Letter W The A to Z of TV Cooking

Fantastic ingredients, delicious dishes

and some of the nation's favourite TV chefs.

Get ready for a gourmet's greatest hit,

because this is The A To Z Of TV Cooking.

Today, we're looking at things linked to the letter W

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

Rachel Khoo gives her vegetables the wow factor.

I have this beautiful selection of vegetables here,

which I am going to transform into a stunning winter salad.

Tony and Giorgio have a laugh making lamb wellington.

Right, puff pastry.

Now, ready-made. You know, if you can't make it better yourself.

I can, you can't.

TONY LAUGHS

And Matt Tebbutt on the wonders of white currants.

And they are delicious,

and it's a shame and we should all be

using them and keeping this great British ingredient alive.

That's all to come.

But, let's start by joining Rick Stein,

who is out and about looking into watercress.

The Watercress Line cuts through the chalky water meadows

of the Meon Valley.

I'm on my way to a watercress farm

owned by Neil Allen.

Neil carefully restored these abandoned growing tanks,

and, although he's surrounded by huge cress farms,

you can only get his watercress at

the local farmers' markets in Winchester and Romsey.

'Now, watercress thrives in very cold,

'pure, swift-running water.

'And the springs that well up through the chalk are one of

'the few places in the country where this is plentiful.'

Oh, that's very pure water.

I must say, being in the restaurant business,

I know a thing or two about bottled water and the price of it.

And, I can tell you, it doesn't get any better than that.

And you need a constant supply of this lovely,

lovely water to get that beautiful watercress.

-What do you like to eat it with?

-Cheese.

-Cheese?

Cheese and Marmite sandwiches.

I just find it terribly sort of calming, in a way,

watching people that, without thinking,

they're doing something incredibly skilful.

It's like watching

a good fish filleter.

I once watched a guy carve a whole tuna with such surgical precision.

And really, the way he's operating his knife, it's the same thing.

It's just sort of poetry to me.

Ideally, how should the best watercress taste, then?

Hot as possible.

It's a member of the mustard family, so it should be hot.

And bigger, the better, the hotter it gets.

I love seasonality in vegetables

and the idea of winter being a watercress time.

The trouble is, you can just get

-everything from anywhere, now, can't you?

-Well, yeah. I mean...

You go to the supermarkets in Hampshire, anywhere,

-and it comes from Portugal.

-What, watercress?

Yeah, brings it in, Portugal, South Africa.

All over the place.

It's crazy. I mean, it's just a natural, native plant.

-That's ridiculous!

-Yeah.

Well, this is the sort of watercress

you are likely to buy in supermarkets.

Small leafed, a bit immature and lacking in flavour.

This is the sort of watercress

that Neil would like you to be able to buy.

It's much longer, it's more mature.

And it's got a lovely pepperiness to it.

And you know, steak's often sent out with watercress like this.

Well, what's the point? It tastes of nothing.

It's just like a silly garnish.

But, if you sent it out with this,

it's very peppery and horseradishy,

and just what you need with beef.

Also, what I'd use this for is one of my favourite soups,

potato and watercress soup. It's so simple.

First of all, you just take some butter and sweat some onions.

A whole onion chopped up in butter.

Then, you add some potato,

a pound or so of peeled potato, chopped up.

And watercress, a good bunch of watercress,

stalks and all.

And then, about two pints of water, actually.

You can use a light chicken stock, if you like.

But I like the cleanness of just using water in this soup.

And you bring that to the boil and you simmer for about 20 minutes

until the potato's soft.

And, just before liquidising the soup in a food processor,

add some more watercress, another big bunch,

because really, the secret of this soup

is lots of watercress.

But the point of adding the second bunch is because it will be nice

and green, and just whizz that all up in a liquidiser.

Back into a saucepan, bring up to a simmer, season with salt

and lots of pepper to emphasise the pepperiness.

And, finally, stir in some double cream. It's great.

And what I like that with is just some crusty bread and, actually,

a pint of a local beer like Hampshire beer, like Gales.

Fantastic.

Our next W sees us joining Rachel Khoo

in her Little Paris Kitchen.

And she's showing us how to make

a wonderful-looking winter salad.

I have this beautiful selection of vegetables here, which I am going to

transform into a stunning winter salad with a goat's cheese mousse.

I start by peeling the parsnips,

and some suitably named deep purple carrots,

which have a lovely mild flavour.

But, you can also stick to regular ones.

You'll want to try and get all the pieces of vegetable

similar size, so they cook evenly.

Such stunning colours, all these vegetables put together.

I mean, they're colours like you're more used to with fruit.

Look at that. Crazy carrot!

I'm going to do one apple.

The apple, when it roasts, it gets a lovely sweet caramel flavour

and that works so well.

It's a brilliant combination.

'Drizzle your vegetables with a neutral flavoured oil before baking.

'I like sunflower.'

Really just want the flavours of the vegetables to come out,

to shine and sing.

Olive oil tends to overpower the flavours.

Takes about 45 minutes, maybe a little less.

'And you want a nice, hot oven, about 200 degrees.

'Now for my delicious goat's cheese mousse.'

This is Selles sur Cher.

It's got this edible ash coating here.

And that adds a little bit of smokiness.

If you can't get this cheese, any other

soft goat's cheese works really well.

'This cheese comes from the Loire Valley

'in central France, and has a rich,

'creamy taste which becomes stronger the more it's aged.

'You'll need 200g.

'Add 80 tablespoons of milk

'and work it into a smooth paste.'

It's a bit like cheesy whipped cream.

SHE LAUGHS

'And that's exactly what we're adding next -

'a third of a pint of whipped cream.'

You want to incorporate half your

whipped cream first cos it will loosen up the mixture.

And this point you can just beat it in.

Add the rest in.

And this point you want to fold the cream in,

because you want to keep some of that air in.

I'm going to put that in a piping bag.

Put it in a jug.

And that way you can just...

..scrape it all in there.

OK.

And, with the mousse chilling, next I'll fry 100 grams of lardon,

which adds another level of texture and flavour to the salad.

They're just going to add some saltiness

and a bit of smokiness to the salad.

Finally, some raw beetroot. I'm using yellow golden and Chioggia,

which add a subtle earthy flavour,

but you can also stick to more common types.

Look at that. That yellow is like sunshine yellow. This looks amazing.

It's kind of psychedelic beetroot here.

Look at that. It's a bit like a stained glass window.

Then I've got this one that has actually been cooked.

Beautiful.

All you need to do at this point is put it together

and any way you like it.

So, grab a bit of...parsnip.

Some of the beautiful carrots.

You just scatter on the plate. Mix and match.

This is, for me, the really enjoyable part.

Leave a few gaps for your goat's cheese mousse.

Just going to pipe some...dollops, like that.

Little mountains.

If you don't have time to make the mousse,

you could always use small pieces of goat's cheese on their own.

Lardon.

Just dot them around.

And some salad leaves.

The French call this a salade composee,

where each carefully chosen ingredient complements the other.

Vinaigrette. Just drizzle on your vegetables.

And finish with a sprinkle of salt.

Look how beautiful those colours are. It's almost too good-looking to eat.

A sumptuous modern salad. Hot and cold. Raw and cooked.

Salty and sweet.

Another salad now, and this time our W is for walnuts.

Packed with nutrients, they're great with so many dishes, so here's

Raymond Blanc with a chicory, walnut and Roquefort salad.

'Raymond's next dish calls for some late season leaves,

'which Jo is gathering from the garden.'

Wow! That is serious salad, OK?

I feel absolutely dwarfed by these big salads.

I feel like a very small Frenchman.

'In this elegant salad,

'Raymond celebrates an unsung hero of the garden.

'Crunchy chicory is partnered with fresh pears, walnuts

'and croutons, all coated with a rich, velvety Roquefort dressing.'

Such an incredible flavour. Very acidic. Salty, acid, sour, creamy.

It's got serious character.

So, what you need to do, keep a little bit of the cheese...

Adam, please? Can you put that in the fridge, please?

-Actually, put it in the deep freeze, OK?

-OK.

-It will not freeze.

It will harden and you can crumble it more easily, especially

when you have warm hands. Little secret.

I want this to cream a bit, my cheese,

cos with this I'm got to do a dressing.

I'm going to put a bit of warm water, OK?

'Warm water helps loosen the Roquefort

'and gives the dressing a silky consistency.'

And a dash of vinegar.

'Raymond adds extra virgin olive oil to the vinegar, which is

'emulsified, making the mixture creamy.

'Rapeseed oil would work too.

'It would give the dressing a nutty flavour.'

No salt whatsoever because you've got plenty in the cheese itself.

Now, we're going to prepare the fruit.

It's not overripe either.

'The pears are cored and sliced.'

That's plenty, actually.

I'll eat the other piece.

'Next, chicory.'

What I love about it is the bitterness, crunchiness

and that amazing texture. Soft salad will braise with the vinegar.

Those are hardy. We can prepare them in advance as well.

Then you take some other nice variety, adds a bit of colour.

'The chicory leaves are layered on top of the Roquefort dressing.'

We are going to add our pears.

When you buy walnuts, break them between your hand and smell it.

It's...

Old walnuts or the ones badly kept will have a rancid flavour smell.

That one is going to be very fresh, walnutty, beautiful flavour.

A bit of celery.

Plenty.

The dressed herbs.

Voila, everything.

'To finish, a grind of black pepper...'

A few chopped chives as well.

'..a handful of warm croutons...'

Adam, please.

-Roquefort.

-Sorry?

-Roquefort.

-Yes, Chef.

You may not... You won't need all that.

'..and a sprinkling of Roquefort.'

Just crumble it here. Oh, let's do it all. Let's be generous!

I think of this dish, immediately I think piggy as well.

So wonderful with a bit of bacon.

I also think of prunes, I don't know why. Some lovely Agen dried prunes.

I think too much!

'A simple but richly satisfying salad.'

That's for you, Jo.

The chicory has a lovely crunch to it. The celery.

So, one out of ten, how much would you give it?

Um... It really is top marks.

Fantastic!

A very generous girl.

Now, something that's become increasingly popular over

the years, whether eating out,

at home or at school or the work lunchbox, this W is for wrap.

And here's Anjum Anand and her tandoori take on them.

'Back in the kitchen, I need to give Panthea

'a taste of the tandoori food we're going to sell.

'Tortilla wraps with three fillings - chicken tikka, lamb brochettes

'and mushrooms, paneer and spinach.

'To recreate that tandoor heat, I'm setting the oven up high.'

If you can just find those skewers that I left soaking earlier.

Why did you leave them soaking?

The skewers need soaking so that they don't burn in the oven

-when you're grilling the chicken.

-Right, clever.

-Baking pans.

Baking pans, baking pans.

If you could just give that a little oil, you don't

have to run your fingers through, just drizzle that over.

-And we'll start skewering.

-Brilliant.

'The chicken, lamb and mushrooms go into the oven for 10-15 minutes.

'I'm going to serve the meat in tortillas with a herb chutney

'and a crunchy salad.

'But for the mushrooms I'm going to make a beautiful spinach

'and paneer sauce.'

..All my spinach.

I'm going to give my garlic cloves a slight chop.

And do the same with my ginger.

'Chillies.' Going in.

'Peanuts.

'Salt.

'A little coriander.

'A drizzle of oil.

'And blend.

'By now, the skewers are ready to come out of the oven.

'First, the chicken.'

-The anticipation is killing me.

-We can take it off the skewer now.

All right.

So you can basically just hold it like that, pull the skewer out.

Gently but firmly.

-And some salad.

-Oh, wow!

-So I'm going to make up mine.

My mushrooms, they're probably done.

Put some of this wonderful spinach peanutty puree in the middle.

'I'm also crumbling in some paneer, a soft Indian cheese.'

These wonderful meaty mushrooms. The meat replacement

for the vegetarian, the paneer and the mushrooms.

Perfect for both.

Mm! Really tasty!

-Isn't it good?

-Oh, I love it! I want more!

Our next recipe is a game-bird dish and Valentine Warner's not only

cooking the main ingredient, but he's out hunting for it too.

And W is for woodpigeon.

One of the best perks of autumn is the wickedly tasty woodpigeon.

Not to be confused with their manky city cousins,

these beautiful clean country birds are considered a pest by farmers.

Every year, they scavenge millions of pounds' worth of crops,

but there is an upside - fat from a summer of excess,

at this time of year woodpigeons are rich for the taking.

Handsome, plentiful, plump and utterly delicious.

You don't have to go very far to find them.

Getting hold of them is a far trickier business.

-Pull.

-GUNSHOTS

I've come to meet expert clay pigeon shot Heather Tarbard.

I want to see if I can turn her onto the real thing.

-Pull.

-GUNSHOTS

Wowee!

-That was phenomenal shooting.

-Thank you so much.

-Ten out of ten.

Extraordinary. Have you ever hit anything live?

Wouldn't even dream of shooting anything live.

In my club, we have... Never shoot wildlife anyway.

But it's never even occurred to me to actually do anything like that.

Growing up on a farm, shooting pigeon for the pot comes naturally to me.

And it seems madness not to make more use of this bountiful free meat.

I've invited Heather to come shooting with me

to a popular Enfield pigeon hangout.

Two hours in and poor old Heather hasn't shot a thing.

I'm hoping to inspire her with the prospect of dinner.

Imagine it's surrounded by slices of pickled walnuts and hazelnuts

and delicious lettuce leaves and bits of roasted chicory.

OK, OK... OK, take it, take it.

GUNSHOTS

Still no luck and it's getting late.

It's up to me to bag a few pigeons before they go to roost.

GUNSHOTS

-Got one.

-Excellent! Bloody good!

You can buy woodpigeon from good butchers and even some supermarkets.

Cheap, lean and healthy, it's loved on the Continent, but getting it

from field to plate in a matter of hours is my favourite way to eat it.

And I'm hoping I've got just the recipe to turn

Heather into a permanent pigeon fancier.

So, Heather, Enfield pigeon breast salad with roasted chicory

and pickled walnuts.

-Take the breasts off.

-Are you just going down by the bone?

-You're going down by the bone.

-I'm surprised it's red meat.

This is because pigeons are very active. There's lots of blood pumping

through them, coupled with the berries that they eat.

That keeps their meat rich and dark. There are our two prime breasts.

-This is chicory. Do you like chicory?

-Never tried it.

Split our chicory down the middle.

I really like chicory. It's one of those hard things to explain.

It's like bitter chocolate.

It's one of those very kind of grown-up tastes. A little butter.

Sugar, which will sweeten it. A little black pepper.

This is sherry vinegar.

In they go.

And the whole object of those is to blast them.

Pickled walnuts. This is going to be a really kooky salad.

Walnuts, I've never tasted. Chicory, I've never tasted.

These are picked when they're young and soft.

They naturally go black the minute they've been taken off the tree

and they're put into vinegar.

-Right, just normal vinegar?

-Yeah.

Next up, oranges for colour and zing.

Chopped toasted hazelnuts and a handful of oak leaf lettuce.

OK, so I think our chicory is sufficiently blasted.

And look at those. Sticky and sugary, there, and totally eat-able.

We need a really hot pan here.

Butter - this is going to frizzle around very quickly.

Now, our star players...

PAN SIZZLES

Look at that colour - it's pretty beautiful.

It's been called poor man's steak.

It does look like a lump of steak, yeah.

You want to kind of feel that, you know, there's a little bit of give.

Not completely soft, but just a little, little give.

I'd say that these are kind of done,

and I'm going to take them out here...

'And now for my favourite moment -

'pigeon, perfectly pink in the middle.'

-Little treat.

-That's it, you eat that little treat.

And then our sherry vinegar and mustard.

It's all the autumn colours, isn't it?

-A good, warm, autumn salad.

-Yes.

All that remains is for you to get involved with your

-Enfield pigeon salad.

-Yes.

Mmm, that is nice, Val.

Very, very nice indeed.

I think I'm hooked. And I think I'd like to eat a pigeon again,

-if I've shot it as well.

-Well, spending the day with you

and eating with you has been a total pleasure.

-We've had fun, haven't we?

-Thanks so much for being a great sport.

Mmm. We really have.

Thanks, Valentine. Next up, a traditional British recipe

that sees meat served wrapped up inside delicious pastry.

This W is for lamb Wellington.

Take it away, Tony and Giorgio.

-Antonio...

-George.

-What are we cooking?

-A lamb Wellington.

-Wellington.

-Wellington, yeah?

-Like the General Wellington.

-That's it.

So don't go and tell your wife that Tony's going to cook a piece of lamb

in a Wellington boot, or something - it's not the way you do it.

Season the lamb, sear it off.

The fast stuffing, paste, whatever you want to call it,

you're going to make for me, George, yeah?

Thank God there is something to lift up this dish, you know,

that I do!

Er, what we'll do with the spinach -

-use it as a base on top of the pastry, yeah?

-Right.

-Put the paste on, put the lamb on, roll over...

-Let it get wet...

-..in the oven - Bob's your uncle.

-And the stuffing, where it goes in?

-Between the...

-The paste.

-..paste...

-Yeah.

-In between the leaf and the meat?

-That's the one, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Right, the spinach...

-Spinacio.

You want the nice big ones, but you've got to take the stalks out,

so I'm just laying these blanched spinach leaves on a tea towel,

just so we can get them nice and dry.

Scorcio.

I'm just putting the mushroom first.

What they used to call this, every time we used vegetables like that -

-provencale.

-Provencale!

Or ratatouille.

Or cannoise, you know,

which is exactly like ratatouille, but just cut smaller.

I thought that would be "petit ratatouille".

Just petit pretty stupid.

Look at the colour of these beautiful things!

OK, I've got the vegetable paste ready.

Right. Puff pastry - now, ready-made...

You know? If you can't make it better yourself, yeah...?

I can, you can't.

Ha-ha! So, what we'll do...

is we'll go in there, just leave a little bit at the edge

-so the pastry can seal.

-Should I do this?

Er, yeah, you can do the bottom one, yeah.

-But leave a border round the edge.

-Yes, Chef.

Come on, Locatelli.

You left me here with all the broken spinach.

You took the nice big leaf,

and you left me here with all the broken ones!

PAN SIZZLES

-Right, take it off the heat...

-Yep.

Take these out, on to a clean plate, yeah?

-And George...

-It's all mine.

-All yours, baby.

-You go.

I'm going to deglaze the pan a little bit,

otherwise it's going to pick on fire.

PAN SIZZLES

OK.

-You all right with that one?

-Mmm.

It looks a little bit of a dubious colour, I must admit,

but we'll see when it's finished.

One of the most important things with this is that

you've got to stay there. Don't move, because if you leave it

five minutes, it burns, and then it smells.

Well, the way we're doing it is -

because I've left it to a highly-skilled Italian chef...

He'll be here in a minute - will you let him get on with it?!

Cosa ho fatto di male? What did I do bad in my life?

To end up working with you? I don't know!

-What did I do wrong, you know?

-The thing is, George,

you've only just started thinking like that. I've been thinking that

since I first met you - oh, that's a blinder, George.

Let's get... Ooh!

I say it didn't look very good!

-Come on, my son.

-It's kind of like nice and reddish-brown...

Well, George... What?

You will insist on putting

three-and-a-half hundredweight of tomatoes in it, mate.

So that can cool down for a minute.

Don't put it out the window, otherwise the cat will have it.

It doesn't have to be completely cold, George, just warm.

OK, I cut a little bit of anchovies.

I'd just go for about three fillets - just chop them really finely.

-You done this before?

-You see - you think something, I'll do it.

It's just like, you know, my arm is almost like attached to your brain.

You say, ta, ta-ta - it was cut already, wasn't it?

Oh, you couldn't scratch my bum, could you?

THEY BOTH LAUGH

You could have been a builder, George, couldn't you, a plasterer?

-Bob...

-You just...

That's an egg wash, or whatever you've got. A lot of people

just use the whites, though, George, they say it comes up more golden.

-No.

-Haven't tried it myself. Don't you believe that?

-No.

-It's not true.

-Right, I'm going to go for this one.

Oh! Perfecto!

-Ooh, it's tight.

-Absolutamente perfecto.

Right, let's just wash 'em.

Shall we make little marks, like that?

Giorgio Kipling - makes exceedingly good Wellingtons!

-Shall we bang them in the fridge for a little while?

-OK.

-They can go in there.

-We could just have a little drink

-or something like that, while we're waiting.

-Yeah, lovely.

Cheers.

-How much time, Tony?

-20 minutes.

I'll check these, George.

-Come on, Tony.

-They're there, mate.

-They're ready?

-Yes.

-You cut it?

-Yeah, let's have a go.

Ooh, my Lord!

Oh, my Lord!

We going to just sit here or are we going to taste them?

I think we want to eat it, not taste it!

-Get it sliced!

-Right...

We've been waiting for four hours!

One of these fast dish - a la Tony Allen.

Mmm.

Not bad, we English, are we, mate?

Not bad at all, Tony.

Time for something meat-free now, and it's another classic -

simple and delicious, here's the Two Fat Ladies' take

on a good old Welsh rarebit.

I'm going to make what I call a Welsh rarebit souffle,

which is a bastardised version of proper Welsh rarebit,

and the purists will say, "Oh..."

You know. But it's just different.

And it makes it all nice and fluffy.

-And I think the children will like it...

-A fluffy bunny, in fact!

Hoo-hoo! A fluffy Welsh bunny!

Yeah!

But I think it's probably suitable for children.

I THINK nearly all of them like cheese,

unless the little wretches have developed an allergy.

They all seem to have allergies

-nowadays, don't they?

-It's fashionable.

Anyway, I've grated some cheese -

very, very good, mature Cheddar, the real thing -

with lovely rind on it.

It's not in any way comparable to that sort of muck

you buy in clingfilm, looking like a slab of soap.

Use this proper stuff.

We'll put all this cheese into a bowl.

Four egg yolks.

Mix that in a bit.

Rather like, Clarissa, I think all these little children

will be egg bound by the time we've finished with them.

CLARISSA GIGGLES

Half a dessertspoon of dry mustard.

Give it quite a good bit of flavour.

Then a good dollop of French mustard.

I suppose I'd better not make it too strong for dear little kiddywinkies,

but I want some Tabasco in it.

-Not too much.

-No, not too much.

They probably all eat chilli chips, or something, anyway.

And good old Worcester, of course.

Time-honour'd Worcester!

THEY LAUGH

-Hail!

-Hail, time-honour'd Worcester!

Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,

brought hither Henry Hereford, thy son.

Yes, Jennifer, get on with the cooking.

-Cut the Shakespeare.

-Now we've got all that in there.

Now I've got these whites of eggs.

Beat until stiff,

enough to do that, you see.

Then, take a spoonful

and just work that in.

Then scoop in all the rest of the whites.

You stir these in in the good old manner of a figure of eight.

That's all right, I think.

And then you get these bits of toast.

Now pile it in equal proportions.

For heaven's sake, as usual, use good bread, not slimy white sliced.

Then spread it out, trying to cover the crust

because I'm going to put it into a very hot oven

and we don't want the crusts getting burnt on the edges.

If you cover them, they don't.

I think that's about fair.

Give it a sprinkling of black pepper.

There, now I'm going to put these into a hot oven.

The equivalent of gas seven or eight even,

because everything with the egg whites in needs a hot oven,

otherwise it won't rise.

This won't rise as much as a proper souffle

but it will be nice with a brown top.

First, second or savoury course, take your pick.

We've got a double W dish now, with two ingredients

ticking our letter W box.

This is Matt Tebbutt and he's cooking a dessert

called a semifreddo, using white currants and whisky.

Now, a semifreddo is not a term to be scared of.

It is, in fact, just a semi-set cream.

It's a frozen cream, so it's like making ice cream without

the need for an ice-cream maker,

or sort of a long process where you make a base.

It's just cream and it's whisky and it's these delicious white currants.

Heat whisky and sugar over a medium heat.

Then add the tasty white currants.

These white currants are really important because they come from

the last commercial grower in Britain of white currants.

These are very, very difficult to get hold of.

This is a very, very special recipe for me.

Add some lemon zest and freshly grated ginger.

Just let all those lovely flavours infuse together.

When all those berries have popped, we'll push them through a sieve

and then it's done.

With the currants infusing, start the semifreddo.

So a warm mixing bowl on a pot of simmering water.

Add egg yolks and sugar.

Then whisk.

The heat working through the bowl will slowly warm the eggs.

You don't want to overcook these eggs, turn them into scrambled eggs.

All you're doing is thickening them very gently

and cooking them very slowly.

You'll see the colour change, the volume of eggs will double

and then once you're at that stage,

and once it's at that ribbon stage,

we can take it off and cool it right down.

With the cordial infused, strain it.

Do you know, in almost 20 years of cooking,

the only time I've ever come across white currants is as a garnish,

back in the '80s on the sides of plates.

They are delicious and it's a shame and we should all be using them

and keeping this great British ingredient alive.

We can all do stuff, at home, very simply to utilise them.

Now bring all the flavours together

and add the white currant whisky to the egg yolks.

This is full of booze. It's not for the fainthearted

but it's almost like a superfood

because it's packed with antioxidants from those delicious currants.

You can't feel guilty about it.

The cordial is closely followed by some semi-whipped cream.

When all the flavours have combined,

put the mixture into some frozen moulds, lined with clingfilm.

Just give them a little nudge to make sure you don't have

any air pockets sat there.

These delicate puddings should now be frozen overnight.

Fortunately, I have some ready to go.

Now, to serve this I've got some white currants

which I've macerated in some of that whisky and white-currant cordial.

I've just pricked each currant over very roughly with a little pin

and that's going to draw out all that delicious juice.

Right...

That's it.

Let's gather up the clingfilm.

Just pull it very gently out of the mould.

The clingfilm stops the semifreddo sticking.

A few white currants and a sprig of mint

and this simple dessert will steal the show at any family Sunday lunch.

It's beautifully soft.

It's really quite decadent for such a humble little currant,

the whole thing is quite decadent and rich.

It's stunning, it's everything I want in a pudding.

Let's finish with another wonderful pudding.

Our W this time stands for white chocolate,

which the Hairy Bikers are using in this absolutely amazing cheesecake.

-Shall I do base and you do caramel?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Let battle commence!

-OK.

Gird your loins, undo your corsets, here we go.

To make the caramel for our cheesecake,

put 200g of caster sugar in a pan

together with six tablespoons of cold water

and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.

Then, to kick off the base mix,

take 100g of pecan nuts and blitz.

Now I need to melt a block of butter.

This is for mixing into the pecan nuts

and my biscuits to make the base.

The pecan nuts go into a bowl.

If this wasn't luxury enough,

the biscuit of choice is the beloved chocolate digestive biscuits.

Oh, I love 'em. I love 'em. Are they milk or plain?

These ones are milk but this recipe would work equally well with plain.

Stick 150g of biscuits in a blender.

Right, pulse.

I do want some texture in this, that's why I'm being quite careful.

Lovely!

Put that in a bowl with your nuts

and cover with the just-so melted butter.

Oh...

And give that a stir.

So that's the pecan nuts, whizzed up,

the chocolate digestives whizzed up

and a slab of butter.

Now put this into the tin and press.

Now you don't need to bother buttering the bottom of the tin,

there's quite enough there already.

Meanwhile, take 150g of white chocolate, break into squares

and place in a bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt.

-You've got some chocolate left over.

-I have, yeah.

Cook's perks.

Press this down into the bottom with your hand.

This is a great cheesecake base.

Really, press it quite well in

and don't let it creep too much up the sides.

Back with your sugar syrup. Try not to be impatient, either.

You do want it to go a deep colour but don't do it quickly.

Look, you can see how the heat's just going through it.

It's starting to colour up that lovely golden.

-It takes eight to ten minutes, doesn't it?

-It does, Dave.

And depending on the temperature of the sugar,

if it's a freezing cold day, it could take even a little bit longer.

That's the base, we just pop that in the fridge for about an hour

until it's set solid.

MUSIC: Golden Brown by the Stranglers.

See how it's going that lovely deep, golden colour.

# Golden brown, texture like sun... #

As soon as the caramel is rich in colour like this,

it's ready to remove from the heat.

Whatever you do, don't touch this.

This is hotter than a hot thing.

It will make your skin flake off.

Don't worry about dribbles like that.

-Dribble is a good thing.

-It is.

We want a random kind of drizzle, a bit like a Jackson Pollock painting.

It's where Blue Peter meets Fanny Cradock in a whole blaze

of sticky-back plastic and sugar.

-Oh, I think we're there, mate.

-I think we are, mate.

We're going to use a bit more than half of this to make

some caramel crumbs. That gives us the caramel in the cheesecake.

And the rest of it, the nice lattice bits,

we're going to break off and they're going to be like sails

that sit as decoration on top of the cheesecake.

The chocolate is beginning to melt.

Leave that. Don't stir chocolate when it's melting.

Wait until it's just about there.

Oh, look at this.

I love this.

Is that not magic?

-Isn't that brilliant?

-Is that not fabulous, look at that.

Break off 125g of the gorgeous hardened caramel

and blitz into crumbs in a blender.

Quite beautiful, aren't they?

-It's the inside of Crunchie bars.

-Yeah.

-Do you want to... No, all right.

-No, not really, thanks.

Let's build a cheesecake.

BOTH: Whoo-hoo!

Now, just in case there wasn't enough sweetness there,

just add a bit more sugar.

75g to be exact.

Hey, Kingy, now's the time to pump up the fat.

Here we go. It has a platter of its own.

There it is. Full fat, soft cheese - stand by, arteries.

You could use that low-fat stuff

but, hey, you've gone this far down the line, you know.

Fat goes in.

And some cream.

THEY GIGGLE

Honest, this is epic.

This cheesecake will serve 12-15 slices.

If you look at it like that, it's not as bad as it looks.

Now the chocolate.

-FRENCH ACCENT:

-I will empty it out of the bowl.

It's that caramel crumb that gives it the flavour and the character it is.

The pecan caramel cheesecake.

Don't worry if there are bits of chocolate on the surface.

It's best to have bits than burn the chocolate,

because those bits will melt when you cook the cheesecake.

Now, as it's a baked cheesecake, it contains eggs.

-It has to contain eggs or it would be cheese soup.

-It would.

For this cake use four whole eggs and two additional egg yolks

and add to your blender.

Now put that onto your processor.

Now blitz.

Look at the colours.

Oh, wicked!

And the caramel gives this cheesecake,

strangely enough, the most wonderful caramel hue.

Oh, it's a huge caramel!

Oh!

-Look at that.

-Oh, man.

Oh, oh...

Let's make the cheesecake.

Get your chilled base and place the tin in the middle

of a large piece of foil.

Bring the foil up the sides to create a foil bowl

around the cheesecake and place on a medium-sized roasting tin.

Look at that.

Oh, man.

Now pour your cheesecake filling on top of your base

and surround the cake tin with boiling water, roughly 2cm

up the sides of the tin.

Right, put this into a preheated oven -

160 degrees Celsius -

for about 45 minutes.

After three quarters of an hour, turn off the oven

and leave the cheesecake inside for it to cool for a further hour.

Then grab the mighty cheesecake

and stick it in the fridge for a minimum of three hours

and a maximum of 24.

Whether your cheesecake is one of the baked or unbaked varieties,

it doesn't matter.

They all need to chill in the fridge in order for them to set.

-How is the mighty beast?

-Look at this.

-How's the cheesecake?

-Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Oh, that's set, hasn't it? Look, no cracks.

'Gently release the cheesecake.'

We don't want to crack this little fellow.

'Then tidy the edges with a palate knife

'and place your cake on a serving platter.'

It's gorgeous in its magnificence.

Now it's ready for decorating.

I'm going to whip 300ml of double cream.

Whip the cream into soft peaks.

Meanwhile, break the reserved caramel into shards

ready to scatter on the top.

Then, using a dessert spoon, shape the cream into big,

fluffy clouds over the cheesecake.

White billowing folds of cloud.

Time for bling.

Just place the caramel shards across the top at jaunty angles.

-Oh, wow.

-It's special, isn't it?

-Mm.

This is proper.

The caramel flavour in the cheesecake is absolutely gorgeous.

-There's no two ways about it.

-Yes.

You bring that to the table after dinner

and everybody round the table is going to get that view.

It is absolutely beautiful.

SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH

There's more than enough in that to satisfy the most critical,

greediest sweet tooth on the planet.

And come back for more.

Aye.

Oh, you can see why people have been tempted

by a cheesecake for centuries.

This cake would befit a royal table as much as ours.

It truly is the best of British.

I hope you've enjoyed all of today's recipes.

A big thank you to all our chefs today.

Do make sure you join us for more next time.