Episode 8 Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

It's spring, and it's a glorious season for food.

To celebrate, we're laying on a feast of seasonal ingredients

and recipes for you to enjoy.

Welcome to Spring Kitchen.

Hello and welcome.

Now some of Britain's best produce is coming out right now

and for fresh ideas on how to use it, look no further.

We're visiting Rachel Khoo in east London.

She's off to the butchers for some meat before making

a delicious buttermilk-marinated lamb dish.

Plus, we take a peek into the BBC food archive

and as it's May Day today, we join a young Rick Stein

in Padstow for some traditional Cornish May Day celebrations

and some tasty local seafood.

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

talent behind Cambridge's double- Michelin- starred Midsummer House.

It's Daniel Clifford.

And also joining us is a special Spring Kitchen expert

to tell us about the wonderful produce

available at this time of year.

-It's our in-house farmer, Dave Finkle. Hello to you too.

-Hello.

-How are we doing?

-Really good.

-Springtime happy as a chef, Daniel?

It's the best time of year to be a chef.

All the green things start coming through.

Things are popping through the ground. It's beautiful.

-It's time to use it.

-Inspirational?

-Oh, yes.

-Busy time for you, Dave?

-Absolutely. Harvesting the spring greens

-and we start sowing the crops ready for the summer and autumn.

-OK.

Now our guest today is a national treasure

and a familiar face from Albert Square.

-It's Patsy Palmer. Hello, Patsy.

-APPLAUSE

-And you are a massive foodie. A huge foodie.

-I love food.

-You love food and cooking food.

-Yes, I love cooking food.

-Brilliant.

OK, so Daniel is going to be cooking some stuff.

-What have you got for us?

-I have got a lovely roast lobster dish.

I'll roast it in butter. It's served with an orange and mango salad.

It's served warm. It's perfect for this time of year.

Absolutely delicious. Very light, very spring, very seasonal.

Sounds great, doesn't it? And then later on,

I am going to be doing a recipe with a great seasonal ingredient.

It's rhubarb. I'm going to be making a custard

and rhubarb tart with some sweet pastry and marmalade glaze.

I'm going to finish it off with some clotted cream. OK.

So for my first dish, I'm going to be using asparagus.

Dave, you're going to tell us a bit about that in a minute.

Patsy, do you want to come with me?

-We are going to do a bit of cooking and a bit of chatting.

-Lovely.

-Thank you.

-Sit yourself down there. Now, ham, egg and chips.

-A fan of harm, egg and chips?

-Yes.

-That's all right, then.

We are onto a winner. We're starting off with ham, egg and chips.

We will start by using some potatoes and I'm just going to blanch them.

Kind of more like shoestring fries. Very easy, very simple.

Potatoes, Dave, this time of year. Good or bad or indifferent?

Where are we at in the potato season?

Well, this time of year, you are using the potatoes that have

been stored in great big temperature-controlled storehouses

and the potatoes this time of year that have

-come out of storage are really good for making chips.

-OK.

So the sugars in them... cos, this time of year,

new potatoes are coming through, so things like Jersey Royals

and that sweetness in the new potatoes coming through

but when they store, that sugar begins to turn to starch...

-That's right.

-..which in turn helps to make a crispy chip.

-Indeed.

-Brilliant.

-We were just talking about potatoes that you were

talking about on telly on Saturday. Heritage potatoes.

Because I had to rewind it.

I was watching it on Saturday kitchen and then we were like,

"What potatoes is talking about?"

People don't really know where to get them.

Because when I watched it, it wasn't

kind of clear where you would get those potatoes.

-The heritage potatoes?

-Yes.

Explain the term of heritage potatoes for us, Dave.

Heritage potatoes, it's referring to some real old-fashioned

varieties that were out there.

They are farmed in traditional methods, traditional ways,

and they are very, very narrow on seasons. But they are very unique.

Some are brilliant for baking, some are brilliant for boiling,

and there are one or two that you can use them for literally anything.

-But they are good old-fashioned varieties that are coming back.

-OK.

-Where would the public buy these?

-Heritage website themselves.

You can actually go on their website and you can actually order

these potatoes direct and they are really worth a go.

-Thank you, because that is what I wanted to know.

-There you go.

So you can order them.

Now, this love of food, where does it actually come from, Patsy?

-Is it from the family or...

-Probably just having kids, mainly.

My mum really just cooked...

We lived in East London, Bethnal Green, so I know it sounds a bit...

East London... but we were big pie and mash fans,

-obviously, because we had three pie and mash shops in...

-Jellied eels?

-I didn't like them.

-You don't like jellied eels?

-My mum was a real...

We used to go every day to Bethnal Green.

She'd go in the butchers, then they would get

fruit and veg off the stalls down there so it was kind of,

I suppose, in a way, better than when all the supermarkets started...

-Instead of it being prepacked, you still had to cook with it.

-Yes.

My mum was kind of basic, you know...

Meat, vegetables, potatoes...

But still fresh produce from the marketplace.

And we always sat down and ate food at the table, you know,

-so eating was quite a nice thing to do.

-So a family kind of thing.

Now, your husband is a bit of a chef, I understand.

-Is he a keen cook? Is that right?

-Well, we enjoy cooking.

We do it together so we really enjoy it.

Yes, he is much more of a ham, egg and chips, steak, chips

and tomatoes kind of and we make, for the kids,

chicken with matzo meal

and trying to find recipes for the kids that are bit healthier than...

I mean, I don't buy anything that is prepacked, anyway,

myself so we just cook everything.

But lately, I have been trying to eat food that is alkaline

so I have been really interested in all that.

-So I have been eating a lot about that lately.

-Alkaline-based foods.

Do we know much about that, Dave the farmer?

Yes, basically, most acidic foods will grow on clay soils,

so if you think about, sort of,

fibrous root plants such as your leaves, your salads,

they actually grow on peats and composts

so they are more of an alkali.

So, I am reading a lot about, you know, body and disease

in the body and things like that, and it says that alkaline is

a much better state for your body to be in, mainly, rather than acidic.

-Is that right?

-That's very true.

-Yes.

-So that's what I'm kind of interested in, really.

OK. What I have got in here is asparagus. Asparagus is beautiful.

Right in season right now and what I have done is I've just peeled it,

taken off the woody ends. Asparagus, quite thick.

It has got a very woody end at the bottom

and you can just... where it snaps, you get rid of that

and that's the bit you can cook.

Dave, what can you tell us about the super asparagus that's around now?

It is bang in season. It's beautiful stuff.

British asparagus, it's the best in the world.

Because of our appetite for asparagus,

we now import over 6 1/2 million kilograms of asparagus

from Peru as a result of our appetite for asparagus.

All the villages on the outskirts of Peru, their natural water

supplies are drying out because of all the irrigation systems.

Not many people realise our appetite actually has that negative

effect on other countries.

So we definitely need to be using asparagus when it's in season,

right now, from England.

From my point of view, the best asparagus comes

from the Evesham way which is near...

Somewhere in the West Midlands or near there, yes.

I've just cracked an egg and the egg has broken.

It's not good enough to serve with a two-Michelin-starred chef there.

I'll start that again.

And then Daniel can tell us about where his favourite asparagus is

because we do have a little bit of a...

I believe it comes from Evesham.

Daniel is going to tell you it comes from, where?

I think it comes best from Cambridgeshire. I really do.

I've got a guy that grows it specially for me

and his fields have been there 20 years.

And every year it pops up

and it's the nicest thing in the world to cook.

The beautiful thing about asparagus, you don't need to do anything to it.

It just needs to be cooked very quickly,

-served hot and it's beautiful.

-Very, very simply.

We're just cooking it here in a little bit of water,

a little bit of butter and a little bit... this is a beautiful ham.

We're just going to put it into this pan with the asparagus.

It is just kind of wilting down and the juices from the asparagus

will begin to come out and start going into the ham

and the ham juices will then begin to mix with the asparagus

and this ham is a Wiltshire cured ham, which is like one

of the most traditional English kind of old school hams.

It's been in brine for about four or five days

and then it's been gently poached until it's cooked,

and these chips here,

these are kind of like shoestring fries, I suppose.

They have just been sliced, blanched, salted water

and we'll put them into a fryer.

-Into a fryer at about 180 degrees.

-How did you slice those chips?

-With what? How did you just slice those chips?

-I did them on this.

Now this takes years and years of training.

I've been a chef for 20 years.

Daniel's been a chef for about the same amount of time

although he does look a lot older than me.

LAUGHTER

-I spend a lot more time in my kitchen!

-That's very true!

That you have to mind yourr fingers so it's very sharp

and you just have to very gently put your hand through it.

The amount of times that I'm sure me and Daniel have had numerous

injuries so you have just got to go careful with that.

Now, there is a massive,

massive storyline going on in East Enders at the minute.

-Is that right?

-Yes.

-What's happening?

Well, the young girl, Lucy Beale, has been murdered and, yes...

So we will just have to wait

and see... who the murderer is going to be.

It's not very jolly, is it?

Yes, it's a great storyline(!) A young girl has just been murdered.

