Episode 1 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

It's springtime at last and we're serving up some of the very best

of the new season's lush produce right here for you.

Welcome to Spring Kitchen.

Hello and welcome. We have a brilliant seasonal feast

coming up for you this afternoon.

We've been down to the beautiful Port Isaac in Cornwall

to visit Nathan Outlaw who does a simple but rich

beer-braised turbot dish especially for us.

Plus, we're delving into the BBC food archive to visit

Nigel Slater for some roasted rhubarb and fresh mackerel.

With me today in the studio is one of the best Spanish chefs

in the country. He brings with him a ray of sunshine wherever he goes.

It's the amazing Jose Pizarro.

I've also invited a special kitchen guest,

Dave Finkle who is our resident farmer who's going to be telling us

all sorts of stuff about things on offer this time of year.

Looking forward to it. And this year we've got asparagus

which is the quintessential and perfect British seasonal product

-and we've got cucumbers and spring onions.

-Fantastic. OK.

Also joining us in the studio today to sample this season's treats,

we have a British actress from TV shows including Case Histories

and Mr Selfridge.

But now she's best known to us as Dr John Watson's

troublesome wife in the huge BBC hit series Sherlock.

-It's Amanda Abbington. Hello, Amanda. How are you?

-Very well.

-How are you?

-Good, good. Now, you're a big foodie fan.

-Huge foodie fan.

-I love it.

-And all sorts of things? Or anything you don't eat?

I try and not eat red meat.

-Red meat?

-Yeah, I just...

-Red meat, that shouldn't be a problem today.

We're all right, I think. Me and Jose have got it covered.

Jose, what have you got coming up for us?

-My first vegetarian dish ever on TV.

-First-ever vegetarian dish!

-Wow.

-Tell me what it is.

-Cauliflower stuffed with pisto,

slow vegetable stew, slow-cooked

-and then fried with some pea puree. How do you say that?

-Pea puree.

-Mushy peas, basically.

-Mushy peas.

-It's a wonderful Spanish version of mushy peas.

-And Manchego.

And Manchego cheese. OK. And then later on,

I'm going to be making a great spring recipe using crab,

spring onions and apples. I'm going to be making a fresh ravioli,

stuffing it with a filling of crab and cucumber

and then on top of that, some spring-onion dressing

that's going to be made with a little bit of cloudy apple juice.

-Fingers crossed it's up your street.

-That's right up my...

-Crab's always up my street.

-Now, Dave, you're with us to tell us

all about things that are seasonal and perfect for this time of year.

You've already mentioned asparagus.

-Anything else that's going to be great?

-Yeah, well, you've got

spring onions which are perfect for this time of year and cucumbers.

Spring onions and cucumbers. And asparagus again,

-season's started right now.

-It's spot on.

-Spot on. OK.

Which is good because that's the first dish I'm going to be cooking,

-so you'd better come with me and we'll get going.

-Let's do it.

-OK.

So, this is a very simple and lovely asparagus dish.

Now, I'm a massive fan of asparagus. It's the chef's point of view.

We wait for asparagus to turn up at this time of year

because it signals that spring is here

and for me asparagus is one of the best English things that we do ever.

But this one is white asparagus. You normally see the green stuff.

-So, Dave, what's the difference between the two?

-Well, basically,

your green asparagus has had the pleasure of daylight and sunshine,

but white asparagus is actually grown in the dark indoors.

And the reason white asparagus generally is a much larger

type of asparagus is the plant feels like it's under attack

when it's kept in the dark, so it's permanently pushing

aggressively to try and reach any sunlight and daylight.

So, that's what makes it grow. That's why it's quite big as well.

You can see it's actually a little bit thicker than the normal asparagus.

But the beauty of it still being white in colour

is actually it stops the asparagus becoming slightly woody

which gives your experts, your chefs, an opportunity there

to actually cook it in a different way, at lower temperatures.

Does it taste different?

Yeah, it's slightly more delicate. But because it's quite tender,

it allows you to explore with it on different types of dishes.

It does have quite a rich flavour to it as well. It's not quite as...

It doesn't necessarily feel as fresh as the green asparagus.

It's almost meaty in texture which is... If you're a non-meat eater,

-it's a nice way of getting that...

-Would you normally peel it?

Yeah, I've peeled it. Just taken the outside of the asparagus off.

It sometimes has a little bit of a slightly bitter flavour to it.

Then I'm just going to put it into some water here

with a little bit of salt and then I'm going to put in some butter.

