Letter U The A to Z of TV Cooking

Your favourite dishes from your favourite TV chefs,

and we're serving them up alphabetically

here on The A To Z Of TV Cooking.

Today, we're looking at things linked by the letter U

and here's just some of what's on the menu.

The gents from Something For The Weekend cook sea urchin.

Mmm! Actually, that's nice!

There's an unusual combination from Rachel Khoo.

Sticky lemon and lavender chicken.

You might be thinking, "Lavender in a savoury dish?!"

And Valentine Warner has a dangerously delicious

upside-down dessert.

Although it's called Apricot Upside-down Tart, I think

it should be called Apricot Face-down Tart, because it's pretty hard

not to eat the whole thing and then, in piggy remorse,

you'll just have to go and lie down on the floor, groaning.

Time to start tucking in then and, to begin with,

we're heading to strange territory with some recipes featuring

ingredients which are "out there" to say the least.

U is for Unusual, and we're joining Heston Blumenthal

for a typically outrageous dish - wait for it...

snail porridge.

The idea for snail porridge...

My head chef at the time had gone to New York for a weekend

to propose to his girlfriend.

He'd been to a Chinese restaurant and he'd seen fish porridge on the menu,

which I thought was very interesting and he arrived at the airport,

he came straight to work,

I was in the kitchen at the time, and I was working on

a snail cannelloni for the lunch menu and, um...

I just put two and two together, I suppose,

if you can call snails and fish porridge two and two.

And that's where the idea came from.

Snail and porridge might seem like a bit of a bizarre combination,

but it is totally delicious to eat.

It's got this vibrant green, concentrated parsley flavour.

The snails are wonderful, they're sauteed with a big mouthful,

a lovely earthiness as well. You've just got to get over the name.

What I do to begin with, though, is take these oats,

just exactly the same as you'd have for breakfast - porridge.

I need to get rid of the finer...

the finer part of these oats.

It acts like flour and just makes the porridge go too gloopy.

This dish is literally two to three minutes from starting cooking

to actually serving it.

OK, that's probably about fine.

Having got excited with the prospect of making snail porridge,

I then did think, "How popular was this dish going to be?"

How many people are going to think, "Snails - grey, gloopy.

"Porridge - grey, gloopy.

"Together - really grey, really gloopy

"served in a grey room with grey people.

"It all sounds a little depressing, really."

So, the big barrier is snail porridge.

So, let's try and make the dish as user-friendly as possible

by putting in all the most delicious things

that snails are associated with.

So, hence, parsley, garlic, shallots, ham, almonds, butter, um...

and then saute the snails,

so you've got to have something that tastes really delicious.

It's just the name.

So, what you do now...

And here I've got some snail stock. This is basically...

The snails here have been braised in chicken stock

with herbs and vegetables for four hours.

That's going to form the base liquid

that we're going to use for the porridge.

OK, that's hot enough. I'm just going to put these oats in.

More stock. Now, we're going to incorporate this butter.

Now, this has got tons of parsley in it, it's got garlic,

there's ceps - which is a form of wild mushroom - shallots, ham,

almonds, and then all we do is beat this into the oats.

See, it's vivid green. It's incredibly...

..intense, fragrant.

So, that's just about ready.

I'm going to adjust the seasoning on this now.

It needs more salt.

I never tire of eating the stuff.

Now, just before I start plating this up,

in here, we've got another pan with some butter.

That's just butter that's been melted.

Snails. These are the snails that have been braised for four hours.

We just saute them. 30 seconds to a minute.

Snails cooked in butter. Fantastically classical.

A delicious thing to eat. OK, now...

..the snails...

Here's the porridge.

OK. On here I've got some ham...

..which is this Jabugo ham, it's from the Pata Negra, from northern Spain.

It's wonderful stuff.

The snails go onto the...

..onto the porridge. To just finish off, I'll put this fennel...

and here this is some... I've got some vinaigrette,

which is walnut oil and walnut vinegar.

Then that goes on top.

And that's it.

The dreaded, infamous, famous - call it what you want -

delicious snail porridge.

Um, it's a lot of work,

I mean, it is a lot of work to get that recipe finished,

but, if you like snails, then I really do not see

how you cannot love this dish.

Thank you, Heston. Now, apparently, snail is not to everyone's taste.

I know, it surprised me too,

but, if that is the case, our next dish might do it for you.

It's both unusual and begins with U -

it's the sea urchin.

-So, Tim, what we need first of all...

-Tell me about sea urchins.

-I've got some facts here.

-Go for it.

They come in a wide variety of colours, including black, red

and white. Um, we've got the black ones.

But, the bit that we eat needs to be bright orange.

In rehearsals, some of them were brown in colour,

so anything that happens like that, we will discard.

We want bright colour, that is basically key to it.

The name comes from the Middle English term for hedgehog

and they are spiky, they are kind of hard on the touch.

Um, they're a culinary delicacy

in many Asian and Mediterranean countries.

I think it's Japan and Italy.

Mostly Japan and uni is the word we sort of mostly associate

with them cos the Japanese eat an awful lot of them.

Yeah, there are claims they're one of the most potent aphrodisiacs

because of the amino acids. OK.

All right, good.

So, first thing we need to do, because they are spiky,

we need to put our left attractive glove on, Tim.

-Our left one.

-Our left one.

Do we not need to put our safety goggles on?

-No, we will survive with just the yellow glove.

-OK.

And then tea towel into your left hand.

All right. This is so exciting, isn't it?

-Am I sad that I'm that excited about this?

-No, I think it's brilliant.

Then, what you're going to do is grab a sea urchin into there

and we turn it so you've got a little soft knobbly bit there on the top.

OK, then what you need to do with your poultry scissors, now,

you need to do this upside-down, really, cos what we want is

the spiky flat bit, that little bit that I'm pressing on there.

So, if you turn it the other way up, if you want to go in like that.

OK, and just dig in and just snip out from the centre a little bit, OK?

And then, what we're looking to do is we're going to cut a wider circle,

-OK, and as you get bits, flip them away.

-Hold on. I've gone wrong.

So, we're cutting round to expose what's underneath.

So, how have you learned how to do this? Have you just read up on it?

Yeah, and as is the key to all things that you want to learn how to do,

YouTube, cos I've never, ever done this before, this is my first time.

-What we're looking for...

-If all else fails, read the instructions.

-There's goo coming out.

-Yeah. So, what we do is tip all the goo away.

We need to get rid of all of that moisture.

And then what we've got in there, you can see all these things.

-Now, my fellas here are a little bit browny-orange.

-Right.

Yours are nice and bright, so yours are looking good.

-I'll keep mine then.

-We fish out what are called the tongues.

-And then put them in the water here just to cleanse them.

-What?

-All these things here?

-Yeah, and try and keep them as complete as you can.

Work from the outside edge and just push away so we get it there.

Now, they're called tongues, but the reality is

this is actually their genitalia that we're going to eat. OK?

A hush falls across the studio floor. So...

THEY LAUGH

Not so keen now, are you?

THEY LAUGH

Did you have to go into that?

Well, I just felt that you need to know the full extent of what

-we're doing.

-(Oh, God!)

-So they go in there. Yours are nice and brown.

We're going to cut a couple more of these as well,

cos we want a good selection.

Now, they are very, very spiny, so you do have to genuinely be

very careful when you're picking them up and when you're cutting them.

OK, so, again, it's that same thing.

I'm not as excited now as I was to eat these. Oh...

-So, in we go...like that.

-OK.

Is this an expensive delicacy?

It is expensive, yeah, it really, really is and there are many ways

that you can eat them and we're going to keep them as raw as we can.

We're going to taste them completely raw.

But we're going to sort of marinate them, too.

-We are, yeah, or you can deep-fry them, you can kind of...

-Brilliant.

You can eat them on toast, deep-fry them, have them with chips...

Yeah, I mean, you can.

I have got some kind of dark colours in mine, here, so I'm not even

going to scoop those out cos those aren't going to be particularly nice.

You're looking for nice, bright colours.

That's what you're looking for in there. Again, so this...

-That's very dark.

-Yeah, OK.

-Really dark.

Now, let's just get rid of my board.

We're going to serve this on bruschetta first of all,

so we slice nice little thin bits of that.

What are you having for breakfast at home? I wonder...

-Bacon and eggs?

-Are you slightly apprehensive about this now?

-Yes.

-Good. That's good.

-I am.

This was your request when we did our Best Of show.

I did think it would be an interesting thing to eat.

I do, and I've genuinely never tasted them, so I'm not quite sure...

I do like to taste interesting things.

OK, so, what we do for the rest of it, that's our bread.

-For the ceviche, we have...

-That's a really good one, that one.

Beautiful, that's what we want.

We have some shallots, we have some red chilli,

we have a little bit of olive oil, we have some...

All bizarre foods, we're going to mask any taste with a marinade,

which is what you do, isn't it, with snails and everything?

Masses of garlic and masses of chilli...

We're going to have a little taste of a raw one in a second,

so, we get some lemon juice.

-Oh, yippee(!)

-THEY LAUGH

I've gone from excitement to fear.

We're going to have a little bit of that. So, what I'll do...

Let's scoop out a couple of these...

-And it's a bizarre time to do it, isn't it? Morning.

-Yeah.

I'm glad that I decided...

Cos you and I decided on the phone this week, that I wouldn't

try them ahead of you, so we're both going to have it in real-time.

And at seven o'clock this morning when we started rehearsals,

I was very glad I'd agreed to do that so that you didn't want to...

-Have we got enough there, do you think?

-Yeah, we're absolutely fine.

So, we marinate those for a matter of seconds,

but, in reality what you do, you would actually marinate it

for only about 20 minutes or so, cos you want to keep them raw. OK.

-Are we going to pick one out now, are we?

-It's that time, Tim.

So, I'm going to select...

What are you going for? How are you going to do it?

You're putting the whole one in or are we doing half?

We're going to do whole.

-I'm going to cleanse my palate first.

-I will too.

Just let me take these off here. Hold on and we can do it properly.

-Our bruschetta's done. Our little marinade is done.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

CREW LAUGH

Not very nice, are they?

THEY LAUGH

-I'm not that enamoured with the texture.

-No.

The first bit when you put it in your mouth, it's almost...

-It tastes like something.

-It's...if you've ever eaten foie gras. Right?

-Which, when you cook it, is very, very soft.

-Yeah.

On the outside you've got a bit of texture and then

it squashes to almost nothing, so it has that as its texture.

Which is kind of slightly...

-..retchy.

-Yeah, a little bit.

-Yeah.

I'm being honest.

I'm not...cos we're sophisticated, we're not. But it was slightly.

-And then the flavour is...

-It's actually not so bad now.

The flavour is of the sea. It isn't particularly fishy, is it?

There was something quite meaty-ish about it at the beginning,

but it's evolved into the sea.

-Yeah, it's kind of pate at the start for me...

-Pate!

-And then the sea...

Pate, that's what it tastes of, pate.

Yes, but like a really soft, yeah, like you say,

a foie gras type thing.

That's basically foie gras of the sea, maybe.

That's what we can now call it and see if it'll catch on.

-It's not so bad.

-The aftertaste is quite nice.

-Now, I'm...

The aftertaste tastes a bit like if you eat

really, really fresh mussels

and that has that aftertaste of the sea. I wouldn't say

I'm going to rush out and buy more or rush out

and put them on the restaurant menus.

But it might be one of those things that we might start

-craving in a couple of days' time.

-Do you think?

-The first time I had...

-Text me when that happens.

-The first time I had...

THEY LAUGH

The first time I ever tried something like sauerkraut

or something it was like, "Ew, not sure about that."

And then you start craving it afterwards.

It's a complex flavour as well cos as it's going on now,

there are differences in what we're getting. Now, right, OK.

That's our little dish.

The marinade is lovely, you'd leave that for ten, 15 minutes.

Let's have a little taste of it this way, where we've now marinated it,

albeit for a few seconds, on a little bit of bruschetta.

There you go, all for you.

And me.

Mmm! Actually, that's nice.

Now, when you get the acidity of the lemon, somehow...

-It needs it, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Maybe it's like when you're having an oyster. You can have them raw,

a little squeeze of lemon juice, a little bit of chilli...

-Yeah, it just gives it that edge.

-Good!

-What do we try next? What's the next one on your list?

-I don't know.

-We should try something, shouldn't we?

-Yeah.

Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Simon.

Now, unusual cooking can also refer to how you can combine

familiar ingredients that you don't necessarily associate

with each other. Let's join Rachel Khoo for a good example.

Here she is with her lavender chicken.

Sticky lemon and lavender chicken.

You might be thinking, "Lavender in a savoury dish?"

Right, we're going to start off with crushing some lavender.

'There is lavender that tastes bitter,

'so look for sweet lavender and make sure it's suitable for cooking.'

In it goes.

Next step, I'm going to zest the lemon.

OK, right, lemon zest in and I'm going to grab some thyme.

I have my Parisian fridge out here.

In Paris, most people have small fridges...

..so you stick your stuff out on the windowsill.

OK, so I'm just going to take the leaves off these sprigs.

Thyme and lavender go really well together as a good combination.

Some olive oil, about two tablespoons.

So, I'm going to add two tablespoons of honey,

some lavender honey, which is going to give that stickiness to this dish.

'The lavender honey will reinforce the flavour of the mixture.

'You'll find it in specialist shops in the UK,

'but you can also use regular good quality honey.'

I need some lemon juice.

OK, let's juice this lemon.

That goes in there.

A pinch of salt.

And let's mix this all together.

Once it's mixed up, I'm going to grab my chicken.

OK, we've got some lovely chicken here.

All you need to do...

..is you stick all the pieces in.

I've got a nice selection of drumsticks, thigh, wings...

So, give it a good mix.

That way all the pieces get coated.

If you wanted to, you could just cover it with some clingfilm

and put it in the fridge, but, because my fridge is so small...!

I have to save space on everything, so I'm going to grab,

like, a sandwich bag.

Here.

And I'm just going to tip it in.

This dish, a lot of people think,

"Oh, you should do it for the summer."

But I quite like doing it in the winter when it's grey and wet.

It's a good little summer treat for any time of the year.

All you need to do is give it some time in the fridge

and then pop it in the oven.

All right, so that's going in the fridge.

I've grabbed my chicken out the fridge,

it's had a couple of hours to marinate

and I'm going to put it in the oven.

Cook it for 40 minutes at 200 degrees.

That's it. Easy!

Easy cheesy!

If the chicken is browning too quickly,

cover it with aluminium foil,

and it's a good idea to turn the pieces over halfway through

so they brown evenly.

I think the chicken...

Oh, it's bubbling away. It looks like it's done.

OK.

Yes!

That looks pretty amazing,

you've got lovely, caramelised, sweet, sticky skin on the top.

If you've got some crusty baguette or some bread at hand, you just

want to rip a piece off and dunk that bread in those juices there,

cos it's seriously good.

Serve with green beans or any vegetable with a gentle flavour

that won't fight the lavender.

Mmm!

Yeah, good!

SHE LAUGHS

The rich, savoury flavour of the chicken

and sweetness of the lavender,

a traditional French ingredient used in an unconventional way.

Thanks, Rachel.

And now we move on to our next category

and we're looking at ingredients that our chefs say

are not being used as much as they should be.

U is for Undervalued.

And now Nigel Slater is bigging up the black pudding.

'Although I've cooked every day since I was young,

'I've still got so much to learn.

'That's the great thing about experimenting...

'you can read all the cookery books you like,

'but you'll never know if something works and if you like it,

'until you try it.

'And that's especially true when a recipe contains unfamiliar things.'

There are one or two ingredients that I truly love or hate.

My list of hate ingredients is very short.

But there are things that I never used to like,

things I wouldn't think of eating,

that, not only have I learned to love,

but they've actually become some of my favourite ingredients.

And one of them is black pudding.

If you've never tried black pudding,

or you want to persuade someone to give it a go,

this fantastic supper dish is a great place to begin.

I start by frying a couple of onions in butter,

but I'm not going to serve them on the side.

They're going to go into the sausage roll itself.

If you cook onions slowly they become incredibly sweet

and treacly and that's exactly what I want, because it works

beautifully with the real savoury quality of a black pudding.

'I'm also adding the simple flavours of bay leaf and thyme.

'And now the pastry.'

Ready rolled puff pastry is a great standby to have in the fridge

or freezer, and makes this recipe so quick and easy.

A lot of British butchers are now starting to experiment

with their black pudding recipes and they're making softer types

similar to those in France and Spain.

They're more pliable and a little bit spicy.

And they are really, really delicious.

'If you're still not convinced by these new black puddings,

'then just use a favourite sausage - it'll still taste great.'

'The onions are dark golden-brown,

'so it's time to put the sausage roll together.'

'Use beaten egg to seal the edges of the parcel,

'so that none of the delicious juices leak out.'

If I wanted to introduce somebody to the pleasures of black pudding,

this is what I'd do.

Very few people can resist a sausage roll.

Now, that needs to go into a really hot oven. At least 200 degrees.

I'd like a familiar sauce to serve with my unusual black pudding.

Now, if it's sausages,

it's got to be mustard.

There are two things that, for me, just...

..go hand in glove.

'I'm mixing some smooth and grain mustard into some single cream

'a little bit at a time.'

And just taste as you go.

That needs a little bit more mustard.

And it really is the only way to tell,

just to put your finger in and taste it.

'Then I need some old-fashioned curly parsley,

'another perfect partner for any sausage.'

Finally, a twist of salt and pepper.

'The sausage roll will take about 20 minutes in a hot oven.

'I reckon the waiting is the hardest part of this recipe.'

It smells wonderful.

It's coming up through the little cracks in the pastry.

Then, some of my parsley sauce.

'This cream sauce would add a touch of luxury to any sausage supper...

'..so, I'm sure it'll finish my black pudding off nicely.'

Oh, that's absolutely delicious.

And if you don't like the idea of black pudding,

maybe you'll like it like that.

It really is a very special sausage roll.

Trying a new ingredient in a familiar recipe like this,

is such an easy way of opening up your everyday cooking.

The important thing is to give it a go.

Thanks, Nigel.

Next, those Hairy Bikers who have another undervalued ingredient

rarely cooked in the home.

It's rabbit.

Now, all these posh folks have been out for centuries chasing stags,

shooting grouse, but it hasn't always been the preserve of the rich,

poor folk like a good old blast too. For us, it was bunnies and rabbits.

"I'll just get a couple of rabbits for t'pot, Mother."

Rabbit's been around for ages.

We've shot 'em, ate 'em and loved 'em.

But we're cooking a lovely dish with rabbit. It's a bit French, really.

It's rabbits with prunes flamed in cognac.

But, you know, it turns the humble rabbit into a prince.

It's posh, it's tasty, it's lovely.

I'll start with the prunes and the brandy.

-I'll start with browning off the rabbit.

-Oh, look at this.

There's a couple of rabbits there

and you can get a rabbit for around £3, so that's £6's worth there.

-£6 of meat.

-Oh, lovely!

And I'll tell you what, this dish goes like a rabbit. It's fantastic.

It's quick, it's simple, it's tasty and it's, oh...!

These are non-soak prunes.

Put them in a pan with six tablespoons of brandy.

Oh, now you're talking, Myers, now you're talking!

Brandy!

One...

two...

three...

four...

five, six.

And then we leave the prunes to macerate in that lovely brandy.

Now, I've put some butter, and I'm going to put some oil into the pan,

bring it to temperature, season the rabbits on both sides...

Thank you. Season the rabbit on both sides and brown it off.

Season it both sides.

Put some salt into it.

Now, carefully, flambe the prunes.

MUSIC: "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

It smells like flesh to me!

# Get the fire brigade Get the fire brigade

# I think the kitchen's starting to really burn. #

Woo!

Wahey! Woo!

I see a sign!

Whoosh!

-I could get used to this!

-There's a worry. You're a worry, you are!

Right, enough of that.

Put the fire out.

Oh!

HE LAUGHS

-I've got no hair left on me arms!

-Dave?

-Dave?

-Eh?

You haven't got any eyebrows either!

No, no, you really haven't.

Oh, God, what's happened to me hairline!

That's it. You see, it wasn't like that before he started this show.

He had a full head of hairiness!

Just leave those to soak till the end of the dish.

I'll start chopping your bacon and shallots

in anticipation for pan action later on down the line.

Now, just start to fry these off in batches.

Don't try and overcrowd the pan,

because if you try and overcrowd the pan, they're not going to fry.

Two banana shallots!

Look at that. That's what we're after. See that?

That's the saddle, that bit there.

-Oh, that's rabbit fillet steak that.

-Beautiful.

And we're just going to put a little bit of colour on.

I mean, this is a humble dish made good, this.

You know, in the late 14th century, rabbits were an expensive luxury.

A lot of the recipes then advocated roasting them with the head still on.

I suppose it was so you could see it was a rabbit

and not your local moggy.

A little bit more oil.

-Have you ever read Watership Down?

-Yeah.

-It was sad, weren't it?

-Yeah, it was. I quite liked it.

-And rabbits have always featured in literature, haven't they?

-Always.

Watership Down...

you know, Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny!

-And Thumper and Bambi.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Hey, look at it now! It could almost be chicken.

Indeed, you can do this dish with chicken thighs.

Allow two chicken thighs per person.

Next, fry the chopped streaky bacon.

Now, what we want to do with this bacon is,

we just want it to go nice and crisp.

Not very crisp, but we want the fat to go...

quite crispy.

Right, so, can you see what we've got there?

-They're not crispy bits.

-That's perfect, isn't it?

-They're just...

-They're just golden.

-Yes, exactly that.

The fried bacon joins the rabbit in the casserole.

To the pan...

add the shallots and just...

sweat until translucent.

Can you see? I've cut them longways, just for that little touch of class.

To the onions, add two tablespoons of flour.

One...

..two.

Time to add the liquid. Now, you could use white wine,

but, to kind of make it a bit more British,

-we're using cider.

-Yes, indeed we are.

And this is...

300ml of cider!

I've got some stock here. Pour half of it in at this point.

-This is good stock.

-Look at it, it's like jelly. What a wonderful smell.

To that, we add one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, like that.

And two teaspoons of whole-grain mustard.

Beautiful.

I've made a little bouquet garni, a little bunch of thyme,

lovely tied together.

Obviously, we'll chuck this out before service.

And a bay leaf.

Oh, lovely.

I know it's a bit of a strange convention.

When you put the flour on top of what in essence is sauteed onions

and it goes like really thick, don't freak out, because all that's

doing is it's caught in the onions and flour, cooking that flour off

a little bit and then as soon as you add liquid, look what's happening.

It's just thickening it and there's no lumps or any problem,

-it's just lovely.

-And we're going to add some more liquid,

-so don't worry, it's not going to be that thick when it's done.

-Right.

Beautiful.

Now, top this up with the remaining stock.

You want to cover this with a cartouche.

A cartouche is a sheet of grease-proof paper that's cut

to fit the dish.

What it will do is stop it cooking dry too quickly.

Put that on top, lid on.

And place that in a preheated oven - 160 degrees Celsius

for about one-and-a-half, two hours.

-I think by now that's a very hot cross bunny!

-Oh, dear me, man!

-Let's remove the cartouche. Ooh!

-Oh, nice.

These are the prunes that we did in brandy.

I'll just light the gas under this

then we're going to heat those prunes through, cos now they're stone-cold,

and add the cream.

Oh, man.

Just give that a little stir.

Then really, as soon as that's come up to temperature, we can serve.

Now... Check for seasoning.

Look what I've got.

I've got some cabbage and some dauphinoise potatoes.

Oh, saddle primo.

Here we go. Oh, that's the boy.

-And some prunes, yeah?

-Oh, for sure.

Some on here.

Lovely creamy dauphinoise. Cabbage.

The rabbit eats the cabbage

and they both end up on the same plate together. Beautiful.

So there you have it, a delicious, simple dish

that's definitely worth rabbiting on about.

Time for pudding and we've got two beauties coming up

which are from the opposite ends of the difficulty scale.

First up, Valentine Warner with an easy, but delicious-looking dish.

The "U" in this is for upside-down tart.

Apricot upside-down tart,

a pud that's guaranteed to wow your guests.

Although it's called apricot upside-down tart, I think

it should be called apricot face-down tart

because it's pretty hard not to eat the whole thing and then

in piggy remorse, you'll just have to go and lie down on the floor.

Groaning.

Start by halving and stoning eight or nine juicy apricots.

Then make the butterscotch sauce.

Add caster sugar, a splash of water, and stick on a high heat.

Once the sugar's browned, add some chopped butter

and let it melt into the deep, golden caramel.

Take the apricots, pop them in, cut side down.

Cover the little fellows with a snug pastry blanket,

dot with small knobs of butter and sprinkle with sugar,

then put in the oven for about 35 minutes

and finally, prepare to turn out this fabulous tart.

Oh, look at that. Fantastic.

I'd like to leave this to cool, so it's at room temperature

but I just can't resist having a little bite.

Fantastic with creme fraiche, but put it in a nice jug.

I'm always just putting a plastic pot on the table

and it winds my mother up all the time.

Another thing my mother would really disapprove of - eating off a knife.

And this is going to be hot. Hold on.

And another thing that wouldn't go down well,

talking with my mouth full.

Rich, sweet, crispy, apricoty... So easy to make.

That is a summer belter.

And now we've got Raymond Blanc with a dessert that we've given

a U rating for ultimate.

So sit back and be amazed.

For Raymond's finale, an elaborate tower of nougatine and choux buns,

caramel dipped and filled with orange-scented cream.

This is the quintessential French celebration cake.

Piece montee croquembouche.

This dish is the most well-known, the most loved, the most famous,

the most celebratory dish in the whole of France.

It is used for every single wedding, for every single birthday.

I had it for my two weddings!

It could have been three, but it's only two so far!

-The body of the cake's tower will be made from 80 choux buns.

-Voila!

Raymond is using the same choux pastry he used for the eclairs.

Tres bien.

The buns go into a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 170 degrees.

So now, we are going to prepare the nougatine.

Nougatine is a caramel and almond crisp that will form the base

and decoration for the cake.

-Tres bien.

-Raymond is using 480 grams of fondant

-and 320 grams of liquid glucose.

-Look at that.

And the beauty about this is, it's very flexible,

gives density to your sugar and doesn't crystallise.

OK, so my blond caramel is there.

Just a bit of butter. Spatula, please.

The caramel is heated until it's a light blond colour,

then Raymond stirs in 400 grams of toasted almonds

and turns the mixture out to cool slightly.

Voila. So needless to say, it is very hot. You have to be very careful.

The nougatine needs to be rolled to a thickness of 3-4 millimetres.

That's why you need the strength here. A man's strength.

This is about the only time when you need a man about properly.

Now, it's too hard. The caramel is really too hard and it's difficult.

As it cools, it starts to stiffen,

so Raymond places it back in the oven to soften.

When it is the right thickness,

Raymond shakes the nougatine into a lightly oiled pie dish.

It's hot so you can work it out.

Tres bien.

So now, this is going to be the base of the piece montee.

Raymond also uses the nougatine to make decorative shapes -

crescents...

So I'm going to cut my moon shapes.

..and triangles.

So I'm going to put them to one side

and then I am going to do my choux pastry. OK? S'il vous plait. Couche!

Adam! Could I have the choux buns, the cream to fill it up and all.

Thank you.

Tres bien.

So we're going to fill them up. You're going to give me a hand, OK?

For the filling, Raymond makes an orange-flavoured pastry cream.

Orange, we're going to do here. Put a little bit of Grand Marnier...

Well, big slug.

With 80 buns to fill, he enlists a little help.

So, small. The small ones this way.

To create a sweet and shiny finish,

Raymond dips the choux buns in caramel heated to 185 degrees.

So, very little. So you don't have too much caramel.

It's got a lovely, nice little shiny crust which is very beautiful,

very appetising and of course, delicious texture.

For an added detail, he dips some of the buns in nibbed sugar.

It's a labour of love, actually.

That's what it is, but if you have the pleasure to do it for your party,

for your own friends or loved ones, I think it makes it special. OK?

Tres bien.

With all the elements ready, Raymond can begin the real work,

building the tower.

To cement the choux buns together, he's using caramel.

My geometry is so bad, OK, I like what is asymmetric.

I hate symmetry so I am ill at ease a bit at the moment!

It's a very small one, actually.

Really, you should see some...some, uh, pieces montee in France.

They are about two metres tall. It's amazing.

We have our first part of the piece montee.

Well, there's a few sticking out, but it's all right.

With the tower built, decoration begins.

They're going to do our moon shape here. OK.

I think that you won't see that. Voila.

S-shaped choux pastry provides a support for the last tier.

Tres bien. Voila.

The two of course I'm not going to fit...

That's usually what is happening. It's OK.

Delicately placed sugar almonds give a traditional detail.

You can do beautiful sugar roses as well.

You can do all sorts of different... You can spread sugar all over.

Tres bien.

Finally, some gravity-defying royal icing ribbons.

Voila.

I know sometimes you can spend a great deal of time cooking,

but I think it's a lovely thing to do.

Actually, when you've created something very beautiful

and you give it to your friends, what more can you give?

Well, you can give much more!

But it's a souvenir, something which is special.

Actually, that cake... OK...

I wanted to do it for Adam and Eliza because Adam has just got married

a few months ago and that cake is for you, Adam.

-OK, that's for you.

-Cheers.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

Really, congratulations. I'm so happy to have done it for you

and you're going to take it back home afterwards, OK?

-How am I going to get that home?

-Oh, somehow. We'll find a way. We'll find a way, OK?

-OK.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you, Chef.

Come on, give us a big hug, Englishman!

That's the last of today's dishes. Now it's your turn to get cooking.

Thanks to all our chefs and do join me

for more remarkable recipes next time.

See you soon.