Original subtitles

Summertime is here...

...and there's some incredible British fruit and veg

bursting with flavour and ripe for the picking.

From succulent strawberries

to tiny cherry tomatoes that are like miniature flavour bombs,

these are the incredible ingredients that are best right now.

They're at their most delicious, most affordable,

better for you and the planet.

So if you've got a little bit of time to make something special,

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

to make the most of what's in season,

taking fruit and veg to the next level.

Ohhh! What a dish.

From epic ideas for upgrading your roast dinner...

Come on!

...to delicious, vibrant soups,

the freshest salads and sizzling on the barbecue...

Getting that flavour of now.

...and in creamy, sweet puddings and tarts.

Absolutely gorgeous.

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.

And that, my friends,

is definitely the flavour of the summer.

Conker!

Look at this!

fennel

Absolutely one of my favourite veggies.

Look at that. Let's just pull it up.

They've got quite short roots.

It's not at full size.

Ideally, what you get is a really fat,

plump sort of base and of course,

you don't just get the bulb part here,

but the stalks are fantastic, amazing for sauces,

and then you got the herbs. Look at that abundance of herbs.

So, summertime, if you go to the supermarkets now,

or down the farmers' markets,

you're probably gonna see a whole load of these.

They smell amazing. Quite aniseedy.

That aniseediness is delicious and fresh when it's raw,

and then when you cook it,

it really dulls down and just becomes this really perfumed,

delicious, sweet vegetable that is great

with meat, fish, cheese, beans, potatoes.

So look, I've picked quite a lot, but I've got plans for these.

Can't wait to cook 'em.

Come on, Conks!

Beautiful new-season fennel is in all the shops right now,

so I'm taking both the bulb and delicate her by tops to new heights

in a cheesy chickpea and bean gratin,

along with juicy pork and the crunchiest crackling,

for a different take on a roast dinner,

in this epic summer roast pork, fennel and bean gratin.

I'm gonna show you how to make the most beautiful pork roast.

We're talking perfect cracklings, juicy meat,

and we're gonna celebrate all this fennel,

bang in season right now.

It'll look like this in the supermarkets,

and then when you grow it,

they're often sort of smaller and more tatty,

but they're absolutely delicious.

And one of my favourite ways

to cook this perfect summer fennel is as a gratin.

Delicious. Sweet, slowly cooked, really tender,

and I'm gonna serve that with roasted pork, cooked perfectly.

Even in summertime, I love to roast meat,

and I've got a beautiful piece of free-range pork loin.

Right, it's been French trimmed and it's got six ribs here.

What I'm gonna do is just show you some very basic butchery

that really anyone can do. If you look at the fat,

can you see there's a little seam here,

right? So what I'm gonna do is take my knife

and very gently just score down that seam.

Then I'm gonna go to the side.

See there's that little line here again?

And very gently, follow that line,

and then I'm gonna go to this side.

So I've done the three sides of the pork.

Nothing technical, right,

and then we can just start following that line.

So I've literally cut the fat in half.

Flip this over. Now, you can score a skin with your knife,

but there's a way that I find you can do it very easily.

What I have is a Stanley knife that I use just for the kitchen

and you can wash it, take it apart,

but you can also control the depth of the blade.

Very carefully,

drag it down to get a nice little score.

This will allow the heat of the oven to get into

the skin and give you the most amazing crackling.

Can you see that concertina effect?

And that means not only can heat get in there,

but also you can flavour in there with spices and salt and pepper,

and make it even more delicious.

On the other side, just score the fat like that,

and that's gonna help it render quicker.

So the crackling, ready to go. Now onto the pork.

just score very lightly the fat.

You're not trying to cut into the meat,

just lightly scoring down, creating texture.

The fat will render

and it will baste the pork as it renders,

and we like that.

Right, let me wash my hands.

So, next job is how do we create

some beautiful flavour that amplifies all of this?

There's a spice that I love, which is fennel seeds.

They come from the fennel plant when it goes to seed,

and they dry it. It's an incredible spice,

it's one of my favourites.

A couple of teaspoons of that with a couple of teaspoons of salt,

and then a couple of teaspoons of pepper.

And then, nutmeg.

I'm just gonna finely grate into a pestle and mortar.

This is gonna create the most beautiful seasoning for the pork.

The fennel's gonna give it a nice, summery edge.

The nutmeg is really fragrant.

Then we're gonna use the pestle just to crack up the fennel seeds.

And we've created this texture on the pork and on the skin,

and now it's open to all these amazing sort of spices.

All those little kind of grooves and concertina cuts,

filling up with beautiful seasoning.

Salt, pepper, nutmeg. Like, this is how we achieve beautiful flavour.

And get it right in there, all the little grooves.

So, a nice, wide casserole pan.

Medium high heat.

I'm gonna add a tiny amount of oil,

then I'm gonna go in fat side down

with the pork,

and you want that pan to heat up

and start melting that white fat.

So, let that do its thing. At the same time,

get a nice little roasting tray ready,

and I'm gonna start clanking up some fennel.

Take this bulb here and just cut it into quarters.

It's a wonderful, wonderful vegetable.

Let's get my ones from the garden.

Take the bulb like this.

The little mini bulbs, I'll put in whole,

and then this bigger bulb,

I'll just split in half like that,

and that'll roast down and be beautiful.

So, basically, we got a fennel trivet.

If we have a little look at this pork here,

if I turn it over...

Look at that! Come on!

That's what it's all about -

flavour, colour and

toasting those spices.

So, in there as well

put a little bit of onion action.

These are some big spring onions.

A bulb of garlic,

in half.

So the trivet is ready and raring to go.

I think we've browned this off beautifully.

One last thing I like to do

is introduce a herb.

I've got some sage, it could be thyme,

it could be rosemary,

and something that really kicks this herb into the next level

is to use this as a herb brush, right?

Angle that pan with that amazing pork fat

and get the sage leaves in there.

The smell right now is phenomenal.

Now we've got the fat on here,

I can put this in and around the tray

and we can just mix all of this up, like that.

And then just move the pork, and look at that -

sizzling and beautiful and ready to roast.

I'm gonna put it at the bottom of the oven

at 200 degrees Celsius, which is 400 Fahrenheit.

And then, clever bit,

we're gonna take this crackling,

right, give it a little bit of that amazing fat, like that,

and we're gonna put this directly above it,

straight on the bars.

That is gonna poof up

and all that excess fat is gonna rain down on here

and just baste, baste, love and care for that pork.

Let's get the base for the beans going, OK.

So, I'm gonna take

these fennel stalks

and I'm gonna roughly chop them.

just kind of like centimetre chunks.

And even though we've had the raw pork on here, right,

this is all gonna get cooked.

We're gonna fry this off in all that rendered pork fat.

This is an onion from the garden,

but you can use white onion, red onion,

spring onion if you want.

Centimetre slices.

just get your garlic.

Again, this is from the garden, but whatever garlic you get,

just take that outer skin off

and just finely slice.

Four, five cloves of garlic go in...

...and just stir it.

And I wanna cook this for about 15 minutes.

Time for a nice little clean

and then we can put the rest of this gratin together.

It's not seasoned yet,

so you want a little bit of salt going in, and pepper.

I wanna add to this story.

You could go white wine, you could go vermouth,

or I'm thinking, like, pork, fennel,

cider.

About a glass.

Now I turn the heat up and we'll cook most of that away.

There is a secret ingredient that will divide people.

You don't have to do it.

Three fillets of anchovy.

A little bit of the oil.

Anchovy, fennel,

pork, works really well.

What I've got here

is like a little story of beans.

So this isn't gonna be baked beans as you know it,

this is a gratin.

Chickpeas first...

...then butter beans. Look at those!

just beautiful. We love butter beans.

And then cannellini beans.

jarred ones I love,

the tinned ones are fantastic.

Really affordable. You can get 'em everywhere.

I've got some creme fraiche and a little bit of Parmesan.

Now, you can use any cheese you want -

gruyere, cheddar, whatever you love.

