Cheap and Cheerful The Best Dishes Ever

Today, our selection of great chefs are serving up great recipes

that are delicious, but also nice and easy on the old wallet too.

We're talking about quality and good value and showing that you don't

have to spend a fortune to make a meal that tastes a million dollars.

And we're starting off with a pair who are always good value.

It's The Hairy Bikers and their unique take on a ploughman's lunch.

You know if you go for a ploughman's sometimes and it's cheese

and that and it's hard work, wouldn't it be great

if you had all those lovely pickles and everything and your bread

and you could just dip that in molten cheese?

And, actually, if we put the beer in there as well, it's all in a onesie.

We have combined the fondue, which everybody loves, really, mm,

stringy, yum, yum, with a ploughman's lunch.

And we've created the ploughdue.

This is a great invention, a pot of lava-like, molten cheese,

to gently smother over your favourite pub snackettes.

The texture contrast between the crunch of the dippers

and the soft fondue is truly something to behold.

I'd give it three days before some enterprising pub

in Britain will be serving the ploughdue.

I'm very skilfully going to cut this loaf of bread,

or some of it, into cubes.

Now, my friend, here, is going to make a platter,

a plethora of dippy things.

It's just going to look like a harvest festival.

Oh, honestly, it's going to be lovely.

I am going to make that board the best it's ever looked.

Now, I do want a good flavour in this, so what I have to do is

to rub the pot with a clove of garlic to build up the aroma.

Rub it well.

A cast-iron saucepan's good for this, if you haven't got

-a fondue kit.

-It's true.

But they're cheap to get, fondue kits, now.

You see these now, they're brilliant.

If you run out of fuel, use diesel.

You would stink like a swine in your house.

Don't use... I was only joking. You know I was only joking.

Anyway, so, put some heat on under your garlic encrusted fondue pan

and pour in a glass of beer.

Good old IPA or a pale ale, summat with a bit of hops.

And melt gently.

Meanwhile, take a hunk of good, strong cheese and start to grate.

You can use what you want, really, just a good slab of cheddar.

Fondues were so popular in the '60s and 70s, weren't they?

-Oh, yeah.

-There used to be three courses of fondues.

You'd start off with the cheese, then you'd go onto one

with a pan of hot oil, where you'd but little bits of meat

and then you'd go onto a chocolate fondue,

where you'd dip your strawberries.

And there's all those customs, isn't there?

That if, you know, you drop your bit of stuff off your fork,

if you're a fella you've got to get everybody else a drink

and if you're a woman you've got to kiss everybody round the table.

Now, we're going to thicken this with two tablespoons of cornflour.

And we're going to put two teaspoons of English mustard.

-Do you know, Kingy...

-What, mate?

-..we're on to something here.

-We are. I think we should open a ploughdue restaurant.

-Yeah.

-Ploughdues 'R' Us, I can see it now.

-Ploughdues.

-In bright orange lights.

Yeah, yeah.

By now, the beer should be nice and hot.

It doesn't need to be madly boiling, just warm enough to melt the cheese.

Now, that is the well-mixed cheese, mustard and cornflour.

We put this in a nice big spoonful at a time.

I've just got that off the heat.

And stir it.

When that's melted, we put some more in, but don't rush your ploughdue.

The word, "fondue," comes from the French, "fondre,"

which means, "to melt."

It's thought to have originated in the cantons of Switzerland, but they

predominantly melt Swiss cheeses, like Gruyere, Emmenthal

and raclette.

But other countries have a fondue too, the Italians have a...

-Fonduta.

-The Dutch, they have a kaasblokjes.

So, it seems perfectly appropriate to me that we, British,

should have a fondue of our own.

-Well, Dave, you're not wrong, you're not wrong.

-Hence the ploughdue.

It's funny though, Kingy, the term, "ploughman's lunch,"

is quite a new one.

