Gwynedd The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

We're the Harry Bikers, finding regional recipes to rev up your appetite.

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

-Come on! Wey-hey!

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

Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it?

-This is magnificent! Oh!

-This is... Where are you going?

Just - look! I feel inspired.

Look! Ooh! To see the world in a grain of sand! And heaven in a white flower!

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity within the hour.

Get down from there, you! You're going to hurt yourself.

It's the land of poetry and song - Gwynedd.

You know, it's not just sheep in them there hills.

Endless coastlines, golden beaches.

-I bet food reflects the landscape.

-Rugged.

-It's gotta be hearty, tasty.

-Oh, aye. It's gonna be good.

'On our quest to define the true flavours of Gwynedd,

'we drive into the magical land of Portmeirion and cook up a traditional county favourite.

'We help out on a farm and get our hands on some of the tastiest lamb in the county.

'We find spectacular mushrooms of all shapes and sizes grown by a fun guy named Cynan.

'And representing Gwynedd in the cook-off is Peter Jackson.

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

'First stop - Pwllheli. We need to know what traditionally gets Gwynedd taste buds going.'

I'm trying to find out what's, like, the famous produce and famous dishes of Gwynedd?

You have lobscouse. It's a stew you can make either with beef or lamb.

Some people put leek. Some people put sprouts, potatoes.

A good filler with fresh crispy bread.

Ah! Yeah.

-Welsh lamb.

-Welsh lamb.

-And beef! Wonderful beef, wonderful beef.

Hello, ladies. What are your local specialities?

I'd say... For Pwllheli, I'd say seafood.

-There's lobscouse, which is like veg and meat and...

-It's a bit like a stew.

It's got to be lobscouse, innit?

My gran used to make it for me. My mum used to make it for me.

It's a well-known dish in Wales, like, lobscouse.

-It's got to be lobscouse we cook.

-It's got to be.

Now, you may think we've gone completely bonking mad. We know this is a Spar, but...

This is closer to Fortnum & Mason's than your average Spar shop.

Come and have a look.

'Conrad Davis' family have owned this award-winning store for five generations.

'He's made it his business to celebrate local produce.'

Lately, we've really got behind local producers, suppliers,

and really, really pushed and marketed the products we've got,

-and quality, good Welsh products.

-Show us what you've got!

-No problem.

Local carrots, just from six miles up the road.

We've got some lovely spuds here, locally grown.

Again, this is our same man, our carrot man.

-Right.

-And he grows broccolis, cauliflowers.

We've got Swedes off him. He does all of our produce for us.

Obviously, being on the peninsula, a big thing here is shellfish.

-Yes.

-These crabs... Well, they were in the pots yesterday.

We do all our own butchering, as you can see. Welsh lamb, Welsh beef,

the full works. People are really going for the cheaper cuts of meat.

-Right.

-If you look at something like this ox heart.

-Think of the meal you can do with that now.

-Yeah.

And you have that for a nice Saturday night. Cracking steaks.

Look at that, fresh pheasants and wild ducks.

-These are up the road literally, the local game keeper.

-That's mad!

-Ah, yes! Where do we start? Pie.

-Carol Harvey makes these for us.

Made with Welsh Black beef. You can get them here, on her farm shop and Harrods.

-Hey!

-The crust's fantastic.

-It is.

-It tastes like a homemade pie.

-Let's try this crab. Oh!

-Yeah.

We've got suppliers who supplied my grandfather, and I'm now working with their grandchildren.

This looks like a top butcher's. Hello.

-Hiya. How are you?

-I'm all right.

We'll be cooking a lobscouse. Can you show us what beef we need?

-You need the cheaper cuts.

-Right.

-That's what we use around here.

-Can you do us a marrow bone as well?

-Oh, yeah. You need bone with it.

-Is there a chance of having a look at a four quarter hanging?

-Yeah. We can cut it up for you.

-Right, this is it.

-That's beef.

-This is Welsh beef, four quarter.

What's the advantage of using the cheaper cuts of meat?

-Well, the advantage to the housewife is you can get a lot more meat for your money.

-Wow.

-So what cuts of beef do we need?

-This is one of the most favourite ones in Wales.

-It's called the sherry.

-Look at that.

-This is called the clod.

-It'd take me a fortnight to do that.

-Me too.

-So fast.

-We've got the brisket down here and then you've got your neck.

