Episode 10 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

Spring is here and we have some great seasonal dishes

and wonderful company for you to enjoy. Welcome to Spring Kitchen.

Hello and welcome. We have a great line-up for you this afternoon.

The Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton takes us

to the market before creating a stunning spring recipe with

sweetbreads, morels and wild garlic especially for us.

Plus we take a peek into the BBC food archive and join

the Hairy Bikers who are making a lamb kofta curry

in their unique style.

Now, joining me in the studio is one of the best female chefs in the country.

She's the head chef of the Michelin-starred

Northcote Manor in Lancashire. It's Lisa Allen.

And we've got a special Spring Kitchen expert to tell us

all about the best cuts of meat on offer at this time of year.

It's our very own butcher, it's Andy Kirk. Hello to the two of you.

I need to get you back for that.

Spring a good time of year?

-Great, love it.

-Love it?

All the green shoots coming through from a chef's point of view.

-It's lovely.

-Definitely. Different things to use, coming out of winter

so it's a little bit more fresher and it's just a great time of year.

-And Andy?

-Yeah, of course.

-It's the classic spring lamb.

-Classic spring lamb for you.

-Yeah.

OK. So now, our guest is a comedienne,

but self-proclaimed grumpy old woman. So hopefully we can win her over today.

It's Jenny Eclair, everybody.

-Hello, hello. We shall see about that.

-About winning you over?

-Yes.

-Well, hopefully we can win you over with some food.

-With food!

-I'm quite greedy.

-Are you?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Horrifically greedy.

And what is your favourite food?

Well, we're on tour at the moment so we eat all the time

because obviously if your

blood sugar levels drop, you turn on each other.

Three ladies travelling round the country,

so we have to be constantly fed.

But we do have a bit of a pork pie theme going on.

-I like the pork pie theme.

-Do you?

I love pork pies and we'll come onto that. I'm a big pork pie fan.

So, listen, let's find out what else we've got on offer today.

Lisa, what are you going to be cooking?

Well, I'm going to do something a little bit sweet and different.

So, I'm going to do a thyme meringue with lemon curd,

celeriac and celery sorbet.

That sounds mad!

It does sound bonkers but absolutely delicious.

We tried it in rehearsal and it is lovely.

And then later on, I'm going to be doing a recipe with lamb shank.

I'm going to braise the lamb shanks with some bay leaves and serve it

with borlotti beans and some merguez sausages.

-I like that.

-Good, OK, so...

-Right up my street.

OK, well, listen, for the first recipe, I'm going

to be using a very fashionable tail fillet of beef.

-Andy, you're going to tell us about beef fillet in a minute.

-I will.

But we're going to head that way and do a little bit of cooking.

-Come on, girl.

-Oh, not me!

-All right, I'll cook.

-I haven't even washed my hands!

-Well, that's OK, you sit there.

-I won't get you to touch...

-I'm filthy!

Let me explain who Andy is first of all.

Well, he's the meat expert.

Andy is a meat expert, but he is actually my real life butcher.

He delivers to me every day

and most of the time, we spend a lot of time on the phone talking.

It's pretty much more about football than it is about meat.

I have to be honest with you.

But, Andy, this time, no football, chief, no football,

-just talk to us about meat.

-Well, I wouldn't mind.

-Tail fillets of beef.

It's the end piece of beef of the fillet that not many,

as a chef's point of view, we don't use very much because it

-doesn't always...presentation wise it doesn't look so great.

-Exactly.

But it's perfect for a stir-fry, obviously what you're doing,

flash frying, nice fillet medallions.

I mean, you've actually got a lovely piece there.

It's the Herefordshire cross Aberdeen Angus, which is immense.

How many would you use that for?

-Is that just for one or is that for two?

-Well, I can't see it from here.

I can't handle it. I can't handle it.

You've got two portions there at least.

It's because his eyesight's going and he's very old. That's it.

That's why he can't see it.

If you carry on like that, we're talking football.

So, that's for two. OK.

Well, that probably is for two.

We're going to cook it and slice it and then all of us

are going to eat it, to be fair.

-There's not going to be much to go round.

-There's not, no.

But don't worry, there's plenty of food coming later.

I've got some shallots and butter, a little bit of salt and pepper

and we're going to cook that down nicely

because we're going to be making a mushroom...

well, a mushroom ketchup

or mushroom puree or sauce so...

I was reading that you actually have a tomato allergy, is that right?

Oh, it's so boring. It is the dullest thing in the world.

Quite a few people have it.

Tomatoes give me mouth ulcers and because I talk for a living,

I just can't afford to have them,

so I have to cut all sorts of red things out of my diet.

Now, it could be hormonal, just to make things more complicated,

but I never had it as a child.

It hit me when I was in my late 40s and prevention is better than cure,

so I have to have... I'm very difficult to feed

because most things have got tomatoes in, haven't they?

A lot of things do have tomatoes in, and they're used in

so many different ways because they contain a high acidity level.

Well, this'll be it, won't it? It's either tomatoes or chardonnay.

You have to be very careful.

And I've just realised that you've got some shelves down here

and I'm so short that I've put my feet up on this shelf

and they're nearly in the butter dish.

Don't worry, we won't use that butter.

This is for the recipe later on. We're going to ditch the butter.

I've already asked...

Change the butter, Jenny Eclair's feet have been in there.

-My trotters.

-Jenny Eclair's trotters have been in there.

I've already asked your meat expert what

he would do with a certain cut of meat.

I've shown him my ankles.

He hasn't got a clue what he'd do with them.

What are you putting in there?!

That's probably the first time Andy's been lost for words.

-I'll be honest with you.

-He couldn't speak.

OK, so this is demerara sugar.

Ketchup basically is a mixture of vinegar

and sweetness, it's that balance.

So, we've got some demerara sugar, some mushrooms,

a little bit of butter, the shallot,

then we're going to cover it with white wine vinegar.

-We kind of reduce it all down and cook it all together.

-Right.

-And then into that, a couple of salted anchovies.

-Right you are.

So these anchovies, they're just all about flavour, don't worry.

It's complicated, isn't it?

It's not, it's very easy, and we'll also do some crispy

shallot rings whilst we're here to go on top.

Shallot rings go beautifully with steaks.

And we're going to do some shallot rings to go with it and then...

So, tour, Jenny, you're on tour at the minute.

Yes, we're on the road at the moment.

-And it's with Grumpy Old Women Live.

-So, this is based on the TV show?

Well, sort of but not.

Grumpy Old Women on the television was massively, massively successful

and the TV producer and I had a drink in the pub about

ten years ago and we came up with the idea to do a live version.

She said it was her idea, I say it's my idea.

We will end up in court over it.

And since then, we've written three of these live grumpy extravaganzas

and they're completely stand-alone shows so this third one,

50 Shades Of Beige, is an entirely new show

-and different from the two that went before.

-50 Shades Of Beige?

-Yeah, yes. You know when that book came out last year?

-I have no idea.

No idea which book you're talking about.

-So, I just thought "Well, here's a marketing opportunity."

-Do carry on.

Don't worry, I can raise my voice over that!

Don't you worry, dear.

I'm not going to let that put me off plugging my show.

So, as I say, this is the third one and we've just started,

so we're still quite fresh.

But it's more theatrical and a bigger show.

They're physically quite hard work.

-And how many shows do you do in a day? One or two?

-Try not to kill us!

-We can really only do one show a day.

-OK.

Anyway, food-wise on this tour, in the show,

there's a thing about why Grumpy Old Women are so grumpy,

because we're so tired, because we do sleep too much, and we do

a pie chart of what constitutes a normal day in the life of a grumpy.

-Yeah.

-And the pie chart is a big pork pie. We take the lid off this

pork pie and then there's a mathematical chart underneath.

-And you're a big pork pie fan?

-Big pork pie fan.

There's another bit in the show where

I come out as not being a chocolate lover, preferring a pork pie.

-You're NOT a chocolate lover?

-No, I don't like chocolate.

And I do some stuff about, "Wouldn't it be great if you went to

"a hotel and they turned your bed down and left a pork pie on your pillow?"

That night, in Salisbury,

got back to the hotel. Pork pies on our pillows!

Pork pie on your pillow?

And you think, "Oh, well, I won't eat that at midnight what a ridiculous thing."

Mmm-hm-hm! Absolutely delicious.

So, yes, there's a lot of um...

We have a rider, obviously, because we are very rock'n'roll.

So a rider is actually the demands that you make

-in your dressing room and yours is a pork pie?

-No, we don't actually. It's salads.

It's good quality salads from a certain shop on the high street.

-Anyway...

-Come on over.

-Oh, look!

What's this? This is the mushroom ketchup?

This is the mushroom ketchup or puree.

And then we've got the flash-fried steak,

so it's still nice and pink in the middle.

Very hot on the outside.

-Wow!

-We're going to get some knives and forks.

Lisa, they're underneath there, if you could grab some.

My feet have been nowhere near those.

Nowhere near the knives and forks.

How kind, thank you.

A bit of seasoning. You like your meat rare, don't you?

Well, I don't seem to have much choice! It's too late now.

We're just going to put that on. A little bit

of very tasty parsley that goes on there.

I was a bit worried you were going to overcook that, Tom.

Come on, Andy, come on!

Some crispy shallot rings and then you know what?

I'm going to drizzle it with a little bit of beautiful

English rapeseed oil, and in you go, guys. Just get in there.

Flash-fried steak, mushroom ketchup,

some crispy shallots and a bit of rapeseed oil.

And you managed that all the time while I was yakking on,

-in your ear and you did that.

-They were beautiful dulcet tones.

They were beautiful dulcet tones.

-Can I squeeze in there?

-I'm so sorry, but this is...

-How are we doing? We like it? Are we happy?

-I'm getting there.

-Love it?

All right, brilliant.

OK, now in every show, we're getting out

and about and visiting some of our favourite chefs

on their home turf for their take on spring ingredients.

Today we join Jason Atherton in search of some

morels for a sweetbread risotto.

This is spring time.

One of the most exciting times of the year for me as a chef.

At my restaurant, this is

when we start to get rid of all the root vegetables

and all the heavy dishes and transform them

into something more exciting - all those beautiful light ingredients

like peas, morels, asparagus, spring lamb and wild garlic.

And I love to get out of my kitchen

and come down to a market to find out exactly what's going on,

and there's no better place than the world famous Borough market.

Afternoon. So, I'm after some beautiful new season ingredients.

-I see you've got morels.

-Yep.

I see you've got some three-cornered leeks, some wild garlic.

Obviously, you know, this is what spring's all about.

A dozen morels, if that's possible?

-A couple of hundred grams of wild garlic.

-Happy?

So, I've got some fantastic morels and some great wild garlic,

and I just cannot wait to cook it for you.

So, here we are back at the restaurant.

And the dish I'm going to cook for you today which just sings spring

is a beautiful asparagus, wild garlic and morel risotto.

So, first part of our recipe. We're going to go straight onto the rice.

This is a cute little tip I'm going to teach you at home

so when you're doing a dinner party,

risotto rice takes a long time to do properly.

You're talking 20/25 minutes, constant attention to detail,

but this is a little chef's tip which every top chef

in the world uses to speed up that process,

because we don't have 25 minutes in the middle of service.

So, all we take is chicken stock, we pop in the rice.

It doesn't have to be any particular measurement.

And we're going to cook the rice in there for about three to four minutes, that's all.

Till the starch starts to come out, and then we rinse it under

cold water, and then we keep it in the fridge.

And then your rice is ready.

Then we end up with rice like this which is all nice and fluffy

and ready to use. On with our risotto.

So, we take a little bit of chicken stock,

in goes the rice,

and just enough to cover the rice.

And the reason why I always use a soft spoon, never a metal spoon,

so either wooden, plastic or even a bendy material like this.

Is because you don't want to break the rice.

Because if you use a hard spoon,

it will always, always break down the rice.

So, now that's coming to the boil - it's really crucial - we're going to

add the mushroom stock

and the great thing about this is

when you're prepping any mushrooms for your dishes at home,

keep the trimmings, roast them off with a little bit of thyme, garlic, bay leaf,

add a little bit of water or chicken stock or whatever you're

going to add, cook it out for about an hour, and then pass it off

and reduce it so you end up with this beautiful mushroom stock.

So...

in goes the mushroom stock like so. We just leave that on the side.

And now for the second part of the dish.

Nice pan, little bit of olive oil in there. Really nice and hot.

This is crucial for this part. A little bit of butter.

So, I've just got these sweetbreads in a little bit of olive oil

and the reason why I've done that is just to keep them nice

and moist before I'm about to fry them.

Because these are from the spring lamb, these are delicate,

so we want to take care of our ingredients.

Look at that now. We're after this beurre noisette.

It's what we call beurre noisette in the industry.

And this is just burnt butter. A little bit of sea salt.

In goes our asparagus, fresh from the Wye Valley.

When the asparagus hits the kitchen, you know it's springtime. Nothing...

There's not a single ingredient in the world that shouts out

spring more than asparagus.

A tiny little bit more butter.

And now we're just going to roast those around.

And last but not least,

in goes our beautiful morels. This is a perfect marry.

Lamb sweetbreads, asparagus

and morels is a very classic combination.

This is just about the best pan

of spring ingredients you could ever imagine.

Just look at those colours.

Any chef in the world, no matter where you are,

would look in that pan and know it's springtime in my kitchen.

A little bit more sea salt.

Now THAT is ready. Straight in.

We want to keep the beurre noisette over our ingredients. Fantastic.

Now, we're going to finish our risotto.

That's ready now.

We're going to put a little knob of butter, a little bit

of mascarpone cheese, some beautiful Parmesan which has been grated.

We're not going to stir it too fast. We just want to fold that in.

Last three parts of the dish.

A little bit of mushroom puree, meat stock into the pan.

Just going to add that as a little bit of a glaze for our morels.

Now, the mushroom puree, this is really simple.

All this is, is field mushrooms.

We roast them off in a pan with some thyme, garlic, bay leaf and rosemary.

When they're cooked, we add a little bit of chicken stock

and just keep cooking them out, and then we blend.

And we just add a little bit of cream at the last minute.

One spoonful is all we need. And again, not using our metal spoon.

And that's just really going to give it a mushroomy flavour

and thicken it right up.

And you've got this really creamy beautiful rich risotto.

