Episode 33 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. We've got a feast of food coming up

in today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Once again, we dig deep into the Saturday Kitchen

treasure trove of recipes.

Today's treats include a superb sweet passion fruit

Baked Alaska for actress Natalie Dormer.

If that was not impressive enough, Tristan Welch has a spectacular

lobster tortellini recipe which would make a stunning Sunday lunch.

This is one of the most beautiful ways

of extracting flavour out of things.

If you prefer beef at the weekend,

Angela Hartnett has the perfect recipe.

It is basically your leg part of your meat. The thigh there.

It is beautiful.

Her coq de boeuf with cavolo nero and gnocchi.

It would make a stunning dish for all the family.

TV presenter John Craven faces his food heaven or food hell.

A classic beef stroganoff with sauteed potatoes for food heaven

and a lamb stuffed marrow with mozzarella and herbs for food hell.

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

It is time to turn on the summer sunshine with this great dish

from the one and only Gennaro Contaldo.

Today, we are going to get this fantastico...

is the right word, of chicken breast, which is beautiful,

with Amalfi lemons with saffron.

Zafferano.

-Have you seen the way you speak English?

-Yes, it is great.

-Terrible.

Then with the carrots,

shallot and 120 peas which you have to shell for me.

Make sure, if not, the recipe would not be right.

What else have you got? What is this?

This is white vinegar and this is wine.

Bay leaves and chilli.

-What is first?

-Can you pass me some oil?

-Thank you very much.

-Always start with olive oil.

-Olive oil.

It is the base of Italian cuisine.

Two tablespoons of olive oil, three, four, five.

THEY LAUGH

Then season. Enough, enough chilli. Enough chilli.

Season nicely. That is fantastic. One, two.

Let me wash my hands quickly. That's good.

-You marinade this chicken?

-You have to marinate.

You put everything inside, then you put wine,

wine vinegar, bay leaves.

Then you get the chicken, hold on a minute. Put them inside.

Give me a chance. I know I have got to put the lemon in.

-These are serious lemons.

-They are fantastic.

-It smells like your aftershave.

-I wish I could smell like that.

Do you know how many women who would jump on me?

LAUGHTER

I said it right. They call me the Italian Stallion.

Squeeze it, squeeze it.

All in. Fantastic. In the fridge.

-How long do you want this in the fridge for?

-For about two hours.

Then you have this beautiful oil. The chicken is two hours inside it.

The chicken is swimming around. A little bit of kick from the chilli.

Fresh. You get the chicken.

Richard, you like Italian food, don't you?

Can you peel carrots? Can you clean some carrots?

Carrots, you want me to do now?

I will do the shallots first.

-Carrots.

-Where does this dish come from?

I was in Marche regions and this lady said,

"People go mad about your lemons."

Let me show you what you can do with the lemons.

The combination with saffron is unbelievable.

The first time you had Italian food, you went to Rome

-when you were quite young?

-When I was 12 years old,

I had a pizza and spaghetti for the first time in my life.

Pizza and spaghetti. The first time, 12 years old. A little bit late.

-What have we got here?

-I have got some shallots. They jump inside.

Everything I touch, the shallots, it is such a harmony.

-They are happy to be cooked.

-OK.

-Then the carrots. Can I have this one?

-I will do the carrots because you take so long.

-I am doing it.

-Can you shelf the peas for me?

-Do what?

-SHELF.

You know, you remove it. Look at the way you have to cut the carrots.

-How long have you been in the UK?

-Uh... A year.

How long have you been in the UK?

Almost 40 years. I am ashamed to say.

You have been in the UK longer than I have been alive

and what do you want me to do with those peas?

-Shelves.

-Shelves?

-I can do it all.

-I will SHELVES the peas.

Then with your asbestos fingers, I will use this. Season as well.

-It is done.

-Do not laugh at this. You won an award, didn't you?

I did win an award. I was so pleased to win an award.

Was that for English(!)

LAUGHTER

The Italian government decided the regions would give awards

for the contributions I done for Italian food industry.

That was fantastic. I went home like a hero.

All the people from my old village were there.

The mayor was there. There were three mayors.

There were members of parliament and some TV personalities.

We have quite a few teams from England who sat there

and I came up and I had to say a speech.

I am very bad on the stage.

I do not think the Italians understood what I was talking about.

Let's do this one. At this stage, you make sure it is nice and dry.

You put the chicken. Oh, my God,

look at this chicken. It is lovely.

Special chicken breast.

Seal it properly. Turn the gas a little bit high.

You have sauteed off the shallots.

Do you want me to speak or do you want to say it?

You have sauteed off the shallots and the carrots.

Have you done those?

They are sealed. They are not too cooked. They are just sealed.

I get a lovely flavour of whatever I am cooking.

Then I start with the skin first. I stir them a little bit.

At this stage, you don't have to do very much. You remove it.

That is done. At the moment, it is done.

It is not cooked yet but it is done.

Then you put everything on top, then you add a little bit of oil.

You have got the beautiful marinade with chilli, lemons,

wine and wine vinegar.

GENNARO GASPS

-Have you finished?

-They have been SHELVED.

One, two, three, four, five.

You add them on top. You cover.

At this stage, you put them in the oven for about 35-45 minutes.

I did one earlier on.

Oh my God! Don't open it yet. I want to open it.

I want to put this one inside.

-Did you understand what I said?

-15 minutes to go.

Are you going to put the saffron in?

15 minutes before the dish is cooked, which I have already done,

you can put some saffron inside.

Stand there. I will give you the plate to lift.

-Fantastico! Look at that. It is beautiful.

-Just get it on the plate.

Oh my goodness me. I don't want to upset the plate.

Just a minute. Not too early for the carrots. You will upset the chicken

LAUGHTER

Food is... To have a harmony, a romance around.

Can you smell the lemon?

Can we hurry up? There will be sport on in a minute.

-Don't forget the oil.

-Oil!

Remind us what that is again.

It is breast of chicken with zaffrons and Amalfi lemon.

It's a good job the recipe is on the website.

Don't go yet! Don't go yet. You have to serve it proper.

-You didn't give me the chance to put the little bit of...

-That's enough.

Follow me.

Richard, I don't know if you've ever tried chicken with "zaffrons".

I'll move the prawns out of the way.

You'd better tell him something after.

We got there in the end.

-Good?

-It smells fantastic.

-That saffron goes in 15 minutes before.

-Not too much because it will taste stronger.

-Just a bit of hot water.

It's delicious.

-Very, very good.

-Karen, I know you are a big fan. No pasta.

You could mix the different types of meat. Fish with that?

Possibly not marinade it so long.

Not marinating and then cook less.

Guinea fowl, rabbit, why not? Game, why not?

Coming up, I've got a simple, but spectacular Baked Alaska.

First, here's Rick Stein.

I'm on my way to the heart of Dorset, to a blueberry farm run by Janet and David Trehain.

Blueberries are from America and they are a cultivated form of our native bilberries,

so how did they get here?

Back in 1949, there was a parson on Lulu Island in British Columbia

and he wanted to cheer us up because we were so miserable after the war,

so he put an advert in a little newspaper, trade magazine, horticultural trade magazine,

and said anybody in Britain could have 100 plants for free, as a gift. Only four people took up the offer.

My father was one of them, and those 100 plants thrived.

Autumn is my favourite season. I love picking ripe fruit from bushes and trees.

I think blueberries are typically American -

they're easy on the eye, they're sweet, plump, they are over-juicy and now they are over here!

They have got a flavour which is all their own, totally addictive

and above all else, I think they are so versatile.

Now, this is a blueberry compote and it works a treat.

First, you add some orange zest, then the juice of about one lime.

Then a cup or so of sugar and about half a pint of water.

You put that all in pan and you put it on a very gentle heat and bring it up to the boil very slowly.

The object is to poach the blueberries, but not have them bursting on you.

As it begins to foam, stir it around and then pour in some arrowroot.

As you know, that will thicken it very slightly.

But the great thing about arrowroot is that it keeps the juice clear.

Pour that into a bowl and let it cool down a little.

You are going to serve this with some yoghurt ice-cream.

You are going to serve, of course, the ice-cream cold, but the compote slightly warm.

The contrast between the sweet acidity of the blueberries

and the creaminess of the yoghurt works so well.

While I was washing mud off the Land Rover, the bright red rollers

made me think of red hot chilli peppers and the blistering sun.

Not exactly in Sussex on a damp summer afternoon.

That is what I like about the British,

we put up with the weather and have fun anyway.

I am off to a hot chilli festival in the village of West Dean.

I was amazed by the attendance here.

Many cultures tend to keep to their own cuisine,

but maybe it is because we are a trading nation with interests all

over the world that we are so alive to the cooking in other countries.

This festival is run by Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain.

Come on, Chalky. I don't know whether Chalky likes chilli.

Probably not, I would have said.

It is quite interesting because I think

we have got a bit of love affair with chillies in this country.

It is sparked off by the popularity of Indian restaurants.

I may try and buy some food. This looks good.

Can you tell me what we've got here?

-Minced pork.

-Minced pork and chilli.

-And here?

-Green vegetable curry.

-It is made out of the fresh chilli paste.

-And this one?

-This is red vegetable curry.

-Right.

I like the look of that. What is that again?

-Chicken with red chilli pepper.

-Could I have some of that?

People come from long distances - North Yorkshire, the West Midlands.

Scotland in the past.

What do you think attracts them?

-Why is chilli so interesting to younger people?

-It is sexy.

LAUGHTER

They are bright colours, aren't they? They are shiny.

They say, touch me.

I agree.

-What is it about chillies that we love?

-Spice and flavour.

I love the fact that they are so fiery and hot. A real kick.

Hot things are spiky and it spikes you up

and stimulates your taste and makes you feel a good fellow.

I've never thought of it like that. Yes, it does perk you up.

I am sure this dish will prove that.

These are raw prawns. A bit tricky to work with because they are slippery.

You twist off the head then ease the back shell by getting

your thumb under the legs and pulling them away in pieces.

It comes away in three or four plates.

When you get down to the tail, pull the tail off.

Because I want these big prawns to go a long way,

I am going to cut them in half lengthways like that.

If there is a bit of that in there, pull it out.

Here is my wok. It is not actually a wok.

It is a chef's pan which is like it

but you can use it for lots of other things as well.

In goes sunflower oil.

You usually use sunflower, groundnut,

oil that doesn't taste of very much.

Garlic, plenty of that, fry it up hard, and ginger.

Look at that. It is just beginning to brown at the edges. In go the prawns.

Two big handfuls, stir those in.

Immediately, you can see them changing colour.

I am trying to catch as much of the prawn as possible with this

reduced sauce I will finish with.

Next in there, lots of chilli.

These are just supermarket chillies,

number six on the Scoville scale.

Why chillies? Why stir-fry? I regard it as part of our cuisine now.

And go some kaffir lime leaves. Thai kaffir lime leaves.

Then a bit of sugar, this is a Thai-influenced dish after all.

Then some lemongrass.

The great thing about Thai food is that you have these

contrasting flavours.

Sweet, hot, spicy, sour and salty.

All those flavours are in this dish. In with some coconut cream.

Next, fish sauce.

Absolutely essential and that is the salty element in Thai food.

Two tablespoons of that. Next, some chopped roasted peanuts.

In a lot of Thai and Vietnamese food,

you have a textural item like that.

Quite often it is roasted rice or nuts,

finely chopped up so you get a bit of a crunch.

It is very satisfying. Lastly, a great big bunch of basil.

This is ordinary basil but Thai basil is stronger.

It wilts almost instantly,

as soon as you add it, leaving a beguiling fragrance behind.

Now, this may look exotic, but ALL the ingredients

even the kaffir lime leaves, can be bought in your average supermarket.

And, like a lot of Thai dishes,

it's served on a bed of crunchy green salad.

You know, that chilli festival, it was such fun.

I fancy going back there next year and cooking this up myself

and serving it up to all those enthusiasts.

That curry would work well with monkfish if you don't fancy prawns.

Now, for my masterclass this week, I thought I'd show you

how to make one of my favourites - and I know it's one of yours -

meringues, which is a real crowd-pleaser

and goes down well with everybody, especially at a dinner party.

But there are three ways of making a meringue.

I'm going to turn this into Baked Alaska,

but the three main ways are a cold meringue,

where you add the same amount of sugar,

the sugar doesn't change in the recipes,

it's generally 50 grams of sugar per one egg white,

but add the sugar cold to the mix, while the egg whites are whisking,

then what we call a hot meringue, where you actually

warm the sugar up in the oven and you just sprinkle that

over the top of the egg whites as well,

or boiled meringue, often called Italian meringue, which is then

boiled in a pan with water to a sugar syrup

and poured onto our whipped egg white.

There is a Swiss meringue, made over a bain-marie. That's another way.

I'm doing a standard way of making our meringues. First of all, we need

to make sure that the bowl is very clean.

Now, the reason for this is that, if there is any water

or grease in this bowl whatsoever,

it will cause the egg whites not to rise,

so you need to make sure it's free mainly from water,

keep that well away, and also grease,

so really wash it out very, very well

and dry it out well before you make your meringue,

so we're going to pop that straight on here and get this whisking up.

Now, at this point, you can add a touch of salt.

A lot of people put a touch of salt in there to fire it up first of all,

it's entirely optional, it's up to you. But get these first started.

Now, what I'm going to do with this is just change it a little bit

by adding two types of sugar.

Always caster sugar with this.

But always caster sugar, being that the grains are quite small.

If you use granulated sugar, you can taste the grains,

particularly in a cold way of making meringue,

but I'm going to compensate half

and use half caster sugar and half icing sugar.

That keeps it nice and light.

So we need to make sure it's nicely whipped first of all and then,

just slowly and gradually, add our sugar.

So at this point, like that.

So you can add a tiny bit in there.

Just leave that to whisk up just a little bit.

And I'll do our little sauce in just the second.

With the Baked Alaska, I'm going to do a passion-fruit sauce,

so I'm going to use some passion-fruit juice,

which you can buy now from the supermarket.

And a touch of water, a little water left over, and then some sugar.

And I'm going to bring this to the boil, I'm going to thicken this

with, um, arrowroot. There's two thickeners that a lot of people use.

Cornflour is one. Arrowroot's another.

And arrowroot's not used as much as cornflour, but arrowroot's

particularly good for this.

If you want a sauce clear, you need to use arrowroot.

If you're not bothered about a sauce being cloudy,

then you need to use cornflour.

Certainly, with this, just a touch of arrowroot.

You mix that together to a little paste, bring to the boil and add it.

Now, our meringue's ready - you can see it's nice and firm -

and, gradually, we'll start to add our sugar at this point.

Now, if you want sticky meringue, which a lot of people do,

when you've cooked it, you add two things into it,

or one of two things into it.

You add cornflour or vinegar, those are the two things...

-Vinegar?

-Vinegar, white wine vinegar, or cornflour.

-That way, when you cook it, it will end up with sticky meringue.

-Ah!

I'm just going to take the icing sugar,

and then we throw in the icing sugar in like this.

Half now, mix it a little bit,

and then I'm going to add the other half.

That's going to be done for our little Baked Alaska.

Make sure you sieve it as well, otherwise there's little bits,

particularly in icing sugar.

There you go. Through there. Start it off low.

Till it's all mixed in.

-SPEED INCREASES

-And gradually mix it even more,

like that. So, as soon as that's mixed in,

and then you throw in the rest

and the icing sugar will create this lovely, silky meringue,

which is brilliant for sort of our classic Baked Alaska.

And there you have it - a little masterclass in making meringue.

So what you do, cos you want to know how to cook those,

spoon it all out, put it onto a tray.

Put strawberries, raspberries, anything like that,

cook it for about an hour and a half on a low heat,

in a low oven, then you've got meringue. Easy as that.

Fantastic. It's great to see it done, finally. My fiance is

a massive fan of meringue

and I've always been scared of doing it, really.

-It's too gooey, burn the outside, everything.

-Now you know.

And the sauce, as soon as this has come to a boil,

we literally just get the arrowroot,

throw that in, bring this to the boil,

pass it through a sieve, and it's done.

Now, I mentioned at the top of the show about your career.

First of all, you wanted to study at Cambridge,

or your parents wanted you to study at Cambridge.

I had a place to study history and, um, but instead,

at the age of 18, I found myself coming to the big smoke, you know,

cap in hand with a dream, sort of a bit of a cliche story, really, but...

Yeah, I went to drama school

and instead classically trained and became an actress.

But you've almost studied history anyway. Because there's not a lot

you haven't done with the history throughout your career.

But starting off like that, straight out of acting college,

difficult to get a job and stuff, you went more or less

straight into it, this mega film, Casanova, with Heath Ledger.

I was very lucky. I landed my first job with, er,

Lasse Hallstrom's film Casanova,

which was just an amazing opportunity for a 22-year-old girl.

We shot in Venice for four months.

And that's where I started to drink coffee.

LAUGHTER

If you going to learn to drink coffee anywhere,

-then start in Italy.

-Yeah.

So I'm a bit of a coffee snob now, actually, I turn my nose up at,

you know, the instant coffee on a set table, because of that reason.

But to find myself in one of the most beautiful cities in the world

so young on this amazing film with incredible actors, such as Heath.

Then, straight out of that, you've done stuff like

-Captain America, Tommy Lee Jones, all manner of different things.

-Hmm.

But the TV side of it, this was just a huge thing.

Tell us about The Tudors. It was an original American series, wasn't it?

It was an American Showtime series, um, which the BBC brought over,

and, um, that was just a gift, as you say from my love of history.

-It was like the amalgamation of my two passions, basically.

-Yeah.

So I just had a ball for two years

and I found myself in Ireland for two years,

because The Tudors is shot in Dublin, so I'm now sort of honorary Irish...

I spent a lot of time with, in Ireland, in Dublin,

my drinking threshold went up quite considerably.

-Did you start drinking Guinness?

-Did I start drinking Guinness?

-Yes.

-So coffee in Italy...

-I know!

Well, that's the beauty of being an actor and what I do is

you find yourself in peculiar places doing peculiar things that

-you wouldn't necessarily otherwise have done.

-The same in cooking.

-In Norfolk...

-And the same in Norfolk.

-LAUGHTER

-You never know what you'll do there!

You have done many different things in your career, from BBC Three,

-the Silks, and so many different things that you've been doing.

-Yeah.

Well, I like to challenge myself, I like to challenge myself and I like

to challenge people's perceptions of me, so I'm always looking...

-The Fades was brilliant for that.

-Yeah.

-To do sort of

a supernatural drama series and play this really sort of modern,

you know, supernatural sci-fi horror almost, um, series.

-That was a lot of fun to do.

-But a lot of people

stick with one thing at the beginning of their career

and then get that right and move it on to the next.

-You seem to have done a big mix.

-I'm trying.

-But the theatre, was it 2010...?

-Yes, it was two years ago, um,

the young... I had trained, the stage was the reason I became an actress,

it's just the way things worked out most of my work had been on camera

up to that point and then, er, I was given the opportunity

to go on stage at the Young Vic theatre a couple of years ago

in a production by the great European bastion of theatre,

-a director called Luc Bondy.

-Was this Sweet Nothing, was it?

Yeah, Sweet Nothing,

which is kind of appropriate for what you're serving right now.

Sweet Nothing, which was my first, um, foray onto stage, finally,

and then, this is brilliant now that the Young Vic have invited me back.

-They've...

-Back there again?

-Yeah, they've given me a lead and

I find myself on the Young Vic stage for the next month, starting...

We're in the smaller auditorium space,

we're in the Maria space, which we open next week, After Miss Julie,

the amazing Patrick Marber play, until the 14th of April.

But something different for you, because you used to,

particularly in The Tudors, there must have been casts of hundreds.

This one, there's only three of you in the entire cast?

Absolutely, it's very intense.

It's a short sort of rollercoaster of a ride.

-It's only an hour and a half straight through, no interval.

-Right.

It's just a three-hander and, at any given time, it's mainly

a two-hander between myself and a great actor called Kieran Bew.

It's a love story, a very sort of dangerous, intoxicating love story.

It all takes place over one evening.

1945, the general election where there was a massive Labour landslide

and Winston Churchill lost to Clement Attlee,

so it sort of, they say it was just a few months after we won the war,

so, um, the country was sort of in a turmoil

and having a social revolution and so the play is about, Miss Julie is,

um, the daughter of a Labour peer, the daughter of the Lord of the Manor

and she descends into the kitchen and, um,

there's this sort of, um... sort of, well...

a mental and at some points physical sort of fight between

her and the chauffeur, valet, John,

Um, it's a very intense play. It's about class and power and sex!

-All that good stuff!

-Where can we get the tickets?

LAUGHTER

-Anyway, on with my Baked Alaska...

-And the passion fruit, James!

-Yeah!

And there you have it - Baked Alaska.

And all I've done is covered the ice cream with that meringue.

We take the sauce, which is basically that passion fruit pulp.

I've added the seeds to it. When you're buying passion fruit,

go for the one with wrinkly skin, cos the wrinkly skin means it's...

-SOME LAUGHTER

-No comment from over there,

at the chefs' table. Go for the one with a wrinkly skin, cos that means

it's nice and ready, nice and ripe, rather than with the smooth skin.

We just take a little bit of mint over the top of that.

-And you have a little Baked Alaska with passion-fruit sauce.

-Oh!

-Dive into that.

-A delight!

That meringue, you can pop it in the oven.

It's delicious like that.

If you haven't got a blowtorch, a really, really hot oven.

-There you go.

-And watch it.

Wow!

Now, chefs are always on the look out for different gadgets

to get the best out of their ingredients.

And here's Tristan Welch with a Saturday Kitchen debut

for a lobster press. Check this out.

I know you want to get straight on with this.

-The name of the dish.

-Um...

Well, we call it lobster a la faff,

-but the French call it homard a la faff!

-Right!

Which is your kind of traditional dish in your restaurant?

This is an exceptional dish we serve in the restaurant.

It's not on the menu, because we serve it as a special.

So in here we've got a lobster.

-Whole cooked lobster?

-Yeah, we're just popping it into some white wine

and we'll roast that in the oven for a couple of minutes on each side.

I've got some scallops, which I'm opening up,

cos this will be made into a tortellini,

which we're going to use these little wonton wrappers.

-Just to add to the faff of the dish, I think.

-Exactly.

-LAUGHTER

-That's my way. >

Just gives me something to do, I know that.

Right, what's next? Why lobster in the oven for two minutes?

Because it permeates or infuses with that white wine beautifully

and it's the basis of this most fantastic sauce

called a press sauce. We'll take the lobster,

crush it, get all those lovely flavours into the sauce.

Anyway, I'm going to use this as well, a wild sea herb called orach.

Er, very much like spinach, tastes a little bit like samphire.

Let's have a look at this sort of stuff...

-It's like samphire, grows like samphire?

-Grows like samphire,

-around samphire, a little bit further in the bushes.

-Yeah.

A beautiful sea flavour.

-What's the name again?

-Orach.

-Orach.

-Orach. We'll fry some of that off

in butter. There we go.

You guys should have a taste of that, a very underused herb...

There we are. Or vegetable, in fact.

-So we'll sweat that down.

-It shows my producer never gets out much.

He says it's the name of the computer from Blake's Seven.

-That's right.

-Orach.

-That's right, that's right.

-It doesn't taste very similar to it, though.

-Doesn't get out much.

It's really sweet. >

We've got our scallops here. To make our scallop mousse,

I'm going to use a little bit of egg white in there,

so a tiny bit of egg white, I've got three scallops in there,

probably half an egg white.

Use the yokes in there, a little bit of cream.

-I'll just grab some tongs.

-A touch of cream, salt and pepper.

A little bit of black pepper and some salt.

And that just gets blended for a little bit...

I'm just turning our lobster over here,

so all the flavours go into the white wine on both sides, all right.

And pop it back in for another 30 seconds.

Normally, you give it about four or five minutes,

but we may speed things up a little bit.

You don't use the roe for this? You don't use it?

Not for this one in particular, no.

I tell you what, I'm not a great fan of the roe, if truth be known.

Got a bit of a funky flavour. You can use it in sauces and stuff like that.

What we do at the restaurant is we use it,

we roast them off and make a stock with it

-and we use that for another one of our signature dishes.

-OK.

-Right, that's cooking away nicely, I'll take the lobby out.

-Yeah.

-There we are.

-Now, I'm using these little wonton wrappers,

but of course, traditionally it'd be done with pasta.

So that, you just cook and leave it to cool?

Yeah, cook and leave to cool

and we'll put a little bit of cream in there as well

and we'll let that reduce it down. We'll chop it up and put it back in.

-A bit of creamed orach.

-Want me to chop that up?

If you wouldn't mind, that'd be lovely. In the restaurant,

we make an oyster cream and blend it

-with the oyster cream, but...

-That's even more faff!

-Exactly!

I get enough grief already, so I thought what the hell?

OK, prepping the lobster, cos I need some of the lobster meat.

Yes, absolutely.

-I'm just getting the lobster sauce on as well.

-Right.

-We make...

we make this all to order as well, so you can imagine the madness.

I've never tried this before, I have to say, this stuff.

-It's delicious.

-What's that, orach? Yeah, it'll change your life, mate.

Do you know where it's from in the UK?

We get it from the Kent coastline.

-I know it's on the Norfolk coastline as well.

-Right.

It actually tasted amazing just raw when we just tried it.

-Great in salads.

-Amazing!

-Seafood salads.

That, a bit of picked samphire, some of the purslane.

-It's very poisonous raw.

-Very poisonous raw, yeah.

-Only joking.

-LAUGHTER

What've I done to the...? What've I done to the music world?

Try this one as well. This is sea purslane.

-We're going to finish that off with sea purslane.

-Sea purslane.

-So I need... This is my lobster meat?

-There, yeah.

So to make our little wontons,

we've got a bit of egg yolk there, just on two sides,

grab a little bit of scallop mousse,

a touch of lobster, place on that, fold that over.

Press down the edge.

And then, around your finger, just fold that over.

-A little bit of egg.

-There we are.

-A tiny bit.

And there, your little tortellini.

-Easy as that.

-Easy as that, there we are, lovely.

-Lovely, I wish the rest of it was as easy as that.

-Yeah.

Right, what are we doing now?

I've just put a bit of fish stock and tomato puree.

Normally, in the restaurant,

we use a lobster stock and we're going to bring that to simmer gently.

-Normally...

-I'm going to move that over to there. Take that off.

Normally, you leave it for about 10-15 minutes,

-cling from the pan, we let it infuse beautifully.

-Yeah.

-But, er...

-So how many of these do you want? These things here?

-Um, one or two's fine.

-OK.

-That's absolutely fine.

Right, I'd better crush these lobsters.

-It's a lovely shirt you're wearing today, James.

-Thank you very much.

LAUGHTER

-Never seen anything like that.

-This press is

an old-school way of cooking. The French are familiar with this way,

-this is normally done with duck to get the blood out of it.

-Absolutely.

And then, they would thicken that in the restaurant as a sauce.

-There are we.

-This is, er...

-Can you give us a hand to squeeze it out?

This is one of the most beautiful ways

of extracting flavour out of things. I mean, you can use a blender

and things, but you get a slight chalkiness when you put the bones in,

but you put... We've put all the lobster bones in there and you just

-have to wait for the crack now...

-Torture! >

-LAUGHTER, LOBSTER CRACKS There we are.

-I did warn you!

-There we are.

-We now know where the faff comes from!

-Yeah!

It sounds like one of Richard's loaves, that cracking noise.

-So these are just the shells you've got in here?

-Just the shells.

-All the flavour...

-I can see people doing this at home no problem(!)

So this is where the start of the faff happens.

Come on, hold on, hold on. Ready, steady, one last push.

Just for the flavour.

This would be good to dry out your shorts when you come out the pool, wouldn't it?

And look at all that flavour that comes out of it.

-All that beautiful...

-That's it?

OTHERS LAUGH

-No, but that is worth it. Don't take it out.

-That's it?

Well, you may say, "That's it,"

but when you taste it, you're going to say, "That IS it.

-"That is it."

-OK.

Right, I've got my little tortellini here.

-You want to cook this in a little bit of stock.

-I tell you what,

I'm going to pour all that lovely juice in there as well,

into the stock, and that will... All the flavour there.

-That's not in the recipe.

-That goes in there.

-These want to cook for...?

-About the same length of time it takes me to...

-About a minute?

-Yeah.

-About a minute.

-Right, I'm going to monte this up with butter now.

-Right.

Nice bit of butter in there.

We may pop it into a pan to speed it up.

Basically, it's lobster juice, butter - done.

-Do you want to put it in this one?

-Yeah.

-That will speed it up.

There we are.

-Look at that. Et voila!

-Wow.

And we just pop in our lobsters in there like so to help warm up.

-Yeah.

-And we might have actually made it.

-I'm so hungry now.

-Mmm.

Right, well, we're there.

-I didn't think we'd make it, but we're there.

-I didn't think we'd make it,

but we're here. We are here. I'll pop those

into that pan there, get that moving a little bit.

The sauce is now reducing down. It's gone a beautiful colour.

That's just a pure, clean flavour of lobster.

That's why I love this dish so much. And the sauce, I mean, you should...

It's got a fantastic... I mean, you...

-Stop yapping and get it on the plate.

-It might not be...

It might not be much juice but it makes that difference.

Put some of the creamed orach on like so. Just another couple...

It is a famous way of preparing a lot of things in France -

a lot of very, very traditional-style restaurants,

the jugged hare, that kind of stuff,

they press it, they get the blood, and then they thicken it at the table.

-A very classic way of doing it.

-Pressed duck.

And you serve the leg afterwards in a salad,

which is beautiful as well.

We used to serve that at the restaurant, actually, as well.

Maybe we'll put it back on.

-There you go.

-There we are. Lovely tortellini.

-Tortellini.

-Those tortellinis look beautiful, James.

-Yes.

Some of this pressed sauce.

You can blend it up, make it all nice and frothy

if you want to add that little bit of extra fat.

But if I do, I think James will...

And these little things that you're going to put on as well?

Sea purslane. Well, I think it's just a lovely flavour of the sea

just to finish it off there. What do you think of the sea purslane? Did you enjoy it?

-It's gorgeous. Lovely salty...

-It's free. Just take them from the coastline.

-Wow.

Remind us what that is again.

So this is lobster a la faff...

JAMES CHUCKLES ..or lobster with a pressed sauce poached in white wine.

-Good luck if you're going to do that tomorrow!

-ALL LAUGH

Looks good. I know it tastes worthy of the effort. There you go.

-Have a seat over here.

-Thank you very much.

-Dive into that.

-The colour of that is just fabulous. There you go.

-Very exciting. Wow.

-Let's have a go.

-Leave some for us.

-Yeah, leave some.

-I can't promise to leave anything for anyone else.

So that's the scallop mousse

-and you've got the lobster in there as well.

-Mmm-hmm.

What wine do you use, Tristan? Do you use dry white wine?

A dry white wine, yeah.

Because there's so much natural sugar and sweetness and lobster,

we want to compensate.

-Good?

-You'll be lucky if anybody else gets this.

-Yeah, exactly, yeah!

Next, here's Lorraine Pascale

with more great recipe ideas for you this weekend.

Do you know, when it starts getting cold outside,

other than going to work, I just don't feel like going out.

I just want to be snuggled on the sofa, watching television,

eating delicious food with family and friends.

And I'm not one for big, posh dinner parties,

so for me it's got to be food that everyone loves,

that looks good and tastes great.

For a hearty snack everyone will go crazy for,

classic home-made herbed baked scotch eggs.

They're so easy and always seem to be a real winner.

And then, to go with cosy drinks, the simplest canape ever -

stylish goat's cheese truffles,

and there's not even any cooking involved,

which is great, now and again.

Then, what I find knocks people's socks off,

a mini version of the classic dinner party favourite -

beef Wellingtons with morel mushrooms, sherry and thyme.

Perfect for this time of year.

Now, if you ever get nervous cooking for guests,

then that dish will make things a lot easier.

To fill the house with a wafting smell of baking bread,

and please your guests,

do no more than this - bake 21st-century bread.

It's so quick and easy. It's one of my basic recipes.

And then, when it's cold outside, and you want something warming,

hearty and casual,

the answer is paella.

This one-pan Spanish classic, with its robust flavours

and vibrant autumnal colours, tastes as good as it looks.

Last, but definitely not least,

my big fat tipsy trifle.

A dinner party centrepiece, flambeed.

A different take on a classic dessert, and great fun to make.

So e-mail your friends - staying in has just become the new going out.

I've got this kind of strange routine,

and that's whenever I go on a long car journey,

I'll stop at a petrol station about halfway

and I buy myself, of all things, a Scotch egg.

It's become a bit of an obsession, really, and I love them so much

that I've started to make home-made ones and give them to friends

for when they come round.

All it takes is a few bowls, a bit of a production line

and it's really quite simple.

I've got sausages, four hard-boiled eggs,

some flour with a bit of mustard and salt and pepper,

two more eggs, just lightly beaten,

and then I need...

a few more breadcrumbs...

..and some nutmeg.

A pinch, like that.

I love nutmeg.

And a bit of thyme.

Fresh thyme is best but dried thyme works just as well.

Strip off the leaves.

And then salt and pepper.

And pepper.

Right, I'm all set.

So I've got these sausages here, lovely herby sausages,

and I've removed the casing, just with a pair of scissors.

I need about one and a half of these.

You just need to squish them down

on the clingfilm like that. Get it really, really thin as you can.

It helps wrap sausage meat around the egg.

Get it nice and flat.

And then I've got an egg here, hard-boiled egg.

I only boiled it for five minutes, which is less than I normally would.

It's just that, because it's going to cook for more in the oven,

I didn't want to overcook it.

Then you get that nasty black ring around the yolk.

The seasoning there. And dip the egg in the flour.

This just makes the sausage meat stick more readily on to the egg,

and adds a bit of flavour.

Pop that in the middle there

and then just draw up the sides

of the clingfilm around the egg.

There'll be holes and gaps but we can patch that up later.

You make a little sack like that, sort of squeezing it all up.

And then just turn it round and round like that.

It just gives you a head start

in getting the sausage meat around the egg.

Undo it.

There. So we've got a bit of excess,

so I can just pinch that off, and then roll it roughly in the hands.

This is a very tactile dish.

OK? Happy with that.

And then just dip it in the egg, round and round.

This will help the breadcrumbs to stick.

Messy fingers!

And then into the breadcrumbs. Just toss it around, get it all covered.

Sort of squeeze it a little bit so they stay on.

And that's it.

Scotch egg.

And it's exactly the same with the other three.

I'll spritz them with oil and then put them in the oven at 200 degrees.

Wow! These look great.

They've been cooking for about 25 minutes.

Now, let me take one of these...

and cut it open.

Ohh, look at that!

Now...

these are great for sharing,

with family or with friends.

Or not!

Delicious home-made Scotch eggs,

and not a motorway in sight.

So when you've got friends coming round,

I think home-made canapes is a really nice idea.

The good thing about these is

you can make them a little ahead of time, pop them in the fridge

and then pull them out about 30 minutes before the guests arrive,

so they're not too cold.

You just need 300 grams of goat's cheese, and it gets seasoned

with some salt and black pepper, and mix through.

Then it's broken into about 20 bite-sized pieces.

These are rolled into smooth little balls, about an inch in diameter,

which get coated all over with honey, loosened with a bit of water.

Now, you can coat all the truffles in one thing,

like these chopped chives.

But I like to mix it up. Sesame seeds taste great.

And for a third coating, pink peppercorns.

Looks great next to the green of the chives

and I like the sweet heat of the spice.

I love recipes like this, that are foolproof and a bit show-offy,

and easy to make.

And here's another one.

So what I've got here are four beef fillets.

I like to make my beef Wellingtons individual ones,

rather than the long ones. I just find they're a bit more modern.

So these are going to cook again in the oven,

and so the reason I'm cooking them first is to get that lovely colour,

which adds so much more flavour.

There you are -

that lovely golden-brown colour, that's just what you're looking for.

They just release from the pan really easily.

OK, I'm happy with those. Just pop them on to the plate.

Because they're going to get a longer cooking

when they go back in the oven with the pastry on.

Now I'll get on with my shallots.

Beautiful sweet shallots.

I just want these to cook down for about three to four minutes

and whilst those are cooking, let's get on with my mushrooms.

I want to chop these up really finely,

so I just start by slicing them.

I really love chestnut mushrooms.

I find they have a much more nutty flavour

than your normal button mushrooms.

And then just roughly chop them across.

Very roughly.

That's fine. OK.

Then I put them into this mix...

..with a little bit more butter, just to add a bit more flavour.

That should do it.

And now the morels.

Now, I LOVE morel mushrooms.

They have the most wonderful, wonderful smell,

and they taste out-of-this-world.

The thing with these is, you buy them dry from the supermarket,

you just need to soak them in water for about half an hour.

It gets them nice and rehydrated,

and there's that lovely liquid left over

that you can put in stocks or soups. It is divine.

And these don't need to go in for as long as the chestnut mushrooms.

I love these things.

Really roughly chop them up.

I'll just add the morels to that.

And then a good glug of sherry.

Just pour that in, about a glassful.

It doesn't have to be exact.

And then whack up the heat.

You want that to bubble away until the liquid's all but disappeared.

The smells are amazing.

And whilst that's reducing, I'm going to get on with my thyme.

I want to add about a handful of these to the mushroom mix.

Just put that into the mix with those lovely mushrooms.

Right. Pastry.

I took a big block of puff pastry and then rolled it

into a really big square,

and then just cut it into four smaller squares,

and then just popped it back in the fridge so it was easy to handle.

So these just get a blob of this mushroom mix.

One blob in the centre.

There.

And then the beef.

So just put one down in the centre like that.

It's a really easy dish.

And that juice that's come out of the beef...

..can get poured in for the sauce later.

Delicious!

OK, so they all need a little bit of egg wash,

just so that when I wrap the pastry around the beef,

the pastry will stick nicely.

All the way round.

And then I've just got to wrap it up like a parcel.

So I just fold the corner to the centre, like that.

And then flip it the right way up,

and then shape it into a rough oval-circle shape.

I'll just do the next ones.

Keep folding all the corners to the centre and gathering everything up.

Round and round like that to make a very rough circle shape.

That's me done for now.

So the in-laws are almost here.

I've just got a couple more things to do.

Slash the tops like that so they don't puff up too much in the oven

and it lets the steam come out.

Just three in the top is fine.

A bit of egg wash for that glaze when it comes out of the oven.

It's just some lightly beaten egg.

Here you go. Get it round the sides as well.

And then these go into the oven for about 14 minutes at 200 degrees.

And, meanwhile, I'm going to make a sauce.

Now, this sauce is one of the simplest sauces I know how to make

but it's so, so tasty.

All it is is the remainder of the mushroom mix, a splash of sherry -

just let it bubble away for about ten seconds -

and then double cream.

It's going to be so good!

So this will be ready in about two minutes,

and I'm going to serve it with a green salad - watercress,

bit of sherry vinegar, and some extra virgin olive oil.

Then I pour the sauce into the jug and I'm done.

OK, all done.

DOORBELL RINGS

And now time for a stress-free evening.

Hopefully.

When I've got friends coming round and I've made a nice meal,

I sometimes like to serve it with this bread.

It's my 21st-century bread

and it's filled with cheese, ham and chives.

It's ready from start to finish in under an hour.

OK, flour first, self-raising flour - 425 grams.

Then a teaspoon of baking powder.

Half a teaspoon of salt.

And 150 grams of grated mature cheddar.

Then the ham. Six slices of honey roast ham,

rolled and snipped into little bits.

Then chives - half a bunch, snipped again, right into the bowl.

Then a few twists of pepper,

a teaspoon of paprika

and a teaspoon of mustard powder.

Now 200ml of water.

Then stir it with a spoon and squidge it together

and form it into a ball.

Then the dough gets tipped on to the counter.

Then shape it into a ball.

I like to do this by bringing the edges of the dough

right into the middle.

Then I flatten it a bit, so it cooks more quickly,

pop it on to a baking tray, then with a really sharp knife,

make three slashes on the top of the loaf.

Sprinkle over another ten grams of grated cheddar,

then whack it in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes at 200 degrees.

There's just nothing like the smell of freshly-baked bread

to make your home feel really cosy.

OVEN BEEPS

When it's golden-brown and smells cooked, it's ready,

and I think the best way to serve this is still hot from the oven,

slathered in butter.

Now, I just LOVE paella -

the flavours, the colours,

and, on the odd occasion that friends do come round,

I like to just plonk it in the centre of the table, where everyone can help themselves.

OK. I've got two chicken breasts here.

Going to season them with a bit of salt and pepper.

OK, now, that oil is nice and hot,

so I'll just put the chicken in.

SIZZLING

That's what you want to hear - that sizzle.

What I want is these to be nice and brown all over.

And now the chorizo. Roughly 100 grams.

And this adds real smokiness to the dish.

Throw that in.

As the chorizo's cooking, I'm just getting these wonderful flavours.

It's just beautiful.

OK, now the garlic.

Finely chopped. That only needs about a minute - it burns so easily.

OK. And then paprika.

Now, a pinch adds lots of colour and loads of flavour.

I'm just going to let the pan cool down a little bit.

And now I'm going to add some sherry.

Seriously good stuff.

Right, this might flame up but it might not.

No, we got lucky that time. About 150ml of sherry.

I'll just whack up the heat and let that bubble away,

just to drive off that strong alcoholic taste.

And I'll go and get the rice.

Right. Now, I need 300 grams of arborio rice,

and I don't think I've got enough,

so I'm going to top it up with basmati.

I did this before and it tasted great.

So, this goes straight in with the chicken.

There - like that.

And then a little bit of basmati.

Sprinkle that on.

That's roughly 100 grams. And then stock.

It's so important to use a really good chicken stock.

Just pour that in there. You need about 400ml.

Then whack up the heat, and as soon as it's boiling,

turn it down and let it simmer for about 30 minutes,

and then halfway through I'm going to put a lid on top.

Now pan number two.

So, I need a good drizzle of olive oil.

Get that nice and hot.

And then spring onions.

About half-centimetre slices.

Pop them in the pan.

I've got these prawns here.

Big shell-on prawns, and I like to keep the head and the tails on.

It just makes the dish look so much more authentic.

I've got about ten here.

So just throw those in.

So, I'm going to cook them for about three minutes,

and what I'm looking for is for them to go from that green

to a wonderful pink colour. Beautiful.

So, about 15 minutes has passed.

I'm going to pop a lid on the paella.

And cos I don't have a lid that fits this exactly,

I'm just going to use a baking tray.

Right, now, we need 150 grams of peas.

So I'm just looking for the peas to defrost.

Only takes a couple of minutes.

And now more sherry.

So I need about 75ml.

And then just let it boil away for one or two minutes.

Just to drive off that really strong alcoholic taste.

OK, this should be ready about now.

Beautiful.

Just going to add this to the rice.

Scrape it in. These colours look so stunning.

Right, now seasoning, and pepper.

And salt. All-important salt.

There. Give it a quick stir through.

And some of the rice has just stuck to the bottom, just a little bit.

And that's exactly what you want. It just adds a bit of texture.

And then, finally, parsley.

Just adds a little bit more colour and extra flavour as well.

Just sprinkle that on the top.

Ahh, that looks gorgeous!

OK. That's dinner ready.

So, trifle.

It's almost like a national treasure,

and it seems that everyone's got their own version,

and I've got mine, but it's a little bit different.

It's still fruity, creamy and spongy,

but it's kind of got a little Italian vibe.

-Hi, how are you?

-Morning. How are you?

-Can I get some, um, amaretti biscuits, please?

-Of course.

Thank you.

And I'd also like some...

amaretto.

-Thank you.

-Pleasure.

-OK, that's it.

Amaretto and amaretti, and I'm good to go.

So, these are the credentials of my big fat tipsy trifle.

It's easy to make, ready from start to finish in about 30 minutes,

and it's great for serving a crowd.

So, I'm going to start off with the Madeira sponge, shop-bought.

And it just needs to be sliced up. Thin slices.

And I like to use a serrated knife so that it doesn't crumble so much.

That should be all right for the first layer.

So just take a piece of sponge.

And place it - I'll do it there -

in the bottom of the trifle dish.

Squish it down a bit.

All the way round.

And the beauty of this dish is there's no cooking involved,

so you can just whip it up at the last minute.

And I like to use the brown side on the outside,

so it looks the same all the way round.

And then just squash it down flat like that.

And now, the amaretto.

So, you can use any alcohol you want, really -

sherry, limoncello, brandy or rum,

but I have chosen this tipple.

And then just soak the sponge, just dab it with a brush, all over.

If you don't want to use alcohol, use some apple or lemon juice.

I do this because it just adds some lovely flavour.

And now, strawberries.

So I've tried to cut them up so they're all the same height.

You just want to put them with the cut side facing outwards.

Like that. They'll just sit on top of the sponge.

And then just put them all the way around the outside like that.

And they'll just stick to the sponge.

Now, inside there go the amaretti biscuits,

and then just crush them straight in.

Crush them in like that. Spread them out.

Just to give a lovely bit of crunch.

And now, the cream.

So, just a dollop in the centre.

I've got about 900ml of cream in here - double cream,

and a little bit of vanilla extract, and about

100 grams of icing sugar to sweeten.

Very gently, just let the cream fall in between the strawberries.

I like to do this quite neatly.

For some reason, I've become quite pedantic about my trifles.

All the way around. As level as possible.

And now my favourite layer - chocolate.

And I've chosen white chocolate but you can use milk chocolate or dark.

All are very good.

OK. That's the first layer,

and I just need to do that two more times.

If you think that looks good, take a look at this.

So, some people like to flambe sambuca or Christmas pudding

but I like to flambe my trifle.

So, I've just got some amaretto here in the ladle

and I'm just passing it over a low flame, just to get warm.

So, when I'm doing this kind of thing,

I've always got a pan lid ready,

just in case I need to put out the flames.

There you are. It's just catching now.

And there.

I love that!

Now, we're not cooking live in the studio today.

Instead we're showing you highlights

from the Saturday Kitchen recipe archives.

So still to come on today's Best Bites:

those Hairy Bikers, Si and Dave

gets up to some high jinks as they take their turn

at the Omelette Challenge.

Marcus Wareing is one of the country's finest chefs.

This pan-fried mackerel with chorizo and shallot crisps

would make a spectacular meal for this weekend.

And TV presenter John Craven faces his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get the beef stroganoff that he was hoping for Food Heaven

or a lamb-stuffed marrow with mozzarella cheese

that was standing by for Food Hell?

You can find out at the end of today's show.

First, here's something from Angela Hartnett

that would be right at the top of most people's Food Heaven.

Right, up next is the woman behind the food served at both

the boutique York & Albany Hotel

and the Michelin-starred Murano restaurant

right here in London. It can only be the great Angela Hartnett.

-Great to have you.

-So kind!

-Bigging you up. What are we cooking?

I know, it'll all go horribly wrong now.

-Did in rehearsal though, didn't it?

-It did!

-Go on then.

Fabulous. We'll do a fantastic cote du boeuf.

-Beautiful piece of meat with the lovely fat and layers through it.

-Yep.

-We'll serve it

with some cavolo nero. We'll make our own gnocchi

out of some cooked potato, baked potato, eggs and flour.

-I like how you say "we".

-We, indeed.

-Me!

-I like to include you!

A little bit of chervil and some wild mushrooms in there.

We'd finish on top of the gnocchi, we break down some brioche

and we add some cooked bone marrow

-so you have these lovely, rich crumbs to go on top.

-Fantastic.

We'll get onto that in a minute, but on with the cote du boeuf first.

-Yep.

-Fantastic cut of meat.

-Oh, beautiful.

So it's basically your leg part of your meat.

Up with the thigh there and it is great cos it's great for two.

I know we say we could always eat one of these ourselves

but it's an absolutely beautiful cut.

We serve it in the restaurant for two people on a lovely board as we'll show you now

-so it looks fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it's just tasty and tender.

So the York & Albany. Is that, like...Italian food?

Cos I know that's in your blood, but a mixture of that

-and British food?

-It's a bit of Italian.

Colin's the head chef there and he does some amazing British food.

This is... I have to be honest, this is his sort of dish.

We put it on the menu. We gave it the twist with the gnocchi.

But because it's sort of north,

it's Camden, it's just by Regent's Park. We like it really local

so you change the menu quite a lot

cos you want the regulars to be coming in all the time.

-That's the idea of it.

-I'm listening.

-You are, you're just tucking into the potato, aren't you?

-It's potato skins, they're just the best ever.

-I know, amazing.

We always make mashed potato with the actual skin in there.

We put it all in together, it's beautiful.

They're ready. I'll give you instructions to cook mushrooms. I'll turn the beef away.

-Instructions on how to cook mushrooms? Thank you!

-Not HOW to, come on!

-There you go.

-We've got some potato here.

-Yeah, beautiful.

-So a gnocchi masterclass.

-There we go.

-Let's clear that board there. OK.

-What's the secret of good gnocchi?

-One is to keep the potatoes hot.

That's the crucial thing otherwise they go cold,

-they start to go very glutinous and rubbery and stuff.

-Right.

The other one is to make sure you use the driest potatoes.

We bake them in the oven, we bake them on salt

so that there's no - need a little spoon there - basically they don't take any extra moisture

cos you want them nice and dry. We put one egg yolk in there.

-It crisps up the skin when you put them on salt.

-Yeah, perfect.

You just test - one egg is enough for that amount.

-Add our flour there.

-So I'm making a little roux here.

Just a little bit of butter and some flour.

-Yeah, perfect.

-We've got some milk here. Just infuse what's in here?

-Yeah, just a little thyme, onion.

You can even put a bit of clove if you want there or something.

-It's a great little thing. Rosemary if you feel like it, garlic.

-Right.

Just going to turn that a bit. Rinse the little hands.

Beautiful, now we're going to roll out the gnocchi.

-Do you want that in the oven?

-Yeah, that can go in.

That's perfect. We cook it for about 8-10 minutes,

depends how much you want it cooked.

Well done and all the rest of it.

That goes straight in there. So that's, what, 200 degrees?

200 degrees, yeah, for about 8-12 minutes

obviously, you know, depending on how much you want it done.

OK, now, the idea. Just run past this.

-We have mushrooms going in the gnocchi as well?

-Yeah.

-But we've got a bit of bechamel, that'll be the sauce for our gnocchi.

-Yeah.

What we'll do is add the bechamel to our gnocchi once we've blanched them.

Add the mushrooms, put them all in a little gratin bowl there

and then put the breadcrumbs on top and then we serve them on the side.

So we'll put these in the water.

The gnocchi's so simple to make, no need to freeze these.

-Pop them in the fridge.

-Straight in, yeah. We'll drain them off.

Get rid of the rest of that. That's done. Perfect.

So when they're cooked, that's when they float to the top?

Yes. We'll drain them into this water here.

-They're coming up. This one here.

-OK. The shrimps are not far off.

Then we'll literally mix our mushrooms with our bechamel,

put it all in that little tin and ready to go.

I mentioned your cavolo nero, here.

-Yeah, and chervil chopped as well, please, Jimbob.

-Yeah, no problem.

-Anything else you want doing?

-No, I'll get a drink and sit down, that's fine!

Catch up with Ronni and everyone, it'll be great!

-But black cabbage, it's produced July-October time.

-Yep.

Famous cabbage from Italy but we can grow it a lot in the UK.

Loads of people go it here, who do it amazingly.

-You were saying you have it in your garden.

-I do grow it, yeah.

Skye does it down at Petersham Nurseries,

she's got the amazing stuff there so that is fantastic.

And we do it with a few little shallots.

Just saute it down, you don't have to make it too complicated.

-It's so easy.

-So a little bit of butter. No need to boil it.

-No, literally. It's just like...

It's a tougher version of spinach in a way.

You just cook it that little bit longer.

-So they literally only what about a minute.

-Oh, God, yeah. Perfect.

So we'll mix those. How's our little bechamel? Is that all ready?

-That's ready.

-Take the mushrooms, mix those in there.

-I'll do the chervil, James, obviously.

-I'LL do the chervil, give me it here!

LAUGHTER

I love it! I think that's why I'm a chef,

I just love commanding loads of blokes, telling them what to do.

-Chervil in there.

-Beautiful.

-Too late for a change of career?

I know, too late now! There we go.

-Little bit of that in there.

-I'll put a little bit of this water in.

It's so simple to cook this cavolo nero,

-just a little butter, water.

-Yeah.

-It's how we cooked it before on the show.

These shallots, gone in there. I just swept that down.

Then that's it. We've put it in a nice gratin dish here

with the bechamel and gnocchi. Put all these breadcrumbs on top.

Now, explain to us what this is.

-Ah, yes, little secret.

-Go on then.

-We've zipped it.

Here we have beautiful bone marrow

so we roast that in the oven and then take the centre out which is your marrow bit.

-Yeah.

-Saute that down with some brioche breadcrumbs so they're full of butter as well.

You have butter from the brioche, you have the lovely bone marrow.

A little bit more butter and then basically let them dry out