Dumfries and Galloway The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

We're the Hairy Bikers! 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!

-Wa-hey!

We're here to define the true taste of Dumfries and Galloway.

Wow, look at that.

-Massive, isn't it?

-Yes. It's Dumfries and Galloway.

To the locals, this county's a gem.

We feel it's often an overlooked corner of Britain.

On the map, this county is as big as Cornwall or as big as Snowdonia.

Its main county towns are Wigton, Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright.

It takes up a massive part of Scotland and, you know, most of us,

we just zoom past it on the M74, on the way to Glasgow.

-However, we're not.

-Oh, No.

-Oh, no!

-We're going for a roamin' in the gloamin'.

-Och aye the noo.

OK. On our quest to define the true flavours of Dumfries and Galloway,

we cook up haggis with the traditional neeps and tatties.

Dave tries his hand at shepherding when we truck down some award-winning Scottish mutton.

Away to me!

We get togged up to go beekeeping, uncovering some of the best honey we've ever tasted.

And representing Dumfries and Galloway in the cook-off is Will Furlong.

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

Castle Douglas is one of those towns that's got a really good foodie reputation.

-Well, I'm looking forward to finding out. Are you?

-I am, too.

Castle Douglas is famed for its produce.

There are loads of smokehouses, bakers and organic farms.

It looks like this is the best place to uncover the traditional county dish.

The thing is with South West Scotland, it's the biggest secret in the UK.

If you go down there, you get the best sausages in the area, you've the best butchers, the best produce.

If you want it, tell me what you want and I'll tell you where to go.

There's everything here, your absolute gold mine here.

Cor. This is a treasure trove. You have some wonderful things here.

-I understand you've got a few things that are unique to this county.

-Well, we make a treacle scone

and we're one of the few bakers left, to understand, who still makes the traditional treacle scone.

-You know, somehow, I expected them to be sweet and they're not.

-No.

They've got a slight sweetness to them...but they're savoury.

-Yeah. I could fancy this with a piece of cheese.

-Yeah. Lovely.

These are one of my favourites. I lived in Scotland for 15 years. I love my Scotch pies.

Now, they're down to basics, just meat, a little rusk and seasoning.

-Nothing else.

-You know, there's a fan club for Scotch pies.

-Sign me up, now.

-I think we have, dude.

Is there any dishes, or recipes, that you've carried on that your family used to use?

Tatties and mince cos beef is so good, here.

Finest beef and lamb in the country.

What's your favourite thing to eat?

-Mince and tatties.

-Mince and tatties. I'm with you.

They're lovely, aren't they?

If you're in Scotland, you have to have haggis. Nothing better.

The local haggis, a Scottish traditional meal.

Haggis is world famous and enjoyed all over Scotland

but it's particularly popular here because it's Robbie Burns' county.

It's very interesting cos, here, in Dumfries and Galloway,

you've got your own Galloway cattle, haven't you?

Yeah. We have. There's some of the top breeders in the country

round this area and it gives us a really good product.

Here, we've got the Galloway beef, here.

-Right.

-And this one, here.

-It's so tender.

-That was wonderful beef.

Haggis!

The haggis, we make it ourselves and it's our own recipe to this shop and you can't get it anywhere else.

This is just plain. This is it plain and this here's a wee starter thing that I think's very good.

I thought I'd let you try. It's haggis with mature cheese melted on the top with Drambuie sauce.

Dig into that. It'll heat you up on a cold day.

-I think they go well, together.

-Oh, yeah.

-That's a winner.

-Yeah.

Here, Jimmy, I like you!

Just a bit of haggis on its own.

Yeah.

It's lovely and oaty and spicy.

Good, wholesome food.

Haggis is what we wanna cook, but what's the best way?

How do you cook your haggis?

I cook it in the oven. I roast it.

-Right.

-But over a tray of water.

My wife boils it.

Boil it. There's boilers and there's roasters, isn't there?

-You can fry it, as well.

-Yeah.

I think, in this day and age, when you're trying to look after your cholesterol levels

and things like that, you've got to go for the healthy option.

-Aye?

-Never mind that!

To do haggis justice, we've got to find the best,

so we need to go and see how it's made and we need to learn from a master.

Stuart Houston and his family have been making this dish for three generations

and have got pretty good at it. Everyone from Mark Hicks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are fans.

This is some of the finest haggis you'll get in the country.

-Is that a proper sheep's stomach?

-This is a proper sheep's stomach. This is a natural casing haggis.

-Would you like to have a wee go at making some?

-Absolutely. Yes.

This is the seasoning. The pinhead oatmeal, mixed in with our own seasoning.

Ooh! Bit of cloves. Nutmegy.