Last part of the dish, fold in the wild garlic. It's such a soft herb.

It doesn't need any cooking whatsoever.

And then that's it.

That's our risotto done.

We're ready to serve.

The risotto straight in the middle of the plate.

Fill it right up.

You don't want to waste any of this risotto, it's just fabulous.

We start building up the asparagus around

our lovely roasted morels, like so. Just screams and shouts spring.

Morels, asparagus, sweetbreads, wild garlic.

Just a little bit of Parmesan. Not too much.

You don't have to add these.

This is just a little chefy thing we do, you know?

This is what I call

spring on a plate.

It's our wild garlic and mushroom risotto, with roasted morels,

sweetbread and British asparagus.

Everything about this dish just oozes British quality

ingredients in springtime.

You've got to try this dish at home.

Thank you very much, Jason, and he is right.

You have to try that dish at home.

It looked like a big bowl of spring in a plate, didn't it?

-Oh, it was lovely.

-Delicious. OK, right.

It's time for somebody else to cook and it's someone who's

a great mate of mine, and one of the most fantastic cooks in the country

right now. It's the amazing Lisa Allen. Hello, Lisa.

What are you going to be cooking for us today?

I'm going to do something a little bit different.

I'm going to do a thyme meringue with lemon curd, celery sorbet

and celeriac.

You've made this up, haven't you?

You did say before that you didn't really like chocolate,

so that's why I've put vegetables with a dessert.

-Is there a pork pie in the middle?

-There isn't, if you've got one...

No pork pies but I'm going to crack on and get making the meringue.

So, this meringue, it's actually a thyme meringue, is that right?

Yeah, so basically it's a classic meringue and we're just going

to put a little bit of thyme in it which gives it a really nice flavour.

And here I've got some celery, so we quickly chop it up,

and then we put this in a mixer or a blender, with some glucose,

some lemon juice and some water and just blitz it all together.

I must say, Tom, it's the first time I've ever had make-up.

I was in for five minutes.

They told me you were in for about three hours.

Now I know you're lying. Now I know you're lying.

OK, so into the meringue mix here, I've got sugar,

the egg whites, a little bit of vinegar and a little bit of water.

Yeah, a little bit of vinegar and a little bit of water.

What we want is a crispy outside and a soft centre

in the middle, and that's what the white wine vinegar does, you know?

It gets that lovely coating on the outside

and really soft in the middle.

-Helps it keep that marshmallowy kind of texture.

-Yeah.

Now, Lisa, you've been Nigel Haworth's head chef up at Northcote Manor.

We all know good old Nigel. You've been there for a...

Nearly 13 years, is that right?

Yeah, it'll be 13 years in September, which is a while.

You don't look old enough, girl, you don't look old enough.

You took over as head chef at a very young age, didn't you?

-Yeah, I was 23 when I took over and...

-Where is it, Lisa?

Where is your lovely restaurant?

Erm, it's in the north of England, Lancashire.

Oh, we're going on tour up there. We should pop in.

Yeah, you must come and say hello.

We've just had quite a big refurbishment done,

-it's been going on since June last year.

-Don't let her have a free meal.

No, no, we still have to charge you up north.

Just make sure she's got a pork pie and that'll be all right. Make sure she's got pork pies.

-Are you from Lancashire?

-Yes, I am, yeah. I'm a Lancashire lass at heart.

-But this is not a Lancashire dish.

-Well, it is.

I'm using Lancashire produce.

So here I've got the celery sorbet.

We're going to pop it into the ice-cream churner, or simply

if you just pop it into a tray and put it in the freezer.

So, I'm trying to get the meringue off. There we go.

You can tell I haven't done much time in pastry.

I'm going to pinch your knife

and we're going to put this thyme through it.

Now, this is just like normal thyme,

it's not lemon thyme, is it?

No, we've just gone for a normal thyme in there

because we're going to put a lemon curd with it.

Which is just like a classic lemon curd.

It's nice to see you're being told what to do, Tom.

Yeah, well, Andy, you're married.

-Don't you normally get told what to do by a girl?

-All the time.

-It's pretty much standard, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So, talking of marriage, Lisa, you got married just recently,

-didn't you?

-Yeah, I did, yeah.

-To good old Steve.

Now, Steve's a South-African, you got married down in South Africa.

Yeah, it was amazing, absolutely amazing.

So I've only been married about a couple of months now, so it's great.

So here what I've got is... Basically we're going to salt-bake the celeriac.

And what I'm doing is mixing egg whites with the salt just so it

forms a snowball effect so you'll be able to put it into your hands.

So salt-baking the celeriac, what's the reason

and the point of doing that?

Well, a salt bake is

basically what you're doing is you're crusting the vegetable with salt

-and the egg white.

-I thought that was a loaf of bread!

-No, it's celeriac.

It's a root vegetable, it tastes like celery.

I know what it is but it's extraordinary what you're doing.

Oh, it's lovely.

And do you know the thing about it is the salt doesn't

permeate the skin so it doesn't take on in the vegetable.

-But what it does do...

-So what does it do?

Well, basically, it keeps all the juices in there,

so you're keeping all the flavour of the celeriac in there.

So it just cooks it so slowly that when you open it and you crack

it open, you get so many lovely juices and a true flavour.

These meringues, you just pipe out and then these go into...

Well, you've got them in a posh dehydrator here,

but you can just do them in the oven, can't you?

Yeah, just pop them in the oven and do it normal, yeah.

They'll take about 120/130, take about 20 minutes?

Not very long at all.

So, you see there's a little bit of time there to crust it with

-salt all the way around.

-This is like watching a magic show.

Well, that's a massive compliment.

It's more like a comedy show, I have to be honest with you.

If I'm ever involved on the pastry section, it is normally a joke.

I normally stick to what I know which is meat,

and then all of that comes from Andy, to be fair. OK.

So I'm just going to pop this in the oven, about 180 for two hours,

-two-and-a-half hours.

-And you end up with this.

-Yeah, beautiful.

So this salt crust here, this dough that's been cooked on it...

And what do you do with that? Do you just feed that to the birds?

Yeah, you can actually grind it down and use it again and put more

-egg white and stuff with it. It's quite...

-And re-use it.

Yeah, and re-use it again, Because people will say it's quite

a cost-effective thing to do because you're using so much salt on it.

But believe me, when you taste it, it's got a lovely flavour to it.

So you've got the sorbet done?

Yeah, the sorbet's done and I'm just going to get some...

-I'm dicing this celeriac.

-..lemon curd.

And a little bit of whipped cream.

-Lemon curd is made the normal way you make it.

-Yeah. Classic.

Classic lemon curd.

So, did you two first meet on the Great British Menu, Tom?

That's it, actually.

Lisa was on the Great British Menu. 2010, was it, Lisa?

I think that was when Lisa actually won the starter course.

I remember that, yeah.

To be honest, Great British Menu 2010 was a vintage year,

because I won the main course and Lisa had the starter.

An amazing experience.

We're going to start putting this together?

Lisa's celeriac has just been mixed with a little

bit of elderflower syrup.

Yeah, again that just gives it a little bit of seasoning.

Instead of seasoning with salt, you can season with lovely elderflower.

So, here I've got some nice celeriac crisps,

so we're just going to build the dish now.

-How did you invent this?

-It came to her in a dream, I reckon.

Yeah, I was asleep one night and I woke up the next day

and thought, "Hmm, let's do something a bit different."

That's where these guys are so amazing.

-Aw, look at him.

-Well, you deserve a little bit of praise.

This is where his meat prices increase next time.

It's a great thing you do, actually. You're just making all these new recipes.

Remember when I paid you a compliment.

So, we've got some meringues and a good spoon of that lemon curd.

Some cream on the top.

I have to say that I actually want to supply Lisa some raw meats.

Thanks, mate, why don't we come on up?

We'll have a little try of this.

Lisa's just finishing putting it together. Come on up.

This is extraordinary!

We've got a spoon here so you're going to be able to dig in.

There's a little bit of apple juice there. Some of the sorbet.

I'll finish it with a little bit of the juice.

Would you say this is the typical style of the sort of food they'd be

-cooking at Northcote Manor at the minute?

-Yeah, I think so.

You know, using the classic flavours

and different twists on dishes and stuff,

and I think the greatest thing about this dish that really draws me

to it is the fact that it's so fresh and at this time of year,

because you're not quite at the summer fruits and stuff yet,

it's nice to use something different to stay away from those winter

fruits that are just starting to go out.

-Looks good.

-This is the celeriac? This is the sorbet?

This is the sorbet, yeah. So you put a good spoon of the sorbet on there.

There we are. Let's stick it in front of Andy. Everyone get in.

-There you go.

-Looks good. I'm going to let you go first, Jenny.

-That looks like pineapple.

-Yeah.

-Right, OK.

-Go on, get in there.

Am I allowed not to like this?

-No, you're allowed not to like it.

-No, no, please don't.

-You can tell me later.

-Yeah, just do it off-screen.

-Sorry.

She's not very good with a spoon.

I'm barely trained, to be quite honest.

You normally just pick the pork pie up, don't you?

You don't need any cutlery.

-It's fabulous!

-There we go, it's fabulous.

-That's good.

OK, whilst Jenny eats this,

we're going to take a flick through the BBC's food back catalogue,

as we join the Hairy Bikers who are rustling up a lamb kofta curry.

We're going to be using minced lamb to make these beautiful koftas,

served with a delicious curried tomato sauce.

-We're making a meatball curry!

-A meatball curry! Koftas!

-Kofta curry.

-Now, Dave's going to make the balls.

-Yeah.

And I, well, I'm going to make

the sauce for said balls.

But it all comes together

in perfect harmony. My, oh, my!

These are spicy balls!

Right, these koftas are packed with flavour

and a lot of ingredients but don't worry, we're going to bung it

all into a food processor and let that do all the work.

You need two green chillies, one medium onion,

about 15g of fresh ginger, four garlic cloves,

one teaspoon of flaked sea salt, two teaspoons of garam masala,

and a quarter of a teaspoon of hot chilli powder.

And lastly, a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Now, I'm going to pulse this until it's a paste.

Halfway through blitzing, use a spatula to push

the mixture down to make sure you get it evenly blended together.

Wooh!

We've put the lamb in there, minced lamb, 600g,

and we're just going to pulse that together.

You'll only need about 20 seconds in the blender.

Oh! It's like a meat smoothie.

Look at that. That's the kofta mix.

What I am going to do now is put in loads of black pepper,

and honestly, it's more black pepper than you think.

It really works with this.

Just give that a mash through.

I need three tablespoons of coriander.

I'm not going to do this in the food processor because

I don't want the blades crushing the life out the coriander.

It would bruise it. It'd be horrible.

Just work that coriander through.

The best way to do this is to get your hands in.

Now cover it with clingfilm and chill for a few hours to let

the meat absorb all those delicious spices.

Of course, this being on the telly, we've made some already!

-Handy, that.

-Whoa! When I took the clingfilm off, I got a real waft.

Take a piece like a small walnut. It does stay together quite well.

If it doesn't, just use damp hands, but I think I'm fine here.

And roll it. And it's nice to have uniform meatballs. And repeat.

While Dave's cracking on with that, it's sauce time.

To kick off, we need to heat three tablespoons of ghee,

or sunflower oil if you can't get that, and fry two medium chopped onions,

four chopped garlic cloves, and 25g of chopped fresh

root ginger until they're all softened and lightly browned.

Just add a little bit of salt to the onions, because it draws out

all of that great moisture and natural sugars in the onions.

Keep stirring!

Next, add a tablespoon of garam masala and if you like it hot,

a teaspoon of chilli powder.

Stir that in for another minute or so.

Next, roughly chop four large tomatoes.

Right, what we're going to do, increase the heat,

and then put these lovely tomatoes into the pan.

We're going to cook them over a high heat until they start to yield

all of their moisture, and then after that, we're going to add our tomato puree.

# Mince on a Thursday, curry on a Friday, cottage pie on Saturday... #

And give it a stir.

A sprinkle of salt,

and half a teaspoon of caster sugar for sweetness.

Just to counter the acidity in the tomatoes and tomato puree.

Give it a stir.

Pour in 500ml of lamb stock...

..add a bay leaf and a cinnamon stick.

-Oh, nice touch.

-OK, cover the pan loosely,

and cook on a simmer for about 20 minutes.

How are you getting on with your balls, David?

-Oh, smashing, look at that symmetry.

-Lovely! That'll do lovely.

-Nice!

-So that's 20 minutes, mate.

-Any chance of a taste?

-Yeah, have a go.

-Ooh, aye, really fresh.

-Yeah?

-Nice, yeah.

-What we're going to do...

Fish out the bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Take it off the heat...

..and blitz it with a hand blender until smooth.

Right, we're going to return that back to the heat,

bring it to a simmer, add 200ml of water.

But remember, the meatballs are going to soak up some of that moisture.

Right, boys, you're going swimming in that pool of flavour.

# I should be dining like the king

# Then you've got to take my last meatball

# That's what you did... #

Cor! Look at that lamb cauldron of flavour.

I tell you what's interesting, Dave. The sauce has gone right down.

Yeah, it has.

So 20-35 minutes cooking uncovered

has really thickened that up lovely, hasn't it?

Yeah, and it's also taken the juices out the meat,

and it's changed colour.

Now, I've just got some simple jasmine rice here,

and run a little bit of coriander through.

-Lovely.

-That's it.

-Look at that.

Oh, nice!

But I think the greatest thing about meatballs is whatever description,

whatever nationality, they're such a good eat when they're done properly.

-You want lots of that sauce.

-Oh, man.

And just some natural yogurt,

because I think these are going to be pretty spicy.

Although people might say that a kofta curry isn't

-the best of British, well, it is!

-Yeah.

Because it's here, it's here to stay.

-And I'm very grateful for that.

-So am I.

Tuck in.

-Oh, nice texture.

-Yeah?

-Bit of rice.

-Really good.

-Ho-ho, yes!

-Rocking.

Thank you very much, Dave and Si. I absolutely love a lamb curry.

Now, throughout this series, we're showcasing some real, key seasonal

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

Today, I'm going to be doing a recipe with lamb shanks

and borlotti beans, and Lisa Allen here is going to give me a hand.

