Episode 87 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

It's time for Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

We have some very hungry celebrity guests

fed by some of the world's best chefs,

including the great Alain Roux.

Mark Sergeant shows us how to prepare

tapas from scratch

by making a homemade chorizo and using it in two dishes -

chorizo with red wine and prawns with chorizo.

John Torode whips us a Far Eastern delight

in the form of a Thai chicken salad.

He poaches chicken thighs in coconut milk

before griddling them

and serving them with a delicious crisp salad of coriander,

mint, shallots and red pepper.

Angela Hartnett serves her favourite cut of steak, rib eye.

She serves it with sauteed potatoes,

garlic and rosemary and a delicious

tomato vinaigrette.

Singer Beverley Knight faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Heaven - sea bass -

a whole salt-crusted sea bass with crunchy runner bean salad?

Or would she get her Food Hell -

griddled sardines with a tangy tomato salad.

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

But first, a real treat.

The team asked some of my favourite chefs to come onto the show

for my 40th birthday.

Alain Roux made an amazing cannelloni

of Devon crab.

Just check this out.

We have crab on the menu. What will we do with it?

Cannelloni. The crab will be

a cannelloni, filled with crab.

for the cannelloni we need pasta dough.

That's made with 00 flour,

fresh eggs, a little pinch of salt,

nothing else.

Is there any special flour

you use with this, or double-zero?

It's very super-fine, very

white and nice and light.

That's some we've done earlier this morning, and that's rested.

We'll run through these ingredients as we cook them

but you'll fill that with what?

The crab's from South Devon,

which is my favourite.

It's so meaty, tasty, very sweet.

That will be seasoned with some

crushed green peppercorns kept in brine,

a twist of a lime

and, as well, underneath the cannelloni

we're going to spoon a bit of the coral.

It's an optional thing.

That's from the head, the body of the crab.

-Right.

-Mixed with some mascarpone

and the sauce...

Which I better get on with.

It's a virgin sauce with lovely, fresh tomatoes

and with snipped basil,

extra virgin olive oil and, again,

a twist of lemon

and we'll put, on the side,

the garnish of strips of asparagus

and leaves of rocket.

-Sounds good to me. You'll do the pasta?

-Yes.

This pasta is already done. You make this by hand if you can, yeah?

I prefer, that's really my choice.

So it's a question of the quantity you're making.

What would you do - one egg per hundred grams -

is that roughly...?

Do you use many egg yolks?

I use only the egg yolks,

so I think it's for 125 grams of flour,

I use about four egg yolks,

which is quite rich.

But that gives a nice colour and good flavour.

This is a very cute machine.

I'm used to something a bit larger,

but maybe I'm not

putting the right setting.

-I think it'll go through it eventually.

-It will work.

What's important is,

when you boil your pasta is

you need to bend on your legs.

Be supple.

The Italian, actually,

will do something which is very important -

it seems to work, they seem to say

-that you have to sing.

-Sing?!

-Yeah.

# O solo mio... #

Sorry, I'll stop there if it's my Italian

is not good enough.

JAMES LAUGHS

That's the way we do it.

That's the way you do it at the Waterside?

At home, yes.

When you're all singing, we know you're making pasta?

My dad is a great singer.

Is he?

Since he left the kitchen,

actually we stopped making pasta.

No, I'm joking.

Tell everybody about the Waterside.

It IS a unique place...

in the world, really.

Your father bought it when?

30-odd years ago?

It's a bit like you, we're celebrating our 40 years this year.

-There, that way.

-Ah, sorry.

There you go.

So 40 years already.

And you took over the kitchen...

I'm bringing it down...

All right, OK.

You took over the kitchen when?

Almost ten years ago.

And then we go through again, through this one as well,

-make it a little bit thinner.

-Yeah.

-There we go.

That's it. So we want to reach...

Ah, perfect. That's about a millimetre, 1½ millimetre thickness.

There you go. There you have it.

So, in there, what we'll do is we'll put some basil...

Yeah, I've picked some.

So I'll take a few as well, cos we need to be quite generous with that,

and the small leaves, I think, are better.

-Yeah.

-Young leaves.

-A bit like you.

-Young leaves!

James? I think you need to invest in a pasta machine.

-Do you think so?

-For your birthday.

Yeah, no... We're not getting any younger, put it that way.

I woke up this morning, when you're younger

you used to look forward to opening your presents

and waking up and getting all excited, that kind of stuff.

I woke up this morning, age 40, and all I want to do is go for a pee.

LAUGHTER

So, what I'll do is, when the basil leaves are in,

I just brush with a little bit of water,

press down with the hand.

The water will help, basically,

to kind of have the leaves under the two sheets of pasta.

I've just, on the settings, opened that out again,

we'll put it through one more time to get it a bit thinner,

because otherwise it starts to split, that's the thing.

Let's just do this. We've got it.

-Perfect.

-You could use any type of leaves,

but, because of the flavours of the crab and the basil in the sauce,

we're basically going to, you know, leave it with the basil.

-There you go. Right, I've got to have tomatoes.

-We're going to...

So, is this a dish that you have on The Waterside, then?

We do it time to time, slightly similar, a bit nicer.

-A bit nicer...!

-Today, I mean.

But you have the true classics that you've got on there as well,

things like the lobster dish that you've got, with the ginger.

That's a dish that's not changed for years.

-35 years, I think.

-35 years?

-Yes, yes.

So, I've got my sheets of pasta, so I've cut them about three,

two by six inches.

So, to cook the pasta, a touch of olive oil,

and that needs a bit of salt.

-Which is...

-I put it over there.

-I've got it here.

Now, you want diamonds in here, is that correct?

Yes, diamonds, because diamond's always better than, you know,

little cubes, or diced.

-Diamonds.

-Make sure you get them right, James.

-Remember that, boys.

That's the difference between two and three stars, diamonds.

It's where you've been going wrong, you see?

So what I do is, this dish, because I wanted to cook this for you

because it's influenced with a little bit of a French touch,

and a bit of Italian, and at home we have our restaurant manager,

Diego, who's, to be honest, the best restaurant manager

if not from the country but most probably from the village of Bray.

He is, cos, I mean, he's been there...

-He's very good.

-..as long as the bricks have been there, that guy?

Indeed. He's been there for almost 30 years now.

He basically knows what our customers like.

This is seasonal, it's a summer, fresh, light dish.

I've put the crushed green peppercorns,

I've put a little twist of lime,

a touch of salt just to bring back that saltiness,

and we're just going to blend it with...

-Do you want me to pass that crab meat through there?

-Yes, please.

And I'm going to put a drizzle of olive oil

just to keep that moistness in it.

And that's it.

Now, we've got the brown meat here, which we passed through a sieve,

which we'll show you what part of the crab it comes from.

So the pasta's about there, ready.

That the brown crab, it's basically inside the body,

that's this part here. That's the coral. That's the brown.