Yeah.

-Massive amount of black pepper.

-Yeah.

What we'll do then is bind the medium oatmeal to the haggis itself.

This here's the offal that we boil for two and a half to three hours

and let it go to a nice rubbery consistency.

We don't like to overcook it.

We still like to be able to break it up.

Then we move on to the suet.

The suet is a beef suet, predominantly, or a lamb suet.

-Suet is just fat.

-Yeah.

-Shall we crack on?

First in to the mixer is the offal, which is ground up and minced.

Then Stuart adds the suet, along with the onions and they too are minced together.

Next, the secret seasoning and the pinhead oatmeal is added.

Then in goes some beef stock and some medium oatmeal.

All of this is finely ground up together and out pops some mixture that looks a lot like...haggis?

This is when you get to the exciting part of it all.

This is an actual casing for the haggis itself.

-It's a big stomach, isn't it?

-It is. Yeah.

Press the lever once.

And out comes the haggis.

Now, you need a three-finger space...in between it,

because you've got to tie in between the two haggis.

Press again.

And again. Three-finger space in between the haggis. And again.

Three-finger space in between the haggis.

And that should get four haggis out of that one length.

-We triple-knot it.

-Cor. Sheep's stomachs are huge, aren't they?

I love learning new skills.

Look. A double.

That's a double one so that's like a one kilo haggis.

Kingy! It's my first haggis. Right, I'm only going one, now.

It's very attractive. We have the birth of a new hairy haggis.

I'm joking!

Can we buy some of your haggis and take 'em away?

-Cos that truly is a taste of Dumfries and Galloway.

-No problem at all.

Look at that. Little parcel of loveliness.

It's very, very hot.

-It's got the moistness.

-Yeah.

-Not being too dry. Still crumbly.

I can't wait to cook with this, Dave.

-No, man, no.

-Neeps and tatties.

Keep it traditional. Everybody fed. Brilliant.

Getting everybody fed is the order of the day and there's no time to lose.

Let's get to the kitchen and get cooking.

Dumfries! Crossing the noble River Nith.

You know, Dumfries is the largest town in these parts and it was once described as the Queen of the South.

Robbie Burns died here in 1796.

Yeah. He lived here in his latter years.

There can't be a more noble place to cook haggis,

the chieftain o' the puddin' race, than here in Dumfries.

We're cooking haggis served with a traditional clapshot and a beautiful whisky sauce to finish.

Truly, a taste of Dumfries and Galloway.

Well, we're going to a homage to Robbie Burns.

-Are we?

-Robert Burns. Yes.

We have three of Stuart Houston's finest haggis.

It really is a sheep's stomach, stuffed with offal and oats and spices.

And with the haggis, we're serving clapshot.

Now, what's clapshot, Dave?

Clapshot is a mixture of mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, with some cream, some butter,

some white pepper and lovely chopped chives.

We're making a whisky and mustard sauce, in case it's a bit dry.

We're going to roast the haggis in an oven, wrapped in foil and roasted,

Cos it kind of roasts in all the fat and juices.

You take the haggis, like so.

And you fold it up in a little blankie and just roll it like that, look.

Sometimes I find - maybe it's because I'm rubbish -

I find that when I'm simmering the haggis it can kind of explode and split

and I end up with haggis soup, but this way,

it roasts in all the goodness, the fat keeps all the flavour in, and it's fab.

One of my favourites is, I love shepherds pie, made with half haggis and half lamb mince.

These go in the oven.

About 160 degrees, 170, for about an hour.

And all those flavours will cook together. All the fat, the spices and they are spicy.

A taste of paradise.

-What's this?

-A tumshie!

It's a smiling tumshie, isn't it? Look.

It's a tumshie with a bit of a giggle.

I've cut my tumshie, my turnip, my neep or my swede, into big chunks.

I'm going to boil it now for about 15, 20 minutes.

We're going to take these potatoes, more commonly known as tatties, and we're going to peel them.

Tumshie, tatties, haggis is on.

Now then, a simple whisky sauce.

Ingredient number one, a litre of fine Galloway cream.

Oh, look at that. Look at that seamless run of loveliness.

To this, and stirring all the time, about two tablespoons of wholegrain mustard.

Now, about the same of smooth, Dijon-type mustard.

In celebration of the Auld Alliance.

Scotland's famous for its whisky.

So put in about four teaspoons of a good single-malt whisky.

It's a nice peaty one, this. Oh, it's good.

And we need to burn the alcohol off. What's interesting,

cos it's a peaty whisky, is it gives it a kind of barbecued flavour.

The juice of a lemon. At this point, one would worry that the sauce might split.

