Episode 45 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. There's a mighty menu coming up in today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show! We've got these dazzling dishes

from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue for you to enjoy.

This breaded chicken escalope with sauce gribiche and cherry tomatoes

that I made for actress Greta Scacchi.

James Tanner has always something tasty to share with us

and this brioche and mustard-coated lamb with Kiev potatoes

is totally delicious.

Prue Leith is one of the country's great culinary teachers

and, judging by this sweet-and-sour shrimp soup, we can all learn a thing or two from her.

Gadget girl Suzi Perry faced her food heaven or food hell.

There was a chocolate fondant with lavender

and white chocolate ice cream ready for food heaven

and a pistachio-and-fig steamed pudding waiting for food hell.

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

But before all those dishes, here's the Italian stallion,

Gennaro Contaldo, with something perfect for the weekend.

-How are you doing, boss?

-Very well indeed.

-Great to see you.

-Such a pleasure.

-You brighten up the kitchen whenever you come on.

-It is indeed!

-Nobody can understand you, but what are we cooking?

What are we going to cook? Hold on! Oh, yes. We got meat.

We'll cook this beautiful meat with lovely tomato, capers,

oregano, little anchovies, a bit of garlic. By the way,

it's called bistecche alla pizzaiola, steak with tomato caper sauce.

-Beef in tomato sauce?

-Yeah.

-OK, then, fire away, what are we doing?

First thing we're going to do, we're going to use nice olive oil,

preferably extra-virgin olive oil. I'm going to remove this top.

-I'll start off with the couscous. You want me to do that.

-Thank you.

Do your couscous your way.

You're using sirloin steak. Does it matter whether it's sirloin fillet

-or could it be whatever?

-Fillet? Oh, my goodness me! Of course.

If we can use a fillet, why not? Fillet, you can use any kind of meat.

-In this sauce, you can actually do a fish as well.

-Yeah.

Fantastic, indeed. You know, pork? Why not? Pork is fantastic.

If Jimmy sends me pork, of course, I will cook some pork with it.

-You following this?

-Absolutely...

LAUGHTER

Right, first thing to do, you've got some olive oil inside there.

-Right.

-Season the steak.

-Yeah.

-Why are you touching my frying pan?

I'm turning it on, because it's not hot enough.

-Are you sure?

-It is now, I've turned it up.

Yeah, you're right, it's not hot enough. I'll just make sure.

I'm looking after you, Gennaro.

You do indeed. After so many years, I should think so.

I invested well with you. LAUGHTER

So I'll clean my hands. And then, I'll get a lovely fork.

Let's get a big fork. No, a small fork. Now, it's frying nice.

Are you all right? Cut them nice, remove the white inside there.

-Oh, my...

-Now, all you're doing is sealing the steak, yeah?

-Just sealing the steak. You don't have to do anything.

-OK.

So simple, everyone can do it.

Believe me, everyone. And you can use game,

all kinds of game, exactly the same way.

And fish, it works.

-It's fantastic.

-Now, are you using couscous cos it's a type of pasta?

-Well, couscous is part of Italian culture as well.

-Yeah.

Don't forget, in Sicily, all couscous.

If you don't want to use couscous, you can use bulgur wheat.

Bulgur wheat, I love it! Also perlato, we call them.

There's a new trendy ingredient that the Americans use.

-Quinoa.

-Quinoa.

-What's it called?

-Quinoa.

-Quinoa, it's really good for you.

It's a really ancient South American grain.

I don't particularly like it,

but it's got really sort of great health-giving properties.

-You can get it in supermarkets now.

-It's everywhere.

But you need to cook it, though?

-Rather than just reconstitute, like I'm doing now.

-Yeah.

Well, you see, with this particular sauce...

-Yeah?

-..you can toss some nice pasta inside, you know, which is nice.

After the sauce, eat the meat, have the pasta inside, toss the pasta.

Exactly the same, you can make a lovely risotto,

-basic risotto...

-You're looking confused, Andi!

-LAUGHTER

-Haven't got a clue!

It's a multi-purpose sauce!

You said, "One day, I'm going to put subtitles on." I'm still waiting!

I'll bet you everybody's going to complain anyway.

Right, what I'm going to use, give it some garlic,

-slice the garlic.

-He's been in England longer than I've been alive.

LAUGHTER No, don't tell me!

My children always said to me, "Daddy, speak Italian",

because they can't understand me in English!

-This is for our sauce?

-This is for sauce, just roughly chopped. Capers!

-Capers.

-I beg your pardon - anchovies.

-Olive oil?

-Capers.

That's all.

Once you've done all this, get a little bit of oregano.

Oregano must go in while it's frying.

-Right.

-Fantastic, yeah.

-Is that dried oregano?

-Dried oregano.

It doesn't work with the fresh. It doesn't taste any good.

-Why not?

-Well, I don't know.

LAUGHTER

"That's the way I've always done it!"

-Then tomato goes in.

-OK.

Look, a lovely flame. I can actually warm up my hands. Lovely.

Don't do that at home. Make sure always, when you put the tomato in,

-remove your frying pan.

-So, Gennaro, in the summer, you've been busy,

cos you've opened up with Jamie this new Italian Kitchen or Jamie's...?

It is fantastic. Jamie's Italian.

It is fantastic. The first one is in Oxford, and affordable to everyone.

We've got our executive chef, Jules Hunt, which is a fantastic job,

he's always working there.

Thank God he's there.

We've got lovely chef, Marcus, which is doing a lovely job.

-And you've been writing as well?

-Yes.

-Of course I've been writing as well.

-What's this? Spanish cookbook?

-What's next?

-Spanish? What are you talking about? Spanish cookbook?

No, I've been writing my new book, Cooking At Home With Gennaro.

It's all family recipes, friends, party, which is fantastic,

full of love, you know,

full of passions as well. My children, they're involved.

Actually, my children helped me to cook.

Lisa, my partner, she's a great help, just in case I didn't say her name.

She would've killed me when I got home!

-So I'd better say something.

-So you've been a busy guy.

Very, very busy guy.

In exactly the same time, I've been helping Jamie with 15 foundations,

which is all the, all the new, er....regrooted, um...

Regrooted? What a word I'm talking about!

-You know, all the new trainees.

-We know what you're talking about.

-You know.

-So you put the steak back?

You've got all the ingredients in.

-A bit of parsley.

-Yeah. Want me to chop some?

-I chop it!

-OK.

-I chop it.

-There you go.

How long do you cook this? The steak has just been sealed.

50 minutes at the moment.

Put a little bit of parsley on top.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Turn the gas off.

-So 15 minutes?

15 minutes. Turn the gas...down.

-Yeah.

-OK. Remove them on the side.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-And we've got this.

-Slowly, slowly, put a nice couscous,

which I'll help, cos you like butter, I like olive oil,

so there's nothing I can do, I'm a good chef, you like butter.

-LAUGHTER

-There you go.

Just a little drizzle of olive oil on top. Couscous is fantastic.

Now, I actually...

early on, with a kind... a very kind helper with Janet,

we made this beautiful sauce.

