Episode 14 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

As its spring, we're celebrating this exciting season with

some fantastic food and even better company. Welcome to Spring Kitchen.

Hello and welcome.

We have the very best spring recipes for you to enjoy at home

using the abundance of great produce available at the moment.

We start off by heading to the New Forest

to join chefs Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder as they forage

for some wild garlic to go with their saddle of goat.

Plus, we take a peek into the BBC food archive

and join Rick Stein for a traditional paella recipe

set against the beautiful Spanish backdrop.

Italian food is fantastic for showcasing this season's bounty

and, despite the fact that he's from Surrey,

one of the best Italian chefs in this country

is our own home-grown Theo Randall.

Spring has sprung and there's lots of wonderful greenery around

to use in the kitchen.

So, here to advise us is gardening expert Diarmuid Gavin.

-Hello to the two of you.

-Hi, how are you?

-I'm good. You OK?

-Oh, fantastic.

-Happy? Spring is here!

A wonderful time of year for any gardener.

Any gardener. Everything is green. Everything is growing.

-Loads of shoots of life.

-Pulsating under the soil. Absolutely.

-For you, Theo?

-Spring's a great time for me

-cos I just love vegetables in the spring.

-Brilliant!

So spring is perfect.

Now, joining us for seasonal fare, we have a TV presenter

who loves to escape to the country whenever she can,

but today, she's here in Clapham. It's Nicki Chapman.

-Hello, Nicky. How are you?

-Hi. How are you?

CHEERING

-Springtime a great time of year for you?

-It is,

because I spend most of the week outside.

So, as soon as that sun comes through, the flowers are out,

the trees are in sort of full bloom and such,

or the green leaves are coming through,

you just think, "Well, that's it. Goodbye, winter. I'm ready."

-Out in to the countryside.

-Yes!

-Fantastic.

-And a food fan. You're a big food fan?

-Massive food fan.

-A massive food fan.

-I'm hungry today.

That's good, because, Theo, what have you got cooking for us?

I'm going to be cooking a classic Italian minestrone primavera,

which is just the perfect spring in a bowl, basically.

You've got asparagus. You've got peas, broad beans, green beans,

potatoes and then with a delicious pesto.

-It's very simple, but really delicious.

-Absolutely. Beautiful.

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

I'm going to be using a lamb belly to make some fritters

and it's served with some spinach and anchovy mayonnaise.

OK, so, my first recipe, I'm going to be using lemon thyme.

Nicki, you're going to be coming with me.

You guys can sit here and enjoy.

And you can tell us all about the green stuff in a minute, Diarmuid.

-All Right.

-OK. Sit yourself there, girl.

-Thank you.

-We're going to get making...

We're going to be making a lemon thyme custard

to serve with some raspberries.

We're going to be doing, kind of like cheat's doughnuts.

We're going to be doing some sweet scraps or scrumps, as I know them.

So, they're kind of like batter fritters.

Cos I'm thinking scraps is what you get when you go

and get fish and chips.

It's exactly that. Yeah, exactly that. Scraps, scrumps...

If you're from Gloucester, it's scrumps, but scraps is fine.

We're going to do those little bits of batter.

And we're going to dust them with icing sugar.

So, they are kind of like... they have that doughnut flavour.

You know that... You know when you go to the seaside and you have doughnuts

-from the end of the pier?

-Yes.

-It's similar to that.

-Lovely.

-And dusted with a little bit of icing sugar.

We're going to being making a custard using this.

Now, this is lemon thyme. If you could smell that?

-Mmm.

-So, this is a...

Diarmuid, tell us a little bit about more about the lemon thyme.

Well, it's a Mediterranean plant.

So, it'll grow in... It wants really great sunshine.

It wants to be out in a bright, open, sunny position.

As well as producing absolutely beautiful flowers.

So, a very useful plant to have in the garden.

It doesn't need a huge amount of food.

It doesn't need very fertile soil.

And you can even grow it in rocks and crevices.

-Anything that attracts heat or the sunshine.

-It's easy to grow?

-Yeah.

But I wouldn't like to have to strip...

So, you've just got to pick all of the leaves, no stalks.

-You've got to remember. What happens is Theo has a Michelin star.

-Yeah.

And you can't serve Michelin-starred chefs little stalks.

-I'm feeling the pressure.

-Yeah, yeah. You're under pressure.

-You thought you were just going to come on...

-And eat.

-..and have something nice to eat.

-Exactly. I've got to work.

Diarmuid, have you ever cooked with the lemon thyme before?

I wouldn't have the patience to.

I think Nicki is much more patient than me. I wouldn't take any...

Actually, what I've got here is the whole thyme

actually infused with some cream and some milk.

-Right. And you can strain that out.

-Exactly.

So, what I'm doing is I'm replacing...

You know, like you make a custard with vanilla,

I'm just replacing the vanilla with the herb.

And because it's got that lemony, almost citrus flavour to it,

it goes very, very well as a dessert. They say it's beautiful in a garden.

It's one of those things as you walk past it, the smell from it...

You know, like when you walk past Rosemary and you knock it.

-It's quite subtle, isn't it?

-Yes, it is very subtle. Very subtle.

And you know with any of these herbs even just brushing past them,

even if you don't use them in the kitchen,

brushing past them releases those oils.

And at this time of the year, it's absolutely perfect.

We are using... we're creating a driveway

at the moment with a thyme central area in the south of France.

-So, that's just going to be... Can you imagine that?

-Mm. The smell.