All the lovers of the crab, that will be their favourite.

-We should never lose that.

-That's had two minutes now, so that's ready.

This is a fantastic... How old would this be, Nathan, this one?

That's got to be at least 12, 13, maybe 15 years old, that.

-Fabulous, isn't it?

-Almost as old as you.

HE LAUGHS

Now, I've got my asparagus here, that's done.

Asparagus, we're going to place them on here, if you don't mind, James?

Here, the pasta, when it's cooked, cooled down,

we'll just pat dry it slightly.

-I'm going to garnish it with a bit of salt.

-Salt.

-It doesn't take very long to warm up, this, does it, really?

-No.

About, you know, three, four minutes, maximum.

So that's it.

Now, with a little spatula, we're going to help it to hold together.

-That's it. Just roll together.

-Ready?

-This in there.

Asparagus on top. And we close the lid.

Now we just need to finish the sauce.

So, the sauce, I've passed it through a sieve.

So, the sauce, the mascarpone with the brown crab.

You want this one for the little vierge.

Now, the classic little vierge is a simple little dish, isn't it, really?

It is. Very simple, but you need to add some lovely tomatoes for that,

good plum tomatoes, or I know at the moment

the best might be the kind of long Italian San Marzano,

if I'm right, tomatoes, which are very tasty, sweet,

and not too much juice or water inside.

So, what are you doing there? This is the little sauce on the bottom?

Just warming up the mozzarella, sorry, the mascarpone

with the brown crab, just so it's warm.

That's ready to use and to plate up.

Right, we've got some chopped herbs.

That crab's had the time, so you want the herbs in there?

Herbs in the salad. A little salt, a little pepper.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

-Used to it on this game.

-And the plate. And a spoon.

And a spoon. You're going to put the sauce on.

So you don't need much. Again, this dish can be done without.

-You want a bit of the lemon juice in this sauce?

-A little, yes.

-There you go, that's that.

-That's it.

-Ready with that.

So, it doesn't take long to reheat.

It's a warm dish, and the asparagus are really nice when they're crunchy.

Just a touch of salt, and then a bit of pepper on the asparagus.

Ready when you are.

That's it.

And just... You can... I find it nicer to open it slightly

so you see a bit of the pasta and you see a bit of the leaves of the basil.

A bit of rocket just as a compliment, garnish, and the sauce.

A bit on top...

So you got a mixture of classic French and classic Italian.

There you go, and don't forget to get a good shot of those diamonds.

-Look at that one.

-Very nice, very nicely cut!

-Remind us what it is again?

-Cannelloni of Devon crab with a virgin olive oil sauce.

-Cooked by an absolute legend.

-My pleasure.

It looks stunning, I have to say. Well, follow me over.

-Grab a seat over here, Alain.

-That's yours!

-You can dive in as well. Dive in, tell us what you think.

-Thank you.

You've just got a little bit of basil in there.

Often when you talk about that vierge, that virgin sauce, sometimes it's got tarragon in there.

-Can you mix and match the herbs?

-You can, you can.

It's a question of what you've got in your garden,

in your herb garden.

Basil is the classic, you can add chervil or tarragon.

They're nice flavours, they will actually blend together.

I know it's hard to believe, I am 40, it is true.

That was a stunning birthday treat.

Coming up, I'll be making a steamed honey sponge pudding for Claire Sweeney,

but first Rick Stein introduces us

to more of his food heroes when he visits an orchard in the Cotswolds.

'I've come to the Cotswolds to visit a small farm famous for growing,

'to my mind, the best cooking apple ever, the Bramley.

'Here in the village of Charingworth,

'Margaret and Grahame Fisher grow the most enormous apples I've ever seen.'

Look at the size of this, Margaret!

-That's a whole apple pie in one apple!

-That is, yes.

Wrap it up in pastry and it'd make a wonderful dumpling, wouldn't it?

-It would. Put some cinnamon...

-And another one to match it.

-..and currants in the middle.

-Beautiful.

-And then just bake the whole thing.

-Absolutely wonderful.

-Look at them!

They've got wonderful sharp flavour.

Haven't they?

Oh, they're great, I love tart apples. In that...

-The best British cooker, aren't they?

-The best British cooker.

-Yes.

-Blackberry and apple crumble made with that.

Yes, absolutely super.

Just thinking about Keats's Ode To Autumn, season of mists

and mellow fruitfulness, it's just a great time of year.

The funny thing about elderberries -

they look as though they should be luscious and delicious.

In fact, they're quite disappointing.

According to Margaret, they make an excellent jelly.

What you do is take a bunch, fork the berries off into a saucepan,

and you barely cover the berries with water.

Bring them up to the boil and just a gentle simmer

until they've gone all soft and pulpy,

and then you just empty them into a jelly bag,

and leave them there to drip, drip, drip into a bowl.

That really clears the jelly,

and then boil them up a pound of sugar to a pint of juice.

They're a bit low in peptin

so I'd be tempted to add a bit of apple so it's bound to set.

And elderberry jelly is really good in the same sort of occasions

that you'd use redcurrant jelly, particularly with roast lamb.

-It worked great with pheasant as well.

-Oh, absolutely, yes.

Here we are in autumn and you've got elderberry jelly and pheasants.

-Yes, everything out of the fields.

-The pheasants, the elderberries.

-Yes.

-Apt, don't you think, Margaret?

-Yes.

This is a Three Ways House Hotel in Mickleton,

the home of the famous Pudding Club, and this is Sheila,

chief pudding maker, creating an Exeter apple and blackberry pudding.

First, she's mixing a suet pastry. Flour, suet, milk and salt.

Then she turns it out and rolls it into a disc.

She cuts a quarter out of the disc.

That's for the lid

and to make sure the pastry fits into the bowl easily.

Then she mixes some of Margaret's apples and blackberries in one

bowl and in another she combines breadcrumbs, suet and honey.

This pudding is not for the fainthearted.

Now she puts the apple and blackberry into the bowl,

or at least half of it, and then half of the breadcrumbs,

suet and honey,

another layer of apple and blackberry,

and finally, more of the honey mix.

And lastly, the top.

That's it, that goes in the steamer for three hours

when you put the lid on top.

Well, Sheila, only another 13 puddings to go.

The pudding is, unashamedly, a British invention and one that I'm

happy to say, triumphantly, lives on regardless of fads or diet.

Just take a look at these.

This takes me right back to school dinners where gristly lamb

and greasy gravy were forgiven for portions of apple crumble,

treacle sponge pudding and jam roly-poly.

We had to eat them

so quickly because you wanted to be first in the queue for seconds.

After a two-course meal,

the restaurant is filled with anticipation.

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have the parade of puddings.

Let's have a big round of applause and welcome the first pudding

this evening, blackberry and apple Exeter pudding.

APPLAUSE

Syrup sponge pudding!

Sticky toffee and date pudding!

