Episode 3 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

Spring is here and we've got some great seasonal dishes

to get your taste buds going, and some lovely guests as well.

It's time for Spring Kitchen.

Hello and welcome to the show.

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

We join chefs Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder in the New Forest

for a masterclass in fresh pasta with chorizo and peas.

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

who makes spicy prawns with coconut, mustard seeds and chillies.

Now, joining me in the studio is a great friend of mine

and a super chef, it's Paul Ainsworth.

And also with us is a special Spring Kitchen guest to tell us

all about the wonderful seafood that's on offer at this time of year.

It's our very own fish man, Johnny Godden.

-Hello, you two.

-Hi, Tom.

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-Very good, Tom.

-It's springtime. Are you happy as a chef, Paul?

-Great.

It is much lighter, fresher, brilliant.

-Loads of lovely green things.

-Yeah.

-Those are lovely.

Apart from fish. What sort of fish have you got? Is it a good time?

The sea water is warming up, lots of different species are coming in.

Fantastic. OK. Now, our star guest today is a pop sensation

who we also discovered was a dab hand at a bit of cookery

after his stints on Celebrity MasterChef and Hell's Kitchen.

It's Paul Young. Hello, Paul, how are you?

APPLAUSE

-All OK? Big foodie, then.

-It's all good.

I don't quite know how it started, other than travel,

going around the world,

thinking, this is great.

-Finding lovely things to eat.

-Yeah.

-What a great way to find out.

OK. So let's see what we've got on offer today.

Paul, what are you cooking?

I'll be doing you a lovely Cornish steak with a beautiful spring salad.

PAUL YOUNG: I like it when you look at me and say that.

You're doing ME a Cornish steak.

Absolutely. Embracing peas, broad beans, Cornish new potatoes,

-radishes, all with an oyster mayonnaise.

-Sounds lovely.

Later on I will be doing a recipe with red mullet and cucumber.

I am going to pan fry the red mullet

and serve it with seared cucumber and borage

with a little bit of a beurre blanc sauce.

And Johnny is here, because he is my fish guy.

He also delivers to Paul and in my first recipe, I'm going

to be using mussels. He can tell us all about them.

I'm going to cook and you are coming with me, Mr Paul Young.

Come on, let's head this way.

OK. So the first dish today is kind of a play on moules mariniere

so that classic French moules mariniere -

mussels cooked in white wine.

Except this time we are going to be doing it

because we have the West Country massive here.

Those two boys... You know when you go on a school trip

and at the back of the coach you have these two naughty boys

that sit there, flicking sweets at the teacher?

That is those two. So if you get hit on the back of the head with something, it's one of those two.

-I don't think you'd be far behind us, Tom!

-Exactly.

You're the ring leader!

Johnny is from my part of the world, near Gloucester, Paul is not

originally from the West Country but you've settled down there.

Yeah, absolutely.

In honour of that we are doing some mussels that have come from Cornwall

and we will be cooking them in some fantastic scrumpy cider

which is instead of using white wine.

White wine has that beautiful balance of acidity and sweetness,

in the moules mariniere.

This scrumpy cider has exactly the same sort of thing.

It's a nice dry scrumpy cider. I'm going to get the mussels in.

This is a very hot pan and we are going to steam them

very quickly in the cider.

Then we're going to use that cider to make a sauce.

-The mussels, this time of year, good time of year?

-Fabulous time of year.

These are rope-grown mussels.

-They are grown off St Austell Bay in Cornwall, which you must be aware of?

-Oh, yeah.

The rope-grown mussels are very good. They're very clean.

What you do is you set a rope out into the sea,

and you let the baby mussels attach.

And they let them grow.

And they take about two years to get to that edible size.

-It is quite a process.

-Two years to grow the mussels? You see,

I always thought mussels would be quite a quick thing to get done

but two years seems like quite a long time.

At a year, you could eat them, but they would be small.

You want them plump, like they are now.

So it is a good two-year cycle before you can eat them.

I did buy some sea mussels once but they are quite ugly looking

with all the little attachments. And the girls don't like them.

-They're not great...

-They want a nice clean shell.

These ones are cleaned. They are put through a machine which takes the barnacles off

so you have a nice clean mussel, no grit.

