Episode 150 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Get ready for 90 minutes of the tastiest food you're

ever likely to see on TV. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got food galore coming up, thanks to some truly amazing chefs.

And there plenty of cutlery wielding celebrities to

taste their creations on hand too.

Coming up, Silvena Rowe gets autumnal with venison

and serves it with juniper berries, sour cherry sauce and pumpkin mash.

And Nic Watt gets creative with sea bream.

He marinades the fish with sweet white miso

and serves it with pickled red onion salsa, tomato and green beans.

James Tanner shows his Thai side with an unusual take on roast

chicken. He roasts the chicken with Thai flavours

and serves it with sesame noodles and garlic pak choi.

EastEnders' Jo Joyner faced her food heaven or food hell.

Would she get her food heaven?

That beef with a hearty cotes du boeuf, with blue cheese butter,

sauteed girolles and potatoes, or would she get her dreaded food hell,

milk and cream,

with an indulgent caramelised rice pudding with spiced plum compote?

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

But first, let's rewind to the first time that Sat Bains

came to the studio, armed with a recipe for one of the most

creative brunches you're ever going to see.

Take a look at this.

Great to have you on the show, Sat, after a long time.

-How are you doing?

-I've been trying to get you on. You're finally here.

-What are we cooking?

-OK, this dish today is a brilliant brunch dish.

The idea behind it is at this time of day, something you can do really

simple, people at home can do it, it's like a boomerang dish -

it keeps coming back to me. You know what I mean?

So, what I've got here is I've got the scallops open,

if you get the chorizo for us, James. Dice that into medium-sized chunks.

-A bit of toast as well.

-Yes, please. A nice Yorkshire doorstep.

I think this should be quite a hearty dish.

Fans of the Great British Menu will have seen you on that.

Yeah, it's been quite a phenomenal few years

because with something like the Great British Menu, it celebrates

regional cuisine, something we're all very passionate about.

So, what we did was ultimately celebrate the region

and get some really good flavours...

Because this slow poached egg of yours has become...

-It's become a cult.

-A trademark dish.

-Exactly, yeah.

It's great.

The dish has been on probably three or four years now and we're getting

people still ringing up and actually asking for that dish on e-mail.

These scallops are important. They're dived scallops.

The idea behind them is that they're hand-dived.

So these ones, I like to chill them first. It sets the protein.

I've done some already. I'll quickly rip these off.

And get them washed and put these in the fridge.

-Do you use any of the coral?

-We do use the coral.

What you can do is coral salt or coral powder, you can

fold it into risottos. Raw.

Fold it in, like you do a monte of butter. It's really nice.

Blend it together with a bit of butter.

The only reason I don't cook it together, it's a

personal thing, they cook differently.

One's going to be rubbery, one's going to be under,

or one's going to be cooked, one's going to be raw.

Although you're not really

practising it today, you're into, dare I say, the Heston sort of...

I've never heard of him.

But that way of looking at food.

I think what it is is a craft and us chefs are craftsmen.

We need to know our product. That's how I look at it.

So if that means I know the protein of a certain piece of fish

and what temperature to cook it, it's going to put me in better stead,

and the guests that come to the restaurant pay good money,

it means you're doing your job.

-Yeah.

-So, I've got another pan here, dry one.

This is going to be just for the spices.

I've got coriander, bark of cinnamon.

The idea is to dry fry it, just to release the flavours

and that's going to be for the coriander salt.

-And that's the seasoning for the scallop.

-OK.

You want the chorizo in. This is cooking chorizo. A softer one.

It is. It's quite moist.

And the beauty is it will release a lot of oil

and you can see it's very juicy.

You can see there, the juice is going to come out.

You can smell the pepper straightaway.

-So this is the picante?

-I think it would be. You're getting technical.

I think picante is the spice.

Paprika, added more spice to it as well.

What you do here is you just basically sweat that down

and the idea is... Not too hot, release the oil.

Right, OK. But this is local to you.

This is a guy in Nottingham called Johnny, he's our butcher,

and he will actually make this with Nottinghamshire pork.

If you just get the scallops out for me, please, James.

-OK.

-Sat, could you use black pudding, or...?

-Perfect.

-Sausage?

You could use sausages. Exactly the same process.

The beauty of this dish is that the eggs are going to

sit on top in a minute and they soak all the sausage meat up.

So it's a kind of full English, almost.

-So you're dry frying.

-Dry frying it, so...

You can smell that straightaway. You can smell cinnamon and the coriander.

-If you want to spice that for us, James.

-Just blend that?

Yeah, if you just want to blend that.

-And what salt do you use?

-This is...

-Any salt in there?

Yeah, we use one called Halen Mon, and it's the Anglesey sea salt.

So, we use Maldon as well.

The beauty of the salt is it's quite coarse

and then we add a bit of salt to that now and just pulse it.

You get a real coarse flavoured salt and you keep it in the fridge,

that's it. There's a little tip there for you.

-I'm just going to cool that down.

-I'm burning the toast at the same time.

-Nothing's changed there then.

-Now, your restaurant...

You've been in Nottingham for quite a long time now,

-originally from Derby.

-I've been in Nottingham 18 years.

My wife's from Nottingham. And I think the rumour's true -

all the best women are from Notts. LAUGHTER

-I had to get that in there!

-Got you out of that one.

Thanks for that one, James. I owe you a fiver.

So, what you do with the eggs, you drop them in and what's happened is

the white will find its own surface

area and pick all the sausage up.

Again, we just turn that down a little bit.

-And just let that cook.

-That's the flavour from it, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it's almost like Christmas.

-Amazing. Do you want to smell that?

Pass it round.

-We need it back.

-You use that salt for anything?

-I use it for game.

Shellfish. I use it for absolutely everything.

-Through the heat, the flavour releases.

-Comes out, yeah. Beautiful.

-It's like Christmas.

-Just going to cook the scallops.

For me, when you cook scallops,

it's important you use the best quality, and we do.

So, what we're going to do is just cook them almost medium rare.

-So these are the hand-dived ones.

-Hand-dived, and all I do is cut them

-in half, width ways.

-Right.

-OK, this is a little tip.

Instead of using excess salt in a lot of things, you can

also season things with other products. This is marmite.

We're going to use marmite butter.

So probably about 20% marmite to 80% butter and you get this really

flavoured, intense butter, that's very high in umami.

-See, I don't like that.

-I don't like it.

-What are you putting in there for, then?

-You won't know.

What it does is instead of salt, it seasons it

and gives the scallops depth.

And you can also brush this on roast chicken, grouse...

It's fantastic.

You mentioned that sort of other sense, that umami sense.

That's what it gives you, this?

Yeah, it's very high in glutamate, so it's got very high umami.

And what's nice about that is you reduce your seasoning elsewhere.

Cos lots of foods have got that.

If you use the correct ones, you can reduce it down.

-Tomatoes, Parmesan... You know it. Yeah.

-Yeah.

So, again, that's just slowly cooking. You can see all the fat...

