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.

Oh!

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.

Look at this.

Beautiful.

So, this week

we've got the very first

of the British tomatoes in the garden.

Really exciting.

The season in the UK is July to the end of September,

and right now, they're in season,

right now they're gonna start getting into their very best.

So get out there, get in the farmer's markets,

get in the supermarkets.

They're just starting to ripen up,

but look at the variation.

Round ones, plum ones,

little golden cherries.

Tiny little cherries here - these, like, explode in your mouth

like little sweeties.

For that first foot of the vine,

I tend to take away the leaves.

Reducing some of the leaves just helps airflow.

Um, what you don't wanna get is any funguses and stuff like that.

So you can grow 'em anywhere.

All you need is a tomato bag.

So I'm gonna go around, get what I can.

So, slim pickings out here

but in the greenhouse, I've got some more.

Over here, so these potatoes are gonna go really well

with the tomatoes.

I have memories of the greenhouse smell

from my grandad's greenhouse as a little kid.

If you actually cook with these green bits on,

and even the vines, and then sift it out afterwards,

I feel that you get a much more pungent

kind of greenhouse smell in your tomato sauce.

It gives it such an edge of kind of magical seasoning.

And I love that about cooking

when you can capture all those little notes.

That's not bad for the very beginning

of the British tomato season.

What a joy. I can't wait to get cooking.

I'm celebrating one of summer's most famous fruits

by making a super-simple, sweet and sticky sauce

for a delicious chicken tray bake.

My crispy chicken with squashed tomatoes,

a gorgeous dish for sharing with family and friends.

I love this for a nice evening meal.

It all gets cooked in one pan,

and it's one of those things you can get in the oven quite quickly

and then let the oven do the work.

You can do a few little jobs,

and then you come back to this meal that is full of flavour and texture

and gorgeousness.

So, I've got a large pan, about medium high heat.

Let's start with the chicken.

Give it a little bit of olive oil over the chicken thighs.

Season it with black pepper and sea salt.

Mix it all around,

get that seasoning and oil on there.

First job, go in, skin side down.

Definitely you want that skin to be crispy.

I really love using a nice, wide casserole-style pan like this.

Something that you can start on the hob

and then get in the oven.

Let that brown, keep an eye on it.

I've got potatoes that I picked from the garden,

and I've just parboiled those for about ten minutes.

Absolutely beautiful.

Now, I'm gonna make a kind of version of

a sauce-cum-marinade.

I'm using oregano or marjoram.

They're very similar.

But you could use parsley,

you could use basil or mint.

Put that into a pestle and mortar.

Oregano is probably one of my favourite herbs.

Easy to grow in the UK, really loyal herb.

You have it for about six months of the year.

So, the Italians would call this a salmoriglio.

Just take a little pinch of salt.

Smash it up.

When you've got that noise,

you know serious food is happening.

Just go in with a little bit of that lovely olive oil,

add a little bit of lemon juice

just to balance.

This is gonna be so good.

Look at that.

Fresh flavours.

So we go from pounding

to then muddling.

So, put that to one side.

You can hear exciting things are happening in this dish.

I wanna get that colour on the skin side.

Look at that - that's what we want.

Can you see how the fat is dancing? Love that.

Then I wanna few little slices of chorizo for flavour.

So you get the garlic,

you get the smoked paprika,

the herbs.

Sprinkle this into the pan.

And then we've got the potatoes -

absolutely beautiful.

Give it a nice little toss.

And then we've got our tomatoes, the hero of the dish.

We've got the lovely little cherry tomatoes that I can just pick off,

and they're all sorts of different sizes, which is lovely.

Then there's some of these little wonky ones.

So when you're shopping,

look down the supermarkets,

or farmer's markets.

If you've only got one standard tomato,

it doesn't matter, a long as they're ripe.

But if you can get these beautiful colours,

I just love it. I think it's really exciting.

Let's get these little cherry tomatoes that are trying

to run away from me.

They just tumble in.

Then these kind of mid-size ones,

I might halve.

And then these bigger ones,

I might just quarter.

And then to finish off this little story,

we've got the sauce.

So, half I'm gonna cook...

..and half I'll put at the end.

And the stuff that cooks will have a completely different flavour

to the stuff that's fresh and alive and got that little hit of citrus.

Toss this up.

