Fermanagh The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

-We're the Hairy Bikers!

-And we're finding recipes to rev up your appetite.

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

-Way-hey!

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

Hey, Dave. This looks like a good spot for a breather.

-It is, isn't it?

-Let's go for a dander.

Cor, it's blowing a hooley.

Isn't it just that? Smell that bracing air!

-It gets rid of the cobwebs.

-Northern Ireland, we've made it!

It's County Fermanagh to be precise, and this is Ireland's great lake district.

We're meant to call it a lough district here. L-O-U-G-H.

This is Upper Lough Erne and this is Lower Lough Erne.

We need to speak to people who know about Fermanagh.

Let's go and see some folk. Come on.

On our quest to define the true flavours of Fermanagh,

we invade Crom Castle to cook up a real taste of the county.

We cast off in search of the freshest wild brown trout possible.

And we visit some castaway pigs that make for the tastiest bacon we've ever tried.

And representing Fermanagh in a cook-off later is Noel McMeel.

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

Isn't it lovely seeing water everywhere you go, Dave?

County Fermanagh, it's Ireland's Lake District

and Enniskillen is the biggest town in the county of Fermanagh.

And you know, it's right in the middle of the county.

Now, this should be good. But we're here to find out what excites the taste buds of the local people.

What is Fermanagh on a plate?

Fermanagh on a plate would be like my mother's home-made apple tart.

-Right.

-Right.

-Her home-made soda bread...

Fresh fish. Good wheaten bread.

-Old wheaten bread...

-Right.

..and soda farls.

'They could seem a favourite. Let's get stuck in and taste some.'

This is wheaten bread here.

Look at that. Ooh, yes.

Is wheaten bread a soda bread?

-It's a cross between a soda and a wheatmeal bread.

-Right.

It's a heavy loaf, isn't it?

It is, but it's hand-made.

Not chain-made. Everything's hand-mixed.

Have a taste. That's so soft.

That's the tastiest bread I've ever tasted.

Oh, that is lovely.

Oh, yes.

Brian, which baking products are particular to Enniskillen?

In different regions wheatens would vary. Same with the soda bread.

Different people have different ways of baking it.

-I think everything that you'd see here is particularly true for Fermanagh.

-Yes.

What to you is Fermanagh on a plate?

Irish stew, because it's very easy to get good steak.

We've got a lot of good butchers here. And I suppose potato bread.

-Right.

-Really?

-It's known as boxty or potato bread.

What's in boxty?

Boxty. It's made of potatoes. You boil the potatoes...

You grate raw potato and then you squeeze the starch out of it

and you mix it with cooked potato.

You could put spring onions in them if you wanted.

..then, when they're ready, sliced and fried in a pan with bacon.

-I'd do it at Halloween. I'd make boxty myself.

-At Halloween?

-Yes.

-You'd eat it at Halloween?

'I'm sure the local deli would be able to tell us more about boxty and other Fermanagh favourites.'

This is something that grows locally, especially in season at the moment is the wild garlic leaves.

-Right.

-You don't use the bulb or the flower. You just pull the leaves away.

-Did you pick this yourself?

We did indeed. We've made a vegetable stock with this,

pared it down with a little bit of white wine.

You'll probably see that it needs no added flavouring. No salt.

It makes wonderful pesto and it's for nothing.

That's wonderful.

It's very, very light, but it's rich.

-So that's the fabled boxty.

-That's it.

Can you have boxty like a pancake, though?

-As a pancake it's ideally suited with some lovely organic free-range eggs in the morning time.

-Ooh, aye.

With some of that nettle cheese just melted on the top.

'Boxty seems to be THE local dish

'and we've heard about another local speciality that would be great with it.

'O'Doherty's Butchers in Enniskillen has been in the town for 40 years

'and is famed for its bacon, which has been voted the best Irish food product.'

This here is actually the original black bacon.

I'm just going to cut this in half, to give you an idea what it looks like inside.

-Oh, look at that. That's beautiful.

-Beautiful.

-You know how you cure bacon?

-Yes.

-Yes.

The simplest of doing it is to use a thing called saltpetre.

Add it with salt and sugar and two months later you get a beautiful bacon.

In Fermanagh pre-1950s, pre-1940s, they used to tie it on a little bit of rope and hang it up the chimney.

The bacon took on the flavour of the old peat flavour.

-I bet that was good.

-Smoked them!

We can only try to replicate that.

