Perfect Pairings The Best Dishes Ever

Today, The Best Dishes Ever is looking at perfect pairings -

ingredients that work together beautifully and just seem right.

This can mean adding a herb or a spice, or mixing sweet with savoury.

Whatever the combination, you know when it hits the spot.

Let's get things started with cakes from Mary Berry that

illustrates our theme so well, with apple and cinnamon.

Fruit and spice is normally associated with rich,

dense cakes, but this loaf cake, with apple and cinnamon,

offers a much lighter way to spice up tea-time.

I'm actually going to make two - one for now and one for the freezer.

Start off with the flour.

200g of self-raising flour.

75g of butter.

I find that it helps to have it a bit soft.

And then, a light rubbing-in and that gets the air in it.

When the butter has combined with the flour to a breadcrumb texture,

add 100g of light Muscovado sugar

and a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon.

Cinnamon and apple go really well together.

They use it an awful lot in Europe. Think of apple strudel.

Lightly combine the sugar and spice, then prepare the apples.

I'm using three Braeburns, which must be cored and peeled.

If I was using our old favourite, Bramleys,

they would go in to a mush in the cake.

Eating apples, sometimes known as dessert apples,

hold their shape and I want to keep the texture.

Right, we have three apples prepared.

I'm going to keep half to go on top of my loaf tin,

so I'll pop that down there.

When I was a child, we had a lot of apples in the garden

and, when it came to picking time, we had to go up the tree

and have a basket and not let them fall.

I've always liked climbing trees, so, I must say, I really enjoyed it.

With the apples chopped, lightly whisk three eggs,

then add both to the mixture and stir it all in.

That's quite a soft mixture

and there's a lovely spicy smell coming up from it, too.

Spoon the mixture into two greased and lined 1lb loaf tins.

I find that two smaller cakes bake more reliably than one big one.

It also means I've got one for now and another for the freezer.

To decorate the cakes,

cut the remaining half apple into thin slices and place on top.

And then, to give it a nice crunch, I'm going

to add a little bit of Demerara sugar.

I'm just going to sprinkle that,

I suppose I'm using about two tablespoons,

all over the top of the apple,

and that will just sort of melt and become a lovely,

crunchy topping and a good, even brown colour all over.

Now they're ready for baking,

so it's into the oven at 160 fan for about 35 minutes.

Once the cakes have cooked, turn them out

and spread with apricot jam.

It will melt to leave you with a lovely, sticky glaze.

So, there you go, wonderful cinnamon apple cakes.

This is a perfect choice for the adults.

I think they'll be thrilled with it.

Thanks, Mary.

Now, it's time for something from yours truly,

and a combination of duck and honey

that I think works an absolute treat.

It's my honey-glazed duck with rosti potatoes, creamed cabbage

and a honey and clove sauce.

Oh, sounds delicious, Ains!

I'm on a mission to revive British honey and what is apparent is

that buying British isn't always top of our agenda.

As far as where my honey comes from, I wouldn't have a clue.

I buy a branded label, I'm not sure where it's from, maybe England.

I don't think I've ever checked the back of a jar to find out

where it's from.

I think our apathy towards buying British honey is alarming,

but that's just one of the many challenges

facing the honey industry.

David Bondi runs the UK's largest honey manufacturer.

His company bottles over a third of all the honey sold in our shops.

Total British honey production is

only about 10% of everything that we consume in this country,

and so, clearly, we have to import lots of honey.

We buy all the British honey that we can. We'd love to buy more.

Our difficulty has been just how limited the supply has been.

We work with our beekeeper colleagues to encourage them

to produce as much as they can.

But they are obviously struggling to keep up with demand,

so I've come to Buckinghamshire to meet one of the UK's leading

commercial beekeepers to find out why.

-Hello, Jed.

-Hi, Ainslie.

-How you doing?

-All right.

Good, looking forward to meeting your bees.

'Jed has 200 hives spread across the farm and, in a good year,

'he can produce up to 15 tonnes of honey.'

What's it like being a commercial farmer, then, Jed?

Well, it's changed radically from when I started 20 years ago.

We've got so much more to contend with these days.

We've got a lot of problems with disease,

bee losses over winter, we've also got a lot of the good

agricultural crops that were grown,

that were very helpful for beekeepers,

have been stopped or greatly reduced,

so it's more difficult to find good sites where the bees can get

a good crop of honey in the summer.

What about the production of honey for you?

How long would it take for a bee to make a jar of honey?

For a single bee to make a jar of honey, it would

travel the equivalent of one and a half times round the world.

Wow. That's why you need about 50,000 in order to keep a hive active.

Yes, I mean, that's the whole idea.

You get an awful lot of bees and they don't have to travel as far.

They're just going over there, to the flower meadows.

That's a mixture of clover and Bramwell.

-Would you like to try some?

-Yeah, get them out the way.

-That's it.

-Dig in.

-Yeah, I know. I'm right in there.

-Go on, they'll all be after me now, all the bees. I'm in there.

-Yeah?

Oh, yeah!

You can taste the wildness coming through that.

That's definitely there. Mm. Gorgeous. And a bit of wax, too!

THEY LAUGH

So, what can we do to help our bee farmers?

Planting more bee-friendly flowers would be a start,

but we can take it further than that.

The thing that the Great British public can do

is simply to buy honey.

Let's make sure that British honey, when it's in the supermarkets,

when it's in the farmers' markets, that people buy it.

Very simple and we can all do that.

Wow.

And I'm going to be using this - Jed's honey - for my second recipe.

And that's going to be...

Now, the sauce is really fairly straightforward.

Loads of different flavours going on here, notably the honey,

cos it really does work so beautifully with this.

So I'm talking about four tablespoons of honey.

I know, I just pour things in,

but that's the real beauty of being a cook, isn't it?

You kind of measure by eye.

That's followed by a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce,

balsamic vinegar and ketchup.

To that, add a couple of tablespoons of Muscovado sugar and a few cloves.

When that starts to boil down and that clove oil starts to be released

into the honey and everything, it's got a real pungency.

And, last but not least, some beef stock.

Let's get some heat under there now. There you go.

And all you really want to do is just to bring that up to the boil.

Let's slice up that onion, shall we?

You see this end here, where the root is?

Because I'm using sliced onions as opposed to just chopping them,

I want to cut a little wedge out of that, either side.

And the idea of removing that root is, look at that, look,

the onions just separate beautifully.

If I hadn't taken that out, then they'd be all glued together.

Add some butter and oil to the pan, followed by the onions.

Whilst that's sorting itself out, we can get on with preparing the meat.

This is what we're going to go with, those lovely, lovely duck breasts.

And what we want to do is just to score that skin.

You know, ducks are waterproof, so their skin is like that.

What you need to do is you need to score the skin a little bit

to release some of that fat.

Right, let's get our pan on now. Pan is cold, as you can see.

A lot of chefs will say put it into a hot pan so it sears straightaway.

I'm not sure whether it really matters.

I think you can put it straight into a cold pan and we're just going

to let that render down a little bit, to release some of that fat.

I think cabbage works wonderfully well with duck.

Cabbage, in my house, is a big, big thing and sometimes

I cook it down with carrots and bacon and ginger

and a bit of chilli, one of my dad's favourites.

SIZZLING

Hey, can you hear that duck now?

That duck is just kind of starting to release its fat now.

Give the cabbage a quick wash and pop it in with your onions.

Just look at that. Crispy.

I'm just going to pour off that excess fat.

Carefully do this, guys.

They do move around the pan there a little bit.

That really doesn't need to go to waste.

It makes the most wonderful roast tatties, or rostis.

I'm going to be doing a few of those for you later.

I've got them in the oven, really.

Duck fat is really, really good for that.

Pop that into an oven, 200 degrees centigrade or 400 Fahrenheit.

Gas mark six. For that thickness, no more than six to eight minutes.

I'm talking about just beyond pink.

If you want it deadly pink, four, five minutes, no more than that.

OK, and if you like it well-done, which would be a shame,

because duck doesn't need to be eaten well-done...

I won't even tell you how long you've got to cook it for,

but there you go.

So, back to the cabbage.

I've lowered the heat so it begins to cook down.

Ears are a fabulous thing when you're cooking.

My mum always used to say, "Grab the steam".

When we talked about cooking like that, she'd grab the steam

and smell, that will tell you a lot. But it's the sound of stuff.

You can tell that something has reduced down,

there's no longer any moisture in the pan, it's drying out,

so I think we just need a little bit of water in there.

That's it, now. That's cooked down really, really lovely.

So, at this stage, in with my crispy bits of bacon.

Add a splash of cream and stir well.

I'll take my duck out now and, for that final minute, all I'm going

to do is take some of Jed's honey

and just drizzle on top of that.

Look at that, it's going to give it that lovely sheen. Beautiful.

Pop that back in for another minute.

Now, what we're going to do is just pass off our sauce.

Oh, it smells of cloves, the honey, it's slightly caramelised.

OK, let's take those beautiful honeyed ducks out.

OK, you can see I'm carving it.

I think it just presents so much better than just having

that lump there. It's not like a bit of chicken.

This is duck, it demands respect,

as my old head chef Malcolm used to say.

JAMAICAN ACCENT: Respect da duck!

He wasn't from Jamaica!

HE LAUGHS

And there you have it, guys.

Look at that - gorgeous.

Honey-glazed duck, I should say Jed's honey-glazed duck,

with rosti potatoes and creamed cabbage and bacon.

I've just got to try that.

You know, honey just works so well with savoury,

because it brings out the natural flavours.

I can taste the duck beautifully.

It's gone into the sauce and the clove is there, so you get that

spicy taste followed by that honey, and Jed's honey really is wonderful.

I think this is what we forget. Honey is just not honey.

There's so many different varieties, so many different flavours,

and if you can find out what works with your cooking,

you're in for a real treat.

Cor, that was lovely.

And here's another poultry pairing that features honey,

but the reason I've included it here is because

it marries together chicken and lavender.

Let's head to France and join up with Rachel Khoo.

Landes, in the south-west of France, is famous for its chickens.

They carry the French red label, which is

similar to our free-range chicken guarantee.

Their lovely strong taste comes from being raised slowly

and given good-quality feed.

Because I'm not the best butcher, he's going to take the head off,

and the feet, and cut it up into bits for me

because he can do it in five minutes and I take half an hour.

I'm going to use lavender with this chicken,

which Parisians use for baking.

This will add a subtly perfumed taste.

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 - it's 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.

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...

SHE LAUGHS

I have to save space on everything, so I'm going to grab a sandwich bag.

Here.

I'm just going to tip it in there.

This dish, a lot of people think it's like,

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

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

And all you need to do is give it some time in the fridge and

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

FRENCH POP MUSIC PLAYS

I've grabbed my chicken out of 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-peasy.

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... 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 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.

That looks great, Rachel. Thanks very much for that.

Now, there are loads of great flavours working

together in this next dish,

a lasagne from Lorraine Pascale, that contains a nice

alternative to the usual bechamel sauce.

I'm going to make this sweet potato

and butternut squash lasagne with sage, toasted pine nuts and nutmeg.

There's these lovely golden layers of yumminess and the cheat

about it is there's a white sauce that takes seconds to prepare.

First, soften 12 lasagne sheets in boiling water -

this makes them cook more evenly when layered.

Mash together 600g of cooked sweet potato

and butternut squash with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Now, chop a generous handful of sage and rosemary.

Then, to make your shortcut bechamel sauce, 600g of ricotta...

..100g of grated Parmesan...

..two egg yolks...

..a bit of ginger and then nutmeg.

Really powerful aromas, really boost the flavour of this dish.

Salt and pepper.

Then just give this a stir together and we're good to go.

And now, start assembling the lasagne.

First, a layer of mashed sweet potato and butternut squash.

Got some baby leaf spinach here.

Just sprinkle it over and it'll just wilt nicely in the oven.

Sprinkle over some of this sage and rosemary -

it's going to add real pungent flavour.

Scatter over some toasted pine nuts.

Then the pasta sheets,

just overlap them slightly, and then my cheat's bechamel sauce.

Not really bechamel at all,

but it tastes even better than a standard bechamel, I think.

Put about a third on there and then use my palette knife,

just to spread it over the lasagne.

That's one lot and then I just repeat that two more times.

Once I complete the layers, I sprinkle over breadcrumbs

and Parmesan cheese for a crunchy crust.

And this goes into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 220 degrees.

Just enough time for me to clear everything away.

There you are - butternut squash and sweet potato lasagne

with sage and rosemary.

Right, that's it. Now, let's end with a pudding, shall we?

And this is stuffed with flavours that work really well together -

blueberry, peanuts and chocolate.

I know, I know what you're thinking. Take it away, James.

This is my blueberry galette,

served with an instant chocolate bar ice cream.

Now, if there's one place that I love going to when I'm on holiday,

and that's Paris, and I came across this dessert.

It's a little galette, very, very simple to make.

There's a real key thing you really need to pay attention to,

to get perfect pastry every time, like the French,

and that's what I think needs to be done by hand.

First thing to do is put 200g of plain flour into a bowl.

Next is 150g of chopped, unsalted butter.

But cold butter, it's really, really important that you use cold butter.

Sometimes, you can actually freeze this to get it really cold.

I've actually seen recipes where they freeze the pastry as well,

to get it even colder.

Throw in the butter to the flour with a good pinch of sugar.

The secret of this is to actually work the flour as little as possible

and, by doing so, the gluten in the flour,

the stretchy part of the flour,

which you knead when you're making bread, doesn't happen.

What you end up with is a very short pastry,

but a very delicate one that just melts in your mouth.

And even my gran used to rub the butter and flour together to make

her shortbread while watching Corrie on the box.

It meant that when you actually tasted this,

you didn't need to bite it, you didn't need any teeth,

which, in my granddad's case, was probably a good thing.

Using the tips of your fingers,

keep on rubbing it in until it creates a small crumb.

The more delicate you are with it, the better the end product.

Once it's like this, add one egg yolk

and bind it all together into a big ball.

Because you've worked it, you need to allow it to rest,

so I've got one that's in the fridge, just firmed up.

It'll only take about an hour, two hours - something like that.

I'm going to create the filling for our little galette.

Now, this is so simple. You can do this with any summer fruit, really.

For this galette's filling, I'm using blueberries.

To this, I'm adding some vanilla seeds, a pinch of sugar

and a squeeze of lemon.

What holds all this together is a tablespoon of cornflour.

And this makes sure the liquid from the blueberries,

when it does cook, it doesn't leak out everywhere

and make our galette look like a big pizza at the end of it.

So what we're looking for is that sort of texture.

It's almost like a wallpaper paste blueberry mixture.

Looks nothing now, but when it's baked

it just looks delicious, so a little bit of that to one side.

You need to roll out your pastry now.

The secret with this is...gentle but firm.

And the least amount of flour as possible.

The more flour you add to anything, the drier it becomes.

Roll it out on a cold surface until it's about 5mm thick.

And then I'm going to use one of these rings or tins

I just have in my kitchen.

We're just going to cut these out.

The key to making the galettes is quite simple.

You make it like a crimped pasty.

So, you start at one end, crimp it...

and work your way round.

You've got these wonderful little tartlets - so simple to make.

Pop them onto a tray.

You don't need to be too fancy.

Nothing is too perfect - that's what I love about French patisserie.

Pop a decent amount of the blueberry mix into the casing

and put them in the fridge for half an hour,

which I did with some others earlier.

It's quite important to do this, it just firms up the pastry nicely,

just enables us to do some egg wash.

You don't need to be too fancy with this.

The final touch is to sprinkle plenty of Demerara sugar over

the top and then place them

in the oven at 250 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes.

While the galettes are cooking, I'm going to make a great

accompaniment for them - peanut chocolate bar ice cream -

and that all starts with making a custard.

For that, I'm going to use sugar, egg yolks, milk and cream.

Put 300ml of milk and 200ml of double cream into a pan

and start heating it up.

While this is happening, whisk together six egg yolks

and 75g of caster sugar.

When this is done, add the warm milk and cream into the bowl,

mix in together and return to the heat and then start stirring.

I always find the best way is to use a whisk

and, as the bubbles start to disappear,

the custard starts to thicken up.

At that exact time, you take it off the heat before it boils...

..pour this into a bowl.

If I was using a normal ice cream machine,

I'd be putting the chocolate bars into the warm custard now.

That way, the chocolate bars melt

and, as the machine that you're blending it in starts to

churn round, it churns it and cools it and freezes it at the same time.

But I like kitchen gadgets,

so I'm going to make my ice cream in a slightly different way.

I've let some of the custard cool down in the fridge.

To this, I'm going to add some whole peanut chocolate bars,

which is then frozen rock-solid.

It's then ready to churn.

All that happens with this is, there's a blade in there

and, when I hit this button,

the blade goes down and comes back up again.

While that's churning, it's time to take out the galettes from the oven.

These look like authentic galettes,

which is lovely, it's nice and delicate, like that.

The pastry just breaks open, like that. It's lovely and soft.

I've got MY fancy ice cream,

but a scoop from a normal ice cream maker, or even shop-bought,

will go down just as well with this great galette.

In fact, do you know what? It's my house.

I'm going to take two.

It is so, so good. You HAVE to make this at home.

Thanks for that, James, and thanks to all of our chefs today.

I think we all blended together beautifully.

And I hope to see you again very

soon for more of The Best Dishes Ever.

Until then, take care now. Bye-bye.