-A lot of fat in it.

-Those cuts need longer.

-Not the flash fry.

-No.

-They're not like sirloin, not like fillet.

-No.

It needs to be reheated and add veggies to it. Eat it the first day and reheat it the second day.

My mum used to have it going all week.

-Look at the marrow in that, man. Yeah.

-You'll only get that from a proper butcher's.

-Anything off this will scouse.

-You can scouse it.

-Scouse it, yeah.

-That's when the dish has become part of the county's vocabulary, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

Can you scouse it? I think we can.

Gwynedd's world-famous beauty spot, Portmeirion,

is a perfect place to cook the county's traditional dish.

Designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis in 1925,

it's inspired by the Italian fishing village Portofino.

Even on a Welsh grey day, its colours bring a bit of sunshine.

-This is bonkers, isn't it?

-It is.

-A small Italian village on the side of the water, absolutely gorgeous.

It's Welsh and it's wacky.

Hello, sir.

'No time for a chat, we've got a hungry crowd waiting for us.

'We're cooking up...

'lobscouse, a simple and traditional stew

'made from beef, potatoes, onions, turnip and carrots.'

-Right!

-After exhaustive research, with the good people of Pwllheli....

-Pwllheli... Pwllheli?

-He's got his own teeth as well, you know.

The dish that everybody said was representative of Gwynedd was the lobscouse.

Good, hearty traditional fare. Right. First off, we need to brown the meat.

What you don't want to do is put a lot of meat in the pan, you see, cos all it does then is steam.

-You can do it in batches and put your batches in there.

-Exactly.

There you are, that's enough. Brown it off.

-It doesn't take long, does it?

-I know.

Every stew has got its onions, though, hasn't it?

It's a very simple recipe this.

He's manning the fire and I'm manning the chopper.

I'll do my potatoes next.

-Good Welsh's spuds.

-Come and have a look.

We've just added a bit of colour on this meat now, look. See?

A little bit brown there like that.

Now before we peeled them, they had muck on.

-Buy potatoes that have muck on, cos they're tastier.

-Why peel them?

-All the goodness is just under the skin.

-I agree.

-You've got to peel for mash, though, haven't you?

-No.

-You mash the skins as well?

-Yes.

You've got to peel your potatoes. That's not right, that.

Mm!

Marrow's great in stews, isn't it?

You put a couple of marrowbones and just seal them and put the marrowbones in with the stew.

-That will thicken it and make it sticky, and make it stick your ribs.

-Look at this.

Leave that for a minute or two.

-Look at that.

-Oh.

-I'm just going to take this out.

-That's about enough now.

-That's lovely.

Does anybody here cook lobscouse?

Madam, any tips?

-Cook it for a long time.

-BOTH: Yeah.

I save my vegetable stock, that gives it a good flavour.

-Yes.

-Good top tip, Mrs.

Right, the building blocks of all good stews, onions. Just sweated.

We've maintained and kept all the same flavours in the same pot.

-Rotate them through the dish.

-When you're cooking, you always take flavours.

Like that lady said about the stocks, why waste flavour?

If you're doing meat, you keep the bit from the meat, from the veg,

it all builds up and you get better tasting food.

I'm chopping my turnip now to go with the potatoes. I'll put those in

to toss round with the fat and juices and loveliness.

-I think that's enough.

-That will do us.

Just add a little bit of seasoning.

And a leek.

But you can put what vegetables you want in a lobscouse!

-I wouldn't put sweet corn in.

-No, that would be wrong!

-You've got to have leeks, it's Welsh.

-Exactly.

-It's a well-packed pan.

-It is a well-packed pan.

Now then, a little bit more salt.

Do you know what we're going to do for a little twist? A bay leaf.

-Throw a couple in.

-There we are.

All lobscouse should have carrot. The carrot adds flavour and colour.

-And a little bit of sweetness.

-Sweetness.

-Now then...

-Now then!

Bury in the middle of that unctuousness,

the two marrowbones.

-Oh, that's champion.

-Then what we're gonna do... Put that on the top.

-It's a big lobscouse, this.

-Put some stock in there.

-Aye!

Right...

-It's there, it's there.

-That's lovely, lovely.

Anybody got any suggestions now? To my money, what we do

is cover that up and cook that for hours and hours.

-Some pepper.

-On its way, madam.

-And a bay leaf.

-Put two in.

-Oh, you've done that?

-Yeah, done that.

-Have you been asleep?

Just pop that in a low oven, about 130 degrees for about two days.

Has anybody got Scrabble?

-Oh, thank you, madam.

-Oh, there you are, madam.

Aha! In true Blue Peter sort of style fashion...

here's one we made earlier, look.

Look at that. Look, see. That's worth an "ooh", isn't it?

-Have a waft, Mrs, have a waft.

-Lobscouse, made in Wales.

Oh... Oh, lovely.

-All we need to serve that with is crusty bread and butter.

-Yes.

Who's good with their hands? We'll go through that lovely arch and eat his food.

What are you lot standing for? You're coming with me. Come on! Come on, here we go.

-Let's go and eat stew in the rain.

-What a good idea. Isn't it?

There you are.

'This is such a county favourite, everyone had their version. So will ours be up to scratch?'

-It's like a lobscouse garden party!

-It's a lobscouse rave, dude.

-Some canapes and lots of stew.

-Loads of stew.

-What do you think of our lobscouse?

-Absolutely fantastic.

-My mother never made it like this in her life.

-Didn't she?

-No. God rest her soul.

-Madam.

-Really, really nice.

-Nice and seasoned, isn't it?

It's dead simple. Good meat, good veg, let it go for hours. There's no secret.

-This is a serious one.

-Very good, very good.

-How many out of 10?

-10 out of 10.

-Really?

-Really?

-Definitely.

Now then, what do you reckon to our effort?

-Well, it's warming the cockles of my heart.

-Tasty?

-Very good. Excellent.

-Ardderchog.

-Oh, gawd!

-Blasus iawn.

-Ardderchog.

-Blasus iawn.

-Blasus iawn. Ardderchog. Blasus iawn.

-That's really good.

Oh, thank you.

SHE SPEAKS WELSH, THEY REPEAT WHAT SHE SAYS

-Call again.

-Call again.

-Oh, thank you very much!

Our lobscouse was a hit in Welsh and English!

But our biggest challenge is just 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's up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents

'the true favours of Gwynedd. Our opponent today is...

'Peter Jackson, head chef and owner of Maes-Y-Neuadd.

'Peter is President of the Welsh Culinary Association.

'He champions local food and has the finest ingredients on his doorstep.'

Most produce we get comes from within 30 miles.

Out the front door, on the right, I've got Snowdonia,

so I can get mountain lambs, lowland lambs, salt marsh lamb, beautiful Welsh Black Beef.

And to my left is Cardigan Bay, where I get sea bass, grey mullet,

cockles, mussels, big prawns, even samphire off the estuary.

Food miles are very important to me.

Closer to home, I have two acres under cultivation for produce for myself.

You name it, we can grow it.

People come to Maes-Y-Neuadd, because we work around the seasons.

The menu changes every day with as much local produce as possible.

It's all about freshness, cooked simple. Presentation is number two. Taste is number one.

Cooking off the land makes a chef's job very easy and being in Gwynedd makes it even better.

I'm really proud to live here. All the farmers come with produce. "Do you want this or that?"

And I say to them, "Ask a silly question!" Of course I want them!

To take on the bikers, my taste of Gwynedd is a trio of duck.

A lovely breast on an apple and pear compote, a little rissole of duck and barley, rolled in local oats

with hot brawn of duck, butternut squash and a fabulous sloe gin foam.

-Peter.

-Hello there.

-Nice to see you. How are you?

Welcome to the hotel Maes-Y-Neuadd.

Well, Mr Peter Jackson, here we are.

What are your cooking, Peter?

We're going to use some wild ducks that were shot not far from here.

I'm going to do them three ways. We'll do the breast very simple,

with an apple and pear compote with beautiful thyme from our garden.

We've got the rissole, which is used in the duck confit with barley.

-The third thing is we're going to do brawn.

-A duck brawn?

A duck brawn, but with a modern twist.

-Hot.

-Nah, how do you have hot brawn?

-It doesn't work.

-Honestly!

-And a sloe gin foam.

-Oh, no!

-He's doing a foam!

-It's our nightmare, foam.

-Are we ready to start?

-Yes, yes, chef.

-Wild ducks.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

Two sizes, one male, one female. We're going to take the legs off.

-Which one's the biggest, male or female?

-Female.

-Sitting around all day.

-Cos the male spends all day chasing females.

-Exactly.

-Good meat on those ducks.

-There is. And it's all natural.

-Look at the breast on that bird! God!

-Beautiful, isn't it?

-Absolutely beautiful.

-It's great.

-Absolutely great product.

After I've seasoned the ducks, put them down, seasoned side down.

-Too many chefs don't season food.

-Yes, yes.

Go into a bloody steakhouse, and there's no salt on the steak,

-and it's the most awful thing you can have.

-Yeah.

And then just season the other side before you turn it over.

It's a note Dave and I have picked up a lot, that some chefs put stuff out the kitchen

without even tasting it. And it's madness.

What we're going to do, put this in a tray and leave them for

five to ten minutes and we'll catch up with them later in the dish.

Now what we want to do is seal the legs off and roast them.

What would you do with the carcasses, Peter?

-I would make stock. Roast them off, make stock.

-Yeah. Wonderful.

Put this in the oven to roast for a little bit and then we'll add the duck back later.

The next thing we need to get on is the apple compote. I've got the pears and apples ready.

Pan on the stove. A little bit of unsalted butter.

The reason it is unsalted, you can adjust the seasoning for yourself.

Some of the butters you get from the supermarket are heavily salted.

-Absolutely.

-There's a couple of... The English ones especially.

And we'll just chop a little bit of shallot.

Now there's a skill. That's what you call fine.

Years of practice. Into the pan.

-That's a little shallot.

-Just a little.

-Use a bit of the fresh thyme.

-I can smell that from here.

When we write the menu each day, the first people we speak to is the gardeners.

They come up with a list of what they've got.

Then we think about fish and meat and building the menu up and the third thing we think about is

customers who've been here for a few days, so they never get the same menu when they're here.

That's fabulous. That is fabulous. Is that sugar or salt?

That's salt. Salt and pepper.

-These butternut squashes came from the garden.

-Wow!

-We've got duck stock, which we've made already.

-Oh, look at that.

This is for the hot brawn.

To that, we're going to add 1.5 grams of gellan gum.

Gellan gum? This is this miracle kind of gelatine that isn't affected by heat.

That's right, then you can take it up to 120 degrees.

-Wow!

-Now we've got that on to boil were going to start on the little rissoles.

-Some cooked barley.

-What do you cook your barley with, Peter?

-A little bit of garlic,

maybe some rosemary, one of the harder herbs, the woody ones,

-and stock.

-It's almost like risotto as it is.

To that we add a little bit of mashed potato just as a binding agent. Chopped shallots.

I want to admit, I really like the look of this.

-Some duck confit which we've taken off the bone.

-Yeah.

And a little bit of diced veg.

Got some carrots, parsnips, celeriac and French beans in it.

-Is that raw?

-It's been slightly blanched.

-Right.

We're just going to mix that together.

-Oh, yes, indeed.

-That looks good, doesn't it?

-Simple but fabulous.

-That's all heated hot enough now.

-What part of the dish is this for?

-This is for hot brawn.

That's the brawn, that's the croquette.

We're using some of the same ingredients in here.

-He's got a lot going on!

-He has! Nicely paced and relaxed, though.

-It is, yeah.

-Very lovely.

-But there's a rhythm between our dishes.

-And reflections of flavour.

Exactly. I'm using egg cups for this. Just little moulds.

-Fabulous.

-It's as simple as that.

-Goodness gracious.

-How audacious.

We're just going to put these behind us at the moment.

-Out of the way. They'll set up themselves.

-Right.

Look at that. It's setting up. It's hot an' all!

We're going to make the croquettes now. We're going to have a line up.

I'm going to do the flour, you do the egg wash, and you do the breadcrumbs.

-Through the breadcrumbs, we have oats.

-This isn't just egg?

It's egg and a little bit of cream.

We're just going to get some little shapes like that. Egg wash.

Go on, just drop them in there, dude.

-I think this is a lovely recipe. One I'll do at home.

-There we go.

-Beautiful.

-Right. Our favourite ingredient, sloe gin.

-Slow!

Very slow. Just get a little bit with the berries.

To that we add a little bit of oil.

-Just cooking oil?

-Normal vegetable cooking oil.

Then we're going to add a little bit of lecithin.

-What's lecithin?

-It emulsifies the oil and the sloe gin.

-Right, OK.

-You put it in jam, don't you?

-Yeah, exactly.

That's for making the foam. So we bring that to the boil. Put a pan on

for vegetable oils for cooking the little rissoles or croquettes.

We need a bit of jus to go with it. We'll use a little bit of butter,

some chopped shallots, a little bit of thyme. That goes in.

And then, I've got some dark duck stock.

-That's like duck elixir.

-It is, and you won't need much.

So now, sloe gin, the emulsification's boiled.

Just take that off and let that cool down.

This should be hot enough to cook the little rissoles.

Listen to that! There's something lovely about that sizzle.

What's the duck stock gone into?

It's gone into the chopped shallots and the thyme and the butter.

-Your juice, your gravy.

-That's right.

The oatmeal looks fantastic. It gives a really nice finish.

-You have that speckled effect. It's the taste.

-Lovely colour.

-It is.

The next thing we've got to do is puree the butternut squash.

-But I've already got some done.

-Ah, ye tinker!

We've got a very fine puree there, and that's to go on the plate.

-The other thing we need to do is get the ducks and put them in the oven.

-So what's next, Peter?

We're very close to plating up, but we've got to put the jellies back in, to heat them up.

-They won't go liquid?

-Not at all.

-We will just put these in a little pan of water.

-That's mad!

Next thing we've got to do is the foam, and make sure it's working.

We've taken this down to about 40 degrees and then get a little hand blender.

You can see the foam's working.

You can just take the foam off,

and that can sit there for an hour.

-Like foamed, like that?

-Yes, foams like that, yeah.

-That'll...? Wow!

-It won't collapse?

-It won't collapse, no.

Right, guys, we're ready to plate.

Take a bit of the apple compote, which we keep quite chunky.

We used eating apples so they stay together.

If you use cooking apples, they go to mush. We want a bit of body.

-Lovely breast of duck. Look how pink that is.

-That is beautiful.

Then we are putting the rissoles on.

-Oh, yes.

-Now we've got the jelly.

-Look at that!

-If we did this it'd probably stick.

-That's hot.

-You can see the steam coming off it.

-Yeah, wow!

-That's insane, isn't it?

-Then we take a bit of butternut puree.

-Look, it's not a dollop there, mate.

Oh, it's a smear.

Then we've got foam.

That one's still there.

I think that's amazing.

Fabulous.

Finish it off with a little bit of jus. And the other side.

There we have our trio of wild duck. The breast is on there.

Apple and pear confit with thyme in it.

We've got the rissole, which has got the barley, different flavours,

and then the clever thing is the hot brawn of duck.

-Just a little bit of jus to go on it.

-It's lovely, it's fabulous.

I'm interested in this wild duck breast here.

-That croquette's something I'd cook at home.

-Right. Let's have the jus.

Ah, that's good. That's the best wild duck I've ever tasted.

-That's unbelievable.

-So easy to get wrong, duck brawn.

I've got to get back to this duck breast, and the apple. It's just unreal.

It's pretty amazing really.

-That was a real tough one for me.

-So do I.

Not the duck, the challenge.

Remember, it's not just about a good dish.

It's what represents the county of Gwynedd better.

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

BOTH: Duck!

-What's in the hills, the valleys, up the mountains?

-Slate.

-Sheep, man!

I knew it began with S.

-Oh god.

-You are so right. We could do a trio of Welsh lamb.

That's a good idea. We could get creative and jazzy and lovely.

We need to find a Welsh hill farmer. We need to find the best.

-There's one over there.

-Charge!

Dewi Owen is a fourth-generation farmer.

He tends to 500 ewes and produces some of the best lamb in Wales.

After losing out to the supermarkets,

he set up a co-operative selling lamb direct to customers.

-Nice to see you in Wales.

-Ey-ey!

It's not a bad spot, is it?

-No. An excellent view.

-We're off. Can we see your friends?

You're just in time to feed them this morning.

Come on then. I'm give you a lift up to the top.

Get out the way! Woo-hoo!

-Are you OK back there?

-Smashing, aye!

You see what it means, being on a hill farm now?

-Oh, aye!

-Yeah.

-Right. Just run it along.

-Run it along slowly. Steady on, guys.

-Mind your legs. They'll take your legs away from you.

-Made in Wales.

They're so healthy, aren't they?

-Dewi, what do the spots mean?

-See the ones with the red spots?

-They're all carrying twins.

-Right!

-Most farmers scan their ewes now.

-Those with two red spots are carrying triplets.

-Wow!

That's my profit for next year, isn't it?

Look at that, it's profit for your soul, isn't it? Look at that.

Why is it that your lambs taste so good?

I think it's the salt air here, cos we're close to the sea.

Salt sweetens food a bit.

How old were you when you delivered your first lamb?

Six or seven. A long time ago now.

I remember going with my father round the sheep.

Of course we were lambing out then.

He was walking the hills three times a day then.

These ewes will be coming in, in about two to three weeks time because they'll be lambing indoors.

-This is the shed we use for lambing.

-It's your maternity ward!

This is the maternity ward.

These are about a week to 10 days old now.

Very cute, aren't they?

These will be ready for the market within about 16 weeks,

three months' time. That side, those are last year's lambs

and some will be going to the butchers next week.

-Would that be hogget?

-Those would be hogget.

-Right.

Jump in there and you can catch me a lamb.

Look, it's me woolly jumper.

You are so beautiful.

I want a number 12 on him. Unless we number the lambs

with its mother we don't know which lamb is with which ewe.

-I want a 12 on the sheep now.

-My God, it's the Mona Lisa!

That's the one I'll be recognising now all summer!

I think with Dewi's lamb, we're with a shout against Peter Jackson.

Because if we can go with a pure Welsh product,

-cook it well, that's our chance.

-There's no argument then, is there?

-No.

Dewi also has his own butcher in the local town.

His son-in-law, Martin, is going to sort us out with the cuts we need.

There we are, gents.

Perfect, beautiful Welsh lamb.

-Look at that.

-That's been hung for a week.

-Beautiful shoulder for you.

-Perfect.

Two French trimmed racks of lamb.

We're going to cook a trio of lamb from Dewi's hilltops,

a herb crusted rack, a slow roasted confit of shoulder and a lamb adobe.

But for the adobe, we need some extra special ingredients.

We heard about the man who claims he can get into the mind of a mushroom.

His name, Cynan Jones.

This is definitely it. On the money.

What do you mean, on the money? There's not a mushroom in sight!

They said we are at Wales's premier mushroom producing facility.

-What?

-Co-ordinates never lie.

We are here.

Hello lads.

-Are you Cynan?

-I am. How are you?

-Pleased to meet you.

-Hello.

Nice to see you. How are you?

-You looking for mushrooms?

-Yeah!

-Aye!

-Come on. Follow me. Come in.

It's going to be lovely!

-Ooh!

-Bloomin' eck!

-Crikey!

-Crumbs!

Wow! I'd never guess this was here.

-How do you cultivate a mushroom?

-It starts like this.

This is a bag of sawdust and woodchip

inoculated with the mushroom spawn. Then they're left in this warm atmosphere for eight weeks.

They think it's the summer.

25 degrees. After eight weeks, the bag becomes like this.

It's a solid block and crusting.

See the cracks appearing? This tells me it's waiting to burst out.

Now we cheat the mushroom to make it think winter's coming.

So, it's got to go to the unit next door.

-That's autumn, where it's cooler and damper.

-The man's a genius, dude!

-It's all very magical, isn't it?

-Yeah. I tell you what...

-You're getting inside the mushroom's head, you see? Cheating it.

-You see?

Let's go next door to the autumn.

This is really going to blow your mind. Come in. Come in.

Wow! Ho-ho!

Wow! Hey, man, this is fantastic.

-What variety of mushrooms do you cultivate?

-Shiitake and oyster. Those are the two favourites.

And it's cold in here because it's autumn?

It's autumn. It's 10-12 degrees, 87% humidity,

lights on 12 hours, off 12 hours controlled automatically.

-So, how old are these mushrooms here?

-A couple days old.

-Really?

Caps just about opening.

In another three or four days, they'll be almost perfect.

Wow! Look at those.

That is beautiful.

These have been here about two weeks. Just about perfect.

When you cut those two, will more mushrooms appear in their place?

Yeah. You can see more cracking on these blocks. They will fruit over the next week.

Look at the baby ones!

Little trumpets.

Solid, aren't they? Like wax.

Don't pick mushrooms if you don't know what they are.

If you can't identify it, leave them in the ground and let them grow.

-The death cap. Sounds like a terrible way of killing you.

-You eat it in stroganoff with the pork.

Then four hours later you're violently sick and you think, it must be the pork.

Then you get better.

Two weeks later, you die

-cos it takes two weeks for your liver to pack up.

-Whoosh!

-Can we buy some mushrooms?

-Choose which ones you want.

-Shiitake, oyster and dried. Yeah?

That's beautiful.

Get some big oysters. Look at these trumpet oysters. Right at the base.

-Pick those beauties! Oh, yes!

-Cynan, thanks, man. Fantastic!

We're going to get the big guns out now.

The hairy bikers' trio of Welsh lamb.

We have Welsh lamb adobe, with fine Welsh mushrooms.

A herb crusted rack of lamb, French trimmed,

and a confit of Welsh shoulder of lamb with a splash of jus.

It will be up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents Gwynedd.

The first lamb is the shoulder of lamb.

-This needs the bejesus cooking out of it.

-It does.

-Over to Mr King.

This is about keeping all the flavours together.

We're going to sear the lamb. Listen to this.

LAMB SIZZLES

-Just hold it down like that.

-Are you going to use any flavourings?

-Yep.

Traditional rosemary, anchovies and garlic.

Don't be frightened to get involved with your meat.

This shoulder has a perfect handle.

There we are. This is so easy.

Just take two heads of garlic, like so.

Sprinkle some rosemary, like so.

A couple of fronds, like that. The anchovies.

If you say to people, "I've got anchovies on your lamb" they won't know if you don't tell them.

Pepper. That's a work of art in itself, man.

Lastly, a good slug of a dry white wine. You don't want it to boil dry.

Wrap it in a double layer of tinfoil. Really wrap it.

The reason that we're doing this is to keep those flavours in the meat.

When it's all tucked up, put it in a preheated oven at 140-50 degrees centigrade depending on your oven.

Six hours, or overnight. Right then, veggies.

We're going to do a three-veg mash.

We've got some lovely potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, and a head of celeriac.

-Equal quantities of the three vegs.

-Are you cooking them separately

-cos of the different cooking times?

-Yes.

Now, the second element is the rack of lamb.

We're going to sear these. Oh, Captain Sear!

Sear the end, now we make a crumb coating for this. Couple of good handfuls of breadcrumbs.

Fresh, not dried.

Some parsley.

That looks fabulous.

-To this, some fresh mint.

-Fabulous.

-Some finely chopped rosemary.

Season that and add a good glug of olive oil for the crunchy coating.

Now, to keep the crunchy coating, on said rack of lamb, score it.

-That will hold that crust really nicely.

-The other thing that's great with lamb, mustard.

-Just get a medium mild mustard. How's the potatoes?

-Done.

-I've been careful with this coating because we'll cut it into chops.

-I think I'm in trouble now.

-You think?

-I think so, big time.

Just set that aside now and get on with lamb number three.

And this one's the lamb adobe. It's a lovely, lovely loin. Look at that.

I'm going to merrily make blankets of stretched streaky bacon on the cling film.

Now, that rind that Dave took off the bacon, I'm going to put in a frying pan.

That's a beautiful fresh mushroom. Then we've got some oysters.

We're gonna blitz this in a blender to make a paste.

That's the blanket. I'll make another now.

Put some butter in the pan.

And then I'm just going to remove these pieces of bacon rind.

Then I'm going to put these mushrooms in and just saute them off.

This fine Welsh bacon's good.

And so many people don't use streaky bacon.

Now, these are sometimes known as porcini, chop those.

Again, we're gonna blitz it.

This is also a trio of mushrooms as well as a trio of lamb.

They've just started to colour. That's when you take them out.

To that we're going to add an onion. Lovely! A teaspoon of parsley.

Some lovely sprigs of rosemary.

Three cloves of garlic.

A tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

We're gonna temper that vinegar with some sugar. And this is about a teaspoon really.

I'm gonna blitz it to a paste.

-That's rubbish.

-It's not very good this, is it?

-It's as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

-Put it in this.

-Let's do that. We'll get that in there.

Oh yes! Lovely.

-It's got a lovely colour from the herbs.

-It has, hasn't it?

In the blender we've got celeriac juice, artichoke and potato.

Bit of cream and I'm firing it to a puree.

-We want this very fine because it's going to be piped.

-Piped, you see.

Look at that.

That looks fab, it really does.

That's a puree.

I want some butter in there.

Salt and pepper.

-Do you know what would be nice? White pepper.

-Yeah.

I'll put that to keep warm here.

I'm gonna just lay a little platform for the adobe.

-Then we smear over the top.

-Do you never seal your lamb before that?

No, cos we want the flavour to come through.

Top trick this - take the cling film like that and just roll it nice and tightly.

Pull the cling film away, Bob's your uncle!

-Nice one!

-There we are.

-Nice one.

-Thank you.

We put this in an oven, 180 degrees, for half an hour. Let's get it in.

Now, the shoulder of lamb, number one. Look at this.

What I wanna do though is give Kingy the pan in which to de-glaze and make a nice jus.

Look at that! You see this layer of fat here? What you do is you just pour it off.

Look at that.

-Give us a go!

-That's gorgeous.

We've won! Hey hey!

You want grease inside of your ring.

You need some cling film on the bottom of the ring like so.

We're gonna pack that with the meat, on the side of the plate with a jus.

Now Dave, have a little nap at that.

Oh, there's loads of salt!

There is loads. It's very salty.

-I'm gonna put more port in it.

-You could take a separate pan,

reduce your port to take the alcohol off,

and add little bits of that to it so you get it to the right level.

-And then just finish it off with some butter.

-With some butter.

Ten minutes into the cooking time for the adobe, it's time for the racks to go in.

Thank you, chef. Puree's done.

Confits are done.

-Chef, could you pop those in a steam oven for five minutes to warm through?

-OK.

Time to finely chop the kale. Put in water with butter.

-Oh, look at that!

-Oh, those look gorgeous.

Right, let's just see. We want pink.

That's perfect.

That means the racks are cooked too.

-Ho ho!

-Look at them!

-Lovely.

OK, so the pea has to come off.

-You cut the meat and I'll start plating?

-Lovely. Fabulous. Mr Myers!

God, that comes in useful, doesn't it?

-Look at that. That's a corker.

-It's one cutlet, Kingy.

-Yeah.

-Is that carving nice?

-Yes.

Where are you taking this?

-Perfect. There we have it.

-The Hairy Bikers' trio of Welsh lamb for Gwynedd.

We have a Welsh lamb adobe with fine Welsh mushrooms.

We have a herb-crusted rack of lamb, French trimmed.

And a comfit of Welsh shoulder of lamb.

All served on a three-root mash and kale and butter.

Usually we start at the bottom with the veggies.

Mm, that's gorgeous. This is the adobe.

Oh, this is gorgeous!

I've got this comfit. Look at this...

This is probably a meal on its own. It's fabulous, isn't it?

Go on, go on!

-That should be like butter when you bite into it.

-Fabulous.

This might need cooking a little bit more.

To be honest guys, I would pay for that dish.

It's crunch time. The diners will taste both dishes but without any idea who cooked which.

First up is Peter's trio of wild duck.

-Oh yes.

-I never eat duck that rare.

-And it was very, very tasty. Very tender.

-The presentation was excellent.

If you took a bit of everything on the plate, it went together really well.

I also liked the jelly.

Almost reminded me of an old fashioned farmhouse brawn in texture.

But being hot, it was most unusual.

I enjoy duck.

That was tasty, but it was a little bit tough.

They seemed to like that.

Now it's our turn. Fingers crossed.

-That's nice.

-Very nice.

-Full of flavour.

-It was very well cooked.

Tender, especially the rack of lamb.

Only one thing I could say about it was excellent.

The flavours were just melt in the mouth.

The kale complemented the crust on the rack of lamb.

The mash that went with the loin was absolutely fantastic.

So all in all,

I can't fault it.

Thank you for the hospitality we've had from the people in Gwynedd.

We found great produce, great people and we've had a great time.

So, what actually you're voting on is the representation of local ingredients,

which is fantastic in Gwynedd.

What we would like you to do is do a show of hands for the duck, please.

For the lamb, please, can I have a show of hands.

The duck dish was Peter's and the lamb dish was ours so, a big round of applause for everybody, I think.

It was so funny watching these two cooking and their cheffy lingo!

-We just learnt it.

-We gotta use it! We're getting better each week at it!

-It was great fun. They had me in stitches.

-We learned a lot.

'Amazing, we've won, Dave!'

'I know, Kingy, I'm so chuffed. And Peter's a great chef.'

Gwynedd had so much to offer us. The tastiest produce from a truly fantastic landscape.

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