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00:04I'm Prue Leith, cook, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 15 cookbooks.
00:12Looks good, doesn't it?
00:14I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.
00:18This series is all about the things that really matter to me.
00:22Family, fun, food, and friends.
00:27And some of those friends will be joining.
00:29We'll be sharing simple home-cooked recipes.
00:33But I don't normally tell people about that bit.
00:35Only people I like.
00:39And celebrated the best produce.
00:42For 47 years, I have been lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds.
00:49And my long-suffering husband, John, is coming along for the ride.
00:54Can you make that?
00:56Um, under and stroke.
00:58In this episode, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson will be in my kitchen and cooking up a childhood favourite.
01:07It's going to be the most luxurious.
01:10It's going to be gorgeous.
01:13I'll show you how to make a quick and delicious tomato sauce.
01:19And I'll be cooking a classic dish from the 70s and 80s with my other half, John.
01:24Can you whisk the white, Starry?
01:26I'm just going to test it first.
01:28Put it in.
01:29You just hit the eject button.
01:31Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.
01:44I absolutely love travelling, and especially with family or friends.
01:51One of my favourite things is to collect new recipes from abroad.
01:56And this one comes from Colombia, and it's called aciaco.
02:02Today's recipe comes from Francisca, my assistant's family, who all live in Colombia, and we went to visit them there.
02:12And the first night we arrived, we were given this soup, and it's called aciaco.
02:18It's a bit difficult to say, and I'm sure I'm not saying it right, but it's something like that.
02:23It's a chicken soup, and I've poached a chicken in this chicken stock.
02:31I made the stock very simply with two stock cubes, a couple of bay leaves, water, and then I added
02:37the chicken to poach.
02:40And this chicken spent 50 minutes in the stock, gently simmering, so it's really properly cooked.
02:47And it's going to go back in the soup at the end.
02:51Now I want to cook the potatoes, but I think you need at least two kinds, and one of them
02:57should be a salad potato.
02:58The kind that doesn't break up.
03:01Little new jerseys would be absolutely wonderful, but some small potato like that.
03:06And don't peel them, cut them into chunks.
03:12And then another kind of potato that will break up and thicken the soup.
03:17And so these are mashing potatoes.
03:20That's mashing potatoes, that's salad potatoes.
03:23Let the spud simmer in the stock for about 20 minutes.
03:29And then we'll add the sweet corn.
03:32I absolutely love sweet corn because I grew up, as you know, in South Africa, and we ate it all
03:38the time, mostly on a barbecue like that.
03:43Lovely.
03:49So they'll need another 10 minutes or so.
03:52And I think I'll put the guascas in as well.
03:55The defining thing about the soup is the flavor of this herb.
04:01And it's actually a Colombian weed.
04:03It grows everywhere in Colombia.
04:06They wouldn't dream of buying it in a shop because everybody has it in the back garden.
04:10But it does have a very distinctive flavor, and that's what makes it special.
04:15So all of that's going in.
04:18So while all that is simmering away, I'm going to take the flesh off the chicken.
04:26But again, still very large pieces of chicken.
04:31I'll take the skin off as well, just because it does actually taste rather good.
04:36But it will have given its flavor to the stock.
04:40And I don't like lumps of skin floating around in my soup.
04:46I love traveling, and John is a huge traveler and has spent all his life traveling all over the world.
04:51But we both love different things.
04:53I mean, what I'm really interested in is the restaurants, the food markets, sort of how people live.
04:59And this soup was an absolute revelation to me because we had just arrived in Colombia, went to Francisca's house
05:07of her parents,
05:08and we sat down and had this just lovely, homely soup.
05:14And because of the flavor of the guascas, it had tasted completely new to me.
05:20Not too rich, just lovely.
05:22I'm not sure I do it quite as well as Francisca's mom did it, but it's not bad.
05:31Colombia is the most beautiful country.
05:35Fantastic mountains, fantastic in the north, wonderful beaches.
05:39It's just lovely.
05:40That's pretty well all I can get off that.
05:44Now those bones, of course I will keep them and make more chicken stock from them.
05:48I'll just put them in a pan, cover in the water, put an onion in there, a carrot, a bunch
05:54of herbs,
05:55and probably a stock cube too, just to make sure it gets going well and truly.
06:00I'm not at all snobbish about stock cubes.
06:03I think they serve a great purpose.
06:06At the end, we're going to put in some coriander and some spring onions.
06:12So I'm going to roughly chop the coriander.
06:15You can chop up the stalks as well because they're very tender.
06:19So that will be going in and spring onions.
06:23And we're going to serve with it capers, double cream and avocado.
06:29And we just helped ourselves to those and added them at the last minute.
06:35These avocados are absolutely perfect.
06:39The idea of whole chunks of corn in a soup and big lumps of avocado and big lumps of chicken.
06:45The combination was surprisingly delicious.
06:49And it turns out to be an absolute classic Colombian dish.
06:54Asiaco.
06:58Add the cooked chicken to the soup and heat it through.
07:06Right.
07:06So I think we should dish up.
07:12So when you're dishing out the soup,
07:14you have to make sure that everybody gets a piece of corn on the cob,
07:19a good piece of chicken,
07:22and some of the sliced potato.
07:26And then I think you want a good bit of coriander.