Banana and cinnamon pudding!

Squidgy chocolate and nut pudding!

Jam roly-poly!

A very seasonal pear crumble!

The rules are simple.

You can't have another pudding until you finish your first,

and you've got to eat all seven of them.

It goes back to childhood somehow.

Those things that Granny used to make but nobody else does.

And really, they are rather special.

Remember, everyone had had two courses beforehand

and were about to embark on tasting a further seven puddings.

They were really excellent

and, of course, the object of the exercise was to find a winner

but the taste buds were starting to get out of phase with the tummy.

But nevertheless, like true trenchermen, we soldiered on.

I'm full.

And a fairly clear winner tonight, with 29 votes,

sticky toffee and date pudding!

APPLAUSE

One of the puddings they didn't have on at the club that night,

but often do, is bread and butter pudding.

Oh, dear, I'm making a bit of a mess of this.

This is an after lunch sequence and I know

if Delia was doing this she would be doing a lot better.

I don't believe she has a glass of wine at lunch time

but I like it occasionally.

So you cut the bread into triangles and lay half of them

in the bottom of a pudding dish. Then add sultanas

and the other layer of triangles and bread. Now to make up the filling.

It's just cream and milk and three eggs, and you whisk those together

and add caster sugar.

Well, as the second most expensive spice after saffron,

vanilla pods should be in a lovely cigar tube like this.

'Well, there's no doubt that stripping the vanilla pod,

'and taking the seeds out, gives you the best flavour.

'But like me, you may have an affection for those school

'dinners in which case vanilla essence is much cheaper.'

I must say, it was

so nice of that hotel to have a celebration of puddings every month.

I was talking to one guy there, who was a bit older than me actually,

and he said, "Puddings are what Nanny used to make.

"So comforting, memory of childhood."

I thought that was really good.

The pudding that won was, naturally, sticky toffee pudding.

Although I went for the pear crumble, bread and butter pudding

was the one that I would have certainly gone for had it been on.

So I put that in a bain-marie

and I bake it in a moderately hot oven for about 30 minutes

and out it comes

and this is the bit that really makes my bread and butter pudding special.

I dust with a lot of icing sugar and put it under a hot grill

and that caramelises the icing sugar and gives it a lovely crust.

Finally, brush with hot apricot jam.

What more can I say about a bread and butter pudding that to quote

a Frenchman who, in the 17th century, wrote,

"Ah, what an excellent thing is the English pudding.

"To come in pudding time is as much to say as to come in the most

"lucky moment in the world.

"Give an Englishman a pudding

"and he shall think it a noble treat in any part of the world."

I have to agree with Rick.

Bread and butter pudding is truly excellent,

but also, you can make it with croissants, white chocolate

and whiskey.

-Oh, that sounds like heaven.

-Do you like that one?

White chocolates, Jack Daniels and croissants!

White chocolate and whiskey - really, really good.

A classic combination. For this, I'm going to do a steam sponge pudding.

-From raw ingredients to cooked in two minutes with a source.

-OK.

-Go on, then!

-"Go on then, off you go"!

Normal steam sponge pudding takes a lot longer, you see.

-I'm going to do it my way.

-I'm going to pop this in the microwave.

Normal steam sponge pudding, we'd obviously place it...

-Is that just milk or cream?

-This is milk and cream.

-OK.

I take equal quantities of each.

There's 250 mils, or about half a pint, of milk and cream.

Pop it into a pan with a vanilla pod.

Now, Rick used a vanilla pod here.

The best vanilla pods to go for are what they call bourbon vanilla pods.

-They're not a brand, they are the type.

-They come from Madagascar.

They're much fatter like these ones are. And they bend.

-Vanilla pods should bend.

-OK. Is that what gives it the flavouring?

That's what gives it a really distinct flavour.

You can use essence, but that's the real McCoy.

Now, for our steamed sponge pudding, I've lined my little mould here.

Into here, I'm going to put four ounces of self raising flour,

four ounces of soft butter.

It needs to be soft, not melted.

Four ounces of sugar.

And two eggs. Two medium-sized eggs.

This is what we call an all-in-one mixture.

Literally, you throw it all in.

It's a classic bun mixture, so if I was making buns,

-I'd do exactly the same.

-OK.

Blitz it up. Like that.

It wants about a good 20 seconds.

-Done, finished.

-It's looking so easy.

Then pop that into a little... I've greased my little mould here.

I'm going to use some honey. This is lovely, organic honey.

I always try and buy it in the squeezy things, it's much easier.

A bit of ginger, and then what you can do is just slacken

this down a touch is add a bit of milk.

A tiny bit of milk.

The more milk you add, the lighter it'll become.

Now, what we can now do is take our filling mixture here,

pop it into your moulds.

You could do a larger one for this.

You just have to cook it in a microwave at a lower temperature,

slightly longer.

You press this down nicely.

So you've got all this mixture.

-Remember when you were a kid, you used to scoop this out.

-Yeah.

-Get the pan.

-Lovely.

Take some clingfilm and just roughly put the clingfilm on the top.

There you go, just like that.

Don't pull it too tight otherwise it will force the sponge to rise up

-and then it will collapse into it. Roughly like that.

-OK.

Pop into the microwave.

See, Michael's looking. It'll be on his restaurant menu tonight,

you wait and see. Pop it in the microwave.

Full heat like that for one and a half minutes.

That will stop in a minute.

We've got a guy at the back taking it out and putting a fresh one in it.

-One I made earlier.

-Exactly, yes!

What we can do now is just finish off our custard.

This is very, very simple.

We need to heat up our milk and cream and bring it to the boil

-so that the vanilla infuses through it.

-Yeah.

That's the most important thing.

And then what we do is take three egg yokes.

I'm going to put another egg yolk in.

We need four egg yolks because four egg yolks set about half a litre

of liquid.

And then we add our sugar. This is the tiptop tip, really.

If you're making stuff like this, don't add all the sugar.

-Add about a quarter of it and add the remainder...

-Is that white sugar?

It's white sugar. Because sugar will actually cook the egg yolks.

If you put sugar on egg yolks and leave it you'll end up with

little yellow specks in that you can't get rid of.

-It's cos it's cured it.

-OK.

It's a bit like when you're making smoked salmon,

that mixture of salt and sugar.

There you go.

And then we heat this up until it brings to the boil.

And I'm going to pour this mixture over here.

-So, what's in the pan again?

-This is just milk, cream and vanilla pod.

-Are you going to try this?

-Yes.

But you've got to do it in between so it's really, really simple.

Just make sure it's nice and heated up.

Once it starts to bring to the boil, pour the milk

and the cream onto your egg yolks, and then what I do is use a whisk.

Traditionally, when we were at college,

and Mr Tanner will probably remember this as well,

is that you were taught to use a wooden spoon and let the milk

and cream, as it starts to come up to the heat, coat the back of the spoon.