And then we'd have made a big pan of whisky flavoured yoghurt.

Right. Go. Gently. Gently.

Taste.

More lemon juice.

The thing is, if you put everything in at once, what happens is you can't take it out, can you?

-Yeah.

-So you just keep adjusting it as you go.

-That to season it.

To the whisky sauce.

Chives. Quite a lot of chives. Take a big bunch.

Cos haggis is a powerful critter. So the sauce needs a bit of legs, doesn't it?

Now also, what I'm doing is I'm just heating it through, really, really slowly

because you don't want it to come to the boil cos otherwise it has more propensity to split, then.

Oh, it's lovely. I'll just drain the potatoes.

The turnip's cooked.

And I'm still whisking.

So put your boiled potatoes in with your boiled turnip.

Where's my masher gone? This is a posh one, isn't it?

Could use a ricer for this cos it'd make it super, super creamy,

but it doesn't matter, this should be a bit rustic.

I never thought I'd hear him say the words.

I'm normally criticised about my rustic approach to cuisine.

All right. I'll pass it through a ricer.

No. Don't. Don't. We'll be here all night!

-I want to rice it!

-No. Don't rice it!

-I want to put it in my ricer!

-No! Don't rice it!

The people want to see how the ricer works.

-No, they don't, do you?

-I've done it, now.

Oh! You don't want to see how the ricer...? No!

You do! Come on. You take your ricer...

Oh, he's going to rice it!

You put it spoonful by spoonful into there.

You put like that.

You squidge it all out, like that.

And it comes out and you'll never have tasted finer mash.

And what am I doing, still?

ALL: Whisking!

You're a good lot, you.

Clapshot isn't clapshot without chives.

-Splash of cream.

-Help.

Knobs of butter.

Oh, now there, you see!

Our top tip, whether it's clapshot or mashed potato, white pepper is brilliant with mash.

-Yeah.

-It's great.

So that's the clapshot done... which is beautiful. Smooth.

-The haggis, by now, will be done to perfection.

-Perfection.

-Shall we get one out of the oven?

We might as well seeing as we're here. Go on.

Look at the colour of that!

Let's take this plate because you can't just cut it on the foil.

It deserves a bit of status.

They do this, don't they, on Burns' night? It's all this...

Steady, dude, I'm behind you.

Oh, look at that.

And the steam gush.

-Ah.

-Oh, yes.

As much as you'd like.

Ah, look at that.

Now, the clapshot. It's a great colour...

..cos the turnip's made it go nice and orange.

Lovely, lovely chives.

Look at that. There we are.

-Haggis, neeps and tatties...

-With a little chive cross of St Andrew.

-Make an effort, love.

-There you go.

Traditional haggis with clapshot and a whisky sauce

is the ultimate local dish, but what will the local people think of it?

The last time I had haggis it wasn't as nice as that cos the sauce helped

bring through the peppery taste of the haggis. Will we have that at home, will we? Yeah?

When I hear what it is I don't want to taste it but it's really nice.

You've just discovered haggis, dude, haven't you? Good lad.

-I don't like whisky but that's really nice.

-It's really lovely.

Just dig in.

Mm. Aye, it's braw!

-It's braw.

-It's braw.

-Fair taste the mustard in it.

-I told her to say that.

The sauce just makes it. Yeah.

We'll invite you to our Burns supper next year.

-Hold on. Hold on. Before we take her up on it, who's cooking?

-We do.

That's just slightly better than theirs.

-Plenty of sauce.

-Mm.

It's really good. It's amazing, cos we normally just microwave it.

So... It makes so much difference.

Plus the big strong guys to make the mashed tattie right.

They certainly seemed to enjoy that.

Haggis, neeps and tatties in the home of Robbie Burns.

You just can't go wrong.

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 Dumfries and Galloway.

Our opponent today is Will Furlong, chef at Auchen Castle in Moffat.

Will has been cooking in Scotland for over three decades.

He feels no need to look elsewhere for produce

when there is such an abundance of great food on his doorstep.

Dumfries and Galloway's one of the most stunning parts of Scotland.

You know the food you're getting is going to be really fresh and it's the best Dumfries and Galloway can offer.

The most exciting thing about the food in Dumfries and Galloway is it's all local, it's on your doorstep.

We've got plenty of fresh salmon, pheasant, partridge

and all the game that's available, which you won't get in the Central Belt.

We change our menus every three months to go with the seasons.

We try not to use anything that's not available in Scotland.

I've been cooking for 32 years. I've got a good knowledge of what I can make in Scotland

and a knowledge of traditional Scottish foods

and what we are now calling the Scottish food with a twist.

To take on the bikers, my taste of Dumfries and Galloway is...

fillet of Buccleuch beef with a haggis-stuffed tomato, savoy cabbage,

red onion potato rosti and Auchen Castle's whisky jus.

-You all right, Will?

-How are you?

-Are you ready to get battle commenced?

-Yeah. Welcome to Auchen.

-Fantastic place.

-Are youse feeling fit?

-Oh, aye.

-Have you got the kettle on?

-Too late, mate. I made the coffees earlier.

-Get in here!

-What you going to cook, Will?

-Well, today, I'm cooking fillet of Bucchleuch beef,

with stuffed tomato, which has haggis in it.

My cabbage is going to be buttered.

Red onion potato rosti.

And I'm going to be using Auchen Castle's whisky to make a lovely sauce for you.

-Oh, smashing. Crack on, Will.

-Right.

-There you are, sir.

-Here we go.

So, basically, what we're going to do is we're going to take the chain off.

-Yeah.

-OK. We're going to prep it up.

-Pocket.

-Put in your pocket.

-Yeah.

This is probably about 15 quid's worth.

-Take off all the sinew.

-This is from the Buccleuch estate, is that right?

This is from the Buccleuch estate. Yeah. It's the best beef you can buy in this area.

So everything now is more or less edible. There's not a lot of waste.

Lovely fillet. See that? That's absolutely gorgeous.

-Straight through, isn't it?

-Come and have a look at that.

-That's nice, isn't it?

-Aye, it is.

-So I'm going to cut about eight ounce steaks, here.

Oh, look at that.

That's lovely, that.

So that's my beef. So I'm going to prep this up.

-Most housewives boil their cabbage.

-Yes.

And then what they do is once the cabbage is cooked,

all the water from the cabbage goes down the sink... which is all the flavour.

I cook mine in butter.

Sautee it in butter, so all the flavours actually stay in the actual pan.

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to do the potato rostis.

-Yeah.

-Get them made up.

And then we'll go back to the cabbage.

-You've seen a mandolin?

-Yes.

I can't look. Where did you train, Will?

-I trained in Glasgow. At the RAC Club.

-Oh, right.

I bet that was good old-fashioned cooking, wasn't it?

They sent you round in sections, so when it came to my butchery,

they sent me off to a butcher's shop for six months.

-That's brilliant.

-You don't get that training now.

What I'm trying to do here is put the onion through the mandolin

so that the onion and the potato's the exact same thickness.

OK. I'm going to crack in...just the yolks.

-Right.

-I don't use the whole egg...

-OK.

-..for the simple reason,

if you put the whole egg in, it makes it too runny and they don't bind together.

-Right. OK.

-So if I just put in the yolks, it'll actually bind it.

It goes yellow, you know.

-It's chicken glue, isn't it?

-Yeah.

That's a marriage made in heaven. Pepper and steak.

Just going to put them in. I don't just seal the top and the bottom, I seal the sides, as well.

Make sure the whole thing's completely sealed.

Keeps all the juice in. And then...into the oven. Yeah.

-Lovely. Lovely. Really nice.

-So...

Now, where did you get that from? Ah, that's a little trick of yours.

Ah, you see. You had it stashed down your back, didn't you?

Give it a wipe. Throw it down the back.

-Can you see it, guys? There you are.

-Yeah.

-Lovely. Ooh, yes.

-Cook that for 20 minutes.

-On what temperature?

-Gas number three.

-Gas number three.

-It's no' too firey.

-150, 160.

-Yeah.

-I'm gonna stuff...

my rings with potato to make up my...

Are you going to bake these, Will, or fry them?

What I'm going to do is seal them either side in the same pan I did the beef in.

Now, we're doing the tomatoes.

Which, basically, are stuffed with haggis.

Leave enough haggis coming out the top to leave it off like an open door.

It's like a little trap door so they can see it.

Time to take out the rostis... now that they're sealed.

-Nice.

-Yeah.

-That's a lovely golden brown.

-Yeah.

-Perfect.

-Pop these into the oven.

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

-It is, isn't it?

I put a whole block of butter for one whole cabbage.

Will, I think you've just won on the big knob of butter stakes.

-So it's one pack of butter per head of cabbage.

-And no water.

OK. So I'm going to put a wee bit of salt and pepper in and, basically, the cabbage is nearly there.

Yeah.

Salted. I like it crispy.

Don't like it soft.

Has to be al dente. Nice and crisp.

That cabbage is now ready.

So I can take that right off.

I'm going to take my jus, which is oxtail and bones, which has been boiling since last night.

Tomato puree through it.

-Some red wine.

-Yeah.

OK. So I'm adding my cream.

Basically, the cream, I'm probably putting about half a jug in.

I don't need to put a lot in. Mix it round.

Going to get my tomatoes and my plate sitting ready for service...

cos we're not far away.

How long do you reckon the tomatoes will need to cook through?

-About five minutes.

-Right.

So this is the secret weapon.

This is the secret. I serve all my sauces in jars.

Because sauces last up to four hours, in a jar,

without putting a skin on them, losing flavour...

Yeah.

-We're going to pour this in.

-The sound of that is just gloopy and...

I'm going to take my whisky.

That's all you need, just a wee tiny bit.

Just a wee dram.

-I like making my mayonnaise in a jam jar.

-Give it a shake. That's it.

OK. Sits in the water.

And that'll cook. That just keeps cooking and cooking and cooking.

-Yeah. And I cut my beef.

-Oh, that's perfect.

-Oh, wow.

It's nearly ready. Putting it back into the oven. It's not going to take away too much of the juice.

-That heat's not going to draw the moisture out?

-No.

-Right. Are you going to plate-up soon, then?

-Right. Yeah.

-Right. Great.

The rostis.

-The cabbage in the centre.

-Lovely.

The beef.

Those lovely juices are going to soak into the cabbage.

-Think that's it.

-That's great.

The tomatoes are still quite hard.

Last thing we need to do is the gravy.

Well done, mate. Yeah.

Will, headline your dish for us?

-Right. So it's fillet of Buccleuch beef.

-Yeah.

-It's nestled on a bed of savoy cabbage, which is buttered.

With haggis-stuffed tomato, red onion potato rosti

and it's got our very own Auchen Castle whisky jus.

I like that.

-Oh!

-Fabulous beef.

Sauce is great. It's very bold.

Loads of flavours. I like the rosti.

-It's nice and light.

-Nice textures to it, as well.

-We'll have to nick that idea.

-I think that may be in the air.

-"I'm just going to butter the cabbage." Bang! He's not frightened of butter, is he?

-No. Good lad.

Loads and loads of flavour in the cabbage. That's because he hasn't boiled it out, has he?

No. Nice.

-There's a lot of flavours, there.

-Cooked very well.

-Very well.

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

Will's fillet of fillet of Buccleuch beef had really great flavour so we'll need something to rival that.

We're off to see Ben Weatherall

who farms outstanding Scottish Blackface mutton and lamb on his 6,000-acre estate.

It's so good it's won gold in the Taste of Britain Awards.

Shepherd David, helps Ben to keep his flock in check.

That looks easy enough. Bet I could manage that.

-Can I have a try?

-Yeah.

Let the man see the dog.

Away to me.

-That was good.

-Katie.

Come by me.

Stop. Right out! Right out!

Ben, what exactly is defined as mutton?

Mutton is the meat of a sheep which is more than a year old.

So lamb is everything that's under a year.

-The mutton that we sell, mainly is five-year-old mutton.

-Five-year-old.

It's a ewe that has spent four years up on the hill.

-Right.

-And she's produced four lambs for us.

And then we bring her down on to this beautiful grass landscape, here,

to fatten them up. We raise them up on the heather hill, over there.

-Right. OK.

-So they get all the nutrition of heather and all the different hill plants.

And then to give them that nice finish, you want to finish them on good green grass like this.

-We've slow-roasted you a whole leg which I hope we're going to have for lunch now after this.

-I like you.

-Thank you.

-Here we go.

I've baked this overnight.

Look at that.

-Is that big enough?

-Don't be ridiculous!

The best seasonal product in Britain is about to enter...

..one's cakehole.

It's tender and juicy.

-I like the texture of it.

-The depth of flavour's fab.

A lot of people are frightened of cooking mutton.

Indeed, they don't know how to. Have you got any tips?

Well, it's got a preconception of it being a tough, dry, old bit of meat, just probably from the war years,

but, actually, when it's properly reared and left to graze on really healthy fodder,

then it's as tender as lamb is,

but I just cook it a little bit longer...and slower. So this was cooked on a very low heat overnight.

But I also cook it in hay. It gives it a lovely smoky flavour.

It's like the Darling Buds Of May here, isn't it?

-It is.

-It's glorious.

-I love it. It's a rural idyll.

Can I be Catherine Zeta-Jones then, please?

Listen. If you can cook meat like that, you are already, I've got to say.

It's an absolute gem. Are there any other hidden gems in the locality?

There's a very, very good bee man who, in fact, keeps bees on our farm, here. He's called John Mellis.

So what I could do is I could show you the way to go and see him, if you like.

Oh, brilliant. That'd be great. Bees equals honey.

Let's use Ben and Sylvie's succulent meat to make a mutton and caper pudding,

served with seasonal vegetables and a potato fondant.

Delicious.

John Mellis' honey sounds great. I've always fancied trying my hand at beekeeping.

Me too, but before we do anything, we've got to get kitted out in the appropriate gear.

You've got me hair.

-Is this all necessary?

-I suppose so.

You'll be a lot happier with a suit on than without one, I assure you.

I come in peace, Earthman.

'John is one of Scotland's more successful beekeepers.

'His honey's in great demand and it sells all over the world.'

If we put smoke in there, it makes them think there's a forest fire coming.

They fill their stomachs with honey so they can't bend their tails down to sting you, so you'll be safe.

How many hives do you have, John?

-We have 350. In these ten hives, there'd be perhaps half a million in the summer.

-Wow.

Altogether, we have about 15 million bees.

One queen, 50,000 workers, maybe 100, 200 drones, the male bees.

-Right.

-And they'll go out and they'll gather clover and the like.

Is it right, John, at the moment though, the future of bees

and British honey, it's quite precarious?

Einstein has said that in four years from the bees dying, man will be dead.

That's a rough quote on what he said.

Last year, we lost about 30% of the bees in the country.

That's much, much more than we'd normally lose.

And we don't know why it's happening.

Pollination, by bees, is worth £200 million a year in this country.

There's a hawthorn there which is covered in berries.

That's what feeds the birds through the winter.

If the bees weren't there to pollinate the flowers, arguably, we wouldn't have the birds.

-Such an important part of the food chain.

-Yeah. It is.

-We start with a comb like that which is just a sheet of wax with the pattern impregnated on it.

-OK.

And then what we're aiming for is drone combs like that. That's a comb that has been extracted.

-Yes.

-And at the end of the season,

-what we're looking for is something like that.

-Oh, yum, yum.

-Feel the weight of that. Just take the weight on your fingers... on there.

-Oh, wow.

There's three pounds of honey in each of those.

-Good grief. That's loaded.

-Shall I put this away, then we'll go

and taste the honey we've got down in the shed?

-That'll be fantastic, John.

-Thank you, John.

-This is a lot of honey.

-Have you got the pancakes, John?

-There's oatcakes.

-Oakcakes!

-Oaties!

-How many we got?

-That's the best way to taste them.

-Now...

-Yummy!

So are we just about to go on a journey across Dumfries and Galloway through the years?

-That's right.

-Brilliant.

-Well, we'll start you in the spring.

-This is a runny honey.

It's a liquid honey. It comes from sycamore, from hawthorn,

from wild cherry, from chestnut. And you've never tasted anything like it.

-That's beautiful.

-Isn't it?

-It's nutty.

-Yeah. It's just very different.

The next one is the summer honey.

It comes from clover, lime, willow herb, brambles. Much more delicate flavour.

It's completely different.

-It's very fragrant.

-Yes. This is a mixture of the summer blossom, bell heather and a bit of ling heather.

-Quite different, aren't they? Although they look similar.

-A little bit orangey.

-That's the bell heather in it.

-Yes.

-I always thought of bell heather as tangerine, so you're right.

Now, the other one that I'd like you to try is the comb.

-A natural comb. You'd better use a solid spoon for those.

-Yes.

-So you can eat the wax, everything?

-Yep. Just dig in with a spoon.

-Right.

-Shove it in your mouth.

Oh! Mmm.

-Now, this is the chewing gum of the...

-Yes.

-..of the honey world.

You can go on chewing it for quite some time, if you like.

John, we want to buy some of your honey to cook with. We're going to honey-roast some vegetables.

Which one do you think would be good?

I think, probably, the middle flavour.

You don't want to overpower it, so summer blossom, something like this.

Whether you want a set one or a runny one, I can do both for you.

-Well, I think that's set, isn't it?

-I think it's runny.

-No, I meant is, I think that's set!

OK, guys. What are youse cooking, then?

Oh, just a mere trifle. We're doing a wonderful Galloway mutton suet and caper pudding.

Served with a spiced turnip puree, surrounded by a little lovely battered bowl of haggis.

And on the side, a lovely waxy fondant potato, in like a bar of gold.

Then we're going to have local honey-braised veggies.

Local. Everything's local.

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

the true flavours of Dumfries and Galloway.

Every good suet pudding needs two elements.

The filling and the crust.

I'll do the crust.

I'm doing the filling.

That's five-year-old mutton.

I'm going to take the fat and render it down in the pan, there.

The suet crust's really quite simple. Got self-raising flour. Suet. That's shredded beef suet.

None of your vegetarian stuff.

Some salt. Just work that together.

Teaspoon of dried rosemary.

And half a teaspoon...of dried sage.

When I'm making a suet crust, I don't measure the water.

I put it in 'till it's a thick crust and then I'll knead in one egg yolk, to loosen it off at the last minute.

Then leave that in the fridge, to rest for a bit.

I've just put in that pan some of these trimmings. Start to render that down.

-Going to keep that at room temperature?

-No - fridge.

-No, you're fridging it, are you?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Do you not agree with that?

The suet pudding actually reacts better when it's still warm,

but if you keep it to room temperature, it cooks quicker.

That's what I would do. But then I'm just a chef, guys.

-You might be trying to sabotage us, you know.

-Exactly, David.

-Oh, no, no, no.

-In the fridge.

I'm putting my suet into the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

-OK.

-I wouldn't if I were you!

I'll get on with the fondant potatoes now. Step one, take a potato.

It has to be waxy cos a floury potato would just, well, disintegrate, wouldn't it?

So you peel a potato and cut out some roundels first.

What I love about food and watching guys like you work,

there are as many ways of doing things as there are chefs.

It's a true saying, you get ten chefs to cook a meal,

-they'll all cook it exactly different.

-Yeah.

Like you boning out that meat, you do it differently to anybody I've ever seen!

-Yeah. Well, you know.

-Breathe.

-I'm breathing, Joe, I'm breathing.

Stop that. That's all starting to happen, nicely.

See that liquid there, that fat? That's what we're after.

Just bear down. Cut.

You'll end up with a perfect disc of potato. I just need four of them.

Just going to toss this meat into plain flour.

-No seasoning in it. Just so it gets lovely and quartered.

-Got it.

Going to take all those pieces of fat out, solid bits of fat that I rendered down.

Nice. Great.

The mutton that we have into the pan.

Leave that for a couple of minutes, no more.

When you do a fondant, you have to chamfer round the edges so you don't get burnt bits.

What we have in here, is we've got some carrot, we've got some leek,

we've got some onion and we have some celery.

We just want to sweat those down for about...three minutes.

I've got 150 grams of butter.

You just melt that... but we don't want it to burn.

I'm just going to peel and bash a couple of cloves of garlic.

And I want a sprig of thyme to go in.

If you've noticed, we always do this. We add the garlic later

and the reason for that is if the garlic burns, it goes bitter and that's not what we want.

The butter's melted.

I've got two bashed cloves of garlic, sprig of thyme.

Then we put the potatoes, which now resemble four giant aspirins...

Now, you just leave them 'till one side goes golden.

Now what we do, we put the meat back in...

some lovely beef stock and then we want about 100 mil of Madeira wine.

Back to the fondants. Keep your implement to hand.

I'm just turning them. You'll see now, they should be golden...

and loose. Oh-ho-ho!

Perfectione!

We put the top on.

You cook them for two and a half hours at 170 degrees.

Check that after two hours to see if that is all cooked and lovely.

Now, you know that two and a half hours for that to simmer?

-Yeah.

-Well...

I like this bit.

I'll get my suet pastry out of the fridge.

-Look at this, now.

-It has to cool because you can't make a suet pudding with hot filling.

-I'll just roll out my suet.

-Oh, right, just a few capers, couple of anchovies.

It's nice putting this in now rather than at the beginning

when all the flavour would have cooked out of the anchovies and the capers.

It's going to stay nice and light on a fresh top note.

Some finely chopped parsley...

through that. And then just give it a stir through.

Right. I'll show you how to fill your pudding dish.

These have had a smearing of butter, bit of flour, cos I worry about stuff getting stuck.

Get your rolling pin, some flour...

..then put a disc of suet - that'll do - on to there.

And mould that, plunge it into your floured, buttered dish

and that way you kind of get no air in.

You can squeeze it in with your fingers. Over to the filler meister.

We want the body of this to be just great.

We'll fill it with some of the liquor.

Right. Ready to pop the lids on.

Put a piece of suet on for the lid.

Press it so you've got a nice joint...like so.

Roll that round.

And it'll crimp and seal. And all the excess suet will fall off

and we're left with a pudding that looks as though it's come out of a machine.

Double wrap these in foil and pop them in the steam oven for about 25 minutes.

I always get burnt with steam ovens. Mind yourself.

Dante's Inferno! Ha! Hey!

OK. With the leftover filling, what we're going to do is we're going to spoon it into the sieve.

-Lovely juice.

-Is that your sauce?

This is for our gravy. Yeah. Basically, yeah.

I just see if these turnips are done. I think this pan came with the castle, didn't it?

Get rid of this.

Can I use your zapper?

Yeah. Course you can.

I've never used one of these things.

That's pureeing beautifully.

Just want to put some creme fraiche in, just to really get it smooth.

What we're going to do is we're going to add two teaspoons of Madeira to the sauce

that we've just pushed through, to our gravy. Just er...

you only need that...

Just gonna put half a teaspoon of ground ginger,

a really good grating of fresh nutmeg.

A little twist of pepper.

Scattering of salt.

Par boiled some vegetables.

So we've got some leeks, we've got some carrots and we've got some lovely, baby beetroot.

All I'm doing is skinning them.

Look at that. Whoa!

Puddings are just stretching against the foil which shows like productivity is taking place.

Make your little haggis balls and then make a simple tempura batter.

I only want about three balls of this.

It's like a mini haggis on the top. Simple tempura batter.

I've got some plain flour...

some corn flour.

Some baking powder.

Some bicarbonate of soda.

In this bowl,

I break an egg.

And about 100ml of ice-cold sparkling mineral water.

Put that in with the egg.

I just whisk that in.

I'm just going to trim these little lovelies.

Drop the haggis ball in the batter,

all the excess, make sure it's covered. Drop it in the hot fat.

-Right. Just let those little beauties bubble.

-Leeks.

Baby, leeks. Baby, carrots.

What we're going to add now is good old John Mellis' honey.

It's chipshop-tastic.

I'm going to start unwrapping the puddings, Kingy. And start plating.

Good. Good. Good.

Here we go. Dumfries and Galloway on a plate.

That's Ben's Blackface mutton and caper suet pudding.

With some spiced turnip pureed with a lovely deep-fried haggis ball.

And a luscious, golden fondant potato.

And then we've got some of John's fabulous honey, braised with some of the local veggies. Fabulous.

Just washed over with gravy..

-Aye, gravy.

-You can't beat gravy.

-You can't.

-So this is Dumfries and Galloway's finest mutton.

-Yeah.

It's nice.

Pastry's nice, as well. I would have put mine at room temperature.

Well, it seems to work, though.

Goes with a bit of the haggis ball.

-It's tasty.

-The application of a fondant potato.

-Really nice.

-The baby leeks are nice but a bit chewy.

-Chewy?!

Slightly over al dente. If I'm ever looking for a comis chef, I'll give you guys a shout.

-Cheers. Take that as a compliment.

-I'll take it as a compliment.

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

First up is Will's fillet of beef, with potato rosti, haggis-stuffed tomato and a whisky jus.

The cabbage has a lovely flavour.

I can taste something I know in that sauce and I'm trying to figure out what it is.

Haggis with tomatoes is tremendous.

The arrangement on the plate was appropriate to the region.

Some steaks I've had are very dry and you're forever chewing, but not with that. That was perfect.

The beef was really well cooked and it was just melting.

I did enjoy that sort of sweet, buttery taste with the cabbage.

Haggis in tomato is something special.

The tomato looked like a garnish, gatecrashing the main course.

I wasn't convinced about the tomato.

For me, a tomato has to be raw or cooked and it was in between.

I also enjoyed the jus. It was lovely and sweet. You could taste the whisky.

This dish is something you would see frequently throughout our region.

Having tasted it today, I probably would order it again.

They loved it. Next to be served is our mutton and caper pudding

with our honey-roasted vegetables. Fingers crossed.

Have you tasted that meat? Yummy.

-Very nice.

-Mutton's lovely, isn't it?

I just love a suet pudding and the meat was lovely and soft

and the gravy just came out of it as we ate it. It was lovely.

I'd normally go for lamb. Lamb's one of my favourites

but the mutton has just about topped the lamb for me. I really enjoyed it.

I eat haggis a lot.

I've never eat it like that before but it was delicious.

The tempura batter was very different, but lovely.

The honey worked with vegetables well. It was sweet, not too sweet.

Thought it was a really clever combination of ingredients.

That meat was absolutely gorgeous.

Oh, hello! How are you?

Thank you so much for coming to see us. We've had great food.

And, you know, great hospitality. We've met producers that have made us so welcome.

-I've enjoyed it.

-Good lad.

It's been good working with you!

I tell you what though, I want one of them hats!

What you're voting on is the representation of Dumfries and Galloway on a plate.

Could I have a show of hands, please, for the beef.

So that's three for the beef.

And could I have a show of hands, please, for the mutton and caper pudding.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

The beef was Will's. And the mutton and caper pudding was ours.

-So thanks very much, Will.

-Yeah. Thanks, Will.

'Our mutton may have been the winner

'but Will was a good sport in the kitchen,'

and Auchen Castle was a majestic place to cook.

Dumfries and Galloway was full of surprises.

We'll certainly stop next time we're going past on the M74.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd