15/12/2012 Saturday Kitchen

Good morning. We've got a knockout line-up of guests for you in

Welcome to the show. We've got two heavy-weights of the culinary world

cooking live with me in the studio today. First, the man whose passion

and knowledge of great Italian food is the cornerstone of Jamie

Oliver's restaurant empire, the brilliant Gennaro Contaldo. Next

with me is the king of seafood himself. We enjoy his adventures

every week on Saturday Kitchen so not only is it a special treat but

an honour to have him cooking live with us. Good morning to you both.

Rick Stein. What are you cooking? dish that is so beautiful and tasty

for this time of year. It sounds better in Italian. You're not

cooking fish today, Rick? No. I am looking forward to cooking Spanish

croquettes with Emily and the Woods. I love them, especially at parties.

These are not potato-based croquettes but sauce-based. Yes, a

rue. And tinned tuna I can't believe we have on the menu. It's a

classic Spanish salad. It works, trust me. You'll see what I mean.

will. Two recipes to look forward to and we have some fantastic

foodie films from the BBC archives. We have Rachel Koo, Lorraine

Pascale, Raymond Blanc and Mr Rick Stein. Who can forget her

incredible performance in August when she became the first woman

ever to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing? Please welcome to

Saturday Kitchen one of the stars of Team Yorkshire - sorry, Team GB

- Nicola Adams. Congratulations. Congratulations is twofold - not

only did you have an amazing year, but hopefully tomorrow night, it

may just put the final bit of icing for you. You're a finalist. How do

you feel about that? It's fantastic. I can't believe I am one of the 12

that has been nominated in such a great year of sport. It's

absolutely amazing. Any other year you would have been an instant

shoo-in to work, but it's an amazing success not only for you

but the whole team this year. Everyone has done so well in home

games and - you couldn't have asked for more from the home athletes.

We've all done so well. I know you're back in training in January.

You're here to eat as much as you possibly can. Definitely. Sounds

good to me. At the end of today's programme I'll cook either food

heaven or hell for Nicola, something based on your food heaven

ingredient or hell. We'll ask the audience and the chefs over there

to decide. Food heaven - what could it be? After all the training you

have done, what would you like to eat? Strawberry and cream gateau,

all the good stuff. Strawberry gateux what about the food hell?

It's got to be peas. Is that from your childhood? Yeah, I was always

picking the peas out when I was little and didn't want to eat them.

I have a show-stopping dessert alternative to the Christmas cake.

You mentioned the strawberry GATTdo, but look at this one. Believe it or

not, there's loads of strawberries and cream.

How does that sound? Yeah. Nicola could be facing food hell, peas -

something for the cold winter weather, pea and ham hock soup.

You'll have to wait until the end of the show to see which one she

gets. If you would like to ask a question, call 033 0123 1410.

That's 033 0123 1410. A few of you will get to put your questions to

us live. If I get to speak to you I'll ask you whether she should

face food heaven or hell. It's an easy one today, isn't it? Yeah,

fingers crossed. If you think boxing is tough, you should try

cooking with this man - it's the Italian Stallion himself, Gennaro

Contaldo. Happy Christmas to you. Happy Christmas. It's good. What

are we doing today? Pork and beans? Spareribs and cannellini beans -

such a fantastic dish, especially for this time of the year. This

dish was made with pig nose originally, tails and ears.

nose, tails and ears. The ribs are fantastic. Chop the onions. First

you have to season your spareribs. Yeah. Can I interrupt already? Do

you mind? You can. We don't eat a lot of pigs' noises and tails in

this country. Tell me more about it. Well, I'll tell you more about -

you're right. You can do this dish with lots and lots of fantastic

pieces of pork, but if you do not like pork, you can actually do a

separate thing with beef. If you don't like beef, you can do poultry.

No, I like pork. I like everything but the squeal - not my joke.

are you with Italian food, Nicola? Are you a big fan of Italian food?

Yeah, I love Italian food - pizza, spaghetti bolognese. You started

off with the ribs, then. Then I put olive oil, then you've got sage.

Remember, the sage - you fry the surge first, not you put them

together because I want to put in the oil - flavour with some sage,

rosemary and bay leaves. Fantastico. Sorry. You don't mind me

interrupting? No, you can. It's a fine thing if you can get a word in

edge-wise. I am trying to. I know if I don't he will. It's

interesting, frying aromatic herbs in the oil is a very Italian thing.

You want to get that aromatic flavour - easy, then put in your

spareribs. Wash your hands... Inside to seal a little bit. Let me

wash my hands because Chef Martun is always on at me because I keep

forgetting. He's right. Your restaurant empire is ever growing.

I believe Russia is next for you? Yes, Russia. The next one is Russia.

I can't wait to go to Russia. I wanted to go because I wanted also

to do those fantastic Russian dances - let me show you. You stand

in the corner like that - ready? Don't want to be doing it like that.

Is that it? Yeah, that's all. Then you seal the ribs properly.

Apart from Russia, is it Singapore you're in as well? I'm not sure

about Singapore. He can't remember that. I can't remember if it's

Singapore, but we opened one more restaurant in England - actually,

next year we open four more Italian restaurants and affordable to

everyone, and the food is unbelievable. Can I have onions

please? Onions. Thank you very much. You're not colouring them too much.

That's the key? Well, you have to seal it properly, but with you, I

can never colour it properly. Onions - I sweat the onions. Do you

know sweating - what it means? Sweating - when you're joking...

Joking? Yes, jogging. Exercise, and you sweat - you don't get so much

colour, but when you go on holiday and stand under the sun for two

hours, you become like a pepperoni. That is the difference. OK. Once

you sweat the onions a little bit, get a nice passata, make sure...

Where does this dish originate from in Italy? This dish is originally

from my hometown on the Amalfi coast where they have to use all

the left-over pieces of meat to make more attractive and tasty, and

cook it for a long, long, long, long time. Aren't you related to

the people that have that shoe shop in Pasitano. Every time I go in

there, they say, "Do you know Gennaro?" Are they family? Yes.

Then you have some water inside because the passata - it is quite

dense, so you need to have some fluids. Can you make your own with

that, or would that just be a puree of tomatoes? That is - no, you can

make your own passata. You can buy tins of tomato, and you sieve. You

make the passata. Now, this is - I season it a little bit more, just

the tomato. You let it cook slowly, slowly, slowly for about one hour,

one hour and a quarter because here they're quite big, the spareribs.

You want most of the meat to come off the bone. Would this be on the

hob then or is this in the oven? You can put them in the oven. You

have to cover those in the oven because if it dries up too much, it

will - after this is done, after about one hour-and-a-half, this is

what you get, one hour and a quarter, this is roughly what you

get. You got cannellini beans, which you soaked in water overnight

to make sure there is plenty of water. You put them over boiling

water, and you slowly, slowly, slowly for about 45 minutes - after

45 might be, you remove it, and this is what you get. Do you salt

them? Right at the end. Don't put any in at the beginning. At the end.

