Episode 6 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.'

Yum! 'Having grown up in the country, I've learned

'that eating things in season means you get them at their tastiest.'

Wow!

Here we go! First of the season! Tonight, I'll be taking you

on my definitive guide to seasonal fish and shellfish.

'Being dumbstruck by the first British native oysters of autumn.'

Mmm! So good!

Going exotic with some of the best mussels in the country.

Thanks very much, really delicious.

I don't like it! 'And throwing some reluctant fish eaters'

in at the deep end to catch delicious autumn mackerel.

'When it comes to fish fresh from the sea, autumn is a time of great abundance.'

UK fishermen are now really busy.

So look for the luxurious succulent sea bass, sweet clams, and the tasty

but economical grey mullet, gurnard

and sprat, to bring joy to your table without breaking the bank.

Can I have half a kilo of mussels, please?

'But there are few seasonal seafood catches that excite me more

'than the thought of sweet, plump mussels.

'They're incredibly versatile, enjoyed in salads, fish stews

'and soups, and now readily available

'in fishmongers and supermarkets in their absolute autumn prime.'

Britain is surrounded by millions upon millions

of delicious mussels, they cling to every part of our rocky shores.

But some of the best come from here.

Lindisfarne, known locally as Holy Island, nestles tightly

to the Northumbrian coast.

This national nature reserve is a haven for wildlife,

and a hot spot for mussels.

Which is why I'm out of bed so early this morning.

Twice a day, Lindisfarne is completely cut off

from the mainland,

when this half-mile long tidal causeway is swamped by sea water.

This is the nincompoop hut, for those who get caught short.

Any city slickers, know-it-alls, who fail to read the tidal chart,

who then have to take refuge in this little box.

But right now, the tide's out, and the Lindisfarne mussels are calling.

You're the only man on the pier, you must be Steve.

That's right, you're Val. Yeah, I'm Val.

Pleased to meet you, Val. Pleased to meet you, too.

We've got to get a bit of a move on, I'm afraid, the tide is ebbing fast. Let's go.

'Steve is unique in these parts,

'he is the only fishermen licensed to harvest Lindisfarne's celebrated mussels.'

From the island, it's just a short boat trip to the mussel beds

on the other side of the bay.

What an amazing place to go to work every morning. It's great, yeah.

It's a far cry from me having to get on to the Tube.

I have my worries and problems like anybody else, but there's nothing like coming out here to sort 'em out.

It gets blown away across the sea.

In one ear and straight out.

Steve's day at the office is entirely dictated by nature.

On big tides, he gets four hours to pick,

but today is a low tide,

and the mussel beds will only be uncovered for two hours, so we're going to have to work fast.

We're looking for the biggest ones. Yeah. We'll have that one.

These really are huge.

'Steve collects just eight buckets of mussels a day.

'By hand-picking only a small selection of the largest specimens

'in each area, he keeps his mussel bed population in tip-top condition.'

This is the mantle where we'll find the bulk of the eating quality of the meat.

As you can see here, we've got a really good thickness on it.

Mussels are best eaten between September and April.

As the sea warms in late spring,

they begin to breed, which leaves them scrawny and not good eating.

'But right now, they're at their plumpest and tastiest.'

Wow! Good? Mmm.

These taste of the essence of Holy Island.

As filter feeders, mussels strain up to five gallons of water a day.

Whether you're eating them raw or cooked, it's vital you pick them

from unpolluted water, away from river mouths and sewage outlets.

I have to say that when I heard

that Steve only picked eight buckets a day,

erm, I didn't think it was that many.

I've picked one bucket and realised I've got incredibly girly hands and,

erm, and I'm not very good at it.

It's properly wild and gnarly and hard work.

But it's worth it. Look at the size of this thing.

Undisputably fat and delicious-looking.

The most amazing mussels I've ever seen.

The wind is whipping up and the tide is coming in fast.

Soon, Holy Island's mussel beds

will be completely covered by the sea for another day.

Time to get our precious cargo back to Steve's kitchen.

I can't wait to get cooking.

Shall I do the bearding, you do the scraping?

Sounds good. 'Once on dry land, it's straight down to work cleaning the mussels.

'Fishmongers and supermarkets will already have done

'most of the hard graft. All that's left to do is de-beard them.

'For half of our haul, I'm planning something a little exotic,

'but straight-talking northerner Steve is choosing to cook his half

'just how he's always eaten them - plain and uncomplicated.'

I'm just doing a very simple recipe, the way my mum used to make them,

and it's just mussels in a white sauce.

We're quite literally hands across the ocean today,

I'm making empenada mariscos, as it's called in Spanish.

Roughly translated as a mussel pasty.

Steve's recipe is simplicity itself.

As his mussels are steaming open,

he makes a white sauce by frying flour in butter

and then whisking in milk until he gets a smooth, silky consistency.

The mussels are then strained and picked from their shells.

Wow! Get that down your neck.

Pass the test?

No wonder everybody wants those.

I know. My God! That's delicious.

Along with chopped parsley, the mussels go into the sauce,

and that's it, finished.

Ready to go on toast.

I hate to be an inverted snob, but it's so simple to do as well! Yeah!

Some things take time, some don't. We're covering all bases today.

Having cooked my mussels with onion,

cumin and garlic, they're picked from their shells.

To the remaining delicious mussel juices,

I'm adding a pinch of saffron.

These I'm going to chop up.

Chop up?!

Ha-ha-ha-ha! What's going on?

You've done your thing, I haven't interfered. No, you haven't.

We don't all eat mussels your way.

I don't get out enough, that's the problem.

Then I'm going to add...

Extremely interesting. An egg?!

..one hard-boiled... Hard-boiled egg! Well... ..grated egg.

You look totally horrified. I'm not horrified, my curiosity's aroused.

Egg-yolk, chopped parsley and the reduced cooking liquor goes into

the mussel mixture.

It's then spooned into a circle of pastry.

This is like watching my sort of babies go off

on a round-the-world trip.

'Steve's babies are sealed in the pastry case,

'ready to be deep fried in hot oil.

'Once crisp and golden, my empanadas are ready to go head-to-head

'against Steve's mussels on toast.' Wowee!

That just does look incredibly delicious. White pepper.

More appropriate than black pepper?

Absolutely. Yeah. It's good working-class fare.

You don't hold back on the pepper, do you? A squeeze of lemon?

If you want it, but I'd say a good bash of Tabasco.

OK.

Mmm.

Delicious.

Yeah. Really yummy.

You get all the other stuff going on first, and then the mussels

come through, and then the Tabasco!

Mmm...

Yeah, it's lovely. You like that, yeah? Absolutely love it.

Mummy's recipe's OK? Simple, amazing, I love it.

We've blown each other's trumpets, that's really delicious.

That's exciting. This is comforting.

They're both good.

For the perfect super-fast Saturday night TV dinner,

try this recipe for curried mussels with lager.

Finely chop two shallots, then fry in butter with a couple

of bay leaves until soft.

Next, add a sprinkling of curry powder.

Throw in your mussels,

and pour in a bottle of light lager.

Then slam on the lid and cook until the mussels have steamed open.

Spoon them in a dish, discarding the mussels that haven't opened,

and set aside.

Reduce the wonderfully aromatic cooking liquor,

season with salt and pepper.

Then for extra richness, whisk in a big knob of butter.

And simply pour over the mussels.

Finely chop some lovage, my favourite autumn herb,

but if you can't find it, celery leaves work well, too.

Then breathe in the delicious aroma and dive in.

Mmm.

If I were told I could only eat one fish for the rest of my life,

the beautiful blue-green mouth-watering mackerel

would win hands down.

Could I have three of those mackerel, please?

'And what's great, they're fantastic value, readily available

'and really easy to cook.'

Today I'm off to north Cornwall to catch some mackerel

at their autumnal best.

Cornish waters are some of the richest in the country.

They're teeming with fish and holidaymakers.

As surf life-savers here at Portreath beach,

Katie, Emily and Shannie train hard five days a week.

They need to keep super-fit and eat well to stay in tip-top lives saving condition.

Hi. Hello. I'm Valentine. Pleased to meet you.

Who are you? Katie. Katie.

Emily. Shannie.

'These three are self-confessed fish-phobes

'and I'm keen to turn them on to one of the healthiest and cheapest ingredients

'that's swimming all round them - my beloved mackerel.'

I don't eat fish. You don't eat fish?

At all? No.

They're slimy, they've got eyeballs. You've got eyeballs.

I know, but I don't like scales and bones. They smell.

So they're slimy and they smell?

I don't like the brown bits, you know the brown, squidgy bit on the bottom?

'I can see I've got my work cut out.

'But my love of mackerel is so deep, I'm confident I can convert these mackerel heathens.'

I hope you're gonna enjoy mackerel as much as I do.

It's tasty stuff.

'You can fish for mackerel practically anywhere

'but the surefire way to guarantee success

'is to head to deeper waters and chuck a line off a boat.'

The first time I ever went was with my dad and I was seven.

We caught so many mackerel in half-an-hour.

I think that's what got me into fishing for the rest of my life,

the importance of catching something on your first trip.

Once we've left the protection of the harbour, the sea gets choppy.

These conditions may prove challenging for novices.

But autumn is a great time to be catching mackerel.

Having spent the summer spawning, they're now hunting in huge shoals,

gorging on whitebait, sprats and fry, before heading to deeper waters

over winter.

You'll definitely know when you've got a mackerel,

you'll feel bump, bump, bump, bump.

Then just wind it all up.

Right, you ready to fish? Yep.

How's it going now, Shannie?

OK.

With a bit of luck this will be the start

of a beautiful fishy love affair.

Have you given up?

I haven't given up, I just ...

Do some work! I am!

I was worried when I saw those pink painted nails

this morning I thought, "Ooh..."

I tell you what, it's actually quite hard work.

Hard work? Harder than saving lives?

Got one! Hooray! Get it into the boat.

Your first mackerel.

Bring it down onto the floor. Grip it firmly

and then take these hooks out. Ugh!

I don't like it!

Do you want to kill it? No!

Right, we don't want to just chuck the mackerel in the box and let it

quiver and flip to death, so you want to kill it quickly.

Put your finger in its mouth, thumb on the back and just break its neck.

What am I gonna do with my hand? I have mackerel jollop on my hand.

Wipe it on my jacket. Thanks.

Oh, come on!

We've got more mackerel now.

'At this time of year,

'mackerel are widely available to buy and brilliant value.

'But make sure they're bright eyed and super fresh, just like these.'

They're very pretty. They're not, they're bloody minging!

'If their iridescent green has dulled to grey,

'mackerel are past their best and you should leave well alone.'

Congratulations. Here, a slimy mackerel handshake. Ugh!

Oh, my God! I got one. Oh my God!

Come on.

Ahh! Kill it, kill it!

That's gross!

Are you having a bit of a moment?

Yeah.

Suddenly it's all falling apart on HMS Hysteria.

'In less than an hour, despite rumblings of mutiny

'and sea sickness, we've managed to catch 12 glorious mackerel.'

I'm about to throw up.

OK. Girls, you're gonna be very happy to know that

I say that we've got enough. Good. We're going in.

Well, I'd say that was a success. You've all caught mackerel.

It's brilliant.

'The girls have proved they can catch fish,

'the challenge now is to get them to eat it.

'By teatime the sun's decided to put his hat on.'

After that exhausting time out at sea we're gonna recuperate with some mackerel on toast.

This is very, very easy to cook and very, very delicious,

but, of course, first we need to gut and fillet our mackerel.

So is everyone gonna do one?

No! I can do it with gloves. Gloves aren't included.

Put the tip of the knife in, all the way up, right up under the chin.

If you buy your mackerel in fishmongers

they will do the dirty work for you.

It's only fish. I know, but it's got...

OK, stage two, we need to fillet our mackerel.

Tip of the knife in here, cut to the back of the head,

turn it round.

Hand flat on here. Exactly.

I wasted a little bit. That's great.

First go - that's fantastic. Look at that bad boy!

'With the mackerel sorted, Emily's thinly slicing a peeled cucumber,

'throwing on a large handful of salt and giving it a good mix.'

What the salt will do is pull the water out of the cucumbers.

They change their consistency, so they're not quite so watery,

they're crunchy and delicious.

What is that thing? This is a horse radish.

I thought horseradish comes in jars. Horseradish does come in jars

but before it goes into jars it gets pulled out of the ground.

'With the grated horseradish we're going to make a fresh, pokey sauce.'

Cor! Yes.

'Mixing it in with creme fraiche and English mustard powder.'

Mmm. Delicious.

'After a quick rinse we're wringing out the cucumber

'to remove as much moisture as possible.

'Then it's mackerel time.

'We're seasoning the fillets generously before frying them

'in sizzling butter.'

We want a really good, hot pan so that

when the mackerel fillets go in they start cooking straight away.

You see them arching up?

We want the skin to be crispy so we need to press them down again.

That's keeping them nice and flat to the pan.

Do you wanna butter the toasts?

Lots of butter? Yeah, lots of butter.

'The buttery toast is covered with a generous amount of salted cucumber.'

And look at that. Nice mackerel fillet on each one.

Oh, it looks nice.

'It's topped off with a good dollop of the horseradish sauce,

'a few slices of red onion and a wedge of lemon.

'Mackerel on toast with salted cucumber and horseradish.

'Rich, oily, delicious and great value for money.'

Cheers.

'But will my mackerel on toast win over the girls?'

Are you ready to dive in?

How is it, guys? Lovely. Really?

I will be fishing for mackerel again.

Emily, really? Yeah, I'm eating it.

Great. Shannie? It's OK.

Do you know, OK from you is as good as great from them.

I have to say that Portreath mackerel is the best I've ever tasted.

If it gets any fresher you have to spank it.

Good stuff, guys, you've made a hungry man happy.

Here's another great recipe for inexpensive Omega 3-packed mackerel.

To make a fantastic pate that's big on creamy flavour

but small on effort,

take two mackerel, cut off their heads and tails

and fry in sizzlingly hot butter.

When the fish are cooked remove from the pan and flake off the flesh.

Add the flaked fish to a blender,

put in a hefty dollop of Dijon mustard, a teaspoon of celery salt,

a big blast of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

Finally add some chunks of butter and whizz.

Spoon out the creamy pate and

of extra texture add some flaked mackerel.

Then tuck in.

Mmm.

If you've eaten oysters the chances are they're Rock or Pacifics.

Elongated and gnarled, these imports are farmed and harvested here

throughout the year and are great value for money.

But today, I've come to Falmouth in Cornwall to experience the ultimate

seasonal treat. The British native.

Oysters are definitely one of my autumn favourites. And the oysters

from the River Fal are reputed to be the best in the country.

The trouble is they have to be collected by sail power,

and this makes it a very hard job.

The 1st October marks the start of the River Fal's

six-month oyster season.

And I'm very excited to be so meeting Marshall and Les,

skippers of the beautiful Three Sisters oyster dredger.

All right, Les. Ahoy there.

Marshall, morning. Hello!

We're all ready to go, now Ready to go? Yeah.

Where do you want me? Not there! Not on the end of the boom!

'Traditional oyster sailing boats

'have been part of the Falmouth landscape for more than 500 years.

'This is proper old-fashioned fishing, no GPS or sonar.

'The only way to find oysters is by trial and error.'

Marshall's gonna put us on a hot spot.

'But with 80 years combined experience,

'these boys clearly know what they're doing.'

Here we go. First for the season!

Here we go. Whoa.

The rope goes slack when it touches the bottom.

Then they'll be pulling along the bottom?

They will gradually drift down across the seabed.

The engine's being switched off

because you are not allowed to use it when you're dredging for oysters.

Why is that? Preservation. It keeps the stocks better.

If you went round with the engine you'd catch everything right away.

You'd only have a months fishing instead of six.

Here we go, second for the season.

'With the lightweight dredgers launched, the Three Sisters sails

'a graceful course across the estuary, dragging them behind.'

Right, I'll pull one up first.

'After three or four minutes it's time to find out

'if the dredgers have hit oyster gold.'

I think it's full of weed.

Marshall put us right on the weed.

This is your hotspot, eh, Marshall?

'Seaweed is the oyster fishermen's biggest enemy.

'It clogs up the dredgers blade

'allowing the oysters to roll underneath.'

A lot of weed to start the season. I don't know what that is.

'Now we have to sort through it all to see if we've unearthed anything worth keeping.'

Velvet swimmer, sea slug.

There's a lot of activity going on under this boat.

Oyster. Look at that, Fal River native oyster.

What a little beauty.

It's what we call a ringer.

He's just large enough to keep.

That's how we check. I do it by eye cos I've done it so long.

That one will hang. If it hangs in the ring you can keep it.

That's without your finger underneath it, mind.

'Smaller oysters are thrown back in to mature, spawn and perpetuate

'the future native oyster stocks.

'Anything ring size or over is fit for keeps.'

There you are, try pulling that one up.

This is easy!

It's not bad the first two or three.

It's when you've been there six hours doing it.

Flipping Nora! You end up with arms like an orang-utan.

Anybody fancy a...? I fancy one.

'Oysters aren't the only seafood we are catching.

'Marshall's uncovered a prawn.'

Marshall will eat anything.

Well, Marshall's quite right, this is a good glass prawn.

A little peel. This is good stuff.

They taste exactly the same as cooked.

Mmm. Beautiful. Raw. For all this kinda hard work it's quite nice

to get these perpetual little snacks coming overboard.

Sorry, I haven't been doing much work.

There's a lot of oysters here.

A hot spot here now. Here you are, Valentine.

Those are definitely number ones. That's the top grade you can get.

Look at those guys. They're about four years old.

How do you rate the Fal native against all the other oysters?

The best in the world. They're much sweeter.

Do you think they make you a better lover, Marshall?

Well, I've got twin boys at the first shot.

I stopped doing it after that.

Les, what do they do for your performance?

I've never even an oyster in my life.

Les has just made a very large admission on the Three Sisters.

Is that he's never eaten an oyster in his life.

'Oysters aren't everybody's cup of tea, but I find it difficult

'to believe Les has been exposed to so many delicious Fal natives

'and hasn't been able to stomach a single one.

'I, on the other hand, am finding them increasingly hard to resist.'

Can I try one? Oyster? I so want to try one.

I've been holding back all morning. All right.

One of the best.

River Fal oyster, standing on the Three Sisters boat.

I can't... I just can't describe how good that is.

You do feel... Mmm.

It's phenomenal.

Straightaway you get that... Grrr!

That minerally...mmm....thing.

Can I have another one? Why not?

Mmmm.

So good!

I'll shut up, stop eating and get on with it.

Eating all profits.

'After a day on the estuary we head back to shore with over 1,200

'of possibly the most fantastic oysters I'll ever taste in my life.'

There are so many delicious ways to guzzle these things.

I love them raw, but here's a couple of ways of jazzing them up.

First, a Mexican-style tomato salsa.

Finely chop a tomato, shallot and hot green chilli.

A squeeze of orange and lime and a small handful of chopped coriander.

OK.

That was one, here's two.

Finely chop segments of lemon...

Add celery, baby capers and a little salt and olive oil.

Everything chopped in both of these things like little tiny jewels.

Those are two very good accompaniments

for these fantastic oysters.

Guys. All right there. Are you ready to try some oysters?

No, I'm not trying them. I don't eat oysters. Come on!

I'm a non fish eater.

How can a salty seadog like you not eat oysters?

I'm a bacon and egg man. I'm the tester. You're the tester.

I'm going to try on a little pico degio. A little Mexican-style...

Marshall is a connoisseur.

He certainly is.

Just a little bit too much.

Too much? Fair enough.

I think oyster being raw is the way to eat them.

Look at that, you couldn't get any fresher, straight out the water.

That's beautiful, see. Right.

You don't really need that salsa. That's the way to eat them.

OK. I'm going to try you on something else now.

Something else for you to dislike.

Right, here we go. Round two in how not to please Marshall.

That's a little bit of celery

and a little bit of caper and a little bit of lemon.

That's better cos I managed to get the oyster

spread out and chew it up before I hit the...

Let's pretend I didn't make those. No, that was good.

Listen, it's fine. We're all entitled to our opinion.

If we had a pile that big we could do a speed eating contest.

Do you know something?

I think it's one of the few things I could maybe beat you. No.

I guarantee you'd be a non-starter. You could out eat me, yeah?

I know who I'd put money on, put it that way!

Guys, cheers. All the best. Well done.

Thanks for a great day. Thanks a lot.

Over the past six weeks I've munched through many of autumn's

culinary champions, embracing British produce at its seasonal best

and looking on home-grown goodies as transient treats to be savoured.

I'm really full now. They are, after all, the freshest,

tastiest and cheapest ingredients to be eaten right now.

Mmm.

It really is delicious.

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