Just two tracks for the car and then right the way down the centre

that carpet of green and flowering...

Yeah, absolutely. So, you can use the flowers as well, can't you?

And Nicky, you're very busy at the minute.

-You're coming up to Chelsea Flower Show, I understand.

-Yes!

So, you're hosting Chelsea Flower Show live for the BBC.

Yeah. My favourite time of the year. It's my favourite gig, actually.

If you can call it a gig. It's just the best week ever.

I've been doing it since 2006.

And I used to do some work for BBC Breakfast News.

And the RHS saw my coverage and liked it because I'm not an expert.

Like I'm not an expert at cooking, as you will see.

And I have a passion. I'm really enthusiastic and they liked that,

because I'm surrounded by experts. They don't need another one.

-Yeah.

-But it's a very magical week, isn't it? It's really special.

It's incredible. Yeah.

It's the biggest flower show, I suppose, in the world, is it?

Absolutely. The biggest, the best, the most intense.

Yeah. The catwalk. But the good news is you don't have to go.

If you can get a ticket, you're very lucky,

but if, you know, it's too far away and you can't make it, etc,

the coverage the Beeb do is brilliant and you don't have to be

a passionate gardener to appreciate it.

It's the catwalk of the gardening world.

-To enjoy what's going on.

-Yeah. It's stunning.

People are growing their gardens for it all year round...

-Oh, goodness, yes.

-Sometimes for years.

And, you know, from all around the world they'll come.

They'll ship in the most exotic displays.

Nicki does a great job there, because she interprets it

for everybody else. So, it's not a scary thing.

You know, the way you watch Crufts once a year

and you don't know anything about dogs, but it's entertaining.

Nicki is a great interpreter of the excitement, I think, of Chelsea.

He's being very kind, isn't he?

He's one of the top designers in the country, if not the world, so...

Thank you, Diarmuid, for that. It's wonderful. I love it.

But the amount of shows that I do is so varied.

They're all quite lifestyle-y.

We know you, I mean, you started off in the pop world originally.

You worked with the two great Simons, didn't you?

-Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell.

-I did. I did.

-And I've come out smiling.

-You've survived. You've survived.

20 years in the music industry. I always say I started very young

cos it makes me sound so ancient,

But I had 20 years in the music industry as a manager

and as a publicist and they were the best years of my life.

And through that, in a show called Pop Idol and Popstars,

I then got the break to go and do lifestyle-y shows.

And then, of course, so, your Escape To The Country and...

-Do you like it?

-Yeah, it's fantastic.

-We often film your neck of the woods, don't we?

-Yeah, yeah.

Out towards Marlow way and then also back down into the West Country.

So, it's based on... that show's based on a lot of people

-wanting to actually leave...

-And often.

-..the city life.

The city life, new dream, new beginning, perhaps,

move into the country or just be nosy and look around

-beautiful people's homes.

-Nice. OK. I like that.

-Which one do you reckon it is?

-Well, I don't know.

There is a lot of voyeurism going on into people's houses, isn't there?

-Yeah.

-Like houses and cookery and gardens...

-All those lifestyle shows are very good, aren't they?

-They are.

They are. I love doing... I love Escape To The Country.

We've just started a new one called Escape To The Continent. Sorry.

You should probably be giving me tips on what I should be doing here

-and I'm...

-No, that's OK. I can recap. Escape To The Continent,

-tell me all about it.

-It's being going out all this week.

It's like Escape To The Country. This time taking people abroad.

-Right.

-We're not just showing them, though, houses.

We're actually letting them sample life over there, you know?

-So, they stay abroad? They stay...

-They stay for the week.

We put them in accommodation.

Not just a holiday, no? It sounds just like a holiday.

-No. No, I won't let it be said it's a holiday.

-OK.

No, they've got to really get into it. Also, it's a reality check.

You know, when you go on holiday and you think,

"I'm going to retire here. This'll be amazing."

You got to think it through. Are you going to learn the language?

Are you going to immerse yourself in the community?

There's no point living in Europe and speaking English.

You know, we moan about that over here the whole time

and then we do the same when we go abroad. Not everybody, but a lot.

Don't they say that about a quarter of people who move to Spain

-move back within a year?

-A lot of people do. A lot of people do.

France seems to be the most popular place.

People applying for Escape To The Continent, you know?

Just so many people want to go live in France and you go over there

and you can see why. So, in a way, we sort of road test...

-Sorry, Theo, I've got my back to you.

-Don't worry about it.

..we road test what it's like to move over there, you know?

Business opportunities. Is it more expensive? Tax breaks.

Do you have to pay more tax?

So, it's good. Really good. They've loved it... They've loved it.

-And how many people actually stay there?

-Well, the ones we took out?

-Yeah.

-We have 20 couples and I would say probably three or four bought.

-OK, they actually want to stay there.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-And of course you do the Down Under. The show

-Down Under. I know!

That's sending people even further afield.

-Yeah, send them even further away.

-Exactly.

Let me recap what we've got here. So, we've got some raspberries.

OK and I'm just going to put them into a bowl.

And into that we're going to add a little bit of...

This is whipped up double cream.

I'm just going to mix the two together.

And then into that... We've done the custard that we've infused.

Now this is a cooled one with the lemon thyme.

We're just going to pour a little bit of that into it.

Then some of this beautiful thyme you've picked.

Perfectly picked. Theo, if you're looking for someone to work

-on the garnish section.

-You've got a job.

-Yeah.

-Head of garnish.