Do you actually, as a cast, do you actually know who the murderer is?

No, no. They won't...

I'm sure they know but... I'm sure

if they needed to change it, they probably could change it.

I'm sure they've got various ideas of who the murderer is going to be

but I think it's going to be quite a long drawn-out process

so I'm sure Dominic has got many suspects, knowing Dominic.

They are going to film many different endings.

So even if I kept pressing you to who the murderer is,

-you have absolutely no idea.

-No, I have no idea and that's the truth.

You have no idea. OK. Then I won't keep asking.

I have guesses myself.

Everybody is just like,

"Oh, maybe it's this one, maybe it's that one," but...

So are you all talking about it on set?

You are all wondering, like the rest of the country, who the murderer is?

Yes, occasionally we might say, "Oh, it's definitely got to be her,"

but then I watch scenes with people and think they're not acting

kind of suspicious, are they, so if you had just murdered someone...

So it's just blows my theories out of the window.

I will be watching someone and thinking, "Maybe it was her,"

and then I said, "well, you are not acting very suspicious,"

and she says, "Well, I don't know if I am or not," so...

And there is a bit of the storyline going on with your mum as well,

-isn't there?

-Yes. My mum in the show has breast cancer

so we are playing out that storyline at the minute which is really,

really important and we've had such great response from families,

you know, ladies that have had it and families that have had to, um...

you know, have the genetic testing done

because, obviously, with the type of cancer that Carol

in EastEnders has got, it is

a genetic type that then impacts on Sonia, who plays my sister,

that she has the gene,

but Bianca doesn't have the gene...

-And it's on this evening at 7:30.

-So it's really sad.

It's really humbling.

It obviously makes you realise every day how

lucky we are, you know, that we are only acting it and trying to help.

I think the BBC always does that really well, actually.

-If there is an issue...

-Cover those storylines?

Yes, and we have had great response, you know, always from ladies that

unfortunately have breast cancer or who have survived it and how

responsible they think EastEnders are being

and how brilliantly they're writing it and they feel, you know,

and sisters and daughters,

saying how they went through exactly the same thing so..

Kind of shows that a drama can be a force for the good.

-Yes, definitely.

-OK. So, while we've done that... That was very quick.

I don't feel like that's, though, when I'm watching this,

-about my ham, egg and chips, I must say.

-Really?

-Mine doesn't look like that.

-But how easy was that?

We've just done a little bit of ham,

poached in a bit of water and butter.

The asparagus cooked in the same stock, fried an egg,

-done a few chips, but of chopped parsley, dead easy.

-Lovely.

Looks a lot healthier, doesn't it, with the chips like that, actually.

Very small chips, nice and light and clean. Some knives and forks.

But it is one of those dinners, when you're starving,

-and you just think, "What can I do?" And there is no time.

-That's it.

-It's such a perfect...

-Have a taste.

-The kids love it.

-My kids love ham, egg and chips.

-Ladies first.

-Crack that egg yolk open.

-Thank you.

-Use it as a bit of a sauce.

-Thank you very much.

-It looks really nice.

-Not an easy one to eat and live telly!

-Don't worry.

Everyone will watch Daniel. Daniel, you take a bit. Take the heat away.

OK, boss. I'm going straight for the egg.

-The beautiful thing about this is you don't see ham like that.

-Now.

Great ham, find it from your butcher.

This is actually from my butcher based in Wiltshire

-so it's a double Wiltshire ham.

-Oh, my God.

-There we are, look.

-Mmm...

-Happy?

-Really beautiful.

-Great, that is brilliant.

OK, in every show, we're getting out

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

Today we join Rachel Khoo in search of some lamb to

marinate in buttermilk and she serves it with a toasted buckwheat salad.

Spring brings a fresh new life to the kitchen with winter warmer soups

and heavy stews out and fresh, vibrant ingredients in.

I've got plenty of ideas, but first I need to buy a few ingredients.

-Hi.

-Hi, are you all right?

-Good. Yourself?

OK, I would like a leg of lamb. Just the top bit up to the string.

-Perfect. Thank you very much.

-You are very welcome.

So from my spring recipe, I'm thinking of slow-roasted lamb

with some fresh herbs, some crunchy buckwheat and a lovely yoghurt sauce.

-Enjoy your leg of lamb.

-Thank you. Bye.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

So, I've got a lovely leg of lamb here.

Some buckwheat, fresh herbs,

so there is mint and parsley and some buttermilk.

To start off, really simple,

we just need to marinate my leg of lamb in some buttermilk.

So I've got a resealable bag. You couldn't get much easier than this.

You just want to put the leg of lamb in there with the buttermilk.

Zip it up, give it a little bit of massage,

and then that goes in the fridge for at least 24 hours or

even 48 hours so it's nice and tender.

This one has been in the fridge for 24 hours.

And I'm going to put it in a pot which can go in the oven.

In that goes.

Make sure you squeeze out the remains of the buttermilk

because that is going to form some of the sauce.

I am just going to season it with plenty of salt and pepper.

A little bit of water so the lamb doesn't dry out.

Put the lid on and in the oven it goes.

So the lamb goes in the oven at 160 degrees for about 3 1/2 hours.

You want a nice slow cooking so the meat becomes nice and tender,

and you need to baste it every hour or so.

While the lamb is finishing off, I'm going to make my buckwheat.

I'm simply going to toast it.

Now, the reason why I am toasting the buckwheat is just to bring out

that nuttiness. Lovely, hazelnut, almondy flavour.

It makes a lovely alternative to pasta or rice

and you can find it in health food shops.

It doesn't take that long to toast your buckwheat.

You can actually smell when it becomes nice and toasty.

I'm going to put it straight into my serving dish.

And I'm going to dress it with a little bit of lemon juice,

olive oil and some fresh herbs, so I have got parsley and mint.

Mint goes particularly well with lamb, bit of a classic flavour.

And that's my toasted buckwheat and herb salad.

The lamb is smelling delicious.

Wow! The lamb is done.

It's important to let your lamb rest, keep it nice and tender.

So you have to do this quickly.

Cover it with some aluminium foil.

The last thing I need to make is the yoghurt sauce, which is very easy.

It's just a bit of plain yoghurt,

some salt, a pinch of sugar,

zest half a lemon...

..and then juice of half a lemon, too.

A red onion, which I will finely chop.

Stir that all together.

The yoghurt sauce is done.

So is the buckwheat salad.

Just need to flake off the meat.

You can see it's already starting to fall off the bone.

That is the best thing about slow cooking.

You can see how juicy the meat is as well, all that buttermilk.

No dry roasted lamb here.

Just put that on my...plate.

Heap it on.

You don't need to be too fancy with your presentation.

This is like, everybody can get stuck in.

A bit of sauce on top.

And finish off with a bit of spring green colour.

Scatter them on top.

And don't forget those amazing juices in the pan.

And there you have it,

my slow-cooked buttermilk lamb with toasted buckwheat and herb salad,

lovely gravy and a yoghurt dressing.

Perfect for sharing.

-Thank you, Rachel, that looked incredible.

-Beautiful.

Beautiful spring lamb, really nice and fresh - delicious.

OK, it is time for Daniel Clifford to cook. What are you making?

Roast lobster in butter with a mango and apple salad...

Mango and orange salad. It's really simple.

Loads of ingredients, make a lovely salad,

-and we start to roast the lobster.

-Let's get cracking.

I will break this down quickly.

Patsy is still pushing on with her starter of ham, egg and chips.

I wouldn't like to waste it.

-Your next course is lobster, OK.

-Thanks, that's lovely. Perfect.

And we have dessert coming up later.

-I'm off the diet today.

-You won't have to cook the kids' tea later.

They're not getting any. I don't cook for them. I let them starve!

Pick up a takeaway on the way home.

Talk us through what you're doing.

Basically, the lobster claws have been blanched for three minutes

and the tail gets blanched for two.

I'm taking the lobster out of the bone.

Always be careful with the knife. You've been a chef for nearly 40 or 50 years...

Thank you!

But for people at home, be careful. Use the back of the knife.

Back of the knife,

and just take your time.

This is an expensive ingredient

and you should treat it with respect.

-Where has this lobster come from?

-Same thing about the asparagus.

I try and use everything locally. This is from Norfolk.

They come from the sand beds.

I've got a really special fisherman up there

that I've known for 15 years.

When they come into season, he rings me up and I say,

"Right, let's start to cook the lobster."

If you work with people you know and trust,

you will get the best ingredients

that I can physically get my hands on.

A lot of your work as a chef is done on the phone

talking to people to try to get the best stuff.

-It makes cooking easy.

-This is a native British lobster.

You can get lobster all year round, but a lot of it

is actually imported Canadian lobster.

Yeah, and the problem with them

is they start eating themselves in the travelling.

So you'll get the lobster, it'll be a 550g lobster,

but it won't be that, it'll be 350,

because it will have started to deteriorate in its own shell.

So you are using the best British ones you can find.

I don't see the point in using something from Canada

when we've got brilliant produce in this country.

-How long is the season for lobster?

-The season starts in spring

and for me it finishes late August, early September.

So it's a fairly long season.

-That's it.

-OK.

-But it's a special treat, isn't it?

For me, a lobster is something,

if you go to the seaside,

pick yourself a lobster up and give it a go.

-It's a beautiful dish.

-OK.

-You're doing the crystallised orange.

-Yeah.

You're blanching that three times

and then caramelise it quickly in sugar.

We've got some sliced mango

and I'm going to start preparing the salad.

Midsummer House is going from strength to strength.

Cambridge's only two-Michelin-star restaurant.

-There's only 20 in the country.

-We're very lucky.

And you've been there for how many years?

-15 years I've had it. It's gone so quick.

-Yeah.

What's nice about it is when we came to Cambridge

there wasn't much locally in the area.

We've built on that reputation.

We've got better suppliers coming to the area, better produce.

It makes the restaurant interesting and enjoyable.

The nice thing is, now you can go from region to region

and you've got two-star restaurants,

and they're all offering something very different.

For the salad, I've got frisee, mache leaves,

some watercress, some rocket, and some dandelion leaves.

-These basically give it a bit of bitterness.

-Dandelion leaves.

These aren't dandelion leaves you pick from out in a field, are they?

These are cultivated dandelion leaves?

Yeah, believe it or not, we are farming weeds.

But they are cultivated versions.

So as they don't become too bitter, we cover them over,

so they are growing in the dark, which keeps them slightly paler.

They've got that unique flavour you can't get from anything else.

-Absolutely.

-Like white asparagus, hiding it from the sunlight keeps it light.

-That's it.

Also, I've got some nasturtium leaves.

I haven't told you this one before,

but when it was our birthday, I came to the Hand and Flowers,

you had them growing in the garden and I thought, "I love that idea."

They are so easy to grow.

They are so easy. I know nasturtium leaves are very easy to grow,

because I grow them, so they must be very easy.

Is that right, Dave? Stick them in the ground, water them,

pick them, put them through the salad, delicious.

-They are bullet-proof.

-Yeah, even chefs can grow nasturtiums!

If you and me can, everyone can.

You've got the orange peel going, the salad is mixed.

I'm going to quickly take the skin of this orange.

I have blanched this peel three times in boiling water.

That takes away a bit of the bitterness from the orange,

which means you can actually use it without it feeling

that you have to confit it to much, or cook it too much.

That's right. I still want

a slight bit of bitterness to cut through the salad

but I want the sweetness from the sugar

you are going to caramelise it with.

That will give another texture in the salad.

-I am kind of making an orange marmalade.

-That's it.

This is actually a kind of French...

The French use orange in cooking a lot, in braises

and especially in a lot of Provencal dishes, fish dishes.

This dish, as you can see, we've got crystallised skin,

the orange segments in the salad.

I'm going to use the rest of the orange to make the vinaigrette.

All I'm doing there is I've got the orange juice,

-I've got the vinegar, and I'm going to add some salt.

-OK.

I'm putting the salt in now before I add the vinegar.

We're going to start cooking the lobster.

How are we going to cook the lobster?

It's going to go in a nice bit of butter,

because I am going to poach it.

Put the salt in with the vinegar and orange juice,

because that melts in quickly.

If you add the oil, the salt won't mix in.

We've got a lovely vinaigrette there. That's done.

Very simple vinaigrette, that.

LAUGHTER You guys make this look so simple.

Yeah. Exactly.

I'm not sure about that. We've been doing this a long time.

Between us, we've probably been cooking well over 40 years, I'd say.

Yeah. It feels longer!

Are you a fan of lobster, Patsy?

I like it. I don't cook it myself. I'm probably a bit scared to

because I would not know how to do it.

I would order it at a restaurant, but not cook it myself.

-You are a big fish fan?

-Yeah, I am.

That diet you are working with...

The trouble is, with alkaline eating,

they say that fish and meat is not alkaline, is it?

But I am a big fish and meat fan,

so it is quite hard for me to be vegetarian.

-Moderation is the word.

-Exactly. Of course. Just what you enjoy...

The lobster, I've got the butter to foaming

and I'm trying to put some heat in there and a bit of colour.

It has been blanched and you are frying it in butter.

That will give it that richness

and the beautiful flavour I am looking for.

-I'm just warming it up and starting to colour it.

-OK.

I've got this caramelised orange.

That's it. That goes in the salad as well, chef.

Mind your fingers, chef.

That's a little bit hot. Normally, we'd leave it to cool down.

We've got asbestos fingers.

That's going to get a good mix.

The mango in here?

Pull the lobster out quickly and then put the lobster in.

So, a nice little ball of salad

with all the ingredients mixed in really nicely.

Pick out some of the smaller bits that are missing from the salad.

We are frying the mango.

Mango and lobster is quite a traditional, another French thing.

It's what I grew up with, where I was trained.

I worked in the UK, but I got to travel as well.

Working in France, they just work with the ground.

A little bit of fried mango.

A bit of caramelised orange zest on there as well.

-There you go.

-That's amazing, thank you.

-And you are going to use this as a bit of a dressing.

-Yeah.

If you want to come over, guys, Daniel will finish plating this up.

You can have a little taste. Finish off with some lovely cress.

This is mustard cress, the cheapest stuff you can buy.

-It looks beautiful.

-Smells divine.

Patsy, we're going to give you a knife and fork. Dive in, girl.

-It's like a posh Friday night out, isn't it?

-What a treat!

-What a treat.

-There you go. All right?

Patsy, get in there. Dave, you know where the knives and forks are, chief. Help yourself.

-Patsy, let me know what you think.

-I will do.

-Just looks fantastic. It does.

-It looks absolutely beautiful.

Really fresh, really lovely.

-It is spring on a plate.

-It is spring on a plate.

Look at that. Dave, you're a happy man.

You're a happy girl, Patsy? Just nod. That's fine.

OK, all right.

Whilst Patsy eats this, we're going to take a trip into the BBC's food back catalogue.

This one goes way back as we meet a young Rick Stein in Padstow

for some traditional Cornish May Day celebrations.

ACCORDIONS AND DRUMMING

May Day in Padstow. It's a pagan festival that goes back

for so long that nobody really knows where it came from.

Some say it came from Africa.

Others have said they've seen gypsy festivals in Turkey

with an 'obby 'oss in it.

It doesn't really matter where it comes from,

because everybody seems to have a deep-seated instinct

as to what it's all about.

Because it's a fertility festival celebrating the coming of summer.

And the drums are beating out memories of death and decay,

beating out the devils of winter.

I'd go anywhere in this world, I'd do anything,

but I've got to get back to Padstow for May Day.

There's no question about it.

Other people in Padstow who don't belong here, weren't born here,

feel the same way.

Padstow is a town like everywhere else

where people have their differences of opinion, have their bickering.

But on this day, on our day, everybody feels one and all.

That's what it is all about.

The drums beat incessantly all day long.

The 'oss dances off to many watering holes.

Everybody's very merry, in the merry morning of May.

This is the best and worst day for doing this salad.

It's May Day, I've had a few drinks.

I'll do a Keith Floyd and have a little sim now.

This lobster is going into this seafood salad.

It's a special May Day lobster, as you can see.

I'm not going to bore you by cutting it up now...

-Is there a party going on in here?

-Oh, Christ.

-Somebody told me there was a party.

-There is, Marie.

She works for us. Don't let it show!

Don't hold it against me!

Right! Jolly good. There is the lobster.

I won't show you that, cos takes a while.

I want to show you the other things that go into the salad.

This is the sort of salad you can make for 20, 30, 50, 90 people.

No problem. Everything's made up beforehand,

which is the one of the occasions

when "this is one I made earlier" really does count.

First of all, some nice green salad leaves.

Into there I fried off some squid,

which I seasoned well with salt and pepper.

It's important to fry a lot of the fish, to get lots of flavour in,

even before you start putting the flavour ingredients in,

which are also extremely strong.

It's a Thai salad. Now some monkfish,

which is always ideal for salads because it's really firm.

I've fried this off. Now I've copped out a bit,

but I have had a little bit to drink today,

so I've just got some ordinary frozen prawns,

but it's just the thing for a salad. Loads of them.

Feeling extremely generous.

Loads of champagne, which somebody else has kindly given me.

I feel I'm returning the favour on this day.

You go into everybody's houses all over Padstow. You drop in.

You may never have been in the house before. Call in.

Somebody's got a groaning table full of bits and pieces.

Help yourself, have a drink, drift out into somebody else's house.

And so I'm returning the favour.

In on top of all that seafood, loads of freshly chopped coriander.

Again, this is an excessive dish.

I'm not worried about quantities one tiny bit.

I wouldn't know how many this is for.

I don't know how many people are going to be coming.

Lemongrass, lemongrass, lemongrass.

Loads of that. I love it!

I love Thai flavours.

Use it far too much. Lime leaves. Again, a really limey...

-See you, Rick.

-Cheers, bye.

Lemony, limey flavour. They're called kaffir lime leaves.

Buy them in any Chinese supermarket now.

-Rick, are you cooking our lunch?

-I am. You're going to love it.

I've done this so many times before.

God! This is my wife.

I might even give her a kiss.

Jill. You don't see her very often.

-Smells good.

-That's Amanda. How are you?

-OK!

Now some wild garlic,

which perfumes the woods all round Padstow at this time of year.

Then we have fish sauce, lemongrass and chilli and a little water.

Mix that into the salad to give it a nice tangy flavour.

Salads like this are such a great alternative to barbecues on summery days.

They look good and it means that I can get stuck into the food

like everybody else, rather than have to do the cooking.

Putting lobster into the salad makes it ridiculously expensive.

But it is May Day, so lobster it has to be.

You see what I mean? Just look at that.

It just adds the final finishing, beautiful touch to a wonderful salad.

This dish is always a winner.

This time it lasted just five glorious minutes.

Not enough time, unfortunately, for the poor director,

who's normally the first in the queue.

He couldn't get a sniff.

-Well done. It's spon-donkulous.

-It is, isn't it?

-Oh!

Thank you very much, Rick, looked amazing.

May Day in Padstow looks right good fun. Wish I was there.

OK, I am now going to get on by making a rhubarb tart.

It's very seasonal. Rhubarb's in right now.

-You'll make some pastry, I'll crack on with some custard.

-OK, chef.

So, rhubarb tart, this is kind of a play on...

-You know those Parisian patisseries?

-Gateaux. Yeah.

When you see strawberry tarts in a Paris shop that you can't resist

but when you walk past, would go in and order one, one of those.

-You know?

-Yeah. I always stop!

So this is a version of that but using rhubarb.

Now, Dave, tell us a bit about rhubarb.

Cos it's almost at its peak at this point, is that right?

Yeah, for outdoor-grown rhubarb, yes.

But the interesting thing with rhubarb,

as you get later into its season,

because the stems slow down in their growth,

what happens is they become redder in colour,

and that actually signifies that there's a high sugar content in there. Makes them a bit sweeter.

So the redder the rhubarb, the sweeter it is.

-That's absolutely correct.

-With outdoor rhubarb.

What about the forced stuff? It's a couple of seasons with rhubarb, isn't there?

You get forced rhubarb from Yorkshire but it's not until the winter months, is that right?

Yeah, that's very true. They can force it on with modern cultivated methods.

But with the outdoor-grown rhubarb you do get a second bout.

You get a quarter of the yield,

and that's towards the end of the summer, early autumn.

OK, now, the one thing I have to ask you - rhubarb, fruit or vegetable?

-It's a vegetable.

-Rhubarb is a vegetable. There you go.

-Yes.

And what's the difference between a fruit and vegetable?

In simple terms, it's generally that they're more savoury in taste.

Fruits, they're acidic, they come from trees.

Whereas your savouries, more often they're actually a root crop.

They come from the ground.

OK. So there we go, it's a root vegetable.

Always associated as being something sweet, I think.

Although you can serve it with... It goes very well with fish.

So, Daniel, you've made the pastry. Talk me through that.

The pastry is everything put into the mixer. Giving it a quick mix.

Add a tiny bit of water and I've put it in the fridge to relax.

It needs to stay in there for a couple of hours so it relaxes,

so you roll it out nicely.

And then we'd have one line like this.

Here I've got cling film, which I've rolled out on the table three times,

filled it with flour.

That goes in the centre there and that goes in the oven at 350.

-How long do you want that in there for, chef?

-Around about 25 minutes,

which we haven't quite got,

-so hopefully you've got one we've already done.

-I have one here.

OK, so that flour that's in the cling film,

that's not for a cooking purpose?

No, it comes out. If you look,

what happens is the cling film slightly shrinks,

it forms a mould but it also makes sure that

the tart case is completely lined perfectly.

It cooks all the way through so you'll get this crisp tartlet, and that's what we're looking for.

So it's blind baking it, so instead of using baking beans

or anything like that, it's actually just doing it for a reason of ease

because you have the flour there. It's a bit of a cheffy tip.

You can put it into a plastic container, put it into the cupboard

and you can keep using it. It'll make your life a lot easier.

OK, so, the rhubarb, I'll cook the rhubarb very, very briefly.

So I just poured on some sugar

cos this rhubarb is quite acidic. Little bit of sugar.

Then some orange juice.

And then on top of that I'll put some grenadine.

Grenadine is great with rhubarb.

Grenadine has this fantastic, beautiful, sweet flavour

but a wonderful, amazing colour.

It gives the rhubarb the beautiful colour you want.

It does. It's fantastic. And this will go into the oven.

We're going to slowly just poach this for about five minutes.

Just until you get...this.

And you end up with this.

-And this rhubarb - I'll give it to you, Daniel.

-Thank you.

It's just been cooked, just softened.

Daniel will take it out and just drain it

and we'll slice it into about centimetre pieces.

Now, the custard here, this is cream and vanilla.

It's been brought up to the boil and then poured onto whole eggs.

So this is whole eggs and a little bit of sugar. Not too much.

Cos I want it to be quite a... Not savoury but not overly sweet.

I want the acidity of the rhubarb to come back.

You wouldn't normally use whole eggs, would you?

In most custard recipes, do not use whole eggs but this one,

as it's quite rich and I want it to be quite thick.

And that actual egg flavour in a custard for me is really important.

So I'll just put it back on to the heat and cook it nice and slow

and nice and gently.

Daniel, you have a pop-up restaurant coming up this year? Is that right?

Yeah, I've got one on Oxford Street, chef.

It starts on 17th May. I'm there for four days.

I'm really looking forward to it. You know, coming to London,

showcasing what we do from Cambridge, it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, a trip into London is always great.

And the future of Midsummer House? Are you very happy where you are?

Oh, I'm very happy where I am.

It's like, it's taken 15 years to get this far

and I still believe that we can go a little bit further.

The business is healthy, I have some brilliant staff working for me.

You know, I'm happy. I'm the happiest chef you know.

And more television?

Great British Menu this year, you're one of the fantastic few chefs

that have actually won Great British Menu twice - two years in a row.

You've been to the banquet twice.

There's only a small number of very select, incredible, fantastic chefs...

-I think you're one of them.

-Yeah, I am one of them!

..That has got to the Great British Menu final twice.

But you went back this year,

in this season, the one we're seeing right now, as a judge.

-As a judge.

-How did you find that?

To be on the other side of the pass, it's unique, but it's also...

You go down there,

you've read the brief and you also understand what you would cook.

And then the chefs start putting dishes up in front of you,

you stand there scratching your head, you look at it and think,

"Actually, that's a really clever idea." I judged the main course,

and James, when he put the main course in front of me,

I'll be totally honest with you, I knew before I tasted it

that I loved it and that it was a great plate of food.

You knew it was a great dish.

Now, this custard, I've just thickened,

cooked out till it's thickened and passed it through a sieve.

You can use this as a creme brulee,

you could put this straight into some moulds,

then put the moulds in the fridge and the custard sets up.

And then what we've done is we've just put it into a piping bag.

Daniel has used that piping bag to fill this rhubarb tart.

Which he's done now. The rhubarb goes on to the top.

-This would be an amazing dish for a Sunday lunch.

-This is beautiful.

You could do this as a much bigger tart. Could you imagine!

-Do you want to glaze it, chef, before we get it on there?

-Yes.

I'm going to glaze it with a bit of the reduction

from the cooking rhubarb and some marmalade.

Why marmalade with the rhubarb?

Cos we've used the orange with the rhubarb and that marmalade

gives it a nice sweetness and thickness.

Guys, come on over. Patsy, are you a big fan of rhubarb?

I'm a big fan of everything you're cooking,

so whatever it is, I'll eat it.

It actually feels like we've taken Patsy out for a three-course meal!

You're amazing! I feel like I want to give you a clap.

I'm sitting there and I'm going, "Yes, it's amazing!"

-If she doesn't like orange, we've got problems.

-Yeah!

Feels like Patsy's been out for a three-course meal

-and we've interrupted her just by talking to her.

-You're so clever.

You really feel when you're watching these programmes on telly...

-Get in there, guys!

-You feel the same as you're sitting in here.

-So you're doing a good job.

-Look at that. That's beautiful.

Very nice crunchy pastry and nice custard. Well done, chief.

That's a four Michelin-star tart, that! I hope you like it.

THEY LAUGH

-Bit of clotted cream on the top.

-Wow!

-Rhubarb and clotted cream is beautiful.

Thanks, mate. Well done, chef. Get in there, have a little taste.

-Amazing. Thank you so much for all the food.

-It's been a pleasure.

It's a pleasure, girl. That rhubarb is fantastic.

You try and keep the acidity to it,

cuts through the richness of all the custard and the clotted cream

-and the crunch of the stuff.

-Amazing.

-Brilliant!

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

A big thank you to Daniel Clifford, Dave Finkle,

and of course Patsy Palmer and the beautiful Rachel Khoo.

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

Please go to bbc.co.uk/springkitchen.

Thank you all very much for watching and we will see you next time.

Take care.

Bye!