Celebratory Food Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food

-A portion of chips. The pork is a la carte.

-Thank you.

I'm Tom Kerridge.

I run the only pub in the UK with two Michelin stars.

-Lamb in, please, Ant.

-OK.

How long on lamb, Ant?

The great British pub. This is what we Brits do best.

Keep it coming, yeah?

And I want to show you how to cook pub classics in your own home.

There we go.

Lovely!

I'm all about simplicity.

Solid, strong flavours.

You shouldn't complicate food. You should just keep it nice and simple.

It's about good food, prepared with a little bit of extra love and attention

to share with family and friends.

This is my pub food done properly.

-Chin-chin.

-That was a good day.

In this episode, I'm going all-out and making extra special dishes

that are spot-on for any celebration.

If you serve this to your family and friends,

they're going to be in for a right treat.

I'm cooking up one of my ultimate roasts - delicious crispy duck.

Absolutely fantastic.

Real decadent treats, like deep-fried oysters.

This is oysters for beginners, this.

A dish perfect for a special night in -

spiced monkfish with an awesome aubergine puree.

And that, boys and girls, is how to treat

your other half - and yourself - properly.

All of that, topped off with a dead-easy dessert,

my boozy gin and tonic granita.

It's an amazing way to book-end a meal.

But first, an excellent starter that's quick and simple to whip up

and has a special secret weapon - my fantastic duck egg dressing.

I, like every chef, love using asparagus.

It's got a wonderful, elegant flavour.

I'm starting by peeling the asparagus

because it gets rid of that sometimes harsh, bitter taste you can get from the skin.

Also, it's a bit cheffy and looks nice, too.

A little tip for peeling asparagus is using an upturned bowl

to rest the asparagus on.

That way you've got less chance of snapping the stalk.

Next, remove the woody ends, so you're left with the lovely, sweet stalks.

Normally with asparagus, a lot of people will cook it, boiling it in water

or steaming it.

I'm going to do it with some butter and some water.

The benefit of cooking asparagus this way is

that there's so little water in the pan

that the asparagus water actually comes out.

It cooks itself almost in its own juices.

Let them cook for two to three minutes.

Traditionally, you'd serve asparagus with hollandaise

but I'm going to make my ultimate salad dressing

with duck eggs through it.

This dressing is like a mix of hollandaise, salad cream and mayonnaise,

all rolled into one.

It's proper lush, smothered over ham salad or smoked fish

and it'll work perfectly with the beautiful freshness of the asparagus.

Start by separating four duck egg yolks into a bowl.

Duck eggs are brilliant for special occasions.

Their yolks are much richer than hen's,

producing a creamier, more luxurious taste.

Next add in 50ml of water and 100ml of white wine vinegar.

A quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika gives a sweet, smoky edge to the dressing

and a teaspoon of mustard powder adds a little kick.

Then in with a teaspoon of sugar and season with a pinch of salt.

Place the bowl over boiling water and whisk.

When the eggs are cooked and it's nicely thickened,

pour in 100ml of double cream

and finely grate two hard-boiled duck eggs into the bowl.

This gives the dressing fantastic texture.

Two tablespoons of chopped capers gives the dressing tartness

and also cuts through the richness of the eggs and cream.

For a lush, fresh finish to my salad dressing,

I'm adding in chopped parsley.

When the asparagus is just soft to the touch you know it's cooked.

Take a few spears out, place them on your plate,

dress the dish with my ultimate salad dressing.

And that's a simple, elegant starter with a rich, creamy dressing

for that little bit of indulgence.

When it comes to celebrations, it's the perfect time to go all-out

and try something new.

If you've never roasted a whole duck before, give it a go.

Not only is it ideal for a special occasion, it's dead simple.

Duck for me is one of the most fantastic meats.

It can take so much flavour and it's perfect for slow-roasting.

I'm just going to remove the wings

and then any of the excess from the bottom, here.

Your butcher can also do this for you

and by cutting off this section, it helps to remove fat from the cavity,

which reduces the amount of unwanted fat during cooking.

I'm going to put a few little pierce marks in the skin,

just so that when I slow-roast it, the fat begins to render out

and can easily escape.

I'm now going to give this duck a little bit of an Asian twist

using some Szechuan pepper.

This tastes nothing like pepper.

It's actually dried ash plant berries.

Loads of beautiful smells and aromas coming into the room.

It's floral and lemony and creates an awesome tingling sensation in the mouth.

And I'm going to rub it onto my duck.

Now I'm going to put this into an oven at about 200 degrees centigrade

for 20 to 25 minutes.

That'll get the skin nice, crispy and golden.

Then after that 25 minutes, turn the oven down to 120 degrees

and the duck will continue to cook for about 2.5 hours

until tender and lush.

But every 20 minutes, it's important to baste the duck in its own juices.

Just regenerate flavour.

Everything that's being dripped out of the duck

is then being kind of fed back onto it.

Back into the oven and then we'll do the same process again

and again until the duck is beautifully cooked.

As I'm roasting a duck, it would be rude not to make pancakes.

Mine are dead easy, lovely and fluffy

and because they're made with potato,

they're more substantial for a main.

Now, this mash has been made with baked potatoes

rather than boiled.

That way, it hasn't taken on too much moisture.

To that I'm adding 75g of plain flour and a teaspoon of baking powder.

175ml of milk and two eggs bring this batter together.

Now it's important to gently combine the mix.

I'm not going to work it too much,

just in case the glutens in the flour go too tight

and I end up with really tough little pancakes.

There's a few little lumps and bumps in it but that's OK.

Now let the batter sit for about an hour,

so the glutens have a chance to chillaxo-relaxo.

And don't forget to keep basting your duck.

To cook the pancakes, start with a little drizzle of vegetable oil

in a non-stick pan.

I'm just going to gently put about a spoon per pancake.

You can see they're ready to flip over when all the air bubbles start to pop.

These will now sit happily in a low oven until serving time.

So my duck's been in about two and a half hours.

It's time to take a look.

HE CHUCKLES

Absolutely fantastic.

You can see the skin's nice and crispy.

Simply remove the roasting rack and drain away the fat.

Just leaving a little coating on the bottom of the pan.

To finish this, we're going to pour some of this beautiful clear runny honey over the top of the duck.

This will create a wonderful sticky glaze.

Then it goes back into the oven at a slightly higher temperature

for about five minutes.

Then we're going to baste it and we're going to repeat this process

four or five times, just until the honey is caramelised.

I know it's a lot of effort but I promise it will be worth it.

The duck's been in the oven for about 15 minutes.

I'm just going to give it a good splash of soy sauce.

And then a wonderful baste.

I'm just going to leave it to rest now for about 20 minutes.

To finish, I'm going to serve my duck and pancakes with a helping of greens

and braised Little Gem lettuces do the job perfectly.

Lettuce is much more than a salad item.

If you think of it as a vegetable, you get a lot more use out of them.

Just heat up a little stock and butter in a pan,

add in some lemon peel and some thyme leaves

and cook the halved Little Gems core-side down.

So that's the bit you're looking at cooking and softening.

I'm not really a salad kind of guy.

So the best way of serving lettuce for me

is cooking it in stock and butter.

Braised lettuce tastes wonderful and fresh

and literally takes minutes to cook.

I'm going to pop that onto the plate.

For me, that is the perfect way of serving a roast duck.

If you serve this to your family and friends as a meal,

they're going to be in for a right treat.

Cooking with the best ingredients is a proper way to treat yourself.

-Hello, there, chief.

-Hello, there.

-How are you?

-Could I get 12 of your finest rock oyster, please?

-Certainly.

Oysters are one of those ingredients that really make a celebration feel momentous

and here in Whitstable there's a truckload of them.

Served raw, they might not be everyone's cup of tea

but I'm going to be deep-frying these bad boys in a delicious batter

and serving them with something special.

Knock, knock.

-Oi.

-Steve, how are you doing?

-Hello, Tom.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah, yeah.

So I've come to see my mate Steve Harris,

who owns the outstanding Sportsman pub.

He's famed for his use of local seaweed in his dishes

and today, that's what I'm after for my oysters,

so we're heading straight to the beach to fill up.

Right, so we use this stuff, which is fresh - it's actually growing here.

-And it's called gutweed. Nice name.

-Gutweed.

-Yeah.

Look, if you smell that, you get that lovely kind of sea...

They call it ozone. It's very salty.

But can you get instantly that...?

-Oh, it's amazing.

-Isn't it amazing?

-Yeah, it's beautiful.

What blew my mind - this has been on the beach for hundreds of years

and it's never become part of English cookery.

And I had to go to Japan and come back here and realise,

-"My God, it's all over my beach."

-It's right here on your doorstep.

Right, then, Steve, I think this is perfect for some seaweed mayonnaise

-and some oyster fritters.

-Lovely.

-There's loads of it!

-THEY LAUGH

There's loads of it!

Whilst Steve lends a hand prepping those awesome oysters,

I'm starting on the magic ingredient for my mayonnaise.

I'm just going to squeeze out this gutweed.

-Do you want these just opened in here?

-Just opened into there.

And we can keep the juice as well, if you like.

To make mayo, into the seaweed I'm adding two yolks,

a squeeze of wasabi and a splash of rice wine vinegar.

So this is that kind of Japanese influence.

So the idea of the wasabi and the rice wine vinegar follows it through.

If you can't get hold of gutweed,

you can always use nori seaweed, you know, the dried stuff.

-You buy those sheets.

-Yeah.

Into the whizzed-up seaweed mix, blend in 250ml of vegetable oil.

This is perfect because it's neutral in flavour

and doesn't overpower the taste of the amazing seaweed.

That looks great.

-Have a little try of that.

-Wow.

-I think that could do with a pinch, don't you?

-That's sensational.

You should come here more often, Tom.

-Love it.

-So shall we get these oysters frying?

Well, sticking it into the flour

-will allow the batter to stick nicely.

-OK.

-And that batter, what's...?

-It's a very simple batter.

It's just flour, warm milk and fresh yeast.

-I made it about an hour ago.

-So it's really active.

Really active, really bubbly.

Into the deep-fat fryer.

Let it kind of set so that it floats.

Because otherwise they'll stick to the bottom when you drop them in.

-That looks great.

-This is oysters for beginners, this.

-Yeah, yeah.

-So many people don't like them raw, do they, or fresh?

-No.

That's often the problem.

This way they can think of them as kind of like a seafoody chicken nugget.

So you're going to dip them in the mayonnaise?

Yeah, we'll dip them in the mayonnaise.

To finish, I'm seasoning with sea salt

and crushing over seaweed that Steve has dried himself.

-Little bit of that on the top.

-Yeah, lovely.

-Will be lovely, that, won't it?

-Yeah.

And who better to get the verdict from than some tourists from Belgium,

who have travelled all the way to visit Steve's pub?

Come on in, guys, come on in. Come on in, come on in.

-What are these?

-So these are Whitstable oysters from the area

-and then a mayonnaise made with seaweed.

-OK!

-Mmm!

-LAUGHTER

-So you need to stop them...

-Mm! It's very good.

-That's nice.

-It's good, isn't it?

-Very good.

Washed down with a glass of cold champagne,

absolutely perfect.

This is what celebrating is all about -

top-notch, lush ingredients, indulged in once in a while.

-Job well done, chief.

-Yeah. Cheers, Tom.

So next time I'm down on the beach, I know where your secret is.

This next recipe is perfect for spoiling a special someone in your life.

The preparation takes a little love and care

but when you taste the results you'll be pleased you made the effort.

The perfect partner for my Moroccan inspired monkfish

is an incredible-tasting puree that I've been making for years

using aubergines.

Now, this is quite a cool way to cook them.

This intense flavour you get from aubergine here is just amazing.

That burning process gives

a really nice kind of smoky flavour and edge

that goes all the way through the aubergine.

I remember when I was about 18 at catering college

and I'd come home and make things for my mum

and do like something with a garlic sauce.

I put so much garlic in it that I always remember my mum saying,

"Why does it taste so much of garlic?"

I didn't listen to my mum and I just want everything to taste exactly of what it is.

After about five to ten minutes, the skin will be nicely charred,

so transfer the aubergines to a hot oven for 40 minutes.

Once the aubergines are lovely and soft in the centre,

scoop out all of the flesh.

I'm going to chop the aubergine.

Now, it's really important to do this process with a knife

and not just stick it in a food processor,

like I'm sure you'll be tempted to do.

The problem with a food processor is it will emulsify the waters into the aubergine puree.

What I'm trying to do here is chop it nice and finely

but still give it enough space for the water to escape.

It's all about getting rid of that excess moisture.

It is worth doing.

You can already see that there's liquid beginning to drip out.

Now, this needs to sit in the fridge overnight

to give the water a good chance to escape.

I'm flavouring my puree and monkfish with cumin and coriander seeds.

Toasting these intensifies their flavour,

so it's well worth doing.

I like to roast them in the oven so they cook evenly.

And then every minute or two, give them a quick toss.

And in five minutes, they'll be beautiful and golden.

Then they're ready for a good grinding.

This is a spice grinder.

Now, you could so this in a mortar and pestle if you wanted.

Wow!

The smell that comes off that is amazing.

It's really fragrant of loads of toasted spice.

Cooking the spice mix out in olive oil releases even more flavour,

which the drained aubergine then absorbs.

Just as it's warming through, I'm going to pour in double cream.

You're looking for a really nice,

almost mashed-potato kind of texture and look to it.

So I've got spice, richness from the cream

and all it needs now is an acidic kick

from the juice and zest of one lemon and then a good season.

And a sneaky taste.

That's amazing.

And it's going to be even better with its partner in crime,

a beautiful piece of fish.

I like using monkfish.

It's got a wonderful, meaty texture to it,

so it's all right, blokes - pretend it's a steak.

I'm going to cook it in a frying pan

and treat it exactly like it was a fillet steak.

Dust each piece of fish

in that fantastic leftover ground cumin and coriander.

This spice mix actually isn't hot.

It just adds a wonderful warmth and fragrance

that goes really well with a meaty piece of fish.

Now place the monkfish into a hot frying pan

with a little olive oil.

Another good trick to remember is don't overfill your pan.

If you have too many things in it, it causes steam

and it won't crisp up or colour nicely.

Big pan like this, plenty of room - nice.

When it's looking golden and crispy, add a knob of butter.

It actually cools the pan down and gently helps to cook the fish.

And then like any good steak, you need to give it a good basting.

A squeeze of lemon juice adds a bit of zing.

And in only six to eight minutes, this delicious bit of fish is cooked.

Whilst they're resting, I'm going to get on and make a nice salsa to go with it.

You can whip this salsa up in minutes.

All it takes is chopped salty olives, acidic capers...

and the lovely savoury flavour we're going to get from these bad boys -

salted anchovies.

Red chilli adds spice and heat

and chopped parsley gives a lovely clean herbiness to the salsa.

A good squeeze of lemon juice.

That's going to go so well with this fish.

The aubergine puree is nice and warm.

Rested monkfish.

That looks so beautiful.

A little twist of salt.

And then stick it on top of the aubergine.

The dressing.

To finish, a few celery leaves add a wonderful freshness.

And that, boys and girls, is how to treat your other half - and yourself - properly.

I am a massive lover of gin,

so I'm here in the Portobello Road here in West London

and I'm going to the Ginstitute to meet Jake,

who knows everything there is to know about gins.

Gin is an excellent ingredient to cook with.

I like to poach rhubarb and summer fruits in it.

But today, I'm looking for a bottle to use in a gin and tonic granita.

This place is amazing.

And hopefully, Jake can sort me out and teach me a few things.

So what is gin and how is it made?

In a nutshell, when you make gin, you start with a blank canvas of an alcohol

and then you take botanicals, which are plants -

something naturally occurring - a seed, a nut, a berry, a root -

and we soak those in the alcohol

and then re-distil it and then what comes out the end is London dry gin.

The most important ingredient that all gins must contain is juniper.

If you take one out and rub it between your fingers,

-you'll feel the oil coming off it.

-Yeah.

-And if you smell that oil on your fingers, that is the smell of gin.

-Yeah.

So juniper berries are crucial

but it's the other ingredients that make each brand and bottle of gin unique.

I can see you've got things like nutmeg or allspice or liquorice.

Yeah, you can distil anything you can get your hands on.

Jake makes a variety of gins,

so has a massive range of distillations,

which I'm dying to have a taste of.

You can try them and see the different levels of intensity.

Whoa! That is lush.

I think you're going to like this one.

-No way! That's Worcester sauce.

-That's exactly right.

Whoa!

Another flavour which might interest you - fennel.

That dried apple is brilliant.

-This is the tea.

-Oh, my God!

Yeah, it's like a cup of tea but like...

It's like the best cup of tea ever.

But I'm here to find a gin to use in my granita

and I think Jake's London dry will do the job.

What makes his special blend stand out is

a carefully chosen recipe of nine botanicals.

That is absolutely lovely, that.

You get that gin start and then you do get a big citrus hit.

This is going to be perfect for me to make a gin and tonic granita.

Now I've got my bottle, I'm going to show you how to create a show-stopping dessert.

If you've indulged in a rich meal

and all you want is something light but sophisticated at the same time,

this recipe is spot on.

I'm doing a granita, which is a little bit like a sorbet

but more like one of those brightly coloured, slushy ice drinks.

Traditionally, an Italian granita is flavoured with citrus fruits

like lemons and oranges

but mine will have a lush gin and tonic twist.

To begin, bring some caster sugar and water up to the boil.

This will give it a little bit of sweetness.

It is a dessert, after all.

Make sure the sugar dissolves.

Next, in with 500mls of tonic water.

This instantly cools it down and stops the cooking of the sugar.

And then I'm going to add the juice of a lemon.

Citrus and gin and tonic, they go so well together.

It's like a complete natural marriage. It's amazing.

And then the gin.

It almost smells gardeny, all those herbs and all those flowers.

But be warned - gin works as an antifreeze,

so if you put too much in, your granita won't set up.

175ml of gin will do the job

and now I want to add some tartness

and there's something properly British that does this perfectly.

The Bramley apple has a great acidity

and it works really well with gin and tonic.

I'm just going to use the coarse side of the grater.

Bramley apples - not just good for crumble.

Great for gin.

This has to be the easiest dessert.

I'm sure you've all made a gin and tonic before

and all I've done is boiled some water and sugar

and grated an apple.

The apples not only add bite to the granita

but they also give a fantastic texture.

Next, quite simply transfer the mix to a freezer container.

I'm going to pop this in the freezer now for a minimum of four hours,

ideally overnight.

I'm going to give it a quick stir halfway through.

To drizzle over my granita, I'm going to make a beautiful apple caramel.

Now, this is the simplest thing ever.

Apple juice into a pan and bring it up to the boil.

Then it just needs to simmer on a low heat to reduce

for about 40 minutes.

The apple juice has got such lovely natural sugars in

that they begin to caramelise

and that's why you get your apple caramel - that easy.

So my granita's been in the freezer for about three to four hours.

I'm just going to slowly start to break it up with your fork.

You can see it getting all slushy and lush.

It's like the best gin and tonic ever.

Breaking it up like this creates that all-important crystallised ice effect.

Now it can go back in the freezer until you're ready to serve it.

My apple caramel has now reduced down to a lovely golden-brown glaze

and to give it a rich edge, I'm whisking in a knob of butter.

Once it's cooled down, all that's left to do is serve.

A sprinkling of finely diced, sweet Braeburn apple

adds delicious contrast to the sharp Bramley.

And then, a nice drizzle of cooled apple caramel.

Now, that is an amazing way to book-end a meal -

start off with a gin and tonic and finish with one.

Next time, I'll be cooking up those classic pub dishes

you always hope to see on the menu.

The sound of that crackling's incredible.

From my version of the nation's favourite dish...

Come on, chaps. Come and grab some fish and chips.

..to a great British pud you'll always make room for.

Sticky toffee pudding and caramelised banana - amazing.

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