Episode 44 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning! There's a gourmet selection of sensational food

coming up in today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show!

We've these tasty treats from our Saturday Kitchen back catalogue

of dishes to show you.

A satay beef and Thai salad I'm making for TV foodie Loyd Grossman.

That is fabulous.

Nic Watt makes truly stunning-looking food.

His crispy lemon sole with chilli, sesame and soy

is simply breathtaking!

Vivek Singh cooks equally sensational dishes,

and his pork pandhi curry with apple and fennel raita

will spice up any supper time.

Actress Fay Ripley faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

There was a classic double-baked souffle with walnut salad

for Food Heaven

or Vietnamese scallops with papaya salad ready for Food Hell.

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

Before all that fantastic food,

here's the great three Michelin starred American chef,

Daniel Boulud with a cracking duck dish.

Right, what are we making?

We're making this bourguignon,

where you're going to have to poach the eggs for five minutes,

very gently and slowly

and be very careful not to crack the shell before,

and put a little bit of vinegar in a little bit of boiling water here.

So just be very careful with the eggs.

We're going to cook the eggs in a very soft pick.

-Right, OK. So they want five minutes, bang on.

-No more.

Absolutely. 4.5 actually is perfect if the eggs are room temperature.

Here I am trimming a Portobello mushroom like that.

And peeling the mushroom.

If you can find porcini in your back yard,

then that can do very well as well.

You are chopping some shallots for me.

We're going to make a shallot puree with red wine and a little thyme.

Tell us about yourself, cos you went to New York how long ago?

I went to New York three decades ago, almost.

-That was yesterday.

-What took you there, cos you did...?

You're obviously French, but you did classic training in France as well?

Yes, I trained in some of the top three-star restaurants,

Roger Verge, Michel Guerard, Bocuse, I worked in Bocuse -

I'm from Lyon, so that's where I started.

Then I also worked with...

I'm crushing some garlic for my mushroom here.

Is Lyon the gastronomic capital of France, would you say?

Yeah.

I wanted to work in the south of France, so there was Roger Verge.

Olive oil on top of the mushroom.

We're going to let them marinate for a while.

-I'll put that in the fridge for you.

-Go ahead, OK.

Sweating the shallots here. Put some fire there.

So you worked in France and then went to New York?

-Do you have a wooden spatula?

-I'm getting there, chef.

There you go. Come on.

-Chop-chop.

-You go easy over there.

And so after a good decade of working with the best chef in France,

I decided to visit America

and made only a one-way trip.

I never turned back.

But America, particularly New York,

has gone through a massive food revolution, hasn't it?

-Yeah, it's fantastic.

-It's a bit like London.

-Absolutely.

Actually, after being in Washington for two years,

I was working for an ambassador...

We are going to put some red wine into the shallots, some garlic too.

Put the garlic first.

Then after, we're going to work on some duck confit

with that preparation.

You're going to take care of the duck confit.

You want the skin off and then the meat shred.

We are going to fry the skin, we are going to shred the meat,

and I'm going to do the rest of the mushroom.

Red wine, shallots and garlic have gone in,

reduce that down and end up with a puree.

-You'll end up with that, and then we are going to puree.

-Exactly.

Absolutely. You are very good.

I almost ended up in London, actually, because after three years in America,

someone wanted me to open a restaurant in London,

and I decided I wanted to go to New York,

I was in Washington, I wanted to go to New York so badly.

I went to New York

and I've been in the same zip code for the past 25 years.

And your restaurant is just off what?

Daniel, Restaurant Daniel on 65th and Park.

Otherwise, there is Cafe Boulud on the Upper East Side,

next to The Carlyle.

We could do a list, because you've them in Vegas...

There is Bar Boulud and then there's Bar Boulud in London,

which I just opened at the Mandarin Hotel, in Knightsbridge,

right across from Harvey Nichols,

where you go and shop for your shirts.

Just go and have a little lunch there.

Your new restaurant is the first restaurant you've opened in Europe.

Yes, absolutely. It's a bistro, a wine bar, actually.

It's... Are we good there?

Yeah, we're fine.

We're going to make a little puree with that, I have the mushroom here.

By the way, do you have those Portobello mushrooms cooked already?

They are under the grill, chef. This is the bits that we've got from...

-Ah, OK. That's right.

-Just to show you a little selection here.

This is the type of stuff you've got on the menu?

Yes, exactly.

This is tagine of lamb with sweet potato and eggplant

and Moroccan spices.

This is a rabbit Provencal.

This is a beef, pistachio, red wine and onion.

This is pate grand-pere and pate grand-mere.

This is fromage de tete.

Pate grand-pere has a little bit of fancy stuff inside.

Pate grand-mere is a little more livery.

And head cheese, with pork head. We make our own white ham.

Just pass that to me.

This was for you, but it's for my lunch.

LAUGHTER

-I was going to give them that. Dive in. Tell us what you think.

-Voila!

-Moving swiftly on.

-Give me that Portobello. You said you had it...

It's under the grill, chef. I might just turn that over.

They told me you were the best commis in London.

I kind of need to be on this show, don't I?

OK, so I'm cutting some pearl onion here, splitting.

Did you do the confit yet?

I've got the duck confit, chef. The skin is on its way.

I'm going to peel the eggs.

These eggs come out, and then we quickly peel them.

-These are soft-boiled.

-Let them rest for a second.

And then I've got my flour... I'll do my egg at the moment.

Flour, egg and breadcrumbs. So the shallots are going in.

The shallots are done. You're going to blend them also into that.

-Prepare the breading there.

-So flour, egg and breadcrumbs there.

Is this the type of thing that's on your menu at the moment

in the new restaurant?

Yes, actually, in London, we're doing that.

We change, doing asparagus in springtime.

We do it with asparagus as well.

It worked quite well with that,

and we have a wonderful herb dressing on the bottom.

Little bit of that.

You've been to his restaurant in New York, haven't you?

Yeah, in my younger years.

In your younger years?

Yeah, not too long ago.

I went over with Raymond Blanc to his restaurant.

We dined at Le Cirque when he was there.

-Oh, my God.

-That was a while ago.

-I think you're due to come back.

Yes, definitely. Thanks for the invitation.

THEY LAUGH

-I've had Restaurant Daniel in New York for 17 years.

-Yeah?

-Yep.

-It's a beautiful place.

-New York's changed a lot over the years.

Where are those Portobellos? Do you still have them?

-They're under the grill, chef.

-I'll get them.

-There you go, they're ready.

-Oh, superb.

-I've turned them over.

Yeah, superb.

London's changed an awful...America's...particularly

New York's literally turned into this food destination

for chefs to go to.

I know. New York is very exciting.

I think New York and London are certainly

the two most exciting cities when it comes to diversity in the food.

Sometimes they say, "Oh, the French are losing it."

No, the French just keep cooking French,

but in a city like London or New York,

you can have so many cuisines represented at the same time.

I think it brings a lot of diversity and...

the opportunity of having...

My egg's ready, chef. I was panicking about this.

-Actually, I'm looking for some water.

-Flour?

No, I just want to put a drop of...

Voila.

So four, egg... I'll do the puree, you tell us about the egg, then.

OK. I'll do that.

-Beautiful, huh?

-The eggs can sit in the ice for quite a while?

Yes, of course. You can do that even a little bit ahead.

It's better if you let the eggs get to a nice room temperature when you...

Try to be very careful, using a spoon like that.

Baste your eggs with the egg, actually.

-Eggs basted in eggs.

-Eggs basted on eggs.

Then breadcrumbs over.

Do you want me to pick that up for you? I'll lift this out.

You're going to deep-fry that?

-Carefully.

-It's still nice and soft in the middle.

-Yes.

Deep-fry it no more than a couple of minutes. I'll get rid of that.

-You can sort your mushroom out.

-Thank you.

And so after, what I do with the mushroom is

I poke a ring like this.

And make even...

Well, one will do, but I have two mushrooms, so I'll make both.

A little bit of salt there.

Just dress this little bit of salad.

This is a really good fall dish.

If you don't have confit of duck,

you could put a little bit of ham or bacon, I think it would be delicious.

Are you writing this down, cos it'll be on your menu...

On the menu tomorrow.

That's fine.

There you go.

Put that in.

-Voila.

-There's the puree there.

-The stem of the mushrooms...voila.

-Puree. Got that?

OK, we're getting there. It's almost fried there?

The eggs are not far off, chef. About another 30 seconds.

On the plate, I will put the shallot puree,

which has a wonderful red wine flavour,

and that's where the Burgundian background to that dish comes from.

Nice little bed of shallots.

Then I... Wow! That's cool.

There you go. Do you want any liquor in here, chef, or not?

I'm good. I season everything.

-Can you give me the duck confit?

-Duck confit in there.

That's good. We're cooking for the whole table there.

-Aren't you starving there?

-Yeah!

Right, and the egg...

I think I should also throw some chives inside.

-Look at that.

-SOMEONE WHISTLES

-Wow!

-Little deep-fried egg.

So if you roughly chop the chives like that,

it would be nice.

That's in there.

-Perfect!

-There you go, chef.

-We're ready.

-I'll let you do one.

There's your egg.

Little spoon.

We're ready when you are.

Yeah. So here we are spooning the fricassee of duck confit,

wild mushroom...

chives, and then I'm putting this wonderful ring of mushrooms,

so you see, by poking the middle of the Portobello mushroom,

I have the perfect setting for holding up the eggs like that.

I'm cutting off the top.

It's lovely and soft in the middle. Look at that.

Oh, it's super soft. It's beautiful. Look at that.

Voila! In the middle.

-Happy with that, chef?

-Very happy.

-What's the name of this dish again?

It's egg bourguignon, which, basically, the shallot compote

is made with pinot noir, bourguignon wine, but any good red wine will do.

Then of course this fricassee of mushroom and duck confit.

As simple as that. Try that this weekend. Delicious.

-May I bring it to them?

-We'll leave it there just to have a quick look.

There you go.

-Beautiful.

-Got to make sure people can have a look at it.

By the time it gets over there, down that end, there'll be nothing left.

Yeah, that's the problem.

-Have a seat over here.

-OK.

-There you go. Dive in.

Tell us what you think of that.

-That's gorgeous!

-It's amazing with the egg.

Look at that, nice and runny in the middle.

Lovely and soft is how you want it.

-I suppose it creates its own dressing as well.

-Totally.

It's going to ooze over the mushroom.

Tell us what you think.

-Mmm!

-I think that's a recipe your husband can do.

-Oh, yes.

Coming up,

I'll be making a beef satay with a Thai style salad for Loyd Grossman,

but first, here's Rick Stein.

I think you have to be a particular type of person

to enjoy an Irish holiday.

You've got to really like pubs.

That's where I met Norrie Dougan last night, in Killyleagh,

and we just had a fascinating conversation about fish,

langoustines, lobsters and conservation.

'He just said, "Look, Rick,

' "the way to find out about it is to come out with me in the morning."

'That's exactly what I did.

'Strangford Lough is an ideal environment

'for all forms of marine life.'

You've got a very nice prawn in there.

That is a looker! Gosh! I mean, that is what seafood is all about, really.

Yeah, that's good stuff there.

This is part of the lough that the trawlers aren't working in.

That's why you get these fairly big ones, you know.

You mean you've got trawlers here?

-Trawlers that work up the lough, yeah.

-That's just tiny.

-Why do they come in here?

-It's a small place, I know.

What I would catch in a week,

they would catch in just one tow of the nets.

'As far as I'm concerned, I'd pay twice as much for Norrie's catch.

'Creel-caught langoustine are far better.'

That, to me, is what north Atlantic seafood is all about.

If you don't have those in your restaurant,

they can't really call yourself a seafood restaurant.

It's called Nephrops norvegicus, it's called Dublin Bay prawns,

it's called scampi, it's called prawns,

it's called king prawns, but that is it, and why?

Well, because to me,

it just encapsulated the ozone sweetness of seafood.

It's just unexcelled.

And I think unexcelled anywhere in the world. How would you cook it?

All I'd do is boil it briefly in seawater,

because I like that salty tang to my langoustines.

How would I serve it? Just with a slice of lemon with some mayonnaise.

In fact, I wouldn't do much else to it.

I'm not a great fan of turning this into stuffings,

I'm certainly not a fan of turning it into deep-fried scampi,

I'm afraid, because most of this stuff sadly

goes into processing factories and comes out as those little things

they serve in baskets in pubs.

That's what you want on a plate.

I mean, the other way we serve it our restaurant is

just to cut them down the middle and grill them

and serve about four of those with a starter, just with a little

melted butter or some herbs in it, or some garlic in there if you like.

Keep it simple.

Strangford in Old Norse means violent fjord.

It refers to the very narrow entrance

to this remarkably rich and fertile lough.

As a seafood cook, I'm increasingly conscious of where future supplies

come from, and seeing those large langoustines makes me so aware

of how much they should be prized.

If ever there was a case for locals having ownership of the water,

Strangford is it.

It should be left to fish by small boats like Norrie's,

because then we'd always benefit from these gigantic langoustines

to make the dish I'm doing here.

You're more likely to get this size of langoustine

from your local supermarket, but they are fine.

One thing I've noticed in the restaurant is

that nobody eats the meat from the head.

It's got a great flavour, so I'm adding it to my sauce here.

First of all, I must take out the stomach sac,

you don't want to eat that.

So I scrape the head meat out into a bowl.

Then I add some very finely chopped shallots.

Next, I add some chopped parsley

and then the main flavouring ingredient, chopped tarragon,

and that will come together with the Pernod very nicely,

that I'm going to add in a minute.

Now some French mustard.

Actually, this dish came from Elizabeth David,

from her book of essays, An Omelette And A Glass Of Wine.

It's a French recipe, and I'm quite surprised about the next ingredient,

which is soy sauce, about a teaspoon of it.

You don't really expect to find soy sauce in old French recipes,

but there is no reason why you shouldn't.

I mean, they use foreign ingredients just as much as we do.

In goes about a teaspoon of soy sauce.

Next, some virgin olive oil, about half a wine glass of that.

Stir that in.

And now about a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. In that goes.

And now some pastis.

What's really interesting in the sauce, you can't tell where

the aniseed flavour in the pastis stops and the same flavour

in the tarragon starts, and it's just a subtle combination that I love.

Finally, a little bit of salt and some black pepper.

One last stir. Now let's get the langoustines ready for grilling.

I'm just going to brush them very, very lightly

with a bit of melted butter.

The reason for that is, I just love the smell of hot buttered shells.

It stops them burning too much

and gives us this lovely, sweet, caramelly sort of smell.

There we go. Straight in the grill.

The only needs to be under there for a minute and a half, no more.

It's a really hot grill, a bit longer if you are doing it at home,

but don't forget they are already cooked.

All you are really doing is heating them up,

but also getting those shells zinging in lovely delicious smells.

OK, they are done. Now we will just assemble that dish.

Take a big white plate,

and I just like building them up in a sort of pyre, if you like.

Sort of like a campfire effect.

I'm just propping them up against each other like that. You see?

It looks rather splendid,

and that's one of the advantages of cutting them in half.

Of course, the other advantage,

it makes it look like you are getting a real plateful.

Now, I'm just going to drizzle the sauce right round them

like that, you see?

I mean, it just looks so attractive.

When things are left natural like that, it just works so well.

I've just started putting that dish on in the restaurant

and I guarantee it'll last for ten years.

'I come to Lough Neagh because it's full of eels, which, to me,

'are classed as seafood since they spend half their life at sea.'

That's nice.

-That boy there is a silver eel.

-That's a silver eel?

It's a silver eel.

That's the boy that runs down the Bann into the sea.

So once it goes silver, it'll go out to sea?

It'll go way down into the Bann and away out to sea.

So silver eels are the same species as the brown ones,

they've just got on a bit.

The brown eel lives in the lower down, the silver eel, higher up.

Nice size for eating.

'How well I remember that cold, pasture-scented dawn,

'where they sorted the eels, packed and weighed them.'

105 pounds.

'Most of them are bound for Amsterdam,

'eaten smoked and washed down with a cold Pilsner.'

'And then a fantastic sight of an old Lister engine,

'made for aerating the tanks.

'A pure Irish scene, a step back in time.'

I'm just cutting up some onions for a stir-fry dish.

It's stir-fried eel with black beans.

I wonder if those fishermen out there on Lough Neagh

in Northern Ireland would be surprised if they knew what

I was doing with their eels, turning them into a Chinese dish.

Actually, the eel dish, I first had in the early '70s in Gerrard Street,

and it was the first time I'd ever had serious Chinese food.

I went in and ordered the most awful things I could see on the menu,

which was boiled fish head and stir- friend eels in black bean sauce.

Both were totally wonderful, but the one I particularly remember

was the stir-fried eel with black beans.

I've chopped up my onions.

Now for the black beans.

I'm just going to make a little paste by taking some of these

fermented black beans.

Do get the dried black beans, not the sauce, the pre-made sauce,

cos that doesn't work nearly so well.

Just put those into a little dish with about half a teaspoon of sugar

and a little bit of water.

I'm just going to mash those up now with the end of the spoon

into a little paste, cos I don't want those beans coming out

whole in the final dish.

OK, there we go.

Now for the eel.

Just going to cut these into stir-fry-sized pieces, like that.

I'll just toss them in a little bit of cornflour when I've cut them up.

It gives the sauce a little bit of viscosity. You don't need a lot.

A bit of cornflour in Chinese food is just right.

Now to start the stir-fry.

First of all, I need to open up my stove

and get a few rings out of the way.

That's the great thing about these stoves,

they turn into instant wok burners.

Just a little bit of roasted sesame oil into the wok.

Straightaway, add some ginger, a little bit of garlic,

and I've cut this garlic into little batons for a change,

not finely chopped them.

Then some chilli.

I like nice hot food like that.

Give it a good old stir.

Now for the eels. Straight in there.

Turn them over.

Looking good.

Colouring up nicely.

Now my paste. In go the black beans.

Give it a shake around.

Look at that.

You can see the fat coming out of the eels, and that's one

of the great things about this dish, it really flavours it up very nicely.

Now for a little rice wine or you can use dry sherry.

A bit more, I think.

Stir that around.

Looks good fun, this.

Help!

Finally, just a little dab of soy sauce.

There we go. About a tablespoon. Don't need much more.

And now some spring onions.

Plenty of spring onions,

just going to stir those for about a minute to take the rawness

off them, but I still want them being nice and green and oniony.

There we go.

Finally, just a little bit of water to make up a bit more sauce.

A final stir-fry.

Then onto the plate.

Some rice, and out into the restaurant.

There it is.

If you wanted to get fresh eel like this in Britain,

you might have difficulty.

Virtually all the eel in Lough Neagh goes to Holland,

cos they really like them.

There is something different about Northern Ireland.

I could well understand the atmosphere that imbues all

of Yeats's Celtic Twilight poetry

from my time spent around Lough Neagh.

And where else could you find a fish that I'd never heard of before?

A landlocked herring, possibly left behind by the last ice age,

which has a market only in Europe,

not, sadly, in England, called a pollan.

Or where else a dollaghan?

A trout-like fish also only indigenous to Lough Neagh.

We set out on another early morning to go seine-netting for pollan

with Joe McIlroy in his high boat,

whose V8 engine seemed absurdly powerful for this placid lough.

But he explained it was necessary to get out

to the netting grounds as quickly as possible.

'Although the lough is a bit featureless,

'Joe looks on it rather as a farmer would look on his fields.

'He knows exactly where he's going to put out the net,

'because it's exactly where he put it out last time.

'There's a bit of a feeling like you're going out on a tractor

'to a field of peas and harvesting them.'

-Such fun, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-What will you get? Mostly just pollan?

Mostly pollan, but we may get some dollaghan, perch.

And does everybody eat pollan round here?

Round the fringes of the lake, yeah, people eat pollan.

-How do they cook it?

-They just fry it.

-But what about in Ireland generally?

-No.

-Why not?

I think it's not promoted well enough, you know.

So where do you sell all this pollan to, then?

-The majority of this fish goes to Switzerland.

-Switzerland?

-Yeah.

You're doing all right there.

Make a Lough Neagh fisherman out of you yet!

HE LAUGHS

How long have your family been fishing this?

Well, I think I'm the third generation.

-Maybe longer than that, I don't know.

-So what does it mean to you?

It means a lot to me, it's very pretty.

Well, it means...

it means everything to the people, like myself, who depend on it.

Now we're coming to the interesting part.

-Yeah, there's a few in it.

-Oh, good. Yeah.

-We're going to put them in the blue tub, OK?

-OK.

-Let the smaller ones off.

-Will you?

-Oh, yeah.

-Grab it with two hands, OK?

-Yeah.

-You hold that.

-OK.

-You're right.

-Can you smell them?

-Yeah.

I've got to just pick one up, or a couple up,

and have a good old sniff, because some people say that graylings

smell like fresh thyme, and fresh smelt smell like fresh cucumber.

So just waiting to see what pollan smell like.

-Nice fish?

-Lovely.

They just smell like fresh fish!

Oh!

What's interesting to me about Lough Neagh is not...

It's the biggest lake in the United Kingdom -

it's about 30 miles long and 20 miles wide

and about 25 feet deep at the deepest.

But out of that area, you're getting five to six tonnes of eel

every day during the 20-week season,

and about five to six tonnes of pollan.

That's a lot of fish out of a not particularly big piece of water.

And just transpose that to the sea

and think about the conservation of fish in the sea.

Here, it's a landlocked piece of water, but the fishery

is managed properly, there are laws protecting the fish, net sizes.

And everybody understands, because it's quite visible

that it's a landlocked piece of water, that you can only get so much out of it.

And so, the eels are re-stocked, the pollan don't need re-stocking,

they just re-stock themselves.

And it sustains itself, year in, year out, and it works.

Now, if only that sort of sense

and conservation could be applied to the sea.

Think how rich the resources of the sea are and how much

and how sustainable the whole thing could be.

Well, I know you're not going to get any pollan to cook with,

so I've chosen trout here, which of course you can get very easily.

Two nice plump trout. Season inside the gut cavity.

Then just pour a little water over the top.

We're going to bake it in the oven

and make a sauce with the cooking juices.

Smear the fish with a little bit of butter.

And then cover the whole dish with foil.

Pop the dish into a moderate oven for about 20-25 minutes.

I've got some parsley, some chives and some mint.

I'm just going to chop these up very roughly, like that.

And then I'm going to add some capers,

some anchovies and a few cloves of garlic.

Now I'm going to really get into some chopping.

I found this recipe, or more correctly, a friend of mine

found the recipe, up on the border with Devon, near St Germans.

The book's really old, it's about 1824. It's leather-bound printed.

But there's no name in it, it just says, "A housekeeper's recipe",

so we don't know who she was.

But this dish, and one or two others, are really modern,

because, actually, the ingredients here are a bit like salsa verde,

and there's no heavy thickening or lots of fat in it.

It's really got that light, modern flavour

and it's ideal for this trout.

If I can just get on to this chopping a bit more.

If you've got a mortar and pestle, you can use that,

but I think it looks very nice

when it's sort of hand-chopped, cos you can see all the bits in it.

There we go. That's about fine enough.

I've got a bowl here and in there, I'm going to put a little bit

of flour and some butter, just stir that in, the butter's very soft.

That's a basic beurre manie, just for a little thickening.

In go my herbs and garlic and all the rest of it. Stir that in.

And now a teaspoon of mustard.

There we go. And some lemon juice. Stir it up. That's my sauce made.

Let's see if the trout's done - it should be by now.

Yeah, that's nicely cooked.

Only just cooked. 25 minutes will just do the job, so it's on the point.

Just take one out, onto that dish. And the other.

And just push that right into the centre of the cooker

and just bring that up to the boil.

That liquid will taste wonderful now.

Just add my herb mix, stir that in like that. A bit like making a gravy.

You can see now the way I've cut that, it looks good

in the sauce, all the bits of anchovy and parsley

and everything else, the chopped capers there.

Just amalgamate that, make sure that everything's mixed in nicely.

There you are, that's done.

Right, just serve up one of the trout on a plate.

Spoon some sauce right over the top.

And now a good sprig of parsley.

I think that's a pretty sort of winning way with trout,

if you ask me.

Chefs talk a lot about what's in and out of fashion.

But one thing that's being constantly talked about at the moment

is seaweed and how supposedly good it is for you.

Over here, Jackie Dunbar

and Gus Heath have been harvesting a certain type for years.

They call it dulse, and I've never tasted it before.

So here goes - this is the dried, and this is the fresh.

I think I'll try the fresh first.

The Chinese would like it. It's...

Actually, it's got a lot of flavour. I suppose it's a bit like Marmite or Vegemite -

it's a question of what you get used to.

I think I could do something with this, yeah.

I thought I'd do a very light, simple Japanese miso soup.

You can get dried seaweed in delicatessens quite easily now,

so I took a variety of four or five different ones

and steeped them in a bowl of water.

They look really pretty as they unfold in the water like that.

Next, I took some cod, a big, thick piece of cod,

and sliced it very, very thinly.

I did the same with some scallops

and I decided I was going to keep the coral as well.

I seasoned both with a little salt,

then I sliced some fresh button mushrooms.

I took leaves, small baby spinach leaves,

and a fine cabbage-like leaf from Japan called mizuna.

Then I made the classic Japanese stock, dashi.

First of all, I took some kombu, another type of seaweed,

brought it to the boil and simmered it to extract the flavour.

I lifted that out, then I added dried bonito flakes.

Bonito is a member of the tuna family, the same family as mackerel.

I brought that back to the boil

and simmered it to extract the flavour from the bonito.

Next I added miso paste.

Miso's made from fermented soya beans.

It has a similar flavour to soy. I brought that back to the boil,

then passed everything through a fine conical strainer called a shinwa.

I put the stock back in the saucepan

and then I finally sliced some spring onions.

Next, I added the cod and the scallops back into my lovely, clear miso soup

and brought it very gently to the boil, adding the seaweed as I did so.

At the last minute, I added my green leaves and stirred everything in

so that they were only just cooked,

then I ladled it all out into soup bowls.

Finally, I finished with the sliced mushrooms

and the sliced spring onions.

Everything tastes, in this soup, so fresh and vibrant.

It's just fantastic.

Great stuff from Rick. Now, there are so many great Asian-inspired dishes

which are really easy to do at home. Now, Rick showed us a couple of them in that film,

and I've got you one of my favourites here.

This one originates from Indonesia. It's a satay beef,

but it's basically with a nice little oriental, sort of,

Thai salad, so the satay beef, we've got a fillet of beef here.

Satay, I've got peanut butter. You can use smooth or the chunky one.

Some brown sugar - light brown sugar - we've got coconut milk,

Thai shallots, bit of garlic, that's it.

And then for our dressing, I've got some palm sugar, ginger,

garlic, chilli, lime, and then we've got chilli oil, soy,

a little bit of rice vinegar,

but then the most important thing is mint and holy basil.

Now, you're a big fan of this, Loyd, I know,

but you've got these plenty of it, and that's going to go into our dressing.

So I'm going to skewer this up first and then make our little sauce to go with it.

Do you think your love of food came - mainly, you mentioned before, from your childhood -

but you were a food critic for many years.

Yeah, I was a restaurant critic at a time...

Now, it's hard to believe that only in 1980,

when I started writing about food,

there were only three publications in the whole country

that had regular restaurant critics.

Now, you know, The Dog-catcher's Daily's got a restaurant critic.

But back in 1980/81, writing about food was kind of zany and new,

because the whole food revolution,

which we're the beneficiaries of, was really just starting.

-It just happened then, didn't it?

-So how far have we come in 30 years?!

-It's really incredible, actually. I think it's so encouraging.

-Yeah.

And what do you put that down to?

Do you think because the chef's travelling more or what?

It's a lot of work from the industry, really.

Yeah, a lot of work from the industry.

I mean, the importance of chefs,

who you don't see as often these days -

guys like Anton Mosimann, the Roux brothers -

were hugely influential in turning the British public

on to fine food, and, of course, the public themselves

began travelling more and more, and thankfully, you know,

thanks to cheaper foreign travel, cheaper long-haul flights etc,

people began experiencing all sorts of wonderful food

that they'd never really tasted before,

and when they got back here, they wanted to enjoy it.

Coupled with the popularity of programmes and everything else.

Television, the colour supplements, you know,

when newspapers began doing colour supplements,

food was the perfect subject for it.

But running on a parallel to your love of food, your...

You mentioned at the top of the show,

you're a historian and that kind of stuff.

I mean, that still is a passion for you now,

cos you're the head of so many different things,

commissioner of this, chairman of that...

I'm chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust

and chairman of this wonderful thing called the Heritage Alliance.

-But that's coming back now. There's those restoration programmes.

-Yeah.

Well, you know something, one of the things - one of the many things -

that makes this country great and the country that we love living in

is the fact that we've got so much history.

And anyone... You know, you just have to look around the corner,

and there is something beautiful and exciting and inspiring

that's to do with our past, and our past is so important

to everyone in this country, whether their family

have been here for 500 years

or whether they just got off the boat yesterday.

Our past, our heritage, can bring people so much pleasure.

Just like food,

it's something to give more enjoyment and interest to people's lives.

But it is fascinating, because we get a lot of the tourists

that come, obviously, to the UK, it's right on your doorstep,

but living in the UK, you don't really appreciate it.

It's very important that everyone should realise

that they've got great history and heritage right in the neighbourhood.

2/3 of all the visitors to the UK

say they come here because of our history,

and we've got to remember that that is one of the things

that makes this country so special.

And we've got, obviously, your food, your history.

I'm going to show you what I've got. I've got palm sugar, we've got the chilli,

I've got my garlic in here, a bit of ginger in my volcanic rock,

which I believe you can get these cheap from Iceland.

I was really wanting to say the shop or the country, but I shouldn't.

But there you go, but a little pestle and mortar,

got my beef is there cooking away nicely, just a low heat,

because I'm going to cook that quite low

so the cook all the way through without them burning too much.

With the peanut butter spread over the top, the satay sauce, but...

But, James, as you said earlier, I think it's incredibly important

for home cooks who are going to make this

not to treat basil as if it's gold dust.

When you go to the forest, you've got to use tonnes of it.

Yeah, it's this. This is holy basil, so it's got a minty flavour to it.

And lots of mint as well.

So apart from history and obviously food and journalism,

and we know you from Through The Keyhole and everything else,

an underlying sort of thing that you were doing throughout all this,

all this, was music.

Yeah, I've been very keen guitar player since -

well, really since I was a teenager.

I got my first electric guitar when I was 14,

and in those days, so few people had electric guitars

that as you were walking out of the music shop,

you were asked to join a band, so I've been in bands forever.

I mean, for a really long time.

-This was a thing that was a serious thing that you wanted to do?

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, certainly, when I was a teenager,

when I was an undergraduate, my chief interest was playing guitar.

And I was in bands, you know, I was touring,

I was doing all sorts of stuff.

But it's more than just a hobby,

-because you're touring at the moment.

-Yeah, we're on tour now.

-The New Forbidden, my new band. We're playing at Glastonbury.

-Really?!

-Fantastic!

-Yeah, we're playing the great new festival at Goodwood.

We're playing at Cornbury, slogging around the club circuit a lot,

and we're having a fabulous time, actually. It's just wonderful.

-And there's an album to go with it as well?

-An album is released...today.

-Monday, I believe.

-Let's say Monday.

-Let's say Monday.

-You can order it today.

-You can order it today.

That would be very gratifying to have some advanced orders,

but it's been just so much fun. I mean, really, really inspiring,

and we get to meet lots of fascinating people. You know, musicians are -

dare I say - just as interesting as chefs.

Just as interesting as a chefs, yeah.

Well, this is a really simple little dressing, really.

We've got the little gem lettuce, and the idea is

we just coat it in this dressing which I've got over here,

and, as you know, it's literally all about bold, bold flavours with this.

So literally you take a mint

and you throw the leaves in just as they are.

We take this holy basil and throw that in as well, as it is.

The whole lot gets mixed together,

and you get this great smell off this sort of stuff, but...

And we just pile that...

And also it's got that great, sort of, salty/sweet combination.

Well, I think, cos it goes well with, particularly, the satay, really,

I think that'll go well, but you can take this dressing

and do it with chicken and all kinds of stuff,

and then not forgetting

we've still got some of this dressing to go on there.

Now, your band originally wasn't actually called that.

Was it called Jet Bronx, and you were Jet Bronx?

I was Jet Bronx, which was, sort of, a made-up,

macho, American punk-rocker name,

so originally, we were called Jet Bronx and the Forbidden,

but as the years passed, Jet Bronx was put in the back of the cupboard,

and the old Forbidden morphed into The New Forbidden.

-How did they think of that name?

-And the style is... The style is what?

The style has been described

as in-your-face, alternative, high-energy rock.

Not by me but by a journalist. So I'll buy that.

-Dive into that and tell us what you think.

-That looks pretty succulent.

Of course, the most difficult thing about satay is getting it off the skewer.

Well, I thought I'd do it rare, because it's a nice fillet of beef that you've got there as well.

-Yeah. Jolly nice.

-Satay, and then the leaves are there if you want them.

I'm going to take a bit of the sauce - which is, what, peanut butter and what else?

Peanut butter, coconut milk, sugar and Thai shallots.

-That is fabulous.

-Nice and simple.

-Mm.

And I think the Thai salad goes well with it,

cos it's bold flavours, great for the good weather.

-Wonderful Thai salad.

-Great stuff.

Now, if you're ever stuck

for new and different ways to serve your food,

then this next recipe from Nic Watt is just what you need.

Welcome to the show, Nic.

Now, I love your food whenever you come on Saturday Kitchen.

Explain to us, what this dish first of all?

OK, we're going to do a crispy lemon sole

-with a soy, sesame, chilli, ginger dipping sauce.

-Right, OK.

So what I've got here, I've got some lemon sole,

I'm going to take the whole fillet off that, and we're going to make a dipping sauce,

but it's going to also make a quick marinade, so blending the two.

And the dipping sauce is very quick with green chilli, garlic,

red chilli, ginger, a little bit of mustard, sesame seeds, soy and sesame oil,

and we're going to combine all those raw ingredients,

and with hot oil on the pan, we're going to cook off those ingredients.

But the first thing we need to do is prepare our fish,

cos this is where...

-Apart from the head, we're going to use the whole thing of it, aren't we?

-Completely.

Completely, absolutely. We just take off the...fillets.

Then we get the frame.

You would not use Dover sole for this, because it is quite expensive. I suppose you could use plaice.

You could use plaice. You could use Dover sole, but because of all the flavours

I'm putting into this dipping sauce and into the fish itself... If I just flip this over...

He has passed it on to me.

You would almost waste the Dover sole, if I could put it that way.

Yes. It is expensive.

But plain sole, absolutely fine.

-There are four fillets to the sole over there.

-Carefully.

-Carefully remove that.

-There we go.

-Remove both sides.

Last time you were on here, you were just opened, not just in London,

but you have got...?

-In Hong Kong, Macau and the US.

-Yes.

It must be quite difficult doing this

type of food in Hong Kong? You are literally in their own backyard.

Absolutely. The difficult part is their understanding of the seafood.

They really understand good-quality seafood. Which is nice. Absolutely.

But we just have to tailor the menu towards them.

We work on... There is a few more noodle dishes on the menu, for example.

This is on the menu. We also do another one with mackerel.

-We also serve the frame on the mackerel as well.

-OK.

You would not do this with salmon or anything like that. You've got to do it with this type of fish.

Yes, with a line of bone, imagine trying to do a crispy salmon frame -

you'd need a deep-fryer three times the size of that.

-Go to your local fish and chip shop!

-Yes.

Take the fillets, and you want the skin off this.

The way that you skin this is very straightforward.

You have obviously got the big end and the small end here.

All you do is just loosen the flesh away from there, and then

I actually like to use a cloth for this, really.

Holding it in your cloth.

Hold the knife literally about 10 degrees and just shake the skin like that.

And then it just pulls off. That is how to skin a piece of flesh.

When I first came to London, not in your restaurant,

but I worked in one restaurant where they put that under the grill and fried it.

Yes. You can do it with chicken skin as well.

£7.50 for a crispy skin salad. Anyway. This is the interesting bit.

-Show us this bit.

-What I have done is, with the scissors,

I have gone halfway up the backbone and halfway up the tail.

-I'm just going to toss that.

-OK.

I've got, over this side, which is some of the finishing,

I have got some potato starch, which is Katakuriko starch.

-Which is what?

-Katakuriko starch. Potato starch.

You could use cornflour. Any other starch.

-My mum's watching this, remember. OK. Potato starch.

-Potato starch.

I'm just going to dab it on. You want to be pretty heavy with it.

Get it in amongst the tail there. Like so.

And then we are going to go to the fryer and we are going to drop

it in, and I am going to try and catch it here,

and we want to create this bowl-like shape

between the ladle and the little colander.

-This is not for presentation. We are going to eat this.

-Absolutely, yes.

Todd's really impressed with that. He was expecting bacon and eggs for breakfast.

-I was.

-Wait till you have the tail, you will love it. Squeeze a little lemon juice on it. It is delicious.

I am just going to form this a little bit.

Then get it in there bubbling away.

So with this, you're just going to skin these.

You want to cut these into bite-sized pieces?

Into bite-sized pieces, yes, please.

I'm going to leave that there, and if, between the two of us,

we can keep an eye on it, we should be pretty safe.

-"Between the two of us..." That'll be me, then?

-Was that polite?

Yeah, exactly. You mean chop that and look after that?

-Run through what we're going to do next.

-Absolutely.

-There's a sink if you want to wash your hands.

-Give 'em a quick wash.

-I've chopped this up into bite-sized pieces for you there.

-Yeah, perfect.

Then all I'm going to do, I'm going to chop all this up, which is...

Where's me knife? One knife... And I've got a pan on here for my oil.

I might add that in now.

This is just straight veg oil, and we want to get this to smoking.

I don't exactly know what I'm doing here, Nic,

but I'm frying this till it's covered, is that right?

Give me a look. Yeah, try and keep the tail up.

-Try and keep the tail up? Sorry.

-Just to give it a bit of...

-It's the finishing bit.

-Try and keep the tail up!

-I think we're getting there.

-It can take quite a while.

Thanks(!) Yeah, cheers, mate! Lovely, right. What's next, then?

Tell us what's happening with this. This is part dressing, part...sauce.

It acts as a dipping sauce and also as a marinade,

so the one thing you might look at as a bit strange -

I'm putting raw garlic and raw ginger and...the chilli -

-but with the hot oil...

-Right.

..it's going to cook it very quickly. Just sort of extract the flavours

and almost crack the flavours out of the ginger and the garlic.

-Right.

-So, we're going to dice it all up...

-In this pan - you've just got plain veg oil?

-Plain veg oil, yep.

-Right.

Looks like it's got a touch of garlic in there now.

We're just going to dice it all up.

Apart from all these restaurants, cos you've got another one...

-Isn't there another one set to come up in the city this year?

-There is.

About October/November...

a time frame like that depending on construction,

we'll have Canary Wharf.

Roka Canary Wharf.

And not content with that,

-you've a new addition to the family.

-I do, I do.

-I've kept the breeding up.

-Right.

And you've got another one, what is it, two weeks, one week away?

-No, ten days.

-Ten days away.

Last night, my wife was saying,

"Ooh, it might be tonight, might be tonight!"

Well, hurry up, then! Chop that, then!

I told her to cross her legs, it's fine, I've got television.

-Right, lovely. Right, OK.

-Here we go.

In goes the coriander, in goes some lemon...

I'm keeping my eye on the fish, there we go.

The idea with this fish is that you're not just eating it,

you use this almost as a little plate as well?

Yeah, it becomes part of the bowl. So, now in goes the soy.

-Saves on washing up.

-Yeah, saves on washing up, yeah.

-Edible plates.

In goes a bit of sesame oil.

-This is part marinade, part sauce.

-Absolutely.

You're going to split this?

Yep, I'm just going to go like so, give it a quick combine.

-See that starting to get smoking?

-Yeah, it's hot, that.

That's the theory.

I could see it's hot, cos it's smelling the studio out.

It's going to give a good little bubble-bubble.

-Yep.

-Right.

-You can get rid of that, that's all finished.

So that's going to cook the ingredients as well?

-Yes, absolutely.

-OK.

Cook or coat?

-It'll sort of coat them, as opposed to cook them.

-OK.

Put a little bit there for reserve.

-I'm going to toss all this fish in here.

-I'll take that out.

-We've got about a minute left.

-We're on time.

-I'll take your fish.

-Yep.

You want me to dust that with a little bit of...?

-You can dust it with a bit of starch.

-Yeah.

-So it'll get all the flavour.

All that flavour in there, and you still,

underneath all that flavour, are going to taste the lemon sole.

This is instead of using tempura as well? Stick that in there.

I think it's...

For this, instead of using the tempura

where it's going to really coat the fish

and give it quite a heavy batter...

-Yeah.

-..this, you'll find, is really, really light

and just gives it a little... crispy finish onto it.

These just get deep-fried,

-literally only for about 30, 45 seconds?

-Absolutely.

-OK.

-Your fish bones are ready, sir. Yep.

-Those are there.

-Oh, look at that! Well done.

-Thank you. I think I could work in Japan.

OK, so then I've got this and this and this...and my chilli...

We're ready to go.

Just waiting on the fish.

The idea is, just really in hot oil again for this one.

They only want about 45 seconds, no more than that, really.

Sole is quite delicate, really, so you don't want to overcook it.

-It doesn't need long at all.

-So they get flashed in.

And almost straight out. There you go.

-Do you want a bit of salt on here or not?

-No.

-Nothing.

-There's enough with the soy and everything.

So then, we use this just to build it in.

-Yep.

-Spin it round.

A couple on here.

You've got something finally, which is in this little pot here.

-What are you putting on there?

-That's yukari, some green chilli.

-Yeah.

-And some coriander.

Yukari is actually a dried herb - shiso -

but traditionally it's used to season rice.

A lot of things that I use for seasoning rice

I used to season fish,

and it will just give you a little salty, herbaceous background.

Well, if they say you eat with your eyes,

everybody's going to be deep-frying fish bones this afternoon.

Remind us what that is again?

We've got crispy sole with sesame, chilli, soy and ginger.

How incredible is that?

That absolutely looks fantastic. Right. Now, don't...! You're first.

-Thank you very much.

-It does look spectacular.

Well, dive into the fish first of all.

All you need is a bag of chips, and you'd be all right there,

but it's something light, something delicate...

-Mmm...

-What do you reckon? It's hot.

-It's quite hot!

Yes, the chilli, but it's not that...

I mean, in that dressing with the fish, if you dipped it...

But it's not hot and spicy, is it?

It's actually very lovely and it's very delicate.

There's loads more stunning recipes from Nic on our website.

Just go to bbc.co.uk/recipes.

It's time now for some more sensational, seasonal food

from the brilliant Valentine Warner.

For me, summer means fruit and lots of it.

Right now, there's a wonderful array of colours, flavours and textures

in our shops and markets that are perfect for delicious summer recipes.

From sweet, fruity tarts to ice-cold drinks, fresh fruit salads

and cooling ice creams, summer fruits make for truly delectable dishes.

Strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, blackcurrants,

redcurrants, whitecurrants, peaches, apricots, blueberries,

cherries - summer wouldn't be summer without fruit juice

dripping off the chin, and the one I find very hard to get home

without finishing them all is delicious cherries,

but if you do get them home, there's only one place for them to go

and that's in a piping-hot cherry pie.

'Take a couple of bags of fresh red cherries and remove the stones.

'I'm using a cherry stoner, but if you don't have one,

'just cut the fruit and hoick out the stone.'

I get very confused at these moments and end up putting the stones

in the bowl and the cherries on the board, and it always goes wrong,

but try not to get any stones in your otherwise totally enjoyable pie.

Now for the sauce. Cherry jam... A big, whopping, great...

Actually, just half a jar.

'Add the jam to the pan, along with a splash of water mixed

'with arrowroot - a natural starch that helps thicken the sauce.

'It has a neutral flavour which lets the taste of the cherries

'shine through.'

It looks sticky and fantastic and stretchy and cherry and...

'Pour your very cherry mixture into a pie dish.'

Mmm...straight into the pastry.

'You want a nice thick edge.

'There's no half measures about my pies.

'Then crimp around the edge to ensure the delicious filling doesn't escape.'

Put the fingers there,

push that finger in and take this finger to the next hole.

And what's really nice to see, is as the pastry settles down,

you can see the lumps and humps of the cherries coming through.

'Brush over some whisked egg, lightly dust with sugar

'and then bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.'

So the cherry pie should be ready, and I can't wait.

And, wow...

Look at that. What a belter!

Underneath this crispy, golden crust is hot, bubbling, sweet cherries.

It looks great, but the proof is in the pudding. I'm going in.

'Serve this delicious summer pie with proper custard, or my favourite...

'loads of cream.'

Joy. Total joy.

I love an afternoon tea and cakes in the summertime,

and my favourite tea has to include scones, clotted cream and jam.

'Sift self-raising flour into a bowl and add some chopped butter.'

Fingers at the ready. Pinching it together with the flour.

Pinchy, pinchy, pinch. Think about something nice.

# Dit di-rit di-rit... #

'Once you've got a breadcrumb-like consistency,

'blend with a pinch of salt, caster sugar and some milk.'

Whole milk, none of that white water rubbish.

'As soon as the dough forms a ball,

'take it out and knead until it's smooth.

'Then roll it out.'

Not too flat. You want them to be nice and puffy.

I always feel really swizzed in teashops

when my scones are always too small

and I feel too mean to order myself another round -

they should be big in the first place.

'My greedy nature means I don't do dainty,

'and these fat, square scones always hit the mark.'

These are real whoppers and even better...they're square whoppers.

'Brush the scones with milk to give them a wonderful golden finish.'

Get 'em in the oven.

15 minutes, 220... Finished.

Ooh.

Big, fat... Fatty, fat squares.

Look at that belter.

Normally, you'd let them cool down a bit,

but I don't really see the point in that when they look quite this good,

so just... Ooh, look at that. HE TAKES A DEEP BREATHE

'My whopping square scones deserve to be fully loaded,

'so don't hold back on the butter or the jam.'

Strawberry, of course... Mmm. This is looking very good!

'Finish off with a generous dollop of the essential clotted cream.'

That's really, really delicious.

A scone, clotted cream, butter, tons of strawberry jam.

I mean, that's about as British as you can get.

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

instead we're showing you some of the highlights

from the Saturday Kitchen recipe archives.

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

'Michel Roux Jr takes on Jason Atherton

'in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

'Vivek Singh commands his spice box like a general,

'and this pandhi pork curry with apple and fennel raita

'is certainly worth fighting over too.

'Actress Fay Ripley faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

'Did she get the double-baked goat's cheese souffle with walnut salad

'that she wanted for Food Heaven?

'Or the Vietnamese scallops with papaya that was ready for Food Hell?

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

First, though, here's a recipe from an Australian superstar stylist,

Donna Hay.

-Welcome back, Donna, your second time on the show.

-Yes.

-What are we cooking?

-You were nice to me last time, remember that?

I'm always nice to you.

-I hope you aren't going to be any trouble today?

-No, not me.

It's him over there that you need to be worried about.

-I feel trouble brewing.

-OK, what are we cooking, then?

Pancetta-baked eggs. I know I offended you, no pastry,

but really, come on, it's the weekend.

-I'm not going to stuff pastry in these little tins.

-Right, OK.

-I know...

-Pancetta. So the idea is this is a quiche without the pastry?

-Yeah.

-Right, OK.

-Well, sort of. Do you have to say it like that?

-Quiche is so '80s.

-GUESTS LAUGH

-Anyway...

-OK, we've got the pancetta here.

We've got it. You know what?

I'm going to half some of it, because at home, I do it with round pancetta.

-Which I just pop straight in.

-We can get round pancetta.

That's a lot simpler, but, for this one,

just two pieces in the bottom, and then I'm going

to get one of the whole ones and just twist it around the sides.

So as long as you've roughly lined the tin,

it's no big deal if there's holes in it.

It's just to go around the outside, and when that bakes, it becomes nice and crunchy...

-Right.

-..and crisp.

Is it important to use a metal tin for this?

I like to use a metal tin that makes sure the pancetta goes nice and crunchy, and brown.

But you can't use bacon - you've got to use pancetta, that's the key to it?

I think the bacon might be a bit thick. Can you get nice, thin bacon?

You want me to make the "royale" mix, not the quiche mix,

the "royale" mix, which is eggs - medium eggs...

-Three eggs.

-Three of these.

A little bit of cream, cos I want it nice and creamy,

you know, velvety in the centre.

So a little bit of cream and some Parmesan.

Parmesan cheese, there you go. So grated over it.

Tell us about yourself, then. Was it...?

Were you a chef first, or were you an enthusiastic cook, or...?

-How did you get into it?

-I was an enthusiastic cook.

My two older sisters, out of necessity, made me cook.

Right.

So that's really how I got into it, then I turned it into my career,

but I'm really a home economist by trade.

-That's where you trained, was it?

-Yeah... You know what?

To tell you the truth, I was too scared to become a chef,

I was scared of you big boys.

Pushing me around in the kitchen. I was, I was horrified.

-I don't know about that.

-NICK NAIRN: Pussycats. >

-Every one of us!

-Yeah, yeah.

-That's how I would describe you, Nick(!)

-Never lost my temper ever.

Yeah, pussycat(!)

So a home economist and then, what was it...?

You wrote one book, and then it progressed from there, or...?

I started writing recipes for magazines, but I really enjoyed the food styling...

Back when I started - I'm sounding really old -

but cooking at home was kind of a bit shunned upon,

it was all about getting cool takeaway

and not cooking at all.

So, I just decided that I needed to write really simple fresh recipes...

-Right.

-..that people could achieve at home, so...

And that's how it all started,

cos it's gone on to be hugely popular, cos...

How many cook books are you on now? How many...?

I don't know...16, something.

16 cook books, 4 million cook books,

but the other thing that's huge is this magazine.

-Tell us about that.

-Yeah, that's been enormous.

The day before I got on the plane to come over here,

we'd just put the 50th issue to the printers, so...

-Yeah.

-..that's been fantastic.

Subscribers in, you know,

a crazy amount of countries all over the world, so it's good fun.

-Fun working on a mag.

-Fantastic. There you go.

-Thank you.

-There's your "royale" mixture.

-I'm just going to pop that in there.

And I really like the addition of all that fresh basil,

cos I am channelling spring, sunny weather,

and I think the basil just makes it nice and fresh and zingy.

You don't have to grease these or anything?

-No, it just pops out, cos it's non-stick.

-OK. In the oven.

-In the oven - are you going to do that for me?

-I'll do that.

-What temperature's that going in at?

-Oh, 350 something.

-"350 something"?

-Details, details, James!

-For some amount of time!

Some amount of time, something or other.

350 something, they go in for some amount of time and they come out like this.

Look at those, they're like little souffles, lovely.

There you go. Right, peas you popped in boiling water.

Yeah, just frozen peas. A lot easier.

But I just want to refresh them and take the frozenness out of them

without them cooking, really, cos I want them to have as much...

-Is that over to me, then?

-Over to you.

So they got drained off, and then you want them in ice-cold water?

Yes, then a little bit of leaf spinach.

But do you do your own photography as well for these books, or...?

No, I don't do the photography, but I do the styling.

-You do the whole styling for it as well?

-Yeah.

There you go. And the ethos of these recipes, are they...?

Cos you've got a new one coming up, the new book now?

No, but I'm sure I could write one for you later.

-"Donna has a new cook book out."

-Oh, that one. Sorry.

-"That one"?

Oh, it's one of the 16! No Time To Cook.

It came out last year, but I was a bit slow getting up here with it, so...

-Yes, No Time To Cook.

-Yeah, which is...

Which has got a lovely ethos of busy people, so one pot, one pan,

one roasting dish, so slow on the washing up as well.

-Have you got my peas?

-I've got your peas.

-Do you want me to take...the things out the spinach?

-No, I don't!

-Why not?

-Cos it's edible and it's got a nice crunch.

-Look, that's no food stylist. Look at that!

-OK, all right.

A big burly boy doing that!

So, we've got lots of mint leaves, and I like to keep them whole,

because I like a big punch of flavour when you eat it.

And then you're going to make me some dressing.

I just want some olive oil and lemon juice soaking it up.

-Olive oil and lemon juice? Right, OK.

-Really simple.

-So they've had boiling water poured over them?

-Yeah.

-Do you want pips in here?

-No! No.

-Lemon, no?

-No, I don't think so.

-Rustic. Right, so lemon and olive oil?

-Yes, please.

Just something simple. Then we'll pop a little bit more mint on this.

-You want some seasoning in there?

-Yes, please.

-A bit of black pepper.

Now, you said these were great for picnics.

Yeah, I love taking these on a picnic. You know why?

Because you can just wrap this in a tea towel

and take it in its own little portable dish.

-Arrives there in style.

-Wrap it in a tea towel? You're going to wrap it in a...sleeping bag,

the weather we've been having over here!

To keep that thing warm.

A little bit of dressing over the top.

-Donna, you can drizzle the dressing over, cos I daren't touch it.

-Really?

-Yeah, go on.

-Do I scare you that much?

-No, you don't scare me.

-There we go.

-A little drizzly, drizzly dressing.

And these are great, aren't they? As you say, nice and crisp.

Lovely and soft in the centre. Remind us what that is again.

It's baked pancetta eggs with a spinach, pea and feta salad.

-See, I wasn't scary, was I?

-A little bit.

-Check that out.

Looks absolutely delicious, I have to say.

And that little home economist touch works.

There you go, have a seat over here. There you go, Sue. Dive into that.

-Oh, gosh. That looks so beautiful.

-The food just keeps coming.

These are a great idea. They're nice and light.

It's simple, it's for breakfast food, brunch food, picnic food.