17/02/2013 Countryfile

Gloucestershire - swathes of fertile farmland,

rolling lush pasture and my home county.

It's got a proud food heritage as farmers, myself and other local

producers spend our lives working the Gloucestershire land

purely to get food on plates.

Plenty of you will have sampled some of the delights

that this county has to offer, like single Gloucester cheese

or Gloucestershire Old Spot sausages

all washed down with a local brew.

There are lots of local producers with great food and drink

well worth shouting about and today,

I'm off to meet up with a few of them.

In this special edition of Countryfile,

we're taking bites from the archive in a gastronomic extravaganza

and later, I'll be rustling up a meal with my daughter, Ella,

made from locally produced food...

-It's working, it's working.

-Is it?

-Yeah. Do you want to try?

-No, I'll drop it.

'..all served up with generous portions of this lot -

'Matt and Ellie take on a culinary challenge.'

I would like to introduce you to the Yorkshire pudding adventure.

Please don't eat it all at once.

'Jules confronts his worst food fear...'

Keep chewing. Keep chewing.

'..and I meet my match in another fiery redhead - hot chilli sauce.'

SHE LAUGHS

My mission today is to cook tea with my 14-year-old daughter, Ella.

Now, I confess, I'm no Raymond Blanc, so just a simple pizza.

I'm not thinking of anything fancy, just a wholesome bread base,

some kind of cheese, some sauce and a few toppings,

but can I get everything I need without racking up the miles?

I'm going to try and get my main ingredients from within a 10 mile

radius of my farm in the heart of the Cotswolds.

And where better for a novice like me to start than at the bottom?

Well, the base, in this instance.

This is Stanway Mill, a restored Watermill

five miles away from my farm.

I need some flour for my pizza dough

and Mike Lovett is the man of the mill.

-Mike, hi.

-Hello, Adam. Welcome to Stanway Mill.

I only live just up the road and I know very little about this place.

-What's its history?

-It's a well-kept secret.

It's probably 1,000 years old and in 2002,

Lord Wemyss, who owns the estate and the mill,

decided he'd like to restore it and we spent 10 years

bringing it back to being a corn mill.

The millstones at the heart of this operation cost around £150

back in the 1750s, that's about £150,000 in today's money.

These are the Rolls-Royce of millstones

made from a type of French quartz.

But milling the flower is still pretty labour-intensive

with buckets in hand and a lot of legwork.

It goes up into two bins where you can hold four tonnes altogether.

And then the grain runs out of the bottom,

down the chute and into the millstones.

What variety of wheat is this?

This is solstice, which is a good old-fashioned variety.

-Yeah, good milling wheat, isn't it?

-Good milling wheat.

-Where's it from?

-It's from Philip Mann's farm about a mile away.

-I know Philip. Couldn't be more local, could it?

-No, indeed.

'Once the grain's in the bin, it's time to let in the water

'and set the mill in motion.'

What an absolute beast!

An incredible piece of engineering.

'The massive 24 foot waterwheel is the eighth largest in the country.'

Goodness me, Mike. That wheel is absolutely enormous, isn't it?

I bet you love it, being an ex-engineer.

-Big boys toys, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

That feeling of power when you let the water over,

it's something for nothing, really.

So what's happening now, what's the process?

The flour is coming down from above through this trunking.

We've got the choice, we can either drop it straight into a bag

-so there's nowt taken out...

-So that's wholemeal.

-That's wholemeal.

..or we can shunt this over, we can send it to an elevator

and down into a grader, like a massive sieve.

And what that does is spit out the flour...

the different granules drop through a different part of the sieve

so we've got fine, medium or course.

Otherwise known as semolina or semi-molina because it's semi-milled.

Oh, I see, yeah.

And the bran, which we don't want, comes out the end.

-Where does that go?

-Bran goes to feed pigs locally.

Is there a good market for this specialist flour

-because it's a big effort, isn't it?

-It is a big effort.

I think there's been a resurgence in interest for natural flour.

-Have you got some for me?

-We have indeed.

So, this is what you want - the stone-ground white flour.

1.5 kilos in there.

-What's that worth, a couple of quid?

-Couple of quid.

-There we go.

Lovely. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much indeed. It's been a real treat.

So that's the flour for my pizza base.

Last winter, Ellie set Matt his own culinary challenge -

to make Yorkshire puds, but first she wanted to see how these famous

puds were made the old-fashioned way.

Skidby Mill is the last working windmill in Yorkshire.

Neil Johnson is the resident miller here at Skidby.

Recently qualified, he's a new hand at an old trade.

All right, Neil?

-Hello.

-How you doing?

Wow, that looked quite hairy, getting those sails turning?

Yeah, it's quite a job in this weather.

Usually we don't run the mill in winds past 25 knots,

but, fortunately, today it's about 20 so we're all right.

-We got lucky today?

-Definitely.

-So, here it is.

-Yep, this is wholemeal flour.

Historically, it would have been wholemeal flour that would've

been used for all types of baking, including Yorkshire puddings?

-Definitely.

-So I could take this away and make some Yorkshires?

It'll be the best tasting Yorkshire puddings you've ever had.

'What I need now is some expert help.'

Ben Cox is a top chef who was

recently voted the county's best Yorkshire pudding maker.

What are the chances of you making Yorkshires with wholemeal?

-I'm sure I can.

-Here you are.

-OK.

-Let's see the master at work.

'Ben's using stock, his secret ingredient, then milk,

'then whisk.'

How long did it take you to perfect your recipe?

I've been making Yorkshire puddings since I left school.

