28/12/2013 Saturday Kitchen

Christmas may be over but the New Year is fast approaching.

We're celebrating early with 90 minutes of spectacular food.

This is Saturday Kitchen.

Welcome to the show. With me in the studio

are three chefs with three very different cooking styles.

First, an Irish woman with a passion for Italian food that she shares

with the visitors to her very own cookery school,

Ballyknocken in County Wicklow. It's Catherine Fulvio.

Next to her is the French maestro at the helm of his own Michelin-starred

bistro right here in London. It's the equally talented Eric Chavot.

And finally, next to him,

one of the most finest Indian chefs in the country.

It's the king of spice, Vivek Singh.

A big welcome to you all.

Catherine, looking splendid there. It is New Year.

Ladies first. What are you going to cook for us?

I am going to cook a lovely pork dish. It's a Sicilian dish.

I'm going to add a little Irish twist to it.

It's being served with a beautiful pomegranate and date salsa.

You've got risotto in there as well? Yeah, we're making little arancini

and we're going to serve them with the pork. It'll be delicious.

And that's filled with mozzarella as well? Mm. Sounds pretty good.

So, what are you going to follow that with then, Eric?

We're doing a beautiful little Salade Landaise.

Salade Landaise will be... It's a...

back from what we used to have for Christmas,

so it's all about that and just a little twist again.

I made it lighter and a nice little salad

so we're going to break it down. Tastes really good as well.

You're the last one. Follow that.

Right, I'm doing a version of raan, the grandest of all Indian dishes.

Does this beat everybody, then? This is it? Is this a competition?

No, it isn't a competition.

This will traditionally be done with a leg of lamb.

We'll be using a shoulder. So, it's a spiced, roasted, part-roast,

part-braised shoulder of lamb that we're going to serve

with some cumin and chilli roast potatoes.

So there you go, three great recipes to look forward to.

And we've got our line-up of fantastic foodie films

from the BBC archives.

There's recipes from Rick Stein, Nigel Slater,

plus new Saturday Kitchen recipes from Ken Hom, Ching-He Huang

and Raymond Blanc. Now, our special guest today will always be

remembered for playing the lovable rogue antique dealer

in the massively popular BBC TV series, Lovejoy.

He's since abandoned antiques for the frontiers of the Wild West

to star in the multi award winning American drama, Deadwood.

Please welcome to Saturday Kitchen, it's the brilliant Ian McShane.

Great to have you on the show, Ian. Nice to see you.

And I have to say, probably the busiest actor that I've ever

had the pleasure of speaking to. Not bad. You're pretty busy.

For somebody like yourself who says that acting's not in your blood...

Well, no. I mean, obviously I wasn't a very good footballer.

My dad was a soccer player and obviously that's your dream when

you're a kid but I found out pretty early I wasn't very good at that.

Cos your dad was... Yeah, Manchester United.

In the time when, what, '51, '52?

Just before the Babes, so I knew them all, yeah.

Ferguson's a good friend of mine now.

So, I did a play at school.

I mean, I didn't have any pretentions towards acting, either

but it seemed, you know,

better than being bad at football or going to jail.

Yeah, acting's been very, very good to me, as they say. It certainly has.

We're going to talk about your career to date as well

a little bit later as well.

But now, of course, at the end of today's programme I will actually

cook Food Heaven or Food Hell for Ian. It's going to be something

based on your favourite ingredient, Food Heaven,

or your nightmare ingredient - Food Hell.

That was a tough one, cos I don't really have a hell and I like food.

But fish with red wine sauce has never been a favourite.

Let's start with heaven, then. What would you like?

Oh, I think like, you know,

fish and chips, a really great fish and chips. Sounds good to me.

Sounds good to me.

That's because you've been in LA for quite a number of years.

Now, you can't get good fish and chips over there, surely?

No, no. They have very good Mexican food.

Well, I know you like sole as well, so I could be doing it with that.

Whatever you choose. And what about the dreaded Food Hell, then?

I've never understood the fish with the wine sauce.

Unless it's Sole Veronique, yes, but red wine,

that kind of thing, is odd.

And capers, I think I mentioned, didn't I? Not my favourite.

There you go, it's sole or cod.

For Food Heaven I'm going to draw on Ian's northern roots

for my inspiration to make some proper fish and chips.

First of all, the fish is filleted then covered with

a beer-infused batter, then deep-fried and served with a big

pile of chips and a home-made curry sauce, just like the chip shop.

Curry sauce? Curry sauce. I'm pushing the boat out today. You are indeed.

Or he could be facing Food Hell, of course, a classic for this one.

The fish is pan-fried,

served with a nut brown butter with a caper sauce along with

a simple red wine reduction,

and it's finished off with a few chargrilled leeks on the top.

That sounds good, too. I've got to big it up as well!

But you have to wait until the end of the show to find out

which one Ian is going to get.

On your travels, have you ever been to Ballyknocken? No, I haven't.

I've been to Dublin many times.

You need to go there cos there's a cookery school

and it's run by this lady over here.

It's the fabulous Catherine Fulvio.

Welcome back. Thank you very much.

Welcome back, exactly.

So, what are you going to make?

We're doing a king of Sicilian/Irish dish. OK.

And we're going to roast off some pork with the lovely

flavours of Sicily here and you're going to make some arancini for me.

They're those little rice balls. Arancini. Arancini. OK.

Cos they're like oranges.

That's how they get the title.

The flavour comes from a little bit of saffron rice, then, does it?

That's right. So you're just wetting the saffron

and you're going to pop it in the saucepan with the arborio rice.

And a bit more water goes in.

And the rice then needs to be cooked through and then cooled

so that we can shape it. OK, that's that one.

So we leave that and then just cooks gently now in there. Yeah.

And then these are sort of deep-fried? They are.

And they're actually street food in Sicily.

Street food? Yeah. So, like, I'm kind of taking a little twist.

I say the Sicilians might kill me for this one. Right.

But I'm actually serving it as part of the main course. OK.

Normally in Sicily -

we're just putting a little bit of mozzarella in them today -

but normally in Sicily you would have a little bit of ragu

with some peas inside or you would have some ham and mozzarella.

OK. So, you're putting a bit of grated Parmesan in there.

People are watching this going, "Why Italy for an Irish lady?"

Well, actually, my husband is from Palermo.

Good enough reason, then, isn't it, really? Yeah.

And everybody says, "Where did you meet? Was it really romantic?

"Were you in Venice on a gondola?"

Then I have to tell the awful truth -

we were in a pub in Dublin when we met.

But we go to Sicily a huge amount, obviously all my husband's

relatives are there,

and it's lovely to have the mix of Ireland with Sicily

and it's lovely to have the mix of Ireland with Sicily

because we're got such great ingredients in Ireland.

because we're got such great ingredients in Ireland.

And a lot of ingredients that you would use in Sicilian cooking

grow very, very well in Ireland anyway.

Now, Ian mentioned Dublin there.

You've been there a few times before. Oh, yeah.

Fantastic, fantastic part of the world.

Great ingredients, that's the key to Ireland, I think. Yes, it is.

Wonderful ingredients. Yeah.

We said, and I think I've said this to you before,

it's all about the grass.

You know, the animals are outside all the time.

For us, we get rain fairly frequently,

with a bit of mix of sunshine, and it just results in a really,

really nice atmosphere for food production.

I'm making these... I think I'm doing it right.

You've got mozzarella in the middle. Yeah.

I find if you get a bit of egg white on your hand

and then put a little bit of the rice through a measuring spoon,

then make a dip, get the mozzarella and then put another ladle on top.

But you probably... I haven't got a clue what you just said.

It's Irish... Did you follow that? Not at all.

I haven't got an absolute clue...

You told me to speak slowly. You told me to speak slowly.

Egg white in my hand? Yeah, egg white your hand, it does help.

Egg white in my hand, right.

A spoon... Oh, you've already taken that out, OK, so make a dip.

Right, I'll show you.

And then I'll get the meat on. Now, here we go.

OK, so you get your rice in your hand like this, OK?

Right, you make a little well like this.

You have some mozzarella there like that, you see?

And then another little bit of this on top

and it can slide off and it just sits on top like that.

Force it together, like so.

And then... Yeah, you did it.

Is that all right? I'll let you have that one.

Too much washing-up, Catherine, you see, that's the thing.

So, I'm just coating the pork in all these lovely flavours.

I have orange zest, chilli, garlic, and flat leaf parsley.

It's so typical in Sicily to have orange with pork because pork

is a New Year dish but oranges are in season at that time as well.

So, flour first, then egg white. Yes. And then the breadcrumbs. Yeah.

And then fry them.

Meanwhile, you've just chopped a little bit of chilli. I know!

It's what you call delegation, James. Is that what it is?

Yeah, that's what it is.

Now, let's just clean up a little bit

and then I'm going to make a little salsa as well.

So, tell us about the New Year, then, for you in Ireland.

This year... Anything new to look forward to next year?

Yes, yeah, we're expanding our cookery school,

so that's going to be great fun.

We're bringing on a lot more classes.

I'm working on the next cookbook, which is fantastic.

It hardly seems like the last cookbook was just done

when you start the next one. Your cook school,

is it residential as well?

Yes, people will come over and they'll stay with us.

So, it's all hands-on experience.

So it gives people a good chance to really...

really learn,

because I think when you're actually doing things yourself

that's how you learn most, isn't it? Yeah.

Right, so we've got a little bit of the chard in there.

You want some salt?

Thank you. Pepper? Yes, please.

You're making a little salsa there so what's in the salsa?

I'm going to put dates in there and I'm going to put some orange juice,

some lovely extra virgin olive oil...

flat leaf parsley and pomegranate.

Right, there's your little "street food" that we've got there.

I'm assuming they're all right, are they?

Yeah. Is that all right? Yeah.

Right, you want this just not frying, just literally...

Wilt it down, please. OK.

Like that as well. So, instead of dates, of course,

you could use... Figs would be really nice in this.

There's the orange juice just gone in.

We'll get a little bit of flat leaf parsley in.

Little bit of salt and pepper.

You don't always have to have a hot sauce with a pork dish

or a meat dish.

Something like a cold salsa can actually be really refreshing,

especially when there's so many other flavours going on.

Pomegranate - hardly Irish.

Oh, well, now. You wouldn't know what I grow in my back garden.

I had figs this year. I was very impressed.

Pomegranates, though? No, no. That's pushing it a lot.

There you go.

Is that enough? That's plenty, thank you, James. OK.

Lovely red colour on that now. Really, really nice.

So, dates, orange juice, little bit of oil you want in there?

Yeah, extra virgin olive oil in there. There you go.

Just a touch. That's lovely. Bit more? Yeah, yeah.

There we go. I'll bring the pork over cos this is ready. Perfect.

How long's this had in the oven? What temperature?

About 35/40 minutes depending on the level of doneness

and the size of the pork, obviously.

There you. Thank you very much, James. We'll get our plate out.

Are you happy with your arancini? Well, I think I've got it right.

I've never made it before but I'm pretty sure that's it, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. Really, really nice.

Let me get a knife out just to get the meat carved up.

The meat's been resting for a little while. We're going to do James'...

We'll put three little bits there. Three little bits. Yeah.

Kind of like there, there and there.

And by the way, if you're making those arancini, you should really

make a few of them cos they're so nice for snacks the next day.

Kids love them.

Cos it's like finger food as well.

Kind of centre that a little bit, kind of like that. Sorry.

Where's the other one? There.

That's it. There.

And then we get our little... Oh, one on each? One on each.

Thank you very much, James. That's lovely.

One on each one.

Very nice. And then we get our meat in-between, like so.

There we go.

Our last bit of meat at the end.

So is this a traditional dish or is that something...?

No, this is my twist on it

because normally you'd have your meat course and it really would just

be the meat, so this is definitely a kind of a blend of everything.

Yeah. And then you've got the salsa over the top as well? Salsa, yeah.

And, you know,

the salsa is kind of my version of all the ingredients

that are very popular, like dried fruits are very popular

to serve after your main course and after your fruit course.

Looks very festive with those pomegranates on it.

There we go, James.

I think we did all right. Happy with that? Very happy with it.

Tell us the name of the dish.

This here is your roast pork with lovely Sicilian mini arancini

and a gorgeous date and pomegranate salsa.

Looks really good. See what it tastes like, then, shall we?

Three gentlemen over here. Look at that.

I'll pop that in the middle and you get to dive into that one.

There's three balls and five of us. Three balls, one each. One each.

Have a dive into that. This is Irish fusion, is it?

It's definitely Irish fusion. The chard is Irish and the garlic.

Like you see, you can make those risottos easily in advance.

Great stuff over Christmas. They're absolutely lovely.

And you can put other flavours in there as well.

I was trying to stick with slightly traditional...

Those little arancini are just so practical.

He's not going to share.

No, he's not going to share, he's straight in there.

This is not a gentleman, look...

Any good? Any good? Mm. Very good.

Like cheese balls.

Right, we need some wine to go with this as Hogmanay is approaching.

We sent our wine expert, Olly Smith, across the border to Scotland

to pick the wines for the studio.

See what he's chosen to go with Catherine's perfect pork.

On the approach to New Year I've come here to Edinburgh,

the heart of Hogmanay.

High time we charged our glasses with a tipple.

With the citrus buzz of Catherine's prime pork, you might be tempted

to go for a luscious white, like this Eden Valley Viognier from Yalumba.

And it's delicious.

However, with the cheesy arancini balls in this dish, a light red is

the perfect choice to unite all the flavours in the dish in a single sip.

So I'm selecting Triade 2011 Rosso.

Pork o'clock.

This award-winning wine comes from Puglia,

still a fantastic place in Italy to hunt for wine bargains.

It's blended from three grapes - tangy Negramaro,

fruity Primitivo, and nimble Nero di Troia.

But when they come together it's like the three tenors singing in harmony.

Glorious!

With pork, you want to go for a wine like this that's light in body

but full on flavour,

otherwise you risk a clash with the uniquely soft texture of the meat.

And then, of course, there's the salsa, with that orangey tang

but fuelled with the richness of dates and pomegranate seeds.

Those summery flavours resonate with the red fruit flavours in this wine.

And finally, with those cheesy arancini balls,

you need a light-bodied red like this to keep up with the savoury richness.

Catherine, here's to your perky pork. Cheers!

Cheers indeed. What do you think? The guys are diving in there.

I know. I'm wondering if there's any coming over our direction at all.

What do you think of the wine to go with it?

It's really delicious, isn't it? Yeah. Very summery.

There's lots of flavours with your pomegranate and everything else.

Particularly with the date and the pomegranate coming together, it sort

of frames the dish really nicely, but also with the wine it really helps.

Eric?

It does work and I mean, again, like we mentioned earlier,

it's from islands in the south, all flavoured together.

In the middle of winter, and the beautiful bright colours as well.

It's lovely. A little bit of freshness.

Right, coming up, Eric has a stunning salad to share with us.

I've tasted it and it's pretty good.

So, what are you going to make? Salade Landaise.

Now let's meet another of Rick Stein's food heroes.

Like Olly, he's also gone to Scotland, but he's in a top-secret

location meeting a man with a passion for freshwater crayfish.

Enjoy this one.

I'm in Galloway.

Now, I can't tell you specifically where I am because I promised John,

the crayfish man I'm going to see, I'd keep the location secret.

Otherwise all and sundry would be swooping down

and snaffling all his lovely freshwater crayfish.

Mind out, doggie.

Is there any in there?

Poor, very poor.

Terrible. It's the water... There's a few in there.

They're vicious little devils.

And these are American? These are American crayfish.

So, what happened to all the local ones here?

These have taken over and they're just eating all the salmon

and sea trout. They're just eating all their eggs and everything.

They're stopping everything coming up. Really very brave here.

I know that David will want me to get nicked.

I just think they're very beautiful.

I mean, they're so like a langoustine.

And what's really nice is I haven't actually written a recipe

for crayfish, and generally what they're used for is just garnish.

Of course, there's the classic French dish, quenelles de brochet, which is

pike made with a sauce made with freshwater crayfish.

They do make a fantastic sauce.

The shells turn bright red when you cook them.

John was telling me that his wife cooks them and serves them up with

spaghetti and I couldn't think of a better way of doing them myself.

So I just took some of the crayfish and boiled them briefly -

about four minutes in salted water -

and lifted them out and drained them off.

They're very easy to get the meat out of -

pull the head away from the tail and then crack 'em.

The shells are quite brittle, so they pull apart very easily.

And you have one lovely succulent piece of meat.

I took a pan and just added some olive oil and a bit of garlic

and just let it sweat gently.

And then I added some chopped tomatoes,

which I'd taken the seeds out of to make them nice and dry.

And then a little splash of white wine.

I stirred that all together and that's it, the sauce.

Now, I'm just warming these crayfish tails through.

I certainly don't want to cook them any more cos they won't

taste as delicate then.

As you can, they're extremely attractive looking

and they've got a very good taste.

I find it remarkable that they're not more popular because our rivers

and lakes are teeming with them.

A little lick of cream now and a bit of salt and some pepper

and finally some torn basil.

Now, I like tearing it like this cos it keeps the flavour.

Just stir that in at the last minute so you don't lose any flavour

and then boil the pasta.

Now, why do they always say, "Boil pasta in so much water"?

Well, simple, really. You want the pasta to be clean-tasting.

If you use a small amount of water, it gets all floury

and the pasta looks a bit sort of greasy.

Finally, just toss the pasta and the sauce together and serve.

I hope John, - or, more importantly - John's wife, will approve of this.

Well, I've just arrived in Ludlow

and I think you'll agree it's a quintessential English town.

But more than that, it's very famous now for its great food shops

and its restaurants.

And this time my food hero is not a beef producer,

not a cheese producer, he's a cook.

Sean Hill.

Every time you talk to chefs now and say,

"Where do you think cooking's going in England?"

They say, "Back to basics. Back to classic English dishes."

What do you think about that? They never do.

It's in the nature of chefs to bugger around with food.

It's what you do.

Chefs cook when they're not hungry and so they're motivated by

craftsmanship rather than taste buds.

Greed? Absolutely.

Well, this is Sean Hill's lamb sweetbreads

with potato and olive cake.

And what I'm doing here is just peeling some of the membrane off

these sweetbreads, which have been soaking in water for about an hour.

I'm just going to poach them in a little water,

white wine vinegar and shallots.

Interestingly, I think

Sean originally wrote this dish for calf sweetbreads,

but, you know, this is really odd,

but you can't buy British calf sweetbread.

You can rear calves for veal but you can't buy British sweetbreads.

So anybody that rears veal calves has to throw the sweetbreads away.

And if you want to eat calf sweetbreads in this country,

you have to buy them from Holland.

Now, is that crazy or what?

Anyway, those are done now. Looking exceptionally plump and tasty.

I'm just going to leave these now to cool right down

to cold on this trivet.

And I've made some potato cakes - that's mashed potato

and green olives stuffed with anchovies and a little bit of egg

and I'm passing those through some flour, beaten egg,

and fluffy white breadcrumbs and then I'm going to shallow-fry them

in vegetable oil till they're light and golden brown

and drain them off on kitchen paper.

I sort of worry that offal like this is not passing down

to the next generation. I love sweetbreads and liver and everything

but I know my sons just don't have a lot of time for it. It's a real shame

because there's something quite special about sweetbreads.

I'm frying them here with just a little bit of olive oil till

they're light brown on both sides.

I take them out the pan and keep them warm while I make the sauce.

Now, I take about a quarter of a pint of good chicken stock

and add some finely chopped shallots and some of those little tiny capers.

They look much better in the sauce.

A good quantity of parsley, a couple of tablespoons.

I put that on the heat, bring it gently to the boil,

take it off, and add two or three tablespoons of mayonnaise.

Now, whisk that vigorously to blend it all together.

Then I push it back onto the heat and just bring it up.

I don't want to boil it cos it'll split but I want to thicken it

slightly, about the consistency of double cream.

The thing about Sean Hill, he's amiable and humorous,

but underneath there's a hidden depth.

And I think it's the deceptive simplicity of his food that

makes him such a great cook.

Thanks for that, Rick Stein, and don't go looking for Sean Hill

any more in Ludlow, he's not there.

His restaurant's moved to Abergavenny in north Wales.

Now, for today's masterclass I thought I'd show you how

to use something that's often overlooked at Christmas

and underused, really - panettone.

A lot of people have got this left over after Christmas.

I'm going to do a Baked Alaska - really quick

and simple with a little cherry compote.

The cherry compote's going to go on first, really, for this one.

These are tinned cherries.

You can get frozen cherries or you can use fresh cherries.

We use the mixture of jam, sugar and lemon.

All we do is we throw the cherries in with the sugar and we're making

a compote. So there's quite a lot of sugar in there.

Bring this to the boil, cook this for about five, six minutes

and we end up with this compote that we've got there.

I'm going to make a nice little meringue with some icing sugar,

some normal sugar and some egg whites.

Now, obviously wanting to be a career -

or not wanting to be a career as a footballer - going into acting,

I just want to put a little list together of all the people that

this gentleman has worked with and some of the films.

Battle Of Britain. How good was that? That was great. Robert Shaw.

They don't make them like that any more. No, they don't.

Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Richard Burton - The Villain.

I thought that was a fantastic film.

Yeah, we had a strange relationship.

Quite risque in the '70s as well, for something like that.

It was very funny. Richard, before we did one scene, he said,

"I'm very glad you're playing this part, Ian." I said, "Why?"

He said, "You remind me of Elizabeth." I said, "Thank you."

Sean Connery - Ransom. James Coburn. Ben Kingsley.

Obviously, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Johnny Depp.

The list goes on and on and on.

I mean, what a career for someone that people would recognise

in the UK as, obviously, an antiques dealer.

We were talking the other day.

I finished doing Hercules and Johnny Hurt and I... We started together

at drama school, shared a flat, did our first film together.

First player together.

So, there we are sitting there in a Hungarian restaurant saying,

"This is all right, John."

51 years later, we're still doing it, still getting paid,

still fooling everybody.

And tell us about Hercules, then,

because this is the big blockbuster for next year.

Yeah, big one.

19 weeks in Budapest.

This summer. Was fun.

The trouble is they just go on too long, those big gigs, you know?

Do you still find that, even after all these years of doing it?

Yeah, well, you can get a bit...

We always say with doing those kinds of jobs, they pay me to wait,

I do the acting for free, which is true.

Out of all the things you've ever done,

what's been your favourite role? Cos recently Deadwood to me...

Well, Deadwood,

that's why I'm here talking to you today cos they're showing it again.

It was a great part but it's not only that, it was a great,

great series to be part of.

Cos it's really about the beginnings of America,

it's about how America became what you see now.

I mean, it's based on a true story.

My character was a real guy who owned a brothel in town

and slowly the town becomes sophisticated, it gets law,

it gets order, and then political shape comes in,

it becomes a state and that's what the show is about.

What was that like getting a script like that for you?

Did you make it your own?

Was it something that developed between you and the writer?

The guy's a bit of a genius.

I mean, David Milch, who wrote it and created the show,

he'd already done NYPD Blue, which was his show.

So he's a real innovator in TV, you know? Yeah.

And this was his contribution to cable TV.

And it came at a perfect time. The Sopranos has just been on the air.

Which proved a huge success.

And, of course, being on cable, you can do what you want. Yeah.

I can't talk about a lot of the things here

because you'll just have to see it.

Cos it is an extraordinary show.

But we did some extraordinary stuff on it.

Very rarely does that kind of material come along

when you can actually...you look forward to going to work every day.

It was three years of the best... I mean, all the actors on it,

we had some pretty terrific actors on it. It's about the script,

it's everything, but the sets - fantastic.

It's always about the script in the beginning

and then it's about everybody steps up.

So everybody brought their A game every day.

But we were very lucky because when we were there,

we filmed on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch,

which was a studio and a ranch, so the writers were there,

the actors were there, the horses were there,

the costumes were there, the editors were there, so we could...

You didn't have a schedule every day

and every day the script wasn't completely written in stone.

Every day he'd come up, he'd go, "I wrote five more pages.

"We're going to do this today."

So it was like doing a workshop, film theatre.

So if anybody hasn't seen it, that's the CBS Action channel.

It starts in January.

Yeah. You can get all of it. What's next for you, then?

I mean, you've done so much.

Well, I got a movie coming out, a very funny one, on Valentine's Day -

Cuban Fury with Nick Frost.

And I'm off to do a movie with Keanu Reeves, so...

busy.

No offence, but I'm stuck here with Eric Chavot and Vivek Singh.

Right, we've made a little meringue here and this has got,

obviously, ice cream. We've got the compote of cherries

and then the idea being you use this panettone.

That's good because they always give you in Italian restaurants

that big cake at Christmas. Yeah, you never know what to do with it.

No, exactly. Well, yeah, normally it gets left till June,

but you can do a nice little Italian meringue where you can do this -

well, this isn't an Italian meringue - but you can make...

What's the difference between Italian meringue and French meringue?

You heat the sugar. That's it, yeah. There's one called a Swiss meringue,

where you actually put the sugar and the egg whites together in a bowl.

And warm it up over a bain-marie or a pan of hot water,

which you can do. Alternatively, this one's just a plain one.

This one's done with just normal sugar and icing sugar.

And all you do is just roll that around the top like that.

It's just nice and simple. You don't need to be too fancy with it.

And then, of course, you can pipe it over the top.

And with you using the icing sugar, it actually goes quite silky,

which is really nice. But you can do that.

And I've basically just put a little bit on there as well.

Just nice and simple.

Traditionally Baked Alaska would be baked in the oven.

However, you can use one of these.

Get yourself one of these for Christmas.

Comes free with a mask.

And then you just blowtorch the top.

I'm not really a welder.

Over the top, like that. Beautiful.

Nice and simple.

And then you've got this cherry compote, which sits on the side.

So, this year has been extremely busy for you.

Yeah, it was a long one. I was mostly on Hercules this year.

Do you get the time to relax this New Year, then?

Er, yeah, I'll be going back to LA to see my darling wife.

I have to spend Christmas with my grandkids here and my mum

and she's been with her mum in Detroit

so we get to get together back in Los Angeles.

Now, a lot of people don't know it

but you've been there about 35 years now? Yeah, on and off, yeah.

Even when you were doing Lovejoy?

Yeah, my wife's American and I like the heat, so it's nice.

Well, there's no hot chilli in this but you could do, I suppose,

if you wanted. A little chocolate sauce to go with it.

We've got cherries, ice cream and meringue. Oh, that looks fabulous.

And the rest of the panettone...get rid of it. There you go.

That looks fantastic.

You've just offended half of Italy there, James,

throwing the panettone away. Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have done that with somebody who likes

the Italian sort of thing. We're going to get letters.

Mm. Mmm. It's about 3,500 calories a portion but, hey. Who cares?

Happy with that? That's deli... That's delicious.

Good luck with everything.

Don't forget, if there's a skill,

dish or technique you would like me to demonstrate, then drop us

a line - we'll try to cover it over the coming shows.

All the contact details are on our website, go to...

Right, we'll be cooking for Ian at the end of the show.

He could be facing that Food Heaven, of course, sole.

The fish is dipped into a beer batter with some yeast

and then deep-fried and served with a big pile of chips

and a home-made curry sauce, sounds pretty good to me.

Or Ian could be facing Food Hell - cod.

The fish is pan-fried

and served with a nut brown butter with capers

and a simple red wine reduction

and it's finished off with a few chargrilled leeks over the top.

Right, it's time for some simple seasonal supper ideas

from Nigel Slater.

Today, he's stuffing mushrooms with Christmas Stilton, but first,

he's got a great idea of how to use left-over mincemeat.

Take a look at this.

As well as lots of little leftovers at Christmas,

there's also the things I buy too much of and mincemeat is one of them.

Very often, there's some left and it is lovely stuff.

But if I don't use it in those few days after Christmas,

it just sits there until next year.

So I'm going to use up my last couple of jars of mincemeat to make

some little hotcakes.

What I'm really making is a sort of quick cake mixture,

so I've got the sugar and the fat already in the mincemeat

and I'm just adding the eggs and a little bit of flour.

Nice big heaped tablespoons.

A bit of grated clementine peel really freshens the mixture up.

Just want the outside zest of the clementine.

Whisk up a couple of egg whites and fold into your mincemeat.

This is the sort of thing that's great for people who love mincemeat

but either don't like pastry or have actually had enough pastry by now.

Pop a bit of butter into a non-stick frying pan

and allow it to melt before spooning in your mix.

You know, you could do tiny, little ones and pass them round...

..with glasses of port or glasses of Madeira

and straightaway that smell of Christmas, instantly.

The mincemeat and the orange just whooshes up.

They're like ten-minute mince pies but lighter

and slightly fresher tasting.

So these need to be turned, and the only way to do it is firmly

and surely, without hesitation.

So I put the palette knife underneath and flip.

If you dither, you'll end up with a mess.

Ideally, they should be slightly cake-like

and a little bit moist inside and you know that that's the case when

you just push them with your finger and you can feel they spring back.

I'm having a dollop of brandy butter with these

but creme fraiche would be just as tasty.

Serve warm and they fall apart in your hands. It's the only way.

It just tastes of Christmas.

Try these for a sneaky post-Christmas treat

and you'll never look at mince pies in the same way again.

Like everyone, I indulge at Christmas.

Mince pies, bubbly, but my real weakness is cheese.

I'm a sucker for a slither of Cheshire

or a wedge of creamy Stilton.

Finding something for a special occasion means making

a bit of an effort, though.

So keep an eye out for someone who really knows what they're

talking about, like Chris, and they'll make sure you go home

with one that will change your cheese tastes for good.

A lot of people come in and say they want the strongest

cheese we've got and we'll be,

"Well, do you want the strongest or the nicest?" You wouldn't

go into a wine shop and say, "I want the strongest wine you've got."

That would be a really weird way to buy wine.

It's not about strength, it's about flavour.

So much can affect a cheese's flavour - its age,

the way it's produced and even the animal.

For every cheese on this counter,

I could take you to a field somewhere,

point to a herd of cows or goats and I could say,

"The milk in this cheese came from those animals there," and that,

for us, is a better guarantee of quality than almost anything else.

And there's a knack to storing cheese, too.

Cheese doesn't really have to be kept in the fridge.

It predates refrigeration. We started making cheese because we

didn't have fridges in which to keep milk, so it's like pickling milk.

So if you've got a shed or a garage or a larder, keep it in a box

in there and it'll be much happier than it would be in the fridge.

Cos that's when it tastes the best, when it's happy.

That sounds a bit weird, but it's true.

One of the things I love to do with a bit of leftover blue cheese, and

it can be any sort of blue cheese, I have to use them with mushrooms.

So I'm going to stuff some big Portobello mushrooms with

the last bits of the Stilton.

A really simple supper that just melts in your mouth.

But this is one of those really quick dishes.

It's something that I do in those days after Christmas

when I don't want to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen.

I like to cook mushrooms in a little butter as well as a good

splash of water.

And what happens is because mushrooms are so spongy,

they soak up the butter, which flavours them,

but they don't get greasy because of the water.

Today, I'm chucking in some thyme but any kind of woody herb will work.

But they're those robust herbs that just seem right with

the earthiness of mushrooms.

And a little bit of pepper.

OK.

From those juices in the pan, from the butter and the mushrooms

and the herbs, they have a wonderful smell - it's really sort of rich

and earthy. And I'll just soak the mushrooms in it.

I'm just going to crumble a little bit of cheese onto those.

Cos there's a really deep flavour and also it's quite rich -

you really don't need a great deal for the flavour to come through.

And then this is quite a soft texture - you've got the soft

mushrooms, all very velvety and silky,

and then you've got the cheese which melts and becomes quite creamy

and I want a contrast there, I want something a little bit crisp.

There's something about walnuts that works so perfectly with Stilton.

Turn the heat up and what happens,

all the juices are going to concentrate as they bubble away

and I'll end up...with something that is the very essence of mushroom

and Stilton.

I'm really happy to eat these as a light lunch or maybe even supper.

But they also make a very, very nice meal with some rice on the side

or even as an accompaniment to steak.

The juices, which you really don't want to forget,

from the bottom of the pan.

It's very rich and it's a mixture of very soft, velvety textures

and also the crunchiness of the nuts.

And it still smells just like Christmas.

Use the biggest,

freshest mushrooms you can to absorb all the delicious juices.

Great stuff, Nigel.

Still to come this morning on Saturday Kitchen, Ken Hom

and Ching-He Huang are exploring China.

Ching is staying with a family up in the mountains, cooking pork

and mushrooms, whilst Ken is in the heart of Beijing,

wok-frying chicken wings with Chinese cabbage.

Raymond Blanc has a spectacular cake to show us.

Following a trip to Paris, he's inspired to create

an incredible-looking chocolate macaron cake.

Great stuff. And will Ian be facing Food Heaven,

that battered fillet of lemon sole with chips and curry sauce,

or Food Hell, cod in a caper butter sauce with chargrilled leeks?

Of course, it's not up to our chefs today. Instead we're letting

fate decide and I'll explain exactly how later on in the show.

Right, cooking next is one of the most uniquely talented

chefs in the country.

He wrote that bit.

His very personal style of classic French brasserie food has

already won him a shiny Michelin star.

It's the multi-talented Eric Chavot.

So, what's on the menu today, then, cos this salad is fantastic?

Well, you had the salad, you came and test-ran it for me

to make sure and we re-worked it. What's it called?

It's called Salade Landaise. And there's a lot going on.

There's a lot going on.

I'm going to start off and do the remoulade, so what are you doing?

I'm starting on the spicy pecan. The spicy pecan nuts.

As you know, I just came back from Florida where

I spent a lot of time playing with salads. You know,

the Americans love their salads, they absolutely...

And we did all the classics from the Waldorf to the blue cheese

to the chop-and-toss, as they call it down there,

and I came back with about 15, 20 beautiful new dressings.

I left with just French dressing and came back with blue cheese,

ranch dressing.

Yeah.

So this is fantastic, though,

so what are we doing here with the pecan nuts?

With the pecan, you make a very quick toffee caramel,

just butter and brown sugar.

So, again, why brown sugar?

Because, again, it's reminiscent

because of the spiciness of the sugar, it is like liquorice.

We are on Christmas now, so you want that Christmas feel.

Now, as well as the pecan nuts that are going in here,

this is the remoulade. Do you want it quite chunky as well?

We want it quite chunky, just to cut down the fattiness.

The freshness of the remoulade

and also the fattiness of the lovely duck.

And then what am I going to dress it with? This one?

You're going to dress it with a little blue cheese dressing.

So, what's in this spice, then? This spice is...

Well, we call it five spice, so we've got star anise, cinnamon,

black peppercorn, cumin seed, and toss them in a nice,

little caramel pot, although it should be very quickly.

You should have a couple of eggs somewhere for the egg whites.

There you go. Thank you very much. Quickly beaten, just give me that.

Two egg whites. We're just going to fold that.

So we're just going to coat and just whack it into the oven.

Two egg whites. Thank you very much.

Now this dish is based in your restaurant at the moment.

Tell us about your restaurant. You've now got your own.

Yes, we left a beautiful small little home to go

to a beautiful 60-70-seat restaurant.

We turn out 150 covers a day now. Yeah.

So then you roast these in the oven? Yep.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes. I'll let you put those in.

You've got to have a taste of these because these are incredible.

I'll give you one each. You can use pecans, you can use walnuts. Yep.

You can use other nuts. Any nuts will do.

If you're not going to do all this dish, because doing the ham

and everything else, but you could do that as a nice little...

Just a salad. Just a salad.

I'm going to make this dressing by taking all this.

You're going to tell us what's in here. So, what have we got?

You got home-made mayonnaise. You got soured cream.

You've got nice Fourme d'Ambert and nice Gorgonzola.

And that's the two cheese.

And buttermilk. Buttermilk. The whole lot goes into a blender.

This is very difficult.

It's not like a mayonnaise where you have to start with the eggs.

Everything goes in. And gently blitz it into a nice little creamy

dressing.

I'm going to throw it in.

So tell us about the duck breast that you've got in there.

You've rendered that on the skin side.

You render the duck on the skin side.

You cook the duck two thirds of the way because of the thickness -

you can see that beautiful thickness of the skin. Yep.

And that duck breast as a course will serve about four people.

The one that we've got here.

Just one breast. Can you hear that? Very important again.

When you put it into your pan you pan's got to sing to you.

It's telling you, "I'm hot enough...

"..to seal that beautiful breast." And look at that.

I'm starting in a dry pan, of course. Yep.

And you're going to see the amount of fat that is going to come out

of this one. And I want you to notice a little trick of confit.

Most people say confit is dry. I just cooked it all the way.

Look at that.

All the way through in the pan? Just on the skin side only.

Never on the meat.

Just warm through, leave it on the side, job done.

So this goes into a nice creamy dressing that we've got in here.

You can see that. That's your simple blue cheese dressing.

If you want a quick taste, look... I haven't seasoned it, chef.

That's the beauty of it. You haven't seasoned it yet and still...

See. There is not much missing. Don't need it.

Because you've got the saltiness of the...

So if you're on a diet or something like that, you don't have to

put salt and pepper.

And now you're going to spice it up a little bit with a dash.

A little bit of...

Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco.

Again, you need the heat to cut down the fattiness.

Just to bring the flavour together. All the elements are done.

Also, in amongst all this you've got the grapes, which you've done,

and these are delicious.

You actually dry your own grapes out? You dry your own grapes.

We make a little...

Remember, we've got spice in there

and you're making a little stock syrup, very light stock syrup.

A little bit of star anise, orange skin.

All the flavours that you've got around you is Christmassy.

So you pour the syrup overnight, and next day dry them in a low oven.

They're home-made. These are just grapes but you've got to try these.

They're incredible, these ones.

Now, of course, all of today's studio recipes including this one

from Eric are on our website.

Make sure you put plenty of paper inside the printer, though,

because this recipe is quite long. It's not.

You can buy the dressing already made from someone, if you want to.

Really? Yes.

So what are we doing now, then? You're about to plate this up.

Look at that. Tell us about the lettuce.

Lettuce, we're using cos, little Baby Gem. Nice and crunchy.

I am tired when going to restaurants and tired to serve

myself and the boys...

As soon as you dress the salad, it goes limp. Yep.

You go to dress the salad and if it sits on your plate for 30 seconds,

before you know it, it goes all soggy.

So, from now on, we're using cos salad.

We cut them in half, so you got texture. I am slicing this duck ham.

Look at that, look at that.

You've got to really, because it's not chopped,

you got to dress inside. Are the pecan nuts all right?

The pecan nuts in the oven? Please, sir, be my guest.

No, please, walk across. I'm pretty busy.

Basically, think of it as a leg of lamb

and stuff it with little garlic cloves.

Little dash here, little dash there. Look what's happening now.

Being French, what do you need on a salad? That is grapes.

You need little croutons. What else do you need? Little croutons.

Why you need croutons? Little croutons. Voila.

Voila. Crouton.

And we use stale baguette, so leftover bread from the day before.

You know the French - we don't throw anything away.

In the oven for me, please. Have you just turned into a chef, as well?

Yes. What has he put in the oven now? The chestnuts.

It's not finished.

You need a little bit of magic. Are you ready? Yes.

This is your girlfriend in the morning. Are you ready?

This is your girlfriend.

She wakes up, and now she's starting to put make-up on. But not too much.

Is that the blue cheese dressing? This is your blue cheese dressing.

You made it. What have you just put on there? This one?

This one is what we call a house dressing. Now we're talking.

Now, can I have a bit of chopped chives? He looks the part.

Chives in here. Use your finger. A pile of these on?

You're on national TV. A little pile over here, please. OK. Down there.

Look, look, look. We've got the duck. We've got the duck.

Duck. This is duck leg going on here. Where is the duck breast?

Duck breast. You go and sit down. I'll just bring it to you guys.

It's coming.

That is the sliced duck breast on there, duck ham. Look at that.

Forget the... You do that as well? Yeah.

I could have sat down over there and watched you.

You'd have probably been faster as well.

Gosh! Look at that.

It looks... It is a celebration. It does look amazing.

I'm getting celebrated by you two, that's for sure. Last but not least.

What's going on now? This is a little pepper. Look at that.

Spicy pepper, is it? Yes. It's like paprika, but smoky.

I've just got to turn that around for you to have a look at,

because that is probably the most impressive

plate of food I think I've seen on Saturday Kitchen yet.

Tell us what this amazing dish is called.

You call it a duck salad, I call it Salade Landaise.

The man is a genius. I have to say. Thank you. Did you get that on tape?

I want it. I'm going to sit here.

You sit. I'll sit on the outside.

Try this. Everybody can.

There is so much flavour going on here.

Serves one.

Very hungry children. My goodness. Yeah?

That's amazing. Merci, chef. It is pretty good, isn't it?

Fantastic, delicious. You're not getting any, though.

We need some wine to go with this.

Let's go back to Edinburgh to see what Olly has chosen to go

with Eric's stunning salad.

Eric's sensational Salade Landaise

hails from the South of France, and it's a good idea to pick a wine

from a similar area to chime with the local ingredients, like this,

Grand Heron from the Cotes De Gascogne.

However, with this dish, it's a little too sharp for the duck,

so I'm moving further east to the domain of the sensational

Paul Mas and his marvellous Marsanne. French-tacular.

Marsanne is one of the blending grapes from the southern Rhone,

but here on its own, it creates wine with a peachiness

and a certain sensuality of texture.

Give it a squeeze.

Oh, that's plump.

What you want with a salad, with those crisp, crunchy ingredients

is a wine with a certain refreshment to pick up on those fresh

ingredients and then, of course, we've got the duck and for that,

you need the texture of Marsanne,

which has a certain sensual glossiness to it.

And finally, the salty tang of the blue cheese.

What I'm looking for there is the peachy allure of Marsanne

to wrap it up and deliver the perfect sip.

Eric, bonne annee et bonne sante.

Do you like the wine that goes with it? This is...

It's quite difficult because there's so much going on there

in terms of flavour.

This spiciness, the honey, all things nice and sweet.

It's crisp and fresh. You couldn't go over on that.

It would overkill it. Happy with it? I am. Happy?

Amazing, absolutely amazing. I am quite happy, too.

Can we have some more, please? You're happy with that? Oh, yeah.

Can I? Please. Can I take it home? I'll wrap it up. Industrial foil.

Right, let's take a trip to China with Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang.

Today, they're splitting up.

Ken is in the capital of Beijing whilst Ching is heading up

the mountains to visit a feisty female cook.

Enjoy this one.

Being as western as I am Chinese, it's pretty challenging cooking

authentic food for people in their homes.

Especially in some of the most traditional places

outside of the cities.

I want to see what people are eating. What are they farming?

Just see what ordinary life is,

if there's such a thing as ordinary life in China any more.

I'm travelling two hours out of Beijing.

90km to the west is Chuandixia.

Chuandixia is a 400-year-old village.

It used to be a thriving farming community.

Now, only 100 villagers remain.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

'I'm staying with Mr

'and Mrs Han whose family have lived here for generations.'

This is wonderful. I feel like I really have stepped back in time.

'Central to the home-stay experience is the home-cooked meal with

'home-grown vegetables.'

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

Mrs Han seems a little nervous of strangers in her kitchen.

But I persuade her to let me share the woking under strict supervision.

This is slices of pork.

We're making a stir-fry of pork and wild mushrooms.

You've got vegetable oil, you've got some Szechuan flower pepper.

You've got some ginger. Exploded in the wok. We call it Baozha.

Explode fragrance.

And she's added slices of pork.

'In the summer they pick mushrooms from the mountains

'and freeze them for winter months when fresh food is scarce.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

She said, "Don't worry about the look of it. It's really good."

Stir-fry that together.

'A good substitute would be

'oyster or chestnut mushrooms.'

And then she's added a little bit of dark soy sauce for colour,

to colour the meat.

She's also put in a little bit of garlic

and a bit more spring onion at the end.

Just OK.

Mrs Han's an expert in making a little go a long way.

She's using the leaves of a pepper plant to make a kind of tempura.

This is Szechuan pepper leaves.

She's put it in egg and wheat flour and she's deep-frying it.

This would work equally well with spinach or kale.

Wonderful, isn't it?

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

Mrs Han made with that delicious mushroom...

Pork and mushroom. Mmm!

Like many villages across the country, Chuandixia has seen

most of the younger generation up sticks.

30 years ago, just one in five people lived in urban areas.

Now, half of the country's population are city dwellers.

It's been the biggest migration in history.

Beijing is now home to 20 million.

It sprawls for over ten times the size of London, with densely

packed suburbs.

'I'm meeting up with my friend and food writer, Hong Ying,

'a country girl who now lives in the chic district of Chaoang Park.

'This is her local market where we're shopping for dinner.'

The variety...I find astonishing. This is from America.

It's an interesting mix of Western imports. Look what they have here.

Brussels sprouts.

And Chinese favourites. Eels, pig trotters and cow's hooves.

What's that?

It's called cucumber flower. I've never even seen it.

When China opened up, Hong Ying moved abroad

and became a successful food and fiction writer.

She returned to Beijing ten years ago.

For dinner we're cooking two dishes. Starting with the chicken wings.

What I'm making here is just your sea salt and five spice powder.

'I think five spice is a great seasoning.'

Just put it over the chicken wing.

'It comes ready mixed and is a blend of cinnamon, cloves,

'star anise, fennel and Szechuan peppercorn.'

And then throw it in the oven. That's how simple it is.

'The chicken needs to bake for 30 minutes.

'To go with it I'm making a side dish from the staple of Beijing

'cooking, cabbage -

'which saw people through the hard times.'

I think cabbage is a homage to Beijing.

I'm going to stir-fry it with this lovely dried shrimp.

I could smell it when I took it out how good this was.

'Into the wok goes some garlic, then the shrimp and the cabbage.'

It's the smell of real Chinese cooking.

'I usually have rice wine but with none at hand, I'm winging it.'

Can I add a little bit of the gin?

Not too much! Too much!

THEY LAUGH

That smells good.

'I'm blanching the cucumber flowers

'we bought in the market for a couple minutes.'

Tastes like beans.

'Then I give them a minute in the wok.'

Very good.

I've never used that before.

'After half an hour in the oven, the chicken wings are golden brown

'and crispy.

'I'm finishing them off in the wok with garlic and spring onions.'

When you cook it, like, more than once you have different

layers of flavours. Remember, Chinese cooking is about layers.

It's not just one dimensional.

Mmm! It's really delicious.

Really. You must try the cabbage.

I learned something from you today. Gin. Gordon's gin.

I was impressed.

Great stuff from Ken there.

Gin and cabbage. Who knew? Right, let's keep cooking.

And next up is the brilliant Indian chef Vivek Singh,

so on the menu today we've got lamb. Yep, we've got raan.

A part roast, part braised shoulder of lamb. Yep.

Proper celebratory, proper food. Party food. With roast potatoes.

Cumin and chilli roast potatoes. If you could start it off.

So what have you got here, then? This is proper roast potatoes.

What are you using here? You know, we're using a bit of duck fat.

You could use duck fat or vegetable fat. Whatever.

Vegetable oil if you wanted. I'm heating that up.

We've got some parboiled potatoes happening over there.

Think of these as jeera aloo. You order jeera aloo in a curry house?

Yep. These are cumin and chilli potatoes just roasted.

What have you got in here, then?

I've got some deep-fried, crisp-fried onions,

and this is going

into the marinade, the marinade I'm going to make for the...

So they're just onions deep-fried? Yep. Exactly.

You'll see in the braise, when it's all braised up,

I'm going to add all of the chilli powder.

Where does this come from in India,

because I'm not very good at geography? Where is this from?

Originally, this dish would have come from Lucknow.

It's a refined form of cooking.

I said I wasn't very good at geography and you've said a name.

Where is that? Lucknow, north. North India.

Very pronounced Mogul Persian influence in there. OK.

So you've got some bay leaf, some cinnamon, some cardamom.

What's that you've just put in? Ginger and garlic paste.

Ginger and garlic paste. OK. That one?

That I'm going to add at the very end to finish it off.

It's like a seasoning. OK.

Right, I've got my potatoes here.

So, you want to put these in here with different spices.

These have got cumin and chilli flakes.

Cumin and chilli flakes and a bit of sea salt to finish it off.

Sea salt, cumin and chilli flakes.

So is the idea to marinate this, then?

Yes, the idea is to marinate and this is all going into the marinade.

You're going to apply this. You can do this and marinate it overnight.

Just a lot more chilli powder as well if you want it.

Right, we're going to pop that straight in the oven.

This wants to roast for how long? Because we've got some in here.

A good 30 minutes, something like that? Yes, a good 30 minutes.

Great for something like that, this marinated lamb,

once you've marinated it overnight or so.

Would this be cooked on an open fire or something like that?

Slow-roasted or something? Normally you'd braise it. Braise it?

First braise it and then you braise it,

cool it and crisp it in a tandoori oven.

We use a tandoori oven. So, the marinade is done.

We put a bit of water around it.

While Eric is diving into his duck and salad this New Year,

your lamb is on the menu for you, then, is it? Yes.

A good raan is always a thing of joy. You've got all this.

Would this be lamb or would this be mutton?

Back in India, it would be mutton or it could be goat, actually.

A lot of people would use goat to do this with...

if you had more people coming over. We're using milk-fed lamb.

If you could put this in the oven. In the oven?

How long would you cook that for?

This will cook for about an hour, an hour and a half. Nice, low oven.

About 250 degrees Fahrenheit?

130, 140 centigrade, something like that?

160, an hour and a half.

My potatoes are done. What's next?

Right, we get on to the leg of lamb,

the shoulder of lamb that I'm going to joint. But first...

These potatoes look pretty good, don't they? They are.

They're very simple to do. Quite simply... What are you doing now?

Making the sauce? Yes.

Just all the braising liquor and all the marinade

that has come through.

Just going to pass all of that through.

Right?

So this is to remove things like the cardamom

and bits and pieces, is it?

And the yoghurt sometimes tends to...

So you've got this...

come down... Yeah.

2013 has been incredibly busy for you. What's 2014 like for you?

Busier. Do you get a day off?

You never stop. How many restaurants have you now got? Three?

Three restaurants and the bar.

Yeah, you know, it's a good way of keeping busy, actually.

Just taken this all down.

Have you still got the TVs in the kitchen?

We've still got the TVs in the kitchen.

When you go to his restaurant, you've got to go down

and see the kitchen, because he's the only guy I know that has got

literally televisions on every section in the kitchen.

What do you watch? Cricket. 100% cricket. It is the cricket.

Cricket all the time. Don't mention cricket.

What do we do with the sauce now, then? The sauce, we reduced it.

I'm going to let it down a little bit.

A little bit more water, actually.

Is it too strong, then? It's just reduced down a bit too much. OK.

We're going to reduce it down and now bring this to a boil.

Right, what's next, then? OK. Let's start.

Let's just take the bone off like that.

So you allow this to cool, then?

You do allow this to cool

and you just cut it into nice, big chunks.

Now would you use a skewer for this if you wanted? Yes.

At home, we just joint the meat out completely

and arrange it back around the bone. Here, we've got some skewers.

You can skewer if you wanted to

but we're just going to leave it in chunks. No, we'll put it in skewers.

Do you want skewer this one? Yes, please. Skewer each one?

I can do that.

Just put these on a skewer. Thread them through.

Just put it on the grill for two or three minutes.

It'll crisp up, the skin will really crisp up.

One more piece. Go on, I can skewer it. There we go. Just like that?

No oil? Nothing? Just under the grill now. Just... Under the grill?

Under the grill, the skin crisps up. Sounds pretty good.

Nice, hot grill.

All of today's studio recipes, including this one

are on our website.

Right, lamb's under the grill, potatoes are ready,

sauce is reducing. Can you chop me up a bit of coriander?

Chopped coriander. What's the yoghurt and stuff like that for?

The yoghurt will go into the marinade.

Here, we've got some garam masala and some saffron.

This is a celebratory season here.

We've got some saffron, some cream, some garam masala and that is going

to go into the sauce. Why would you put that in at the end, then?

Why does that go in the end?

Garam masala is a very aromatic seasoning,

so you...

The more expensive spices you're using, the better the flavour.

So, you don't want to be cooking a lot after you've

added expensive spices.

That's why you end up using it at the very end

and it works as a seasoning. It's the aromas.

And this - saffron, the most expensive spice known to man.

About ?2,500 a pound. Really, really expensive.

You want to add it really at the end. Yeah.

And then finish it off with a bit of cream.

Do you want these on the plate? Yes. Let's do that.

Let's pile on the potatoes. Like that?

Just sprinkle a bit more. What else do you want on here? Coriander?

That's good. There we go. And then the sauce over the top?

The sauce goes over the top.

It's just...

This whole thing is a great family meal, I tell you.

Right. Do we add some more onions? Now we will.

We will add some more onions

and a little bit of the charred masala that I've saved up.

Sprinkled seasoning that I said, and my gold leaf here. Gold leaf?

We're talking about... This is the first time we've had gold leaf.

We have had. You've done it before, yes. You're feeling well off.

Well, it's the New Year. Give us the name of this dish, then.

This is a lamb shoulder raan.

The grandest of all celebratory dishes. It is what it is.

Looks pretty impressive

and I know it's going to taste pretty impressive, as well.

It's got to when it's cooked for that amount of time. Dive into that.

I don't know where you want to start with that.

Shall we start with the spuds? Start with the spuds!

Put it the other way round. The lamb, I'll have the lamb.

Tell us what you think.

With all those spices in there...

Roast potatoes... That's amazing.

And slow roast shoulder of lamb. The levels of flavour are just gorgeous.

Happy with that? Well, I'm not going to get any of it.

Right, we need some wine to go with this.

Let's see what Olly has chosen to go with Vivek's lovely lamb.

Vivek's lovely lamb is a chance to show that Indian cooking can pair

with a wide range of wines.

If you're having a meaty curry,

you could try a fruity red like this CM, Carmenere.

However, with the bright flavours in this dish coming from the lemon

and the ginger, it is crying out for a white wine

and I've found a belter from off the beaten track.

It's Thymiopoulos from Greece. Wine of the gods.

I'm a massive fan of Greek wine and this wine

comes from the Valley of the Muses near Delphi.

The grape variety is Malagouzia and until quite recently,

it was on the verge of extinction.

It's got a fantastic gentle aromatic character to it

and is really fragrant, which makes it perfect with mild, spicy dishes.

The brightness in Vivek's dish comes from the vinegar,

the ginger and the lemon.

For those upbeat flavours, you need a wine like this Malagouzia

with a bit of zing to it.

And then, of course, there's the fragrance in the dish

from the cinnamon, the saffron and the cardamom.

Malagouzia has the perfect floral touch to link up and finally,

Vivek's cunning sauce, it's got a creamy texture to it

and this wine has been stirred up to amplify its generous texture.

Vivek, here's to your sensational lamb. Cheers.

Cheers indeed. Greek. You wouldn't normally go for Greek white wine.

No, and white wine, for one, with this kind of lamb.

When I saw the glasses of white wine coming in,

I wasn't really sure but I have to say, this really works

brilliantly with the saffron and it is really picking up on it.

You, traditionally, would do red with this one? Yes.

I think it works fantastically well. Don't you think?

It does. It has a bit of smokiness to it. Yeah.

And, being Greek, you can pick it up for quite cheap, I'm pretty sure.

You can buy a lot! LAUGHTER

Happy with that? That was delicious. Yeah, very good.

I think, wine-wise, I'd have sparkling water

and not still water. Yeah.

Catherine? Absolutely delicious. The meat just falls off there.

The flavours are so intense. The layers in it! Oh, it's...

So will Ian get his Food Heaven -

that fillet of sole with chips and curry sauce -

or Food Hell - cod in a caper butter with chargrilled leeks.

We're letting fate decide today.

So you can find out exactly how

after a truly magical display of cake making

from the master, Raymond Blanc.

So sit back and feast your eyes on his...

..gateau de macarons.

Raymond has come to Paris, home of pastry and fine food.

The patisseries of Paris date back to the early 19th century,

when bakers began to emulate the pastries

that, until then, only the aristocracy could afford.

French patisserie sits right at the very, very top still today.

It's not a Frenchman telling you that, it is a fact.

Many patisseries in Paris have closed in recent years.

But those that survive are amongst the most innovative

and celebrated in the world.

Laurent, bonjour. Ah! Bonjour!

Raymond has come to visit Laurent Duchene.

Once Raymond's pastry chef,

he's now one of France's most renowned patissiers.

It's really good. It's good to see you, huh?