Episode 90 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Prepare to feast on some of the finest food from

the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue on today's Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've lined up some great chefs

and some very peckish celebrities for you this morning.

Gennaro Contaldo fillets a whole sea bream, before roasting it and

serving it with a courgette salad and some fresh mint and rocket.

Theo Randall serves the perfect Sunday lunch -

a beautiful piece of roast rump of lamb.

He marinades it first, with lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and olive

oil, before serving it with onion, squash, spinach and salsa verde.

Lesley Waters makes a stunning crab and ginger tart.

She makes the tart with white crab meat, eggs, parsley,

coriander and ginger and serves it with an Oriental-style chilli

and spring onion dressing.

And Alan Davies faces food heaven or food hell.

Would he get his idea of food heaven,

haddock with my spicy pan-fried haddock with wok-fried broccoli, or his dreaded food hell,

dark chocolate, with my dark chocolate tart with chocolate Turkish delight?

And you can find out what he gets at the end of the show.

But first, it's time for a bit of French style home-cooking, from the brilliant Henry Harris,

who's taking inspiration from his family holidays.

Great to have you on the show again. Something classic for you as well. You're into your classic cooking.

You can't get any more classic than this, in terms of French cooking.

Exactly. Vinegar chicken. Poulet saute au vinaigre.

Really good chicken. A really great family home dish to cook.

Sounds good to me. So you're going to prepare the chicken.

-You want me to do the mash for this.

-Yes, please.

-As well as the tomatoes.

Cos the base flavours are similar to sort of the old chicken chasseur.

Until you get to the point where you add in the cream.

Exactly. And there's no mushrooms in it.

It's a bit like adding lemon juice to the dish.

It just gives it a nice gentle acidity.

There's very little in there.

And it's just finished off with tarragon,

some fresh chopped tomato, a little bit of cream.

A little bit of cream, yeah.

So where do you get your love of French cooking from?

For me, it was when I was younger and I used to visit there.

-Same for you?

-It was exactly that.

I never trained in France, I've never worked in France as a cook.

Family holidays. And growing up in the '60s and '70s,

my mother was a kind of manic serial entertainer.

And she read Elizabeth David and Robert Carrier

and so these dishes were always appearing at home.

-The best way to learn, stuff like this.

-Exactly.

Now, you're preparing the chicken slightly differently, so tell us what you're doing.

I'm leaving the breast on the bone, so that

when it's casseroled in the oven, it doesn't shrink up completely.

And also, the more bones that are in there, the better the flavour.

It means a bit of work when you're actually it.

It also holds it together. That's the other thing, while it cooks.

Exactly.

I suppose if you didn't want to do all this, just get the chicken thighs, maybe?

Yeah, chicken thighs is a brilliant way of doing this.

Right, in the mash, we've got some butter and some cream.

You want some salt and pepper in there, I take it, as well?

Yes, please. So with the chicken, I'm jointing it.

This is a free range chicken from a farm in Herefordshire.

-Right.

-And it's a fair size,

so I'm just making sure that the breasts are cut down into three.

Joint the chicken, the thigh and the drumstick, rather.

For anybody who doesn't know where you are, you were actually

-working at the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols in London.

-That's right.

-And then moved just down the road really.

-Exactly.

About half a mile down the road.

-Yeah.

-I'm just putting the chicken pieces in here to get those browned.

Just with a bit of vegetable oil at the moment.

I talked about adding butter. But you don't want to add...too much.

Sorry, you don't want to add the butter at this point

-because it will just burn.

-Yeah.

-So this is basically getting some colour in there.

-Exactly.

-I'll move that. There's a sink in the back.

-Wonderful.

Leave that to one side.

So this is between a fricassee and sort of a blanquette,

-one you seal and one you don't.

-Exactly.

What you want to do is it's really important to make sure you get

a nice caramelisation on the chicken meat and skin.

-And that way, you just get another layer of flavour.

-Right.

Now, would this be on e of the dishes that you

-have on your sort of lunch menu in the restaurant?

-Exactly.

Brilliant, particularly with all that lovely rain we've been

having at the moment. It's just a nice really comforting dish,

but it's got a bright spring-like quality,

which makes it rather nice.

So is this dish one you've picked up on your travels around France

when you were young?

No, this was hen I first started cooking in a restaurant kitchen,

I worked for Simon Hopkinson for eight years and this was

a dish that he used to do and took me through very carefully.

And it really is done exactly how you would do it...in France,

taking your time.

Simon Hopkinson, of course, not only a great chef

-but also a fantastic writer of food as well.

-Exactly.

I think at the moment,

he's probably the greatest British cookery writer of the last 20 years.

Yeah.

-He writes so enthusiastically.

-He certainly knows his stuff as well.

-That's the key to it.

-Now, it's time to start cooking properly

and get a bit of butter in there. We've got some tomato puree.

And I'm just going to move that round with a whisk just a little bit.

I want the butter to get a nice kind of nut brown to it.

And it will...we had some garlic somewhere. There we are.

A little bit of garlic.

And then almost immediately...add the vinegar.

So just a tiny splash of red wine vinegar.

-This is red wine vinegar in there?

-Exactly. And then some white wine.

-Reduce that down a touch?

-Reduce that down a touch

and we've already got a really kind of healthy golden colour to it.

So where would this be in France, in the region of France?

-Where do you reckon it would come from?

-Kind of Burgundy region.

Or possibly up in the north, towards Brittany and Normandy.

It's a fairly good guess that anything with a large

amount of butter and cream in comes from...

-My house!

-Or mine!

There we are. Fresh chicken stock on top of that.

-And then we add some tarragon.

-Yeah.

And...that's it, just for the moment.

-We haven't got anything else, so I'm pretty sure that's it.

-Tomatoes.

I'm going to take one of those tomatoes and just get the flesh.

That goes in as well.

I'm just basically concassing these, which is the old French style -

blanched, ice cold water and then just peeled.

And then we remove the seeds. It's the seeds you want.

The seeds and the pulp are going to go in to the sauce cos we're

going to pass those out afterwards.

And they give just a lovely kind of rosy pink finish to the dish.

Now, you've tweaked the menu over the years.

You've got this great afternoon tea menu.

That sort of snacky sort of food, croque monsieur

-and all that sort of stuff.

-Exactly.

We had people at weekends coming in the afternoon and saying,

"This looks nice, can we have something to eat?"

And like all traditional restaurants, at 3.30, we shut the doors

and said, "No, the kitchen's closed." I thought, "I'm missing something here."

And had done a snack for some friends who'd come in one afternoon,

some grilled sour dough bread with duck confit,

a little Morbier cheese and Dijon mustard.

And brushed with a little duck fat on the outside and grilled.

-So a bit like a kind of posh croque monsieur.

-When's lunch?

-Sounds good!

-This afternoon! And they were just phenomenal.

They were really moreish and crunchy and delicious and so I put some

of those on and a few of the menu dishes, but in fact, some people just

come in and go, "I'd like a steak au poivre," and that's what they do.

-Sounds good to me. So you want that in the oven.

-That goes in the oven.

I'll lift this one out first. And how long would that go in for?

That goes in for about 40 minutes.

-It's the thigh that's going to take the longest to cook.

-Yeah.

-There you go. Got that nice and hot for you to reduce.

-Wonderful.

So I'm just straining out some of the sauce.

-There we are.

-Pop it in there.

Then, I've got cream and I'm using whipping cream,

which I never use for actually whipping cos it's too light.

But it's very good cos if you over reduce it,

it doesn't go too thick and claggy.

-Right.

-A little bit of Dijon mustard.

This is just for a little kind of aromatic finish to the dish.

I'll move that over there, so we can see it a bit better.

Move that to one side.

Whisk the mustard in.

And when that comes to the boil, take a spoon, just check the seasoning.

Need a little bit of salt.

But we've got a lovely flavour of fresh tomato

and tarragon cos it's only been cooked for about 40 minutes.

-Yeah.

-And then...

-Here's your tarragon bits.

-Lovely.

Rather than using xanthium gum, we're going to use butter!

Proper, natural, unrefined!

That literally just gets dropped in. We add some of the tomato.

Because all we're doing is kind of wilting that through.

You don't want the tomato to disappear into the sauce.

You quickly reduce it down. The butter actually thickens it as well.

Exactly. Cos all we're doing is we're driving out the water from the cream

and we're using the butter to make a light emulsion.

I don't know which pieces of chicken you want out of here.

I'll get two of them. I'll leave you with the mash. The mash is done.

The mash is done.

I'm just going to put one tiny splash of cream in there,

just to make it...slightly...

..more glossy. Look at that.

Even a little bit more.

If I was cooking in Paris now,

I'd be kind of measuring out the cream to be about a

third...butter rather, to be about a third of the quantity of the mash.

So we just get a really lovely...spoonful.

Smear that round there.

And this sauce is there ready. It's just reducing down nicely.

-Got your chicken there.

-Ah, wonderful.

I'm going to take that joint off there.

A nice chunky piece of breast, a really lovely thigh, which,

for me, is always the best bit.

This is reduced down full, which is nice.

It's covering the back of the spoon, which is nice.

Tiny pinch of salt.

Shame to waste that butter, it really is.

And then just at the last minute.

This is the key to a good sauce, it's the reduction

-and reducing it down.

-Exactly.

And just remembering to taste it as you go

because you never know how much salt it's going to need.

It might need a drop more vinegar.

But in fact, the tomato gives a nice acidity to it as well.

And we want to keep this sauce light.

It's not a thick, claggy, old fashioned sauce.

Think of it as a cream gravy.

And put lots on cos there's always somebody who's going to fight

-over that.

-Me! Generally.

I'll clean the plate, while you tell us what that dish is again.

So there we are, poulet saute au vinaigre,

-a classic French vinegar chicken.

-How good does that look!

It looks fabulous. I know it's going to taste delicious as well.

Well, it smells delicious! If there was only scratch and sniff television for the viewers at home!

-That's so good.

-Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

-Gets my juices flowing!

-Tell us what you think. But the secret of that sort of red wine

vinegar at the start as well, just a little sharpness.

It is, but you have to reduce that vinegar down till it almost

disappears. Imagine it as a dry pan with bubble

and then you know you've reduced it properly.

And then that touch of mustard in at the end just gives it another kick-start as well.

-Ooh, la, la. Tres bien!

-Happy with that?

-Bonnet de douche!

-The mashed potato's got plenty of butter and cream in it.

-Wow!

-Go on.

-So good.

-Beautiful.

-It's very, very good.

Now, that's my kind of recipe and of course, plenty of butter.

Coming up, I'll be making a tangy summer pudding for Miranda Raison,

but first, Rick Stein visits some of his food heroes

and takes inspiration from a group of farmers' wives

who have developed a passion for baking.

I suppose in essence, these people produce food with honest flavour and once you get

a taste for that, once you're hooked on that, nothing else will do.

You just need to educate the palate.

Who would dream of going back to those wines we had in the '60s?

Who would drink what we used o call plonk any more? Nobody!

It's the same with food. You don't go back.

Your taste becomes educated.

Your enthusiasm for properly aged beef won't go away and you're going

to want more and more and we're at the start of something really,

really big, I think.

I find any opportunity to come back to Bamburgh

because the beach is so nice. It's so different from Cornwall.

There's this immense sense of space.

But the other reason for the Food Heroes point of view,

I came here about ten years ago.

There's a little butcher's called Carter's.

I came here for a wedding and I have to admit,

I had a bit too much to drink at the wedding and I stayed in the car

park just here by Bamburgh Castle, just by the beach.

And I woke up in the morning, really, really hungry.

And I sort of stumbled up the street

to Carter's and they had these little pies called Scotch pies,

which were made with minced lamb.

And you know sometimes when you're hungry like that

and you taste something like that, it is just bliss.

And all it was was just minced local lamb,

pepper and salt and the pastry, made with hot water at flour.

Just as simple as that.

I just had to come back to see if they were as good as they were then.

And they are!

That's typical Geordie understatement -

prize-winning bangers available by the ton.

But Northumberland is understated.

I mean, every time I come here,

I'm overwhelmed by how striking the country is.

And yet, one feels a sense of excitement of stumbling

on something that no-one else knows about.

Mike Aynsley farms Cheviot sheep

and has lived in these hills all his life.

To him, the landscape and the sheep are as one.

When I die, I want to be cremated and me

-ashes are going on the hill, here.

-Really?

-Yup.

-That's great.

They can put my ashes up there and I'll still be with the sheep!

I'll keep an eye on them.

-You love it up here, don't you?

-It's God's own country up here.

-It certainly is. Just describe the eating qualities, then.

-Very tender.

Providing it's hung. All meat should be hung at least a fortnight.

-To my way of thinking.

-I agree.

A lot of meat today is too new killed.

It hasn't had time to mature.

-That's right.

-They're just naturally reared.

They talk about organic farming, but there's nothing...you might

say you feed those, but in the summer, they live on what they pull.

Everything that we sell is sold off grass.

You can't get anything more natural than that.

'Mike's right. Not everything has to be labelled organic,

'providing it's been reared properly.'

Well, I was a bit disconcerted after the last series of Food Heroes

went out on the TV cos quite a few people criticised me

for having a lot of foreign dishes in it.

But I like to roam,

I've always travelled all over the world, looking for ideas and

this time, I've got Italian dishes, French dishes, Chinese dishes.

But isn't that exciting,

to use our great British produce to make those dishes?

So really, this series is about British produce,

but also about all those really interesting and passionate

characters that produce the best things in a small and beautiful way.

I love Seahouses.

As you can see, it's so atmospheric,

but I have on good authority that kippers came from here.

They certainly would have had to have come from somewhere on this coast,

somewhere from Wick down to Lowestoft cos everybody used to eat salt herring

200 years ago, with potatoes. That was the sort of staple diet.

And apparently, there was

a load of salt herring in a wooden shed here which caught fire and

the next morning, they came and found this fantastic smell of smoked fish.

And I'm sure somebody at the time would have said,

"Why haven't we thought of this before?"

I've been buying kippers from this shop for years.

Swallow's Smokehouse, started by John Swallow

and now run by Patrick Wilkin.

Sadly, the herrings aren't landed in Seahouses any longer.

So are there any boats going out for any fish from Seahouses now?

No, there's no white fish boats left.

There's about 10 or 15 crab boats.

And pleasure boats. The last boat went away the start of the year.

-And that's it.

-That's it.

-End of fishing.

There was about 12 or 15 boats when I started.

'It's good to think this smokery was in at the very dawn,

'when kippers were first thought of.

'Patrick uses softwood shavings and oak sawdust,

'which give the kippers a lovely sticky, tarry taste.'

-So normally, would you keep the smoker going all the time?

-Yes.

It's going all the time.

And you just come in and shovel more sawdust in?

The fires usually last about three and a half or four hours,

the kippers take about 10 to 12 hours, smoked salmon,

a good three to four days.

Phoof!

No idea what it would have been like in the 1800s cos

the whole of this street were smokeries.

But this is the last one.

All the rest have been converted into holiday cottages.

But they probably still smell of smoke.

I was just looking at a plaque over there that said in the 1880s,

a guidebook said of Seahouses, "A malodorous place where fish

"curing is extensively carried out,"

so it was a bit sort of derogatory about it,

but now the smell of smoke is like perfume to me cos it's so rare.

Well, I came here last year

right in the middle of the foot and mouth crisis.

It was really depressing, frightful sights of dead cattle.

Real misery all round.

And the feeling that this was the end.

You know, farming was at a finish.

A year later, spring in the air, I'm back here,

cos I've heard of a farmer's wife quite near here who's baking cakes.

She's got some other farmers wives involved

and they've got this nice little sort of farmers' cooperative

of cakes and biscuits going.

And I just find that incredibly hopeful,

that something like that, so much depression and sadness

should be reborn into something really positive and optimistic.

Chalky always likes to try his luck,

especially when it comes to cakes and biscuits.

If it wasn't for farmers' markets, these ladies would not have an outlet

and they've been going for three years.

I think farmers and farmers' wives, we have such a lot of skills.

We're accountants, we're secretaries,

we're wonderful bakers, businesswomen, businessmen.

My husband, I mean, all the vehicles he keeps running,

so he's a mechanic as well as a farmer.

He can build props for film companies.

We've got lots and lots of skills in the countryside, definitely.

Well, my director, David, has got this expression, "Utterly butterly".

That is utterly butterly. There must be so much butter in it.

And it just tastes like dairy, you know, that dairy smell?

It just tastes so wholesome.

When the blossoms on the trees in the Lyth Valley come out,

it's time for Damson Day, a celebration of this ancient fruit.

I was lucky enough to meet local journalist, Gillian Cockburn,

who's passionate about Lake District food.

Local food in this area is so wonderful

but this damson symbolises,

it really symbolises the success of this county,

fighting back after foot and mouth

-and goodness knows what.

-In a way, I've felt this talking to a lot of people.

-Foot and mouth has almost been a blessing in disguise.

-Yes.

You know what I mean? It was just such a disaster but everyone said,

-"We're going to fight back."

-They are, the bigger the better.

Because people want to know where their food's coming from.

And we've got these fantastic farmers' markets in this area.

People are buying the stuff from them.

They're not just playing at it.

Word gets around and people are just so enthusiastic about local food.

-So this is it.

-This is the one, this is the wonderful damson gumbo.

-Made by Val Harrison.

-Pleased to meet you.

-You make it?

-I do.

-I think I better try some. Can we?

-You can.

That's really nice.

-That's lovely.

-Thank you very much.

-I'll just put that in there.

It's a bit like in Spain they have this thing called quince paste, called membrillo.

It'd go really well with cheese, with hard cheese, that would.

-Would you like it in a bag?

-No, I'll just have it in the basket.

-Thank you very much.

-Don't bother about the 10p.

-Thank you very much.

-Give it to the Damson Association.

-Right.

Yes? Oh, I'd be delighted to.

'It was a charmingly small affair, just as it should be.

'No people selling cars or caravans,

'and everyone was very friendly to me and to Chalky.'

This is a dish that brings out the astringency of damsons.

You pour lots of damsons into a pie dish and sprinkle well with sugar.

It's called Damson Cobbler.

You sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl.

It's always good to put some air into pastry like this. It lightens it.

Next you take some ice cold butter, cut up,

and worked it with your fingertips into the flour

until you have the constituency of Demerara sugar.

Now you beat an egg into buttermilk.

This gives the pastry a pleasing sourness.

And you add this to the flour mix,

and work it all together with a spoon.

Then you daub the paste on top of the damsons.

You don't need to cover the whole lot perfectly

because when it goes into the oven, these little balls will swell up,

join together and give the crust a pleasing pattern.

Next, sprinkle the top with flaked almonds,

and then scatter a good quantity of caster sugar over the top.

Don't think I'm using too much sugar in this dish.

Those damsons are extremely tart.

Having baked the cobbler in a moderate oven for 30 to 35 minutes,

bring it out and serve it all bubbling and delightful.

And then, I think, a lick of cream

or a ladleful of custard would be absolutely ideal.

Great stuff from Rick there. Now, damsons are delicious.

Just coming into season right now but if you can't find them in your local supermarket yet,

there are plenty of other great soft fruits around this time of year.

They'll be growing in your garden as well, Charlotte.

As well as the grapes, we've got raspberries and strawberries.

Unless you're in my garden, where the blackbirds have eaten them all.

We've got raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, all that kind of thing.

Perfect for this dish. It's a summer pudding.

And I'm going to do a clotted cream summer pudding. How's that?

-Lovely.

-I am together with you.

-OK.

-Because you wanted to do a cookery course.

-Yup.

You've got an apron. This is your first go at a cookery course,

-live in front of three million people.

-Brilliant. No pressure(!)

First of all, what I'm going to do is get a sauce on for this.

It is a sauce, not a coulis cos we're not in France.

We then take the raspberries.

Now this is where you need plenty of raspberries.

The secret of summer pudding, I think, is the quality of the fruit.

Above all else, this part here.

