Episode 66 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

It's time to let somebody else do the cooking.

I've got some brilliant food for you on today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

There are loads of great Saturday Kitchen recipes lined up for you this morning.

Midlands lad Sat Bains braises a shoulder of mutton

and serves it with caper butter, red onions

and some locally foraged herbs.

We're served a Sicilian speciality courtesy of Francesco Mazzei.

He makes seafood fregola

with prawns, mussels, clams, squid, red mullet and even a scallop,

to create a mouth-watering feast.

Welshman Bryn Williams treats us to the perfect Sunday lunch -

rump of lamb.

He roasts it and serves it with pan-fried courgettes and borlotti beans

and a tomato confit broth.

And Robert Glenister confronts his food heaven or food hell.

Will he get food heaven - chicken and my classic chicken chasseur with creamy mash?

Or food hell - duck breast, roasted and served with a potato rosti

and cherry sauce?

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

But first it's time relive when Ken Hom came into the kitchen

to celebrate 25 years of being on TV.

Let's all pay Hom-age.

Right, so what are we cooking?

OK, we're doing these pot stickers, which are really a New Year's treat.

-It comes from the north of China.

-Right.

And what we start out with is just a little bit of plain flour.

That's really important because we'll make the wrappers.

-This is like a dumpling.

-It is. Some hot water.

-OK.

And we'll just mix this together.

And what they do in northern China is it's so cold - like here -

and what they will do is make these dumplings

and put them outside on the shelf.

And the whole family would sit around stuffing the dumplings

and then the family comes around and they all cook them and eat them -

hundreds of them.

This is very traditional Chinese New Year food?

Exactly, especially for the northern Chinese.

Even though I'm Cantonese, this is one of my favourites

because of the way it's made.

-Now, you can see, I put the flour and I mix the hot water in.

-Yeah.

Which is quite unusual and there's no fat or seasoning.

We've got a thing called hot water pastry, which is the way they make pork pies,

which is hot water but they use salt and bits and pieces.

-There's nothing else in there?

-Nothing else.

You take that and grab this. It's very hot but that's all right.

And you just mix this together and knead until it's smooth.

But it takes on a totally different flavour, doesn't it?

-Well, actually, the filling is what you want to be tasting.

-Yeah.

And you want this to be tough enough so that it can cook and brown

for a long time.

-You want to just gather this up and get this really nice and smooth.

-OK.

-OK.

-There you go.

-OK.

-I've got that.

-That's fine.

And then once you've got it smooth,

you need to let it sit for about 20 minutes, OK?

-All right.

-Because the thing is, the gluten has to sort of settle down.

-OK.

-So you knead it for about five, six minutes?

-Yes, exactly.

-Gather this all up and once that's done...

-I'll bring that over here.

And then we have some that's been sitting.

-There you go.

-One that I made earlier.

Now, this, you told us in rehearsal, this is where you get your pancakes for crispy duck from.

Yes, it's the same sort of formula when you do the pancakes.

-Now, you're going to help me make some of these later.

-Yeah.

So what we want to do is just take the dough. It's nice and smooth now.

Add some more flour.

-If you wanted to take this recipe and do your own pancakes for crispy duck...

-Yes.

-..what would you do?

-You just roll it out...

-Do you fry them?

You just roll it out and just put it in a hot, dry wok

without anything in it.

-And then just roll it like a log like this.

-OK.

OK, and then we're going to cut them into very small portions.

Now, once that's done we'll make our filling here.

-Yeah.

-OK.

And the fillings for this, you can vary the fillings?

-You've got minced pork in here. Is that the standard?

-That's really the traditional way of cooking this,

is to use pork on this,

but you can add things like prawns, if you wish,

-and it's important to add a little bit of vegetables.

-Yeah.

In fact, here we're just using bok choy.

You can use all sorts of cabbage.

In northern China, especially at this time of the year,

you have cabbage... People even have cabbage under their beds...

-What?

-..because that's the way to store it's not so cold.

LAUGHTER

-Are you taking the mick or what?

-No, no, no.

-We have a little bit of...

-We do the same in Scotland.

-Exactly.

-Soy sauce.

-I'll call your wife, now.

-But, Jimmy, do you ever try Chinese food?

-I've never made it. This is fascinating, watching Ken.

-But I bet he likes Chinese food.

-I love it.

-Everybody does.

-Yeah.

A little bit of sherry or rice wine and some of your ginger.

-Ginger.

-Thank you.

-More?

-OK, yeah.

-There you go.

-There's some salt and pepper.

-So you've got ginger...

-OK.

-Let's mix that up and we'll be able to stuff this.

-Right.

-OK.

And actually a touch of sesame oil.

-I'll move that out the way.

-Thank you very much.

-So always the filling's raw, yes?

-Yes.

Always the filling raw because we're going to cook this for quite a long time.

And as you can see, it smells quite good.

-I'll get a spoon for you.

-And we have a rolling pin.

-The rolling pin's there for you. There you go.

-Lovely.

So what you want to do with this is...

-And I'll give you some to work on, as well.

-Thank you.

Now, remember what I was telling you, you know, families do this together

and so you sit around and you sort of catch up on what's been happening with the year

and, you know, people gossip and all sorts of things

while they make these dumplings.

-You can make them as big as you want.

-OK.

So you just grab a little bit of this filling?

-Yeah, just grab some filling.

-A small amount?

-A small amount.

You don't need a lot. That's a lot but that's all right.

That's a lot but that's all right? I'm Yorkshire, you see, Ken.

And then we just press this over.

It's a bit like a little Cornish pasty, really, isn't it?

I know. Where do you think they got it from?

I think you nicked it from Cornwall, this idea.

Is there a knack to doing this or am I just...?

-It just... It really doesn't matter.

-Good.

-The thing is...

-Right, there we go.

-The best ones are made by grandmothers.

-Are they?

-Yes.

My grandmother was much better at making this sort of stuff, as well.

-I'm sure she was.

-But you pop these in here...

Now, you've been busy. You never stop, really.

Well, I've been busy. I have a new restaurant in Bangkok called Maison Chin.

-And it's...

-And they're relaunching this book. It's 25 years since...

-People are not sick of me yet. The book still works!

-Right.

-And...

-But this was actually one of the very first recipes you did, wasn't it?

Yes, in fact this was on one of the first programmes

and we wanted to show people that they could make home-cooked dishes

that you wouldn't see in restaurants

because nobody would make this in a restaurant, it's too much work.

This is just perfect for this type of home cooking.

-Wow! That's hot.

-There you go.

-OK. Now, what I want to do...

-Now, the cooking of this, I think is quite fascinating for this one.

Because not only are you going to fry it, you're going to steam it at the same time.

What we're going to do is add some oil to this.

OK.

-So what's that, just corn oil?

-Any sort of vegetable oil is fine.

-OK.

And you put the dumplings along like that and that gets them cooking.

Now what you do is you want to brown it.

What's really nice about this is, one side is crispy and the other side is really soft

and they're juicy inside.

This is why you don't want to cook the filling, as well,

because you want all that liquid to be inside the dumplings themselves.

OK, yeah.

So you want to brown this and at this point I'm just going to add a little bit of...

You can add some stock or just plain water to this.

-OK.

-A little bit of chicken stock?

-Yes.

-And some water.

-That's right.

-And we're just going to cover that.

-Lid on. And cook it for how long?

You want to cook it until they're nicely brown and, see, this is what's happening.

It should... This is why they're called pot stickers.

-It sticks to the pot.

-OK.

-See that? It sticks a little bit.

And you want that all caramelised.

Now, you're going to do a dressing for this.

-Very, very easy.

-Chilli oil.

-No, the chilli oil is there.

-Right, OK.

-Wrong...

-Wrong chilli oil. That's sesame oil.

Stupid, aren't I? You'd think I'd know what I'm doing, really.

It's OK, you're young.

There's some soy sauce, a little bit of chilli oil,

which I... I usually put quite a bit in it.

And some rice vinegar.

You want to just mix that up and...

-They're clean.

-There's a clean one right there. Thank you.

Just mix that up. OK, we pour that in.

-I'll get these ready for you.

-And this is for the pot stickers.

OK.

-I'll leave those for you to put on.

-Yes. Super.

-So these should literally stick...?

-Yes, stick to the pot.

-And, actually, you want that because this is what gives that lovely colour.

-Look at that!

-Look at that - lovely.

-Have you tried this way of cooking?

I've not but I quite fancy taking a few home with me.

We'll do a take-away.

-They can be a canape in the restaurant tonight.

-Lovely.

They look fantastic, don't they?

And actually this is really nice because it did stick to the pot, as they say.

Wow, hot. I'll just get that.

-There you go. You need asbestos fingers for this one.

-You do.

So remind us what this is again?

Yeah, that's Peking pot stickers,

which are wonderful for New Year and is a traditional New Year dish, and we call it...

Cooked like this it's called guotie, which means pot sticker,

and if you just boil it, it's called jiaozi.

There you go. It's as easy as that.

I have to say, they smell delicious.

-Over here, Ken, follow me over.

-Oh, good, I thought you weren't going to offer.

-Breakfast.

-Yummy! Ladies first.

-Oh, thank you.

-I'm just buttering them up a little bit.

It doesn't make any difference, Jimmy, to be honest.

-Wow.

-Grab one and dip it in the dressing. Pass them down.

-But you can mix and match the different flavours inside?

-Absolutely.

Some people like to add more meat

-but traditionally, Chinese add more vegetables.

-Right.

-But it's not really fish because that would be quite dry?

-No, not fish.

But you can add things like a few prawns mixed with pork, for instance.

-Jimmy, don't be polite on this show.

-I want one of those!

-I want that goodness in me, here.

-There's no mackerel in there.

-There's no mackerel? That's cool.

-Absolutely beautiful.

And the families all do this, you say?

Yes, they sit around and right before New Year's, on New Year's Eve,

then they spend the whole day doing this.

-They put it outside because it's so cold...

-Wow.

-..that it freezes.

There you go. You've got four kids - child labour.

Exactly - you could have more pot stickers than you'd ever want.

They were absolutely delicious

and what a great way to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Coming up, I'll be treating Letitia Dean to a potted crab,

after Rick Stein gets reflective in his native county of Cornwall.

I got this idea from India, funnily enough.

It's a spicy dish which is so mild that it's like a summer's day in Cornwall, just mild heat -

you know, this is what English people like.

You don't need to be sweating all the time.

You don't need to be sweating with hot curries -

just a little mild curry.

And what you do is just take a pan and fry off some mustard seeds

until they start to pop, pop, pop.

And as soon as they start to pop,

you bung in some turmeric and some very finely chopped onion.

Turn them all over and just as the onion's starting to brown

you just throw in some chopped up and cooked new potatoes.

So in they go and you turn those all over

in that onion and in that mild spice

and then you add some tomato, just chopped tomato, peeled and deseeded, just the flesh.

Turn that around, bit of salt and pepper

and then chopped coriander - now, that's the base.

And you poach off some haddock,

maybe if you like, in a little court bouillon with some milk.

I don't know why but I always like milk in a smoked fish court bouillon -

milk, bay leaf, some sliced onion, sliced lemon, a few peppercorns

and some water, that sort of thing.

And that goes on top of the potato.

Then you just poach an egg.

I always like a bit of vinegar in the egg.

People say it helps it to set. I don't know whether that's true.

I just like the flavour.

When you poach an egg, a little bit of white wine vinegar to set that egg off - very nice.

A little tip, if you want to get it to make a nice round shape,

if you just get the water swirling round and round

and then drop your egg right into the middle of the poaching water.

And don't have the water boiling too much - just a gentle simmer.

You always get a nice shape.

So onto the top goes that egg

and that is just lightly spiced, easy to eat,

just a wonderful delicate taste of summer.

This coriander beats anything you can buy in the shops into a cocked hat.

That's fine, the flavour's there, but you can't beat the real thing.

It's sort of like peppery

and almost hot with sort of surging flavour.

And it's the main ingredient in Thai fish cakes,

which I'm going to do in a minute.

I got the idea last time I was in Australia.

And they're everywhere in Australia, not just in Thai shops but everybody makes them.

I think they're going to catch on over here because there's nothing to them.

First of all, the cod.

You can use cod, ling or coley

but it's got to be good and firm and fresh, like that.

Then coriander, lime, red chillies for colour and, of course, the heat.

An egg to bind.

Some green beans, finely sliced, put in at the end for texture and colour.

Brown sugar. Use palm sugar if you can get it.

Red Thai chilli paste, some fish sauce

and finally - and this is a very important point, this -

these are called kaffir lime leaves... HE SNIFFS

..which are the most typical flavour of Thai cooking

but you can get them in any supermarket, now.

And all these ingredients you can get in any supermarket.

I think there's no point in showing you a dish like this

if you can't just go out and get the ingredients straight away.

But let's just cut some of these ingredients up to put into the blender.

Just into bigger chunks so it doesn't sort of catch on the blade.

So I'm just going to cut these green beans up into little discs

because I don't want them to get whizzed up in the blender.

They've got to come into the final fish cakes as little rounds of bean

and that's one of the details that I really remember about this dish.

Anyway, let's get on and do this blending.

First of all in goes the cod and then an egg for binding.

The eggs that bind. Now where did that come from?

Red chilli.

And this brown sugar and, as I said, palm sugar if you can get it

but brown sugar's fine.

Bit of lime juice.

There we are. Now coriander.

Don't forget to put loads of stalks in as well with the coriander.

People just throw the stalks away and they throw away half the flavour.

The red chilli paste, a good dollop of red paste,

Thai chilli paste.

Two dollops. I'm cooking for the crew today, they like it hot.

Fish sauce - plenty of that.

And finally, the lime leaves.

So let's just turn that on and give it a really good blend.

BLENDER WHIRRS Will it work? Of course it won't.

BLENDER STOPS Me and machines. Oh, God.

There's a little tooth off the belt, you know?

It couldn't possibly work, could it?

CHUGGING NOISE Hooray!

So you just give that about half a minute, no more,

because you don't want it like baby food.

It sounds a bit like the director's car, this, at the moment.

I'm going to get another one, I promise.

OK, that's fine.

So, into the bowl.

This is for the final mixing of those little green beans.

In goes all this lovely mixture.

I wonder if you'd mind if I just tasted it raw?

It's only like up whizzed sashimi with a bit of Thai flavouring in it.

Because actually, I need...

I need to make the last adjustments to the seasoning.

Perhaps a little bit of salt in there.

It's sweet, it's hot, it's really quite delicious.

In there goes that.

Those beans.

OK, and now the mud pie phase.

OK?

This is what everybody loves doing. OK.

Lay it down. Into the pan go the fish cakes,

about five of them, I think, will do.

Now, then, these are actually over twice as big as they normally are

in Thailand or Australia

but I prefer a good old bite rather than a mere teensy-weensy mouthful.

So that's probably about ready to turn over, now.

They look so appetising, I think.

It's really nice to find a fish cake that hasn't got breadcrumbs on it, actually.

Look at that.

Delish.

Just leave those frying away.

I'm just going to make this very simple dipping sauce,

just some sugar, vinegar, water in there, dissolved together.

In goes some cucumber, diced up.

Some carrot diced up.

Some onion diced up.

Some bird's-eye chilli - fiendishly hot, they are.

Some coriander.

Not forgetting a good dollop of fish sauce.

Just stir that up together and that's all there is to that.

Quick taste.

That's going to work. That's going to be perfect.

A nice spray of coriander just there and now to taste.

Yeah! That looks really good.

Straight into the dipping sauce and straight into the old mouth.

I really think you ought to make this one, honestly.

It's so good, it's so interesting and it's so fresh.

It's like a little number that steals the whole show.

I have a feeling that this might be the most popular dish

that I've ever done on telly.

You could be right, Rick. That's definitely got my taste buds going.

Rick's recipes are a perfect antidote to the cold weather

and it's great to have some ideas up your sleeve to make you think of summer.

To me, the taste of summer has to be crab and fresh crab in particular.

It's too cold to go out fishing for them yourself,

so you can buy them all year round and I've got a great simple recipe.

Also, something you've probably never used before

or have even seen before - this stuff.

This is called sea kale.

-Now, it's native to the UK.

-Mm-hm?

It's got a very short season, only three weeks, but it's protected,

so you can't go out picking for it in the wild,

although it's produced along the seashores.

But it's forced, as well, so what they do is cover it over, a bit like rhubarb,

where it's forced through.

But it's on the high shorelines around the coast of England

but it is absolutely delicious.

If you can get hold of it, there's only a short season,

support the British producers - it is superb.

I'm going to show you a great little dish with that, blanched with some nice potted crab.

Is this something that I could rustle up, James?

-This is something that you could do.

-Mrs Chef, here?

-Definitely.

Now, like you said, you're not the most, dare I say, experienced cook, is that right?

I'm just so not blessed.

So why is that? Because your family were good cooks or not?

My parents are from Yorkshire

and my mum used to make wonderful meat pies

and cheese cobbler - my favourite - and everything like that

and my brothers are both very good cooks.

-I just have lost the gene.

-All right, you've lost the gene.

-Yeah.

-I really am, honestly, not blessed.

-But you didn't have to when you're young

because acting was in your blood from day one, really.

-Thank you for your kindness.

-What was it? It was Grange Hill?

Grange Hill, I was about 12 years old, 13. Then EastEnders, I was about 15.

-15 in EastEnders?

-Yeah.

-The original cast, as well.

-Yeah.

A long time ago.

You built up a huge part, obviously, as Sharon in EastEnders, huge storylines and stuff like that,

and back then, it was colossal viewing figures -

-18 and a half million.

-It was amazing.

I think the most we got... Certainly Angie and Den's divorce was something like 28 million viewers.

-Yeah.

-And I probably lost them with my own storyline.

But the story of you getting the job in the first place is unusual.

-Didn't you tell a little white lie to get in?

-I did, yes.

You had to be born within the sound of Bow Bells and stuff like that,

that's what the producers wanted

and Julia Smith, who's unfortunately no longer with us,

said to me that you have to be like I've just said, all of those things

and East End, have the aunties and the uncles, all of that business.

And I had none of the above, basically.

-So you said that your auntie lived there, is that right?

-I did.

-And my parents were travelling round India.

-But you went on to...

-Not really.

-..huge success in that.

Since leaving that, you've done so many other things.

Weren't you on in the West End? Didn't you do stage? Wasn't it Annie?

Annie was my first West End stage job, yeah, playing Pepper the orphan.

I so wanted to be the lead, though. I used to pray for her to go off.

-She never did.

-What do you miss, though? Is it TV? Is it stage?

Most actors, to be honest, it's stage that draws them as well.

I love all of it, to be honest, James, you know.

-I mean, television is quite expedient, isn't it, and you can go again, with it.

-Yeah.

With stage, you know, you have to make sure you do it right on the night.

Do it right on the night. Hopefully, I'll try to do this right on the night.

We've got our potted crab.

We've got crab, white and dark meat in here, butter,

little bit of lemon juice, in with, obviously, softened butter.

We've got some mace - that's the important thing with potted crab.

-Which I thought was a spray.

-Yeah, mace.

And then we've got a little bit of cayenne to give it a kick.

If you're using frozen or tinned crab, use a bit of curry powder.

That's potted crab. Stick it in a pot, that's that done.

Over here, we've got our kale.

Now, if I lift this out and I'm going to saute it now in some butter.

-The devil's work.

-I know it's the devil's work but it's got to be done for this bit.

Do you like my blank look, James? I'm trying so hard to concentrate.

You walked into the studio, I couldn't believe it.

We did Strictly together and the tour together

and you lost a lot of weight from doing that

but this is incredible - a new you.

Well, it's all for me, James, about sort of prioritising with my food

and organising myself, really.

As you know, I'm not blessed in the kitchen at all, by any stretch of the imagination.

So what was it? Was it dancing? What was it? Was it gym?

That kicked it off and then I finished the tour with you and stuff

and then, you know, I put a load of weight back on.

You know, actors, you know what they're like.

-You work and you lose weight. You rest, shall we say...

-Rest, yeah.

..and you put it back on.

And I just got sick of yoyo dieting and going up and down and everything.

But for me, food-wise, with my situation now,

it's all about the preparation for me,

so I shop once a week, make sure that what I have in my fridge is healthy.

-And can fit in your wok.

-Yeah, and can fit in my wok.

-Exactly.

And that I can burn to death. So, yeah. That's the key.

-Don't be a cook and you'll lose weight.

-It's also to do with exercise.

-You've got your new DVD out as well.

-Oh, I have - look.

-I thought it would be a nice place mat.

-You've got that out as well.

-Is it fundamentally exercise or is it changing diet?

-I think it's a bit of both, James, for me.

Over the years, I've done so many different diets - the Atkins

and lost loads of weight and then put loads back on

and then I've exercised on its own without looking after my food.

But I've eradicated the word diet out of my life now.

It's just about eating correctly and exercising, you know?

There's no magic pill, unfortunately. If there was one, I'd take it.

Well, hopefully we're eating correctly. We've got this, anyway.

This is the lovely sea kale.

Like I say, it was really popular in the 1800s and stuff like that

but I think because of the modern-style veg that were coming through

from Europe and bits and pieces it became less so.

But it is absolutely delicious if you can get hold of it.

I'll give it a go, eh, James?

-Sorry?

-I'll give it a go.

-You've got to give it a go.

You've got to be quick because it's difficult to get hold of.

Now, that's the little bit of crab and then just finally,

because we've got these lovely shrimps...

All I've done in here is just blanch this sea kale off and then...

-You see, that word - blanch.

-..with the shrimps.

-That means fry off, doesn't it?

-It just means boil.

-OK.

Ooh! I told you I was bad.

LAUGHTER

-Just eat it. There you go.

-I'll just eat it.

-Dive into it.

-And here's my fitness video, eating nice butter.

LAUGHTER

-Oh, funny.

-Trust me.

Oh, look at you all looking at me.

It's embarrassing.

-Oh, that's lovely.

-What do you think?

-It's caught in my cap but it's lovely.

-Caught in your cap.

-But it is delicious.

-Yeah. It is lovely.

-It's very, very nice.

Would you come and live with me, James, please?

Probably but you've got some cookery terms is this DVD as well.

-Tell us about the muffins.

-The muffins...

-What's your muffins?

-The muffins are the bit that hangs over the jeans on the side.

-Is it?

-You wouldn't know, James, because you're beautiful.

-Cyrus, have you got muffins?

I've got muffins in the front here.

-You've got a beautiful muffin.

-What a wonderful muffin it is.

-You've got a nice muffin.

-Exactly. Moving on.

And, of course, if you're looking for a dinner party starter,

that crab recipe is a winner

and if you want any of the recipes from today's show,

you can find them all on bbc.co.uk/recipes.

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

at some of the tasty clips from the Saturday Kitchen archive.

Now it's time for Michelin-starred Sat Bains

to share with us his creative take on mutton.

Take a look at this.

-Different cooking techniques, modern stuff...

-Yes.

..but always using great British ingredients.

Well, the idea behind this dish has got some heritage.

It's a British classic of mutton, which is underused, as you know.

This is the actual mutton, which is the shoulder

I'm going to get this on quickly

and then I'll show you how to make it.

What we do first is take the clingfilm off.

You get this in a pan

and you're going to re-caramelise it,

and that for me is a crucial part because that's where the flavour is.

That's a big thing with your cooking - flavours, flavours, flavours.

Yeah, I would sacrifice presentation for flavour

-because I think it can look good but it should taste better.

-Yeah, OK.

-So what we're going to do is, the mutton's on.

-Yeah.

And that's the first process.

-What we're going to do first is the salt.

-OK.

It's almost like an old classical confit.

-I don't know if you remember doing duck legs.

-Yeah, yeah.

You have to make a little salt.

I'm going to put in some rosemary because it goes well with mutton.

-What we've got here is Douglas fir pine.

-All right.

-What, a Christmas tree?

-Yeah. But it's related to the juniper herb as well.

So that's got a lovely citric... little citrus note as well.

-I've got some coriander seeds.

-Yeah.

-In there.

I'm making a little bit of pickle for you, as well. I've got my shallots.

The idea, we're trying to get a real nice balance of acidity,

-because obviously this is going to be quite fatty...

-Yeah.

..because it is the shoulder, so it's got a lovely amount of fat in there that we're trying to caramelise.

Now, you get your inspiration from old classic recipes and stuff like that.

They used a lot of pickles with meat, didn't they?

Exactly. The idea also is to cut the balance.

When we do tasting menus, you want to keep peaking with the acidity,

so you've got a lovely balance throughout the menu.

-That's that one.

-And the mutton itself is just the shoulder.

-Yeah.

I've got this salt here. I'll put this straight into here.

-It's just like a little coffee grinder.

-Smell that - citrus notes.

-That's amazing. That pine is...

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

So I've got some mutton.

You just salt it like this for 24 hours and you're going to pop it in the fridge.

-Now, what cut would that be?

-This is the shoulder.

-Right, OK.

-It's an underused...

-Can you use pig shoulder?

-Sorry?

-Can you use pig shoulder?

The beautiful thing about this is because it's the piece of meat it is

and it's going to use a pressure cooker,

oxtail, ox cheek, beef cheeks, all of these cuts that are underused,

have got a lot of gelatine in - that's what I'm trying to create.

They've become really trendy, all of these what we call secondary cuts,

but the flavour's in them all, really.

So this is the one I've done earlier.

-Will you pop that in the oven, Sat?

-Yeah, it just needs turning over.

-Right, OK.

So you wash it to take off the excess salt.

-Do you want me to turn it over?

-Yes, please.

-All right.

You wash the excess salt because you don't want it to be too salty

and then I'm going to dry it.

-That's what you're trying to get, that roasted flavour.

-OK.

-That's that.

-So again, dry this really well.

Get some olive oil in here.

What you're trying to do now is recreate the caramelisation

because if you just put it into the pressure cooker as it is,

it'll end up quite bland,

so what we're trying to do is recreate characters and notes that go really well.

-Now, that goes in a really low oven.

-Yeah, that's about 75 degrees.

-Now, these onions - little bit of oil?

-Yes, please.

Again, we've cut them very rustically because the idea is that you want it not...

You want little charred areas as well as the soft areas,

so that gives you a lovely balance of the two types.

-A bit of salt on there or something?

-We'll do that in a minute, yeah.

So what I'm going to do here is really get a good colour.

Pressure cooker's ready. I've got some white and brown chicken stock.

And what the idea is you pop that in... You just want to bring it up.

-Now, what's the difference?

-The idea for the white is to give lubrication

but the dark, brown, chicken stock is the one that's been roasted

and what you're going to do is that gives the gelatine,

that lovely characteristic roasted flavour.

By roasting this now, you're going to recreate a beautiful smell

and that goes into the pressure cooker.

-You need to make sure you've got colour on this.

-Without a doubt.

That's one of the most crucial things.

That one you just took out, as you can see, that's going to be shredded.

-Literally... It's breaking up, you can see it just...

-Beautiful.

-..falls apart.

So I will get the clingfilm ready.

And what we do is just roll it, basically, in clingfilm

and set it in the fridge.

-What's great...

-How long does this go in the pressure cooker for?

This will take 45 minutes

and what's great is because it's underused and underrated

you end up with this really tender piece of meat.

-The pressure cooker will cook around 120 degrees.

-Yeah.

And because there's no loss of moisture,

-everything stays in the pan.

-Yeah.

And you don't have to do the actual clingfilm I'm doing here

but it means you end up with a lovely roll that you can control.

-Do you want a bit of stock in there?

-Yeah, just to lubricate it.

Put a bit of salt in here now.

-As you can see, the actual mutton here is caramelised.

-Yeah.

And that's what you're after.

-If you look at that, that's where all the flavour happens.

-OK.

-And that's going to go into our...

-That's going into the pressure cooker.

-So pop that in.

-Yeah, pop that in. I'll turn this off.

Don't want to burn the place down.

Again, the secret is to get rid of some of the excess...

-Do you want to put it in there?

-Yeah.

Oil. And you have this stock.

What I'm going to do, I'm going to use it from here - the cooking liquor is to deglaze the pan.

It doesn't take long, so all the bits on the bottom are stuck.

Yeah.

-You've got to put the lid on there. So lid on.

-Lid on.

I'll put that one over here.

-That's ready to go.

-Yeah.

-And then, literally 45 minutes and that's it?

-Yeah.

-You end up with this, which has been shredded.

-Yeah.

All you do is just taste it for seasoning.

-I suppose there's no need to put much because it's already got salt in it anyway.

-Yeah.

This is a technique that you can do, because it stays in the fridge and it lasts a good week.

Have you got a pressure cooker stuck in the back of your kitchen?

-No.

-No.

Most people have and they've got dust all over it.

It's the kind of thing they used to use ages ago

but it's coming back.

The idea behind it, again, it's an old technique,

but what it does is it makes food very moist

-and you can do beans in here, I've done nuts in here.

-Yeah.

So just make a nice roll. We're going to cut it once it's rolled.

And these onions, they're OK, charring like this?

You want them charred because that adds character to the dish.

-So what's great now is we've got these lovely almost charred corners...

-Yeah.

..and the mutton's going to be ready, we've got to get the sauce on now, the butter's here.

That's there. That's there.

You're going to make a nut-brown butter,

which goes really well with capers

-because you want the acidity of the shallots, which we've got.

-Yeah.

-Diced.

-I missed that one.

-So tell us about...

-I'll pop this in the fridge now.

Tell us about your restaurant. It's in Nottingham, you've got rooms...

The idea behind it is that we're trying to give you something very exciting.

We use a lot of local ingredients from the British Isles.

We're trying to give you something that when you go...

Even though it's a classic in terms of a dish that's from the British Isles,

I still want it to have a wow factor,

so I don't want to give you something for novelty,

-I want it, ultimately, to be delicious.

-Sounds good to me.

-So again, lemon juice.

-The capers are there.

A little bit of the stock.

And finish with the capers.

The capers add a brilliant acidity to the dish.

-There you go.

-We'll just reduce that down and we'll start dressing it.

-It's all yours.

OK, so you can see, beautifully caramelised all the way round.

-That's it.

-Thank you, James.

-I've got some really nice herbs here.

-Yeah.

These are picked locally on the lane where the restaurant is

and we've got a forager and what she does is she picks wild herbs

and we've found on our location around 75 different wild herbs,

so it's quite scary, thinking about it.

Don't go out into the parks and pick your own if you don't know what you're doing.

Yeah, too right, yeah.

-What have we got in here, then?

-You've got some chickweed, which is local, and some ground elder.

-OK.

So, again, the sauce...

Looking for a spoon...

-Sounds good.

-Very acidic.

And what's nice is, even though it's got the butter in, it's still very light.

And these weeds, are they acidic or something or...?

-Some of them are very bitter...

-Right.

-..but what's nice is that they're quite juicy.

-Right.

So get that off. Turn that off there.

-A few bits of those.

-So just scatter, very simple,

not too much worrying about it.

And these pickled onions are fantastic

because you end up with these lovely little bursts of acid

which cuts through the kind of fatty meat.

There you go. So we have braised mutton with onions and capers.

If you want to taste it, visit Nottingham. How good is that?

Absolutely wonderful.

-It looks delicious.

-Hey!

I know it tastes delicious because I had some in rehearsal.

-Right.

-Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

-OK.

-I suppose you're too busy to ever sort of contemplate making that sort of stuff.

-I am, actually.

And I'm really bad at cooking, really, really bad,

so this is such a treat for me.

But the pickle and stuff, you could do it with pork shoulder or...

I think anything that you braise that's got that long process,

it can be quite heavy,

-so what we do is we counterbalance with pickle, capers...

-Oh, my God!

-..and onions.

It refreshes the palate.

Even though it's a nice braise, you get this refreshing thing all the time.

-It's beautiful.

-Happy with that?

-Really, really nice.

-There you go.

What an ingenious way to cook mutton. It really was stunning.

Now it's time for those two fat ladies to cook.

This week they're in Leicestershire

and there's only way to feed the locals - let them eat cake.

I'm so glad you were able to come with me to Hallaton, Jennifer.

Not at all, my dear.

OK, left!

They're raising money for the wonderful old church

and Anthea's volunteered us to make cakes at the annual fete.

Is that your friend Anthea from your WI days?

The self-same one.

It's that house with the Virginia creeper on it.

Whoo!

-I bet you're boiled.

-I am. Absolutely boiling.

Where do you think we have to put our cake stand?

I think it's up by the butter cross on the green up there,

that strange pointy thing.

-Right, here we are.

-Lovely knocker.

-Oh, good, the door's open.

-Avanti.

-Yoo-hoo!

-Yoo-hoo-hoo!

-Here's the kitchen.

-Oh, fine kitchen.

-Isn't it?

-Yeah.

Oh, no. Oh, Jennifer, look what I've seen.

-Oh, an Aga!

-Oh, dear, I don't like baking in an Aga.

I haven't cooked in an Aga for, I should think, 20 years.

I can never remember which goes in where.

Never mind, look - a Belling. A Baby Belling.

That's all I had to cook with in Benghazi for large dinner parties full of generals

and I used to have all the pans on top of each other,

-you know, tilting like the leaning tower of Pisa.

-LAUGHTER

I wonder where they all are? I expect they're in the garden.

The Women's Institute? I've always rather revered them.

The SAS of British cookery.

-Ah!

-Hello!

-Hello, Clarissa.

-How are you?

-How lovely to see you again.

-And you. This is Jennifer.

-Hello, Jennifer.

-Famous Anthea. How nice to see you.

-Lovely to see you.

-Good morning, ladies.

-Hello.

-Come and have a cup of coffee.

It's a lovely day, isn't it? I hope it lasts for the fete.

We hope so, too.

So that's the church? You're going to raise lots of money for the restoration.

It's well worth it, too. It's a marvellous one.

-It's beautiful.

-Beautiful church.

What do you think will be the best things to cook on our cake stall?

What do you think will sell the best? What shall we cook?

Ginger cake's very good and then shortbread.

-Mm-hm. We can do those.

-They always go very well.

Nothing too sweet. The butter creams I don't think are so popular now.

Oh, right. That's interesting.

People are regarding their diets, unlike us.

LAUGHTER We think it's our duty to be fat.

I'm thinking of doing a rather good coffee cake.

-That sounds delicious.

-Yes.

-With walnuts?

-With walnuts.

It is rich but I like it rich.

Forgive us - we'd better get on but we'll see you all later.

-You've got quite a lot of cakes to make.

-Indeed we have.

We'll try, anyway. Thank you very much, anyway.

-And we'll see you soon.

-See you later.

-See you later.

-We'll have a proper natter later.

-Bye.

-OK.

-Whee!

-Whee!

-Right, OK...

-Bye-bye, ladies.

-Bye!

-Bye.

I thought that I would make a galette des rois,

which is the French cake which they eat on the feast of the Epiphany,

the feast of the Three Kings or Twelfth Night, call it what you will.

It's a puff pastry case, top and bottom,

and it's filled with a mixture of almonds, butter, sugar, eggs and kirsch

and it's very delicious.

And you put in it, just one, either a ring or a bean

or a tiny little figure resembling the Christ Child.

And the person who gets that piece of cake

with the ring in it, he is declared king of the feast

and he wears the crown, which we will put on the cake.

I'm going to start with the pastry. That's boring. You'll probably buy it, anyway.

So I'll be doing that and Clarissa can do her cake.

I'm going to make a Yorkshire gingerbread,

that's a nice dark gingerbread with black treacle.

And I've just been lining and buttering this eight-inch tin.

You really want to get it well-greased.

Did you see Last Tango In Paris? Something like that.

I've got my butter here

and I'm going to cream into it some soft brown sugar.

And the butter's nice and soft,

so they should cream together quite easily.

With most things, most cooking, you can get away with things,

you can get off easily,

but with baking, you really have to be careful at every stage

to get it right, to mix everything in well.

It makes such a difference.

Bakers are born, not made

but those of us who aren't born bakers can do the best we can.

Now, that's all beautifully creamed in.

And now I'm going to add three eggs.

And just so that the eggs don't curdle,

I'm going to sift in a little flour between each one.

And I'm going to break them in...

and mix them in between each one,

so that they're well mixed in.

There we are. Look at that.

A bit of elbow grease, a bit of muscle, put your shoulders into it.

And now I've got this black treacle.

-I love black treacle.

-I love black treacle, too.

-I used to eat it as a child. Did you?

-Yes, always.

-I've even had a jelly made out of it.

-Really? What was that like?

Black treacle jelly with clotted cream.

-Oh!

-Wonderful.

-Wonderful. Sounds marvellous.

And now into my flour I'm going to put some allspice,

ground allspice.

And some ginger - quite a lot of ginger, two tablespoons of ginger,

because we want it to be nice and gingery.

And a teaspoon of baking powder to make it rise.

And I'll mix that all together

and then sift it into the mixture a bit at a time.

And this time with a metal spoon - it's important, with a metal spoon -

it mixes much more efficiently than a wooden one.

-Ooh, glug, glug.

-Yum, yum, yum!

-Mm!

So good. I remember when I was a child and the cook was making gingerbread,

I was always in there.

I much preferred it to cake batters.

I had my fingers in the bowl at every opportunity.

We can lick the bowl later when no-one's looking, Jennifer.

-I can have a tiny taste.

-Well, all right.

Just to try it. I haven't had it for years.

Mm! Wonderful.

-Childhood, childhood.

-Absolutely.

There we are. Make sure it's all along the bottom of the tin.

A good excuse to lick one's finger

and I'm just going to put it into the oven.

Now I've got my pastry rings ready, I'll make the filling.

Butter, nice and soft.

Get the sugar. Pour all that in.

That's the joy of having it really soft

because if you leave it in the refrigerator you'd go on for ages.

Now, egg yolks. Don't worry, dear, I've saved the whites.

We can have a face pack afterwards. We'll need one.

We'll be so beautiful for the fete.

CLARISSA LAUGHS

You mustn't laugh.

Now, you've got to whip this in till it's nice and creamy.

-Isn't that lovely?

-Mm.

Now we put in ground almonds.

You can get them in a packet but it's much better if you do it yourself.

It takes about a moment in a processor.

Now, a few drops of almond essence.

Don't get something called almond flavouring.

Get the real essence. Almond flavouring's disgusting.

And this about three tablespoons of kirsch.

-Just slop it in.

-Kirsch.

Oh, for the wild cherry trees growing on the slopes.

-You're going off on one of your travel dreams.

-I know.

Wonderful smell.

-Mm.

-Now, that's all right.

Now, we must put the filling in.

We've got to put it in here but leaving a rim of pastry

so that we can stick them together.

And now we mustn't forget the ring, the ring, the surprise.

And someone will get it.

Me! THEY LAUGH

It really ought to go to a child but still.

Well!

Now we want to put the egg wash on so that the pastries will stick together.

Just something to stick them.

-Like that.

-Mm-hm.

Then we'll get this fellow.

Try and get it to fit properly.

That's about it.

And press it down.

Then we do this thing called knocking it up.

If you say knocking up to an American, they get very distressed.

You say many things to an American they get very distressed.

THEY CHUCKLE

-When it rises, it makes a sort of nice edging.

-Mm.

Now, we'll just do this bit of prettiness.

Now, I think we'll put a lattice over it.

Use the back of the knife.

You don't want to cut through the pastry because you don't want the filling coming up through it.

-There, I think that's fine.

-That looks good.

Now, we must take it to the refrigerator

and leave it there for 45 minutes to chill

and then I'll give it another egg wash on top before cooking.

I'm going to make a Danish prune and apple cake.

Just in case you think it sounds healthy,

don't be put off by that - it's very good.

So I'm just going to make a nice smooth batter

which will be the base for the all other things I'm going to put on top of it.

I'm going to start by putting some butter in.

Then some sugar.

And I'm going to break in two eggs.

Ground almonds.

And tip those in.

And some flour into which I've already mixed the baking powder.

Put that in. It's already sieved.

And then a little vanilla essence, a teaspoonful of vanilla essence,

but I'm just going to use the lid to measure it in

because that's what I like to do.

And some milk. Pour that in.

I'm now going to mix all this together.

I'm going to make a lot of noise, dear,

so you can carry on, if you want.

If you're going to make a noise, I'll make a noise, too.

-Oh, all right. Be like that.

-Then we can both do it together.

-I've got to do these whites.

-Wonderful toy this is.

-A-one...

-a-two, a- three...

-Give us a song.

-It will have to be the WI's...

-Jerusalem!

# And did those feet in ancient time

# Walk upon England's mountains green and... #

Anyway, I like the part that goes, # Bring me my bow of burnished gold

# Bring me my arrows of desire... #

I never understand why "desire" for the Women's Institute.

-Carry on!

-# Till we have built Jerusalem... #

-With more volume!

-# On England's green and pleasant

# Land! #

Bravo!

And the batter's done to a turn.

You carry on with yours because I've just got to cut these apples.

I'm going to make a coffee and walnut cake

but it's also got chocolate in it.

And what I'm doing at the moment is I've mixed icing sugar and egg yolks

until they fall in a ribbon like that, you see?

And then I add breadcrumbs - only about a tablespoonful.

Fresh breadcrumbs.

Then we put in real coffee, real ground coffee, finely ground.

And then real, proper cocoa, not that drinking chocolate -

real proper cocoa.

-Look how pretty!

-Mm! Lovely!

-Good colour.

-Now, these are all walnuts, chopped walnuts.

In they go.

Now, that's all mixed together.

Now then, we need to put the whites in.

These are just at soft-peak stage and we must fold those in.

I'll put a spoonful in, just stir it in.

That makes it easier to mix.

Now we'll put the whole lot in.

And fold them, in a sort of figure of eight is the best way.

It takes time.

Because that's quite a heavy mess in the middle,

to get the whites into.

This is a rather an interesting cake because it has no flour

and I think it comes from Poland

and it has a slightly bitter taste because of the walnuts

and the neat coffee and the neat cocoa.

And it's really for the grown-ups, I think,

though you never know with children nowadays.

I think it would be delicious eaten with some lovely iced coffee

while you're reclining by a swimming pool.

What, in Poland?

You can be in Poland. Anywhere you can find a nice swimming pool.

I don't know what they're like in Poland.

THEY CHUCKLE

Now, we'll pour it in the tin,

which is lined at the bottom with greaseproof paper

that you've buttered

and just pour it all in.

I'll finish it off with a spatula.

Waste not want not.

Except Clarissa probably wants to lick the bowl.

Yes, well, I was thinking about that

but I suppose it's in a greater cause, the restoration of the church.

I mean, who am I to...?

-Ah! A little left!

-A little bit left.

-A little bit left.

-You can have the spatula.

-Oh, thank you. How lovely.

-And I put this in the oven.

-Mmmm!

-And then I'll come back and do the icing.

-Lovely.

Bon!

On you go.

So there's my batter, all beautifully mixed together.

Now I'm just going to put it into the lined and greased cake tin.

And it's very important that you smooth it out on the bottom

because I'm going to put lots of other things on top of it.

First of all some prunes.

These are nice, plump, juicy prunes.

Don't get those sort of nasty things in tins and syrup.

Go out and buy proper prunes.

Not only will they keep you more regular

but they taste better.

And I've got here some walnuts and sugar that I've mixed together

and I'm just going to scatter a layer of those.

And now, daintily, daintily,

we're going to arrange some apple.

You notice I've left the skins on these nice green apples

and it's perfectly all right to leave the skins on.

Helps them hold together.

Don't use Golden Delicious.

-They're no use, are they? No flavour.

-No use to man or beast.

It's extraordinary, the way they sort of breed flavour out of apples.

They breed flavour out of everything they can lay their hands on nowadays.

That's very true.

Just to get them the right size. Who the hell cares?

I blame the Americans.

They're so afraid of flavours - strong flavours, strong emotions.

Not only the Americans.

The Dutch breed every living morsel of taste out of those huge tomatoes,

all perfect in size.

The carrots when you leave them somewhere turn into something like the monster from the black lagoon,

you know, a sort of terrible goo, and no taste again.

Or their aubergines. If it's Dutch, don't buy it.

Sorry about that. Except for other things. I mean, their eels are wonderful.

Anyway, that's me all ready for the oven.

-Look at that - very dainty.

-Oh, it's beautiful.

Right, on the way and put it in.

Would you be a dear and bring me one of my cold cakes and I can ice it?

The latest off your production line.

-Serf.

-Yes, ma'am.

-Thank you.

-I'll just put it here, shall I?

-Yes, wonderful.

-There you are.

-Thank you.

Now what have you got in that icing?

This is a mixture of softened butter, icing sugar

-and an egg yolk.

-Mm-hm.

-Just call me Miss Salmonella.

-Ah!

Now, the last thing I have to put in is this.

-It's... It's instant coffee...

-Instant coffee?

Instant but it works with the icing sugar in some curious way,

-like Camp coffee does.

-Well, yes.

-It's all right in icing.

-If you say so, darling.

-I promise.

Strangely enough, it seems to resume a taste of coffee,

-which it never does if you drink it.

-No.

Tastes more like Oxo, I always think.

Nearly done!

That's all right.

And we just plop the whole lot on first.

Now, as you've been dainty, I shall be dainty, too.

I shall spread it on. Try and get it even.

Now for the dainties.

Whirly, whirly, whirly.

Whirly, whirly, whirly.

Now, I'll just put this last little bit there.

There we are. Squiggle.

-Mm!

-That's fine, I think, don't you?

-Looks lovely.

Very good.

FOLK MUSIC PLAYING

-Like that?

-Yes.

I may have a gold ring in it. Be careful.

Can I help you to something?

It's usually eaten on Epiphany.

This galette is delicious with a glass of kirsch.

Mm, absolutely. They're Yorkshire gingerbread.

-They're made with molasses.

-Gorgeous. Thank you.

Gingerbread is splendid spread with unsalted butter.

Very sticky.

Yes, if you promise to bring it back, you can have a spoon. There you are.

-Thank you very much.

-Say thank you.

-Thank you.

Make some very strong iced black coffee to drink with this cake.

-Could I have some of the apple and prune cake, please?

-Of course.

-It looks delicious.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

Serve plenty of double cream with this cake.

Hello, my poppet. What would you like now?

-The plate. It's Daddy's.

-Daddy?

-He's finished.

-Oh, it's Daddy's plate. Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-I hope you're enjoying it, sir.

-It's lovely, thank you.

Well, we've made quite a lot of money, I think, for the church.

Oh, good. We can feel that we've added a brick or two.

That's right - restored a stone.

Did you think that little boy, his tooth would be all right

when he bit into the gold ring in the galette?

Oh, yes. It was probably only a milk tooth anyway, wasn't it?

It took a nasty chip out.

Anyway, I suppose we can wend our way home now.

Let's go back and have a bath and a large drink.

Well, I'll settle for the bath. You can have the huge drink.

-I'll have a bath as well.

-LAUGHTER

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

but instead we've got fabulous recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites.

Glynn Purnell takes on Theo Randall in a bout at the hobs

in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

Bryn Williams roasts the perfect rump of lamb.

He serves it with pan-fried courgette ribbons

and a borlotti bean, olive and confit tomato broth.

And Robert Glenister gets to eat his food heaven or food hell.

Will he face his heaven - chicken, and my classic chicken chasseur with creamy mash?

Or his hell - duck breast, served roasted with a potato rosti and a cherry sauce?

See what he gets at the end of today's show.

Now, of course, when it's wintry outside,

what's better than a dose of Mediterranean sunshine

in the form of Francesco Mazzei?

-Buongiorno. Now, this is a seafood...

-Traditional seafood. This is fregola.

-Fregola.

It's basically semola, which is toasted a bit, you know,

and then we use for this lovely soup.

It's also good for salad. We've got lovely seafood here.

-I'm going to chop these shallots.

-I've got some lovely squid,

some clams, some mussels, Palourdes clams, red mullet, scallops and shrimps -

beautiful, beautiful stuff.

As you know, this is kind of a bit of history here

because we had some influence from the Spanish and the Moorish,

so this one is kind of couscous stuff

but it's different because it's toasted really, OK?

-So we cut...

-So this is like couscous?

-It's a manufactured grain?

-Exactly.

The difference is this is toasted in the oven. That's the difference.

-It's made with semolina flour?

-Semolina is the same stuff

-but it's finer, really.

-OK.

So you do it with gnocchi or stuff like that, so...

Like you say, it's made out of the flour but they toast it off.

-That's why it's golden brown.

-So it's good when you do soup.

It absorbs the flavour very well.

But it takes a little bit longer to cook than couscous, doesn't it?

Ah, yes. This takes about eight minutes, if not quicker.

OK, so I've got some olive oil, there.

Got some of the squid.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Do you want some onions in there as well?

Some shallots would be good, there.

-So we start to do the fregola here, as well.

-Right.

So, as I said, a fantastic dish of Sardinia.

It's the only place in Italy where they serve this kind of semola.

Nowhere else in the south.

There is a kind of couscous also in Sicily, in the very deep south,

which they call ncucciatta, very interesting thing.

But they do serve it like a couscous. They do a fish soup and then they serve the couscous next to it.

As well as each region having their own pasta dishes,

-they've got their own types of pasta.

-Oh, yeah.

We've been doing that before here, like some canapes, which is done with...

And that's a semola which is rimacinata, OK?

It's basically between semola and semolina, OK?

-Again, finer, so...

-Spaghetti hoops, where do they come from?

-What?

-Spaghetti hoops.

-I don't know. They're not Italian.

Lancashire! Lancashire!

Ah! Lancashire!

OK, I'm doing the fregola here, as you can see.

-It's basically like risotto style, here. OK?

-Yeah.

Then take add a bit of flavour I'm going to add some lovely garlic.

Francesco, you know when you cook the risotto in a restaurant, people sometimes blanch it and stop it.

-No!

-Do you cook that to order...? Obviously, you don't.

-People does...

-Do you cook that to order in the restaurant?

We cook it by order. It takes about 20 minutes.

What we ask our beautiful, talented waiter is

not to suggest it as a starter

because people don't want to wait for their starter.

-He wasn't very beautiful when I went there.

-Yeah?

-He wasn't very beautiful.

-No?!

-Right, so I've got the fregola here, the squid here.

-Right.

OK, then, I'm going to put mussels together, clams.

It's like rice, really, a risotto.

Could you do me some herbs, chopped with olive oil and garlic and a bit of chilli, as well?

And then my tomato paste here.

A little bit of that.

Some tomato sauce.

OK? Lovely smell here.

So basically now the clams, the mussels are going to open up,

so the lovely juice will absorb the flavour.

When I think of Italy, I think rustic, you like rustic,

but these are the ideas for your new restaurant?

Yeah but to be honest with you, this is one of the dish that we got already

but it's a bit finer but I want my new venture,

-which will be L'Anima cafe, a classic trattoria style of food.

-Right.

I mean, dish that should be very easy,

and quick on the table - five, six minutes, also not very expensive, OK?

So this one, we try to use as much as we can, stuff from the UK.

I mean, you guys have beautiful fish here.

I don't know why people tend to buy from Italy or France

when the best of the seafood is round here.

It is ridiculous. When you walk round a lot of the markets in Italy and Spain

-and see all the langoustine...

-It's all from here.

-It's from Scotland.

Most of it.

The clams we're got here, Palourdes clams, sound very French

-but it's from the English coast.

-Yeah, yeah.

When we were in Sardinia last year, a lot of the fish came from England.

It was amazing - in Sardinia.

The price of langoustine here is quite affordable.

It's about 28 for a pound.

In Milan, you can pay £80 a kilo for some langoustine.

Unbelievable. And they're all from them we buy it.

You cook that down like a risotto? So you slowly add the stock?

You slowly add the stock so it basically gets the stock bit by bit.

When I made it before I did it on the television years ago-

and I boiled it first and then added it like a minestrone.

-Well, you can also do that.

-You did it wrong.

-Yeah, I think so.

-LAUGHTER

-I'm feeling insecure right now.

-Exactly.

-It's pasta, it absorbs...

There's a sink in the back there for your hands.

It's a pasta, it absorbs the same.

Everybody thinks that it's easy to cook a plate of pasta.

When we do spaghetti vongole, what we do, we cook the pasta halfway in the water

and the other halfway in the sauce.

so while it keeps cooking, it absorbs the flavours.

Oh, thank you very much.

-Nobody ever listens to me on this show.

-You're very kind.

-Right.

-Right, OK.

Herbs, we've got some dill, some basil...

-Yeah. Tarragon.

-Tarragon, which I love with fish.

-And some chives in there and you want some lemon zest, yeah?

-Yeah.

-A little lemon zest.

-Yes, please. Give it a little zing.

So this, it's nearly there, I'm just going to taste a bit.

But as I said, we don't need to add some more salt

because it's already the flavour from...

Oh, wow, that's good. The flavour from clams and mussels that

they open up, they release the juice and that's basically pretty good.

-So that's like a gremolata at the end there, is it?

-Yeah, a kind of gremolata.

-The lemon gives a difference, a little bite...

-From the chilli.

-From the chilli.

-Lots of herbs together.

-You want some lemon in here.

-And some tomato in here, yeah?

-Some tomato just at the end.

And then we're about to finish.

-Lovely.

-Beautiful red mullet here.

Nice scallop, which I like quite pink in the middle.

-Nice.

-Now I missed the stock going in there.

-Was that fish stock or...?

-Fish stock, fish stock.