What's nice is that the actual white has gone nice and orange.

So, the scallops straight in.

Just the cut side down. Again, you want a nice crispiness on it.

The other side just barely warmed through.

Tell us about your restaurant cos people who haven't been there,

-you had the restaurant, you got offered the lease...

-Yes.

Got the lease and then you ended up buying the hotel.

We took the hotel on as well

and the beauty of that is I've been there 11 years nearly now.

What's great is the restaurant itself's got a very good

reputation, but also it's something that we strive to give

the customers something different.

We do a lot of tasting menus. That's all we do, we don't do a la carte.

And that means you're coming for the whole experience,

rather than just a three course and see you later.

-You've got rooms there as well?

-We've got eight rooms.

And I think we've actually got a couple spare tonight. I'm joking.

LAUGHTER

OK. Your scallops, they don't take very long to cook.

No, I'm going to just take them out.

Again, you can take them off the heat at this point.

Turn them over, but that's what you're after, that crust.

Yeah. 90% of your menu is British, Nottingham is quite

-an intense area for great food.

-Some of the produce is phenomenal.

-You have the famous goose fair, of course.

-Yes.

-There's no goose there, unfortunately.

-I know.

I went there and there was not a goose in sight!

There's one really big one on the actual roundabout.

-Some bloke dressed up as a goose!

-I couldn't catch it! I need a lorry!

Just quickly take these off. You've got your toast.

I would have gone a bit thicker there, James.

You've obviously lost your Yorkshire roots there.

-I had that covered, Sat!

-Oh, brilliant!

That's more like it!

LAUGHTER

-OK, marmite butter.

-Are you sure you want it that thick?

You can take one off, make a sandwich.

All you do, no salt, brush. What happens is it bastes the scallop

and it goes in every little crack, see?

It's glossy. Lemon.

Done.

-There's your...

-Thank you very much.

-Is this on the menu?

-And again...

No, this is probably something I'd do for brunch, for the family meal.

Yeah, yeah.

So, he comes on Saturday Kitchen for the very first time

and gives us something he gives the staff, it's nice, that.

-I treat them well!

-I tell you what, scallops...

I bet you don't serve the scallops, though.

Thanks(!) You've just turned everything off.

-Have I got enough time?

-Yeah, we're fine, yeah.

-Now, this salt. Other things it goes with?

-I've done it with cardamom.

-Right.

-The same. Cardamom salt.

-But different dishes that it would go with?

-Anything, it's universal.

We use it on everything.

But again, the flavour you get is the beautiful hit of spice

and it just lifts the dish.

-OK. Right, we're ready.

-Yeah.

So, again, we're just going to scoop that out.

Wow!

And what's nice is you can get all the extra bits on top,

so you don't miss anything.

-Do you like that?

-That's proper grub, innit?

Yeah. This is what's nice is that will soak into the bread.

This is a brunch dish. You won't probably have to eat again till...

-None of that fancy grouse stuff!

-That's it.

-I love grouse.

-We've got egg on toast over here!

-Looks like breakfast to me!

Again, if you look at this, it's just so simple.

Finish it with the coriander cress, one of my favourite herbs,

carry on with the coriander theme, just sprinkle that on.

The idea is that every mouthful gets a bit of the floral cress as well.

-I'll just give it a quick wipe.

-There you go. It was nearly four years,

but worth the wait. Remind us what that dish is again.

So, here we have a classic brunch dish of chorizo eggs,

with some roast scallops and marmite.

There's going to be hundreds of people with hangovers watching this.

That is the perfect cure!

There you go. Right. Come on over. Let's have a dive into this one.

Have a seat over there. It looks, I have to say, fabulous.

-Rustic, hearty.

-Amazing.

-It is rustic, but so simple.

-That's the great thing about it.

It's packed full of flavour.

And hen's eggs, you've used for this one.

-A duck egg would be nice as well.

-Duck eggs are brilliant, yeah.

If you want to never eat again for the whole day!

-A goose fair egg!

-I think the thing about it is that chorizo, that soft stuff as well.

Cos look at the oil. It's seeping out. But that's what you want to mop up at the end.

Yeah. Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

Super.

-Good?

-Mm.

Mm. And I don't have a hangover and it's really good!

One happy person over there!

After preparing all those scallops, trust me, you need a good meal.

Coming up, I make griddled sticky lamb chops for tennis legend

Pat Cash, after Rick Stein barbecues a whole fore rib of beef.

I got a tip-off to come here to Cyfarthfa Castle at Merthyr Tydfil.

I hear they do everything really well. It's a good bite of Wales.

First of all, you have to have your Welsh rabbit and it IS rabbit.

No-one knows what "rabbit" means and some think it should be "rarebit",

but no-one knows what that means either!

But what the Welsh do really well is to make cakes.

This is teisen lap, which is a very moist cake.

It's what the miners used to take down the mine

because it didn't crumble in their lunch tins.

And this is the king of Welsh cakes, bara brith,

which means spotted bread.

You just slice it and cover it with butter.

Another traditional dish always on the menu here,

and one I've been really keen to try for ages, is cawl.

It's a broth, using meat, vegetables, and a lovely rich gravy,

which is sometimes served as a soup to start with.

You just take a hamburger, right?

And the buns that they make hamburgers,

they're made in factories and they're made with lots of sugar.

And the pickles that go in the hamburgers, they come out of jars.

So, why are those foods so popular with people?

Probably because they're advertised, but it's a crazy world we live in

when this is so good, so much better, and made with local materials...

I don't understand it. I'm just perplexed.

I actually made a cawl.

I used collar of bacon and lamb and slow simmered it with leeks,

onions and carrots.

Then, I added potatoes and cabbage and I finished it with chopped

parsley and some crumbled Caerphilly, which worked a treat.

Well, that's the way it's going, not just in Wales,

but in Italy and France, where fast food chains are really taking over.

'But they won't be using beef like these famous Welsh Black cattle.

'They are a very hardy breed

'and totally at home in the central mountains of Wales.

'And that is why I've come to Llanidloes in Powys,

'to Edward Hamer's farm at the head of the Severn Valley.

'Edward's family have been farming these hills for over 100 years

'and there's not much they don't know about these native animals.'

-So, this is where the Welsh Black cattle graze, then?

-Yes.

I mean, it's just a beautiful view here

and the fields look so wonderful.

I mean, it's so typical of, sort of, Britain, isn't it, this?

Yeah, you know, this is typically mid Wales.

I mean, looking up the Severn Valley here,

I mean, this is as typical Central Wales valley as you can find.

I mean, you know, the patchwork panorama you see, I mean,

that's all down to the farming method

and the fact that the livestock are here.

With the shallow soils, the high rainfalls

and quite rough weather in the winter,

we can't diversify into anything else.

Livestock is the only thing we could possibly grow.

We grow great grass up here and we can convert grass into meat.

COW BELLOWS

The Hamers have owned a butcher's shop in Llanidloes since the 1700s.

Here, Edward hangs his beef for a few weeks.

Just look at how the meat has developed naturally

and these lovely thick bits of fat.

You know, not at all like

that stuff they stick around joints at supermarkets.

Well, this is probably my favourite dish in the whole world.

I'm going to chargrill a whole fore rib of beef.

Look at that.

And you slice it quite thick, a bit more like a steak,

and it's just totally different to roast beef.

Now, I'm going to pre-season this.

A lot of people say DON'T put salt on meat

before you put it on the barbecue

for the reason that it sucks out the moisture from the beef

and stops it from caramelising on the outside, but believe me,

this barbecue is so hot, it's not going to make a scrap of difference.

And you get far better flavour, I think,

if you like salt, in pre-salted meat. The French always do it with steaks.

I think that's the main reason why steak-frites in France

tastes different from over here. OK, so that's seasoned.

I'm just going to put a bit of oil on my bars,

just to make sure the meat doesn't stick as soon as it goes on.

Don't use a pastry brush, it will just burn it to smithereens,

so a bit of kitchen paper is the thing,

and on with the beef.

BEEF SIZZLES

This is a fatty piece of meat, let's be honest about it.

Delicious fat, of course,

but the one thing you have to do when you're cooking on the barbecue,

a big piece of meat like that, is keep it moving around the barbecue.

You can't leave it in one place and sort of put your feet up

and have a drink, you know,

because you come back and you've got like charcoal.

I mean, a bit of flavour is a great taste,

but too much is bitter and horrid, so, you know,

you've just got to stand over it.

A little tip if you don't want to do that -

if you just do the first couple of minutes on either side

on the barbecue and transfer it to the oven,

you get nearly the same effect,

but one of the things I'll do in a minute is just add some woodchips,

just to get a little bit of smoke flavour in there as well.

Not a lot, this isn't a smoked piece of meat,

but it just gives it the taste of the hearth, if you like.

I sort of think about vegetarians like the cameraman

that is looking at me now and think,

"You poor people, you just don't... You're missing this!"

I don't mind missing curries,

I don't mind missing stews or grills or anything, but missing this...

No. No, I'll never be a vegetarian.

Now, this is making Bearnaise sauce.

As my chef friend Simon Hopkinson said of it,

"Don't be so saucy, Bearnaise."

First he had some shallots, white wine vinegar,

tarragon and black pepper.

You just put that all on to boil and reduce right down

and while you do that, just crack a couple of egg yolks into a bowl

and then whisk them with a little bit of water

to build up a sabayon over some heat.

You make the sabayon over a saucepan of boiling water

and as you whisk it, it gets more and more voluminous.

You then pour in some clarified butter, whisking as you go,

building up a nice, thick, viscous sauce.

And finally stir in that well-reduced shallot, tarragon

and white wine vinegar mix, some salt and a bit of fresh tarragon,

just to make the sauce look more attractive

and give that final aniseedy taste.

The salad to go with this belongs to a friend of mine

and is called Patricia Wells's Cheesemaker's Salad

because it does go very well with cheese.

Interestingly, the dressing is made with cream and shallots

that are steeped in white wine vinegar and just salt.

It's quite unusual,

just having a cream dressing as opposed to an oil one.

And finally, some very nicely thick-cut chips.

Well, I have to say this is a fantastically nice beef.

I mean, I'm really pleased because it's turned out so well.

I mean, when you look at beef that is cooked, to my mind, to perfection,

sort of medium-rare and smell the smell of the fire

and that bit of wood smoke in it, I just think,

"Well, no wonder I enjoy my job so much." I mean, it's...

It's really about giving people pleasure, you know,

and if you can get something right like this

and you put it down in front of them and just watch their faces

when they eat it, you feel so pleased with yourself.

It's as simple as that.

And as they say in Welsh, "Blasus." Or as I say, "Delish!"

Delish, too. Steak and chips, you can't beat them.

With all that hot weather we've been having,

it's the perfect time to be cooking outside.

If you're not lucky enough to have a whole fore rib of Welsh Black beef

to hand like Rick, there are plenty of other things you can do

on the barbecue which are absolutely delicious and I love doing lamb.

I'm going to show you a real simple dish using lamb chops,

which I'll get on straightaway

cos these have got to cook, so we just pop the lamb chops on here

and I'm going to show you the marinade as well.

we'll just pop these on.

Now, the marinade for this is pretty straightforward. Like that.

What I've got in here is just some lemon.

You can actually utilise this marinade again.

I've got some lemon juice, there we go.

I've got some fennel seeds, so this is like a star anise sort of dish.

It's got a lovely star anise barbecue sauce to go with it,

so lemon, fennel seeds, olive oil...

It's a great marinade for chicken on a barbecue, this, as well.

And we've got some lamb chops.

Just throw those in, give them a quick mix

and literally sit these in the fridge...

for at least about an hour and a half, two hours,

and then they're brilliant just on the barbecue as they are,

but I'm going to make a nice little sauce to go with them.

There you go.

Now, busy month for you.

-I can't carry on without obviously talking about yesterday.

-Yeah, yeah.

Mr Murray.

Well, you know, he was just outplayed, you know,

by a very, very good player.

You know, I didn't think much

of Andy Roddick's chances before the tournament.

We knew he was playing well, but, you know,

watching him through the tournament, he was playing very, very well

and he had a day out, you know.

He played about as well as I've ever seen him play

and I think most people think, "Well, if he plays like that

"against the king, Roger, he's got a chance."

Right, in we go with... We've got some veg in here.

I know you like red peppers as well, as well as orange ones,

but hate the green ones. A little bit of rosemary in there,

I'm actually doing these straight on the barbecue as they are, really.

But who is your money on, then, tomorrow?

Em, well, today is going to be definitely Williams.

Yes, funnily enough! Yeah!

I think Venus will win today, but I'm not 100% sure.

And tomorrow you've got to go...

You've got to go for Federer. I mean, he's...

He's really just had such a good run all the way through, hasn't he?

He has, he's played unbelievably

and I think the thing that he hasn't been doing particularly well

this last year or so, is his serving and his volleying

and that's really going really well at the moment,

so he's not going to give Andy Roddick

much of a chance on his serve,

but if Roddick hits those lines like he did, I mean, he's serving...

His first serve, he served 130 - 140mph

and 75% of the time that's going in.

75%, that's just unbelievable.

It's almost unheard of statistics at that pace,

-so if he serves like that tomorrow, then, you know...

-Going to be good.

Like I said before, you're playing,

-even this year you were playing as well.

-Yeah, the old guys' event!

-Tell us about that.

-Go, do I have to? It's... It was...

Yeah, I play with Chris Wilkinson, a former British player,

so we get some of the old guys.

We played Rusedski and Petchey last night

and Krajicek, Bjorkman, in the first round and...

A couple of Americans. Palmer and Johnson.

You know, it's a bit of fun and it is pretty challenging out there,

I've got to say.

The senior legends circuit is some very, very good players,

I mean, Pete Sampras is playing on it now,

Andre Agassi is playing a few matches

and maybe we'll get guys like Tim Henman who have barely retired

to start playing a few as well.

Do you think the secret of tennis is really... I mean,

some of them are extremely young. I mean, teens and stuff like that.

You yourself... Well, literally, you were a junior world number one.

-Yeah, yeah, I mean...

-At such a young age.

Very rarely do you get somebody like Nadal or Becker

who comes through at the age of sort of 17 or 18 and is a world beater.

Usually they are around about the age Murray is, 22 or 23.

It takes a while for the guys.

The girls are a little bit younger,

generally speaking, a little bit younger.

They mature a little bit younger and become better players, but...

You know, generally speaking, you're about your early-mid 20s,

you're fit then, you've been on the circuit enough

and you've got a bit of experience,

so you can expect to see the guys making a move,

but it doesn't necessarily mean that.

Cos, of course, it was '87,

something you'll never forget, when you won.

Did you know you had a chance before you went into Wimbledon then?

Yeah, I did. I mean, I wasn't one of the favourites.

I was, I think, 11th seed or something like that,

but I had been at the final of the Australian Open,

I'd won the Davis Cup for Australia six months previously

and I'd basically beaten everybody there was there,

but, you know, you've still got to do it at the tournament.

You know, it all came together at Wimbledon and, you know,

I've got to feel sorry for Andy Murray and Tim Henman.

Talk about the English, the British...

the pressure on the guys here.

I mean, we all have it in our home countries.

I'd play the Australian Open,

I'd play Davis Cups at home, you know,

it is massive pressure, but there was almost a circus yesterday

when Murray was warming up and playing.

There were helicopters flying above, there was 20, 30 cameras

and, you know, just for the warm-ups.

-Cos the atmosphere when the roof was closed...

-That was great.

-Incredible.

-It was great.

Yeah, when the roof's closed, the sound actually stays in a little bit,

so the roaring sounds twice as loud.

It's a fantastic addition, there's no doubt about it.

Wimbledon has always tried to upgrade,

the All England Club has tried to upgrade and, you know,

it's done a great job with a really old, old stadium.

Now, away from tennis, you've got other passions in your life.

Tell us about your music. You were in a band?

I love my music, yeah, yeah.

It's probably my big number-one passion, other than the kids,

of course, but... And my tennis.

I love my rock'n'roll, a bit of loud rock 'n' roll.

Cos haven't you played with INXS?

-Sort of, yeah.

-Sort of!

Yeah, they're all mates of mine, yeah we sort of went up together.

In many ways, went down together as well, you know! Not like that!

But...

They are old mates of mine,

so when I had my induction in the Australian Tennis Hall Of Fame,

they came along and played and I got up and played a song with them,

but I'm, you know, fans of them. Basically, I like the harder stuff.

I like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. AC/DC.

So, wandering around the music shops, trying to find

-a bit of your music, what...?

-Well, there is a song.

I've done a song for charity with John McEnroe, believe it or not.

Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll. We had Roger Daltrey singing

and a couple of my mates from Iron Maiden,

Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain, playing.

-You can't be serious!

-Oh, yeah.

LAUGHTER

He's dined... You know what? McEnroe has dined out on that one!

He's dined out on that one for a few years.

-Oh, dear.

-There you go. Now, you've missed all this recipe,

but don't worry, it's on the website. All right?

But in the glaze, we've got... We've got soy sauce...

The way to make barbecue sauce is very simple.

It is sugar, tomato ketchup and soy sauce

and that is it. And all I've done in there is put chilli,

a little bit of fennel seeds in there, we've got some...

A touch of garlic.

And the whole lot goes in there. Pop that...

-I mean, even I could cook that. Maybe.

-You'd be all right at this.

Nice and simple.

Just the glaze goes on at the end and all you do is just heat it up,

but the way you make barbecue sauce is very simple.

-It's ketchup, soy sauce and sugar.

-This is awesome.

-Dive in.

-All right. Am I going to burn my tongue?

Yeah, you'll burn yourself, but, yeah, try that one,

but the idea is you keep the bones on the lamb, I think.

I mean, Cyrus was on about it earlier.

You need to have something to gnaw on while you're eating it.

-The lovely fat that is on it.

-Oh, that...

-But the star anise...

-I love fat. I love fat on meat.

-I mean, a lot of people cut it off, but absolutely not.

-Exactly.

-I grew up with lamb...

-Best bit of the lamb, there you go.

Delicious and a lot less time-consuming then roast lamb.

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

on today's show, all of those are just a click away

at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Today we are looking back at some of the best cooking

from the Saturday Kitchen archives. Now, are you ready?

I'm taking a deep breath.

Silvena Rowe is here and she's ready to dish up an autumnal treat

involving venison and sour cherries. In case you're wondering,

no, I didn't manage to dodge her kisses this time either.

Enjoy this one.

-Good morning, James.

-'Ey up. How do?

-It's in my contract now.

-Is it?

-Every time I come, I get a kiss.

-It's not in mine!

Well, it has to be done otherwise I refuse to come here.

-What are we cooking?

-You're not important.

Right, we'll be cooking... We're actually doing venison.

We are in the hunting season now,

all over Europe, not just Northern Europe,

but Eastern Europe as well and this dish has a lot of Polish,

a lot of Scandinavian, a lot of Russian influences

and it starts in the beginning of about September, October, November,

you go and hunt large, huge game like the wild boar, like venison,

so we are in the first hunt.

The second hunt is the small game.

The partridges, the geese, the grouse, like hare, small things.

And the third hunt is for vegetarians -

the mushrooms! Mushroom picking!

Oh, right, I thought you meant just everything else.

At the end of November. It's quite ingenious.

Right, so, my venison, I'm going to marinate.

I've got some wine, I've got some fresh herbs here,

like rosemary and thyme. A bit of celery, currants

and the most vital ingredient here of all is the juniper berries.

Now, I am going to use my muscles and my shot-putting abilities

to actually mash those to oblivion.

You're going to get those and chop them up

in the speed that you prefer, you like

and you find yourself attractive in.

This is going to be my marinade.

My marinade, it's imperative for the venison and I don't cook venison...

I don't know about you.

You probably ought to know more about these things then me

because you started to cook

-at the age of three and a half.

-Three and a half!

-Tell me now...

-So, tell us about juniper, juniper...?

Well, I love it. I love juniper berries. I like...

Well, you know, gin is made from juniper berries, of course,

-so maybe that's why I love it so much.

-Who knows?

But, I mean, you see Eamonn relates to that, an Irish fellow.

It's about the only thing he likes on the show so far.

Bulgarian and Irish, we're like that, Eamonn.

I think you have a drink problem. You've only got one mouth!

Well, I am after your job, you know? No ginger here.

-No cinnamon, no pistachios.

-You are my sort of woman.

-You are going to so love me.

-Yes.

-You are going to want to marry me.

-Well...

Right, here the juniper goes.

And when James decides to be ready with his stuff...

-I'm going as quick as I can!

-Oh, you are very sweet.

-It's almost sexy when you do that.

-Is it?

I mean, your chopping is pretty attractive, I have to say.

Right, all this goes in here now. And the wine as well.

I'm going to pop in the wine.

I'm going to chop in a very leisurely manner

while I remove this. That's why I don't need to go to the gym.

Remove that aside. I'm going to chop my herbs.

They don't need to be really at all chopped finely, they can go...

You know, that's about enough, I think,

because we don't want any more. Are you nearly ready there?

Don't worry, you don't have to be very fine.

Obviously, we want them fairly fine because we want them

to release the flavours easier.

-OK, throw that lot in?

-Right.

I'm going to bury, somewhere underneath there, my venison.

Now, this is going to go, please, James,

in the fridge for 24 hours to give it enough time to infuse flavours.

-Me to put that in the fridge?

-Please, yes.

And bring me the one that has been there for 24 hours already.

While he's doing that, I'm just going to make myself useful

and clear up my space here.

So, this is haunch of venison that you're using, is it?

Venison comes from the Latin word venatio

and it's actually a collective word, like fish.

Like we call all the fish "fish".

In this case, venison relates to all the types of deer and bucks etc.

So, really, I am not aware,

but this is actually a beautiful piece of loin, you know,

and venatio in Latin means to hunt,

hence venison is actually the word used for that kind of thing.

Now, it would be useful if you actually...

My God, I can't believe it! You're my assistant!

Oh, well, excuse me, I have ten minutes to spare, Eamonn.

-Go on, you're fine.

-Tell us about your CD.

-It's fine.

OK, off we go. Right, so we need this to be nice and hot.

We are going to seal it. We are going to seal it for about...

JAMES MIMICS A SIZZLE Oh, yes, that's very good.

We're live, it doesn't matter.

We are going to seal it here for about probably a minute and a half

on each side, season it ever so gently with a bit of salt and pepper,

but we are keeping the marinade,

we're not throwing the marinade at this stage.

Once we have done that... It's not happening! Once we have done that...

Well, this is the beauty of live TV, ladies and gentlemen.

It always has to happen to me, you know!

-What am I doing with this?

-OK, it's happening, hold on.

What am I doing with this?

What do you think? Now, let's see. Can you peel it for me, please?

-I can think of something!

-LAUGHTER

-What do you want me to do?

-Peel it, please?

-I certainly don't need the whole chunk.

-Peel it?

-Yeah, peel it

then probably half.

And while you are doing that, I'm going to chop up this potato

because the potato and the squash are going to be my mash.

Now, normally,

I would probably prefer to serve this dish with braised cabbage,

something like delicious savoy braised cabbage

with horseradish sauce, or red cabbage, indeed,

but I just felt like today the weather is a bit...

I just felt, why not do something a little bit more kind of comforting?

So I went for that solution. It works very well together.

-We have action here, finally something is happening.

-Is it?

Yes, so I'm going to now...

tip them over, brown them on both sides.

You can't see them browning very much because

the colour of the marinade is really kind of going strong into them.

Yes.

Once you've done that for me, please, can you now remove at this stage,

-after having seasoned a little bit on the other side as well.

-Remove what?

-Put in the oven for me, please.

-I'm just finishing chopping up this.

180 degrees. Well, you're too slow. 180 degrees. Eight to ten minutes.

Now, I like my venison really, really rare, kind of rare to medium,

so eight minutes, that's good, but ten minutes,

probably it's well done and I think it's a waste of time

because venison should be undercooked colours.

-Straight in now?

-Yes, please.

And bring me the one that has been there for a while.

I'm putting my potatoes and squash here.

That is very neatly chopped, I must congratulate you on that. No wonder!

If you start cooking

at the age of three and a half, this is what happens.

Your chopping, just like your handwriting, is excellent.

Right, this goes in here.

Now, 15 or 20 minutes. Now, we've got this here.

Right, I want it to rest, you know, so I will leave it there to rest.

I don't want it on the heat. Can you turn this heat off for me?

I'm afraid to touch anything.

In fact, I'm going to use this plate here to rest my ingredients,

rest my meat,

because it's good for it to rest for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, what I'm going to do now... Washing my hand.

I pop my marinade here. It goes in here with all the vegetables.

-I'm going to give it a good stir.

-Do you want it on the heat or not?

Yes, please. Quite high up.

We're going to reduce it a little bit.

At the same time, I'm going to add my redcurrant jelly.

This is what goes for the sauce, for the sour cherry sauce.

Aren't you going to ask me about sour cherries?

-Tell me about sour cherries.

-In Yorkshire, it's so famous.

You have so many sour cherries in Yorkshire. Sour cherries, OK.

Tell me about sour cherries.

Sour cherries, to us, is what leeks is to Wales.

-Yeah.

-I got that right.

English things I don't get right very much.

We exist, we love them in sweet and sour flavours, we love them

in puddings, we love them in anything.

Lovely, so what are you going to do with that?

What you can do now, I love my vegetables

so I'm going to reduce it a lot more now.

Actually let the vegetables cook as well.

If you didn't want the vegetables, you could throw them away

and leave the cherries in,

which is what we could have done with this one.

I love the vegetables, so I love to leave my vegetables in there.

-We've got it ready. How is the mash doing?

-I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

Tell me about this book.

The book is great. It's on Eastern Europe.

I went to Georgia, I went to Poland, I went to Czech,

Slovak, Russia and I have to tell you,

and, of course, Bulgaria, my native Bulgaria.

I have to tell you that I just want to introduce the Brits to

something delicious, something new and different.

I'm not suggesting that Eastern European food is going to take over,

but you tell me somebody who doesn't know

an Eastern European person, you know?

OK, some in the middle here.

While we're doing that, I'm going to slice...

What's your book called?

Feasts, food for sharing from Central and Eastern Europe.

-What's it called?

-Feasts.

-Feasts?

-Yes, in time for Christmas.

When we all are feasting and having lots of parties.

I have to tell you... This is looking gorgeous, absolutely beautiful.

It's just full of beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, delicious dishes.

We have a lovely section on vodka

that you'll particularly enjoy, probably.

I don't know why I'm saying that, but, you know... Beautiful.

This is the most velvety, delicious, luxurious,

indulgent mash on the bottom.

Succulent, juicy, beautiful melting in the mouth meat and the most

-sweet and sour ruby jewels like sour cherries on the side.

-It's brilliant.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Another piece for me?

There you go. Eamonn. Don't say you don't like this otherwise...

-Eamon, remember, Irish, Bulgaria.

-Absolutely right.

May I say, looking at this, your cherries look wonderful.

Thank you very much indeed.

Me and my friend, Chris de Burgh here,

we were complimenting the smell.

I think it looks great and it's very autumn-y kind of look about it.

-It's just unusual.

-It's the sort of dish that we'd recognise in Ireland.

You would, because it's very rustic, very wholesome.

Venison is just a delicious meat, fat-free,

really good for people who have high cholesterol. Like me.

Would you believe that I have high cholesterol?

My slender little figure.

