Original subtitles

Springtime is here.

And there's some incredible British fruit

and veg bursting with flavour and ripe for the picking.

From sweet and tender broad beans

to chard the colours of the rainbow.

These are the incredible ingredients that are at their best right now.

They're at their most delicious, most affordable,

better for you and the planet.

So, if you find the time to make something special,

I've created some exciting meals for whatever the occasion,

that makes the most out of what's in season.

From epic ideas for pizza toppings and pan fried fish suppers...

That is so good.

...oozy risottos and spicy curries...

Full of optimism, just like spring.

...and the sweetest springtime tarts.

That rhubarb flavour is just extraordinary.

So, join me at home in my shed, as I spend

the year cooking what's in season,

in the hope that it inspires you to have a think about

the way you cook, shop, or even grow your food too.

Might just put a little bit of spring in your step. Like that?

There's certain things that you have to do at this time of year.

Planting your own potatoes is a thing of joy.

A perfect home-grown potato with butter and salt is, like,

that's it, that's the meal. Like, that's it! Like, it's so good.

And of course, if you're going shopping, Jersey Royals,

you know, right now are incredible, but to do your own is really cool.

I want to show you how easy it is. You can do this on a little veranda,

on a little balcony, and get yourself like a tomato bag

or a compost bag, any bag you want,

and just put some little holes, just to let it drain.

If you've ever bought potatoes

and you've seen them kind of start sprouting like that,

these are chitted potatoes.

That's just nature doing its thing.

I just put them on little egg boxes in a light, cool place.

After a few weeks, depending on the temperature,

they'll start to shoot like this and from that,

these will grow up into a plant

and throw off little shoots. I'll put these in like that.

So, I'll cover this by about an inch and a half of the compost.

And then we'll water that in, put it in a nice little sunny place.

As this plant develops over the next two or three weeks,

we can put extra soil on top.

We don't want the potatoes to be exposed to the sun,

right, we want to keep them covered. So, by soiling up,

you just kind of basically encourage more growth,

and a better potato. By the time we get to, like,

ooh, June, July, for the first earlies,

you'll be able to sort of just break open that bag

and all of these incredible, pearly white potatoes will come out.

But the earliest new potatoes available in spring

are Jersey Royals.

At their best from April to June,

I'm dressing these superstar spuds in a creamy,

wild garlic pesto, served alongside a moreish filling,

packed inside my show-stopping,

stuffed roast salmon with Jersey Royals.

A real treat, perfect for big family gatherings or celebration suppers.

So, we're going to make a beautiful celebration meal.

It's quite simple to do, but it feels really fancy

and it feels like a bit of a "wow" meal.

So, Jersey Royal potatoes,

really one of the true heroes of springtime.

They're so delicate. I've been to the island of Jersey

and I've seen them harvesting these on these really steep hills that

gets loads of lovely sun, and because of that sunshine,

they're ready early. So let's get cooking.

Over here, I have got some boiling water,

a nice, big pan. Season it with salt and then, of course,

best friends with potatoes, mint. Get yourself a nice,

big handful in there. Use the stalks.

I'll keep these nice leaves,

but that is going to basically make a mint tea.

and we'll boil those for about ten to 15 minutes.

When they're really fresh like this, they don't need much cooking.

Next, we're going to make a stuffing for these lovely sides of salmon

with some seasonal asparagus AMD wild garlic,

breadcrumbs, and really flavour it up.

These have been scaled and they've been pin boned as well,

and often you will find that salmon fillets are on offer,

which is great. So, pan's heating up.

Go in with some olive oil, a couple of tablespoons.

I've got the mint leaves from earlier.

I'm just going to pick through those

and we're going to make a really rustic stuffing.

So, we often talk about stuffing for meat,

but actually, you can do it with fish beautifully.

Best friends with mint is chilli.

Just the ones you get in the supermarkets.

Mine haven't grown yet. Put the mint into the oil.

Go in with the chilli as well, and freshly foraged,

and it's all over the country right now,

wild garlic.

We're cooking with what's available and what's in season.

