Letter T The A to Z of TV Cooking

If you're in the market for a feast of 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 To Z Of TV Cooking.

So today we're looking at all things linked by the letter T.

And here's just some of what we've got on the menu.

Rachel Khoo describes the best veg to stuff a trout with.

Just pick out vegetables which have a low water content.

If they're too watery, they'll release too many juices

and then your fish will be swimming...

in a water bath.

SHE LAUGHS

We get Angela Hartnett's recipe for a succulent turkey curry.

Instead of having pasta with chicken or having a curry with chicken,

always substitute it with turkey.

You don't need to buy the whole bird, just buy a little breast

from your butcher or from your supermarket and use it instead.

A much healthier option for you.

And Raymond Blanc's tips for a terrific tarte tatin.

Not much work really, apart from the peeling so far.

A bit of caramel, simple.

Our first T is for tomato,

and Nigel Slater has a delicious dish for us here,

but he's also adding another T in the form of turmeric.

I love using the really hot spices

to give a dish masses of fiery heat.

But equally I like using the softer,

gentler spices

to provide something actually more interesting.

There's something very comforting about a warming, rustic meal.

Tonight I'm going to cook a simple tomato stew

given life and vigour with warm spices.

Mild, sweet onions are the backbone for this dish.

A couple roughly chopped go into a little oil.

And there's always garlic, of course.

I want the onions to cook until they're pale gold

and have started to sweeten.

That way the dish will have a mellowness,

it won't have that fiery bite

that you get when you stir-fry things.

This is much gentler, it's softer.

It's altogether about the flavour of the spices, not just their heat.

But I do want a little heat in there,

so I'm going to add some fresh chilli.

Just one of these mild red ones with its fiery seeds removed.

The recipe will be much gentler

if I take those little white seeds away.

Add some cumin seed,

warm and pungent.

A couple of teaspoons.

And brown mustard seeds.

They have a very mellowing effect.

And a little bit of turmeric.

This is what will really add the earthy notes.

There's something very ancient about turmeric.

It has that age-old flavour...

..and gives a brilliant colour to your sauce.

And straight away I'm smelling chillies and spices,

but there's no real heat there.

It's very different to when you use lots of fresh chillies.

Softer and warmer.

To that I'm going to add a can of tomatoes.

And a little pot of water.

There are so many things I could use this for.

I've used it with fish or meat.

We're actually going to use this as a sauce in which to cook tomatoes.

These big vine tomatoes aren't just good in a salad.

They're meaty enough to be the centrepiece of this dish.

And what will happen is that the tomatoes will cook in their own

spice and tomato-scented steam.

After 25 minutes, the tomatoes should be cooked through.

The dish itself is still a bit of a mystery.

The only real way to see what's going on is to get a spoon in there

and taste it.

You can follow all the recipes in the world,

but the only real way to tell is whether you like it or not.

There's a softness to this, there's a mellowness,

but I feel as if I want it to be...slightly richer.

'I could add cream, but I think it needs the cooling tang of yoghurt.'

Incredibly luscious.

It's much smoother, it's got a softness to it.

There's still spice there...

but that spice has been cooled by the yoghurt.

What wonderful tomato flavour.

It's got the background of the spices,

and then there's that little nip from the sharp yoghurt,

and it's an altogether very successful dish.

I'd be very happy to eat that as my supper.

'Ample on its own, this recipe would work well with lamb or fish,

'with its warm spices and its hint of yoghurt.

'It's simple, versatile, and so full of flavour.'

'Next, an example of Thai cooking,

'a soup packed with super-punchy flavours.

'This is Sophie Dahl with recipe for tom kha.'

I've got everything here to make the most brilliant soup.

Perfect for chasing away the dark days that have preceded.

I'm going to be making a tom kha,

which is the absolute in kind of anti-hibernation food.

Like a rainbow after a storm,

or the smell of wet grass after it's rained.

That is what this is to the palate.

It's all going to go in the blender,

so everything can be roughly chopped.

I've got one shallot, two garlic cloves,

a chilli.

If you really needed a kick up the arse,

you could use the whole chilli with seeds and all,

and then you'd forget what you had to complain about.

Going to add some lemon grass and a good piece of ginger,

and ginger's also famous as a sort of blues beater.

Brings heat to the lifeless.

The beginning of the soup is a paste.

So easy. Blitz it all up.

Zest a lime,

followed by the juice.

BLENDER WHIRRS

It's very noisy!

The head is now ready for it.

Another magic ingredient, the lime leaf,

which is just the most incredible-smelling thing...

in the world.

I've got some coriander here.

It's the most life-affirming collection of flavours.

Wow, that's just...

..a sort of abundant, riotous...

..bar-room brawl of a smell.

Hits you...right in the eyes.

I really associate Thai food with moving to London,

living in a flat with a friend,

and we had a really good Thai restaurant

half a street away from us

and we used to sit and have bowls of tom kha.

I associate some comfort with it, that sort of...being in London

on a cold November night and having this warming,

nourishing...lively soup.

So the heat really releases the flavour,

so the kitchen, at this moment, is filled with a great big...

shout of fragrance.

Now the lovely coconut milk,

which is the buffer against all of the spices,

so it can still work if you're melancholy.

It's like a ruffian wearing a cashmere cardie.

A good dash of fish sauce,

which just gives it a sort of undercut of sharpness.

Got some vegetable stock here.

Because this is a more robust phase,

we're going to add some soba noodles to the water I've got boiling.

Made with buckwheat, a sort of nutty, dark flour.

Now for the amazing, slightly melancholic-looking prawns

which, by the time I've finished with them, are going to be pink and happy,

and doing the can-can.

Going to add the mushrooms.

We've got the enoki, which are like little old men in berets.

Handful of them.

Shitake mushroom.

I'm a mushroom fiend

so I want as many different types of mushroom as I can have in here.

Lastly, putting in some sugar snaps,

and they're going to give us the crunch.

A bit more lime juice, then you've made this glowing green soup.

On with the giant prawns, who are now looking decidedly cheerful.

And the last in the arsenal, some Thai basil,

which is a sweeter, more licqourice-y version

than the basil we normally encounter.

The smell would cheer up Scrooge.

So, here it is, a feast for the senses...

..my tom kha.

I'm going to let it...

wash away...

the last cloud of melancholy.

# My tears dry on their own... #

'Now the first of a few fish dishes beginning with T.

'It's a great-looking recipe using trout. Take it away, Rachel Khoo.'

I'm going to make a trout in a parcel, en papillote,

which is a great way of keeping all the flavours,

it's healthy and really easy to do.

We're going to start off by making our little marinade.

Zest half a lemon.

You can use any kind of fish you like.

I like to use trout because it's a beautiful fish,

it's got a lot of flavour, it's an oily fish, so it's very good for you.

Half a teaspoon of salt, couple of generous pinches of pepper.

And a good glug of olive oil.

I'm going to make my paper parcel.

You don't have to use baking paper, you could use aluminium foil,

which is a little bit easier

because you can just scrunch up the ends to seal it in.

But I'm using the classic technique of using paper.

When you come to measure out your paper,

you want to give yourself a couple of inches on each side.

Fish goes in.

Now I'm going to use my marinade.

'A quick rub outside and in

'will give the whole fish a beautiful citrus flavour.'

Don't be afraid to get your hands messy! It's more fun.

Now, I've parboiled some baby potatoes.

Just slice them in...big slices.

What the potatoes do is they soak up some of the juices.

Fennel.

You just want half. I'm just going to take the not-so-nice bit off.

My bin's broken!

Just thinly slice it.

The lovely aniseed flavour from the fennel,

mixed with the lemon, is just going to be really yummy.

If you don't want to use fennel, you could use leeks,

you could use some red onions, because they're not too strong.

Just pick out vegetables which have a low water content.

If they're too watery, the vegetables,

they'll release too many juices and then your fish will be swimming...

SHE LAUGHS

..in a water bath.

A bit of string to tie my ends, and a pair of scissors.

Whatever you're using, if you're using paper or aluminium foil,

you want to make sure you seal it properly, so fold over the top.

'This technique can be tricky to get right,

'but, if you do, the end product should look like a sweet.'

Oh! That was too tight!

Got a bit too enthusiastic with that.

OK, the parcel's nicely sealed.

And that's going to probably take 15, 20 minutes.

The great thing about cooking with papillote

is you're less likely to overcook it, it's always going to stay moist.

It's kind of a guaranteed way to cook fish.

Let's have a look at our papillote.

It certainly smells delicious, I can smell the lovely lemon flavours

and the fennel, so let's have a look.

This is a bit like Christmas, opening a present.

Look at that.

So, we've still got the lovely juices in there.

Squeeze of lemon on top.

I think it's just missing a big dollop of really creamy creme fraiche.

Obviously, that's optional.

What you're looking for with the fish being cooked

is it should be opaque, the flesh.

If you have a look... Wow, see, you can just peel the skin off

like that, and, if you look, you can just flake away.

'A classic French supper that would traditionally be served

'with a fresh green salad.'

Mmm, perfectly cooked.

'The best things really do come in small packages.'

'Time for another fish that begins with T.

'It's the turbot, which is a real favourite of the Two Fat Ladies.'

I'm cooking turbot with pickled walnuts and watercress.

Now, I love turbot, it's a very good, thick, dense fish.

And people say it's very expensive, but a little of it goes a lot further

than some flimsy flibbertigibbet fish.

Like plaice. Yes, exactly.

And I'm going to put over this some sliced onions,

and then I'm going to cover it with a combination of fish stock

and white wine.

When you're making your fish stock,

buy things like cod or turbot or halibut bones, or Dover sole.

Don't use oily fish bones,

and even some very gelatinous fish is not good.

Skate or monkfish doesn't make a good stock.

I adore turbot, but I do consider it quite expensive.

Well, treats...

Yes, treats.

And a bit of salt and pepper.

And now I'm going to poach this for ten to 15 minutes.

And, for the sauce,

I'm just going to melt a bit of butter...

and mash some pickled walnuts.

I find they go terribly well with fish.

I'm just going to...scrape these into the butter.

Are they frying?

Well, just gently melding, really, over a very low flame.

They're quite remarkable, really, the Gurkhas, aren't they?

It's extraordinary to think that this country at the top of the world,

Nepal, their main export, their main industry,

is producing these crack, brilliant, fearless troops.

Yes, they're wonderful, and they're dead loyal.

They've got more VCs than any other regiment in the British Army.

Yes, I know. Fearless in battle, and absolutely sweet and gentle to meet!

Just put these on a little dish,

and now I'm going to pour some of the fish stock mixture

in to the butter and pickled walnuts.

Right, and into that I'm going to put my chopped watercress.

And then I'm just going to pour it over the fish.

Looks very exciting. And very delicious.

And garnish it with a few halves of pickled walnuts.

As you can see, if you're a very busy person,

this would be excellent for a dinner party

because it takes no time at all to cook,

and if you wanted something more formal or flashy,

you could use a whole turbot. Obviously, one of the smaller ones

that are known colloquially as chicken turbot.

CHATTER

Where do GTW do theirs? Do they have a separate one?

'and if you were asked to name a fish starting with T,

'I think this would be the first to come to your mind.

'Take it away, Tony and Giorgio, with tuna.'

It's worth saying that it's the closest thing you're going to get

to a piece of steak. Yeah.

Good to introduce to the kids if they've never eaten fish.

No bones, yeah? You want all the British nation to eat tuna?

Well, it's healthy, isn't it? You import it and sell it, that's why!

Well...you've got a point there, Giorgio!

You're making an awful lot of money out of that, that's why!

Vine tomatoes, nice and ripe. Rocket, yeah? Nice salad. Yeah.

I want to do one of these very simple vinaigrette that you do,

you know, you can keep in your fridge.

Tony, will you get that out?

What's the matter with you? It's slippery. I'm struggling, as well.

Hold on. We're both struggling.

Nah, let's have custard with it.

THEY LAUGH

There you go.

You know, people go 20 meals, ten meals, this and that.

No, forget about it. So we do two fingers of red wine vinegar,

good quality if you can. Then one finger of water.

Now you add three fingers of olive oil, right? Yeah.

Tiny little bit of salt.

That would give you a very balanced vinaigrette.

Put a little bit on your hand...

you taste it, and you make your mind up there and then.

I like it like that, nice and sharp.

One of the first things you do,

you season your tomato with salt and pepper.

Then you put a little bit of your vinaigrette...

This is way, way before you actually start to cook the fish,

because the cooking of the fish will take about two, three minutes.

And then you give it a gentle - I repeat, a GENTLE - squeeze.

What's going to happen is then the tomato leaves all that red...

The juice, yeah. ..and the seeds. This is fantastic.

This is going to make your salad altogether taste fantastic.

At the last minute, you can add a little bit of the rocket,

and that's going to be lovely and crispy,

and you will see it's fantastic.

Right.

SIZZLING

Can you hear it?

And it cooks very, very quickly.

Don't forget one thing, as well, it's quite important -

you take it out to room temperature before you start to cook it.

That's very important.

What you try to achieve all the time

is something that is rare in the middle, yet not cold.

Well, that's coming up quite nicely now. I think we're ready for... Yes.

You should have been an engineer or something like that.

An architect. Look at that.

Fantastic.

OK, he's cooking there, I'm going to clean a little bit of the rocket,

just by taking away a bit of the bottom.

You like it rare, Giorgio? I love it rare.

I haven't mixed it together, that's very, very important -

don't mix it together until, really, the last minute, OK?

Where's your plate? Plates are there.

OK, nearly there? Yeah, I'm there.

OK, so I got my salad in, I give them a little stir with the tongs.

Be gentle, don't squeeze it too much in your hand. Ready? Yeah, you go.

Nice one. That is what you call a nice dish. Quick, simple lunch.

How's yours, Giorgio? How is it? Hold on a minute.

A bit of oil on top, no?

Nah, you don't need it, you've got enough oil on it.

No, a little bit of oil.

You don't like oil in the fryer, you like it all over the food.

It's good for you, it's when it's... Beautiful.

You can see that, still quite raw.

Look at that. Mmm.

Lovely, eh? Mmm.

So now a question for you.

How often do you cook turkey, besides at Christmas?

Many of us don't give it much of a go at any other time of the year.

But to fix that,

here's Angela Hartnett with a really good-looking turkey curry.

To start with, we are going to prepare our paste for our curry.

We're going to start with some onion.

Roughly chop up the onions, followed by garlic and chilli.

Just do enough to suit your taste buds.

You can...some curries will tell you to keep the seeds in,

I tend to remove them because I don't want it so spicy.

But I do like to add a good dose of ginger.

Blitz.

Then throw in a few coriander seeds, sugar and a touch of tamarind paste.

That's your base for your curry.

Something like this is perfect to store in the fridge or freezer.

If you make a large amount and you don't use it all,

it's a perfect thing to put in a little jar

and you've got it for three or four days afterwards.

What I love about turkey is that it's so incredibly versatile.

One of the athletes we spoke to,

he uses it as a substitute for chicken.

Instead of having pasta with chicken or a curry with chicken,

he always substitutes it with turkey.

You don't need to buy the whole bird, just buy a little bit of the breast

from your butcher or from your supermarket and use it instead.

Much healthier option.

Slice the turkey into even strips so they saute at the same cooking speed.

Gently fry, along with some crushed garlic and thyme.

You only want to sear them. You want to keep the juices from the turkey.

Because it is lean and full of protein,

it doesn't have its natural fat,

so you don't want to sear it too quickly and make it too dry.

You want it to cook slowly in the curry to absorb all the flavour.

Heat up the paste, then return the turkey to the pan,

making sure the pieces are evenly coated.

Then add the potato.

These do have to go in at this stage as opposed to right at the end

because these are raw and will need to cook for at least 15 minutes.

For the sauce, pour in a tin of coconut milk.

Followed by turkey stock.

Just going to bring it up to a lovely simmer now

and cook it for 15 to 20 minutes so that the turkey is cooked,

the potatoes are cooked and you have that lovely, thick sauce to coat it.

Cover, preferably with grease-proof paper.

The beauty of the grease-proof is you can see through it,

you can see what is going on

and you know when it's coming up to a little simmer.

So we are going to leave that for about 20 minutes.

Let's be honest, we're all going to cook turkey at Christmas,

so here's a few tips to make your life easier.

Make sure you bring your turkey out the night before

so it comes up to room temperature.

Also, I like to wrap my bird in foil so it's like a big pocket round it,

lots of butter on there, lots of bacon

and put some water into your roasting dish

so it lightly steams your turkey.

Then just before it is ready to go, unwrap the turkey from the foil

and allow it to roast so you have that beautiful, caramelised turkey.

The curry has been simmering for about 20 minutes now.

I'm going to add the final ingredients.

Finally, just add in all our spinach,

and that's just going to wilt down very loosely in the curry.

And also our coriander.

If you want to, you can add a little bit of mint as well in there.

That's the beauty of any sort of curry, you can add adapt the flavours.

We're using turkey, so it's really very good for you,

there's hardly any fat in that. It is really healthy.

Finish off with a sprinkling of toasted almonds and it's done.

My delicious turkey curry.

Mm. That really is a perfect way to have turkey.

You've got the spices coming through, the coriander,

the coconut, the chilli. The turkey is so moist.

Everyone moans about it being dry, but if you cook it really slowly,

for 20 or 25 minutes, it really is lovely and moist.

A perfect way to eat turkey. Couldn't ask for a better dish.

Eggs play a key part in our next dish.

But they're not what we're focusing on first.

We're joining Valentine Warner and he is on a mission,

desperately trying to get his hands on the elusive British truffle.

As summer fades, the still-warm, but damper conditions transform fields

and forests across Britain into one of the prettiest, tastiest

and, sometimes, deadliest of natural larders.

The fairy wonderland of incredible fungal forms

captivated me as a child, and as a grown-up cook,

the edible fruits of an autumnal ramble are no less exciting.

But there is one seasonal treat that has so far eluded me.

The British truffle is the top of my culinary hit list.

Before I die, I really hope to find one and take it home to cook.

Like all the best things in life,

the British black truffle is notoriously hard to find.

But today, I've been invited to a secret hot-spot

in the Peak District by Dr Paul Thomas,

one of the UK's top truffle experts,

and I've got a good feeling in my bones.

I'm very, very excited about today.

Good. It's nice to go mushroom-hunting with someone who's really into it.

Nice to go mushroom hunting...I'm in the presence of the king of truffles.

Onwards, towards little black, hard balls of glory.

It's not just truffles we are after today.

There's loads of other mushroom goodies to be an unearthed

in this shady patch of ancient woodland.

For every edible wild mushroom,

there are at least 30 you would not want to touch.

So be certain before you try anything.

It's very tempting to be greedy when picking wild fungi,

but good mushroom etiquette dictates

you only pick a handful of what is available.

Always use a knife to avoid damaging its delicate underground parts.

An Amethyst Deceiver? Yeah, you're right. This is fairy stuff.

A bright purple mushroom - this is little chattering voices in the trees

and whizzing wings kind of a mushroom. Exactly.

It may be a relief to hear some of our best tasting wild mushrooms

are harvested commercially and can be bought fairly easily.

One of the greatest mushrooms known to mankind. The cepe or penny bun.

Yeah. Yes, that really is a pleasure to behold.

In my top ten of British wild fungi,

the cepe probably comes in at number two.

It's almost impossible to resist raw temptation. That's deep, man.

As we reach Paul's last truffle tip, we're running out of light and time,

but it feels promising.

My hopes are really, really up.

I feel now we're where we should be. Get scraping.

I set off this morning determined to fulfil one of my life's dreams -

to uncover my first wild British truffle.

All good things come to those who wait.

But after countless minor excavations and dusk rapidly approaching,

reality is sinking in.

Looking for the elusive truffle has been a great, great joy.

It's been a fantastic day.

But here I am smelling my 5,000th bit of rotting wood matter.

I think I'm admitting defeat.

Free, black British truffles are pretty hard to come by,

but you can buy them from posh grocers

from around 30 quid for 100 grams.

Today, however, I am a lucky man.

Paul has brought along an amazing personal stash

of propagated black truffles for us to sample.

Wow! Yeah, it's a good smell, isn't it? It's punchy.

So these eggs are really going to be penetrated with truffle.

We're going to scramble truffle eggs with more on top.

Sounds very good to me.

So I can get as much in my mouth before I go as possible. Let's go.

I don't know what you think,

but I like my scrambled eggs with absolutely no milk in them at all.

Sounds good to me.

Double yolker. Lucky. Can we go truffle bonkers? Absolutely.

Look at that flecked marble, just so pretty.

We both like it nice and runny. Yeah, absolutely.

No pepper, I think, just truffle and eggs. Forget toast. You first.

Thank you. This looks excellent.

Oh, my God, that is really, really good. Really good.

That is intensely truffle-y. It is really good. Really good.

I needed that.

This would make a fabulous Sunday-morning treat.

How can something so utterly simple - butter, eggs and truffle -

deliver such a serious, grown-up, full-on whopper of a dish?

Yeah. That's the truffle, that's the truffle. That is the truffle.

Big up the truffle. Big up the truffle indeed.

Our next T is for tart. They can be sweet, they can be savoury.

Rick Stein first with a bacon tart.

Before he starts cooking,

he wants to be sure he has got the bacon exactly right.

Much to the relief of the camera crew,

we left the metropolis for broader skies.

I did 14,000 miles zigzagging across the country.

And now I'm in Ayrshire for its world-famous bacon, Ramsays.

What we have here is the middle.

The middle is the combination of what would be the back bacon here

and the streaky bacon here.

The Scottish way of doing this is to roll the streaky right in here,

which gives you a nice combination with the flavour of the fat

in the streaky along with the lean muscle on the back.

How come you don't put all the kinds of things in your brine,

like bay leaves and brown sugar

and molasses and juniper berries and all that?

We produce traditional Scottish bacon

and traditional Scottish bacon is simple cure,

which means we keep the flavours.

We're not adding flavour, the flavour is already there.

Why change it?

All these things can be added if we want, it's not that difficult.

But we sell traditional bacon and that's the way it is.

That's the way it is going to be.

The cure is still the same.

It's something we can have pride in when we're finished.

We don't mind people taking it away and somebody has bacon and says,

"That's nice, I like that. Where did it come from?"

I can stand and say, "That's mine, I did it."

After we visited Andrew Ramsay's bacon factory in Ayrshire,

he took me back to his house and just made me a simple bacon butty.

The point of it was just to show that there is no liquid,

no water whatsoever in his bacon. It was really good.

However, I think this allows his bacon to shine.

It's an Alsace bacon and onion tart.

First of all, I'm going to make a very, very shortcrust pastry

that my mum used to make.

Into the bowl with some hard butter, like that.

Just cutting it up a little

and then I am going to do it in the old-fashioned way with my fingertips

because I feel much more assured making a shortcrust by hand.

Obviously, you can use a machine. Next, some lard.

Actually, it's slightly more fat to flour in there

and that makes it really, really short.

Next goes in a generous teaspoon of salt.

I know that might seem a lot,

but it doesn't taste the same to me without it.

Now I add about a couple of tablespoons of water, no more,

it needs to be as dry as possible.

The more water you put in, the less short the pastry becomes.

I'm going to blind-bake the pastry case.

That's because the flan filling takes much less time to cook.

I'm pricking the base with a fork just to stop it rising.

It will only take about 15 minutes in the oven.

I'm using these beans to shore up the edges of the pastry.

If you're a really serious chef, of course, you can use ceramic beans.

But I like the smell of the hot beans as they come out of the hot oven.

For my filling, I'm using goose fat to soften up some onions.

I don't know why, but potatoes roasted in goose fat

feel lighter and taste sweeter than anything.

I've got to remember to get the pastry out of the oven

and allow it to cool. It just needs to take on an even, golden colour.

Now I cut some lardons of Ayrshire bacon and add them to the onions.

It's very important to cook everything down like this.

I bet some people would just throw everything into the pastry case.

Finally, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I suppose this is really like a quiche Lorraine.

It reminds me of the '60s and '70s quiche.

You couldn't really go to an arts centre party without

the obligatory tray of rather cold and rather stodgy quiche Lorraine.

I suppose that's where the expression

"real men don't eat quiche" came from.

A good, well-cured bacon is worth the effort involved in finding it.

Just as it is with good, free-range eggs,

great cheeses and real ale, for that matter.

I'm adding some double cream to three eggs to make the custard.

And now a little more seasoning, some salt,

a few turns of the black pepper mill

and finally a few rasps of the nutmeg grater.

It's so satisfying to see the mixture fill up those little pockets

and craters, and so annoying when you find you haven't made enough.

Not with my recipes of course!

Well, to those of you who have only had cold, arts centre quiche,

this will be a real treat, straight out of the oven.

This is much better than the one I had in the arts centre

discussing the story of Peter Greenaway's Draughtsman's Contract.

I still don't understand that film.

Nor do I, so I can't help you there.

But here's something you should have no trouble following.

It's a sweet tart this time.

Raymond Blanc's take on the French classic tarte tatin.

Raymond's next recipe is another French favourite - tarte tatin.

Sticky, caramelised apples,

gently baked and upended onto buttery puff pastry.

I'm going to bring another wonderful, huge French classic

which has been exported across the world,

and it is known as the tarte tatin

First, Raymond prepares the caramel.

He adds a dash of water

and 100 grams of caster sugar to a heatproof baking dish.

I've got a syrup at the moment. That's called a syrup.

This will take about five, seven minutes

according to the strength of the gas underneath.

According to the moon... No, no, no. Not the moon. Not today.

The caramel is cooked until it turns the right colour.

It's blonde, it's sweet.

What I want is to cook the caramel to a beautiful auburn.

By cooking it, I bring a bit of acidity, I remove some of the sugar.

Little undertones of bitterness.

Next, Raymond adds 60 grams of butter

to make the caramel glossy and smooth.

If it's melted, it's going to burn into it.

If it's cold, it's going to stop the cooking

and get emulsified with the caramel.

That's perfect. Look at that glorious, glorious caramel.

While the caramel cools a little,

Raymond prepares the main ingredient.

Picking the right variety is key.

When you start thinking of apples, imagine, you've got 2,000 varieties.

You have got a lot of choice but, actually,

amongst all these apples which are perfect for tarte tatin,

the best for me is Braeburn. Why?

Because their flesh is beautiful and yellow and rich.

You want that fresh taste.

Raymond peels, cores and halves 12 Braeburn apples.

We have this lovely caramel that I have kept warm a little bit.

Make sure it is warm. What I do, I become Raymond the builder.

So, voila. Against each other.

Imagine that thickness of apple.

That apple experience you are going to have. It's not about pretty.

You have got to think, when it is cooked,

it has got to be tight or your apple will collapse.

It's easy. Press.

You know when it's ready, that thing, when you press, it starts to rise.

They are trying to get out of the pan. I would as well.

Raymond brushes the top of the apples with butter

to create a silky glaze during cooking.

The dish is then ready to go in the oven at 180 degrees.

Not much work, really.

A bit of peeling so far, a bit of caramel, simple.

I didn't say voila.

After 30 minutes in the oven, the tart is ready for the puff pastry

which will form the base of the dessert.

Raymond's is home-made, but ready-made will be fine.

Make sure your puff pastry is frozen.

Place it frozen onto the apple

and then the apple is very easy to work with.

They are half-frozen now.

And I want it firm.

Adam? The servants these days, they are never there.

Tom, can you put that in the blast freezer, please?

The freezer will do. No problem. Thank you very much.

After a few minutes in the freezer, the buttery puff pastry is ready.

Frozen. I'm warming it up a little bit with my hands.

I have got very warm hands, I'm very lucky. Tres bien. That's it.

Now I'm going to cut it.

And I'm going to just simply wrap it up.

Raymond tucks the pastry around the apples.

Piercing it allows steam to escape, keeping the pastry crisp.

That will take about 40 minutes at temperature 180 degrees.

After 40 minutes in the oven, the tart can be left to cool

before it is turned upside down for serving.

Ready to eat now. Absoluement.

I think for many Frenchmen,

this dessert represents what is really good about France.

Augustine. Yes, Chef.

I decided to invite you for a little bit of a break.

To celebrate the tarte tatin.

What do you think, colour of the caramel? What does it tell you?

It tells you how sweet the caramel is going to taste.

If it's very dark, it can be quite bitter.

The apples are cooked through but they still have a nice shape,

they're not falling everywhere. So, marks out of ten?

I'll have to give it a ten, Chef.

What a delicious way to end today's show. I hope you all enjoyed it.

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