07:31That's how we had it in Colombia.
07:34And then this was on the center of the table.
07:36And everybody just helped themselves.
07:39And you just put it in your soup.
07:41So in went a bit of avocado.
07:45A few capers, if you like them.
07:49And some spring onions.
07:53A little bit of double cream.
07:55Tell you, it is fantastic.
07:57I want to get Francisca to taste this and tell me I've got it right.
08:02And I'll sack her if she doesn't say it's delicious.
08:06Let's hope it's as good as Francisca's mum's.
08:10I have made your axiaco.
08:13Axiaco.
08:13Did I say it nearly right?
08:15Nearly right.
08:15Nearly right.
08:16Not quite right.
08:16So taste, because I think it's delicious.
08:22Mmm.
08:23It is delicious.
08:23Is it?
08:24And you actually do have the flavor.
08:25It's that...
08:27Guascas.
08:27Guascas.
08:32It is so unusual to us.
08:33I know to you it's a very...
08:35It's like parsley to you, isn't it?
08:37Well, yes.
08:38And it's just a very natural dish.
08:40And I've been growing up with it all my life.
08:42So there you are.
08:45You approve.
08:46Oh, I think it's so lovely.
08:52Next, I'll show you a quick cookie hack.
08:55Nice little chocolate chip cookies in 10 minutes.
08:58And former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson
09:02will be joining me in the kitchen.
09:18Welcome back to my Cosworld kitchen.
09:20Before my guest Ruth Davidson arrives,
09:23I have a quick cookie hack I'd like to share.
09:26With my sweet tooth,
09:28I do love a fresh cookie with a cup of tea.
09:31Besides, baking cookies just smell so good in the oven.
09:36Irresistible.
09:46If you're making cookies or biscuits,
09:49why not make double the amount of dough
09:51and freeze half of it?
09:53This is chocolate chip cookie dough.
09:58And it's frozen.
10:00And because it has quite a lot of sugar in it,
10:02you can actually cut it almost frozen.
10:04This might be a bit of an effort because it is frozen.
10:09You can do it in balls.
10:11You don't have to do it in a long row.
10:14But it's obviously easier to roll it up into one sausage
10:17than to roll individual little balls.
10:22But if you do do it in the balls,
10:25you can cook them straight from frozen.
10:27You just plonk the balls on there
10:30and stick them in the oven.
10:36I put them a bit far apart
10:38because they will spread a little in the oven.
10:51They go in for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
10:58Nice little chocolate chip cookies in 10 minutes.
11:08I love having friends over
11:09and today is no different.
11:13My guest today used to be the leader
11:16of the Scottish Conservative Party.
11:18She is now in the House of Lords
11:20and she has a five-year-old son with her wife
11:24and they live in Scotland.
11:28Baroness Ruth Davidson, welcome to my kitchen.
11:31True, thank you so much for having me.
11:33What a lovely part of the world you live in.
11:35I know, isn't it beautiful?
11:36I've lived here for 50 years
11:37and I know how lucky I am.
11:40So, Ruth, what are you cooking for us today?
11:43Well, I'm going to cook a bread and butter pudding.
11:50Was that a childhood thing?
11:52It was, actually,
11:53because I was born in the late 70s
11:55and we didn't often have pudding after tea
11:58and if we did, it was, you know,
12:01a tin pair with some Angel Delight on the top.
12:04Evap.
12:05Yeah, yeah, or using evaporated milk in jelly
12:08and stuff like that, fluffy pudding.
12:09So, if we had bread and butter pudding,
12:12it was actually a proper, proper treat.
12:14But I love puddings in general
12:16and particularly when it's sort of autumn, winter, spring,
12:20you know, when you've still got the snap of the cold weather.
12:22There's something just really comforting
12:23about a bit of stodge.
12:26I'm going to start by delegating, if that's OK.
12:29So, I'm going to get you to grease the tin that we're going to use.
12:31So, while you're doing that,
12:33I'm going to start by mixing the custard.
12:35So, it's 250 ml of full-fat milk.
12:39It goes in here
12:40and then 300 ml of full-fat cream.
12:44So, that goes in as well.
12:46And then I might have to ask you
12:47how you turn your hob on
12:49because it's very different to mine.
12:51I've still got a gas one.
12:52I'll turn it on for you.
12:54How's that?
12:54Brilliant.
12:57You can stick it there.
12:58That one?
12:58Yeah.
12:59Great.
12:59And we're going to heat that up
13:00but not let it boil.
13:02So, it's going to get to just below boiling point.
13:03And while we do that,
13:05we're going to do the second half
13:07which involves eggs
13:08and then we'll butter our bread after that.
13:11So, it's three whole eggs
13:14and one egg just with yolk.
13:16So.
13:17Just to make it a bit richer.
13:19Yeah, well, you know.
13:20Extra egg yolk.
13:21Make sure you get a little bit of,
13:23a little bit more protein and fat in there.
13:27Shall I butter your bread for you?
13:29Or some of it?
13:30That'd be super.
13:32Who cooks at home, Ruth?
13:33We both cook in the house.
13:35I would say probably it's about 60, 40.
13:39I do the 60.
13:40In your favour?
13:41Yeah, I think so.
13:42I enjoy cooking.