Salt and pepper.

We'll put some whole leaves in there as well

just so it feels nice and rustic.

You wanna coat it in all of those amazing

chicken-y and chorizo-y fats.

Look at it!

The tomatoes will give over their incredibly sweet juice,

and the potatoes will gratefully receive it.

Just take the chicken and make sure the skin's facing up.

I want that crispy.

Everyone in my family loves this.

Oh!

It smells amazing. Right.

Now this goes in the oven for 40 minutes.

Look at that. Look at the colours, right?

We cook that at 190 degrees Celsius, which is 375 Fahrenheit,

until the meat falls off the bone.

It's gonna be delicious.

The smell...is amazing.

Ho, ho, ho!

Beautiful.

Conker can smell that something good is happening.

Look at the juice that's come out of those tomatoes.

The sweetness...

The skin is really crispy.

So all I do now is finish it

with a little of that herby sauce,

just fresh.

As the sun sets,

I'm gonna serve up my little portion of this.

Those beautiful potatoes...

A real celebration of the tomatoes.

Love chicken thighs.

Don't go stingy on the juice.

What a dish.

And the juice is equally as important as the meat.

Let's have a little go.

I want it to just fall off the bone.

Look at that - that's what we want.

Juicy, juicy chicken.

And then just dip it into all those incredible tomatoey juices.

Mm.

Crispy skin, tender meat.

There's so much juicy sauce.

And that, with the potatoes, is just unbelievable.

All that gorgeous tomatoey goodness.

And that, my friends, is definitely the flavour of the summer.

Where do you want me to put them?

Er, in there, on the little lovely leaves.

Here's a little cluster.

Bring the basket over, son.

Whoa, there's some nice little ones in here,

and they're biggies.

Look at these.

Try and pick 'em if you can

with the little green bits still attached

and they stay fresher for longer.

What you gonna make with them, Dad?

Er, I might make some jam,

I might do a lovely meringue or something.

I might just eat 'em...

Oh, my Lord.

That was a bubble gum one.

Wowzers. You're so weird.

I'm not weird. Try this.

Nice? Mm.

Are they tasting like bubble gum? They are tasting like bubble gum.

Oh, that's so nice.

I love eating 'em just off here like that.

The other day, on the hottest day of the year,

I had the hottest, most perfect strawberry,

and it was like eating living jam. It was the best thing.

Why are these strawberries better than ones from the supermarket?

Well, a lot of the strawberries that people have these days

are out of season.

In hot countries, they get really ripe, really quick.

In England, the season gets warm really slowly,

so the strawberries get ripe really slowly

and then they taste extraordinary because they're not rushed.

So that's one of the good things

about having a slightly unpredictably slow summer...

..is we get delicious strawberries.

There's a good one, or two. Oh, there's more.

Oh, there's loads. There's a little beauty right in there.

Ah! That's a nice little haul, innit?

Mm-hm.

Come on.

For an easy, dreamy dessert,

fit for sharing with a party of pals,

I'm using these bang-in-season, joyful sweet treats of summer

to elevate creamy rice pudding

with the quickest strawberry jam,

for a stunning dinner party dessert served up on a platter for sharing.

The hardest bit will be trying not to eat

all of the strawberries before you get started.

Love 'em...

What I wanna do is a homage to them, right?

I'm gonna do, like, a grandmother dish.

My Nana used to make the most amazing rice pudding,

and I'm gonna make a really quick jam

with a few little seasonal twists.

It's gonna be a thing of joy. And when they're in season,

which is now, by the way,

run and get 'em,

and if there's two for the price of one,

get 'em, and also get some more.

You know, you can't fake that flavour.

That flavour is amazing.

And these ones are British and from a supermarket.

I've got a kilo here. I'm gonna jam those.

I always do extra because you can have it in the fridge.

Good for cocktails, good for breakfasts,

good on pancakes. Really, really nice.

So, let's start off with the jam.

Get yourself a little pot.

Go in with 150g of golden caster sugar.

You could put more in, but I'm not gonna over-sweeten it

because these British strawberries are so sweet.

This'll cook down really nice.

There is a twist in the story

because I have an association of strawberries and cream,

with Wimbledon and tennis

and a little Pimm's.

So, about 150ml.

There's also a herb going in, just one fresh bay leaf.