While he's finishing off that, the couscous is straightforward.

Literally boiling water, a little bit of olive oil, salt,

touch of pepper, parsley, peppers, a bit of onion and lemon juice.

And lemon juice. That's it, you've done it.

I've got a new recipe for my new book. Then a little sauce on top.

HE GASPS AND SIGHS

My goodness me! You will love it!

-You will love it! I'm sure.

-Want a bit of chopped parsley?

-Yeah, yeah, just a little bit.

-I'm chopping it, yeah.

-Chopping it.

Just chopping it, that's it.

-Again, I don't like... I'd just like...

-Chopped parsley.

Just a little drop of olive oil.

So remind us what that dish is again?

People might not have followed that at home(!)

LAUGHTER

The Italian word is bistecche alla pizzaiola. It is steak

cooked with capers and tomato and anchovies and a garlic sauce.

I just wanted a shorter one. It's beef in tomato sauce. Done.

-The man's a legend. There you go. Right, over here.

-Enjoy.

The first one complains better not talk to me later.

-Smells good.

-Thank you.

-It looks amazing.

-Dive in, tell us what you think.

-OK, all righty, righty, tidy.

-The tomatoes do cook down nicely.

-Yes, of course.

-Yeah.

Flavour of the capers, anchovies, which you don't taste the anchovies.

Now you've got a bit of an issue with wobbly things?

-Chopped veg?

-Mm-hm.

-And tomatoes?

But even with that, this is lovely. Genuinely, it's really, really nice.

Coming up, I'll be cooking chicken in breadcrumbs

with a classic sauce gribiche for actress Greta Scacchi.

But first, here's Rick Stein.

-RICK:

-"Ah! Seaweed smells from sandy caves,

"And time and mist in whiffs,

"Incoming tide, Atlantic waves, Slapping the sunny cliffs,

"Larksong and sea sounds in the air

"And splendour, splendour everywhere."

I like that verse by Betjeman so much

that, actually, I've put it on the back of my menus in the restaurant.

I think it gives a true picture

with all the wonderful salty points of detail of the Camel Estuary.

And, in fact, miles from the sound of the sea,

"where the silvery snake of the estuary curls to sleep"

as Betjeman once said, amongst all this gloopy mud,

Jenny Green, who gets all our wild herbs and mushrooms,

in fact, a real hunter-gatherer and a perfect subject for Betjeman,

gathers samphire.

I love being out in nature, I love being outdoors.

It's not just the picking of the food, although primarily I do that.

But I mean, look at the scenery and the birds and the wildlife.

I see things that other people will never see.

So this is a beurre blanc sauce going with the bass.

It's one of the most popular fish sauces,

based on a good quality vinegar. This one is such good quality,

it smells so nice, you'd almost want to drink it.

So into the pan goes quite a good quantity of vinegar

and then some good quality white wine.

In my case - where I differ from most beurre blanc makers -

I add some fish stock, and this gives the beurre blanc

an incomparable sort of roundness and sweetness of flavour,

which you wouldn't get if you didn't put it in there.

And of course, last but not least, some onions.

Now we wait for that to reduce right down,

so far down that there's no liquid left in the bottom of the pan.

Because, at that stage,

the juices that have come down are so concentrated,

they'll make the final butter sauce totally wonderful.

Just add a bit of cream now which stops it catching and also

brings the colour back up, because the fish stock made it a bit brown.

Then start adding the butter, a bit at a time.

You can whisk it on the heat. It's not going to curdle.

People get very frightened about these butter sauces, saying, "Oh, it's going to split!"

Too many nerves. No problem at all.

A good half pound of unsalted butter to add here.

This dish - bass with beurre blanc - is a classic French dish,

but you can add this to other fish, particularly bland fish like cod.

A thick fillet of cod with beurre blanc is a revelation,

if you've never tried it before. And that's done.

The last thing to do is just to pass it through a sieve.

And there it is - beurre blanc.

Now for the fillet of bass.

First of all, just brush it with a little butter,

"a little" being a euphemism round here for lots and lots!

Plenty of seasoning.

Incidentally, about seasoning, there's a famous French chef called Joel Robichon

who says, "Season any piece of meat or fish before you cook it

"and season it again after you've cooked it." And he's right.

So, while that's cooking, we'll get this other bass over here.

There's Pete, the refrigeration engineer.

The fridge has packed up. We had 50 in at lunch, we've 100 in tonight.

We've just got to carry on filming. He'll get on the fridge

while I tell you about this wonderful fish - the bass.

Just look at those scales on the bass. It looks like worked stainless steel.

It's a delightful-looking fish, so sleek and smooth.

No wonder it fetches such a high price.

And incredibly well-armed. Those are all spikes on there.

There's spikes there, spikes there.

Any larder chef that works on bass will tell you about those spikes,

because, inevitably, you'll get your hands covered in spike marks.

Beautiful fish.

That three-pounder caught by a seine net fisherman called Brian.

Wonderful.

So now that's beginning to crisp up under the grill.

And I like to leave the skin on the bass,

because it has a very nice taste if it's crisply cooked.

If it's all floppy and moist, it's not very nice at all.

But when it's really crisp, as that is becoming, it's a delight to eat.

Now for the samphire. Its other name is sea asparagus.

It looks a bit like asparagus.

That's cooked to perfection,

just over a minute, just taking the raw edge off it.

That's a little more than we need for the one portion we're doing.

I've got asbestos fingers, a bit like walking over hot coals.

And, finally, the beurre blanc. Not over the fish,

because I want to keep the nice brown skin of the fish.

Perfection, I think.

Hello! Table 17, please, Florence!

Table 17 and 5 together in about two minutes.

You're on that John Dory.

We'll make it three minutes!

-I'm so busy now! I can't be expected to stop and check the

-BLEEP

-things.

You're at fault. You've done it before! Don't do it again!

-< You're turning green!

-All right, I'll calm down.

INDISTINCT COMMENTS FROM WAITRESS

What happens, right, like now, is I'm really wound up.

I won't do it any more cos I'm learning,

but somebody'll bring in some crazy, stupid remark out of the restaurant,

and it's like World War II in here.

-People think I'm

-BLEEP

-completely out of control,

because I go and tell them to get out the restaurant.

You can see what it's like. I'm normally a mild-mannered Clark Kent,

but not at the moment! I'm Superchef!

'The miracle of kitchens, to me,

'is that, out of this apparent chaos,

'come really effortless beautiful-looking dishes.

'To the untrained eye, it must seem like the most aggressive,

'hot, steamy, horrible environment,

'as aggressive, in fact, as something like ice hockey,

'but like ice hockey, it's actually only a game.

'Everybody understands the rules, or at least I hope they do!

'It's a way of coping with heat and pressure

'and, on a really busy night,

'there is a distinct whiff of fear that it won't all come together.'

But then you come outside, look at the harbour, and you think,

"What was all that about?"

And it all just fades away.

Gosh, I'm happy to be out here tonight. It's been one hell of a day in the kitchen.