Now, the two types of butter I've got here, I've got normal butter

and I've got some smoked butter. This is butter that has been

cold smoked. We've actually cold smoked this one ourselves.

What you do is you put it under a glass dome and then pump

loads of smoke into it from a little magic gun.

But if you haven't got that at home, like I imagine most people,

what you'll able to do is just do it...

buy it online. You can buy smoked butter online.

-Are you a butter fan?

-A big huge butter fan.

OK. So, we're just going to... What we're going to do is cook this...

This is called "etuvee" and it's a classic French term, an emulsion.

The water and the butter are going to emulsify together

and then it will also create our sauce.

Lid on. Get it cooking.

-So, Sherlock.

-Yeah.

-Sherlock. What a massive, huge hit that was.

-Yeah. it's been amazing. Good show.

-It has been incredible.

Huge amount of viewers. How many was the Christmas special?

I can't remember. Steven Moffat would know.

I was very honoured to be part of it, actually.

It was a real joy to be part of it. It was already a huge success

before I joined, weirdly.

-But it was good fun.

-So, you've joined as Dr John Watson's wife.

-Yes.

-And it's not actually all that it seems, the Christmas special.

It turns out you're a trained assassin as well.

Yeah, I was a trained assassin. I didn't kill Sherlock,

-but I shot him.

-OK. And filming another series of that?

I hope so. I don't know.

Nobody knows. We were hoping to do one this autumn.

There aren't any secrets you can tell us about it?

-I can't tell you anything, no.

-You can't tell me anything?

-No.

And I know lots. I know a lot. I know a lot about it.

You wouldn't be able to tell me because you're a trained assassin.

-I'd have to kill you.

-OK. Perfect.

-It would just be messy.

We'll just stay silent with that.

And of course, you're working with Martin Freeman

-who is your actual other half in real life.

-He is. He is.

What's that like, working and living together? I know.

-I live and work with my wife.

-Do you?

-Yeah, I do indeed.

-It's awful, isn't it?

-No, it's amazing.

-I'm joking! I'm joking!

-We have a wonderful time.

-I'm joking. I love working with Martin.

I think he's one of our brightest actors

and I'm very happy that I get to work with him.

I mean, Martin for me is fantastic.

Actually, I remember being a big Martin fan

-when I first saw him as Ali G's mate in Ali G, The Movie...

-Ricky C.

..which was fantastic. And then recently this weekend

-watching Fargo.

-Wasn't it good?

-Absolutely brilliant. Now, I was

-a huge fan of the Coen brothers...

-Me too.

-..and their movies,

-but this I think is absolutely...

-Him and Billy Bob I think

just stole it for me. I thought it was an amazing, amazing performance.

-I can't wait to see the rest.

-No, I can't wait to see the rest of it.

Looking forward to it. And Mr Selfridge as well.

-Start filming that tomorrow.

-You are a busy girl.

Yeah, it's my first day tomorrow until October.

-Right through to October?

-Right through to the summer, yeah.

-You are a busy girl.

-Yeah, which is lovely. It's nice.

It's always nice to be a busy actor cos so frequently we're not.

-Yeah.

-So it's nice to be in work.

Then does Martin spend a lot of his time away?

He has done but he'll be here for the foreseeable future.

He's working in London till the end of the year,

so we'll have some family time which is just lovely

cos we've missed each other so it's nice to...

-to spend a bit of time together.

-Yeah, I've got my buddy back.

Yeah. And you're doing something for charity.

I'm doing a thing called Live Below the Line which is where you live

-on a pound a day for five days...

-A pound a day?

Just to highlight global... Just! To highlight global poverty.

A pound a day, is that actually for food?

All food and drink, everything.

A pound a day. We might be in trouble. When does that start?

-Monday.

-That's all right cos one of these is about a pound.

Yes, that's...

-You're properly having a week's worth just in this dish now.

-Yeah.

-Better make it last.

-It's all right because Jose's doing something

-vegetarian, so it's not actually going to be that expensive.

-No.

Yeah, so it's quite daunting,

but I think it's such a relevant thing to talk about

and alert people about.

So, have you got any ideas of what you're going to be eating?

I haven't got a clue yet.

I've sort of being looking at various things

and seeing what I can buy for my pound.

-Seeing what you can buy for your pound?

-Yeah.

-Which probably turns out to be not a lot.

-No, I don't think so.

Not a lot. I imagine there's going to be no waste.

-No.

-That's what you're going to be looking at.

That's also one of the reasons why I'm doing it

cos I'm wasteful. I think most people are.