13:42I find it quite a good sort of relaxer.
13:45And some of my first jobs were in kitchens
13:47when I was a kid.
13:48So, I started as a kitchen porter
13:49in my local golf club
13:51when I was 12 and a half
13:52and I worked there until I was 16.
13:54And it was mostly just washing pots and stuff
13:55but occasionally I'd be making up the salads
13:57or panning the fish and stuff like that
13:59and I quite enjoyed it.
14:00Yeah.
14:01And I just, I've always kind of liked being in kitchens.
14:03You might have had a career
14:04instead of ending up in the House of Lords.
14:07You could have been a head chef.
14:10Well, I'm not sure about that.
14:12I like it but I enjoy it because it's not my job.
14:15So, I'm going to add some sugar to this.
14:17It's three tablespoons.
14:18And whisk it all up.
14:20I might also just stir that as it's heating
14:22to see how close we are.
14:26When I was a child,
14:28I didn't go to brownies
14:29because there was no girls' brownies
14:31so I went to the boys' club.
14:34And then when it was time for girl guides,
14:37I ended up in the boys' scouts
14:38because again there was no club.
14:40And I remember the scoutmaster telling us
14:43you have to butter the bread right to the edge.
14:46Right.
14:46And I think of it every time I butter bread.
14:48You've got to go to the edge.
14:49Do you know, I think I would have loved the scouts.
14:51I went to the brownies
14:52and then when I flew up to guides,
14:54the guide pack shut down about three weeks after I arrived
14:57and I got the uniform and all the rest of it.
14:58And I like to think the two are unconnected,
15:01but I'm not sure.
15:04No, I don't think so.
15:06Now if you're able to pass that back to me,
15:08I'm going to take the crust off.
15:10Oh, you're going to take that.
15:11Oh, no, here was I buttering it to the edge.
15:13I know, there we go.
15:14Oh, well, it should be okay.
15:17You look so happy, Ruth.
15:19I was thinking you probably don't miss politics or do you?
15:23Well, I miss some of the people in the Scottish Parliament.
15:25You work very closely with colleagues in politics.
15:27You're sort of in the trenches together.
15:29It's quite an intense job.
15:30So I do miss some of that,
15:32but I don't really miss some of the pressures of it.
15:35I have to say I did sort of as best as I could
15:38for as long as I could,
15:39but you kind of know when your time is done.
15:41But I still get to contribute
15:42because I'm in the House of Lords,
15:44so I've not given it up completely,
15:45which I guess is, you know,
15:47is a real privilege to be able to still
15:50sort of keep my hand in.
15:51But politics is a tough business these days.
15:54I think we need to get back to kind of mother's wisdom
15:56on the grounds that you've got two ears in one mouth.
15:58So listen twice as much as you speak
16:00and you'll be halfway to, you know,
16:01doing the right thing on that front.
16:03Very good.
16:05Prue, I might need your help for this.
16:06We need to add the heated milk and cream mix
16:10into the eggs.
16:11So I might get you to pour it while I whisk,
16:13if that's all right.
16:14All right, here we go.
16:16This is cream and milk.
16:17Yep, so it's double cream, full fat milk,
16:20and that was our three eggs
16:21plus an extra egg yolk for luck.
16:23And we're going to put in a little bit
16:24of vanilla essence as well
16:25just to make it a bit sweeter.
16:28So there we go.
16:29This is going to be the most luxurious.
16:31It's going to be gorgeous.
16:33There we go.
16:33That good mix.
16:35And then we're going to layer this
16:38like Stegosaurus's spines.
16:39All right.
16:40Which, it turns out,
16:42having a small child, this boy,
16:44means you learn more about dinosaurs
16:45than you ever thought you ever did.
16:47And isn't it extraordinary
16:47that children all know about dinosaurs?
16:49And why are they so nuts about dinosaurs?
16:52Well, what I don't understand
16:52is when I was growing up,
16:54there was only four.
16:55So there was only a Tyrannosaurus rex,
16:57a Triceratops,
16:58a Stegosaurus,
16:59a Stegosaurus,
17:00and a Diplodocus.
17:01That was it.
17:02And now,
17:02from the age of about three,
17:05Finn, my son,
17:06has been able to talk about,
17:07that's it, you keep me right,
17:09has been able to talk about
17:10like Pachycephalosaurus
17:11and Dimetrodons
17:13and Spinosauruses.
17:14And there's five.
17:15Now he's five,
17:16but he's been able to do it
17:17since he was, you know,
17:18he was quite late to speech actually.
17:19I was a wee bit worried about him.
17:20And then once he started,
17:22it didn't stop.
17:23How old was he then?
17:24Dinosaur obsession
17:25has been almost since birth, I think.
17:27So I'm going to tuck some fruit
17:29with a lemon zest
17:30in between all of this
17:31so we get a nice even spread.
17:33He is obsessed with
17:35balls,
17:36trucks,
17:37dinosaurs.
17:38But the fact that he was just,
17:39he just had two female presences
17:41for a huge chunk of his...
17:43That somehow he's still...
17:43That somehow...
17:44It's all cars and...
17:45Yeah, and Jen and I
17:46are not cars and bigger people.
17:49And football.
17:50And Lego and football.
17:51Oh, I like football to be fair.
17:52You might have got that from me.
17:53So I'm going to pour this over.
17:55This is going to,
17:55when it heats up,
17:56this is going to become the custard.
17:57Oh, look at that.
18:00Oh, I've got high hopes for this one.
18:01This one might be quite good.
18:02God, it looks delicious.
18:03So I think we're supposed
18:05to kind of let it soak
18:06for 20, 30 minutes
18:07just so that all the bread
18:08gets soaked in.
18:09I think it's pretty soaked.
18:10Pretty good.
18:10We want to get it on.
18:11And then just, you know,
18:13for the piastre resistance,
18:14a little bit of soft brown sugar
18:15over the top.
18:16Oh my God,
18:17it looks good, doesn't it?
18:18Doesn't it just?
18:19I think you can use
18:20kind of any sugar.
18:21I usually use muscovado
18:22because that's what I have
18:23in my porridge in winter.
18:24So I just always have some
18:25in the house.
18:26There we go.
18:26Shall we get that in?
18:27Yeah.
18:28Shall I have it in?
18:29Is it this one?
18:30Yeah.
18:30Or this one?
18:30That one.
18:31Here we go.
18:33Yum, yum, yum.
18:35Cook the bread and butter pudding
18:36at 180 degrees
18:38for about 35 to 40 minutes.
18:42One of the things
18:43that I noticed in my career
18:45and I'm sure it's the same for you
18:46is you keep thinking
18:47that next year
18:48you'll have a little more free time.
18:51You gave up leadership
18:52of the Scottish Conservative Party.
18:55I remember you saying
18:57something like
18:57spend more time with the family.
19:00And are you doing that?
19:02Well, to a degree, yes.
19:04I mean, because
19:04particularly in election times
19:05it's mad, mad hours.
19:07And it's every weekend
19:09you're working part of the weekend
19:10and every kind of night
19:12you're not getting home
19:13from work till 8, 9 at night.
19:14And so I do have more time.
19:16I'm able to cook my son's teeth
19:17maybe four or five nights a week.
19:19But if I got to all Wikipedia right,
19:21you're on three major boards,
19:24commercial boards.
19:25Yeah.
19:26So, yeah.
19:27Rugby.
19:27Yeah, so I do
19:28for an insurance company,
19:30a food manufacturer
19:31and also Scottish Rugby Limited,
19:34which is good fun.
19:35But, yeah, no,
19:36I'm passionate about sport generally
19:39and played a lot of ball sports
19:40as a kid.
19:41My dad used to play
19:41professional football.
19:43Oh, you would.
19:44Yeah, sort of part-time
19:45in those days.
19:46So he always worked as well
19:47but played for Partick Thistle
19:49and Portadown in Northern Ireland.
19:50So I've always been
19:51a fantastically passionate supporter
19:54and also a rubbish
19:56but enthusiastic player
19:57of most sports
19:58and I'm completely putting that
19:59onto my son as well.
20:00So we're out most weekends
20:02tossing the rugby ball around
20:03or kicking the football
20:04or I've started
20:06them playing tennis now.
20:07So, yeah, we try.
20:09And my wife has instituted
20:10a one-in, one-out rule
20:11because I do quite a lot
20:12of charitable boards
20:14and meetings and stuff as well.
20:15So I'm not allowed
20:16to take anything more on
20:17until I get something up,
20:19which is a good rule to have.
20:20I'm a terror if I'm bored.
20:22Like, I cannot be idle.
20:23I hate it.
20:24So, yeah, I think I'm good busy
20:26rather than bad busy.
20:28Yeah.
20:28I think I'll get out.
20:30Yep, you do it.
20:32Whoops.
20:36Oh, my God, look at that.
20:38That looks all right.
20:40That looks so good.
20:43Oh, it's puffed up.
20:44Oh.
20:46Look at that.
20:48I think we've got
20:49some fresh cream as well.
20:50There's not enough cream in it,
20:52so we'll put a bit more.
20:53I know.
20:54Do you know,
20:54you're as well being hung
20:55for a sheep as a lamb,
20:56aren't you?
20:58There we go.
21:06This does feel like
21:07such a treat.
21:08Oh, look at that.
21:09Here you go, my dear.
21:11Of course, you'll need the cream
21:12because it's so hot.
21:13It's so hot, it will.
21:16Yeah, it could burn your mouth off.
21:24Oh, yeah.
21:26I think the lemon zest
21:27makes a difference.
21:28Oh, it's lovely.
21:32It's like a warm hug in a bowl.
21:33It is.
21:34And the lovely thing
21:35about bread and butter pudding
21:36is almost anything will do it.
21:39You know, bread will make it
21:40any kind of bread, almost.
21:41Well, we attempt to
21:43have that sort of diet bread,
21:44you know, the kind of Danish loaves,
21:45the half loaves that you get.
21:47But that's fine for it, too,
21:48even though they're not
21:48particularly thick bits.
21:50But it still works
21:51and it still puffs up
21:52because of the custard around it.
21:54And you really do want to eat it
21:55when it comes out of the oven.
21:58Cold, it can be very tough.
22:01So Ruth, what's next for you?
22:02I think you probably
22:03have to ask my wife
22:04because I'm in so much trouble
22:06taking things on.
22:06But I like her rule
22:08about you can't take on a new thing
22:10unless you give up an old thing.
22:12My son just finishes
22:13in primary one.
22:14So I kind of,
22:15I see a future for me
22:16of being the mum
22:18that makes a half-time's oranges.
22:19Now, what if Finn suddenly decides
22:21that actually he doesn't want
22:22anything to do with sport?
22:24Whatever he wants to be,
22:25I will still be there cheering him on.
22:27And I'll get involved in that, too.
22:29He can't escape me.
22:30I'm there.
22:36Still to come,
22:38we delve into the world
22:39of one of our hard-working bakers.
22:42And I've got another clever hack
22:44for a perfect tomato sauce.
22:46When you're trying to soften onions
22:48without browning,
22:49there are two tricks that help.
23:04Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen.
23:09Husband John loves nothing more
23:11than being outside in the garden.
23:14His recent enthusiasm
23:16is designing garden sculpture.
23:20And with the help of the local blacksmith,
23:23he is bringing his latest creation to life.
23:31John's ace.
23:32He knows what he likes.
23:33He knows what he wants.
23:36A couple of days ago,
23:37I went over and I said,
23:40you know, this is what I want to do.
23:42And I was doodling it out.
23:45When he designs something,
23:46he's got it all in his head.
23:47And then we've got to try
23:48and make something from that.
23:51His sketches are a bit sketchy.
23:54Having given Birdie his sketch
23:56just a few days ago,
23:58John is checking on the progress of his design.
24:02Hello there, John.
24:03Hi, John.
24:05And it looks like Birdie and Zeno
24:07have it all in hand.
24:09Every job is different.
24:11We can be one minute
24:12altering steel railings
24:13and then making things like this for John.
24:16Right, so this is how we think it's going to go.
24:20If I hold that there,
24:22I think that's going to come in front.
24:26So we've got to clump these on here,
24:28just to hold it in place.
24:32How we lift this thing on,
24:33when it's finally finished,
24:34it's going to weigh half a ton.
24:36Yeah, I reckon.
24:38So in that one, we're thinking.
24:42So this will be right here,
24:45nesting with little baby ones of these here
24:49and then the big leaf going over there
24:52and I think it'll work fine.
24:54I like the artistic side of things,
24:56just creating stuff with my sort of style,
24:59which is nature.
25:01I like making leaves.
25:04My trademark is a snail,
25:07so quite a lot of my work ends up
25:09with a little snail on it.
25:11I think we're getting there with it.
25:13Yeah, we are.
25:14Well, I think Birdie's going to make
25:16some more of these little things up
25:17and we'll give you a shout in a week or two.
25:20OK, that's marvellous.
25:24Birdie and Zeno have been working tirelessly
25:26over the last few weeks
25:28to bring John's sculpture to life.
25:31And the day of installation is here.
25:34It's going to go in front of this post.
25:37Yep.
25:38And it's remarkable to think
25:40that this was only an idea in John's head
25:43a couple of weeks ago.
25:45To finish off his sculpture,
25:47John wanted a magnificent base for it to stand on.
25:51Pru and I went to a quarry around here.
25:54This comes from Geiting.
25:56And we chose a lump of Cotswold stone.
25:58We asked him to put a little indent in it
26:01to take the base of Stop It Rocking.
26:07And I'm absolutely delighted.
26:09They've angled it absolutely right.
26:11I asked for the best face of the stone
26:14to face the house.
26:15And they've done it.
26:17Now we must put it all together.
26:27Oh, my God.
26:29John.
26:31I love it.
26:32It's sort of like great heirloom lilies.
26:35Yeah.
26:35Parting out.
26:36Like a little snail going out.
26:37Quite fun.
26:38So this is the thing you've been drawing away.
26:42Well, this was the stone you chose at the quarry.
26:44Well, I knew it was for a big sculpture.
26:48Well, I think it's wonderful.
26:50I really do.
26:51Crazy.
26:52Crazy but wonderful.
26:53I've got an idea for another one.
26:55Really?
26:56Yeah.
26:57And I'm going to strike well the iron spot.
26:59Well, what I think you should do
27:01is go to business welding and stuff
27:03because you're good at it.
27:05And we don't want this place to end up as a sculpture park.
27:20I'm going to show you my favorite tomato sauce recipe,
27:23which is amazingly useful.
27:25Tomato sauce is great, of course, on the base of pizzas with pasta.
27:30It flavors a good souffle.
27:32I use it as the base for bolognese sauce.
27:35I just freeze it in small quantities
27:37and hoik it out of the freezer as I need it.
27:40You start off with some oil, a tablespoon or so.
27:44Chopped onion.
27:48When you're trying to soften onions without browning,
27:51there are two tricks that help.
27:53One is to put some salt in.
27:56What the salt does is it encourages the juice
27:58to run out of the onions.
28:02And the other trick is to put a bit of water in it
28:04because what happens now is the water will evaporate
28:10while it's softening and cooking the onions.
28:13And then the onions will absorb the fat, the oil.
28:17A handy trick if you have a lot of tomatoes
28:19with no time to make a sauce is to freeze them whole.
28:23And then when they come out of the freezer,
28:26you put them under the tap, frozen.
28:28You can just take the skins off like that.
28:31So now I'm going to add a bit of garlic.
28:34So I'll just put in that for half a minute or so.
28:38And I'm going to add a tablespoon of tomato puree.
28:42That's just concentrated tomato
28:44and if your tomatoes are not very powerful tasting,
28:48this ensures it'll taste like tomato.
28:51A lot of English tomatoes really aren't sweet enough.
28:55So put in a little bit of sugar.
28:57It smells terrific already.
29:00It's the garlic.
29:01It just smells great.
29:03And then you put in a couple of cans of chopped tomato
29:10or you can put half fresh tomato, half cans or fresh tomato.
29:16It doesn't matter.
29:18Now that's about what I do normally.
29:20But if you want to flavor the tomato sauce in any way,
29:23you can put in oregano or basil.
29:26It's put in both.
29:29Bay leaves always give depth of flavor.
29:33To that, it's just a bit of pepper.
29:36We've already got the salt in, don't forget.
29:40And that's honestly it.
29:42It takes ten minutes to make.
29:44And it's wonderful.
29:52We're spoiled for choice with good ingredients in our local area.
29:56I think bread is the most important purchase that a cook makes.
30:01You can't beat a fresh loaf and I love anything on toast.
30:06I think bakers work the hardest.
30:09They have to get up at four in the morning.
30:11The work is physically hard.
30:13And our local bakers, Otis and Belle, are absolutely fantastic.
30:28My name's Will.
30:30I own a bakery named after my children.
30:33I became a chef because I love the buzz of the kitchen
30:36and also working with my hands.
30:38I'm quite creative.
30:39I'd always wanted to open my own business.
30:41I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it.
30:45During lockdown, on our daily walk,
30:47we used to walk by the Morton shop
30:49and I saw that it was vacant
30:50and I said to my wife,
30:52I'm going to turn that into a bakery.
30:56My alarm goes off at 2.30 in the morning
30:59and we start baking at 3 a.m.
31:04It's pretty full-on first thing in the morning.
31:06You've got to keep the ovens ticking over
31:09otherwise you'll find yourself behind.
31:13First thing that goes into the oven is the bread
31:15because we've got quite a lot of bread to get through.
31:18You've got to reload the ovens quite a few times.
31:20We then bake off our patisserie and our vinoiserie.
31:23So vinoiserie is anything that's made with a croissant dough.
31:30So this is our vinoiserie dough.
31:32We make the dough the day before
31:34and then the next day we laminate the dough
31:37which means to layer it with butter, dough, butter, dough, butter, dough.
31:42Our dough has 27 layers of butter.
31:46This process gives the pastry its flaky, fabulous texture.
31:52In 2011, I was studying patisserie, French patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu
31:57and it kind of started me off on my journey.
31:59That's where I really got the sort of buzz for what I was doing.
32:06I love bread but mass-produced yeasted bread doesn't agree with me at all.
32:12So I've always made sourdough because it's much gentler on your gut.
32:19Sourdough is a much healthier bread
32:21and the long fermentation process improves the absorption of vitamins and minerals
32:27by neutralising the acid.
32:33Sourdough is the bread of our ancestors.
32:37So the process of making sourdough is taking a sourdough culture or a starter
32:44and naturally leavening it with the yeast that's naturally in the air.
32:49So our sourdough starter is about 30 years old
32:52which means we've kept it alive continuously for that period of time.
32:58The challenge of sourdough is the time and patience that you have to put in
33:02to make a great life.
33:04As your sourdough is baking, you need steam in there and you need heat
33:07but if you've got a fan hitting your sourdough
33:10then essentially you don't get this peel of the ear
33:13which is what everyone strives for.
33:15They want a really sexy looking sourdough that's got a peel
33:18and that's the tricky bit to do.
33:23I think I'll have a cinnamon bun please.
33:26The thing that I think is special about the bakery
33:29is that it's that kind of real mix of connection and community.
33:34How's Jenny doing?
33:36Really well.
33:37Yeah, we're all really well.
33:40The food is just brilliant.
33:43Our ethos is very simple.
33:45We take the best possible ingredients
33:47treat them very simply and with love
33:49and if you do that
33:51you should get a really good product.
33:56Later my husband John will be joining me in the kitchen
33:59where I'll be adding my tomato sauce
34:02to a cheese souffle.
34:04What I like is there's always seconds.
34:20I've persuaded my husband John
34:22to join me in the kitchen
34:24and today we are going to make
34:26three foolproof cheese souffles.
34:28A plain cheese souffle
34:32a twice-baked cheese souffle
34:34with a mustard sauce
34:36and a cheese souffle
34:38with a tomato sauce.
34:40So many people think souffles are really, really difficult,
34:44tricky, they won't rise.
34:45All you need to do is get enough air in them
34:48when you whisk the eggs
34:49because hot air rises
34:51and if you've got those tiny bubbles in the mixture
34:55which you will have,
34:57it'll rise.
34:58Don't worry.
34:58So I'm going to make a roux first
35:00which is just melted butter and flour
35:03and that turns into a sort of white sauce
35:06and I'm going to add a bit of mustard for flavour
35:08and we'll be off.
35:10And next to me is John
35:11who's going to brush out
35:13these little souffle dishes
35:15with some butter
35:17and then can you put in this parmesan cheese
35:20which is very finely grated
35:21just to dust the edge inside.
35:24Okay, I'm good to go.
35:26I've got melting butter here.
35:28Flour and butter in there together now.
35:30You cook this for about a minute
35:32just to get that floury taste off there
35:36and then in goes the milk
35:39and the milk must be cold
35:41because if it's hot
35:42it'll start to cook the flour in butter
35:45and you'll get lumps.
35:47It'll seem to go alarmingly lumpy for a bit
35:49as it thickens
35:50and then you keep going
35:53the lumps will disappear
35:54and it will be smooth again.
35:57Perfect.
35:59If you want to speed it up
36:01use a whisk.
36:03Do you see the lumps are disappearing?
36:07It's pretty good, John.
36:10It's your patent method.
36:11Put some in and shake it.
36:12Is this all right?
36:14Yeah.
36:15Can I go and wash my hands?
36:16Yes, sir.
36:17You can.
36:19So then
36:20you can put the rest of the milk in
36:27and bring it to the boil.
36:29Well, I like souffle.
36:31Yeah.
36:32What I like is there's always seconds.
36:35Yeah, I tend to make too much.
36:37The trick if you're serving your souffles
36:40for a dinner party or something
36:41and you are worried about the timing
36:43or you don't know how long it's going to be
36:46before everybody sits down.
36:48You make the souffles the day before
36:50and then you reheat them in a sauce
36:53and they puff up again.
36:55And then we're going to do some not like that
36:58just that we'll eat straight away.
37:00And I think it's a really good idea
37:02to have a sauce with a souffle
37:03because if by any chance you over-bake it
37:06so it's a bit too dry.
37:07If you've got a sauce with it
37:09it certainly helps the souffle stay out.
37:13And then I'm going to put the cheese in.
37:17I used 45 grams of grated mature cheddar
37:21but you can use whatever cheese you like, of course.
37:25The cheese will gradually melt
37:27and then the sauce will be smooth again.
37:29And then you need to put in a little bit of mustard.
37:33This is English mustard.
37:35And some cayenne pepper.
37:39Mustard and cayenne pepper
37:40I think are absolutely great mates
37:42for a cheese souffle.
37:44And the thing about a souffle
37:46is what makes it rise, as I said before,
37:48is the air in it.
37:49And to get air in it
37:51you're going to whisk the egg whites
37:52and you're going to put the yolks
37:54into the mixture.
37:57So you have to separate the eggs.
37:59How good are you at separating eggs?
38:04I don't think it's something
38:05I've ever asked you to do before.
38:08Well I know in your school
38:09when you ask that question
38:10somebody put one egg there
38:12and one egg there
38:12is that separating the eggs?
38:15It's exactly what happened.
38:16So I have seen you do it
38:18so I think if I crack that
38:20and then I scoop one into the other
38:23is that right?
38:23Yeah, have a go.
38:26I'm not going to be very successful
38:27on that one.
38:28Oh, that's okay.
38:29So do you want the yolk or not?
38:31You can put the yolks in there.
38:33Okay.
38:34That just goes there.
38:40Am I doing all right?
38:41That's right.
38:42Okay.
38:42Okay.
38:43That goes in there.
38:44Oh, good.
38:44I'm impressed.
38:46In there, quickly.
38:48Do you see that was beginning
38:49to break, that one?
38:51No, I'm very impressed with this
38:53because if we'd got a bit of egg yolk in there
38:56we would not have been able
38:57to whisk the egg whites
38:58and they would,
38:59well, it would have taken
39:00absolutely forever.
39:03Can you whisk the whites, darling?
39:07Ooh, here we go.
39:09I'm just going to test it first
39:11because I...
39:12Put it in.
39:13That's it.
39:14I don't do that.
39:15That's the eject button.
39:16That's it.
39:17You just hit the eject button.
39:23Should have made Mary Barry, honestly.
39:26She'd been much kinder.
39:27She'd been kinder.
39:28Press that button.
39:30And don't start it
39:32until you're in there
39:33because if you do this
39:35and go down
39:35it will send its...
39:37Okay.
39:38Okay.
39:38Put it in.
39:40Now start.
39:43Do I get it up to full speed
39:44or just keep going?
39:45Yeah, sure.
39:49I'll say I prefer demolition to this.
39:52This is, I find, nerve-wracking.
39:54I've got a feeling
39:55something's going to go horribly wrong.
39:57No, it's not.
39:59No, it's not.
40:01By demolition you mean
40:02rough stuff in the garden?
40:04In the garden, yeah.
40:07You see, it's beginning to get thicker.
40:09Yeah.
40:11Can you stop?
40:12Don't pull it out.
40:13Just stop it.
40:15And then lift it up.
40:17And if you...
40:19If you lift it up like that,
40:21if it's all stiff and...
40:22It's not moving, is it?
40:24It's remaining together in the bowl.
40:27Yeah.
40:30Okay.
40:31I'm looking for a stiff peak.
40:33Do you see that little peak coming up?
40:34It looks like a meringue.
40:36Now if you hold that over the sink,
40:37you can press the button
40:38and you won't have it.
40:39That's so much fun with it.
40:40Right.
40:41Then we've got to get
40:42these two mixtures together
40:43and the secret is
40:45not to over-whisk them,
40:47not to mangle it too much
40:49because you're trying
40:50to keep the air in.
40:51So I'm going to put
40:52just a little bit
40:53into that mixture
40:55to soften it up
40:57so that it would be
40:58quite liquid
40:58and go in easily.
41:01I'm going to pour
41:02one into the other.
41:04Doesn't really matter
41:05which way you do it.
41:09And then fold it together.
41:13What folding is
41:14is when you lift
41:15from the bottom
41:17to the top
41:17and turn it as you go.
41:20And don't worry
41:20if there's still
41:21quite a lot of big lumps
41:22in your mixture.
41:24It's better to have
41:25a few too many big lumps
41:27than bash all the air out.
41:30You know,
41:30if we went on
41:30just stirring and stirring
41:32I'd end up with no air.
41:34Okay.
41:36And then you want
41:37to fill your pots
41:39not too full
41:40because you don't want
41:41them to overflow
41:42and you do want
41:43them to rise
41:44above the rim.
41:45So you don't fill
41:46them completely?
41:47No.
41:49I wanted to show you
41:50souffles don't have
41:51to be difficult
41:52and even if you
41:53slightly over-bake them
41:54it doesn't matter.
41:55There's a way
41:56to rescue them.
41:58I've made
41:59four small souffles.
42:00One pair to eat
42:01straight away,
42:02one pair twice baked
42:04which is a handy hack
42:05for a dinner party
42:06when timings are tight
42:07and I'm making
42:08a larger souffle
42:10that I'll slightly
42:10over-bake
42:11which will go perfectly
42:13with a tomato sauce.
42:16It's really got a bit
42:17of cheese in the bottom
42:18but never mind.
42:19Any luck,
42:19it won't stick too much.
42:22if when you're pouring
42:23it in you see
42:24some lumps of white
42:25just as you pour
42:26knock out
42:26knock out any
42:28huge great lumps
42:29you've got.
42:32So these are going
42:33to go into the oven
42:34and the oven's
42:35already hot
42:36and the baking tray
42:37in there
42:38is already heated
42:39so there'll be
42:39a blast of heat
42:41from underneath
42:42the souffles.
42:43Make sure you've
42:44preheated the oven
42:45to 190 degrees.
42:48Try to be quick
42:49not to
42:51let the air out.
42:52Right,
42:53back again.
42:54Will they all cook
42:55at the same time?
42:56Yeah.
42:57Got different sizes?
42:58Yes,
42:58the little ones
42:59will probably take
43:0018, 20 minutes
43:01and the big ones
43:03half an hour
43:03perhaps a little bit more.
43:07Souffle comes
43:07from the French word
43:08souffle
43:09to puff up.
43:11Here's hoping
43:12mine have.
43:17But you can see
43:18they're beautifully
43:19risen.
43:21Okay,
43:22so I'm hoping
43:23it'll be nice
43:23and soft
43:24and almost liquid
43:25in the middle.
43:26Do you see?
43:27Yeah.
43:27Can you see
43:27that's really
43:29wet inside?
43:30Yeah.
43:35Nice.
43:36Nice,
43:37lovely.
43:37And quite
43:39spicy.
43:40So that was
43:41a classic
43:41cheese souffle.
43:43And for my
43:44dinner party trick,
43:46turn your cold
43:47souffles out
43:48upside down
43:48on a dish
43:49and cover them
43:50in sauce.
43:51So here we have
43:52double cream
43:53and a
43:55teaspoon of mustard.
43:58And I'm going
43:59to whisk that up
44:00together.
44:01And there you have
44:02instant
44:05mustard sauce.
44:08just before seating
44:10your guests,
44:10pop the souffle
44:11in the oven
44:12for about 10
44:13to 12 minutes
44:14at the same
44:15temperature
44:15of 190 degrees.
44:19Another handy
44:20hack is to
44:21freeze your souffles.
44:22They'll keep
44:23for a week or two.
44:27For this large
44:28souffle,
44:28I've deliberately
44:29overbaked it.
44:30And the trick
44:31to combat
44:32any dryness
44:33is to just
44:34make a hole
44:35in the middle
44:35of the souffle
44:36and pour
44:37some sauce in.
44:38The combination
44:39of cheese
44:39and tomato
44:40is absolutely
44:41delicious.
44:42And why not
44:43top it off
44:43with a glass
44:44of Rioja?
44:47Because this
44:48is so good
44:50with a souffle
44:51and a tomates.
44:58Oh, that's
44:59delicious.
44:59Very, very good.
45:01Shall we
45:01check on the
45:02tri-spaced souffle
45:03with a mustard
45:04sauce?
45:18Mmm.
45:20The thing
45:21about the
45:21re-baked souffles
45:22is it's more
45:23moussey than
45:24souffle-ish
45:24because it's
45:25wet the whole
45:26way through
45:27because it's
45:27soaked up
45:28the sauce.
45:29But it's
45:30pretty good.
45:33Twice-baked
45:34souffle
45:34with a mustard
45:35sauce.
45:39That's it
45:40for today.
45:41We'll be back
45:42next time
45:43with more
45:43delicious dishes
45:44and another
45:45fascinating
45:46guest.
45:51foot
45:51a
45:52swimah
45:54into
45:54th
45:54going
46:14back on
46:15time you're
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