Spicy & Exotic The Best Dishes Ever

Today, the Best Dishes Ever are all influenced by the exciting

cuisine of some of the world's most exotic places.

These are some of the recipes that have, over the years,

spiced up our British menus.

Brought us some heat, some new flavours,

from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In restaurants, in our markets,

and - as Lorraine Pascale finds here - on the streets.

When I was a kid, street food was a greasy burger in a roadside van.

Now, there's a street food revolution.

I love it, because it makes sophisticated food accessible.

It doesn't cost the earth, and you can eat your way around the world.

I'm here in the great British outdoors,

looking forward to some more fantastic street food.

And this is a real food market in London's Southbank.

Today I'm in search of a traditional Spanish snack,

with a touch of luxury.

Churros.

I've always thought of churros as a kind of a Spanish doughnut,

and I've come here to find out more.

Do come into our little abode.

-I'm coming to help you today.

-Oh, good.

Depending on the accompaniment,

little sticks can be savoury or sweet.

And they're an extremely social snack - great for sharing.

Lesley Mackay-Garcia learned from her mother,

and has passed on the secret to son, Henry.

-OK, so what goes in first?

-First, we start off with the flour.

-Flour.

What kind of flour is that?

Mostly foreign, just because English flour is very over-ground.

-You're not going to tell me, are you? Secret.

-Our secret recipe!

Cup of sugar in.

-And then a bit of salt.

-Simple salt.

-Yes, it's effectively a bread mix.

-Yeah.

-OK.

And then you put a bit of baking powder.

You just do all this by eye.

Because you're so used to doing it, you know exactly what goes in?

He has my churros genes in him.

-Then you just mix it together.

-Yep.

Once that's done, you get the water.

So what am I looking for here?

-When you're mixing the dough, you get under and twist over.

-Yeah.

-You just want to make sure you don't get really powdery bits.

-Yeah.

-Can I have a little mix? Can I see?

-You can, you can.

-It's quite a stiff dough, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It gets stiff after a while.

Yeah.

'With the dough at the right consistency,

'it's time to shape it into churros, ready for cooking.

'The mix goes into a churrera -

'a giant syringe with a star-shaped nozzle,

'that pumps the churros into boiling oil.'

It's like a giant garlic crusher.

Yep, or a Play-Doh hair extruder.

All the same theory.

There's a lot of different recipes for churros.

I learned from my mother in the churros shop,

the simple, plain way of doing it.

You're really packing it in there.

-Really packing it in. And then we hand it...

-So these are hot, right?

-Very hot.

-Very hot.

I'm going to stand over here, away from the oil flicking.

And we have to do it quite quickly,

because they're so quick-cooking that if you take too long,

the first ones have cooked before the last ones have gone in.

If you notice, they don't drop into the oil very far,

they just sit on top, like tempura does.

-It's got to be a really hot oil.

-Fabulous!

Every part of the process has to be done really carefully.

I've had Michelin-star chefs who've come to try out,

and they just haven't...

-They just don't have it!

-They don't have it!

They didn't have dough fingers.

-All right, so how long do they cook in there for?

-About 30 seconds.

-Until they brown, until they've gone brown.

-Brown and crisp.

-And then take them out.

-That's it!

-That's it, that's it.

-Mmm!

Now let them cool down for a few seconds, but the effect is

when you open it, it should crack open.

And inside should be light and fluffy.

Some people think these are like doughnuts,

that's what people call them, Spanish doughnuts.

-What do you think about that?

-Well, they've no dairy in them.

Anything that's a doughnut or a pancake, they tend to be chewy, actually.

They have that consistency about them.

-So churros are much lighter, they're a bread mix.

-They snap, OK.

So, for instance, now they've cooled down for a second, excuse fingers!

Excuse fingers.

You have the...snap.

Lesley serves her churros simply with sugar,

cinnamon and a thick, melted chocolate.

So, I've got my "churrrrros"...

Churros!

I dip it in the chocolate.

Nice!

Ready to roll!

-It is really nice, because you might think it'd be really greasy?