I must say I got a bit bad-tempered.

It's been so hot, the first really hot day of summer.

But it's a beautiful evening out here

and I've got this wonderfully soothing, cool dish

for tired old cooks like me!

It's called a ceviche of fish. Ceveech or ceveechy, I don't care!

I've got some brill here which I earlier on marinated in lime juice.

But it's more than marinated. In fact, it's cooked in the acid.

And it's gone a very attractive white colour

and that is nearly ready

apart from a little bit of chopped fennel, which I'll put in there,

and some beautiful sea salt. Look at the crystals on that.

It's not just salt in sea salt like this, but other minerals as well.

So straight onto the plate. That's all I need do with that...fish.

And now, this is a South American dish

and I'm going to make a salsa to go with it.

A very simple salsa, lots of piquant flavours in it.

Take a bowl. First of all, into that bowl, drop some spring onion,

and some chopped tomato,

some finely chopped green pepper...

Perhaps not ALL that garlic. I might've put a bit much in there.

And finally, lots, and I mean LOTS, of fiery red chilli.

Mix that together with a little bit of virgin olive oil

and some more of that sea salt

and some coriander.

Again, a very common ingredient in South American cookery.

Stir it round.

Just a little taste. Excuse my fingers.

A little bit more salt.

Wow! ..Wow!

Now that's it. There's that chilli biting, biting, biting.

I love chilli. You get used to it after a while.

Maybe I'm a bit too used to it.

Some customers in the restaurant get concerned about the levels.

Just to finish off the dish, finally, a few slices of avocado.

And that's it.

I think I'll just try a little bit of this.

Oh, my... Wow, wow, wow!

Now I'm just going to nip off for a cold beer.

BAND PLAYS FOLK MUSIC

May Day in Padstow. It's a pagan festival.

It goes back so long, no-one really knows where it came from. Some say it came from Africa.

Others have seen gypsy festivals in Turkey with an 'obby 'oss in it.

It doesn't really matter where it comes from.

People seem to have a deep-seated instinct as to what it's all about,

because it's a fertility festival, celebrating the coming of summer.

I'd go anywhere in this world, I'd do anything,

but I've got to get back to Padstow for May Day, no question about it.

There's other people in Padstow that don't belong here, weren't born here, that feel the same way.

Padstow's a town like everywhere else. People have their bickering.

But on this day, on our day,

everybody feels "one and all", and that's what it's all about.

The drums beat incessantly all day long, and the 'oss dances off to MANY watering-holes.

And everybody's very merry in the merry morning of May.

This is the best and worst day for doing this salad

it's May Day, I've had a few drinks...

I'll do a Keith Floyd and have a little sip now!

This lobster is going into this seafood salad.

It's a special May Day lobster, as you can see.

I'm not going to bore you by cutting it up now.

-WOMAN GIGGLES: Is there a party going on?

-Oh...just a moment.

-Somebody said there was a party.

-There is, Marie.

She works for us, but don't let it show!

-Yeah, don't hold it against me.

-OK, right! Jolly good!

I won't show the lobster, cos it takes a while.

I'll show you the other things that go into the salad.

This is a salad you can make for 20, 30, 50, 90 people.

No problem. Everything's made up beforehand,

which is the one occasion when

"this is one I made earlier" really does count. First of all,

some nice green salad leaves and, into there,

I fried off some squid which I seasoned well with salt and pepper.

So in went the squid there.

Now some monkfish, which is ideal for salads, cos it's really firm.

Again, I fried this off, cooked it in no other way,

cos it picked up some flavour of the squid.

Now I've copped out a bit, but I HAVE had a little bit to drink,

so I've got ordinary frozen prawns, just the sort of thing for a salad.

Loads of 'em! Feeling extremely generous.

I've had loads of champagne, which somebody kindly gave me,

so I feel I'm returning the favour on this day, when everybody's...

You go into everybody's houses all over Padstow,

you just drop in, you may never have been in the house before,

just call in. Somebody's got a groaning table full of bits and pieces.

Help yourself, have a drink. Drift out to somebody else's house.

So I'm returning the favour.

In on top of all that seafood, loads of freshly chopped coriander.

Again, this is an excessive dish

I'm not worried about quantities one tiny little bit.

That's what I said. I wouldn't know how many this is for,

because I don't know how many people are going to be coming, but...

Lemon grass, lemon grass, lemon grass.

Loads of that! I love Thai flavours. I use it far too much.

-Lime leaves a really limey...

-See you, Rick.

-Cheers. Bye!

Lemony, limey flavour. They're called kaffir lime leaves.

Buy 'em in any Chinese supermarket now.

'Now some wild garlic,

'which perfumes the woods all round Padstow at this time of year.

'Then some fish sauce, lemon grass and chilli, and a little water.

'Mix that into the salad to give it a really nice tangy flavour.

'Salads like this are such a great alternative to barbecues on summery days.

'They look good and it means that I can get stuck into the food,

'like everybody else, rather than have to do the cooking.

'Putting lobster into the salad makes it ridiculously expensive,

'but then, it IS May Day, so lobster it has to be.

'You see what I mean? Just look at that!

'It just adds the final, finishing, beautiful touch

'to a wonderful salad. This dish is always a winner.

'This time, it lasted just five glorious minutes,

'not enough time, unfortunately, for the poor director,

'who's normally the first in the queue. He couldn't get a sniff.'

-That wild garlic is spondonculous!

-It is, isn't it?

-Oh!

I'm cooking stir-fried prawns. The chefs upstairs are getting militant.

Since we started filming, they've got crosser and crosser.

I'm going to do a job in what they call "real time". Stir-fried prawns.

Garlic into hot oil, and ginger,

and the white part of some spring onions.

Cook them together for about a minute until you can smell the garlic going brown.

You get a sulphurous, bitter smell coming off,

which, in Chinese cooking, is delicious.

In go the prawns.

Just stir-fry them for about... Ooh, two minutes

..something like that, until they start to colour nicely.

You get these in most supermarkets. Raw prawns. Go for the raw ones.

Take off the shells, de-vein them. Halve them, pull the black vein out.

Now the flavour. Now, earlier, I took some Szechuan pepper,

which is a very pungent Chinese pepper.

The Szechuan pepper, I've roasted in a dry wok, no oil in it,

just put it in the wok, let it get really hot,

then ground it up. It brings out the hot flavour.

And the real killer blow - this is called chilli bean sauce,

which is a mixture of pounded red chillis and yellow bean sauce.

In this case, black bean. Loads of that in! I like it really hot.

Whack that all around! No problem. Real-time cooking here.

A little tomato puree now seems unusual in Chinese cooking

and some sliced tomatoes as well.

In fact, in Szechuan cooking, they do use tomatoes quite a lot.

Some soya sauce.

And some dry sherry. You can use Chinese rice wine,

but dry sherry is a very good substitute.

And last, but not least, the green tops of the spring onions.

The white tops I put in earlier.

Stir it all around, and that's it!

3-4 minutes, end of story!

So straight into the serving dish.

Beautiful! There's no messing about with Chinese cookery.

It's just as quick as that.

Try one.

Delicious! Perfect! God, I love Chinese food!

Great to see Rick doing a quick recipe there.

It's always very useful to know a few very simple dishes

that you can literally throw together in a couple of minutes.

I'll show you one right now that's incredibly easy to do

and I guarantee it'll impress people.

It's a breaded chicken breast with courgettes and tomatoes.

A little bit of Italy - courgettes, tomatoes, a bit of rosemary in there.

Firstly, I'll get my courgettes on. They take the longest in this dish.

The chicken, I'm going to do a nice little escalope,

so I'm going to cut this into decent-sized chunks,

with it sort of being rustically Italian.

But you travelled all over the world, not just now,

-but in your childhood as well?

-Well, I was born in Italy.

We moved to England when I was four. And then to Australia when I was 15.

An accumulation of different flavours. How was that growing up, tasting different things?

Well, my mum is a very good cook

and we used to really have an Italian base in the kitchen in every way,

which was a bit shocking for some of my school friends,

because they'd never seen a fish with eyes and bones and a tail.

HE LAUGHS

So they used to get into the habit of getting away before food was served.

But do you do much cooking now? You're incredibly busy doing what you're doing.

-You get time to cook much?

-I do love cooking, except that,

once you become a mum, and you've got fussy kids

moaning about, you know, anything you do that's got a bit of flavour,

you know, they don't want to see...

even a piece of onion or a piece of celery.

Everything's got to be pureed and bland.

That does take the fun out of it a bit.

You mentioned pureed and bland, but you've got your veg plot as well.

-You've got a great organic veg plot?

-Yeah, we've got a beautiful garden

and, er...my husband does a fine job

of producing organic vegetables all through the year.

Except that they all come at once, you know.

If you've ever tried to keep a salad patch,

and even though you seed it, and you stagger the seeding,

-something about the English weather...

-It's this time of year.

..all the lettuces come out at the same time

and anyone who comes to the house, just complete strangers,

you give them handfuls of beans and peas and lettuces.

-But this is... I'm just going to...

-But the courgettes are great.

-Wonderful.

-They go all year round and crawl across the lawn

-and keep producing.

-And so simple to grow.

-Yeah.

If people are worried about growing stuff in a garden, they're easy.

Very easy, and it's nice to have the flowers as well.

Exactly. The Italians love the flowers.

For some reason, I don't know why, but in the UK,

I don't know what we do with all the flowers,

we must send them over to Italy, I don't know, but we should keep them.

-They're delicate. You need to just pluck from the plant...

-As they are.

..and put them in the batter.

So I've got my, er, chicken breast, which is escalope,

which is the term for sort of most white meats.

Escalope of pork or veal, of course, which is the most famous one really.

I've just basically batted it all out, flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

These are the Japanese breadcrumbs.

They go much more crisp when you're cooking them.

Why are they sort of longer? They're like fibre.

They dry the bread and shave them, like that.

-Oh, it's grated?

-Yeah, it's grated and produces a really crisp crumb.

Now, don't be frightened about the oil in here.

Just you need to put a fair amount. Often, when people do escalopes,

you'll burn the crumbs, cos you haven't got enough oil in there.

Put plenty of oil in there.

Meanwhile, I'll chop the rest of my ingredients.

But apart from your veg plot,

you've been a busy person doing new programmes,

one of which is out later in the year,

which is close to sort of my heart, really -

Castle Howard, in the old Brideshead Revisited.

I was actually brought up there for all my life, basically.

Yeah, that's amazing. What a beautiful place.

Beautiful, huge garden and woods and the lake and the house...

-Isn't it the biggest private house in England?

-In England, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's a huge, great place.

Brideshead made it famous. What's the idea of the new one?

-Is it a progression on from that or is it...?

-Well, obviously,

it's a very different form, because, um,

the Brideshead that we all loved and remember,

-if we're...old enough, um...

-I remember it.

I used to earn £50 pocket money to send chips to Jeremy Irons

-in his trailer.

-How old were you then?

-I was about six, I think.

-SHE LAUGHS

-That's a way of earning pocket money.

-Yes, well, I remember it.

I was a drama student and we were all just in awe of it and loved it

and looked up to those actors,

who I thought of as a sort of half a generation older than me,

Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick.

And, er, it seems like yesterday that it was on TV.

I think the whole world remembers it and, er,

I think they did it in a luxurious kind of 13 hours or something.

-So when it's transposed to film...

-Yeah.

-..it's two hours at the most,

-so it's going to be, er, really...

-And you did...?

Jeremy Brock, who did the screenplay, adapted it really beautifully,

because he didn't try to tell the whole story of the book.

-Yeah.

-He took a strand, the essence of it,

and it's focussed on that, but I think it'll be very good...

-Coming out at the end of the year?

-..because the cast are... Yeah.

The three young people are fantastic. I mean,

we'll never forget Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick,

but these young ones are terrific and I think they're actually

rather more precisely close to the characters in the book.

Great, look forward to seeing that.

And something else you're doing at the moment.

I mean, a big passion of yours is the stage.

And the play you're in. Tell us about that.

-Well, I'm doing the best role I've ever had in stage or film...

-Really?

..and, er, it's one of the... It's a Rattigan play,

who I think is, er, one of the greatest directors, I mean, writers

in the English theatre.

This is called The Deep Blue Sea, yeah?

This is considered his greatest play, The Deep Blue Sea.

He's up there with Ibsen and, um,

Tennessee Williams, I think. He's our...our version of them.

-Great for actors, great characters, great detail.

-What's the story?

It's about...

overwhelming sexual passion. GIGGLING

-Right, moving on to our escalope!

-You like that? Ooh!

LAUGHTER

-You're going to come and see it!

-Marcus has perked up!

-Yes!

-That's sold it in one sentence!

-He's all ears!

LAUGHTER

Moving on to our escalope, which we've got in here,

I'm just going to quickly...

I've got my courgettes, tomatoes, bit of rosemary in there,

very sort of Italian-y stuff.

This chicken is now cooked.

-See that? This is a serious, serious portion.

-Fantastic!

It's cooked. We'll drain this oil out a touch.

And then, last minute, I'm going to throw in this mixture here.

We've got a bit of onion, some garlic, gherkins,

parsley, capers...

OIL SIZZLES

The whole lot go in and instantly make a little sauce to go with it.

So just quickly saute them off.

In we go with the capers. I'll move that off to one side.

I'm just amazed you can have a conversation while you're doing this.

That's what I can't do.

-We call it multi-tasking, don't we?

-Men can't do that.

A bit of that, salt and pepper.

A bit of the old black pepper, bit of the old in there.

A bit of salt.

I've got lemon juice in there as well, which I love.

But you just basically saute.

This is great with beef and stuff, this simple little sauce, but...

It's just wonderful, got the flavours of the lemon,

it cuts through the breadiness of the escalope.

And that escalope's cooked as well.

And then, of course, to keep it Italian-y...

we've got the courgettes and the tomatoes. Nothing fancy.

There we have it.

-Done.

-Wow! Is that for me?

-That's for you. Just for you.

-Fantastic.

-All for you. And I'll get...

-I'm not going to share it with anyone?

-No, forget them!

-Dive in! Tell us what you think.

-Do you know, this is, um...

You know the classic dish of Milan, where I'm from, is, um, the...

-Milanese?

-Exactly.

-Exactly.

Which would be veal.

Yeah, which is veal, but this is chicken and cooked

in those Japanese breadcrumbs. I think they're great, those.

-The Japanese breadcrumbs are a great idea.

-They're great, aren't they?

-Like that?

-Mmm, very much. Is it just normal bread?

-Japanese breadcrumbs, and they shave it.

-Shave it?

-There you go.

Now, if you're looking for inspiration for your Sunday lunch,

then here's James Tanner with a great suggestion.

Er, so local, seasonal, you know, really in season this sort of food.

-Very much so.

-What are we cooking?

-Spring lamb loin, some wild garlic,

-some flour and butter, make a choux mix.

-Yeah.

-Choux potato mix.

Brioche crust, maple syrup and that kind of thing.

-First off?

-If you could start on the garlic.

-I'll grab myself a knife.

-Now, this is wild garlic.

-Yes.

I don't know if you've seen it before?

-Funny enough, I went and picked some last week.

-There you go.

-You break it.

-I was picking that one...

-Was you really?

-Love it!

-Isn't it garlicky?

-Wild garlic's fantastic.

-LAUGHS:

-Cos it's garlic!

-When you do pick it, though,

pick it away from the pathside, cos dogs have a habit of...

-I was walking my dogs at the time.

-..cocking their legs against it.

-So here we go.

-Loin of lamb.

-I'll just do enough for one.

We oiled the lamb up.

It's removed any sinew from it and it's the loin, so the back saddle.

There's two that run down there. Two of that, some squashed up garlic.

-It's basically the piece of meat before lamb chops are cut.

-Exactly.

Exactly that. So I'll wash my hands off.

And you get seven lamb chops from a piece that sort of size.

Right, I've got my butter and the wild garlic. Mix that together.

That's unsalted butter. Let's season it up a tiny tad.

In there with the wild garlic,

salt and pepper, with the lamb, we're sealing it off,

a dry, hot non-stick pan.

-Yeah.

-And you want this - a nice browny colour, seal it all over.

In the meantime, I've got another pan on

and we add some water to it. A touch of butter as well.

This is the base for our potatoes, OK?

So you just want the two to start to melt together.

We're going to make a choux mixture with the flour.

-This is the potato?

-It is indeed.

-A choux potato.

-Rolling up our butter there.

Tell us about your restaurant, then. Two down there. This is a third one.

The third is called the Kitchen Cafe, a brilliant little cafe concept

on the Barbican, below our brasserie, the Barbican Kitchen.

Really, really nice. Just simple pastries, cakes, sandwiches,

delivery service, that kind of thing. It was great fun. We took over...

We took over the premises and took it as a white shell and kitted it out.

I really enjoy the design side of stuff and it was a brilliant opportunity doing that.

-Good stuff.

-Next up to the lamb - we've got to cook it in real time.

Mmm, look! Spring carrots!

Get away with them!

-Choux pastry.

-Right, choux pastry,

so I've just melted the butter and the water.

We've added the flour and you just cook it out

until it just starts to leave the side of the pan.

Now I made this last week for Lenny Henry. We made, um...

-You'd have like that.

-Chocolate eclairs.

-Eclairs.

-I saw it, it was really good.

-Chocolate eclairs.

So there, it's left the side of the pan. Now, at this stage,

we've got a little mixer on the back. In that goes.

We run the mixer now.

-And we need to do this to cool it down.

-Right.

-OK?

-If it's too hot, it'll cook the eggs.

-Right.

The lamb's gone in and we'll turn it halfway through the cooking process.

It'll be served pink today. Leave it longer if you want it more well done.

-It's quick to cook.

-Very much so.

So now, I'll crack a few eggs up. In they go.

In the meantime, you've got flat-leaf parsley.

-This is just normal supermarket-bought brioche.

-Yeah.

Blitz it all up and this is the base for our crust.

So, a lot going on with all this machinery. In with the eggs.

SOME LAUGHTER

The machine will mix the eggs in and, to that as well,

we've got some pre-done mashed potato, OK? Cold mash.

-Are they boiled or baked?

-Boiled and then riced.

-When I say riced, mashed up, put through a potato ricer.

-OK.

-So these go in.

-Is it true, when you make mash,

that you should leave it and then, afterwards, add the milk and butter?

-Mash it and then...?

-No.

OK, right. Wow...awkward!

LAUGHTER

-No, you... As soon as... You want a potato ricer, really.

-Right.

So when you push it through, it rices up nicely.

-You don't want to use a masher or you get lumps.

-OK.

Put it through a potato ricer. They're, like, a tenner.

-That's not too bad.

-Then add cream and butter and that sort of stuff.

So there we go. This is what you end up with.

EVERYONE CHATTERS

So, with the potato, you want to serve it cold, OK?

All you do is, I'm putting it on a tray,

putting a bit of plastic film over the top.

The reason is, it stops it from getting a skin and a crust.

-That's the only reason, OK?

-In the fridge?

-Please, thank you.

-In the fridge.

-I'm going to check my old lamb.

A little shake out and you want to turn it

-halfway through the cooking process.

-A couple of minutes, two minutes.

Right, OK, so we leave that to cook through.

The carrots are roasting, taking a wonderful flavour.

Now, over to the spuds. This is where it's a little bit fiddly.

You can use lots of different fillings for this.

If you can cut tiny little pieces of that.

-Half a teaspoon is fantastic.

-There you go.

All we're going to do now is flour the tips and palms of our hands.

Take some of the cold pastry...

and just create a little disc, OK.

You flour your hands so it doesn't stick.

So you get it like this. Now, you can use over the course of the year...

I like hazelnut, red wine, butter, shallots.

-You can change all the different fillings.

-All right.

But you must create a seal otherwise they'll pop on you.

-And you don't want them to pop, James, do you?

-No.

-LAUGHTER

-No!

-So we're making dough balls?

-James, it's choux pastry! JODIE LAUGHS:

-It's choux pastry.

-Does it taste like dough balls?

-It's dough balls.

-No, they don't taste like dough balls, love, all right?

-Do they not?

-Right.

-The dough balls.

OK, so, as I said, but really, really great on flavour,

especially the different fillings you can put in there,

so we're going to do about, er, do another two.

-Push the boat out, James!

-Why not?

-Let's do another two!

Cook these around 170. Not too hot, cos it won't cook the inside.

You want them light and fluffy. The idea is the filling melts

and pops as you eat it and it's just really great flavour.

So there we go. James, if you'd like to finish that...

-Doing that.

-..and I'll go over to my lamb.

So, apart from that, tell us about your book, then,

cos I'm interested about that.

Was it published in five different countries or something like that?

-Yeah, it's hit five countries now, which, um, is nice, obviously.

-Yeah!

-And, um...

-Going well.

-Really well.

I'm going to start working on another one soon as well,

which is, you know, a book's a lot of work.

A lot of organisation and prep and, um, it's, er, it's great.

The one that's currently out is called Take 5.

Simple five-ingredient dishes, all that kind of thing.

-Really, really, um...

-I've pushed the boat out. I've done six.

-Is that all right?

-Why not?

-You could Take 6 next.

-There you go.

-Then Take 7.

Now I'm just finishing the lamb off and the reason why is

I want to make sure it's cooked, so it's nice and pink.

We've got a touch of maple syrup, a touch of Dijon mustard.

Grab myself a spoon.

In they go.

And we're just going to give it all a little mix up.

You can use honey, if mustard and maple syrup doesn't float your boat,

-but I think it works really well.

-A little bit of sweetness.

Yeah, it is, definitely.

-And the Dijon, you know, you get that sweet and sour taste to it.

-Hmm.

-The lamb, here we go. Going to put the lamb on.

-Little mint sauce?

-Yeah.

Deglaze the pan. This is sherry vinegar.

-Again, because it's got sweetness, you want something a bit sharp.

-Yeah.

And then, here we go. Get the lamb.

Obviously, clean hands, clean board and all that jazz.

If people haven't got sherry vinegar, what can they use?

You could use cider, red wine,

go back to the old school and use a bit of balsamic,

-but personally, I think that's so '80s, darling.

-Really?

-So what we do...

-Just Take 5!

-We're going to roll the lamb off.

-Yeah.

-Really, really don't be shy. Get a load of crust on it.

-A little bit more there on the top.

-Pop that round.

-Thank you.

-Pop that back in the oven.

-James is going to kept that warm on the top.

The sauce is reducing, rapidly boil it really, really quickly.

The potatoes are cooking, so it's time to put the dish together.

-Yeah.

-The carrots. I know you don't like 'em,

but with the rosemary and the garlic and the other flavours, it's nice.

-And this time of year, just so, so sweet.

-Yeah.

-Added sweetness to them.

-The donkeys love 'em!

-LAUGHTER

-LAUGHS:

-Donkeys love 'em!

-Serving donkeys baby carrots.

-Oh!

A couple of knobs of butter go in there.

You want cold butter otherwise it will split your sauce if not.

And just shake the pan. I'm going to season it up. Touch of sea salt.

-I'll finish that off.

-Brilliant.

-You get your lamb.

Now, regards to the lamb, we've got the nice crust, as I said before.

As you can see, just nice and pink.

Ideally, I'd rest it for another minute or so.

And don't worry if bits of crust come off, that's perfectly fine.

-Yeah.

-Just give it a little sprinkle,

-again, tiny bit of...

-Dough balls are ready. Sorry!

I mean choux buns...things.

We're just going to lay the lamb across...

like so.

James, you got a spoon there? Thanks, my man, look at this.

You make a fantastic commis chef!

-Just get on the plate!

-All right!

Some of the sauce... You don't want a thick, gloopy sauce,

because you've got the syrup, remember? Yeah.

To finish things off,

we're going to add some of these lovely little crispy

choux pastry balls.

I'm going to chuck a couple more on, because you're going to have a little munch, yeah?

Ladies and gentlemen, there it is.

It's a taste of spring on a plate.

So, it's maple, mustard,

brioche-crusted lamb,

with a nice sherry-vinegar sauce and wild garlic choux Kiev potatoes.

-Very nice.

-As easy as that.

Great stuff, there you go. Looks great. Have a seat over here.

-Now, if you dive into one of those choux pastry things...

-OK.

-Do they pop open?

-Well, yeah, the idea is you just...

-Ready.

-Oh, and it does!

-Look at that!

They are like a dough ball, though, come on.

But they should be quite strong with garlic with that.

Then try the lamb. The maple syrup is a really nice touch with that.

It's the key to it, because obviously it acts like a glue,

and it really helps that crust stick

and the sweetness with the mustard...

I think with spring lamb, it's fantastic.

I notice our Geordie's passed on the carrots anyway.

If you can't find wild garlic,

then have a look out for something called wet garlic instead

and you can download that recipe along with all the others

from the show on our website.

That's bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Now, here's Valentine Warner with some summertime food...

Summer for me has to include

many helpings of tangy, tongue-twisting blackcurrants

and I've come to see a community of nuns

who aim to be self-sufficient in everything

from broad beans to blackcurrants in their summer garden.

Here in the Oxfordshire countryside

sits the Holy Trinity Monastery,

home to three Benedictine nuns.

Following the rule of St Benedict,

a man who believed that food and hospitality were a sacred part of monastic life,

seasonal produce is always used in the celebratory feast days

that dot their religious calendar.

-Hello. Dame Lucy, hello.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Dame Theresa.

-That's right.

-Hello.

-Hello, welcome.

-Dame Catherine, hi.

Three epicurean sisters, I believe.

Oh, hardly!

But we do enjoy our food.

And you especially like the blackcurrants, I believe?

-Yes, they're great.

-Are you the ice-cream maker?

Especially when you get them straight from the garden.

Sister Theresa is renowned for her sweet tooth

and on St Benedict's Day, just a few days away,

it's customary for the nuns to serve up a delicious summer pudding,

bursting with blackcurrants.

But there's a problem.

THUNDER CRASHES

This year's crop has failed.

Spectacularly.

-Someone hasn't smiled very kindly on these.

-No.

They had to be moved last year

and then of course, we had lots of brilliant sunshine,

followed by a storm, and we picked some and left a few

on the bushes, just to show they do produce blackcurrants,

but they are rather... rather pathetic.

This does present me with a certain amount of problems.

I wanted to cook a summer pudding with lots of blackcurrants in it,

and this is problematic!

An alternative source of supply will have to be found.

I think a bit more praying over those....

Can't you do any miracles?

Afraid not, no.

Alas, these nuns committed a gardening no-no

when they relocated their blackcurrants.

Blackcurrant bushes do not like being moved,

but they should flourish again next year. For now,

Sister Lucy and I will have to visit the local pick-your-own,

but if you can't get to one,

head to your local market or supermarket instead.

So, how much does Dame Theresa like her blackcurrants?

A lot! Yeah. She's got a real sweet tooth.

Well, Sister Theresa is in for a treat,

because my St Benedict's Day summer pudding

is going to be full to bursting

with wonderfully tangy blackcurrants.

-We want the really...

-big, fat juicy ones...

-big dark ones.

-They're vibrant...

-And strong.

Quality-control, will you do a taste?

It's sharp and...

..perfumed and...

full of summer.

You can feel your body taking all the things it needs. They really wake me up, blackcurrants.

Blackcurrants are a veritable super fruit.

They have more Vitamin C

than any other natural food source.

So what better excuse do you need for a second helping?

I'm surprised there's not more people out picking these.

-I think they're probably buying them in the supermarket.

-Oh, dear!

I'd much rather be here than in aisle six.

Sister Lucy, I think our work here is done.

-It is?

-Mission completed.

I think we've gone from none currants to some.

I know what Sister Lucy makes of these blackcurrants,

but what will Sister Catherine think of our haul, back at the monastery?

Eat a blackcurrant and tell me what it makes you think of.

-Summers in the South of France.

-Summers in the South of France!

-Not a bad thing to think of!

-It's a deep and intriguing flavour.

Very complex, really, aren't they, blackcurrants? That lovely scent.

And that tart hit.

That tart blackcurrant hit

will work wonderfully with the sweeter strawberries and raspberries

that I'll also be adding to my summer pud.

While Sister Catherine washes the fruit,

I line a pudding basin with clingfilm.

Put half of the fruit into a saucepan

and set the remainder to one side. You'll need it later.

Sister Catherine adds sugar and water,

a good glug of white wine

and leaves to simmer,

whilst I slice a loaf to line the pudding basin.

So, Dame Catherine, you tie what you're doing in the Church

-to also the way you eat as well?

-Certainly, yes.

-During Lent, we're fasting every day...

-Yeah.

..and during summer, with the big feasts,

we tend to have special things associated with particular days.

-Yeah.

-So, we've just had the feast of John the Baptist

in midsummer, and we had the first of the new potatoes,

which is lovely, and just before that we had a feast of English nuns,

and we had our first dish of English cherries.

Ah, something's sizzling!

-How long's that been going for? About five minutes?

-Yes.

Once the fruit has collapsed,

-strain through a sieve.

-Stand well back.

Then put the juice back on the heat

and reduce to a gloriously thick and fruity syrup.

-I haven't made too much mess.

-No, no, no, no. We don't mind mess.

-Are you a messy cook?

-I'm very messy,

-but I do clear up as I go along.

-Yes, yes.

-I thought messy cooks didn't clear up!

-I have to in here, there's not much room!

-Can you smell that heady, fruity...

-Wonderful.

-Essence of summer.

-Essence of summer.

Next, paint the bread with the syrup and line the pudding basin,

making sure you overlap the slices.

Do people behave bashfully because you're nuns?

-Sometimes.

-Do they talk to you in a different way, when you want to say, "Look, say it like it is"?

Sometimes they do or sometimes they try to shock us,

but that doesn't usually work!

Are you unshockable?

I think any good nun's unshockable, really.

Take the raw fruit you set aside earlier

and mix it into the cooked fruit

along with the velvety red syrup.

Why do you like to have half your fruit cooked and half uncooked?

Because you need to cook some fruit to get the juice

and the uncooked fruit will make it more textural again.

Then load up the bread-lined basin

with the wonderfully fruity filling.

I've gone blackcurrant heavy on this one as well.

Cut some bread to make a lid for your pud,

then take a round piece of cardboard covered in foil,

use weights to push it down and chill in the fridge.

Making the St Benedict's Day summer pudding has been a real team effort,

but will sweet-toothed Sister Theresa

think it divine or diabolical?

Da-da! Da-da!

Is that your trumpet bugle?

-Wow!

-Isn't that lovely?

-That really looks good.

-Yes, you need to cut into it.

-I'm quaking in my boots.

-You needn't!

It's either going to be a blessing or doomsday for me.

For what we are about to receive,

may the Lord make us truly grateful.

ALL: Amen.

Wow!

That's lovely!

It's scrumptious!

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah... #

It's lovely, it really is.

That must be the best summer pudding I've ever had.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Gosh!

It's a pleasure. Any more for seconds?

Oh, very rich...

SISTER THERESA LAUGHS

-You'd tempted to have a little more?

-Yes, I will be tempted!

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 on today's Best Bites...

You can see where it all began with our very first Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge

between Paul Rankin and Antonio Carluccio.

Ching He Huang is great at making easy Chinese food

and this Sichuan pepper beef with five spice gravy

would be perfect to try at home yourself.

TV gadget expert Suzi Perry faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did she get a hot chocolate fondant

with lavender and white chocolate ice cream that was for Food Heaven,

or a pistachio and fig steamed pudding that was for Food Hell?

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

Now, here's Prue Leith with a simple but spicy soup suggestion.

Great to have you on the show. Welcome to the show.

-What are we cooking, Prue?

-We are cooking...

-Vietnamese, is that right?

Yes, Vietnamese, sweet and sour. And the sweet and sour comes from the fruit

because do you see that this star fruit, for example, is pretty green?

-Yeah.

-So it'll be sour. And pineapple's pretty sour.

Not the best thing if you eat it raw. But if you cook it...

-It's a useless fruit, really. Just pretty.

-My dad used to call it the fruit of the devil.

But it's pretty good in this, I tell you, because it's nice and sour.

And tomatoes, and it has tamarind,

which is that pod I was talking about.

-Fantastic stuff, yeah.

-And pepper, of course.

-Chilli...

-Chilli, spring onions and coriander.

-Yeah, the usual things.

-And this is that nam pla, that Thai...

-Fish sauce.

-What are going to start off with, then?

-And prawns, beautiful prawns.

OK, so we're going to start off by just cooking down

a spoon or two of tomatoes.

So, why Vietnamese, then? Is it a country where you've visited and you love that type of food?

Last summer, I went around Vietnam, leading a gastronomic tour,

which was a joke because it was the blind leading the blind

because I had never been to Vietnam.

-And I had...

-It's a place I've never been to either.

No, it's a fascinating, fascinating place.

I'm going to keep a few of the little pretty stars from the small end

of the star fruit for the top.

-And I'm just going to chop the rest up.

-Is it mainly fish diet?

-What is it?

-They eat a lot of fish. It's very healthy.

I mean, this soup is just amazingly healthy.

I just don't want them to brown, I just want them to soften.

-How are you getting on?

-I'm getting there. Sorry, Chef, I'm getting there.

I need a little bit of lemon juice.

She's started already. Is she like this on your show?

You're getting off lightly, mate!

I'm famous for being bossy, that's what I am.

So, how did it all start for you, then?

Well, I was brought up in South Africa

which, by the way, means that I love watermelon.

So I am going to have a quarrel with Ben there.

But it started off,

how did it start off before you did the restaurant and stuff?

I went to France for two years.

And got completely hooked on food.

I mean, you can't live in France for two years and not end up loving food.

In with the pineapple. Oops!

And then came back?

And then came back, came to England, started my catering company,

thought I have to start a cookery school

otherwise I'll never get anybody who cooks like I want them to cook!

Was the cookery school after the restaurant opened?

Yeah, I opened the restaurant first.

The fact is that when you start life,

I think everybody wants a restaurant, really.

But in the beginning I didn't have any money for a restaurant,

so I started catering. You know, going round cooking.

I started in a bed-sitter

and I used to go round cooking people's dinners.

So you mash this up a bit.

Also, the practicality side of a restaurant is really the chefs.

It's quite difficult to find good chefs. Is that the reason why you started your cookery school?

Yeah, because I just wanted young people who wouldn't make...

You know, catering colleges at that time used to teach people

how to carve turnips into chrysanthemums

and die them purple, and radishes into roses.

I always thought God made quite a good radish. You don't need to turn it into a hand grenade,

which is what chefs used to do in those days.

-Anyway, listen, I want to talk to you about the stock.

-OK, fire away.

Ideally - I mean, you can use any good chicken stock,

but this chicken stock has been made in the Vietnamese way

which is just you boil up chicken bones with leeks and ginger.

-So, just leeks and ginger.

-That's all there is, there's no onion?

Perhaps we ought to strain it. I don't want to get any leeks and it.

How long would you cook this for?

I do it for hours and hours because I like very clear stock.

If you cook it very slowly and don't bubble it,

-you get beautifully clear stock.

-A good 12 hours or something?

I put it in the bottom of the Aga, but you can just do it four hours I suppose.

But you can get a jar of very good fresh stock from the supermarket.

-They're good, those.

-But you do need a fresh one.

I don't like the powdered one so much.

-There you go. Dive into that.

-Where's my chilli?

-Oh, you've chopped my chilli.

-Chopped the chilli already.

So this is the bit that's going to go in at the end,

and the prawns because I don't want them to cook for more than about a minute.

-I still think we need more stock.

-Sorry, Chef!

-Come on!

-Have I forgotten anything? No, I haven't.

Now, you're like Ben. You're forever working.

The latest thing you're doing - well, you've been involved in for quite some time,

is the schools and particularly getting kids to eat proper food.

I know. I chair this thing called the School Food Trust

which is actually a government quango.

After Jamie Oliver woke up the whole world

to the fact that some children - some kids were getting well fed at school,

but a lot were getting the famous Turkey Twizzlers and other rubbish.

So, my organisation

is charged with making sure that schools

now do the healthy dinners they have to by law, and also to get teachers

realising it's really important getting children to like the food.

It's no good giving them healthy food if they don't like it.

-Do you think a lot of that starts at home?

-It should,

but the truth of the matter is it's very difficult to get to parents.

We do try very hard with parents.

The lottery has given us a lot of money and we're running

cookery clubs after school, which will be for parents and for children.

And we'll have 5,000 of them.

And we've got training centres for school cooks

so that the food will be delicious as well as nutritious.

-And so there's a lot going on.

-Busy woman.

Yeah, but it's really important.

I mean, if we don't get our children eating properly, you know,

what hope for the future?

In with the prawns, please.

-And now we'll do one more minute. Just until they're pink.

-All these?

Yeah, put the lot in. They're so good, aren't they delicious?

They're so much nicer if they start from raw.

But these don't take very long. Literally one minute or something?

As soon as they're pink, they're done.

You can tell Prue's an executive chef, can't you?

She just stands there and stirs everything.

I tell you what, the last time I cooked live on TV

was six years ago on this programme.

-So, live on television is not my natural mate.

-But writing is.

-You're keen writer, aren't you?

-I'm a novelist.

-Not just cookery books.

-No.

-So, you're writing fiction?

-I write fiction.

My latest one's called The Gardener

and it's all about gardening, not cooking.

-But the first two were all about cooking. So, I'll keep going.

-OK.

And I suppose it was the Great British Menu

-that brought you back into television, was it, then?

-It was.

The thing I love about the Great British Menu, it's about real skill.

I mean, guys who can really do this, even better than you and I.

-Too right.

-Much better than me and a little bit better than you.

-That's nice to know, isn't it?

Prue, you're really, really tactful. You've made a friend for life.

You see that camera there,

you've got one hour and 15 minutes to fill in. Off you go.

THEY LAUGH

You should come on the Great British Menu.

I haven't been invited. I'd love to come on, actually,

because I've been nicking dishes off all the chefs for ages.

That's good. The other thing I love is that

there's so much emphasis on the produce.

Matthew, as you know, has been all over the country,

looking at what happens.

There's so much good stuff going on in good food. Right, we're done.

-We're done? Salt-and-pepper in it or not?

-I've done that.

-OK.

Where's the ladle thing?

-There you go.

-Not quite cooked.

-Nearly there.

-Isn't it pretty?

The great thing about this, you could actually freeze this.

I'll just put the tomatoes in. You can freeze it, funnily enough.

Obviously the fruit doesn't stay as crisp as that,

but I've had it frozen. I don't freeze it with the prawns,

but I sometimes make lots for a party and keep extra.

And the juice is terrific. And then you just have it as a healthy soup.

-Looks cooked to me.

-Good.

-Stick it in the bowl,

-or do you want me to do that?

-No. I had better do something!

Just a little bit.

You could mix the prawns and chicken.

You could put chicken instead of prawns.

They often do do chicken in Vietnam instead of prawns.

I've never tried star fruit in a soup, I have to say.

The pineapple is a fantastic flavour in this.

-It looks very colourful anyway.

-I like the colour.

-Remind us what that is.

Vietnamese prawn and pineapple soup which is usually called

-sweet and sour soup.

-Easy as that.

She said, "I did it very, very well." Right. Over here.

-Dive into that, Ben.

-That looks so good.

-Come on over here, Prue.

Dive in. Tell us what you think.

I can't remember if I remembered to put the nam pla in, did I?

-Mmm.

-Excuse me.

-Sorry, Chef.

-What kind of a commis are you?

You were supposed to remind me.

-It's got a bit of a kick to it.

-Improve it here a bit.

-Give it a stir.

-Anyone that's tuned in, that's not vinegar.

It's Thai fish sauce.

-Very tasty.

-Put it in between the two.

You don't have to use just prawns.

You can use salmon, all kinds of stuff.

The Vietnamese tend to make it with chicken or prawns or any seafood.

-Is this a popular dish?

-You get it everywhere.

You must have a bit of fruit as well.

They have two staple dishes.

This is one and the other is noodles at the bottom

and chicken or beef, which you put in raw cos they're tiny thin bits.

The hot stock cooks it. It's as fresh as a daisy.

I can feel a Great British Menu moment coming on.

I think we might have to run a little criticism over this.

Don't do that.

I'm stood in the middle.

That was another great recipe from our back catalogue.

Here's a highlight for the omelette aficionados.

This is the very first Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge

we ever held.

It was between Antonio Carluccio and Paul Rankin.

Let's see where it all began.

You can choose from your set ingredients in front of you.

What I want is a three-egg omelette. The record is about 40 seconds.

There is not an omelette in 40 seconds.

I want an omelette. I don't want scrambled eggs.

You must use three eggs.

You've got cream, cheese, a little bit of butter,

-but the time stops...

-He's started.

Let him try. I'm not arguing with him.

-The time stops when the omelette hits the plate. You ready?

-Yeah.

Three, two, one, go!

Let's get cooking.

This bit will be quite interesting.

-Omelette's not really an Italian thing.

-No.

-He's ahead of you here.

Paul, what do you normally put in your omelette?

What's the secret of a good omelette?

-The secret of a good omelette is to cook it quickly.

-Burnt butter?

No, just noisette butter.