Episode 5 What to Eat Now

My name is Valentine Warner, chef by trade, greedy by nature.

I love food and I love eating it when it's absolutely at its best.

Wow.

For me, that means eating it when it's in season, so you get the best value and the best flavour.

This is an utterly delicious beetroot.

Tonight, I'll be showing you my favourite recipes for some of the very finest seasonal meats.

I'll be hunting for deer in Scotland... What a place!

..for a venison pie to die for,

making a sumptuous seasonal feast with delicious duck...

It's autumn wild duck. Duck, duck!

..and getting spicy with partridge, Moroccan-style.

-Mmm!

-SHE LAUGHS

I want to hang out with you more.

Autumn is the season when game, my very favourite meat, is one again back on the menu.

Duck, geese, pigeons, pheasants, partridge, snipe,

grouse, woodcock, rabbits, hares, deer...

Britain is teeming with truly delicious game,

and autumn is the time to tuck in!

As a nation, we're eating more game than ever,

but there's a very long way to go until it rivals chicken

on the nation's dinner tables.

Beautiful, velvet, rich, dark red deer.

At this time of year, it's fantastic value for money.

It's healthy, low in fat and it's widely available

in butchers and many supermarkets, so I urge you

to try this fantastic meat.

For me, game makes the ultimate autumn comfort food -

beautiful tender birds stuffed and roasted whole,

wonderful robust stews and hearty, steaming pies.

The partridge season is in full swing, so now is the time

to get your teeth stuck into these plump and juicy birds.

The partridge season started on the first of September and I make it

my mission to eat as many of these tasty birds as possible.

They're smaller than pheasants, but bigger than quails

so a whole partridge is the perfect size for one person.

But if you're greedy like me, have two!

-Morning. Have you got any fat partridges?

-I have, yes.

-Can I have four?

-Yup.

-It just says 'juicy' looking at it.

-It does, which it is.

It's succulent, like a really good free range chicken with just a bit more bite, but more flavour.

It's got something of the wild in it, something you can give to everyone. Children would like them.

It's a great introduction to game. Really great!

Traditionally, you cook partridge roasted with bread sauce

and game chips, but there's a lot more that can be done with them.

My street in London has a big Moroccan community, so to inspire me for my partridge dish,

I've come to one of my local restaurants where they use spices

to bring out the best flavours in meat.

-As-Salam Alaykum.

-Alaykum As-Salam. How are you?

-Very well, good, good.

-Please welcome.

-..Hello, Drusia.

In Morocco, small birds are a real delicacy.

Drusia is showing me her favourite recipe for Pusan,

and I'm hoping to pick up some tips for my partridge.

Green olives and preserved lemon, and this is the tagine?

-Yeah.

-Keep out the way!

This is garlic and coriander.

Garlic and coriander, chopped up very, very, very small.

Drusia works fast and expertly adding turmeric, ginger and black

pepper, a special Moroccan butter called Smen... It smells amazing.

..and olive oil, water and finely chopped onions.

-So then, a good mix.

-Yeah.

Mmm, it smells really wonderful.

So, these are preserved lemons which have been packed in salt

and left. And erm...

they have a really delicious taste.

This is the kind of cooking I really like.

Everything in the pot together and then leave it to its own devices.

On with the roof.

The tagine then cooks on top of the stove for around an hour, plenty of time for a cup of sweet mint tea.

'And then it's ready.' Wowee!

That just smells amazing, there's this meltingly delicious turmeric- stained chicken and coriander.

It's a joy to get a whiff of this, it really, really is.

I think the Pusan replaced with partridges would do very well.

-That smells fantastic.

-Thank you, thank you very much.

It would just be churlish not to...have a go.

-MMMMM!

-SHE GIGGLES

-Nice?!

-It's more than nice, it's excellent!

I want to hang out with you more!

Drusia's use of punchy, aromatic spices has inspired me.

I've decided to cook my partridge with ras al hanout, a heady Moroccan spice mix.

You can buy ras al hanout ready made, but for me,

there's nothing more satisfying than doing it yourself, so I'm heading back to my flat to get grinding.

Ras al hanout translates as top drawer, or top notch,

so this is a super special mix.

Every recipe for ras al hanout is different.

Some are reputed to have as many as 60 different ingredients,

but the common version must include a combination of cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, coriander and pepper.

To my version, I'm adding some rose petals, saffron and cayenne.

This is obviously a coffee grinder

that is very good for grinding up the spices.

I like doing things the old way, but you can also buy

automated spice grinders which make life easier.

I like to work for my ras al hanout!

Let's see what's going on here.

It smells amazing - rosy and nuts and chocolates.

Fantastic!

Partridges are really one of my favourite all-time autumn meats.

Delicious, plump, fantastic and tasty.

Combined with the ras al hanout,

it really makes for a tremendously good dish.

So, one heaped tea spoon per bird of the ras al hanout.

Twist them around.

Look how happy they look - they're having a great time...

like children in a sandpit. Take one good, hard, red onion

and chop it really, really small.

Big fat chunks won't do, point being that as the partridge cooks -

which is not for too long - by the time it's all ready

the onion is cooked through and soft.

One, good, fat clove of garlic chopped...

..into virtual non existence. That's quite enough chopping for one day!

Now, the rest...is just dead simple.

This is the tagine. It's commonly mistaken that the tagine is the name of the food.

It's not - it's actually the name of the dish. Take your onion and garlic

and scatter it over the bottom.

Now, a big, generous handful...

of... Mmm! ..golden sultanas.

Yum! Now, this is ghee, used a lot in Indian cookery

and is widely available in a lot of shops across the UK.

It's butter with attitude.

And now, our little fat partridges are going to come and rest.

Pretty snug I'd say! Gather up the rest of your mix.

This is good stuff, you've taken care of it, don't throw it away.

Use it, this is gold dust!

A bit more ghee...

on each one just to kind of...

lubricate...the birds.

Then, some honey.

Many good things in here, one after another.

Now, don't be tight with the salt. You need a lot of salt to really bring the flavours out here.

And finally...

add a bit of water. There should be a wonderful sauce at the bottom, and that needs a little help.

I live on a Moroccan street in London and eat a lot of Moroccan

food, and the locals tell me that the ras al hanout is a good thing

to bring out of the cupboard when the weather is getting cold because it really warms you.

I'm now going to put the lid on. The tagine is a very good thing

to cook with because the ceramic is thick and it retains a lot of heat.

Fantastic slow cooking, keeping the heat in.

It's a wonderful thing to use. In it goes.

It takes 40 minutes on a medium heat.

Finally, add some hard boiled eggs to garnish,

heat through then whisk out the oven.

Wowee, look at those lovely fat birds!

Oh, the smell coming off here is so utterly delicious.

Perfectly, perfectly cooked.

It really is an extraordinary taste.

Partridge with ras al hanout couldn't be better for a cold autumn day.

For another tasty take on partridge, try it griddled.

It's a recipe that I make time and time again because it's a perfect, "just in from work" supper -

super simple, quick and delicious.

First prepare your partridge for the pan.

Cut the bird lengthways along the backbone,

open it out and then with all your weight, push down to flatten it.

Squashed flat the partridge will cook quickly and evenly when it's griddled or fried.

Add a gurgle of olive oil,

sprinkle with salt

and cook on a hot griddle pan.

While the partridge cooks, make the punchy Romesco sauce.

Slice a couple of red peppers and put on a baking tray.

Add a handful of roughly chopped tomatoes...

..then split a whole head of garlic in two and throw half on the tray.

Drizzle with olive oil...

sprinkle with salt

and roast in a very hot oven.

When they're wonderfully charred on the outside, remove from the oven.

Once cooled, skin the peppers and tomatoes and add to the blender.

Squeeze in the wonderfully gooey roasted garlic

and for a deliciously nutty taste,

add a good handful of lightly toasted flaked almonds.

Add a teaspoon of rich sherry vinegar

and a generous sprinkling of wonderful, heady sweet, smoked paprika.

Tear in some hunks of stale bread and blend,

slowly dribbling in the olive oil

until the sauce has a rich, velvety consistency.

Once the partridge is deliciously charred and crispy, remove from the pan.

Spoon out a big dollop of Romesco sauce,

add the partridge, sprinkle with toasted almonds and tuck in!

For me, one of the greatest autumn treats is venison.

I've come to Jura in the western isles of Scotland to get some of the best.

Venison, the dark red succulent meat we get from deer, is a delicious alternative to beef

that has all the flavour but a tenth of the fat.

These days, you can get it in many butchers and supermarkets.

That's an exciting piece of meat.

There are six types of wild deer in Britain.

My favourite are red deer, and autumn is the best time to eat them

because they are at their physical peak after a summer of grazing.

Scotland is home to the largest number of red deer in the UK. Morning, Andrew.

-Morning, Val.

-How are you?

And Jura, an island where people are outnumbered by deer 30 to one,

is a spectacular place to hunt them.

I'm heading up the glen with Ewan MacInnes who has been working

on the estate for 19 years and knows the 20,000 acres like the back of his hand.

OK, Val, that's us.

Get ourselves a rifle.

You just go up there and have a lovely day up there. Best of luck!

Scotland's stag hunting or stalking season runs from July to October.

-Best of luck, Val.

-Thanks.

Val, so if we just do single file...

In autumn, stags are feeding on the high ground.

To have a chance of shooting up here we're going to have to keep a very

low profile, out of sight, smell and sound of these wary animals.

But it's hard to stay silent in the face of these spectacular views.

Wow!

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-It's an extraordinary view.

What a place!

Finally after two hours of hard climbing, we catch sight of some antlers.

We found a young stag grazing on the other side,

and he's totally oblivious of our whereabouts so we're going to stalk

this deer and go back around and try and take him from higher ground.

There he is. 'Closing in on our prey,

'Ewan and I circle round to get the stag in range of our rifle.'

This one, he's just here.

I get the stag in my sights, but something is not right.

I'm very uncomfortable - I didn't want to take it.

Well, better not to.

The last stag, we got right up to and had it in sight of the rifle.

But it was alert to the fact we were there and it just started moving as I was going to pull the

trigger and that's a shot you should never, ever take, possibly resulting

in an injury which I didn't want to do, so I left that one.

After another two hours, we spot some more stags on the hillside ahead.

A huge stag steps towards us...

..but something spooks him and he vanishes.

We were playing such a quiet game, but they just walked on top of us.

We can try and crawl just up onto the edge here.

Six hours after we started hunting, we crawl to the crest of the hill

and there before us is the perfect stag for the larder.

Oh, my God, I can see him.

He's looking at us now.

You see the one on the right?

Finally, I've got the chance of a clear shot.

-Good shot.

-'It's a clean kill.'

Well done.

OK, we've done it.

Our deer has fallen on the other side of the hill, our stag.

I'm very pleased in the knowledge that

the bullet could not have gone in at a better place

and this animal died incredibly quickly.

You've got to make the effort to kill animals as cleanly as possible,

and that's what we've done today.

You're going to feel in there and find the spleen.

We gut the stag on the mountainside

before Andrew comes to collect us and our quarry.

-Good shooting, well done.

-Thank you.

-Bit more to do to it yet, though!

My stag needs to be hung for at least a week before it's ready to eat,

but I've got some which is ready to cook so, with Ewan's help,

I'm going to make supper for Andrew and his wife.

-This is what it's all about.

-This is it.

The fantastic Jura venison.

We're going to have a big...deep... delicious venison pie.

To start off my pie, I'm going to chop up some locally grown onions and carrots.

It's very nice having these mad carrots!

-I'm going to use a good old-fashioned bit of dripping.

-Good.

First, put a good knob of beef dripping or butter in a hot pan,

then add the onion and fry until soft.

Do you want to put a spoonful of mustard powder in there?

-While you're at it, stick a couple of teaspoons of plain flour in there.

-OK.

Great.

Add a generous grating of nutmeg,

some thyme and black pepper.

Strangely, the odd bit is two ginger biscuits.

-Yeah, I've never seen this before.

-Yeah, it's kind of the Sweden and Denmark way of doing it.

It also helps thicken up the sauce as well.

A good splash of malt vinegar.

I'm going to add all our carrots.

It might seem a bit unusual not browning the meat,

but occasionally with venison it can really clench up and you don't want that.

So this will be kind of relaxing, hopefully.

And now for some good dark ale.

It is proper dark ale.

And last but not least, a good spoonful or two of brown sugar.

And that's going to go in the oven, and have a nice hour and a half.

An hour and a half? That will be time for some of this home-made sloe gin.

Yeah, good idea, actually!

After a glass or three of Ewan's sloe gin,

it's time to check on our venison.

-I think our pie filling will be done.

-Good, good.

A good bit of salt now.

I'm ladling this out

into a pie dish,

then topping with puff pastry.

I think I'm going to give you a bit of pastry now.

-We're going to decorate the pie.

-Good.

That is a masterpiece.

Masterpiece of what, though?

Oh, look at him.

-Just majestic.

-It's kind of cute, really.

-Bit sad.

-ANDREW LAUGHS

I'm going to put this in the oven.

After 40 minutes, the pie will be a rich hazelnut brown and ready for the table.

Thank you very much.

-There's local brown ale.

-There's the carrots and onions out of my garden.

Good wholesome autumn pie.

-That's very nice, Val.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-The meat is really tender.

-It's very tender. The venison.

These are much chunkier bits than normal, but they are very tender.

Your idea of putting the meat in raw into the pie, it really works. It makes it much more tender.

Well, thank you very much.

And this is your amazing...

Jura, happy...

-happy mountain seaside venison.

-Yeah!

Venison is a wonderfully versatile meat,

fantastic in stews in pies, brilliant roasted or simply grilled.

It also makes one of the best snacks ever!

First, make a spicy tomato sauce.

Add olive oil to a hot pan,

finely dice a red chilli and fry.

Add some chopped tomatoes...

..a good squeeze of lemon juice,

a pinch of salt,

a teaspoon of sugar,

pop in a stick of aromatic cinnamon

and a sprinkling of punchy ground cumin.

Now leave the sauce to bubble away while you get on with the rest of the recipe.

Cut a piece of venison fillet into small chunks,

season with salt and pepper,

coat with a dash of olive oil

and fry in a hot pan.

Put the succulent browned venison on warmed flat bread,

finely slice some crisp white cabbage...

..cut a gherkin into thin slices

then pile on thin slivers of red onion.

Next, spoon over the spicy tomato sauce.

For extra yumminess, chop a clove of garlic, stir into some mayonnaise and dollop on.

Finally top with a couple of sprigs of mint.

You're now ready to roll up this wonderful parcel of deliciousness and tuck in.

The best kebab ever.

Right now, it's the perfect time to tuck into one of my favourite game birds, duck.

They've spent the summer months fattening up on fresh grain

and lush vegetation so they're in prime condition and ready for the pot.

Delicious wild mallard, one of my favourite things to eat.

I'm just going to take the breasts off the duck.

I'm cooking the mallard, one of the biggest and tastiest

breeds of wild duck, with Puy lentils and chanterelle mushrooms.

Just knowing what I'm moving towards is making me feel hungry.

The meat just smells rich from here.

It's a wonderful dark colour, just showing varied diet

and look - one delicious-looking wild duck breast.

Now this you really don't want to throw away.

The carcass makes absolutely delicious stock when you've been for a walk in the wet woods

or out in a cold country path in the middle of autumn.

Come back and a big mug of duck stock with lentils bumping around in the bottom - heaven!

Now that is delicious. Doesn't that look tasty?

I'm just going to score the breast and this will help it crisp up.

Fried duck breasts make a fantastic quick supper

and you can buy them ready-prepared in butchers and most supermarkets.

On with the rest of the dish, I've got some lentils here, fantastic Puy lentils,

great with fish and especially with game and even more so duck.

In the pan

with one big fat shiny bay leaf.

On the heat to cook until tender and a little bit biting,

not undercooked in the middle but they should have a little bite.

Now, one...fat stick of celery,

one shallot,

and then some good carrots.

I want everything chopped up nice and small in this,

teeny tiny.

And then one good fat clove of garlic.

Again, like everything else in this, I want it nice and small.

And now we get onto the meats.

Four good rashers of bacon, sliced into

nice little match-stick pieces.

A tiny splash of olive oil just to get the bacon going.

Don't swamp it in there, separate it out and try not to cook the bacon in whopping great clumps.

You feel you're getting somewhere straight away the minute you start smelling fantastic sizzling bacon.

This is the time to add the vegetables, yum.

That's very pretty, look at all those fantastic colours in there.

In some circumstances, I'd want to fry the mushrooms very hard

but today I just want them to kind of give up

and wilt a little bit.

Put the chanterelle mushrooms in with the vegetables.

A tiny little bit of oil

and a good amount of salt on the skin. I want

the frying pan incredibly hot so the skin starts sizzling straight away.

The lentils can go back in their pan,

and everything should be mixed.

A last slug of olive oil and...

a dash of red wine vinegar. This is so earthy, it's really OF the ground.

The duck is going to go so well with it. I'm just going to turn

the breasts. Look at the skin.

These ducks just smell absolutely delicious.

Look how pretty that is, that's a happy thing to look upon.

Makes me feel calm strangely, I don't know why.

The duck breasts I'm just going to sit here briefly.

Slicing it on an angle, nice and thinly.

That is going to be a very delicious thing and I can't wait to try it.

So fantastic lentils,

earthy mushrooms, carrots, celery.

It's really of the ground and the duck has flown down and ended up resting on top of it.

It's had a life, and you can taste it.

Wild duck, again and again and again, is something I want to sit down to.

This Sunday lunch, forget chicken and go for a whole roast duck.

It's quick, easy and utterly delicious.

I promise you will love it.

Chop a handful of succulent prunes and soak in brandy.

Then finely shred a crisp red cabbage.

Add vegetable oil and butter to the pan,

and then throw in the shredded cabbage and fry.

Add some whole cloves, a couple of bay leaves

and season well.

When the cabbage is starting to soften, add a glug of red wine vinegar.

Sprinkle in some sugar.

Next, add your drunken, brandy-soaked prunes.

Now it's time to get stuffing!

Finally, rub the bird all over with butter and season.

Then roast in a hot oven for around 25 minutes.

When the bird has turned a sizzling dark golden brown, whisk it out of the oven.

Scoop out the sweet, steaming cabbage stuffing and carve.

'Super-fast, super-succulent and super-delicious.'

Wow.

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