The best way to do that, really - because you don't want to

overcook this. If you overcook it, it looks like scrambled egg.

Something that James Tanner's omelette did a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, Mr Martin!

We'll get on to that in a minute!

You need to heed this up so it's just nice and thick.

To do that whisk it up until all the bubbles start to disappear.

Once the bubbles start to disappear, the texture's getting nice and thick.

Then all we can do now is pour this mixture through there.

You see how thick it has become?

-You see, I'm quite partial to lumpy custard, though.

-Lumpy custard?!

Well, you can, you just cook it for longer.

You get scrambled egg and custard.

There you go, have a dive into that while I get my sponge.

Now, you mentioned earlier that your father was a butcher and stuff.

-That's gorgeous!

-What's the worst thing he ever brought home?

I mean, obviously, not like fillet and sirloin.

They also liked to experiment as well.

Go on, what's the worst thing he ever brought home?

To be honest, my mother was such a bad cook that anything my dad

brought home and cooked, we always appreciated it. He brought home...

-..lamb's testicles.

-Nice, nice, yeah.

-They're call lamb fries, are they?

-Yes.

Lamb fries. I remember him skinning them, beating them about in flour.

-And we had them with chips and beans!

-Chips and?

-Chips and beans!

-Chips and beans. Nice, interesting!

-I was quite traumatised, really.

I think that was my sex education - chips and beans!

Lovely, all wrapped up in one.

-Anyway, you've got steamed sponge pudding now.

-Wow.

And not a chocolate yet.

Anyway, I say yet because you might get it a bit later.

-And that poured over the top.

-That looks amazing.

But this isn't something that you're normally familiar with now

because you're into...your're West End now, Guys and Dolls, with, of course,

-Patrick Swayze.

-I know.

-Yes. What's he like?

Do you know what? He is gorgeous.

He is lovely, because I was quite nervous.

When I found out I got the job, it was like my dream job.

To find out Patrick was doing it was the icing on the cake.

I was quite nervous but he is so unassuming, so kind,

-so giving and lovely.

-You're doing eight shows a week?

Eight shows a week, yes.

And quite slinky costumes and that so I do need to watch my diet

because I'm on a stage with loads of stunning, skinny dancers, and...

-I suppose the eating of it is little and often throughout the day?

-Yes.

And to be honest, some great Japanese restaurants.

We're in Soho so I've been living on lots of sushi,

lots of Japanese food.

You get your energy but it's also low-fat as well.

Sushi and Japanese, well, you've got a bit of Northern there.

Custard and sponge, yes!

-Custard and sponge, tell what you think.

-Oh, wow, that is gorgeous.

-And that's so simple. Two minutes.

-That is lovely.

-Easy as that.

Now, that's of course the perfect desert for a typical British summer.

If you'd like to have a go at making that pudding or try your hand at any

of the recipes from today's show,

they're just a click away at our website - bbc.co.uk/recipes.

We're not live today so we're instead looking back

at some of the brilliant recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archive.

Next up, Mark Sergeant shows us his sausage making skills.

You've been a busy boy - particularly with this cos this is

-the first time we've ever made this on the show.

-Yes.

-What are we making?

-I'm very proud of my home-made chorizo

and I do actually make it at home.

-You do, because we have a little picture of it.

-Yes.

Have we got a picture?

We have got a little picture. It's coming up.

There you go.

-That is your house, is it?

-Yeah. Not my whole house, obviously.

I sleep underneath that bit. It's really simple. Really simple.

I'm sure this isn't actually a chorizo,

-but basically, it's my salami recipe with smoked paprika in it.

-OK.

So we've got some really lean, ground pork shoulder.

And if you can just finished dicing this off, this is some back fat.

Some garlic in here as well.

We're going to add some garlic, very, very finely crushed.

Then we've got this smoked paprika which gives it that chorizo

kind of flavour to it. Fennel seeds.

Black peppercorns. But most importantly, salt.

The amount of salt that goes in here, that does the curing for you

and essentially cooks the meat.

This hangs for a month, but it's actually not cooked,

it's completely raw, but the salt draws all the moisture out

and essentially sort of cooks it.

So, in theory, if you were to just not put the paprika in,

-It would end up almost like a salami, like a Milano.

-Exactly.

That's basically what I started doing.

I started making the salami

and then instead of adding ordinary paprika,

I put in the smoked paprika and I put in a lot more of it

and what came out is the chorizo.

-Which is your picante sort of stuff.

-Exactly.

-Smoky, spicy.

Sweet, smoky, yeah.

It's basically...

Without being too boring, it's 25 grams of salt per kilo of meat.

That's enough to cure. And a little splash of red wine in there as well.

That just gives it a bit of a nice, darker colour. This is the good bit.

-This is the fun bit here.

-You want me to peel these?

-Yeah.

Because after I've made this... I've brought one from home with me,

one I made earlier. It's actually a two-monther.

LAUGHING

Too much time on your hands, that's what it is. It's great.

This is all developing recipes for my new book, James.

That's what I'm really doing at home quite a bit,

developing recipes for that, really.

Obviously, I didn't invent chorizo, but this is my take on it.

You want to get that mixed beautifully in there

because you want to make sure all that seasoning goes completely through all the meat.

Then I just need to get into... So, you've got your cars, James.

I'm not really in a position to buy fast cars any more,

but now I have fast sausage makers instead.

-You went on the Internet and bought this, didn't you?

-I did, yeah.

I go on the Internet and buy a steering wheel.

You get a sausage machine. Where on earth did you get this from?

Well, my local butcher, Mike, he lent me, very kindly,

his sausage machine and it was about the same size as my kitchen.

I didn't want a mechanical one after doing it by hand.

Just get out to there.

So I went online and googled "sausage makers" and low and behold,

this one came up. I had to get it from America, bizarrely enough.

-Really?

-Yeah. Maybe there's a market, James. We could go into it.

-Supply and demand.

-We'll see how they turn out anyway.

These are the skins. Natural skins.

You've got to use natural casings because it allows the air...

Just need a little knife, please?

It allows the air to breathe through

and you need to get the air in to dry it cos obviously we'll put this

in a cool place with plenty of airflow.

-So it's natural skins for dried salami.

-Exactly.

-All natural skins. It's always best to use natural stuff anyway, really, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Roll that on there. We'll only make one.

This mixes enough to make about three or four good-sized chorizo.

But you can make them as long or short or thick or thin

as you want to, really. Can I borrow that knife again, please, James?

-There you go.

-So we'll just tie the end off of that.

This is... After a bit of practice, you'll see how easy this is.

So, can you just hold that for me, please, James?

-Yeah, I'll chop this at the same time.

-There's no rush(!)

-Right.

-You see that's coming out nicely.

You kind of want the right amount of pressure...

JAMES LAUGHS ..to fill up the skin.

Isn't life too short to do this?

Right.

