09/12/2017 Saturday Kitchen

Good morning!

Make yourselves comfy

and get ready to savour 90

minutes of fabulous food

and brilliant chefs.

I'm Michel Roux and this

is Saturday Kitchen Live!

Welcome to the show!

Cooking with me today

are the brilliant Olia Hercules

and Tom Aikens, and in charge

of wine our fantastic

expert Susie Barrie.

Good morning, everyone!

Good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome

back to the Christmas studio.

It

looks lovely.

We made an effort.

Olia, you're the Queen

of Caucasus Eastern European

cuisine, what have you got for us?

I am making Shakh plov, which is an

Azerbaijani pie encased in clarified

butter.

We had it in rehearsal and

it was amazing, the best breakfast

ever.

Tom, great to see you.

Your restaurants focus on British

classics, comfort food

and seasonal ingredients.

What are you making today?

I'm doing a very seasonal dish,

roast John Dory with chestnuts and I

am cooking confit.

There is a test

not been today.

And under Wine, we

are all about white wine.

And we

have got some classic foodie moments

from the BBC archives.

They are from Rick Stein,

Nigel Slater, the Hairy Bikers

and Nigella Lawson.

Our special guest today

is a multi-talented performer

and writer, who starred

in the ground-breaking

sketch shows Goodness

Gracious Me and The Kumars,

and many dramas including

Dr Who and Broadchurch,

she's now in the hit musical

Annie, please welcome

the incredible Meera Syal!

Good morning. How lovely to be here.

It's great to have you on the show.

I can't believe you are here today,

because this afternoon you are

straight off to the theatre.

I am,

it's aid to show day in the West

End.

Lots of copy today though.

Lots

of coffee, but I am going to eat

well.

I suppose it all depends on

whether or not we go food heaven or

hell. What is your heaven?

I love

spinach, pine nuts, any kind of

seafood.

I have managed to combine

all three of those. And your food

hell?

Please, don't make me eat

these. Snails. I have only ever have

those once and I never want to put

them in my mouth again. Please don't

make me do that.

I love snails.

I

thought you might.

So if the viewers give

you heaven, I'll make

prawns and quails' eggs

wrapped in spinach.

I'll steam prawns and quails' eggs

wrapped in spinach leaves,

then make a warm salad of squash,

shallots, lemon juice and saffron,

and finish with some Treviso leaves,

pine nuts and coriander.

That is the lovely bitter leaf from

Italy. And pine nuts, because you

love pine nuts.

But if Meera gets hell,

I'll make artichokes Barigoule

with snails and winkles.

That is artichokes cooked in a

particular fashion, and then snails

from the sea and land.

I'll sear artichokes,

carrot, celeriac,

garlic, and fennel

seeds, add wine and

vegetable stock, and simmer.

I'll serve this in a bowl

with snails and winkles and finish

with orange julienne,

basil and garlic shoots.

But you'll have to wait

until the end of the show to find

out which one the viewers vote for!

So everyone, just go

to the Saturday Kitchen website

before 11 this morning and get

voting!

We also want your questions.

You can ask our experts anything,

just dial 0330 123 14 10.

Get dialling now!

As always, you can also

comment on what's cooking

via social media.

Right, let's get cooking!

Olia, what are we making?

We are up first. We have got a

beautiful ray -- array of

ingredients.

I am making my dinner

party dish of choice because the end

result looks really impressive but

you don't have to do too much. You

are going to die so that for me and

cook it off in a lot of clarified

butter and some chopped chestnuts

and then I am going to put these

onions on to get them caramelised

like this, so super dark. They take

about ten minutes, 15 minutes.

Really sweet.

Yes, then I will

combine that with raisins,

barberries, some cumin, some amens,

then it will go on top of this. This

is Persian lavash.

It is like a

blanket.

In Azerbaijan, they just

dip it into clarified butter. Into a

pot. I am only going to brush it

today.

If you haven't got this, you

can use normal flatbreads?

Yes,

absolutely. Any thin flatbread works

really well. You might need to lay

it. This size is very useful. I will

show you in a moment. There is

saffron in this butter. Everything

has quite a lot of clarified butter

in it.

What is this dish called

again?

Shakh plov. Shakh refers to a

prince.

She is referring to you,

Michel.

Why do you use clarified

butter? We use that a lot in Indian

cooking.

In Azerbaijan, they use a

lot of it. In the Caucasus, it is

famished between Turkey and Iran and

quite a lot of influences probably

came from India and clarified butter

is quite easy to keep. It doesn't go

rancid. But I just love its flavour

as well. I have got some sliced

garlic.

Is this in your new

cookbook?

Yes, in my new book,

Caucasus. It is all based on the

flavours of Georgia, Azerbaijan and

Armenia. Being from the ex-Soviet

Union, I am used to Georgian cuisine

but going there, I have discovered

so many things. They love their

plums, their walnuts. And they make

this incredible dish, a beetroot

dish, where they basically boiled

beetroot until they are really nice

and soft and then they marinate them

in a spicy plum sauce.

How good does

that sound? It sounds really good.

In your book, it with chicken but

Mira doesn't eat meat, so we are

going vegetarian. -- The Mirror

doesn't eat meat. It is just as

good, so we are doing it with

pumpkin which is also very

Azerbaijani. If you want to do it

vegetarian, you can do slow cooked

lamb on their side to please the

meat eaters. You do this one dish

and it looks really impressive when

you take it to the table. You serve

it with fresh herbs. They love herds

in the Caucasus. Here I have got

mint, basil, dill and coriander.

That is a common combination, all of

those herbs together. So serve it

with a salad of herbs or fermented

pickles. Turnips, because, Chard.

Did you make those yourself?

I

didn't, it was my friend. But you

can buy them in farmers markets and

places.

What do you do to foment?

You drop your vegetables into a weak

brine and you wait for them to go

funky. People are scared but it is

really quite easy.

Follow some basic

rules of hygiene and cleanliness

and...

Exactly. You have to look

after it but you don't practically

have to do too much. I have cut my

lavash like you can see.

The batter

is yellow because you have got your

saffron in there? -- the clarified

butter is yellow. Because that is

not the normal colour.

No, it is

yellow but not that yellow. Now,

this is like a bit of origami going

on here. OK, we put it in like that.

Is this a dish for a special

occasion? It looks like a special

occasion dish to me.

It is,

absolutely. At a dinner party, it is

the easiest thing, because you can

do a lot of these things in advance

and all you are doing is just

assembling it, putting it into the

oven for about 50 minutes and you

are done.

With barberries, are they

easy to get? What is the specific

flavour of them?

They are very sour.

They have got a really lovely zing,

so imagine all of this but arenas,

it is cut through by the loony

flavour of the barberries. We are

packing all of these amazing

vegetables at the bottom.

They are

very tart but in a nice way. Like a

sour cherry but even better.

I put

them in my porridge in the morning.

With the rise, be very gentle. Don't

pack it in and it will steam

beautifully inside the lavash. This

is as Matty that I boiled for five

minutes, take it out, drain it

really well, a little bit more

clarified butter on top, why not. I

am not going to apologise. It is

buying to use butter. It is

delicious.

Well, you are with a

Frenchman.

Exactly.

Tell us more

about your background.

I used to be

a junior reporter and in 2008 when

the crisis hit, I thought, I want to

do something I really love, which is

cooking. So I trained to be a chef.

I worked for telling the and

eventually, I rate my first

cookbook. -- I wrote my first

cookbook. I named it after something

from the Addams family. They do a

special dance and it was the first

positive depiction of Eastern

European families I ever saw in a

film, so I thought it was hilarious.

I always remember lurch.

That would

be a rubbish name for a cookbook

though.

Don't forget if you want to ask us

a question this morning, just call:

0330 123 14 10.

That's 0330 123 14 10.

Calls are charged at your standard

network rate.

OK, now the moment of

truth.

That's gorgeous.

It is

beautiful. It looks like a pipe.

It

does, and it's got all those amazing

flavours inside. I put the herbs and

pickles around.

Is this the kind of

thing he would serve at Christmas?

No, but why not?

I might be, I'll

tell you. What next for you?

I am

writing my third cookbook and I am

going back to the Ukraine for it,

actually, because it's a huge

country and there's plenty more to

explore.

How do you finish this

dish?

It needs just a little slick

of oil, any nutty oil goes well with

fermented vegetables, then we are

going to cut into it and all of the

rice and the dried fruit and nuts

are going to spill out and dazzle

our guests.

Well, I tell you, we

will be dazzled. So what is it

called?

This is called Shakh plov

and it's from Azerbaijan and it's

absolutely delicious, your perfect

dinner party dish.

Fantastic. Can

you grab a knife?

That was amazingly

impressive how that turned out,

wasn't it? Was that just from

bartering the pan, Olia?

Yes,

exactly.

So the rice is partly

cooked when you put it in?

Yes, and

then its themes.

You could do this

with leftovers, if you had leftover

biryani or something.

Exactly. And

leftovers to put at the bottom of

it, as well.

It smells amazing,

doesn't it?

Is there a strict rule

in terms of the ingredients you use

or can you kind of use what you

like?

I am not strict with my

recipes at all. I think we all make

them our own, don't we?

I have got a

wine from write-down in the south of

France, Olia, from Morrisons, £8. It

is made from the Clairette grape

variety and produces lovely, fresh,

dry white wines. This happens to

have quite a floral aroma and lovely

soft yellow fruit flavours and I

think with a dish like this when you

have got in there that lovely

saffron butter and the pumpkin,

those yellow fruit flavours work

really, really nicely.

I can already

tell it's going to be so good.

The

Mirror, good?

So good. And it's

light, despite all the batter.

The

sharpness of the barberry comes

through as well.

Try some of the

because as well.

And if you are

looking for a vegetarian centipedes,

it is perfect.

That is a problem

with vegetarian centrepieces.

Did

you double layer B flat bread if you

really like the flat bread?

Absolutely.

That means even more

butter. Olia, that was fabulous and

I think the crew are going to jump

into this.

I Am Cooking Pan-fried

John Dory With A Little Bit Of

Butter,, doing that with some

turnips, caramelised with butter,

and chestnut sauce, it is going to

have a fresh feel, little baby

turnip, and some turnip oil. Very

simple.

If you want to ask a

question this morning, just call.

The lines close at 11am, you haven't

got long, so get dialling! Or you

can tweet a question.

And don't forget to vote for Meera's

food heaven or hell on our website.

Heaven, please!

Now it's time to join Rick Stein

on one of his Long Weekends.

This week, he takes a culinary

step back in time

at Berlin's oldest restaurant.

I'm really interested

in the last war.

Well, lots of people my age

are, because it was

a living history for us.

The bombsites were

all over the place.

So I met with a military

historian here, Nick Jackson,

who takes people on tours around

the great battle sites of Berlin.

And most of the people

want to be taken to a muddy,

half-empty car park.

Not much to look at, but we're

standing in what is

the political heart of Nazi Berlin.

Below here was where

Hitler's bunker was built.

So he spent the last four

months of his life here,

and this would be the final scenes

of World War II

and the last scenes of Hitler's life

would play out here.

If you dug it up now,

some fragments still remain,

but it's been left, and I think

perhaps rightly so, as just

this bare car park area.

Just a patch of mud.

Yeah.

Well, I quite fancy some lunch.

Me too.

Do you fancy going for some...?

I know just the place.

You do?

Where?

Whereabouts?

Well, it's actually

Berlin's oldest restaurant,

with traditional Berlin fare.

Like?

Eisbein.

That's the pig...

The huge steamed pork knuckle.

I think you might like that.

Yeah, I like the sound of that.

Stuffed cabbage, veal

meatballs with a caper sauce.

I'm liking that.

Konigsberger Klopse.

The real, proper,

hearty Berlin food.

Oh, this looks very nice.

Wow.

Berlin's oldest restaurant.

Certainly looks it.

It's called Zur Letzten Instanz.

This is a bit daunting, Nick.

Where do I...?

It's certainly hearty portions.

I think perhaps the best would be

first to remove its outer casing.

Oh, OK.

So is that normal, not to eat

the outer casing, or...?

I think so, yeah.

One would leave the blubber.

I quite like a bit of blubber.

But it's one of the reasons why,

of course, it's worth

coming to this restaurant.

I mean, traditional Berlin food

is very hard to find,

and it doesn't get much more

traditional than eisbein.

I mean, this is actually delicious.

Quite a lot of it is bone, I think.

You've only got two or three pounds

of pork to deal with.

And what have you got there?

I've got a stuffed cabbage served

with meat and caraway,

with mashed potatoes.

Think of Berlin food, its function

would be to fill you up.

Yeah.

With what is essentially

cheap materials.

Yeah.

And to keep you sort of behind

the plough for 14 hours a day,

or to help you survive a siege.

I like food being connected to sort

of where you are, really,

rather than ethereal chef stuff.

But I must say, this

is a lot to get through.

I may not finish it.

You're not getting down

until you've finished.

Fair enough!

That was the oldest

restaurant in Berlin!

Napoleon was supposed

to have eaten there,

and Goethe -

maybe not at the same time.

Lovely, classic German food,

but the thing I like most

of all was their apple cake.

Loads of apple on the top of it

and finished with demerara

sugar and cinnamon.

So, first of all, taking out

the core of these apples

with my apple corer.

Where was life

before an apple corer?

I don't know.

There we go.

And now just slicing those apples

up as thinly as I can.

Now that's the first job, but I'm

not going to need those immediately,

so I'm just putting those

into a little bowl and squeeze some

lemon juice over them

to stop them going brown.

Turn them over a bit.

That's fine.

And now to make my cake batter.

First of all, some

unrefined caster sugar

- a nice colour, I think -

and some softened butter.

There we go.

A whisk happening.

So now I'm going to add my

eggs, one at a time.

That's just simply so

the batter doesn't split.

OK, that's nice and light and airy.

And now I'm going to

knock my flour in -

this is though a sieve.

The reason for doing this

is not really to get

the lumps out of the flour -

the flour doesn't really

have lumps any more.

Baking powder as well,

to assist in the raising process.

So when I say knock in,

it's just to get as much air

as possible into the mix to make

the batter nice and light.

So there we go.

Now a big metal spoon.

I just like to use this

for folding flour in.

I'm using the biggest

possible spoon here,

just to avoid losing any air

if I can.

It's just getting a little bit

tight there,

so I'm just

going to add a tiny bit of milk,

just to loosen up the

batter a little bit.

I love this cake tin -

it's one of my oldest cake tins.

It cost a lot of money,

but it's really nice and thick -

that matters to me.

A good feel to it.

So just smooth that over, like that.

There we go.

Probably won't make

the British Bake Off,

but I do like making cakes.

Now put my apple in

a neat little round.

Fan them out round there, like that.

I've got my oven on at 170 degrees

centigrade, gas mark four.

And finally, I'm just

going to mix this demerara sugar

with some ground cinnamon

and scatter that over the top,

and that's going to go

in there for about...

Oh, there's one in there

already - how funny!

How silly of me.

Well, I've often said

it's very bad manners

for TV chefs to taste their own food

and comment about it.

But that's delicious.

Rick baking a beautiful

apple cake there.

So I'm going to show you something

a bit different and use apple

and spices in a lovely fish dish -

pollock with soured cabbage,

apple and spice.

So you like your fish?

I do.

So we

have got a lovely piece of pollock,

which I will dust in some curry

powder, season and could in butter,

and I will make some soured cabbage,

not fermented, but I will go it in

cider vinegar, spice, juniper

berries, caraway seeds and finish

with fresh apple.

Cider vinegar is the real thing.

Many ailments.

Tell me more.

We

actors doing long runs, there is a

magical concoction that we all boil

up, a fantastic brew to keep off

infections, cider vinegar, lemon

juice, turmeric, ginger, garlic, a

little bit of Cheyenne pepper, and

you boil that up and keep chugging

it, and it is amazing. -- cayenne.

Do you take it like a shot?

Well,

you can boil it and toilet and by

that, add some manuka honey at the

end.

You can keep it as a bat to

drink through the day, I don't know

why it works. Does it look after

your throat?

It works off

infections, turmeric is incredible.

Does it work for a hangover?

I think

it works for everything! But I know

a load of actors, you know, you just

have to keep going, eight shows a

week, it just manages to keep all

the horrible germs at bay.

I can

understand why!

So you are very busy

at the moment.

Yes, I am.

And

drinking turmeric tea.

Yes, I am

playing Miss Hannigan in Annie.

Miss

Hannigan! Enjoying it?

I am loving

it, loving it. I mean, Annie is one

of the great classic musicals, a lot

of people know it from their

childhood, and she is the villain of

the piece, she runs the orphanage

where Annie lives, and she is

basically a drunk who hates

children, and so she has got the

worst job in the world. And it is

all set in the 1930s, the depression

in New York, and everybody is on the

skids, grasping to make money, and

she's basically using the orphanage

as a sweatshop. So she is drunk,

bitter, childless, couple of great

songs, and it is just so much fun, I

can't tell you.

Who have you taken

over from? You have big shoes to

fill, I think.

Yes, literally! Craig

Revel Horwood played Miss Hannigan

before me, and then before that the

lovely Miranda, so I am number

three, and I go through until

mid-February. And every single Miss

Hannigan has been really different,

it is one of those roles you can

really make your own.

And all the

children, how many cast of children?

There are three different castes,

Annie and the orphans, and the kids

can only work certain hours, so we

have three lots.

And they have taken

to you? Or you have taken to them?

They are unbelievable girls, and

they know the entire show and all

the dance routines, so if I ever

forget a line, they know it, they

are there! And of course we have

Amber the dog, a live dog, she is

one of the longest serving company

members, and she's the most adorable

thing, she genuinely stands in the

wings with a tail-wagging ready for

her cue, loving it.

Is she

protective of the children?

I had to

meet Amber, Linda who looks after

her, she said, you must come and

meet Amber that when she sees Miss

Hannigan being horrible to the

girls, she might have a bark at you.

Luckily, she likes me, I am all

right.

A little bit of butter in

there, Michel(!)

Just a little bit,

yes!

Clarified butter?

Unsalted

butter, the cider vinegar, salt,

juniper berry, classic labouring

force -- classic labouring for

sauerkraut. Lots of butter, started

it in oil, that way it does not

burn, it goes lovely and frothy, and

a clove of garlic will infuse the

butter and make it even more

flavoursome. Then we basted, lots of

frothy golden butter on there, and

it smells gorgeous.

It doesn't take

long to cook fish. Literally about

ten minutes?

It will take less than

ten minutes, yeah, the cabbage needs

to boil for about 45 minutes, and

then you can put it in the fridge

and keep it for a week in the

fridge, no problem at all. It is

like a faster version of sauerkraut.

There we go.

Meera, is a musical new

for you?

I have never done a West

End musical, I have done a Fringe

musical, but never the whole eight

shows a week. Is it quite scary?

Yeah, it was.

The first moment, it

is a big theatre?

It is, and an

iconic part, and I had to learn to

dance, I have got two, and I am not

really a dancer.

But you had sung

before?

Yes, I am not frightened

about singing, I love that, but the

dancing... But I think it is good to

do things that stretch you, that is

how you keep curious, I think.

And

Miss Hannigan is sort of in charge,

so if it goes wrong, you can say, I

am drunk!

I am drunk, sue me!

That

old excuse!

But yeah, it has been

thrilling.

Any similarity with the

character in the Kumars?

Maybe other than the fact that she's

an outspoken older women who doesn't

take any nonsense, I could see that,

but other than that, no.

Did you

enjoy playing that character?

It was

a gift of a part. The whole show was

so much fun. We had some amazing

people on and the thrill of the show

for me was so much of it was

improvised because we genuinely

never met the guests before they

came on.

Literally, walk-in.

That

moment when they walked into the set

of our home was the first time they

met us.

What kind of stars were your

guests?

He was delightful. Chevy Chase we

had done, and other genius. Donny

Osmond, Richard E Grant. It's a big

moment when you meet someone you use

to have pinned on your wall.

Especially when you are dressed as

an 80-year-old.

But yes, it was

great fun. You are multitalented.

You are an author as well.

Yes, my

third book came out about a year and

a half ago, about surrogacy. I have

written a couple of movies as well.

I started writing really because I

wanted a bit more control over my

career and I think the problem with

being an actor is that you are

beholden to somebody wanting you.

being an actor is that you are

beholden to somebody wanting you.

You are the person at the end of the

phone, whereas when you are

different like I am, knowing I

needed parts, I thought if I want to

have a career, I need to start

creating the parts, change the

narrative, make people see me and

women of colour differently.

Are the

books based on your experiences?

My

first book was all about my

childhood growing up in at Black

Country mining village.

And your

first book is on the curriculum now?

You must be so proud of that.

So

proud. The reason I rate it was

because I didn't want our history to

be forgotten and it's a very

humbling moment when you see a study

guide for GCSE on your book. The

first wave of immigrants coming to

Britain and that is who we were and

I thought our stories might be

forgotten, so for me, to know my

life and my parents lives and

sacrifices are not forgotten in the

curriculum is very moving, actually.

Right, there is some food.

You

multitask. You can talk and cook.

It's not just women who can

multitask.

Salad cabbage, lots of

butter that has been infused in the

garlic and curry powder and some

fresh green apple on top of the

pollock there which just cleans the

palate.

What a lovely idea.

And very

simple. Lovely and white and flaky.

I have some of everything. All we

need is a glass of wine.

We do.

Yummy?

It's amazing. I love the

tartness of the apple. I never would

have thought of putting together.

So what will I be making for Meera

at the end of the show?

Will it be her food heaven

- prawns and quails'

eggs with spinach?

I'll steam prawns and quails' eggs

wrapped in spinach leaves,

then make a warm salad of squash,

shallots, lemon juice and saffron,

and finish with some Treviso leaves,

pine nuts and coriander.

But if Meera gets hell,

I'm making artichokes

Barigoule with snails and winkles.

I'll sear artichokes,

carrot, celeriac,

garlic, and fennel

seeds, add wine and

vegetable stock, and simmer.

I'll serve this in a bowl

with snails and winkles and finish

with orange julienne,

basil and garlic shoots.

Don't forget, what she

gets is DOWN TO YOU!

You've only got around 25

minutes left to vote

for Meera's heaven or hell.

It could go either way so go

to the Saturday Kitchen website

and have your say now!

We'll find out the result

at the end of the show.

Christmas is only a couple of weeks

away but don't panic!

Because Nigel Slater

is here with some fantastic festive

ideas for that all-important

Christmas lunch.

Take a look...

To really herald the start of the

celebrations, there is one more

festive flourish that I have got to

go to sea. Isn't she beautiful?

So, the big day has arrived and so

have the guests. This is the time to

cook up a feast and make the most of

that special time together. And when

it comes to the raised itself, I am

a traditionalist and I like to cook

something easy that doesn't mean

Turkey. In fact, there is no more

time-honoured centrepiece to the

table than a goose. The biggest

decision for me at Christmas is what

bird is going to be in my oven, will

it be a turkey or a goose? I always

go for a goose. I love the dark meat

and all be fat and it's the fact

that I really, really value. Some of

it is in the skin. Some of it is

tucked inside the body cavity.

There's no point introducing butter

or oil when you've got all this

delicious stuff to start with. I'm

using it to start the stuffing. As

all that fat melts, it will add bags

of flavour to my onions. Now, the

heart and soul of my stuffing will

buy my sausage meat. I'd pick the

butcher's best breakfast sausages

and I just peel them and you end up

with a really good stuffing. When

you are cooking with ease, a bit of

citrus is always welcome. This is

very rich food. You want something

bright and clean in there. By now,

my onions are just starting to

become tender.

And I don't want a stuffing that's

too smooth, I want it

to have a lumpy interesting texture,

so I'm going to add

some chickpeas to this.

So crush them down a bit...

..And then they go in

with your sausage and lemon.

Plenty of seasoning and some

fresh mint will make

the stuffing smell wonderful.

Now some of this is going to end up

as little balls around the goose

and the rest of it is going to go

right inside the cavity.

31m So that as the goose roasts,

some of the fat runs down

into the stuffing and just makes it

gloriously, gloriously delicious.

And do it by hand, just pack it in.

Save some of the mixture and make

use of the lemon halves to keep

it all in one place.

Now there's no need to put any oil,

any butter, anything on the bird.

It's all there.

You do need to season it.

A bird this size is going to take

a good two and a half,

three hours to cook.

Now I want some of the stuffing

to be soft inside the bird,

but I also want these little balls

which will crisp up.

And then for the potatoes.

It's got to be roast potatoes.

They're the best part of it,

and particularly with a goose,

because they just soak up

all that wonderful fat.

So about halfway through

cooking, time to put

the stuffing in and the potatoes in.

What's in the pan is

the goose fat of legend.

This is the stuff that makes your

roast potatoes the best ever.

And this'll need probably another

hour, hour and a half.

There are few meals

as highly anticipated

as the Christmas Day roast.

Those rich aromas will tantalise

everyone as the bird slowly cooks.

There is the glorious goose,

all the roast potatoes,

almost translucent with fat

and all that flavour.

Stuffing balls, ready to go.

You know I love cooking, but I also

like taking food to the table.

And to walk in with

something like this -

glistening and roasted -

it is the most wonderful gift.

If you usually worry

the turkey will be too dry,

or that any other cut just

won't feel Christmassy enough,

then this year give the goose a go.

Once you've tried this

glorious Christmas roast,

the family will always remember it

and you'll never look back.

Thanks, Nigel,

a gorgeous goose there!

Right, still to come.

Nigella Lawson makes an indulgent

Italian Christmas pudding cake.

She layers pannetone and orange

liquer with a delicious

cream of mascarpone,

marsala, marrons glace,

pistachios and chocolate chips,

before chilling and serving.

Absolutely delicious!

It's almost omelette challenge time!

This week's puns are in honour

of Meera's new role

in Annie, we've taken

a trip to the musicals.

Chefs, in this challenge

Anything Goes,

but we don't want

pans full of Grease!

I Dreamed A Dream

of Food Glorious Food

So don't turn this into

a Little Shop Of Horrors.

Will the Winner Take It All,

or will the chefs be

Les Miserables?

We should have got Meera to write

this, honestly!

We should have got Meera to write

this, honestly!

Will Meera get her food heaven,

prawns and quails' eggs

wrapped in spinach?

Or her food hell, artichokes

Barigoule with snails and

winkles?

There's still a chance for you to

vote on the website and we'll find

out the results later on!

Right, on with the cooking.

Tom, what are we making?

Yes, I am here. Let's get cracking.

The turnips are for you. We are

doing John Dory with a chestnut

sauce. You are going to greatly

turnips and caramelised in butter. I

am making a turnip milk, which is

basically milk, sliced turnip,

turnip juice.

basically milk, sliced turnip,

turnip juice. Cold-pressed, of

course.

It sounded healthy until the

cream and butter hit it.

And a bit

of horseradish to give it a kick. We

are going to simmer that. Then we

could get down and blend it. I am

also going to make a chestnut sauce.

So to sources on ago -- on the go.

Tell me what you are doing. Opening

restaurants all over Britain and the

world.

Yes, a little bit. With Tom

's kitchen, we have got something in

London.

Celebrating 11 years. Time

flies when you are having fun and we

have had fun. We are just about to

do a refurbishment of the original

one in Chelsea, because we have been

there for 11 years. So we are

closing in February to do a mass

refurbishment, doing the kitchen,

the restaurant, bar, everything. We

are changing the whole thing. There

is a power mad for you. A bit of

butter. Carry on the theme, as they

say. I am going to chop the

chestnuts and sweat that all of

together. If you want to slice the

baby turnips or a turnip salad,

really thin.

And your restaurant in

Birmingham are celebrating a year?

Yes, we have been there a year and

we love it there. We are in the

mailbox by Harvey Nichols. There are

some great restaurants in

Birmingham.

I know it well.

Some

great curry houses as well.

The feed

seen in Birmingham is very vibrant

now. -- the food scene.

Yes, it has

been a year already. We opened at

Christmas time, not the best time.

So celebrating one year there. And

you have got one in Hong Kong, one

of my favourite foodie cities. Have

you been to Hong Kong?

No, I would

love to.

We will catch up like this

afternoon.

I have been to Birmingham

Leyds!

I love Hong Kong. Interesting

food once you are out there?

I love

to experience new things. As chefs,

you know what we are like. We like

to eat anything that goes.

Anything

unexpected?

I had one story, an

interesting thing that I tried. We

are putting in the Madeira here. A

little bit of vinegar. We are going

to reduce that down. Then I am going

to get the fish on.

Get that

cooking. So you have filleted and

skinned it?

Yes, filleted and

skinned. I am also going to get

these turnip discs that we have got

here, get them in a bit of water

and, you have guessed it, butter.

OK, so when I was in Hong Kong,

literally a month ago, I always go

out with my chefs and they like to

take me to some weird and wonderful

wacky places. We went to a

restaurant that was, I wouldn't say

it looked like a restaurant, it was

full of locals, which is a good

sign. They know the best places to

eat in.

Yes, that is normally a good

thing.

Anyway, this dish that I

thought was new doors, so basically

what I thought was noodles with

green pepper, shiitake mushrooms,

black bean sauce, soy sauce and

everything. It looked good on paper.

But then one of the chefs said to

me, are you enjoying that dish? I

said yes, lovely. He said you know

what you are eating? I said noodles.

He said, no, duck intestines. You

know when you have that thought in

your head and then it tastes

horrible.

What did it taste like?

It

was tasty until the point.

I love

the idea, so a bit like Meera and

snails, then?

How do they get stuck

intestines? Are they really think?

They look like noodles?

I didn't get

any crunchy bits, that is for sure.

At least none of the animal was

wasted.

That is an important point,

we should eat more of the animal.

In

there, if you would like to put some

turnip oil, and I think we are maybe

there with some servers name.

So do

you make the turnip juice?

Yes, just

put them in the juicer, probably

good to drink.

And the turnip oil,

did you make that yourself?

It is

French! The best things in life are.

Some things, not many!

Does anybody

know why John Dory is called John

Dory?

It is turnip.

Another French

thing.

St Peter picked it out, John

Dory, and of the river, and his

thumb and forefinger picked it out,

and that is the print on the skin,

there is a little thumbprint.

So St

Peter was called John Dory.

I don't

know about that.

We will come back

to that!

Still a little bit

confusing, I shall look that up for

later. What are you doing for

Christmas, Tomasz?

I am actually in

France, near your part of the world,

so I am north of Marseille with the

family, with the kids.

Cooking?

Busman's holiday. I want to have

time off but I always get pushed

into the kitchen, it is the same

with you, Michel.

It is, invariably,

but we have the kids to help, I'm

guessing yours will help.

They are

there, peeling away, not listening

to me, of course.

A little squeeze

of lemon juice on the John Dory, we

have got the turnip discs in a

butter emulsion, chestnut sauce or

cream.

If you can do just a little

dice for me.

Yeah.

This is going on

the dish.

And if you'd like to try

Tom's recipe or any

of our studio dishes,

then visit our website,

bbc.co.uk/saturdaykitchen.

While you're there, you can vote

for Meera's heaven or hell!

Heaven!

So these turnips I have just

lightly cooked, still a little bit

crisp.

I love the textures in food,

so important.

And then if you grab

the milk, just give that a little

froth.

Yes, a bit of froth in there.

And raw turnip as well. Careful!

Stand back, Michel is in the

kitchen!

So busy in your restaurants at the

moment?

Yes, coming up to Christmas,

all pumping and busy, that is the

way, isn't it?

Look at that, getting

it all over the place! You do it.

You have done the chestnut already?

Get out of my way!

OK. I am turning

down the gassy appliance, because

all the gas has gone, it looks like

the guys have got a lot of

washing-up to do.

That is what

happens in my kitchen at home I end

up doing all the washing-up!

It is

my prerogative.

So sliced chestnut

as well here. That looks so, so

pretty.

Roast John Dory, chestnut

sauce, confit turnip.

Don't move!

Cor, yes!

, With the chestnuts, do

you use the vacuum packed ones? Does

it matter?

Sue -- sous-vide if you

want to be posh, that is just a

French name for vacuum packed.

Precooked, yes. John Dory is a

wonderful fish, but if you cannot

get it, any other white fish.

Yes,

cod, pollock, I love the seasonality

of it, the turnips.

What are we

drinking with this?

I have gone very

classic with this dish, it is super

stylish, so this is a white wine

from Burgundy, without doubt one of

my favourite wine regions, it is a

Saint-Veran from the 2016 vintage,

it is £11.50 from Marks & Spencer.

You look at this dish, and it is

just made for white burgundy with

that beautiful white fish and the

rich chestnut sauce. But you have

also got the hint of horseradish,

the little Tom twist of horseradish,

so you don't want anything to rich.

So something like a kind of lesser

white burgundy, which Saint-Veran

is, less expensive, but not quite as

intense, and I think that works

really well with the buttery fish.

What do you think?

Love it, perfect

match, the taste of the confit

turnips, sweet, better.

Fantastic,

delicious. I don't usually like

turnips. You have turned me!

You can

always trust a Frenchman to cook

nice snails.

Chefs make incredible

sources to cover up the fact that

the thing you are eating is awful.

There is still time to vote, guys!

Now let's catch up with Si

and Dave, the Hairy Bikers.

This week they are

Riverdancing in Sunderland!

This you have to see!

Oh, yes, man!

Great theatre, Sunderland Empire.

All the major rock acts

have been here, dude.

Aye, Gracie Fields.

Max Miller.

No, man, no!

Zeppelin, Free, Hendrix, the lot.

But now, it's the Lord

Of The Dance's turn.

Feet Of Flames!

And we're cooking.

They're going to be hungry.

They are.

Michael Flatley's Lord

Of The Dance are on tour

and are performing here tonight.

That has allowed us to find nine

ladies dancing, and ten

foot-stomping lords a-leaping.

The ninth and tenth

lines of the song.

# On the tenth day of Christmas

my true love sent to me

# Ten lords a-leaping

# Nine ladies dancing. #

Now we're going to cook

a Christmassy beef and ale stew

with a leek colcannon.

This is a hearty dish

you can leave to slow-cook,

so you can have a lazy day

recovering after all of that

partying you've done

over the festive period.

Oh!

Man.

I'm so looking forward to this.

I love them.

They fly across the stage.

I know.

It's levitation, dude.

On a Celtic scale.

Let's see the critters fly

after they've eaten this.

He'll be like Dumbo

trying to take off.

Jet power.

What we're going to cook for them,

it's like an Irish stew.

I know it's a bit of a cliche

with the Lord Of The Dance,

but at Christmas.

but at Christmas.

And we've done our colcannon.

Instead of cabbages and spring

onions, we're using leeks.

So it's a leek colcannon.

We're going to poach the leeks

for the colcannon in some milk.

Now, in true Delia fashion,

like how to boil a potato.

Top tip - poach your

potatoes, don't boil them.

You do get a fluffier mash.

We're bringing it to the boil.

Two minutes, three minutes?

And then just leave it.

Right, step one

in the Feet Of Flames

stew is seasoned flour.

A plastic bag of humble flour.

I'll put the oil in.

We're going to heat the oil up

because what we're doing...

David's going to show you a trick

about how to put an even

coating of seasoned flour

all over your meat.

Take bully beef -

not too much at a time -

put it in a plastic bag

and give it a shake.

# In a one-horse open sleigh...#

Are you getting it?

Cos the flour and the seasoning

will flavour the beef,

give it a nice golden coating,

it also will thicken the stew.

Whilst the beef is sizzling away,

we're sweating down a chopped onion

and some tomato paste

before adding this to the meat.

Then deglaze the pan with

some lovely Christmas ale.

Deglaze - you know all those

flavours we've cooked in this pan,

we're just going to take them off

with a bit of moisture,

which is our lovely ale.

See all that?

Look at that lovely

elixir of flavour.

Beef and ale, it's a real kind

of classic accompaniment -

beef and ale pie, a stew or just

a pint of ale with your beef.

Next, we're adding carrots

and some chopped celery.

Beef stock!

Comfortable, luxurious, lovely food.

Ooh.

Look at that.

And to this - some raisins for that

Christmas pudding vibe.

And what's lovely about it is once

you've put them in, they'll plump up

and you get that little hint

of sweetness at

the back of the beef.

the back of the beef.

It's lovely!

Another great thing for flavour...

Caraway seeds - about a teaspoon.

And that's it.

Put a lid on, and that's one

of the best stews you'll ever taste.

We can get the colcannon ready.

To finish the colcannon

is dead easy, and because we've

poached our potatoes, the mash has

a lovely velvety texture.

This is truly wonderful

comfort food.

It's time to dance.

This time, it's not Michael Flatley

- it's going to be us.

# Christmas time will soon be over,

Christmas time will soon be over

# Christmas time will soon be over,

then we'll join the band...#

That's it!

ALL: Oi!

SCATTERED APPLAUSE.

Oh, sweet Jesus!

That was easy(!)

It's hard work that, isn't it?

What do you reckon?

A couple of months'

training, are we up for it?

I think you're ready

for the show tonight.

Cheers.

Dude, leg it!

Oh, I don't know about you, Kingy,

but I'm cream crackered!

It's a good thing cooking's not

that energetic, dude.

We're just not ready for all this

leaping about on a stage.

But it's time for us to put

the finishing touches

to our Feet Of Flame beef stew

and leek colcannon.

For a touch of Christmas,

we're adding chestnuts to our stew

and parsley as a garnish.

The only thing left to see

is what our ladies and lords think

of our wonderful yuletide treat.

Come on, gang!

Grub's up!

Come on, team!

Ladies first, gentlemen,

ladies first.

This is it, dude.

We were born to be

dinner ladies, us!

Sir!

Thank you.

How is it, girls?

All right?

Yeah.

Your show will be at

half speed tonight.

It's good.

So everybody's eaten?

Everybody's happy?

You like it?

ALL: Yeah.

Good.

# Christmas time will soon be over,

Christmas time will soon be over

# Christmas time will soon be over,

then we'll join the band...#

Lovely tutu, Si, and was that

a mankini Dave was wearing?!

I don't

I don't know what to say after that,

I really don't.

The heaven and hell

vote is now closed.

Meera's destiny is decided.

And we will reveal the results

at the end of the show.

Before we take some calls, people on

Twitter are saying the name for John

Dory comes from the French term for

gold in gilded because as the fish

comes out of the sea, it has a

gilded effect. Thank you for

everyone who said that in, but I

will be checking it! First up is an

hour from London. What is your

question, Anna?

How do you make

borscht?

Oh, hello. In Ukraine,

where I am from, the South of

Ukraine, we make an ox tail stock

and then we skim the fact of the

stock and we fry some diced onions

and carrots until our caramelised,

add a little bit of julienne

beetroot, put it all into the stock

and then add some chopped tinned

tomatoes in winter, fresh ones in

the summer and then serve it with

loads of deal and sour cream.

Does

that answer your question, Anna?

Yes, it does.

It sounds delicious to

me. Meera, you have a couple of

tweets for us. I have one from Alex

Cheney. How do you make King Palais,

the great Georgian dumpling?

It is

quite a long recipe. It's on my

second cookbook.

By the cookbook,

basically.

Tell everyone at home

anyway.

Caucasus, Surrey. Water

dough, egg, a mixture of pork, beef

or lamb, a little bit of diced onion

and spices, though a bit of

coriander...

Are they poached?

Yes,

they are, so a beautiful way to

close them, intricate, poach them

and then a bit of butter on top.

One

ball to week now.

Yes, from Ali

Baxter. We have pheasant for

Christmas the first time. What is

the best way to put it?

I'll take

that one. In a pot, partially close

the lid, lots of butter and cook it

likely would a small chicken. With

the lead, it helps to it moist, and

actually, also, sometimes I put a

little creme fraiche in the cavity

as well because it steams and helps

to keep the pheasant moist. What

about wines, CD?

Oh, gosh, you could

go totally classic and go for a

burgundy Pinot Noir or something a

little different, something from the

no rally great variety in Italy.

Something light and refreshing with

lovely tannin as well. That would be

beautiful web pheasant.

Right, let's

go back to the phones. Ethan from

Newport.

Hello, I want to pick a

trout I caught my dad. What should I

do with it?

How thank you for

watching this show, even. And for

calling in.

Bake it in the oven

slowly at around 130 or 140 in foil

for about ten minutes.

So unhappy

at. Just mind the bones. Thank you

to everyone who called in today.

For this week's foodie film

we're hunting down some

Christmas ingredients,

so we sent Rosie Birkett

to East London to meet Lance Forman,

whose family have been smoking

salmon for over 100 years.

These days, east London is known for

its fantastic food scene but it also

has a rich history of food

production which is why I am here at

Fish Island to find out about one of

London's tastiest traditions. Oh,

wow. These look fantastic. So,

performance is the oldest smoked

salmon producer in the world.

How

did it start? It started with my

great-grandfather back in 1905 --

1805. He bought over the technique

of... He would ship over salmon

initially from the Baltic and when

he saw it could come from Scotland,

he started using that and this was

born.

You have achieved PGI status.

What is that? It stands for

protected geographic indication. It

is the same protection that is given

to Parma ham and Cornish pasties. We

the first-ever London food or drink

get PGI status. Very exciting. The

salting is the curing process, the

preserving process. The idea was to

take out 10% of the moisture. Once

it has been Kuwait, we move it into

the kiln is to be smoked.

And wires

that specifically called the London

dry cure? What makes it specifically

a London one?

This is where it

started. This is what we were doing

100 years ago. The smoke sealed in

the concentrated salmon flavour.

Very simple but absolutely

delicious.

So, we are on to be

smoking now and you are using these

solid oak logs but you are doing

something different?

We are creating

smoke by friction, so we are

grinding these logs. There is no

combustion. The beauty of it is we

have complete control over the

amount of smoke by the speed of the

wheel grinding the log.

Hi, Darren.

I have been through the first stage

of the process with Lance and I know

these sides of salmon have been

smoking for 24 hours.

What is next?

As these sides come out, they have

bones in, so we need to take the

bins, bones, rib bones and

everything out and that gets us to

the point where we can pin bone.

You

are pretty quick at that, aren't

you? Don't you hold the world

record?

I do, yes.

Fantastic. Show

us how it is done. Wow, Darren, you

are the salmon ninja. That is so

fast. OK, I know it's a bit cheeky,

but can I give it a try?

Be my

guest.

Wow, that is so elegant. It's

not that smoky at all.

No, that is

the London cure.

Absolutely

delicious. Who would have thought

that one of our favourite Christmas

luxuries have its roots right here

in industrial east London. All it

takes is salmon, smoke and salt.

Simple, delicious and stint in --

speak in history.

Wow, that looked too fast to be real

but he has the record, that it must

be real.

We've got some of that lovely

smoked salmon here to try.

I love smoked salmon.

Wow, so this

is their smoked salmon.

I am going

to add a little bit of lemon juice.

I think it is so Christmassy.

Not to

smoky. It is perfect.

It is very

fresh, isn't it? I love wine with

smoked salmon but every time I come

back to smoked salmon I go Sauvignon

blanc. The lemon zest, and with a

milder smoke, you want a more

restrained one. But if you have an

intense smoke, which I love, you

want something more punchy like a

New Zealand said in a blog.

Beautiful.

What would you have?

Vodka. Or even Sakai.

Right, it's omelette challenge time.

Olia and Tom, since you were both

last on it's all changed.

Uncle is here, in honour of uncle.

We've cleared the board and now

the aim is to make fast,

edible three-egg omelettes that

are good enough to feed

to our hungry crew.

CHEERING.

But if they're not, they'll

go in the compost bin.

BOOING.

Three acts, no shelves. -- eggs, no

shelves. You know the score. Go.

Wow, the amount of butter in that

pan. Yes!

Continue with that theme.

A lot of technique going on there,

Tom.

You know me.

His whole body is

moving. Will this be a folded one?

You are doing it the old way. That

was too fast. What?

That is

scrambled egg!

I think that amount

of butter may have been a mistake.

We shall see.

It will taste great.

Right, when you are ready, Olia. OK,

OK.

There is no shell in there, not

this time.

I am going in for second.

Oh, Michel. That is not going on, is

it? I was too relaxed. I'm so sorry.

Sorry, Olia. Look at that. Sorry,

guys. Sorry.

Comedy value?

OK, time

on the eggheads. 29.92.

Get in

there!

29.92. Sorry, Justin, you are

out and Tom is in.

That is not bad.

Yay, so, so bad.

50 something but

you know what, you are out. You are

in the bin. That is not good enough.

So will Meera get her food heaven,

prawns and quails' eggs

wrapped in spinach?

Or her food hell, artichokes

barigoule with snails and winkles?

We'll find out after Nigella Lawson

has showed us how

to make her magnificent

Italian Christmas pudding cake.

My Italian Christmas

pudding cake is THE sweet

centrepiece of my party table.

So I want to get started on it early

doors so I start the day

with a sense of accomplishment.

Not that I should be feeling smug,

cos this is incredibly easy.

On top of those two eggs,

I want 75 grams of caster sugar

and then leave it to whisk away.

I want it really aerated

and slightly pale in colour.

Now, the thing about Italians

at Christmas, I'm told,

there are two central puddings.

There's the panettone,

which is a thing of joy,

and also something called crema de

mascarpone, which, give or take,

is what I'm getting on with there.

I'm kind of conflating the two

traditions and adding

something of my own,

if that's not too impertinent.

That is a wonderful amount

of sunny froth there.

I'm just going

to add the mascarpone.

I've got 500 grams of mascarpone...

..And I have 250ml of double cream.

There are a lot of people

coming to the party...

In my defence.

A bit of a stir.

But really I want to fold

all this in without losing

the bubbles from the egg yolks.

Gently.

And then I'm going to be patient

and let everything mix together,

till I have a wonderful,

voluptuous cream.

And now some Marsala.

Mmm...like liquid amber.

Quite a bit - 125 millilitres.

Pour it in as slowly as I can bear.

Just so that nothing splits and it

just blends in smoothly.

Right.

It's very odd how a dark drink can

make a mixture paler, but it has.

This is...

..some of my special cream,

which I need to top

the cake before serving it.

But for now, I'm going to crown

this mascarpone cream with some

of my absolute favourite things,

especially at this time of year.

Some marrons glaces -

that's candied chestnuts that

are dense and grainy and sweet

and really unlike anything else.

If you're lucky enough to find ones

that are already broken, buy them,

because they're cheaper.

Since you're crumbling them,

there's no point

having the whole ones.

Beautiful though they are.

These are my ultimate

Christmas treat.

That's what I always

want to find in my stocking.

Some pistachios - very Italian.

Got a lot here, but I want

a really wonderful, nubbly filling.

Going to keep some back

for the topping as well.

The tender green of those chopped

pistachios is so beautiful

that I'm loathe to cover them up.

Except I've got such a good thing

to cover them up with.

Teeny-weeny little chocolate chips.

They're so sweet.

They look like they've

escaped from Toy Town.

And I want about 125g.

Any chopped chocolate will do,

but these delight me.

In they go.

Going to keep these out of reach,

to be on the safe side.

And stir everything together.

It all looks a bit runny at this

stage, just like the topping did,

but you've got to remember that it

will all firm up in the fridge.

But I don't want it so stiff

that it doesn't cut voluptuously.

So this is how I go about my base.

The wonderful thing about panettone

is that it's strangely pliable.

You just squadge it in.

If you tear it,

you can fix it again.

And if you've got any gaps you need

to fill in, you just fill them.

My spirit of choice

to saturate these slices

is Tuaca, which, anyway...

I've always thought

is like panettone in liqueur form.

It's a strangely unfamiliar

Italian liqueur that

mixes citrus and vanilla.

But otherwise, any orange liqueur

would be very Christmassy.

All I'm going to do now is put

half this mixture in...

..spread to cover...

to smoothing.

And then another layer...

of panettone.

Another soaking with liqueur.

I just need to add the rest

of this mixture,

top it with a final layer

of liqueur-soaked panettone,

and then I can cling it

and fridge it and I'm happy.

Thanks, Nigella, looks

absolutely delicious.

Right, time to find out

whether Meera is getting

her food heaven or food hell.

So will Meera

get her food heaven,

prawns and quails

eggs wrapped in spinach?

Or food hell, artichokes

barigoule with snails and winkles?

These lovely snails! Cooked as a

barigoule. I can reveal that 57% of

the voters, that is a good vote,

heaven! So let's get rid of hell, we

will crack on with heaven.

First of all, we have got these

prawns, can you dice up the spinach

and butternut squash, and these

prawns are raw, I'm just checking

that they have been deveined.

Large

spinach leaves?

None of that tiny

little small leaf spinach. Just

checking they are nice and clean,

which they are. So you love prawns

and pine nuts, this is food heaven?

Totally, I am very excited, glad I

don't have to do the dethreading.

It

is, but these are very clean prawns.

So do you have to work at Christmas

in the show?

I do, the only day off

is Christmas Day, we do shows on

Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day, but

it is the kind of show that everyone

wants to see.

And the audience is

largely children?

Very much now we

are getting into the holiday season,

yes, lots of grandparents with their

grandkids.

And it is the Piccadilly?

Yes, right next to Piccadilly

Circus, a really Christmassy,

festive, feel-good show, so we will

be busy!

Are not a day off for

Christmas, you are cooking?

Well, I

have got my entire family coming