If you can't get wild garlic, don't worry, just use parsley,

but this is incredible. It's so perfumed. In with the flowers.

Tear them up, like that.

The lovely thing about wild garlic is it's not too pungent.

You know, it's got a subtlety to it that I really love.

You can get it down the farmers' markets.

Put a little bit of lemon zest in there as well.

So fragrant.

We've got asparagus, which is really gorgeous.

Keep the tips cos they're very beautiful.

I'm going to use them for later on. And then, where they click,

that's where the tender bit kind of leaves the woody bit.

These can be used for lovely soups, sauces,

and what I want to do is get the stalks here,

which are still tender and gorgeous, and just finely slice them.

And just a couple of minutes of frying

the chopped up asparagus stalks,

just brings out the sweetness really beautifully.

And then I'm going to take these tips,

and we want to cook them a bit, just take the rawness

out of them cos they're going to cook in the stuffing, of course.

Season it up. So, some sea salt, some black pepper.

Go in with a handful or two of breadcrumbs.

They're kind of brilliant, really.

They'll absorb some of the cooking juices from

the fish when it comes out.

Let that get to room temperature, or cool.

You never want to stuff anything with hot things,

so just lay it out flat and that's the fastest way to do it.

So, stuffing, done. Let's try the potatoes.

Very good. So, these are done.

Turn the water off and leave them to steep in that minty water,

so the water goes in, and then, of course,

you can leave it and when your friends, guests get here,

you can just give it a little fire up, drain it and then,

beautiful wild garlic pesto over the top.

It's going to be pretty special.

And if you don't want to do it with wild garlic,

you could do it with any herb you wish.

I'm going to add a little bit, actually,

of parsley to go with it, cos I think garlic

and parsley have a nice affinity with each other.

So, pestle and mortar. If you haven't got one,

a liquidiser, food processor. All of these things will work.

Salt. This is obviously for seasoning

but I need the abrasion.

Now we're going to make some noise

and bash out all those natural oils and flavours.

And then we're going to go in with the next ingredient

and that's nuts. You could use hazelnuts,

almonds, pine nuts,

pistachios. A little handful going in.

So, the almond is quite neutral,

the wild garlic and parsley is feisty,

and now we want something salty and creamy in here,

which will be the cheese.

Parmesan, which is great, but also I'm going to use cheddar,

about 50g of cheese in there.

Olive oil,

about three tablespoons, and go from banging to muddling.

Now, the one tweak that

I do that isn't particularly traditional,

is just a little squeeze of lemon juice.

It just cuts through the oil. Let's have a little try.

Oh, my Lord! Ooh, that is good!

You cannot compare home-made pesto to anything in a jar.

That is full of life,

full of optimism, like, just like spring.

So, out comes the string, butcher's string.

Every house should have some.

So, what you want is like,

five, six or seven bits of string like this.

Get your lovely salmon fillet

and we're going to go straight on top like that.

You don't have to do it perfect,

it's there just to secure the fillets.

Just a little salt and pepper

and then we're going to take that incredible pesto

and just put a nice couple of tablespoons on each side.

Save back some for the new potatoes.

I'm going to lay bits of asparagus like this,

then we'll go in with that lovely stuffing on top.

Just pat it down, take this lovely fillet here

and simply put it on the top. Super, super simple.

Last but not least, we're taking vibes from surf and turf,

so I have a little prosciutto.

That whole thing about cured meat and fish really does work.

Look at this beautiful thyme.

At springtime, it's tender like this.

It's like a little posy. Grab some oil,

put that over the herb like that.

That'll release the incredible flavour.

When the fat on the thyme goes onto the fat on

the prosciutto, which then goes through

and across the fish, it's going to be dreamy.

So, all we have to do now is tie it up

and what I do is I double knot. One, two,

and that just helps you secure it nice and firm.

And tie it,

nice and tight.

Tie it in a knot.

It's not about looking pretty,

it's not even about being accurate,

it just has to be secure.

