Crowd Pleasers Tom Kerridge's Best Ever Dishes

Tasty, amazing, delicious.

I love cooking.

Oh, that smells lush.

But why not make your food the best it can be?

It worked proper nice.

Oh. Ooh, ah, ooh.

The difference between cooking good food and great food

is only a few little tricks and tips away.

I want to show you how to turn an ordinary dish

into something extraordinary.

Oh, my God, that is amazing.

It's time to push flavour to its fullest.

Absolutely beautiful.

Liven up those old favourites...

That's delicious.

That's really up with the best.

..and add a bit of magic to your cooking

with my Best Ever Dishes.

The best thing about having a party is putting on a top-notch spread

and I don't mean rustling up some namby-pamby nibbles.

I like to serve proper food.

Full of flavour, not a canape in sight.

So I'm going to show you how to whip up some right tasty crowd pleasers.

I've got a proper barbecue recipe packed with flavour

using super tasty mackerel.

Nine on one line!

I think we need a bigger boat!

I'm pushing the boat out with my slow-cooked beef brisket

and sampling some great grub along the way.

This is top notch, this.

That means a lot coming from you.

Service, one more bun.

And I'm going to show you a dressed to impress chocolate tart

that'll make your party go with a bang.

All of your guests are going to love that.

If they don't, get new friends.

This is going to be a party your mates will never forget.

But first up, my best ever potato skins.

They're going to be right classy.

Now everybody loves potatoes at a party

and I've got a recipe for you that is way better than crispy wedges

or tiny little jackets.

They're going to be the perfect party potatoes.

Now I know you lot have done these before, it's a jacket spud.

Dead easy, it's probably one of the first things you ever did cook.

But for this recipe it's the skins I'm after, not the flesh.

So cut the potatoes in half and scoop out all the middle.

You can save that for some sausage and mash tomorrow.

It's burning my hands, I'm out of practice.

I'm going to take these potatoes up a notch

and make them into the perfect grab-and-go food

for a crowd, by crisping them up

and turning them into little salad bowls,

and then I'll fill them with some lovely stuff to wow my guests.

And that smell of baked potatoes, oh. Ooh, ah, ooh.

Perfect little salad bowls.

I'm getting the big guns out for the filling

and I'm starting with pancetta.

It's just like streaky bacon on steroids, it's double hard.

It's very strong. It's been cured for a long time.

Imagine you're doing crispy bacon on a Sunday morning for breakfast.

That's exactly what we're doing here except it ain't Sunday morning

and it's not for breakfast.

While that's crisping up, I want to show you a blue cheese dressing

which couldn't be any simpler.

I'm not using any old blue cheese.

I want the best for my guests so I'm going to use Roquefort.

First chuck creme fraiche into a bowl,

add a couple of large dollops of Dijon mustard

and a splash of this bad boy, Tabasco.

You put a couple in if you're like a normal person,

and add a couple more if you like it spicy,

and then a couple more if it's just a load of blokes eating it

trying to prove how hard they are.

Next, 200g of some nice posh mayo

and then crumble on top of all of that the Roquefort.

Give it a mix.

It looks like one of my white T-shirts if I wash them

with a pair of my dark socks. That's the colour you're looking for.

Now I'm going to smother the delicious sauce

all over some lettuce, but this ain't any old limp leaf.

Cos lettuce, it's got a beautiful, real, lovely crunch to it.

Rip it into a nice big bowl...

I'm having a tear up. I'm having a party.

Oi-oi!

Now grab some celery.

I'm just going to finally... Finally? Finely.

Very similar. Finally, we're going to finely slice the celery.

Stick it in with the lettuce and now slop on the dressing.

And just mix it through.

Now for that gorgeous pancetta.

Crispy, bubbling, tasty, amazing,

delicious. Any other words that you can think of,

that is what pancetta is about.

Time to stuff the potato skins.

And now the dressed salad.

These little boys are perfect for parties.

You can enjoy eating them and not have to worry about your washing up.

That has to be a massive bonus.

Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped celery leaves,

some fresh chives and smoked paprika.

This is like all the best flavours from packets of crisps

rolled into one and put into 3D.

