Letter D The A to Z of TV Cooking

You're looking forward to some cooking

but which top chef are you going to turn to for inspiration today?

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The nation's top TV chefs all in one place

on The A To Z Of TV Cooking.

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

D is for devilled kidneys and to tempt you, the Two Fat Ladies.

I've been coring my kidneys to do devilled kidneys,

which means they're in a very hot sauce

and they're excellent, you know, for robust sort of hunting people

who've probably been out for a little walk before breakfast

and they've come in and they've got to get all ready for the ride.

And it's a very good thing to devil quite a lot of things,

like turkey's eggs -

-they're much better when they're devilled, I think.

-Mm.

These are fine lambs' kidneys,

which are probably the best thing to have for breakfast, I think,

because the calves' ones are too big.

Now, if some of you are worried about coring the kidney,

which is taking out the white part in the middle -

some people say they don't know how to do it but it is very easy.

If you cut it down the middle and skin it...

then hold the skin firmly

and press the knife against that white core,

it'll just come out all in one piece.

But you do need a very good sharp little knife.

Couldn't be better, you see. Totally cored.

Now, then, we want to make sauce, the devilled sauce.

The devil's heart!

Most of these are hot ingredients, except for the mushroom ketchup.

Put a slurp of that in, then about that of mustard,

depending, really, on your own taste.

This is cayenne pepper - very hot.

So I'll just put a pinch in.

A good shake of dear old Worcester sauce.

A touch of Tabasco.

You see, it's going to blow the morning cobwebs away.

-Yes!

-And some melted butter.

-Can I use the cooker?

-Absolutely. I'll go over to the Aga.

-Can you pop those in the oven to keep them warm?

-They'll go on the top.

-They won't spoil?

-No, no.

Right.

Now I'm going to cook my kidneys, or rather, devil them, as they say.

We want a little oil just to stop any form of sticking.

And then we want butter.

There we are. I think we can start.

You want to get them just bubbling,

but for heaven's sake, no overcooking.

Always see a little trace of blood left before you start

because you must remember, when we put the sauce on,

it's going to cook a little more.

If you overcook them, what you get is leather.

If you overcook anything, really.

People who ask for well done steaks in hotels get what they deserve.

-You get an old boot, don't you?

-Mm.

Now they're cooked a little bit, I'll put some proper salt and pepper on.

It's high time to put the devilled sauce in.

-Oh!

-THEY INHALE DEEPLY

-Ah!

-Not Bisto!

What a smell - wonderful!

So you coat the kidneys all over.

There we are. Now, that's a dainty dish

and just to make it look pretty, as usual, some sprinkled parsley.

There you are - devilled kidneys.

And now dumplings.

They're great with stews and casseroles

but Rachel Khoo has got another way to cook them -

with a traditional chicken soup.

When I first moved to Paris, I didn't know anybody.

Sometimes I'd feel a bit lonely and I'd want something comforting

and I would make this chicken dumpling soup,

like my grandma in Austria used to make for me when I was little.

I'm going to start off with my chicken stock.

I'm using homemade but you could always use a good-quality stock cube.

Just don't tell the Parisians.

That goes on there. And I'm going to peel two carrots.

While my carrots flavour the stock, it's on to the dumplings.

I'm using a traditional French shape for dumplings which they call quenelle.

You need five slices of white bread.

Cut the crusts off because they don't taste nice in your dumplings.

If you really wanted to, you could use whole-wheat bread.

But I wouldn't, actually,

because what's nice about this recipe, by using white bread,

your dumplings are really light.

Add your bread to a blender along with 200g of chicken breast,

one whole egg and one egg yolk.

100ml of single cream.

Nutmeg for seasoning.

This is real home cooking.

I mean, you're very unlikely to see quenelles in a restaurant

and if you they do quenelles, they tend to be baked and quite heavy

with a rich kind of white sauce,

whereas this is actually quite light because you're having it in a soup.

It feels really nourishing.

It's one of these dishes, if you're feeling poorly, you would have this.

Add some salt. A good two pinches.

Black pepper.

And then we'll plug this in.

If I can find my plug.

I've like got only one socket in this apartment.

Hooray!

All right.

You want to blend it until it's a paste.

Perfect.

While that's coming to a boil, I'm going to chop up the mushrooms.

All right, that has come to a boil. I'm going to turn it down.

To make a quenelle you have a spoon

and then you just rock it back and forth.

Like that. Just get a nice shape.

You don't have to make perfect dumplings.

This is just a way of portioning it

because you want them roughly the same size so they cook evenly.

Drop your dumplings into the soup.

They would be ready in less than five minutes.

A minute before they're finished, throw in the mushrooms.

I like my mushrooms when they still have a bit of a bite to them.

All you need now is some chopped parsley.

The dumplings have risen to the top, so you know they're cooked.

They're kind of trying to come out.

Crazy.

And that is ready to eat.

You could serve these quenelles on their own with a bechamel sauce

or, like the French, with a tomato sauce.

Mm! I love the smell of this.

It reminds me of my early days in Paris

when I was all on my own!

And had no friends!

Apart from French guys who were trying to chat me up.

Garnish with a bit of parsley on top.

A steaming bowl of chicken dumpling soup. Homage to my grandma.

This is my light take on the classic quenelle of the Lyon Alp region

and I love it.

Now, D is for dessert and we've got two for you today.

First up, we've got Rick Stein in the Lake District

where he's tracking down a dish made of damsons.

When the blossoms on the trees in the Lyth Valley come out,

it's time for Damson Day, a celebration of this ancient fruit.

I was lucky enough to meet local journalist Gillian Cowburn,

who's passionate about Lake District food.

Local food in this area is so wonderful

but this damson symbolises, really symbolises,

the success of this county,

fighting back after foot and mouth and goodness knows what.

In a way, I've felt this talking to a lot of people,

but foot and mouth has almost been a blessing in disguise.

-Yes.

-Do you know what I mean?

-Yes, it has.

It was just such a disaster but everybody's said, "We're going to fight back."

They are. The bigger the better.

And I think because people want to know where their food's coming from.

And we've got these fantastic farmer's markets in this area

and people are buying stuff from them.

It's not just playing at it.

Word gets round and people are just so enthusiastic about local food.

-Can I give you these goodies?

-Well, you certainly can.

-That's lovely.

-That's a damson and redcurrant terrine.

-It's made with red wine.

-Sounds good. Thank you very much.

-OK. And there's a pie there for you, as well.

-Damsons?

That's cranberries, actually, but it's got pork and damson pate in the bottom.

-So this is it?

-This is the one.

-This is the wonderful damson gumbo made by Val Harrison.

-You make it?

-I do.

-I think I'd better try some.

-Can we?

-Yes, you can.

-That's really nice.

-That's lovely.

-Thank you very much.

-I'll just pop that in there.

It's a bit like... In Spain, they have this thing called quince paste, membrillo.

It would go really well with hard cheese, that would.

-Would you like it in a bag?

-No, I'll just have it in my basket, thanks.

-Thank you very much.

-Don't bother about the 10p.

-Are you sure? Thank you.

-Give it to the Damson Association.

-Right.

OK! Thank you.

-Yes?

-WOMAN SPEAKS, INDISTINCT

I'd be delighted to. Would you have...?

'It was a charmingly small affair, just as it should be.

'No people selling cars or caravans

'and everyone was very friendly to me and to Chalky.'

I was just thinking the other day that they used to have...

The Tamar valley used to be famous for cherries

and why is it not any more?

There are a few left

but going to Crosthwaite there with the damsons all in blossom,

and the whole festival built round those damsons,

you just think we need to revive these traditions

because it's so much part of our life

and it's such an enrichment of our life

and everything about that day was a delight.

Everybody we met, the enthusiasm,

the commitment of all the local people to reviving an old sort of custom like that,

I just love it.

This is a dish that brings out the astringency of damsons.

You pour lots of damsons into a pie dish

and sprinkle well with sugar.

It's called damson cobbler.

You sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl.

It's always good to put some air into pastry like this.

It lightens it.

Next you take some ice-cold butter, cut up,

and work it with your fingertips into the flour

till you have the consistency of Demerara sugar.

Now you beat an egg into buttermilk.

This gives the pastry a pleasing sourness

and you add to this to the flour mix and work it all together

with a spoon.

Then you dob the paste on top of the damsons.

You don't need to cover the whole lot perfectly

because when it goes into the oven, these little balls will swell up,

join together and give the crust a pleasing pattern.

Next, sprinkle the top with flaked almonds

and then scatter a good quantity of caster sugar over the top.

Don't think I'm using too much sugar in this dish -

those damsons are extremely tart.

Having baked the cobbler in a moderate oven for 30 to 35 minutes,

bring it out and serve it, all bubbling and delightful.

And then I think a lick of cream or a ladleful of custard

would be absolutely ideal.

Thanks, Rick.

Dessert number two is a recipe for diplomat pudding,

which, as Michel Roux explains, is

a French take on the classic English bread and butter pudding.

This is a French version of a bread and butter pudding

but with a difference

and what's great is that you can actually use bread that isn't fresh,

bread that's stale, that would otherwise end up in the bin.

So to start off we need to remove the crust.

There we go.

You can use almost any combination of breads

as they'll all add flavour and texture.

Slice them into cubes and scatter them on a baking tray.

So here we are with our bread

and we need to dust it a little bit with icing sugar.

Here we go.

And this is just to give it a lovely coating, a crunchy coating that will caramelise in the oven.

So we're making sweet croutons, in effect.

While the croutons are crisping up, start to make the custard filling

with egg, sugar and single cream.

I'd rather use single cream than double.

Double cream tends to be a little bit too heavy, a bit too rich.

I remember as a young apprentice, 16 years old, being shown

how to make this

and I remember the very first day that I walked past the pastry shop after work

and I saw my puddings, good enough to be sold in the pastry shop

and that filled me with pride.

The secret ingredient for this dish is vanilla.

Vanilla is very expensive but it's very worthwhile.

You get so much flavour out of it, so much satisfaction.

And I love the idea of putting a very expensive ingredient like vanilla

with such a humble and cheap ingredient as bread.

Put a handful of raisins and sultanas in a pan.

Cover them in water and put them on to a gentle heat to rehydrate.

They'll plump up and become succulent.

Then drain them and cover them in dark rum.

These little packets of sweetness will be the bridging texture

between the custard and the bread.

Rum and raisin and vanilla - I mean, is there a better combination?

I don't think so.

And there they are.

Lightly toasted. And that smells gorgeous.

You can smell the yeast, the wild yeast in there,

an almost brioche-like smell from my bread - it's beautiful.

Then it's time to put the ingredients together.

Into some buttered ramekins, layer the croutons and the raisins.

It's as simple as that. It really is very simple.

We ladle them into here.

And you can make them individual like this in ramekins

or you could put it in a terrine and then take slices off it.

But I think these little individual moulds look really cute.

Unlike a classic British bread and butter pudding,

don't put these straight in the oven.

Instead, steam them in a bain-marie.

Cover them with buttered foil and they're ready for the oven.

On a medium heat, they'll take half an hour.

Right, I think these puddings must be ready by now.

You can't take them out of the mould while they're piping hot.

They need to rest for five or ten minutes

because if you were to take them out of the mould now,

they would crack and it wouldn't look nice.

While they cool, make an apricot glaze for the top of the puddings.

Melt a large spoonful of jam in a dash of water

until it turns into a sticky liquid.

The jam's nearly melted.

At last it's time to reveal the diplomat puddings.

Wow!

All it needs now is just a little brush with the apricot jam on top.

I find that these are at their best when they're just warm -

not cold, definitely not fridge cold.

Diplomat pudding made with the best artisan bread you can find.

Ah, this looks beautiful.

Mm!

It's totally, totally delicious.

You can taste the bread, you can taste the egg

and the rum, the vanilla - it's beautiful.

Well, that's all the cooking we've got time for today.

A big thank you to all our wonderful chefs

and please make sure you join me again

for more magical cookery moments here on the A To Z Of TV Cooking.