Little slices of lemon,

they'll just kind of go jammy and gorgeous,

and give off some nice juice and that'll be fantastic.

This will absolutely feed 12 people generously.

Look at that!

Something a little bit different

and if you wanted to do this the day before a party,

whack it in the fridge, happy days.

What I would recommend, just like a cut of meat,

is take it out of the fridge an hour before you cook it,

just to come up in temperature.

But I've preheated the oven to 220 degrees Celsius,

which is around about 450 Fahrenheit.

Whack that in the oven like that

and immediately turn it down to 180.

That higher temperature is going to roast up the top,

get it crispy, and then by turning it down immediately,

it's going to evenly cook through that salmon.

35 minutes and that should be absolutely beautiful.

Conker, in your bed. Good boy! Good boy.

So, I've just put the new potatoes back on to heat up

and I'll finish those in a second. This smells incredible.

It's so joyful and look at that!

What an incredible thing! I love it.

So, just like a cut of meat,

give this a basting...

...and get some of those flavours back over the salmon.

You can see how the prosciutto has just gone so beautiful.

Ho-ho! Just remove that paper.

So, I'm just going to take these new potatoes...

They smell amazing!

Right, let's remove the mint.

So while they're hot and steamy,

put this incredible pesto over the top.

Some will break up, some are whole.

They're pearly white, tender, nutty, creamy.

These are the ultimate potatoes.

The smell coming off this is incredible.

So, we're letting this lovely salmon rest.

When you let it rest, the moisture goes back

to all parts that moisture should go back to,

and also it just helps it hold its shape in

the most beautiful way so we can get a lovely cross-section and slice.

Let's take the thyme off cos we're not eating that.

It smells incredible!

Come on, let's plate a portion up.

The first slice is always the tricky one.

Look at that! Look at that cross-section.

Let's get a nice little slice.

Onto the plate, look how juicy that is!

Get some of those beautiful new potatoes.

So, there you go, lovely people.

That is a dish definitely worthy of celebrating springtime.

That, with a little bit of salad here, is going to be

a meal fit for a king.

Beautiful, look at that.

Can't wait to try this.

I'm going to go for the new potatoes first.

I'm not even going to cut it, I'm just going to go in whole.

Mm!

So delicate.

Creamy, nutty,

and that wild garlic pesto is just incredible with it.

Let's have a little go at that salmon.

Just wants to flake in the most beautiful way.

Ho-ho-ho!

Wow! The sweet asparagus really harmonises with the fish,

which is delicate,

but then again, on the outside of the fish...

Crunchy, golden, delicious prosciutto with that taste of thyme.

That, my friends,

is a dish worth celebrating with people that you love.

It's a great springtime treat.

How about that?

Edging towards the end of spring, broad beans,

they're in, they're well in.

Let me show you what's inside cos I just think they're magical.

Look what's in there!

When this outer skin is green like that...

...it's tender.

Sweet and delicious, fresh. It's kind of like a pea,

but its more kind of slightly classier cousin.

And on the same stem here,

you can see you've got smaller ones. They're a treasure.

In here, these were planted out in early April

and they're older and bigger,

and they're going to be in the supermarkets right now.

As they get older, they go a little bit more white.

So, look at the difference in colour. Can you see that?

That's why you'd want to peel those.

You can blanch them and just pinch the skin off

and it's a faff but it's kind of worth it cos it only comes around

like, four, five weeks of the year, really.

But peel them and they are delicious,

but you just need to cook them slightly differently.

Beans, beans everywhere.

I'm elevating these sweet and creamy broad beans to another level.

They're in season right now,

perfect with silky Parma ham and salty pecorino,

and I'm popping them out of their cosy jackets

and treating them to a herby, citrussy dressing

to make a truly special broad bean meze.

Broad beans. Delicious.

I've got those slightly white, leathery ones.

I thought that would be really useful,

just to show how I would approach them because, often,

you know, people don't quite know what to do.

Do you have to peel them? Do you not have to peel them?

And also, like, I've got those broad beans that are small

and I've got a few little surprising ways to treat that,

that I think most people don't know about.

They really can be cooked in so many different ways.

So, first up, when they're young like this,

they haven't created that kind of fibrous structure.

The whole thing can be enjoyed dressed and devoured.

They're delicious. So, I'm just going to finely slice some little

bits of broad bean there. Very simple.

Do it at an angle and get a little cross-section.

Also, don't forget those little inner leaves.

If you take those off, these are delicious.

So, broad bean, inside, outside, and leaves.

Dress it with some olive oil.

Lemon juice is always really joyful.

Salt. I'll dress this up like that.

That's looking beautiful. You can use prosciutto,

Parma ham.

Just do little waves of cured meat around a plate.

So, savoury, salty and fatty.

And then I'll just take those lovely broad beans.

And then finish off with just a speed peeler

and a little pecorino, but it could be Parmesan.

That is a really, really simple, easy preparation.

A few little nice mint leaves here.

So, there you go. That's the first plate with broad beans.

And then, those slightly older broad beans.

Often, people are like, "I don't like broad beans,"

and that's because of the skin.

It gets a little bit kind of dry, tannic,

and it's not so sweet and delicious. So, we need to peel them.

The easiest way to do that is in a pan of salted,

boiling water. They don't need much cooking.

A minute is all you need.

This is an Italian-style of cooking called sott'olio,

under oil, marinated. It's brilliant for celebrating anything green

and delicious, especially at this time of year.

The asparagus goes in.

I've also got some little Swiss chard.

Spring onions go in.

How many times do you go into your fridge

and sort of see random bits and pieces

and they look really boring, but actually there's little procedures

and recipes that can make them really delicious?

I definitely, definitely don't want to overcook it,

so we're about possibly a minute in.

These lovely leaves, look at them.

Just put them out on a nice big board.

Cos everything's so delicate in spring,

doesn't need much cooking. I've seen nonnas do this,

grandmothers in Italy, you know,

with all kinds of the bounty of spring.

Anything that's shooting. But look at that, what a picture!

Can you see how this one is kind of trying

to escape from that little leathery case?

So, the heat's done all the hard work for you.

Cover the bottom of the plate with olive oil.

Delicately cut the asparagus into little bits.

Look at that beautiful Swiss chard.

And then we can start podding the broad beans straight in there.

It's actually a pleasure at the weekend when you've got time

to do these sort of things, it's so nice,

and I don't know what my kids think of me, like, you know,

they come into the kitchen and there's always things steaming

and getting marinated and I'm always making noises and if things are

good, I'm always screaming with excitement.

I... And I think, "I know they think I'm weird,"

but I think it's so exciting.

When things are in season and at their best,

it should be at its cheapest, and most nutritious.

As a cook, it never gets boring.

So, we have the olive oil, then we could go lemon juice

and we could start twisting in some herbs.

A nice little bit of golden marjoram.

That is beautiful, isn't it? Gordon Bennett!

A pretty perfect vegetable at a pretty perfect time of the year.

That is what cooking in season is all about.

Little forkful of springtime right there.

So simple, so clean, and just full of life.

Look out for broad beans right now. Get down the markets,

the supermarkets and get inspired. Just have a go and enjoy.

So, lettuces, they absolutely love springtime.

You just get such a whoosh, a flurry of growth.

Sort of typical ones here, like the oak leaf.

Such a great lettuce. You get those in the supermarkets.

This is gem, standard gem.

Like, probably one of the most common leaves that you can get in

the supermarket, and the thing I love about lettuces,

there's pretty much a lettuce for every single month of the year.

Most of them love springtime

and they prefer it to be a bit cold.

If it's a bit hot, they're not really sure about it.

When you harvest some of these lettuce,

if you leave the base still attached in the ground,

you'll go back two weeks later and it's started growing again.

Most of these, or versions of these, you can get in good supermarkets.

Right, this for the chickens, this for me.

I'm taking crunchy, new season salad leaves,

at their very best in spring, and pimping them up with my twist on

a classic French dressing,

served with a stunning roast chicken and nuggets of tangy cheese,

in my roast chicken springtime salad.

One of my favourite things about growing veggies is just going out,

cutting salads, like when I'm doing it, I'm thinking about what am I

going to do with it, what do I fancy today?

I'm almost creating recipes as I'm doing it,

and I want to do a version of a classic French salad,

a roquefort salad. It's so good.

I want to put a little warm element to this, so I'm

going to do a really beautiful spatchcocked roast chicken.

So, let's start with the marinade for the chicken.

I'm going to use some beautiful herbs here.

I've got some oregano. It's a brilliant herb,

beautiful, savoury herb with citrussy notes.

Very good with lamb, very good with chicken.

Actually, it's very good with fish, it's good with everything.

What I'm going to do is just get all these leaves off

the stalk. Like a handful. A generous handful we got there.

And we'll get those in the pestle and mortar.

If you haven't got one,

you can use a liquidiser, or you can chop it if you want.

A nice, generous pinch of salt and pepper.

And give it a ruddy good bashing. Excuse the noise.

BANGING

Once you've got it to a kind of nice little pulp like this,

right, we can go in then with a couple of cloves of garlic.

Once the garlic's smashed up,

then loosen that with olive oil.

That's about three tablespoons.

And we go from bashing then to muddling,

and that is how you extract incredible flavour.

Now, we want to little bit of acidity to balance that,

so it could be lemon juice, it could be vinegar.

It doesn't really matter. So, a little bit of lemon juice goes in,

and that over the chicken is going to be amazing.

Look at the colour. When I roast it, by the way,

I'm going to put a very simple trivet of a couple of onions,

just cut in half like that,

and I leave the skins on

because they kind of protect the onions

and allow them to really kind of caramelise and go jammy

and sticky and gorgeous.

And then a little bit of garlic.

Again, leave it in the skins, and later on,

I can squeeze the garlic out and it's sweet

and caramelised and gorgeous. Now, for the chicken,

the easiest preparation ever is to spatchcock

the chicken. You pick it up like that,

you get a knife.

You're going to do one little cut down the back

and that's going to open it out like a book.

And just flatten it out. By making it flat,

you've increased the surface area, it's going to cook quicker.

But also we've got this kind of thing between

the breast meat that cooks quicker than the leg meat.

So what I want to do is encourage more flavour in this breast meat.

You get the skin at the back

and you stick your finger under the breast,

like this. Right to the end. Try not to tear it anywhere,

right, and you do it on the other side as well.

So now we've got a pocket between the breast

and the skin,

and then I can put the marinade under there,

I can put a knob of butter under there.

Hi. Hi, babe.

How are you, all right? You all right?

Yeah, good. In my little shack.

No, I love it. Lunch is being prepared.

Um, can you grab that butter and bring it over here?

Can you cut me two slithers of butter,

about a centimetre thick, please? Yeah.

If you can pass me that cos I've got chickeny hands.

I just take the skin and the butter

and I put it underneath like that.

And take some of this marinade, and not just put it on the top,

but also put it inside as well.

Take these onions.

I'll face them down like that. And the garlic.

And I'll take our beautiful chicken, right.

That is going to taste incredible.

All of this marinade here, don't waste any of that.

We'll put that on top.

So that's going to go in the oven for about 50 minutes to

an hour at 200 degrees Celsius, 400 Fahrenheit.

I'm going to have a little wash up.

Um, how was River today?

Fine, fine, fine. Is he on good form?

Yep. He's up so early these days.

4.30?

OK, so we're going to do lardons. If you can just put

a little bit of olive oil in there, J.

Yeah. Does it matter which one? That one's great.

Lovely, smoked streaky bacon.

This is just stuff from the supermarket.

I want the lardons to be, like, golden, crunchy,

but still soft enough to be a pleasure to eat.

Put a little bit of black pepper on these as well.

So after about a minute, you can see that's nice and golden.

Look at that!

Lardons done, and I'm now going to do some croutons.

Use any bread that you can get your hands on.

So just cut them into sort of rough dice.

Nothing very specific. So, J, do you mind

just sprinkling those onto there? Yeah.

And the only missing trick is the dressing.

Dijon mustard is the beginning of the story.

A nice, generous one or two teaspoons.

Olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Try that.

Delicious, right? Nice, yeah.

So, two tablespoons of lovely red wine vinegar.

What you can do - if you're geeky - is you can blend

an olive oil with an extra virgin olive oil.

Um, the extra virgin olive oil will be more mustardy,

more peppery, you know,

more like cut grass flavours and super heart healthy.

Normally, it's like three or four times the amount of oil

to vinegar.

And then a little honey, a little teaspoon going in there.

That's very good.

Oh, that is really good. That's so much better.

Yeah. Let's layout the salad and we'll be good to go.

One of the things to watch out

for when you grow your own lettuce is,

cos nature is part of the salad leaves,

you will get little kind of, you know,

worms and slugs and things like that,

so you got to wash them like two, three times,

just to stay on top of that, cos we've had

a few members of the animal family...

Yeah, the kids go mad. Yeah, the kids go... bonkers.

Sometimes I lie and say it's a crouton.

To finish that off, let's have this little bit of radish.

Now it's time for the really classic bit,

the roquefort.

What we're doing is taking an average salad to

the next level.

Last but not least, a nice handful of grated walnuts.

I got the lovely lardons. That is a fine salad.

Jools, put a few croutons on the top.

Beautiful dressing.

Look at that. Thick, gorgeous French dressing.

Just finish it with some lovely herbs.

Fennel...

And you've got those lovely chive flowers right now.

Look at those. And these are bang in season.

So, Jools, if you can sprinkle those over the top in

a nice flourish, I'll finely slice these.

The chive flowers are like the most delicate,

sort of fragrant, sweet flavour.

That chicken's had about 50 minutes.

The spatchcocking at 200 does roast very,

very fast.

Look at that chicken.

That is full of deliciousness.

This is my idea of heaven.

Just plate up two lovely plates of food

and have a nice little bit of lunch together. Hungry?

Yeah. You can tell if

a chicken's cooked nicely if that meat just kind of comes off

the bone, not... Just easily.

Can you see how juicy it is?

Completely moist, beautifully cooked through.

And I know someone that might want to try it.

Let's get a bit without any of that garlic flavouring. Conker!

He was literally just going on round to find you. Yeah.

Can't believe the dog gets a bit of chicken before me.

Let's get in here, take out a nice little wodge.

Make sure you've got a little bit of everything on there.

There you go, the love of my life.

Why don't you sit at my desk over there,

and I'll come and join you?

I haven't set up a proper table here yet.

How is it, J? Amazing. The... the best lunch ever.

Really?

Yeah, it's right up my street.

Does that mean you'll come over to my little shack more often?

Yeah, I will. Definitely.

I'm going to have to get a table here, though.

Mm.

I love it. It's so good.

Leaves, crouton, bacon, dressing.

The cheese is the best bit.

That explosion of cheese. Hmm. So good.

Yeah. Such a delicious salad.

Gorgeous. And that roasted chicken,

it's a really good way to cook it. So juicy. Jools?

Mm-hm?

When we've finished this... Yeah.

...can you help me with the washing-up? Absolutely.

I've been experimenting a lot recently

with savoury ways of cooking with rhubarb - delicious -

but when you cook rhubarb and sugar together

and you get that syrup and that flavour,

it's absolutely lip-smacking.

I love it - and it really shouts out springtime. Amazing.

So I'm giving this seasonal tart

and tangy rhubarb a date with its soulmate from

the sweet shop - creamy, sweet, vanilla-y custard.

Wrapped up in crumbly almond pastry,

topped with crunchy brittle and a juicy,

sweet and sour rhubarb syrup, to create a sensational,

flaky rhubarb and custard tart.

Rhubarb is definitely one of my favourite ingredients,

but before we get onto that, we're going to make the pastry,

and this is no ordinary pastry.

We're going to do an almond and vanilla pastry.

It's so joyful. 250g of beautiful butter here,

unsalted, and 250g of ground almonds.

Right. Then we're going to go in with 250g of plain flour.

So, very easy to remember. 250, 250, 250.

So, what I'm going to do first is just use my fingers

and thumbs to just rub that together.

When you make this into a pastry,

it really is a delicious, crumbly, sweet,

short pastry, full of flavour,

so I think this works really well

with the rhubarb, which is quite tart.

Then I'm going to go in with one egg.

At the same time, I'll add a good teaspoon of vanilla paste.

This is going to be full of flavour.

Then you can put 100g of icing sugar.

Not super sweet,

but enough to convince it that it's not kind of savoury.

We're definitely going into the world of sweet.

What we're going to do now is pop it back in the fridge

to rest and also firm up so it's much more pliable

and you can roll it out nicely.

We're going to have half for the base and half for the lid.

This is not a shortcrust pastry,

this is an almond pastry, so it's a little bit wetter.

Then you just want to tear off two little bits of greaseproof paper.

And this is going to do two things.

It's going to cover the pastry,

but it's also going to help you roll it out nice

and thin later, without it breaking.

Beautiful.

Now they go in a fridge for half an hour until they firm up.

So, we have a kilo of beautiful rhubarb.

And I'm just going to roughly slice it into sort

of inch chunks.

If I can just enjoy a little slither...

I love it, I love it. Me face goes like this.

I used to do this a lot when I was a kid,

don't worry about it. Used to dip it into sugar.

So that definitely needs sugar.

HE LAUGHS

So, for one kilo,

I'm going to go in with 200g of golden caster sugar.

So get that in to balance that sourness.

I'm going to carry on the theme of

the vanilla cos I just think it works so well.

So a little teaspoon goes in.

I'm also going to peel this lovely apple.

This is a cooker, and it's stored over winter,

so before we get into the next season of apples,

this is last season's.

So, have a little peel up, and then we want to remove the core.

When I was a kid, my mum used to core them

and then stuff them with brown sugar and dried fruit

and nuts and things like that. Utterly delicious.

Haven't done that for years! God, I got to do that again.

This apple is not only best friends with rhubarb,

but the pectin in the apple really helps give

the rhubarb some stability.

Just a little swig of water to help it along.

Let that simmer away for about ten to 15 minutes until

the apples and rhubarb have stewed down nicely.

Now, I cheated a little bit cos I put my pastry in

the freezer,

which actually speeds up that resting, I think, in this case.

So, what we're going to do is roll this out now

and do the base of the pastry case.

I'm going to put this into

a 26cm - or ten inch - pastry case mould.

So, this little cheat here with the greaseproof paper is brilliant.

If it starts going a bit wonky, you can reshape it.

Very easy. A lot of tears, rolling pastry out.

A lot of people scared to do pastry

because of it breaking or shattering,

and I think the greaseproof paper is a brilliant little tip.

That is a picture. That is a picture right there.

Let's have a little look. Let's check it.

It's always good now actually to have a little taste.

No, it's good. It's cooked.

So I'm just going to put a little pan down

and save some of this syrup,

and that you can use to serve with your tart

and maybe a bit of ice cream or cream,

or clotted cream, or creme fraiche,

or whatever kind of makes you happy in life.

Back to our tart shell, and then just roll it out again.

I think we're just about...

...good... to... go.

You can't get this wrong because you're measuring it, right?

Perfect.

Put it over your mould like that.

Whip it off, nice and quickly.

If you do it and it sticks in anyway,

shape or form, do not worry. You just patch it,

right, like a little Band-Aid. No worries at all.

This is a rustic tart. Plug any holes.

Get a little fork and give it a little prick.

And that's now going to go in

an oven which has been preheated to 180 degrees Celsius,

350 Fahrenheit, and I'll cook it for exactly ten minutes,

and it'll be cooked but blonde, and that'll be perfect.

OK, the custard.

Pan - back on the heat.

600ml of beautiful whole milk.

We've a little bit left in here,

and put three tablespoons of custard powder,

so this'll be nice and vanilla-y

and also it will set quite nice

and thick, cos you want it to hold its shape.

So, as that milk comes up to a simmer,

then I pour a little bit of it into here

And then pour it back into here.

And I've got 100g of sugar,

just to sweeten it up and make it delicious.

When I came up with this recipe, what I was trying

to recreate in tart form was those fantastic old-fashioned rhubarb

and custard sweets that you used to get from

the penny sweet shop when you were little.

And they were delicious. That's what I was after.

And I'm now going to go and get the pastry case out of the oven.

Yes!

So, let's just get that out, nice and carefully.

So that smells absolutely amazing. So it's quite blonde

and it's only got brown around the edges.

And to be honest, we're going to get the rolling pin

and we will just get rid of those edges.

That simple. And when I get the pastry on top,

it's going to make it look absolutely beautiful.

So, look, this is blipping away.

Straight into this tart like that. Look at that.

And let that cool down.

That will then hold this rhubarb here.

And this lovely syrup here - it's loose, right?

Pop that on a heat.

Let that simmer down and this cool for about 20 minutes,

and then I'll show you how to put it all together.

So, what I've got is the custard that's semi-cooled down,

and it's created a little bit of a skin. Can you see that?

And that skin is your best friend cos it's going to stop

the rhubarb kind of going through.

So let's just put that to one side.

I'm going to do an egg wash.

This is going to make it go nice and shiny on the outside,

on the top of the tart. But not only that,

it's going to help us glue the side of the pastry to the top.

Paint the inside like that.

Then we're going to take our rhubarb and just lay it on the top...

...and create that lovely layer.

I've really enjoyed experimenting with rhubarb over

the years. You know, that syrup here,

you can use that with champagne,

like a little kind of rhubarb Bucks Fizz kind of thing.

You can use it with, like, pates and parfaits and terrines.

Just kind of cuts through the richness.

What a beautiful thing.

So we're going to go for the final little roll on our pastry.

And I'm just going to literally hold it with one hand,

put it over, no stress, and then just pull it off.

And if that pastry's nice and cold,

it'll come off like that.

I'm just using the side of my hand here to press down.

And you'll create a seal.

Simple as that, right?

Get your egg wash on.

Right, let's get that in the oven.

So, while that beautiful tart is cooking for half an hour,

I've got a fantastic little hack that transforms your everyday flaked

almonds that you get in a pack

to something beyond delicious.

Just take a tablespoon of icing sugar,

a little, half tablespoon of water.

Yeah, perfect.

And then put in the almonds like that.

If you mix that up, it coats these almonds.

And if you put that on top of the tart,

it creates the most beautiful almond brittle,

crunchy on the outside.

And that will be amazing with sort of ice cream

and over chocolate desserts. It's a beautiful thing.

HE CHUCKLES

Look at that. Oh, I love it! Beautiful.

So, with ten minutes to go,

I'm going to take this incredible almond brittle...

...and put them in and around.

It's just fun.

Oh, there's one last little one. Go on,

you go there, fella. So now, back in the oven for ten minutes,

and that's going to be a beautiful thing.

HE SIGHS

The sun's setting and looking amazing,

and this beautiful tart is going to put a big smile on my face.

Let me give you a little tip. Get something that fits just within

the sort of hole underneath the pastry tart mould.

And then if you're lucky, that'll come off.

Look at that! Look at that pastry!

Almond and vanilla pastry.

Oh, yes. Let's have a little try, shall we?

Ah!

Come on. We've got this, tart, we've got this.

Pure bliss. Come on.

Layers of custard and rhubarb.

Those fantastic almonds.

And just a little bit of creme fraiche.

And then this beautiful syrup.

Oh, yes!

Whoa-ha-ha!

Oh, wow. Pastry is incredible.

And that rhubarb flavour is just extraordinary.

So tangy and so delicious.

It reminds me of school dinners, it reminds me of my nan,

it reminds me of my mum. Humble... and utterly delicious.

And what a celebration of spring.

The perfect end to the perfect spring day.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media