Crowd Pleasers The Hairy Bikers' Comfort Food

We've travelled the world and eaten everywhere from roadside bars to

restaurants with Michelin stars,

but there really is nothing like a bit of home cooking.

Coming into a warm kitchen filled with the aroma of a tasty meal

bubbling away, it's one of life's great pleasures.

There's nothing like comfort food to put a smile on your face.

Today, dishes to feed a multitude.

We're talking brilliant crowd pleasers.

This dish, it's a crowd pleaser that can just expand to fit the amount of

people that you wish to expand it to fit to.

When we say crowd pleaser, we mean in a completely different language,

-party.

-Yeah.

First off, we've got two wonderful trimmed salmon fillets.

I'm going to poach these down because we're making a salmon,

spinach and hollandaise sauce pie.

So, we just float that into the milk.

Got some tarragon, peppercorns and lemon and a bay,

little bit of flavour.

We poach that until it just, just flakes.

Now, a top tip and the key to hollandaise is the temperature of the butter.

So, we're going to melt it.

Once we've melted it we're going to take it off the heat and then we're

going to let it cool.

While that is happening I'm going to infuse about 50ml

of white wine vinegar.

And then a few peppercorns.

A couple of blades of mace.

A bay leaf. Now, to get the oil out of the bay leaf,

scrunch it a bit.

And we need one shallot, finely, finely chopped.

We're going to reduce this until there's about two tablespoons

of liquid left and that's it. So we'll boil it quite hard.

I love this, it's an event.

Oh, it is, and salmon, you know, to me there's still a little hint of luxury.

Definitely, man. Now, you can see how all of those great flavours,

the bay, the mace, the shallot,

the peppercorns are all infusing that white wine vinegar.

My next job is to wilt down the spinach.

There's enough moisture in the spinach to cook itself,

so we'll start by putting it in here.

So, what we're going to do, two tablespoons, don't forget,

that's what we want out of this.

Now, look, that big pan of spinach

has become this little pan of spinach.

But that little pan of spinach really is quite moist.

-We don't want that.

-No!

Else we'll get a soggy bottom.

So we put that in a sieve, let it strain,

and I'll do my second batch of spinach.

Three egg yolks, whisk.

And whisk them until they change colour.

Now, because the process is gentle,

and the heat we need has to be indirect, use a bain-marie.

Just add a little bit of our vinegar.

Just keep tinkling it, lovely, and give it another whisk.

What we're going to do is add this cooled butter,

just a little at a time, literally just add the butter.

Give it a good whisk again.

Right, so, I'm going to take this off the heat.

Do you see how it is, kind of, starting to thicken?

Now we just start to

add the butter...

..just a little at a time.

Look at that, that's beautiful.

Right, now, to this, all we've got

to do is add some tarragon and some lemon zest.

Bought puff pastry, a wonderful product,

easy to handle, beautiful.

Let us begin with Mr Fish. Take

half the fish, hands are fine for this...

..and spread down one side.

-Now, half the spinach.

-As you can see what Dave's doing,

he's squeezing every bit of moisture out.

All of that flavour's still going to be in the leaves,

but we don't want the moisture.

I'll just spread that over the salmon.

Now, that wonderful hollandaise sauce.

Top with more salmon.

More spinach.

And more hollandaise sauce.

-Oh, you are a one.

-Oh, I know.

Eggy wash around the edges.

And let's put you to sleep, son.

We want it well sealed.

And just, kind of, start a nice rolling crimp on the side, like so.

This is like pick it up turn it over.

See? Nice, isn't it?

I'm just going to try and do some scales.

I want to score, but not through.

Oh, you're getting arty.

I love it when you get arty, it's brilliant.

I think that's enough, do you?

-Yeah.

-Brush very gently with egg so we get a nice golden top.

We put that into a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30

minutes or so, until it's risen, bold, and golden.

That is beautiful.

Oh, well done, Mr Myers.

We've created quite a crowd pleaser.

Oh, look at that.

So full of flavour.

The hollandaise, that tarragon, the lemon zest, salmon, spinach,

it all goes together.

That texture, it's lovely, as well.

-Yeah, it's lush.

-What a crisp pastry.

What a lovely centrepiece.

Yeah.

Britain has an army of creative chefs, who day after day send out

sensational dishes to customers in their restaurants.

They work long hours, toiling over their stoves.

But at home, what's their idea of comfort food?

Romy Gill MBE from Thornbury in Gloucestershire

tells us about her home-cooked favourite.

I'm a head chef, restaurant owner of Romy's Kitchen in Thornbury.

For me, the love affair of food started way back in India,

because my parents enjoyed cooking.

And I want to use the best produce we have in this country

and apply what my mum and dad used. The spices - why can't we use it?

You know, the fish and chips. I do fish and chips in an Indian style.

It works really well.

With one spice, you can just completely change

the look and taste of the dish.

A lot of people call me "The Mistress of Spices",

but I love playing with the spices.

And I've learnt all of that from my parents.

My home cooking is very different,

because I have hardly any time with my daughters,

so I don't want to be cooking really complicated dishes.

I like making simple, easy, quick things.

So, I'm going to be making sweet and sour chicken wings,

with an Indian twist guacamole. It's simple, it's quick,

my daughters love it. It's the messiness of eating

with the fingers. I love it!

I'm going to take my chicken wings, I'm going to marinate them first,

with a little bit of ginger and garlic and some soy sauce.

Teensy little bit of chilli flakes. Some honey, pomegranate molasses.

A little bit of ketchup. Not too much, with the sweetness of it.

And the key ingredient in this is the smoked paprika.

Once they cook in the oven, they go really crispy.

That smoky flavour of the paprika is just delicious.

I'm going to keep it in the fridge for half an hour.

Not longer than that. Doesn't really need it.

With that, I will be serving some guacamole, in an Indian style.

It's got apple in it. Avocados. It's got red onion, mint,

which is the freshness, that works so well with avocado,

and a little bit of fresh coriander. It's got a little bit of kick to it,

with just a little chilli.

Whizz it up. Make it like a, kind of, paste, kind of thing.

And it works so well with the chicken wings.

It's really yummy. It's not too spicy. It's really good.

-What about you, you're digging into it!

-Yeah, it's really nice.

-Do you like the guacamole?

-Yeah. It's the best.

It's a simple, delicious meal for my children.

GENTLE SIZZLING

Meat number one...

Chicken!

Meat number two...

Prawns!

Meat number three...

-BOTH:

-Mmmmmm!

-Lamb cutlets!

-French trimmed.

Thank you. Only on a Tuesday.

-And plate number four - salmon.

-Och!

Now, the marinade that we're using is the same for

the chicken, the prawns and the lamb. And we've got a little quirky,

-kind of, marinade for the salmon.

-We've got a little twist,

-haven't we? A little... A little hoo-hoo.

-Hoo-hoo, hoo!

Now, I'm going to start out by making the marinade for the prawn,

the lamb and the chicken.

So, I've got a big lump of ginger into a bowl of yoghurt.

And about six cloves of garlic, I'm going to grate that into this.

While Dave's doing that, I'm going to show you

what we're going to do with the prawns.

So, you know how to de-vein a prawn?

Take the prawn's bonce off, that's its head.

Legs off. Now, you can keep the tail on, it's a good thing.

You can, kind of, just pick your prawn up with it.

Anyway, with a sharp knife, just very gently draw around the back...

..and just run your finger nail through the middle, like that.

One clean prawn.

So, I've got the garlic, the ginger,

the yoghurt. Some scrapings of nutmeg now.

And the juice of an lemon. And the beauty

of making your own marinade like this is

there's a freshness to the spices. It takes everything up a notch.

To start with, I want two teaspoons of ground cardamom.

I want two teaspoons... of ground coriander.

Two teaspoons...of ground cumin.

Two teaspoons...of ground turmeric.

-It's like a Mensa test, dude, isn't it, you know?

-It's a spicy one!

I want half a teaspoon of cinnamon.

A pinch of ground cloves.

Half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

And two BIG spoons

of Kashmiri chilli powder.

Ooh, now you're talking.

For the salmon, what we're going to do -

going to put a little bit of oil, little bit of lemon juice,

some dill and some capers.

So, oil it first.

Now, the reason that we're oiling it first is so all this sticks.

And then the juice of about half a lemon.

-Oh, Kingy.

-Get in.

One, two, three.

-You split, I'll massage.

-All right.

One, two, three.

I mean, this marinade, it's porky, it's dead great.

If you can afford the time,

leave it to marinate overnight and most of the next day.

I would say the minimum you could get away with marinating it

is about two hours.

-Right, I'm going to wash my hands, mate.

-Thank you.

Now, I don't know why, but it just feels right

to cook the chicken last, so that's what I'm going to do.

Heat the griddle to a medium to high heat.

The lamb chops will take about two minutes

to two and a half minutes per side.

If your griddle's hot enough,

you should get minimal marinade smearing your grill.

It should all stay on that beautiful cutlet.

Just be patient, let them sit,

let them crisp off and then turn them.

-What do you reckon, Dave?

-I think they're perfect.

-Looking great, aren't they?

-Yeah, I just can't wait to eat them.

The same process for the prawns.

-Wow, look at those prawns.

-They're working, dude, aren't they?

This is very much a crowd-pleaser.

And the salmon.

The chicken needs about three minutes per side.

-Mm.

-And that should be juicy, succulent, and perfectly cooked.

-Mm.

-The thing is, there's plenty of food here for eight people.

-There is.

-But there's a great feast for two.

-Isn't there just?

How can we keep this feast to ourselves?

That is a crowd-pleaser.

Every dish tells a story.

It may be about the ingredients that define it,

the memories it evokes or the people who created it.

This is the story of Father Theo's moussaka.

MAN SINGS

My name is Father Theodoros.

Family and friends call me Father Theo.

I'm originally from Cyprus,

and I am a Greek Orthodox priest in the Orthodox church in Walsall.

I'm newly ordained, actually.

I've only been ordained for three years now.

But my life has been always about church and food.

I remember me having to lie to my mum

to tell her that, "My friends are not out to play today,

"so, unfortunately, I'm going to have to stay here with you,"

so I could sit at the end of the table and watch her cook.

One of my favourite dishes that I love to cook is moussaka.

It's a dish that has got a very special place in my heart.

One of the reasons is it takes me right back

where I started - in my mum's kitchen again -

cooking the dish.

And you hear moussaka, you think of Greece.

It's the national dish.

You can't say Greece and don't say moussaka.

It's something that you can't separate.

The first thing that we do is to prepare our vegetables.

Usually, it's just aubergine,

but I like to use potato and courgettes.

I think it adds more flavour to the dish.

Of course, Mum taught me everything I know,

and the recipe, it's hers.

However, you know what cooks are like, and chefs -

they like to put their own spin on things,

and I have done the same.

And I always say that, you know, my recipe, it's one of the best.

Well, I'll let the people judge that.

Second step - prepare the lamb mince.

Add tomatoes, the fresh herbs, the allspice, the cinnamon.

Now my secret ingredient.

It's a dessert sweet Greek wine,

and it gives the lamb mince a beautiful taste.

The last part of the dish is the bechamel sauce.

A little bit of fresh cream makes the whole thing more velvety.

Perfect.

And I add Cypriot cheese to it, which is called Anari.

And I add nutmeg.

Moussaka originates from the Ottoman times,

so you will find moussaka in every country

that was under the Ottoman occupation.

Different versions of it.

For example, in Turkey,

the vegetables are served as a casserole,

usually with rice.

In Lebanon and some other Arab countries,

the dish could be served room temperature

and sometimes chilled.

And that's where it got its name from -

moussaka, which means chilled.

The Greek version that we all know and love today

came in the early 1920s from a chef called Tselementes.

He's the one that finalised the dish the way we eat it today.

HE PRAYS IN GREEK

Right, OK, who's going to have the first piece? Ooh.

Wow, look at that. Wow.

Moussaka is one of my family's favourites,

but there's never one dish on that table.

Not on a Greek table. You have two or three.

The dark one is the halloumi.

Every warm and loving memory that I have from back home,

it's round food.

It's never an occasion without it.

Yassas!

So, I kept that and that's what I try

to pass on to my own family here in the UK.

First off, I start with flour and brown sugar.

I'm on dries. He's on wets.

So, I'm bringing the milk to just below boiling point.

And then all you do is add some butter to it.

It's a rich dough. It's a sweet tea bread.

And you leave that to melt.

Don't touch it. Don't do anything with it. Just leave it alone.

Too hot and you'll kill the yeast, which I'm going to put in now.

And it's a spiced bun, so I want a teaspoon of allspice.

It's a bit of a kind of hot cross bun vibe,

but in the middle, you've got all manner of good stuff

like maple syrup and cherries and it's lovely.

So, mix your powders.

While Dave's doing that, I'm just going to beat an egg.

Do you know what I'm going to do now?

I'm going to oil my hands and oil the board

cos it's a very soft, sticky dough.

And this is a way I'm not going to get into an unholy mess.

The butter has now melted completely.

Whisking.

Two eggs go in, nicely beaten.

And all of this liquid goes in.

Und now it's the messy bit!

-Not 'alf!

-Thank you.

And there really is that old adage

that the softer the dough, the better the product.

Do you know, there's always that fear

when you're doing these sticky doughs

that you're going to be like that forever.

Then it's such a satisfying moment when it begins to become dough.

Look at that.

-I think I'm there, Si.

-You there, mate?

-Yeah.

Now, this dough will now sit in the bowl and prove.

Now, ordinarily, as you know,

we'd use clingfilm, but we're not on this occasion.

What we're going to do - we're going to use a damp tea towel,

put that over the top

because the dough rises over the top of the bowl.

So, we'll put that away somewhere nice and warm.

-Look at that one!

-Get in!

It's like the creature from the Black Lagoon.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to make a filling.

It's butter, some demerara sugar,

and cream those together until light and fluffy.

Oh!

Beautiful.

There's about 100ml of maple syrup goes in.

We need to spread this out.

I'm not worried about knocking the air out of it

cos it is going to have a second rising.

Two teaspoons of allspice and two teaspoons of cinnamon.

I believe I have made the biggest naan bread ever created.

But, you know, this is a crowd-pleaser.

-In the middle?

-Oh, no! Just spread it over.

That's it, but leave me an edge, probably.

Look at that. Now...

..chocolate chips.

Now, we're using dark chocolate because, really,

we want to keep the sweetness down a little bit.

There's not that much sugar...

Well, yeah, glace cherries, fair dos.

Now, the cherries go on to the dark chocolate.

And I suppose, it's a bit of a Black Forest thing going on.

Look at this. They're like rubies.

-Look at that, hey?

-Oh, it's lovely.

And that's what you want. It's a crowd-pleaser.

I've buttered this baking dish.

-Oh, David.

-I think this could be a two-hander.

-Right, mate.

-Right, an end each.

And just curl it over.

Cos we're going for a swirl, like a cinnamon swirl.

-Yeah, got you.

-Have you got it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-And again?

-Yeah, keep...

Nice. And just keep it even, keep speed with each other.

-That's it.

-Look at this. Great one to do with the kids.

Not.

And if you find that you've got more than you anticipated,

you can always freeze them.

-That's a big lad.

-Right, just brush with egg.

Cover these with a tea towel

and leave them for about half an hour

for their second rising.

More eggy wash and a coating of demerara sugar.

Now, these need to go into a preheated oven -

about 180 Celsius - for about 35 minutes

until baked through, golden and fabulous.

Hey!

-Hey! Nice buns, dude.

-All right, aren't they?

-They are superb, aren't they?

-Mint.

Now, that's a centrepiece, isn't it?

Well, and that's the thing - you put down loads of cups of tea,

big cafetieres of coffee,

everybody sat round the table having a chat

of a Saturday afternoon.

Brilliant. You can say, "Look what I've got on the table -

"Hairy Bikers' chocolate and cherry buns."

-Shall we do a bit of icing on the top?

-Yeah.

HE HUMS

Ooh, look at that. By the way, this is just icing sugar and water.

Lush, dude.

Nicely done, sir.

Can we eat them now? It's tear...

-..and share.

-I'll tear, you share.

-Ooh!

-Oh, Dave.

-Ooh!

It's so light in a kind of unctuous, sticky,

amazing...

Man, that is epic.

Now, that is a tea-time crowd-pleaser.

For sure.