Do you want me to chargrill the bread?

While he's doing that, if you want to put any questions to our chefs,

you can call 033 0123 1410. That's 033 0123 1410. Calls are charged at

your standard network rate, and a few of you will get a chance to put

your questions to us live later. The secret is, you're not doing

your beans in salt? It toughens it up? Yes, salt at the beginning. It

toughs it up. What do you think of tinned beans? Tins - pins, pins...

Tins. No, they're good. I don't like them, really. It's just I am

using tinned in my asparagus recipe. They're instant. That's more

convenient for everybody. These take a long time to cook. Once you

soak them for 24 hours... If you find a proper tin, why not use it?

Yeah. You cook them about five minutes. Don't burn yourself like

last time - I had to run to the hospital with you!

LAUGHTER Then you start your dishes. There's

one - you burnt yourself already. haven't. You sure? Yeah. He's like

a baby. So when is the chilli going in there? Any minute. The chilli

will go straight away. And it goes - have you done it? Have you

wrapped the garlic on top? There's one. You forgot to wrap the garlic

on top. I told you well in advance! Is the chilli going to be cooked as

well? No. You want to taste the chilli. You want to get the lovely

flavour of the chilli - the chilli, just a little touch, a little

parsley - fantastic, parsley, spread it on top, and last but not

least - look at that. You burn almost everything. You drizzle some

nice beautiful extra virgin olive oil, and this is spareribs with

cannellini beans. We did it. Looks good.

It does look good, doesn't it, really? I don't know how we got

there, to be honest, but it looks good. Looks very good. Go on, dive

in. Tell us what you think. Very beefy for this time of the year. I

believe - you tell me if you like it. I'd love to. After you. Greedy!

New Year's Day morning, get it cooking, lovely. Why not? Yes, well

in advance. I think that - great with pork, I think - to cook pork

and to give it some colour... Absolutely. This is good. Happy

with that if you got it in a restaurant? Yeah. Before your

training, one plate of this - it make you go very quick. Yeah.

sent Susie Barrie to Surrey this week to choose what to go with

Market in Kingston. Although it's tempting to buy lots of presents,

I've got work to do, so let's go comfort food. Although I could

choose a bottle from virtually everywhere in the world for a wine

recipe like this I am going to choose local and choose an Italian

wine to complement this thoroughly Italian dish. If I was just

matching the cannellini beans, this Fiano would be a perfect match. But

those slow-cooked ribs are far better suited to a red wine, a wine

of some richness to balance the richness in the mouth, pork. For

this I have chosen a Valpolicella Ripasso from northern Italy, which

has all the fruity suck you'llence and body this recipe needs.

Valpolicella Ripasso is normally a fresh, cherry-scented red that's

light bodied and easy drinking. When you see the word "ripasso" on

the label, it means it's going to taste richer and more raisiny, so

it means it's ideal for this slow- cooked meat. That smells of black

cherries and herbs. It's a very Italian smell.

And like all Italian red wines this wine has great acidity to cut

through the richness of the meat and work with the tomato in the

cannellini beans stew. It also has intensity of fruit which will

balance the overall weight of the dish and offset the heat of the

chilli, then there are these herbal hints that are going to pick up on

the rosemary, sage, parsley and bay. Once again, you have treated us to

a fabulous plate of Italian food, and here's an utterly irresistible

wine to drink with it. Cheers. Cheers indeed. What do you think of

that? Bless Susie. I love it. Blackberries and herbs - a very

Italian smell. LAUGHTER

Less Old Spice, more musty spice, isn't it, really? What do you

think? This is really good, yeah. What do you think of the wine?

love it. It works. Yeah, the wine - I'm getting all Italian now. It's

rubbing off. I like the chilli in it, though. I am surprised because

there seems to be a lot of chilli in Italian dishes. Yes, a lot of

chilli especially at this time of the year. It is fantastic. Don't

forget, the region of Colombia is to do with chilli, chilli, chilli.

Chilli! Coming up, Rick has a recipe to share with us. Remind us

what it is? Croquettes. They're made with... What?

LAUGHTER Right, before we read the recipes

and figure out what he's cooking, we have some ideas from your

Spanish Christmas. Yes. He was actually trying to cook withot

another friend of Saturday Kitchen, Jose Pizarro, but you were hijacked.

Yes, by two TV crews, one was quite differential, but the other, she

wanted to be a superstar. You'll 'Our paths first crossed

unforgettable day near his hometown of Cappellis. He offered to cook me

freshly cooked fish at a nearby lake. It was all going so well, a

Our paths first crossed on a rather unforgettable day 'near his

hometown of Caceres. 'He offered to cook me some freshly caught tenca

fish at a nearby lake. 'It was all going so well - beautiful day,

'lunch cooked in Campy, lakeside location - 'that is, until the

local media turned up. 'They'd got wind of the fact that he was back

home from London 'AND with a chef friend from the BBC. 'Things began

to take on a totally different agenda.' Very nice to meet you. How

are you? I'm very well, thank you. It's very, very different to the

way we do things. It's really... Learn a thing from her, you know,

really punch above my weight, sort of thing. 'I never did get to eat

the lunch that Jose had promised to cook me, 'so instead, back in

London, he invited me to join him 'and cook for a festive get-

together at a friends house.' Tell me what to do, I can see some...

think you can help me with some garlic. I just peel the garlic, I

will do... Everything else. Help you, as well. Very traditional

recipe. Where does it come from? This one is from Scotland. You know

the... No, no, the dish! Oh, the dish. I remember this one with my

grandmother. Yeah. It's a slow... Slow roast. And it's marinated with

garlic, parsley, thyme, white wine, olive oil, salt and pepper. Simple,

then? Then you have time to enjoy it with your friends. It's

Christmas - it's time for enjoy. To me, you sort of epitomise a new

look about Spanish food, which is, you've got this real seriousness

about good produce, haven't you? need to give the love to the food,

you need to use... You've got to work with your fingers. Exactly.

You put all the passion and all the love in this lovely piece of lamb.

You put some water in. More wine. And some time. Marinate for to air

was. 'We got the lamb ready for roasting 'just in time for the

arrival of Jose's guests. 'It was time to begin the celebrations 'and

break open the bubbly, 'which for the Spanish, of course, means

Cava.' Feliz navidad! ALL: Feliz navidad! Lamb from Scotland. As we

learnt earlier on. 'The lamb went into a moderate oven to roast for

at least three hours. The slower the roast, the better the end

result. 'A perfect opportunity to hold an impromptu tasting 'of

another famous Spanish export - sherry. 'Bea, one of the guests,

led the way.' So what's this one? What's the first one we're having?