We've created a new type of black bacon. It's called nitrate-free.

It's the most natural bacon you can eat, because, number one, it doesn't contain any E-numbers.

So it's bacon without any additives?

Without any additives. This here is some nitrate-free bacon.

Put a piece of ordinary bacon beside it and you can see the difference.

Yes. How do you actually cure bacon without the chemicals?

It took five years to develop the process on how to do that.

Unfortunately it's one of these secrets that we must carry.

If you could spend five years here I'll gladly, happily tell you.

There's a lot of bacon sandwiches in there.

To be honest with you, it takes two months almost to mature into bacon.

-You can eat this like Parma ham.

-You can eat it raw?

-As it is.

Side of black bacon. Would you like to tuck in there, lads?

The texture's great. It's really quite waxy.

It's very different to raw pork.

That is unbelievable.

Mmm.

-It's lovely.

-That is unreal.

It's very, very hammy.

It's got the great taste of pork.

There's a smoke to it. It's sweet. The texture's gorgeous.

Sometimes with dried hams you end up having to do quite a lot of work,

y'know, because of the stringy bits between your teeth. That just melts.

Let's just hope that our boxty can do justice to your bacon.

'So we'll need a few packets of this great product to cook with later

'and maybe a couple to take home for ourselves.

'To create the amazing taste of the black bacon, Pat makes sure his pigs have the best life possible.

'We're off to see them on their very own island in Upper Lough Erne.

'Here the 250 pigs can roam free, eating any of the vegetation they choose.

'They're happy and wild, which makes for the best meat possible.'

-We've never seen pigs like this in the world before.

-No.

-It's superb.

The idea really is that they become part of the environment, y'know?

They're eating up bits of roots and grubs and so forth out here.

They're as happy as anything. I think he likes youse two guys!

He's looking for a lift off the island.

I'll never get a helmet to fit him.

When they wake up in the morning

they're generally in a big nest from head to toe.

Of course they start rooting then and they'll eat any type of roots

of any type of plant that you could imagine.

Little grubs and worms and bugs and stuff like that. It's a natural part of their diet.

They're not given an artificial feed.

-They are what they eat?

-They are what they eat.

What I enjoy about this project is that we're using rare-breed pigs.

Pigs that can survive outside. Once it's lived outside, it's got the most beautiful meat.

The flavour of any bacon or any pork that comes from outdoors

will always be on another level to indoor pork, y'know?

-You're fresh, healthy boys, aren't you?

-We've got our bacon. Have you got any tips for boxty?

-For cooking boxty or eating boxty?

-Oh, cooking.

-Cooking.

Sliced and fried nicely in the pan with a couple of rashers of bacon. That's the ideal breakfast.

-Happy castaways.

-Aren't they?

I tell you what - there are some days that I wish I was you.

It's time to get to the kitchen and the location is simply breathtaking

from the castle on the shores of Upper Lough Erne.

We're cooking traditional boxty and serving it with Pat's bacon.

Simply delicious.

We've got a pan of cold, cooked mashed potato.

About a kilo's worth.

This is a dish you're going to want to make because it's dead tasty.

-We've got the best bacon in the world to go with it.

-Look at this.

It's nitrate-free bacon. It's so beautiful.

We're going to make boxty and we're gonna serve it with the black bacon, and maple syrup,

which is nothing to do with Fermanagh but it's very nice.

First step, we've got to grate some potatoes. So, we'll do three each.

Uno, dos, tres. Here you are, bud.

-You have the big 'uns.

-Thank you.

Competitive, isn't he?

Right. We have to extract the water from that grated potato.

Because if we made boxty with soggy, watery taters it would end up as soup.

So you take your tea towel, put the potato on there - this is a clean tea towel -

and just do that.

Look at that. All that potato juice.

You put a kilogram, cooked weight, of just simple, cold mashed potato.

-Have you not got a spoon to do that, the Foetid Claw?

-My hands are clean.

Put your grated potato, which has been spun, into that

and just break it up.

-I wish we had a bigger bowl.

-You're not the only one.

I've just got plain flour. About half a kilogram.

I'm going to put some baking powder into this.

Some people have said you shouldn't but it does give it a bit of a lift.

What I need next is some melted butter.

It's a thick dish, this.

Go on, Kingy.

In this lovely, hygienically presented bowl,

or bucket, we have equal parts of mashed potato and grated raw potato.