It gives it an incredibly fruity, delicious, fragrant flavour.

Also, there's another little twist -

a little bit of orange peel.

Orange and strawberries,

you know, really, really good friends.

So, just take the hulls off these.

So, the rest of these strawberries takes this up to a kilo.

I'm gonna just stir it up.

As we heat the strawberries,

they start to give over their juice,

and in about five minutes,

you're gonna create something really gorgeous and delicious.

So, in this pan,

we're gonna do rice pudding.

Go in with 200g of pudding rice.

Now, pudding rice is nothing like basmati rice.

It's really stubby and really creamy,

and it kind of cooks into a fluffy,

gorgeous sort of texture.

And 200g will absorb a lot of liquid,

so 1.2 litres of lovely whole milk

and we will cook that, nice and gently,

until it's plump and delicious.

Now, rice is always neutral,

so we need to scent and flavour that rice

to convince it that it's sweet.

Two heaped tablespoons of golden caster sugar.

That'll make it sweetish, right,

not super sweet,

and then I'm gonna put in some vanilla.

Now, you can use vanilla extract or a vanilla pod.

How clever is nature?

This is a bean that grows out of an orchid.

You split the pod like this,

put the tip of the knife in,

and just scrape.

Look at all this. Look at this.

They're all seeds.

So, you put that in milk

and you get this infusion of vanilla that is like second to none.

And actually, I'm gonna put the whole bean in there as well.

I want this to be really vanilla-y.

So, strawberries, they're lovely to plant in your garden

cos they come back every year

and they look amazing.

So, these are the wild strawberries.

And they're like the most amazing little gift.

Often, the smaller and, dare I say it,

slightly uglier strawberries are the tastiest ones.

So, the rest of these strawberries

I'm gonna keep for garnish.

Don't be tempted to wash strawberries

and then put them in the fridge, because they will go off quicker

and they'll go soggy and horrible.

Just do it before you need them,

and I just give 'em a quick little dip in water

to get any dust off.

And then put them on a little clean tea towel,

and they'll be good to go.

So, while I'm prepping these, let's give this a little stir.

This rice and strawberry jam cooks for about half an hour,

until tender and gorgeous and oozy,

and then I'll finish it with just a little bit of double cream

or creme fraiche or clotted cream.

Any of those will do.

And that will just be a thing of joy.

The smell is just extraordinary.

I'm just gonna turn it down a little bit.

It's just blipping now.

Look at it.

OK.

Potato masher or a fork.

Just go through the strawberries.

Mash that up.

Release more of that beautiful flavour.

Notice that I'm just mashing one side,

not both sides,

and that way

I'm gonna get a nice mixture of chunky and pureed.

Best of both worlds.

This is a quick jam,

so it's not a proper jam where you take it down more and more -

you can have it for the whole year.

This is just a knock-out... Good on pancakes.

You can have it in the fridge for a week.

Really, really nice.

So, this is nearly there. Let's have a little try.

Mm.

Oh, it's done.

Look how lovely and oozy that is.

I'm gonna get some beautiful creme fraiche -

just a nice spoon.

It's really rich.

It's got that slight sort of tang to it, which I really, really love.

Oh, wow.

Just look at that.

I'm gonna plate this up on a nice, big platter.

Oh! Every last bit, come on!

A sea of incredible creamy, vanilla rice pudding.

Just divine.

Pull out the vanilla pod.

It's done its job

and it's utterly... It's utterly delicious.

Right, now I need to show restraint,

something that I don't have much of.

Let's remove the bay leaf

and the orange peel.

Then I'm just gonna pour

a bunch right in the middle like that.

Use the other end of the spoon

and we ripple.

Get some lovely meringues and just break it up.

Let it snow down.

Then we go to our strawberries

just to remind them what the party was all about

in the first place.

Couple of little flowers around the edge.

That, my friends,

is rippled strawberry and vanilla rice pudding.

Summertime on a platter.

That's enough, come on. I'm being greedy, but I don't care.

Oh, my God.

Heavenly strawberry.

HE CHUCKLES

I can't stop eating it.

Oh.

Heavenly, heavenly, heavenly.

So, look, when you see those strawberries

down at the supermarkets or markets,

with a little flag on it when they're in season,

which is right now, don't buy one, don't buy two,

get three or four.

Have a little jam up.