Nicki's got a job. We're just going to mix it together.

So, we've kind of got this lemon thyme-y,

creamy raspberry ripple kind of mousse thing going on.

I'm going to put it into a glass here.

And then, in front of you, you've got the little scraps.

What I've done is I've just made a batter using flour,

a little bit of bicarbonate of soda, some egg white

and then whisked it up with some sparkling water

and just dropped it into the deep fat fryer.

They look really delicate. I'm married to a Yorkshire man

and scraps don't look as good as this.

Well, these have just been dipped in

and we're just going to sprinkle them on the top.

And I've dusted them with icing sugar.

Guys, if you want to come on over.

-We're going to have a little taste of this.

-I'd be quick if I was you.

-Then a little bit of this lemon thyme on top.

-Oh, my goodness!

-Stick that on the side there.

-God, that smells delicious.

Dead easy. Very simple. Let me get some spoons.

So, how long from start to finish to do that?

Well, as long as you were talking about Pop Idol

and the Chelsea Flower Festival.

A couple of minutes, literally, wasn't it?

OK. Have a little taste of those raspberries

and let me know what you think.

Just that lemon thyme going through and the crunchy bits of scraps.

LAUGHTER

Oh, this is dangerous, Tom. This is dangerous.

Yeah, I wouldn't trust him.

-Aw!

-Happy?

-Mmm!

-Brilliant! Happy!

Now, in every show, were getting out and about

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

Today, we joined Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder

foraging for wild garlic at their hotel in the New Forest

for a recipe using goat.

The winter's gone. Spring's on our doorstep,

which is probably the most exciting season for me

with the beautiful produce that comes through.

We're so lucky at the hotel that we've got it on our doorstep.

We certainly have. So, why don't we take a little walk

into mother nature's larder and see what we can find

and what we can use for one of our recipes.

"Mother nature's larder." I love that, Luke. Let's go.

Just over here. Here we are, Angela.

Oh, we need to harvest this and take it back to London.

-There's so much. Look at it!

-Yeah.

OK. So, when you pick it, just slice it or you actually take...

You don't take the whole root, do you?

Well, you can do a couple of things. We nip it here, just to take a leaf.

-Yeah.

-But you can if you want, and we have done before.

When you just dig up a little bit.

Underneath the root,

there's these little bulbs at the root there

and they taste like a garlicky water chestnut.

-So, you can eat the whole bulb?

-Yeah.

-It's really coming into its prime now.

-How long have you got this for?

-This will be here for about another month.

-Right.

You know, once... We've often picked it, and then we puree it

-and freeze it down.

-Right.

So, we can keep the risotto going a little bit longer.

Well, I think we can put this to use in a lovely spring recipe.

-Yep. Let's go.

-OK.

So, our spring recipe today is loin of goat

with some beautiful wild garlic, morel mushrooms

and then some sauteed artichokes just thrown in at the end.

OK, Luke, so what part of the goat have we got?

We've got the rack and what's known as the short saddle.

And you can see it there.

So, this is the short saddle?

That's it. The whole thing, basically.

What's interesting about goat is

it's become a bit more fashionable nowadays.

But it's actually the most consumed meat in the world.

Before you put that in, where does it come from on this piece of meat?

So, this is this whole piece.

-So, we take it down the back there.

-Yeah.

OK? Separate it off from the bones.

-It's nice to keep a little bit of the bone on.

-Yeah.

That's basically the rib cage. You can see how that fits in on there.

And then we just trim off any of this excess skin.

-We've aged it for about two weeks just to improve the flavour.

-Yeah.

And because of that, this skin gets a little bit tacky.

Right, but that's... that's a very thin piece.

You're not going to put that in the oven?

You're just literally going to saute that in a pan.

No. This will literally pan-fry. It'll take just a couple of minutes.

-So, we just whack that in a moderately warm pan.

-Yeah.

And you get the old, you know, artichoke,

the most confusing, you know, vegetable...

but lovely this time of year.

We're just going to trim the edge off it or the bottom stem off it.

-Yeah.

-And just take a knife and literally just draw it down...

-We can use the bottom bit as well, can't we?

-Yes, we can.

I'll peel a bit off as well.

We're just when to draw this down, taking off the excess,

-cos you know the outside part of the artichoke is quite tough.

-Yeah.

So, once we've taken the bottom part off and the outside green pieces...

one thing people need to remove is what's known as the choke.

-Yeah.

-This little furry part here. We literally just take a spoon,

stick it in, give it a little wiggle and that will all just pop out.

And then we just roast it like any vegetable.

It's the same sort of thing as a carrot or...

The beauty of this is once you take the lamb...the goat out, excuse me,

we're going to rest it then, in that same pan,

-we're going to finish all the artichokes.

-Exactly.

Put in the morels, wild garlic.

So, it's taking on all of the cooking flavours of that.

I'm going to chuck in these. Cut these artichokes down a little bit.

I'm going to chuck them in now, cos they'll take a little more cooking.

And would you put any vinegar or butter in there?

-We'll put a little bit?

-Yeah. We'll add a little bit of butter

and a little bit of vinegar just to deglaze the pan with.

So, now we've got that colour on that side, we'll add the butter.

And if we remember, you know, butter flavour...

-It's nice to always have a little bit more than you should do.

-Yeah.

Let's take a spoon and then just a light basting of that.

-Glazing.

-Yeah, exactly.

OK. Then we're going to have any sauce with that as well?

-A little bit of sauce?

-Yes.

