Original subtitles

I'm Chris, aka Flamebaster.

I'm a chef and I love cooking with fire.

Flamebasting, baby!

And one thing it's taught me is that food

and fire is a great way to bring people together.

And I've been lucky enough to travel the world cooking and feasting

at some of the coolest places on the planet.

- Man, what you got? Oh!

- But, to be honest, I haven't really explored or cooked much

around my own country, Cymru.

In this series, I'm on a journey through Cymru to discover

its food past, present and future.

Whoa! Wow!

I'll be hooking up with chefs and local producers...

Oh!

..showcasing some top foodie destinations...

Oh!

..and hidden legends who are striving to protect

our food heritage.

And those taking it to the next level.

This time I'm venturing to Caerffili in the South Wales Valleys,

and I'm going in hard with some traditional Welsh classics..

Woo! ..and some trailblazing street food. - Roll up, roll up!

- That's how you attack it. Yes!

This is a place steeped in history.

But first, I'm heading straight to the cutting-edge.

Right here in the heart of Caerffili, on the banks

of the 13th century castle is a brand-new

21st century foodie paradise.

Ffos Caerffili is an eco-friendly food hall

with 28 repurposed shipping container units

that showcases independent traders making mouthwatering grub.

These doughnuts are as big as my head. This is heaven.

From massive Homer Simpson style doughnuts to Neapolitan pizzas...

Mm! Yes!

..to local steak sandwiches, there's something pretty much

for any taste here.

That rump is so, so tender. - It's tender, yeah.

- And a really popular stall is Bao Selecta,

where Chef Nick makes scrumptious, meaty bao buns.

But the surprise crowd favourite is a vegan option made

from something called seitan.

So what's this flour again?

- So people call it vital wheat gluten, vital wheat gluten,

or more readily available now is just seitan flour.

- OK, cool, cool.

So seitan flour is basically wheat flour with the starch rinsed away.

And when cooked, it turns into a surprisingly meaty texture.

After a short time in the steamer, the slices are crisped up

in the fryer.

A smothering of sweet glaze, and into the bun they go,

with a drizzle of hot sauce and all the trimmings.

So let's see if this seitan lives up to the hype.

- Is that a good...? Oh, brilliant.

- It's so meaty.

Some next level wizardry going on there.

- Well, I'm over the moon.

Glad you like it. - That's amazing.

But who I'm really here to see is Leyli Homayoonfar.

Her blend of Middle Eastern and Mexican food called Bab Haus

is legendary in South Wales.

So good to see you. - Great to see you.

- We've collaborated together at a food festival in London

in the past, and I'm a massive fan.

- Essentially, at the heart of it, Bab Haus is fire food.

The inspiration comes from growing up around barbecue,

uh, kind of Middle Eastern Persian barbecues.

- Is your dad Persian? - Yeah.

- And mum Welsh? - Mum's Welsh. Yeah.

So, um, a bit of a fiery mix.

Do you know what you fancy trying?

- I have heard that your birria is like God tier,

best birria in the world.

So I've got to try some birria, and you just hit me

with whatever you want. - OK. It's coming.

- Birria is Mexican stewed meat,

but here Leyli cooks her beef cheeks

in a smoker for seven hours, before braising them in loads

of spices for another six.

- And then that's what we have.

And it just... - Just look at that.

- Just falls apart.

- The leftover liquor, or consomme, is used as a soup to serve alongside

the meat, which comes nestled in tacos.

Leyli fries her tacos with a load of cheese,

and the stunning birria meat is topped with onion and coriander

before it's served with a consomme and a zingy pickle.

Drool-worthy food.

- There we go. There are your tacos.

- Wow. - No pressure now, Chris. - No pressure.

My friend Jose from Tijuana told me,

"Never dunk. You've got to scoop it so the consomme stays

"in the taco shell." - Right.

Stick it in.

Is it all right?

- All right? Leyli, "all right" doesn't even come close to it.

Oh!

Oh, my God. I could bathe in that consomme. That is stunning.

O, mam bach!

- Thanks, Chris.

- Leyli's skillset is immense, and I want to collaborate again

with her to create a new dish to celebrate this cool hang-out,

Ffos Caerffili.

But I'm not ready yet.

I need to baste myself in some local food traditions.

Now, there's two things I know Caerffili is famous for -

its big round castle and its big round cheese.

Traditional Caerphilly cheese is a Welsh success story -

a beautiful, crumbly, salty cheese that was very popular

with coal miners back in the day.

Cheese!

I've got a little confession to make.

I'm a Welsh chef that's never cooked with Caerphilly cheese before,

so it's about time I set the record straight.

Forget your French bries and your Dutch goudas.

If you want amazing cheese, Wales is where it's at.

And this local cheese shop sells over 80 different Welsh wonders...

- Hey, how are you doing?

- ..chosen by cheesemonger Tim Pinder.

Cheese heaven.

I'm specifically after local Caerphilly.

- There's some great Caerphillys made in Wales,

but none made in Caerffili itself

at the moment sadly. - Whoa, whoa. No Caerphilly made in Caerffili?

- Yeah, it is surprising. - Wow.

Well, can we taste some? - Of course we can. Yeah.

This is a Caerfai Caerphilly. Um, so this is made, St David's,

so we're kind of right across in West Wales.

- A lot of Caerphilly cheese is made in factories in England by now.

But Tim reckons the best stuff is still made

by artisan producers.

Wow. Crunchy.

- Mm. - Crystal crunch. - Yeah, yeah. - I love the crystal crunch.

This Gorwydd Caerphilly is a multi-award winning cheese

and is a lot funkier

since it's allowed to mature for longer.

That one's crazy. The first hit I get is like mushroomy.

- You get a lot of that in the rind, in particular, I think.

And in between, it's kind of got

almost like a fudgy kind of texture to it.

- Not only one of the best Caerphillys I've ever had, it's one of the best

cheeses I've tasted. I think that's phenomenal.

- Yeah. World-class, isn't it? It really is world-class. - I think,

for my recipe, I'm just going to use a blend.

- Good idea. - Yeah. - Get the best of all of them.

- Just a celebration of Caerphilly.

- Perfect. - Yeah.

I get overexcited and can't resist buying four different ones.

Diolch. - Thank you for coming in. - How are you so trim?!

And with my massive haul of Caerphilly cheeses in the bag,

I'm buzzing to get my cook on.

So I'm going to cook a classic Welsh dish,

a loaded Welsh rarebit.

A lot of people think it's merely cheese on toast.

But Welsh rarebit is so much more,

and it's our national dish,

and I'm very proud of it.

And what a belter of a kitchen to cook on today,

on the summit of Caerffili Mountain.

Let's go, Caerphilly rarebit.

First up, a roux.

Just melted butter with plain flour.

Then for a umami hit I add a long dash of Worcestershire sauce.

And for a little turbo-charged Welsh kick - Welsh mustard.

It's very similar to English mustard, but better.

I cook out the flour till the mixture smells

toasty and biscuity.

Then gradually stir in some lovely rich Welsh stout.

More love in the oven.

Yeah.

And once it's come together, it's time for the cheese.

No need to grate.

I just crumple plenty in the pan

before melting it down...

..mixing the gorgeous gooeyness as I go.

Woohoo!

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

We've got a crazy Caerphilly molten lava cheesy caramel.

You know we've nailed it.

This massive slab of white bread should be strong enough to handle

what's coming.

And when it's time to slap on the rarebit mix,

I'm definitely not shy.

And when you think you've put enough on,

put some more on.

I want my rarebit to cover the whole piece of bread.

Kind of like putting a super king-sized duvet

over a single bed.

Back into the fire.

Now you want to take this rarebit mix to the limit.

You want that nice, dark golden-brown bubbles dancing.

Yeah, dark bubbles on top.

And it kind of looks like a cheesy Caerffili mountain.

Let's plate it up.

Ooh-ooh-hoo!

As it cools down, I hit it with some crisscross action

because you want a beautiful canal of flowing Worcestershire sauce

on every bite.

Wow. And just look at that.

That's fire. That is fire!

Woo! Let's tuck in.

Straight away, you've got the salty cheese hit

balanced with the creamy richness of the Welsh stout.

An uppercut punch of Welsh mustard

fieriness, and the four cheese

Caerphilly blend has worked a treat.

It's just beautiful. Beautiful.

So the Welsh rarebit is deservedly known all over the world,

but on an industrial estate back in town, there's a Portuguese guy

that's pleasing the Caerffili locals.

And this time it's all about prize pies.

Hola, Alex. - Hola!

- Muito bom! - You OK?

- Owner Alexandre is a pie master,

and in four years, Hancox's Pies have won 17 awards.

Come and show me some of the pies. - No problem.

So most popular has got to be the chicken and chorizo.

And then we go for the corned beef that everyone likes here.

- Do you like corned beef? - I hate corned beef.

- I love corned beef.

- But we've got to make it because it's what the customer wants.

- Alex's pie empire makes around 6,000 pies a week.

Inspired by his mother's Portuguese recipes, he's adapted them

to suit his customers.

And even though he hates it, that corned beef

looks good to me.

I heard back in the day the miners loved a corned beef pie

or a corned beef oggie,

a pasty type. - Yes, so they have the potatoes,

so proper filling food. - Yeah, yeah. - Food that will let you work all day

without being hungry.

Um, easy to carry as well.

- Yep. Perfect.

They're sealed by pinching the top.

And after an egg wash, they're baked to perfection.

Oh!

He's made me another couple of pies as well.

Ooh, yes.

The first one's got a traditional Welsh filling of lamb and mint.

Mm. Mm!

My favourite.

That pastry is so light.

- Very light.

- Next, the salty, meaty and acquired British filling.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about.

Coast to coast of corned beef.

Alex, you're missing out here, mate.

And I'm sure that Alex's mother would be a lot happier

with a Portuguese filling of chicken and chorizo.

I've never been to Portugal, but this is like a bite of Portugal

in a pie. - Now, I tell you what you told me

with the corned beef. You're missing out.

- OK. I feel like I need to embrace the Pie Master.

- Glad you enjoyed. - Obrigado.

I am going to eat all of these, but not on camera,

so can you maybe put them in a box? - Of course I can. - Awesome.

As Alex suggested, pies were apparently very popular

with miners in the collieries that surrounded Caerffili.

And the king of the pie in these valleys was the oggie.

Similar to a huge Cornish pasty,

they were a perfect all-in-one meal for the miners.

Traditionally, an oggie was filled with whatever was available,

and I'm inspired to try and make one.

So I've come up to Penrhiw Farm to source a very old school

ingredient for my oggie.

Wow. Penrhiw Farm. What a stunning part of the world.

- Yes. You've come on the right day when the sun is shining.

- And I've heard this is the place to be for some next level Welsh mutton.

- Yes. We could sort you out with some of that.

- Show me the ewes. - Come on, then.

- John and Celia rear their sheep and cows on lush organic grass

up here, above the valley.

And surprisingly, one of their best sellers is mutton,

the mature meat of sheep that are past the reproductive age.

So many people connect Wales with Welsh lamb.

But tell me, why mutton?

- Lots of our customers actually say they will happily eat mutton

than lamb, because they feel the mutton ewes have had a life,

whereas the lambs have had a shorter life. And some of our mutton ewes

are five, six, seven years old.

- As you see here, these mutton on the meadow, not just eating grass.

It's the flowers, the clovers, the wild herbs. - Yep. - And all that's

just going to shine through in the taste.

- I mean, we were... Or I certainly was sceptical

when we started producing mutton.

I thought, "Oh, this is not going to be very nice.

But it's a real surprise when you taste it,

you know, slow-cooked on the bone.

A half leg of mutton is... - Oh, got to have it on the bone.

- ..a bit difficult to... - The flavour of the bone.

- There's nothing to beat it, really, is there?

- Yep, I totally agree.

Mutton has a deeper taste than lamb, and like anything that's aged well,

it's richer and more complex.

So for my take on the South Wales oggie...

Thank you!

..Celia and John kindly give me some mutton mince.

Have a nice day, ta!

And I can't wait to fire up the oven.

Yeah!

Time to make a super-sized oggie.

As a tribute to Caerffili's mining past,

I'm going to cook a massive pasty.

And pretty much every country on earth has their own take.

Empanadas of Spain and South America.

The calzones of Italy.

The list goes on and on and on.

But today is traditional Welsh old school oggies

with mutton, pimped up with a few tricks up my sleeve.

I love it.

So let's get rocking on the pastry.

This pastry starts off with half a block of lard,

a good sprinkle of sea salt.

Melt away.

Lard is better than butter for a crispier, flakier crust.

Once it melts, I cool it down in water before adding twice

as much flour.

I mix it all up, then knead it for a good five to ten minutes.

It needs to chill before I work with it,

so I wrap it in clingfilm and set it to one side.

While the pastry's chilling, let's rock on with the filling.

I melt some butter, not lard this time,

and add chopped carrots,

celery, Welsh leeks and garlic.

These need to be sweated down and softened for a few minutes

before adding the stunning mountain mutton mince.

A sprinkle of sea salt, and I whack it in the oven.

TINKLING MUSIC

Oh, ideal. It's a hot day.

It's very hot by the fire.

Ice cream man is here.

I'm definitely going to have one later.

Woo!

After about five minutes, we've already got some nice big

juicy bits of mutton.

So now in with some rosemary...

..and some thyme.

A bit of cracked pepper.

And my special ingredients - laverbread.

And this Welsh laver seaweed is full of umami hit.

Salty, savoury. It goes so well with this mountain mutton.

Bara lawr is the Welsh name.

I love the Welsh name. Bara lawr.

Look who's come for a nosy!

I don't even know what that is. Is it like a goose or something?

Back on the heat now and it needs some liquid. And beef stock

works well to keep it juicy as all the flavours infuse together.

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for.

Nice deep caramelisation on the mutton.

The perfect filling for my giant oggie.

Now, it's essential we let this cool down again.

So just let it chill.

I'll enjoy the view for a bit.

Is the ice cream guy in the van?

What a beautiful spot on a hot sunny day.

And I can't resist a cheeky lemonade lollipop.

But back to the cooking,

and a mix of sugar, vinegar and mint leaves

pounded and grinded together make a simple but stunning mint sauce.

Let's build this oggie up.

Pastry.

A dusting of flour.

Start rolling.

The pastry needs to be about a half a centimetre thick,

and it needs to be big,

so I can pack it with loads of the gorgeous mutton mix.

Just fill it up to get a nice

mountain of mutton.

I fold the pastry over and shape a hefty crust.

This was used by miners as a handle for dirty hands when eating

the lovely filling.

Ingenious.

And use whatever you've got to hand to seal the deal.

That is one massive oggie.

I make a hole on top to stop the steam

from making it a soggy oggie,

and let the heat do its magic.

This isn't a super hot and fast cook like a pizza.

It'll take around ten minutes to cook through.

You could cook this easily in an oven at home, but a wood oven

gives it more depth and character

with these beautiful charred bubbles.

Yes!

And that's why you fully load your oggie.

Packed to the max.

Beautiful leopard spots on the undercarriage.

CHUCKLING

Before I eat...

..in with a mint sauce.

Woo!

And instantly I get hit by an old school Sunday mutton roast

dinner smell, taste, vibe.

But that infusion with the laverbread just takes

it to a whole 'nother dimension.

That mint sauce is banging.

IN WELSH:

An oggie each for my guests at Ffos later

would probably go down really well...

..but I haven't got an oven big enough

to cook more than one at a time.

And I also want to use some flavour tricks used by Leyli from Bab Haus

who I saw earlier.

- It's wonderful. Lovely Welsh weather.

- So to have a deeper taste of her Persian heritage,

I've been invited for dinner at the family home.

And in the back garden at the grill,

braving the rain, is big bro Alex.

Oh, it smells amazing.

- Yeah. Yeah. - What have we got here? - Looking good.

We've got some Persian chicken kebab known as Jujeh kebab in Farsi.

And some koobideh, which is minced lamb, onion, salt, pepper and sumac.

- This is our typical family barbecue.

Any time of year, any weather.

So instead of a Sunday roast, we have this. - A Sunday smoke.

- A Sunday smoke. Yeah. - Love it!

Sorry, can I help with anything? I'm just drinking beer.

- No, no, no. - In the kitchen,

it's Leyli's mother who's busy making traditional dishes

like this crusty rice called Tahdig.

Oh, wow. I bet that's the bit all the family fight for.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's Maggie's rice there. - I have to take a photo.

- That's gold. - That is gold!

Dinner is served.

Where's this one going? - Where's it going, Mum?

- And there's so many beautiful, vibrant plates.

This mirza ghassemi is made from charred aubergine.

And the yoghurt and cucumber salad called mast-o-khiar is topped

with rose petals.

- OK. - So double thumbs up.

- Double thumbs up. - Wow!

This feast is a stunner.

- Yes!

- Every ravishing bite is an inspiration.

And as we gorge on the flavours, the chat naturally turns

towards what we're going to cook at Ffos Caerffili.

- Have you got an idea of what you'd like to do?

- I was thinking like Alex style with the skewers, but maybe

with some ox hearts. - Oh, yeah. - Like the cheap, cheap cut.

But once you trim all the fats and the ventricles and stuff away,

you've just got lean, amazing steak meat.

- Amazing. I love ox heart.

It's one of my... It's such an underrated cut

and so many people don't know how delicious it is.

- So next up, a local butchers, run by husband and wife team Paul

and Cath, to buy some humongous ox tickers.

Yeah. Show me the heart!

Just look how clean and how lean that meat is. Wow.

- Yeah, we've got a few customers.

We've got people who like them minced up

and make burgers out of them. - Spice them. - People buy them for

their dogs, raw and cooked. - The dogs at Caerffili are eating good, yeah?

- Yeah. - They do.

- So maybe I'll go for ten hearts?

- Yeah. - Ten. - No problem. - No problem. - Nice one!

- No problem.

- Here we go, then.

Grilled with Persian spices,

this is a Bab Haus inspired ox heart flatbread.

I'm back at Ffos Caerffili. Got my kitchen set up.

The barbecues are getting hot.

We've got an epic feast tonight. Invited loads of guests.

And as they start to arrive, Leyli and her team are giving out

taco starters while I'm prepping the meat.

Take a look at this heart.

Doesn't look very appealing,

but trust me, this is an amazing cut.

Slice it open.

Open it up like a book.

You need to trim off all the ventricles and the capillaries.

They're edible, but when they heat up, they contract

and make the meat rubbery and tough.

This is just one little steak from the heart.

Look at that now. It just looks like an amazing, very lean,

very healthy steak.

How much did these cost me? Like £7-£8.

Do four steaks. Feed the family of four easy.

These steaks get a generous

rub made from some blended grilled peppers, plenty of garlic,

a mix of Persian spices like cinnamon, cloves,

cumin and rose petals,

a big pinch of the tangy spice sumac,

sea salt and olive oil.

Give everything a good mix.

It smells so good.

So prep done. Just need to get the grills up to temp now.

And as people are getting hungry for the main course,

I'm a little worried that some appetites might be turned off

by the idea of ox heart.

Yo, you OK?

So I want to ramp up the buzz about it.

Big up Bab Haus, big up Leyli and the team. - Thank you.

Thanks, everyone.

- So onto the Persian vibe barbecue.

Bit of ox heart.

Yeah, you don't sound too keen there. Ox heart. But trust me,

it'll be just like really nice steak.

Yeah, it's a vibe. Thank you for coming.

Caerffili's a vibe, I love it. Yo, back to the fire!

Time to start on the flatbreads.

Leyli's persuaded the pizzeria on site to donate some

super soft dough.

And I'm using it to make a Persian style bread,

using black and white sesame seeds and some olive oil

so they crisp up nicely once they're slapped on the fire.

I love grilled breads.

- Yeah. - Probably takes a good 5 minutes, 2.5 minutes each side.

- You can start to see it actually bubble up a bit.

That looks... Oh, that looks amazing.

- So shall I start grilling some ox hearts? - Yeah.

- You can treat this as you would a minute steak.

I think if it goes past medium, it gets a bit too chewy. - Yeah.

- These steaks don't need much more than a couple

of minutes each side. - Oh, wow. Look at that.

- And a baste of melted butter using my bay leaf branch keeps them

moist and juicy.

Leyli also uses the branch to baste the breads, and after resting them

for a few minutes, I get to slice up the first batch of the heart.

Look at that and it's just... - Oh, wow.

- It's just like a beautiful, rare-ish, medium-ish steak.

- It's like super tender steak. - Yeah, super tender.

It's got a strong, rich flavour.

Slightly gamey like venison.

So to cut through it, zingy pickled red onions,

green chilli pickle, yoghurt and Leyli's special hot sauce.

And I bet you can't guess what these are.

These are dried limes.

Another Persian ingredient.

How do you...? How do you pronounce it?

- Well, just Persian dried limes. - Persian dried limes.

And we've ground it up in the pestle and mortar

with just a tiny sprinkle on the yoghurt.

- I'm just so impressed at how you've, like, put these flavours together.

You totally get it.

- Presentation not so great. - I think that looks banging.

- Does it? - I think that looks perfect, actually.

- Oh, that bread is so good, Leyli. - Look at that.

Mm-hm! - Oh, the flavours in that!

- Honestly, there are so many different, like, notes

coming through. That's so well balanced.

I might have to steal this.

- Yeah. Go for it. - You might see this on... - Yeah.

Just remember. Just remember. 25%.

- Yeah. Wow. Thank you, Chef.

Wow.

- So the Persian queen is happy.

Next up the Caerffili foodie crowd.

- Roll up, roll up.

- The turnout is off the scale and the pressure is on.

- Diolch!

- And big bro Alex is sniffing around checking

on my grilling skills.

Yes, that's how you attack it!

That's how you attack it.

Fire! - Superb.

- That's really good. - Spot-on, really good, diolch! - Yes!

- Thank you. Diolch.

- The people of this town have been especially amazing.

- Thank you. - Everyone is so kind and so positive

about sharing their awesome produce and banging food.

Sorry, I will cook some more. Give me two minutes.

And for me, this is what it's all about.

Food, fire, Leyli, Caerffili, Ffos, bringing people together.

It's been amazing and I've loved every second.

- Thanks. Thanks, Chef. Thank you so much.

My pleasure. Right. - Right, then.

Back to it. We've got more mouths to feed.

Oh, diolch, diolch, diolch!

- Thank you.

Right. - Woo!