Episode 6 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

Spring is finally with us and we've got some great recipes

and guests to get you excited about the new season.

Welcome to Spring Kitchen.

Hello, and welcome. We've got a great line-up for you today.

We're heading down to Cornwall to visit Nathan Outlaw for a special

Spring Kitchen recipe of crispy pollock with pickled carrot salad.

Plus, we take a look into the BBC food archive and join

Nigel Slater for a simple supper - Thai-inspired prawn noodle soup.

I'm joined here in the kitchen by Ching-He Huang,

who is going to be cooking some spicy Asian fare,

and to go through some of the wonderful herbs and mushrooms

available at this time of year, our in-house forager, Rupert Burdock.

-Hello to you two. You OK?

-Yes.

-Spring a good time of year?

-Best time of the year.

-Fantastic.

And to share our feast is the host of DIY SOS, Nick Knowles,

-hello, Nick.

-Thank you.

-How are you, you all right?

-Yes, very good.

Looking forward to summer, as I always do.

Spring, everything is growing and sprouting.

All the green vegetables coming through.

-Are you a big food fan?

-I'm a big food fan,

I like to cook, especially with my eldest son,

who is a big food fan as well. My brother's got an allotment,

so we get a lot of stuff from that.

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

What are you going to be cooking?

I'm going to make you my spicy lemon grass larb, it is

a national dish of Laos, so I'm going to try to get it right!

-It looks absolutely fantastic.

-It is really fresh and vibrant.

Beautiful. Very spring-like.

OK, and later I'm going to be making a recipe using some lovely

morel mushrooms.

I'm going to make them into a sauce to go with some spring chicken

and a Parmesan risotto. Lovely.

Lots of chicken, lots of risotto and loads of lovely morels.

So, Rupert, as an expert forager,

I hope you're going to like this first dish,

-because it's got a few flowers on it.

-Yes!

Great time of year for flowers!

Flowers in food, I'm never quite sure about flowers in food.

-Well, they're lovely. They work very well.

-Cauliflower. Broccoli.

That's not a flower, really, is it? It's not actually a flower.

-I think it is. Bees go to it.

-A floret.

There you go, cauliflower floret.

At your place, you do, is it a borage soup?

-We do a soup with borage in it, yeah.

-That is a flower.

Borage does flower, doesn't it?

-It does indeed.

-It has a wonderful flavour of cucumber.

That's right, it has a certain chemical

which is in a lot of plants, a lot of wild plants,

it adds that cucumber flavour to it. A lovely smell.

It is absolutely fantastic.

Honestly, this is the best thing about having guys like this on -

even as a chef of 22 years, you end up learning more

and more stuff, especially about flowers.

Is he really a Burdock as a name? Is that like dandelion and burdock?

A forager called Burdock, exactly, it's fantastic.

Who would've thought it?

-The Chinese believe you live up to your name, so...

-Is that right?

-So, Burdock, there you go.

-People think I'm a bit of a know-it-all.

-That works.

-Nick "Know-it-all".

OK, so the first dish I'm going to be cooking is a bacon chop

with broad beans.

Basically, broad beans with marjoram and some broad bean flowers.

The flowers from broad beans taste beautiful, they are fantastic.

Broad beans are great, Are you a big fan of broad beans?

I am, I tend to blanch them and ping them out of their shells,

-because their shells are quite dry.

-Honestly, that is music to my ears,

because that is exactly what you are going to be doing.

These are going into some boiling salted water,

and at the same time I've got here a bacon chop.

This is a beautiful, dry cured piece of bacon. It's been smoked.

So, it's like your back bacon, where you thinly slice it,

this is just a lump of it.

You can start getting those smells coming out,

the caramelisation of that bacon is beautiful.

Then we're going to deglaze the pan with a bit of malt vinegar,

which is absolutely stunning. Keep it simple,

the broad beans we're going to pod, heat them up with a bit of butter.

What's going on in your world, Nick? Tell me.

Well, all kinds. We've got more DIY SOS big builds going on.

It's become kind of the social conscience of the country now,

people coming out to help other people, which is nice.

It continues to be the same bunch of slightly drunk

and smelly builders I started out with 15 years ago, having a laugh.

At the same time, it's turned into this big community thing.

So that's kind of cool. All the quiz shows, afternoon quiz shows.

That's going good.

-I do a lot more writing these days.

-Really?

What sort of writing?

Well, I've got a novel on the go at the moment, but also dramas.

I've just written a film, which will hopefully be made this September,

and I'm researching a new film on Marie Antoine Careme.

Yes, I've been reading this. That's incredible.

How much research do you have to do about that, and who is he?

Marie Antoine Careme was the greatest chef who ever lived, basically.