Add the butter to the mashed potato and the grated potatoes.

Take care, because it might be a bit hot.

-Look at that.

-Stir it before it goes solid.

-It's coming together, isn't it?

-It is. Now it's time to add the flour.

This bacon has the most wonderful kind of waxy feel.

This is a bit overloaded but, you know, it'll be fine.

We're going to put that in the oven. But not yet. I'm just getting ahead.

I'll put those there.

As far as I understand it, you can have two types of boxty.

The one that's thick like a potato cake

or the one that's like a pancake that's kind of slightly liquid.

-I bake mine in the oven.

-She bakes it in the oven?

You're actually supposed to fry the boxty with the oil that the bacon's been fried in on the pan.

-That's the way my granny used to do it.

-I bet it tastes fabulous.

-Yes.

-We'll have to use olive oil!

Look, just dump it in now, look.

It won't be enough.

It's got to sizzle, like a pancake.

-There's not enough fat on it.

-I'm with you, madam. It's not going to work.

Because we need to bubble, you know.

Full-fat milk.

Isn't it great they've still got milk in bottles? I miss that.

We mix this to a thick batter.

Just put half in. That will do, stop there!

All right, mate.

Ah, Kingy! These two bits of bacon, we'd better eat those, hadn't we?

We might as well, as we're here.

-One for you, one for me.

-Thank you.

Olive oil, because I haven't got any dripping, really.

I agree, dripping would be fabulous.

What we'll do now is take a spoonful of the boxty mixture, pat it down first...

..then slide it into the sizzling oil.

-Is that the shape of a boxty?

-You need to pat it down a bit.

You want to pat it down a bit. Pat it down a bit flatter, Dave.

-There's too much milk in it.

-Too much milk, she says, Dave.

-She didn't.

-She did.

-A little bit.

-A little bit too much milk, she says.

Put some flour on your hands and then it'll not stick.

We haven't got any left, have we? It's all in the boxty.

They're not well prepared, are they!

Time to turn the boxty, hold on.

Look at this. Prepare to gasp in amazement.

Look at that. It's as golden as a golden thing, that.

-Will-o'-the-wisp's back!

-What do I smell?

A bit more golden. Just like down the Wimpy, isn't it?

-Get the plate over.

-I will do.

Five minutes, five minutes, the bacon's in.

And it's good bacon.

-Eh?

-It's your man in Enniskillen.

-It is. Pat Doherty's black bacon.

I know Pat's bacon.

-It's the best, isn't it?

-I had some of his sausages this morning. Good.

-Do you think these are done?

-Those are, yes.

-Look at them.

-Lovely.

Golden. I'll get the bacon. Look at that.

Phwoar.

Now, wonderful, wonderful...

Fermanagh black bacon.

-Look at that.

-A couple more pieces.

Now, just in case they might be a bit dry...

..a little knob of good Irish butter.

The butter in Ireland is superb. You've got some great butter here.

Some great food. Great people. Great country.

Now, there's just one thing that we've found works great.

It's not Irish, it's not from Fermanagh, it's kind of from Toronto.

But maple syrup is brilliant with this.

This over the bacon. Not that it needs it.

Ahhh. Look at that.

And then just a few sea-salt flakes

just on the top with that lovely butter.

And there we have it.

Fermanagh...

-on a plate.

-APPLAUSE

It's lovely. Very crispy and very nice with the butter.

It's much nicer than the boxty I've tasted before.

The maple syrup's a really good idea. Never thought of that before.

-I think I'll make it. I've never made it!

-I like the maple syrup and the bacon.

The boxty is super. Really delicious.

Delicious!

It's very, very tasty. I've never tasted it made fresh before, so this was the first time. Very good.

-The bacon's delicious.

-Can I just look at that...?

-That's mine!

-Have half of it.

-Thank you.

It's still good. It's just not as good as Ma's, but it's still good.

-Well, that's fair enough!

-It was tasty, but not enough.

-Look at that!

-Tasty.

-What did you think of the maple syrup?

-Oh, dead on.

'The boxty, bacon and maple syrup really went down well. But a bigger 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 best can define the taste of the region.

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

'Our opponent today is...

'Noel McMeel, head chef of the Lough Erne Golf Resort.

'Noel loves to celebrate the exceptional produce of Fermanagh

'and has cooked for some of the world's most famous people, including Elton John and the Queen.'

People often ask me, what kind of food do I do?

I'd have to say that it would be modern Irish food.

It's very rich, full of flavour, served with passion, with panache.

The food that comes out of this restaurant is really all about Noel McMeel on a plate.

Fermanagh holds very much the best suppliers,

from the likes of my venison supplier, to my meat supplier, to my chicken supplier.

If you do it well, there'll be nothing that will beat it. This is the most fruitful county there is.

Growing up on a farm, really as a country boy, my love was always in cooking.

I don't think I'll ever do anything else. Only cook.

To take on the Bikers today, my taste of Fermanagh today is

a lamb cutlet with its kidney,

kettled beef, poached egg, chunky chips.

Truly delicious.

Oh!

-This place looks fantastic, doesn't it just?

-Yeah!

-Let's find Noel.

-It's a big place. We might be looking for a while!

Headline the dish for us, Noel. How would it read on your menu?

Well, on the menu itself, I have it on as a mixed grill.

-Using the best of the county itself.

-It's Noel McMeel's mixed grill!

I'm going to be taking the sinew nicely off this fabulous beef.

I keep some of the other fat slightly on it. I don't really take a lot off.

You see the nice kind of marbling coming through that.

So I'm going to leave that. Now, with this here, I'm just going to do some nice cutlets.

And I'm going to put that into the fridge.

-I don't know whether youse like offal?

-Yes, love it.

One of the things is with the kidney, by taking off the likes of the skin,

it just comes off so, so easy...

So, we've got the meat is done, right?

But these here that I'm gonna be doing, the way I make them is,

take the likes of the clingfilm, just dampen this slightly,

put a small bit of the...

I love tricks like this.

This is what we do, we'll regurgitate this against another chef.

We'll come over as dead clever!

I put the cabbage down as such.

Then I put the clingfilm to get over it again.

Like that.

And you roll it.

I'm going to leave that at the minute. This was the belly of pork that I cooked last night.

I put it into its fat and I cooked it for 12 and a half hours.

At 82 degrees.

What we do with this here, it's mainly just pulling it apart.

Just like that there. Take some of the cabbage

that I've left over and I'm just cutting it really, really fine.

Because I want to put that into the middle of it.

I've got some of that there.

This is like the black back bacon from Fermanagh itself.

I've cooked it until it's got a kind of crunch in it.

So we've got the cabbage and a bit of bacon. Now the pork

into it as well.

From the pork belly. Some sea salt.

Wee bit of black pepper.

We just pull it up slightly and then we get the clingfilm

and then we take some of the air out of it like that.

For the potato itself, we're going to be making big chunky chips.

These are really just the size of the chunky chips themselves.

We cook these in duck fat.

-That's heaven!

-We just blanch them in the duck fat itself.

We've got these. Usually what we do is we leave them in the duck fat overnight.

The next thing, most of all,

is not our spring onions, as people like to say...

-Well, they are, but our... ALL:

-Scallions!

We've got our saucepan and our cream, right?

With the spring onions, we're going to add some of the cream.

I've got the cream and the spring onions.

Lovely. Dead simple, that's what it is.

And some of this mash that I mashed earlier.

So this is really the champ here.

Do you know what we used to have that with? Me mam... We used to have smoked haddock with it on a Friday.

-Ah, man, it was unreal. It was unreal.

-Absolutely gorgeous.

-We used to get dead excited about waiting for that to come round.

-I know!

OK, we're back again for the meats

because now I want to get them nicely seared off.

For the likes of the fillet steak,

a nice small fillet.

I want to feed youse, but I don't want to fatten youse!

They're just nicely seasoned. I'll cook these until they're pink inside.

I'll cook them in the oven, take them out and rest them.

The whole purpose, for me, of resting them is that it'll help to tenderise the actual meat itself.

OK, so we've got...

So, we've got... Lovely. See the way it's nicely browning?

I'm just putting some of these in.

-What temperature have you got that on?

-Roughly about 180.

I'm going to put it in for at least maybe two minutes.

The lamb, because it's cut into cutlets,

is going to cook so much quicker.

I'm going to put these in.

Into the hot water.

What I need to cook at the minute is the kidneys.

So, you'll cook them on the top for two minutes just to give them a bit of colour

-and then into the oven just to relax?

-Yes.

Never add salt to them until the last minute, until they're just about to be pan-fried.

Into the oven.

Beef.

That's just beautiful beef, with a hot buttered sauce. I've got some of the egg yolk

and I've put this in on top of the cabbage.

I've got some of the clarified butter.

Sam, where's the reduction of the butter?

Marvellous. So what I have here in the reduction,

-I have some pepper in it.

-Right.

And I've got white wine vinegar.

Then some tarragon.

Do you see what I mean? That's what I'm really looking for.

Once you overcook them, they're gone.

All the meats now need to go back and they need to rise up to a proper temperature.

This is where the cabbage comes in.

You don't want to cook them too long. If I take off the plastic,

-that's what it really comes out like.

-Oh, lovely, lovely!

-Aren't they?

-It looks like you've just reinvented the Brussels sprout!

-My potatoes,

into the luscious duck fat.

I'm gonna put just a small bit of champ there.

-These are just small, baby greens as such.

-Micro salad, isn't it?

Yeah. It's just to give it colour, flavour, earthiness.

-Chips.

-You are producing our cameraman's perfect meal.

He's loving every eyeful through the lens.

-And then just the smell of them.

-Smell those chips!

-No, you're not allowed any.

-Ahhh!

Marvellous, thanks.

Here, where's all this... They're local! Here, you! Give over, you.

Nothing too fancy.

Just nicely on.

OK, then we've got the rest of the cabbage here.

OK?

These are confit tomatoes and they go sliding just nicely...

So this is the eggs, and they're very soft.

So I've actually poached them and put them back into iced water and then just trimmed them.

Where's the rest of my lamb?

I have to serve that for the restaurant.

-THEY MUMBLE Am I missing a bit of beef as well?

-No!

-Have youse eaten the beef as well?

-I have not!

Our buttered sauce.

And we put on a small bit of sauce.

I've made it from a stock and reduced it and reduced it and reduced it.

So, what we have here

is really like a testament of what our county is all about.

We've got the good old egg, which is a free-range down the road.

We've got the old spud,

the kettled beef, the lamb kidney and the confit tomato.

The lamb cutlet, which is a mountain lamb as such.

-And then, last but not least, the cabbage and bacon.

-Wow!

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

-Yes, it looks really, really lovely.

Shall we cut into that and see what's in there?

Yes. Lots of cabbage, isn't there? Surprising, that.

-Oh, fab!

-That is fabulous.

Have a go on the champ.

-That's champion.

-That is superb lamb.

Superbly cooked.

Perfect.

Egg and chips, steak and kidney, cabbage and bacon. It's great.

-I don't think this is going to be an easy one, do you?

-No.

I think we're stuffed.

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

'Northern Ireland is one of the finest fishing destinations in the whole of Europe

'and the loughs are described as a fly-fisher's dream.

'Some fresh local trout could be the clincher to take on Noel.

'We've got out permissions and local expert Patrick Trotter is taking us out.'

OK, guys? This is the Colebrooke River and you're very welcome here.

The trout in here are indigenous wild trout. This is not a stocked river.

Is this one of the last wild trout fisheries in Northern Ireland, then?

No. There are a few other wild fisheries in Northern Ireland.

But I like to think that this is one of the best.

Well, you would, Pat, wouldn't you?

Well, I started to fish it when I was six and I'm still here!

Half the fun is not knowing if you're going to catch fish or not.

Basically, when you're fishing like this, what you're doing is just covering the water.

You take a few casts and take a few strides downstream.

Take a few more casts and work your way right down the pool.

-There's one over there.

-Well done, Dave.

-Take your time.

Watch your hand before you lift it.

-I think we have to put him back, lads.

-I think so, yes.

-Got one!

-Oh, nice one, mate!

That's a keeper. That's a good 'un.

-Only got another 15 to go. It'll be fine!

-I got one.

-Nice little wild brown trout.

-How beautiful!

A little bit too small to keep.

-Let's put her back, then.

-Let's put her back.

There we go.

I've got two. They're not exactly in the record books.

If we get a third, at least we've got an hors d'oeuvre.

As Isaac Newton said, "Time spent fly-fishing isn't deducted from the sum total of your life."

How are you doing, Kingy?

Couple of good knocks, mate, but no success.

Two in the bag, new stretch of river,

a new moment of anticipation.

That one's all right.

That's a nice fish.

That's the good thing about fishing with your mate.

It actually doesn't matter whether you get on or he gets one. It's a great feeling!

That's a beautiful wild Fermanagh brown trout.

"Watch the wall behind," he says.

I've caught a tree, that's what I've caught!

I'm not having a good day.

Dave's caught four and I've got one that I've had to put back.

That's a big one. Here we are.

That's a belter.

Look at the colour of him.

-This would be the average size of the trout.

-Aye.

I bet they're going to taste fantastic.

Well, we've certainly got enough to give everybody a taste.

-I'm in.

-Well done, Dave.

-I'm in.

-Good lad.

Ah, you're joking us!

That was a good fish.

-Yes! That's a keeper, Kingy.

-Had to get one, dude.

Couldn't let the side down.

That's all right, isn't it?

Where is it?

-I don't...

-Are you joking?

-No.

That was a nice fish!

I've just lost one. I've just taken it out of the water

to take the hook out of its mouth.

-So, let's see what you have.

-Got a couple each. That will do.

That's not bad. You did very well.

Nothing better. It's a day out and we've got our tea.

'To celebrate Fermanagh's fishing heritage, we're going to

'cook the trout that we've caught in three different ways,

'but we need something else to give us the edge against Noel.

'Orchard Acre Farm is run by Teresa O'Hare.

'As well as growing a wide range of herbs and vegetables, she also runs an eco-school

'which has been voted Northern Ireland's Eco Building of the Year.'

-Teresa!

-Hello! How you doing?

Which one's Starsky and which one's Hutch?

-I'm Hutch.

-I'm Chips.

'Teresa's herbs also make a mean scone.'

You know what? I feel just like Tom and Barbara out of The Good Life.

Have a pew, Babs!

-Have you had family here, then, Theresa?

-I'm here 20 years.

We started growing vegetables for ourselves as soon as we got here.

When my kids were little, I gave up my job to be at home and tried my hand at running my own farm business.

I started selling to restaurants

and a local hotel.

Then I saw that what was missing was really to teach other people how to grow food.

So that's why we've got to the stage of building the eco-school on the middle of the farm.

-We teach people how to grow food and how to cook it.

-We've come to you for help.

We've caught a heap of brown trout and hopefully you can supply us with something to perk these critters up.

-What herbs have you got at this time of the year?

-It's early, but we've got a few things coming up.

Chives. That would be good.

We have tarragon in the polytunnel.

Brilliant. Now, have you got rhubarb?

The variety I have here is called champagne and it is beautiful stuff.

I'll let you have a little because I usually keep it for the ice-cream folk down the road.

-We'll consider ourselves privileged.

-Privileged you are.

If you guys have finished your scones

then we'll take a walk up to the polytunnel and the rest of the garden and get your ingredients.

-Lovely.

-Brilliant.

Come on in, my dears. We've got some tarragon here for you.

-What's this?

-It's actually a Chinese cabbage,

so it's going to flower here but it's perfectly usable. You can have some of that.

I'll get you some tarragon. Try that.

It's supercharged liquorice!

That's beautiful stuff. Yes, fabulous.

I've got chives down here, so you can have whatever you want there.

Brilliant.

And...these are a companion for growing carrots.

So I'll grow the carrots up the middle.

-Companion?

-Yeah, companion. They're good pals.

The chives keep away the carrot fly.

-Do you find that when you're growing veg with herbs?

-Oh, yeah.

There's things like...basil is really good with tomatoes.

-Yes, of course.

-There's no surprise! I grow marigolds with cabbages.

You try to be beneficial with the cycles that you work with, the crop rotation.

-So what about that? Will that do?

-Brilliant. Lovely.

HORN HONKS

Take care!

We've got a bit of a flap on. Chef's got a banquet for 17.

A full restaurant. It's all in 40 minutes.

We have to represent Fermanagh on a plate at the speed of Benny Hill being chased by a gang of lovelies.

Yes, so pay attention, because, if you don't, you might lose something.

Our dish. What is it really?

It's trout, cooked three ways, with a rhubarb compote and a quenelle

of pine nuts, watercress and Chinese leaves and a shower of dill sauce.

It will be up to local diners

to decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of Fermanagh.

Right, here we go! Get gutting.

Cut the little thingies off.

I'm doing some herbs that we'll stuff the cavity of the fish with.

Now, top tip. Just take a little bit of butter, push it into the cavity like that.

-Then add your herbs. You don't need many.

-Splash of white wine, Kingy!

Now, we have got some local salmon because we haven't got enough brown trout. We didn't catch enough!

I'll poach those off. We've made a cooking liquor.

This is white wine, celery, carrots.

We've reduced it for half-an-hour.

We want to poach the fish gently, so to start off I'll throw the two bits of salmon in

and our two trout.

This will give us the basis for our little trout, spinach and tarragon creamy pie.

-Shall I score 'em?

-Score 'em.

Just little cuts, so that butter falls into it. Cover them in foil.

Stick them in an oven for about 10 minutes, 170 degrees.

We'll get these out, leave them to cool.

Component number two, it's a smoked trout mousseline.

It's like a poached mousse.

It's going to be in these dinky little Kilner jars with some deep-fried sage leaves on the top.

Local smoked trout. Just tear it up, put it in a blender. This is hot smoked trout.

While Dave's doing that, all I'm going to do is make a very simple white sauce.

What that consists of is some butter, some flour, some milk, some tarragon.

Got some butter. Put that in.

An egg. It's going to be cooked, so don't worry about the egg.

-And some cream.

-Some horseradish.

I'll go kind of lightly with this. I always put some more in afterwards.

Now, what we do is blitz this to within an inch of its life.

I'm just gonna pack these little pots with the mousseline.

This has got raw eggs, so I want to cook that. It'll kind of go solid.

It's starting to thicken up nicely because it's starting to trail, do you see?

These we put in a loaf tin and I'm going to fill half with boiling water, put that in the oven

and that bain-marie is going to gel to perfection.

So the fish that I've poached I'm going to pick through, make sure there's no bones.

I'm just adding the tarragon to this white sauce.

We'd have liked to have used all brown trout, but it's fishing!

We did pretty well in the morning.

Some very fine rhubarb from our lady.

Put a star anise in here.

Just a little one.

-I love them.

-Some brown sugar and a wee splash of water.

-Just boil that until it drops.

-This is done, mate.

-Spinach blanched.

-Have a taste of that.

See what you think.

-That's wonderful!

-It's kind of hard to do!

-Oh, man!

-Have you got a colander, Chef?

-Yes, I can get you one.

Chef, have you got a blast-chiller? Ah, brill. Thank you.

All these elements of the pie have to be cold before we build the pie

otherwise we're just going to end up with soggy pastry.

Get the spinach really dry.

I think I've made a bit much!

Excellent. We want about three tablespoonfuls.

-I've definitely made a bit much!

-Is it in the blast-chiller?

-Not yet. It will be in a minute.

-Get it in!

-I will!

-I need to turn it on.

-That would help!

Rhubarb. That's that.

Give me that, I'll clear down.

If the spinach is wet, the pastry will be soup.

The tarragon sauce that we've just put into the blast-chiller to cool,

-we're going to push some prawns through it. Puff pastry.

Right, I'll get on with the dill sauce.

Load it up with spinach.

I'm using blanched spinach because, if I'd used fresh spinach,

when I'd open the pie up it would be full of green water.

-How's your dill sauce?

-I need your hand.

-I need a drizzle.

-Drizzle.

What's in here is some red wine vinegar, some sugar and olive oil.

What we're going to do is put a little bit of Dijon mustard in there as well. Have a look at the sauce.

There it is.

That's as blast-chilled as can be. It's not set, has it?

Has it set? You're having a laugh.

I thought sauce was something you're meant to spoon over! That's ice.

Since when did you become bloody Gordon Ramsay, to criticise my sauce?

You're sauce will stand up for itself.

-I thought you wanted it thick!

-Look at this, Paul Daniels!

You're heating it in a pie, so what you want is that lovely moisture

and loveliness to come down, so put the stuff in the pie!

You want me to put the prawns in?

It's like pistachio ice cream!

-Howay, Gordon! Shift along.

-Ladle it with love.

-As you can see, it's going to be lovely on the plate.

-Oh, my God!

-It looks lovely on a front door.

-What sort of recipe is this?

This is not good.

-It looks

-BLEEP.

-It doesn't.

-It does looks

-BLEEP.

-I'm doing

-BLEEP.

-That WAS our rhubarb!

-HE LAUGHS

-I'll never get a compote out of that.

-I'll put it in the frying-pan. That's all right.

-Are you having a laugh?

-That will dry out.

-Where?

-There!

-You've put it in a frying pan!

-That'll be fine.

-Right, finish this off with a layer of spinach.

-That's the dill sauce.

-Is it nice?

-Yes.

Fantastic!

Cut and crimp.

It'll be all right when it comes together, this.

I'm just going to add a couple of chives to this. Nice!

Look at that.

Our mousseline in these little jaunty pots.

You want some boiling water, and just fill that up.

That's going to cook the egg and the flavours will develop nicely.

Time for the fish to go in.

The Chinese cabbage that we blanched off before, with the watercress,

we're going to put into what's called a robocook.

We're going to add some pine nuts, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper.

You know what they say about watched pastry? It's kind of not going brown!

-Turn the oven up.

-I have. It's at 210.

Right. This is going well. Not.

I'll get the plates.

-Either way, dude, we're going to get a quenelle out of that.

-Lovely.

-Beautiful.

-These just need crisping up now.

Sam! Could you stick these under the grill just to brown off?

It's red hot, man.

Thanks, Sam. You're a star.

This is the finale. Look at those!

They're risen. All that lovely butter's come to the top.

To that, I'm going to put a little sage.

Oh, yes! I was worried about that.

-I have to say,

-I

-was a bit worried.

He's good with the quenelle, isn't he?

This little rhubarb chutney is sugar, star anise and a little bit of water and that's it.

Are youse pleased with this dish itself?

-I think it's a rescue job!

-Well done!

-Fermanagh on a plate.

-A trio of brown trout

done in three completely different ways with a rhubarb compote

and a lovely little quenelle of pine nuts, of watercress and of Chinese leaves

and with just a shower of dill sauce. There we have it.

The rhubarb I love. The way you've done the rhubarb is really nice.

It's fruity, flavoursome and all the rest.

I don't know whether I would put it with these.

-It's interesting.

-It is interesting.

Can you taste Fermanagh?

Of course I can!

My mother would be so proud of youse!

Let's see. The dill sauce.

Mmm. That's really beautiful.

I love this, which is the pie.

I love the way you did the trout. That was lovely.

I have to say, I like this. The rest of it, no.

I don't think this worked really much and I didn't like the rhubarb.

-Although the rhubarb tasted lovely...

-I think we tried too hard.

-Yeah, I think we did.

-Maybe a wee bit too hard.

-Yeah, I think we did.

Just let's hope that the tasters are pretentious!

-Yes!

-I hope so.

'It's crunch time. The diners here will taste both dishes

'but without any idea who cooked which.

'First up is Noel's mixed grill.'

Not a large Brussels sprout!

-That's really good.

-Beautiful.

Very delicate. The steak is just perfection.

It looked very impressive. The colours were really good.

I loved the cabbage parcel with the bacon, which is very Fermanagh.

That little parcel, just wondering what's in it and breaking into it I thought was excellent.

'The kidney I thought was particularly great. That was cooked beautifully pink, it was delicious.'

The egg and chips I don't feel really is Northern Irish. I think it's more English.

Egg and chips reminds me of Yorkshire. It's not an Irish thing, particularly.

High point was the presentation of it, which was excellent.

'To me, it looks like plain food.'

It looks uncomplicated.

And I think that's part of its charm.

'We all knew that would be a hit. Will our dish go down as well?

'Fingers crossed!'

Excellent.

-Try that.

-That's lovely.

The thing in the pot is really, really good.

I loved the rhubarb and the brown trout together. I think that really works well together.

It was a typical Fermanagh dish. Treated very skilfully, of course.

The presentation. When that came out, the plate was just dancing.

'It looked lovely.'

I think in the pastry with the wilted spinach, it was delicious and really light.

The only problem was it was too small! About four times the size would have been perfect!

APPLAUSE

How are you? Thank you.

Eeh! Eeh, well.

Thank you so much for coming.

I must say to the people of Fermanagh, we've had one of the best times ever.

-You're a friendly lot, aren't you?

-Aye.

-Sociable.

Your food's great, the lakes are great.

Now it comes to the nitty-gritty, really.

Could I have a show of hands, please, for the mixed grill?

So that's three. Could I have a show of hands, please, for the trio of trout?

One, two, three, four, five, six.

So, the mixed grill was Noel's and the trio of trout was Dave and I's.

The chaos that ensued to get the trout on the plate!

Oh, I'm really surprised!

-Thanks very much. Thanks, Noel.

-APPLAUSE

'What a result! I'm not sure how we managed that win, but we did!

'Noel was such great craic in the kitchen. We really had a laugh.

'The people of Fermanagh have made us feel so welcome and we can't wait to return to this county.'

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