'Because we've used wholemeal,

'Ben sieves the batter to remove any husks.'

-What's that?

-Some pepper.

Plenty of salt in there. Sage in there.

A nice hot oven. Perfect.

BEEPING

OK, let's have a look at these.

'So, you can make Yorkshire puds

'using wholemeal flour if you're a top chef.

'But for our challenge, Matt and I will be sticking with plain.

'But there's a twist - Matt's going all scientific.

'Here's Jonathan Edwards from the Royal Society Of Chemistry

'with the exact formula for perfect Yorkshire puds. Hmm.'

What the blazes is this, Jonathan?

-Why... Lactose solution? I'm guessing milk.

-Milk.

-Ovoids of the protein variety?

-Eggs.

-Eggs.

SHE LAUGHS

-And a reaction vessel?

-My reaction vessel.

So you reckon this will help you and Matt win the challenge?

This is tested scientifically,

it is definitely going to lead to a perfect Yorkshire pudding.

'I'm sticking to traditional methods,

'so I've called in the help of farmers wife, Mary Rook.'

How about it?

'Right on cue...'

Sorry I'm late, I've had to walk here.

What time do you call this?

This is all very scientific, my word.

-Look at your lab coat there.

-Yeah, that looks very homely

and this looks a little bit clinical.

'We've got our full complement of presenters,

'all we need now is a judge.'

Enter Mandy Wragg - food writer and Good Food Guide adviser.

OK, teams, you have half an hour to complete the task.

In five, four, three, two, one. Start cooking.

Double check.

Organised chaos.

Lumpless as you can get it.

-You've got more in than we have.

-Don't you question your formula.

'Keep your nose out, Baker.'

Mary seems to be tutoring Ellie quite well there.

We just need to get it to be like a double cream consistency.

Eggs, they're made of protein and water.

Too much talking going on with the scientists and not enough doing.

Matt, excuse me, I think a little less talking

and a little more doing is required.

-More grafting, Baker.

-Sorry.

'First warning from the referee.'

You've had five minutes, teams, please.

That'll be fine.

-How many eggs have you got in there?

-Two eggs.

-Two eggs is 100 grams.

-Eggs, what are they? We're using ovoids.

-Oh, right.

-We're using protein ovoids.

I'd like to see these going into the oven very soon, please, teams.

Here's one lot going in now.

-Quick, Ben! Quick!

-Sorry.

-Sorry, he's helping us.

-You're stalling on purpose.

You were. The old classic, "What temperature is it at?"

We're looking for a really nicely risen pudding.

A Yorkshire pudding's got to have a very nice height to it.

It's got to have a nice crispiness outside,

inside it wants a nice softness and a bit of stodginess to it.

-Not quite a recipe book, is it, the whiteboard?

-Not really, no.

-I suppose, if it works.

-We'll see.

Oh, dear.

'You wanted risen, just look at that.'

I tell you what, if that arrived with my Sunday dinner,

I would be absolutely delighted.

That is not a Yorkshire pudding, that is a shed.

If you went to a restaurant

and it claimed it made the best Yorkshire puddings in the world

and that arrived, you'd go, "Ho-ho! I'm eating in the right place."

'Joking aside, it now gets serious.

'Over to our expert judges.'

I would like to introduce you to the Yorkshire pudding adventure.

Please don't eat it all at once.

-OK.

-OK.

I think I might start with the small one.

Hmm. This has got that, sort of, slightly squidgy bottom

that you were talking about, hasn't it? Absolutely.

Do you think we should have

some mountaineering equipment for this one?

Has someone got a chainsaw?

Let's tear this baby apart.

Yes. Bit of burning on the outside.

It tastes a lot better than it looks, I have to say.

Miles better than it looks.

-The base is very good.

-Full marks for creating a monster.

I have to say, it's a very, very close run thing.

Despite this looking quite ugly, actually, it tastes pretty good.

-But I preferred this one.

-OH!

-Yes! Put it there.

-Back to the kitchen and get washing-up.

Do you know what, Jon, I'm really proud of what we did.

'The humble pud may have been putting Yorkshire

'on the culinary map for years,

'but tonight, we're celebrating local produce

'from all over the country.

'So Jules headed to the Cornish coast to seek out one of their

'traditional foods that's been off the menu for a long time.'

Now, it used to be a staple food in this part of the world,

but for decades, it was largely absent from the great British menu

until recently, when it's made a striking comeback.

And this is it - the Cornish sardine.

Or pilchard.

This silvery little fish has attracted a newcomer

to this part of the coast - a chef -

but his story begins halfway around the world.

Sanjay Kumar grew up in Bengal, where he first began cooking.

He's followed his taste buds ever since,

until he made roots here in Cornwall.

What was it about cooking that got you started?

Well, to be honest, my father is a really, really bad cook

and that kind of showed to me and my brother, who's also a chef,

that if you don't pick up this skill for life now,

we'll die hungry of starvation.

And both of us are chefs in our life, so that proves it all.

So you started in Bengal?

Yes, it's a long journey, but it all relates to fish.

Bengalis are called fish and rice people

and look at this beautiful sardine here.

This just is an amazing fish,

easy to cook and really, really delicious.

Well, I have a slight confession to make, Sanjay.

There are two types of people in this world,

those who love fish in all its forms

and there are those who don't. Guess which camp I'm in?

I...I...I was half expecting this was going to happen,

but, trust me, I'm going to try my best.

Right, mate. This could be a turning point.

Don't let me down.

To make the sardines easier for me to swallow,

Sanjay is going to spice things up a bit.

Basically taking some Cornish sardines and basting it with

-some garam masala. Garam, in India, means hot.

-It's lovely.

It kind of gives you that warmth inside

which kind of keeps you going through the winter days.

'Sanjay's serving me the sardines in a wrap

'with a rhubarb and tomato chutney.'

-One of my big problems is the smell of fish.

-Yep.

But, actually, this, to be fair, doesn't smell fishy at all.

I mean, how fresh and local can it get than this?

Just roll it nicely, like a cigar.

We give a cheer to Cornwall, to fish, tin and copper.

To fish, tin and copper and my very first sardine. Right.

What do you think?

That's actually really nice. LAUGHS

What have I been missing out on?

'I've got an idea of how to say thanks to the chef.

'Later, I'll be taking him on a little adventure,

'but first, I'm intrigued to discover how the pilchard

'came to be known as the Cornish sardine.'

Records of a pilchard fishery here go back to 1555.

Exporting to the continent, catches steadily grew.

16,000 tonnes were hauled in 1871 alone,

before the industry crashed.

Bigger boats meant that a far greater variety of fish could be caught

further out to sea. The poor old pilchard was largely forgotten

until one man had an idea.

It used to be known as a pilchard and the image of pilchards is

tins, tomato sauce. The image of a sardine is sunshine

barbecues etc. So it was changing the name to Cornish sardines

that changed the perception of what it was.

How are we doing, in terms of this revival? In terms of tonnage?

In 1998, the landings were about

seven tonnes per year, coming in here.

The landings are now 2,200 tonnes.

We've done the research with the marine council

to find out what the size of the stock is.

You're talking of 600,000 tonnes,

so what we're taking is very sustainable

and we've got a lot of room to grow yet.

Skipper, Stefan Glinski, is on the trail of the Cornish sardine

and, this evening, I've arranged for Sanjay and I to join him.

How did you do that? Like, how did you manage to...

Aww, little bit of a treat.

We head off into the fading sun -

the perfect time of day for catching sardines.

-Sanjay the sardine spotter.

-Yes.

Have you seen any yet?

SANJAY LAUGHS

There's something happening here, that way.

SHOUTING

Suddenly, the skipper gives the order.

-Could you turn the light off?

-Turn it off.

'And the net is set in darkness.'

At the moment of fishing, we had to turn all of our camera lights off,

so we couldn't really show you what was happening.

The light would have frightened the fish away,

but now they're in the net.

I must be honest, I've never seen anything quite as dramatic,

in terms of fishing, as this before.

As it comes up, it reveals the world to us, a different world

which we don't know what's inside the sea. Amazing.

'But tonight, the sea isn't full of sardines.'

What have we got, Stefan?

Whitebait, small ones.

Yep, so no sardines, but I guess that's the luck of fishing, is it?

That's it.

But fortunately, Sanjay has a recipe that'll work with whitebait too.

A ceviche. The acid in the lime juice cooks the flesh,

while coriander and chilli add bite.

Think of all the beautiful things in life

and just pop it in your mouth, that's it.

OK.

LAUGHS

OK.

OK...

Urgh...

Think of job satisfaction, think of world peace...

Keep chewing.

Keep chewing.

D'you know what, mate, I have to say, I never thought I'd do that.

Well done, Sanjay. We've had a good nights fishing, haven't we?

Well done.

Job done.

Living in landlocked Gloucestershire,

I don't think I'll be using local sardines to top my pizza.

And with my limited cooking skills,

I think that's probably a good thing!

But what is classed as local food?

It seems wide-open to interpretation.

I'm hoping food writer Matthew Fort

can help me sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Matthew, you're a local man. What is local food?

For me, I'd say about within 25 miles of where I live,

or my local farmers' market.

In some cases, local food is sourced more than 25 miles away

as there's no legal definition of what local actually means.

But shops aren't allowed to mislead the public

and can be asked to justify their use of the term.

But it's not always practical, is it, for people to buy local?

No. It's OK for you and I

because we live within probably walking distance,

certainly driving distance, of a farmers' market or a farm shop.

But if you live in the middle of the town,

there aren't local producers on your doorstep.

First of all, look online, shop online.

Talk to your friends - they may know somewhere. Look at the local paper.

I mean, there's always something going on somewhere.

And why do you think it's so important?

Well, because I think first of all,

I want to know where my food comes from.

I like to know a bit about the background.

I like to know the producer and I think it works both ways.

You can ask questions about provenance

or how it's been treated, or use of pesticides or something else.

But I think it's also important for the producer, you know,

to get feedback from the customer

so they can also develop their business.

-I'd better get some shopping done.

-Well, let me give you a basket, sir.

That's the side salad and tomato sauce sorted

for my "Taste of Gloucestershire" pizza.

But Katie found herself making a most unexpected local delicacy

when she was up in East Yorkshire.

When you think of Yorkshire and food, what springs to mind?

Crispy, light Yorkshire puddings and roast beef?

Pikelets or parkin and Wensleydale cheese?

Well, I've got a new one for you. How about Yorkshire sushi?

I'm meeting a coastal forager and bushcraft expert who's determined to

introduce me to a taste of the Far East, Yorkshire style,

using only nature's larder.

We're an island nation and we're surrounded by seaweed and yet

we don't make any use of it at all, really.

So what's this, here?

Here we've got a couple of different things

we're going to use today. This is your classic sushi seaweed.

We call it laver in this country, but it's called nori.

It's a very similar seaweed in Japan. We can eat that raw.

You don't need to do anything to it, it doesn't need to be cooked.