-Yes.

But it's not at all. There's hardly anything on my fingers.

There's nothing, I know.

And it doesn't have that "ugh" feeling,

that sometimes dairy products can do.

Yum!

Just dip your finger in when you've finished and finish it off.

Oh, it's lovely!

-It's a really simple, tasty, fresh, fast snack.

-Yes.

Fantastic.

Great things really do come in small packages.

And speaking of small packages, here's James Martin,

serving up three examples of Spanish-inspired finger food.

Tapas.

My trio of finger-licking tapas are chicken buffalo wings,

spicy potato wedges

and classic padron peppers.

The first thing we do is get our potato wedges in.

I'm going to use a spice that's not often found in Spain.

This is Sichuan pepper,

because it lends itself to really quick cooking.

It's often called the floral pepper.

It's full flavour, this sort of stuff,

perfect for our potato wedges.

Together with three different spices.

And if you buy them already ground, it saves so much time.

But I've got some coriander in here.

I'm going to use some cumin.

Which is a wonderful spice,

traditionally used in Moroccan and Indian cooking.

And then, I've got some of this sweet paprika to go with our potatoes.

This is why I always get into trouble with the Italians,

because I actually think Spain produces better olive oil than the Italians.

You see already, you've got an amazing colour with this paste.

A good pinch of salt and then just throw in these potato wedges.

I was quite fortunate to have restaurants on boats.

I call it a boat, it's cruise ship, really, so it's a big boat.

But it used to moor up every time in Barcelona.

There was an amazing market there called La Boqueria,

which is right on the central drag of Barcelona.

And it's a really heaving place with so many different people.

But the market itself is just a chef's paradise.

This type of food you'll get is the food that's just written on a board,

when they run out of it, they make something else up.

And this is one of the things you'll have out there.

Just these potato pieces.

You might have little croquetas, that kind of stuff.

It's all this style of food.

You throw potato wedges into our tray there.

Straight in the oven.

And then we're going to cook our chicken wings.

Now, you can actually deep-fry try these if you want.

I'm actually just going to roast these as they are with

a little bit of salt and pepper over the top.

Some of this fantastic Spanish olive oil.

I'm going to throw this chicken pieces in the oven.

And then we're going to make our sauce to go with

our chicken pieces.

This basically just uses, I think, some of Spain's best exports.

You've got oil, and then some of this stuff.

Which is brilliant, this is smoked paprika.

This is really one TV dinner that you're eating on your own,

because, for this,

there's probably about six cloves of garlic going in here.

So this little sauce here, we use some good-quality, Spanish oil.

Plenty of oil, you can see in there, as well.

And then I'm going to fry off this garlic.

Just get a little bit of colour, we're not going to take this too far.

If we take it too far, it's going to go bitter.

And then you use some of this amazing paprika.

You'll see, since we add this to it, the colour changes.

Really, we don't want to taste this too much of oil,

so this is where we're going to put in some sherry vinegar.

I love the stuff, I've got plenty of this stuff at home.

Sherry vinegar comes from the Cadiz area of southern Spain.

The most mature vinegar can be aged in oak barrels

for up to ten years.

And its deep flavour can enhance everything -

from soups, stews, sauces and dressings.

It's got a flavour all on its own, really.

There's nothing else like it.

To me, it's one Spain's greatest exports.

Mix that together, have a quick taste.

It's proper nice.

That's going to be perfect for our chicken wings.

And then you can't really do tapas, to be honest,

without using these. These are padron peppers.

Padron peppers are usually mild,

but one in ten are particularly hot.

And like Russian roulette,

there's no way of knowing without eating one.

Simply fry them in oil before biting the bullet.

Soon you get to this point, there're almost done now.

You can see the skin start to blister and they soften up slightly.

What you need is some salt.

Good-quality salt is the key.

Pour these in the bowl.

They just look great, these.

And then, finally, what you do to finish these off,

is again, another bit of salt.

And this is the reason why in tapas bars,

for every one of these you're going to have,

of course, you've got to have a beer as well.