The key thing is as well, as soon as you've mixed your mix,

get it made because if you leave it,

the salt will start working on it and it will toughen up straightaway

so it'll make it really, really hard to pipe out.

-The difference between this and normal sausages is...

-Huge amount of salt in there.

-Fat, but mainly salt.

-Exactly.

How you store it as well. You just hang it up. It needs to be outside.

If you've got a garden shed, just drill a few holes in there

own put in ventilation or something like that, it's absolutely perfect.

So we've got that.

The next thing which is really important is the cocktail stick.

Cocktail stick? Use a knife.

So, basically, you've got to prick it all over and what that does,

it gets rid of any of the air bubbles in there

and the cocktail stick's perfect for that. Just tiny little holes.

As the salt and everything starts curing

and the meat shrinks away, the skins will enclose around that.

If you could tie that up with a little bit of string, James,

then hang it up at the back there.

We've got our own Saturday Kitchen chorizo store up the back.

I'll just wash my hands quickly.

There you go.

-We could keep this and next time you're on...

-Use it again.

-We'll use it again.

-I'll have to come up with another recipe.

This is the one we did in rehearsals. That's already starting to dry out a little bit.

But this is it. This is my baby. I'm really proud of this.

This is my other baby. My other baby at home, Ivy.

Hello, Ivy. Hello, Nancy.

There's kids all over the place on this show.

-I feel like Lorraine Kelly. Right. Go on.

-This is my chorizo.

I'll just give you a piece on the end. Look at that.

If people were doing this, seriously,

you can put that...

-cloth over the top as well.

-Like a muslin or something like that.

The thing is, in my office...

Look at that. That is stunning. Even if I do say so myself.

I've got it near a window with a blind next to it.

So I've got the slats of the blinds open so there's just

a light airflow going through and I've upgraded now from a pole

and two chairs to a clothes rail which works perfectly.

-Literally, a month, that will be fine?

-Yeah, a month is great.

Look at that, James. Have a little try of that.

It really does look like the real thing.

Tastes like the real thing as well. Tastes delicious, doesn't it?

I think if you start experimenting with smoking a little more as well,

you can get it to that stage and then maybe smoke it and things like that.

Right. I'm doing two dishes. Very quick dishes.

It's a really hot day today

so you don't want to be there toiling over your barbecue.

So I'm doing one dish which uses the chorizo

which you actually want to eat but it's more to flavour the dish.

And you've peeled these beautiful prawns for me,

these lovely king prawns. Then we'll just get that sauteeing in there.

So we've got sliced garlic shavings which want to go nice and crispy

and that's for the prawns.

For the other one which is going to be cooked in a red wine glaze,

we want some garlic, chopped shallot,

which you've chopped very nicely for me.

Plenty of salt in there, James, as well.

It has got a little bit of salt, obviously,

-but the curing gets rid of that flavour.

-Plenty of salt.

-Yeah. Nice rock salt.

-There you go.

Don't waste any of that.

Took me two months to make that. Just get that a little...

a little sauteed off. Don't forget, you can eat this raw, as you know.

Just a little bit of black pepper in there.

-We've got some of these bay leaves.

-Bay leaves, I'll put them in both.

-Just to flavour it up.

-As well as doing the book, a little birdie

-tells me you're looking for a restaurant. Is that right?

-Yes.

The little birdie was right. I am. You've got to watch this space.

I will obviously, as I always like to, give you the exclusive, James.

But it'll probably be the next time I'm on,

I'll be able to tell you what's happening.

This is kind of like your first restaurant on your own.

Of course. 13 years with Gordon. Had an amazing time doing that.

I've learned everything pretty much from working alongside him.

He's a great, great guy.

Really teaches you so much about the restaurant industry as a whole.

So I've given myself a little bit of a break,

helping The Swann down in West Malling and at the Globe Theatre.

I'll continue working with them and this restaurant of mine is just

-something that I've always wanted.

-Absolutely.

Right. So, we've got some liquor in here. Red wine in there.

Red wine in there. You want that to reduce down. This is a little nibble.

-And bay leaf in there as well?

-You're going to be eating this

in your garden, just sitting there in the sun.

Then we're going to do sherry.

This has got a Spanishy theme to it. So we're going to go

a touch of sherry in there.

I know you like your flames, James.

-Yeah. Any particular sherry?

-A nice, dry sherry.

Something...

-Yeah. Nice and dry.

-Bit more in.

-A touch more in.

This one we want very plain and simple. We want a little bit

of sauce. We've got some bread that you've cut up.

-What's this we've got here?

-That's red wine which just went into here.

-You've got red wine there...

-That was red wine that went into the actual salami or sausage meat itself.

That's that one.

And then, as you know with all shellfish, we want them slightly,

slightly pink in the centre. You've got all the flavour there

from the lovely toasted garlic, those big, fat, juicy prawns,

the flavour of the chorizo,

-as opposed to it being the whole part of the dish.

-Plenty of parsley.

-Plenty of parsley.

-And plenty of that salt in there.

-Yes.

It should be nice and earthy now.

Just knock those off.

-So quick.

-That's the thing.

Obviously, you've got to wait two months to make your salami.

You don't want to be cooking for ages to be able to eat it.

It's a great idea, to make your own stuff.

If you've got the time, it just tastes so much better.

It's about practice. You don't really need that much time.

I had to wait two or three months to get my machine over from America.

-There you go.

-There you go.

-Worth all the effort.

Remind us what it is again.

We've got Sarg's home-made chorizo in red wine, shallots and garlic.

And another, king prawns with chorizo, roasted garlic and sherry.

Great tapas. Easy as that.

There you go. Right.

Well, it looks, I have to say... particularly those prawns,

I quite like the look of those things. Dive into that.

-If you like lobster, I'm sure you'll like this one.

-Yeah.

In fact, chorizo and Parma ham are my second and third choice.

-There we go.

-For Food Hell?

-Yeah!

-Great little tapas things.

Other things you could add to it? I suppose you could add...

Great with squid. I know you don't like squid.

-I don't really either but...

-Chorizo with squid is lovely.

Throw in some cherry tomatoes in there to make it a bit bulkier.

-That's amazing.

-On a day like today,

you don't want to be sitting over a hot barbecue.

Just do a couple of those dishes and sit out in the garden or patio.

-Happy with that?

-Very happy with that. Actually, I do...

Squid I've only had done nicely once or twice. I don't hate squid,

-it's just that it's always rubbery in restaurants.

-Well, there you go.

Make sure, of course, you get permission from the shed owner before you hang your sausage.

Now it's time for Floyd.

Today he's on a journey through France and he reaches Alsace.

So, my little liver dumplings,

it's time to set off on another BBC mini-break.

This time aboard the Nouvelle Premiere,

France's gastronomic express.

Pity I forgot my train spotter's guide.

Anyway, it takes the dipso... I mean the diplomats and politicians

between Paris and Strasbourg in supreme luxury.

And it offers them a standard of cooking,

wine and service which is equal to any starred restaurant in France.

Of course, I know it's not a patch on the British Rail cheese toastie,

but at least they're really trying.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

A-ha! This is the life, lads.

The train journeys east through splendid countryside

to the vineyards of Champagne

and through the battlefields of two world wars.

But don't let's be glum.

More interesting is the way of preparing food.

Take this fish choucroute created by Joel Robuchon.

What they do is prepare these meals freshly every morning

at a central kitchen at the station in Paris, vacuum-pack and chill them

and then the chefs simply have to steam them and serve them.

And believe me, the quality is superb and beautifully fresh.

Of course, they charge like wounded buffaloes which might have

something to do with why the service packed up earlier this year. A great shame.

Journey's end and the foothills of the Vosges Mountains

are thickly clad with vines.

Here in Alsace, the Riesling and muscat grapes reign supreme.

MUSIC: "Horn Concerto No.2 in E Flat" by Mozart

This is the town of Colmar

and if you detect a Teutonic influence in the architecture,

well, that's because we are just a few miles from the German border.

Very interesting.

But what I really like is this wonderful wrought-iron works

celebrating the charcuterie. You know, the pates, sausages, terrines

and foie gras for which Alsace is justifiably famous.

Now then, what has this building and the Statue of Liberty got in common?

The answer is this man who designed both.

The Maison des Tetes, the House of Heads, which I shall be cooking in shortly,

and the aforementioned statue.

It's refreshing to see him clutching a glass and a bottle,

rather than a hammer and chisel.

A man right after my own heart.

This is my new chum, Mark. Say hello, Mark.

Right. I'm going to make some liver dumplings.

"Quenelles de foie" they're called here. Clive, if you have a spin round the ingredients,

I must explain this quite carefully because it's simple and liable to go catastrophically wrong.

This is minced raw pig's liver into which I've added some fried onion

and bacon, chopped up and minced all together.

Look, it's a nasty, gungy puree there

and I've put salt and pepper into it.

Moving over a bit, we've got semolina flour there.

Here, a bit more to your left or right, whatever it's called,

a couple of beaten eggs.

Over here, some finely fried chopped shallots,

some nutmeg for grating in

and some finely-chopped parsley and breadcrumbs soaked in milk.

Up to me again, please, dear Clive. This is when I have to explain myself out of trouble.

All you do is mould those into little tiny...

little tiny shapes and steam them or boil them in barely simmering water.

They become delicious. But what will probably happen

when I mix them together and put them in, they'll explode

and make the whole thing look like one of those water-processing works

you see by the sides of motorways. Anyway, let's have a go.

Ow. It's hot.

What I have to do is put my breadcrumbs in like so,

my eggs in

and I have no confidence in this dish at all, I can tell you that.

I just don't believe it's going to work.

A little semolina goes in which I mix in. Semolina flour, this is.

I hope that...

Here, a little bit of the onion and the parsley.

Now...

we grate a bit of nutmeg in. Noix de muscade.

Like that. That water's probably boiling too fast behind me.

This is where it all I am sure is going to turn to rat

because I would have thought this needed to be a much dryer, firmer mixture.

But when I was discussing this with Mark the chef here at the Maison des Tetes,

he assured me that none of that was a problem.

So, I'll just have a quick swig, if you don't mind,

because I'm on the wagon, basically speaking.

It is a fairly nerve-racking occasion.

Now we're going to see what kind of a fool I can possibly make

of myself by putting this liquid mixture into here.

And it is bound just to separate into a whole...

Oh, no. It's not. Look.

Hey, it's working. This is incredible.

Now, how do I get the damn thing off the spoon?

That's what I'm not so sure about.

Mark?

Ou est le chef?

Chef?

Je suis dans le merde.

LAUGHTER

I'm hoping the chef's going to come and help me

because I'm in real trouble here.

Qu'est ce que je fais maintenant?

-Est-ce que tu as saisonne..?

-Oui. Tout est saisonne. Du sel, poivre.

This is just bad luck that I've screwed this up.

But happily, help is on hand. I'll watch very carefully now.

Ah, you just tip them onto...

-You must all the time...

-Wash the spoon?

-Yes.

-Then you do it like this.

-I see. Yes.

So it's really rather like poaching eggs in fact. Terribly simple.

It's really simple. All you need is 20 years of experience

in a real French kitchen and you just whack it out like that.

Pretty good, eh?

Now the most important thing is to make the little sauce

to go with my dumplings. My little liver dumplings, my dears,

which we've made between us. I taught him how to do it earlier on.

Come down close to the pot, please. Finely-sliced shallots,

chopped shallots, which we now deglasse with a little bit

of white wine from Alsace. Put it onto maximum heat and let that...

-Il faut laisser reduire?

-Oui.

Now we leave that to reduce which will take a second or two.

In the meantime, I will begin...

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I shall begin to prepare

these beautiful little liver dumplings onto the plate.

Tip them up that way. They look neater.

And I'm going to make these look quite superb.

That's reducing away nicely.

These have been in this simmering water, by the way,

for 12 minutes which is very good. 12, 15 minutes.

Now, it's no good me saying that's ready because it isn't.

It's not ready till there's almost no liquid left. In fact...

THEY CONVERSE IN FRENCH

It's jolly good to have somebody who really knows what he's talking about on hand.

Voila. This is what we call a demi-glace.

It's a stock pot which has been reduced slowly...

..flavoured and thickened.

If you want to make a demi-glace,

look it up in one of the cookery books.

Right. This is sufficiently reduced.

Come in, Clive. Have a good look.

See how rich and thick it's got now.

With all these sauces, it's always a good thing.

This is not nouvelle cuisine, I can assure you. This is ancienne cuisine.

Enrich that with a little knob of unsalted butter.

That will make the sauce very shiny and a lot more gentle.

Merci.

Now just very gently beat in the butter.

-C'est bon.

-C'est bon pour le assaisonnement?

-Oui. Maintenant.

Et apres, une petite touche de vin blanc.

-Quoi, maintenant?

-Oui. Juste un peu.

-Bon.

-Comme ca.

-We're going to just add a little tiny-weeny...

-Not...

-Like that.

Just to make the flavour come right through, OK?

Just to finish off.

It does make it big difference.

Here we have a little bit of carefully-prepared tomato,

very finely-chopped chives.

That's a good dish with potatoes.

-Fried or boiled potatoes?

-Boiled.

-Boiled?

-That's a bit too much salad, isn't it?

-Too much.

There we are.

OK. I'm going to get myself a little round of applause for this,

if you don't mind? As you can see, I made it all on my own

with no outside help or interference in any shape or form.

It's absolutely brilliant. To prove it, I'm prepared to eat it in front of you.

Except that is a little bit hot.

I'll use that one.