This is such an ordinary, wholesome dish and when they said

there was an exotic dish today,

-I just assumed they were talking about you.

-Thank you very much.

I've got to be honest, I've never had my chopping

described as attractive before and hopefully I won't again.

Now it's time to join Keith Floyd for a slice of his American pie.

Today he's discovering the culinary delights of Santa Fe.

It's a long haul to New Mexico and a man's bones get a little

shaky on the old Santa Fe Trail,

not to mention the throat has a certain dry ticklish feel about it.

But, to satisfy my producer's thirst for bizarre locations,

I rode into the film town of Beauty,

famous for its role in westerns and failed restaurateurs,

to cook something tasty for the locals.

A pretty wild bunch by all accounts. It's extraordinary, isn't it?

I told the BBC wardrobe department I was coming to New Mexico to

film in a cowboy town and I wanted a Lone Ranger outfit.

What do they give me? Sloane Ranger outfit. They're absolutely hopeless.

Anyway, cowboy cooks are no exception to any other kind of cook.

They were well into organisation

and the most important thing after a long day's ride

across the plain, was to give the boys something really good to eat.

So, Chuck, as he would be called, what have they really good,

well-organised larder.

The essential things a travelling cook would need.

Baby wipes for his fingers at the end of a hard day,

Californian wine, cookery book, charcoal fuel lighter

and stuff like that and because they were into FM Rock,

they'd probably have a stereo as well.

Anyway, I've got to do this really serious cooking sketch

because I'm actually going to cook for real cowboys.

You've all seen Blazing Saddles and those funny jokes about

the pork and beans and stuff but I'm going to cook a real pork and beans.

Historically, slightly different, because we use black beans.

It was only introduced into American food in the last 30 to 40 years,

so it's an update of an old dish.

First of all, Clive, diced shoulder of pork.

Then swing round to your right where we've got our black beans

which have been soaked in water overnight

and then boiled for about two hours until they are nice and tender.

That, by the way, is them in their dry state.

You can easily buy them. Back up to me, please.

The thing which influences this dish, is something very

important to New Mexico.

It's the chilli, these very hot but also sweet little chillies

which I've chopped up here also with some garlic.

This is all going to be cooked in a sauce.

Back to me again, please, I didn't say, "Come up." Thank you.

This is going to be thickened with blue flour and red chillies.

Because the Americans like their things a bit tasty and a bit spicy,

it's also going to have, and isn't it sweet,

a little honey in it from a bear pot. OK. So those are the ingredients.

The other thing that is very important when you're cooking

on the range, is to have a little slurp yourself

and I always prefer the Kentucky fried gentleman.

Very nice too.

We're going to have wandering around to do here, Clive,

so stay with me. Let us first of all get some oil, walk round here,

over the stove, put a bit of oil in and put our meat in.

If I had an assistant, that would have been taken away from me.

Sizzle, sizzle.

Then, in with our chillies and onions.

Pop that over there and give it a stir round.

Season and seal in the pot.

They do make... Clive, just a minute.

They do make life really difficult for me, don't they?

We've done it before.

He loves these fresh air sequences but my eyes are streaming from the

smoke, we're at 7,000 feet of altitude,

so I'm looking a bit wobbly.

It's not because I've had too many Kentucky fried gentleman,

in fact, I haven't had enough, but there is a definite effect

on your head, this clear air, the mountains,

the snow in the background and stuff.

Enough of that and now for the roux.

Crushed chillies go into there like that along with

some of this blue cornmeal and then the juice strained off

of the black beans is mixed into that. There is a lot of wind here.

We can't help that. Mixed in to form a thickening agent.

That goes into the pot right over here. No problem.

Then, over here, Clive, I'm going to put the black beans in.

This is the nice part of the dish. In they go.

This is a good way of stretching the meat.

It makes an economical dish by adding the pulses.

Then, the curious little bit, honey, for bears. A bit of honey.

A little bit like that just to take some of that heat

away from the chilli. Stir round. It looks rather good, doesn't it?

Pork and black beans. That needs about two hours over wood mark three.

I know you've all got these kind of stoves in your

chuck wagons at home, haven't you? Anyway, that's it.

John Wayne did this too, you know?

There we are, chaps. Sorry about that.

Pork and black bean. I hope you like it. I'll just give you some.

This is my show but this is your town and if you don't like it,

-you just tell me, OK?

-I will.

Al and Boots and their dog, Tarquin, just happened to be taking

time out from being waiters, I mean stuntmen, to give us a hand.

Very nerve-racking, this kind of thing.

These guys have got rods or whatever they call them,

Colt 45's stashed and they would probably shoot me.

-Three beers, my good man, please.

-Coming up.

One, two, three, rock on.

CRASHING SOUND

-Is it silver bullets or is it all right?

-Very tasty.

-Good.

Listen, you guys. Sorry about that Americanism, what's it actually...

You're really interested, aren't you? Boots, you don't like it?

-I don't like it.

-You don't like it.

-Dog doesn't like it.

-Dog doesn't like it.

-What is this?

I got it out of a Santa Fe cookery book.

Is that the wrong thing to say?

-No, I just like Santa Fe.

-That is pork?

-That is pork.

-Tastes like beef.

-It's been cooked a long time, of course.

-It's American pork.

-The beans?

-The beans are black beans.

Looks like rabbit pellets.

-It does? I don't want to eat it.

-It doesn't taste too bad, though.

Could have used a little bit more chilli.

Santa Fe is also the capital of American chic.

There are more artists here than St Ives.

It's also the second oldest town in America and it was first

settled by the Spanish in the '70s, I mean the 17th century.

I love this specially composed music by my old chums the Stranglers,

don't you?

MUSIC PLAYS

Anyway, the silver and turquoise mines around here

provide the Indians with all they need

to create this brilliant jewellery,

not that I'm that interested in it, just thought you'd like to know.

At least it saves me from rabbiting on about architecture.

But I'm here in Santa Fe really, not only for the fashion,

but also to take on the Mayor, Sam Pick, a noted cook,

in an international chilli cook-off.

You're now in the oldest capital in the United States,

the second oldest city in the United States

and the only capital in the United States

without airline service.

It goes downhill from there.

We make the best chilli that you're ever going to see and I am honoured

to represent my community in this very serious chilli cook-off

which I have been preparing for, for 12 years. Thank you.

-Yes, it's nice to meet you.

-Good to see you.

I don't like the sound of any of this.

Look, Clive, I've got bottled chillies

but the Mayor has got hand dried ones,

probably from his mother's garden. And not only that,

he's got the advantage of a special chilli chopper.

I think that's what they call it.

Right, chilli is made using the best sirloin beef, OK?

It isn't minced beef like we see in England,

you use the very best sirloin steak.

You also have chopped onions, chopped carrots, fresh chilli,

you also have, at this time of year, some frozen chilli which

I have cooked off already in some chicken stock with onions,

finely chopped garlic, oregano, as we call it.

We would have had fresh, but we haven't got it -

but this is, in fact, March - black pepper, bay leaves

and to thicken my ultimate sauce, some roux from butter and flour.

The rest is down to God and a large Kentucky fried gentleman

which my assistants have failed to provide this morning,

so I'm going to have to put this right.

Have a good look at him, Clive.

What we're doing here, is he's absolutely right,

if you get the best meat, that really makes the chilli the finest.

What I'm doing today, is using pork.

Pork, with the liquid, is the way to do it, then you scrape

that fat off and the next morning, instead of using the water,

like I'm going to be doing today, you use that liquid.

People enjoy it and you don't have to worry so much

about the spices because when you're pressure cooking this particular

pork, you can all, at that time put in garlic salt, salt and onions.

This would have saved it, but unfortunately, when you're

a small city like we are, you can't afford those kind of things.

I browned off my meat.

My onions are going in now, chopped onions,

also a jolly good dollop of garlic, already finely chopped.

Plus, a few carrots and some of the fresh chillies.

I've left the seeds in because I want to get this up to a fairly hot...

What kind of chillies? Registered hot? Let's see what it is.

It's green chilli, extra hot. You're dead.

-We'll let that settle down.

-People are going to hate you for it.

They are going to hate me for it, are they?

Despite all the fun, and this is a serious competition,

and I am in to try and beat the Mayor here,

but again, with all simple dishes, you must take your time.

You can't pour liquid onto that right now.

You must let the onions sweat, the meat sweat, the juices come out.

That's very important because as with all good cooking,

patience is essential.

Never mind the prizes, it's the taste we're worried about.

Tomatoes, I'm going to chop them a little finer.

Put the green chilli in.

You see, I asked a very important leading chef

if I could put some tomatoes in and he said, "If you put tomatoes in,

"sunshine, you've got no chance of winning."

-And yet...

-I'm taking mine... I'm not putting mine in.

The record will properly reflect there will be no tomatoes

put in this chilli, even as we're speaking.

-I have been bluffed out by my idol.

-We'll just put some tomato sauce...

This is still cooking down, we're still reducing the onions

and carrots and the meat and the garlic and the oregano

and the pepper that's in there and shortly, I'm going to

add my special secret ingredient, which are these brilliant

extra strong peppers given to me

by a famous chef who has won this competition on the odd occasion,

which I have already cooked off with onion and some chicken stock.

Then, I'm going to go into there.

That chicken stock is a good idea.

Still toying with the idea

of throwing those tomatoes in for colour.

I think I'm trying to let the judges know, subliminally,

that if they see tomatoes and they want to continue holding

their job with our city, that it might be a good idea to vote right.

I'll probably be in the next two or three minutes

making a major decision here as to whether we're going to do that.

Because I didn't precook my meat, know what I mean,

I had to do it from raw. It takes just that little bit longer.

I guess that's the English way and I guess Sam's is the American way.

And, you know, I can see that you've made an excellent decision there,

because it looks beautiful and it looks as though

it's finishing at the right time with everything else.

It's now 12.20 central Floyd time as we say in America

and my dish won't be ready for another 45 minutes.

This is where we rely on the director to dream up

some kind of wonderful cutaway sequence,

so that the meat can bubble away on the stove, you won't be bored

and you'll come back and join us when it's ready to taste it.

Very good.

-Hi, three whiskeys, please.

-We don't serve limeys in here.

I don't want lime in my whiskey.

How do you do, my name is Sue.

Film producers, everywhere, don't forget, Clint is going into politics

and I'm available as the meanest cook in town.

Do you know, isn't this extraordinary?

We've come to the critical moment.

An hour and a half has gone by, where is Clive? As usual, on a ladder.

Clive, would you like to climb down?

I know the shot is beautiful and all the rest of it,

but we have been working hard here.

I want to win this thing. The Mayor's got me beat hands down,

I feel, but, see what we've been doing, if you don't mind.

I've got some finishing touches to do to this.

The lynch mob, I mean, the judges are gathering over there

and I have to finish off this dish

and this is not the way they do it here.

The way I do it, I melt butter into it and this isn't a joke,

I also put ice into it.

This is not to cool it down,

this is to get a little bit more liquid into the pot.

Back to me, Clive, these aren't regular ice cubes,

they're beef stock ice cubes. Bit of a deal, hey?

You know, I've marvelled at this and I think that that is

a wonderful dish and I think where the compliments ought to go

is to the people in England, who have a feel

for the interaction of the foods.

You're looking at a product which is basically not something we'd do

in the south-west, but we probably would if we knew how to do it.

There are very few people that have that talent

and we're seeing it demonstrated here today, where you haven't

had a great deal of experience with chilli,

but you're right there in the middle of it

and you know what needs to be done to make a tasty meal.

-That's the bottom line. Is it good or not?

-Well, we'll see.

-I'm sure it is.

-Let's look at yours, because yours is so different.

Mine is a more simplistic thing as befitting a politician

that doesn't make a lot of money. Go ahead and stir it up.

He precooked his meat because he knew fine well

that 7,000 feet above sea level, things take much longer to cook.

Strangely forgot to tell me.

If I lose badly, no-one in this town will see it

because I'll see what I can do with our censorship.

One or two television stations in our state.

I think we're ready. I'm ready. Mine is probably there.

Heated up and it's thick enough and the pork is there.

Now for the social science sketch. Subject - American mayors.

American mayors don't potter around in chains

giving away prizes at the flower show,

they are the real power of the time.

You don't mess with the Mayor, and of course,

these unbiased - ho-ho! - judges are in his employ.

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer...

Nothing could be done because he was the mayor's son in my hometown.

Who's going to vote for A?

Who's going to vote for A?

Hands up for B?

B is more what we love in Northern Mexico.

We feel like we have a very special stew here.

Mayor, would you please open envelope B.

On behalf of the academy, ladies and gentlemen,

it gives me an honour, the winner in envelope B is the Mayor.

I would like to thank all of my employees for judging as

I have instructed them to judge.

I would presume that when I went to England,

the same treatment might be given to me

that we have just taken care of with the people from England.

We're just honoured that you came to Santa Fe to give us

a chance to let you know how our chilli is done and I'm sure

when you go to your room tonight, you're going to be very upset.

I'm just going to shoot myself.

You're perfect. You ought to be a constituent.

That's it. Bon soir, sayonara, good night, au revoir,

ciao, auf Wiedersehen, I ain't going tomorrow.

# Big girls don't cry

# Big girls don't cry... #

It's always great to see a classic film clip

from the legend, Mr Keith Floyd.

As ever on Best Bites we're looking back at some of the fantastic

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come, John Torode had already hit the minute mark

on the leaderboard, but it was Bryn Williams' first time

when they went egg to egg on the omelette challenge hobs,

but who would reign supreme?

Find out shortly.

James Tanner shares a Far Eastern twist on roast chicken.

He roasts the chicken in a Thai style and serves it with

sesame noodles and garlic pak choi.

And EastEnder Jo Joyner faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

beef with a hearty cote de boeuf with blue cheese butter,

sauteed girolles and potatoes,

or would she get her dreaded Food Hell, milk and cream with

an indulgent caramelised rice pudding with spiced plum compote.

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

Now it's time for a lesson in the art of Japanese-style cooking

from the truly inspirational New Zealander,

the one and only Nic Watt.

He's returned to his homeland so this is for all

the Saturday Kitchen fans, including myself, who have missed him.

-Good to have you on the show.

-Thank you.

Marie's been there, I've always tried to get a table there,

-but can never get in.

-These things can be arranged.

The whole place is just full of women.

I'm sure he vets them all before he comes in.

-Who did you have last night?

-Penelope Cruz and her sister.

There we go.

What are you cooking?

I've got sea bream, it's going to be in a sweet white miso which we are

going to turn into a Ryotei miso which is simply a refined miso.

We're going to baste it in the miso for about two hours.

You can leave it for up to 24, but two hours is best.

This is what we're going to achieve, just to show people.

We need to get this under the grill to cook,

but we will show you how to get to this standard.

It's been marinated. We can pop it under the grill now.

Sea bream, quite an unusual fish for people to use, but fantastic.

-Quite a meaty fish as well.

-It's perfect for this.

It's got enough flesh, it's got enough meat,

to take on the marinade, so it's absolutely perfect for this.

-Fire away.

-We've got a sweet white miso here.

-Otherwise known as Saikyo miso.

-Explain to us how this is made.

There's many different types.

This is a soybean, so they soak the soybeans in water,

they add salt and sugar, and they add a culture.

A little bit like making blue cheese, there's a culture they add.

-Then they allow it to ferment.

-But there's a real art to it.

-It's like wine making. It's like a speciality.

-Definitely.

Some can be as fresh as three months old

and some can be as fresh as three to five years old.

And then like a wine, you get a stronger oak...

The darker it gets the stronger it gets.

You get a more mature flavour.

-OK. We've got that.

-We're going to add a little bit of sugar.

We're going to add a little bit of mirin.

This is what the British palate likes.

-They love that sweetness with it.

-Yes, absolutely.

We're just bringing all that in. A little bit of soy.

You can use a low sodium or a diet soy. This is just light soy here.

It's very salty.

Yes, I'm going to add a little bit of sake now.

-We can add a little bit more.

-A little bit more.

There's ladies at the table, we'll give them a little bit more sake.

And we're going to incorporate all this together. Very, very easy.

And the beauty of this, it's really versatile.

We've got sea bream here...

This dish is kind of a twist on a classic where you actually

trained way back in the late '90s in a very famous restaurant, Nobu.

Back in the day.

-Their famous trademark dish is the blackened cod.

-Yes, that was back in my youth.

When you opened Roka, I presume you didn't want to put that on the menu.

I made a conscious decision not to.

That's how this dish came about because everybody

judges a modern Japanese restaurant on black cod.

So I knew before they even looked at my food they'd go,

"Can I have one black cod? Da-da."

For this reason I put this on. I didn't put black cod on the menu.

Now I have black cod on and it's absolutely fine.

Our black cod is actually unique to any other in London

because it's done on the robata grill.

Everybody else does their black cod in the oven.

-We actually get that...

-The robata grill is the charcoal grill...

-Open charcoal grill.

You get all that beautiful flame licked, flame grilled flavours.

You are oiling this. Why are you oiling it?

I've added just a touch of oil

because essentially we're curing the fish.

The curing process, it's a drying out process,

it's the same thing as smoking or gravlax.

Is this just olive oil you've put on there?

You can use olive oil or veg oil. And we've just added a touch in there

so when we cure it it doesn't dry out the fish.

To a Western palate you don't want a dry piece of fish.

So we're just going to pop that in there

and I think there's another one in the fridge.

I'll pop that in there. I'll swap that over. There we go.

This has gone in for a couple of hours, something like that?

About two hours is good.

Then what I've got here, I've just taken the top and tail of a lemon

and a little wedge and this is what I call the Yoshi-san technique.

-Yoshi-san is what?

-Yoshi-san has got a bit of a story behind it.

Yoshi is my head chef at Roka.

Because this is normally done on the robata,

the robata naturally holds the fish in its shape.

When I was test cooking this for the show

I was doing it under the grill and found it kept slipping.

Yoshi, in his pure Japanese way, came up to me, gave me a lemon,

a couple of slices, and hooked it up for me without saying anything...

-He was thinking something though.

-Absolutely.

He showed me that you can just simply add a little lemon

-to stop it from sliding.

-Why do we do this?

It's to stop it from sliding down the skewer and hold its shape.

And the reason we want to curve it all up is

so we get nice caramelisation on these tips.

The reason we want caramelisation is because it's a sweet white miso.

and you need that little bit of blackened edge to balance the sweet.

If you wanted a stronger flavour you'd put it in here for longer?

Not so much stronger.

-If you wanted a stronger flavour you'd adapt the miso.

-OK.

-Change that.

-So you go like so.

-It gives it that nice little ripple.

Gives it that that nice little ripple, exactly.

You can see that's what we started off with and that's

what's gone under the grill. Could you barbecue this?

Barbecue is the first choice.

Absolutely the first choice, most definitely.

We've got red onion, beans,

we're going to make a little bit of a pickle.

How long would you put...?

That's been under, what, two or three minutes now?

Two or three minutes.

-Turn it over or not? Cook it all the way through?

-No.

In the barbecue you turn it over,

but in this circumstance you just cook it...

-A little bit longer.

-Definitely, a little bit longer, yes.

We want a nice caramelise... That's why we keep these nice...

We're not trying to rub it nice and smooth.

We want nice little "goollops" like that.

-Is there such a word as "goollop"? Dollops.

-There is now.

Can we put that in the Oxford Dictionary?

What I've just popped in there is some rice wine vinegar, just in here.

Pickle, every country has their own pickle.

I believe that the Indians started off with the first pickle.

-It's about 5,000 years old, pickle.

-Really? OK.

I don't know how they found that out.

-It's probably carved in stone somewhere.

-Probably. The recipe.

-Hammered into the stone. Bet you it works though.

-Probably yes.

What I've got is a little bit of green chilli

-and we're just going to dissolve the sugar in the rice wine vinegar.

-Yes.

This isn't the same as an English version of a pickle

which would be flour and what people are so used to with cauliflower...

-No, this is just simple, plain...

-A lighter pickle.

-Absolutely.

Simple and clean.

-Just pop these...

-Yes.

-It might be getting ready soon.

Marie, are you a big fan of these sort of Asian flavours?

-What I did on MasterChef was a little bit similar.

-Was it?

-Yes.

I love that kind of thing.

What are we doing? Just warming this sugar, just dissolving it really?

-Yes, just dissolving it. That's it.

-OK. There you go.

-And I've put in my beans. I'll chop your tomatoes up as well.

-An onion.

I'm just going to pop that in there now it's dissolved.

-Give that a quick little stir.

-Do you want a few more?

-That's pretty good.

Pop them in, why not?

In there.

The reason why we're doing this,