That is a plate full of summer memories.

Delicious.

The whole lot has gone.

It all... The whole lot.

Over here, chillies.

One of my favourites.

I actually think chillies are possibly

one of the best things you can start growing

if you've never grown anything before,

cos all you need is a windowsill.

And these are in season from now until the end of summer,

and you get all kinds of shapes and sizes.

Yellow, long, purple, thin.

These little stubby green ones.

Everyone sort of classes chillies as just hot and spicy,

but just blowing people's heads off is not useful, right?

So sometimes you remove the seeds or the white membrane internally,

and that gets rid of a lot of the aggressive heat.

You really want to savour the fruitiness.

Have a little hunt down your famer's market,

or even the supermarket's gonna have more choice

at this time of year, which is really, really good.

And every one of these tastes completely different.

So these chillies here,

I love using these in little pickles.

They give a nice flavour to the vinegar.

Little picantes.

You know these.

These will be bringing back memories of your kebabs.

Heavy on the chilli,

but often pickled and completely different to these,

which I consider more of a snacking chilli.

Sweet, not too hot.

It's actually quite a mild chilli.

Always have a little try.

You might notice my eye just starting to water.

And that's because it hasn't been watered for about five days,

and that stresses the plant out,

so they tend to really concentrate their heat.

Actually, a mild chilli can go hot.

I'm salivating now.

Can't wait to cook with these.

Whoo!

Spicy!

I'm heroing the fruity freshness of these pocket-rocket chillies,

at their best right now,

using them as a veg in their own right,

putting them on skewers as perfect party food

to impress your guests.

My chilli and butterflied prawn skewers

are a brilliant way to celebrate chillies in style.

This is gonna be a thing of joy

with a really exciting salad,

perfect for a sunny day.

Even though it's started raining, I have faith.

I wanna show you a couple of really quick ways

to celebrate and save and preserve incredible chillies.

So, if you're down the supermarkets or down the markets,

or growing your own,

these are some of the things you can do.

I wanna show you a quick pickle

that is so quick that I'm even gonna use it in this next recipe.

So, take some little chillies here.

Roughly slice these.

Some of these chillies are almost cucumber-y.

Some are peachy and apricot-y, so I love that.

Just wash away the excess seeds.

So, what we need here is a sterilised jar.

In we go with white vinegar.

A heaped teaspoon of salt,

a little maple syrup,

just to take the edge off the vinegar.

Some fennel, but any soft herb can be absolutely lovely,

and then stuff in your chillies like that.

Just pack it in.

And this will start pickling the chillies straight away.

They'll be optimal after about three or four days,

usable within about ten minutes.

Gorgeous.

Top it up with vinegar.

And then lid on.

And a lovely little gift, by the way.

Let's have a little clean down.

So, when I said the word "barbecue" earlier,

like, it started to rain - typical. Typical.

But I have faith that the blue skies will come back

and the sun will come out. So, let's talk kebabs.

I just love the whole concept because it's exciting,

it's your own little treasure that's all yours,

and my daughters love it.

Let me just show you a quick procedure

to prepare these prawns.

I'm just gonna take the heads off

and you don't have to throw 'em away.

You can make lovely pasta sauces out of that.

Just take the shell off.

I like to leave the tail on because, A, they look cool,

and it's like a little handle,

but also it goes crispy and it's totally edible.

So, once we've done that,

run a knife down the back of the prawn,

and this is called butterflying,

and you can see here

there's a little vein that we remove, right?

Now, it might not be glamorous,

but what it does is it means when it cooks,

it opens up and it looks incredible,

but it also opens itself out to heat, to cook quicker,

but also flavour, to taste better.

So it's a double whammy.

You could leave the shell on if you want,

but for me it's just like how

you can give a little bit of love to the family and your guests

by doing that hard work.

So, I got my prawns here.

Just wash my hands.

So, when doing a kebab,

I'm thinking, "How long will those prawns take to cook?"

Honestly, on a hot barbecue or under a hot grill,

four minutes, four and a half minutes, max.

What else can we do that's beautiful in four minutes?

I love using bread because bread can take on flavours

from different things. It sucks it up.

So I'll go about

a centimetre and a half thick,

and I'll cut it into rustic dice.

So, I'll probably only need

two slices.

And also, I love the whole surf and turf vibe,

so little rashers of smoky bacon

with delicate prawns

and little bits of chilli on there.

They're going to work incredibly well together.

And again, because this is so delicate,

four minutes - that'll be crispy.

Four minutes - that's cooked.

Four minutes- that's golden.

So it's kind of like that's the theory that I'm going on.

Now, what we're going to do is marinate the prawns.

So, let's go basil.

An incredible summer herb.

Really nice.

Parsley - really fresh and green.

And just bash it up in a pestle and mortar.

And then we're going to add some garlic.

That one's trying to escape.

Look at that.

And then the zest

and the juice of half a lemon.

A little drizzle of olive oil.

About two and a half tablespoons goes in.

That's going to give you the basis of a really nice marinade.

You can use that on fish, chicken, pork.

Dress the prawns in that incredible colour.

Look at it!

That flavour will already be penetrating

those butterflied prawns.

And if you can leave them for, like, an hour,

the flavour will be incredible.

So we have the prawns, the chunks of bread,

the smoky pancetta,

and then the perfect summertime fruit

to bring all those flavours together - chilli.

That'll get the taste buds going and really elevate

all those other flavours.

Cut them up into about the same size

as the chunks of bread

and the thickness of the prawns - right -

so there's a harmony between all of these.

So let's make a skewer.

I like to kind of take a little bit of that bacon,

little bit of the bread,

and then I put the bacon on again.

One part of the prawn.

I can then go back to the bacon,

and then back over with the other half of the prawn.

So, imagine that cooking together.

Bread, bacon, prawn.

A little bit of that mild chilli pepper there.

Right? So that's the vibe, yeah?

It's going to cook amazing!

But also prawns cost a lot of money,

so it was always a classic way to stretch food

by using something that was cheap and affordable,

and that's the bread.

But the thing is, everyone fights for the bread

cos it's absorbing all of this lovely flavour.

Look at that.

I'll finish with a little bit of bread doused in the marinade.

So that...

..is five prawns.

But look how generous that looks.

Let's just rack out four of these, nice and quick,

taking care.

And it'll be delicious.

Just ease it all down.

Weave the bacon amongst everything.

If you wanted to do it the night before,

just don't put the lemon juice in

because that'll slightly cook the fish.

But right now, because I'm going to cook these in about five minutes,

that's going to flavour and penetrate the prawns.

It's going to be absolutely delicious.

In no time at all, some beautiful kebabs made.

Look at that! So, let those marinate

and a quick little clean down.

To go with it, I want a really surprising salad

that is going to celebrate all the things that are good right now

in summer. So first up, watermelon.

Chilli is best friends with watermelon.

Bang in season right now.

I've just cut it into centimetre chunks.

Next up - our friend Mr Cucumber.

Also bang in season right now.

Actually, cucumber is the same family as watermelon,

or the melon family.

Just take that outer skin off.

And then take that really watery centre out.

See along here?

So I'll just slice those up.

Quite like them in these little half-moons.

And cucumber is really good friends with chilli.

Just works together so fantastically well.

Onion.

There's loads of seasonal onions right now in the shops.

These are quite mild,

but if you want to knock the onion sort of flavour back,

just put a little salt...

..and a little acid - lemon juice or vinegar.

Just sort of knocks it back a little bit.

Then feta cheese.

Centimetre little chunks.

Just nice and tangy.

And then be confident with beautiful, fresh herbs.

Whole mint leaves.

Really, really nice.

The herbs from the garden are just growing like the clappers

at the moment. But you can get them down the markets

and the supermarkets.

Perfect summer fennel.

Just get those torn in.

Just dress this with some extra virgin olive oil.

About three times olive oil

to one part lemon juice.

Fresh!

A little salt.

A little pepper.

Look at that.

Beautiful!

Pretty much perfect.

But as it's chilli day,

I'm going to steal some of our quick pickle.

It will have already started to pickle up really nicely.

And this is what I mean about having these pickles around.

So quick, so easy.

Fantastic pickled chilli.

Beautiful!

So, salad done, kebabs made,

barbecue's ready.

And in perfect timing,

the sun has come out.

Let's go and cook.

So, the barbecue is like medium, medium-high heat.

I've rubbed the bars with oil

and now I'm going to put these on.

The smells are amazing.

It's important that you're sensitive to the kebab.

Turn it over. Yes.

That's looking good.

What's really lovely is even those little bits of shell on the tail,

they go crispy.

You can see the fat inside the shell

kind of bubbling away.

Oh! The sizzle!

While it's grilling,

get a little lemon juice.

And it's gonna be hot in there

but we just go in.

And look. That's what we got.

Gorgeous, gnarly kebab.

Love and care,

thoughtfulness, combos,

and reacting to what's in season,

what is around you,

and getting that flavour of now.

That's what it's all about.

So, let's plate a little portion up.

Just push it all off.

Now, all you've got to do is tuck in.

I got a bit of prawn and bread

and chilli and bacon.

Oh, my!

What a thing.

Juicy, sweet, garlicky, herby.

The chilli's there. It's not hot,

it's just humming in the background.

And the watermelon's so good because...it's so cold and fresh.

And just when the chilli's kind of giving you a little kick...

..it saves the day.

That's what I love about summer cooking -

responding to what is in season, what's available.

We've had rain today, we've had sun today.

But all the while,

we've made some beautiful food that is as fresh

and as gorgeous as you like.

Mm! I love it.

Right. Let's have a little look at me cucumbers.

So, out in the garden,

I reckon they're about two and a half weeks away

and they're flowering already.

But in the greenhouse... Look at these.

These are snacking cucumbers -

really dense, really firm,

absolutely a treat to eat.

This one is called Connie,

this one's called Kylie and this one here is called Troy.

JAMIE CHUCKLES

And at this time of year,

you're gonna see loads of British cucumbers.

I think we probably take them for granted a little bit.

They're just going in salads, aren't they?

But actually, you can do so many things with it.

You can even cook them, you can grill them,

you can roast them, which loads of people don't do,

and they're delicious.

They love salt, they love vinegar.

When they're small like this,

they're really dense and really crunchy.

Originally from Southeast Asia, India,

and, yeah, they're kind of considered very British -

you know, having cucumber sandwiches for afternoon tea -

but they're not.

Have a look at Troy.

Your moment has come, my friend.

Look at that.

So, I'm gonna use some of these beautiful cucumbers

in some of my cooking today.

I'm taking this amazing summer fruit

to new heights

in this deliciously elegant soup.

I'm whizzing it up with other green goodies

to create my take on a super-simple,

utterly moreish green gazpacho -

just the thing to spread

a bit of sophistication on a hot summer's day.

When they're bang in season, like they are right now,

it's nice to try something new.

And, obviously, in the summer,

when you have those really hot, toasty days,

there is a soup that is there to refresh you

and make you feel invigorated with deliciousness,

and that is the famous Spanish gazpacho.

Now, the one you might know is with tomatoes

and sometimes peppers that's red.

But I wanna show you my take on a green one.

Now, I know it's not in our culture

to embrace cold soups,

but our summers are getting hotter,

and when we do get a really hot day,

you don't want a hot, steaming bowl of broth,

you want something that's really cold and refreshing.

So, come with me on this,

because I promise you, it is delicious.

So, liquidiser is your best friend here.

We're gonna start with bread, OK?

So, I'm gonna just take some stale bread,

remove the crust.

I can make breadcrumbs

so it won't be wasted,

but what I do want is

the stale white part in the middle.

30% of all the bread we buy ends up in the bin,

so we don't need to do that, cos what we can do is rehydrate it.

Just soak it in the water, and like a loofah in the bath,

give it a little squeeze,

and the bread's gonna give

the most incredible creamy silkiness,

a real elegance, a real finesse.

So, you know, that's the power of stale bread.

That's gonna go into our liquidiser.

The first green vegetable we're gonna use is the cucumber.

You don't have to take the skin off,

but I'm gonna peel it off,

mainly because there's a slight element of bitterness

in the skin

and I don't want that anywhere near this soup.

Take the ends off

and then just slice up the cucumber.

When you grow your own,

you'll be amazed how much more crunchy they are.

I'm gonna keep this little one to one side for garnish.

We'll talk about that later.

Cucumbers come in all kinds of different shapes, colours.

Yellow ones, fat ones, stubby ones.

Cucumbers... we'll put into our liquidiser here.

So, let's get this in the compost.

Next green veg,

a spring onion.

It will give it a nice little hum.

Er, we can put pretty much all of it in.

Just remove the outer layer.

Clank it up like that

to help the liquidiser.

That's gonna give it a nice fragrance.

And then, next up, peppers and its cousin, chilli.

I'll take half a chilli here.

Same with the pepper.

Given this a wash

and then I just tear it open like this

and remove all the little seeds.

Green peppers, particularly,

they're more fresh

and got a really nice, refreshing flavour.

Hold a little bit back for garnish.

And then, green tomatoes.

Actually, you might think these are unusual,

but you're starting to see lots of different coloured tomatoes

in the supermarkets now.

Let's have a look at the cross-section.

They're really ripe and juicy.

So, the green tomatoes go in.

If you haven't got green tomatoes,

just don't put 'em in.

It's fine. You can make it without the tomatoes.

Garlic, about half a clove.

It's got that amazing fiery heat

and pungency which is so nice.

And then a little curveball - grapes.

Gives it a lovely sweetness.

And although these aren't British -

you know, I'm growing some, but they're not very good, really -

they're gonna be from other countries

that are much better at it. So, just a little handful goes in

and I'll have a couple for garnish.

So, we're pretty much done on the soup,

but for me, this wouldn't be as exciting

without the use of some herbs.

Mint is obviously minty and it's delicious -

like parsley is just iron-y and fresh.

Like, fennel tops - slightly aniseedy.

You can stick to one or have a mix. So I love that.

So, the key for this soup is balancing the oil,

the vinegar and the salt with all this gorgeousness.

I'll add a little bit

of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil - couple of tablespoons.

Sea salt, cos it'll need it.

A little pinch of pepper.

And then the vinegar, ideally, is sherry vinegar.

Classic Spanish.

About a tablespoon.

It's dark and delicious. It's so good.

And then, the last curveball is ice.

And I'm gonna put ice in here

because we want it to be chilled, right,

so I'm gonna add a little bit of water,

about 100, 200ml,

just to get it going at the very beginning.

Of course, a lot of these vegetables

are full of water,

so once the liquidiser gets going,

you'll be rocking and rolling.

And last but not least, nuts.

Pistachios give it a nice creaminess.

Super nutritious.

And then we're ready to go.

I'm gonna give it a good old whizz

and then we'll balance.

Right, let's have a little try.

Oh. It's good.

OK, so we want more salt, definitely,

to season it.

Extra virgin olive oil, just a tablespoon.

More sherry vinegar for more tang.

I want it to be slightly thicker,

so I'm gonna add a little bit more bread.

So, I'm balancing seasoning,

sourness and texture.

Whizz it up again.

Oh. That is, like, tangy, full of goodness,

beautifully seasoned.

That balancing with the oil, bread, salt, vinegar

is really important.

That's how you get the flavour.

Now, I want to do the garnishes.

Little sprinkles that you can kind of pimp up your own soup.

It is nice to have the contrast of texture,

so when you've got that lovely, silky-smooth soup,

then you have a little crunch on the garnish.

Give it a good little chop...

..and build yourself a little pile.

With the pepper,

just cut off the sort of fluffy bit,

then we just very thinly slice this part here.

And then just slice through the other way.

So, with the grapes, just go delicate.

You have this silky-smooth soup that's very elegant,

and, texturally, it's just like, it's so soothing in your mouth

as well as refreshing on a hot day.

The garnishes are supposed to be crunchy, just popping.

I'm not doing anything cheffy or flashy.

Just take the time to go through the nuts.

Look at the texture.

Some little dill flowers,

like, whatever herbs you've got available.

Fantastic green, seasonal veggies.

That's what this is all about, right?

And then last but not least, chilli.

Can't help but use a red one just for a pop of colour.

I'm breaking the rules, but they're my rules,

so I don't care.

JAMIE LAUGHS

Pour that into a cold bowl...

..and then serve it with the garnishes.

A few little red chillies, just to make it pop.

So, there you go.

A nice, refreshing gazpacho soup on a hot day.

Mm!

It's soft, silky, elegant.

Those garnishes...

Little crunches. And the nuts are so good.

A fantastic way to celebrate cucumbers

and the bounty of green veggies in season right now.

And look, next time it's really hot,

knock it out in no time at all -

with some ice cubes, really cold and refreshing.

And I'm telling you, your friends will love it.

Beautiful.

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