They are light and delicious. They're actually not unrelated

to the great British faggot,

but they're a much finer, more delicate version of them.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

-Tres bien.

-C'est presque un Alsatian.

I'm nearly an Alsatian. There's an answer to that.

Here we go again with my musical chum Amadeus.

And here's one of the production assistants looking very anxious.

Colmar, despite being invaded three times

since the Franco-Prussian War is a resilient place

and its citizens exude a genuine joi de vivre

which only those who've experienced utter hell show.

And they make brilliant cakes which they arrange on shelves

in much the same way as a Bond Street jeweller displays his wares.

Of course, what makes the cakes of Alsace so good,

although a Hungarian countess once told me

the only place to enjoy cakes is in Vienna, she was a bit of a snob, of course,

is the painstaking care of small family businesses who employ

a couple of young apprentices who are very proud to learn

and maintain the fine tradition of master cake making.

And they do make exceedingly good cakes

AND croissants, of course.

They're also brilliant at making sausages

and in a better world, we'd devote a whole series

to this master sausage-maker, but it's a cruel world.

And until now, the sausage maker was one of gastronomy's unsung heroes.

-# Saucisson

-# Saucisson si bon

# Full of flavoursome meat

# Very flavoursome meat

# Such a succulent treat

# It's a tasty treat

# Stuffed and fit to burst

# Bursting with every flavour

# Saucission

# Saucisson si bon

# Ah, the French are the best

# Ah, the French are the best

# When it comes to the test

# When they take the test

# C'est saucisson si bon

# Saucisse si bonne

# C'est saucisson si bon

# Saucisse si bonne

# C'est saucisson si bon

# Saucisse si bonne

# C'est saucisson si bon

# Saucisse si bonne. #

This is what happens when you let your emotions rule your mind.

I'm a fool to myself, you know.

My relationship with the director is based on trust and understanding.

I don't trust him and he doesn't understand me.

He knows I hate flying, I've got no head for heights,

but somehow he persuaded me to take a short flight. He said,

"Just for a good few shots." How could I possibly refuse?

Anyway, the crew were suggesting I was a bit yellow. I protested.

I prayed for fog. But to no avail.

The bottom line here is that I do not like being in this balloon.

I know it looks great on television, I know it looks lovely, sunshine day,

Alpine scenery, drifting over the Vosges Mountains,

here in Alsace on our way to lunch.

But we're 3,000 feet and nothing on the clock, but the maker's name.

Happily, I've got a decent glass here to cheer things up.

When we do land, I'm going to cook the most fabulous pheasant

in cabbage and show you how they make the superb cheese

which was in fact invented here many centuries ago by Irish monks

in Munster where they founded a monastery.

In the meantime, this is Keith Floyd above the Vosges Mountains,

absolutely terrified for Floyd on France.

He said it was simply a question of mind over matter.

He didn't mind and I didn't matter. But things went wrong.

We ran out of gas. And you've got it.

We crash-landed in the road.

Ha, ha, ha.

Andre Graffe my mad pilot managed to save a little gas, of course,

for what he called "essential requirements".

It's Alsatian champagne called Cremant d'Alsace.

And of course, it's the old tradition since 1783

when the balloon was invented in France.

So since this year, whenever there is a new flight,

people who fly the first time in the balloon,

they have to drink champagne.

Pity you didn't save the gas you used to cool down the champagne

to put in the balloon.

Yes, sure. We should have had the gas.

-OK.

-Brilliant.

And then, there is another tradition, but I guess we just have

to take care of the technical point of view,

but this is the other tradition.

KEITH LAUGHS

Sod.

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

Instead, we've got some great recipes from the Saturday Kitchen cookbook for you.

Still to come on today's Best Bites, it's Tom Kitchin against

Atul Kochlar in the infamous Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge.

They were both already at the top end of the leaderboard,

but could they better their times? Find out a little later on.

Angela Hartnett cooks a delicious rib-eye steak.

She serves it with saute potatoes with garlic and rosemary

and a delicious tomato vinaigrette.

And Beverley Knight faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven - sea bass,

a whole salt-crusted sea bass with a delicious runner bean salad?

Or Food Hell - griddled sardines with a tasty tomato salad?

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

Now, John Torode takes a break from MasterChef to serve us

-a zingy Asian treat.

-G'day. How are you doing?

-Very well.

What are we cooking today?

I'm going to do a sort of outside-inside Thai chicken salad,

coconut milk, a little bit of chilli

-and lots and lots of herbs.

-You've got to get the chicken on first.

-I've got to get the chicken on.

I've got some coconut milk which I'm going to pour into a pot

-which is going to poach the chicken itself.

-Yeah.

And into that coconut milk, I'm going to add fish sauce and palm sugar.

There's about two tins of this.

Yeah, two tins of coconut milk and then a good 50mls of fish sauce

which sounds quite a bit and 50mls of palm sugar.

That starts to come to the boil. I'm going to put chicken thighs in there.

Little thigh fillets. These little magic things are great. No skin.

-Full of flavour.

-Lots of flavour. I'm just going to cut the thick bits open a little bit.

-Do you want me to chop?

-Yeah, can you chop up a load of veg?

I've got some lovely red chillies there and some capsicum,

red pepper, and cucumber.

All really thinly sliced so it all comes together

-like a nice, big, long salad.

-"Big, long salad"? OK.

Yeah, the idea is to just get sweet and salty and spicy at the same time.

That's the idea of this cooking. That's why you have the sugar

and chilli and everything else.

Great Thai food has four aspects to it - sweet, sour, salty and hot.

It's sort of all of those flavours which fill your mouth up.

-"Flay-vers."

-"Flay-vers."

-You're nearly there.

The problem is you see, I've been sitting there going,

"Come on Ricky Ponting. Come on." I've been going

-to the cricket and suddenly...

-Are we playing cricket or something?

-"Are they playing cricket?" Honestly!

-I don't know.

-A boy from Yorkshire, you should know.

-Are we doing well?

You're not doing bad, first innings but of course Australia is there.

It might be a draw, but hey, let's see what happens.

Chicken goes in there, comes up to the boil

and then the idea is the fish sauce

and the palm sugar together all boil to make this wonderful dressing

which ends up coating the chicken itself at the end.

That's the dressing itself

so the dressing and the poaching liquid are all the same.

When that's poached for about our or five minutes,

we'll chuck it on a griddle plate to give it some more texture,

a bit of colour and make it taste a bit more delicious.

Now, for me, Thai food doesn't come alive

unless it's got lots of really fresh herbs.

Fresh and lots of fresh flavours.

And the idea here, we've got lots of mint,

lots and lots of coriander and we've got this wonderful thing.

This is Thai basil, I grow it in my garden, it's wonderful stuff.

They do a purple one as well.

Yeah. The thing is Thai basil is a bit more aniseed-y

than traditional basil. You can use traditional basil, that's fine

but now a lot of the supermarkets are now doing these tiny pots

of what's called bush basil which is the sort of Greek small-leafed stuff.

-Yeah, tiny, isn't it?

-Yeah, really intense and quite delicious.

That's still cooking away which is nice, a couple of minutes, fine.

Pick all the herbs, you keep on chopping your veg.

Don't chuck away all the seeds of the chillies,

don't...because you want to have a bit of heat in there.

Chuck out some of them. Don't be like... Get back out!

Look, just because you usually eat out of the bin, doesn't mean we have to!

-Oi!

-Ho ho ho!

-It's all right.

-There you go.

But, um...yeah, it's funny because the more we do MasterChef,

the more we find people don't put enough chilli in stuff.

They always say, "Oh, we didn't think you'd like the heat

"or like it hot," but that's the whole idea of the dish,

it needs spice.

The other thing it needs is salty peanuts so it's got texture

so take your peanuts, a hot pan and you just put those in

and roast those for a little while, give them a bit of colour as well.

Talking about MasterChef, we had the big result last night.

We had the result of Celebrity last night.

We've been on for five weeks and for anybody who hasn't watched it

or has put it on their tape player or anything else, turn away now.

But the great champion was Jayne Middlemiss.

She was a fantastic cook, absolutely amazing.

An incredible little scallop dish she cooked when she started off,

really fantastic. Really fantastic cook. So that one's done.

And we're filming another series right now for normal people -

rather than being celebrities, the normals.

JAMES CHUCKLES Normal people.

So the chicken's cooking away which is cool.

OK. What am I doing with these seeds, though?

Just chuck the seeds away, you don't want seeds in Thai. Oh, THOSE seeds?

Put them in there. I thought you meant the cucumber seeds.

-I want the heat.

-OK.

-So that's cool, you're doing that.

I've got some Thai shallots as well,

these lovely tiny little shallots which I'll slice

but before that, the essential thing with a lot of Thai food is lime leaf.

Fragrant, delicious, really defines what Thai food is about.

You can buy those frozen as well as fresh now.

Frozen, yeah, which is fantastic. I'll cut those really thinly

-and then I'll put those with the dressing.

-OK.

So this is a very, very strange way of doing things but the idea is

to boil it first so you keep the volume of the chicken

so it doesn't shrink too much

and then also, because it's been cooked in that dressing,

it stays lovely and moist rather than it drying out on a grill.

Also, there's that wonderful sweetness that comes

with the coconut milk itself going through

and the fish sauce and the palm sugar.

But we keep that... The essence of this dish is what's in that pan?

Yeah, and like you guys have been reducing down your emulsions

and sauces and that sort of stuff,

I'm doing exactly the same with my coconut dressing.

I've got to cool it down a bit so what I've done here is a bowl,

sitting on some ice water,

drop the lime leaves in and I'll put the hot sauce in there

-which will make the lime leaves come alive with flavour.

-Right.

And release the wonderful essence of the lime leaf.

-Last time you were on, you'd just brought out a book on beef.

-I did.

-Chicken next.

-Yes, and just because I love you, James...

There's none in the country yet, I've got 10.

There's one for you, love.

-Thank you very much.

-Don't you dare throw that away.

-EBay!

BOTH LAUGH

-I wasn't expecting that, thank you.

-No problem.

-You can nick another one of my recipes.

-What's it about, then?

-It's about chicken.

-Funnily enough!

Actually, it's about chicken and other birds, lots of poultry.

I think there's something wonderful about the humble chicken.

As you can see what's going on here. I've burned my nuts.

Hey, there's sugar in my pan, you tried to...sabotage my food.

-I didn't sabotage anything.

-You did, too!

They're crunchy nuts. JAMES LAUGHS

-Crunchy nuts.

-I'll quickly do that.

That's fine, they'll be crushed up, that's cool. Get rid of those.

-Our chicken's doing away.

-Caramelised peanuts, but that's all right.

-Caramelised peanuts, doesn't matter.

-Also, you were in the process

of a second restaurant last time we spoke as well.

Yeah, we've been building a restaurant

-for about two years.

-Right.

And it's one of those things that, because there's builders involved,

-it takes a really long time.

-Right.

-So I hope we'll be open in September.

That dressing in the bowl with the lime leaves

which will make them nice and fragrant.

-How'd you get on with your veg?

-We're there.

-Is it? Perfect, good.

And if you can chuck... Stir this around, cool it down a bit.

And we pour. Smell that, stick your nose in there.

-Smell how delicious that is.

-Smells good.

-Yep.

-Then the shallots.

-In there?

-Yeah.

Pour a bit of that dressing over, stir it around for me.

-Then I'll take this chicken off...

-Look at that.

-..and slice it up.

A nice bit of chook, as my grandmother used to call it,

grilled and poached.

You can see it doesn't take very long but it's lovely and moist

and perfectly cooked all the way through.

And then we're going to get you to just take a banana leaf for me.

-You want a bit of this?

-Oh, come on! It looks nice.

-Come on, John!

-It makes it look pretty. Like you, James. Pretty.

If you haven't got one, you can use a dock leaf.

Ha ha! If you can't get banana leaf...

"If you can't get one"! Where will my mum get a banana leaf from?

The florist. Go to the florist, they have it all the time.

They do! Absolutely.

-You need to go north of Watford, mate.

-Well, there you go.

I probably DON'T need to go north of Watford!

Anyway, there we are, that's the warm salad with the dressing in there.

Now, you chuck all the herbs in and give it a good stir around

so it's quite warm and fragrant. All those lovely lime leaves,

-basil, mint, all those things come together.

-Yeah.

And then we'll do our wonderful pile on top there.

-If you can just chuck...

-Smells great.

-..some of my lovely caramelised nuts on there.

-Your peanuts?

Remind us what that dish is again.

That is Thai chicken salad with cucumber, coconut

and roasted peanuts.

Easy as that.

And you want to finish off with a little bit of that dressing.

-Put some dressing on top. All yours.

-There you go. Follow me over here.

There you go, a dish cooked literally in 6.5 minutes.

I love the way I always get it first, fantastic.

-Is it in the contract?

-Dive into that.

-That's the secret of this, fresh flavours.

-Mmm.

-Bang.

The great thing about Thai food,

Thailand hasn't discovered refrigeration

so everything is picked on the day,

it's cooked on the day and therefore it's vibrant, fresh and delicious.

-That's why I love it so much.

-Happy with that?

-Mmm.

I have a misapprehension that Thai food is all about peanuts and...

two or three signatures.

-Pad Thai and Thai green curry.

-Exactly,

but that explodes that for me. It's fabulous.

-And I love your burned nuts.

-Tons of flavour in there as well.

Shame you burned your nuts, John.

Now, these contenders were at the top

of our Omelette Challenge leaderboard,

but could Tom Kitchin and Atul Kochhar better their times?

Have a look at this.

Right, let's get down to business.