So you want a nice little grating of Parmesan.

It looks more than it is.

It's about 100g or so.

So let's finish off this gratin

by adding three or four tablespoons

of creme fraiche,

and the smell is amazing.

Turn the heat off

and add the Parmesan.

This could actually be a centrepiece

in its own right.

A little bit of Parmesan on the top

and this is ready to go in the oven.

Now, that pork

I reckon's had

pretty much an hour now.

Let's have a little look at that.

Come on!

And let's get this crackling.

I'm really pleased with that.

Look at that crackling!

At this stage, we're gonna put

this gorgeous gratin in the oven.

Same temperature.

In about half an hour, that's gonna be perfect.

This pork has had an hour, so I'm gonna rest it

for half an hour.

I mixed that all up in all those last bits of juices

and I'm gonna pop that in for five or ten minutes

until it's really golden and gorgeous.

Let's get those beautiful veggies out.

Look how lovely

this fennel has cooked.

Soft, caramelised and delicious.

Really, really nice. These are perfect.

What a lovely celebration of fennel.

OK...

Time to carve the pork.

I'm going to put the crackling to one side,

take that rib

and cut down confidently

to reveal

just a hunk of pork. Look at that!

HE CHUCKLES

JUICY, juicy pork.

just look at that!

Gnarly on the outside,

pearly white on the inside.

But I do wanna give you a second choice.

It's very, very simple.

I'm gonna run the knife

next to these ribs here,

right, and just carefully,

by angling it towards the ribs,

not the meat -

so these are like little baby back ribs.

But what you've really done is

free up this beautiful loin of pork.

Do nice, thin slithers.

Go as thin as you can.

You're able to stretch your portions further,

which is good for your wallet,

good for your health,

and just helps you to get more

out of this incredible pork.

Imagine that on a summer dinner table,

and then when it comes to the crackling,

obviously the best bit is the noise.

CRACKUNG CRUNCHES

Never enough crackling.

Back onto the platter we go.

How exciting is this?

Let's get the gratin out.

Look at that.

Beautiful, sweet fennel gratin

with chickpeas, beans, Parmesan.

A little sea of heaven.

Right, let's serve up.

Let's go for our pork. I'm gonna go for the chunk.

And then let's get that beautiful fennel.

Couple of little bits of crackling,

just so good.

So, a few bits of

those fennel herbs on top

and that's a beautiful summer plate of food.

I'm gonna start with the gratin

with gorgeous summer fennel.

0-ho!

So from that kind of

really fragrant aniseed vibe,

that's not there any more.

What you have is deep

sort of fragrant sweetness.

It's utterly, utterly delicious.

Mm!

And if you look at the fennel here on top,

it's just so tender.

Transforms.

Oh!

So good. Let's get onto the pork.

Look at that chop.

Mm!

The meat is really tender.

That is a brilliant summer roast.

Very different, embracing

wonderful seasonal veggies.

The fennel - the bulb, the roots,

the stalks and the herbs -

utterly delicious.

If you're out shopping this week,

if you see fennel, don't walk past it -

Get some. You won't regret it.

Look at these beautiful pea plants.

I love peas. I love them so much, and if I'm really honest,

probably, like, most peas I have are frozen.

I always have a pack in my freezer for sure, so convenient.

But peas when they're at their best,

get down the markets, get in the supermarkets,

get the fresh peas. They're bang in season right now,

fromjune until October. Look at that.

It's literally perfection.

A raw pea in a salad with some salty cheese,

olive oil, lemon juice. Delicious.

But also, these pods, like, they're quite fibrous,

look, but if you put this into a little broth or a stock,

you can command out all this gorgeous sort of sweet pea flavour.

Honestly, as brilliant as frozen are,

nothing, nothing tastes like fresh. Give them a go.

Perfectly in season right now, I'm taking these gorgeous,

sweet summer peas to another level with Parmesan, goat's cheese

and a lemon citrus hit to make the most oozy,

unctuous sweetest pea risotto.

I'm gonna give you a recipe that is amazing.

It's celebrating all vegetables,

but particularly, I think,

sweet peas in summer

are one of the very best,

with a lovely, creamy, oozy risotto.

And the very beginning of a beautiful, perfect risotto

starts actually with stock,

but if you wanna go extraordinary,

if you wanna go to the next level,

I will get a whole chicken

and I poach it with water,

some fragrant veggies, bit of herb,

for one hour, 20 minutes.

You get the most succulent chicken

that falls off the bone

and a really elegant

chicken broth. Now, I strip every ounce

of meat off the bone, right?

It goes in sandwiches, stir fries,

pies, chicken curries, right?

So that's just my little thing.

You don't have to do that, by the way.

Have a litre of boiling water, put in a stock cube, it'll be great.

But most people, when they prep peas,

put this in the bin.

The flavour in these pea shells

or pods is so insane.

It is like the essence of peas,

and in the next couple of minutes,

they'll just wilt down,

but the broth that comes out of here

is gonna be mind-blowing.

Now, risottos are the most amazing way

to use up seasonal vegetables.

It begins with the sofrito.

This is the base for

risottos, soups, stews.

So, one onion.

From the garden, we love that.

And just peel it,

and I'm gonna finely slice it.

Don't stress about being too accurate with this.

just chop it through.

So, celery goes in. Now, with the celery,

see these lovely little yellow leaves?

These are gold dust.

Absolutely delicious.

We'll sprinkle that over the top of the risotto

and I'm gonna put it into this water

along with the pea shoots.

Let's just chop this up.

It really doesn't matter how you chop up your celery and onions.

The easiest way is to cross-chop like this

and just keep going

until it's nice and fine.

We want a nice little high-sided wide pan.

We're gonna put it onto

a medium high heat.

A little olive oil,

couple of tablespoons,

and then a little knob of butter.

We go in with the onions and celery.

Our first job is to soften this off.

Coat it in that oil and butter

and cook it down until sweet and softened for about five minutes,

giving it a stir every now and again.

Canker'?

He's having fun, bless him!

The next stage of risotto, the rice.

This is arborio risotto rice,

a plump, stubby little rice grain.

The first thing the rice is gonna get is the oil

and the fat and the sweetness from the vegetables,

and we're gonna move the rice around in that

and almost let that fat penetrate the rice grain

to make it go translucent, almost toasting it.

After about a minute, there's a little stage here now

which is an optional extra.

You can put booze in here.

I'm gonna use white wine.

just a little half-glass goes in.

So, white wine is very typical.

If you don't want wine, don't put it in.

What's important is that we cook all of that wine away.

I mean, ironically, I don't want it to taste winey.

What you're gonna get left with is the sweetness

and the grapey gorgeousness.

That's gonna work really well with seasonal sweet peas.

You can see, that's all gone now

and the rice is starting to stick together a little bit

and that's that natural sort of starchiness

coming out of the rice.

So now we're gonna go in

with that beautiful

pea shell-infused chicken stock.

Pour that in, one ladle at a time.

What we wanna do

is add the stock bit by bit.

You can start to see now

that creaminess

getting massaged out of the rice.

When you're down the markets and you see a vegetable you like,

do I do this, do I do that, do I do it or do I risotto it?

And risotto is just a gift,

cos it can embrace leftovers,

meat, fish, vegetables.

So, let it cook away,

get the ladle,

another one goes in

and we stir again.

Ooh, we're, like, two and a half minutes away.

I'm gonna go in now with some of those peas.

Raining peas!

About half of those. Don't need too much.

Gonna save those for other things.

Raw peas in salad, in stir fries.

Make a lovely little stew, summer stew.

They're now gonna cook in this risotto

for that last couple of minutes as it becomes perfect.

A knob of butter, right?

Classic. Can't do it without it.

And I'm gonna go in with

about 80 grams of Parmesan.

Turn the heat off.

I do not wanna cook the risotto with Parmesan in it.

These cheeses, they're quite delicate.

I don't wanna boil it.

just let it relax for two minutes.

I'm gonna finish it with a lovely British goat's cheese.

There's one un-classic ingredient that I love in summer

with peas and goat's cheese,

and that's just like a squeeze of lemon juice.

Wah! Sunshine,

and I just love it.

That is now perfect.

Oozy and delicious, and going over my shirt,

but I don't care. Look at that.

So, we are good to go now.

Let's serve up this beautiful, oozy risotto,

just finished with a few little bombs

of that amazing goat's cheese.

A couple of little pea shoots.

I've got these borage flowers here.

If you're out and about in the garden

and there's herb flowers, use 'em, don't just look at 'em!

We're reflecting summertime.

just some little celery leaves.

Gorgeous. And that

is a beautiful little plate

of summer risotto.

just a little final Parmesan.

Let's get in there.

I want a bit of everything.

Wowse rs !

The peas are popping in my mouth. So sweet.

It's light, elegant,

it's sweet, it's fragrant,

and then every now and again,

you get a little bang with that goat's cheese,

little bit of sourness.

Mm. So, listen,

peas are in season right now.

Have a look down the supermarkets,

the markets.

What are you waiting for?

Ah, look at all this.

It's such a nice time of year.

Carrots are really good right now,

and if you get down the markets and supermarkets,

you'll see that there's some incredible local produce.

Look at these. Coming out so beautifully,

and I have to say, this is the optimal size

where sweetness is fantastic.

Hello, Conker!

Oh, look at those.

Carrots originally, if you look back at the really old varieties,

were purple, sometimes almost black in colour,

but you could get yellow ones, white ones, pink ones.

You can get carrots all year round

and if you see a wonky little veg like this,

support it. They've got feelings, they're all equal,

and that's partly because if they hit a little stone or something

a little bit firm, they will just change direction.

They're just really good at growing anywhere and around anything.

Right now, carrots are gonna be at their very best,

sweetest and most delicious

and they should be a really good price,

and there are so many things you can do with these beauties.

Right, let's get cooking.

I'm gonna make the humble carrot shine

in a slaw of all slaws.

A 5pi¢y yoghurt ripple,

brought together with her by

citrus-marinated chicken in a pimped up tortilla,

bringing the summer vibes in a rainbow salad wrap.

The thing for me about cooking in season is kind of a state of mind.

It changes what you're looking at down the markets and supermarkets.

Look for the local, look for what is in season at its best,

and of course, we've got our naughty little carrot there

who's happy to see us, plus some of those little purple ones

and the little knobbly ones which are at their best right now.

Before we get into slaw world,

I wanna talk about a good vinaigrette dressing,

so in here,

three tablespoons of olive oil,

right? Nice olive oil,

heart-healthy oil.

It's very simple to remember - three parts olive oil,

right, with one part

beautiful red wine vinegar.

I like to sort of just scatter-gun this

with a little wholegrain mustard.

Very nice.

We'll have a little bit of French,

and then we've got the English mustard.

You can choose one mustard or have a blend.

That's the point I'm making,

this is a flexible recipe.

A nice seasoning of salt and pepper

and then simply I'm just gonna use my hands, just to mix it all up.

You need seasoning and tang

to make this really bang.

If you wanna put any herbs in there,

please do.

Parsley, tarragon, dill, right,

whatever your thing is,

just go for it.

And this is our landing pad for the coleslaw.

Let's talk about the leaves.

Any leaves, right? Cabbage, white,

red, you know, chard.

Could be spinach.

Take the stalks off

and then just roll this up

like a sort of cigar.

You're breaking down that

fibrous part of the cabbage,

but also, that's

releasing natural sweetness.

And then, finely slice.

You could use little crinkle cutters.

Completely childish and really good fun.

Let's do it with one of those purple carrots

and let's just slice it up.

The coleslaw we all see in the supermarkets,

in canteens,

you know, is white cabbage,

onion and carrot,

and what I'm trying to say is,

it can be a whole host of things.

It can really embrace

the seasonal veg

that's at its best right now.

So, there's our little crazy crinkle cut carrots.

Look how pretty they are.

So this is golden beetroot.

just as easy to grow as purple.

just stack 'em up like cards.

And you can use a box grater...

...and you can take beautiful carrots

and get that in there.

But look, that's the spirit.

Shred it up, matchstick it up.

Red cabbage. I got that from the supermarket.

just speed peel.

The colour's telling you that it's incredibly nutritious.

So, instead of the big fat onions,

you can go spring onions, red onions,

little shallots.

And then this green part here,

this is all really good.

That will be enough.

Come on, man, look at that.

You don't even need to know anything about nutrition

to know that that is the good stuff.

I'm not gonna dress it now,

because I want it to be, like, really crunchy,

and I wanna do it at the last minute.

Let's just clear this up and have a little wipe down.

I wanna show you how to make the most delicious chicken.

This is a nice little technique that allows you

to tenderise the meat, and you can stretch it further.

So, two chicken breasts.

Instead of going for two people,

you can make it go for four people, right? We like that.

So, take some greaseproof paper.

I am going to use a pair of tongs

so I don't have to touch the chicken.

Fold it over, like this.

By just doing this, you're tenderising the meat -

you're increasing the surface area,

which means it can take on flavour much quicker...

...and also cook in half the time.

So, first chicken done...

...and then we go again!

Let's do a quick marinade.

Olive oil...

...a lemon goes in, some salt, and some pepper.

Let's just take some oregano.

Kind of rough it up a little bit and pinch it in -

flavour, flavour, flavour.

So, use the tongs to really rub it in, and just pat it around.

So, you can let that marinade, now,

for one minute, 10 minutes, half an hour.

You could even do it overnight.

So, let's just have a little clean down.

I'm going to give you the most amazing, kind of, creamy base

to go on that flatbread, to put the chicken and the slaw on.

It's basically a yoghurt, tahini, and harissa ripple.

So, I'm going to take this yoghurt.

I'm then going to mix it with tahini -

it's literally pureed, whizzed-up sesame seeds.

Peanut buttery, a little bit kind of, like, satay chicken vibes -

with amazing harissa, chilli paste oil.

Look at the colours, guys!

Let's toss up this beautiful slaw.

Anything that's purple - like beetroots, or that red cabbage -

just keep to one side, OK?

We'll take everything else, and we'll start tossing it up.

Then - at the last minute -

then we go in with the beautiful red cabbage.

Don't do it too early, cos it will just make everything go purple.

That, my friends, is a beautiful slaw.

We're then going to take our marinated chicken...

...and go straight in there.

Two minutes each side,

and once it's in your hot pan, don't turn it.

So, we've had two minutes. Flip that over. Gnarly and golden.

So, the chicken has had its time.

Turn the heat off.

And then we take the chicken onto the board,

take the knife, and we'll just go through it - about a centimetre.

Look at that.

So, that chicken is very, very juicy. Can you see?

That is going to be joyful.

Let me give you another little tip to make your everyday,

boring tortilla a little bit more interesting.

If you've got a gas hob, electric hob, or induction

with a really hot pan, put it on a really screaming hot heat

and just move it around with tongs.

It's going to toast it up

and give you beautiful little undulating bubbles.

Can you see? See? Puffing up.

And now, let's load this up.

We're going to go in with that yoghurt and that tahini -

with that little hit of chilli.

Then, the beautiful slaw,

and then a few bits of that lovely chicken.

Look how juicy that is.

And we've got lovely feta cheese.

And then, the only polite thing to do...

...is to pick it up...

...roll it up...

CHUCKLES

EXCLAI MS

Chicken is so juicy.

The slaw is just alive, full of life and flavour,

and those carrots - so sweet. Crunchy and delicious.

What a lovely little lunch, dinner, and an amazing way

of taking those seasonal carrots and shredding them

into the most incredible rainbow slaw.

Happy bloomin' days.

So, the heavens have opened.

This greenhouse... CHUCKLES

...does need fixing cos it's nearly as wet in here as it is out there.

Conker's having a little go on the drips. Are you all right, mate?

HE LAUGHS

Now, hanging baskets. Love 'em. I grew up with hanging baskets -

my dad used to go mad for it in the pub

and used to pride himself on beautiful flowers

and these floral, sort of, delights.

But what I love about them is it doesn't have to just be ornamental,

it can be edible.

Also, really importantly, if you haven't got much space,

you can still grow!

You can hang in anything that has holes.

Strawberries and mint, that is basically dessert - or cocktails.

You can plant them out now,

and these strawberries will keep growing -

they'll literally cascade out of there,

and it's the most fantastic way to grow strawberries

and pick them really easily until the end of summer.

Now, the second one, we're going to go savoury -

we're going to do pizza!

Cherry tomatoes, marjoram, some flowering thyme.

So, I've got some moss, here. Now, that slows down the drainage

of this beautiful hanging basket.

I'll put a little bit of peat-free compost in there.

Then, I'm going to get myself some nice little cherry tomatoes.

What I do is, I always scuff up the ends like that,

just to, kind of, get those little roots exposed.

And then, with our lovely marjoram, here - or you could do oregano,

or you could do basil - get some of that nice, peat-free compost

and pack it around. This one's a little flowering thyme,

just get that in there.

So, there you go - edible hanging baskets! Tomatoes, marjoram,

flowering thyme. Look at that - a little bit of fun, but actually,

things like tomatoes and strawberries flourish by being hung.

They're easier to pick,

it keeps away a lot of the pests and things that want to eat it

before you do, and actually, the only pest I'm going to worry about

is my kids - I reckon they're going to get this before I do.

So, keep on top of the watering, and you'll be laughing.

Come on, Conks.

Look at these!

I absolutely love beets.

I call these beets, but it's beetroots.

I think beets are actually one of my favourite veggies to grow.

They're fantastic. Right now, they're in season,

so if you go down the supermarkets or farmers' markets,

you're going to see 'em out there. So, grab 'em and they're so good.

Same family as Swiss chard, but -

obviously - with these amazing roots.

Look at that beautiful beetroot.

So, I'll probably pronounce it wrong,

but we call that a "candy-stripe beetroot" -

which is not a technical term - or "Chioggia".

If we have a little look here...

...we've got a white one.

You can get yellow ones, pink ones.

Let's have a little look inside here.

Look at that.

And when they're in season, right now,

the flavour is so extraordinary, so sweet.

just boil it, peel it, slice it.

Salt, pepper, olive oil, and some good vinegar,

and that will be spectacular. Let's get cooking.

I'm giving good old beetroot the rock star treatment

with a hack to make incredible sun-dried tomato couscous,

magnificent British mackerel roasted in a coriander rub,

and a big-hitting horseradish sauce

to give you crispy skinned mackerel and beetroot salad for summer.

Look at these beautiful beetroots.

And when you think of beetroots, you're always thinking

the purple ones, the big ones, the pickled ones,

but they're so much more than that.

Let's get going-

I'm going to get this pan of water seasoned up with some salt,

and then I'm going to take these beets.

These are quite small, smaller than a ping-pong ball,

so I reckon about 15 minutes should do it.

Take the stalks off, like this.

So, lid on top, and then these leaves here,

remove the stalks - that can go to the com poster -

but these I will wilt down a little bit later, and they'll be delicious.

I'm going to do some beautiful couscous.

Now, couscous is lovely, my family loves it.

just take 200 grams in here.

Now, I've got a lovely little cheat.

Get yourself a jar of sun-dried tomatoes -

it's sunshine in a jar. Get yourself a liquidiser.

Oil, the lovely sun-dried tomatoes, everything, and give it a little bit

of herb in there. Let's have a little bit of mint,

and just a tiny little bit of water.

And we're going to whizz this up.

So, just add a little bit of olive oil to loosen it.

This - in your risottos, your pastas - absolutely gorgeous.

And then a nice wodge of it in here.

This will give the couscous the most amazing colour and flavour

in no time at all.

just cover with about a centimetre of boiling water.

I'm going to have the beetroot water, so double flavour.

Put a little pinch of salt in there, and then - once you've mixed it up -

just put a cloth over the top and let it steam.

And in five, 10 minutes, that will be light, and fluffy, and delicious.

Let's talk about mackerel.

I absolutely love mackerel.

When you buy fresh fish, we're looking for colour.

Look at the fresh eyes - we want that.

So, I wanna do a little rub

that just makes this incredible, meaty fish,

like, even more savoury, and gives you a lovely crispy skin.

And I wanna use a spice that is often forgotten about -

coriander seeds.

They're really fragrant, quite savoury,

and I just wanna crack this up with a really nice pinch

of salt and pepper.

Oh, the smell is so fragrant!

I'm just going to rub the mackerel with a little olive oil -

not much, just a little -

and then that'll let this beautiful rub stick to it.

HUSHED: Look at that.

Sun is starting to set.

So, roll the fish in that lovely savoury seasoning,

and then, I want to use a herb that I love dearly with fish -

particularly oily fish - and that's thyme.

And if you grow your own thyme, even if you've got a window box,

it's brilliant.

I'm going to stuff this in the cavity,

and it will just steam nicely.

Oil a little roasting tray...

...and then we're going to lay these beautiful mackerel inside.

And I've got the wood oven on.

You wanna preheat your oven to full whack, all right?

This oven's about 220 degrees Celsius,

which is 430 Fahrenheit, and so nice and hot.

You get these in the oven for about ten minutes.

Lovely.

Right, I want to show you how to make

a fresh horseradish sauce - amazing with beets, amazing with oily fish.

You can buy horseradish in markets, particularly, and some supermarkets.

If you can't get it, that's fine,

you can find jars of grated horseradish,

and even creamed horseradish,

but if you can get the root, this is an amazing thing.

just get a little peeler on the outside to expose the white flesh.

You want a nice, big handful of horseradish.

It's strong!

I've got a nice bowl of fresh Greek yoghurt, here.

What it will require is quite generous seasoning of salt.

Look at that sun coming through!

Come on, Mr Sun - you've been playing with me all week!

Half the juice of a lemon in there.

Right, so that's done. Very quick and easy.

So, we've got the beets - let's get in there.

So, what I'm going to do - for the last one minute -

is just put in the beet leaves.

Let's have a little clean down.

OK, so we've had that little cheeky minute.

Look at that orange-coloured water.

SIGHS ADMIRINGLY

I'm just going to pinch off the outer skin...

...take off the little roots.

just use your thumb and forefinger to take that skin off,

and by the way, you can do exactly this with purple beets, as well.

I'm just going to slice up into halves, maybe some into quarters.

Look at the colours!

Doesn't need much more than salt,

some lovely olive oil,

and then a tiny little swig of vinegar.

And, once you've dressed it,

sweep this into a little dish, just for a second,

because what I'm going to do is go back to our couscous.

Get a little fork, and look at that...

just so delicate.

Hot, steamy, blushing with that sunshine sun-dried tomato paste.

Home-made - great hack!

Couscous is good.

We're going to put over our beautiful beets.

Come on! Look at these colours - what a celebration.

And I can hear the fish sizzling away.

Oh, it looks good!

just amazing. What a joy.

You've got the olive oil and the fish oils,

those Omega 3s that so many of us don't get enough of.

Mackerel is such a fantastic fish. It's often very good value.

Look at that!

Imagine taking that to a dinner table, right?

What a beautiful thing.

Build a little base of the couscous,

the greens, and the beautiful beets.

I remove the head,

and I just run the fork down the back,

and then, very simply, that whole fillet will just pop off.

Wowze rs!

And then, last but not least,

a good dollop of that horseradish sauce.

Let's get amongst it.

I'm going to go for a bit of everything.

CHUCKLES

Wow.

The sweetness of those beets is epic.

The sunshine from those tomatoes on the couscous,

the heat from the horseradish,

the crispy skin on the fish...

This is SO good.

An amazing dish to celebrate seasonal beetroot.

I love it.

SIGHS

Conker, do you want to try a little bit of mackerel?

But you can't have horseradish.

That is a brilliant, brilliant end to the day.

Me, my best mate...

...and that is a plate full of sunshine.

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