which is tiny little squares.

The initial tomato sauce will be reduced down to almost a puree

but I want to add texture in the final sauce with this chopped up

red pepper, and also I'm going to add some more chopped up tomato as well,

or concasse as we call it, and the chopped Provencal herbs.

It will give it a lovely texture for the finished dish.

So, in goes the red pepper.

As you can see, it's cooked down to quite a smooth puree

but the pepper sort of brings up the texture.

But I've also added some celery leaves that

I bought in the market yesterday because they looked so good.

So, that's just about it for the sauce.

So, let's get on and cook the fish.

First of all, let's get some of these fennel twigs on the barbecue

which will give the fish a lovely smoky, aromatic flavour.

Onto those grills, I'm just going to put these pieces of fish.

I'm going to have to get a bit of a move on here

because Monsieur and Madame Forte...

It's a bit late for their lunch and actually, you know, in France

these things are very, very important.

There we are.

So, these sorts of dishes, they normally use the whole fish

but I really like cooking fillets because it allows me

to judge the cooking time precisely.

What I like most of all is a fish that is cooked

absolutely on the point, not too little, not too much.

Those skins are looking really nice particularly on the dorade,

which are those there. Yeah, that's lovely.

Those are only going to take another minute, that's all I want

and they'll be done.

My sauce is nearly ready but the last thing,

I'm going to put a little vinaigrette into it.

That's olive oil, a good red wine vinegar and a bit of salt.

It's just because I don't want it to look totally like a smooth sauce.

Again, you're probably getting bored with this now but it's a sort of textural thing.

I just want the sauce to look almost like it's split, as we say in the trade.

Sorry for using all these trade expressions

but I don't know what other words to use.

That's fine, it's got a nice sheen on it, not exactly a total sauce.

Just going to...finish the dish off,

put in a sort of family style.

I do hope they like it. Some of the sauce down either side, not a lot.

I've made a lot but you can use it for so many other different dishes.

Maybe some courgettes just fried off

with some of this poured over the top.

Couple of pieces of lemon.

Et voila. I think, I think it's going to be OK.

-Un peu de vin, s'il vous plait, Catherine.

-Bien sur.

-Merci.

Oh, merci.

-So, er...

-It's OK?

-It's OK.

-Enough for you?

You have to speak in English

because your English is better than my French. I just want...

What did you think of the sauce?

I've tried to make the sort of flavours of Provence in the sauce.

-What do you think?

-For me, it's nearly paradise.

Because there is all the taste. The most important taste, the main one.

And maybe the colour.

Red is a very beautiful colour for Provence and tomatoes...

-The tomatoes are great.

-It is the most important thing.

-Delice.

-Merci.

-Delice.

Yeah, that's good.

Oh, yeah.

Now, one of the most popular dishes around here

is escabeche of sardines - fried and marinated sardines.

You quickly fry the sardines in seasoned flour

and in some olive oil and then you take them out

and make a marinade with red wine, red wine vinegar, rosemary,

bay leaf, oregano, chilli, orange peel, garlic and onion.

You simmer that down and then you pour it right over

the top of the sardines and just let it go quite cold

and that's when you eat it, cold but lots of French bread.

SPEAKS FRENCH

For me, one of the most powerful images I have of Marseille

is through watching The French Connection,

and I expect it's the same with anybody that's seen it.

The film with Gene Hackman.

There's a scene where Charnier, the arch villain,

elegantly opens an oyster with a knife.

I see that in every street corner where you have these little booths

selling oysters, they're just so deft at opening them.

That just sums up Marseille to me,

it's like this French deftness, their skill with seafood.

Great stuff there from Rick. I've been in France this week too.

In fact, I've driven all the way to Italy and back and there's

always great ingredients you can pick up in France along the way.

First up was Brittany, on my doorstep,

and literally I spotted some great strawberries

which are bang in season over there at the moment. The British ones are starting to come through now.

Secondly, Reims in Champagne, the Champagne region,

I went to on my way back, which I had to stop off.

I'm going to show you a dish now which is inspired

by those two places. Strawberries and champagne.

I'm going to make char-grilled strawberries with a champagne zabaione.

To make a champagne zabaione, first of all you need egg yolks

which I've got in here, and then we need some sugar.

Is that how it's pronounced, zabaione?

Zabaione? Yeah. It's whisked egg yolks like this.

It's used for a variety of bases for a bombe,

you can make parfaits out of it,

lots of iced desserts are made using exactly the same thing,

sugar and egg yolks, whisked over a bain marie or a pan of hot water!

-Bain marie!

-But the French can make it sound more interesting.

-A bain marie...

-A bain marie.

-..which is a pan of hot water!

But they're just whisked up and you can see it start to thicken up now

-and I'm going to pop in some champagne.

-Champagne.

-Champagne, which I've got in here.

-It's pronounced "remz" by the way.

I didn't pick you up on that, because that would have made me sound too pretentious!

-Oh, I've done it now!

-Thank you very much for that.

But you've travelled all over the world, haven't you?

-All over the place.

-I've been around, yeah.

One of the places that changed your view of food was India?

India, yes indeed. I'm a big meat eater and I thought...

I used to think a meal wasn't a meal unless it had meat and two veg.

Two veg on its own could not be a meal for me.

But I did a week in India, filming something with David Gower

and all the food I ate was vegetarian.

-It was absolutely gorgeous.

-It is amazing.

Most of their food is based around vegetarian food, it is fantastic.

Can I say how much I am enjoying this chair?

This is my favourite chair in the whole world.

Apart from India and you have done the Three Men...

Can you stop that now? Three Men in a Boat.

The more I do this, the lower I get.

I've got to do it the other way now.

I'm going to put you onto a subject I know you are passionate about.

Reading your biography, I never thought you would be doing this.

-What?

-bird watching.

-bird watching.

I put them in the same bracket as train spotting and plane spotting.

No, no. train spotting is different.

bird watching is about being outdoors, it is about being in the wild.

train spotting, trains obey timetables.

Trains turn up when you expect them to.

Are you one of these people that gets a phone call that there's

-a lesser spotted...

-What trains have you been taking?

A phone call saying there's a lesser spotted bluetit somewhere...

Now, you know there's no such thing as a lesser spotted bluetit.

I'm sure you'd jump in the car.

How about the Caspian snowcock? Would that do for you?

No, there are people who have pagers and the pagers vibrate

and they drop everything. I'm not like that.

They get up at about five o'clock in the morning. I'm not that serious a bird watcher.

-Wasn't that the basis for your...? You've got this book out.

-Bearded Tit it's called.

What is it about then? Is it like a biography or not?

It's autobiographical. It is actually a very moving love story.

I'd go as far as to say it is probably the best book

written in English by me.

-This year.

-It's you through birds?

-I have had birds that have affected my life.

-Go on, then.

Lots of funny looking, there are funny bird names, aren't there?

-Like chough and tit and...

-That's enough. Moving on to the food.

We've got our zabaione here. Egg yolks and sugar.

In France, they actually cook with a lot of wild birds.

-They shoot them all the time.

-It's a speciality over there.

-Ortolan bunting.

-Ortolan, yeah, exactly. Very much a speciality.

-Do you want me to pour the champagne, James?

-You can pour it if you want.

You pour it. I've got the strawberries here

which I've char-grilled, which take on a whole different flavour.

I didn't know you could char-grill strawberries.

You can cook strawberries. Just take on a different sort of flavour.

And they're French strawberries, you say?

No, these are English strawberries.

I couldn't bring any back from France,

-didn't have any room in my car.

-Are you having a glass, James?

-Why not.

We're all mates here. In we go with the strawberries.

You stay there. You stick to the rose!

You're not just going to get strawberries, Rory.

-I'm having zabaione.

-You get the strawberries like that.

Now, I mentioned Three Men in a Boat. You've got another series coming up haven't you?

We're doing Three Men in a Pirate Ship.

We're going to sail from Plymouth right to the Scilly Isles.

In fact, to do some bird watching.

But on the way we're going to call in all the smuggling and pirate...

You're going to do some bird watching?

Scilly Isles is the best place in Britain to do bird watching.

-All those strange migrants. Why don't you come with us?

-I'm busy that week.

-When's that?

-You can bring your vintage Maserati.

I can come with you. Doesn't Rory...

You don't do all the cooking, do you?

-Who does all the cooking on board?

-Well, it's funny.

Normally when we did Three Men in a Boat we'd end up

by the banks of the river, we get the fire going. Griff's very good at...

He's watched a lot of Ray Mears. He's very good at starting fires.

-Don't worry.

-Wow.

Open a tin of stewing steak, put it in the billy can and then someone

will say cut and then we go to a hotel and have three-course meal!

THEY LAUGH That's telly.

On second thoughts, I might come with you, actually,

I don't know about bird-watching. It's not finished yet.

This is strawberries and Champagne Sabayon.

I've been practising this in the restaurant for a few years.

-Great smell of gas.

-It's nice, isn't it? We've got some tarragon.

Normally with chicken. Candied tarragon.

Sugar and water, brought to the boil

and what you do is you dip the tarragon leaf

in the mixture of sugar and water once it's brought to the boil.

Put it onto a non-stick mat. Pop it in the oven. 100 degrees.

Ten minutes. Turn the oven off. Leave it overnight.

And they candy themselves. So you have actually got sweetened...

-That's amazing.

-Sweetened tarragon leaves.

-Have you written an autobiography?

-No, not yet. I'm only 30, 34.

-You're never?!

-I am!

-Isn't it great when your age is the same as your IQ!

I think that's a great moment... THEY LAUGH

Just get it eaten, all right?!

Oh, this is... What would your autobiography be called, then?

-Yorkshire Pudding.

-Yorkshire Pudding, yeah?

-Exactly, yeah.

-Mmmmm.

That's surprisingly good.

I really mean surprising, because I wasn't expecting that tarragon.

Very good indeed.

If you fancy strawberries and champagne with a twist

this summer, then you've got to try that.

Now, if you'd like to try cooking any of the studio

recipes that you've seen on today's show,

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

We're looking back at some of the great cooking from the Saturday kitchen pantry.

Now, you've seen my debut, now it's the time to see what

Atul Kochhar cooked on his first visit to the stoves armed

with a cod and more spices than an Indian spice market. Enjoy this one.

-Now, it's great to have you on the show.

-Superb, thank you.

I'm really looking forward to this. It's posh fish

and chips without the chips in it, really!

So, remind us what we're cooking here.

OK, we have cod, which is clean and pinned.

We're going to cook it in a spicy batter.

It's pretty much like, as you said, fish and chips but this is fish

-and salad.

-Right, OK.

-And then a nice salad.

-A beautiful salad to go with it.

What do you need first of all to make it?

-Shall we start cooking, quickly?

-Yes. OK.

I'll start with my corn and chickpea flour.

People can get this from the delicatessen?

Yes, delicatessen, local Asian market. It should be easy to get.

If you don't get it, you can just cook it with cornflour also.

-It's not a problem.

-So, what else have you got?

I just added a bit of cornflour to make it more crispy.

-And I will just go for spices, quickly, James.

-Explain our spices.

-Can I keep it here?

-Yes. These always intrigue me.

Right, these are ajwain seeds which are family of lovage.

It's a lovage family. And it's mango powder. Dried mango powder.

Garam masala. Red chilli powder. Turmeric powder.

Ginger and garlic paste. And this is a chaat masala,

a salad powder, sort of thing, which again, it's

proprietary, you don't need to make it yourself, you can buy it from a shop.

Where would you recommend people buy that from?

Again, these days, supermarkets stock it.

I buy mine in my local supermarket. I'm not allowed to say the name.

Now, putting spices in batters, Paul,

is that the type of thing you would do as well?

It's the sort of thing I have played with a little bit,

but what I'm quite interested in is,

we all hear about that spices are better if you grind them

yourself and all of that, is that the case in these ones?

Or are these ones that you just buy as powder and go with that?

If you can make it yourself, it's fantastic.

But if you can't, then I wouldn't bother about it, to be honest.

At home, when I'm cooking, I can't be bothered to grind spices when

I've got my two-year-old knocking on my head, "Daddy, I need food!"

-Yes.

-So, it's up to you, Paul, because yes, the freshness of course,

intrigues us as chefs,

but it doesn't stop us from cooking from what we have on the shelf.

-Sure.

-But if you have some spices sitting in the shelf for three, four,

six, eight, 12, may be more months, get rid of it.

And sparkling water, you're using?

Sparkling water, because it will help to make the batter crispier.

-A bit like a tempura batter would, I suppose?

-Absolutely.

Use a bit of salt as well.

This is the type of batter that you really want to make...

-Can you cut me that lime?

-..more or less as fresh as you can, really.

-Rather than make it in advance?

-It's actually best to be made fresh, yes.

If you make it in advance and you keep it in the fridge,

it will become gluey and very tough.

You can, again, adjust it by adding... Please, yes.

-Is that enough?

-By adding a bit of water,

but then, you're using sparkling water to get the batter crispy.

-More?

-Yes, please.

-Two limes.

-Yes.

I've seen lemons put in dressing, lemons put in batter before.

-Lime is something new?

-Yes.

-It's not a problem.

I love lime, I like the flavour, I think it goes so well with fish.

It cuts through the fishy flavour.

The thing with batter, I always think,

most people think of batter, particularly we mention fish

and chips, but often they have it too thick.

I think batter needs to be quite right.

-It needs to be just quite thin.

-Almost coats the back of the spoon.

-Exactly. Exactly.

-Lovely. Right, we have got our cod in here.

-But you could use any different types of fish.

-Absolutely.

-Sea bream, sea bass, anything.

-Salmon would be lovely.

Salmon would be great in this batter.

I would prefer to keep this fish for a good,

ten, 12 minutes in the batter, but if you don't have time on your side,

it's fine, you can just straightaway go into the wok.

You've got on here some orange food colouring.

You wouldn't normally use that?

I'm actually not fond of colours, to be honest.

But I kept it, I thought, we will see,

but I don't feel like using colour, to be honest.

And even in my food at the restaurant, I'm very anti-colour.

I don't use it.

-But classical recipe calls for colour, so I just brought it in.

-OK.

-Right, no need to flour them beforehand?

-No need to flour them.

Just straight in.

PAN SIZZLES

Nice, hot oil as well.

Nice, hot oil.

-Lovely. Turn that down a little bit.

-Perfect.

Can I just ask you to keep an eye on it, while I wash my hands?

Keep me in charge. Thank you very much. Why not? There you go.

Don't trust you that much, James!

Yes. But it looks delicious.

-The spices, you can already smell those as well.

-Absolutely.

-Superb.

The spices release their flavour when it's hot.

So, right, for the salad, what's happening with our salad

-while that's cooking?

-You slice the cucumber and I will take the tomato.

No problem. Do you peel these beforehand or not?

-No, just keep the skin on, please.

-Whole?

-Decent size? Slice all the way through?

-Yes, please.

-All right.

Do it whole. Lovely, this fish, how long would you cook it for?

-It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

-Yes.

-Really, really simple to cook.

-It's almost done. Here we go.

Lovely colour, I like this colour.

Really, that simple?

It's interesting, you toasted the spices,

I suppose that increases the flavours as well, makes the hot pan.

I need that powder. Don't want to forget that.

-Lovely. So you sprinkle this on top?

-Sprinkle this on top.

-What's this called?

-Chaat masala.

-Right.

And the base is mango powder.

And you've got turmeric, sorry, I said turmeric,

I beg your pardon, it's mint, black salt and loads of 13 other spices.

But you don't need so much of chaat masala,

because it's quite like in a salad dressing.

In India, we don't make a salad dressing,

we just put a powder on top and either fruit or vegetables

-will release its own juice and that becomes the dressing.

-Lovely.

-You've already had a question!

-Did you just say black salt?

-Black salt.

-What's black salt?! James keeps going, oh, yeah! Yeah!

-Black Salt!

-Black salt! I've actually used it!

It's a mineral salt. That's what it is.

It's a kind of, it comes... Originally, it comes from Pakistan.

It's found in India also. It's a mineral salt, that is what it is.

Does it taste any different?

It does. It does, it's more spicier. It's black in colour!

THEY LAUGH

Yes, I would have some black salt,

-but you've got some normal sea salt there.

-Some olive oil.

-A touch of olive oil.

-A bit of salt.

-Do you want some onions slicing too?

-A bit of pepper.

-Shall I slice onion?

-Yes, please.

-And red onion.

-Is this the type of thing that you have in the restaurant?

-Yes, I do.

-I serve lobster. On the salad.

-Really?

And in terms of fish, yes, you said it very rightly,

-I cook salmon in the batter.

-Salmon, to me, would be delicious.

Really light fish for that, to be honest.

But I thought, cod is something more natural here,

-so let's use that. Thank you very much.

-There you go.

-I'm allowed to use my hands? No.

-Now, we do have to be careful with cod

stocks around the world, anyway, but if generally,

people don't go for the smaller fish, I think it's the key.

Don't go with anything that says small fish,

like that equates to bass and everything else.

That's the bad news.

And the good news is, in the UK, we are farming cod now,

-in Shetland, I believe. I have been told.

-You've been told.

-Yes.

Actually, somebody brought a sample once to me. So, that's why.

-I suppose they do that with bass, so why not with cod?

-Absolutely.

-Is that it?

-That's it.

-Easy as that. Remind us what it is again.

It's a spicy fried cod, with a salad of cucumber, tomato and onions.

-Without the chips! Perfect.

-Without the chips.

-Right, follow me.

-I will.

-Let's get to taste this.

Carol, you do actually get to taste it on this show. There you go.

Dive into that.

-Paul has just said I am not to eat more than my fair share.

-Exactly!

For the first time, I think I'm going to have a bit.

Excuse me, a second. But, look, the fish is cooked.

Where do you get this black salt?

Since Paul has just decreed it trendy!

You can get it from supermarkets again, these days.

Asian grocers are the best places you can get it,

because the chances are, you will get it fresher there.

It's going to be the name of his new restaurant, I can tell!

-I can see this happening!

-It sounds like a cool club, actually.

-It does.

Hey, man, I'm going out dancing to The Black Salt!

-It's perfection.

-It is. And it's so quick to cook as well.

-It is. It is.

It's a very easy recipe as well.

-And you do salmon in this?

-I do salmon in that in my restaurant.

-It works really well.

-Go on, pass it down to Zoe, she wants to try.

For me, there was one spice that I didn't know.

-It was the first one that went in.

-Ajwain seeds.

-Dwayne seeds?

-Ajwain seeds.

-Again, James goes, oh, yeah...

It's lovage family.

-Lovage family.

-If you buy lovage seeds.

-Oh, lovage family.

Sorry, I say it with my Indian accent.

-But you can actually buy those seeds from normal grocers.

-Sure, sure.

It's lovely. Paul, dive in, tell me what you think.

This really is my kind of grub.

We were talking earlier, I had spent a year in India travelling

when I was younger, and I just love all of these spices and flavourings.

And this is for me, now. Carol...

You can sit on my knee and have some!

And with recipes like that,

you can see why he's become a Saturday Kitchen regular.

Now, it's time for some cooking from the late, great Keith Floyd.

Today, he's in Somerset, and he's got his sights set on a local pike.

Posing perfectly as a pike fishermen in my ultimate country kit,

I walked the Somerset Levels on this crisp,

spring morning butting for my lunch.

Which I hope will be pike cooked in a creamy, red pepper sauce.

Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

Notice I scanned the water like a heron for the subtle

signs of a shoal of roach and where there are roach,

there'll be pike lying, like bandits ready to plunder.

Actually, I've got more chance of being struck by lightning than

I have of catching a pike, so rather than go hungry,

-I enlisted some specialist help.

-There he goes.

-There he goes.

-This is the tense bit.

-He can easily drop it, you see.

When are you going to give him the gun, as it were?

-You have.

-Look at it.

Swell, my goodness. A big fish, isn't it?

Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.

You'll never believe this, but this is not set up in any way.

This is real. We're actually catching fish. It's unbelievable.

You can see his head.

You don't seem to be applying any, you're letting him tire himself out.

You're not forcing him to do anything, you're just putting

a bit of gentle restraint on him, is that the technique?

-Well, you vary a little bit.

-Are you letting him go back a bit now?

I am anxious to land this. It's my first pike this morning.

-He's quite a biggie.

-Yes, indeed.

Try and make a special effort to land this one.

-Just keep him in this area. Wind-up. Straight up.

-Wow.

-Ten, 11 pounds.

-That's the size we want.

-Maybe more.

-Well done, well done.

That could be 12 or 14 pounds.

Splendid, isn't it? Can you see, Clive?

This one is going to have quite dangerous teeth. Very, very heavy.

That's splendid. This fine specimen is far too big for my lunch.

I haven't got the heart to kill a fish of that size.

Let's put it back in the water and we'll try and catch another.

This is my biggest pike to date. 16 and a half pounds.

And we'll put him back to fight another day.

Mind you, our French neighbours aren't so sentimental.

They'd have had that beauty skinned

and pounded into quenelle before you could say bon appetit!

And even the medieval monks wouldn't have been so compassionate.

From Fridays, they feasted on fish.

Refectory tables groaned with pewter platters piled high with

braised carp, fried perch, steamed tench, stewed eels and baked pike.

You all thought I was a complete and utter poser, but in fact,

I've actually caught one and you can't do any better than that.

It's quite... Oops, let it go. Right.

That isn't such a little fish, you know?

How can they say that to me on my first-ever pike I have caught

and they're saying it's only a little one. It's a jack, isn't it?

-Like the first one, actually. They're very lively.

-Yes, they are.

I do think he is ready to come in, actually.

I've lost him. No, he is gone! Oh, dear!

My absolute moment of glory is ruined!

I want to go home! I hate fishing!

-I've had enough! Cheerio!

-Shall we have another one?

Oh, heavens above, I'll just have to show you a photograph of the

pike at this rate, which by the way, is on page 27 of my new cookery book!

He's definitely taking it. He's gone across the other side.

I think we're about ready now! Mind your head!

-They don't always stay on. There's another one we just disturbed.

-Yes.

Well, well, well. This is called playing the fish.

You've got to tire it so that you don't bust the...

It's only a small one. A jack fish.

Yes, cos what would be the biggest one you can expect to get?

Well, we've had them 20 pounds.

What's this one going to be? About four, five pounds?

-This is about four pounds. Maybe five.

-What a handsome looking fish.

-But they're evil, aren't they?

-Well, they can be, yes.

Put your hands anywhere near their mouth, they could do you a lot of...

Possibly six. A little bit bigger than I thought he was, actually.

Well, well, well.

-Is there a size limit that you can...

-There is. 21 inches long.

-Nose, to the tip of the tail.

-So, he's well over the limit for taking.

Great.

Thanks to Colin and Malcolm's skill,

we've got the lunch and the right size too.

What a fine morning it's been.

The excitement and the fresh air have given me quite an appetite.

I think it's time for a spot of breakfast

and a glass of cider or two before I get back to the hot kitchen to cook.

-Are you both married by the way?

-Yes, yes.

Do you get into trouble with the wives?

-No, I think we're both fortunate.

-Is that the way, sometimes?

-Yes!

No, Colin and I get out regularly in the week.

There's a big secret that you're keeping from me.

About how you can spend so much time fishing?

I take it you're just millionaires! THEY LAUGH

-No. It's just...

-Joke of the century, that!

Poor as a church mouse.

We ignore this practical... We're just enthusiastic about our hobby.

Other things have got to take a back-seat.

It's not a hobby, it's a passion with you, then.

-Very much a passion, yes.

-It has to be.

-We can't resist a nice day.

What's your dream?

You must have had lots of sort of ambition in this for

the biggest pike, the biggest tench, but it's not necessarily the biggest,

you're not hunting the biggest, are you?

-What is it that you dream of doing?

-It's the company.

-It's the environment.

-You're with nature.

You're competing your wits against nature.

And we've been fortunate today.

The days can be when you won't catch fish

-and they just don't want to feed. They won't feed.

-I think you're being modest.

I don't think you've been fortunate today, I think

you've been watching the river very carefully,

watching the migration, if that's what roach do,

the migration of the shoals,

and you're using years and years of country law and understanding.

That plays a part, but even that side of it alone...

-They can still fox you.

-Yes, they can still fox you.

I think that you, for me,

relive some of my most important and imagined boyhood moments.

I told you earlier that I spent months

and years trying to catch a pike when I was 12, 14, 15 and I never did.

You've brought back for me,

all of the wonderful memories that are associated with fishing,

farmhouse Cheddar cheese and cider and stuff and for my part of this, I

would like to say to you both, thanks very much for a really wonderful day.

-It's been magical.

-Good. We've enjoyed it.

It seems to be a terrible thing to do to your family,

but I always wanted my mother-in-law in one of my programmes

and it's taken me 25 years to catch her, actually.

When I was a small boy, I went to Bishops Lydeard

to try to catch a pike. I didn't.

It's taken all of this time to catch this beautiful fish.

Which in the Loire Valley in France,

is esteemed as a gastronomic delight, a beautiful pike.

Brochet de quenelle or pike steamed with paprika sauce, things like that.

What do we do with it? Practically nothing.

Although my fine fishermen friends eat it all the time.

I'm going to show you how to cook this magnificent beast.

And one of the first things you have to do is cut him.

It's already been gutted.

We're going to take a superb fillet off here, running the knife,

hopefully up the bone. I am sorry.

I have just done that completely the wrong way round.

You must ALWAYS start filleting the fish from its head

and run with the flow of the fish.

This is, although it's on film, it is

actually a live programme.

We do borrow kitchens, we don't take things out of the oven and say,

this is already cooked, we do it properly.

And in the heat and in the passion of the moment,

I really made a mistake. I'm sorry.

But I will do it properly from here on in and, before I do that,

I'm going to have a little slurp, because I'm a bit nervous today.

I'm hot, tired, you know, trying to do it right and make mistakes.

Please excuse me.

Anyway, all that said, I have now got the fillet we're looking for. OK?

A perfect fillet, cut from the flow of the fish. PHONE RINGS

And the telephone is ringing.

But that's because we're in a real restaurant,

where people are booking tables to come in tonight.

Can't help that at all.

The other ingredients that I'm going to use are going to be red

peppers, onions, garlic, fennel,

fresh parsley, my veloute,

which is a kind of a roux, really.

Butter, flour and then thicken with a little water.

I'll use that to thicken my sauce which is going to be

made from my fish stock here.

Which you could have prepared by cutting off the head

of the pike earlier, poaching it in water.

And then my red pepper sauce,

which is peppers poached in a little fish stock and liquidised.

But I've had to do those in advance to make this a sensible lesson.

I'll finish off this sauce with some double cream,

which you all know what it looks like,

so you don't need to come down here, and supreme egg yolk at the end. OK.

So, now, if you will excuse me,

I will go over to the stove and actually start the cooking process.

And I do want you to forgive me for doing the unforgivable,

which is cutting the fish the wrong way round.

So, there we are.

I'm back at the piano, which is what we gastronauts call a cooker,

and I'm sorry for the cock-up earlier,

but now I'm going to get down to the serious business of turning

a pike, a fish which some people just throw to their cats or even throw

back into the river or generally despise, into a gastronomic delight.

If you come back to the stove, or the piano,

I'll show you what we're doing.

As with all fish, if you're poaching them, the liquid must be still.

This is cooking. It's not bubbling away.

If the liquid is bubbling, it will destroy the flesh of the fish.

But it's been on for a little while. Stick your finger in. It's firm.

It's cooked. It's OK.

So, we can go over to the sauce, now, which is the most important thing.

A little red pepper sauce.

Add in a sort of a teaspoonful and you have to come really close,

because the director always makes us

do it again if people aren't seeing what's happening.

So, our veloute going in is thickening that sauce.

You want to go through the programmes that are to come

and the ones you've seen already, that sometimes we use veloutes,

sometimes we use egg yolks to thicken sauces.

Today, we're going to use the veloute and enrich it with the egg yolk.

And a little cream. Again, the gas is low.

No real bubbling must take place here otherwise it will separate.

Stir it round.

OK. We can let that reduce a little.

Now, if only one of my assistants, they have all gone away...

can find me my... If you heard any noises there,

it was just the cameraman tripping over the equipment.

It's a very hot, tight kitchen. And it is a working situation.

Now, we will take out our little fillet.

Slip it into this elegant, white plate.

You know, I always insist on white things,

because fish is the star, the plate is the extra.

You'll hear me say that many times. Taste the sauce. Coming quite good.

Actually, it is quite nice. But it needs to be reduced a little more.

A little grind of pepper for seasoning.

And now, I've got to turn it right down,

because we'll add the egg yolk.

Not for the thickening purpose, but for flavouring this particular dish.

And that mustn't be bubbling away, otherwise,

you will get kind of scrambled eggs.

OK, so one egg yolk in.

Plop. Come on in. And then whisked like mad. On a low heat.

Don't give it a chance to congeal into lumps.

You don't want scrambled eggs, you want a smooth sauce,

which I'm pleased to say, we have achieved.

What the French would call nappe, which is a lovely word,

we're going to call it coat.

Coat the fish. Like that.

And you see the importance of the white plate here,

because that beautiful, light pink, salmon pink sauce,

covered with a little bit of parsley.

And there, my freshwater gastronauts,

you have what the French call Brochet a la Canotiere.

Which means, the pike cooked by the wife of the pike fisherman.

Isn't that pretty and what a wonderful way to celebrate

spring, what a wonderful way to celebrate freshwater fish.

You could do this with perch, you could do it with trout, you could

do it with carp, you could do it with pike, you could do it with anything.

But, there is only one thing to do.

One little mouthful.

For those of you who might be fishermen, catch a pike

and throw it back or feed it to your cat

or say it's inedible because it is full

of bones and tastes earthy, I have to tell you, you are quite wrong.

This fish is as fine, almost as fine as a bass,

and that is releasing something. It's a beautiful, firm fleshed fish,

with this delicate sauce, which I have prepared,

and I almost caught the fish myself anyway.

I can tell you, you can have a really fine gastronomic delight.

Brilliant stuff there.

As ever, we're looking back at some of the great

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come, chopstick wielding Ken Hom takes on the ever

eager Mark Sargent in the omelette challenge.

Mark was hoping to get further up the board,

but I get the impression that Ken doesn't care where he comes.

Find out how they both do in a little while.

On a fleeting visit from Plymouth,

James Tanner cooks a spice rub pork fillet.

He serves a delicious lean piece of meat

with freshly made tzatziki and romesco sauce.

And Hollywood actress Julia Stiles faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get a Food Heaven?

Salmon with my home-made gravlax with deep-fried egg

and avocado salad. Or would she get a dreaded Food Hell,

octopus with a delicious stewed octopus with herb tabbouleh?

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

Now, if you want to imagine you're eating lunch in the Italian

sunshine, then Theo Randall has just the recipe for you.

It's time to get out the pasta making machine. Me.

-Great to have you back on the show.

-Thank you.

-It's simplicity as always with you, with the food.

-As always.

-Not too many ingredients.

-Ingredients are getting less and less.

-We've got a few more today.

-Seven ingredients here.

One thing you need to do is peel these tomatoes, which is

very unlike me. But I want to peel these tomatoes,

because they're going in this delicious pasta.

-You want me to do those?

-Yes. It's with tagliatelle. Zucchini.

These tomatoes, which will kind of melt with some olive oil

-and some garlic and some chilli.

-What are these tomatoes?

-Parsley.

-Oh, dear!

-Not too much, she says!

-Not too much.

-These tomatoes?

These tomatoes are called Datterino, and they're from Sicily.

They're the most amazing tomato. Lovely, lovely flavour.

-You like tomatoes?

-I love tomatoes. You say tom-eh-to, I say tom-ah-to.

So, the pasta, your pasta recipe is very, very different.

We had Angela Hartnett on the show last week

and she was saying that her pasta is very, very different to yours.

She's more semolina flour.

You use a lot more egg yolks in yours.

I kind of like that sort of quite strong, eggy kind of taste

and texture. There's lots of egg yolks in there.

-A little bit of semolina flour and tipo 00 flour.

-No water?

-Sorry?

-You don't add any water?

-Not really. The egg is enough.

Maybe a tablespoon just if they're slightly dry.

-See, you learn every day.

-I'm learning everything.

You clean the inside of the squid out.

Cut it in half and just score it lightly.

And this squid will be cut into strips.

The idea of this is that it is just sort of melted in the pan.

-It's not fried.

-I'm not the hugest fan.

-You're not a squid fan?

-Not a huge fan of squid.

-It's going well for you today!

-Parsley! Squid!

-Oh, dear!

-I think she is waiting for dessert!

-Forget about the pasta!

-Do you two know each other?!

-Bring it on!

We cut the squid into strips.

And then you've got the tomatoes blanched.

After you've done that, you need to roll out some pasta for me.

Yes, so you just peel off the skin. Then ten seconds in there.

They're the most amazing tomatoes.

They're so sweet.

And they're absolutely brilliant at this time of the year!

These are like baby San Marzano tomatoes.

Same sort of shape, but they are actually much sweeter.

They're incredibly sweet.

It's almost like eating sweets.

A friend of mine came to the restaurant

and had a veal chop with tomatoes roasted and he said,

what were the berries on top of the veal chop? They were amazing.

Because they were just so sweet. He thought they were raspberries.

-I should get those for my kids.

-It's not like eating sweets, really.

It's good for children to try, if it's sweet, they love it.

Yes, if it's sweet, it encourages them to eat it.

-How many children do you have?

-Two.

-Two? Me too.

-I actually have four.

-Do you?

-One is cooking...

-THEY LAUGH

-It's like Take Me Out over here, isn't it?!

-It is!

-Both of my children are half German!

-Oh, yeah?

-Mine are half African!

-Are they?! Look at that!

Life is too short to peel these kinds of things, anyway.

We're filling in while they're doing them tomatoes!

Just slice the zucchini on a mandolin.

And what we're going to try and do, we're going to try

and get the effect of the tagliatelle pasta and the zucchini of the same

sort of shape and thickness, because what we're going to do is cook

the pasta with this zucchini together, so you get this

every mouthful that has a kind of mouthful of zucchini as well.

Right, so these are your tomatoes.

-You want me to roll-out the pasta, then?

-Roll out the pasta, please.

Now, you make yours,

so explain, you make it with semolina flour and flour.

Probably about 10% semolina flour, the rest, tipo 00 flour.

-And then we use a lot of egg yolk.

-Lots of egg yolks?

Well, for a kilo of pasta, we will use about 16 yolks,

but four whole eggs. So, it's very rich.

-Very rich, but tastes delicious.

-They taste amazing, yes.

Where would this be from in Italy?

I was in Florence recently, and went to this restaurant that had

this amazing pasta, so it's very inspired from there.

-I'm going to Florence tomorrow.

-You must go to this place.

-I am going to Watford tomorrow! Been to Watford?!

-Not yet.

-It's proper!

-Do they have pasta over there or parsley?

They have parsley! They have pasta as well!

-Got to have a bit of parsley.

-Tomatoes.

-A little bit of garlic.

Just going to put the squid in.

As I said, slightly melt the tomatoes rather than fry them.

-Just going to grab them.

-They're ready.

Just going to cut that in half

and then you want it into these little tagliatelle.

Cook that in the same pan with the...?

Yes, so we have the squid going in with the tomatoes.

And then get rid of this. Wash my hands.

Now, you're also, as well as being busy in the restaurant,

I know it's extremely busy, where you are there,

-but you're trying to do another cookbook as well.

-I'm doing another cookbook.

-Will this be Spanish cooking or what would this be?

-Italian.

Italian food, would it?

Well, it's got all of the things I like to cook at home.

I'm getting pretty advanced at it now,

-so it is going to be out soon.

-What is it?

Why do you think the British palate like Italian food?

The simplicity of it?

It's the simplicity, it's food you can eat every day.

You never get bored of it.

You can eat a bacon sandwich every day but, you know!

Well, there's so much.

You can have pasta, you can have risotto, you can

have grilled meat, grilled fish. It's very versatile food.

-It's also quick. For families.

-It is very quick.

The amount of produce you can get in this country from Italy is amazing.

We're so close to Italy, so we get these incredible vegetables,

amazing, you had some Burrata, you were telling me the other day.

-That lovely mozzarella cheese with cream.

-Yes, that's what it is.

And you can just get that pretty much at any decent delicatessen now.

Pasta is fantastic.

You can add any flavour you want, so, it's great for kids,

-great for grown-ups.

-Right, parsley.

-A bit of parsley.

-Oh, hello!

How about basil? Do you add basil to it?

No, I think parsley is quite nice.

The basil would probably be too aniseed,

-you want to keep the flavour of the squid.

-You just turned up that squid.

-I didn't mean.

-You didn't mean to!

Slowly fry, you don't want to fry it off to get some colour?

You want it to be slightly cream or the juice of the tomatoes come out,

but you still want that texture of the tomato.

-A little bit of parsley.

-You have some chilli flakes.

Bit of chilli in. A bit more. I know you like a bit of chilli.

And what I'm going to do is make sure the pasta is really nice

and al dente, so that zucchini cooks at exactly the same time.

Now, with this fresh egg pasta, how long?

Can we bring to the boil and then it is ready or a couple of minutes?

It depends if it's dried out.

You really should make pasta the day before, let it dry out but,

about three minutes. Depending on the thickness of the pasta.

-Tell us about this stuff. It looks like an old boot!

-Yes. Sort of.

This is bottarga,

it comes from Sardinia and it's the grey mullet roe.

They salt the roes and they hang them up and dry them

and you can use it all year round and they are absolutely crazy about it.

But it's like a seasoning. You add it to things to give it flavour.

-Salty?

-It's salty, but it's got a nutty kind of...

-It's quite expensive.

-It is quite expensive.

-But a little goes a very long way.

-How much would you pay for that?

-Well, it's about £120 a kilo.

-What?!

-That's about 100g.

-So.

-Just 85.

-About 12 quid.

-So. Turn the heat up.

Start tossing the pasta in that lovely juice.

The tomato is breaking up. A little bit more olive oil.

Use that as a little seasoning at the end.

What happens, when you eat the pasta,

you get this little mouthful of bottarga.

Which makes a lovely difference. A little bit more pasta water.

-Smelling great.

-A lot of people make the mistake,

they add the oil to make the sauce, but you add the pasta water.

Always add the pasta water and always toss the pasta.

Not quite, but almost toss the pasta as much,

as long as you cook the pasta.

What happens is, the starch comes out of the pasta,

which thickens the sauce so you get this lovely, creamy sauce.

-Coat it all in.

-Without having lots of...

-I'm getting hungry over here.

OK, it's coming!

Then, we're just going to put it on the plate,

so lovely zucchini dissolved into that pasta. And those tomatoes.

And then all of that lovely squid.

If you couldn't find fresh squid, I suppose prawns,

-you could make this with?

-You could do prawns,

but try and use the squid or cuttlefish is great.

Because it is so sweet. But you could use prawns.

But if you can find squid, use squid.

With a little mandolin or truffle slicer,

-just a few shavings of bottarga on top.

-Grate it on the top?

You can grate it, but it's nice having a few shavings.

And then, there you have the tagliatelle with squid,

bottarga, Datterino tomatoes and zucchini.

-Easy as that.

-We're ready!

-It certainly looks good.

-It smells good. Let's see what it tastes like.

There you go. Over here.

There's a plate full of things that I wouldn't normally...!

-Not normally, but dive into that!

-Let's have a go.

Squid, now, you look at it in two ways,

you either cook it quite quickly, which you did, or very, very slowly.

Well, the bigger the squid, the longer you cook it.

And it can be tough.

But cooking it for a long time, it just becomes like butter.

But if the squid is quite more like that, you can cook it quickly.