I'm sure Gordon Ramsay would have something to say about that.

I think even Gordon would accept that this was the man.

This was the man who invented puff pastry,

the first one to wear a chef's hat, this was the guy who was

born before the French Revolution and grew up named after the Queen

of France, Marie Antoine for a bloke, and then the Queen gets beheaded.

So he is then running around Paris with a girl's name -

the Queen's name - a dead queen's name - in revolutionary France.

He then gets to cook for the big cheese, Talleyrand.

Then he cooks for Napoleon.

Then the Tsar of Russia takes Paris,

so he goes to St Petersburg and cooks for the Tsar.

Then he cooks for the first Rothchilds making their fortune.

Then he cooks for the Prince Regent down in Brighton in the pavilion,

-if you've ever been down there.

-Yes, Brighton Pavilion.

-You must have seen the big kitchen.

-Actually, I have, it's incredible.

Built for him when they got him over from France.

The first celebrity chef to be taken around. I'll start on this.

-Talk and work, chef.

-Taking the wedding ring off -

I'm only taking the wedding ring off for a second, by the way.

Just for Jessica's benefit. I ought to take the watch off as well.

And how long before that is in production and the book's finished?

For ever. Mostly, at the moment, I'm just going to Paris

and eating in expensive French restaurants to get the flavour of it.

I love that. Welcome to my world - it's great, isn't it?

But the funny thing is, if you go into a French restaurant

and you talk to the maitre d' about the fact you're doing research

on him, they instantly fall in love with you,

because they think you know about cooking and you know about food.

And they know what you are talking about,

or they think they know what you are talking about.

And that's all you need to do.

It's a great tip, if you are ever in a French restaurant,

for getting really good service.

France is brilliant for that, there is so much culture and history.

That'll do. That's plenty.

OK, so what we've got is this bacon which is being nicely cooked.

Lovely sear, lovely caramelisation on the bacon.

And what happens is, at the bottom of the pan,

all those crispy bacon bits will stick to the bottom of that pan,

and what we're going to do is leave it to rest for a little

bit and deglaze the pan with a bit of vinegar and a bit of butter.

This is malt vinegar.

Because everyone has malt vinegar and nobody ever uses it.

It's fantastic, it's got that lovely, rich, dark kind of flavour.

We're just going to glaze the top of the bacon with it.

Where the bacon is quite fatty and salty, full of flavour

and that smoke, that vinegar helps -

just the acidity cuts through it, and also gives it a lovely glaze.

When I was little, my sisters all used to go off to dancing school,

and my dad and I on a Saturday morning used to do bacon and beans.

We used to fry the bacon until it was really hard

and left that sticky stuff all over the bottom of the pan,

then pour the tin of beans in and use it to deglaze the pan

so all the flavour of the sort of burnt bacon went into the beans.

Then you put the bacon back in and softens it back up.

Sir, I've got to be honest with you, I've pinched that idea off your dad.

This is basically, this is basically bacon and beans! Pretty much.

Thanks to your old man for the recipe.

I tell you what we could also do is pick a few bits of marjoram

for here. Marjoram is a beautiful herb.

Tell us about the marjoram herb, Rupert. What do you know about it?

Marjoram is related to oregano and thyme.

It's a Mediterranean plant, Mediterranean origin.

It's very good for dispelling yin energy, excessive yin energy.

So if you are very cold,

-you should have...

-You should have some marjoram, yes, some heat.

What would your family back in Gloucester say about you stood

-here talking about yin and yang and herbs?

-To be honest...

Did they tell you I'm from Stroud? That explains everything.

Rupert lives around the corner, so we've got a lot in common,

although miles apart!

LAUGHTER

So, I deglazed the pan, that's gone over the top of the bacon, and then

we are just bringing a bit of water, a bit of butter, up to the boil.

We're going to reduce it and glaze those beans and cover them

with the marjoram. Marjoram and broad beans go very well together.

They almost taste a little bit sage-like.

You know that kind of hard-core sage flavour?

Does it grow like sage?

Does it kind of take over the world like sage?

It does, you find it a lot in abandoned gardens.

It will take over old patios and cracked pavements.

-It just keeps coming back year after year.

-It does in my garden, anyway.

No, I'm sure, I think sage is exactly the same.

So, what we've got there, a pinch of salt.

It's a little bit of water from the broad bean poaching,

that we cooked them in in the first place,

so it actually works a bit like a sauce.

Just going to put the marjoram leaves in,

and literally we're going to grab a spoon...

Spoon it over the top.

So we've kind of got this broad bean and marjoram sauce and stock

just to go with the bacon.

This is kind of like the ultimate springtime breakfast.

This is what you could do for your old man.

It's a new version of bacon and beans.

Come on and have a little try of this.

