Episode 42 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. There's a fabulous feast of fantastic food

coming up in today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got these great gourmet moments

from the Saturday Kitchen archives to share with you today.

Sweet pumpkin pastries I made for radio presenter Zoe Ball.

Oh, James, that is so good.

-Happy with that?

-Oh!

Jose Pizarro makes some of the best Spanish food I've ever tasted,

and his spicy chicken wings with braised peas

are definitely up there in my top 10 of Saturday Kitchen's best dishes.

Spooks actress Sophia Myles faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

There was monkfish with pata negra ham ready for Food Heaven,

or a trio of crab dishes with chilli jam and spinach

lying in wait for Food Hell.

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

Before we dive into any of that classy lot,

here's Si King from the Hairy Bikers bringing us back down to earth.

What are we cooking, boss?

Right, James. We're going to look at this.

We've got this fantastic, fantastic halibut steak here.

We're going to have some lovely crab cakes.

-Crab cakes.

-With salsa verde.

Those - this is a cue - cut in half, stuck in the oven.

That's for me, then.

-That for you.

-And roasted tomatoes, then?

Roasted tomatoes, yeah. It's great. Love it.

-So that's us.

-That's that.

-Right, OK, fire away, then.

-Right, what I'm going to do

-is get on with the crab cakes.

-OK.

Now, boiled potato shredded into a bowl.

Now, Dave mentioned this programme that you're up to at the moment,

but one interesting thing that I was reading about it...

Oh, are we(?)

Well, I thought I was the pastry boy,

and you're making a wedding cake, is that right?

Yes!

-It's more what the BBC call "jeopardy television".

-First of all,

how on earth do you get a bride to agree for you guys to do that?

Oh, she's good fun, God love her little cotton socks.

She'll be fine.

If you're watching at home, we'll make sure it's OK.

-Oh, you haven't made it yet?

-Oh, no.

No, just about 12 hours before. It'll be fine.

-We've been on a course, though.

-Oh, yeah.

Like a Care in the Community one!

THEY LAUGH

-Right.

-Now, to this.

I'm going to take that off, cos it's as hot as Hades.

I've got some brown crab meat and some white crab meat.

The reason that we mix it is because

there's an intensity of flavour

in the brown meat that you don't get,

and there's a textural difference too between the brown and the white.

-While he's over there, I'll go over here...

-So that all goes in.

..and place the tomatoes in the oven.

That smoke, don't panic, that's my veal chop. But carry on!

-Nobody's noticed.

-Is that your veal chop? Is it burning already?!

-No! Carry on.

-Fire brigade!

Aargh!

That must be a "here's one I forgot about earlier"!

Here's one I've left in the oven earlier!

Sorry, hang on.

Now we're going to put a little bit of anchovy essence in.

I promise I wouldn't say about this, but the reason Si looks so slim,

he's actually tucked his shirt in.

-I have! Well, look!

-Cos this morning he woke up in that shirt.

He looked like a windsock.

I look like a badly mixed strawberry Mivvi with this shirt on, don't I?

-What have we got here, then?

-I've just put some anchovy essence in.

Right, that's you now, Martin, you're for it!

And then we're going to have some salt.

-An egg?

-Yeah, an egg.

Little bit of lemon juice. Half a lemon. Whack it in there.

Dead, dead simple. Dead easy.

And just balance the flavours as you go through.

-You're using the brown and the white meat?

-It's important, that,

because not only is there a textural difference, but a flavour difference.

I'm going to start cooking this.

Aye, if you could put the halibut on, that'd be grand, mate.

There you go. Salt and pepper.

Now, you cook it in a lot of butter.

I do cook it in a lot of butter, because... I like it.

-That much butter, yeah?

-Yeah, because what we want to do is,

as we go through the process

of cooking it, we baste it, you see.

Don't worry! It doesn't absorb. There's lots left in the pan.

Look at their faces!

-They're like, "Oh, my God."

-Fat means flavour!

-OTHERS:

-Yeah!

And anyway, we've got some cardiac paddles just off to the left.

-It'll be fine.

-Don't be mean, rot your spleen.

-Exactly, Dave.

These are large pieces of fish. They want to cook decently enough.

You need to get them cooked, yeah.

And next, big seasoning, pepper and stuff. Grand.

Right, and we've got to get a spoon, and we're going to mix this.

This needs to be mixed really,

really, really well.

-Now, halibut.

-Yes.

-Fantastic fish, isn't it?

-Wonderful.

It's like a swimming cow. It's all meat, isn't it?

Meat and muscle and gorgeousness.

-A swimming cow? Right.

-A swimming cow.

They're terrible to catch, you know. The necks are huge. Anyway.

-Right, we've got those in?

-Yeah.

The fishcakes, I absolutely love crab cakes.

The thing about it is, you've got to use dry potato.

-That's a common mistake with fishcakes.

-Must do.

-So these have been dried?

-Yes, yes.

Dead important, that. Absolutely.

-Alternatively, you can use baked potato, of course.

-Yeah, you can.

That gives an extra dimension.

-Fresh crab. Must be.

-Must be fresh crab.

The other thing is as well, a good and handy tip -

you can make your fishcakes up,

make them up early

and stick them in the fridge,

cos they'll hold together a lot better, yeah?

So we want to just form these into a crab cake.

We're using these little Japanese crumbs that I use as well.

-Brilliant.

-They've kind of become trendy, I think.

Another ingredients that has become fashionable.

More chefs use them, but they do help crisp it up.

Well, it's just that lovely textural thing again,

and they look great, you know?

Can I just ask, though, why do you use...

why don't you use fresh ones?

Why are dried ones better?

Well, I'll give you a feel of them later on, Madam,

if you know what I mean!

But they're really, really crispy and dry and crunchy, and it's just a...

I'll give you some we've done and you can pop them in the crumb there.

-Smashing.

-They're almost halfway to corn flakes.

-Exactly that.

I think they dry out the bread and grate them

and shred them up, which causes the...

-when you fry them, it keeps them nice and crisp.

-Right.

It's great just to dip raw prawns into.

Do you want me to do another few?

I'll do another few while you can explain to us

what goes in this next thing, this salsa verde.

This salsa verde, I love dishes like this. Salsa verde's fantastic.

It looks great on the plate,

it's a great eat, and what we're going to do,

-traditionally you don't put tarragon in salsa verde, do you?

-No.

We do, cos we're going with fish.

We put some tarragon in there,

some mint...

..and then you just blitz it.

And you put a load of parsley in as well.