Obviously, you've got to be a bit worried about the water quality.

So, if there was some sort of sewage outflow right next to us, I probably

wouldn't be eating it and taking it but basically, it's washed every day.

Provided we're taking it from here at the coast, it's great.

But not everything's coming from here,

so I'm going to have to go off and get some stuff for you.

I need grain, we definitely need grain.

That's the big hurdle at the moment.

If you can get me some seafood of some sort, that would be good.

Seafood and grains, OK.

-Seafood and grains. I'll get the rest.

-OK, I'll go and get that.

You find some nice, tasty treats here and I'll see you

-back in time for dinner.

-Brilliant.

Whilst Chris uses his expert knowledge to pick

some tasty treasures from the shore, I'm heading down the coast to get

some fresh crab from a local fisherman in Bridlington -

Britain's largest shell fishing port,

with a multi-million-pound export market.

Ken, why is this stretch of coastline so good for shellfish?

Well, it's got good ground characteristics.

We've got the clay and the boulders to the south

and the chalk and the rock to the north.

And that's the kind of landscape they like, the lobsters and crabs?

Yeah, yeah, that's the type of ground they like.

And where are you sending them all?

Predominantly they go to Spain and France.

The majority of the catch from Bridlington ends up

in restaurants and markets all over Europe,

but can our locally sourced sushi

inspire people here to eat more shellfish?

So, that's the fish sorted, but what about the grain?

We'd be hard-pressed to forage any rice here in the Yorkshire Wolds,

but there is a new crop being grown here that may do just the job.

Soon, these fields will be filled with barley - naked barley.

Tim's one of the first farmers in the country to experiment

with naked barley, a new strain of an ancient crop.

But how is it different to regular barley?

Naked barley, basically,

is barley that doesn't have a skin or a coat.

You can see, compared to the other barley,

the difference in colour and texture.

We're growing it because it has milling potential.

What do you reckon on this Yorkshire sushi we're trying?

Do you think that this naked barley is going to be

a good substitute for rice? What do you reckon?

Well, in theory, because it's naked, it doesn't have a husk

so it is a ready-pearl barley.

It should absorb the liquid

and swell up in the same way pearl barley should.

Whether it's a replacement for sushi rice or not, I don't know.

-It's worthwhile giving it a go.

-Give it a go!

-Give it a go.

-OK.

I've done my hunter-gatherer bit, but what has Chris foraged?

There's this really interesting plant, it's called alexanders.

It just grows on the coast

and you get it about up to three miles inland.

And just eat this now, just like this?

You just have a little nibble on that.

Mmm! A bit like celery.

Yeah, really like celery,

-but a little bit of parsley in there as well.

-Is it safe to eat it?

Yeah, it's absolutely safe to eat it.

You have to be very, very sure of all of your plant identification

before you pick anything and eat it.

OK, I trust Chris not to poison me, but is our foraging legal?

The Theft Act actually says that you can take fruit, foliage,

fungi and flowers without it constituting theft.

If you start to dig roots up, then it becomes a problem.

The other thing is that you have to check the local bylaws.

Certain areas will have laws which will ban you taking anything -

Epping Forest is one of them.

-But we're OK here?

-We're OK here.

-Ooh!

-Right, here we go.

-What's this?

This is the last ingredient we were looking for.

This is sorrel, common sorrel, this one.

If you see here, a green leaf

and it's got these two little lobes at the back, there.

If you want to taste that...

-Oh!

-Really sharp, acid.

-It's lovely. Ooh, that's really good!

I really like that!

'Well, this has been a much more liberating shop than the usual

'dash through the aisles.'

This is scurvy grass, OK? Strange name.

It's actually an anti-scorbutic,

so it was used to stave off scurvy by people who took it to sea.

-It might be a bit hot.

-Oh, it's got quite a... Yeah!

-A real kick.

That's what we're going to make the wasabi out of.

The scurvy leaf gets ground with a bit of oil and salt

to make a truly Yorkshire hot wasabi-style paste.

Use the muscles. You can do better than that!

'Chris has brought along his Yorkshire-style soy

'of foraged mushroom and seaweed sauce.'

That's really good.

'Last thing, the laver.

'Chris has blitzed the seaweed and pressed it into sheets.'

You make it like you would make paper, handmade paper.

So, just bash it, or overlap it and bash it?

It's with a silk screen,

so we scoop it out so it's a nice fine layer, and then it's pressed.

'So, now it's the moment of truth.

'Can Chris really make high-end sushi

'from the fruits of the Yorkshire Wolds?'

It all looks very promising,

but does it make Japanese gold standards?

Time to say moshi moshi to a sushi chef trained in Japan,

who I thought could give a verdict on our Yorkshire sushi.

I think the flavour's actually very, very good.

I think the soy complements it great.

Your home-made mushroom soy, I think was fantastic.

The green wasabi, slightly less strong than the traditional wasabi

we use in today's sushi. I think it all comes together very nicely.

That's quite good, isn't it? Quite pleased with that?

-I'm chuffed with that.

-Good little review there.

-Really good.

-Move over Yorkshire pudding, that's what we say.

There is a new dish on the menu, Yorkshire sushi.

-Thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure.

Really good, Chris, thank you.

'I'm on home turf today in Gloucestershire,

'exploring the wealth of local produce on offer.

'My next stop is a farmer who embraced the market for local food

'when he started marketing his own beef.'

-Hi, Jimmy.

-Hello, Adam, nice to see you.

-And you.

'And today, he's making meatballs.'

Go on, then, how do we make a meatball?

First of all, we've got some lovely Hereford beef mince

and I need you to add the onions.

Yeah. So, I just chuck that in, is it?

Chuck it in. That's it, all in together.

And so you're selling direct to the customer, then?

Yes, we are, yes.

Beef was having a very hard time, with foot-and-mouth and things,

and we needed to try and add value to what we were producing,

so I decided to start selling locally and direct to customers.

-Now we need to weigh it out.

-OK...

20 gram sizes - this will test your guesstimation.

-It will.

-That's far too big.

-Is it?

'Once I get my eye in, there's no stopping me.'

How about meatballs on pizza, do you think that would work?

I think that's a jolly good idea. There you go, sir.

-Perfect, thank you very, very much. I appreciate that.

-Brilliant.

'That'll beef up my pizza a treat.

'We're very lucky here in Gloucestershire,

'there's so much great food being produced.

'In fact, you could say it's on tap.'

How cool is this? Milk from a vending machine.

The farm's just up the road, where it's got a small herd of Guernseys.

You even get your own container, or one of these lovely bottles...

Press the button...

out comes the milk.

Look at that, heavenly!

You can't get more fresh or local than that,

but it's not milk I'm after now.

Well, not in this form.

Every pizza needs a cheese, so I'm meeting Roger Crudge,

who churns up his local variety with a Mediterranean twist

just seven miles away from my farm.

I'm all washed and suited up.

OK, well, I'll show you what I want to do, first one.

So, I take it in the middle, across,

and then I try and make another two on either side.

So, the equivalent of sort of six even slices?

Yeah, about a thumb-width.

-So, if you want to do that one, Adam?

-OK, watch me mess this up.

-About there, about a thumb's width.

-About a thumb's width, yeah.

Perfect.

The next stage is a cooking process which turns the wobbly little pots

into halloumi-style cheese,

with its characteristic rubbery texture and squeakiness.

Whilst they cook, Roger shows me some of his other cheeses,

made from local milk.

Right then, Adam.

Whilst that's cooking, this is the rest of the cheeses.

These are some I made a little earlier.

So, here we've got sheep's cheeses - that's the Sarsden.

The cow cheese, this is made with Jersey cows' milk.

And here, this is goat's milk.

And how did you decide what sort of cheese to make?

I mean, what influenced you?

I started making cheeses when I was farming down in Devon

and I was surrounded by all these guys making cheddar.

There was no way that a newcomer

could come into the market with a cheddar, so I thought,

"Right, I love skiing, we love the cheeses we eat when we're out there,

"so why not make cheeses influenced by Alpine cheese?"

And also it's clever, because I have to do research every winter!

-Go out and try it!

-Yeah, I have to try it.

-Absolutely!

Great. Well, thank you very much.

-Well, if I can take a little bit of halloumi away?

-Yeah.

-That'll make the pizza.

-Yeah, brilliant.

-Good.

Well, I'd better get this stuff home and start cooking.

But first, here's what's coming up

on the rest of tonight's programme...

Julia's on home turf in search of Leicestershire's favourite flavours.

Everything is coated in flour.

Including me, now!

Matt gets experimental with ice cream...

Tell you what, that says "British seaside town" to me.

And we'll have the full weather forecast for the week ahead.

Now, I admit my taste buds are pretty tame,

but I had to man up last summer

when I headed to the heart of the Norfolk countryside

to meet a man who's cooking up a tropical storm.

Glyn Kirpalani is the hottest thing to come out of Norfolk

since English mustard.

He makes chilli sauce, and it's seriously hot!

I knew this would happen!

Of all the people to go and check out some chillies, it had to be me!

I'm not a great man for spice. When I go for curry, I have an omelette.

Not only does he make his own sauce, he grows his own chillies.

-Glyn, hi.

-Hi, Adam.

-Good to see you.

-Nice to meet you.

Why chillies?

My father's from Trinidad and he used to give us his own version

of hot sauce every weekend with the Sunday roast, or a Caribbean curry

and we got addicted.

Well, in my family the closest we got to hot sauce was gravy,

so I'm not a great one for heat.

Can you tell the grade from mild through to very hot?

Well, there is a Scoville scale that scientists have devised

to measure the heat of chillies.

It varies from 0 to 16 million,

which is chemically refined chilli oil.

Crikey! There's one here, it says, "police pepper spray"?

-Yes, yes.

-My word!

-Yeah, the bulk of my sauces are made with

Scotch bonnet chilli peppers,

which are commonly grown in the Caribbean and Africa.

-They're pretty hot, very hot.

-Still edible?

Yeah, you wouldn't eat it raw like an apple!

ADAM LAUGHS

And why did it all come about?

I mean, it seems ridiculous eating something that's so hot.

How did people introduce chillies to food?

In the days of slavery, African slavery in the Caribbean,

the slaves weren't given the best of scraps of meat and what have you

by the plantation owners.

They used to flavour their food with hot spices, hot chillies.

So, consequently,

they started developing hot sauces using locally-available

Scotch bonnet Caribbean peppers, and also English mustards,

which the plantation owners would take out with them from England -

often made in Norfolk - and so I've brought it back now.

Incredible, isn't it? Amazing history.

Yes, yes, there is history to it.

Glyn has recently launched a community growing scheme.

He sells his seedlings to growers with more space than him

and he then buys back the fruits of their labour to make his sauce.

And where are these going?

These two trays have to go to Holkham Hall,

which is a lovely old estate,

and they're going to grow them for me in their ancient orangeries.

-Wonderful.

-Yeah, yeah, but before they go,

I want you to taste my hot sauce and show what kind of man you are.

Well, I struggle with mashed potato with too much black pepper on it,

so goodness knows what your sauce is going to do to me!

But I'll toughen up, I'm going to give it a go.

So, Glyn wants me to try his chilli sauce.

All I need now is some poor, unsuspecting individual

to share my pain.

And I think I know just the person...

-There's the lovely Ellie Harrison...

-Adam Henson!

-How are you? All right?

-All right, you? What's all this?

-Well, this is the chilli challenge.

-Now, Glyn is Mr Chilli of Norfolk.

-Hi.

-Hiya.

He makes these amazing chilli sauces and I'm a complete wuss

when it comes to hot things and, you know, I'm an omelette boy.

So I needed a bit of support. How about you, you like hot food?

I'm a korma girl, that's as far as it goes.

I've got the most pathetic palate.

-Oh, dear.

-So, we're going to have a bit of a taste-off here.

-Right...

-A bit of a chilli challenge.

-OK.

-There we go, ladies first.

This is our very hot sauce.

-OK, so nibble away, I say!

-Do you?

-There it is.

-I've just gone for mainly biscuit.

-Look at that! What a total cheat!

-All biscuit. Do it again, come on. Ooh! OHH!

-Is that hot already?

-Yeah.

There's some tissues there,

if you want to bathe your blisters that have just formed on your lip.

I've got a sweaty top lip - very elegant!

Come on, keep it coming.

THEY LAUGH

He's a wuss!

Caribbean chillis wouldn't be

the first thing you associate with Norfolk.

But mention Melton Mowbray, and two things instantly spring to mind...

Julia found out more on a truly local food trail in her home county.

I'm in a place that claims to be the rural capital of food -

quite a bold statement.

Melton Mowbray, an area that's earned the title thanks to

its two gastronomic greats - pork pies

and oh, so stinky Stilton cheese.

And today, I'll be creating the perfect local picnic

as I explore the area's food heritage.

But its foodie accolades owe a lot to its farming past,

as this Ministry of Information film from the 1940s shows.

'The reason's in the land.

'It was too heavy to plough in the old days,

'too heavy, that is, for anything less than a four-horse team.

'But, mind you, it does make very good milk

'and the best cheese in the world...

'Stilton cheese.'

Stilton is still very much at the heart of the community.

A quick costume change, and I'm getting stuck in

at one of only six dairies in the world

licensed to make bona fide Stilton cheese

just as they have been for the past 150 years.

Although I'm feeling a bit more washerwoman than dairy maid!

-Hi, Andrew.

-Morning.

-How are you?

-All right, thank you.

-So, what do you do up here, then?

-We're just turning the cheese.

What does it do in terms of the texture of the cheese,

and the blue as well?

It keeps the shape, it keeps the fats level in the cheese,

helps to keep them nice and even along the tops.

And how many of these do you turn a day?

Basically, it is 4 1/2 tons per person per day.

-4 1/2 tons a day?

-A day.

That's an incredible number.

Authentic Stilton can only be made in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire

and Derbyshire and this is the smallest dairy licensed to do so.

I have to admit, I'm not a fan, but the rest of the world definitely is.

This dairy export around 80% of what they make

to places like Australia, America and Asia.

What a wonderfully proper, old-fashioned traditional dairy.

Lovely.

Producers in Melton have always been resourceful - nothing went to waste.

'And what's left of what's used for cheese is used for pigs.

'Plenty of whey for the pigs.

'The fat of the land, and plenty left over.

'Fine, fat pigs and fine, fat cattle, too,

'feeding on the fattest grass in Britain.'

And what do you do when you've got too many fine, fat pigs?

You make a pork pie, of course. It IS Melton Mowbray!

That's a lot of pies.

Not only were the pigs fattened up on the leftovers

from the cheese-making, they also ate the spoils from local windmills.

Miller Nigel Moon and his mother, Ruth,

keep the area's foodie heritage going in the most traditional of ways.

Holy badger! What's going on above us, around us?

Basically, this floor is what's known as the dressing floor.

And there is white powder everywhere. I mean, on every single...

Look at that. Everything is coated in flour.

Including me, now.

-There you are, my dear.

-Thank you very much. Thanks, Nigel.

Yes, cheers.

As well as the wheat growing above ground,

there are also riches beneath - ironstone.

Farmers and quarrymen often worked side-by-side to reap

the rewards that the land had to offer.

This little building used to be a power station that fuelled

the ironstone quarrying.

These days, it fuels the county with gastro goodies.

I'm meeting fourth-generation baker Julian Carter, to make a local loaf

using flour from Nigel's windmill

and beer yeast from the local brewery.

-How old do you think the recipe is?

-Oh, it goes back a long, long way.

Beer yeast... Flour was obviously always milled in the local area,

and then beer yeast was...

Always breweries next to bakeries in the old days, so you used to get

your beer yeast from your brewery and make your bread straight away.

Once mixed, the dough has to prove, but in true TV style,

Julian has some he prepared earlier.

-There we go.

-Lovely, that's better. You can see, this has been kneaded.

Obviously, this hasn't been kneaded yet.

We rest this for 20 minutes, knead it into a dough

then allow that to double in size.

You can see the big pockets of gas that have come up in the dough.

-The dough's got a lovely stretch to it.

-And it's so light as well.

-It is. What you're looking for is a nice, light dough.

-Just wonderful.

After kneading and proving for a second time,

the loaves go into the wood-fired oven for 30 minutes.

-If you push that towards the centre of the oven...

-Yeah.

Brilliant.

From farm to mill to bakery, this bread is truly local.

-There you go.

-Thanks, Julian.

A true taste of Julia's home county.

Now time to see if I can do my stomping ground justice

with the produce I've picked up today.

Well, I've roped in Ella, my daughter here, to help me

cook this pizza. She's the cook in the family.

Now, the first thing are these meatballs.

-What do you reckon to them?

-A bit garlicky.

-Yeah, they are a bit.

You fry them off over there. I'll start thinking about the mix.

Quite a bit.

'We're making a simple bread dough with our fine-grade flour, a bit

'of sugar, salt, yeast and some rapeseed oil

'from a farm down the road.'

-Don't we have to do it IN the bowl?

-Are you? Do you? I don't know.

Oh, gosh.

-Tired?

-A bit. Your go.

It's good for your biceps.

For your guns.

I think you should stick to the farming.

'I get less grief off the farm boys. Now for a bit of magic.'

Is that what they do? Have you seen them do it? Like that. It's working.

-It's working.

-Is it?

-Yeah. Do you want to try it?

-No, I'll drop it.

'Time to build this baby.

'A bit of sauce, our Gloucestershire take on halloumi,

'and the local meatballs. I reckon we've got ourselves a feast.'

Well, there we go. I think that's wonderful.

I reckon people will be queueing up for Cotswold pizza.

Last summer, Ellie was in Cromer, where the people really can't get

enough of their most famous local food.

Cromer crab, the first thing that springs to mind at the sheer

mention of this town.

Yeah!

You're probably thinking of something much bigger

and juicier than this particular crab,

but it's taken me so long to get it,

I'm not putting it back just yet.

Everywhere you look, there are signs that this is a mecca for crab lovers,

and Cromer crustaceans are thought to be some of the very best.

Traditionally, summer's the time to catch them.

But there's a problem.

Just as in farming, the average age of a fisherman

is getting older and older.

There's one lad, though, who's bucking the trend.

David Hare is only 22. He started fishing in his teens.

OK, David!

David has been going out fishing since he was 14 years old,

and the draw of these waters is still strong.

I was quite excited the first time. Literally, I couldn't sleep.

I was itching, ready to go. "What's it going to be like?"

And stuff like that.

Do you know many other people your age doing this kind of thing?

-Not many. Two, three.

-Why is that?

Why don't young people want to get into this?

Obviously, the 3am starts, and weekends -

they want to go out clubbing, stuff like that.

So you don't mind the 3am starts, then?

All I think is how much money I'm going to have

left in my wallet after it.

SHE LAUGHS

And it's not long before we reach our first pots.

Here we go.

Eighth-generation fisherman John Davies has been fishing the Cromer

coast for more than 30 years, and he taught David everything he knows.

This is looking quite a good haul, is it?

-Well, they can be deceiving, trust me.

-Oh, really?

This time of year, they're now moulting.

So although the shell is big, there won't be much meat in it?

That'll be completely empty.

He'll be back for a free meal again tomorrow.

-That one might just about be long enough. Which that is.

-That is.

It just squeezes in there.

Here we go with the next one. Blimey.

-How's David getting on, then?

-Yeah, he's doing OK.

-He's a good lad. A very rare find nowadays.

-Yeah, that's it.

So what about the future of the crab,

which is so important for Cromer?

Well, yes, it is very important to Cromer, not just as a business

but as a tourist attraction and everything else. A lot of people...

"We'll go to Cromer over the weekend," take a crab home for tea,

or something.

My mum said, "Come back with some crabs, when she found out

-I was coming here.

-Good on your mum!

'But it's not just crabs we're after.'

-That's a keeper.

-Nice lobster.

-Lovely.

As we head for dry land, the crew set the pots

so they can do the same again tomorrow.

Here we go.

Oof!

Waiting to meet me back on terra firma is Michelin-starred

local chef Galton Blackiston. He's going to cook us up a seafood feast.

We've got Galton here for you, John. Ready for your crabs and lobsters.

-How are you doing, my man?

-I'm all right. You?

-Yeah, good.

There's only two or three lobsters there, and a box full of crabs.

And as a chef, what makes the Cromer crab so special?

I think the smaller, Cromer crab are far sweeter

and far more intense a flavour than the big South West crab.

-I'll sort you a couple of nice female crabs there.

-Ah, perfect.

-Just be a little bit careful.

-Yeah, cos I'll give you the crabs to hold.

-They don't like the sunshine.

-Yeah.

-That's great. Thanks, John. Cheers.

-OK, good to see you.

-Brilliant, thank you. Thank you.

-OK.

-Crab is cooked.

-Crab is cooked, hopefully.

-Love this beach kitchen.

-This is hilarious.

-This is all right, isn't it?

This is what you want out of here, is all this brown meat.

So that's the brown body meat. Now for the white from the claws.

A mallet's a good implement to use.

What sort of thing would you serve crab with?

Crab is best served very simply.

I don't want to mess about with it too much.

I want you to taste the actual succulent sweetness of the crab.

-Yeah.

-I'm a great advocate in simplicity is best,

and when you've got something that literally has been caught

-out there...

-But hours ago.

-..but hours ago, why do you want to...

you know, to completely mask it?

-Right. Now...

-This is the cheffy serving bit.

-Well, I'm not going to make it too cheffy.

-OK.

-I will, honestly...

I wouldn't play about with the white crab meat at all.

I would literally just pop it on a plate.

The brown is only just cooked, but that's quite nice.

A classic dish -

unadulterated crab meat served with a simple salsa and fresh, warm bread.

-How about that?

-Something so simple like that actually, in my opinion,

works so well.

That looks amazing. I would happily go through that. Lovely.

Also on the menu, Cromer lobster fresh from the sea

and onto the plate,

with a simple accompaniment of minted new potatoes, mangetout,

green beans and samphire.

And after a day's fishing, exploring and cooking, I can't wait to tuck in.

-Here we go, lobster.

-Here you go, lobster. Local lobster.

Mmm.

-Wow.

-It is REALLY nice.

SHE LAUGHS

-I used to come on holiday around here, you know.

-Did you?

-Yeah, every year as a kid.

-Oh, wow.

-Not something as elegant as this.

A pint of prawns, usually, that we had to shell ourselves.

Equally lovely.

Well, in a moment, we'll be tasting some of

mine and Ella's pizza, a celebration of local produce.

But first, here's the Countryfile forecast for the week ahead.

.

In this special edition of Countryfile,

we're looking back at some of our favourite foodie films.

I'm recreating the taste of Gloucestershire with my pizza,

but last spring, Matt was experimenting with

flavours of a different kind, on a dairy farm in Suffolk.

The fertile land here is dominated by farming,

its tapestry of fields part of what defines this rural landscape.

Most of the farms here have one thing in common.

They use these fertile flat lands for crop-growing - arable farming -

which makes this one here in Rendham a rarity,

as it's one of only a handful of dairy farms left in the area,

and a few years ago, you wouldn't have laid odds on it

being here at all.

A decade ago, milk prices plummeted, just as

foot-and-mouth disease swept our countryside.

For the Strachan family,

a generations-old way of life was threatened.

What saved them was the family rallying together and adding value

to their milk by using it to make yoghurts, cream and ice creams.

So how bad did things get, then?

How close did the farm come to closure?

Well, pretty close, really. It was three things -

We either sold the cows, we expanded drastically

and invested a lot of money in the farm,

or we went into the diversification.

-Right.

-And, yeah, we chose the diversification.

James, you were quite far away at the time. Were you in Canada?

Yeah, I had a good opportunity for a job out there.

-Katherine was developing her career.

-In computers?

-Yes.

-A long way away from farming.

-A long, long way away from farming.

But you decided to come back,

you all got round and said, "We're going to make this work."

The Strachans scaled back from more than 200 cattle

to a manageable 80,

and although milk still provides the bulk of their business,

the plan to expand into other areas has secured a future for them

and the farm that's been their family for more than 35 years.

One of the big money-makers these days is the family's own ice cream,

and the flavours are created here,

in the farmhouse kitchen, by mum Colette, and I am very intrigued

to find out what she thinks of my new innovation.

Well, Colette, I knew that you were going to be showing me

some of your flavours today, so I thought I'd bring one of my own.

The Southwold Pier bag is a bit of a clue.

Stand by for the seaside sensation that is...

-Rock...and choc.

-Right...

-It's mint rock.

-It's mint rock, so...

-Yes, and chocolate.

-Do you think that will work?

-So how do you want to do this?

-Um...

I thought you were going to help me out with that!

It turns out all I've got to do is bash it.

While I'm hammering out Baker's Rock and Choc Ice Cream,

Collette's cooking up her new salted caramel flavour,

which will be delighting the Suffolk crowds.

I really think it's going to work. I'm quite excited about this.

HE LAUGHS

I might be up against an ice cream queen

but I'm pretty convinced that my first foray into the world

of frozen food is going to be a summer sizzler.

Right, that's me done, then, Collette.

Obviously, you're close behind.

Well, I'm glad you didn't pick something that was going to take

a long time. SHE LAUGHS

Now we've created our recipes - in my case,

crushed rock and chocolate - they go to the family's dairy,

where they're added to an ice cream base mix made with the farm's milk.

In just a couple of hours, they'll be flavoured, frozen,

and I'll be unleashing them on an unsuspecting public

to see if Rock and Choc can win over the Southwold sightseers.

Oh, look at this. The Rock and Choc has arrived. Fresh from the dairy.

Look at that!

Doesn't that look delightful?

OK, here we go.

How's it going to taste?

I'll get a... Get the old stick of rock in there, plenty of chocolate.

I tell you what, that says, "British seaside town" to me.

Let's go a-taste-testing.

-Right, chaps, are you hungry?

-Yes.

-Brace yourself,

because it's quite amazing. There you are.

-What do you think of that flavour?

-Yummy.

-Yummy!

That's exactly what I was after.

-Give him your honest opinion.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-That one's terrible.

Ohhh, man!

-Sorry, Matt.

-No, don't be sorry.

Don't be sorry. Just be honest.

Anyway, we don't have to use that bit, anyway.

HE LAUGHS

Back in Gloucestershire, it's time for the moment of truth.

'Have I done our local food producers proud with my pizza?'

-Not looking too bad, is it?

-It looks all right.

It's all right.

-Don't sound too surprised.

-It's good.

I didn't think it would be as good as this.

Oh, it's more than all right - it's great! What a great partnership!

I reckon we should do this again, a bit of pizza making, me and you.

Nice bit of flavour. Actually, the halloumi

and the meatballs - that works very well, doesn't it?

It's all right, yeah.

Well, that's it from Gloucestershire and Countryfile this week.

Next week, we're in Bristol, where Matt will be abseiling

down the Avon Gorge, and Julia will be in search of urban wildlife

on all of our doorsteps.

Hope you can join us then. Bye-bye. Up for another slice?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd