♪ Leith, voice-over: I'm Prue Leith-- cook, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 15 cookbooks.

Looks good, doesn't it?

Leith, voice-over: I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.

This series is all about the things that really matter to me-- family, fun, food, and friends, and some of those friends will be joining me.

We'll be sharing simple, home-cooked recipes... Alison Hammond: But I don't normally tell people about that bit, only people I like.

Ha ha ha!

Leith, voice-over: and celebrating the best produce.

For 47 years, I have been lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds, and my long-suffering husband John is coming along for the ride.

Can you make that?

Under instruction.

Leith, voice-over: In today's episode...

They are very prickly.

Leith, voice-over: John will be showing you how to make a perfect Cotswold wreath.

I think it's just absolutely lovely.

Leith, voice-over: Sandi Toksvig will be joining me to cook a recipe by Enid Blyton...

I'm very pleased with your sausage.

This is not a thing I ever thought you'd say to me.

Ha ha ha!

That is properly hot.

Leith, voice-over: and I've got the perfect hack for a steak.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

♪ ♪ This show is all about the things that matter to me, and family is top of the list, so I'd like to start by showing you one of my family's favorite recipes-- my late brother Jamie's red dragon pie.

Actually, it's a vegan dish.

Jamie would make this for the children when they came home from school, and they all have memories of it.

I've no idea why it's called red dragon pie, but that's what they used to call it.

♪ It's really simple.

It's an adzuki bean pie, and it's a bit like a shepherd's pie.

You can use any other beans.

It doesn't have to be adzuki beans.

I like something with a bit of color.

They take about an hour to boil, or you can get them in a can or a jar, even better, so bit of oil in a pan.

In goes carrots and the onions and the red peppers and celery, so you don't want to go too fast.

You don't want to start browning bits of onion before everything is softened.

You want to soften it all first, so you can just take a long time to do it, or you can cheat by putting a lid on it and a little bit of water in it so that it's slightly stewing.

If you do that until all the water is gone, you can then start to fry it a little just to turn the color.

Leith, voice-over: I love how the smell and taste of food is a fantastic trigger of memories, and when I cook this dish, I definitely think of Jamie.

♪ This recipe certainly reminds me of my brother.

I was really close to him.

He was my younger brother, and he died last year, and Jamie was 6 years younger than me, and when he was a baby, I couldn't bear him-- he was such a pain-- and then when he got to be 3 or 4, he used to follow me around all the time and drive me absolutely nuts, and I can remember saying to my mum, "I really hate Jamie.

"You know, I didn't like him as a baby.

He got worse when he was two, and he's terrible now," and she said, "You know what?

You will grow up to absolutely love him," and it's true.

He became undoubtedly my favorite brother.

I've been very lucky with my family.

Right, so now all the water is gone.

[Sizzling] You can hear it's now beginning to fry, and we want it to change color a little.

You can see by the color of the onions that it's all softened.

They're a little bit transparent, so I'm just going to fry them a little bit.

Oop.

My husband says I'm the most messy cook in the world.

He's probably right.

Leith, voice-over: Soften the veg slowly and then add 3 large cloves of garlic.

The reason I don't put the garlic in at the beginning is because it has a lot of sugar in it, and it tends to burn faster than the other veg, although, to be honest, I sometimes do, but that's the theory, anyway, so in go the beans.

Leith, voice-over: Next, add the soy sauce, a tablespoon of tomato puree, and the chili flakes, half a teaspoon maybe.

You can put more if you love it.

Right, and then I'm going to put this in... which is the juice from cooking the beans.

I'm going to simmer it for now, about 30 minutes, until it's all more of an amalgam.

♪ Beans are a great source of protein for vegans, and in this recipe, you can use what you like-- from black beans to kidney beans, chickpeas, whatever.

♪ So this has had about 30 minutes, and you can see that it's very little juice left in it and it's slightly thickened, so I think that's just about perfect, so I've just got a few more things I want to do with it.

I want to add some parsley, just get a handful of it, you know, like that.

By the way when you're chopping parsley, the trick is to just make sure you chop them very finely because the stalks are tender enough, but you don't want long strings of stalks because they get stuck in your mouth, really, so chop them like that, and my thing about chopping parsley is to just-- or any herbs, is to screw it up into a tight, little ball like that and then make the first chop just very, very finely like that.

Parsley in, put a bit of salt in, bit of pepper.

Mix it all up... and taste it.

It's fine... and then the mashed potato.

Now, because this is a vegan dish, there's no butter in here.

It's just potato boiled, drained, mashed, and quite a lot of olive oil added to it, and you can put in as much as you as you like, but I think olive oil in mashed potato is really delicious.

It is something very special, mm, and it's good, so this goes on the top just like you would for a shepherd's pie.

Leith, voice-over: If the mash is warm and you use a spatula, it will spread more easily to cover the bean mix.

♪ You can do it like that-- which is the classic shepherd's pie look, isn't it-- or you can just rough it up any way you like.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

This is a family dish.

It's not going to win prizes.

It's going to be delicious.

Do you know what?

This is a great dish for people who think they don't like vegetarian or vegan food because it has masses of flavor.

It's got punch.

I mean, even the most dedicated carnivore would like that.

Leith, voice-over: Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes until it's hot inside and browned on top.

Comfort and joy is what food brings, so that's my brother's red dragon pie.

♪ Here's to you, Jamie.

♪ Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen, where I'm celebrating food, family, and friends.

What's more important in life?

♪ So before Sandi Toksvig, my great mate, arrives, I want to show you a hack for flavored butters.

♪ There are lots and lots of different flavorings for butter, but I think the king of them all is Cafe de Paris.

Leith, voice-over: It's a butter that's best served with steak and is full of savory herbs, spices, and condiments.

Believe it or not, it has 11 ingredients in it, so I'm going to put all these things in together.

That's mustard, tomato paste, and curry powder, chives, tarragon, dill, parsley, orange rind and lemon rind, chopped capers, and chopped onion.

Leith, voice-over: You don't have to use all the ingredients here, but the essentials are the curry paste, orange rind, and, of course, the butter, and you want about equal quantities of the flavoring and the butter, and then you just mangle them all up together.

♪ You want to get it really well-mixed so it's absolutely even, maybe just a tiny bit of salt.

♪ My husband complains that I put pepper in everything, but I do.

I love it.

Leith, voice-over: And here's my hack for making sure none of it goes to waste.

We're going to chill this butter, and the best way to do it is to make it into a sort of sausage, and you can freeze it, or you can chill it.

What you don't want is a big lump of flavored butter that won't thaw quickly because if you just suddenly decide to come home with a couple of steaks or have a whole roast fish or something wonderful like that, it's not going to be difficult to take a small piece off that, even if it's frozen.

I'm going to stick it in the freezer now because later, I'm going to be using a bit of it to show you how to cook the perfect steak, but before that, broadcaster, writer, comedian, and activist Sandi Toksvig is joining me to share her love of food and history.

Welcome to my kitchen.

Am I allowed to give you a hug?

Yeah.

I only came for the hug.

Never mind about the cooking.

The last time I had lunch with you in your kitchen, I was very excited because you're such a brilliant cook, and we had reheated lasagna somebody else had made.

I'm just saying, so, you know-- It's absolutely true.

It's absolutely true.

Right, I know what you're going to cook for me because you and I have spent quite a lot of time with these little books, and there's a recipe in this one.

Can you explain about the books?

I got so excited, so, as you know, I love history, and I often look at things that come up for auction, and this is a collection of recipe books.

I think there's hundreds of them.

500 of them.

500 of them.

They start in 1904.

Yeah, and they're all books that were to raise money for a scout hut, or for a church hall... Or a hospital.

or a hospital or something, and they're all recipes put together by good, local people trying to fundraise.

Women, all women.

They're all women.

Always women.

This is a slice of fantastic British history which is often overlooked, and when you look through them, some of the adverts, for example, tell you everything about the life, so what's this one?

This is 1923, isn't it?

This is Beckenham.

Beckenham in 1923.

There's a wonderful one in this one which is for a hairdressing and shaving saloon...

Yes, indeed.

and it says, "Hair Brushed by Machinery."

I mean, how terrifying is that?

You must go there to get hair brushed by machinery.

OK, so the recipe you're going to do was contributed by Enid Blyton.

The recipe is for ham and egg pie.

Which is an underrated pie.

♪ Ham and egg pie is lovely, but you're going to do it in a plate, and why not?

And why not?

OK, so make a plain crust with 1 pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of beef dripping, a large teaspoon of baking powder.

OK. Leith, voice-over: I want to find out if Enid's 1923 recipe has stood the test of time.

I must say, I have my gravest doubts about whether this recipe will work.

Wow.

I--no.

No, no, no, no, no.

This is not OK. We are going to be nothing but positive, but that doesn't seem like very much fat to flour.

Should it not be-- should not be half?

No, no.

We're doing what she told us.

Right.

This is very exciting.

It's like being a television chef.

Ha ha!

Yeah.

I'll tell you what.

You look exactly like you know what you're doing, so you can now-- It's a new thing I'm trying.

Ha ha ha!

What else?

What's the next thing that we shall require?

"Mix to a stiff paste with skimmed milk," it says.

OK.

In there, it says skim milk, so 1923.

Yeah.

When I was taught to make pastry, you had to do that stuff high up, so that the idea being that you got lots of air into it as you went down, but, to be honest, I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference.

Sweetheart, stick the milk in now, I think.

OK. Oh, I just realized, I've got Prue Leith watching me cook.

Ha ha!

OK. That's fine.

After that, you have to divide into two portions and roll each piece into a circle, and I think you should roll each piece into a circle here because this is glass and it'll be nice and cool, and I'll put some flour on here.

OK.

I've got the first one.

OK.

There you are.

I mean, it's very sticky, isn't it?

Yeah, but I'll flour it up for you.

♪ Just... ♪ Sandi, put your hands like that... Yep.

I'm going to put some on.

Thank you, darling.

and then you rub them together like that.

♪ I love cooking with you.

[Both laugh] Sandi, that looks like a really nice pastry.

"You are now going to cover this with slices "of fairly lean, raw ham and pepper according to taste."

OK. "Ham should not come to within an inch of the pastry," so only in there.

Only an inch of my life... Yeah.

That's right.

so there, basically in the dip, yeah?

I saw in a restaurant yesterday, I saw a marvelous sign which said, "Always practice safe eating.

Always use a condiment"... Ha ha ha!

I want that sign.

Right.

OK... That looks nice.

and then, believe it or not, "break 4 or 5 new-laid eggs on the ham.

I mean, this is not how I would cook.

OK. Just like that, just-- Yep.

OK. What do you think the chances are of this succeeding, out of 10?

Well, I don't think Enid Blyton would have put it in here if it didn't work, so I have faith, so salt and pepper lightly.

Here you are, pepper.

I wouldn't put too much salt in because... You're antisalt.

No, because it's got ham in it and ham is already salty, little bit of salt.

Et voila.

"Cover with the remaining pastry."

Oh, I wasn't doing my job.

I was supposed to-- Oh, I mean, what is the point of me being so ahead of the game here?

What's the point of you having a commis chef if she doesn't get on with it?

I know, right?

I'm going to bring over my eggy thing.

Hang on.

Oops.

I've got to get my hand under it.

Oop, making a hole in it, that's not good.

Looking good.

♪ OK.

There we go.

Oh, this is marvelous.

Shall I pinch?

Pinch it together.

I'll pinch, pinch.

I think you need to be a little bit bolder.

so that you actually pinch-- Bit more pinching?

Yeah, because then you then you get the bottom and the top really stuck together.

Ooh, that looks nice.

Right.

Do we need to put a hole in it for any air, or it doesn't say so?

Well, I would put a hole in it, but she doesn't tell us to.

Yeah, but, you know, Enid doesn't know everything.

Well, she probably does.

She just assumes you'll know.

I think yes.. Yeah, or a slit, a slash.

Yeah.

That'll do.

That's to let the air out...

Indeed.

so it doesn't get steamy inside.

Is he oven ready?

Yeah.

You ready?

Mm-hmm.

I'm ready.

Look what we made.

Yeah.

Well done.

Ha ha ha!

That's got to be in there for-- "Bake in a moderate oven until it's brown."

Who knows, you know?

Ha ha!

[Barks] Leith, voice-over: And while the pie cooks, we'll have just enough time to try another recipe from the 1920s.

♪ We've got the pie in the oven.

It's got a little way to go.

Your next recipe is meatless sausages.

I mean, you know me to be one of the last great carnivores.

I think a sausage can be good without meat.

I'm really curious about eating cheaply.

I think it's something that we have sort of forgotten how to do, and I also think it can be delicious.

♪ It seems to me a great recipe for leftover pasta because it's got one ounce of boiled macaroni or spaghetti.

You're not going to boil up just an ounce, are you, so that will be something that's left over.

This one's interesting because this person, Mrs. E.J.

Wilby, is much keener on telling you what the proportions are, whereas Enid was much more of the kind of, "Meh."

Right.

I'm ready.

OK. Well, his is a very precise recipe.

OK. Half a pound of breadcrumbs.

Yes, all in together?

Yeah, half pound breadcrumbs.

OK. One ounce of margarine.

OK.

If food came like this, all laid out... You'd cook much more.

it would be much better, wouldn't it?

Two teaspoons of mixed herbs.

OK, all of these?

Yeah.

Right.

Let's do it.

1 1/2 ounces of grated cheese.

OK. Half a clove of garlic, chopped.

I mean, that looks like a lot.

That's all right.

In for a penny.

A little salt.

Yeah.

A little salt.

You could do that.

A little salt... Yep.

and one egg.

Yeah, whole egg...

There we go.

and a little Yorkshire relish.

Now, Yorkshire relish, I suppose-- What do you think that is?

Gentleman's Relish.

Strong, strong.

I imagine it's like Worcestershire sauce.

Half of that.

Yeah.

It seems like a great deal.

Now you smash all that up.

OK. Macaroni has got to go in.

Right.

When do you think the first recipe for macaroni cheese appears in this country?

I have no idea, Sandi, but you're going to tell me.

1390.

1390?

1390, in a cookbook made for Richard II.

Right.

What's next?

Now you're going to roll these into sausages.

I mean, it's not looking appetizing yet.

No.

I'll tell you what.

I'll put this on and put a bit of oil in it or butter or something because we have to fry them.

Quietly pleased with my sausage.

Oh, very pleased.

I'm very pleased with your sausage.

Now you have to-- That's just not a thing I ever thought you'd say to me.

You didn't know you had one, did you?

Ha ha ha!

Come on, you.

Dip it in that, see?

Gonna roll it around in that and then roll it in the breadcrumbs.

♪ There is my first sausage.

Careful.

It's hot.

[Sizzling] Look at that.

It looks all right.

Oh, these are looking really nice.

Children would love these, especially if you give them ketchup to go with it.

I have never ever met a child who did not enjoy cooking.

No, exactly true, exactly true.

I mean, it's like playing with mud pies, and you can eat it.

Yeah.

How many grandchildren have you got now?

11.

♪ Leith, voice-over: The sausages are good to go.

Let's check on that pie.

♪ I think it looks perfect.

I would have given it an egg wash.

So would I, but she didn't say that.

No, Enid.

♪ Oh, my goodness, look how nice that looks.

♪ Looks nice.

You know-- Please admire, everyone.

Ha ha ha!

Sausage.

Ha ha ha!

People of Beckenham, we thank you.

♪ Mm.

You know what?

It is absolutely delicious.

♪ Is that not good?

That's terrific.

And the cheese.

I would have that again.

That is absolutely delicious, and--I'm not being funny-- it tastes a bit like a sausage, doesn't it?

That's heaven.

Ham is cooked.

Yeah.

The egg is cooked.

The pasty is not quite cooked.

OK.

It's a bit underdone.

Yeah, but, to be fair, she just said moderate oven, and we didn't know.

And we didn't know what she meant.

I think it's delicious.

I think both recipes are absolutely lovely.

Mm.

I think that's something of a triumph-- meatless sausage and ham and egg pie from a little booklet written in 1923 by Enid Blyton.

Who would have thought it?

We should celebrate.

We should have lashings of ginger beer.

That's what we should have, lashings of ginger beer.