And there you go, these boys I'm just going to stick 'em on me posh plate.

There's probably enough on that plate. Leaves one for me.

Now that most definitely is the best ever potato skin, ever.

Next on my hearty party menu,

I want a dish with some full-on barbecue flavours.

I'm after something hot and smoky.

I want something that I can hold in one hand and have a drink

in the other, and I think I might have just found that

at a gap here in Brixton Village in south London

which is really buzzing.

Dan and Warren run the Joint, where for the past 18 months

they've been serving up some proper crowd pleasing barbecue-style food

and putting smiles on the faces of the south London massive.

-Tom.

-Hey, Dan, how are you?

-Nice to see you.

-How are you, are you OK?

-I'm very well, thank you.

-A busy day today.

Yeah, a crazy Saturday as normal.

And I want to know what their secret is.

So what have we got going on here? This looks incredible.

So here we've got our signature dish,

which is the barbecue 16-hour slow-cooked pork,

It's low and slow.

-I mean, that's our ethos with all the meat here.

-Yeah.

And just low and slow, so the meat just becomes butter.

Each dish is a complete meal.

Slow-cooked meat, smoky sauce, coleslaw,

all served in a freshly baked sourdough bun,

and that's exactly the kind of party food I want to make.

They're going to two lucky people out there.

-Yeah.

-Gutted. Gutted they're not coming to me.

I'll have to have one later.

But there's one massively popular dish that I'm really interested in.

Can you do a brisket as well, brisket of beef?

I do brisket, yeah.

What's your method of cooking a brisket, how do you do it?

-Because I don't have a smoker...

-Yeah.

..we sort of have to infuse the smoke into the food.

Yeah, cos that barbecue, so much about it

is that smoky flavouring, that underlying smokiness.

So what we do is we rub it up.

So it's a dry rub that sits on it.

There is a massive amount of smoked paprika, is that right?

There certainly is.

I'm a big fan of smoked paprika.

I think it really gets that smokiness, that undertone.

Ah, so a smoked paprika rub, a brilliant way of producing

authentic barbecue flavours straight from the kitchen.

But he's got even more going on.

-So this is your barbecue sauce?

-It certainly is.

So here we've got just a sort of basic tomato base.

A bit of Worcestershire in there and a few other spices.

And what are the other spices? Give us a clue.

Well, a very secret ingredient which I'll share with you,

we do a smoked demerara sugar.

Whoa!

Just have a little taste.

Oh, my God, that is amazing.

That goes into the barbecue sauce

and one or two other things that I'm going to have to keep for us.

OK, that's a family secret.

Yeah, it's a family secret.

-You're keeping that one.

-My mum will kill me!

OK, we don't want that, we don't want that.

Do you know what? I'm already sold on this.

It's incredible. I can't wait to get some beef brisket in.

Thank you, chef. We can do you like a bun if you want.

I can't wait cause my mouth's watering big time.

Oh, my God, look at that.

Enjoy.

That looks absolutely fantastic.

No wonder you've got a queue of people, because this, my friend,

this is top notch, this.

Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.

I want one now.

Well, get one. Service, one more bun!

I can't wait to create food for my mates that gives a buzz like this.

So I want to get straight on with a beef brisket of me own

now I've seen how well it goes down with a crowd.

Now this is a big old beef brisket.

This is actually the belly flap of the inside of a cow.

It's quite tough, so you've got to cook it for a long time,

but trust me on this one, the end result is so worth it.

To get massive smoky flavours into the meat like Warren,

I'm going to mix up a dry rub using smoked paprika as a base

and adding cayenne pepper and a load of super spices.

I'm toasting yellow mustard seeds, black pepper corns,

cumin and coriander seeds.

There's a lot of spice going on here but it is a massive piece of beef.

Now use your muscles, grind them up and whack them

into the rub along with some muscovado sugar.

Wow.

Then get it rubbed into that brisket.

This is going to lift this meat from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

And don't be shy, get it on

and then rub it right in,

and all of these flavours will slowly

kind of work their way into the beef.

Then roll and tie it.

And it's such good value for money.

A big piece like this - easily going to keep ten people happy.

What this beauty needs now is to be left in the fridge overnight.

That is going to be lush.

After 24 hours, the meat will have soaked up

all those lovely spicy flavours.

How lovely does that look?

And it smells amazing.

Then like Warren, I'm going to slow cook it at 160 degrees

in some delicious beef stock.

So it's going to be braised in beefy steam.

It sounds nice, doesn't it?

It can take up to six hours, which gives me loads of time

to knock up a barbecue sauce.

I'm using red wine vinegar reduced down by half, muscovado sugar,

a few splashes of Worcester sauce and some tomato ketchup.

Warren's barbecue sauce took influences from South Africa

but I want to give mine a taste of America, throwing in Cola.

And that's got one of those burnt caramel flavours.

And a cheeky splash of bourbon.

A large splash of bourbon.

But I've saved the best till last

and that's the beef cooking juices now that the meat's cooked.

There is no way I'm going to throw this away.

All of that lovely beefy gravy flavour.

Oh, wow.

Let's see if the beef brisket hits the spot too.

Oh, the smell that comes from that is amazing.

The problem is you need to let it rest for 25 minutes

cos that can make the real difference.

I'm not sure I can wait 25 minutes, I have to be honest with you.

What do they say? Patience is a virtue?

Finally, I can pull the beef apart.

I'm so excited about this.

You see where the spice rub is in through the middle

and all that flavour.

You just know that beef is going to taste fantastic.

Look at that.

Now tip all of that lovely slow-cooked meat into the barbecue sauce.

Oh, that is amazing.

Serving that to a big group of mates,

nothing is better than that beef brisket.

It's so easy to grab readymade side dishes to chuck on the table

but having a home-made one can really impress your guests

and it doesn't mean a lot of hard work.

Coleslaw is one of the easiest

but this one ain't going to be anything like the one your nan might whip up.

I'm using the traditional veg, chopped white cabbage,

onions and carrots,

but I'm throwing in a couple of different ones to give it an edge.

This version - rock'n'roll.

I'm chucking in edgy veggies, celeriac and fennel.

It's just got that kind of underlying flavour of aniseed

that runs through it.

Proper tasty.

As well as red cabbage and beetroot for colour.

It's beginning to bleed out all over me chopping board.

Hopefully, though, not all over me shirt.

Now add these bad boys, toasted fennel seeds.

So every now and then you'll get little pockets

and bursts of flavour coming from these.

Look at the colours in that.

Now I'm going to mix up some hardcore mayonnaise.

Nothing beats good home-made mayo

and it's easier to whip up than most of us think.

Mine is made up of the usual suspects - egg yolks, oil,

white wine vinegar and lemon juice,

but I'm going to pack it out big time with some massive flavours.

Five big cloves of garlic.

Some English mustard, but I really love it

when you have too much of it on your ham sandwich and it makes you cry.

Anything that can do that, you've got to give it big respect.

Now for some anchovies.

Most mayonnaises have this beautiful kind of subtle flavour to them

and in this one there is nothing subtle about it.

Throw in a little sugar and whizz it up.

Blimey, that don't half smell strong.

Now loz in the vegetable oil.

Look at that. Gorgeous.

Lovely, thick and rich mayonnaise.

Do you know what?

That's probably the best mayonnaise that I've ever made.

Time to mix the beautiful crunchy veg with the hardcore mayo.

I reckon maybe just one or two more dollops.

Finish it off with some final flavours, parsley, dill,

chervil and lemon zest.

That is how to turn normal everyday kind of coleslaw

to something super special.

Super-duper amazing coleslaw.

On a warm summer's day, there's nothing better than

getting your mates round for a barbie.

But why not push the boat out and serve up more

than the usual burgers and sausages?

How about a brilliant barbecued stuffed mackerel?

I've come to a fishing town in Cornwall to catch myself some

and fulfil a lifelong dream.

Now if I hadn't have been a chef,

I always fancied my chances at being a fisherman.

So I've come here to Newlyn to meet some blokes

to see if I'm any good at it.

How we doing, boys?

Hello, Tom. How you doing, you all right?

Nice to see you. How are you, all right? Kevin, you all right?

The boys have promised to take me out fishing if I knock up

a barbecue for them, their family and friends from what we catch.

So have you been mackerel fishing before, Tom?

-I have never been mackerel fishing before.

-Right.

Well, I'd better give you this first before...

Perfect. If we're going out to sea, I need one of these.

I can swim a little bit.

-Oh, right.

-I don't want to sink, though.

All right, then, here we go.

All right, go steady.

Right, let's go and see if we can find the elusive mackerel.

Let's find some mackerel.

I'm heading out with Andrew Stevens,

who's part of a Cornish fishing co-operative

which only fish using sustainable methods.

This is an ultimate dream, this, isn't it?

-You get good money for it, you know.

-Yeah.

-And it's a good bit of fun.

-Yeah, it's a good...

If, if we see any of them.

I've come all the way down the motorway,

we've got to catch some fish!

-One would be nice.

-One would be nice.

I hope we get more than one.

I've got a whole crowd to feed later.

It's a little bit like being on the waltzers, innit?

Yeah. Ah, mackerel. We've got mackerel.

-We've got one.

-Yeah, look out.

-Is he a good one?

-There's your mackerel.

-There we go, look at that.

-It's only one...

But it's a start.

-..but it's a mackerel.

-That's my first fish.

-There you go.

-There we are.

There, Tom's caught his first mackerel.

Tom's caught his first mackerel.

And it looks like it's my lucky day.

Oh, we got one, we got one, we got another one.

Getting an arm work-out now. Hello!

Ah!

Three there.

Get in!

Three, four... Hello!

Nine on one line!

What did they say on Jaws?

I think we need a bigger boat.

Phew, got me self a load of mackerel.

Not bad for a first timer, eh?

Now let's fire up the barbie.

Off the boat literally ten minutes ago.

While the fishermen and their wives and mates chill out with a beer,

I filleted our catch.

Lovely fillet of mackerel.

Nice and clean.

You can't get any fresher than that.

Right, time to get this lot fed.

So what's on the menu then? Kerridge-caught mackerel?

Kerridge-caught mackerel.

That is it. Kerridge-caught mackerel.

I'd happily cook mackerel as fresh as this just on its own,

but these guys can do that any day of the week,

so I'm going to show them how to add extra bite and flavour.

Right, boys, I'm going to stuff the mackerel with breadcrumbs

and it's going to be like a reverse sandwich.

So the bread is going to be in the middle.

Into breadcrumbs, I'm going to mix some real tastes of the sea.

Salty samphire.

And just give it a rough old chop.

You make that look easy. No blood.

Yeah, no blood.

Seaweed.

Have you used it before, do you eat seaweed?

Yeah, we got in the nets and we don't like it.

And anchovies.

And then into that, we're going to put some mustard.

This is actually French mustard. It's like English mustard

but nowhere near as hard.

And Cornish mustard is harder again.

Is harder again.

The hardest mustard around is Cornish mustard.

Oh, without a doubt.

And then into that, some creamed horseradish.

Really lovely.

Add a pinch of salt and pepper, zest and juice of a lemon.

Just give it a good mix

and this is going to be our stuffing for the mackerel.

So all you do is take the mackerel fillet,

stuff it and put the other fillet back on top

and tie it so you're making a nice little sandwich.

Now what a nice way to spend the day, eh?

Right then, boys, we've got a lot of people to feed here.

We've got to get a production line going.

If you tied your boat like that,

it'd have been gone a long time ago, wouldn't it?

No, I don't think so, Tom.

See that sizzling sound.

Is this the first time he's ever cooked for you, Sally?

-Absolutely.

-It is the first time he's ever cooked for you

And never again then.

Never again!

There we go they're turning over,

they're beginning to crisp so they look lovely.

That for me is the perfect barbecue food.

A little bit crispy and charred on the outside, lovely and soft

and moist in the middle and beautifully fresh.

There's garlic butter on the end there.

Absolutely beautiful.

It's the best mackerel I've ever had, lovely.

Oh, fantastic. So fresh, lovely.

These fishermen are really getting into the party spirit.

Before you know it, they're joking with me to dive in and cool down.

I'm not going.

I am Tom Kerridge, not Tom Daley.

Tom Kerridge, not Tom Daley.

You get on that side and I'll get hold of this side...

It's clear I'm safer on dry land

so it's back to the kitchen to knock up

one of my best ever puds for the party.

Cheats chocolate tart.

And chocolate tart is everybody's favourite

and I've got a recipe for you that's super special on every level.

Every tart needs pastry and this one is no different.

But this isn't any old tart.

This is one that's going to push the party boundaries.

I'm putting cocoa powder into the pastry

to give it an extra chocolaty kick.

Take it to another level.

Weigh out 175g of plain flour

and instead of caster sugar, use 80g of icing sugar.

It makes it a bit more of a lighter pastry, a bit more biscuit like.

Sieve it together with 40g of cocoa powder.

It feels like I'm a little bit in a 1980s pop video

with the smoke machine going on.

I would give you a rendition of something by Duran Duran

but I can't remember the words.

MUSIC: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran

Then the butter, exactly 140g.

That's the thing about pastry. You've got to be pretty exact.

There's no free styling with pastry work.

141g. Don't tell no-one.

When it's mixed into a breadcrumb texture, pop in two egg yolks.

That is it. That easy.

Chocolate as the base of a chocolate tart. Nice work.

Once you and the pastry have rested for an hour, roll it out.

Stick it in your tin and then blind bake it,

whack it in the oven at 170 degrees for 25 minutes.

Now it looks like the bottom half of bourbon biscuit, doesn't it?

Right, now for the filling, which I'm ramping right up.

No dark chocolate for me.

This is going to be a melt-in-your-mouth

milk chocolate extravaganza.

It's dead easy to do.

Melt 175g of chocolate over hot water.

It looks like something from Willy Wonka, doesn't it?

There should be lots of little Oompa-Loompas running around.

And in a separate pan warm 100ml of amoretto.

Oh, it smells so nice.

And 200ml of double cream.

And I'm just going to simply mix the two together

and that is how easy the filling is.

And you know all of your guests are going to love that.

It's chocolate, cream and booze.

If they don't, get new friends.

And then it's all thick and gorgeous and gloopy.

So the big difference between this

and a normal chocolate tart is there's no eggs in this.

You haven't got to stick it in the oven and cook it

until it's just wobbly.

I'm just going to bosh it in the fridge.

That makes it a cheats' chocolate tart.

How easy is that? What a doss.

Now for the topping.

This is going to blow your party guests away

and yet it's easy as.

First, I'm going to frost some almonds.

I've baked them for ten minutes.

But now I'm going to sugar coat them. Now, don't be scared.

Well, if you've done lots of lovely sugar work before

and you've got this wonderful glossy sugar coating, well done.

But if you've done it before and your sugar's crystallised

and gone all rubbish, perfect, that's how we're cooking now.

We're going to do some rubbish sugar work.

So here goes. On a high heat,

dissolve 100g of caster sugar in 50g of water.

Boil it, stir it. No bother.

It's just starting to brown

and that's the point to chuck in the almonds.

Lovely little frosted almonds...

..with absolutely zero sugar work skill.

How easy was that?

Right. Time to make this tart look dead special.

Chop up the frosted almonds and sprinkle them on top.

And don't be shy with them neither.

And bash up some proper coffee beans and throw them on top too.

There is no way that anyone is going to turn their nose up at this.

Now for some coffee cream made with coffee granules, caster sugar,

double cream and coffee liqueur.

Just lob it on.

To finish, finely grate dark chocolate all over.

That has to be easiest chocolate tart to make ever, that.

But that looks really complicated,

all them little bits and bobs on the top make the difference

and they're the things that everyone's going to love.

Right then, guys. We all hungry?

With just a few simple tricks and twists,

you can ramp your party food right up.

Crispy potato skins, help yourself, get in there.

Wow your guests and get your party going with a bang.

Right then, boys and girls, who wants any seconds?

ALL: Yes, please!

Next time I'll be turning the volume up

on everyone's favourite takeaway foods, from speedy kebabs...

I cannot wait to eat that. That looks lush.

..to childhood favourites.

Mm, doughnuts. I love doughnuts.

And I'll be putting the ham back into the hamburger.

That is a good burger.

-Tom! Brilliant!

-Cheers! Thank you!