Mmm!

They're so good!

All there is to do now really is to just decant this sauce.

And it is really a sauce, it's not just oil,

because you've got the sherry vinegar in there,

you've got the garlic.

And then, depends whether you want it too hot.

That smoked paprika is a bit hot,

so you can cool it down with just a squeeze of lemon.

Just pop them straight into the sauce.

Just have a nice pile of these chicken wings.

I've got to be honest, with these,

if you're sitting watching the TV,

don't wear your best shirt.

You're probably going to need a bib.

And then finally, we've got our potato wedges.

Which are in those little spices, so they have a nice little kick.

This is the whole thing about tapas,

it's all about full-on flavour, simple cooking.

But most importantly, great tasting food.

That is not the hot one.

Now, another Spanish-style dish -

although this hails from Latin America - specifically Mexico.

It wasn't that long ago that Mexican cooking was completely

unknown over here.

Now, most of us are familiar with tacos, burritos and tortillas.

Being a master baker, Paul Hollywood makes his own tortillas, and once

they're ready, what he does with them is worth paying attention to.

I'm going to start with some spicy roast chicken.

Put some celery salt, cumin, dried oregano and smoked paprika in a bag.

Then add some dried chilli flakes, garlic salt,

the juice and zest of two limes,

and throw in six chicken thighs.

It's on the bone, so it's going to hold its moisture,

and there'll be lots and lots of flavour in there. Delicious.

Shake it all together to give it a good coating.

Roast in the oven, 180, non-fan, for about half an hour.

Once they've roasted and rested,

shred the chicken off the bone,

and don't forget to mop up those juices.

There's enough here for an army.

Or one hungry baker.

Now, we can't have tortillas without guacamole.

Take the flesh of three ripe avocados,

and add the zest and juice of a lemon and a lime.

I'm just going to get a fork in there.

I want it to be quite lumpy,

I don't want it to be totally smooth, like baby food.

Add a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, a pinch of salt,

and a splash of olive oil.

Mmm.

That's the fella!

That's going to be gorgeous with the tortilla.

Put my grill on now, so I'm going to prepare the salsa.

Chillies, straight in.

A quartered red onion,

some halved tomatoes, cut side down,

A couple of garlic cloves and a drizzle of olive oil,

goes under the grill for about 15 minutes,

until the vegetables begin to char.

Then, into a processor.

We're also going to add chipotle chilli.

Which is a dry, smoked chilli.

That'll give a strong earthiness to the whole salsa itself.

And finally a bit of coriander.

Proper food. Then blitz.

There you have it.

Wow!

That's fantastic.

Time to build my tortilla tower.

You have a tortilla layer on top of that guacamole.

Then you have your chicken.

Then you have your salsa.

Then you have your sour cream.

Then you have your Monterey Jack cheddar cheese.

Beautiful.

Top with some spring onions.

Another tortilla.

Guacamole, chicken, salsa, sour cream, and so on.

And you build it all up.

To about three layers.

That's enough for one person, surely?

My favourite flavours of Mexico, that lime and the guacamole,

and the sour cream and that chicken.

And the whole thing on top of one of these fantastic tortilla wraps.

Look at that, it's got to be done.

LAUGHS

That is very special indeed.

This is delicious, you've got to try this.

Now, one of my personal favourites, jerk-style cooking,

which comes from the Caribbean and involve marinating

your main ingredient in a delicious, spicy sauce.

Here, I'm cooking jerk belly pork,

with some perfect peas and a marvellous mash.

My next dish is un-pea-lievable.

It really is unbelievably tasty!

And I'm a great using a very inexpensive cut of pork,

belly of pork. To make my jerk belly pork with pea and potato mashup.

It kind of works, that idea of a mashup thing instead of a hash.

I think works perfectly beautifully with this inexpensive cut of pork.

When you cook it slowly, it rewards you,

it's so succulent and so fabulous.

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

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

And the smell, you can smell the cinnamon, the allspice.

Real memories of my mum's cooking - Caribbean cooking in general.

With those lovely spices.

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

And you're following it.

I feel like Deputy Dawg, or something like that,

following his supper for the evening.

Really, really lovely.

Sear off the pork in a hot pan,

and prepare a baking tray with thickly sliced onions and garlic.

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

I'm just nestling that on top.

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

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

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

180 degrees centigrade, 350 Fahrenheit, gas mark four.

For about 2½ hours, and it'll be wonderfully tender.

I'm going to have a cup of coffee.

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

But the joy of filling the house with the taste and flavours

of dinner is just a wonderful way to get the family

excited about good food.

Ah, gorgeous!

Look at that.

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

so tender. It's really lovely.

I am going to be serving that with my pea and potato mashup.

I've been podding a few of them here.

And we're just going to cook those until they're tender.

Only take a couple minutes, not going to take long at all.

My new potatoes have been boiled in their skins.

Now, we're ready for the mashup.

Nothing could be simpler, take a fork and give them a bit of a crush

on the side of the pan there, just a casual breaking up of the potato.

We'll turn that gas off there.

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

Take your peas, on the top there, like that.

And just mix it through.

It's a play of textures here.

You've got the softness of the potato.

You get that little bite, because it's cooked with a bite,

but the peas then burst through.

So you get that lovely joy your mouth, and you think, mmm!

CARIBBEAN ACCENT: Pea and potato mashup!

Taste of spring.

Let's sort out that pork, shall we?

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

And you know what I'm going to do here?

Is take some of those beautiful pan juices here, look at that.

Remember you've got the cider in there and you've got

the absolutely delicious chicken stock mixed with that.

And what could be better than serving that with a little

bit of hot pepper sauce?

My dad would be proud.

When you have such a rainbow of colours on the fork,

you know you're in for a taste sensation.

Wonderfully juicy, real succulence about it.

The big payoff, of course, is right at the end,

you get the bursting of the pea.

The pea is such a rewarding vegetable.

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

There's a little element of surprise,

especially when they're fresh peas,

because they just burst out that little bit of sweetness.

Really lovely.

And we're staying with the Caribbean influence for today's final recipe.

A mouthwatering Jamaican ginger cake,

brought to you by the Hairy Bikers.

It's funny, there are quite a few spices

and flavours that we're so familiar with, that they become,

not exotic, but mundane and kind of part of our establishment, almost.

But not so long ago, those flavours would have seemed so

revolutionary and exotic, they would've thrilled us!

-They would have!

-You know, like, ginger!

WHIPPING SOUNDS

Wahey!

It may not look like... Well, look, it's ugly.

I mean, it's misshaped, and it's a bit odd. But this is beautiful.

Like ginger parkin, it's old-fashioned and familiar.

Gingerbread, treacle toffee,

but all those things, they came from overseas.

And I mean, Whitehaven, really, kind of, the northern spots.

They're full of all this pepper and stuff,

because that's where it all shipped in from.

I mean, Whitehaven, Fletcher Christian, Mutiny on the Bounty.

He was from Whitehaven!

He was, you know.

Captain Bligh lived on the Isle of Man!

All these fellas were roaming the ocean,

just to bring back these exotic spices for us to enjoy.

-And some hundred years on, we take it for granted.

-Yeah.

It's true. So we're going to show you a fantastic, fantastic dessert

that's exotic, but quintessentially British.

I tell you what, viewers,

we've really pushed the boat out for you on this one.

This seriously decadent sponge has a cheeky kick of chilli

to complement some good old-fashioned ginger.

Slathered in delicious ginger-toffee sauce.

And it tastes flipping lovely.

-It's a bit of a palate blower.

-Right.

We're going to make a sweet syrup for the batter mix.

And it couldn't be easier.

Put in 125g of soft brown sugar.

And 125g of butter.

That just melts down with the sugar.

And give it a stir.

Then add 125g of dark treacle, which is about two large tablespoons.

And the same of golden syrup.

This is tempting stuff.

Sugar's had a massive part to play in British history.