Fino. Do you cook with sherry? love cooking with sherry. You serve

it as well as a white wine. So in a white wine glass, chilled, as a

white wine. Next one is the amontillado. It's roughly 20-year-

old wine. So that's why it's darker? Yes. It is older and that's

the amazing thing about sherry. It's got all this complexity of

flavours and aromas. That is knockout. For me, oloroso, I treat

the same way as the red wine for cooking. Fino, manzanilla - white

wine. Oloroso - red wine. And it goes with the same sort of food. So

with stews and... The lamb that is in the oven. Absolutely. That is

going to taste like heaven, I think, both of them together. I know this

cos we actually do a recipe for vanilla ice-cream with it poured

over in the restaurant. That's a very popular way of doing it.

Christmas pudding in a glass. It certainly is. Move the glass for me.

That's nice. Time to carve. That is still very, very juicy. We do not

make gravy in Spain. I call it Feliz navidad! My God. The crew

would say, "Are we surprised by this?" 'I loved Jose's recipe for

roast lamb 'just like his mama used to make.' 'A perfect choice if

you're looking for a festive roast see how many medals he ends up at

the end of the show. With Christmas ten days away, for this week's

masterclass, I thought I would show you something that's great for the

period, brandy snaps. You can fill them full of cream. I thought this

was a recipe my grandma used to make at this time of year because

she'd buy golden syrup by the gallon. You would have brandy snaps

at Christmas. It's so easy to make. Brandy snaps? Yes.

(Speaks in Italian) No, it's not Italian. What's the

difference? It sounds so good. you say pork and beans - what was

the other dish? Pork and beans! Leave those two to argue over there.

Brandy snaps - what you start off ideally - you can put ginger in. I

have put a little bit of cinnamon in. You can mix and match the

plaivers. It's a hundred grams of butter, sugar, golden syrup and

flour. It can be flavoured with - we have a little bit of cinnamon in

there but you can use a little bit of ground ginger in there. You melt

the butter in this. I don't take it too far, and we pour the whole lot

into the bowl. Then I would flow in a hundred grams of flour. Mix this

together, and that is your brandy snap mix made. You can make this

now for Christmas. This actually looks quite easy to make. You just

sit there and... It's done. That's it. That's brandy snaps done. You

stick that in the frij. You end up with that mixture. You let it firm

up slightly, and you can basically lift these out and mould them into

little shapes. Ideally for this, you're looking for something that

will sort of expand in size about five times the size, but I am going

to do the classic brandy snaps filled with cream. But I am going

to flavour the cream with raspberries. The producers of the

show didn't want me to fill it with cream. They said it wasn't festive

enough. I am going to use chestnut puree. We bake these at 350

Fahrenheit, about 170 centigrade, gas mark 4, a. Bake those for seven

minutes, and you end up with these. These have obviously gone cold, but

while they're still warm you can shake them. You can always put

these back in the oven. We put these in for about a minute, then

we can shake them. I'll show you that in a minute. First,

congratulations. Thank you. What an amazing year. A fabulous year. I

bet you didn't think you were going to be doing that when did you

start? 12 Yeah, 12. My mum took me down to the gym. It was a mistake,

really. She couldn't get a babysitter for myself and my

brother, took me to a boxing class. That was it. I loved it. What was

it about it that you liked? Why love it for a girl, boxing? I think

it was just from watching some of the old fighters - my dad was a fan

of boxing. He'd have the reruns of Muhammad Ali and sugar ray Leonard.

I would see them in the Olympics. I'd be bouncing around in front of

the TV and get told to sit down. When the big fights were on, we'd

all get together. I got into the gym and thought, I really like

boxing. The big break came for you at the training camp when you were

training with the likes of other people. Wasn't that what spurred

you on? You were training with thes like of David Hay and others in the

same gym. Is that what spurred you on as a becomeser, training with

other people like that and watching other people? What spurs you on?

think, to be honest, I have such a big passion for boxing and being

able to get in the ring and entertain people and show how hard

you have been working over the years because you put a lot of time

and effort into boxing. There's so many different elements into

getting fit for it, then there is the technique and performing on if

- the day as well. You have to be confidence, you have to be focused

and fast. There is a hell of a lot more in it than people think.

such a short space of time - it's four two-minute rounds. Literally,

you have to perform in that short space of time, and literally you're

up against the people that you have been fighting for your whole career.

Yeah, when I boxed Corina in the final, she's an opponent that's

bought me in four finals already. It was all or nothing. If there was

any day I was going to beat her, it was then. I couldn't let her beat

me in my home country. That's not right. You came out firing on all

cylinders. It was incredible to watch. Round two, 50 seconds in,

was it a left... Yes, left-hander. On the deck!

LAUGHTER It was an incredible thing, but a

close thing for you because it didn't seem to be that you were

going to be doing the Olympics at all because in 2009... Yeah, I had

a really serious back injury, and of all things, it wasn't caused

through my sport. I had fallen down the stairs, so - and I went - I was

actually in a rush, really. I was going to a competition to box, and

I had fallen down the stairs, tripped over my bandages, went to

the competition and boxed and won - as you do! But you basically just

did this competition and thought I'll give it a go, and you won that.

Yeah. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later the pain started worse.

It wasn't getting any better. I went to the doctor's. I had a scan,

and I'd damaged the vertebrae in my back. From then it was complete

rest. I couldn't do any training. Don't worry about me. Carry on with

your story. This is normally my kitchen. Don't worry. Carry on.

Couldn't do any training. Yeah, that's... Don't worry, Nicola.

Carry on. I told you to carry on. Couldn't do any training. I was in

bed laid up for like three to four months. It was quite tough. Didn't

you ever worry you weren't going to be fit enough? Yeah, I did because

when I got back I went from doing 400 sit-ups a day to not being able

to lift my shoulders off the floor. 400 sit-ups? That's not good

enough! I can do more. Shall we test that? We'll test it after you

have eaten all these brandy snaps. Since then, you went to the Excel

and -- you're going to the Excel for the Sports Personality of the

Year. It's going to be good. It's going to be a bit change as well,

going in there knowing I'm not going to be boxing. What's next for

you as a female on the horizon, what's next for you? I have the

European Championships next October in Ireland. That'll be a good one,

and there's a few smaller tournaments in between, but that's

going to be the major one that I'm looking to win. That's the major

win? Yeah. Best of luck, and best of luck with tomorrow night because,

like I said, Sports Personality of the Year, it's just amazing to get

in the list, but up against some amazing athletes as well - it is an

amazing year for British athletes. Yeah. Just to be in the 12, that's

made my day. If anyone deserves it, you do. Dive into these because no

doubt you'll have a hang-over Monday morning, a good hangover

cure. Because the guys in here want to be more festive - are the

producers happy now? Happy now? Dive in. Nice one. Do you want a

raspberry one? I'll have one of these. Dive in with that. Cool.