Some of the best mussels come from Cornwall. You would argue that.

Fowey mussels are very famous.

The chap doing this now is the man that started Fowey mussels,

but he has put them at sea.

So what it is with Fowey, it's grade B waters.

With these, they are farmed at sea and they are a grade A mussel.

They are the best in the country, in my opinion.

There you go, the best mussels in the country.

You spend a lot of time down in Cornwall, don't you?

-Paul and Paul, you actually know each other?

-We do.

It is like putting the band back together, it's like a load of mates.

LAUGHTER

I had my own Cornwall collective when I did a cookbook about 18 months ago,

so a lot of it was based down there,

we even got a deal with the place,

where they lent me the kitchen so I could do the photography for the book.

-Yeah.

-So I had plenty of trips down there, and then we would try

and repair over to Paul's place once we had done our work.

So you have done a cookbook?

Yes, I did a cookbook about 18 months ago, I based it on my travels.

Music took me round the world and it was

kind of a side-effect of being a musician I had never thought of.

It kind of opened my eyes,

and instead of being one of those guys that just wanted pizza

and burgers, we would want to find out what was local and what was good.

And that was the carrot, if I was getting bored of life

on the road or doing press - I hated doing press!

They would book me a restaurant at the end of the day and go, "Don't worry, We're going there."

Not always posh restaurants,

the places that...food that represented the area you were in?

Yeah. If possible.

I remember going to Portland, Oregon once, and we pulled up...

We were in a taxi coming from the airport,

we said to the cabbie, what was the best restaurant in Portland?

Cabbies don't always know, but he told us it was this place called Jake's Fish Bar.

We went there,

and every American I have ever spoken to says they know that place.

It was amazing seafood. Really nice.

-Fantastic.

-At that younger age,

I wasn't eating as much fish as I do now,

-but it was very special.

-Yeah.

That kind of travel led to the cookbook being so fantastic,

and your enjoyment of food and being in kitchens,

is that what led you to take part

-in Celebrity MasterChef and then Hell's Kitchen?

-Yes.

Yeah. To begin with, it was like a sustenance thing,

and then once I travelled, I thought I could really impress my friends

if I could do this back home.

Especially going to New Orleans, I still don't know the good place

to go to get New Orleans food.

So I bought a cookbook from Paul Prudhomme,

who was about the only well-known chef in the 1980s.

You could not get in his restaurant. So I bought his book

and started doing it at home.

Back then, some of that produce was not as easy to find,

from an American recipe book.

They would put "heavy cream".

-I thought, what is that?

-Double cream or clotted cream.

In actual fact, their dairy is not as rich as ours,

so it was coming out way too thick.

It is funny you should say that

because we are going to add a little bit of this dairy into our mussels!

We have clotted cream, another great West Country thing.

So this is known as VERY heavy cream.

-I'll say. Double heavy cream.

-Double heavy cream, exactly.

You have been doing a little bit of baking recently.

The world has gone mad for baking.

You have been doing a little bit of your own as well?

I think we decided to capitalise on the baking,

so... I've been involved with the children with Cancer UK for a long time,

and this year the idea was to have a bake club in the month of May.

So we are trying to encourage everybody to bake stuff at home,

take it into the office, or get kids to take it into school,

sell little cakes or sponges they have made,

and put that money towards Cancer Research.

These are cakes you have made yourself.

Yeah...well, it was another collective. That's a lot of cakes.

Let's see if the Michelin-starred chef likes them.

What you have to remember, Mr Ainsworth, you have to be nice

because Paul Young frequently enters into your restaurant.

-So you have to be nice about his cake.

-I was nice about your courses.

They are lovely.

I need to start working with sourdough, I love that taste.

Do you make sourdough, Paul? Do you do sourdoughs?

-Yeah, on pizza bases. Reganos.

-OK, so you do sourdoughs. Fantastic.

OK.

OK. What I've got here, I have some carrots, some shallots,

some celery, and I have sweated it down in a little bit of butter.

Just stirring in

at the last minute, a little bit of that very nice, thick,

West Country clotted cream.

And then into that, I'm just going to pick a few of these mussels.

These are great big, beautiful mussels.

They have been de-bearded, cos nobody wants to eat them.

This is kind of... I suppose

it's going to be like a very posh open sandwich.

I've also chopped up some celery - the leaf from celery,

because it's much underused - it's really fragrant and delicious.

I've also done some chervil as well.

We're just going to mix the whole lot together.

Could you use clams for that as well?

Clams, cockles, anything - any shellfish would work beautifully.

Clams as well.

For me, they're one of the most fantastic, beautiful shellfish.

It's quite under-used.

The problem is there's so many different varieties,

it's hard to get hold of them.

OK. So, we're stirring this together, I'm going to season it.

Mr Ainsworth, if you come over.

I have a slight problem - the fact that I can't eat this

because I have a shellfish allergy.

I look at it and I think that looks absolutely delicious.

You tell me if it tastes nice, Paul.

It needs a bit more salt and pepper.

It's lovely, absolutely stunning.

You can go away now.

You stay... You're not going to get the glory!

I'm going to get the glory of plating it up.

Could do with a bit more lemon juice. Only joking!

THEY LAUGH

Honestly!

-You don't trust him!

-Honestly!

If there's too much lemon juice, it's Paul's fault.

Johnny, come on over. Have a little taste.

How much cider did you put in?

Just a big splash. Loads of the sea water comes out of the mussels,

and you end up with this beautiful cidery, musselly clotted cream.

I can't think of a better representation of the West Country.

Clotted cream, cider and Cornish mussels.

Get in there and start eating.

Dive in and have a taste.

Before you do that, did you eat one of those cakes?

I haven't yet.

You haven't yet? Paul's saving that for pudding.

The clotted cream's amazing, isn't it?

In every show,

we're visiting some of our favourite chefs on their home turf

for their take on spring ingredients.

Today, we join chefs Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder

at their New Forest hotel for a beautiful fresh pasta recipe,

but first, they need some chorizo.

So, we're out of winter, doom and gloom,

spring is upon us,

which I love because we have so many fabulous ingredients.

Great time of year for chefs.

It is, and we're going to get really busy at the hotel.

We're very lucky here to have all this produce on the grounds.

We're also lucky to have this smokehouse.

If we pop down there, we might be able to find

something a little bit special.

A little bit special? OK! Looking forward to it.

These are a spiced pork mix,

stuffed into ox intestines.

Then they'll dry out, and, after a few months, they'll turn into these.

What's the spice mix in here?

We've got a spicy paprika, with a little bit of chilli,

fennel seeds, coriander seeds, a little bit of wine.

They will lose some of the weight.

Yes, we want them to lose 30-40% of their weight before they're ready.

We encourage this mould growth on the outside.

It shows that the sausage is fermenting,

and that's when we know that sugars are converting into acid.

That's how we know it's safe to eat.

White mould is good - we encourage that to grow all around it,

because that's a sign that fermentation is happening

and we're getting the results we want.

-Lovely.

-Mmm!

-How long are they curing?

-18 months.

They start at around 10kg.

This is the slow food movement.

We don't need to do anything with it, we let time naturally ebb away at it.

We're looking for 30% weight loss.

We're using the chorizo today, yes?

Yes. We've got a couple of different types here.

We've got a fennel salami - that one there.

Based around the traditional...

You can see the colour.

This one looks just about ready to go.

You can see the slight size difference,

the mould growth on the outside...

-This would be perfect for the recipe.

-OK. Let's go.

-Cool.

-Brilliant.

We're going to do a lovely spring recipe today,

which is going to be garganelli with home-made chorizo and peas.

Talk us through the ingredients.

Obviously, the chorizo from the smokehouse -

we've removed the skin and it's ready to go.

Lovely seasonal peas. We've podded them, ready to rock 'n' roll.

A little bit of flatleaf parsley.

You're going to be rolling the pasta.

A bit of Parmesan and butter. Simple.

Perfect. So, the first thing is to roll out the pasta.

We make pasta with just yolks and 00 flour.

Yes, it's the classic Northern Italian style.

It enriches the pasta.

Explain the history behind the garganelli.

Yes. Garganelli - we know it as penne pasta over here in the UK.

We've got one of these lovely little garganelli boards.

It's dead simple.

As the ridges are rolled into the pasta, and the sauce is made,

-it's great for attaching to cream-based sauces.

-OK.

We don't put too much flour in between it, just a little like that.

You need it to be a little bit wet so when we roll it,

it will stick together itself.

Right, you're on that. I'm going to start doing the sauce.

-I will jump over here.

-Yup.

To get the garganelli shape,

all we need to do first of all is to just square off the pasta.

Around three or four centimetre rectangles.

Once we've got those in place,

lay them on top of each other.

This dish is so quick and easy to do.

Even if you don't want to do your own home-made garganelli.

-Yes.

-Slice the chorizo down, peas are blanching...

You do all that while your pasta's cooking.

As we're just rolling this and sealing this,

what's important is that square points down away from the board,

so you get that nice finish.

They look incredible.

Yes. You can see how those ridges are going to take up that sauce.

Right, so our peas are blanching.

Because it's so quick, we're just going to blanch them

and then put them straight into the sauce.

Just a bit of olive oil in the pan, just a small amount

because you've got the natural fat from the chorizo.

And a little bit of garlic oil as well.

-It's a bit of a one pan wonder, isn't it?

-Yes.

I love a one pan wonder.

-Less washing up, all the better!

-It just works.

We have some garlic in there and let our chorizo melt down quickly.

I add some of the blanching liquid.

We don't want it to be overcooked.

Keep it still soft like that.

Then we'll finish it as soon as we put our pasta in.

Put the peas down there.

-I'd better hurry up!

-Yes, if you could, Chef.

We'll get our pasta water boiling. That's ready to go.

I'm going to put these ones down now.

So, nice boiling water.

-Have you got enough?

-Give me those last couple.

That's perfect.

One more.

Our chorizo is there. Add a little bit of our peas in there.

A little touch of cream and butter, please, Luke.

A little knob of butter.

A little bit like that.

OK.

It smells lovely.

Literally, I only added a tiny amount of cream and butter.

Bit of parsley to add right at the end.

Little bit of fresh pepper.

Then our garganelli - just literally cooks in a matter of minutes.

-You're just setting the egg yolk in there, aren't you?

-Yes.

That's how you want it - all tossed together.

And finally, a little bit of the Parmesan.

You really cannot do without that.

Goes with everything.

OK, right. A plate, please, good man.

And just some of that pasta water. That gives it a little...

What we love to do at the restaurant

is be able to just pour the dish out.

Beautiful.

Beautifully, like that.

Little bit of fresh Parmesan on top.

-So there we go. Fresh garganelli with peas and chorizo.

-Perfect.

-Angela, this looks lovely.

-Let's have a try.

Not bad pasta, chef!

Mmm, that is lovely.

Spring is in the air.

Thank you very much, Angela and Luke.

That looked absolutely incredible.

Most impressive was the salami shed! What more could you want?!

It's somebody else's turn to cook, and it's going to be Paul Ainsworth.

What are you going to be doing, chief?

OK. I've got a lovely Cornish sirloin steak. Beautiful Dexter.

-Dexter beef?

-Dexter cattle.

We've got some lovely oysters,

which we were talking about earlier.

St Austell, Fowey, we got these from Porthilly.

We're going to make an oyster emulsion.

I'll get going on that. You get going on your steak.

And then we've got the radishes, the peas and the broad beans.

We're going to do a salad.

Yes, we're going to make it slightly different.

We'll use mayonnaise, as you would for a potato salad,

but we'll keep it separate.

And we'll have that lovely combination of beef and oyster.

Beef and oyster, very classic.

Yes, it's delicious.

I've put the oil on the steak, as opposed to on the char-grill.

It goes straight on.

Very important that the meat is room temperature

and not fridge cold.

So it's come up to temperature.

It's almost warm in the middle already.

Absolutely. So you've got what we call the cooking temperature

through the middle.

And we're going to cook it beautifully pink -

a nice medium rare.

OK. And I'm going to make this oyster mayonnaise.

This is basically the oysters - we're going to blend them

with a little bit of Dijon mustard

in a hand blender.

And then we'll slowly emulsify this water.

Absolutely.

Paul, you need to wash your hands if we're going to do this steak.

-Yes.

-I'll have a little look.

I'm just going to turn that for you.

Now we're going to make this oyster emulsion.

So, this is oysters, Dijon mustard, in a hand blender.

Slowly add oil.

That's it, until you get a nice, thick mayonnaise consistency.

Exactly as happened in rehearsal!

Exactly like that!

Paul, that oyster mayonnaise,

do you do any other dishes in the restaurant where you use that?

Yes, we've got one on right now. We can pair it with lots of things.

It's not necessarily always the oyster flavour.

It's that lovely sea freshness,

which is going to go beautiful with potatoes, radishes.

The trick with the steak, Tom, is not to move it too much

and just let it beautifully caramelise.

The reason I put a thin layer of oil is because

then the smoke is going back into the steak.

So, this is like a tartare dressing.

A fine dice of shallot...

This is what I'm going to make, a lovely rapeseed oil dressing

to go with our lovely spring vegetables.

So that tartare is kind of a classic steak garnish.

Yes, absolutely.

Padstow is very busy at this time of year.

Easter must have been very busy?

Extremely busy.

It was a long Easter and we're going into the May Day celebrations.

It's a great time of year for us.

It does get quiet for us in January, February and March,

-so it's nice to be busy again.

-Yes, sure.

Paul, have you seen a difference after the floods?

That emulsion has come together, I've just put it in the fridge.

Rest assured, it has actually worked this time!

Thank you!

So these are radishes that you've brought from Cornwall with you?

I have. We've got an amazing grower half a mile from the restaurant

and he grows a good amount of vegetables for us.

We just loving using it, especially at this time of year

with all the different styles of radish that we get.

Absolutely beautiful.

So, different types of white radish, pink radish,

and what are these long ones here?

They're almost like little carrots,

but they have the same characteristics

as the breakfast radishes.

That nice sort of pepperiness.

-I suppose this is like a mooli, is it?

-Yes!

-A baby mooli.

-Very much so.

And when you get these lovely tops, which are delicious,

we're going to almost use that as our salad as well.

You'll see, as this salad comes together.

Our steak is just doing wonderfully now.

Johnny, this time of year, what kind of oysters are these?

These are the rock oysters.

The native oysters are finished, but Paul was saying earlier,

they're from Porthilly, an estuary that runs from Padstow to Wadebridge.

What happens is the bloke actually put them in big sacks

when they're little babies,

and when the estuary comes in, they grow, and he turns them over

so they get bigger and bigger.

They're fantastic this time of year, really good quality.

-Good. Do they need to be purged?

-Absolutely.

Any shellfish, especially from an estuary,

grade B waters, will have to go into a purification tank

and be UV-ed for about 48 hours to kill any bacteria in the shellfish.

-UV?

-UV.

-What does UV mean?

-Sunbeds!

-So the oysters have to go on a sunbed!

-That's right!

So, what I've got here, Tom, Cornish new potatoes.

Right bang in with spring.

We've got peas - I'm not going to blanch those.

You know when you just eat them out of the pod?

It gives the salad a lovely texture.

-OK. So, this is a very raw, crunchy texture here?

-Yes.

Broad beans.

When you pop them, just pick the baby ones for the salad.

Use the larger ones to make soup.

Put some oil into this?

Yes, some rapeseed oil into there, and a little bit of garlic.

-Half a clove of garlic.

-Grated? Smashed up? Chopped?

Finely grated, please.

So that's our steak. That's it. It's all about the resting.

We'll just warm it up when we're ready to bring the dish together.

OK, so just rest the steak up.

Now, you're got lots of fantastic producers down your way in Cornwall.

It's a great area.

You looked at Johnny then,

questioning the fact that your fish man is great, I love that!

You know what they say, Paul!

It's a fantastic area for farms and produce.

The West Country is brilliant for that.

And, as a restaurateur, to be based down there, it must be brilliant.

Like we were saying about the farm up the road,

that we get a lot of vegetables from,

this steak that we're using -

we have an amazing butcher in Launceston.

This steak is from near Truro.

We're very fortunate. Great lamb...

We've not really been known for pork in the West Country

but the pork coming through now, we've got amazing saddlebacks,

middle whites down there, so, like you were saying,

we're very privileged to have the produce that we've got.

It is fantastic area.

We actually... Even though I'm based just outside London,

we actually take a lot of produce from the West Country

because it's so strong and rich,

with great farmland, and surrounded by coastline.

Perfect for you, Johnny!

The best fish in the world.

-Me and you, Paul, we've known each other a long time.

-We have, Tom.

In 1998, I first walked into a kitchen,

and I was actually Paul's sous-chef in 1998.

I was a sous-chef for the great Gary Rhodes.

Paul was there as a fresh-faced young commis.

He still has the fresh face - he still looks about 17!

But he's grown up, gone on to great things.

You left Gary's and you went on to work for Gordon,

-and then for the great Marcus Wareing as well.

-Yes, good times.

And now has a Michelin star of your own.

Yes. It's been a great journey. I've worked for some fantastic people.

How are we getting on?

We're there. It's important when you're resting the steak,

you see how the juice is coming, just turn it

so the juices run back through the meat.

You don't have to heat it back up.

I always get asked that question - if you rest it, it goes cold.

It doesn't, just lovely room warmth.

-I'll get the oyster mayonnaise.

-Lovely.

We can actually use the one that I made, Paul,

because this one actually worked!

The one you made before was delicious! Slightly soupy!

The new one's delicious!

This is what I love about Paul being one of my great mates.

We spend a lot of time with each other and away,

and the fact that at one point I was his boss,

but that doesn't stop him taking the Mick.

You've got to love that.

-So, we need to get this out now, Paul.

-Absolutely.

Oyster mayonnaise onto the plate. You've got your salad going.

-There we are.

-I'll put the salad into the bowl.

I've just put some of that tartare dressing we've made

with that beautiful rapeseed. Another great British ingredient.

Yeah, rapeseed oil is fantastic. I'm a huge fan of it.

I'll just wash my hands and we're ready to go.

-You're going to slice the steak.

-Yes.

Get ready to eat, guys.

I'm throwing peas at the cameraman!

Sorry, boys! You can have them later!

Going to put the salad on the side.

Come on, guys. Come on up.

Paul's slicing his steak. Let's hope it is not overcooked!

Look at that, Chef. You taught me well!

You taught me well.

Brilliant, brilliant. Beautiful steak.

Then we dress it with the salad immediately.

Dig in. You do not want it to sit for too long.

We are just going to have that in there.

Take some more of that lovely dressing, over the top.

Almost like a salsa verde.

-Very similar.

-There we are. There we have it.

Help yourself.

Cornish steak, oyster mayonnaise and a beautiful spring salad.

-Delicious.

-Happy with that? Happy with that, Johnny?

-Try a bit of that.

-A bit of that oyster mayonnaise.

Radishes and potatoes.

That is lovely.

OK, While we eat this, let's take a trip into the BBC's food

back catalogue as Rick Stein rustles up some spicy prawns in India.

There's something about a curry that's all pervading.

Just the thought of it ignites a longing deep inside us.

It is the only food I can think of where the sense of smell works

so wonderfully well with memory and imagination.

At the mere mention of the word, I sense turmeric,

coriander, garlic and cumin.

No other food I know gives the taste buds such a roller coaster ride.

For nearly three months,

I travelled all over India, tasting curries

and watching cooks, trying to find out their secrets,

because curry is full of complexities

and it's taken very seriously here and I wanted to show that there's

more to curry than three pints of lager and a prawn vindaloo.

First-class curry, Ricky.

So back at the little house on the lagoon,

it's time to cook a brilliant prawn curry I had at a restaurant in Kolkata.

And as soon as I tasted it, I said, "I've got to cook that."

Gosh, it's really hot today, but I love where I'm cooking.

Now, I've just added some mustard oil into this very lovely pan.

When you first see the amount of mustard that goes

into Bengali cooking, you think, that is far too much,

and you have to get used to the flavour of mustard seed.

It's not like the flavour of our hot English mustard.

It's that really bitter, pungent flavour which comes

when you whizz up the seeds, because the seeds are little,

like, cases that encase this wonderful, slightly moist

but very, very vigorous flavour which is in all Bengali cooking.

It's really important, I think, in all Indian cooking,

cook your onions for a long time at a moderate heat

so they don't burn but they get this lovely brown colour.

Then, in a blender, grind up a couple of ounces of mustard seed into a coarse paste.

That'll give this dish of prawns and coconut a real hot zing.

You don't want to blend them too much

cos that becomes a very sort of smooth puree,

you need a little bit of warp and weft in it,

a bit of mustard husk in there.

Good. Right, my onions are nearly done.

Now turmeric. A teaspoonful.

Experienced curry cooks never overdo the turmeric.

It has a way of dominating the other flavours.

Then coconut milk.

And this is made fresh out here

but if I was at home, I wouldn't hesitate to use a tin from the supermarket.

And next, of course, the mustard paste.

So even from this far it's sort of catching the back of my throat.

And as I keep saying,

that flavour that, you know, it's like so much in cooking,

the first time you taste something we're all a bit conservative.

And you think, "Oh, I'm not going to like that",

and then after a while you think, "I can't have enough of it".

And that's the case with mustard.

And next, the grated coconut.

About a teaspoon of salt.

Stir that in and now the prawns.

And while it's cooking I'm just going to chop up some green chillies.

The vexed question of whether you leave the seeds in or take 'em out.

You know, I like spicy but I must say, a couple of these recipes,

I'm sort of sending the recipes home back to Padstow

and my son Jack is testing a lot of them.

And this particular one he sent me the e-mail saying,

"Delicious, Dad, but nobody could eat it. Too hot."

And I think the problem really is...

That's about three or four chillies,

The problem really is that I've just got a bit immune to chilli.

So it's up to you.

But for me and for the guys that drink lots of beer

and like our prawn vindaloo as hot as possible, leave 'em in.

Thank you very much. That's your next-door neighbour.

-Smashing in India. I love Rick Stein.

-He's incredible.

Throughout this series, we are showcasing some real key

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

Today I'm going to be doing a recipe with pan-fried red mullet,

-seared cucumber. I need Paul Ainsworth to make a beurre blanc for me.

-Absolutely.

That is the first thing you're going to do.

Red mullet, this is a fantastic fish.

Very seasonal. Quite hard to get hold of. Is that right, John?

Really difficult to get hold of.

Through the winter months, you hardly see it,

and as soon as it goes into spring, they show up.

-Very nice. Especially day boat ones like that.

-This is beautiful.

You were telling me about this in rehearsal,

the slight yellow colouring on top of the fish.

You can see it there where the scales have been taken off,

but red mullet have three yellow stripes going down the middle of it.

If you have one for more than two days, the yellow stripes

disappear, so you know you have a nice fresh one when you see them.

So you're looking for beautiful red and yellow.

-Red and yellow.

-Where do they come from?

Just off Looe in Cornwall.

They are inshore boats.

They're only there for 12-15 hours, the boats.

-Only?

-That's not long in fishing terms.

-A lot of boats go out for longer.

Two to three weeks in some cases.

-Imagine there are fish that are three weeks old.

-Packed on ice.

But these little day boats, literally for 12 hours,

when it comes in it is fresh.

You can get it to the plate quite quickly.

Quite a delicious flavour, considering what it feeds on.

If you knew what they sort of feed on.

Yes, they are bottom feeders, but a lot of them do taste nice.

You mean they are at the bottom of the ocean.

-LAUGHTER

-You always have to do that.

They go down and feed off what is at the bottom, a bit like crabs.

Crabs taste delicious as well but they literally are the dustbins of the sea.

Red mullet are the same. But I think it's a really good, beautiful fish to eat.

We have got red mullet here and it is in the pan.

Instead of red mullet, you could use gurnard.

Gurnard is a fantastic fish, again from Cornish waters.

Yes, you get red gurnards in the summer months.

They are a smashing fish,

they work very well, very similar to red mullet.

A fraction of the price.

OK. To go with the red mullet, I'm going

to cook a little piece of cucumber.

Not often that people cook cucumber.

I have taken the top of it off and exposed the lovely seeds.

I will put them in a pan, it has some oil in, and I am going to fry it.

These seeds go toasty.

It is like, I suppose, cucumber popcorn, that flavour comes through.

You can keep the cucumber for sandwiches.

We are just doing it for here.

Paul, you have a new album coming out.

Yes, it is not a Paul Young album, it is Los Pacaminos,

a band which I have had for 22 years.

Longer than the Beatles, and still nobody knows us.

Really, I didn't want people to know us.

I wanted it to stay in bars and small theatres,

but we made this new album and it is too good to waste, so I decided

to get a proper record company, an official release date,

and promote it as, like, a side project.

Do you sing in the band or do you play an instrument?

I do both, but I wanted to get back to being in a band.

The one thing I missed the most... I was a reluctant solo star.

I took the deal because it was offered, but I was very happy

being in a band, which was the Q-Tips, a soul band,

and I wanted to get back to being in a band.

So it is kind of soul music?

No, no, no. Not at all, it is just the feeling of being with your friends.

-Right.

-I did not want to just be the front guy.

I am choosing Jamie because he sings and plays the guitar.

Drew is a great songwriter with a lovely voice.

We chop and change.

If you think, like, Mark Ronson would put an album out,

He has got Amy Winehouse on one track and somebody else on another track.

We write the songs, we choose the person who is good to sing that song.

You could do something for the three of us.

-Do a duet together.

-All in blue shirts, all of us. We look like a band.

A very bad boy band.

You could be the dancer, Paul.

Show us some moves.

It is so much fun to do. We've got stand-ins.

Jamie is going to go off with Tom Jones soon.

We get Robbie McIntosh, who was in the Pretenders

and Paul McCartney's band.

We had Jim Cregan, who was in Rod Stewart's band.

We had Hamish Stuart from the Average White Band

playing bass couple of nights ago.

It is so much fun that once somebody has done it once,

they want to do it again.

OK, so just a quick recap of what we have got here.

The cucumber is being fried here. It has got a lovely,

really toasty colour, and that flavour almost goes nutty.

Into that, put a little knob of butter and some salt,

and what Paul has done is made a classic beurre blanc.

And what he has done is he has put some shallots in

and covered them with white wine vinegar.

He has reduced it down, given it a little blend,

gently incorporated some butter.

-Do you need a whisk?

-Yes, thank you.

Paul is trying to use a spoon rather than using a whisk.

This is the great thing about chefs, we use a spoon for everything.

Isn't that right, Paul?

Works for everything. It's not working with a whisk.

Childhood memories of growing up, Paul -

what sort of food did you have?

Quite basic food. My mum made a mean Irish stew.

It was all the usual growing up things.

I was slow to appreciate food.

That did not happen until late teens, early 20s.

OK. OK.

What has happened is this red mullet,

I have just flicked it over, we have

a nice crispy skin, finish it with a little splash of butter,

then give it a little slice of lemon juice,

little splash in there, then we are going

to baste it up.

Just finish that cooking.

What happens if you add butter at the end rather than the

beginning, all those kind of buttermilks in the pan boil.

It steams it from the bottom upwards.

You have a nice, crispy beautiful skin. Unfortunately the three

little yellow marks have gone,

but we have a lovely, beautiful red mullet there.

The cucumber has been toasted and fried.

It has that lovely flavour.

Paul has got beurre blanc, this classic French sauce

which goes with fish very well.

You could use that for any fish you wanted.

It goes really well with most fish dishes.

You could use smoked butter if you like. It goes very well.

With meat, you could use a smoked butter dish, with perhaps chicken or pork.

A bit of that cucumber, nice piece of fish on the side.

-That sauce there.

-That sauce there. Look at that.

Everything has been way better than in rehearsal. You can come back.

Little bit of the butter sauce on the top.

That is beautiful.

We are going to put some borage cress on there.

I am not normally a massive cress fan,

but borage cress tastes of cucumber,

so it has got this beautiful cucumbery taste.

Come on over, guys.

Then we've got these beautiful little cucumber flowers

that can sit on the top.

You've got this cucumber... Get in there and start eating.

-Knives and forks, help yourselves.

-Here we go again.

We have beautiful red mullet, beurre blanc, toasted cucumber.

Get in there and have a little taste. Skin nice and crispy.

The flavour of that red mullet is amazing.

Very meaty, quite powerful and quite strong.

Happy? Love it? Mm-mm-mm.

Loads of "Mm"s. That's great.

That is all from us on Spring Kitchen today.

A massive thank you to Paul Ainsworth, Johnny Godden and

Paul Young. And of course, Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder.

All of the recipes are available on the website.

Go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen.

Thanks for watching. See you next time.