♪ One of the great joys of living in the countryside is that there's all this greenery around... ♪ and right now, my husband John is out gathering bits and bobs with our gardener Philippa, learning to make a countryside wreath.

♪ Playfair: My goodness me, this looks ready for picking.

Lilywhite: It's got a lovely crop on it.

It's lovely crabapple, isn't it?

Playfair: There we are.

Oh, that's come off well.

Shall we wander over... Yep.

see what else we can find?

Yep.

Prue's asked, can we have some rose hips?

Ah, yeah.

Yeah.

We've got plenty to choose from here.

Yep.

Lilywhite: Let's take some of the gallica rose, as well, because that's got the lovely, round berries.

Yep.

OK. Take these, as well.

Yeah.

Ah!

Yeah.

They are very prickly.

There we are.

Good.

Leith, voice-over: With a variety of shrubs like this... We've got plenty, haven't we?

Leith, voice-over: the wreath is guaranteed to pop with color, and we all know how much I like a bit of color.

Well, here we are.

Well, I've never done this before... Ah, well, you're in for a treat, so where do we start?

So we create our base, so we're going to do that with a copper wire and then attach a handle... OK. and then what you want to do is, you want to grab clumps of moss, position it on...

Right.

like that, and then what you want to do, with one hand, hold it and wire it... and then what you want to do is grab your next clump and then just tuck it underneath the last bit and then continue wiring around.

It's a bit like, you know, mending fish nets.

♪ What happens next?

You're ready to go now with your foliage, so we almost create a little mini posy.

OK.

It's like a corsage.

Yeah.

Position them on.

A bit of ivy.

Oh, that's quite good.

Yeah.

The hydrangea gives a really nice color, doesn't it?

It is.

I was going to suggest we put in a bit of hawthorn.

Yeah.

We're overdue a bit of hawthorn.

How about that?

Yeah.

There we are, and is that all right?

Yeah.

That's good.

My goodness me, the red and the pink clash a bit.

OK. Maybe we could have a bit of fennel.

OK, boss.

There we are.

Getting overexcited now, I think I should-- bit of fennel there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's nice.

Yeah.

OK. Cor, it's very precise, isn't it?

Shall I take that leaf off?

Yeah.

Do take that leaf off.

That'd be lovely.

There we are, lovely.

This is the opposite of less is more, isn't it, really?

It looks generous, you know, bountiful.

Opulent and bountiful.

You're getting into it now, aren't you?

Ah, yes.

Don't tell Prue because she'll have me doing it.

I love the ivy.

I've never really appreciated ivy until now.

Tight round?

Yeah.

♪ Right.

Lovely.

We've collected the crab apples so we can definitely add those into the mix.

Well, I always think groupings of 3 is always good...

I think only two groups of 3.

OK.

Happy with that?

Yep.

OK.

So we've collected loads of panicum... OK. and it's called sparkling fountain, which you can see why, can't you?

Yeah.

You know, I was just wondering if it came out from the top like a firework... Yeah.

That's lovely.

Yes.

I think that's a sort of crowning glory.

Yeah.

It's quite fun.

Shall we put it up and then have a look?

Leith, voice-over: We're hanging this one outdoors, where it'll continue to feed the local wildlife.

♪ Made to measure.

I must say, I enjoyed doing that.

All our bees should be on here... Yeah.

in no time.

Yeah.

You'll even probably find blue tits and things helping themselves to seedheads, and even other birds using the rose hips.

The thought of just putting it outside now for the benefit of the wildlife, I think it's just wonderful, makes me feel good, anyway.

I think that's absolutely lovely.

♪ ♪ Leith, voice-over: Next, I'm going to debunk the myth that only chefs can make a good steak.

♪ Steak is not cheap and seems easy to cook, but actually, a lot can go wrong, and it's criminal to waste the money on a bad one.

The most important thing about making a steak is to get the pan really hot.

You see that smoking already.

That is properly hot.

Plonk the steak in it, and it must make that noise.

It has to be sizzling hot.

[Sizzling] You must have seen people on barbecues pushing down steaks to get the bottom really in contact with the blazing hot base, and basically, you leave it there.

Don't go fishing to have a look.

Just let it get really brown on one side.

These are ribeye steaks, and they have quite a lot of fat in them, which is one of the reasons they taste so good, because a lot of the flavor is in the fat, and do you see how the whole steak is wet on top now?

And that's usually about the time to turn it over, but it needs to go on sizzling.

As soon as it stops sizzling and the juices start to run out, you're in trouble because then the flavor is leaving your steak.

Leith, voice-over: Now I want to show you a handy hack for checking if your steak is done.

[Sizzling] That is now medium rare, and let me tell you how you tell these things.

If you feel that part of your thumb, it feels soft, like raw meat, and that's because it is raw meat, so that is pretty well raw.

If you put your finger and your thumb together like that and feel it again, it's rare.

You can feel it a little bit firmer.

If you put your middle finger against your thumb-- you don't have to press hard; you just have to put the two together-- that's the texture of medium, and that's the texture of well done, and that's the texture of absolutely ruined, so I'm going to take this off now because I reckon... [Sizzling] we are how I like it, which is medium.

[Sizzling] The next really important rule about steak is to leave them for 5 minutes before you serve them, and what happens is, as the meat relaxes, the juices from the middle begin to spread to the outside, and you get a much more even steak.

Leith, voice-over: And to top it off, I'm going to add my Cafe de Paris butter.

♪ We should have some chips, shouldn't we?

Steak and chips is very nice.

♪ ♪ Leith, voice-over: My interest in food goes beyond cooking.

I'm intrigued by the dedication that goes into creating top-notch produce.

♪ I do like to champion a food hero, especially one from the Cotswolds or around the UK, and today we have a food hero of the wine variety.

♪ Leith, voice-over: Hoffmann & Rathbone is a winery based in East Sussex.

♪ Owner Ulrich is the brains behind the bubbles.

Hoffmann, voice-over: Well, there's probably no day in the year where I don't think about winemaking.

We had a small family business, and we have been going for a good 13 years now.

We make very high-quality English sparkling wines.

♪ I'm from Germany originally.

I grew up in Berlin, and I did a traditional German apprenticeship as a winemaker.

I then studied winemaking and started working around the world as a young lad, just going places and learn your trade in more detail.

♪ We're here today to pick our Chardonnay.

♪ We're always looking for a balance between sugar and acidity, so, you know, tasting these, sugar's there.

There's some lovely acidity in the background.

They look lovely and ripe when they start changing color into that kind of little bit of golden, golden hue.

The pips start to get a little bit brownish.

That's a good point to pick them.

Yeah.

They're just in fantastic shape.

♪ Leith, voice-over: The team will handpick about 15 tons of grapes, enough for 15,000 bottles.

All fruit is placed into small picking crates to prevent bruising.

Hoffmann: We load it onto a trailer.

I drive it straight to the winery, and, you know, an hour and a half from now, that's being in the press, and they're being gently separated from the juice, so we pick today, early October, probably bottle this somewhere in May or June next year to put it in our cellar and our warehouse, and there it ages and just literally sits there and ages for about 7 to 10 years.

After that period, we get it out of the cellar, and we have to start the disgorging process, which means we have to get that yeast out of the bottle to get it ready for sale, and even then, it takes another 6 to 12 months for the sweetness and the acidity to bond together to make the wine perfect for release.

These French barrels?

Yes.

Leith, voice-over: James Davy heads up a family-owned wine importer, wholesaler, and retailer.

Today he's visiting Ulrich to sample his sparkling wine.

♪ Davy, voice-over: We buy from around 50 wineries around the world.

Most of them tend to be family businesses.

2014 Classic Cuvee, and this wine has been aging for 8 years in the cellar.

Davy, voice-over: Anybody can make wine, but the skill to make it exceptional is a bit of magic, really.

It gives some lovely aromas, you know, enhancing the fruit.

Look at the mousse on that.

It's actually wonderful.

Hoffmann, voice-over: The bubbles get really small and fine, pearled strings, and I think that's so important about a sparkling wine.

You don't want anything soapy.

You don't want anything foamy.

You just want this effervescence, you know, fine bubbles.

You kind of keep the aromas in there, and immediately you get a bit of crushed hazelnut, maybe even some bruised apple in there.

Bruised apples is good.

Let's taste it.

Yeah.

♪ You know, the acidity is there, fresh, mouth-watering, and also there's some creaminess to it.

I have to say, Ulrich, it's absolutely delicious.

Davy, voice-over: I'm very happy with the quality, and so we do want to buy more of his wine.

Good health.

Cheers.

Hoffmann, voice-over: Really love making wine.

I mean, it's always been my passion.

Will I ever retire?

If I retire, I'll probably start winemaking.

Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

♪ Leith, voice-over: There's only one dish that John makes alone-- his specialty yogurt.

He eats it for breakfast, and I put it in cakes, soups, or curries.

Today we're going to show you just how easy it is.

How long have you been making yogurt?

I've been making yogurt for over 40 years.

I started off making it for my children and overnighting my mixture in the airing cupboard, and in the morning, absolutely fine.

♪ If you make yogurt, as you do, almost every day, it's worth getting a yogurt maker, isn't it?

Yes.

I would say this one is around £30.

OK, so how many ingredients does it have?

3 ingredients.

First of all, we've got a liter of UHT milk.

If you use fresh milk, then you have to bring it just about to the boil and let it cool and then make your yogurt.

So basically, you're sterilizing it so that the new bacillus that you're going to add, which is fresh yogurt, will be able to grow, is it?

Yep.

That's it.

Leith, voice-over: Adding two tablespoons of plain live yogurt starts the fermentation process.

This can come from the last batch you made, or it can be shop-bought.

And then I'm going to add skimmed milk powder.

This is about two heaped tablespoons, so then we stir it around until all the little lumps and bumps are gone.

But you could just put everything in together and whisk.

No, no.

You can't.

You can't.

You can't.

You can't because it's live yogurt.

I don't want to terrify the little chaps, so, um, right, so there we go, and then I just press the start button and then the set button, and it's 42 degrees, so now I just put the cap on, and this keeps all the humidity inside.

It's going to sit for 8 hours, which is overnight, basically, and here is one I made earlier.

Ha ha ha!

You have it every day for breakfast, and I have what I'm going to show you now, which is homemade granola and John's yogurt.

Basically, granola is anything you want mixed up with oats, so these are flaked almonds.

This is pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds... ♪ a bit of demerara sugar, which you can leave out if you like, hazelnuts, and that all just gets mixed up.

In here, I've got a small cup of apple juice and a couple of tablespoons of honey warming up together, and you put that in with all the other stuff and mix it all up.

I'm surprised the hazelnuts are still full.

I mean, that's a big thing to crunch through.

Yes.

I may be old, but my teeth are good.

Right, so I'm now going to bake that-- 190 or 180, a fairly hot oven-- for about half an hour until it's a little bit brown and crunchy, so now we've come to another "Here's one I made earlier" moment.

♪ That's all nicely toasted, and you don't add these things before because they will burn because they've got so much sugar in them, so those are dried cherries.

These are dried blueberries, and these are dried figs, so then a bit of compote.

This is just frozen berries, unsweetened, but you could use fresh berries, obviously.

I like to put that at the bottom, mainly because the juice runs into everything and spoils the look of it.

Next, yogurt.

I mean, John, you do make good yogurt.

I'll say that for you.

Isn't that lovely?

It's so smooth.

Leith, voice-over: Once the granola has cooled, you can put it on the yogurt.

So you need to put the granola on last.

I think that looks delicious.

♪ ♪ Leith, voice-over: The best thing about yogurt is, it's not just for breakfast.

With a bit of finesse, it can make the perfect pudding.

Can you whip that for me?

That's double cream.

Do I turn it on first, or do I put it in?

Put it in first and then turn it on slowly.

If you turn it on and then put it in, as it hits the cream, it sends it flying, so-- Am I going too fast?

No.

Now you can go a bit faster.

♪ Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

Slow down.

OK. That's enough.

Come on.

Stop.

No, no.

Don't, don't.

Turn it off first.

Otherwise, pshh.

Well done.

You want 50/50 yogurt and double cream.

You mix them together, so that's perfect.

Now, what I've got is some dried apricots, which I stewed with a little bit of apricot jam and rum, and what happens is, if you simmer it very, very gently, the alcohol disappears from the rum, but you still have the flavor, and I use those soft apricots that are sort of ready-to-eat, anyway, and then you just scatter a very little muscovado sugar, dark muscovado.

Muscovado is the darkest sugar you can get.

It's the least refined and the most treacly, and it has a really good flavor, and it's very soft, and it begins-- You can see it's already beginning to melt.

If you leave it overnight, you get this wonderful syrup.

It just melts into a syrup.

Isn't that a heart attack waiting to happen?

Yes.

Oh, OK. No.

I don't think it is.

Tablespoonful of sugar?

It's not.

You know, when you say a tablespoon in cooking, that's a level tablespoon.

Your idea of a tablespoon is always, you know, rounded on the top.

Nothing in moderation.

Yeah, nothing in--ha ha!

Leith, voice-over: And if you'd like something healthier, I've got just the ticket for a lunchtime snack.

Yogurt goes really beautifully with almost any fruit, and I've got some raspberries here and a couple of mangoes, which prompted me to think it might be good to show you my favorite mango trick, is how to get a whole cheek of mango out of the skin, and what you do is, you get a glass, put the mango over the edge.

Do you see?

It's beginning to go.

The skin's going one side of the glass, and the mango flesh is going the other.

Your mango has to be ripe to do this because otherwise, it won't work... ♪ so it didn't work perfectly.

See if you can do it better, John.

Hmm.

Right.

That's right.

Ooh.

Magic.

This is going well.

Can I get a job?

Yes.

Leith, voice-over: voice-over: Take care.

It is glass.

Will you swear at me like all these naughty chefs?

Ha ha ha!

Well done.

Ha ha ha!

Very good.

Few bits of mango in the glass, and then John's cream-and-yogurt mix, few raspberries on top.

I would have gone round like this more.

Yes.

I know.

Ha ha ha!

No.

You're not allowed to reorganize it.

Leith, voice-over: So there we have 4 delicious but very different ways to use yogurt.

We have breakfast granola yogurt.

Raspberries-and-mango- and-cream mix, that would do for sort of light lunch.

For a dinner party, we've got the apricot compote underneath, cream and yogurt and muscovado sugar on top, and then we've got plain muscovado-and-cream mix.

That's any time of the day.

♪ Leith, voice-over: But what's the yogurt cream pudding without something to wash it down?

Ooh, well, this is a method champagne... Oh, really?

and this is nearly 10 years old, so let's have a go.

English champagnes have begun to win competitions against the French, which really upsets the French a lot to have English champagne declared the best in the world.

Of course, we're not allowed to call it champagne.

The law says that anything called champagne has to be grown in the Province of Champagne, so we have to call it champagne method.

And I've got my favorite gadget, specially made for taking champagne corks out.

It means you have total control.

The gripper goes completely round the champagne, and it just means that I'm going to win, and the champagne is not.

Well, it's so maddening when you're struggling with a cork with your thumbs.

♪ Thank you.

Doesn't that look lovely?

Cin cin.

Good health.

And youth.

Mm.

That is very nice.

Mm.

You don't really like champagne, do you?

You don't like the bubbles.

No.

I don't, but I have a swizzle stick.

Do you know, it's a criminal thing, that.

Only very old, silly men have them.

The winemaker has taken years to get the bubbles in there and a lot of time and effort, and-- Look at that, magic, bubbles gone.

You're mad.

You're absolutely mad.

I mean, flat champagne-- Honestly, I have to, and people come up, they form a queue, and they say, "Take my bubbles out."

[Both laugh] You taste the difference between that with no bubbles... and that which sort of is alive in your mouth.

Look.

They're both nice, but this is nicer.

And I'm very sorry I have this ignoramus for husband.

Ha ha!

Do you want to taste any?

You should taste that one because that's the apricot.

♪ OK. ♪ It's delicious.

And this looks more than it is, but it's a-- Well, maybe it is a little bit hefty.

This glass is a bit big.

I'd have to finish that, but I know it would kill me.

OK. Next time I make that, I'll give you a tiny one, and I'll have a decent-sized one.

♪