It's said that the term came as a clever advertising gimmick

for the milk marketing board to try and persuade us to eat more cheese.

So, the idea is, you go for a pint, you eat cheese.

But the concept of eating cheese, pickles

and having a jug of beer, I'm sure, that's as old as time itself.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Well, that's what farm workers did.

They were relatively low paid and that's what they had.

They've been eating that sort of thing for centuries.

Simple lunches of bread, cheese and fruit.

So, all those classic accompaniments that you can think of with a

ploughman's lunch, you can accompany the ploughdue with the same

We've got some pickled onions,

some mustard, baby beetroot,

farmhouse chutney and last, but by no means least,

some caper berries, with their stalks on, so we can dip in.

-The rest of that cheese in.

-It's a thick little number, isn't it?

Right, and that's what I was going to say,

if you do think it's thick, we can always let it down with more beer.

-Mm.

-Oh, nice, mate, nice.

Are we ready to light the fire?

Has that been lit since 1973?

I don't know, we're about to find out though.

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, perfect.

-Kingy, this is beautiful. Look how creamy that is.

-Beautiful.

-It's the cornflour that gives it the texture.

-Nice, man.

Look at that, it is a lovely texture, isn't it?

When you think, all it is is beer, cheese, cornflour and mustard.

Such a simple and indeed frugal set of ingredients can come

together to make so much more than a simple ploughman's.

But, of course, there's always a price to pay.

Remember, if your bread drops off, you've got to buy the drinks.

-Excellent.

-Actually, that's for a fondue.

It should be different forfeits, shouldn't there, for a ploughdue?

Oh, yeah, you have to shave a sheep or something.

-Or run naked around a field....

-Yeah, something interesting.

-..in your wellingtons.

-Yeah.

-Oh, look, there's something lovely about that, look.

-Yeah.

It's like a fondue, it's got the cling of a fondue,

-but it's good British ale.

-Oh, hey, mate, that's brilliant.

Mm.

I'll tell you what is remarkable, you can taste the hop in the bitter.

-I'd be interested to try this with cider.

-Mm, that'd be nice.

I think it would work.

I mean, trying to match beers with cheeses,

-but, you know, I think with this, Kingy...

-Mm.

..with creating the ploughdue, I think we've scratched

the surface of something of a culture that could really catch on.

-Mm.

-Because the variety of cheese we have is huge in this country.

-Enormous.

-The variety of beer we have is huge.

Let's start melting and making.

It's worth it, best of British cheese,

melted and stuff dipped in it, come on, you've got to love it.

Thanks, fellas.

Now, time for my contribution to today's menu

and it's based around something I'm passionate about, mustard.

I love adding it to dishes,

whenever I think it will provide that crucial bit of a kick.

But, before we get cooking, here's a little trip I went on a

while ago to find out how we're making mustard over here.

A lot of mustard that's made in Britain actually uses

imported mustard seed, but I'm off to meet a supplier who

actively sources mustard seed that's grown right here, in the Cotswolds.

-Hello, Guy, how are you?

-Very well, Ainsley.

'Guy Tullberg's father began making mustard 40 years ago.

His passion spawned a family business, selling chutneys,

pickles and mustards from around the world, using home-grown produce,

one of which is mustard seed.

So, this is our English-grown seed.

So, this is grown for us three miles down the road.

Same farmer, we're on about year ten, I think, now, of this

and with the crop getting bigger and bigger every year.

So, at the moment, we're only getting the yellow seed from the UK.

-Mm-hm.

-Cos most of the brown seed all comes from North America,

as does our brown seed as well,

but we'd love to have somebody grow brown seed for us.

-So, if the Brits get behind it, we could change that?

-Yeah, really.

It's all about getting people to buy mustard,

use mustard and just enjoy mustard.

The mustard seed is fed through the mill by hand,

together with whole spices to produce a fine powder.

This is then mixed with vinegar to make the familiar, grainy,

wet paste that we so love.

SHOUTS: Already, you can see,

it's beginning to get a little bit powdery.

All the smells, all the flavours are coming through.

Tracklement's produces ten different mustards, but I want to add one

more to their repertoire, my very own Great British Food Revival Mustard.

This is the mustard we ground,

-so what we need to do is put that into the bucket here.

-OK.

Half-fill that with the cider

and then we'll top that up with cider vinegar.

That can go in.

There you go.

And there's no reason why everyone can't make this at home.

-It's easy enough to do at home.

-All right, then.

So, what do you think that we might like to put in?

I know that we've already got the chillies in there.

-That is potent as you like, isn't it?

-Yeah, that's lovely,

-fresh chopped chillies.

-So, just the one of those?

-Yeah, I think so.

I think a couple of those, because I'm a bit of a honey fan.

Already, you notice that the liquid we put in earlier on,

-the powders and everything, they're starting to soak it all up.

-Yes.

It's, gradually, beginning to come.

'Mm, but how does it taste?'

I get, I get... I'm getting the sweetness from the honey,

-definitely got that.

-Straight away, that's coming through. Also got the

pepperyness there, but it neutralises it just a little bit.

Takes off that edge, so you don't...

HE IMITATES CHOKING

That'll get rounder, you've got the heat, that'll get rounder

-and rounder, the flavour.

-Mm.

'And, with the mustard made, it was time for a quick taste test.'

One at a time, come up, let's get going.

What mustard would you like to go for, sir?

-The honey one, please.

-The honey, honey mustard.

Aw, look at that, beautiful.

Have a little bit of a bite of that and tell us what you think.

-That's nice.

-Yeah? Would you consider making something like that?

No, I'll just get you to make it.

AINSLEY LAUGHS

Well, I suppose making it is what I do for a living,

so here I am with a mustard-tastic potato tart.

You probably raised your eyebrows when I said, "potato tart."

"Potato tart"?

Well, I don't know, for me, it's one of those dishes,

towards the end of the week, there's not much in the fridge,

you're thinking, "Oh, what can I do?"

Well, leeks and mushrooms I always seem to have hanging around,

but what about a bit of mashed potato? That quantity there,

which is about 4oz, 100g,

you normally throw away. Don't do it, keep hold of that.

Nice bit of butter and then we can start to make our pastry.

'My kids love this potato tart as it has a mild mustard taste,

'so it's perfect for the whole family.

'I begin by sieving some flour and powdered mustard, which

'I mix with the butter and the mashed potato

'to form a nice soft dough.'

And this is what I mean about, you know,

allowing mustard to be introduced to lots of different things.

What about pastry, what about biscuits, what about chocolate,

what about chocolate cakes or gingerbread? I always put a little,

minute amount into my gingerbread biscuit and it adds to it.

Anyway, I'm just going to take a little bit of clingfilm here.

Wrap that up and pop that in the fridge for,

if you can, an hour or so.

Or even overnight, it really is absolutely fine.

'Next, I saute some leeks and mushrooms.'

Now, once the mushrooms and leeks have cooled down,

then you can start getting some really lovely flavours in there.

I've got here some mascarpone.

And now for that wonderful flavours of flavours, the old

wholegrain mustard. Straight in there. A spoonful of that.

That's it.

Then we can just blend that together.

'And, while the mustard works its magic,

'take your pastry out of the fridge and, here's a top tip, roll

'it straight onto a floured baking tray, pinch the edges and voila!

'There's your base.'

Right.

Take our leeks and mushrooms now, pop that on the top there.

And spread it out.

You can see that, you can just use the back of the spoon.

Spread that out.

Like that, perfect.

Very nice indeed.

'And, to finish off, I crumble some blue cheese on top.

'And last, but not least,

HE IMITATES CARIBBEAN ACCENT: 'a little bit of Caribbean spice.'

Oh-ho-ho! I think my dad would be proud of me.

HE IMITATES CARIBBEAN ACCENT: A little bit of chilli sprinkled on the top.

HE GIGGLES

That's it, not too much, just a pinch.

And then all we have to do is pop that into the oven,

200 degrees centigrade, gas mark six, for about 25 to 30 minutes.

And are you in for a treat? You're about to find out.

'There you have it, my potato tart with mustard, leek and mushrooms.

'A perfect family supper using ingredients most of us

'already have in the fridge.'

It's the texture that really does reward you.

The pastry is not like such crumbly pastry with a, sort of,

crispy, crunchy base.

It's a lot shorter than that and, of course, you've got

the explosion of the mustard seed that just comes alive in your mouth.

And we've got the mustard powder in the base too,

so, it's all there for you.

Mm. It's a bit rude, really, but I can't help it.

When talking about good value ingredients,

what could be better than something you don't have to buy, because

you've already got it knocking around in the cupboard somewhere.

Well, that is what James Martin is banking on here.

And I want you to particularly watch out for his tip on what to do

with some leftover cream.

One classic recipe, that many of us will always turn to,

is a flavour of soup that I'm sure most of you watching

have in your store cupboards.

But, hopefully, my take on home-made tomato soup will inspire you

to make your own.

Especially when it's served with the kind of garlic bread you

won't forget in a hurry.

For me, one of my favourite store cupboard ingredients has to

be these, tinned tomatoes. But these are really special tomatoes.

These are San Marzano tomatoes. These are beautiful.

Look out for them on the tin.

They're really sweet, less seeds, but they make the most amazing soup.

And that's what I'm going to do now, a tomato soup with garlic butter.

This really is, in my opinion, one of the best garlic

butters around, cos it's a roasted garlic butter.

'To stop the skins from burning, wrap the entire bulb in foil

'and roast it at 170 for 45 minutes.

'This gives me plenty of time to show you something you can all try,

'home-made butter.'

It's actually more simple than you think.

All it is, really, is double cream.

We just mix this together until it separates.

Now, you whisk this

so much that it actually starts to thicken up the cream.

Then, all of a sudden, it'll split and that's when you've got butter.

'It may seem like a time consuming process, but it's a great way to

'use up leftover double cream that, otherwise, may end up in the bin.'

If you've got any that's out of date or going out of date,

before too smelly, stick it in here and make your own butter.

So, when you've got that mixing,

we can get together our draining cloth which we've got in here.

We're going to use a some of this, a little bit of muslin.

You can use a tea towel.

And this is to get rid of the water or the whey part of it, really.

What we're after is the solids that are left behind.

That, in actual fact, is our butter.

'It's amazing that, after five minutes, the liquid you

knew as double cream has taken on a completely new texture.

What you're looking for, really, with this,

it goes from a whipped cream and, the more you mix it,

it ends up looking like pastry as the cream separates.

It, basically, almost, looks like an overcooked scrambled egg.

'But I can assure you, when it's done,

'it will taste a hell of a lot better.'

You end up with this. You see, the liquid that's in it.

'It may look a long way from being melted on toast, but, after being

'drained through a muslin and formed into a shape, it feels great to have

'been able to make my own butter, something I get through plenty of.'

What you end up with, what I think is great when you make it yourself,

is that.

How cool is that? Your own home-made butter.

'With my butter looking truly homespun and the garlic on standby,

'I want to get my store cupboard soup with tinned

'tomatoes on the stove.'

The tinned tomatoes is really the main flavour of my soup and

that's why it's important you get really good quality tinned tomatoes.

'Olive oil, shallots and two tins of these lovely Italian tomatoes.

'It couldn't be simpler.'

And then all I'm going to do is just grab some fresh basil

and throw that in.

Then we bring this to the boil

and just gently simmer this for two or three minutes.

'I think a beautiful, bold, Italian soup deserves the best croutons for

'my roasted garlic butter.'

Now, you're at my house now, you know that fancy small dice stuff?

Some proper croutons.

A drizzle of oil over the top.

What I'm going to do with these is chargrill them, but, if you haven't

got a griddle like this at home, you can actually use a griddle pan.

The key to using a griddle pan is get it really hot.

And always oil the food, never oil the pan.

'Now to finish off the butter.

'As you'll soon see, there's a very good reason

'for roasting the garlic.'

The most important thing with this is it's lovely

and soft inside as the garlic roasts.

'Mix in the flesh of the garlic and some more fresh basil.'

Now, the great thing about making your own butter, really,

whether you're incorporating just ready made butter with

roasted garlic or anything like that, it freezes really well.

And then, really, when it comes to the soup, you just blitz it.

I like my gadgets in my kitchen. Stick blender, stand back.

'Tinned tomatoes from Italy, transported in my Hampshire

'kitchen into something I can't get enough of.'

You've got this simple tomato soup that you've made out of a can and it

actually tastes

so much better than conventional soup out of a can as well.

'And to top it all off, leftover double cream

churned into butter for the ultimate in garlic bread.

Store cupboard food never used to look like that in my house.

That really is fantastic and it is one of the store cupboard

essentials, I think, that everybody should have.

Tinned tomatoes, you can

transform them into so many different things, but,

when you're out there buying them, look out for the words San Marzano.

Cos in this it makes all the difference.

It's great, that.

Finally, it's pudding time and a recipe that uses an ingredient

that doesn't always get the plaudits it deserves.

Suet is a cooking fat that comes from the loin area of beef or

mutton and it can bring a real lightness and richness to a recipe.

But don't take my word for it,

here's a Bake Off masterclass from Paul and Mary.

Sussex pond pudding, a classic.

Traditionally, put a lemon in the middle.

A lemon, a whole lemon in the middle?

A whole lemon and then add butter and muscovado sugar.

It's terribly calorific.

I've cut down on the butter and the sugar

-and I've put lots of apple in it.

-OK.

Because there's nothing nicer than an apple suet crust.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is make the suet crust pastry.

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF NARRATOR: Start by weighing 225

grams of self-raising flour into a bowl,

then add 100g of suet.

-So, if I can have those?

-Yes.

Then the liquid for this is milk and water.

Add 75ml of cold water to 75ml of milk.

That's it.

Pour into the flour and suet.

So, you used to eat this when you were a little girl?

We had all sorts of different puddings,

because, of course, it was economical.

When my mother made suet crust puddings, you went to the

butchers and you took the fat off from around the beef kidney.

Mum would come home and grate it and use it in steamed puddings,

-roly-poly's and things like that.

-Yeah.

So, just mix that until it holds together

and you want to use a blunt knife.

You notice I'm doing a cutting action

and there certainly is no reason to get out a machine for that.

I'm going to see if that will come together with my hands.

-Can I have a feel?

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah, it's nice. Yeah, nice, that.

That's right, it's coming together.

Do you still like baking, Mary?

I love it, I absolutely love it.

You know, when it's the end of the day

and you've had a really tiring day,

there's nothing I like more than coming home and baking, cooking.

I enjoy it. Now, just go on until you've cleaned the bowl.

When the dough has come together, lightly dust the work surface

and roll out to a circle, roughly 30 centimetres in width.

And if you start off with a round shaped ball it's quite

easy to keep it into a circle.

I'm going to get the ruler out in a minute.

-Not bad.

-That's 30.

-Now, I've got a very well-buttered bowl here.

And when you've got bowls in the cupboard you never remember

how big they are.

So, what I do is I get the bowl and I write on the bottom.

This is a 1.5 litre, 2¾ pint. Do it with a marker pen.

-You know where you are.

-That's a good idea.

Cut one quarter out of the circle and set aside for the lid.

Lift the rest into the bowl to line it.

It doesn't matter if you handle it too much.

You just follow the recipe. And I'm going to push that down.

You've done this before, haven't you, Mary?

I have and I've really worked that join, so nothing could leak.

Now we come to the lid.

It doesn't need to be too thick, the top of the lid.

After all, it's not going to leak out. Put it to one side.

So, I've got the basin done, I've got the lid done,

now to the filling.

If you can just cut the end off the lemon

and prick it all over with a cocktail stick.

That lets some of the juices flow.

Peel, core and dice three Cox's apples.

If you use Bramley's, which is the normal apple for cooking,

they just disintegrate.

Add 175g of light muscovado sugar and 150g of cubed butter.

And you can imagine what happens, it all melts

-and becomes a wonderful sauce.

-Yeah.

Start with a layer of the apple, sit the lemon on top,

then pack in the rest of the filling.

-But what happens to it is it shrinks down.

-Mm.

So, I'm packing it absolutely in.

And it'll actually dome up over the top.

Dampen the edges of the pastry with some water,

place the lid on top and press down to seal completely.

And it doesn't need any fancy edging, you don't need to

-plait it or do anything.

-I was going to offer, I was going to offer.

No, no, no, because you don't see it. So, there it is.

I'm going to put a lid on it and I've got some non-stick paper

and some foil.

Cut a square of foil and a square of non-stick baking parchment.

Make a plait in both to allow the pudding to expand as it cooks.

Then tuck the edges under the rim of the basin.

I remember when there wasn't foil. I can remember when it was introduced.

I suppose it was about 1966, we were terribly excited.

I was on a magazine and the first roll came from America. So useful.

-What were you using, rock and flint?

-I'm not going to answer that.

Right, that's it.

Take a long strip of foil, fold in half lengthways

and then in half again to strengthen it.

Then you take a lid,

because, if the bottom here touches the bottom, it cooks too quickly.

-So, if you put it like that.

-That's a good idea.

-Then sit that on top.

-Nice idea.

-And then you put that over the top, like that.

So, lift that carefully into the pan.

And the water should come halfway up.

Fold it over the top, lid on and let that simmer,

look after itself, for about three and a half hours.

Shall we have a cup of tea, then?

The Sussex pond pudding should be ready by now.

-It's had about three and a half hours. Take the foil off.

-Wow.

And, you see, what a lovely colour it is.

Let that rest a few moments, just while it's shrinking back.

Hold it in a tea towel and just see that it's loosened at the sides.

-Which it is.

-You can see that, can't you, yeah.

If it doesn't come out in one piece it's not the end of the world.

-Nobody's going to notice.

-I will.

It often actually bursts, because of all that sugar and butter inside.

It's best to turn the pudding out onto a plate with high sides

to catch any juices that may escape.

Come on.

Ah!

Look at that.

That looks amazing.

I think we ought to get in there, while it's wonderfully hot.

I think we should as well, Mary.

As I cut through here, I'm going through the lemon.

You can smell it, yeah.

-We'll share a plate.

-No.

Well, we've only got one plate, so you're going to share a plate.

That's it. You do the cream. Not all over, for me.

-If I just keep it on the side, then?

-Yeah.

There?

I think you should taste it first.

-OK. This was a signature bake, wasn't it?

-It was.

So, can you tell us about your signature bake, please?

My signature bake is Sussex pond pudding,

but my version and I hope that you're going to like it.

-Come on.

-OK, I mean, the overall look of it I like.

I think it's creative, I think you've used some great flavours,

-but I think, ultimately, it comes down to the flavour, Mary.

-Good.

Don't be beastly.

-Is it all right?

-I'll have some more, yeah.

Lovely that, Mary.

-I'm through to the next round.

-You are.

-Thank you.

AINSLEY: As if he'd dare not put Mary through to the next round.

The nation would be in uproar.

That's all we've got room for today, but thanks to all our chefs

and, please, do join me again for the Best Dishes Ever.

See you next time.