We've got a little bit of chef's gravy over here. And we're going

to finish it off with a little bit of the wild garlic.

And this we've gathered from outside the back door pretty much.

So, that's in abundance this time of year.

If you go for walks in the woods nowadays virtually anywhere,

-you'll see it growing in abundance.

-Yeah.

-It's a weed-like growth

and out here in the forest, it just grows in absolute abundance.

And every year, you know, we're really fortunate.

We're always desperate to see the first signs of wild garlic

cos we know the winter's over. So, you can see now that's...

-And you're basting that little bit there, though?

-Yeah, exactly.

OK, so, is that ready to come out now?

Yeah, I think you can feel it...

It's got that little bit of resistance.

-When the meat pushes back, you know it's about it.

-OK.

With this...with goat, and lamb and duck,

-you really want to cook it medium.

-Perfect.

And then, with the morels, these are great French morels,

but as they come over from France, they sometimes tend to dry out.

So, what we do is just blanch them, just ever so lightly.

We'll just chuck them in this boiling water here.

Give them literally... Just give them a little stir.

-Ten seconds.

-Yeah.

-And it just helps rehydrate the mushroom.

If there's any grit or any dirt on there,

you know, it is a wild product so...

-Straight into here then after?

-Straight into there.

You can see that butter's all lovely now.

-Beautiful.

-Lovely.

And then we finish it with a...

-So, we've got to get a little bit of sherry vinegar in here.

-Salt.

That's it.

-And then, we call the old technical thing deglaze.

-Deglaze. Yeah.

We'll take up the little flavour of the goat that's been in there.

A little bit of pepper.

The thing is when you're seasoning with vinegar

what's important is just that we reduce it down.

Cook off that initial strong acid flavour

and just leave the sweetness of it.

I've also got here, we call it lazy garlic.

-We make loads of it in the kitchen. Just garlic oil.

-Yeah.

We're just going to add a little bit of that.

So, it's just garlic blended with olive oil.

-A little teaspoon of that.

-As well as being the garnish,

it's going to be for the sauce,

-cos we'll add a little bit of sauce as well.

-Exactly.

-OK.

-I think we're just about there.

-OK. Wild garlic in or sauce in first?

-We'll add a little bit of this.

-OK.

Chef's gravy. Beautiful.

I'm just literally wilting that down.

So, that's going to go on there.

And that's for... OK.

-OK.

-So, that goes straight into there.

Yeah.

Beauty.

-Just checking your seasoning, Chef.

-It all OK?

-OK. All fine.

-Good. Lovely.

-And then this goat which has just been rested.

-OK.

-And I think that says...

-Says spring.

..says spring in a plate, yeah.

So, we've got beautiful goat loin with morels,

wild garlic and artichokes.

-OK. Shall we taste a bit, then?

-Yeah.

OK. It looks good.

-It's lovely and tender, isn't it?

-Mm-hm.

Beautiful.

Thank you very much, Ang and Luke. Absolutely delicious.

-That looked delicious.

-Wild garlic and morels. Beautiful.

-And then goat. Beautiful. Ever had goat before, guys?

-Never.

-No.

You should try it. Goat rules! It's good meat. It's good meat.

OK, now it's time for somebody else to cook.

It's Mr Theo Randall. What are you going to be cooking for us, Chief?

So, I'm going to be doing a minestrone primavera,

which is a spring soup.

We're going to do a little sort of base of some celery

and some spring onion. And then we're going to add some potato.

We're going to cook the potato in with the spring onion and celery.

Just so it goes soft. And then I'm going to blanch

asparagus, green beans, peas and broad beans.

And then we're going to add that to the base.

And then I'm going to add some stock, bring it to simmer,

a bit of cream and I'm going to make a delicious pesto.

-OK. Should we get cracking?

-So could you do me the potato?

I'll do the potato. "Primavera" - what does that translate as?

-Basically, spring. It's the new season.

-Right.

So, it's the season where you have,

you know, all the kind of green vegetables.

You know, places like Rome,

you get the most amazing vegetables and, the trattories in Rome,

you get fantastic food this time of year.

You know, they do wonderful soups like this.

They do this delicious dish called vignole,

which is with artichokes and peas and broad beans

and it's slow-braised. And it's just served as a dish. Served in a bowl.

You know, you kind of celebrate the actual vegetable

as opposed to serving it as an accompaniment.

And "minestrone", does that generally mean a vegetable soup? Or is it...?

Yeah, I mean, minestrone has... You know, it can be a lot of things,

but generally, it's always quite a rustic, hearty kind of soup

that is sort of seasonal.

So, this is, you know, a spring version of it.

A spring version of minestrone.

And your love for Italian food and Italian cooking,

where did that come from, Theo?

Well, it came, I think, from my childhood in lots of ways.

I haven't got an Italian bone in my body,

but I've always loved Italy.

Probably from my mother, who's obsessive about Italy.

She's an artist and we used to go on these holidays

and go and visit these galleries.

At the end of it, there'd always be some good food.

We'd always go to a restaurant.

You know, I was sort of brought up with her cooking

you know, from Elizabeth David's Italian cook books.

And, um, so the sort of love came from there.

And then my first trip to Italy having a dish like

spaghetti alle vongole and being able to eat the clams with my hands

and enjoying that. It was just, you know, revolutionary.

The one thing that I know about Italian food,

now I'm not big on Italian cooking,

but the one thing that I always understand is it's always...

It's very much ingredient based. It's very much about the seasoning

and about what's good and what's great.

So, springtime must be perfect for Italian food.

Well, this is a classic example.

This recipe is a classic example of Italian, you know, good Italian food

because it is about using the freshest ingredients you've got.

Seasonality and keeping it simple

and getting the true flavour of the ingredients

as opposed to combining too many different flavours and seasonings.

You big Italian fans? Big Italian food fans?

Yeah, I'd always think of pasta, though.

When I think... Pasta, spaghetti Bolognese and whatever.

Not so much the veg, but I mean, my mouth is watering

with this idea of spring shoots and peas and beans

and especially that asparagus.

You said minestrone soup is seasonal.

So, could you do like a summer version or a winter version?

Absolutely. Yeah, you kind of use whatever's in season.

You know, so, like in summer, you could do beautiful tomatoes.

Make a lovely tomato soup, use lots of herbs.

-And make it lighter?

-And a lot of soups in...

They tend to use lots of bread. I mean, it's quite a sort of...

It's using everything up.

So you might have lots of herbs growing in the garden

and you'd use the herbs with bread and tomatoes.

And you'd make a base like I'm making now.

Like the main base of any good minestrone.

And then you adapt to, um, you know, what's in season.

So, if it's in winter, you could use beans.

You could use a hock of ham or something, you know?

So, I've got the celery and the onion in there, potatoes.

I'm going to add a bit of seasoning. And basically just cook that

for about ten minutes until the potato's soft.

And I've got one that's already been done here.

So, the potatoes are soft.

-So, that potato kind of works as the base for the soup?

-Exactly.

And then I'm going to blanch the vegetables.

I've got the green beans in

and then I've got some asparagus that you've done beautifully.

-Thank you.

-So you're a big fan of asparagus, aren't you, Diarmuid?

Asparagus is absolutely fantastic.

It's very interesting. It's one of the few perennial vegetables.

It comes back every year and it can last up to 20 years.

-You can be taking a crop off of the same plant...

-20 years?!

-20 years.

So, you haven't got to replant it or reseed it? The same one.

You don't, but when you do...

When you do plant it initially,

you was make sure really put in a huge amount of preparation.

It's a very hungry crop. It likes very fertile soil.

You dig out a trench, add loads of manure and keep it well watered.

And when it produces spears the first year,

the green part that shoves up out of the soil,

you don't harvest that. You want that to die back down

-into the plant...

-You just leave it?

-Absolutely, yeah.

And wait for two years before you take a crop out of it.

I had giant asparagus yesterday. Really thick stems. It looked huge!

Jumbo asparagus. Does that mean it's just been grown longer?

Or is it a different kind of breed?

A different type of variety. But it was... Was the taste good?

-It was tasty.

-Yeah?

-It was very tasty. It just looks...huge.

Because often when they grow very big, you see them at Chelsea,

-you know, the big carrots or huge tomatoes or...

-Huge strawberries.

They really... The huge strawberries. They really...

-Sometimes, you know, lose out on the taste.

-Yeah.

But not with the asparagus.

So, I've just crushed some garlic here with some salt.

Thank you very much.

-Just kind of worked it until all the oil's come out.

-Yep.

And stick it into this blender for Theo.

So, pesto. So, we've got basil, pine nuts, Parmesan,

a bit of garlic crushed with salt and the secret ingredient is water.

Now, I was taught by a Ligurian chef

that if you add a bit of water to a pesto,

it brings out the flavour of the aniseed of the basil.

So, I'm just going to blitz this first, then add a bit of water.

That's a new one on me. I've never added water.

Every day's a school day. I like that.

And if you've... It makes sense.

If you think about it, the water sort of is bringing everything out.

-All of that sort of juiciness from the basil leaves.

-Yeah.

Then we're going to add some oil. Always use a light olive oil.

Nothing too strong.

You don't want to overpower that flavour of the basil.

And the pine nuts in there, are they toasted or are they...?

I think, if you toast them, it just tends to taste a bit too toasty.

You end up with that kind of cooked nut taste, which is not very nice.

You want the basil as the main ingredient.

Especially for springtime, so it's nice and fresh and clean. OK.

And the great thing about pesto is you can actually put it

in like a kilner jar, cover it with oil

and it'll last a month in the fridge.

So, if you've got loads of basil growing in your garden,

-make pesto with it, because it'll last for a long time.

-OK.

-OK, so...

Of course, you're very busy at the minute. The restaurant is going...

-Going really well.

-Going really well?

-Yeah, it's been really busy.

And food festivals and travel...

Yeah. So, I'm, er... Taste Of London coming up in June

and BBC Good Food Show. So, they're two very busy events.

So, at The Taste Of London, are you doing a pop-up or a demonstration?

We're doing a pop-up. We're doing a demonstration.

-We're doing... Everything you can do, we're doing.

-OK.

So, we've got lots going on. OK, so vegetables.

The peas, broad beans, asparagus and green beans are cooked now.

So, just sort of cook them until they're kind of al dente.

They've got a nice little bite to them.

And then add them to the potatoes, the celery and the spring onion.

And then what we're going to do is get a little dash of cream.

Now, you could do this vegetarian.

You could actually not even use the stock.

I've added some chicken stock to that.

You could actually just do it with just the blanching water.

A bit of cream and then just give that a mix.

And then were going to get a little hand blender.

-I love these things! They're great. They're great for soups.

-Yeah.

They're not so mad about foams, but they're great for soups.

LAUGHTER Foams - I don't know what that is.

-So, we're just...

-What we're doing is we're blitzing it all up.

So, what's going to happen is all that flavour of vegetable

is going to sort of thicken the soup and also get all those flavours out.

The thing about soup is

every mouthful should taste of the ingredient.

Do you think home-made soup is better the next day?

Cos we make quite a lot of soup at home.

My husband's got a soup maker. He loves it.

And I always think it tastes better the next day.

I think... Yeah, I think you're right,

-but this sort of soup tastes great now.

-Fresh.

-Because it's so fresh.

Yeah, I think that's the same with a lot of things.

Like stews and casseroles and stuff like that,

if you leave them the next day, like a ragout or Bolognese sauce.

Just left the next day, they kind of infuse, you know?

The flavours get stronger.

And they kind of all like marry together.

Yeah, I would agree that,

but something like this beautiful, fresh,

green spring vegetables right now.

Cook, season, eat, perfect.

-And I'll bring the bowl over.

-You bring the bowl over.

So, we've got our pesto there.

And then you can see it's really kind of chunky...

Nice. A little bit of cream.

You don't have to add the cream.

The cream just sort of emulsifies it together.

-And then...

-It looks absolutely delicious, that.

Whoops! I didn't do that very well.

-The asparagus...

-Fantastic!

Guys, come on over. Come and have a little taste of Theo's soup.

I don't need to be asked twice.

We're keen, aren't we, Diarmuid?

Well, this time, I demand to be fed.

LAUGHTER

-It's hot.

-Tell him to behave, Tom.

A little bit of the pesto on the top.

A little pesto on the top. And then finish off

with a little shaving of Parmesan.

Lovely!

-Whoops! Don't want that in there. And there you go.

-There you go.

That looks beautiful.

There's some spoons there.

-There we go. Grab some spoons. Dig in, guys.

-Thank you.

-Go on, Diarmuid, after you.

-Don't be shy.

Oh, that's gorgeous!

-Mmm!

-Beautiful?

-That really is.

-It's really fresh.

-Really fresh.

Those spring vegetables are great. OK. Whilst we eat this,

let's take a trip into the BBC's food back catalogue

as we joined Rick Stein for a classic paella recipe.

He starts off in the rice fields of Valencia

before cooking against the beautiful Spanish backdrop.

The origins of paella start in the rice fields surrounding Valencia.

They were another legacy of the Moors.

Well, this is the first time I've ever stood in a field of rice

ready for harvesting. In fact, I've never tasted rice on the ear before.

But I'm just noticing how fecund everything is.

Looking around here, there's crayfish,

there's little, tiny fish fry, there's crabs over there.

You sort of begin to instantly understand what paella is all about.

It was poor people's food

and they added to the rice anything they could get a hold of.

Judia beans, green beans,

anything they could get out of the rice fields,

rabbits, chickens, that sort of thing.

It instantly becomes poor people's food

and all the more romantic for it, I think.

I mean, up until the beginning of the last century,

the rich people didn't eat rice

because all of these rice fields were associated with malaria.

Of course, they were all swamp areas.

So, it was sort of looked down on as sort of poor people's,

not the sort of thing you ate.

They had sort of bean stews like fabada from northern Spain,

but now, of course, to the people of Valencia, rice is everything.

Indeed, they say it's a way of understanding life.

And paella, well, it's not only the most famous dish around here

and in all of Spain, but also, it's the way

the rest of the world identifies Spanish cooking.

Do you know, it's ages since I've cooked outdoors.

I mean, the last time I can remember was summer in Cornwell

on a windy promontory somewhere, where everything blew off the table.

I think that was the last day. We just thought never again.

But obviously, this is a bit different and paellas,

or rice dishes like paella, are designed to be cooked outdoors.

And this one very simple rice dish resembling a paella,

but my take on it just with monkfish,

a bit of saffron and some red peppers.

So, first of all, I'm just going to cook the monkfish to colour it up.

'Well, I'm not using orange wood,

'because, knowing me, I'd probably set fire to the whole valley.

'But the Spanish use these special portable paella cookers

'and they work a treat.

'Monkfish is great for this dish,

'because, as the Spanish say, it's "duro", hard or firm.

'I've sprinkled them with pimenton, great for colour

'and even better for flavour.

'I'm just going to sear with them on both sides

'and, in just a minute or so, they turn a saffron-y gold.

'Very appetizing.

'That's the moment I take them out

'and start to cook the real point of this dish, and that's rice.

'But first, chopped shallots and garlic.

'I add some more pimenton

'and also some chilli flakes for just a bit of heat.

'Now tomato.'

I'm taking my time over doing this little phase,

because I'm trying to get a bit of a crust on the bottom.

It's called, in Spanish, "socarrat".

And it's a sign of a good paella. This isn't a paella.

It's a sort of a paella without the fancy bits,

but what I really like in a paella is the rice

and the pimenton and the saffron.

So, it's really all about that with a little bit of monkfish

and a few roasted red peppers.

I've poured in some fish stock there.

I made it with the bones and the head of the monkfish.

Now for the rice. And this is the most popular one.

It goes by the name of "bomba".

The grains swell up and really hold the flavour of the stock

without going creamy and breaking up like a risotto rice.

Well, I've just added saffron powder there.

Now, I think saffron powder is a mixture of saffron

and just some food colour, natural food colour.

And I've picked up this tip really that you don't use complete saffron

because it's too strong. You don't want to use all saffron,

because it gets sort of medicinal in its flavour.

So, a bit of yellow colour is fine.

'Now slices of roasted and skinned red peppers.

'They're really sweet and you can get them in tins.'

It's funny, but everything I seem to cook over here

is the colours of the Spanish flag.

I mean, you've got yellow everywhere in saffron.

You've got red of pimenton. You've got red of peppers.

You've got red of tomatoes. Yellow and red everywhere.

But it seems to match, don't you think?

'This is the moment the rice starts to work its magic and swell up.

'A Spanish lady once said to me

'that, when the rice has had a good drink, he needs to sleep in the oven

'and only then should he come out to the table.

'Well, this rice is nearly ready

'and it's time for the fish to go back in

'while there's still a bit more of the stock left

'for the rice to drink.'

Interestingly, and I think this is really important,

the Spanish say you never eat paella at night.

And for me, it's not an evening dish. It's too filling.

It's something you really look forward to at lunch time

with maybe a glass of cold red wine.

So, it's just about there.

Now, I'm just going to turn the heat off

and cover it for about five minutes.

Just make sure that rice is really nice and dry.

'So, there we are. The moment of truth.

'I know it's going to be good,

'because I can hear the sticky sound of the rice

'coming from the bottom of the pan.

'I've never cooked it before,

'but I'll definitely be cooking it again.

'I add a bit of creamy and very garlicky aioli,

'which goes so well with the rice.

'Yeah, this will be in my top ten!'

Thank you very much, Rick. That looks absolutely incredible

and that view - better than the view from my kitchen.

-I don't know about you, Theo.

-Mine too.

-OK. So, throughout this series,

we're showcasing some key seasonal spring ingredients

that are at their best at this time of year.

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

Theo is here to give me a hand.

OK, so I'm going to be doing a braised spring lamb breast,

I suppose, with an anchovy mayonnaise.

So, it's going to be some spinach leaves,

-and some pickled shallots, which I need you to get going first.

-OK.

We've got a pickle mix here,

which is white wine vinegar, water, sugar and some fennel seeds.

-A nice kind of aniseed-y flavour coming through it.

-Lovely.

And then we're going use a bit of that pickle mix

-to go through the mayonnaise.

-OK.

-All right. So, lamb breast.

Now, this is a lamb breast or lamb belly, either one.

It's the same sort of thing. It's the same as a very...

It's the same cut as a pork belly, but it comes from the lamb.

So, we're just going to sear it up.

Get a little bit of colour on it in a hot pan.

What do you think of spring lamb? Are you a fan of it?

-For me, I absolutely love spring lamb.

-Yeah.

I think spring lamb's fantastic. The problem with it is,

the same as with everything, that once it hits the season,

right at the start, price wise, it's quite expensive.

-Yeah, it's crazy.

-It's a little bit...

You know, which is the unfortunate thing about spring lamb,

but it does taste beautiful. So, a cut like this using breast of lamb,

which is, I suppose, one of the cheaper cuts.

I don't think there's anything... I mean, I don't think there's anything

as a cheap cut of meat any more, is there?

But spring lamb, I suppose, the breast of lamb is...

It's kind of like a shoulder or it's a leg.

It's one of those cuts that needs longer cooking.

I always think, the cheaper the cut, the tastier they are.

Well, that's it. The cheaper the cut, the tastier it is,

-but more cooking it needs.

-Yeah.

-So, it's not one of those prime cuts,

but the longer you cook, the more you can get flavour into it.

And breast of lamb or belly of lamb is fantastic.

So, I'm just beginning to sear it up.

Get some nice colour on it. Now, I'm keeping the bones in

cos, as it braises, the bones will stay in it

and, once it's gone soft, that's when you can remove the bones.

If you start trying to remove them now, you're actually going to lose

a lot of the meat, which you don't want to do.

-And the bones will adds lots of flavour.

-Exactly. Give it flavour.

So, we're just going to put it into the pan

then, on top of that, we're going to put clove of garlic

and some shallots. Now, shallots have a wonderful sweetness

and that's just going to slowly cook through the meat.

And we're going to cover it with some stock.

And we're going to braise it for about three hours.

Are you a big lamb fan, Nicki?

I love it. When we're filming, I did lambing a few...

It was last year on Escape To The Country.

We went to a farm and we saw the lambs being born, which is

quite a sight to be seen and then all we could think of that evening,

when we went out for dinner, was to have lamb. How awful is that?

But I just... Especially at this time of year

and because I travel all over the UK when we're filming,

it's not just in the south, you know, you go to great pubs,

great restaurants. They've all gone lamb on the menu at this time.

Yeah. Absolutely. And it goes so well with things like peas and broad beans

and even something like Theo's minestrone soup.

A bit of lamb breast with that would taste absolutely fantastic.

Really, really good. So, the lamb goes into the oven

and I'm going to braise it for about three hours.

Slowly, very gently. And then what happens is...

Is this the longest cookery show in the history of cookery shows?

Don't worry. We have one we've already done.

We have one we've already done.

And then what you do is you take it from the oven.

You leave it to cool

and then you remove the bones.

Slowly pulled the bones out and then you put it onto a tray,

put another tray on top and a weight on it and press it.

And you leave it in there for 24 hours.

Keeping it in the fridge, so it kind of compresses it.

Makes it very nice and tight.

So, this is a cookery show that goes into the following day, then?

Absolutely! Hey, a lot of the best cooking takes a long time.

-Ain't that right, Theo?

-Absolutely right.

This would be a very good weekend dish, wouldn't it?

Could you prepare it on the Saturday morning

-then have it for Sunday lunch?

-Absolutely.

Preparation is everything.

Preparation is the key to all good cooking.

-OK.

-You see, that's where I think I go wrong. I rush it.

Something like this, you can see, is absolutely lovely.

Where I've pressed it, you've got this beautiful layer

of meat and fat ratio where it's cooked.

And it's just all flavour and all delicious.

And all I'm going to do is cut that in half.

So we've got some pieces here.

Now, springtime, Diarmuid, is this...

This is the perfect time for planting, but if...

As an amateur like myself,

what sort of tips or advice could you give on growing things?

Well, people get scared of getting out into the garden,

but it is, as it is for cooking,

it is the most wonderful time of the year to garden. The soil...

You know, we've had a tough, wet winter.

Not particularly cold, but the soil is really warming up now

and it's just ready to take plants.

If you're planning on creating a new garden,

just for the first year, sprinkle some seeds around,

clear way the soil, clear away any perennial weeds,

rake over the soil and get some wild flower seeds,

because we really need to attract wildlife into the garden.

So, sow things like, you know, poppy seeds,

the poached egg plants, limnanthes or...

so many ornamental grasses. Just sprinkle packets of seeds around.

In six weeks, you will have a beautiful flowering meadow.

Has it been a good spring, then, for gardening?

I went to Wisley yesterday, which is a massive garden.

It's beautiful. And everything was in full bloom.

But I thought we'd had so much rain that it wasn't a good spring.

Nature has the best way of correcting itself in most places.

The rain has drained away and it's been a wonderful spring.

Last year was absolutely terrible. It was so cold. So much frost.

This year's been great for gardeners and you'll certainly notice that.

When you go to the Chelsea Flower Show, everybody will be smiling.

I was down with beekeepers last week...

up with beekeepers in Sheffield and the bees were out buzzing.

We were creating new plantations for them.

They were feeding off of comfrey, they were feeding off apple blossom.

Producing wonderful honey. It's great.

Does a bad spring have an effect on the rest of the year in the garden?

Things have a... We had a bad spring last year,

but we had a really great summer

because we had that long, hot summer.

So we think we had a bad spring,

but the gardeners are saying it's a good spring, lots of rain.

-And mild.

-Very mild. That's the real secret to it.

Not many late frosts, you know?

Um... And nature catches up with itself.

So we had a bad spring last year, but an excellent summer.

So, things do... And a really, really good autumn. So...

So, things have evened out.

-Well, you must notice that with your fresh ingredients.

-We do. Yeah.

As chefs, we are constantly affected by the seasons.

I mean, as much as the gardens and the growing. OK.

Right. So, what I have here is the lamb breast that we've pressed.

And I've just dipped it in a bit of flour, a bit of egg

and then some panko breadcrumbs.

Now, panko breadcrumbs are a Japanese-style breadcrumb,

but they contain honey in them, so, as they brown, they go very crispy.

They're very lovely and you can get them from supermarkets now,

which is no problem. And I'm just deep frying them at about 180 degrees

to take them very crispy.

And what Theo's done is Theo has made me a lovely anchovy mayonnaise.

-Are you anchovy fans?

-Yes.

-No.

No. OK. We're going to convert you. This is kind of like a really great,

almost like a Caesar salad kind of dressing

and I know were telling me earlier that you hate Caesar salad as well.

Well, I started out my working life in a restaurant.

I was going to be a chef. And I had to make Caesar salads.

And peeling these anchovies out of the tin...

-You don't eat fish, though, do you?

-I don't. No. Shellfish, but...

The anchovy in this recipe... Well, I suppose, it's the same as...

I mean, a lot of good lamb recipes contain anchovy.

And what they use... The anchovy, the saltiness of it

is used as a seasoning. It has a very savoury kind of kick to it.

Rather than it actually tasting of fish, it tastes of this

beautiful, savoury saltiness that goes so, so, so well with lamb.

See, I wouldn't think of putting anchovy with lamb.

It's a classic. I mean, it's a classic French... Italians...

Yeah, very much so. Yeah.

The anchovy just sort of brings out the flavour of it really nicely.

And it's a fantastic seasoning.

Come on over, guys. Come and have a little go of this.

So, this is Theo's, erm, Theo's wilted kind of salad

where we've had the shallot rings have gone into that pickle mix.

They do look, as I imagine, deep-fried Mars Bars look.

Baby spinach. LAUGHTER

-They're no, they are not.

-How can you say that?

I'm fairly certain it'll go a lot better with anchovy

rather than a chocolate bar would. OK. Here, some knives and forks.

Or you could use your fingers. Pick it up, dip it straight into...

-I'm going to use my fingers!

-..into the mayonnaise and enjoy it.

-Are you going to try the mayonnaise?

-Yeah.

-Go on.

-Go on.

-ALL: Be brave.

-We've all got to try something different in life.

-That chocolate. That fudge.

-LAUGHTER

It's delicious. Wow!

Happy?

ALL: Mm-mm!

That is brilliant!

You expect there to be fish in there

cos it looks like a posh fish finger.

-But it's not.

-It's like a posh fish finger,

but it's all meaty, delicious and flavoursome. Fantastic!

OK, well that's all from us on Spring Kitchen today.

A big thank you to Theo Randall, Diarmuid Gavin and Nicki Chapman.

Of course, Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder.

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

Please go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen and a massive thank you for watching.

And we will see you next time. Take care. Bye-bye.