I mean, obviously, the tragic stories from the slave trade,

but companies like Tate & Lyle were massively, massively wealthy.

Hence the Tate Galleries in London.

That all came from this kind of philanthropy that was

a by-product of the sugar industry.

But, of course, the suffering it involved

probably didn't justify the ends, really.

What I've done, I've taken this off the heat, so that mixture

of those lovely syrups, treacles, sugar and butter needs to cool.

-Oh, the consistency.

-Mmm.

Now, we're going to mix eggs in that, so it's got to be cold,

or else, if you put the eggs in now,

it's just going to scramble your eggs.

-Magic.

-Right, I've got preserved stem ginger here.

And that comes in ball forms.

Again, this is like another hark back to old methods

of preserving and keeping food.

Because that ginger that was imported, that would be precious,

and you wouldn't want to throw that away.

I've got four stem ginger balls here, which I've grated.

I am now going to cut, very finely, a chilli and a half.

One and a half of these long chillies with seeds removed

and all chopped up is just enough to give the cake a bit of a zing.

I'm going to mix that with my four grated ginger balls.

We want the ginger cake to have a bit of lift,

so we're using self-raising flour. 275g.

For even more lift, a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Now some dried spices.

We've got one teaspoon of allspice.

Mmm, that smells of Christmas.

And two of ground ginger.

Look at that.

Even the flour, it looks a bit more exotic and dangerous now,

-doesn't it?

-It's lovely, mate, lovely.

Now put the four stem ginger balls and the chilli into this

and stir it in.

Right, and make a well in the middle.

Into your cool syrup, pour 200ml of semi-skimmed milk.

Then add three beaten eggs and whisk it all together.

Then add it to all the dry mix.

This is like nuclear fusion in the cake world.

But there's flavour in this, you know.

It's got all those elements of sweet and savoury.

And a little bit salt as well. It's lovely.

Lovely.

And the lumpy bits in there is the stem ginger.

It's not that it's gone wrong.

We're happy with that.

Now, we put that into a liberally buttered bowl.

Oh, yes.

You know that's going to be fantastic.

If you struck that in Texas, you'd know you were going to be rich.

That's it.

We pop this into a moderate preheated oven, 160 degrees Celsius,

for about 35-40 minutes.

Which gives us time to make the caramel sauce.

Which is a ginger caramel sauce.

We're gingering up everything in this one, aren't we?

We are, and quite rightly so.

I need three balls of stem ginger.

While Dave cuts the ginger into thin strips,

I'm going to get cracking with the sauce.

So, in a pan, combine...

75g of butter.

And 100g of dark brown sugar.

Melt, stir.

It's real easy sauce this, isn't it?

Just combine everything, bring it to a frizzle.

-It's brilliant.

-And then cool it down and pour it on your cake.

-Here you are, mate, incoming.

-Thanks, mucker.

Look at that.

Now pour in 200ml of luxuriant double cream.

Add heat, stir until it's all combined, job's a good'un,

there's your sauce.

Beautiful.

I mean, this isn't for everyday, this pudding.

I mean, it is...

It's very rich and very special.

But for high days and holidays, well, once or twice a week,

it's worth giving it a go.

It certainly is.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, man!

What a belter.

That's soft and sticky,

and it's going to get softer and stickier in a minute,

because that sauce, we pour all over the top.

Get in!

And really, by putting the sauce on the top, it turns the cake,

to my mind, into a pudding.

Aw, mate.

We're going to serve it up with ice cream and with a bit of

grated lime zest, for that extra taste of far-flung paradise.

Like a Martian's toupee, isn't it? Sitting on the top.

Beautiful.

Oh!

Do you know, if you're a fan of sticky,

old-fashioned puddings, but you want something a bit more.

Something a bit special, sir? This is the one for you.

It's thing of joyous beauty.

You know, you get delicate puddings, you get little bit of

froufrou this and that.

But that's a pudding.

Thanks fellas, and that's all we've got time for today.

But there'll be plenty more in our next episode

of the Best Dishes Ever.

So be sure to join me. Take care now, bye-bye.