It is a great accompaniment

if you want to serve just halibut on its own.

Absolutely, it's brilliant.

I've just come back from holiday last night in Nova Scotia,

and seafood there is fantastic,

and it's cheap.

Well, it's supply and demand, though, John, isn't it?

If people are eating it, they're going to supply it,

and that's a constant frustration for us in the UK.

I wish people would just eat more meat, or more fish, even!

Eat more meat! Even though you like fish.

And now, what we're going to put in the salsa verde is some anchovy...

..some capers...

Now, the capers need to be salted.

I don't like the acidity to the other ones.

Rinse them off, put them in.

It's lovely. All that in there.

And now with the fishcakes,

basically all you do is warm these up?

Yeah, fundamentally.

Turn them over, don't overcook them.

Two cloves of garlic.

I'll just flick those over.

Oh, look at that.

I'll just use that lemon.

Waste not, want not, eh? Some lemon juice.

Do you a little wedge.

Blitz it, and as you're blitzing it...

I'm terrible with these things, you know. Where does that go?

Go on, James, sort it out. That's it. We're off.

Hold that down.

Right. And then what we're going to do, with some olive oil...

I'm looking after everything. I've got that cooking, that...

Go on, crack on!

I've got that, I've cooked the fish,

I'm doing the crab cakes.

What are you doing?

Turn them crab cakes, James.

There you go.

Oh, look at that. It's nearly verde'd in the terms of a salsa.

Oh, what! Are you all right?

Do you come here often?

They're funny for twins, aren't they?

Don't look anything like each other.

-Thank you!

-Well, they do!

-Do they?

-Yes. A little bit.

Right, halibut. It's ready.

Is it? Marvellous. Right.

We're going to spoon this lovely salsa verde out.

On the plate here.

Which'd be good!

Do you want me to plate it as well?

No, no, no. It's all right.

-Calm down. It's fine.

-Breathe, breathe!

-I'm breathing!

Anger management classes, I'm doing well.

We haven't hit each other yet, that's always good.

And then just plate it up.

What you want is,

as you're eating the halibut,

you want the halibut to sit on that verde,

so when you do eat it,

you eat through and you get the verde as well.

It's lovely. Put a little bit of...

The roasted tomatoes,

these are the ones with the little bit of balsamic in there as well.

-Keep it sharp. I'll move that to one side.

-That's it.

-And the fish goes on the top.

-Fish on there like that.

If you want to, if you're feeling slightly, you know...

you just put another little...

Yes. That's it.

And just a little salsa verde on there.

Like we did in rehearsal.

-Remind us what that is again.

-OK.

That's pan-fried halibut

with crab cakes and oven-roast tomatoes.

-With a cheffy...

-A cheffy twisty salsa verde kind of thingy on it.

-Splodge.

-Yes.

-There you go.

There you go.

I feel as if I just helped on that dish, but there we go.

How dare you! THEY LAUGH

Have a seat, have a seat.

Wait a minute, John, I just need to do that.

Oh, yes.

Dive in. Tell us what you think.

Wow, yeah.

You'd love Nova Scotia,

cos there's lots of fish and lots of bikers.

-Bikers everywhere.

-Bikers!

It's a match made in heaven, fish and bikers!

It's a bit smelly in the leathers, but other than that(!)

-Ooh!

-What do you think?

-Love it. Absolutely delicious.

I think like you said before, the secret is fresh crab.

-That's the most important thing.

-Most important.

The white and the dark meat really work well.

Yes, it's that textural thing and the flavour thing.

Big intensities in both, but great.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah.

Coming up, I'll be making sweet pumpkin pastries

for radio DJ Zoe Ball,

but here's the brilliant Rick Stein.

'I'm a bit like a train spotter

'when it comes to watching the unloading of fishing boats.

'Always have been and always will be.

'I suppose it's because you never know what they'll bring home.

'It's so interesting.

'It doesn't matter whether it's a tropical location or the cold,

'slippery decks of a Padstow trawler bringing home fish

'that, fortunately, I know the names of.'

Just look at those. What do you think of those?

They're lemon sole, right?

Now, do you think that's a cheap and nasty fish,

or do you think it's something a bit special?

If you went to Plymouth market in late March

and you saw those lying on the slab in the market,

would you think they were some of the best fish in the world or not?

Well, I would, but there's only one way of cooking lemon sole,

and that's actually to grill it whole.

If you take them off the bone, I always think they're

a bit of a disappointment, mainly cos they're so soft.

I'm just trimming them now, by the way,

just taking these side fins off,

mainly because the flesh is so soft,

it doesn't look very appetising.

Actually, the flavour, I think, is second to none.

I've come up with what I think is very, very nice,

what we call a hard butter sauce,

that sort of butter whizzed up in a robot coupe

or one of those things with flavours.

I was thinking about all those fresh flavours of Thailand

like ginger, lemongrass, lime.

I thought of coriander, but it's a bit too strong,

so I just thought parsley,

cos I wanted it just a bit restrained, a bit sort of European.

Now, I just think I'll add a little bit of an extra Thai flavour,

some fish sauce, about a tablespoon or so.

Maybe a little bit more.

And finally, we've got to have some fresh lime juice as well.

About two teaspoons.

A nice big lump of butter, and off we go for 20 seconds.

Just whizz this out onto this piece of clingfilm here.

Roll this up into a neat little sausage shape.

And into the fridge.

Good. To prepare the lemon sole for grilling,

first we brush the white side, the underside,

with plenty of melted butter

and a good lot of salt and plenty of pepper.

I really like pepper on lemon sole.

I like pepper on virtually anything, freshly ground, that is.

Turn it over, do exactly the same on the other side.

Plenty of melted butter,

plenty more salt, and plenty more pepper.

And now to grill it.

So just slide that under that salamander there.

One of the things I really love about grilling lemon sole is

the smell of the skin as it blisters.

It just reminds me of...

I once said in another programme about scallops,

it's the same sort of smell.

It sort of smells like hot beaches again.

The theory is that you've got to be complicated with fish.

I once heard a report,

you could never get a Michelin star for just grilling fish.

Well, I don't think I want to repeat to you now

what I think of that sort of comment, actually.

Just look at that. I mean, it's just brilliant.

I love lemon sole when it's grilled like that.

Look at the way the skin's all blistered.

I'll just free it a bit with this thin-bladed filleting knife.

Just lift that up with a fish slice and onto the plate.

And now the hard butter. It's been in the fridge

for about an hour so that it's nice and firm now.

This is all the sauce you need for this lemon sole.

Cut this into neat rounds.

So I think we'll put three of these right down the backbone like that.

That's good. Don't want too many, don't want to overdo it.

I'm just going to bung these under the grill again

just to take the edge off it,

just so that the butter starts to melt a little

and run down the fish,

cos it just looks so appetising like that.

So, a nice wedge of lime

and a nice piece of parsley, and that's it.

Do you know something I think about food?

You know when something's right when it needs no more, no less,

when it's right, and that dish is right.

We're in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland,

home of the legendary striped bass.

This is the lure we're going to use for the striped bass.

In Padstow, we just have these little feathers,

but this is like drama in lurid yellow,

cos you've got the little fish here being chased by the big fish here.

I don't think much for bass' taste. I wouldn't go for that.

But it looks like a child's mobile.

You know, the sort of thing you hang over a cot.

And it's like something coming out of their worst nightmare.

Something chasing you like this. Look at that!

Anyway, apparently it catches a fish,

so we're just going to sling it overboard and have a go.

'Now, this is Buddy.

'In true American style, he's reassuringly over the top

'with all these rings on his fingers. Bells on his toes?

'I don't know. But I'm after this striped bass.

'I've spoken to cooks who rave about their quality.

'It's one hell of a big, beefy, bouncy fish.'

Thanks.

'Like all things America,

it's bigger and bouncier than the bass we have at home.

I mean, we're used to taking...

in Padstow, a three-pound bass is...

hang on a sec.

That's a striped bass. It's about that length there.

A three-pound bass is a real catch.

But this ain't a three-pound bass, I can tell you that!

It feels like a sheep on the end of there!

Wow, blimey!

You know, I was joking about bass in Padstow before.

It's just nothing compared with this. This is like serious sport.

I mean, the weight on that and the power whenever it...

-Big fish.

-..fights against you,

it's just awesome.

Wow, look at that.

Blimey!

Fantastic! That is a serious fish.

HE LAUGHS

Shall we keep that one?

Stick that on the barbie, eh?

Well, I must say, I was quite overwhelmed with that striped bass.

It's quite the biggest fish I've ever caught.

And look at that fillet that's cut off it.

I mean, that is pure, beautiful, meaty fish,

and it smells so delicious.

And it should, cos I only caught it about an hour ago.

And I'm going to pan-fry that and serve it with succotash,

which is this American Indian dish,

and it's made with corn - sweetcorn, that is -

and butter beans, and a little bit of smoked pork.

It's like a vegetable stew.

So first of all, some diced salt-smoked pork or bacon.

It's very important for this dish,

cos it's one of the main flavours in the succotash,

to have really good smoked bacon, and this is.

Add a little bit of oil there, cos it's just sticking a little bit.

We just want to turn that over

and cook it down till it's picking up a nice golden colour,

cooking in its own fat,

and I can just add some chopped onions.

I'm quite pleased to be back over this side of the world

cooking with...

starting dishes with things like onion and bacon,

because how many dishes start like that?

So many, and yet we've been over in Thailand and India

and every dish seemed to start with garlic and ginger

and then some sort of curry paste, so it's really good being back here,

some good sort of Western flavours like onion and bacon.

And now to add the butter beans.

I soaked those for about 24 hours,

so they're good and soft and soaked already.

They just need about 25 minutes cooking so stir those in,

and some good chicken stock.

So, good, fresh chicken stock.

And now I'm going to just season that with plenty of salt.

OK, now we just leave that

for about 25 minutes to cook through.

While I'm doing that, I'm just going to prepare the sweetcorn.

Of course, you can use frozen or tinned sweetcorn for this dish,

but it's almost worth waiting

till you get some sweetcorn over in England to use that.

And this dish has about three of those in there.

Now, we can add that sweetcorn to the beans.

Just stir that round, and now some cream.

Notice that's all reduced down, that stock, now,

and just bring it back with a bit of cream,

about a couple of ounces or so.

Now, finally, we're just going to put

some chopped chives in there,

give a nice little onion flavour to finish it off,

but it also looks really nice, those flecks of green in there.

So that's fine. And now to cook a striped bass.

Get this frying pan, get that on the heat.

A little bit of oil in the pan.

And this time, we're just going to add a little knob of butter.

Butter's a good thing for colouring up pale fillets of fish.

It just gives it a nice brown colour in addition to the frying.

And now two pieces of exquisite striped bass.

Look at those fillets.

Look at the way they just sort of go like that

when you put them in. That's how fresh they are.

Just going to have to push them down

back in there until the skin's cooked.

And this way of frying is very satisfactory.

You don't need to use any coating like flour or cornmeal

or anything like that,

but what you do is cook it for the most part on the skin,

skin-side down, and that really crisps the skin up

and gives it a lovely colour.

And actually, what fish do you use back in Britain?

Cos you ain't going to get any striped bass, that's for sure.

If you're lucky enough to get a bass of that sort of size

or maybe six, eight pounds, it'd be great.

It'd be the best fish possible.

But I think one of the cod family is great for this dish too,

like hake or haddock or cod itself would be absolutely fine.

Wow, look at the colour on that.

Looks like a sort of well-seasoned mahogany or something.

Fantastic, that.

I mean, so much in cooking's about visual appeal.

Look at the succotash. It's sort of fresh and golden,

and we just haven't cooked the corn too much,

so it's nice and crunchy, I hope.

And I just have the feeling that this is one of those

"this'll convert you to seafood" dishes.

The skin of a fish like that is so appetising

when you cut into the bass.

You've got this brown coating and inside it's milky white.

It's just like a real pleasure moment,

and you just think, "Wow."

It just accentuates the whiteness of the inside of the flesh.

Mmm. Oh, gosh, it's good.

So nice and firm, cos it was only caught this morning.

It's still, as they say, stiff fresh. It's just wonderful.

Well, I'm on my way to Bowen's Island in South Carolina.

It's quite a nice story behind why I'm here, really,

because there's this journalist in Philadelphia

who wrote me a letter.

Well, she'd heard I was making a seafood programme from the States,

and she said one of the best-kept seafood secrets

in the whole of the eastern seaboard was Bowen's Island,

and I just sort of had this image in my mind, and I've always had it,

I've always wanted to do this,

to go somewhere on the eastern seaboard and find a seafood shack.

You know, a sort of sun-bleached, bare boards

and just nothing to eat but simple shrimp, lobster,

oysters, clams on open tables, maybe no tablecloths,

and just throw the oysters into a bucket

when you'd finished them. So I'm hopeful.

This is it, the ultimate oyster experience.

They've been cooking oysters like this since the last war

and it hasn't changed a bit.

The Bowen family that own the island,

they just take the oysters, put them on a hot piece of steel

and cover them with a wet burlap - I love that word, American word -

burlap sack to trap the steam.

They steam them for about 10 minutes and then they just

shove all of them into the centre of a table

and it's just totally classless.

There's lawyers, lovers, politicians.

Everybody mixes together.

Their link is the consuming love of oysters.

It's not to everybody's tastes, this way of eating,

but honestly, it is to mine.

I've been to lots of three-star restaurants all over the world

and had some great food and all that,

but this really beats it, for me.

I'm just sitting here eating these oysters just straight out of...

Just over there.

These nice, little dipping sauces. What more could you want?

It's just so satisfying and as you can see, it's so prosaic.

There's no illusions about this place.

What you see is what you get. I mean, you sort of

get this image of America being so clinical and wholesome

and everything's working so wonderfully well.

You come here and it's just like...

newspapers, big piles of oysters thrown on to an old fire,

steam everywhere, burlap sacks.

You think, "This is a great country."

This is what I've really dreamed of finding.

I'm thinking I can go all the way around the world.

I can, as I do, go in the best restaurants in the world,

but I bet you, this is the place I'll remember best.

There's two things that I'll remember

about the cooking of South Carolina.

First, shrimp. Second, oysters.

Here, the oysters grow everywhere,

and the locals have a right in law to pick them when they're in season.

There's so many of them that just grow together in big clumps

and Goat Lafayette lives for them, so how does he like to eat them?

Sometimes we roast it. The same thing, you know.

We don't cook it up like some people cook it up.

Swanked up - we don't eat it like that. We like it with the milk in it.

Oysters are a main part of South Carolinian gumbo.

Gumbo's not just from New Orleans.

Here they have a special way of making it.

First of all, you need to make a really good stock -

vegetables like carrot, onion, parsley, shrimp peelings,

crab shells and plenty of chicken wings.

Fresh bay leaves, celery - I forgot to mention that. Plenty of that.

Simmer for about 40 minutes to make a really good stock.

I may not be a gumbo aficionado

but the secret I know is a really good stock.

Now for the gumbo and first of all, the roux,

and what could be better for making a roux than bacon grease.

This is real South bacon grease.

It doesn't taste like lard, it takes a lot finer. Beautiful stuff.

Much were interesting than butter

but if you haven't got good bacon grease for your gumbo, use butter.

Then some flour, OK. In we go with the flour.

Just stir that around and you have to cook it out very, very gently.

What you're looking for is quite a lot of colour.

Funnily enough, you have to get such colour in it that Escoffier,

the famous French chef, saw a roux made for a gumbo

and just despaired

because he thought it was going to be burnt and frightful.

But the French way of cooking is all refined and delicate

whereas this sort of food, it's got chilli in it,

it's got bell pepper, loads of garlic.

Lots of gutsy flavour cooked out to a good light brown colour

is just what you need.

Now to add some good smoked bacon, look at that.

Lovely thick lardons of local bacon. No water in there, good dry bacon.

Slightly running in this hot, hot sun where I'm cooking today.

In that goes. Keep stirring quite regularly now

but once you get other ingredients in there,

you're past the danger point of burning the roux.

Just stir that in and now the trilogy -

the bell pepper, onion, and they're called Vidalia onions.

They're really sweet. Not at all sharp.

Ideal for salads, beautiful onions,

grown round here in fact, and celery.

Stir that in with the bacon

and just let it cook down until the onions are nice and translucent.

Now to add the most important thing in the whole gumbo - the okra.

That goes straight into the pot.

Just cook that for about a minute or so.

Next, we've got some tomatoes.

These are nice, local beef tomatoes but if you've got them,

you know those vine tomatoes.

They're really good in a dish like this.

No problem out here using fresh tomatoes.

They've got so much flavour. There's about three or four tomatoes

worth of chopped tomato going in there now.

Now some chilli.

These are jalapeno chillies which are actually a bit hotter

than the ones we have at home. I'm not going to put all these in.

I'll put, I don't know, four, five, six slices, I think.

I haven't taken the seeds out.

Now some herbs - parsley, bay leaf and thyme.

Just stir those in a bit and now for that lovely stock that I made.

That's now beginning to look like the final dish which is actually,

particularly here in Carolina,

gumbo's more of a sort of soup with lots of bits in it than in a stew.

Anyway, on with the clams now. These are called littleneck clams,

so just put a couple of good handfuls of those.

Just stir those in for about two or three minutes

before we add any other ingredients.

These won't take at all long to cook because they're all small bits

of delicious, sweet seafood.

This is really the making of this dish, I think.

They are some good shrimp and the shrimping season's just starting

around here so they're really good, fresh, local ones.

Just look at that. That really is beginning to look

something like it's supposed to be. All that seafood in there,

it's a bit like a bouillabaisse. It's the same sort of dish -

absolutely exquisite.

And now for some final ingredients which need no cooking really,

just like a minute, no more than that.

First, some oysters. They're beautiful oysters and look at all that juice there

which is going to go in as well because it's nice and salty.

Now then, look at this crab meat.

I know we've already put whole crab in

but some meat is a very good idea too,

so just add a few good dollops of that.

Just a few chopped spring onions near the end. They'll cook out

a little bit but still have a bit of crunch and a bit of freshness.

In they go. Finally, some more greenness,

just to finish the dish off.

Some chopped parsley. All that chopped parsley straight in.

And that's it. Let's try it poured over some rice, it's fantastic.

And what a brilliant looking place to make gumbo.

Rick gets to travel to some amazing places but also, I've been abroad

this week to Valencia in Spain where I came across some incredible food.

Something I tried was a local pastry called ensaimada,

-which is my type of grub.

-I'm glad you said that.

-Pastry, icing sugar and lard.

-Oh!

With your figure, you'd never tell that, would you?

Absolutely, there you go.

It did have a vegetable in, part of your five a day

-so it's very good for you.

-Great.

Which is this, which is pumpkin, or you can use butternut squash.

Over in Ibiza...

Been to Ibiza, have you? Love Island.

Yes, that's the one. I'll get onto it in a minute.

Pumpkins or little butternut squash.

I'm going to sugar this or candy it to make these pastries.

Of course, in Spain, they love the pig

and love everything about the pig including the fat

and they use the fat to create these wonderful ensaimadas.

This is like a little homage to it.

I watched a chef make it and there was no way I was ever

going to try and do that on a live show

in front of three million people,

was to pin out the dough and he spread it over with lard.

You could have wrapped yourself in it, a big duvet of lard.

Then they take a little bit of pumpkin, roll it up,

then circle it into a little Catherine Wheel

and bake it. Dust it with icing sugar and beat it.

I'm still thinking about you covered in lard.

That's not an image I need in my head! And pastry.

Thank you very much. We take our nice little squash,

and you can use pumpkin for this, and we roast it in the oven.

But enough about the pumpkin, what about you?

-Congratulations on your new job.

-Thank you very much indeed.

I must say thank you very much to Claudia Winkleman

for having another baby.

-Another one!

-Another baby, she's got two so this will be her third.

I get to stand in on It Takes Two while she's off being a mum,

which is brilliant. It's like the best job.

Right up your street, that, as well.

Because Strictly was where we first met, didn't we?

That's where we first met.

Across the dance floor underneath the glitter ball.

-You were wearing Lycra.

-I wasn't, I wasn't.

I think you might have been wearing eyeliner as well,

possibly a few sequins.

-I'll never forget...

-Anyway, moving on to our butternut squash.

-Was it your tango?

-You'll never forget what?

-Your tango.

-What's wrong with my tango?

Didn't they tell you, you looked like a murderer?

Didn't Craig say that? He's so harsh.

It was a very good tango, you and Camilla.

It's a bit harsh. I did actually look a murderer.

Anyway, you weigh the pumpkin,

sorry to change the subject, or the butternut squash.

That is, in new money, 300 grams-ish.

Old money, 14 oz and a bit.

-I don't know, but you put two thirds sugar.

-That's a lot of sugar.

About 500. A little squeeze of lemon goes in there.

You put the entire lot in a blender.

It's looking good so far, isn't it?

That is almost as much sugar as there is pumpkin. I'm liking it a lot.

Put the lid on.

Do you still dance? Do you still do a few little moves?

No. Having said that, I did.

I've been to a place where you met Norm,

-your husband, of course. Ibiza.

-Oh, yes. That's where we met.

So, do you like Ibiza?

I've never been to Ibiza in my life.

This was the first time, and for anybody, you could explain it,

it's the only place in the world where you get to see

a whole cross-section of the world's population.

-You do, actually! It takes all sorts.

-You get the really hardcore people

-who are in... What's that place called?

-Space?

-San Antonio.

-San Antonio, yes, yes.

Then you get sort of people who have actually gone out there

and just got off the plane who actually look like

this pumpkin in colour, with the spray tan.

They do. They look like a big cheesy Wotsit.

-They're bright orange.

-I never understand that,

people getting spray-tanned before they go on holiday.

You get a lot of people with corned beef legs.

A lot of people that look like red-legged partridges,

but they're all dancing. But it's quite a cool place.

It is a great place. Did you eat the food there? It's amazing.

I'm supposed to be interviewing you at this point.

-Sorry. Force of habit.

-The producer's telling me in-ear,

"Tell everyone what you're doing at the moment with your festivals."

Thank you, James! Thank you, Producer.

Yes, I'm working for Sky Arts. We're doing festivals.

We do the Isle of Wight next weekend.

We're doing coverage of the Latitude Festival in Suffolk.

Beautiful setting.

We're going to be live on air Friday, Saturday and Sunday night

-bringing you all the highlights.

-This is in HD and stuff like that?

-In HD.

-And in 3D.

-No. Latitude's not in 3D.

-Bestival will be in 3D.

-That's the last one?

That's the last one which is in September, but next weekend,

I'll be with Shaun Keaveny from 6 Music,

one of the funniest men around.

The great thing about Latitude is you've got the music -

you've got The National and Suede and Paolo Nutini and lots

of other people playing, like Lyle Lovett. You also have...

There's poetry. I'm going to have a go at performance poetry,

-which is...

-Poetry?

-A little worrying for me

because I'm very much from the Pam Ayres school of poetry.

Shaun is going to be doing some stand-up. We've got Steve Coogan coming on the show,

we've got David Morrissey, cos there are actors giving talks.

There's poetry and ballet, so that's next weekend.

Do you have any dance music cos I'm feeling... I went...

Have you fallen in love with dance music?

-Were you on a podium, James Martin?

-I was there!

LAUGHTER

With the 9,000 other people that were all moving the same direction.

You couldn't move! You couldn't do any of that, there wasn't the space!

-Believe you me, I tried!

-You must have got some strange looks

if you tried to do a bit of that on the floor in Ibiza.

If you were on a podium with James Martin in Ibiza,

please have taken some photographs.

Did you have your shirt off? Oh, no, please.

No, I was the only guy there with a jacket and a jumper on.

In Ibiza! That's a good look. How are you getting on with your parcels?

I'm doing fine, I'm fine. There you go.

We make these up into little parcels like that. You get...

this is the stewed... Basically, put it in a blender,

blend it up for about three or four minutes,

and you end up with this sugared pumpkin, which tastes fantastic.

Like I said, I'm using this squash.

They would use normal pastry for this, with lard.

I'm using a little bit of filo pastry,

but we roll this up like that.

You look like you could have worked in a jumper shop doing that folding.

Well trained.

Then you take the entire lot and deep-fat fry them.

That's my favourite bit.

But this would be my favourite bit

if our home economist wasn't on a health kick

and she's got this fancy low-cholesterol oil stuff.

I would use lard or dripping to fry it.

That's what they use, it's fantastic.

-Do you have a dripping pot at home you put all your bits in?

-Absolutely.

-You don't get this figure without that.

-Right.

We're gonna mix this all together.

-I first met you... Saturday mornings is normal for you.

-Yeah.

-You've got Radio 2 you're doing now.

-Yeah, Radio 2 from 6 till 8 every Saturday morning.

-Live And Kicking.

And in the old days, Live And Kicking. But this has replaced Live And Kicking.

You've got the same things going on. All you need is a couple of puppets.

-Your dad was doing it as well.

-I know, back in the day.

I remember my dad standing in for Tommy Boyd on The Wide Awake Club

and he had to interview Tears For Fears when they were number 1.

I thought it was so cool, my dad with Tears For Fears.

He had no idea who they were.

Morning, Dad, if you're watching.

Right, look at these.

Mm! And we can just put a little smidgen of that on there.

Like that. Just to...

-I'm starving now.

-I'm just doing a bit of Nathan Outlaw stuff.

-There you go.

-Making sure it's nice.

-Fancy finishing touches.

-Eat with your eyes, James.

-Ice creams, wow! That looks great.

-Look at this.

Eat with your eyes.

Phwoar!

-Proper feast.

-Proper feast.

And then we take this...

-Yummy!

-I feel there ought to be clubbing music in the background.

Douf! Douf! Douf!

-Cos you're back out there in... Are you back out there in August?

-We go every year for two weeks.

-Cos Norm plays Space.

-Space.

-Yeah.

-I've been to Space.

-You've been to Space?

-I went to Pacha.

-Yeah, that's the posh one.

You're really pretending you know, aren't you?

-I want that one beginning with A.

-Amnesia.

Amnesia. It was dark, I couldn't see the sign at the top.

LAUGHTER

-Oh, dear!

-That was quite good.

-Did you fall in love with it?

-Will you go back?

-I'm there! Big box, little box.

-Cardboard box.

-Oh, James, that is so good.

-Happy with that?

-Oh!

-Fantastic.

Now, we've had so many great dishes on Saturday Kitchen,

but there are only a few that I'm very reluctant to share with the rest of the chefs' table.

This next one, from Jose Pizarro, is top of my list.

Feast your eyes on this.

-On the menu we've got...

-You've got two tapas that you're making.

-Yeah.

-But I see this stuff over here.

-Always, I love to bring some present for you.

-This is delicious.

This is the best ham you can get in Spain.

Normally, I never cook with that because it's so expensive.

We'll talk about that in a minute, but I know you want to get these on.

-Chicken wings.

-Yeah.

-Straightaway, the only thing you have to do is just pan-fry

-and dry very well.

-With a tea-towel?

-Exactly.

Now you're going to make nice and crispy on the outside.

-So, like that. If you don't have a fryer...

-No salt, nothing. Straight in?

If you don't have a deep-fat fryer at home, just...

saucepan, plenty of olive oil. And just keep turning it over.

OK, shallow fry them.

-From you, I need some shallots.

-Yeah.

That's for one tapas, but the second one... The second one will be...

-The piece...

-Yeah.

-..is going to be with jamon.

-Right.

-So I'm doing this one. I'm going to keep this one.

So this is the iberico ham.

I have something for you guys. Just a little bit.

-Just a little bit?

-LAUGHTER

Come on, guys. Some energy for tonight.

This is delicious, I have to say.

-Some olive oil.

-If you've never tasted... There's two types,

but the iberico that you tried...

-Oh, wow!

-The iberico is very close to 100% vegetable.

They eat acorns.

Those animals have been eating just acorns.

They are wild animals, acorn, grass.

Mushrooms, maybe some mouse, you know.

A little bit of butter and a bit of basil, that'll be gorgeous.

It is incredible, but you have that... Well, I've had that

in La Boqueria market in Barcelona

with Manchego cheese and olive oil.

I think a product, like that one,

-you really need to do nothing.

-Yeah.

Just keep it simple and that's it. Some garlic.

-You're doing the shallot for me.

-I've got the garlic.

-Lovely.

There you go. Shall I do the peas as well?

There.

You mention that's like a wild pig, but the pork is so highly prized

-over in Spain.

-Yeah.

You've got one of the best larders in the world in Spain.

Spain is like Italy, like every Mediterranean country.

We have the most amazing olive oil, pimenton.

The best paprika for me in the world.

-We have saffron from La Mancha.

-You know, it's, um...

-..very nice place to...

-Yeah.

But not only for the ham, but you can sell that... Well, I've seen it,

you can actually buy the raw pork as well, the iberico pork.

When I put... Long ago, when I was working with my brothers,

-I put iberico pork, medium rare, on the menu.

-Right.

All people was, "You crazy! You can't eat pork medium rare!" People love it.

And it's still in the menu, I think.

-But you can with iberico, but yeah...

-You can do only with iberico. Like that.

I need some more garlic.

That one.

We've got the peas over here. Just fresh garden peas.

The thing with Spain, we are 17 different countries in one.

-17 different countries in one?

-Yeah.

-North, south...

-Right.

..completely different.

North is colder, south is more warm, you know.

-It's like the UK, though.

-Absolutely.

-You are from the North?

-Oh, yes.

-Is why you are...

-This is the tropics down here.

We need a piece on the pan.

Yeah, some more garlic there.

Anyway, you've got the garden peas over here.

-You're cooking garlic with no colour on here. You want the peas in here?

-Peas in there, lovely.

They're in.

Lovely, lovely. Some more garlic here.

Next is the iberico. Can you slice for me? Don't eat all of this.

Chicken wings are getting a lovely golden colour.

Is what we are looking.

Nice, crispy outside and we want it to stay nice and moist. One more.

Haven't you just finished a book, or just written a book?

I have just launched my book now. Lovely, lovely.

This recipe comes from the book.

It's more about Spanish ingredients.

The last one was Spanish seasonal food. This one...

Some stock, like that.

-Lid over?

-Yes please.

And now with the garlic...bubbling?

-You say that?

-Yes.

But you don't want to colour it.

Yes, a little bit.

So the book is all about region to region?

I divide the book in five regions,

North, East, Central...

..the South and the islands.

You got it there.

My publishers won't be pleased.

The publishers will be ringing if we missed out a chapter.

It's more about the ingredients. It doesn't need to be Spanish recipes.

I even do pasta. With chorizo and mussels.

-Which region is this one from?

-This one is from Central.

-And that one?

Centre of Spain as well. It's where I am coming from. Lovely.

Now the egg.

Like that.

-And cover.

-If this is a tapas, you'd just serve it in the pot?

As simple as that for dinner.

Beautiful...

I just keep it like that.

And now...this stuff.

-Is that the smoked one?

-This is the smoked one. And it's sweet.

You have sweet, bitter sweet and hot. I think hot here is too much.

Because you got the chilli flakes in there as well.

And now...

-That's sherry vinegar.

-That's lovely.

And it's almost ready.

Now, tell us about your restaurants. They're expanding, expanding.

Not any more.

I think I did very well. Two restaurants, one book.

-That's it.

-That's it for you then, is it?

-At the moment.

Parsley's there.

We're going to take it out, the wings, from the fryer.

What's this on my piece of paper? You've won a...

You've been named Harper's Bazaar entree personality of the year.

-What does that mean?

-I don't know.

For me, it's a nice thing to be,

to be recognised from that magazine.

I had an award last week for best women's gadget in the kitchen.

But you're older than me.

LAUGHTER

But the restaurant is doing well. I have to say, Pizarro is amazing.

The tapas bar is just unbelievable.

Happy days. Happy, happy days.

-Check them out!

-Like that.

So that's the garlic, chilli and paprika going in.

-Parsley?

-Please.

These are delicious.

And the egg.

Just turn it up a little bit.

And just some plating.

How quick was that as well.

It's beautiful. Can you imagine days like today, summer,

you need something like this.

Sitting outside in the garden. A glass of beer, or cava.

I get you.

Like that.

And then we've got our egg.

Some more salt I think.

Some more parsley.

And there it is. Chicken wings al ajillo - we say that in Spain -

with chilli and garlic and garden peas.

Now you see some with jamon... and egg.

-Don't forget the jamon...

-Jamon, jamon!

-..and egg.

I have to say, I had this in rehearsal...

there's going to be a fight for these chicken wings!

Are you ready? Dive in.

-Tell us what you think of that.

-And mix.

-Don't worry about the egg, just dive in. They're hot.

-Very hot.

They're beautiful.

And how simple is that?

Again, on a day like today, it would be perfect.

-All the lads outside, a few beers, serve these.

-Don't go on too much,

there will be no chicken wings

-left in the supermarket.

-I'll fight you for these.

That recipe is definitely on our website.

For it, you need to go to bbc.co.uk/recipes.

It's time now for some more sensational seasonal food

from the brilliant Valentine Warner.

Trout is amazing value for money

in the fishmongers and supermarkets right now.

One of my favourite fishy suppers is trout croquettes.

For these fancy fishcakes, take a baked trout, peel off the skin

and flake the flesh into a bowl.

Melt a big chunk of butter in a saucepan

and add finely chopped onion.

Stir in a handful of flour, gradually mix in milk

and simmer for five minutes.

Next, squeeze in tomato puree,

a dollop of mustard,

fresh double cream and chopped tarragon.

Mix the flaked fish with the sauce.

And chill.

When cold, form into fat sausage shapes.

Flour, dip in egg and cover in breadcrumbs.

Deep fry in sunflower oil until golden brown.

Delicious, deep-fried, trout croquettes.

Mm-mmm-mmm.

That's very good.

With an abundance of tasty seasonal ingredients available right now,

there's no reason not to make the most of them.

What better than to use them

to transform last night's leftovers into scrumptious suppers.

Sunday's leftover roast can be transformed in minutes

into a beautiful, oriental salad.

Add thinly sliced leftover beef to a bowl

along with seasonal salad favourites -

cucumber, red onion and little gem lettuce.

Make a spicy dressing by combining chilli...

I like a bit of chilli violence.

..garlic and ginger with fish sauce,

sesame oil and a squeeze of lime.

Get everything else you need ready - DVD in the player,

rest of the papers, glass of wine.

Throw in the toasted sesame seeds

and to finish, add torn mint and the dressing.

It's zingy, it's got heat, it's incredibly refreshing

and it's really easy to make.

I always cook too many new potatoes

but this leftover take on egg and chips

is a real winner for dinner.

Fry sliced new potatoes in olive oil until golden brown.

Toss in salt, rosemary and garlic.

Wow.

Rosemary, rosemary, rosemary.

That's delicious.

Pop a perfectly fried egg on top

and add my secret ingredient - smoked paprika.

It's kind of meaty and smoky. It's absolutely fantastic stuff.

And that is it.

That's a cracker.

My mum's risotto recipe

makes the most of last night's leftover chicken

and with fresh peas thrown in, it's a seasonal delight.

Fry diced onion and garlic in a little olive oil,

add risotto rice and fry for a minute or so more.

Gradually add chicken stock,

preferably made from the leftover carcass.

Cook until the rice is plump,

add peas and the diced chicken.

Chicken with rice and peas has been a big part of Warner family life.

Something Mum used to make a lot.

Finish with tarragon, chives and lemon juice.

It's a really good kind of scrimpers and savers meal.

And it tastes like heaven.

'Summer means a glut of tomatoes,

'so we should all be making the most of them,

'and my Moroccan-inspired prawn Tangiers is the ultimate simple supper.

'Score fat tomatoes, remove the stalks

'and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds.

'Peel off the skins and roughly chop.

'Toast cumin seeds in a pan,

'and add olive oil and spinach leaves.

'Add the tomatoes

and a finely chopped clove of garlic.'

'Give it a squeeze of lemon,

'season with salt and pepper,

'and cook until the liquid is reduced.

'In a separate pan, fry fresh prawns until coloured.

'Scoop in the tomato and spinach mixture

'and cook until bubbling.

'Finally, tuck in with a big hunk of bread.'

So delicious.

These very simple ingredients go incredibly well together.

Fantastic.

If tomatoes aren't your favourite thing,

now's the time to scour the shops and markets,

as the summer bounty is there to tempt you.

The edible thistle artichoke is a real summer treat,

delicious when boiled and eaten with vinaigrette.

Lemons and limes make for perfect supper sipping.

Simply slice, add to a glass with elderflower,

and top up with soda water.

Summer means a glut of the quintessentially British runner bean,

and, if you make them into a chutney, can be enjoyed all year long.

Gooseberries are a scrumptious seasonal delight,

and form the basis for my gooseberry snow dessert.

The hairy little gooseberry is a peculiar fruit,

but one I love.

Intriguing in taste, it's very tangy.

They're in abundance by July,

and this is a fantastic pudding to put them in.

'Top and tail the gooseberries and place in a saucepan.'

Gooseberries are one of those real

quintessential British fruits,

a real taste of the English summer.

'Add plenty of butter and sugar.'

They can be so tart, gooseberries.

I like that quite ferocious, twisty tang.

But if you don't, you can always put more sugar in.

I don't want to cook these until they're complete pap.

You want kind of them to slightly hold their form

and have a little bit of bite.

So really, this will only cook for six to eight minutes.

'Remove from the heat,

'leave to cool for five minutes,

'then stir in two egg jokes.'

This will thicken up and also make it very rich,

as if it wasn't rich enough already.

But you can't have too much of a good thing.

'Leave to one side.

'Now onto the meringue topping.

'Whisk two egg whites into a bowl until stiff.'

You should be able to empty it upside down without it falling on the floor.

'Then gradually add 100 grams of sugar

'and a teaspoonful of vanilla extract.'

You've now got lovely, stiff, glossy meringue,

like good quality shaving foam.

'Spoon the gooseberries into ovenproof bowls

'and generously top with meringue.

'Finally, bake in a medium oven for 15 minutes.'

Yes.

Look at that for drama.

Right, which one?

I can't wait to get at that meringue lurking below.

Peculiar, hairy little things. But...

Mm, mm, mm!

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

Instead, I'm showing you some of the highlights from the Saturday Kitchen recipe archives.

Still to come in today's Best Bites...

'The man himself, Michel Roux,

'takes a turn at the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

'Actress Sophia Myles faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

'Did she get the monkfish with pata negra she was hoping for?'

But there was also a trio of crab dishes ready for Food Hell.

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

Now, here's Jun Tanaka with some stunning slow cooked magic.

So what's the name of our dish? What are we cooking?

-It is going to be spicy braised pigs' cheeks.

-Yeah.

-With caramelised squid and a whipped polenta.

-OK.

One of the best cuts of pork, it really is.

I always say, the part of the animal that does the most amount

of work is the best tasting, but takes the most amount of cooking.

The same with these. So pig's cheeks, these will be braised.

-What's the rest of our ingredients?

-I'll braise it inside spices.

Ginger, cinnamon, star anise, some mixed spice and some coriander.

Then I'll put in some honey, give it a nice sweetness to it.

Red wine vinegar and chicken stock.

I'll serve it with some squid.

-Pork and squid works beautifully together.

-It does work well.

Chorizo and stuff like that with squid's fantastic.

Wet polenta, we've got some polenta here, we've milk and chicken stock.

We'll add cheese and butter at the end.

Then you've got this great seasonal curly kale.

I'll get on and do the wet polenta cos that takes a while.

-Over to you, then.

-First thing...

-That's hot! Yeah, go on.

-OK!

..is to seal off the pig's cheeks.

We're going to give it colour.

We're braising it so we're cooking it inside liquid.

We'll caramelise it on both sides to give it that caramelised

flavour before we add the rest of the vegetables

and the stock to it. So it's nice and caramelised.

The great thing about these, it's all these little...

The fat that runs through it, because that

melts and makes it really tender and prevents it from drying out as well.

They're becoming more and more popular, these.

There were things recently in the newspaper about pig's trotters

and oxtail and stuff like that.

Cheeks are another one that people should look out for

because braising them, they are delicious, aren't they?

Yeah, and they're good value as well.

I buy it at the restaurant and I've got this dish on the lunch menu.

We buy a kilo of pig's cheeks, which is a good quantity, for £8.

Which is hardly anything.

-OK, carrots go in.

-I shan't ask you what you sell them for!

Not a lot! You should come down.

This is your wet polenta so that's what you're looking for.

The secret is not to add too much of the liquid first.

You can always add more milk and stock later.

Finish it off with some butter and Parmesan cheese.

I need a bit more milk in there.

So you're sealing these off to get a bit of colour.

On both sides.

What are you putting in there, veg-wise?

Some chopped onions, carrots, some thyme,

bay leaf and a clove of garlic. Get nice caramelisation on it.

What does the New Year bring for Mr Tanaka, then?

What's the New Year bring in?

Top of the leader board on the Omelette Challenge.

Pressure on, then, really, isn't it?

If I start the New Year like that, I know everything else...

You don't know this, but a little birdie told me,

in your restaurant, you practise the Omelette Challenge, don't you?

-No.

-Come on!

-No, honestly.

-Yes, you do!

-He said you practise.

-I don't.

Two dozen eggs.

There we go, I do!

Yes, yes, yes, yes!

So we're covering these up. Enough flour in here?

-Just literally as they are?

-Yeah, no flour inside that.

And you want to de-glaze the pan out?

Yeah, we'll reduce it down, the stock afterwards,

and that'll help pick it up.

Little bit of red wine vinegar goes in there.

-In there, I've added some of the spices.

-Yeah.

I'll add all the spices. Cook those out. Red wine vinegar's gone in.

-That's the star anise gone in there too.

-Yeah.

Then I'll add white wine, some honey, and the soy sauce.

If you're wondering why I'm still stood here,

you have to keep stirring this. That's the thing.

Cos it can catch quite quickly, so keep cooking it,

it takes a good five minutes to cook.

Just literally keep stirring it, it will catch quite badly.

Chicken stock goes in, and you don't want to add too much

chicken stock, just enough to cover the pig's cheeks.

-Do you want that in the oven?

-Yes, please. Lid on.

180 for about an hour, then take the lid off for the last half-hour.

-You take the lid off to allow it to reduce down a bit?

-Yes, that's it.

The glaze is done, you can see it's gone a really nice colour.

I'm going to turn that off and keep that on there.

And just sort of spill the sauce over it.

You can see it's gone a really nice colour.

-These will just literally fall apart, won't they?

-Yeah.

Watch your hand on that pan.

You don't want to overcook it because you don't want to lose that shape.

Yeah.

Strain the sauce through. Get rid of all that onions and carrots.

-Wet polenta, Stephen. Another first?

-I've never seen a dry polenta.

Yeah, it's a first, and that's a lump of Parmesan. Mmm!

-Bring it on!

-Yeah, bring it on.

Usually on this show we've got a bit of butter,

so a little bit of butter somewhere along the line.

You get that in there, mix it together.

That's going to be that one.

So tell us about your squid, what are you doing there?

It's been cleaned, I've cut it in half

and I'm just scoring the underside of it.

I was talking to Phil earlier

and he said every time he cooks squid it tastes like rubber.

The secret is, don't cook it a lot.

You cook it, literally, for about 30 seconds and if you really want to,

you can marinate it beforehand in pineapple for about half an hour.

Aren't there two rules of thumb,

-you either cook it for a long time or cook it quickly?

-Yeah.

It'll do the same thing as pig's cheeks, it'll start to break down.

The secret is not to cook it in between, that's the key.

-Is the polenta ready?

-It's nearly ready, you want to season it up?

I'll just season it up for you. I'll get the butter on here.

Nice hot pan.

Get some butter in there and then cook it.

How we've cooked it in the past, you put butter and water

together in a pan and you get this emulsion, which is what you want.

-Right, salt and pepper on your squid.

-Has that been seasoned?

No, not yet.

I'm not as quick as you.

I always pick recipes where there's far too many pans.

Yeah, a million different pans. Happy with that?

Erm...

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Large spoon.

There you go, large spoon.

So black pepper in there.

And keep the colour on that, that's the secret.

See how quickly it takes to cook. Now squid goes in last minute.

30 seconds.

There's a sink in the back to wash your hands. Really hot pan.

You can see that, very hot. It's curling up there.

And you're scoring it because it's easier to eat?

Yeah, and also, once you've scored it, it curls up really nicely.

-Are we plating it on this one?