Letter J The A to Z of TV Cooking

If you're in the market for fantastic food, you're in the right place.

We've chosen the very best dishes from some of the nation's favourite chefs,

and we're serving them up alphabetically here on the A-Z of TV Cooking.

Today we're looking at all things linked by the letter J.

Here's just some of what's on the menu.

Rick Stein gets hands-on with a John Dory.

This is what I'd call a one-portion fish. It's just the right size.

Ainsley Harriott serves up a jerk belly pork.

And the Hairy Bikers hit the books for an absolute classic dessert.

Thackeray wrote about the jam roly pudding, you know.

Charles Dickens wrote about the jam roly poly pudding in Bleak House.

Mrs Beeton wrote about jam roly poly pudding.

So let's start off with something nice and simple to warm us up for our journey ahead.

Here's Sophie Dahl, and her J is for jacket potato.

So, I'm going to do twice-baked potatoes

and a roasted tomato soup.

It's the food that you want to eat when all you're after is a taste of home,

The sort of thing you would get when you were ill on a tray -

a nice bowl of tomato soup and some dry toast.

I'm going to roast the tomatoes, and you want a deep pan

because they're going to release this incredible sort of sweet, caramelised juice.

You want to be able to catch that.

To join them, two red onions. No fine chopping, no endless peeling.

It's very straightforward.

And again with the garlic. No endless garlic fingers.

You're just going to cut the clove in half.

Add some whole sprigs of thyme.

A spoon of sugar to help caramelise the tomatoes, and just get that really deep, intense flavour.

Some salt, pepper,

good generous glug of olive oil.

# She's got a smile that it seems to me

# Reminds me of childhood memories

And then that's going to go into the oven for 45 minutes

at about 190.

So, baked potatoes.

I baked these for an hour and a half.

Very autumnal, baked potatoes.

It's bonfire night, it's Christmas.

I can remember going to Camden Market as a teenager,

going up on the Tube, and there was a baked potato stand,

and we'd sit on the corner in our DM boots and our love beads

thinking that we were really cool eating our baked potato.

To this I'm going to add goat's cheese.

It's a preference thing, so you could use cheddar, use whatever you want.

I love goat's cheese.

Add to that two spoons of creme fraiche.

I think this is the more indulgent baked potato.

I loved my Camden baked potatoes, but they were quite worthy.

Going to add an egg.

The reason I'm going to add an egg is because it'll get that lovely, golden, souffled texture.

Glorious.

This is something that I think would be delicious with a cottage pie,

or a lentil pie.

Delicious as a topping.

I'm going to add some finely chopped chives.

# Oh, oh, oh, sweet child o' mine #

I remember when I moved to New York

falling totally in love with it, and thinking, "God, this is home."

And then as I approached 30 kind of realised that actually, no -

England and all those familiar things from baked potatoes to buses,

to phone box...all those things were home.

I think the dead giveaway was when I started subscribing to Country Life

when I lived in New York!

I'd sit in my apartment looking out of the window, wanting to live in cottages in Devon.

So I put them in for 20 minutes. About 180.

They come out when they're all crispy and golden,

bubbling on the top.

Smells wonderful. I mean, you could sit there very happily with a fork.

Bit of mozzarella. Mm.

The mozzarella would melt.

Amazing the amount of juice, that sweet, caramelly juice.

So before it goes into the blender, you just want to squeeze...

..any garlic out that's still in its skin.

Get rid of these spiny bits of thyme.

With that it goes into the blender.

What's amazing about this is it has no cream, but it retains that thick, creamy texture.

I'm also going to add just a dash of Worchester sauce

in the spirit of England nostalgia.

And also just a splash of balsamic vinegar.

That brings out the sweetness of those tomatoes.

MUSIC: "Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads

They look lovely.

Because there's no-one around, this is where I get to go like that.

# Same as it ever was

That is Thursday afternoons after games,

having come home on a train in the rain.

That's proper curl up on the sofa in your pyjamas food.

# Letting the days go by

# Let the water hold me down... #

Now, another J that finds itself being filled with goat's cheese.

The J is silent.

They come with a kick, and are large enough to be ideal for stuffing.

Who better to demonstrate than the Two Fat Ladies?

I'm making chilli rellenos.

Ooh, rellenos!

Carumba!

Ole!

With a tomato salsa.

And what I've got here is some jalapeno chillies,

and what I've done with them is I've put them into boiling water,

and then removed it from the heat, and left it to stand for 15 minutes.

And then I've drained them off, and all you do,

you cut the little stalk off, and just take out any seeds.

And then I'm going to stuff them with goat's cheese.

You can use any sort of cheese.

In Mexico I believe they use something called Monterey Jack,

which always reminds me of an outlaw.

So I take the goat's cheese... Lovely goat's cheese.

Isn't it magnificent?

There we are. Break it up. Use your hands for this. It's a lot easier.

Make sure that they are spotlessly clean before you start.

Of course. Of course.

And I'm going to add to it some oregano.

And some salt. Quite a lot of salt, because you need to taste the cheese first.

This is quite a young, soft cheese, and it needs a bit of salt to flavour it.

And some chives which I'm just going to snip.

So nice, and so fragrant, and they look so pretty.

There we are. Then just mix that all in.

You take the chilli...

take a little spoon, and just stuff away.

This is why you want chillies that are a good size.

I find chillies such a fascinating subject.

My entire family are addicted to chillies.

We used to think my eldest sister was the milkman's child

because she was the only one that didn't like chillies.

When my brother died he left me his chilli collection.

What an extraordinary thing to be left. Do you use them?

Well, I have been using them over the years. They're finished now.

But there were dried chillies, and bottled chillies,

and pickled chillies.

Rather a good thing to be left. And to my sister I bequeath my chillies.

Rather nice it was, I thought. Amazing.

I thought you might have kept them for heart-rending thoughts.

No, no, no, no, none of that nonsense.

No, absolutely not.

So, I'm going to put these on now to steam for about 15 minutes.

They'll puff up, and look very nice.

And to go with it I'm going to have a cherry tomato salsa.

I've got both red and yellow cherry tomatoes. It looks so pretty, and I've just cut them into quarters.

To this I'm going to add some shallots.

And a little green chilli which I've just chopped up, just to give it a bit of bite.

Some coriander.

And a couple of pinches of salt.

You need the salt just to make the juices run.

And a few more chives.

And then mix it all together.

There.

Nice? Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Right, how are these getting on?

Perfect.

Chilli rellenos. Warm goat's cheese, chilli, and a Tex Mex salsa on the side.

We're catching up with Rick Stein now, who's in Cornwall on a mission to find the finest fresh fish.

He's settles on John Dory for his recipe,

but first does a bit of exploring in the fishing town of Looe.

That's the biggest boat that comes into Looe.

As you can see, it's not enormous, but that's the point about Looe.

No bigger trawlers, much bigger than that, can get into the harbour

because the water's all out at low tide.

So they're all day boats. They just go out in the morning, and come in early evening like this,

so whenever you get fish from Looe it's always dead fresh,

and that to me is the best fish in the world,

and it's the fish that we seek out in our restaurant.

Prime fish like this turbot are landed and sold daily.

I met the Pengelly sisters who work here - well, work's the wrong word, really.

They LIVE for it. How would they sum up the place?

Day boats. Quality.

Shining, clear-eyed.

Stiff. Just wonderful.

The best. Nowhere can better our fish.

They may be able to match it some places, but never better it.

We're five generations, so... We know our fish!

I think day boat-landed fish should have a premium on it.

Everything's good here, from the humble, rod-caught mackerel

to a fish that sums up Cornish seafood -

the John Dory.

This is what I would call a one-portion fish.

It's just the right size, and they look great when they're dished up grilled whole,

but this time I'm going to pan-fry it, because actually the fillets are, I think,

the best fish in the world for pan-frying.

I always think that if you don't like John Dory, and some people don't,

you won't like seafood,

and the people that don't think they're ugly,

but I think they're terribly attractive.