That lovely broad bean flavour, just because we've taken the outside

husks off, I know what you mean,

they can make it a bit dry and pithy.

Then on top of that, we will cover it with the broad bean

flowers, which make it look beautiful and very spring-like,

and actually have a fantastic flavour. Look at that.

That is a big, manly piece of bacon turned into a beautiful,

feminine little dish.

-Amazing.

-Very simple but beautiful flavours. Big, powerful flavours.

The saltiness of the bacon,

the cure and the heavy smoke coming through, also the vinegar,

but then the lightness of the broad beans and marjoram, hopefully.

OK, now, in every show we get out

and about on special spring trips with some of our favourite chefs.

Today, we are joining Nathan Outlaw in Port Isaac in Cornwall.

He's going after some pollock to go with a pickled carrot salad.

What's fantastic about spring for me

is the change in season which brings so many new ingredients.

In the kitchens, we get really excited,

because it means we can start using really fresh flavours, lots of

fresh ingredients, and Cornwall just comes alive at this time of year.

Today, I've got a recipe for you that I think you'll love,

but first I need to go get some fish.

-Morning, Nathan. Nice to see you.

-I'm after some pollock.

-Have you got any?

-Yes. Line-caught.

-Are you going to show me how to do this properly?

-I'll try.

Pollock's not got much flavour to it, but I quite like the texture.

I would agree on that one. It's got a good texture.

-It needs a bit of help on its way, though, doesn't it?

-It does.

There you go, how's that one? All right? I'll wrap it up.

-Please, that would be brilliant.

-There you go.

-Thanks for that.

-Thank you very much.

-Take care, have a good day.

Today, I'm going to cook you a lovely spring kitchen recipe of crispy

pollock, with pickled carrots and a sweet vinegar dressing.

It's got lovely lime zinginess to it,

sweet smoked paprika as well,

and I think it's perfect with that lovely crispy batter on the pollock.

The ingredients you're going to need are obviously the pollock,

some carrots, some lime, spring onions, little bit of shallot,

some garlic, green chilli, coriander and some smoked paprika.

The first thing we need to do to make this pollock exciting

is to get it marinated.

I'm going to take the pollock fillet,

rip off a bit of the coriander, just chop straight through it.

I'm just going to use half of the chilli,

the other half I'm going to put into the pickled carrots.

Pollock is very bland, so don't be afraid of a bit of heat.

So we chop the chilli quite fine and add that to the coriander.

Now, the next thing to do is take the zest of the lime.

The last thing we're going to add to the marinade is this smoked paprika.

This gives it a smokiness. Just take...

..the pollock. We're going to cut it into nice chunks.

I like sort of pieces that sort of size, you know?

Perfect for one bite.

Give the whole thing a bit of a mix.

You can leave that now, ideally for a couple of hours.

The next thing I need to do is to pickle the carrots.

You will need four ingredients to make the liquor.

We've got equal quantities of white wine, white wine vinegar...

..sugar...

..and water.

Once you've got all those ingredients in a pan,

just bring that to the boil.

While we're waiting for that, we will get the carrots prepared.

What you can do is grate the carrots, but I'm going to slice them

quite thin, because I quite like the texture of carrots.

So that's all the carrots done. We've got a shallot next.

A bit of chilli as well.

As fine as I can.

And then the last thing we're going to do is use...

These are fantastic for garlic, these little graters.

A lot quicker than chopping it.

So, once you've got all your vegetables ready, just take a bowl...

Add them all into it.

Essentially, all you're doing is making a pickled vegetable salad.

And then the pickling liquor has come to the boil.

Just going to pour that over the raw vegetables.

I'm going to use them once they have softened a bit, but you could keep

them for up to a month in the fridge no problem, in a tight Kilner jar.

So give it a bit of a mix around.

Give that a helping hand as well,

if we just lay a piece of clingfilm on top.

It creates a vacuum.

The next thing we need to do, we've got our pollock marinating,

our pickled vegetable salad ready, so we just need to make the batter.

Two tablespoons of flour.

And two tablespoons of cornflour.

Next thing, we need some ice-cold soda water.

Add the soda water to the flour.

This batter needs to be quite thin,

so you're looking for something like that.

Almost like water, but it will work, I promise.

It's as simple as that.

OK, that's all your main components of the dish ready,

all we need to do now is fry the fish.

The first thing to do is drop the marinated pollock into the batter.

It's a bit dirty, this bit, but it's all good fun.

Straight into the fryer.

They've been cooking for about two or three minutes.

Give them a good shake.

You probably saw I put a bit of batter in there as well,

that's because I love these crispy bits, so add them as well.

So, the fish is ready, so, as quick as I can,

I'm going to put the spring onions, the coriander, into this salad.

Obviously, that salad is still warm, so you don't want to add

the coriander too soon, or you lose all the colour.

Lovely salad...

..to go on the plate there.

And then a pile of these fried pollock bits.

Don't forget the scratchings. You've got to love the scratchings.

And a touch of rapeseed oil, just a little bit. There you go.

That is my crispy pollock with pickled carrots

and sweet vinegar dressing.

I hope you agree that it's simple enough for you guys to cook at home,

and I tell you what, it tastes fantastic.

Have a go.

Thank you very much, Nathan, that looked amazing.

Kind of like the best fish and chips ever, just without the chips.

OK, Ching, it's your time to cook. What are you going to be doing?

I'm going to make my spicy lemon grass larb,

so it's a traditional dish of Laos and when Ken and I

-travelled on our trip to China...

-Ken Hom.

-..we passed by Yunnan.

Yunnan in China borders Laos, and the cuisine there is amazing,

so there's a little bit of a crossover.

And I just fell in love with the herbs and spices they use.

Essentially, larb is like a minced raw dish. Served with salad.

So, traditionally, you just mince up some pork, chicken and fish

-and season it with fish sauce.

-So it's raw meat?

So, raw chicken or raw pork or raw fish?

Exactly, so think of like beef tartare, for example.

They've got their version.

But, because of the ingredients, it's really light and fragrant

and spring-like, and acidic to kind of cook it?

Yes, to kind of cook it.

Of course, we're not going to do that here,

and there are lots of different types of wok-fried larb,

so I'm going to do my spring take,

with a bit of a kick, spicy lemon grass.

Spicy lemon grass, that's what I've got in here.

I've sliced some lemon grass

and I'm smashing it together in this pestle and mortar.

Also, in the pan next to you, we've got some rice,

what sort of rice is this?

We've got glutinous rice, otherwise known as sticky rice.

It doesn't have gluten in.

It's just really nutty and wonderful and aromatic. You toast it up.

-In Laos cuisine, it's called khao khua.

-Khao khua.

-Khao khua, and it's used as a seasoning.

-OK.

So, you just basically put that toasted, ground,

and you sprinkle a little bit on top of the larb,

and it's wonderful, just so delicious.

So, what I'm doing - I've got chicken thighs there, with the skin removed,

and I've just sliced the skin into nice bite-size pieces.

-So, this is the skin, this is just the chicken skin?

-Yeah.

And then get chicken thighs and then you just slice it into slices

and then, using a very sharp knife, a good knife,

you can mince it up yourself in the kitchen,

-or you can you get your butcher to do it for you.

-OK.

-Debone, and you can keep the bone for a nice stock or something.

-Sure.

This is really...

So, we just want it sort of nice, minced pieces.

-That's it. It's good.

-Are these toasted enough?

-Yeah, they look beautiful.

-OK, OK.

-Yeah.

And what I'll do is smash these up again in the pestle and mortar.

Yep, please.

Fantastic.

There's something hugely intimidating

about having someone use an axe in the kitchen.

It's a proper piece of cooking equipment.

It's a wonderful tool.

OK, so, into this chicken skin we're now going to put

-a little of this spice?

-Yes.

-A little bit of the ground rice.

A little bit of the ground rice, so you season it like that.

And then here we have some of the toasted...

Yes, we've got some ground, roasted dry chillies,

and you've just pounded that as well, so, nice flakes in there.

-Is that enough?

-Yeah, bit more.

-We like it nice and spicy, boys?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Bring it on.

-Good, good. OK, nice and spicy it is.

Good generous bit of salt.

-And then I'll get this on.

-Yeah.

-Give it a good mix.

-Yeah, good mix.

Pop it on the griddle,

and then we're going to cook it until it's nice and crispy.

So, no oil on there, no oil,

just the natural fats that's going to come from the chicken skin.

Yeah, it's going to render and it's going to be nice.

-OK.

-Looks great, Chef.

OK, meanwhile, I've got my wok nice and hot,

so you've kind of got your own little stir-fry there.

-Yeah, I'm loving this.

-You can toss that.

It feels like some form of Singaporean street food

-kind of thing.

-Yeah!

Love it.

-So...

-From Laos.

-From Laos, yeah, exactly.

-LAUGHTER

-Singaporean street food from Laos. It's a fusion.

-Fusion dish.

So, what have you got going on in your world, Ching?

Tell us what's happening.

My world - well, I've got last finishing touches to my wedding...

-Your wedding, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Is it going to be a big wedding this year?

-Ongoing saga.

Well, I've had the Taiwanese bit with my family, out in Taiwan,

which was wonderful.

-Over a tea ceremony we bonded, and we sealed the deal over tea.

-How lovely!

But we've got to do the legal bit now,

-so that's going to be in England...

-OK.

-..in a few weeks' time.

-OK, OK.

-Yeah.

-The bit that costs money.

Yes!

-It costs too much money!

-And books and television?

Books and television, have you got things going on this year?

Yeah, in June, I head off to the States

and then I film season two of Restaurant Redemption,

which is about me going to help struggling Asian fusion restaurants.

-And that was a big hit in the US.

-It was, it was. Well...

-And doing a second series of it.

-Yes, doing a second series.

So, your role is to go into Asian restaurants to see what's happening,

see where it's going wrong and then helping.

Yeah, help them with their menu.

Because, you know, in Asian cooking, it's very much about the food.

We don't really worry about the decor or the service.

-In some cases there IS no service.

-Good, that suits this place.

Suits us - don't worry about the decor,

just as long as the food tastes nice.

If the food is great, people will come.

In that Asian culture, is it normal for a woman to be in charge

in the kitchen, and tell the guys what they're doing wrong?

Oh, I'm sorry, but women are always in charge in the kitchen.

-Is that right?

-Yes. All across China, mostly Southeast Asia...

Women are always in charge, Nick, haven't you found that?

Yeah - absolutely. Yeah.

-Let's bail out quickly on that one.

-Yeah, yeah...

I like cooking with you!

I don't think that's just Asian culture, is it?

Quite right.

It's all culture.

So, we talked earlier about the yin and the yang with Rupe over there.

The yin and the yang in the profiles of food, what does it mean?

Explain it a bit more.

So, yin and yang - it pulls the whole universe.

The whole universe is based on yin and yang energy.

Yin is very female, yang is male. Yin is cooling, yang is very fiery.

And so, in food, we have yin and yang properties

when it comes to ingredients, and also cooking techniques.

So, for example, vegetables are really yin,

and meat is very, very yang.

So, when you have a dish on the plate that's got meat

and vegetables, and depending how it's cooked -

if it's wok-fried, it's more yang, if it's steamed, it's more yin,

you want to bring a balance of yin and yang.

-So, it's all about the balance.

-Exactly.

So, I've just sliced some cucumber and some carrots to go with it.

And you were telling us an interesting fact

about carrots, Rupert.

They come from a family of poisonous vegetables.

Er, yeah - well, almost.

It's a big family, the carrot family, the umbellifer family.

It's got wonderful plants, edible plants like fennel, parsley,

coriander, but also deadly poisonous plants, as well, like hemlock,

hemlock water dropwort, fool's parsley...

It's just strange,

usually strains of plants are either all edible or all poisonous,

but for some reason there's stuff that will make you healthy and happy

-and stuff that'll kill you.

-Right!

Brilliant. But carrots are all right?

Those carrots, yeah, that's fine. Don't worry about them.

-Fool's parsley?

-It is indeed called fool's parsley, yeah.

It's a giveaway in the name, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-"Deadly parsley" might be a better name for it.

Fool's parsley, fool's parsley.

How are we doing there? Are we almost there?

Yes, we are almost there.

So, the trick with this is,

you just fry up some of the dry chillies

together with the lemon grass, you add the chicken thighs in,

and then you cook it, add a little bit of sake or cooking wine -

that's just my addition, cos I think it's just beautiful,

-flavours the meat really well.

-Yeah.

Fish sauce with a little bit of sugar just to help it caramelise,

and the idea is just to cook it until all the liquids reduce,

-until the chicken thighs have absorbed all the flavours.

-OK.

So, that's what you want to do, and at the end,

ideally cook that a bit longer

-and then you just toss through...

-I've got the crispy chicken skin,

-I'm just draining a little bit.

-Wonderful.

And that's on top - that's been seasoned with the ground rice,

the toasted dry chillies...

-Yes.

-..and then a little bit of sea salt.

-Yes, exactly.

-And here we've got...?

-We're going to garnish with some Thai basil.

I love Thai basil.

You could put fresh chillies, if you like to eat fresh chillies.

-And a little bit of coriander.

-Big fan of fresh chillies.

-You in favour of Asian food, Nick? You OK?

-Oh, massively, yeah.

I love it.

It's the combination of that sort of fiery chilli flavour

with the fresh flavours,

like when you get that raw, unripe mango salad

that's got chilli on it, and it's got the crunchiness,

-and peanuts and things - lovely combinations. Love it.

-Yeah.

It's very, very clean and it's very, very fresh flavours,

and you can smell - come and have a taste.

-I thought you'd never ask!

-We have...

LAUGHTER

With a dish like this, chicken and herbs are very tonifying.

It looks beautiful, all those colours, it's very vibrant,

it's very spring-like, it's very fresh.

And you're going to garnish it with the crispy stuff.

-Have we got knives and forks?

-Yes, so just dig in.

-Get in there, get digging in.

-And some of this khao khua,

we're going to sprinkle some of this khao khua.

-Some more of the rice on the top.

-Yes.

So that balance of flavour,

if you've got acidity, you've got sweetness,

you've got freshness, and then lots of crunch as well.

-Yes. Hopefully!

-Hopefully. I love it.

Some fresh limes, and traditionally it's eaten with sticky rice.

-There you go.

-Oh, that's fantastic!

-Mm.

The crunchy skin is wonderful on the top,

and then underneath that you've got all that lovely

sort of lemon grassy flavours in the chicken.

-It's delicious, innit?

-Absolutely fantastic.

OK, so it's time to take a dip into the BBC food archive,

and today we're off to see Nigel Slater for another simple supper.

He's making a Thai-inspired prawn noodle soup

with chillies, lemon grass and coriander.

Yin or yang?

-Pretty balanced.

-Balanced, we like that.

-Yeah.

When I'm thinking about what to cook,

I quite often put things together, I suppose, by instinct.

And I find that very often what ingredients grow together

very often go together.

It's like when you're on holiday,

you suddenly find yourself treading on fresh herbs

and you'll suddenly smell a little bit of oregano or a bit of mint

or thyme, and you look at the goats and the sheep that are grazing,

and you just think, "Well, yes, these are going to go together."

The lamb is eating the oregano, or it's eating the thyme.

My theory of "what grows together goes together"

doesn't just work for food out of my own garden.

It also applies to food that has come from around the world.

I'll show you what I mean with my Friday night supper,

a delicious Thai-inspired noodle soup.

When all these ingredients come together,

they create something really quite dramatic.

For this dish, I'm using ginger, chillies, lemon grass,

garlic and fresh coriander.

All ingredients with their roots in Southeast Asia.

This is the sort of recipe that I would have looked at

a few years ago and thought, "Well, I'm not making that,"

because it had a great, long recipe list.

But, in fact, when you actually get down to it,

after you've done the shopping

and a little bit of chopping,

there's nothing else to do.

It's all over in ten minutes.

For the base of this soup, simply chop your ginger and chillies,

keeping the seeds if you're feeling brave,

slice some lemon grass for a hint of citrus,

cut some garlic and fresh coriander,

then put them all into a food processor

with a dash of vegetable oil to avoid making the paste too dry.

Now, to that very basic paste,

you can add whatever you want, really.

I love those very warm flavours.

Spices like coriander, and like turmeric -

what they add is a depth and a warmth, and almost an earthiness.

So, I just crush a few little coriander seeds.

It's one of those kitchen jobs I just love doing.

Fresh coriander and dried coriander give completely different flavours.

There's something almost slightly orangey to dried coriander seed.

And a tiny bit of turmeric I put in, as well.

Add some stick to the paste.

I'm using vegetable stock here.

Give it a good stir.

Then it's time to start making this into a main course.

I'm going to add some noodles to it, and it can be any noodle.

It can be the really thick, beefy ones...

..but there's something that feels right

about using rice noodles rather than wheat ones.

And they don't even need cooking.

All I've got to do is pour over some boiling water

and just let them sit there.

To soften the heat of the sauce, I'm adding coconut milk -

the cream of Southeast Asia.

At this point I could add anything else I want.

So...

..I could put in some chicken.

If I was feeling extravagant, some scallops.

I could put in some mushrooms,

or those wonderful little Thai aubergines.

But I'm actually going to use some prawns, because...

..because it's my Friday treat.

Haven't been extravagant this week at all.

De-vein the prawns if you want.

This gets rid of the yuck, and also helps to cook them quicker.

Add the prawns, some more fresh coriander,

and then season with some fish sauce.

A little goes a long way.

And I think of it as the very essence

of the cooking of Southeast Asia.

Drain the noodles, place them in a bowl

before ladling in the aromatic soup.

That ticks so many boxes for me.

It's hot, it's exciting, it's exhilarating, it's soothing,

it's everything I want a bowl of food to be.

Everything.

I promise, this dish is worth every bit of effort you put into it.

Truly delicious.

-Thank you very much, Nigel. That looked incredible, didn't it?

-Yeah.

Now, throughout this series,

we've showcased some real key spring ingredients

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

Today I'm going to be roasting a spring chicken

with a morel sauce and a Parmesan risotto.

Ching, I need you to give me a hand. You can get on risotto duty.

-All right, no worries.

-All right, let's get cracking.

What you need to do first and foremost

is to chop me a celery stalk and a shallot,

and we're going to get that sweating off in a bit of butter

-for the base of the risotto.

-OK.

Now, spring chicken - now,

what I've done with this bad boy is soaked it in a brine.

Now, this is a 20% solution, so it's 200g of salt to one litre of water.

-OK.

-And what that process does is kind of -

although you're putting something in a salt thing

that you would normally expect to draw moisture,

it helps to trap and seal moisture in,

-so the chicken is going to stay nice and moist and delicious.

-Lovely.

A spring chicken - they're not massive things,

they're probably two people per chicken,

-so you get a leg and a breast.

-OK.

-Or could you do a whole chicken, Nick?

-Yeah, easily.

-I could do a whole chicken.

-Party portion.

Yeah, one-portion chickens.

OK, so I'm going to roast this.

And by brining the skin, as well, it gets the skin crispy.

It does, it helps get the skin crispy.

OK, so the chicken on,

and then I'm just going to brush it with a little bit of oil.

And a pinch of salt...

..and a pinch of pepper,

and then we're going to stick it into a very high oven.

A very high oven.

And we're going to roast it.

-If you've got a high temperature on something like a chicken...

-Yes.

..then you're worried that the outside will be cooked,

and then inside by the bone will still be raw and bloody

and dangerous, that's my big fear always with chicken.

Well, the brining process - because it's salt,

it almost helps to cure it a little bit, which means that...

-It protects the moisture.

-Yeah, exactly.

OK, then I'm going to get on my chicken sauce.

Now, the sauce to go with this

is going to be a sauce that we're going to cook the morels in as well.

Now, morel mushrooms are around this time of year,

and they are a fantastic, beautiful wild mushroom.

-Mm.

-Young Rupert has got some in front of him.

Tell us about those morels.

-They're very different to the ones that I've got over here.

-Yeah,

you've got Morchella elata and I've got Morchella esculenta.

-They're both morels.

-Ah, I thought that, yeah.

Yep, yep. I thought that.

They're not actually that different, it's more about size.

These are definitely in the top three

of all mushroom-appreciators' delicious mushrooms in the world.

They also make great houses for woodlice and slugs and ants...

-LAUGHTER

-You've really got to shake them out.

I'm not sure that's a selling point of why we're cooking with them.

But they are a spring mushroom. They're around about now.

Yeah, this is a good time to go out and look for them.

Look for them in old apple orchards, anywhere with sandy soil.

If you live in a sandy soil area, in your back garden,

where there's a lot of sandy soil.

-But do make sure you know what you're looking for.

-Exactly, yeah.

You can go out and hold people's hands and find them with them.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Don't go sending people out to pick mushrooms,

there's untold damage that they can do to themselves.

Find a local forager, go out with them,

and then you'll see it first-hand. Or study yourself, you know?

-Get a lot...

-Good guide book.

Yeah, not just one good guide book, lots of good guide books,

and take it slowly, respectfully, be careful,

cos there's stuff that could kill you out there.

-And take some indigestion tablets with you.

-Yeah.

If you think you've swallowed something poisonous,

stick your fingers down your throat, that's the most important thing.

-Brilliant.

-Not something you hear often on a cookery show, is it?

-LAUGHTER

-Obviously, people,

don't eat anything that you think is poisonous.

Get yourself a good guide book or two and pick the right mushrooms.

It's like danger-eating, isn't it?

It's like that thing they do with the puffer fish in Japan -

just enough poison to make you buzz, but not enough to kill you.

Have you done puffer fish?

No, that's one thing I can't say that I've done,

and I'm not sure that I'd like to take the risk, just in case.

Precisely.

I think I'm an adventurous eater,

but then when I see myself with puffer fish, I'm like, "No."

-Would you eat it, Tom?

-Yeah, I'd definitely eat it.

-You would?

Yeah, God, yeah. I'd have a go at most things.

Chef, does this look good?

OK, that looks great.

So, what you've got there is, you are sweating down some shallots,

some celery, and then you're going to put in the risotto rice.

Now, this is Carnaroli risotto rice, but you can use Arborio.

It doesn't really matter as long as it's good risotto rice.

-OK.

-And then into that you're going to slowly add chicken stock.

-Yeah.

-Start cooking and heating up your risotto.

-OK.

-We've got one...

-Lovely. A little bit of wine, as well?

-A little bit of wine would be great.

-Yeah.

-A bit of chicken stock.

We've got a risotto that we've got going here,

and this is being cooked with chicken stock.

So, you start at this point

-and you're going to end up with this point.

-OK.

-That's what we're looking for.

-Gorgeous.

-It takes quite a while to cook.

-Yeah.

OK, now, I'm just bringing this sauce down over hot pans.

And this chicken sauce is being reduced down with garlic

and thyme, little bit of bay leaf,

and then we're going to put in some double cream.

-Bring it up to the boil.

-Lovely.

-And it's so easy. So simple!

-It is very easy.

And then, what we're going to do is poach the morels in the sauce.

Because you need to cook morels, don't you?

Yeah, you need to cook all mushrooms, really.

If you're living in civilisation - if you want to be like a wild man,

like Bigfoot for a while, then just eat everything raw.

That kind of appeals to me - do you fancy living like Bigfoot, Nick?

Yeah, every now and again

I think it's time to go and live up a hillside and drink yak's milk

and shave me head,

but no, it only takes a couple of hours before I realise

what I need is a cafe somewhere on the King's Road.

Yeah, yeah.

No, you can never be too far away from a latte, can you?

There it is. The chicken sauce with double cream.

We're just going to poach the morels in it now.

Now, add to this sauce, I'm going to put in a little splash of brandy

and a little splash of sweet wine.

Now, served with poached morels normally is a wine called vin jaune,

from an area in France, and it's made with late-picked grapes,

so they kind of have this musty, rich, strong taste to them.

But it's quite difficult to get hold of, so if you haven't got it,

a little splash of sweet wine and a little splash of brandy.

It's not the same thing, but it has that same kind of musty flavour

that goes very well with morels.

We're just going to bring it up and poach it.

Will that complement the sweetness of the chicken meat?

Sweetness of the chicken, and it's beautiful.

-How's that risotto doing?

-I think it's looking good.

-We've got Parmesan, mozzarella...

-Parmesan, mozzarella.

If you can get some Parmesan and some mozzarella into that,

it'd be brilliant.

And then, into that, we're just going to add a little bit

of beurre noisette, so I'm going to put some butter onto the melt,

and we're going to take it to kind of like a burnt butter stage.

We have the chicken roasting here.

Now, this has been roasting for about 35 minutes to 40 minutes.

Chef, a whole mozzarella?

-Yeah, stick it all in.

-OK.

Stick it all in, why not?

-Do you like mozzarella?

-Yeah, course.

But this would have to be a dish on my...

If you don't, you're in trouble.

Yeah. This would have to be my "relaxed" day.

I've been trying to lose weight recently,

so I have six days where I'm on it, and then one day where I go,

"I don't care what I'm eating today."

-And this would be my "don't care what I'm eating today" thing.

-OK.

-So, your cheat day.

-Yeah.

-Your cheat day.

So, the chicken is cooked.

Going to joint it, take it off.

Now, the legs - it's all still beautifully...

It's still got a little bit of pinkness to it,

but that's because of the brine.

So, if you imagine a chicken that's been in brine -

if you imagine bacon, bacon has been in brine,

that's what keeps it nice and pink.

So a chicken in brine is the same thing, it keeps it nice and moist.

Keeps it lovely.

Just keeps all that flavour in.

-So pink doesn't necessarily mean not cooked properly.

-No.

Unless you've brined it, well, it probably does, yes.

But if you've brined it first...

You can see it's still got a lovely colour to it,

-it's still nice and moist.

-OK.

-Take the breast off...

-That's looking great, Chef.

-Risotto ready?

-Yeah.

-Let's get that risotto out, then.

We're going to put the chicken...

-Here you go, Chef.

-..onto there.

Then a few celery leaves to go into the risotto would be great, Ching.

-OK, so just torn in?

-Just give them a little slice, that'd be brilliant.

And actually what we've got... Beurre noisette.

Little bit of lemon juice, little bit of burnt butter.

-There you go. We can stir that into the risotto as well.

-Lovely.

-Yum!

-Little bit of flavour.

Stick that into the pan, into the pot.

-And then I will...

-Oh, look at that.

-..dress the chicken.

-That mozzarella.

-Come on, guys. It's nearly time for you to come on over.

-Is it?

So, this sauce...

The poached morels sit on top of the chicken.

Morels and chicken, they're just so good together.

Sorry...

That does look the biz.

There we go. It's one of those most beautiful spring...

kind of French-Italian crossovers, here. Bit of risotto.

There we go, guys.

If you get in there and taste that, that'd be lovely.

-Little bit more...

-How are we doing?

-There we go.

-That's beautiful.

-Yeah, we happy with that?

And the chicken and morels are so good together.

-Ooh.

-That's fantastic.

-Chicken and morels,

they're absolutely beautiful, aren't they? Really good.

And the risotto? Happy?

-Risotto's lovely.

-That sauce is delicious.

-Good risotto, girl.

It was brilliant.

OK, that's all we've got time for on today's Spring Kitchen.

A big thank you to Ching-He Huang, Rupert Burdock and Nick Knowles.

And, of course, the amazing Nathan Outlaw.

All of our recipes are available on the website,

please go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen.

Thank you all ever so much for watching,

and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.

See you later, bye.