Distant Shores The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best

British mums are fantastic, concocting an amazing array

of delicious dishes, to keep us all well-fed.

In passing the culinary baton from one generation to the next...

They enrich our lives with a wealth of wonderful flavours

that we can celebrate.

And a diverse culinary heritage we should share with the nation.

But ever adventurous,

-mums don't limit themselves to traditional British cooking.

-Oh, no.

They cook dishes from all over the world.

And our passion for foreign flavours

will be in abundance at our Recipe Fair too.

Because today we're celebrating fascinating food hailing from distant shores.

-Monday night's Italian.

-Tuesday night's Thai.

-Chinese on Wednesdays.

-Thursday night's Mexican.

-Curry night, Friday night.

-Saturday night's vive la France.

But Sunday, of course, it's good old British Sunday roast.

You can go round the world in the four walls of your own kitchen.

And do you know what? We're loving it.

It might be a spicy something you've brought back from your holiday.

Just makes me happy. It's great.

Or a dish from a family member overseas.

-That's on the money, man.

-Oh, yeah.

Because this is a celebration of some of the amazing recipes

brought to our shores from afar.

As always, our Gerard will be on hand

to uncover the stories behind the dishes people bring along.

It's lovely to see those recipes

coming into our food history from those lovely, distant shores.

And all these much-loved recipes will be on the Mums Know Best website for you to cook at home.

Because as your mum will not doubt tell you,

the family home is where mums really do know best.

So to kick off our exploration of dishes from distant shores,

we're off to meet three mums.

Because we want them

and their dishes to inspire the guests at our Recipe Fair.

And to visit our mums, we're leaving our home shores

for the not-so-distant Northern Ireland.

Where we'll be uncovering some far-flung family recipes we can all have a go at.

It's only a short ferry ride away,

but Northern Ireland has a rich food culture of its own.

And our first mum has found a way of combining

her family's rich baking heritage

with her own distant-shore favourite - Spain.

-Hiya.

-Hiya, Karen. All right?

-Good. Good to see you.

-It's lovely to see you too.

You've brought the weather with you.

Karen, husband Anthony and two daughters Chloe and Zara,

might love a break in the sun, but Bangor is where they call home.

Come on in and meet my dad.

-It's Drew.

-Drew, hello.

-Hi, guys.

-How do, Drew. Pleased to meet you.

Daddy's a third generation baker.

We've always had food in our family with the bakery and coffee shop.

-That was the Carlton Patisserie which was the bakery.

-Yes.

Then the Cafe Carlton, developed a couple of years after the bakery.

And then this is Daddy winning the Baker Of The Year.

Because it was a big competition every year, wasn't it?

-I seem to be holding on to that...

-THEY LAUGH

You must have had some great recipe books from those days?

I've got one here I found.

One my grandmother had. It's a bit battered and I've had to tape it up,

but actually it started off as a schoolbook

in 1925 and then it was rapidly transferred to a recipe book.

-There's little bits stuck in too.

-Recipes for jam, shepherd's pies.

-But the recipes are great, I've used some of them.

-Mm-hmm.

So, Karen, distant shores in Bangor. What's all that about, then?

Once I started travelling, I picked up bits and pieces from Spain, wherever else,

but the Spanish food is the food I feel the most passionate about.

I think it's the fresh ingredients,

the spicy sausages, the tapas, the whole sort of sharing of food.

It just makes me feel happy. It's great.

-The more we travel, the more the ingredients are available to us.

-Absolutely.

-Because there's a demand for them.

-I brought stuff back. Obviously this is Daddy's bread.

-What do you think?

-I think it's a belter, isn't it?

-It's very aromatic and it toasts well.

-I can't take you seriously

cos you've got flour on the end of your nose.

You've been sniffing my bread.

We're caught red-handed, mate!

So, using some of Drew's loaf, we're going to quickly knock up

a simple but delicious Catalan tomato bread.

These are great for children,

come home from school, you have your loaf,

-you can do it in five minutes, and it's like an instant pizza.

-Yeah.

Right, this is just about done.

Oh, it's really, really, really crispy.

So you just take a clove of garlic, give it a bit of a rub.

I got that garlic from Spain but it's really, ooh! Makes your eyes water.

This simple peasant dish is served all over Spain

often as a starter, to liven up the palate before a meal.

And then just extra virgin olive oil.

-It's so easy, if you just want a couple of nibbles.

-Quick, this is.

You probably don't need too much salt because of the garlic. And then...

Oh, sad, sad, mine appears to be the biggest piece.

Oh!

-Just a little bit of...

-That's lovely.

-Is it OK?

-Oh!

Whilst we crunch away, Drew's off to bake his next batch of bread.

Meanwhile, we'll crack on with the next dish -

the oh-so-Spanish paella.

CASTANETS CLACK

-Right. Paella.

-Ole!

We'll start off with the chicken.

It's just nicer on the bone

because it gives it a bit more flavour.

-I'll keep an eye on that.

-OK.

-Is there anything we can get on with here?

-Yeah.

We could cut up the onions and chorizo.

-Yeah. I'll chop your onions. I'll take on the task.

-OK.

All of that lovely fat from the skin, just to add more flavour,

is leaching out into the pan, lovely.

Brilliant. You need a bit of fat for flavour.

That's what me and Dave are, flavoursome, you know.

-Quite fat but fully flavoursome.

-Oh, yes.

There are hundreds of varieties of chorizo found throughout Spain.

Smoked paprika, as well as preserving the sausage,

also gives its wonderful rich colour and flavour.

So we'll just fire in the chorizo.

Oh, I wish you could smell it at home, mind.

-I know.

-This is mega.

We'll put the onions in, then.

Ooh, that fat from the chorizo will coat every grain of rice.

It's going to be like luminous.

Garlic, we'll maybe stick four in.

Phwoar! The red peppers and the chopped, dried chillies.

It's like a sunset over the Iberian Peninsula.

We'll maybe use the sweeter paprika rather than the hot stuff

because I don't want to blow the top of your head off.

So now if we just add the chicken back into the pan.

Arrange it nicely cos that's where it's going to stay.

Then we're just going to add in the stock.

Probably about a litre and a half.

And you need to let the chicken cook away for a good 20, 25 minutes.

That should be just falling off the bone now.

-Look at that, man. That's a thing of beauty, that.

-Mmm, yes.

Oh, smells like a bullfight.

Rice plays a big role in Spanish food.

Spaniards consume a huge variety of dishes based on the paella theme,

using the characteristic short-grained rice to absorb

the rich flavours of the broth.

So, we'll just cover that over with some tin foil.

-You just know that's going to be fantastic, don't you?

-Yes, yeah.

All right. That's it.

-Leave it for about 20, 25 minutes.

-Cor!

Now Karen's adding some mussels.

But a traditional paella was not a seafood dish,

and generally used peasant staples such as rabbit, and even snails.

These local mussels will cook for the final ten minutes.

Once they've opened up, we'll be ready to eat.

I feel like a proper fiesta coming on!

-This is brilliant.

-Oh, fantastic!

After slaving in the kitchen all day.

And a big communal dish like a paella deserves a big family gathering.

Drew's back with his wife Vi, and we're also joined by Karen's husband Anthony and the kids.

-Every time you cook paella, does it take you back to nice times in Spain?

-Oh, it certainly does.

Sometimes when you're sitting in winter, what's going to cheer you up,

what's going to make you think happy holiday thoughts?

But certain things in this meal have got to be better - your dad's bread.

-Yeah.

-The mussels are from Strangford Lough.

-Yes.

-That's close by.

-So it is a proper fusion, isn't it? You've got the best of both worlds.

-Yeah.

The mussels were caught literally this morning, couldn't get fresher than that.

-Oh, God, that's good.

-Those mussels are unbelievable.

-Mm?

-They're really, really sweet.

-Yeah.

The flavour from the sausage has permeated through everything.

Yeah.

Oh, hey, that is fabulous.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, paella I think, is a perfect example of recycling flavours.

-Because everything's cooked in the same dish.

-Mm-hmm.

-Just brilliant.

-It's feel-good food, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah. Karen, you have to bring this to the Recipe Fair.

-That's brilliant.

-Oh, I'd love to. Yeah.

Eeh, Barcelona meets Bangor -

fantastic.

Paella will add a wonderful dash of colour to our Recipe Fair.

And we'll have to remind Karen to bring one of Drew's loaves.

The Catalan tomato bread, man, was fantastic!

-Thanks, Karen, that was brilliant.

-It was great having you.

Thanks for coming. Daddy wanted me to give you a loaf of wheaten bread for your journey.

Fantastic! Thanks, darling. Thanks so very much for your welcome.

Whilst the jet plane has whisked us off on holiday

and brought many a new dish back to the UK...

It's our seafaring past that accounts for many rich additions

to our thoroughly international culinary heritage.

Hark! The sound of distant drums on a distant shore.

That's brilliant, mate. Brilliant.

It is, look at that.

One looks out to sea and dreams of all the ships, romance, adventure.

And we're going to do a dish that's come from far, far away.

-Lands across the sea.

-Yeah.

Mulligatawny soup.

-I thought we were doing beef burgers.

-No, mate, no.

It's the kind of soup you see knocking around in a can

at the back of your gran's cupboard.

But fresh mulligatawny is well worth the effort.

Mulligatawny soup has heritage.

It comes from India, it's one of those Raj fusion foods.

And if the spice, if the culinary skills, didn't migrate to us,

there'd be something wrong.

Set off with oil and butter.

Into that we're going to cook down some onions,

some garlic,

carrots,

celery

and sweet potato.

And that's got to cook for ten minutes until the veggies are soft

and they've got a bit of colour.

Indians didn't eat soup in those days.

They had rasam, like pepper water.

And it was used as a gravy with your dosas.

It was a very thin, frugal thing.

But memsahib couldn't do without her soup out there, could she?

-Of course not. The British Empire was built on soup and a sandwich.

-Soup and a sandwich.

So she started to make mulligatawny soup.

Brrrrrh! Oh, that's ready now.

Beautiful.

Now the apples.

Mulligatawny soup inevitably has apples in it, gives it sweetness.

And curry powder, just good, ordinary curry powder.

Now that needs to cook for a further two minutes.

Oh, yum, yum! A nice, big jug of chicken stock.

If you're doing a vegetarian one, use vegetable stock.

And if you're daft enough to have to be told that, you want whipping.

It's lovely that addition of tomato paste

-because it gives it a bit of zing.

-Mm.

And to amp up this fruity tang, why not try adding some mango chutney?

And don't forget some salt

and a good pinch of pepper.

Leave these flavours to mingle for about half an hour.

Giving us a window to cook up some long grain rice,

which we'll add later.

And that gives us time to go and sit on a rock,

and think about absent friends and faraway places.

Places you've been.

And places you're going to go.

Distant shores.

Foods evolve, changing with people's tastes and taking advantage

of all the readily available ingredients we now have to hand.

So although there is no doubt that our imperial past has made

a lasting impression on British cuisine...

Our mulligatawny of today is doubtless

a far-flung distant cousin of its Indian pepper-water origins.

-That should be it then, eh?

-Yeah.

Go to it, hombre.

So in the kitchen, you'd use your blender.

On a beach, use a masher.

I know you're thinking it looks like the contents of a baby's nappy.

But honestly, with a bit of sour cream, a bit of coriander,

it's going to look beautiful.

Now I want to put some rice in this, look...

That's what I like about mulligatawny. It's a curry in a one-er.

Some coriander.

Look at this.

Yeah.

We've got Drew's magnificent bread, man.

It's at times like this, I love my job.

That's lovely.

That is brilliant actually.

Mm.

So there we have it -

mulligatawny soup,

a forerunner perhaps of the British obsession with curry.

But the British Empire didn't just bring the world's wonderful foods to its own doors.

No, it spread them throughout the Commonwealth.

And in having a family tree that encompasses both Northern Ireland

and Guyana...

Our next mum's food has taken on a very international flavour.

-Hello, Helen.

-Hello! Hello.

-I'm Dave.

-Hello, Helen.

-Thanks for coming.

-How are you?

-Come on in.

-Thank you.

We've just come to lower the tone of the neighbourhood.

-I guessed that. Get in quick!

-I'm in, I'm in!

Our Helen lives just outside Belfast,

with husband Gary and son Conor.

-Guyana, we're talking about the Caribbean of South American, not Ghana.

-Yeah.

Which is obviously in Africa.

-It's the only English speaking country in South America.

-And your dad was from Guyana.

-Yes.

He came over during the war into the Air Force.

That's him just before he went away.

-And that's my grandfather, he was Portuguese.

-They're handsome fellas, aren't they? Look at those suits.

You see people knew how to dress in those days.

-Absolutely. Yes, sorry.

-Moving on.

This is the lady from whom most of the recipes and so on come from.

This is my Auntie Rita, who was my dad's sister in law.

Whenever my auntie would come over, basically, she would hardly be off the plane or the ferry,

when the apron would be handed to her, and it's like, "Right, make me 25 roti."

And then she would have to spend the first day baking,

you know, making the stuff, putting it in the freezer and that would keep him going till the next visit.

My daddy's dead, you know, and my auntie's dead.

You know, the people that could have connected me more with the past, aren't here any more.

But the food's maybe bringing that wee bit

of all the memories back and all that sort of stuff, you know?

Food and food culture, it's a glue that ties us all together, you know.

At the end of it, you've got something nice to eat.

-So, Helen, what are we making?

-I'm going to cook a curry which is

my own sort of invention, but has a very kind of Caribbean feel.

So, here it is.

A simple chicken curry, Guyanese style!

Right. I'll need somebody to joint up the chicken

and then we've all the veggies to cut up as well.

Oh, I'll do veggies, I'm a pacifist.

I, however, am not.

-The thing about Guyanese curries is they don't tend to be as hot as Indian curries.

-Right.

I would say more conventional, the kind of curry-powder flavour,

rather than the very exotic spicy Indian kind of way of doing curries.

-What's next on the veggie front?

-We need some potatoes.

-And garlic. How much?

-About three cloves.

-Now are we going to brown this chicken off as well?

-Yes. Yes.

So you want the curry powder on here, and then brown it? OK.

-Chillies?

-Just the one.

-And seeded?

-Seeded and finely chopped.

Yes, chef!

Now, I'm sure you could use chicken fillets here, but in using a whole chicken, bones and all,

this curry will taste so much better!

It's going to be a spicy one.

-Helen?

-That's lovely. Perfect.

Oh! And they're going to cook in our lovely chicken juices.

Wherever in the world your curry is from, you'll be hard pushed to find one without garlic and chilli.

Whack in a wee bit more of the old curry powder in.

And then at this point, we'll get the chicken back in.

So, apparently, Helen makes her own garam masala mix. Ah ha!

-Cloves, nutmeg.

-Cumin, cinnamon.

So it's a garam masala mix, but with a Caribbean flavour.

So I'm just going to put a little bit of chicken stock powder.

You just cover with cold water, give it a stir, get everything in together.

Bring that up to the boil and just let it simmer nice and gently, probably for about an hour.

Which will give us plenty of time to learn

how to prepare some roti breads,

just like Helen's auntie used to make.

-Now, you don't really need to measure this out.

-No.

-OK?

-Now that's self-raising flour.

-It's self-raising flour.

-Right.

Just a little bit of oil, and then some warm water.

We're trying to make a soft,

-but not a sticky dough.

-Yeah. No salt in at this point?

-No. I don't put any salt in it at all, actually.

-Right.

-Yeah.

I don't think you need salt. Right.

OK. So just A little bit of flour.

And all you want to do is just make sure that's nice and smooth.

-You know if you feel that, see it's got that nice springiness.

-Oh, yeah.

I'm not a 100% sure that I do this right.

OK? My auntie was a great woman, but she was a lousy teacher.

You look pretty confident though, don't you?

-Yeah, you do.

-Yeah.

You want a little bit of dough, and you want to...

roll it out. I'm doing it quite thin because what I want, is I want some oil.

So, just a little bit of oil on one third.

A little tiny bit of flour. And this is where a flour shaker would be very good

because then you could get a nice even distribution of flour.

Then another bit of flour folded into a third.

And the whole point of doing this, is to get as much air into the layers as possible.

So that when you cook it you get a nice light finish.

-OK, do you want to have a go yourself?

-Oh, aye!

-Excellent.

-So, I roll it out.

-And then just roll it out.

-Nice and thin.

-Yeah.

It's the same principle as puff pastry, Kingy.

I know. But a lot less butter, and a whole lot easier.

I know which I'd rather make.

-Yeah.

-OK, that's super.

So now we want to roll it out so it's thin enough to actually cook.

-It's having that confidence to get it that thin.

-Yeah.

But it's very resilient.

Look how resilient that is. You don't need to be afraid of that.

-No.

-OK?

Pop on the roti.

-OK.

-Beautiful.

-Oh, it's started to bubble up already.

-Lovely.

A little bit of oil on the top of that.

So, that should be nearly done.

That's lovely. You just wait for it to be speckled.

-Just wait till it'll be speckled.

-Oh, nice!

That's lovely. Get it off the pot. And then bang!

Bang! And that, will bring out the flakes.

Oh, look that's brilliant. Fabulous.

-In your basket.

-Oh! Hey, girl!

Eeh, Helen, it's so perfect, it could have come out of a packet.

-That's probably the worst thing anybody's ever said to me.

-I know!

So with our rotis clapped and ready,

and our chicken curry fresh out the pot,

we can finally get down to business.

-Here you are, gang.

-Here we are.

-Food!

-Lovely grub.

-Look at this.

There we are.

-Ireland's been very good to us with the weather.

-Oh! This looks lovely, doesn't it?

And we've been joined for the meal by Helen's mother, Kay, husband, Gary, and son, Conor.

I remember when she was doing domestic science then at school,

-she and I could not really be in the kitchen at the same time.

-Oh!

-Because if I said, you know, do this, "Mrs McVitie says..."

-No!

-Yes, she did!

-You girlie swat!

-I bet Mrs McVitie didn't make rotis like that.

-No!

-No.

And of course the other great thing about rotis is, they cut down on the washing up!

Never has there been a more tasty device for transporting food off the plate, and into your gob.

-This is a really nice chicken curry recipe.

-It is.

It's sweet. You can taste cinnamon and cloves.

The curries are not like Indian curries, you know, because it is quite different, it's much sweeter.

Yes. It's very different. Very different.

This curry's a great example of how Indian, Caribbean,

and perhaps even Irish tastes, have fused together over time.

And I do think it's fair to say that I think half the country are going to be making rotis now.

-They're brilliant, man.

-And you must bring the curry and the rotis to the Recipe Fair.

-I will.

Absolutely fantastic.

Ah! Helen's curry and these simple but tasty rotis will go down a storm.

Oh, thanks, Helen.

Oh! Thanks ever so much for coming.

Aye. We'd better go and get togged up.

-Yeah.

-What a great day. Thanks, mate.

Now, we've biked all over the world, cooking food wherever we've visited.

But we've yet to inspire any chef who's met us to invent a dish in our honour.

Chance would be a fine thing, dude.

But that's exactly how the next dish we're going to put together came about.

Hark, hark! The Pavlova.

The dessert that's light and frothy, fragrant and full of colour.

It was created in memory of what is possibly the world's greatest dancer - Anna Pavlova.

It's a meringue-goo with fruit.

If only it was so simple.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I give you Australian's greatest export - the Pavlova!

Act one of our Pavlova involves us knocking up a meringue.

Nothing dramatic here, just a few egg whites whisked until stiff. A swan!

In art, in poetry, it's long been a symbol

of beauty, grace and elegance, as it glides across the lake.

The same way that Anna Pavlova glided across the stage.

Fabulous! That is what you want.

Act two sees us adding in caster sugar, not forgetting a spot of the old vanilla extract.

-Now, look at that.

-Oh! That's got a sheen on it like a swan's back.

Now the secret of the Pavlova is that it must have a soft, chewy,

marshmallow-like centre, that you would not get with an average meringue.

The trick behind this is, you stir in about a tablespoon of corn flour.

Now, I've always assumed that a Pavlova is an Aussie invention.

But the Kiwis have now unearthed a recipe book that points towards New Zealand as its origin.

Rightly or wrongly though, the Pavlova, or Pav as they call it,

has become as Aussie as cricket and lager.

Shall we? Ooh!

But before Act four, our finale, an intermission.

You'll have... What? What are you doing?

The grace and noble beauty of the swan.

The grace and noble beauty of our Pavlova pudding.

-That's an hour, Kingy.

-Shall we dock, then, or what?

I think we should return to the nest to roost, to decorate our Pavlova.

There we have the meringue. That's like the tutu but that's merely the undergarment.

For me, this dish paints a picture in meringue

of the frothy layers of Anna Pavlova's tutu,

as she performed her signature dance - The Dying Swan.

You see, that's what I'm going for.

I have to create that, in cake form. First the cream.

The thing is, all those years of academia at art school, I was used to working from life.

From a model, from reality.

Hmm. What can I do?

Now, just put your leg on there.

We're talking art now.

That hand is under your chin.

Just accentuate the beautiful flow of your neck.

And that arm, just out, as if you were caressing a lily.

Right. Let's see if I can get this right.

Do you know, I think we're there.

It's not comfortable!

Whatever you're doing, do it quick!

Elevation. Elevation.

Will you hurry up!

You can't rush beauty.

Have you done it yet?

Nearly there.

And no self-respecting Australian Pavlova would be complete without a garnish of passion fruit.

-Hurry up. Me bingo wings are out.

-The mint goes on.

And now the final frosting.

One may say, the icing on the cake.

Ha-ha! Here we have it. The Hairy Bikers' homage to Anna Pavlova, to beauty, to art, and to culture.

-Can I eat it now?

-Afraid not, tubs.

Svelte ballerinas such as yourself need to watch their figures.

-Dude, a Pavlova's not the only dish to be made in homage of somebody.

-Quite right, Si.

-Take Garibaldi biscuits.

-Or a beef Wellington.

-Melba toast.

-Even a sandwich.

All inspired by or named after the people who ate or created them.

And our next mum, or should I say dad, is in some way

using his passion for Argentinean food, as a homage to his mother.

Aye. Us chaps are nothing without a steady hand to guide us.

-All right, lads?

-Hey!

-Hello. How are you, Conolly?

-Good to see you.

-It's lovely to be here.

-Hi, Conolly, I'm Si.

-Nice to meet you.

-And you man, and you.

-Come on in.

I tell you what, these starter homes are getting better, aren't they?

Dad Conolly lives here with his wife, Sheelagh,

and their four daughters, Ishbel, Eila, Rose and Iona.

Oh, this is a proper cook's kitchen, isn't it?

-Isn't it? What a place.

-Fantastic.

-Fab.

-Thanks.

You're not our usual mum, Conolly.

No, but it's my mum that we're here to talk about, really,

and do all her food that she taught me when I was growing up.

And it's quite unique because your mum was Argentinean.

-Yeah.

-And we're in an Irish country house.

My mum and dad met in the Argentine.

He was down there skiing. He went to this place called Bariloche and she was there.

They met and, I suppose, the chemistry was there too, so they then got married.

Did she change the food in Ireland?

When she arrived here, the food was genuinely disgusting.

My grandmother didn't really put much into the food.

Everything was boiled. And my mum I think just said, "I can't be doing with this."

So, steak started to come in and fresh vegetables,

and there was a story that the meat bill went up by five times, in a single week.

And did she leave a record of all this cooking?

That book there. That's the book that she wrote out with her mum, just before she moved back here.

-Right.

-So she'd have been about, I don't know, about 26,

and so that's what we're going to be doing, perdices in escabeche.

And that's written in Spanish there and the same one in English there.

-And it's a great record, really, isn't it?

-And is that what we're going to cook today?

-That is what we're going to do.

-Oh! Brilliant.

-I'm looking forward to that.

-Aye. It will be a good craic, that.

First up, a traditional dish used for preserving meat,

throughout Latin America - a partridge escabeche.

-We start with our partridge.

-Yeah.

-They're fantastic, aren't they?

-They are.

-Are these from this estate?

-They are indeed.

It's the breasts that we're after, isn't it?

Yes, that's all. Literally. A tiny little cut like that and then you just push like that.

And the whole thing opens up. A quick cut down the side there like that, and it comes out very easily.

But there's a lovely kind of waxy

quality to the meat, isn't there? And that's what I love about game.

You guys can have a go.

Right. Nurse.

I do like a good breast on a bird. Look at that. Beautiful.

In the absence of refrigeration, an escabeche was an ideal way to pickle meat.

So is it basically a one-pot wonder with a lot of prep?

-Yeah. That's exactly what it is.

-And did you grow these as well, Conolly?

I did indeed. They came out of the garden this morning.

-Oh, you can tell as well.

-Whoof! Those onions, they really are fresh, aren't they?

-I'm nicking these carrots.

-They are so tasty, aren't they?

-They are absolutely superb.

-They've got a really, really good flavour.

-But that's the great thing. My parents used to say, that's how carrots used to taste.

-Yeah.

-When we were kids.

-What's next?

-I think we need to put it into the pan and put it on the heat.

-Right.

-Right. Brilliant.

-Right.

-Meat in the bottom.

-Yeah. Should I?

-Mm-hm.

Conolly's making a partridge escabeche. But if you can't get your hands on any,

you can use chicken or even fish.

Here he's using wine, vinegar and olive oil, to help preserve and add taste to our partridge.

Argentineans love their shooting, and escabeche is a great way to make the best of a glut of game.

So Conolly's mum's recipe is as useful here on an Irish estate

as it was on the vast estancias of Argentina.

Peppercorns. So we need half a dozen bay leaves and a couple of sprigs of rosemary.

-And of course, the garlic.

-Mm-hm.

-Ah!

-Ha-ha!

-I just push it down on top of it and then put the lid on to hold it in place.

-Yeah.

And onto the heat.

-And how long do we cook this for?

-It's only 40 minutes.

-Yeah. The anticipation of this is killing us.

I'm really looking forward to eating this.

But before that,

we can knock up some well-known Argentinean pocket food -

some empanadas criollas.

And we're going to do one meat one, with some rather nice sirloin steak, and one sweetcorn one.

And we're put straight to work, chopping.

Is that what you call spring onion in your house?!

Both meat and veggie versions will need onions and peppers.

Beef plays a major part in the culture and cuisine of Argentina.

They eat around 50% more than your average American.

So you could say it's part of their national identity.

But Conolly's got us a prime cut of local Irish beef as the basis for his empanadas.

Oh!

A nice spoon that.

My favourite. My mummy gave me that spoon.

Er! She didn't.

I got you!

-One or two chillies, Conolly?

-What do you think?

-Oh! Shall we go for two?

Yeah. Go on, then.

And we also add a kick of garlic before we start to combine the ingredients.

There's quite a lot of ingredients that go into an empanada.

But they all fit together beautifully.

The olives are not hidden by the spices, and likewise the raisins still come through.

They give a wonderful sweetness to it, and it gives it a roundness, and it just all comes together.

Some paprika.

Cumin and chilli.

Ooh! That's took me right back to my tango lessons in Buenos Aires.

Oh, we've forgotten a bit of sugar. So, a little bit here.

Finally, we need to put the eggs in here, but we can put...

-we can take it off the heat.

-Yeah. Oh! We used to have one of these when I was a kid.

I used to play it.

This is the tough one. And he's succeeded.

And just scatter?

Yeah. Just fire in.

It's like egg confetti.

-That's a winner.

-That's on the money, man.

-Mmm.

-Oh, yeah.

-It's good, isn't it?

-And now on to the veggie version.

-Dive, dive, dive!

The Argentineans call this choclo, but we all know it as corn on the cob.

We'll mix it with some grated Parmesan, bechamel sauce and chopped parsley.

OK. Let's build them now.

And we have these, they're called tapas.

You wet the edge.

Tapas are pre-made empanada cases.

But if you can't find them, thinly rolled out short-crust pastry will do the trick.

And I'll do a veggie.

I'll do a beef one. Every country has their version of an empanada -

the Jamaican patty, the Italian calzone, and of course our own, the Cornish pasty.

Portable food at its best.

All it takes then is three or four minutes to shallow-fry our palm- sized pockets of pastry pleasure.

Now cooled, our escabeche is ready to pot up.

As well as the cooked ingredients, Conolly also adds fresh herbs and lemon,

which will add colour but will also infuse the dish with their flavours over time.

There's a couple more to pot up here,

but I've a feeling that we'll be tucking into them sooner rather than later!

And if it tastes as good as it looks, we're going to be in for a treat.

-Ladies!

-Oh! Here they are.

-Hi, girls.

A taste of Argentina, brought to Ireland.

And who better to join us for a taste of the Argentine, than Conolly's mum, June,

and of course his wife, Sheelagh, and daughters, Ishbel and Eila.

Mmm!

-Mmm.

-It's superb.

-Well done, lads. I think we did all right.

-The Argentine comes to Northern Ireland.

-I think we did, didn't we?

-Absolutely. These taste brilliant, don't they?

-Oh, they're really good, man.

-Well, girls, tell me what you think.

-Absolutely delicious.

So what do you say in Spanish, June?

-Que rico!

-Mmm. So, Conolly, it must give you great pleasure though, just to be able to A,

-be able to cook, B, be able to cook with your mum's recipes.

-Oh, yeah, of course.

Because it sort of, is continuing the legacy really, isn't it?

June, what was it like for you when you came over to Northern Ireland from Argentina?

Was the food a shock when you came here?

The meat was in very short supply.

Mostly it was sort of cabbage and potatoes.

-Yes.

-The accent on the potatoes.

We might have only made this escabeche today,

-but already the combination of flavours really are something to savour.

-Oh! Brilliant.

How long would you leave that in a jar before you eat it?

I would say it would keep three to four months.

And then the flavours would mature for that time.

-Exactly. It tastes better.

-Better.

-Yes.

-The longer you leave it.

We all know the Argentineans know how to grill a steak.

But next time, try following up your empanada starters with a dish of partridge escabeche.

Your tastebuds will do nothing but thank you.

Well, that's two mums and a dad, all with fusion dishes from beyond our shores.

First up our Bangor-based Spanish Senorita Karen, with her Catalan tomato bread and paella.

And then our Helen's flavoursome Guyanan chicken curry and rotis.

And finally our unique taste of the Argentine -

Conolly's empanadas and partridge escabeche.

Here! We could do our mulligatawny soup as a starter.

And our Antipodean Pavlova will make a wonderful pudding.

All distant shore dishes brought to you from our very own shores, in Northern Ireland.

A new day yields fresh opportunities to discover a host of delightful dishes.

Because our Recipe Fair will no doubt attract foodies from all over the country.

An industrious Gerard prepares his recipe tent in anticipation for the arrival of our guests.

And for the land-locked Nepalese, every shore is a distant one.

But after setting up their kitchen, they'll be sure to cook up a warm reception from our crowd.

Well, this is the Recipe Fair.

For a bit of added support, Karen, Helen and Conolly have brought their mums with them.

And that's Gerard's tent. Hello!

Hello, Gerard, how are you?

And this is your kitchen.

-Ta-da!

-Here we are, ladies and gentleman.

-Lovely. Thank you.

-Now... Yeah, if you think it stops here with just a table and grass, oh, no! Look!

We've got a proper full-on kitchen. And you've got a gossiping window.

-Ooh!

-Oh!

And these are your badges of honour.

And of course no self-respecting mum can begin to cook without an MKB apron!

You've accepted the gauntlet. You've got a lot to do.

-So, let's crack on.

-All right.

-See you later.

-Have fun!

-See you later.

And we've got to crack on too, Kingy. We've got guests waiting.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-And what treats from distant shores have you brought us?

Oh, we called into the Chinese takeaway on the way.

-No, we didn't.

-No. Ooh!

That's a barbecue sauce, and that's a chicken curry that Thomas makes.

-Oh, brilliant.

-Nice one.

-Hey, I see a man with a cake.

-Ah!

-It's a coconut and raspberry cake.

-Wow!

-Like a Victoria sponge but with a new twist.

It's got coconut cream in the butter cream and desiccated coconut in the sponge.

Oh, the Women's Institute would have you hung, drawn and quartered, but it looks brilliant.

-It does look brilliant. Now, what have you brought?

-Curried lentils.

-Give us a look, give us a look.

-Oh, wow!

And we've got some chillies I grew, soaked in sherry that my granddad used to have.

-Oh, give us a smell of them.

-Fantastic.

-I bet they're amazing.

-Oh, that's a proper taste from distant shores.

-Oh, yeah. Yeah.

-Oh, lovely.

Well, we're an eclectic lot, us Brits!

What a fantastic variety of food for our visitors to try.

I have it here, in the bag.

-Oh, wow, look at that.

-Toast it, rub it with a raw garlic clove.

And you won't have too many friends after you eat this.

Our mums have already got to grips with our field kitchen.

Or is a field hospital?

There's still hope! There's still hope!

Fortunately, things are a little calmer in the community tent.

But I think we'll start our global tasting odyssey with Gerard.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Are you all right? Oh, nice!

-Hi, Gerard.

Well, guys, we've got a table full of loveliness here for you today.

-Great.

-Sarah and Emily have brought this brilliant pot of babotie in.

And you're going to tell us where it's from, aren't you?

This is my mother-in-law's recipe. Mother-in-law from South Africa.

She gave me this recipe when my husband and I married, over 20 years ago.

-Was that so that you could make his favourite food the way she liked it?

-Basically, yes -

-daughter-in-laws can never quite...

-Mother-in-laws do that, don't they?

It's funny, babotie. It sometimes strikes me

as like a fruity cottage pie, topped with curried custard.

-Yeah. That's about right.

-Yeah. It's an unnatural recipe.

-Well, it's distant shores, isn't it?

It was the Cape Malay slaves who brought the fruit

to South Africa which ended up being used with the game and the meat.

-We've had it in the oven, but dig in.

-Lovely.

-Love it.

-I do too. It's a great dish.

-It is lovely, isn't it?

-Yeah.

That mild spicing as well - fruity meatiness is delicious.

-Mmm.

-Oh, that's a corker.

-That's beautiful, isn't it?

-Mm-hm.

-Oh, really nice.

-Claire has brought a little package, which I thought you might like to unwrap.

-What is this?

Oh, yes! Hundreds and thousands. And glace cherries! Oh, brilliant!

Now, this is something I've not heard of before, which is why I wanted to introduce Claire to you.

It's a George Washington cake.

My grandmother got this recipe from her friends, Holly and Alice, who used to live out in Florida.

-Right.

-And she was given this cake. It came from an old family recipe

of hers, that used to be made out in Vermont. It's a spiced fruit cake.

-Oh, wow!

-A George Washington cake. Oh, fantastic.

-And what's in the middle?

-I've adapted it.

It used to be strawberry jam, but I put blueberry in it.

American food, they tend to like get lots of good stuff and put it together, don't they?

-Yes.

-I mean it's kind of like... we wouldn't put jam in a fruit cake. Hey! Oh, it's great, you know.

-Mmm.

-That's a great cake.

From the United States to Nepal within 200 yards -

I do love our Recipe Fairs.

The UK has a growing community of Nepalese, and most of them are ex- Ghurkha soldiers and their families,

who have settled here after service in the British Army.

Oh, this smells great.

-Hello!

-Oh, wow!

-Hi, fellas, how are you? Are you all right?

-Hello. I'm Dave.

-Chitra. Nice to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Chitra, hi. Very nice to meet you. How are you, sir?

-Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you.

-I must say, one of the most popular things we did last year

was when we had the Ghurkhas cooking here for us, the soldiers.

The food was superb.

I mean this looks fantastic.

Nepalese food draws influence from India and Tibet.

The choila is a popular way of cooking marinated meat, with spices.

Oh, that's good.

And these momos are a meat-filled steamed dumpling that originated in Tibet.

Sel-roti is a rice flour festival bread, made all over Nepal.

-Is that a very delicate operation?

-It is.

-Yeah.

And I do not know how to make those.

My mum doesn't allow me.

But you're allowed to have a go! Because this and all the dishes

cooked today are available on our website for you to cook at home.

Mmm.

-Happy days.

-Beautiful.

-Really nice. Really nice. Really nice and spicy.

-It's quite hot.

-It leaves a zing on the end of your tongue, it's...

-Rather warm.

-I've got the kick in the back of the throat.

-But very nice.

-Lovely.

-Delicious.

-One that you just want to come back more and more for, basically.

But very hot.

Excuse me.

Hey-hey! Chillies can be an acquired taste.

But bread in all its forms is a staple across much of the world.

But who will be the bread winner in Gerard's skills challenge?

Well, boys, look at this beautiful lump of challah dough.

In today's skills challenge, we're making a braided loaf that's very

special to the Jewish community - challah bread.

And it's a celebratory dough. It's made for the Sabbath and made for festivals.

So I'll try and cut it into five even pieces.

There you are, sir. I'm going to give you a little ball of dough each.

We're going to make a loaf that's a double plait.

So what you need to do is divide it into about two thirds and one third.

And then each... each of your two balls you need to cut into three...three footballs.

-Three big 'uns, three little 'uns.

-So what I'm going to do, I'm going to shape my balls...

like this. So then we need to make some little sausages.

So this would normally be made on a Friday, ready for the Jewish Sabbath.

What you need to do is, start with your three large pieces in the tin.

Really crimp them together well.

And then lift them so you make a nice tight plait.

And then do the same with the smaller...

That's tidy, Gerard.

-I do like a bit of baking.

-Yes.

And we put that on the top.

This is actually...

-quite precarious.

-Oh, it's beautiful.

-So hopefully it won't fall off.

And then just a bit of egg.

Poppy seeds are lovely - they're lovely and toasty and nutty when they're baked.

-That's all you have to do.

-Oh, well...(!)

On your marks, get set, go.

-So two thirds, one third.

-Come on, chop-chop.

Looking good, Kingy. Looking good.

We've got one of every different size.

Come on, for the honour and glory of bikerhood.

-Now, look at that!

-Oh, lovely.

That girl can plait. Whoof!

I must say, madam, that's belting. ..How are you doing, Kingy?

-Oh, great.

-You've got to pinch them really hard at the end. Pinch them nice and tightly.

-That's all right.

-Oh, yes!

Yay! So we've got the first to finish here.

-Just the drizzling that's required, that's all.

-That's nice. Yeah!

-That's very good. The first finisher. Well done.

-Yes! That's tidy as well.

That's nice. That tapers nicely, actually, it's a slimmer one.

-That's nice.

-I like that. Yeah, I'm liking that.

-That's beautiful, isn't it? Kingy.

-Well, it's not bad.

-It looks like a giant sort of white truffle that you've covered with poppy seeds.

-Look here, you...!

Super-duper. Right, let's get these into the proving cupboard,

and then they can be baked in time for presentation later.

-Well done, ladies.

-Well done, that's brilliant.

-Beautiful.

Over in the mums' tent, Karen's paella is well underway.

And Helen's chicken curry is hot on its heels.

Conolly painstakingly pots up his partridge escabeche

and he's entrusted the empanadas to the expert, his mum.

-And hot out of the pan, they don't hang about.

-Oh, they're hot.

Mmm.

Absolutely gorgeous.

And it seems our taste for foreign food shows no sign of abating over in Gerard's tent.

What a lovely table of delights from distant shores we've got here.

Now, Karen and Mark, you're going to tell me I know all about this lovely-looking soup here.

Yeah. This is my dad's curried lentils. He's from East Africa.

-It smells great.

-Yeah. We've always been given it as kids.

And have you been able to trace your family back to Africa?

Well, my dad and, I think, his father were born in East Africa.

-My granddad was a civil servant...

-Yes.

-..and in the '60s came back to Britain.

-I mean they're all British, but were just brought up and educated and stuff...

-Yes.

-..in Dar es Salaam.

It's amazing how so many of our national foods, like chutney

and chilli and curry, come into food through the military or through civil servants working overseas.

And it's lovely to see those recipes coming into our food history from those lovely distant shores.

So I'm going to dig into the soup if I can.

What do you recommend I put in there? What would you do?

-Me, I would sprinkle some garam masala.

-Yeah. We've got that in.

-A bit of soy sauce.

-Yeah.

-A bit of salty tang.

-That's it.

-Great.

-A little bit of coriander.

-Oh, one of my favourite things in.

Yeah. I love coriander. A little bit of salad in the top.

-That just sort of helps cool it down a little bit.

-Yeah. I'm going to have a dig into this.

This looks lovely. You know, I'd be so happy just to have this for lunch.

-It would be great, wouldn't it?

-It's quite often a Friday night thing in our house.

Mmm. That's just lovely. I love that crunch at the end.

-Yeah.

-That freshness.

-Yeah.

-Oh, that's delicious.

-Nice, isn't it?

-Mmm. Yeah.

What I love about this is that it combines the distant

recipe of a New York cheesecake, a baked cheesecake, with lovely English fruit and blackcurrants.

Where did this recipe come from, Nina?

It came from my mother-in-law, and my mother-in-law has got a friend called Missy Brown in America,

and my husband used to go and do some summer jobs when he was younger over there.

-And Missy Brown's cheesecake...

-It's Missy Brown's cheesecake, yes.

-..is what you call it.

We see a lot of those baked cheesecake recipes come from

the middle of Europe, from Austria, Germany, the borders around there.

And of course settlers that went out to the States would take their food

-with them, so they had a connection with home, of course.

-That's right.

-Can I have a taste?

-Yes.

-Thank you.

And of course food is, you know... would be so different for him there...

-Yes. Definitely.

-..at that stage, to what he had in England, so...

-Yes.

That's just so lovely. And it must really be a happy thing for him whenever you make that.

But one of my very favourite things has appeared in a bowl on the table

and it's made by this man, Mike Johnson. Red cabbage.

Where does it come from?

-Well, it's a Scandinavian dish.

-Yeah.

-But this recipe's Danish.

What's your connection to Denmark, why were you there?

I lived in Denmark for four years, I was serving with the military.

We see a lot of recipes come back to us from distant places with the military.

What else is in there? There's red cabbage, there's presumably some vinegar or sugar or something?

-Onion, apple and then just some spices.

-Well, I'm going to have a little taste.

I tell you what, I could eat all of this, so you'd better take it off me before I do.

Mmm. That's really lovely.

Clearly there are multitudes of ways international foods have crept into our diets.

And time is creeping up on our mums, so will their distant shore dishes be ready for the banquet?

Hey-hey! How are you doing, Helen?

-Good.

-How's your curry coming on?

-I've got two big pots sitting up there -

one cooked, and one bubbling away.

Hey, Conolly. Well, we've seen an awful lot of your empanadas around.

Good. Good.

-Oh!

-So - good, eh?

-Beautiful.

-Oh, man.

-That truly is a taste of the Emerald Isle.

LAUGHTER

-I smell paella.

-Yes.

Up there, it's very very hot up there, guys.

-Come on! Karen, don't let us stop you.

-I do like a hot kitchen.

I have one in the oven, and this is just bubbling away on the stove.

-Brilliant.

-So are we on schedule, do you think?

-Yes. I think it all should be ready for teatime. Yes.

-Well, that's perfect, then.

-Oh, come on, it's too hot in here.

-It's all right for you!

-Our turn now, dude, I think.

-Yes.

-Hello!

-And thank you!

But before we get started on our dish of the day...

Our baked challah challenge breads need to be reunited with their creators.

Gerard's perfect plait has set the standard.

Our Chris has risen to the challah, with his brave attempt.

Emily's effort "kneads" improvement.

And Sarah obviously used her loaf for the winning effort.

Mr King has in fact created...

a bread koala bear.

-It's not!

-It is!

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Now our gift from distant shores.

It's that dish beloved of small hotels and guest houses

the length and breadth of Britain - haddock mornay.

It's a tadge old-fashioned, it's a tadge cosy,

but, in essence, it is a very fine dish that has come from France.

To start off, we must make the gratine for the topping.

Breadcrumbs. It's very simple.

-You put them into a bowl, closely followed by...

-Dried parsley.

Then we take some Gruyere. Now, the good thing about Gruyere is, it's lovely.

-We put milk in a pan and bring the milk to the boil.

-That's you, mate.

There's a couple of bits of thing, and I'll chuck them all in.

Now, we have about three or four strips of lemon peel.

A bay leaf. And we're using haddock.

Haddock is a lovely fish. I love haddock.

Pop that in there.

This cooks for five minutes. Then whip it off the heat and leave it to stand for five more.

-If you were a fish, Kingy, what would you be?

-In batter.

That's cos you live in Newcastle. You're always half-battered.

I think I'd be a salmon, a noble salmon.

-Would you?

-Or a Dover sole. Something really, you know, quite desirable.

Right. That's fine.

We'll set the fish aside. Now, Mr King...?

-Hello.

-Over to you for the roux.

Right. We start off with some butter, a warm pan. Melt the butter. Start to add the flour.

That milk...you could dab that behind your ears and wear it.

Beautiful.

What's interesting, that I think France more than any other country,

in terms of distant shores, they've given us the building blocks of classic cuisine.

You know like a beurre manie, a mornay, a bechamel.

They're all French terms.

-(FRENCH ACCENT:)

-'Seeing as we're going all French, we're going to add some vin blanc.'

-(FRENCH ACCENT:)

-'Some moutarde Anglaise. Some creme.

'And more Gruyere.

'And don't forget your salt and pepper.'

I'm adding carefully.

-Folding.

-Please.

Nice.

Simply dish out our fish into a pair of pre-warmed bowls.

Then sprinkle on our gratin and chuck it under the grill until golden brown.

Let's have a look.

Oh, look at that.

Ooh.

-Ladies and gentlemen, haddock mornay.

-I thank you.

-APPLAUSE

In culinary terms, it's hard to believe that France was ever a distant shore,

but this haddock mornay will make a wonderful addition to our banquet.

But thankfully, not ever far-flung recipe brought along today will get cooked...

This is parrot pie.

-Baked kiwi.

-Kangaroo tail fricassee.

There you go. Bandicoot stewed in milk.

-Ah!

-Have you found any treats?

-I have indeed, yes. Babotie.

-That was lovely, wasn't it?

-And the George Washington cake...

-Oh, brilliant. You picked that up.

-It's brilliant.

-Yeah.

-What you up to?

-Well, I've got some plum relish.

-Yes.

-Which sounds fab.

Almond meringue cake, and then the recipes from Helen over there.

-Excellent.

-Oh! Brilliant. Brilliant.

It's great to know that visitors to our fairs take away so many great ideas to cook at home.

But a lucky few are sticking around to sample

-all of the dishes from around the globe that we, our mums...

-And dad!

-..have cooked for the banquet.

-Well, welcome to our banquet.

And you really are going to eat the most eclectic mix of food from distant shores.

We are going to eat like kings and queens.

Now it's time to introduce two mammas and a papa.

The first mamma on the staircase of foodie frenzy is our Karen.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

The royalty of the roti, Helen.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Conolly, come on down here with your escabeche.

-Wa-hey!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Let the festivities commence.

Made with fresh ingredients, you can't beat our Indian-inspired mulligatawny as a great starter.

On a cold winter's evening, just fantastic.

Mulligatawny soup. I mean that could be a meal on its own.

Aye, but I still think I'll be able to find room for an empanada.

Pace yourself, dude, we've plenty to follow.

-We're eating our way around the globe tonight, you know.

-Argentina.

-Guyana.

-Spain.

-And France.

-It's the world on a plate, Kingy.

My favourite's the paella, closely followed by the partridge.

The partridge is absolutely exquisite.

With the vinegar as well, it's got a kind of kick to it.

I think my favourite so far is the curry. The taste is just so fresh.

It's a delicate spice, and there's also some sweetness there,

and it just fills your palate.

My favourite so far is the haddock - it's just really creamy and rich and it's full of flavour.

I really enjoyed it.

There's all sorts of different flavours, different styles, different cultures. Great.

And we found all this back in Northern Ireland.

Well, I just love eating. I love to try anything new. I love to experiment.

I love to cook for other people, because it's a social thing, and the love of cooking as well.

I mean I just love to get into the kitchen and try something.

And I'll try anything once.

I didn't actually know how it was going to turn out,

because you've always got that uncertainty when you're away from your own kitchen.

So, yeah, I'm very pleased with the way things turned out.

I'm very pleased with the day and seeing and meeting different people

and chatting with people, and it's really nice.

Oh, it's been a tremendous day. And I must say, made so much better by these two.

My mum brought with her more of a food culture than my father's family had.

I think that, if it weren't for all those books and for my mum,

I wouldn't feel the same way about food as I do.

So it just goes to show, whatever part of the world you're from,

Mum really does know best.

Ta-da! Time for dessert. All the way from New Zealand, our Pavlova, as made in Pickie Park, Bangor.

Look at that belter.

Oh, man! Do you know what's been lovely about today's fair?

Not only has it been a celebration of food from distant shores, mate,

but what about all the friends we've made?

I know. I know. I've had a lovely day and I don't want it to end.

It's not over yet, dude. Know what I mean?

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