The thing about Looe market is I can guarantee

this was swimming in the water less than ten hours ago.

I'm going to do it with pommes boulangere.

That's just thinly sliced potatoes,

not floury ones, softened in a chicken stock,

flavoured with fresh thyme and some sliced onions.

When they're softened, layer them into a shallow pan with some butter,

add some of the stock, but don't cover them completely,

and put in plenty of seasoning.

The reason it was called pommes boulangere is that

before people had ovens in their own houses

they used to take a dish like this to their local bakers

and have it put in their bread oven after they'd finished baking the bread.

Hence boulangere.

The reason I like pan-frying John Dory so much

is it's a very lean fish, and it doesn't taste sort of oily when you fry it.

Things like salmon do. I don't care for pan-fried salmon,

but I certainly care for pan-fried Dory.

I haven't put any flour on it because it's got such dense flesh

that it sort of seals itself, and the fat doesn't go inside.

I remember when this dish was a bit of a rarity,

but they're becoming more common round our coast - maybe it's global warming.

In the same pan I'm going to fry off some mushrooms,

a mixture of morels and portobellos,

and some parsley.

The potatoes should look rather like the top of a Lancashire hotpot.

Now this lovely firm white fillet and the mushrooms.

This has become a staunch favourite in the restaurant.

It's no wonder, really. It just eats like a dream.

We're travelling further afield for our next J,

which stands for a style of cooking.

Jerk cooking, in fact, and it originated in Jamaica,

and that's where we're going to be meeting Levi Roots.

For centuries these Caribbean islands have been at the crossroads of global trade,

and their cuisine combines flavours from all over the world.

But if all this looks a bit exotic, don't worry -

the good news is you don't have to travel around the world to get YOUR ingredients.

Everything I'm going to cook in this series you can get hold of in your local shops,

and to make it really easy you could put together a little treasure chest

with the core ingredients we'll use again and again.

Let's call it a sunshine kit.

If you have got these essentials in your kitchen, Caribbean cooking will be a breeze.

I've put in ginger, which adds heat as well as flavour.

THEY SPEAK JAMAICAN PATOIS

That's Jamaican dollars, by the way.

All-spice, or pimento.

Scotch bonnet pepper, my favourite.

These are one of the world's hottest chilli peppers.

Have any nutmeg, dear lady?

Lord have mercy. Fantastic, fresh nutmeg.

Next, some sweet, scented thyme.

I've got to say, this is really fresh stuff, yeah.

And finally, a bit of bay leaf.

Now, in there I should have everything I need to bring a bit of sunshine to YOUR kitchen.

Lots of these flavours go into the most popular fast food in Jamaica -

the legendary jerk chicken.

You see these oil-drum barbecues, called jerk pans,

everywhere across the Caribbean.

Jerk has been described as Jamaica's culinary gift to the world.

And it has a rich history.

Jerk is a spicy seasoning rubbed into chicken, pork, fish, or pretty much anything.

The cooking method is said to have been used by Jamaica's original inhabitants,

the Arawak Indians

who laid their meat on pimento wood strips in a fire pit.

Perhaps the world's first barbecue.

Do you know, jerk is not just about how you cook it.

It's the spices that you use, and what you put in it,

so today I'm going to make my sticky jerk wings with sugared oranges.

This is first-rate finger food,

a modern twist on traditional jerk flavours.

I have kept the spice, but added a delicious sweetness with honey.

A fantastic accompaniment are these sugared orange slices

which are caramelised on the barbecue.

First I'm going to need four spring onions.

Get rid of the ugly bits.

Chop them roughly, because then I'm going to put them in a pestle and mortar.

Next I'm going to plunder that fabulous Caribbean sunshine hit.

Two tablespoons full of thyme leaves.

I'm not going to chop these. I'm just going to flake off the leaves.

One Scotch bonnet pepper.

I'm going to choose a red one.

Scotch bonnet pepper is always optional.

Jerk is not about the heat. It's about the flavours of the spices that you put together.

A knob of ginger. Chop that up finely.

I'm going to put all this lot into a pestle and mortar.

There are two kinds of seasoning for jerk.

The first one is what you call dry seasoning.

Then you have the wet rub, which is what I'm going to make.

I'm going 100mls of cider vinegar.

One teaspoonful of cinnamon.

Three tablespoons full of honey.

Next I'm going to add pimento or all-spice.

Two tablespoons full of olive oil.

Add a bit of salt and pepper.

Mash it up and then transfer it to a bowl.

The sweetness and the spices are a lip-smacking combination.

Wow.

I've got some really fresh chicken wings here.

Pop them in.

It's good to leave these for about four hours to marinade,

but better still, overnight, but you know what,

I've got some already prepared.

I've made myself a little barbecue here just as I would as a little boy.

Nothing fancy. Have a look.

Once you've put them on the barbecue, turn them every couple of minutes or so.

This stunning spot happens to be a sugar plantation.

Sugar has long been a core crop in Jamaica,

and I'm serving my sticky jerk chicken wings

with sugared orange slices.

Quarter your oranges, and coat them generously in the sugar.

Yeah, I know - it's exciting.

I think you can see where I'm going with this.

Add the oranges sugared side down.

Once they get brown, just turn them over.

These are so easy, but so delicious.

Have a go on your barbecue.

And now, to round the day off, a little local spectacle -

burning the cane.

In preparation for the harvesters, the cane field is set on fire

to clear away all the leftover brushwood,

leaving just the cane stalks.

There's nothing like dinner by the fire.

And someone who agrees that the secret is all in the spices is Ainsley Harriott

who is cooking up a delicious-looking jerk pork belly.

My next dish is unbelievable. It really is unbelievably tasty.

I'm using a very inexpensive cut of pork - belly of pork -

to make my jerk belly of pork with pea and potato mash-up.

It kind of works, that - the idea of a mash-up thing instead of a hash works perfectly beautifully -

with this inexpensive cut of pork.

When you cook it slowly it rewards you. It's so succulent and fabulous.

Oh, I love jerk cooking, but to do it well you must get the right mix.

Look at the colour of that, for instance - really, really lovely.

And the smell... You can smell the cinnamon, the all-spice.

Real memories of my mum's cooking. Caribbean cooking in general, with those lovely spices.

This is cooked slowly, so it gives it a chance to kind of drift in the air.

You're following it. I feel like Deputy Dawg or something like that,

following his supper for the evening.

Really, really lovely.

Sear off the pork in a hot pan, and prepare a baking tray with thickly sliced onions and garlic.

I've got some fresh thyme that I've taken from the garden here.

I'm just sort of nestling that on top.

It's actually wonderful walking around Highgrove, I've got to say,

because His Royal Highness has just grown this wild thyme everywhere,

and it's such a wonderful, wonderful aroma,

but no, I did not take this from the royal garden.

Place the pork on the onions, then add some cider and chicken stock

that will be absorbed by the pork, and creates a wonderful sauce.

Cover the tray with foil, and it's ready for the oven.

That's 180 degrees centigrade, 350 Fahrenheit,

gas mark 4, for about two and a half hours,

and it'll be wonderfully tender.

I'm going to have a cup of coffee.

Like fresh peas, slow cooking has become a thing of the past,

but the joy of filling the house with the taste and flavours of dinner

is just a wonderful way to get the family excited about good food.

Oh, gorgeous.

Look at that.

That just smells so rich, and you can see, that's going to be so tender.

Really, really lovely.

I'm going to be serving that with my pea and potato mash-up.

I've been podding a few of them here. Just going to cook those until they're tender.

It'll only take a couple of minutes. It's not going to take long at all.

My new potatoes have been boiled in their skins.

Now we're ready for the mash-up.

Nothing could be simpler. Take a fork, and just give them a bit of a crush on the side of the pan.

Just a very casual kind of breaking up of the potato.

We'll just turn that gas off there.

And a glug of olive oil paves the way for the main event.

Take your peas on the top there like that.

Then just mix it through. It's a play of textures here.

You've got the softness of the potato,

and you get that little bite because it's cooked with a bite, but the peas then burst through.

You get that lovely joy in your mouth, and you think, mm.

SPEAKS PATOIS

Taste of spring.

Let's sort out that pork, shall we?

It's almost just falling away there. So beautiful and tender.

And what I'm going to do here is take some of those beautiful pan juices...

Look at that. Remember, you've got the cider in there,

and you've got the absolutely delicious chicken stock mixed with that.

And what could be better than serving that with a little bit of hot pepper sauce?

My dad would be proud.

When you have such a rainbow of colours on the fork

you know you're in for a taste sensation.

Wonderfully juicy. A real succulence about it.

The big pay-off of course is right at the end you get that...again that bursting of the pea.

The pea is such a...such a rewarding vegetable.

You bite into it. You kind of know what you're going to get,

and there's a little element of surprise,

especially when they're fresh peas,

because it just bursts out, that little bit of sweetness.

Really lovely.

That did look great, didn't it? Our next J is for jelly.

But for this recipe we're not talking about the kids' party kind.

This is a more sophisticated jelly which brings out the best in a marvellous meat.

It's Matt Tebbutt, glazing a ham with his delicious redcurrant and citrus jelly.

For this recipe I'm going to do something that's going to showcase these great British redcurrants

at their very best,

and that recipe is going to be...

Now, to do this recipe I need a whole load of redcurrant juice,

so we've got about a kilo here of redcurrants.

Fresh redcurrants. Now, to extract all this juice we put them in a pan over a very gentle heat,

and bring them up to boil with just a touch of water.

They can all go in. Don't need to take the stalks off.

We've forgotten what to do with these redcurrants.

I was in the south of France, and they were selling little tiny pots of redcurrant jam

that some lady had handpicked all the seeds out,

and they were charging about £20 to £30 for these little pots of jam.

They embrace these traditions that we sort of seem to have forgotten.

For my traditional British redcurrant jelly

I get to use one of my favourite kitchen utensils -

an old-fashioned jelly bag.

If you don't have one of these, it's not necessary. You could use a J Cloth and a sieve.

Something like that works just as well.

Take some juice to make a quick glaze for the ham.

Thyme.

Honey.

Red wine vinegar, and Demerara sugar.

Just dissolve that over a low heat...

..until everything melts away, and then we're ready to glaze the ham.

Once the ham has been scored, you can apply the glaze.

All that glaze will then penetrate into the fat, and you'll get that lovely sort of sweetness

and the fattiness of the top of the ham, and all that sort of nice acidity from the glaze.

A few sprigs of fresh thyme, and the ham is ready to go back into the oven.

Now we can start the jelly, a perfect condiment for the ham.

Redcurrant juice and sugar go onto a gentle heat.

Now, we boil that for about ten to fifteen minutes

until you can see it bubbling away, and starting to look like jam.

At that point you could leave it, and that would be your traditional redcurrant jelly,

but I'm going to take it a stage further, and start adding some more spices and some citrus.

Some lemon here, and some orange.

The zest and juice of the lemon and orange will give the jelly a real citrus edge.

Now we're going to let it down,

but then we're going to cook it back up and reduce it all to strengthen those flavours,

and to set the jam again.

You can get really creative with the ingredients you introduce now.

I'm using cinnamon, cloves,

ground ginger,

mustard, and a slug of port.

Combinations are limitless,

but this has always been my favourite.

Citrus redcurrant jelly, it just works. It works beautifully with this ham.

It's the sort of thing you can do towards the end of the summer

when the berries are at their very, very best.

In the cold winter months, when you're looking at January, February, March,

when we're all otherwise going to be getting scurvy,

you need that vitamin C, and you need those berries.

This is the perfect time to pull it out, and put a dollop on the side of your plate.

Pour your jelly into a jar, and leave it to set in the fridge overnight.

At last it's time to serve.

Kind of room temperature, or warm...

..rather than cold from the fridge.'

You'll taste the ham a lot better, and the glaze, and it'll sit nicely with the jelly.

Don't be scared of that fat. The fat is delicious.

I'm serving with a light, crunchy apple salad.

You can't leave this food around for long before it starts to disappear.

Good amount of that jelly.

Mm, it's really, really good.

It's working beautifully with that lovely, fatty ham,

and it's simple, and this is a recipe that's going to get you loving redcurrants again.

Next up it's James Wong,

and his jelly is a honeysuckle and jasmine sore throat soother.

Honeysuckle contains saponins and flavonoids

which are anti-inflammatory, and combining these with jasmine

which also has anti-inflammatory effects,

together they reduce inflammation

and relieve the pain of a sore throat.

I'm transforming a cup of honeysuckle flowers into a floral, edible treat.

Now, you might expect a sore throat remedy to be a lozenge,

or a cough syrup or something like that,

but I'm going to make jelly, like old-school ice-cream and jelly jelly.

The first thing is your star ingredient, honeysuckle.

I've also got some fresh jasmine flowers.

It's funny, because there's so few of them, but they really do hit you.

Pop in a quarter of a cup of fresh jasmine flowers,

or if you're using dried, just half the amount.

The next thing is some green tea, and interestingly, both jasmine and honeysuckle are used in China

to scent green tea - that's where you get jasmine tea from.

A teaspoon of green tea leaves will help ease an inflamed sore throat.

Cover the petals with half a litre of lukewarm water,

just warm enough to extract the active ingredients and keep the floral scent,

but not hot enough to destroy them.

Then pop them in the fridge to soak.

That's what it looks like. This has been sitting in the fridge for 24 hours.

Just like the flowers have lost their colour - that was pure white, now it's translucent -

the chemicals that provide its flavour, which are the active ingredients and scent

are floating around in this liquid, which is the bit you're going to taste.

Is this what I've got to eat, then? We've got another couple of steps.

Stick with me. I know it doesn't look promising now,

but this will turn into something that would not be out of place when it's done

in the most fashionable restaurant.

I promise you.

Filter out the spent petals, and heat the liquid to just below boiling point.

Add a burst of citrus with the juice of half a lime,

and whisk in a sachet of powdered gelatine.

It's a long time since I made jelly. It reminds me of being little.

I know. It's a great excuse, and also something really good for kids as well.

Honey, with its antiseptic properties, should help soothe a sore throat.

Four tablespoons will do you.

We're set. All we need to do is pop it in some moulds.

These three guys here will give you your daily dose - morning, noon and night.

Now, I think these jellies could hold their own in a fancy restaurant,

but have I done enough to convince Jackie?

There's only one last thing to do.

There's a spoon. Tell me honestly what you think.

It's nice. You can taste the lime and the honey, can't you?

It's lovely. I think it's like the overriding flavour.

But there is a little bit of perfumed edge to it from the flowers.

I think I'm converted.

Jackie made her own jellies at home, so what did she really make of them?

They do look a little bit strange.

They taste a little bit strange, but because I know what's in there

and know that it's good for me,

it's quite OK.

So have a little bit now...

She took them twice a day for two days when her throat was sore,

so did they do the trick?

They had sort of a cooling, soothing effect when I was actually eating the jelly.

The only thing I don't like about this particular remedy

is you can't take it out and about with you in the day.

If it was something I could maybe keep in my handbag

it might be a little bit easier to have if a sore throat came on.

But the honeysuckle and the jasmine actually started to take effect, and brought down the inflammation,

and helped cure the sore throat.

Jackie's verdict is a personal one, and could have been influenced by many factors,

but SHE believes it's helped, and for me that's a fantastic result.

I'm not suggesting that plant-based remedies are better than conventional medicine,

but I hope you'll consider the role they can play when taking care of your health.

Making natural remedies is easy, it's cheap,

and it's fun.

You've got to make sure you've got a correct diagnosis beforehand,

so seek a doctor's advice.

And if you're pregnant, breastfeeding or on any other medication

always check with a doctor or pharmacist that any new treatment is suitable for you.

Now, that wasn't a pudding jelly. This one is.

Here's Valentine Warner taking part in a bit of a cook-off.

It's nice and cordial in here, and everyone's getting on,

but this is still a competition, so -

Spatulas at dawn, isn't it? If you put Fairy Liquid in my mixture when I'm not looking...

As if. ..I'll change your timer settings.

Look, the WI don't need to sabotage your cooking.

I'll sink to any depths I need to go to, let me tell you.

For my competition pudding, I'm making a bramble and sloe gin jelly.

Margaret has chosen a blackberry and chocolate brownie.

For the jelly, my tub of blackberries are going to be simmered with water.

If you're using sweet, shop-bought blackberries, to give them that delicious wild, tarty taste

add a squeeze of lemon.

Now, this is where I start getting blackberry juice all over you.

I'm watching you.

To wow the WI, I want a very refined jelly,

so when the fruit has totally collapsed

I'm straining it through two layers of muslin

into five hefty tablespoons of caster sugar.

Finally, to the sweetened hedgerow blood I'm adding a generous glug of my very own 2006 vintage sloe gin.

Let's have a smell of that. Here.

Oh, that is wonderful!

Do you think we should have a morning nip? Probably not, no.

If you can't wait to try some yourself, sloe gin can be bought ready-made in shops.

Now for judge-impressing wobble factor.

I want a jelly that, if you tap it, it kind of goes...

I want a really, really wobbly jelly.

I'm taking a real risk by using only six sheets of gelatine

dissolved in warm water.

Will a jelly of that consistency hold its shape?

I'm hoping to God, and pushing it to the edge.

Once my boozy blackberry juices cooled, I added my risky ration of gelatine.

I'm going with a rabbit mould, because bouncing bunnies have somehow always brought me luck.

How am I meant to get in there? Shall I put it in?

Don't you... Do you trust me?

HE LAUGHS

With the competition not until tomorrow,

my jelly will have a whole night to perfect its wobble.

The next morning it's straight back to Margaret's kitchen to resume bramble business.

Her blackberry brownie pudding is looking fantastic,

and now it's the moment of truth for my jelly.

Has it got the right amount of wobble?

It's got some serious wobble going on.

SHE GASPS

It's very wobbly. I mean, that's kind of what I wanted, but I don't know if I pushed it too far.

Go on, then. Are you praying for me?

Yes.

I actually feel quite nervous for you. I feel really nervous for me.

To get the rabbit out of its hutch it needs a quick dip in warm water,

but timing is crucial.

Oh, yeah, it's released, it's definitely released.

How did you know? Cos you can feel it sort of wobbling around.

OK, ready?

I heard it. It's come out. Can I have a piece of kitchen cloth?

Yes. I going to want to mop these edges up.

OK...

Oh, dear, it hasn't... Oh my God, it's a fat rabbit.

It looks a little bit like a road kill, I have to say.

But I'm sure that it will taste wonderful.

I think he's going to give me and my friends a run for our money.

I don't think I have to tell them it's a rabbit anyway. I'll just leave that out.

SHE LAUGHS

Thankfully, Margaret couldn't live any closer to WI HQ.

It's next-door. I just hope my wibbly-wobbly rabbit gets a good reception.

Dear God. You're number two. I've written your name tag.

This lady just said "Dear God" when she saw my jelly.

Slated before it's even been put on the table.

My professional reputation is now in the hands of Judge Judy,

who I'm told is a strict but fair adjudicator.

Mm, that's lovely.

With most marks awarded for taste in WI cooking competitions

I'm hopeful I'm still in with a chance.

It's a lovely flavour, but it's a bit too soft.

You see how it moves.

Normally a jelly would be a bit stiffer than that.

APPLAUSE

The third prize, which goes on flavour.

Not on appearance.

Mr Valentine.

Well done.

And as we go from jelly to jam, what better way to finish things off

than by getting stuck right into a jam roly poly

with the Hairy Bikers?

Oh... # Summertime, and the living is easy

Ooh.

Are you mad?! Shall we get on with it?

This is a true family and school dinners classic.

Can't beat jam roly poly in the rain.

Jam roly poly pudding, it's not a new-fangled thing.

Thackeray wrote about a jam roly pudding, you know.

Charles Dickens wrote about a jam roly poly pudding in Bleak House.

Mrs Beeton wrote about jam roly poly pudding,

and Beatrix Potter did.

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly Poly Pudding.

And Nelson used it as a pillow. That's not true, but everything I said was.

We'd better get on. We may as well.

It's a celebration of suet. Jam roly poly pudding starts off with self-raising flour.

And it goes into a bowl. A dry bowl, preferably.

Suet. And it's true to say there aren't really any health-giving properties to suet,

so we can't sell you on that one, can we?

Unless you're cold and thin, and need to put a bit of fat on.

Don't just do it - make it with suet.

A tablespoon of caster sugar.

And a good pinch of sea salt.

Figuratively speaking, you need to mix the dry goods together.

'"Anna-Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly poly pudding for my dinner."

"It requires dough, and a pat of butter and a rolling pin", said Anna-Maria,

considering Tom Kitten with her head on one side.'

Ooh...

'She borrowed a small saucer...' - Can we get on?!

Got into that. Now, make the dough, and we're using semi-skimmed milk.

You can use water if you're feeling frugal.

God forbid you use whole milk, you know. You might destroy the health-giving properties of suet.

A bit of mixing, and it all comes together into a big lump.

That's your cue, Si.

Thanks, mate. Anyway, on a dry, floured board,

ideally, give it a bit of a knead,

and then roll it out into a rectangle-type shape.

Now comes the reason why it's sometimes known as dead man's leg.

The jam.

Now, what we do - leaving an edge around it you drop the jam, for even distribution, from a height.

Rainwater-infused jam is optional,

but you need a good splurge of any kind of jam in the middle of the roly.

Steamed pudding, it's somewhat heavy,

but you know, on an English summer's day there's nothing better than sitting by the fire

with a slice of steamed jam roly poly pudding.

Now, roll it up.

Unfortunately, cos of the rain this is hard. It's sticking.

Are we down-hearted? No.

Never.

What we want is the seam side to go down...

Yes!

See your roly poly pudding forming.

Looksie.

And when you put that in the oven, it's going to go...

Like a little kid with mumps.

So we do a pleat like so, you see?

And the pleat is going to allow it to expand.

Now we'll twist the ends like a Christmas cracker,

and tie that with a piece of string.

Show-wa-ha!

If we were to steam this now, all the juicy goodness is going to escape,

so we need to put that in another foil overcoat.

The overcoat needs to have a pleat in it too.

To create the steam, boiling water goes into a roasting pan

which will sit underneath the pud.

Place it with love.

All we need to do now is place our little torpedo of lard

into a medium-hot oven for about half an hour.

Satisfaction guaranteed, which gives us time to make custard.

This is a special custard. Rich egg yolks and milk with added Madagascan vanilla seeds for extra flavour.

Sun shines in Madagascar, doesn't it?

In the words of the immortal Morten Harket,

the sun always shines on TV.

Not in our shows.

It's pelting down.

Making proper custard is easier than you might think.

Once you make it like this, you'll never go for the ready-made stuff again.

Go on, Dave, get the poly out. I'll take over the whisking.

Right-ho.

HUMS

Now, watch when you do this. There could be a spurt of steam.

Oh-ho!

Oh, that smells amazing. Proper old English puds.

You can't whack 'em.

If I had a plate I'd think it was Christmas.

Oh-ho! # Jingle on the way, ready to eat #

Jam roly poly. Proper.

Look at that burnt bit there.

Them are the best bits. They're brilliant.

But it's light. It's not fattening.

What a delicious way to end today's show,

and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Thanks again to our wonderful chefs, and I'll see you again next time.

subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd