Argyll and Bute The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

We're on the road to find regional recipes to rev up your appetite.

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

-Come on!

-Wahey!

We're here to define the true taste of Argyll and Bute.

# Oh, I am come to the low Countrie

# Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie

# Without a penny in my purse

# To buy a meal to me... #

Phwoar, look, Kingy! The islands within the county of Argyll and Bute.

You know, if the Cotswolds are the nation's chocolate box, this must be the big tin of Scottish shortbread.

It's absolutely beautiful.

You know, Dave, the coastline here, if you added it all up together, is longer than the coastline of France.

-And it's bigger than Belgium.

-Most things are though.

Oh, aye. But it's diverse as well.

-You've got Loch Lomond.

-You've got Loch Fyne.

You've got Gigha, there's Islay.

And Bute and Mull.

-You've got great grub.

-The beef's got to be wonderful.

-Every little corner of the county.

It has the best whisky.

-It's whisky galore.

-You're not wrong. Galore is the right word, mate.

-It is.

Kingy, let's go on an island fling.

Let's away, dude.

On our quest to define the flavours of Argyll and Bute,

we head to the fish market to resurrect a traditional way of serving local fish.

We go in search of Scotland's most famous export, whisky, and try a few wee drams along the way.

How many have we got to go?

Big Hugh invites us to climb aboard to creel for the freshest shellfish possible.

And representing Argyll and Bute in today's cook-off is Clare Johnson.

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

Tarbert. It's a pretty spot.

It's windswept and interesting.

The wind comes in, you've got all the heat of the Gulf Stream - not.

-Not!

-There's exotic shellfish, lobsters, seafood...

-Look at this.

Pretty painted houses. We're here because Tarbert

has the greatest concentration of award-winning restaurants per capita of any other place in Britain.

So, we're on the hunt for Tarbert tucker.

Bring it on!

What's the best thing about the food?

Prawns and the scallops, yeah.

-Seafood.

-And the kippers.

-Whisky.

-Whisky. There's a fella, now.

What sort of recipes did your mam cook for you?

-Fish cakes.

-Fish cakes?

-Fish cakes.

-Kippers.

-Scallops, prawns...

White fish, haddock, whiting.

-Do you ever get any herring these days?

-Very rare.

Seafood is obviously the most important produce around here.

I can't wait to get stuck in.

-Fancy some fish and chips?

-Yeah, let's have a go, eh?

This restaurant even has its own boat to catch the freshest local fish possible.

Chef Pascal is originally from France but has run a bistro in Tarbert for many years.

-Our seafood platter.

-This is everything from the local vicinity.

-Yes.

-Erm... You know what? I'm going to have this lango here.

Pascal, what brought you here?

When I first came here, when I saw all the variety of fish and shellfish you can have daily.

-I come from Brittany.

-You know your seafood.

-Yes, I knew the stuff and I think it's better than Brittany, definitely.

-What do we have here?

What you have is a langoustine, medium-size.

That's a medium-size?

-Hee, hee, hee.

-Whelks.

-I'm going to have one.

-Winkles. Same taste.

-Sweeter, actually, a bit sweeter.

Yes. Has to be cooked with plenty of pepper.

-Oh, right.

-Yeah. Squat lobster.

-Yes.

-Very sweet taste. I think much better than langoustine or prawn.

Ideal to make a bisque.

We can't get that on the east coast where my home port is in North Shields.

Brown crab from Loch Fyne.

Ah, yes.

Now, there is a delicate way to eat this.

However, this is my approach.

That's something I've never eaten before.

-That is sea urchin. The best way is to cut in half.

-And that's local as well, Pasqual?

-Yes, it's local, yes.

-Right, my first sea urchin.

-That's divine, isn't it?

-It is.

-It almost tastes like a soft fruit.

Yes, the same texture as scrambled egg.

It's just wonderful. Well, Pascal, can I say for both of us, thank you so much.

-No problem at all.

-This is one of the best meals I've ever had.

-Yeah, yeah. It's just brilliant.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-And I've lost my urchin virginity.

-You have.

'To keep the catch alive, shellfish are stored in oxygenated salt-water tanks, before heading off to market.

'Neil Prentice is an expert on this seafood treasure.' Good grief!

Those scallops are enormous.

What makes the seafood so special here?

The water is very, very clear.

No pollution. So they grow that size.

Cold-water seafood, we think, is the best in the world.

Because it works that much harder for its keep.

Yeah, that's true. The water is seven degrees here just now.

-The water. And it only gets to maybe 14 in the summer.

-Right.

Where does most of your produce go?

-There's probably about 70% goes to Spain.

-What?

Yeah, I'm afraid to say, that's the way it is.

We don't eat enough shellfish or fish in Britain compared to Spain and these other countries.

It's changed days. It used to be herring and it used to be haddock and cod.

-Now it's mostly shellfish here.

-Aye.

We've been exporting them to Spain for about 20 years now

and Spanish trucks come into the village here every Sunday,

load on a Monday and away to Spain 52 weeks of the year.

We obviously can't ignore shellfish but what Argyll and Bute

was traditionally known for was white fish and herring.

-The old-fashioned way that a herring would be done in the oatmeal as opposed to frying it.

-Right.

That was the traditional way.

You still do that now, then, or no?

-No, it's like most things regards to herring. A lot of it's in the past.

-That's a shame.

-Yeah.

That's something we should revive.

There's a fishmonger's just around the corner.

It's blowing a hoolie.

We've got to cook for them.

It's got to be fish, hasn't it?

Look what I've found. What are they?

They are called silver darlings. And that's the herring.

Herring. Look at those. Aren't they beautiful?

At one time, they say that the herrings were so thick in the sea, you could walk across it.

We've got two, so we won't be treading...

You know like the dead traditional way, to cook it in oatmeal? Let's do it with other fish.

There's four hake.

That's a proper west coast fish, a haddock.

Bright eyes and gills. You know you can go out with her.

-Gurnard?

-No, that's naturally smoked haddock.

-Aye.

-Look.

-Salmon.

-Salmon there.

-SCOTTISH ACCENT:

-You can take away my freedom but you're nae taking away me seafood

cooked in oatmeal with a wee tasty tartare sauce.

We're going to cook the locals their real traditional dish,

fish in oatmeal, served with a creamy tartare sauce for dipping.

-And because it's blowing a hoolie, we're taking cover in Tarbert's fish market.

-Yeah!

It's pandemonium.

But got to cook fish.

-Fish!

-We got some filleted already.

This is the place to be.

We're going to fillet that.

-Gurnard. Lovely thing.

-One of my favourites - nice fresh hake.

-Look at the chompers on that.

Now, these may not look important but they were, because these were the herring.

-Does anybody have any memories about herring?

-And the old fleets?

-Yes, I do. I fished them.

-How did you cook your herring?

Well, we boiled them a lot.

-Boiled?

-Ah!

-In the salt water.

-And that was your tea?

-Through the night.

Did you ever have your herring in oatmeal?

Well, sometimes. When you fried them in the house, you know.

-We've got a lot of people to feed.

-I'll get goujon...

-I'll get filleting.

The thing is just to let the knife do the work.

-Fillet number one.

-Perfect.

-You work on the trawlers.

-Aye.

-So, when you're at sea, do you eat fish on the trawlers or...

-Aye.

Fish first thing in the morning.

-Right.

-It gives you brain power.

You know, when you get haddock fresh, it's good as a sea bass, isn't it?

Look at that. Falling away now.

See if I can get this herring skin off.

Great, I've managed to take the skin out of that.

-Lovely.

-Hake.

Good lad! Give us that back. It's for the bisque.

It's... Woo!

-Angus, where are you, dude?

-It's Si and Dave's seafood creche.

Hello, mate! You don't have much to do in the night time.

There's loads of kids up here, isn't there?

It's the long, dark nights.

That's brilliant, isn't it? That's what you call a fish platter.

Before we fry, shall we make some tartare sauce?

-Why not?

-Take a big bowl of mayo, gherkins, or you can have the little cornichons, the little ones.

And some capers. So I'll chop some of those and bung 'em in.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to chop some nice dill and some parsley, nice and fine.

-Isn't it?

-Eurgh!

-Eurgh?

What do you mean "eurgh"? Listen...

-You're eating plants.

-Yeah, you're eating plants.

-The chip was a plant once.

-Aye, yeah, it was.

It was a potato. Yeah. See.

The chopping of the gherkin.

And if you go too far, you end up with little gherkin fingers.

It's only a plant.

It's not going to eat you. It's lovely.

Isn't it? Smells a little aniseedy, doesn't it?

-It smells of your feet.

-Me feet?

What sort of children...

Now, you can put as much gherkin as you like in your tartare sauce.

Now we've got capers going in. Now, capers are a little bit like salty peas.

The capers go into the mayonnaise with the gherkins.

And then what you do, herb it up, about two tablespoons of parsley.

-Nice.

-One tablespoon of dill.

And then give it a mix, taste it and then if we fancy more dill, we can.

Look at the colours.

-We could do a bit of lemon juice.

-And a bit of Tabasco, just give it a bit of zip.

That looks great, doesn't it?

-Should one dip one's finger in said mayonnaise?

-No, use a spoon.

-We're on the telly.

-Oh, aye.

-Mmm. That tastes all right, that.

-Is that for breakfast?

No, it's to dip your fish in.

Do you like fish?

-It's porridge.

-Porridge.

-Just try this on your fish. It's like posh salad cream.

And that's how to make tartare sauce under duress.

Right, what we're going to do now is, we've got all the fish prepped,

we got the tartare sauce made, so we need to take each piece of fish,

squirt of lemon, salt and pepper, coat with egg, press it into oatmeal and then fry it.

Rinding, squirting and washing. Oatmealing and stacking.

Pinhead oatmeal, which is what your porridge comes from.

Eurgh!

-What's wrong with porridge?

-Look, it's a national treasure, porridge.

Oatmeal is in haggis and all manner of good things.

So, you take a piece of fish, squirt of lemon, twist of pepper,

pinch of salt, brush with egg

and pass to the oats department.

-Roll in oats.

-Do you want a job? Come on.

I'll put you on lemon.

Not too much.

Now, if you just put lemon on all those pieces of fish and then we'll crack on.

Right, thank you. Yeah, mate, coming in.

-Look at these.

-Now, these are what you call fish fingers.

Gareth, more lemon.

-He's a class act, our Gareth, isn't he?

-Oh, look at that.

I have this feeling I'm going to end up running a chip shop somewhere.

-Probably in the west coast of Scotland.

-Well, it's good produce, isn't it?

-Yep.

Oat and lemon is delicious.

It's easy for you to say, isn't it?

-Right, now I have to put the lemons on a jaunty fashion.

-Oh, boy.

Always have odd numbers on your plate. It looks better.

Shall we have little parsley sprinkles?

-I have some dill here.

-Dill sprinkles.

-Set aside for this very occasion.

You take a goujon...

dip it into the tartare sauce.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Argyll and Bute on a plate, the wonderful surroundings of Tarbert.

We've done the fish justice, a bit traditional.

-We've got some herring.

-Gurnard.

-We've got hake.

-We've got plaice.

It's kind of like a fritto misto a la Rob Roy.

It's also like Gordon Brown after he's had a shower.

Right.

This is a fritto misto a bit like Gordon Brown after he's had a shower.

And that's as it shall appear in the cook book.

I don't think we've ever had a dish so local.

Local people caught it, helped us cook it

and now they're going to taste our oatmeal-fried fish and tartare sauce.

-Ladies, it's your tea.

-Hooray.

-What do we reckon?

-They go well together.

-Don't they?

-Yeah.

-Do you remember, when you were younger, having oatmeal with fish?

-Yes.

-I don't think we had it with anything other than herring.

Yeah? Now, chef superstar.

-What do you think, mate?

-It's quite delicious.

It's a good idea to put the oatmeal. It's something I'll try.

-It's like posh fish fingers.

-You're not wrong.

-It's so easy to do.

-It's nice.

-Can I get another bit?

-Yes.

-The oatmeal's really tasty, isn't it?

You get this toasted flavour.

Don't you think it's a shame, though, that so much of your wonderful fish goes abroad?

-Why keep it all to yourself if it's that good, eh?

-You're not wrong. You're not wrong, missus.

You're not wrong. Want more?

-What do you reckon?

-It tastes like...

-Hake, maybe?

-Yes. It is. That's right.

-Very nice, especially with your tartare sauce.

It tastes like...

-Hake. Is it hake?

-Yes.

Very nice. Very nice.

It tastes like...

fish.

-LAUGHTER

-Excellent!

-That's a good lad.

He got there in the end.

Our white fish in oatmeal went down a storm...in a storm,

but now we're facing our biggest challenge of the trip.

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 Argyll and Bute.

Our opponent is Clare Johnson,

head chef and owner of the Kilberry Inn.

Clare is completely self-taught but her skills in the kitchen

have helped Kilberry to become Scotland's Restaurant of the Year 2009.

I cooked because we couldn't afford a chef

and my cooking must have been awful when I started.

I couldn't boil an egg. People seemed to keep coming back so I stuck at it.

There isn't much to Kilberry. It's quite small, there's about a dozen houses.

We're on a single-track road so it's a 40 mile round trip for a pint of milk

but we've got some really great local suppliers -

Jim who comes with mackerel, Hector who brings mullet and pigs from Archie as well.

I think when people come to Kilberry,

they are looking for really good locally-sourced things that are fresh and tasty and not...

..nothing frozen or ready-made or bought from a cash and carry.

We have a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide

which is pretty fantastic but this year we got nominated

for the Scottish Restaurant Awards and not only did we win our little category, we won the whole thing.

So now we're Scottish Restaurant of the Year.

To take on the Bikers, my taste of Argyll and Bute

is hand-dived king scallops, little pork sausage meatballs and lentils on the side with some salsa verde.

Hello.

Hello. Nice to see you.

-Scotland's Restaurant of the Year! Have you got the kettle on?

-Come in.

Good lass. I like her already, great!

-Here we are and welcome to the Kilberry Inn.

-It's dead cosy and lovely.

It's the type of place that you want to stay for 15 weeks.

-It's great.

-What are you going to cook for us, Clare?

-Scallops.

-Could you outline your dish?

-What is it?

-It's local hand-dived king scallops

and I'm making little spicy sausage meatballs and lentils and a bit of salsa verde.

Lovely, so, crack on, Clare, crack on.

OK. Well, I've got my lentils going here...

-What have you got in your lentils?

-I've got some bay leaves and some thyme and some garlic

but I've got some vegetables chopped to...

-And are they the posh lentils, puy lentils?

-Puy lentils, yes.

-Look at those!

-Aren't they lovely?

So what do you do with these?

-You just get your knife in...

-You've got to watch your hands, haven't you?

-Yes.

And then you just have to separate the...

-Look at that.

-Clare, are you a coral on or a coral off?

We generally do them off. Not everybody likes them so...

Look at all the meat on that.

Look, I love this bit, fiddling with it.

-We'll take all that off like that.

-We're after that white nugget.

There's one with the coral off.

-I've got some vegetables chopped earlier.

-Would that be a mirepoix?

-He's off again!

-I've learned so much.

We've got the celery, onion and carrot finely diced.

We're going to make salsa verde.

We've just got some basil and some parsley.

It's not maybe an accurate salsa verde.

So I'm just going to put some olive oil in.

I'll give it a little...pulse.

I've got some mustard somewhere.

Dijon mustard. And some capers.

-They're dinky capers, aren't they?

-Dinky ones.

How much mustard are you putting in there?

Just a teaspoon.

So what brings you to this part of the world? You're not a Scot.

No, I came up for six months and I didn't go home.

That was about 12 years ago.

-That's a long holiday.

-Obviously, like the local products

that you use, it is like a treasure trove of plenty, isn't it?

Yes. There's always something new

and every year, we've got the ladies that bring us rhubarb

and John brings us honey and all sorts of stuff.

So just to recap, the salsa verde - it's fine herbs, mustard,

olive oil, chopped onion, lemon juice and capers.

Yeah. Well, that's mine.

Look at the colour of that.

Beautiful, isn't it?

That's that.

-Can I put my my lentils back in there yet?

-Do what you like. Have a look and see what you think.

-I think that's great.

-It's nice, isn't it?

Then we need to make some little meatballs and cook those off.

Because pork and scallops and pork products, they go great together, don't they?

-Black pudding and scallops are fantastic.

-Bacon and scallops.

-Belly pork and scallops.

Oh yeah. So I've just got some ground up fennel seeds, a bit of cayenne and some of Archie's lovely...

Fennel's fantastic, isn't it?

-I love fennel seeds.

-I love fennel, too.

That is what I love about it.

It's not just a sausage or sausage meat. No, it's Archie's sausages.

I'll put those at the back. They will probably be quite happy.

It's getting very hot now so put a bit of seasoning on these.

So you season it?

-That's interesting.

-Is it? Why?

We would normally season them when they are in the pan.

They're good.

Where do you get your scallops from?

They're hand-dived locally.

We get them from a chap called Neil in Tarbert.

Do you find the hand-dived ones are less muddy than trawled ones?

Yes, and they're always whole, you don't get bits. That's the best thing.

You just cook them in olive oil with no butter.

I usually put butter in, but because I am anxious, I haven't.

Anxious?! It's only us!

Go on, put some butter in, man.

Oh, yes.

-The butter helps them go golden, doesn't it?

-It does.

Anyway, I'll take these out.

They must be done.

Look at them. Just the job.

OK, I'm just going to put some of these lentils in here and put a bit of dressing on them just to...

-A bit of ooomf!

-A bit of ooomf! And then I suppose we're kind of good to go.

So in there we've got the mirepoix, we've got the mixed vegetables,

some bay leafs, some thyme, some garlic and the puy lentils that have been cooked till they're tender.

-See, I was paying attention.

-I'm glad you were.

Some of the salsa verde.

I can see that now, that's going to go through.

It's like basting with emeralds.

-The scallops are massive, Clare.

-We have got a spare.

-Awww!

-Oh dear!

-I'm sad. Never mind.

-Do you want that big one?

-No. We couldn't possibly.

-You have that little one.

-Clare, they're perfect.

-Oh, man!

So, Clare, recap what your dish is for us.

Well, it's hand-dived king scallops with sausage meatballs

with a little bit of spice and some lentils and some salsa verde.

Fantastic.

It looks lovely, doesn't it?

All flavours I want to eat.

I like the spice, the fennel.

-That goes well with the scallops.

-Really good.

Lentils, I wasn't sure at first with them, I know they work with salmon.

-Works really well.

-The salsa verde makes it though.

-I think these sausage balls are brilliant.

-They are, aren't they?

It's interesting because Clare is not a classically-trained cook,

you have a go and it's what ends up on the plate tastes great.

It's intuitive.

We'd better roll our sleeves up and get stuck in. What are we going to do?

It's gotta be tasty.

-It's got to be representative.

-It's got to be good food.

Right. We'd better get cracking.

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

Clare's got scallops covered

so we're going for the other local shellfish speciality of Argyll and Bute - langoustines.

Big Hugh has offered to take us to sea to get some fresh catch.

You picked a lovely day for it.

That's Spud, a sea dog.

Come on, we'll get you out and doing something.

-Button you up a bit.

-I feel like a Fisherman's Friend.

Have you seen what we're going to go for?

Look at these.

Aren't they beautiful?

Langoustines. Aren't they canny?

Keep your nice biker jacket clean.

Beautiful.

It's salt herring.

We put this in the creel and it's got to be cut into three.

I'll give you an empty bucket when that overflows.

-Right, will we go to sea?

-Yes, sir.

-Right. Let's go.

You don't get Rick Stein doing this, do you?

-I wouldn't swap it though.

-I wouldn't.

The smell of the herring is making me feel a bit queasy.

Rather than trawling, Hugh prefers to creel for langoustine.

Creeling uses small baskets baited with fish and set in a line on the seabed by ropes attached to buoys.

Look at this. Yes.

Langos. Treasure.

See that's too wee. We throw that away. That is next year's.

What are you doing? Calling bingo?

No, this is the method of keeping langoustines, or prawns as we call them, alive. This is the big ones.

That is number ones. Number twos. Number threes.

And the smallest - number four.

This method, you couldn't get better.

Anything we don't want gets returned to the sea right away.

Each prawn get his own individual segment to keep them live.

We've got to be careful. It's like orange gold.

At market, they've got to be alive.

-Look at that, that's a beauty. It's like a lobster.

-That's a good one.

That is one of the large ones.

Imagine two or three of them on a plate.

-Beautiful.

-Suck the claws as well.

-What is sad is all of these are going abroad.

-Aye, aye they are.

Why don't we eat them? It's magic.

-It's a mystery.

-How many fleets of creels do you have?

-We have nine fleets.

-What?!

-That's like 1,000 pots.

-Yes, aye.

Pots are usually raised every other day to allow the catch to be collected and fresh bait set.

What's so special about the west coast for langoustines?

Good fresh water. We've got the Gulf Stream coming down from Mull,

rugged shoreline, you just can't beat it.

Langos, Dave! Look at him. Beautiful.

But not everything that's caught goes to market.

This is what goes back - a breeding female.

That's all roe which is its eggs.

That goes back so it sustains the fishery.

-Correct.

-On you go, me darling.

Oh, what we're doing now, we're moving to a fresh bit of water.

All the creels are baited and we're going to shoot the drift of creels.

This is the dangerous bit, there's a chance you could go overboard.

Right, fire away.

Might give him a job.

I like this bit. Watching Dave work, it's good.

-They're not light, these, you know.

-Go on. Go on. Oh!

-Flick it.

-Oops, that'll be me then, sacked.

You've got to be careful the ropes don't catch around your feet, or else you go in with the pots.

Kingy, it's your turn.

Oh, hey, I'm exhausted!

He's only done 3. I did 77.

That's it, we've done a whole drift.

Baited, shot, dinner.

-She hasn't got a chance!

-Got to find something to cook with.

It's in the air, isn't it? Whisky.

-Yes.

-A langoustine with a wee dram.

I tell you what, I'm getting more than a wee dram at the minute.

Hugh's langoustines should give Clare's scallops a run for their money.

Let's grill some with garlic and flame the rest in a whisky sauce.

So if we're looking for whisky, we need to park the bikes and go on foot.

Right, what we're looking for, hold on, distillery, should be about...

Oh, haha, here!

Springbank Distillery has been on the same site in Campbeltown since 1828.

-We're being shown around by whisky veteran Frank McHardy.

-Welcome to Springbank.

We can't visit this part of the world without seeing a distillery and this is unique.

The only distillery in Scotland that does 100% of the whole process to turn barley into bottles of whisky.

-Hey!

-Whisky is made from malted barley, yeast and water.

Malted barley is ground into grist.

We extract all the sugars from it, then we ferment the liquid.

It's called wash, then we take our wash from there

into these magnificent stills you see behind us.

-Proper coppers, aren't they?

-This is where the distillation process takes place, to turn wash into spirit.

Spirit is then taken from this building,

filled in to cask, the casks are then put away in the warehouse.

Oh, this is fantastic, man.

This is the final part of the process before we actually go to the bottling.

You can't actually call the product whisky until it's spent at least three years

in one of these oak casks in a warehouse in Scotland.

This is where the maturing is taking place.

A single malt whisky in different distilleries, different parts of Scotland, all taste different.

-How can that be?

-A lot of this is down to the actual region the distillery is based in.

Campbeltown, where we are just now, can produce quite a salty whisky.

It's more a maritime influence, you're beside the sea,

so it's bringing on some of the flavours you have in the atmosphere from the seaside.

Speyside is different.

It's inland, so you've got much more lighter, more fruitier whisky coming from there.

-It's almost like sourdough bread.

-It's just remarkable.

Picking up stuff in the air.

Depending on the wood of the barrels you get a different flavour, don't you?

Absolutely, 70% of the flavour in any whisky is going to come from the wood.

-You've done that before, haven't you?

-Yeah, well, quite a bit of practice over the years!

Then we have this thing here, which is more or less a large pipette.

Give the whisky a good stir up,

so we take a little bit of this in here and we empty this out again.

It's just to rinse the glass out, to clean the glass.

Now we fill the glass up.

-Here we are. Have you any ideas what the barrel may have contained before we filled it with spirit?

-Rum.

-You've been looking at my notes, haven't you?

-No, you can taste it.

-It really is spicy.

-It is.

-Give us a go.

-Don't fight over it! I've told you before, there's plenty to go round.

There's only one glass though.

-Next one.

-What's the best way to take your whisky - neat, with water, a bit of ice?

If you try and put ice in it, I'll put you out of the door! Don't drink ice with malt whisky.

It locks in the flavours. But a little water does help to release the flavouring oils which are in there.

-A lot lighter, this one.

-This is more a pale straw.

-It is.

-What sort of flavours are you getting?

-Grass, that's what I've smelt.

-Yeah.

There's a citrus hint to it.

Is it a sherry cask?

I'm not going to tell you. You're going to guess.

-Well, it's come from an island but it's not quite in Spain.

-Madeira.

-Madeira.

-Got it right again.

-That's 2-0 so far.

-I know.

This is a great game. How many have we got to go?

-Another two.

-Oh.

Have you any hints to what kind of cask this is?

-I've got it.

-I've got it, too.

-This is a sherry cask.

-One to you.

-This is my favourite one yet.

18 years in this cask.

Right.

Oh, now that colour's telling!

-It's peachy!

-Yeah. That's a wine cask.

-That is a wine cask.

-That's peaty.

That is peaty, very smoky as well.

Would this be a red wine cask?

This is cabernet cask, yes.

What makes some whisky peaty and others not peaty?

It depends on the kilning process, how much peat smoke you pass through the malted barley.

That would go nicely with langoustines.

Not that we'd dream of cooking with your whisky.

Absolutely not. Good grief!

Clare, we've scoured your manor. We've got the best!

Look at this. Langoustines, in a whisky sauce and some grilled langoustines with garlic butter.

A wonderful dill and citrus lemon potato cake.

Surmounted by a quails' egg tempura. Quail's Scottish, a bit of game

going in there, and a quenelle of spinach.

Just for a bit of colour and a bit of greenery.

It would be up to local diners to decide whose dish

best represents the true flavours of Argyll and Bute.

These have been blanched for one minute.

All that does is it firms up the meat so we can get it out.

I'm going to split them. Make the patient comfortable!

Just put the knife there.

Just split it down the centre.

And from this point on the langoustine is known as Arthur!

Now, this is how you peel a langoustine.

Look, we just take the tail away from the head, just pull it nice and gently. Now, get a hold of it.

-Oh!

-Sorry, madam.

Every time!

Now, you just snap, pull there, like that,

and then just pull that off like that and then you snap it again, like that.

You see? You just pull off,

pull out and one perfectly-formed nugget of genuine loveliness.

Look at those, Si. All I want to do now is make some garlic butter

and put a little nugget of garlic butter and parsley on each one.

Garlic butter - soften butter, crush some garlic in it, salt and pepper and chopped parsley.

-Over to you.

-Now potatoes, we've blanched these with their skins on for five minutes

and we're going to peel them and grate them.

A little knob of butter on each of the little langoustines.

-This is a quail's egg.

-No!

What we'll do is boil these, just so they're firm enough to peel, so they should be very liquid on the inside.

I'm going to plunge the cooked eggs immediately into the iced water to stop them cooking.

I've done great research on this and two minutes is what you need.

You're only boiling an egg! It's like launching the space shuttle, that!

Right, all I'm going to do is crack an egg in there like that.

You wait until you taste these.

I'm going to whisk it.

How long are you going to whisk it for(?)

-Until it's...

-Done.

-Now, what I'm going to do is grate some potato into there like that.

It's a bit like a cross between a latke or a rosti,

-isn't it, this.

-Yeah. It is.

This stops the cooking process.

-Instantly.

-Then I'm going to put half the zest of a lemon in there.

Maybe about a dessertspoon of dill.

-I love the smell of dill.

-You want about a teaspoon in there.

And then what we're going to do is put a little bit of olive oil in.

That smells lovely already.

It does, doesn't it, it's great. It's a lovely recipe.

The most important thing, a bit of salt, a bit of pepper, and we're ready to rock 'n' roll.

-Now the quails' eggs have to be peeled but they're very delicate.

-Do you want us all to help?

-See how soft that is.

-Oh, yeah.

You see, that's how it should be though.

Can you see how that is?

We're going to put four in here.

You don't want the oil too hot, because you want it to cook all the way through.

On to this side, some celery salt, lots of pepper.

You can't have egg without salt and pepper.

-No.

-That's the potato cake mix finished with.

Check them in five minutes and then we'll flip them over.

I'm just rolling the eggs in the black pepper and celery salt,

so they've got a crusty coating and the moisture...

-Makes it stick.

-Yeah. Don't want too much.

I'm going to check these potato cakes.

-Yeah.

-Let's see what they are.

-Oh, yes.

-I think the word divine comes to...

-Look at that.

-Clare, are you worried?

I'm more intrigued to try.

What we've got to do is make the tempura batter for the quails' eggs.

About 70 grams of plain flour, 60 grams of cornflour, one teaspoon of baking powder.

One teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

An egg,

gently beat the egg. Normally if I was making prawn tempura, I'd put some salt in that batter,

but remember I've got salt and pepper on the eggs, so I'm going canny.

To the egg, I'm adding 100mls of ice-cold sparkling mineral water,

Scottish sparkling mineral water.

Mix that to there.

One of the tricks of tempura is don't worry about it being lumpy.

The bits of flour explode and it's lovely.

Mix that into your dried goods.

Don't worry about the lumps.

-What you want to do is a thin coating, look at that.

-That's the one, dude.

We've got to get ready for the final finish, the flourish.

To do the spinach, a big knob of butter.

You see everything is going to come together very, very quickly.

-All at once.

-Potato cake is doing well, spinach is doing well.

-Yes.

Langoustines under the grill.

Aaaaaargh!

Oh! Grasshopper.

A big knob of butter, Kingy.

Yes, please. I'm just taking the spinach off.

It's not a beurre noisette, you know. If you choke... Let us get on.

-Now listen to this.

-SIZZLING

Oh, look! We don't want to overload the pan too much. What we do...

How about that? Lovely.

-He's dying to do the flambe.

-I cannot wait.

If there's a flambe, that's it.

If there's eggs to peel, no chance!

You want to put some pepper...

..two teaspoons of whisky.

One, two.

What we're going to do...

Whoa, tequila!

I've just got to burn that off, I'm going to stir through

two dessertspoons of creme fraiche.

It's good because you have the sweetness of the langoustines. It's sour.

That's going to form a wonderful whisky sauce.

I've watched the salt because I tasted one. Honest.

We're just going to push through a load of freshly chopped parsley and then that's us. Brill.

-Can we have a...

-The tempura eggs, your hands are the best for this.

-Roll it in there like that.

-Just look at these potatoes.

In there like that.

They really don't take long.

You mustn't have them done too much.

There's the tempura quail's egg. Spinach off, eh, mate?

Yeah. Spinach is off and ready.

When they're done, this is it. Look at that.

Still soft in the middle, you've got the tempura batter, the egg white.

Have a taste of that, Clare.

You want that to burst on to the dill potato cake.

God, you can smell them from here.

That's a very beautifully-formed quenelle, Mr King.

You're on fire today, bud.

-Could I just pinch a little bit of chervil?

-It's Greek basil.

Could I pinch a bit of your Greek basil?

-Yes.

-I think two either side because then the taster is going to get one each, you know what I mean?

Now just some drizzlings of the whisky sauce. Wonderful, peaty...

-Do you think that's enough?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

So there we have it, Argyll and Bute...

-On a plate.

-On a plate.

Langoustines in a whisky sauce and some grilled langoustines

with garlic butter, a quenelle of fresh spinach,

a dill and citrus lemon potato cake with the most fantastically-delicate tempura-battered quails' eggs.

Lovely.

Come on then, Clare, dive in, let us know what you think.

-Are the tempura eggs still runny?

-Yeah.

Yes. Brilliant.

-Yeah?

-Mm. It's yummy.

I like the lemony-dillyness.

You're the only woman that cuts a langoustine.

-I'm trying to be dainty!

-Look, like that.

Mm, mm.

-They're lovely, aren't they?

-Mm-hm.

I don't like whisky but that's gorgeous because there's that little smoky thing happening.

I think I'd rather have the potato cake with the eggs separately

and the prawns as two dishes rather than all together.

-It's really nice.

-That one's going off.

-I'm going to have that.

It's the moment of truth - the diners will taste both dishes

but without any idea of who cooked which.

First up are Clare's scallops and meatballs with puy lentils and salsa verde.

It was lovely, beautifully presented.

The pork was delicious. It had terrifically-strong flavours.

I wouldn't have thought of putting pork and scallops together

but it looked very good and tasted very good.

The scallops were perfectly cooked. There was a nice lemony zing.

Seared on the outside, still moist in the middle.

I can't cook my scallops as well!

I wasn't sure if I'd like the lentils, but I was very surprised how good they were.

It was better than good. It was excellent

The aniseed flavour that came through,

the pork meatballs really balanced the whole dish together with the pesto.

They liked that as much as we did.

Now it's our turn.

Let's hope our whisky flamed langoustine with potato rosti and tempura quails' eggs are as popular.

It's all the things I like. There's nothing I don't think is great.

The quail's egg was that well-cooked, I went through the tempura batter,

it just exploded and it really was tasty.

I thought there was too much garlic on the langoustines.

I like garlic a lot but drowned it a little bit.

The spinach I thought was cooked to perfection. I love spinach and that was perfect.

For me it was a little bit too much on one plate together. There was too many flavours.

The langoustines were delicious. I don't eat them very often

but I'd have to say that they're some of the best I've had.

I struggled to taste the whisky at first but in actual fact,

when you stop to analyse the tastes in your mouth afterwards, then you got the whisky bite.

Hello, how are you?

We've had a ball today.

Firstly can I thank everybody in this county for their hospitality

because we've had a really, really good time.

We've been drunk! That's what we've been, it's been great!

We'll be back soon.

Now this is the horrible bit.

So, a very clear show of hands please for the scallop dish.

One, two, three, four, five, six. And a show of hands for the langoustines.

So that's six to three.

-The scallop dish was our Clare's.

-It was Clare's.

-Deserved.

-Well done.

-It was fabulous. A great restaurant, a great kitchen, a very talented lady.

All that remains is for us to go and have a drink in the kitchen

and probably we'll have to do the washing up!

-Thanks very much.

-Thank you very much.

Clare's local scallops proved too good to beat.

Argyll and Bute has so much rich produce to offer,

our panniers are laden with the best of their fine seafood and whisky for us to enjoy at home.

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