Original subtitles

There is one special place where I worked as a young chef

that has remained close to my heart...

Didn't think I'd come to France and find the Barnsley chop.

..and one region in particular that is full of passionate producers

and incredible ingredients.

This is Provence.

We are going to be discovering the secrets

of the very best and simplest French cooking.

That is a discovery.

LAURENE LAUGHS

Nice and easy, simple dinner for one.

I'll be sharing tips, tricks and techniques...

We've got flavours of Provence.

There's sunshine for you.

..and enjoying a bit of friendly rivalry along the way...

That was close!

I'm a little nervous.

THEY LAUGH

I knew I wouldn't be able to fool them.

Yes.

ALL LAUGH

..all in the name of bringing you a simple taste of Provence.

When in France, it's very easy

to focus on the savoury food offerings.

Bonjour. Marcus! Bonjour! Ca va?

Not surprising with all the incredible meat, fish,

veg and cheese in such abundance.

Wow, wow, wow.

But today, I've come to the market to discover

what simple sweet treats are on offer...

Bonjour, madame.

..and temptation isn't in short supply.

This was one of my weaknesses

when I worked in Paris for a short period of time.

I could never walk past a patissier without looking or buying.

One of my favourites was a mille-feuille.

While the pastries bring back fond memories,

something equally as nostalgic has caught my eye.

Bonjour. Bonjour. Hello, Marcus.

Wow.

HE LAUGHS

Maybe do you want try some nougat? I will try some.

Mm. Very nice.

The reason why I'm smiling is because

my mum always used to buy this, only at Christmas.

Yes. And she used to have it all on the table.

But whenever you used to chew it, it used to stick your teeth together.

You couldn't really eat it.

But this is sort of delicious because it melts in the mouth.

It's not the memory that I had before.

Nougat has been popular in southern Europe since the Middle Ages.

It's made with beaten egg whites and sugar or honey,

flavoured with regional ingredients like candied fruits or roasted nuts.

Almond and pistachio. Are they from Provence?

Local product. Really? Yes. Ah!

Almonds from this region.

Right, I did not know they grew almonds in Provence.

Merci, madame. Have a nice day. Merci.

Bonjour, monsieur. Bonjour.

Lavender. It's my favourite.

Wow. It's beautiful.

TOMMY SPEAKS FRENCH

Like aftershave. Ah!

BOTH LAUGH

That's lavender.

That is my favourite flower and one of my favourite herbs,

and I always try and incorporate it somewhere into my cookery.

But what I've never, ever done is I've never rubbed it in my hands

and made my beard smell delicious.

MARCUS AND TOMMY LAUGH

Now, there's a first!

A lavender-scented beard.

Very nice.

That's given me just the inspiration I need

to create the ultimate simple sweet treat...

..and this is about as quick and as easy as it gets.

I'm going to show you how to use lavender

so that you can bring a little bit of Provence into your cooking.

It's as simple as this.

We've all got this at home in our cupboard -

sugar, any white sugar.

Pour it in a bowl.

I'm just breaking the flower into it.

I'm just slightly crushing it between my finger and thumb.

When you put a dry herb into sugar

and you just leave it sitting for a while,

the lovely aroma of the flower...

..is absorbed into the sugar.

Whenever we're using vanilla seeds,

we cut the vanilla pod in half, we take out the seeds.

What do you do with the vanilla pod?

Well, you certainly don't throw it away.

You put it into sugar and the vanilla infuses its flavour into the sugar.

Well, the lavender's just the same.

The good thing about using lavender in your sugar versus a vanilla pod

is this is so much cheaper.

It's a fraction of the cost of vanilla.

Where are you going to use it? Well, actually, wherever you use sugar -

your pastry, you can put it in your tea,

you can put it into your sponge, you can put it in your scone mix.

Or is it "scon"?

I say "scon".

Some say "scone".

The speckles of the lavender will be in your pastry.

In fact, do you know what?

It'll just bring a little bit of Provence into your baking.

I'm going to have to stop before I go too far

and it becomes lavender with a bit of sugar.

And I'm going to get it back into my jar.

This probably has to be one of the easiest ways to elevate

one of the cheapest ingredients we all have in our store cupboard.

And there we go. It's as simple as that.

Lavender sugar.

Provencal style.

It's a lovely and economical home-made treat,

and the perfect gift to take to my neighbour Emilee,

who's a font of knowledge when it comes to traditional local dishes.

And in my hunt for the ultimate authentic Provencal sweet,

she's invited me to cook quince with her.

Hi, Emilee. Hi, Marcus.

Enchante. Hello. I've brought gifts.

Oh, nice. My lavender sugar.

Thank you.

This is my quinces. These look great.

Yes, they're lovely. I love quince.

I've got a small tree back home. OK.

Small one, and there's some fruit coming on.

Quince can be traced back to the ancient Greeks

and, until the Middle Ages, were more popular than apples or pears.

But unlike those fruits,

quince tastes so sour you wouldn't want to eat one raw.

They're hard to work with, they're very hard to peel and to cut, so...

Well, can I help while you're doing that? Thank you.

My mum and my grandmother used to cook them a lot, but not any more.

Ah, really? People get...

You know, they're hard to work with, so... How difficult are they?

They are very difficult.

But it's traditional to have paste made out of quinces.

You see that with the cheese.

With cheese and also with 13 desserts that we serve in Provence.

Ah! Which dessert?

The 13 desserts. 13? 13 desserts. What is that?

They're not exactly cakes,

but 13 desserts are dried fruits,

like hazelnuts, walnuts and raisins and dried figs.

And we have a quince paste,

so that's one of the 13 desserts that you put on that platter.

Quince paste may be traditional in Provence,

but it takes such a long time to cook.

I want to try something much quicker and sweeter.

And what I've come to do, I'd like to try and make,

is just like a compote to have with breakfast.

OK. I've never tried it, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Mm-hm, sure. You're very brave, using a knife like that.

BOTH LAUGH

I want to start cooking. I'm going to start making the compote.

Right, let's get these in a pan.

QUINCE SIZZLES

Although sour,

quince has a citrussy flavour

which pairs well with spices.

Cinnamon.

Vanilla.

That's good. Cinnamon and vanilla, yeah.

Mm-hm.

And a touch of cardamom.

Oh, the smell of cinnamon.

Ah! It's incredible.

Right. Let's turn this up.

And now for the gift I've brought along.

This is the special stuff. Mm-hm. This is the special stuff.

Because the quince is so bitter, it can take a lot of sugar.

You know, you could say I'm a little bit,

slightly obsessed with lavender.

Are you? Yeah, I put it into lots of things. OK.

Jam making, rubs, cakes -

all sorts of things. Mm-hm.

Next, in goes the water.

I feel like I'm getting a quince steam bath, facial.

EMILEE CHUCKLES

And as the sun starts to set on us,

it just needs to cook for about 20 minutes to soften the fruit.

Do you know what I should've brought with me?

You know what the miners wear when they wear a hat with a light on?

That's what you and I should have. EMILEE LAUGHS

But look, look, look.

Headlights. Headlights.

Emilee knows all about Provencal sweet treats,

but what about one of our favourites?

What do you think of the British afternoon tea?

Oh. I think it's great.

Yes!

HE LAUGHS

I think it's fantastic.

"Scon" or "scones"? Mm-hm, OK.

I say "scon". OK. The posh people say "scones". Really?

Scones. OK!

So, do you think this will go nicely with the scones? I think...

Yes, I would. So you say it posh.

Scone. You said it the posh way, didn't you?

BOTH LAUGH

And while we can just about see,

our quince compote is ready.

It's the perfect texture.

It may not be authentically Provencal,

but perhaps a new classic.

I think we've done a good job.

EMILEE CHUCKLES

I'm happy with that, and it's something different.

I think you can grab those and we'll go in.

I'll grab my sugar. Thank you.

It's fantastic making the quince compote, or trying to,

you know, and it's really funny.

I've done a lot of cooking in the garden over the last few years

and I absolutely adore it,

but the sun sort of went down a little bit quick on me there.

Cooking in the dark - that's a first for me.

I think I need to speed up.

Something else I discovered

the locals like to use in their sweet treats is almonds.

Once grown all across southern France,

more profitable crops such as olives

have seen almond trees almost disappear

from the Provencal landscape.

Now, with only 12,000 acres of almond orchards left,

farms like L'Amandelier are working hard

to preserve the Provencal almond.

My friend and local food guide, Pascale,

has invited me to meet the owner, Geraldine,

and help with the harvest...

Aha.

Here you are, I found you!

Bonjour. Bonjour, Marcus. Geraldine.

Enchante. Bonjour, Marcus.

..although she didn't give me the dress code memo!

I have to say, I feel slightly underdressed.

You're very glamorous, both of you.

Oh, well... For farmers.

PASCALE LAUGHS

My attire may not be as chic,

but at least they've brought me an accessory.

You have to put your arms here.

That's it. Bon.

Voila. Parfait! OK, we're good?

This feels very familiar.

PASCALE LAUGHS

Last time I was wearing one of these, I was picking apples.

Really? Yes, in England. Wow.

Allez, Marcus. It's almonds today. OK.

It's just the almonds? Twist, yeah.

Parfait. Tres bien.

There's... There's quite a lot. Yeah.

The bigger the almond, the higher the price.

Ah!

These are quite big trees.

How old is this tree?

Cinq ans. Cinq ans? Yeah, it's five years old.

OK, so relatively quite new. Yes.

Seems quite big, for five. Oui.

They grow quickly.

And almonds are the first tree to bloom here in late February.

The climate is really good here, you see.

It's why you don't find them in northern region, for instance.

Yes. Because of the frost.

While the mild climate here is perfect for growing almonds,

nationwide demand outstrips anything producers like Geraldine can supply.

Only 5% are produced in France, you know.

So 5%? Yeah, only. Wow.

Rest comes from... Somewhere else.

Yeah, Spain mainly and then Italy, so if you want to...

Les Etats-Unis. Ah.

And of course, the United States. La Californie.

You need to plant more trees. Yes, we need to.

We need more space.

SHE LAUGHS

What happens to this once it's harvested?

All sorts of things - nougat, pastries.

Snacking. Snacking, yeah.

The patisserie, la restaurateur.

The nougat, the calisson. Voila.

I think back home in the UK,

we need to up our game with the use of almonds

because we use them a little bit,

but not as much as you do here in France.

Well... And each region may have like a special cake

or biscuit with almonds. Yeah.

Locally, you have calisson,

so a lot of these almonds will go into calisson.

Calisson are a very traditional Provencal sweet,

so could be just what I'm looking for.

Right, I've picked a few.

Can I taste some?

First of all, you have, er... Oh, no way!

You have the... No, no, no! How do you do it?

You have to do like our grandparents used to do.

Pick up two rocks. OK.

Use one as a board.

See? Perfect.

Wow. There we go.

Tres bien, chef! Superb.

PASCALE LAUGHS

Mm. They're beautiful and white inside. Wow.

Bon?

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, it's so fresh. It's perfect.

Make sure you don't eat them all before you cook them.

THEY LAUGH

Good point!

There's nothing quite like the taste of a fresh almond.

It's absolutely delicious.

It's delicate, it's mild, and there's nothing better than that.

The simplicity of the almond

when you've just picked it off the tree and you peel it yourself,

it's actually quite special and it's worth the effort.

I'm searching for the ultimate local sweet treat,

and in Provence, it doesn't get more traditional

than the calisson that Pascale and Geraldine told me about,

which are a little bit like marzipan.

They're produced all over the region,

and in Saint Remy, the Lilamand family

have been making them for over 150 years.

I've been invited by fifth-generation confectioner Pierre

to discover what makes this little almond sweet so special.

Bonjour. Bonjour. Enchante.

Wow.

I've heard so much about calisson.

Everybody talks about it as the little petit four of Provence.

I know all about the almonds,

but I really would love to understand how it's made.

I want to know what the magic is.

But before he reveals the family secret,

Pierre wants to test my palate.

Can you tell me what is it inside?

Ah! It's easy, it's easy!

Is it? Is it? Oui. OK.

THEY LAUGH

I've only just got here, and already,

my reputation as a chef is on the line.

Mm. Tastes good, huh?

And I'm feeling the pressure to get this right.

Mm. Sugar? Sucre?

C'est sucre. Yes.

Almond? There's amande.

Orange? Orange, yes.

Ah, oui? Un petit peu. Yeah.

Ah.

So far, so good.

One other important ingredient is missing.

Almond paste, or an almond essence?

No? No.

I'm stumped.

Do you want us to help you? Yes.

Candied, er...melon.

Melon? Melon.

Really? Really.

It's not a combination I would have expected.

This is very delicate. It's very, very nice. Superb.

Pierre's family have also made candied fruits for generations,

so it's no wonder that's the secret ingredient in their calisson.

Is it a family recipe?

It started in the 17th century already, yeah. OK.

And you will not find it in Brittany or...

It's really here in the south of France in La Provence.

C'est absolument regional. Absolument regional. Very regional.

So it's the recipe of Provence.

The paste is made by crushing all the ingredients in a huge vat.

It's then baked and left to marinate in melon syrup for 48 hours

before being pressed into a classic diamond calisson shape

and iced.

Wow. Wow. Beautiful.

Perfect.

Ah, wow.

Would you like to try it?

Really? Yeah. You sure?

Uh, Marcus Calisson. OK.

ALL LAUGH

Yeah, I like that, I like that!

They're letting me have a go...

..but in my experience, these things are easier said than done.

She makes it look so easy.

There's technique.

I have to say I'm feeling a little bit nervous.

Me and the machines, they don't normally go well.

The shapes have already been cut,

so my first job is to scrape off the excess paste.

PIERRE SPEAKS FRENCH

And you clean it.

Push on it, yeah.

Great.

OK. Ouais, OK. Perfect.

Oof! Ah, ah!

PIERRE SPEAKS FRENCH

And now for the icing.

Le glacage... It's the most difficult part.

Ouais. Yeah.

The royal icing.

Wow, this is going to be difficult.

With everyone watching, I really don't want to mess this up.

Oh!

Wow.

Now I have a problem.

LAUGHTER

Er...help!

Ah.

MARCUS LAUGHS

Not too... Not too much pressure. Not too much pressure.

HE EXHALES

It's more professional. Oh!

Merci!

THEY LAUGH

Oui, oui. That's not... That is...

They look simple.

It's one process and another and another and another.

But I can't let the machine or a little bit of royal icing

get the better of me.

It's just like icing a cake.

Well, 46 of them.

Yeah. Ah, c'est bien.

Perfect.

Et voila.

HE LAUGHS

It's a bit thick, but for the first time, it's very good.

These are for me. These are for me, OK?

Yeah, Marcus Calisson!

ALL LAUGH

Not bad for the second time.

Modern technology isn't always my thing,

but these machines have helped keep

calisson production going in the 21st century.

Can I, please?

Beautiful.

Wow.

When you bite, crunch,

the beautiful texture of the almond,

the syrup of the melon - it's delicious.

Oh, c'est parfait. Merci.

My icing may not be up to scratch,

but I'm not bad at quality control.

Can I ask a question? Of course.

Would you ever hire me to come and work in this beautiful factory?

Would you give me a job?

Ah, uh, absolument.

ALL LAUGH

Thank goodness.

Ah, OK, so I have a job? Employed? Si tu veux.

Perfect. If you want, if you want.

OK. I'll see you tomorrow.

PIERRE SPEAKS FRENCH

ALL LAUGH

Oh, just one more.

With only a few ingredients

and a traditional recipe dating back to the 1600s,

I think my mission to find

the ultimate Provencal sweet treat is complete.

Delicious. Really good. Mm.

I can't compete with the calisson,

but I am inspired by those almonds

and want to create something savoury to balance out all the sweet.

So I'm making a simple dish

that not only uses almonds in an exciting way,

but also celebrates a vegetable that we all know back home -

cauliflower salad on a bed of creamy almond hummus.

Cauliflower - it's cheap, it's cheerful -

and I'm going to show you two very interesting ways

to elevate this humble vegetable.

I'm going to do a little bit of roasting and some pickling.

Very, very simple.

So...

..just cut straight through.

And I quite like serving these inner leaves.

They're absolutely delicious. They're actually quite tender.

Almost treat them like a salad leaf.

I'm just going to cut those off.

I'm going to reintroduce those a little bit later.

Also, one of the things we're doing a lot more of is using the stem

that wraps around the cauliflower.

They're also good for using in salads, great for grating.

Almost, you can use those like you would make a coleslaw.

They're absolutely delicious.

So, you don't need to throw them away.

Put those to one side.

Then simply break the cauliflower into florets.

My memory of cauliflower when I was growing up

was of just overcooked cauliflower

that smelt the kitchen out a little bit.

There was no vegetable -

root vegetable or vegetables growing above the ground

that were never, ever allowed to have any crunch or bite.

Al dente was a word that was forbidden

in the Wareing household back home.

But that was just the way they did it in those days

and, of course, as we progress,

we change our recipes, we do different things.

So, I love roasted cauliflower.

What I love about roasted cauliflower,

it just brings out the nutty flavour in there.

So, I've just taken off some florets

and I just want to get some charring onto some of these round ones,

and I've cut some of them in half

so I that I can get some charring on the inside, too.

What I'm going to do is just drizzle a little bit of oil

before it goes onto the grill.

Season with salt, pepper and some cumin seeds

for a nutty, earthy flavour...

..along with any fresh or dried herbs you like.

I'm using thyme.

Give it all a toss and set aside.

Got my pan on here.

I'm just going to make a little pickling liquid.

A little bit of white wine vinegar.

Couple of spoons of sugar.

Remember, a pickling liquid

is a sweet and sour -

vinegar for your sour,

sugar for your sweet.

I'm just going to throw in a few cloves.

The most important thing about the pickling liquid

is bringing it up to the boil first

before you put that on top of your vegetables.

Bring it up to the boil and just give it a little bit of a taste.

HE COUGHS

Do you know what?

COUGHING CONTINUES

I do that every time. That vinegar's strong.

Sweet and sour, that's what you're looking for.

While that comes to the boil, prepare the rest of the cauliflower.

Just nice slivers.

If you've got a little mandolin at home,

you can slice it on the mandolin,

but I actually quite like to do it by hand.

And if you want to, you can also just do

a little slice of the core.

So, normally, we throw this bit away,

but actually, it's just as tasty as the cauliflower florets themselves.

Pour over the hot liquid and leave to pickle

while you finish preparing the rest of the salad.

Right, now I can get my cauliflower onto the barbecue.

On they go.

Cauliflower's on the barbecue cos I haven't got an oven up here,

but it's quite an easy thing to do.

As I had them in the tray, just put them into the oven,

200 degrees C,

10, 15 minutes until they're nice and brown -

roasted cauliflower.

A little bit of colour on them.

Keep turning them around.

I'm just looking for those little bits of charred goodness

just there, around the outside there.

I just love that nutty flavour that you get

when you put it onto the barbecue.

Lovely.

Just crush up some cumin seeds in my hand.

And I'm just going to cover that with some tinfoil...

..and the residual heat will just gently cook them through.

Now for an interesting way to make the most of my Provencal almonds.

So, for the base of the cauliflower dish,

I'm going to make a hummus using chickpeas as the base,

but into that, I'm going to put some of these beautiful almonds,

just for a little bit of texture.

So put your drained chickpeas in a blender.

Some tahini paste.

Put some almonds in.

You could use blanched or sliced almonds,

but I find they're less expensive

if you buy them with their skin still on.

The more processed the nuts are, the more they cost,

so if you can buy them with the skin on, it's fine.

Little bit of olive oil.

Lid on.

And give it a good blitz.

Hummus is one of the quickest dips you can make

using all store cupboard ingredients.

Right, let's have a little look at this.

Beautiful.

It's gently soft.

Lovely char. Perfect.

Right, beautiful hummus.

Lovely consistency.

We're pretty much good to dress now.

Put hummus onto our plate...

..and spread that around.

Be generous.

All we need to do now is just put all the cauliflower

and just dress it however you like.

And then that beautiful picture just starts to come together.

Just put the little crunchy cauliflower flecks in between.

It's simple, it's humble,

it's just dressed a bit differently.

But why not show off when you get the chance?

And just for a bit of colour,

a few chives just to go on top.

And additional flavour.

A few leaves.

I'm using every bit of the cauliflower.

Little splash of oil.

And just to finish it off,

just chop up a couple of almonds, just roughly.

Roasted and pickled cauliflower salad

with a new take on a classic hummus.

A simple, healthy way to celebrate the almond

and balance out all those sweet treats.

There we have it.

Absolutely delicious. Looks fantastic.

I love what the almonds bring into the hummus.

They bring a real added flavour, a lovely little bit of bite,

just a little bit of bite in the background.

Absolutely fantastic.

Almonds - they're not just for Christmas and your granola.

You can put them into something a little bit different and just...

..make your cooking just that little bit more exciting.

Mm.

Thank you, Provence,

for all your sweet and savoury simple inspiration.