Episode 57 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Grab a cuppa and settle down for a spread of fantastic food

on today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We have dipped into the Saturday Kitchen archives

and raided the BBC store cupboard to bring you a real feast this morning.

Liverpool lad Aiden Byrne cooks venison baked in bison grass.

Yes, you heard it right. Bison grass.

With beetroot, figs and chocolate.

South London's finest chef Adam Byatt shares

the secrets of making a smashing seasonal cob nut gnocchi dish.

He serves it with delicious Scottish girolles and a pretty decent fried egg made by me.

Fresh faced Jose Pizzaro serves up a Spanish classic.

He cooks beef fillets with sherry, piquillo peppers

and the best mashed potato you will ever see, mainly because I made it.

The presenter and property guru Sarah Beeney faced her food heaven and food hell.

Would she get food heaven -

smoked haddock fishcakes with wilted watercress and beurre blanc? Or food hell,

dark chocolate and coffee terrine with a rich coffee creme anglais?

See what she gets at the end of the show.

Before we take a nibble at those tasty treats,

New Zealand's culinary hero Nic Watt shows off what is great about Japanese cooking.

-Good to have you on the show, Nic.

-Thank you.

-Good to have you on.

Marie has been there, I have always tried to get a table but can never get in.

These things can be arranged.

The whole place is full of women.

I am sure he vets them all before they come in. What are you cooking?

I have the sea bream, it will be in a sweet white miso which

we will turn into a ryotei miso, which is a refined miso.

We are going to baste it, for about 2 hours,

you can leave it for up to 24 but 2 hours is best.

This is what we are going to achieve, just to show people,

we need to get this into the grill to cook. But we will show you how.

It has been marinated, shall we pop it on to the grill now?

It is going straight in, yes. Now, sea bream, quite an unusual fish for people to use but fantastic.

Quite a meaty fish as well.

It is perfect for this, it has enough flesh,

it has enough meat to take on the marinade so it is absolutely perfect.

Fire away, then.

What we have is a sweet white miso here,

otherwise known as saikyo miso.

-Explain to us how this is made.

-There are many different types.

This is a soy bean so they soak the soy beans in water,

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

Like making blue cheese. There is a culture they add-in.

Then they allowed it to ferment.

There is a real art to this, like winemaking, it is a prized speciality.

Definitely, some of them can be as fresh as 3 months old,

some can be as fresh as 3 to 5 years old.

Like a wine, you get a stronger...

The darker it gets the stronger it gets.

-Yeah, you get a more mature flavour coming true.

-So we have that.

We have that. We have a little bit of sugar.

-We will add a bit of mirrin.

-This is what the British palate likes,

-they love that sweetness with it as well.

-Absolutely, we are bringing that in.

We have some soy, you can use...

-a low sodium or dark soy, this is light soy here.

-So it is saltier.

Yeah. We are going to add a little bit of sake now. A little bit more.

-A little bit more.

-There are ladies, we need more sake.

We are just simply going to incorporate all of this together.

It is very easy.

The beauty of this, I mean, it is

really versatile, as we have sea bream here.

This dish is a twist on classic that you trained on in the late '90s,

-at a very famous restaurant, Nobu.

-Back in the day.

Their famous trademark dish was the blackened cod.

That was back in my youth.

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

I made a conscious decision not to, and that is how this dish came about,

because everybody judges a modern Japanese restaurant on black cod.

I knew before they even looked at my food they would say,

"Can I have one black cod? Can I have one black cod?"

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

Now I have black cod on and that is absolutely fine,

our black cod is unique to any other in London

because it is done on the robata grill,

everybody else does their black cod in the oven, so we get...

The robata grill is the charcoal grill you're famous for cooking.

Open charcoal grill, so you get that beautiful flame grilled flavour.

You are oiling this, why are you oiling it?

Just a touch of oil

because essentially we are curing the fish, and the curing process

is a drying out process, the same as smoking or gravilax.

-Is this just olive oil?

-You can use olive oil or veg oil.

We are just adding a touch so when we cure it, it doesn't dry out the fish.

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

We are just going to pop that in there.

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

-I'll pop that in there.

-I will swap that over.

-So this has gone in for a couple of hours?

About two hours is good,

so then what I have here is I have taken the top and tail of a lemon

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

Yoshi-san is what?

Yoshi-san has a story behind it. Yoshi is my head chef

Roka and because this is normally done on the robata

the robata naturally holds the fish in its shape.

When I was test cooking this for the show I was doing it under the grill and found it kept slipping.

Yoshi, in his pure Japanese way,

came up to me, gave me a lemon and a couple of slices,

and hooked it up for me without saying anything and just showed me.

-He was thinking something, though.

-Absolutely.

And showed me that you can just simply add a little lemon.

Why do you do this?

To stop it from sliding down the skewer and hold its shape.

The reason we want to curl it all up is so we get nice caramelisation on these tips.

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

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

If you wanted a stronger flavour, you can put it on for longer?

Not so much a stronger, if you want a stronger flavour you would adapt the miso.

-Change that, yes.

-Like so.

-It gives it a nice little ripple.

It gives it that nice little ripple.

That is what we start off with,

and that is what is going under the grill. Could you barbecue this?

Barbecue is the first choice.

Absolutely, first choice, most definitely.

So we have red onion and beans, we will make a little bit of a pickle.

-How long has that been under? 2 or 3 minutes?

-2 or 3 minutes, yeah.

Do you turn it over or not?

No, in the barbecue you turn it over but in this circumstance just cook it.

-A bit longer.

-Definitely, a little bit longer.

We want a nice caramelisation,

that is why we keep these nice little,

we are not trying to rub it smooth, we want nice gullups of meat like that.

Is that a word? Gullups? Dollops?

-There is now.

-Can we put that in the Oxford dictionary?

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

Pickle, every country has their own pickle, I believe that the Indians started off with the first pickle.

-Was it the Indians?

-So about 5,000 years old.

-Really?

-Yes.

-I don't know how they found that out.

-It is probably carved in stone.

-Probably, yes.

-Hammered into the stone, bet you it works.

What I have is a bit of green chilli,

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

This is not the same as an English version of the pickle

which would be flour and what used to be cauliflower.

-This is simple and plain.

-It is a lighter pickle.

-Yes, simple and plain.

That might be getting ready soon.

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

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

-Was it?

You should be doing this then. What are we doing?

-Warming the sugar or dissolving it?

-Just dissolving it, that is it.

I am cooking my beans. I'll chop your tomatoes up as well.

That's an onion. Just pop that in year, now it is dissolved.

Give it a quick stir

A swirl. That is pretty good.

Just put that in there.

This, the reason we do this, it will change the colour of these, wont it?

They will go a beautiful, beautiful bright orange, lovely fresh colour.

-If we are going to do these, make them...

-A day in advance.

Straight in the fridge. It'll turn them a lovely pink colour.

Changes the colour nicely.

Look at that fish, we wanted to get that lovely colour as well.

Absolutely, we want to add a fresh squeeze of lemon juice over the top.

-Straight onto the grill like that, good for minutes?

-Five minutes, yes.

I guess it depends on the thickness of your sea bream.

That is a hot grill, if you do it at home it may be a little bit longer.

-That has a roaring hot grill.

-Tomatoes straight in?

Tomatoes in there, we are almost ready to dish it straight up.

-I will just get the beans.

-Give it a bit of a swirl.

These little French beans.

All I have done is top and tail them and cut them in half.

Give this a little stir.

It should be a really colourful, fresh...

That is the thing about your food, very simple.

-Fantastic flavours.

-A vibrant summer salad.

-Just great flavours.

Lovely beans in there, some chives on top that will give it that fresh, fresh flavour.

I think these will be the new trendy things,

supermarkets will pick on these,

because chefs are coming all over the place,

little baby pea shoots as well.

There are all sorts of wonderful things you can get now.

-Keep your hands, they are very hot, these things.

-Yes.

Just get a...spatula.

-Turn that off?

-Yes.

If people don't want to use sea bream they could use salmon.

It is so, so versatile, look at that.

-Last part of the exercise, like that.

-Nic, you are a genius.

Remind us what it is again.

We have sea bream in a sweet white miso

with a fresh red onion pickle, tomatoes and green beans.

Try it for Sunday lunch tomorrow, easy as that.

Looks fabulous. Smells fabulous, come on over here.

-Marie.

-Fantastic.

You get to dive into this. And you don't get a bill at the end.

Tell me what you think.

Like you said, you could use a variety of fish, salmon.

-Salmon works really well.

-Cod. Chicken, I suppose.

If you were to use chicken, I would follow the same base

and use a barley miso.

Barley miso has that more fruity flavour and is more fresh.

-A bit like the grain of the barley.

-What do you think?

-Oishii.

Totemo Oishii.

-Oishii desu? Arigatou gozaimasu.

-Whatever. What was that?

-Where you chatting each other up?

-In Japanese.

-I just said it was delicious. And he said thank you.

-There you go.

I didn't do Japanese in my school in Yorkshire.

-What do you think of that, girls?

-Lovely.

-Gorgeous, lovely.

-Yeah, superb.

Gorgeous, lovely, superb.

-What's that in Japanese?

-Oishii.

I told you that micro greens were going to be the next big thing,

and now everyone is using them.

You saw it here first.

Coming up, I will be preparing apple filled mini doughnuts

for Spooks actress Sophia Myles, but first, Rick Stein takes a trip

around the herb garden and shows us how to make the perfect roast pork.

I am in Galloway.

I can't tell you specifically where because I promised John the crayfish man I am going to see

that I would keep location secret.

Otherwise all and sundry would be swooping down here

and snaffling all of his lovely freshwater crayfish.

-Come out, doggie.

-Is there any in there?

-Poor, very poor.

-Oh, they're terrible. Is the water tepid?

-There are a few in there.

-They are vicious little devils.

-And these are American?

-These are American crayfish.

-What happened to all the local ones?

These have taken over and they have just eaten all,

the salmon and the sea trout, they have eaten all the eggs.

-They are stopping everything coming up.

-I'm feeling very brave here.

I know that David will want me to get nicked.

I just think they are very beautiful, they are so like a langoustine

and what is really nice is I have not actually written

a recipe for crayfish and generally what they are used for is garnish.

There is a classic French dish, quenelle de brochet, which is pike

made with a sauce made from freshwater crayfish.

They make a fantastic sauce, the shells turn bright red when you cook them.

Aoow!

LAUGHTER

-These gloves won't last long, they will nick them.

-Cut through it.

-You were waiting for that, weren't you?

-Divine retribution.

Evil little devils.

I love being out in the morning, working for an hour or two

and taking a meal home and taking something out of the wild.

You know, I mean,

I have lived in Yorkshire, Huddersfield, it is just a rat race.

I have been here 19 years and this is, I just love the peaceful.

And if I can get a meal for the family then that is why I do it.

John was telling me that his wife cooks them

and serves them with spaghetti.

I could not think of a better way of doing it myself.

So I took some of the crayfish and boiled them briefly,

about four minutes in salted water.

I lifted them out and drained them off.

They are very easy to get the meat out of,

pull the head away from the tail and crack them.

The shells are quite brittle so they pull apart very easily.

You have one lovely succulent piece of meat.

I took a pan and added some of oil and a bit of garlic.

Just let it sweat gently.

Then I added some chopped tomatoes which I had taken the seeds out of to

make them nice and dry and then a little splash of white wine.

I stirred that all together and that is it, the sauce.

I am just warming these crayfish tails, I certainly don't

want to cook them because they will not taste as delicate then.

As you can see they are extremely attractive and have a very good taste.

It is remarkable they are not more popular because our rivers

and lakes are teeming with them.

Funnily enough they are like grey squirrels,

most of the crayfish we get in this country are from America.

They were imported by mistake.

They are incredibly resilient little critters,

and what they do is actually crawl over land from one river to another.

In the space of about 15 or 20 years they have colonised everywhere,

which is a shame.

However, their great redeeming quality is that they taste so good.

I was just thinking there, as you can see,

they're incredibly aggressive. If they were the size of even Chalky,

they could probably take over the world.

Imagine going to a planet where there were Chalky-size crayfish in charge.

Oh dear, I have an watching too many science-fiction films.

A little lick of cream now, some salt & pepper and finally some torn basil.

I like tearing it like this because it keeps the flavour.

Stir that in at the last minute so you do not lose the flavour.

Then boil the pasta. Why do they always say boil the pasta so much water?

It is simple, you want the pasta to be clean tasting.

If you use a small amount of water it gets all floury

and the pasta looks a bit greasy.

Finally, just toss the pasta and the sauce together and serve.

I hope John or, more importantly, John's wife, will approve of it.

I have just arrived in Ludlow,

and I think you will agree that it is a quintessential English town.

More than that, it is very famous now for its great food shops.

And its restaurants.

This time, my food hero is not a beef producer,

not a cheese producer, he is a cook.

Sean Hill.

He has done more than anybody to put Ludlow on the gastronomic map of Britain.

It is a real market town.

It has market four days a week and it has got good cheese shops.

Most of all, it has very good meat and game.

This is a good one.

One of the reasons this is a good one is that they have their own abattoir.

They kill their own meat.

Not all organic, it doesn't have to be, but it is all good.

They make an effort.

We always have terrible food when we are travelling,

we do not use the good food guide. Why do you think?

Partly because people are willing to put up with it.

-They are happy with that.

-Why are they willing to put up with it?

We make all the TV programmes to convince them there is a better way,

This is a good sausage, this is good for sausages.

There is an off a lot of mediocre cooking.

People who aren't quite sure how things ought to taste,

cooking for people who aren't quite sure what it ought to taste like anyway.

That asparagus looks good, local to Ludlow. That is nice.

This top-class deli run by Maggie and Tracey

That is when I buy most of my cheese.

Chalky, will you stop coughing? He's not ill, it's a protest.

He does not like being on a lead. I don't think we can take him into a food shop.

This looks nice. Hello. It is very good to see a deli thriving.

They are hard work with supermarkets.

This is the Appleby, the only cheese made in Shropshire.

And this is Bell's Yorkshire blue, we filmed there.

Look at this.

This is the third good-looking butcher I have seen. Pickled brisket!

Not just that but really well hung chives of beef and oxtails, too.

And pigs totters.

This is how I imagine butcher shops to be,

they are not following any trend,

this is what they have been doing for generations.

This is a good vegetable shop called Farmers.

They grow lots of garlic around here, a man called Plant grows it.

-How's that for serendipity.

-Mr Farmer!

-Mr Plant growing garlic for Mr Farmer to sell.

All it needs is Noddy and Big Ears and you have the full set.

Chalky, come on. There's rabbits in here.

Oh dear, I wish I hadn't mentioned rabbits to Chalky.

In the Cotswolds I met up with this Judith Hann, she is well

known on the telly but is passionate about local food and her herb garden.

We have lots of thymes and hysspos all the marjorams are here.

But the favourite is lovage, that is my favourite.

I have a lot of it, more than I need.

That is incredibly fast-growing.

I chop it up with carrots when I cook them,

use it in salads and I will make some soup for you.

Chalky has absolutely no idea how much trouble he gets the end too.

He chases loads of rabbits and never gets any, which is good,

but today he is feeling lucky.

Judith makes her lovage soup by heating some oil in a casserole

and adding one large chopped onion and some potatoes.

She fries those off for a while and adds quite a lot of lovage.

You're worried it will be too lovage-y.

It will be all right, it loses its pungency when it cooks.

Then she adds chicken stock and freshly ground black pepper,

no salt, I notice.

I am of the salt party

but I note that the salt police are getting stronger.

She lets it simmer for 20 minutes, takes it off the heat

and pours into a liquidiser.

Fascinating flavour, lovage.

A member of the Umbelliferae family, like parsley, celery, coriander

and used in the Middle Ages as a love potion.

She puts it in a warm soup terrine, adds a lick of cream

and a few sliced luggage leaves and lunch is served.

After the soup we had well flavoured Gloucester old spot, with great crackling.

I know I rattle on about happy pigs, a rootlin' and a tootlin',

but I reckon you can taste the difference.

Judith got her pork from Judy Hancock's small farm near Cirencester.

They're not as aggressive as commercial pegs

and that is because they are not pushed.

It is like the closer you get to London the more road rage you get, people are pushed so hard

and they start getting nasty and aggressive.

It is the same with pigs. They are good pork pigs and they are also good bacon pigs when they are older.

They cover everything.

If I were on a desert island I would go for the Gloucester old spot to keep me company.

I like the ordered set of husbandry about the Gloucester old spot,

originally bred in the 18th century to

feed on apples from the orchards in the Severn Valley, and way from double Gloucester cheese.

There is a pleasing symmetry about it.

Now then, put my reputation on the line, the perfect crackling.

I guarantee this will work and if it does not I will give up the job.

The two most important things are a good

layer of fat between the lean and the skin and also a dry skin.

I am using a spare rib joint which is from the shoulder of a pig which

conveniently has a couple of bones which

I am putting at the bottom of my roasting tin to keep

the meat off the base and you get a true roast then.

Season the joint on the meet side, I don't want anything

on the skin because I know how it works and that is with nothing on it.

Just some salt and pepper.

Straight on and into a blindingly hot oven for about 20 minutes.

The bones add a lot of flavour to the gravy as well.

While that is in there, the vegetables.

We will go roast potatoes, red cabbage with pear and some lovely fresh curly kale.

First I sliced the red cabbage. Now why pear with red cabbage?

Red cabbage goes well with lots of fruit, apples particularly

and plums are very good, too.

It's just adds a fruity, slightly tart element

and there is a pleasing sweetness about it.

More importantly this dish goes so well with pork.

Two cook it I just heat a pan and melt some butter.

Then add one large onion, thinly sliced.

Stir it around and add the cabbage.

Now the spaces, I am looking for a warm and comforting combination here.

Some ground cloves, some cinnamon, some cayenne pepper but just a pinch.

And brown sugar.

I am putting sweetness in there to emphasise the sweetness of the fruit.

The next ingredient, perry vinegar, that's pear vinegar,

just brings out the tartness. That is it, some seasoning,

some salt, and I will leave that to cook for about 10 minutes before

adding the sliced pears because I do not want them to break up.

This is smelling lovely.

It is a good opportunity to use some old English spices

like cinnamon and cloves.

Lovely rich aroma coming from this.

Finally, I had those thinly sliced pears.

I just leave them to cook in the residual heat of the cabbage.

That is enough. The dish is done.

As if that was not enough fruit, Bramley apple sauce.

You can't have enough tart fruit with pork.

That is my applesauce, nothing but apples and a bit of water.

Not even seasoning because there is so much flavour

in everything else, you need contrast in cooking.

Now let's look at the pork. If I am lucky the thing will look,

the crackling will look all right.

Indeed it does. I can carry on cooking after all.

Just put some roast potatoes around that.

I parboiled those for around seven or eight minutes

and fluffed up the edges,

just a lick of oil around them.

Good. Now those potatoes will take about an hour, as will the pork.

There we go.

Kale, it is not a very trendy veg, is it?

I think because it is so full of iron has a slightly bitter quality

that cavolo nero also has, which is very trendy.

There's no accounting for taste. Personally I think it is wonderful.

Finally, some salt.

This is how I like to cook my green leaf veg,

just a little water in the bottom so it really steams, and the lid off.

I find that it is drier, it does not get waterlogged.

Even what the cabbage tastes much better and crisper doing it this way.

You do have to turn it over a little bit as there's so little water.

That kale takes almost no time,

the pork about two hours for that good crisp crackling.

Look at those roast potatoes.

I love fluffing the edges up, it gives a lovely sandy texture to them.

This is the sort of food we were looking for

when we were travelling making this series. You never get it!

People say about restaurants,

"I don't want to eat the sort of food I could cook at home." But why not?

This is the sort of food we really love.

I just love that combination of the red cabbage

and the green kale together,

it is so appetising with a mound of plump applesauce.

And a simple gravy made from the goodness of the beast.

Great classic stuff there. What a fabulous garden.

I have been picking my produce in my own garden as I do every week

and I have not brought any lovage but what I have brought is some apples.

And I will do you, in a TV first, basically filled doughnuts.

-Oooh!

-Oh yes, this is pushing the boundaries.

We are going to fill a doughnut and we will make their own doughnuts.

I have Bramley apples here, these are from my own garden.

We have Sunset Apples and these are Red Devils.

The sunsets are nice and make a great alternative to Cox's Pippins

and very easy to grow in your garden.

First off, for our donuts, we will make the filling which is a nice little puree.

I will take my Bramley apples, which are nice and sharp.

I will dice these all up, just roughly

and we will make the puree out of these that will go well not just as a filling

but as a sauce to go with our doughnuts as well.

When I was reading about you, you seem to have done everything at

such a young age. One thing that is fascinating, with most actors that is always

what they want to when they're younger, but you have two separate careers.

You wanted to do one thing but end up doing another.

I didn't know what I wanted to do other than I knew

I wanted to go to university and I was,

before I went to university I did not end up going because I was spotted in a play

by Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning screenwriter.

Like you do.

As soon as I walked onto the set of my first job it was a TV

job for the BBC, I fell in love with it.

And I knew that I thought, "This is what I want to do."

There was no turning back.

Do you think it is the case that one door opens

and then goes on to a host of different things?

From there, we mentioned at the top of the show. Johnny Depp. Pretty mega.

Then you went to do films and I've been looking,

the only thing you have done is that much theatre.

I did one play at one point with Richard Armitage,

the co-star of Spooks.

We will get on to that as well. It is coming up, it's coming up!

-Monday night, 9pm!

-I need to talk about my apples first.

-BBC One!

You've done it now, there you go.

Thunderbirds, because I was a fan, were you?

Yes, yeah. Lady Penelope, I always had a bit of a crush on.

LAUGHTER

What was your favourite Thunderbird? What was your favourite, favourite...

What was the one with the glasses?

Brains? Not the bloke, what about the machines?

He means the spaceships, which one did you like? One, two, three, four?

-Pick a number, one to five.

-Two.

-Two's the big green one.

-Two was the green one. That was the coolest one.

-OK. Oh, good.

-I like number one.

-Number one was that spaceship-looking thing.

-Yeah.

We all have our favourites. Apples, I'm just going to dice these up.

These get mixed with sugar, butter, a bit of cinnamon.

-While I'm doing that, tell us about Spooks.

-Spooks! So exciting.

I've just joined the cast. Goes out on Monday night at nine o'clock.

I'm so excited.

-I haven't seen it yet myself, cos they keep it so secret.

-I've seen it.

-You've seen it?!

-Yeah, I've got the DVD. Do you want it?

-Yeah.

-Fiver. It'll be eBayed if not.

-All right!

I've seen it! It's fantastic, I have to say. But with a show like that,

and fans of the shows, you've got two fans over there,

Spooks will know that as soon as you get a call like that to do the job,

-you almost need to apply to another one.

-Yeah, cos you know you're going to die.

They're going to kill you off somewhere,

whether it's the first series, second series...

I'd never been a fan before because I'd never seen it.

-Funnily enough, didn't someone die in a deep-fat fryer?

-They did.

As I'm deep-fat frying my doughnuts. Lovely.

They did. They did.

So you play... Tell us about the story line.

Well, I play a character who is actually loosely based

on someone who exists in real life,

but all of the plots, we've only based her history on this person.

All the plots are fictitious. She was effectively spotted when

she was 18 years old at university, and she was head-hunted by MI6.

-This was a real person who you met?

-Yeah,

MI6, and she did all the training, and at the last minute,

she decided she didn't want to work for the government,

but she did want to work in the investigation and security industry,

so she went out and worked in the private sector.

Check this out. At the age of about 26,

this girl was out in the Middle East.

She was a shareholder in a private company worth a couple of million

and she had 600 ex-SAS soldiers working beneath her.

-This is at 25, 26 years old.

-Beats Johnny Depp at, what, 20, 19?

-Exactly.

-I don't know. I don't know.

Anybody that hasn't seen it, I don't know why,

cos it's in its ninth series now?

Series nine, and what we've done is we've written it in,

and this is fiction, that she met Harry Pearce,

who's the head of MI5, she met him ten years ago,

so they have a history, so she's coming to England to work for MI5.

And it's in its ninth series. Everyone loves it.

Everyone I mention it to, people adore Spooks.

It is hugely popular, I have to say. So, my doughnuts...

Sorry to bring the conversation back onto the doughnuts, as much as I like Spooks.

I've got my apples here stewing away with some butter, sugar and stuff like that.

Apple puree's happening here. You just blend that in a food processor,

you've got a simple apple puree.

On with the batter for your doughnuts.

All it is is a rich yeast dough, like you make bread.

However, this has got more yeast in it,

so you've got plain flour, yeast, sugar.

Sugar feeds yeast, so this is where you get an enriched yeast dough.

Salt. Keep that separate from these, cos it will kill it. Butter.

-Could you use ghee?

-It's already too fat!

Butter, and then we put some water in it.

Mix it all together and you end up with an enriched yeast dough.

You can make rum babas, all that kind of stuff, mix it all together.

-What's a rum baba?

-Kind of thing like this, but then...

It's yummy. You don't fry it.

You bake it and then you pour rum.

-It soaks in, sugary syrup.

-I said that without moving my lips.

Anyway, rum baba, you could make that and, alternatively,

you can then deep-fry and make these little doughnuts.

The idea of this is you prove this twice.

You prove the batter, like you do bread, allow it to rise up,

cool it down, mould it into little balls and then prove it again.

And it'll make, once you've proven again,

make these little balls here and then deep-fry them.

Which we've got there.

So these are your little doughnuts.

You can, of course, make bigger ones if you want to,

and while they're still warm, we then get this.

Looks dangerous.

My producer of this show

spends about a day working on this programme.

The other four days, he was looking for this.

So this has come at great expense from Nottingham.

You think the Pope had outriders.

This thing had couriers bringing this down to us.

So we've got this thing. Fantastic. And you put that in there

and then you fill it full of this puree like that.

This is probably why nobody's ever bothered doing this on TV.

Then you take your little stick like that,

and then you prod it in there.

Fill them up. All right?

Now, you've probably noticed that I haven't rolled them in sugar yet.

That seals in the gap.

And obviously, you could do jam like this exactly the same way,

and you get your sugar, roll them in the sugar,

then you have your apple puree filled doughnuts.

-Easy as that.

-Wow.

-See, now you know. Nobody'll actually do this.

-Why?

-Are they just scared.

-I don't think they will. But it is worth it,

when you start making your own stuff like that, it is delicious.

And then grab your apples, which I've just put with

a little bit of cinnamon on there as well, nice and simple.

There you go. Some ice cream, just a little scoop of ice cream.

-Is this good actress food, girls?

-Good what?

-Actress food?

-Oh, yeah.

-Deep-fried doughnuts, ice cream.

-This is just food in general.

-And then you have a little pile.

-Is this for breakfast?

Curry and doughnuts for breakfast, that's what I eat every day.

You're speaking to a Yorkshireman. You have this every day. Dive into that.

So, that's stewed apples, apple puree, apple doughnuts.

-OK, I need to cut.

-You've got to try the doughnuts.

-Of course. Of course.

How exciting!

There you go. Don't forget, you need one of these.

This'll be eBayed later. Tell us what do you think.

-Is it worth the effort?

-Oh! Hmm! It's so good.

That dish would be a perfect afternoon treat,

especially at this time of year when British apples are everywhere.

You can find that recipe

and all the others on today's show at bb.co.uk/recipes.

Now, we're not live today, so instead we're looking back

at some of the best issues from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

And here's one of them from Aiden Byrne, the man who dared

to put bison grass, beetroot and chocolate in the same recipe.

Unbelievable.

-Good to have you on the show, Aiden.

-Thank you very much.

-Your first time here.

-Yeah.

-What are you cooking for us?

I'm going to do a loin of venison.

It's a little bit more extravagant than Galton's belly.

-I'm going to do loin of venison with...

-Straightaway in there!

-The omelette challenge is coming up later on.

-Straightaway.

-Loin of venison baked in bison grass.

-Right, OK.

Little bit unusual. With figs, beetroot and bitter chocolate.

Figs, beetroot and bitter chocolate.

-So you're going to start cooking that first of all.

-Yeah.

Now, what cut of venison have we got in here?

It's bang in season at the moment.

We're using the loin of venison, which is nice and lean,

so you haven't got to do much to it.

And it's not going to take very long to cook.

-You can buy it from your butcher or from the supermarket.

-Exactly. As is.

The beetroot, left the skin on and just literally roasting it as it is,

like that. And you roast this for how long?

As long as possible.

-The longer you roast it, the sweeter it becomes.

-OK.

-There you go.

-So...

So I'm just cooking this venison.

All I want is a slight caramelisation on it,

give it a bit more flavour.

-Once your beetroot's cooked, which we've got there, roasted in their skins.

-I would leave it.

Once you've actually baked it in the beetroot, in the tinfoil,

leave it in the tinfoil for a little while to sweat

so therefore it makes it easier for the skin to come off later on.

I've got my bison grass in here. I've heated it slightly.

Now, bison grass,

you normally do this in the restaurant with hay, is that right?

I've done it with hay. I used to do it with hay.

An old friend of mine, Polish friend,

introduced me to bison grass, and the flavour just knocked me away.

Now, bison grass is what it is.

-Basically, it's the grass from the field where the bison feed.

-Exactly.

So they eat it and basically it gets fed back into the field,

and it's a very, very strong flavour.

It reminds me of, I don't know

if you've tasted tonka beans before, James?

-Yeah.

-It reminds me of tonka beans.

-Right, we've got that.

-Now what else are we doing?

-We're going to make the two purees.

I'm going to do a fig puree and a beetroot puree.

I'm going to get my knife for the puree.

-Beetroot puree, you're going to cook it with apple juice, little bit of red wine and some sugar.

-Yeah.

So if you do me a favour and do me a little bit of dice,

which I'm going to put through the sauce, and if you can do...

Now, 22, I mentioned Michelin star at 22.

Very young to be not just Michelin star, but to be a head chef as well.

How did that all start for you?

It was all a bit of a fluke, really, to be honest with you.

I've worked in two Michelin starred restaurants previous

to working in this restaurant in Norwich called Adlard's.

Unfortunately, it's not there any more.

And then David Adlard, the proprietor, had a few issues,

had to keep on running upstairs where he lived, and so on, and then

I said, "When you're not in the kitchen, your standard plummets,"

so David literally grabbed me by the scruff of the neck,

took me into the kitchen and said, "From now on, Aiden's head chef."

-At 21 years of age...

-Quite a daunting thing, really.

-Yeah.

Scared the life out of me. But I put in the hours.

We were only open five days a week.

Worked seven days a week, 20 hours a day and within eight months,

I certainly wasn't looking for it, you know, Nicolas Lander

from the Financial Times phoned David up and said,

"Congratulations, you've done something that no-one's ever done before,

"regained a lost Michelin star." Which was quite a feat,

but to have a 22-year-old kid behind the stove was even...

-Cos this is your neck of the woods as well.

-Absolutely. I know...

I knew of David Adlard's restaurant very well.

I remember Aiden working there. He had a bit of hair then.

Oh, you had to get that in, didn't you?

So we're just going to do these, what I call fondants,

and it just adds another texture on the plate.

There you go, you can have that.

So this a combination of raw - sorry, not raw -

but puree as well as normal, cooked beetroot.

You're going to do a mixture of them both.

Yeah. It just gives a different texture on the plate, really.

This is the beetroot in here.

In the restaurant, I would serve this with filo pastry.

This is an interpretation of a dish I've got in my newly released book.

Is this your first time on TV? Go on, then. When was this out, then?

The book came out about four weeks ago,

called Made In Great Britain, concentrating on

Great British produce and how far Great British food has come on

over the past 15 years, as long as I've been cooking.

Have you still got the same ethical, that sort of thing,

when it comes to British food? Seasonal and everything else?

Oh, very much so. Very much.

And even more so in the pub now, I have to use a seasonal produce,

because it's cheaper.

I have come from serving main courses in the Dorchester

at £42 a main course to serving main courses in the pub

at £12.50 a main course, the most expensive main course.

So tell us about this new pub, then. It's in Cheshire.

Yeah, it's called the Church Green.

It's next door to the church in Lymm.

And it's a totally different concept to what I'm used to, really.

-It s quite a big challenge.

-But it's kind of going home for you.

It is, I am a Liverpool lad.

I'm not too far away from home, and I feel very comfortable,

I feel really, really comfortable there, to be honest with you.

I do feel like I've gone home

and I've now got 15 years' worth of experience working in

Michelin-starred restaurants,

and taking it home to the people of the North West.

Do you think that's where you're going to end up staying?

Yeah, definitely. London, I've had enough.

-You've had enough!

-Yeah!

You're doing a bit of work for the colleges up there as well.

I am, yeah. I'm going to go and spend a day a month in the colleges

at my old college, and then the students are going to come

and spend the week with me as part of the course.

Right, OK. I'm going to do the puree first of all.

This is the beetroot one, which is cooked in the apple juice,

the sugar and the red wine.

And the apple juice just gives it, adds to the freshness of it.

-I'm just going to check the venison.

-OK.

I love beetroot. It's the only colourful vegetable that's left

on the market in winter, unfortunately.

Now, this dish is full of beetroot. Big fan of it? I actually love it in risottos.

I'm a really big fan of beetroot, in any guise you can get it, actually.

Pickled is great. If you make a sweet pickling spice mixture with it,

or like you've done it there.

Often it's just put in salads, but there s so much more to it than that, great in risottos, soups.

It is the chef's dream, because, number one, it's colour.

-And the seasonality of it as well.

-It's such a robust flavour as well.

It adds such a great backdrop to a dish such as venison.

It withstands something as strong as...

-A bit of a professional on this one, are you?

-There you go.

The old blenders. So this is the fig puree we've got in here.

-The fig puree.

-Tell us what's in here.

We've got the red wine, the port,

we're going to flavour it with bitter chocolate at the end.

Keep going with that. And some lemon juice and a tiny bit of sugar.

Now, bitter chocolate, you put that in venison quite a bit anyway, but particularly with figs.

-Fig and chocolate desert.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Are you into that sort of mix and match?

-I am, yeah, I do.

I do a desert in the restaurant which is

a play on the strawberries with cracked black pepper and balsamic.

Even though I said I hated peppers earlier on, but if you cook them,

it gives a really sweet taste.

I do strawberries and red pepper as a desert, and it is a really, really good combination.

-This venison's going to be cooked.

-We've got salt and pepper in here.

Do you want lemon juice in...?

Lemon juice in both, actually, please,

if you're not doing anything there.

-You're working extremely hard. It's brilliant.

-There you go.

Lemon juice in this one as well.

-There you go.

-Fantastic.

You were saying chocolate in this one as well.

Yeah, the chocolate just adds a bit more richness do it, really.

There's the puree for that one.

I'm interested to taste it with the apple.

-That'd be quite nice. That's there.

-Fantastic.

So we've got a little bit of chicken stock reduced

with the diced beetroot, the beetroot fondant and the fig fondant.

People at home are going to be looking at this and thinking

there's a lot going on, but if people could take

one or two elements from this, what would you say?

The fig or the beetroot?

I would definitely go with the beetroot. Definitely, definitely.

So we have got the sliced venison.

Love venison. There we go. Bit of salt in there. Give it a quick mix.

And there you've got two purees.

-And then you want the chocolate just grated in this one?

-Yeah.

-Quite a bit in there, please, James.

-Quite a bit. Chocolate and venison.

Come on!

It's like heaven and heaven, isn't it?

A bit of that in there. That's nice, well done.

-Really dark, bitter chocolate?

-Yes, dark, bitter chocolate.

-Don't like that so much.

-Don't like that so much?!

Have you got a nice, soft truffle or something you could add?

And then some of this puree. You can smell it already.

-There you go.

-Put a bit more chocolate in there, please, James.

More chocolate? All right.

Hurry up.

-It's his first time. He gets away with it.

-Ow!

-There you go.

Fantastic. And if you just do me a favour, once I've put the sauce on,

great a little bit of chocolate over the plate.

Seeing as you're not doing anything.

As you can see,

the beetroot's made the sauce go a deep red colour.

Remind us what that is again.

Loin of venison baked in bison grass with fig and beetroot.

-There you go. Easy as that.

-Yeah.

Mother, I don't know where you're going to get bison grass from in Yorkshire.

-You can buy it at Polish delicatessens.

-There you go.

-Dive into that. Tell us what you think of that.

-Come on! You tuck in as well. We'll share.

Share that. Dive in and tell us what do you think.

Have a bit of fondant, have a bit of beetroot.

It's amazing, the smell when you lifted the lid off, the bison grass makes.

-It's strong.

-You could smell it from over here.

-It did smell glorious.

-Like a field. It's a very small amount.

Picture it, if you've got the bottle of vodka with the bison grass in it,

that one blade does actually infuse.

Beetroot sometimes when it's not cooked

has a habit of tasting like uncut grass, but that - lovely.

That really was a great combination.

Now, here's a new face to Best Bites,

the delicious Sophie Dahl with some tempting recipes of her own.

I've always been interested in food,

primarily because I've always been interested in eating it.

In my time, I have been both round as a Rubens

and a little slip shadow of the creature.

A home cook, learnt at my grandmother's knee.

The food I like to both cook and eat is totally simple.

I like straightforward, honest food.

For me, this is all about cooking food that is geared around

and towards mood.

It's actually, this is how I feel today, what am I going to make?

What does that say about how I feel? Suddenly it has a magic about it.

Cooking should be an adventure.

# What I am is what I am... #

I'm in a selfish mood.

That doesn't mean that I want to push people out of the way in a taxi line

or steal the last brownie from the mouths of starving children.

What it means is that I want to have a day

that's totally about indulgence

and revelling in not having anything to do but take time for yourself.

And for me, that involves a day in the kitchen. I want to cook.

I want to eat whatever I want, however I want it.

The perfect selfish day would have to begin with breakfast,

because it's my favourite meal ever.

I'm going to make an omelette Arnold Bennett.

Arnold Bennett was a writer in the '20s who used to stay at the Savoy

and was obviously a very exacting fellow.

He concocted an omelette and then demanded that wherever he went,

it should be made for him to order, so it was named the Arnold Bennett.

Creme fraiche, which for Arnold Bennett would have been cream.

He'd be rolling over in his grave that my version of his,

but that's OK.

Good handful of grated Parmesan.

There's meant to be that cardinal sin that you never mix fish with cheese,

but actually, the Italians secretly do.

I believe Arnold used Gruyere.

A good bit of lemon zest.

I think to have a dish named after you,

you have to be a bit of a diva.

I do, however, have a bra named after me.

Much rather have a dish, but I have a bra.

Now, I've poached the haddock in the oven for about 13 minutes

in some milk, with some bay, knob of butter, some peppercorns.

The joy about cooking haddock in your omelette, for your alone,

indulgent day, is no-one's there to complain about the smell.

It's not the most sexy smell...

..cooking haddock. Trying to remember when I first had Arnold Bennett.

I think I was staying in a posh hotel,

and I think on my own

and pretending to be very ladylike,

sitting with my newspaper, but actually secretly being nosy

and looking at what everyone else is doing.

And I just thought, what more delicious combination than

eggs, cheese, fish and cream? Heaven!

So, really hot pan, hot butter.

I've got three eggs for this solo omelette.

And because you want this to be really light and fluffy,

I'm going to agitate it a bit.

I'm going to add the creme fraiche, Parmesan, lemon mixture.

Just going to bubble up.

Add the haddock.

I'm going to pop it in the oven at 200 for about five minutes or so,

where it s going to puff up and get burnished on top.

Ooh!

Here we are.

That might even make Arnold Bennett happy.

It's souffled up, burnished cheese. It smells totally delicious.

Yum.

Even though it's just for me, I wanted to look perfect.

Any day that began with this

would be a beautifully selfish, self-indulgent day.

This sort of mood isn't about comfort food. It's about indulgence.

It's about buying those special items.

You're not shopping for a dinner party for ten people.

You're going to have them on your own and really relish

and revel in that fact.

On this day, which is meant to be doing whatever your heart desires,

I could go and have a pedicure or do something ephemeral

but for me, the thing I love doing, cooking

and finding food, it's infinitely more happy-making, I think.

I m looking for the perfect cheese for my perfect solo lunch.

The joy of cooking for one person is you can afford to get

that particularly precious goldmine of a food,

because you're just buying for yourself.

I love that there's a cheese called Ticklemore.

Apparently, the story of this, the pyramid cheese,

when Napoleon came back from fighting the war in Egypt, he was

presented with a cheese like this by the wife of a farmer in the Pyrenees.

He was so offended by the memory of Egypt and the pyramids,

he sliced off the top of it with a knife, and so this...

..became that. Which was much less offensive to him.

Good old Napoleon, yep.

Right, this is the holy grail. It's a buffalo mozzarella.

You can feel it slinking around in the bag.

I actually sort of fantasise about this cheese.

So having had the most perfect breakfast on my selfish day,

I've been thinking about lunch. In fact, I haven't been able to stop thinking about lunch.

I'm going to make a really simple feast of the most beautiful ingredients.

A yellow and green bruschetta.

I've got some fennel here and,

unless you're an expert chopper, peeling is a brilliant way to go.

A lovely yellow courgette.

Predominantly chosen for its colour,

but they have a really subtle flavour,

and when you put the dressing on it, it really wears it like a coat.

Fennel is the opposite.

It's the bold, fearless cousin, sort of sharp and liquorice

and crunchy, so they work really well together.

Add some orange to it and little fennel tops, little aniseedy fronds.

Mint, you can just roughly tear it in.

When I was little, I loved going to the bakery

and sort of picking things out.

I was very keen on doughnuts.

That would be my earliest memory of the experience of eating on my own

and picking something out on my own, and I recently met a child

who was a far more sophisticated version of my gluttonous eight-year-old self.

I was doing a book signing at a shop in London.

I said, "What are you doing here? Are you here with your mum or your dad?"

He said, "No, I come here every Saturday morning to buy sushi."

He came on his own. He'd sit on the steps of the shop

and eat it on his own. And he was called Bertram

and I so wanted to be his friend

and he sort of disappeared off into the ether

and I will for ever wonder where he is and what he's doing,

because he's a boy after my own heart.

So I would like to dedicate my lunch to Bertram, actually.

So we've got the first stage done, happy, fragrant little salad.

I've got a really lovely sourdough.

It's a good, hearty loaf.

Take a clove of garlic and rub the surface of the bread with it.

It gets sealed in by the heat without it sort of whooshing up

in your face when you take a bite.

My favourite bit, the cheese. Lovely alabaster ball, buffalo mozzarella.

It's really soft, a bit like the wobbly bit on someone's am.

There's something about ripping a great soft hunk of it off

that is deeply, deeply satisfying.

Here's our lovely yellow ribbons.

The fennel, orange, mint and frond.

As I'm here on my own, I can totally indulge

having a little artistic frond arrangement on my plate.

No-one's here to mock me.

So there is my ultimate selfish lunch.

I'm totally thrilled I don't have to you share it,

because I'm not very good at sharing to begin with,

particularly not good at sharing when faced with that.

# Home alone and happy

# Nothing brings me down... #

Great food for a Sunday lunchtime.

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

Instead, we're showing you some of the finest recipes from the archives.

Still to come on today's Best Bites:

The Two Greedy Italians, Gennaro Contaldo and Antonio Carluccio

battle it out in a Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

Adam Byatt takes time away from his busy South London restaurant

to show us how simple it is to make mouth-watering gnocchi.

He makes it with cob nuts and finishes it off

with panfried Scottish girolles,

Parmesan cheese, and the best crispy fried egg you will ever see.

And the presenter and property expert, Sarah Beaney,

faced her food heaven or food hell.

Will she get heaven - smoked haddock fishcakes,

with wilted watercress and a classic beurre blanc sauce,

or food hell - dark chocolate and a coffee terrine with creme anglaise?

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

Now it is time to see how to make tasty gnocchi

with the award-winning chef, Adam Byatt.

There's a lesson in how to make the perfect fried egg as well, from me.

We need to get on with it. It will take some time.

It is hazelnut gnocchi, crispy fried duck egg

and I just want to use these last of the season Scottish girolles.

-Beautiful.

-OK.

Now, hazelnuts, we're using these cob nuts here,

Cos they're in season at the moment.

That's right. They're sort of early hazelnuts. They're soft, wet.

What is amazing is they just look like wood. They are amazing things.

Crush these down.

These have been toasted so they have just been...

-A bit of flour.

-Just mash them down. This is mashed potato.

So you've got leftover mashed potato, this is how you make gnocchi.

A nice little bit of an egg in there.

Some people say that you make it with choux pastry but...

There are different ways of making gnocchi. There's three actually.

The one that I quite favour is the pasta flour-based one.

We use it a lot. They are a great way of keeping hold of flavour.

We get lemon thyme, rosemary, truffle, which is very decadent.

One thing I'm putting into this one which carries nicely is hazelnut oil.

Good quality, expensive hazelnut oil, which I always value.

There you go. Equal quantities potato and flour?

It's not quite equal quantities.

It is 260. Almost double and a bit, mash to flour.

-Get my hands in now, I think.

-And the best way to do this is by hand?

Yes, I think so.

The potatoes going to get really starchy on you,

so don't bother doing that, just dust a little bit quickly.

Gnocchi is one of these things that a lot of people are frightened of.

When making stuff like this at home, for some reason, I don't know why,

you can buy it ready-made, when it is so simple to make yourself.

And also using nice little bits of leftover things

from your kitchen as well.

It is one of those dishes for a dinner party that you could make

and the great thing about it is you can make it in advance.

Of course.

And classically, you will see gnocchi with little holes in them.

That is for a tomato sauce-based gnocchi.

Which you would use...

We will just do that amount.

That little hole holds onto all the lovely sauce.

It is a lovely thing with a bit of history and whatnot.

So all you do to make the lovely mark in them,

just squeeze them, push the fork in,

just get those nice lines on them.

Different ways of doing it.

There are machines you can buy and all sorts.

If you want to get that detailed about it.

Drop those straight into boiling, salted water.

They take about three minutes, just under.

So pop them in there. Get rid of this.

-They make loads. The yield is quite big.

-They pop-up a little bit.

That's right. In the water. Now to use these Scottish girolles.

If you slice the shallot, lovely.

If you want to strip these down for me I will show you.

Because of the lovely wet weather we have been having

it has been great for wild mushrooms.

Just pull them apart like that. Scottish girolles are fantastic.

If I wanted to use something else instead of mushrooms in there?

To keep it vegetarian, this time of year squash is fantastic.

Really lovely butternut squash, pumpkins,

even courgette, yellow, green courgettes.

I didn't realise the mushroom is an animal.

Anti-vegetarian! You tried to duck that one.

-I am a gentleman.

-Well done.

I have already fathomed out that...

You have, in the restaurant, mushrooms,

there are so many different seasons, you have a little calendar?

That's right. We use them all the way through the seasons.

We use different mushrooms. They just go like clockwork.

Not the same type of calendar he has got in his restaurant?

-Very different.

-The car one? The car one that you gave me?

-Yeah.

He has got naked mushrooms.

Mushrooms with nothing on as a charity thing.

What will work really well is the salt.

It will dry out all the moisture from those mushrooms.

-You want me to get the egg on here?

-That would be great.

Crispy fried egg. Brown on the bottom,

just warmly set yoke, duck eggs are great.

-That is what we're aiming for.

-Is that what you want?

So, duck eggs, you use a lot of duck eggs?

It's the big yokes, they're very rich. Good for dunking things in.

They are great, aren't they? Parmesan soldiers.

I have a dish on at the moment with them. Butternut squash soup.

With Parmesan and a poached duck egg.

So, crispy on the bottom and cooked on the top?

I want it... Just leave it now, leave it off the stove now.

It will now just...

Sorry, James, I am not teaching you to fry eggs, as they say!

That is it, bit of butter. You just want it to set through, really.

So this is the point where you can actually leave them to rest?

You could now freeze those if you wanted. Just one sec.

That's it. Hot oil.

And get the... They can take maybe a minute more.

These are quite big for a main course portion.

I really want to try and get some colour on them. It really helps.

Those mushrooms, you see them just cooked down.

At this point if you wanted to keep it vegetarian...

Don't put mushrooms in! Put squash in instead.

-I am trying to be more accessible.

-Is that free range squash?

He is putting chicken stock in now.

I have used chicken stock in this particular version.

But you can use water.

Because mushroom has got so much flavour you can use a bit of water.

Eggs doing well. Little bit of colour on those. That's it.

The great thing about this, you can freeze them, like that.

Yeah. And just drop them into a lovely tomato sauce.

They can carry flavour really well. Anything you want to pop into them.

Colour them, drop them in, and just let this...

He is busy opening restaurants,

you're looking after a new addition to the family.

That's right. We are very lucky.

We just had our second child about 10 or 12 weeks ago. Rosie.

-One of each flavour now.

-One of each flavour!

-I am very happy.

She is lovely, I am very happy. We are chuffed.

Nice to have a new addition. Sleepless nights and...

-I've been saying that in my new pub!

-Is that called Rosie as well?

-Yes, the Rose & Crown!

-There is your egg.

-Beautiful.

There you are.

So just a bit of fresh thyme in there. Almost quite soup-y.

It is, keep it soup-y.

The mushrooms will just give out so much flavour and liquid

that they just produce this...

-There is my egg.

-Look at that!

What I'm going to do is season that egg a little bit.

I'm leaving it to you.

A few of those lovely cob nuts, hazelnuts on the top.

My favourite is the parsley shoots, because it is a bit...

-Parsley shoots?

-Yes. Parsley shoots.

Parsley is really good in this

because it is mushroom and parsley which is really great.

And these are Parsley shoots

which I just thought would be a nice thing to show people here.

-Parmesan over the top?

-Parmesan, always nice.

-Breakfast on a plate.

That is hazelnut gnocchi with a crispy fried duck egg

and some new season Scottish girolles.

-Cooked in 7 1/2 minutes.

-From scratch.

With of course the crispy fried duck egg. There we go.

Come and have a seat over here. Dive into this one as well.

-So from cheesy veal to nutty gnocchi.

-Try this.

Nutty gnocchi tastes...

You're not going to like this, this is very vegetarian.

What a nice thing to use today, chestnuts, hazelnuts.

The secret in that gnocchi is the hazelnut oil, I think.

-Very good, it tastes nice. Very nice.

-The yoke, that's the best bit.

-Do you use that hazelnut as well, Mark?

-Yes, it is nice, yeah.

He does now!

At least this wet weather can produce some really great mushrooms.

And as for that fried egg,

surely it is the best one we have ever seen on the show.

Far better than any of the eggs I have had to taste

in the omelette challenge,

even when they are cooked by two greedy Italians.

Let's get down to business. Usual rules apply.

Omelettes cooked as fast as you can.

Gennaro in second place.

Pretty respectable time from Antonio.

Can they go any quicker? Clocks on the screen please.

Are you ready?

Three, two, one... Go.

There is protein in that shell, you know.

This is the speed at which you...

The concentration on your face!

This is not a good omelette, Genaro!

I take my time, I don't care.

You take your time because you can't go faster!

But at least it's becoming something that looks like an omelette!

You call an omelette, that one?!

-Better than yours!

-There you are.

Right. Let's have a taste.

-It is better than yours, yes.

-It is better than me?

-Antonio?

-Yes. A lot. I know.

-You weren't quicker, you did it in 44.12 seconds.

-No!

-Yes.

-My goodness!

-Genaro?

-Yes. Go on. Three hours!

-No. Nearly. 24.28.

Still not quicker. Tough one to beat, that first one that he did.

So neither of them managed to better their times

on the omelette challenge board.

Better luck next time.

He may have lived in the UK for years

but his cooking is as Spanish as a matador standing on a chorizo.

It is Jose Pizarro.

I love this food because the secret is simplicity.

-Absolutely.

-Spanish food, it is so simple.

Great ingredients, simple cooking. What are we cooking?

Fillet stake with pepper,

Oloroso sherry,

and then we're going to serve with olive oil mashed potato.

You want me to get the potatoes on first of all?

Please. Then we are going to use some pimento and some almonds.

-Pimento, this is the smoked paprika?

-Absolutely. Coming from Extremadura.

But there is three types?

-We have three. Sweet, bittersweet, and hot.

-And it is made from peppers?

Dried peppers. In Extremadura, the thing we do

is just we dry... We smoke, in our houses.

-Yeah.

-It is just amazing.

You just go there, the flavour, smell,

all the area smells like pimento.

When I think of Spanish food, I think of predominantly the pig. Pork.

-You love it.

-We love pork.

-Beef. You have the best...

We have the best pork in the world.

-Absolutely. Yes we have.

-So beef we're cooking today.

A fillet of beef. But you can do this with rib eye steak.

Any different cattle you want really.

You know the amazing hams that you make in Spain?

Umberico ham. The pig is like the best pig in the world.

-What do they do with all the other parts of the pig?

-Chorizo.

-They make sausages out of the wonderful pig?

-Yes.

We have rare breed pig over here.

-Do you not have beautiful loin or something?

-We have the loin.

But you can buy the meat. You don't cure everything.

You can buy the loin first if you want. There is pork fillet as well.

-But it is so expensive.

-Quite expensive.

It is the quality of the meat.

Some of the best pork in the world, if not the best.

-It is the best pork in the world. Absolutely.

-I told you!

Always has to be the best. It is all about the best.

Now the beef is on the pan.

We are going to slice some piqueo pepper.

-This is smoked peppers, yeah?

-Charcoal peppers.

-Charcoal peppers.

What does piqueo mean?

They are called that because you see, it is a pointed pepper.

-Pointy pepper?

-Yes.

Just to let you know, potatoes here for the mash.

We've got bay leaf. A bit of garlic in here.

-You want me to mash these?

-Absolutely.

There you go.

We are going to put some olive oil as well to add some flavour.

All right. Olive oil in there.

-Do you want butter in here.

-No, I don't use butter.

-Are you sure?

I am telling you, I don't know how to cook with butter. Believe it or not.

I'll show you, you put two pounds of butter in there, it is brilliant.

-Just use some, please.

-Do you want some olive oil?

-Plenty of olive oil.

Spanish olive oil. Coming from my area, Extremadura.

I believe, like the pork, you have the best olive oil in the world?

-We have the best olive oil in the world.

-What did I say?

So, sherry.

-I am not a great fan of sherry, I have to say.

-Why not?

It reminds me of...

the Queens speech, my mother, my grandmother,

and arguments at Christmas.

-Why?

-Because the sherry she used to drink was like paint stripper.

-This is not...

-Just smell this one. Just stunning.

-A nutty flavour and smell.

-I have yet to be converted.

-Actually, that's better.

-Yes, very good.

It is not like the...

Another one normally, it is quite like Christmas pudding.

-The other stuff could take your eyelids off.

-It was just...

-Oh, my goodness!

-Dive into that.

We are putting some mint and parsley on here.

Whoops, I have put sherry in the mashed potato.

-It's so good, we've...

-Even better!

So we've got olive oil in here. Carry on! It's fine!

Almost ready.

-Smells lovely!

-So, it is going to taste...

-Try some.

Drink that glass and you won't be bothered about this mashed potato!

-I'm giggling already. It is strong.

-Mint's gone in there.

-Some parsley.