You tend to throw things out of your fridge and not think about it.

I think this will probably help me be more aware of that

and hopefully other people will do the same.

OK. So...

So, have you got any tips, Jose, for no waste, no wastage?

-Well, nice lentils, things like that.

-I was thinking lentils.

Some vegetables.

Go for stewing.

-The pisto I'm going to be cooking today is perfect for you.

-OK.

Anything we have left over I'm sure you can take away with you.

-That's what I'm planning on.

-Maybe it will get you through the week.

-Absolutely.

-Does that count? Is that allowed?

-No, I can't do that.

OK. So, I've got the white asparagus that I've just cooked in that

-little bit of butter.

-What did you put on top?

-OK.

That is something called lardo which is a cured pork back fat

which is very flavoursome, really tasty,

salty, porky kind of flavours. If you haven't got lardo,

you can use something like Parma ham which is...

Sorry, chef. Serrano ham. We're with a Spanish person. We can't use...

You know what, even better, nice, fat from the iberico, jamon iberico.

-Yeah.

-Heaven.

-Some iberico.

-Oh, yeah.

-There we go. There we go.

So, we can use some wonderful Spanish ingredients,

rather than just...

..the Parma ham. So, all we've done is just wilted that down

just a little bit over the top. Then we're going to dress it

with a little bit of this cooking butter that's got

a lovely smoky kind of flavour going through from the smoked butter.

-Wow.

-Dress the top of that.

-Amazing.

-We're going to grate on a little bit of the lemon zest.

What happens when you put citrus on at the last minute...

-Citrus contains a huge amount of oil...

-OK.

-..in that skin

and it gives it a real fresh kick right at the end.

Then into that...

a few little crumbly pieces...

you want to keep them quite chunky, of Parmesan.

And then on top of that, another piece or two of the chervil.

Boys, come on over. You can come and have a try of this.

-Well, hang on.

-Hold on, boys. You'll have to fight for it.

-You'll have to fight for it, boys.

-I don't think so.

Then just a little bit of pork sauce.

-That looks amazing, doesn't it?

-We'll use the butter spoon.

A little bit of sauce,

-just enhance that porky flavour.

-That would take me hours to make.

-I couldn't do that. There's no way.

-I tell you what I forgot,

on the top here, we've got some green raw asparagus.

Get yourselves knives and forks. Get in there.

-Two different types of asparagus.

-I'm going to go first cos I'm a girl.

You go first, you're a girl.

-Get in there.

-I'm going to have a bit of that cheese.

-White asparagus. Beautiful, rich, meaty.

-Oh, my God.

-How are we getting on?

-That's beautiful.

-Tasty? Very simple.

-Amigo, spring is here.

-Very simple.

-Fabulous.

-Really fresh, isn't it?

OK. Now, in every show, we're getting out and about

and visiting some of our favourite chefs on their home turf.

Today's field trip is to Cornwall to see Nathan Outlaw

who's shopping for fish in the beautiful Port Isaac.

This time of year in Cornwall, springtime is fantastic.

The sun's starting to shine, it's starting to warm up a bit

and I tell you what, the ingredients are starting to get fantastic as well.

It gives us so much flexibility to what we could put on the menu

and today I've got a recipe that encapsulates springtime for me.

There's only one thing for it.

It's me, the fish man, so I need to go and get some fish.

-Morning, Nathan. How are you?

-Cool, yeah. I'm after some turbot.

-Have you got any turbot?

-Yeah. I'll show you what we've got today.

-Cheers.

-There you go. A nice decent-sized turbot there.

That's perfect. I just want a couple of steaks off it.

-Box it up and I'll take the whole thing.

-I'll do that right now.

-Cheers.

-No problem.

-There you go.

-Cheers. Thank you very much. Nice one. Take care.

-Take care.

Now, we've got a lovely Spring Kitchen recipe for you.

Turbot with bacon, peas and all cooked in ale.

So, the most important ingredient is the turbot we've picked up

this morning. Ale, very, very important ingredient.

Some lovely, lovely peas.

Some bacon and then there's a few shallots,

rosemary and garlic in there as well, just to bring it all together.

I think it's a beautiful Spring Kitchen recipe.

Now, the first thing we need to do is to grill the bacon.

Lovely smoked, streaky bacon.

I want to get that nice and crispy.

Now, the next thing we need to do is get a pan nice and hot.

Some rapeseed oil in there. Just some light rapeseed oil.

A bit of butter.

OK. So, once the butter's starting to melt and starting to bubble,

we've got some whole shallots that we've already peeled.

I'm cooking this for two people. I'm allowing about five shallots each.

Then it looks a bit strange cooking whole garlic cloves,

but trust me, once they've cooked, they'll be lovely.

Whole garlic cloves in there as well. About three a portion.

A little bit of rosemary as well.

OK. So, once you've got a little bit of colour on the shallots and garlic,

next thing we need to add to that is some red wine vinegar.

It's important to add vinegar to things, just for acidity.

So, the vinegar goes in...

and we just reduce that down so there's almost nothing left at all.

OK, so the bacon's done.

We'll leave that to one side to let it cool down

and then chop through that later.

I've made some fish stock with the turbot bones.

A little tip for getting a lovely flavour from your fish stock

is to roast the bones.

You will get a lovely, flavourful, roasted fish stock,

as opposed to that boiled fish stock.

Once the fish stock comes to the boil,

the next thing to do is add the ale,

one of the most important ingredients of this braising liquor.

The next thing to do is season the turbot steaks.

All we do is pop the turbot straight into the stock.

If you haven't got turbot and can't afford it,

because it is quite expensive, a piece of hake

will work perfectly in here as well.

It's perfect for white fish.

Cover with foil.

Let tick over for ten minutes.

I know that'll cook the fish just right.

If it's a bit thinner than my fish, take a bit less.

If it's a whole fish it's going to take a bit longer.

Whilst that's cooking, the next thing we need to do is chop parsley

and chop through this bacon.

Don't waste that.

That's flavour on the tray, that will go in at the end as well.

It's quite rough. The finer you chop them, the more the essential oils

and flavour go into the chopping board.

You're better off having that in your pan.

Then with the bacon, we are going to just cut across the rasher,

and we'll sprinkle that over the top at the end.

The turbot's been cooking for about eight to ten minutes.

I'm going to remove the foil.

We have got this baking tray and, as I said before,

there's flavour in there.

It may look like a dirty tray to you, but it's not,

it's all the flavour from the bacon. Take that out.

That's the good thing about fish on the bone,

turbot in particular. It rests like a piece of meat.

A lot of people have probably cooked turbot,

served it straightaway and thought, "That's quite tough."

It's because it needs to rest like meat. That's the answer to that.

Whilst that's resting, get this to the boil, then we need some richness.

A nice piece of butter will do the trick.

A little bit of butter.

Once the butter is incorporated,

we are going to add the fresh peas to it.

All we need do now is peel the turbot.

The reason why I do that is the skin's not very nice to eat.

It's all right if it's crisped up,

but we are going to remove the skin,

then pop the turbot back in.

And then all-important, all them juices that are on there,

the bacon fat and any resting juices from the fish goes in there as well.

Then the last thing we do is add the parsley.

Give it a stir.

That's it.

All we've got to do now is plate it up.

Lovely turbot.

You have to swim around a bit for the shallots.

A few spoonfuls of that lovely braising liquor.

Oh, looks lovely!

We'll finish the whole thing off with some crispy bacon.

There you have it, that's my lovely braised turbot in beer,

with peas, shallots and bacon.

I can't let that go without tasting it because it looks lovely.

That's very good.

Tastes of spring.

Lovely peas, salty bacon, meaty fish and then beer.

What can be wrong with that?

Thank you very much, Nathan.

I've got to be honest, what could be better than a piece of fish

poached in beer served with bacon?

-Sounds amazing to me.

-Happy days.

Jose, you're going to get cooking. What are you doing for us?

I need your help with this.

Blanch them.

-Blanch the peas.

-Yeah.

-Then I'm going to start chopping some aubergines.

-We'll get chopping.

Then you're going to help me with some red onions and white onions.

On it, chef.

-These peas are going into some boiling, salted water.

-Absolutely.

These are frozen peas, not fresh.

-Nothing wrong with that.

-Nothing wrong with that.

Resident farmer Dave. What do we make of frozen peas?

They are brilliant.

Actually, peas dehydrate so quickly after you've harvested them,

so freezing them is the best thing you can do for them.

They maintain their nutritional balance

and keeps all the vitamins and minerals in there.

So what happens... The sugar starts to turn to starch?

That's part of the process.

Then the vitamins and mineral contents start to degrade

and they just don't taste nice after that.

So frozen peas are the way forward.

Absolutely, and they take, like, 25 seconds, something like that,

to go from the plant to the fridge.

Really? That's how quickly they have to get from field. I love that!

-Busy, busy.

-Huge operation.

-Pea farmers are super busy - quick hands.

-Indeed!

OK.

I am dicing red onion, white onion.

This is a Spanish onion, I take it?

Absolutely has to be.

And we are making something that you call...?

Pisto.

I've got to be honest, it looks very similar to ratatouille to me.

It is. Every country has something similar.

Because a Spanish man is doing it, it makes it pisto and not French.

Nothing wrong with French. Some of them, yeah, but not all of them!

THEY LAUGH

-I love France.

-I love France and have huge friends there.

We just love it!

THEY LAUGH

-OK, so...

-You know.

-Careful what you say!

No, I love them. Don't get me wrong.

I love French cooking as well.

OK. That's sorted. We love France.

Leave it now! Let France go.

Anyway, we're going to start the courgette.

So the stem out, leave it there.

And I need some of the courgette.

If you don't have flowers,

because it's difficult to find it now, just cut them,

take the white piece out.

Then you can stuff with the pisto.

So you are stuffing the whole courgette instead of the flower.

Courgette flowers good this time of year, Dave, they coming through?

They're starting to come through from the greenhouse grown,

but within the next month to six weeks, you will start to see more.

-Seen those before?

-Yes, I didn't know you could eat them.

-Yeah, lovely.

-You learn something new every day.

Something new every day. Something about peas, we learned that Jose

-likes French people.

-Loves French people.

Change the conversation please!

The first time my mum saw that was, like,

"How can you take this one from the garden - no!"

They need to grow! And now she loves it.

Are we going to get some courgette into there?

Yeah. Some courgette there.

-So we have onion, courgette, aubergine.

-Garlic.

-And tomatoes?

-Yes.

-We are sweating it down.

-Salt and pepper.

What is interesting is the courgette that you've got with the flower,

-that's the female flower.

-OK.

On courgette plants, the males,

it's just a stalk with a double-sized flower

-and nothing else on it. So yes, you are eating a female.

-Amazing.

THEY LAUGH

Anyway...

Change the conversation now. Again.

That should be like this, yeah?

Slow cook, lovely colour.

So we have started off like this and sweated it down to this.

So we have ended up with ratatouille or pisto.

Then stuff it in the flower like that.

Oo-er.

So you can stuff courgette flowers with pretty much anything,

-a fish mousse, maybe some rice, risotto.

-Morcilla - black pudding.

Black pudding, there we go.

Anything else that's Spanish that we can stuff it with?

-You know brandada? Brandade in French.

-Like salt cod?

-Yeah.

-Salt cod, brandade.

Flower in egg... Like that.

And straight into the fryer.

So you've dipped the courgette flower into plain flour?

Yes, and egg.

I have one here already done, just in case.

-This is a kind of batter?

-Yes.

We call in Spain, a la Romana. Which means Roman-style.

-Romany-style.

-Yeah, I don't know why.

So in the Thermomix now, I have peas that have been blanched,

some mint and olive oil, and we are going to puree that together.

Stick in a good pinch of salt.

Turn it up.

BLENDER WHIRRS

Nice and loud.

Yeah.

That is looking good to me.

Just one more minute.

I didn't see you in Jose for a long time.

Do you know what, I was there the other day and I didn't call in.

Jose seems to be going from strength-to-strength.

And Bermondsey itself is an area in London, especially,

that's getting a reputation for some great food coming off.

-Great food.

-You have Maltby Street Market round the corner.

And then Restaurant Story.

You have Pizarro there.

No more Restaurant Story, Maltby, it's a shame.

But, yeah... It's the place to be, I have to say.

Bermondsey, very cool.

It's the people in Bermondsey. They make the area.

You live in Bermondsey?

Around Bermondsey.

HE LAUGHS

It's just the people there.

OK. Also, you're doing a bike ride, I understand?

Don't tell me that. Thank you for reminding me!

-420km.

-Wow!

-In India.

-Blimey.

In five days.

In five days?

Please, I didn't been on a bike for 25 years.

For 24 years?

-25.

-You don't look old enough, chief!

We might have to get you a bike with special padding on the seat.

-That's a lot of riding.

-I will need something, I'm telling you!

But it's amazing, it's for a good cause.

I was going to say, it's got to be for something, surely.

Raising money for Action Against Hunger.

I work a lot with them. Great people.

-The money will go to the charity, to the people, sorry, you know.

-Yes.

-Pea puree there.

-On to the plate.

-Yes.

-Cheese is cut.

So we have the deep-fried courgettes. They look beautiful.

That soft batter is beautiful.

It's stunning. It keeps all the humidity in, no, the moisture.

The moisture.

15 years living in UK,

London is my home and my English is still "getting there".

We're getting there, chef, let's get this plated up.

-Guys, come and have a taste. Come on over.

-Here.

Some Manchego.

We have pea herb, some pea cress.

-Yes.

-A little bit of seasoning.

-Finish with some mint oil.

-Wow.

So it's peas and mint, stuffed courgette flowers, there we go.

This is right up your street now.

Knives and forks down here.

There we go. Cutlery, get in there.

Loads of it in there.

Very seasonal. It's spring in one plate.

-Yeah. It looks really spring-like.

-It looks gorgeous.

-Get in there, guys.

-I'm going to.

That's stuffing of pisto, or ratatouille if you're French.

Oh, again!

-With pea puree, mushy peas.

-It's good?

-Heaven.

-Thank you very much.

-Love it?

-Can you come and do it at my house?

-Absolutely!

We are going to dip into the BBC food archive

for a trip to Nigel Slater, for some of his simple suppers.

First, he's going to make a rhubarb tart before roasting the leftovers

to go with pan-fried mackerel.

Some vegetables are easier to grow than others.

Rhubarb is a hardy plant that comes back every year,

a really useful thing to have in the kitchen.

Pull it off.

Anything that comes easily when you pull it, is fair game.

It's actually a good idea when you are picking rhubarb,

not to pick all the leaves on one plant

but to pick a couple from each one and then move on.

That way you don't weaken the plant.

Leftovers aren't just about what you have left.

The real art to making the most of them is planning ahead.

Today, I'm going to cook enough rhubarb to make sure

I have plenty for the week.

If I come back from the allotment or the bottom of the garden with

a load of rhubarb, then it's worth cooking it all at once.

It's very easy to think of rhubarb as something just to put in a crumble.

It's one of those incredibly versatile

and useful things to have around.

You don't do anything fancy with it,

just quite simply rhubarb, sugar and a little bit of water,

so you do get some juice.

I'm going to put it in the oven and leave it

until it's soft enough to take the point of a knife.

"Tonight, I'm cooking a rhubarb tart with mascarpone cream.

"For the base of my tart, all I need is some sweet puff pastry."

I love making pastry.

But I haven't got time for it always

and certainly not during the week, so I use frozen pastry.

If you buy the good stuff which has butter in it,

there's nothing wrong with it.

They have even rolled it out for you,

but I roll it again so it's even thinner.

"For each of your tarts, create a rectangle to sit

"your fruit in by using a knife to score the pastry.

"Then brush the juice from your roasted rhubarb around the edges

"to give the pastry a shine.

"Pop it into a hot oven, it will take about 20 minutes to cook,

"just in time to create its perfect companion."

I want something that has a creamy texture to go with

the crispness of the pastry and the quite sour fruit, but I also want it

to have that lovely vanilla flavour you get if you make your own custard.

So I'm going to make a custard flavoured cream.

"To do that, drop two tablespoons of sugar

"and a couple of egg yolks in a mixing bowl.

"Keep the whites for later."

To the eggs and sugar I am going to add some mascarpone,

It's just that cool, vanilla-y, creamy smell.

"And to provide a really deep flavour,

"add a few generous drops of vanilla extract."

It smells like cheesecake.

It's that smell of sugar and cream

and vanilla that smells like somebody is baking a gorgeous cheesecake.

"Then beat the egg whites from earlier until thick and fluffy

"and fold them into the cream.

"You can make plenty of this

"and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days.

"Perfect for cake, or these warm rhubarb tarts."

This really works for me because it is basically two ingredients,

pastry and rhubarb.

"The key to this dish is its simplicity, which makes it quick,

"easy and absolutely delicious."

At least once a week I make myself a little treat

and I really fancy some fish.

My favourite fish is the cheapest of them all, mackerel.

I love the colour, those beautiful shimmering blues and silvers,

but when you cook it, it gets smoky and the skin goes crisp.

For me, it's the biggest treat of all.

"The British Isles is abundant with mackerel,

"making it a cheap fish, and there is so much you can do with it.

"But for my dinner tonight,

"I'm cooking fried mackerel and roasted rhubarb.

"I usually just coat my mackerel with a little flour

"and lightly fry it with some oil and rosemary,

"but tonight I want to try something different.

"I'm combining it with rhubarb.

"It's not an obvious partner,

"but the strong flavours work really well together."

It's one of those ingredients, like gooseberries or lemon,

that is really sharp and it will cut the richness of the fish.

It does sound a bit strange, but it really works.

I am going to put a few capers in there, only because I love them

and I love that vinegary-ness of them.

PAN SIZZLES

I've got the sharp flavours, I feel I want something a bit mellow.

I want something quite rich to go in this, some sherry vinegar.

I'm going to put the tiniest little drop in.

Just a little bit.

There we are.

I'm going to put some rhubarb juice in here,

just so I can dissolve all the crusty bits on the pan,

all the bits that have caught from the skin.

And...

Where all that flavour is.

It's not a sauce, it's just the juices from the pan.

"Sweet and savoury, absolutely delicious and a cheap midweek treat."

Thank you very much, Nigel.

And if you've never tried mackerel and rhubarb together,

it is beautiful, you must do it, it is absolutely fantastic.

Throughout this series we are showcasing some key, seasonal,

spring ingredients that are at their absolute best at this time of year.

Today I am doing a recipe with crab, cucumber, apples and spring onions.

I've got Jose to give me a hand.

I need you to make me some pasta dough, chief, so let's get going.

-Thank you.

-OK. I am doing crab ravioli,

and we are using some cucumber

and it will be in the crab as a stuffing to got with some apple,

little bit of lemon,

and we are doing a dressing using cloudy apple juice.

Amazing.

This apple juice works so well with crabs, apple is brilliant.

It contains almost a natural sweetness and acidity together,

-and it goes very well with fish, really, really well.

-Jammy.

Exactly, jammy. The apple juice is on, into a pan,

and we're going to reduce it down over quite a high heat

and bring it to a caramel,

so it gets that mixture of...that kind of sweetness of a caramel,

but still a little bit of the acidity of the apple

that comes through.

Cucumbers - cucumbers, Dave? They're quintessentially English.

Any reason why we love them so much in this country?

I think, historically,

it's afternoon tea, isn't it? It's high tea.

That's where cucumbers were always popping their head up.

But greenhouse-grown cucumbers are now starting to come into season,

then in about two months' time, all of a sudden,

because the sun's really got going,

everyone's really starting to grow cucumbers in their back garden

and on commercial plots.

And they're easy to grow.

They are, they're really easy, actually.

As long as you keep them well-watered,

they'll just keep on going.

But at the moment, there seems to be a modern sensation -

you can get these real tiny cucumbers now,

which are coming on the market.

-Cucamelons.

-Exactly.

They're fantastic, actually -

they look like tiny little watermelons and they taste beautiful.

OK, so, I've got a cucumber that's diced

and I've got a Granny Smith apple -

Granny Smith apples are really high in acidity

and I'm just going to grate that.

I'm coming with the biggest tray in the world.

The biggest tray in the world - stick that down in front of you.

You've made pasta dough - this is...

Actually, it turns out that Jose, as a 25-year-old...

this is the first time that, as a Spanish chef,

he's actually ever made an Italian dish, ever made a pasta dish.

I did it in school, but not really, like...

If it doesn't work very well, Amanda, I'm very sorry.

-We'll blame the Spanish guy.

-Yeah, blame the Spanish.

There's nothing wrong with Italian.

LAUGHTER

-You love Italians as well, it's fine.

-I love Italian people.

In my restaurant, my Spanish restaurant,

I have a few Italians working there.

-There you go.

-In Pizarro, yeah.

I think you're getting yourself into a lot of trouble at the minute.

I know. I'm going to be like this..."argh!"

OK, so, listen, what I've got here is some cucumber, some apple

and some lemon, just the zest of the lemon, and I've salted it.

Now...

You salt it, cos what it does

is it draws the moisture from the vegetables,

which then means, when you put it into a stuffing,

it means your ravioli isn't actually going to be really soggy,

so all the water's already been drawn out.

Now, I've just squeezed it out with a cloth

and I'm going to put this into a bowl.

Then into that...we're going to mix in some beautiful,

fresh white crab meat.

-You a big crab fan?

-Yeah, I love crab.

-Good, good.

I wish...I'm actually one of these tricky people

-that has an allergy and I can't eat shellfish.

-Really?

So I have a wonderful, trusty sidekick -

very similar to the beautiful Debbie McGee,

except it is Jose Pizarro - who's going to taste this for me,

and let me know if it's seasoned OK and how we're getting on.

If you can let me know if that's OK...

It's OK?

Thanks, Debbie. All right then.

-I love it.

-I'm just going to dust...

..dust my board, and we're going to get...

..a little bit of the pasta dough. This is the pasta dough Jose's made.

We've rolled it through a pasta machine.

I'm just going to cut it into squares.

Then the crab filling is mixed with the cucumber and that apple.

Just going to pile into the middle.

Jose's actually searing up...

..some spring onions for me, to get a beautiful texture

and taste going on in the inside to give it a very, very nice,

an amazing toasted onion kind of flavour,

that almost bittersweet, burnt flavour that comes from it.

-The smell is just unbelievable.

-OK.

Now, to seal the ravioli,

I'm just brushing the outside of it with water, rather than egg yolk.

A lot of chefs would do egg yolks, but I'm going to use water.

Why is that? Why do you use water instead of egg?

It doesn't add anything to the dish - if you use egg yolk,

it's another layer of something that cooks.

The water will just stick - water and flour together,

it acts like glue, so what it'll do is it'll just stick together.

-That's a good tip.

-Yeah.

-And then...

-My friend, this smells lovely.

It does smell absolutely delicious. It does smell fantastic.

You've got the apple juice coming down -

-keep an eye on it, chef, don't let it burn.

-Absolutely.

Don't let it burn.

The trick with the ravioli

is to try and get all of the air out of the ravioli,

cos otherwise, when you try poaching it,

the air will expand and your ravioli will burst,

which isn't...a great start.

You spend all that time making pasta dough,

and then you burst your ravioli - it's not what you want.

OK. So, cut around the ravioli, and then,

kind of seal around the edges with your hands, like that,

and then...you spend the rest of the afternoon making a load more.

-Yes.

-And then we'll stick 'em into the fridge to rest.

Like with all pasta products and all flour things, pastries,

you need them to rest,

so I'm just going to drop a couple of these raviolis

into boiling, salted water.

Dust them with a little flour, sit them on a bit of clingfilm,

and they'll sit fine. We'll leave them there.

Now, into - where have you gone with my cloth, Jose?

OK - thank you very much, chef.

Into the apple reduction,

we are going to put some toasted nigella seeds.

Nigella seeds are like onion seeds, basically,

so they have this beautiful, bitter flavour.

You can drop them into there, and then whisk into that...

Put 'em all in, chef, put 'em all in.

Whisk into that a little of the English rapeseed oil.

English rapeseed oil is absolutely fantastic. It tastes great,

but it has that kind of dark, lovely flavour

that goes very well with spring onions.

Spring onions, Dave - are they called spring onions

because of the season?

Basically, yes, they are - it's exactly the right time of year now.

To start them off, you'd actually grown them under a canopy,

huge sheets across fields,

just to create a small microclimate to warm the ground up.

But when they actually emerge out of the ground,

they are literally folded over on themselves,

and the spring term actually comes from -

-they pop up out of the ground and stand to attention.

-Amazing.

So they actually...they spring...?

Literally, they emerge from the ground doubled up in half,

then they literally just pop up.

Do they make a noise? "Doooing!"

-I just like the idea of that, I like the idea.

-That would be quality.

-That would be really quality.

-Maybe they do and we don't know.

These raviolis, the pasta is just being cooked,

it's been in for about a minute and a half.

The crab will be cooked - it's already cooked,

we've just heated it through.

-Just going to drain it. Spring onions are cooked.

-Yeah.

That looks fantastic. Season this up with a little bit of salt.

Pinch of pepper.

And then some chopped chives go on the top, like that.

Then we're going to plate these up...

-Thank you, Jose.

-The smell is amazing.

What Jose's done is seared off the spring onions

and mixed them in with the apple juice dressing.

So apple juice, rapeseed oil and nigella seeds.

The crab raviolis go into the bowl.

They've just been drained.

And then - thank you very much, thank you -

then we're just going, on the top, we're just going to dress it

with a little bit of the spring onions

and nigella seeds and the apple.

-Guys, come and try this. Come on...

-Coming over.

Amanda was leaning over, getting desperate to come and eat it.

We've got more knives and forks, we've got plenty there.

-Get in there.

-I want to try that one, please.

That sauce looks amazing. Just looks just so...

-Oh!

-The smell, the flavour - you can smell that spring onion.

I think that adds to the crab, doesn't it?

-Like we say, it's the spring.

-It's the spring, it's the spring.

"That's like we say, it's the spring"

-Mmm!

-Heavenly.

-It really is.

Well, that's all from us on Spring Kitchen -

a massive thank you to Jose Pizarro, Dave Finkle and Amanda Abbington.

And of course, the great Nathan Outlaw.

All of today's recipes are on the website.

Please go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen.

Thanks very much for watching

and we'll see you next time - bye-bye.

Bye!