Right, now, Lisa, first thing I need you to do, make me

a bit of a lemon jam kind of thing,

something like a lemon marmalade

so we're going to take the skin off, slice it, blanche it three times

and then with the juice and sugar, mix it together.

-No bother.

-So that acidity will come through

nicely at the end of the dish.

So, these are lamb shanks and they're fantastic.

They had a big revival in the '90s where everybody was using them

in restaurants, even the posh restaurants,

and now they've kind of died off a little bit.

-But lamb shanks are good now, Andy?

-Very much back on, Tom.

I mean that is some Wiltshire Diamond spring lamb

-you've got there.

-Oh, hello.

You can actually have the shank off the shoulder or the leg,

but you've got it off the leg there, because it's a lot more meat.

Obviously you like a big portion.

What do you mean by obviously?

-I don't know what you're talking about.

-It's one shank per person.

-They weigh roughly 400/454g.

-How much?

-400/454g.

-No, no, how much in money? £400? Get out of here.

-That's the weight.

They retail about high £3/4 each, which I think is

wonderful for the amount of meat you're actually getting.

You get a huge amount of meat. You get a huge amount of meat.

I'm more mutton than lamb, obviously.

Mutton is lovely, it suits a different cause

but the mutton flavour...

What's the difference between the mutton and the lamb?

Well, the lamb this time of year is up to about six months in age.

Mutton is 24 months and over

and then you have the hogget lamb as well which is about 16 months.

Would you class it as a cheap cut of meat, the lamb, the lamb shank?

-Without doubt, it's extremely good value.

-Good value meat is what we want.

OK, so I'm searing it up, giving it a nice colour, and we're just going

to cook it with some onions, some celery, some garlic, but also...

And with it being spring lamb,

it's obviously going to be incredibly succulent and tender.

Yeah, absolutely. Best time of year, beautiful flavours, absolutely.

And we're going to cook it with some borlotti beans as well.

I've got some diced onion and we're just

sweating that down with a little bit of butter and a little bit of oil.

We're going to put a pinch of salt and pepper into it.

And into that, that kind of salt and pepper, what it does,

the seasoning of it, the moisture, it draws all

the moisture from the salt, so it actually softens it quite quickly.

Put these on there. I'll just get in your way, Lisa.

And what you're doing there is blanching the lemon zest,

so you've kind of cut the lemon zest into a strip,

a little bit like marmalade,

and you're going to be cooking those three times in boiling water.

And what that does, is it takes away the bitter flavour from the lemon

-and then you've juiced the lemon and added that with sugar.

-Yep.

-OK.

-Could you use marmalade from a jar?

-N...yes.

-You're giving me evils now.

Well, yes, you could,

but the problem is that it probably contains too much sugar,

so what we're looking at here is we're trying to create a real high

acidity balance, so lamb, lamb shank in a braise,

like a casserole is quite rich and quite filling.

We're looking for some sort of acidity that cuts through it,

that gives it a lovely flavour.

You could use marmalade, but it might be a little sweet.

It might be a little sweet.

OK, so into this we've got here some borlotti beans.

Now, borlotti beans are predominantly an Italian bean,

kind of like a white bean but you need to soak them overnight

and then braise them for about three hours so they go nice and soft.

These are out of a tin, you could just drain them from a tin.

I was going to ask, can you use tins?

You could use tins, that wouldn't be a problem.

So you can use tinned beans and some marmalade.

Tinned beans and marmalade. So this is like extreme breakfast with lamb.

And maybe some spam from a tin.

We're actually cooking some sausage as well,

so it is, it's marmalade, sausage and tinned beans,

but the sausages are actually a merguez sausage.

-It's actually a lamb sausage, isn't it, Andy?

-It's a spicy lamb.

You can make it with spicy lamb or a mutton with some cumin.

I was just going to ask you have you used merguez before in your restaurant at all?

-Yeah, I do like the use of merguez.

-Very strong flavour.

Very strong flavour, and it's a North African sausage so it has

those kind of flavours that go with Tunisian or Algerian kind of dishes.

Certainly not a breakfast sausage.

No, certainly not a breakfast sausage.

It's quite spicy, which is lovely.

We've put those into the pan with the onions,

the onions are beginning to soften.

We're just going to add the borlotti beans as well.

And all those flavours from the merguez sausage begin to come out.

Merguez, it's actually a lamb sausage.

They cure the meat first, don't they?

-So it's quite firm and it's quite a dry mix.

-Yes, it is.

-It's not like an English breakfast sausage...

-Exactly, yeah.

..where it's succulent and moist. OK. The lamb...

We've got some onions, we've got some celery,

and I'm going to put the bay leaves in there, with some garlic.

Now, bay leaves are fantastic with lamb.

They're very fragrant, almost floral in flavour, and into that,

a little bit of very good, clear chicken stock or lamb stock.

It comes up to the boil.

-And the lid goes on.

-There's no quick way though, is there?

There's no quick way to cook a lamb shank.

-You have to slow cook, you can't...

-Unfortunately not, no.

You have to slow cook, but that's the beautiful thing about these sorts of cuts of meat.

If it wasn't a lamb shank, you could use shoulder perhaps.

Absolutely, but it's the same with... The cuts that are cheaper

do require more labour in the kitchen.

That's quite often the case whether it be beef, pork or lamb.

-They're quite often the ones with the most flavour as well.

-Absolutely.

OK, so the casserole, or the lamb shanks,

go into the oven to braise, and they're going to

braise for the best part

of two to two-and-a-half hours.

Just take them out, turn that down, and close the oven door.

We're just going to leave them to sit,

and then what you're going to use is the stock.

We see this beautiful stock that's inside just nicely bubbling away,

and all that flavour of the bay leaf and the onion and the lamb.

-Smell those sausages, releasing the flavours, they're beautiful.

-Yeah.

We'll just put a ladle full of that stock on top of the sausages.

Now, Jenny, you originally grew up in Singapore in Kuala Lumpur?

I was born in Kuala Lumpur but I was a baby.

I don't remember any food particularly,

although my mother, when we lived in Singapore,

she went on a curry cooking course

so when we came back to live in Lytham St Anne's

in the late '60s,

she was one of the few women at that time cooking proper authentic

curries, pulling faces when people started using Vesta curry.

-You remember those packets and all that sort of thing?

-Yeah, yeah.

My mother would take three days to make a curry.

I think she was quite slow as well.

She didn't pass any skills onto my sister and I, I have to admit.

I think she liked being in the kitchen by herself.

You know when people say, "Oh, I learnt to cook by my mother,

"spent time..." My mother shut the door. She didn't want us in.

-She'd had enough of us.

-It was an escape route.

-Yes, yes.

She was a great pan-burner as well.

I used to come back from school...

because she'd get bored of cooking

and just sort of wander off and read a book in the corner

and then, you know,

be alerted to the house being slightly on fire. I'd often

come home from school and there'd be a pan burning on the back step.

My brother's actually the best cook out of the three of us.

My sister will kill me for saying that on television,

because she thinks she's quite good.

Went round to hers recently and had goose.

It's the ugliest looking thing I've ever seen!

Aren't they ugly? Oh, what a hideous beast!

It sat there all sort of funny coloured and you think, "Hmm."

-They do taste lovely though. Goose is fantastic.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Best flavour.

-And food-wise, you did I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here?

-Oh, yes, I did that.

-And what was the food like there?

Did you have to eat any of the witchetty grubs, any of the...

-Yes, they're delicious. They're all right.

-Really?

You don't eat anything that isn't traditional to the indigenous

population and has at one point been a delicacy.

Kangaroo anus I'm a fan of.

And I would say forget turkey, forget turkey at Christmas.

You didn't like the look of a goose?

-Andy, can you get hold of that for me?

-It'll be up tomorrow.

I'll deliver it tomorrow. You just say the word.

Tender, juicy.

So what Lisa's got here is the lemon and the lemon zest,

some sugar, and the lemon juice all mixed in together with these

borlotti beans that have been cooked with a bit of the sauce.

Merguez sausage goes into the bottom of the pan.

So this is kind of like very posh baked beans,

this beautiful gravy going on it.

-And there's no tomato in there, is there?

-No tomato in here, no.

So it's just the braising liquor

and then Lisa's also deep-fried me

or fried me some little pieces of garlic, but taking them

so they're nice and brown.

Very crispy and it's got a beautiful toasty flavour.

-Come on over, guys.

-Yeah. I'll look forward to that one.

-I'll try not to break into a run.

-The lamb shank sits on top.

There we go.

Then we're going to put on a couple of pieces of these

beautiful toasted garlic. Knives and forks.

And a little bit of parsley on the top.

We've done curly parsley garnish and flat parsley garnish.

Gone back to 1987. You get in there and eat some lamb shanks.

The ideal thing with these is you actually pick it up

-with your hands.

-Of course, of course.

I'm trying to be well-mannered on national television.

I'm trying not to look like a complete pig.

This smells delicious.

-It's so tender it's just fallen off the bone.

-Yeah.

I'm trying to get a bit of everything.

-That slow-cooking is lovely.

-We'll leave some for you, Tom.

-Yeah, that's all right, don't worry.

-You'll be lucky.

-There we go. Jenny's in. How does that taste, girl?

-Mmm, mmm, mmm!

-That's lovely. OK.

-This is right up my street.

-That could be on a pillow as well.

-Happy, Andy?

-Fantastic.

You should be. It's your meat, mate.

OK, well that's all from us

on Spring Kitchen today.

A big thanks to the lovely Lisa Allen, Andy Cook

and the amazing Jenny Eclair, and of course the great Jason Atherton.

All of today's recipes are available on the website.

Please go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen

Big thank you for watching

and we'll see you next time.

Take care, bye-bye.