Suffolk The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

We're the Hairy Bikers, on the road for regional recipes to rev up appetites.

We're riding county to county to discover, cook and enjoy the best of British.

We're here to define the true taste of Suffolk.

Suffolk is a really rural county.

-Look at this, there are thousands of little rinky, dinky villages.

-You're not wrong, it is rural.

Even the county town of Ipswich, their football team, is called the Tractor Boys.

I don't know too much about Suffolk, it's like England's forgotten county.

-I know about the pork, Suffolk hams and sausages, fabulous.

-Where there's hams,

there's pigs, and where there's pigs there's apples. Ying and Yang, dude.

Foods go together like that, don't they? I'm freezing, this bus is never going to come.

Come on, on your bike.

On our quest to define the real flavours of Suffolk,

we cook up a dish that shows off the best of the county's larder.

We sample flour ground at a water mill with a 1,000-year history.

Our wheat goes up and the flour comes down.

We ferret about in the hedgerows in search of wild rabbit.

Representing Suffolk in the cook-off is Chris Lee.

Will we be able to beat him, using the county's finest ingredients?

Here we are, Bury St Edmunds, beautiful town in the county of Suffolk.

We've got to get to the root of Suffolk food.

Let's see what the people think about the county larder, the palate, the taste.

He's always the voice of reason.

What is the iconic food of Suffolk?

Pork, we're in pig country.

Pork of course, it's got to be.

I've got a huge joint tonight and my best mate is a butcher, so I'm laughing.

-I imagine pork and apples.

-It is pork all time.

-It comes up again, pork and apple.

-Just cider.

-Cider and a bit of belly pork.

And there is a lovely shop down there. They'll sort you out in there.

This looks great, they've been here since 1860.

It's quality this, isn't it?

-Morning, gentlemen.

-There's a fella with a frying pan.

Pleased to see you. Look at this!

It's a St Edmunds Bury purse.

What is a St Edmunds Bury purse?

It's some English beef that's been hung for three or four weeks.

Absolutely lean, make a pocket of wholegrain mustard

and ale cheese and then we shut the purse and then we cook it.

Do you want a job! You're good, you, aren't you?

-So it's from the hind quarter, this bit of meat?

-Absolutely.

It's absolutely got to be perfection.

-Try that.

-It's beautiful.

And with that is a sloe wine because the berries here are full of them.

-Thanks very much, good health.

-It's the only way to live.

The smallest pub in Britain.

ALL TALK AT ONCE

-What's the beer like, boys?

-Good, you'd better have one and find out.

It's Greene King down here, isn't it?

Good Suffolk beer, brewed in Bury St Edmunds.

-Cheers, guys.

-This is the IPA.

-Very good.

-The IPA for lunch time, the Abbot for in front of the fire.

Tell us about traditional Suffolk food.

A bit of game pie maybe, pheasant.

A bit of pigeon and rabbit if you can get it.

-What are the traditional dishes?

-Organic pork.

-Pigs, yes.

-Pork it is, it's got to be, hasn't it?

-Yes, and you like cooking it don't you?

-We do.

-We like eating it more.

-That shows!

20% of the UK's outdoor-reared pork comes from Suffolk,

so that's definitely what we have to cook.

But we don't want any old Suffolk pork, we want the best

and that means visiting Blythburgh Free Range and Jimmy Butler,

who has been voted Pig Farmer of the Year.

Plenty of space here.

It's wonderful, the amount of space they got is fantastic.

-They have an acre to run in.

-How many pigs do you have?

About 18,000, between 18,000 and 20,000 most of the time.

I thought pigs were lazy creatures that lay around.

-No, no.

-They're like racehorses!

-Oh yeah.

They'll play, they will muck about, they are like children in the playground, they just enjoy life.

Go on.

-Not a bad life being a free-range pig is it?

-These aren't a rare breed pig, but they are unique?

They are unique, yes. They are what we designed for ourselves, they are a cross-bred.

What was wrong with the pig as it was?

Couldn't get enough back fat on it and length to it,

so we had to create the pig that could grow a little bit slower

but still create the flavour we manage to get into them by doing them free range.

Right, I think that one's ready for the slaughter, don't you?

Balding, scalding and turn it into burgers.

You can fall out with folk really quickly, you know.

I think Pauline has got some food ready for us.

-Lovely.

-I thought that would appeal.

-You're not wrong.

Let me introduce you to Pauline, my wife. She's been cooking all night.

Oh yes!

-Look at the crackling on that!

-I bet you hear that a lot, Pauline, don't you?

-Yes.

What's your secret for cracking?

Dry it off, rub salt and olive oil into the crackling.

Most important of all, heat the oven hot

for half an hour and turn it down and I cooked it for six hours.

-I think it's time we took the top off.

-We couldn't possibly.

This is one of the great pleasures of life.

And that's Dave being polite.

This is the shoulder which is very economical to buy.

The meat almost goes like a confit. It's just so rich.

You can cut it out with a spoon.

Absolutely. You can see she's a good cook, I'm now twice the man she married.

You wait until I get mine, you know?

Would you like some apple sauce? It's homemade. Bon appetit.

That's so full of flavour, Jimmy, it tastes so piggy!

Normal pigs are about 18 or 19 weeks when they are killed.

But these are about 24 to 26 weeks and because of that,

they've had the time to develop flavour into themselves and that's what you're eating.

You're eating pork your grandparents used to eat

that sadly we've lost and the modern-day farming doesn't have nowadays.

-We can't come to Suffolk and not cook pork.

-It would be criminal, mate.

It would be, wouldn't it?

It's time to get cooking this delicious Suffolk pork, and there couldn't be a place more inspiring

than the Maltings at Snape on the banks of the River Ore.

There's a concert hall here that was founded by Benjamin Britten and Sir Peter Pears.

We're cooking up Suffolk Pork in a mushroom, cider and cream sauce with caramelised toffee apples.

-CHEERING

-Now look at this, this is a chop.

And that's a free-range pork chop from the Blythburgh Farm.

What were going to do is cook them in cider with mushrooms, shallots, cream, a bit of mustard.

Everything from Suffolk. It's a really good kind of dish to have with mashed potatoes and carrots.

This is extra-virgin rapeseed oil, it's produced in Suffolk

and you can use it instead of olive oil and as its local, we are at it.

And as there's a few here, we'll do three pans full.

What I've done is season that on the griddle pan that's really hot.

Stand that up there until I find the tongs.

The idea is, you get a nice bit of crackling.

-I need three onions.

-Miles, come here, hold that, will you? Good lad.

I don't want this too hot.

-We don't.

-What we're going to do is do that with all the pork chops,

rub some of that lovely salt into the fat and stand them up together in a little line.

Just like a band of soldiers.

At this point, with the onions, don't want them caramelised,

because we've got caramelised apples,

so the pork and cider is like a white stew.

One of the elemental sounds of life that, an onion sizzling.

You can be quite rustic with the onions. That's well charred.

Cajun, Cajun.

-Burn it and call it Cajun.

-Exactly.

Yes!

You looked a bit kind of wrong.

To this, I have some fine Suffolk bacon, mix that up like that.

Handful in there, doo-doos in there.

Sweat those down

and I will chop the mushrooms now. I must say, Mr King, those chops are great.

Now, to the pan add some mushrooms.

Not fancy mushrooms, just mushrooms from the mushroom farm.

Now these are shallots, they've been blanched for about five minutes because I want the onions whole.

Look at that, all those lovely juices out of the pork chop will slightly caramelise.

So in each pan, a little bit of thyme...

..some parsley and a bay leaf.

Two, three.

Keep that stirring. Imagine all those flavours just mixing in perfect harmony.

Next step, cider.

Aspinalls dry, premier cru from your lovely county.

Put half a bottle in each, bring that to the boil.

One for me, and one for the pan. That'll do.

Bring it to the boil.

-That will be hot that.

-Yes!

Now, we need to put four chops into each pan.

-I think we should go for three and have two on the side.

-All right.

Yes, all of those juices in there, waste not want not.

-Pick your nose and eat it.

-LAUGHTER

It's time to get on with the toffee apples.

These aren't any apples, these are Suffolk Cox's apples.

Ow!

-That will be hot.

-No, I got the sharp end.

Peel, cored and quartered.

What we're going to do to make the toffee apples, this muscovado sugar goes into this bowl.

-First lot. Kingy?

-What, mate?

-Do you think it's a good idea to turn the chops, put the top ones on the bottom?

-Stir it, look.

What happens is, there is a leach of citric acid that have been coated with the muscovado sugar.

Here's another one. What I'm going to do is put the chops into the oven and then the finish off the sauce.

If you have noticed, we've reduced the heat on the griddle pan

because we want the apples to soften and caramelise.

-Who's going to wash up those griddle pans?

-We will leave them to soak in the river for a bit.

The chops have been simmering in the cider, the shallots, the onions, bacon.

We take those out and put them in the oven for a bit.

Right, the sauce.

I think we can put everything back in one pan now, do you?

Now, all that is starting to caramelise nicely.

They will need another 10 minutes before they are sticky and cooked.

To the pan, add some cream.

LAUGHTER

It said on the recipe.

And reduce.

And to that, some good, Suffolk mustard, wholegrain would be better because it's got texture.

Two of those. It is a mustard cream sauce.

I have just had this pan on here so I get the temperature up.

It's a good bubble,

I will let it reduce because the sauce could be runny.

All the shallots are still in a oner. Nice herbs, nice mushrooms.

I think we're about there.

The sauce is reduced, it's thick and tasty.

Pork chops are ready, stood by, standing.

-The toffee apples are sticky and kind of cooked.

-We're ready.

It's like Desperate Dan's breakfast.

-That one's nice.

-Yes.

-That's a comedy chop.

That is a comedy chop.

Scatter those in a cascade off the chops.

Couple of those lovely shallots, now poached down in the cream.

It's kind of a dish from heaven.

You're going to love it.

-That's it, that's it.

-Oh, look at that!

Some parsley sprinkles, not too much. A little bit of mash.

Some carrots.

There we have it, here is our taste of Suffolk. APPLAUSE

Suffolk Pork is so easy to prepare and smells fantastic, but what will such a big hungry crowd make of it?

There you are, my darling.

There are a lot of mouths to feed here! Let's get their verdict.

-What do you reckon?

-Superb, absolutely beautiful.

-I've done mine with a tomato base before, but I'm converted to cream, it's good.

-Go on son!

Size of that, the poor lad will choke!

Now tell us what it's like.

The seed mustard was the right way to go.

-Lovely!

-What do you reckon?

-Very good.

I think you like it, so, young lady, what do you reckon?

Worth waiting for.

CHEERING It's all been eaten, yeah.

-A nice, local roll.

-So, thumbs up from Suffolk?

-Yes!

That went down a storm, thankfully we had enough to go round!

The people of Suffolk were definitely satisfied customers.

Next, an even bigger challenge is around the corner.

As always, we're taking on one of the county's top chefs in their restaurant,

using local ingredients to see who can best define the taste of the region.

It will be up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of Suffolk.

Our opponent today is...

Chris Lee, head chef of The Bildeston Crown.

One of the Good Food Guide's Young Chefs of the Year.

He loves to showcase local fare and his menu reflects his commitment to Suffolk produce.

What we believe in is flavour. Yes, there is the odd foam, the odd jelly,

but it's there to complement the food. The food that we do at The Crown is very relaxed.

A glass of wine in front of the fireplace, some chips and bearnaise,

a 32oz rib of beef, Suffolk cattle, fantastic.

Who would want anything else? The local produce is amazing.

You don't need to go out of Suffolk for produce, you go to the farmers' markets,

the people that do the produce. They care about it. People are proud to show it off in Suffolk.

Tenderness and flavour is definitely what the local produce is about.

Everybody on their menu can say it's local this, local that. But you need to shout about it.

Do it cos you care about it. Get your guys involved in the kitchen, that's what cooking's about.

The awards over the last few years have been fantastic. I was lucky last year in the Good Food Guide

to get Up and Coming Chef of Great Britain.

Obviously I'll now have to work for Chef of the Year.

To take on the Bikers, my taste of Suffolk is roasted mallard with gizzard and heart stew.

-So, Chris...

-Yes?

-..In the battle for the Plate of Suffolk, what are you going to do for us?

Right, we've got a lovely mallard from a farm just two minutes up the road.

-Does all the game for us at the hotel.

-Well, that's local!

-Everything we are going to do, the potatoes, kale, squash, all local.

-Headline that dish!

Everything. We're doing roasted mallard with slow-roasted gizzards and heart stew.

Chris, I know you prepare lots of this dish in advance.

Could you show us which bits of duck you're using?

Yes. We just nip the skin, just bring it all the way down, keep the skin on the bird.

That's a lovely colour, Chris. How long would that be hung?

For a couple of days, you don't need more.

So we've got the two legs which we're going to really cook slowly in some duck fat.

We've got the thigh which we'll braise and then mix together with a bit of a mousse

and we're going to make a little golf ball, so all the flavour.

The dish is about everything on the duck. OK, taking the breast off, nice and gently.

So we've got one lovely breast.

The carcass gets roasted really slowly, we're going to make a duck stock, cooked for about 10 hours.

-10 hours?!

-Yeah.

-Have you got a room.

-Ready for this?

One will be for the sauce, the other part, we'll do a clear consomme to go with the dish as well.

Nice. Fantastic.

So just trimming up these, and again, take the fillets off.

The fillets get used for clarification of the consomme.

So again, everything gets used. So a little bit of salt.

We don't use pepper, it doesn't bring out anything.

-Good quality salt, obviously?

-Maldon sea salt, just down the road.

Very good. OK, the pan has obviously been on for a while.

We're going to roast these off, melt down some of the fat.

You cook it first on that side to leach out the fat?

Yes, turn it over. Same colour again, but everything goes in the pan.

Just leave those ticking over.

So what we're going to do, go through the bone there, just nice and slowly.

We'll roast it really slowly, because it can be quite tough meat.

This, we're going to slow braise.

I'll just pop these in the oven.

I'll put them in for three minutes, nice and pink.

Then I'll just leave them to rest.

The potatoes, known as dauphinoise, I just like to call them a garlic cream potato.

We've infused some garlic with rosemary and thyme,

cream, milk, brought it up to boil with a little bit of nutmeg.

So they go in and we just colour them off a little bit.

In the fat from the duck!

We cook them really, really slowly the day before on about 150 for an hour,

take the foil off, get a bit of colour on them and then press them.

That's how you get your layers.

-Then they go in the fridge.

-Fabulous.

-Just tick it over.

-Look at that lovely glaze comes on to it!

-Nice and slowly.

Okay, so we'll check the duck, and then the duck out the oven...

Okay, so still a little bit pink.

Remember they're going to be rested for a couple of minutes. We'll just leave them to rest.

And then, another little thing, the juices, why waste it? Get it on.

-Yeah!

-Nice and gently, cos obviously they're are now getting to the soft stage.

Seriously, it's a beautiful thing.

It's a work of art!

OK, so we have the hearts and the gizzards.

-They're big hearts, aren't they?

-Yes, big birds.

All we need to do is nip off the top,

have a little look inside to make sure they're all nice and clean.

Again, into the quarters like that.

Now, you nip that top off because you don't use that?

Yeah, it's got tubes and things like that.

And the gizzards. We're just going to take off any white like that.

Again, the gizzards take a very long time to cook really, really slow.

-They're very rich, aren't they?

-They are.

-A gizzard is a second stomach that breaks up food.

-That's what it is.

They get salted for two hours with some rosemary, thyme and bay leaf and a little bit of garlic.

Then wash the salt off and they go into a little duck fat which just

sits there, and we tick them over. That will take about eight hours.

I'll just clear my board, cos that's me down for my raw meat.

And these are the cuts of duck you prepared earlier?

This is the leg. Again, it has been really slowly cooked in duck fat.

We've then just left it to cool a bit and trimmed,

-just made it very chef-y, which I'm going to pan fry.

-Crispy duck.

-Can't beat it.

Then here, this is the gizzard which has been confited really slowly in the fat.

It's got the mousse around it, it's been set, then what we're going to do is just pan-fry.

Keep the cling film on to keep the shape.

-What's in the mousse, Chris?

-The mousse is just all the scraps from the duck.

-All the little bits?

-Everything.

-What's the herb?

The herb is parsley. So it's like a duck terrine, which we're just going to warm up.

These are obviously the thigh, which has been cooked really slowly, flank down,

rolled into nice little pieces and then paned into bread crumbs.

-I'm just starting to think we needed to come two days earlier.

-I know! I know!

We've got to do it from scratch! We're on a hiding to nowt.

We've got a drumstick, duck balls and a sausage!

OK, all into the pan.

-You're still keeping the cling film on?

-Keep the cling film on, yeah.

-Will that work?.

-Yeah, yeah. It doesn't burn. It just sits there. It's a chef-y thing.

-Ooooh!

We'll just put these to the frier, literally two minutes before we start plating the dish.

Nice and crispy, crispy balls. So I'll just pop those in the oven.

I can't get over the whole cling film thing, dude!

OK, let's do the vegetables. Very simple, we're going to do a squash, fantastic time of year for it.

-What we do for the puree, we peel it, into small chunks, place into a bag...

-Sous-vide!

Yeah, basically sous-vide cooking.

Nice and spongy, nice and soft.

It's got a knob of butter in there and some seasoning.

And this literally goes into the blender.

Everything's in there, nothing's been wasted, nothing's been lost.

If you find it's not coming together - a touch of warm milk. Keep it warm.

If you put cold milk in, it'll start having that grainy feel to it.

Going back to the heart stew, we've prepped the hearts,

we've marinaded them in red wine and thyme overnight.

-Taken the liquor off them in the morning. A bit of flour on them.

-What are the crispy bits?

Some diced carrots and diced celeriac and some diced shallots.

A touch of port and that really gets the taste buds going.

So that goes on the stove and then the consomme.

A fantastic part of the dish.

-And now the kale.

-Kale's great.

-It's been blanched in boiling water,

then all we do is pan fry it in a little bit of butter, bit of salt,

touch of pepper - cos that's where the pepper comes in - and that's it.

-We have the puree here, fantastic consistency.

-That's silky.

All we're going to do is, in case there's any lumps...

-You'd still pass that through a sieve?

-Yes, a little sieve,

cos we're only doing a couple of portions.

OK, so we'll put all our sauces on.

Pan for the kale. This is obviously where it all comes together.

-Knob of butter into the pan.

-SIZZLING

You want it that brown, like a beurre noisette,

cos again, it's more flavour than just a normal bit of butter.

OK, plenty of butter, in goes the kale.

You're flashing that

-with no heat other than what's been retained in the pan, yeah?

-That's it.

It's kept going, and that's it. Fantastic.

Onto there. All I'm going to do now, start plating up...

We'll just squeeze these out, cos you don't want the juices on.

Just take the cutter off, on goes the kale...

Make sure there's no cling film on it, cos it doesn't go down very well!

So the puree...

-Just trim it off. For the chefs.

-Oh, really?

-Nice and rested.

-Ah, smart, man!

-OK, so the heart stew...

just into the pot.

The duck stock, it's been reduced down.

On with the consomme. Into the pan.

We've got some clementines, cooked down in their own juices. A touch of orange.

Blitz them up with stock syrup and then put into here.

It's called an espuma.

What... That is fantastic.

-Finish off with a parsley...

-Wow.

What's lovely is, if you're presented with that on the table, it's an adventure of food.

But one food - duck. How wonderful's that?

So we have roasted breast of mallard, slow roasted leg,

finished off with a heart stew, the consomme and the clementine foam.

I've got to have a taste of this.

Oh, wowser! It's a duck a l'orange in a glass! The duck hearts...

You know what's nice? The texture.

-That's so rich.

-I think we might be in trouble here.

-I think we're knackered.

I'm really looking forward to this.

-The garlic in the potatoes is so rich.

-The gizzard sausage and mousse.

-Take that with the kale..

-Oh, wow!

-Moist.

-Moist.

Now then, duck balls.

Half...

-I'd love a pile of them with a pint!

-Confit.

That's my favourite, I so love dark meat.

It's an immaculately presented restaurant dish.

Boy, does Chris know how to cook!

-Oh aye!

-I could be a piranha in a former life!

But it's the locals who will decide whose dish is best in the blind tasting coming up.

To take on Chris' duck, we need to find something packed with flavour.

Well, look around us, this rural county must be full of game.

Let's go wild!

Hi, Robert.

'We're here to meet Robert Gooch, owner of the Wild Meat Company.'

-What's that?

-That's a hare, yeah.

-Ah!

-A lot of wood pigeons behind, we're full of wild meat here.

-It's your business, isn't it?

-We're trying to create an niche where wild food will be seen as an alternative

to organic, an alternative to free range and conventional.

-Can you show us what you've got?

-Sure, d'you want to come in?

-Aye.

We're nearly out of the game season for the birds, but we've got a few still left. Partridges.

French red-legged partridge.

Wood pigeon. We've had a bumper year for woodcock.

To me this is the finest of all game birds. We've got rabbit and hare in here.

These are the hares that you saw in the field. They're quite a lot bigger than a rabbit.

Aye. Does the wild rabbit taste different to farmed rabbit?

Yes, I think it's got a slightly gamey flavour, a slightly stronger flavour,

firmer texture of meat. Rabbits are one of the most popular things at farmers' markets.

Of all the wild food Suffolk has to offer, rabbit really takes our fancy.

-What exactly is this, Robert?

-A cold rabbit pie.

Traditionally every Christmas morning lots of Suffolk families have cold rabbit pie.

I have it in the summer as a cold lunch with salad.

-It's wonderful rabbit pie, isn't it?

-A great, proper Suffolk tradition.

Lovely.

Robert often calls upon the expertise of Johnny.

By ferreting for rabbits, he's also helping local farmers protect their crops.

My grandfather has done it, my grandfather's grandfather.

-It's got a long tradition in these parts.

-Johnny, why are we talking so quietly?

So that we don't make the rabbits hear us.

This morning I set out some nets on the hedge down here over the holes.

Being quiet is the key to this.

This is one big warren running all the way through to the end of this thicket.

The rabbits could come out at any place.

It's like cowboys and indians, this, but just for rabbits.

The girls here are all albinos because they're a lot easier to see in the hedge.

-Lift it up, put her in, put it back.

-Right-oh.

I'll put the golden girls into the holes very quietly.

They'll chase the rabbits out into the nets that I set.

Stand back.

How long do we wait?

Until all the ferrets are out of the hole.

They'll work the rabbits.

SQUEAKING

That's another one.

There's one there!

That worked quite well. Two rabbits.

Can you pick the ferrets up now, guys, please.

Johnny, did you kill these instantly?

Yes, the first thing I do is break the neck.

That relieves any stress upon the animal.

-They just go quickly. Very quickly.

-It's a proper, old, rural craft.

Whilst the action was happening over there another rabbit's bolted into this net here.

Eventually they'll just kick their way out and he's run off to feed another day.

I really think we're getting a sense of this county's heritage.

So, we'll use a saddle of rabbit wrapped in spinach

and local pancetta with a duxelle of mushrooms.

We'll complete this dish with another taste of Suffolk's history.

Flour, an ingredient that has been milled here the same way for centuries.

This is heaven, isn't it?

Beautiful. It's tranquillity all around.

That's one of the things people like when they come here.

It's just a lovely place to be.

David, tell us about Pakenham Mill?

The building here behind us is about 200 years old,

but there has been a mill on the site for nearly 1000 years.

We have a windmill which you can see at the top of the pond and it's the only village

in England still with a working windmill and a working watermill.

Fabulous.

-I bet you've got a lovely mill pond.

-We have indeed.

Its stores all the water that drives the huge 16 ft high water wheel.

We'd love to see that. Can we have a look?

-Wow!

-That's the same wheel that has been here for more than 100 years.

Made in Bury St Edmunds, you can see the name on it.

You don't need a fast-flowing river to push this great wheel round.

All you need is the water filling those buckets on the one side of the wheel and it'll turn.

It holds about half to three-quarters of a tonne weight of water.

That drives a heavy millstone.

Here we are, this is where it all happens.

Fantastic! The building comes alive. It's just amazing.

-The whole building vibrates.

-It's got a heart, hasn't it?

Just like that, boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom. Lovely.

The wheat comes down the chute, fills up the hopper

and then you can see it's coming from the bottom of the hopper

in a steady stream down there and into the eye of the stone.

Eye of the stone!

The wheat goes in there, it's ground between the two millstones and you can see there's a block sweeping

the flour around and it goes down another chute down to the floor below

and straight into the sacks.

Let me introduce you to Roger.

He's been milling here for longer than anyone can remember.

Roger, how do you assess the quality of that?

-You get a handful of it, squeeze it and see how it stays.

-It stays.

-It's lovely.

-This is wholemeal.

Nothing taken out.

It doesn't get much more whole than this, does it?

Our wheat goes up and the flour comes down.

We don't do anything to it.

Perfect. David, have you got an oven?

We've got a very special oven.

David, how long ago did you light that fire in the oven?

6 o'clock this morning.

What a very nice man you are, sir.

Why do I feel this'll be the best bread we've ever tasted?

Here is the bread. Thank you.

Two lovely loaves.

In it goes on the peel.

We'll bring it out in about 25 minutes' time.

Shut the door.

Here it is.

Look at that. That means you've got good gluten in your flour

because there's a nice bounce on your bread.

-Smell the wheat.

-It's like a taste of paradise.

I'm going to have a bit, too, thank you. Just taste that.

You don't need any butter and jam on it.

-The flavour of that...

-Good bread.

Straight from the wheat.

I think that's the acid test.

It's all very nice and it's wonderful, but so is the bread.

Right, in competition with your masterpiece we've gone traditional.

It's a stuffed saddle of rabbit with a duxelle of mushrooms,

served with braised red cabbage with cranberry and cheese oatcakes and some game chips.

It'll be up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of Suffolk.

Step one, cabbage takes an hour and a half.

HE LAUGHS

The obligatory big knob of butter.

Savoy cabbage.

One finely sliced red onion.

It's not all going to fit in this pan.

To this you grate one Bramley apple and four beetroots.

-Ever thought about getting a bigger kitchen?

-Not till today.

-Local beetroot, these?

-Yes.

Oh! Take those stupid gloves off.

Now we grate the beetroot.

This is raw beetroot. 3 tablespoons of local red wine vinegar.

Two, three. And also three tablespoons of not local muscovado sugar.

Why do I always get...?

Mr Smiley!

-Give us a look at that.

-I'll never get that off.

That's about three.

Give it a quick mix up.

It looks like an alarming amount.

This will drop. The cinnamon stick goes on to there.

Stick that on a fire for an hour and a half and hey presto, job done.

Clean me head up, I feel stupid.

-Lovely, that.

-There we are, three rabbits.

It's funny with rabbits, the hind quarters, the haunch, it cooks differently to the saddle.

-Yes.

-Can be a tough brute, but we use both in this, to waste nowt.

First off, you take that off there.

-And these are local?

-Yes, absolutely.

We went out ferreting. These aren't the ones that we caught,

because the ones that we caught were hung for a couple of days.

Look at this, this is how easy that loin comes off.

I'm not cutting it, I'm just pulling it off.

How lovely is that?

Take a pan...

..some olive oil.

First of all we want to brown that in some olive oil.

Give that a bit of colour.

It's not generally available in supermarkets. Ask your butcher to get you a rabbit.

And a rabbit costs about £3 each.

The rabbit's taken some colour, so into that pan I'm going to add

the vegetables, a shallot, a carrot and a couple of sticks of celery.

-He says that.

-Very well.

Just toss that until you're happy.

To this about 250 mls of good chicken stock,

250 millilitres of white wine

and a couple of bay leaves.

Just bring that to the boil and let that simmer until the rabbit's tender.

That's what's getting stuffed. One part of the stuffing is simmering

and the other part of the stuffing is a duxelle of mushrooms.

-Butter.

-Thank you, sir.

First step, soften the shallots.

About three shallots.

Just chop these roughly because they are going to go in a blender

but we have to wait for those to go translucent before we put these in.

I think we're all right, mate.

The mushrooms go in there.

Cover those up and just cook them slowly for about five minutes with a lid on.

Meanwhile the haunches of rabbit

will take a couple of hours to simmer down.

So after two hours, that rabbit'll look like that.

I just need to pick the meat off that now

and that will go in as part of the component parts of the stuffing.

It's falling off the bones. Warm it up, just to get that more liquid

and then we can strain that and that will be the basis of the gravy.

These are porcini mushrooms. They've been soaking about 20 minutes.

We'll need some of this juice to put into the duxelle.

I'm going to take some of these big bones out and then sieve

this through, reduce it and that's going to be our gravy.

Look at that, it's got a lovely glaze on it.

Now, everybody, that's the reduced stock to jelly and in the kitchen

-like this it's gold, isn't it?

-It is.

Roasted beef bones in a big stockpot simmered for 12 hours and then just the bones taken out and reduced.

I'm just going to put a nice spoonful of that into the juices that have come from the rabbit.

All you need to do is warm that through, put some butter in and that's your gravy.

No thickener, nothing.

Right, the duxelle. First some porcinis.

I've left the juice there for you, mate.

That's absolute concentrate liquor of mushrooms.

I'm just going to cover the bottom of the pan with that and then just give it a stir

and to that about one tablespoon of double cream.

Leave the top off at this point. We want that quite dry.

-Keep a close eye on it so you don't burn it.

-For the oatcakes

we've taken the mill flour from the thousand-year old mill.

There's heritage in this bag. Pinhead oatmeal.

Pakenham wholemeal flour and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

To that some salt, about half a teaspoon.

-And the reason for the cranberries?

-Cranberries and rabbit go together.

And some grated cheese, parmesan would be good.

This is a good Suffolk cheese, a Cheddar-like creature.

-Beautiful.

-That is good, man.

Oatcakes need about... This could be messy!

Two tablespoons of boiling lard.

Get your hands in and a mix it.

It'll be all right, it's not that hot.

Make that into a dough.

HE SHRIEKS

No, I'm joking.

With about eight tablespoons of boiling water.

One, two, three, four.

Stop there and give it a go. We're very nearly there. One more.

That's about eight tablespoons.

That's it, absolutely on the money.

It would be nice if we could chill this for a bit.

A baking tray, a piece of parchment and because I'm paranoid, I'm going to put a bit of oil on there.

Take half of it,

-I think we need about two per portion. Three?

-Let's go for three.

Cranberry and cheese oatcakes for "rabbitisation"

across the nation. That will do.

Put these into a preheated oven about 180 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes until they're golden.

Next step, the stuffing.

The mushrooms have gone in there, the rabbit's in there,

now we have the white of an egg, parsley.

And an egg white. Fire.

WHIRRING

That's how we want it.

It's like a rough cut, kind of stuffing.

You just need to season that now and that's the stuffing done.

The oatcakes are done. Excellent, well done.

-Perfect, look. Just colouring up on that side.

-Lovely.

Set those aside to cool nicely. Let's do the saddles.

We take the pancetta and make a blanket. And repeat.

On to this I want some baby spinach leaves.

These wonderfully trimmed saddle of rabbit a twist of pepper.

I know you don't like pepper, but we do.

And a little bit of sea salt.

What we do now is take two saddles and place one there, another there

and take some stuffing.

You want about the same proportions, like so.

-Go on.

-Do it quite tightly.

That's a healthy portion for one.

I just transfer those on to a lightly oiled roasting dish.

Do it so that it's the bacon seam side down.

Let's put those into a preheated oven, about 185 degrees,

I reckon for only about 10 minutes until they start to go golden.

The oatcakes are done, the rabbit's in the oven, all we need now is the game chips.

Cut that like that to get a nice straight end.

You put that like that.

The first one is sacrificial.

You see the grooves there, you turn it round and do it like that and out pops a holey crisp.

These are called game chips and we're going to have a stack of these on either side of the rabbit.

That's it. They're brilliant.

-I don't think I can handle your deep-fat frier.

-I'm on it.

Just keep moving them around.

That cabbage is just a lovely, sticky mass now.

-Game chips.

-Posh crisps, those.

Let them rest, put some of that juice into there.

I never waste nowt. Good lad.

I think we might have done a few too many portions.

Your living room used to be this colour.

-It did, yes.

-That's what you want, deconstructed rabbit.

That's juicy, mate.

-What do you think?

-That's it.

-Way away from the game chips.

-Mr Myers, headline that.

Stuffed saddle of rabbit with a duxelle of mushrooms served

with braised red cabbage, beetroot, baking apples, with cranberry and cheese oatcakes and some game chips.

He's not wrong.

The cabbage is lovely. The rabbit's lovely and moist. The jus is amazing.

it's got all the flavours and everything in there.

The game chips are cut perfectly.

-It really is a lovely dish. For me, personally, just too much veg to go with the rabbit.

-OK.

Little bit concerned now. If the TV doesn't work out, come here.

-Can I have a job?

-I'll take you up on that.

Thanks, Chris, great offer, but first we've got to see if our dish is good enough to beat you.

The diners here will taste both dishes, but without any idea of who cooked which.

-First up is Chris's duck platter with heart stew.

-I've not come across the heart stew before.

That was fantastic.

Restaurants tend to use the best bits and discard the others which have been cooked properly

as they are today. And much more delicious.

It's nice to see how out of one animal you can get such different textures and flavours.

The consomme, I didn't like it at all. It was like drinking liquid fat.

The consomme I actually enjoyed.

I loved the bitterness of the Orange.

I had to share it with three other people.

Can I have some more, please?

They loved it, now it's down to our pancetta-wrapped saddle of rabbit

with a duxelle of mushrooms and Suffolk oatcakes.

It looked good on the plate, there was enough volume there this time,

so it looked like a proper meal and I thought the flavour of the rabbit was very subtle, but very good.

It was quite bland, so it needed that pancetta to go with it.

-The oatcakes were like eating cardboard, really.

-The red cabbage overpowered the dish.

It probably would have been very nice but with a smaller quantity.

Probably too much going on and it took away from the rabbit itself.

-Hello.

-APPLAUSE

Firstly, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for having us in your wonderful county.

We've met somebody who we hope will be a good friend for a long time.

-He's a good man. Great in the kitchen.

-Aye.

So, could we have a show of hands for the duck?

That's eight for the duck.

And for the rabbit?

OK, the duck was Chris's.

You can come with us and get drunk, the rest of you have just blown it!

Well done and we're not speaking to you.

I'm not surprised. Fantastic, a fabulous dish

and very, very well done.

It's fair to say the best man won.

Chris's dish was incredible.

He really is a deserving winner.

After all, he's young Chef of the Year.

We've certainly learnt a lot in Suffolk.

This really is a county still rich in food traditions.

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