It's the sauce that you use to make the summer pudding.

To do that, there's different recipes.

Some people use cooked fruit.

You can put a little bit of sugar in,

about equivalent to a tablespoon of sugar. No more.

This is a tablespoon, right?

That's about a tablespoon and a half, but that'll do.

A little bit of water and some people cook the fruit.

I'm going to just leave this as it is. Just put the lid on,

blend it and it'll turn into a sauce straightaway.

Now if you want to darken it down, you take the blackcurrants

and add the blackcurrants and you'll see the colour change.

You just add enough blackcurrants for how you want the colour.

Don't throw everything in. Leave it at that. Give that a quick blend.

Now, over here we're going to make a little bit of caramelised sugar.

Get this on the go. This is for our top.

Now, acting, I'm surprised you didn't get into,

because your mother was a newsreader

and your father was a jazz musician,

you know, singing and stuff like that? Why acting?

Well, I used to go to the studio to see my mum when I was little

and she read for Anglia Television

so I used to be allowed to sit in her chair

and they'd pretend to do my make-up and stuff,

so I did kind of get the feel for a studio and I did love it.

Dad's music, unfortunately, I haven't inherited.

I can dance a bit, that's about it. That's about it, sadly.

But you've done all kinds of different TV shows,

smaller roles and radio and bits and pieces.

In fact, I did Doctor Who and Dad played the piano on that.

I played a singer and Dad, yeah, he played the piano for me.

But it wasn't until 2004 where you had your huge break,

which was the film, the Woody Allen film.

Yeah, and actually I didn't have a huge part in it at all

but because I was part of the central family...

Is this about the right size?

That'll do.

Yeah, because I was part of the central family,

I had quite a lot of days on it,

and it was also his first one that he'd done over here.

-This was Match Point?

-Yeah. And he was amazing.

-So that was fun.

-And that was with Scarlett Johansson, was it?

-Yeah, exactly.

-That's all we need of those. There you go.

-And then from there, of course, your other big break, Spooks.

-Yep.

Did you know when you were doing that that it was going to be as successful as what it was?

Well, it had already started. It had been going with a different cast

from 2001, and then I joined, um... They had Matthew Macfadyen

and Keeley Hawes to begin with, and then I joined.

So I knew it was already big, but I also thought,

I'm surely going to get killed off after three episodes,

and then I was there four years later thinking, any minute.

-And then it did come, the bullet did come.

-It did come in the end!

And then from there, I mean, you're going on to more serious roles

because literally straight after this show you start something else.

Well, in fact, my last few episodes of Spooks

I was already filming Married, Single, Other, which we did in Leeds.

And that was brilliant.

And now I'm at the Globe doing two shows,

-rehearsing one and performing the other.

-Which is?

Performing Henry VIII at the moment, playing Anne Boleyn.

-And then a new play.

-This is a serious play, or...?

-Yeah, Shakespeare.

-It's not a twist on Shakespeare,

-that's what I was saying, it's a serious thing?

-No, absolutely.

In fact, it was his, debatably, last play, which he co-wrote with Fletcher

who sort of took over from him.

And then a new play, which is called Anne Boleyn, by Howard Brenton.

And Howard Brenton is the same guy who co-wrote Spooks?

He wrote some episodes when I first joined.

He doesn't write for it any more but when I joined,

he wrote my first few episodes, so that's just a coincidence

but it was really nice to see him again.

There you go.

I know he's got a restaurant nearby, hasn't he?

I'm working with the Swan at the Globe, so, yeah.

-We're in there most evenings after the show!

-10% discount!

I do actually get a discount!

You won't see him in there, he's never there. But anyway...

What we're going to do, to make this summer pudding,

normally when you make summer pudding it takes forever.

I'm going to show you a quick way. We take some olive oil.

That goes in there.

All right, then we're going to take some clingfilm.

-You can put the strawberries in there now.

-Right. OK.

-In that bowl.

There you go, you can put half of those raspberries,

half of those berries and half the blueberries in there as well.

-OK.

-And I'm going to take the clingfilm, press that in the bottom.

Like that.

Then the idea is you get a circle or a hexagon kind of thing, cut out,

and you dip that in the sauce and the clingfilm sits in the bottom.

Then you dip the bread in the sauce around the edge like that.

You dip it in so it literally overlaps each other.

It's a really instant dessert, this, full of flavour.

But this is the secret is this stuff in here, all right?

So you fill that like that.

You can do a bigger one if you want. You can do them in coffee cups and bits and pieces.

Then we take some of our sauce, like that,

and you can pop a little bit of that,

-if you mix it together, that's that one, give that a quick mix.

-OK.

The idea is you fill that mould now.

After you've finished Anne Boleyn you can do a cooking show.

I do want to, well, I don't rush...

Don't say that, there's hundreds of other chefs now taking over!

I thought you were going to say "course". I'll do a course.

A course, right, there you go.

-Right, the idea is we fill this up full.

-OK.

You literally pack it full.

Now this is where you can put different flavours in there.

You can put clotted cream in there,

you could put basil in there, all different flavourings.

You grab your top bit of the bread, place that on the top,

press that, and now old recipes will tell you to go out in the garden

and get a brick and then sit it in the fridge for a fortnight, see?

If you use the clingfilm, this will come off straightaway.

-Lift that off like that.

-Wow.

-Pass the plate over and finish this off.

There you go.

So to finish this off we'll then put the summer pudding on there

and then you can grab your sauce which sits on over the top.

So we're going to see you on anything else on the box

-after the play or not?

-I'm not sure yet, actually.

We don't finish the play until 21 August and I might go

and do another play because it's been a long time.

It's been nearly six years since I did a play.

It's amazing how terrifying it gets if you've been out of practice.

-It's kind of something you don't want to lose touch with.

-That's it, exactly.

And it is just really important to kind of keep going

and it's a difficult decision to make as well, when you're doing

television which I love, it's hard to find that moment when you say,

"Right, OK, I'm going to walk away from this and I'm going to go

"back and do a play," because, you know, you're conditioned as an actor

to panic almost and think, oh, I can't turn my back on that, you know?

So hopefully I'll keep the courage now and maybe do some theatre.

Keep going. Well, you'll need courage for this next bit

because this is a little bit of sugar work, all right?

SHE LAUGHS

Now, I shouldn't really do this to you live on air but the idea...

OK, the burns unit!

The idea is with this you get the sugar like that.

This is just caramelised sugar in there, nothing else.

We basically, it's a way of glamming up your pudding

because this looks OK as it is with the clotted cream on the top

-but then you see you get a nice strand of sugar which you have there.

-Uh-huh.

And you put it round your steel like that.

I can do this, the last live show this summer.

-Lift that off.

-Oh, clever.

-You see? Sit that on top.

I won't leave you to do it. You could dive into that, have a taste.

-Tell us what you think.

-OK.

So it's summer pudding, clotted cream,

like you said, very, very quick, really instant.

-Get some cream on there.

-Yeah. The clotted cream is a must as well.

Remember to buy clotted cream you must have the nice little

layer of fat on the top, that's what you should be buying.

-That's really good.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah.

-Taste of summer, there you go.

And that's a perfect recipe for summer berries

and of course for using up any leftover white bread

and if you'd like to have a go at that summer pudding or

try your hand at any of the recipes from today's show,

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

Now, we're not live today,

so instead we're looking back at some of the brilliant recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen archive and next up it's time to sit back

and watch self-confessed greedy Italian Gennaro Contaldo,

I say attempt - and I mean attempt - to fillet a sea bream.

Enjoy this one.

-Welcome back, Gennaro.

-Thank you.

-On the menu is what?

It is a sea bream

-a lovely fresh bream which we cook with garlic...

-Yeah.

..anchovies, capers, Gaeta olives,

some lovely cherry tomato, then we have

here some oregano, fresh oregano, fresh basil and a bit of wine.

-A bit of white wine.

-Yeah, a bit of white wine.

Plus we will serve with a small cut shape of courgette with

the mint, garlic, balsamic vinegar,

mixed with wild rocket which we'll put on the side.

You want to do the sea bream.

You want me to prepare the tomatoes.

So you are going to fillet that?

Yeah, I'm going to fillet. You know what? I love it the smaller you have it.

You filleting fish is just a total disaster.

It's so funny.

LAUGHTER

OK, let's make sure the fish is lovely and firm.

Why you move away?

Because I've got one in the fridge ready, just in case you make a complete mess of it.

Yeah?

James Martin, eat your heart. One.

Look at the fish, how clean it is.

The other side as well.

-look.

-Mind your fingers.

Mind your fingers.

LAUGHTER

Why you move away?

Because I'm getting out of the way of the knife.

Look, I'm going to go right down to the tail. Yeah!

Wow, look at the fish.

Never mind.

There's quite a lot on there.

LAUGHTER

Oh, my God. That is...

What is it?

There's quite a lot of fillet left on here.

I'm going to kick him one of these days.

You make sure that there are very little bones

and you put them on top.

then you get a nice lemon.

I believe you've been in Amalfi.

I have Amalfi and I've been to where they produce these olives as well.

What do you mean? Tell me.

Yes, famous for the olives for Martini.

Oh, yes.

A nice bit of lemon.

Lemon, lemon, lemons.

-Put them on top, the lemons.

-Wash your hands.

I'm not finished yet.

OK, a bit of salt...

..on top.

On top.

Then let's move this one first from here.

Let me wash my hands.

You're filming your second series of The Greedy Italians, is that right?

-My God, did you watch them?

-I did.

Did you enjoy it?

I watched it, I enjoyed it.

Which is the best part you liked?

Um... You coming out of the sea

-with those...

-Oh, God.

..tentacles from your parts.

Tell me something else, come on.

I want... I want something else.

Go, what else did you watch? I wanted to see if you watched it or not.

I watched the little tart that, er... Carluccio made.

On the hillside,

you know, the little egg tart that he made?

Yes, a ricotta and lemon tart.

See, I did watch it.

You did watch it. I know, I agree with you.

When you chop the garlic

don't be afraid to chop the garlic,

lemon and garlic, very finely chopped.

-Just slices of garlic.

-Chunky.

Chunky.

You can hear it,

then you make sure that

you have the anchovies

almost dissolved,

but not dissolved.

Do you understand me? No.

LAUGHTER

I see you speak English with a terrible accident.

Then you have some capers inside.

Watch me what I'm doing.

-I'm watching.

-Then you add those.

-I can't get a word in edgeways.

Have some olives. Olives.

The olives from that area, the green ones famous for the Martini.

Yes, it is.

Then you get all of the tomato very kindly.

You put everything inside.

Yeah, put them all in.

And as well as doing your series you've just been doing

-a load of festivals as well. Jamie, you helped on that.

-Oh, bless him.

Yes, the Clapham Common Festival which

I believe they filmed as well.

-Yeah.

-Basil as well.

Also we are opening new restaurants all over the place

-Jamie Italian restaurants.

-Where's the new one?

In Angel. 286.

Yeah, what a beauty.

And I'm in the kitchen, I can guarantee you

because I do cooking every time I go inside there.

-Just moving it a little bit.

-Everything all in there together.

What herbs are in there?

-The herbs I have are parsley and fresh oregano.

-Yeah.

Then you add a little bit of the wine.

This is something like fish in a crazy water.

I had that in crazy water, but the name of it in Italian is?

Al acqua pazza.

Acqua pazza, that's the one.

And they have this big thing in Italy

about acqua pazza, this crazy water

and it's supposed to be fish in sea water, is that right?

It's seawater.

You cheat, you use tap water.

Yeah, well I don't use the salt.

Can you imagine...

It's basically fish in tap water.

It's called crazy water because you put the fish inside,

you put wine, tomatoes, garlic,

chilli, put almost everything.

Then you put the wine inside and cover it

so the fish inside...

Oh, my God, I'm going crazy.

-So you are coming out, "What a joy."

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

Now, at this stage...

Come on, cover it up. Tell me about the salad.

Your salad is?

Look at the mess on top. You should possibly remove everything.

I'll remove everything for you.

-Right, garlic.

-OK.

-A little bit of olive oil.

-Do you want some mint?

-Yeah, course I want some mint.

-Mint.

-There you are.

-Salt.

I haven't put any salt in there yet.

Put some salt in there. Balsamic vinegar.

Tell me about the balsamic vinegar that you know very well,

about balsamic vinegar.

-Well, it's matured in barrels.

-Yeah.

-And the older it is the better it is.

-It is.

You have to read it on the label

when they say balsamic vinegar.

To be not caramelised is natural.

So, have you got it?

-No, OK, it doesn't matter.

-I've got it.

-But the older it is, the thicker the texture.

-It is.

You won't get me this time.

Then you can see I just

close them a little bit.

What I do is I'm going to put them in the oven for 20 minutes.

If you think you are going to wake for 20 minutes, there's no way out, OK.

You put them in the oven

and you cook for about 20 minutes.

Here I done one early on.

Can you get a plate ready for me, please?

Can you mix the salad properly?

Can you give me a knife and fork on the table like that? Can you clean a little bit?

Aargh, aargh.

Aargh.

This is really hot.

And...

-Are you ready?

-Yeah.

-Mind your hand.

And that is the fish.

My goodness, can I say my fantastic words?

This is hot.

Why I am cooking so good?!

Yes!

Have you been drinking?

No, I haven't been drinking. Slowly, slowly, slowly.

Now you done the salad. That's very hot.

You can see the fish is steamed

and it is cooked.

The tomato has gone very small.

Just put the tomato underneath.

Just fill those.

Just a nice bit of fillet on top.

Now that...

-Put the other one on the side.

-Wow.

Just a few tomatoes

I love it.

Don't touch it yet. Not finished yet.

Don't even try to touch that fish.

Don't even try with this one.

Oh, oh.

Then you get...

So tell us what it is, then.

It's so good to tell what it is.

It is sea bream al acqua pazza

which is pan-fried

and baked in the oven with cherry tomatoes and garlic and capers

and olives and what else have we put inside?

Mint and courgette.

Fish and courgettes, then.

There you go.

Right, you get to dive into this. Have a taste.

-Am I first?

-This is breakfast, yeah, this is it.

-There you go, dive into that.

-Wow.

-You can be honest.

-Yeah?

LAUGHTER

-Look at that, he's all ready.

-Can somebody give me a knife, please?

-Where do I start?

-I don't know, dive in.

I just want to look at your face.

It's our favourite ingredients, the little cherry tomatoes.

It's a so simple dish anybody can make it.

Over in that neck of the woods they have San Marzano tomatoes,

which is famous for the pizza bases as well.

Yes and also they are very famous for tinned tomatoes.

Good?

Hurry up. Be careful.

I'm getting all the flavours.

Oh, I love this man. I love this man!

I love it!

That really was delicious.

Now we step back in time to join the master of TV cookery,

Keith Floyd, as he explores his love of French food and of course wine.

This time his travels take him to Brittany.

CAJUN-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS

I'm not doing gags about Barry Sheen and 49ccs of raw, throbbing power

because this is almost the end of my journey and I'm a bit sad.

But where better to finish than Concarneau in Brittany,

one of the great fishing ports,

and sample some more of my first love?

Or, in the words of Fats Waller, fish is still my favourite dish.

Here, then, are some carefully composed snaps of Brittany.

In the first rays of the spring sun which tickles the trees into leaf

and the cauliflowers into bud. That dead poetic, isn't it?

Or, as we say in Bristol, it's great.

You know, if Brittany was Wales,

they'd all be wearing cauliflowers in their lapels.

Get it? Anyway, on to the first kicking sketch.

La Coquille is a great old restaurant on the quay here,

where fishermen, bankers, dockers and wheeler-dealers devour

great plates of fresh fish, cooked by my mate Jean-Francois Lemaitre.

Smile at the camera, Omar?

No, don't worry, get on with the cooking. OK.

I asked him to paint a picture of Brittany on a plate,

using the fresh local ingredients and he created, in the deft way

that artists do, a miniature masterpiece

that he calls a Blanquette De Mer.

This, my dear gastronauts, is simply fillets of pollock - you know,

the stuff you feed your cat on - red mullet,

mussels and langoustines, gently poached in fish stock and

served on a bed of finely sliced and lightly cooked cabbage and carrots.

The dish is finished with a butter sauce, which is quite simple to make.

You add some white wine to the fish stock, reduce it and then,

over a very low heat, you whisk in little knobs of butter

until you have a creamy sauce, the consistency of custard.

And to quote Jean-Francois, "Voila!"

Voila.

Jean-Francois, That is extraordinary. C'est extraordinaire. Merci beaucoup.

Merci beaucoup.

Strangely enough, in my back pocket and have a little fork

and I'm going to taste this because the real problem is I have to

follow this with a rather humbler but quite brilliant dish of my own.

And, having tasted this, don't think I can win this competition.

I think he is a lot better than I am. Tres, tres bon. Merci beaucoup.

-Merci beaucoup, monsieur.

-Have a really good look at that.

Freshness, the colour, the artistry of a gentleman from Concarneau.

Whose name I've completely forgotten. However, Concarneau

is one of France's largest fishing ports and the trawlers fish

the rich waters off Scotland and Cornwall for weeks at a time.

That should cheer up my fishermen friends at home.

NB, memo to the Min of Ag and Fish.

Anyway, food is a vital and ship's cook is probably as important as the

skipper, responsible for the coq au vin, morale and the hangovers.

Here, in this gloomy hall,

this Neptune's cathedral in the eerie tungsten glow, the bream -

dear, dear breamy - the beryx,

this fish, with teeth like bananas and eyes like jelly moulds

and the monkfish - dear, dear monkfish - lying in state,

the following from some surrealistic battle,

waiting for the last rites to be performed by rubber-aproned

acolytes with flashing knives before they are shipped to the tables

and stomachs of France.

How can I make the humble and ugly lotte -

the thing we made famous in Floyd On Fish -

look anything like as good and as interesting as that splendid dish?

But I'm going to. Cos I'm not afraid of French cooks.

I am Floyd after all.

Look, I've spent all this time filleting the lotte,

taking the bone out, chopping up parsley and garlic very finely

and stuffing it inside then tying it back with string.

Little tiny knots, all hand tied by myself. Up again, Clive, please.

I'm trying to talk to you.

I don't have home economists like some television programmes

I could mention. I do it all myself. Anyway, over here, the bits we need.

A bit of cream...cream fraiche, creme fraiche.

Muddled my words there cos it's Franglaise.

Some little white onions sauteed in butter,

some bits of smoked bacon,

blanched in boiling water for a couple of seconds and strained,

a bottle of Imperial Muscadet - a glass for myself, by the way...

Don't go away, Clive. ..and a knob of butter there.

So it's all very, very simple.

All I have to do is put my merry onions in there like that,

with considerable panache,

sprinkle my little lardons like that,

grate a little bit of pepper over the whole thing,

sprinkle some salt on and it goes...

If you can stumble over this way, Clive. He's very tired.

He's had a hard morning.

BANG! Into the oven with a bang, just to annoy the sound man,

who hates things like that. Anyway, what we're going to do now...

That takes about, oh, 15 minutes to roast in the oven.

Right next door, there is a superb soup factory. Soup de poisson.

I'm going to show you how it's all made.

Come with me and have a really good look.

No, this is not the hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

from some avant-garde Shakespearian production of Macbeth -

this is me in a soup factory, a tinned soup factory.

Before I hear you cry,

"What on earth are you doing eating things out of tins?"

Let me tell you, this is Brittany, this is Concarneau,

where they put things into tins that taste good.

This is an amazing fish soup which, 100 years ago in the kitchen

of the restaurant I have just working in,

they started making, tinning it to sell to their clients who

thought it was so good they wanted to take some home.

Over the years, the business has developed and developed

and developed and now this amazing soup is sold throughout the world.

Come and have a really good look in here, Clive.

This has no E numbers, no preservatives, it has monkfish,

it has bits of lobster, langoustines, olive oil,

butter, fresh leeks.

Come up here a minute, Clive. In fact, the fresh leeks...

I was in a bar having a glass of orange juice the other night

and a bloke came in with a little wagon, laden high with leeks.

He said, "You haven't met me before but I provide the leeks for

"the soup factory."

The leek manufacturer was really proud of that.

Anyway, let's go on down here a bit.

I've got to make this soup actually, you see.

I'm only making the television programme as a part-time job.

I've got to stir them all

to make sure they're all cooking quite nicely.

Yes.

The only thing is I can't really taste them at these rubber gloves on

but I can assure you, with the tomato puree, olive oil and all these fresh

ingredients that I've been telling you, this soup, whether it's

the soup de poisson, which is a very, very strong fish soup,

or a creamy veloute of soup,

or the richest lobster soup in the world, it's absolutely fabulous.

Anyway, I'm going to get back

cos I think my monkfish must be cooked by now.

DOG BARKS

Oh, that's much better.

A little fresh air cheers you up like nobody's business.

It should be well burnt... I mean well cooked by now

so, Clive, pop down here a second.

We'll get the offending beast out. Look at that.

Sizzling to perfection. Now up carefully together.

We'll do this together, Clive, shall we? Put that on there. Wine now.

Stay there. I'd forgotten the wine.

We have to add a little white wine to that

to help make the sauce.

CLATTERING Then all this crashing and banging

results in a superb dish in a moment, as you will see.

The gigot goes on to there like that. OK? Oh, that's not a spoon.

Somebody should have noticed that.

That is a chinois - a thing for straining sauces, not picking

them up with, as the sauce would go straight through the holes, you see.

Take out our little pieces of bacon, put that around it.

Now, stay there, stay there, stay there.

Stay there. I told you to stay there.

I've got to go and get a few things from over here.

A little bit of creme fraiche into there. Whiz, whiz, whiz.

Not too much. Just like that. OK.

Then we enrich with a knob of butter, like that.

We taste it. It's very, very good.

Now we get our chinois. Or "sheen-waz" or whatever it's called.

We strain the sauce over it like that, which is extremely brilliant.

OK. Stay there because I've forgotten something else.

This is actually my first cooking sequence in this

part of the film, you see, so I'm always a little nervous.

A few chopped shallots on there.

Spread the bacon out a little tiny bit. And we have a masterpiece.

And to prove it, I will cut a slice of the roast gigot of lotte,

right through the middle like that and you will see pure,

succulent, white - I hope - little pieces of fish.

There we are. Dead delicious, isn't it?

Do you mind if I have a small bite?

A little piece of bacon. Here's on of me, enjoying myself.

RAPID BREATHING

No good - I'm going to burst into fits of laughter.

Apart from the amusing and interesting scene

of its seagoing life, the port has the picturesque attraction

of a walled town enclosed in granite.

It is also a popular seaside resort, quoth the Michelin.

But, to me, the old walled town of Concarneau,

like the other seven wonders of the world - you know,

Severn Beach, Wookey Hole, Cheddar Gorge, the Pyramids et al - bring one

thing to mind - candyfloss and crepes and crepes is what it's all about.

Absolutely remarkable lady.

Like little sparrow hopping around doing things.

Makes hundreds and hundreds of these every day. It's quite incredible.

And still a smile.

Jambon.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

The cheese is beautifully melted,

the buckwheat pancake is crunchy and buttery and the egg, of course,

is a free-range one, which is why it's so delicious.

-It's fabuleux, madam.

-C'est bon?

-Oui.

-C'est tres bien.

-Fabuleux.

I know you think I'm a hedonist

but I'm just a cook whose intentions are good,

not the type to sport T-shirts emblazoned with slogans.

Even so, if they carry on fishing like this,

the only tuna my daughter will ever see will be in a glass case.

MOURNFUL MUSIC

# There'll be blood in the water

# A victim of slaughter

# The last silver tuna

# Will be dead. #

It's always a treat to see Mr Floyd in action.

Now, we are not cooking live in the studio today

but instead we are celebrating some of the great

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives for you instead.

So, still to come on today's Best Bites,

Marcus Wareing And Vivek Singh

were both already in our top ten before they came

together for the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge but who beat who?

Find out a little later on.

Lesley Waters makes a decadent crab and ginger tart.

She prepares the tart with

white crabmeat, eggs, parsley, coriander and ginger

and then serves it with

an oriental-style chilli and spring onion dressing

and Alan Davies faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven - haddock?

With my spicy pan-fried haddock with wok-fried broccoli.

Or his dreaded food hell - dark chocolate?

With my dark chocolate tart with chocolate Turkish delight?

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

Now it's time for Theo Randall

to showcase some more of his great Italian cooking.

Here he roasts the perfect lamb for Sunday lunch,

ably assisted by Matt Tebbutt, who makes a pretty good salsa verde.

-Theo, good to see you.

-Thank you.

-Thanks for coming along.

Right, big rump of lamb.

It's one of those cuts that's not use that often.

-You know, it's a reasonably priced cut.

-I use it a lot.

-I know.

-I'm sure you do. You know.

-But it's delicious.

And it's a little bit cheaper.

It's quite reasonably priced. It's a good price.

At this time of year, it's fantastic.

It's got a nice amount of fat on it.

And with it we are going to do onion squash.

It's called that cos it looks like an onion.

-It looks a bit like an onion, yeah.

-And we are going to roast that

and with it we are going to make a salsa verde,

which you're going to make, with capers, anchovies,

a bit of mustard, garlic and lots of nice herbs and some spinach.

You're a real purist, aren't you?

Salsa verde - you're not messing around with it,

-not adding anything.

-No, no. Nothing.

-No gherkins or anything like that.

-That would be wrong.

-It's a pure thing.

-Shameful.

So, first of all, start off with the lamb.

I'm just going to take off the outer part of the lamb.

You're going to peel that squash.

-OK.

-You don't have to peel them.

They have got masses of flavour, the skin.

Could you do something with that?

I'm sure a very clever chef could dry that out and do something.

-Well, you're very clever, you can do that.

-I don't.

I don't generally peel it, actually. I just roast it off.

So, I'm just going to trim off some of the fat so the marinade can

-go into the lamb.

-Why are you taking the fat off?

I want to leave a little bit on but just to kind of break it up

a bit so you can get that marinade into the top of the lamb.

The fat will stop from marinating.

How long are you going to marinate it for?

Ideally, I would marinate for a day but an hour will work.

OK, so I'm just going to wash my hands.

Then what are we going to do, we're going to put the lamb into a bowl.

-We are going to put some lemon juice in.

-Right.

-But that's going too slowly start cooking it, no?

-That's the idea.

The lemon juice will start cooking it

and break down all those little tendons.

-Right, OK.

-So you want to get the lemon juice in. Quite a lot of it.

It's a good cut of meat but you need to rest it.

It's quite a dense cut and it's got quite a lot of sinew in there

so it's very important that you actually marinate it.

You can cook it, you know,

straightaway but it will be slightly tough

and it won't...it'll have that kind of slightly lamb-y flavour.

-If that makes sense.

-Ken, do you use a lot of lamb in Chinese cooking?

Not really but I love Theo's food cos it's...

It's light, it's that kind of...that salsa is wonderful.

What do you...? I mean, a lot of chefs, myself included,

when we finish cooking in our restaurants, we go for Chinese.

What do you go for when you're finished?

I go for fish and chips.

-I don't believe that.

-No, I don't believe that.

-You look far too healthy.

-Now, I just go have Theo's food.

-Right, OK, so seeds about as well, yeah?

-Seeds out.

In the marinade we've got garlic, rosemary, lemon juice,

-olive oil. I don't like this pourer. Here we go.

-Take it off.

-Yeah, I'll take it off.

-I don't like those either.

OK, so, lemon juice.

Just give that a really good marinate and then

get that garlic really into the meat.

Then we are going to cover that in cling film

and pop it in the fridge and leave that for...

The oven's beeping at me.

-That's... Take that lamb out.

-That suggests it's done.

-OK, nice and pink.

-Fridge.

There we are. Are you going to let that rest in the pan or put it...?

The just put it on the side here. Just get it away from heat.

I'll pop that there.

All that lovely fat from the lamb is coming out.

How long are you going to rest that for because, like I said,

it's not a rack, it hasn't got that sort of melty quality, has it?

At least five minutes. Let's get the squash going.

-Right, I'm nearly there.

-That's fine. One half will do.

We are just going to cut the squash in half and then quarters.

-Or rather eighths.

-Shall I get on with the salsa verde?

-You get on the salsa verde.

-All that garlic?

Just one clove. Not too much raw garlic.

Then mint, parsley, anchovy, capers and mustard.

So, I put this squash in a bowl, add some olive oil. Good old olive oil.

Salt and pepper. A nice amount of seasoning. Then some thyme.

Just pull the thyme off.

Thyme and squash is a really nice combination.

BANGING

You'll have to speak up.

You can use butternut squash if you want but onion squash has

-got a much more interesting flavour, I find.

-Right, OK.

Then just give that a good toss in the bowl.

And then put it into a dish.

Use an earthenware dish or anything really.

Then I'm going to cover it with tinfoil. I feel like I'm shouting.

-You are.

-OK.

Then cover with tinfoil

and bake that in the oven for about half an hour.

And what happens is it sort of steams

and you get that lovely sweetness from the squash.

So that goes in the oven.

And you want all these herbs chopped up or do I need to save any?

-Sorry?

-Do I need to save any of these herbs?

-No.

-You want it all chopped up?

-It's all going to go.

There is no garnish on top. There is no sprig of parsley on my food.

Everyone got that? Good.

So, we get our lamb out of the marinade, straight into a pan

and just seal that off.

That's a very hot pan. Seal it off.

Come and look at the marinade.

It's really slightly cooked the meat.

-It's just turned it that sort of opaque colour.

-Yep.

-And that's the lemon juice?

-That's the lemon juice.

Just going to colour that, get a bit of colour on it.

Seal it over on all sides.

You said overnight, but it's going to be pretty cooked then.

Yeah, but it's kind of nice. You get that much richer flavour.

-That won't toughen it?

-No, it does the complete opposite.

Pop that in the oven for about 15 minutes at about 375, 390.

-A little bit of marjoram in here as well, is there?

-A bit of marjoram.

-Quite interesting herbs.

-Strong.

-They're all soft herbs.

You can't use hard herbs in salsa verde.

Something like rosemary or thyme, forget it, it won't work.

-OK. So get rid of that.

-So, what's this London Festival?

The London Restaurant Festival? We're involved in it.

It's a great thing. It started last year and it's getting bigger

and bigger. We did this thing called the Gourmet Odyssey

where a London bus goes up and down Park Lane

and goes to a few restaurants

-and we're doing the dessert course this year.

-OK.

So they'll all come to us after having a few drinks

-and having the dessert course at Theo Randall.

-That's a good idea.

How many people? 60-odd people? How many do you get on a bus?

About 60, 70 people all in one go. They just sort of turn up.

-"We're here!"

-That's like a Saturday night at my place.

-I'm sure.

-Everyone turns up at 8.30.

-OK. I've put the spinach in.

I've got this lovely English spinach.

I left a bit of the stalk on it cos I think the stalk's

-the best part of the spinach.

-Not tough, no?

Not tough, no. If it's fresh spinach, it's really delicious.

-So just squeeze out any of the excess water.

-Right.

Then we're going to get our lamb.

-You want quite a loose salsa verde or...?

-Yeah, quite loose.

-Nice and loose.

-OK.

So, we've got Dijon mustard, we've got capers in here,

we've got a clove of garlic and what were the herbs?

-We've got mint in there, we've got parsley...

-And marjoram.

-That's it.

-And a little bit of rocket...

-A little bit of rocket.

-..floating around in there.

-And then...

-But no salt?

Well, you don't really need the salt.

The seasoning is really the anchovy and the capers.

Both of those are salted and then preserved in oil.

-I've missed the garlic.

-Don't forget your garlic.

So, where do you get your inspiration from? Obviously, it's Italy.

But do you make a point of travelling around on your holidays?

I've just come back from a holiday in Puglia

but I get my inspiration from ingredients.

Even going to Italy, I was talking to Ken earlier and just saying

it's so nice when you go to Italy to cook yourself

because you find these amazing ingredients. Even though you want

to go to lots of restaurants, actually, eating, cooking at home

-is part of the inspiration.

-I find that more fun sometimes, actually.

When you're confined to a few ingredients

and you play around with them, I think it's great fun.

So, we've put our onion squash on, some nice spinach

and then we'll got our lamb. That's the salsa verde.

-Theo, I need you to do me a favour now.

-What's that?

It's my wife's birthday and I haven't bought a present so it would be nice

-if you could say happy birthday to her.

-Happy birthday...

-Lisa.

-Happy birthday, Lisa.

-That's worth a present.

-You haven't bought a present?

-No, not yet.

-Ah!

-Well, I've been busy.

-I'll get Ken to do it later as well.

-OK. We've got our meat.

We're just going to cut it into three nice slices.

-That's going to go down well.

-There you go. Three slices.

Beautifully pink. Could cook it a little bit more if you want.

-That looks beautiful.

-Looks nice to me. There's a little bit of fat

and a few sinews in there. But don't worry about those.

-Just pop that on top...

-That looks beautiful.

..of the squash. And then your beautiful salsa verde.

-That's MY beautiful salsa verde.

-YOUR beautiful salsa verde.

-Thank you.

And then pop a little bit of that on top.