Don't forget, if you are using a broom handle at home, make sure you

use a clean one. Works, doesn't it This is good. Don't eat too many.

You'll only be able to do 200 sit- ups. What will we make at Ted of

the show, heaven, strawberry and cream gateau, his lasters of sponge

with a mixture of strawberries, double stream, a homemade

strawberry jam decorated with a sprig of - or hell, peas and pea

and ham hock soup, Christmas ham, blitzed with a little bit of cream,

pea shoots on the top and creme fraiche. You'll have to wait until

the end of the show to see the final result. It's time for more

festive dishes from Lorraine Pascale. She's got something for

the vegetarians at Christmas, but first she's making mince pies with

growning with mince pies at this time of year, but I really like to

I'm going to use shop-bought puff pastry and mincemeat with a few

extras, and a special twist to make I'm going to spice up my shop-

bought mincemeat with some vanilla extract, orange zest, and a drop of

port. And sometimes life's just too short to make your own puff pastry.

These mince pies are really quite simple. Just roll out a square of

puff pastry, about 30 by 30 centimetres. I do like to be quite

exact so they all look the same. And I like to use a clean metal

ruler to do this. Just measure... ..across like that. Now, take the

square and then just cut... Sort of almost to the centre... All the way

around. Like that. And then take the mincemeat, which is smelling

beautiful. And put a blob in the centre. Not too much, about a

tablespoon. And then take one egg. An egg on puff pastry acts like a

sort of glue and it gives it a wonderful glaze as well. A quick

whisk. And then just brush all the way around...the edge. And then

take one corner. And fold it into the centre. And then... ..the next

and into the centre, so I'm taking, sort of, every other corner and

folding it. A bit of egg glue on top. Slide into the baking tray.

This recipe makes about nine mince pies. To finish, cut little stars

out of the leftover pastry and place on top of each one. Then bake

in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden

brown. OK, so these have been in the oven for about 20, 25 minutes.

And they're lovely and puffed up and golden brown. And smell really

good. All that's left now is to glaze them with some maple syrup.

Just give even more flavour. Just dab it on like that... While it's

still warm, it's going to soak into the pastry. A few more dabs. And

then dust them with a little bit of icing sugar. Just makes them look

nice and Christmassy. Really pretty. Perfect. So, in my family we have

vegetarians and every Christmas they get sick and tired of being

palmed off with just having the veg. So this year, I've made a pretty

tasty veggie pie. Here's the filling. And here's how I made it.

Carefully toast 600 grams of pecan, cashew and hazelnuts in the oven

for 10 to 15 minutes. Let them cool and blitz them in a food processor.

Gently fry four finely-sliced leeks in olive oil with rosemary, thyme

and three cloves of chopped garlic until soft. Add 250 grams of finely

chopped or blitzed chestnut mushrooms and five sage leaves

roughly chopped or torn. Cook for a further two minutes. Take off the

heat and leave to cool in a large bowl. Mix in the nuts, 150 grams of

gruyere cheese and three eggs, and combine and season. I'm making a

type of hot, watercrust pastry, the type you get in pork pies. I was

making it one day - cos you make it with plain flour - and I'd run out,

so I used half plain and half wholemeal, and it tasted amazing.

Put 125 grams of plain flour and 150 grams of wholemeal flour, plus

a pinch of salt and an egg in a bowl. Cover the egg with a little

bit of flour to protect it. I've melted 100ml of water and 80 grams

of butter. Put it over a low heat and then whack it up and get it

bubbling away and just as its bubbling, it's ready. Pour the

liquid over the flour and mix together really quickly until it

combines into a dough. Roll it out to about half a centimetre thick.

So I've got this tin. It's a seven- inch loose-bottomed tin and it's

deep. Put it into quarters. And then take the tin and just put the

corner in the centre of the tin like that and then let it sink...

..into the tin. I'm going to try and get it so it has nice straight

sides, so it gets right into the corners. And just trim it all the

way round. So I take my filling and just tip half of it in... Now, for

something a little bit festive and for a bit of colour, dried

cranberries. Just sprinkle them on. And then the rest of the topping.

OK. Right. Now I'm going to make the lid. I take my offcuts and just

roll-out a lid. Pop this down on it like that. Then cut around. You

just need one egg to stick the pastry lid on. A quick whisk. And

then just glaze the top so it acts like a glue. Then I get my pastry

lid, I pop it on top and I'm going to seal it or crimp so I take my

finger and pinch...it, ..all the way round like that. Neaten it up a

bit. Then a hole in the middle. Let any steam out, although there won't

be that much. Right, so that's that done. I'm going to pop this in the

oven at 200 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes and then ten minutes before

it's ready, I'm going to glaze the top to act like a glue and put on

some frozen cranberries. I know there's cranberries inside, but

those cranberries are sweet and the cranberries on top are quite sour.

So there's a wonderful layering of ideas next week on Lorraine's show.

Rachel Koo has escaped from her Little Paris, escaping the Paris

quarter to do a soup. It's the Italian Stallion versus the King of

Seafood doing the omelette challenge, with over 50 years of

culinary experience between them. You can see what happens live later

on. Of course, will Nicola be facing food hell, pea and ham hock

soup or heaven, strawberry and cream gateau? We'll find out at the

end of the show. We normally see our next chef cooking in beautiful

parts of the world in our foodie films, so it's something special

when we lure him into London. It's the great Rick Stein, of course -

not cooking fish. We mentioned that at the top. Absolutely. I thought

it would be nice to do some croquettes at this chilly time of

year. This is Spanish? It is. The main thing I love about this dish

is this imberico ham. It's from the black-footed pig? Yes. Aficionados

of this ham will say the really important thing about it is the

taste of the fat. It's quite fatty meat, but because it's cured, you

eat it in very thin slices. It's the fat I love, so I'm just going

to actually make these croquettes, put the ham - the fat in first of

all. Prosciutto? I knew you were going to say that, but don't take

this wrong - imberico ham is the best ham in the world. Oh! I think

it's the best ham in the world, this stuff. It really is. It's the

taste of acorns. They're Fed Exclusively on acorns the last few

months of their lives. No comment. This is a seasonal - it's actually

radicchio - not too much information, Gennaro. He knows

everything... Casto franco. What is nice - I wish we did more of them

in the UK, those lettuces - not lettuces truly. They have a

slightly bitter finish to them. You can grow the lettuces in the UK.

You can, but nobody seems to do them. I think it's to do with the

way they blanch them. It's quite technical. You have to go into a

darkened room with a bath and leave them there for weeks. I was going

to go into that but we haven't got time, it's so complicated. What are

you doing now? This is the basic panada for the croquettes. Like I

said earlier on, often you use mashed potato. But I particularly

like these because you get a much lighter finish with flour, butter

and milk. It's creamier inside. It's creamier. That's what I want.

The great thing about croquettes is when you bite into them, you get

this crisp... Is it easy to cook? They're very easy to cook, Nicola.

They really are. You just need a deep fryer. Everybody loves them.

Why I have chosen them at Christmas is for a drinks party - pick them

up, yum. They do melt in the mouth. They do. Tell us about the salad

because you have tinned tuna and asparagus. I know, but it is a

classic salad. All of those ingredients go together rather well.

I like tinned asparagus. It's that blanched asparagus they have in

Spain where, again, a bit like the casto Franko, they starve the

asparagus of light. They put them in dark polytunnels. You don't get

the greenness of the British asparagus, but - The tunena, good

stuff. It makes it easier for people to cook it. You can just get

the tuna from a tin. It's quite easy to do, isn't it? You don't

have to go fishing and catch your own tuna first. No, but tuna -

preserved tuna has always existed since the Roman times. So it is

good. It's got that flavour, that texture which you can't get in the

fresh - ALL SPEAK AT ONCE

Probably did. Thank you very much. It's not me. You said it. What he

says is a good point, preserving because of course tuna being an

oily fish, no preservation, doesn't keep. Unless you're going to have

it straight off the fish, chargrilled, undercooked, much

better to cook it in olive oil. You can keep it a bit like you do your

tomatoes in Italy, all winter. Exactly the same. You boil them,

dry them, put it inside the olive oil. It will last a year. That is

fantastic. Total opposite of where you have been recently. I have.

Before I talk about India, which I love to talk about, I am going to

put in some cooked chicken, and you kindly put in boiled eggs for me as

well. We're filming all over India at the moment in search of the

perfect curry. What we were sort of thinking - that's me and Dave, who

I always work with, is, do you get better currys in India? I can't

answer that question. You get really good restaurants -

I have been to India. You can. Don't go anymore! We have been out

there for two months. We're going back again.

But it is a sensational country. I wouldn't say it's always easy. If

you know the expression Delhi belly, I had plenty of that. But I love

the Indians. I love their sense of humour. Even when things are tough

in very difficult circumstances and you see a lot of poverty, they

still manage a smile. I think they're an inspiration to us all,

and I think the curries - I just love. Curry is our favourite food I

think. It is an amazing country, rich with so many different things.

It is, and, of course, their food is entirely different from one part

of India to the other. Now, then, that needs to go away, go into a

fridge for a few hours, and you've already got one. Thank you so much.

We basically chill this mixture down. We do. We chill it down, then

mould it up into little balls, then the little balls into - of course,

it's quite soft, isn't it? It's soft, but we have done a great job.

It will be all right. Put that into breadcrumbs. Where is Rick Stein

this Christmas? I am actually in Padstow, but I am going off to

Australia just after Christmas because my wife Sara lives in

Sydney. I have a house in Sydney and I have a restaurant over there

as well in New South Wales. So I've got the best of both worlds. To me,

these days, Christmas is a bit Padstow, a bit Sydney. A contrast.

Padstow, you still keep working down there, but you have built this

little development kitchen now. Yeah, with my son Jack. My God,

he's upstaging me on TV these days. He's doing camera tests and all

that sort of thing. In this Cornish Christmas, we were chopping up veg

together, and I am sort of going like this and he's going -

(Chops fast) You're a good teacher! It's true.

We need to get frying. Thank you very much for giving us a hand.

They're not the neatest croquettes as I would like. I tell you what's

really good about these is, like I was saying, that panada is very,

very light, so they will eat - as we say in the trade these days,

they'll eat very well. When it warms up, it will make them nice

and soft. That's the thing. You can actually hear when the inside is

melted. You can hear a slight change in the - because you can

hear chips frying, can't you? of course, at the end of today's -

well, all of today's recipes, including this one from Rick are on

the website, bbc.co.uk/saturdaykitchen. You can

explain what goes in there. Basically, I just love these salads

because you just put anything you want in. That's what I like about

them. It is a starter, a first course. It's not something you

would generally have as a main course, but I just love the way in

Spain - it's a bit like antepasta in Italy. You get these things -

you choose a selection of them. You get a salad. You have some imberico

ham maybe. You share them. In Spain, I do eat salad, and summer and

wintertime are really... Do you know Spain? Yeah. Do you know what

- when we were making the Spanish programme, I was just talking to an

Italian friend of mine who just said, yeah, but second-class

cuisine, really, talking about the Spanish, and I thought how typical

of the Italians, the only people that can cook fantastic food are

you lot. Hold on. I like Spain, and this fantastic country indeed - I

usually spend Christmas in Spain, and there's so much wonderful food

on display. Michelin food, actually. They do. Give us a second because

Football Focus is going to be on in a minute. Do you want to tell us

what this is? It's croquettes, imberico ham and chicken with a

Spanish salad. That's what it is. There you go. I have to stop him

because he'll carry on until the afternoon. This is when you get to

dive into this one. Good. These should be nice and soft in the

middle. If you try one and open these up, you can see - look at

that. That's how they should be. is. It's a way of sort of giving

you that - so you can pick them up in your hands and eat them. I can't

wait. I'm sorry. Good. A little bit fussy to make, but I think when you

coat them in breadcrumbs and put them in the fridge, they'll keep.

My new word today, "fantastico"! Right. Let's go back to Kingston

and see what Susie has chosen to go would work brilliantly as winter

party food. One option with this dish is to go for an

inexpensivecova which would give a nice celebratory feel to any

gathering, but with the salad side dish I am looking for a still wine,

something zesty that'll balance the creaminess of the croquettes and

complement the crisp salad, and here it is, the Marques de Riscal,

which is great for this lovely Spanish meal. Rueda Blanco is a bit

like Spain's answer to sauvignon blanc. It's rich and full of

vibrant flavours. That's really lemony and grassy. So what we have

here is a very versatile wine that's going to work with all the

different elements in Rick's dish. It's juicey and herbal, and that's

going to complement the salad, particularly the asparagus and the

spring onion, but there's also some lovely lemon fruit that'll pick up

on the tuna and offset the salty ham and the richness of those

croquettes. Rick, it's a lovely, sunny dish that with this wine is

going to brighten up everyone's chilly December Saturday.

It certainly is. We're all enjoying that one, another great, inspired

choice. It is. I thought she'd go with a vino sherry. But this is

really and fresh. A fantastic mix to go with this. I just love it!

It's fantastico. It's nice he left you one. What do you think of this?

It's good. Great, isn't it? Now Rachel is outside her Paris kitchen,

and she's taking a look around the I live in the neighbourhood of

Belleville. There are over 15,000 Asians living here and just over a

quarter of them are from the former French colony of Vietnam. The

French occupied Vietnam for over 100 years. And after the Vietnam

war, many emigrated here. In Paris, one of the outcomes is a vibrant

Vietnamese restaurant scene. This one has been serving fantastic food

for the past seven years. I am really excited, because the

restaurant owner, Irene, has agreed to show me how French ingredients

have infused with Vietnamese cuisine. Well, it smells amazing in

here. Thank you. What are we going to make? Banh mi. Vietnamese

sandwiches. Fresh bread, and it looks like a baguette. Is that the

influence from the French colony? Yes. They take the French baguette

and they fill it with... In their way, yes. The banh mi starts with

carrots pickled in white wine vinegar and sugar. And after, you

put the meat, chicken. And you put a lot of coriander.. Do you do a

little sauce on top? Yeah. OK. Some nuoc mam sauce? Nuoc mam is a

Vietnamese fish sauce. You want to try it? Yes, I'd love to try it.

All right. I love that sauce. I am loving this. Now I want to show

Irene how Asian flavours have influenced my cooking. I'm making

my Vietnamese version of the delicious French pistou soup. First,

fry some onions and garlic. The onions and the garlic has softened

up nicely. So I will start adding my other ingredients. Three bay

leaves and a couple sprigs of thyme. Four tablespoons of tomato paste.

Two chopped carrots. And then two chopped-up courgettes. Just going

to gently fry these until they are cooked, but still firm. I'm going

to add my green beans. Some water. About two litres. Add some pasta.

This is coquillettes pasta which is used especially for soup. And I'm

going to cook this until the pasta is done and the beans are al dente.

They're cooked. All right. For the pistou sauce, really easy. You need

one stalk of lemongrass, roughly chopped. Half a birds-eye chili. My

Vietnamese basil. This is also known as Thai basil. Shave off the

leaves. Go in there, leaves. A big bunch. All you need now is some

sunflower oil. Traditional pistou is a bit like the very popular

Italian pesto. It just doesn't have pine nuts or Parmesan in it. And

you're going to blend it up. The paste comes from Nice, which is

only 30 kilometres from Italy, hence the Italian influence on this

dish. My pistou looks perfect. And will sit on top of my soup. You can

use it like a pesto, but it also goes well with potatoes, lamb chops

and because it has no dairy, it's great for vegans. Pasta's almost

done. And now I'm going to put in the last bits - white beans, in

they go. And then I'm going to put the peas in. In they go. It's all

cooked. And now I'm going to serve it up to Irene. I hope she likes it.

Et voila! It's your soup, with my little Vietnamese twist. Smells

good and tasty. Bon appetit! You want to stir in your pistou a bit,

because if you eat it whole then it's a bit spicy. Mmm. It's good.

Do you like it? Delicious. Yes. It's funny, because it's a French

soup, but I can taste the lemongrass and the basil, which for

me, it's totally Asian... Vietnamese cooking. But it works so

well. In homage to my favourite the Vietnamese flavours, light and

spicy, perfect for hot summer days. Carrot salad, celeriac and apple

salad doesn't sound very exciting but actually, sometimes the

simplest ingredients can be the tastiest. Crudites - raw vegetables

like peppers, cucumbers and of course, this carrot salad, is a

menu staple in French bistros. It's all not all heavy sauces and stews.

Top and tail your carrots and slice them into matchsticks on a mandolin.

You can also make this salad with courgette or baby turnip. 'Put your

carrots to one side, then get on 'with the delicious vinaigrette.

This one starts with lemon.' Give it a little squash and a roll,

helps with the juices. I'm using sunflower oil. What you're looking

for is an oil which doesn't taste of anything. Five tablespoons. Yes!

You want it to have a little zing to it. Pour it all over, mix it in.

Quality control! Finishing touch is a bit of parsley. You want to

finely chop the parsley. Sprinkle it over, give it a mix around, et

voila! There's your carrot salad. All right, ready to go on salad two.

I've got the ugliest vegetable ever - celeriac. Yes, it doesn't look

that great, but I'm going to do a bit of a vegetable makeover and

make it into a fantastic tasting dish. Begin by chopping off the

rough skin. I'm going to chop this up into more manageable pieces.

'Celeriac also has a much milder flavour than celery.' OK. Now,

let's make the vinaigrette. You need some lovely grainy mustard.

I'm using a heaped teaspoon of moutarde de Meaux, whose seeds

haven't been fully ground but any wholegrain mustard will be fine.

Add five tablespoons of sunflower oil, white wine vinegar... Actually,

I think I had rose wine in this as well. It's kind of a bit pink. Two

tablespoons. Add a little sugar, a pinch of salt and black pepper.

Give it a good mix. Yum! Good! My salad. Mix in the dressing and grab

the final ingredient - an apple. Use one that's tart enough to

contrast with the mildness of the celeriac. The apple and celeriac

will discolour if you don't mix it with the dressing quickly. That's

the apple done. Whack it in your bowl, mix the ingredients and

that's your salad. Have a little taste. Tastes pretty good. Simple,

healthy and delicious. Serve as a side dish, with a sandwich or with

with your left-over turkey or ham. It's time to answer your food

questions. First on the show we have Caroline from Kent. Hello?

Hello. Good morning. What's your question for us? My question is I

have something I have never used and I would like to over Christmas.

Can your chefs give me a recipe for it? Cataplana. Yes, it's a round

dish with two handles. Basically, I haven't got as rebuy, I'm going to

make one up. I'm sure it will be just about right, olive oil in the

pan. Use some pork fillet. It's got to be tender because quite a lot of

times when I have had this dish, it's tough, a bit of garlic, that

pork in the pan thinly sliced, cook very quickly, then just take clams,

Vongolet. A little bit of dry sherry. That would be nice. If

you've got a bit of imberico ham, throw that in too, parsley, maybe a

bit of chilli, black pepper, no salt, lid on, shake, shake, shake,

lid off, clams all open, let it reduce down a bit, serve in the

canaplana. I love it. That is available in the supermarkets. I

have seen it. What would you like to see? Food heaven or hell? Heaven.

Maria, hi, there. What's your question for us? I would like to

know the best Italian recipe for turkey at Christmas, please. Marie

is 13 years old. It's so easy. We don't usually roast the turkey. We

do a pot roast, so a small turkey if you want to do altogether,

celery, carrots, onions. You don't seal the turkey first. You put it

inside this roasted dish, put seasoning on the turkey, the turkey

on top, a little bit of water and wine, you cover, put it in the oven.

It depends how big it is. If the turkey is one-and-a-half kilos,

will take about - how long? hour-and-a-half. An hour-and-a-

half! The idea of pot roasting is to cook it in a little bit of

liquid, stops it going dry. Put your veg in the bottom, a little

bit of white wine or stock, cover it. That's the key to it. Uncover

it 30 minutes before the end. Good luck. What dish would you like to

see at the end of the show? Definitely like to see heaven.

Yeah! Hello, Vic are you there? am. What's your question for us?

have been given some razor clams, razor fish. I think I've got about

50. Yeah. I would like to know how to prepare them and how to cook

them to make them really tender. It's got to be yours, hasn't it?

Actually, I think it's probably more Gennaro's because although I

do cook them all the time, I got the original recipe from Venice,

but basically, a bit like the recipe before, you just take a big

pan, put the clams in there, a little bit of olive oil this time,

a little bit of chilli, a little bit of lemon juice and just open

them up in their own juice. If you have big razor clams, they look a

bit unpleasant because it's long meat, so do slice them up. You must

serve them in the shells because the shells are very theatre, if you

know what I mean, but slice them up because people ain't going to put

them in their mouth. But the ones they have in Italy are tiny, like

that same thing... Same thing, garlic, chilli and wine, just cover

up, make sure then you shake them a bit, remove the lids. They're all

ready. Have some lovely bruchetta on the side, a squeeze of olive oil

and lemon oil. You know, getting them out of the beach, if you see a

little keyhole mark in the sand at low tide and you happen to have

some salt with you, pour it down, and they'll come burning up out of

the sand. I tried. It didn't work with me. Best of luck. What would

you like to see? Heaven or hell? What dish would you like to see?

Heaven, please. Three meals so far. Right. Let's get down to business.

The usual rules apply, a three-egg omelette cooked as fast as you can.

Nathan is on the top of the board. That's my chum from across the

water. A three-egg omelette cooked as fast as you can - three, two,

one, go. Come on, boys. They're quick at this, you see.

You thought the Olympics was a competition. This is - they're

focused! Look at the concentration on their faces.

I dropped it! Let's have a look - this one first. See, you managed to

create an omelette there. I did. dropped it at the last minute.

one, however... Let me see - I have done about seven - I have had three

- no, four disqualifications. James. Rick Stein, where do you

think you're going to be on our board? I think there's more than

80% omelette there. Yeah? You did it in 21 seconds, so you're fast,

but you ain't going on our board. You're going in good company - in

the bin. You think I'm eating that! Have you been practising? No.

were quick. Tell me. You had to beat 18.88 seconds. You did it in

18.16, which puts you back in the centre of our board.

APPLAUSE And knocks Cyrus out of the top ten.

Thank you! What did you do? It's quite straight forward, Rick. It's

only three eggs in a pan. If you're talk about making a real omelette -

At the owned of the show, should we have heaven, strawberry and cream

gateau or hell, pea and ham hock soup? Today, the great Frenchman is

focusing his powers on the humble apple. Rick, it starts with three

In the kitchen, something savoury is on the menu. When you think of

apples, you don't automatically think of fish. But, actually, often

apples can be used in savoury dishes. In his next dish, Raymond

pairs apples with lemon verbena to complement a salmon confit. Confit.

What is a confit? A confit is a very old technique from the South

of France. You cure the meat or the fish, OK, then you slow cook it, OK,

in a bath of goose fat, or in this case olive oil. First, cure the

fish by rubbing it with a mix of dill, sea salt, sugar, white pepper,

lemon zest and the herb lemon verbena. Can you clingfilm it and

put it in the fridge for 30 minutes? Tres bien. To complement

the fish, apples are marinated in lemon verbena oil. The flavour, the

aroma, it's like being into a... In Amalfi Coast into an orchard of

lemons. Liquidise fresh lemon verbena leaves with your best olive

oil. Voila. So now I'm going to warm it up, OK, and let the, the

herb infuse the olive oil. Once warm, leave to infuse for a minimum

Then pass the oil through a fine sieve. This apple is a Cox Orange

Pippin. That one goes extremely well into any savoury dish because

it's not over sweet. Place pieces of apple in a plastic bag. Add the

lemon verbena oil and leave to marinate overnight. Raymond takes

advantage of his kitchen, using a vacuum packer to speed up the

process. After half an hour in the fridge, the salmon is cured. You

can see the salt has made his magic work - drawn out some juices.

so in 30 minutes it's already much firmer. The curing processes

release juices and intensify the salmon's flavour. Rinse, then pat

the fish dry. Then cut into 150 gram portions. Heat olive oil and

lemon verbena in a bain marie to 43 degrees centigrade. Add the salmon

for 12 to 15 minutes, keeping the temperature constant throughout.

so the salmon is confit. It is warm and uncooked and raw. But the

texture is so different from raw salmon. Completely different. OK,

tres bien. To decorate the plate, use apple puree. Raymond is adding

dandelion and sorrel leaves. Spoon on creme fraiche and apple jelly.

bit of lemon juice for sharpness. Then, what do we need? Apple!

Apples! Adam, can you give me my apples, please? Here, Chef. You can

see all the oil is gone. The juice is out and all the oil is in the

apples. It's such an incredible flavour. Really so fantastic! You

can put them as you want to. Just like that, for example. To place

somewhere here. Finish with a few drops of verbena oil. I think

that's lovely just as it is. Bon appetit. Raymond's final dish is a

light and creamy apple souffle, cooked in a buttered baked apple.

To prepare the apples, scoop out the flesh of the fruit, brush the

insides with calvados butter and bake for nine minutes. Then cool

them in the fridge. All what we have left is to do a souffle.

the souffle, first make the base. OK, so it's very, very simple.

Vanilla, milk, eggs, and Simmer 170 millilitres of milk and a teaspoon

of vanilla essence in a pan on a gentle heat. You need two egg yolk.

In a bowl, separate two egg yolks. So keep your egg white for the

souffle later. You add 20 gram of sugar, no more. You cream it. Dd 30

grams of plain flour. Pour the heated milk and vanilla slowly into

the bowl while whisking to prevent lumps. Voila. At the moment, it's

very thin. It needs to be thickened up with heat. Then pour the mix

back into the pan and return to the hob. Voila. It's thickened, it's

smooth, it's shiny, you know it's cooked. Raymond adds calvados for

extra flavour. When the pastry cream has thickened, remove it from

the direct heat and put it in a pan of warm water. It's very important

for all souffle to have the pastry cream warm, because that does help

to give an extra lift. Equally, to mix egg white to a cold pastry

cream, good luck to you. It's very hard. Next, whisk five egg whites

in a bowl, add a squeeze of lemon juice, then slowly add 55 grams of

caster sugar, whisking all the time. We're just laughing about... Adam?

Adam? Adam, can you do it a little quicker? I'm exhausted. I'm

knackered. Absolutely knackered. I don't know why, but... More. Voila.

OK, tres bien. Yeah, yeah. That's perfect. In a separate bowl, whisk

a third of the egg whites into the pastry cream. Gently fold in the

rest of the egg whites. Apples, please! Could I have them, please?

They cooled? Yeah. Remove the cooled apples from the fridge and

spoon in the souffle mix, shaping the tops so they're round. A bit of

icing sugar just to create a lovely crust on the top. Then place each

souffle in the oven on a square of greaseproof paper to stop them

sticking. Those will take about seven minutes.

The sabayon has arrived! The apple souffle can be eaten on

its own, but Raymond serves it on a layer of sabayon with caramelised

apples, and adds a sorbet topped There's three main components of

food which are crucial - the ingredients, the creativity and the

people I share it with. Then food gets exciting. Taste it.

out whether Nicola will be facing food heaven or hell. Your food

heaven, of course, would be this Pyle of strawberries, not only that

but a Pyle of meringue and gateux or a pot of peas. Rick Stein wanted

a pot of peas. It's nice. If you want to hit anybody, you

know which one to go for. We're going to do our cake first. I am

going to get the jam on first, a very quick jam. We take some water

and use some of this jam sugar which is high in pectin which is

used to set. If we can chop those up, that would be great. These? OK.

To set our jam. We're going to put a little bit of lemon in there.

Then we're going to throw in our strawberries, just a small amount,

you see. Yeah, just a little bit. We bring it to the boil quickly for

15 minutes and end up with a jam - more like a compote. Now with our

cake, we're going to use softened butter for this. You won't be

allowed this when you were training, would you? No, definitely not that

amount as well. If you want to throw the sugar in as well...

Throw that in there as well. Now, winning the Olympic gold medal has

given you a chance to help the younger generation as well. Tell us

what you're doing with that. Yeah, I am working with a charity which

helps girls from disadvantaged areas get into sport area,

specially from the ages of 16-24. They tend to lose a lot of girls

between that age range, and the same is to get them back into sport

and involved. And you'll be all the inspiration they need I suppose.

Not only that but this new show you're doing, Superstars, that must

be incredible, isn't it? Oh, it was fantastic. I was watching the old

YouTube video clips of Brian Jackson - he's doing the dips, and

we're like, Whoa! That guy can dip. He's a dipping machine. He's a

dipping machine. That show literally has been around for - I

don't know - over 40 years I suppose. Yeah. Sir Jackie Stuart

has done it as well, all of those sort of people. It's going to be

definitely one to watch. It's going to be on Boxing Day. There are some

good contestants in there. Icing sugar in? Yeah, a little bit. There

you go. Now, you're competing against seven other girls, and the

guys are doing their own thing as well. Who are you competing

against? Christine ohorug gu, Catherine Granger. I am up against

a fierce group of women. In the past, in the boxing, done really

well. Yeah, quite well. I think it's because it's all around

fitness, boxing. You do a bit of everything, boxing, running,

swimming. It's one of those things where you do every other sport to

do your sport. Exactly. We have thes me going on here. This is the

strawberries and cream whipped up by Gennaro. I have made a sponge

mixture here which you can pop into one of your cake tins. How are you

doing, Gennaro? I am all right. Don't get too close to him.

Right. We've got our cake tin here, and these have been pre-lined. And

you can spread these out in a nice and even - you spread all of these

out, bake them in the oven once you spread them out, and we end up with

these cakes we've got in here. Now we can start to assemble... This is

the good part. When does training start? When are you not allowed to

eat this sort of food? January. That's when I'll be getting back to

full-time training, and all of this stuff will be gone. It's a huge

amount of calories you must be eating when you're doing stuff like

that. What do you eat? A lot of chicken, a lot of... Pasta? Yeah,

pasta. I love it! Fantastico! LAUGHTER

Right. We've got our cream here which has been whipped up with our

strawberries to assemble this, it's pretty straight forward. Let me get

my - what do you call it? Compote. My compote, you just pop this on

here like this. You can be as elaborate as you want with this one,

so we take our compote of strawberries, which is not really

like a jam. It is more like a compote. We spread those over the

top,ed a then -- and then we can pile the cream on. Yeah. There you

go. Pile it on the top over there like that. And then you get another

layer, and you see, we keep going, so you put more compote on, pile it

all over, and more cream, and... This is definitely a me-cake!

it? Yeah! What about as an alternative to Christmas pud on -

think so. This is what I wanted to do when I had the idea of. This I

don't like Christmas pudding. I don't know about you. I am not wild

about it. I am not a fan. I like Christmas pudding - Italian! There

you go. Why do you like it? I don't know. It has the lovely brandy

inside. The lovely fruit is inside, and the way - because it's steamed,

it's natural. You have to soak it for a long, long, long, long time

before you start to cook it. I love it. Can I do the "Here's one I made

earlier" bit? You can do. This is what you're going to eat. Because

in the back whee, I have got - this is meringue. I'll bring it earlier.

This is an Italian meringue. Everything is Italian! Swiss

meringue is better. So can you explain what Italian meringue is

over an ordinary British meringue? It's basically the way you

incorporate the sugar. That's the difference between all meringues -

you have Swiss meringue, boiled meringue, Italian meringue, cold

meringue. It's the consistency of the sugar and added in different

ways, and this one has been boiled with sugar... Sugar, not the

meringue - Sorry. The sugar has been boiled with water, and then

literally you just add it to the whipped egg whites. The Italians

are responsible for all French cuisine as well... Apparently so.

It is true. It is true. Do you get this rivalry with the Italian

boxers or not? I think you get that kind of rivalry with any boxers. I

can't believe how fast you've done that actually. Me too. Any thoughts

to turn professional or not? I'm staying amateur. I want to go

to Rio. You want to go to Rio? yeah. You'll get there. All we do

is blowtorch the top. Can I have a go? You can if you want. Just

blowtorch it. You can set it on fire, then it's a birthday cake -

ahh! Then while we're doing that over there, to go with this,

Susie's got a Bonterra Muscat. It's from Waitrose. It's priced...

do I do now around the other side? Keep going. 5.79. It's 2010 vintage.

Keep going right the way around. Keep going. More. More. More.

have to invest in one of these as well. Where has my holly gone? Have

you nicked it? Ah. So just finish it off. That's it. Get as close as

you want, but the secret is not to unscrew my cake stand. Otherwise,

it will tip all over the place. it's a bit like Christmas.

APPLAUSE There you go.

APPLAUSE I don't know where you're going to

start with this, but we'll cut a wedge, and you can dive in. Wow.

Munch away. Right. That's all for Saturday Kitchen today. Thanks to

our guests. Cheers to Susie Barrie for the wine choices. Remember, all